Take a picture of one thing, person, place or specific moment that makes you feel grateful. Share it with your social network.

My picture is of a specific moment. Saturday mornings Brandon usually sleeps in till 11am, but somehow Bruno (our Cavalier King Charles Spaniel) always knows when it is time for Brandon to wake up. And so every Saturday morning he jumps into the bed, and snuggles next to Brandon, rolling over and making noises of pure joy until Brandon starts playing with him. They snuggle and play for about 10-15 minutes, then both are up and in a happy mood. I am always so grateful for the these moments, because it is just so cute and sweet. The smile on both their faces (yes, Bruno smiles!!) gives me such a feeling of joy and gratefullness every week.

When I went away for a week this past summer, Brandon called me when they were snuggling and put me on speakerphone, so I wouldn't miss it. He knows just how much I love it. So these are a couple of pictures from this mornings snuggle session.

Write about something you feel grateful for in your life today.


When I really stop to think about it, I'm very grateful for many things in my life. Indoor plumbing. The ability to earn a living. Geniune people to love who love me back. But today I am very grateful for warmth.

It's snowing again. Not a big surprise in Northern Indiana/Southern Michigan, but the snow today is big, fat flakes falling slowly. It's like being in the middle of a snow globe that someone has just shaken, and now the flakes are softly floating back to the the bottom. It snowed most of last night too, so we have a good bit of accumulation on the ground. And on days like today, I am so grateful that I have warm coats, and wool socks, and a nice warm comfortable home. The snow is so beautiful, but only if you are inside and warm. As soon as I let the dog out, that beautiful snow hits you in the face, and it is blistering and miserable in a very short amount of time.

So today I am grateful for warmth, because "there, but for the grace of God, go I."

From Tara:

My friend Jennifer invited me to participate in a Gratitude Challenge with her, and I'm loving the first assignment so much that I decided to share my answers on my own blog as well as the one we have for people participating in the challenge.   If you would like to participate, go to the website below.  You don't have to make it public if you don't want to, just do it privately.  In this world that we live in, sometimes we forget all the things we have that we should be grateful for.  SO, this day's challenge was to use the alphabet for making a list of the things you are grateful for in your life.  Some of mine needed explaining, so I put that in another color beside it.  I enjoyed this first exercise so much, I am really looking forward to the next 21 days of gratitude challenges.  Check it out for yourself at: http://www.gratitudechallenge.com/ and click on the calendar on the side.  This was such a nice, fun little thing to do.  Try it out for yourself!

Okay, so here is my list:

Applesauce (it always calms my stomach when it's upset)

Brandon
Crayons (I'm just a big kid, after all)

Dogs
Eric
Friends
Good parents (and I don't just mean mine. I'm grateful for ALL good parents)

Heros (not the food or the TV show...just the people)
Ice cream
Just because flowers (I love getting flowers for no reason, so Brandon and I call them "Just because" flowers)
Katie
Love
Moms
Nose touching (When something is funny, I automatically touch my nose and cover my mouth! I don't know why, but I'm grateful for all the laughs this involuntary reaction has caused throught the years!)
old stories
Philip
Quiet time
Reading
Spring
Traveling
Unquestionable faith
Very hot chocolate
Walking Bruno
X-box (for keeping the hubby out of my hair and watching instant movies from Netflix)
Yams from my grandmother (Okay, during the Y2K scare back in 1999, my grandmother, Grana, was so concerned that I wasn't stockpiling food for the possible breakdown of society that she forced me to take this gigantic can of yams from her so I would at least have some little thing to eat until I could get back to her. It was so sweet and funny that I kept the yams until 2007.)

Zorro (I just finished reading Isabelle Allende's book Zorro. It's a great read and I highly reccomend it.)

From: Tara

I was so disappointed recently.  I thought I was going to have some great pictures for the blog, something wonderful and hilarious.  But alas.  It could not be. 

Here's the story.  I was looking for rental houses online and came across a place on Google Map called...drumroll....wait for it.....

The Butt Hut!!!  WOW.  I was desperate to find a picture, and came across this on the Internet:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/ilovecoffeeyesido/2386965297/   It's a chain!

I immediately sent Brandon an email to say that when he got off work, we were going to look for "The Butt Hut."  I looked it up in the directory, and there it was.  Butt-Hut of America 2450 S Indiana Highway 212, Michigan City, IN 46360.  The last time I was this excited was when Eric and I went to the Checkers Hall of Fame in Hattiesburg.  Checkers!  Butt-Hutt!  This is why I love America.  One can only imagine what they sold at "The Butt Hutt".   

BUT ALAS!  It was not there anymore.  Well, the building was there, but not the sign. I had such grand images of us taking our pictures next The Butt Hutt.  Think of all the possibilities.  We did find that it is a tobacco store.  Butt, cigarette butts, Butt Hutt....clever. 

However, we still have the Hair of the Ferret Salsa. Which is actually pretty good.  So all is not lost.  And of course, there will always be Boudreaux's Butt Paste.  What a wonderful world we live in!
  
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