A blessing in disguise

About 2 weeks ago we had an interesting day. We were heading down to Salt Lake City from Heber City so that Todd could go to scouts. After several delays, we were almost an hour late arriving in Salt Lake, but we were still going to get to scouts on time, but we missed our exit off the freeway because we couldn't get over in time.

As we arrived at the off ramp for the next exit, we had come to a complete stop as well as the 3 cars behind us. Unfortunately the 4th car behind us didn't stop. After plowing into the rear end of the first car he tried to veer to the left, popped his tire and bounced down the row of cars ending on us. All 4 of the cars were completely totaled, with axles, glass and shards of metal everywhere. We were the only ones to be able to drive away from the accident. One lady was taken to the hospital, but everyone else was fine.

Needless to say we didn't make it to scouts that night.

Now most people would think that this would be a completely negative experience, but we have been extrordinarily blessed. Although the damage to our car was minimal, the value of our car is also fairly inexpensive, so our car was considered totaled and we were given a check for $4000 to replace it. As Todd has been out of work for some time, this has been a huge blessing to pay bills and build our savings a bit more. Every experience is for our good, whether we see it or not. We have been so blessed to be safe and make some money at the same time.

All business

The past month we have been frantically working with our partners to start up our business. After several hiccups with finding a suitable and affordable location, and having our bank back out on us, we have finally found new funding and a new location. After we get funding, we hope to open the store in less than 3 weeks!!! crossing our fingers!!!

The lawn of time... and other stuff

It is amazing how fast children grow up. As a sat under a tree with my neighbor across the street, I realized that it wasn't that long ago that we were both sitting under that exact same tree wishing our babies were out of our bellies so we could breathe again. Now 15 months later my little one is walking all over the house, discovering the world around him. He loves being outside, he literally hangs on the doorknob in the mornings screaming to get out and see the world. He loves dirt, all kinds of dirt. Sand from his sandbox is found everywhere. When I open the door to the backyard, that is where he is headed. In the front yard he loves helping me pull weeds. . . and flowers, out of the flowerbed and he loves helping me water the lawn while squirting himself with the hose.

My lawn is actually turning green now. . . and it actually looks like a lawn!! Early this spring my lawn was infested with weeds, so thick you couldn't see anything but weeds.After trying 2 different kinds of weed-be-gone to no avail I resorted to desperate measures. Every day I went out to my lawn and weeded. Eventually I weeded by hand the entire 1500 square feet of it. Maybe that is why Ben likes being outside so much, he is used to spending 3-4 hours a day just playing in dirt while I weed.

We are abundantly blessed. Although we do not have stable work and a reliable job we somehow have work every day. When we wake up in the morning with no work to be had, we get started with breakfast, a call will come and Todd will be out the door heading for a new job. I think it is really hard on him to bounce around so much, but I do know that he loves being able to come home to Ben and me in the afternoons, even though leaving in the evenings are hard. We were planning on going up to Idaho to deliver phonebooks (thank you Cherie for finding that for us) but Todd was blessed again with a work opportunity that will last for 3 weeks. By then we are hoping to be opening the doors to our new business. Todd and I in partnership with our friends Adam and Kathryn Christensen have purchased a franchise called Husband and Wife. We are so excited for the opportunity to work hard to support our family. I never realized how much work it took opening a business, and I am so glad to have partners in this endeavor. Originally we were planning on doing it alone, but we are so glad to have Adam and Kathryn on board to share the workload and to help us get this going faster.

Carpet

Tomorrow I will have something I have been wishing for since I moved into our home 2 1/2 years ago. Carpet. A neighbor in our ward put carpet in carpet less than a year ago, and later decided to change to hardwood floors. They blessed us with that carpet and now we will have carpet in our living room and hallway. I am so excited!!!

