The Crib Story

During our home inspection, I was showing the inspector the extra beds and bedrooms that we have. I showed her the pack-n-play, and she told me that we needed to have a real crib in order to take in a baby. The pack-n-play wasn't permanent enough.

She told me that if we did get a baby, we could let him/her sleep in it a couple of days, but we'd have to get a crib. Since cribs are expensive, we decided we'd deal with that when we had to, and not to worry about buying it right now.

However, the next day, my grandma called and told me that she had been to a garage sale at a neighbor's home. One of the things that she found there was a crib and my grandma had thought of me and wondered if we'd be interested.

That seemed like too much of a coincidence to not take advantage of, and so we decided to get the crib. We got a really good price on it, and it's a really nice solid crib that comes complete with a mattress.

Grig picked it up after work on Monday. When he brought it inside our home, Kevin got really excited. He began to jump around and babble excitedly about "the baby" that was coming to our home.

He dashed off and exclaimed that he needed to draw a picture of our family with the new baby. He quickly did so, and then he showed the picture to me. Lately, when he draws our family, he draws me with a ponytail, his dad as just a stick figure, and then him, as a smaller stick figure. Sometimes he is wearing a cape. This time, he included an even smaller stick figure that he was holding.

Then, he wanted to hang it over the crib. We hadn't set the crib up yet, so we didn't know where he should hang it up. So, he stuck it in his room instead.

It will still be a couple of weeks, but things keep working out, even when we're not expecting them too.

I think we're definitely on the right track.

The Story of the New Car

A few months ago, we started feeling like maybe the Lord wanted us to purchase a new car. Our car was beginning to act up, and we couldn't fit all the people and animals that lived in our house in our current vehicle.

So, in February, we started looking. We went to a dealer. We were trying to find something that would last us for a long time, and it had been recommended to us that Hondas and Toyotas were usually high quality, even if they had a few more miles.

We found a couple that we were interested in, but we wanted to get a loan from a bank before we decided on anything for sure.

Then, almost the next week, insurance started at Grig's work and we ended up back-paying for insurance in February. Due to this, we didn't know for sure how much we were going to be making after insurance, and so we didn't know how much we could put into car payments.

So, for a while we didn't worry about it. Our car began to have pretty serious issues. Sometimes it wouldn't start. One day, it went completely dead. We took it to our mechanic and they told us our battery was dead, so we bought a new one and put it in. However, that didn't fix our problem. During April things began to get worse. Our blinkers stopped working consistently. Often, they were fine (especially during long trips when we'd been saying prayers), but often we'd just hear a mechanical buzzing or they wouldn't work at all.

Not sure if we had the money for a new car, we tried to take our car in to get it fixed. The mechanic couldn't find anything wrong with it, and it worked perfectly for them. However, only the next day, the troubles came back. We tried this two more times. Each time, the car would be having issues, but as soon as we brought it to the mechanic it worked fine.

We finally decided we needed to put our efforts toward purchasing a vehicle. Obviously the Lord didn't want us to spend any more money on the impala. A short time after that, the air conditioning and heating stopped working.

Old Car

Then came the final nail in our car's coffin: We received a notice in the mail telling us that our car's registration was due by the end of May and we needed to have a safety and emission check.

We now had a deadline. There was no way that our car was going to pass safety, and we would rather put our money toward a new vehicle than pour money into our current one.

May began, and during the first Sunday, Grig and I fasted and prayed that he would finally get his raise and that we would be able to find the right car. We were still waiting for our first paycheck in May, which would show us how much we were making after taxes and insurance. As of the first week of May, Grig had now been working at his current job for over 6 months, which is usually how long banks want you to be working somewhere before they give you a loan.

Then, last Wednesday, the long awaited day finally arrived. Grig received his check, and we looked to see what our actual workable income was. At lunch he called me and asked, "Wasn't I making this much when I started?" I told him, I didn't know, but then I went and looked. It turned out that Grig had received a raise a month ago, but we hadn't noticed because of all the back-paying we were doing for insurance. We were amazed! Our fast had been answered, and even before we had asked for it. Grig thanked his supervisor, who was surprised that he had just noticed. Wednesday, we plugged the paycheck into our budgeting system and found that we could spend at least $200 on car payments a month.

