HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY!

so my oldest turned 3 today, she's such a big girl now...and she's in love w/ the jump rope her cousin got her and all the other cool presents that she was given so generously by others. i can't believe i've been a mom for 3 yrs!!!

i must be crazy

that is all there is to it...i'm planning (at least for the moment) to take a t/th power tone class that meets at 6 freaking am!!! i'm insane, that's all there is to it seriously...but i NEED to do this, i NEED to get my flabby body into a semblence of shape, not that it's HORRIBLE but it's definately not a pretty thing to behold in a swim suit and i just bought a super cute one so i want to look "cute" in it LOL

wish me luck!

survival of the fittest

well, we survived!!!

aj's 3rd b-day kid party was today and while it was a bit of mahem (what do you expect w/ 12 kids in that age span right?) it went really well!

no blood, only screaming came from bully babies (read riley LOL), lots of cupcakes, lots of cream, and lots of fun

i'm tired and i hurt

if i'm getting sick i'm really going to be ticked off...seriously...i've got muscles that hurt, but not my whole body, more like i did someting weird and my muscles are not making me pay for my stupidity, and then i'm exhausted today...i get done "working" in 20 min and if i have my way i'm off to beddy bye for sure...the only thing that could slow me down from that is #2, who i think i hear now, but unless she really gets worked up or wakes up #1 i'm not going to get her...i NEED her to just start sleeping through the night dang it...she's 16 months old for crying out loud!!!

i needed this today

http://bananabuddy.imeem.com/music/Gz5Vg6PF/stand_in_the_rain/

i'd like to take this opportunity to welcome

miss grace elaine carlsruh into the world

born yesterday evening at a whopping 6 lb 11 oz

i'm secretly in love with...

overstock.com and smartbargains.com

ok, so not so secretly...i tell practically everyone that i meet what great deals i've gotten there latey...from overstock i got a 95% white feather 5% goose down comforter for $21 and some change after taxes (free shipping baby) and it should be here sometime today (i'm giddy w/ excitement) and then from smartbargains i got two reversible duvet sham sets for $59 and some change (i had a 15% discount which covered the cost of shipping and 5 cents LOL) i got a blue one and a lenin colored one...rich and i have never had any nice bedding so this is seriously way too cool and exciting...now i fear i will have to buy us new pillows though because our are trashed...but those, i'll get a wally world LOL

the wo's of money

ok, so rich has btwn $75k and $80k in private school loans...which basically means with those we are totally at the mercy of "the man" when it comes to interest rates because they're variable one currently is at 8.05%, another 8.72%, and the ugliest of them all is 11.7%

can you believe that 11.7%...needless to say that's the loan that we pay extra on each month, that is also the one that i cashed out my ira from before we were married and applied it to that loan...i called the irs question line and they said it qualified as a school expense reason to cash it out...hopefully they weren't lying to me and we won't get screwed on it because that would really suck when it comes to tax time...we need every penny back then that we can get...

i checked into a private school loan consolidation and all we qualified for was like $58K and the fixed loan rate was higher than we're paying now on the 2 lower interest loans...oh how i despise school loans...they're sure great when you need them to pay for school, but a real beast when you need to pay them back LOL

Gobble Gobble Gobble

translation

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

demos..

ok, so while i LOVE doing demos for work for multiple reasons

way easy

get paid total hrly wage no matter what

don't have to deal with tricksters

etc

i am SOOOOO glad that my 3 days of tradeshow demo are done! i worked one 10 and two 8 hr days...i am so greatful for them because now we'll be able to afford to get the car fixed and hopefully still have money leftover to get the kids the stuff we want to for CHRISTmas (we really want to get/make aj a play kitchen and get her not all the fixin's but some cook ware and dishes to go w/ it...i saw some at walmart (cookware that is) that were metal and totally cute, should've bought them because i'm sure they'll be gone by time i get back to buy them LOL) of course mommy and daddy will more than likely be giving her the fixin's and santa clause will probably be the giver of the kitchen...still no idea what to get riley, she'll probably just be getting some clothes and books since she'll be playing w/ aj in all of aj's receivings for her b-day and CHRISTmas...next year will really be the trick though...we'll actually have 2 old enough to really get into it...i know it's not the reason for the season, but i'm so excited to play santa clause...so is rich...we're both so excited almost like we were little kids LOL

updated the family website

http://olauson-family.tripod.com/

she actually slept through the night!

so riley actually slept through the night 2 nights ago, last night i was not so lucky, but hey one night is progress none-the-less right?

now let's just hope that it becomes the norm rather than the oddity!

Wow...this is just scary!

Dusted Off
Claim: Adolescents have died huffing from cans of Dust-Off brand compressed air.

Status: True.

Example: [Collected on the Internet, 2005]
First IM going to tell you a little about me and my family. My name is Jeff. I am a Police Officer for a city which is known nationwide for its crime rate. We have a lot of gangs and drugs. At one point we were # 2 in the nation in homicides per capita. I also have a police K-9 named Thor. He was certified in drugs and general duty. He retired at 3 years old because he was shot in the line of duty. He lives with us now and I still train with him because he likes it. I always liked the fact that there was no way to bring drugs into my house. Thor wouldn't allow it. He would tell on you. The reason I say this is so you understand that I know about drugs. I have taught in schools about drugs. My wife asks all our kids at least once a week if they used any drugs. Makes them promise they wont. I like building computers occasionally and started building a new one in February 2005. I also was working on some of my older computers. They were full of dust so on one of my trips to the computer store I bought a 3 pack of DUST OFF. Dust Off is a can of compressed air to blow dust off a computer. A few weeks later when I went to use them they were all used. I talked to my kids and my 2 sons both said they had used them on their computer and messing around with them. I yelled at them for wasting the 10 dollars I paid for them. On February 28 I went back to the computer store. They didn't have the 3 pack which I had bought on sale so I bought a single jumbo can of Dust Off. I went home and set it down beside my computer. On March 1st I left for work at 10 PM. At 11 PM my wife went down and kissed Kyle goodnight. At 530 am the next morning Kathy went downstairs to wake Kyle up for school, before she left for work. He was sitting up in bed with his legs crossed and his head leaning over. She called to him a few times to get up. He didn't move. He would sometimes tease her like this and pretend he fell back asleep. He was never easy to get up. She went in and shook his arm. He fell over. He was pale white and had the straw from the Dust Off can coming out of his mouth. He had the new can of Dust Off in his hands. Kyle was dead. I am a police officer and I had never heard of this. My wife is a nurse and she had never heard of this. We later found out from the coroner, after the autopsy, that only the propellant from the can of Dust off was in his system. No other drugs. Kyle had died between midnight and 1 Am. I found out that using Dust Off is being done mostly by kids ages 9 through 15. They even have a name for it. It's called dusting. A take off from the Dust Off name. It gives them a slight high for about 10 seconds. It makes them dizzy. A boy who lives down the street from us showed Kyle how to do this about a month before. Kyle showed his best friend. Told him it was cool and it couldn't hurt you. Its just compressed air. It cant hurt you. His best friend said no. Kyle's death Kyle was wrong. It's not just compressed air. It also contains a propellant. I think its R2. Its a refrigerant like what is used in your refrigerator. It is a heavy gas. Heavier than air. When you inhale it, it fills your lungs and keeps the good air, with oxygen, out. That's why you feel dizzy, buzzed. It decreases the oxygen to your brain, to your heart. Kyle was right. It cant hurt you. IT KILLS YOU. The horrible part about this is there is no warning. There is no level that kills you. It's not cumulative or an overdose; it can just go randomly, terribly wrong. Roll the dice and if your number comes up you die. ITS NOT AN OVERDOSE. Its Russian roulette. You don't die later. Or not feel good and say I've had too much. You usually die as your breathing it in. If not you die within 2 seconds of finishing "the hit." That's why the straw was still in Kyle's mouth when he died. Why his eye's were still open. The experts want to call this huffing. The kids don't believe its huffing. As adults we tend to lump many things together. But it doesn't fit here. And that's why its more accepted. There is no chemical reaction. no strong odor. It doesn't follow the huffing signals. Kyle complained a few days before he died of his tongue hurting. It probably did. The propellant causes frostbite. If I had only known. Its easy to say hay, its my life and I'll do what I want. But it isn't. Others are always effected. This has forever changed our family's life. I have a hole in my heart and soul that can never be fixed. The pain is so immense I cant describe it. There's nowhere to run from it. I cry all the time and I don't ever cry. I do what I'm supposed to do but I don't really care. My kids are messed up. One wont talk about it. The other will only sleep in our room at night. And my wife, I cant even describe how bad she is taking this. I thought we were safe because of Thor. I thought we were safe because we knew about drugs and talked to our kids about them. After Kyle died another story came out. A Probation Officer went to the school system next to ours to speak with a student. While there he found a student using Dust Off in the bathroom. This student told him about another student who also had some in his locker. This is a rather affluent school system. They will tell you they don't have a drug problem there. They don't even have a dare or plus program there. So rather than tell everyone about this "new" way of getting high they found, they hid it. The probation officer told the media after Kyle's death and they, the school, then admitted to it. I know that if they would have told the media and I had heard, it wouldn't have been in my house. We need to get this out of our homes and school computer labs. Using Dust Off isn't new and some "professionals" do know about. It just isn't talked about much, except by the kids. They know about it. April 2nd was 1 month since Kyle died. April 5th would have been his 15th birthday. And every weekday I catch myself sitting on the living room couch at 2:30 in the afternoon and waiting to see him get off the bus. I know Kyle is in heaven but I cant help but wonder If I died and went to Hell. Jeff

