Another Thanksgiving day and, as always, I am in a reflective mood. What an amazing year it has been, full of triumphs, tragedies and failures and personally, I am grateful for them all. We saw the birthday of our third and fourth grandchildren. Actually, I literally saw the birth of our grandson. That was an amazing experience that I am grateful to have been a participant in. I will admit that having never seen a life birth from THAT side of the birthing bed, I was a little surprised that the nurses and midwives didn't look more panicked at C.J.'s appearance when he first popped out. I was fairly certain that Heather had given birth to a wad of used chewing gum, but after a few minutes he took on a much more baby like appearance and within the hour was completely adorable.

In August I took a leap of faith and quit my job with ConAgra to embrace our part time photography business full time at the risk of our financial security. In truth, chances were pretty good that my salary at ConAgra wasn't going to make or break us, but there was a very real possibility that I would have to cut back on shopping, decorating and pedicures and possibly even have to cut back to one color with no highlights on my hair. You have no idea how hard this is to admit because undoubtedly, you all thought that at 48 I still didn't have a single gray hair yet. I even magnanimously offered to stop getting my hair colored when I quit ConAgra, but after a couple of months, Derek ever so tactfully suggested that since I do a lot of senior portraits, it would be bad for my business image to have gray hair. I decided not to take it as an insult and just enjoy the fact that I had permission to keep getting it done.

This year we also enjoyed our children's many triumphs. Chi graduated the police academy and is now with the Omaha Police department. When I asked him if he enjoyed his new job he simply stated "Mom, they let me carry a gun...all the time". Apparently that says it all. Mark graduated from BYU-Idaho and even before graduation had three solid job offers. We were thrilled when he accepted a job with Lockheed in Colorado Springs as a software engineer, since it's a lot closer to us than Idaho Falls! We have watched Colt's present, start to gel and solidify into an exciting future. He and Michelle are getting married in February and Colt is going into the Army in communications in March.

While this isn't a particularly funny or witty post, I wanted to prove that I do have a serious side and put in writing my thoughts about the blessings in my life.

I am incredibly grateful for my family. What awesome children I have! I am grateful to see that each of them has become exactly what I have hoped for since they were born. Good people. Everything else is icing. They are loving, kind and caring people and have found wonderful spouses (and pre-spouses). I love seeing them interacting with their own families and developing these amazing lives of their own.

In addition to our amazing children, we now have four fabulous grandchildren. THIS is a fabulous thing! Our favorite hobby now is babysitting the grandchildren. The best part is hopping the kids up on sugar right before bedtime and then giving them back to their parents! I live for my phone chats with Eden and love hearing about Autumns daily antics.

Derek and I are embracing the freedom of having all of our kids grown and having more time to spend with each other. We are enjoying learning more about the people we have become 29 years after marrying. It is mind boggling to realize that we will have been married for 29 years in December. Marriage is it's very own adventure and what I've learned in all this time is to be grateful for each others qualities and to work through the hard times because, it's worth it in the end.

In August, I had my 48th birthday. (Let's face it. I have four grandchildren, there is absolutely no point lying about my age). As a birthday present, Derek rallied the troops and together they bought me glass blowing classes! This has become an exciting new hobby that I really love. To get the details on my adventures in glass blowing, you might want to read my early blogs;-).

So on a completely serious note, I will end this blog on a serious note by expressing my gratitude for the gospel. For the lessons we learn and for the patience and love that our Heavenly Father has for us. I am incredibly grateful for my family and for all the years that they have put up with me and loved me. In particular, I am thankful for Derek. For his love for me and his dedication to our marriage. I love him so. I am also very grateful for extended family and for friends. I have enjoyed reconnecting with lost family members on Facebook and have enjoyed the friendship of amazing people who support my choices and efforts. I hope you enjoyed this foray into sincerity and serious because it makes me feel all funny and will not be repeated very often.

Love to all of my friends and family and a Happy Thanksgiving!