Thursday, we went and talked to a bank that had been recommended to us by the first dealership we had gone to. They seemed okay, but while we were applying for a loan and setting up an account, I couldn't help but feel heavy. I wondered if it was just worry about borrowing money, but the feeling persisted, even after we had left the bank. Grig and I prayed about it, and Friday morning, while he was at work, I got on the computer and began to compare bank rates for auto insurance. It turned out that a different bank, that we had been wanting to get an account at for a long time anyway, had much better rates. Grig and I talked about it when he got home, and we decided to apply at this bank instead and cancel our other account.

So, Friday night we did just that. We went in, got everything set up, and then decided to go to the dealership to "just look around." We didn't expect to find the car yet, but we wanted to get an idea of what was available. We had been told that this dealership was incredibly honest, and so they were our first choice.

We found a couple of cars that we were interested in. One was a Toyota Sienna, and the other was a Honda Pilot. We test drove the Sienna first. It was less money and had fewer miles on it. However, it also didn't feel right. It didn't help that as the dealer got in to drive it over to us, it began to make a loud squeaky noise.

However, when we got in the Pilot, everything felt right. It handled beautifully and had all sorts of features that we didn't even know that we wanted. It had eight seats, which is something that I really wanted. It also had four wheel drive and a place for a trailer hitch, which are two things that Grig wanted. We both felt really good about it, and after praying about it, decided that this was the vehicle that we were supposed to get.

So, when we drove back in, we went in with the agent and began to fill out paperwork. Our loan hadn't been approved yet, but we were supposed to hear about it the next morning. We asked the agent if they would hold it for us, and he hesitated. He said, "If tomorrow wasn't Saturday, I'd say yes. However, since tomorrow is Saturday, we ask that you put down at least $300, just so we know for sure you're serious."

He left the room for a minutes so we could talk about it, and we prayed again. Feeling very light and good, we put the $300 down, with the expectation that we would return the next day and buy the car. We agreed to a down-payment amount, and had them appraise our Impala for a trade-in value. It was only priced at $200, which was better than nothing. We printed off all the things we would need for the bank and drove away.

As we drove away, we both felt really good about our decision, but we also felt a little overwhelmed. "This is happening really fast," I told Grig.

He replied, "I was feeling the same way."

The next morning, Grig was working a few extra hours. About mid-morning, the bank called me and told me that our loan was accepted. We had been praying that our Impala would keep going until we could get the new car, and it had been working pretty well for the past couple of weeks.

However, I was having second thoughts. Not so much about the car, but about the amount we had agreed on for the down-payment. It would use up a lot of our buffer, and I was a bit worried about making such a large purchase. The thought of waiting until Monday crossed my mind several times.

However, as I read scriptures and talked to Grig (after he got home), we decided to just go for it. We felt that this is what the Lord was telling us to do, so He would provide for us. We were trying to stay carefully in our budget.

We cleaned out our car and got in to go get the loan from the bank. We all got in the car and tried to turn it on.

Nothing happened.

We tried again.

Nothing.

After a few minutes, Grig ran over to the neighbors and he came to jump us. It took a while, but eventually the car started. Then, as we were about to drive off, Grig received a call from the dealer. They asked us if we still wanted the car. We told them that we were on the way to the bank right then. They told us that it was a good thing we had put down the $300. A man was there saying he would buy the Pilot right then if we weren't going to take it. If we had waited even a day, we wouldn't have gotten this car.

As we drove away, our blinkers stopped working again, and lights were flashing all over. The Impala, which had served us faithfully for nearly four years, was dying.

We left the car running while we went into the bank. The amount of our monthly car payment came to the perfect amount, and everything else went smoothly. We withdrew our down-payment and got the check from the bank. As we drove to the dealer, the low fuel light came on.

