Our Life In Pictures - Project365 Week 4

So, things are going to look a little strange this week. I'm having to use old fashioned HTML to do this! For some reason Picasa wouldn't load for me, and I can't get "compose" to pull up the picture loader either!! *sigh* Just been that kinda week for me!!

Sunday 23 January - Sam didn't cook this week. :-( It's okay tho. I made lemon pepper chicken, and green beans with a fresh loaf of sourdough bread! It was a GIANT hit! :-) I make lemon pepper chicken quite often tho. Maybe I should have made maple chicken instead. Oh well. It was good! :-D

Monday and Tuesday 24 & 25 January - I'm not going to lie. I didn't even attempt to take pictures these 2 days. I spent them curled in a ball in my bedroom trying not to move think or breath because I had a HORRIBLE migraine! At one point I called my friend Keona and told her to come kill me because I couldn't handle the pain any more. :-/ It was a rough couple of days. I would basically get up in the morning to get Monkey ready for school and go back to my bedroom. Bug stayed home both days because she didn't feel well at all. She basically stayed in my room with me and watched Netflix on the laptop and would wake me up when she wanted or needed something.

Wednesday 26 January - I feel better this day. I decide that I'm going to make it worth while and get up and make dinner for everyone. I just realized that I made lemon pepper something twice this week! Crazy!!

Thursday 27 January - I felt a little crafty today, and decided that I was going to make a "container" to hold all of our storage container lids. Basically I took a USPS large flat rate box and cut the top off and taped the bottom closed. Looking back I PROBABLY should have mod podged it closed, but, I wasn't thinking about the paint not sticking to the tape! As you can see, it holds all of the lids quite nicely. I'm thinking about making a liner for it in blue and green fabric. We've already planned how we want to decorate the house, and it's basically all blues and greens other than the bedrooms. I think I want to do the dining and kitchen in a light seafoamy blue. I'm not sure yet tho.

Friday 28 January - This is Monkeys castle that he made for his math project. He had to make the castle, take measurements, and make a journal and spreadsheet. This turned out to be one of the crappiest days of the week. I had to drive Monkey to school because he couldn't take his castle on the bus. So, I had to wake Bug up and take her with me. We didn't get back until it was almost time for her to get on the bus. So, she had to get dressed and eat breakfast and then I had to drive HER to school. Then I started dinner, started laundry. and then did some work on the computer. I was tooling around on facebook, and I find out that one of the guys that I used to play cards with while Sam played poker lost his battle with cancer. His funeral is on Monday. :-( RIP Marc. We lost a great man, but Heaven gained a beautiful angel.

Saturday 29 January - Bug and I got up early this morning and went to World Thinking Day for Girl Scouts. Of COURSE I forgot my camera so I only had my cell phone to take pictures with. I got a couple of good pictures, but I don't know that they are good enough to share on here. I'll try to upload them and post one later if they turn out any good. Of course, they look good on my cell phone, but, who knows what they will look like on the screen! I made gumbo today. Shrimp, chicken, and sausage gumbo, with some French bread! It was really good!! Bug has one of her friends staying the night with her as well. Tomorrow we will all go to church together. :-)

GREAT NEWS!!!!!!

So, Sam and I are going to pay off some debts with our tax return instead of doing other things. We're HOPING that we can continue on with the track that we have set for ourselves for the next year and things will stay relatively the same. (Tho a better paying job would be nice!)

We have decided that we are going to use the "snowball effect" to pay off our debt. Together, we have quite a bit, but, it looks like in about 19 months from this tax return, that we will be free of debt, other than our house and cars!!

Well, okay, maybe not COMPLETELY debt free. I'm sure there are a few things on my credit that can be paid off so that way from there on out only good credit will be on my report!

Sam and I dug ourselves into quite a pit with credit card debt and the like. We come from the "instant gratification" generation, tho I think our kids will be "worse" than we are. In 18 months, I don't know what I'm going to do with an extra almost $1000 a month!! Well, yes I do. We're going to start fixing up our house, saving for retirement, and for college expenses for the kids. I think I can deal with the crappy red and brown walls for another year and a half.. hopefully! Once we are able to REALLY fix this place up, I'm positive that it will look FANTASTIC! I'll be able to get Sam the wood working tools that he really wants, we will be able to get the outbuilding that we really need, replace the fencing with wooden fencing, get a doggie door, build a porch, a new dinning room! Oh man! I can't WAIT till next spring/summer!!

