Blessings

Having enough money to live and having enough money for LIFE are two completely different things. I am eternally grateful for Alan's new job, but when he took it, he also took a 15% pay cut. We can still pay the bills and buy groceries, but we never seem to have enough for the extra crap that always seems to come. Like oil changes and car batteries dying. Or doctor's visits and new clothes for the kids. (Benjamin is still wearing shirts that are size 12 months...and NOT because they still fit!)

Recently we have been depleting our savings trying to cover these extra expenses. And our savings wasn't that great to begin with. This has caused a great deal of stress for me because if any minor catastrophe happens we will not be prepared. I was holding an open house this past Saturday, and on Friday morning when I said my prayers, I asked Heavenly Father to help me pick up a client this weekend. My last deal closed last week and I only made a whopping $300 dollars after everyone else got their cut. ($26,000 houses don't fetch a huge commission to begin with) So as of now I am client-less. Anyway, I finished my prayer and sat down to read my scriptures. Not even 10 minutes after I had finished my prayer, a friend from my ward called me and told me that they would like me to help them purchase a home in our neighborhood. My jaw dropped to the floor! Wow! That was a quick response to a prayer if I ever had one.

But apparently Heavenly Father wasn't done pouring out blessings because the next day a different friend from the ward called and asked me to help them look for a house in our neighborhood as well!

To top it off, my brother came over bearing a gift this afternoon. He did some work on a bike for a friend. This friend's family owns a company that sells and installs garage doors and openers. We don't have a garage door opener. It seems trivial, but we can't park in the garage and if you have ever experienced an Arizona summer you know that this isn't really an option. By 10:00 am, the seat belts are too hot to touch and you spend 20 minutes trying to cool down the car before you can get the kids into it. Well my brother's friend is in town this weekend and he not only hooked us up with a free garage door opener but they are going to install it for free tonight! I was getting ready to go spend my $300 commission check on a garage door opener this week. Now I can put it in the bank.

Heavenly Father is aware of our needs, even things that seem so insignificant like a garage door opener. (I'm tearing up just writing about it.) I just hope that I can pay it forward sometime soon and help someone else out the way I've been helped in the past 5 days.

Pictures are of: 1. Kimberly on her first day of dance class dressed in her beautiful ballerina outfit. 2. Kimberly and Benjamin playing in the laundry basket. They were "driving a boat".
3. Benjamin sleeping in time-out. We told him he could sleep in his bed or sleep in time-out. He opted for time-out. And the last picture is of Benjamin sliding around the bathtub. Kimberly poured 1/2 a bottle of conditioner in so it would be nice and slippery. Mommy was not happy, but he thought it was fun. Luckily he had the sense to take off h is clothes first!