Wordless Wednesdays....

I am "stealing" mu husbands laptop..I really need to get mine fixed to run faster..I need to back up my pictures first..that is why I am avoiding using mine and "stealing" his..He bought this for work and the only work I see him do is kick butt on spider solitaire!!!

Here are a few random pictures that are on his computer...My grandma died 2 years ago..and the only pictures we have are on here. He has lots of clock fixing pictures...

Instead of Tightwad Tuesday's I am going to do my very own Frugal Friday's post...I have so much to blog in general but the more readers I get the more I freeze up in blogging..Bloggers block...That's what I have right now...

Anyways..Enjoy.

Not me Mondays

Oh, the joy of being a mom....If you have not heard about Not me Monday's I urge you to check out MckMama Blog...You can do this too...It is not hard...don't pretend you don't encounter just one thing in your week that might make others cringe..your just being honest and living to tell about it!!

It was NOT me who was suckered in to 3 more boxes of those darn Girl Scout Cookies to add to my stash. It was NOT me who thought we could ration them until Summer.

It was NOT me who went and Hijacked the neighbors swing set because I did not want to load up the kids to take them to the park. I need a swing Set.

It was NOT me who went through the local coffee stand and ordered 2 coffees using her buy one get one free for herself..one hot and one cold for the next morning. I limit myself to one coffee a week. So this way I got two for 3.85!!

It was NOT me who decided stock upon ice melter knowing my husband would be upset that I bought 4 bags the last Snow we got for the one day. He was thinking that we wouldn't need it. It was NOT me who was laughing at him this morning..Doing the " I have salt for my walkways dance"

It is NOT me who is just a tad bit excited for my best friend as she might be facing the Summer off with me..I am Sad for her, I promise. I am NOT a bit selfish.

It is NOT me who decided to spell things wrong for a certian someone who is my spelling NAZI.

Have a great week!! What did you NOT do this week?

Front Row

I do not like sitting in the front row at church. I don't even like sitting in the first 10 rows at church. I know..how can I go to church and get so insecure about sitting towards the front. It is almost like a death sentence. I get so nervous and worry the whole time on what people are thinking of me. Sad!?! I know...we are in church!!!

Last week my darling husband sat us in the 3rd row. I could not focus on the sermon. I kept praying that I would quit worrying what people thought..so I could listen with an open heart. I wasn't impressed with my darling husband. He knew I get anxiety sitting in the front.

So this week knowing how he loves sitting towards the front I took off to the VERY FRONT row!! He looked at me like " WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?!" I smiled and thought well..if you want the front then go for it and that I did...and I LOVED IT!!! I had to get over the fear that 1) our children's number would start flashing any moment for us to get them and we must leave the front row and WALK in front of everyone 2) that when I worship there would be people thinking bad things...3) we would always have to have the front row...

I have no idea why I am sharing this but It was a life changing moment...I was filled to the brim yesterday!! I have no idea if it was because of the front row or if it was because I did cast my fears to the side and went for it...it was empowering!!

Thursday's with Tiffiny...

Are you serious? That is what my son asked me yesterday in regards to the fact I have Not me Mondays..Tightwad Tuesdays..Wordless Wednesdays..Thursday with Tiffiny and then I think I am going to add frugal Fridays..But I am going to come up with 7 daily posts all different just to bug him..okay and bug you too...

Today is a blah day...bed late..early to rise..I had to be in town at 9am with 2 kids in tow to deal with the insurance company for a minor truck incident. Don't worry I wasn't hurt but the truck was! HA!

and I really need to comment on the weather...Rain, sun,snow,and now Sun? Oh, weather you are as moody as me!

So here it is Thursday again..




I am Thankful For.....

That my van needs 800.00 in repairs....Why am I thankful? well, because I have a vehicle..I am I excited about the timing of this? NO!! It sucks. I hate it. It really sucks but I do have a vehicle and I am not standing in the bus line. So, yes I am thankful!

I am Listening to.....

Carter wanting me to go get him from his playpen...I am hurrying through this..

