Thirty Days of Thankfulness: Day 7

 

I'm thankful for a husband who makes dinner and then says,
"Take that, Martha Stewart... whoever you are!"

Thirty Days of Thankfulness: Day 6

Over the weekend, Karl and I drove down to the metropolis of Toulon, Illinois (population 1,226) to visit his extended family, who we hadn't seen since his grandmother's funeral last fall.  The story is pretty neat: Karl's grandparents had a farm- it was a Century farm, meaning that it was in the family for over 100 years.  Karl and his cousins all have wonderful childhood memories of holidays on the farm, running wild in the fields and climbing huge mountains of corn (sounds safe, doesn't it?).  In the 1990s, his grandparents sold their farm and moved to a house in town.  Fast forward to 2011, when the couple who bought the farm sell it to Karl's cousin, Jill, who lovingly moves in with her family and decorates with a lot of the same items her grandparents had owned many years before. 

 

I haven't seen Karl as happy as he was this weekend in a long, long time.  He loved every second of being back on that farm, from feeding the chickens to roasting hot dogs over a bonfire to target practice with Uncle Dan. 

 

 

You can just see someone's beak poking out of the door:

 These chickens are serious egg-layers.  I collected eleven eggs in the coop one morning- and that's not counting the six we found under a bush that same day!

With Aunt Sue and Uncle Dan at the thrift store where Sue volunteers

 

In the dining room at the farm!  Joe (Jill's husband), Mitchell (Joe's son), cousin Jill, Aunt Sue, Karl, and me! 

I'm incredibly thankful that we had the chance to visit, and that Karl's family can look forward to many more get-togethers on the farm!

Thirty Days of Thankfulness: Day 5

In the spring, I started taking a swimming class three mornings a week before work.  I love love love it, and swimming gives me a great start on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.  Of course, it means I need to get out of bed pretty early... so I'm thankful for daylight savings and the extra light we have in the morning.  I still love to hit the snooze button a few times, but it's a little bit easier to pry myself out of the covers now that it's not pitch dark outside!

Thirty Days of Thankfulness: Day 4

In China, we had the chance to visit the Great Wall.  It was amazing!  First of all, it's gigantic (obviously), and it goes up and down and up and down a LOT (which might be obvious to most people but honestly I was just expecting a straight wall that you could walk on), and there were super cool watchtowers that we could go in.  And we got to ride toboggans down from the wall-- little plastic sleds on a winding metal track.  And the scenery was unbelievable.   

 

Looking out the window of one of the watchtowers 

 

 

A lot of buildings in China have rows of little animals on the corners of the roofs.  I thought one of those animals would make a neat souvenir.  Don't worry, I didn't try to steal one.  I tried to buy one.  FYI: they don't sell them. 

 

Practicing my cheerleading moves 

 

 

Knitting break!

 There are some portions of the wall that no one can go on.  They're crumbly and dangerous.  Also, no naked flames, please. 



 

Instructions for the journey down the hill

 

 

I was so, so lucky to have the chance to go to the Great Wall!  

Thirty Days of Thankfulness: Day 3

I'm so thankful that I had the chance to travel to China in October!  My camera broke on the second day of our trip (I've had it for almost 8 years; I was ready for a new camera anyway!), so I've stolen these photos from my friend and traveling companion Amanda's facebook album.  I mainly picked the ones with me in them because, well, I'm kind of self-centered. 

 

Amanda, myself, and Jean (a friend of Amanda's who is now a friend of mine) on a river boat in Suzhou (pronounced Sue-Joe) 

Jean and I trying soup dumplings in Shanghai.  They're big dumplings filled with broth.  You drink the broth from a straw and then eat the dumpling.  Acutally, I heard you're not supposed to eat the dumpling, but that would be a huge waste.  I'm not one for wasting dumplings. 

What's this?  Me eating more dumplings?  What are the chances?  This was at the night market in Beijing.  None of us tried the scorpions on a stick. 

Just before devouring my dumplings from the night market 

I swear we did more in China than eat dumplings!  But check out this photo from a dumpling banquet, where we tried 18 different types of the luscious little treasures. 

 

 

Riding our bikes on a city wall in Xi'an (sounds like shee-en)

 

 

Amazingly, none of us got sick from any of the food (dumplings or otherwise!) in China.  That is definitely something to be thankful for!

 

Thirty Days of Thankfulness: Day 2

I'm thankful for a husband who says things like, "I'm going to see if they'll cash this in pesos!" during a visit to the bank on Halloween. 

Thirty Days of Thankfulness: Day 1

 

I'm thankful for my new sister-in-law, Lia!