Christmas Day

It's Christmas day. Merry Christmas!! May the blessings of this day be with you always. We are having a really good day here at this household. We are having an auntie and 2 uncles over. It's really nice. My hubby cooked the whole dinner, even being careful to cut the ham into thin slices so we can have ham sandwiches later. We had mashed potatoes and ham gravy, corn, stuffing, biscuits, and cranberries. There is pie to eat too. We've been drinking coffee and shooting the breeze all afternoon. I'm so tired, I really want to take a nap. Hubby and I got up at 4 to put the ham in the oven. It didn't take as long to cook as we had anticipated, but I would much rather put it in too soon, than too late!! So there are still a few presents that need opening, and we'll do that real soon. Hope you had a nice Christmas. ~E.

Oh Christmas

It is Christmas Eve. We just got done opening our gifts. We decided that this year, we could open our presents tonight. There will be some other gifts under the tree from Santa tomorrow on Christmas day. Those will be the ones for the kids. I worked today and then came home and did a little cleaning. I purged a little bit while I was at it. I threw out all of my old baby magazines. I love those. My plan was to go thru all the magazines and take out the favorite articles and put them in a folder for reference. Well I haven't looked at them for a VERY long time and so I decided to throw 'em out!! It felt good too. I had to stop cleaning or whatever it was that I was doing so I could go to church. I love going to church. We sang beautiful Christmas carols, and then there was a praise opportunity where we got to speak in front of the congregation about any praises we had. I praised God for my mother in law, who without her we'd be lost. I'm tired and I really need to get some shut eye. My house is in serious disarray. Merry Christmas. ~E.

231,751.00 dollars worth of debt

My husband and I are taking a class at the local church called Financial Peace University. It is taught by Dave Ramsey and we watch videos and do worksheets. The whole purpose of the class is to teach us about money and how to spend it and so on. We are to tell the money what to do instead of it telling us what to do. Meaning that just because we have the money that doesn't give us the permission to just go spending it foolishly, we must get control of our finances and spend wisely. It also teaches us to use a budget and use an envelope system paying only cash for non-essentials. It's a great class, but I find it very hard to stick to the rules and follow the guidelines set up by Dave. With my husband hopefully we will be able to work together to get our finances under control. Anyway, the reason for the title, is that we went thru our credit card offers and if we were to turn them in, that is what our debt would be on 15 credit card offers and 1 home loan offer. There are 12 offers with a credit line to be determined upon the application being filled out. That's so insane. I can't believe that we could get sucked into this cycle of frustration. We have only 3 outstanding loans. We have other bills, but if we keep pecking away at them, they will be down to nothing. Ahh Debt.~E.

Snow and snow people

Today, we played outside in the beautiful weather. It was perfect snowman building weather. It was so great. We built an entire family. My mil even built a snow bunny. It was a pretty big bunny. I don't think I've ever seen one so big. LOL. Anyway, here are some pictures about our day.
~E

This is a picture of my new house and a picture of us in front of our old house.

Hi there. I have put in some pictures for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy. E

Dreams......

What do dreams mean? Lately I've been having some "telling" dreams. They've all been a little weird, and stemmed from stress or other worries that I might be having. One dream I had was about money. I can't remember what the dream was, but it was about money. The dream I had last night was about the house that I'm buying. I was riding my bike~and if you know me at all, you'll KNOW that's a dream! Anyway, while I was riding by the house, I looked inside and there sitting in front of the window was a man just looking outside. I was wondering why anyone else would be in my house, it was really strange.

Well, today we are going to go and play outside in the snow. The weather is supposed to be really super!! I haven't been outside playing in the snow in a while. We are going to build snowpeople. Even my MIL will be out there with us. She'll build a snow bunny. When it's all done, I'll try to take a "family" picture.

My hair is long, and sometimes it bothers me. I don't do much with it and when I have to work, I put it up in a ponytail. That's ok, except that then a wet pony sits on my head and causes a sore to grow on my scalp. I actually have several spots on my head that are itchy. It's a bothersome thing. I can remember back in the '90's my friend cut my hair SUPER short. I actually enjoyed having it so short because it was so maintenance free. It was nice. Sometimes I just wish I could shave my head. Not really, but sometimes.

We are getting ready to go to church. I am in the nursery today and I don't want to be late. I am going to have my husband help me. That's so nice of him. I like doing things like that with my husband. After church and before we play in the snow, we are going to run to the grocery store and buy a few things. Then it'll be play time. I am so excited.

This week I have to work three days. On Tuesday, I have Christian Women's Club, on Wednesday, it's AWANA and on Thursday I am going to visit my best friend fo some much needed me and her alone time. It will be very nice. That is the day I am most excited for. See you soon friend. I love you. ~E

somethings wrong

Just to warn you, I was looking at my latest posts and the discipline one is being a little weird. So I hope you can read it. On my computer it's cut up a little. I hope you have a great day. E

