We Were So Poor...

When Jason and I were first married, we were poor. At least, we thought we were poor. Now that we have one income instead of two and two extra mouths to feed, I've realized that "poor" is a relative concept.

I had graduated from BYU and thus lost my student job, and Jason was working at the MTC while going to school full time. In addition to my student job, a few months before we got married I took a job as a housekeeper for a mother of 4 young children in Provo. Once she realized what a poor cleaner I was, but that I was great at playing with her kids, she hired someone else to clean her house and I played with the kids and did light housework- laundry, dishes, and the awful task of cleaning out their minivan. They even gave me a raise after I graduated because they though having a Bachelor's degree in Sociology makes you worth an extra buck an hour.

(Hermano Morales heading into the MTC)

Her husband was a lawyer, and they were so impressed with my child care and cleaning skills that they offered me a job in his office as a legal assistant. Makes sense to me even as I type it out...(?) But they wanted me to work at home and at the office, so after our wedding, I split my days between caring for the kids, answering phones and typing memos in the legal office, and driving to Mapleton (20 minutes or so south of the office) to care for the files of the older, senior law partner. Maybe that sounds like a good set up, but it wasn't. It was an embarrassing use of my college degree, and I quit after a week of juggling the three jobs. I didn't have another job lined up but I had to quit that job. I quit on a Friday, the next Monday I had an interview with W.W. Clyde, and I started what would be my 2 and a half year job as an administrative assistant with them the next week (the bulk of my married life BC).

(Making the big bucks at WWC)

We were so blessed, and definitely not poor after that... although I'm sure we still lamented over not having all the money to do everything we wanted to do... funny how your perspective can change so much once you're 3 years into graduate school!

But! In that first week or so of marriage, when we were combining our finances- debts and assets- with no real steady source of income from my part, the numbers were adding up quite meagerly.In fact, we were so poor that....

*We had to count up all of our change to go buy a half gallon of milk from the grocery store. I'm guessing that it was only because we chose not to use our debit card, but doesn't that just sound poor?

*You already read about our bed (which we bought with a credit card), but we put our kitchen table and chairs on LAYAWAY because we couldn't afford to buy them out right and didn't want to charge something so frivolous and unnecessary. I don't think stores even offer layaway anymore.

*When we did finally get the table and chairs, I can remember sitting down and having a decision-making conversation about tithing. We decided at that table that we would pay our tithing no matter what. And we always have. And we've always been blessed. Since we made that decision, I've never really felt "poor" again.

And we had so much fun as poor starving college students! But more on that later...

Swingin'

The weather here has been fantastic for the last few days, and we've had so much fun playing in the backyard. The owners of the house left their swing set behind, and we got a swing for Adam. He loves it!

Leah is getting pretty good at swinging herself. She got some new dresses today. I've pretty much accepted the fact that she is a dress kind of girl... for now, anyway! So I'm embracing it and making sure she has a few to rotate through.

Must... not... touch the grass! (and check out that floofy faux-hawk!)

Leah loves the back yard just as much as I do. I hope the weather stays this nice!

If you only ever watch one video on my blog, this must be it... Leah and I were playing the Three Little Pigs.

And now you have my permission to not watch this one- I just love Leah's dancing style and completely uninhibited movement. Ah, to have the confidence of a 3 year old! And I should mention that, yes, that is a pallet she is dancing on. All the kids that have ever played in our backyard love it.

This is Adam in his swing. He loved it, but I think the wind surprised him.

One Year Older and Wiser, Too...

Presents in the mailbox, flowers delivered on my doorstep, afternoon trip to a day spa, tasty cupcakes, Skype, cards, calls and emails...

I stayed up til midnight just to enjoy every minute of a wonderful day.

Happy birthday to me! Thank you so much to everyone that made me feel so loved on my day!

Use before 01/01/2020

It occurred to me the other day that I probably won't always have 300 cute kid moments that I want to blog about each day. When I have teenagers, I won't have Leah-isms or adorable baby Adam pictures. I realized that this blog has an expiration date, of sorts. So, I'm going to blog while I can!

