Sunday, November 28, 2010

Thankful Wrap-Up

Well, we made it back to Urbana this afternoon. It was a wonderful, relaxing Thanksgiving break. Now, we just have 3 weeks until we head back to Texas for Christmas! :)

I really enjoyed focusing on thankfulness this month, and I think it did help me appreciate the holiday in a deeper way. I'll wrap up the last few days of thankfulness in this one post (since I don't seem to do too well at posting everyday).

I'm thankful for:
  • Being able to see Darby's brother Jeff and his wife and two sons. We don't see them very often, so it was nice to be able to spend some time together. Darby's nephews, Josh and Joey, just adore him, and it's fun to see him play with them.
  • Darby's grandpa, Elmer. He came down to Waco for a couple of days, so we were able to talk with him some. He is 90 years old but seems much younger. He goes on trips all the time with an LCU alumni group. I got to see pictures from his most recent trips to Philadelphia/Niagara Falls and Alaska. He is such an interesting person, and I really hope Darby inherits his genes so he'll live to at least 90. :)
      3 generations of Hewitt men
  • My wonderful high school girlfriends. I had coffee with Jessica and Whitney on Friday night. I love that we are able to maintain our friendship even though we don't see or even talk to each other all that often. It's so nice to catch up on each others' lives, but I really appreciate that we can move beyond small talk and share stories about the difficulty of making friends, the challenges of supporting significant others through grad school, and post-college job disillusionment. That makes it sound like we're all really depressed people; we're not! It's just nice to have people that you know you can be open with. Hopefully, I'll be able to see Krista and Stephanie at Christmas.
  • The news that my cousin Amy is expecting her first baby in June! For her whole life, Amy has dreamed of being a mom. She used to carry around Matt like a baby when he was far too old to be carried. I'm so excited for her and her husband, Matthew, and I can't wait to have a new little frousin around!
  • Being able to see our friend Jon, who just returned from Marine boot camp, tonight. He's been gone for 16 weeks and will be gone off and on for the next few months, then he and Katy will move to Massachusetts for 7 months, and then who knows where. :( I'm so glad we made it back in time to see him and hear about some of his boot camp experiences. I know he and Katy are going to do great things wherever they end up, but we sure will miss them here.
Since I tried to be timely with my Thanksgiving posts, there are some things I didn't mention. I'm thankful for all of my extended family: my Grandma Katherine, my aunts, uncles, and cousins. I'm thankful for our church family and all of our friends. I'm thankful for our health and our financial security. I think it's wonderful that I have too many things to be thankful for; I can't get to them all in one month!

Of course, I could write for pages about how thankful I am for my family and Darby's family. Every time we go home, we are reminded of how truly blessed we are. We love spending time with our families. And, even though I mentioned him once before, I feel like I should emphasize how incredibly grateful I am for Darby. I may be biased, but I'm pretty sure he's the best husband in the world.

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Thankful #24

Today, I'm thankful for my sister, Hannah. She got in to Waco today, and I was so excited to see her. When we had dinner with my family on Tuesday night before she got here, Darby commented, "Your house was kind of quiet tonight." We realized it was because Hannah wasn't there. :) We make fun of her quite a bit, but she does bring a lot of fun and excitement to our family. There's never a dull moment with Hannah, and I like that. I'm really looking forward to our annual sisters shopping day on Friday!

Thankful #23

Today, I'm thankful for my brother, Matt. He got into town yesterday, so we were able to eat dinner, chat, and play games with him last night. He's a junior at ACU, and it's been so fun to see the age gap seem to narrow as we've gotten older. 4 years seemed like a lot when I was 18 and he was 14, for example. But now, it really doesn't seem to matter too much. I really enjoy talking with him, and I'm excited to see the great things he accomplishes as he gets older. He wants to be a youth minister, and I know he's going to be an awesome one!

Monday, November 22, 2010

Thankful #22

Today, I'm thankful for my hometown. Waco really was a great place to grow up. I love coming home to visit---brings back a lot of good memories. This town just feels comfortable to me.

