Summer Fun in the Sun

We enjoyed having family and friends over on the fourth of July. It was a small get together but fun. What a nice way to relax. The Andrews hung out all day with us. We turned on the xbox 360 to entertain their little girl and it ended up being a 6 hour Peggle fest. Everyone joined in. They ended up finishing the first series and moving through most of the challenges.

Steve and Jay did the computer thing, as computer geeks will do. ;-) Jay did get our website up and running. Now I just have to take some Frontpage classes to design the website. Hopefully by Christmas we will have itsjustforyou.com up and running.

Yesterday I had my first two presentaions for the new company I joined. I am now a referral rep for a wellness company called Melaleuca. If you are interested in products that are all natural and kid and pet safe, let me know. I can give you more information on the products. And share the success stories we have had with changing over to their vitamin products.

I am excited about my new job. I love the products and enjoy sharing them with others. Yesterday was a little interesting and lots of adventure. But in the end, I did get my first two customer refrerrals. I am happy that I get to help two more families make their homes safer for their kids, pets and the enviornment.

Financial Peace Junior

Today we started Dave Ramsey's FPU Jr. with our kids. I made checklists for the chores they need to complete. I filled out their commission trackers and explained it all to them. Now lets see how well they do.

So far, I have clean bathrooms and they are working on their bedrooms. They have been cleaning like mad since I told them how it works. I wonder how long the excitement will last. I know most of it is from the money they will earn for the chores they do.

Maybe this will eliminate some of the fighting with chores. I made the checklists to avoid the whiny voiced "I forgot" that tends to happen when they clean their rooms. No forgetting now. Although they could still forget how to read! LOL ;-)

It is raining again today so it made sense in introduce the new items today. And it helps with having our class tonight. We will have clean bathroom for when the company shows up.

Our goal is to teach the kids how not to get into debt. Let them learn from the mistakes we have made. We truly are trying to change our family tree. I love Dave Ramsey's class and feel so blessed to have the opportunity to share it with others.

Have a blessed day. I am off to vacuum the family room and to start dinner.

Summer time

Summer is definitely here. It is hot and rainy. Today the thunder is rolling and the lightening flashing. So the kids are in the kitchen. Shay made two batches of bread and helped Zach make yogurt pops.

They are planning out the dinner menu now. It is a surprise so they wont tell me what they are making only that it contains turkey burger. I only know that much because Zach asked me if we had any.

We bought yearly passes to the Brevard Zoo. We went last weekend with some friends. It was a great day. Hot but fun. Next time I have to remember to bring water bottles with us. They have a new lagoon water feature there. I think I will bring the kids up next week. I would this week but they are calling for rain all week. I can't complain though. Our trees need it.

Speaking of trees, I have a star fruit tree in the back yard. I have been babying it for about 6 months because I couldn't get it to bloom or fruit. Well, my babying paid off. I have several blooms and so far 3 fruit growing. I think out of this first set we will get 5 star fruit. The tree is young yet so I am happy with that. Once they start to fruit, they will give off 5 harvests a year. So, this is just the first of many. Now, I am waiting on my passion fruit vine to flower. Steve & the kids got it for me for Mother's Day. It has tripled in size!

That's it for now. Have a wonderful week!

Youth group Prject

Ok, I have been helping with the redecorating of our youth room. We got new t-shirts this year and the youth room is being repainted to match the shirts. It is really awesome.

My part in this - the back of the shirt tells what our youth group theme "Extreme Lives" is all about. So, instead of our wonderful artist, Mrs. Jackie, painting all those small letters, I cut them out with my cricut using an adhesive vinyl. I just finished them and turned them over to Mrs. Jackie yesterday. They will finish the letters while I am gone to North Carolina. I can't wait to see it when I get back.

Finally back

Well, it has been a very busy few months for us. It just seems I never find the time to update my blog. I have tons of pictures to upload from a few field trips we have been on. But our computer crashed last week. I am just getting things back on the hard drive.

We are leaving Friday afternoon to head to Forest City, NC for a week. My in-laws are vacationing up there and asked us to come up for Mother's Day. So we are having an early vacation this year. We are hoping to stop by my dad's place on the way up. I have to double check with him. If we can stay at his place Friday night than we will only have a 5 1/2 hour trip left on Saturday.

I am sure we will be doing some waterfall chasing again this year. I can't wait to go hiking in the woods with the kids. They need to work off some of their energy. They will still be completing some work while we are there. They kinds fell behind when I got sick a few weeks back. They decided since mom wasn't watching every move, they could take and extended spring break.... They didn't realize it would mean they would have to work through a vacation.... I bet they will get it all done next time!

Working together

Steve & I have been hard at work all weekend. We are putting together a budget for the first time. We are very excited that after four hours of eye crossing work, our budget is balanced. That is for February. The month is almost over so now we work on the March one. SHHHH I haven't broken that news to Steve yet. ;-)

Actually, we are both feeling good about it, calmer. Its hard work but so worth it. This is the first time in our married life that Steve has been really involved in our day to day finances. Its nice that he knows where we stand on everything now. And that he is helping too.

I did our taxes today too. That is a relief that its done. I always stress until its complete. We converted my MIL to Turbo Tax this year. She struggled through it, no being computer savy. But she is so happy its done and that she saved so much money. Steve figured it out and even though is took her five hours, she made $70.00 an hour tonight by not going to her accountant. Not to shabby.

We are enjoying this class we are taking. It is true, financial peace brings you closer together in unity and so freeing. I am glad we decided to take the class. I am going to save up and buy his kit for homeschooling and teach it to the kids. I believe it is valuable tool for them to have. We already got Shay a checking account. I am teaching her how to balance it and keep track of it all.

Shaylin had a big weekend. She attended a presentation 2 our church. Tony Dungee (sp) was part of it. There where 7 people to show up at our church for it and Shay was the only girl. But she really enjoyed herself. Than, she had her first youth workday for missions. They do work at peoples houses to help raise money for their mission trips. She has been saving her babysitting money for her trip. She is almost there. The ladies she babysits for slipped her a few extra dollars because they know she is saving up for it. She really has some nice ladies that she sits for.

She also learned how to mow tha lawn this weekend. She came in and told me she enjoyed doing it. I think the fact that she was doing something to help her dad made it enjoyable. There isn't much she can do for him and this was a huge help. She was black when she came in. But she felt satisfied with herself. She sure is growing up fast....

Zach got out of the work and was building a fort in the woods with his friends. typical boy stuff...

How was your weekend???

Changing it up

We are changing up the inside of our house. We have lived here for almost three years but have not made it our own. So, we are rearranging things to suit our needs. Steve is currently in the attic working on the wiring.

We are deleting our "living room" and moving our family room into its place. Than we are moving the kitchen table into the area that the family room was in. This make sense because we have an open kitchen and the family room was part of it. Now we will have a big kitchen/dinning area.

This will also give a homeschooling space. There will be enough room in the "great room" to put a table and a reading area for the kids. I am SUPER excited about this. I eventually want to get a cabinet that will hold my sewing stuff so I have a place to store it all too.

So instead of flowers or a wordy card, my husband is sweating for my Valentine's gift. Which I greatly appreciate!!! We even went yard sailing today & bought a nice table and chairs for the kids to do their school work at. It also doubles as a nice game table for the kids. :-) No more asking them to PLEASE clean off the kitchen table so we can eat at it.

Ok, I just had to share my excitement. This is the first day in a week that I have felt good and the work being done on the house is lifting me up more too. But I won't over do it. I don't want to spend another week on the couch to weak to even make lunch. YUK!!

Have a Happy Valentines Day!!!