Prayers Please

Yesterday, as most of you probably know, Haiti was hit with a rather large earthquake. Haiti is the poorest country on the Western Hemisphere and one of the poorest in the world. I've had the privilege of going to Haiti twice in my life. Once to New Missions then the next time to Hope Alive Clinic (that trip was about 6 weeks) both trips had a profound impact on me. The conditions normally aren't that good in Haiti, I can't even imagine them now with all the devastation I see in the pictures on the news.

Please keep the people of Haiti in your prayers as well as these ministries as they try to help people as best they can. Also keep my friend Melody's sister and her family in your prayers.

Pics from my trips to Haiti.

As they say in Creole Kris Kapob!, Christ is Able!

If you are looking for a way to donate, Hope Alive has a link on their website through Paypal. They are one of the most ethical ministries I have ever known, 100% of money donated goes to Haiti. My good friend Becky's parents started this.

Check your Receipts

So one way that I save a good amount of money is checking my receipts when I'm grocery shopping. I've saved so much money by just making sure that the prices I paid were the prices advertised. Most grocery stores have some type of scan rite guarantee where if an item scans for higher than it shows on the shelf you get that item for free. Some times they will not automatically do this and try to give you the difference between the prices but if you ask them if that is their policy they usually will give you the item for free. Went on a quick trip to the grocery store on Monday and ended up with beets and spaghetti squash for free, saved a little over $7 by just making a quick little scan of my receipt.
Just a little something that doesn't take too much time but can really add up.

Office Makeover

I was asked to show you the pictures of our famous Office Makeover and have been seriously neglectful. To be an effective before and after I would have before pictures. I was ashamed, soo ashamed, too ashamed to take pictures of the before. It was bad. This is the only thing I can find and it really doesn't do it justice.

So I'm going to need you to use your imagination. First the desk is empty, it was never empty imagine it filled with paperwork and computer parts that if you moved anything something would fall off like those games at the shore where you drop a quarter trying to get piles of quarters to fall (anyone know what I'm talking about? no.. just me..) You see in the corner of the picture there you can see a lime green futon. Now if you can imagine a huge futon with a ridiculous amount of stuff piled on it to the extent you can barely see that its LIME GREEN and there is no way you could possibly sit on it. Now the floor, you can kind of see the floor, well now imagine that being completely covered in papers, and the closet just jam packed. Wherever there wasn't a pile imagine some type of musical equipment. There, now you have a mental picture of before we reorganized our office.

Now for the after
This is our new desk, the hubs and I are sharing the office so we do have two printers. The walls are all him though. He loves Blues Brothers so theres a good amount of Blues Brothers paraphernalia. There's a painting that I painted for him for his birthday inspired by The Flight of the Conchords. The hubs has a good amount of equipment in here for work to enable him to work from home, so its hard to pare down too much, but it seems workable.
You can see his video conference setup, our printers, a stool and our bookcase (all technical books). What you can't see is even better, no piles on the floor. Also you can see our filing cabinet which we're now using.
We moved a corner piece from our couch up here and its perfect for me to come and sit and talk or for him to play guitar on.

This is a view from the door, we have guitars hung from the one wall, with the closet near the window (which is organized but don't have pictures of). And of course kitten cat snuggle fluffle pants had to get in on the action as he's NEVER allowed in this room.

No TV?!?!

Yeah we're thinking about it. Thats right taking the plunge and getting rid of our cable and possibly our tv. Its just a thought right now but one we're giving serious attention.

Our current contract is up on Jan 14th and as it looks now we'll be getting rid of the cable. I found a high speed internet and phone bundle thats $55 a month, currently we're paying $125 for our Phone, Internet and Cable (plus a DVR). So just by cutting the cable we'd be able to put $70 more a month towards our mortgage which adds up to a whopping $840 for the year. We do have our laptops so we'd be able to catch some shows on Hulu and we do have Netflix (for now) so I don't think it would hurt too badly. The main thing would be that the hubs wouldn't be able to watch sports.

As far as the tv, we have one of the flat screen wall mount jobs and I think its just too much for us. If we don't have high definition channels I don't think its worth it to have the tv either. If we sell it now I think we'd be able to get a good amount of money for it to also put on the mortgage. I have a very romantic idea of not having a tv in the house and how much I would get done in a day. I have crazy notions about a good amount of things though so we'll see if it comes to fruition or not. The hubs is still on the fence so I guess I'll let you know what we decide. We're going to have to figure it out soon!

