Jamie, I'm so glad you're mine

On my fourth day of counting my blessings, I am thankful for my sister-in-law Jamie, who came to save me today when my car ran out of gas on the freeway. If it were not for her, I would, at the very least, still be walking home. Not only did Jamie save me from possibly being picked up by a random trucker, but she has done many great and wonderful things for my family, besides the fact that she is just funny and fun to hang out with. She is more than willing to dance, sing, or just do other random crazy things, bringing some spontaneity into anyone's life. And so I am grateful for Jamie Sartain.

Sweet Child of Mine

I am finding so many things to be grateful for that it is hard to choose which one to use which day.

On day #3, I am thankful for my youngest, 3 1/2 year old Jonathan Neil Joyner. With the other three in school all day, he and I get to spend a lot of time together. He is extremely cute, just ask any of the women who he charms each week at church. He flirts with women shamelessly, at the store, the library, the school - any age, any shape and size - he is equal opportunity! Jonathan constantly tries to talk his way into/out of things, starting sentences with "How about" or "I know!" and raising his eyebrows repeatedly at you to try to get you to do what he wants. I am completely immune, unfortunately for him. Since being potty trained earlier this year, he is determined to mark his territory, asking me at every place we go "Do they have a bathroom here?" I have started telling him no, just because I can't take going into one more bathroom when I know he is forcing himself to go (he also has amazing control over that!) He can be cute and cuddly or independent and willful, and I love watching him figure things out each day. One of my favorite things is the fact that he can pick up almost entire songs the first time or two he hears them, and I will catch him singing parts of them while I am driving or while he is playing (makes you pay attention to what he hears - he was singing "Highway to Hell" from the backseat a while back.) I am thankful for all that he adds to my life and our family.

Thank you, thank you

Today as I sit at my desk, making phone calls for dental appointments, calling for support for our upcoming hospital stay, and checking in with family and friends, I am thankful for Mr. Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone. I know that there are days when I wish that the telephone wouldn't ring anymore (last night, when all the politicians kept "calling" me to secure my vote is a good example) and I long for a trip to a desert island where no one could find me, but this morning I find the telephone to be an invaluable invention.

What are you thankful for today?

Counting My Blessings

Somehow it is already November. I have no idea where it came from, or where the year has gone, but there it was this morning, waiting for me when my alarm went off. As we all know, the big deal this month is Turkey Day. Also known as The Day We All Eat Too Much. Or The Day Before Black Friday. Or, for some of us, The Day We All Get Dressed Up To Go and Fight With Our Families (I haven't experienced that one, but have heard stories.) But, officially, it is known as Thanksgiving.

This month, in order to keep  my blessings at the forefront of my mind as our family is going through some hard things, and in order to truly remember to give thanks for those blessings, I am instituting the 25 Days of Thanksgiving. Every day I will post something that I am thankful for. I encourage you all to do the same, whether you post it or not, just take some time every day through Thanksgiving to write down one thing that you are thankful for. Keep the list to look at when times are darker. Or if your times are dark now, use that time every day to find a shaft of light to follow. Surely in this world, where we are all alive and surviving, where we have food and clothes and roofs over our heads, we can find just 25 things to be thankful for.

So today, on the 1st of November, I am thankful for a body that is able to run (even if it doesn't like it) and then go and take a workout class without passing out or throwing up. What are you thankful for?   

Anna Marie Joyner

Well, by popular demand (hey, to me, 4 people makes it popular!) I will continue with the family blog, and try to do better at posting things and such.

I expected this post to be a little more fun, and had another subject matter planned, but then yesterday happened and suddenly my thoughts are consumed with what is coming.

As most of you know, Anna has scoliosis. She has been wearing a brace for it 23 hours a day 7 days a week for the past couple years, not to correct it but to prevent it from getting worse. Anna, who has always been an overachiever, has not one but three curves in her spine, ranging in severity. The worst of the bunch has been measuring in the 50 degree range, and from the beginning we knew that if that curve reached the 60s, surgery would need to occur. Surgery was always inevitable, we were just putting it off as long as possible to give her torso time to finish growing.

