Gratitude at Work

I woke up this morning with my mind kind of exploding, so I figured I'd let it explode all over my blog. This might not be a good idea, ha ha.

Today's a happy day for multiple reasons. It's Friday, that's always a wonderful thing. Even though I work on Saturdays I still consider Fridays to be the end of my week. It's the Friday before Christmas, that's a really happy thing too! It's December 20th, which I honestly can't believe and I'm very cryptically happy about that too.

What happens on December 20th? Nothing really. I don't have any significant plans today. I don't really have any plans at all. I'm going to work, I'm coming home, I'll probably eat dinner...

I guess part of my brain exploding encompassed just a lot of happiness for today.

So there's that.

I've been feeling very blessed lately which probably has a lot to do with Christmas.

In the past two weeks Jeff and I have both had our work Christmas parties and they were both really great! Starting with mine, it was at the Joseph Smith Building in Salt Lake and there were a TON of people there that I didn't know. My company is huge....it started primarily in Salt Lake so that is where the bulk of employees are, but we also have "north", "south", and "remote" regions that kids get services in. The north region is where I am. Weber and Davis counties. The south is like...Provo, Lehi, American Fork etc. And remote is everywhere else in the state....Vernal, St. George....so remote, right? Ha ha. It has a lot more cities than that, but that's all I'm going to spell out for you.

So really, I only know the people in my team.....the north people....the the CEO who works with us from Salt Lake. The north is a smaller region too so we only have like....10 employees up here.

The party was so much fun though despite me not knowing most of the people. We had great food, an awesome raffle (where I didn't win anything, but that's okay, who needs a tablet or a Go-Pro camera or a spa package or diamond earrings or...) and we did white elephant gifts which are always funny. The best part though was that the main bosses/CEOs put together a gift for everyone. They had coworkers and client's parents write about each of us and put what they said on a frame for us to keep. The picture in the middle is of a dandy lion flower, because "we never know where our influence is going to spread". It made me pretty emotional reading what my client's parents and coworkers said about me.

I have so much gratitude for the company I work for. They help SO many families, it's insane. I never want to work for another company that is less charitable to families than this one is. Even though I get paid to do what I do, I always end my day feeling like I gave some kind of service to the people I was with that day.

I'm not trying to make myself sound like a saint, it really is completely all because of the two ladies who started the company and run it today. I'm very grateful that they are giving me the chance to live my life like I am right now.

Something else that was making me really happy the other day, (I wanted to write it in a Facebook status, but it's way too long and complicated for that.....) is the fact that all of my kids....all nine of them....know my name and use it ALL the time.

I know that sounds way silly, BUT....it makes me very happy.

I've had a plethora of jobs where I've worked with kids before.....

Whether it was my art teaching job where they called me "Miss Hunter", at the autistic pre-school or my student teaching where I was "Teacher Amber", the YMCA where I was simply "Amber", to name a few.............all of those times I had plenty of kids who remembered my name. Don't get me wrong, most of the children I've worked with have remembered my name. But with this job it's on a far more deep and personal level.

I go into the homes of these children. I talk to their parents about serious things. I play with their siblings. I take care of their needs and help them one on one. I never really had that level of interaction with any of the kids at the schools I worked for. So when my little autistic kids say: "Help me, Amber!" or "Amber, did you say something?" or "Mom, Amber is here!" It just feels different to me. And it's a very happy different.

I actually go to a school for one session a month to check up on one of my cute kids, and I have to say....I do LOVE being in schools. I know why I wanted to be a teacher (and still want to be teacher) for as long as I have. I love schools.

 I've also been grateful for Jeff's job lately. We went to his work Christmas party the other night and it was fun listening to his coworkers. His work used to do big parties at the corporate office with everyone who works for them, but the past two years we've just gone out to eat with just the accounting department.

The accounting department is mostly women with one other guy that works there besides Jeff. Jeff and the other guy get teased a lot by all of the women, it's pretty funny.

It'll be interesting to see what happens with Jeff's work in the next little while. If I had it my way he'd just stay at Goldenwest for a long time. I guess I just get comfortable and like knowing where the future is going to be. That's not all that probable though. His work doesn't have a lot of room for CPA's, and since that's going to be him hopefully sooner than later, we are bound to move on to somewhere else. Jeff does enjoy working there though and his bosses know he's an extremely hard worker.

I've been thinking a lot about 2014 and if I want to make any resolutions or not. I'm not very good at resolutions. I think I do better with goals if it's something I'm 200% excited about it and if I don't have a lot of pressure to do it. For those two reasons I've never been wildly successful with New Years resolutions.

The longer I'm married the more and more I realize that living life day by day is the happiest way to be. I think I have Jeff to thank for that and for molding me into a more reasonable person. In a lot of ways I'm definitely far off from being completely reasonable, but he makes me better. I'll get there someday.

After I got married/went through the temple I had a friend tell me that my blog isn't really relevant anymore because the title says: "I'm Going There Someday....", insinuating that I'm going to the temple someday like in the primary song.

I never really meant for my blog to be about going to the temple. Obviously when I started it a couple years prior to my marriage I wanted to go to the temple someday.....but my blog has always been about where I'm going in life. Physically, emotionally, spiritually. I guess for that reason I've always been better at really small goals that take me gradually where I want to go. No New Years resolutions for me. :)

Right now I need to get going so I can get to work on time! Merry Christmas next week!