It's only been 2 years

So it's only been 2 years since my last post. Oh well, I've decided that Im going to start blogging my couponing. I have finally gotten the hang of it after trying it about 2 years ago, and have been able to stock my two pantries, fridge, and two freezers. I LOVE to see the savings and the amount of groceries I come home with. I thought I would start documenting it. So Im doing this for me, but maybe someone else may learn from it as well.

At Albertsons I bought this:


12 Starkist Tuna R$1.29 S$.50
4 Lunchables R$2.49 S@ $1
6 Deli Creations R$2.99 S@ $1
Total $43.38 S$14.83
Sale $16.00
-$.17 Store coupon
-$1 Oscar Meyer Coupn
PAID $14.83

At Smiths I broke my transactions down because I had some $3 off coupons that printed at the registure last time I shopped that could only be redeemed One per transaction. This is what I bought:


10 Kroger Canned veggies R$.70 S$.50
Secret deoderant R$2.57 S$1.99
2 Old Spice deoderant R$2.39 S$1.99
Total $14.38
Sale $10.97
-$3 Coupon
Paid $8.21+tax


8 Gogurt packs @ R$2.99 S$1.99
8 Trix yogurt packs @ R$2.81 S$1.99
Total R$46.40
Sale $31.84
-$3 Coupon
-$6 Manufactures coupons
Paid $22.84

5 Lean Cuisines 3@R$2.18 2@R$3.17
Total R$12.88
Sale $10
-$3 coupon
-$2.10 Lean Cuisine coupons


2 Kroger water $5
-$3 Coupon
PAID $2.00

2 12 pack soda @$2.66
Total $5.32
-$3 coupon
PAID $2.32

Grand total for all groceries $55.10

Saying goodbye is hard to do.

I dont deal very well with change, even if its for the better I still have anxiety that comes with any kind of change. For the past 3 summers my air conditioning in the van hasnt worked very well. I kept telling myself "by next summer we will have a better car or I we will beable to fix the air". This past year we have had to put a lot of money and work into the van. The tranny went out and we put lots of money we didnt have into fixing that, and about 2 months ago the water pump went out when Trent and I were clear on the other side of town. I went and bought the water pump but I just havent been able to locate it on the van. Its been sitting like this ever since.

My Mom and Dad have been nice enough to let me drive there Pathfinder everytime my van has broken down.

Trent and I bought our van the first weekend in July 2000. We were driving a 1995 Ford Windstar at the time and the head gasket kept cracking (factory defect that was recalled and covered). It started acting up for the 3rd time and we had gotten a wild hair up our butts and decided to go look around, not really intending to buy a car. We had stopped by a Ford dealership first and they had the new Freestar that replaced the Windstar. It was nice but not in our price range. While we were there we saw the "new" Excursions. I had fallen in love right then and that had become my dream car. We went to a Dodge dealer next and found our van and brought it home. I have loved this van. I know every sound it makes and exactly how it drives. I can tell right away if something is wrong even before it happens, I can just feel it. In fact one time on our way home from Utah, we were just north of Beaver (HA HA HA Filmore Beaver Ellen!) and it was feeling funny. It felt like the front tires were low. We pulled over into a rest area and checked but could see nothing wrong. We got back in the car and headed home. I could still feel it so we pulled into a service station in Beaver and the serviceman put it up on the lift and checked them and told us that we needed new front tires. He said that they were seperated from the inside and that we were really lucky we didnt have a blow out.

Little off topic. So anyway, our van has been sitting in our drive way and the other morning I decided to look online for something we might beable to afford. We havent had a payment on the van for almost 3 years now and I wasnt wanting to have one again, but we are at the point that its a neccesity. I really like the Saturn Outlook, but they are a little small for my family. I also really like the new dodge caravans and found a couple in our price range. Since I was looking at cars I decided to do a search for an excursion in our price range. I have actually done this randomly since I fell in love with it in July of 2000. I guess I picked the right morning to look cuz low and behold I found her! Here she is:

Its a Black 2002 Excursion Limited 4x4 diesel (7.3L)

She has the second row captians chairs (like I wanted)

She has the tow package with a trailer brake.

