Your Son Is a Giant . . . Oh, Wait, Maybe Not

So Alex had his 18-month checkup today (8 days before he's 19 months). It's always fun to have him weighed and measured and see how he's growing. Ever since his 2-month checkup, he's always been on the tall-side wavering between 60% and 80% in height, which is cool, and we love that he's tall, despite the challenges it presents (i.e., he can reach more things and climb on more things).

Thoughts on Exercise, Healthy Eating, and Weight Loss

After having Alex (17 months ago), I weighed 10 lbs over what I weighed before I got pregnant. I wanted to lose it, but I didn't actively do anything other than exercise here and there and try not to eat too many sweets. I lost some weight, probably from the extra calories I burned pumping milk (do you burn as much pumping as you do nursing?), so that I was only 5 lbs overweight. Then I decided I really wanted to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight, and for that matter, I'd like to lose 10 to 15 lbs more.

Update on Last Saturday

Here is an update of what happened Saturday after I posted. Because Alex got down for his nap late, I ended up having to wake him up around 3:30 p.m. He seemed fine when I got him up, but a few minutes later he was standing on the couch and threw up. I was a little surprised. I grabbed him off the couch and put him on the floor in the living room. Then he threw up some more (luckily not much). We keep a blanket over the couch, so I grabbed that and threw it into the laundry room and then cleaned up the throw up, and changed him for the third or fourth time that day.

Great Deals for Memorial Day

Okay, so I decided to actually do something for Memorial Day. Yes, I didn't decide this till like yesterday. That's how I roll.

So when we received the weekly ads for the local supermarkets, I started looking through them for good prices on Memorial Day type items like hot dogs, steak, watermelon, and ice cream. Mostly, I wanted to see if I could get a good deal on steak. I thought about going to a few different stores when I remembered that Walmart has price matching!! So instead of going to a few stores, I just brought the ads with me and went to Walmart.

Update and Google Reader

News on Me

So, I think this post will be really random. First of all, I'd like to say I'm sorry for not updating my blog much. I have a lot going on to talk about, but the issue is I don't have a lot of time, and when I do have time to write for my own enjoyment, I usually don't want to.

Why? Because I've been writing for a job lately. In February, I applied for to be a writing intern at a media company in Draper, Utah. This has been basically my only source of income for the last few months. It's been consistent enough that I no longer get unemployment (though I assume I could sign up again if this work ends). It's been pretty good and I've enjoyed it for the most part. They even wanted to hire me, and proposed to their higher ups to hire a writer, but they denied the proposal. So until I find a more permanent job, this will help. If you want to see some of the writing I've done, you go to Purity Tox-X, Purity 12 Tri-Factor, Purity 12 Green Tea Metabolizer, Skin Care article, and Purity 12 Blogs. Those are just a few of the things I've written. Most of what I have done for them hasn't even been used yet.

What else is cool is they're paying me to learn about search engine optimization. They don't pay me much to do the training, but it's such good information to know, so to get paid to learn about it is great. I'm also doing some other training on my own to learn how to use Dreamweaver--which I can hopefully use to create my own site or something. So things have been going pretty well.

News on Alex

Fear not

 So it seems like all I hear lately is news about layoffs and how many people have lost their jobs. My first reaction is to get mad and angry at the execs and CEOs who make millions, but then lay off hundreds of workers who make only tens of thousands a year. They don't care if the economy is not doing so well since they're flying around in their leer jets having a grand ol' time. I heard that our CEO at my last company makes 20 million a year. Gee, you think he could spread that wealth around a bit? But whatever.

When negative thoughts of our current economy get me down, I try to remember that having faith in our Heavenly Father is what will get us through. Yesterday, Aaron and I read the following from 3 Nephi 13:30-34, "Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, even so will he clothe you, if ye are not of little faith. Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought, for the morrow shall take thoughts for the things of itself. Sufficient is the day unto the evil thereof.”

So basically it's saying, don't worry about how you're going to have what you need, just put your faith in God, be obedient to His teachings, and you'll receive what you're in need of. I really like that, and it makes me happy. If ye have faith, ye shall not fear.

Musing on Eating

Ugh, sometimes I hate that I have to eat because the only things I want to eat are bad for me and I feel like I shouldn't eat anything and I know I'm not eating enough fruits and vegetables, but there is a limited number of veges and fruits that you can find frozen or canned (and so I get sick of it) and it seems like whenever I buy fresh, I only eat half before it goes bad and I've wasted the money.  Sometimes I just get sick of the eternal struggle of trying to "eat right." 