Origins: While many of the Internet-circulated tales of tragedy prove either to be baseless scaremongering or vastly overblown accounts that contain only a small shred of truth, this one, unfortunately, checks out in every respect. On 2 March 2005, 14-year-old Kyle Williams was found dead in his bedroom at his family's Cleveland-area home. At 5:45 that morning, his mother, Kathy Williams (a nurse by profession), had attempted to wake him before she left for work. She initially thought Kyle was joking when he failed to get up, but she then pulled back the covers and found her son lying motionless, a can of Dust-Off, a common computer cleaner, next to his face. She immediately called the Lake County Sheriff’s Office. The boy's father and the author of the e-mail, Jeff Williams, is an East Cleveland police officer. He was on duty when his son's body was discovered and arrived home to find Lake County Sheriff’s Office personnel already on the scene. According to the coroner, the boy died sometime between midnight and 1 a.m. His mother had kissed him goodnight at a quarter to midnight. Jeff Williams does indeed have a German Shepherd named Thor who had been a police dog with the East Cleveland Police Department until he was shot in the line of duty in March 2001. Thor's injuries necessitated his retirement from the force, so he became the Williams' family pet. Mr. Williams' letter began as a post to an online message board he visited for support in the wake of his son's death. It prompted a teacher who found it there to ask if she could read it to her class, which in turn prompted him to write for her a more detailed version that gave a better sense of who his son had been. He also posted this expanded account to a couple of message boards where he was discussing his grief. It is this version that now circulates. This sad e-mail about a teen's demise reached us in the first week of April 2005. By mid-May 2005, versions in circulation had picked up the following attribution, causing many to conclude the death had taken place in Calgary, Alberta, rather than in Cleveland, Ohio: Tracey Lowey, B.A., M.S.Crime AnalystTargeted Enforcement Unit #583Calgary Police ServiceOffice: 206-8360 Dust-Off, the product that proved to be Kyle Williams' undoing, has been implicated in a number of deaths:
The September 2001 death of 19-year-old Austin Purser in Valdez, Alaska, was attributed to Dust-Off. According to the young man's roommates, the decedent had come home about 4 a.m. and had huffed from an aerosol can of Dust-Off.
In January 2004 in Brooklyn, New York, 18-year-old Kristian Roggio was killed when her vehicle was struck by one driven by Vincent Litto, 20, who had been huffing from a can of Dust-Off when his car went over the double yellow lines and crashed head-on into hers.
The coroner's report on one of the fatalities in an August 2004 single-vehicle automobile accident in Sacramento, California, revealed the presence of difluoroethane (the propellant in Dust-Off) in the blood of a passenger in a Jeep which was estimated to have been traveling at 90 mph when it jumped a curb, hit a telephone pole, then crashed into a concrete wall. A can of Dust-Off was found in the wrecked vehicle. Of the three teens who died as a result of that crash (Matthew Walas, 15; Jeremiah Cremins, 16; Nicholas Goudberg, 17), only Walas' blood was tested, leaving open the question of whether the driver, Goudberg, was also under the influence. (Walas was killed instantly, whereas Goudberg lived on for a further eight days, and Cremins lasted three weeks past the accident. The coroner's office did not order toxicology tests on the blood of the two youths who lingered because these would have proved useless as the young men had received transfusions, plus they both lived long enough for any chemicals to have dissipated from their bloodstreams.)

