Wow, it's been awhile since I last posted!

We've really not been up to much. Well unless you count Jerry working from before sunrise until after sunset, us working on school and keeping the house clean, and a whole bunch of Wii! We figured out that from our house to the end of the road is a 1/2 mile, so I'm trying to work a 'down-and-back' walk into our day everyday. I'll let you know when it becomes habit :-)

The Great Church Hunt update: we still haven't found a church. We have found a couple of possibilities, but we aren't ready to call either of them home yet. The one that is closer to us is really small. I would be floored if you told me there were more than 50-60 people last Sunday. I just like big churches. Not just because there are more people, but with more people come more opportunities; more Women's Ministry things going on, more things for the kids. But the fact remains: it IS closer. The friendships I cultivate will be local, not in Jacksonville or the same distance away up north. I need that. I need for my kids to have local friends. I need to have local friends. Right now, all my friends live in the computer (Hi friends!). I've been told by more than one person (ok, it was 2 people and it was my mom and my grandmother) that maybe I could be the one doing something new with the church. Maybe I could START a Women's Ministry there. I cringed when my mom said it. I cringed again when my grandmother said it. The idea is sort of softening on me now. We'll see.

Speaking of not knowing anybody.

As a Navy wife, I must prepare for the worst; for emergencies while my husband is gone. Part of this preparing is having an emergency plan. There is a form I must fill out that is given to the Ombudsman (liason between the wives and the boat), so in the case of an emergency she knows who to contact. I also give all the information needed to my mom.

Jerry brought this form home to me a couple of weeks ago and said I needed to have it turned in by, like, a couple of days from then. I said "well, I guess it'll be blank then!" I don't know anybody. I thought for a few days, then I remembered a girl down the street from me that introduced herself the day we moved in. She's the coordinator for the Neighborhood Watch. I dragged out her email and sat at the computer for what seemed like an hour.

How do you ask such a wretched question?

"Hi! I know you don't really know me, and I know that I don't really know you, but if I fall down my stairs and have to be rushed to the hospital while unconscious would you mind taking my FOUR KIDS whom you've never met until my parents can get here from TN, or until the command can bring my husband home? Oh, yeah, and I'll need to give all your information to my parents so that they can find the kids when they get here. Oh, and I'll also need to give your information to the Ombudsman whom neither of us know. Thanks!"

You think I'm kidding, but I sent just about that. I might have changed some of the wording around a bit, so it didn't seem so scary. I mean, just me DOING this ensures that I won't need to use it. Murphy's Law of Navy Wives and all that.

I totally expected her to say no. I mean, I would've! LOL (You know, if I were in a civilian family and didn't know that this is a normal thing at each place you go--getting a new emergency contact. It's as normal as getting your phone turned on in your new house).

Now you might be asking yourself "how will the kids know who to call?" Well, if you've ever been in my kitchen, you know. I have an In Case Of An Emergency sheet on the refrigerator. It has Call 911 on it, the local emergency contact name and number (my down-the-road friend), and my parents' phone numbers. When I was in San Diego, I also had serveral neighbor's phone numbers on it. Since I don't know that many people here, I'll add the Ombudsman's number to this one. I go over this sheet with the kids on a regular basis (thus ensuring it'll never have to be used) so they know what to do.

Oh, the answer to my email? Amazingly enough, she said yes. She also said that her husband offered to help if I needed anything done while Jerry was gone. She called me after that and we talked on the phone for over an hour. They are a very sweet couple and I wish my days didn't get the better of me so that we could spend some time getting to know each other.

Well, it seemed like a good plan

It seems we aren't going to be able to do the whole Visa Prepaid card thing with our budget like we wanted. They all charge monthly fees! It will be a pain in my rear-end, but I cannot get 5 or 6 prepaid cards and then pay $5 a month for each one just for the convenience of not having to do envelopes!

So, I guess I'm doing the envelopes. I hate envelopes. This system is not new to us. We've done it before and we stopped doing it because I HATE ENVELOPES. It's hard to keep the money straight, I don't like carrying around that much cash at any given time, they're flimsy, it's hard, to impossible, to keep Quicken updated with what I'm doing with my money, and what do I do with the coins? I won't always carry all the envelopes with me all the time, but what if I'm shopping for clothing and I see a great birthday present for someone? Or I run to Walmart and remember I need a grocery item? Thus begins the "rob Peter to pay Paul" scenario that hurts my brain. Why does it hurt my brain? Because I then have to remember who owes Peter, and how much. Peter suffers. Peter doesn't always get paid back. Peter doesn't like the envelope system, either.

It's an entire behavior modification on my part. I'll have to anticipate things even more than I do now. I'll have to learn to say "no" to myself when I don't have that envelope with me. But the problem isn't always so cut and dry. I'm not going to make a 45 minute round trip back home to get the grocery envelope when all I need is eggs.