My Birthday

Even though I'm a day late, I thought I'd share how I spent my 33rd Birthday. It was a very good day. I took my mother-in-law to the Dr for a stress test. While I was sitting waiting for her, I worked on a little "filing" project. I am being swallowed whole by paper. I am losing the paper battle. If I could just ditch paper, I would, but for some reason it has this unbelievable hold on me. A constant grip that if I were to ever lose hold of it I would be in a whirlwind. Anyway, I took this little project and worked on it. My MIL was MIA for an hour. I sat in the car and worked on this while my poor kids sat with me and just watched the "traffic". We were parked, so not much traffic could be had.:) After the appointment, my MIL took us out for breakfast. What a nice treat. We went to eat at the restaurant where I work. I had a wonderful big breakfast. After the meal, our server, who I really enjoy working with, but who also causes me a great deal of frustration, came out with a slice of pie and ice cream for me for my birthday. I wasn't expecting this at all. She and the other servers sang Happy Birthday to me. When people come and eat on their birthdays, I love singing to them. After breakfast, we went and did some shopping. I needed to buy some new shoes, but couldn't find them. We shopped for about 2 hours. It was fun. When we got home, we watched tv while the kids napped. After the show was over, my mil baked me my favorite cake; Angel food. I just love Angel Food cake. (For my 9th birthday, my grandmother baked me an angel food cake for me to eat all by myself~not in one sitting of course. And I would have too, except that she frosted it with some sweet frosting. I think I got sick). My husband came home and then it was time for me to open my present. I got a really neat stuffed panda that you talk into and record your voice and then you can play it over and over. It was really sweet. We had fun with that. Then it was time to eat the cake. I didn't have candles on my cake. I don't know why, I just didn't. And then my family wouldn't sing HBD to me, but the cake was soooooooooo good. Today, it is gone. After all this excitement, we decided to order Pizza. Yummy. We ate the pizza and then it was time for my husband and I to retreat to watch a movie in the privacy of our bedroom. We saw the movie "The Notebook"~FINALLY!! It was so good. I cried. Then we went to sleep. The end. 5 people called to wish me happy birthday. It was so nice. My dad called while I was watching the movie and I didn't hear the phone ring, so I missed his call. I will probably try calling him tomorrow. I have big plans for tomorrow, but I will definately have to make it a point. I miss my dad very much.~E

Ahh discipline

As per a VERY good friend of mine, it is encouraged to discipline my children starting at a very young age so as to maintain control as they are getting older. Disciplining really helps and I take her advice as far as taking them to the bathroom so as not to embarrass them in front of other people. Well, tonight, my daughter who has a very high pitched squeal/scream wanted to drink all of her milk at once. I wouldn't let her so she started to scream in her high pitched tone and made it really uncomfortable for me to enjoy myself. I took her to the bathroom and there was a line, so I had to wait before I could get into the stall. When we finally went into the stall, I laid my daughter on the changing station and I was talking to her and letting her know that her behavior was unacceptable and that she was going to get a spanking now. She seemed to fully understand what I was saying and I gave her one little slap on the butt. It wasn't hard by any means but it got the message across. Well, the 2 ladies that were in the restroom before me, were still in there. They heard the slap and then the cry. And as they were leaving one said, what was that, and the other one said it sounds like she got smacked, and then she said something like oh is that how it's done. Or something like that. What gets me, is that if I was in the stall pooping, would they be leaving and saying whoa, that smells, I wonder what she had to eat today. I don't recall ever commenting when I hear someone reprimand their child. I look away so I don't have to make eye contact with either the mother or the child. I wouldn't want them thinking anything. Anyway, our discipline time was over and we went back to our table to eat and enjoy ourselves. While I was taking care of my daughter, my son was also acting the way his sister was and his dad took him to the bathroom to take care of him. I love my children, but the discipline definately works, I just wish people would leave their comments to themselves. I realize we live in a damned world. Meaning you're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't. If I hadn't taken my daughter into the bathroom and not even worried about disciplining her, people would have surely looked at me for disrupting their meal and then wondered why I wasn't doing anything about it. ~E

I think we found a winner

After much discussion and deliberation, I think we may have found a home. Now we must go thru the process of putting in an offer, getting it inspected, having our offer approved, perhaps doing a little repair work and then moving into home sweet home. I am so excited and I really wish we could get this particular ball rolling, but all good things come to those who wait. I am still wondering if this is what God wants for us. Just before we looked at the house, there had been an offer, and the people were having difficulties with financing and the real estate agent said that if another offer was made, that first offer would "go away". So I hope that we can be the offer to make the other one "go away". This was a difficult decision, as one would hope, since buying a house can't be easy. But after going over all the pros and cons, I feel that this decision will be one we won't regret anytime soon. Hopefully we'll be able to keep our heads above the water and that the money won't run out before the month does. I know that we have what it takes to make this happen, it will just be a lot of discipline to acquire it. Peace be to all. E

home at last

I went to pick up my husband on Wednesday from the airport. He is home now form New Orleans where he had been for 2 months. It is so great having him home. We just went back into our normal pattern of living, but he has once again left me for the weekend to go to guards. He'll be home tomorrow though. So that will be very nice. We went shopping for a house today and of the ones we saw, we just can't seem to make any kind of agreement. It is ultimately his job however to make the final decision once we've discussed this and I am just hoping for a good decision. The discussion isn't going so well.

comings and goings.

It's been a bit since I've last written and so much has happened since my last writing. Of course there was Thanksgiving. We celebrated on Wednesday since I had to work on Thanksgiving day. It was great. It was just my little family. We had Turkey, dressing, potatoes, gravy, corn and biscuits. Yummy!! I only wish my husband could have been home. But he's still gone. :(

On Friday when I worked, I cut my thumb really bad. I didn't go to the hospital though because the wound, which still hurts today as I write this, didn't appear bad enough to require stitches. It's really ugly. I was opening a syrup jar and the jar broke in my hand. There was a lot of blood. I worked the weekend and had my hands in water so it was really hard to have a bandaid on at all.

Today there is no travel advised so my son's MRI appointment had to be rescheduled. The hospital called me and asked if we were still coming. The woman on the phone made it sound like it would be a very bad idea if we tried coming in for the appointment, so I just decided that we would just reschedule. I have to call the insurance to get authorization anyway. The Dr that want the MRI will call and get the authorization. Then I have to call the appointment desk at the clinic to reschedule the MRI. What a mess. But it's really important for the authorization otherwise, I could be responsible for the full amount.

I am going to call my realator and make an appointment for this week to see some houses with my husband. There are two that are kind of in our price range. One has more potential than the other one. My husband will be coming home on Wednesday. I am so excited.

Today, I need a nap. I am very tired. I wanted to sleep in, but I thought I'd have this appointment and so I needed to get up at a decent time. Well, I have some things to do. SO have a great day.

