We had a delightful Thanksgiving--such delicious food and wonderful to be with family. I am so grateful for my little family. They bring me so much joy. I love watching Shawn play with Miles. He really is such a good dad. Last night he was tossing him into the air a bit and Miles was dyyyyying. It was so cute. If that little boy could pause right now for a little bit, I would be okay with that. He is just SO much fun right now. Cut his two bottom teeth this week. He's a champ. Woke up at night, but other than that, he's still his happy little self. I'm amazed by his happiness and the love within him. His love for those around him and his life just shines from his eyes. I'm kinda obsessed.

Thanksgiving weekend was also our two year anniversary. I can't believe it's been two years! It definitely flew by. I'm so happy I'm married to my SB. He inspires me. He has such passion for life. He tries to live every day with love and happiness. He loves being thoughtful to those near to him, as well as strangers. One of my favorite memories of him was when we went to the Chevron on Mountain Road to get some tasty Saturday corn dogs. There was a suburban of family/friends that needed a jump and they asked Shawn if he could help. He went and got the car & cables and was all squared away and then they ended up not needing it. But he was so willing and happy to do it. I know it's little, but I just love that memory. He's handsome and can grow a beard. I like that. Shawn makes me laugh, every single day. And that was one of the most important things I wanted in my husband. I wanted to laugh at life, throughout my life, with my husband. Most importantly, he is my partner. There are a LOT of ways we differ and think differently, but at the end of the day or disagreement, I truly do feel like our goal is to build a stronger marriage. And just last night he reminded me of his vision of adventuring together-forever and it filled me with the same excitement it did when we were dating. Cheers to my SB. The past two years have been truly wonderful. And here's to more adventures!

One night last week, we watched Jurassic Park. Classsssic. I really do love that movie. I was in & out, putting Miles to bed, but I had a few favorite moments. Like when I was getting ready to go upstairs one of the times and I hear Shawn exclaim, "Ohhh, whoooa." Like he hasn't seen it a few dozen times already. I also enjoyed watching Patrick watch it and remembered back to the first time I watched it. Poor Patrick, much like myself, thought it would be more enjoyable a couple of feet from the screen. Poor Patrick, seemed to forget that he was actually not part of it, but only watching it on the screen. Lucky Patrick, then enjoyed the last few suspenseful moments sitting with dad. It reminded me a lot of me, except my first time watching it was with Ammon & Erica, on a thunderstorm night, feet from the tv, and when the velociraptors were in the kitchen there at the end, Ammon found it the optimal time to come up behind me and scare the pants off of me! I was crrry-ing! He got me good. But still a good memory and movie!

Anyway...we enjoyed the movie and went to bed. La-di-da, same old, same old. In the morning, when Miles woke up to eat, I fed him, but he was a lot more awake and alert than usual, at that time, so when I put him back in bed he was still wide awake. I tried feeding him again to top him off and get him drowsy, but figured I would do that from the comfort of my bed because I was sleepy. Well, I crawled back into bed next to Shawn. Miles was still doing his squawking and screeching. After just a couple of seconds, Shawn's head lifted up quickly from the pillow and said full of conviction, "Baby dinosaurs!" I had a good laugh. And left the room.

Not a dinosaur. Just a happy little Jack-o-Lantern!

So, onetime...we went to a farmers market. I love farmers markets. I really really love them. I miss the Provo farmers market! I used to ride my bicycle over there and buy veggies for salsa, put the goods in my basket on the front of my bike, and happily ride home with a smile on my face. (That's probably true. I would often find myself smiling to myself on my bicycle.)

Well last weekend we went to the Gilbert farmer market. It was pretty okay. They had a few selections for veggies and everything else was mostly goodies and other foods to purchase, many of which were very tasty (pepper jelly... I talked about it the rest of the day!). However, with the special-diet-world we now live in, I don't think we saw a single booth that was just joe-shmoe regular food. A couple of days later, Shawn sent me an email that had some reviews of local farmers markets. I decided to write a review on my own my farmers market experience.

