Bliss from Blessings #32,31,30, and 29

29.

• Making gingerbread houses with the crew! So fun!
• Super close to vacation time. One day to go and it's gonna be awesome.
• Going Christmas shopping with Tyler...once again...the more presents for me...the better
• A nice quiet day at my desk. Doing what I have to do, taking time to do what I don't have to do.
• More visitors! Yay home teachers! So nice to have people just check on us and share a little about the gospel

30.

• Great planning sessions at work. I am starting to formulate a good picture of the type of person I would like to be moving forward in my career. There is a lot of work to do, but it's nice to have a goal.
• A sweet secret santa at the office who brought me a yummy pastry and a gift card to get some new things for our puppies. Dishes and collars here we come!
• A capital "A" amazing team dinner at this restaurant called Wildfish. Seriously, the best fish ever - Parmesan crusted Sole with this amazing butter sauce. YUM!
• Fun while gift exchanging with the team. I picked my boss's 'bring' and got 2 portable speakers for my ipod. One is super cute and looks like a mini amplifier.
• My friend Pamela's GPS.

31.

• Visiting teachers! I love when they come over! I know and love Nicole and I got to visit with Paige. They are both awesome and we are all in very different parts of our lives so it makes for good conversation
• Hanging up my Christmas garland on my stair banisters. It makes me feel like Martha Stewart
• Having some good discussions at work and learning a lot, learning is always a blessing
• Tyler bought me some Christmas presents!!! I am such a brat...I LOVE presents, the more the better. It's terrible, I know.
• Mini pigs in a blanket for dinner. So healthy.

32.

• I'll be honest....this was a long time ago, I don't really remember the details of the day, but I can tell you that for a Monday....it wasn't bad at all

Bliss from Blessings #35,34,and 33

33.

• A good visit with our Bishop after church.
• An AWESOME choir practice! There were so many people and they are all SO talented. It is a blessing to be a part of it.
• Finally getting my Christmas tree up and making it look as perfect as I could.
• The simple blessing of not having to do anything, and choosing to do just that...nothing
• Making a new friend

34.

• An early morning drive with McDonald's on way to Tucson
• Spending quality time with my sister in-law as she picked out fabric to make some gifts. It reminds me how much I love to sew
• Getting a quiet piece of the country life with Megan and Tommy and their horses
• Finding faith in our public officers....it's nice to have a good encounter with the police every now and then, not that I have had any bad experiences, but when you are lost, they are super helpful.
• A nice husband that will just let me be a poop every now and then.

35.

• Half day Friday!
• A company Christmas party where we just got to relax and visit and load up with sweet potato fries.
• Getting all of my family's Christmas shopping done
• An awesome White Elephant party with our new friends and some old friends. We scored the movie Footloose! That's a win if you ask me.
• That Tyler is good with mechanical stuff. It's so nice that he can do all of the work on our vehicles.

Bliss from Blessings #36

36.

• Learning a little about each person on my team by making a cd with all of our favorite songs.
• Finding a great gift for my friend Katie for graduation!
• A yummy chocolate chip cookie from my girl Tiff
• Having a home to decorate with tons of fun things for Christmas
• A nice and unexpected invitation. New friends are so wonderful! When you least expect it they pop into your life.

Bliss from Blessings #37

37.

• Trying brussel sprouts for the first time and actually enjoying them. I think I like the texture of these little power house veggies.
• Getting a little mid-day converstion with a friend. Just a nice way to break up my day.
• Talking with my roomate from my freshman year of college. Super random, but nostalgic. Freshman year was crazy and especially rough for her, so it makes me happy that she's doing well.
• Crossed some major things of the work 'to-do' list today. Now I can get some little things done and enjoy our Christmas party!
• First night of weekday freedom. Mondays were crazy with school, Tuesdays are crazy with mutual, and Wednesday we can take a breath.

Bliss from Blessings #38

38.

• A mid-morning call from the sweetheart...he's so busy it doesn't happen often so it's extra special when he does.
• Channel surfing during lunch in the kitchen with some awesome people. It felt like we were just hanging out for an hour in someone's living room. A nice break for sure.
• Looking through a few places and finding the perfect gift for someone else (and the perfect gifts for me!)
• Getting some good inspiration for home decorating ideas, now the trick is spending all that money! Yikes!
• We have everything we need, a lot of things we want, and we would be selfish to expect anything else. Blessed indeed.