We handed all of our paper work to the dealer, and within a few short minutes, drove away in our new vehicle. It was amazing.

It was a little sad to say good-bye to the Impala, but we were so grateful to have a car that we wouldn't have to worry about whether it would start every time or not.

We are so grateful for the many miracles, both large and small, that led to us being able to purchase this new car. We're also grateful for the Impala. We bought it from some wonderful friends and it was a great car to the very end.

New Car

It was such a great weekend. As we drove away from the dealer, I had the distinct impression that we were exactly where we were supposed to be and we had done exactly what we were supposed to do. I felt the Lord's love for us, and the He was pleased with us.

That night we went to the temple and felt the wonderful Spirit that is there.

I had a really great weekend.

The Blessings of the Budget

I was going to talk about something else today, but after this morning, this is pretty much the only thing on my mind, so I have to share this. 

We are in an interesting economical situation right now. 

Currently, we have been blessed with more money than we've had in a long time. We're still not very wealthy, but we at least have a sizable buffer in our savings, and that's been really comforting. 

Even so, we are trying REALLY hard to stick to our budget. We're also trying to save up for a few things and so last paycheck, we didn't put very much into the grocery portion of our budget. 

Then, we ended up feeding some extra people, which was great, and we were grateful to be able to help out. It simply left us with no extra grocery money. 

So, we were in a strange situation where we didn't have any money, but we actually did. We weren't sure what to do. We ran out of eggs on Friday, and we didn't have any fresh fruit. We contemplated going to the store and getting those two things, because they are kind of necessary and we actually DID have money...just not in our grocery fund.

However, after we went to the temple on Saturday, we stopped at my grandma's house to pick up Kevin. After we ate with them and piled in the car, Grandma came over and handed us a carton of eggs and a bag of fruit. She also gave us a bag of potatoes. 

I know it wasn't a coincidence that she just happened to give us the specific items that we were really in need of. I know that we were blessed for our service and for going to the temple. I have some pretty wonderful family members too. 

That wasn't the only blessing we've seen though. We get paid today, and we've been low on quite a few other things, but somehow (like the woman in the bible who provided food for Elijah and whose oil and flour never ran out) our supplies have lingered until today. For example: we were sure we were going to be out of milk by Sunday, but we still have some left. 

What have I learned from this? I have learned that when we try to stick to our budget, that the Lord helps us out. I have learned the blessings of going to the temple and paying our tithing. 

I'm excited to go grocery shopping today, but we're also going to try and be really careful not to spend all of our money right away. 

Hopefully it will last until the next paycheck this time. 

MM: Hushing our Fears

We are officially down to the last week.

Grig's job ends on Saturday. If we don't find a new job before then, we are unemployed.

Though we have had many reassurances throughout these last few month, we are still becoming somewhat stressed. It's not so easy to have peace and faith when a deadline is looming on the horizon.

That's not to say that we're doubting the Lord, or the feelings that we've had. Instead, we just aren't sure about His timing. His timing is often not the same as our timing.

When Grig ends this Saturday, he will get 2 weeks worth of severance pay for sticking it out to the end. He will also receive his unused vacation time in a monetary form. Add all that to the fact that this is a three pay-period month, and we have a bit of extra money to live off of.

Personally, I've been hoping and praying that having this extra money will mean that we can have a baby soon, but the fear inside my heart is saying that it just means we'll use it all up while Grig is looking for a job.

While speaking about this to my mother today, she reminded me of a talk from a General Conference a few months ago. It was given by Elder Bednar, and it was titled "Therefore They Hushed Their Fears."

In his talk, he says:

An example from the Book of Mormon highlights the power of the knowledge of the Lord (see 2 Peter 1:2–8;Alma 23:5–6) to dispel fear and provide peace even as we confront great adversity.

In the land of Helam, Alma’s people were frightened by an advancing Lamanite army.

“But Alma went forth and stood among them, and exhorted them that they should not be frightened, but … should remember the Lord their God and he would deliver them.

