Why does paying bills have to be painful? Well I guess because you see all your work going out the door so quickly and you don't think about all the benefit you have received all month long. For me that is definitely the case. Anyway, things are getting better each month we pay towards our debt. We are actually doing really well at lowering our debt each month. For the last 3 years we have overall lowered our debt each month on average, if you don't count the addition of the new van we bought last halloween. That isn't really to bad actually, we may be able to pay it off soon as well. I hope that does get done soon. That thing is a beast I really hate paying for.
Anyway, things are good. This month we have some extra money and we are going to pay off 4 credit cards so that we will only have 4 credit cards with any balances and those with amazing interest rates. Then we will be saving up all our extra money for a rainy day. We are going to ideally use it to pay off the van but we are going to save up all our pennies and dimes so that we can pay it off all in one go when we are pretty sure our Job situation is secure for the next little while. When that is good then we will pay off the van and start saving all over again! Great times...Then the goal will be a house I believe. That is when we can decide where the heck we even want to live!
Okay that is all for tonight, it is definitely my bedtime!
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Corinthians 13
It is me again...
Okay but really, I was reading Corinthians 13 today and it is really interesting! Consider all the gifts of the spirit. Alma talks about them and Paul talks about them. But when Christ comes Paul basically says that all of those will be done away because we will no longer be separate from him.
So what will be left? Only a few things will last forever. Even in the presence of Christ. Of the greatest of those is Charity. That will always be present.
Take home message? Well it seems that seeking to develop the attribute of charity is much more important than seeking spiritual gifts.
Wow.
Enjoy!
Okay but really, I was reading Corinthians 13 today and it is really interesting! Consider all the gifts of the spirit. Alma talks about them and Paul talks about them. But when Christ comes Paul basically says that all of those will be done away because we will no longer be separate from him.
So what will be left? Only a few things will last forever. Even in the presence of Christ. Of the greatest of those is Charity. That will always be present.
Take home message? Well it seems that seeking to develop the attribute of charity is much more important than seeking spiritual gifts.
Wow.
Enjoy!
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Growing Fast
Well Joshua went to the doctor today and definitely out shined what we thought he would actually do in the growing category.
He is now 14 pounds and 6 ounces. I believe that puts him as our heaviest kid at this point. He is also at about 26 inches. I believe he has grown 6 pounds 6 ounces and 4 inches since birth. He is a beautiful solid kid.
Sadly he is the heaviest kid we have at this age so far and he is only the 30 percentile for weight. Oh well. We will see if he outshines Andrea later. She definitely has hit some major growth spurts that have put her at the top of her class. Sadly she makes cousins of similar ages look like midgets sometimes. Oh well...
So the kids are healthy an strong. Interesting note, Andrea and Zach when they got shots really didn't scream a lot. They would cry a bit and mope all day long. Josh on the other hand I am told screamed to a level we hadn't yet heard, but the rest of the day the kid is pretty happy with life. No grudges over the shots. Funny how each kid is so different!
He is now 14 pounds and 6 ounces. I believe that puts him as our heaviest kid at this point. He is also at about 26 inches. I believe he has grown 6 pounds 6 ounces and 4 inches since birth. He is a beautiful solid kid.
Sadly he is the heaviest kid we have at this age so far and he is only the 30 percentile for weight. Oh well. We will see if he outshines Andrea later. She definitely has hit some major growth spurts that have put her at the top of her class. Sadly she makes cousins of similar ages look like midgets sometimes. Oh well...
So the kids are healthy an strong. Interesting note, Andrea and Zach when they got shots really didn't scream a lot. They would cry a bit and mope all day long. Josh on the other hand I am told screamed to a level we hadn't yet heard, but the rest of the day the kid is pretty happy with life. No grudges over the shots. Funny how each kid is so different!
Monday, July 13, 2009
Hey They Are Fragile...
So last night I believe that Alison and I may have dealt with the closest near death experience that any of our kids have ever had. Sure we have had Andy and Zach choking on something and we fished it out. In those situations though we were really worried just pragmatically took care of the issue.
