We Are Moving!!!

We have been given an opportunity to own and move in to my husband's childhood home that is surrounded by land (which makes my heart happy since we live right on the road right now).

Now I shall start by saying that we are very humble people.  As I have said on here before, we don't go out and buy the newest, most expensive things but that is our choice and our choices have been leading us to GREAT & STRESS FREE places these days.  My plan at the beginning of this year was that this would be the year that we would buy a different, much newer and more permanent home.  My how my plans are not my own!!  I made one random comment about this home late one night and the next thing I know my husband is running with it!  Note to self:  Keep mouth shut until you are 100% sure of what you are saying.  I'm just kidding...sort of!!!   

What in the world were we thinking??  We are now the proud owners of a slightly smaller and much older home than our current one but the location of it is SOOOO much better because it is off the road and a whole lot more private.  We have been working hard the past couple of weeks to remodel and update what we can because as with everything we do, we are paying for it out of pocket so this will for sure be a work in progress for some time.  So to answer any questions, yes we are remaining debt free during this whole process.  That is the beauty and the blessing that I didn't foresee when I thought we would buy a newer home than this one in 2012.  I guess I can save my debt filled dream of a newer home for a much later date:) 

I am humbled by this home but yet also excited and happy by what the Lord is providing for us.  While this move is a choice, not a have to, it wasn't what I had planned but I am ready to make this home my own.  I am making it in to something I am proud of.  And maybe, just maybe I can find a way to keep it clutter free:)  Heehee!  I can hear my family laughing especially since I can't do that now in a bigger place!  

I have not seen my husband this happy since his dad got sick and passed away almost six years ago.  What makes him happy, makes me happy {most of the time}.

So here is just a tiny view of where we will be moving to just as soon as I can slap some paint on those dark paneled walls (yes it has panel walls and did have wallpaper). 

I can assure you that there will be lots and lots of before and after pictures as this whole process comes together!  That little building that you see to the right of the house is a life saver as we remodel.  It has a pool table, ping pong table and TV so it has been keeping the kids out of our hair!
Now please excuse me while I go attempt to paint THREE bedrooms in ONE day:(  Painting party anyone???

The Hand That Feeds You!

The old saying "Don't bite the hand that feeds you" is so true.  When it comes to my kids, they would both probably tell you that I am the one that takes care of them.  I am the one that cooks their food, fixes their plates, washes their clothes, picks up behind them, gives baths, sits up with them all night when they are sick and on and on.  I don't point these out to complain.  It is just what I do.  I like to take care of them.  The aggravating part comes when I am in the bathroom and their daddy is in the kitchen but yet they will come in the bathroom to ask me to fix them something to drink.  Hello....your daddy is in the kitchen and is totally capable of doing it just as well as me.  

When they were both babies, they would let Paul feed them any bottle of the day {gasp...she is a bottle feeder} except the very last bottle before bed.  It was the strangest thing because they would both literally scream, cry and throw their body around until their daddy would hand them to me.  I can remember being sick to my stomach at feeding time one night and my poor husband was doing everything he could to get Tegan to eat his last bottle.  I could hear him all the way across the house screaming bloody murder.

They both were/are the same way with a bath.  It is/was(I say that b/c Ry does it herself now) always like punishment to them if their daddy bathes them and instead of me doing it.  Not because I do it better but that is just not part of their routine.

The whole thing can be very aggravating and flattering all at the same time for me but I can't say that my husband feels the same about that.  This is where the "Don't bite the hand that feeds you" comes in to play b/c he feeds them just like me but in different ways.

Since Tegan was born I have mostly worked from home (except the past year) so I am with them 24 hours a day when they aren't in school.  It is hard for them to see the invisible things that their daddy does for them.  Recently when I was talking to my husband he said something about "not feeling like he was a good daddy b/c he doesn't get to spend the time with them that he wants".  I think that is silly.  He is a wonderful dad and has a whole lot more patience with them than I do.  

So what I would like to say to my children (and to him) is....

Your daddy working 40 to 50 hours (and then some) a week is what provides you with the food that I prepare, the clothes that I wash, the toys that I pick up, right down to the bar of soap that I use to wash your little bottoms.  Those hands, the ones that you bite sometimes, provide you with so much.  Those hands are what keeps us afloat.  Those hands are perfect!!!

