April Fools--a Little Late

Me and Izzy (1 month) with Amanda and Sarah Schumacher (7 months),
matching hats knitted by Amanda!

I have a great friend named Amanda Rae who I met the first day of high school when she agreed to eat lunch with the new girl who didn't know anyone at Kickapoo High. She helped me through calculus, went with me on church trips all over the country, roomed with me in college, met me overseas in England, and now talks with me about motherhood.

She's a great woman all around--wife, mom of three adorable kids, always positive and friendly. One of my favorite things about her is that she is great at commemorating events. In college as her roommate, I sometimes got a little overwhelmed with it--she kept every movie ticket stub she ever got in her wallet so we could reminisce about movies we had seen, and she had a large collection of turtles from friends in her sorority that sort of took over our room.

She would often stop us in our busy days and say, "Kate, do you remember what we were doing a year ago today?" I usually didn't remember, and she was awesome at reminding me to stop and cherish memories, and solidify them in my brain. Now I find myself doing this on a regular basis, and asking other people if THEY remember what happened "a year ago today." I feel so blessed to have been schooled in this activity--if you are lucky enough to know Amanda, maybe you have this habit, too. If not--set yourself calendar reminders, or look back through your day planner, or just reflect on the previous year. You'll be glad you did.

I was just thinking back to this post...a year ago last Friday, I got up in the morning and decided to take a pregnancy test. It was pretty awesome to wake Aaron up on April Fool's Day with such fun news! How do you count YOUR blessings?