Well last night I had a serious scare. I was woke up by my wife just before 2 am and I could clearly understand what she was saying, but I have been married to her long enough to hear some very serious worry in her voice. So I sat up and listened again to what she said. She was holding Josh and saying he wasn't responding to anything. I first noticed a really limp baby. He is usually very active and wiggly. He was limp and I started to get worried. Alison told me that he wasn't responding to anything. He was burning up, and soaked in sweat.
Alison woke up and had a major prompting to check on Josh. She was wondering why he hadn't woke up yet to eat. He usually is only going 6 or 7 hours at night and it had been almost 8. So she went in there and found his face completely covered by his warm heavy blanket. She uncovered him and found a kid that seemed almost dead. His eyes were open but not focused on anything. It was totally freaky. This is a person that we are taking care of and he was near death.
So we prayed for help to understand what he needed at that moment. I gave him a blessing and knew that he would be okay very soon if we did what was needed right now. If that then he would be okay for a while if at all.
After the blessing we stripped him and took his temp which came in at 101. Wow. So we stripped him and wiped it entire body down with a way cold rag. Before this at some point we had changed a huge poopy diaper. When we were washing him down he was starting to finally wake up a bit more. He was actually trying to look around at us. Not grabbing our hands or anything but trying a bit more. So then Alison fed him. After that he was doing a bit more and acting closer to normal.
A few minutes later after a bit more freezing the pore kid with the wet washcloth we gave him some water in a medicine dropper. The kid sucked that up like he was dry as the desert. 1/4 of a cup later he slowed way down. So we let him be and tried playing with him to keep him awake. Honestly though he was basically trying to tell us "its okay now I am fine, just need a bit of shut eye." Well I was thinking he couldn't go to sleep because he might just die on us, so we kept him awake longer.
A hard part of this situation is that we had just moved him out of our room and his crying voice is actually kind of timid. So when he cries we barely hear him. So imagine the doors are only cracked open and the fan is on in the hall. Then the kid gets his face covered by the blanket. So he is screaming for help and can't get any response. He probably just screamed himself senseless and then gave up. That is when is mom came and rescued him. She feels like she has totally failed him forever. I feel bad to because I probably would have slept the entire night through and not noticed a thing.
Overall I am just so happy he is doing great. This entire day he has acted just fine, with perhaps just a bit of fatigue around the edges. That is it. Wow. They are fragile, but heak they can be resilient as well thank goodness.
Well last night I had a serious scare. I was woke up by my wife just before 2 am and I could clearly understand what she was saying, but I have been married to her long enough to hear some very serious worry in her voice. So I sat up and listened again to what she said. She was holding Josh and saying he wasn't responding to anything. I first noticed a really limp baby. He is usually very active and wiggly. He was limp and I started to get worried. Alison told me that he wasn't responding to anything. He was burning up, and soaked in sweat.
Alison woke up and had a major prompting to check on Josh. She was wondering why he hadn't woke up yet to eat. He usually is only going 6 or 7 hours at night and it had been almost 8. So she went in there and found his face completely covered by his warm heavy blanket. She uncovered him and found a kid that seemed almost dead. His eyes were open but not focused on anything. It was totally freaky. This is a person that we are taking care of and he was near death.
So we prayed for help to understand what he needed at that moment. I gave him a blessing and knew that he would be okay very soon if we did what was needed right now. If that then he would be okay for a while if at all.
After the blessing we stripped him and took his temp which came in at 101. Wow. So we stripped him and wiped it entire body down with a way cold rag. Before this at some point we had changed a huge poopy diaper. When we were washing him down he was starting to finally wake up a bit more. He was actually trying to look around at us. Not grabbing our hands or anything but trying a bit more. So then Alison fed him. After that he was doing a bit more and acting closer to normal.
