Thursday, April 23, 2009

Sweetest Friend


Thank you, LaDonna @ Just Our Thoughts. This is a sweet award. You have really made me feel special. This award originated from Evening Shade Morning Latte and has been making the rounds in bloggy-world.
The award is as follows:“These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find & be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated.”The rules of the award are as follows:Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to 8 bloggers that then need to choose 8 bloggers of their own to pass the award to. Include the following text depicting the award…“Each of the following ladies, I simply love. They each have faced their own challenges in their lives & the way they encapsulate their experiences endears them greatly to my heart.”
My first choice is
1. my dear friend in real life - LaDonna of Just Our Thoughts?
and the rest I will have to wait till I have connected with some other bloggers.

Friday, April 10, 2009

OK, looking back at my post I realized that I say so much. So this time I am just going to say this!

Get organized!

I am now a SAHM but I wasn't always. Mornings can be rushed at the best of times but when you add the baby of the family NOT being a morning person it all goes bad pretty fast. I didn't have enough hands to deal with her morning routine and make sure that lunches remained nutritious at the same time. With a good sized family and food prices high we decided that it made more sense to buy in bulk. One morning after sending the kids off to school with money yet again for snack shop at school I decided that there had to be a better way to make things work. There was and I found it!

Here's what I did.

When we went grocery shopping with our list we followed our list and bought the things we needed in bulk. Made sure we grabbed the snack and sandwich baggies and cellophane and headed home. I sat at the table after all the things were put away except what I was working with. I got a big bowl and a measuring cup ( found this worked the best) and dumped the item in the bowl. It is way cheaper to buy party mix chip in the big bag then in the small 1 serving sizes. This goes the same for Ritz bitz, fish crackers, and anything you can think of. I would measure out the 1 serving for each bag for all the lunch items we brought home. Then I would got to the veggies. We buy these in bulk as well so I would go through the same process with them and do any cutting etc that was needed at this time. The next step was the cookies. If the cookies were store bought I would bag them up and put them in the same pile as the crackers chips etc, but if they were home made I would put them in a different pile (the freezer pile). Home made cookies squares and muffins don't taste as good if they are left out too long so all these items go into the freezer (still individually packed). For the main part of the lunch is use items like meat buns (bread dough rolled out like Cinnamon buns meat and spaghetti sauce spread on it or cheese and ham or what ever you can think of then roll it up and bake it in a muffin tin then I wrap them in cellophane), left overs in a reusable lunch container, I will even do a big cook and make a few different types of meals like beef stroganoff, spaghetti, chili, or stew. Basically anything that you can freeze I make it. They are all froze in lunch size portions just like the chef on the shelf at the grocery store. They get nutritious food that they like and it take no time in the morning. Don't want to do the big cook? No problem, just add a little extra to your pot at supper. Then instead of leaving it in the fridge for leftovers put it in the freezer for lunches.

So lets recap:

Buy in bulk
individually pack
home made goodies go in the freezer (the baskets that sit in the freezer work great)
main items go in the freezer too
fruit and veggies go in the crisper (grapes and strawberries work well too)

divide up the rest of the items up into bins with the child, mom or dads name on it. Decide when it will be time to refill bin. Then let everyone know that there is enough snacks to last till then.
(this last step helps to keep sneaky fingers out of the snack box)

The most important thin that will help to make this work is to NOT pack away all of the snacks. Everyone likes to have a snack now and then and the bins poss a temptation on those days. So if you save some cookies for the cookie jar that will be hit first.

Hope this works for some of you!

ps. some or all of this would work for the home schoolers out there too.

Just a bad day!

Yesterday started out great. I planned a visit with LH and kiddies, had a laugh with my sister-in-law, gave a gift, deposited money, served a friend and more.


The visit was over and then my day started to take a swift u turn. Not quickly though. Kids texting me asking me if they could go here, do this. You know the seemingly normal stuff. Then the bottom fell out.


Lets go back a little further. Last year I was driving down the highway and a deer ran in front of me. The insurance company wrote it off. At the time this happened I was working so many hours that I did not have time to sleep. 7 was helping me too so every day he had off he was working. Somewhere in the shmoz of things we did not transfer our vehicle registration. We would have figured it out very soon as our registration comes up for renewal at the end of the month. But non the less it was not done.


