1. My new job. I have been able to support my family as Kyle is going to school full time and starting his own
business.
2. Getting Health Insurance from a job. This has been such a blessing on our family. Going from paying out of picket close to $1,000 every month for poor poor poor individual insurance plans, to a huge group insurance from my new job. I honestly don't know how we were able to shovel out as much as we did over the year and a half that we were under our own plan.
3. losing my summer job. I never have been "let go" from a position before. It is NOT a good feeling. BUT I cannot be more grateful for it in this situation. I had been offered this job and my current position at the same time [though my current job would be starting about a month later] I accepted both for some reason and started at the Dr's office in june. My experience with my june job turned out to be one of the hardest experiences of my working life. I have never been pushed so hard or felt like I was drowning so much. I am a perfectionist and I was not perfect at this job. And they wanted better than perfect. They wanted you to catch on instantly and not make a single mistake. I can definitely understand the need for no mistake whatsoever in a DR's office, but you have to give the new girl a break. I have never cried over a position so much. So even though it was such a difficult experience I am sooo grateful for it. Because of this position I learned that I will NEVER work in a DR's office again. This position was able to help me get the apartment we are currently living in. It was able to help me realize the kind of business I want to work in and the people I want to work with. This job held my family finances over until I was able to start at my current job at UoP. When I first was offered my job at UoP I was really not interested in taking the job, but for some reason, I never turned them down. Then I lost my June job and found out why the Lord blessed me. When I started at the UoP we were put through THREE weeks of training, 1 in the classroom week and 2 weeks on the job practicing and learning and trying with assistance at our hand and foot. At my June job, I had 8 days of training. 1 day in classroom learning how to sign in and about the company - not the position and what it entails- and 7 days watching and no instruction on how to go about my position. I am SO grateful I lost my June job and was blessed to find a higher paying and amazing job at the UoP. But I am also grateful I had the time at the June job so that I would be grateful for the CLEAR blessings at UoP.
4. My Parents. There have definitely been some tight months here and there with my job being the only way of providing for the family. My parents have been so amazing at helping us through our tough times. May it be letting us have dinner at their hour 2, 3, 4 times a week, or coming over and helping me get organized time and time and time and time again. They are awesome and I dont think KNOW we wouldn't have survived this year without them.
5. Kyle's Parents. They are so intuitive and it is clear that the Lord guides them throughout every day. From the Fast Sunday devotionals they offer to the family once a month at sunday dinner to the car they sold to us. They are truly amazing and a great spirit in our lives.
6. The Temple. We don't see each other very often thanks to our schedules, so we don't get to attend the Temple often. But when the opportunity is there and we take it, the difference is GREAT in our life. We are so blessed to live so close to one that we can literally be there within minutes. The spirit is strong there and it blesses us well when we attend regularly.
7. Kyle's schooling. With Kyle's business being the hopes of our income for our future schooling was never a "necessity" but I am SO grateful for the initiative Kyle has had for completing his degree. He is so smart and has been very successful in class. We have been very lucky to even get grants and attend NAU local campus that is several thousands of dollars cheaper than ASU.
8. Time. We have been so lucky with our ridiculous schedules to still find time for each other. Even if it means that Kyle spends 15 minutes lying with me before I go to bed and he goes off to study or watching a movie or a football game together on a Sunday afternoon, we still see each other and spend as much time as we can together. Absence really does make the heart grow fonder because the time away has made us realize how much we still like each other and that we DO want one another around.
9. Our teeny apartment. Moving to a smaller place was NOT something I wanted to do. But as we have done so I found that it was much easier to throw away things that had not been used and were just taking up space in the spare bedrooms of our house. I am not where I need to be on the declutter scale but I am definitely 10 steps further ahead than I was before we moved!:] Thank goodness!
10. Being forced to move from our beautiful house in Gilbert, to our teeny apartment in Mesa. I am so grateful for this blessing in disguise. The fact that we were able to sell our home so quickly that is barely effected Kyle's credit. How close we live to my parents. The fact that we are in the same ward with my dear sweet grandparents. We moved from a ward SO BIG that you never saw the same person twice. We knew no one and were absolutely stunned that the bishop even remembered our names, to a ward so small it barely even has a primary. But I love how small it is. It's so much more family like. Everyone knows everyone and when someone needs help, there is more response because you actually know the person you are helping. Our old ward was so huge we had over 20 kids in our primary class. I could barely keep their names straight, let alone afford to provide them a present at the end of the year or on their birthdays. This fabulous new ward, our Sunday school class we teach has a total of 5 kids on a good day. I have gotten to know these kids individually and really have become their friends. Some have even added me on Facebook. All in all, I am soooo grateful for the window that was opened when I saw what I thought was the last door shut when we moved.
I am so grateful for 2010 and hope that 2011 is filled with many more blessings. [Hopefully they aren't blessings in disguise though. I much prefer knowing right away what my blessings are not finding out that they were blessings down the road:)]
