Grateful

Tonight I feel completely grateful, which is not something that I thought I would feel at the end of the day today.  My day started at 5:40am when my alarm went off.  I got to work at about 6:55am with the plan that I would be working a longer day, but would be going home around 6pm.  Well, things kept piling up and as I am leaving town, I have to get a lot of stuff done before I leave.  I ended up leaving work at about 7:45pm.  As I started to drive down the road, I thought it felt a little rough.  But then I thought about how I live in Cleveland and all the roads are rough.  I got on the highway and was talking to Josh on the phone.  I told him that I think I might have a flat tire.  He asked how I didn't know if I had one or not.  :)  I thought I was fine, but a little further down the road, I thought I better stop and check.  Sure enough, my back passenger tire was completely flat.  Oh great...here I am again with a flat tire and Josh out of town.  I called Josh back and he said he was going to try to call a few people to see if they could come change it.  With a lot of our friends being out of town for the holidays, I wasn't sure that he would be able to get ahold of anyone.  I told him that I would try to change it myself, but wasn't sure that I would be able to see well enough as there were no city lights where I had stopped. 

Luckily, I found a little flashlight in our glove compartment.  I cleaned out my trunk, got the spare tire out and the jack.  I struggled a little trying to lift the car up with the crappy jack I have.  I looked something like this...but it was dark and COLD and wet.

Just as I was starting to try to get the lug nuts off (and they were on TIGHT), a pickup truck pulled up behind me. A woman about my mother's age, got out and asked if I needed some help.  I told her that I had a flat tire and yes, I did need help.  She then motioned for her son and husband to come and help.  They changed my tire for me...I would have been stuck there for quite some time trying to do it on my own.  I felt truly blessed that they had stopped.  The mom told me that as they drove by, their son said "Hey, I think that was a girl.  We should stop."  He seemed a little embarrassed as he said "well, it's different if it's a girl."   I laughed and said I totally understand.  So they turned around and came back to help.  The mom said something to the effect that she got out first so I wasn't scared by a man approaching me on the side of a dark highway.  They seemed like such a nice family and I'm so grateful they stopped to help.  It's good to know that there are still those nice people out there.  Tonight wasn't the best of nights either; it was cold, the ground was wet and it was completely dark and really foggy, but they still stopped and helped anyway.  It reminds me how much our Heavenly Father looks after us at all times.  I know that I am truly blessed and I know that he sent this nice family out to help me in my time of need.  It was a great experience and a great reminder that there are good people out in the world still and that our Heavenly Father is continuously watching over us.  I feel so grateful for this family, for the way they approached me, for changing my tire and for their kindness.  I hope that next time Josh wants to stop and help someone, I won't complain and will be happy to help them in their time of need.  Tonight, I am truly grateful for this family that took 20 minutes out of their evening to help me.  I just hope that next time I get a flat tire, Josh will be in town :)  Good night everyone!

December 2011, Thus Far

I can't believe how fast this month has already flown by!  Time really must go faster as you get older; but with that, I am worried how fast time might fly ten years from now.  We have had a great month thus far.  I LOVE Christmas!  I really have to hold myself back from getting tons and tons of Christmas decor.  We did, however, get a new tree this year.  We had an old Charlie Brown tree that we had gotten for free and gave it away at a garage sale we had this last spring.  We weren't planning on buying a tree this year because we don't want to have to move it; but since we are going to be home, I talked Josh into getting one.  I absolutely LOVE the tree we got.  It's prelit and has both pine cones and berries mixed within the tree.  We got a great deal on it too, 50% off!  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it! 

I wanted to do a few Christmas crafts this year too.  Because we got a new tree, I decided to do a tree skirt.  I absolutely love how it turned out.  Here is a picture of our beautiful tree with the unfinished tree skirt.  I was just wanting to see how it would look.

Josh surprised me with an early Christmas present.  It's this tree topper with the nativity in the center.  We saw this in Amish country earlier this year and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since.  I LOVE it!

My mom wanted to see some pictures of the tree skirt.  Don't look too closely to any of the seams.  I still have MUCH to learn about sewing.  I'm really not that good.

Here is our finished Christmas tree!  I love it and I think the skirt looks great underneath and the star looks BEAUTIFUL on top.  Santa even came a little early to our house and dropped off a few presents for us.

And just some random pictures I took of the tree.

Early this month, we were able to go to a hockey game.  Cleveland has a minor league team called the Lake Erie Monsters.  Its been a long time since I have gone to a hockey game.  We had soo much fun though and I hope we will be able to go again soon.  I didn't bring my camera, so only a few pictures from my phone.

We can't believe how fast time has gone already this month, but we are hoping that it will continue to fly by, at least for a little while.  We are anxious to find out where we will be for residency and we don't find that out til April.  That's all for now.

November 2011

Things have been absolutely crazy around here.  Time is flying by as usual this time of year and it doesn't help that I have been working overtime for the last 6-7 weeks with no end of it in sight.  I don't know how some people work well over 40 hours a week on a continuous basis.  The most I have worked is about 50 hours and I have been completely exhausted.  But other than that work has been going pretty good.  I still love my new job.  It is the perfect job for me, which is something I never though I'd find :)

Josh has been busy going to clinic, lots and lots of church things (3 baptisms in the last month) and studying for the fast-approaching boards and interviews.  This month he is out on externships and is completely ready to be done with this chapter in our lives.

Here's a small recap on November:

We got some family pictures taken by a friend. We took some of their family and they took a few of us.  We were lucky to get them done before all the leaves fell for the season.  Our favorite one is the one above used as our blog header.

We had a GREAT Thanksgiving.  We spent it with some of our best friends here in Ohio.  I wish I would have taken pictures as this is our last Thanksgiving with them.  But it was fun!  I don't know how some women do a whole Thanksgiving by themselves though.  I made homemade rolls, green bean casserole, fruit salad and a pie.  I was completely exhausted after that.  I can't imagine adding a turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and everything else added to that!  It was great food with great company.  We spent the afternoon/early evening eating, chatting and playing every one's new favorite game, Telestrations!  We LOVE that game!

We also had a very successful Black Friday.  I can't believe how many stores opened so early though.  I feel bad for the employees.  I went with a friend to an outlet mall near by; it opened at 9pm!  But I was able to get a few things.  It didn't seem to be too crowded until we were leaving.  Most people must not have realized how early it opened.  Josh went out really early Friday morning and got a few things too.  We spent more money than we probably should have, but oh well.

In November, my grandpa passed away.  This was a day that everyone in my family has dreaded the most.  He was the best grandpa anyone could wish for.  I loved him very much and I hope he knew that.  I don't have a single bad memory of him.  He always had fun with us, never forgot a birthday nor a Christmas card.  I miss him so, so much already.

Love you, Grandpa!

November is a month full of Thanksgiving.  We have so much to be thankful for.  I am very thankful for the wonderful husband I have.  I'm thankful for my job and how it all seemed to fall into place.  I'm so very grateful for the gospel and the peace and happiness it brings into my life.  I love and miss my family.  I'm grateful for the bond that I have with my siblings.  I am truly blessed to have the in-laws that I have.  They are such wonderful people who I love and care for.  I don't think I could have asked for any better in-laws.  I am very thankful for my grandpa and for the life that he lived as well as the happiness that he brought into mine.  Hope you all had a great November full of Thanksgiving!