Blessings

I have always known about tithing, paying 10% to the Lord. Growing up, this wasn't a hard concept for me. The Lord gave you everything, so why should it be hard to return 10% to Him? While I have known this, I haven't always been the most faithful in paying my tithes. There have been a few years here and there that I let myself falter.

The last 2 years, I have had the blessings of paying our tithing paid out. These last two winters, Mike has been laid off. Last year, I had mostly quit my job to student teach. That left neither of us really working. I have never been so poor in my life. It was scary. But we made an effort to pay our tithing faithfully. It amazed me that even though we didn't have any extra, we had enough money to meet our basic needs and my parents were able to help us out in other areas.

This year, I was working while Mike wasn't. We were blessed to not need to rely on family to help us through this winter. Again, things were very tight, but we had enough for what we needed. It always seemed that if something came up, such as having no food in the house, or needing a bigger car seat for our fast growing boy, something happened. I got a bonus at work that paid for the car seat we needed and helped us stock up on some much needed food supplies.

We have truly been blessed and taken care of. It would seem that our needs have been met at every turn. I will admit it is hard to write out that check for tithing when in the back of your mind you are thinking of things your family needs. These are not wants, but needs. Yet, the check is written and paid, and the needs are met. How can you deny the hand of the Lord in that? He blesses those who do as he asks.

We were blessed again last night. Between E being born, my prenatal care, and having no insurance this winter, we have racked up quite the bill at the doctor's office. We have been lucky to have my mom be the billing supervisor at this office, and while we have been slowly but surely (ever so slowly it seemed) paying off this bill, it seemed to always grow with needing to go in for this or that. Yesterday, our doctor was talking to my mom, asking us how we have been. She told him we have been fine. He asked if Mike was back to work.

"Yes, but he doesn't generally work if it rains, and it has been raining quite a bit lately."

He then asked how our bill was doing.

"Well, they are paying it off, slowly, but they are working on it."

The doctor than looked at my mom and said, "Why don't you just make their bill disappear."

Words cannot even express the gratitude we feel. While we have been able to pay a little towards it each month, it sometimes seemed like it would never be paid off. This is another blessing, that I feel, is directly related to us doing as the Lord asks us. The next time I am asked if it is worth it to pay tithing, I can honestly respond, Is it worth it to not pay?

What?!?

I know babies like to eat everything. I am learning just how true this is. In the past weeks, I have caught E eating; paper, dirt, cinderblocks, dog bone, whole clementines.

The paper is normal. Who hasn't heard of a baby that doesn't like to crinkle, crumple, and taste paper? We are learning that we have got to place all paper up higher than we think E can reach, and since E is learning to pull himself up, this is getting higher and higher every day.

The dirt, I guess that could be considered normal also, especially if you spend a lot of time outdoors or have plants in your house. E isn't quite crawling yet, but he has definitely learned to get around. I put him down the other day, he is playing quietly. Next thing I know, he has moved 3-4 feet to our plant and is eating the dirt out of it. The plant is now on a chair, where the dirt will hopefully be safely out of reach for the next little bit.

Cinderblocks. This is a new one. I have never heard of any baby eating a cinderblock. Maybe E is sharpening his teeth? When Mike and I put a loveseat upstairs, we had to cut the legs off to get it through the tight spaces. Even then, it was difficult to get up the stairs. Once up, because it didn't have legs, Mike felt it was too low to the ground and put the loveseat up on cinderblocks to raise it up. Yesterday, Mike and I were up watching a show. E was squirmy and kept wanting down, so I put him down on the floor. He entertained himself and then all of a sudden, I heard a scraping sound. What the...? I look down and E is trying to bite the cinderblock! By the time a got him, I think he managed 3-4 tries. Hope it tasted good.
When I am doing anything, I generally put E on his floor in his bedroom to play with his toys. Well, this also happens to be where Jake takes his rawhide bones to chew. Don't ask my why he loves to be in E's room. A couple of weeks ago, E was playing and every 5-10 minutes, I would check on him and he would be happily playing with his blocks. Well, one time, I walked in and E is happily chewing on Jake's rawhide. DISGUSTING! I snatched the bone away and threw it away. I didn't even give Jake a chance to take his bone anywhere else. I guess E is just doing his best to build a strong immune system in his first year.

Clementine oranges happen to be everywhere right now. I splurged the other day and bought some (mostly a splurge because Mike doesn't generally eat any of this yummy food I buy, so if I buy it, it is for me, and lately E.) I had been taking sections of the clementines and cutting them up and giving them to E. He thoroughly enjoys them. Well, on Saturday, Mike gave E a whole clementine to play with. He didn't think that E would break into it. Well, he did. It is a good thing he was sitting on the wood floor and not the carpet. This is the result:

(Note: I was going to post pictures of the clementine that E demolished, but I cannot find my camera cord. Pictures will come soon. Hopefully.)

