Happy Thanksgiving month!

Thanksgiving is in one week(!!) 

I am thankful for God, family, friends, and all the beautiful people I get to meet. 

I am thankful for hands to write, play the piano, embrace other hands, flip through pages in books, place on a yoga mat, hold babies, cook, brush my teeth, try to eat with chopsticks, glue things together, and to do everything else I choose to use my hands for. 

I am thankful for teachers.  Every day so many people teach me.   

I'm thankful for how it feels to snuggle up in warm blankets.  

I am thankful for herbal tea.

I am thankful for my vitamix.

I am thankful for healthy, fresh food in abundance. 

I am thankful for hot cookies out of the oven--you know, when they melt in your mouth. 

I am thankful for my education. 

I'm thankful for temples. 

I am thankful for the warm apartment in which I live.

I am thankful for prophets and apostles.

I am thankful for Christ’s gospel.

I am thankful for eyes to see colors and nature and words and people and art and all other good things eyes can see.

I am thankful for happy times and sad times.  I am thankful for different seasons in life, and the things we learn in the different phases.

I am thankful for my mission call to Florida.  

I am thankful for my LIFE mission as well--what I’m here on EARTH to do. 

I am thankful for my mother’s long hugs.  I will never forget a few years ago after a nasty break-up with my boyfriend, I felt a real sense of betrayal for the first time.  My mom held my sobbing 18-year-old self for as long as I needed her.  Then she spent the night in my bedroom as I cried myself to sleep.  

I am thankful for Father’s blessings from my dad.  He listens and he conveys what the Spirit tells him.  I write down what I remember from his blessings and refer to them often.  These recorded blessings are some of my most important possessions.  

I am thankful for Kait’s hiccups and bird calls and other hilarious sounds.  I am thankful for her humor.  She can always lighten a situation.  She has a way of easing awkward situations by using humor. 

I am thankful for Shalane/Boohbah’s sweet smiles and for her giving nature.  She is always willing to share and go "above-and-beyond."  And she is one of the hardest workers I know.  

I am thankful for the four Carson family cats.  Yes, we are crazy cat people. I love those cats.  

I am thankful for not inheriting my mom’s cancer that killed both her father and her brother.  I am thankful for my mom’s life, thanks to advances in medicine (and God's hands).  I am also thankful that through her surgeries, she has survived and that her faith has remained.  I am thankful for her faith in God—and in people.  She loves people. 

I am thankful that my Dad taught me to love reading when I was a young child.  He'd finish a book and I'd say, "Again, Daddy!  Again!"  He would tirelessly read those books over, and over, and over--until we both fell asleep.  

Then later when I read on my own and fell in love with novels, he encouraged me to get all those AR points.  I am thankful he took me to every Harry Potter book premier.    

I am thankful for my grandparents, my aunts and uncles, my cousins, and for the experiences we've had together.  I miss them and they stay with me in spirit.  I remember the things they've taught me and the love they've shown me, and I am thankful I have these wonderful people to call my family.  

I am thankful that I was able to study abroad in Jerusalem. 

I am thankful for my dear roommates and best friends.  Ariel and Elise have taught me so much and have shown an unconditional love for me that means so much.  I am thankful they forgive me over and over. 

I am thankful for stories.  Other than love, I believe stories are the most precious things we have to offer to others. 

I am thankful for the many years I have to look forward to, in which I’ll get to hear many stories, laugh often, get frustrated with (but then love) this experience of being human, and keep learning, learning, learning. 


I am thankful for sunshine on my face.


I'm thankful for shoes.


I'm thankful for airplanes and for cars and for bicycles.


I'm thankful for my ears.  I love to hear voices, music, wind, birds, laughter, babies cooing, and those Kentucky summer nights when you lay in bed and hear the orchestration of millions of insects.


I'm thankful for the leopard pajama pants Cottey bought me.  I'm thankful for Cottey and for our times together.  I'm thankful for Sam.


I'm thankful for letters from Tiffany.


I'm thankful for emails from Molly.  


I'm thankful for happy marriages.  There is nothing more beautiful to me than seeing a man and a woman completely dedicated to each other because they are dedicated to God.  It is pure.  


I am thankful for the priesthood.


I am thankful for sleep.  Goodnight :)