Customer Service

Back when Sam and I first got married, we set out to make a life with each other. It wasn't easy. We didn't really have much of anything. We had our clothes, a TV, a laptop, and an Xbox. We lived with my friend Steph, and her husband Steve (RIP). When we got our first "married paycheck" from the military, we put our deposit down on our place, which was almost right next to Stephs house. It was a small 2 bedroom single wide trailer. I'll admit, it was kinda crappy, and the 2nd bedroom was barely big enough to hold a twin bed, but, it was our home for our first 6 months as a married couple. The landlady was a sweet old lady who lived with her husband and son until her husband passed away. It was very sad. :-(

Anyways!! When we got down to the nitty gritty, we didn't really have much of anything other than things that were borrowed, loaned, we bought off friends, or were given to us. We didn't have a church wedding, and it was so close to Christmas that we didn't really expect anyone to really buy us anything anyways. So, we needed pots and pans. We went to WalMart and found a really nice set of inexpensive pots and pans that we liked. It was the Eco-Friendly Tramontina set. It had everything that we needed for just us. It was a nice set! We really liked it, until all of the non-stick coating started coming off. Well, we bought our house, and we packed everything up, and then when the coating started to REALLY come off, we couldn't find the product warranty. We just decided that we would eventually get a different set of pots and pans. 

Well, right around Christmas time, we'd had the set for about 2 years, and every single one of them had some varying degree of the non-stick coating coming off, I decided that I was going to write an email to Tramontina, and let them know how dissatisfied I was with their product. A few days later, I received an email back, letting me know that they would be happy to exchange my pots and pans for a different set, and gave me 2 different sets to choose from. I stewed on this for a while. Both sets were very nice. One set had a big saute pan, like we have now, and 2 skillets, as well as one stock pot and 2 smaller pots. That's the one we chose. The other one, was stainless steel, and had no saute pan but came with a spoon and a slotted spatula. While I like the look of these, I wanted my saute pan! I hope I don't regret that choice! 

Well, here is the part that I really liked. When I contacted them, she said that she would send me a label to send our current set back to them and they would be destroyed. I contacted her back, and I let her know that I couldn't really send the entire set back to them, because we wouldn't really have anything to cook with. We do have a couple odds and ends, but, not really enough to consider it functional without my "main 3" my saute pan, my stock pot, and my 2qt pot. So, she told me that what she would do, would be send me a label, I could send 2 or 3 of the ones that I didn't use as much back to them, they would ship out the new set with a label inside the box and then I would just simply send the rest back to them when we get the new set! How cool is that?! 

Overall, I wasn't overly impressed with the Eco-Friendly cookware set, but I am SUPER impressed with the customer service! The cookware did come with a lifetime guarantee, so, they are living up to that. Overall, I think that Tramontina is a pretty good company. They do have some nice products, as well as less expensive products for those that are just starting out. (Or starting over) I give the Charwood Seal of Approval to the Tramontina company!!

Tramontina is not paying me to make these statements. Tramontina, other than knowing I have faulty cookware doesn't know anything about me. I just simply thought that my readers would enjoy hearing about a company that gives great customer service! :-)

Day 3....

So, yesterday was really REALLY bad. At one point, my head hurt so bad I actually text my friend Keona and told her to come kill me because I couldn't take the pain any more. I'm glad that I have slightly older children, and that I can trust them not to get into anything or burn the house down because I think I actually passed out from the pain. I admit that I did take a Vicodin in the middle of the day, but, it wouldn't have come into play at 7pm.

I'm not sure what's causing these headaches. I'm not sure if it's the MASSIVE storm front we had move in the other day, or if it's the new medications that I'm on. Both of which list "headache" as the #1 side effect. I took it again this morning, and I can already feel my headache coming back. This is not a good sign.