Anybody gone and rid your house of the tv? cable? What are your thoughts

New Look

So I updated the look of the blog. The header is from our big 2 ft snow storm we had Dec 19th. Its been a long time since I've seen that much snow at home but it was neat while it lasted (only about a week). The past year wasn't the best I've ever had, while it had some wonderful things in it, it also held alot of heartbreak. I'm happy to shut the door on 2009 and focus on 2010 and the things we can change. Hence the digging ourselves out bit. There have been a few times lately that I've felt that I was stuck at the bottom of a pit, the only way to go is up and I'm starting the climb. Thankfully I have a wonderful climbing partner in the hubs and amazing footholds in scripture and my faith. Well enough cheesy analogies for ya and you're welcome for finally changing my fall banner :)

Happy New Year to Ya!

Hope you guys all had a great and safe new year! The hubs and I did, we were able to spend it with good friends. We made some goals for ourselves as a couple and as individuals this year and posted them by the bathroom mirror where we see them twice a day. I don't want to call them New Year's Resolutions because people never follow through with them but they are our goals and where we'd like to see ourselves by the end of the year.
Our goals as a couple are:
1. We'd like to walk together at least 5 nights a week.

We want to be more physically fit as a couple and regularly walking would be a good
start. It also gives us a chance to talk without getting to distracted by tv or the computer.

2. We want to pay off 50% of the remaining debt in our second mortage

I've been reading so much about setting up a financial plan. Generally, the hubs and I
are pretty good with money and budgets. I tend to be the spendier one in the family but neither of us is a fan of debt. Our only debt right now is our mortgage but we have two of them. I'm praying that we are able to pay off our second mortage within this year but the goal is just for 50% of our remaining debt in our second mortgage to be paid off. Once we have it completely paid off we're going to go aggressive on our first. If I had to do again, I think I would have rented and saved up to flat out buy our first home no matter how long it took. Live and Learn right...

3. We want to read through the Bible as a couple.

With this we both want to grow as Christians and as a couple. This will be a great way to grow and challenge each other. I'm so excited to do it!! It is a pretty aggressive reading to me but I'm excited for the challenge.

Anyone else setting some goals for this year??

Merry Christmas!

So I have been so bad with this blog. Some days I feel like updating but I just don't get around to it. Life has been pretty good around here, we're getting ready for Christmas. The hubs and I just sent out our Christmas cards today. I'm two sock monkeys into the nine I want to make for Christmas. I have my good friend Mama K coming in this Friday for some candy making and possibly will be making some cookies as well. We have all our decorations up and most of our presents wrapped (which should make Christmas Eve much better).

We've been trying to take the time to really celebrate the birth of our Savior and giving to those around us. We're planning on going carolling tonight with the youth group at our church, going to a Living Nativity in the area, spending time being thankful, we've been doing an advent wreath at our house and taking time to spend with good friends.

We're praying that this coming year will be filled with joy, prosperity, love and hope for all that we know. We're also praying that we would be blessed with a little baby Dirkey this year.

So yeah thats what we're up to, what you doing?

Day #22 and Day #23 of Thankfullness

#22 I'm so thankful for our cars. I can't imagine trying to do the things I do so easily every day without the convenience of having a car. Our little family is so blessed to have two of them. Even in their advanced age and mileage they treat us very well and have been so reliable, the extra grunts and noises mine makes as it ages remind me that I need to appreciate having a car even more so. Its taken me so far in life, from being single living in my parents house, to moving out on my own, to moving back home, to married life and parking outside of our own house. Its taken me to my jobs every day, through the changing seasons, to visit friends, to the hospital to visit relatives and to funerals. I've driven to Canada, to Memphis, to the Outer Banks and to multiple trips to visit the hubs when he lived so far away. I'm so thankful for my little car, its treated me well in the nine years that I've had her.

#23 I'm so thankful to have the day to spend with the hubs to mark a HUGE item off of our checklist, his office. We had it piled with too much stuff and too much furniture and it just wasn't working. My brother gave us a gorgeous desk to replace our old Target special. The gorgeous desk is HUGE and has tons of drawers where we were able to organize everything away, we also did about 4 years of filing (yes from piles and boxes of random papers), and moved out a huge lime green futon. It is now a functional office with one desk, a chair and a stool for when he plays guitar (like right now-ignore my paleness).

if you see that closet in the corner this morning it was insane. You couldn't get within two feet of the door and now it is crazy organized. Ahh feels so good to get something under control that has been a "door closer" for so long. A door closer is when you just shut the door when you have company instead of leaving it open, no matter how many times I've shut that door people always end up in it. So yay! I can keep it open now!!!

