My Grateful List! (Week 8)

Letter "H":
We went to hear the animals at the zoo today! The zoo was great, and a lot of fun! We got Danny a new stuffed fox animal to replace the one that he'd lost. It was hot but there was a light sprinkling of rain, which made it very enjoyable.
On the way home, I was grateful that I had said my prayer of safety for the day, because we had an incident that could have been very dangerous. Usually, I am very, very safe and take extra safety precautions when going around with him. When we ride the escalator normally, I always make sure he is very safe. However, today he was not listening to me when I told him to stop touching the side of the escalator. Then before I knew it, Danny's shoe (he was wearing Croc's that day) got caught in the escalator and it started to pull it in. Fortunately, my instincts reacted and I was able to pull him up and away very quickly. His shoe was ruined...it broke and had escalator marks on it, but luckily he was just fine. I'm really glad that he was okay!

There are so many things I am grateful for!

"I"
Today we were going to get Ice Cream as part of our letter day. Since I am spending Megan's money when I take places, I usually try to use it responsibly. I decided that if we went to McDonald's it would be very cost efficient, even though the last time we went to get ice cream at McDonald's the ice cream maker was broken and Danny was really disappointed. Unbelievably, the ice cream maker was broken AGAIN!! Two times in a row! So we went to an ice cream store across the way and paid $9 for two bowls of ice cream (since I had already promised him we would get ice cream). It was good though! We were able to make smiley faces on the ice cream, and Danny got a free toy! It made a lot of noise, which of course meant that he loved it. Not a lot of other people were there though, so we had a good time dancing while he played his new toy and ate ice cream.

Usually Danny always comments on how he thinks I am pretty. He'll say things like, "Heather, I think you're really pretty," or "You look beautiful today!" Today was a really funny. I ended up getting some chocolate ice cream on my face. Then he actually said to me, "Heather, you don't look pretty anymore when you have chocolate on your face!" hahaha! I'm grateful that he's honest with me. It was a great reminder to me to always make sure that my face is clean.

Here are some more of our letter day activities:

"J": Jump in the pool

"K": Kick the ball (soccer)

"L": Lane (bowling)

So cute!!
He actually did get a strike once!

This week I found $20 that someone left in the machines at the metro station. I told the security that was on duty, and he gave it to me! (He said that they didn't really have anything to do with it.) I was so excited!!! It ended up buying me dinner that day and transportation for the next couple of weeks! What a blessing!

I also went to an amazingly fun activity tonight where my friend Erika put together a Chopped cooking competition, after the TV show Chopped. When I went to visit my sister and brother in law this summer, they introduced me to this show and I loved it, so I was very excited to be a part of tonight's activity. The four mystery items were cinnamon, chow mien noodles, cream cheese, and bananas. My partner, Susan, and I decided to make a frosting out of the cream cheese and powdered sugar and put some other ingredients in it. Then we crushed the chow mien noodles and mixed them with heath and cinnamon. We topped a shortcake with the pudding, then sprinkled the crumbles on top, and decorated it with fruit. We were going up until the last 10 seconds, but it was a lot of fun! I have a whole new appreciation for that show. And, the best news of all was that the judges loved ours!! We actually won the whole competition! :) I was so proud! But most of all, I just had a lot of fun being a part of the whole experience.

                                                       Me and Susan (My "Sue" chef :))

                                                         Our treat, called "Volcanic Delight"

Susan and I also went to see some sights in D.C. on Wednesday. We also got ice cream from an ice cream truck, which brought back many memories from my childhood...

We interpreted statues

There was a military band at the capitol that we 

randomly ran into and listened to for a little bit.

Erika and I went hiking on Saturday, on a trail called the "Billy Goat." Appropriately, there really was a bridge, reminding us of the Billy Goat's Gruff.

Last of all, I am grateful to be sore from hiking. It means that I am on my way to being in better shape. :)