Thankful Thursday

Yesterday we celebrated this girl and today is a brand new day and we get to celebrate this one

Who is this? This is the other best sister in the world, HALEY.  Haley turned 17 today.  Yeah, her birthday is the day after Jordan's.  Sometimes I feel left out...not really, I like having my own birthday month!

Since today is Thankful Thursday and Haley's birthday it is going to be all about her!

I'm thankful for:

1) The way in which she has handled the last couple of years in her life, it's been impressive, and she has set quite the example.

2) The sweet little spirit that she brought into this world last year.

3) That she can be silly.

4) That she so obviously cares so much about all of those that she loves.

5) That I know she will always be there if I need her and will do anything to help.

Love and Friday Night Fun

If there is one thing that defines my husband it is that he LOVES his family.  He is one of six boys and I think that the relationship that they all have is truly inspiring. They hug each other all the time and never end a conversation without saying "love ya man."  Sometimes the entire point of a phone call is just to tell each other that they love them and just wanted to see what they were up to.  In the last year and however many months that I have known Jake and his family and had a front row seat to this I have tried to let it wash over me.  I love these little bits of love and kindness that they show each other.  I have never been one to just tell someone I love them, even if I do, I used to think that it was a phrase that had a tendency to be overused, but I don't think you can overuse that phrase.  Jake tells me that he loves me, I kid you not, no less than 20 times a day, and I relish in those words every time they pass his lips.  As I have gotten to know his family I have truly fallen in love with all of them as well and those words pass my lips easily in daily interaction with them, with all of the conviction that I have that they are true.

Speaking of family...check out this sweet one

This is Jake's brother Jason, his wife Jaylyn and their five kids Adeline, Jeffrey, Porter, Miranda and Roy. You don't get much cuter than this.  Jake and I love to go over to Jason and Jaylyn's house, the food is always so good and Jaylyn always has fresh pineapple, YUM! The conversation always flows and these two are so funny.  Their kids are a hoot as well.  Tonight Adeline told me some spy secrets and Miranda and Roy couldn't wait to eat the cookies we brought over.  They are so fun to be with.  I love that I gained sixteen nieces and nephews in this whole marriage deal, they are all so sweet and snuggly.  We watched a movie called The Trial tonight.  It was oddly similar to a lifetime movie and filmed here in Charlotte.  Jake picked it out and when it was over he hated himself for it.  Jaylyn and I liked it even through it's unrealistic jury verdict...go figure.

So thank you for all of the fun Jason and Jaylyn, we ALWAYS love coming and hanging out with you guys and maybe Jake will get his movie picking act together for next time.

Family is such a blessing.  Jake and I have been blessed with two really large families and we love it.  It is something that I often take for granted but in those moments when I realize just how important it is and how much of my heart my family consumes it is astonishing that such a thing can be forgotten in the run of the mill typical life of this full time student and worker and wife.

So in case we don't say it enough, thank you family, we love you more than you  know and more than anything we love spending our time with you.

Thankful Thursday

Thankful for...
- Husband's usual good health...he's been sick lately and it's pitiful-I don't handle Jake being sick very well, i'm not used to that and I get really dramatic when something is wrong and think that it is never going to end...hopefully husband being sick ends SOON!
- My sweet dog who comes and lays really close to me and rests his head on my lap when I cry...I don't cry that much, but he's sitting here next to me and I'm thankful for him.
- Using my not feeling well this morning to buy myself a day of no school...It wasn't a lie, I really don't feel that well, but I probably could have made through my day of classes.
- Fresh pineapple...the kind from Aldi that is like a dollar and popping it in my mouth to have the juice explode and think that that if heaven had a taste it would probably be very similar.
- The great family that I married into...sixteen nieces and nephews...5 brothers and sisters-in-law...mom and pop-in-law...lots of hugs...lots of love...I lucked out.

What are you thankful for?

I can see the light...

