She's Mine

I figured I should update with something.  There has been so much going on it's hard to know where to begin and what to even write about.

I'm happy that the end of the school year is 3 1/2 weeks away.  Even though I have two good groups of kids this year, it's hard to come to work every day when there's a little one waiting for you to take care of her.  Thankfully, Grandma and Grandpa help out with that during the day and I cherish my evenings, weekends, and breaks with her.  My baby girl is getting too big, too fast!  I tell her to stop growing so fast, but she doesn't listen to me.  :)

This morning I felt an overwhelming love for her.  Not that I didn't feel that way before, but my love for her grew deeper this morning.  Maybe it was because her foot braces got stuck between the bars of her crib for the 2nd morning in a row and she couldn't move, or maybe it's the way she said "ma-ma" when I walked in to rescue her, or it could just possibly be her sweet little face.  Whatever it is, I love her dearly and I am so glad she's mine.

I'll just post a cute picture of my Claire Bear and then you have to wait until later for birthday and graduation blog posts.

This girl LOVES laundry baskets and hampers so when she was playing with this one, we put her inside.  As you can see, it didn't bother her a bit!

stuff

There is supposed to be a video above of my baby girl giggling, but blogger is being stupid.  She's kind of a squealer, but it's all because she gets so extremely excited about her daddy!

Here's a project I did a few weeks ago; my mom and I took a class at the local fabric store, The Cotton Shop.  My needle broke right near the end of my project so I just brought it home unfinished.  Today I decided to sit down and finish it.  I think it turned out really cute.

We are planning on taking another class together called "block of the month."  We will make one block of a quilt per month and when we finish we will have an entire quilt!  I am really excited to take this class.  It should help my quilting skills.

Again, I have had experiences that make me so grateful for the blessings I have.  A friend of mine from Oregon just had her 2nd baby a week ago.  He's already gone through more than any person should have to go through in a lifetime.  He is recovering from open-heart surgery at Primary Children's Medical Center and I am so thankful I have a healthy baby and so heartbroken that this family has to go through such a huge trial!  Thankfully, PCMC doctors and nurses have been sent straight from heaven and that baby couldn't be in a better place right now.  Even my baby Claire is well taken care of for her clubbed feet, a very common birth defect.

Well, that's about it for now.

reflecting

Good gracious I am so behind on blogging.  My little munchkin is getting so big, 9 months now.  Acutally, she's closer to 10 months.  In the past couple of months, I have had many reasons to be grateful for every single blessing I have in my life.  Many things have happened to help me reflect on my blessings and I hope that Heavenly Father understands how truly grateful I am.

Some things have occured over the past month that have made me think and ponder.  My interests have grown into deep desires to learn more.  Some of those interests include couponing, saving money, and a more thorough knowledge of quilting and sewing.  Currently the couponing and saving money is taking top priority and I'm enjoying what I have learned so far.  Granted, I know almost nothing, but I do subscribe to a few different websites that help with couponing ideas and where to find great deals.  I do have to give a plug for the site freebies2deals.com.  This lady is amazing at finding deals and free stuff every single day!  She's so great.  Recently I acquired a steal of a deal because of the few things I have learned.  I noticed in the Kmart ad last week that select varieties of Kellogg's cereal were 5 for $10. I had three different coupons, all for $1 off 2 boxes.  So, since you don't have to buy 5 at a time to get each box of cereal for $2 a piece, I bought 6 boxes and ended up paying about $9.  With the way we go through cereal here at our house, that was a steal of a deal and I was so proud of myself.

I do constantly think about my blog and know that I need to update more. I'll try, but I can't guarantee anything.  Until next time! Sorry no pictures.

Resolutions

Well, I said in my last post that the next post might have some New Year's Resolutions. This is that next post and I suppose I can list a few things I have been thinking about.  They may not necessarily be resolutions, but they are things on my mind and I figure I can at least *try* to accomplish some of them.

1) Read at least 5 books this year (that doesn't include children's books).  Books for me, not for Claire.  I'm already slowly working through President Thomas S. Monson's biography.  It's been fun so far reading about his early childhood.

2) More sewing and quilting. I have so many projects waiting for me, but I have told myself I can't start anything new until I finish my other projects.  Easier said than done. :)

3) Fold Laundry.  Yes, I know it sounds silly but Kory and I struggle big time with folding clean laundry.  We usually end up folding it the day before a new laundry day because we need the hampers to carry the dirty clothes.  It's a weakness; sad but true.

