thanks

ow we're nearing the end of the Thanksgiving season.

I know...not for two more days.  But this week is busy.  So I'm finishing this up now.

Here are my final thanks.

1.  The Gospel.  Always the Gospel.  For me, there's no point without it.

2.  My family.  All of them.  Especially Steve and Lily.  But definitely all of them.  It's big.  It's all over the place.  But it's a pretty good one.  Problems and all.  I'm grateful for the dysfunction that has been.  I feel like if a person hasn't ever had first-hand family dysfunction, there's a reality they'll never know.  I feel like it has a way of giving you a heart...giving you compassion.  I'm grateful that no matter what I've done, my parents have never made me feel inadequate.  I'm grateful that I've never felt that if I screwed up, I would be shunned by them.  I hope that as Lily is growing up, I never make her feel like she can't screw up too.

3.  Prayers.  Specifically, answered prayers.  Each answered prayer is a testimony to me that Heavenly Father cares.  Even insignificant things I want/need/want to know.  There's always an answer.  Sometimes it takes a very long time to get the answers.  But they always come.  And there's always a lesson in the waiting.

4.  Friends.  Friends here...friends not here.

5.  My home.  It's not big, nor fancy.  My yard is still dirt.  But it fits us.  And I feel peace here.  I've never lived anywhere this long.  "Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home."

6.  My able body.  There may be an excess of it, but it can do whatever I want it to.  I'm grateful for that energy and health that I enjoy.  I'm grateful for my fingers and toes and tastebuds.  Everything.  What our bodies can do is miraculous.

7.  Disney Channel, Nick Jr., PBS.  Seriously.  Oh, the sanity that has been saved because these channels exist.

8.  Skills.  Everything I've learned this year.  It's been awesome.  I've learned more practical life skills this year than all 15+ years of schooling.  Kudos to the blogosphere.

9.  Fire detectors.  I mean, really.  Have you thanked your fire detector today?

10.  Music.  I'm grateful I can play the piano.  I'm grateful my mom made me.  I'm grateful that in these fingers, I can make a song come out.

11.  Pillows.  I love pillows.  They make every stationary moment glorious.

12.  Mornings.  Okay, so I hate mornings...but I'm grateful that there's always a morning.  I always get to wake up again.  I always get to try again.  I always get a break from the crappy-yesterday and get to start over.  I always get another chance to not mess up.  I always get another chance to do whatever I want.  I always get another chance to enjoy all of the above.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

beginning to look a lot like Christmas

ily and I spent the morning at the Enchanted Forest in town.

It was a great morning.  Perfect mommy-daughter outing.

I love times like those. She was cooperative, even-tempered, and well-mannered.

First, we saw the trees...the "forest."  They had THE most awesome Dr. Suess tree.  Friggin' upside-down.

The picture does not do it justice.  Kudos to whoever it was who made it.

My favorite, other than the Dr. Suess tree, was this one.   

It was perfectly Christmas.

I'm very grateful for this woman who read story after Christmas story for the kids.  She is patient.  Oh, so patient.  No matter how much noise there was, she just kept on reading.  And she seemed to genuinely enjoy it.  I wish I could be more like that. 

Lily was in heaven.  She loves reading...sat there for an entire hour.

Until...

Santa came!

Lily was all jazzed up to see him, but ultimately preferred to sit on Mrs. Claus' lap.

Good job, Roosevelt.  Ya done good.

toasty

y warm home and cozy winter pajamas.  Always grateful to be blessed with these.

love to see

ot a day goes by that I'm not thankful to have been born into the church.  I often wonder why I'm that lucky.

I would shrivel up and die without knowing the things I know and being able to do the things I get to do.

I'm glad I do not have a void where something should be.

I'm glad to know exactly what the point of existing is all about.

I'm glad to know what's expected of me and that I have unlimited access to the ultimate instruction book.

I'm glad to know there's an instant connection at any given moment to that High Power whenever I need strength that I don't have.

I'm VERY glad to know that Someone knows exactly how I feel.

I'm glad to know it will all be worth it.