Home and Away

My husband is still in New Orleans working with the guards. I sure do miss him. I can't wait for him to get home. In the meantime, I have been working a lot at my job, which isn't something I'm too fond of, but I feel is something I should do to help support my family. I enjoy my job but there are some aspects of it that aren't so much fun. Take today for example. I feel I can keep up pretty good, but I got 3 tables at the same time, and as I was putting in their orders, I got another table. I thought that I should punch in the orders and then go to that table and take the order. One of the managers who I usually have conflicts with, came and asked me if I was ever going to get to that table. I just didn't know what to do. Of course I was going to get to that table. It was just that I was busy putting in the orders for the 3 other tables. What's a girl to do. The day was truly a Monday. It did get better though. So that's nice. Now I'm busy watching tv, and I want to "try" to clean house as well. I don't have to work the next 3 days, but I have some other things that I need to do. The break from work will be nice. I am very tired. ~E.

To serve and serve

I am a server at a restaurant and yesterday when I worked, I got so caught up in my side work of filling syrup set ups and other such things, I forgot that there might be people coming in during the midst of all this. Usually when the hostess seats someone, she tells the server that they have someone in their section. Well, this didn't happen for me. So the manager, instead of just coming to get me immediately, went to the tables to see what they wanted for drinks. Then she came back and got me and kind of yelled at me. She didn't raise her voice, but I knew she wasn't happy with me. She told me that I had two tables that had been there for a while, and that when we are so busy the hostess can't be coming back to tell me that there are tables in my section. I understand that, but I felt like things had slowed down a bit and so we weren't as busy. I guess I was wrong. She helped me get the drinks and told me who needed what, but I was a little confused to say the least. I sometimes think that help can definately hinder a person. So anyway, I went to 2 tables, and one of them was the wrong one. Oops. The floor chart had just been changed, and I totally forgot about it. It was an honest mistake. So, instead of bringing the right drink to the right table, I tried to give the wrong drink to the wrong table. "Which one of you had coke?" I said when I got to the table, and the lady looked at me like I was nuts. "We didn't have coke" she said, and then it hit me, as I was looking around, I went to the wrong table. OH NOOOOO! Well, what do you do? Just deal and move on, and that's exactly what I did. I took their order. Then the 2nd table was a gentleman. And just as I was getting ready to go to his table, a different manager, The restaraunt manager, went up and took his order. I was so close. At that point I really, truly didn't care. After that situation, with me waiting on the wrong table and so on, the manager that told me about the tables in the first place said something to me about going to the wrong table. I don't know what she said, but it almost turned into a full blown discussion/argument and had it not been for another server that told us to get in the kitchen, it would have unraveled right there in the dining room. I am so thankful for that other server. Anyway, as we were making our way to the kitchen, I just walked away and got the drinks for the table. It all turned out to be fine, and I got a decent enough tip off the table, and I'm not sure if the man left a tip or not. I didn't deserve one anyway. The whole day was like that-all confusing and super busy. With mistakes made here and there. I know I am a very good server. But sometimes, I just have moments where it's just not working out, but I keep on trucking. For now at least, I really enjoy my job, and it gives my family a little extra money. And that is the best part.

I called my husband yesterday, because he has made the paper. Not the local one, but one in another part of the state. I can't believe that my husband, who would rather stand behind the guy asking questions and taking pictures, made the paper. I am so excited. My sister's mil will be sending me the paper. It's so neat. My husband also told me that he would have a little air time on the radio, which really shocked me. Where did my shy husband go and what have they done with him?:)
~e.

More of this and that

So I just heard from my husband. He told me that he might be staying in LA for a little while longer. I am not sure for how long or even for sure that will happen. I just have so much on my mind and of course I miss my husband quite a bit.
Tonight while my mil was getting my kids ready for supper and then after, it was very important for me to consiously participate. It's so easy just to let my mil take care of my kids and do everything for them. I know it's important for me not to and to be actively involved but man it's so easy to let my mil take care of everything for me. It's truly like I have a nanny. But only better because I don't have to pay her, and plus my kids reap the benefit of having their grandma take care of them.
How on earth does one organize their photos when they are in such disarray? I have so many bazillion photos and they are just shoved in shoe boxes and not put in any kind of order. It's so frustrating. One day at a time I guess. Well, I must end. I wish that my friends would type something in their blog.
~E.

This and That

So it's been a few days since I've spoken to my husband. I sure do miss him and I really wish he were going to be home soon. I just transferred money into his account. He says he needs some money, so I guess I better comply. I just heard on the news that a band director, his wife, and their eleven year old daughter were killed in a bus/truck accident. How sad. But dying with my family is the way I'd want to do it. Then I wouldn't have to live without them and they without me. Of course my friends are a whole other story. I don't know what I'd do without my friends. Maybe if the world just ended and we could all die together. Ok enough about that.
My mother-in-law is outside raking~of her own accord. I have to run and pick up a prescription for her. I want to pick up some other things for dinner. Work was really good today. It was busy for a Monday. That was really good for me. I'm a waitress and so the busier we are, the more tips I should make. So I have this errand I need to run. I'll type more later.
~E.

Miscelaneous bits

So this weekend was really nice. I visited my family and stayed in a hotel. My kids didn't get a nap in, and so my son was sooooooooooooooooooo tired by the time we got to bed. It was really late anyway as I was up visiting with my siblings. I was also busy making mints for the farewell party for my dad and his wife. So we didn't actually leave my sisters house until midnight. My son fell asleep on our way to the hotel, but then woke up once we got there. He fell asleep in the chair, so cute, and I moved him to the pull out bed where his sister was already asleep. I went to bed a little while later and then about an hour later, my son fell out of bed. Oh no. That started a cycle of sleep deprivation and frustration. I took him to bed with me, and then like every half hour he sat up in bed and said go bye bye and would sort of cry. Around 4, he finally got to sleep. But around that time, my daughter fell out of bed. She was ok, and slept with grandma. But oh boy, my poor kids had a really rough night. My daughter woke up at 7:30 or 8:00. My son woke up at around 9:30. It was such a blessing that he slept for so long after such a rough go of it. I'm sure they just had such a hard night because they were in an unfamiliar bed and they got to bed sooooo late. Today, they got a nap in, even though I didn't think it would be possible due to our situation. But the kids were so tired and it worked out pretty nicely. They slept really well. What a blessing.

