Christmas Card Time~Yes Already!

I love Christmas! I also love getting mail, well maybe not the bills, but I love opening the box to find fun things waiting inside for me. So one can only imagine how excited I am when Thanksgiving ends and I get to pull out the brightly colored envelopes and open them up to reveal Christmas cards.

I like to give more than I like to get so I always make sure I send out Christmas cards, however, this year is going to be a little different; we are starting a new family tradition. In a few weeks my sister in law, a pretty talented photographer if I say so myself will be meeting us downtown at some of the amazing buildings we have here in town. Our family will be in white shirts and jeans. What will we be doing, taking our 1st annual Christmas photo for our Christmas cards.

Looking at the Christmas cards at Tiny Prints got me thinking about doing a personalized photo card and sending them out for Christmas. Let's face it, I have 5 children and buying gifts for aunts, uncles and grandparents sometimes is just not possible but when they receive these cute cards that are personalized, it's just like you gave them a new family photo and isn't that a gift in itself?


The problem is not going to be getting everyone to look at the same time or getting a picture of my family without someone moving or closing their eyes, no, the hard part is going to come with picking the card from Tiny Prints. There is such a big selection that you will be sure to find one that fits your family.

I'll be sure to let you guys know when the cards get here and post a picture for y'all to see them too.
Merry Christmas (P.S. It's less than 100 days away)!


Until Next Time

Small Town Political Races

Tonight was Fire Department night. Basically what happens is on the 4th Tuesday of every month the Ladies Auxiliary has a meeting and then the Fire Department has a meeting. Now remember, I live in a small town and since my blog is public, I will not be able to use real names, lol. Since the nominations for offices started every event I have been to has been about politics. First was our annual County Wide Volunteer Fire Department Association Banquet (why yes, it is a mouthful). It was a bid for each candidate to get their time to say something. Next came a Friday night football game (yes, someone came and did this at a high school football game, got to love small towns), next they attended and pitched again at our monthly county wide fire meeting and then I heard it all again tonight at our own departments monthly meeting.


It's funny listening to some of these guys talk. They don't know who they might offend so they are careful not to step on the other guys toes and very vague about what they want to do but yet expect me to vote for them for the various offices they are running for? Um, this is not how this works for me. You don't get my vote and then I get to know what you plan on doing. I need to know what you want to change in order for me to decide how to cast my vote. Furthermore, if you are not currently obeying the rules and regs that you made up yourself, why would I trust that you are going to make the right changes to ones others before you created?

There is one candidate who has surprised me in a way that has made me say that he will get my vote. I will not name any names of course. This man showed up at a public event with his wife, they both wore t-shirts endorsing his campaign information (nothing wrong in my mind, we do it every time we put on a shirt that has a brand or slogan or picture on it),  he shook the hands of the people there and introduced himself only...no political talk as it was not the time or place. If someone did ask questions, he took the time to answer it with what he would like to try and make happen and since he lives in the area, he understands our needs better than most.

Oh, how I love small towns and all the things that go along with it. I will say that since it's election time, our fire department has seen an increase in donations....thank you folks.

Until next time.

The Texas Experience

I was born in Texas, I have lived in Texas my entire life with the exception of about 9 months when I was 5 years old.  To me, there is no better place than Texas and Texas agrees. Texas On Tour is an annual event that brings the Texas experience to different regions.  This year Texas On Tour chose 9 different regions nationwide to share our great state with. 

The last stop on the tour is coming up soon at the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta, October 1-9 in Albuquerque, NM.  There will be many things for the whole family to do including interactive activities and shows to introduce Texas to the great folks visiting this event.  In order to experience the various regions within Texas there is virtual kayaking, exploring Texas waterways (and there are A LOT), taking pictures with various backdrops Texas has to offer and you can even post those on Facebook for all your friends to see. For all you history and trivia folks out there, Texas On Tour also provides you the chance to win some pretty great prizes by answering Texas trivia and enter a sweepstakes at http://www.texas-on-tour.com/texas/sweeps11/promo.  In addition to all these great things, there will also be some amazing live Texas entertainment.  If you've never been to Texas, hold on to your hats because there are many talented folks here. 