In other news, happier news! Sam went to our community service growth group last night (alone because I couldn't drag myself outta bed). Apparently they were looking for volunteers for a place called Miracle Meadows here in town. An old friend of mine had told me about it a long time ago, but I never had time to volunteer. It's a place where handicapped children learn to ride horses. It's a great program, basically run by all volunteers. Sam didn't think I would mind and signed me up. What a great man I have! Of course, now that I'm not working, I DO have time to volunteer for this great program. Sam also said that he was a bit intimidated because he was the only guy there! He then said that they all made him feel welcome tho, and he even cracked a joke about how all the other guys were missing out.

Okay! I'm off to crawl back under my covers and nurse this headache again. *sigh* PLEASE Lord, take this headache away! Oh, and thank you all for the get well wishes! Tho I didn't get to reply to each of you individually, it did make me feel good that you all were thinking about me. :-)

Day 2....

So... I'm taking some new medication... and yesterday started a migraine. Coincidence or just a weather change in the near future? It IS supposed to rain ALL DAY LONG today... so here's to hoping that's what it is and not these new medications. :-/

Yesterday my head hurt so badly that all I had to eat all day was a couple of slices of bread. As soon as I heard Sam pull into the driveway I took 2 Vicodin and went to lay in my dark room. I woke up one time from a crazy dream where my dog had gotten out of the fence and gotten hit on the road. Out of bed I came, still groggy and wobbly from the drugs and flung open the door to find her laying right in front of my door. I pulled her in my room and shut the door again. Sam also made the dinner that I laid out. Bowtie Lasagna. I took a couple bites and I couldn't eat any more. It tasted delicious but I had absolutely no appetite at all. I took another Vicodin and went back to bed.

Bug also didn't feel well yesterday. She was all snotty and stuffy so I let her stay home to rest. She complained about not feeling well and not being able to move almost all day. Monkey had a friend come over, and she felt well enough to play with them! She climbed in bed with me and felt a little warm so I took her temp. 98.9 just slightly elevated, but, nothing really to worry about. I hope she feels better today tho. I woke up in the middle of the night and Monkey was sleeping on my side of the bed. He's such a tender hearted boy. Always making sure that I'm okay. I had a warm gel pad (the kind that can be used for heat or cold) and when Monk came home he heated it up again, wrapped it back up, and brought it back to me so it would stay warm longer. Such a good kid.

In other news! Charwood Candle Co is almost ready to launch!! Got just a few small details to work out, and the funding to finalize, and we will be rockin' and rollin'!! I can't wait!

Anyways, I already got one kid off to school, I need to wake the other up and see how she feels.

Our Life In Pictures - Project365 Week 3

BIG WEEK!!! *shew* Okay... I know you're not here to listen to me yammer....

Sunday 16 January - Sam cooked again. He made Talapia with some peppers and onions, and garlic and lemon and white wine! His choice of sides is a bit weird... but... whatever! It tasted really good despite how strange it looked!

Monday 17 January - Bug spend most of the weekend away, and since Monday was a holiday, they didn't have school (no, our school district didn't make them go on MLK Day, how disrespectful to make them go!) and so she got to spend two days with one of her friends. By Monday I was kind of missing my little chatterbox!

Tuesday 18 January - I had a woman purchase some snails from me before Christmas. Then everything went WAY down hill!! It was terrible! I just could not seem to make it to the post office before then. So, I included some extras and shipped them off to Washington state. All the way from Jacksonville, NC to Washington and only 1 died. I musta done something right!

Wednesday 19 January - Tuesday my friend Keona and I picked up some free crap items from a nice lady out in the middle of nowhere. In it was a bag of boys clothes. These pajamas were in there, but, I think they smoked or something because, while the clothes smelled clean, the had an odor to them, so we washed them again. (We would have anyways tho) Monkey LOVES pajamas. He's always saying he wants new/more pajamas. This was his favorite thing in the entire bag.