Today was the farewell party for my dad and his wife. There was a really nice turnout of people. My dad and his wife are moving to another state. I will miss them both terribly. It was nice to be able to see them whenever but now it's going to be quite a trek if I wish to see them. They said they were coming home next summer. Hopefully they are still able to do that when summer comes. They are buying a house, fixing it up, selling it, and then taking that money and having a house built. I'm sure it will be nice when it's all said and done. Dad's wife said that she is really craving christian friends and I hope that she is able to find them where they are going. We all need good friends like that.

Yesterday was a whole bunch of fun. We went to this cornfield maze. The cornfield maze is in a cornfield that has paths plowed in the shape of an entire farm. Barn, windmill, farmhouse, etc. and then within the maze are mailboxes. The reason for the mailboxes is because it's kind of like a treasure hunt/test. They give you this quiz sheet and then you have to find the mailboxes and insided the mailboxes are the answers to the quiz, and you just have to guess which mailbox goes with which question. It was so cool. My family was doing this for competition, and I decided that it was too much pressure, so I decided just to walk the cornfield maze just for fun. It was too hard to read the map and I just couldn't figure it out. But it was sure a lot of fun!!
Have a great night. ~E.

down south

So, in a recent post, I mean real recent, so recent I could edit, but didn't want to, I forgot to mention that my hubby is still down south. I called him last night and we talked for a little while. He said that they cleaned out a school in the souther part of New Orleans, and brought all the school supplies to a town farther north. Before that, they were bagging sand for the levy. He told me that they would be home by Halloween. I hope thats how it will be, because I really would love to have him home for Halloween. He says he's doing well and keeping busy. ~E.

It's all good

Well, I'm still cleaning my house. I think it's never ending. I am not so bogged down by cleaning though so that's a good thing. I am listening to Dr Dobson on my computer right now listening to him explain his reason for supporting the newest nominee of the Supreme Court. It's kind of interesting. My checkbook is off and so I have to go thru that. I wrote my brother a check and he still hasn't cashed it. I'll have to tell him to get on that. Right now, I'm not writing any checks, because we don't have any check blanks. That's ok, but not really. I have a few more bills to pay, which I forgot about. Oops. Oh well, the one will get paid, and it'll be alright. So like I said, I'm still cleaning. I have to make beds, and change sheets, that sort of thing. Plus I need to rainbow my house. My daughter went potty on the potty this morning. It was so wonderful. I don't know if she had to go really, or that she knew what she was doing, but when I got up, she was saying potty, potty, and so I sat her down on her little potty while I went potty, and lo and behold, she went potty too. It was so great. I hope that I can seriously start training her soon. I haven't done that yet simply because I just feel it's too soon. Plus I don't see how I can get up in the middle of the night to take her to the potty so she won't wet the bed. Of course I wouldn't stop having her wear diapers at night, but the point is, I just don't know if I could get up in the night.:) My son hasn't started potty training yet and he's older than his sister. He hasn't even gone potty on the potty chair. So It's definately something that will have to wait. I just hope my kids don't outgrow diapers before they go potty on the toilet.:) So, since I'm still cleaning, I better go. Thanks for stopping.
~E.

spring cleaning

Hi there! I know it's not spring. But is there another name for thorough cleaning? I am really enjoying myself. I don't have the tv on. It's a new concept. I have a lot of things I want to get done, and I just feel that the tv would definately prevent me from doing anything constructive. It's good that I'm cleaning. It's really nice out today, and I feel like I should be outside cleaning my shed or cleaning out my car. But I also feel strongly that I should be right here where I am inside cleaning. It's been a good time for me. I'm actually motivated to clean. Sometimes I'm not~actually I'm not motivated a lot of the time. There is so much to do. I am thinking of putting a collage of pictures on my table under my clear plastic table cloth. I think it will be fun. My son made me think of that. He put some business card underneath the plastic-he was playing-and it made me think of such a neat idea. I really love to take pictures, and I have TONS of them. My house could probably be wrapped 3 times in photos if it were done wall to wall inside and out. I have that many pictures! Oh boy!!! So I just wanted to take a minute to do something fun. But I better get back to it. Bye
~E.

Long time no type

It's been a little while since I've blogged. I've just been uninterested. I went and looked at a house the other day. It's a really old house. In my opinion, it requires a TON of work. It's really neat though. It's in my price range. It's in the town I live in. The house is liveable, it just has that old plaster and lath walls. The carpet is pretty old. The kitchen is carpeted with really old carpet. The cabinets are really old. It's a neat house though. It has a really awesome attic. One you can go up in and actually stand. There's even access to the roof where there's a "porch" type thing. IT's so cool. There's even a laundry shoot which I think is really cool. Unfortunately, the laundry is in the basement. The basement is not that great, it's a basement, what can one expect really? There are three bedrooms and they are on the upper level. There is 1.25 bathrooms which means that on the main floor there is only a toilet. ON the upper level is the master bathroom. All this upstairs stuff wouldn't be so bad except that my mother in law has such a hard time with steps. It'll all work out if it's meant to be. I won't know more until my hubby gets home. He's helping with Hurricane Katrina. The kids are napping. My daughter wasn't falling asleep. I think she is finally sleeping though. IT's really cold in my house. I live in a mobile home that I think it must leak so warm air gets out thru the windows and etc. I think this is all for now. Have a great day!
~E.

