When we first got married, Ben was working full time at Wells Fargo and we had about three thousand (after our wedding and honeymoon) saved. Then summer ended and we both started school. Working banker hours and going to school wasn't really a plausible option, so Ben took the opportunity to start getting some computer science experience. It was hard financially, because he not only was making less per hour, but went from full time to part time as well.
I don't really know how we've made it this year. Doing taxes, I was amazed at how we've always been able to pay for everything we've needed even with how little we'd made since we'd gotten married. But we have.
There were so many times when we saw out tithing blessings at work. For example, this week we had both Ben's and my school payments due, totaling about $850. We had no idea how we were going to pay it. Then we get the email telling Ben that his payment is due, but the email said we only owed twenty dollars (instead of 520). When I went online to try and figure out why, turns out Ben got a summer stipend that we hadn't known about. Because of that, we were able to sell Ben's iPad and make the payment while still having enough for rent and gas and everything. It was a HUGE blessing.
This happens to us all the time though. We won't know how we're going to pay for school or rent or something and then somehow, we always make it. We get Ben's paycheck a week early, or get my dance check, or unexpected money shows up. I have never had a hard time with paying tithing and neither has Ben, but this past year has really strengthened my testimony of both the importance of tithing and God's love for us.
Right now we're really excited because Benjamin just got a job he was really hoping to get. Their job interview process was very extensive, so we've been waiting for awhile to hear back on it. It is a really good position, though. He's now going back to full time, making more than he was when he was at Wells Fargo, and he's going to receive benefits (which will be nice when he turns 26 and we have to get him his own health insurance). Besides that, though, it's with a company that we both really like so far and the position is one that he's really going to enjoy and grow in. Ben says that he can see himself staying here for the rest of his career. It's worked out perfectly.
Just some more tithing blessings, probably.
Tuesday, June 17, 2014
Friday, June 13, 2014
Baby Excitement
I'm all excited for our baby. I can't even handle it.
I spent all day yesterday figuring out our baby registry. And by all day, I mean all day. School and cleaning and all other responsibilities took a backseat to my baby excitement. I'm not sorry at all.
It took so long because of how many blogs and articles there are online outlining what you need for your baby and why (or what you don't actually need for your baby and why). That's nice, because then you can figure out what's going to be best for your baby a lot better, but it was a lot to go through. I think I have figured out the best quality baby stuff for the least amount of money. Hopefully.
I put a lot of stuff on the registry that I probably am going to take down before anyone goes and looks at it, since it's stuff Ben and I will buy (like a nicer camera than our iPods to take adorable pictures of Ash or plastic drawers for her dresser) but it is nice to have everything I think I'm going to need organized in one place.
I really am so excited. Sometimes I can hardly contain it.
I spent all day yesterday figuring out our baby registry. And by all day, I mean all day. School and cleaning and all other responsibilities took a backseat to my baby excitement. I'm not sorry at all.
It took so long because of how many blogs and articles there are online outlining what you need for your baby and why (or what you don't actually need for your baby and why). That's nice, because then you can figure out what's going to be best for your baby a lot better, but it was a lot to go through. I think I have figured out the best quality baby stuff for the least amount of money. Hopefully.
I put a lot of stuff on the registry that I probably am going to take down before anyone goes and looks at it, since it's stuff Ben and I will buy (like a nicer camera than our iPods to take adorable pictures of Ash or plastic drawers for her dresser) but it is nice to have everything I think I'm going to need organized in one place.
I really am so excited. Sometimes I can hardly contain it.
Wednesday, June 4, 2014
A Change in Priorities
Benjamin and I found out yesterday that we're having a daughter!
Benjamin was surprised; everyone was so sure that we were having a boy simply because I wanted a girl so badly. I had almost talked myself into the idea of a boy just in case. But it's a girl and I couldn't be happier (not that I wouldn't have been happy with a boy).
Her name is going to be Ashtyn Dee Anderson. She was so cute on the ultrasound, already. She had curled up so that her foot was up by her head and and she kept grabbing her foot with her hand. It feels surreal still, thinking of our daughter. I'm starting to feel her now, though, so that makes it even more real to me.
I have been thinking a lot about my grandma Pat lately, especially since we found out our baby is a girl. Grandma Pat died when I was four, but I have always felt a close connection with her. A short while before she found out she was sick, my mom had troubles with the house (water and gas) and we ended up staying with my grandparents for a few months until they were able to fix it. During that time, Grandma Pat found time each day to do something with me, one on one and, because of that, I hold faint memories of her. I have felt her near me during very special times in my life.
Despite my close feelings with her, I never knew a lot about my grandma Pat until I was a high school senior, when I read a memoir she had written before passing away. I was surprised to read that, as a teenager, she had loved world dance and that she had even tried out for the folk dance team while at BYU. She hadn't made the team, but was encouraged to take some world dance classes and try out again the next fall. She wrote in her memoir that she felt she had a good chance of making it onto the team, but that she met my grandpa and her priorities changed.
By the time I read this, I had been doing Irish step-dancing for more than ten years and it was my passion. I loved dance more than anything else in high school. One of my friends from dance took me with her to a BYU folk dance performance and we both just fell in love with the idea of being on the team. I could not understand how my grandmother could have given up the same opportunity that I was dreaming of.
