Thanksgiving

This year I was overwhelmed by all the things Tyler and I had to be grateful for. We have been so lucky this year considering we are both students and also newlyweds. We have had an amazing year and been so blessed. Here are just a few of the many things I thought of.

1. A new job (for me)
2. A great tax return (not that it went to anything fun, just school!)
3. An almost free trip to Hawaii
4. 2 Amazing Families who have been incredibly supportive of us.
5. The gospel, being lucky enough to have been in two great wards this year, and also for our callings that we have enjoyed/still enjoying.
6. Being able to go to school (sometimes it doesn't feel like such a blessing)
7. Great friends, anytime I get together with any of our friends I realize how great they are and how lucky we are to have them as our friends!
8. An affordable and great place to live.
9. Good health...I've joked a little bit that we have insurance, but have hardly got any use out of it and its almost not worth it to be paying for it (especially because I'm still being covered on my dad's too), but we are very glad we've both been pretty healthy and also thankful that we do have insurance.
10. Each other, I can't speak too much for Tyler but I will say for myself that Tyler is definitely my rock and lifesaver. So glad I have him :)

This year we celebrated Thanksgiving with the Clyde Family. We started the day out with an early morning Turkey bowl and then dinner later in the afternoon at my Aunt Cheryl and Uncle Jeff's house. A week before Thanksgiving Tyler started asking me how a Clyde Thanksgiving goes and if its like all the other parties we have? He also had a big concern about if there would be enough food for him since there would be a large crowd and he did not want to run out of food on Thanksgiving and said he wanted to be able to eat as much Turkey as he wanted. I think the thought of running out of food even stressed him out a little. He also asked if we cut the Turkey, because he likes it left uncut? Of course we cut it? Are we not supposed to?  Well, Thanksgiving came and we didn't even come close to running out of food so I think he was pretty satisfied. It was great too to be surrounded by all 40 people in attendance. This year everyone in the family was able to make it except for my cousin Rachel and her family, who live in Ohio. We definitely missed them!

...PICTURES TO COME SOON ...

Dad's are Lifesavers!

Yesterday I was in Lehi and I got a call from Tyler saying that the Honda broke down. I kind of assumed it had just done what it has done a few times before where it just decides not to start and then as soon as I get there, it starts right up--I guess it thinks its funny. It hasn't done it though in 6 or 7 months, so in my head I'm thinking that yeah, its probably overdue to tease us again. I asked him where he was at, thinking he was still at his job site or at the park-n-ride, depending on what city they were working in. To my surprise it wasn't in those places at all, he informed me it broke down on the freeway. Awesome. Thankfully, with all the construction going on it happened in an ok spot where there was plenty of room for him to safely pull off to the side of the road instead of in the middle of traffic. I was at my parents house, so instantly I went to my dad and he was on board for the rescue mission. Because of the construction and where he was at it took us a while to get to him, but we did and my dad towed it for us! Don't know what we would have done without him!

Thanks Dad!!!

.So Much To Be Thankful For.

I am ESPECIALLY thankful for this guy!

I can't wait to marry him.

He is amazing & has been so incredibly helpful these last weeks w/ all the crazy wedding planning.

I am so thankful for an amazing supportive family who are ALWAYS there for me.

I am thankful to be marrying in to such a great family as well, I couldn't ask for a better family to join.

I am so so grateful for the gospel and all the happiness it provides me in my life.

I am so grateful for good friends who are supportive of me and so much fun to be around.

I love this time of year, because it reminds me to reflect and allows me to see how LUCKY I really am and how many big and little things I have to be thankful for. I am truly blessed!

Time to Show Some Gratitude

Earlier in the week I started off by sharing how thankful I am for my little sister and I thought it would be nice to finish off the list.

More than anything I'm so grateful for my family. They say you can chose your friends but not your family. I don't really like this saying, because if I were to hand pick my family, I would chose the family I have now all over again. And when I say family, I mean ALL of my family...parents, siblings...including my cute new sister-in-law, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. I'm so lucky to be close to the majority of my family. My best friends are truly my family members and I'm so grateful for the relationships I have built with them. Just to get an idea of how close I am with my family I have to share a funny little story from a week or two ago...

I was down in Santaquin at Tyler's parents house and his mom was asking me what I was doing for Thanksgiving, I told her what side of my family I would be with this year and she proceeded to ask me if I switched off each holiday, or year, or what??? I started to say yes, and as I did Tyler muttered under his breath, "it's not really switching off if you have a party with them EVERY month." I couldn't help but laugh, because this is SO true. The Clyde side (my Mom's side) has lots of get-togethers. But for the record Tyler...we don't get together EVERY month...just most of them...haha. and some months WAY more than once! So yes...we do see a lot of each other. I wouldn't have it any other way. I love the Schaefer side every bit as much and wished I saw them more than I do!

I'm also very grateful for my health. I've been very lucky to have been given a healthy working body...I've had a few minor injuries, etc. but I am grateful that I haven't had anything that has held me back. I love dancing so much and know that there are many people who would kill to have my health and the abilities to do what I do. In my Jazz class I'm taking at school right now, the very first dance we learned was done as a tribute to a long time dancer and instructor at UVU. She was diagnosed with cancer and died this fall. Her niece just so happens to be my instructor and wanted to do this dance in honor of her. The inspiration behind her choreography and music selection all had to do with the words of her aunt, who last Spring talked about how health is everything and without it we are so confined and she was sad to lose her abilities due to illness. This really made me realize how lucky I am and I don't want to take my body for granted.