An upgraded Pioneer stereo with Sirius satelite, both front seats are electric with heat. The drivers side has 2 memory positions. The pedals move forward and back. You can set the inside temp and it will automatically adjust to that temp. It is just WAYYYY too nice for me and I still cant believe she's MINE!!!

Bull ring with off road lights

She has a 4 inch lift with 18 inch rims with 35's on her. She is just so purdy, I cant hardly stand it!

I found her in Cedar City! I still cant believe she's ours. When I saw her on Cars.com I thought, ok, our credit sucks because of my medical bills and Trent is self employed so that will be hard to prove income, but I'll call about it and see what happens. When I called on saturday morning, I told the salesman right up front that I have medical bills on my credit and that Trent is self employed. He asked for our info and said we could give it a shot. I didnt hear back from him til late saturday, all day I was assuming that it was becasue he had bad news. He called to let us know that it was late in the day and because it was saturday he hadnt heard back from any banks.

Monday morning he called me to let me know that Ford would finance it at 13.9% That was more then I was comfortable paying so the dealer said he would submit it a couple more places and see what we get. Mean while Trent and I had prayed about it (becasue just the thought of getting it was giving me anxiety) and we both had a reall good feeling about it and decided that if we got it at a decent interest rate we would know it was ok to get it. On Tuesday the dealer called and said "I'm not sure how to ask this, but I noticed you are a member of Cumorah Credit Union, is that an LDS credit union?" I told him yes and he said, "so are you LDS?" I answered yes and he said "great, we have an offer for 8.9% interest at a credit union based out of SLC but you have to be LDS to join."

Thursday Jan. 15th I went to Kingman and helped clean Candice's house and brought Kendra back with me and Friday morning we headed to Cedar. We stopped in St. George for Kendra to pick up a Wii Fit, and came out to start up dads car and it wouldnt start. I asked a lady that was next to us if she could jump start us and that didnt do it. I got out dad's jack wrench thing and tapped the cables down tighter on the battery. As I was doing that 3 nice young men (19 to 22ish) walked by and asked if the car wasnt started. I said it wont. He said well try to start it and lets see what it does. I got in and turned it over and it started right up. Kendra said it just took 3 hot guys to get it started.

So we made it to Cedar City and when I pulled into the dealership my X was parked right up front. We took her for a test drive and I started to panic! It took off slower then Trents truck and it was alot taller then it looked. after the test drive I told Kendra that I didnt think I wanted it so I told the dealer that I didnt know if I liked the lift. He had the service manager come out and look at it and tell me what I could do to lower it a bit. Then I started worrying about the cost of replacing the tires @@. Then I was worried about how it took off so I called a friend of ours that had a diesel excursion and asked him about it and he explained to me that the excursion weighs twice as much as Trents truck so compairing it to his truck isnt fair. So I felt much better, but I still wasnt sure so I told the dealer that we were going to go to luch while I thought it over. He said we could take Her with us so I did. It felt much better driving it the second time, and it sure looked good sitting in the parking lot. Trent called me to see how things were going and I told him I didnt think I was going to bring it home and I listed the reasons and he said, "just bring our baby home" When we got to the dealership I told him I would take it and I brought her home.

Now its time to say goodbye to the van....sniff sniff!

But I think I will adjust.

Merry Christmas!

I didnt get my Christmas cards out, and was unable to do goodie plates. I just want everyone to know that I know that Christ lives and Im thankful that we are able to celebrate his birth. This is a hard time of year for me because of my seasonal depression. This year has been better then most and Im thankful for that as well. Im thankful for my family and friends. I appreciate everything they do for me. Im also so very blessed to be married to Trent. He loves me unconditionally and is a hardworker and has a very strong Testimony of our Savior and the church. He also has a great family that has made me feel welcome into their family. I hope every one has a very merry Christmas and remembers Christ.

Decorated

I finally got around to decorating the house a little.

Last week for Family Home Evening we went to a couple of tree lots and the 4 foot tall trees were going for $50!!! There was NO WAY we would pay that much for a little tree. A couple of days later I decided we would go to Target to price their artificial trees and of course they were more then I wanted to pay AND were out of the 4 footer that was $30. We decided to go to home Depot to see what their prices were and they had live trees there. They had a little area that had $20 trees so we got one.

