Ramblings of a Professional Mommy

Fall at Last!

2010-10-22T08:33:00.000-07:00

Enjoying one of the first few truly cool mornings of fall. Got the pumpkin spice latte and the flannel pjs and really just revelling in the quiet stillness. Where I live there is a HUGE transition in the weather between summer and fall. If you blink you will miss it as mother nature does her magic seemingly overnight.

This is the time of year where my domestic instincts take over. Comfort food bubbles on the stove and I dig out the yarn and needles and settle down by the fire. I also venture out in the yard to do some much needed work. I know I am SO SQUARE! But I love this time of year, how it rolls naturally into the holiday season, where, in spite of whatever problems there are in my life, a feeling of peace, joy and hope wash over everything, making it feel sparkly and new.

Hubby is the opposite, he's prone to stress and it really gets to him over the fall and winter season. I always feel bad that he can't just give in to all the good things and overlook the bad :(

Sundays with the kiddos and what I am reading...

2010-09-30T10:32:00.000-07:00

Over the last two months I have made a date of Sundays with one of the kids. After church we come home, change out of our church clothes and have lunch. I then pick one of the kids (we rotate according to age) to take to the library and run any errands that need to need be done for the week. It give me a chance to do any shopping that needs to be done for the week, study up on the homeschool lessons and get any books that we need, and spend some time with one of the kids one on one.

The kids and I all look forward to Sundays! It's nice to go to the library and be focused on helping the little ones find a book that they are REALLY going to love or discovering a new series for the older kids that we can all read together and talk about afterward. It also gives me more insight into their interests. The kids choose differently when they aren't being influenced by a sibling. Then they bring home their books and it's interesting to see them share what they like with the other kids. I think it opens doors that might not be discovered, otherwise.

Picked this up at the library on Sunday and could not put it down! Kurt and Brenda are awesome and I am inspired by the way they put their family first in spite of their unique circumstances. If you are ever wondering what life is like from a christian perspective with seven kids, I highly recommend this book!

Grandma

2010-07-27T18:48:00.008-07:00

My father was one of thirteen children. Growing up, I never thought about how hard things must have been for my grandmother. Times were hard and just surviving was a constant struggle. She was an expert at making things stretch, organizing, and multitasking and she often did all of this with at least one baby on her hip.

In the last year I have thought about her quite a bit. Faced with my own trials, I have had to push forward in faith more than ever before. I have had to put on a smile and keep a positive attitude while one bad thing after another came flying at us at the speed of light. I learned to think outside the box, scrimp, save and make old things new again. Above all I learned how important sacrifice and compromise are.

Grandma mastered all of these skills and without the added benefit of the technology and medical adavances we have today. She was amazing!

My family on Mother's Day 2010

Grandma and just a few of her kids.

So I draw from her strength through these troubled times. I feel her over my shoulder, nodding in approval at the choices I make. I hope I make her proud.

The Baby Bug

2010-07-23T22:31:00.000-07:00

I've got it bad! Lately it seems like A LOT of women I know are about to or have recently given birth. I am ecstatic for them (really I am), but each time I say congratulations, there's a little voice in my heart that reminds me, that will never be me again. I know a lot of people would say that I am crazy for feeling that way, and seven years ago when I agreed to shutting down the baby factory I probably would have agreed with them. But I had no idea that I would ache to hold another newborn. I beat myself up for this, because I know there are women out there who would give their right arm for one child, let alone the seven beautiful, healthy babies that I have been blessed with.

Dh reminds me that someday I have grandchildren to look forward to (please GOD let that be a loooong way off!) so until they come along I am just gonna baby my kids, whether they like it or not!

I Am Empowered!

2010-07-21T23:28:00.002-07:00

I remember as a child I truly thought I could change the world. Of course, back then, I romaticized being an adult and assumed that adults could control everything more effectively than a child could. It didn't take me long to realize how wrong I was. Over the years I learned that you can't control your circumstances at all. Things happen! Jobs get lost, money gets tight, people get sick, couples break up. Theses are the times when we feel most helpless.

It's easy to huff and puff and blame the world for how it wronged you. But if you do that you never grow. True power is facing difficult situations with a positive attitude! This is when you truly grow. I have been witnessing some "growth" going on around me lately and it has caused me to take a step back and realize that, though I can't control what happens to me, I can control how I respond to it.

