In Everything Give Thanks

What an interesting week it has been! Winter has come early to the Pacific Northwest, as you may have seen in the prior post. It has been a deep freeze here, and to say we, as a county, were unprepared is an understatement. Nobody was expecting the snow to stick on the ground on Monday. And nobody was expecting the never-above-freezing temperatures we are still experiencing. This makes for icy roads, by the way. Nobody was expecting to spend 8 hours to try to get out of town, if they needed to go (you can ask my brother about that one... In 3 hours on Monday night, he moved about 100 feet, and ended up getting home at 3 in the morning -- he had left his house at 3 in the afternoon (he was called in to work) and never even got out of town -- and then only because the police finally came and made a u-turn route so everyone could avoid the freeway, where the on-ramps were so iced over that people were skiing in cars...). Accompanying these frozen temperatures were howling winds. I never heard the official speed of the wind gusts, but I do know that they were incredibly strong. We lost power at the house for about 30 seconds. Lea's house lost power at 6 p.m. Monday night. Thousands and thousands of residents in my county (which was hit the worst by the windstorm) were out of power for over a day.

But as this is a day of Thanksgiving -- and a week of Thanksgiving, I will tell you the reasons for which I have given thanks this week, in spite of some of the craziness.

I am thankful for fun new traditions with new friends. As many of you may already know, Lea's family and I have a Monday night tradition known as Marvelous Monday Meals. Also Lea's daughter's boyfriend Dan comes too. It has been incredibly fun. We try new recipes (and hope for the best ;)). We have had Swedish meatballs, Philly Cheesesteaks, brocolli salad, creamy tortellini soup, chicken taco soup, chicken cordon bleu, etc.. For dessert we have had apple taffy pizza, chocolate trifle, coka cola cake, baked Alaska, etc. It has been a scrum-diddly-umptious time and entirely fun! We usually enjoy dessert while watching episodes of Scrubs. And every week, this is the highlight of Monday. Her whole family talks about it. I have an album of it on facebook, and will be making a cookbook from our Monday meals (with pictures!) soon.

And so this past Monday, I was making slow-cooker White Chili. And so the snow was kind of putting a cramp in Marvelous Monday Meals plans, which can never be a good thing! But with the snow starting to stick around 2 p.m., and me leaving the funeral home at 3 so I could make it home safely (studded tires or not, I'm not an experienced snow and ice driver, so I didn't want to be taking any chances), it was looking like a strong possibility that we would be cancelling Marvelous Monday Meals. And that was tragic. But in the end, we found an alternate solution :). And so Lea's husband and son came and picked me up (Dan was already at the house from after school). With hot chili in hand, and everything to spend the night at her house (including 2 chick flicks to watch, because I was pretty confident I wouldn't be going to either job the following day...), I piled into the truck and we made our way to Lea's. We actually didn't encounter any driving problems, but we saw the southbound freeway traffic, and that was grid-locked! Of course, we arrived at Lea's, and there was no power! Which meant we didn't have any cornbread muffins to go with our chili. But everyone was so happy to have the warm chili. And we anticipated that the power would be on in no time, and we could snack on cornbread muffins and the cinnamon cobblestone muffins that were to be dessert while watching Scrubs. Because they've lived in their house for about 10 years now, and they've never been without power more than 30 minutes. So we were optimistic. And, because I had thought to charge my laptop at home and to bring it with me, we rigged it up with speakers, and watched episodes of Scrubs while we settled in to wait for power. By 10, we were ready to turn in. We were bundled up. And we still had no power. But we figured it would come on during the night. It was 61 degrees inside when we went to bed. And the following morning, when we woke up to no power, it was 51 degrees inside! YIKES! So we walked around in blankets and coats. Hahaha. I called in and both jobs were closed. So there was no problem there. Didn't have to worry about being anywhere. Turned out we were in a stretch of the city that didn't have power, but the grocery store about 3 minutes away had power. So Lea's husband, daughter, and son went to the grocery store and got hot chocolates and coffees for everyone. Which makes me think of one of my thankfuls: I'm so thankful to live in a time of modern convenience!! And that, even though we were living without power and cold, there were some people who were not, and so we had options. I think I was born in the right time. I simply don't think I was cut out for days of no electricity. I am also thankful that, even without power, the toilets still flushed. I love indoor plumbing. Again, something without which I don't think I could function :). Or at least not well ;). So here are me and Lea. We had been up for a while, but I had only just put in my contacts, hence my tired-eyes. At this point, Lea had managed to get out of her warm bed and make it to the couch where she piled up the blankets. Hahaha.
As the day wore on, we decided we were hungry. And since power was not coming back, we improvised. Chuck thought of the bbq grill. And believe it or not, we had eggs, bacon, and toast (along with hot water boiled on the grill for more hot chocolate or coffee, and for washing dishes!). And so, here's a thing for which to be thankful: it gave me an idea of a way to do things when power is out. I think I need to invest in a charcoal grill and charcoal! And besides that, it was fun! It was an adventure!

