Family Update...

Well, with Facebook, I always forgot to blog... Seems like FB is a daily blog these days. So, I'll give a quick rundown of summer...

Kids had a decent  summer. Doing nothing much except hanging out with friends. I'm sure everyone knows my drama with my inspection of corn this year, so I won't go into that except to say I am missing it. Courtney and Sarah are sophomores this year, and Ashley is in 7th grade. Our chickens are finally laying eggs and Ashley has made a money jar for the money we get from selling the eggs.

We let them out to eat the bugs and grass. One gal must have thought she was in time out. LOL 

We get anywhere from 9-12 eggs a day.

I also have been building a small stock pile in the basement of things we go through really fast, so that this winter when or if David gets laid off we don't have to buy things such as sugar, pads, trash bags, noodles... Stuff like that. We have a half of a cow in the freezer already and I just need to get a decent supply of chicken and we will be set.

The Bass Lake store will be closing for the winter at the end of October, then I'll more than likely be moved to the Knox store. At least that is something. Knox is different, they have no food. I do get to do some decorating though. That is so fun. I always miss my regular customers. There are a few that remind me of my grandparents, so sweet and so ornery too. I am sad that I don't get to see them almost every single day. I love to chat with them and my crew of 7 I call the rowdy bunch... They are all older, one couple reminds me of my Grandma Jones with her crazy antics, and they can get quite loud at times. They don't even have to order anymore they all get their regular orders, I save their large table for them, they harass me and I give it right back. I love it. None of the teenagers that work there want to take them because they like things a certain way and tip a buck if you are lucky. But I always take them and love to have them. Even if they never tipped me I would still take them.

Anyways, that's our summer. in a small nutshell.

New years post

Well, I totally forgot about my family blog, even though no one reads it anyways. So This new year has brought on some rough times with all this snow and ice. We will just skip it because I know I am sick of talking about it, so everyone must be as well.

Swimming is over sadly for Courtney, she was doing so well. She was hit with some knee pain so we skipped the family doctor and went right to my friend who is a Orthopedic specialist. She has a abnormality in her knee. a band next to her knee cap that is normal in utero but should have dissolved after birth and never did. So her swimming the breast stroke made it inflamed. She has a steriod shot and Doc told her to rest it and get back with him if it still bugs her. I started her on SABA's product Mobilite that does wonders for pain and inflammation, and now she is feeling better, only to have Track start this past week. She is interested in throwing this year and trying the pole vault. They are only just starting conditioning so not much real running going on. We went to a special running store to get her track shoes. They fit her and took 40 min with her to get the right fit for her gait. They had her on a treadmill with different shoes and did a analysis of how she runs. They were so amazing! I was scared when I looked at 2 boxes of shoes and there were no prices on them. I knew I was in trouble. BUT they found the right shoe for her arch and went right to the sale rack and got her a pair of shoes costing 150$ on sale for 98$! IF it help her knee issues and feels good it is worth it.

Ashley is working on her history project on Finland. She made a mini Finland flag today and we found out that Finland is the largest producer of plywood. LOL She has been working her dog for 4-H and Bella seems to be doing very well so far.

Sarah is the same as well, working on her art all the time and spending every second awake texting or visiting her boyfriend.

Not much happening with the hubby either except going ice fishing. He has good days and bad days on the ice. He is not battling a tiny cold, poor thing. LOL

Me? Not much to report, working at the bakery is fun. I am learning some good things to help Ashley on her cake decorating project. My business seems to have taken off this past week.  Strangers coming out of the fb world wanting to try ACE. I am currently working on a meet and greet at the end of March to get the word out in my area. Samples to try snacks to munch on and some amazing info as well. SABA, The makers of ACE, have so much more to offer than weight loss stuff. So, my plan is to spread the word.

So now everyone is up to speed, things are ok. TTYL!

October update

Things around here are slowly getting better. With money being tight we have lost a few things, T.V. and cell phones. The T.V. isn't too bad of a thing to lose. We got a antenna and get the news at lease. The phones are a tad bit harder to deal with. But we manage. So for now the only way to get a hold of us is through Facebook or my work number. Kids are dealing with it pretty good. In the beginning they were freaking out but after the first week they had no more complaints. The worst part is when they go somewhere and I need to contact them. David and I just make it clear the drop off/pick up times.

