Changes

Can I just say that I can't believe that my baby has turned two!? I can not believe that two years ago I was holding my little Isaac in my arms. What a change from then to now. I wish that I had the doctor stats but..... I haven't brought him in yet. I know I am horrible but it seems like there is always something to do.
So here is a little on Isaac and the stage that he is in.
1. What a different kid from his brother! He is much more snugly and attached to me the Lucas ever was. He loves to just come and snuggle on my lap and watch movies. He will randomly come up to me and lay his head down on my lap and say "Mommy!" He is sad when I leave and gets super excited when I come back. Makes my day I must say.
2. He is a talking machine. He is always catching us off guard when he talks to us. Maybe because Lucas was so delayed. He is always telling me to "Hold this!" and to "Help me!" and so on. I love it. He understands a lot too. The worst is when you are telling him to do something and he looks at you mischievously and then doesn't do it.
3. He can count to ten! I know he just turned two! You have to help him and he leaves out four sometimes but will get all the way up to "Ten!" He will randomly go through the house saying "One, Two, Three"
4. He is a very particular child. Hates having his clothes taken off to get changed. It is like mega melt down. But things turn out better once he realizes that you are going to put more clothes on him. He HATES having his sleeves pulled up. Like he screams "NO!" and then will commence to pull them down. I cringe a little when I see his sleeves after eating. Not pretty. If you cut up his sandwich or and food, he freaks out. Especially when he sees you do it.
5. He loves shoes. He is constantly bring his shoes up to me and saying "shoes" or "socks". He will wear anyone shoes it they are left around the house and I mean anyone.
6. He is not as into the out doors as his brother. He is just more content to hang out in the house with mom and shout at the other kids from the door.
7. He loves his big brother. They play together and always get in trouble together and is most of the times the scapegoat for his older brother. He is always copying Lucas. If Lucas is doing something, Isaac is doing that exact thing. He loves his cousins as well. Him and Grace are always playing together. Maybe because Grace has, as her preschool teacher told Crista, a 'mother hen complex' and Isaac is the only one she can boss around who will actually listen. She loves to pick him up and carry him, although I think they weigh about the same amount.
8. He loves animals, especially horses. However, he is leery about cows. Ever since he watch a Kipper show where a cow reaches over the fence to grab some grass out of the dog on the shows hand and Isaac screamed bloody murder, he hasn't really liked them. If he sees the Kipper show his eyes get big and he worriedly says "Cow?"
9. I took the guard rail off his bed a few days ago. He has already figured out how to climb through the slats in the bed so the rail was pretty useless. He has only fallen out once so that is positive. He has also been moved to a bigger car seat.
10. He loves babies. Sometimes a little too much. He was sitting on this poor 1 year old that the Memorial day picnic. I was a little mortified. But every time he sees a baby he is always pointing at them and saying "Baby!" Even if they are the same age as him.
11. He LOVED Halloween this year. He went as a monkey but of course, 10 minutes before we left, Lucas and Grace ripped off his tail. So he was whatever people thought, monkey or bear..... He loved going to houses and he was even trying to say "Trick or Treat" but it came out more as "Rick Reat" He got fistfuls of candy though because people thought he was too dang cute. Also because he insisted on picking out his own candy after they had already given him some.
12. He is definitely a groupie. Hates doing things by himself. I bought him a pass to go into this giant pumpkin blow up at the pumpkin store but he was the only one who could go and he scream at the top of his lungs when I tried to put him in there. I have a feeling though, if the other kids could have gone with them (which they so badly wanted to) he would have jumped around like crazy.
13. He is a little more emotional then Lucas was. He gets upset easily and I have such a hard time telling him "No". I will have to work on that!
Well, that is Isaac right now in a nutshell. I love him dearly and I am so grateful to have him as part of our family.

Update

So I failed, horrible, miserable, awful failure. Not that we were lacking in absolute fun this week, I just managed never to have a camera and since Sean and I have boring pre-paid phones, a camera in my phone just doesn't work. (Sad I know but 100.00 for over 4 months of phone use per person instead of 100.00 per month for two phones, yes please!) So, we will see, I can't make any promises but I thought instead I would tell you what happened! (It does get personal!)

