Day 17

Oh Friday. How I love Friday. Gavin and Kiernan got to come into Anchorage with Ben and I this morning. Gavin had to spend close to 3 hours with several different friendly people looking at rats. He was pretty excited. Last night Ben found out that the university didn't send in his credits for January (despite that he has been registered since Nov) so.... no G. I. Bill verification = no $$$ for us. Only 9 credits were sent in of my 12 so I am only getting 3/4 pay. Not good news on the finance front. In Anchorage, we went in and they said "be patient, it's coming.... blah blah blah... don't worry". Upon returning to the valley I decided to swing up to Mat-Su and withdraw from two 1 credit all day Sat. classes. Turns out, I was still able to drop them and I'm getting all my money back! Yeah!!!! One less thing to worry about paying for without our monthly income. Then Ben ran in to ask about his G.I. bill dilemma and they fixed it right there!! Another Yeah!!!

Anyway, that enormous preface for these thanks:

1. Friendly, helpful people. This applies to the people in the lab who showed Gavin the rats and ran around the halls with him and to the people at Mat-Su college that fixed Ben's stuff.

2. Denny's food. I love that place. Even though we probably can't afford to go there (especially right now!) we went anyway. And, I would have to say I appreciate the education that I have received from UAA. When we received our food (around 3pm) after not eating all day, I thought: this food would be a very salient positive reinforcer of behavior....oh, I love it.

3. Anything warm. My car... the SSB, Wal-Mart, our loft...etc...seeing as it is below zero outside.

4. Hanging out with my family all day today. Even though we were just running errands and going to class and such, it was nice to just hang out. I also really appreciate being able to have honest conversations with Ben.

5. So, this is weird but I am grateful that I take time (long before I started this journal) to reflect on what I am thankful for. Here is another short list of underlying things I am continually thankful for:

-being married to Ben... but having a horrible experience the first time I got married to help me to recognize exactly how lucky I am to have found Ben.

-having bad experiences to help me appreciate what I have now (USMC...namely Alpha Company...S-3T....boot camp female drill instructors...I could go on for a long time, a terrible first marriage...good thing I got that over with when I was young!....those are the two most glaring things).

-Family. The immediate one. The one I grew up with. Cousins. Aunts. Uncles. Grandmas. In-Laws (the few that I know).


- Friends. I am not going to list them all in case they do not want their names on here.

- My health, my ability to learn new things, two healthy kids, freedom to believe what I want to believe, the right to vote, life in general.

Ok, my rantings are finished for today. Until tomorrow.