Grateful

Sometimes it's hard for me to remember the things I need to...to remember that I'm grateful for so many things in my life.  On one hand I get frustrated and ask "why me?" and then on the other hand, I will occasionally get a reality smack, and realize I have so much.  I have a family that loves me, friends that care about me, and all the necessities a person needs and a lot of things that aren't all that necessary, but I want.  I have limbs that work, a brain that is usually functioning, the ability and reasons to laugh, and so many more things that I can't even remember, much less document at this time.  What it comes down to, really, is that when I weed out my whining and boo-hooing, I'm at a place I'm very happy with.  

See?  How can I be a sad-sack when I've got such goodness all around me?  (Except for Syd...I told her she couldn't pour water all over the carpet, and her cries of objection ensued).  
I've said before that I'm on Facebook a lot.  Simply because I'm a voyeur and I enjoy reading people's thoughts and feelings during the day.  It makes me feel a lot more normal.  (And sometimes provides daily humor, affirmation, information, etc). I've found that the random thoughts and feelings that occur in me aren't all that individualized.  That there are a lot of people that are just as insecure, or ticked, or happy, or scared, or whatever, just the way I am, at any given time.  Not that this should be overly surprising, but I think we all feel incredibly alone sometimes, or that no one could possibly understand our deeply personal and peculiar emotions.  
I have been following one of my "friends" on Facebook and this person, I've decided, is deeply disturbed.  Not that their thoughts and feelings don't make for a good story, but at times I feel myself thinking:  "Come on.  We all have crap days, we've all dated complete losers, we've all had people we trusted completely screw us over..." and so on, and so forth.  But this person seems to be taking their life very personally.  To an almost alarming degree.  To the extent of a depressed adolescent--and as we all know that means A LOT of drama.  I take turns feeling deep sympathy for them, and rolling my eyes in frustration.  In the end, though, they've encouraged me to open my eyes and see how easy I have it.  I felt bad for a while for taking their pain and turning it into a life lesson, but now I'm okay with it.    
Anyway, after a VERY long introduction to my smallish point, I'm grateful and I need to express that more often.  This whole house thing had gotten me down, I'll admit it.  Not that it should have, but I've kind of been in this weird funk in which I'd been trying to get excited and motivated about my house, about summer, about possible vacation plans, about just doing normal everyday stuff, and I really couldn't, because it just felt futile.  Nothing was for sure--I didn't know what projects to start, because I wasn't sure if I could finish them, or if I did finish them, if they'd be appreciated, because our home may not be ours for very much longer.   
Today I went with Jeff and Bob and Maida, (my in-laws, for anyone not in the know), and the kids, and we looked through our soon-to-be-new-home, again.  Or I guess I should say, new to us.  It was built in 1978, and it's been fully remodeled.  Jeff and I had actually looked into building a new home.  But I kind of felt that that decision, for us, would be kind of wasteful.  Not that I'm saying building new homes is wasteful, it's just that we felt we wanted to find a place without neighbors so close, and maybe an established neighborhood--as we've been in a newer one, and see all the weirdness that occurs.  Lots of squished homes and tons of solicitors, and people that believe they have much more space than they really do...i.e. horse trailers and over five vehicles, and three families to a single dwelling.  I know this happens in older neighborhoods, too...but I'm hoping it's not as commonplace?  I don't know. More space was our main concern...and these days, if you buy a lot to build on, chances are your neighbors will be VERY close. 
Moving on.  It was nice to see our possible new home again.  This time it was a more relaxed walk- through.  We DID notice that the guy living there right now is incapable of flushing the toilet after he uses it, and Cole was pretty grossed out about it...(when he does it, it's not as gross, apparently). 
This time around it felt like this house is even more for us.  It wasn't as "perfect" as I remembered it.  There were more bumps and chips and things that made it look more like a home that we can make our own, despite the fact that there have been all those upgrades and such.  So even though it contains things that I've been wanting forever, we can still make changes that will make it ours.  I'm really excited to get started.  

This is the "old farm" copper kitchen sink.  And I'm not sure if you can tell or not, but the counter tops aren't the formica stuff--they're wooden.  And gorgeous.  Something I'm sure will bring out even more of my obsessive compulsive side, as I'll be overly concerned about anyone cutting stuff on them and so on and so forth, but I'm excited.  Way excited.  My picture isn't as fantabulous as the real thing, but when we move in, you're all invited to see for yourselves.  ;) Anyway, that's all for now.  Hopefully this will be the week that we will know some specifics.  Good thoughts only, and loads of being grateful.  Life is good.