Grateful.

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind.  Amidst all the craziness I have had a renewed sense of gratefulness and deeper appreciation for all that I have been blessed with.

• Eternal Families
•  Last week my cousin passed away unexpectedly.  This has been extremely difficult for everyone in my immediate and extended family.  Within the past three months, my cousin lost their newborn and my grandma passed away as well.  I'm grateful that not only are families forever, but I have a family I want to be with forever.
• Modern Medicine
• Smart doctors.  Technology improvements.  Everything.  My brother and sister-in-law's babies decided the other day, "Hey.  You guys look like fun...we wanna come play!"  Thankfully babies C&H aren't here quite yet.  For the full story, click here.
• School
• Even though it's super frustrating at times, I'm grateful I have the opportunity to get an education.  I am learning a lot of things I would have never known otherwise.  I'm still unsure of the purpose of me majoring in business is...but maybe someday I'll find out.  It definitely was a learning curve since I strayed away from everything semi-related in high school.  Business people were just obnoxious salespeople to me....then I learned there was more to it.
• I'm also grateful I pushed myself in high school to be a good student.  It has blessed my study habits and gave me the opportunity to have scholarships.
• Nice People
• Friends are great.  They arrange a study session so you don't fail a test, feed your social life with haunted houses and horror movies, and offer to take notes in classes you share.  They go out to dinner with you and listen to you ramble random stories.  Little acts of kindness add up to be a huge thing.
• My Job
• I have a job I love!  I don't think I could work anywhere else on the park for as long as I have.  The people in my department make it what it is.  I love the cute little notes people put up on Facebook at the end of the year, especially the personalized ones.  I love being able to contribute to making work enjoyable for them as well.  I have met so many people of different backgrounds and out of the hundreds of people I have met I would love working with 99.5% of them again.  I have made so many friends while learning valuable work skills and life lessons along the way.

And here's a quick list of the rest.  I'm materialistic and I like food.

• Diet Coke
• Muffins
• Spanx
• Taylor Swift
• The National Parks
• Target
• My Car
• Cafe Rio and Joy Luck
• Junk Food
• Pineapple
• Oversized Sweaters
• Prayer
• Flat Irons
• E-mail
• Music
• Skinny Jeans
• Old Navy
• The Gospel
• Pretty Little Liars and The Walking Dead
• My Family
• Cozy Blankets