Thursday 20 January - I know this looks strange... but! It's really just sourdough starter! Remember how I said I was going to the fondue party on Friday?? Yeah... I made sourdough... *buffs fingernails*

Friday 21 January - SOURDOUGH!!!!!!!! Oh man... I teased Nicole the entire day about this loaf of bread. Was it worth the wait Nicole?? ;-) I think it was. Everyone seemed to like it a whole lot. I also made a loaf of Amish bread as well, but I didn't take a picture of it because it was ugly. It stuck to the pan and ripped the bottom crust off. :-( Nicole said it tasted fantastic tho. :-D

Saturday 22 January - What's that? I forgot the picture? No... no I didn't take a picture. I completely forgot I had a doctors appointment for some medications, so we were an hour late for that. The doctor still seen me tho, so that was a good thing, even if it was a very quick session. From there we went on base, and it was lightly snowing, to fill Monkey and I's prescriptions at the pharmacy. We were there for a couple of hours. We had lunch, walked around looking at furniture and different housewares, and then had to go back and stand in line and wait again to pick them up. From there we left to come home. There was about an inch of snow on the ground!No big deal as long as the roads aren't slick. Sam assured me that they weren't bad and we took off. No sooner did we get out on the main road to leave base that the roads turned to complete ice! I FREAKED out! I don't handle ice well. When I was 17, my sister and I were involved in an accident, and we rolled the truck we were in about 3 times because of some black ice. Scary stuff. Ever since then, I don't do icy roads. They shut the front gate down shortly after we were off base. It was a mess! Needless to say, I spent the majority of the rest of the evening freaking out, and avoiding housework. :-D

Nothing like shopping to make you feel fat and pretty at the same time!

So, for the past couple of days, things have been a little tense at the Charwood household. I've not been feeling "pretty" and it sort of rubs off in the way of me causing petty arguments with Sam.
Yesterday I thought, while I was out, I would just pick up a clearance dress from Old Navy, which is my most favorite store. Now, any of you that know me, know that I don't wear dresses. I'm a t-shirt and jeans kinda girl! I'm not girly. I don't even brush my hair unless I have to! So, for me to say that I wanted to feel pretty so I went to buy a dress is something that shocked my closest friends. That's just not something that I do! Also, I'm not trendy. Not even a little bit. I look at some of the things that other ladies are wearing around the blogosphere and I think "Wow! That looks amazing! I wish I could wear that kind of stuff and be that cute!!"

Well, I ended up wandering around Old Navy for a while, going "Oh man... I don't really see anything I like that's on clearance!" Well, I finally found something that I REALLY REALLY liked! It was a grey dress, and it had goldenrod yellow and navy blue butterflies all over it for $7! I then found a goldenrod cardigan (only $10!) to put over the top. I picked up my size L and headed to the dressing room. The dressing room attendant says how nice it looks and that she would have never thought to put those two together. I was pretty impressed with myself! I picked something incredibly cute, all by myself (even tho it was sitting right next to each other, but that's besides the point!) and put it together to make an incredibly cute outfit! Go Jacque!! Wooo! I get in the dressing room, happy with myself, proceed to put it on, and... I hate it. It looks like I've put a giant tent on! I was so sad! And of course, because it was clearance, they didn't have a smaller size. I don't know that it would have looked right on me even if they would have had a smaller size. I ended up getting a cute pink shirt that's all ruffly and will go great with slacks or with jeans that was on clearance. But I still wanted a dress!

So, I went back out and perused a bit more. I did find a dress that I really like. It wasn't on clearance, which is why I didn't just grab it in the first place. It was on sale, but, it was more expensive than what I had originally picked up. I tried on my new wares, and I walk out of the dressing room to stand in front of the big mirrors so I can talk myself out of it. The attendant tells me that I look very nice and even another shopper tells me the same. I decide that I'm going to go ahead and purchase said dress.

I'll give you a little sneak peak of my wares. I did have my lil Bug take a picture of me in my new outfit, which I posted on facebook, but, I would really like to have a NICE picture to put on here, so, I'll just show you the clothes!

The necklace isn't the exact same one that I got, but it's close! :-)

Slacker!!

