Thanks (by Scott)

I'm sitting in the bathroom while the girls take their baths this Friday morning.  They smelled of turkey gravy.  Kayt and Ella are taking turns dumping water over the other's head.  Kristen is out braving the hordes of raging, sleep-deprived soccer moms doing Black Friday shopping. (Although, I know a couple of my most masculine/jacked friends are out there too.  I told them to lower their shoulder if they encounter anybody too crazy.)  She loves the shopping and the people watching.  I love staying home, listening to the girls play, and shopping online. 

It's supposed to be around 60 degrees today, the perfect temperature for a nice run with Kristen.  Afterwards, we'll start putting up the Christmas decorations.  Tonight we'll go over to a friend's home for a pie contest.  Yesterday was Thanksgiving, and we spent it with more friends.  In the evening we talked and laughed with family at home in Idaho.

Maybe it's the nostalgia of starting of the holiday season, the annual accounting of all our blessings that comes with Thanksgiving, or simply having a few days off, but I'm just so happy with life.  I really feel I need to acknowledge the Lord's hand in all the good in my life.  I've had so many breaks, been given so many opportunities, been blessed with so many little things I never deserve - and they all come from the Lord.

Kristen is just getting more beautiful, more wise, more service-oriented the longer we're married. I've been close to her for 10 years now and still have nothing but admiration for the real Kristen.  She's a natural mother.  She's still a crack-up.  Everyone she meets becomes an immediate friend.  In crisis, she turns first to God.  Last night we laid in bed and laughed until our faces hurt.  She's almost been a single mom at times with my work, school, and church responsibilties but has never been a complainer.  In the mean time, she's become the expert on wherever we're living and my link to normalcy.  What an example for our strong little girls.

Kayt is so sweet that if she wasn't just five it would be hard to believe.  She has a deep concern for everyone and everything.  Movies and books that she's seen and read over and over still bring out the rawest emotions.  Real life is even more drastic.  She doesn't want anyone to be hurt or left out, and is so meticulous in caring for others that I'm afraid she'll wear herself out before she's a teenager.  I haven't come across a more intelligent child.  Yes I'm biased, but the details she remembers and concepts she grasps at first pass are really remarkable.  She also has some fire.  One time I cornered her while playing chase.  She looked around, picked up a board, and was ready to club me in order to get out.

Ella is the definition of childhood joy.  She runs everywhere, her thick hair always bouncing and trailing behind her.  She laughs hard, has great comedic timing at the ripe age of 2, and loves to wrestle.  She loves to hit playfully, and give squish-hugs.  She's picked up the alphabet, numbers, months, days of the week, etc. just as quickly as Kayt - probably quicker as she's attended pre-school with Kayt a few times.  She's also started calculating the cost-benefit of things she really wants but that aren't allowed.  I think she'll be our first trip to the emergency room, but is always the first to make us laugh too.

I'm so grateful for where I come from.  Living away from family has made me realize just how unique the loving, respect-filled relationships we have with our parents, brothers and sisters, grandparents, and extended family really are.  We're close to everyone, and can honestly say we'd like to spend any night of the week with them.  They're all just solid, good people and have been for generations.  You look at the virtuous daughters and can see the influences of mothers, grandmothers, great-grandmothers.  You look at the strong sons and can see the influences of fathers, grandfathers, great-grandfathers.  I feel that legacy.  It's been cemented this year with the death of my grandfather, and a scary period where we thought that Kristen and the baby she was carrying were in serious trouble.  The religion of our fathers, their prayers on both sides of the veil, and the way everyone circled the wagons was just another testament to the strength god-fearing parents can build into their families.

Friends here, in Columbus, and in Idaho have always been a wonderful blessing.  Our wards in Fairfax and Columbus have become family.  They've exposed us to so many new and wonderful things and have been there when family was just too far away.

I'm grateful for the blessing of education, and the breaks a lazy high school student was given that ended up leading to great college and graduate school experiences and a lifetime of security.

I know that all of these things didn't come from my own doing.  I was incredibly lucky to be born into my family, to be raised in my hometown, to meet my wife and become a part of her family, to be blessed with two healthy girls, to have the means to attend some great schools, to live in a place where opportunities are limitless.  All that "luck" comes from a Savior that is looking for me to use it.  I'm trying.

I'm going to stop the rambling now and I hope this isn't interpreted as boasting.  I know a lot of people struggle to find anything to smile about.  Sometimes it's just for a moment, but sometimes it doesn't seem to end.  I've been there too.  In one of my darkest times when I was ready to abandon the Lord, He told me to be humble.  I've found that humility and gratitude and joy are intertwined.  The first step for me is humility.  Again, I'm trying.

Be thou humble in thy weakness, and the Lord thy God shall lead thee,

Shall lead thee by the hand and give thee answer to thy prayers.
Be thou humble in thy pleading, and the Lord thy God shall bless thee,
Shall bless thee with a sweet and calm assurance that he cares.

Be thou humble in thy calling, and the Lord thy God shall teach thee
To serve his children gladly with a pure and gentle love.
Be thou humble in thy longing, and the Lord thy God shall take thee,
Shall take thee home at last to ever dwell with him above.

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving, and have a great Christmas.  Sure love you.