Catching up...(thankful times 8)

So WAY back over the holidays I was supposed to be doing a thing a day that I was grateful for until January 1st. And although that is way passed now and I never finished it, my obsessive compulsive self just won't let me go on in posting anymore blogs until I catch up and finish my gratitude journal and until I post the pictures from the past few trips that I've missed posting. So, here you go...(in no particular order)

1-3) Good Brothers (most of the time)...Lee, Ty, and Russell

I'm thankful for Russell, Lee, and Ty. They are good brothers because they do things like: help me move a million times and lift all my heavy stuff, make fun of me (to keep me humble), beat me up a little (to keep me tough), give me advice about life, keep me entertained, offer to beat up people that are mean to me, let me back into the Rock Band band even though I'm horrible, etc.

Let me be really honest in saying that having your parents far away for three years (even when you are 29) isn't the easiest thing in the world. But I will say it has made me more appreciative of my brothers because they are always here for me and we have to stick together a little more than we used to. Let me tell you a little something about each of them so you'll know how funny/awesome they are. I'm sure I'll hear it for telling all about them on my blog, but since they are all pretty big blog leeches (other than Lee who does comment occasionally) they don't really have a say in it.

Tyler (Tywoah as I like to call him) is a good little brother. He's been my little buddy ever since the days when he wore matching shorts, shirts and hats sets all summer long and constantly had a little Troll toy in his hand, and couldn't even pronounce his own name (due to the L). Now days he's our family technology expert (whether he likes it or not). He and I love to go get Ethiopian food together and I have to have him there since the Ethiopian lady that owns the restaurant never understands me when I order but for some reason she always understands him as long as he throws in a few Amharic words and clicking sounds. He just turned 22 this week. I can't believe he's that old! I remember the day he was born because I was mad that he wasn't a girl. I've since gotten over it. Tyler has already helped me move twice just in 2009...what a good little bro. Even when he says smart-A things like the following...

On the way to Belize back in January I told my brothers that just in case something happened to me when I was swimming in the ocean (because it is one of my greatest fears) that I have quite a bit of life insurance and to make sure that it gets collected. (It isn't at all abnormal for my family to have weird conversations like that.)

So Tyler says to me, "How much insurance do you have?"

I replied, "Enough that you'd probably each get around $60,000."

Tyler to me, "WOW."

My reply, "Well don't go killing me or anything to get it."

Tyler back to me, "I won't kill you but I don't have to save you either."

What a little poop!

Now onto Lee. Despite the occasional hair pulling, spitting, and fighting in our past, Lee and I have always been close. Ever since the days of jumping on the trampoline while making up rap songs and thinking we were SO funny to the years of opening and re-wrapping our Christmas presents and swearing not to tell anyone, we've been friends. Lee is a great cook. He likes to experiment and try new things when cooking. He's been into the culinary arts ever since he was a child and even one time tried to make cinnamon suckers as like an 8 year old while my mom was gone. And even though it resulted in him spilling red food coloring down my mom's new white cabinets and getting banned from the kitchen for several years he never gave up. Lee is the brother that I can just talk to...about anything. He's the brother that got mad, started shaking, and said "I want to beat them up" as he paced around the kitchen beating his fist into his palm after I told him about some of the jerky guys I used to work with. Lee will try anything new...from skydiving to building furniture to making a shower curtain. However, sometimes he may be a little too confident in some of his abilities.

Here's a recent conversation with Lee.

We were packing to go to Brazil for Christmas and as we were packing we were trying to make sure that we didn't put any liquids, aerosols, or gels in our carry-ons and we were talking about how much we hate terrorists and how all the rules and security things you have to go through now are so dumb.

Lee pauses during the conversation, gets a serious look on his face and says, "I know, I mean all these security measures are pointless...I could take over THE ENTIRE plane with just a roll of duct tape and a hammer."

I think before he even finished the sentence he knew how ridiculous he was, but I still haven't let him live it down.

Now to Russell. Most of you might not know a lot about Russell since he maybe isn't as loud, tell-all, and crazy as the rest of us are. All you have to do is watch our home videos from when we were kids...I had no problem stealing the show and he usually had no problem letting me. So I'll tell you a little bit about him. Russell is SUPER smart...especially when it comes to random little facts. He's our own little Cliff Clavin, although he's careful usually to not "inform people against their wills." Just play the game ETC with him and you'll know what I mean. Lee and I have even tried to cheat and memorize the answers and Russell still beats us. We usually play Russell versus the whole rest of the family just to try and make it even half competitive. Russell is super good at target shooting. He has won all sorts of competitions. So if you're ever in a hostage situation, give Russell a call and he'll save you. He's also very good at building things, laying tile, framing houses, doing stonework, etc. He's a big time perfectionist though so sometimes things take him awhile but the finished product is always great. He did a lot of the work himself on his new house. Russell is a really generous and kind person although he likes to pretend that he's not for some weird reason.

Okay, I'm getting really wordy, and although this is my blog and I can do whatever I want I need to get doing other things so I'm not going to be as wordy with the last 5 things I'm grateful for. That doesn't mean I'm any less grateful or that I don't have good things to say but that I'm tired of typing and I want to keep the complaints about the length of this post down to a minimum.

4) I'm grateful that I have the most RAD sister-in-law ever. Seriously, I couldn't have asked for better. She puts up with so much crap from all of us and when she can get a word in with all of us around, she's freaking hilarious. This is a picture of Kim in Brazil over Christmas with her visor on getting ready to play YAHTZEE.

5-6) I'm grateful that I have Al and Mil for parents. A girl couldn't ask for better parents. Here's a picture of them at Morro Branco this December when we were all visiting. Too bad my dad took off his hat right before the picture because he totally looked like Gilligan, but then he might have complained about me posting this picture.

7) I'm grateful for my Gma Fern and all my extended family. I feel incredibly lucky that I got to grow up with both sets of grandparents living under 4 miles away and with pretty much all my aunts,uncles and cousins living less then an hour away. Some of my best friends are my relatives and I'm grateful that we grew up close to each other geographically so we had lots of opportunities to spend time together and develop close relationships. 8) And last but not least I'm grateful for the gospel in my life. We truly are blessed to have temples, a living prophet, scriptures, a clear understanding of the Atonement, the Priesthood, and the saving ordinances. I'm glad for the eternal perspective we can have on life and the world because of our understanding of God's plan. And also just for the friendships and opportunities that being members of The Church brings. And I'm grateful for this awesome picture of the temple that I found on the Internet.

The end of my gratitude for now.