“Therefore they hushed their fears” (Mosiah 23:27–28).

Notice Alma did not hush the people’s fears. Rather, Alma counseled the believers to remember the Lord and the deliverance only He could bestow (see 2 Nephi 2:8). And knowledge of the Savior’s protecting watchcare enabled the people to hush their own fears...

...But can we hush the fears that so easily and frequently beset us in our contemporary world? The answer to this question is an unequivocal yes. Three basic principles are central to receiving this blessing in our lives: (1) look to Christ, (2) build upon the foundation of Christ, and (3) press forward with faith in Christ. 

 I really appreciated this reminder from my mother. These last few months have been a series of trials. However, they have also been a series of miracles. Each trial has in some way also been a blessing. We have learned so much and grown quite a bit.

One of the biggest miracles that we received today was when Grig's job has offered employees to work in the line next week. Grig volunteered. If you work even one day in a month, the insurance covers you for that entire month. That will mean that we have insurance in November as well. Hopefully by the end of November, we will have found a job.

Despite these miracles, I am still struggling with my faith. It is hard to wait for promised blessings. As I look forward to Christmas and realize that we may not be able to afford much this year, I feel strange. Though my parents made little and were never rich, we never wanted for anything. I've never had to worry about not receiving Christmas presents.

Honestly, I don't know that I have to worry about it this year either. We've already had kind friends and family step in and tell us that they will buy Christmas for us if we can't.

As I am writing this blog and trying to talk about my fears and stress, I keep having all of the wonderful blessings that we have received come into my mind and push away the worry. Perhaps writing this blog was what I needed after all.

Link

One of the biggest blessings that I personally have received this week is that Kevin has been potty-training himself. Last weekend, he woke up and randomly said, "I need to go potty." He has had very few accidents since. He has yet to poop in the potty, but he hasn't had any kind of accident in two days. That's been really exciting for me, and for some reason, I am just bursting with pride with how he's doing.

I feel like I'm one of those random mothers who wants to yell, "My son's using the potty!" in the middle of the grocery store because I am so proud of him. I never thought I'd want to do something like that.

I haven't yet, but I want to.

So, despite the fact that we're a bit stressed and worried, we are trying to turn to the Savior and allow Him to hush our fears. We have had quite a bit of peace, and when I focus on that, I can feel the stress dissolve. That doesn't mean that it is gone, but it certainly helps.

We know the Lord told us to buy this home for a reason. We also know that He will provide as we do what He asks us to do. We have been trying to be obedient and charitable. I know that Grig will find a job, and it will be the job that the Lord wants him to have.

Things will work out.

2 Timothy 1:7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

Gardening

This year, we are planting our first garden.

It's been a lot of work. The house that we've purchased has been a bit neglected for the last few years. It's seen a few changes of ownership and some renters. It isn't in the worst of shape (trust me, we saw a LOT worse while we were house-hunting), but it definitely needs some love.

I keep forgetting to take "before" pictures, but I'm remembering to take "after" pictures most of the time.

Grig loves fresh asparagus, so we're trying to plant some. It took us some time to figure out where we wanted it. We finally decided to plant it right in front of the shed. Here's what that spot looked like when we first bought the house:

After a few hours work and some dismantling of a broken picnic table, here is the after:

Before planting the asparagus 

After planting the asparagus

We think it looks a ton better. Hopefully our asparagus blooms. We're learning a lot about gardening. My family has always had a garden, and I've always helped (most of the time, anyway), but I've never been in charge of the garden before. My dad has quite the green thumb. It seems like he can make anything grow.

Asparagus is a perennial vegetable. It is one of the few that will grow back every year for up to 20 years. However, it doesn't always take root and you can't eat it for the first couple of years while it establishes itself. We're going to put up a fence around it to keep the dog and kid out, but we didn't finish planting the asparagus until late Monday night.

Monday, we also planted our onions. The garden is ready for us to plant more, but we wanted to get the vegetables planted that would go bad if we waited too long.

