With a Thankful Heart

Hope you are having a wonderful Thanksgiving! I hope you are surrounded with family, good food, and a thankful heart! As I think about what I am most thankful for several things flood my mind and heart. Here are just a few:

1. Brandon, my husband, my eternal companion, my best friend. The other day I came home from work exhausted. He made me a hot bath complete with bubbles, michael bubble, and candles! I am thankful for his kindness, endless love, and the way he makes me laugh!

2. My health. I think I take this for granted sometimes. I am surrounded by others who have had or are having problems with their health. They inspire me to live each day to it's fullest because tomorrow it could be taken away.

3. Family. I feel a great peace knowing my family loves and supports me and would drop anything at a moments notice if I needed them. Friends, jobs, life comes and goes but your family is always there! I think if we thought about that a little more we might treat them a little better- I know I would.

4. My faith. My rock. It's what I hold on too when I start to get discouraged or begin to loose hope. It too is always there and the one constant in my life.

Here are some everyday things I am thankful for, not in any particular order: chap stick, my fine jewelry, apple pie, clean bath towel just out of the dryer, drinking straws, down comforter, candles, memory foam, Tobias my turtle, my view of Timp, DVR, my job, aveno lotion, cafe rio, text messages from bran bran, my leather heated seats, fresh Alaskan fish, pictures to remember memories shared, fresh cut flowers, music, the feeling I get after I've worked out hard.

Recent Pictures

We recently had our pictures taken by Bellissima Photography! They were taken at a place called Garden Park which is located in Sugar House. Garden Park is actually a LDS meeting house with an interesting story. The original building use to be a large residential home in the quaint hilly streets of Sugar House. When the homeowner passed away it was donated to The Church and added on to. The "Backyard," which is where these were shot, is absolutely gorgeous and unique with interesting architectural elements! Garden Park is open to the public certain hours of the week. We were quite pleased with Bellissima Photography and Dave's attention to detail and the amount of time he took to get several great shots. We would highly recommend him!

Budgeting Your Money

I've always considered myself to be a fairly frugal person who now and then enjoys a little retail therapy. About 8 months ago I discovered a great tool to help us manage and budget our money... and it's free! It's called Mint.com and it's really helped Brandon and I see where our money goes throughout the month and how we are doing on our budget. There are so many great tools on this site, it would take a while to explain so check it out for yourself!

It shows you an up to date view on every account/loan you have and you can categorize all transactions, even split a transaction up at one store. What's even better, it will alert you about unusual spending, areas where you have gone over, etc. At first I thought it would take a lot of time but all you really need to do is spend a little time getting it set-up initially and then all your transactions/payments are automatically added. The only thing you need to do is correct the category or split a purchase, or change a date. What I mean by these two is sometimes you buy groceries and personal care items at the grocery store. Instead of having that toothpaste and deoderant count as groceries, you go in with a few mouse clicks and split it to the amount and category you want. As for the date, you can change it to the date you want your paycheck deposit to show up- lets say it was deposited on the last day of the month but you want that money to count for the following month, you simply change the deposit date. It's so easy!

Christmas Package

I love getting packages in the mail! Recently my parents surprised me by sending me a bracelet and a Christmas fairy! The bracelet is snowman/Christmas theme and the fairy is a Mark Roberts limited edition "Jack Frost." I have three of these now and I just love them. My parents also collect these too from the Shopkeeper in Yakima. We hang them from the ceiling at Christmas time so they have the effect of floating in the air! The uniqueness and attention to detail make these fairies interesting and fun to collect!