I am thankful that November is over and Christmas is coming!  I love Christmas!  Have I said that before?  I love the Christmas season…everyone is kinder and more friendly.  People smile and say “Merry Christmas” to each other.  I love it!

How could I not mention my favorite color?  I am thankful for pink.  It is feminine and soft and makes me feel pretty.  I love how I look in the color pink, and I love how I feel.  I love pink!

I am thankful for the Internet.  I can find just about anything on there.  There is so much information out there, and I love finding obscure facts.  I am pretty darn good at searching, and have found things in seconds what my mom or my boss had been looking for for hours.  When The Doctor was working on his Doctorate, he stayed home and did his research on the internet, instead of having to go to college libraries and spend hours there and pay for photocopies. 

I am thankful for scents.  There are so many scents that I love, and the memories that they invoke:

  • Baby powder and rubbing alcohol – this reminds me of my children when they were babies.
  • Sawdust – this reminds me of my dad getting wood in the summer for our fireplace.
  • Rain on the cement on a hot summer day – this reminds me of playing in the rain.
  • Cinnamon pinecones at Christmas time – this reminds me of Christmas!
  • Polo cologne – this reminds me of my hubby.

There are more, so many more!  I am thankful I can smell!

When you do the best you can, you can be at peace, and with the Lord’s spirit, you can feel content.

-John Bytheway.

I am thankful for Christmas decorations.  Now that Thanksgiving is over, I can put up my Christmas decorations.  I love the lights and figurines and symbols.  They make me feel so happy, and I love the spirit I feel in my home!

I am thankful that my children are involved in dance and musical theater (which is similar to show choir).  They have amazing teachers and they are loving it.  I am thankful to their teacher, who is willing to trade with me so I don’t have to pay $250/month for their tuition!  She is amazing!

I am thankful for Thanksgiving.  What a wonderful day to spend time with family and express our thanks out loud.  And I am thankful that we have enough food to eat, and more to spare.  Hope you had a wonderful day!

I am thankful for humor.  I love to laugh, and I love a good joke.  For instance:

How many Mormons does it take to change a light bulb? It depends!

If it is the Bishopric, forget it, they don't do light bulbs. They call a Priesthood Executive Council and delegate it to the Elders.

If it is the Elders, it takes four. Three that don't show up, and one to change the bulb.

If it is the High Priests, it takes four. Two to push the wheel chairs, one to handle the oxygen tank, and one to screw in the light bulb.

If it is the Relief Society it takes four. One to fix refreshments, one to bring the tablecloth, one to design the Center Piece, and one to screw in the light bulb.

If it is the Home Teachers, it only takes two, but you have to wait until the end of the month.

If it is the Primary, it takes twelve. Four Cub Scouts to do the job and pass off a requirement, one Den Leader to sign their books, three children to hold up pictures, one chorister to lead everyone in a song, two Primary Teachers to assist, and one Member of the Presidency to oversee the activity.

If it is the Young Men and Young Women, it only takes one. He/She holds the light bulb in the socket and the whole world revolves around him.

I am thankful for my parents.  Today is their 42 anniversary!  They have set such great examples for me and my children.  I can only hope my testimony is as strong as theirs someday.  I love you Mom and Dad!

I am thankful for blankets.  When I get chilled, all I have to do is pull a blanket over me.  And I have a lot of blankets.  In fact, we gave about 12 to Deseret Industries (D.I.) a few months ago, and every bedroom still has at least 2 on the bed and 2 in the closet.  I am so thankful that I don’t have to worry about being cold.

I am thankful for indoor plumbing.  Just think about for how many thousands of years, if you had to go to the bathroom, you had to go outside and go into a hole.  Or the rich people that had chamber pots (the stench!).  I was thinking about that the other day when I was sitting on the toilet and the wind was blowing and it was raining and pelting against the window.  I love indoor plumbing!

The stronger the wind, the stronger the tree.

I am thankful for our cars.  We have had some pretty crappy cars in the past, and I am thankful that we finally have reliable ones. Our cars get us where we need to go, and quite comfortably, thanks to air conditioning and heating.  I am thankful that I don’t have to depend on an animal to get me around. 

I am thankful for crafts.  I love making things to decorate my house, or to give away, or for scrapbooks.  It makes me feel good about myself, and when I walk by, I can say, “I made that!”  I am thankful that my husband supports my crafting and encourages it, even when I am spray painting real pumpkins!

I am thankful for my washer and dryer.  Think of how many years women had to do all their laundry by hand, scrubbing and wringing and hanging it to dry and ironing.  It was an all day event.  I can just throw a load in the washer and walk away, then come back 40 minutes later and throw it in the dryer and walk away, and it is done.  I am so thankful for that.  I am also thankful that I don’t have to go a laundromat to do the laundry!

I am thankful for medicine.  How would I get through sore backs and knees without acetaminophen and ibuprofen?  I would have never survived my shoulder pain this past summer without Percocet.  And let’s not forget the ever important Beconase and Flonase and Zyrtec.  I would be so miserable without them!

I am thankful for the country that I live in.  We are so blessed, and we don’t even realize how much.  I am thankful for all those who have served in the military, including my brother and my grandfather, fighting to keep our country free, and helping to bring freedom to others.  We are an amazing nation!

I am thankful for computers.  They are a huge blessing.  Especially in my work.  When I first started working, we were filing the majority of taxes by paper.  It was a time consuming process, not to mention all the paper we went through.  Now, it is all electronic.  I click a few buttons, send an email, and I’m done.  I don’t dread taxes like I used to. 

I am thankful for my family.  We are a pretty unique family.  We have always been close, and still are as adults.  We all live in this valley, and we get together every Fast Sunday for ice cream and good conversation.  We are sarcastic and snarky, but it’s all done in fun.  I love being around them. 