So, as you guys know, I've been doing Project365. I have to say... it is quite interesting finding pictures to show my life considering I'm like an Internet Addicted Hermit... I find that it's pretty hard to take pictures of things when you don't leave the house. And it's hard to remember that you're supposed to take your camera and take pictures when you do leave the house when you only leave the house like once a week! *giggle*

I do have some things planned! Like... uh... well.. ummmm... OH YES!! Girls night! Fondue at Nicoles!! I'm in charge of bringing strawberries... (homemade please) sourdough bread... and the stripper... haha! Not really... just the strawberries and bread. So, I will try and take a couple pictures of thaaaaat. I'm going to try and recreate Monday and Tuesday. It's not like anything really happened.. I live a boring life! *sigh* Yes.. a boring life filled to the gills with "Holy moley! We're opening a business and I've still got SO much to do!!!" *scream*

Okay. I think I'm over it now. I'll be okay! Now, it's time to get ready, go to the post office (again) and then head to Keonas house. I guess I need to not be a hermit today and help her wash her comforter at the laundry mat.

Our Life in Pictures - Project 365 Week 2

This past week has been a real roller coaster!!! I'll just let the pictures explain it!

Sunday 09 January - The tradition continues!! Sam made his "Poppa Sams' Famous Soup" for dinner on Sunday! It's basically veggie beef soup, but the kids love it, and he likes to make it, so I don't say any different. Today I had a sore throat, but went to church anyways. I felt better after church.

Monday 10 January - SNOW!!!! I guess Mother Nature decided that North Carolina needed more than one snow this winter. Our first snow was the day AFTER Christmas! (Way to be Mother Nature! Sheesh!) The kids had a blast playing in the snow, and having THREE days off of school! Sam got time off work as well. Fun was had by all. Except for me. My body decided that it wanted to ache everywhere that day.

Tuesday 11 January - Yet another day off of work and school. For Monkeys' birthday he got a big whopping 86 bones, so, he went and bought a bunch of legos, and Buggy wanted to buy a board game for the family with her savings. It turned out that the coupons we had weren't valid any longer (even tho they expired that day) and Monkey gave the rest of his money to his sister so she could buy UBuild Mouse Trap. It's a pretty fun game! Not much like the original tho. This day my ears started feeling clogged up.

Wednesday 12 January - What a better day to celebrate than our xBox/DVD player to go out! :-| I'm NOT a happy camper about this! Now, we can only play the Wii and watch Netflix. I'm hoping that taxes will come in soon and we will be able to get a new xBox. Either that or we can call Microsoft and they will send us a new one. We've had it for a while, but, it's not like we ever go online with it or anything. We use it for playing games and watching movies... that's it! Today, my sinuses felt like they were ready to explode. I just wanted to lay on the couch and do nothing. Sam slept almost all day. He finally got up when dinner was done and as soon as I was done with dinner I went to bed.

Thursday 13 January - The laundry my husband did while I was sleeping Wednesday night. He sort of instructed me that I needed to have it all folded and put away. I sort of told him to stick it where the sun doesn't shine, and even that I had to squeak out. Thursday I woke up with a squeaky door mouse voice. Sam got Monkey up and mostly ready for school while I was still sleeping. Sam got ready for work and left. I got Bug up for school and she came and laid down with me before she had to leave for school. Today I felt like I had been hit by a Mack truck and I stayed in bed all day. I called and got a doctors appointment for 5pm. I was going to drive myself, but, when it came time to walk out the door, I felt very weak and light headed and asked Sam if he would take me. They were out of flu tests because of the storm we had earlier in the week. One of my two favorite doctors was there and he guessed that I more than likely had the flu, as well as both a sinus infection and ear infection!! I was given 4 prescriptions and shot of antibiotics in the booty and instructed to stay in bed until at least Monday. Turns out I'm not a very good listener.

Friday 14 January - Today was pretty boring. Sam got off early because of MLK Day on Monday. He spent the majority of the time that he could have been at home enjoying being off early running around getting medication for me. I felt pretty good, so I decided that I was going to make dinner and participate in our Family Meeting. This turned out to be a very bad idea. I did make dinner, and it was pretty darn good! I sat down while I was waiting for dinner to cook and tried to participate in the meeting. My mind was severely clouded by snot and I couldn't concentrate AT ALL! By the time I had dinner out of the oven, my body said "Hey! You're supposed to be in bed lady!" and started to wear out. I overdid it. I ate my dinner, took a dose of my cough medicine and was back in bed and asleep by 7:30!

