Now - that's what I'm talking about!

Great Grandma Hanks sent our family a thank you card yesterday. We had sent her some letters and pictures and she loved it so much that she sent us a card and $15 to go and get some ice cream! What a sweetheart. Grandma Pat had written the card herself and it just about brought me to tears. See Grandma is legally blind (macular degeneration). I know she can see some but not much. To see her handwriting and her thoughtfulness and her thanking each child by name, it was awesome!

The awesomeness doesn't end there. So we took our family out to Baskin Robbins for our special treat from Grandma. Let me tell you that taking our family out all together somewhere is usually quite an adventure and not in a good way. There is usually fighting and crying and not so nice things said to each other, even when it's a fun place to go. JD and I get really frustrated and vow to never take everyone to a store or something ever again.

Well, we went off to Walmart first to get a few things, with only minor difficulties (Brielle falling and hitting her mouth on the floor and bleeding all over my shirt and her shirt). There was relative peace as we left the store (wow). Brielle was not happy in the car until I was sitting by her and holding her face to my face, with JD telling me, "I'll go home with her and you take the kids to ice cream". No! We were going to go as a family - we headed on.

Baskin Robbins, it was quite a pain getting everyone's orders in but not because the kids were fighting, just because the store is small and lots of people were there. Anyway, we all huddled around a little table enjoying our sweet treats, everyone was laughing and actually having fun! Brielle had a little sample spoon in hand and kept reaching for each person's ice cream. So she'd get some from me, then Marissa, the boys, Daddy! It was the CUTEST thing ever. I wished I had a camera. It's a mental picture I hope I never lose! But the true awesomeness was when I was holding Brielle on my lap and everyone was smiling at her, so they were looking at me, I had a picture of how heaven will be. I truly had JOY - the kind the fills your heart to the brim. The kind that makes you want to laugh and cry at the same time! Even if it was for just a few minutes - it was awesome! Now that's what I'm talking about!