Oh my, how I love Pinterest!  I am grateful for Pinterest because, even though it can be a HUGE time-waster, I love finding funny, inspiring, crafty, yummy things :)  

What more appropriate day to blog about my gratitude for the gospel than on fast Sunday?  Today was an especially spiritually uplifting and lovely Sunday.  I wore my new skirt to church, and I looked cute :)  Being fast Sunday, I did actually fast (true fasting wasn't really in my upbringing - although starving on fast Sunday was lol).  I read my scriptures and pondered November's scripture for Primary (Matt. 22:37 - ... Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.) 

In an attempt to understand the scripture more fully so that I might accurately help the kids learn it, I did some reading on lds.org and found this awesome talk by Robert F. Orton.  During sacrament meeting, I did some scripture chasing of references.  Oh, and testimony meeting was awesome.  The Workmans blessed their new baby, and they are such an awesome family!  Seriously, they're children are amazing, which says a lot about their parents :)  Isaac gave an awesome blessing, and both Addy and Isaac bore their testimonies.  I loved hearing about recent events in Isaac's life that illustrated to him that God is aware of him and knows his particular circumstances.  We also learned a sister in our ward has a terminal disease, and her testimony touched me as well. 

On less of a spiritual side, Matt and I were asked to be on the Christmas party committee.  I love planning parties :)  AND Connie and Chip Butler are the chairs - and Connie is fantastically crafty.  I'm really excited to work with them over the next month or so :)  Also, in our Relief Society bulletin, I found out my neighbor's birthday is today.  Matt had made some brownies yesterday, so I put a few on a plate and used a card I had complimentary from somewhere to write her a little birthday note and took it upstairs to her.  She's inactive, but a really cute girl.  Yay for warm fuzzies, and for doing something outside my comfort zone.  I think pondering that scripture today, coupled with the themes from that talk and testimony meeting, must have had a bit of an impact on me :)

Afterward, we went to Matt's parents' for dinner.  It is always nice to spend time with family.  I love my in-laws.  I'm so lucky to have them and to feel like I really am a part of the family.

After that, we headed up to my parents' house.  My dad and Gloria are back from New Mexico for a little bit.  Dad had to have surgery on his eye again because his retina tore in a new place.  He's currently recuperating from that.  I didn't realize how much I missed being able to go to their house whenever and hang out, even though we didn't really do it much since buying the condo. (Having our own washer and dryer is amazing!)  Nolan is also living there again, so we got to chat with them, watch some football, and eat brownies.  I'm also grateful that Nolan has a friend who can take a look at my sewing machine :)  We had Mocha with us, and I was worried Gloria wouldn't appreciate letting the dog in the house, but she was excited to see her and was fine with her in the house.

I guess this wouldn't really be a true "thankful for the gospel" post if I didn't share my testimony.  I know the gospel is true and that this is truly the restored church of Christ on the Earth.  I know God speaks to his living prophets, and that He speaks to us individually through His Spirit.  I am grateful for the peace and direction the gospel provides.  I am grateful for the knowledge it provides that we so often take advantage of.  I can't fathom wondering how I came to be or if there was any life after death.  I know it is there and that we can continue to progress in the next life if we earn that privilege in this life.

I am grateful for God's love for us, that he sent His Son to be our Savior and example.  I am grateful that Jesus ransomed us, that we may live with Him again.  I love the feeling of joy I get when I follow in His footsteps and act as a conduit for His love.  I know that by serving others we can be closer to Heavenly Father and Jesus, and that we can be tools in Their hands. 

We were recently challenged in church to learn everyone's names and greet everyone in the hall by name.  I don't know a lot, and I'm a super shy person, but today I at least made the attempt to smile and say hi to people, more so than usual.  Even though I may not know everyone's name, I was happier just showing that joy and love to others.  I can honestly say that I love everyone I came in contact with today.  I may not know their name or circumstance, but they are my brothers and sisters in Christ, and we're all here working toward returning to Him.  I enjoy the feeling of camaraderie I feel at church, and also wherever I am, just by reaching out to people and getting to know them.  We really are social creatures, and we weren't meant to go through this life alone.  We each have separate talents meant to help and uplift each other.  Together we can be whole.  This reminds me of, well, a lot of quotes I've found on Pinterest... but this is the one that came to mind just now:

This has been the Primary theme for the year.  On Oct. 30th, we had our Primary Program, of which I was in charge.  I ended up writing the parts for the kids, but I did try to get the kids involved in writing their parts.  It just didn't quite work out the way I had intended :)  It was okay though, because I think I got the flavor of the things they learned and remembered while making it a little more cohesive.

