Thankful Post #2

Told ya I would get behind again....

Day #11

Today I am thankful for my wonderful home teachers.  One has been recently reassigned, but still didn't hesitate to come over and give me a blessing when I asked.  They have been good friends, always willing to help and a great example to my children on what the priesthood should be.

Day #12

Today I am grateful for my visiting teachers.  Over the years I have had quite a few visiting teachers, and they have all tried to be helpful and friendly.  My current visiting teachers are two of the nicest, sweetest ladies around.   Not only do they visit me monthly, they often text to check up on us and are always asking what they can do to help me.  They are showing me how I want to be as a visiting teacher and I have high hopes that our relationship will continue to grow even if I get new visiting teachers.

Day #13

Today I am grateful for the wonderful doctors and nurses we have.  I had my very first surgery today and I was a bit anxious about it.  All my nurses and the doctors took the time to talk with me and reassure me.  Their kindness and skill made me feel more at ease about my surgery and helped everything go according to schedule.

Day #14

Today I am thankful for the ward that I live in. I have made some really nice friends in my ward who I know are always willing to help. I have also had some great callings where I have been forced to grow and step outside my comfort zone. I know the gospel is the same no matter where you are, but I feel truly blessed to be a part of such a great ward.

Day #15

Today I am thankful for my home.  As I am recovering from surgery, I am grateful for a nice, warm, comfy bed to lay in.  I am grateful for a nice TV to watch to help pass the time and for my kindle that let's me read book after book.  It also helps my piece of mind to know my kids are safe and taken care of while I recover!

Day #16

Today I am thankful for good friends.  We would be so lost without friends to love and support us.  Sometimes the only thing I want to do is hang out and forget my worries and I am so blessed to have great friends to do that with.  I have never been one to make friends easily so this is truly a great gift to me.

Day #17

Today I am thankful for my mother!  Not only does she love me unconditionally, she tries her very best to always be there for me.  She has been very helpful in my recovery and peace of mind this past week.  She has done her best to raise all of her children the right way, but has never judged them or squashed their dreams.  When we make mistakes, she is right there beside us, helping us fix it.  I have been blessed by my mother.

Day #18

Today I am grateful for my calling.  This is one of the longest callings I have had, a year and a half.   It is also the one I was most terrified of when I received it.  Being a Relief Society Teacher definitely pushes me outside my comfort zone.  I don't like being the center of attention and often feel inadequate to be teaching the sisters, but I do my best every month and it is getting just a tiny bit easier!  I have grown in this calling, in my understanding of the gospel and in the way I see others.  I used to look at the "spiritual giants"  (my term) of my ward and assume they had always been right where they needed to be and that they were near perfection now.  Through this calling, I have come to see that everyone of the "spiritual giants"  is just an imperfect person like me and they have all made mistakes.  This gives me hope that one day I might be a "spiritual giant", at least in my mind, and that just because I am just starting on my path, I will continue to move along it and grow.

Day #19

Today I am thankful for school vacations.  I know that by the end of the week the kids will be crazy, but I love sleeping in and having lazy days with my kids.  They grow so quickly and I just want to enjoy these moments.  They are great kids, most of the time, and I don't slow down as often as I would like to and appreciate them.  School vacations give me just that opportunity.

Day #20

Today I am thankful for plain old everyday illnesses.  Timmy gave us quite the fright this morning.  He woke up with blood coming out of his ear.  Scary enough on its own, but because of his cochlear implants, we tend to worry about every little ear thing.  Thankfully, it was just an ear infection and an abrasion on his inner ear.  With medicine, he should clear up in about a week.

Day #21

Today I am thankful for Weight Watchers.  I started the program about a month ago and so far have lost 4.8 pounds.  It is a great program and it helps me be accountable for what I eat and how much I work out.  I hope to continue to do well on the program, especially with Thanksgiving and Christmas coming up.

Day #22

Today I am grateful for having such a fun and friendly extended family.  There were 24 of us together for Thanksgiving this year and is was a blast!  It was a great day filled with family and great food.  The weather was beautiful too, so we got to enjoy some time outside with the relatives too.

Day #23

Today I am thankful for a great Black Friday shopping experience.  Jessie and I decided to go to Target last night for their early sale.  We only stood in line outside for about 40 minutes and then we were in and out of the store in less than an hour with everything we had gone in for.  That is how Black Friday should be instead of the horror stories of people getting trampled for a good deal.

