Words to live by

Never make a priority out of someone who only makes you an option.

Hello there!

I am still around! Life is crazy right now, and has been all summer. For a VERY short summary:

-Our puppy is now 90 pounds! And a total goofball. We love him.
-I passed all three summer classes!
-I'm taking three more classes right now.
-Still employed, and so is hubby (so thankful!)
-We put Sebastian down in August. He did great for several months with the cancer, but when he went downhill, it was fast.
-We did make it to Mexico in July! it was fabulous! We made some new friends from LA that we plan on taking more trips with!
-My best friend from here moved to LA in August.
-We are going to LA in October to visit.
-Debt is still going down! and savings going up!
-Reading is slow, but I've read some great books. Hopefully I can do a post with the good ones soon.

I have some pictures I want to share, but that will have to wait. I'm off to get some homework done and then get stuff for daughters birthday party tomorrow. We're going to play airsoft (like paintball, but no paint in the balls). Wait. Did I say we and play in that sentence? Ha, I'm going to watch!

Hope to catch up more very soon!

Procrastinating

I have one paper to finish, only about 2 paragraphs left.
I have one final to study for.

I left work at 2 pm today so I could get busy and get everything done.

I paid bills.

I watched the storms on TV.

I have not started studying.
I have not finished my paper.

The pigs are making me stressed/scared/angry

We have a vacation planned and paid for to Cabo in July. I'm trying not to think about it, but people will not stop talking about it!! I finally tried to do some research today. They are advising that you cancel any 'non-necessary' trips.

BUT, they are not giving a time frame! Is this just for trips this week, next week, all of May?? What people!!

I keep telling myself that this will be worked out by July. We have 2 months. Surely they will have it all taken care of by then.

And I double checked today that I did indeed purchase the travel insurance. Whew!

Now that I type this out, I'm sounding pretty selfish. I mean there are people really sick and some even dieing, and I'm bitching about a vacation. Oh well, it's a well deserved vacation. And I really do hope they get this under control before more people die. I'm really not that selfish, at least not all the time.

I'm losing my mind!

I got a book in the mail today. I have no idea where it came from. I used to sign up for the give-aways, but stopped because my to-be read pile got too high.

But, this is a book that maybe I saw on a give-away and thought "wow, I need that book!", and signed up for it. But I missed the winning part. Or I just forgot the winning part. Which really wouldn't surprise me.

So, if I won a book and you sent it to me, please refresh my memory so that I can thank you!

The book is, Real Solutions for Busy Moms. Which is something I need! Can't wait to read it.

Oh, and I have read a few books that haven't made it to the blog pile. I want to say that The Red Tent was awesome! I'll do a better review at some point :)

Money and Bank of America update

We received our Federal tax refund yesterday. I immediately transferred $4,500 over to our BoA card and $1,000 to our ER savings!

Take that BoA!! Hubby still has to call our other two cards to get the remaining balance transferred over.

When we had the horrible conversation with BoA and they cut our limit, DH kept asking to speak to a supervisor. They said there was not one available and someone would contact us in a few days. We never got a call. But, we did get a letter in the mail saying they were trying to contact us and gave us a number to call. So, he did. And guess what? There wasn't a supervisor available. So, we left another message. Someone did finally call and leave a VM, but DH hasn't had time to call back.
When he does and they see that recent payment, maybe they will take us seriously, but I doubt it.
I also still haven't wrote the letter. I need to get on that.

Anyways, I updated our progress bars! They are looking nice!

And we are getting new toilets next weekend! I'm trying to be very excited about that :)
It's not a new couch, but I guess I still get to sit on it, right?

It was really depressing to see a $5,500 deposit in our account yesterday and just watch it go away without having anything to show for it. (except for new toilets) If we were out of debt I could have saved half of it, bought the toilets, a new washer/dryer and a new couch! THAT would have been awesome................ahhh.........someday. Right?

2010 Vacation

My mom has a time share. She is giving us a week next year, but we have to make a decision soon. We can go anywhere in the US.

If you could take a family vacation anywhere in the US, where would you go? And what time of year would you go there?

Suze Orman, BoA, and savings.

Her new advice includes paying the minimum on your credit cards and socking some into a savings account. At first I didn't listen.

After reading a bit about this, and after Bank of America lowered our credit limit..........I started thinking.