Falcon, the maker of Dust-Off, is aware its product is abused in this fashion. It has posted information about inhalant abuse on its web site, and cans of Dust Off bear a label cautioning users against misuse of the product and carry this warning in large red block letters: "Inhalant abuse is illegal and can cause permanent injury or be fatal. Please use our product responsibly." Yet while it might be tempting to regard this threat as one limited to Dust-Off (and therefore as a danger that can be averted by banning a specific product from the home), the truth is a great number of teens and pre-teens routinely attempt to get high by abusing inhalants and solvents found in common household products. Dust-Off is just one of a thousand or more products that can abruptly end the life of someone foolishly looking for an inhalant high. The list of items that can be turned to this purpose is almost endless and includes such innocuous-looking goods as hair spray and aerosol whipped cream. Depending on how the intoxicant is taken in, the process is referred to as 'bagging' or 'huffing' — bagging requires the substance be contained in a plastic or paper bag which the thrill-seeker then breathes from, while huffing involves either breathing directly from an aerosol or through a cloth soaked in solvent. Both bagging and huffing can, and have, proved fatal. Sudden death can result on the first try, making one's first time seeking this particular kick also one's last. That first time's being a killer isn't an exaggeration, either: 22% of all inhalant-abuse deaths occur among users who had not previously bagged or huffed. Suffocation, dangerous behavior, and aspiration account for 45% of inhalant abuse fatalities, with "sudden sniffing death" (fatal cardiac arrhythmia) causing the remaining 55%. Suffocation usually takes its toll through the victim's slipping into unconsciousness then dying of a lack of oxygen, but it can also happen through airway obstruction brought about through swelling caused by spraying certain agents into the mouth. Dangerous behavior-related deaths are those in which inhalant abuse cause the deceased to engage in risk-laden activities that bring about his demise: he drowns, jumps or falls from a high place, dies of exposure or hypothermia, is in (or on) a vehicle that he loses control of at high speed, or accidentally sets himself on fire (most inhalants are flammable). Death through aspiration of vomited materials comes about through an unconscious victim's protective airway reflexes being depressed by the chemicals involved. "Sudden sniffing death" is a simple way of saying the hydrocarbons being inhaled provoke irregular heart rhythms in the victim, leading to sudden fatal cardiac arrest. Even young and very healthy hearts fail this way. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, the peak age of inhalant abusers is 14 to 15 years, with onset occurring in those as young as 6 to 8 years. Use declines typically by 17 to 19 years of age. Inhalant abuse is rife among children and teens for a number of reasons beyond the usual factors that inspire young people to experiment with drugs, such as curiousity, thrill seeking, escapism, defiance, and peer pressure. First, the products required to produce inhalant highs are readily available in every home. Even when users have to resort to buying their own, the goods cost little and are easy to purchase, both in terms of availability (almost every store sells at least a few items that can be huffed) and lack of challenge by sales clerks (kids generally need not fear provoking adult disapproval or undue questioning through the act of buying cans of whipped cream). No drug dealers need be sought out, no furtive connections with the underworld made; purchases are easily effected at the corner store, even by the most unsavvy and knock-kneed with terror at the thought of being caught. Second, because these products are an ordinary part of the household landscape, they take on for many a presumption of safety. Few adults are accustomed to thinking of air freshener as something that can kill, or of Magic Markers as items that can end lives; these are instead viewed as non-dangerous goods, the sort of ordinary household necessities one doesn't so much as look at twice let alone regard with mistrust. Kids can easily take that bland acceptance a step further, adding a presumption of harmlessness to that which is routinely left about for anyone to use. Third, little other than the act of bagging or huffing itself needs to be concealed from parental eyes. Very few moms and dads will stop to question why their kid has taken to keeping spray deodorant in his backpack or wonder why the family's can of furniture polish keeps turning up in their boy's bedroom, even if these same parents were the sort to be thrown into a panic by the merest glimpse of something that might be a baggie containing dried, crushed plant material. Whereas other intoxicants can't be explained away when found by dear old Dad (a bottle of hooch won't pass for shampoo, nor a bag of pills for candy), inhalants continue to look like what they primarily are: typical household products. Other possible tip-offs to what the sensation seeker has been up to will be dismissed almost as soon as they're noted — strange chemical odors wafting about the child will be brushed off by even the most drug-alert parents as "Somebody must have Scotchguarded something around here" or "That boy has been playing in somebody's garage." Small sores and marks around the youngster's mouth and nose will be attributed to everything under the sun except inhalant abuse (e.g., allergies, colds, scratching, the family dog, or even "Clumsy must have tripped over his big feet again"). It's this triple whammy of factors (readily-obtainable inexpensive high-producing chemicals, intoxicants and tip-offs that are easily concealed from parents, and utter failure on the part of users to appreciate the very real dangers inherent to the practice) that makes inhalant abuse prevalent among drug-curious pre-teens and teens. On their side of the equation, adults rarely pick up on the abuse or its signs unless they actually catch someone red-handed, nor do they grasp how lethal this form of drug use is, concentrating instead on the threat posed by the illegal substances proffered by drug dealers. Barbara "greater danger lurks in the home than on the playground" Mikkelson

Pssst!

Happy Halloween!!!

aka

Happy Halloween!!!

I TOTALLY AGREE!!!

If they know of him at all, many folks think Ben Stein is just a quirky actor/comedian who talks in a monotone. He's also a very intelligent attorney who knows how to put ideas and words together in such a way as to sway juries and make people think clearly. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary

Herewith at this happy time of year, a few confessions from my beating heart: I have no freaking clue who Nick and Jessica are. I see them on the cover of People and Us constantly when I am buying my dog biscuits and kitty litter. I often ask the checkers at the grocery stores. They never know who Nick and Jessica are either. Who are they? Will it change my life if I know who they are and why they have broken up? Why are they so important?

I don't know who Lindsay Lohan is either, and I do not care at all about Tom Cruise's wife.

Am I going to be called before a Senate committee and asked if I am a subversive? Maybe, but I just have no clue who Nick and Jessica are.

If this is what it means to be no longer young. It's not so bad.

Next confession: I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don' t feel discriminated against. That's what they are: Christmas trees.

It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, "Merry Christmas" to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu . If people want a creche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.

I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution, and I don't like it being shoved down my throat.

Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship Nick and Jessica and we aren't allowed to worship God as we understand Him?

I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too.

But there are a lot of us who are wondering where Nick and Jessica came from and where the America we knew went to.

In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking.

Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her "How could God let something like this Happen?" (regarding Katrina)

Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said, "I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives.

And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?"

In light of recent events...terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found recently) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK.

Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school. The Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.

Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he's talking about and we said OK.

Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.

Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with "WE REAP WHAT WE SOW."

Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell.

Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says.

Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing.

Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.

Are you laughing?

Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it.

Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us.

Pass it on if you think it has merit. If not then just discard it... no one will know you did. But, if you discard this thought process, don't sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in.

so i've decided...

that next time around

if there is a next time around

that i want to have boy twins so i get my boys and i get my 4...they would be eric douglas (although i like eric james better, such is life right?) and gordon trevor (call him trevor)...of course i will admit that i DO want to have another girl because i really want a denna severin...i know i'm crazy...alas, if riley doesn't stop stressing her dad and me out soon she may be our last and i won't get my boy or my denna

love her, yes i do, but oh how i wish she was an easier baby!

update

well, after about another 30-45 min of cook time the carrots, while not exactly how i like them, were cooked enough to eat...my poor kids were in bed late again tonight because of the silly little vegetables!

stupid carrots

so i'm making beef stew tonight for dinner and the stupid carrots, which i added before i added the potatoes, will NOT finish cooking, i want to eat and the stupid carrots are STILL not done!!!

just thought you'd like to know

just for fun, to the tune of part of your world

Look at this bod, isn't it great?

Wouldn't you think that I'd have a date?

Wouldn't you think I'm a girl, a girl who has everything?

Look at these hips--aren't they petite?

Why do guys say that my spirit is sweet?

Wouldn't you think I'd be going out, going out dancing?

I've got faith, divine nature aplenty.

I've got good works and knowledge galore.

You want Integrity--I got plenty.

But who cares? No big deal. I want more.

I want to be where the guys are

I want them to notice, notice me breathing.

Kissing me with those--what's the word again--LIPS!

Kissing your pillow you don't get too far.

Dates are required for real romancing.

What would I give if I could live outside my bedroom.

What would I pay to spend a day on temple ground.

Bet you they'd call if they weren't so intimidated by me.

Bright young maiden, sick of waitin', ready for more!

And I want to know what the others know.

What's a boyfriend, and where can I buy one?

Drive to the beach for some--what's that wordagain--parking (talking!)!

I am so ready, can't they see howI am a woman worth more than 8 cows!

I'm really great, why don't I date?

