Attitude of Gratitude

I am in a rut. Dan lost his job in September and has had no luck finding a job. He's really good at what he does, but if there's no jobs then what are we to do?

We are surviving on my part time job and Dan's unemployment but it seems as if this trial will never end. Every week we spend time looking for jobs that most of the time aren't there. We have eventually gotten used to the uncertainty and stress but today it seems to loom over me. The economy is getting worse and jobs are getting less and less. So where does that leave us? When will Dan get another job? Will we be able to keep our house?

How easy it is for me, when I'm in a rut, to focus on the negative all around me. The car in front of me that is going too slow...the house that doesn't ever stay clean because I have such a curious toddler...the fact that I have to work even though I just want to stay at home....not being able to find a job even though we are trying everything we can to find one....

There is so much negative that so easy to find.

So I am once again going to put up my "Attitude of Gratitude" board. It is something that my roommie and I did in college when we were having a hard time. We put some poster board up on the wall and every day we had to find 3 things we were grateful for. It got to the point where I was too busy looking for good things to write on the board to notice or dwell on the bad.

Going through hard times doesn't mean we have to be bitter, right? There is good in all things. There is growth in all things. It's just a matter of finding it.

Thanks for listening! Hope the holiday season finds you all happy and content.

Library Puppies

Once a month the library invites cute dogs to come and sit with the kids and listen to their stories. We got to go tonight and it was fantastic. Lily loved wandering around and petting the different dogs. She even enjoyed eating a bit of their food (every kid needs that experience, right?).

This dog was just Lily's size.

Peg, a lady in our ward, with her dog.

Pat, another lady in our ward, and Lily giving her dog a foot massage.

As a side note Lily is learning sign language. She can say "more" and she loves panting like a dog. She was almost hyperventilating last night because there were so many dogs around!

Random Traveling

Saturday morning we decided to head out and see some sights that we haven't seen before. Well, really, we had planned to visit Big Trees but got lost and got to see some fun things we otherwise wouldn't have seen.

The first place we came upon was a historical town called Columbia, CA. It was fun to see the little mining town that used to be. At one time there were 44 bars in the teeny tiny town.

This was the jail. The jail part was actually on the other side of the wall I'm leaning against. There weren't any police in the town so thhere weren't a lot of arrests so there was no need to have a big jail.

Lily in the middle of the main street--and basically only street--of Columbia.

This was our favorite part. It was an old time bowling alley! We also got to see how a candy cane is made...and then sample it. Candy canes are best when they are warm.

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The second place we ended up at was a hike that led us to a Natural Bridge.

The hike was beautiful. Most of the trail was covered by trees making it feel like we were going through a tunnel.

Lily loved to play in the water. When Dan was exploring the cave he found a tunnel that went through the rock to the other side. It was too deep to go too far though. Next time we're taking our swimming suits!

We were there at the perfect time. The sunlight was shimmering off the water and waterfall and rocks. It was beautiful...and hard to take a picture of it so you'll have to imagine it.

There were a lot of little caves in the big cave.

Happy Thanksgiving!

For Thanksgiving we stayed in Sacramento. Thanksgiving morning Lily and I walked the 5K for the Run to Feed the Hungry (Thanks Mom & Dad Mecham for sponsoring me). It was a slow walk since there were 27,000 people walking or running it. I finished in 1 hour and 14 minutes--it took forever. It was a constant traffic jam. There were people still waiting to start the race when we had finished...that's how many people there were.

Lily and I before the race.

So many people!

Us at the end of the race. Lily was really getting into it at the end. She was clapping a lot and waving her hands and screaming.

By the time we got back to the car Lily was fast asleep. It was a lot of hard work!

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The rest of Thanksgiving was spent with our friends Ed and Sarah. Ed had to work 4am the next morning for Black Friday so they couldn't go to their family's home. We enjoyed a gluten free Thanksgiving which included gluten free pumpkin pie!! Yum.