83. The New Year

Every year I'm thankful for the new year to roll around. It gives me an opportunity to think back on how the year has gone and what I want to do better in the coming year. I always have some kind of news years resolution. I'm not always the best at keeping them, and I don't exactly remember them too long after the new year, but I make them and try to be a little better each year. I periodically try to set goals for myself anyway, but there something more special and significant about doing at the new year. It feels like a fresh start, and you always want the next year to start out well. So, I'm thankful for the new year because of the perspective it gives me and the motivation it gives me to live a little better.

82. Mechanical Pencils

So, the first person to ever think of and design a mechanical pencil was a genius. I remember being so amazed the first time I ever saw one. A pencil that you don't have to sharpen? That's awesome! Seriously, though, it's amazing how much more convenient it is to just click a button a couple of times rather than stick your pencil in a sharpener. Also, the lead on a mechanical pencil doesn't actually get dull and fat as you write with it, which is great as well. Anyway, despite having been so amazed by them when I first discovered them, I've grown to take them for granted. But, in all actuality, I am thankful that someone created them and has made my life that little bit more convenient.

81. Crystal Light Singles

These are a really convenient way to drink something more flavorful than water but not worry about whether your drinking too much sugar or fat or whatever else you should worry about. My mom always has a handy supply of them at home and I've used quite a few of them during the holidays. My favorite flavor right now is Raspberry Peach.

80. Power Tools

First off, I'm not some power tool junky and I don't use them all that often. However, I've been helping my dad finish our basement while we've been home and I'm sure thankful that they exist. There are only a couple that we use regularly (a drill and a saw), but they sure do make things easier and faster. I can't imagine how long it would take to do what we've done without them and how much more tiring it would be. I know it would be possible and was done in the past, but I'm glad I don't have to do it now.

79. My New Knife

My new knife isn't exactly a new knife. It's actually a pretty old knife, but it's new to me. It's one of my Grandpa Nish's old pocket knives. Grammy gave it to me on Christmas as a bit of a keepsake, and it means a lot to me. There's nothing flashy about it. To anybody else, it would just look like an old pocket knife. But for me it's a bit of a connection to my grandpa and who he was.

My Grandpa Nish died just a few days over 20 years ago, when I was 5. He had been battling diabetes and things had been bad for long enough that my best memories of him are from when I would visit him with my mom in long term care at the hospital. I do remember seeing him outside of the hospital as well, but he was always in a wheel chair (I even remember having a removable ramp at home to help him up onto the the deck when he would come out). But, my most vivid memories are at the hospital. Even then, I don't really remember a lot of what he was like as far as his personality and such, but I do remember that I loved visiting him.

I've heard a lot of stories about his earlier life. He was a great man. He was a hard worker and knew how to do things right. He was a bit of a tease (well, from the sounds of it, a really big tease). He loved to gather kids around and tell them stories. And, from the sounds of it, he wouldn't let you get away with any nonsense. Anyway, from all the stories that I've heard from various people, I've really grown to respect him and wish that I'd had a better chance to get to know him. This is why this simple pocket knife means so much to me.

78. Toothpaste

Anybody I associate with is probably pretty thankful that I'm thankful for toothpaste. Then again, if I wasn't thankful for toothpaste, there probably wouldn't be too many people associating with me. Anyway, it's nice to be able to clean my teeth and make my mouth feel fresh. I really dislike that fuzzy feeling that your teeth get if you don't brush your teeth. It's gross and it makes me feel self-concious, as if I'm scared that it shows that I haven't brushed them and that my breath will stink. Luckily, that's a rare occurrence because I have toothpaste and a toothbrush. So, don't worry out there, I'm thankful for toothpaste and brush regularly.

77. Christmas

I bet you were surprised to see this come up. Ha, just kidding. It was a pretty obvious choice.

Christmas is my favorite holiday. I enjoy being able to take some time off to be with family and enjoy this time of year. It's nice to be able to take some time to think about the real reason that we celebrate Christmas as well. To think of the birth of our Savior and about his life and what it means for us. Honestly, now that I'm a little bit older now and have a bit more of a grown up perspective on things, Christmas would still be Christmas if I didn't get any gifts. For me it's all about spending time with family and remember Christ. Today I mostly spent time playing cards Grammy and working on finishing the basement with my dad until it was time for dinner. That might not sound like a traditional Christmas, but it was good enough for me.

76. Pixar Movies

I watched Up tonight with my family. I've seen it a few times and it fits the mold of all the other Pixar movies as far as being a fun and clean movie that anyone can enjoy. It's nice to have movies like that where you don't need to worry about what might be in it.

75. Soup

I can't believe I'm already 3/4 of the way to my goal.

Soup is good. Tonight we went in to town to visit with some family and have dinner. My aunt Roxanne made soup for us all and I realized again how much I like soup, especially in the winter, so I decided it was a good candidate for tonight's post. My aunt actually suggested that I write about her. While she is a wonderful woman and I am very thankful that she is my aunt, I don't want to start inadvertently playing favorites on here. I don't want any jealous aunts or uncles. But, maybe writing about how her soup made me decide to write about soup will satisfy her request.

Anyway, I really do like soup. It's one of those rare foods that really makes you feel good to be eating it. There's a lot of fantastic food that tastes great and that I love to eat, but soup just makes you feel good. It warms you up and makes you feel cozy. I'm pretty sure this isn't just some crazy idea I have since chicken noodle soup is a common food to eat when somebody is sick. So, yeah, I'm thankful for soup.

74. Treadmills

So, I like how I feel when I go running. It's often hard for me to get motivated to go running, but I like how I feel if I do convince myself to go. However, sometimes the weather outside just isn't very good weather for running. That's where the treadmill comes in. I'm not the biggest fan of running in one spot continually, but I'm thankful that I can run inside when it gets too cold and snowy outside. It's also fun to watch TV at the same time. I can watch TV and not feel bad about wasting time and beinging lazy.

73. Knowing French

You may have picked up the fact from some earlier posts that I served an LDS mission in France. Obviously, I needed to learn French in order to be effective in any way. I really enjoyed speaking French while I was over there, and it felt really good when I felt like I was getting a pretty good grasp on the language and didn't need to try as hard to speak correctly.

I've been back from my mission for about 4 and a half years now. I'm not nearly as fluent as I used to be. There are even times when I'll be speaking a bit with somebody who has been taking classes at BYU and realize that they can speak better than me. That's always kind of humbling and brings back a desire to polish up a bit. I can still understand the language quite well, I believe. I've been reading a book lately called Parole du Jour J (Words from D-Day). I picked it up while I was in France and it's been really interesting. It's basically a collection of letters and journal entries from people involved in D-Day and the Battle of Normandy. It includes accounts from both sides of the battle and it's been eye opening to read what it was like to really be there.

So, I try a little to keep my French up. I could be doing better, but I'm thankful for the opportunity I had to learn it and I am thankful for what I have retained.

72. Clear Roads

I mentioned yesterday that I drove up to Alberta from Provo. It's about a 12 hr trip, and can be really nice at times and really bad at times depending upon the weather and road conditions, and it's kind of hard to predict how the roads are going to be unless you know somebody who has just recently driven on them. Sometimes that's not even all that accurate.

Yesterday the roads were really nice and clear, and I am so thankful for that. Snowy and icy roads add so much stress to the trip. Growing up in Alberta, I've been around snowy roads my whole life and have been driving on them ever since I got my license. However, despite having years of experience on them, I still don't like them, especially when I'm in the middle of nowhere in Idaho or Montana. I remember driving home one Christmas when the roads were covered in snow and all of a sudden the car in front of me started fishtailing and went off the road. That was kind of a scary experience that made me pay extra close attention to how I was driving. The trip just goes so much better when there is no snow or ice on the road, and I'm thankful there wasn't any yesterday.

71. Books on CD

Books on CD are wonderful for long drives. I've listened to a few books while driving between Provo and the farm, and it helps so much. It's much better than just listening to music. I get a lot more engaged in the story and the time really flies by if it's a good one. I drove up to Canada today and listened to Anne Perry's No Graves as Yet. To be honest, I wasn't a big fan, and I found myself getting easily distracted away from the story. So, it wasn't the best book to listen to, but it still helped. There were still moments when I found myself amazed at how far I had driven after gettting caught up in a particular development in the plot. In any case, books on CD really make the drive a lot more bearable, and I am thankful for that. Some other books that I've listened to are The Book of the Dead (Preston and Child), Life Expectancy (Dean Koontz), and Forever Odd (Dean Koontz). That last one was kind of strange, but it still held my attention better than today's choice.

