Spoke too soon

Pipe's leaking.

Do I call the husband and ruin his day? Naaa, he'll be home soon enough.

I have water!

Life is good again. I flushed the toilet and took a shower this morning! Yeah!

So thankful my husband was able to fix it and that we didn't have to call a plumber.

On to other news.

Something that makes me laugh these days...you know how when babies are real little and they have those noisy blow-outs?

It cracks Jaylee up and she yells really loud, "Did you hear that? That was Ali!" And she laughs like crazy.

Every time.

It's pretty funny.

That's all I have for today. Man, I'm kinda boring.

Still No Laughing

but life doesn't suck quite as badly.

Most of my laundry is done and my dishes as well. Thanks to Amber and her house.

A clean house is a happier Sarah.

Poop pipe is still leaking, hoping tonight is the night she gets fixed.

There's the update. I know everything could be worse than it is, so I'm trying to put on my BGP's (big girl panties, remember?)

Happy Wednesday!

I'll be able to laugh about it later

Right?

'Cause right now, yeah, there's no laughter.

There's a lot of sweat. A lot of sore muscles. Did you know you could pull something in your butt?! There's a lot of dirt. A LOT OF DIRT in my house. There's a lot of dirty clothes. There's a lot of water in my basement. There's a lot of stuff that's broken. There are a lot of children next door.

Lots of lots.

Wanna hear how the Culver Memorial Weekend went?

Oh good, 'cause I really wanna vent, er...share.

So. Let me just tell you I understand that stuff happens. I really do. But how many "stuffs" can happen in a single weekend for dirt's sake!?

We rented a trencher for our sprinkler system. It's older than dirt. So old that my husband had to repair it about every 18 inches or so. The tire would fall off or maybe the chain. It was kind of like a surprise every foot and a half, just never knew what piece of crap was gonna fall off next!

I already told ya he hit the phone line and then the poop pipe. Considered leaving the poop pipe open, free fertilizer, but we changed our minds on that one. Josh fixed it. Or so we thought. He fixed one hole that it had and then another busted. Of course it did!

Around 7 or so on Sunday, I'm a little cranky, tired of sprinklers and ask the husband if we can start project number 2 without project number 1 being complete. He's a little tired of sprinklers too and agrees. So, we start putting up a cedar fence. It's going pretty well until I see a big fatty Rottweiler in my pasture. I don't own a Rottweiler and neither do my neighbors. I'm not a fan of big dogs I don't know. He didn't listen when I politely asked him to leave my yard.

So, I shot him.

I really did.

Don't worry, he didn't die. It was just a lil pellet gun and it nicked his lil rear and got him to leave my yard.

That'll teach him.

Am I done yet? Oh no, there's plenty more.

For some reason, all weekend long Jaylee decided to poop her pants. Seriously. All weekend. And I decided to put a pair of her chonies in the toilet to rinse yesterday afternoon. She later flushes them down the toilet.

I'll come back to that later...I just want you to know.

So, things seem pretty poor on Sunday until Neighbor from Across the Street comes over. He's watching Josh for about an hour with the poop pipe and he's chattin' up a storm. He knows we're going to be building a fence, so the blessed man offers us his tractor and post hole digger attachment.

Thank You, Lord!

We worked on more fence today. We're still fertilizing the yard, as Josh has yet to fix the poop pipe. Our neighbors asked us over for a BBQ and even though we wanted to continue the fence work, we took a break to go over there.

When we come home I decided to tackle my kitchen. For some reason over the weekend the maid never showed up. My kitchen floor and counters were not visible. The floor was caked in mud and dirt. The counters had dishes and clothes and dirt. Amazing I tell you.

I'm doing dishes, getting all proud of me for slaving away, when I hear this gush of water in my basement.

I run outside and yell for Josh. We go downstairs and begin moving boxes and books and ficus trees. I look at him. He looks at me.

"Well, now we know where Jaylee's underwear are."

She clogged the poop pipe. So maybe it wasn't leaking outside as bad but now it was in my basement.

And I really don't need to fertilize my basement.

Josh, usually not one to look on the bright side, says, "guess it's a good thing I didn't fix that pipe yesterday, I woulda had to dig it all back up again."

