26 weeks of baking and Thanksgiving!

The theme of today's entry is THANKFULNESS!  I'm counting my blessings one paragraph at a time starting now...

Wednesday's have become my favorite day of the week!  As a kid, I always loved Friday because that meant I had two days of the weekend ahead of me and in Texas, Friday night football was king!  As a pregnant woman though, weekends don't matter...only Wednesday does!

When you're pregnant, the gestational weeks change based on the day of the week your baby is due.  Baby P is due on Wednesday, February 13, 2013, so we count the next gestational week on Wednesday.  As you now know, we are counting the days and weeks until we get to 28...Today, we reached another milestone by getting to 26.  Life is about small blessings and today is just one more thing to be thankful for in the Paffe household.

I'm also thankful for time!  I've had the chance to ponder what my life will be for the next few weeks and months while I'm not working.  I've decided to embrace this opportunity to relax for perhaps the first time since I graduated from college in 1998.  I love reading books and even classified myself as a bibliophage at one point but for the first time in a while I don't have any books in the "must read" pile so if you have any recommendations, please leave a comment!  I will have plenty of time on my hands to get lost in a good story...

I'm thankful for the caring hands and brilliant minds of NYC OB specialists!  We have another doctor's appointment with our Maternal Fetal Medical physician, Dr. Fox, on Friday where we will learn if my cervix has improved since last week.  I always look forward to these visits even though I may puke with anxiety on the way to his office!  Look for my next update with a full recap of our visit and hopefully great information to share later this week.

I'm thankful for a warm home and four seasons in a year!  The northeast is being hit with another storm as I type this entry.  Living in Texas the majority of my life, with a stint in Birmingham and Nashville, I am probably one of few people that actually enjoy the snow and cold weather.  As a child we only had one or two days a year where it reached freezing temperatures outside so as an adult I love watching snow fall from the sky.  This beautiful occurrence I will too embrace this afternoon.  

**As a side note, for all the trials and tribulations we have endured over the past few weeks, our situation truly pales in comparison to those in the northeast that are still without electricity, heat, water and food.  We have so much to be thankful for while these people have truly lost everything!  The situation is much worse than you can imagine (unless you were in Katrina) and now not only are they dealing with Sandy but a blizzard.  Please use the prayer you were going to say for us tonight to pray for those suffering in New York and New Jersey...

I'm thankful for the opportunity to work for a company that supports their employees in the good times and bad!  I want to send a huge THANK YOU to my co-workers in Chicago who today sent the most gorgeous bouquet of flowers!  It's the smallest things that make the biggest difference in a person's day and these beauties did just that!

We're thankful for the United States Postal Service!  Monday night we received our first pieces of mail since settling into our New York home.  You would have thought we won the lottery!  It reminds me of a time in my childhood years when I would meet a new friend at 4-H summer camp and the only way we could stay in touch was by writing letters...it's unheard of these days but back then a letter in the mail was golden!  It's no different now!  We love receiving even junk mail!  It's the lifeline to civilization, as we know it!    

I'm THANKFUL the elections are finally behind us!  For the first time in 18 years I did not get the chance to vote.  This was not purposely done but rather an adverse effect of our current living situation and Hurricane Sandy.  We reached out to the Elections Department in Texas over a week ago, filled out the necessary paperwork, faxed it in but due to the disarray NYC is still in, did not get our ballots in time to fill them out and cast our votes by 7pm last night.  I will say as an American, this is one right I have never taken for granted!  I have voted in every election since I was 18 years old and whether my candidate won or lost, was always proud to sport my "I voted" sticker.  You know the rule, if you don't vote you can't complain so you won't hear a peep out of us for the next four years!  Truly, at the end of the day my political affiliation is completely insignificant anyway and quite honestly, personal, but I will say the division in our country and the hatred spewed from people's mouths and typed by their fingers has left me feeling ill.  Never in my life do I remember people being so incredibly hateful and negative.  It truly breaks my heart!  I'm grateful I live in a country where as a woman I get to vote for my candidate, go to college, work for my own pay and come from a family that loves and supports me whether they agree with my politics or not.  Whether your candidate(s) won or lost last night my prayer for our country, and all Americans, is that we can put the election behind us, pray for the leaders that were chosen and hope we can all come together again as a "UNITED States of America" to get back on the road to success...so folks, let's begin now!  

Lastly, I'm MOST THANKFUL for my husband!  I don't have the words to express my gratitude to Gayland.  I just stand (or sit) in awe of him, his strength, determination, love, unselfishness and unwavering love and support of Baby P and me!  I always prayed I would end-up with a man like him knowing that dream would never become a reality so now that I'm living this blessing I just want to fall to my knees in thanks to God for giving me such an amazing husband!  He is the biggest gift in my life!