Well, then I graduated from high school and I didn't make it into BYU. I was a little crushed at first, until my mom reminded me that this wasn't the end of my dream. I enrolled at UVU and my mom got me, as an "apartment warming" gift, the Willow Tree Irish Dancer statue. It was to remind me of the goal--the BYU folk dance team--that I was still working towards.
I worked really hard in my classes to get good grades and practiced dance like crazy. I applied for BYU again, this time as a transfer student, and almost couldn't believe it when I got my acceptance letter. It truly was a dream come true for me.
Ben and I got married the week before I started at BYU spring semester. That fall, I tried out for the folk dance team and ... didn't make it.
I was sad, but I wasn't as disappointed as I would have thought. I took a world dance class that semester and the teacher encouraged me to try out that next semester. I was planning on it, but then Ben and I were in California the week of try outs. That day, knowing I was missing try outs, was terrible for me. It was worse than if I had tried out and didn't make it. Turns out, though, that my missing the try out was a blessing in disguise.
About a month after we got home from California, we found out I was pregnant and a month after that, my morning sickness was pretty bad. School got really hard and I know that if I had been able to make it on the team, it would have been very difficult for me to participate.
Now I think back on my grandmother's words, "... but my priorities changed." I understand them a lot more now than I did when I was in high school. I still love dance, but not like I did before. Now there is a bigger place in my heart for my husband and for this little baby that we haven't even met yet.
I guess that's part of starting a family and becoming a mother. The things you care about most change. In high school, I couldn't understand that and the concept would have even made me a little sad. But now I understand. My life can (and should!) be filled with interests and goals, allowing me to always be improving myself. BUT I am no longer the center of my own world. My own interests and hobbies are no longer the most important thing in my life. And that's alright.
That's the way it is supposed to be.
Benjamin was surprised; everyone was so sure that we were having a boy simply because I wanted a girl so badly. I had almost talked myself into the idea of a boy just in case. But it's a girl and I couldn't be happier (not that I wouldn't have been happy with a boy).
Ultrasound of Ashtyn being adorable, her foot up by her head
Her name is going to be Ashtyn Dee Anderson. She was so cute on the ultrasound, already. She had curled up so that her foot was up by her head and and she kept grabbing her foot with her hand. It feels surreal still, thinking of our daughter. I'm starting to feel her now, though, so that makes it even more real to me.
I have been thinking a lot about my grandma Pat lately, especially since we found out our baby is a girl. Grandma Pat died when I was four, but I have always felt a close connection with her. A short while before she found out she was sick, my mom had troubles with the house (water and gas) and we ended up staying with my grandparents for a few months until they were able to fix it. During that time, Grandma Pat found time each day to do something with me, one on one and, because of that, I hold faint memories of her. I have felt her near me during very special times in my life.
Grandma Pat holding her first daughter (my mom)
Despite my close feelings with her, I never knew a lot about my grandma Pat until I was a high school senior, when I read a memoir she had written before passing away. I was surprised to read that, as a teenager, she had loved world dance and that she had even tried out for the folk dance team while at BYU. She hadn't made the team, but was encouraged to take some world dance classes and try out again the next fall. She wrote in her memoir that she felt she had a good chance of making it onto the team, but that she met my grandpa and her priorities changed.
By the time I read this, I had been doing Irish step-dancing for more than ten years and it was my passion. I loved dance more than anything else in high school. One of my friends from dance took me with her to a BYU folk dance performance and we both just fell in love with the idea of being on the team. I could not understand how my grandmother could have given up the same opportunity that I was dreaming of.
Our last performance my senior year
Well, then I graduated from high school and I didn't make it into BYU. I was a little crushed at first, until my mom reminded me that this wasn't the end of my dream. I enrolled at UVU and my mom got me, as an "apartment warming" gift, the Willow Tree Irish Dancer statue. It was to remind me of the goal--the BYU folk dance team--that I was still working towards.
I worked really hard in my classes to get good grades and practiced dance like crazy. I applied for BYU again, this time as a transfer student, and almost couldn't believe it when I got my acceptance letter. It truly was a dream come true for me.
Ben and I got married the week before I started at BYU spring semester. That fall, I tried out for the folk dance team and ... didn't make it.
I was sad, but I wasn't as disappointed as I would have thought. I took a world dance class that semester and the teacher encouraged me to try out that next semester. I was planning on it, but then Ben and I were in California the week of try outs. That day, knowing I was missing try outs, was terrible for me. It was worse than if I had tried out and didn't make it. Turns out, though, that my missing the try out was a blessing in disguise.
About a month after we got home from California, we found out I was pregnant and a month after that, my morning sickness was pretty bad. School got really hard and I know that if I had been able to make it on the team, it would have been very difficult for me to participate.
Now I think back on my grandmother's words, "... but my priorities changed." I understand them a lot more now than I did when I was in high school. I still love dance, but not like I did before. Now there is a bigger place in my heart for my husband and for this little baby that we haven't even met yet.
My adorable husband and I
I guess that's part of starting a family and becoming a mother. The things you care about most change. In high school, I couldn't understand that and the concept would have even made me a little sad. But now I understand. My life can (and should!) be filled with interests and goals, allowing me to always be improving myself. BUT I am no longer the center of my own world. My own interests and hobbies are no longer the most important thing in my life. And that's alright.
That's the way it is supposed to be.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)