One Year

Today I am VERY grateful for my husband Steven.

Right now Steven and I are cuddling on our cozy couch watching the BYU football game. A year ago at this exact time we were in California at our wedding reception. Can you believe it has been one year?! I sure can't. It has been so fun today to reflect on the past year and everything we have gone through. We have definitely had some tough times but of course I am grateful for those too because they have gotten us that much closer to where we want to be. Sometimes it is hard to remember that "this too shall pass" and that of course we are not going to be perfect. I see all these older people in our ward who talk about how loving and considerate their spouse is and how great their marriage is. Then I remember that they have had 30, 40, even 50 years to work on it!

I am so thankful for marriage and the opportunities it gives us to grow as individuals and as couples. What a wonderful blessing!

Steven is so sweet. My most favorites thing about him is that I know he loves me. He knows how to show it and I am so thankful for that! He is also the funniest guy I know and really knows how to make me laugh. He does some of the funniest things that I have ever seen/heard.

I found this amazing quote about marriage from a talk called "Eternal Marriage" by F Burton Howard. I really want to print this out and display it in our home to remind us daily of how important marriage is. Read the talk too, it is awesome. Enjoy!

Happy one-year anniversary honey!!

Happy 11/11/11!

Cool day, huh?

Naturally, today I am very thankful  for our veterans. It is my personal opinion and hope that we can remember our veterans more often than just on Veteran's Day. The sacrifice that our veterans and their families make to fight for our country is truly amazing and not enough thanks could ever be given to repay them. Back home in Rancho Cucamonga, my Dad has held and event for the past few years where people can come to honor veterans that they know. Each person would get a colored lighted balloon to represent a veteran. These balloons would all be let off at the same time in a beautiful display of love and remembrance for our veterans. I never had the opportunity to actually attend one of these events because I lived in Idaho or Provo but I know they were a great tribute to our veterans and I am so grateful that my Dad has always taught us about the sacrifice of these amazing men and women. Here is a picture from one of the events ( Great shirt, Dad!)

I also want to pay tribute to a soldier from Rancho Cucamonga who was killed in Afghanistan by a roadside bomb. His name was Sgt. Carlo Francisco Eugenio. His body was returned to California last night. Hearing about a story so close to home and thinking about how this young man was just a few years older than I am really makes me recognize the huge sacrifice.

I want to say thank you to Sgt. Eugenio and all of the other servicemen and women who have boldly served our country and for all of the families who support their loved ones in their service.

Oops Again

Wow, I am not doing so well at this daily writing thing this time around! Not sure how I let almost 3 days pass without writing!

Today I am thankful for health! I have been a little under the weather the past few days and whenever that happens it always make me thankful for the times that I actually feel good and have energy! The body is an amazing thing that I take for granted way too often. I am going to make a better effort to be grateful for my body and my health and to strive to take care of it!

 I will start after the holidays..... :)

My ward!

Today I am thankful for my ward! Steven and I live in a great neighborhood full of some really amazing people. Some of the older people in our ward have lived here since the homes were built in the early 1950's! I love learning from these great ward members and hearing their stories from the early days of the neighborhood. It is so cool to see them and to hear them talk about how they raised their families in this area and to think that one day that will be me. There is not a fast and testimony meeting that goes by without at least one person standing up and talking about how wonderful this ward is. I am so thankful that Steven and I were able to move here and that things happened so smoothly. There are some other newly wed couples who have moved in since we did and I am so thankful for them and I hope that we can develop some really strong friendships while we are here!

I am not sure how long we will be here, but I want to take advantage of the wonderful ward while we can!

Oh, also...it only takes us about 45 seconds to walk from our front door to the door to the ward building..so awesome! And yet we still get there 2-5 minutes late every week! I think it is because it is so close that we don't ever feel rushed to get there....anyways I didn't mean for this to turn into a confessional! So thankful for our ward!

:)

Snow

Today I am thankful for the beautiful snow that fell last night and this morning. Please notice that I specifically mentioned the snow that fell last night and this morning and not snow in general. The snow that fell last night and this morning has my love and thankful feelings because it did what I wish all snow would do...it didn't stick on the roads or sidewalks!! You see, because it is only November 5 and the ground is still warm so the snow didn't stick or freeze. I wish all snow falls could be like this! Having to drive on slushy or icy roads is the ONLY reason I don't like when it snows! This morning we slept in (favorite) and then woke up to a winter wonderland! So beautiful! I love how peaceful the world looks when it snows. It looks like nothing bad could be going on; that everyone is making a warm breakfast and spending time with their family. That all the kids are playing the snow-sledding and making snowmen, etc. I know this is not the case, but I can pretend, right?

Oops, I skipped a day....

I forgot to write yesterday due to my new goal of not getting on the computer after work. I am online all day at work and then I would go home and spend at least 1-2 hrs online at home?! Come on! So I made a goal and last night I didn't go on and therefore I forgot to blog. Wait- I did get online....but it was on our Ipad and only to watch Modern Family and Up All Night on nbc.com.. Dang it.

Anyways, today and yesterday I am thankful for our car. I have complained about it recently because I really miss my old car (it got totaled in the summer by a careless neighbor who we have forgiven :) My old car was cute and could hold a lot of stuff and all the scratches and scrapes on it could be attributed to a great story! Our new (used of course) car is not as cute and it makes funny noises in the dash board. But at least we have a car! At least our neighbor's insurance paid us enough to buy a new one! What would we do without it?

United Way of Salt Lake

Today I am grateful for my job! (1) that I even have a job and (2) that I have the job that I do. I somehow got really lucky and got hired by United Way of Salt Lake very soon after I graduated last August. It was a struggle at first to transition from being a student to working full time but it has been very rewarding. I love the people I work with and the opportunities that working at United Way has provided for me! AND they even announced today that we are moving to a new office building with WINDOWS!! (we are currently located in the basement of a building). So awesome! I am so thankful that I am employed and can earn money for my husband and I to live off of! Such a blessing!

Happy November!

Can we officially call it The Holiday Season now?! Just 24 days till Thanksgiving! I absolutely love this time of year and this year has been especially fun being married and all! Last night was my first Halloween being married and having our own place to hand out candy to trick-or-treaters! We carved pumpkins and decorated our front porch with cobwebs, a black light, and a cute Halloween wreath made by yours truly! (I actually made something from Pinterest!) I also bought a HUGE bag of candy and only like 10 kids came to our house! Come on! I literally have a whole bowl full of candy left! That was the only let down of the night. Steven and I had soup in those cute little pumpkin shaped bread bowls and I roasted the pumpkin seeds (yum!) We caught up with the Halloween episodes of our favorite TV shows and then told scary stories in our cozy bed :) Tonight I will take down the Halloween decorations and put up my Thanksgiving ones (thank you Hobby Lobby!)

In addition, I have made a goal to write about something I am thankful for on my blog every day in November. I did this two years ago and it was really fun.

Today, I am very thankful for lds.org. On Sunday for our combined Priesthood and Relief Society meeting, we had the director of lds.org come and speak to us about the website and all of its amazing features. I was already someone who visited lds.org at least 5 times a week but his presentation made me even more excited about everything it has to offer! The Church has given us access to so many wonderful things. We could even read the General Conference talks just a few days later! Lds.org has made it so easy for church members to prepare lessons, talks, Family Home Evenings, etc. It has also made it super easy to share the gospel! We have access to thousands of talks, articles, videos, etc. that we can link to blogs, Facebook, and Pinterest. We can also read the scriptures online from our computers, tablets, or phones! So amazing when you really sit and think about it!