Saturday 15 January - I must have been sleeping really well, because I woke up with Bug and Sam in bed with me, and Monkey laying on my side of the bed in his sleeping bag! Sam had also folded the laundry and put it away while I was sleeping! I didn't hear a sound! I tried to get out of bed and make breakfast, but, I only got as far as making my own breakfast and I had some angry tiny humans ushering me back to my bedroom. Every time I tried to come out of the bedroom someone would give me the stink eye and tell me to get back in bed. Sam and the kids cleaned the majority of the house today! We had told Bug that she could go spend the night with her friend, but, she wasn't there at the time she told her to come over, so, while Sam and Monkey went to watch Tron: The Legacy in 3D. Bug was pretty upset that she didn't get to go, but we didn't buy her a ticket because she was supposed to be spending the night with her friend!!

So, that brings me to the end of this week! I notice in my Saturday picture that Monkey is starting to really look like a young adult. *tear* Before too long, I'm not even going to get hugs in public any more!! *gasp* I'm sure that someone is going to try and keep me from going to church tomorrow, but, I don't think a wild heard of bandicoots could keep me away! Bed rest or no bed rest, I'm not missing church! (Okay, really, it depends on how I feel in the morning.)

I just want to get out of bed!!

So, you may not know this, but, I've been stuck in bed since Thursday. I started feeling a little under the weather last Saturday, but, didn't really think that it was that big of a deal. It was REALLY cold on Saturday while we were selling cookies so I just thought that I was achy because of that and walking around for what seemed like 11 thousand hours while Bug sold Girl Scout cookies. Monday my throat just hurt, Tuesday my head started hurting, Wednesday I felt pretty icky, and then by Thursday I felt like I had been run over by a Mack Truck! I spent almost all day Thursday in bed, only getting up to go potty, get food, or let the dogs out. I was finally convinced that I should go to the doctor, so, I called the doctors office to make an appointment. By this time I had almost completely lost my voice and I could barely speak above a scratchy whisper. My favorite receptionist answers and I squeek out who I am, and she tells me I sound terrible, and that she was assuming I was calling for an appointment. I told her that I was and she gave me a 5 o'clock appointment time. (There was one at 3, but that would leave Monkey here by himself until who knows when!) Sam got home JUST in time to change over and drive me there because I was feeling very faint and dizzy. We ended up showing up about 20 minutes late to the appointment, which stunk because then we had to wait quite a bit. One of my two favorite doctors was there and he said I didn't have strep, but my throat was completely raw, that he thought I had the flu, but they were out of tests because of the snow storm we had earlier in the week. I also have an ear infection AND a sinus infection. So, he put me on 4 different prescriptions, a shot of antibiotics in the booty, and mandatory bed rest until Monday, and possibly longer! I felt okay yesterday, but I stayed in bed anyways. Sam came home about 1 and had to pick up the rest of my meds for me. He finally got back about 3 and Monkey came home as well. Monkey and I then laid in bed for a while and watched a movie called Dragon Hunters. What we got to watch of it was a pretty good movie! We will have to see the rest of it so I can write up a lil ditty on it! My best friend J and her husband had borrowed my car because he needed to get on base, but couldn't find his registration for his car to get a temp base pass to turn all of his stuff in. No big deal, I was on bed rest, not going anywhere! Last night, I felt pretty good, so, I got up and made meat loaf, mashed potatoes, and green beans. I felt okay still, but then we started our family meeting and it quickly went down hill from there. I couldn't concentrate because my head was so full of gunk. I ended up eating dinner, taking my meds, and going back to bed around 7:30. I woke up this morning to the entire family in our bedroom. I must been sleeping REALLY well! Today, I'm taking it easy again, tho I really don't want to! I want to be out there helping everyone clean... wait... what?!

Late nights with dogs...

So, tonight I'm sitting here, unable to sleep, listening to my husband snore in our bedroom because he's not wearing his CPAP mask, watching our dogs sleep, and reading up on some blogs.

There are three blogs in particular that I really like to see them posting.