When is it enough?

I am going thru my "scrapbook" stuff and finding things that are making me wonder when enough is enough. I have saved everything, or rather my parents have saved everything for me, from grade school thru high school. And all thru now. I save Christmas letters/cards, birthday cards, general letters, newspaper clippings, wedding invitations/programs, obituaries, EVERYTHING!!! I save EVERYTHING!! EVERYTHING that is paper anyway. It's not overtaking my life just yet, but I don't have a lot of room as it is. I am going thru my "scrapbook" stuff for reasons I am unsure of, and I'm just finding things that are really fun to look at and at the same time I'm finding things that I'm wondering why I saved it in the first place. I have tons of programs from musicals and plays and the like. They are things that show my accomplishments on paper. Now if Peter could come here, I'd probably get rid of 75% of those things. (Peter from Clean Sweep). But then the cycle is just going to continue with my kids. If I don't get a handle on this now, I'll never be able to handle it. I feel like every time I turn around, quite literally there is one more piece of paper that I feel I can't live without. I want to take responsibility for this, but I really believe that this is my parents fault. At least my dad's. He saves EVERYTHING. Besides, isn't everything supposed to be my parents fault? lol. I haven't gotten a very good/clear answer on what important papers to keep and so as far as that is concerned, I'm still keeping EVERYTHING there too. Ok, so enough of this. My point kind of is this: the other day at work, one of the girls was talking about her cousin who lived right on Lake Poncitran in NewOrleans. After 4 hurricane warnings, they decided to pack up and move to higher ground. Well, they have lived thru hurricanes before and came out with no problems. They packed for a weekend getaway. They didn't pack thinking that they'd never be able to come back to their home, which by the way was swallowed by the hurricane and the level of the lake rose so high that their address no longer exists. THEY HAVE NOTHING!!! ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WHATSOEVER. NO PICTURES OF THEIR BABIES, NO MEMOROBILIA, NO VIDEO, NO WEDDING DRESS, SO ON AND SO FORTH. But they have each other. In the scheme of life, isn't that what counts the most? You don't know what you have till it's gone. I need an outside support system to help me wade thru my papers and give me solid advice on what to keep and what to get rid of and make it ok. This is just so sickening. I don't know if it would help me or not. Ok. Enough.
~E.

On Top of Old Smokey

Hi there! On Tuesday, I went to Christian Women's Club. It was really a lot of fun!! There was a woman who spoke of her walk with the Lord and the things that happened in her life. It was really nice listening to her speak. She spoke of her family and her children and just things in her life and so on. The thing that really stuck out was when she told of her daughter who at the age of 3 was tragicallky killed in a car accident. It was so sad, if I'd been by myself, I would have just started bawling. One of the things that she said about her was that she seemed to know very early on that she believed in the Lord. The woman said she used to call her "the angel with a dirty face" because she was always playing in the dirt and getting dirt on her face. Oh my heart was just breaking. Anyway, one of the things she remembered about her daugter was that she always would sing a song, sung to the tune of "On top of Old Smokey". I asked the woman if she would give me the words to the song, because I thought it was so neat and she was gracious enough to share them with me. Here are the words:"I'm glad I'm a Christian, I trust in the lord, I'm reading the Bible, believing His word. The past is forginven, from sin I am free, A mansion in Heaven is waiting for me." I just thought this was so neat. I hope you will too. Enjoy.
~E.

Oh industry

So, AWANA is over now. I'm really tired. It's nothing but full blown excitement for about 2 hours. Action packed and go go go. Sometimes I wish I wasn't so obsessive about it. My hubby is gone and wants to limit talk time. I really miss him. Just to hear his voice would be something for me to grasp at. Well, must see tv is on. Gotta go. Sadly, E

ten

A blonde is sitting on a train reading the paper, when she comes to the heading that reads 12 BRAZILIAN SOLDERS KILLED. She shakes her head, closes the paper and says to the stranger next to her......

HOW MANY IS A BRAZILIAN?

I got a kick out of that joke and thought I'd share.:)

I'm getting ready to go to AWANA. I am looking very forward to that. I spend a lot of time getting ready each week and I know the payoff is just so great! As the head secretary, I have a lot of responsibility. Not to mention the fact that I help my one friend a lot also. She's the director of Sparks~that's the name of one of the clubs. There are 3 total clubs within the organization. They are: Cubbies~ for children who are in pre-school. Then there's Sparks for children who are in Kindergarten-2nd grade. Then there is Truth&Training (T&T) for kids who are in 3rd-6th grade. My husband and I both help with AWANA. My husband is with the Sparks group and the T&T group. My mother-in-law helps in the nursery. It's so nice to have the whole family involved. Of course my kids go to nursery, as they are too young for AWANA yet. But it won't be long, and I'll be wondering whatever happened to that time.:) Right now they are playing with the curtains and jumping on the couch. I still need to put my shirt on and then we are ready to go.

It's been a great day today. I ran a bunch of errands and mailed off a bunch of letters and stuff. I went to the store and got pictures developed. That was fun. I have to send some of the pictures off now. I probably won't do that till tomorrow. I have to work tomorrow. I wish I didn't have to work at all. It felt really productive today. I mean I didn't really clean my house or anything, but I did some other things which are important too. In my opinion, I guess. Well, I need to freshen up and get ready for real. Have a nice night.

~E

It's good to be home.

