Black Friday Shopping = One More Month on the Dave Ramsey Program

I am NOT a black friday shopper, however Shawn is. So at 4:20 a.m. he comes in and kisses me goodbye and out the door he went. He is supposed to get two things that are going to be Christmas gifts - a computer monitor for his parents and a PS2 game for his brother. However as we both looked through the ads, there was lots of great deals thrown out there. Deals we don't need, but who knows what he comes home with ... hopefully it's that new set of red luggage, the little vaccum I want for downstairs and that new camera lens. Hee!! I'll post pics of all the "great deals" once he gets home.



Is anyone else out there doing any shopping?

Edited to add...

Well he's back. No camera lens :*(

I did get a new set of red luggage which we used this weekend. And that new vaccum cleaner for the downstairs. I hated lugging that huge vaccum up and down the stairs everytime I vaccum and it was a killer when vaccuming the staircase. He got the computer monitor for his parents for Christmas and a PS2 game for his brother for Christmas and then he got himself a generic version of a Wii. Shawn left at 4:20 a.m. and went to Penny's, Macy's, back to Penny's, Best Buy, Sams, Walmart and to Hardee's and made it back home by 7:30 a.m. Pretty good timing, but not enough for me to go next year. Sorry honey!

He did encounter one altercation at Macy's that involved a lady running to a jewelry case to get a watch and then hurting herself. People are crazy!

Turkey Day

Thanksgiving has come and gone, too bad all the weight I gained yesterday won't do the same thing. We had Thanksgiving at my mom's house like we have had every year since Grandma Goebel passed away. There was LOTS of yummy food and LOTS of family there. My mom's house is entirely too small for all those people and I still have a headache from it all, but it was a good time. I am truly blessed.

Trenton coloring his letter to Santa. This kid is too cute!


Frass in her party dress.

There is my Hersey Bell and his Aunt Besses.

All the kids (minus Turtle).

Turtle following in his Aunt Stacey's footsteps. Sminle :)

Uncle Dave and "Cuz" Hope

Shawn and AJ. Shawn spent the entire day and night on the four wheelers. Maybe Santa will bring him one next year.

Thank you Lord for protecting me.

The Lord truly is a blessing in our lives. Sunday evening on our way to Church, Shawn and I experienced his protecting hand upon us. I had just gotten to the bottom of the ramp at Green River Road and I-164 to turn right onto Green River Road. There was a car coming, so I stopped instead of merging onto the road. The car was going a lot slower than I thought so I told Shawn I should of gunned it. Then just a few minutes later, as we get close to the road that our church sits on, two vehicles came tearing through the intersection without stopping and ran the stop sign. If I hadn’t of yielded for those few seconds earlier, those two vehicles would of hit us in the driver’s side of the car. Thank you Lord for keeping your protection upon as we traveled to your house to worship you.

There was one other time in my life that I can recall so vividly that this very thing happened. I was sitting at a stop light downtown and just as it turned green for me to go, a little old lady started across the crosswalk. I had to sit there and wait for her and I remember complaining because she was walking so slowly. I immediately felt conviction for this and said a prayer of apology to God. At the very next stop light, right as I got up to the light to turn left, a car came barreling through a red light and would of taken out the driver’s side of the car. But because of that little old lady, I was spared. What an amazing God we serve!

Is this gas pump working right?

That's what I asked out loud at the gas station tonight. I filled my car up for $23...and I had to squeeze that last 58¢ in there. Are you kidding me? Normally it's been costing me around $60 to fill out. I love it!!! Cheaper gas prices means I can spend extra on myself now ... :) Have a great night!

Trial run for Christmas card pics

Since I've got the good camera this year, and the tripod, I think I am going to make photo Christmas cards to send out to family and friends instead of regular cards. So Sunday when Shawn and I were dressed in our best....LOL....meaning Shawn wasn't in his WOW shirt, I set the tripod up upstairs and took some pics of us. These ones I'm posting are the better of all the shots. I'd like to get a picture with the cats too, but I know that there is no way that that will happen, so I found some layouts for cards with mutiple pictures, so I'll have to do that in order to get the cats on the cards too.

This first picture is my favorite and the one I believe I am going to use for our cards. Now I just have to figure out if I want it to be in color or black and white.