It's now almost eight o'clock on Monday evening. Josh has to go back to work in the morning and I've been informed not to use the sink, bathtub, or toilet until he's fixed the poop pipe. This could make for an interesting night and day tomorrow.

Seriously, never a dull moment around these parts.

The only cool part of the whole weekend was shooting that dog.

*Updated to add*
Josh went fishing through the poop pipe to find the blasted undergarments and found that our poop pipe has collapsed underground. So, my job tomorrow is to dig about 10feet long and 2 feet wide to expose the pipe so when Josh gets home he can fix it. Man, I can't wait for Tuesday!

If only things went smoothly

But they don't.

At least not when you're a Culver. Or these Culvers.

Remember this?

Well, we decided to start another project. And this time we actually called Locate so we wouldn't hit any more pipes we shouldn't.

We've lived here eight and a half years. And in that time I cannot tell you how many times I've drug hoses all over our blasted yard to water it. So, we decided we'd put in underground sprinklers.

Because we're brilliant like that.

Gas company comes and marks their line, phone company does the same...and so on.

Silly phone company.

They didn't put their line in the right spot. So, that was the first thing we hit.

Luckily my husband is amazing and can fix just 'bout anything. So, we've got the phone line taken care of (at least for the moment).

Then, we're away from all the lines (supposedly) and the husband turns on the trencher and goes to town.

Hmm...was that the septic line we just hit?

Indeed.

Husband is off to find parts to fix that one now. Because a holiday weekend would just blow to have to call someone to come fix it.

And I really don't wanna spend our Emergency fund on a poop pipe.

To Pacify or not to Pacify

I've never been a fan of pacifiers or binkies or nuks or mams or whatever you wanna call 'em.

My husband either.

We didn't buy one for Jaylee and at 5 weeks old, she found her thumb. We were thankful. No pacifiers to buy or fall out in the night. It seemed perfect. Now, we're working on our almost 3 year old to only suck her thumb at nighttime and not all throughout the day.

The last few nights with Alison weren't so good. She thought midnight was a good time to be up and if she wasn't being held, then it was a good time to scream. I asked Josh if we could puhlease get a pacifier.

Nope.

Grrrr.

Well a couple nights of me not sleeping later...I got our baby a pacifier. She loves it. I love it.

For now.

At least I can take it away. A thumb is a wee bit harder to dispose of. At least without having child protective services at my door within the hour.

Here's a picture of Jaylee with Alison. Alison was born with extremely long fingernails and decided to mark up her face immediately. Luckily her wounds have healed.

She kinda looks like a gremlin in this picture but I like it of Jaylee.

She's Here!

Here's a quick update!

2 days before delivery


And on my due date, here SHE came!

Alison Christie was 8 lbs 5 oz, 22" long with a 14 1/2" head! Only 5 hours of hard labor, it was really amazing. My husband was amazing.

Here are a few pics.






Gotta love the last picture showing how in love Jaylee is with her little sister. All in all, she's been pretty great with her.

Okie dokie, that's all for now!

Slacker Mama

For those of you about to receive a piece of mail from me, let it be noted what you'll be receiving was purchased on time, I'm just a slacker and didn't get them out on time.

~Sarah

Vanilla. No, Chocolate. Yeah, Chocolate.

Yesterday my husband came home early from work since he's been putting in a great deal of overtime.

It was sooo nice to have him here at 3 instead of 5.

The sun was out. It was warm. We were loving it. We're outside working. Me, raking leaves out of my pretty flower areas, Josh, ever-working on our Suburban (sigh..) and Jaylee...

Oh...where is that kid?

We realized she was gone. 'Cause we're observant parents like that.

We call and call and at the last "Jaaayleeee" I think my voice got a lil shaky, a lil panicky. We share a driveway with two other homes. The family directly across from us has six children, 5 of them being boys (Jaylee's favorite kind) and they also have a trampoline (that Jaylee's in awe of). We find her standing over in their yard, staring at 3 of the 6 children jumping on the trampoline.

Josh calls a little louder and she starts on back to our house, reluctantly. And then the tears start.