70. Libraries

So, I wrote previously about library book sales because of all the cheap books I've been able to buy. Well, today the focus is the actual library. I really think it's great that you can go to a library and check out as many books as you like, absolutely free. I just got a library card for the Provo City Library. I'm actually really excited about it. Sure, I already have access to the Harold B. Lee Library on campus, but I discovered that the Provo library has some stuff that the HBLL doesn't. Also, it's a lot closer to my current apartment than the HBLL is. Anyway, libraries are great. I remember going to the public library in Lethbridge a lot when I was younger. I wasn't much of a reader when I was young (and most of my memories are from before I could read all that well anyway), but I remember being there a lot. I think I was probably bored a lot of the time, but it makes me happy to think back on being there. I do remember that they had some amazing chairs to spin around in. Those were fun.

69. My Headlamp

I bought a headlamp over a year ago. It's meant for camping and hiking in the dark and such, but I use it to read. I actually got the idea from a roommate of mine that I was living with over a year ago. He would come home late at night after being with his fiance and he would jump right into bed and read Harry Potter late into the night. If I was already in bed, he would throw on his headlamp (which he did also use for camping) so that the lights could be off in the room. I decided to follow his lead and bought my own. It has been great. I've used it on many occasions to read in the dark. Sometimes the few moments before I fall asleep are the only times during the school year that I can do some casual reading (or that I think to do some casual reading). If my roommate is trying to sleep, then I don't keep him awake with the lights. It's also handy if I'm the only one in the room. I can be laying in bed with the lights off and then just roll over when I'm done reading without having to get up to turn off the light.

68. Knowing how to Knit

Yep, that's right, I know how to knit. I pretty much only know how to knit rectangles of various dimensions (ie. scarves, rags, etc.), but I know how to knit nonetheless. I learned a few years ago from a girl in my ward who I later ended up dating for a couple of months. There were a couple of motivations in learning how to knit. The obvious one is that I was interested in this girl at the time. The other is that I needed Christmas gift ideas and knitting a couple of scarves seemed like a good idea. I was able to finish one scarf for my sister-in-law during the Christmas break, and I started one for my sister. That one, however, took nearly a year to finish up (I think it was only a year, I could be mistaken). In any case, I'm thankful to have been able to make those for them. Also, it's just fun to be able to throw out in a conversation that I know how to knit. I haven't done any knitting in a couple of years, but I'm sure that I could pick it up again and do just fine after working out a couple initial kinks. I have even used this ability as part of a school project. The ability to knit has been very useful to me.

67. Washers and Dryers

I am very thankful that I get to use a washer and dryer to do my laundry. During my years at college, I have never lived in an apartment that had its own washer and dryer. I've always had to share a laundry room with the rest of the complex and pay with quarters. There have been times when I've complained about this, but I'm glad I've had some sort of access to a washer and dryer. Even if I had to travel to a laundromat or something, that would be a million times better than having to wash my clothes by hand.

66. Baking

I'm thankful for baking. I really do like to bake. It's pretty much always more work than I think it's going to be and takes a lot more time than I plan on, but I like it. It's simply something that I enjoy as I'm doing it, then it feels really good to see and eat the finished product. And it feels really good when other people like what I've baked.

65. Mr. Krueger's Christmas

A little side note to start us off. I had a request for a bit more detail into Merbear. So, I've put a picture of him up under the Merbear post. Enjoy.

Mr. Krueger's Christmas is one of my favorite Christmas videos. I remember watching it for the first time when I was fairly young and not really following it at all, which is funny because it's a pretty simple little video. Anyway, a lot of it is pretty corny, but there's one scene where he imagines himself visiting the Savior on the night of his birth. I love this scene. I find it very touching and it does a great job of reminding me of what Christmas is really all about.

Anyway, I was in a pretty bad mood earlier today. I really shouldn't have been, but I was letting a bunch of stupid stuff bug me a lot. I finally reached the point where I realized that something needed to change. So, I decided to watch Mr. Krueger's Christmas. It did wonders for me and put me back in Christmas mode.

64. Grammy's Cookbook

Four years ago, my grandma put together a collection of a bunch of her recipes (and I believe some other family recipes) and had them bound in a book called "Grammy's Cookbook." She gave a copy of this cookbook to every member of the family, so I have my own copy. I have probably used more recipes out of this cookbook than any other cookbook I've had access to, and it has definitely saved me in a few situations where I needed a good recipes on short notice.

A lot of the recipes a for food that has a special place in my heart. The two most sentimental recipes are for her chocolate pudding and gingersnaps. I tried making the pudding once, but I didn't quite have the right touch and it didn't turn out how it was supposed to. It was still good, just not right. I was kind of disappointed about that. I haven't tried it since, but I probably should. This fall I tried taking on the gingersnaps. Those turned out pretty good, and they definitely made me think of Grammy's. I've made them a couple of times this semester, and I bought the stuff to make them again this weekend as a special Christmas treat before going home. I remember getting a package from Grammy for my first Christmas on my mission. I opened it to find a big bag of her gingersnaps that she had made and shipped all the way out to France, and they were delicious.

63. Hulu

This one's pretty simple. I mentioned a while ago that I probably watch more TV than I really should, but there really are only a few shows that I look forward to each week. The times I feel like I'm watching to much are when I'm watching nothing in particular. Anyway, I tend to not be around when the shows I want to watch are on. Well, thanks to Hulu, I can watch them the next day anyway. It's really quite convenient.

62. Merbear

Ah, I did it again. I missed my midnight deadline. I'm getting bad at this. Well, once again, at least I remembered to do this before falling asleep. I knew something didn't feel right as I was laying in bed.


So, the story behind Merbear is a long one. I don't really have time to get into all of the details now, but here's the condensed version. The origins of Merbear go back to my first apartment and set of roommates after the mission. Merbear is a teddy bear that showed up on our doorstep a few years ago. At the time, Merbear smelt kind of funny and we weren't extremely fond of him. Later on, one of my roommates ran him through the wash and he came out all clean and our feelings for Merbear changed. As roommates have gotten married and moved out, Merbear has stayed with us. I am now the remaining single roommate still living in Provo, and I still have Merbear. Why is he called Merbear? Well, somebody put the bottom half of his body in a sock one day. He looked like a mermaid, except for the fact that he's a bear. Thus, Merbear. There are all kinds of stories about Merbear, and he has provided a surprising amount of fun over the years (particularly when we were all still living together), and I'm thankful that I have had the opportunity to be a part of all that.

61. Furnaces

The weather has gotten a lot colder here the last few days. We finally got snow on Sunday, then more on Monday. I'm not usually one to complain about the cold, but I definitely prefer being warm rather than cold. So, obviously, I am thankful for furnaces (and other forms of heating a home) and the heat they provide in the winter. They definitely make it easier to get a lot of things done. They make things a lot more comfortable. And, well, they help you to literally survive the winter.

60. My Wallet

I am thankful for my wallet for the obvious reasons. It is a very handy way for me to carry around my money, ID's, and various other papers and such. But I am also thankful for it because of its appearance. It is a nice leather wallet, and I have had many compliments on it when people have noticed it. This makes me feel pretty good because I made it myself in one of my junior high shop classes.

59. The Police Beat

Okay, so, just before starting to write this, I got really excited that I was going to be hitting another milestone by posting my 60th thing for which I am thankful. Then, I realized that I accidentally skipped 58 when numbering yesterday's post. So, now I've fixed all that and have to settle for 59 tonight. Oh well.

For those of you who may not know, BYU's campus newspaper (The Daily Universe) publishes a weekly article known as The Police Beat. Here they print the various incidents that the campus police have had to deal with during previous week. Also, for those of you who may not know, not a whole lot of major crime occurs on campus. For this reason, the police beat usually has more of a comical nature than anything else. The stuff that people report to the police around here can be so odd. The Police Beat has provided me with many laughs over the years and I look forward to it every Wednesday.

Today the Daily Universe printed an article titled "Police Beat: Best of the Last Decade." It made me smile. I'm pretty sure that I've read better than these since I've been back from my mission, but these are good too. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

58. Lava Lamps

Lava lamps are one of the simple pleasures in life. They definitely are not an essential part of life. I could get along just fine if they didn't exist. The success of my future does not hinge on lava lamps in the slightest. However, they are cool to watch. There is something mesmerizing about the bubbles floating up and down. Seriously, I can spend insane amounts of time just watching a lava lamp. So, like I said, lava lamps are one of those simple pleasures for which I am thankful.

