Help! Trains!

Okay, Mr. Bear is going to have a train party for his birthday. We're just having family and a couple friends over. Let me here your train ideas for games, etc.

Mayfield Dairy 2008

We went with one of our playgroups to Mayfield Dairy today in Braselton. We had a great time and yummy icecream afterward. I did remember to bring my camera but I left it in the car, so my fabulous friend Angie was kind enough to share her pics again. Don't ya just love fabulous friends?

Here is everyone that went minus Angie (our photographer). Left to Right we have Blondie, M, Me holding Bear, D, and our new friend K holding P.

Here are the kids by the huge Maggie Mayfield cow!

Afterward we had lunch at Zaxbys and time for chatting.

The highlight of my day, was finding a gas station WITH GAS for 3.85. For those of you that don't know, Georgia is having a pretty bad gas shortage right now - I drove from our house 45 minutes to Braselton for the playdate and only saw this one gas station open. I passed a countless number of closed stations. Makes it hard for people to go anywhere or do anything!

Blondie Humor

Here is part of a conversation that happened this morning regarding our cat Merry, who is fixed, but I didn't feel like explaining that to Blondie today.

Blondie: Mom - when will Merry have kittens.
Me: She can't have kittens, she needs a Daddy cat for kittens, just like Mommies need Daddies to have babies.
Blondie: Pumpkin can be the Daddy cat.
Me: Pumpkin is a girl so she can't be a Daddy cat.
Blondie: Well we can get a Daddy cat. Then they will be married. Get it Mommy. Merry-ed.
Me: (bursts out laughing at Blondie's little joke)

Okay, yes it was cheesy, but hey, my little girl thought of it! Silly girl.

Off to Mayfield Dairy for the morning. Maybe I'll remember to bring my camera.

Weekly Update

We've had a very busy and fun week. I've reached my busy season for sure and the orders are coming daily for hats. Once again, the owl is the popular one for the season. I do have a plan to change the owl a bit once I get caught up. Making a girlie owl :-)

Here are my latest by customer requests:
The Pony Hat

The Tassle Hat

And a baby cocoon (sorry for the "model", didn't have a real baby in the house)

We went and visited the fire station on Wednesday with the homeschool group and then went to the park afterward for a picnic and playtime. Pictures courtesy of my friend, Angie. Funny - I always bring my camera (forgot it at home this time) and Angie rarely has a camera, and she brought hers. Worked out perfectly :-)

And here is Blondie with 2 friends she's grown up with - D & M.

Side Note....

Please note that my post La La Land was to be read with humor. Nothing is wrong with Blondie - she's just a typical silly 5 year old. Just wanted to make sure no one was worrying. Believe me if I thought something was seriously wrong, she would already be at the doctor :-) I know it's sometimes hard to read humor on posts and perhaps I've got a dry sense of humor. I just thought those situations were rather funny.

Anyways.... back to your regularly scheduled blog :-)

Do's and Don'ts of Saving Money

Since we've been working hard to get out of debt, I thought I'd share some of our Do's and Dont's that we've tried during our journey.....

Do - Do cut your children's hair - saves time and money! I cut Blondie's hair a couple days ago - 2-3 inches off. It looks pretty darn cute! She loves it! She would have loved to go shorter, but I think Hubby would have fainted. Bear's hair is easy to cut- just get the clippers!

Don't - Don't turn your air conditioner off during August. WHEW. That was a hot day! We had gotten a rather high electric bill and Hubby said we needed to cut back. So he turned it off. One should not sweat in one's own house.

Do - Do allow a trustworthy Hubby to cut your hair. Mine did last week. Now, I'm sure most of you would run away in horror at the thought of your hubby cutting your hair. My hubby is very trustworthy and loves my hair, so I knew he would do a good job. Took him a while to get up the courage to cut it though! lol.

Don't - Don't go to the mall, online, or even Walmart when you're in a "shopping mood". That is a disaster in the making! I've learned the hard way!

Do - Make sure to enjoy all the free stuff the world has to offer - such as parks!

Do - Do enjoy your family more and more each day.

La-La Land

(Please read with humor)

Lately I think Blondie has left Earth and is residing in La-La Land. Let me offer a couple situations recently...

Schoolwork time
Me: Blondie can you read the words on the page for me?
Blondie: There are no words on the page
Me: Blondie, Look at the page please.
Blondie (while staring at the ceiling and looking around the room): I am looking at the page.
Me (with a little more empahasis): Blondie, the page is not on the ceiling, look at the page in front of you.
Blondie: What page?
Me (getting a little frustrated): The page that is open on your desk. Read the words on the page.
Blondie (looking around the room once again): There are no words on it.
Me: You don't see any words on that page?
Blondie: No

Then I smack her desk with my hand and she jumps a mile.

