LUCKY ME!!!

This post is not meant to brag, I'm simply taking time to focus on the good things in my life! I know each and every one of us can choose to either focus on the good and positive, or to dwell on the negative and dramatic. I do have to say though, that at times in my life when I have been very down, it has been difficult to "choose" to see the good, and I'm very sorry if any of my friends or family are feeling that way at this time. If there is anyone out there who is feeling down (or outright depressed) know that I've been there and actually more people than we know have been there, and we can all relate. You are not alone in your struggles. I don't know why I felt I needed to write all that, after all, this is my "thankful" post. I just know that at times in my life I have felt alone and hopeless, and I have always had a soft spot in my heart for anyone who feels depressed, sad, low self-esteem, whatever. Okay! Enough of that! Here are some things that make me feel so LUCKY!

-I am alive! And I feel safe...many people don't. That is something to be grateful for.

-I have a family. This is a biggie. I'll have to break it down a little:

Husband: Having Ben for a husband makes me feel so lucky. I have recently been going through some big, unorganized bins of his life that turned up in storage. Included in these bins are highschool stuff, mission stuff, and every thing in between all mish mashed together in complete disorder! So I being the lucky one who organized it all was able to take a trip back in time and read some old letters that he and I had written to each other. I read one of my first letters to him, which stated something along the lines of "I'm just going to say it...I think I love you." His letters to me are so sweet and the best part is it helped me realize that he hasn't changed in how sweet he is. I highly recommend reading old love letters to help remember how it all started! I'm also grateful that he is so talented. Not only does he get up early every morning and go to work (a feat in an of itself!) but he takes time to ocassionally make us beautiful pieces of furniture, the latest being a georgeous new bed for Riley. I will post pictures of all the wonderful things he's built soon. It's not like he enjoys staying late to work to make these things, but he does it because he loves us.

Riley: How do I start? His personality has brought so much adventure to our lives! He definately tests us with his stubborness and willfullness, but I would gladly take that ten times over just to have him in our lives because he gives my life such meaning! I can't count how many times he makes us laugh, and usually it's when he is trying to be serious and tell us something REALLY serious. We both just have to turn away and hide while we laugh, and try to compose ourselves before we turn back around. He has been saying the funniest things lately. Ben was trying to take his gold fish crackers the other day, and that ticked Riley off so he said "Daddy! EVER don't you take my golfish away!" He really has not figured out yet that he is the child and we are the parents. He can often be heard saying "Don't you talk to me like that!" or "Mommy, do you need to go potty?" We love him so much. The only thing that bugs me lately is that he won't let me hold him as long as I want. I have to pin him down to kiss him over and over, and he only puts up with that for a few seconds. I don't know how to put into words how much I love Riley!

Baby: Boy or girl? I'm thankful for technology that will allow us to soon know what we are having (Dec 9th!!!!). Just the fact that I was able to get pregnant is a huge blessing. I know the heartache that goes along with struggling to get pregnant, although not to the extent of some I know and love. I wish so much for the same blessing to come to those who want it so badly. This time around I am SO much more excited because I know what to expect, and I now know how much you love your child. Ben and I absolutey can't wait! If it's a girl we are naming her Lafonda Shananae. If it's a boy it will be Harry Lloyd.

Other Family: I hope everyone knows that I was joking about the baby names. Family has become so much more important to me over the last several years. Of course they have always been important, but my appreciation for them has increased. I can't imagine moving far away where we wouldn't have the benefit of family. Even though my mom lives five hours away, I talk to her all the time on the phone and she is someone that I can tell anything too. Whenever I go on walks, I take my phone and call my mom. Although I'm getting more and more out of breath on these walks, and she's probably sick of hearing me huffing and puffing! I have a brother, Chris, who lives in Washington. I hope someday that he can move closer. That would be the icing on the cake! Okay, moving on from family.

-I have a place to live. It's a place that Ben and I have put a lot of work into and have made into an environment we love. We dream of having more space someday, but we are so lucky to have what we have.

-I can buy groceries. Food is pretty expensive at times, but we always have enough food and plenty of extra. That makes us extremely lucky.

