Joy Rush

I saw this on Barb's site, then on Kate's site and decided with the amount of negativity running around this blog these days I needed to do this.

So let's see if I can come up with 15 things:

Ken's smile: You know what I'm talking about. The smile that your honey has on his/her face when you get home at the end of the day, or you see him after being in the house for a while and he's been in the garage. That special smile that is just yours. Warms your heart.

Scrat the Brat chasing a tennis ball: The look of intense joy and excitement when he sees you heading for the RV bin that holds the ball launcher just cannot be reproduced. Just taking time to play with the dog brings him that much pleasure it cannot help but be contagious.

Kaji the kitty wanting to snuggle: Kaji and I have a love/hate relationship. She loves to hate me. Lately she's been shadowing me in the house and letting me pet her AFTER I've fed her. She just comes up to you and coos like a pigeon (hence her nickname) and you cannot help but pick her up and see how soft she is.

Nemo's motor: Nemo is another of our kitties. He is so certain you are going to eat him but must get scritching or play with your shoe laces when you are tying your shoes. His purr is phenomenal and I can hear it without my hearing aids. He always comes and says hi to me in the morning.

Rasta in snuggle mode: When Rasta is allowed in the bed room at night (very rare) he will curl up in a ball next to me and just stay there all night. He simply wants to just be there and I'm happy to let him. And his wimpy meow (he's the big burly muscle boy on the kitty block) is just hilarous.

Smokey Cat walking up to me in the morning for a cuddle: just that fact that he still trusts us enough to stick around and that he wants to be around us.

Hot air balloons in the morning: I live along the flight path for some local Ballooners. I love letting the dogs out in the morning and seeing the balloons go over the house.

My neighbors kids: Mostly her son. Her new daughter couldn't care less that I exist. ;-) But her son loves to come down and play with my husband on the tractor and the joy on his face is just a beautiful thing.

Cliff the Mutt waiting to be let under a blanket: Dogs like dens. Cliff loves to be under blankets. He gets so excited when I head to the recliner with my quilt and a pillow and my knitting, I can't help but let him in under the blanket and Oscar wedged on one side and Scrat wedged in my arm pit. :-)

All three dogs when I get home from work: She who feeds us is HOME! They are inside the screen door, one doggy to a panel, about to explode if I don't open that door and pet them.

The beach: I love taking the dogs to the beach. They get to run around and just get dirty and messy and have fun and be totally uninhibited and I get to join them.

My grandfather clock: I started losing my hearing when I was nine and admittedly it kept me up at night. Mom and Dad got this clock when I was 10. It was custom built for us from the Black Forest in Germany. When I would lay awake at night worrying about my hearing, I would wait to hear the clock strike. It meant I got one more day or at least 15 more minutes. Now the clock is mine and I still wake up in the middle of the night hoping to hear it. It's getting harder to, but I still can and that's such a good thing.

Ken telling me I'm beautiful: Just that fact that he thinks so in spite of all the crap of has to put up with as part of his life with me. I don't see it, but he does and I'm happy he thinks I am.

Oscar the Dog running across the yard in the morning: He just LOOKS so happy you cannot help but smile and sometimes run with him. That after all his previous humans put him through, he can find that kind of joy now. If only people were that resilient.

My knitting buddies - here and in real life: I love getting comments from people that bounced here from another knitting sites. I love getting to see what all my friends are doing even when I don't get to see them regularly. My husband thinks that knitting is a solitary venture, but he doesn't know the people I know. We're all in this together and the knitting community is one of the strongest I know.

Pass it on folks. What brings you Joy? Let us know. Tag you're it.