Grandpa Burningham's 90th Birthday

Today is Grandpa Burningham's 90th Birthday. There was a family and friend celebration for him that we attended on Saturday in Midvale. The Church was decorated with a cowboy theme with gorgeous flower bouquets arranged in cowboy boots as the centerpieces on the tables. It was fun to look through the photo albums set on the display table, and we ate yummy barbecue sandwiches and strawberry shortcake. There were at least 70 people that came and wished Grandpa B a happy birthday. Jason's dad also recorded an interview with Grandpa B about his life that included pictures of his childhood. That recording was playing during part of the celebration.

I'm grateful for Grandpa's good life and the good family he raised. He is such a hard worker and takes really good care of his beautiful home and garden. He always greets me with a smile and a hug, and with all his posterity, I'm impressed that he remembers my name so easily after being part of the family for such a short time. I'm glad that so many friends and family would come and honor him and his good life.

Gratitude

Jason and I were just talking about how we need to be more grateful for our blessings and the little services that other people do for us every day, so this post will be dedicated to expressing some of those little things I'm grateful for.

1. I'm grateful for every time that I don't have to plan out and make every part of a meal. This week has been really nice because I went home and my mom cooked a yummy meal for our family, I just got home from a really good dinner group that I didn't have to plan, and I attended two meetings for work that included lunch so I didn't have to pack my lunch for the day. It is such a service when others take care of meals and I don't have to worry about when, or what we're going to eat.
2. I'm also grateful for friends and family. My brother and his family were visiting from Colorado this week and it was nice to see and talk to them again. It's a nice change of pace from school and work to spend time with family. I'm also grateful to have great visiting teachers and a companion that have become some good friends to me through visiting teaching. I love talking to Jason, but it's also fun to talk and interact with other girls. My friend Sara also indulged me by playing Ping Pong this week. We're pretty evenly matched. She won the first game, I won the second, but she won the third. That means that we'll have to have a rematch soon. :)
3. I'm grateful that I like my job. My job is really pretty interesting to me. I feel like it's meaningful and it doesn't cause me a lot of stress like some of my other jobs. It pays well enough for what we need right now and keeps me busy since Jason is so busy with school.
4. I'm grateful for good health. I feel like I am really blessed with good health. I rarely get sick and have plenty of energy for a day's worth of activities. Jason got a cold this weekend and he didn't feel very well over the weekend. It just makes life so much easier when you're not thinking about the pain and discomfort you're feeling. Fortunately, Jason recovered pretty quickly from his cold.
5. I'm grateful for how often the Lord helps things to work out smoothly and blesses us with little things that are important to us although they may seem small to other people. I am trying to renew my teaching license and had to get my fingerprints taken for a background check. I decided I needed to take care of it this week and knew that it would probably be a big ordeal trying to fit it into my schedule and get the right forms to the right people, etc. Well, it ended up being a really easy process that didn't take much time at all because after some quick checking, I found out that they do fingerprinting in my college and I was headed there that afternoon anyway. A process that could have easily taken 2 hours only took an extra 15 min. in my day. A simple thing, but I count it as a blessing.
6. I'm also very grateful for a very loving husband. Jason is very altruistic. He may tell you that he has a harder time seeing things from someone else's perspective, but that doesn't stop him from thinking about others and what he can do to help them. Since I am married to him, I am often the benefactor of his service, although whenever he is around other people, he is often thinking of ways to help and volunteering for whatever is needed whether that need is made explicit or remains unspoken. I am very grateful to be married to someone striving to be so unselfish and kind.

That's probably a good list for today, although it is not hard to think of many other things I am thankful for and experiences that illustrate them. I am grateful for the many blessings I receive daily and hope that I can better recognize them and express gratitude for them.

Racquetball Championship and other Sports

We played in the Racquetball Intramural Championship game this week. I was kind of excited because we've had pretty easy games this whole tournament and I wanted to get a free t-shirt for winning the tournament. Well, we played Tues. night against a worthy opponent. The other team played well--well, at least the boy did. We lost a game, won a game, and then barely lost in the third game 7-11. Since we hadn't lost any games in the tournament and it was double elimination, we played the same team on Thursday. Both Jason and I were pretty sure we could beat the other team. Unfortunately, we were rushed that night and didn't have a lot of time to warm-up and mentally prepare. As a result, we lost the first two games. Right after the games, I asked them if they just wanted to play one more game for fun. They agreed, and now that we were both relaxed and warmed-up, we beat them 15-5. At least we walked out of there with our pride, if not with free t-shirts!

Saturday afternoon I went to the bridal shower of my good friend April. It was actually a really fun shower and enjoyed playing the games and talking with friends.

That night Jason and I went to a BYU Men's Volleyball game against Pepperdine. They are the No. 1 ranked team but we beat them Friday night 3 games to 1. I was excited for a really great match. Unfortunately, the BYU team did not play very well--missed serves, blocked spikes, etc. We lost 3-0. I guess all good teams have their off days, whether in volleyball or in racquetball. :)

C is for Cookie

For one of my bridal showers a long, long time ago I received a cool lunch box container or letter-shaped cookie cutters. Well, I finally made some time to make sugar cookies and had fun spelling out things with the cookies. This one was my favorite creation though.