Kendra and I went shopping at Michaels on Thanksgiving day

We bought cut out christmas decorations that we brought home and decopodged. I bought the snowman, and Kendra bought a Christmas tree. I had bought a christmas tree from Deseret Industries over the summer for a dollar and this is how mind turned out.

Im almost all done with my shopping. We have scaled way down on presents this year and are focusing more on service and Christ.

Trent and I went shopping on black friday and got most of what we had planned to get the kids on sale!!

Winter has been unusual here. It has been unseasonably warm and on black friday, early in the morning it was so foggy outside. I cant recall a time since I've lived here that it was so foggy that you couldnt see down the street. It was pretty cool, but I was feeling a little clostraphobic.

Endurance

Today is just one of those days where I just want to crawl back into bed and avoid living for a while, for several days sounds good right now. It is total torture to do the bare minimum at this point. I get the dishes done, but instead of putting them directly into the dishwasher, they pile up in the sink because I have a load in the dishwasher that needs to be put away. Its actually the kids job and they do pretty well, but I dont even want to bother arguing with the kids to get it done because it is an argument EVERYTIME. "Im last" "I went first last time", "we ALWAYS have to put away the dishes" UGH!!!!
I get laundry washed and dried, but then it just sits on my couch. I also am able to make my bed and shower every day, but I dont bother doing my hair, make up or dressing up.
I have really been struggling with my depression for about a year now. I say struggling because its not NEAR what it has been before and its so on and off. I feel it randomly through the day, some days only once or twice and some days its one minute I feel like giving up and the next I remember how blessed I am and how much more joy I have been able to feel in the last couple of years. My lows are not really very bad, but I think because I am not as used to feeling depression as I used to be, when I do feel it, its not as familiar of a feeling and I react differently. As I type this I realize that a lot of it has to do with my hormones!
Im not posting this for sympothy. In fact I think I would rather it not be acknowledged. I am posting for myself since I havent kept a journal in years and this is my journal. I'm sure my girls will suffer through some of the same things and want to beable to share the things I went through, so they know that I understand, and I ENDURED!!

Kittens

When this litter of kittens were born, they were THE ugliest things EVER!

Now that they are older they are super cute!

Its time for them to find new homes so the kids made a poster and tacked it to the tree in the front yard.

The first day we had it up, 5 siblings stopped by and looked at them and picked Red, as in the red headed step child.

Today 3 siblings stopped by and said their mom wanted a white girl. So I had to come in the house and look on the internet to see how you tell the difference with cats. I hope I was right. The thosekids were happen when they left.

Now we are down to three, kittens that is, we still have the mom, Kitty Kat, and Oreo, her daughter from her first litter.

They are at the cute age where they love to play and just look super cute.

It feels like just yesterday.

This is Ellen C., one of my best friends growing up, and still a great friend, Aaron B., I was totally in love with that boy from the first day he came to school in second grade (Ms. Mullens class) and me. It was 2 days after my 12th birthday.

Notice Im wearing a coat and neither of the other 2 are. Yeah, I was always cold, the only time I wasnt always cold was the few years I spent with the extra almost 100lbs of my own insulation I carried around starting from after I had my first child.

I remember this day very well. Our science teacher was Miss Hopkins and our assignment was to make a solar cooker that worked. We went thru all that scientific stuff first like hypothosis, (lol, thats the only scientific word I can think of) testing different colors to see what colors obsorbed or deflected heat in the sun, you know, stuff like that. Then we all had to make our cookers and bring them in for testing. We tested them this day by cooking smorse, and Miss Hopkins chose us three to take our picture, with our working cookers, to submit to The Times Independant. All though I was super shy and hated that I was getting my picture taken, I was very happy to have my picture taken right next to Aaron! Oh to think of the simple things that made life worth living! Ahhh, Im just thinking of how My sisters and I were all going to marry one of the "B" boys. Aaron was my age so I was going to marry him, Eddie was Candice's age and Andy was Kendra's age. They had a cousin named Jason that was Brendas age. Yep we had it all planned!

I've been Tagged

K so I was tagged about a week ago, probably more like two so I guess I will do that now.

Twenty Years ago:

1. I was working at my first "real" job at Jack in the Box
2. I was earning $3.50 an hour
3. I bought my first car, a '78 Chevy Monza (the lemon)
4. Candice, Shannon and I used to play "Top Gun" in the lemon.

