As November comes to a close...

Thanksgiving dinner was at this house for the first time EVER - and it was a success! We had a total of 15 people, I believe. After borrowing 2 tables and several chairs from our church building, we were able to all sit around one table! Matthew made the arrangement and set them up himself, thanks hun! I cooked the turkey (for the 3rd time, I believe) and it was fantastic. I put honey and butter under the skin, wrap the turkey in cheesecloth, and this year I experimented by throwing half a lime inside. Sometimes I put some poultry seasoning on it, but that seems to just stay on the surface, so I didn't do it this year. I also made the rolls, stuffing, cheese balls, and mashed potatoes. Visiting family provided cranberry sauce, pies, green been casserole, sweet potato casserole, fruit salad, a green salad... and I think that's it. I'm not putting the family member's names because they're a tad paranoid about being spied on by the government through the internet. Weirdos. ;)

I know December is going to POP out of nowhere, so I wanted to share my facebook Gratitude posts all in one place before it's forgotten. Many people on facebook posted what they were thankful about each day in their status updates and that's a tradition I hope continues every year... obviously it's good to be thankful every day all year round, but not necessarily on facebook.

A friend is posting something she's grateful for every day in November. I like that idea. Today's is I am SO thankful for how beautiful and enjoyable October was. Temps were nice and cool, the snow kept it's distance and we were blessed to enjoy more time outside


I am thankful for this pregnancy being so healthy and easy for me!


My mom had a son that lost a battle with brain cancer. Today makes the 1 year anniversary for the same diagnosis of a friend's little boy -who is winning the battle! Today i'm grateful for the reminders around me of how precious life is.

Today i'm thankful to experience for myself and pass on to my children...if you stop and pray to your Father in Heaven, your day goes so much better.

I am thankful for having more time together as a family every Saturday. I'm also very thankful for my husband helping me clean today!

I am so thankful for patrick. He is creative, curious, compassionate and one heck of a big brother... for Stephen, he has enthusiasm for life, wants to share fun times with others and patience w/being stuck in the middle...William-where there's a will, there's a way.

I am thankful for facebook. While we shouldn't allow it to replace a phone call, letter or visit, it sure has helped me feel more connected to friends and family.

I am thankful for tylenol.

I am thankful when my boys wake up happy and like to play together... Even if it's 7am.

I am thankful that God put cocoa beans on this planet to make all-things-chocolate possible!

I am thankful for Fridays!

I am thankful for 2nd chances.

I am thankful for luxuries like a heater, an oven, microwave, television, plumming, refrigerator, computer, phone...hats off to people that lived 200 years ago,i know I couldn't.

I am thankful for Matthew, I never called him my "best friend," as a lot of couples do... then I realized, he's the one I WANT to talk to and do things with. I try to get involved in his interests and I want him to be happy. He cares about my happiness. He is my best friend. :)

I'm very very thankful Patrick's little head injury didn't end in the dr's office. He hit his head on a pipe in the laundry room, about 1/2 inch cut that stopped bleeding in just a few minutes. Good way to kick off his bday! I was in labor with him today,7 years ago :)

I am thankful for knowledge and how accessible it is! If we don't know about something- we can look it up in a matter of seconds :)

I am thankful to be living in a house! We found the perfect house for our family and have zero regrets. I'm thankful for the 7 years of living in apartments to appreciate it more.

I am thankful for family. I am so looking forward to being together with a lot of family members from Matthew's side for Thanksgiving!

I am thankful to be alive with reminders to savour what moments I have on this earth. I had to read obituaries and write my own for an assignment. Physical death is a stranger to no one.

I am so thankful for Jesus Christ and his atoning sacrifice. I know he didn't do it just for repentance of sins, he also wanted to know exactly how I feel so he could know exactly how to help me. That level of unselfishness is beyond my understanding.

I am thankful for music and dancing! I love watching the kids dance :D

I am thankful for the nights when I get quality sleep, I am thankful to be in awe of watching my children grow and learn, I am thankful for hot cocoa and cinnamon toast.

I am thankful for my pregnancy going so well to this point, i'm thankful we all get a little break for Thanksgiving and I am very thankful for a bed to sleep in in...at least, sleep in when I fall back asleep.

I am so thankful for my family- immediate and extended, for the beauty around me all throughout the year and for the kindness of others. I am very thankful for this holiday that has inspired myself and others to first be thankful before we complain, vent, share an opinion or anecdote. HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

I am thankful we don't have the money for Black Friday "fun"... I am extremely thankful even though we don't have any form of health insurance and this pregnancy was unplanned, we can afford to pay for our medical care. AND we are 2-3 months away from being out of credit card debt.