Check out Texas On Tour online, on Facebook or on Twitter.

Review: Meet To Marry

Even though I am already married, I thought reading this book would be good for me since I have 5 children who will one day get married and have some friends who are still looking for " the right one".  Meet To Marry  is an awesome book in which the author takes all the misconceptions we have about finding the "right" man or woman to marry. It is nice to see that the author advising taking a look at yourself and find out what you really want out of a relationship and potential marriage. For those of you who are asking why your relationships never work, it could be because you are the one making them not work.



As I have read from some others, I too agree that the best part of the book is about SMART goals....I'm not going to give away the entire book, you'll have to take a look for yourself.


To all my single readers or those of you with children who are the age to be thinking about marriage and serious relationships, I highly recommend this book. You can find it on shelves on Oct.3rd.



Disclaimer: I did not receive compensation for this review but did receive a copy of the book. All the views expressed here are 100% mine.

Review: Couples Who Pray

I received a copy of Couples Who Pray from Book Sneeze to read and do a review on my blog. Let me tell you that I was super excited to get this book. After some trouble in our marriage last summer, both JT and I committed ourselves to one another and started counseling.  One of the things recommended by our faith based counselor was to pray together every night. This seemed really odd for me since I did not grow up in a family who went to church or prayed, we were lucky if we were all eating dinner in the same room. Praying out load or with other people made me feel uncomfortable but in our marriage vows, we took a vow to God and God had to be the center of our marriage if we were going to make it. This is not the first marriage for either one of us.

In this book, the author mentions couples that we all know such as Denzel and Pauletta Washington and Kathie Lee and Frank Gifford who find time to pray together each and everyday. This was profound for me since they are far busier, at least in my mind, than my husband and I, after all, they are celebrities but one thing hit me; these folks have been married to one another for quite a long time and unlike many celebrity couples, their marriages have sustained through many issues and challenges. This had to be because of the bond they had through praying to God each day as a couple and not just individuals. 

JT and I took the challenge and I will tell you that at first it was very uncomfortable for both of us. I didn't want to say anything that would embarrass myself in front of my husband and he wasn't sure what to say at all. I knew he prayed in private and he knew I did but this put a whole new spin on things. We decided that we would pray for one another and this would make things easier and less selfish. Since reading the book and practicing what the author taught in the book, our marriage has become much more solid, more intimate and more secure. 

Since the review our family has gone through 3 major changes that would challenge any marriage but I firmly believe that through what we gained from the book and our relationship with one another and God made us to where we can get through most anything.

Are You Ready For Some Football

Last night was the homecoming for my bio children. The week before was homecoming in the little town we live in. One thing people know about Texas is that Friday nights are reserved for high school football games. I never imagined that when Joel started playing football at 5 years old there would be a time I would be able to say I had a high school football player,granted he is only a freshman. Jonathan decided to play after taking 2 years off, Bryan is doing flag football in P.E. and thinks he wants to try football next year, Jill is convinced she wants to do cheerleading next football season and Nick, he is just along to play with the other kids. Here are some pics from the football games so far this year. Hope you enjoy.

Progress Today

So I have decided in order to be the best Paramedic I can be, once I become one, I should be in better shape and health than I am now. I have not weighed myself because to me the number the scale says does not mean healthy. The scale can say 110 lbs and you can be as unhealthy as someone who weighs 250 lbs. So rather than go on a diet, I decided to get active and chose better things to eat. I don't think I did too bad.