Ten Years ago:

1. Syd just turned 4, Kailee was 9 months old and I was about 4 weeks pregnant with Spencer.
2. I worked for a company cleaning a Nevada State Bank in the evenings.
3. Trent and I had a side job where we posted directional signs on the weekends.
4. I probably was cleaning peoples houses once a week.

Five Years ago:

1. I had just had Christina August 20th
2. I was on the PTA at the kids school.
3. We bought our Dodge truck
4. My Grandad Dickerson past away and his funeral was on Syds birthday.

Three Years ago:

1. I almost died
2. I gained 60 lbs over night from the fluids they pumped into me trying to keep me alive. I lost the 60lbs of water weight plus in January I started to lose 90 more lbs.
3. I had an 8mm kidney stone stuck and sent me into septic shock
4. I had a bag hanging from my kidney and had my very first "surgery"

One Year ago:

1. I was in the Young Womens
2. Still on the PTA
3. My oldest officially became a teenager.
4. I cleaned house 3 times a week for other people.

So Far This Year:

1. Replaced the lower manifold in my van.
2. Survived Trent going to scout camp in the Uintahs with no cell phone service for 6 days.
3. Bottled lots of chicken and potatoes with Candice.
4. Built some shelves in my bathroom.

Yesterday I:

1. Went to the church and helped prep a delicious italian meal for 20 people
2. Attended "Project temple" (Trent is the Elders Quorum Pres. and is in charge of it)
3. Cleaned up after "Project temple" (RS was in charge of this and Im the 1st counselor)
4. Argued with Kailee about whether the bedroom door should be left opened or not.

Today I:

1. Have eaten some delicous italian left overs for breakfast.
2. Will attened a baptism at 10 am.
3. Will do some laundry
4. Will attend the Relief Society General Broadcast at the church this evening.

In the next year I'll:

1. Start adding on to the house
2. try to fix the transmission on the van
3. pay off the truck
4. continue to be a wife and mom.

I tag whom ever reads this blog (Terri LOL)

Nice Suprise

I went to Kingman on Friday afternoon to scrapbook with Candice and Kendra on Saturday. I didnt get much done, only 2 pages, but we are doing it again on monday.

We had a BBQ at Kendra's place cuz her inlaws brought down a BBQer. At 6:30 we went to a Close To My Heart (CTMH) work shop at my sisters' friends house and learned how to distress paper. I cant wait to use the tecnique tomorrow.

I left Kingman by 9pm and came home to this:

I was SO SUPRISED!

While we were gone Trent put in new doors, jambs and CASING!!!! I havent had casing in YEARS!

Still no base, but that will be installed after I retexture and paint the livingroom/kitchen walls. the doors make it look like a new house. Im so super excited! Im going to go with a whole new color on my walls and doors. The doors being a lighter color makes the house look bigger so thats what Im going to do. I will let you all know when I get it done and post pics. It will be a while before its done though, the texturing that I do takes a while but looks super nice!

Two Days in a Row

The kids started school on monday. Im torn emotionally about this. Christina started kindergarten this year. I have no more kids at home during the day. Im officially in the next stage of my life. Im getting old! I cant believe I have no more toddlers or an infant at home. On the other hand this is something to look forward to as well. I have 8 hours a day all to myself. Knowing that this was a new stage in life I had decided that we would get a better morning routine. So for TWO days in a row, We have all gotten up at SIX A.M. (Im not a morning person!) I have fixed breakfast while the kids get dressed, we have been kneeling at the kitchen table chairs to say morning prayer and bless the food, and while the kids eat I have read a chapter in the scriptures. After that we all clean up the kitchen, everyone makes beds, brushes teeth, combs hair and puts on sunblock. Syd leaves for school. I then do Christina's hair, Kailee and Spencer comb their hair and they leave for school. I feel like we are getting SO much done in such a short amount of time. After they leave, I have vacuumed their room and straighten the beds they make. It is really good to get so much done so early. I pray I can keep up this routine. It is really hard for me because Im used to the kids getting up on their own, getting ready, fixing thier own breakfast while I clean the kitchen, and they leave while I lounge around in my jammies and hang out on the internet while Christina was sleeping.
I will post pics of their first day tomorrow. Im anxious to get a few more things done and dont have the patients to sit and download the pictures.