I'm glad to have a built in support system no matter where I go.

I'm glad I get to be part of the most awesome church on the face of the planet.

And I'm glad to have somewhere to go to get completely away from the stank that is in this world.

Especially today.

I'm grateful for what goes on in them.

I'm grateful for the serene feeling that comes from just being on the grounds.

 I'm grateful for their beauty.

I'm grateful for their welcoming way.

And I'm grateful that there is something sacred on this earth, that will always remain sacred.

stockpile

oliday sales are in full swing.

All the good stuff is finally going cheap for the next month and a half.

I'm on a little bit of a cheap-skate high cuz I just went shopping and got some awesome deals.

I'm thankful for the holidays at the grocery store because we get to eat large and luxurious on a skimpy and bland budget!

"oh, say can you see, my eyes if you can..."

etting a haircut makes me happy.  It's renewing.  I don't know why, really.

Hasn't it always been that way?

I think doing stuff to our--women--hair is our way of having a little control in a world gone awry.

"Okay, that jerk broke up with me?!  So what?!  Choppin' off my hair!"

"Lost my job...no biggie.  Goin' brunette!"

"Gained 30 pounds?  Awesome.  Gonna go eat half a cheesecake...then I'll getta weave!"

It's a way of being able to change something when you can't change anything.

Ulcers may be forming, but gosh-darn-it, your hair's going to look super-fantastic!

So, with that, I say, I'm grateful for having a magical hair-cutting woman that makes my hair look just how I like it...

...Like the mane of a mustang.

Raw-hiiiyyde!  Ftshhh!

stinks

aving a hard time being grateful right now.

Bit of a pity party going on.

Take what you can get...

...Thank heaven for indoor plumbing...?

And a big fat phtphtphtphtpht to the universe.

:P~~~~~~~

rub-a-dub-dub-thanks-for-the-grub!

inner at other people's houses.

That's what I'm diggin' today.

Especially being a Sunday.

Food always tastes better when someone else makes it.  

white stuff

own it came.

Not very hard.  Not very much.  It didn't even stick...though it was coming down for two hours.

But still.  Down it came.  And I loved it.

The holiday season can't really begin until it snows.  It just doesn't feel right.  Which is strange, considering I spent the first twenty years of my life in a place where we were lucky to get below 65 degrees by Christmas.

Maybe that's why.  I have a subconscious need to make up for twenty years of white-less Christmases.

(Speaking of which, snow always puts me in the mood for White Christmas.  So, in it went into the VCR.  I can recite the whole movie.  I can.  Try me.)

I'm blessed to live in a cold, snowy place.

two-fer

got in late last night.  (Twelve thirty.  What will the neighbors think?!  Oh wait, my neighbor was there, too.)  So, I didn't get a chance to be grateful for something yesterday.

But being grateful daily is like taking birth control pills.  If you miss one day, you can just make it up the next day.  And so I shall.

Actually, I'm grateful for what I was doing.  Girls' night.  No children, no men, no interruptions, no thinking, no calorie-counting (as if there ever really is).  It was rejuvenating.

Yes, even in Roosevelt, Utah--population still under 10,000--it's possible to get out of the house and just be a girl.  Cuz girls just wanna have fun and be dancing queens. 

(This is totally how it was, too.  Only, there were a few more of us.  And we weren't dancing.  And there was no disco ball.  And we were in our pajamas.  But the idea is the same.  Inside, our souls were gettin' down with our bad childless/husband-less selves...Only very mellowly.)

I need more of those.

or today's bit-o-thankfulness, the award goes to TEXTING.  Yes, good old-fashioned text messaging.

For someone like me, who hates to talk on the phone, texting is the single best form of communication ever.  I get to say or ask what I need, and then I'm done.  Ahh, I do love it.

Besides, I'm much more interesting in print than I am in real time.  

Some will say, "It's so impersonal."

I say, "And...?"

I must give an honorable mention to email.  My second favorite way of communicating.

Just think, in ten years, none of us will ever have to actually say a word to each other.