only thin layer of spandex is between me and death!!!

phobia confession time!!!!

I have a major phobia of......dun dun dun..........betcha cant guess what it is.............the suspense grows........dun dun......dun dun........dun dun(jaws theme).......its..............its..................no it couldnt be.............its.....................

WATER!!!!!

Now, pools are ok. Its lakes, rivers, and oceans that are a problem. I made Jay hold onto my hand when we went snorkeling in Hawaii so I wouldnt float away...and get swept up by the current and dragged out to sea and DIE!!
Lakes are just creepy! With that blackish-green water and no way to tell exactly how deep it is. Not to mention lake monsters. Hello! Nessy could be real!
Rivers are just death waiting to happen! Winding channels of water that could drag you to your death at any second with their white water. How do you know when your floating down a river with a life jacket pulled up over your chin('cause they move!!!) when your going to plunge off a 100 foot water fall into sharp jagged rocks? Huh? how are you supposed to know?

Which brings me to where my sister went to youth conference. She went to Moab and went river rafting. She loved it!!! Absolutely loved it! I think she has a crush on the boat man named Kyler.
Anywho, Ashley cant swim! And she went anyway. You frickin crazy person! They DID get knocked out of the boat and into a rapid. Just the word RAPID sounds scary. Youre supposed to point your feet down river and lay back and you will apparently be guided to safety by some magic water fairies. BS!!! If I was going to fall out of a boat whilst tossing around in dangerous water I'm not going to remember to point my pretty little feet down stream and lay back!!! I am going to be sucking water into my lungs while trying to spew out blood curtling screams for the water fairies to save me! While tossing and flaling my arms about my life jacket will slip over my head and I will be a sitting duck.

I dont like the idea of having a thin layer of spandex-poly blend the only thing in between me and death. No amount of foam in a jacket will save my big butt! Especially if I am panicing.
Ya wanna know what else could happen while river rafting that scares the poop out of me? What if I'm doing really good and paddling as hard as I can and some idiot knocks me in the head with his paddle and I fly out into the water with a high rate of velocity(because we're going through a rapid and tossing the boat in many wild directions) and crack my head on one of those jagged rocks jutting out from the river bed? What happens then? What will happen when I lose consciousness from a closed brain injury and suck water in as my last reflex? Death!

I know your sayin' Jay or some big man like the boat guide will save you. Nope, they wont. They wont be able to find me because my lifeless drowning body will be tossing around in water where it never should have been. Plus, I dont think Jay would be able to swim hard enough to even get us to shore. No one is strong enough to swim through rough currents like those. Not even Heman-Jay. I know he would try his hardest and never give up on finding my water logged body and then he would get tired and bang his head on a rock and drown too. Then my children would be orphans. ORPHANS!!!

So Ashley survived. She even thought that was fun!....psycho. Everyone kept telling me that I would love it. But I've got my eye on them because they have to be losing their marbles to even think I would love such a thing. Nope. Spandex has never saved me. I dont trust it. Spandex is the devil by the way. It always makes me look cheesy(like cottage cheese). Why would I trust something made from the devils cloth itself to save my precious life? Nope. Spendex equals death!.........and bonking your head on rocks.

weekend update!!!.......no, not like snl

Well lets see.......
What did I do the past week? I did a bunch of nothing for the most part.

-Went to moms because the kids and I always go to moms. We practically live there.
-found a killer deal on a patio set at Walmart!!! Woot! also did a bit of gardening
-Gage had a sleepover at grandma's where he went to a movie!
-went shopping for crafty things with mom
-waited for Ash to get home from chaperoning youth conference...I was excited to hear if she had fun.....I'm so lame
-picked cherries at moms
-went to church on fathers day and then ate some Pozole(mexican soup)
-did nothing yesterday....made jay rip the vanity out of the hall bathroom, we are now in demo mode! Yaaaargggghhhh! Lets rip those walls down!!!

