Family Day

July 14, 2015

 

     On Monday, my niece Stacy and her boyfriend Jon traveled from Pennsylvania to visit us all.  It has been almost two and a half years since we have gotten to see her and this is the first time the family has got to meet Jon.  Today we spent the day in Branson together.  First we went to Tanger Outlet Mall and went shopping.  My husband got him some new shoes at Finish Line.  Then we went to Bath and Body Works, and had to smell everything.  I got myself some great smelling handi-santi’s.  That store is so awesome, there is so much good smelling things in that store.  Then I wanted to go to the Disney store, I can’t go to Tanger without going to the Disney store and buying my little ones something.  I guess it’s the mom in me.  I got them a couple of new t-shirts.  Then we decided we was getting hungry and went out to lunch.  We went to Fudrucker’s.  We ate some awesome burgers.  Then my niece had never been to Dicks Five and Dime in old time Branson.  So we went there, there are some many items to look at in that store.  Of course, my niece had to look at everything, so two hours later we finally got out of that place.  Then we took them to the Landing.  Stacy had been there, but Jon had never seen the fountains so we took them there.  Once again my niece had to go in every store and look at everything.  It was starting to get to be a long day.  Finally we came home to the nice cool air conditioning.  So nice to come home and relax after being out in the heat and walking all day.  Tomorrow we will be attending evening church together and getting some family photos taken.  We are a family that is big on pictures when someone comes to visit.  Sadly Jon and her, will be leaving Saturday, but we are having a great time making memories this week while they are here.  Thursday they are all going to Silver Dollar City, unfortunately I have to work and won’t be able to attend with them.  But I am glad for the precious time that I have got to spend with her and her new wonderful boyfriend.

 

393 Words

10 Minutes

Almost Over

July 13, 2015

 

It’s so hard to believe that we are almost done with our summer semester.  It seems like just yesterday when I was going to buy my laptop to start my online classes.  I was so nervous, I didn’t think I could manage a forty plus hour work week, going to school, and three children.  But look at me now I have done it much to my surprise.  All my family and friends kept telling me that I would do fine, but I was so scared that I was going to fail.  I set aside school time for each day, learned to prioritize all my assignments for both classes, and it has really worked out for me.  The first week, I have to admit was awful, I felt so overwhelmed and didn’t think I would honestly make it to where I am now.  I did cut back on work a little.  I am used to working six day a week, I cut back to five with no overtime hours.  It really hurt the wallet, but I knew that in order to succeed in this journey this is what I would have to do.  I didn’t realize that summer semester would be so condensed and hectic.  My friends told me don’t take two classes online this summer, it will be to hard to keep up.  I just brushed them off, and said I can do this.  Little did I know what I was getting myself into.  But I have managed to maintain good grades in both of my classes.  Have managed not to miss one assignment.  I was late with one, because I wasn’t quite sure on how to submit it, but other than that I have kept right up.  This fall I am planning on taking a seated class with labs, and one online class.  Hopefully it won’t be as stressful.  But I have a plan in order and want to try and stick to this plan as much as possible to get my degree in two years.  Good luck to all of you in your classes as well, and I hope that things are going as good for you as they are for me.

 

369 Words

10 minutes

My Son’s first Car

July 12, 2015

 

Well my husband and I did something that we always said we would never do, we bought our son a car.  Roger, my oldest son, saved quite a bit of graduation money and we told him whatever he saved we would match him.  Well a girl that I used to work with recently told me about a car she had that she was wanting to sell.

Several weeks ago, I went over to her house to look at this car.  It is a 1997 Hyundia Elantra.  I took my son with me to look at the car.  As soon as we pulled up, he was like I want it.  Of course he did.  We looked the car over inside and out.  The car has a near perfect body, inside the interior was in the same shape, near perfect.  After looking the car over thoroughly we decided that we would be buying the car for him.

Originally she quoted me a price of $1,000.00 which was a great price considering the shape and mileage of the car.  We met my friend yesterday and my husband and father in law looked the car over once again.  It was a go, we were definitely going to purchase it for him. 

We followed her back to her house and started filling out the title and bill of sale.  She asked me how much I wanted to pay for the car, I told her the original price she quoted me.  She said well how about you give me $800.00, it was her moms car who recently died of cancer.  She said the look on your son’s face would make my mom so happy, so I want him to have this car.  I was so happy, not only did my son get a great car, but got it for $200.00 less than what we had planned on paying for it.  He hasn’t quit smiling since we got home with it.

 

Couponing

July 11, 2015

 

I see all over facebook where a lot of my friends are couponing.  They are saving huge amounts of money.  I haven’t been able to figure out the way of doing this.  At Christmas time, a friend of mine back in Indiana, got all three of her children’s Christmas presents for under $100.  Recently, friends of mine here in Missouri are posting the same sorts of success with this couponing.

With the high prices of groceries and toiletries this is such a great way to save money.  I know a lot of the coupons they are getting are online coupons.  Some of them make items that are seven dollars like twenty five cents. 

I would love to know how to do this.  I spend over $750.00 a month just on groceries, and that doesn’t include the other stuff like toilet paper, shampoo, trash bags, laundry soap, dish soap, and the list could go on and on.

It would be so awesome to get your final total for $750.00 worth of groceries and it be under $10.00.  I do know that sometimes the couponing techniques require buying in bulk quanities.  Unfortunately this wouldn’t help me because I have no storage for large mass quanities of toilet paper or cereals.