Zoe

Zoe. My bestest little buddy! That's what I call her. Saturday Bowen and the kids came over so he could take a look at our backyard fence area to see how he could fix it so that our puppy wouldn't get out if we left in the backyard for long periods of time. (That will be a whole different post.) Zoe stayed with me while Bowen and Brent left to go get some supplies and to pick up Heather before they all came back over for dinner. I love taking pictures and looking at pictures and someday want to go pro. We have that empty bonus room upstairs with nothing in it and I think it would make a great studio. So Heather, Zoe, and I went upstairs to to do a "shoot". LOL!! I know I'm going to need a lot more practice and figure out the lighting up there cause I got shadows on a bunch of these pics. (In the post of pictures of Shawn and I, I used a different wall for the pics and didn't get the shadow as much.)

My Loves

Just some pictures I took of Shawn and Hershey last night.

And my other loves...

Clifford

Molly

And then these were taken tonight when I was outside trying to retrieve the cat after he slipped out on me. Shawn would have a fit if he knew that both cats had actually gotten outside on me. I had the dog and two cats outside and I was trying to gather the cats without burning the house down while cooking supper. It was a card!

Fwd: Hair Removal

For those of you who wax, you will understand fully and those who don't will never make this mistake. Better go pee before you read this. This by far is one of the funniest things I have ever read. ~ This is why I shave!! Hope to put a smile on your face: Hair Removal..

(I don't have a clue who wrote this, but WHAT A RIOT!)

All hair removal methods have tricked women with their promises of easy, painless removal - the Epilady, scissors, razors, Nair and now...the wax. Read on..

My night began as any other normal weeknight. Come home, fix dinner, and play with the kids. I then had the thought that would ring painfully in my mind for the next few hours: 'Maybe I should pull the waxing kit out of the medicine cabinet.' So I headed to the site of my demise: the bathroom.

It was one of those 'cold wax' kits. No melting a clump of hot wax, you just rub the strips together in your hand, they get warm and you peel them apart and press them to your leg (or wherever else) and you pull the hair right off.

No muss, no fuss. How hard can it be? I mean, I'm not a genius, but I am mechanically inclined enough to figure this out. (YA THINK!?!)

So I pull one of the thin strips out. It's two strips facing each other stuck together. Instead of rubbing them together, my genius kicks in so I get out the hair dryer and heat it to 1000 degrees.

('Cold wax,' yeah.. Right!) I lay the strip across my thigh. Hold the skin around it tight and pull. IT WORKS!

Ok, so it wasn't the best feeling, but it wasn't too bad. I can do this! Hair removal no longer eludes me! I am She-rah, fighter of all wayward body hair and maker of smooth skin extraordinaire.

With my next wax strip I move north. After checking on the kids, I sneak back into the bathroom, for the ultimate hair fighting championship. I drop my panties and place one foot on the toilet. Using the same procedure, I apply the wax strip across the right side of my bikini line, covering the right half of my hoo-ha and stretching down the inside of my butt cheek (it *was* a long strip) I inhale deeply and brace myself.... RRRRRRIIIIIIPPPPPP!

I'm blind!!! Blinded from pain!!!!!.....OH MY GAWD!!!!!!!!!!

Vision returning, I notice that I've only managed to pull off half the strip. CRAP! Another deep breath and RIPP! Everything is spinning and spotted. I think I may pass out..must stay conscious.. must stay conscious.

Do I hear crashing drums???? Breathe, breathe. OK, back to normal. I want to see my trophy - a wax covered strip, the one that has caused me so much pain, with my hairy pelt sticking to it. I want to revel in the glory that is my triumph over body hair. I hold up the strip. There's no hair on it. Where is the hair??? WHERE IS THE WAX????

Slyly I ease my head down, foot still perched on the toilet. I see the hair. The hair that should be on the strip.. It's not!! I touch. I am touching wax.

I run my fingers over the most sensitive part of my body, which is now covered in cold wax and matted hair. Then I make the next BIG mistake... remember my foot is still propped upon the toilet? I know I need to do something. So I put my foot down.

Sealed shut! My butt is sealed shut. Sealed shut!