David's neck surgery went well. I believe it has helped him. He still is not sure. He has days where he swears the surgery made it worse, but I know better. He is complaining less and less of the real issues like numb hands and lost grips. With everything it takes time to heal fully and he just doesn't understand it.

I am still having no luck on the job front. Although I AM working 4 days a week at a bakery waiting tables. I have always said that waiting tables was my favorite job ever, and this job is honestly the best. I just love my regular customers that come in almost everyday of the week. The pay is decent, and now that the kids are older, I am not losing any money working there. I was even asked to be the weekend manager over the summer. Not sure what will be happening next summer so I said maybe.

Kids are doing very well. Courtney and Sarah are high school cheerleaders. Miss Ashley has gotten the best grades she has ever had. Some days the attitude is out of control, but then it gets better the next day. Courtney and Sarah are getting good grades as well. Court made high honor roll this 9 weeks. I am still waiting on Sarah to mention her report card... not sure why she is not telling us about it yet. I can see her grades and they are good. weird.

I am also learning new and creative ways to make products for cleaning the house. I now make my own laundry soap, as well as dish soap. I still buy dish soap from time to time because it seems the longer I use the home made there gets a light film on my dishes. It is because of our well water. So I am saving money just not as much as I would if I never bought dishwasher soap. I haven't bought laundry soap in over a year. September of 2012 I bought a 5 gallon bucket of laundry soap from a school fundraiser and I still have 1/4th of it left. I sometimes use it on really bad clothes like when David works on the cars or when the kids and I worked in the fields. No one has noticed that I switched soaps except for when I am making a gallon of it here and there.  I also have made my own cleaning solutions. I love my shower cleaner, as well as my "all purpose" cleaner. With the natural it takes a tad more elbow grease but who cares! I am now researching floor cleaners, so I am ready when I run out of my current stuff.

While our 1/2 of a side of beef is now down to ground burger, and our deer meat from last year is only burger as well, I am finding more uses for dishes using burger. I have a all burger cook book that has some good stuff in it. The hubby has started to complain less and less with my dinner choices over the last few months. He is realizing not to be picky or he will starve to death. :)

Little miss Ashley has turned into the CVS coupon diva. I have to get milk and cereal more times a week than I go to the store. so we hit up Dollar general for cereal then right next door is CVS. She always takes my keys to go to the coupon thing to print off coupons. She inspects them and tells me is we have any good ones or not. Now that CVS has gotten rid of expiration dates on all the coupons as well as the extra bucks we are making a killing on certain items. I hoard coupons for like pads lets say. then I wait till they go on sale, I buy them use the coupons and save a ton. Ashley also likes to read the receipt and tell me how much we saved that trip. She is too funny. Courtney and Sarah have started to learn about saving money as I tell them if we go here we can save X dollars and then we can buy more. They never got into the whole CVS coupon fun like Ashley does. This morning for example, I was driving through town and 1 gas station was 10 cents cheaper, so I HAD to go there. I do my stupid prepay and head out to the pump. I go and before I hit the correct button to start pumping I notice the pump is 10 cents more! I marched my happy ass back into the store and had the lady come out and look. Long story short, she had to reset the pump and redo my payment to fix it. 10 cents is 10 cents. I HATE this gas station because they make ya prepay and they are not as friendly as my fav gas station, but money is tight I need to save where I can.

My ACE business has exploded with the introduction of new products. I am amazed at the products that SABA carries. The way they are changing lives. Not only from a weight loss point of view but the other products are amazing as well. The kids love using the Colloidal Silver on everything from rashes, to cuts, to even putting it in the humidifier this winter. This stuff is amazing! I even use it in the dogs ears. While I have no issues with sleep... ever, I have tried the Night Bliss sleep spray. It also works amazing! I have used some of the ingredients in it in the past to help me sleep, but the combo SABA blended really works! I enrolled a new Distributor today. A friend that I worked with inspecting corn. She is super excited to get her ACE cheaper as well as trying other products.