57. My Retainer

I'm sorry to make you think about something that I wear in my mouth all night, but I really am thankful for my retainer. I had braces in high school. When I got them off, I was really excited to see how straight my teeth had become. Like everyone who gets braces, I was given a retainer. I was given a schedule to follow where I would wear it less and less over time, with the goal being that I would only need to wear it occasionally, if at all. Well, I didn't keep with the schedule and started forgetting to wear it when I was supposed to, and then that quickly turned into not wearing it at all even though my teeth weren't ready for that. After a while, I tried putting it back in and it hurt a lot. My teeth had started to shift back to where they used to be. Well, luckily it wasn't too late and the retainer did fix things, but now I need to where it every night (and this has been going on for years now), or else I tell that my teeth are shifting again. So, even though I could have gotten to a point where I didn't need to where it very often, I thankful that I still have it and that I can wear it to keep my teeth in place now that I need it.

56. Cleaning Checks

Ahhh! I can't believe it! This is the first time I haven't posted before midnight. I haven't gone to bed yet, though, so hopefully this still counts as posting for December 4th. Hmmm, well, it's my blog so I make the rules. I'll allow it just this one time.

So, the student apartment complexes in Provo perform routine cleaning checks to make sure that you are taking care of your apartment. My current complex does these every two weeks, which is more frequent than any other place I've lived. Anyway, I am thankful for these cleaning checks because they guarantee at least two days of the month where the apartment is actually clean. I think we all prefer to live in a clean environment. But, when you get six guys together, things can get out of hand sometimes, which I don't like. The apartment actually isn't looking too bad right now. It will look even better tomorrow, though, since we have cleaning checks tomorrow.

55. Vending Machines

I can't tell you how many meals I have eaten out of the vending machines in the Fletcher Building. There have been many late nights in my office this semester where I have found myself without anything to eat. Sometimes this is because I haven't gone home yet that day, sometimes it's simply because I just haven't planned ahead and brought food back up on campus with me. Anyway, I have turned to the vending machines a lot this semester to keep me going at night. Has it been cheap? No. Has it been healthy? No. Has it been convenient? Absolutely. Despite the necessity to complain to dining services a couple of times about expired chocolate milk, it's definitely been nice to have the vending machines here.

54. Teaching Experiences

Today I had the opportunity to teach a class for my professor. He was in Chicago the last few days and wasn't going to be back on time to teach his class today. So, he asked me to fill in.

This was actually the third time I've taught his class. And when I say taught, I mean gave the lecture that he had already prepared. It really didn't take that much effort on my part. Of course, I don't want to make it sound like it was easy. I definitely could have been better prepared and done a better job presenting the material.

Anyway, I am thankful for these experiences for a couple of reasons. One is that it gives me a chance to stand up and practice speaking in front of groups of people. This is something that I'm not the best at. I get really nervous, speak really fast, and stumble over my words. However, it is something that I am going to need to get good at. So, I'm thankful for the practice.

Also, people are always asking me what I plan to do when I graduate with my PhD. I'm never really sure what to say other than the fact that I want to do research. I don't know yet what companies I'm gearing for. It used to be that when I would answer this question, the person talking to me would also ask if I am interested in being a professor some day. My answer to this used to always be "no, I'm sure I don't want to do that." Well, after these opportunities to teach in a real classroom, I'm starting to change my mind. I've really liked the experience. I realize that being a professor takes a lot more than just standing up and rattling off a lecture somebody else prepared for you (for example, YOU must prepare the lecture...plus a lot of other work), but one of the main reasons I was so against it before was that I didn't think I would like the teaching experience. Anyway, these opportunities have opened my eyes to a new world of possibilities. And it is that for which I am thankful.

53. Egg Nog

So, I've known for a few days now that this was going to be the topic for today. As I mentioned earlier, I tend to wait until December 1 to actually begin my own Christmas celebrations and such. Egg nog has been in the stores for a few weeks now, but I noticed it again just the other day as I was walking through the store and got really excited that it was almost Dec. 1 and that I could almost allow myself to buy my first carton of the year. It was at that point that I knew I'd be writing about egg nog today.

I really do love egg nog. I don't think I can ever get enough of it. So, it's probably good that it's only available at Christmas, otherwise I'd be gaining weight like nothing else all year long. Also, since it's only available at Christmas, it's simply another one of the many things that get me excited for the season and make this time of year special.

Okay, I should clarify one thing. I have actually seen non-Christmas egg nog for sale. It was Hollowen egg nog and the carton had a silhouette of a witch riding a broom stick. I got quite upset about this out of season egg nog. I think I probably ranted about it to my roommates when I got back from the store. I don't remember seeing it since then, thankfully.

52. The Christmas Spirit

As cheesy as it may sound, I really love and am thankful for the Christmas Spirit. It's something that really should be present all year round. But, since it generally isn't as strong as it is this time of year, I love to feel it when Christmas comes around. People are more generous and happier.

Tonight our ward held an auction where all of the proceeds are going toward the Sub for Santa program to buy gifts for children. It was a lot of fun. It was amazing to see the generosity there tonight as people bid on the various items. Honestly, was you got into it, it wasn't hard or burdensome to think about how much you would be paying. It's all going toward a good cause. The Christmas Spirit helped out a lot and it made the experience feel pretty good.

Christmas really does bring out the best in people. I love the spirit of this season.

51. Christmas Lights

So, I'm one of those people who believes that Christmas decorations shouldn't go up until December 1st. However, I won't complain if I see them up before that. Anyway, I was walking to my office yesterday after the football game and walked past a bunch of trees on campus that were lit up with Christmas lights and I got really happy. I love Christmas, and I think that Christmas lights can really be quite amazing if they are done right. Also, seeing Christmas lights is one of the easiest ways to be reminded that Christmas is coming up and to help you think about the season and everything involved with it. I love to see Temple Square all lit up with lights this time of year. I haven't actually been there for a few years to check them out, but I love them.

50. My MP3 Player

Okay, before I start off, I think it would have been much more appropriate to wait until this week to write about BYU football. The Cougars beat the Utes 26-23 in overtime. It was so crazy and so tense at the end! I'm so glad I didn't miss out on that game.

Alright, so, my mp3 player. My brother gave me a gift card to Future Shop last Christmas. I used that card to buy my first mp3 player, and I have not regretted it since then. I bought a 4GB Sansa Clip. It's just a tiny little thing, and it has served me well. I filled it up instantly and I have used it extensively since then.

One of the main reasons that I chose this one over other players at the store was that it has a clip on the back so I can clip it to my clothes when I go running, and that has been very handy. I haven't gone to work out at all this semester, but before September I would usually try to go work out a couple of times a week. I'm pretty sure that I've used my mp3 player more while I've been working out and running than in any other circumstance. It has really been helpful, especially when I've been running on the treadmill. Honestly, I don't really like treadmills unless I have music or TV to keep me distracted. If I don't have either of those, I usually only run about half as far as I do with them.

So, I'm not only thankful for the entertainment value of my mp3 player, but I'm also thankful for the health benefits of it as well.

49. Free Football Tickets

Tomorrow is the Holy War in Provo. The University of Utah is coming to play BYU tomorrow and I found out today that I have a ticket. This will be the fourth home game that I've attended this season, and I haven't paid for a single one. I've been fortunate enough to have friends who aren't using tickets and have given them to me. Last year I went to 5 games. I could have gone to 6, but I just didn't want to go to the last game. I have a lot of fun at the games, so I'm happy that I've been able to go. I realize that this one sounds kind of selfish, but I really am grateful for the generosity that has allowed me to go to the games.

48. Library Book Sales

Happy Thanksgiving...again! So, today is American Thanksgiving. It's been a good day. I slept in, read a bit, worked on a puzzle, then went to dinner at my bishop's place with some other members of the ward. Dinner was so good, and it was fun to spend it with good people.

Anyway, back to today's topic. I learned back in August that the Provo City Library holds book sales from time to time. I think they are selling the books in the library that don't really get checked out very much. Anyway, I've gone a few times and have gotten some great deals on a lot of books. I've been buying books at a much faster rate than I can read them, but luckily it isn't costing me an arm and a leg. For example, at the last sale I was able to buy 35 books (most of them hard covers), in good condition, for $13 dollars. I was pretty excited. So, that means that I'll have plenty to work on when I have time to read. Now, I just hope that the majority of these books are good.

47. Sympathetic Professors

Okay, so, there's one professor in particular that I'm thinking of as I write this, but he's not the only sympathetic professor I have to be grateful for. Anyway, I have a paper due in one of my classes. Actually, the final draft was due today, but here's the story about mine.

So, a while ago the students in my class were paired up to write a research paper together. I'm not a big fan of group projects, but I've come to accept them as a part of life that I will probably never get away from. Anyway, after we got divided up into pairs, my partner got sick. Then, just as he was recovering, I got sick. This put as back about a week on our project. Our professor understood (and with the whole swine flu thing going on, the university has told everyone to be pretty forgiving about illness anyway) and has allowed us to hand things in late. Well, the rough draft was due a week ago, so, it would make sense that ours should be due today. Well, it would have gotten turned in, except that when my partner gave me his portion to add to mine, well, it turned out that we had each written the exact same half of the paper! Talk about frustration. Luckily, however, I talked to our professor about this and we have worked things out to hand the paper in later (especially since it's hard to coordinate writing the rest of the paper with my partner right now since he is out of town). So, I am particularly thankful for a sympathetic professor who isn't requiring me to completely give up my break to finish this paper.

