Thankful

My favorite definition (courtesy of Webster): Impressed with a sense of kindness received, and ready to acknowledge it; grateful.

I have been infintely blessed in my life, to which I will be eternally grateful to my Heavenly Father for the life He has given me. In no particular order, I am most grateful for:

-My parents: for teaching me to love reading and learning, for teaching me the gospel and loving it, for listening, for calling at random times
-My big brothers: for being protective, but not necessarily wanting to admit it
-My big sisters: for setting such beautiful examples of what I want to be
-My brothers-in-law: for being amazing to my sisters, being such wonderful fathers to my nieces and nephews, and giving me hope that there are honrable, preferably available, men out there...
-Good friends
-Books, reading, the smell of a new book, the smell of an old favorite, the excitement of a new story, the cozy familiar of an old story, the beauty of the right words in the right place at the right moment, the clever dialogue, the well-placed joke, and the never-ending joy I get when I have time to enjoy it all!
-My laptop
-My notebook, pens and paper, lists, Sharpies, Crayola Crayons and Markers, dry erase boards
-hobbies, crocheting, sewing, crafting, writing random thoughts, blogging, reading the news, watching the news, debating topics with good friends
-being easy going: this is kind of random, but I usually don't get worked up about stuff. I get along with just about anyone (there have been some very few EXTREME exceptions, one of which I'll blog about later because it's just too funny to keep to myself). I enjoy being in a diverse group. Last night I had the pleasure of enjoying such a group over the longest game of Settlers of Catan I have ever played in my life (4 hours). All ages, backgrounds, and differing viewpoints. We laughed a lot and just generally enjoyed each other. I've met people over the years that just can't get along with certain types of people, girls who didn't get along with roommates, etc. What a miserable way to live!
-the internet, facebook, Google in all its awesomeness, the fact that I can still access the BYU library from Tallahassee, online news access
-Adobe: Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, Flash Animation, Dreamweaver, seriously, how cool is this technology that is at our fingertips? How lucky/blessed are we to live in such a time!
-the ability to write well, quickly, and, strangely, better when under pressure
-Photography, my camera, still moments of life
-my cousins and their blogs: growing up in GA I didn't have much contact with my cousins in UT and over the past year or so it has been sucha blast to reacquaint myself with them through their blogs :-)
-my grandparents, my heritage, their stories, their lives, their memories, their hugs and kisses, their homes, their food, their children
-... and surely many more things that I have failed to mention!