To Be Thankful

I forgot to write my list of 20 this to be grateful for yesterday since it was the 20th, so today, I will write 21 things to be grateful for!

1. I'm grateful for my job.
2. I'm thankful for countdowns.
3. I'm thankful for Frosted Mini-wheats!
4. I'm thankful for Christmas trees :)
5. I'm thankful for my nephew!
6. I'm thankful for Taylor Swift and all that she has done for me.
7. I'm thankful for memories, good and bad.
8. I'm thankful for food and water.
9. I'm thankful for my phone.
10. I'm thankful for my family! :)
11. I'm thankful for my car, even if it is on the verge of dying.
12. I'm thankful that I have friends who take me country swing dancing, when I don't know how!
13. I'm thankful that I have a best friend who listens to me on my hardest days.
14. I'm thankful for Church and all that it has to offer me for living righteously.
15. I'm thankful for my hometown/neighborhood.
16. I'm thankful for cookies :)
17. I'm thankful for holidays!
18. I'm thankful for missionaries :)
19. I'm thankful for the postmen!
20. I'm thankful for my comfy, warm bed.
21. I'm thankful for my doggy :)

To be honest, and I don't mean this in a cocky way, but it was easy to find things to be grateful for. I've been so busy and overwhelmed with all the things going on in my life. What some call "breakup", school, work, social life, church calling, eating, sleeping, church activities, etc. I finally got a breather Friday night and it was beautiful. It was a rough and stressful week full of crying (lots of it), anger, laughter, happiness, and being quiet. I am a pretty interesting person when it comes to how I handle things. Most would say it's dramatic but I call it "the only way I know how." I usually shut off when I've reached my breaking point, at which people call me crazy or get mad because I'm "such a downer." But if you've lived the life I live... you'd agree.

Yesterday I sort of had a spiritual moment between my Heavenly Father and I. I found this picture on Pinterest.

And it really got me thinking as I read through each one. I then started to picture my Savior sitting next to me, with his arm around me, letting me know that it's going to be okay. And that I'm going to get through these trials. Sometimes I feel like, all I blog about is saddening stuff, and some people actually tell me that, but I don't care anymore. So I lose a few followers, nbd. It's what I want to jot down, and remember. These things are hard, and it only helps to get them out. So as I tell this, I hope you'll all understand.

I could not stop thinking about my Savior and how He really is right next to me, every moment of every day. I then wrote it all down in my journal so that I would remember these scriptures forever. Today I woke up with this thought in my head "Today is going to be a good day, because I'm going to make it one. Today I'm going to be happy, because I deserve to be. Today I am grateful for my Savior's love. "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." - Phillipians 4:13." And I kept it that way, to be honest. I kept thinking all day about boys, and friends and why people can be mean, and what I'm not doing to be a better friend/person. I kept thinking about school and all the work that needs to be done in such a little time. But those thoughts kept quickly erasing and that thought was replaced. I easily kept reminding myself that my Savior is with me, and he'll hug me and walk by me through all of this. Through school for the next year (this time next year, I'll be graduating with my AS in Psychology!!!), through my heartache, and stress at work. I'm not alone in this, and for the first time in a long time, I can honestly stand strong and testify that I know my Savior loves me. And that he is here to help me. I cannot imagine going through life without that knowledge. It would be a darker place. I'm so grateful that I can carry around a Book of Mormon and read it freely, that I can get on my knees anywhere and pray to my Father above.

I'm going to be doing another Book of Mormon challenge this coming weekend, to read it all before General Conference in April with a few friends, so if you'd like to join in, you are more than welcome to :)

So without further ado, here is an update of last week.

Monday: We had FHE at the rock climbing place out by South Towne Mall! It was such a blast! I only did it once because my asthma only let me. I hung out with some of the girls in my YSA ward and it was so fun and nice to get to know them better! I went by myself which was a HUGE thing for me.

Tuesday: I had a long day at school, went to a volleyball game, which I played 3 hours of and ended it with a visit to Village Inn with my friend Jenna and her friends Josh and John! It was fun, and the waiters were crazy!

Wednesday - I had work all day, and came home to homework for 4 long hours, and made it to bed before midnight!

Thursday - I went to school, cried, was super stressed, and met up with my BFF for some good talking, and then headed to Institute, where we learned of Christ and played Just Dance afterwards!

Friday - I worked all day, and came home and sat on the couch, caught up on all my TV shows, did absolutely nothing, and fell asleep at 9:30.

Saturday - I woke up at 8:30 (didn't have to go to work until 11:00!!!) and just hungout at home. Went to work for four hours, came home, went to my BFF Karlee's bridal shower, left to see a movie with my family (Breaking Dawn Pt. 1 for the 2nd time) which is an interesting movie... then I went country swing dancing with my hot girlfriends Jenna, Rachel and Ali! :) It was super fun! We took like 47328947247324 hours at the drive-up at Taco Bell!! Visited with some of Jenna's friends for a few minutes, then headed home!

Sunday - Baby came over :) Curled my hair, took him to church. Watched the squirmy fella for two hours, took him home, then headed to my sisters house (who btw is PREGNANT!!!!! :) I haven't posted about it for a while, but I will now! She is due at the end of June!! :) So excited!!!) where my whole family was to eat dinner :) We had crockpot lasagna!!! Mmmmmm my favorite!! :) We watched some scary shark movie, I caught up on some homework and then we headed home for the night.

And here I am, Monday evening, after a long day at work, I'm about to do homework after a much needed blog post. (Mine are SO long!!) I'm so grateful for all these experiences and reminders to be happy. It makes me excited to report back to Brady of all that I did and experienced while he was gone, and that I was happy the whole two years! :)

"Be happy not because everything's perfect nor because everything goes your way. Be happy because everything sucks and you're doing just fine."