I watched a show on The Learning Channel where this lady had turned her basement into a storage unit for her groceries.  Tons and tons of items.  The one thing I remember specifically was the sixty-two boxes of cake mixes.  There is no way I could use that many cake mixes before they went bad.  That’s another thing, I’m real big on expiration dates.  I don’t like to eat things that are past there dates.  I know that might seem wasteful, but that’s another reason I don’t buy in bulk.

If anyone has any tips on couponing please let me know.  Saving a little at a time will certainly add up.

323 Words

10 Minutes

 

God Blessed Me With Three Mothers

 

 July 10, 2015

 

     I have been very blessed, I don’t only have the normal one mother, I have been blessed with three. My birth mother, my grandmother and a wonderful bonus mother. 

     When I was born, my mother wasn’t ready to become a mother, therefore my grandparents raised me.  They actually adopted me from her when I was eight.  I have always had a relationship with my real mom, that never changed.  Although I was a little ackward that after my grandparents adopted me, my mom was legally my sister. 

     I did however live with my mother for a short time.  When I was two my mother got married and took me to live with her and her new husband.  He was in the military and I lived on the base with them.  However their marriage was short lived.  Then I went back to live with my grandparents. 

     When I was five, and getting ready to start kindergarten, my grandparents had to contact my mothers’ ex husband because he had my shot records to start school.  He and his wife came to our home, she was pregnant with their first child.  Her name is Santa, yes Santa, just like the jolly old man of Christmas.  She wanted to involve me in their lives.  My grandparents let me go over there and go to church with them.  My stepfather at one time, became my stepfather again without being any relation to me.  I know its confusing. 

     They have always treated me like their child.  Kent, my stepfather refers to me as his daughter, and their children call me their sister.  They welcomed me into their home with open arms.  I suddenly had a second family.

     When my children were born, they were there.  My children all call them grandma and grandpa and they treat them as if they were.  I believe you don’t have to be blood to be family.  And this is why.  My grandfather died two months ,unexpectally of a stroke, before I was married.  Kent walked me down the aisle and gave me away.

     Santa has always treated me as a daughter, even after she had their own daughter, I was never set aside.  My children love their “Grandma Santa”, she has been there when no one else could be.  I have a different relationship with her, she is the one who taught me the word of God, and is the one that I talk to when I don’t want to upset my grandmother or mom, because she is more “down to earth” you would say.

     I am so blessed to have been given this extended family, and blessed that my children have them as well.

 

454 Words

10 Minutes

Our Tadpoles

July 9, 2015

     Several weeks ago, when we had the first big rains, our children’s small plastic pool was overflowing with water.  Several days went by and our children wanted to play out in the pool.  After going out to check the water we noticed hundreds of little black things swimming in the water.

     After a closer look we discovered they were hundreds of tadpoles swimming in the pool.  My daughter and youngest son were so excited to see tadpoles in their swimming pool. 

     Conflicted, my daughter and son wanted to go swimming, but the pool had to be dumped out and refilled.  Lillyan, my daughter, didn’t want to kill the tadpoles.  She said “we can’t take them out they don’t have their lungs yet”, so innocent.  She was crying not wanting to kill the tadpoles, but still wanted to go swimming.

     I explained to her that those hundreds of tadpoles would eventually turn into hundreds of frogs.  She got even more excited then, not the reaction I was looking for.  So we came to a compromise, I told her she could save some of the tadpoles in another container, and we would clean the pool out.  This way she could go swimming, and still save some of her tadpoles.

     So of course, they got one of my good Tupperware cake taker containers, filled it up with some of the pool water and scooped out some of the tadpoles.  I would say at least 25 or more are in the container.

     The container is now on our front deck, where the little ones have put grass and rocks in it for the tadpoles.  They have made them a “comfy little home” according to my daughter.

     I had to google what to feed them, for I had never raised tadpoles before.  It was quite interesting to find out this is a habit for many people.  They were pages of information on how to raise tadpoles.  But we are doing everything the websites were saying to do, create a habitat, provide rocks for algae to grow, grass, and leaves.

     My daughter and son are so excited to see them growing, and they have grew quite a bit since putting them in the container.  Although I’m not sure on what we are going to do when they become frogs.

 

385 Words

10 minutes

My Son Roger’s First Day of Work

July 8, 2015

 

     My oldest son, Roger, graduated in May of this year.  He has never had a job, because I felt like until he was eighteen and graduated from high school he was my responsibility to take care of.  This is the way I was raised, I was never allowed to have a job during school.  School work always came first. Keeping your grades up and having that interaction with school is what is important, this is what I was taught.

     Roger took Marine Tech at the vocational school half day for his Junior and Senior year in high school.  Upon graduating he received a technical certificate for Marine Technology.  He is certified in many categories from small engine repair to boat engine repairs and work shop. 

     He is working on getting his driver’s license, it is basically my fault he doesn’t have one yet.  When we moved here from Indiana he was only fifteen and missed taking the driver’s education course there.  And the school he attended here in Missouri didn’t offer the course.  I was so nervous about his driving here.  It took me months before driving here, the sites of no guard rails, single lane roads, and not a reflector one on the highways scared me to have him driving.  Although I realized I couldn’t keep him from driving forever.  We bought him a car and he is practicing with his permit.

     Roger wanted to get a job to help on insurance and expenses, but with no license he wanted to get a close to home job so his father and I could pick him up and take him.  So he decided to go to McDonalds.  This wouldn’t have been my first choice for him, since he has a degree in a technical field, but I commend him for trying to start his own life off and get a job.  He is super excited, and who knows maybe he will be manager someday. 

      He says this is only temporary, but whatever his path in life leads him, I will be a proud parent and support his decisions.  Plus, his little brother and sister are so happy that he has “the hook-up” to happy meal toys.

 

373 Words

10 minutes