Now back to yesterday, I was stopped by a sheriff (it is the Easter weekend and they were making sure everyone was following the rules of the road to a T). There was no intention on his part to issue a ticket but he still did the usual licence, insurance and registration please. Well the first 2 were not a problem but the 3rd was no where to be found. My thoughts were oh well I guess that it must have somehow got miss placed. Boy was I wrong! After sitting there for 40 min and having a few chats with the sheriff we both came to the conclusion that I had no registration on my van! I could not believe it. Thank God that I was polite and cooperative about the whole situation because the sheriff was suppose to impound my van right there on the spot. I was given 2 tickets totaling $460.00 and told to drive my van home and not to drive it till I got it registered. I said that I was sorry for the 20th time wished him a happy Easter and did as I was told.


Now for some people this may not have even phased them. For me though, I was shocked by the whole thing. How could this have been missed? Along with a billion other questions running through my head. Last weeks lesson (FPU) we heard a story about this single mom who had a bad day and to make a long story short bought McDonald's for supper because she was too tired to cook. Dave's response to this was we don't deserve that kind of break today! When we are debt free and we have a bad day maybe that would be OK, but we got ourselves into debt and as hard as it is going to be we need to buckle down to get ourselves out. $460.00 is half or aou grocery budget for the month. Please pray that God will find the means to pay all we need.


I am very thankful for a few things that came from yesterday though. The first is that when I needed a friend to vent to. Someone who would not call my husband down or tear him down putting all the blame on him. She was there, allowing me to vent, cry and get to the point that I could deal. Thank LH for keeping me together and not tearing me down. And I know that Diane was feeling like her "About me" was boring so I helped her spruce it up. The day ended on a paositive note and after all, it wasn't a "JELLYFISH BAD DAY".

8 Things

Something I got off of LH's blog Just Our Thoughts. Enjoy!


8 Things I am looking forward to:

1. An addition
2. Being debt free
3. Cheaper fruit and veggies
4. Hot sunny days, 25-28 above
5. Grand babies (but not too soon)
6. My patio set up and ready to use
7. Baking and fellowship with the ladies at the church
8. More time with 7 and my kids

8 Things I did yesterday:

1. cried (sobbed actually)
2. laughed
3. dreamed about hot summer days
4. enjoyed company
5. lent the bank more of my money
6. Made someone happy
7. felt loved
8. Fell asleep on the love seat

8 Things I wish I could do:

1. Look good in a bikini
2. Be the best at everything
3. Keep everything as organized as my craft shelf
4. Quote any scripture
5. Show someone God
6. Do any car repairs needed
7. Change past financial decisions.
8. Give like no one else

8 Shows I watch:

1. CSI - all of them
2. House
3. Knight Rider
4. NCIS
5. Mentalist
6. Cold Case
7. Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
8. Flash Point

If you read this, you are officially tagged!!
Take it and have fun!

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Puddles





Puddles are so much fun! Especially when you have new warm and cozy rubber boots. Little miss was so excited to get her new boots. I can't wait to give her the matching coat (I'm so excited). It is so much fun being an auntie.

God is faithful

God is so faithful. Why is it that we doubt Him? Time and time again this question comes up and yet the next opportunity we get, we do it again! For those of you that read my post on puppies, you have seen that I was questioning God in this situation. It just barley got off my lips and there was an answer to prayer. At this very moment we have only 3 puppies left to sell. That being said we still have prospective buyers as well. This is much further then we were last week. Last week all I could see was a life with 6 puppies growing to be big like their parents and our food bill sky rocketing. I actually had fear in my heart. I am brought back to the verse "fear not nor be afraid, for the Lord you God He is with you". Again I ask "why do I doubt". Maybe I should change my name from Tammy to Tommy (you know, Thomas the doubter!)

I'm a nerd!

How many times have you thought "my husband doesn't know me, he doesn't understand me!" Well the other day we were doing our Financial peace study and it all became clear to me! I AM A NERD. That's right, I said it. I will even own up to it. The clincher is that I have married a free spirit. Now this has helped me in two ways. #1 It tells me that just because I like things a certain way, it doesn't mean that I am obsessive compulsive (there are others like me). #2 That I am not crazy he doesn't get me! Since learning that there is a difference in the way we think I have set out on a venture to organize the things I can in my life. I am now a stay at home mom and I hate the everyday choice of what to have for supper. I am going to start Menu Monday. This has caused some concern for my Free Spirited husband. His response to this is "what if I don't want to have what's on the menu for today?" My answer to that was simple, I will let him know what I have planned and give him the chance to make changes. Then if he has a change of heart later on in the week, he has to let me know before I start to cook or it is too late! That will give him the freedom he feels he needs and me the structure I thrive on. Hey there can be harmony in a marriage after all. We started this study to improve our knowledge in finances but it is the whole meal deal. Thank you God for putting it on 7's heart to dive into this new adventure.