Her life is over.

When she gets up to us, tears and snot are dripping down her face. She's on the verge of hysterics.

"What's your deal?" I ask, ever so sympathetically.

"M-m-myyy k-k-keeeey!!!!"

She had pulled a key out of our old lawnmower and apparently left it at the neighbor's house.

The three of us head on back there.

As Josh and I get there, the oldest yells to one of his younger siblings, "hurry, shut it off."

And so, we don't get to listen to AC/DC.

Such a bummer.

Jaylee finds her key. The boys politely say hi.

And then Justin, one of my favorites, says, "we didn't know you were having another baby."

"Yep, yep I am." I tell him, proudly.

"What kind's it gonna be?"

Friday

is the big day. It was going to be yesterday. Really. It was.

But I kept stalling.

How ridiculous is this love affair I have with my computer?!

Anyway, I am giving myself the week. Mainly because I have to pay bills on Friday and it's easier to do that online and since I don't know much about computers and all that junk, I'm unaware if it's safe to pay my bills on a public computer.

Anyone know?

I also am putting in my last Pampered Chef order. I'm kinda sad. Kinda not. I'm sure if I really wanted to learn how to send orders in through the mail I could. And I may even be able to twist someone's arm into letting my download the whole spiel onto their computer. But for now, thinking it's just best to call this my last "party" of sorts and be done with that chapter in my life.

Did I tell you we got a newer Suburban? I can't remember. It was a couple of months ago and for the first time it wasn't my idea to go car shopping! :) We didn't need it. But we got it. She's nice. I love her. But she's a gas hog and she's also cost us some money we weren't expecting. Blah! I've been a little bitter about it, if you couldn't already tell (and if I haven't already complained about it to some of you over the phone).

On Sunday, Josh goes to roll down the window.

Nice try.

She doesn't want to roll down. Not even a smidge.

I was on the verge of using some foul language and then remembered it was Sunday. Like it's okay to use foul language Mon-Sat....lol

Anyway, yesterday as I pulled up to the espresso stand I remembered I was going to look a dork getting out of my vehicle because of the dumb, stupid, retarded window. I decided to chuck my attitude out the window (the passenger one, since mine wouldn't roll down) and asked the Lord to just fix it, please!

It didn't get fixed. At least not right at that moment.

This morning Josh and I were going to meet for coffee (yes, coffee two days in a row....) and he decides to quickly pull some stuff apart by the window. He wiggles some stuff around, puts 'er back together and waa-laa.

She rolls down!

Thank You, Lord, for answering my prayer!!!

I know it seems trivial but I am just so thankful. Thankful to Jesus for hearing and answering such a simple request, thankful that my husband is amazing when it comes to tearing stuff apart and knowing how to put stuff back together, thankful we don't have to fork out money to get 'er fixed.

Live Like No One Else

We live on one income.

We don't have anything real fancy. We don't go on super duper exciting vacations. We don't have car payments. I don't have lots of diamonds or a closet full of designer clothes. Josh doesn't have expensive hobbies.

Yet, we are in debt. Stupid stuff mainly. Couldn't really look around my house and say, "yep, bought that on the credit card." because mostly we racked up our credit card with junk.

We don't have a ton (thinking of you, Melis, as I say "a toooon!") of debt. One credit card and a home equity loan. And of course our mortgage.

Even though it's not much, it still bugs us. We still want out from underneath it.

When I went in to talk to Greg, the guy at the bank, about refinancing our house for a 15 yr. loan he handed me Dave Ramsey's book. I knew he had been teaching a class here in town, we just weren't able to go. I was pretty excited to be handed the book.

Immediately I was on a kick to start this so-called budget thing that Josh and I, in almost 10 years of marriage, have never implemented. However, my husband wasn't as excited. After almost two weeks of me being this crazy, excited, we're-so-going-to-kick-debts-butt, girl...I realized my husband was wanting to pull his hair out.

So.

I told him I was backing off. To set and stick to a budget, both parties have to be on board. Even though I'm big enough for both of us...he was not on board and I knew this wasn't going to work.