Blondie: What was that noise?
Me: I need you to read the words on the page.
Blondie: Sam was sad.

Yep, she read it perfectly that time. I don't know where she was but she was not at her desk before this! lol.

Another instance:

Soccer Game
Me: Blondie, you need to pay attention and watch the ball when you're playing. You have to kick it and keep after it.
Blondie: (nods and stares at the sky and looks all around)
Me: Blondie you have to help your team play the game. Do you understand?
Blondie (nods)
Me: Good.
Blondie: (staring at the sky) What's a team?
Me: (Rams head in nearest wall)

A Couple Brags....

I just wanted to take a moment to brag on my kids and their recent accomplishments, so bear with me.

Blondie is doing very well in homeschool and is excelling particularly in math. Definately up my alley, as I'm a math geek. LOVE math. Algebra, long devision, you name it, I love it! She is learning basic addition right now. Her test that we did on Friday, I'm proud to announce that she made a 97 on! I can't remember what she got wrong - probably wrote a number backwards or something. Funny that she does that every now and again. Out of the blue, she'll write her numbers backwards and read and write words backwards. I'm trying to keep track of when it happens to try and pinpoint a trigger for it. A couple friends have mentioned it's probably something environmental (i.e. chemical she ingested through food or perhaps a cleaning product being used that day) that's triggering it since it's not all the time, and it's definately not a disobedience thing. Anyways, she's doing VERY well in math and I'm so proud of her. She continues to excell in her reading and is reading way above what a 5 year old should. I'm very glad I decided to stick with the 1st grade curriculum for her - she was definately ready for it.

Bear is talking a bunch now. His newest words include the dreaded MINE and NO. In a way, I don't mind though, because him telling me No, is a little easier to deal with and correct that the horrid whining when he doesn't want to do something. Bear continues to be very loving and silly. He's also learning his colors. He loves Boo (blue) and Lellow (yellow). And Geen (green). He's been gibber-gabbering a lot lately and some of what he is saying is actually English words, so that's fun to try and decipher. I am a bit sad that my precious little boy is getting closer and closer to 2! Although, the age 2 was a fun year. It's the 3s and 4s that were rough for us with Blondie!

Can you keep a secret? No telling the kids! Well, in October, we plan on taking a short tour of Georgia and stopping at several historical spots and camping at State parks and ending up on our last day where we will ride Thomas the Train! This is somewhat going to be our family birthday surprise for Bear. He is going to LOVE it. Hubby and I are excited as well.

On another note, we didn't quite get the last of our debt paid off with this last paycheck. Had a few bills come due along with dentist visits, insane electric bills, etc. I know it won't be long now! Gotta keep on keeping on :-)

Have a great and blessed week!

This Week in Review

This past week was another busy and fun week. Monday I had gone with our friends to Helen to walk around town. Girls only (with the exception of Bear)! I ended up getting sick while we were there and nearly passing out. Probably a combination of dehydration and low iron. I think we have that under control now, though. My friend gave me something called "Blood Builder", which is supposed to help get your iron up and such and it worked wonders. I feel fantastic now so I am definately going to keep this on hand and use it one week out of the month. I have felt a thousand times better, more energetic, and more relaxed since I have been taking it.

On to the rest of the events.... Yesterday was Blondie's first soccer game. It was sooo cute. Blondie kicked the ball a couple times, and threw it in once, but mainly spent the time running around chasing the ball. She had a blast! Her next game is next thursday if anyone wants to come.

Here are a few pics:

Blondie throwing in the ball

Slapping hands with the other team

Blondie and K - Friends forever

Here's a team pic I snapped during picture time

And here is Bear, intensely watching his sister playing

Tonight we're going to the bible study at our friend's house. Looking forward to that. This week holds some important events which I'll share AFTER/IF they have happened.

Be in prayer for my friends who live in Texas. Heard from one frind - thankfully they and their house are okay, but they may be without power for up to 4 weeks! And Jenn - check in with me and let me know you guys are okay - can't find your email.

Supporting our Troops

I got an email from a friend of mine and I wanted to share it with all of you. We plan on sending a box next Wednesday afternoon - if any of you local friends want to add to it, just let me know. I don't mind paying shipping. Below is the letter I got:

Hello girls!

Hey, I've got a good friend from High School... he is a great guy... I graduated in 1990, he graduated in 1992 and my brother graduated in 1995 so we were all friends and close. This kids life could have gone a totally different way... but he went into the Navy about 14-15 years ago and he plans to retire from the Navy. He's a good friend and a heroic soldier. He has a wife in Washington and 2 gorgeous kids who miss him so much. I haven't seen him in 10 years or more but I miss him terribly... he's just the best guy friend a girl could ask for and I can't even begin to tell you how proud I am of him.