Babysitting

I have recently started watching my next door neighbor's two young children ages 3 and 6 months. It has been an interesting experience. It has been very difficult, challenging and educational. I have learned what kind of parent I do and dont want to be. I have learned that a little bit of discipline go a long way and Danny, the 3 year old is a completely differant kid around me than his parents, he is completely obedient and alot nicer to his younger brother. Even though I will only be babysitting two days a week, I really feel like I have to plan ahead so I have ideas and plans for activities so that he is entertained without the nintendo or t.v. He is used to playing wii or watching t.v. about 8-10 hours a day, and I am trying to break him of the habit. I think it will be a good experience for me so that I can do better with my own children.

fun by numbers

I had a quite enjoyable activity a few weeks ago that was a blast. My really good friend and neighbor, Lindsay has a mother-in-law that is an expert coupon clipper and money saver. She Shared some of her coupons with us for Quaker cereal. Originally there was an ad in the Harmons and Macey's store that put their prices to get boxes of cereal 5 for $5 with a manufactures coupon provided in their ad. Smiths had the same 5 for $5 sale, without the coupon. So. . . If you take a manufatures coupon from one store ad, and take it to the store with the lowest price, you win! So. . . here is where the numbers come in. . .
1 car
2 excited mothers
$2.14 for 5 boxes of cereal (including tax)
3 tired, tiny children
4 carts worth of cereal (an kids)
5 kinds of cereal to choose from
6 different receipts (sold in groups of ten)
1 confused but friendly Sales clerk
2 trips to the bathroom for those being potty trained.
10000 angry glares as we checked out in the ONLY checkout line open


Then we went out to the car. . .
Thinking that the trunk was empty. . .
1 huge stroller
2 speaker boxes
3 tie down ropes
and a left shoe of her brother.

We then attempted to fill the car with all of our cereal, milk and a few other little purchases. after taking the stroller out, and stacking everything nicely we finally got all of the cereal in after putting some at the kids feet and 2 cases on my lap. As we go to get into the car we realize we forgot one thing. . . The stroller. So we took the tie down ropes and strapped it down to the top of the car and we were off with a symphony of children's crying in the backseat.

60 boxes of cereal $25
2 gallons of milk $3.50
Getting a steal on cereal and having a blast. . . Priceless

Birthdays

Ben is officially one year old now. He had a blast on his birthday when Mom and Dad gave him His very own Sandbox. We built it out of treated wood bought from the hardware store, cut into 4 foot lengths, and nailed together in a square. We put down some landscaping fabric to keep the weeds out and dug the area down so it was all nice and level. He loved just playing in the box but since we got him some sandbox toys we figured we would fill it up. So off to grandma and grandpa Smith's house we went where we filled 9 buckets full of sandy dirt and took it home. He played for over an hour in his little box, and we loved every minute watching and playing with him. Two days later (Saturday) we had his birthday party with friends and family.

He was blessed with lots of new toys, clothes and dishes! He loves driving his new trucks all over the house and Mommy is loving the new child locks, now he cant get into the cupboards (yay!!!).

Uncle David says that his present is to hold him on his birthday. He is a little nervous around babies, I think it because he his scared of them, they can be intimidating you know. He gave David some yarn which he has totally turned into a HUGE knot, but oh well, that is what it is for right?

Ben had fun in his sandbox and hanging out with Aunt Tiara and Aunt Taffy. Grandpa Wright decided to bury Ben alive, or at least his legs anyway. I don't think Ben liked that, but he had fun discovering his toes in the sand.

A finished project.

Today was monumental. I have been working on this beautiful wood table for several months now, with several setbacks and dissapointments. Literally blood, sweat and tears went into it, and after all of this hard work, I am finally done! The hardest step by far was the sanding and staining. I am suprising Todd's family with it tomorrow when theystop by for a visit! I am so excited. I am finally done, and now I get to start my next big project!

My mom is planning on finishing a table that she purchased from my grandmother since she is moving into a smaller basement apartment and cannot take it with her. Fortunately the stripping process does not have to take place, and all we have to do is sand, stain and finish it. I think it will be fun to work on it with her.

What am I thinking?!?

It will be fun to work with my mom, and I guess it will be a good lesson in patience. ha ha.

Well here it goes again!

