Thankful: Day 17 - 23 and I PASSED!!!

17. I am thankful for my Aunt Doreen and Uncle Nick. My Aunt Doreen is the best aunt in the world! She has always been there for me my entire life and has always been special to me. She is awesome at spoiling her nieces and nephews and I know I can always look to her to help me out whenever I need anything. She will always go out of her way to do anything for me, even when it wasn't convenient for her. She would always let me hang out at her house after school when I needed somewhere to go, she lead youth group at my church all through my junior high and high school days, she always made us little treat bags for every little holiday and gave us the best birthday and Christmas presets. She is so talented and has made the invitations, programs and thank you cards for Trent and I's wedding as well as the invites and thank yous for my graduation party for high school and college and invites for my 5 year class reunion and many other countless things. She is amazing and I am so happy that I get to have her as my aunt!
And then a few years ago, she brought my Uncle Nick into the picture. I'm not sure he knew what he was getting into with all of these nieces and nephews he was inheriting ;) but I'm so glad that he is in our family. He has the same great heart that Doreen has and is always willing to do things for us when we need help. I know he loves us all very much (and we love him). And I think the reason why he is so great because I know how much he loves my aunt and he is so great to her.
I love you two!

18. I am thankful for music. I love music for all of the emotions that it is capable of bringing out in people. Music just adds another dimension to everything and turns it into something that it wouldn't be without it. Just think of watching a movie without music. The 'lovey' moments wouldn't be so sweet, the scary moments wouldn't be so scary, and the intense moments wouldn't be so exciting. Music also carries so many memories. Just the other day, I pulled up some Backstreet Boys videos on YouTube and oh the memories of my middle school days and listening to BSB songs on repeat. :-) Music just brings out so many emotions in me, and I love it. It can make me smile, it can make me think, it can make me cry, and it can make me just want to dance. Music is an amazing gift and something that I very much appreciate.

19. I am thankful for lazy Saturdays. One good thing about living in a hotel right now is that I don't have to feel guilty about not cleaning or finding something to do with myself. So on Saturday, this past weekend, I slept in very VERY late (like into the afternoon late) and I loved it! I would wake up and then just role over and get comfortable again and then go back to sleep. There's not much to do when you live in a hotel with one tv that your husband is playing a game on. So I just rested up, played a few games on my tablet, read a little bit, caught up on some celebrity news and it was an amazing day! It was so great to do nothing after not having a Saturday like that for a long time.

20. I am thankful for lazy Sundays. Welp, there was more of the same on Sunday. Even though I didn't sleep into the afternoon, I still had a lazy day and it was nice. I got free reign of the tv for a while and watched a few hours of HGTV which was very fun! It was just another great day!

21. I am thankful for continental breakfast. Another great thing about living is a hotel is the continental breakfast! Instead of just having cereal for breakfast every morning, I have tons more options like donuts and scrambled eggs and potatoes and biscuits and gravy and English muffins and fruit and yogurt... It's been pretty nice. The best mornings are when they have sausage patties and I make an English muffin and put a patty on it and it's like I went to McDonalds to get a Sausage McMuffin! And lucky for us, we get about another week of this continental breakfast before we move back into our apartment next Friday.

22. I am thankful that I PASSED MY FIRST CPA TEST!!! Woot! :-) I was totally off on the day that I thought that I would find out what my score was on my first test. I thought that I wouldn't find out until the third wave of scores from this testing window which wouldn't be until December 7th, but I was wrong! I didn't even realize it until about an hour after the AICPA (American Institute of Certified Public Accountants) released the scores to NASBA (National Association of State Boards of Accountancy), which happened to be right when I was leaving work on Monday. I saw a tweet about the score release and it had the dates of what testing days that it included and it said through November 15. My test was on the 12th! So I kind of started freaking out and had to double check if that was right. I was at happy hour with people from work when this was all going on, and I'm sure they all thought I was super rude because I was on my phone searching the web and texting Trent the whole time. (They knew why though, so hopefully it wasn't too bad.) I was too scared to look while I was sitting there with them because, if I didn't pass, I didn't know how I would react, and if I decided to cry or something I didn't want it to be in front of them! So I checked to see if my score was up for the first time when I got home, and my score wasn't there yet... I checked several times throughout the night, and still nothing. I checked when I woke up in the morning and before I left for work... Nada!! (This was after I had a dream that I had gotten a 31 on the test... and you need a 75 to pass! Talk about a scary dream!)

When I got to work, some of my coworkers were standing around and they all looked at me and wanted to know how I did. I told them that I still didn't have my score and some of them took that as code for "I didn't pass" and so they dropped the subject. And then, about 10 minutes later I checked for my score again and I was so shocked to actually see it there. There was a 78 on my screen... I had to slow down my brain for a second and do the math in my head. "There's a 78. Is 78 more than 75? Yes, 78 is a higher number than 75. OMG I passed!!" I kind of yelled out to everyone that I had passed. I couldn't really help it. Yay!!! :) I did have to pull it up again a while later to be sure that it really was real, and I left it up on a tab in my internet browser all day just so I could glance at it every once in a while!
What a relief! I am so happy that I don't have to think about that anymore and that I won't have to ever do that again (pending me passing the rest of the tests). Only 3 more to go!

23. I am thankful for short work weeks. I love the holidays because we get to see lots of family and hang out and eat lots of great food. I also love them when they cut my work week short. There's nothing like going to work on Monday and knowing that it's pretty much Wednesday already! Yay for the holiday season! I can't wait to get out of work and start what is going to be an great weekend of family, food, shopping, and fun!

I wish you all a very happy Turkey Day. I hope you all are able to spend time with those that you love and take a few moments to think about all that you have to be thankful for. (And also get some good shopping in too!)

Happy Thanksgiving!