I apologized (my so not favorite thing to do) and told him when he was ready to let me know. I told the Lord I really needed Josh's help with this. Told Him I wanted Josh to be as excited as me about becoming debt free.

He may not be jumping up and down excited but we put our income on paper. We looked at our financial situation. And I can tell he's excited to actually pay attention to where our money goes. Usually we just spend and spend and hope there's enough money at the end of the month to make the next month's house payment.

As we were looking at the numbers we wondered how we've been making it all this time. We used to pretend to budget and saw that we were throwing away money during the month that we could be saving. Now we barely make enough to make ends meet. Part of it is we now pay health insurance where Josh works, whereas Josh's old boss paid it for us before. That's a big chunk.

It wasn't pretty yesterday as I was putting numbers in. Stuff has to go. At first I just thought I could get rid of my cell phone and that'd be it.

Nope.

Internet's gotta go, too.

I kinda wanna cry about that.

As a SAHM this computer is my outlet. It's my way of kinda having friends. Having people older than 2 to talk to.

But are reading blogs, MySpace, email, news, weather, online banking more important to me than becoming debt-free, saving for my kids' college fund, and saving for retirement?

Not even close.

So, yeah, it kinda stinks that today or tomorrow is my last day online. But, Dave says, "Live like no one else, so later you can live like no one else."

It may be hard for a time but I know the end result is going to be worth it.

I'm not giving up blogging for good. I'm sure I'll find places to get online (ahem, Amber) and keep you up to date on the exciting life of us. :) And, if ya wanna email me, you can do that, too. Just view my complete profile and there's a linky-doodle dealio for my email address.

Wow...this is making me sad. I feel like we're breaking up. It's not you, it's me. ;)

I love all of you, even you who lurk and never comment, I know you're there and I'm glad you stop by. Thank you to those who have left comments and become part of my life. I appreciate you. I'm thankful for you.





If you want to become debt-free but don't know the first place to start, I highly suggest Dave's site. It's amazing the peace we already feel just starting! Anyone can do it. Anyone. It does require sacrifice. It requires hard work. But it's possible.

I seriously am feeling some Spring Fever. I need sunshine, I need flip flops, I need a tan, I need some shorts (that will not be happening til I'm flab free), I need some Sangria time with my husband, ALONE.

I'm so ready. So ready for it to be warm so we can hang out on our deck, have some bbq's, stay outside til 9 pm, do yard work, etc.

I just want Summer here already!

But since it's not warm, I've been sitting at the kitchen table with a budget worksheet and it's really fun to be the controller of the money instead of being controlled by my money. I'm really thankful for a 3 payday month, means we can throw some extra at our debt. yee haw!

And since it's not warm, there are many inside chores I could be doing. Like FAPA.

Or I could just continue to blog...

It's been over a week since I've posted.

I really don't feel I've anything to write about. At least nothing exciting.

Not that it always has to be exciting, because I'm sure it probably isn't.

My mom was here for awhile.

I went to my SIL's to scrapbook for an entire weekend with no child.

That was incredible!

We're refinancing our home for a 15 yr loan and that makes me feel like a grown up.

I went to Costco today and left without buying paper towels. I was really proud of me. I love paper towels. LOVE. LOVE. LOVE! But I realized I've been getting along just fine without them the last couple of months.

We have a bunch of work to do on the outside of our house before the appraiser can come.

It's supposed to rain the rest of the week.

The baby growing inside me is getting bigger all the time. I can tell. I feel very pregnant. Last night I went to take a bath and just stared at myself in the mirror. I don't want to wish away this pregnancy because most likely it will be my last; however, I want to feel "normal" again. I'm selfish like that.

I made a decision entirely on impulse last week.

I'm completely regretting it.

I really feel that the Lord wants me to learn to wait on Him.

His timing is perfect, after all.

I have groceries upstairs that need to be put away. I'm wondering if they'll grow arms and legs and do the putting away of themselves.

Prolly not, huh?

Insert Swear Word Here

I'm a pretty easy-going girl. At least I like to think I am. Hopefully others see me that way as well.

So today is the worst day, ever. Okay, maybe not ever. But it's the worst day I've had in a long long time.