Oh, and Jenn, I realize that you have had to coordinate writing papers over long distances quite a bit for your program. I am not jealous one bit.

46. Thanksgiving Break

Holy cow! I am so thankful for the Thanksgiving break and to not have any classes for the rest of the week. I still have a lot of work that I need to get done, but at least I'm not getting any additional work. I can actually catch up a bit, relax, and get some much needed sleep. Well, I think that pretty well sums it up. Oh, and maybe I'll have some time to do some reading.

45. Heroes

Given the nature of many of the posts on my blog, you might think that this post is talking about my own personal heroes who have helped me throughout my life and who have been great role models for me. Well, you'd be wrong. Don't take that the wrong way. I am very thankful for those people in my life and owe a lot to them. However, tonight I am speaking of Heroes on NBC.

I watch more TV than I should. I don't watch as much right now because I've been very busy this semester, but the percent of my free time that it takes up hasn't really changed. However, there aren't many shows that I'm really into right now. Basically, there are a few sitcoms and Heroes. It really is one of my favorite shows right now. I kind of avoided it when it first started. I'm not really sure why. I must have just thought it looked stupid. Then I went home last Christmas and learned that the first two seasons were at my house. I watched the first season during the break. Then I watched the second season the week I was home in the summer. Then my new roommates moved in this fall and were getting really excited about season 4, so I decided I should catch up on season three so I could watch season four with them. I found the episodes online and watched it in a week as I was doing homework and grading assignments. And now I haven't missed an episode this season.

Anyway, it's been fun to be able to watch each episode and talk about it with my roommates and speculate about what's going to happen next. One of my roommates is convinced that the deaf lady should die. I don't know why. I think she's kind of cool. Anyway, we usually have to watch it the next day because we have FHE at the same time it comes on Monday nights. Today I got a text informing me that FHE was cancelled and my first thought was "sweet, we can watch Heroes tonight!" (Don't worry, I'm still thankful for FHE. I'm not backing out of what I said last week)

44. Puzzles

So, my roommates and I suddenly got into doing puzzles over the summer. We did quite a few and we got to where we could do them fairly quickly. It seemed like there was alwasy somebody working on whichever puzzle was out at the time. After we finished them, one of my roommates worked on framing a couple of the puzzles we finished. It's taken a few months, but they are finished now and are hanging on our wall. They are close to the only decor we have in our living rooom, so it's nice to have them up.

I started another puzzle earlier in the semester, but I just didn't have much time to work on it, and it got pushed to the side and forgotten about. It sat there for a few months, untouched. I've recently started working on it again and have remembered how much I like working on puzzles. I'm pretty slow and methodical about it, but it's a good way for me to escape and clear my mind for a while. I need to be careful, though. During the summer I would stay up far too late after midnight because I kept wanting to finish the next little section. I can't do that right now without suffering some severe consequences due to a lack of sleep and lack of working on other, more pressing assignments.

43. BYU Football

Okay, so, this is something that's been on my list for a while. I was going to write about it a few weeks ago, but that just happened to be the same day that BYU lost to TCU at home. After that, I didn't really want to go tackle the subject. Anyway, I went to the Air Force vs. BYU game today and met up with one of my old roommates who is one of the biggest BYU fans I know. While there, he told me that he's been waiting for me to write about BYU football. So, I decided it was about time.

Honestly, I really like watching BYU football. I'm surprised by how much I like it. I like college football in general, but I've had to kind of grow into it. I've always been able to sit down and watch a BYU game, but it hasn't been until recently that I could watch other colleges play. I just didn't really care enough to watch.

I'm happy to say that BYU has had a fairly good team for the majority of the time I've been here. They aren't the best out there, but they're good. I can always be proud of them, despite a few embarrassing slip ups from time to time. And it's always fun to either get together with people to watch a game on TV, or to go to the game and meet up with friends there that I don't see much other than at the games.

42. Free Refills

I am thankful for free refills. I'm sure they do me more harm than good, but the idea of endless pop, juice, lemonade, and the like makes me happy.

As you can probably guess, I went out to eat somewhere tonight where I got free refills. It was one of my roommates' birthday today, and we all went out to dinner to celebrate tonight. I was trying to decide what I wanted to drink when another one of my roommates asked the server what drinks come with free refills. Apparently the flavored lemonades do, and that made up my mind for me right there. Later on, both of us got excited when we learned that we could switch flavors with each refill. We both decided that the mango lemonade was the best. It was pretty darn good

41. My Phone

Just like 99% of the people I know, I own a cell phone. I've only had one for a relatively short amount of time (1 year, 5 months). Before that time, people just couldn't believe that I got by without one. Well, I got by just fine. But, now I'm happy I have one. Sure, it's been really convenient to have it and to know I can call somebody anytime I need to and from most anywhere, but it really has turned into a necessity for me now.

Before moving to my new apartment, any apartment I lived in before had phone service. We had to provide our own phone, but we knew it would work when we plugged it in. That was not the case when I moved into my new place. There was no phone, then went I started asking around about our phone number, I learned that the complex had decided to stop providing service in exchange for a few dollars of rent. Well, this was when I was really happy to have my phone. I doubt many people other than me even noticed this. This wouldn't have worked a few years ago. When I first got off my mission, only 2 of the 6 guys in my apartment had a cell phone. In fact, this was still true a year and a half after getting home. That was only 2 and a half years ago!

Anyway, I'm thankful that I finally caught up with everybody else around me and own my own phone now.

40. Institute

Honestly, I'm really thankful that I am able to go to institute this semester. This has been kind of a crazy semester and it's really nice to have institute in the middle of the week to kind of bring things back into perspective and to provide a little bit of a break.

I'll admit, I don't always pay as much attention as I should. But, when I do, I always learn something great. And, like I said, it helps to keep me focused on the gospel and ways in which I can improve myself and become more Christlike. And, trust me, I need to keep improving. Seriously, though, I normally have a hard enough time remembering those things throughout the week anyway, let alone when I'm as busy like I have been this semester. So, it's been really nice to have institute there to help me along the way.

Also, as I mentioned earlier, institute provides a bit of a break as well. I take other breaks as well, but there's always this nagging feeling of "I should be working on something." With institute, however, it doesn't feel like that. It's a break that I don't feel bad taking. I'm pretty sure that has something to do with the whole coming unto Christ thing. I don't think you can really feel guilty doing that.

So, here's something that I thought was cool about institute tonight. I was already planning on writing about institute tonight before actually attending tonight. Then, when I showed up to institute, it turned out that the lesson tonight was on humility and gratitude. Then, at the end of the lesson, the instructor played one of the recent "Mormon Messages" videos. I thought it was pretty cool and felt it appropriate to share here. Enjoy.

In the Spirit of Thanksgiving

39. Tim Hortons

Alright, so, here's another post dealing with donuts. This still counts as a completely independent thing for which I am grateful, though, because neither this post nor the previous donut post are specifically about donuts. Donut Day and Tim Hortons are two completely different topics. If you don't believe me, well, too bad.

Okay, so, I can't lie. One of the reasons that I am thankful for Tim Hortons is that I love the donuts. That's not the only reason, however. This might sound kind of silly, but going to Tim Hortons is kind of a special experience for me when I am home. It's just one of those things that helps me connect with being home and being in Canada. I mean, it's not as if it's to my life and identity hinge on having a Tim Hortons donut, but I think it's safe to say that this donut shop is truly part of Canadian culture. I once read that Canada has more donut shops per capita than any other country in the world. I guess if your just talking about donuts, the US is Canada's only real competition. I don't think the donut is extremely popular outside of North America.

Anyway, Tim Hortons is great. I go there every time I'm home, and I get excited every time I pull into the parking lot.

38. FHE

Family Home Evening has always been nice. When I was at home, it was nice to spend some time together with the family. Of course, I had to go through a phase where I wasn't the most enthusiastic about it, but I don't think that phase was all that bad with me. And, I was the only kid at home for a good portion of my teenage years, so family home evening worked a little different then anyway. When I was younger I think I probably liked it mostly because I knew there would be a treat at the end. Anyway, I enjoyed family home evening.

I still have FHE at college, but it definitely works a little differently here. I mean, we still have a spiritual thought and an activity like usual, but it's all college students. It's a nice way to start out the week, and it's fun to get together with other people in the ward, especially since I'm hiding out in my office for a good portion of the week. FHE has been a good thing in my life.

