Grateful Sunday – February 17, 2019

I’m so grateful for my new/”used” car this week. Since my older car broke down in November, I knew I needed a commuting car to get to and from the airport. I’d been taking occasional breaks during studying to look at different vehicles these past couple of months.  Searching online is nothing like going down to a dealer and test driving a vehicle. This was the first time that I did this on my own, qualified for a personal car loan, chose my vehicle, and actually purchased it. I’m also grateful I was able to find a manual speed. I love the feeling of control they give, and it seems as if they’re rare to come by these days. All my previous vehicles have been hand me downs except the minivan my wife and I had purchased over ten years ago. And even that vehicle she had found. Such pride to have a car that I picked out and purchased own my own. In some ways, it made me feel all grown up.

I’m grateful for a most wonderful Valentine’s day dinner with my girls; Calamari appetizer, Mac & Cheese and Bacon pizza, and Campfire Stout (a s’more type of beer). We had a great night together and I’m so glad they were my valentine dates.

I’m grateful my company gave me the weekend off so my daughters and I were able to attend my step-mother’s funeral. They were gracious to provide us three must ride tickets to the event. Such a change from my previous employer. I was able to meet family I had not met before, introduce my girls to their uncle I had met a few weeks earlier, and hear so many more stories about my biological father and his marriage. I was pleased with how well my girls fit in with the family and the couple of days we all just hung out socializing and playing games. Catch Phrase is now one that we own! I’m grateful that while I was taking a much-needed nap, my girls felt comfortable to play a game of Monopoly with everyone.

Grateful Childhood

I’m grateful that my step-father was involved with scouting to the best of his ability. I had held resentment because he didn’t go camping with me like some of the other father’s did. I wished he would have been more involved, however, I realize that he did the best he could. Scouts was not his thing, nor did he relate well with the other fathers. In fact, thinking back, he had very few close friends. However, he did drive me to every scouting event (every Tuesday and Thursday night in addition to two camping trips a month). He did help out in the Firework stands to help raise money to send me to summer camp. And he paid for all my scouting events, including the camping and hiking gear I accumulated over the years.

One of my best memories was a Cub Scout cake auction. This was father/son project to raise money for the pack; we were to bake a cake together and auction it off. One of the boys in my pack had a mother who was a professional baker. She made this flower cake that was incredibly detailed! Lots of time and energy went into this cake. Now our cake was simple to make. We used a cake pan in the shape of a female body. The icing on the cake was skin toned except for the bright blue bikini. Of course, this cake was a hit among all the fathers at the auction and it sold for top dollar, much to the chagrin of the mother who spent hours on her masterpiece. The following year we made a cake representing the winter olympics, complete with Snoopy doing the ski jump.