and last but not least...

well, today is the last day of november. therefore, it's *technically* the last day of my month of gratitude. and to be quite honest, i can't think of the last thing i want to list for my month of gratitude. there are just so many things i can think of, i can't decide. so i'll just be grateful for life. i'm grateful to be alive, right here and right now. i'm grateful for having a family that i'm so close with. i'm grateful for a loving husband that takes care of me. i'm grateful for a job, and the ability to make a living. i'm grateful for a warm place to live and a working car to drive. i'm grateful for all the opportunities life allows us. i'm grateful for the knowledge of our Heavenly Father and the life after this life. i'm grateful for all the hardships and trials we get to experience and all the chances to become a stronger person and realize just who we really are as individuals. i'm grateful to be me.

isn't it about time to just be grateful and nothing else? no if's, and's, or but's?....
...i think so too.

month of gratitude, coming to an end! days 26, 27, 28, & 29

i can't believe november is already almost over. time flies all the time anyway, but this time of year always seems to go much faster. as does summertime. it's crazy. i obviously was a super blogger slacker this weekend, so now for some catching up...

*i'm grateful for two families to celebrate holidays with (aka two thanksgiving dinners on two different days!)
*i'm grateful for Black Friday shopping and sales (yes it's a little crazy, but it's always interesting!)
*i'm grateful for Jae's truck not completely dying on us and being able to get a new battery before it did!
*i'm grateful for the Utah Jazz and the Utah Utes!!!!!!!!!

month of gratitude, day 25....IT'S THANKSGIVING!!

today i am grateful for all the things i'm grateful for! i am truly blessed. it's a bit sad to think that it takes having an actual holiday every year to make us sit back and really realize all the wonderful things we have going for us in our daily lives. but i am grateful that we do have a thanksgiving day to give us a kick in the butt and say 'oh hey...you have a great life! remember??'. hope you all have a fabulous day, as i know i will (even though i am sitting at WORK writing this post right now while my husband sleeps at home in bed...) LOVE YOU ALL! HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!

month of gratitude, day 24

today, i am grateful for...well...technology i guess? in a round-a-bout way? haha. let me explain: i'm thankful i have the ability to get on facebook, look at friends' blogs, fun, crafty blogs, HGTV.com, etc. all the many websites that give me small breaks during work and help me get through the day. i am also thankful for texting and being able to talk to jae pretty much all day long. that's a HUGE help in getting me through my somewhat (usually) long work days. this post sounds kinda weird maybe. a little bit. but i'm still grateful!!!

PS HAPPY TURKEY DAY EVE  :)

month of gratitude, day 23

today, i am grateful for brand stinkin new tires. just in time for a big storm! although they're not on my car, they're on jae's truck. but his tires were worse than mine, so we decided to stop putting it off and finally get new ones. $800 later, i won't have to worry about jae going off the side of the road tonight in the snow!!

month of gratitude, days 19, 20, 21, & 22!

another weekend past. another weekend to catch up on my 'grates'...

*i'm grateful for good food and good company
*i'm grateful for being able to watch the pretty snow fall and not have to go out in it!
*i'm grateful for my awesome sister, Kellie. all my sisters are pretty great, but Kellie happens to be the one that lives closest to me, so she's the one i'm naming! she's so very sweet and i love her lots.
*i'm grateful for pre-made cookie dough that i can just pop in the oven  :)

month of gratitude, days 17 & 18

man, i'm struggling lately. somehow i just totally spaced doing my post yesterday! it's been unusually busy at work this week and i've recently caught this fun cold. so i blame the cold medicine...

day 18:
i'm grateful for cuddle time. i know it sounds cheesy as ever, but i know deep down, you people out there enjoy this too, even if you wouldn't ever blog about it! jae left to play basketball last night around 830, and i was totally in bed, ready to sleep by 850. it was fabulous. well, later, around 1230 when jae finally got in bed, i woke up for a bit and we just got to lay in bed and talk and have a few minutes of cuddle time. nothing more, nothing less. and it was SOOO nice. i enjoyed it lots.