What's their problem?

insurance...can't pay for it, can't go w/o it

a mild rant here today

we finished filling out the paperwork to pick up the insurance with rich's new company and faxed it in today...rich has been making training pay, which is 60 of his 75 gaurnteed hrs once he's in normal circulation

and that 15 extra hours will basically just cover the insurance that we're picking up, at least i'm used to living w/o it already but seriously...insurance is beyond rediculous!!!

and then of course i've been trying to get some coverage for the girls (rich and i are on a no frills major medical plan) and have yet to hear back from the company so if they're denied coverage it's really going to suck because they'll be past the lack of coverage time period thing and then the new insurance will probably try and pull pre-existing conditions crap on us...oh how i loath insurance companies...but you can't afford to be w/o...so we pay through the nose money that would really make our everyday lives easier with other bills and putting food on our table...but no, we suffer through it because to be w/o it would be too scary...

sometimes i see the logic in socialized medicine, other times, not so much...maybe if they'd put some stringent limitations on medical malpractice suites (like how much a lawyer can make from the case) we'd have less problems with soaring insurance cost and good doctors would be able to afford to practice and offer medical care at a reasonable cost

ok, off my soap box...for now at least

so i'm currently scheming!!!

ways to get the ubah thing up and going out here

i want to do the wally world 3 day sale at each of the wally's in the ut valley, if they've not already been tapped...hopefully they've not been

i may have scored a homeshow yesterday, in which case i want to team up w/ my cutie best friend and work it together and split the spoils of the show...i think we make a great team

i'm going to throw a mystery hostess party on the 1st or 2nd of nov for my new ward...hopefully i'll get a good response and it would rock if i got some shows out of that

i'm going to contact trinity christian back in sc and ask her if she's interested in getting one thing right now for uber cheap since i can order one thing per homeshow for almost nothing...well, not nothing, but much cheaper than 100%

it would beyond rock if we were able to get showings from the mystery hostess party and from the potential party that i may have scored...that would open a whole new market for us if we were able to i think!

i of course need to figure out other ways to get some cold contacts, maybe the byu board or something...but i'm really not good at that kind of thing...but i'll figure it out, i enjoy this so i should try and do it more often LOL, especially before my best friend goes and deserts me to go w/ her dh to his impending internship!!! ;)

just in case you were wondering

i really hate being poor!

i hate wondering sometimes where the money for the bills and food are going to come from...we've all but depleted our savings since moving here and of course our account looks like we have money, but we so totally don't...we have 2 bucks...that's it, thankfully rich gets paid tomorrow

even though he gets paid, i was going over the numbers, and unless i'm totally off, he's only going to be making enough money each month to pay the school loans after taxes, insurance, & other deductions

good thing i have tutor.com but that's still not enough to pay our rent and 1/2 of the utilities, pay the other bills we have, and put food on the table...

oh how i sometimes really hate money...thank goodness for the blessings of paying a full tith!!!

Kyle XY

have you seen this show yet?

before we moved from sc i saw a few episodes and was fairly intrigued by it

i haven't seen one since we moved so i of course have NO idea what's going on and don't care enough to go look up a website that would tell me LOL

i must admit thought, that if it were one of the many shows that get cancelled i'd be ticked because then we'd NEVER know...and that would drive me nuts

just thought ya'd like to know

so my 1st real creation is done...

i made a sweater for my kiddo...originally it was supposed to be for aj, but i made it too short, i always forget how tall the little stinker is and since we don't want her belly showing it's going to riley...

it took a bit of time to complete because i had to redo one of the sleeves 3 times...the 1st two times i got like almost all of the way done (1st time all i had left was back stitching to bind off, 2nd time i was just starting the ribbing) and realized i'd put it on wrong and so i had to completely take it all the way out and redo it...but the 3rd time was the charm and it was right...

stitched up the seam of the sleeves and sides and viola a little royal blue sweater

next time i'm going to use a softer and smaller yarn though, but this one will be nice and warm still...i'm going to try to put in a cable next time too i think...now i'm off to the website to see what free patterns i can find that i'm interested in!!!

13 October 2001

One of the greatest days ever

why you may ask

well i shall tell you

i had the utter joy of marrying the most amazing man on the face of the planet in the winter quarters temple for time and all eternity

pretty good reason for that day to be one of the greatest ever huh?

sometimes i'm smart LOL

Sooo we're trying out vonage for our phone system and we got the wireless router thingy because il's have a comp too and we all have to have net access...for whatever reason when my il's comp was hooked hard line into the router (it is a router for up to 4 hard lines and 4 wireless links) the net would NOT work on their comp...the only think i could think was that it was some funky issue w/ their os (it's an older system)...seriously the only thing i could come up w/ because it worked fine hooked into my comp

anywho...mil got a wireless adapter/receiver and together we hooked it up to her comp today, ok, so i did and she held the plate for me so that i could screw the device into place LOL

and lo and behold they now have internet access...AND i encrypted the wlan so it's at least not easy to get into, hopefully no hackers live in the neighborhood!

now if i can just get my $95 dell laptop i got from the surplus sale and the hp that my sis gave me working and hooked up w/ wifi cards i'd really be rockin' and rollin!

hey look at me...i'm being "domestic" and "crafty"!!!

So after we got here, my mil was knitting, something i've not done but always wanted to learn...so she taught me...i can do the simple knit stich and purl stitch...but it, like crocheting hurts my hands...not as bad, but it still does

so one day while running errands i went to joann's w/ mil because she wanted to get some yarn, right across the isle from the yarn she was looking at was "the sweater machine"

http://www.bond-america.com/products/usm.html

let's just say i was intrigued

it had no price so i toted it up to the front for a price check...$150 BUT i was given a coupon for 50% off one regular priced item 10-7 through 10-9, that would make it only $75...much easier price to swallow imo

so i carried around my coupon for over a week and thought about it, showed it to rich, who thinks i'm silly but we all know that i am, so on the 9th i went and bought said item from joann's!!!

they have a 90 day return policy so long as you have the receipt so i bought a skein of yarn and came home to try it out w/o using the exhaustable resources in the kit.

i watched the dvd

set up the machine

started in w/ my yarn

i got very frustrated at first because i accidentally had too small of a plate in place for the yarn that i was using (which i figured out the next day when i tried the next size up in plates) so the machine kept jamming....driving me bonkers in the process...i was hating the stupid thing...then i decided to screw the cable stitch that i was trying to do and just do the straight stitch...when i did that i very quickly made aj a small, very non-fancy, afgan...pretty much just her size LOL

the next morning i tried the larger plate and was able to VERY easily do the cable stitch i was trying the night before and had almost no problems doing it at all...i was starting to love the machine...later that day i got some unworsted yarn (wool yarn that's not been shrunk) and tried my hand at making a purse that i would then shrink upon completion (called felting)

i made said purse and did a beautiful cable pattern in it and everything...mil was super impressed and starting to think she needs to buy a sweater machien too LOL...so we shrunk/felted the purse...it turned out really cute, like an evening bag size...sadly the cable felted so much that you can't see it very well...in the future if i do it again i'll do the cable in a different color i think...but i'm seriously in great like nay dare i say i borderline love my knitting machine!!!!

just call me the domestic/crafty diva LOL

i'm back i'm back i'm back...

