Thankful..

I am thankful for so many things... sometimes when I pause to say thank you I have the compulsion to think of large, enormous events or items to say thank you for, when really, there are so many small things that make our lives a blessing and I want to say thank you for those silver linings...

Tuesday morning is Cougar Christian Outreach meeting.. we meet at 7:15am. There are teachers and students all together in a classroom listening to a student prepared devotional and prayer. It is no coincidence that my Tuesdays are always calmer and focused. It is another blessing... from God.. through students...

My co-worker, Karen. WOW! She has such high expectations of herself and she keeps my type A, 42 year old self on the ball and I LOVE IT! She is encouraging, motivating, uplifting, and trusting. I am at such ease when we bounce ideas off of each other and benefit from her willingness to fill the gaps in my knowledge of literacy! We work in such a positive, encouraging, and challenging culture... it is truly a blessing to be a Kirksey Cougar teacher and the mother of a Kirksey Cougar student! I do have a friend that had a stressful day at work today and she is in my thoughts and prayers tonight!

Tuesday spent last weekend with us. She gave up the opportunity to go to a concert with friends (and we even offered to pay for the gas) so she could be at home and spend an evening with Utah and ease our mind about what Utah would be doing while we were out with friends. She ate breakfast with us Saturday and took Utah and a friend to Fastlane on Sunday before heading back to Fayetteville. She is volunteering at a school in Rogers and is now helping the Kirksey Cougar girl's basketball coach with practice a couple days a week. She is doing all of that while holding down two jobs and the frequent babysitting gig and she is taking 16 hours in school! Good thing she is young... a schedule like that would kill me! Tod is on his way to meet her and a friend at Subway - she locked her keys in her car :-)

Utah is such a sweet kid.. he is doing great in school.. has good friends and is looking forward to off season football...

We miss Hannah.

Our 5 day vacation is coming up and we are getting excited (though we will miss our family during Thanksgiving).. we are making hair appointments, pedicure appointments, spray tan appointments... anything to look like we aren't surprised by the sunshine and bathing suits! We will post lots of pictures! We wish Tod was coming with us but at the time we booked the vacation we didn't have anyone to board the dogs... now we do, but there aren't any vacancies.... he is going to get an awesome Christmas present...

Christmas shopping... yikes! I started this week.... some gifts are very obvious.. others are more challenging...

I spoke to my sister Elizabeth and we are hoping for a visit to Springfield between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I have really enjoyed the frequent emails and phone calls and having a sibling so close to home. She is a level headed role model that I took for granted, struggled against, and now have come to deeply appreciate!

Sarah would have been 16 on December 2nd. WOW! Tod selected our Christmas Angel from the Salvation Army tree and we will go shopping as a family for her some presents. We do this in memory of Sarah and in honor of her life.

On a lighter note... here are some pictures!

This is the jacket Tuesday picked out while shopping... when she asked if she could have a yellow wool coat, I was a little nervous.. but it is beautiful and she looks gorgeous in it, of course!

Silly Saturday morning with a HUGE 8 month old puppy!