As you can see, my friends, I'm pretty borring and lame. Add yelling at Gage to not pee on the toilet seat,changing diapers,doing baby excercise to get keltys legs strong, and the occassional out to eat and there you have it. My life.
Its actually pretty fun....to me. Who knew? Kids and diapers are fun? You betcha.

There is a point to all of this. I never thought I would ever be in this position. I always hated babysitting and getting my hands dirty. Now I'm lucky if I can find a clean shirt in the morning. I was always the girl that wanted to have a career and be successful with MAYBE 2 children. I wanted to live in the city and be "uptown".
I digress. I love not ever being clean. Kids are very dirty creatures! And I have a slow pace of life that I enjoy. Raising "creatures" (my nickname for the kids) is ever so rewarding! Now I understand why my mother was content just watching me and Ash do something. Its because Im tired.......and because these kids are amazing little things. Who knew living almost the complete opposite of my 17 year old idea of life would be so awesome.
Mommy-ness is the epitome of content.

the mommy-ness.......not the hotness

Hello blog groupies!!!

I had an experience the other day with Jay. I have started to notice that my appearance is meaning less and less now-a-days. Not my idea of being skinny 'cause that will always be in the forefront of my mind, but my clothes. They just dont mean any much as they did a while ago.

I asked Jay how I looked because I was feeling soooooo FAT!!! I had a new shirt on that was a little tighter than usual and I was uncomfortable. I thought I looked "icky".

This is how it went:

me- "Do I look ok?"

Jay- "you look fine"

me- "have you noticed that I'm looking more and more like a mormon mommy lately?"

Jay- "Yup.....(long pause) I think you pull it off well."

me- "really?"

Jay- "yeah I like it."

me- "hmmm"...."ok"

Was that a compliment? Ok, awesome. Jay likes what I'm becoming. Wow! A compliment on my appearance. Those are few and far between. Other than the frequent "you look fine".

Wait a second!.............am I becoming soccer mom with the cardigan tied around her waist and the calvin klein jeans? Frick no!!! I did contemplate buying a minivan at one point but bought a huge SUV thats sittin' on 22's!!! Booyaaa!
I guess I have succumbed to the mommy-ness...............but I like it!!
I'm doing mommy-ness with a spin!!

I am lame.....according to teenagers.....whats wrong with a rain barrell???

I think I'm really awesome. This is another voluntary simplicity thing. Since its been raining so much lately I thought I would get a rain barrell to catch water, to water my plants with.

I was so excited that its been raining so much lately that I would be able to water my plants with "free" water. Plants dont need clean water like people do. Rain will do.....unless its acid rain....

My sister is like a teenager and she thinks I'm lame for being excited about getting a rain barrell. Well..... I. Am. Awesome.....case in point.

Whats wrong with having a rain barrell? No ones going to use the rain. Its "free" water falling from the sky. Its not going to hurt anything if I take a little bit of rain to save for an un-rainy day. The plants will love it! I am quite sure my plants are going to love the un-chlorinated/treated culinary water from the sky. What plant wouldnt? If I were a plant I would rejoice with my stalks raised to the heavens for the "natural" water my gardener had saved for me from the previous rain storms. I would then bear gigantic fruit in thanks for saving the "free" water for me.

See..... a rain barrell is a good thing. Ok enough with the silly. A rain barrell is actually an old idea that the "green people" use frequently. Alot of people use rain for their crops. There are real rain barrell devices that you can buy online and in some "granola"- type stores.
I was so excited for the hideous(I hate driving in the rain!!!)rain storm today that I made Jay get a toy tub from the garage so we could catch the rain as it was coming off the roof. Can you believe that we got 20 gallons of water in about an hour and a half just from the runoff from our roof?!!! Yipee!!! I will be able to water my veggie patch for quite a while for freeeeeee!

More on becoming simpler....downshifting

So I'm thinking the next few posts are going to be about me becoming simpler and "downshifting" my life.
Downshifting is making me happy! I am immensely happier since I havent been at work alot lately. I've had my IUD taken out so I dont have a powerful currant of hormones running through my system constantly and its improved my quality of life. Also being more of a domestic goddess has been something I've wanted to do for a long time.

