I'm back..... but not for long

You don't realize how much you use a computer until you are forced to go without one for weeks on end. It's so frustrating! It's especially frustrating when the person fixing your computer thinks that they didn't back up your computer before having to rebuild a new one. Not really a great thing when you have all of your children's lives in pictures stored on the computer. Sadly to admit, we also didn't make any backup disks. I am really holding out for hope that all is not lost.

I am borrowing a friends laptop as we speak, and hopefully one day we will be the owners of our own computer.

On a more positive note, my wonderful Mother was here visiting again and was able to be here for 10 days. She is so amazing, and I am grateful that she comes to visit often. In talking to some of my friends who have also moved away for residencies, I realized that I am really spoiled by how often our family members come to visit us. It's so great being able to see our family so often.

My Mom spoiled us, and we just had a wonderful time together. I am already counting down the days until her next visit.

As soon as I have a computer again, I will post some pictures.

Happy Birthday

We now have two one-year olds running around, can you believe it? The year flew by way too fast. We are no longer buying 24 cans of formula a month. Isn't that great? Happy Birthday to our two beautiful girls.

Kelsie-ism's

I sure do love this little girl, and as always she makes me laugh so hard. Other times she about brings me to tears. Here are some of her recent ramblings.

This week one of her pet frogs died. With tears in her eyes she told me that the frogs heart had run out of pumps.

Kelsie went to McDonald's today and as she was playing in the play land, some little boys about her age told her that they were going to kill her. As she was re-telling this story to Alyssa she said that she had the worstest day in her life because some mean guys told her that they were going to kill her and if they didn't kill her then they were going to bite her.

On the night of Halloween Kelsie told Alyssa that if she didn't want to go trick-or treating then she would just go for her and would give her all of her candy.

While working on a coloring contest for a local pet store, I explained to the girls that if they won then they would get a $30 gift certificate and asked them what they would buy. Alyssa said that she would probably buy a ferret until Kevin told her that those were way more than $30.00. Kelsie then pipes up and says, " Alyssa, when we get older if you still want a ferret then I will buy you one with my money okay?"

Kelsie has been asking about her Great-Grandma Wheeler. Grandma Wheeler died before Kelsie was born but we have a book about Grandma's life, and we often read through the book together. In the book, it talks about Grandma Wheeler's love of the Christmas holiday. She often made dolls and other homemade gifts that she would pass out at the family parties which Kelsie thought was awesome. In talking to my girls one night about the reason why we celebrate Christmas, Alyssa answered first and said that we celebrate Christmas because of the birth of Jesus. Kelsie was quick to tell Alyssa that she was wrong and that the reason why we celebrate Christmas was because of Grandma Wheeler.

I have never seen a more caring, giving, selfless child than Kelsie. She has a heart of gold, and some of the things that come out of that little girl's mouth are just beyond touching. She is constantly thinking of others and puts the needs of others before her own. If you ask me that's pretty impressive for a four year old.

Halloween 2009

Alyssa the karate master

Kelsie the witch

Leah the butterfly and Audrey the white tiger

Audrey made the cutest tiger cub

kids say the darndest things

As I was sitting in the living room one night, Alyssa popped in looking like this. She says to me, "Mom, I look like you did when you were having the twins." Pretty close if you ask me

Aren't we all poor?

I know that a blog is probably not the most appropriate place to talk about finances but I am going to do it anyway mainly because I have had a lot on my mind lately regarding the subject.

As I was reflecting back on the last ten years of my life back to when Kevin and I were newlyweds and living on nothing but love, I realized that not a whole lot has changed. True, we now have four kids and have slightly aged but we are still living solely on love. I don't like to use the term "poor" because I don't feel like we have ever had to go without, but there have been times when I wished that we didn't have to worry whether we had a coupon or not.

I have been contemplating going back to work just to bring in some extra money. As I have been toiling with the idea about where I wanted to apply, and what I wanted to do, nothing seemed to come to mind. I wasn't sure about how the job would work out with Kevin's schedule since he is required to work some weekends but still I was heavily concerned with our financial well being.

After church yesterday I was set apart for my new calling as a visiting teaching supervisor, and just still was feeling a lot of stress about life. As the second counselor laid his hands upon my head, he gave me one of the neatest blessings. In the blessing he told me that the Lord wanted me to know that the most important place that I could be right now is home raising my girls, and that I needed to rely more on my husband. As he said that, in my heart I knew that what I am doing right now as a Mother is the most important job that I could be doing.

Fast forward to today; About an hour ago I received a phone call from one of my great friends, Sonya here in Tennessee. She said that she had been thinking about me all week, and that she felt like she needed to call and check up on me. She then asked me if she could pray with me over the phone. In her prayer she asked that my medical treatment would go well, and that the tumor would eventually shrink down in size. She blessed our family, and my husband, and then blessed that our financial situation would get better. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. How would she know that our financial situation wasn't exactly the best? Sonya is not a member of the same church that I belong to and she wanted me to know that she was a firm believer in the power of prayer. I felt so moved by her prayer, and so touched that she would call to simply pray with me over the phone.

I feel so fortunate for all of the many blessings that I have been given, and I know that I have been given a lot. Where there's a will, there is a way. I don't know how it works out that we can survive on such a small amount each month but it does. I do look forward to having a real paycheck, but that will have to wait for about 2 1/2 years. For now, it's off to finding more great deals.