Power of Prayer, Tithing and Faith

I don't usually get too spiritual on my blog. I just feel weird about it, but I had to share this experience because it was just so amazing.

Evan and I have been struggling to make a decision on whether I should/can stay home with Finn. If I stay home we'll be extremely poor and eating beans and rice for dinner every night. If I go back to work I'll miss all of Finn's milestones and he won't have the benefits of a parent with him all the time. In the middle of all of this stressful decision making, even more stress came our way.

In the fall we borrowed some money to buy a car. We bought a great little 2005 Honda Civic Hybrid that we got for a great price. Little did we know that after 8 years and 80,000 miles, the hybrid battery has a reputation for going out. This battery costs between $4000 and $5000 to replace. And the warranty ends at,  you guessed it, 8 years and 80,000 miles. 2013 marked 8 years for our car and it's at 83,000 miles. When the battery starts to go out, a cute little light comes on that says IMA. Well, the IMA light went on a few days after Christmas. We were super stressed. We still owed money for this car, we were going to have to pay close to what we paid for the car just to fix the battery and we already had very little money to live on. What were we going to do?

Well, we prayed about it, A LOT. Then we paid our tithing, which was hard to let go of when we have so little money. After praying and paying tithing, I had faith that everything would work out, one way or the other and I'd probably have to go back to work. Evan took the car into AutoZone to get the diagnostic codes the next day and took the codes with him to the Honda dealership. It was the $5000 battery that needed replacing. The person at Honda told him that in November, Honda had extended the warranty for the battery to 9 years and 96,000 miles and they would replace the battery for free.

We know that our prayers were answered and truly feel like we've experienced a miracle. We're so thankful for prayer, tithing and our faith.

In case you were wondering-- we decided I'm going to stay home. I just have to finish out this last month of work and Finn and I will be hanging out all day every day. Woo!

Little Man

I love my little Finn. He's so much fun. He's been smiling and cooing and just being plain adorable.

Here's proof:

Bat Baby to the Rescue!

Hanging out with Mom

The Poop Face

All Bundled Up for the Cold

Hanging out with Grandpa Rick

Looking Savannah Snazzy for his Blessing

Twins with Grandpa Cory

 

Bath Time

Finnegan Begin Again

He was born fat and then grew thin again.

It's finally time I got around to announcing the arrival of Mr. Finn.

He was born October 16th at 10:49 pm. He was 8 pounds 10 ounces and 21" tall.

He lost a lot of weight at first, but he's back up to speed and doing great!

We love him so much and we're so happy he's finally here.

He's smiling and rolling and sleeping and eating. He eats A LOT.

That's what we've been up to this month.

Things I've Learned About/From Being Pregnant

1. Stretch pants do indeed have a limit. They are NOT one size fits all.

2. Carpal tunnel makes you feel like a clumsy weirdo. Even more so if "clumsy weirdo" is your normal state.

3. Charlie Horses have no business creeping up on someone while they're asleep.

4. The flood gates really do open and all hell breaks loose on your emotions. Here come the waterworks.

5. I have changed one poopy diaper in my whole life and I'm terrified for the next million and five. It was just as horrid as I expected it to be.

6. People shouldn't ask why you're so out of breath. I peeled an orange and it was exhausting, ok?

7. The phrase, "anyday now" should be taken out of the English language.

8. People are incredibly generous and loving. I knew this, but it really becomes obvious during times such as these.

9. My family throws killer parties.

10. A crunchy/chewy food diet doesn't slim down your face from all the jaw exercise, it just helps it to grow bigger by the day.

Talking Animals Get Me Everytime

Lovelace BBQ and Cookout

Earlier this week Evan and I took a tour of Lovelace Women's Hospital. (It's a lovely hospital and we're so excited that D-Day is getting closer). While on this tour we were grouped with about 4 other couples and a tour guide. You can imagine that with 5 couples, there's bound to be a weird one. And this time, it wasn't us. Score one for the Ottesens! For reference in this post, we'll call our group's weird couple, "Team Weirdo".

The tour guide explained that if the husbands/partners and families were there for lunch, they usually have a grill going outside and you can come down and get some BBQ. To this, Team Weirdo's male component said, "can we bring our own food and use the grill?". While the rest of us looked at him with a look of exhaustion and ever so slight amusement (we've watched A LOT of The Big Bang Theory lately...love it), the tour guide very politely said that there were legal issues that wouldn't allow for that sort of thing.

Later on, we got to view the Family Birthing Area. [Side note -- I totally support others' decision to do it the natural way: with no drugs, and in a pool of your own filth birthing tub, but my inner back-woods-Conservative has to really struggle to refrain from the eye rolls and "tree hugging hippy" thoughts when it comes to considering it for myself. I'm just not as tough as you gals who can do it the natural way. I need the pain diffusion. Or I'm going to lose my crap.] Anyway, back to the story. While in the Family Birthing Area, the tour guide told us that we can bring whatever music, pictures, iPod, etc. that will help us, but candles aren't allowed as they present a fire hazard. The tour guide also let us know that we couldn't bring in other heating elements for the same reason. Team Weirdo male component chimed in again saying, "so we can't bring a Crock Pot then?".

I'm not sure what this fellow thought he was coming to do here at the hospital, but it sounded like he was ready for a family vacation. When I texted Lara (my BFF) about this, she brought up the excellent point that if we go to the hospital at the same time as Team Weirdo, we might be able to score some pot roast or a hot dog.

We can only hope.

Miss O. Phonia

Recently, I discovered that they've come up with a name for my disorder. Thank goodness, if there's one thing I hate, it's for my disorders to go unlabeled. The name is "misophonia" and it's defined as follows:

Misophonia – literally the hatred of sound -can be defined as a hypersensitivity to background sounds or visual stimuli that are generally ignored by other people. More importantly than the individuals inability to block out the offending stimuli or “trigger” is the acute negative emotional response experienced as a direct result of being in contact with a trigger.


There you have it. I hate the sound of chewing. It inspires anger in my soul. Combine that with the smell of Corn Nuts (oh the horror!) and it puts me in a rage.

I was sitting in a training class for work yesterday when I figured out why I hate trainings so much. After lunch, which we were graciously provided 45 minutes to complete the chewing and swallowing of our food, one guy decided that he was too busy for lunch at lunch time and proceeded to eat his meal after lunch, in training. His lunch included a noisy wrapped bag of almonds. Oh the almonds. And when he was done crunching the almonds, he started in on his (huge) apple. I kept glaring at his plate, trying to figure out how much longer this was going to go on. Still MORE almonds! To top it all off, my hands hurt from the pregnancy induced carpal tunnel, so plugging my ears was agony. By the end of the training, as with all trainings I attend, I was about to have a meltdown and vowed to never attend another training again. Only online trainings for me.

This only bugs me when I'm not chewing too. If I'm sitting down at the dinner table having dinner myself, I don't notice the noise. I guess taste trumps hearing in the battle of the senses.

I do know that I'm not alone with this disorder. My mother and my sister have it too. I remember sitting in the kitchen when I was in elementary school. I was eating my cereal and my mom was glaring at me from across the table. "Please stop chewing so loudly," she said. And from that moment on, I knew that to eat breakfast around my mom, I would have to suck on my cereal until it became soggy in my mouth and then I can chew it up. I can only hope my children show me the same courtesy.

To sum up, save your masticating for dinner time, or just stay out of hearing distance. And if you're in a training with several other people, eat  your lunch at lunch time. Have a little class.