Dear Santa...

Dear Santa, I have a very long and detailed list for Christmas this year. Since it is so long I will send it in list fashion instead of letter

1. I would like my Mom to smile the way she did when Daddy was alive

2. I would like my DH to come back from the funk he's been in since July

3. I would like my children to hurt a little less and see less death

4. and for me, I would like a baby. gender, hair and eye color doesn't matter, just one that breathes, eats, poops and occasionally cries...and isn't made a plastic

5. I would like a new purse. And since the purse is probably the only thing I'll get, I would like to specify that it should be pretty and (hint hint Todd) from TJMaxx

Hope you get everything you want for Christmas this year.

WE HAVE A WINNER!!!

I'm not pregnant...yet. Yes we're counting on being pregnant very soon! But last night, as we lay on the couch nursing ourselves back to health from the miserable flu that is running rampant thru our family we started talking about names...for girls we came up with lots of wonderful names but it always has been Addison Cecil (I'm Lynne Cecile, my Grandma Sweet is Lois Cecil) we may call her Addie, but it will depend, Lane Michael wants to call her Sissie, Ethan will probably follow suit. Our boy name has been very hard for us, a struggle really, it's harder for us to settle when all of our obvious favorites are used on our three boys. So what goes with Lane and Ethan...we thought of Trevor (it goes well, but we're both not positive), we liked Heath (but Keith, Ethan and Heath might be too much in our circle of friends) and Jackson has always been a favorite (but I'm a middle name user and I don't know if we could/should have a Jackson Michael) so last night as we miserably drank Sprite and ate Saltines we came to the conclusion of Collin Michael. We will either have a Collin or an Addison...I'm happy either way! I love both names and they both go with the boys names
Lane Ethan and Collin
Lane Ethan and Addison
I love it!

Sometimes Intuitions are Worth Listening To

Sometimes I get an intuition and it's WAY off...I mean couldn't be more off. Sometimes I trust people that don't deserve it, I let them in and they hurt me. Sometimes I don't trust people or their intentions, and they end up with the most honorable intentions. My intuition about my children is usually dead on. When the boys were three years old, Todd was laid off, the next week we had to go to Chicago for a Young Veterans Symposium. While we were there he was hired on with a different company, when we got back we celebrated with a breakfast with my parents and my Grandma Sweet. At breakfast, Lane Micheal turned grey and started to "fall asleep" we thought he must be sick, so my Mom woke him up, and fed him some pancakes, just to have something in his tummy in case he slept until lunch. The next day Todd was off work, they didn't have a trainer for him. So he took Lane Michael to the doctor, asking him to test for diabetes, the doctor tried to refuse, but Todd was having none of it...after a short "discussion" the doctor finally checked his blood sugar, he was over 500 and hadn't had anything to eat that day. Todd didn't want to feed him if they need urine or blood tests...so off they went to the ER, and then straight up to the PICU where they camped for 7 long days. Todd's new job told him to take care of things and he'd have a job waiting for him. (thank you Roeder). I just wish I had listened to my nagging mothers intuition when it said to have Ethan's hearing tested last year. So two months ago when my intuition started telling me to pay off debt as fast as possible, I listened, it's not going fast, but again as fast as possible. I'm a worker, it's what I do, I'm not fun (don't feel the need to re-assure me that I am, I'm not) I'm not witty or original. Everyone in my family can be described by an animal, Lou is a dog (loyal to the end, kick him and he'll bite your leg off) Gina is a momma bear (looks innocent enough but don't screw with her kids), Heather is a peacock (beautiful, a little flighty but rules the roost) and I am the horse, I'm a worker, and I'll work myself to death for you because I'm a horse. So (I swear this is going somewhere) what do I do when I want to get a second job (just until the debt is paid down) but it makes my DH feel like he isn't doing his part? Todd is great with the kids and he wants to be on the floor with them, watch movies until midnight and wrestle until someone gets hurt...I'm not that person. I want to snuggle at night, read bed time stories, do homework and fix dinner...but I'm not the fun one so it makes sense for it to be me. hmmm....

Blogger: diabetes loss and adoption - Edit Post "Three was Good Enough for Jesus."

Blogger: diabetes loss and adoption - Edit Post "Three was Good Enough for Jesus."

Finances...

