Alysheba

Fearless, Huge Congrats on your 3 years tomorrow!
So grateful for your friendship. Really glad your group turned out so well.♥
Grateful it's pouring down rain. I sure hope it slows down when Luke and I go out. We need the rain, but I must confess, I don't like it, but it is necessary. Sometimes we get spoiled here in CA, the weather is so nice more often than not.
Grateful I am going to take today to decide if I should go into ARF tomorrow. I feel a lot better except the headache, stomachache and extreme fatigue is hanging on. I just don't want to make myself sick again. This bug has been a toughie. It just wants to hang on and on. Maybe that is why I just want to crawl into a ball.
NC-I understand your relationship with your horse. I've had, raised, trained, mostly got into Dressage later after I rode hunters/jumpers. My mares I really had such a close, special relationship. Unlike anything else. When the time comes, another one will come into my life. ♥
Have a wonderful Thursday to all my Grat Pack pals. All my love to all of you. :

least

Fearless, try using www.postimages.org to post pictures. You can resize it for forums/message boards, and it comes out a nice size, not too big or small.

Rose335

Aly - that bug really does sound tough. Hope it finally deserts you over the next day or so.
FBL - Fantastic! 3 years under your belt already. Big congratulations.
Fearless - really glad to hear about the support group you've found. Definitely stick with that. Important to be with people who really know what you are going through (as we all know from our SR experience). And of course three huge cheers and more for your soberversary!
NC - it sounds to me as if the progress you are making with your riding is actually very impressive and not to be underestimated. It also sounds as if you have the best four legged friend. Give him a carrot from me! And it's true what NL said: your posts are both kind and really thoughtful.
Hev - I know: I'm never going to google an image of an insect ever again, be it exotic or otherwise!
Ananya - I'll second that! Very nice group of folks on this thread.

Grateful for such supportive but also such interesting posts. This thread is always a good read!
Grateful for a fun day with my granddaughter, who shares my taste for good coffee shops. Her tipple of choice is cold milk but we both embrace honey cake.
Grateful to have prepared myself mentally for tomorrow when I must go to the funeral of a family member whose death was, regrettably, very much life style related. Tobacco and alcohol really did wreak their havoc.
In the context of the above, even more grateful to have found the necessary inner resources to give up alcohol firmly and permanently.

Deserto

Congrats NC on two years and Congrats Fearless on 3!

Rose I'm glad you liked Once Upon a Time.... I agree the acting was great and it was beautifully shot.

Grateful it's almost Friday!

Grateful to have finally gotten some folding steps so Henry can get into the truck without me having to lift all 105 pounds of him

Mags1

NCJan Congratulations on 2 years my friend ❤️

Mags1

Fearless congratulations to you too on 3 years my friend ❤️

Mags1

Grateful for all of you here
Grateful for my sober life
Grateful to have started my new asthma treatment injections.
Grateful my cats are curled up asleep.
Grateful for SR ❤️

FBL

Congrats on 3 years, Fearless!

Grateful for another day sober.

NewChapterJan18

Grateful for my home.
Grateful to have taken the day off work to start on my literature review for my dissertation.
Grateful to be continuing my positive outlook and not allowing myself to become stressed and overwhelmed in the face of adversity and contention.
Grateful always for my SR family
Grateful especially for NL and Rose's kind words about my posts being thoughtful - for some reason this really got to me and kind of made me tear up a little. Thank you for making me feel appreciated on a day I was feeling kind of useless.

Grateful NL is smashing it this week, being productive at work and squeezing in workouts to boot!
Grateful RZ got some fresh fish from the market.
Grateful Fearless' Dementia support group was helpful. I am so happy that you have found a group like this found it to be comforting. Echoing what others here have said, we all know from our SR experience how valuable and comforting it can be to have a source of solidarity and support among others who understand exactly what you're going through
Grateful Least has Billie, who sounds to be a wonderful furry friend!
Grateful Hev has renewed determination to shift the 20lbs. I have 10lbs to lost myself and I feel your struggle!
Grateful for Aly's emojis - they always make me smile. I love that you are a horsey person, too. They really are just such magnificent animals, all with such unique characters. My boy is such a hoot - he's a grumpy little guy but the best in the world. He bickers with all the other horses and can be a bit grumpy / nippy with people, too, at times, though after a year of our partnership he seems to have decided I'm not so bad and has even become quite snuggly with me now. It fills my heart with such happiness and a weird pride that he knows I'm 'his person' now.
Grateful for Rose's sweet story about a wonderful grandmother/granddaughter day. I will most certainly give my boy a carrot on your behalf! haha Thank you for your kind words. I am sorry to hear of the passing of your family member and the causes. A harsh reminder of just how much alcohol can really take away.
Grateful Deserto's new steps should make transporting Henry a little easier!
So very Grateful for Mags' wonderfully colourful congratulations!
Grateful for FBL.