A few minutes later after a bit more freezing the pore kid with the wet washcloth we gave him some water in a medicine dropper. The kid sucked that up like he was dry as the desert. 1/4 of a cup later he slowed way down. So we let him be and tried playing with him to keep him awake. Honestly though he was basically trying to tell us "its okay now I am fine, just need a bit of shut eye." Well I was thinking he couldn't go to sleep because he might just die on us, so we kept him awake longer.
A hard part of this situation is that we had just moved him out of our room and his crying voice is actually kind of timid. So when he cries we barely hear him. So imagine the doors are only cracked open and the fan is on in the hall. Then the kid gets his face covered by the blanket. So he is screaming for help and can't get any response. He probably just screamed himself senseless and then gave up. That is when is mom came and rescued him. She feels like she has totally failed him forever. I feel bad to because I probably would have slept the entire night through and not noticed a thing.
Overall I am just so happy he is doing great. This entire day he has acted just fine, with perhaps just a bit of fatigue around the edges. That is it. Wow. They are fragile, but heak they can be resilient as well thank goodness.
Thursday, July 09, 2009
Einstein
So lately I have been reading a book about Albert Einstein. It is actually his biography that has been written by Isaacson. It is well written. I guess I am a bit disappointed because I wanted more about his life and less science but reading his biography it isn't quite possible to get that. His entire life was about theoretical physics and everything else came second. Oh well it is really interesting. I am even beginning to understand why is theories are so important.
One of my favorite quotes is "A blind respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth." He definitely lived by this phrase he coined the first half of his life but the second he went away from it and actually hurt his career and where it could have gone. Very ironic.
On the kid side of things it is so funny the things that kids can say and do. For example my daughter is now 23 months old is such a COPIER! she copies Alison, Zach, Josh and Myself. She is also very hard headed. Overall though she is amazingly adorable! If you read this years later Andrea, you are an amazing child. Even if at times amazingly hardheaded for good and bad. We often want to discipline you and your skin is to thick! Or you think it is just a game. Other times your brother beats you so hard that it is hard to believe it doesn't hurt you little head but you bounce right back up and look at us and ask with an adorable look "what is the bid deal?" You have definitely sustained some seriously significant blows to your head buy accident and brother and hardly flinched. The worst that comes to mind is one time Zach was rocking the chair back and forth very roughly and you walked behind it and got hit with a horribly perfect blow that knocked you flat on the ground. It looked like a cartoon segment (one you hope will never actually really happen, but it is okay in cartoons because it is pretend) that is unreal. Alison and I watched is pure horror as we both had thoughts you may just be dead (I was seriously concerned as I rarely am). You popped up and didn't even think twice about it. Wow.
The start of that previous thought was a funny thing my kids do lately. If they see us eating anything they say "I want some! What are you eating?" Which I think is absolutely hilarious. Most of the time however we are eating something yummy and they know it. Their instincts on these subjects are really good. I tend to think that my kids and perhaps many other peoples kids often are more precocious in thought and action than we think.
Last night Josh went the entire night without eating. We had to help him back to sleep a few times, but we are on our way to him sleeping all night long. For my wife this is a wonderful thing. She will be able to sleep through the night when he does. This is mainly because of breast feeding. I just don't seem able to do it! Josh is becoming quite an amazing little boy. He is so interactive and follows our every move with beautiful eyes.
Yesterday my wife and I had to turn in several papers that verified our income, living situation and the existence of Josh for our welfare insurance. What a trial that is. Wow. Our greatest benefits were that we were organized and had done it before. Usually we have a few days or weeks to get it all together. This time we had only two days. It really did consume all that we did for a few days! I am glad that we are done. I did have to wait in line for an hour to drop the papers off which was quite a trial. Luckily that is much better than other times when I have had to wait longer than two hours. Ouch!
We have everything in and it will be interesting to see if we still are qualified for the free insurance. It is been wonderful to have while we were in school and especially in paying for out first 3 kids births entirely. Now though I feel ready to move on. They may tell us it is time to move on as well because we are doing a bit better than previously. I will like the continued support if we qualify, but if not then we are ready for what is next and totally believe that we aren't going to be on that forever. We will see.