So I made it home. My sisters and I got home around 11:00p.m. which is really good timing considering all the driving. I then drove what would be a typical 45 more minutes except that I think it took me more like an hour and 15 minutes. It was pouring rain. Rain was coming down in sheets. Sometimes I couldn't tell if I was just going backwards and stepping on the gas or really moving forward that's how hard it was raining. I really wanted to get home last night so I kept on going. The water on the road was causing me to hydroplane a little, but I was driving very cautiously. I was the only on the road and that allowed me to drive in the middle of the highway. At one point when I had to drive on the other side of the highway due to road construction, I went thru a huge amount of standing water and it jerked my car to one side. It was kind of freaky because I wasn't expecting it. It kind of scared me. By the time I got to my town, the rain had nearly subsided. So that was nice. I was listening to my favorite CD which is a mix of Christian Music. I was really singing to the hills and that really kept me alert. I wasn't that tired. I even stayed up about another half hour and checked my e-mails and my regular mail. I got a lot of both:). But most of it was just junk mail.

So I woke up earlier than I thought but my kids were so happy to see me. That's the best part!! And another reason I wanted to come home ASAP. I missed my kids so much while I was gone. It was nice to get away, but I would have taken my kids in a heartbeat. I am really glad that I didn't though as it was nice to just be able to relax.:)

Well, on his way, my brother's car got broken into and his laptop, palm pilot, cash money from his wife's purse-but not the purse and a cell phone were all stolen. Him, his wife and their kids had just stopped off somewhere and checked out the sights. They figured they were probably gone 10-15 minutes. When they got back to their vehicle, there was a guy getting into his car which I guess was parked right next to their car and he seemed to be in a big hurry, slammed the door fast and just drove off before they could even figure out what had happened. Both my brother and his wife probably wouldn't have noticed that the smaller things were gone except that their son commented that the lap top was gone. When my sister-in-law looked in her purse, she noticed that her money and her cell phone were both missing. It wasn't until much later that my brother noticed his Palm Pilot was missing. The guy broke in to the passenger door they figure, by jamming some kind of un-locking mechanism into the key hole and just manipulated it just right. The door still locks, but entry by key to that door is not possible. The laptop was from my sister-in-laws work and she called work to let them know what had happened, and it sounded like it wasn't going to be a big deal to replace that. They had it along so the kids could watch movies on the long trip. They called to cancel their phone policy but will have to pay the cancellation fee since they were under contract. Even though the guy didn't steal the purse, they contacted all their credit cards companies and put alerts on all their cards. They figure he didn't steal the purse so they wouldn't notice right away that anything had been stolen. It's just so awful that this happened. I had my purse with me wherever I went, even just to go to the bathroom, and of course my sister locked her car up. There were sometimes when we went into a store and my sister wasn't even watching her purse. She just left it in the cart while she was looking elsewhere. I am just amazed that she does that kind of thing. Oh well, I didn't know what to say to warn her. Fortunately nothing like that happened to her. My brother and his wife filed a police report and their stuff should be covered by either car insurance or work. They are hoping not to have to file a claim.

The wedding reception was really nice. My sisters and I helped my dad and his wife who were the caterer's do a little prepping. It was kind of hectic because when we got there it was just rush rush rush. We hadn't even checked into our hotel room. We weren't all that much help, but even a little helps. And then dad and his wife had to rush to get to the wedding. They almost didn't make it.

I guess the wedding which took place in a chapel, was really small and crowded. I am all for a small church wedding any day!! The reception was beautiful and huge. The bride and groom didn't sit at their table, they were so busy getting pictures taken and so forth. They had these itty bitty bells that would be great for Barbie and Ken and made hardly ANY noise. The purpose of the bells was to ring them and then the bride and groom would kiss. Well, they weren't even sitting still long enough for that to happen. I forced it a little and made them kiss eachother so I could take a picture. My camera is not something that I am most happy with lately. It doesn't take good pictures in low lighting, or at least I don't know how to get it to take good pictures in low lighting so I was so frustrated by a lot of the pictures I took. It was kind of like can I take your picture? Ok hold it there, and again, oh wait, it still didn't turn out one more. Ughh!! What is wrong with this stupid camera? I really like my digital camera for a lot of reasons, but gee, I'd go 35 mm anyday!!!!! The bride is my cousin and she looked really beautiful. Her sister was her maid of honor, who by the way caught the bouquet. I think it was kind of planned that way. She also caught my wedding bouquet. She's not on her way to the aisle any time soon. Though she does have a boyfriend.

Well, it was a really nice trip. My sisters and I got along for the most part. There was the usual bickering that happens when siblings usually get together. But we had a really nice time together. It probably won't be until Easter 2006 that I see all of my siblings together again. That seems so far away. I am not sure what we are doing for Christmas, but Easter we are all going to my brothers. My dad will be in Idaho by then and so we are thinking that for Christmas we will all join together and send him and his wife tickets to come home for Easter. That should be interesting!!

I hope you have enjoyed my homecoming story.

~E.

My bags are packed. Am I really ready to go?

Well, My bags are all packed. I hope I haven't forgotten anything. I would like to paint my nails before leaving. Not sure if that will happen. If not, oh well. I'll figure something out.

So, I just got this strange e-mail. I was invited to go to a Pampered Chef party in another state. I replied to the girl letting her know that I wasn't going to be able to make it. She told me thanks for letting her know, as her and my sister-in-law were going to get a few people together so they could have a party for the home based business that I do and then the trip would be worth my while. I didn't quite know how to take that. I'm a planner and I would have needed more time to prepare. I don't even have any catalogs. This would have been nice to know sooner. I just thought it was so strange that she said that. I can't commit anyway, as I'm going out of town.

So, I'm going out of town. Yes, that's true. I am on my way to my cousin's for her wedding. Travel time will be most of today and part of tomorrow. I'm going with other people though so that's cool. So I must go and paint my nails and do a few more things before leaving.

~E.

Why are people the way they are? Why am I the way I am?

