B’s blog

This is our new nephew Blake, Christine’s baby

Braden couldn’t get enough of Blake! He was all over him. This picture looks like he’s trying to cover his mouth though.

Big sister Riley (2yrs)

Avery told us this morning that he is going to another teacher’s room to take some tests. This is the testing for the WINGS program that we nominated him for. I’m glad to hear they are starting the testing and they didn’t tell him what it was for. He said the book is 90 pages long! Also he said it was challenging which I’m pretty sure he enjoys. Some kids get so nervous and anxious about it but it doesn’t seem to make A that way. The WINGS program is a talented and gifted program in our school district for 2nd-5th grade.

Kim has been working with Jaelyn on letter sounds. She sometimes doesn’t recognize some letters and certainly has no grip on sounds yet. Maybe preschool could have worked with her on that had she actually gone to a program but hopefully in the next 6 months before she’s off to kindergarten, she’ll get better at it. It’s not like she has to know how to read the first day of school anyways. She’s loves to draw. I have to actually limit how many pieces of paper she can use in a day because she steals my printer paper and leaves pictures and “books” that she’s made all over the house. It’s cute to help her put one of her “books” together with the stapler and hear what story she has come up with in her head. She’s definitely creative.

Braden is Braden. He’s so funny. I can’t believe how a baby can have a sense of humor at this age but he does. Out of the blue he’ll say, “Mommy, knock knock.” Then I say, “who’s there.” Then he says, “poop” and laughs his head off. I don’t get where he got that from but somewhere along the lines, he thought it was funny and now says it all the time. He’s curious about everything. Likes to figure out how things work.

We got another letter from the little girl and her mom that we sponsor in Zimbabwe. The mom sent us a very nice letter saying how thankful she was the Bridget got sponsored so quickly. It’s been good for our kids to hear the letters and understand why it is we give to World Vision in the first place. It’s been fun for them to know they have a “sister in Christ” out there all the way across the world.

I have this coming weekend off. 4 days in a row to be exact! I only have 3 weeks before my sister flies into town. I’m so excited to have her here for a while. We have lots of catching up to do. I can’t believe tomorrow is the first day of March either. We’ve been Texas residents now for almost 8 months.

For some reason, Erik and I had a conversation last night about where we wanted to be buried if one of us dies. We never did really come to a conclusion. He said he wouldn’t care because he’d be dead. I told him I’ll cremate him and put him on the mantel. We joke now but someday we may have to face that decision and I’d like to sort of know what our plans/wishes are. He thinks he’d stay in Texas with the kids, mostly because his mom is here and she could help with the kids. Plus he loves his job. I think I’d move to Marshall and live with my parents with the kids until I figured out what to do. But where would we want the service to be? I’d want to maybe have it in Des Moines. If you have to fly a dead body back on an airplane does it cost the same as a ticket? I guess this is morbid to talk about but one nevers knows when their last moment on earth could be so it’s good to be prepared and discuss this stuff with your loved ones. I took care of a lady with end stage liver failure this weekend. She was only 56 and her daughter was in her 20’s. I saw how unprepared this girl was as she was starring death in the face and was having to deal with insurance companies, nursing homes for her mom. It wasn’t like she didn’t know it was going to happen soon, it was that she wasn’t prepared. But can anyone really be prepared for the loss of a parent or anyone they love? Then down the hall, another mom is also towards the end but her daughter is at peace with it. It was just eye opening for me. Most times we are scared to talk about death, even Christians. I think death is a part of life. I think you can find peace in it if you know Christ. Death can be peaceful and a beautiful thing. It’s sad for those left behind too soon, or unexpectedly. But in some cases it’s an end to suffering, like in these 2 cases this weekend. Since we are on the topic, I highly suggest that people get their end of life wishes written down and handed out to family that may someday be faced with difficult decisions. We had another case this last month where the patient had a living will and because she was in a confused state, the family had the decision making authority. They decided that they wanted everything done for their mom because they didn’t want to have that guilt for not trying everything possible. The mom specifically had written that she didn’t want anything done. But somewhere in that document she drew up years ago it stated, “if I’m deemed mentally unable to make decisions for myself, I will leave it up to my family.” So it was sort of a touchy thing. She didn’t want to be kept alive. That was her wishes when she was alert and able to decide that. I don’t feel it was fair for them to take that away from her in her dying days. All I;m saying is have your ducks in a row today because God may come for you tomorrow.