FINALLY

i still have a few boxes that i need to just decide what to do w/ their contents, but w/ the help of my sister and my sweet hubby on various occasions it's mostly done!

i am currently sitting on my kitchen floor on my comp as the il's comp is still down here and on the comp table, and can i just say that tile floor is cold...

my sweet hubby got to come home for a few days so it was soooo nice to get to see him, he had to go back to sim today but should be able to come back home on monday and then he's all mine until the 14th and then it all depends on his ioe schedule from there...i'm soooo hoping that they're still stacked and he'll be able to be home for a bit of time...aj cried when we dropped him off at the airport today, she did not want her daddy to leave w/o her...very sad i'm tellin' ya

not this friday but next is our 5 yr anniversary...we're still trying to figure out what we want to do, we don't want to spend too much money but we still want to do something...kwim?

well, i'm starting to FREEZE so i'll bring this entry to a close, i'm sure i'll have more interesting things to say later

one can hope right ;)

gentlemen, please start your engines

Day 1

Rock Hill, SC to Ashville, NC
Total Route 127 miles 2 hrs 19 min

Day 2

Ashville, NC to Paducha, KY
Total Route 421 miles 7 hrs 1 min

Day 3

Paducha, KY to Mound City, MO

(Hi Mom & Dad!)
Total Route 507 miles 7 hrs 22 min

Day 4

Mound City, MO to Cheyenne, WY

(Bye Mom & Dad)
Total Route 546 miles 7 hs 55 min

Day 5

Cheyenne, WY to Orem, UT
Total Route 453 miles 6 hrs 34 min

someone please stop the world i want to get off

even if it's just for 5 min...i'm trying to pack today and my kids are both on one and driving me nuts, i can't seem to accomplish much of anything because they're both whinning and carrying on...this would go much more smoothly if they were off playing w/ someone...which i'm trying to get ahold of the nearest person to us, but her phone is busy!!!

well....crapola!

aj got a hand me down dress from someone at church, it was TOTALLY cute, a just darker shade than celery green and totally adorable on her, well...as usual she did not listen to me and got bleach on it (i was doing some heavy duty cleaning for the move and it involved bleach water)...so it was essentially ruined...until i got an idea, brilliant imo!

i found some rubber bands and did it all up like you do a t-shirt when you're going to tye dye it and then i dipped it in the bleach water a few times and hung it up to set, about 10 min or so later i came back to it and gave it a good rinsing, hopefully got the rest of the bleach out, and undid the rubberbands...not as cute as it was originally but it's actually quite cute in it's new sorta tye dyed look...so she can still wear it, i'm so excited, it hopefully will hold up now w/ the "torture" it's been through though

so what do ya think, brilliant or what?

and we have #7!

just looked in riley's mouth and #7 tooth has arrived LOL, so now she has the 4 front on top, her bottom center two and #7 is the tooth just on her right of center!!! YAY for teeth!

revealing

sometimes i put info in here that is probably way too revealing...ie the previous post...but i feel it is necessary at times for my soul to "run naked" just for a moment or two...hope you don't mind the streaking LOL

man am i stupid!

the girls were messing w/ some of my old stuff today and an old envelope/letter fell out (didn't even know i still had it) very non-descript...anyone else reading it would have no idea what it was for...but i know...and i feel so stupid that it still pricks my heart and causes me pain...i am happily married, i could not ask for a better man as my husband, no one else i ever dated even comes close to how amazing he is...yet i'm still hurt...the only thing i can think is that i never really got my closure...

oh, lol, i guess ya'd like to know what it was LOL...envelope just had my name on it very large (pretty much the whole front of the envelope) and then inside it said "i'm so sorry! we need to talk tomorrow. okay? once again, i'm sorry!" like i said, it doesn't say a whole lot, well...but this was from the guy i dated before i graduated from college...talk about pain...i invested way too much into him...the way i took care of the dork was almost like i was his wife w/o any of the benefits LOL needless to say this letter was prior to a talk where he wanted to tell me he needed a 2wk break to decide what he "wanted" which was just his chicken way...i was content to date him until i left college once i finally realized it was not going beyond where it was, looser still broke up w/ me though after the 2 wks...it was a huge blow to me, i didn't just cry, i wailed uncontrolablly for what seemed like forever...which is still so stupid because at that point i knew he wasn't going to marry me...i can only chalk it up to the loss of it and then of course no one likes being dumped...

now the envelope and letter are in the trash, but i will admit i still need some closure, it lacks because we actually did remain friends once all was said and done until i got engaged and then he dropped off the face of the planet...no good bye, nothing...

oh, and not that i think i'm all that and a bag of chips because i'm totally not, but he was so not worthy of me...

but can i tell y'all what a lucky woman i am to have my sweet husband, he is simply amazing and i'm not just saying this because i miss him terribly and won't see him until probably the end of next week making it almost a month since i last saw him...i'm saying it because it is totally true!

t minus 2 days, 17 hrs, and 42 minutes

until we leave that is...and that's if we don't get a wild hare and leave wednesday night and drive for a few hrs...which might be nice to do, but ya know...fil may very well be WAY too tired for such a thing as he will have gotten up very early wednesday to get here

things i still have to do

-pack kitchen

-pack clothes we'll not be using in the next week

-wrap pictures

-turn in cable modem

-deposit money from garage sale

-close bank account

-get rid of stuff that didn't sell

-pay comporium bill

-clean clean clean

-paint aj's wall where she colored w/ crayons

-take trash to dumpster

-get gatorade out of carpet that babysitter did not bother to clean up when aj spilled it (don't even get me started!)

-survive

i still need more dang it!!!

http://boards.babycenter.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?nav=messages&tsn=1&tid=5453&webtag=bcus11962

i need him asking and her saying yes or maybe even more...i'm not feeling my denouement is complete here!!!

magic wand please...

swish and flick and the following will be done

-rest of the apt packed other than the essentials needed

-all items sold for my asking price

-apt cleaned to level of sparkly

-wall painted in girls room where aj colored

-a/c magically to work in the car

if i can't have a wand, can i at least have a fairy godmother to come bippity boppity boo it all for me?

if i were a gem stone

what would i be?

what color

what cut

what sheen

a saphire, deep and blue

a ruby, full of passion

an emerald, with a joyful glint

nay a diamond, strong but flawed

brilliant and clear

strenght to help me help you

flawed so i can't do it all

brilliant to feel of worth

clear to help me stay true

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

put my diamond on your necklace of life

let me help you through your ups

your downs your strife

put my diamond on your necklace of life

remember my flaws

they make me unique

put my diamond on your necklace of life

let my brilliance shine for you

please remember my worth

put my diamond on your necklace of life

it's clear, i'm true

i will be there for you

doin' the meposian dance of joy

i made my 1st school/library book sale today!!! before the discount to them it was $536 and i get approx $72 commission out of it...but even better is now i have a client and i know she'll buy from me in the future because we have a better discount than her other suppliers that offer some of our titles!!! oh how totally stoked am i!!!

even better, since i wasn't expecting this now i feel like i don't have to wait for the garage sale and i can get the bike trailer!!!! SWEET!!!

IN STEP double jogger bike trailer

i'm beyond excited!!! so long as the garage sale goes well this weekend i will be getting this for the kids!!! and if it doesn't i may go ahead and get it anyways because i earned quite a bit more money tutoring this past month than i thought i was going to!!! doing the meposian dance of joy here!!!!

bye bye washer & dryer

bert came and picked up the washer and dryer tonight...he's recently married so it was kind of fun that they were going to a newly wed couple...i hope that they serve them as well as they have served our little family...and now i just have to hope that when it comes time for us to buy a washer & dryer we can find as good a deal as we gave them LOL

oh and on a "lighter" note i now have to be an imposition to my friends and use their laundry facilities until we leave...good thing i have all but todays' dirty things washed already LOL

bitter sweet

monday baby went to her new home w/ elliott...i was sad to see her go, but happy at the same time that she was going to someone that will love and care for her as much as i do...she is a beautiful car and i have very many happy memories involving her...i hope she brings elliott as many if not more!!!

my terrible, no good, very bad day....