We do have four savings accounts.
Travel, which is at zero.
ER, which is low
Mine, which is supposed to be at 1,000. But we've been using it for unexpected things.
DH's, which is used for yearly expenses such as car tags and birthday gifts.

If you notice, I've added a new side bar. It includes the balance on my credit cards and their limits. And how far I am to paying them down.
I also show a few savings accounts, I choose not to track DH's because it's more like a checking account that we only use every few months.

I've always felt like our small 1,000 savings would be good for us, and if anything really bad happened, we could use our credit cards..............
but not anymore! We're losing our credit, so we can't rely on having it there if we need it.

We're going to listen to Suze. On my credit cards with the lower balances, I'm going to pay the minimum due.........and put the extra that I planned to pay into our savings account. I have a new goal. I will still have the $1,000, but we're going to up our ING account to $5,000. After we reach our $5,000 we will figure 6 months expenses and put that as our new goal. But, the money we put into it will decrease, because at that point, we will start aggressively paying down our credit cards again.

We're also going to start adding to our travel fund. We have a trip to Cabo in July, but it is already paid for. In 2010 we are planning a long weekend somewhere in the US. Probably within driving distance. In 2011, we are going to Hawaii.

You see the BoA one over there? Since they lowered our limit we owe 98%. That card is getting zeroed out by May. We are getting a tax refund of $5,500. 1,000 will go to our new savings goal, and $4,000 will go to BoA card. We will also take some money out of DH's savings, transfer some with a zero percent offer to Chase, and some to Sears for a 3% offer. BoA will not get another penny of our interest.

The rest of the tax refund is going towards new toilets. We had to call a plumber in because our kitchen sink clogged up. We tried everything, but couldn't fix it ourselves. While he was here we had him look at our toilet, because it has been clogging quit a bit lately. He also looked at the other one. Both need to be replaced.

Walgreens just lost my business

I think I might be on a roll for companies that want to loose my business. First it was Bank of America Credit Cards, then Bank of America Banking (almost), and now Walgreens.

So, you all know that our dog, Sebastian, has cancer. When he was diagnosed in January, the vet in KC wrote a prescription for Morphine, 15 tablets.

Here it is April, 4 months later, and we are out of Morphine. We've used 15 pills in 3 months. Our new vet wrote us a new prescription last week, we took it to Walgreens tonight. The same place that filled it in January.

We dropped it off at 6 pm. Our vet closes at 6 pm. He doesn't open again until Monday. The pharmacist didn't "feel comfortable" filing the prescription, and said he would call the vet on Monday. I said, our dog has cancer, 15 pills have lasted 4 months, he needs a pill.

No deal.

Now mind you, my husband and I both have monthly prescriptions that we get at this place. Sebastian got 15 pills in January. We obviously ARE NOT abusing the morphine! My dog has cancer in one leg, and a laceration that is healing on the other leg! He needs his pain medication!

We asked for the prescription back, drove across the street to Dillons, and 20 minutes later had his morphine.

I really don't understand what the guys problem was at Walgreens. But I will be in the store on Monday, talking to a supervisor and explaining to him why we will no longer shop there.

Bank of America credit card conversation

Warning: I'm not too happy right now and there may be some not so nice language in this post.

Wow! So, we have taken the advice of calling our high interest credit cards and asking for a rate reduction.

This woman (a supervisor) will not reduce the interest rate.

What she IS going to do is lower our credit limit. This sucks because it will raise our debt ratio, and in turn lower our credit rating. She says this will help. DH is trying to tell her it won't. She won't listen. We're trying to get someone above her and she is saying she is the top. Bullshit. DH is being really good, calm, persistent, and knowledgeable.

We have been good customers. We have a high balance, they've been making around $200 per month in interest from us, and we want something in return. Instead they fuck us again. Now it's time to take our business elsewhere. The interest rate is 23.99%. Screw that.

Good thing we have a 0% transfer offer. We will be transferring our Bank of America balance to another card and never using them again.

We won't be closing the account, because that could hurt our credit rating, but we will never use it again (other than the occasional tank of gas that gets paid immediately).

edited to add:

Our current balance with this card is $8,762.50
Our current limit is $14,700.00

We owe appx. 60%

She is cutting our limit to the amount we currently owe, hence making us owe 100%.

We are done with Bank of America.

Snow and ears

I love his ears!!