We are lacking financially.

So this is what happens when you are not very "well off".

My van has something wrong with the tranny. I have had it read, it gives a pretty generic feed back. I am still driving it around because it will get going up to about 45 mph. One day I was on my way CLEAR across town to get my nails done. I was just a couple of blocks away from my destination and my car started over heating. I got to a stop light and when I slowed down to stop, it died and wouldnt start back up. I checked the radiator over flow and it was full so I figured the radiator must be full. I waited about 20 min. and tried starting it back up again but it wouldnt start so I called my friend who does my nails and she offered to come get me and still do my nails. While I waited for her, I got a number for a local tow company and had them tow it to the house. Trent and I thought the over heating could be the thermostat so I bought one and Trent tried to change it out. He was unscrewing the screws and one broke off so he thought (remember he is a carpenter, NOT a mechanic) that he could drill thru the broken off screw and put another screw in like he would if it had broke off in a piece of wood. The drill ended up going in sideways and drilled a hole in the manifold. Long story short, I decided that it was either go for it and try to fix it myself, or let it sit 'til we had the money to take it in and fix it (that would be never and the car would sit and rot in the mean time). So I called around for the part we needed ($100 used ) and started breaking down the engine till I could get the lower manifold out. It did take several days because I labeled EVER thing that I disconnected and took pictures a long the way. With Trents muscals we were able to get it done and it started right up on the first try!!! I was SOOOO excited! Unfortunately the tranny is still not fixed but as soon as we have the extra cash to do it, I will have a transmission place tell me whats wrong and try to fix it myself.

So the moral of this story is:

Being poor really sucks!!! but it gives you an opportunity to learn new things that you would never learn other wise.

The End

60th Anniversary

Trents parents celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary on June 28th. Their actual anniversary is earlier in the year (march or may, I cant remember). We went up to Draper and stayed at his parents house friday and saturday night and came home sunday. I didnt take too many pictures while we were there, but I did get a few from the luncheon.

It was nice spending time with the family and it was nice and cool up there.

Saturday night we played some type of Gin with Lyle and Cathy, it was really fun, I wish I could remember what it was called so I could google it and find the instructions.

UPDATE!

K So I dont have time to send any recent pics to my email so I can post them here, so I will just do a quick update. I dont HAVE to post pictures every time I blog.
So the little kitty is doing good. He is such a mellow little guy. He is pluffy and has a semi flat looking face (I think its just from the fluffy hair). He loves to sleep still and likes to play with his paws. His tummy is real chubby since he only shares his milk with his WAY older sister Oreo! Yeah, I slap her everytime she does that. She looks like a flippin retard! She still likes to be the helper and take care of her little brother. Its pretty funny to see her try and pick him up. She hasnt quite got it down so it looks kind of cruel for the poor little baby.

Trent is staying busy with work, not that great of jobs, but we havent fallen behind on bills yet so thats a blessing, I know a lot of people in the construction business have really fallen hard. He is still the Elders Quorum President. He also keeps busy helping Syd in Scouts. He is going with them on July 19th to their yearly Scout camp. Instead of 5 days its going to be 7. They are going to some lake in the Uintahs and they have to hike 7 miles in. They are excited. I am totally panicking already. Im a total control freak and I cant stand that they will be some where that has no cell service and if some emergency arrives, I cant just drive there real quick and let them know! UGH!! I hate it!

Syd is just a pain in my butt. he totally thinks he is an adult and can do what ever he wants. He likes his hair long (NOT a mullet) and I dont. Im taking him in this week to see if we can reach a happy medium on the hair (WOW, how do you spell, medium? nothing looks right)

Kailee and Spencer are both still in school until July 14th. Yeah, it sucks.

Christina starts kindergarten in the fall :( I cant believe Im all done having kids and my baby is going to Kindergarten. Im totally in the next stage of life and it kind of sucks!
I took her to go get her shots for school. She was real nervous and wanted to go home before we went into the room. When they called her name she started bawling. I felt so bad. She had to have 2 in each arm. She actually stopped crying once they did the first shot. The last one hurt a little, but she did really well. I was proud of her.

So thats a quick update for now. I will post pics and stuff on another post.