Today was a hard day at work. There is a woman that works there who just doesn't want to "play" nice. It's almost as though she doesn't care what the "rules" are. She just frustrates me so much. For example, she never puts the butter scoop back in the water, and she's kind of bossy and not so much in a sweet way either. Yoo hoo, your order is up, hello? And then she'll say it kind of condescending too. And for some reason, today was the MOST frustrating day that it's ever been working with her. I usually get along very well with everyone. I think bad things and want to say bad things. She causes me to be stressed. Stress is that confusion created when one's mind overrides the body's basic desire to choke the living daylights out of some idiot who desperately deserves it. I used nice words, the real quote has swear words in it, but I am trying very hard not to swear. She could drive me to drink. NO not really. Drink coffee or coke maybe. I really enjoy my job and everywhere one works there will be an ogre, but things would be better without this one in particular. Then again, since the workplace will always have an ogre, then it'll never change. OR maybe it's me. I have prayed about this situation, but perhaps not enough. I just don't know what to do. This woman drives me nuts!!! Or perhaps it is my focus on her that is driving me nuts. Ughh!!!

The weather. It rained pretty hard today. I was on my way to my church for a meeting, when the rain started to come down in sheets. It was unbelievable. The visibility was down to nothing. As I turned into the parking lot, I was worried that I might get hit by an oncoming car. I sat in my vehicle listening to the radio watching it rain. Then the sirens came on and I decided to go back home and skip the meeting.

I feel much better now and hope that I won't be overcome with the onslaught of comments. I really love my job a lot. I know that it isn't the place I belong, but it is a place I enjoy being, if I have to be away from my kids. Supper is ready. I gotta go.

~E.

nine

So, today a reli got married. She looked so beatuiful. All nice and thin in her gorgeous wedding dress. I wish I could be half as thin!! The wedding was really nice and simple. My camera, which I bought 6 months ago and still haven't read the directions for, kind of sucks. I like the whole digital thing, but it's such a hugely fussy thing. I am almost tempted to say I hate it. I'm learning that having the best isn't always the best.
I have been trying to help a friend find something nice to wear. I told her black pants and pretty much anything for a top would be great. She thinks that when one wears black pants there is a huge break in the way a person sees the pattern and so they look up and get to the top and then there's this break and then they see the rest of the clothes. I think she's crazy. I told her that I was going to hook her up with the What Not to Wear team and she thinks that they only work on teeny tiny people. She's wrong. You should see some of the dumpy looking people on that show. She just doesn't have an open fashion mind. She's got too many "flaws". Well, who doesn't? Join the club I say!!
I have to work 2 times this week. I need to get more hours. The man and I are having a few financial difficulties. I'm thinking of asking my MIL to help us out. She always helps us though. It's time to cut the apron strings and just take care of this problem ourselves. The crazy part is that my husband thinks that we can still somehow afford a house. My sister suggested som housing opportunities that we need to take advantage of, but I wish my hubby would look into that instead of making me do it. But whatever. Well, I'm hot, and it's late. I will tell more later.
~E.

EIGHT

Red is my favorite color. I thought I would go with something new, change it up a bit.:) Too bad there aren't any emoticons. It would be fun to do some of those. Oh well. I guess I'll just stick with the basics. I'm watching tv right now. I't's around 9:45p.m. I just put the kids in bed. It's a little late for them, but I think they'll be ok. My husband is bowling. The new season just started tonight. He bowls Fridays too, but not this Friday. He has to leave to go to Guards. He'll just be gone the weekend though, so it won't be so bad. I have a wedding to go to with my M-i-L. I have a friend coming over to watch the kids so we can attend the wedding kid free. That'll be nice.:) The tv show that I was watching is new to me. I don't usually watch it, but I will probably start. There will be lots of competition between the 2 different channels that I really enjoy watching shows on. I haven't recognized what a waste tv watching is yet, so here I sit on my bum wasting away. I feel as though I can't shut the tv off, because I'm not the only adult to make that decision. What else would we do anyway? Who wants to play games all the time?-just kidding. If it was something I thought of, I would probably love it, as would my kids. We just don't have a lot of board games that are geared toward my kids. I'm doing the best I can, I guess. Now I'm tired and must go to bed. ~E.

7

When I woke up it was thundering and lightning out and the rain was coming down pretty good. I'm glad that it was raining because we really need the rain.

I made it thru the weekend camping with my family. It was so windy though, I just couldn't believe it!! We got to our campsite pretty late in the evening on Friday. By the time we got there, the sun was almost set. We had enough light though. My mother-in-law's air mattress had a hole in it, so it leaked during the first night. How frustrating. By morning, she could feel the ground. I felt bad for her. My dad provided one for her the second night. It worked much better. My whole family went camping; it was like a little reunion. I haven't seen my siblings since around January when we did the Christmas thing. My dad and his wife are moving but I don't remember where to. I think Oregon or Idaho. I just wasn't paying close enough attention to know for sure. It's somewhere far away though. They haven't sold their house quite yet, but they are pretty sure it's a done deal. There is a piece of furniture that they have to leave behind because it's so mammoth. Dar was disappointed because they are leaving it with the house and the people buying the house were willing to buy it in addition. Oh well.

Last night we rented a movie called "The Cutter". It was a really interesting movie. It starred Robin Williams. The DVD had a few glitches in it so I had to take it back. What a waste of time. The second one I bought also had som glitches in it. So now I'll have to take that one back as well. I can only exchange it though, so hopefully the next one will work better. Third times a charm, right?

Today I have a lot of things that I need to do and I really hope I get most of it done. I have to go work at my church. I volunteer there and help where I'm needed. I'm working in AWANA so I have a lot to do for that also. AWANA starts tonight. I'm so excited. I'm going to do some face painting on the kids. It should be fun. I'll have to be sure to bring my camera along.

That's all for now, folks.

~E.