(Note 2: I always thought, "How can you lose your camera cord?" whenever somebody posted that they couldn't post pictures because they had...now I understand.)

(Note 3: If I don't post the pictures of the clementine, please remind me, cause they are just too cute.)

Relaxing Sundays

I love Sundays. I love it when we have nowhere to go and we can do our own thing. We get up, go to church and then relax. I love it. We met my friend to take her family pictures. She has given me some much needed massages and I owed her. She has such a cute little family and taking their pictures was fun. After wards, we ended up heading up the canyon. We stopped by Bridal Veil Falls. There were so many people there! But it was nice. It was cooler up the canyon and we enjoyed our little stroll up the path. Mike loved showing E the ducks in the river (I don't think E saw them, he was fascinated by all the running water 20 feet below him.) I loved getting the chance to take some pics of my little guy.

I was told today that this picture makes my little guy look like a toddler! He no longer looks like my little baby. He is growing just way too fast.Can you believe he is 7 months already! I cannot. Time has FLOWN by. He is sitting up, and has been for 3 months. About a month and a half ago, he had rolled over multiple times in a 20 minute period, and then he stopped. I thought he had forgotten how. I now realize he just didn't want to. He is now rolling over all the time! A rolling baby in the middle of a diaper change presents a new set of challenges.

E is starting to get on his hands and knees. He hasn't figured it out yet that he can use this as a method to propel himself forward. He is generally doing it to allow himself to reach further when he is trying to get a toy. He usually ends up plopping onto his stomach, but a few times has used this as a precursor to taking a nose dive onto a hard surface. When he is on his stomach, he is all over the place. He moves anywhere within a 2-4 foot space and is good at turning in circles on the ground. Part of me can't wait to see him mobile and exploring more of his world and the other part of me dreads what he can get into when he becomes mobile! Now, I can put him down and know he will be mostly in the same place!

If E finds himself next to a low surface while on the ground, he has started trying to pull himself up. A few times, this has resulted in a fall backwards. Except for the falls, he loves being able to reach up and peep over the edge of a coffee table, footstool, or whatever happens to be nearby. It is also hilarious to think he is on the floor in front of the coffee table and you are on the couch and the next thing you see are these eyes peeking over the top, between little fingers holding on for dear life as little legs are trying to get up past the knees to get higher. I think I may need to watch him in the future. He may turn into a little climber!

April Fool's Day and other things...

OK, is it totally lame that I went private and now I feel that nobody is reading my blog because nobody ever leaves comments? I know, if you go private, your readership goes down...I guess it means that it is true that I do this blog mostly for myself.

I always forget April Fool's day. I would love to remember it and every year, I think, "I need to remember that to try on someone next year," but then I forget. It always seems to surprise me, so I love hearing when somebody else is made the "fool." Here is my mom's experience.

She works in a doctors office. On Thursday, she was given a phone # to call and told to ask for Myra Mains. (Say it out loud if you have any questions.) She called.

"Hello Olphins" (for those of you who don't know, this is a funeral home)

"Yes, I need to speak to Myra Mains."

"There is nobody here by that name."

"No, this is P from (name of doctor's office) I was told this was the number where I could reach Myra Mains."

"No, I am sorry, there is nobody here by that name."

She then got off the phone, went up front and asked the receptionists if they were sure they had given her the correct number because there was nobody by the name of Myra Mains at the number she had called. They got her good. I wonder how many people called funeral homes on Thursday asking to speak to Myra Mains. The best part? My mom still didn't get it until everybody started laughing. So, hint, if you ever play Mad Gab, you want mom on the other team.

Today is Easter. It has been pretty laid back and relaxing. But, for Mike and I, Easter has really been happening all week. With Grandma Winnie dying, we had her funeral yesterday. Mike said to me, "You know, it is kinda cool that this is Easter weekend, and everybody is focusing on the resurrection of our Savior. At this same time, when it is so fresh, Grandma has her funeral." I think that it really helped to be able to remember the eternal perspective.

Grandma has died, but she is not gone. She is having a joyful reunion with her sweetheart. As Mike reminded me, she is also stretching and being able to move with her spirit in ways that her body hasn't allowed for many years.

Because of our Savior's sacrifice, we know that we will one day be reunited with our bodies. How great that at that time, grandma will be able to run and jump. It makes me so thankful to remember Alma's words that, "not a hair on our head will be lost." It is good to remember this all during Easter week. I should be better and remember it all year long. I guess that is why we have days to celebrate, so that we do remember.

Thoughts

I seem to have a lot of posts lately titled, "Thoughts." Oh well. You get to see some of the things that I am thinking.

Early this morning, Mike's grandma died. Mike has been very close to this grandma and has done a lot for her and with her in the past. It was a wonderful experience to gather with the family yesterday and visit. We are sure that Grandma knew we were there and felt the love we all had for her. She was an amazing, strong willed woman. She has left behind an amazing legacy. I am so thankful that she got an opportunity to meet little E. She loved his smile. She loved that he was Mike's son. Even the last time we saw her, before yesterday, she wanted to hold him. It was difficult for her, but she loved it. She has a beautiful picture with all of her great-grandchildren, holding them and just smiling down at them. She loved them all. She will be missed.
On another note, I took some more pictures of E. Look how adorable he is! Normally I think I am just prejudiced when I think he is the cutest little guy, but you have to agree, he is, isn't he?