We rehearsed for two weeks prior to the program.  Being the middle ward scheduled in the building was fun.... We ended up practicing speaking parts in the chapel the first week and then having class.  The second week, we rehearsed speaking parts in the chapel, and then ran through the whole thing in the Primary room.  We even had some time to review just the songs that week. 

The morning of the 30th, we arrived early like we had been to set up extra chairs and to put the kids' names on the chairs with tape so they knew where to sit.  However, that week, the 6th ward was in the chapel rehearsing for their program :)  Thanks to Whitney's husband, Mike, for the idea to pull off long rows of tape so we could get all of the names written down by row and we could get things done quickly!  Things worked out nicely in that we had time to get the extra chairs set up and all of the tape on the chairs for the kids.  Then it was just a matter of waiting until after sacrament to have the program!

I was very impressed by the extra effort put in by the children and their parents between the 23rd and the 30th.  A lot more children were comfortable with their parts, or even had their parts memorized.  Even though some children were sick, we had a few others we haven't seen in awhile, and then all had their parts.  Like everyone had been telling me, it went off just fine.  They sang, even a few who I never see singing. :)  The most memorable for me were Penny standing up and running off her part memorized oh-so-fast and Trysten singing Scripture Power.  Trysten is a sunbeam, but he sure knew Scripture POWER!  It made everyone smile, and probably woke the congregation ;)  After sacrament meeting, I told him he did a good job, and he tells me, "I was loud."  LoL Trysten.  Yes, yes you were :)

Even though I was the one to "put on" the program and everyone was congratulating me and telling me it went well, I couldn't help but think, I'm not the one who deserves all of this credit.  There were lots of kids up there who worked hard, plus leaders and parents who helped them learn their parts and the songs.  For all of them, I'm very grateful.  Without all of their efforts, the program wouldn't have gone nearly as well.

I enjoy alliteration.  Can you tell? :)

Halloween weekend was packed with stuff to do.  Not only that, but I sewed costumes for me and Mocha! (As a side note, witch hats suck and I fail at sewing without a pattern :))  Unfortunately, my sewing machine stopped working appropriately.  Fortunately, I have an awesome mother-in-law who let me use her machine :)

I decided Mocha would make a cute witch, but I didn't like a lot of the dog costumes for sale, and then I really didn't want to buy one either :)  I bought some fabric and made her a little hat and cape.  I finished on Sunday, the 16th, and just had to put it on her to see how it looked :)

Since I had taken Oct. 8th off for the temple groundbreaking, I thought it would be a perfect day to host a little Halloween get-together.  I, of course, procrastinated my food preparations, so I didn't make all of the cute treats I had wanted, but there was plenty anyway :)

Yesterday (do you love how I always blog about what I was thankful for the day before? It happens when you get home around 10pm every night :p)

Right, so yesterday as I was driving to work, I was naturally a little late.  However, I was grateful for good timing, or my good fortune anyway, to avoid two things that would have further slowed me down.  As I pulled into the left-hand lane to pass someone, I noticed a cop car behind them, driving down both lanes.  I hate it when the cops slow traffic way down.  They usually don't even let you go the posted speed limit! (Which was 65 turned 55 due to construction.)  I was so happy I was two cars in front of him - one, because I didn't have to get slowed down, and two, because I could drive a little faster than 55 thanks to the car I passed blocking me from the cop's view ;)

Next, at Spanish Fork, there was an oversize load truck getting on the freeway with its two escort vehicles.  Those are annoying because they take up two lanes so you have to get to where it is three lanes just to pass!  However, timing worked out again to where I drove past just as the first escort vehicle was getting to the freeway.  Woot! Yay for good timing so I didn't end up even later to work :)

Can I just say I'm thankful for Fridays? :)  This week went by so fast!  Perhaps it had something to do with only working 6 hours on Monday, and doing that from home.