Lately Alison and I have been trying very hard to pay off our debt. We have been trying hard to make smart decisions and are doing really well. The frustrating thing is how fast we have been able to proceed. Just recently we have had a second job open up for me back at the Desert Research Institute where I did my masters degree research. The good news is that it pays well and I will likely be able to do quite a bit there while still maintaining my current position. It will basically amount to about $5000 extra over the next few months. That is really nice and will go a long way towards helping out our financial goals. I am very grateful, and now a bit busier!
Today now that I don't have much to do I will be happy to go home and swim with my family (whenever I get home)!
One of my favorite quotes is "A blind respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth." He definitely lived by this phrase he coined the first half of his life but the second he went away from it and actually hurt his career and where it could have gone. Very ironic.
On the kid side of things it is so funny the things that kids can say and do. For example my daughter is now 23 months old is such a COPIER! she copies Alison, Zach, Josh and Myself. She is also very hard headed. Overall though she is amazingly adorable! If you read this years later Andrea, you are an amazing child. Even if at times amazingly hardheaded for good and bad. We often want to discipline you and your skin is to thick! Or you think it is just a game. Other times your brother beats you so hard that it is hard to believe it doesn't hurt you little head but you bounce right back up and look at us and ask with an adorable look "what is the bid deal?" You have definitely sustained some seriously significant blows to your head buy accident and brother and hardly flinched. The worst that comes to mind is one time Zach was rocking the chair back and forth very roughly and you walked behind it and got hit with a horribly perfect blow that knocked you flat on the ground. It looked like a cartoon segment (one you hope will never actually really happen, but it is okay in cartoons because it is pretend) that is unreal. Alison and I watched is pure horror as we both had thoughts you may just be dead (I was seriously concerned as I rarely am). You popped up and didn't even think twice about it. Wow.
The start of that previous thought was a funny thing my kids do lately. If they see us eating anything they say "I want some! What are you eating?" Which I think is absolutely hilarious. Most of the time however we are eating something yummy and they know it. Their instincts on these subjects are really good. I tend to think that my kids and perhaps many other peoples kids often are more precocious in thought and action than we think.
Last night Josh went the entire night without eating. We had to help him back to sleep a few times, but we are on our way to him sleeping all night long. For my wife this is a wonderful thing. She will be able to sleep through the night when he does. This is mainly because of breast feeding. I just don't seem able to do it! Josh is becoming quite an amazing little boy. He is so interactive and follows our every move with beautiful eyes.
Yesterday my wife and I had to turn in several papers that verified our income, living situation and the existence of Josh for our welfare insurance. What a trial that is. Wow. Our greatest benefits were that we were organized and had done it before. Usually we have a few days or weeks to get it all together. This time we had only two days. It really did consume all that we did for a few days! I am glad that we are done. I did have to wait in line for an hour to drop the papers off which was quite a trial. Luckily that is much better than other times when I have had to wait longer than two hours. Ouch!
We have everything in and it will be interesting to see if we still are qualified for the free insurance. It is been wonderful to have while we were in school and especially in paying for out first 3 kids births entirely. Now though I feel ready to move on. They may tell us it is time to move on as well because we are doing a bit better than previously. I will like the continued support if we qualify, but if not then we are ready for what is next and totally believe that we aren't going to be on that forever. We will see.
Lately Alison and I have been trying very hard to pay off our debt. We have been trying hard to make smart decisions and are doing really well. The frustrating thing is how fast we have been able to proceed. Just recently we have had a second job open up for me back at the Desert Research Institute where I did my masters degree research. The good news is that it pays well and I will likely be able to do quite a bit there while still maintaining my current position. It will basically amount to about $5000 extra over the next few months. That is really nice and will go a long way towards helping out our financial goals. I am very grateful, and now a bit busier!
Today now that I don't have much to do I will be happy to go home and swim with my family (whenever I get home)!
Monday, July 06, 2009
Back at Work
Well I am back at work after a long vacation. While I was gone they were doing a performance evaluation of one of my coworkers to determine if they can make the cut and be a valuable employee. The evaluation consisted of a bunch of scientific test they needed to do all by themselves to show that they are competent here at the Environmental Protection Agency Science Lab I work at.