Have a wonderful day, all. Thank you for your friendship

Numblady

Fearless, CONGRATS!!! Happy, happy Soberversary my friend. Hope you mark the day in whatever way feels best for you. And thanks for the kind words about my son’s outburst. It left not much in the tank so I was impatient with my daughter last night but I’m happy things with my son turned around — I guess after the homework got done. Which doesn’t exactly bode well for harder coursework in the future but why borrow trouble, I suppose.
Rose, very sorry about the funeral. It sounds like it helps reaffirm your commitment to permanent sobriety but I know in a not easy way. Sending strength.
Least, thanks so much for the tip about posting pics.

Grateful for the many free web services that are out there. Like forum image posting. Or calculating days. Or figuring a loan payoff date. Or finding potato bugs .
Grateful that my son volunteered that he wanted to get himself cleaned up. All this really entailed was a haircut and him expressing that he wanted to pop a zit on his chin but hey, got to start somewhere.
Grateful that thanks to my sober life I got to leave work and go home and pick him up for a haircut, just he and I. Then we went and got some special snacks at the grocery store. He was so excited to pick them out. I think he was really hungry. Then I got to take him out to dinner, and told him we could go wherever he wanted, which for him meant....McDonald’s. Ick. But okay, it was still nice to spend time together.
Grateful that none of my evening activities are spent wishing I could get to the time where I could start pounding wine.
Grateful for this special group.

Rusty Zipper

a huge congrats fearless!

grateful for our sober time

Fearlessat50

Thank you all for the congrats . You all mean the world to me and I don’t know that I would have made it to this point without your support!
Rose, I am so sorry about your loss and needing to go to a funeral . On the bright side, honey cake sounds delish and I’m going to have to look that up
Least, thanks for the image posting tips. It worked for me last night. Yay! However, my iPad does some strange things. It randomly reverts SR back and forth between two different formats. The one up now has the thanks button and allows me to post pics. The other one doesn’t. When I login and the other one pops up, I always get a little anxiety. Lolol! I know I sound like a total crazy person. But this is just as real as those flying cockroaches NL and I talked about. ��
Numblady. Grateful for your funny post! For a while I really wanted my son to agree to a hair cut. But now it’s looking a bit like Fabio. And there’s nothing wrong with that . He knows the rule is he must keep it clean and neat in order to keep it long. Sorry about McD’s and that your son doesn’t prefer In and Out, but I’m glad you spent time together.
Aly, so grateful for you too!
No big plans today as far as a soberversary celebration. Oddly, being in a celebratory mood used to also be a trigger for me. In fact a couple days ago, my very happy mood over good news from my Dad’s mortgage lender put me slightly on edge. So I try to practice staying neutral about everything in life, good or bad. For now, I’m validating myself over progress and will keep moving forward one day at a time I do need a pedicure, so I’ll count that as my reward!
Grateful for a couple of dry days predicted. Grateful to have hiking and lunch plans with a friend tomorrow and a date with Mr F tomorrow night. Sonny boy will be at a sleepover. Yay!
Grateful for our friendship and support for each other

Hevyn

Rose - Hoping it went ok today. Heartbreaking for someone to leave us too soon when it might have been avoidable.
Aly - Any improvement today? I hope you've been able to rest.
Deserto - Great idea to get the steps! However, I had an English Mastiff a few year ago & she refused to utilize them. She just looked at me like, 'Nope'.
Mags - I hope the new meds work wonders for you!
NC - Love the description of your cranky pony. You must have been just what he needed - becoming snuggly is huge.
Numblady - Good news about your son's turn around & glad you had some special moments together. Those are the things he'll remember.
Fearless - Fabio I love it.
Your plans for tomorrow all sound lovely.

Grateful as usual for everyone here.
Grateful for the bright sun even though it was minus 8 windchill last night.
Grateful we're more than half way through January.
Grateful it's not one of my TGIF's from years ago. Makes me shudder just to think of it.
Grateful for an upbeat & positive attitude today. Hope I can hold on to it.
Have a terrific Friday everyone!

Alysheba

Thank you, Hev. I've been talking to a couple of people who've had this and they say they want to sleep and sleep. So I've been going with the flow. I cancelled my ARF shift tonight and start fresh next week. I hope!
Grateful to be sober. Grateful the rain stopped and it's pretty, if cold out.
Grateful for all of you, the Grat Pack. I hope Daisy is doing well.
Love and peace to everyone here. ♥♥♥

Mags1

Rose, I hope all went well at your family member’s funeral.