37. Nice Notes

So, here at BYU it's a common occurrence for the ward to get together Sunday evening and hold ward prayer. Afterwards, there are usually some kind of snack and people mingle and write "nice notes" to each other. Sometimes they are silly and sometimes they are serious, but they are always fun to get. I don't get them every week, but I'm happy when I do get them. They can make me laugh and feel good about myself. Sometimes they are exactly what I need.

I can think of one note in particular that helped me out a lot. I was having a pretty crummy day. I got a note that night that meant a lot to me and helped to turn things around. The person who wrote it probabably didn't realize what kind of an impact it would have on me. It was a pretty simple note. But, like I said, it was exactly what I needed and really helped me out.

36. My Office

I am very thankful to have an office at school. Okay, so, it's really more of a cubicle inside an office that I share with some other grad students, but it's close enough (that makes me think of the episode of "The Office" when Dwight is trying to call the conference room his office).

It works out really well for me to have my desk in here. I can't focus enough in my apartment to do homework, and I just don't like to go to the library, but I need a place to go where I won't get too distracted. My office is perfect for that. It has been especially nice today. I've had a lot of work to catch up on lately, and I've been in my office pretty much all day. It's not that I enjoy being in here so much that I don't want to leave, I just have a lot to get done and it's been nice to have a place to get it done. I can still get distracted in here (as can be seen in the picture), but it happens to a much smaller level than it would at home.

Also, it feels good to tell people that I'm going to my office. Every other grad student I know has an office as well, so I'm not exactly a special case in that regard, but it still feels good to say that. I guess that's just one of the little perks of deciding to stay in school.

35. A Good Book

Okay, so, I'm not referring to any book in particular here. It's just a lot of fun to be able to get into a good book. I really don't get to read for fun as much as I would like. Actually, I don't really do it much at all during the school year, especially this semester. During the eight month stretch from September through April, I'll read more during the Christmas break than the other 7.5 months altogether.

There's something really satisfying about reading a good book. First of all, it's entertaining. When I get into a good book, there isn't much else that I want to do. I can sit for hours reading just to find out what happens next, and next, and next. Second of all, it feels a lot better than sitting for hours and watching TV, or playing video games, or just sitting there. Then, when you finish the book, it feels good to look back at it and think "hey, I read all of that." That feels particularly good when it's a nice thick book. There really isn't much better than a good book.

34. Mathcad

Alright, so, here's some nerdiness coming out tonight. Mathcad is a program that I use a lot at school. It's a math program that we use in my engineering classes a lot. It's basically a really powerful calculator, with a lot more capabilities than an actual calculator has. I pretty much use it every day, and it makes solving certain problems a lot easier than they would be without it. My professors talk about solving these kinds of problems through more tedious means when they were in school, and I'm glad I don't have to do that. Mathcad can be very picky and tedious itself sometimes (okay, hardly a day goes by when I don't hear somebody complain about it), but if you don't need to debug anything, it really is a pretty slick tool to use. So, I'm thankful that I have this tool available to me.

33. Remembrance Day

Today is Remembrance Day. On this day, 91 years ago, the first world war came to an end. Now it is a day in which we commemorate the lives and sacrifices of all who have fought in order to preserve life and freedom. I feel immense gratitude toward all who have fought and I am grateful for all the rights and freedoms that I get to experience because of their sacrifice.

Remembrance Day has always been a special day. I will always remember attending the various Remembrance Day programs at school where we would take time to walk to the cenotaph in the middle of town and observe a moment of silence. Down here at school (where it's Veterans Day instead of Remembrance Day) it's harder to remember to take some time to reflect on these individuals and their sacrifice because we don't get the day off, and there really isn't much talk of Veterans Day in the days leading up to it. The Canadian Club down here usually puts on a little bit of a program, and that's always been nice to go to. This year, however, I didn't get to because I had an in-class test at 11:00. I do, however, have a poppy that I have been wearing today. Sometimes I feel a little weird walking around with it on because very few other people have one, but I think I would feel even more weird not wearing it. And, if anyone asks about it, I have a perfectly good explanation for them.

When my parents came to France at the end of my mission, we took some time to tour around and visit some sites. One of the sites we visited was Vimy Ridge, the location a WWI battle that holds particular significance for Canada. It was a very special experience to visit this site. There was such a feeling of reverence there. As we were walking around some of the cemeteries there, it was an unreal experience for me as I saw that the majority of the graves were for young men between the ages of 18 and 21. I was 21 at the time and could not imagine myself fighting in a war like that. It really brought a lot of the significance of the situation home to me. I am so thankful for their sacrifice, and thankful that I have not had to make the same sacrifice.

32. Temples

I am thankful for temples. I've been trying to figure out how to actually write about this and get my point across, but I'm having a hard time. So, forgive me if this post seems a little disjointed. Temples are really special to me.

Temples are amazing buildings. They are absolutely beautiful, and so much special stuff happens inside them. I am thankful for all of the experiences that I have had inside temples. They have been some of the most special moments of my life.

The majority of my family was just in Florida recently. They were there to see my youngest nephew be sealed to my sister and her husband. I wasn't able to be there, but I am so happy for my sister and her family. I've talked about how much my family means to me, and I am thankful that through temple ordinances we can all be together forever.

I feel like there is so much that I want to say, but I just don't know how to say it. Basically, temples are great. So many blessings are available through temple ordinances and worship.

31. My Computer

I have been very thankful to have my computer over the past few years. I bought it back in 2005 during my first semester of college after my mission. It's the first computer I have owned. It has been an extremely useful tool and has held up pretty well over the years. I've thought a lot recently about getting a new computer, but have opted out of it. I could get a better computer for half of what this one cost me in 2005, but it's not a necessary expense yet. This computer is still going strong. It did start going crazy on me a few weeks ago. I was afraid it was going to completely go out on me, but all I had to do was reformat it. It runs beautifully again.

I'm able to do a lot with my computer. Obviously, if you're reading this, you know what a computer can do and I don't need to go into all the details. But, it's been nice to have it around for me to do my homework on, to keep in contact with family and friends, and to have a lot of fun with. It really is amazing that technology on this level is so readily available to so many people.

30. The Internet

I'm thankful for the internet for a lot of reasons. It makes a lot of things a whole lot more convenient. The main reason that I am thankful for the internet is that it makes communication so much faster. Of course, it's not the only way of speedy communication. For a conversation, it doesn't really get any faster than the phone. But the internet allows you to communicate with so much more than just words. I'm mostly thinking about this today because of a brief conversation I had with my sister where we talked a little bit about the rest of our family being in Florida last week. I haven't actually seen anybody who was there, but I've already been able to see pictures of the trip and get a pretty good idea of how good of a time they had out there. I've also talked with my mom about it, but because of the pictures and messages I've seen online I have a much better idea of what really happened. Anyway, I could keep rambling and not actually add much, so I should just wrap it up. I'm thankful for the internet and the communication opportunities it provides.

29. A Working Drain

So, this one is pretty simple. For the last couple of weeks, the drain in our shower has been draining slower and slower. At first it wasn't much of a problem. There would just be a little bit of water in the tub when you finished showering, but it would drain out pretty quickly. Then, more water started building up. Then it finally got to the point where it wouldn't drain anymore. It got pretty nasty. We poured Drano down there a few times and that would help temporarily, but then it would back up again. I'm not sure what the actual problem was, but some plumbers had to come and replace some stuff. Anyway, the drain works great now and the bottom of the tub is clean. It's very nice.

28. Hockey

Yes, I am Canadian and I like hockey. I didn't always like hockey, however. When I was younger I used to get annoyed when Hockey Night in Canada would come on and chew up an entire Saturday evening of programming. However, sometime around grade 9 or 10 I decided to make a change. I started watching hockey and started to enjoy it. Now, I'm a big fan. I don't really get to watch very much, but I enjoy it when I do.

The big reason I'm thankful for hockey these days is for the identity it provides. It's nice to have something down here that makes me feel Canadian. It's happened on more than one occasion where somebody will find me watching a game or checking stats online and they'll make the comment "yep, you sure are Canadian." Sometimes it's hard to put into words what the differences between Canada and the U.S. are, but they exist and enough of them exist that it feels good when there is something that brings you back home.

27. Medicine

Okay, so I recognize the irony of writing about medicine just a few weeks after talking about how I'm thankful for my good health, but I'm doing it anyway.

Despite my generally good health, I came down with the flu last night. I'm not really surprised that I did. A lot of people around me have been getting sick, and I haven't been getting as much sleep lately and I should be, so I guess it was bound to happen. It was a pretty mild flu, and I think I'm already pretty much over it. I'm probably not 100% yet, but I'm sure feeling a lot better than I did last night and this morning.