So last Sunday I went online to check our bank accounts to pay our tithing and I was met with a huge shock. Our accounts were down to bone dry. Now we do have a reserve in a savings account like that Debt reducer guru said but as for the spending account, it was pitiful. I was in shock and needless to say, not in a good mood. I paid my tithing because no matter what, it gets paid but began to feel really sorry for myself. I see all those around me and I feel like they circumstances are getting better. I actually have been complaining to anyone who would listen about this. Now I love all my friends and I am so excited for them to be moving up in the world but I, like everyone, see this and throw myself a little pity party (complete with confetti and everything.) Are Sean and I just completely missing the boat on life? How is everyone around able to afford nicer things when we live in a trailor and just barely scrap by? Sean is a college graduate and so far, our income is still pretty low.

During the course of last Sunday, I got this idea to print out the transaction record of the last three months. I was going to highlight all the transactions into bills/gas, deposits, monthly budget, and excess spending. Boy was I shocked. (If you ever want to have a deep look at yourself, do this!) Over two thirds of our spending was excess. Now I like to make myself feel better by telling myself what Sean tells me "You never make a bad purchase, just sometimes you purchase things at the wrong time." But I knew the truth. I am a shopaholic. When I get stressed, I trudge out to the thrift store for some retail therapy. Now, I am not saying I buy 200.00 shoes, most things I buy are .99 or 1.49 but after multiple trips to the thrift store, it adds up to a lot of excess spending.

When I looked over the amount we had spent I realized that if we had saved up that money, we would have been able to pay off half of what we owe on our 2009 Honda Fit. What a shock. So right then and there I made a few goals:
1. Declutter my home
2. Do NOT go to a thrift store in 30 days (my straitener decided to poop out on me yesterday :-(!)
3. Make and stick to a budget
4. Go out to eat once a week
I am happy to say that I stuck to my goals this whole week. Sean and I set up a budget and plan on taking all of our excess money and put it towards paying off our car. After the car is done, all we have is student loans.

I made a realization while I was going through this process. I had been complaining about how the Lord wasn't blessing us in monetary things. Our financial life has been increasing but slowly. Not as fast as I would like but it has. I realized that the blessing didn't lie in what we had, but it was in what we didn't have. Sean and I have absolutely no credit card debt. We have a car payment but we have been trying to pay it off as things present themselves (taxes and extra income). The Lord blessed us in that he protected us from ourselves. We never spent ourselves into a giant hole (well me more then Sean). I can just imagine that he was up there watching over us and just putting the hand to the forehead and thinking "Come one Meyer family get it together!"

So this week, instead of packing the kids up and heading off to the thrift store everyday, we went off and did things around town that cost nothing. We went to the zoo on Monday where we played in the water and saw the Grizzly Bears. On Tuesday we went to the local mall where they have a preschool type thing that had open gym right when we walked into the mall so we played there and at a small play area in the mall. On Wednesday we went our wards play day and then to the lake in the evening. On Thursday we went back to the zoo (thanks mom and dad for the membership for Christmas!) where this time we walked the Tropics Trail, the Minnesota Trail, and went to the barn. On Friday we rented a row boat (as a family), took it out to the island and at a picnic then went back to the play ground. On Saturday all of us went to the State Fair!

It was a busy week but we enjoyed ourselves. I enjoyed my kids so much more. I felt happier and at more peace with where we are in life. I have beautiful children and a hard working husband. I have couponed food on my table and a roof over my head. I have the gospel to show me the tender mercies that the Lord does bestow on my family. I need to learn how to be a better steward over what I have and quit complaining about what I don't have. I truly believe that when the right time comes, we will have a beautiful house with a white picket fence. But for now, we live in our tiny little trailer and our purpose in life is to ...... pay off our debt. Which we will do.

Sorry for the long drawn our story but I wanted to write it in hopes that if anyone feels like I do, they can draw strength from the knowledge that they are not alone. I am here and we will get through this together!

Second Attempt

I was thinking recently that I love the idea of a picture a day for a year. Now I am not promising anything but I am going to try!

August 8, 2011

Isaac playing the Horton game and Aunt Crista's house.

Point of the game is to pick up these clovers with the Velcro nose of Horton. Isaac tried to hard. It was adorable!

Lucas at it again!