"The Gilbert Farmers Market is wonderful. It is a great family environment and pet-friendly! What really was impressive to me was how accommodating all the vendors are to a variety of dietary needs. There were vendors who were gluten-free, organic, dairy-free, paleo, nut-free, kosher, vegan, sugar-free and all of the above at the same time!"

**Disclaimer. I am one of "those" people. I still don't eat dairy. So I'm totally guilty of being someone they cater too. It still makes me laugh.

I've been thinking a lot lately about how our circumstances shape us and mold us and most importantly, what they evoke from within us and what they can teach us. I don't really know if this blog post is going to be about that topic. But I felt like I just needed to get it out there. It needed to escape the confines of my mind, even if I don't elaborate.

I started my new job! This is my third week and I feel a lot more comfortable. The first week was rough. It was really rough. There were a lot of tears. Trust me. I felt extremely supported and actually being at work was bearable. Prayers were answered and I felt Heavenly Father's love & the many prayers of loved ones. But every night when I got home I would just fall apart. Poor Shawn. I was really trying to be strong and positive and not be a Debbie Downer, but there just was no pushing aside these new emotions that I was experiencing. That first week was mostly difficult because I felt so disconnected from Miles when I got home. That first week he seemed to adjust easily to me being gone and that was hard on my momma heart. I was happy he was good for Shawn, but for my sake, I wanted him to be miserable without me. (Selfish...) I think we've found a happy medium. He's just such a happy and good-natured boy, that he's usually pretty happy all day but he's back to being excited for me to be home and if he's awake when I leave he's a little fussy after I leave. So I'm down to occasional cries and I feel that's a good place for me. It feels good to still feel the emotion of it---know my heart is still knit to my dear family.

There haven't been many absolutely thrilling things going on here. Life has been good. Really good. But I have just been adjusting to the new schedule, and it hasn't allowed for many adventures. But here are some musings of my mind lately. And some pictures that I am fortunate enough to take when I'm with Miles and Shawn, or that I receive as little rays of sunshine through my day.

| I need to get out and move. I don't like sitting at a desk all day. I just think about going home and riding my bicycle in the cool evening air. | I sit in a cubicle at work, tucked away from flow of traffic and so since I'm not at a front desk anymore I'm loving some podcast time. Any suggestions? I like happy ones. | We are loving the postseason of the MLB. Dad set up a tv in the backyard and the fire pit and we roast marshmallows while watching the evening baseball game. LOVE. | I'm sad that Whitney Houston died. Her music is so great. Right now I'm really loving, "Greatest Love of All" | I'm scared my family will get Ebola. I'm scared we will all get Ebola and I will be the only one to survive and be left with the emptiness of life without my family and the horror of the memories of watching them suffer. | I am SO happy that it's cooling down here in AZ. The evenings are absolutely heaven. But conference weekend was a shock. I just wanted to pull out a hoodie and cuddle up. It's a good think though that it isn't that chilly here yet. All of our warmer things are in storage still. haha | I have the best friends in the entire world. All of them have reached out to me at least once in the past 3-4 weeks to check-in with me. I love them. | Shawn's parents are coming to visit this weekend (coming today, actually!) and I'm so excited to see them. I'm so so excited for them to spend time with Miles. | I'm reading, "These Is My Words" and I am loving it. I'm 75 pages in and people have lived through incredible circumstances and experiences. People are strong. | I'm in a goal-making mood. Do you ever feel like you just want to make changes? Improve? I am just feeling an itching to work on something and improve and watch my progress. | I hate mosquitoes. | This is my absolute favorite season of Project Runway I have ever seen. So entertaining! I feel like the kid in high school that just wants to be part of the group---watching from the outside, just wishing I could join them. It's so entertaining! And enjoyed in good company (waggling eyebrows)! |