let's just say i want all to be said and done and i want to be out of here...aj was ROTTEN today, riley was a little onerier than usual but not too bad...first off, i waited like an hour outside the property management office to turn in the letters for the sublet and talk about where to turn in the keys and if they would supply the paint or if i needed to buy it to paint over where aj had colored on the wall...she NEVER SHOWED...so i shoved the letters throught the mail slot and left a message w/ the answering service...i dont think she ever came intoday...seriously irked about that....but i had a headache seriously the size of texas and aj wouldn't listen to anything i wanted her to do, at one point today she actually broke the windshield in the car...she was sitting on the passenger seat bouncing and being a goob bounced up kinda high and bumped her head on the windshield...did not even phase her, not one bit, but my windshield now has a star crack the diameter of a basketball...oh, and it gets better...so we come home and i make dinner, which aj of course will not eat, and she dumps it on the floor, no big i'll clean it up after i have them in bed (it was an accident btw) alas, riley in her pjs goes into the kitchen and flips the bowl over and digs in...oh it was such a mess...i had to cancel work tonight because of the headache and i'm simply drained...i don't feel like i would be able to help anyone tonight...not even a little

I NEED A BREAK!!!

hello...do i look stupid?

i just got an email from someone that offered me $350 for my sofa & chair a few wks back...to which i told them the price was $475, they then of course did not want it...well in this email i got to day from them they offered me $200 ARE YA KIDDING ME!!! i simply emailed them back and said "thanks for your interest. the prices is $475 for the pair, $300 for the sofa, $200 for the chair." i can't remember if i even put anything else...sometimes i really do not want to be polite when ppl do crap like this...seriously!!!

well that just stinks!

apparently rich's sim training is not going to take place in slc, it's going to take place in atlanta...which would be do-able, except they fly him out there before we even get there!!! so there's another 3 wks that we won't be able to see him at all...but at least we'll have family around and the kids will be entertained and such...he has a guy willing to switch w/ him if possible, but it doesn't really sound promising...man that just totally stinks!!!

BOOYA!!!

elliott (said w/ an et impression LOL) brought the check by this morning! i gave him the keys, title, we did the bill of sale we drew up and the stuff on the back of the title, and then he left the car here until he can come back w/ nc plates on monday...so after i put that money in the bank we'll have a little cash on hand...not a ton but some...we'll have to wait and save for a car though i think because after tith, balancing the check book, and such there is just over $3k leftover of it...granted we do have a little money in the bank, and rich will get paid (soon hopefully) from the new job starting who knows when (i'm guessing same pay schedule) and the sublet lady was approved...yippie skippie!!! so it's really coming together

had my 1st moving sale today, i started it late so didn't have booming success, but made like 95$ (after my home teacher pays me the 25$ for the bench and shelf thing he took for his wife)...the big stuff did not go, but i'll admit i'm not heartbroken because that means that i have those luxuries for the next week and get to sleep in a bed rather than the floor and such LOL next weeks sale will start about 7am, going to start moving stuff out at 6:30am and hopefully it will all sell...however, if the bed doesn't then i plan on taking it and leaving it at my parents house so i have a nice bed to sleep on when i go visit as the one in my room now is kinda crapy LOL, not too sure on the sofa and chair yet...hopefully they will sell so i won't have to worry about it

on a funny note i had some low offers LOL i had one mildly crazy and one totally crazy today LOL...someone offered me $100 for my bed...HELLO i'm asking $400 AND i'm throwing in 4 sets of sheets for free and you think i'll take $100 are you insane!!!! and then the mildy crazy one was someone offered $300 for the chair and sofa...if they'd offered $375 i probably would've done it...but not $300...i'm not desperate, at least not this week LOL

i'm really not a big cry baby`

althought it probably totally seems that way for those of you that read this...but it just helps me deal with it all to get it out and down "on paper" then i can come back and read it and it helps me put things in a different perspective and or to realize blessings that i may not have seen at the time i was writting it...and of course all the comments i receive are very up lifting as a gen'l rule and greatly appreciated!!!

if you like books on tape

check out this site...i just did a one month free trial and it was seriously way cool...i totally enjoyed it and if i could afford it i'd keep it up...i'll probably rejoin later because it was seriously way cool...i got the book the "light princess" it was really cute!

www.audible.com/bzzpassalong

well, he's gone...

dropped my sweet hubby off at the airport this morn, he's currently in atlanta waiting for his connection to slc. dang this stinks...it's exciting because we're progressing, but at the same time we're not progressing because of our initial circumstances...but it will be better in the long run...just g0t to keep my eye on the prize LOL

i really hope that aj does ok w/ this seperation...she is all about her daddy and i think this is going to be hard on her

my last night until i see my hubby again

for who knows how long...and we're so freaking deep in the hole that we couldn't even go out on a date for his last night here...that just blows!

i really don't think aj's going to handle it very well since even when he's been really busy in the past working he was still home at least one day a week...now she won't see him for at least 3 if not 4 wks straight. most of the time she "accepts" that he's working, but that doesn't stop her from asking frequently where he is...of course she'll be able to talk to him on the phone but as we all know it's just not the same as him really being there

i'm getting all wound up over things not being sold yet...i still have at least 3 if not 4 wks to get it all done...and yet i'm in a tizzy about it now...especially the sublet of the apt...the rest of the stuff we could take w/ us and sell in utah if need be...but the sublet we can't do that w/ obviously

oh, and we're probably going to sell the subaru instead of the saturn...possibly even both simply for the money...if he could just get paid for that job back in july we'd not really come out ahead like we would if we sold the saturn, but we'd at least break even i think...it should be enough btwn that and what we'd get for the subaru to get back out of the hole and pay for the moving truck...and maybe a few tanks of gas...but not really anything else...especially since probably all of his last paycheck from psa will probably be eaten by the stupid school loans

i know i shouldn't complain about the school loans like i do, but seriously they are the bane of my existence right now...if it were not for them we could actually put food on the table and not worry about where we were getting the money to buy said food from...we've been so blessed, and i know that after this move we'll have less financial resposnsiblities living w/ the il's for a bit of time, but it's still hard to chew for me sometimes that i can't even feed my family because of the school loans...they're really a blessing and a curse

so...pathalogical liars

so my poor oldest sil is married to one and let me tell ya he had us ALL fooled...through and through. we thought he was the most amazing thing since sliced bread...come to find out he's not even the mold that infest said bread...he's worse. she's had 6 month sea duty (she's an rp in the navy) and he's been in hawaii w/ their son, 4 yrs old now, she was planning on serving him w/ divorce papers but not until after she got back from sea duty because she didnt' want him to do anything to their son as payback or just being an idiot (sadly potentially he would) so she gets back and has someone w/ her from the ship, offered her a good home cooked meal as she'd been out 6 months too, comes home to idiot basically storming over stupid things and their son tossed something small over the banister and he apparently beat him w/ a flip flop w/ this extra person there watching the whole thing unfold...now here's the kicker...he's actually beat her to the punch line and filed for divorce against her wanting sole custody of their son, alamony, child support, and no visitation for her...i knew he was a lazy piece of crap but seriously...he's so doing all of this just to be vindictive and essentially evil...i still kick myself for ever thinking he was this awesome guy...we even did a deposition praising his fathering w/ his daughter from his first marriage (poor kid she's so in a loose loose situation) so we called sil tonight and left her a message reminding her about those and that if he tried to use them that we reneg everything we said in it about him as that was when the wool was still pulled over our eyes...seriously it's sickening!

rolflmbo!!!

http://www.oceangram.com/

i want these

simply because they totally look like the best of both worlds

http://www.gdiapers.com/shop/

seriously they look so stinking cool!

at least i'm getting paid for it...

