Not again!

The day I after my credit card was found...I lost my IPhone at the shops. I had been doing some last minute late night Christmas shopping and low and behold I got home only to realise I no longer had my phone with me!!!! Oh my goodness how could I be so clumsy so have lost it...I couldn't even imagine where on when or it could have happened. To make things worse, the next day was my birthday so I had been looking forward to getting lots of lovely text messages from my friends and family. Sigh. I felt so upset. But my gratitude is for the kind, beautiful thoughtful person who handed in my mobile to centre management and so the next morning at 9:30am when my hubby called, they were like "yep, it's here just come pick it up!!!" Wow I felt soooooo relieved and of course had so much gratitude for this mystery person who made my birthday extra special without even realising it!!!! And yay...I did manage to get al my lovely birthday messages and calls after all!!!!!

Where could it be?

I lost my credit card right before Christmas and although I kept asking my hubby to cancel it he was adamant I would find it (I was convinced I had lost it somewhere in the house). After about 4 days of searching I had given up. But suddenly as we were putting the kids in the car my 3 year old yells out "What's this?" and holds up my credit card!!! Clearly it had fallen from my handbag! So my gratitude is for the fact that she found it while she was clambering around in the back seat of the car! Yippee

A slower pace...

I am so grateful that my husband has had some time off since Christmas. We've actually managed a few sleep-ins, lots of fun with the children as well as some really great progress with our sorting and packing. I feel a lot more relaxed within myself and a little less 'edgy'.

New Place

I am really grateful that my partner and I have finally found a place to live early next year after we get married. We had a number of weeks of going and doing inspections, trying to balance budgets and try to find somewhere nice and cosy but not too expensive (or totally deralict). I then found a place while he was away and had to put in an application which we got accepted for. SO grateful that he approved of the choice and liked the place (since we had to sign a lease before he could see it!). Also grateful for a weeks free rent and the fact that we will be moving in just before Christmas which is exactly what we had hoped for.

I am also grateful for finding an affordable place in a lovely area and great for entertaining. Very exciting to be unpacking all our lovely engagement presents and feeling like its almost time to start this new chapter of our lives together. Now to move!

She's Back Grat!

Another veyr gratworthy occurance - my little sis is back from a year long trip to the UK. So exciting!!

Now, I have to say I would have been able to appreciate this moment more if I had not been in a mild delerium caused by stress, exhaustion and being sick. None the less, I keenly got the the airport early in the morning, spent an hour or two waiting for her to clear customs and then shared excited chatter and coo'ed over all her vintage purchases (no matter how impractical, lol) for most of the day.

So great to have her back and to have her sharing in the excitement of the wedding, to plan Christmas and to hear all about her travels. A year a part has also helped me to see that we can still maintain a great friendship, remain involved in each others lives and feel that things have barely changed when we get back together. A good reminder that its ok for us to grow up, spread our wings and live different lives and we can still be besties from wherever we are!

OMG - Finally!

So I felt this occasion was worth searching out the sign in details and logging in to grat for (also have time to breath and do it, if only a moment)!

So my title applies to a few things - first thing is I just completed my final client session for the year. Since I have finished my course work, and finished seeing clients this means I can officially say I made it through my first year of masters yipeee! I also know that my supervisor passed me on my competancies as a therapist, I did well in all the course work and I managed to exceed the minmum 120 hours of client contact. I think I have about 160 hours or more which means I have been blessed with extra hours to increase my learning as well as having the flexability to draw an extra 35 hours out of this years if for any reason I don't meet my requirements in the second year - yay!

I feel like this has been one of the hardest and most challenging years of my life in terms of learning, growing, facing things that create anxiety and getting through them. I have had to push myself through so many barriers and just constantly challenege myself to believe in myself to get through.

I also feel sooo grateful for the progress made by so many of my clients and the great rapport we have built. I feel confident that for some of them the journey this year has been made that bit easier by having somone to talk to.

I fele so grateful and blessed to be recieving an amazing education, being able to learn, challenge myself and grow professionally and personally in profound ways. YAY!

Lighting up the night sky

I am grateful that I feel much more like myself these days - my spark is returning! I am thankful for the loving people in my life who have each in big and little ways made this process a lot quicker than I had ever imagined possible. I am also thankful for Christmas lights and those precious people who decorate their houses...yes I love you...you who embrace the Spirit of Christmas. May your sack be full this year LOL

Vaccines!

