Dawn's house

Yesterday we went over to Dawn's to help her with putting in the carpet in her bedroom. Well, Ben helped, the kids and I just hung out with Dawn. It was fun..They have did so much work on the house. It looks great! She also made us lunch. She made the cavatini recipe from the cookbook that I made for her for her wedding. It was yummy! We had wine to drink with our meal,,fancy, fancy! Then the boys went upstairs to work,, and we had margaritas!! We gave the kiddos some ice cream:) Here's my girls And Gary hanging out in there computer/game room.

This was hilarious,, I was getting ready to take a pic of Emma with Tanner(their dog) and Dawn reached over to get something and the chair fell over. Too funny! Luckily I already had my camera out :)

Here's Emma and Tanner. Hes is a huge chocolate lab.. Really good dog.

It was fun. I'm so proud of my little sister. I just assumed since we did that everyone struggles financially when they first move out and get married.. but apparently that isn't so. She has a great job and seems to be doing wonderful! I hope her life keeps going well and stays on the right track. Hopefully they'll need Ben's help again so we can go back over and hang out! :)

Sickies

Well it got us. Everyone around us was getting sick and I was hoping we would stay well,,,,,but,,,,,,,the bug made its way into our house. All 3 kids are sick with colds. Gary sounds like hes an old smoker from way back with his cough. Poor things.

I've been thinking a lot lately. I got some news that really hurt my feelings but I'm not going to get into it because , I don't want to hurt anyone elses feelings. I just don't understand why things happen the way they do sometimes. I feel like we have worked so hard to turn our lives around and show people that we can stand on our own two feet, but it seems like the better we do, the more we get pushed away.

Jess just got back yesterday from her camping trip that she took with the school. She had so much fun and made great memories. She took tons of pictures that we are going to take in today to get developed. She is so excited to see them.

I sooo need to deep clean my house. I get the daily tasks done but there just isn't enough time and energy sometimes to get down and dirty with the dirt. :)- I think I should have a cleaning party and invite everyone over to clean my house with me.. hahahehe......... People probably wouldn't think that was to much fun though. :)

Ben is working today and its Sat. ! Yay! His job is finally starting to pick up and hes getting some overtime. That's good so we can build up that truck fund! Hope everyone is well and happy! Thanks for all that take the time out of their day to read my little blog.

Lady bugs

I've been doing preschool with the kids. Its been fun, today we made rock bugs!

Its always so fun to paint for a kid. Bree was so proud of her finished project! Emma is a little weird about hers,, she acts scared of it, but laughs too, so I think shes just playing

Here's a close up for ya

I used a hot glue gun,, and everything is falling off, so now I've Elmer's glued it,, I'm sure that's not gonna hold long,,, I probably need super glue,, but don't have any. Oh well,, they sure had fun making them!

Rambles

Well its Wednesday and I have a bunch or random thoughts passin through my head so here goes....



I was extremely disappointed to find out yesterday that due to the house we purchased was in my parents names before we bought it, we now don't qualify for the 10% tax incentive that we thought we were going to get....Goodbye 7600.00 that we thought we were gonna get and for once be ahead. :(

My poor Jess forgot the first volley ball try out and now isn't allowed to try out or play. I never got a note home and knew nothing about it,,,, apparently 5th graders are supposed to be as responsible as high schoolers. UUGGGHHHH...........She has been wanting to play v-ball forever to.

ON a good note, I've already worked out 2x this week and have been watching my eating habits.

I've read Dave Ramsey's book. I also had a plan to get our emergency fund started but my husband informed me that now since we arnt getting the money our number one priority needs to be saving money for a new vehicle for him,,, (he has a super old truck that isn't going to last much longer). I was a little disappointed but I am going to put just as much effort into saving for that so I will then be able to start up the emergency fund.

Life's throwing me lots of curve balls lately, but I'm trying to not get discouraged and just go with the flow.

Menu plan

Here is what we will be eating this week.

*taco salad
*poor mans meal
*spaghetti
*chicken stir fry with rice
*hamburgers, macaroni salad

Sat. -lunch-leftovers,, dinner,- we have a wedding to attend,, I'm thinking there will be food at the reception.

First day

Here's my "babies", all ready for their first day of school this morning. They are so grown up. :( Jess is in the 5th grade this year, and Gary is in the 3rd. I seriously can not even stand to think about when Emma starts school,,,(just the thought makes me shudder). Anyways arnt they adorable!

It is a very dreary day.. We had thunderstorms all through the night and its raining still this morning.. I hope they still have a great day. Its just Emma and I today because the one babysitting kid didn't come this morning. I think were gonna go to the Y and workout. I decided yesterday that I am ready to reorganize my mind, body and surroundings!

Licence pics

This is kinda embarrising but I thought I would post my old drivers licence picture from 6 years ago. So you can see the changes in my face. I look like I'm freaking gonna explode!! So awful!

ANd this one is from today.. Still not a great picture but at least you can see the diffrence. Right?

Splash Pad

Here's some pics my neighbor took at the splash pad the other day. It was a blast. Sorry about the small ones, I cant figure out how to make them bigger.

Fire trucks (UPDATED)

We've had an exciting day so far! This morning I awoke to a strange hot smell. Ben is on 3rds for a couple days again and when he came home from work he smelled it to. We sniffed around everywhere checking plug in and such and could not decide where it was coming from. It seems the main smell is coming from the kitchen and living room,,there right beside each other. We ended up calling the fire department because it really was scaring us not knowing what it was. They came out with there fire truck and had some kind of heat detector that is supposed to detect hot or something. Gary thought it was cool to talk to the firemen. They still couldn't figure it out. They said it might be the lights on the chandelier in the kitchen but the lights were off so I don't believe that to be true.

Ben went to bed and I ended up going to a park with my neighbor that has a little splash pad with water that squirts up and around everywhere. It was fun all the kids had a blast! Its wonderful having a great neighbor to hang out with!

Once we returned home and walked in the door the smell is still here. :( Still no clue what it is. I think its coming from the refrigerator but not sure. We are suppose to close on the house this Friday afternoon. We will be official home owners! Lets just hope our house is still here!

Update:
After being home for a couple hours I opened up the freezer to find things mushy and melty! We were right,, it was the refrigerator. I'm guessing the smell was the motor burning up or something. So we had to go out and buy a new one. I like it. Its not the best fanciest model out there but its new and better than what we had,, and one that we could afford! I am very happy. Tomorrow is my birthday and Ben says that is my present. :) What an unexpected very eventful day!

Swimming

Today was a perfectly lazy Sunday and I loved every minute of it!! It was super hot and so we filled up the pool. Then we had the idea to put it under the slide but it took all 4 of us to move it(cause it was full of water). It was worth it though,,, the kids were flying down and making big splashes..

Emma LOVED spraying people with the hose.

Even Shelby needed to cool off.

Then believe it or not they got board with that so out came the sprinkler.

It was a great day! I am so blessed and I love my family so much.