Well I got on the computer almost 2 hours ago to write in my journal and instead wasted my life away reading political commentaries on FB about the disaster that is called Donald Trump! We just had Super Tuesday yesterday where Donald Trump won 6 states, Cruz won 2 and Rubio won none. Ben Carson is still in the race but expected to drop out soon, leaving just Cruz and Rubio to fight the disaster that is Donald Trump that is somehow sweeping our nation.
Anyway I wanted to give an update on February before I forgot everything that happened!
First, my heart. So I went in and had an Echocardiogram, which is a fancy term for an ultrasound on my heart. I was SURE that I had heart disease and spent several weeks freaking out about it. However, on the ultrasound, my pulse was down to the 80 bpm range, and they could see no heart muscle damage or start of heart disease. I was so relieved! However I also know that there have been times when my heart races (which they did catch on the Holter monitor), leaving me out of breath and dizzy. They aren't sure why that happens, so just told me to keep an eye on it and come back in if I was ever having problems. So for now, no heart damage from pregnancy or genetic heart disease. Phewww.
We had a lovely Valentine's day. For the weekend we had planned to go to the temple with another couple, eat at a nice restaurant and then do a temple session. Well Trina and Josh had to back out last minute, but it's so hard to align the logistics of going to the temple, so we decided to go. This also meant leaving Levi with a babysitter for longer than he had ever been left: 6 hours. We were a little nervous because for the last month or so he's been super clingy and traumatized when I leave him. When I went to see Grandma Kay in the hospital, I left Levi with my Aunt Diane for about an hour and a half and he cried the entire time. Both he and she were traumatized. It was the next day that we were scheduled to go to the temple. We had arranged for Brooklyn Johnson to watch him, a young lady in our ward that lives just up the street and whom Levi has loved in church. So we dropped him off and drove away just hoping it would be ok. Well, he cried the. entire. time. The WHOLE TIME. Except for about 30 minutes when he conked out from exhaustion, and then finally went to bed at 11pm. He was still breathing in little arrested breaths when he was sleeping and we picked him up. Poor little guy!
The next evening we decided to go out again because the Sandstone Grill up in Hannah had Steak and crab/shrimp for $25/person (or so we thought. It ended up being super expensive), and decided just to bring him with us to avoid traumatizing him again. He's sure cute but he's exhausting too!
We got our tax refund back this year- about $4700 from the Feds and $250 from the State. We paid over $12k in tithing this year, and had write-offs for about $40k, so we only had to pay tithing on about $50k, which was nice. I hate paying more than 10% in taxes. We ended up paying about $5500 in taxes to the Feds this year. Michael also got an annual bonus of about $2700. Anyway, with that money we decided to fix up Michael's truck ($1000 for new brakes, AC, safety inspection, and radio), lay a little paverstone walkway from our driveway to our house- which was lots of fun to do. We also spent an evening measuring and calculating how much cubic yards of cement we would need if we were to pour sidewalks and make patios out back. About a truck load, which would be about $1100, in case you were wondering. :) We also decided to install AC in our house- $2700, put $2000 in savings, and some toward other savings goals we have. So technically for the month of Feb. we brought in about $11k, but we use about $4700 for living expenses each month, and put the rest toward projects and savings, leaving us $26 at the end of the month until next paycheck. :) Crazy how fast it goes!
One of our New Year's resolutions was to get a budget together and live within our means. So we set up a budget based on what Michael brings home (after putting money aside each month for an HSA and a significant amount- 8%, which is matched by Newfield- away for retirement). His gross income is about $80k/year- plenty to live on! But after taxes, retirement and HSA, his net take home is closer to $50k/year, or a little more than $4k/month. That's a different story! Then we pay about $700/month for tithing on our gross earnings, $1330 for our mortgage (that's half of all our money gone already!), $600 for bills and utilities like cell phone, internet, water, electricity, etc. $250/month for gas and about $400/month for food. There you go. That's already $4250/month spent and that's without saving for anything. Truth be told, we live most comfortably on about $4750/month- and somehow that extra $500 often manages to come in through random refunds, stuff we sell, birthday money or whatever. But I'm really really really trying to just live on what Michael brings home each month so we don't have to hustle each month. It's crazy to think he makes close to a gross of $7000/month, but we actually only have about $600/month to live on for food and gas. All the rest is committed to bills. Isn't that crazy? It's like less than 10% of what he actually earns. Anyway, as you can tell I'm a bit fanatic about getting the numbers aligned. They are always on my mind, and how to make up that $500-$1000 gap so we can save for things like Christmas, travel, birthdays, pets, car maintenance, home projects, etc.