Sometime last week, I was thinking to myself that I had hardly eaten anything that day, so I probably easily ate within the 1800-calorie goal I have. So I decided to count up all I'd eaten and see if I was right. I'd had two bowls of Frosted Mini-Wheats cereal with 2% milk (I eat 2% with cereal, but I drink fat free. I know, I'm weird). Then I had a peanut butter and jam sandwich on whole wheat bread with two glasses (about 20 oz total) fat free milk for lunch. I had a s'more as a snack with some fat free milk (around 6 oz). I had 2 corn dogs for dinner with at least 16 oz of milk (healthy, I know). I also had a cup of juice to wash down my vitamins (to cover the icky taste of the vitamin). Anyway, so I added up everything I'd eaten and it was around 2100 or 2200 calories. I'm like, "So I ate around the amount you're supposed to eat in one day? But I feel like I ate nothing." So I basically learned that when you eat the amount you're supposed to, you don't feel full (or at least I don't). 

Tag, I'm It

My sister tagged me, so I guess I'm it.

8 TV shows I enjoy watching:
1. Gilmore Girls
2. How I Met Your Mother
3. The Big Bang Theory
4. Heroes
5. Ugly Betty
6. Lost
7. Ghost Whisperer
8. Numb3rs

Crawling, Christmas, and Everything

Well, a lot has gone on in the past couple of weeks. First of all, three days before Christmas, Alex really started getting the hang of the whole crawling thing. He now can get anywhere and everywhere (well, except he's not going up stairs yet). This is frustrating because he doesn't want to be kept in his play yard (not surprising) and yet if I'm doing something (like pumping or cleaning), I need to know he's safe. Luckily he can be very patientat times. But it is exciting to see him crawling around everywhere. He's growing up so fast.

Be Grateful

So today is a day of gratitude--a day where we consider the things we're thankful for. I have lots to be thankful for. Some of them include:

• my husband
• my son (and how easy-going he is)
• the Gospel of Jesus Christ
• family
• friends
• food
• breast pumps (otherwise Alex would have to drink formula)
• warm place to live
• music
• soft bed to sleep in
• blankets
• anything that keeps me warm and comfy (blankets, sweatpants, robe, etc.)
• ovens/stovetops
• the Internet (so grateful. It's awesome)
• having money
• future job (which I will hopefully get soon)
• positive people
• for not having hives (which I will hopefully not have soon)
• elecricity
• indoor plumbing
• books
• living in the US

There are lots more that I'm grateful for, but those are some that I thought of. Hope you all have a good Thanksgiving Day with lots of good food.

My Birthday

So this year's birthday was pretty good, and it's all thanks to my honey, Aaron. First we went out to breakfast at IHOP. With money being tight, the only reason we did this was because I had a two-for-one coupon. Well, when Aaron went out to the car to get something, he talked to a waitress on the way back. I thought it odd, so I asked what that was all about. He said he'd asked her where the bathroom was. Since my husband is so straight foward and honest, and isn't really good at deceiving me (like in the past how he tried to think of an excuse as to why he was leaving and couldn't think of anything, so finally admitted he was going to buy me a present), so I took his word, even though he didn't ever go to the bathroom. Then towards the end of the meal, 5 waitresses came over singing happy birthday and presented me with an ice cream sundae. I was so surprised. I love surprises, so I thought it was great, really thoughtful, and sweet.

So I figured that would be all, but later I got another surprise. We'd agreed not to buy any presents for each other's birthdays, so I knew I wasn't getting anything in the real world, but Aaron and I play Guild Wars and I really wanted a Mad King Thorn mini (you can see what he looks like here). He's pretty rare, but I think he's so cute. Anyway, Aaron had been talking about how he used all his money to buy Trick-or-Treat bags (they drop around Halloween, so once Halloween is over, you can't get more except by buying them from other players). So I figured he didn't have the money to buy me a Mad King Thorn. Then yesterday in the afternoon, he offered to help me learn how to raptor farm, and was like, "You should sell what's in your inventory, so you have plenty of room for what you pick up." I'm like, "Okay." So I open up my inventory and I'm looking to see what I have, and there in my inventory was a Mad King Thorn mini!! Because he's rare, it cost Aaron a lot of in-game gold (260,000 gold). That's a large chunk of change, and it takes a long time to accumulate that much gold. On top of that, Aaron wants a Mad King Thorn mini as well, so I'm sure he would have rather have kept it then give it to me, which makes the sacrifice mean more.