After eating, we still didn't have power. So the whole chick-flick plan went out the window. We kept laughing and saying, "Don't the power people understand that their lack of hooking up power here is affecting our watching chick-flicks!?!" These are important things, people. But we decided to entertain ourselves with games. We ended up playing Skip-Bo. And that was fun. But here we are, all bundled up: me, Lea, Xavier, Morgan, and Dan. Chuck was still outside playing Survivor: Tundra. Hahaha. And so, I'm thankful for non-electrical entertainment! And for friends with whom to enjoy those non-electrical entertainments :). Even when we're frigidly cold (did I mention it was 29 degrees outside)!

We continued to be hopeful about the restoration of power. It didn't happen. And by this point, it was 4 p.m., and starting to get darker outside, and colder, and the temperature inside had dropped to 49 degrees. So here I am, texting people to see how they were holding up, all bundled up. And so I'm thankful for technology that allows us to keep in touch when the power is out (at least through the end of battery life ;)). And I'm also thankful that almost all of the time, I have a warm house. And even in this case, where we weren't enjoying heat at the moment, we were out of the elements, and that is such a blessing too! And we had tons of blankets and coats and sweaters and socks to keep us bundled up and as warm as possible.

But with the temperature dropping and still no heat or power -- and no more hot water either -- it was time to get me home and time for Lea's family to find a warm place to stay for the night. So Chuck drove me home. Dan went home (and got there safe, thankfully, in spite of incredibly icy roads and a huge slip down a big hill and the need to walk home to get his dad to help get his truck out). And Lea and her family found a friend with plenty of room and heat where they could stay for the night.

In spite of my greatest hopes, both of my jobs were open on Wednesday. And the roads weren't horrible. Temperatures remained below freezing, so nothing was melting. But the roads were surprisingly clear. So I went to both jobs. And arrived safely. I left the funeral home at 4, because my mom had bought tickets to The Forgotten Carols in Seattle. Lea went with us. And we had such fun! We walked on the ferry on the way over. Took a taxi (witha driver who ran a red light) to Benaroya Hall (which I keep calling Benny Hana Hall -- I just can't seem to get it right!), and got in and waited. And took pictures.

The show was fabulous!!! Plenty of humor. A sweet message. Beautiful music and talented singers! It was awesome! I'm so glad we went :). When it let out, we caught a cab back to the ferry terminal. He was another crazy driver. He went really fast down steep hills and scraped the car. But we arrived in once piece ;). We ate gourmet for dinner (at 10:00 at night) called McDonald's. Hahaha. Well, that was what was open late by the ferry! Turns out the Subway sandwiches inside the terminal was open too, but we didn't know that! So here are me and Lea on the ferry home. In the background (though you can't really seem him) is this dude that had blue and white long dredlocks in a mohawk-type thing. He didn't have hair anywhere else but the down the middle of his head. The weirdest thing is that he was on the ferry on the way over to Seattle with us, we saw him in the ticket line as soon as we all got into the ferry terminal when we arrived in Seattle, like he was buying a ticket back, and then when we got back after the show, he was in the terminal again, and was riding the ferry back with us! It was bizarre! We are wondering if he just rides the ferry back and forth for kicks on a Wednesday night. Hahaha...

So we dropped Lea off after a fun and laughter-filled ferry ride home. And then we got home at about midnight.

I've also pondered some deep thoughts this week (and some not-so-deep). Like why are eggs (huevos) and nuts (nueces) not equal across languages? Or like why does my good memory have to encompass the bad memories as well? I don't have an answer for the first question. But for the second, I think I do. I think that, even though I would often rather forget some of the more painful memories of my life, perhaps they are there and will remain there as a reminder. A reminder that I don't want to feel those things again. A prevantative measure so that I won't make the same mistakes again. And for that, I can definitely be grateful.

So yeah, it's been an interesting week. Opportunities abounded to make the best out of a bad situation in many cases. And overall, I have been able to see so many things in my life for which I should be grateful. And today we will enjoy Thanksgiving with most of my family. And I will continue to be thankful for the things that I have. Because it's everything I need and so much more :). And I am reminded in 1 Thessalonians 5:18: "In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you." I'm not just to be thankful in the good things, but in every thing. Even the hard moments that bring life's lessons. Because, as the Lord reminds me in D&C 122:7: "all these things shall give [me] experience, and shall be for [my] good."