How about this?

My what big eyes, er, glasses you have

For Christmas, I bought my kids these really cool glasses. We all had to try them on of course. When I was a kid, my mom had a pair of these glasses and they were really hard to come by, so I always just wanted them whenever my mom got them out. She wore them with a clown outfit. Anyway, the pictures are of me, son, mil, and friend. The kids also got a microphone that echoes when you speak into it, and that's what I was doing. Enjoy. ~E.

Doing your dirty laundry

Here are some pictures of my girl. She was putting this laundry bag over her head, and it was so cute. She fits in the bag, isn't she so cute? I thought you'd enjoy them too. ~E.

Ok, here are some pictures for you. Granted these aren't the best. Upper left, all of us having our first meal in the new home. Check out baby-isn't she so cute? Picture of hubby and son. Hubby repairing crack in wall, hardwood floor, huge crack in celing waiting for repair. I took video earlier and that's why I don't have others for you. But enjoy. ~E.

here you go

this is a picture of our bathroom. Pretty cool, huh?

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.