These Three Things

This has been a tough year. But, it's also been a great year. For much of the year, each time I thank Heavenly Father for things I've been blessed with, it's often accompanied by tears. There are so many blessings, so many that I don't have room to receive them. I feel grateful, overwhelmed, happy and hopeful. I often feel guilty wondering why I have so much when others don't. Here are three things I have been particularly grateful for in 2009.

Trials
We're told we should be grateful for our trials, but am I really?

Yes, I am.

Being thankful for trials doesn't mean we won't feel sadness or sorrow. It means that in addition to that, we look at an experience and learn and grow from it and appreciate the learning and growth.

Here's a list of some things I've learned from my trials this year: we are never alone, prayers are heard and they are answered, patience is a beautiful virtue, trusting the Lord truly makes our burdens light and everything becomes bearable, there is always hope, peace and happiness doesn't mean problems go away, money is just money, always keep an eternal perspective and have faith in a grander plan and ultimately, we can be happy no matter what life sends our way (even if we have sad moments).

The temple
The Spirit always reaches deep into my soul to calm my most hidden worries in the temple. The temple doesn't solve the problems, but it is where hope and peace abounds.

Clara
I know this gets old, but seriously, life wouldn't quite be the same without her. First of all, I am especially grateful that we've been blessed with a healthy child. Second of all, even on the worst days, she guarantees I will laugh and smile. Crummy or not, she brightens every single day.

And now here are a few pictures of our Thanksgiving dinner. My mom has dinner on Wednesday night and this year I realized why I like it so much. It allows Thanksgiving Day to be spent sitting around all day in my pj's just hanging out. No cooking, no cleaning up, it's great.

Reasons I Laugh

My windshield getting shattered when my car was broken down in the driveway. Really? I park in the garage every night but the one night my car isn't able to pull into the garage the windshield gets shattered. Raising a monkey. She loves hanging on things, particularly the handle in the car.

A pinata with a picture of our Utah house on it - thanks to Kathryn's creativity. The insides were candy silver, gold and jewelry. Ha ha. And then there was Clara's surprising aggression as she took her turn striking it. Deep down she knew this is why she didn't get Christmas presents last year. :)

The way Clara ate her apple.

Wigs.

It's Baaaaack

Practically perfect weather + my parent's practically perfect lawn = practically perfect Sunday evenings

Another Week, Another List

Things that made this past week great...

Friends (various reasons, various friends)
Clara taking pictures of me blowing bubbles (I may or may not eat that entire tin of Almond Roca by myself)My birthday
Lunch with my mom
Dinner with Jason and Clara*
A new pressure canner/cooker
Flowers
Jason getting off early on Thursday
Planning a little vacation
Hope
Thinking of Christmas shopping
Seeing Barbosa in Costco** (see, it is cool to spend Friday night shopping at Costco)
My hour-long foot rub (I can't win, no matter how I rotate this picture, it uploads sideways)

See?

Her (yeah, never a dull moment)

Celebration with friends

Rain and cold (AZ cold) weather

Flowers again

Celebrations with family (especially the plastic wrap on the cake... my mom wanted to keep germs off it)

*For dinner we went to Bandera. I think it's one of the few nicer places Jason thinks the quality of food is actually worth the cost. Most often, he'd prefer Taco Bell. He's into quantity not quality. Anyway, it's really, really funny to me every time I eat in Scottsdale. It's like middle-aged people living a college party life, trying to impress people with material things and thinking they are better than everyone else. It's even funnier to bring kids with you because they are usually the only kid in the whole restaurant and people kind of look at you like there is something wrong with you for having a kid. Oh the sacrifices I make for a good meal. :)

**We went to Costco just before it closed to get Jason a new phone and in walks Leandro Barbosa (he lives just a few miles away from us... it's amazing how the demographics can change in a few miles, ha ha). After I asked him if Jason could take a picture of him and I, the guy that was with him offered to take one of all of us. The first shot wasn't perfectly centered and Jason was on the edge, so he took another one. Barbosa was very nice, very polite and laughed when Clara said "cheese". Then he said, "Nice to meet you guys." I think so often I assume that rich, famous people, especially athletes, are pompous jerks and I forget a lot of them are probably really normal. Like shopping for food at Costco on a Friday night. He was friendly, happy and was more than willing to take the picture. If I didn't see his face on TV several times a week during basketball season, I never would've guessed he's a millionaire and lives in a mansion by the way he talked to us and acted. I felt a little bit bad about interrupting his quick shopping trip, but I decided that's just the price you pay to make $6M a year.

Still Catching Up?

Another downer of last week is that it just pushed my blogging life even further into backlog. Woe is me!

However, I have a plan to catch up right this minute. One post. One picture per event. I'm afraid that's the only way.

A while ago I got to see my cousin Rob for the first time in several years. We had lots of fun visiting with him and the rest of his family. But somehow, I have lost the pictures from the gathering. How do you lose digital picture? Not sure, but they are lost.

See? No picture.

