Gratitude Tuesday

I am grateful for many things. Today some of the things I am grateful for are:

• E-85 - Last year when we bought our Suburban we had no idea that it had FlexFuel, meaning that we could use ethanol based gasolines. We were thrilled when we found out that it was. With gas prices reaching higher and higher we have begun using E-85 gasoline. Two weeks ago when I filled up I paid a whole dollar less per gallon than I would have paid if I filled up with regular unleaded gasoline. That is a savings of about $20-$30 per fill-up. I mentioned something to a friend of mine the other day about our car taking E-85. She drives a 99 Dodge Caravan and upon further investigation (it says on the inside of her gas door) she found that her car can also use E-85. A lot of the newer cars come with the Flexible Fuel option, if you don't know if yours does or not, check it out. It will make Father Al so proud! Not to mention that it might save you a little money.

• Rain - We have received a significant amount of rainfall this spring. Though I am anxious to see the sun again and have the ground dry out, we really need the moisture. Hopefully this weekend it will be warm and dry enough to get our garden in.

• Comedy Relief - With the rain has come some comedy relief. We have had some severe weather complete with hail, thunder and lighting along with the rain. Sunday there were funnel clouds spotted in town. Before we moved to South Dakota I never realized that there are occasional tornadoes here. Enough so that the schools have tornado drills as often as fire drills. My little twinners, Kim and Kay, have been practicing Tornado drills at home the last few days. Yesterday after school they were hiding under the kitchen table while eating their snack. Kaylynn's teacher has been talking to them about what causes tornadoes. She told them when there is cold and warm air together it can cause severe weather, including tornadoes. Yesterday, after they came out from under the table, Kaylynn goes to the open window and yells to Kim. "Kim, it is warm and cold, come feel." I guess you had to be there, they are just so cute. I know it must be scary to them to think about it and what could happen. We've talked about where we would go and what we would do. Honestly I don't think there is a "safest" spot in our house to go to in case of a tornado. But we are far better here than we were in our trailer we used to live in. Hopefully we won't ever have to worry about it.