Today, Darby's mom had to work, and Darby and his dad went to the shooting range, so I went to my parents' house to hang out with my mom for a little while. I took Darby's old car (which now belongs to his dad). As I was driving the familiar route between Darby's parents' house and my parents' house, I thought about how crazy it was that for years I used to ride as a passenger in that car with Darby when we were dating. And now I'm his wife, and I'm a part of his family, and they let me borrow their cars. I can't explain it very well. Going home always makes me realize how far our relationship has come. The setting is so similar to what it was 9 years ago, but our relationship is so different. I'm so glad we made it through the somewhat tumultuous early years. No matter what had happened, I'm sure Darby and I would each return to our hometown often. I'm glad we get to go back home together.

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Thankful #20 & 21

Today, I'm thankful for my in-laws. They came to pick us up from the train station this afternoon, we enjoyed a delicious dinner at home (very welcome after a day in which I ate only mini bagels, Cheez-Its, and a Fiber One granola bar), and now we're relaxing watching "Undercover Boss." I'm looking forward to spending the next few days with them.

I'm also thankful that I survived my first long-distance train ride. 21 hours on a train is quite a long time! :) But, I got in plenty of reading and some sleep, so it wasn't too bad.

Friday, November 19, 2010

Thankful #18 & 19

Today, I'm thankful that I'm off of school until Nov. 29th!

And, I'm super super thankful that we're leaving for Texas TOMORROW!

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Thankful #17

Today, I'm thankful for my parents. Obviously, I'm thankful for them every day. But I got to talk to them both this evening, which was great. They both called separately to check on me because they had seen my post yesterday where I said I was sick. It's nice to be taken care of, even as an adult. :) And I'm so excited to see them in just a few days for Thanksgiving!

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Thankful #15 & 16

Today, I'm thankful for my sweet husband who takes care of me when I'm not feeling well. I have a little cold, and I'm blogging from bed, because Darby insisted I not work on any homework and go straight to bed. This was after he made me hot chocolate and helped me not to feel guilty about skipping my Spanish class. :)

I'm also thankful because I finished one of my major semester projects this evening. That's a big weight off my shoulders!

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Thankful #13 & 14

Today, I am thankful for answered prayers. I just found out some good news about a person I'd been praying for for a long time. I won't share the news because it's not mine to share, but I have been thanking God since I found out.

I'm also thankful for the opportunity I had to talk to my friend Laura on the phone last night. Laura and I worked together at ACU and became good friends during that time. Every so often (I wish it could be more often), we have marathon phone conversations to catch up on each others' lives. I love our talks and am so thankful that Laura makes an effort to keep in touch with me. We have now been friends in separate states much longer than we were friends in the same city, and, happily, time and distance have not hurt our friendship (although I'd love to be in the same city again!).

Friday, November 12, 2010

Thankful #11 & 12

Ack! I can't keep up! :) I seriously think about posting every day, but then I forget when I get home.

Today, I'm thankful for my Secret Sister. The women at church did this thing where we were assigned a secret sister who we gave little gifts and cards to. On Thursday night, we had the "reveal" at Olive Garden. The woman who had me was out of town and couldn't be there, but it was still fun to get to talk to all of the other women. My secret sister gave me some really neat gifts and wrote very encouraging notes. It was a fun program; we're going to do it again in the spring, so I'm excited.

I'm also thankful for my conversation partner. We meet every Wednesday and talk for an hour, so that she can improve her English. She is so sweet, and I really enjoy talking with her. This past week, we went and got Custard Cup and then walked around the park while we talked. It was a beautiful day, and we had such a good time.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Thankful #8, 9, 10

Oops. I got a little behind on my thankfulness! So I'll do three today.

Today, I'm thankful for:
  • Sunshine. We've been having beautiful sunny days, and I'm just soaking it in. The time change has been a little easier to handle this year. I still don't like that it gets dark at 5 p.m., but at least I am able to be outside some during the day to enjoy the sunlight.
  • Temperatures in the 70s. In November!! It's awesome!
  • Cell phones. Isn't it amazing that we can talk to/text friends and family basically whenever we want? It makes being far away sooo much easier.