Well, I guess that is all for tonight. Night my friends!

Christmas is coming...

Well with thoughts of fall, comes thought of what the heck to do for Christmas. It seems every year we go overboard on gifts. I'm not talking about our own children either. I'm talking about getting gifts for everyone else in the world. School teachers, neighbors, 4-H leaders, family we hardly see...(and boy being in a big family there is a lot of them) ect. It seems like as Christmas gets closer, we think oh we better get something for so-&-so. With the gift of giving it always seems that there is a few extended family members that my husband feels we should buy for then the gift is never returned. I'm not talking about a gift for myself, I'm talking about for our children. We used to always buy for the kids, well now that there are more and more kids it gets harder. I still believe a gift of something is nice even if it is $5 to McDonald's. But some extended family must not feel the way my husband and I do.

So, this year, I am turning over a new leaf. I am going to go with homemade gifts for people. I follow a website called DIY Natural. Link Here There are so many many ideas I have used and have experimented with over the past year. I love reading and trying new things. So, This year kids as well as adults are going to be getting some home made items. Right now I am in the process of trying a dish soap recipe. For the times I have a few dishes and don't want to run a washer load. If it is a hit, I'll post how I made it another day.

You must spend a day reading this DIY website. It is a amazing resource, and has awesome information! Well off to finish making my dish soap and check on the chocolate chip cookies in the oven.

August news

August has been a crazy month. Back to school, hubby's neck surgery, and I'm not quite ill. Hubby is not sure if his neck is better or not. I personally think it is better and his pain is all from the surgery.

Girls are doing well in high school and middle school. State fair was amazing. Our hotel was awesome. A long long weekend but we had some good experiences. Sarah and Ashley did very well even though they didn't place. Courtney did awesome and placed 21st out of 203 in her showmanship class. I was pretty impressed with how everyone did. Well, off to nap again...

New creations!!!

On my DIY blog I get updates from I found 2 new creations that I'm going to try in the next day or so. Home made cleaning wet wipes and home made dish soap, (not for the dish washer). I am pretty excited to try these and after I make em and give them a try I'll post for all of you!

Time for school...

Where has the summer gone? I had big plans for this summer... It seems like we were busy every single day and got nothing done. Now it is time for back to school clothes shopping and I didn't save anything for it. Sigh. Courtney and Sarah will be going into 9th grade and miss Ashley will be in 6th grade. What the heck? No one at the elementary school anymore... Kinda sad. I love the staff at the elementary school.

 My garden is still going strong. I have been shredding zucchini like a crazy person. Made tons of loafs of bread. Fried so much as well. I have 1 plant that keeps growing and growing. I wish my green beans would keep going. I froze who the heck knows how much already. I keep seeing tiny beans growing, but this weather is making growing slow. I STILL have yet to see a red tomato. I have had some orange ones but then they rotted. I think next year I will give up on tomatoes and mooch off of dad's plants. We picked a watermellon, but... it wasn't ready yet. My pickle plants have been slow growers as well giving us 4-5 at the most on 1 day. I'm ok with that actually. My neighbor's green beans have stopped for the season so he tore them down and replanted some. Next year I might stagger them to have more growing later in the season.

I am gearing up for a challenge put on by Fitness expert Clark Bartram. I got a signed copy of his new book, Where your mind goes, you go, A mental journey toward a healthy mind and a successful life. I really want to read the entire thing all at once but it is set up to read a chapter a day and do what is taught each day. Anyways, It also is going to have a fitness part for the challenge too. I dusted off my stepper and I'm not sure what else is going to happen. I do know that I have been seriously slacking in the fitness area of my life. Today I laid on the couch all day and napped. Not setting a good example for sure. SABA has put out a new product for our customers. It's Called Mobilite.

I am very excited to get a bottle for the hubby and my daddy to try. I have heard tons of people who have had awesome results with it, from back pain to torn ligaments, so we shall see. Here's a link of what one of my friend's hubby had to say.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byqzLHx3pxE