Grateful for all of you
Grateful for another sober weekend, so good not waking with a hangover and wanting another drink Sobriety Rocks!
Grateful for catch up tv
Hev, thanks

Rose335

I'd like to add my heartfelt congratulations Fearless and NC on your stunning soberversaries. It felt to me like such an enormous undertaking to seriously give up drinking but now - and this is a lot to do with yours and others achievements here - it seems entirely possible to do precisely that. Complacent never, optimistic definitely. Hope your date goes (or went) with Mr F went well, Fearless.
Deserto - 105 pounds! Those steps are long overdue. Let's hope Henry is a bit more cooperative than Hev's recalcitrant mastiff!
Mags - like Hev, hope your new meds do the trick. Asthma is so endemic here now.
Aly - sounds like you might have underestimated a little bit just how much some bugs can knock people back. That happened to me with a bug I got in January last year, possibly the worst one I've ever had. It's very frustrating but I think the clear message is that you must rest and then rest some more.
I bet your son really appreciated that time being out with you, NL. Obviously he won't show his appreciation but still! McDonalds used to be our place of choice for treats when my now very health conscious son was little.

Grateful that the funeral is over and that it was a calm event that celebrated the life of someone who was obvious quite genuinely recognised as a much loved father and grandfather. Given his lifestyle, you could say he did well to reach the age he did.
Grateful for a bright sunny day which feels, however, like it might be very cold! Hopefully not quite your minus temperatures Hev. Time to venture out and see..
Thankful to be feeling more positive. I've found this a hard month, with both cheerfulness and optimism low on the agenda but, notwithstanding the funeral, the last couple of days have felt a bit better. Shame there is still February to negotiate!
Grateful to be anticipating a low key, nice, family weekend.
Grateful for the lack of wine in my life.

Daisybelle

Congratulations Fearless, so proud of you. xxx

Daisybelle

Many congrats NCJan, 2 years is amazing. I'll be there soon. Well done. xx

Daisybelle

Good morning fellow gratters, I can't believe I haven't checked in here for a whole week, there's so much to catch up on. I'll have to start from here.

I'm sorry about the loss of your family member Rose. Big hugs to you ((( )))

Grateful to be hangover free this morning and every other morning.
Grateful for a half decents night sleep.
Grateful to have my g.son here.
Grateful for warm clothes, its cold out there this morning.
Grateful that though its cold, it's bright and sunny.
Grateful for enough food in my cupboards.
Grateful to see snowdrops blooming in my front garden, they cheered me up no end.
Grateful that my brother is giving my mum a lift into town this morning.
Grateful to laugh at the antics of my little cat.
Grateful for the small things in life.
Grateful Aly is feeling better than she was, that bug has been a baddy.
Grateful to see Rose herea and to read her inspiring posts.
Grateful Deserto bought some steps to help Henry and himself, lol.
Grateful Mags started her new asthma treatment and I hope it brings the relief she deserves.
Grateful for NC18's positive attitude.
Grateful Numblady got to spend some quality time with her son, Maccies and all.
Grateful for Fearless's strength of character.
Grateful to see Rusty here as always.
Grateful that Hevyn has been feeling upbeat and positive, long may it last.
Grateful Aly cancelled her ARF shift last night, glad you're looking after yourself Aly.
Grateful Rose is feeling more positive, it's been a tough time of year but as they say 'this too shall pass.'
Grateful to be here with you all this morning.
Grateful for each and everyone of you. xxx

Numblady

Grateful Daisy has rejoined us.
Grateful my drinking dream was just a dream.
Grateful that thanks to the magic of the Internet, not only do I have free, high quality workouts, but they are also different every day. I don’t do super well with repetition. Just read a comment and have also been independently thinking about when the days of home workouts meant doing a videotape or DVD — or even a book. Now THAT took motivation.
Grateful that while I did get to borrow my mom’s workout books (Jane Fonda and then this weird one called Callanetics), I don’t have to prop up a book to get workout instruction.
Grateful that when the therapist I reached out to didn’t email me back, I kept on it and now have a thirty minute call set up. Of course, all this is happening at the same time the school is telling me I need to do counseling for our daughter because she’s so alpha and aggressive that other parents have raised concerns, and I’m not even sure how I can make any appointments for myself let alone the both of us. Let alone figuring out what we are going to do about our son. Which bums me out in a way it’s hard to express but I’m on the gratitude forum and that is not the right mindset.
Grateful we are actually going to book a trip to Ireland/Scotland this week for the summer.
Grateful to get reminders of my little brother. Grateful to see inspiration in terms of how people have channeled their grief into positive life changes.
Grateful for early bed times.
Grateful my kids wanted to go to the grocery store last night and it was actually kind of fun. Or at least, it was not a nightmare and I was glad sobriety permitted an impromptu excursion at 7 p.m. on a Friday night.
Grateful to be here with all of you. And hopeful you won’t mind me being in a kind of bummed out frame of mind for a bit.