So we’ve been taking the Good Sense class with our Life Group and this past week I have been crunching numbers and FINALLY after all these years of just spending my money any way I want, I did it! I created a budget! Complete with what bills get paid with what paycheck. There’s no way that we shouldn’t be able to tithe and save like we are suppose too. The class taught me that in our culture we pay our lifestyle first, our debt 2nd, ourselves (savings) third, and others (giving) last. If you are Christian and are trying to live a Christian life you want to reverse that. Give, Save, Debt, Lifestyle. So that’s what I did. I set it up that way and we made the decision that with every raise we get, we are just going to put it into savings. We also are going to do the snowball debt repayment theory. When one debt is paid off, take that minimum payment and roll it into the next debt on the list. A good friend of ours from church is the director of accounting for KSBJ and she actually took our loans and made an ammortization schedule for us. I’m anxious to see it work. But I’m more proud I took it seriously and now have it all on a spreadsheet…color-coded no less! You’ve heard before most likely that God will make things work if you tithe. Maybe not in those words but you get the picture. Yesterday, as I was finishing up with the budget legwork, I walked to the mailbox to find a check from our mortgage company for an overpayment of our escrow! This has happened SEVERAL times to us so my eyes are open wide now! I’m pretty sure this is called faith. My faith has been tested so much these last 9 months and God has shown me the way through it all. I’ve crossed that line now and given our finances to Him. Prayers please for commitment from Erik and myself in using God’s money the way God has intended us too.

Yesterday was mid 80’s! I was working so only got to enjoy it for about 20 minutes, during my breaks. I’m training a new nurse at work for the next 3 weeks. Should be fun because I really like this girl already. Yesterday was our first day together. She’s single, no kids, been a nurse downtown at a big teaching hospital for a year. Now she’s at Kingwood to be closer to home.

Erik has a big meeting with a new software company this afternoon in downtown Houston for KSBJ. They had so many problems with the last new system that they had to finally surrender and sent it back. So he’ll be busy with getting something up and running once they decide on a system to use.

American Idol is getting fun to watch. Erik and I like Paris for the girls (I like Kathryn too) and for the guys he likes Taylor Hicks and I like Chris and Taylor. It’ll be a hard competition this season I think. Erik can’t believe that 16 yr old boy with the glasses has made it this far. He thinks he’s nerdy. I agree but he’s an underdog and I like to see them do well. I don’t like Brenna’s attitude and I don’t like Ayla because she’s too good at everything…give someone else a break. Should be interesting this season.

Avery is going to be in an assembly at school on April 17th. He sang me one of the songs and the boy can hold a tune! We are wanting to take the kids to Veggie Tales Live put on by KSBJ (free tickets for us!) on April 21st.

I get updates on flight prices through Orbitz and just yesterday prices from Houston to DSM were up to $950 per ticket during the time we are coming back. SO WE ARE DRIVING! It’s official. We may or may not rent an SUV just for the security of getting there and back without any car problems. I’m not sure the van is up for the trip back and home again. For those that miss Sprinkles, we’ll be taking her too so we don’t have to kennel her. Don’t worry Mom, we’ll bring our kennel to keep her in when we are away from the house and she can spend some time in the garage too. But being gone from us for that long might not be good for her as she was abandoned by 2 other families before we bought her. And she’s part of the family too so she’s coming.

My hands get sweaty, I get a nervous stomach. I hate tax time! Every year I worry if we will have to pay but we always have received a refund. I get myself so worked up it’s actually entertaining for Erik by now. My old tax guy used to make me crazy because he’d rock back and forth as he was preparing our taxes and he wouldn’t say anything positive throughout the whole thing. He’d make comments like, “oh that’s not good” just to watch me sweat. Then he and Erik would get a good laugh from it. We actually loved going to Army Post Accounting when Ken was there. He found us so much money it wasn’t even funny! Now that we are here, I did my taxes on Turbo Tax. Each year I do our taxes on Turbo Tax just to get a heads up on what’s about to come but never file with them. Ken always found us thousands of dollars that I overlooked. THOUSANDS! So going to him was always better than doing it myself. I was hesitant this year of having to actually push the file button on TT. But all things considering, I think we made out pretty good. I cashed out some of my 401K to help pay for our move down here and so I was afraid that was going to bite me in the butt. Can you believe that from what we are getting back total and what I have left to pay on my student loan, it’s only a $100+ some change difference? Guess it’s meant to be that I pay off the loan and be done with it!

For the first time in our whole married life I feel like we have a grip on our money situation. It’s a great feeling to cross out a monthly bill from the list. My goals this year were to pay off 3 of our bills. By December I should have that done! I already have one paid off and with the tax refund, the 2nd one will be checked off the list too.