Wednesday, September 30, 2009

hundred dollar oven

my little kitchen helper

remember my whiny post? you don't well its right there below this one...
I was so frustrated with not having an oven (its ok to not have an oven in a Texas Summer, but you have to have one in the Fall - because its not fall if you are not baking right?) so I took a stroll through Craigslist. And lo and behold I found an oven - 1.5 years old - white and gas... no bells and whistles but just what I needed.
I emailed about it - they were asking $175 I got an immediate response - which told me just what I needed to know - they were motivated to sell and it was still available. In craigslist world that is fertile ground to bargain, so I enticed them with cash.
my reply email was this "I can pay you 100 in cash today, if you want the full 175 I can't come until saturday"

It worked! 100 cash now is better than 175 Saturday. So I drove out and got myself an oven.
Got completely lost coming and going - but that is in the past now - baking is in my future.

My passive aggressive bargaining reminds me of the marshmallow test:


Monday, September 28, 2009

This is how you do it


seriously check them out - its a great article


When you are stuck in the trenches. That is what I am calling our time in the debt snowball - "the trenches" you need inspiration.
The trenches looks like one broken car waiting for the cash to be fixed. One broken oven. Did I tell you I have been without an oven since Cora's birthday? - well I have been. Thank goodness Kyle's lovely mother bought us a six slice toaster oven for Christmas. It has been our "little oven" It will bake anything in a 10x10 pan and it does homemade pizza from scratch pretty good.
The trenches is also never stepping into Target. No shopping at the mall. No brand new hardcover books - don't ya just love they way they smell?
Instead you make the circuit to Sam's, thrift store, and the bread store.
Working on homemade/thrift store Halloween costumes starting NOW. And prepping your kids for a humble Christmas during Family Home Evening.
You think about every little expense - like could we just make paper mache pumpkins from leftover newspaper this year? Or do we buy a pumpkin and save the inside for homemade pumpkin puree?

While we beat this debt horse with a stick there is no lack of happiness around here!! And that is what its really all about.

Friday, September 25, 2009

what scripture study looks like at our house

me on the sofa cuddled up with Benjamin with the "cool" scriptures (aka the one with the pictures).

And Dad with his girls:

First Ella climbed in his lap, so then Maiya headed over and not to be left out Cora fought for attention too

dad and his girls

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Saving more money

no more dropping off dress shirts at the dry cleaners - so I'm ironing, turns out I've been doing it all wrong.

My recipe is different from hers:

I use Sam's brand of paper towels with 2 1/4 cups water plus two tablespoons olive oil and two tablespoons baby soap and one or two drops of lavender essential oil. I put mine in an old ice cream bucket- they smell so good!!!
and this one isn't about saving money - its just HYSTERICAL!!

Monday, September 21, 2009

there is too much, I will sum up

  • There is Kyle's broken car. We are going to try to fix her ( is your car a her or a him) Ours like ships are mostly beautiful maidens - We have found all the needed parts at a junkyard for around $400 bucks, so next paycheck we'll buy them, haul them a way in a in our lovely minivan (thank goodness for her) then we will delve into some DIY body work.
  • Speaking of DIY, we changed the oil ourselves on said minivan this weekend. We were quite satisfied with ourselves when all was said and done. Especially when we realized that the wal-mart had been putting the wrong oil type in our van!
  • I have notes from the other kiddo's inteviews to blog about but I also have pictures to take and work on so for another day - but here is a little update about them anyway.
  • Benjamin is growing up - you know how I can tell? he is getting sarcastic and its CRACKS ME UP - like when he told his dad yesterday "Geez man how long did it take you to ever get a girl!"
  • Ella got new glasses again. The pair that was $130 were driving me crazy slipping off her nose. So we headed to walmart and got some frames that were perfect for $9 bucks!!
  • Maiya has taken to talking non-stop ALL THE TIME - if you listen to her great if you don't that's ok too she'll just keep talking and talking and talking and talking and talking
  • Cora, oh sweet Cora - is there nothing cuter than little chubby fingers waving goodbye. She is very into waving she can do the open hand close hand wave, or the open hand wave violently side to side wave - which often turns into clapping.
ok gotta go - have teacher conferences this morning.

