Yesterday

Lucky me. It was one of those days when I'm so very glad to just be myself—where I am, who I am, and living the life I have now. Everything started out good and just kept getting better.

One of the first things I did after getting up was to remember that it was Friday. Since we retired, Fridays don't usually mean much, but since the government decided this year that they'd only process tax refunds on Friday, I thought I'd just peek into my online accounts and see if the refund had been distributed. I knew it was a long shot, since I had only eFiled my taxes last Friday. They said it would take two weeks, but there it was. Money in the bank.

We got out the checkbook and wrote a draft for our property taxes so we could go into town and take care of that. When April comes, we won't have that to worry about. Usually we pay half in March and the other half in April. I was really feeling lucky.

Before we left the house, we called our grandchildren in The Netherlands to thank them for the hand-made Valentines we had received in the mail the day before. It was too late to call when we got them, since they're eight hours ahead of us. We called and talked to our three year old granddaughter, but she was pretty involved watching Blue's Clues on television. Since she doesn't watch much TV, the conversation with us was short, but very sweet. Then we talked with Ruth, our daughter-in-law for a few minutes until Kate, the one and a half year old started really crying.

She's been sick, complicated with teeth coming in (molars, if I remember right) and has been miserable, not her usually sunny personality. I asked Ruth if she wanted the phone or Mommy. Ruth said she wanted Mommy, but she handed Kate the phone anyway. Kate has never talked to us on the phone. She's a busy girl, and phone calls aren't in her realm of consciousness yet. Still, she must have been listening when I started asking her if she was wearing her beads. She loves pretty beads. I said that when we come visit in April, we were going to roll on the floor laughing and playing with beads, and she would have to show us every single one of her toys so Grandpa and I could play and laugh with her while we rolled on the floor. The next thing I knew, she was laughing. Laughing! It was delightful.

We took care of all our running around, hit the grocery store and came home. We picked up the mail at the end of the driveway, and there were seven (7!) audio books from the PaperBackSwap group in there waiting for me to download. They were all books I had chosen and can hardly wait to enjoy. Perhaps more importantly, I got the all clear on my annual mammogram test from the hospital. This was turning out to be just about a perfect day. I didn't know what could be better. We had even splurged on KFC for dinner. (We tried to find a Popeye's at son Jeremy's suggestion, but never did find one.)

Before we ate dinner, I sat down to check my email, just to see if there was anything important (or fun) for me there. I was astonished to find out that I had won a contest on Mason Canyon's blog. My prize, three brand new audio books, would be coming in the mail. They have book and audio book giveaways on her blog regularly. It's easy to enter. I just found out that on a lucky day, even I can win. Her blog is a winner, too. It's one I read regularly, no matter how busy I get.

There have been times in my life when I wasn't particularly happy to be me, or to live where I lived, or be the age I was. I guess I didn't know how to appreciate what I had. I realize that yesterday was exceptionally bump-free, but most days are really good now. Life is really good.

And Ryan—when you called to talk to John and spent ten minutes talking to me first? You have no idea how good that made me feel. I'm glad Stacey has you, and I'm glad we're getting to know you better. Just one more way I feel lucky. So many fun people are in my life.