Has it really been 6 months?

These past 6 months have gone fast. They have literally flown by. Mike asked me if I would rather have my little guy small or the way he is now. Honestly, I cannot remember him being small. I love E's smile. It lights up his whole face. I love his laugh (being tickled at night, being tossed up in the air, getting funny looks from daddy.) I love most of all, the joy little E has brought into our little family. I cannot imagine our life before him.

I have been working on making some scrapbook pages for E's book, which I will get around to buying one day and then I will get around to printing the pages off. It has been amazing to me how much he has changed. It is hard to believe!Here are some pictures of how much he has changed so you can see for yourself!

Minutes after birth

2 Days Old1 Week Old
3 Weeks Old
5 Weeks Old9 Weeks Old2 1/2 Months Old (Don't I look like a football player?)3 Months Old (Really Momma? I am trying to sleep!)First Christmas!4 1/2 Months Old (Sitting up? Really?)5 Months Old (First Basketball Game)5 1/2 Months Old

We need to do another photo shoot and get some 6 month pictures. This little guy is just the cutest! We are so lucky to have him in our family. It is only the beginning!

Teeth & Lost Phones

E now has 2 teeth. Yep, the little guy is getting too big way too fast! Here is how it went down.

Sunday night, E goes to bed way early, around 8:40 PM. Since he normally isn't ready for bed until 9 or 10, I was loving life. Around 10:30, he started to whimper, but it quickly stopped. Around 11:20, he started to cry. I figured it would stop quickly, as it had before, but instead, it quickly rose in crescendo until it was a scream.

One thing you should know about E, he doesn't scream unless he hurts, such as when he falls over and hits his head on our wood floor, narrowly missing the rug.

Not thinking anything about it, I decided he was hungry. I fed him a little, he fell back asleep. I laid him down in his crib, he woke up screaming. OK, he wants more to eat. I picked him up, fed him some more.

In the meantime, Mike had decided he was sleeping on the couch because he didn't feel good and just couldn't get comfortable in the bed. I decided that I could just leave E on the bed, set up some pillows to avoid rolling off, and laid E down. After about 5 minutes, he started screaming again. Have you ever seen a baby scream while still sleeping, or rather trying to sleep? So sad!

This proceeded to be the pattern until 1:30 AM. Fall asleep, wake up after 5-10 minutes screaming, comforted by mom, fall asleep. At wits end, wondering what was up with my little guy, I took his temperature. Trust me, E did not appreciate the thermometer held under his arm. I can't make myself do the rectal...even though I know it is WAY more accurate. His temp was a little higher than normal, so I gave him some baby Tylenol. In about 10 minutes, he was happy and smiling.

What the? That Tylenol did something. I started checking all around my now happy little guy. Because I just had my lamp on, I pulled out my flashlight and looked in his mouth. There was another tooth coming through! His poor gums looks so red and sore! I put a little Orajel on to help him sleep, and E, now being perfectly happy, decided to play until about 2:30 AM. I couldn't be happier, it was much better than him being miserable!

When he woke up at 7, it was to the screaming. This time, I knew what to look for. I didn't even have to touch his gums...I put my finger up to his lip and the screaming intensified. I quickly dosed him up again with both the Orajel and the Tylenol and he was again his happy little self. It ended up being a miserable 24 hours for him though. We thought, or rather hoped, he would be an easy teether since we had no idea the first tooth had come in. Our hopes have been crushed. Now, if he has this same pattern, I will know to check for new teeth first!

On Saturday, Mike & I went to Ikea. We just went for fun, to look around and make a wish list (a long far off wish list most likely.) We decided we needed pictures of our wish list items, so I pulled out my phone and started snapping away. We were just plain old having fun. Well, we get down to the basement and while standing in line to buy our new dish scrub brush, I couldn't find my phone. I grabbed Mike's and called to see if I could hear it. Nothing.

Crap.

What was I going to do?

I looked at Mike, told him I would find him and took off, retracing my steps. I had Mike's phone still and called, got voicemail, hung up, called again...over and over. I was getting frantic. Finally, somebody answered my phone, "Draper Ikea, this phone is lost..."

Yes! An answer, now to find it...upon inquiring, still a bit frantically, as to the whereabouts of my phone, I was directed to the employee lounge. I found Mike, found my phone, discovered I couldn't rejoin Mike through the same door as it was locked from the inside. Really? You have to have an employee badge to get onto the sales floor, but not into the employee area? Strange...but I reunited, and all was good. I had my phone.

I never knew I was so dependent on a phone before. What does that say about me? I would rather not know.