Thankful

This past week I've been able to reflect on my many blessings and listen to some from David too.  We are very thankful :)

Work - For me, while work can be rough sometimes, I'm happy to have a job.  Unemployment is high, and David has been looking for a job since August and we haven't seen any success yet.  So it is very fortunate that I have what I have.  When the days are tough, it's easy to remind me of that.

David's health - So, David's knee bursitis threw our lives for a little curve ball.  He especially is so thankful that he is now at 96% back to normal!!  It's taken therapy 2-3 times a week for the last two months plus all his extra exercises and lack of sleep...  I know David is just happy that he can bend his knee, 3 weeks on our couch really was hard for us both.  The bursitis was sucky but reminded us of some of the most precious blessings that most all of us probably overlook sometimes.  With the bursitis, David has had to postpone several dental interviews :(.  This also sucked.  But we're trying to just hope there was a reason and that the interviews in the next couple months will still be very good.  One side note, he was supposed to go to NYC for an interview at end of October but if y'all remember, the big Sandy storm hit that same weekend and we realized he may have been stuck there or his interview may have been cancelled either way!  I'm glad he didn't get stuck there, for my selfish reasons I guess.  And another trial that turned into a blessing was really that David didn't have a job through all of this - so he could stay home and heal quicker and not have to maybe quit or something.

Okay so both of those: Bursitis = no NYC interview = better since Sandy hit during that same time; and then: No job = David could stay home and heal from Bursitis, okay and totally help me at home, I'm spoiled.  What I was trying to say - is that both of these have been trials, but in the end, turned out okay.  Well, I hope that works with all our trials, good to hope and think.

Our home - We have been blessed to be here in SLC and staying in a family owned home, allowing us to not go into too much debt before dental school.  While it may be harder in some ways to live here, I still am very grateful to have a place to relax when I'm home, a place to cook and fill up with all of our many belongings and memories.

The Gospel - This one almost missed the list, on accident, but we keep it high in our list.  Its great to have so many temples nearby, our temple is now closed for a month, but we'll be visiting some neighboring ones instead.  I'd say prayer has gotta be at the top of this one, as we're praying for lots over here lately.

Our friends & family - Of course, this one is a given, but we are thankful for all the love and support from those close and far.  It makes my day to know those who think of, care and pray for us.  There are just some who show it so well and reminds us to continue doing this ourselves.

Each other - Okay so when we asked each other what we were thankful for, this was #1 on both of our lists.  Honestly, having each other to be with, that's all I need.  Sometimes that gets clouded up by all the decisions we continue making (or hope to make someday) but it doesn't get too far down there.  We're happily married and even if we didn't have any of the above, we could survive :)

And the list goes on... but we'll just leave it at that for now.

* Side note, I don't have any photo memory like the rest of you!  Argh!  Purchase or no?? *

Halloween-ween

This could be a LONG post.  But it's the best holiday so it's allowed, right?!

Since we were a little limited with D's knee (read last post if you are clueless) we didn't get to everything but rolled with it and still got some good Halloween-ing going.

Decorations
Someday when we have a big home we'll go all out, but until then we just did a little here and there.  I was pretty happy with what we had actually.  And the fun new addition this year was my grandma's ceramic halloween house set.  I like that it's hers and also just how awesome it is.

Date Night Halloween Themed
Instead of a true party (because of D's knee, time and cost) we went with a more intimate group.  We invited my old roomies and their spouses over.  Megan & Jon brought Eliott and he slept in our back room, so cute.  And then Court and Caleb came over too.  They just moved here for 1 year and live a block away (yet in another church stake of course) so I'm feeling WAY spoiled to have a few good friends nearby.  As we chatted I noticed that each of us may be in different states next year, so we better do this a few more times.

I don't have pictures for this one.  Boo.  As they were leaving I realized.  Funny how sometimes the BEST occations aren't memorialized because we're too busy having too much fun.  But it was one of those times, even a week after I would stumble upon it in my thoughts and just think how fun it was.  I'm sure back when we were roomies we could have imagined hanging out later in life with spouses (and some of us kids) but that was such a dream, not real.

Anyway, we planned dinner: Chili w/pumpkin shaped cheese to top, Salad, Rolls, Scary Cake Balls (which I guess I did take a picture of later when I took some to work), and also Apple Cider later that Jon made with a Cocoa Motion.  A very cool kitchen gadget, I'd recommend it.  We chatted for a long time afterwards and then decided to watch Hocus Pocus instead of other game options.  I guess it's hard to write how FUN it was, you had to be there I guess.  But our invite list was small - again, when we have a big home and such, we'll go ALL OUT.  Although I think a smaller group was more fun for me this time.  Thanks Megan & Court for coming (not like you gals read this thing)...

My Work
We did our normal - invite the families and go trick or treating around the office - celebration.  David came, yay, finally a friend at work!  My team (HR & Legal) dressed up as a group; we were the Addams Family.  I was Morticia, yup.  We also decorated our HR conference room for the little kiddos to get treats from.  Sadly, our room was a little too scary, especially when Cousin It was visiting (it was my boss under all that hair!!)  I think we did pretty good didn't we???

And here's the work group - The Addams Family

School Carnival
David's mom works at an elementary school and every year we go help with the carnival activities, hand out candy, and clean up.  It was on the Friday before Halloween - we spent several hours there but had fun with the Clark kids.  Since it was the same day as my work party, I got pretty exhausted and we finally headed home with some candy that was left over, yay for David!

Pumpkins
We carved pumpkins two days before Halloween-ween :)  (Call it an FHE of sorts)  Of course, I'm not as original so I did the classic pumpkin, and David did one that is totally him.

Oh, and we went to a pumpkin patch to get all the Clark pumpkins with the kids.  Here are a few pictures.

The Night
The night of Halloween we went to the in-laws place, and went trick-or-treating with the kids.  Well, until David's knee wore out so we just waited for them to come home.  They are getting older - in years past they loved having us come with them - but they had a couple friends with them this year and they were getting "embarrassed" - wow, I've hit that point/age!?!?!  David's mom also does chili, hot dogs, and lots of jello wigglers along with other Halloween dishes, so we were well fed.  Again, no pictures, but we had orange on at least so that was a little festive I guess.

Oh, did anyone see "The Neighbors" tv show for Halloween? The Aliens called it Halloween-ween, and it has stuck with me.