Make Me Happy

It's finals week for undergraduates! I guess it's finals week for me as well, but it doesn't feel like it since I don't have exams- yeah yeah yeah! However, I still have 2 mega papers to type out. Thank goodness I've started research on them already. Long way to go but I'm on the path.

So

To distract help me concentrate better, I'm going to

List out things I am thankful for/ that make me happy.
I know, it's a belated list. Thanksgiving was 2 weeks ago. I just thought it would be a good way for me to recap the happenings of my last 2 weeks, and see how blessed I've been.

Like I said, anything to "help" me concentrate (:p)

- My horrible historiography class is OVER. And even though one of the mega papers due soon is for this class, I think I rather type that out than do the readings for that class again, and that's saying a lot since I  normally rather read a hundred pages than write ten.

- My Modern U.S. history class Part 1 is also done, done, done! This was the one that I had to type out a 10-page essay in 2 days, and then "defend" it to the rest of the class for about 20 minutes. I was SUPER insecure about this class, because most of the time I leave that class in a daze. The discussions just fly over my head. So I prayed super hard that I would get a relatively easy question, and I did! It still required reading, brain-wrecking, discussing with fellow classmates, editing, etc, but my paper turned out okay, and the grilling went better than I expected. Not super but good.

God was very good to me.

- Thanksgiving Dinner. It's my favorite meal of all time (except when we eat at Peach Garden back home in Singapore), and this year, a couple of people from the ward got together and had our own Thanksgiving together. It was way fun, especially since the ladies beat the men in Catchphrase- holler!

- On that note, I made one of my favorite Thanksgiving dishes 3 times this year! GREEN BEAN CASSEROLE.

The picture was the one I brought to Thanksgiving Dinner. The other two times, I made a smaller portion for my own private consumption, and also a dairy-free version for my Christian small group private dinner.

I also made banana cream pie from scratch.Sadly I forgot to take a picture, and even more sad, the pudding didn't set! So it turned out to be a runny banana cream pie. *sob* BUT it tasted FREAKING AWESOME, so that was a consolation. Anyone have any ideas what to do?

- The day after Thanksgiving, I drove about 3 hours to visit Matt and Stacie Dalebout who live in Canton, Michigan. Matt is the son of a close family friend in Utah. Matt and Stacie have 3 EXTRA cute and well-behaved children.

 These are Jacob and Owen. My mom saw the picture and went, "Oh my Jacob looks exactly like Matt (his dad)!" Look at those grins- how can you not fall in love with them?!

 And then this is Anna. Notice her BYU shirt (it's not too young to start them you know). No I didn't buy it for her, but I want one for my daughters next time (hint hint Mom). Isn't she just sooooo cute?! 

I played with the kids, and went with the family for a movie and dinner. Drove back on Saturday. Total vacation and relaxation. It recharged my batteries though, and I went back to school/ work on Monday feeling motivated.

- OSU won our rival football game and beat Michigan- SWEET VICTORY! I love school rivalry, and it is awesome that most of my schools growing up and in college have all had rival schools to "up" the competition.

- Prayers and Miracles. A friend of mine had asked me to take car of her car for her while she went home to Taiwan for a month. Well, the very first day I "car-sat," I lost her car key- no kidding. Panicked, I prayed hard and searched everywhere. The thought came to my mind to go check the humongous garbage containers where I had thrown my garbage out that morning, but I resisted because hey, who wants to fathom the thought of...?! I finally became desperate, and walked out to the garbage containers, dreading the thought of telling my friend I might have accidentally thrown away her car key, when miracle of miracles, I found the key in the middle of the road, sitting there waiting for me to pick it up. 

You would not believe how overjoyed I was. My heart poured out in gratitude to my Heavenly Father. I'm telling you, prayers work.

- Rosie. She drives me INSANE, especially in the mornings, but I can't stay annoyed at her for long because she is just so darn cute. It's not fair- how come pets and children have such power over grown-ups?!

Over Thanksgiving break I got to feed Rosie while her Mom went home, and Rosie became attached to me, to the point of this:

 AND

AND

Rosie distracting me while I type out my essay. 

Which reminds me: this past Monday morning I woke up groggy and stumbled to the bathroom to pee. I peered into the sink in the dark (thank goodness I did this before I started my "business"), and saw this "blob" in the sink, and wondered why my roommate left her pile of clothing in the sink (she never does that). Then I peered closer.

Turned out that "blob"/ pile of clothing was really this:

IT'S A BATHROOM SINK FOR GOODNESS SAKE- AREN'T CATS SUPPOSE TO BE AFRAID OF WATER?! UNBELIEVABLE.

But she's so cute. I mean, look at her in the photo. *sigh*

So there you have it. My list of things I am grateful/ happy for.
Now that I have listed out what makes me happy, I feel like I can concentrate better...