I penguin walk around the bathroom trying to figure out what to do next and think to myself 'Please don't let me get the urge to poop. My head may pop off!' What can I do to melt the wax?

Hot water!! Hot water melts wax!!!! I'll run the hottest water I can stand into the bathtub, get in, immerse the wax-covered bits and the wax should melt and I can gently wipe it off, right???? *WRONG!!!!!!!*

I get in the tub - the water is slightly hotter than that used to torture prisoners of war or sterilize surgical equipment - I sit.

Now, the only thing worse than having your nether regions glued together, is having them glued together and then glued to the bottom of the tub..in scalding hot water. Which, by the way, doesn't melt cold wax.

So, now I'm stuck to the bottom of the tub as though I had cemented myself to the porcelain!!! God bless the man who had convinced me a few months ago to have a phone put in the bathroom!!!!!

I call my friend, thinking surely she has waxed before and has some secret of how to get me undone. It's a very good conversation starter 'So, my butt and hoo-ha are glued together to the bottom of the tub!'

There is a slight pause. She doesn't know any secret tricks for removal but she does try to hide her laughter from me. She wants to know exactly where the wax is located, 'are we talking cheeks or hole or hoo-ha?'

She's laughing out loud by now... I can hear her. I give her the rundown and she suggests I call the number on the side of the box.

YEAH!!!! RIGHT!!!! I should be the joke of someone else's night.

While we go through the various solutions, I resort to trying to scrape the wax off with a razor. Nothing feels better than having your girlie goodies covered in hot wax, glued shut, stuck to the tub in super hot water and then dry-shaving the sticky wax off!!!!

By now the brain is not working, dignity has taken a major hike and I'm pretty sure I'm going to need Post-Traumatic Stress counseling for this event.

My friend is still talking with me when I finally see my saving grace..the lotion they give you to remove the excess wax. What do I really have to lose at this point? I rub some on and OH MY GAWD!!!!!!!!

The scream probably woke the kids and scared the dickens out of my friend. Its sooo painful, but I really don't care. 'IT WORKS!!!! It works!!!!'

I get a hearty congratulation from my friend and she hangs up. I successfully remove the remainder of the wax and then notice to my grief and despair..THE HAIR IS STILL THERE..ALL OF IT!

So I recklessly shave it off. Heck, I'm numb by now. Nothing hurts. I could have amputated my own leg at this point.

Next week I'm going to try hair color!

The Church Family Retreat

Our church family retreat was this past weekend and what a great time it was. Garvin and Angie did a great job of putting it all together and making sure there was lots of fun, fellowship and food! It was held at a place called Temple Hills Retreat Center in Stendal, Indiana, which is just north east of Lynnville. Most everyone that went, went up Friday evening and stayed the night. Some just came up on Saturday. Shawn and I planned on spending the night too, but I talked us both right out of that. I didn't want to have to pack two suitcases, pillows, blankets, sheets, toiletries, etc. for just one night and I didn't want to have to bother someone to come and let our puppy out during the night or really early in the morning. I'm glad that we didn't spend the night. I'm not a camper, and even though we weren't camping, the sleeping arrangements in the bunk areas would have been roughing it for me. LOL!! The beds were smaller than twin-size, basically a cot, with a thin little mattress on a piece of plywood sitting on the frame. No thank you! I welcomed sleeping on my king-size pillow-top mattress. The retreat center was only about a 45 minute drive from our house, so we drove out there Friday evening for a few hours, left about 1:00 in the morning and drove home, and then got back up at 5:30 Saturday morning to be at the center by 8:00 for breakfast.

Friday evening we had a light snack of popcorn, chips and salsa, and chocolates/candies, played a game, had fellowship and then called it a night.

Saturday morning we had fruit and bagels/toast for breakfast. We had a husband and wife from the American Red Cross come out and talk to us about first aid and safety. We also learned some of the basic technqiues for victims that are choking or have stopped breathing. I also learned that I need to have a disaster relief kit ready because you never know when you may need it. After that we had lunch and then free time. For lunch we had lunch meat sandwiches (kind of like subway sandwiches) and chips. After lunch I went outside and took pictures of the kids playing on the playground and just being silly. A bunch of us then took a walk down to the lake on the property and a hike through the woods. Even though it was freezing outside, it was still lots of fun. Once we got back to the shelter house, the adults played a game and just hung out before dinner. For the game, each adult tied a balloon to a piece of string and then tied it around your ankle. The object of the game was to pop everyone else's balloon without getting yours popped. It was hilarious to see everyone running around popping balloons. Of course, I think I was one of the first to get my balloon popped so I had plenty of time to take pictures of everyone else. For dinner we had chili and potato soup, peanut butter sandwiches, and crackers and then played a game of Family Fued before packing everything up and heading back to our individual homes. Team Disney took the win in the Family Fued game. We rock!!

