Gratitude Countdown Rundown

So I kinda dropped the ball on that whole gratitude countdown thing, didn't I? In my defense, we drove down to San Diego to spend Thanksgiving with my family and I didn't have a lot of time to update this old blog. But since then, several other things have occurred which give me lots of reasons to be thankful.

First and foremost is that I got a job! My first day is tomorrow and I'm all sorts of apprehensive and excited about it. It was one of those rare opportunities where the job was absolutely perfect for me and I was absolutely perfect for the job. My official title is "History Internship Coordinator" in the History Department at BYU. It's a brand-new position which they've created to helped facilitate and administer the internships which both family history and regular history majors undertake each year. I'll be working closely with two faculty members and the students to help them find internships and to help them navigate the legal and academic requirements of the internship. I really hope I'll be able to help the students become acquainted with the many diverse places a history major can work (or intern) and help them recognize what a great opportunity it is to intern (as it is how many organizations hire new employees).

The job is part-time (which is great, I didn't want to work full-time) and even though we plan to arrange my work hours around David's class schedule next semester, we still had to find outside help to watch Zara for a few hours each week. We were, of course, quite apprehensive to trust the care of Zara to anyone else, but after meeting our new daycare provider (Audrey), a lot of that fear and guilt has disappeared. She runs a small daycare out of her home and I think Zara will gain a lot from spending time with someone other than me all the time and being around other children her age. We'll see how it goes, but at least I'm not feeling like a horrible mother at this point. And that's progress.

David and I also (FINALLY) receive callings in our ward today. It's not official yet, so I don't want to say what it is right now, but I'm super excited about it. And that almost rarely happens.

Also, David has finals all this week and then he'll be officially done with his first semester of graduate school. He's worked very hard and enjoyed his studies so much, but I am looking forward to two weeks of unencumbered David time (meaning that he won't have to spend his nights doing homework). I'm really looking forward to Christmas and celebrating it with my little family.