Anyway, back to medicine. I was feeling pretty crummy this morning and afternoon. I had a fever and a headache and decided I needed to stay home from school. Then, after consulting with my mom for a little bit, I took some Advil. All it took was one. Within an hour my fever was gone and my head didn't hurt anymore and I got some good rest. That was about 6 hours ago now, so I'm pretty sure that the medicine has worn off and I really am feeling better.

So, that last paragraph sounded a lot like a commercial for Advil. Basically, my point is that I'm thankful for the medicines that we do have these days and how effective they can be. Even though my body can usually take care of itself pretty well, I'm thankful for the help that is available when it needs it.

26. Awkward Moments

Er, this is kind of awkward. Okay, that was lame. Anyway, I really am thankful for awkward moments. I'm thankful for the awkward moments that I experience, the awkward moments that I witness, and the awkward moments I hear about.

Why am I thankful for awkward moments? Because they provide great stories for later on, as long as you can laugh at yourself. And, well, I tend to always have a story to tell. I had a good friend of mine tell me once that she loves my awkward moments. I don't know if there's something unique about mine, or if I just had a lot to tell about, but she liked them. And me and my roommates have had a lot of fun sharing our experiences with each other. And, obviously, a lot of these awkward stories have something to do with girls. I guess that means that girls are just awkward. Heh heh, just kidding.

I'm also very thankful for potential awkward moments that are quickly extinguished. I had one of those experiences tonight. I have a friend that I've been getting to know over the semester. We've had a lot of fun whenever we've talked or been somewhere together. So, I decided to ask her out tonight. Well, I guess we hadn't talked enough for me to learn that she has a boyfriend. Awkward! Luckily, though, I was able to play off the situation fairly well and we were able to keep joking around and have a good time. At least, I know it wasn't awkward for me after that, I hope it wasn't awkward for her. I doubt it was.

25. Miracles

This kind of ties in with my post from yesterday, but it does stand all on its own. Actually, it was my mom's comment on yesterday's post that prompted today's topic. Also, on that note, there's something on my sister's facebook page that I love. Under her profile picture it simply says "I believe in miracles." This makes me smile every time I see it.

I have been able to witness a lot of miracles in my life. some have affected me directly, some have not. I'm not going to go into details here about those experiences, but I just wanted to be sure to express that I believe in miracles, I am thankful that they occur, and I'm thankful for the miracles I have seen in my life.

24. Prayer

Prayer is a wonderful thing. I'm not really sure how to express my feelings about prayer, or how to really get my point across, but I'll try.

If I'm not careful, my prayers can simply become a part of my routine. When this happens, it feels like I'm just going through the motions. I always know that it's important, but sometimes I don't put in the effort I should. It's a completely different story, however, when I really do put my mind and my heart into it.

While special occasions and difficult periods do a really good job of getting me back into this mode, it's not required, which is a good thing. Prayer is supposed to always be something special. My prayers allow me to communicate with God. That in and of itself is something amazing. Prayer can provide comfort and reassurance. Prayer allows you to work out problems with help from God. Prayer allows you to express thanks for anything and everything. Prayer can make you happy. Prayer can open the doors for receiving guidance. Prayer does a lot of things.

One of my favorite stories describing the power of prayer comes from my mission. It's actually not my experience. It's something that one of my zone leaders told us. It's not a story relating huge, miraculous events and phenomenal answers to prayer. It's simple. He explained to us that he missed being home with his family, but that prayer helped him out with this. He said that the moments that he was on his knees praying were the moments that he most felt like he was home. I always thought that was really cool.

Prayer is good. Prayer has helped me innumerable times in my life and I am thankful for all the blessings that I have received through my prayers, whether they be physical, spiritual, or emotional.

23. Trials

Okay, so, I'm pretty sure that most of the people reading this will understand what I'm getting at with this. But, just in case somebody doesn't, I should explain that it's more the lessons that I learn from my trials that I'm thankful for rather than the trial itself. Trials in and of themselves are not fun. They can be hard to get through. They can really do a number on a person. However, the lessons that can be learned from these trials can be wonderful.

I realize that my life has actually been fairly easy. I definitely know people who have gone through much greater trials than I have, but I am thankful for what I have learned from the few I have gone through. Sometimes I forget these lessons fairly quickly and I need to learn them all over again. Sometimes it surprises me how often I need to relearn a lesson. In any case, I am thankful every time that I do learn a lesson. These lessons help me to be a more productive, happy, spiritual person.

22. Halloween

Happy Halloween! Halloween is always fun. I'm not a big partier or anything, but I have fun every year on Halloween and the days leading up to it. I'm a fan of the fun side of Halloween and the scary side (not the super gory/evil stuff, just the creepy/make you tense and jump stuff). Trick-or-treating was always fun as a kid. I mean, who doesn't love getting free candy, and lots of it?

Also, it's always fun to dress up. One of my favorite costumes growing up was a sandwich. I don't know where that costume is anymore, but it was great. Last year I tried dressing up as either Bob or Doug McKenzie. I'm not really sure which one I was, but I don't think that really matters. Unfortunately, nobody I talked to that night knew who Bob and Doug are, so they all just thought I was dressed up as a bum. Then, when I would tell who I really was, they would just act all confused as if they had never heard of them. This surprised me. Sure, I'm in the US and not Canada, but leading up to that day (and continuing after it as well) I'll always get comments from people about Strange Brew when they find out I'm Canadian. I must have just hit a bit of a Strange Brew vacuum that night.

This year I was really excited about my costume. I wore it to our ward Halloween party, which was Thursday night. Basically, I tried to dress up like Homer Simpson from the Halloween special "Tree House of Horror IV." This is the episode where Homer sells his soul for a donut and eventually gets hid head turned into a donut. I was pretty sure that most of the people in my ward wouldn't get it right off the bat, and I was right. However, it was a lot of fun when somebody did recognize it right away.

21. Wheat Thins

Okay, so, I'm a snacker. I'm pretty much always looking for something to eat. Pringles has the slogan "once you pop, you can't stop." For me, unfortunately, this is true about most any snack food. Once the bag/box is open, I eat until it's gone. There might be a small break in there, but nothing big enough to count. Obviously, this could be a problem.

Well, I've discovered that one of my favorite snacks is Reduced Fat Wheat Thins. Now, I realize that if I chow down on a bunch of these, I'm still not being very healthy. However, I do feel better eating these than other snacks of the non-vegetable kind. Speaking of which, does anybody remember Captain Vegetable from Sesame Street? Anyway, I think that part of me feeling better is just the thought that what I'm eating might be healthier than other options, and part of it could be that they actually are better for me.

Anyway, that is why I am thankful for Wheat Thins.

20. My Bed

I've always been thankful to have a bed to sleep in, but my circumstances tonight have caused this to be on my mind again. As far as classes go, I wasn't really productive today because I had a lot of other stuff to get ready for. So, tonight I was going to go up to my office to do my homework and I figured I wouldn't be done until really late so I decided to just do my homework, then sleep in my office. Well, I walked out the door with my pillow, then turned right back around after crossing the street. It's been a long day and I slept on the couch last night, so I really want to sleep in my bed tonight. So, I figured out some stuff that I can work on here tonight. And, like I said, I'm really looking forward to crawling into my bed, rather than curling up under my desk. I haven't done the latter before, but I won't be surprised if it does happen sometime in the future.

19. Paper Mache

Okay, so, this is going to be short tonight. It's late, but it's before midnight so I still got this in on time and I haven't missed a day yet.

I am thankful for paper mache. It was fun as a kid, and it's still fun now. And, it is playing a major role in my Halloween costume, which I am very excited about. In fact, I don't think my costume would be possible on such short notice without it. Thank you, paper mache.

18. My Jacket

Today it snowed in Provo for the first time this season. It definitely wasn't the coldest it's ever been around here, or will be, but I was very happy to have my jacket today to help keep me warm. Of course, in thinking about this it also makes me realize that something as simple as a jacket is a blessing in my life that some people don't don't have. And this, of course, helps me better appreciate something as simple as this.

The jacket that I wear most of the time also has some sentimental value to it. It's a jacket that I bought my freshman year of college. I was living in the dorms on a floor of about 30-40 guys. At some point in the year a bunch of guys went out and bought the same jacket from Wal-Mart. I really still wear it just because I like it and haven't bought a new jacket since then, but it was fun at the time and still reminds me occasionally of good times from freshman year.

17. My New Shoes

Yeah, I'm getting a little materialistic with this again. That's fine. There's a lot of material things that I'm very thankful for as well.

Anyway, I'm very thankful for my new shoes. I had my previous pair for about a year and they were really starting to fall apart. I usually get a cheap pair from Payless, so I don't really expect them to last a really long time anyway. This pair had gotten to the point where the heals were the backs of the heals were completely separated from the soles, thus leaving huge gaps for water to get into. Also, there really wasn't much cushioning left in them.

