Prayers, please?

Please pray for my sweet goddaughter who is being born today and for her sweet mama, too! And pray for no snow in Denver as I head off to see them and the fam today. :)

Check it out!

If you want to see the cool thing I did on Saturday, click HERE. :)

(Hint: I was on the news!)

Just a little Christmas laugh.

21-30.

21. I am thankful for the fact that I have a job that pays the bills. Even when it has its ups and downs, it's a good job and I work with great people.

22. My incredibly generous parents. Enough said.

23. My things. I know that sounds incredibly materialistic, but I am blessed to have gotten some wonderful gifts from people I love and I have some really great things that remind me of people in my life or fun memories, and I don't take those things for granted. I know I have an abundance.

24. My car. Despite all the problems and headaches it has caused me these last few months (through no fault of its own), I am blessed to have a vehicle that is safe and will get me to and from work without any real problems.

25. The people at St. Anthony's. I worked there for 14 months, and I know many of them were disappointed, maybe even hurt, when I left, yet they are still excited to see me and share their love with me when I see them. I went out there for church on Sunday, and they were incredible! Everyone wanted to know how I'm doing, how my job's going, etc. So nice to see so many friendly faces, even though I've been gone now as long as I was there.

26. Answers to prayers...even when they're not the exact answers I was hoping for, they still help me know God is watching over me.

27. My mom's example in her enthusiasm for life and everything in it. We were teasing her this weekend because lately it seems everything she sees/hears about/mentions goes along with a very enthusiastic and expressive, "I LOVE _______!!!!" It's kind of overdramatic and silly, but I think my mom is in a good place and happier than she's been in awhile, and I'm glad for that.

28. My dad's gentle and generous nature. EVERY SINGLE TIME I hang up the phone with my dad, he says, "Take care of my buddy. Remember who loves you." Isn't that sweet? He is a peach.

29. My creative nature. I have so many ideas for things...I wish I had time (and money) to make them all happen! Someday.

30. Life. I know I'm very, very blessed to live in a time when we all have so much (even if it feels like many of us are struggling). I'm blessed to live in a situation where I never have to go hungry, I have people who love and support me, and if I need anything, I know all I have to do is say the word and people will come out of the woodwork to help me out. Most people are not this lucky. I have my life, I have my health, I have my freedom, and I have love. I am very blessed.

This year I am so thankful for all of you! I'm thankful I have people in my life who care enough about me that they actually want to read my ramblings (even when my camera is MIA and I don't have any exciting photos to share and haven't for awhile...sorry about that). You guys make my life rich. Thank you! Love you all!

Peppermint Deliciousness.

Yesterday two of my co-workers and I stopped by a donut shop to have a quick meeting (seriously...it really was a meeting...promise!) before we had to go different directions. They had a drink called "Peppermint Snow Tea" and it was sooooooooo yummy! :) They listed how to make it, so I'm going to pass it on for anyone who's looking for a delicious holiday treat. :) YUM!

Peppermint Snow Tea

Steam some milk. Take one peppermint tea bag and steep the tea in the milk (as opposed to water, like you would normally make tea). Add one pump/shot of peppermint syrup* and three pumps of white chocolate syrup* (their white chocolate syrup was sugar free, which was awesome, but I'm sure you could use regular if you wanted it sweeter--it was perfect and not too sweet the way they did it). That's it! SUPER DELICIOUS! :)

*Those syrups can usually be purchased at Starbucks or other coffee/tea shops, and can sometimes be found at your local grocery store. You could probably also get someone at your local coffee/tea shop to make this drink for you if you told them how! :)

I LOVE THIS!!!!

18, 19, 20.

So, this everyday posting thing isn't working out very well, but hey, I'm still doing better than I was before, right?! :)

18. I am thankful for my musical abilities. I looooooove, love, LOVE to sing and always have, and I'm thankful I actually have a halfway decent voice so no one else has to suffer by my incessant singing. :) (On that note...do you know about Myspace Karaoke? Seriously? Ridiculous fun if you're just chilling sometime and want to do karaoke with just your computer...although it doesn't work on a Mac, so that's a sad story.) I also love that I catch on to the guitar so quickly. I love, love, love playing my guitar...I just wish I had more discipline to practice more often!! :) And I wish my girls were all in the same place more often so we could actually sing and play more often, too.

19. I'm so thankful for the many mentors I've been blessed to have in my life. Here's a not-so-short list, in no particular order, of some of the amazing people who have generously given their time, energy, and talents to dramatically bless and impact my life and who I've become: Marie Smith, Coach Dickson, Taunia Wheeler, Fr. Jim Meehan, Reed and Julie Hansen, Marsha Forsgren, Mary Heitkemper, Jenifer Gudac, David Lindsay, John Downey, Sr. Mary Garvin, Fr. Al Morisette, Amy Hugh, Mindy Harmon, Terri Tenorio, Karen Plybon, Chuck Kornmann, Cynthia Dachtler, Diana Wuertz, Fr. Mike Winterer, Rob Kugler, Joe Albert, and so many more. I know most people aren't blessed to have a list that long. I am very lucky.

20. THE HOLIDAYS!!! I looooooooove the Holidays soooooooooo much!! Today around noonish they started playing non-stop Christmas music on the radio from now until Christmas and it made me so happy! I love Christmas music!! I love all the things leading up until Christmas--the preparations, the parties, family and friends, the music, the festivity, the way that people are thinking about each other instead of themselves for a change--I just love it so much! Don't get me wrong...I LOVE Thanksgiving. In fact, I go back and forth about whether it might actually be my favorite holiday, but I see nothing wrong with kicking off the holiday season, even with Christmas music, before Thanksgiving. The more the merrier. I'm thankful for all the traditions that make this dreary, gloomy time of year so merry and bright! :)