Monday, May 16, 2011

"Count Your Many Blessings. Name Them One By One."

This past weekend Marcus and I have been trying really hard to count our blessings. Saturday night I finally broke. I couldn't stay positive anymore. We were heading back to Mom and Dad's and I didn't want too. I wanted to go on a date and just not worry, but how are we supposed to do that without money? I wanted to have fun with my husband without having to worry like we have the past three months.

Financially we are still struggling. But we have remained faithful and have paid a full tithe. For a while I thought to myself whats the point? That money could be going to things like bills and other things we financially we need to take care of.

Tithing though, along with financial support from our family, is what is keeping us going. Because we keep paying it we are seeing blessings. One, we are being prompted by the Holy Ghost on things we don't need. We have sold a cell phone, a computer, and working on selling another cell phone for extra income. Ebay is wonderful.  In the past weeks I have gotten a job that allowed me to work 51 hours that week. I was tired but I was able to bring in extra income. Then I get phone calls from Marcus' school to sub as a para. Money making opportunities are appearing. Hopefully they will keep coming and we will be able to get caught up on all of our bills. Including health bills.

From the ER visits last summer, we were 13,000 in debt just from medical bills alone. In the past year we have gone from 13,000 to 300. And our church decided to take care of the rest BECAUSE we were full tithe payers and doing everything we can to make good financial decisions.  Yay! ALL THE MEDICAL BILLS ARE GONE!!!!
One for sure though, along trying to count the blessings of tithing, is counting our blessings period. Especially when we are both so broken down that it is hard to stay positive through this extremely challenging time. It seems that since we have moved out here, that things just got more challenging. I couldn't tell you why. Financially I swear we didn't struggle this much. But maybe we did and we just avoided the problems. I am not sure but counting blessings help. Here are some of my blessings I have seen.

*Learning even more how my family loves me and how much they are willing to do to help us.
*Friends who show their loving support through all of our trials
*Blessings from Tithing: Two new jobs, help from the church.
*A Lawn Mower.
*A wonderful little miracle growing inside me. I am now in my 29th week of pregnancy and Lydia is healthy and moving. Especially around my bladder :P
*My dog, Charly and cat, Nanners.
*My extremely supportive, loving, compassionate, self-less, hard working, patient, musical, talented, and encouraging husband, Marcus.
*My testimony in the church
*The temple and knowing that families can be together forever, even ones who haven't been born.
*A house
*Even though being far away from home, we moved into a very loving community.
*And the education I have already received and hopefully the education I will receive in the future.

Those are just some of the blessings I know I have received just within the past few weeks. I just need to keep my chin up and keep trucking. Marcus and I have learned a lot in our first 2 1/2 years of marriage. Especially in the last year with just finances. I know we will keep learning and we will push through all challenging times.
Thank you to everyone for your love and support.

Karin Marie

Monday, May 9, 2011

What A Week!!

What a week!!

So, I recently was just hired at the Country Store here in town as a clerk. For all ya'll who are worried about me getting a new job and my pregnancy, don't be. This is one of the least stressful jobs I have ever worked and I love it! So, please. Stop worrying now.

All this week I have been in training so I could be on my own this past weekend. Well, this past weekend was Graduation weekend for Franklin. HOLY COW! Also, with it being graduation weekend, it was my first weekend closing completely on my own. The Stress kicked in.

Saturday (graduation day) was a zoo. We were super busy and I couldn't keep up with stocking the cooler. Marcus was wonderful and came helped. A LOT! At one point I had a lot of customers and the beer was gone. So three people just went into the back and just helped themselves. I felt bad. Marcus said he watched them and they were locals so no biggie. But, later that night when my wonderful husband was helping me stock the cooler (as in I was up front and he was stocking it) he said in the hour and a half he was back there (super long time to be stocking that thing. we were low!) he had to refill the beer three times. He said that every time he turned around he had to restock it. I guess it was frustrating. :)

Also, because of being in a hurry with so many customers i hit some wrong buttons and totally threw off my drawer. I told my boss, Terri, and she came in at 10:30 to help me with the paper work and fix my mistakes. She is a life saver.

So many different adventures happened that day including a pit bull running around in my store. Someone told me to call the cops because there was a pit bull loose in the city. He had tags, but he did need to be picked up. Anyway, someone came into the store and the dog followed. HE RAN EVERYWHERE AND WE COULD NOT CATCH HIM! In the mean time I was on the phone with the dispatcher and I am pretty sure I heard her giggling. Well, I did give her something to giggle about.

Finally 10:30 came and we were finally slowing down. Terri came in to help with paper work. We are supposed to be out no later than 11:30 and we left right at midnight. Anyway, she said she was impressed and that I did really well. I was 1.97 over in my drawer. Which I guess isn't bad for your first day by yourself.

One of the many things you have to do is fill the ice in the fountain machine. Duh.. go figure. I take multiple trips so I won't be lifting anything to heavy. Anyway, I climbed on the stool to dump in the ice on top and the ice kept emptying out. IT WOULD NOT STAY IN THE MACHINE!! I couldn't figure it out. I look down and I see my wonderfully HUGE baby bump was pressing the ice dispenser button. I had to laugh at myself for that one. I got ice everywhere. Thank you Lydia. I told Terri what happened. Down the road I told her I might not be able to do that anymore because eventually I'll get to big and won't be about to reach the top without hitting the button. She thought it was pretty hilarious. I did as well. :)

As you saw from my last blog post our finances are pretty tight. I was really excited from this week of training I gained 13 hours of overtime. YAY! That will help us out a lot! I didn't realize I had worked that much this week. I knew I worked a lot compared to my normal life schedule, but today I slept. A LOT! I was out cold from midnight last night (right after I got home) to about 1 in the afternoon today. So much for being productive today. :)

Anyway, I love this new job. Besides this past weekend it isn't that stressful. I closed again by myself last night and it went so much better. I was a little off but Terri said it wasn't hard to fix and that I did well. I love that this job gets me out of the house. Marcus has even noticed a change in my attitude. It makes time go by so much faster and I can't believe that this weekend I am seeing my family again. The last two weeks flew by!

This job is such a huge blessing. For our finances AND just for my mentality. I still get to be home a little and take care of the kiddos (pets) and work part-time. Thank you God for this wonderful blessing of a good job, with a great boss, and great fellow employees to work with.

I can't wait for the many other adventures that will come with it. :)

Karin Marie