I am going to put this into practice. My hope is that by approaching tough situations with a positive outlook, I can help at least one person do that same, and it will have a ripple effect down the line.

In other words, I am still trying to change the world!

Mi Vida Loca!

2010-03-12T08:33:00.002-07:00

As I sit here with my cup of coffee, I am pondering how Chad and I went from no work at all to so much work between us that we are constantly juggling our time. God apparently had a lesson to teach us! I have been working non stop for the last couple of weeks, as hard as the work is, I am really grateful for it. I clean fryers and other restaurant equipment, most hasn't been touched in a few years, so it's really gross and grimy.

A little secret though, I am actually enjoying it! It's a great outlet for my obsessive nature. It's time that I can think and contemplate while I am accomplishing something. I go to bed and wake up early now, as I have people counting on me to get the work done. And the money is nice too. I actually see a light at the end of the tunnel of our finances.

The main drawback is the aches and pains. I have been dealing with some sort of nerve issue in my arm for the last couple of months. My arm falls asleep ALL THE TIME! No rhyme or reason I could just be walking along and I get that uncomfortable pins and needles feeling. There are very few positions my arm can be in without falling asleep. Been to the doctor a few times but it didn't help so now I am just waiting for Chad's new benefits so that I can head to the chiropractor's office and see if he can straighten me out. Until then I'll just grit my teeth and bear it.

Yesterday proved to be a long day, The man I am working for decided to take my hubby out golfing. of course he also decided to give me a whole bunch of work to finish too. So I was a bit grumpy as my hubby loaded those blasted golf clubs into the car as I was slaving away. I told him the the cleaner the equipment was when he got home, the more he was going to have to make it up to me! He came home with prime rib! My husband knows me well!

So today I have tons to do, the equipment I worked on yesterday all got moved out to put in restaurants so I need to get a head start to stock up for next week and I am sitting here procrastinating!

Love and hugs,

Mary

I swear I didn't forget my blog!

2010-03-09T17:29:00.002-07:00

Things have been absolutely nuts around here! I guess I will start where I left off.

As it turned out, being an over the road truck driver was not for us! Chad had sort of a falling out with his boss. Long story short, he's been jobless since about two weeks before Christmas. His boss added insult to injury by cutting the pay he already owed him making us a few hundred short for Christmas. It was very upsetting but once again, GOD provided and the kids still had a decent holiday.

Since then he has been diligently seeking employment. He's been really working hard to get on at one company. They are a big company with great benefits and a lot of room for growth. They took forever! But after two months of jumping through hoops and praying like crazy, we got the call yesterday that the job was his. I can''t even tell you what a relief this is!

While he has been pounding the pavement, I have been working on finding some work that I can do from home. As it turns out a friend of ours is really overloaded at work and offered me the excess work. I can do it from my garage and I can squeeze it in as I am available. So for the last few weeks I have been schooling in the morning, working in the afternoons and even fiting in some time in the evenings to crochet or work on jigsaw puzzles with the kids.

It really feels like things are finally starting to fall into place. After two very rough years, it 's great to see a light at the end of the tunnel. hopefully, by this time next year we will have firmer ground under our feet.

The kids are all doing great. They are all working very hard with their schoolwork and making progress. We've had a lot of rain lately so there has been a lot of study time. They all can wait until the weather dries out a bit so they can be outdoors more.

That is all for now, I will try to update more often, now that I am getting a bit of a routine together.

Love and hugs,

Mary

More from the Domestic Goddess Extraordinaire

2009-11-15T00:02:00.002-07:00

Ok I think the may be my new title! Maybe I can have a t shirt made in case anyone forgets:)

A couple of truths to being a truck drivers wife:

1. Reunions are BEAUTIFUL! Whoever said absence makes the heart grow fonder absolutely knew what they were talking about!

2. The last day off (no matter how wonderful) will inevitably have a shadow cast over it in some point.

3. Small accomplishments feel like HUGE accomplishments!

4. You can be in a room with a thousand people and still feel completely alone :(

That's all for now

Love and hugs,

Mary

A New Phase

2009-11-10T10:05:00.002-07:00

Well our tough decision is behind us. I am now officially a trucker's wife, Chad took the job three weeks ago. Aside from a couple of rough patches we are all managing pretty well.

