Bad News: Saturday while driving home from working an all day volleyball tournament the Neon broke down on my wife. It won't go out of neutral and it is a 5 speed. Good News: The 3rd car behind my wife was a police officer and 3 behind him was a friend of ours. My wife got a ride.
Bad News: We had to tow it home. Good News: $23 tow rope and my friend pulled me home. Probably saved $50 doing it ourselves. Weird being pulled around. Kind of scary actually.
Good News: Sunday my neighbor and I located the problem. Looks like a rubber bushing and clip popped off allowing the gear engager to not work. Bad News: Special order part and I have to order the WHOLE cable, not just the small parts-$80. Bad News: The dealer will have to install it and it costs about $250 to install.
Good News: I'm alive and we have a second car.
I have always been an advocate of having at least ONE car that is under the factory warranty. When a warranty car breaks down the manufacturer will pay for towing and possibly a rental car in times like this. Little or NO cost to the owner. Downside is payments. Consider how much we pay for health insurance and rarely use it. It almost makes the $300 car payment a wise investment. We pay over $3000 a year to have health insurance for the wife and kids and still have to pay when we go to the doctor. A car payment is kind of like "break down" insurance. Buying a Hyundai with a 10 year warranty sounds good right now.
I consider the fact that 1 the children weren't in the car 2 the police and a friend were behind her 3 and it broke down here in Texas instead of in Colorado A GOD THING! All credit given to God!
Church was business as usual today. One of our cars broke down last night so I went at 8:30 when my wife went. I actually went to an early adult bible class, then to worship, and then taught my class. I enjoyed going and sitting in as a student for a change. It was a good lesson too! I'll probably use the material for my class next week. I might be on to something here!
After our 11am bible class we went to pick up our kids and got a negative report for our 1+ year old son. This is the kid that everyone says is a "great and easy" baby. Well he is developing a "that's mine" attitude and becomes a little bulldozer with a kung fu grip when he's got ahold of something that he wants. Report was he even hit another kid today. I never hit my wife in front of the kids.....okay, I'd never hit her either!
Kind of a bummer that he was a toot today. Our daughter barely had the terrible 2's at the age of 3. Hope he isn't in his terrible 2's at the ripe old age of 14 months. Pray for us and him!
Went and mowed Wednesday night and with cash flow tightly constrained I was on a mission to bring home dinner for CHEAP. We decided on Little Ceasar's Pizza.
My past experiences with LC's pizza in the past hasn't been positive. From my St. Louis days they were inside the KMart and the pizza was "blah" and skimpy. Maybe that explains why they dwindled in both the St. Louis and Dallas markets. Well, recently one opened in a strip mall about 5 miles from home, but within our running grounds.
Someone ordered it at school last year and I basically had a few peices of garlic bread. Not bad. This past weekend our church ordered it to feed those who were helping to set up for the dislocated hurricane victims. It was pretty good stuff. Real cheesy and not so skimpy.
I just stopped by after mowing without having placed an order ahead of time. Now they have pepperoni and cheese pizzas HOT n READY to go. The HOT and Ready sign reminded me of the Krispy Kreme HOT sign that entices people to stop in for FRESH donuts. I decided to break tradition from pepperoni and order the sausage that I had at church. I was told it would be about 12 minutes. So I sat and just watched everyone.
This place had about 12 workers and all were busy. They had a steady supply of pepperoni and cheese only pizzas for quick pick up. While I was there I counted 12 pizza purchased for $60 plus extras like wings and crazy bread. So about $100 in quick sales. That was only in 10 minutes. I can imagine how much they took in during the PEAK 2 hours of sales.
The pizza was pleasantly delicious. Not bad feeding a family of 4 for $5.41. We cash is flowing again I think I will splurge and get the wings and crazy bread for a total of about $13.
If you haven't tried it in a while, I do recommend Little Ceasar's PIZZA PIZZA!
I may never see this guy again, but he was my best friend tonight. The first guy off the bus came in humbly into an upscale church, sat down, accepted a bag with water and a snack in it and quietly sat as about 50 volunteers looked on ready to help. I didn't get assigned to assist this guy, but I could tell he was my kind of guy. Later on I did get to know this guy. I helped him get new underwear, socks, jeans and a few new or like new shirts. He was so thankful and appreciative. He was quick to say thank you, but in reality I should have been thanking him for letting me serve him and actually putting my Christianity into practice. Instead of teaching bible studies to friends week after week we were able to work side by side taking care of others as it should be.