4) Be Healthier.  I wouldn't consider myself the healthiest person, by any means.  It's hard to get motivated to exercise and healthy foods are not as cheap as other stuff.

5) One of my resolutions last year was to not be so quick to judge other people.  It worked really well for about a month and then fizzled. I find more and more that I just get sick of the gossip and negativity that comes from judging others unrighteously.  Giving people the benefit of the doubt really helps me put things in perspective and realize that I would want others to give me the benefit of the doubt.  I heard a quote in church last week that really hit home: "If you don't love someone it's because you don't know them."  could any statement ring more true? So, my last resolution that I will type here is to be more slow to pass judgement on someone when I have no idea what their situation may be.

Many people get cranky about making resolutions, but I think they help us reflect on our own weaknesses and start improving.  So, if you haven't made any resolutions, try to think of maybe just one thing that you would like to do, change, or improve upon this upcoming year. Best wishes!

Angel girl

I find it hard to blog sometimes when I don't have pictures available on my computer. A blog is always more interesting with pictures. I have a few that others took during Christmas time. It's been so nice to have a break from work and just spend time with my angel girl. She is growing way too fast but I love watching her try to sit up and crawl. When I find the adapter cord for my camera, I will post a video of baby Claire trying to crawl. She looks like a swimming frog. :) I've been too spoiled during my break. I think it will be hard to go back to school tomorrow and start teaching my 1st graders again. *sigh* Claire and I have had so much fun together and I will miss her terribly during the day. Here are a few pictures from Christmas Eve at Grandma and Grandpa's.

 

The Christmas Dress from Grandma

 

Claire can open her mouth really wide when she eats!

 

She ALWAYS has her hands or her finger in her mouth

Momma, look what Santa brought!

Christmas Eve night and Christmas day were spent at Meemaw and Papa's house.  We spent the night, got up and went to church, then came home and opened presents.  Unfortunately I don't have any pictures from that event because my camera battery died!  But I will take a picture of some of the loot and of her darling rocking chair that Papa got from a Reservation when he went on a recruiting trip for UVU.  It is so cute!

It was fun to have a baby around for holiday celebrations and I can't wait until next year!

Maybe my next post will be about New Year's Resolutions.

Happy Halloween!

Our family is big on Pumpkin carving. For as long as I can remember, it has been a tradition in our family to go to a pumpkin patch and choose lots of pumpkins for carving. I would always get so excited to see how big of a pumpkin my dad could find so he could carve some fantastic pattern into it. Here are ours. These ones would be considered EASY carving!

As an adult, I haven't been a huge fan of Halloween. I love the fall season, but Halloween is definitely not one of my favorites. I think it's slightly ridiculous to spend tons of money on a Halloween costume and I'm not creative enough to come up with something super cool by myself. Plus, wearing scrubs to work is my idea of a perfect day! So, I'd rather be comfortable than cool. :)

And last, but not least, our baby kitty! She's not litter box trained yet but she is VERY good at cat napping.

thankful

I just have to post this, even if no one reads it. I was thinking yesterday "If Aflac Insurance were a man, I'd marry it for it's money." This is true. About 2 years ago we enrolled in a supplemental maternity plan covered by Aflac. The numbers promised a nice cash return IF they decided to cover ALL costs listed in their maternity plan.

For a couple of months this summer, we've been struggling big time with the finances. Generally Kory and I are really good at saving and keeping our money at bay. But this time, it didn't work out well. My paychecks for summer always come at the same time in one big lump sum to the tune of $6,000+. Well, this summer Claire came, Kory had to pay for 2 grad school classes instead of just one, Claire's medical bills came, and mortgage payments came. Add all of that up and it equals more than $6,000, plus all the other smaller expenses that just seem to add up. We thought borrowing a good chunk of change from my parents would help, and it did. But, it wasn't enough. 3 days ago, we were down to $50 in my bank account and Kory holding onto his money in order to pay for his next grad school class. We were worried and definitely did not want to ask my parents to borrow money for a second time in less than a month.

We continued to pay our tithing and have faith that we would somehow make ends meet. Yesterday, we got a check in the mail from Aflac. I was thinking it might be something around $1,000 which would barely get us through until I started getting monthly paychecks again. But NOOOOOOO, Aflac decided to send us more than 3 grand. Kory was practically dancing when he saw the check and we felt immense gratitude in our hearts for our blessing we had received. This will be more than enough to get us through until my next paycheck. Thank you to Heavenly Father for blessing us as we pushed forward with faith. I just hope we have learned our lesson. I think we have.