Later in the evening, Aaron made me dinner, and we hung out. I also talked to my sister earlier in the day. No one else in my family called, but I got two emails, and my other sister had called yesterday. Basically that means my brother and dad are in the doghouse for not doing anything to say happy birthday (though my brother did message me on Facebook today to say sorry, so I guess that's something).

So that's basically it. I'm glad I have a great husband who made my day special. Yay!

eHow

So my sister-in-law clued me in to a Web site called eHow. Basically, it's a site where you can write articles on how to do stuff and get paid. I decided to try it about a month ago and I've already made $4. I know, not much, but from what I can tell, for most people, it increases each month. It takes only an hour or so to write the article, but you will continue to make money on it as long as it's useful. Plus, that's only from writing 14 articles (only 6 articles have made money, and $3 of it was from one article).

I think part of the secret is figuring out which articles will make money. The first article that made any money was an article that had only 20 views with no comments and no ratings, even though I have other articles that have 80 views, 5 ratings, and 5 comments that haven't made any money. From that, I figure that the money comes from when people click on ads that are brought up by your article (which are associated with the content of your article). So I guess the best way to go is to write articles that you think will encourage people to click on ads.

There are some who say they make $20/day with eHow. Sure it's nothing to live on, but $600 extra a month might be a car payment or even rent (or most of rent) or payment on some student loans or whatever. I think it's worth looking into, and if you write more than I have, I'm sure you would make more than me.

Anyway, if you want to check out my profile and what I've written, you can go to http://www.ehow.com/members/AlexsMom.html. And if you're feeling generous, check out some of my articles and click on some ads. Maybe it will help me out.

Also, if you have time, you might want to consider creating your own profile and writing some articles.

UPDATE: It's up to $7.90 now (on 11/25/08), so that's $4 in a week, even though I haven't written any more articles. I'll take $4 more for not doing anything!

Goodbye Job, Hello Unemployment

So last Thursday, I was at home working, as per usual, when I get an email from my manager's boss (who was my manager until 3 months ago) asking if I could come in for a meeting that morning. In that very moment, I had a sinking feeling. I don't know how I knew what was coming, but I was pretty certain, though the whole time I was trying to rationalize why it wasn't what I thought it was. I went and told my husband that I would be going to work because my boss asked me to come in and I found out later that for some reason, he knew what it was going to be about as well, though he was hoping he was wrong too.

So I drove in, and went into my former manager's office. I could tell it was hard for him to tell me what he had to tell me, but the jist of it was that my company was cutting costs and my position was being eliminated. He emphasized that this was not because of performance and he, and my current manager, would have loved to keep me if it were in their power to do so. This made me feel somewhat better. What also helped was they were giving me a severance package which would give me time to find another job and give me health insurance through the end of the year.

Still, despite these positives, I was in shock. I had not expected it and had only heard that day that there might be layoffs (which may be why I had an inkling of what the meeting was about). The rest of the day I felt like I was in a trance and could barely concentrate on anything.

Friday came and I hit the ground running so to speak. I updated my resume and started searching for jobs. I applied for three: two writing jobs and an instructional design job. I heard back from two jobs that day and scheduled two interviews for today, a phone interview and a regular interview. That was pretty exciting to get interviews so quickly.

So today was the phone interview and it went very well. From what I understood from the interview, there are a lot of applicants for this job and the manager is interviewing everyone by phone (he thinks he needs to give every one a chance, I guess). He said at the beginning he was going to narrow it down to the best half dozen applicants and then bring them in for an interview. At the end of the interview, he said that I would definitely be called for another interview. Unfortunately this won't be until December and he's projecting hiring someone in mid-January. When he found out I was laid off, he realized that basically that would mean I would be trying to find something ASAP and asked if I would take something else if I were offered it first.I had to be honest and say that I would if it were best for my family. If I were guaranteed a position, then yeah, I'd wait, but I can't wait just in case (I didn't say that, though). He seemed worried that he might lose me, so I guess that's a good sign. He told me at the end that I should hear from him or his assistant by December 8 and, if I didn't hear, I should call him, so I figure that's a good sign! He said I was a very strong applicant. He also said that I had the coolest resume out of all the applicants. It's exciting to feel wanted.