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Mom?

Yesterday was my mother-in-laws birthday. Today we will be having a birthday lunch for her at our house. This is something that we do regularly for our kids but don't always take time for the adults. 7 and I feel very strongly that it is important to get together and remind each other that we care and that we are all important. There was a time however that I did not feel like that when it came to my mother-in-law. I don't really remember having and opinion either way about her when 7 and I first started dating. After all I wasn't dating her right? It wasn't until we got engaged that the connection started. At first there were subtle comments (I don't think she really thought we would last till we would get married so there was not a big worry). Then as the date got closer the comments were more then subtle and actually rude. I didn't understand what I had done to cause that reaction. Finally the straw that broke the camels back! my dear mother-in-law to be told my husband to be that our marriage would not last 6 months. Now the bible say to leave you father and mother and cleave to you wife and that was 7's intention. He felt that this was set out by God but even so he could not figure out why the attitude from mom. After we were married the story didn't get much better. She called constantly and borrowed money. She felt that he should be able to give her money whenever the need aroused. Finally after lending her the money we had for our baby's new crib we (together) put a stop to it.

Not long after baby was born 7 decided that he did not want to raise his family in Whitecourt. His great idea was to move in with mom and save money to buy a home for ourselves. This did not work well at, all as we spent so much money going out because no one was happy living there.

As soon as the grand babies started to come there was finally a purpose for me in there life but I lived each day with the knowledge that if anything would happen to 7 they would do whatever it would take to get his children. I asked 7 about it once and he felt the same way. Needless to say this made me very leery to allow the babies to visit or stay over at grans house. I would have a fear in my heart and a knot in my stomach the whole time they were there. Out oldest SD has asthma and even though I asked them not to smoke around him they did whatever they pleased. I had no ash trays in my home so they would take a saucer out of the cupboard to flick the ashes on. It wasn't until 7 put his foot down that it changed. They still smoked around him when we weren't there, they thought we wouldn't know. The thing is that he would come home so sick from the smoke and it would take days even weeks sometimes to get him back on track.

There were accusations that my daughter who was shy and moody was being molested by my brother (not true). But there was no hesitation to allow a known child molester on the property while my babies were there. I feared that my babies were not safe with their gran. As much as I wanted to say NEVER AGAIN! I listened to 7 and always with great hesitation and great prayer I would let them go.

Eventually she left her abusive husband, Found a wonderful man, and got her life straight. It took a little while and allot of trust but we started to slowly build an understanding, a relationship even.

You see through this whole time my mom was not around. Not even in the picture. This was my second chance to have a mom in my life and it wasn't going so well. My heart ached for my babies to have a grandma that I never had. One that could make all the sadness go away with one kiss. One the was believed to have hung the moon. What was this lady doing? She was wasting the gifts she was given.

7 and I have been married for almost 17 years now. In that time allot has changed. I no longer worry about my babies going to visit or stay with gran. She loves them she loves me and we sure love her. There have been allot of "I'm sorry, please forgive me, and oh my, did I say that? how awful!" I do not ever wish to loose my husband but I now live with the knowledge that there is no fear of loosing my babies at the same time. I did not start my life in Alberta and have never felt the ties from home severed. This has, in the past been a worry for 7's family. That I would pack up and head home as fast as I could if 7 was gone. As much as I love my home town, I love my home more. This is where my kids beginning and middles are. It may even be their ends but that will be their choice not mine. I could and would not ever tear apart the relationship we all have with our Alberta family. God has been so good to us. We may not be rich with money but we are rich with love.

One thing that has bothered me is that I call my mother-in-law by her first name except when the kids are around (then it is grandma). At first it was because there was no respect for her, but now it is out of habit. I am not OK with this. In my heart I feel that I am her daughter and yet the words won't come. I think that this would be a great gift for not only her but to me as well. I feel that I have forgiven her so what is holding me back? Is the want not great enough? I don't know but I will work on it. Maybe by saying it at home first when talking to 7 about her. Then it may feel natural after that. I don't want a fake relationship I want the real deal. I want her to know how much I love her. Happy Birthday Mom!