Tag

So I was Tagged about a week ago but I am just getting to it.

I was tagged by Shanell http://sskknudsen.blogspot.com/

Tag rules:
1. you link back to the person who tagged you.
2. post these rules on your blog.
3. share six unimportant things about yourself.
4. tag six random people at the end of your entry.
5. let the tagged people know by leaving a comment on their blogs.
6. enjoy the results


6 unimportant things about myself:

1: I always have some sort of tune or song in my head, everything I do, I do it to that beat.

2: I love numbers, my favorite is 8, but I love to count everything and usually figure out some sort of math problem I "need" to solve, or count them into groups.

3: My 3 favorite shows right now are "The First 48", "Intervention" on A&E and "What Not to Wear" on TLC.

4: I am a computer retard, pretty much the only thing I am capable of using it for is stalking LOL!

5: On my left inside wrist I have a backwards "k" in my viens, and on my right inside wrist is a forward "k", they are mirror image.....

6: I am already dreading winter, the days are SOOOOOO short!

I cant really tag 6 people since I only know 4 people who blog and 2 have already been tagged.
So I tag Colin, Candice, Ellen, and 3 stalkers, whom ever they may be.

4:

Read this after you read the kittie post.

As Im sitting here posting about the little kitties, Im hearing an odd noise coming from the shop vac that is in my room, right next to me.

Knowing that Galiath let the hamsters out this morning I thought maybe it was one of them under it so I pick it up and nothing. I edit my last post and hear the noise again....I sit real still and keep hearing it so I decide to take the top off and to my suprise, there is a little white kittie!!!! I just cant believe it! I can only imagine that it had just enough crawling ability to climb thru the hose.

You have no idea how excited I am!!!!

When I got the kittie out, I layed it by Kittie Kat and she got up and walked away so Oreo stepped in and licked her so she would go pottie

Yes, thats the little kitties bum her face is in...

and then she started cleaning her up.

\

Mom finally took Nubbins and is feeding her now. She wanted her back under the bed where she had her to begin with.

R.I.P Little kitties

Our cat had babies yesterday. They were all white, 5 of them. She is the best little mommy around. She is so clean and there is never any sign of her having babies except the babies themselves. She had a litter of 3 on Feb. 07, we kept one, her name is Oreo. Poor Kittie Kat has been so miserable, she was way bigger with this pregnancy then with the 3. She would walk a few steps and just plop down. She was so grouchy if Oreo was any where near her she would hiss and swat at her.
When Kittie Kat went into labor yesterday she came into the living room and meowed her funny meow for Oreo to follow her. I had a feeling then that she was in labor. She went under the kids' bunk bed and came back out and did a funny little meow at me so I followed her and saw that she had a little white kitty. I hung around under the bed with her for a while and she had 2 more pure white ones, one with a stubby little tail. Oreo hung out the whole time, helping clean the ones mom already cleaned while mom attended to the new kitties. Ofter the 3rd I had to go run a couple of errands. When I got back about 2 hours later there were 5 white little kitties, 2 with the stubby little tail.
Today Christina and I left my house about 10 a.m. to go clean a house while the kids were at school. When I got back Christina walked in first and said "(gasp!) Mom a kittie!" she picked it up and its head was flopping so I knew it was dead. I said "oh crap, is it dead?" Christina said "yes, sorry mom"
I felt really bad for T cuz she said that while I was getting ready to go clean, she took the kitties out from under the kids bed and put them in my room in the dogs bed. So I ran into my room to see if any were in there and the beds cushion was on the floor away from the bed part. I started looking for the poor things. I found one on the back of the couch, dead, one on the couch in a blanket, dead. One behind a couch pillow, dead, and one on my bed, dead. "its all my fault mom, sorry" Poor T feels so bad. I have no idea where the fifth one is.....Im sure I will be surprised when I find (smell) it.
Im not sure exactly how they died, but our dog Galiath is a Chinese Crested "powder puff". We have mini hamsters, when the hamsters get out, he finds them and I have caught him tossing them in the air and "playing" with them. He has killed one of them this way and Im assuming this is what he did to the poor little kitties. They had no noticable inuries so they werent purposely killed. Its sad. But it is a little bit of a relief to not have to worry about finding good homes for 5 little kitties.....