But we'll have to see what happens with my other applications. I applied for two more jobs today, so 5 jobs so far, and I'm looking into other avenues as well. As part of my severance package, I get to have the help of a career transition service to help me find a new job. Additionally, I'm going to look into what LDS Employment Resource Services cand do to help and sign up with my previous temp agency to see if I can get some temp work. They're actually the ones who got me the job with Altiris in the first place when I was just out of college, so I figure they're a good resource and, if they remember me, they probably like me. I mean I worked as a temp for 18 months straight before Altiris hired me, so I was a good asset for them in the past.

I'm also going to look into government assistance in the meantime, such as WIC, Medicaid, Workforce services, unemployment, and possibly CHIP (though it's very possible I will have another job by the time my insurance runs out, or at least soon after). I just need to find out what all is out there to help me.

In the meantime, Aaron is looking into switching majors. He's been going for computer science, but it's going slowly because all he has left are major classes (except one general ed. requirement that is left), and it's hard to take four computer science classes at once. Ultimately, he just really wants to teach, so although he really wants to teach college, he's considering switching to elementary ed. and teaching school instead (and maybe going back for his master's and doctorate degrees later). This would allow him to finish quicker because he would more likely be able to go full time. He's still not sure yet, but he's planning to go and talk to a counselor in the Elementary Ed. department to find out what the requirements are and how easy it would be. He also wants to find out if there is a way to get your teaching certificate after his bachelor's degree in computer science is complete. This might be an alternative because even though it would take him awhile to finish, he wouldn't have to wait till getting his doctorate to be able to teach. And if he was ever able to go back for his master's he would more easily do that (I'm not sure how easy it would be to get into a computer science master's degree program when you graduated with an El. Ed. major). But we're still not sure because it would depend on how long that would take. Basically, he realizes that I don't want to work for the rest of my life and if he were able to teach then I would hopefully be able to quit working outside the home and just concentrate on getting freelance work to bring in extra income. That would be cool for him to start working sooner, but mostly I just want him to have a job that he's happy at, so I can be a happy stay-at-home mom.

Alex is doing great and is just a happy baby. I posted some new pictures here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=61014&l=e2ea0&id=759557984. New pictures are on the third page. We just love him lots and are so grateful for him. He's a real cutie.

Well, please pray for me to get a job. I need all the help I can get!

Trip to Washington

I'm so dead tired right now. I'm pretty much ready to pass out, but there are some things I need to do before going to bed, but first I needed a break to relax and to rejuvenate some before attacking those things, I thought I'd post.

So on Aug. 8, Aaron, Alex, and I headed out to Washington/Oregon to see family. My sister, whom I haven't seen in 5 years, was coming from North Carolina with her husband and four kids (two of whom I've never even met), so I took the opportunity to go as well so I could see her. My other sister and my brother were both there as well (the former lives in California and the latter lives in China). It was really great to see everyone and to see my nieces and nephews.

To take advantage of the rates, we decided to leave on a Friday morning and return on a Tuesday, a week and a half later, so it was a long trip, but with all who we had to see, it really needed to be that long. There was very little time where I had nothing to see or anyone to visit.

On the first day, we flew into Portland, and my sister Krissa (the one with kids) picked us up from the airport and took us to her mother-in-law's house to hang out till my mom picked us up. We were able to spend time with her and her four kids Jesse (8), Larissa (5), Mitchell (3), and Noah (8 months). And of course she had fun meeting and playing with Alex. In the afternoon, Mom picked us up and we went to my Grandma's in Salem, Oregon. We spent the night there (kind of crammed with six adults and a baby: us plus Mom; Roy, my step-dad; Jeremy, my brother, and Grandma). My sister Marcie flew in the same day with her boyfriend and his son. They came by for dinner and to hang out, but stayed in a hotel that night.

Weighty Subject

Just a quick note to say that I lost all the baby weight. Yay!!! Now to lose the extra weight I had before I got pregnant . . .

Basic Update

So I thought I would update just with how everything is going in general. Alex is really good; he's 3 months old now and can grab onto things (as shown in the pic where he's grabbing his clothes) and can sit in my lap (though I have to keep steadying him because he can't sit up yet). Some days he doesn't take naps well, but he's doing well so far today. He slept from 7:30 to 9:15 and right now he's napping and has been for an hour. I love it when he sleeps well. Yesterday he didn't want to sleep at all (and the ice cream man woke him up while he was taking one of his naps. Arg!). I don't think he got more than 45 min in a row all day.