Of course I can't forget to share when Ryan caught us some rather large lobsters on his scuba diving trip. Was that the highlight or was it when the juices of the big daddy lobster splurt all over Jason's white shirt and tie?
We celebrated Jason's birthday with my family.
We went to the temple with the Smith's for FHE. The first 30 minutes there were spent rolling down a grass hill, a first for Clara, but not a last. She loved it. Almost as much as she loved me taking her picture.

I bought lots and lots of the most delicious chocolate.

A while ago I decided I wanted new sheets. But then my conscience told me I should wait until we needed them. Not long after that, I realized the worn area had become a giant hole and decided new sheets were warranted.

And Halloween. Was that really almost two weeks ago? I don't dislike Halloween, but I just can't get into spending time and money on a costume that I won't be happy with and only worn for a few hours. Sure they are cute. Sure I might be jealous of the elaborate, well-thought out costumes. But at this time in my life, it's not gonna happen. However, my bad little witch was cute despite it all.

One day, not too long ago, I was able to visit with some girls from high school. Can you believe all those boys? 10/13 to be exact. In case you are wondering, Ryan (orange shorts), is not missing any part of his index finger. The majority of it is just hiding.

Tights 1 of 2. Come on, wouldn't those make you happy too?

Then there was Gentry and Stephanie's wedding this past weekend in Snowflake (Jason's youngest brother). This is a fun picture of the brothers, the couples and the parents. I'm just realizing my red eye editor gave Jason and Lamar green pukey seasick faces. Lovely.

Last but not least, my inspiration today was from President Spencer W. Kimball: "We were willing to take life as it came and as we might organize and control it, and this without murmur, complaint, or unreasonable demands." Too bad I read this after murmuring for a week. I've committed to murmuring less and rejoicing more.

What A Week

Did I say what a day? Who was I kidding? The entire week was much too eventful for me. However, as with all difficult times, there were things remembered and lessons learned.

**Really big companies make really big mistakes that cause really big headaches
**Tights are fun
**My house gets really messy when I'm depressed
**I love my mom
**The miracle of life is truly a miracle
**I like doctors that believe in Heavenly Father
**Spending money makes me feel better*
**No matter how bad things are, Clara makes me smile and laugh (always)
**It could be a lot worse

So here's to a better week. As they say, onward and upward.

*My "extravagant" shopping spree resulted in two pair of tights. Someone stop me, my spending is out of control.

What A Day

Wake up at 6:00am to get work done before Clara gets up. I have to run payroll for my client with 400+ employees (payroll lady on maternity) and since we're in the middle of changing the PTO policy, I have to manually calculate and reset employee's balances. Program I log into remotely not working. Can't get the PTO out of the way.

Clara wakes up at 7:30am. She peeks around the wall, smiling at me. I think she thinks I don't hear her open her door so she tries to hide from me.

Take Clara to play at her friend's then drive 10 miles to the post office, hurrying so I can run my other errands and make it home to work for a little bit prior to picking up Clara.

Realize my wallet is at home.

Drive home to get my wallet and return to the post office.

Run other errands. (Remind me not to go to Wal Mart when I'm in a hurry, because some of the cashiers are never in a hurry).

Try again on the PTO, takes twice as long as I planned.

Eat cookies for lunch that a friend happened to bring by.

Put Clara down for a nap, less than two hours until payroll is due, that I haven't even started.

Clara cries her head off. She hasn't cried like that forever before a nap. Of course she does today.

I sing to Clara until she's calm, wishing I was more calm.

Less than an hour until payroll is due.

I realize I can't do payroll at home (last time I ran the interface the day before).

Call our ADP rep (who I told we didn't need this time) and he runs the interface.

Create payroll batch, make changes.

Submit payroll.

20 minutes later, nothing.

Call ADP. They tell me there's an error and they fix it.


20 minutes later, nothing.

Call ADP. The previous girl forgot to submit it.


20 minutes later, review payroll register (over an hour past our original submittal time).

Hmmm, four doc's were receive an extra $1k - $2k. I overrode their regular salary with that amount. Whoops.


Call ADP. They adjust the four problems for me and send it on its way.

8 minutes later, receive revised payroll and accept.


Now I have less than two hours to fix dinner, clean my house and make sure Clara hasn't forgotten I'm her mom.

Clara helps me clean the house (kind of) so we can go play at the park. She loves the slide. I love the weather. We play until dark.

Who needs dinner? Overrated. We snack on peaches, apples, cheese, beans and tortilla chips.

HOA Meeting at my house. The "quick" meeting lasts over an hour.

Glad payroll is over. Wishing that was the only thing weighing me down today.

Really glad not every day is like this.

And super duper glad Clara is around to make me smile.

Conversation while brushing her teeth:
Clara: Why you sad?
Me: Sometimes I get sad because I wish I had another baby.
Clara: (HUGE smile on her face and totally excited) Mom, it's okay, I will buy you one. (smiling even BIGGER) I will buy you a new baby, okay?