I have been meaning to post here to fill everyone in but things have been insane here! I had all these misconceptions of what life would be like if Chad Started OTR driving. ("over the road" for all you non trucker's wives ;)) I thought I would be looking for things to fill my time. Chad worried about me not having any adults to talk to, and the kids thought we wouldn't be able to do all of the fun, "homeschooly" things we did before because I wasn't thrilled about managing all seven of them on my own.

I am happy to say, I have survived shopping, trick or treating, a field trip to the fair, a library day, and loads of other errands all by my lonesome! Yes, when the kids go to bed it feels really still and quiet and I REALLY miss Chad, but I have to say I am pretty proud of myself for how well I am managing!

I have become a firm believer in to do lists. I have several all over the house, I get this wonderful sense of accomplishment every time I am able to check something off. I feel so organized!

As for the adults to talk to, I talk to both my family and Chad's family quite a bit. The homeschool group have all been really supportive, and I am sure, once the sickies are completely finished rolling through (yes the icky bug reared it's ugly head AGAIN!) I will be back at church regularly.

So things are ok here, they may not be entirely ideal, but GOD is still watching out for us. I will try to update often so that you all can join me on this crazy journey!

Love and Hugs,

Mary

Decisions, Decisions

2009-10-15T10:50:00.003-07:00

We are faced with decisions. Chad is still looking for work and the job market is virtually non existent out here. Our choices are to either take a few low paying jobs, or for Chad to take a job that would take him away for weeks at a time. The problem with the lower paying jobs is this, there's no guarantee that we can find the "combination" of jobs that will have flexible enough schedules so that they do not conflict so someone is always here with the kids, and that they will even pay enough for our financial needs to be met.

The weeks at a time job is a last resort for obvious reasons. It would most likely get us caught up on everything but we would not have Chad around here for three weeks at a time and none of us are happy with the idea of that.

So we are left weighing our options and praying hard! I know that God is going to put us where he wants us, but we are uncertain of where that is right now. Continued prayer is appreciated!

To add to the fun I have some sick kids around here, most of the boys have been running fevers and have shown other symptoms. I fear that the flu is not done with us this year:(

Love and Hugs,

Mary

Sleep deprivation

2009-10-13T13:34:00.002-07:00

I have another confession. I love to read! If I have a few hours of quiet time I WILL end up with my nose in a book! Sometimes it's inconvenient loving to read as much as I do. I tend to want to finish the story right away. If I begin reading before bed, it is likely I will not put the book down until the story is over, whether it's a 200 page book or an 800 page book!

Chad thinks I am insane for this. He will wake up around 3 am and focus on me long enough to roll his eyes, then he just rolls over and leaves me to my book. He knows it's inevitable. Books are both blessings and curses to me!

Why is this on my mind today? Because I stayed up until after three reading, last night. Then I woke up at seven to frantic screaming that Nathan's stomach hurt. I am sure you can all guess what happened next!

I guess as far as addictions go this one is pretty low down on the radar. I don't have many horrible habits (although if you asked the family they might rate my anal retentiveness and nagging as horrible habits!) and as far as I can tell my lack of will power for books seems to only hurt me in the long run.

;)

Love and hugs,

Mary

Hello All!

2009-10-01T11:43:00.003-07:00

It's been a long time! A lot has happened around here since my last post and in all honesty I was sort of afraid of posting and it turning into a bit of a rant. I don't want to come off like I am unhappy (because in spite of everything I feel incredibly blessed) so I just refrained until I could explain it all.

First of all, we are all fine. Kids and parents are all alive and kicking and doing well on the health front. We have gone full force into our homeschooling this year and I am seeing progress. I am working continuously on our curriculum this year, adding things that are helpful, yet fun for the kids. The girls are doing our version of Princess Academy. Learning various housekeeping skills on top of crocheting, needlepoint, ettiquette, etc. So far it's been a fun experience :)

The boys are working on some guy things too, this year. proper use of tools, vehicle maintenance, etc. it gives them a chance to break away from the girls for a bit and spend some more bonding time with Chad.

We've also been working more on bible studies and speech with the boys. I am utilizing the things I learned last year from our speech therapist and they boys seem to enjoy it. Our pediatrician told me that he understands their speech more clearly this year than last year so I am just going to keep at it.