Thoughts on Leah-

I've decided that Leah is a 99.9% homebody. She just likes being home. She puts up with me dressing her up and dragging her to new and adventurous places like the library, dance class, or even the toy store, but as soon as she gets home, she pulls her hair out of it's pigtails, changes into her favorite dress of the day, and resumes her imaginary play where "you be Leah and I'll be cousin Sarah and I'll knock on your door after I get off the airplane" (which she pronounces errrrrr-plane). The home-bodiness is a little frustrating, but it also makes it very easy to just stay home. Home is where Leah's heart is. I think that is a good thing.

Leah likes to talk about her feelings. Going along with the home-bodiness, we took the kids on a walk around the neighborhood yesterday, and Leah spent the whole time asking when we could go home, how far away our house was, and that she was feeling nervous because we were going so far from home.

Today, I asked her to take a pile of rags up to the laundry room, and she told me, "When you give me these rags, I feel like Cinderella".

Jason complimented Leah on her post-braids wavy hair tonight, and she clearly disagreed. She furrowed her brow and shook her head and said, "No! It's all fuzzed up."

Leah has started checking out the sacrament-passing deacons. She leaned over to me today and said, "That's Izzie's big brother. He is so nice to me."

All about Adam-

I don't blog enough about Adam, and I think that is because he's just a simple, easy-going little guy. He adores Leah- laughs and laughs whenever she is around- and loves me even more.

I saw him take his toy back from another baby today- it was the first time I've seen him defend his turf.

He's eating like a champ. He gets three solid food meals a day, and still nurses like a pro. He just likes food- pears, bananas, and Cheerios are his favorite.

He has light blond hair- just like I did as a baby- that is gathered in a little floof on the top of his head. It reminds me of Calvin- always sticking up.

I feel like Adam's first year is going by so quickly. I've started looking forward to life AW (after weaning), but my heart still melts whenever I see my baby boy. I feel like there aren't nearly as many surprises the second time around- I'm not as eager to see him hit milestones because I know they will all come eventually. That has made it easy to cherish every day with my sweet little man.

Jason-

Maybe I'll always have things to blog about when it comes to Jason. He's busy. And going places. More on him later.

As for me?

I get the least amount of face time on this blog, but I think who I am is reflected through my family. I love my family, and I feel so fulfilled through motherhood. I don't think I'm very poetic or eloquent when it comes to saying it, but I think those that need to know it most do. I hope that means I'm doing something right.

All of the pictures in this post were taken by Leah- I especially love those luscious Henscheid lips on Leah!

Further Proof

A few more places that prove how small kids really are-

*
The kitchen sink
Inside drawer organizers
Inside a night stand
In the toy room
Surprise!

Muscles

Adam had us all cracking up at dinner tonight with his hot moves- we would say, "Where's your muscles?" and he would stick his arms straight out and flex his little muscles.

Then he started doing it to avoid eating his veggies- smart boy!

And not to be outdone, Leah showed us her stuff, too. Odd that she actually looks buff.

And I will eat them with a fox

We had fun with food coloring today- first mixing water colors, then making green eggs and blue pancakes. Leah was fearless when it came to trying the food, and we spent the meal reciting lines from "Green Eggs and Ham".Leah has started asking hard questions, most of which start with "Why". Some are easy to answer, like "Why did you name me Leah?" or "Why does water turn into snow?" and some are a little harder, like "What is water made out of?" and "Why are balls round?"

Jason recounted this conversation to me- talking about the fish that refuse to be swallowed by the pelican on Finding Nemo.

L- Why didn't they want to get swallowed?

J- Because they didn't want to die.

L- What's die? (She knows the answer to this, or at least, we've talked about death before)

J- It's when your spirit leaves your body and goes to heaven.

L- Dying isn't a big deal, Daddy.

J- No?

L- Nope. Jesus died and then he was resurrected, so we can die and just be resurrected, too.

And after watching The Restoration the other day, Leah told us, "I prayed to Heavenly Father that he would help me take my dress off, and I saw a light shining in my room and Heavenly Father was in it and Jesus was in it and they said, 'Yes, we will help you', and then my dress popped off, and they helped me."

Oh, the faith of a little child.