One of which I've met before. She's on my facebook. We (all of us Jacksonville girls) went and had dinner together, and on the 21st, I hope to see her again at our next "girls night" with her adorable little girl. Her name is Mrs P... or Rachel. She's SO sweet! Some days, when I read her blog I'm so angry! But not at her... never at her! But because of the situation that she's writing about... because of lost friends, and lost things, and the biggest reason lost husband. Rachel... I hope this doesn't come out the wrong way, but, I hope to never be in your shoes, because I don't know that I could be as strong as you are.  I <3 you!!

Another woman who is amazingly strong, even tho she has her days is Karie. Her husband was stationed at Camp LeJeune, and misfortune struck while he was deployed. From there they spent time at Walter Reed, and eventually moved up north (if I remember right... stupid sleep deprivation! LOL). She also lost her love... You can see her struggle sometimes... but... you can SEE her grow! You can see how strong she is... how she is willing herself to survive the unsurvivable!

The last blog I smile when I see a post from is Katie! They were handed the short end of the stick... and that's no joke! I can't wait for a day when Ben posts! THAT will be a glorious day!! I'm praying for that to happen someday in the VERY near future!!

These 3 women, they are so different, but yet very much the same. They are strong, beautiful women. They are doing something I couldn't ever IMAGINE doing. They are taking what has been given to them, and making the best of it. You guys are so much an inspiration to me... to just live life with what you got! You never know how many tomorrows you have. Thanks guys! <3

Free Association ~ my beginning

So, my momma has been doing these for some time, and I figured that it's high time I joined her. She hadn't done it in some time, but revisited it today, and I thought I would finally join her. If you guys would like to do this as well, you can here.

1. Speech :: talk
2. Meredith :: boss
3. Consensus :: majority
4. Attack :: of the killer tomatoes
5. Sue :: Lantz
6. Voted :: polled
7. Epic :: awesome
8. Checking in :: on base
9. Dishwasher :: must have
10. Underneath :: it all

Our Life in Pictures- Project 365

So, inspired by Rebecca Jo, I decided that I would start doing a picture a day. I wasn't that successful this past week, completely forgetting 2 of those days to take a photo, but, I'm going to work harder this upcoming week!

Sunday 02January2011
I think I really like the idea of Sam making dinner for us all on Sunday! It gives me a much needed day off from cooking! Not that I have a whole day off tho, because I usually still make breakfast and lunch. But it's the thought that counts, right? :-) He made chicken salad, and man oh man, was it good!!

Monday 03January2011-
Yes, this was one of the days that I forgot to take a picture! It's not exactly my fault tho. My best friend J was having surgery in the "big city" which is about an hour and a half or so away. So, her surgery was at 6, which means that I needed to be up NO LATER than 3:30AM to be at her house by 4:20, which is when she wanted me to pick her up. Wouldn't you know it, I didn't get out of bed until about 3:55, and I was at her house by 4:15. Yeah, I was slacking, but I did brush my teeth and hair! The rest of the day was filled with going to Krispy Kreme (we don't have one here in Jacksonville), dropping off prescriptions, driving home, picking up prescriptions, making sure that J is comfortable at home, coming back to MY home, and taking a nap before the kids got home. It was a day, lemme tell ya! :-)

Tuesday 04January2011
Tuesday, my friend Keona and I went thrifting. It was a good day had by all! We found some really cool stuff, but, only ended up buying a little bit. I bought a book for Sam that we had been wanting for $1, and Keona bought a pyrex pie dish (For $1 might I add!!!) and some TV trays for her living room. While we were at one of the little flea market/thrift stores I found a PeeWee Herman talking doll. Sadly, he didn't talk any more, but I got the biggest laugh from seeing it.

Wednesday 05January2011
This was another day that I forgot to take a picture. Jillian had pink eye! (YIKES!!) She ended up snuggling with "Mr Stuffy" for the majority of the day, and lounged in her pajamas as well. Mr Stuffy is a pink and purple dragon that I made for her a couple of years ago for Christmas. She loves that thing, and I can honestly say that I don't mind at all that she named it "Mister" even tho it's pink and purple.