Now for the not so great news. If you have read my blog this year then you know that it has been a rough year around here with the car accident in May, and lack of hours at work. Chad was laid off in the middle of August to add to the fun. Sadly, the company he was working for closed it's doors two weeks after they let him go. He's still looking for work and we are praying that he finds something that won't take him away for us for weeks at a time. I'd appreciate any prayers you could send up on our behalf.

Amazingly, we are both pretty peacefull about the situation. As dire as it seems to not have a job in this recession. GOD has done an awesome job of seeing us through so far. I have faith that he will continue to do so. My prayer is that not only will he open a door for Chad, but that he will open THE door that brings him peace and happiness. He has been miserable at work for the last year, and it would be wonderful for him to find something that he really enjoys doing.

On the bright side, we are learning to make the most of our time with the kids. Finding low cost (or free) activities with the kids. The weather's changing so we are both venturing into the kitchen a bit more and enjoying more sit down dinners with the kids. This was hard when he was working crazy hours, the kids were sometimes heading to bed when he walked through the dor or he was heading to bed really early because he had to work a graveyard shift.

So that's the update, times are hard, money's tight, but were remain faithful that this is GOD's plan for us and we are patiently waiting to see what HE is going to do through us!

Love and Hugs,

Mary

Why I LOVE my six year old!

2009-07-31T22:00:00.004-07:00

Aidan: "Mom, how old are you?"
Me: "I'm old."
Aidan: "really old?"
Me:"Yup, REALLY old!"
Aidan: (in a matter of fact voice) "That means you're gonna die."
Me:"really, you don't say?"
Aidan:"Yup, gotta go, my dinner's ready!"

Kids are so funny!

Find your buddy!

2009-07-31T11:45:00.004-07:00

I have been meaning to blog about this for quite a while, mostly because it is one of the many answers to "How do you do it with seven kids?"

Running errands can be a little daunting with seven children in tow. They generally scatter like bugs when you open the car door. So we implemented the "find your buddy" technique a long time ago.

Once we open the "clown car"door and they all file out one by one (much to the amusement of passers by!) we shout "find your buddy!" Then all the littles, must find an older child or parent to pair up with as we walk. This makes it so I am essentially keeping track of half the kids because the older kids are usually pretty good about holding on to their siblings.

If the older kids decide to be difficult and complain about which "little" chose to pair up with them then the older kids may or may not be paired up with a parent. Try to visualize a 13 year old holding his dad's hand and you will understand why this technique works so well!

;)

Love and hugs,

Mary

Happy birthday Heaven!!!!

2009-07-30T12:23:00.003-07:00

At six weeks of age.....

Fast forward to this year!

Happy birthday to my beautiful girl! She's 11 today, she's grown so fast!

Love and Hugs!

Hair cut day!

2009-07-26T14:47:00.004-07:00

Today was hair cut day for the kiddos. FYI, when you have four boys, a good set of clippers will pay for themselves a thousandfold. The littles are all cool with buzz cuts but T wanted a bit more on top so he can gel it and be stylin! I think I did a pretty good job don't you?

Also a note to all the kids out there, if your mom is taking a picture and she says to smile, and you think it's cute to stick out your tongue or make a funny face, a word of warning......she may share the pic on her blog!

Love and hugs,

Mary

Random stuff from my the last few days.

2009-07-21T00:17:00.004-07:00

Totally random but here's AJ (and me) trying to hold on to a little frog for the picture. He caught it at the park and insisted a picture with it. it's a shame you can't actually see the frog, but I love the look on his face!!!

Well, the weekend came and went. Is it just me or are they really short??? Did the usual, gym on Saturday morning (the girls have dance class there so we might as well get a workout in!) then church in the evening. They are doing a series on Jonah that's really making me think! Then Sunday was a blissfull lazy day, where we watched the last few Harry Potter movies. I am going to take the kidlets to see the new one but wanted a refresher on the last ones.

Spent the last movie putting together my lesson plans for the week. At least I appear to be organized, even though my house is a scary mess right now.

Today I took Ash for her last follow up on her arm, and I think she may have single handedly convinced her doctor to join the gym. The first question she asked was if she could climb the rock wall now (yes she can, btw!) and the second was if she could swim, and the third was dance class. Once she told him about all the stuff she does at the gym he said he was going to have to check it out for his family. Wonder if Ash will get a commision from the gym?