Just when I think that Lucas can't get any funnier, he proves me wrong. On sunday the primary got to go up during sacrament meeting and sing to the mothers. This was Lucas's first ever time singing in the primary. I watched my little baby walk up to the podium all by himself. I was already a little weepy from a talk that had just been given. Lucas stood right in front of the railing and I made a mistake. I waved. Lucas waved back. Then he decides to leave his post, go back to the choir pews and stand on them. With the biggest smile he started to wave. I was laughing so hard, he kept waving. Everyone else in the audience started laughing. Sean leans over and wispers "Stop laughing!"

It was so cute and adorable. I love Lucas!

Lucas turns 4!

My little boy turned 4 on Monday. Where does the time go. I think back to when Lucas turned 3 and I can't believe how much he has changed. I think about all the struggles we went through this last year and how much Lucas has gained!

Last July he was admitted into the Early Childhood Special Education program in our school district. He goes to school Monday, Wednesday and Friday. He has gained so much and you can just tell he is more confident and happy. So much so that my little 4 year old bore his testimony in sacrament meeting on the 1 of May!

Crista had gone up to bear her testimony, a babysitter of ours was up there and Lucas looked at me and said "You stay here mom, I go talk." and began heading up to the podium. I had to hold him back and told him when Carly was done we would go up there. When she finished Lucas proudly marched up there. I wispered in his ear what to say. "I know Jesus lives, I love my family, I know this church is true." It was so amazing and so simple, it brought tears to my eyes.

Here was a little boy who struggled with speech, up in front of 100+ people talking about Jesus. What an amazing child I am blessed to raise! He has such a good spirit and is such a good kid. It is moments like that that I a realize what all the struggles are about!

December 14th, 2010

I. AM. TIRED.

My life has gotten extensively more stressful these last few months. My sister and her two children moved in with us and I have been her full time daycare since July. Not only do I care for her kids when she is not here, she also lives here so they never really leave.

I love my sister but I wonder how much longer I can do this.

Any Advice?

12.9.2010

Today was a good day. Besides me sort of yelling at a crabby old lady at Walmart today, it was a good day. You are probably wondering about the old lady. Well, Sean and I were leaving Walmart and Lucas and Grace were walking. I stopped by the vending machine to get a soda and Sean, confused with what was going on, lost track of Lucas. Lucas was upset about not getting a cookie and walked through the doors and headed into the parking lot. I think that he thought that we were with him. Panicked, I yelled at Lucas to stop. This really crabby lady behind said "Geez!" really loudly. When I turned around she gave me the dirtiest look I have ever seen. I snapped back "Excuse me but my son was walking into the parking lot." Now I am not one to yell at people, even when they are really rude to me. I normally just try and shrug it off. But not this time.

I guess I am tired of people looking at me like I am some young mother who doesn't take control of her kids. I am a good person who loves her children and try as hard as I can to serve. I had money for the kids to donate to the Salvation Army ringer right outside Walmart. We were headed to the Post Office so I could send off my 12 inches of cut hair to Locks of Love. I do great things but I think that people take just one instance and judge me from it. In hindsight I probably didn't do the Christlike thing but I am learning that I do need to stick up for myself and people don't have a right to treat me that way. 

Aside from that bad experience today was good. We decided to take an impromptu trip to the Mall of America and have the kids visit Nickelodeon Universe to ride some rides. They LOVED it. I guess it is a good thing that Lucas is freakishly tall because he got to ride some rides that kids his age don't get to. He really love the Splat-O-Sphere, a ride that takes you up and drops you and the Pepsi Ride, which is an actual roller coaster. Oh, did the three kiddos love it.

Isaac did the cutest thing today. Grace is shorter then the boys so didn't get to ride on some of the rides. I had Grace propped up on my knee and was holding Isaac in my arms so they could both see the riders. Grace was crying and Isaac, concerned, kept tapping Grace on the shoulder and then leaning forward to see her. When she would look at him, he would break out into a big smile. I couldn't believe that my one year old was showing compassion on his cousin. He is such a sweet spirit and it today it really showed. He had so much fun watching the kids ride the rides. What a amazing little guy.

Here are some pictures of our adventure! Enjoy!

Riding the Reptormobiles!

On the Wonder Pets Fly Boat!

The only ride Isaac went on!

The Splat-O-Sphere! Lucas and James loved it!

Riding the Dragon on the Merry Go Round

Of course they rode more rides but these are just highlights!