Count Your Blessings

I have been finding myself more and more bitter and cynical over the last few months, so tonight I am going to make a concerted effort to look on the bright side and be thankful for what I have.

I am happy when:

I'm in Primary.

I've just finished an SI session and I KNOW it went well.

I'm chatting with my friends at work.

I can go to bed at 10:00 or 10:30 and not have to worry about homework.

I think about all the fun camping trips and 4 wheeling adventures I can go on when I get a truck.

I watch old Disney movies with my sister.

I drive around town on a Friday night with my youngest brother and make random comments about other drivers, fast food places, teenagers, and avoid using the word "cute" at all costs.

I have a basket of cleanly folded laundry sitting on my bed.

I can spend a couple of hours in the school library reading a book about ritual drama and shamanism.

I can come home and have two loving dogs jump all over me and lick me to death.

I contemplate going to the Aussie Pink Floyd concert in October

I am typing up notes for the SI sessions

I am making games and coloring activities for my primary kids

I see a text on my phone from my dad or a sibling.

I listen to classical music

I read and respond to reviews on my attempts at stories

I am running Norwegian bottle histories through Google translator for an hour

I am joking about Halo with my youngest brother.

I watch TV for hours with my mom.

Watch Inspector Lewis with my friend on Sunday nights

...

See? It's the small things that are going to have to outweigh the big things right now. And as to being grateful:

I also need to say that I am very happy to have had Watson, my cute baby dwarf hamster, for a year. He died last Monday, nearly a year to the day when I got him. He was absolutely the sweetest little buddy I could have asked for. Watson lived in a blue and green cage on my dresser, and every night when he woke up, and every morning before he went to sleep, he would chirp at me. We have four other hamsters in the house, and none of them chirp on a regular basis, and I am convinced that Watson was chirping at me as I either finished up homework or got ready for the day because it made me happy.
Watson was a well-trained attack hamster. If anyone else stuck their hand in his cage, he would bite. However, if I opened the cage door and held out my hand and asked him if he wanted to come out and play, he would scurry over and climb into my hand. He let me pet him, carry him around the house, and liked to visit the other hamsters. He loved running around on my bed and chewing on my Woody doll's boots. He also loved being put in his ball and running all over the house or the office while I sat and did homework.
He also loved a lot of different treats. He loved his yogis (little cheese-flavored chocolate chip looking things), and would happily sit on my hand and eat them. He was also a fan of eating the shredded lettuce from my Arctic Circle chicken sandwiches, and licking drops of pear and peach juice off my finger. :)
I am going to miss my little buddy very much. My dresser looks empty, and there are no cheerful chirps and a whirring wheel to wake up to in the morning, and no curious hamster to stick his nose between the bars of his cage and stare at me while I put my makeup on. I miss throwing away the lettuce that has fallen off my sandwiches, and I don't know what to do with all the extra yogis that are now sitting on my dresser. And even though this all means that everything I own will no longer be covered in hamster bedding, it doesn't matter. It was a small price to pay for such a fun little buddy living in my room. RIP.