Monday, June 27, 2011

Pay Your Tithing Folks!




We had to buy a new fridge. Boo! We did get a great deal though, and a cool "pay your tithing" lesson out of it. Our old fridge is not quite broken yet, but it's showing all the signs that the end is near soon. The outside has some really hot spots, it leaves puddles on the floor, the inside of the freezer is always frosty, and the ice cream is always half melted. We decided that we would rather avoid the whole "The-fridge-is-broken-we-need-a-new-one-NOW-cuz-all-our-food-is-spoiling-and-making-a-huge-stinky-mess." kind of problem.

We therefore spent Saturday buying a new one. I did all the consumer reports research and picked out the fridge that I thought I wanted, and hunted for the store with the best price on that particular fridge. Bruce and I headed out to Best Buy, paper in hand, and I asked the first sales person I saw to ring me up for that particular fridge. He walked us back to the fridge section, where I saw the one that I had picked out. Upon actually seeing the fridge in person, I realized that it looked rather plasticy and flimsy, and that my kids would probably rip the door off in the first week. We started looking at other fridges. We found a floor model that had a couple of minor dings in it that made them knock the price down by $700. The original price was twice the price of the one that I had gone to the store to buy, but with the dings, it was now only a couple of hundred more than the other one. When you are already committed to spend $800, really why not spend $1000 and get a MUCH nicer fridge? So that's what we did.

Here comes the tithing lesson. As you might already know, we are ALWAYS EXTREMELY stressed where the money situation is concerned, so spending $1000 dollars on a new fridge out of the blue really made me want to puke. Of course we don't have that kind of money sitting around. We had to take get a Best Buy credit card, and put it on that. It's an 18 month same as cash deal. If I budget it right, we should be able to do it. Still, it makes me want to vomit. As it turns out, this week is Bruce's week to be on call, and Anheuser Busch had a major truck scale go down in a major way. Bruce put in 11 hours of over time on it the other night. That alone should bring in $450. Earlier this week, Bruce had about four hours of over time put in on something else. With that we are over half way there to have that fridge paid off. In a completely insane twist of fate, that same truck scale that they had JUST spent so many hours of over time fixing got struck by lightening in a storm the next night. So on Bruce's last night of on call, which was Sunday when over time pays double time instead of just time and a half, Bruce got called out to work for about nine more hours on that same scale. Upon doing the math, all that over time adds up to about $1000 (the price of our new fridge). Now TELL me that paying your tithing doesn't take care of you! We certainly are not wealthy. We barely scrape by, but guess what: We always have just enough for what we need. It's rather amazing when you think about it!

A Little Laugh at Mom's Expense

I scared the crud out of my mom. Always funny! Especially since I wasn't even trying to scare her. All I did was to come over unannounced with my dog. As always when I bring the dog along, I took her straight to the backyard (dogs are strictly forbidden inside my parents' house). Mom and Dad were on the other side of the yard, and didn't see or hear us enter the yard. The first thing they saw was an over excited large black furry thing that "snuck up" quick as lightening from behind and got right in their faces. They both jumped about a foot in the air, and Mom actually screamed. Oh I wish I had a video camera with me! It was hilarious!

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Losing It!

Is it completely unusual for folks above the age of 30 something to forget how old they are??? Or am I just seriously losing my mind waaay too soon?? I'm blaming it on the kids. I seriously had to do the math, because I couldn't remember if I was 35 or 36. Wow! I'm totally losing it!! (For the record, I'm only 35. Whew!)

Saturday, June 18, 2011

Problem Solved

My two youngest boys love to play "Harry Potter," which includes using a marker to draw glasses around your eyes and a scar on your forehead. You must also have a wand. This can be anything from a pencil to a screw driver or anything long and thin. Next you must run around on pretend broomsticks cursing everything in sight. On a side note, Clayton has taken to wielding his wand at me and shouting "avada kedavra!" at me when ever he is upset with me for any reason. ie:

"Clayton clean up your toys."

"Avada kedavra!"

Should I be insulted that my 3 year old is casting the killing curse at me? Probably not. I don't think he knows what it is.

Anyway as a parent, and as my MIL likes to point out to me, kids running around with sharp pointy objects is not the best idea. The current favorite wand material is the stick part that comes off of some giant bubble wands. I have actually gone to the dollar store and bought a couple of these to replace wands that have been lost.

However, when Bruce was a child he nearly died when he fell on a wooden spoon and it went into his open mouth and through his soft pallet. Hence, his mother has often told me how dangerous it is to let kids run around with toothbrushes, and she really doesn't like this wand obsession either. I can't blame her, and after all of those stories it makes me a little nervous.

Last night Clayton couldn't find his "wand" so I improvised. I found the perfect solution!! (That is if I can convince Justice and Clayton that these wands are better than the bubble wand kind.) Those extra long glue sticks! They are the perfect size, and they are completely flexible. If you fell on it, the thing totally wouldn't hurt you. Now I just have to figure out a way for the bubble wand things to disappear, and for glue sticks to seem totally cool. ????????? I'll have to think on that.


Friday, June 17, 2011

Brothers

I find it sweet and amusing how every time Justice gets in trouble and sent to his room, Clayton goes with him, even if Clayton isn't in trouble.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Tattling Fail

"Mom, Justice is trying to wash the shampoo out of his hair!"

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Todd's Birthday Video

I had trouble getting the soundtrack recorded, AND I had a MASSIVE sinus infection, so no making fun of the bad singing!!! I just took one take with a digital recorder, and yeah it sounds pretty awful, but I just got sick of waiting around and sick of messing with the entire project. Plus Todd's birthday was already past. Out of time, so here it is flaws and all.

Monday, June 13, 2011

Just a Thought

You can apply this to just about anything: If you can pick it apart and find order, if it takes an intelligent person to unfold, to analyze, to find out the hows and whys of any beautiful work, any machine, any equation etc., if it takes someone intelligent to work the equation backwards, doesn't it make sense that it took someone that much more intelligent to plan the thing in the first place.

Monday, June 06, 2011

Quote of the Minute

Clayton:

I am NAKED MAN!!!