I can't take this adventure alone!

Where I want to go is on a journey to frugality. My fantasy is that my family learn to live simply and frugally...that we challenge ourselves with saving money in every way possible, making an adventure out of it! No one is interested in this journey besides myself, however...and I just can't do it alone! I am always stressed out about money and my way of dealing with it is NOT dealing with it. I am an avoider. I get a panic attack when I check my online banking. I try hard to forget about it. I'm tired, tired, TIRED of living on the edge...always being a day late and a dollar short. People DO this! People live frugally and ENJOY it and I want someone to be on board with me. But no one is interested in working for it. And by no one, I mean my spouse, because if we are both doing it the kids don't have a choice!

I got cable out of this house once and I was grateful for that, but lo and behold it found it's way back in and Brian has dug in his heels and won't give it up. For goodness sakes, t.v. has done us no favors. It steals our time, our creativity and our lives!

We can save electricity! Keep the radio off 24/7! Keep the scanners off when no one is home, and for Heaven's sake, keep the stupid airconditioner off unless it's greater than 95 degrees! Summer time money saving tip: Keep the windows open at night and in the morning close them up and close the blinds and it stays remarkably cool all day! If my husband could control his overwhelming compulsion to keep all the windows and doors open all day long, we might get somewhere!

I want to go to the store once a week and plan all the meals and don't make in-between trips to the store; currently that's one of our biggest money suckers! Shopping meal to meal!

Something has got to give and I would prefer to be proactive rather than reactive. Somebody help me!!

A Rosa by any other name.....

We were in the car the other day and I was explaining to Callie about what 'The DaVinci Code' was about, in all it's ridiculousness. I told her the author was propagating the lie and blasphemy that Jesus had children with Mary Magdalene. Callie said, "That's stupid! Jesus wasn't even around when Mary Magdalene sat on the bus!"

I said, "Um...are you thinking of Rosa Parks? They pretty much didn't have buses in Jesus' day!"

Praying for pigeons

It was a silly prayer, I admit. Praying for a pigeon. For some strange reason, pigeons who are on their death bed seem drawn to the baby store. They sit in front of the door and stare in. Today Mr. Pigeon was hanging out at the front door looking at us. I came close and he just stayed there. I opened the door and still he stayed there. Blisa came over to try and visit with him. He was too scared for that so he hobbled off around the building. Then he came to the side door and just sat there, blocking the entrance for the FedEx delivery. He finally found a wind block by hoping up the stairs to Julie's front door. I left him a couple of french fries, but he wouldn't touch them. I think this is typical behavior for a pigeon who is dying? The last pigeon did the same thing, only I thought perhaps I could nurse him back to health. I brought him and and put him in a box with a towel and tried to feed him and give him water, but nothing worked. He died. I always make an attempt at saving a life and I always fail. I prayed that God would show this creature compassion and make the end of his life painless, filled with happy birdy thoughts. Silly, I know.

The whole tooth and nothing but the tooth!

I love spending money just to hear the person I'm paying tell me there is nothing they can do! Blisa had 3 fake teeth put in a few years ago. (too many suckers!) They had to put her to sleep and put in 3 fake front teeth. We opted for the metal with white porcelain coating. They have held up well..until now. A few days ago the porcelain chipped in two spots, and soon the entire coating fell off one of her teeth, exposing a very unattractive grayish tooth! I made an appointment with Office Anesthesia & Dentistry to look at her tooth to see if we could re-coat it. Since we no longer have dental insurance, I had to pay $89 just to have her looked at. The dentist came in, looked at it, and said "The tooth is intact and functioning and we cannot justify putting her under to replace it. It's fired on porcelain so you can't re-coat it. We'll just have to wait for it to fall out on it's own." It took about 30 seconds for this appointment!

So, the time table for this particular tooth to fall out is between age 7-9. So we have to potentially wait for 3 years! It looks likes she walked out of a trailor park...no offense to trailer park children with metal teeth! It's not even metal-looking...it's a dull gray, so it basically looks like she has a rotten tooth. It doesn't bother her, but here I am worried about what people will think when she smiles! Am I really that vain? Yes...I am. :(

The house, the house...always the house!

I stayed up way too late last night. Callie and I didn't go to bed until around 1:30, which pretty much ruins the next day for me. I'm an evil monster if I don't get quality sleep before midnight. Even sleeping in the next morning doesn't usually help things. I would have stayed in bed longer, but while lying there contemplating falling back into a deeper sleep, I suddenly remembered that last night after removing the chicken enchiladas from the oven, I put in a large pan of asparagus drizzled with garlic butter. I forgot all about it! I was worried about the condition of those green buggars after cooking at 350 degrees the entire night! I hoped up and took a peak in the oven and discovered that Brian must have turned off the oven just after I put them in, thinking that I had left the oven on after dinner. Well, that's better than burning them to a crisp, but either way they were ruined.

I decided I would attempt to remove the popcorn ceiling in the girls room. I looked it up on the internet and to my dismay, found out that it's imperative that you have the popcorn paint tested for asbestos before removing! UGH! Considering the age of this home, I didn't want to mess with the possibility of removing it and giving everyone cancer in the process, so I left a message with some people that test the paint and hope to get an estimate in the morning. I can do 50 bucks. I don't want to spend $100. I hope it's cheap! My mother-in-law will not be pleased that I made absolutely no progress on that room. It's just a lot more complicated then what she thinks! So much work to do in one tiny room! Helen doesn't want me to remove the popcorn, but I'm insisting! Every room in this house needs serious attention. We haven't improved anything in this house and everything is falling apart or is in major disrepair. For once I want to do a room really well and not take shortcuts! So the popcorn must go! The carpets must be ripped out and we have to put in wood floors. The paneling on 2/3rds of the wall needs sanded, primed and painted. Two windows need completly removed and replaced with new windows. One wall needs the wall paper removed and painted. We have to rip out a sink and cabinets, build a closet....
When will we find the time? Baby steps, I guess.

We did get some other hotspots in the house cleaned so that was a big improvement. Tomorrow starts a new work week. Tuesday I'm going to try to clean Adrienne's house- she says 4 hours work and she'll pay me $100. I hope it's not too horrible in there!