Thankful Thursday

This has been a bit of a week, but I am thankful it's nearly over and there is much more to be thankful f.or.

This week finds me thankful...

1. I survived yesterday. My boss asked me about halfway through the morning if anyone had told me I had to drive one of the wheelchair vans to the birthday lunch for the consumers with February birthdays. Well, no.

I had to drive the older wheelchair van in which everything is done by hand (the new van has an automatic ramp and a winch that pulls the person in their chair into the van. I was nervous enough when I thought I was taking a young lady from my department...then I learned that was a mistake. I was instead taking a man from manufacturing who is, not to be mean, about 300 pounds of dead weight. I was looking at him and the van and thinking there was no way.

Enter our only male specialist. He pushed the man up and into the van for me. I was so thankful for that! I'm also thankful for another coworker who helped me get the man in and out of the van at the restaurant.

2. Continuing with the same story, I am thankful for the men who worked at the restaurant. My guy in the wheelchair did not fit through any of the doors for customer use. We had just decided to take him back to work when a man came running and said we could bring him in the kitchen door. Awesome! Till we got to the door and saw that the kitchen floor sat a good 6-8 inches lower than the threshold of the door. The day was saved by 3 big guys working in the kitchen who lifted him up, chair and all, and placed him on the kitchen floor. They picked him up and set him in the parking lot when it was time to leave. Talk about going above and beyond. Thanks, guys!

3. My body was aching last night after all that, but I am grateful I'm feeling much better today.

4. I'm thankful for my crazy granddaughter who ads such joy and laughter to our lives. Today she had her mom use some colored hair wax I had given her to do her hair like a "zombie." Then she had Mom use some red lipstick to draw blood on her face. She then walked over here and hid while her Mom knocked on the door. When I answered she did her best zombie walk up to the door. She's a hoot!

5. I mentioned it the other day, but we're a couple of days out so I know for sure that my mom didn't hurt herself when she fell on the ice in the alley behind our homes. I had been worried she'd hurt more the next day, but no. I'm thankful for that.

6. We signed up for the Tovala food service. We chose to get meals 3 days per week and it came with a smart oven. I love it. I wanted something super easy for the nights I just don't feel like cooking after work, but also something healthier than grabbing take-out. Tovala is perfect. Fresh, whole food ingredients and all I have to do is put things in the provided one-use pans, add the seasonings they give you, scan a QR code and hit the start button. It takes no more than 5 minutes. I am so thankful I found this company.

7. I was verbally threatened by a consumer Monday morning over a photo I took of him 3 years ago at a special needs prom. It was pretty bad. He knew I took the photo back then and he's smiling in the photo and I showed it to him again last Friday because it popped up in my memories on my phone. He was smiling and laughing then. I have no idea what went on in his head over the weekend. I am thankful it didn't escalate beyond that and that I haven't seen him since so maybe by tomorrow's Valentine's party he will have forgotten about it.

8. We've had some warmer weather and a lot of the snow has finally melted. There are still huge piles of it everywhere, though. Better yet, today's flurries didn't amount to anything and we start warming up again tomorrow. Very thankful for that. I am over winter at this point.

9. I've found some exercises in the Reels on Facebook that actually seem to be helping with my knee and hip pain. 

So, that's a few of the things I am thankful for this week. Tell me some of the good things going on with you.