jazz game.

So last night we drove up to Salt Lake and went to the Jazz game. After the last four road games, we figured we were going to dominate at home. However, we unfortunately did not. We played well for most of the game, but sort of lost it in the third quarter. But it was still incredibly fun. We met Dan's dad, two brothers Jared and Devin, and three of Jared's friends. We got to go to the pre-game dinner and it was delicious. My favorite meal from last year (cheese manicotti) was served, as well as delicious rolls, a fantastic salad, and yummy chocolate eclairs. Suddenly, the Jazz mascot Bear comes out of nowhere with a birthday cake and silly string. Of course, he never goes anywhere without silly string. The reason? It was Jared's lady friend's birthday. So they had arranged this whole thing, and she got covered in silly string. Luckily, Dan and I didn't get any string on us. Anyway, it was hilarious. And Bear didn't get close enough to me to freak me out.

After the dinner, we went up to our seats. Dan and I had gotten seats in the second row of the upper bowl. We had a perfect view because we could see the entire court. It was awesome. And Dan looked cute in his brand new Jazz shirt we got him. We wanted to get parking validation so we went to the mall before the game.

 

 

 Anyway, even though we didn't win it was still very fun. It got quite intense for a while and we had a good time. It was nice to get away from Provo on a little date. And we love the Jazz.

I am very excited about going to Idaho for Thanksgiving. I've always gone to Idaho Falls for Thanksgiving since my Grandpa lives there, but it's going to be a little different this time since we are going to spend most of the time with Dan's family. We get two Thanksgiving dinners on Thanksgiving (one at noon, one at six) so we will be stuffed to the brim and very happy. Dan and I are going to sleep very soundly and deeply that night.

Tonight I am making tortellini soup and breadsticks for dinner. I am so excited. It is going to be the best dinner and I am hoping Dan loves it.

I went to Target today and there were several things I noticed. First, practically ever person there was a young mom with an adorable baby or toddler. I did not like it. They all looked so happy and cute. Jerks. Second, it's a bit too early for Christmas decorations. I am definitely only in the Thanksgiving/fall mood right now, and seeing so many Christmas decorations just makes me want to decorate for Thanksgiving. And third, Target has so many cute clothes, and my closet is really lacking. I walked through the woman's clothing area to get from the grocery side of Target to the office and electronics side of Target, and I was surrounded by cute sweaters, pants, tops, and holiday outfits and I really wanted to buy about half of the stuff there. It sucked. We can't afford any wants right now. At least not like that. Boo economy.

inspired.

So in our little married ward, my calling is Visiting Teaching District Supervisor. Basically, I'm over twelve of the girls in our Relief Society and it is my job to report if they do their Visiting Teaching each month. So the other district supervisors and I had a meeting with our Relief Society President and we all got inspired (at least I did) to go home and make Visiting Teaching fun for my girls. Our President gave us these little papers that have all of our girls, their information, the companionships, and the teachees on them. We'll just say it lacks style. So I sat down in front of the computer and made this adorable paper that I am going to go deliver to all of the girls tomorrow with a little treat. It has not only the information on it, but I checked with all of the girls to make sure it's right, it has three quotes about Visiting Teaching, and it has our goal for November included. I am so proud of it, and I hope all of the girls will actually read it and want to do their assignments.

I put these quotes on it:

"My desire is to plead with our sisters to stop worrying about a phone call or a quarterly or monthly visit, and whether that will do, and concentrate instead on nurturing tender souls.  Our responsibility is to see that the gospel flame continues to burn brightly.  Our charge is to find the lost sheep and help them feel our Savior's love."
-Mary Ellen Smoot, General Relief Society President, Ensign, October 1997

“Let us commit to effective visiting teaching. We can provide temporal and spiritual nourishment. We can and should offer understanding and be able to teach doctrine. We can relieve spiritual hunger and feed the sheep. Feeding the sheep might mean strengthening and nourishing the new members, the less active, or even the fully active members.”

-Silvia H. Allred, First Counselor in the RS General Presidency, Ensign, November 2007

“We want every visiting teacher to understand that visiting teaching is a call from the Lord and accept her assignment to love, serve, teach, and minister to another sister with that in mind.”

-Julie B. Beck, General Relief Society President

And then I put on this little paragraph about our goal for November:

Our goal this month is to have 100% Visiting Teaching. I know this is hard with the Thanksgiving holiday so close, but our district has never had 100% before. Let’s get out there this week and try and visit our girls! There isn’t a specific message since this month the Ensign is all about General Conference, so pick a topic that is special to you that you think will be inspiring and uplifting for your teaches. If you could report to me as soon as you do your teaching, with a brief message about what special needs each girl has or what service you or somebody else can provide, that would be awesome! Thank you so much ladies!

