A Thousand, A Thousand Thanksgivings!

Boy do I have a lot to be thankful for!

On Tuesday night Mr. Husband called me after midnight (in his defense, I usually can't get to sleep early when he's not here) and woke me up. In my sleepy state he told me they were going to Koko Head in the morning for a PT session and asked if I wanted to go...of course, I said no. Who wakes up in the middle of night and thinks, "Hm, I think I'll get up really early tomorrow and go get tortured." ? Well, I didn't. So the next morning when he got home I lay in bed for a while and then decided that I should probably go. I told myself I'd just go half-way. That's good enough.
Well. I ended up going the whole way--this time, though, I felt less like dying and it only took my like half the time.
When we got to the top, I told him to "strike a pose"...

 haha...

How fun...I'm so thankful that my strength is back! After bashing my face in and surgery and THEN planning the wedding...I thought I was old forever!
We came home, had some lunch, Mr. Husband went to sleep and I made pumpkin pies for the chapel dinner we were having for Thanksgiving.

 By the way, Aloha shirts are considered dressy:)

 This picture is TERRIBLE, but those cornucopias have REAL fruit in them and all of that greenery is real. They went ALL out!

 Two of my SS students...these kids crack. me. up.

The dinner was fun. I am really thankful that we have such a loving chapel family! I think I've said that before, but it does make it a lot easier to be away from home/family/friends/everything we know and as much as I thought I would be okay, it would have been hard to stay home by myself all day.

On Friday, Mr. Husband sneaked into the house after working a midnight shift and made me breakfast and brought it to me in bed. Wow. I knew I married him for a reason!
It was seriously so sweet though AND it tasted good! He hardly ever cooks, so that's an accomplishment! Also, he stopped and got me a pale pink rose:) I'm so thankful for a loving husband that will go the extra mile to make me feel loved!

Saturday was our "Thanksgiving Day" and I made some of our Thanksgiving dinner favorites.
Turkey (obviously), loaded mashed potatoes, gravy, green bean casserole, candied yams, and stuffing.

Not pictured here is the cranberry sauce, which I forgot until after the last minute. We had already started eating when I realized what was missing and jumped up saying, "THAT'S IT!" Thankfully, I HAD it, I just forgot to get it out...ha
Mr. Husband said the mashed potatoes tasted like his mom's....which is exactly what I was going for. I've had his mom's potatoes and they are DELICIOUS!
It's so difficult for me to make small portions of things, as I'm so used to cooking for a crowd (whenever I did cook before), but I think I did pretty well with this one. Thankfully, we didn't have TOO many leftovers.

Later that evening Mr. Husband took me to see The Muppets. I wasn't sure if it'd be good or not, but it was actually pretty hilarious.
Here we are taking our traditional "Picture in front of the poster of the movie we're seeing" picture. We have one for each of the movies we've been to together...and we also realized this was the first movie we've ever been to by ourselves. Ever.

That was such a fun day. Again, the whole not having a bunch of family around like we're accustomed to is difficult, and we miss them--but we look forward to spending lots of holy-days in the future with them!
(P.s. There will be two additions to his side and one to mine by next years end as we'll be getting a niece, a sister-in-law AND a nephew.)



Today after chapel we went to lunch with some friends and then went over to Lowes to look around AND we got a picture of the ship my brother used to be on:

 That was pretty cool!

After that we came home and, since we forgot yesterday, Billy checked the mail. A big envelope was inside with my name on it! AH! Just what I've been waiting for (actually, I've been waiting for a small envelope because I was so nervous). I got into the University! I've been accepted AND the Lord got me a scholarship! I didn't even APPLY for a scholarship. Apparently good academic standing means something in these parts.
Needless to say, I am SO thankful for all of that!

The Lord has really blessed us, and even though sometimes life is not all Hawaiian hiking excursions and movie dates, He surely has blessed us immensely!!

Thou Life of my life, blessed Jesus.
Thou death of the death that was mine.
For me was Thy Cross and Thine anguish,
Thy love and Thy sorrow divine;
Thou suffered the cross and the torment,
That I might forever go free-
A thousand a thousand thanksgivings,
I bring, blessed Savior to Thee!