Then we picked up the fam from the famous gym...and leave it to hubby to talk me into a few games of raquetball before we left. Then on the way home the wind blew in the fiercest looking clouds I have seen in AZ all summer and we made it in just in time to hear the rain pouring down! I know I am wierd but that is the most soothing sound to me and I was IN HEAVEN!!!! My neighbors all think I am nuts because when the clouds show up I am out in front searching for that first raindrop. They have even gone so far as to call me when it starts raining if they haven't seen me out there, lol.

Why I love my handy hubby!

2009-07-16T10:44:00.003-07:00

In spite of me being a wicked witch to him this week (gotta love those uber grouchy days of the month!) hubby blessed me with more cabinet space! About a day after the last three kids came to live with us we realized that there just wasn't enough space in this house to store food and supplies. We got creative for a while shoving snacks in a file cabinet and cases of canned goods under the bed. But we completely overlooked this wierd closet in our hallway that was an odd shape and really couldn't hold much of anything. So hubby installed shelves and even some lighting to give me one of the greatest gifts of all......MORE SPACE! (bonus...it even locks, so the kids won't eat all the oreos in one sitting!!!!)

I try really hard to keep the clutter down but food seems to be my weakness. I love knowing that the cabinets are stocked, so regardless of our financial situation that is one worry we will never have.

Now to tackle the space issues in the kids rooms!

Love and hugs,

mary

Two posts in one week! WOW!

2009-07-09T21:06:00.002-07:00

In the spirit of being brutally honest about my life with seven children....I thought I would start off with 10 confessions.

1. As much as I love to fake it, I am not nor will I ever be Supermom. If you show up and my house is clean, it's only because I saw you pull up in the driveway and I shoved the toys, trash, and eight loads of laundry in the oven!

2. No matter how much I smile at the supermarket with my family, I am probably one step away from going postal on my kiddos.

3. I am naturally lazy. If there is a way to get my house clean, kids fed, pets cleaned up after from the comfort of my desk chair (playing on facebook, of course) I will find it!

4. I procrastinate A LOT! I will look at and plan a project for days (or longer) if I can get away with it. No matter how small the project. Unfortunately this bites me in the butt at holidays and other special occasions. I make a hundred totally wonderful plans and then keep figuring I'll do them tomorrow. Before I know it it's April of the next year and I didn't do any of it!

5. I have an extremely short attention span. If I see an idea that looks interesting I am totally on the bandwagon...for about a week! Then it's back to procrastination and laziness! To combat this, I need to be kept in check and held accountable! This is why I workout with hubby and belong to a homeschooling group!

6. I have a wonderful sense of adventure.....but it is always followed by logic and doubt. For instance if I hear someone talking about how great it is where they live, I am ready to pack up and move at a moment's notice. But if given just a nanosecond longer to think about it I talk myself out of it. It drives my kids crazy!

7. I love my family more than I could ever imagine and always will. But there are days I don't like one or all of them very much.

8. I am still trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up!

9. Even though technically we are dealing with it now with a couple of the kids....I dread dealing with puberty!

10. As much as I swore I would never do it, I let the dvd player babysit my kids occasionally. That's at least an hour and a half to actually finish a thought.

I'll be back soon with more to share!

Love and hugs!
Mary

Been a while but things are looking up ;)

2009-07-07T20:00:00.003-07:00

Well, it's been a while since I have posted. I am just gonna go with my regular excuse of "please just hang with me as I have a bunch of kids and life is just nuts as usual!" In all honesty I probably could have blogged but by the time I get it all sorted out in my head something new is going on that makes the last thing obsolete not to mention I suffer from an extremely short attention span (not a good thing if you have seven children that homeschool, btw)...but anyway!

Ashleigh is on the mend, she got the cast off two weeks after it went on and she has about two weeks of recovery left before the doctor gives her the go ahead for pretty much everything. Deep down I think she misses the attention that the cast brought.

We are trying to get back into the swing of school. We finished our pioneer study and are moving onto reptiles next. The kids saw Jurassic Park and that started the topic of dinosaurs, so I am gonna jump on the dinosaur bandwagon and make it educational!