So I know that the food budget is where we need to cut down alot. As Ive said in the previous blog, fast food will be tapering out of our life. It will NEVER be cut out completely because I just cant do that. I Love hamburgers too much!
Here is where we get personal! I am ashamed to say that we have spent as much as $60 a day on our out to eat escapades. And that large amount has happened quite frequently in our household. But the normal amount for everyday food is about $30. That would make about $150 a week on crap! This will not be going on for much longer!
Clipping coupons will also save us money on our new food budget.

Ive thought that I would donate plasma for a while now. You get $40 a pop when you donate and you can donate twice a week. Thats $80 a week which will make $320 a month extra income. Who doesnt like extra income?! Plus its helping people.

I'm also going to sell our extra washer and dryer....we also have an extra fridge. Thats a little bit of extra money I hope.

But downshifting is the key. Downshifting to me is all about not working outside the home as much anymore. It will benefit our family in a huge way. But finding ways to make extra money and save money is quickly becoming a new hobby.

voluntary simplicity/provident living

I have found a wonderful thing! Its voluntary simplicity! Its so wonderful because you can be as simple as you like or just change a couple of things to simplify your life.

I had to cut down my shifts at work for a number of reasons, they include:

-not being as involved as I would like with raising MY children
-cutting down my stress level
-not being a beast at any given moment
-I really hated missing out on everything
-making it easier for Jay to work at his hospitals
-and taking time out to work on making our house a home

So this left us in a bit of a pickle. For one reason or another my boss conveniently forgot that he promised me certain shifts(and for those of you who I work with, they were fair. I had my mandatory weekends just like everyone else. I just didnt think it was fair that I had to work every weekend when some didnt have to work any.) And he cut me down to 1 shift a week.
The 1 shift a week thing isnt going to pay the bills.....but I'm happier. So much happier that I have been trying to find ways to not have to work at all.

Quitting is not an option until our car is payed off. So we've been finding ways to make money to pay the car payment without me working. Thats not going so good but we have made some interesting changes to our budget which will hopefully save us alot of money. And it all comes down to voluntary simplicity.

Did you know that I can make a loaf of bread for around 10 cents?! Neither did I. The food budget is the biggest thing for us. By not eating out we saved $300 a week! And a welcome side effect is MORE MONEY and losing weight. The food thing is going to change ALOT!! How are we going to do it you ask.....

-We planted a veggie garden. It cost about $30 for us to put everything in. I could waste that much produce in 1 week!
-No more fast food!.....everyday........ once a week is good
-I figured that my fave meal costs around $5 to make and it lasts for 2 days! $2.50 for dinner!!(its a noodle goulash with tomato juice a little ground hamburger and spices)
-making wiser dinner choices and eating cheaper...eating cheaper is a whole different blog

I can think of a whole slew of ways to be more provident providers and chose a way of simpler living....its mainly saving money to me and being a little more self sufficient. Here are my ideas:

-I have to water my garden, so I am getting a rain barrell to collect rainwater and water everything with that when we have it. So that will cut down on the water bill whenever we get rain.
-make a conscious effort to not waste electricity. I am going to pretend we dont have an air conditioner....never had one until I was a teenager anyway and we survived
-try not to buy wants and impulse items at the store
-use coupons
-when we need a treat we'll have to make something, this I hope, will promote better family time and not spending as much money. I can make a cake or brownies for $2 instead of buying Gage a treat that would cost almost that much anyway. This way the whole family can have some!
-I am learning to sew. Kelty will have some hand sewn outfits from me. She's growing like a weed! Plus, its a good skill to have.
-De-junk my house and have a yard sale! I know some of you would love my junk!
- I'm going to try to make as much as I can at home. Instead of simply going and buying something we're going to make it! I made Jays b-days decorations instead of buying some.

If you guys have any ideas let me know!!