Happy

Today is my 41st birthday. It actually sort of blows my mind, as it feels like I just had my 40th birthday last week. The years are flying by at an alarming rate. Really, though, I don't mind getting older. In fact, I sort of like it, though I just can't get over how fast the years seem to be passing.

On my 41st birthday, here is a list of 41 things (in no particular order) for which I am grateful. These are things which make my life more comfortable or which make me happy:

1) Modern medicine

I most likely would have died during labor without it. Had I been pregnant with Parker a hundred years ago, I wouldn't have survived the complications.

2) Parker

3) Jack

4) Luke

5) Tim

6) Our home

7) Air conditioning

We have pretty great weather here for most of the year, but July and August can be hot.

8) Our pool

Again, July and August can be hot. (But I'm not complaining, because I'm not so good with snow -- it's good for me that it doesn't snow here.) I can handle a couple months of heat, and we actually look forward to it because it means it will be warm enough in the pool to swim.

9) My flute

10) My music CDs

I love listening to music while I clean house, drive, work out, etc.

11) My piano

It's not fancy, but it gets the job done.

12) The opportunity I had to study music at BYU

I grew up wanting to go to ASU -- both of my parents had gotten their undergraduate and graduate degrees from ASU, and I wanted to follow in their footsteps. But when it came time to apply to colleges, I started feeling that I should go to BYU. It's the only school to which I even applied, so I don't know what I would have done if I hadn't been accepted. I loved the opportunities I had to hear so many great men and women speak at the weekly devotionals. (I once got to shake Neal A. Maxwell's hand after a devotional. He was one of my all-time favorite speakers/writers, so that was an experience I'll never forget.) I loved the atmosphere on campus and the amazing people I met at BYU. It was a life-altering experience.

13) My car

And the fact that Tim paid it off last month, a year early. When you live in a rural area, having a reliable car is helpful.

14) My friends

Friends from my childhood. Friends from BYU. Friends from when I served as a missionary in Massachusetts. Friends from when Tim and I first got married and lived in Berkeley. Friends from when we moved to Bakersfield after Tim took his first "real" job. Friends from our current city of residence.

Friends have gotten me through the worst life has had to offer, and they've been there to rejoice with me through the greatest times, too. Life without them would be pretty depressing.

15) Facebook

I've been able to reconnect with many of my aforementioned friends on Facebook.

16) My mom

17) My dad

18) My siblings

19) Jesus Christ

Happiness would be impossible without Him. An inability to repent and be forgiven of our sins would keep us miserable.

20) This area where Tim and I are now raising our family

It is close to Sequoia National Park, a couple hours from Yosemite National Park, and 2.5 -3 hours from several beaches. It makes planning family vacations easy, and I love looking out my windows every day and seeing the Sierra Nevada mountains.

21) The writings of C.S. Lewis

When I die, I want to meet him.

22) My eyesight

23) My hearing

24) The fact that I am able to walk/run/swim/bike/play

I take my good health for granted sometimes.

25) My Thermador double oven

Our home is a little bit of a fixer-upper, but it has good appliances. I love cooking.

26) My Thermador 6-burner gas cooktop

Again, this house is a fixer-upper, but the appliances are decent.

27) Books, books, books

28) My flute teachers, past and present

29) My assignments at church that allow me to work with the children ages 18 months - 12 years

I love playing the piano every week for the children's worship services, and I also get to teach a lesson once a month. I love working with children -- you never know what they are going to say or do. It's pretty fun.

30) The opportunity I had to serve as a missionary

It was another life-altering experience that continues to influence me daily, 18 years after returning home.

31) The fact that my husband is an optometrist

I tend to lose things like glasses.

32) The Office

Always good for a laugh.

33) My endocrinologist

Thank heaven for kind, helpful doctors.

34) Our apple orchard

I love apple pie, apple butter, applesauce, etc.

35) The citrus trees that we just planted

I love citrus fruit as much as I love apples, so I'm looking forward to picking citrus off my own trees in my own yard.

36) My flat iron

I have naturally curly hair -- I'm talking corkscrew curly hair -- and it's nice to be able to straighten it now and then.

37) Our DVR

Otherwise, I would miss The Office, because I never seem to be home on Thursday evenings.

38) My cell phone

I didn't think I needed one until the day eight years ago that I ran out of gas in the middle of nowhere with Parker and Jack in the car. Thank goodness for the nice farmer who had a gas pump on his farm.

39) Living in the United States of America

Sometimes, I'm ashamed to say, I take freedom for granted. Until I see what is happening in other parts of the world -- then it's like someone slapped me upside the head. Wow, are we ever lucky to live in a republic.

40) Chocolate

41) Going to church every Sunday

I need regular reminders of what is really important. Reminders "of things as they really are, and of things as they really will be." (Book of Mormon, Jacob 4:13)


Okay, that was a fun exercise. I think I'll make a list every year on my birthday of things that make me happy.