and I have another video - you guys probably don't love these as much as I do - but I always love them and since some of you aren't LDS you may not have to check the ward calendar as much as me - which is how I usually find out there is another video but this one NieNie told us about and she is in it too:

Wait I have one more, because I love how Elder Holland doesn't mince words in this one - want to read more go here

Thursday, September 17, 2009

UPDATE

Kyle's labwork from our Doctor came back 100% normal - so HUGE sigh of relief.

Oh how I love that man of mine.

I didn't tell you but having these fears in my mind and watching the Barabara Walters special with Patrick Swayze and his wife made me bawl like a baby.

Now I have a fight to win with the Life Insurance company.

I was going to blog but I was too stressed.


First I was going to tell you all about how I drastically changed my mind and enrolled Maiya in Janette's awesome preschool two days a week. After three weeks of trying to teach Maiya three measly letters and her staring at me like I was crazy I thought she would love to try a little preschool. And since Janette I and I see eye to eye on politics she can move onto teaching Maiya social studies when they are done with the alphabet (just kiddin)

But anyway, before I could get the pictures of her waddling into preschool the first day with her giant backpack we got our complimentary copy of the lab work from Kyle's term life insurance application. There were 10 results to be exact that were out of whack - six really out of whack - so I went into super stressed mode.

The rest of the week has been a blur. I have looked up every known possible medical cause of those results taking only a short break to make an appointment for Kyle with the doctor.

I went with Kyle to the doctor to make sure I could substantiate my psychosis with actual facts. The doctor unfortunately was very determined to be cool and nonchalant. He thought they had really poor lab practices because some of the values aren't even possible. So he did what doctors do, reordered the tests and sent us home to wait................................................

waiting sucks.


Then if our stress was a balloon it blew up to the size of a hot air balloon when we both left the doctor's office in separate cars and headed home to lead scouts. I was home thirty minutes before scouts started. Kyle didn't get home until I was 45 minutes into the Scout meeting. Ever tried to lead 6 very hyperactive boys when you planned on having your husband help and then you are suddenly solo ?? And you are wondering where on earth your HUSBAND IS??????????

thank goodness for one very cool Dad who stayed to help

Kyle finally walked in and I breathed a sigh of relief until he showed me the accident report.

Some idiot decided to come to a sudden and complete stop on the the on ramp to the interstate at the same time Kyle was looking over to merge into traffic.

CRAP

Rear end collisions are always your fault they say. But this guy was a complete idiot and on top of that didn't speak of word of English - so needless to say the exchange of information dance was difficult as well as Kyle's attempts to tell him that coming to a sudden stop on the interstate for no apparent reason is STUPID!!
Kyle contemplated killing him with his bare hands - but that would probably have caused more trouble than an accident citation.

We only have liability insurance on our car.

Our car that we paid only $2400 for.

The car that yesterday made my said balloon of stress pop when the body shop estimated $1900 to fix it.

so maybe I'll blog when I stop crying, or when they FINALLY call with lab results, or when I upload pics of cute Maiya and our busted up car, or maybe I'll blog a lot more because soon we'll be a one car family again.

You see this goal to never use credit again, is not an easy goal. But I am determined.

Depressed, but also determined.

Monday, September 14, 2009

Kyle's comment deserves its own post


Kyle tried to leave the world's longest comment on the last post - it deserves its own space.

This is Kyle- (apologies that my initial few thoughts turned into a book)

I felt like throwing in on this one since it has gotten so many comments. I agree with Janie and others here that the government 'answer' is the wrong way to go but thought I would interject a different way to look at this whole thing.

