Thankful Thursday: Week 2 and LOTS of good news

Today has been incredible!  I haven't been doing the whole 30 Days of Thanks deal on facebook, but I totally could have caught up on it with just the awesome stuff that has gone on in the last 24 hours.  In fact I think I will try.

1. Brandon got a signed letter of recommendation from his Lieutenant Colonel.
2. His Captain will have a signed letter ready for him soon.
3. A Warrent Officer should be back from the field next week and will meet with Brandon and then write a letter of recommendation.
4. Brandon's security clearance is taken care of.
5. Veronica's social security card showed up so we were able to get her on our insurance with a week to spare.
6. Brandon found out he will be a gunner for a Bradley - no more sitting around bored while they drive around.
7. I registered the domain name for my new blog.
8. We paid the last student loan payment for this "year."  (Only 13 more to go!)
9. The kids and I skyped with my sister's pre-school kids as part of their lesson on communication. (Technology is awesome.)
10. I got all the laundry put away.
11. All our bills are paid for the month.
12. The kids all slept in until 8:00 am.
13. We babysat the neighbor kids for a couple hours.  Those kids kept the twins from taking a nap so they went to bed early and easy (YAY!!!!)
14.  We ate ice cream to celebrate all these things. I put white chocolate and sprinkles on the cones to make them extra special.

We are so grateful for all these things that have happened - especially in relation to Brandon's Warren Officer Application. Lately, Brandon has fasted and prayed a lot for Heavenly Father's help in this process.  After today he has a much stronger testimony of fasting.  He told me today, "If you want the Army to move fast, you should fast."

In addition to these things that we are grateful for today I've also been feeling thankful for many things that people have done for me over the years.  Here is the list of people I thanked as part of my month of writing Thank You Notes (or, more accurately, Thank You Facebook Messages.)

Thursday November 7: I lived in Ephraim, Utah during the Summer of 2006. I lived in a house with other girls for most of that summer.  But my contract ended 3 weeks before my job did.  I moved in with my friend Cheysi and her family for those 3 weeks.  I had so much fun living with them.  There were things that they did like say, "I love you" to each other all the time that I wanted to do with my future family.

I messaged Chesyi's mom, Sunshine, and thanked her for opening up her home to me.

Friday November 8:  My Aunt Cheryl has passed a lot of her daughters' clothes to my girls.  It seems like every time I visited her house she had another box of clothes to give me.

Saturday November 9: The very first week Brandon and I went to our Branch we were very impressed by the Sunday School Teacher.  Brother Simons knew how to keep the class on topic, but he also could take us on interesting and insightful detours as the spirit directed.  I loved attending his class.  After he moved out I eventually was called as the Gospel Doctrine teacher.  I hoped I could be as good of a teacher as him.

Sunday November 10: After Veronica was born we ended up in the hospital on post.  A sister in my ward named Penny works there.  She brought me a big cup full of candy.  I was so happy to know that I had a friend in the building.  

Monday November 11: This was Veteran's Day so I decided to message my friend Kim.  Her husband died in combat several years ago.  I wanted her to know that I was grateful for his and her sacrifice.  I've known Kim since 7th grade and so I also thanked her for being my friend back then.  She was in 9th grade and I really looked up to her.

Tuesday November 12: Way back when I was 11 I hated Primary.  I was the only girl my age and I just wanted to move into the Young Women.  But then I had a teacher named Tish who I adored.  She made me like coming to church and learning about the gospel.

Wednesday November 13: Remember way when I was 8 months pregnant with Derrick and I decided it was a good idea to move our family from our up stairs apartment to one downstairs?  Well lots of people helped with that move including the Sister Missionaries.  One of the sisters, Sister Snow, was brand new to the mission.  She came and helped clean my bathroom and kitchen without ever having met me before.  Later we got to know each other and became friends.


How about you?  What are you grateful for? Who have you thanked?  Leave a comment if you want to share. Even if you aren't able to write 30 Thank you notes you should at least write one.  Some of the people I thanked wrote me back saying that I had made their day.  This really is such an easy way to give service.