Ben and his Dadadaadada

Ben loves his daddy so much, if he leaves while Ben is asleep, he will wake up promptly and start to whimper. When he leaves for work, Ben chases him trying to keep him from going. When Todd comes home from work, there Ben is racing to the door. Sometimes, when I tell him that Daddy is coming home, he will crawl over to the window and wait for his Daddy to arrive. Yesterday was a big day for our little family. As Ben was playing in the living room Todd came home from work, as soon as Ben heard him he raced into the kitchen and started babbling dadddda, daddddda daaaddaaa. Ben has said Dadda before, but not in regards to his beloved daddy, now it has clicked and Ben is calling his daddy every time he walks into the room. Luckily enough I didn't have to wait to long for him to say mamma. This morning as he was playing with his toys, he looked up, reached for me and said Mamamama. Again, he has said it before, but it mostly meant "I'm hungry feed me NOW!!!"

Good news!

As some of you know, I have been working on refinishing a table for some time now. After becoming disheartened with it all with my last staining attempt I have finally gotten back on the ball, for the past few weeks I have been meticulously re-sanding all of the old stain off. Last week I worked feverishly to stain the table top, and today, this miraculous snowy day, I have successfully completed staining the ENTIRE thing! I know I am going to have to do some touch ups as soon as it dries, but it has been very exciting to see the whole thing the color it will be.

Next stop, The last and finishing touch, the polyurethane!

A day with the family

Today was alot of fun for me, I got to go over to my parent's house and help them put up sheetrock for their new apartment. I learned a really cool trick on how to pull out nails when their heads are all bent out of shape, and I liked watching my brothers Jared and David with my dad. I think now that I am older I appreciate my relationship with my parents more, and see them more as human beings than just "mom" or "dad". After working for several hours we were all pretty tired. Todd and I got the wonderful opportunity to go out to dinner with my parents. Although nothing profound was said, it was nice just to be together as part of our family.

Ben was HILARIOUS! We got him a plate of finger foods from the salad bar. We then proceeded to put the olive slices on his fingers. It was so fun to watch him explore his fingers in a whole new way. He did suck on them for a second, but it seems like everything that went into his mouth also fell out. Whether intentionally or not, I am not sure. He also kind of learned how to drink from a straw. We were giving him water by plugging one side of the straw and then letting the water fall into his mouth. When he started to suck on it to get more water I just filled it up, gave it to him and then quickly stuck the other end into the water cup. He got it! Well. . . at least for a few seconds. Given a few more tries and I think he will have it!

itsy bitsy teeny weeny pink polka dotted table

Way back when. . .ok last October, I received a table from Todd's parents to refinish for some extra Christmas money. My goal, at the time, was to finish the table by Thanksgiving. Yeah. . . it didn't happen. After Todd was laid off and the holidays started creeping closer, the table was placed on the back burner.

After Christmas I set a new goal to have it completed before the open house for Tad and Destiny's wedding on March 5th. I have been working every last minute to complete it on time. After each step I knew I was that much closer to completion. First stripping it of it's old paint, second an after wash to neutralize the stripper. Next, sanding. I hate sanding, but alas after an entire week of sanding to perfection I was ready for the most rewarding step, Staining. Today was the monumental day of staining, or so I thought it would be. I had everything I needed laid out before me, I take the brush and begin. It was a glorious 3 seconds before I realized that something was Dreadfully Wrong. little tiny dots start appearing all over my project like pouring water on a greasy surface. After trying frantically to gently rub it in, or brushing it back and forth praying that it will go away, it did not. After making a few phone calls they say that it would only happen if I didn't do an after wash (which I did) or if I didn't sand it (which I also did). They say that the only way to resolve it is to sand it back down and start all over. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! After waiting 15 minutes for the stain to penetrate to see the true damage, I wipe off the extra stain, and yet another setback. The table is now pink. Not the beautiful mahogany color I was striving for. I am waiting to hear back from a woodworking expert for some guidance on this one. But until then I have itsy bitsy teeny weeny polka dots on my pink table.

wedding plans

Todd's brother Tad is getting married on March 12th. Destiny, his fiance is also Teddy's (Todd's sister) Best Friend. Last week we got the wonderful opportunity to see Destiny's wedding dress at the fitting and alterations session at the store. All the girls on the Wright side came. All in all there were 8 of us, yeah we barely fit in the room, but it was fun to share in her excitement and help her plan her perfect day.