I'm kind of at a place in life now with Levi where I feel like I have a few hours a day I could use to work on something at home or otherwise to make money, but haven't found that right fit yet. My friend Heather Grant continually hits me up for doTerra and wants me to be a sales rep. We just found out that her husband will be quitting his building business in the next 3 years to join her in her business ventures full-time. It sure would be fun to work with them but I'm just not passionate about oils at all.
So I started a diet this month. That was my goal for February, to start losing weight. I was doing the Take Shape for Life/Medifast diet with Deanna last year when I got pregnant with Levi. I bought all of this expensive food, and then ended up not using a lot of it, so I decided to pick that up again. When I got pregnant with Levi I weighed just under 200lbs. I gained 35 lbs. with Levi, and immediately lost 20 when he was born, but was too scared to do any sort of dieting while he was breast feeding. So he kind of weened himself at 7 months, so I decided it was time to start dieting. I knew the first 3 days would be miserable, and that I wouldn't be eating any sugar or carbs so I spent the previous weekend (Valentine's day) binge eating all delicious food. But then, after my heart test on Tuesday I started. I knew the first 3 days were the most difficult but I was so miserable! I was cranky, tired, emotional. I yelled at my husband about politics and was short on patience with Levi. And then it hit me. My first period since getting pregnant. Talk about bad timing! The PMS was so bad and so were the cramps! It was miserable, and I bled for 5 days. I certainly haven't missed periods. But I'm also sort of relieved that they are back because that means things are still working. Maybe we can have another baby. :)
Anyway, with the diet, it's officially been 2 weeks. When I started I weighed 218 lbs. I am now down to 205! Down 15 lbs. I love that the first two weeks of dieting you see the best results. I'm sure from here on out it will be much slower, like 2-3lbs. per week. And I have to admit I'm losing some resolve. I make up for what I can't eat by making delicious food for my husband, including cookies and desserts. But then I end up sneaking in bites or even whole cookies sometimes. I hope I can keep it up and not gain it all back. It feels really good to fit into some old clothes again and not feel so fat. I've felt like a blob for so long and I HATE buying size 18 pants. I'd like to get back down to a size 12-14. I think that's reasonable. I'd like to weigh about 170. But we'll see. That's 35 more pounds.
For March my goal was to start exercising. I bought a bike with a trailer on it that I can use to pull Levi in, but haven't tried it yet. The spring winds are picking up and on windy days there's a constant 25 MPH wind blowing, which is no fun to be in. I have a gym membership, but haven't figured out what to do with Levi while I'm working out. I'll figure something out.
Michael's last days off were Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. I sure like it when he is off Sundays and can come to church with me. We worked on projects all week. I love days like that. The weather has been warm, like 50-60 degrees, so it really feels like spring. Things are starting to bud and blossom even, but we know better. I'm sure it will snow again in March or April. Anyway, Michael mounted the Mr. Buddy heater I got him for Christmas in our camper, and is pretty excited about that. We finished insulating the shed, and cleaned out everything- which was quite the ordeal considering the neighbor's cat had kittens in there and kept sneaking in all winter. There was cat hair and cat poop everywhere. Gross. Anyway, cleaned all that up, mounted my bike on the wall, hung and organized other stuff, cleaned off the bike and trailer that I bought that was covered in gross stuff. We got quite a lot done. It feels good to be productive and work with Michael. I love feeling like we accomplished something.
