Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is not celebrated in Brazil so it's never been one of the holidays I go crazy about. However, since I've been living here in the USA for a while now I've gotten used to it and look forward to the holiday and of course all the eating. I never really enjoy when on Thanksgiving dinner people start saying what they are thankful for and totally put you on the spot. I usually skip it and don't say anything, but since I have a blog this year, I thought I should share with everyone what I am thankful for.

• My husband
• My parents
• All of my family
• Dustin's family
• Bella
• Good friends and their kids
• The gospel
• Jesus Christ
• The temple
• Our house
• Our cars
• Dustin's good job
• The opportunity to go back to school
• Our "new" ward
• Clothes
• Health
• The weather right now in Las Vegas
• Knowledge
• Food
• Water
• Nature
• Chocolate (it's not food, it's another necessity)

Alright, I guess this is enough for now, there are more silly things I'm thankful for but if I list all of them this will be a very long post! So, what are YOU thankful for?

Congratulations Renato and Priscilla!

This post is more for me than anyone else really since we can keep these posts forever! My brother Renato got married on Friday and it was one of the saddest I've ever felt for living so far away. My dad was awesome enough to use today's technology and set up a little "live feed" station so me, my sister and Priscilla's sister; who also lives in the USA could watch it. It was great to watch the whole thing but it was still sad that we couldn't be there.

In Brazil, the temple marriage isn't considered a "legal marriage" so most people have a nice wedding reception where the bishop or stake President (in this case my Dad), will do the legal ceremony with all the paperwork. And then, they get sealed in the temple. It's tiring, but worth it! I love my brother! He is one of the funniest people I've ever met in my life and it makes me sad that I couldn't be part of something so special in his life. But I'm sure the only thing he was really worried about and antsy to get to was to get everything over with, grab his brand new wife, hop on a plane and start enjoying his honeymoon! :) Amo voces e boa sorte! Beijos!

The newest addition to the Toffanelli Family! Welcome Priscilla, we're happy to have you as part of our family!

Luiza was one of the bridesmaids and that was how she was thanked, Brazilian style! :)

I'm going back to school!

I go back to school on the 10th of November (next Monday) and I'm surprisingly very excited! This has been a goal of mine since Dustin finished getting his law degree. However, for the last year I had been putting it off because I didn't know I would qualify for a student loan. It didn't click that I'm not on a student visa anymore. (International students don't get approved for a federal student loan). And after applying for a couple of jobs and realizing I'm not really qualified to do much more than what I have already done, I decided to take the step and go back to school.
Now, I couldn't see myself going to a campus and having to deal with 18-21 year olds... so I went to University of Phoenix and decided to do their online program; which is awesome and it enables me to work during the day! I transferred some credits, which means I could start on my Bachelors degree OR I could get my Associates and Bachelors degree AT THE SAME TIME! So that's what I decided to do, I'll be getting two degrees at the same time in the same amount of time. If you're interested in going back to school and think what I'm doing is a good idea, let me know and I'll give you my enrollment counselor's name and number, he is awesome!!!
So yeah, YAY me and wish me luck! :)