Here's what our garden looked like when we moved in:

You can't really tell, but it was really overgrown and covered with grass. Here's what it looks like after Monday nights planting:

The dark, wet side is where the onions are planted. Hopefully we're going to plant the rest of our first crop tomorrow.

We're pretty excited and hoping that all of this effort yields some fruit (or rather, vegetables).

We had a minor miracle while we were trying to get all this figured out. We couldn't get our hose faucet that's attached to the house to turn on. Everything seemed to be hooked up properly, but for some reason, it wasn't working.

We didn't want to plant our crops until we had a working hose for watering, so even though we bought the seeds and sets on the 10th, we didn't plant them that weekend.

It turned out to be a good thing, because the next week, it snowed over a foot! Welcome to April in Utah.

It snowed for two days straight, and then it all melted. We were worried about our apple blossoms, but they seem to be doing just fine.

The next day after the snow melted, I figured out where I needed to turn on the water in order to make the hose work. I really felt like the timing was incredible. We planted last night, and the onion and asparagus seemed to still be alive.

Gardening is more fun that it was when I was a kid. It's exciting to find out if you can make things grow.

Historically, I have more of a black thumb. I've killed more plants than I've grown. Hopefully, as I learn more, I can inherit a little of my father's green thumb.

That's what I'm hoping for anyway.

Mormon Monday: House Miracle

So, I mentioned last week that we had bad news about the house that actually turned out to be good news.

We thought that we were ready to close last Friday (the 30th). The way it sounded, our loan had already gone to the USDA and we thought that we would be closing much sooner than we had expected.

However, when we called our lender to get confirmation and to ask a couple of questions, we were informed that our loan was stuck at underwriter and had encountered a few hiccups. At the time, our lender sent us a text telling us he couldn't talk to us about it in depth (it was too late at night), but he told us he would call us in the morning. He also told us not to worry about it.

I felt a great deal of peace, so I didn't worry about it too much while I waited for him to call the next morning. However, it wasn't until Wednesday afternoon that I heard from him.

He called back and explained that even though we were making enough that our debt to income ratio would have been more that sufficient for most loans, the USDA required that the loan be only 30 something percent of your income instead of 48%. They thought they had already solved that problem by having the company that Grig works for sign a paper saying that his average of 48 hours a week was required, but the underwriter was now telling them that they couldn't count any of Grig's overtime because he hadn't worked there for two years yet.

Before I could even start worrying about it, he told me that the loan was going to go through one way or the other, and they were willing to do a reduced interest rate  to make up for the extra hours if we were willing to bring $1000 to closing. (Originally, we weren't going to have to bring anything to closing).

On the previous Friday, we had submitted our taxes, but we hadn't quite gotten our tax returns back yet. We had been planning to pay the rest of Grig's school loans with the tax returns, but now we decided to put $1000 of it toward closing costs. The reduced interest rate had lowered our monthly payments by nearly $100, so in ten months, we'd make up for the $1000 that we were spending at closing. It is also going to save us around $20000 of interest money in the long run. Our monthly payments are now going to be only slightly more that what we are currently paying for rent.

It is a miracle. It's a miracle that we couldn't have even have prayed for, because we didn't know it was possible. We weren't planning on moving right now, but we felt impressed that we needed to do so. We weren't planning on buying a home, but we have been brought to the home that we know the Lord intends for us to purchase. We didn't know for sure how we were going to pay for everything, but the Lord has opened a way and directed us to the correct real estate agent who directed us to this incredible lender who is willing to do this awesome thing for us.

We are so blessed and grateful. I know some of these blessings have come because we are trying our best to keep the Lord's commandments and follow the promptings that we've received from Him. I know that as we've paid tithing, we've been given sufficient for our needs.

I can't even tell you how grateful I am, right now, and how excited.

The last loan went through in three days, so we should be closing by this Friday. I'm starting to pack a little bit and deep clean things in preparation.

Thank you for your prayers and interest. We know many of our blessings have come through prayers from others in our behalf.

The Lord loves each of us, and He takes care of us. Trials often turn into blessings, and we are pretty excited for this one!