We had Sierra and Cynthia over Sunday night for dinner and again on Monday for FHE- although we ended up playing games with Trina for our FHE instead of having a lesson. Cynthia and Sierra Riker are two girls that live down the street that were just recently baptized. I've spent a lot of time with them in the missionary discussions, and giving them rides to places. They've had a pretty rough life and I have a lot of compassion for them. They live with their grandma and grandpa in a 5th wheel trailer and have been moved around from place to place their whole life. Their dad is in prison for sexually abusing them both when they were just little kids. They have nothing basically, and their grandma doesn't drive. So I've spent a lot of time giving them rides and opening our home to them so they have a positive role model with Michael and I. They love Levi and Levi loves them. They're like his sisters. We try to do uplifting activities with them, like watching church movies or doing FHE with them so they can keep learning about the gospel and have positive influences in their lives. Mostly it's a delight to serve them, but sometimes it can be overwhelming too. Almost every single day I am giving rides, serving them dinner, giving them clothes, taking them to Heber to shop for clothes, helping with homework, etc. But we love them, and they are good babysitters for Levi. :)
I spend a lot of time doing RS Presidency work right now as well. Almost every night of the week that Michael is working I am out doing visits. Every Wednesday night I host a 12 step meeting with Pat Mullins and Lori Wilkerson. They are a delight to be around and I really enjoy the time. Then I have Visiting Teaching- with a new companion, Cynthia Poulson, and new ladies that are challenging- 2 only speak Spanish, and the other 2 (Shawna Mounteer and Bobbi Jo Casper) have been less-active, if not hostile toward the church for years. This is our first month together and we've managed to make contact with each of them, so that's really good. But it took quite a bit of work. We spent all of January doing Visiting Teaching Interviews with every single Visiting Teacher in the ward- about 60 in total. A lot of work and a lot of time, but worth in. When I started in this calling 2 years ago, VT was at about 50% on average. Now it's about 75%, with the other 25% generally people who are on our records but no longer live in the ward. We're working on getting addresses to move them out of the ward. But I'm really proud of the progress.
Also 1 year ago I proposed a committee, the Rescue Committee, of ladies that would go out and visit less-active sisters and find them, warm them up, share a gospel message if possible, and let them know we love them. That committee has been tremendously successful at extending the reach of the Relief Society. Last month alone we had 30 additional contacts and about 15 lessons. So many nights I am out doing those visits as well. This last week we visited Morgan Fabrizio and Bobbi Jo Casper with Liberty Yates and it was delightful. I've gone out with Julie Hamilton a few times and Deb a few times as well. And of course there are always presidency visits to visit new sisters, ask sisters to be Visiting Teachers, teaching situation, food orders, etc. So lots of work to be done. It feels good to be building the kingdom and doing the work of the Lord, although exhausting and time consuming at times. I know the Lord is grateful for my willingness and he always blesses me with his Spirit in great abundance when I'm doing the work.
The next project to tackle is setting up a compassionate service committee. Right now all we do is Kaye Wilson arranges for people to get meals. However, that doesn't work for every situation. Sometimes people need flowers after an operation. Sometimes people need a visit or a special care package. Deployed soldiers and missionaries need letters. People with birthdays love a card in the mail. I got to take flowers to 5 people this month and it meant the world to them. So we're trying to find a way to keep those things going. I'm proud of that as well. It's hard to change the way things are done in a small town and with people who have done it a certain way for years. But I'm determined. It just takes time and persistent love. :)
We just got a new bishopric this last Sunday. I knew Bishop Spencer had been in for over 4 years so I figured it was coming up, but I didn't realize it was so soon. Darron Gatherum was called as the new bishop with Jared Torgerson and Matt Huffaker as his counselors. I'm excited for the change and for how capable these men are. It will be fun to see the changes the bring to the ward.
Well, I should probably wrap up for the night. My husband keeps calling to talk to me. He likes to call me at nights while he's working to talk, but I just relish the free time I have after Levi goes to bed. There's always so many things I want to do. But today is kind of special. Today, 3 years ago is when Michael and I had our first date. I love it. I can't believe how wonderful my life is with him and our little buddy. So much joy. He's 8 and 1/2 months now and so close to walking. He's so fun. He loves being with his mom and dad. I love watching him grow up.
Until next time!
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