But even so, he sleeps really well at night. I have to say that bedtime routines really work! Every night an hour before bedtime, I give him a bath, then a massage, put him in his sleeper and a swaddle blanket, and then I feed him. Once I do all that, I just put him in his crib and he goes to sleep. He was waking me up at 5 a.m. to eat, but for the last week, he has been sleeping till 6:45 or later, and some mornings I get him up to eat because I can't wait. After feeding him, I will put him back down and he will sleep 2 to 3 hours more. So most nights he gets at least 10 hours of sleep if not more. I try to get to bed by 10 so I can take advantage of that and get 8 or more hours of sleep. I don't know how I made it through the first couple of months being woken up every 2 or 3 hours. It's a good thing it's short-lived. I think he's a sleeper just like me--we both love sleep! But the bedtime routine really seems to help get him ready for bed and help him to sleep (that and the swaddle blanket, the dark room, and the white noise machine).

For the most part he doesn't cry or fuss (except when he's hungry or tired/overtired). He'll sit in our laps while we're on the computer and just move around. He is entranced by things moving on the TV or computer, if only for a minutes. It's funny how absorbed he gets. He really likes to be held, though when he's full and happy, he'll just lie on the bed content or floor content. I made him a baby gym out of PVC pipes and he will entertain himself by the toys hanging there.

And he is such a flirt. He'll smile at you and then turn his head like he's shy. It's so cute!

On June 1 Alex was blessed at church. Aaron's dad and sister came from Washington to attend. Here are pictures if you would like to see, click here. Unfortunately, none of my other family was able to come. 

Update on My Crazy Life

So, I know I haven't updated at all. This is because I've been so busy with being a new mom. I got my new laptop from work three days ago and so I now have more freedom to use the Internet (and I don't have to worry about whether my husband is on the computer and what not. So nice!). Anyway, Alex is doing great. He's up to 8 lbs now. Unfortunately, for the last few weeks I had to pump my breast milk and feed him with a bottle because he wasn't pulling enough milk from me. Because of that, my milk supply went down slightly (only producing 1.5 oz per meal total instead of the 2.5 oz that he needed). So I had to supplement a little with formula while the pumping (and taking an herb, Fenugreek, which increases milk) helped to increase my supply so I could feed him with breast milk exclusively. Luckily, it only took about a week. In fact, last week, I was producing around 4–5 oz per pumping, which was enough that I didn't have to pump for nightly feedings—I could just feed him what was left over during the day.

Short Update

Well, things are still improving for Alex. We weighed him again this morning and hewas up another 2 oz. That's 5 oz in two days! He also had another test done for jaundice to see whether we should continue with the billibed. I got a call from the pediatrician's office this morning letting us know that we did not need to put him on the bed today. Yay! We'll have another test done in the morning to see if he's well enough to continue, or if we need to put him back on the bed. When I talked to the lactation specialist today to update her, she said that making sure he gets fed well will help him more than the lights, so the two combined is probably what helped him improve. I guess tomorrow we'll find out if he's better. Also tomorrow, my mother-in-law is coming into town to help out and to see Alex. I'm excited about that. Yay!

President Hinckley—He Will Be Missed

So last night I was watching TV when the local news broke through with news announcing that President Gordon B. Hinckley, the president and prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, had passed away. This really wasn't too surprising because he was 97 years old, but it was still sad. When I realized what had happened, I started crying. I didn't realize it would hit me that hard. Even now as I write this, 12 hours later, I start to tear up when I think about it. Really, I know I should be happy for him, and I am. His wife passed a few years ago and after being married on this earth for about 70 years, it was obvious to everyone that he missed her deeply. I actually thought after she passed that he would soon follow her because of how much his heart obviously ached for her. So now they are together again and that is wonderful. And I am glad that he is free from pain and can be in a happier place.

Still, I will miss him very much. President Hinckley became the prophet when I was 14 years old. Previously there had been only three other prophets in my lifetime—President Kimball, President Benson, and President Hunter. Living in Washington, I never really connected with the previous prophets.  It was just a kindly old man who led the church. This was especially true with President Hunter, who was the prophet for only 9 months before his passing. On the other hand, I really connected with President Hinckley. When I was a teenager, we had a regional conference in Tacoma, Washington and President Hinckley came to speak. It was the first time I'd ever been in the presence of a prophet. I was very excited and could really feel the Spirit there. 