30 weeks today! And I am thankful for Michigan football giving my husband and our family to cheer for every saturday.

I am thankful for music and the joy it brings into our lives... I just hope I don't bring sadness into the lives of the children in our primary as I get the hang of being the new Primary Chorister!

I am so thankful that the sprinkler in our back yard burst in time for our neighbor to hear it at 3:30am when he was going to work, otherwise water would have guzzled out for hours!
So there you have it. Guess what? We're actually paying off our last two credit cards this week - ahead of schedule! Woot :) That feels so nice. I AM SO THANKFUL to Matthew for making a plan and following it through to no longer feel the weight of that debt. Now we're tackling our student loans.

I hope you all had a HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Photo editing

I had some type of spark in my photo editing interest lately... as a writer and photographer, sometimes I just have zero inspiration and want nothing to do with them - then one day - boom! I can't stop doing it.

I like being able to do work for others as well. Our great family friend, Lisa B, has given me a run for my money over the last 24 hours with some logo and home editing for liberty homes. I also gave some pictures from a phone a facelift.

I'm starting to wonder if I have SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) because I've been depressed lately and the change in weather is all I can think of to explain it. Photo editing makes me happy and so do the sweet little things the kids and Matthew do. Matthew's not the romantic or sentimental kind of guy. There's a song "your love is my drug" by Ke$ha, that annoys him. But I loved the clip of her performance of the song on Saturday Night Live (I don't watch the whole show anymore because they can't go without throwing sex in it). Anyway, Matthew heard the song on the radio and called me up while he was running errands just because it made him think of me! So sweet. :) And I love it when the kids get happy about something I do or say and they just say, "I love you mommy!" or "You're the best mommy ever!"

Anyway, this is our life :) Here are a couple pics I've mentioned...


A free engagement shoot I did a while ago, revisited.

Some parts of this were tough - but who doesn't like a good challenge?

I still can't believe this picture was taken from my phone. The megapixel capability in phones is unreal.

Playing with florabella edits - a woman made editing a whole lot easier with actions in photoshop - you just press play and tweak it to what you want. I took the scrape off his nose first. I love this picture of Patrick from last year :)

Death and Dying

I have always been curious about all the aspects of death. I am taking this course at UVU. Thanantology: Death and Dying. There are sad stories here and there, but a great portion of the class is being prepared. Being prepared for your own death, actually.

There are questions that we never bother to ask ourselves. Yes, thinking of life insurance and who we'll leave our children to cross our minds a lot. But what about specific things?

Do you want to be kept alive by technology if you suffer a major injury? (me: 1 month, if no progress, release) If you're unable to make decisions, who do you trust to make them for you? (Husband and brother. My brother 2nd because I don't feel I even need to talk to him in advance on specifics. He has the same beliefs as me and approaches decisions logically and quickly.) Do you want to be buried or cremated? Who do you want to speak at your funeral? What songs do you want sung? Where do you want to be buried? Are you an organ donor?

A lot of people have the attitude, "I don't care, just bury me." or "I won't care, I'll be dead." What we don't realize is that having everything planned ahead makes things easier on your family you leave behind. How nice a casket is or what you're buried in is really to help them in the process.

They have a few new burial methods happening. One is a "green" burial. You get buried in a simple, bio-degradable box and don't even have a headstone, but a GPS coordinate (since when did rocks become harmful to the environment?)... and to save space and money, you can choose a double plot in a new sense, they dig further than 6 feet, bury whoever dies first and then re-dig and bury the spouse on top of the other one. Matthew and I are okay with that.

This class often causes us to reflect on how we would be in certain situations. Of course I'm super happy to know about the Plan of Salvation. It includes not only where we're going, but why we are on this Earth and where we came from. This opens my understanding and makes me very comforted in knowing I'll be with my loved ones again.

The most painful topic I've often visited since becoming a mother is the loss of a child. It's every parent's nightmare. As a child, I could never really understand what my mother went through when my brother died at the age of 11. I feel her pain now and my heart aches for my parents and my older siblings. I was at the innocent age of 4, I don't believe I was severely impacted by my brother's abscence because I had the childlike faith that he was okay.

So this is the question I often wonder and may never be able to answer. Would I prefer to lose a child in a tragic accident without warning, or have several months or even years of notice? I try to live my life without regret, so I lean towards something sudden. Can you imagine looking at them and knowing they won't graduate high school? Get married on this earth? Learn how to drive a car? Tucking them in, knowing these days won't last? That is like re-opening a wound repeatedly before it finally takes you...

I love you, Mom. You are a strong woman.