Things I'm Thankful For...

...because I need to remember.



1) Tonight Nathan and I get to leave all the work and drama behind to head to Portland for the weekend to see my inlaws and have our Christmas time with them. We haven't seen them in a while, so it's going to be great to be able to spend some quality time together.

2) Also on our trip to Portland, we're going to see our friends Johnny and Laura. Johnny has been Nathan's best friend since grade school, and Laura is his fiancee. I haven't gotten to see them since...wow, it's been a REALLY long time, and I miss them like crazy.

3) My parents are getting to our house tonight, just a few hours after we leave. This means that we don't have to pay to put two dogs in the kennel at the vet for 4 days!

4) Even with how crappy of a day it was at work yesterday, the night ended well. After going to my work Christmas party for all of half an hour, Nathan and I met Brandie at Barley's, we had some fries and beer, got to talk with Tyler (the owner) for quite a while about his brew styles, and played darts. It was a good way to end a bad day.

5) I'm getting off work tonight at 6:00 instead of 7:00, which means we can get on the road earlier.

6) Even though my work situation kind of sucks right now and I have to do a ride along with the scariest Sgt we have, he had the decency to come into dispatch last night because he knew how stressed out I was about this ride along. Basically the purpose of this ride along is for him to tell me the concerns he and other officers have about my work. But he told me last night to relax, he isn't going to be mean, we're just going to go talk through some things, and he expect me to be as honest with him as he is going to be with me. It's actually kind of a relief to know that SOMEONE is going to give me some honest and specific feedback, for the first time since I started this job a year ago. Hopefully I can get through this 4 hours without crying.

7) My amazing husband...he's just the best.

8) It's snowing. Not so great for our trip tonight, but it makes me happy.

9) The stress about making Christmas gifts is over. I just have some little detail work to do, then it's into a gift bag and under the tree.

10) My house is clean. Not spotless, but definitely tidy. Having a messy house majorly contributes to me being highly stressed out. So that's one less stresser in my life right now.

11) As soon as we get to Portland, I'm done worrying about stuff. It's my mini vacation and I refuse to let myself dwell on things that I have no control over while I'm there! Actually, as soon as I leave work tonight, I'll be leaving all that behind, but there will still be the slight worry about getting to Portland in one piece. But Nathan's an excellent driver, so I'm not really worried.

12) I just found out that during the first weekend in February, I get to take 4 amazing Young Life girls to Campaigner's Camp at Wildhorse Canyon (the YL camp, not the casino). Two of the girls are definitely going and the other two are about 98% sure they're going. So far, there isn't a guy leader who can take any boys, so it's going to be just us girls. I'm so incredibly excited to spend the weekend getting closer to these girls. Campaigner's camp is different from normal YL camps in that it's all about going deeper in your relationship with God, while summer and fall camps are mostly about introducing kids to the idea of God. Three of the four girls went to summer camp at Malibu, Canada with me in June, so it's a big treat to get to take them to this camp. Plus, I get to go back to Wildhorse for the first time in about 3 years (geeze, has it really been that long?!). I spent a month working there for two summers in a row, plus the time I spent taking kids to camp there, so the place became like a home away from home and I've missed it terribly. I haven't been there since the new club house was built, or since they remodeled the "mall" to be housing for the monthly work staff. You can check out the camp website at www.wildhorse.younglife.org .

13) It's not snowing anymore...now we have some blue skies. But stay tuned, it may be snowing again in another half an hour. ;)

14) Our doggies continue to love playing with each other and Heidi is getting over her fear of people...she's even learning to play with toys, something she's never done before. Last night, she played fetch with Nathan!

15) It's snowing again...AND it's blue skies...as in, snow, coming out of a sky that really has no clouds in it. We have some freaky weather. I love it.