I promise I haven't fallen off the Thankfulness Bandwagon - it's just I was busy enjoying my time and less concerned with blogging about it.  Hopefully in the next few days I'll get a real post up and fill you in :)

Until then, I hope you all had a marvelous Thanksgiving and are enjoying the Christmas spirit - I know I am!

Today, I'm thankful for fingernails.  Actually, my thumbnails to be more precise.  They are such awesome little built-in tools!  I decided to have an orange today.  Usually I make Matt peel for me, but I decided to be a big girl and do it myself.  My thumbnail made an awesome little knife to dig into the skin.  They were also useful for prying the skin off of the tasty fruit inside.  Once all of the peel was off, my nails also did a wonderful job scoring the sections of orange so I could actually open it up and divide it into segments.  Yay for tasty oranges - and for my built-in tools :)

Yeah, I know I didn't post yesterday.  That's okay because I'm posting now! :)

Yesterday, because of the workload with the holiday, I ended up working 2 to 10 instead of my usual 1 to 9.  I used (most of) my time wisely.  I was so productive yesterday morning!  After taking care of the animals, I unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher - it was a necessity since Matt actually cooked dinner last night :)

Then, I worked on sorting and putting away the kids books that are still strewn about the office floor.  Thanks to my husband, a dog, and a cat, the piles they were in were much less pile-y, so I had to go through everything again.  I'm still not done, but you can navigate around the pils again.

I may not always (like rarely) use my time wisely, but I did enjoy the extra hour to really make some headway on the book situation.

Also, because I went to work later, I got to hang out with Matt, who only worked for a few hours because of the holiday.  It was nice.  We walked Mocha together before I left for work :)

I'm so thankful to have our pets.  When I'm home alone, it's not so scary because I'm not really alone. :)  Besides, now with four of them, they force me out of bed in the morning ;)

Cinco and I don't always get along, which makes me sad because I'm a cat person. (Maybe it has something to do with living 6 months in a garage in the winter? hmm...) But he has gotten better about not attacking me always, and even letting me pet him more often now :)  Granted, this is thanks to our getting Mocha.  The cat now has someone else to pick on...

I am also finding myself spending lots more time with Mocha.  Granted, part of that is she demands it, but I also enjoy how excited she is to see us and how she always wants to play.  She feels the need to be involved in everything we do - which is quite different than the cat or the birds.  For not being a dog person, I sure love our little pup.  Yesterday, I was parked in front of our window, and as I pulled out to go to work, there was a little puppy face watching me leave.  She has done this with Matt leaving too.  It's so cute.

Let us not forget our little birdies though, either.  Bethesda is such a silly girl.  In the mornings, before she has been fed, she hops around in that corner to let us know she's ready for new food.  She also sits in her food dish to eat most of the time.  (It's easier to dig through to find the seeds she wants that way.)  It's fun because the food dish is clear, so we can see her inside her dish.  She also gets poofed up (which is normal if a bird is chilly or sleepy), but when she does it, she's this little ball of feathers. lol

Turkleton is a loud mouth.  He loves to hang out with Bethesda all day.  However, he also is getting better at being social with us somewhat too.  He loves it when we take him in the shower.  Granted, that could be because lately he has been molting.  I think the warm water helps break down the casings on the pin feathers, which probably feels a lot better than having them poke him :)  He'll also give kisses, and he will sit and chatter to himself.  He likes to talk to his reflection in the mirror and try to preen it.  He also will bob his head when he's looking in the mirror.  Silly bird :) Today, Matt had eaten an orange, and he had Turk on his hand.  Turk went to town attacking his thumb.  It was funny.  He won't actually try an orange, though.  The pieces are too big and intimidating for him.


I love our furry and feathery babies, and I'm so glad they are a part of our family.  Well, most of the time.  Not so much when the cat throws up on my lambskin rug. (Yeah, that happened :\)  I'm so glad we live in our very own house where we can have them, too.  They keep us company and share their love for us.  It's nice to be needed lol.

One of my cousins on my Dad's side, Ashlee, is getting married in January.  Ashlee is younger than I am, but it's still exciting to have another wedding coming up :)  I haven't met her fiance, but he sounds like a wonderful addition to the family :)  I had to stop at Bed, Bath, & Beyond to get Ashlee's gift.  

Sundays are good days.  We had another Christmas Party Committee meeting this morning. The story idea is in - but Santa is still out.  Now I just need to see if we have a Christmas tree at the church that won't be decorated in the foyer... oh, and to make large ornaments for the different symbols.  And finish looking at songs to possibly incorporate.  Okay, we have lots to do, but I'm super excited still.