Shawn and I got home around 8:30 and I was completely exhausted and fell asleep on the couch. The retreat was lots of fun and I look forward to next years.

Shawn and I learning CPR and my pastor thinking that he's funny!

Some of the kids playing outside.

Shawn and our Pastor

Taking a walk to the lake. It was freezing outside.

Here we are getting ready to play the balloon popping game. You'll notice the cheater!

Yes, that's a knife concoction he's got on his one shoe. Cheater!

Calgon Take Me Away

I am completely worn out!! I feel like this week all I have done is run, run, run! And the devil has been on my back all week. I know why though. Because I have started reading my Bible again and he doesn't like that. I try to read my Bible every day, but I got out of the routine of doing that. I started again this week and I feel like I have been under attack....fueding with my sister, aggrevation from people at work, problems with the puppy, disagreements with my husband, car problems. You name it, and it's probably happened this week. But I have declared war with the devil and I know that with God as my army, I will have victory!!! What an awesome God we serve.

A recap from the week. Saturday I went to a suprise 80th birthday party for my best friends grandpa and on the way home, the air conditioning went out on the car. Which normally wouldn't be a problem in November, except it's been about 80 degrees this week. Saturday evening I went to the Luce Fall Fest. I posted some pics from that in another entry. I always like to go and buy raffle tickets to win prizes. I won prizes all right. LOL!! I won a pink and blue size medium t-shirt from a heating/ac place. Now what part of my body looks like a size medium? HA! I joked that I was going to cut them in half and then sew them together and make a t-shirt that actually would fit me. What I am really going to do with them is save them for our New Year's Eve dirty santa gifts for the gift exchange. LOL!!!

Sunday we have our normal routine. Sunday school, church, lunch, come home for a nap, evening church, get supper, and come home and watch Army Wives. After church we went to lunch with some friends at the Manderin Garden. Well some very hot sweet and sour sauce got spilled on a little baby that was with us and he had to be taken to the ER. He has 2nd degree burns on the palm of hand, but is doing much, much better. In the meantime, I had this baby's brother and sister while his parents were at the ER with him. So I did a little photoshoot with the sister. Here are a few pics we took.

Monday Shawn and I both had to work. Shawn is normally off on Monday's, but worked this Monday so he could have Saturday off for a family retreat our church is having this weekend. I think I just came home and fixed supper, wrote up my Avon order amounts, signed my Avon books, and was in bed by 9. Actually now that I am thinking about it, I ran to the Sam's Club after work to pick up some pictures, then planned on going to Curves to workout before going home. I had already changed into my workout clothes at work so I would be ready once I got there. I pulled in the parking lot, looked through the window at how busy they were, and then backed the car out and headed home. Could I be any more lazy??

Tuesday morning I went to vote and then had to take my car to the shop before going to work. The voting polls for our prescinct are just down the street from our house, however when we moved, I nevered changed my voting place. So I had to go all the way to the far east side to vote at the community building of our old apartments. That brought back some memories. HA! I didn't have to wait long to vote, so I was glad about that. I had to take the car to Expressway Dodge to have the a/c fixed then. I think they said I had a leak in the air compressor. It was all under warranty and I wasn't going to be out any money, so I really didn't pay much attention to the problem. The shuttle driver that took me to work was the father of a girl I used to be friends with, so when I told him I used to be friends with his daughter, he started spilling the beans about her life and who she was married to now, how many kids they had, what they were doing, etc. So that was an interesting car ride to work. LOL!! Work was kind of crazy and I had some issues at the end of the day, but in the end, everything worked out. Doesn't it always.