It's exhausting, really.

If it means we get a better control on our spending, I guess it's my only option. I'll just have to have a pain in my butt for a while until I get used to it again. And I'll have to figure out how to enter it into Quicken so that it doesn't mess with my ocd too much. As for the coins, I guess I could get a coin jar and put all the coins in that.

I can still see if Navy Federal has anything for adults that resembles their Teen Buxx cards they offer for free. I doubt it.

Our afternoon walk down the street

Brrrr Aqua SleepWorld Man!

I am freezing!

Over the last several weeks, to get our heat to turn on we really had to play with the controller bar (the one that controls the Cold, Heat, Off, Emer settings). The cold works fine, but the heat does not.

This morning when we got up, it was 66 in the house. I was able to play with it and get the heat turned on, but after sitting at my desk for awhile, I thought it felt like the air conditioning and not heat. I went to check and sure enough, the heat had stopped working, but the fan was still on because it was trying to heat the house up. I have it on auto, so it's going to keep trying until it gets to where I set it (70, and it was only at 68).

I called the property company, and they need the work order in writing. I email her everything I just said to her.

Of course you know what happened next, don't you?

Yep, the heat's working. My toes are thawed, my fingers aren't aching, my nose is back to it's normal color. I might even take my jacket off.

In my defense, the led light that shows the heat is on is still not on. And honestly by the time they get out here to fix it, it'll be messing up again. We're still waiting on them to come and fix the doors in the jack and jill bath upstairs that won't shut all the way. We put that order in the day after we moved in.

My Lukie

Over the last 2 or 3 weeks, L has really started to talk. He will repeat, or try to repeat anything you say. Usually it's just the last word of what you said, but he's trying. Here are a list of things he's learned to say, in no particular order:

Mama
Da
Bake (B)
Yah (O)
Dah (R--I don't know either)
Nah (snack)
Sie (outside)
ee (eat)
YAY
me
ree (tree)
bye
pee-pee
ow (out)


He tried to say boo-hiney yesterday. It's what I call their behinds.

And last but certainly not least, he grabbed himself the other day while I was changing his diaper and proclaimed "Mah Peeneh!"

I know there are some more words he says. I'll either put it in a different post or edit this one when I think of them...cause I can do that if I want. :-)

ETA:
bie (bite)
peas (please)
bie peas
Hi
sah (sock)
nigh nigh (night night)
mih (milk)

2009 Resolutions

I know it's silly to make resolutions, but Jerry and I have come up with some anyway. Of course, I don't think he knows this because we didn't say that's what it was.

We really want to be better stewards with our money this year. We've been blessed financially because of his job and we tend to blow it. We've re-calculated our budget accounting for anything and everything we can think of. We're on a plan to pay off our debt, and save as much as we can . We've even made a wish list of things we want to buy with the money we save!

We are going to get reloadable credit cards from our bank. Each one will be used for one category of our budget, and each month we'll put the money we have budgeted on that card. When we need it, we'll have it.

Card 1 will be labeled Auto. We'll use this card for registrations and regular maintenance.
Card 2 will be labeled Entertainment. Going out to eat, going bowling, whatever.
Card 3 will be labeled Gifts, so we have money for birthdays, mother's and father's day, etc.
Card 4 will be labeled Household, for all those Walmart trips
Card 5 will be labeled Clothing. Cause with 6 of us, someone always needs something. Shoes, t-shirts, socks, jeans...

We really want to do this for Christmas as well. We want to save all year for Christmas instead of loading up our credit card or pulling money from savings.

Resolution 2 is eating healthy and losing weight. Yes, I know how cliche it sounds, but I have got to get this extra weight that's on me gone! My mental and physical health depend on it! There aren't any gyms near us, so we'll have to rely on the old fashioned way. We have to get creative, and I have to prepare healthier meals for us all.

I'm committed and I'm optimistic. That's half the battle, right?

2008

Highlights:

~flying home, by myself, with 4 kids after a long visit in Tennessee

~Jerry returning from a 6 month deployment

~Getting a letter saying Jerry had a warrant for his arrest in a state we hadn't lived in for 6 years.

~Orders out of the blue offered to us for Georgia

~The agonizing, but very quick decision we had to make

~Starting our second year of homeschooling

~Having to say goodbye to our church family and our friends in CA

~Moving across the country

~Making our move a vacation (movacation!), seeing the Grand Canyon, The Arch, The Pro Football Hall of Fame, and Hershey along the way.

~Meeting up with old friends in CT

~Finding a gorgeous home in GA

~Jerry settling in to a new, and challenging, job

~Spending Christmas in TN without it costing one of my kids to fly there