So, I went and bought a new pair of shoes. I had completely forgotten how good a pair of shoes can feel. The first day I walked up to campus I couldn't help but smile the whole way because my feet felt so good. It was also nice to add a little variety. Before buying this pair of shoes, I had bought the same pair two years in a row and was pretty sick of them by the time I bought these new ones.

Anyway, there's nothing spectacular about them to just look at them, but I sure appreciate them.

16. The Simpson (The Good Seasons)

So, this is the first TV show that I've talked about on here. Seriously, though, I am thankful for the Simpsons. I haven't been a big fan as of late, but the show was great up until I went to college.

Anyway, while the show was funny and has made me laugh a lot, the main reason I'm thankful for it is because of the moments I have shared with friends. It has provided a lot of good times with friends and roommates over the years. In fact, the Simpsons is what really started one of my most recent great friendships. I knew the guy a bit before he moved into my apartment, but not great. Well, we got along fine, but it wasn't until we discovered that we could endlessly quote the Simpsons back and forth to each other that our friendship really developed. Yes, this sounds kind of silly, but it's true.

So, I'm thankful for the Simpsons both for the laughs it has delivered and for the friendships it has strenghtened.

15. Service

Yep, I'm thankful for service. And I'm not referring to service that people do for me (although I am very thankful for that as well). I am speaking of opportunities that I have to serve.

This is on my mind today because of an opportunity I had this morning. This weekend is homecoming weekend down here at BYU and BYUSA put on a huge pancake breakfast for everybody this morning. I was asked earlier in the week if I could help out with this, so I did.

I got to my post at 8:00 am. We started serving pancakes around 8:45 or 9:00 and finished a little after noon. My job was to squirt whipped cream on everyone's pancakes as they came by. So, yeah, I stood in one spot, squirting whipped cream for about 3 hours. It doesn't sound very exciting, but I had a great time.

It was fun seeing everyone in line. I didn't know very many of them, but that didn't matter. It was fun getting to chat briefly with some of the people coming through, and it was fun to see them get enthusiastic about the whipped cream I gave them. And it was really fun and cute to see the little kids in line. A lot of them were really shy, but you could tell they were really excited about their pancakes. Sure, pancakes are great as an adult, but don't you remember how much more special they were and a little kid?

Also, it just feels good to serve. Whether it's something as simple as serving whipped cream or something more physically demanding or requiring a greater amount of sacrifice on your part, it feels good. I came back feeling great and all around happy.

14. The Weekend

So, I'm pretty much always thankful for the weekend to come. I'm especially thankful this weekend. This has been a pretty busy week. Some of it is because I had a lot to do and I had a project on the side that ended up taking up a lot more time than I expected. Some of it is due to the simple fact that I procrastinate and I let some stuff pile up on me this week as well. I still have a lot of work I need to get done, but there's still something relaxing about knowing that I don't officially have work or school again until Monday.

So, yeah, I don't have a whole lot to say tonight, just that I'm thankful for the weekend.

13. Donut Day

I received a wonderful email at the beginning of the semester. This email bore the news that the Graduate Student Society would be providing free donuts to graduate students every Thursday morning. As some of you may know, I love donuts. In fact, they might be getting their own post sometime in the future. However, this post is not specifically about donuts. It is about Donut Day (bagels are also provided alongside the donuts, but, well...yeah).

Obviously, a big reason why I'm grateful for donut day is the fact that I get to eat donuts for free. That's not the only reason, however. Donut Day is also great because I don't need to take time to eat breakfast at home, which means I can get a few more minutes of sleep and save some of my precious milk and Malt-O-Meal for another day.

Donut day also gives me one more thing to look forward to on Thursdays. It's not the only thing I ever look forward too, but adding one more thing to the list always makes it easier to get going in the morning.

Finally, Donut Day gives me an opportunity to catch up with an old roommate of mine. He's married now, so I normally don't see him much. However, he goes to Donut Day as well so we've started meeting up at the same time every week. It's been fun. We've got another roommate who is invited to Donut Day, but he hasn't shown up yet. I think it might mostly be a scheduling thing, but I don't think he gets as excited about the donuts as I do either. Still, if he shows up, that will make Donut Day that much better.

12. The 4 Seasons

So, a lot of people have a favorite season. I don't. I like them all. I've tried to pick one to be my favorite in the past, but I can never seem to decide which one comes out on top. As soon as I've picked one, I remember something about another that levels the playing field again. They all have their own set of pros and cons...mostly pros. Summer is warm, comfortable, bright and sunny. Fall is full of beautiful colors. Winter brings snow and just has a magical feeling about it. Spring brings the joy of seeing everything come back to life and feeling the warm weather return.

I think it's great having 4 very distinct seasons. It adds variety to life, and there's something special about the transitions between seasons. We are in the midst of a change right now as the leaves are changing color. It's always beautiful. The picture above is one I took on campus today. It wasn't as bright out as other days, but it still looked nice. I love the transition into winter as well when the first big snowfall comes. I think that seeing everything covered in white makes me think of Christmas, and it can be such a sudden and drastic change sometimes that it just seems unreal.

It's nice to stop and look, appreciate, and think about what each season brings with it. It helps me to remember how wonderful this planet is and bears testimony to me that it's creation wasn't just circumstance. It was definitely and purposefully made to be beautiful.

11. Ducks

Okay, so, this one may seem a bit silly, but it's true. I am thankful for ducks. Not any particular kind of duck, just ducks in general. And no, this doesn't fall into the food category alongside bacon. I've only eaten duck once, and it wasn't that special of an experience.

Ducks simply make me laugh. I learned this over the summer when I moved into an apartment complex south of campus. I started walking to school along this cool brick path that runs along the south side of campus, and passes by a pond where ducks tend to gather. It wasn't rare to run across a fair number of ducks as I walked to and from my office every day.

I guess what makes me laugh is a combination of how they quack and waddle. It was great to come across a group of ducks on the path because as you got closer they'd start to quack a bit, but wouldn't move yet. Then, as you got even closer, their quacks would start to have this really annoyed tone to them as they decided to actually move off the path. They always seemed so put out that I had come along and disturbed their little gathering, and I couldn't help but chuckle a bit as they angrily waddled away. I just can't take them seriously.

10. Little Kids

So, I think little kids are hilarious. They simply say and do the funniest things. I've been thinking about this today because of a few stories I've heard about my nieces recently. One has been thinking that there are hippos in her closet, and the other is just being her usual dramatic and silly self. Little kids are just one more thing that makes life fun.

Now, while I obviously believe that my nieces and nephews are the funniest and cutest little kids out there, I get a kick out of all little kids (well, as long as they're not being bratty, but luckily I won't have to deal with that aspect too much until I have my own kids). Just today I was getting my hair cut and some parents came in with their son who looked to be about two-ish. He had this big bushy head of hair (if he wasn't the one getting his hair cut, he definitely needed it) and just wandered around looking wide-eyed at everything, much like any little kid. Well, I couldn't help but smile when I saw him.

So, I've noticed that in a lot of my posts I mention how something makes me happy and that is why I am thankful for the topic of that day. This makes sense, since I'm pretty sure it would be hard to find a reason to be thankful for something that makes me sad. Anyway, it seems like happiness is more prominent than convenience right now on my list. I just thought that was interesting.

9. My Education

I'm very thankful for the education that I have received up to this point. I was able to do well all up through high school, then I came down to BYU to study chemical engineering. While down here I have been able to be taught by and work with some of the top men in their field. I have learned a lot and feel like I have received a top notch education down here.

I graduated with my B.S. last December and started grad school in January. Not only am I thankful for the quality of the education that I have received down here, but I am thankful to still be in school pursuing my graduate degree. I wasn't sure if I wanted to continue my education or not, but then, right before my last semester of undergrad started, I decided to apply. I spent some time that semester applying and I was accepted to grad school right before the economy started to dive and I'm so thankful that I haven't had to deal with the difficulties of finding and securing a job during these more difficult times. Even though things are getting better, the students who are graduating this year are having a hard time finding companies who are hiring right now. I'm so thankful that I am still on a sure path, and hopefully things will be looking a lot better when I graduate.

8. My Apartment

So, today I just got thinking about how lucky I am to be able to live in an apartment like I do. Sure, it's definitely not the best apartment in Provo, but it's an apartment nonetheless. And, as I was thinking about this I couldn't help but realize that it's a whole lot nicer than where a good portion of this world's population is living. Sure, people complain about rent, internet service, furniture, etc., but in the end it's really a pretty good situation. It's a place that I can call home. It's a place where I can sleep at night, keep food, hang out with friends, find shelter from bad weather, stay cool in the summer, and live a pretty comfortable life. Seriously, when I compare my current situation to someone who has been working hard their entire life, but just happens to be barely scraping by or not even getting by simply because of the part of the world/social standing they were born into, I consider myself very lucky and blessed to be able to go home to my little apartment.

