All the things I'm grateful for...

The tradition of celebrating a day of giving thanks is a new concept to me, introduced only within the last decade. It's interesting to see how ungrateful people can be throughout the year, especially when they have so much. In Brazil, people don't have nearly as many things as we do here (i.e. dishwashers, washers/dryers, bathtubs, etc). I know I've been very ungrateful this year, mostly because of all the other huge problems hovering over us. It's easy to forget to thank our Heavenly Father who sends us abundant blessings each and every day. In light of the Thanksgiving holiday that came and went in the blink of an eye, I wanted to post about a few things that I'm grateful for.
-I'm grateful to have a healthy family who is supportive of me going through this much schooling so one day we can have a better life. You don't usually find that supportive of a husband. Elijah's been sacrificing the little time we have each week together so I can barricade myself in the office doing endless hours of homework and research work. (For info on how my school is doing, click here)
-I'm grateful for having jobs. Jobs are so scarce, especially now that the unemployment rate is 10%+. We've been very blessed to work for stable companies that are flexible enough to schedule us when it works best for us.
-I'm grateful for all the things we own, including, but are not limited to, our house, our (now) functioning cars, all of Bubba's toys, furniture, pantry and fridge full of food, and all of the appliances that are working properly.
-I'm grateful for our parents and friends that help us with babysitting while Elijah and I are either at work or at school. It's HUGE to not have to pay for daycare or to have some strange person watch him.
-I'm grateful for the Gospel in our lives, although we haven't been to church in a while (because of work). It helps to know someone's there listening.
-I'm grateful for our friends and family that are also supportive and are there to help us whenever we need it.

For Thanksgiving this year, we went to Elijah's moms house and had dinner there, along with my mom and my brother James. Jacen went to town on the food. He ate a lot of what was on his plate, which was A LOT... The food and the company were great! The last two years have been quieter because Victor's gone on his mission and our family got smaller. But they've been good because it gives us a chance to really enjoy the holidays without it being chaotic. Then later that night I had to go into work, which was fine. I like spending a part of the holidays with co-workers. They make it fun and entertaining!

On a side note, I wanted to publicly announce I'm retiring my black backpack.

Obviously it doesn't look like this anymore, but it's still not worn out either. For any of you that went to Cottonwood High School with me, I've been using this same backpack since 9th grade. Yes, you read it right: 9TH GRADE. This backpack has survived almost 10 school years. It's been a very dependable, sturdy backpack, which I currently consider to be my lucky charm. It got me through high school graduation, and my associates degree. When I first saw it, my mom almost had a stroke when we found out it cost $60, but it's been a good investment. Thanks, mom!

Now that I'm a big girl and I'm going to the U for good, I'm thinking of switching to either a messenger bag or a more lively version of the black backpack:

What do you think?

I hope everyone enjoyed their holiday! Now, on to Christmas... Our favorite holiday of the year!