So Much To Be Thankful For

I am Thankful for clean, running water that I can choose to be hot or cold. Running water is a freaking miracle. Rick and I lived without running water in our bathroom/laundry room for almost a month. It was horrible, and I wanted to complain about it everyday, but when we realized we still had running water in the kitchen I felt like the luckiest person in the world. I was able to brush my teeth whenever I felt like it, and every day I looked forward to it. What used to be a chore (taking a shower, washing my hair, doing laundry, doing dishes, etc.) is now a blessing. I have running water! I can flush the toilet! We don't have to give each other billy baths! We are so lucky.

I am Thankful for electricity. You want light? Bam, just flip a light switch. You want heat or cold? Just push some buttons on your thermostat. So easy, so simple. It keeps the food in my fridge cold and cooks my oven cooked meals. I can't imagine life without electricity.

I am Thankful for food. I love food soooo much. Especially Thanksgiving food. We are so blessed to have 3 meals a day. There are too many people in this world that don't get that. My least favorite chore to do is dishes, and Christy and I always talk about how much we both hate doing dishes, and then I saw this quote and I realized how much of a blessing it is to have dirty dishes.

Dirty Dishes

Thank Heaven for dirty dishes,

They have a tale to tell,

While other folks go hungry,

We're eating very well.

With home and health and happiness,

We shouldn't want to fuss,

By this stack of evidence,

God is very good to us.

I am Thankful for clothes. During the Arizona summertime they are nothing but a nuisance, but the rest of the year they are comfortable and cute and necessary. I'm also Thankful for sales on clothes. Rick and I went Black Friday shopping for the first time this year because Rick is in desperate need of new jeans, but he only buys Hollister jeans because of his weirdly shaped legs and butt, and they can be expensive. On Black Friday everything was 50% off. 3 pairs of jeans for $75! Amazing.

I am Thankful for our cute apartment and our 2 cars that work. Of all the places we've lived, this is my favorite, I wouldn't mind it if we lived here for a long time. And we both drive 75+ miles a day for work. Our cars are old and rickety and should have broken down a long time ago but they haven't and we are so Thankful for that.

I am Thankful for our jobs. When Rick moved back to Utah he was laid off for 3 years. We had no idea when he would be called back to work, or how long it would take until he didn't have to worry about being laid off again. That made it impossible to try to plan anything for our future. It was all just a waiting game. Now we're here to stay and he's been working so hard and I'm learning how to be a railroaders wife. We can make plans for our future, finally. His job has taught me patience and taught me to suck it up and deal with the fact that he has the crappiest work schedule ever that makes it impossible to plan anything. I'm so Thankful for my job not just because of how it helps financially but I love my nanny family. This year was the first year in my life that I didn't spend Thanksgiving with my family and Christy invited us to spend Thanksgiving with her entire family. Good food (Southern style!) and good company, it meant so much to me.

I am Thankful for our Health Insurance. We don't need to use it a lot, but when we do, I'm so glad it's there. Especially since we just went to the Dentist for the first time in a looooooooong time and we need a ton of work done. If we didn't have Health Insurance the work we need done would cost $10,000.00. With our Insurance we will pay a fraction of that. We're lucky.

I am Thankful for our wonderful friends and family. They've shaped us into who we are today. I miss my Utah friends and family like crazy but I think we'll get to see them for Christmas.

I am Thankful for everything and anything that has to do with Church. We suck at going, and normally when people struggle with going to Church it's because of a Testimony issue or an issue between them and the people there. Ours is actually the exact opposite. Our Testimonies have grown by miles since moving to Arizona, I loved our ward in Tucson and I love our ward here, it's our schedules that are the problem. Rick has been consistently working either grave shifts saturday nights or morning shifts on sundays, and I work every sunday. It's hard but we're getting better.

I am Thankful for Rick. I gush about him a lot, it even annoys me sometimes, but I really just love the crap out of him. I thought I was going to freak out when we first moved here because I've never lived outside of Provo before, but I learned that Home is wherever he is.

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving.