A tooth!!!

He's 1 year and 11 days and finally has his first tooth. Woohoo!

More of the same

I finished the Pay it Forward for my brother, and actually shipped it yesterday! Kaje and Cupcake, sorry you're still waiting. Soon, I promise! Same to the gals from the fitness challenge. I swear I haven't forgotten y'all. Just super busy the last month.

An update on Carri: She was able to leave the hospickle a few days after her loss and attended her son's funeral. She is doing fine and has no neurological deficits or aftereffects from her physical trauma. So that's awesome. I left the sewing forum where I met her, however, so I don't have further info on that. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers.

I left the sewing forum because it was too distracting to just click over there and see what was going on while I was working. haha. Maybe someday I'll be disciplined enough I can be a member and just not check when I'm bored, but that's not likely to be anytime soon.

Mojo has his 1-year-old checkup tomorrow. Excited to see how much he weighs besides "too much" and "you're a tank" and "my arms are tired."

Kiddo's birthday is next Tuesday. If she survives that long. She's been copping a preteen attitude and doing all kinds of obnoxious things that now have her grounded for life. Or at least until I'm tired of the "i'm bored" "ok, go clean your room" discussions.

The car: It does need the new tires. They *say* the brakes are fine. It also needed some coolant and tranny fluid flushed/replaced. Oh, how nice to drive it tonight after we got it back ... okay, so the tires aren't done and neither is the recall (the small, triangular back windows can FALL OUT of the car apparently. niiiiiiiiiiiice) but the coolant and transmission made a world of difference in how it drove. hoping the tires fix the rest.

Mom and dad are back in town Friday for my niece's baby blessing on Sunday and the quilt show Saturday. Woohoo! Hubby and I actually have the niece AND a nephew being blessed Sunday, so we'll be busy. I'm sure we'll all just want to sleep after that.

Friday Fave Five!

1. Kaje got married today!!! She was beautiful, her hubby quite handsome, and S (her son) was bald. I mean, he was cute, but he'd shaved his head. lol. He and Kidlet chased each other around the park for a bit, which was fun, too. They got married at a beach (i'm assuming at a man-made waterfront, since Utah's beaches are ... well ... not very nice and/or quite briny). Anyway. It was lovely. I teared up a bit. It was really hot, though, and after wrestling the baby at the beach for an hour or so (he apparently thinks sand and sticks taste good), I was pooped. Couldn't stay for the reception anyway, but we ducked out before pics and went to the nearest gas station for cold drinks. hahaha.

2. Hubby's therapy and meds are going well. Tahnkfully.

3. Mojo is starting to make more progress toward walking. And getting teeth.

4. Kiddo has been a big help lately. I'm not sure if that's just because she wants money or not though...

5. Back in cloth diapers. Baby got sick while my sibs and 'rents were here a couple weeks ago, so we put him back in sposies for a while. Happily we changed back to cloth a couple of days ago, and he's now doing the cute things he was before, falling on his butt without fear of getting hurt, scooting around in circles on the floor while slurping from his sippy cup, etc. Things he couldn't do in paper diapers. hehe. The fluffy butt makes me smile, too.

*****

Okay, this is really my favorite thing. Blessings. The Lord sure loves us when we're obedient.

This year has been rather difficult financially for various reasons, and our emergency fund is completely gone. We started paying more fast offerings during the time our income dropped the most this year, because we felt prompted to, and then were promised a return of blessings 10-fold or more if we did (long story, a member of the stake presidency said so). Not necessarily financial, but we are starting to see some of those blessings.

I met with the bishop a couple weeks ago about how things have been going (financially, not terribly well whenever hubby crashes like that). He gave me some advice, and I paid the tithing and fast offerings and left. I've been trying to follow his advice, and he's called a couple times to check up on us and see if we're okay and how my being obedient is going. I was looking at the bills, trying to figure out what absolutely HAS to be paid this week and what can wait another week, figured out how much $ we needed to pay tithing, fast offerings, those bills, and get groceries, etc. Hubby was told at work that they wouldn't get their quarterly bonuses this month because the company had lost a lot of money due to a huge flub at a different plant, and he was only able to work 32 hours last week, so I was praying last night to figure out how to get those bills paid, whether I'd need help or not, but who to turn to for that help if we needed it. I looked at the bank account this morning, and hubby's check was just over that dollar amount I'd figured out last night, because he still got his bonus. We are truly blessed. The other financial blessing coming our way is that I've been able to focus more at work and, since I'm paid on production, am back to making the money I used to make per hour, even if I'm still only able to work about 25 hours a week. Still better than a poke in the eye. So, in a few weeks, I think we'll be all caught up and can re-start our emergency fund.

Stepping out in faith and hope, things are coming together.

oh good

they put the car back the way it was (except for the oil change, ha).

have to take hubbers to the doc again tomorrow.

kaje is getting married friday.

visiting disgrace on saturday.

church and temple recommend signed on sunday.

taking hubby back to the doc monday.

car goes back to the shop tuesday.

mojo has his 1-year checkup on wednesday.

i guess i enjoyed my day "off" without doing anything major today. lol.

RAWR

that's dinosaur for "crappy dealership service departments should listen to their customers and not blow them off because they're women."

Took the car in for an oil change, had a coupon, told them I wanted the price but not the tire rotation because there was uneven wear on one of the tires (due to a problem with the car that they haven't been able to figure out).

