Christmas Eve

We had a wonderful Christmas this year.  I've been working on scrapbooking some pages for our 2010 book. Here's a glimpse at our Christmas.

Gratitude

The past month or so has been a real struggle at our house. With the stress of med school applications and finals, Christmas, a portfolio that I must do, papers to write for my masters class, and the Praxis exam coming up, I've really been feeling stressed/depressed/nervous and we've had a major case of anxiety in our house.  On top of that, I've been trying to find the motivation to start training for a triathlon and getting my body back where it was a year and a half ago.  Well with all of the other stuff going on I just keep gaining weight which has made me even more depressed.  Anyway, this blog isn't to complain, it's actually to express gratitude for the struggles I have.
The other day I was talking with a friend of mine at work.  She was telling me about this horrible illness she had a few years back which had started taking over her body and her mind and making it so she literally couldn't even take care of her family anymore.  After hearing her story my problems started to come into perspective for me. I may have all of these things do and so what if Brian doesn't get into school this year and is it really that big of deal to be carrying a few extra pounds?  Still I've been kind of down in the dumps about all of this crap, but after hearing that friends story and now another friends story today I feel truly grateful.
I talked to a friend today who found out the day before Christmas eve that his wife has cancer.  She went in for surgery that day and the doctor found more cancer.  On top of that his mother and father in law aren't well and are living with him and his mom isn't doing well either.  His oldest child is 15 and his youngest is around 3.  Hearing his story brought tears to my eyes.  How can I be so pathetic to think that my stupid little problems are so stressful and so overwhelming.  My heart goes out to my friend tonight.  I can't even imagine the pain and the stress he is going through right now. 
I am so grateful that at the time being my family is healthy, we may be on the edge of insane, but we are healthy.  I realize I need to be grateful for what I have and know it could always be worse.  My thoughts and prayers are with my friend, his wife and his family. 

Snow Day!!!

Never in my life have I had a snow day.  As a kid I remember thinking how great it would be to have a snow day, a day to stay home and play in the snow.  Of course it would be with my cousin Shayna and we would for sure have made snow forts and snowmen, and had a snowball fight or two and hopefully been able to coax one of our dads into tying the sleds onto the back of their truck to take us sledding.  Unfortunately that day never happened in my younger years.  However, now that I'm on the teacher/mom side of things, I actually had a "Snow Day".  
It all started on Monday, December 20th.  It started to snow that morning and it kept snowing, and snowing, and snowing!!  Now I wasn't to worried about the snow except for the fact that my dear husband was driving home from Missouri in this lovely storm.  Not only was he driving in the storm he was in a semi truck without a trailer. I'm not very semi savvy but I have heard that not having a trailer in this type of weather is not a good thing. I was expecting my ove home around 10pm, but 10pm rolled around and he still wasn't home and of course his phone was dead.  I stayed up late waiting for him and wrapping presents for my dear kiddos at school and getting ready for our Polar Express party the next day.  When I was finally done with all of the prep work for the next day Brian still wasn't home.  I was trying very hard not to be nervous about him traveling in the storm, it's now 1am and it honestly was still snowing! 
Around 5am on Tuesday the 21st my Love rolled in from his long journey to visit med. schools and to drop of the semi trailer my father-in-law had sold on Ebay.  When Brian came in from many hours of driving he told me of his adventurous ride home.  They did end up jack-knifing and sliding off the road, in Spanish Fork!!!  5 blocks from home!!!  They made it through Wyoming and Parley's Canyon and the place they slide off is Spanish Fork!?
Well, around 8 that morning I was woke by a text on my phone (yes I slept in extremely late due to going to bed at 1 and being woke up at 5 and then chatting for a bit) saying school is canceled.  What?  School canceled? NO!!!  I rushed downstairs and got online and sure enough it was canceled!!! Yay, a Snow Day!!!
Well with a day off school and it being only a few days before Christmas what better thing to do than go to my sister's and get my hair cut, so that's what I did.  I got my hair done and Bentley got to build a snowman with Kaulin and Sadie and have a snowball fight with Uncle Cory. What a day!