Over the past few weeks, in preparation for our move to Thailand, our family has had a LOT of injections. My little one-year-old had seven in one go and then another two in the following couple of weeks with two still to go.

The other children have had lots too as well as my husband and I.

I am grateful that even though this has been one of the more traumatic experiences pre-travel, it has been made easier by having caring family members like my father-in-law and mother come with me to the Royal Children's Hospital to help out with the children on these days. It's a big trip in to the city and a pretty stressful situation so I am so glad to have not had to go it alone. I am also grateful for the clever people who create these vaccines and make them available to us to help make traveling to a foreign country with children a little less worrisome.

Seeing Clearly Grat

A couple of weeks ago I had laser eye surgery done on my eyes. It's an amazing procedure that's for sure. I'd heard the testimonies of many others who had had it done but until experiencing it first hand, I couldn't fully understand.

I am grateful to be able to watch my children's swimming lessons without my glasses fogging up.

I am grateful to not have to wear glasses while driving.

I am grateful to be able to wear ANY sunglasses that I want- not just prescription.

I am grateful that one of my eyes has above 20/20 vision (the other eye has been slower to reach its full potential)

I am grateful that I can see my children across the room when they want to hold up what they're doing and show me something...

AMAZING STUFF!

Snow flake

It was 39 degrees yesterday and we finally have air con...need I say more?!

Moooove over...here come my grats!

So many grats...so little time!!!

Where to start? Hmmm Grateful for my amazing group of playgroup mums who I have come to love and tresure over the past year especially. We all spent the day at Myuna Farm for our breakup and it was absolutely FANTASTIC!!

For the act that my eldest daughter has shown a dramatic increase in confidence in the past 48 hours and although a bit annoying that she is now wandering off without me (!) lovely to see her self confidence growing. Today she rode a pony without any involvement from me and didn't even look to see if I was watching - too involved in enjoying herself!

For the successful delivery of my handmade christmas presents...everyone seemed to really appreciate the extra effort which always makes me feel warm and fuzzy and makes the sleep deprived headache well worth it.

And finally I am grateful for a number of things in our business which are falling into place as we tie up the first 12 months of our business. What an incredible journey this year has been and how exciting next year looks. I am truly thankful that we will launch into next year with such focus, direction and gusto!

Mel xxoo

Thanksgiving in USA

A few weeks ago Ash and I joined an American family for a Thanksgiving celebration!

It was FANTASTIC! We met some very interesting people ate, had a drive in a Chevy 55 and ate, played card games and ate met a Swedish girl, a native American and a plastic surgeon and ate and ate......

We had the biggest turkey I have ever seen in my life and drank a peculiar drink called glogg!

We all gave thanks for the blessing of the native Americans and the help they provided to the pilgrims in their hour of need and to God for everything that he has blessed us with!

It was a truly amazing time!

Dancing the night away

On Friday night I had such a lovely surprise. My thoughtful husband took me out Salsa Dancing!!! We have been saying for nearly 10 years know, how we would love to take some lessons...well finally we have had our first Salsa experience!!! The way they did it was really clever, they split us into 3 groups...those who have never Salsa danced before (us) those who don't know much and those who know a lot! Then they taught us our first dance ... Eeeeek!!!! It was realllly fun, with about 200 people all dancing at the same time! After our dance lesson they put on some great music and it was free dance .... what a blast it was! It was so cool actually being able to dance what we had been taught!Plus it was really affordable and just such a great night hanging out together. Now I am really excited because we are planning on going to the Salsa Ball for some more fun! Yay...I am grateful for a fantastic night of dancing and hysterical laughter... just some of the things great memories are made of! (Mel)

Kindergarten grat

I am so thankful for the wonderful year my son had at 3 year old kinder this year. He has now officially graduated... well until we move to Thailand anyway and he has to do second semester again (as their school year is different to ours) LOL!

But I am so grateful he had a great last day, for his lovely teacher who sent us a beautiful personal email and for his gorgeous little friends. His best friend Eddie's dad told me they were definitely coming to visit us in the school holidays next year!

It's been so amazing to see how one year has helped develop his confidence and abilities so much.