Lily wants her candy

At the bank the other day, Lily sat politely eating her complementary sucker. When it was gone, she came begging for a second. After several attempts to get her to accept that kids get one and she had eaten hers already she retorted, "But MOM! I didn't TASTE it!"

Blessing or Curse

We've got too much money in the bank. So our kids don't qualify for health insurance.

Experience the hard times

Saturday morning I left the house early to get to Austin's stake center for a Regional Welfare meeting with Gavin in tow. I wasn't sure how long I'd be gone from the house when I waved my dear husband and girls goodbye.
The training was a wealth of information and though it was difficult lugging around my baby in his carseat (since I left the stroller at home on accident) along with my bag and his diaperbag, I managed to enjoy the workshops and speakers. Perhaps because they were speaking to my problems and not just problems of my stewardship, I paid a little closer attention.
Afterwards as I tried to find my way around Austin, looking for a bank to deposit our LAST paycheck, I saw some vagrant looking men standing outside of the hole in the wall bank that I needed. Finding nowhere to park and thinking of my baby - I passed my destination and continued to look for another branch elsewhere - juggling my cell phone and GPS while driving - I know not a good idea.
I finally gave up and determined to just go home and perhaps stop at the one I was more familiar with North of town even though it meant a detour from my original route home. I finally found one and deposited the money and left thinking about how long this check will last and debating which bills to pay to sustain us as long as possible.
That's when I pulled up to a light and noticed a homeless lady standing on the street corner. She held a sign that said: "Even 50 cents helps." Now normally I would think about how sad this situation was and vow to pay extra on my fast offerings, but as I looked at this woman, compassion came over me and I realized that I had a dollar in my purse. It's not much, but as she said - even 50 cents helps.
I rolled down my window as her gaze at the cars seemed hopeless. I finally caught her eye after what seemed like several minutes and she looked unbelievingly as she pointed to herself and asked, "Me?" I nodded and waved her to me.
She hurried over and with frostbitten hands and blackened fingernails in cutoff gloves, she reached out for my dollar and thanked me profoundly. She told me to keep smiling and "god blessed" me just as the light turned green and I had to move with the traffic.
As I pondered her words and drove onto the ramp of the coming freeway, I couldn't stop the tears from rolling down my cheeks.
I pondered the experience of the moment and felt gratitude. Sometimes we have to experience the hard times. . .

I'm an Aunt

This morning I answered my phone and heard my sister in pain. I asked her if she was having contractions and she confirmed, but didn't know if it was real or not since her due date is two weeks away. Erik, her husband had gone into work to put in grades. She said her contractions were still 8-9 minutes apart, but aparently she wasn't keeping track of time, because in ten minutes she had three. I wrangled her husband's number out of her and called to inform him he needed to get home and take her to the hospital. Just like a man - he wanted to finish his grades first and didn't really believe me.
Meanwhile I listened to moans and reminded her to breath through pains every 4 minutes for over an hour. It's amazing how quickly an hour passes when you're in labor. I figured we were doing pretty well coaching over the phone and pondered whether or not I could get her through birth on the phone, but when she said she tested positively for Strep B, I started to panic even if I couldn't let her know that. I remained calm for her sake and made Jhonny call her husband again and tell him to hurry up.
He did make it home and got her to the hospital before I was forced off the phone. The urge to transport myself to Oregon to be by my little sister's side and get her through this gloriously painful event was pretty strong, but alas reality left me two time zones away.
Later this evening, I got word that my nephew arrived safe and sound. Ginger was able to have a VBAC, something she had hoped for but wasn't sure could happen and that little boy latched on right away which was another hopeful wish since she wasn't able to nurse her first son. She is now basking in the joy of a newborn child. A little boy whose conception was long awaited and miraculous to begin with. My heart goes out to her and her little family.
Congrats sis! I love you and I'm so happy to have been a part of the process if only by moral support via phone.

Lying

Mom: You don't have to lie to me Lily.
Lily: I wasn't lying to you.
Mom: Oh?
Lily: I was lying to Daddy.

Good News Bad News or trying to look on the brighter side

So after a week of no Jhonny, he comes home to tell me I'll be seeing a lot more of him in the days to come. Why? Because they let him go.
Right. No joke. Believe me, I asked. My husband was terminated from a job he hated anyway. So that's the good news.
The bad? Well - I don't know other than the fact that I just paid all our bills for the month with full expectations of having more income coming in? No job prospects that will bring in what we need to cover our bills next month? And you know since we were working on paying down our debts - no savings either? Did I mention we just sold his car since he wasn't using it due to having a company truck that he no longer has. . . And we used the money to pay off a medical bill. Don't suppose they'd send us that back do you?
I'm not sure what could be considered bad in all of this.
Just another trial of my faith I suppose. Yippee!
I'm sure if Jhonny had gotten any sleep this week he'd be up wrestling with this shock at 1:30am like myself. But seeing how he hasn't slept in three days - it wasn't hard for him to pass out.
Since I pay the bills and keep track of our budget I can't stop crunching numbers in my head. Consequently trying to sleep was pointless. In addition to Taylor Swift singing in my head (can't seem to find the off switch to that one), now I've got the budget rolling around and programs that we are instantly qualified for, plans that need to be re-evaluated. Things that most likely will be cancelled. Changes that need to be made.
I told Jessica that if we lose our house at least we'll get to stay in our new car. . .Then I realized that we might lose that too. Oh no. I had to stop that line of thought and go back to job searches - there's got to be a door to open somewhere.
And that is where faith comes in and I just have to hope for and expect a miracle, right? If He knows each sparrow, surely He knows where Jhonny needs to go to find a more compatible job for him and our family that will meet our needs. Like I said - he was miserable at that place, but we hung on because it was a job. . .

Feliz Año

This is what they say in Venezuela on January 1st. It's a pretty big holiday down there. Bigger than Christmas.

I must admit I wasn't excited about 2009 with more worries than hopes for this year. However as the month has progressed, the excitement has increased. With the new year has come some new changes. Change always gets me motivated. I like change. I think the Lord knows this of me and he never lets me stew in one place too long.

Some new changes so far this year besides the obvious calling that I've already referred to are:

1) A new cell phone and consequently a new cell phone number. Email me if you didn't get that update and want it.

2) A new car - 2007 Hyundai Entourage to be exact. Love it, love it, love it. And I saved money on my monthly bill to boot! Yippee!

3) A new office/playroom. It's still under construction - but we are rearranging the furniture in our home. The girls moved into a newly painted old office and we're redoing their old room to contain ALL toys and miscellaneous stuff. I have the computer in the family room currently and I may fight to keep it here - I haven't decided yet.

4) A new potty trained 2 year old! Yippee! I am daily happy about this one. We did it! Yeah!

New things, new organization, new routines. . . we're getting there. Life is pretty good.