The temps are rising and I am doing my best to make a dollar stretch around here, another side effect of having a bunch of kids is REALLY testing the elasticity of a dollar! Chad's work seems to be picking up a bit so I am doing my best to get back on top of the finances. That icky recession was really starting to kick our rears! But I am working on it.

So I am going to try to be better about blogging. I get questions all the time about how I "do it" with seven kids. I think I am going to address them here. There's really no science to it, you just do what you can with what GOD gives you.

So if anyone has any topics they would like me to address, feel free to leave a comment and I will do my best. Don't be shy either, I will honestly try to address any topic you'd like.

Love and hugs,

Mary

More evidence that my life is anything but dull!

2009-06-09T14:46:00.003-07:00

In case you were all thinking that my life was getting boring, here's proof that that is not the case. Just when things were quieting down around here, we heard crying from one of the kids' rooms. they were all roughhousing, Ash was done and apparently Raven wasn't. As she was sitting on the bed reaching down to the floor for a toy, Ray decided to help her off the bed by pushing her! She has a small fracture in her elbow and a cool neon pink cast for two weeks.

She loves her cast and all the attention it brings! I'm just hoping it heals fast so she won't spent the whole summer in pain!

Love and hugs,

Mary

More on the Truck situation

2009-06-01T14:06:00.002-07:00

After reading the comment from my last post I thought I should elaborate a bit on the "totalled" truck. Since the other person was totally at fault in this accident, we are not dealing with our insurance company at all. We can if we want ( we would have had a rental within an hour of the accident) to but if we did then we would have to pay our $500 deductable and lose our no incident discount on our monthly payments. For the record we have nothing but great hings to say about OUR insurance company and our agent, who has to be growing tired of the daily calls for advice on how we should handle things.

Had the other party not "been in a fog" on the day of the accident, and conveniently forget exactly what the details of the accident were the next day and question who was at fault to her insurance company.(The interesting thing is she called us at home an hour after talking to her agent and apologized to hubby for causing it!)
Her insurance company refused to accept liability until a police report was in hand, and in the state of Arizona where apparently the weather is too hot to rush anything, it takes up to 15 working days to get a report!

We were given the options to either file a claim with our insurance, which they would reimburse us for later for the fees and deductable when the police report revealed their client was at fault. Or just rent a car on our own and they would reimburse us later.....We didn't have the cash for either option.

The good news is that the report finally made it into records, Chad had a rental car within a half hour of faxing it to her insurance company and we should be getting the paperwork revealing how much they are willing to pay for the truck today or tomorrow. So things are finally moving in the right direction.

The insurance company's idea of "totalled"

2009-05-21T10:40:00.002-07:00

I may be ignorant, but there is no way I think that this truck is totalled. Bent? Yes....Needs work? Yes...Unsuitable to repair and someday drive again? NO!

The explanation that they gave was that since cars aren't selling, parts cost three times as much no as they did when we bought the truck. Darn...the bad economy rears it's ugly head in our lives once again!

Still no word on how much they are going to pay for it, still no police report and still no rental. We are in a holding pattern here just waiting for word. Chad is down about his truck but seems to be coming to terms with the idea that he has absolutely no control of the outcome here. It feels like things are more calm these days.

But waiting is hard!

Love and Hugs,

Mary

Can we erase last week, please???(very long!)

2009-05-13T22:45:00.004-07:00

Last week was nuts, so nuts that I couldn't even blog about it until I had some time to wrap my head around all of the events. It began Monday evening when Chad found out the contest that he has been seriously training for five months for got cancelled do to a recall and legal issues for the sponsors. He has truly busted his rear to get into shape for this and it has kept him (and his supportive wife, yours truly) motivated to drag our tired butts into the gym five nights a week on top of the five mornings a week he did before work. Boy did that take the air out of his sails!

Then Tuesday afternoon, we had a tiny misunderstanding with the water company. We thought we had paid the bill and they so very graciously informed us that we hadn't......by shutting off the water! So we promptly paid the bill over the phone only to be told there were cutbacks at the water company and they didn't have a dispatcher so they couldn't give us an absolute time when they would be there just that it would be by 6 pm. This was at 1 pm! For almost five hours I sat here with seven children, and no water. OH JOY!

Wednesday was uneventful, went to the park with the kids.