7. Bacon

Okay, so, I love bacon. I was trying to decide if I should just include bacon in a post about good food in general (which may come in the future), but I decided that bacon deserves its very own post. It's that good.

Seriously, bacon is one food that I just don't get enough of. When I'm eating other foods that I love, I do eventually reach a point where I'm not enjoying the experience anymore. That has never happened to me with bacon. And I hope it never does. I want to always enjoy my bacon consumption.

I don't get to eat as much bacon as I would like. I don't buy it very much because I'm a student with not a tonne of money. If I could, I would eat it every day, multiple times a day. Of course, that wouldn't be very healthy and could cause a lot of problems.

To help you understand my feelings about bacon, I refer you to Jim Gaffigan. He has a bit about bacon that I think is genius and I agree with everything he says (even the bacon to bacon vortex...it could happen).

If anybody reading this is worried about my me and feels that I have an unhealthy obsession with and praise for bacon, don't worry. It's not as if I'm thinking like this all day everyday. I may even go weeks at a time without thinking about bacon. I don't let it affect my worship, studies, social life, etc. I just think it's one of the tastiest foods out there and am very grateful that I can eat it. Very, very grateful.

6. My Car

Say hello to Lola. Lola has been my trusty mode of transportation for the last 4 years. I first acquired her after returning home from my mission in August of 2005. She may not be the newest or sleekest car out there, but she's been trustworthy and has done her job well.

So, some of you may be wondering why in the world my car's name is Lola. Well, I didn't name her. Lola is the name that has stuck with her for 20 years. She was originally my aunt's car, and my aunt is the one who named her Lola. Lola has been in the family ever since. After my aunt, she cycled through a couple of my cousin's during their college years, and now it's my turn. Whenever I see my aunt, she asks me how Lola is doing and I'm always able to give her a good, reassuring report that all is well.

It really has been nice having a car down here at school. While I've never lived more than about a 15 or 20 minute walk from my end of campus, she's come in very handy. I've never been at the bidding of my roommates when it comes to shopping or other errands around town, she's made dating a whole lot less complicated, and she's always been able to get me to and from my home up in Canada. I think she's made it there and back again about 8.5 times now since I've had her (the half comes from the original trip down, which had no accompanying trip up).

Like I said, she's held up extremely well over the years. I've only had to have a few repairs done (i.e. replace the muffler, replace the spark plug wires, and other relatively cheap replacements) to keep her going. Also, she still gets great gas mileage, so I'm happy that I've been able to save some money there as well.

5. Rainbows

Okay, so, I was in my apartment today and looked out the window and saw that everything outside was beautiful. There was kind of an orange hue in all of the colors and all the colors were very sharp. Anyway, I went outside really excited to see how everything looked. To my dismay, it was raining outside. It's not that I don't like the rain, I just don't like being wet when I don't want to be. My attitude about the rain changed the instant I looked out toward the mountains and saw a huge, arching rainbow complete from end to end. It was beautiful.

I've always really like seeing rainbows. I think everybody does to some extent. Even though we're taught in elementary school why they appear when it rains, there's still just something amazing about seeing them

pop up when they do. They just seem unreal. They're particularly amazing when you can see them dropping down in front of something on the horizon, such as this one today. I looked over to the north and saw that it was coming down in front of the mountains instead of just disappearing into the background somewhere.

Now, I feel like I should clarify that it's real life rainbows that make me happy. When it comes to rainbow drawings, stickers, decals, or what have you, those don't really have an effect on me. The real thing is what I like.

Anyway, rainbows always make me smile, and I'm thankful for that.

4. My Health

To the best of my memory, I've been in pretty good health for most of my life. In fact, I can't remember the last time that I was seriously ill. I mean, I'll get a cold every now and then, but I can't even remember the last time I had the flu or any kind of a fever. I know it's happened, I just can't remember when. I have had to deal with a couple of ear infections that took me out of commission for about a week at a time when I was a teenager, but I blame those more on Lake Powell than on my body, and I've since learned how to avoid those anyway.

In all seriousness, though, I'm thankful for how well my body has held up in my first 25 years of life. I've never broken a bone. I'm not prone to getting sick. I only suffer from some mild allergies in the spring, except for one extremely bizarre allergic reaction I had when I was quite young. We've never been able to figure out what happened there. I recover pretty quickly when I get a cold. I've escaped mono on a couple of occassions (quite a bit more narrowly in one case than the other). Basically, I feel like everything's in working order the vast majority of the time. I'm definitely not alone in this regard, but that doesn't mean I can't be thankful for it.

3. Cheerfulness

Happy Thanksgiving!! Okay, so, for those of you who don't know, I am Canadian and today is Thanksgiving in Canada. I am currently living in the US while I go to school, but I still like to celebrate this day however I can when it comes around. And how could I not mention Thanksgiving when my blog is all about stuff I'm thankful for? Yeah, that just wouldn't seem right. Also, tying things back to yesterday's post about friends, I have a friend down here who has invited me over for a little celebration tonight. I really appreciate that and am looking forward to it.

Anyway, back to the subject for today. I could have titled this post many different ways, but cheerfulness seemed to work the best. Why did I choose to focus on this today? Well, I just got out of taking a test for what I consider to be my hardest class. You might think that I'm focusing on cheerfulness because I'm happy that I did well on this test. You would be wrong. In fact, I'm pretty sure that I didn't do too great. But that's just the point, I'm still happy and cheerful today. I didn't let it get me down.

One thing that I've learned is that it's immeasurably better and more enjoyable to be happy rather than miserable. This should be a no-brainer for anyone. That is why I am thankful that I can be happy, even after a tough test like the one I just took. It makes my day better, and helps improve the day for those I interact with (or it at least doesn't make it worse for them). Also, when others are cheerful around me, it helps me to be cheerful. So, thank you to everyone who can walk around with a smile on their face and lift the spirits of those around them.

2. Good Friends

I've been very blessed over the years to have some really great friends. These have been people who understand the way I think I why I think that way. They've been able to cheer me up when I've been feeling down, to encourage me in my undertakings, to listen when I've needed someone to talk to, and to just make me feel good about myself.

These people have helped me to enjoy life. They've made me laugh harder than I ever knew possible, and they've made me happy in countless other ways.

I've been able to rely on my friends to help me out on short notice and to get me out of sticky situations. I'm reminded of one particular Valentine's Day where I wasn't quite as prepared as I should have been. Thanks, guys, for helping to bail me out. You know who you are.

I am particularly grateful for the good influence my friends have been on me and for their great examples. They have been examples of how to be kind, thoughtful, fun, and charitable. For any aspect of my life that I feel like I need to work on, I have a close friend from whom I can learn in developing that characteristic. I would like to say thank you to these people for being the great examples they have been. I will forever be grateful for their influence in my life and for helping to keep me going in the right direction.

1. Family

My family on the farm. This picture doesn't include my newest
nephew but it's the most recent photo of us all together

The first thing that I'm thankful for is my family. This is a pretty obvious choice, and well, it's true. I really to believe that I have one of the greatest families in the world. We all love each other and have a great time together, and I'm really thankful for that. I can't help but feel sad when I meet someone who doesn't get along very well with one or more members of their family, simply because I can't bear to imagine not being as happy as I am when I am with my family.

Whenever somebody asks me what makes me happy or brings me joy, the first thing that pops into my mind is my family. Sure, there are other things that bring me a lot of joy as well, but my family tops the list. So many of my favorite surprises, memories, and occasions involve my family. Some of these include, in no particular order:

1. Kimberly and Charles randomly appearing on our doorstep for Christmas

2. Patrick calling me on a particularly rough birthday in high school. I'm sorry if I've never told you this before, Patrick, but I was really having a rough birthday where nothing seemed to be going right until you called. That call meant the world to me that day. Thanks.

3. Getting to meet and play with my nieces and nephews over the years

4. Having the whole family together for our family reunion in 2008. It's getting harder and harder to have everyone in the same place at the same time.

5. Pretty much any time that I spend with my family. It doesn't matter where it is or what we're doing.

6. etc. The list could go on forever, I just don't have the time for that right now.

Finally, I can't finish this up without saying thank you to my parents. They have been an endless source of love and support throughout my life. They've always been there when I've been struggling with something, making big decisions, and to congratulate me and support me through all the good times as well. I never have any doubt about their love for me, and I love them too. I know I don't tell them that enough (in fact, they probably think that I never say it), but I do.