Then when I graduated high school, I went to BYU. During my time there, I was able to be in his presence, as well as many of the Apostles, many times. One time I even had the opportunity to shake his hand. That experience will always stay with me. He was walking in with his wife, Marjorie, and he shook the hands of those he could reach. It was in the Marriott Center, where BYU plays basketball as well as other events, and so the seats went upward from the floor. Once he had shook the hands of those he could reach, he stepped back and said, "No, no. You're going to get a hernia." Everyone wanted to shake his hand so badly that they were straining to reach. I was lucky enough that I was able to shake his hand.

With President Hinckley, you never doubted that he loved you and everyone else in the whole world. It doesn't seem possible to, but somehow he did it. It was amazing. And he had the best humor; it was funny, never crude, humble, self-deprecating (but never in a way that diminished who he was as a child of God and a prophet), and lightened any situation. He had so much energy for someone in his 90s and really drove the Church to do more and be more, and inspired each of the members to be better people. You could tell that he really relished life. Even though he missed his wife, he never longed to be gone from this life either. He made the most of each moment and found joy in each day. He was truly inspirational. 

Because of all this, I truly felt connected to President Hinckley and I love him very much. I will miss him, but I'm happy for him as well. I know I can't be selfish and expect him to stay on earth forever. He deserves to rest and be with his family on the other side of the veil. And I'm sure that our next President will be just as wonderful, just as loving, and I will love him too. But for now, I miss President Hinckley, and I am sad I will never be in his presence again (at least not while on this earth). Rest in peace, President Gordon B. Hinckley.

Yes, yes, yes!!!!!

I am like SO HAPPY! Today I had a meeting with my manager to talk about going on maternity leave and about how my responsibilities will be dealt with while I'm gone. I was really nervous about this meeting because I wanted to broach the topic of my working from home at least part time once I come back, mostly so I can continue to breastfeed and so I won't have to pump as much. I wasn't sure what my manager would think or what he would say, but I knew it would be better to talk about it sooner than later. I had gone over how the conversation might go about a million times in my head and most of the time I got flustered trying to figure out what to say and how because it meant so much to me to be able to work from home. (And I prayed at least three times today for God to help me to know what to say and that if it was a good thing for me to work from home, that I would be able to.)

One thing that really worried me was that to work from home, my company requires you to have a company-issued laptop, which you can use to connect to the company's network. I do not have a laptop for my job and I figured that my manager would not see it as a necessary expense for my job and would, therefore, not want to pay for one. So I had figured out a way for me to do some of my work from home that would not require me getting on to the network, and I prepared a speech on how I could do that for part of the day and then come in to work to do the rest of my work.

So basically, I was really nervous going into it because I didn't have any idea what the result would be. So I went into his office and we started just chatting about the baby and how wonderful having kids is. Then we talked about what responsibilities I have that would need to be covered while I was gone. Some things could be put off while I was gone, but there were some that could not. We talked about who in the department could do them and divied them up accordingly. Then, when it looked like the meeting was over and he had another meeting to go to, I said, "So you have another meeting right now, right?" and he said, "Yeah, why?" And I said, "Well, I wanted to talk to you about what is going to happen when I come back to work after the maternity leave is over." He asked, "You mean like with your schedule?" And I said, "Pretty much. You see, my husband is going to be home all day with the baby taking care of him, but there's one thing he can't do and that's breastfeed. I was wondering if it would be possible for me to work at least some of the time from home." Surprisingly, he answered, "Yeah, I can work with you on that. We'll need to get you a laptop that you can use to work on at home, but a lot of your responsibilities don't require you to be here in the office, so that should be just fine." I was just like, "Really? I was so worried about that." And he responded, "No, it's no problem really. We can work it all out." And I saw him write in his notebook, where he writes down things he needs to do, a note about getting me a laptop to use at home.

Well, as you can imagine, relief just swept over me. I was SO HAPPY! I couldn't believe that it went so well, and that he immediately volunteered to get me a laptop and I didn't even have to fight for it or justify why I needed it or show him how I could do some of my job at home without needing to get on the network. I had worried about all that for nothing, really. I really could feel that Heavenly Father was there guiding the whole situation. It made me feel very loved and it made me feel good that He wants me to work from home just as much as I do. When Aaron and I decided to get pregnant, we really didn't know how it would all work out, and we knew there would be sacrifices. But I have tried to have faith that it WOULD work out and that Heavenly Father would be there to help things to work out. This truly is a testament to me that He is watching out for me, He does care, He does know my situation, and He is willing and ready to bless me if I have faith in him. I feel very lucky and grateful for that. Yay!