Thursday, April 18, 2013

Thankful Thursday

It has been forever and a half since I wrote a TT! But this is me actually following through with my commitment to blog more regularly! For all my new friends, let me catch you up. I started doing Thankful Thursday on my first blog and did it religiously for a couple of years. It is something that I used to look forward to all the time, and I still try to do it in my every day life now. Basically, just every Thursday, I wrote on my blog/journal/paper a few things I was thankful for that week. It always amazed me how over time (4 years) the things I was thankful for varied only minutely. There were weeks of course when I was more thankful for specific things or people, but for the most part, it always boils down to the same few things: family, the gospel, and friends/loved ones. These really are the most important things in life, in my opinion!

For as long as I can remember, Thursdays have always been my favorite day of the week. Once I started to implement Thankful Thursday, it just became that much better. I came to know that it's not just about being able to pick out a few things once a week, or even once a day, but to cultivate "An Attitude of Gratitude" as President Monson spoke about here. That talk changed my life. May we too, strive to make gratitude for our many blessings a constant in our lives- at all times and in all places. I truly believe that if everyone was able to nurture and grow an "Attitude of Gratitude," the world would just be an even more beautiful place.


1) Family
It really took me 2 years living away from my family to realize how much I love and appreciate them and how grateful I am for their presence, example, and  leadership in my life. I never realized how much my mom did for me before I moved out: breakfast ready for me every morning even though I hardly ate, packed me a great (nutritious) lunch daily, did all my laundry, paid for all my school and extra-curricular activities without ever batting an eye, supporting me in everything and anything I ever wanted to do growing up (and I did some very non-typical things growing up! ie: Wanting to change the world, travel abroad, start clubs, model, act, figure skating, cook all day..). She never told me "No" which could have and DOES backfire on probably 90% of parents, but somehow, I think I turned out pretty decent!

My brothers and sisters are just so amazing. My little brother and I would fight all the time, but now I find myself missing him and just wishing I could be there to see him through his extremely FULL and successful Senior year of high school. My nieces and nephews are just the light of my life and have grown up so much! I just admire how hard my siblings work to make the best life possible for their families and they are just the best parents ever! It makes me (kindof-not-really) want to have kids so all our kids can grow up together and go to the library, children's museum, parks, and throw birthday parties for their dolls.


2) Friends
As I brace myself for two of my three very best friends to leave on missions for a year and a half, I start crying almost daily because of how much I will miss them. Their example in my life has been a beacon and a shoulder, an open hug and an unbreakable bond. It has been absolutely priceless and irreplaceable. I envision my kids growing up with best friends who were so involved, had so much fun, got straight A's, were incredibly strong in the gospel, and to top it off, unbelievably talented and beautiful; however, I know it just isn't typical for all kids to be so lucky! I am a lucky one! My friends aren't perfect, but heck, they sure are close. I am so grateful for their love and friendship for the last 12+ years.

3) A place to live and God's answer to prayer
We've been looking for a place to live since January, and it has been a dead end hunt this entire  time. Everywhere we've inquired to has told us we're wayyy too early. As in, "call the week of you want to move and you'll have better luck." Do you think that boded well with littlemissplanner over here? Heck.No. So, it's been stressful to say the least. Everywhere we looked in our budget was less than half the size of our current apartment, and double the price! How does that work?? I thought we might even have to be subjected to living in a studio which, let's be real: I'd die (#wimp).

We got a call earlier this week from a place we put our name down for just in case, even though it was something we could afford, I just couldn't stomach forking over $200 more a month thank what we currently pay to live there, even though it had a dishwasher (my dream). But, we thought that the offer might not come again and the nightmares of  living in ONE ROOM or NO ROOM scared me enough to just take it. We paid the $140 deposit less than 20 minutes after they called because we just felt so pressured and rushed "We have 4 other people who are waiting for your response and if you don't get back to us within the hour you'll forfeit your chances of ever living here" (no pressure).

I just felt sick about it and both of us were grateful to have a place to live, but we didn't feel good about it (though I will admit I was secretly jumping up and down inside for the thought of having a dishwasher). They immediately sent us over about 30 pages of paperwork to fill out, and needed all this information from us including affidavits from each of us saying we were actually married and going to school, our employment and living history for the last three years, tax stuff, etc. etc. It was just so overwhelming and it took us a few hours and a lot of minutes on the phone trying to figure everything out that they wanted from us. While we were taking an extended lunch break at Brett's office just getting everything in by their deadline, feeling so stressed, I got an email from the housing we applied for close to campus in February!

The email came about 24 hours after we had accepted the offer and wanted us to pay $150 deposit to accept it. This time, we decided not to be quite so rash and called the office and asked them questions, looked it up online, and thought about it for a second. Of course, I felt so conflicted since we already paid the other deposit and we'd lose it if we didn't accept, but in the long run, this new place might be better... I of course made a venn-diagram of the pros and cons, and just decided that we needed to take this second option! So, we slept on it, and paid our deposit! Which leads me to...

4) God works in mysterious ways :)
I was sick thinking we'd lost the deposit from the first apartment, but today, Brett got an email saying that for some reason our routing number or something was wrong on the bank information we used, and they didn't pull anything from our account! $140 saved! woot woot! SO Grateful, as we could use every penny right now!


5) Life in General
It's a pretty busy life with both of us working and going to school almost 100 hours a week between the both of us, serving in our callings, moving to new jobs, a new house, a new school, and a new city, but I'm so grateful for the journey. We've been married for almost an entire year now, and the journey has just been awesome. Awesome in the literal sense of full of awe and wonder and amazement. It has definitely not been easy at times, but the good times outnumber the harder one a million to one. I'm especially grateful for the most loving husband a girl could have. Seriously, I'd say for the most part everyone wants to marry someone who can sing like an angel, testify at all times, be strong, be smart, talk, want to resolve conflict, know another language, was the football captain, lead in the school plays, musical, a born leader, and thinks of the cutest, most thoughtful gifts and ways to make me feel so special, and on top of that, is a hunk! ;) Well, I didn't have to look very far after I met Brett! I found my prince charming early in life and I'm so grateful for him. He is such an example to everyone around him and especially me.

 I'm so grateful we are where we are, that we got to experience life here in Southern Utah, and just enjoy living. I'm so grateful for the friendships and relationships I have, grateful that we've always had a meal to eat and been able to always pay our bills and still get to buy organic at the grocery store and occasionally go out for a nice treat or splurge. I'm so grateful for our health and the knowledge that I've gained about it and the foods we eat.

 I'm grateful we have been so blessed. I don't believe life will ever slow down until we're retired, so I feel bad ever complaining about being busy, especially since we're so blessed to be busy going to school getting educated, being busy because we have lots of success at work, and busy serving others and being with family and friends. It's a beautiful kind of busy!

I kindof had a bad day, and I already feel better. I promise that being grateful is what will cast out bitterness, anger, hatred, stress, or anything negative in your life! I guarantee it! What a beautiful blessing it is to recognize our blessings! Have a great weekend, friends! 

1 comment:

  1. This is beautiful. Those are truly the greatest blessings. :) Love you!

    ReplyDelete