I actually started work last Thursday but everyone was gone but my coworker. Friday I worked a bit more and it was only me. So today I kind of feel like is the first day of work because everyone else is here as well. Thursday I thought everything went well for my coworker. I am hoping that she does get a good evaluation and can keep her job, I am on her side.
Unfortunately it seems that she didn't do really well. I discovered today that she messed up both machines she was supposed to use, and miscalculated all her data on what she did get done. I have tried really hard to help her understand things better but I guess it didn't take. This does kind of support my suspicion that she doesn't really listen to much of what I say, or remember it at least.
Anyway she was trying to fix one machine she messed up today and I decided to just let her do it herself. In the end I saw her potentially messing it up more so I lent a hand. That may be an issue she faces, I just can't keep my hands out of work. I really like to help and fix things. My little boy is just the same. I can see why I get frustrated with him. He is just like me!
Well the machine is fixed. I would say that is was mostly my direction that helped it get done. I was working on other things and realized that she was waiting for me (after 2 hours). So I made a suggestion and it going again. Oh well. I really don't have a lot of spite for her, I just wish that she could do better for herself (it would also save me a lot of work).
This morning I had one of my nicer morning. I was able to see all my kids really happy before I headed off to work. I was eating toast with my boy Zach and when I finished mine he said that I needed more so that we could still be eating together. He was enjoying himself as well. That makes me really happy to hear. He also helped my make the orange juice. He really is becoming a lot of fun and quite useful in his desire to help out and to be involved. These nice moments are great to have in light of the really frustrating ones that drive parents crazy. Like last night when he wouldn't pick up his blocks. We tried so many things to help him get going. I guess there was just obstacles we couldn't see for him. It ended up with us really frustrated, him really mad and them him falling asleep in his tears. I guess the line of needed the kid to do it your way and breaking their fragile will's (or hearts) is a hard one to walk.
Parenting does have a lot more benefits then negatives. That helps me keep going in the end.
I actually started work last Thursday but everyone was gone but my coworker. Friday I worked a bit more and it was only me. So today I kind of feel like is the first day of work because everyone else is here as well. Thursday I thought everything went well for my coworker. I am hoping that she does get a good evaluation and can keep her job, I am on her side.
Unfortunately it seems that she didn't do really well. I discovered today that she messed up both machines she was supposed to use, and miscalculated all her data on what she did get done. I have tried really hard to help her understand things better but I guess it didn't take. This does kind of support my suspicion that she doesn't really listen to much of what I say, or remember it at least.
Anyway she was trying to fix one machine she messed up today and I decided to just let her do it herself. In the end I saw her potentially messing it up more so I lent a hand. That may be an issue she faces, I just can't keep my hands out of work. I really like to help and fix things. My little boy is just the same. I can see why I get frustrated with him. He is just like me!
Well the machine is fixed. I would say that is was mostly my direction that helped it get done. I was working on other things and realized that she was waiting for me (after 2 hours). So I made a suggestion and it going again. Oh well. I really don't have a lot of spite for her, I just wish that she could do better for herself (it would also save me a lot of work).
This morning I had one of my nicer morning. I was able to see all my kids really happy before I headed off to work. I was eating toast with my boy Zach and when I finished mine he said that I needed more so that we could still be eating together. He was enjoying himself as well. That makes me really happy to hear. He also helped my make the orange juice. He really is becoming a lot of fun and quite useful in his desire to help out and to be involved. These nice moments are great to have in light of the really frustrating ones that drive parents crazy. Like last night when he wouldn't pick up his blocks. We tried so many things to help him get going. I guess there was just obstacles we couldn't see for him. It ended up with us really frustrated, him really mad and them him falling asleep in his tears. I guess the line of needed the kid to do it your way and breaking their fragile will's (or hearts) is a hard one to walk.
Parenting does have a lot more benefits then negatives. That helps me keep going in the end.
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