What's for dinner?
Cold cereal..It is part of the budget. I wonder if you can put it in the crock pot?!?
Don't worry..I got Jer is favorite foods...and 35 candles...we might burn the house down!! :)

I am looking forward to....

Jeremy's birthday tonight...A nice hot bath and the couch being my friend...oh, and I have started the mega of all mega garage sale piles..we have decided that we will pretending to move to a 3 bedroom apartment...

I am Missing....
my mind..today is just not a good day..well it is a good day..we are alive and nothing major to report...I am just wanting to go to bed...maybe I will crawl in there and then peek under the bed to see if I SEE the MISSING boy Scout shirt...

Happy Birthday to the LOVE of my life

Today is my husbands 35th Birthday...WOW!! I can't believe he is 35..Not that it is old but considering I remember going out with him for his 19 birthday..Time has just flown by!!

Matthew thinks we are so old! I swear we are not!! Just because I do not know how to download itunes to the I-pod or set up the DVR to record or protect shows. He hangs over us when we are on the laptop trying to walk us through programs...WE ARE NOT OLD!! I still have cute hair!

Anyways, I love you my darling husband! Happy Birthday...I am so thankful you are part of this world and even more thankful to your mom and dad for raising such a wonderful man and father to our children!

Here's to many more years of birthdays...and it is okay that our kids think we are old..it just means we are smarter then them.

Wordless Wednesday

Olivia's new fun thing...find mommy's camera and take pictures..I have to hide it. I had some that I took awhile ago waiting to be uploaded...

Tightwad Tuesday..

I found this great title on a friends blog...She recently lost her job when the major coffee company she was working for laid off hundreds. She has a 1 year old son a few weeks older then Carter. You can read more by clicking here..

So here is to a new weekly post of being a tightwad and loving it!! I tend to collect things...no not fancy bells,plates, or china but just stuff. I collect stuff faster then dust. Stuff is taking over my life!

Some of my good friends can remember when I bought 7 pallets of valentines and Easter stuff. I had over 300 boxes of egg dye, over 200 boxes of Valentines and to just to much stuff. I gave all the Easter stuff to the church. Bags of goodies to my Friends and then tried to get rid of most of it by donating to the local thrift store. I still have some Valentines and Easter here. No Surprise to those who know me.

I stand in line at the thrift store waiting to see what treasure I can find...I got a Gymboree peacoat for Olivia for 1.29!

So here is what I try and do....CONSIGN!!! That would be the tip of this Tuesday Tightwad Post.

Clean out your closet and bring it to the consignment shop. They take jewelry, purses, shoes, unused bath gift sets, and much more. You will be surprised on how much money you can make.

Clean out your children's room...any toys still in packages either re-gift them or bring them in to sell. They take anything related to baby including your maternity clothes.

There is new place in town that will take your household items to sell on consignment. I have not tried them out but have a pile to bring in. I will let you know how it goes.

I have made over 800.00 last year on consigning. I absolutely love it and hope to one day open up another store. It is so Simple and you will get the hang of it.

So here is to the Tuesday Tightwad...look for it every week!! I am so ExCiTeD!!

I should just be stinky

I can't believe how hard it is to take a shower..I mean really!?! I never ever thought that this would be a problem..

Carter still sleeps in our room. Thankfully NOT in our bed but in play pen. He will not sleep in a crib..he will not even play in the crib..actually Olivia will still sleep in there even though she has a bed. Carter does not sleep through the night..Getting better waking up 1-2 times for a binky or bottle.

If I wake up and shower before everyone gets up I run a hellish schedule all day but at least I don't stink..Here is why showering in the morning sucks..1) carter wakes up in a GROUCHY mood 2) Olivia will wake up in a GROUCHY mood because she is not ready to get up. They are not morning people. They enjoy taking their sweet time waking up. So If they wake up before they are ready they are miserable..

Today...I shower at 1:15pm..I know..I know..ridiculous! I am frantically calling Liv's name..no answer...so I hurry..only to have her come running in after I get out of the 3.2 minute shower to tell me there is lady on the phone..Carter wants out of his high chair ( I placed it in front of the TV) She spilled all the puffs and banana bread is squished all over the white (well once was white pre-4 kids) carpet, she tried to make chocolate milk..I promise this shower was only 3 minutes!!

