ahh, Monday

I missed the friday fave five. Bother.

It's Monday now, who cares? hahaha

Actually, it's more than Monday. It's kiddo's 10th birthday. Both my kids had huge milestones in the last few weeks ... *sniff* They're growing up. *sniff*

I never thought I'd be this weepy over them getting older, but I really do love and enjoy my kids. I'm not one of those parents (yet) who can't wait for the kids to get older and grow up and get out of the house. I do find myself thinking, "I can't wait until ..." y'know, Mojo can feed himself, is walking, is able to eat more food ... or Kiddo can have makeup (2 more years on that one), is in young women's, etc. But then I stop myself and remind myself to enjoy the here and now. Mojo is just plain adorable, charming everyone everywhere he goes, loving on us, playing tiddlywinks with his Cheerios at restaurants, giving slobbery kisses and hugs, saying "no" ... and Kiddo is a hoot and helpful and so sweet with our whole family (unless she's being a preteen with attitude) ... I really am blessed and will miss this when they do get bigger. *sniff*

Happy birthday, kidlet. Love you.

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.