I'm grateful for Tyler. He's so much fun to be around and is always there for me when I need him around. This semester has been a tough one for me and some nights I get so tense and stressed and he shows up to help however he can. I think I'm pretty lucky. Sometimes I'm pretty sure I drive him nuts but he never admits it. He's always so thoughtful when I least expect it. Tyler's mom, sister, and sister-in-law all had tickets to the So You Think You Can Dance performance when it came to Utah this last month. His sister-in-law backed out (Thank you Sarah!)  and Tyler surprised me by buying her ticket for me! Such a nice thing to do for me for no reason other than to be nice. I was shocked when I called me...in fact, it was kinda funny. He called me during the day of and a BYU game was on so I knew his call MUST be important. I answered and he was more chatty than he ever is on the phone, he asked me if I had plans. I told him no and he said Good! Don't make any. I was then asked why, and he told me I was going to the performance with them. He didn't even tell me why, just left it at that and hung up. I had to text him to get the story. I probably told him thank you over a dozen times, but don't know if he had a clue how much this meant to me. The performance was amazing and it was fun to spend time with his mom and sis, Love you Ty!

I'm grateful to have a job! A year ago today I was my layed off from my previous job wondering what would come next. I wasn't really worried, because I have wonderful parents who are always willing to help me out when I need it and since I was living at home, money really wasn't an issue, but I obviously wasn't planning to sit at home and mooch off them. Luckily Century 21 wanted me back! I didn't even apply, I just have an AWESOME Aunt, who was willing to work me in. I love my Century 21 family, I work with so many fun, great people...this job might not pay the greatest but there are so many aspects of it, that make it great. Me being layed off was really an opportunity for me. I was having a hard time justifying quitting that job to go to school because I was being paid so well and HELLO...I've never been a fan of school, but once I was no longer needed there it allowed me to start going to school full time. Century 21 works really great around my school schedule and gives me just enough money to get by and in today's economy so many people are out of work that I'm just grateful to have something, because that is more than a lot of people can say right now.

I'm grateful to be in school...I can't believe I'm admitting this, especially with finals right around the corner, but it is true. School is hard, stressful, and a money eater, but it gives me purpose. I like knowing that I'm working towards something greater and love some of the things I am learning and new people I have met at school. It can be my worst nightmare at moments, but other times I feel that it is one of my greatest blessings!

I'm grateful for all of my friends! They're so much fun and supportive of me, I honestly don't see a lot of them very much anymore, because we're all doing our own things in life, but I'm still so glad for the relationships I have with all of them. One of my best friend's is getting married in just a few weeks and then eventually will be moving away from Utah. Jaynee's been such an awesome friend and support to me and I know I'm going to miss her tons!

Love you Jaynee!

I'm grateful for the gospel and the happiness it has brought me in my life, I would be in a whole other world I think without it. I'm grateful that my parents taught me well and the testimonies they have, which in turn strengthened mine. So many don't have what I have and I know I'm truly luckily to be a part of it!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Gobble. Gobble.

I'm Thankful for...

My Sister

With Thanksgiving around the corner I have been thinking about many things I'm thankful for in my life and due to recent changes I can't help but recognize how grateful I am to have a sister. If you know us very well at all, you know that we can fight a pretty nasty fight with each other, and that in the past, we've done this on a regular basis...as in DAILY! It used to be quite the chore to get us to stop fighting. Most the time we wouldn't quit til one of us was in tears, and lets face it, that was NEVER me. Being the older, less sensitive one, I seem to always have the upper hand and much better war tactics. However, in the last 3 months, my sister and I have not fought even ONCE! Impressive, I know. I can't help but thank our new living situation for this one. We no longer live in the same house and life is great! We get along Soooo much better and when we are together we can enjoy each others company rather than nag at each other. Last week Natalie was my life saver when I had no one to go to a dance concert with me and I was so glad that she was able to go. It was not only fun to go to be in her company but also to see something we both love. My brother's have been fairly supportive when it has come to all my dancing, but they can't touch the support and the understanding Nattie has in this area. She and my mom were ALWAYS at my performances and competitions in high school and before that she too was competiting at all the same places as was I. She is now on drill team and it has been so fun coming and watching her dance so far and can't wait to watch her at all her competitions this year (sad though, I can't be at the first one next week.) I'm happy seeing her succeed especially in something I personally love so much.  Here are the top 10 things I love about Natalie.

1. She's no doubt a peace maker.

2. She is always bailing me out of trouble, tis true.

3. She's very giving, not just to me, but to everyone.

4. She's SUPER smiley & FULL of personality.

5. She doesn't like meat very much, which leaves more for me :)

6. She agrees that I have a big butt...this is a constant debate at our house. Random I know.

7. She can pull off headbands of all kinds, and I cannot. Lucky girl!

8. She is an awesome listener.

9. She idolizes me...but then again who doesn't? (totally kidding, i'm not THAT arrogant.)

10. She's willing to admit it. :)

Love you Nattie!