Thankful Thursday

Tomorrow I get my new phone (if they're in stock still by the time I get there), and so this is hopefully the last day of crappy iPhone pictures before I switch to decent iPhone pictures. w00t. It's definitely time: this morning my phone reset itself to January 2011...which means I lost all phone numbers, texts, pictures, emails, etc. that I had stored on there since January of this year. Bummer.

I love that Nolan and I have serious discussions about Milo while calling him "turduckin". Technically speaking, a turduckin is a chicken stuffed in a duck stuffed in a turkey and then cooked. Nolan's been pretty specific that in this case, it refers to a chicken stuffed in a duck wrapped up in a giant TURD. To be fair, Milo lives up to the name.

I've got my fall decorations out now, and am just waiting for the weekend to fully enjoy them, bake something delicious, and sit in a bubble bath with fall-ish candles burning and my windows wide open. I love my life. One of my favourite new pieces is actually a Halloween chandelier that my mom got for me (which I'm going to re-use for Christmas and maybe every other season because I like it!), but the pumpkin candles were so pretty in it I couldn't resist dubbing it a plain old Fall decoration and showing it off:

Today I had lunch at Samovar with Jacob, who treated himself to the English Tea Service because of the nice day and the veritable garden we were sitting in. It was very colonial:

I almost left a tip in change, but Jacob talked me out of it. Like that one time I did it at a white-tablecloth place with Nolan and he was HORRIFIED and ran out of the restaurant before I finished pulling out all of my quarters. Apparently it's very insulting to tip in coins, but how was I supposed to know that? Money is money, right? It made more sense when Nolan painted the picture of the waiter picking up the checkbook and a bazillion coins flying out everywhere, and having to go around on his hands and knees picking up coins from under other customers' feet while explaining it was his tip. Sigh. Consider me chastened.

In other news: on with the post.

1. I'm thankful for my boss, who supports and encourages me. I always know there is someone "in my corner" at work. No really. She and I have cubicles together in a tiny, cold corner of our floor.
2. I'm thankful for the bible study I'm doing. It's making me be a LOT more diligent about quiet time. As in, 100% because I was FAILING at it before.
3. I'm so thankful for every single moment I have with Nolan. Sometimes I wake up a little when he comes to bed, and whatever feelings of anxiety or stress I had when I went to bed a few hours earlier by myself just melt away. I fall back asleep contented knowing he's there. I so can't wait to have more than 15 minutes with him (that's how much I got this week so far). On that note, I'm also thankful that we prepared ourselves for residency being terrible. Because as bad as it is not having any time together, it's not as bad as we thought. Maybe we're just learning how to handle it.
4. I'm thankful for the great weather! It's been gorgeous, and my grass seed has started growing!
5.I'm thankful for rest. Even when I'm worn out and mentally fatigued, a little rest goes a looooong way. And it usually means sitting on the couch watching Arrested Development reruns and eating my bowl of frozen blueberries.
6. I'm thankful Arrested Development is coming back for another season and a MOVIE!!!! Best.news.ever. (click to enlarge)