As I am come out in a towel..to see the mess I start to walk back to my room only to see her place Carter on the skateboard and push him and before I could say the word..he was screaming..he cut his lip and has a nice big bump on his forehead.
So Is Showering really worth it? Not today...

Note: The lady on the phone was from the school..I tried to call back but there is 61 phones in the school..no idea who it was..

Not Me Monday's...

Oh, the joy of being a mom....If you have not heard about Not me Monday's I urge you to check out MckMama Blog...You can do this too...It is not hard...don't pretend you don't encounter just one thing in your week that might make others cringe..your just being honest and living to tell about it!!

I did NOT catch Miss America in the bathroom playing with the whole thing of Comet that I did NOT leave out. I did NOT freak out I did NOT grab the phone ready to call Poison Control. I did NOT have my husband give me the lecture. I did NOT have him rinse her down and then bath her. I did NOT let Carter accidentally down leaving him to crawl into the bathroom just to have my husband bath him too. I did NOT apologize for accidentally letting Carter find them in the bathroom.

I did NOT buy 4 boxes of Girl scout cookies and I did NOT hide them in the van for my personal consumption. Nope NOT I! I do NOT have a weak spot for any child selling anything even if I am on a budget.

I did NOT put my children to bed at 6:45pm and then ignore all my night time chores just so I could start reading a book and be in bed by 8:45 myself.

I did NOT pretend to be sleeping at 3;00am just so my husband could get up and get the baby a bottle.

I did NOT tell my persistent little girl that the library had a fire so we could not go on Wednesday. I did NOT hear my husband when he asked if every place she wants to go to had a fire.

I did NOT go out for the 3rd Friday in a row with my girlfriends , certainly not leaving my husband with the kids.

What an adventureous week!! I am sure you have had a better week then me NOT doing anything!

What to do....

Jeremy could not find his cell phone this weekend..I mean we looked everywhere. I was pretty sure it was sitting on the arm of the living room chair Thursday night when I went to bed.

Matthew told me that he tried to call dads number today and this crazy song was coming on with the first ring. I dialed the number and sure enough I knew it had been stolen. I thought to my detective self that the person who stole this is using this phone so I went on-line and found out they had used 184 minutes, 174 text messages and over 12 downloads. During my searching I found that this person tried to call Mikey during the stolen time frame.

I called Mikey told him he had 10 minutes to get his butt (not sure if I used that word) home and find Jeremy cell phone. Jeremy was on the phone with the cell phone carrier shutting the phone off. Mikey comes home (like RIGHT away) to start calling the numbers w found on-line.
First one...Bam!! We find that it one of Matthew's friends. WHAT!!!!!!!! Matthew's friend? So I call back...super nice (i promise!) and ask if he is been getting text from our number. He said no. I said ___ don't lie to me...I know you have. He quickly told me "oh, yeah that is ______new phone" Thanks honey have a great night...
Oh, _______ new phone? Oh, really? She got a new phone alright by stealing mine!!
Jeremy and I go to the house only to find the mom home. The mom asks what our number is and I told her and she replied' yes, she has your phone" WHAT!!?? Then she proceeded to give me a long story on how she got her a phone but it was a trax phone and when the mom asked what the number was the girl gave her our number.
About 20 minutes later the girl showed up with our phone..I gave her the long lecture on stealing and how I forgive her but she needs to pray to out Heavenly Father for forgiveness. I gave her the mommy speech..only because her mom did not come with her..WHAT!? Yep,she had the girl, who was staying with her cousins walk to my house bring the phone and then walk back to her cousins even though she lived next door and her mom was home. The mom knew that there was over 100.00 in charges and still did not do anything about it.

Knowing that her mom is single and works 50 hours week and mostly weekends as a bartender I couldn't bring myself to call the police or yell at her. I felt bad for her in a way. She has nobody to process this with. Nobody to walk through the shame and embarrassment with her. As she ran down the street sobbing...my heart was full of compassion for someone who just stole from me.