The poor trees!
What every puppy house needs. A good beer and a bottle of spot shot!

Look at that ice! So glad I didn't put the plants in the garden last weekend. I spent so much time pulling weeds and getting a sunburn, I didn't get a chance. Those poor trees look so sad. Like me. I don't like snow. But, it is fun to watch the dogs in it!! All these pictures were taken in the comfort of my nice warm living room.

The KU game

The night started out like this:

But that didn't stop us, we went to a friends to watch the game.


Daughter took pictures.
Son played the Wiiand we watched KU give the game away :(

Maggie tired of us all soon and took a nap.

First play date for Fearghus

A friend of ours has a Malamute, Takara. She loves to play and this was a great visit.

On Thursday we started puppy class. I forgot my camera :( but will take it next time. He did really good with the training part, but the playing part was not so good. He hid behind the chairs!! I guess we've got a shy guy.

I got a blog award!!

Sheri, over at A Novel Menagerie, gave this to me today. Here is her post.

This award also goes to all of the bloggers who put their hearts, mind and soul into their blogs and give us a glimpse into their worlds. They are positive and may not realize it, but are leading by example. They inspire with their words, educate and inform. They entertain and uplift with their humor. They are welcoming, helpful and friendly and no one is a stranger, whether you’ve commented once or a million times. They are ever so wise and giving. Most of all, they have Beautiful Hearts.

While I don't really think I do all that, Sheri did say she gave it to two special puppy mommies. I definitely fit that description!!

We got Fearghus a few weeks ago! While we never thought we would EVER get another PUPPY, here we are. We really thought our next dog would be an adult from a shelter. But circumstances brought us to another puppy. And honestly? It's not that bad. We did a about a week of potty accidents, but that has passed. He is SO smart! And SO huge! He starts puppy kindergarten on April 1st.
He is being very patient with Cinnamon. Cinnamon is being very difficult. He's the only one who has not accepted Fearghus, but he's very slowly coming around. And the fact that Fearghus is so patient is really helping. And here he is giving Sebastian a hug!

Sebastian is doing really well. Some days he limps more than others. But overall, he is still very happy, his appetite has been very good, and he loves the new addition to the home. Still going strong!

We all get to meet the new vet on Tuesday. We'll be walking in with a Great Pyrenees, an Akita and a Rottweiler. We should get some interesting responses..........

Thanks Sheri!!

Anyone need a new shirt?

I came across this site, Wild Olive Tees through another blog. If I remember correctly, I found them on the very first blog I ever read on a regular basis.

Anyways, I haven't bought one of their shirts yet, but do intend on it. I have to wait until April though. Financially I've been very bad this month. Which reminds me, I still need to post my January AND February spending.........

Ok, back to the shirts. I think they look very cool, there are lots of designs, and it looks like they come out with new designs pretty frequently. This is what they have to say about themselves, "At Wild Olive, we are passionate about spreading God’s word and building His kingdom on earth through generous giving and effective stewardship of the resources that He entrusts to us. To this end, Wild Olive donates 10% of the profits from sales of its products to Christian-based charities and non-profit organizations."

I can't wait until I get one! Since I've dropped 2 sizes since starting Jenny Craig, I am currently building a new wardrobe.

Have fun looking around, and let me know what you think.

St. Patty's celebration

Here's the girls.
I can't remember the name of this game. There was a word and you had to give clues for your team to guess the word. It was a blast!
Some of the guys.
I am in the middle
And our wonderful hostess! I wish I would have got pictures of the food. Corned beef, cabbage, potatoes and carrots. And some wonderful homemade bread!!

Movie: Confessions of a Shopaholic

Ok, so the plan was to read the book first. I got maybe 2 chapters into it. The book was great, it was funny, well written, easy to follow............I need to finish it.

The movie? Cheesy. Beyond cheesy. Nothing like the 2 chapters I had read. Predictable. So cheesy that I really did LOL very loudly several times. We all did.

I told my friend who loaned me the book that I wasn't going to finish it. Well, she told me I had to. That the book was way better (aren't they usually?) So, yes I will finish it.

But the movie? Don't waste your money. It would be good to rent, have friends over, and laugh at with a glass of wine. But in the theatre? A waste of money.

Puppy

Thank you for all your suggestions on names!! We ultimately went with Fearghus, pronounced Fargus. The kids liked the weird spelling and we liked that the nickname is Gus.