This semester is almost over and the next three weeks can't go by soon enough! This has by far been my most stressful semester since entering college four and a half years ago. Even more stressful then the year that I transferred schools, or the one where I changed my major TWICE, or the one where I had statistics (which i'm terrible at). I would actually venture to say that this has been more stressful then all of those combined! BUT, it's coming to end very soon, which is something I could not be happier about! All that stand between me and the end is...teaching a 9 hour class to inmates, yes, inmates, preparing this class from scratch, writing a 10 page paper, a two page paper, four finals and two presentations. The light is dim, but it's there.

Jake and I are settled in for the most part, there are still a lot of things that I want to do to the house but that will have to wait for Christmas break because I don't have time to do it right now. I want to paint two rooms, finish hanging things on the wall, organize the laundry room, throw a bunch of stuff away, finally see the laundry room with no laundry actually in it, organize the kitchen cabinets and get all of the scraps from previous projects out of here! Some of my favorite things about living in our cozy little two bedroom, one bathroom house with Jake is that I always feel warm, we have two space heaters, one is more attractive then the other, but a space heater none the less and they give off terrific heat which makes me like the winter a little more. Sometimes I come home and Jake has made me dinner and lit candles, it's so sweet. I like to watch Jake perform little household projects, I especially like when he lifts things to move them out of his way because I can see the muscles in his arms pop out, and I like that we are always laughing at each other and smiling about something, our house is really very warm, and cozy and snuggly. I'll post all of our before and after pics of the house when everything doesn't look like a before anymore.

I miss my family. I haven't seen then in over a month, since we got back from honeymoon, and I don't like to just see them over pictures that my sister posts on facebook. My nephew is getting so big, he's sitting on his toy tractor by himself now, and I don't know when that happened! I need to get home, and soon! Jake and I have decided to go either this Friday night or Saturday morning. It will be nice to see them all again.

I put my two weeks notice in at Target last Wednesday and so that will finally be coming to an end after three and half of years. I couldn't be happier about this. Jake and I decided that I'm not making enough to warrant the half hour drive to Charlotte everyday, which is good, because I hate that drive, especially on Friday nights. Next semester I will only have to go over there three times a week and so I might as well not drive six times if I only have to do it three. I will be looking for something else immediately after the end of this semester and I hope to find something more in the public health field since I will finally be graduating in May and needed to support my sweet husband for the next three years while he finishes school. I would really take a job in any field though, as long as it's not Target!

Now it's my turn...

I decided that Carly was having too much fun blogging about different things, so I commandeered her blog and now I'm going to write something for myself. Actually, in talking this past week I told her that I wanted to write a post on her blog with some of the reasons why I love her...but as you can tell from her last post, she stole my idea. So, now I'm going to share a few of the reasons why I love her, but keep in mind that these are just things that are on the forefront of my brain and that there are countless reasons that I am completely in love with her. Also, keep in mind that these are in no particular order.

1) She loves me as much as I love her, even though I have WAY more faults than her.

2) She makes me laugh and smile when I'm not having a good day

3) She makes my good days even better

4) She understands me, and listens to me when I'm telling her my frustrations

5) She has a testimony

6) She keeps me from killing Doc

7) She makes me feel like no one has ever made me feel

8) She laughs at my corny jokes

9) She calls me even when she doesn't have anything to say

10) I can't stand it when she isn't around

11) She makes me want to be a better person so that I can treat her like the princess that she is

12) She lets me write on her blog

13) She makes cd's with songs that we like for me to listen to in my truck

14) She isn't afraid to be herself when she's around me and lets me

15) She shares her feelings with me(even though not always right away...I get impatient sometimes)

16) She doesn't judge me for weird habits I have or weird things I like to do

17) She loves my family

18) She has such an awesome family

19) She says she isn't going to talk about the wedding or do any planning until after this semester ends, but she calls me almost daily to tell me something new she thought of

20) She follows the "whats yours is mine" rule and makes me follow it too

21) She calls me when I'm at work which makes my days go by so much easier

22) She comes to spend time with me after work, even though its late sometimes

23) She cares about what I think

24) She is beautiful, smart, funny, witty, clever, cute, amazing, gorgeous, and is my best friend in the entire world.