Thursday morning Chad wakes me to kiss me goodbye for work....fifteen minutes later the phone rings, "Honey, you're gonna love this one," he says, "First of all I am fine, but I wrecked my truck."

Can I just say if there are words that will pull you right out of dreamland those are the ones!

As it turns out he is fine. The truck is bent up but he managed to drive it home, he's not at fault at all and the other car was REALLY wrecked. So he spent the entire day trying to get everything sorted out and a rental in place before he had to be to work on Monday....unfortunately, the insurance company had different ideas. They told us they weren't even dealing with the situation until they had a police report in hand or their client could speak to them with a clear head (she had an anxiety attack and was a bit looped out when she called the insurance company so they weren't relying on the info she gave).

Friday morning (AKA Chad's birthday) his boss calls promptly at 8 am (so much for letting the birthday boy sleep in after his crappy day before) to find out if Chad would mind going back to being a stocker. Let me remind you that the stocker position was likely responsible for the two surgeries he underwent last year. Chad told him he would go wherever they needed him but he wasn't crazy about beating his body up anymore. Long story short, they were eliminating his office position and the stocker position was his only option if he wanted to remain an employee.

Later on Friday we managed to get an insurance inspector out to look at the truck, the insurance company still wasn't budging on liability because apparently the other party was "in a fog" the day of the accident and doesn't remember exactly what went down that day. The inspector called us about two hours later to tell us that they were probably just going to total it out. If you look at the truck, it is in no way totalled. A new radiator and possibly a fan and them body work. But with the economy the way it is apparently parts cost three times as much so they are going to cut their losses.

We don't know how much they are planning to pay for the truck. But we are seriously praying it covers what we owe on it!

pause........

breathe......

focus.......

It's wierd but I really can't get worked up over all of the uncertainty of these events. I can hear GOD speaking to me in every event. The contest is HIM telling us to focus on taking care of ourselves so that we may be more efficient in what we are put here to do. Not to focus so much on attention or a prize, but to find peace in feeling better and being healthier.

The water situation was a nudge to me to take more of an active interest in our finances. For too long I have left the bookkeeping up to Chad because it was the easier thing to do. When the water was shut off I had no clue where to even find the bill to call. This is truly something I can take off of his hands to make his life a little less stressful.

The accident was a push to simplify. We have been over extended for quite a while and it was a littl silly to have a "bought and paid for" vehicle sitting in the driveway for most of the day doing nothing while we financed one for Chad to get to work. When we actually did the math on how much the truck was costing us every month (payments, gas,upkeep, insurance and registration), this actually will free up close to 800 dollars a month (assuming the insurance company truly pays it off, but I am not gonna worry because I am not in control, GOD is!).

The switch to the stocker position is a blessing in disguise too. It came with a significant raise and possible overtime every week (they weren't even giving Chad a full forty hours a week in the office until just recently). He is in far better shape now than he was when he last worked in this position, so he's not as likely to get seriously hurt just from the job itself. Last, the hours are very early in the morning until early after noon, so he is home to hang with the kids and I more.

A further note on simplifying.....The money for Dish network ended up going to turn the water back on so bright and early on Mother's Day we had no tv.....Chad made a trip to WalMart to purchase an $8 antenna and I now can watch all my local stations in high definition! I get a better picture on my TV now than I did with Dish FOR FREE(and yes it's a digital tv so it's gonna be that way even after all the networks switch)!

So I am content, Chad is not hurt, there is nothing that has been taken from us that we can't live without. We can take this time to enjoy the simple things....kids running in the sprinklers on a hot day, a bedtime story, the smell of bread baking and the love and laughter shared around the dinner table.

It seems we still have all of the essentials!

Love and Hugs,

Mary

As if I don't have enough to do!

2009-05-04T10:06:00.002-07:00

Yes folks, I know I am nuts but this little cutie stole my heart and I brought her home. The price was right, she was free, up to date on shots, and already had a crate, leash, puppy training manual and dog treats. He name is Delilah and so far most of the family adores her (Izzy still isn't quite sure, but she's warming up!) She's smart as a whip, so far she hasn't had an accident in the house once!

It's hard to see in the pic but she is a rich chocolate color so now we have lab mixes in all three colors...black, yellow and chocolate. I swear this is the last critter.....for now! LOL!