Some days are really good days...

Not sure why, but today just feels like a good one.  I woke up early and just felt rested and ready for the day.  I'm also extremely happy and thankful for my parents today.  It's their 38th (corrected!) anniversary and I am so grateful and blessed to have grown up with such amazing parents.
Yesterday Hurricane Irene was really stressing me out, but today, even the fact that she could completely mess up my beach vacation won't get me down!  I didn't mention it yesterday, but Irene is not my friend!!
I had dinner with my sweet little "niece" C (a different C than my "niece" you met last week on the blog :-)) last night (and her parents).

In case you can't tell, someone is a ham :-)  This was while she was telling me it was my turn to make a funny face, I think.

Here, she's showing me her "belbows."  She then went around the table and made us all show our "belbows" too.

I know I've said this before but my "nieces and nephews" are the smartest and most adorable kids in the world.  They truly brighten my day.

After dinner I had a great time chatting with C's parents.  Her mom was my roommate for 4 years and I'm so thankful we've stayed close!  She was one of my first friends when I moved to Baltimore 9 years ago and we've had a lot of adventures in those 9 years.  She and her husband are really grounded and it is such a sweet time to sit on their couch and share life and not realize where the time has gone!  I went home thinking just how blessed I am with all the amazing friends God has put in my life.

It's amazing to me how great life is when you shape your attitude and not let the circumstances around you shape it.  I love the passage in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 that says "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."  I think this is key to living an abundantly life.  If we look for things to be thankful for, we'll find them, and our attitudes will follow (grumpy pants will come off.)  For example, today my attitude is - I am sooo thankful I have vacation next week and can take a break and relax...there is nothing I can do about this hurricane, so I'm not going to worry about it; rather than my attitude yesterday, which was - Hurricane Irene, I hate you as much as I hate bugs...if you ruin my vacation I am going to throw a temper tantrum and be a complete grouch.

There's sooooo much to be thankful for.  I encourage you to be looking for them today.  I'm thankful for my family (Congrats again to my parents on their many years of marriage) (an aside - my whole family will be at the beach next week and I'm so excited for you to see my strikingly beautiful sister!)  And I'm thankful for this little girl...

What are you thankful for?