I say thank you Mr. Webster for being a great friend tonight. It was so rewarding being able to try to provide for you the basic needs that Christ so often did when reaching out to people: food, shelter and clothing.
Today was my wife's 31st birthday and she will remember this birthday for the rest of her life. She did not complain once about how this affected her special day.
Keep praying for these people. They may rest easier tonight, but they are still not at home.
Last night on the way to the movies they had a detour on the highway service road. At first it looked like a sobriety checkpoint, but it wasn't. Turns out we are getting people from the hurricane area and the service road runs right by the community center.
My wife and I watched a movie last night. Afterwards, at 12:30am, we went back by and the road was still closed down. I checked email before going to bed and one email from church stated that all church services for the next 2 weeks are cancelled because we are going to be a relief/housing center for a while.
We spent most of the day gearing up for at least 50 people if not more. Pretty humbling when people are going to show up with nothing but the clothes they are wearing. They are to be showered at a local country club before coming to us. I guess we check them in and escort them to their bedding area and then give them a good meal.
My Sunday school class will be providing and serving lunch for them tomorrow. So, if you are a friend from Crosspoint....no services tomorrow, but we still need your help. If you are a Tblog friend or chance browser pray for these people and our church. This could have a bigger impact than the 9/11 tragedy.
Give, donate, pray, provide. We are again called to step up.
BillyV probably knows what I mean when I say I went Buddy with my shoes. In St. Louis somehow the term "buddy" was used for anyone who obviously bought there shoes from KMart. Remember those Traxx shoes. Blue with white stripes were pretty common.
Well, with finances tight, gas prices skyrocketing and our electric bill pushing $300 I had to adjust when it came to buying my new tennis shoes. No, I didn't buy my tennis shoes from KMart(none in our area), but I did get them at Walmart. I got the $15.87 pair of tennis shoes and they actually feel great....so far. They may break down in a few weeks though.
Funny thing is I noticed that my dad, who is visiting from St. Louis, just got his new pair from Walmart too. I accused him of buying the $10.00 pair, but he rebuked me saying they were almost $20.00.
Anyway, I'm not sure if they even have a name, but they feel just as good, if not better, than the $49.99 pair of Reeboks that I bought at the outlet mall last March. And, they look better too!
5. Pretend it is just $1.79 and don't pay attention when you pay. 4. Use up one sick day a week and save 20% in fuel costs. 3. On a long commute put your flashers on as soon as you get on the highway and pull over as if you have car problems. The nicer you dress the more likely you will get a ride. 2. Unload the heavies. If you ride by yourself a lot take out the other seats in your car. Works for racecar drivers. Also empty the trunk, even the jumper cables and drive with a little risk. 1. Sleep at work on night a week and cut out one day of driving.
Work by 7am and left at 7:45. No, I didn't only work 45 minutes. Almost a 13 hour day. Thing is, I love what I do. Wouldn't want to do that all the time, but it was nice to actually get caught up with no distractions. We have curriculum night and parents were there from 6:45-7:45. So for about 2 1/2 hours I tried to catch up on things I had trouble getting to the first 2 weeks.
The hurricane gave our area some relief from the heat. The kids have had 2 straight days of outdoor recess!
Gas went up again. $2.73 here. Makes that 3 cent discount per gallon a little weaker. 20 gallons at 3 cents when gas was $1.49 wasn't too bad. The stores need to up the discount to make us FEEL like we are getting a deal.
Any body got an electric bike or motorcycle for sale. It may be time to ride one the 3 miles to work.
I haven't filled up my gas tank in a LONG time. We put $8 in the Neon on Saturday and then Sunday morning on the way to church I put in another $8. Nothing like pulling up to the pump to see 28 gallons and the total from the previous customer being over $60. WOW!
I just wonder how many people aren't even putting over a half a tank when they visit the gas station. My wife had the idea of carrying around a few gallons of gas in a can when you near empty to see what the gauge actually shows when you run out of gas. I told her I thought this could be bad for the engine. She is the queen of running the guage below the mark so maybe I'll let her try this.
Also, are more people driving off without paying for their gas? Prepay and debit/credit pay should be reducing this.
All I know is we are always running on empty and finally are making changes by making less trips than we need to.
Might be time to attend a church much closer to home.
I'm back. Longest time off since I went to blogging once a week in January.
I had a bothering thought the other day when I visited a local restaurant. How many mouths has this particular fork been in? If the establishment worked efficiently it could make it into at least 5+ mouths a day and at 365 days a year it would easily top 1500 mouths a year. There may even be a good chance that the same fork could enter the same mouth.