Sharing time went really well today.  I just followed the outline, but it was really fun.  We've been learning about reverence.  The kids had to shut their eyes and hold really still to see if they could hear a pin drop.  They did so well :)  Then we learned about Moses and the burning bush.  

The really fun part was when we put up six pictures on the board.  They had to study them, and then we put up a blanket and I took one away.  When they told me which picture was missing, we talked about how we can show reverence for that place, thing, etcetera.  It was really fun because the kids were so involved.  They had to tell me which picture was missing, and then come up with ideas on how they could be reverent in that particular situation.  They came up with some really good ideas.  And really, that's how it should be, the kids thinking for themselves and putting the pieces together.  For example, we can show reverence for our families by being nice.  Yeah, I didn't prompt that one, I promise.  We can show reverence at a baptism by not jumping in the font lol.  I loved it.  But they're making connections!  Not that I think they'd have a lot of opportunity to do that unless it was their baptism, but it is a good way to be reverent :) (That was junior primary :))  

Honestly, I love my calling, and I love our kids.  They all did pretty well today in sharing time and singing time.  In junior primary, I sat with the CTR 5 class during singing time (which are the kids Matt and I taught).  One of their teachers had a family emergency, so she wasn't there.  It was nice to sit with them and get loves :)  In senior primary, one of our boys struggles a little.  I don't really know the full story, but he usually sits with his teacher secluded from the group.  At the beginning of singing time, he wandered over to play with the magnets on the board.  Even though I don't know what's going on with him, I can just wrap my arms around him and give him love.  It's amazing how well people (not just kids) respond to feeling loved.  I love sharing that with them.  And I love how willing these kids are to show love back.  I love all the hugs I get from these cute kids.  I left church on such a high. :) Really, that's probably the way it should always be :)

Sundays are also nice because (aside from not having to work - woot!) we usually spend time with family.  After church, we went to my parents' for a little bit.  I wanted to say hi before Dad goes into surgery tomorrow morning and they spend the week in Tremonton.  (I don't know if I've mentioned, but Dad has had surgery on his eye twice now - his retina keeps coming detached in different places.  And yes, this is a third place it has come detached.  The good news is, the places they've already reattached are staying put :))  It's kind of funny, we always saw my parents on Sundays because we'd go to their house to do laundry when we lived in Springville.  Once we got our own place (and their old washer and dryer), we didn't visit hardly ever.  We usually spend Sundays at Matt's parents'.  Since Dad and Gloria have been back from New Mexico, we've been visiting more often - I think we've showed up the last two or three Sundays :)  It's nice to have them close again.  Perhaps them moving to New Mexico was a good thing to help me realize I do need to put forth more effort to stay in touch with them and appreciate the opportunity I have currently to see them and talk to them often.  Also, the conversation seems to flow a little easier now.  Maybe it's just thanks to time, or maybe it was for the distance, but that makes it nicer too.

Today, we did go down to Matt's parents' for dinner too.  It's always fun to hang out with family and catch up on what's going on.  I really am blessed to have such a great family and such great in-laws.  I hear a lot about issues other people have with their in-laws, but I feel like I fit in.  I know I can count on them if we need something.  It was also nice while my parents were in New Mexico, to have my in-laws so readily available.  I'm so grateful for Larry and Carrie opening up their home and hearts to me and always being there for us to help with whatever we need.

I love my family so much, and I'm so glad that we have the opportunity to be together forever.

So, I'm posting my thankfulness right now, because I can :) So if I don't post tomorrow, this is totally counting.

Work = sucktastic (yes, I'm proud of myself for coming up with that, thankyouverymuch)

We got SUPER busy tonight and we were seriously drowning.  On top of that, Cebu was asking me LOTS of questions, which involve me calling my boss and then taking care of them.  This put me in a pretty sour mood.  Once it finally calmed down somewhat, I decided to take a break on FB - and DYAC had posted a link.  Oh my heart, I laughed so hard.  And that was super useful for lifting my mood :)  Now, I know a lot of them are dirty - but that's what makes it funny a lot of times.  And yay for laughing.  So I'm quite grateful for DYAC to help lift my spirits here at work :)

I'm also grateful for good examples at work.  In the midst of all of this, one of my Cebu editors mentioned a particular agent was struggling with a particular concept.  Thanks to my poor mood, I said I hated this agent already, and jokingly offered to drive up to Rexburg this weekend to take care of the situation ;)  My dear friend then says, "That's okay.  Maybe she's new to the project :)" Really? Talk about perspective and helping me stay positive.  Granted, we also had a good laugh about how she stays positive ("I just think of a happy place and rock back and forth ;)") lol Yay for friends and good examples. :)