3 months ago he was deployed to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba where he guards detainees all day long. Not much to do there... they watch movies sometimes and he gets to IM me on Yahoo when he talks to his wife, kids and sister. Usually I keep him company while he's waiting on them to answer him. LOL He said the men he guards he can't talk about but he did tell me that some of them were the most wanted from the war... some were on the playing cards that were printed up... if you remember the news talking about the cards??? Anyway, he says the men pee on them, spit in their faces and they can't do anything except go change clothes and keep working.... My friend deserves more respect than that but he takes it in stride and just says the job gets to him but he does it because it's his job and he loves his country.

He says that morale there is at an all time low right now... he said that letters or cards or anything would lift their spirits. He will disperse letters or anything amongst his group if someone wants to write them. I know they love snacks also but he wouldn't ask for anything like that... he just said letters.

I'm going to go around town this week and ask people to talk into my video camera and tell them how proud they are of him and his buddies. I'm also going to talk to the schools about having the kids write letters to them.

Here is his address if anyone wants to write. If you want to email me a letter to him I can print it and send it along with my package.
Samuel Lamont Gunnings
JTF-GTMO NEGB
ECHO COMPANY 9.0
APO AE 09360

Thanks for considering writing him and his buddies... he's really a great guy and I'm so proud of him.
Ginger

Future Plans!

As we get closer and closer to debt freedom, we've been talking about future plans with our house. Some of these plans include putting on a covered wrap around porch going from door to door, clearing out some woods for a nice fenced yard, painting the shed, cementing the driveway, and more. It's so exciting thinking about all the things we can do once we're debt free and have the money saved up. We've also talked about building a bigger shed since hubby's current one is a little over-crowded at the moment and letting the smaller one be for the kids playhouse and outdoor toys. So many things to look forward to.

Debt Freedom Here We Come! This Friday is an overtime check! It may be the day that it will be finished!

I forgot to tell you guys!

I can't believe I forget to tell all of you.... that Sis' mare had her baby! He's a beautiful colt and was born Monday night at around 11:50 pm. I was fortunate enough to see the colt born. What an awesome experience to be witness to such a miracle. Colt and Mama are doing well. No official name for the baby yet.

Now is the TIME!

A Couple posts back, I mentioned how people pay ridiculous prices for things. Well, now is the time to buy Gymboree Pajamas for W@lmart Prices! That's right, shop now! They have a few select pjs on sale during the $10 sale. Even better, PRINT THIS COUPON and take it with you to the store for 20% off! Soooo.... Pajama sets for $8. Can't beat that! Not when T@rget pjs are 12-16 dollars each set. One word of caution, I typically buy up a size on gymbo pjs. Mainly because they may shrink, they are made to be skin tight, and then you can wear them longer! Now remember, it is a select few styles, but they are cute! They have the $10 pj sale in the spring and fall, so I buy pjs twice a year. Here are a few of the ones you can get:

OH, and almost forgot to mention - right now is gymbuck time, too. Meaning if you spend over $50 in the store before tax (like getting 7 pairs pjs), you get a coupon to come back and get $25 off a $50 purchase. THEN, what I do, is I typically sell my gymbuck on some of the yahoo loops I'm on or on ebay. You can usually get $8-$12 for a $25 off coupon. So it makes getting the pjs even more profitable! If you decide to buy and need help selling your coupon, let me know :-) There are lots of buyers wanting those coupons! And don't forget to sell your used pjs on ebay next year. I sold 4 pair of Bear's pjs earlier this year, described them the way they were (extremely worn, wash wear, etc), and got $44 for the 4 pairs! Seeing as I probably paid $32 plus tax for the 4 pairs, I ended up MAKING MONEY off them. Gymboree children's clothing is a huge game. Start playing and make money! lol.

Brasierre Fear!

Sooo... now I have a fear of bras. Go ahead and laugh. Hubby laughed for a good long while when I told him what happened. But I'm sure you would understand if it happened to you.

I get out of the shower the other day, get dressed like normal, I go to put on my bra. I saw something on it. The "something" MOVED and JUMPED! EEEEEEKKKKKKK!!!!! A HUGE Spider - about the size of a half dollar comes jumping out at me. From there it jumped onto the bed. So not only am I naked and screaming at a spider, I can not find anything to kill the spider. Finally find Hubby's hammer, left in our closet from when he fixed the shelving, and smash the spider on the bed with the hammer.

So... fair warning - check your bras before wearing! You never know what may come jumping out of them!