#gratitudes: day 1

I really do my best to stay away from huge cliches on the blog. Mostly because I'm cliche enough in my day-to-day life that I don't want to let it bleed into absolutely every aspect of my life. But this week, I'm going to be cliche. I've previously explained the concept of the #Gratitudes twitter hashtag that my church is a big fan of {my church is also a big fan of twitter, so it works}. This week I'm anticipating my feed blowing up with #gratitudes, and I'm super excited about it. It just gets so easy to fly through life and let all the amazing blessings we recieve turn into blurs. I know I get like that frequently. And as simple & technology-based as it may be, seeing that hashtag in my twitter feed always makes me slow down & take a second to re-evaluate. So today through Thursday is #Gratitudes week here at Fearless. Day one.

My "better than you could ever ask for" family

This was our Christmas card picture last year. Our favorite place {Gatlinburg, TN} and all our favorite teams. There's me, a slightly obnoxious LSU fan, my younger sister Morgan, a die-hard, mural of Fenway on her bedroom wall Red Sox fan, my father, the cutest Cheesehead ever, and Mama, who gets excited anytime KU puts up a fight in any game.

They're the people who make me, me. They put up with me when I insisted on putting on shows in our living room, jumping in front of the video camera when my dad was trying to film my sister's first steps, and every other "look at me! look at me!" moment of my childhood. They've loved me through the slammed doors, over reactions, and stupid boys I've brought home. My father instilled in me a deep love for the mountains, good music, Seinfeld, & a cold beer; and continues to try to teach me how to be financially responsible, patient, and to think before I speak. My mother is responsible for my love of wine, books, down time, & my ability to watch the same movie 100 times. She's still trying to get me to learn how to say no when I need to & be quiet sometimes. And then there's Mo. The baby sister who is perpetually stuck at age 12 in my head {I'm sorry. I know you hate that.} It still freaks me out that she's old enough to drive and vote and get into bars. But she's freaking hysterical and wise and will love you to the end.

That's day 1 of #Gratitudes. What're you thankful for today?