Sausage/Pancake on a stick x1= 240 calories
1.5 oz cream cheese x1=140 calories
1 6oz 1% white milk x1=80 calories
1 orange vanilla lowfat yogurt=80 calories
1 small bean, cheese and meat burrito=347 calories (not the best choice)
1.5 cup steamed brocoli=30 calories
1 cup brown rice=216 calories
1 mixed fruit cup in light syrup=70 calories
1 100 calorie brownie pack=100 calories
1 small pork chop=118 calories
1 cup fried potatos=140 calories
1 cup of baked beans=268 calories

Lots of water

Total calories: 1829

which is about 329 calories more than I wanted to consume but I don't get choices in what I eat for dinner since I don't make it.

As far as exercise, I work in a school cafeteria so from 630am-200pm I am constantly moving around. I did go for a walk with my son Bryan tonight in our little town. Our total walk time was 45 minutes.

My Outlet To Talk

since joining the fire department and coming up on that wreck a year ago, I have wanted to become a Paramedic. I started looking into EMT courses. The local community college offered them but only during the day which doesn't work for me because I have to work to help support my family. There are a few programs in the Dallas area but not good on the gas bill to be driving to Dallas everyday. Well, today something came over me and I decided that I would look again and guess what? The local community college have classes at night now. So rather than sit here and talk about how I was taking time away from the kids and from this and that, I printed my application for admission and then filled out my financial aid information. Tomorrow I am going to put the application in the mail and on the 10th I'll go get my high school transcript unless I can manage to find one in the file cabinet that we have.

This allows me to keep my job at the school district and means that I'll be in school during most of the kids off season from school. I do have to get a bunch of dang shots but that's alright and I have to schedule a test but that's alright too. Tomorrow I am going to see about scheduling a time to go up to the school and make sure I have all my ducks in a row. The funny thing is I just talked with my kids about this last weekend and they are very supportive. My husband is always supportive so I have no worries there. For what I want to do, you have to get your EMT before you can get your Paramedic and Paramedic classes everywhere are days only. My plan there is to work just weekends or just nights until I get through school. If I can manage to get in with a private ambulance company or in a rural area like we live in, I will still get to sleep and I will get to study.

I have debated being a firefighter/paramedic but I am not sure how my husband is going to feel but we will see how it goes further down the road. Right now I need to focus on losing a bunch of weight.

EMT School?

I have been looking at colleges for over a year. I needed to find an EMT program that offered evening classes. The school in my area had only daytime classes and being that I'm a mom and wife and have to work, this was not an option for me BUT they started offering evening classes! I am all over this starting right now.

Still Need To Finish Your Taxes?

Luckily my husband did our taxes in February via TurboTax but I know a few people who still haven't finished up their taxes. If you are one of those who still need to file a tax extention form 2010, TurboTax can help file your extention to October 17th. This means you have a month from today to finish up and TurboTax can help. I will tell you from personal experience that I can't imagine not using TurboTax to file my taxes. TurboTax is a name you can trust, it is simple and takes you through the process step by step and you know you did it correctly because they send you email confirmation.

If you are stationed outside of the US and are eligible military, check out TurboTax as well.

tax extention form 2010

And I Just Thought It Got Easier As My Kids Got Older.....

That is the biggest joke I have ever told myself, lol. Not only have things gotten more challenging for the kids, they have gotten more challenging for mom too. It would be MUCH easier had the EH decided to move Joel, Jonathan and Jill closer to me but instead, he moved them back to the town they went to school in before the temp move to Houston. I don't have a problem with this but it makes things a million times harder for me.


This week is a perfect example of the life I now live.