day 17:
i'm grateful for soft tissues and vaseline. my nose has been out of control the last couple days, and it's already red and raw and sore. so after blowing my poor nose about 200 times, i put some vaseline on it, and already by this morning, it's feeling lots better and not nearly as red or sore. having a slightly shiny, vaseliney nose for a few hours is totally worth it :)

month of gratitude, day 16

today, i am oh so grateful for my mother. i know i already posted about her once in this month's gratitude posts, but it's her birthday today! yay! she's been feeling sick for a few weeks now, but finally she's starting to feel better so we can go out and do something fun with her tonight. growing up wasn't always easy - we OFTEN butted heads about pretty much everything. but i can definitely say today, that i couldn't be more glad she's my mom. i'm a 23 year old married woman, and i still feel like my mom does everything for me! she's the best. here's to you, mom! love you :)

getting behind on my gratefuls!

hello everyone! (aka like the 3 people that read my blog...) so Jae and i have been out of towners for the last few days, and i didn't have super internet accessibility, hence i haven't posted in a few days! so today, i think i'll just recap a few of the things i've been grateful for as of late...

*i'm grateful for the opportunity to travel and see new places! even if it is for work stuff, i got to go to Chicago this past week, and Jae was able to come with me. after a (very loong) day and a half of meetings and such, Jae and i explored just about everywhere we could walk to. and then we taxied back of course, since my feet were seconds from falling off. i LOVE the big city feel. i'm so glad we got to go explore a new place.

*i'm grateful for the Garrett popcorn company. caramel popcorn at its finest. mmmmmmmmmmm.

*i'm grateful for safe plane rides with hardly any turbulence. that's always nice. (and i know jae much appreciates this, too!)

*i'm grateful for room service. ohh the pleasures of being able to order some food over the phone and get it hand-delivered to you on a silver platter :) until the bill comes of course...


*i'm grateful to have a home to come back to, whether it's on a regular day, after work, or after a long day of traveling, or simply after being at someone else's house. it's just nice to come back to your own place of sanctuary.

*and last, but CERTAINLY not least, i'm so very grateful that myself and my husband are alive. friday night, on our taxi ride back to our hotel (which was about 30 minutes away), our driver was seriously so very close to falling asleep. jae and i kept our eyes locked on the rear view mirror, watching her eyes gradually fade closed over and over again. scary to say the least. she kept rolling down her window, etc, trying to keep herself awake, but on a few occasions i really honestly thought we weren't going to make it to the hotel. but i didn't know what to do!! so i just kept praying in my head that we wouldn't crash. and then, after we finally made it, and our feet were back on solid ground, and she drove away, i prayed that she'd make it back to wherever she was going without crashing. scariest 30 minute car ride of my life.

month of gratitude, day 9

today, i am grateful for fun little notes :)
i started out my morning right (well, for about 2 minutes until i opened the door and saw all the whiteness on the ground...) by finding a little surprise note in my purse from my honey. i had asked him to write up all his medical expenses and figure out a rough estimate of what we spend in a year on medical bills, and leave it for me so i could bring it to work today to talk to the insurance people. well, he did just that, but then at the bottom, he wrote:


"P.S. Sorry i'm so expensive."


i give him crap all the time for how expensive he is, but he always just brushes it off and is like, whatever! well, today, he finally admitted it haha. it made me literally laugh out loud. it's ok if you're expensive, Jae, i wouldn't trade you for anything!!

month of gratitude, day 8

i'm grateful for patience.
i think i'm more writing about how i have patience to try to convince myself that i actually do have patience and to encourage myself to have more of it! what little patience i do have, i have just about used up for one day. monday's will always be monday's, but today is especially bad. thank goodness the man upstairs at least gave me just enough to make it through my work day. well...almost....i still have 15 minutes to get through.....

