My DH has had it!!! He is determined to lose weight. At work they presented everyone with a challenge. The person who loses the most weight in the next 6 months gets 200.00 as does the one who loses the greatest percentage of weight. The others are in a drawing for different prizes. Everyone gives 10.00 to enter the challenges and weighs in with the nurse. I decided to join him and we are putting a bit of money away every payday to see which of us loses the most as well. I want to lose 42 pounds in the next six months. Thats only 7 pounds a month or two a week. I should be able to do that pretty easily. If my DH can do at least that (he wants ot lose more like about 80 or 90) we will be in great shape next winter. My worst tiem of day is naptime so I may start blogging then to keep me from eating.

my little one is growing up, he now decided that if he doesn't want ot go to bed he will get up and play in his room or peek out t his parents to see what fun they have after his bedtime. We are back to a crib, or sitting beside his bed, or lots of tears because Mom got mad, or all of the above. I don't like this particular stage in his life. Add the cough/ stuffyness he got from his Dad and you have a recipe for long nights and no fun evenings. Wonder how long this will last. I am getting ready for his party at the end of July. Today I found die cast Larry mobiles for a favor and of course had to get extra for my Grandkids.i am selling stuff for my MIL and so far it is going pretty well, except for the saw mill. I did find out it isn't an antique so I have a better chance at selling it, but no chance at the donation thing.

I am so proud of my daughter I could explode. I want to brag to everyone about how awesome she is. This isn't a new thing I have always been proud of her but when I look at her little ones and how well she is raising them I get positively nuts with pride. She had a few rough times that about wore out my knees but has become a woman I am proud to know. Someone I want my little one(s) to hang around. She married an awesome young man whom we are honored to have in our family and together with God they have created some lovely little ones that I am excited about watching grow up. Those tiny ones are blessed to have her as their mother. I've been thinking about all her good qualities and how we want to instill them in our little one. I know none of them were learned from me. so the prospect is staggering.

OK, I know I have room in my house but I didn't plan on taking up that space, just enjoying that I could look at a smaller house when I moved. Now well...OK my MIL was sorting out stuff and alot of it came home with me. Some of it was expected, the family good dishes to be passed down to DS2 and the like. But some wasn't. Like the set of books for DS2 I couldn't resist. Or the large stack of puzzles my SIL gave us. It is making me rethink my closets though. I have one that is filled with a computer (I thought it would be better than our old one but can't get it to work right) and three boxes of stuff that belonged to our exchange student he hasn't come back for. My DS2 closet has a lot of stuff "in case" the next one might like it. The closet in our room has clothes. The hall cupboard has all craft stuff, some of whihc I haven't seen since I put it in there. The large hall cupboard has Christmas stuff (I shop early) fabric (She who dies with the most fabric wins?) and alot of just in case stuff, in case of what I'm not sure. There are also two large boxes of photos (I take alot of pictures) and the Christmas stuff. The time has come to clean my closets. I want to wait until I feel better but need to get started. MY DH has been sick for three or 4 weeks with some sinus virus or other and now my DS2 and I seem to be losing the fight with the same thing. Because it is a virus there is no "cure" only paliatives which I don't use unless I have too. He called off two days this week and it seems to have helped. I keep asking where I call off to? The other "little" problem is that I can't clean closet when my little one is awake because he is very helpful and doesn't understand why he can't play with all that stuff. I think I'll start with the craft cupboard and make it into the "heirloom" closet. That way I shouldn't have to touch it again until I move!!!