Day #24

Today I am thankful for great movies.  I will be the first to admit that the Twilight series is not the most amazing stories and that the movies are not the best.  However, Breaking Dawn Part 2 was awesome!  I won't give it away to those who haven't seen it yet, but well worth a viewing and a great ending to the movie.  The best one by far!

Day #25

Today I am thankful for good teachers.  Our Sunday school teacher is a good discussion leader.  I often feel when I am teaching, that I am just lecturing, but Bro. H is really great at getting a discussion going every week in Sunday school.  I hope to learn that skill.  He also teaches and clarifies passages of the scriptures very well.  I also really enjoy the other teachers in relief society.  It is clear that they put a lot of time and effort into preparing their lessons and I learn something each week.

Two more days and I will be caught up, but it will have to wait until next time.

Thankful post #1

Since Thanksgiving is only a few weeks away, the thankful challenge has started.  Each day we give thanks for something in our lives.  Most people are doing it on facebook, but I am slow to start so I decided to do it on my blog.

Day #1

Today I am thankful for my best friend.  She has been with me for almost 16 years now and she pushes me to be a better person.  She supports me and is always there to help me when I am struggling with anything.  She is a great friend and a great person and I am so glad that she invited me to her 16th birthday party.  How bland and boring my life would be without her to have adventures with.  Thanks Nicole for being you!


Day #2

Today I am thankful for my husband.  He isn't always on his best behavior,  :~P  but I love him!  He supports me and our family by working very hard at a job that he doesn't always want to do.  He loves me and our children and lets us follow our dreams.  He has been very supportive of my desire to be a stay at home mom and he still does his fair share with the kids and the house.


Day #3

Today I am thankful for my eldest, Devan.  He has taught me more about being a parent than I thought he would.  He is 16 now, but I can still picture him as the adorable toddler I first met 14 years ago.  He is so strong and has been through so much at such a young age, but it has helped shape him into a wonderful young man.  He is a people person who knows no fear when it comes to new people or situations.  He is very musically gifted and he loves using his talent. 


Day #4

Today I am thankful for my beautiful daughter, Evelyn.  She truly has been a gift in my life.  I am thankful that we had to wait for her, it made us appreciate her more.  She is outgoing and crazy and fun and so like me that it is kind of scary!  She is a mix of girly-girl and tomboy that keeps you guessing!


Day #5

Today I am thankful for my middle child, Dietrich.  He is stubborn and inquisitive and wonderful all at the same time.  I think he must be a miniature Jessie, which means I am in trouble when those teen years come.  He has a thirst for knowledge which is amazing and I love his personality!  He has been a great addition for our family and I can't wait to see what he does with his life.


Day #6

Today I am thankful for my youngest daughter, Savannah.  We worked hard to get pregnant with both Evelyn and Dietrich and I always said that it would be nice to have a surprise pregnancy.  Savannah was ours.  It was wonderful and she has been a great teacher for us.  She has taught us patience and she will be a great tester of that patience when she becomes a teenager.  She continually surprises me with what she can do or figure out.  She is a delight to have in our family.


Day #7

Today I am thankful for my youngest, Timothy.  I always thought I would have 4 kids, but Heavenly Father had other plans in mind.  When we adopted Devan, I said that I wanted to adopt another child.  I wanted a baby that I would bring home from the hospital and Timothy was the unexpected way it happened.  I didn't think I would have 2 children only 6 months apart but I couldn't say no to that adorable baby.  I am so thankful that we have him as our youngest.  With his deafness, he has forced us to slow down and really enjoy every day.  We have been so blessed to really enjoy this time with him as a baby and a toddler and now to see him as a young kid, it is amazing.  And it has forced us to make sure we enjoy where each of our children are in their development. 


Day #8

Today I am thankful for my husband's grandfather.  Right off the bat, he welcomed me into his family and made me feel like one of his.  He was always so straight forward with me and never made me feel dumb or unimportant.  He was an amazing person who raised a great family and made sure to take care of his own.  He was loved by every member of his family and respected by everyone he met.

Day #9

Today I am thankful for Harry Foster.  He has been a great friend to my family.  He has been there for both my husband and I throughout our lives.  He has been a grandfather figure for my children and involved in many blessed events.  He is a great man and since he is the father-in-law of my best friend, I am pretty sure that he will continue to be a great influence in our lives.