Sunday, November 07, 2010

Thankful #7

Today, I'm thankful for Sundays. They are always such a wonderful day. Today was especially so because my friend from school came to church with us, and then our preacher and his wife treated the three us to the brunch buffet at Silvercreek. If you live in C-U and you've never been to Silvercreek on Sunday, you have to go. There is so. much. food. And it's all delicious. They have both breakfast and lunch items, plus dessert. After brunch, we came home for our requisite Sunday afternoon nap and then headed to our small group. We reformulated our small groups this semester, and it's been fun to get to know some new people. After small group, it was home for some episodes of 30 Rock, housecleaning, and homework. A good day.

Saturday, November 06, 2010

Thankful #6

Today, I'm thankful for an extra hour of sleep tonight. :)

A funny story related to this: When I was little, I always heard people making such a big deal about an extra hour of sleep. So, I got the impression that the extra hour of sleep occurred every night between "fall back" and "spring forward." I would wake up every day thinking, "Wow, I feel so rested!" I don't remember how old I was when I finally figured out that we only got an extra hour that one night, but it was much too old, I'm sure. I wish I could convince myself that was true again, though. I'd love to feel extra rested every day.

Friday, November 05, 2010

Thankful #5

Today, I'm thankful for new friends. I feel like it has taken a while, but I'm finally getting to know some of my classmates better. Our program is really neat because we're divided into two cohorts, and we take classes with the same people every semester. So, I'm glad I'm starting to make connections because I'll be with the same people for the next two years!

Thursday, November 04, 2010

Thankful #4

Today, I'm thankful for my house. I still remember how excited I felt when we saw it for the first time on the day we moved in. And for those first few months, I would just walk around thinking, "I can't believe we live here." After our tiny apartment in Abilene, it felt like a mansion! But now that I'm used to it, I catch myself saying, "I wish we had a bigger living room," or "It'd be nice to have an island." And, sure, it would be great to have those things, and I'm sure we will at some point in our lives. But I don't want to let wishing for that make me take for granted what we have now. Because what we have now is awesome! :)

Wednesday, November 03, 2010

Thankful #3

Today, I'm thankful for things that keep me warm on cold days: my coat, my heater, my garage, coffee, and Panera soup in a bread bowl. :) I think about people that can't even afford a coat, and here I am with coats to spare, not to mention a centrally-heated house. I complain about the cold quite a bit, but really, I don't have much to complain about.

Tuesday, November 02, 2010

Thankful #2

Oops! Already messed up. Forgot to post anything yesterday. I had to backdate this one. :)

Today, I'm thankful for old friends. On the first of each month, I send an update e-mail to all of the Fat Tuesday girls. Each person hits "Reply All" and sends their own update. It's so fun to hear what everybody's doing. I'm thankful that, even though we're spread out across 4 states, we can keep in touch easily. We're planning a reunion for June, and I'm so excited!

Monday, November 01, 2010

Thankful #1

Well, Halloween's over. So you know what that means?? It's officially the holiday season! I absolutely love Thanksgiving and Christmas, and this year I want to really try to slow down and focus more on the "reason for the season." I don't know if it's friends having babies or just turning the ripe old age of 25, but I've really been thinking a lot lately about what I want life to look like when Darby and I have children. I definitely want to find ways to emphasize the religious parts of holidays, not just food and gifts (although I looooove food and gifts!). And, I thought, the best way to do that is to start now, in my own life, so that it's natural for me to pass that on to my children some day. (Now, passing on good eating habits is another story . . . )

So, I really want to try to focus on being thankful this month. God has blessed my life so immensely. I try to remember to be thankful all of the time, but Thanksgiving is a great opportunity to practice gratitude even more. I'm going to try to post every day this month with a different thing I'm thankful for (whether big or little).

Today, I'm thankful for the opportunity to be in school. These past couple of weeks have been kind of stressful, but even in the midst of that, I wake up every day so happy. I love my classes, and I really think ESL teaching is going to be a great career for me. For the 3-1/2 years after I graduated college, I really struggled, feeling like I had no purpose. I still wish I had decided what I wanted to do earlier, but I am grateful for that time because it helped me really appreciate this opportunity. I don't think I would have such a positive attitude about schoolwork if I hadn't seen the alternative. I want to remember to be thankful for this every day for the next two years.