Day 2 Gratitude Challenge

Thirty days of gratitude....yeah yeah, we should all be grateful daily and I am. I just don't announce it to the world because I really believe the world enjoys my whining so much more.  I'm going to do this thirty day gratitude thing (don't worry, I'm sure I'll still whine). It won't always be on my blog...because let's face it, I've been sucking at blogging. Day one was on my FB page -- I just posted a picture of the Front Range and thanked the Lord I live in one of the more beautiful cities in the US (because I really do, I mean how many people get the beautiful view of the Rocky Mountain Range on a daily basis).  Today (as you can see by the nifty challenge graphic below) is laughter.  And I LOOOOVE ME some laughter.  I really do have one of the funniest husbands ever, he makes me laugh all the time -- he sometimes even does it intentionally. I am also always finding amusement in my children, who are both growing up with wonderful senses of humor -- sometimes even appropriate. I love laughing and I love to make people laugh.

 For this post I am thankful that although my sister was full of pain to the point she lost her life to alcohol, drugs, and depression, she had the most contagious laugh of anyone I have ever met. Her smile and laugh would light up a room and you couldn't help but laugh when she was laughing.  We grew up laughing. I am grateful I was able to hear my sister's laugh for over 40 years of my life. My sister and two of my brothers are pictured here laughing.

 After she died, one brother and I went to Florida to be with my mom, step dad and other brother. We spent the weekend crying, fighting (good-naturedly), and laughing. I am grateful for such two awesome, talented, handsome brothers who can do silly like no one's business.

 Look at my hubby's smile...how could you not laugh all the time with this guy, and the youngest -- he is such a lovely sweet boy who says the wildest things, and the teen, who has that typical teen expression, has a dry sly wit that catches you off guard. I am grateful for all of them. I am the luckiest mom and wife in the whole entire world.

And my coffee lady book club neighborhood peeps -- crying, laughing, gossiping, hugging group of women who give me strength -- All have wonderful senses of humor. How can I not be thankful with these lovelies.

One of the best pranks ever played and it still makes me laugh is when a group of my friends added a bunch of extra wives to my sticker-car-family -- a little making fun of my weird obsession with plural marriage (okay, all of us had a little obsession, we got together to watch Big Love every week and we call each other sister-wives).

 My marriage started out in laughter...the best way to begin a life together. My sister and sister-in-law laughing along with me, one of my best friends from high school and my best friend from college joining in (the three of them also came to my sister's funeral, to say good-bye because they too knew my sister, loved her and laughed with her). We have all had our own journeys to live, one with a mother and husband who had cancer (and are still alive and doing well). She and her husband make me laugh all the time. One whose daughter has Down's syndrome with autism, but posts the cutest and funniest pictures of her son and daughters on Facebook, and the third, my sister-in-law has advanced MS and she still is able to laugh and enjoy life.

So, yes, I am grateful for laughter. Without it life would be unbearable.