Every three months we go to see the spinal surgeon so he can measure her spine with is little level-y thing, and every six months we take new xrays with us. And every visit, nothing has really changed. And so the cycle has gone, until yesterday. Yesterday, the doctor paused over the xray, and took a little longer measuring with his level, and I knew. We are usually in and out in a matter of minutes, but not this time. This time we spent a half hour in the exam room, and when we left, we had a date for surgery.

Friday, December 3rd, Anna will be admitted to the hospital for surgery to attach a rod to her spine. The surgery will be long, followed by a few days in the hospital and then 6-8 weeks of recovery at home. Once again, we are headed into new territory with this girl - sometimes I wish she wasn't such a trailblazer. There are comforting things about the whole process: we have THE BEST surgeon, internationally known for his breakthroughs in spinal surgery. People try to get in to his practice and fail - he fell into our laps two years ago. Anna has already stayed in this same hospital for several days when she was diagnosed with diabetes, so she knows a lot about it and isn't worried about that part. The surgery date falls right before Jon is scheduled to go and open the new restaurant for Noodles, meaning that he should have no problem getting a few paid days off to be there for all the hospital stuff. We are blessed. Now we just pray and wait out the five weeks before the surgery, and then take a deep breath and go with the flow.

This morning I am heading to the temple to center myself and prepare.

Should I Stay or Should I Go?

To blog or not to blog, that is the question. Lately, it has obviously been the latter. I have been posting pictures to Facebook instead. So, those of you who read this blog, (in the past tense - why are the present and past tenses of "read" the same? It is confusing. But I digress...) should I start my blogging up again? Do you really want to hear the stories that go along with our pictures, or are they cute/funny/traumatizing only to me? Let me know - if you want some blogging, I will do some. If not, that's ok too.

TRULY honest

Ok, so I was tagged about a month and a half ago by my sister-in-law Lindsey to post ten TRULY honest things about me, and it has taken me this long to sit down and do it! So here goes:

1. I LOVE to read. I got started before kindergarten, and haven't stopped. I can read a 700+ page book in a day if I am really into it. I have a stack from the library beside my bed at all times, usually compiled of at least 6 books to be read. Jon had to build me a little two shelf bookshelf to go beside my bed just so that I can keep things from toppling to the floor.

2. I like cartoons. Disney cartoons are my favorite, but I like a lot of other ones too. It is something I have never gotten over since I was a kid. I have rented Ducktales from Netflix for my kids, and I often end up sitting and watching them too. (On that note, I know the songs to all the Disney Afternoon cartoons that were on when I was a kid.) 

3. I MISS coffee. Mochas, lattes, coffee with cream and sugar. I dream about it sometimes. I love to walk down the coffee aisle at the store, and I have occasional battles with myself over whether or not coffee ice cream is acceptable under the Word of Wisdom (so far I have not been able to win that argument with  myself, and thus haven't had any coffee ice cream goodness.) In heaven there had better be something that tastes EXACTLY like coffee that I am allowed to have in excess.

4. I always think that people don't like me, and am always worried that I have said or done something to offend someone. I want everyone to like me, even people who I don't necessarily like. I have issues, I know.

5. I am a sucker for Irish guys. The accent gets me every time. Jon knows that if I ever meet a relatively attractive Irish guy who wants to sleep with me, my hands are tied.

6. I have a tattoo, and if I hadn't joined the church, I would most likely have another one. I have never been ashamed of it (thought I do not go around telling people that I have one because I do not enjoy being judged.)

7. I love to sing. I was in many choirs in high school, and also in the Northern California Honor Choir. I was in a musical about 5 nuns - I was the gospel singing one.

8. This goes along with #7 - when I was in high school I wanted to be a black gospel singer. Not going to happen, I know, but still something that I always wanted to be.

9. I have a soft spot for 80's movies, especially John Hughes movies. Pretty in Pink, Sixteen Candles, Say Anything, The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, and Some Kind of Wonderful. Footloose,  Dirty Dancing, I could go on. I can watch these movies any time, and they always make me feel like a teenager again. And they are the ultimate girl's night videos.

10. Each guy that I either a) had a severe crush on or b) dated in high school had at least one main trait that Jon has: two were very tall, two were LDS, one was a musician, etc. If I had added them all up, I would have known what I was looking for!  

So there you go, my ten truths. I am going to tag:

Raimi Krupp

and Erin Greene