When he comes home from work and has to head straight to the lawnmower, he does that so that you can play in a nice yard.

This list could go on and on forever but the whole point is that my husband is a great father and I know that my kids know that.  

I hope that my husband never doubts that he is a great father!  

I love him very much and hope he has a super  Father's Day!!!!  

Summertime Catch Up

Warning....long picture post ahead!!!

Summer is in full swing around our house.  I thought that by not working I was going to have lots more time on my hands to keep up with my blog but that hasn't been the case:(  Sorry....I am going to try to do better.  

So far this summer there has been lots of hitting, name calling and fighting going on between the little ones but  I am surviving.  When they get bored, things get bad.  Sweet T likes to pick at his sister and she is at an age where if you look at her across the room, she burst in to tears.  I am making the most of it and trying to find a good balance between keeping them busy and being able to sit over at the computer and work on my business stuff while they try to harm each other.  I don't know which one is winning but given the fact that Ry is locked up in her room today, I would say it is the latter of the two.  

As I said before, we had to cancel our beach trip at the last minute which still has me crying on the inside.  Luckily we were able to move our deposit to a different week so we still get to go.  The bad news is, it isn't within the next two months.  

So instead of the beach, we enjoyed a very long and fun day out on the lake.  Disclaimer...don't let the picture fool you, I'm sure they were fighting but they are both always ready to have their picture made!   

Then we went to a local water park.  I say local but it was really about 40 minutes away but it is the closest one we got.  It also happens to be super cheap....$8 per a person.  The kids loved it and I have plans to go back in the next couple of weeks.  It had just enough stuff to keep them busy but wasn't so big that I would lose Ry as she ran around with her older cousins while I watched my fast as lightening little boy run around and play.  

We then had a full week of VBS at church.  Whew....lots of kids but mostly lots of really little kids which is unusual.  It was a crazy week but I don't know why I am complaining, I am the VBS photographer so at least I didn't have to try to control the little ones. 

Then this insane mama schedules swimming lessons for her wild little man, the very same week as VBS.  Crazy IDEA.  It sounded like a good idea to get them over with in the same week but I guess it isn't when VBS last until 9:00 PM and swimming lessons start at 9:00 AM.

He did good though.  He is/was very scared of water so I was pretty shocked that he got in at all much less put his head under water.  

He wasn't wanting to do it!

 Mrs. Dan was trying to talk him in to it.  

I love her b/c she doesn't force him in but she can talk anybody in to anything:)

What is swimming lessons without a little crying:)

 Yay!  He did it!  

 He was so proud of himself!!!

Then I turned 32  23:)  Yep this lady had a birthday and celebrated all weekend with so much food that I am now dieting and some fun shopping.  My husband was sure that the celebration wasn't ever going to end!!!  

If 32 is half as good as 31 was to me, I will be blessed.  So far my 30's have been better to me than any other age range and I still feel like the best is yet to come!!!  

Whew...I think you are all caught up now.  We are having a pretty lazy week around here this week and getting some things done around the house.  It is a very nice change from the past couple of crazy weeks!

Happy Thursday everyone!!!  

Cheap Smartphone and Cellphone Service!!!

I never thought I would say cheap and smartphones in the same sentence.  We have never had any sort of Internet service on our cellphones.  We (as in my husband) are way to cheap for that.  It was time to renew our contract with Verizon Wireless.  We wanted smartphones so bad but since our bill is already $120 a month (for 1200 shared minutes, 500 text and ZERO data), we weren't wanting to add another $60 a month to that bill.  $180 a month (for 2 phones) sounds a little crazy to me just to have the world wide web at my fingertips.  Plus my tight husband wasn't going to allow that to happen.  So he started asking people at work about what kind of cell service they had.  Several of the men told him to go with Page Plus.  They also told him to do it all through Kitty Wireless.  Now I know what you are thinking....what kind of company is named Kitty Wireless???  Well we decided to check in to it.  I was still very skeptical about using this business over the Internet but OMG this is awesome!!!!

Here are some things you would need to know:
1.  You can use any old 3G phone from Verizon.  It doesn't have to be a smartphone but you can't use 4G phones yet.

2.  There is NO CONTRACT!!!  Every 30 days you just go online and renew your plan.  It is so awesome that we aren't locked in to a company for another 2 years!

