Gratitude Journal from 2016
January 1st
Grateful for good friends like Megan G - who gave me this journal. I am surrounded by great women who I look up to. My far away friends Marilee, Geneva, Missy, Terri and Monae. My colorado friends, Amy, Megan, Tiffany, Leah and Liz and so many more great ladies in the ward… Michell, Kym, Jen, Saralyn, Paula, Ashley and my Pinecreek friends… Mary, Megan, Emma, Sara and my Germany buddies… Brittany, Heidi and Melissa. All of these people have blessed my life. So grateful for their kindness, understanding and examples of living as righteous women. So many great memories with all of these friends.
February 18th
We will always look back at our memories of Cabo with joy. We just got back from a 4 night all inclusive resort with Chris’ parents, siblings and spouces. It was a great little retreat to celebrate Del’s 70th Birthday. Chris and his family researched and booked the trip back in September when Del was diagnosed with brain cancer. We figured we had better spend some quality time together before it was too late. It was great to be all together — but hard to see Del deteriorating so quickly. He hardly had any energy, has lost the ability to speak and was in his wheel chair a lot. Still, it was great to be with him, and to watch Chris support him and his mom. He is such a wonderful supportive son. It was a good trip with great memories.
April 21st
Grate for my marriage.
Grateful for intentional parenting and good kids.
Grateful for great friends and fun girls trips.
Grateful for new woodworking in the dining room and downstairs.
Grateful for our Europe trip in FIVE weeks!
May 2nd
Grateful for Swing Dance for my girls. They love it.
Grateful for Christmas breakfast for dinner.
Grateful for Matt feeling better. He’s been throwing up this weekend
Grateful for FHE working on the kids ‘Europe travel schedule’ with Chris.
Grateful for time reading old emails and journal entries with the big kids. I need to write more and read more with the kids. It’s so fun!!
May 3rd
Grateful for Katie’s Choir Performance. It was so fun. The kids loved it because of the movie and Disney songs and Newsie finale.
Grateful for Barnes and Noble — so fun to look at everything.
Grateful that Ryan’s graduation announcements are addressed and ready to go.
Grateful for the little boys prayers. Luke:
“Please bless Ryan that he won’t forget any Albanian words so he can preach the gospel the right way.”
“Thank you for our loving sister Katie and that she did such cool moves at her choir concert.”
“Help Dad and Grandma not be lonely because of Grandpa.”
Grateful to read a marriage article with Chris.
May 7th
The women’s conference was today and was really great. I taught a class on Intentional Parenting and I was pretty nervous for it but it went great. A lot of compliments. The other classes were great and the lunch of salads was perfect. Everything went great.
Matt’s birthday is tomorrow and he is so excited. He chose brownies and ice cream for his birthday treat and also picked out some Star Wars masks. Very fun! So cute to have a 7 year old.
We went to a dinner as a family to Costa Vida. Love that place.
The downstairs ship lap and ceiling was painted white and it makes it so much brighter. We love it!
Ryan is such a helpful son. He helped us put the downstairs back together again without any hesitation. Love his support. We are going to miss him!
May 12th
Grateful for a wonderful Mother’s Day breakfast and cards and a surprise girls overnighter in Denver. I’m so happy to be a mom!
Grateful for good kids who inspired us to start reading scriptures at 6:30am in the morning!
So happy to see Matt so happy with his presents. What a cute kid!
So grateful to get my hair done. Yay!!
Grateful for Bob’s soccer team. Only two games left in the season!
May 20th
Grateful for Seminary Graduation for Ryan and such a good teacher… Brother Goss.
Grateful that Katie earned her YW Medallion.
Glad to talked with someone about her son’s tics. Grateful to have a direction to go with Luke.
SO EXCITED!!! Only six days until we go to Germany! We CAN NOT WAIT!!!
Such a great weekend with Megan J, Kym, Liz, Amy, Michelle and Tiffany. Such good friends.
July 17th
Grateful to be back in my house after THREE AMAZING VACATIONS:
Germany, UK, Paris
Telluride with the Johnsons
Tahoe with the Waltons. So grateful for our families and for vacation!
Grateful that Ryan is doing so well in the MTC. He’s been there for a MONTH now. Love him.
Grateful that Katie has been accepted as a counselor for Hight Trails and is assigned to go the same week as Megan. So fun!
Grateful that the BYU football season is starting. We’re having a Big 7 family party on Saturday for the first game.
Grateful that the kids are back ins chool and the wcheudle for everything is finally getting all worked out.
Grateful for Brooklyn 99 - we watch it in bed and it makes me laugh!
September 2nd
Grateful for a letter from Cheryl Benson… Ryan’s mission companion’s mom.
Grateful to get some good organizing done in the garage and storage room. We’re ready to install a new garage cuboards and system.
Grateful to have run 2 1/2 miles this morning with Chris, Luke and Matt at Running Club.
Grateful that Katie has good friends and is so social and excited to participate in fun events.
Grateful that Chris is doing well golfing lately.
September 20th
Grateful for letters from Ryan.
Grateful for Running Club with Luke and Matt.
Grateful for starting a healthy challenge with my family and really having a great first day.
Grateul for consistently skyping with my mom and dad. Excited for my trip to Canada soon.
Grateful for talks on Motivation to live the gospel
Grateful that Chris and I organized the downstairs storage room. It looks so good and nmow will be able to hold all the food storage we plan to buy.
Grateful for lunch with Chris at Modern Market — Thai Salad.
Grateful for Day 2 of exercising and eating good.
Grateful for volunteering in Matthew’s classroom. Mr. Beck seems like a great teacher and Matt was SO excited to have me in there.
Grateful that Mike and Carly are going to have a baby girl! (Feb 2nd)
September 21st
Opportunities I have:
The opportunity to be a wife and a mother… best job and the most important.
The opportunity to be in the Stake Relief Society with good women. So great.
The opportunity to have lived so many neat places to experience different parts of the world and meet so many good people.
Grateful for:
Aspen trees and beautiful scenery.
Friends
Being good on my health challenge
Chris thinking I’m cute
Auxiliaty Training tonight and that it’s over!
December 30th
Grateful for a New Year ahead and that Christmas is done and packed away.
Time to focus on what really matters… family time, FHE, reading scriptures, organizing, being DELIBERATE with our time, choices and MONEY.
Getting excited for two Mexico trips!