A random list of gratitude.

I'm home.
I feel sick, mostly awful and I want my mum.
I need to make a conscious effort appreciate the good stuff today.

So here is a list of 20 things I've come up with (in no particular order):

1. Sunny and warm winter days
2. Lovely students who tell me that I should be at home resting
3. Lovely co-teachers that send me home to feel better
4. Awesome, caring and thoughtful friends all around the world
5. Hot chocolate

6. 8 followers + 2 rss feeds = 10 readers on my blog.  Double digits baby!
7. A wonderful phone call from yesterday from Tasha that is still making me smile
8. Mum
9. Daytime TV tag lines: "Mum, why won't you top inhaling butane gas?"
10. Allan's appreciation when I gave him the blanket I made for baby Marcus
11. A wonderful, loving and patient husband
12. Aliya + Hussein are married!
13. The All-Whites' awesome draw against Italy - Italy has the talent, but the Kiwis have the heart!

14. Extra-large tissues with aloe and lotion
15. Fuzzy warm track pants and hoodies
16. Chicken noodle soup

17. Getting mail
18. The gorgeous condolence letter I got from two boys that were in my class a couple of years ago
19. 32 Father's Days to appreciate Dad + 1 to remember him
20. Navaz, Shazen, Noah & Maya
21. The Coupers (which includes a former Wheeler)
22. Sleeping off a cold

Look at that.  I made it to 22 things.  I'm off to sleep (and yes, I feel a little better.)

Skipping to 'F' because I feel like it!

I'm sitting here on a sunny Sunday afternoon and feeling the tiniest bit melancholy - Phill's sick, I'm just getting over a cold, feeling overwhelmed with housework, planning and marking (which was convienently left at work). 

Faced with the prospect of filling in my Data & Tracking Book and spending a beautiful afternoon doing my planning, I decided to do neither and popped in the video Grant & Jen made of our wedding reception in Canada... since the videographer did SUCH a bang up job and missed songs, dances and inserted Disney graphics, my fantastic brother-in-law and his lovely wife decided that something should be done about it and they made a new video for us.

I find that now, I don't remember a lot of it... but there's a smile creeping up onto my face and lifting this blue funk because although the reception was to celebrate our wedding, it was a lot about friends and family. 

I'm loving all of it - dancing up a storm with Rizwan; Faiza & Naheed singing; Shafik & Aziza dancing - the speeches, the songs, the dances and all throughout the video, hearing Noah exclaiming "Yay!" 

I can hear my closest friends and family talking, laughing and enjoying themselves.  I love it - all of it. 

We had friends and family that travelled across the world, Canada and the GTA to be there and that made every single second of it worthwhile - not to mention the others who aren't with us any longer, or those who wanted to be there and couldn't make it.

I think (without any bias at all) that I am the luckiest girl in the world.

I have some absolutely incredible friends in New Zealand, Canada and scattered in other locations around the globe.  Each and every one of them mean something different to me and I value and treasure every relationship immensely.  So very blessed.  I can't (and don't want to) imagine my life without them.

You know... one of my favourite quotes about family is along these lines "Families are like fudge - mostly sweet with a few nuts."  Fantastic!  I love my family and I love their nuttiness.  Not just my immediate family, but my 'new' family as well - I am not only a Khamis, Kassam/Dhanidina but now a Couper as well - again - so lucky. 

Then we have my extended family - same as with my friends, I have a different relationship with each of my aunties & uncles and I treasure those individually as well.  I appreciate them all a lot more now that I'm an adult.  On top of that, I have the best group of cousins and we always have an awesome time when we're together.  We're there for each other whenever needed - no questions, no hestiations, no reservations and that's pretty damn amazing. 

All this makes my heart swell up so much, I think I'm going to explode with love and gratitude. 

Noah summed it up in a word: "Yay!" Out of the mouths of babes.