CHINESE COME FOR A VISIT

i'm a bit slow on this post. but better late than never, eh? my prego sister, anne, and her cute family came back home to Utah for a 3 week visit from China. they stayed at my other sister, kellie's, house so they were close and we were able to see them every day. she has 3 adorable kids that are all HUGE compared to when we saw them last year. soooo fun! we went up to red butte, played around at lagoon for a day, roasted marshmallows, and just hung out and enjoyed the company. (warning: this post just might possibly be a picture overload....)

story time with grandma & grandpa

poor Hyde was sick; he fell asleep cuddling with his puke bucket :(

mallows!

cute nephew River

Liam! he's so big and SO fun!!

Hyde & Quinnie were inseperable, especially at Lagoon. this pic is just completely hilarious!

Mara & Hattie, Puff, the Magic Dragon!

goofy Liam pulling off his socks in the middle of Lagoon

sis Kellie & her Quinnie

this was just about the best pic with all the Chinese kiddies haha

WE MISS YOU PARKINSONS!!

month of gratitude, days 6 (oops!) and 7

since i'm on the computer all day, monday through friday, i have a hard time getting myself to do things on the computer on the weekends. so doing these daily gratitude posts might prove to be more difficult on the weekends!! obviously, since i already missed yesterday! so today, i'll do two...

today (the 7th), i am grateful for fun little anniversaries! today is jae's and my 10 month anniversary! it's as simple as that. time flies.... :)

(the 6th...)
i'm grateful for days off!
i always thought having a monday through friday schedule would be ideal, and finally i got a job that is just that! but i quickly realized that getting up and going to work every morning, 5 days in a row (when i was doing exactly opposite of that for so long) proved to be quite tiring. by friday at 5pm (or more like 10am reallly), i am so tired i just want to go home and sleep for an entire day. anyway, the point of this is to express my thankfulness for saturdays, or any day that i don't have to go to work, really, and the ability to just be home and relax and get things done there.

month of gratitude, day 5

today (and every day) i am grateful for my mommy. in my younger years, my mother and i weren't the best of friends, as i'm sure many teens and mom's aren't, but we just butted heads about pretty much everything, all the time. it wasn't any fun for anyone. finally now that i'm older and wiser, we get along MUCH better. not a day goes by that i don't call my mom or dad or both at least once or twice. she's always so willing to help out in absolutely any way possible with anything needed. she's constantly thinking about others before herself, and takes such good care of her family. so thank you, mom, for being so very sweet  :)

month of gratitude, day 4

today, i am grateful for choices. i am thankful that i get to make decisions that lead me down different paths in my life. i am grateful to have a husband to make these (sometimes very difficult) decisions with. and even though i get stressed and my anxiety is out of control with some of these decisions, i am still grateful i have options and am able to direct my own life.

A MONTH OF MANY GRATES!

yes, i know how to spell 'greats', but this is the month to be GRATEful. i'm stealing this fun little daily thing from my good friend slash sister mary elizabeth. every day for the month of november, i will list one (or more) thing i'm grateful for! it's a good way to get in the holiday spirit and simply remember all the goods in life, which is something we should do all year 'round, anyway. i'm a bit late on my start, obviously, since today's the 3rd, so i will post 3 things today instead of one:

*i'm grateful for my husband. he's the first thing i must list, because without him, i feel that life would be slightly dull and uneventful. jae's the best thing that happened to me, and he keeps me happy.

*i'm grateful for blankets, jackets, sweaters, scarves, pretty much anything to keep me warm. if you know me, then you know i'm ALWAYS cold. especially at work. (dumb bob next to me keeps his fan blowing away all day, every day. he knows i'm always cold, and still runs his fan like he'd die if it wasn't...) it's a good day when i'm snuggly warm :)

*i'm grateful for holidays. if nothing else, it pretty much MAKES you get together with friends, family, people you haven't seen in forever (even when they live in the same city as you!) they're fun and add an extra sparkle to a sometimes not so sparkly life!