“Happily ever after” isn’t something that just happens … it is something that’s decided.

I am thankful for books.  I love to read.  It’s an escape.  When I am reading, I can shut the rest of the world out, including my children.  I am taken to worlds and lives other than mine.  And I can read the same books over and over, mainly because I read so fast, I miss information the first time around!  My mom worked hard to instill the love of reading in her children, and I have instilled in my children.  We all love to read.  When The Teenager goes on his mission, we are already planning on making his room the library, so I can get all my books out of the boxes in the garage and onto shelves!

I am thankful for music.  I love how music can affect my mood.  It can make me happy, sad, angry, excited, melancholy, reverent, joyful, etc.  Music can lift me up and heal me. 

I play music on Sunday’s to bring the Spirit into our house.  I play music at work to keep me awake.  I play music in the car to sing to.  I play music at Christmas to feel the joy of the season.

I LOVE music!

I am thankful for my digital camera.  When my boys were little, I didn’t take as many pictures as I would have liked, because film and developing cost a lot of money!  Now, I take tons of pictures (our one week vacation to California in 2010 resulted in 1,354 pictures!).  I even let my kids take the camera and have fun taking pictures, and they have taken some really cool ones.  Not to mention that I have the inside of my house documented well!

I am thankful for the seasons.

Spring is a renewal.  It brings hope that life goes on and things will grow again. 

Summer is fun.  Kids playing outside, popsicles, swimming pools, and late nights and late mornings.

Fall smells good.  It brings new school years and the start of fun holidays.

Winter brings calmness.  No outside work, just enjoying being inside.  And of course Christmas!

I am thankful for my job.  I only have to work at the office two days a week, and the rest of the time I get to work at home.  I have a wonderful boss who is flexible and understanding.  She has let me bring kids with me to work, and she has let me drive in and pick up work and bring it home when I had sick kids.  I am very fortunate!

I am thankful for the Gospel.  I cannot even imagine where my life would be without it. 

I am thankful for a Heavenly Father who loves me enough to be patient with me.  He guides me and helps me through trials.  He gave me His Son to atone for my sins.

I am thankful for my Savior, Jesus Christ.  He gave His life so I can return to my Heavenly Father. 

I am thankful for the knowledge of the plan of salvation, and the comfort it gives me. 

I am thankful for The Princess.

After 3 boys, it has been so much fun to have a girl.  She is all girl and loves to dress up and look pretty.  But she also loves to play in the dirt.  Her favorite thing in the spring when we are doing the garden is to find worms and name them and carry them around!

She loves to read.  She reads to me while I am doing her hair in the mornings.  It is so much fun. 

Choose to cope or choose to fall.

I am thankful for The Chocoholic. 

He is full of energy and loves to play games.  Even when he was little, he wanted to play board games all the time.  I am grateful that his little sister will play with him.  And it’s always fun when his aunt will come and play too.

When he was 3 years old, he came up to me and said he needed chocolate.  And he has loved chocolate/candy since then.  He loves Halloween and was very sad that this is his last year trick or treating.

I am thankful for The Artist.  He is his own person, and always has been.  He doesn’t care what people think of him.  He is who he is. 

He has many interests.  He loves art, Legos, playing the drums, science, piano, and doing flight simulators on the computer. 

For years, all he wanted to be when he grew up was an artist.  But in the last year, he has changed it on me.  He now wants to be an engineer for NASA.  He has discovered that he loves science!  He is so excited about it!

I am thankful for The Teenager.  He is an amazing young man.  He has struggled with a lot of things over the last 3 years and he has come out of it stronger and more mature.  He has learned, and is still learning, to recognize his weaknesses and when he is most vulnerable.  For instance:

Halloween night he was going to have a party.  He had invited his girlfriend, who was going to invite some of her friends.  He had also invited several (many) people from school.  We were a little perturbed at him because we had no idea how many people were coming.  Long story short, only 1 person showed up. 

Later on, he came downstairs and told us that he was really discouraged, and he knew that he needed to not be alone.  We turned on a funny show and had a great time with him.  I told him how proud I was of him for recognizing that and doing something about it. 

I am so excited to see what the rest of his life has in store for him.

I am thankful for my husband, who is working so hard for us.  There are many days that I am alone in the evenings, and this is why:

He teaches high school at 2 different schools two counties away from us, which means an hour commute each way. 

He also teaches online for BYU-Idaho, teaching 2 classes and being a teaching group leader.  So when he gets home from teaching high school all day, he sits down and grades all night. 

He also teaches occasionally for Argosy University, which is one night a week. 

And now he has started teaching drivers ed, which involves teaching after school and taking the students on drives. 

He does all this to take care of us and pay for the tings we need. He started the drivers ed to pay for The Teenager’s mission, which is coming up in less than a year.

I am so lucky to have him. 

A friend of mine made this and showed it off at a Pinterest party.  (If you don’t know what Pinterest is, have you been living under a rock?)  I thought it was a great idea!  Halloween night, while my boys were watching “Arachnophobia,” I decided to make one.  I already had a picture frame ready, I just used some cute ribbon I had lying around and used a staple gun to attach it.  I absolutely love how it turned out!

earring holder

I have read several blogs where they are going to list something they are thankful for everyday in November.  What a great idea!  I have done NaBloPoMo for several years.  It’s fun, but exhausting to blog every single day.  But telling you all what I am thankful for?  I can do that!

November 1 – I am thankful for Pinterest.  It is an amazing website, and I have gleaned many great ideas from it, including the earring holder and the painted pumpkins that I already blogged about.  I am thankful for the people who pin clean, uplifting, helpful, funny, and interesting things that have improved my life.