What major program has the government embarked upon that has been a success? Most recently cash for clunkers - a smaller scale version of sub-prime loans -- trade in your old, probably paid-for vehicles, get a little 'free' money to put towards a more fuel-efficient vehicle. A brand-new expensive vehicle. Let's face it; the majority of people driving clunkers to begin with have no business buying a brand-new car. So now they got this great 'deal' along with a monthly car payment they didn't have before. Thank goodness we will have fewer polluting vehicles out there at the cost of taxpayer money and extra debt on the backs of those who cannot handle it. Anyway, my original point before I went on that rant was the government had no idea of the actual demand on this program - what was supposed to last for months went broke in a week. The answer? Throw more money at it. Money that doesn't exist - we'll just add it to the debt - it's not like numbers in the TRILLIONS are even fathomable anyway. And I will disclaim here that in my current job, car dealers staying in business is a good thing. But what happens when all of these loans begin to be defaulted on?

Other programs of note - Medicare/Welfare/Social Security - noble in purpose maybe but in the hands of the government = waste/fraud/bankruptcy. Again, the answer - just add it to the debt and keep on borrowing. The image of Dory from Finding Nemo comes to mind with a slight change - 'Just keep borrowing' 'Just keep borrowing'...

Bottom line - there isn't the accountability/oversight/and talent within the government to properly handle these types of programs even if it was their job. Which it is NOT. Show me in the founding documents where government is given these roles.

That being said, let's assume for a moment this healthcare change needs to happen. We are told not to worry about the cost since it will be paid for by eliminating waste in other gov't programs. Ok, great - cut the waste now. Why do we need to wait until there is something else to throw the money into before we cut costs? Cut the waste now - prove that it can be done and proponents of this plan get a major victory.

From where I stand, universal healthcare is just another failure waiting to happen. I don't understand why there is this need to change everything right now - right away - it can't wait another minute. There are things that could be improved in healthcare, no doubt, but we have the greatest healthcare in the world. Why break the whole system just because a small percentage of people don't have it? If it is so important, take the time to do it right - don't rush something just to say there was 'change' and we aren't maintaining the 'status-quo'. Like Janie's teacher told her, once the gov't takes something over, they NEVER let it go. So even if the ultimate goal is not to socialize medicine, this is still one giant leap down that path that we will never be able to return from.

Friday, September 11, 2009

Been there, seen the mess UPDATED

I am inspired by Janette's post on health care. I can never begin to compete with the plethora of logic she dispenses there - I only want to add to it for one reason. I worked in health care and since I am a queen of forming an opinion - I formed a strong one about the Government's hand in health care.

The argument that scares me the most is that a government run health care plan won't take away from the private market. IT ALREADY HAS!!!

I'll speak about the therapy world because that is what I know. MEDICARE dictated all of what would be paid and not paid in the therapy world. My job was a constant learning process - not of what were the best practices in Occupational therapy at the time, but of what would and would not be paid for by Medicare. All other insurance plans rapidly followed suit on what Medicare was paying so the idea of free market competition was all but dead already in my opinion.

The other frustration was that each company I worked for was all about how to capitalize on Medicare's inefficiency. Instead of case by case authorization - Medicare had four or so categories that patients fit into - Like:
In-patient rehab candidates that can tolerate 60 hours a week of combined therapies earned the facility $10,000/ month
Candidates that could tolerate 40 hours a week earned 8000.00 and so on and so forth - down to those who could only tolerate 20 hours a week and it didn't pay enough for the facility to accept the patient so they told the family they were ready to go home or to a nursing home (which wasn't really the case but it's all about the money).

Then because Medicare rewarded the path of least resistance, which was tolerating 60 hours a week of therapy whether or not performance increased - we kept patients as long as possible without overall concern about when they could go home or not (unless they stopped tolerating therapy - then they were out!)

Now I have to interject here that I worked with an excellent team of therapists who were all trained excellently so we did care about the well being of our patients and we worked to get them all as independent as possible - but this was for our own intrinsic value - not because it was what the system created by medicare wanted or even cared about.