How cute is that!? I am so proud. It certainly makes me want to do my Visiting Teaching. Anyway, Dan and I have an exciting week coming up. Tomorrow we are going to the Jazz game, it's my last week of work at Tucanos, HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS premiere on Thursday night, and I start my new job! I can hardly wait. It's going to be awesome.

looking up.

I am in such a great mood. It know it probably won't last until tomorrow night since I'll be back at work, but I have some excellent things going on right now.

First of all, I put my two-weeks-notice in at Tucanos. Monday night I told one of the bosses, but I don't think he took me seriously. Today when I told another manager, he was like oh, okay well we're sorry to see you go. TOTALLY insincere. I felt like he didn't even care. Well, their loss because everyone is quitting and they won't have any trainers. It felt liberating to tell them, though. I was sitting there today in the grill station folding napkins and I realized how much of my anger, stress, and frustration stem from working at Tucanos: ALL OF IT. It's going to be awesome when I don't have to worry about it anymore. I can barely wait.

Second, I got a new job to replace Tucanos! Yay! Last winter Dan and I worked for the Activities Support at BYU and we loved it. It paid $8.79 an hour and we got to pick what events we worked, so essentially we picked our own schedules. After we got married, we quit because we were traveling and the season had ended so there weren't any more events. So in my recent quest for a new job, I got in contact with Chuck, our old boss, and he said he would be happy to have me back! And what's even better, he said it would be fine if Dan came back next semester too! So we have the job problem officially solved! I am so thankful. When I went in to get rehired he didn't even re-interview me or anything. He just gave me the form to give to the custodial services and that was all. I was like YES! The best part is I won't have to work during Thanksgiving or Christmas, so we can actually spend quality time with family instead of having to be back the day after the holidays. I am thrilled.

And lastly, I got my paycheck today. It was the most it's been since I was actually in training way back in June. $141.14. And that's only for two weeks. It was because of all the training I've done. I think we get paid like $5 when training, so I had a massive paycheck and it was awesome. It came at the perfect time, too, because we have about $22 in our bank account. As soon as I got off of work today I went to the bank and deposited a little over $600. Oh and as if that weren't enough, my parents finally got unemployment checks. Since my parents originally told us they'd pay for half of our rent here, and they haven't been able to because of how crappy things are going for them, they have now put a check in the mail for us. I am so grateful. It's going to help so much. And we really needed it right now, too. Just shows that if you are faithful and pray that things will get better, they will. The Lord is always tuned in to our needs and He won't ever forget about us.

I feel amazing. I know tomorrow when I go back in to work it'll go away and I'll get frustrated and angry again, but at least it will be over soon. November 22nd will be my last day. If they schedule me anything after that, I just won't show up. Things are definitely looking up. I can't wait to tell Dan.

attitude of gratitude.

Before I get into all of the wonderful things I learned today, I am going to explain to you why yesterday was probably the worst day I have ever spent at Tucanos. I opened, so I had to be there at 10:30. I didn't get a chance to take a break and sit down for more than two minutes. I barely got to eat, only having some pasta and mashed potatoes. The only good thing about yesterday was that I got to be in left tower, arguably the best section in the entire restaurant, for the entire day. But besides that, everything sucked. Nobody was restocking so there were never any glasses or carafes. We ran out of ice several times. The new manager (who is a great guy) was training in the bar so everything took about three times longer than it should have. The stupid server station is so incredibly small, and when there are fourteen servers on, it does not work very well. People would not get out of the way, things were spilling, everything was a mess. It was hands down the most frustrating twelve hours I have ever endured. It was awful. And of course all of the managers were there, but they barely did anything. Stupid Damon would just stand there while I was clearly needing help. He just stood there watching me! It was so annoying, and I finally went up to him and was like "please help me pre-buss." It was ridiculous how much I hated yesterday. To be completely honest, the only thing that kept me from walking out and leaving Tucanos forever was the thought of my sweet husband. He works so hard at school and spends all of his time studying, and I need to make the money for us while I can. There was a time when I walked outside to put a bag of trash in the dumpster and it was so peaceful outside, even standing by the smelly dumpster. Everything was so calm and beautiful out. It was sunny and clear, and I just wanted to walk away and leave that stupid place. But of course, I need to make money for our family because my husband cannot right now. I love him too much to quit. I can't do that to him.

