Novemeber Blessings

Recently, I have reached my one year mark with the company that I work for. I didn't expect anything great to happen other then getting back my vacation/sick time since I have long since used mine up. And I have been very grateful to still have my job even though I had my hours cut to part-time. But when I had my review my boss told me that he didn't think that I was making what I was worth and he wanted to give me a raise. Not only a cost of living raise but an additional raise. He said that he wished he could let me work full-time and would love it if I could but considering the economy he couldn't. But he wanted to pay me more of what I was worth and also give me a little extra to off-set the loss of hours. So over all, I got a 7% raise! We were so excited. That is by far the biggest raise I have ever had. And now that we have a little one to take care of it will definatly help. What an amazing blessing! I am so grateful for a Heavenly Father that truely watches over us and knows just when to send blessings.

Over Thanksgiving Rick had to work Wed-Sat so we didn't get to go home for the holiday and at the last minute our plans with our friends fell through. So Rick worked from 9am-9pm those days and I stayed home and relaxed and tried to catch up on some stuff for Christmas. We are going to celebrate our Turkey Day tomorrow night with a date night. But the good thing about Rick having to work Thanksgiving and the day after Thanksgiving is, he gets Holiday pay for both days. Which is another blessing with Christmas coming up and Madi's arrival soon.

We also went to the doctor today for a check-up and and ultrasound and found out that Madi is right where she needs to be as far as size and weight goes. The doctor said that everything looks beautiful! And even with four weeks left to go, I am already starting to dialate just over 1 cm and I am already 70% effaced. The doctor also said that considering I am already dialating, I will most likely have her sooner rather then later. Which is a blessing because if we have her before the end of the year we won't have to pay as much out of pocket because of all the other medical expenses we have already had this year so we will have already met our max out-of-pocket. Which is another huge blessing!

Thank the Lord for those everyday "Tender Mercies" he sends you. There are more then you think, you just have to take the time to notice them. Happy Thanksgiving!

Decorating for Christmas

After we got home on Thanksgiving, Rick and I put up our 6 foot, $20 tree from Dollar General. You'd think that the tree would look like a Charlie Brown tree but it actually looks really good considering where we got it from and how much we paid for it. When we first put it up we only had the lights and two ornaments on it, but a few days ago we got the rest of the ornaments for it. Our ornaments are the standard red and silver glass balls and then we also bought nature ornaments. So we have fish, bears, eagles, and quail on our tree along with a few other "traditional" Christmas ornaments. But my favorite one is this ornament that has the year that our little family started.

Thanksgiving

Rick and I had two Thanksgiving feasts this year. First for lunch, our really good friend Daniel invited us over to his apartment complex to have a Thanksgiving feast with him and his friends. Even though we only knew Daniel, it was a lot of fun to get to know the other people there. They were so nice and hospitable, and the meal was great! Then that evening we went to my Aunt Janice and Uncle Ken's house for dinner. My Aunt Terri was also there along with our cousins Katie and Makenna. It was really nice to have family to spend Thanksgiving with and enjoy a break from school and work. We even got to talk to my Uncle Allen on the phone, who is serving in the military over in Iraq right now. It was nice to have extended family so close to spend Thanksgiving with since we weren't able to spend it with our immediate families. Happy Thanksgiving!