Thankful- day four

For eight hours every week I get to be a small part of what goes on here.

The third floor.

I love the energy of this place, the healing happens.

Each day is different, each hour, each minute. Different stories, different circumstances of why the patients are here. Each is unique, but yet the same. They all need to heal. I love being a part of that.

Today, I am thankful for the opportunity to serve.

thankful thoughts~ day three

Today I give thanks for the lovely park that entertained two boys who have been so terribly bored these past few weeks while they have been off track. Even though they fought like an old married couple the whole time we were there- at least it was a change of scenery for us all.

Thankful for this girl

Tonight Nicole received her Young Women's Medallion. This is HUGE! Like Eagle Scout Award huge. So huge that today's thankful post gets 3 photos instead of one!


After the bishop awarded her with her Medallion, we surprised her with flowers (her brothers brought them to her, it was precious!).
Today, I am thankful for this beautiful young lady who inspires me everyday. She makes me want to be a better mother, a better friend, a more positive person, more service oriented. She amazes me.

She was the first to call me mother- a name I adore. In her (almost) 17 years, she has taught me so much and has been so patient with me as I have learned how to become the mother that she needs.

I am so thankful for her and for the wonderful young woman she has become.
Congratulations Nicole! I love you!

Be Thankful Always

Hello November! I can't believe this, but I am happy to see you. (Not because you are the month of my birth, not because you bring us really yummy food, and not because I get to decorate the house with lots of orange (my fav!)) No, I am happy it is November because this is the month that I get to stop and think about all the blessings in my life.

I came across this blog, which is inspiring people everywhere to stop and notice the blessings in their lives.

I used to keep a daily gratitude journal, jotting down one thing each day that I was grateful for. I did this for 3 straight years.

I have missed it. So in honor of the month of 'thanks', I am going to do a portion of the 365 Grateful Project by taking a photo of one thing that I am grateful for each day and posting about it. I hope you don't mind.

Today, day number one, I am grateful for this little lady. She caught a mouse in our house. An icky, disgusting, quick, tiny brown mouse. Ewwww.

I don't love having a pet. But today, I am ever so grateful that I have a cat.

What are you thankful for today?

Happy Halloween!

 We had a fun night carving pumpkins, dressing kids up, a carnival at the church, handing out candy to trick-or-treaters, and then watching the kids sort and count their candy when they were done.

 Isaac with his 'Jazz' pumpkin.  At one point he said, "We are going to be carving this until 10:00 tonight!"  It turned out so cool!

 "I think she needs more hair" and "Ew!  Pumpkin just flicked into my eye!" were my favorite comments of the night from Nicole.

 "I'm so good at this!" said Ian, multiple times as he carved away.  :)

 Some of my other favorite quotes from the night....  "I love wetness!" -Ian

 "Is pumpkin good for your skin?" - Isaac

 "My hands smell like guts."  -Ian

 And now that it's over and the Holidays are upon us- I will take a deep breath, put the Halloween decorations away and turn on the Christmas music to see if I can get in the mood!  Because ready or not- November starts tomorrow!  Oh my! 

 

Happy Halloween! Happy Holidays everyone!

Mazes and Pumpkins

There is nothing like waiting until the last minute to post about our Halloween activities.  But better late than never right?  

Going to a local pumpkin patch and picking out the perfect pumpkin has been a favorite tradition for the past few years.

 To add to the fun this year, we added another activity in the form of a corn maze and a hayride.  Doesn't Erik look like he is having way too much fun?

 A shot of the rest of the family....Ian likes to move around a lot.

 We are rule breakers.  We will admit it.  The corn maze we went on should have taken 30-40 minutes.  We completed it in about 15.   I think we did less than a fourth of the maze in all.  We discovered that we don't enjoy corn mazes all that much.

 But it makes for some cute pictures.

And this picture is priceless.   Cutest little animals ever.

Playing Catch-up

A lot has been going on around here- too much in fact that I have had no time to post. But before Halloween has come and gone, I wanted to share a fun project that we did to help spook-ify our house. :)

Melted styrofoam cups. They make really cool ghosts.....see for yourself.

BONUS: It's a great way to entertain a couple of boys who are off-track.
Spooky, right? We ended up with about 50 of these little ghouls floating around our house.
I also want to share how Nicole got answered to Sadies. Her date put up a large spider web on our front porch with this note right in the middle....
there were about 100 little spiders all over and each were attached to a small piece of paper that said some random thing. The one with the answer said, "Ahem....Yes! I would love to go to the dance with you!" So creative!
Oh and then there's the snow. Oh the snow.

This is the best kind of snow though- the kind that makes the world white in the morning, is just enough for the boys to build a snowman and then is melted by the afternoon. I really am not ready for this.
Happy Halloween!