Six

Woe is me. My husband called me as I was getting off of work yesterday, to tell me that he'd been called to volunteer for the relief efforts in Louisianna. Though I want him to go and be of good service and wonderful help, my heart is just breaking because I so desperately do not want for him to go. We have all these wonderful plans and I just don't want to put them on hold. We are supposed to be going camping this week, but it looks like it'll just be me and the kids and my M-i-L. I was just so looking forward to spending this time with my family. I'll still be spending the time with my family, but it just won't be the same. Woe is me. I told my husband that I really didn't want him to go, but that I didn't want my emotions dictating his decision. He'll have a job when he gets back, and we are going to be enrolled into a different healthcare. I'm just so bummed because it seems he's been gone a lot this year, but not compared to last year when he was gone the entire year. Again I say woe is me.

So today, I have to get a few things together before my husband leaves. We don't know for sure when he'll be going or for sure how long he'll be gone. It could be 2 months; maybe more, maybe less. I just know I'll miss him terribly, probably worse than last year, but just like last year, I'll get thru it. I just pray that God will be watching over me. The Lord is my strength.

Well, I need to get ready for the day. It won't be long and the kids will be waking up.

~E.

Five

Today I worked on this pile of papers and other things I didn't know what to do with. Mostly it was papers that needed to be filed and other kinds of things that I just wanted to keep. I am a big fan of paper. I get that from my dad. I have a really hard time just throwing something away if I see a future use for it. Plus I recycle. I'm a big fan of recycling. I recycle everything. I just cleaned out a closet just so I could store some rummage sale stuff in it. I'm determined to have a rummage sale before I bring all my stuff to Goodwill or the Salvation Army. But it probably won't happen until next spring. But that's ok. Perhaps by then, I'll be in a new house with a nice garage. A garage is my husbands dream. As much as I'd love to have one, I've lived without one my whole life, I could probably keep going without one.

My dad has announced that he and his wife have sold their home and they are moving. I don't remember where they said they were going, but they have sooooooo much stuff. Furniture, housewares, nick nacks, just stuff stuff stuff. It's incredible. I hope I don't have that much stuff when I get to be their age. Ughh, just the thought of it is frustrating to me. I'm so glad it's not my problem. My sister offered to store their stuff at her house. My other sister suggested that there would probably be furniture to be given away. I doubt it though because it's all hairlooms.
I wouldn't want that anyway. I don't have a big enough or nice enough home to put it in. I have enough already.

Spammers, what's up with that? I have posted several posts and I have gotten so many spam comments. It's annoying. But what can you really do about them?

Did I mention that we are going camping this weekend? I am so excited. I just can't wait. I'm going with my whole family. It should be pretty exciting since we've never done anything like this before. I just hope that we all get along.

~E.

4

My hubby and I are having steak for supper tonight. Yum!! I decided this really early in the evening, but then we didn't go and get the supplies until much later so now it's dark out, and he's cooking in the dark. I feel kind of bad for him doing that. But once it's done it will be so good. We are having all kinds of great food. Corn on the cob, potatoes, cucumbers and I think that's it. It should be so yummy!!

I worked today, and it was a pretty good day. I got off at 2:30 and there was a girl that wanted me to stay until 4:00p.m. but I really didn't want to. I hardly ever get off at a decent time. I was surprised when I got home as my husband wasn't home yet, and that meant overtime. Praise God for that. We need it!!

Well, suppers almost ready. Time for me to go eat like a Queen. Have a great night.

~E.

3

I'm getting ready to go to work. I'm so tired today. I hope I wake up. I am listening to some Christian music~my favorite CD. I had a woman from my church put it together for me. I'm so tired because my husband and I were up so late last night talking to some good friends and time just got away from us. I had to drop something off at their house, and what little bit of time we had turned into a lot of time. We didn't even get home in time to put the kids down to bed. I enjoy doing that so I missed that.

I'm a server at a restaurant and I hope today is busy enough. My husband and I could use the financial help.

I had a Tastefully Simple party here at my house the other day and only 3 people showed up. I was so bummed. My parties have been flops, but I thought that it was because I was having parties of the same old stuff but from different companies, so this time I decided to try food, but it still didn't matter. I am supposed to have a Homemakers Idea show in October but I cancelled due to poor turnout. I just don't want to have another party for a little while. Maybe I'll do it in spring or summer. Or maybe I won't. ~E

Post 2

Ok, I think I've got it. Today we spent the day shopping. It was fun. We bought some stuff for my home based business and for my church. We also bought a gift card for a wedding present. We were looking and looking at something to buy when the associate at the store we were shopping in suggested that we just buy the gift card. It was so great that she suggested that. We weren't finding anything that we liked as a gift.

We are going camping next weekend. I'm so excited. My mother-in-law purchased her own sleeping bag and she also bought this really nice grill stove. My husband is really excited about that. Right now he's opening the box and he's going to check it out. Actually he's watching me type this, so I have to be careful what I say;). There is so much to have/get ready for camping. When we are all done, we'll be pros:).

I just checked my good friends website, and she was talking about this new website that she went on, but she's not sharing the name of the website, and I really want to check it out but I can't find it. Even with all the information she's providing I'm finding it hard to solve the puzzle.

My kids are taking a nap, or at least trying to. My one child just will not be laid to rest. He's just soo tired. My other child fell asleep in the carseat on the way home. She has been tired all day. Although they were both tired, and missed the right nap time, they have been so good.

I have several things I want to get done today, but I'm afraid time will get away from me. Ughh!! But that's ok. There will be so many more days to do the things that I want do. :)
My husband and I have a meeting at church tonight. I wish we didn't have to go, it's going to be a long meeting, but we must do this. It will be ok.

E.S.

What's this??

Post 1

Welcome~I'm so new here, I don't even know what it is that I am doing. Is there a help desk that I can go to? I just don't get it. I had a friend come over and she did everything for me, but I must not have learned a thing. This is so frustrating. Then if I want to write something about my life, some kind of complaint that I have there, are just too many eyeballs so I can't. Maybe this just isn't my thing. Well, I have a lot of cleaning to do today for my party. I must go.