ny capital district – Running Forward…My Way

I did it again! It’s Saturday and I am just getting to my gratitudes. Ooops.

Though in my defense, my friend Lynda at Writing Out My Storms pointed out last week that it was still Friday in Pacific Time. So I am going to go with that. I have been working on cutting myself some slack because I am doing the best I can.

So it’s Friday (on the West Coast) and it’s time for some Good Vibration Gratitude.

Here is what I have been thankful for this week-

My Dad.
I have a lot of reasons to appreciate my Dad. But this week I am focusing on the fact that when he comes to visit, he usually does a couple projects around the house.

And he brings his truck and we haul stuff to the dump. Thanks Dad!
My daughter’s 4th birthday party.
This was the first year that my daughter had a “friend” party. It was different but it is cool to see her turn into her own person and make her own friends.

We had at a local place called Afrim’s that has bounce houses. The staff did a great job. My daughter had been telling me since January that she wanted her birthday party there. It was a blast. Most of her class was there and our cousins made it in from Massachusetts. It was great that so many people came out to celebrate.

I don’t have many pictures to post here because there are other children in them and I don’t feel comfortable posting pictures of other people’s children on my blog without parental permission. I know I wouldn’t appreciate it if it were done to me.
Lunch with my daughter’s Godmother and her husband.
I don’t get to see them often due to work schedules but we got to enjoy a wonderful lunch at a local Mexican Restaurant. I didn’t get any pics so I am going to leave one of the birthday present they gave my little one. But it was great to see them and catch up.

And in case you were wondering about her dress shoes, those are Clarks. Dress show on top, sneaker on the bottom. Got them when I was in Maine at Mardens and I plan to look for more the next time I am in Maine.
Meeting local blogger friends.
I “met” The Perfect Honeybee when I came across her blog on WordPress Reader. We had been following each other’s blogs for about a year. She reached out to me a few months ago and invited me to partake in a local blogging group that she and her friend were starting. Her friend blogs at Sweet Love & Ginger.

We had our first meetup. In addition to meeting the two founding members, I also had the pleasure of meeting Pattie of My Saratoga Kitchen.

It was great to discuss blogging. Even though our blogs are all very different, we still had an interesting conversation about blogging itself. If you are a local blogger (Capital District NY or Saratoga County and nearby) and are interested, connect with me. We have a Facebook group and we are planning on meeting monthly.

I am also grateful that they didn’t mind that my daughter came along.

This is a picture of my daughter ignoring us and watching YouTube kids. I want to thank the Perfect Honeybee for taking the photo because I couldn’t because, well, my daughter was using my phone.

And on a completely different note, I had to block two Peppa Pig channels on YouTube kids. She doesn’t watch Peppa Pig on TV but there is something about that show that she becomes very irritable after watching it. Nope. Not up in here. Give me annoying Daniel Tiger any day. Or those videos where kids are unboxing toys. Or that stupid Elsia and Annia go camping video. Just no Peppa Pig.
The fact that I get to be this girls Mommy.

What are you grateful for this week?

It’s Friday!

You know what that means! Time for some Good Vibrations Gratitude!

These are the 5 things I am grateful for this week.

Seeing my bestie
Last weekend my daughter and traveled to Chicago to see my best friend. We also took a side trip to Wisconsin. Travel post will be coming.

It was great to see my friend. We met at the Young Republican Leadership Conference in Washington, DC in 2006. She was sitting in front of me on the bus ride back to the hotel from the Romanian Embassy.

We wouldn’t become close until later that year.

We both pretty much have retired from politics but we usually try to see each other once or twice a year.

It’s always great to see each other and catch up.

Wisconsin Road Trip, 2018

2. Lunch with “Uncle Greg”

On our return trip from Wisconsin, we stopped to visit a close friend of mine. Greg was one of Bryon’s best friends and he has been so good to our daughter. You can see his kindness demonstrated below as he gave the girls their own cheesehead hats.

(I don’t usually use people’s names but I can’t think of a proper blog name for Greg. Though I am sure Bryon would have suggested a few inappropriate ones).

Pro-Tip when visiting Wisconsin: make sure you leave some space in your luggage because those cheesehead hats take up a lot of room. Though I guess she could have worn it on the plane…

20180324_132026 — “Uncle Greg” and the mini-cheeseheads

We had an amazing lunch complete with Wisconsin cheese curds.

20180324_141508 — The Old Fashioned, Madison, WI. 2018.

I also got to meet Uncle Greg’s new girlfriend.

I don’t give my stamp of approval to just anyone. I am not Marshall Erickson.

But I am happy to say that Uncle Greg’s new girlfriend has my stamp of approval. I can’t wait for him to bring her to Albany so everyone can meet her.

3. Making it home in time for our favorite community helper’s birthday

We made it back in time on Monday for a special birthday. Another one of Maddy’s “uncles”, who I refer to as “our favorite community helper”, was celebrating his birthday. I took my daughter out for dinner and our favorite community helper and his fiancee (a.k.a. Carter’s parents) met up with us. I didn’t get a picture with our favorite community helper, but here is a picture of my daughter being silly. I was tired and probably not the best company, but these two are family to me and it was important to see our favorite community helper on his birthday.

4. A night at the museum

This week was the opening of Canstruction. A good friend (I will call her “the architect”) has done this event for 8 years. Canstruction collects cans and other non-perishable food and builds structures to raise money for food banks in the region.

I am so proud of my friend.

On Wednesday, there was a reception that I was lucky enough to attend.

The event took place at the New York State Museum on Empire Plaza.