25) She said YES!(after I told her to "just answer the question")

I Had the Best Day With You

I had such a good weekend! On Saturday I went to work in the photo lab, which I actually really enjoy doing. I like developing people's pictures and getting glimpses into other people's lives. Then I got to meet my Mom and Aunt Angela who surprised me with getting my hair cut, which I love! It looks so thick, and I have such thin hair so so I like the change.

After beauty shop fun, we went to eat at Showmars, which isn't my favorite place, but it was good. Then it was time to go shopping and we started by going to my new

favorite store...Kmart, I didn't even know they still existed! But they do! When we got to the cash register everything rang up like %50 off, which is why it's my new favorite.

I had to rush back home to get ready to go to Jasher and Jenny's reception. I'm so happy for them! Jasher has been one of my best friends and has done so much for me in the past, I'm so happy that he has Jenny to make him happy.

Sunday was even better then Saturday was. Jake and I met my family Sunday morning and went to the Concord Ward to hear Jerry Killian sing in their Christmas program. I love Christmas songs (at church, not when they're on the radio) so I was excited to go to my second Christmas program this year. Jerry did so good, he sang Mary Did You Know? and it's such a great song.

Then we got to come home to my parent's house for lunch. I love being at home, I love how comfortable it is, I love that Russo is here, I love that their is always something going on, and there is always someone here, I love that my aunt and uncle live down the street, and my grandpa lives next door. My grandmother from Atlanta was here yesterday while we were and we got to spend some time with her and my cousins that live next door.My brothers and sisters and cousins

Me & my cousin SamanthaMe and Jake

Jake and I left a little while after lunch to go to his parents house for dinner. I was really nervous! Jake has a lot of family. Yeah he only has one more sibling then me, but most of them

are married, which doubles that number and then they have kids and so that is a lot. It wasn't as big of deal as I had made it out to be in my head though. They were all very nice, not that I was expecting them to be otherwise. I was just worried I wouldn't fit in, or they wouldn't like me, but Jake was right, it wasn't like I was the center of attention and everyone was very welcoming. It was nice, and yes Jake, I would go back.

Jake and I went walking at the park in Kannapolis after dinner...It was freezing, but it was fun, we were going to ride the train around the park but we couldn't figure out where to get on the train so we just walked. Then Jake let me cut his hair. Probably against his better judgement because I've never cut hair before but it was easy and I liked it.

Anyway, Enchanted was on tv after that, and it's been so long since I had seen it and I was so excited when Jake turned it on, because I didn't even see iton the guide, so he probably could have gotten away with watching football for a little while, but Enchanted was like 1000 times better then any football game.

It was time to go back home after Enchanted went off and so we set out on the our 40 minute trek back out to Norwood. I was so tired and almost fell asleep so it was a good thing that Jake was driving. When we got back to my parents house we hung out with Jordan for a little while and then Jake had to go back home so he could get up early for work the next day.

It was such a good day, not because of anything that I did that was very significant but because I was with people I cared about the whole time. So different from the days where I go to work and have to deal with rude, ignorant people. I'm going to make it a goal to spend more time at home from now on because it's where I like to be the most.

These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things

My family

Russo

Scriptures

Church

Jake

Blankets

Glade Candles

Christmas Time

Grey's Anatomy

Dr. Pepper

My Grandmom's House

Justin Timberlake

Tarheels

New Shoes & High Heels

Basketball

The Twilight Series

Dogs

Grooms Cake Ice Cream

Temples

Sharpie Pens

Flowers

Babies

my ipod

Holidays

Mascara

Surprises

Driving with the Windows Down & the Radio turned Up

Pay Day

Disney Princess Movies

Sushi

Road Trips

White Water Rafting

Home

Fuzzy Socks

My Bed

Sleeping In

Rainy Days

Naps

New Haircuts & Color