Ok so I want to be debt free. So I’m going to use numbers that aren’t real and lay out our “budget” and would like some suggestions…so here’s our “budget”

Income:
VA $755
Todd $1800-2400
Lynne $1600

Total $4155-4755
(Todd used to make more like $2400 but his runs have been cut lately)

Payments:
Church $280
House $715
Electric $200
Heat $69
Cars $601
Insurance $165
Credit Cards $175
Gas $250
Medical $250
Phone $170
Cable $40
Day Care $200
Food $600

Total $3715

Difference $440.00-1040

Again these figures aren’t accurate but let’s pretend…so we have a difference of $440 to play with…our debt break down is this:

House $88500 still owed
Truck $15700 still owed
ATV $6300 still owed
Credit Card $2700 still owed
Credit Card $2500 still owed
Credit Card $2400 still owed

Total $118’100

Ok, so we almost always pay $800 on the house but the house is the one bill that I’m not worried about paying off right now…So I’m thinking that if we pay minimum payments (the $715) and take that extra $85 and put it towards the first credit card listed, when Todd’s income is more than $600 we put that amount towards the first credit card, and when our medical bills are less than $250 the extra goes to the credit card. I would like to have all of our credit cards paid off by October 2009, a very obtainable goal. Then I will concentrate on the ATV and finally the truck payment…but my problem is this…Todd’s income is way lower than it used to be (as almost everyone’s is) so when do I start saving, we’ve always known that if necessary we can live off of my income or his because we would cancel the extras and make all of our food from scratch…it would be tight but it would work. We’d make it work! But it would be so much easier if we had those credit cards paid off. If we didn’t have $7600 sitting over us in debt…that debt is dental expenses and Todd’s truck driving school so it’s not like we put Christmas on the credit cards or a new big screen TV…his job has made us more money than it cost us, so it was worth it, but I hate having it over us! I would like for one to be paid off by our tax return and one to be paid off by March, and the third to be paid off by October…but again, with his diminishing income, it makes me nervous not to have it done now! So, I’m open to suggestions. What do you think? I want honesty and if you think my feelings will be hurt, first of all, it’s VERY hard to hurt my feelings and second, just leave your comment under anonymous!

Life is...

The good stuff is boring. People don't want to hear about my kids decorating the tree, they don't want to hear that my DH makes me happy, that there was no drama at this years Thanksgiving, that I got new dishes, that I spent last Saturday watching Christmas movies with my cousin and her kids eating the yummiest popcorn ever, that we might go to the water park this weekend and Missouri next weekend and that my brother just got a job on the Army Corps of Engineers as a civilian. Because the good stuff is boring. When life is good, life is boring, and I like the boring. So what people (and I mean all people) want is to hear how my cousin brought her dog to my Grandma's house, it's a mean dog, they're teaching to bite (a pit bull I think) and was mad when her mom made her take it to their truck for the evening, how we had three adults standing between that damn dog and my kids because we were sure he was going to bite them, how he growled at them and she laughed, and now she's mad at us. whatever. They want to hear that my cousins wife's family doesn't know that he had three kids before he met her. Even the little dramas are dramas. They want to hear that my sister is still married to her husband even though they've been separated for years and she's had children with other men since then. But those aren't the things I will share today. Today I will share that my life is boring. Thank God.

The Ten Commandments...

My dear friend and I are lone rangers in Junior Church, left to our own devices...but we have a total of 6 kids. So it's L and I versus the six of them! 5 of those are boys and 5 of those belong to us! We aren't a wealthy church so to save some money Todd and I have donated some of the supplies needed, L and A (L's DH) have donated lots of supplied, time and energy! So when we were left weeks ago without a lesson, we made it up, we launched a 12 week study on the 10 Commandments...or God's Rules if you ask Destiny! We're on week 4 (Commandment 3) this week and it's going so well that we may repeat the study in two years to see if we can't get them to have them memorized, at the end of our hard core study we will have a program where we will present the 6 children who are consistently in class, telling the lessons we've taught with each of the Commandments...we aren't teaching the Biblical wording (it's hard to understand) but we are teaching the meaning, with a story from the Bible to back us up!

#1 No Other God's - - This was taught with Adam and Eve, Eve ate the fruit, so that she could become God like, but there are NO OTHER GOD'S!

#2 No Idols - - King N melted down all the gold to make a giant statue of himself for the people to worship, and those who refused would be thrown into the furnace, three refused but when he threw them in, he saw a fourth person, it was an Angel, who protected them from the flames. King N then proclaimed that God was the only being to be worshipped, and there were to be no more idols!

#3 Love God's Name - - David and Goliath - Goliath mocked God saying that even God couldn't beat him, David said that through the power of God, someone as small as David could beat Goliath, we used the big kids versus the little kids, and there was lots of yelling and "war" but in the end, David won because he had God in his corner!

And the best part is that my kids and recite these three, and even know what I mean when they recite them to me!