We left Friday for the farm. It is usually an 8 hour drive. 11 hours later we pulled in. We didn't even stop for dinner. We made some stops for gas and potty breaks but that was it. WE got started sorting and planning a garage sale that night. The next day I got up wiht out little one and spent an hour looking at all the different places we have to clean out and sell contents of. It took a long time. We are talking a barn shed and house all of which are huge. The rest of that day was spent going through several rooms in the house and that evening we planned how to get rid of shed contents. This includes a 20 foot long sawmill. I am a bit whelmed by all this but keep up a good front for my MIL who owns all this. She needs to get rid of it very soon. Financially she is hurting from owning two residences and paying lots of bills on them. i started a thread begging for help on where to sell this stuff. The saw mill is most daunting, but the horse has me concerned as well. She will let the saw mill go to anyone but the horse has to have a "good" home. Her standards are quite high. I'm not sure anyone will be good enough for that animal. Don't get me wrong I love animals and am actually rather fond of all of her horses but don't feel they need a better life than I have.
Sunday we drove home and it "only" took 9 hours. We even were able to stop for dinner. This will involve several more trips which cost a mint in gas but it's for family. My DS2 and I came back with colds my DH came back with the same cold he has had for 3 or 4 weeks. We go back in July. DH will work the holiday so he can leave a day early. The sale is around the 20th to 24th. I need to have the sawmill out by then. DH is hoping to get someone to buy the metal stuff that is around there, but they have to come pick it up too. To top it off they planned a big family reunion on that farm before the sale. I am really praying for a miracle.

In an effort to build good habits in our DS2 we are having him start a bank account. This year for his schoolwork we ar edoing a weekly community helper. We have done the usual police, fire, ambulance, lifeguard stuff and are turning to other jobs. I had planned on starting his allowance when he turns 3 (5 weeks) but since we are doing banking as a community helper decided to go a couple weeks early. Our local bank has a "JOhnny Appleseed" account that insclude a passbook, has no minimum, gives birthday cards redeemable for coupons to local stuff, and has a drawing for a prize twice a year. You get a ticket for the drawing for every deposit you make. We plan on giving him his allowance (50 cents)weekly and having him save 10 cents every week. I am past the bank every week so we can stop for him to make his deposit easily. He will also put 10 cents in the charity box. (we'll start those community helpers later this month). The other 30 cents is his to spend. I plan on "needing" to go to the dollar store every month or so so he can spend if he wants to. He has started showing an interest in money and can tell the coins apart and count pennies. I am going to see that he gets his money wiht a different coin configuration every time so we can have another lesson. I realize some of you think I am crazy and I will be told that he will never remember it. I am learning lately that they remember the bad stuff best but I am hoping to build a habit that will last him a lifetime. By the way, for those of you who do not believe in allowances, yes he does chores too. He sets the table and when he is three it will involve more than the utensils. He also helps with other things like emptying the dishwasher and collecting trash.

My DH is still sick. He is so tired of being sick and I have to admit I am losing patience. We are going to the Dr. today and I am going to be adament about his getting a blood test for hypothyroidism. He is constantly tired and can't fight this sinus thing that has him down. He manages to make it to work and that is about it. I have to hire someone to mow my lawn. I contacted a youth group and am going to make a donation so at least that isn't as bad. I would do it myself but can't start the mower with my shoulder the way it is. i find myself hoping it is something easy to fix like his thyrioid. He was raised to "coddle" illness and I fight it tooth and nail unless it actually drops me (almost died a couple times that way so I know there is a happy medium).

I spoke with a member of my family last night and my heart just ached for her. They are at the get a car or walk point and she is frustrated because they ran into the same thing 12 years ago when they bought their car. To her minimum wage isn't a challenge it is a daily way of life. I remember being there, it isn't a fun place to live. I remember being so tired of everything that you just want to give up. It was very educational and I hope I never live there again. What I remember being th emost frustrating was that we were in debt and there was no real light at the end of the tunnel. I felt like we would be in debt forever. Not that we have much now but I can at least give my kids and grandkids birthday presents that are useful to them (OK maybe they don't think they are useful but I try) without going into debt. I wanted to suggest that they try saving a car payment for a year and ride the bus but she wasn't at the listening point. Sometimes you can't even lead them to the water.