When I came home last night, I vented to him because I just had to tell someone how stressed and frustrated and annoyed I was. He told me that if I really hate it that much, that I could get a job on campus and quit. And that filled me with such hope! I have a chance to have a job that I don't hate going to. Honestly, I hate everything about Tucanos. I hate the layout, I hate the managers (mostly), I hate the food, I hate the work, I hate the customers, I even started to hate every person I work with. Of course most of the people I work with are awesome and I love them, but some of them really got on my nerves last night. I'm pretty sure I yelled at a few people yesterday. They weren't getting out of my way so I just raised my voice and told them to move. They wouldn't have even thought of moving if I hadn't. Gah I hate that place. Anyway, tomorrow morning I am going to go study for my test in the library for a while, take my test, and look for a campus job on the job board and see what I can find. I don't even care what I will be doing. I just have to get away from Tucanos. I can't do it anymore. It is not worth it AT ALL.

Well, not that I feel better about what happened, I can talk about much happier things and why this post is about gratitude. Dang and I are so blessed in our little life. Things may seem difficult, but other people have insanely more difficult trials and circumstances. We have a bed. We have blankets. We have clothes. We have running water and electricity. We have a car. We have each other. And to top it all off, we know the truth and we are members of the true church of Jesus Christ. We have the fullness of the gospel, and more than 95% of the world doesn't. That is really all we need. Life is amazing.

In church today several people spoke about prayer and having faith that everything would work out. I realized I shouldn't be praying to find a job, I need to be praying using the phrase "if it be Thy will." I need to be humble and have patience. If I just have faith in the Lord and know that things will work according to His will, I will be comforted and find peace. I need to put the Lord first in everything. I need to be studying my scriptures every day, not just when I think about it and it's convenient. It is the most important thing in life. If we really make an effort and do all that we can, then we will find happiness and joy. I don't know if I'm getting that across quite the way I wanted to, but I feel happy and peaceful and I know that everything will be great for Dan and I. Even if right now we are struggling for money, we need to just have faith that the Lord will provide for us. And I know He will.

Today is a beautiful day.

the flavor of pumpkin.

I can't even begin to explain how much I love things that are pumpkin flavored. Pumpkin bread, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin candles (not to eat), pumpkin pie, pumpkin ice cream, pumpkin steamers, pumpkin smoothies, pumpkin oreo shakes, and most recently, pumpkin pizza. Yes, pizza. Tonight Dan and I were able to go out to dinner at PPC courtesy of the $100 Dan's mom deposited in his account so we could go on dates. Anyway, they had a sign up by all of their specialty pizzas that said "Pumpkin" so I asked someone about it and he said it was a dessert pizza and a fresh one was just coming out of the oven. So I stood there and waited for it, and it was very worth it. I had two fresh, hot, delicious pieces and I loved every bite. I was so content after that. I couldn't even ask for anything else.

Tonight Dan and I went to Ali and Tyler Brown's little couples party. It was way fun, and Dan and I tied a few others for second place. And I came in second for the girls. Dan made me proud right from the start. I was pretty proud of myself too, because I know he doesn't think I can do stuff like that. But anyway, it was fun to spend time with other couples and be able to actually have a good time and make friends. Sometimes I forget that there is a life outside of Tucanos, and when I experience it, I feel so refreshed. So tonight, I am refreshed. At least for now.

Unfortunately, tomorrow I work a double. For some reason, this week has been the slowest week EVER. I don't know if it's just because it's the beginning of the month, or what, but we have been so slow. I haven't made over $55 dollars any day except for my double on Wednesday when I made $85. Which is NOT good for working a double and being at work almost eleven hours. Which I will be doing again tomorrow. However, tomorrow there is a football game and so that will generate some people possibly before, and definitely after. The game is at twelve, so I don't know how many people are going to come in, but after four we'll get busy because the game will be out. So at least I know we'll at least have some business. Aka, at least I'll be busy for some of my time at work and I won't be standing around drawing pictures like I did last night. It sucked. It's not worth it to be there when I dislike it so much and am not making any money. It really isn't worth the headache.

Despite the sucky job situation, I am grateful that I have a job right now. And that I am able to work as much as I can before Dan and I are both occupied with school. I just need to remember to stay positive and be happy and then everything will work out :)

Oh and I have the cutest husband ever <3

it's november!

Dan and I decided that if I can't find a new job, then I'll quit Tucanos right before Christmas. So my two weeks are going in on December 4th. Four weeks from this Saturday, I will be putting in my two weeks!! That makes me feel better. It's really gone downhill. They give out so many coupons to get people to come in, and the servers are the ones losing out on money because we don't get tipped on the full price, only the discounted price. It's not fair to us. And pretty much everyone comes in with a coupon. Especially since it's November and people are bringing in those dumb yellow envelopes. Gah, it's ridiculous.

Anyway, it's November! Almost Thanksgiving, and therefore, almost Christmas! Yay! I am so excited. I love these next two months because they are all about family and being thankful. I wish every month was focused like these November and December.

I've been listening to this song on repeat for a few days now. It's a great one to sing to and I love Rihanna in it. She's gorgeous.