Wednesday after work, I went home and bagged up all of my Avon orders before going to church. After church I had to run to Petsmart to exchange the retractable leash that broke, then to Walgreens to return some pictures I had printed there that I didn't like.

Thursday, after working all day, I had to make about 15 stops to deliver Avon and books, stopped at home to get the puppy, and then went to Heather's to visit Zoe and watch ER with Heather. I always take the puppy with me when I go to Heathers because they have one brother and one sister from that litter of puppies. And of course because Zoe loves to see him and I don't want him to be left at home alone any more than he has too.

I have to say that that dog is wearing me out anymore! At home, all him and Molly do is fight. Well more like Hershey wants to play and Molly doesn't want to have anything to do with him. So there is constant barking, hissing, and running around. And he's in that stage now where he wants to chew on everything except for his toys. There is a rug by the garage door that he thinks is his and the other night I caught him chewing on the underneath netting of the couch. So anytime I see him chewing on something that he shouldn't be, I spray this stuff called Bitter Apple on it and he seems to stray away from it for a few days. Some friends of ours told us about it and it seems to work pretty good. Maybe I should spray it on Molly and he might leave her alone! Then in the car, he can't just sit in the passenger seat and enjoy the ride. He has to be on my lap with his head hanging out the window, or trying to crawl over the headrest or knocking the car out of gear and freaking me out like he did last night.

Hopefully today will be much better, however I doubt it, since when I went to let the dog out this morning, he pooped in his cage. That was the first time for that, so I was not at all prepared. I was already running late for work, so I sat the cage outside and yelled up to Shawn to clean it out. So the big bad doggie will get the run of the bathroom downstairs today. Hopefully there won't be anymore accidents for me to clean up once I get home. I think the reason he's so wound up in the evenings is because he's been in his crate all day. I think it might be time to graduate him to the built-in kennel in the garage that way he can use the doggie door and run around in the backyard while we are gone. I just need to puppy proof the gates so he doesn't slip through and then maybe he'll be a calmer dog in the evening time.

We will be leaving for our family retreat tonight once Shawn gets home from work. It's actually just an overnight retreat and we'll be home late tomorrow evening. We weren't able to go to the first one the church had. I can't remember why, but we missed out on a good time we were told, so we are excited about this one. When I get off work, I have to go home and get us all packed up so we can leave. Honestly I would rather just go up early in the morning, but Shawn wants to go tonight. Of course he would, cause he's not the one that has to pack everything we own for one overnight trip.

Wow, I've blogged alot for one entry. My plan is to blog daily, or at least every other day, but sometimes that just doesn't work out.

Trick-or-Treating/Luce Fall Festival

Seems like it's been forever since I blogged last. I've probably had lots happening and nothing really worth writing about. Friday was Halloween. I planned on just staying at home and passing out candy. Then Heather asked if I wanted to go with her to take Zoe trick-or-treating. I said sure, why don't you come to my neighborhood. We have lots of houses. Well since we were trick-or-treating now, I had to get Hershey a costume and take him with us. I had seen some cute lobster costumes at Target, but by the time I decided at the last minute to get him one, there was none his size. So I went to the Pet Food Center in Newburgh and got him this lobster costume. The one at Target was MUCH better. In fact, after this picture was taken, Shawn returned the costume cause he didn't like it. Hershey wound up just wearing his black trick-or-treat t-shirt and only lasted for a few houses before I was tired of messing with him.



(I was just playing around with my new camera at work on Halloween. Here is a picture of my treat bucket and the goodies I passed out to the kiddos at work.)

Here is Hershey in his lobster costume. He absolutely didn't like it. In fact, he was embarrased everytime I put it on him. LOL!!


Here is Zoe in her Hannah Montana costume and her crazed wig. That wig didn't look anything like the package. I had to brush the wig and use a dryer sheet on it to get it to have that smoothed finish to the hair.


Don't I look cute??


And of course, a picture of all the loot that we collected in my neighborhood.

Saturday night I went to the Luce Fall Fest. This is a fall festival at the grade school I went to as a kid and they have been having the fall festival for as long as I can remember. Well I don't think they had it last year because of the school remodel. But each time they have a costume contest and every year my friend Tina makes her daughter's costume. This year she went as a Pez candy dispenser.

And our beautiful pink teeth to match or pink shirts.