One Day At A Time....

Gratitude journal: day 20 I am extremely grateful for loving branch presidents and powerful priesthood blessings. After church today, the stress of my week started to catch up with me, causing me to feel lonely and overwhelmed. The thought came to mind to ask to meet with my branch president, Pres. Thacker. He was more than willing to sit down and chat, though I did more talking than he did. I talked about feeling overwhelmed because of the events going on such as school, my dad surgeries, home life, my grandmother's needle biopsy and Michelle having to move and maybe loosing her job. President Thacker sat and listened. Eventually, with me in tears as I was trying to spit everything out, he talked a bit and eventually said essentially that he didn't know what to say, and offered to give me a blessing, hinting that The Lord would know what to say to bring me comfort and strength. And boy, did it work. I cried most of the way through that blessing. Things were said, all ...

Gratitude journal: day 19 I am very grateful for 3 hour long naps and friends who are knowledgeable and willing to help me figure out this whole teaching and lesson planning thing.

Gratitude journal: day 18 I'm grateful for past experiences, funny stories, and late-night doctors offices. A friend received some unpleasant news about her job tonight. I am grateful that she didn't shut me out when I unexpectedly let myself into her house and let her talk and listen as much or little as she needed. I then told her some hilarious stories that were shared in my class tonight. As I was chatting with her, a guy friend and I were chatting. I'd messaged him to see if he had gone bowling, as is typical for his Monday evening plans. I was thinking of dragging someone with me to get her mind off of things, but was unable to because he was sick. I let hm know of he needed anything, to let me know. I've taken him Gatorade and crackers before when he had food poisoning last year. Less than an hour later, in the middle of video conferencing my sister, I see a few messages quickly from my sick friend stating he needed to go to a doctor because he had vomited b...

Gratitude Journal: day 17 Today I'm grateful for doors, pause buttons, and 2 hour delays. As I stated yesterday, I've got a bit of a "cold" going on. Sometimes I just want to be left alone. But people didn't get it sometimes. They kept knocking on my door and interrupting me relaxing. Or they would call and then not say much. Then, I'd have to pause what I was watching. When I am sick, I want to be left alone. Text messages are my preferred method of communication because I can decide when, where and if I wish to read and/or reply. I did prepare for my lesson, then school was canceled. And then my college classes were canceled. I will be asking for an extension for my video tape project as my school is on another two hour delay tomorrow morning.

Gratitude Journal: day 16 Today I am super grateful for modern medicine and medical centers. I went into the med center on campus today. I went just to make sure that my stuffy nose was just my seasonal allergies I battle when the temperature changes too frequently. Turns out my seasonal allergies caused a sinus infection which caused an ear infection bad enough that the doctor looked in my ear and said "Wow. Your eardrum is bulging. It looks like a doughnut. I wish I had a med student here to show them your ear!" I'm on Zyrtec for allergies for AT LEAST the next 30 days, High dose antibiotics for a week for the ear infection, Advil for sinus pressure/inflammation as needed, and 2 nasal sprays for clearing out my sinuses.

Gratitude journal: day 15 I'm gratefull for the little things like: The mood-altering giggle of a small, nonverbal child, excited to be lifted up/jump really high. It makes my whole day better when I get to go see my littlest preschool friends! The feeling of gratitude you feel after thinking ahead months ago and reeling the benefits tonight. As I packed my bookbag at the beginning of the semester, I bought 3-4 of my favorite Chapstick and put one in my bookbag. After melting my "usually in my pocket" one in the dryer a few days ago, my lips were getting a bit irritated. So I started looking for another Chapstick. Looked in the basket on my nightstand. Nothing. Looked in my purse. Nothing. Looked in my makeup case. Still nothing. I'd about given up when I saw my bookbag and remembered there was one inside. Sweet was the relief. The gift of music. A few weeks ago I heard a great song on Pandora entitled "Blessings" by Laura Story. The words to the en...