I was trained immediately to be creative with billing and to overcharge Medicare at every opportunity. For instance I was taught that when I put a heat pack on a patent's shoulder for 20 minutes and have them squeeze a ball at the same time - I was to charge 20 minutes for the pain relief and 20 minutes for the "exercise" - saying I had worked with the patient for 40 minutes when in reality I had only been with them for 20 minutes total. This is why I HATED my job. I loved what I had learned to do, I loved working with patients - but at the end of each day I had to do my paperwork. If I was honest and billed according to how much time I spent with each patient I "failed" in comparison to all my peers in productivity. If I lied I was rewarded with praise but was heavy hearted in church every Sunday. And it was all to bow down to the Medicare god.

I always felt like if the government run machine would just be reviewed by a few efficiency experts the system could save billions and billions it no time at all. But what I daydreamed about even more was what if the system was to be done away with completely. Therapy centers would compete for RESULTS not billing codes and government reimbursement.

Without huge Medicare cuts from every one's paychecks - people could save for their own health care and then have a choice in where they and their loved ones receive care. And with the money they saved they could give to their charities of choice to assist those still in desperate need for care.

I had one patient when I worked in home health that I had the freedom to work with as I saw fit. On the way to see her I read the summary of her care - A woman in her 40's had suffered a severe stroke - she had regained the ability to walk but she had no use of one hand and her speech was impaired. She was a single mother of three boys (one with Cerebral Palsy), she was a full time teacher. Her insurance had lapsed at the time she had her stroke.

The notes said that her church was covering medical bills and they asked for regular updates on her condition and that the focus was on her regaining as much independence as possible.

It wasn't until the end of my first session with her that I had enough courage to ask her what church she was a member of -- She said "Mormon" with difficult speech and my heart swelled.

What a joy to be part of an organization that really takes care of its members.

That is my plea in this national argument. We do need organizations that take care of the nation's weak and to arrange health care for those in true need of it.

People do need health care.

BUT THE GOVERNMENT IS NOT THE ANSWER FOR THIS DILEMMA.

We need more of our paycheck so that we may give - give to our churches and charities so that we can OUT GIVE THE GOVERNMENT.

Out give the government - let that roll around in your brain for a bit.

That is a right we have - a right more important than health care.

The freedom to give our money by choice not by force to help our fellow man.

Photobucket

Here is Janette's post that was so inspiring to me - Since her blog is private and many of my blog friends won't get to her blog I got permission to re-post it. She managed to summarize how I feel on many levels so almost anything else I would add to this topic would have just been a repeat of what she said so without further ado:

This has not been approved by Gary ... which means that he'll be embarrassed later when he reads it. I was really upset at the time. I've since chilled out. There was something so comforting about getting my thoughts out of my head. Continue at your own risk.

1. I don't give a rip if any President of the US wants to deliver a speech to my child during school. Looking back to when I was in school ... I would have slept through it anyway. Any child of mine would do the same.

However, if I am lucky enough to foster a child with Gary's intelligence level, and said child DOES stay awake ... and listens ... and then remembers it enough to come home and tell me about it ... and I don't agree with what the President said ... I'll say something. And if my punk kid doesn't listen, I'll just tell said kid that the President isn't real. And if my punk doesn't believe me ... then I'll ask him if he'd like to give the {current} President 40% of his hard earned money so that the kids who don't work/won't work/refuse to work/or are currently 'in between jobs' can have his hard earned money instead. When he says 'no', that will be sufficient.

2. I really wish that people would quit voting based on moral ethics,
ie: abortion, gay marriage, etc, and start voting on actual political and economic issues; we fought against all odds to earn this free country ... where people had the right to be rich or poor. Their desires and work ethics decided their destiny; not whether or not the current President was going to offer a supplemental income in the form of a welfare check or not.