In memory of their 24 hour life, here are some pictures.




As I am posting these, Kittie Kat just came into the house and is now looking for her babies.....SAD!

Keeping Busy

We have been keeping busy. We finally got Trents truck back. Runs real good. It just needed a minor adjustment. On my way home from Kingman Candice called to see if I would go with her to Pahrump and pick up 2 pot bellied pigs. We got there about 9pm, had to CATCH them, which took about an hour, then drove home. Im sure it was hilarious seeing us try and catch them. they were in a LARGE pin and they are super agile. I finally caught the little one and wore the big fat one right out so he could be cought. Candice has a "mini" pot belly at home and he is as big as the big one we just got. She didnt realize that there is a difference between a pot belly and a mini pot belly.....kind of funny.

These are the pigs from Pahrump in my moms yard.

Earlier that day she bought 2 little girl pigs (Regular pigs, from the pig farm here in Vegas) they got along really well and they are all so cute. Suprisingly, the smaller, cuter pigs are totally stinky!

Thursday May 22nd we got up and canned 100 lbs of potatoes at my moms house. Yeah, thats a lot of potatoes, but we have decided to work on food storage since it seems to be on both of our minds and the economy is going down hill fast. The potatoes were on sale at a local mexican grocery store for $1.47 per 10lb bag so.

Candice, turning on the little portable stove. Christina being a big helper. She helped put the

cut ones in the bottles.

I didnt want to put my own pic up, but its real

Life that I look like this.

FYI 100 lbs makes 84 quarts.

Spring Cleaning

So I've been slowling mucking out stuff. I just dont like "stuff" any more. It takes so much time and energy. I have come to learn that the fewer things you have, the more simple life can be. I have been cleaning out my kids drawers and as I do laundry I have been getting rid of stuff and its such a good feeling to let go of stuff. Its so much easier doing laundry with out so much stuff to do. My kids have a tendancy to get something out of their drawer or closet and if it no longer fits or if they no longer like it they throw it on the floor and I dont know, so I pick it up and wash it, or they just put it in the dirty clothes!
I went through my kitchen last week and got rid of a few items that I no longer use (a few things I had never even taken out of the box) so now I have room for more of the things I use and can get to them easier with out everything falling....
Some of you may not know that the six of us live in what I refer to as some peoples walk in closet. So we need very few things. Not to mention, why do I feel I need to hang on to stuff I dont need or use? I havent figured that out yet.
I should have taken before pictures, but I didnt think of it until I decided to sit down and write this blog :-) right now my living room has lots of clothes on the couch because Im in the middle of a project. When you clean something out, it sure makes a mess, but the end result is always nice when you get it done and things put away.

Two in one Day!

Life is a strange thing. Sometimes I wish I didnt have to experience it and sometimes I'm so thankful for the experience. I have a hard time showing or even dealing with any kind of emotion. These pictures are of a house that brings some emotions to the surface.
Its a home here in Las Vegas and it was owned by a dear friend of the families. We met her at church in 1991 or 92. She was one of the most down to earth, bubbly, happy, humorous, kind hearted, loving, selfless, Christ like person I have ever met. And I believe it was those attributes that got her killed. With out going into great detail, she got involved in a relationship with a man who had lots of problems to say the least. She was willing to take a chance on him and try to see the best in him. On January 16th this man (I hate to refer to him as such since he is more like a monster) brutaly took this wonderful womans life. You can find the story here: http://blogs.lasvegasnow.com/homicidereport/2008/01/17/january-16-2007-5223-jeff-drive/#comment-7
These pictures are of Trent and my mom going thru the things that the family was selling to help raise money for her 5 children. I was able to see the spot where she lay when her daughter came home and found her. I didnt take a picture of it because it has been cleaned up and boxes lay ontop of it, but you could see a big dark spot on the garage floor. Her poor children have not been able to go to their home since it happened.

This experience has made me realize how important living and ENJOYING life is. She had lived such a full life, full of fun experiences, and made sure people knew that she loved and appreciated them.

I will end with a quote from a wise man whom I admired and loved.

He said " In all of living, have much fun and laughter. Life is to be enjoyed, not endured."

Gordon B. Hinckley

I saw this quote and have decided to make it my life motto....