3.  You DO get to keep your current number.  You pay a one time fee of $14.99 to have your current number ported in to them.  You handle all that over the Internet.  Once they send you an email saying that your number has been ported, you go back on and purchase your plan.  They then set it up and activate it on your phone.  You don't have to do anything but give them your ESN number which is located on or under the battery on your phone.

4.  From what I've read, Page Plus uses Verizon towers.  Our service has been no different than when we were under a contract with Verizon.  But I also have to say that I think they may be picking up At&t towers too because my regular Verizon phone never picked up at my mom's but their At&t phones do....well yesterday when I had to run over there for something, my phone worked perfect!!!

5.  You have to find your own phone if you don't already have one.  I bought a Droid from a friend that had just updated their phones and my husband bought his Droid off of Ebay.

6.  Whenever I got confused while switching our phones over, I would email Kitty Wireless and they would respond super quick.  Like way quicker than any response you will ever get from your bigger phone companies.  It was a super easy and a painless process!  

7.  We started with the $39.95 (each phone) plan.  It has unlimited talk & text and 100mb of data.  I know that doesn't seem like a lot of data to some of you but for someone who has never had Internet on their phone, it is enough for now.  We just started with that plan to see how much data we will need.  There is also a $55.00 a month plan that includes unlimited talk and text and 1,000mb of data....but they just sent out an email saying that plan is about to stay the same price and the data is going up to 2,000mb a month.  They also have some awesome cheap plans for the "not big" cell phone users!

So right now we are saving $40 a month based on our regular plan and getting so much more than we got on our other phones.  We would have been paying twice that if we had smartphones with Verizon!   The only downfall I can find (which isn't the companies fault) is that I can't multitask and hold the droid to my ear b/c my face hits the touch screen and cuts off the calls:)  Oops!!  Oh and I have no idea how to use a smartphone but I'm learning!  We still get caller ID, voicemail, call waiting, etc....

I have to say again, I was very skeptical of it (especially the name Kitty Wireless) but I have been very impressed with the phone service and customer service.  If it is time to renew your phone contracts, just give it a try for a month.  You aren't obligated to anything and will love it!!!  We have only had these plans for about 3 weeks now but so far so good!!!

Just click here to go to Kitty Wireless!!!!

No one is paying me to do this.  I am just pleased with my new service and wanted to share the love!  Happy Friday everyone!!!!

If I can't survive the Tweens....

Is a 9 1/2 year old considered a Tween yet?  If not, please help me from what is to come.  My little lady is a very sweet and helpful kid but boy she is going through some changes.  Now granted, she has had a pretty rough year and her baby brother lives to aggravate her but I have never seen her so frustrated in all her days.  

If her brother looks at her from across the room, she FREAKS OUT!!!!  She wants alone time ALL THE TIME!!!  What's up with that....are we not "cool" enough for her to hang out with us???

Seriously though she has started pulling the guilt card on me.  In fact, the past several weeks she has managed to make me cry and be pretty upset on several different occasions.  She isn't talking to me ugly b/c she doesn't do that (she does still have some sweetness in her) but she has in some ways made me feel like I wasn't a very good mother.  She has questioned me on things and one night at supper when I was kidding and told her she didn't love me, she said she couldn't deny that.  Ummm....what???  

She has said things to me that made me feel like she could take me or leave me.  The second she sensed my weakness and saw that it bothered me, she played that card to death.

Then one day I was getting on to Tegan for doing something.  She tried to step in and correct me on something.  It was at that moment when I realized she had tricked me and taken over.  I was scared to get on to her because I didn't want her mad at me.  She had me right where she wanted me.  It was also at that moment that Tegan totally got away with whatever thing he was doing because my attention turned to her.  I very quickly realized that she doesn't have to like me but she does have to respect me.  I informed her in my best nice mommy voice that I wasn't here to be her friend, I was her mama and she was going to respect that.  I told her that as much as I want her to be happy, she is still a kid and she isn't in charge of this ship....I am!  The look on her face was priceless and she hasn't made any of those attempts to make me feel bad ever since.

Only problem now is that she has turned those tween frustrations on her brother.  Poor kid can't make a move without her freaking out and guess what, he is feeding off of it.  I know it is just a phase and to be honest, if this is the worst she does I will be golden (let a mama dream please).