The 52 Lists Project: Week 3 (and other Random Hap'nins)

First: The other day, I had to spend $160 on my dog.  Poor Franklin could not open his left eye. Turns out he has an ulcer on his cornea and gets an antibiotic, eye drops, and an eye ointment every eight hours.

Oh, and he's had sores on his paws since he was a pup. Now the vet thinks they might be some sort of rare bacterial thing that she said she kind of just glanced at in vet school because her instructor told her they'd probably never see it. So of course my dog would come down with it. In addition to all the other medicine he gets ointment rubbed on his paws twice a day and now he has to take Omega-3 fish oil for the rest of his life. And, so he doesn't mess with his face or his paws, he has to wear a cone.

He is so sad.

Anyway, this week's list is: List the happiest moments of your life so far.

How could I narrow this down? I had a lot of great moments. But here:

- The camping trip I went on with my youth group in high school
- Getting my first job (shelving books at the library)
- Getting my drivers' license
- My first car

The car itself was an absolute piece of garbage. It was a 1986 Chevette that at one point was dark blue. But that thing? Ugh. The check engine light would come on if I dared to go over 30 mph. The entire thing would shake violently if I was on the highway. And driving in rain? Ha. If I went through a puddle that was even an eighth of an inch deep, my engine would flood and die. Sometimes in the middle of an intersection. It was glorious.

But it also represented freedom. So that's why it was happy. I've owned three other cars since then (an '88 Cavalier, a '98 Malibu and my current car, a 2006 Ford Freestar).

- my first kiss (January 4, 1998 with Joe Kramer)
- Finally meeting Ben in person (August 2001; we met online)
- Getting engaged (sometime in October 2001)
- Marrying Ben (April 27, 2002)
- Moving into our first apartment
- Allyson being born (July 28, 2008)
- Moving into our house (July 2013)
- Finally finding a great church family. We were at our old church for a long time (Ben grew up in it; I joined shortly after we were married). But some things went down with our pastor and the congregation that I don't feel like talking about, so a bunch of us left. We tried three other churches before my sweet friend Vicki invited us to our current one. And we never left. I feel so at home there.
- Bringing our special snowflake dog Franklin home
- All the great trips we get to take. Our favorite destination is St. Louis. But we've also been to Chicago, Des Moines, Iowa City. One of these days I'm going to get Ben to take me to Florida.

I am just impressed I've been able to keep up so far.