Day #21 of Thankfullness

Today I'm thankful that we have some time off together this week. Both the hubs and I took off this week to finish some projects around the house. Currently we are cleaning and reorganizing the hub's office, defrosting our freezer and doing laundry. On the plate for this week: finishing the trim work in the downstairs, doing the finish work on the floors, repainting and spackling whatever needs to be done, tightening the kitchen faucet, painting the outside trim, cleaning our laundry room and finally DECORATING FOR CHRISTMAS!! So yes, the time off is well needed right now and very much appreciated.
With all these things done it will help us to slow down and appreciate the time we have with family over the holidays. Besides that I'm just happy to spend the time with the hubs.

Making up for lost time in the Thankfullness Dept

So I started that 30 days of Thankfullness with good intentions to update the blog daily, and as intentions sometimes go it fell by the wayside. I did however spend alot time this month being thankful though and consciously thinking of the things that I am thankful for. Its amazing how much your attitude changes when you are looking for the good in your life.
So without further ado:

#9 I'm so thankful for our church. We've been looking for a new church close to our house for about a year and nothing felt like the right fit to us. We finally checked out Grace Community which is 5 min away and it was just right. We are taking membership classes now and are looking forward to getting involved and getting to know everyone there.

#10 I'm so thankful for my friends. God has blessed me with some wonderful friends that are kind, supportive, hysterical, loving, encouraging and just all around amazing. I couldn't imaging living my life without the input of these great people.

#11 I'm thankful for having a washing machine and a dryer. Sometimes I think of what it would be like to live without the conveniences that we have right at our fingertips. Laundry is my least favorite household duty, thats right its below cleaning toilets. I can't imagine how hard it would be without the conveniences that we have now.

#12 I'm so thankful that my husband is my best friend. We share an amazing love as well as a rich friendship. Our relationship has taught me so much, its sounds so cheesy but I'm a better person for knowing him and calling him my friend.

#13 I'm so thankful for the ease with which I can look up recipes with the internet. Its amazing how many things are right at our fingertips. I can't imagine how amazing my grandmom's cooking would be if she had access to thousands upon thousands of recipes. It makes life so much easier when you have a can of beans, an onion and carrots with which to make dinner from.

#14 I'm thankful for my kitty cat, while its true my cat can be quite a pain, he also is very snuggly. I never have a dull moment folding laundry or making beds because he thinks that clothes and sheets are cat toys. He does brighten my day with his crazy antics.

#15 I'm thankful for the ladies that I work with. I have three wonderful girlfriends that I share an office with. They are always there to offer encouragement, make me laugh or just talk with. It makes me happy to head to work to see them.

#16 I'm thankful for warm pot of tea on a cold November day, I love wrapping cold hands around a warm cup of tea. There is just something so relaxing about it.

#17 I'm thankful for my family. They really are good people, no matter what I know that they support the hubs and I in our decisions and love us. I've always loved coming from a big family and honestly it just gets better with age. I couldn't imagine having a small family or no family at all. There is always so much laughter when we're together, its nice that its just fun to be with them.

#18 I'm thankful for my parents house in Maine that they let us use for vacation.

Its so fun bringing the hubs to the same place we spent our vacations every year as a kid and sharing those memories with him. Its also great that there is an open door policy with the house. This year on vacation I got to spend time with three of my siblings and their families as well as my parents.



#19 I'm so thankful for my extended family. Besides having a huge immediate family we have a fairly sizable extended family who is also very close. Its wonderful being so close to aunts, uncles, cousins, 2nd cousins, 3rd cousins; we really do keep in pretty close contact.

#20 I'm so thankful for my computer. I may be slightly addicted to it but it really does help me keep in touch with friends and family far and near. It also helps me to learn so much about cooking, sewing, crafting, home improvements; its my go-to place when I want to learn something quickly

Hey! I'm caught up!!!!

Day #8 of Thankfullness

I was going to update yesterday that we purchased a bed. A HUGE bed. A bed that we used the fruit of my job to purchase. We brought the king size bed home with my Sister in Laws minivan, yeah that was interesting, considering we have a pretty significant storm going on with some leftover hurricane weather that floated north. As we drove the 5 miles home the mattress was rearing and straining to fly off the roof. I was considering this as I watched the mattress pull and tug on those ties we secured it with.

Of course I was thinking of doing this in a much cooler way, ala Teen Wolf

but alas it was raining and I don't think my sister in law would be too happy with me van surfing with her Dodge Caravan.

So we got the car home with only a few minor heart attacks where I pictured the car becoming airborne and flying who knows where. The next challenge was getting it up the steps. We had a hard time getting our queen box spring up the steps, to the point that I had to take it apart (which may have been the heart of our old mattress discomfort). After much pushing and shoving where we realized that, wow we bought a huge smooshy mattress we got the mattress upstairs with only one small hole in the wall. Good thing I'm good at spackling, heh. By this time it was about 5 pm and I made the bed then the hubs and I starting watching Away We Go. We fell asleep about 30 min in, so yeah I'd say its a good purchase. We fell asleep for the night at 5:30 pm.