3. Democracy has been tried hundreds of times throughout history. It fails every. single. time. Every time. The United States' democracy is the oldest/longest running democracy in history ... and it's hanging by a thread. Why? Because we have now hit the point where the 'have
nots' out number the 'haves' ... and said 'have nots' will continue to elect whatever President promises the most handouts. It's a simple, historical, mathematical equation.

4. I have very little sympathy for people who are out of work ... insisting on some inflated pay check because their education and/or experience warrants it. Guess what? My husband and I both have degrees. My smarty pants husband graduated with the highest GPA in his major (Finance), and graduated
Summa Cum Laude (less than 2% of graduates graduate SUMMA cum laude). Gary is brilliant. The smartest guy I know. And when he found himself unemployed, he took a job making less than half of what society would say he's worth. And he's getting ready to start his second job, working for UPS ... to make up the difference. To sacrifice. To sacrifice so that our kids will have better. That's what being a dang grown-up means. Start baggin' groceries, selling pest control, or loading up freight trucks, why don't ya?

5. When I hear democratic figures telling me that we aren't headed for socialism ... and that the rich can afford to help out the poor ... it makes. me. want. to. scream. READ THE STUPID DEFINITION OF SOCIALISM ... and THEN tell me, straight faced, that our government is not acting like a socialist economy. Who do these clowns think they are?! We live in the United States of America. And somehow, we've elected a President who thinks he has the right to take taxpayer money ... and then distribute it amongst people who refuse (yes, I said refuse) to work hard. Nothing is off limits in this country. Nothing. If you want it. There is a man at our church, also with a finance degree, who works hard and provides a wonderful home for his family. AND, when he gets done with his first job, he heads over to his second job -- bagging groceries for less than $10/hour ... because that's what it takes. He (and his wife) decided they wanted a nice home/cars/life ... so he makes sacrifices for it to happen. When did {so many} Americans forget what it was that our ancestors fought for?

6. I'm not really sorry for this rant ... this is just what happens when I read the following comment {on
Facebook}:

"__________ is tired of the
obamanoia and socialismobia"

and then the reply below it:

"I think we are suffering from mine-o-phobia. The fear of sharing."

Un. Freakin. Believable.

News Flash:

I'm not over here taking in 18 kids a week to teach colors and shapes to ... and Gary isn't working from 8a-5p and then heading straight to another job to work 5:30p-9:30p; leaving the house at 7am and getting home at 10:30pm ... just so that we can 'share'.

AND, for the record ... I share all the time. I don't think I could possibly count the number of paintings that I have done for. free. Or the times I've watched some one's kids for. free. There have been times when we have had plenty ... and during those times, I've given and given and given.

REVISED TO ADD:

7. Politicians who promise handouts and health care and boat loads of government spending (democratic or republican) are only promising those things because ... they need a job! They're in a job interview. They're promising the world, the moon, the stars, etc. ... because they don't want to lost their jobs and they know what it takes to stay employed.

8. I know that Gary and I do not currently fall into the 40% tax bracket; however, for my entire life, my parents have. AND ... I plan on following suit when it comes to monetary success. And I hope that by that time, we've gotten back on the path that our ancestors started for us. The brave men and women who fought to make this a free country (free from GOVERNMENT running people's lives, free to be able to be filthy
stinkin' rich without someone deciding they were 'too' rich, etc.) have GOT to be cringing at what the US has become. The entitlement kills me.

9. The current administration believes that health insurance is not a luxury, it's a right. I agree. That's why you pay for it before you pay your mortgage and car payments. If you can't afford your mortgage and car payments after it ... you 1. get another job, or 2. move & down grade your cars.

10. If health insurance is a right ... how come housing isn't? Someone should pay all of our mortgages because we live in America and we should all have housing. No one should be homeless. And how about clothes. I suppose that clothing is a right too. And food ... and in Texas, air conditioning. We're on a very slippery slope. Trust me, health insurance is just the first hurdle towards providing everyone everything ... so that we are all equal ... and the 'have
nots' can have the same things as the 'haves' ... without having to actually work for it.

