Pres. Hinckley Quote and Bonuses

"The world needs the touch of women and their love, their comfort, and their strength. Our harsh environment needs their encouraging voices, the beauty that seems to fall within their natures, the spirit of charity that is their inheritance. The God in whom so many of us believe has endowed His daughters with a unique and wonderful capacity to reach out to those in distress, to bring comfort and succor, to bind up wounds and heal aching hearts, and, most of all, to rear children with love and understanding." GBH

"In my quiet moments, I think of the future with all of its wonderful possibilities and with all of its terrible temptations. I wonder what will happen to you in the next 10 years. Where will you be? What will you be doing? That will depend on the choices you make, some of which may seem unimportant at the time but which will have tremendous consequences." (Gordon B. Hinckley, "Stay on the High Road," Ensign, May 2004, 112-113)

"Do you want the windows of heaven opened to you? Do you wish to receive blessings so great there is not room enough to receive them? Always pay your tithing and leave the outcome in the hands of the Lord." (Joseph B. Wirthlin, "Earthly Debts, Heavenly Debts," Ensign, May 2004, 41)

Bi-Weekly Menu

This is going to be short and sweet.

F- Pizza Night

Sa- frozen pizza

Su- breakfast burritos, oj

M- lasagne, salad, cheesy garlic bread

Tu- chicken enchiladas, spanish rice

W- Italian sausage and peppers, french bread, salad

Th- broccoli, chicken and rice casserole, salad, rolls

F-Th- Will be in Utah and will determine daily!!

Free fun is the best kind of fun!

Friday started off stressful but got much better by the end of the day. It was pay day which is always a relief that we made it through another 2 weeks but when we realize how much we have to pay and how little we have it's super stressful and it really wears on me. I hate struggling this bad with money issues- I HATE it! We just need to have more faith, pay our tithing and put more effort into making it better. I'm usually the one that handles all our finances- paying bills, balancing our account and budgeting. I have realized that I am a control freak and I have trust issues in that I think I'm the only one that can do things right or in the best way. I know this is my weakness and no one else's fault and I take full accountablity for it. I'm really trying to work on this. So when Robert said he would kind of take over I was very hesitant and scared and had a hard time letting go of that responsibility. But in an effort to keep with my goal of letting go and trusting others (especially my husband) I let it go and it's been going very well. There's definitely room for improvement in what we're doing but it has been better. I think Robert just seeing for himself how hard it is to make the money stretch and physically seeing where it has to go and realizing we need to stick to the budget in order to survive has helped so much. So after getting that stuff done in the morning I took Robert to work and then I went to Wal-Mart to do some grocery shopping. Oh how I've missed my dear Wal-Mart and their low prices. I was still feeling stressed and worried but after a prayer to ease my stress I was feeling much better and hopeful. After we made it home we did our thing for a little while and then I decided since I had the van, to get out of the house for a little bit. We left and looked for the public library and after a lot of driving around and a call to Robert to look up the directions for me we finally found it. It's a tiny little trailer...lol. I'm sure it will get bigger eventually. I was sad to find out I couldn't get a card since I forgot to bring my new license with our new address on it. Oh well... at least I know where it's at now. After that we went to Fry's and got some stamps and a couple of things I forgot at Wal-Mart, went through the Jack In the Box drive-thru and then we went to the one public park in Maricopa, Pacana Park. It was pretty fun... Baily had a blast since there were a lot more kids there than at our own little park. After that we went home, I fed Joaquin and we left to pick up Robert at work. On the way there I noticed the traffic on the way back was way backed up due to an accident. So when we got Robert I told him we needed to go somewhere to avoid the traffic. He called his sister to see what she was up to and she said she was at Jungle Jim's Playland not too far away. She told us to come by since she was gonna be there for a while longer. So we headed there. However Baily didn't have any shoes since I thought we were just gonna go get Robert and come home. And she looked homeless with her hair wild and messy clothes. But we couldn't go home and get some so we stopped at Walgreens to get her some cheap flip flops. The smallest they had were women's size small but I got them anyway. They were huge on her...lol. She loved them though and she still insists on wearing them like everyday. Too funny. Anyway she had so much fun playing with her cousins Bryan and Tyler and seeing her Tio (it's actually supposed to be Tia but she calls her Tio) and her La-la. And as a bonus to Robert and I she got to ride all the rides for free without having to get a wristband. It was only like an hour and a half before they closed and thankfully the teenage boys working there just didn't care. Sweet. That saved us like $8. Wahoo! When it came time to go Baily was not happy. She kept screaming that she wanted to go with her Tio. About half way home she finally stopped crying. We stopped at Barro's and got our traditional Friday night pizza and went home, ate and crashed. Although it was stressful at first, the day ended very well.

366 Blessings:

#67- My dad!

It starts...

Thursday was a very long time ago but I've been putting off posting for way too long so this is what I can remember about it and the days following. Up until Thursday Baily has not been into the whole princess thing like so many of the other little girls I know. We even tried to buy her a princess dress for her cousin's princess birthday party but she didn't want it. She told me she wouldn't wear it. So I just got her this little tiara and jewelry set. It had been sitting in the packaging at the top of the coat closet ever since we bought it. Well on Thursday Baily just all of a sudden decided she wanted to play princess. She told me to put her princess dress and shoes on and the hat (tiara). I was pretty surprised and wasn't sure if I was hearing her right. But when I got her all dressed up she was so excited to play princess. She kept all her garb on for about an hour and I could hear her in her room just chatting away and having a blast. It was so precious. So I guess I better prepare myself for the princess days to come. Later on that day I heard some pretty sad news from a family member about a family member and it really broke my heart. It really made me take a look at what I can do better to be a better family member to this person and made me really appreciate my many blessings. I got a whole new perspective from this experience and I really realized how much I love my family. I'm so blessed and I would die if I ever lost any one of them. I'm so grateful for the knowledge I have of the Plan of Salvation and my testimony of this gospel. That whole experience really was life changing for me. Anyway, on tv that night the top 12 for AI were announced and I pretty much called it except for A'siah. I'm excited for this top 12 though. And Lost ended up being really good that night. They actually even answered a few questions which was nice for a change. And that's all I can remember about Thursday.

366 Blessings:

#66- My step-mom Patty

I heart American Idol!!

Yesterday went pretty well. I felt energized and productive and I got a lot done as far as the house goes in the morning. I did laze around and watch tv with Baily for a while but it was sweet. We just cuddled up and had fun laughing and giggling together which I love. I took them to the park again and it was a little breezy but nice. There were some other kids there and Baily had fun playing with her new "fwends." She kept running sprints all over the field. I don't know if you can tell but she's way in the back of this picture. She did a lot of running. After we got home and I got dinner started she passed out... she definitely wore herself out at the park. American Idol was really good again. This definitely has to be the best week so far- one of my favorite seasons so far. Brooke was my favorite and I really liked Carly Smithson. I was not a big fan of hers at first but she's growing on me. Plus the song she sang is like one of my very favorites (the Cyndi Lauper version though). My picks to go home are Amanda for sure and either Kady or Kristy Lee. For dinner we had some delicious chicken salad croissants. Baily woke up for dinner and since she had like a 2 hour nap so late it took her quite a while to fall asleep. She was playing with my hair (which I love) for like an hour while we were in bed. She finally fell asleep though sometime after Robert and I did. And that's my day. The end.

366 Blessings:

#65- Taste Buds