Blessed

Life gives us so much to be thankful for, we have so many blessings. Here are a few I wanted to highlight from the past week.

Our Health. I had my heart appointment - these days I only go every 18 months. Dr, Hougen said everything looks good and that he'll see me in another year and a half. I actually saw him last month after Gates was born. It's protocol for siblings of heart patients to get a full check up, just in case something is missed by all of the fancy equipment at the hospital. After being hooked up to all of the wires and machines, Gates got the thumbs up from Dr. Hougen too. So now both Gates and I have pictures of our hearts - pretty cool.

Our freedom. While I wasn't alive on September 11, 2001, my parents will forever share their stories of that day and how lucky we are to live in America.

Our neighbors. We had our annual block party last Saturday. More than 80 neighbors showed up and we all hung out for the evening - we live in an awesome neighborhood. I spent 98% of my time in the moonbounce. I think I sweat out all of the calories from the 7 mini cupcakes I may have consumed...but don't tell my mom.

Recently I have been hot-rodin' on my Radio Flyer tricycle. For the block party I loaded my most favorite water bottle in the trunk of my trike. During one of my planned wipeouts - I love to crash and roll off my bike in dramatic fashion - my trunk opened and my favorite water bottle rolled into the storm drain. Insert HUGE sad face here. I was crushed. Where were my parents when I REALLY needed them to dive in front of the storm drain!?! Luckily, we have awesome neighbors and one of them heard about this water bottle tragedy. He got his shovel and pried up the man hole and wa-la! There was my water bottle - genius! Our neighbors are seriously awesome.

Our family. My Nana and Pop came into town for the weekend for my brother's Catholic baby blessing. My Aunt Karen and Uncle Eduardo and my cousins joined us too. We are fortunate to have a close Jesuit friend, Father Kevin O'Brien located at Georgetown University and he performed the blessing. Kevin also gave me a baby blessing when I was just 6 weeks old.

Since I'm really into counting right now, I think I'll sit down and count my many, many blessings!