Does this bother you at all?
In the movie As Good As It Gets there is a scene were Jack Nicholson's character who is OCD(obsessvie compulsive disorder) pulls out a set of his own plastic untensils. Kind of funny, yet very smart in my opinion.
Do any of you have problems with eating out quirks? Germs at a buffet table, unkept restaurants, nonquality of some workers, community utensils.
I bought my house in Texas a lot cheaper than I could have bought the same house in St. Louis because of who builds the houses here. In Missouri you have unions and that probably adds 20% to the cost. Here in Texas you wouldn't find anyone who speaks English on the jobsite.
A friend of mine bought a new house and sent out and email asking for help with the moving this weekend. Tonight he basically said not to worry about it because he would just go and get a few day laborers to do all the heavy work.
Within 1/4 a mile of my house over 100 Mexican immigrants sit and wait for people to pull up needing help. I've never watched for an extended period of time so I don't know if everyone gets a job. Basically you just pull up and hold up a few fingers and the first 2 or 3 who respond are your workers. I'm sure cash is king in this system. At least they are not draining the welfare system.
So I basically insulted my parents by buying a house built by non-union Mexican day laborers. They both put in 30 years in union factories in Missouri. My dad from GM and is well taken care of. My mother a piston ring company who has sold out 4 times in 10 years and any day could be her last day....without a pension.
They'll be here this weekend. Oh yeah, I voted Republican and that just burns them too!
It's a little too late for "It's getting hot in here...a"
Forecast was for 104 degrees here in Texas which brings me to the reason for the post. It is already hot in here....a.
1) At school we've been told when the temperature hits 90 degrees the kids can only have 10 minutes recess outside. So does that include the 1 to get out there and the 3 to get them all lined up.......equaling 6 active minutes? It is hot and asthma is an issue in Texas with our OZONE Orange and Red days.
2) It is currently in legislation that school would have to start after Labor Day. The reason for this would be to help save money on AC. It would also allow for many of the migrant hispanic families to settle back in Texas. It was not too uncommon for students to keep showing up all through September.
All I know is that it is hot while I'm outside calling carpool names from 3:30 until 3:50. Almost need to change clothes immediately because drench and stenchitis is near kicking in.
September better bring cooler weather.........but I'll be patient and wait and enjoy the here and now.
This past year was tough financially for us, yet God has been good to us and we have survived. I often wonder how many blessings I am missing by not always tithing correctly or just by not asking God for help. Guess that is what I'll find out on Heaven Orientation day when I cease to live.
I know I have been guilty of looking forward to greener pastures ......financially. Our car will be paid off by February. Our daughter will start kindergarden NEXT year Summer 06 and that could save childcare costs. My wife's student loans are close to being paid off. With those things out of the way we could potentially have $1000 more cash flow AND if my wife goes back to work it could be a net of $2000 a month. Can you see how it could be easy to look ahead?
Also in general I can't wait for the NFL season to start. I love that noon to 1:30 timeframe on Sundays when I am waiting to see how my teams are doing. I can't wait for the 100 degree days to pass and our AC gets a break. I can't wait until the day I get motivated to become more health conscious.
My prayer is that I REALLY enjoy the here and now. Special times indeed when my son is saying 4 words with purpose: 'nana, dad, bubbles and woof woof. He also signs "more" when he wants more ba'nana. My 4 year old has a great sense of humor and has become quite the artist. I've had 10 great years of marriage and my wife has become my best friend. My parents are still alive and are able to enjoy my children. My dad is a recovering alcoholic of 40+ years and is learning a new lifestyle. I really enjoy my job and currently have the largest connection of friends thanks to church. I am fortunate enough to live within 25 minutes of a life long best friend. I am currently healthy enough to do what I like.
Stop wishing my life away. Slow down, take it one day at a time, take time to breath, enjoy the here and now. Pray that I do!
I was long overdue for a hair cut and finally went Saturday for a cut. A parent of one of my AM program students wore a beautician outfit one morning and after talking to her I found that she works for A Touch of Class so I told her I'd see her Saturday. When I finally found the place I saw that it was a Beauty School in the less fortunate part of town. I went on in and the place was really clean. I asked for this lady and they said she only does pedicures and manicures. Needing the cut badly I decided to just get it trimmed up a little.