Monday:
5:30 AM Wake up, get dressed for work (thank God for uniforms so I don't have to think about what to wear), make lunches, eat some breakfast and head to work
6:00 AM- Get to work and begin my day with a boss who doesn't know anything and another coworker who feels like she runs the show, not to mention I work at an Early Childhood Center (4-6 year olds)
2:00-Off work, drive home, visit with my husband for 20 minutes while he gets ready for work
3:00- Leave home to go sit in the car loop to pick Bryan up
3:45-get Bryan started on homework, change clothes
4:30-make Bryan eat something so we can get ready to drive 40 minutes to Jonathan's game
5:45-arrive at Jonathan's game, find seats on the home side where the visitors have decided to sit also, deal with my exhusband and ex father in law all while my oldest son checks out the girls walking by
8:45-get home, make Bry get in the shower, attempt to unwind by watching tv
9:00- talk to my husband via the cell phone (I promise I am married to my cell and not a person) and attempt to go to sleep

Tuesday:

Same routine until after homework
5:30-eat dinner
7:00-go to 4H meeting where I find out they already want money and they want more of my time, some of the time I already have scheduled and since JT works nights and I can't count on the exhusband and he moved the kids so far away, I am the one stuck trying to figure that out, oh and did I mention they want me to work a fundraiser the Saturday of my birthday....Happy Birthday
9:00-Talk to JT with Bryan via speaker about 4H
10:00-Bryan goes to bed and I print off all the information for his chickens and rabbit projects
P.S. I forgot until just now Bryan needs an 80s outfit for spirit day tomorrow



Wednesday:
Same morning schedule
7:00 Bryan has youth at the church (which means I get to clean up the space that belongs to us at home and get donations ready for the Red Cross)

Thursday:
Same morning
3:30-Pick Bryan up from school, head straight to Joel's game where Bryan has to do his homework (oh and I forgot that this is payday which means going to the bank to cash my check before I pick up Bryan which means I don't get to see my husband)

Friday:
same morning
3:30 Pick up Bryan, drive an hour to pick up my other son Nicholas from the bio mother's mother's house, swing through to pick up the big kids, make it to the homecoming game in time for kick off

Saturday:
Sleep in (which means 7am)
Work on Joel's World Geography project
clean up area
attempt to organize myself
laundry

Sunday:
Church
Take kids home
get ready for the week.....


AND start all over again. I know I sound like I am complaining, and I am to some degree but as tired as I am, as much as I feel  like I live out of my truck and am having a marriage via the cell phone, I only get one time with my kids when they are still kids and they belong to me, after that, I have to trust that they are equipped to make good decisions and are productive members of adult society.

Until next time.

A Day At The Skate Park

The little town we live in has 2 small parks. One of the parks, just outside of town, has a few skate ramps. JT and I saw them when we took a drive after a fire call. So yesterday we decided, since it was nice outside, we would take Bry and Nick to the skateboard park, hard to ride a skate board on a gravel road. Needless to say, the ramps were not in the best condition and in addition, were a little too big for our boys so they created their own fun.

What are you guys doing now that the weather is nicer?

Fire Fire Everywhere

As many of you know Texas has been under a severe drought all summer long. There are currently cracks in our yard big enough to drive your truck into not to mention the grass is a beautiful shade of crunchy brown. As Tropical Storm Lee made it's way to Louisana, it brought some much needed cooler temps, the average has been well over 100 degrees for 68 days so far this summer. What Lee also brought was very low humidity, high winds and the severe threat of fire danger and yesterday it happened.

None of the pictures I am posting belong to me. I always give credit where it is due so I will make sure to thank each of these folks at the end of my blog post. I've been sick so yesterday we missed church and even didn't go to the fire station to help clean but stayed in pajamas until we heard that they were calling us out for assist on a fire for the one paid department in our county, this means big fire. Yesterday there were several fires and my father in law and uncle were on them while we waited at the fire station on standby.

These are some of the pics from my good friends at Corsicana Daily Sun
http://www.facebook.com/corsicanadailysun#!/media/set/?set=a.269467213071564.71230.127854087232878

And some from my friends at Navarro County Times
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Navarro-County-Times/250863227571#!/media/set/?set=a.10150286319907572.337538.250863227571&type=1

There are already fire departments out this morning as the danger is just as bad today.

Thank a firefighter by dropping off some water or gaterade, crackers or snacks for the times they are away from their families and homes fighting fires like these.