Thanks-giving or Thanks-living?

A few weeks ago in our Sunday School Teachers meeting, we were learning

 about true thankfulness. Something someone said in the meeting has really stuck with 

me and since then, I've been trying to 'live' my thanks rather than just vocalize it. 

You see, we can show thanksgiving by simply saying "thank-you" for something,

but actually living our thanks is shown by actions that reflect our thankfulness. 

It has truly helped my realize just how much I have to be thankful for.

This Thanksgiving, make an extra effort to live your thanks for the many

 blessings you have. 

"Count your blessings, name them one by one. 

Count your many blessings, see what God hath done." 

Happy Thanksgiving! :) 

Hunting Story

So....despite REALLY REALLY REALLY C.O.L.D. and windy weather...hunting was still awesome. :) We sat on the edge of some fields from about 6am to 9am and I'm pretty sure I almost froze to death...It was pretty miserable for a while. We went in around 9 to warm up and ended up staying inside till about 1pm. We then went back out to do some pushing through a few marshy fields. At one point, the guy we were hunting with and his son decided to push through some heavy brush. The rest of us were stationed in the clearing right in front of the brush patch. After standing there about 15 minutes, I heard some crashing and looked up to see two deer running out of the brush. The first one ran in the opposite direction of me so I only saw it for a split second. The other one stopped running about 10 yards directly in front of me and just looked at me. I saw that it had antlers (yay, a buck!) but wasn't sure how many. I put up my rifle to shoot and pulled the trigger. nothing. Duh, Abbey...turn the safety off! While I was fumbling around with that, I was sure the deer would have run off by now b/c he was watching my every move. But no, he just stood there staring at me. So I quickly raised my rifle, took aim and shot. He jumped slightly, stood there for a second and then slowly sank down. I waited until the guys were done pushing to go take a look. He was a 4 pointer and a pretty good size. Yay! first deer ever! :) 

Pictures below. Warning: Not for the faint of heart... ;)