Well I had a slightly busy weekend getting ready for the Millie to open this week, but I'm back. Although it was a busy weekend it was still a pretty good one. Saturday night Chase and I went to see Cali's, Chase's sister of sorts, high school production of Children of Eden. Cali was fantastic and some of the leads had great voices, but as a whole the production was just fun to watch. At one point a girl's 6 inch high heel shoe was kicked off her foot onto the front of the stage, she continued the rest of the number lop-sided and left the stage without her shoe. The shoe then sat at the front of the stage for a good 25 minutes until finally one of the characters picked it up, Chase and I were so relieved until she threw the shoe at some ensemble members on the stage instead of throwing it off stage. It crashed onto the stage with a few thumps and we sat in the back of the theater doing our best to stifle our laughter. It really was a great time and I am so proud of Cali, she has been working so hard and progressed so well in her talents, she is such a role model for working for what you want.
Then yesterday was mostly spent with a giant headache... I spent most of the day lying in my dark bedroom watching television shows on Hulu. It turned out to be relaxing and truly fun, plus I found two new shows to watch, one of which I have completely fallen in love with.
Today I am grateful for television shows streaming online that I can watch at my leisure. In this case I am extremely grateful for the new show Grimm... It is truly amazing, like CSI meets the X-Files, meets the old Brother's Grimm fairy Tales. It truly is a great show everyone should watch!
I am also grateful today for a wonderful sister who is on top of my family and getting things done that we want to do! Thanks to her I get to see Wicked in March and also may get to go to Disneyland with her and her kids for Spring Break!! YAY!! I am so excited!
Today is a wonderfully sunny day outside and it has been a great day so far! Last night was my niece Emmy's birthday and I got to speak to her on the phone. She was so excited about school and her presents and kept asking when I was going to be able to come visit her and her new little brother. It made me miss her so much! But also realize how grateful I am for all of my nieces and nephews, they are some of the cutest kids I know! I love them all... even the two who aren't in this picture.(Christian and Grace)
I am also grateful on this Veterans day for a brother and Grandfather who served our country! My uncle posted a few pictures of my grandpa, his fellow soldiers, and his plane on facebook today that I had never seen. So I thought I'd post them here... My grandpa is a pretty good looking guy ;)
And then of course a picture of my brother looking fantastic in his uniform on my wedding day! I am so proud of him!
Today I was sitting in my car driving to work trying hard to push my bad attitude back down from where it had begun welling up in my throat. It was quite difficult, but I kept a smile on my face and tried hard to not let it grow. And even now as I sit here writing this I feel it sitting right at the bottom of my throat waiting for the chance to creep up... Waiting for my fingers to slip up and start complaining about everything that's been going on, in detail. But here is my resistance. I am stopping this intro and just going to quickly write the things I am grateful for today before I give in and start writing some unpleasant things. So here it goes...
Today I am grateful for my Mother's Apple Crisp Crust recipe. I made some on Sunday night and it has definitely made this week a little more bearable. It is so delicious and taste like Christmas in my mouth!
The second thing I am grateful for today is Thanksgiving only being two weeks away!! Now I know a lot of people get so excited for Christmas that they tend to skip right over Thanksgiving, which is fine for them, but I love Thanksgiving! Don't get my wrong I love Christmas too, but I love Christmas after Thanksgiving is over ;) So anyway I am just so excited for Thanksgiving, and that I am married this year, which means I get to have two full Thanksgiving meals!! SWEET!!!
I don't want to sound like a complainer.... but man every day of this little challenge seems to be getting harder and harder, I'm hoping one day soon it might just let up, even just a little.
Last night my family had a scary couple of hours involving health problems and a trip to the ER, not for me though ;). Then this morning I awoke to a broken car that wouldn't start making me over half-an-hour late for work. Luckily a dear friend of mine was at my house this morning and kind enough to give me a ride to my parents home where I was able to borrow one of their spare cars. It was a stressful day, but I was granted some tender mercies along the way.
Today I am grateful for a few things. Most of all I am grateful for my Mother. She is a wonderful woman who loves her family SO much. I think if she could sit in her house and be surrounded by her family constantly she would be the happiest person on the planet. She always pushed me to be the best I could be, and she made me responsible for my choices and I learn to appreciate that more and more everyday. She truly is the best mom and all of her family love her so much.
Today I am also grateful for my dear friend Matty. He is always so loving and concerned for Chase and I. He is always willing to lending a helping hand or a listening ear. And somehow he is always just there when he is needed the most. Thanks for the ride this morning Matty!!
Today I am also grateful that my parents have extra cars lying around their house that I can borrow one for a couple hours today!
And last of all I am grateful for the movie Easy A, and in particular Stanely Tucci's performance in this movie. Hilarious! It always makes me laugh, without fail!!
This morning was a little rough... I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to keep my new goal of having a good attitude. It seemed as if an outside force was working hard to keep me from being happy today.
Today I realized something small and something big I'm grateful for.
The first thing I am grateful for is something I stupidly forgot to add to my blog yesterday. I am so grateful for my family. They are always there for me, wanting the best, pushing me when they know I need it but may not want it. I truly am SO grateful for them.
The second thing that I am grateful for is those wonderful T.V. moments. Those moments when the two people you know are meant to be together finally get it... The moment you've been waiting years to finally see happen... Moments like these...
Of course I couldn't forget my own moment ;) The best of them all!!
They other day I sat in my desk chair at the office thinking to myself, "Why when it rains does it always pour, and why when the sun is out it's always shinning? Why can't it ever be a drizzle when it rains or be a little cloudy on a sunny day?"
Now I wasn't thinking about the literal rain and sunshine, but rather the metaphorical sense, like when bad things happen it seems like everything bad happens, or good things happen all at once.
The reason I was thinking about this was that I seem to having the worst couple of weeks, filled with drama, ridiculous amounts of school work, and physical problems; one of which included a friend singing "God help the Outcast" to me every few minutes.
As I sat thinking about everything that has occurred over the last two weeks was when this thought popped into my head. It seemed like life would be so much easier if everything didn't come at once, if things could just spread themselves out over a period of time.
As I sat there thinking about this I was reminded of one of my favorite books The Giver by Lois Lowry. This book, for those of you who haven't ever read it, is one of those futuristic societies where everything in in control, life is black and white, and there is no sadness or depression, but there is also no extreme happiness, everyone just is. When you start to feel sad you take a pill, when you enter puberty and start to have, what the book refers to as "sturrings", when you begin to have your sturrings you have to start taking a pill every morning to rid you of those feelings. There is a committee of Elders that watch you from birth to see what your interests are and when you turn 12 they place in training for your life long job.
I was reminded without those hard times there can be no great times! And then we would be stuck in a world of everything just being mediocre. Is that what I want?! Absolutely not! If we want those wonderful times we have to know what its like to have hard times. We learn and grow closer to the people around us and the Gospel when we have trials. Sometimes its hard, but its always worth it.
After I realized this I decided I wanted to have a better attitude about life. So starting today I'm going to try that. I was discussing this with a friend this morning and she said that she recently decided to do the same thing. She has a journal that she is trying to write in everyday, at least one thing she is grateful for. So I am going to follow her example. So here is my first day.
The number one thing I am grateful for are fantastic friends who stick by my husband and I no matter what. I have truly learned the people that I can lean on in hard times, and who my fair weather friends might be. I love them all, but am especially grateful for the ones who are always there.
And second of all today I am grateful for Disney. Their music, the firework shows, the theme parks! all of it!! This video is what helped me make it through today with a good attitude!