After about a 5 minute wait a guy came out to cut my hair. Clean cut, younger guy, who had the hair cut I wish I could pull off. Short and spiked up a little. It was probably one of the best cutting experiences I've had in a long time. Since it is a school I only paid $5. SpankSpank should be so proud! That allowed me to tip $5 which is the only money this guy makes since he is paying to get his license.
I did talk to the school parent and she encouraged me to come in and get a manicure and pedicure sometime. They only cost $3 and $10 respectively. I think I might do that sometime.
Last night was women's bible study at our house and it is my duty to keep the kids, usually out and away from the house. The opportunity to play cards at 9pm came up so I tried putting both kids down around 8pm while I had 2 friends waiting on me outside. My son cried from 8:00-8:45 and my daughter got up to POOP and then she had a bloody nose. Long story short: I screwed up!
Mistake #1 Not taking the kids away from the house like I had planned. Mistake #2 Thinking that I could put my son down before going. At this time I had planned on taking my daughter since someone else would have a daughter there too. Mistake #3 Since we weren't playing until 9pm I thought maybe I could also put my daughter to sleep and not have to worry about a sleepy and crabby girl around 11pm. Mistake #4 Letting things get out of hand enough that my wife left the study to tend to the crying boy and the nose bleeding girl. Mistake #5 Going to play cards when my wife said, "Just go, I've seen the video part of the study before."
The best thing I've done in the past 24 hours was this morning when I came home from mowing I didn't stop off like usual to bring home donuts or bagels. My wife had a successful week dieting and the last thing I needed now was to sabotage that too!
What do you do with a 4 year old who has all of a sudden started pooping her pants? Not just once in a while, but 3 times tonight alone. I'm at my wits end. The first consequence was loss of privelege of her stuffed animals. The second consequence was no TV tomorrow. The third consequence was her friend is not going to be able to come over tomorrow. I give up.
Is this an attention getting action? It has gone on for a while here and there for the past 2 months. Just when you think she's over it, she pulls a night like tonight. It wasn't the runs or an accident. We're talking harder to clean up than the Exxon Valdez may have been, except no animals died in this accident.
I attended a teacher seminar where the presenter said, "Never do to a child what you wouldn't do to an adult." I agree for the most part, but it is hard not to belittle her. I tell her that her friends can't hang around someone who poops their pants. She just says, "But I need friends."
I've been so busy I really couldn't tell you what day it was other than 13 more days until my next paycheck. Getting ready for the first day of school has been physically and mentally taxing. I am behind on my mowing and with stuff going on almost everynight and I really don't see an end in sight. Maybe the dust will settle by Labor Day weekend when my parents come to town for 4 1/2 days.
Do you ever feel so busy that your mind becomes numb? I fall fast asleep due to fatique only to have restless sleep because my mind is racing back and forth. At this pace no wonder it seems like my life is flying by.
One of my all time favorite songs is Red Rain by Peter Gabriel and the best version of it was performed on MTV something with Natalie Merchant and Michael Stipe singing along live.
Today it finally poured in buckets, twice. My yard has taken a beating this hot summer and that is with watering it twice a week. It rained hard enough to interupt my satellite signal and it was nice to feel the squish of water as I walked across my yard. I also tried to explain the lightning then thunder theory to my daughter without scaring her.
About 8pm tonight the electricity went out and we do not have many candles so it got dark fast. I did figure I could listen to music on my laptop as my son cried himself to sleep and then the phone rang. Forgot that I still had access to the land line so I jumped online to blog. In the middle of blogging the electricity came on.
Now I need to finish preparing for the kids first day tomorrow. Pray for me, or the kids.
I think I just finished my busiest week at home. It may even compete with how busy I was during our 10 trek to St. Louis/Colorado/St. Louis back to Texas. Last week teachers officially reported to duty on Wednesday, but announcing started Tuesday. Both Wednesday and Thursday night I was up at school until 8pm with both kids and my wife setting my room up. Friday night was meet the teacher night and Saturday I announced 9am-2:30pm.
The highlight of the weekend was having dinner with friends from church, playing Scrabble and then going to see the movie The Skeleton Key with my friend Scott.
Today was the usualy church 9-12, an after church meeting, mowing of 2 yards and finally a moment of rest here at about 6pm. Rest meaning being home to chase and entertain my 1 year old son. I had hoped that mommy would have taken him grocery shopping with her, but the daughter woke up from her nap wanting to go so I didn't want to burden her with taking both kids shopping.