They rotated them anyway.

The car shakes and rattles now. It didn't before.

poop.

A photo essay

A year ago, right this minute, I'd entered into transition phase of labor. Two hours later, my sweet boy was born. The first pic is of me. It was taken while I was in labor, so yes, that really is my 36-week pregnant belly.

FRIDAY FAVE FIVE!

1. Lunch with Mamacita/kadyb and my kids today. Loved just us going out together. Hope she did too.

2. Mojo's first birthday is tomorrow! I can't believe my little monkey will be one in just a couple hours. Remembering back on the labor and his birth ... man ... I have to remember the miserable 8 months before that before I say, "Hey, let's get pregnant again!" (and then there's the whole thing with hubby not being stable on his meds right now -- so not wanting to get pregnant because of that).

3. Seeing so much of my family during their various visits this month. That has been very nice. Now back to real life and working more hours.

4. Hubby ... The docs at his new clinic are being quite helpful, and he's actually *going* to his appointments and getting help, even if he's grouchy about it, even if I have to be mean and make him get up and out of bed, even though I know he's thinking, "she's so mean! maybe if I curl up into the fetal position, she'll leave me alone." HA. He doesn't know how tenacious I can be, especially since he begged for the help again this time and the therapist and psychiatrist and I have all told him, "There are no loopholes. You have to do this." bwahaha. Anyway. I'm glad he loves me and the kids and wants to get help so he's okay. And we had to make an emergency withdrawal from one of the bank accounts he has through work so we could get the mortgage paid, which he was willing to do and pursued until we got the money, then reminded me to pay it. So funny, usually it's vice versa. Moving on...

5. My meeting with the bishop Sunday, where he told me to exercise greater faith ... Um ... I've been reading my scriptures more and doing the other things he suggested, and I feel more at peace, even though our financial picture is bleak at the moment. Hopefully we can get this all ironed out and get caught up on the bills again soon, and maybe if I have enough faith, it won't be too horrible in the interim. hahahaha.

Look how pretty!

heh. I love the sticking out tongue new baby pictures.

I'm an aunt! ... again.

My brother and his wife lost a baby last summer due to some chromosomal abnormalities. They are thrilled to have a healthy baby girl, born today. She's beautiful! MY baby didn't want his sister to hold the baby and got mad at her, but he got even madder when *I* held her. Then after we were done, he wanted to touch her. It was cute, but confirmed my decision to wait a while yet for the next baby as being the right one.

Let's see, I think this is #18 grandchild for my folks. Three of them are mine, but I have 3 nieces/nephews on hubby's side, so I do have 18 nieces and nephews now. Wild.

I'm making dinner

My folks are coming over. I haven't done menus in a while, not even on my menu blog, but I dug through the freezer and fridge and found *most* of the stuff for tonight. Did get some potatoes and salad stuff at the store last night. We're having a roast chicken (roasted in the crockpot on a bed of diced potatoes and sliced onions), a lovely salad, and a dairy- and gluten-free coconut milk pudding for dessert.

oh so good.

Is it 5 o'clock yet???

Friday Fave Five!

1. Visiting with my family the last couple of weeks. We haven't done much "fun" stuff, but have had fun together, if that makes sense. Went to Springville Art Museum with Mamabear today, with our kids and DisGrace's kids. That was fun. So was painting shirts and just chilling with everyone. I also had the first conversation I've had with my brother in my memory where no one wanted to punch the other, it was mutually respectful, and guns and knives were not mentioned or a main topic of conversation. Too bad it was this morning, right before he went out of town.

2. Late evening walks in the cool summer air with a friend while hubby was home with the baby and kiddo was at her cousins'.

3. The caring neighbor who brought me cookies Monday. Really.

4. Going a full day without dairy today made me realize that, even with Lactaid, I feel better without it, no matter how yummy something might taste. Too bad I started drinking Pepsi again out of stress -- the caffeine-induced palpitations aren't doing me any favors.

5. Took hubby to a new psychiatrist this morning, got him a new prescription and he sees his new therapist next week, talked with a social worker yesterday who told hubby some good things, have a visit with the bishop on Sunday, so even though some really crappy things happened this week, there is hope that we'll pull through it all. Woo.

Yum, chocolate chip cookies!!

It's been one of those weeks. I've had fun with my family but still had some random drama (and not necessarily with them).

My neighbor brought me fresh-from-the-oven chocolate chip cookies, with the chips still melty and gooey ...

Oh my gosh ... I'm all better. Even if things are still dramatic and rocky, I'm all better ...

So, which one would *you* choose?

Hypothetically speaking, let's say you had a family reunion this week. And let's say that *most* of the family was staying at your folks' house for the duration, but not you because you have a hypothetical baby, but you did let your hypothetical older child sleep over. And ... well, let's say two of your hypothetical nephews broke their arms the same day, no less, although doing different activities several hours apart. And neither one was doing something crazy like bungee jumping though, just hypothetically falling out of swings and off scooter. Would you start worrying about your hypothetical kid (who is the same age as both hypothetically broken nephews) breaking her arm/leg/head?

Or, since bad things supposedly come in threes, would you (hypothetically) push one of your other nephews/nieces down a flight of stairs to spare your kid the pain? And if you were to do that, and you had 9 other hypothetical nieces/nephews to choose from, which one would you choose?

All hypothetically speaking, of course.