I sorta go a little crazy ... when I hear things like $900 BILLION to pay for other people's health insurance because they refuse (yes, I said REFUSE) to take care of themselves ... I get a little heated. I understand that we do need to take care of the handicapped ... and those who
literally cannot take care of themselves ... but the population of people who fit into that category is so unbelievably small ... it would be a drop in the bucket to care for them. And that, is how it should be.

When/where the crap will the sense of entitlement end?

And please, don't bother arguing with me. I will never, ever, ever, see your side. Never. (But we can still be friends ... because there is more to life than politics)

It's been said that you can measure the character of a man based on what he does when he's backed up against the wall. Does he sit down and cry ... or come out swinging?

I choose to come out swinging. Every. Single. Time.

Tuesday, September 08, 2009

things I don't mind spending money on...

you know my frugal pursuits well by now - so let me tell you a little bit about where I enjoy spending money:

  • quality appliances - a used quality appliance is better than a cheap version anyday.
  • bulk items - I will spend more to grocery shop knowing I paid the rock bottom per unit price
  • high speed Internet
  • a good bra
  • books - yes I know about the library but sometimes you just want some books to be yours
  • babysitters
  • vacations
That was what I wanted this weekend - a mini vacation. Late Friday night I was desperately seeking a campsite on the beach in Galveston. I hear the state park there has been rebuilt since Ike. Alas I had no luck and I painfully realized there wasn't enough money in the "Blow" envelope anyway.
I went to bed telling Kyle we were not just loafing the three day weekend away. We were going to do something fun come hell or high water.
The next day we got up and cleaned the whole house as a family (because nothing is more fun than cleaning right?) - Actually it started the weekend perfectly because mom is happier when the house is clean.
Saturday afternoon we went roller skating in Plano - it was packed, but we had fun laughing at ourselves heartily.
Sunday afternoon we let the kids destroy said clean house as Kyle and I took a three hour nap.
Monday afternoon we spent the entire afternoon at the nickel arcade in Garland (we may or may not have took a little money out of the clothing envelope for more nickels.

It may not have been camping on the beach. But it was a perfect weekend. And guess what

I didn't take any pictures

I let my mind make memories instead because sometimes you get tired of looking through a lens and worrying about your camera on the back of the stroller.

But I will always remember Ella scooting around the rink cautiously with her new glasses slipping down her nose. I will remember Benjamin flailing like a baby seal coming out of the water trying to get up on his skates when he fell in the center of the rink.

I'll remember Maiya losing rather rapidly to one arcade game and when the giant "FAIL" sign popped up she asked me what it said. I said "It says you WON" and she walked off saying "I know. I'm really good"

I'll remember Cora still crawling on the dirty carpet at the rink (man I'm ready for that chick to walk already) and me rescuing her from possible crushed fingers. I remember her pushing the coin button on all the games at the arcade and having as much fun as the real games. I'll remember her falling asleep just as we were about to leave so we decided to get another five bucks worth of nickels.

I'll remember Kyle kissing me in the car as he said "thanks babe, we all had a lot of fun"

To cap off the weekend - last night we had a deliciously bad dinner - Kyle made some homemade cheese fries topped with bacon bits with ranch on the side I made broccoli just to balance out the cosmos (the kids were mad at me they said the broccoli touching their cheese fries ruined it)-

Ella said right after the Blessing on the food:

This was the best weekend ever...

I agree, Ella, I agree

Tuesday, September 01, 2009

are you using powdered eggs? I am

I just love this chick's site so much!!!
My mom got me her book and since it arrived (autographed I might say :) I have gone through it many, many times. But more than anything I LOVE HER VIDEOS - just full to the brim with info - that I decided to post three that she did yesterday and today that are so helpful I think anyone and everyone should see them!! I am starting to make regular trips to the Cannery so if you are considering going just give me a holla.
PS. you can't get powdered eggs at the Cannery - I get mine from HERE