-Ben has a job, and he is good at it. Who's to say what could happen in the future....we see people getting laid off all around us. But for now Ben's company is doing great and Ben is a valuable employee. I'm grateful that he is such a good worker and has made himself an important part of the team.

-I have had the opportunity to go to school...AND I'M ALMOST DONE! In fact today I just finished my last paper, and that feels SO good. I'm so happy that I picked a field that pretty much guarantees me a job, and these days that is good news. But more importantly I am excited to be a Nurse, and have the opportunity to learn and grow.

-I'm grateful to live in this country. I'm grateful to live during such a momentous time, when amazing changes are happening. True there is a lot of bad news these days, but focusing on that is depressing! I'd rather focus on the good and there is still plenty of that.

-Our car is fixed! For a long time it shook very bad, to the point of being dangerous. But we could not figure out what the problem was and spent a good amount of money trying to solve it. The other day Ben and his Dad (who I'm thankful for!) replaced a part and the problem is now fixed. That is a huge relief, as this is the car Ben drives to work and I worried that he would get in an accident.

Well, I'm sure I'll think of more later...but I've already been long winded with this. I really have been feeling very grateful lately, and not just because it's Thanksgiving. It's easy sometimes to forget that there is still so much good happening, and there is a LOT to look forward to. Of course the news doesn't often report what's positive...but if you look for it, you'll find it :)

Twilight Movie

I had the opportunity to go see the movie Twilight the other night with some friends. It was great to go out and do something fun like that! I liked the movie quite a bit, but didn't LOVE it. That doesn't mean I'm not excited for the next movie. During the movie there were some teenage girls sitting right behind us who would not shutup for the whole dang movie! It was constant talking and giggling and squealing and commenting ("Oh, he is SO hot!") I could not believe that some people (I don't care that they are teenagers, that's no excuse) are rude enough to act like they are the only ones in the whole theater! I turned around a couple of times and gave them nice long looks, but they didn't seem to get it. They probably just enjoyed the extra attention. Does anyone else have issues with noisy people in the theatre? What do you do? My mom just flat out tells them off or has them thrown out...I get nervous watching movies with her when someone is being noisy because I hate confrontation and I know she's about to put some giggling person in their place. Is it okay to just throw popcorn at them???? ANYWAYS, after the movie we went out to dinner and had a great time! It is so good to get out sometime and be carefree.

Happy Halloween!

Ben took Riley to a party the other night, and they had a duck pond that he loved.

They also had a apple bobbing bucket, and Riley was playing in that for a while. When Ben went out to check on him, he found a few half eaten apples on the ground, and also some of the apples still floating in the water had a bite taken out of them! Hmmm, I guess Riley was taste testing the apples for people.

Riley and Kortley didn't get to spend hardly any time together on Halloween, but we were able to get this picture (after some serious coaxing since Riley was playing hard to get, as usual). In case you can't tell, Riley is Mike Wozowski, or the one-eyed Mike from Monsters Inc. His hand is in a pouch in the front where he put all his candy. Kortley is a cute little witch! Riley took quite a while to warm up to anybody (except his uncle Sam) on Halloween. He seems to have "performance anxiety" and whenever people pay too much attention to him, he clams up (and sometimes freaks out!) I love his personality, but I do hope he eventually will react a little more sweetly to people who are just being friendly to him! But he is definately a riot, and when he lets his guard down he is SO much fun and very entertaining...as long as he doesn't know everyone is watching him :)

STUFF

So there's this little cat that hangs around our house sometimes, and he's REALLY friendly and has a real healthy sense of entitlement. This cat has several times darted into our house and casually walked around as if he belongs there. But you can see he's a fun cat, because he dove right into this pile of leaves with Riley.

We went last Sunday up the Nebo Loop and had a picnic. Riley was in heaven being up on the mountain. The only way we could get him back to the car was to pretend that a bear was chasing us!

I love this picture because they are making the same wierd face.

Eating our healthy lunch of cheez-its! Halloween pictures soon to come!