seriously it is sometimes uber frustrating when i am scheduled for demo session and i've been sitting here for 50 min already and they are a no show...i'm scheduled for a 2nd hour so they still have 70 min to connect w/ me, but seriously sometimes so frustrating, especially since there is a TON of stuff that i need to do...oh, like the huge pile of dishes i let build up yesterday, the 1000 business cards that the girls have strewn about the living room, and of course pack

then of course there is also the need to buckle down and decide what stuff is garage sale stuff and what said items will cost because i am having a garage sale a week from tomorrow...hopefully it will all sell...and for my asking price...oh the joys...it's a 9 am start time but you know there will be those garage sale leaches or hawks as they're called...oh how i can't stand ppl like that!!! why can't you just follow the times set up by the person, sure be early and just wait until it's time and then swoop in and get what you want...don't irritate the ppl by weasling in early!...i can honestly say though that i only want to deal in cash, which means i'll have to get a cash box for change...uhg i hate doing garage sales, love going hate putting them on

grabs pillow, holds tight over face

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!


ok, i feel "better" now

you have GOT to be kidding me...

who can't get a $5500 car loan..seriously...either the guy just doesn't want the car anymore and is using that as an excuse or he has HORRIBLE credit and no one wants to touch him w/ a 10 ft pole i posted the car on auto trader just now...the add will run for 12 wks and be in the local auto trader book...seriously though...i could've been approved for a $5500 car loan in high school...hello!!!

oh and the sofa chick bugged on me too...in her email she was all i want just the sofa, then she emails me back, oh i want both for my budget price ($350...$125 less than asking) so that just sucks...royally!!!

they guy that was supposed to come see the apt hasn't called yet to set up a time to come...i'm really starting to stress here!!!!

now if it would all just come together...

so the guy interested in buying the saturn was calling around to banks today to find out about a loan, i don't see why he wouldn't be approved, but one never knows...he's supposed to get back to us by tomorrow about it...if he's not going to get it then we will put the car up on auto trader and hope for good things...i really hope this guy will get baby though because i want my car, that i love dearly, to go to someone that will love her just as much...and apparently he comes from saturn ppl (like his whole family has one modle or another) so he sounds like someone that would lover her

i've had several ppl contact me about the w/d but no real takers yet...so we'll see how that pans out...had tons of emails about the sofa and chair but none ever contacted me about the set again, BUT today i did have 2 ppl interested in buying just the chair for one and sofa for the other so that would be rockin' awesome if they both followed through, then i wouldn't be stuck w/ one or the other trying to get it sold...AND i'll actually get $25 more because together they're $475, seperate the chair is $200 and sofa is $300...i could use an extra $25

i really REALLY hope almost all if not all this stuff will sell before we get down to the end of the move because i really don't want to have to deal w/ a sale...i'm just not up for it!

sometimes life is really a trip!!!

so dh did AWESOME at the interview and was hired before the day was out!!! he starts training w/ skywest on the 21st of august and now the scramble begins to get all things tied up. we decided to sell all things that we could so that we had money for the breaking contract fees, move expenses, buying a car when we get there, etc.

we're going to be living in il's basement...while this is not necessarily ideal...hey, it's cheaper rent than we'd pay anywhere else and we can't afford much of anything so we'll take it!!! hopefully it won't be long before we'll be able to move out, we don't want to over stay our welcome. it will be lots of fun for the girls though to be close to cousines that they can play with and such and have a back yard that they can run around in and play. i love the fact that it's fenced in so while i still need to watch them i don't feel like i need to hawk eye them nearly as much...if that make sense.

i've started listing stuff on craigslist to sell and we're planning a garage sale so what doesn't sell before the garage sale we'll put in it...i'm really hoping most all of it will sell and for the price i'm asking so that i can just be done w/ it all.

i'm amazingly enough not completely stressed out...i had a building anxiety, however, blessings just started falling in our lap it seemed with all things starting to just work out...so here's to hopin' that it continues to do so!!!

oh, and it's a really good thing that we were finally able to get that stupid title taken car of since the saturn is one of the things we're planning on selling LOL

the title quest is finally over!!!

so it took me almost a year, but i finally got the title to my car!!! seriously i felt like a circus poodle jumping through hoops trying to get it all taken care of. now if the whole new job things happens i have a free and clear title to get my car registered in a new state...seriously...all i can say about all i had to go through to get the title...rediculous!

dang i'm tired!

but what's new there right? probably a good think i'm working tonight though, that way when i get done i won't be sucked into the tv and stay up WAY later than i need to wanting to watch this or that...i mean hello, simpsons and king of the hill do not really enrich my life...make me laugh, yes most of the time...enrich my life on any level, no not really...oh well...i just need to exercise more self control on that one

did ya ever realize how not easy it is to make sure you have good posture going on...mine has been horrendous for years...it and a combo of other things has really caused some major pain in my back...so i'm really trying hard to have good posture now...IT IS SOOOO HARD!!! #1 i have to remember to do it like constantly, #2 it hurts because my back and shoulders are not used to doing it, #3 the muscles get very tired very fast for the afor mentioned reason but i'm going to do it dang it!!! i am i am i am i am!!!

doin' what i can to have "cool composure"

so dh put in an app w/ a regional airline and a day or so later got

an invite to an interview. now while this IS exciting because it would hopefully relocate us to a new area, not that here is bad by any means, but

we'd be closer to friends and family rather than near none...make sense?

anywhoo...now my goal is to not worry.

this is a tough goal though as i can worry w/ the best of them

(thanks for passin' that gene down mom LOL)

dh got the email today confirming the date for his

interview (7th of aug) which is good because

that is the date that he was wanting and he bid his current

schedual around that date...now to get hopefully the #1 bid on his list

so there will be no problem getting there and back again for him.

the girls and i will go and stay longer than him as he'll

obviously need to get back to work...which should be

fun, but kind of annoying at the same time for the fact

that we'll have to rely on others for transportation, but hey...what

are friends and family for right?

seriously if he gets this job the first year financially will

be h-e-double hockey sticks, but so long as he

were to get a crj slot we'd be ahead of the game compared

to now at his 2nd year. (like $5k more a year or something)

ok...gonna stop talking about it now as i can feel

the stomach juices churning and i'm starting to

think all too much about it which of course leads to worry...

if nothing else i'll get to have fun on our trip!

soul windows

did ya know that we have those? i don't think i really did until last night...due to my recent issues i asked my sweet hubby for a blessing and after i'd received said blessing i was no longer dim. it was like i'd been in a room w/ really dirty windows where the light was stifled and suddenly the windows were brilliantly clean and the light filled the room. i felt a huge burden lifted so not only did if feel lighter from my dimness i felt lighter from the previous heaviness plaguing me.

so while i'm still in dire need of a friend close by, my soul is in the light once more and i feel better than i have in quite some time!!!

my curse...

you may wonder what this is...well, i'll tell you

i find it extremely hard to cry

many may find this as a strenght and an amazing feat for a female...and while it does have it's perks (i'm so not into crying like alot of females i know) sometimes it truly is a curse

how you ask, well...take right now for instance...i have a ton of pent up negative energy due to stress from what you will find in my pp...and i know a good cry would help to eliminate this...but the tears just won't come even though i honestly feel like crying

does that make sense?

so while i don't want to be a weepy chick, i will admit that sometimes a good cry would be really nice to have that release...i mean heck...w/o it how am i relieving my body of the toxins that crying removes?

ok so i had a realization today...

why it didn't really dawn on me sooner who knows...but any who...i had a friend call me a few days ago and she said that her mil, rs pres in my ward, had "that look" (aka she's worried) when my friend asked her how i was doing...i admitted freely to said friend that i am tired and of course stressed about money (which she knew from before she and her dh moved due to a job transfer) but today i realized that there is more to my stress and general mood. i feel isolated...i have "friends" but i don't...does that make sense?

