While the rest of you are shovelin' snow...

We are shoveling leaves. Lots and lots of leaves. We have so many trees around our house, that the sun never comes into our house.

And as you can see, I still have a bit more to rake over the next few weeks.

The weather here is beautiful, in the 70's, jacket weather at the end of November. And while all the leaves annoy me and I have a nasty blister on my thumb from all the raking, I just think of dear family and friends, who are in 20 degree weather right now, and driving in snow (and dodging cows). I'll take the leaves, thank-you very much. In retaliation, feel free to rub in my face your humidity-free and 80 degree weather this next summer. I will be green with envy (or red and sweaty rather).

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Ten Years ago today...

Lohn and I walked into the Logan, UT hospital, all smiles and completely CLUELESS about what we were getting ourselves into. 10 hours of labor later AND...

This is my "I just gave birth" face.

Tamsyn's blessing day.

Her chubby legs. Aren't those just delicious???

She loved (loves) to wrestle.

Watching Veggie Tales with her shades.

Wasn't she just a cute little stink????!!!!!

What kind of mother would I be if I didn't include a naked picture of my daughter? Sorry sweetie, this one is just too cute to pass up.

She's still chubbers here. I have to say I miss those rolls. She's a string bean now.

I think this is about when the "attitude" started to manifest. hehe

Never scared to try new things. Even if it means falling on her bum every 30 seconds.

Fond memories of frog catching at String Lake near Yellowstone.

And here she is now. I am missing a couple of years of pictures. When my computer crashed, carbonite saved my photos, but I can't seem to access them. grrr. Anyways, I am super proud to be the Mama of a beautiful, confident, honest, sweet, responsible, sensitive, precious little girl. I am so glad that God sent me her before he sent me my parcel of boys, and that she is my friend. Happy Birthday my perfect little Angel!!!

Service in remembrance of Baby Solomon

For those of my Utah friends and family who remember my friend, Becky Virgin, go to this blog and read her story. 6 years ago today, sweet baby boy Solomon was born with a heart defect. Join me in doing 18 days of random acts of kindness in honor of this sweet baby 18 days of life. Then leave an anonymous comment on her blog of what you did that day. I never knew this little baby, but my heart just aches when I read my friend's story. And what better way to enter into the Thanksgiving and Christmas Season?

Yes, more of Dave Ramsey.

Okay, so I think this man is heaven sent to help me, and countless others that find themselves in debt. He was a millionaire, and then with poor money handling, he ended up broke. He learned a valuable lesson, and is a millionaire again. And he feels like it is his mission from God to help the rest of the world to get out of debt. Am I grateful? YES! He's awesome. A few things I have done differently because of him-

1. Lohn and I budget all our money. We keep track of all our expenditures and tell ourselves how much we can spend on everything. Every time we spend money, we enter it into the computer, and keep a tally of what we have spent and what we have left to spend for the month.

2.We refuse to go over our grocery limit, even if it means pancakes and ramen noodles for a week.

3. We never ever buy anything. Seriously.

4. I am getting creative with ways to NOT spend money, i.e. refashioning halloween costumes, make my own laundry soap, ask family members for hand-me-down coats for the kids, getting rid of my land line to save on 35 dollars a month, etc. It's like a game to me now. What else can I not spend money on???

5. While I believe the best way to help my family is to not spend money, I am trying to find ways to make money. I have lots of time now with the kids all at school, so it's time for me to put my craftiness to work. I'll find a few craft fairs and I think I will try to sell my stuff on Etsy.

I know I am starting to sound a little crazy (especially the part about making my own laundry soap) but it feels so good to put my whole heart into getting our finances into order, and it feels even better to avoid debt. I am okay with having less now, so I can have more in the future.

Seriously read his book, Total Money Makeover. And, no, he isn't paying me to say that. (Ooo, do you think he would though???)

I love having a financial analyst for a husband.

So Lohn and I have to start paying on our large (no, massive) ND student loans at the end of this month. Lohn did some number crunching and figured out something really cool. If we pay an extra 25 dollars every month towards our loan, we will pay off our loan a year and 3 months sooner and save 11 thousand dollars. And that of course has me thinking, but what if we do an extra 50 a month? What if we do a hundred?! What if I get a job and put 2000 a month towards it??? (Ok, not an option right now, as tempting as it may be...) I am not going to leave Sylas to daycare, so now I need to find a way to make money from home that isn't risky. Any ideas? How do you save/make money? I would love ideas!

Late night conversations with Gunnar

Every night before Lohn and I go to bed, we wake Gunnar up and take him to the bathroom (He's not quite able to hold it all night yet). Last night he was quite talkative. While Gunnar was standing next to the toilet, and he was moaning and groaning, arching his back and scratching his belly. I said "Gunnar, can you go potty now?" Gunnar said, "Mom, I can only do one thing at a time!" Afterwards, as we were walking back to his bed, I said, "There, now you will be able to sleep really good." Gunnar said, "Yeah, me too." hehehe. I think I will start talking to him while he is asleep more often.

Oh, and happy Halloween (yesterday) everyone! Yesterday was my kids' first experience with door to door trick or treating. We've always done trunk or treat. I remember more houses participating when I was younger. Only half the houses in our neighborhood had their porch lights on. But the people give out more candy than I remember too. Each house gave my kids a handful of candy. An adult sized handful of candy. And I didn't take pictures. oops. My apologies to the grandparents. Will post some pictures of cuteness soon!

Oh, and the homemade laundry detergent works great! I think I am converted!