At first I didn't think she wanted me to be a part of the whole thing cause everyone except me will be wearing matching dresses and every time I gave a little tidbit of info I had I felt like it was more of a neusance than a help. However, She came over yesterday and asked if we could spend some time working out her wedding plans cause she has so much to do, and values my opinion. It may sound silly, but I am really trying to be friends with Tad and Destiny, maybe I try to hard, but I think it would be nice to have a few more married friends and I genuinely want to help

Updates on Life

Well. . . as you may remember Todd was laid off from work in early November. We have finally started back on track! We got a job working as newspaper carriers for a local newspaper. On average we will be delivering about 1500 papers a day for 5 days a week! It is alot of work, for both Todd and I, but it will pay the bills, and if we work really hard a bit extra. Todd is also working for a company called Court Ops. They serve summons and complaints for the Third district court. It is a very rewarding job, but very part time. They have TONS of work to do, but you have to be able to catch people when they are home, which is mostly in the evenings and Saturdays. I miss him but it is a good job and we get to hang out in the middle of the day which most couples don't get to do! Last week we got to go to a company party for Court Ops, and it was a ton of fun. It really helped motivate Todd to work even harder and gave me more comfort in seeing the kind of people who work in the company. Almost all of them are LDS, which is really nice to be able to be around people in a rough buisness that can have fun while not being vulgar.

Christmas is here! I am so excited to see people open the gifts that I have gotten for them! Today we are going over to my parents house and we are going to open presents together to allow the married couples a chance to have their own Christmas with just their families. We are all hoping that my sister's boyfriend will be there too, cause it is fun to get to know him, and he seems like a pretty cool guy for my sister, which would be AWESOME if he is and things work out! My sister is moving to the Ukraine for 6 months to teach English, I am more excited for her than if I were going myself!

Mobility

This week has been quite eventful for Ben. He has learned how to move! He has successfully learned how to crawl! We are so excited that he is finally mobile, but I am a little nervous now that he is since. . . well, now he can get into things!

Disneyland

Tad with his. . . ."girlfriend/fiance" (ok who knows what they are) goofing off at the disney shop Ben tried to eat Mickey's nose. . . but all in all Ben liked Mickey

We had a blast at Disneyland. We headed out at about 1:00 on Sunday afternoon, and met up with Tad and his girlfriend Destiny in Provo. After loading into Tad's car we were off! Ben was awesome in the car. When we were about 2 hours from Disneyland, We switched drivers and suddenly. . . the car wouldn't go. The clutch went out on Tad's car, so. . . we all crammed into the Tahoe (13 people in all) and made the rest of the journey all snuggled up close! We left Tad's car at a mechanics shop, and called them the next day to ask them to fix it. All in all. . . We arrived at 1:27 am at the Desert Inn. Then we fell quickly to sleep. The next morning at 7 am we ate breakfast at the hotel, and went to discover Disneyland!

It rained ALL DAY. . . well almost. all morning it was drizzly, and we were all brilliant enough to go on splash mountain when it stopped momentarily. Then it began to pour. By 11:00 we were all drenched and miserable, so we went back to the hotel and changed, ate lunch and we were back at it again. This time we went to California Adventure, which was alot of fun since I have never been there. And of course. . . it didn't rain the entire time we were changing and eating, but as soon as we got back into the park. . . we were walking in 2-3 inches of water, the skies were at it again!

My favorite ride was Screamin'. Of course it is a roller coaster, my favorite. Thankfully they have these passes called stroller passes that let you hop right onto the ride after your group goes through so you can ride too!

Ben got to ride the carousel, which he enjoyed quite a bit! He rode a purple otter.