there are people here where i live that i talk easily with and enjoy my time spent with them, but we don't just call eachother up to do stuff unless it's a play date for our kids, which don't happen very often...now i know this is just basically how life happens once you're a mom...but still...it would be nice to have someone to call and plan something fun once in a blue moon w/o the kids...even it it's just a trip to walmart by ourselves to do the shopping...but alas...for this i have to travel several states away...i know i really shouldn't be complaining...i have a great life, fabulous husband, adorable sweet loving kids, and most of the time my health...but it would be really nice to add a friend in this list of someone that i felt connected with

update on the farm situation...

sooooo, i harvested what few potatoes there were (all very small), the lettuce plants are still alive, but not much bigger than like an inch or two so have yet to harvest anything off of them...i got about 1/2 a baggie of peas off of our multiple rows of peas, they've yet to produce any more, the 1 bean plant that had survived the weed infestation is now dead, and last but not least...a raccoon helped himself/herself to what little corn we did have and all that was left was a little mutant piece of cob w/ like 8 kernels on it...HOWEVER, we do actually have a decent crop of carrots so far...i yanked 3 yesterday and they're about baby carrot size at the moment, maybe a bit bigger...i've been told they won't do too much more so i'll probably harvest them the rest of the way next week and see what all we wind up with

all in all...a COMPLETE learning year...if nothing besides the 1/2 baggie of peas, and miniscule pototoes, and our small carrot crop we learned a lot of what NOT to do!

so I skyped this from a friend...

Post a "comment" for me, filling in the blanks of this "letter". Then repost on your blog (um..with YOUR name) and I'll do the same for you.

Dear Corey,

I _____ you. You have a nice ______. You make me _______. You should _______. Someday I will ______. You + me = ________. If I saw you now I'd __________. I would build a _______ just for you. If I could sing you any song it would be _________. We could __________ under the stars.

Love, _______________

(P.S. ______________.)

tomorrow will be the day of reconning...

for my muscles that is...i went to the farm today to weed and harvest what i could on our little garden, it has been so neglected lately...well, i harvested some peas and a few really small potatoes and then i pulled weeds (approx 50 lbs or more worth) for almost 2 hrs...and i'm still not done...it started to sprinkle and i did NOT want to be caught down there in the rain in a sedan!...needless to say my hands are somewhat raw as i did not have gloves and muscles are already begining to scream at me...i'll be lucky if i can move tomorrow!!!

so alberto...gracious bringer of rain

has apparently cause quite a bit of flash flooding in the surrounding areas...i just admit that i REALLY hope that our garden is fine down at the farm...we need to check the potatoes, see if they're ready for harvest, and we need to finish weeding out the corn and everything else by time we get back down there...and then of course harvest any beans, peas, and lettuce that may be ready for picking...the rain is a double edged sword...garden really needed it alas we can't get down there because it's just too dang muddy!

oh...and I'M SO FREAKING GLAD I DON'T LIVE IN FLORIDA ANYMORE!!! miss the ppl NOT the state LOL

a small rant

so my 10 yr "class reunion" was this past may and i think i got mine like barely a week before it was supposed to go down...needless to say i did not go...it frustrates me so much...hello, we've been out of school for 10 yrs, most of us have some semblence of life, family, job, etc and can't just plan a trip back to mc at the drop of a hat...seriously i'm so contemplating when 15 comes around to just plan one on my own, send out invites in like feb and reminders at the end of march and begin of may depending who's rsvp'd and such and have a nice gig...none of this last minute crap in the back yard of someones house!

but at the sametime at least they tried right?

mommy, music, & me

well, today was finally the 1st installment of the m^3 play group and it actually went quite well...much better than i was expecting i'll be honest...1 down 3 to do until we decide if m^3 continues or not...it should be interesting to see how it all pans out

today we make shakers (plastic bottle, colored macaroni, stickers) and drums (oatmeal tube, construction paper, yarn, markers, stamps, etc) we did songs like wheels on the bus, teapot, london bridges, and ring around the rosy...we did a parachute game where they walked in a circle to the tune of pop goes the weasel and since they were a little too excited about it at the last minute we'd toss the beach ball on when the music was for the pop goes the weasel part and they'd go crazy and pop it up in the air...soooo cute and funny...i think they all had quite a bit of fun today

now the question is...what to do for next week :-S

this is a little late...but i did survive

the week w/ 6 kids wasn't nearly as bad as i expected it to be...however, i did have a headache the size of ohhh, shall i say...texas almost the entire time i was there, no matter what i took for it...that is now gone thankfully!

so 6 kids isn't bad so long as one is not thrust into it in such a way as to go from a 2 yr old and a 9 month old to the gamit of them all LOL

and so now my cute little family embarks on a new adventour...dh got a business license yesterday for his specialty painting business (ya know, faux, murals, etc) so here's hoping that it goes well and we can build it then using it's profits to subsidize other investments creating passive income situations for us...he says his 1st goal is to make a million...as he is my cute dh i will support him in this goal so long as it does not effect our family life in a bad way

we got a money managing program (mvelopes.com) so far we're liking it...we tried microsoft money for awhile, alas we just couldn't figure it out, mvelopes is way easier so that is the route we're going currently...it should help us better w/ our budgeting and keeping in our desired ranges...granted right now it's on some phoney numbers because i'm not sure what dh will be bringing home when his raise hits next month...oh glorious raise...how desired you are!

the flowers that we planted in a small planter box on our balcony rail looks to bloom soon...well 2 of them anyways...not sure about the others, but it will be nice to see more than a mini jungle of leaves out there

the garden was looking decent last time we went down to work on it, we put a continuous (sp?) feed fertlilizer on it, next day it stormed so we may have to go back and do it again if it got washed away...we really REALLY hope that our potatoes and corn make it...it would be super cool if the lettuce, carrots, peas, and beans made it as well...we need to get the pumpkin plants in the ground soon too...or are they supposed to be planted later...oh the live of a novice gardener...each year we'll get better at it i'm sure...

this is my last "full" week tutoring as next week i only work monday because we're to go to san diego for fil's retirment from the navy gig so i won't be working while there and then the week after is "summer" and the hours are majorly reduced...it will be nice to have a bit of a lull i think...not on the money stand point, but on the stress and relaxation stand point totally!

OH and if i did my calcs right i'm only 8 rated sessions away from a promotion from tutor 1 to tutor 2 which means a small pay raise, higher hours cap, and getting to schedule sooner!

tomorrow it begins...

so tomorrow i embark on what is possibly insanity LOL...the girls and i leave for my bro's place to be the substitute babysitter for the week...i'm hoping to still have hair when i return a week from today...

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

cereal strewn about the livingroom...'nough said! :-S

remind me not to take that one again!

so during the adventures of trying to get back to sc from mo (flying standby is nice for the free part but sucky for the standby part LOL) i had a bit of a spill on an escalator, looking at it i knew it was going too fast, but did my logic kick in and make me go down in the elevator...no of course not, and now my arm and my leg have the lovely bruises to show for it...thankfully i kept aj from tumbling down the stairs and didn't drop riley and was able to right myself about 1/2 way down...also thankfully no one obviously saw us as no one seemed concerned of our predicament...at least i hope it was not seeing rather than a reflection on our society as a whole...

can someone PLEASE explain to me...

why husbands at times (be they good, bad, inconsiderate, most condiserate guy ever, etc) if they're tired feel justified in being a complete poop! hello, if there were some justification in being tired i dont' think i know a mom alive that wouldn't be a complete poop all the freaking time!!!