Things are going well. He's very smart. We've got sit and come learned. We're working on leave it.

The potty training isn't going that great. We're crate training. He does great overnight. We put him to bed around 10, and by 6 he's got to go out. No middle of the night! And he's never had an accident over night.

But, during the day is another story. We put him in at 8, then come home for lunch around 12, and are home around 4:30.
He usually has an accident in the afternoon. Yesterday afternoon was 80 here, so we just left him outside. But, we can't do that all the time.

Not sure what to do. They say dogs aren't supposed to pee in their bed area. Well, he does. We're at a loss.

So, last night was a trip to Borders and got a new book. The other books we have just lightly touch on potty tria...........wait, that's for kids...........on housebreaking. "Puppies for Dummies" had a whole chapter on it!

Gardening in 2009

This is all new for us. When my son said he wanted to grow some vegetables, I was all for it! How can you say no to that? We even had an area in our yard that is fenced in and had been used by previous owners for just that!

Ok, here WAS my idea of a garden. You throw some seed around. You water it. Weed a couple times, and then POOF! you have food.

Anyone else think like that?

Then I found a couple gardening blogs.........Oh how wrong I was. Then I joined some club and got some books. Oh how wrong I was.

http://carletongarden.blogspot.com/
That is my favorite gardening blog. All about gardening and pictures of her dog! How can you not like it!

By her suggestions, we have bought all the stuff necessary to start growing the seeds inside. I'm hoping to get it set up this weekend! And of course take pictures. I really need to put more pictures on this blog.

Weight loss

Remember when I was sick? Didn't think so, as it was a month ago. But, I was never able to get back on track with eating right and working out. I've gained 5 pounds.

I weigh in every Thursday. Last Thursday hit me hard, two weeks in a row with a gain. So, I worked out twice that day. Friday I worked out, and I've been eating better.

Plus, I've GOT to win that fitness challenge! We could win tickets to Vegas!! 4 women in Vegas? Yeah, you better look out!!

I'm determined to get better.

In order to do this, I can't sit around on my computer. Between the kids stuff, school, work, exercise, gardening, reading..........wait, reading? What's that? Yeah, that's gone to to the wayside too.

Anyways........I'm going to be exercising everyday, and eating better.

Day out with the girls

Last Saturday I spent the day with girlfriends. I didn't take my camera, so I don't have any pictures.

We started of by attending Wichita's annual Women's Fair. We walked around to all the booths, a couple of us got our hair done, massages, and 4 of us signed up for the Genesis Fitness Challenge.

It's a local gym and they give us an 8 week free membership. When we go workout we get points. The team with the most points and the team with the most weight loss get prizes. We did this last year and totally sucked. This year will be different!

Then we went out for lunch and then caught a movie. Shopaholic. It was cheesy. I had started the book, but need to finish it. My friend swears the books are better. I'm kinda glad I didn't finish it before the movie.

I got home around 6 that night and played with the new puppy. It was an exhausting, but fabulous day!

Reading progress

I don't know that I would call it progress. I was sick for a week. Which usually means lots of time to read. But, I was so weak that I couldn't even hold a book. It was pathetic. I got really behind in my school work. So, all I've been reading are textbooks.

I did finish the Club Dumas for bookclub. Hopefully I will find time to do a review.

Everything else is on hold until I get caught up with homework.

My week ahead............

Today: It's my day to spend with puppy. I left hubby home alone all day yesterday. I already had the plans made. But, I also have a ton of homework to do and a name to pick for the puppy.

Monday: 2 morning classes, work 7 hours, home to study for test.

Tuesday: work 9 hours, pm class with test (International Business)

Wednesday: 2 morning classes, work 7 hours, dinner with friends, weigh in at gym for group fitness challenge (8 weeks long), get home and take online quiz in Accounting.

Thursday: work 9 hours, home to study and do some other homework

Friday: Final in Stats, then work 6 hours. Night for homework

Pictures of puppy without a name.....

This guy is only 8 weeks old. Look how big he his next to me!

This was the first picture taken. He had no idea what he was getting into when we brought him home .


And the names we kinda like. Nothing has really stuck with us.

syler
peanut
emmett
lancelot
fearghus
barrister
ivan
bentley
caesar
goliath
janko
armond
morpheus
gizmo
gunther
hercules - herbi
jacob