Thanks: day 4

Today I'm grateful for my current calling. I serve as the Primary president in our ward.* Probably the best part of working with children is that I laugh a lot. They do and say the funniest things. For instance, since when is it normal to take your shoes off during a church meeting? But at least one child exposes his stocking feet every week. And I love their automated responses, especially when they have nothing to do with the question: "the Gospel!" "Jesus!" "Saying my prayers!" "Be nice to my sister!" They focus on getting the right answer by trying to guess what the teacher wants to hear instead of thinking about the question. For instance, a few weeks ago I asked if they should be nice to ALL of God's children. They glanced around nervously at each other, then one child blurted, "no!" and several other children followed suit. What cute kids. Sometimes they like to say prayers without help. Here is a typical example:
"Dear Heavenly Father, Thank thee that we could come to church today. Thank thee that we could...come to church today. Please bless that we can have a good day and that we can...have a...nice day..." You get the idea. It's hard not to laugh out loud.
Being Primary president has been a lot of work, but I'm surely going to miss it!

*For more about wards, Primary, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, click here.

Thanks: day 3

I am grateful that life goes on even after BYU loses to Utah. Here's to better times.

Thanks: day 2

Some of the sweetest thank-yous I've ever received were from middle-school students when I was teaching. Here are some excerpts from their notes:

"Thank you so much for being my choir teacher this year."
"I love singing."
"I really don't like singing that much, but you made class fun."
"You have taught me so much."
"This experience has been so much fun!"
"I love you!"
"I thank you with ALL my heart."
"We pulled it off, and most importantly, we kicked butt!"
"You are my hero."
"You're just about the coolest teacher ever."
"Thanks for being so nice to us."
"You deserve the best."

I know. So sweet. Their notes always gave me more credit than I deserved, but I definitely appreciated them because middle school students aren't always as nice in person. :) I'm going to track down one of my middle school teachers and send them a well-deserved thank you.

Thanks

In honor of Thanksgiving, I'm setting the timer for five minutes and typing what I'm thankful for. On my mark, get set, go!

Trevor: he makes me laugh, he works so hard and is really smart, he's so patient with me, he thinks I'm funny!
Cassie: Good sleeper! her smiles and giggles (especially the way she smiles at me when she wakes up), she loves solid foods
my parents:
mom- good example, such a good friend now, always held me to high standards growing up, really sensitive and thoughtful, so sweet
dad- calm, sincere, really hard worker, level-headed, I love his laugh
Thanksgiving is coming and I get to see my new nephew! And my entire family will be together!
we have everything we need and so many of the things we want
I get to stay home with Cassie
pianos- I love playing the piano
blogs: I can keep up with family and friends
good friends. I have been incredibly blessed with good friends my whole life
the Gospel, modern day prophets, the scriptures, and the organization of the Church. Relief Society. Primary!
computers
the tree right outside our window- perfect for privacy and it's so beautiful during spring, summer, and fall
good neighbors
immediate family- all active members of the Church
water. I love to drink cold water
pasta
Broadway musicals and the piano/song books that they release

Wow. Five minutes sure is a short amount of time. What are you thankful for?

Tag: 5

Okay, so technically I don't think I got tagged. But Wendy tagged someone named Emily (it may have been me, but I think she knows a few Emily's) and I kind of wanted to do this. I was supposed to find the 6th picture in the 6th folder. Unfortunately, that was a picture of the bathroom in my last apartment. I was trying to sell my contract to someone who was studying abroad and couldn't come see it in person. I figured that picture was much too useless and boring to post. I've seen a few 4th picture 4th folder tags going around, so I decided to try that one instead...and discovered that there are 3 pictures in my 4th folder. So here is the 5th picture in my 5th folder. :)

This is Trevor and me with my parents right after I went to the temple for the first time. Trev's family came to Bountiful for the occasion, so we all went out to eat afterwords. Good memory!

I tag all my cousins and Aunt Lonna. Shelly, you're off the hook since you might be a little busy with the twins.

V-I-K-I-N-G-S!

For my fellow 2002 Viewmont graduates:
Some of our classmates got smart and created a class blog! Mostly it's a place to leave your blog address and find other people with blogs. Good idea, I thought. I'll see you there!

Just in case...

Just in case you haven't seen enough pictures of little Cassie, here are a few of the professional photos we had taken on the photographer's blog.

Just Pics

Cassidy Urkel Hawkes

All bundled up

With mommy after surgery

Mmm...food!

Our little fairy

Trying to fly

Halloween with cousins

New Sunday shoes!

Cassie's laugh

Somehow all of our pictures seem to be of our baby...

Two weeks

What I did in the last two weeks:
1. FINALLY decided who to vote for. Honestly, I'm not entirely pleased with Obama or McCain. I waffled back and forth between them for while, then considered voting for a third party candidate but didn't like any of them either. I'm not going to announce who I'm voting for here, but you can make a guess if you'd like.
2. Started Cassie on solid foods. She's a champion with rice cereal! We're starting carrots this week, so I hope she likes them as much as the cereal.
3. Got professional pictures taken of Cassie. My brother and sister-in-law got family pictures taken, I fell in love with the photos, then their photographer moved to Utah! How convenient. Unfortunately, Cassie was tired and nothing we did could make her smile. I'm sure there will still be some good pictures...after all, Cassie is a baby, and we all know they don't have to smile to be adorable. The first thing Cassie did when we got home after the photo shoot was smile for her daddy. Go figure.
4. Went to three Halloween parties! The best part? The food: cupcakes, chips with homemade salsa, caramel apples, hot wassail, scones, homemade chicken noodle soup...yum. Cassie dressed as a fairy, wings and all. Pictures to come. :)
5. Saw High School Musical 3 with some girlfriends. I was positive Trevor wouldn't want to see it with me, so I knew I needed some girls with a stomach for cheesiness. It was awesome. I love how corny musicals are, and this one is over the top. We laughed out loud a lot and might have offended some of the 8-year-old girls in the theater. Besides the cheese, it was really creative and the dancing was amazing. My face hurt from smiling when we left.