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Jellyfish bad day?

I HAD TO PASS THIS ON!!!
If you don't laugh out loud after you read this you are in a coma! This is even funnier when you realize it's real! Next time you have a bad day at work think of this guy. Rob is a commercial saturation diver for Global Divers in Louisiana . He performs underwater repairs on off shore drilling rigs. Below is an E-mail he sent to his sister. She then sent it to radiostation 103.2 on FM dial in Ft. Wayne , Indiana , who was sponsoring a worst job experience conte st.Needless to say, she won. Hi Sue, Just another note from your bottom-dwelling brother. Last week I had a bad day at the office. I know you've been feeling down lately at work, so I thought I would share my dilemma with you to make you realize it's not so bad after all. Before I can tell you what happened to me, I first must bore you with a few technicalities of my job. As you know, my office lies at the bottom of the sea. I wear a suit to the office. It's a wet suit. This time of year the water is quite cool. So what we do to keep warm is this: We have a diesel powered industrial water heater.. This $20,000 piece of equipment sucks the water out of the sea. It heats it to a delightful temperature. It then pumps it down to the diver through a garden hose, which is taped to the air hose. Now this sounds like a darn good plan, and I've used it several times with no complaints. What I do, when I get to the bottom and start working, is take the hose and stuff it down the back of my wet suit. This floods my whole suit with warm water. It's like working in a Jacuzzi. Everything was going well until all of a sudden, my butt started to itch. So, of course, I scratched it. This only made things worse. Within a few seconds my butt started to burn. I pulled the hose out from my back, but the damage was done. In agony I realized what had happened. The hot water machine had sucked up a jellyfish and pumped it into my suit. Now, since I don't have any hair on my back, the jellyfish couldn't stick to it. However, the crack of my butt was not as fortunate. When I scratched what I thought was an itch, I was actually grinding the jellyfish into the crack of my butt. I informed the dive supervisor of my dilemma over the communicator. His instructions were unclear due to the fact that he, along with five other divers, were all laughing hysterically. Needless to say I aborted the dive. I was instructed to make three agonizing in-water decompression stops totaling thirty-five minutes before I could reach the surface to begin my chamber dry decompression. When I arrived at the surface, I was wearing nothing but my brass helmet. As I climbed out of the water, the medic, with tears of laughter running down his face, handed me a tube of cream and told me to rub it on my butt as soon as I got in the chamber. The cream put the fire out, but I couldn't poop for two days because my butt was swollen shut. So, next time you're having a bad day at work, think about how much worse it would be if you had a jellyfish shoved up your butt. Now repeat to yourself, 'I love my job, I love my job, I love my job.' Now whenever you have a bad day, ask yourself, is this a jellyfish bad day? May you NEVER have a jellyfish bad day!!!!!

puppies


We have 2 chocolate labs. We have bread them a few times and never had any trouble selling the puppies. This last litter we were not expecting and not really happy about. Then add in the recession. Although I love the puppies and I have lots of time for them it is not really a good time to try to sell puppies. I would consider selling them at a reduced rate if I knew that they were going to a good home, or even taking payments. But to no avail, we have puppies. Each litter we have had in the past, we have still had calls after they were all gone. This time it is taking along time. Is it that I am not trusting in God? Is it that He wants us to really rely on Him for our finances? Maybe, but in the mean time we still have puppies! They are cute, they are smart, and they are costing us money! Money that we don't have right now. I guess that I could go to the grocery store and buy the junkie dog food instead of buying the good stuff, but that would be like buying no name ketchup. That would also mean picking up more poop! Oh well, what do you do? In the end we still have puppies!
I have a friend that has a blog. I really enjoy reading what is happening in her life. Even though I see or talk to her on a daily basis, I find out more of what is inside by reading her blog. It seems easier to tell the computer how things are going then to say it out loud sometimes. So here is my attempt at a blog.

Right now we are going through a study on finances. At first I was right on board, then after reading some of the things that are required for us to do to be at piece financially I thought "I don't think I can do it!" Now after reading more of the program I am back on board again. This in no way means that I won't fall off again but it does mean that I am looking ahead to life without debt! So that I can LIVE like no other and GIVE like no other.

That's it for now.