Gratitude Instead of Bad Attitude

It's pretty easy to complain.  It sometimes feels good to unload, and frankly, it's a bit therapeutic to dump your worries.  Today, one of my friends posted this on Facecrack... and it slapped the desire right out of me. 

It's so, so, so very true.  It's wonderful to get that reminder, even in tough times, you probably have it better than some. 

We had our 4 year old "well-child" visit with Andi's new pediatrician yesterday!  Andi is 28 pounds, and 35" tall.  So, if my memory serves, she has gained about 3 or 4 lbs since she had her g-tube removed 3/11/13.  However, even though she's growing, she's not even on the 'typical' height chart, but for her height, she's in the 5th percentile weight-to-height ratio.  We are getting a referral to all the new Dr's we need to see over the year:  cardiology, ENT (possibly), endocrinology (growth Dr.).  The Dr. got the full low-down on all things Andi.  I find it refreshing when Dr's have human reactions to some of the things I say. When I told her of our surprise diagnosis after being in perinatology every three weeks for ultrasounds, she visibly grimaced with humanity.  I think I'm going to really like this Dr!  YEA! 

I'm coming to find that a lot of Oregonian practices and preaching has really stuck with me.  I am horribly appalled at the amount of plastic bags they use here.  And Styrofoam?  They still use Styrofoam here.  I mean no disrespect to my new state / part of the country, but ding dang - it's time to move into the 21st century.  Have you ever heard of reduce, reuse and recycle?!  While the PNW is forcing composting, and every other week garbage pick-up to get people to cut down on waste (I believe up to 30% of the stuff we throw in the garbage can is compostable material!)  Here, they just use, buy more, use, buy more, use, buy more.  It might be green here, but it ain't environmentally "GREEN" here.  And I write this as I think I actually missed the trash pick-up this morning, as I was late getting my cans to the curb.  That's okay though, because our trash can isn't half-full, unlike our overflowing can every two weeks in Portland. 

Wow, tangent. 

In any case, we're adjusting our attitude to gratitude, and settling into our new lifestyle.  It's getting hot here and we're loving it.  I can't help chuckle at Portland's cloudy sky forecast on my iPhone with a high of 63 in June.  While the rest of us are already knee deep into summer. 

Well, the kid wants to go drive her convertible.  We got our original car replaced and this new one actually has the engine sound and a horn that honks.  She loves it all that much more now.