Bliss from Blessings #41,40,39

39.

• RAIN!!! I love the rain!
• A great start to my morning and crossing some things off the list
• A little caroling practice with some folks at work. We are going to make a visit to a retirement home next week. Should be fun!
• Today is Tyler's last day of class for the semster!
• Getting all of my Christmas stuff out and 'doing up' the digs :)
  

40.

• I made a movie of sorts that celebrated Christmas through art and music and it was giving me some difficulty when I wanted it to play. We got it to work for the lesson on Sunday!
• Going to choir practice. It is so nice to sing in a choir again. Everyone is so talented; the pianist seriously sat down to this incredible arrangment and sight read the whole thing. Her daughter did the same. I'm excited about it
• Getting help from our friends Beth and John with their Mac. We needed to make a video for one of Tyler's classes and their computer did the trick. We totally invaded their space for a good 3 hours....but it is so nice to have that done....thanks!
• Yummy apple pie and speckly vanilla icecream. (that's what I call french vanilla)
• The dog is still alive after chewing a hole in our carpet. Enough said. She's blessed.

41.

• Waking up early and taking my time to get ready for the day
• An awesome sister in law that cleaned my ENTIRE kitchen. She wiped down every counter, mopped the floor, dusted the cabinets, washed the dishes, she is the best!
• I love me a good trip to Ikea topped off with a hot dog and cinnamon roll for only $1.50
• Getting to visit with our new friends Matt and Lacy and their sweet little baby boy
• Falling asleep on Tyler while we watched a movie on the couch

Bliss from Blessings #42

42.

• Finally making decent time on the road this morning. Seriously, the crazies come out after 7am
• Getting some good headway on some plans for the future, backyards, jobs, school. It feels so good to have our lives organized
• Looking forward to a date to Red Robin tonight!
• Sattelite radio. I am so spoiled and I will be so sad when my 6 months free is up :(
• Having a weekend at home with my sweetie pie. Rare and wonderful

Bliss from Blessings #43

43.

• Yummy granola for breakfast...I'm a sucker for granola
• An unexpected text from an old friend wanting to catch up. She's awesome.
• Turning some long term perspective into long term details...I like details and plans so it makes me feel alot better
• Being able to spend some time celebrating Christmas with the church ladies tonight with a delicious dinner to boost!
• Getting some great ideas for Tyler's Christmas present.

Bliss from Blessings #44

44.

• It has taken me two hours each morning to get to work this week. I am so grateful for my safety on the road. I have been incredibly blessed in my travels
• No meetings, no errands, just time to be at home tonight.
• A renewed drive to be more kind and soft spoken. If you hear me say something too quick or too harsh....Taboo beep me :)
• Learning how to make my first video with video editing software! It was super easy and kind of fun!
• My in-laws gave us a treadmill ages ago and I finally broke it out and started to use it. This could be good.

Leave of Absence

Check me out....I have been such a slacker with my posts. Life got really fast there for a few weeks and I figured it was more important to live it, than blog about it.

I have a few pictures I'll post later and a few key highlights below. I'll get back to my blessings tomorrow :)

• This was our first traditional Thanksgiving since we've been married and it was kind of nice. Thanks (or not) to a little family injury, we stayed home from the sand dunes. We are grateful that everyone is healthy and on the mend.
• We (and by we, I mean my husband) are all signed up for next semester at ASU. The end is so close, we can taste it. Just a few more to go.
• We are both really excited for Christmas. We love (and probably spend too much money) shopping for other people. I'm determined to find some unique and wonderful things.
• Finally sold one of our cars....such a relief. Not having to think about that opens up a whole world of goals and opportunities.
• I am loving the people we go to church with. It is such a change and such a wonderful group of people. It has enlightened our minds, lives, and spirits and I think we can both honestly say we look forward to every church meeting we have. Tyler is such a great example for the youth and I love having a few minutes to teach some music skills to the ladies. Church is our labor of love and our break from the world.

Living day by day. That's our stride lately. We are happy, healthy, grateful, and as always....

Blessed.