A Few Words on Gratitude

Last year there were moments when times were tough that I needed to remember all that I was grateful for to keep things in perspective. Well, times are not tough right now, in fact things are pretty darn amazing. And you know what? I think that makes me lose sight of what I'm grateful for more than the hard times.

In church last week we were having a discussion on prayer and the most amazing point was brought to my attention. I've always been taught to thank my Heavenly Father for the blessings he has provided me (even when I can't see it or want to admit there is a divine intervention). As such, I try to remember to thank him in my prayers. But what if tomorrow morning when we woke up, the things we didn't give thanks for were gone?

Well, I'd like to give a little twist to that thought and say when is the last time you have given a true, deep from the heart thank you to the people who are blessings in your life? I mean sure we say thanks or a kind word in passing, which is fantastic, but when is the last time you took a minute to really ponder on the good that people have shown you. Have you thanked them lately? I can think of soooo many people who fit in this category. My parents, namely. I definitely do not show them enough gratitude. My family for sticking by me through thick and thin. My boys for loving me even though I make so many mistakes. My amazing Loan Officer and co-workers who are truly deserving of the world. My church leaders who have shown me soo much compassion and love over the last few years. My friends for always being a listening ear when I need it. And so many more that this post would take about 10 days to read if I named them all. Yet have I done much to show how truly grateful I am for any of them? What would happen if tomorrow I woke up and they were all gone from my life? Would you have any regrets?



Well I'll tell you what, I'd regret not letting them know how amazing they are and how much I love them. So I am going to make sure that the people in my life know, without a doubt, how much I love them. Because you never know what tomorrow brings. I don't want to chance it ever again.

Mini Holiday and Instagram!

Since I didn't have work yesterday as it was President's Day, I decided to truly not work (which is a big step for me, I at least check my email, even on my off days) and have some fun with the boys. We don't get the chance to just straight up have fun very often, so I was excited and I think they were too. We spent the morning lounging around watching My Name is Earl and then decided to go to St George. We visited the Johnson's Dinosaur Farm which was incredible! The whole place is run by volunteers who are like, 70 yrs old plus some and they strive to make the experience fun. It was great. We then spent the rest of the afternoon at Lasermania winning cool stuff and watching 4D movies. We ended the night stuffing our gourds at Golden Corral where the boys honestly took about 10 trips each (except Ry, he only had 3 trips) and took full advantage of the chocolate fountain. It was such a fun day, definitely one for the books.

And now a whole ton of pics from the last few weeks!!

Ryder wouldn't take his goggles off during a snow storm the other day. Why?  "I HAVE to wear them so the snow doesn't get in my eyes!" Hehe smart kid.

My Loan Officer and Assistant got me the short beautiful bouquet as a congrats for new beginnings, and a friend sent me the other flowers on V day because "every girl should get flowers on V day". My corner of the office smelled delightful :)

Ty has been showing off his new "appliances". This is his expanding appliance. The expandor. Or however you spell it.

And we had to do a funky photo op of me cranking the appliance....of course.

My Mom's birthday was on Sunday. They were sweet and came to listen to Tylers talk in church, and then we had a fun dinner at my brother and sis in law's house. It was a great day. Happy Birthday Mom, thanks for always being here for me and being supportive, I truly appreciate all you do for me and the boys. I love you!

This is "Dino" the Oviraptor we got at the Dinosaur Farm. He is Ry's new friend. And I was instructed to keep him company today while Ry was at daycare. When I picked Ry up after work the first thing he asked was "Mom! Did Dino rawr at you while you were working?!"

The gift shop at the Dino Farm was actually decent priced, so we got a couple excavation kits to do for our family activities. The boys ate it up. We didn't get all the bones dug out, so our project this whole week is to work on them. And bonus, the boys are learning how to cooperate (I purposely made them work on the kit with two fossils in one block....so far my evil parenting plan of teaching teamwork is working, they had fun and there were no fights!)

Ry also got a kick out of digging, but his favorite part was sweeping all the dust off the blocks and making a mess. Surprise surprise!

This dino foot was as big as all the boys' hands plus some. It was pretty awesome.

This is a genuine T-Rex footprint. Ry was all over that thing (T-Rex is his fav dino) and the volunteer guy let them behind the ropes to get a good picture with it. And he made me take an up-close picture of the plaque at the bottom. And of the internet printout picture of a T-Rex. He was a funny guy :)

This is the boys in front of the giant wall of dino footprints, there were tons and tons of them. It really is quite fascinating, I think we will visit again soon.

This is our new organization/scheduling wall. We write important dates on the calender and longer notes about those dates on the side bar, I hang things I want to remember on the side (right now its an email about green ribbon week activities for the boys' school) as well as the "naughty chores" so they are accessible if the boys need a naughty chore added to their board and our chore charts on the bottom. 

I am obviously NOT crafty at all (ignore the crooked lettering sticker things) but it works. They have their room of responsibility on top and then their dinner chore, bedtime chore, weekend routine and extra weekend chore. We rotate all rooms/chores every Saturday.

