Daily Thanksgiving-Fortitude

When I was at TOFW a few weekends ago, Sheri Dew was one of the speakers and she spoke about her ancestry and the struggles that her grandparents went through in Kansas trying to raise a crop in the early 1900's, she commented that they were not able to raise crop for more than 8 years and it took much trial and error to make their large farm successful. She then commented on how her parents took over that farm and were very successful and worked very hard to keep it successful, the point of the story was that her parents wouldn't have been successful if her grandparents hadn't tried so hard and she posed the question what if they had given up. She continued to speak how all of this has helped shape her life.

I really liked this story because both Ben and I have amazing parents, I grew up with some struggles in my family with dysfunction and at times chaos. With that said though, my Mother is an amazing example of fortitude and in turn has made me want to work harder to show her how much I love her, it says in my patriarchal blessing that I will honor my parents by the way I live. I don't tell my parents as much as I should how much I love them, I did speak with my mom about the story that Sheri Dew related and told her how thankful I was for her fortitude, realizing how hard things were for her parents and how hard they were for her.
Now Ben on the other hand cannot speak about his parents without breaking down, he loves them so much, you wouldn't know it because he never says it. He to tries to show people how much he loves them by his actions and not so much his words. He never wants to disappoint his parents or anyone in his family for that matter, they mean so much to him.
Unfortunately I am not a great writer and wish I could convey the story with the impact that it has, I am just so thankful that I heard it and that I have a new appreciation for Fortitude and thankful for the sacrifices that both of our parents have made on our behalves.

Daily Thanksgiving-Home

Tonight and many nights I am thankful for my home, sometimes all I see is the improvements that need to be done or the cleaning that needs to be done. I have tried to stop more and just be grateful for the walls, roof, windows that keep us warm, dry, cool and comfortable.
I have always admired the parade of homes and often {admired} those beautiful things in people homes, but need to remember, the same things I do in my home could/would be done in a home like that. Such as teaching my children to be respectful, teaching my kids to ride their bikes the list could go on and on.

Some things I am thankful for that has to do with our home...

Ben willing to put up Christmas lights every year.
Ben trying to improve our garden every year.
Our neighbors, the nicest neighbors anywhere.
The tint on the back windows it has kind of helped with the heat.
The central air!
Getting the carpets cleaned.
Our washer and dryer still pluggin along after 13 years.
Our big tub
The bunk beds
The automatic sprinkler system
Bathrooms
Garage door opener
Being able to park in the garage
A furnace that makes my house warm......



I am so very thankful for the house that has kept us safe, protected and together as a family. It ain't perfect but its ours.

Daily Thanksgiving-Worldly

A little shout out to all my favorite things that make my life easier....and more fun!
Cafe Rio!! for the LOVE!
Maui Jim
Chili's
Coke or Pepsi.....hmm 
M.A.C especially studio fix and eye shadow
Memory Foam
Lavender Oil for a stinky airplane or hotel
Wi-fi
CrossFit (ha...not really)
Dish-Network (cnn, discovery, a&e, lifestyle, H&G)
Costco
Target!!!
Philosophy (anti-aging eye cream) I love you!
my iPod docking station 
Canon
PhotoShop Elements
Instagram 
Joshy (josh groban)
Mr. buble 
ksl.com
ceiling fan in my bedroom
Frizz-ease (sp?)
Clorox (especially the smell)
Free airplane rides
Laptop
kindle
twitter (kind of)
Alison Krauss
boating
fishing (kind of)
and so many more but the battery on my laptop is going to die......

Daily Thanksgiving-Mawage

Mawage, is what brings us together today....said like the priest on the Princess Bride.

13 years come and gone and still going strong.

Some  highlights and maybe low lights of 13 years.

1999- Got my job at SkyWest and that meant no more driving to Canada to visit Ben.
2000- Ben transferred to BYU
2001- We bought our first house in Harvest Hills (124,000)
2002- Andrea was temporarily transferred to Fresno, California for two weeks, during the Olympics.
2003- Alivia was born, Andrea found out she was pregnant again, Ben started at the American Fork Target and Ben got a bionic leg.
2004-Cooper was born and we had 2 under 2
2005-First trip to Europe. We decided to put our house up for sale and sold it in 3 weeks, thought we were going to move to Salt Lake County but houses were too expensive so put some money down on a bigger lot in the same neighborhood.
2006-Bauer was born
2007-Andrea turns 30, we celebrated on a Western Carribean cruise. Ben went to STL interviews. Passes off to be a STL for Target.
2008-Andrea had an emergency c section and Kessler was born (we had four kids) HOLY COW!!
2009-Ben was a temporary STL
2010-Ben turns 35, celebratory vacation to Vegas. Ben went back to the store he originally opened as a team leader and was now the Store manager he also gets nominated to be a district manager and starts the training/interview process.
2011-We were married for 11 years at 11:11 on 11-11-11
2012-13 years today!

Daily Thanksgiving-Friends

I am thankful today for a lot, but want to send a shout out to all my amazing friends.

I may have mentioned this before but my friends growing up, saved me. Their friendship saved me, their parents examples saved me, I had really great friends growing up and they helped me stay on the right path when my parents weren't too involved in what path I went down.

I hope my kids will always have great friends, they have been so blessed in their short lives to have amazing examples at every turn and in things that I lack, their friends parents have in abundance and I am thankful for that.

I am thankful for my friends that let me be me, and still like me:) I am thankful for friends who try to be my friend, who sacrifice time and energy "checking" up on me.

I hope that I can always be a good friend and that it will be easy to have me as a friend.

Lots of good friend quotes but this is one of my favorites.

"A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart, and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words." 

-C.S Lewis

Daily Thanksgiving-freedom

I am thankful for my freedom even though it is not free. I am thankful for the rights I have in my life and the abilities that I have every single day that I take for granted to often.
I do know that our freedom can be taken away from us, I don't anticipate it being taken away however, I know it can be stifled by good being seen as evil, and evil being seen as good. And recently, especially tonight, I feel as if some of our freedoms are being taken away by debt, evil, disasters, not standing up for what is right and many more things.
But for tonight I will be thankful for the majority of amazing freedoms I do have.

Daily Thanksgiving-desire

That kind of made me giggle when I typed in the heading, but it is a desire to try and do my best. I don't always do my best, but I do have a deep in desire to be a good mom, a good daughter, a good sister, a good friend, a good neighbor, a good employee and a good citizen. I also am thankful for the desire to be healthy although I still have some much needed improvement I always have the desire to learn more, improve and get stronger.