This Saturday my DH felt too yucky (again) to go garage saling with us so DS2 and I went alone. We found very few things worth considering, much less spending money on (yeah) but at a church sale we found a large box (about 2 feet by 1 foot)of precut yarn for rug hooking for only 50 cents. My DH does that in the evening when he has motivation and supplies so I bought it. He has to finish a rug for one of our twin grandsons for Christmas as well as make one for the extra room (hopefully the next babies room) Our DS2 has three huge rugs that he made when he was in his 20's that are large cats, a lion, leopard and a tiger. We want our D? to have something waiting for her/him as well.
Actually it was just as well he stayed home the pager rang off the hook and he was primary call. He got enough pages to be able to take most of Friday off so we can leave for the weekend of gargae sale work in MI sooner. Now if I could only think of a place to sell an enormous working sawmill...I'm almost afraid to find out what else might be in that shed.

I have agreed ot help my MIL do an estate sale so she can sell her house in Michigan. I am concerned about some of the stuff I know is there. How on earth will I sell a working (at least it did years ago) sawmill! I am going down next weekend so I can get an idea what is there that may prove a challenge and figure out a place to list it. I'm going to take my camera and get pictures of stuff I think will sell better on ebay than in a garage type sale. I am going to have a garage sale here too, probably the week after I get back. I don't have alot of stuff but need to get rid of what I have. I can't take my stuff there to sell although I did that once a couple years ago. She has asked me to sell her horse too. I listed it online but that has gone no where. In addition we are anxiously awaiting news of our next child. We are so frustrated with waiting but the garage and estate stuff should distract me for awhile at least. The actual sale should be the third week in July and then we need to list the house. I have to help find an agent for her to have sell the place too. She is giving us some stuff that we have to rent a truck to get home which will be a pain but worth it since the furniture is nicer than we will ever afford.

It was a long trip but worth it. I got to see my oldest sister, my niece and her family, Shamu and several rockets. We didn't do the Disney thing because I won't spend that kind of money until I am sure my kids will remember it for the rest of their lives. It is a once in alifetime thing (if then). We did go to Sea World. Tickets to this attraction are about 62 dollars per adult. We chose to pay 20 dollars instead. To do this we had to attend a free breakfast hosted by one fo the local timeshare people and let them talk to us for 90 minutes. The breakfast was so so but beat the cold cereal we had been eating in the room (it was free too) and the talk was interesting. The tour was beautiful. The savings over the 2 hours was 80 dollars. I figure that was 20 dollars per hour per each of us (plus breakfast for 3) so we made out. Because we saved the extra I felt better about spurlging on the fish (yucky looking little things) to feed the seal, rays and sharks. The next day we went to the Kennedy Space Center. We paid for the "standard" admission (31 per adult) and spent the day seeing cool stuff. DS2 learned alot so it was worth it. I never realized how big that place is. The rest of the trip included lots of walks to see neat flowers, birds, and visiting family. We ate most of our meals in th ehotel with stuff I had brought. We did spurlge aon a couple things, but were carreful to keep in our "vacation" budget so we didn't run up credit cards. All in all we did very well that way. Some of the trip will be paid for by my DH company because he had to attend a conference the first 2 1/2 days. That means to car, hotel and all his meals were covered during that time, as was his airfare. My MIL gave us the money to cover DS2 and my airfare because she found out we weren't going because I was too cheap and wanted us to go along. All in all it was a nice week but we are both TIRED!!!!

No not me, my son in law. I didn't get the chance to talk to him and wish him a Happy Birthday on the phone (tried twice!!) so I thought I would write it here.
My husband and I feel we are blessed to have him as our son in law. He is a wonderful husband to our daughter and a great father to our grandchildren. I prayed for him for years before I met him. I wanted my daughter to marry someone who would cherish her and help her realize her potential as a woman and as a Mom. I wanted someone who would appreciate her and see how special she is. I prayed she would marry a man who would raise our grandchildren to be intelligent, caring, little people who were hungry for knowledge. I prayed she would marry someone who was as good looking as she is so that my grandchildren would be great looking.My daughter married an awesome man. He is good looking (fantastic hair) and brilliant. He is dependable, has a great sense of humor and is honest and fair. He loves my little girl and their children intensely. I prayed that she would find someone who was willing to share his family from time to time with in laws and have tried to be a good MIL. I can't think of enough adjectives to describe the great job God did of finding my daughter the special man who I am proud to claim as part of our family. I thank God for his answer to prayer.