Sooo yes we are thankful for our new mattress.

Day #7 of Thankfullness

I'm so thankful today for my job. I just started working again for my former employer. Its amazing to have a job that you love. I love the job itself, the people, what we do and bringing home a paycheck :)
We're using the fruits of that labor to purchase my #8 today. Will update later :)

Day #6 of Thankfulness

I'm so thankful for a the time to make some good homemade food. This weekend I've made; jalapeno hummus, vegetarian chili and corn and blueberry griddle cakes. I've also pre-cooked some beans and also some rice to use in meals this week. The time to prepare these this weekend insures that we will have good healthy food all this week. Also the food is very thrifty so it saves some coin!

I used my crockpot to pre-cook about 1.5 lbs of beans. I rinsed the beans and placed them in the crockpot with some Kombu (seaweed) and salt. I put water to cover the beans plus about 2 extra inches. This cooked for about 8-10 hours, I put all the beans in jars and will freeze some of them for use next week. It will be really nice to have some cooked beans on hand to use as that is a deterrent for me to make some recipes.

The jalapeno hummus was a 18 oz jar of garbonzo beans (liquid reserved), 1 Tbsp Tahini, juice of 1/2 lime, couple squirts of olive oil, handful of parsley or cilantro. I put all this in a food processor and add the liquid from the beans until it is the right consistency. Salt and pepper to taste. Y.U.M.

Day #5 of Thankfullness

I'm so thankful to have a home, a place to lay my head at night that I can feel safe and secure in. I've seen so much poverty on the missions trips I've been to; in Mexico with Ywam, in Jamaica and in Haiti (with Hope Alive and New Missions). I'm so incredibly blessed to have the home that I do, I pray that it would always exude love and hospitality.

Day #4 of Thankfullness

Right now I'm thankful for those little orange peelers that you get from Pampered Chef

I love oranges but HATE peeling them, this little gadget saves me getting orange juice all over my hands and pith in my fingernails. For that, I am thankful.

Day #3 of Thankfullness

I'm thankful for the beauty that surrounds me in nature. I've spent a good portion of my life living in the middle of the woods and spent that time looking at the stars, watching the deer and wild turkeys, watching the snow quietly fall down and listening to crazy thunderstorms.

Now that I live in suburbia I still make a point to look for the beauty of the small bit of nature that surrounds me. The gorgeous full moon last night.
The colors in the tree in my front yard as it changed, the leaves as the fell down in a soft blanket on our front lawn.


Wherever you are you can always appreciate the clouds as they float on by

There is beauty all around and to see it brings me such joy. I'm so thankful to God for providing this.

#2 Day of Thankfullness-I'm playing Catchup!

I think one of the things I'm most thankful for is... Yes, you guessed it. My husband. Its not a secret that I think he is all around wonderful. The most supportive, kind hearted, smart, wise person I know. What I'm thankful for today is his sense of humor.


An example of this would be a couple of years ago I got it in my head that I was going to make sock monkeys for all my nieces and nephews. At the time there were 7 nieces and nephews I wanted to make sock monkeys for and I decided this about 2 days before Christmas. Needless to say, I made myself crazy. There was crying involved as I sewed into the wee hours of the morning trying to get these silly sock monkeys done for children I had already purchased presents for. The husband patiently told me that he would give a big fat resounding NO if I ever decided to do this on such short notice (I'm prone to over-commitment), but its what he did the next morning that really gives you a picture of what it is to live in our house. This is what I came downstairs to.

blogging monkey

Guitar Monkey

Joy of Cooking Monkey

Video Game Monkey and Praying the Rosary Monkey

This sense of humor is so appreciated as it makes our house that much more joyful There are always silly, goofy things we are doing for each other. They say laughter is good for the soul, and I know it has done my soul good. Oh and by the way, its been requested that I make another batch of sock monkeys this year...

Thirty Days of Thankfulness

So I saw this little thing floating around the internet and thought it was a great idea to join in.

There are so many things that I am thankful for. Today on election day, I'm most thankful for this great country that I live in and for the men and women in the armed forces that defend her. There are so many freedoms that we enjoy as citizens that cannot be taken lightly lest we lose them.

Napoblomo

Hmm I'm on the fence on whether I want to do this, this year. I've done it for the past few years and this blog has seriously been neglected this past year; but thats a level of commitment that I'm not so sure I have in me right now. This is my way of buying myself another day to figure out if I want to do it.

Anyone else partaking?

Halloweenie

So the hubs and I have a pumpkin carving contest every year. We pass back and forth on who wins but this year I was declared the winner. As you can tell we ran with a theme this year.

Can you guess which one is mine?