Bug Ninja

Today I'm grateful for my sister-in-law Bethany. Not only is she beautiful, patient, kind, so creative, and the best sister-in-law a girl could ask for-- she's also a lot braver than I am.

Today Beth and her kids came over. The kids were playing in the living room, and Beth and I were doing some crafts at the kitchen table. I noticed Kate was smelly, so I grabbed a diaper and wipes and laid her down in the living room. After I had cleaned her up- and before I had put a clean diaper on- I looked up and noticed something on her Kangaroo Climber (a small jungle gym with a slide).

Tan, six legs, two claws, long tail and a stinger.

Yep. A friggin scorpion was on the kids' favorite toy (which they had been playing on all day)! Well, I completely freaked out. I told the kids to get away, and I grabbed my sunday shoe (good thing I hadn't put it away yet!). Beth took the shoe away from me, took a deep breath and hit the scorpion with all her might. She hit the scorpion so hard it literally flew about five feet and landed on the carpet by the windowsill. It still wasn't dead so she kept hitting it with a shoe, and I went and grabbed a hammer. Then she pounded it with a hammer until is was most positively dead.

I grabbed a grocery bag and a napkin and she gracefully picked it up, while I realized that Kate still didn't have a diaper on.

She was awesome, and I'm so glad she was here today. I am no good when it comes to bugs, and scorpions are the WORST. So today I dedicate my thankful post to Beth. You are so amazing, and I'm so glad to have you in my family. I don't know what I would do with out you!

And thanks for saving our lives today.

Sleep

Today I'm grateful for sleep.

Last night was not a good night for me. Dustin was snoring, Kate woke up crying a couple times and I had a headache that kept me up until 4:00. But, by some miracle, Kate and I both slept in until...

9:45!

I needed that SO much! I don't think Kate has ever slept in that long. Ever. And she picked a perfect day to to do it! So, sleep is what I'm grateful for today!

Charity never faileth

(I meant to post this yesterday)

November 7th 2010

Today my heart is so full. As I've started this project to write posts about what I'm thankful for, I've struggled to know what to write about. I'm thankful for many many things, but the words just don't come to me like they used to. But not today.

I just got home from church. Today the spirit was so strong, and I was an emotional mess. The thought just kept coming and coming to me today about how grateful I am for my ward.  And more specifically, the people in it. I've never EVER been in such an amazing ward before Period. The sisters are just so awesome here. I felt welcomed as soon as I moved in (a year ago now, can you believe it?) and these sisters are some of my closest friends. I have never felt such a unity and friendship in a relief society before. It's hard to describe, but I'm sure every other sister reading this knows what I'm talking about because they feel it too. I'm just so thankful for them. You know how people say that everything happens for a reason? Well, I believe that the reason we were blessed with this house is becuase I needed this ward.

In other wards Dustin and I have been in, there were times when were were borderline inactive. We would ditch regularly or just go to sacrament meeting. (Unless we were called to primary, which is probably why we always were called there!) I just didn't feel the drive to go to church like I do now. Now it's something we always do, and that I love to do.

I just want to add a special shout out to Brianne Ralston, Cami Dean and Stephanie McGuire. I wasn't really having a good day, just kind of feeling down on myself, and the things they said about me today totally made my day. You girls are awesome!

I just want to bear my testimony (becuase it's easier here than in front of everyone at church) that I know that this church is true. I know that Jesus is there for us and that he will help bear our burdens. I'm thankful for my ward and the inspired Relief Society organization, and especially for the RS presidency in my ward. You sisters are amazing and I'm so thankful for all that you do.

Arizona

This was the view from my bedroom window last night

...and that's what I'm thankful for today.

Giveaway!

Mark your calenders for Novemeber 20th! It's the Pecan Creek Boutique! It looks so cute and amazing, I can't wait to go! Check out their blog and enter for a chance to win their giveaway!

http://www.pecancreekboutique.blogspot.com/

Thankful

I've been feeling really grateful lately, and seeing as it's finally November it's very fitting! For the month of November I'm going to periodically post about different things I'm thankful about. I saw it on a friend's blog and I thought it was a cute idea! She posts about something different everyday, but that might be a little ambitious for me...haha. Well so here it goes. Today I'm thankful to be...

a mom.

Being a mom to a toddler who is into everything is so exhausting! Example: this is where I found her today. I had only been gone about a minute to use the restroom.

Not only had she climbed up on the kitchen counter, she found a pen and was coloring on everything, including on of my photography books!

But she knew exactly how to win me over.  She sat up, smiled, and said "Cheese!"

I love this girl with all my heart.  She can change me from angry to laughing in seconds. 

 

We have our good days and our bad days, but the one things that never fails is the gratitude and overwhelming love I feel for her each night as I see her sleeping.  She is such a blessing, and I'm so blessed to be able to be her mom! 

Halloween

Since Halloween fell on a sunday this year, halloween ended up being stretched over a whole weekend! On Friday I got Kate dressed up in her witch costume. I made her tutu.

We headed over to Dustin's work to trick or treat at the office. This is Dustin's costume. It makes me laugh every time I see it!

He won funniest costume at his work and got Sun's tickets!

After that we came home and headed to our neighbor's house for a block party. While Dustin and I were getting soda's we weren't watching Kate for two seconds, and this happened:

Our neighbors had one of those colored lights sticking out of the ground to illuminate their halloween decor, and Kate touched it!  Luckily our quick thinking neighbor (and nursing student) gave us this amazing burn cream for her.  This picture was taken this morning, and believe me, this is an improvement.  Although the blister is still there, Kate is not in pain.  We're just waiting for it to heal.

After that episode, we headed to our ward party/trunk or treat!  Our ward is so amazing and fun.  There were so many people there!  Kate loved trick or treating, and all the scary decorations.

The next day was Saturday night, which is when we were planning to do our door to door trick or treating.  Well, we only ended up going to 3 houses since no one was out or expecting us.  We went to another one of our neighbors parties for a little while and then went to Jaron and Bethany's to play with cousins.

 Kate and Jaylee.  It wasn't on purpose, but don't they look like Elphaba and Galinda?

All the kiddos in their costumes.


Finally on Sunday rolled around (actual Halloween) and we went to a potluck our neighbors were having.  We have a lot of awesome neighbors!  I pulled out Kate's halloween costume from last year and put it on her.

 

Remember how huge it was on her?  Now it fits just right!

After the potluck, we came home and handed out candy to the trick or treaters.  We were poor this month so we couldn't afford any halloween decorations, so this is all we did.

Happy Halloween!