We are so excited for the yard!

Two Dead Mice and Other Miracles

I haven't been very good about blogging lately.

I'm working on it.

We've had some pretty awesomely miraculous things going.

For example, we had a laboratory bill that occurred in July. We haven't been able to pay it until now, due to our rather tight budget. However, we had spoken to the people there, and they had assured us that there would be no late fees.

Even though we have had enough the last couple of weeks, we were going to save up our money and pay off the debt to the laboratory after our taxes came back. It seemed like a good plan, and we both felt good about it.

However, two weeks ago, I started getting a really strong impression that we needed to pay that bill immediately. I looked into our finances, saw that we would have enough to pay the bill out of our savings. I spoke to Grig, and we decided to use that money to pay off the bill. On December 12, I paid the bill online, and our final debt was closed. That was quite a relief for a number of reasons, but I didn't understand the full repercussions until today.

Tonight, as I collected the mail, I noticed a letter from the laboratory place. Thinking it was a receipt for our payment, I opened it up to be greeted by the following words:

*Your account is past due.

*At this time your account has not been placed with a Third Party Collection Agency. 

*Failure to pay the past due amount will result in referral to a Third Party Collection Agency and potentially affect your credit score. 

I quickly went online to check our balance and was relieved to find that it was now zeroed out. I then looked at the date on the past due invoice. The date on the invoice was December 11. So, the day after they sent out the past due invoice, we paid off the full amount.

That is not a coincidence. That is a miracle. At this time, when we are trying to pay for a new home, any impact on Grig's credit score may have been massive. I am so grateful that I followed the prompting to pay off that debt.

We couldn't have paid it any sooner than we did, but the timing was perfect. If it had been any later, it may have really negatively affected us.

I am a very grateful soul tonight.

Here is another story for you:

We've been seeing signs of mice in our laundry room. I first noticed it when I saw that the corner of the puppy food bag had been nibbled through.

After that we started seeing some droppings on the floor. Luckily, it appeared that they only were living in the laundry room, but then, we saw a baby mouse with his eyes barely opened in the kitchen. As soon as we could, we bought mouse traps.

They were just the old wooden kind, but I took a piece of dog food, surrounded it with peanut butter, and used the peanut butter to place it in the trap. Grig then placed the trap against the wall.

This happened at about 8:00 p.m. on a Saturday night. We then went about our activities.

At about 2:00 a.m. (yes, we were up late, but Saturday nights are Grig's only night off, so we sometimes don't got to bed at 8:00 p.m. like normal), I decided to go and check the trap.

To my surprise, not only was it sprung, but two mice had been caught and killed by the little wooden trap!

I didn't take a picture, but if you want to see approximately what it looked like, here is a link to a picture. https://retirenicaragua.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/img_0472.jpg

The picture really was almost exactly what happened to our mice. One had been caught by the neck, and the other had been caught on its face. Evidently we're not the only ones it has happened too.

Grig came out and dumped the mice, cleaned up the trap a bit, reset it, and put it back in the same spot.

The next morning, I heard it snap again, and came it to see that it had caught another mouse. It was in its final death throes, so I left it alone until it finished dying. Grig was nice enough to dump that one two.

So, with one trap, we killed three mice in less than 24 hours. The trap has remained in the laundry room ever since, but we haven't caught anything else, or seen any new signs. Hopefully that's all of them.

As far as the home search is going, we have one home that we are looking at pretty seriously, but we're not sure yet. We're going to look at it again on Monday. I really like it. I hope it pans out!

I hope to put up the fourth episode of Dragon and the Wolf soon. The animation has been done for months, but it has been difficult to find time for Grig to voice-act. Hopefully I can have it done before Christmas.

Money Miracles

Lately, our money's been a bit tight.

Grig had a week or so off work due to a lack of parts, and that has really affected us. We used up most of our savings on our vacation, so we've barely been able to pay the bills.

However, I have had continual feelings of peace on this matter, and the feeling that things were going to be just fine.