So that is that. Happy blogging until we meet again!

Its 2:30 am and I can't sleep

I don't even know why I'm writing this, I don't really have much to say. I'm just here and can't sleep, so I caught up on my blog readings.
I had some good recently, my hands are finally washed 100% clean of the legal battles I've been going through for the past too many years. I've had lots of people ask if I feel any different, and I can't say I do sadly. Maybe once it settles in? I don't know. But it is nice to know I don't have the added expense or stress of everything. Funny enough I'm going to miss visiting the girls at the legal office, and they told me I better visit in the future too.
We also had a good Valentines Day. A friend of mine sent some flowers over and made my desk smell fantastic. When I got back from work, my mom had dinner started for us that was delicious. The boys got some yummy candy as well from her and she helped the boys pick out a cute card for me. After that, we got a movie and had a night in. I couldn't think of a better way to spend Valentines, except maybe if I had a sweetheart of my own. But until then, I have three very handsome misters that I adore.
I also decided we needed to get back into the structure of a chore chart. I tried it this morning and it worked fantastic. We each have a room we are responsible for and at the end of the night we make sure it's picked up. We also all have dinner chores, bedtime chores and weekend chores. If someone is caught not doing their chores, then they get an extra chore or money docked off the allowance. Our routine this morning of cleaning took about an hour for the whole house instead of the normal four hours. It was a dream. I'm also having the boys help create a menu for our week which has made me want to cook more because they hold me accountable. Last week was Tyler's turn and we ate at home all nights except for Thursday when we ate at the parents. This week is Nate's turn and he has some good stuff lined up, I'm looking forward to it.

So thats the last few weeks in a nutshell. Its been full of fun times, the boys making me laugh and all of us just enjoying our time with each other. Its been nice. I look forward to the next week to see what it brings.

The Superbowl and FHE

We had a fun family shindig watching the Superbowl and taking color code personality tests (I'm a primary white with the other three colors all tied for second). And there were some pretty entertaining moments. When the big blackout happened I was upstairs with the girls and Nate ran up the stairs to tell us all about the blackout. In his mind it was most likely a terrorist attack with people in helicopters with 1919's (?) attached who were going to attack everyone...or something to that effect. I think we need to stop watching .... well... anything that involves guns or terrorists or violence in general.
And what about the Niner's coming THIS CLOSE to winning? But....after what...6 tries at a touchdown on the 7 yard line just couldn't do it? I'd just like to throw this out to the football universe...if a play isn't working you probably shouldn't keep doing it. Because it's not working. So stop. Just run the ball. No more throwing. But that's my humble, non-football watching opinion.
We also had the chance to go see Rise of the Guardians tonight for the free school movie night. It was soo much fun. I got to chat with some friends as did the boys and we spent a wonderful night together as a family. And talk about a cute movie! I really wasn't expecting to like it going in, but it really was well made. It was definitely worth going to, even with the huge school crowd in attendance. And the highlight of the boys' night was us getting pulled over at the top of the parents street. For not making a complete stop at a stop sign. In my defense, we were hurrying to get to the potty and the cop (who initially was a bit of a smarty pants by making the snarky remark of "don't you hate when you get caught running a stop sign while a cop is right behind you?") did not give us a ticket after I told him I truly wasn't paying attention since we were trying to get to the potty quickly, just told me to pay more attention while driving. Yes sir.

2012 ReCap

via google images

I was having a conversation the other day about 2012. The person I was talking to said good riddance, in hopes that 2013 would be better. And that made me think about 2012. There were some struggles, but all in all I think it was a good year. Lets recap!

1. Got out of a ridiculously bad work situation and into a good one. And them switched jobs again, from a good job to a great one.
2. Had fun with the boys at my first ever Blue Angels show.
3. Made my very first ever ham all by myself!
4. Attempted some De-Frump Challenges to boost my confidence. It worked for awhile.
5. Celebrated another year gone without Grayson. Miss you buddy.
6. Made the best ever career move and started work at Patriot Home Mortgage. Thank you to Trevor, who has been my lifesaver and the best person to work for EVER.
7. Unsuccessfully attempted to move.
8. Nate got to go visit the Alaska family and become part of the Annie cast.
9. Came to appreciate my little character Ryder even when we don't always see eye to eye.
10. Started giving back to myself with my BirchBox.
11. Spent quality time with my family.
12. Had some tough decisions to face up to, one of which lead to a broken heart and contrite spirit. But taught me some valuable lessons at the same time.
13. Became a bit more self reliant even though I wasn't feeling all that prepared for it.
14. Then quickly afterwards got shocked with the news that Ty is going to have surgery this year.
15. My love and appreciation for Patriot and Trevor was reaffirmed when they gave me a miracle and showed their amazing selflessness and love for my family.

And so much more! Looking back, even with a few disappointments and frustrations I would say that 2012 was good to me and my little family. We had some really fun experiences and learned a lot of valuable lessons. So thank you 2012 and bring it on 2013. I have some big BIG things planned for you, so you better get yourself ready.

Happy weekend all!