Now I've got to get my science lesson plans finished along with read the Sunday paper while watching the Cardinals and Cubs on ESPN Sunday Night Baseball.
My wife stayed home this past year for 2 reasons. #1 to be with our newborn and 3 year old and #2 by the time we paid $1200 childcare she could offset the difference by tutoring 10 hours a week....we thought.
Today an acquaintance stopped by to pick up a power tool we used over a year or so ago when they attended our church. A mutual friend informed them that we still had it. In conversation this lady told my wife that her three children were all going to daycare, at least 4 days a week.
My question is why would a parent stay home "with the kids" only to send them to daycare 4 to 5 days a week? I can understand when a parent sends her kids to a Mom's Day out Program for maybe 2 days. It's not easy being home with kids all day every week. Although I am with 20 kids all day every day, with pay.
Does it seem odd that someone who stays home still sends the kids to childcare programs the full week?
My week would have been a disaster if it weren't for my wife.
1st: She is watching the neighbor's kids and the $125 actually has kept us from bouncing checks or hacking off the creditors. This with tutoring and keeping our kids.
2nd: She has done about 80% of getting my room ready for the 1st day of school. She is so creative and it is natural for her. I struggle for a half hour on something that she does in 5 minutes. So it seemed like my job the last 2 evenings was to watch the kids in my room while she worked. (She loves doing this so it kind of validates her AND I benefit!)
3rd: She has really stepped it up on keeping the house clean and the laundry going. Before I think I did about 75% of the laundry and no she probably does about 80% of it.
I am blessed to have a wife like D and know that I couldn't have found someone more perfect for ME!
My wife is watching 3 of the neighbor kids for a very discounted price. More of a favor for our neighbors before the kids start school next week. She is only getting $25 a day for ALL THREE. Normal prices are $30 a day for EACH kid anymore. This has been an eye opening experience for us....sort of. This is the same family that lets a 5 year old ride his bike out in the busy street and without a helmet. My daughter says, "He's not being safe." So right and it's the parent's fault.
About this week: The oldest is a girl, 4th grade; a boy in 3rd grade and a boy starting kindergarden. These kids do not know how to entertain themselves. My daughter is able to play alone, color, look at books, etc and she is only 4. The only entertainment for these siblings is aggravating each other or sitting comatose in front of the TV. We've had to get onto them often for using inappropriate words: the kindergardener calling his brother gay, etc. My daughter has pointed out a few times that they weren't being nice to each other.
The boys had to sit in time out today for kicking each other while they were swinging.
The parents sent 2 movies with their children today: Dodgeball and Flight of the Phoenix. These aren't movies for a 5,8,10 year old. They are both PG-13 and Dodgeball had many sexual innuendos....adult movies.
Either I am way too protective as a parent or these parents are really lax.
I feel fortunate to be starting teacher meetings tomorrow and really feel for my wife. I pray she survives. We got lucky today because they got dropped off at 8:30(late) and picked up early at 3:45.
I read in the USA Today newspaper on Monday that oil hit almost $64 a barrell. This is insane considering that it was near $40 less than a year ago. Makes me want to trade my 33 mpg Dodge Neon in for a nice pair of tennis shoes, maybe a pair of Reeboks from the local outlet mall for $39.99.
Reasons for high prices: 1. Increased consumption-mainly China. Did everyone finally trade in their bikes for SUVs? 2. US refineries are operating to the point that they are severely low in reserves. We have BILLIONS of gallons on reserve stocked away in Colorado that could be used RIGHT NOW! 3. Terrorist threats made in Saudia Arabia. Nice ploy there. Wouldn't it pay S.A. to threaten itself and since it controls much of the world's oil production benefit from the increases? 4. North Texas. This has got to be the Suburban capital of the U.S.A.
Crazy is now being happy to pay ONLY $2.25 for gas. I actually got $10 worth at Walmart Friday for $2.16. Today one local station was $2.44. What you can do right now is get a GREAT deal on a large SUV at a used car lot. Just hope you don't have to drive it.
Being a professional fast food visitor I was suprised today to find out how good macaroni and cheese along with baked fish sticks could be. My wife is watching 3 of the neighbor's kids along with our 2 today and at lunch time that is what was served. My 1 year old seemed to do the best job eating it.
I had a few bites of the left over mac n cheese along with 3 fish sticks and that was my lunch. Cheap and not bad. Maybe it brought back good childhood memories, or just broke up the monotony of burgers and fries.
What do you enjoy eating at home that is simple and cheap and for some reason not served that often?