Day # 10

Today I am thankful for the gospel.  It has been a great gift in my life.  It has helped me to find more meaning in my life and to guide me in the choices I make.  It makes me a better person and strengthens me.  I love that when I have questions I can turn to the scriptures or to talks given by our general authorities to help guide my choices. 

And so I am up to date on my thankful challenge.  I will probably fall behind before I post again, but keep checking, there will be more.

Evelyn's Baptism!

The day after her party, Evelyn was baptized!

Devan performed the baptism and in his desire to get the wording perfect, he got nervous and slightly messed up.  So Evelyn got dunked twice and she was so happy about it!  It was a great service.  Matt did the talk on baptism, although he was prepared for the Holy Ghost talk, and it was a great talk.  I did the Holy Ghost talk and I thought it went well.  Harry Foster performed her confirmation and gave her a beautiful blessing.

Her primary teacher brought her some lovely flowers as did another sister in the ward.

We had a great turn out and it was wonderful to see how many people wanted to support Evelyn on her big day!



 

Evelyn's Birthday!

My "little" girl is now 8!  How the time flies!  For her birthday, she wanted an all girls dance party!

She invited a few friends and after pizza and an awesome cake made by me and decorated by dad



it was time for presents!

She had a good haul but the girls really wanted to dance, so dance they did.

It was a great party and a great group of girls!







Timmy's first Day

Timmy had his first day of school on August 27.  He is super excited to go to school just like the big kids.  He has some great teachers and even a few kids in his class with cochlear implants.  I am so excited about the progress he is making!  He signs more and he understands so much more every single day!

First Day of School

Most of the kids started school this last week.  Timothy, Dietrich and Evelyn are all going to Kenwood Elementary this year.  They have a preschool program there designed for deaf or hard of hearing children.  He starts on Monday and we are super excited to know that he will be in such a wonderful program.  He will have an interpreter everyday and one of his teachers has cochlear implants herself. 

Dietrich started kindergarten this year and so far he is loving it.  He has a good teacher and has already starting making new friends.

Evelyn is now in third grade.  She has a student teacher in her room and she is enjoying the enviroment at Kenwood.  She is striving to be a good big sister and look at for her younger brother.

 

Savannah will being doing Parents Day Out again this year.  She will be in the 3 year old room this year and will be going twice a week.  She is very eager to start and I am excited to have a few hours a week to myself. 

Forever...

It has been forever since I have updated.  I check the blogs I read a few times a week and I would tell myself I needed to update my blog but seemed to always have a reason to put it off.  Sorry!

Important news first:  We have adopted Timothy!  He is ours...forever!  So excited that our family is complete now.  He will be three next month and in August will start preshool in a special program designed for kids that are deaf, hard of hearing, or have cochlear implants.  I am sure he will thrive in this new environment, once he gets over the change.  He does not like change very much.  But he is so cute and we love him.  He is almost as big as Dietrich now and still growing.

Savannah is a fun loving three year old now.  She loves all things girly and snuggling with mom and dad.  She is the most prone to sickness out of the five, but even when she is sick, she can still make us smile.  We are starting the wonderful potty training journey and hope that it goes fairly smoothly.

Dietrich is a big five year old now.  He is very excited about starting kindergarten in the fall.  He loves Lego's and Ben 10 and all kinds of pretend play.  He has two best friends and is just a great boy to have in our family.

Evelyn is seven and a half, that half is very important!  She is almost done with second grade and has done well this year.  She is turning out to be more of a tomboy than I first thought she would be, but she does still enjoy the girly things too.  She is very excited about getting baptized in a few months when she turns eight.

Devan is sixteen already!  And has his license and a car.  Oh my, how the time has flown.  He is looking for a job now to help pay for the bills generated by having a car.  He did Ovation again this year and had a lot of fun with it.  Not sure if it will fit in his schedule next year, but we will see.

Jessie and I are coming up on our fourteenth anniversary!  I can't imagine my life without him or the kids and am so happy that we started out on this crazy path so long ago.  The choices we made, the places we've been, the people we've met have all helped us get to this crazy yet wonderful point in our lives.  Thanks to all of those that have helped throughout the years.

Anyways, got to get back to the kids, half-day today so they are home already.  Till next time...