November: the month to be overly grateful.

Last week was hard. 

I was stressed about work and school, we spent a lot of money fixing Trev's car, and there was a little shakeup in our lives, so naturally I took out all of my emotions on my husband. Poor Trevor is my own personal punching bag sometimes (I mean that figuratively) and all he does is sit there and listen. He was on "tornado watch" with me all week, trying not to set me off.. It's a good thing that Trevor is so patient and loving with me or else I wouldn't have a husband.

Like the idea of overly celebrating love on one particular day, I'm against celebrating thanks and gratitude only on one day. I hate Thanksgiving. Obviously, we need to be grateful for what we have every day. Last week, I was not grateful. I was selfish and hurting and wrapped up in my own anxieties and worries. I didn't take the chance to step back and be grateful for what Trevor and I did have, including each other. I noticed on Facebook that the store I used to work for in Lehi when I was in high school, Pioneer Party and Copy, posted this cute idea on their blog a couple of days ago. And instead of downloading the gratitude challenge packet, I'm going to use this blog as my outsource for writing down one thing I'm grateful for each day. Knowing me, there is going to be a lot of backtracking on days because I get too busy to blog, but I'm going to do my best.

November 1: I'm grateful for cars, and people who fix cars. Last Monday, Trev pulled into our apartment parking lot and his car went "click click click" and then poof! It was dead. So, we called Taylor to see about a new battery. New battery cost $84, but the car ran like a charm. Tuesday, Trev drove his car all over the place before coming home to change his clothes so that he could go mow Grandma's lawn. "Click click click" went the Ford, and then we knew it was the alternator. That was fixed Wednesday afternoon, $474 dollars later. The car now runs without a hitch and is good to go. Yes, we spent a lot of money fixing it, and yes it's frustrating, but we're lucky to have two cars and have the money to fix them if they break.

November 2: I'm grateful for my job, even though it can be stressful and tear inducing sometimes. It's easy and flexible most of the time, and sometimes I learn great lessons from it. Last night was the 5th annual Friends of the Library Gala at the Sherratt Library. It's the second one I've helped with, but this one was way more stressful. My lovely boss waited until the week before to get everything done, and of course since I'm her assistant, getting it all done fell onto me. I clocked in twenty hours just between Thursday, Friday, and Saturday trying to get it done. Thursday, I went into my other boss's office and cried to her. All of the stress paid off because last night happened without a hitch, and was well received by faculty and staff, and community members. Planning and executing the gala looks great on my resume, and gives me much needed experience in event management and public relations.

November 3: I'm grateful that Trevor has his catering position, since he lost his job in the T-Bird Grill on Halloween. Ouch. Apparently the food services at SUU have received such bad reviews that management had no other choice than to go back to the drawing board and figure out how to fix the problem. Well, because Trevor and a couple of other students had only been working for Chartwells for a couple of months, they let them go. Deb, Trevor's supervisor, told him that she thought he was a great worker and was sad to see him go. She assured him that he would be put back on the catering team, his original Chartwells position. Last night, Trevor catered the Friends of the Library Gala, and those events will continue for the next couple of months, so we'll still have two sources of income. It might be tight, but he still has a job.

Here's to the rest of the month of grateful moments. And everyone remember that sometimes it's ok to step back and realize that what you have is pretty great. Thank God for what you have, because you never know when it might be taken from you.