Gratitude

Sorry for the blog delay. It has been a busy week. In fact, right now we are hunkered down for our first "blizzard." (I'm sure people from the northeast are laughing at that- but to me, 6+ inches of snow in a few hours is a blizzard!). Here are a few pictures of our snow storm, hour by hour:

And it's still snowing.... Neither of us has ever seen snow like this. Luckily my class got cancelled tonight and we are hoping for delayed starts tomorrow :)

Sooooo since I have some extra time on my hands, I'm catching up on my blogging. In my attempt to do more DC things, I've planned 1 fun thing for us to do each week. Last weekend, I had planned a trip to Arlington National Cemetery. When we woke up the temperature was 18 with a windchill of 11. It was sooooooo tempting to call it off, but I figured that set a bad precedent for my list of DC things to do/see, so we bundled up and off we went. We decided to make it a quick trip, 1 to 1 1/2 hrs tops.... We were there for 3 and I was pretty much dragging Caleb to the metro.

As someone who has never been to Arlington National Cemetery, I was overwhelmed by the emotions I felt there. I couldn't believe how many tombstones there were, it absolutely broke my heart. At one point we passed two young men, not much older than us, laying a wreath on a grave and crying as they walked away. I didn't know them or know of their loss, but I just wanted to cry with them. But at the same time, I was overwhelmed by an all-encompassing feeling of gratitude. Everywhere I walked I saw the names of those who had not only risked, but sacrificed, their lives for this country. It was unbelievable. I always knew there were alot of graves there, but until you see it, you can't understand the power of it.

Whatever you may think of the Kennedy family, the memorials to JFK and RFK were unbelievably inspirational. From their memorials you can look over a view of the entire city as you read famous quotes from them. It reminds you of the great dreams they had for America, and inspires you to pick up where they left off. Even Caleb, who does not think so highly of the Kennedys, agreed that their memorials are very well done.

 

I think his favorite part of the tour was going through Robert E. Lee's house, but he just has not been able to get past the fact that the US government stole his land and used it for the cemetery. Like I told him, yes, that was probably not very fun at the time, but if you could raise good ole Robert from the dead today, I'm fairly certain he would be honored that his land was used to honor the legacy and memory of American soldiers through the ages. He didn't like it... but he agreed.

It was a great mini-day trip. I can't wait to see what our other DC plans have in store. When we got back though, we were met with an unfortunate suprise. As we plopped in bed to go to bed Saturday night, we were greeted with a giant snapping noise. Awesome. We broke our bed.

I must confess that I have been very ungrateful lately. When we traveled from Dallas and when we went to NY, we stayed in hotels with King beds. I love king beds- I love all the space- and so I haven't been very nice about my queen bed. We are SOOOOOO lucky to have this bed- it was my great grandparents and when they moved, they let us have it. If they hadn't who knows what we would be sleeping on. BUT, lately I've been plotting when I can replace it with a nice big king bed, even though we don't have the money or space for a king bed, I've just been being ungrateful. So, you can imagine how I felt when the bed broke. Luckily, I was reminded of how grateful I should be a) for great grandparents who so generously let us have the bed b) a bed to sleep on at all and c) for a husband who was able to fix the bed AND willing to sleep on the futon 2 nights to let the glue set up.

So we are back to normal and I am learning to be happy with what I have. I can dream of king beds, but for now I am loving my queen. Well, I think I'm going to make hot chocolate and put in a movie to top off our blizzard day, but I will definitely update again soon!

O, I almost forgot- Scarlett is good to. Just lounging around like a spoiled dog, BUT she does have something very fun coming up this weekend!!! She looks excited doesn't she?