Thankful Thursdays: April 12

I'm so thankful, oh so thankful. It's Thursday, wonderful Thursday!

I'm super thankful for Spring Breakthrough last week.

These trips with the youth group can be tough.  It is extremely tiring to do physical labor in service to others all day, then stay up late chatting with teenagers at night. Plus I'm an introvert and when you're living in a cabin down by the lake with 12 high school girls, you don't get a lot of 'me' time. But I've said all that to say this: this year's Spring Breakthrough was the best yet.  I had an AMAZING team of 10 students who worked so hard all week, without my having to beg, bargain or raise my voice with them. They just worked and had good attitudes and showed love to everyone around them.  On top of that, I had a great cabin of mostly high school girls.  I learned a lot from them, like how to Bernie (an amazing dance move that pays homage to Bernie from Weekend at Bernie's. I'm really good at it.) and what it takes to attend Ball So Hard University (lots of swag).  

Group 7 looking fierce!

But upon coming home I am really, really thankful for my bed, my shower, my dog, my toilet, my laundry facilities, my closet, my carpet, my refrigerator and my roommate's couch.

Home is where the heart is, after all.

I'm thankful that before Breakthrough, I got to make a 24 hour trip to Charleston to watch my brother complete his first Cooper River Bridge Run.

Man, I never realized spectating a humongous race like that would be so hard.  I scanned every runner's face in the first three corrals (which basically equals thousands of people), looking for my big brother. I'm so glad we saw him, he saw us and that I screamed "Run, Daddy, Run" at my brother. Okay, that last part was a mistake. After waiting around for hours, his 4-year-old daughter had gotten tired of holding the sign that said "Run Daddy Run" (see below). I was holding it when he ran by and that was all I could think to say. He's so fast, there really was not much time for thinking. Really.

His adorable children. Ryan was very tired.

I'm thankful I got new shoes.

I put this off about 4-5 months too long.  But I finally made it to my friendly running store where I purchased not only a fancy pair of running shoes (not pictured), but a new pair of all-purpose workout shoes(pictured below).  This was necessary, because I'd completely worn out my running shoes, and began running in my regular workout shoes, which I then eventually wore out.

I'm thankful I'm doing well on my one Goal of the Week.

I don't think I've had a chance to tell you guys, but my only goal this week was to eat breakfast every day at home.  That may not sound like much, but I had again fallen into this terrible habit lately. It is a waste of money and pretty much guarantees me to have a bad eating day when I start out with an unhealthy breakfast. Today I was even running late and just slathered some peanut butter on a bagel as I ran out the door so I wouldn't need to stop. Yay for a small success!

I'm thankful I've never had allergy problems before this week.  

They are just kind of a minor annoyance, so not a big deal. Just weird that they've kind of popped up all of a sudden. Still, though, I love that it is April and springtime.  One of my favorite months of the year, for sure. Everything is so green.