Thursday 06January2011
This was a very sad day for me. I finished off the last of the home made beef stew that I had made. My goodness was it delish! So tender and tasty! I was very sad that I had eaten it all. :-(

Friday 07January2011
We have taken to reading the Bible as a family in the evenings around here. Both of the kids got new NLT Bibles for Christmas. Monkey has never ASKED to be able to read a book, not that we ever prevent him from reading any time that he wants, but, when he asks to read his Bible after he has already completed his reading assignment for school, I know that I'm on the right track. Even tho he got a mohawk for his birthday, I think that he's an alright kid anyways.

Saturday 08January2011
Saturday Family Funday!! We normally do something on Saturday as a family. Sam was feeling a bit under the weather, so the kids and I went to Lowes for their Build And Grow! Both of the kids LOVE doing Build And Grow, but Bug was a little less than willing to go because she wanted to start selling Girl Scout Cookies immediately at 9AM! unfortunately, I was unable to clone myself to be in both places, so, we made a compromise. Go to Lowes for Build and Grow and we would spend the rest of the day selling cookies. She sold 62 boxes on Saturday.

Eye crusties and Mr Stuffy

So, last night I noticed that Bugs eye looked rather red after she got home from school. I thought maybe she had been rubbing it or got something in it. As the evening went on, it seemed to get worse! So, this morning we get up and go to the doctor as a walk in. Apparently it was a bad day to have a situation such as this. We waited for about 2 hours before we even get we even get back to see the doctor. After that, we have waited for a little while longer.
While we were waiting, I discovered that Bug had pushed the backs of her earrings all the way into her earlobes and they had cut into her ears! Ugh!! Of course, they hurt a lot, and when I asked her why she didn't tell me that her ears hurt, she said that she didn't really feel it. *sigh*
We went to Wal*Mart to get her 3 prescriptions because I needed to pick up a couple of things. I picked up the noodles for our Chicken Noodle Soup later in our menu, along with coconut for Coconut Chicken tonight. It took another 45 minutes to get the medicines. Basically today has just been an absolute day of waiting at every single stop. It's just been murder on my schedule.
We came home and got the chicken out of the freezer so it would be thawed for tonight. I did something very unlike me while we were at Wal*Mart. I got a bag of pizza rolls for Bug and I to share. When we got home I took the earrings out if Bugs ears. It was really bad. I felt terrible for her. It was a very bad thing. Now we have to keep her hair pulled up for a while, and keep it super clean until it heals. This is going to be a long process... I can tell!
Okay, Monk is now home from school, Bug wants to play some games, so, I'm going to cut this short! Hope everyone is having a great day!

New Years Resolutions

So, it comes down to the time when we all make these grand plans on how we are going to change in the next 365 days towards the better for ourselves (hopefully) and for our families (if we have them). Most of the time I really don't make any resolutions. I figure, if I don't make any, I won't have any to feel bad about not keeping. Lets face it, we, as humans, are creatures of habit. We fall into a habit and it's a lot of hard work to get yourself out of the habit of doing it. They say that it takes 21 days to break a habit. Most people quit their resolutions within the first 2 weeks. Just 1 week shy of becoming a habit. Terrible. They also say, that if you write it down, and profess it to someone that you trust, that you are more likely to follow through with your plans. I like the sounds of that.

So, without further ado, here are my Resolutions for 2011

1. Be better at cleaning the house 
* Do dishes before bed. * Laundry is done by Saturday. * Clean bathrooms every week. * Vacuum floors twice a week. * Make bed every morning.
2. Build my Faith again.
* Read Bible evey day. * Go to church every Sunday.
3. Be better organized.
* Keep work spaces in order. * File bills when paid. * Keep clutter off of surfaces.
4. Start paying off debt.
* Cut down expenses as needed. * Look into part time job.
5. Build Charwood Candle Company
* Do a giveaway on popular Blog (on LATW as well). * Find less expensive suppliers. * Get Etsy store front open.
6. Exercise every day
* Get Sam and myself up every morning at 5AM for at least 30 minutes of exercise. * Take dogs on walks in the evening.

On that note, I'm going to end this now, so I don't break my very first resolution! It's Saturday, so, I need to do laundry! :-)