A month of thanks: DAY 6

I'm thankful...

1... for post-Halloween Clearance Blowouts! I went shopping with Kyle's mom and sister today to get baby shower gifts for our niece Brittney (sp?LeeAnn?). Well, Nancy wanted to just stop by Shopko really quick to check and see if they had any cute Hobo Bags, and I decided to go in and find a birthday present for Kortland's friend (who is having a party tomorrow). Instead, we found COSTUMES GALORE! So much fun, and they had their costumes marked down not 50% (Walmart) not 75% (Kmart) but 90 freaking %! Yes you heard me right. If a costume was normally $34.99, it was now $3.49. If a costume was 69.99 (as many of them were) it was now 6.99. Unreal! I got two fantastic costumes for Kortland and 3 for me (and/or any of my friends who want to borrow one) it came to $25.00 total! (the cheapest costume I bought was $34.99, so I got five costumes for less than the cost of ONE! The costumes are: Skeleton Pirate Captain & Handy Manny (for Kortland) and a devil (dress with devil horns -and not skany by the way ;) and a flapper (yaaay! I have totally always wanted to be a flapper) and last but not least, a Viking girl thing. (basically a funny fur dress and fur boots and a viking helmet - totally hilarious.) Anyone who knows me totally knows that today, was a really good day. I love Halloween costumes and I love ridiculously amazing deals! Ahhh, good stuff. We shopped alllll day. (can you tell I'm still on a high?)

2....for hope. It's the only thing that keeps me going most days, and I'm not saying that like it's a bad thing. I'm grateful for the trials and the waiting and the not-getting that helps me (okay, forces me in most cases) to rely on hope. I think it's one of those things that ultimately helps us come to know our Savior more deeply. When we were getting Brittney's baby gifts at "Babie's R Us" today, I was surprisingly overwhelmed with excitement (as opposed to guilt, sadness, despair, longing, self-pity...etc.) as I looked at the beautiful crib sets, and armoirs, and bedding, and carseats, and slings, and toys all around me. I was just consumed with feelings of "this is going to happen for me again someday! I'm going to come in here and be buying things for MY baby someday too." (Whether that's an adopted child or one cooked right in my own belly I don't much care, the fact is, my family isn't done growing yet.) I guess I'm so thankful for hope because it's such a big part of my life at the moment. You may very well read a blog-o-despair written by yours truly somewhere down the line, and it will be clear that I was a little low on hope that day, but for the most part, it sustains me. (coupled with a lot of faith, of course...and a little whining - which I'm not proud of.)
3... a hilarious little boy who manages to crack me up at least 5 times a day, usually more. Today as we were walking out the door to go to school Kort said: "Mom, can we go eat breakfast in the bacteria this morning?" I stifled a laugh and said: "Where do you want to eat breakfast?" (I was almost certain I hadn't heard him right) sure enough, he looked up at me with those big, blue, all-knowing eyes and said: "You know, the b-a-c-t-e-r-i-a!" Baaah ha ha ha ha! He is so darn big now, and he has such an excellent command of the english language - I didn't realize how much I have missed the good ole days where he was saying funny things all the time. Such a lovely little snippet to jump-start my Thursday...