The next morning we picked up a generator that Todd's dad won on E-bay, and we were on our way back home! We stopped in Barstow and picked up Tad's car. We got back at 5 am! Yeah. . . I am tired

the Good, the Bad and the Turkey

The Good. . .
Todd and I have a fun weekend ahead of us and we are super excited for it. Todd's dad is going down to California to pick something up that he bought on e-bay,and since he is going down there he may as well stop and spend a day in Disneyland, right? And why go alone? So, Todd, Ben and I are going to go down with him! It will be Ben's first time at Disneyland, not that he will remember it, but it will be fun for all of us.

The bad. . .
We have a ward Christmas party coming up soon and I am in charge of it. I was so preoccupied with it and everything else going on while I was making some bread dough, that I somehow lost my wedding ring. I am devastated to think that it is truely gone. I never take my ring off, even when I am making dough, but for some reason I did and I have no clue where it is! I have cleaned the kitchen 3 times, searched the garbage, checked the garbage disposal, everything I can think of! I am so sad that I have lost it, and I feel so weird without it on. I am just praying that I find it, and find it SOON! Every time I walk in the kitchen I think of my ring, and I want to cry!

The Turkey. . .
Like I said earlier I am in charge of the ward Christmas party. It has been an interesting experience. We are serving approximately 275 people. I have purchased 12 turkeys, and getting enough volunteers to cook them all took alot of luck and advertizing. I just hope everything goes well since there are a ton of other ward activities going on that day like a food drive and a sub for santa youth activity.

Life is busy but WONDERFUL. . . .I just need to find my ring and it will be almost perfect!

Thank you everyone who have been concerned for Todd and me, my last post was mostly for me to voice my gratitude for finding a new job, almost 50% of our ward here in Sandy is out of work, Many of them have bigger families than ours. We were so grateful to find a new job so quickly because we have seen how hard it is for others to do so. I used to think that we were secure in our job because they laid off 20 other people just a month previously to our termination. Things worked out, and we are truly grateful to have Heavenly Father taking care of us.

The Blessing of Work

On our anniversary we had a turn of events that was fairly unexpected. Todd was laid off from work, and since he quit his other job 2 weeks prior, we were left without an income. Fortunately we have been searching for a new job for quite some time, and we found a new job that we can do together! We are now working for a valley-wide newspaper that is delivered once a month. We will be working three days a week delivering to different areas around the valley. It is nice because we can fold the papers while watching T.V. or just talking, and I plan on helping Todd deliver some newspapers for an hour or two in the afternoon. To have Todd loose his job was really hard for me, but in some ways it was nice to see him a few hours a day while he is home. I love seeing him with Ben and his energy renewed. This new job has been a blessing because I get to see my hubby and we will be able to make enough money for our family in 3 days instead of 6.

Pictures of Ben

Someone told me i need to post more pictures of my little Ben. He isn't very little anymore, but here he is!
He loves the bathtub, he hates it when I take him out, even if he has been in it long enough for the water to get cold.

Ben LOVES watermelon! I gave him this piece of watermelon and he ate the entire thing! When he got to the rind he finally let me take it away

He also loves to feed himself. He eats graham crackers all by himself. . . and if mom would let him, he would also eat with a spoon all by himself, unfortunately if I do then I also have to clean out his ears, toes and everywhere in between.

Anniversary Blessings

Two years and a few days ago, my sister Jeska was in a scooter vs truck battle. She was on the scooter, and unfortunately she lost. She ended up in the hospital with a broken neck and leg and we were all extremely worried for her. Todd, my fiance at the time, was able to give her a preisthood blessing. It was wonderful for me to see that I was marrying a man of the priesthood which was a great comfort to me. Now on our second anniversary, I get to see him use the priesthood again. My next door neighbor had a baby boy last night. Before they went to the hospital Todd was asked to give a blessing to both parents, which he did. Now this morning we have learned that the baby isn't doing well, being full term but only 4 pounds. Todd was again asked to come and give another blessing to their little boy. I am so grateful to have the priesthood in my life, and to have a husband who is worthy and willing to serve the Lord in this manner.