I've desperately clung onto that feeling as we've avoided buying groceries and used the food that we had on hand. We've prayed for miracles, and we've received miracles.

I've had very generous relatives who have given us things that we've desperately needed. We have tried not to ask anyone for help, but these wonderful people have given it to us anyway.

We also had an air-conditioning miracle. Our home has been really, really hot. We haven't had any air-conditioning, and we had a total of two fans, one of which only half worked.

We've been enduring, hoping that we would be able to afford another fan at some point. However, the other day we went to see our manager and she randomly asked us if we wanted air-conditioning. Evidently, a previous tenant had been trying to sell hers when she moved. It was nearly brand-new. Other than that, she said we could install it now and pay her for it when we were able to.

It has made a huge difference in our home. We keep it up at 75, and it still feels incredibly different in our home. The dog is much happier. I think she was overheating before, and I think that was causing some digestive problems.  

There have been many other small miracles that have occurred, and we've seen the hand of the Lord in our lives.

Grig had his birthday this last week, but we didn't have any money to buy presents. We are holding off on those until we can afford them, but I've felt really bad about it. I gave him some homemade presents, and he received some from family. He's been really patient about it. I really love him.

We had a small party with family a couple of weeks ago. Then, last Sunday we invited a few friends and family members over and had a small party. Mostly we just had cake, brownies, and pudding because that's what we had on hand. It was a fun party, and it was good to see Grig's brothers.

We have enough, and we're grateful. After this week, things should really pick up at work. I'm also going to work for my grandparents on apartments for a month. That means that we're going to be separated for a little while, but the extra money should really come in handy.

Mormon Monday: Nap-time Miracle

As I have mentioned a few times before, we've been trying to move Kevin into his own room. At the same time, we've started the weaning process.

This last week, Grig didn't have work, with was half-bad and half-wonderful. We had an incredible time doing things together as a family, and Grig and I had a wonderful date. However, due to an entire week off of work, we are going to be scraping the bottom of the barrel financially. One really good thing about it has been that it has really helped with this transition with Kevin.

Kevin's been doing really well with Grig putting him to bed. It's easier for Kevin to go to bed with him, because Grig doesn't even have the option of nursing him. It is harder when it's me for obvious reasons.

This is how Kevin fell asleep the other day. Priceless. 

However, today Grig went back to work and so it was my turn to try and put the baby down without nursing. I was a bit nervous, but I was confident that I would be able to do it.

Last night was a pretty rough night for our family. Kevin went to bed fairly early, but then he woke up about 12:30 a.m. and wanted to nurse. Being half asleep (I hadn't been able to fall asleep until 11:00 or so), I allowed him to nurse. However, at about 2:30 a.m., I was becoming frustrated with it. He wouldn't stop nursing and let me sleep. So, Kevin and I went back to his room and I told him, "No more nursing." He didn't like that idea very much and so he screamed on and off until 3:00, when Grig came in to switch me. I was doing pretty well, but he said he couldn't sleep anyway, so I tried to go back to bed. At one point, Grig came back in, but Kevin woke right back up. It was nearing 3:45 when I told Grig to go lay down and I'd wake in him in 20 minutes so he could get ready for work.

He was getting frustrated at that point, so he gratefully handed Kevin to me and tried to go lay down. However, he finally decided he might as well get ready for work.

He left at 4:40, and Kevin didn't fall asleep until 5:30. When he finally fell asleep, I laid him down and ten minutes later, I heard a little voice say, "Hi?" It was pretty cute, but not entirely welcome. We sat at the computer for a while, and he finally REALLY fell asleep at 6:30 a.m. I took the dog outside, and then we all went back to bed until about 9:30.

Suffice it to say, we didn't get much sleep last night. So, naturally, I thought he'd take a really good nap today.

However, as I tried to get Kevin to go to sleep this afternoon, it wasn't going very smoothly. He was screaming, and no matter what I did, he wouldn't relax.

Desperately, I began to pray.

