Gratitude Thoughts #13, 14, 15

We can't wait for Christmas!

We were gone for Thanksgiving so here are thoughts 13, 14, and 15.

#13: Even though I know we are polluting the earth every time we drive them, cars are really cool. We went down to St. George for Thanksgiving this week and I thought (as I always do while driving through most of Utah), how did the pioneers do it? A lot of Utah is desolate. Not a lot of rivers and most places don't naturally have leafy, green trees. We are so lucky to have cars so we can hurry through the rough parts!

#14: I have some amazing in-laws. I have some sisters-in-law who are so funny! They always make me laugh and feel at ease. Not everyone is so lucky. My brothers-in-law are pretty cool, too.

#15: Granola bars are a great invention. Not all of them are really much good nutritionally, but they are compact and taste good. Hopefully we're getting a little fiber when we eat them. Connor ate quite a few on our trip which made traveling in the car with him much easier.

Gratitude Thought #12

This one is an easy one. I had to go pick up some things at Target today and when I came out of the store the air was so foul I could hardly breathe. It made me realize how precious clean air is. I hate to think of our lungs having to take in all that filth. Hopefully a breeze will come up and blow all the gross stuff away.

Tiger couldn't be any more comfortable than he is right now!

Gratitude Thoughts #9, 10, 11

This is a picture of Sam dressed as Dr. Who for Halloween this year. No one knew who she was at school, but she still had fun.

Three gratitude thoughts is a lot for one post, but I'll give it a try.

#9- I'm thankful for Beyonce's song "If I Were a Boy". I'm not a Beyonce fan, but this song is really good. I'm not sure what is so great about it, but for now I'm listening to it a couple of times a day. It made cleaning my bedroom and bathroom a lot more fun!

#10- I'm thankful for treadmills. I hate to exercise and I hate to feel like people are watching me exercise, so a treadmill has done good things for my "exercise program" (the only thing this entails is walking at least 30 minutes 3 times a week). Hopefully I'm prolonging my life and health a little bit.

#11- Thank heavens for preschool teachers. Connor's teacher is a great teacher and he has learned a lot the past few months. His speech has gotten much clearer and his vocabulary has exploded. Without his little two year old preschool class, it would be much more difficult to get him to practice talking. I'm so glad there are people out there who enjoy working with little kids.

Gratitude Thought #8

I'm especially grateful today for my husband. He's not around a lot because he works full time plus a second job two nights a week. Whether you have a partner, a spouse, whatever, it makes life so much easier to know there is someone to help you when you need it, who loves you no matter how grouchy you are, and who cares what happens to you. When Eric is around, the rating score of my life goes up by five points at least!

What a sweet picture of a boy and his dad!

Gratitude Thought #7

Today Connor and I were walking home from dropping off our van to get new tires when Connor fell while running after a cat. He skinned his knees a little bit. This made me think that I am very grateful for skin. It is so amazing that we have this stuff that covers our bodies and can regenerate (most of the time) if it gets torn, cut, burnt....Skin is wonderful!

This is a picture of Ryan fishing up in the Uintas this summer. I'm pretty sure he let the fish go after the picture was taken.

Gratitude Thought #5 and 6

I missed yesterday, so here are two thoughts.

1- Friends are an important part of our lives. Without friends we wouldn't know what we were really like. Friends are able to tell us or show us how we're doing. Friends are people we can complain to and they won't think we're crazy.

2- Grocery stores are great. I can't imagine all the time and energy a woman of the 1800's had to put into keeping her family fed. It's so nice to go to one store and pick out so many different types of foods. I really like my grocery store, Smith's, because it's so close I can walk when I want to and the people that work there even know Connor's name.

The pictures are of Ethan riding Lizzie with some help from Uncle Brian. The other is the front of our house this last summer.

Gratitude Thougth #4

Today's gratitude thought is about older women. Now that I'm 35 I can really appreciate the women who have experienced all I have been through and even more. I got to talk to my grandma in Georgia today who has had cancer twice. She loves each day and I get the most positive feeling when I am around her. Also, I went visting teaching today to a woman who is in her 80's. I love to listen to her talk about when she had kids and how it really was basically the same for her as it is for me. These women are (to me anyway) largely untapped sources of advice, compassion, and life experience. Wow!!!

The picture is of my handsome boys on the first day of school 2008. Connor thinks he's going with Ryan and Ethan to school so he was very disappointed when they said goodbye that morning.

Gratitude Thought #3

This is a picture of Sam at my brother's wedding reception. Doesn't she look pretty?


Today's gratitude thought is sunshine. It's starting to be the time of year when sunshine can be scarce. But today it's beautiful. It's a good day to go outside and get some vitamin D!

Gratitude #2

My gratitude thought for today is family. Think how lonely we would be without each other. Each person brings something different to our family and I wouldn't change any of them.

This picture was taken at Disneyland. It was raining really hard!

Gratitude Thought #1

Gratitude #1
I am grateful for indoor plumbing! It's starting to get colder and I am very grateful that I don't have to go outside to use the bathroom. Also, I can't imagine having to clean out chamber pots when I hate cleaning a nice porcelain toilet. Hooray for toilets!

Isn't this a cute picture? Connor fell asleep at the foot of our bed while the big boys and I watched a TV show.