I know there are a lot of people out there who think that praying is just superstitious nonsense. However, in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we know that prayer is not only needful, but necessary. I use prayer every day of my life, and I've never had an unanswered prayer. Sometimes it wasn't the answer I wanted, and sometimes it didn't come right away, but the answer always came.

Today was no different. As I prayed, I felt prompted to set him on the bed and rub his hair. This calmed him down after a little while, and then he began to get upset again. I felt prompted to look into his eyes and tell him why I wanted him to sleep. The instant our gazes locked, he immediately stopped crying. I quietly sang of my love for every part of him and how he would feel much better if he took a nap. After a few minutes, he laid down on his bed and quickly fell asleep as I continued to sing and rub his back.

Prayer works. I can testify that I know this is true. When we don't know what to do or how to make it through our trials, prayer is the answer. The Lord didn't mean for us to pass through this life alone, but if we don't talk to Him and find out his plan for us, we are going to wander alone.

Kevin is still sleeping right now, and I am so grateful that he had such a peaceful way of going to sleep. Hopefully we can continue on this path and transfer peacefully.

I'll just keep praying and having faith that it will work out.

Mormon Monday: Doing the Best with What We Have

Yesterday in church, one of the teachers shared a pretty neat video. I was able to find it this morning, because I wanted to share it with you.

This video is about a girl who doesn't have very much money, but she has to buy some things that she needs. However, if she buys the necessities, she won't have enough money for fare to church the next day. After praying, she feels that she should go ahead and purchase the things that she needs and it will be okay. Acting on faith, she decides to do just that, and miracles follow.

One thing that I really liked about this video is the fact that the girl isn't just purchasing things that she wants. She is buying absolute necessities, and because she is doing her best with what she has, the Lord provides.

As I've mentioned in previous posts, we are going on vacation soon. We very prayerfully considered when we should leave, and how we should get to our destination. We live in Utah (big surprise, right?) and we are traveling to Virginia. We found out that driving would be about $500, while flying is about $1000 round trip. Even so, we've struggled to have enough money for this trip.

However, whenever I've worried about having enough, I've been comforted and things have worked out. I wanted to give you some examples.

One thing that really concerned us, was the fact that Grig's glasses were broken by Kevin. We knew we needed to get glasses before our trip if we wanted Grig to be able to drive at night. However, when we went to Sam's Club to get his eyes checked out, we found out that our insurance wouldn't cover it. It was still fairly inexpensive, so we decided to go ahead and get him an eye doctor appointment.

His appointment was on last Thursday, the 29th. It was the earliest appointment we could get. We had been told that it would take 7-10 days to get the glasses in, and if it wasn't within 7 days, we wouldn't have Grig's glasses for the trip. However, we felt like things were going to work out if we prayed for it.

To our astonishment, Saturday morning, two days later, we received a phone call. Grig's glasses were already in!

That was a wonderful miracle and blessing.

The other incredible blessing that we've had is that Grig has gotten a bunch of extra hours the last two weeks. Due to that, we've made our goal for the trip and we should have plenty of money.

When we try our best, we aren't perfect, but the Lord makes up for what we lack. I know this is true. When we were talking about the glasses, I assured Grig that he would get them in time, but he told me, "Not if we don't pray about it." Sometimes the Lord has blessings for us, but they are conditional upon us asking for them.

The girl in the video above prayed very sincerely for help, and then she acted, doing the best with what she had. The Lord answered her prayer and gave her enough for her needs. The Lord has done the same for us, and we've had enough to buy all the things we needed before the trip.

I'm so grateful that Heavenly Father loves all His children and wants what is best for them. Sometimes our prayers aren't answered right away, but usually that's because the Lord's timing is perfect and it isn't right for us to have what we want right at that moment.

I've grown in faith as I've had to wait for my prayers to be answered. I've learned to trust in the Lord and as my prayers have been answered, I come to understand a little better the mind of my Father in Heaven. I know God exists and loves us. Each of us is special to Him. As we do our best with the talents and abilities that we've been given, His grace helps us to be capable of so much more.