I'd like to go on and on, rant and rave, but I'm still too angry to talk about today's events.

Too angry. Too frustrated.

I'm done for now.

You're welcome.

My Cravings

I embarrass myself enough on here, right? You already know I'm a lil freakish, yes?

At the end of my pregnancy with Jaylee we had my SIL's cats staying with us. How many were there, Treena? 2? 3? I was thinking 3. So, we're cat-sitting for a while. These are indoor cats mind you. Indoor cats use litter boxes. Pregnant girls aren't supposed to change litter boxes (a pregnant woman sooo came up with that rule).

I'm thinking that totally works, cats can stay here, Josh can clean up after them. Except...oh I can't believe I'm admitting this...except I wanted, loved, craved, neeeeded to clean out the cat box. It was no chore. I gladly did it. Even though technically I wasn't supposed to.

Hmm...maybe that's why Jaylee is the way she is, eh?

Then the cats were gone. No more dirty, amonia smelling litter.

Somehow I survived.

I was thinking that so far this pregnancy I haven't had much for cravings. Sure I like to say, "oh honey, can you go to the store for ice cream, buffalo wings, butterfingers, ice, etc" but I haven't really craved them.

I just want them.

But the other day it happened. I had a craving.

I wanted to eat my clean clothes. LOL

I did. I was pulling clean clothes out of the washer and started to put them in the dryer when my senses were overfilled with joy at the smell of these amazingly clean, just washed in Tide, rinsed with Bounty fabric softener clothes.

It took everything in me not to put my wet, clean t-shirts in my mouth. You skerd of me yet?

Me too.

Then, I was off to clean the toilet. Again. And the smell of Pine-Sol and Comet and the sound of the pumice stick, oh my heck, if I didn't remember what happens in and around the toilet, I may have taken cue from the dog and drank from it.

I'm so pregnant. I'm so having cravings.

I'm so going to lose my readership.

Road to Recovery

I'm not going to look up the posts to link you here and there of all the times I've told you what a bad homekeeper I've been. If you've been lurking reading for any length of time, you know. If you're a newbie, welcome! Sit down! Leave comments! And know that I used to be horrible.

Horrible as in, packed up my dirty dishes in a rubbermaid tub and drove them across town to my SIL's house to put in her dishwasher.

Horrible as in, my husband would run out of the 37 pairs of manties (yes, men's panties) because I would not do laundry.

And if I did do said laundry, it would sit all over every piece of furniture in our living room unless someone was coming over and then it would be thrown on the cleanest floor in the cleanest bedroom we could find.

No joke-my husband would invite people over to our home just so I'd have to clean.

I was that bad.

However, ladies and jellybeans, I'm on the road to recovery. And after reading Cindy's post today, I got a lil skerd. She used to be crazy ( I mean that in the best way, Cindy)but I found myself feeling a bit of a high as she described the way she used to clean her countertop. :)

Because my road to recovery has kinda been that in some areas, I'm getting a little too clean. I neglect other things I should be doing because I'm FAPA'ing (folding and putting away) laundry, doing dishes, vacuuming, scrubbing the toilet, etc. When, all Jaylee wants is for me to play a game with her or Josh wants me to just sit and ask how his day was.

I've been trying so hard to make up for who I used to be that I've gone overboard.

And this week, I hit a wall. I've hardly done anything. The laundry piled up. *gasp* The toilet was only cleaned twice this week. (uh huh, I've been cleaning it more than that) And I didn't always know what was for dinner by noon. (something I'm working on because it keeps us from eating out)

So, last night...I panicked. Josh and Jaylee were gone, my house was a disaster and I didn't know where to start.

I called my mommy. It makes FAPA go by much faster when you're on the phone.

And as we were talking, she assured me that just because I've let things go this week doesn't mean I'm falling back into the person I was before. She encouraged me and told me that I was a good wife and mom. It was nice to have that reassurance.

It took me over 45 minutes to FAPA all my laundry but I did it. I didn't do anything else but I did do that.

This road to recovery thing is a big deal for me.

Really hoping that a few years from now I don't still hit panic mode when 4 loads of laundry are piled on my bed, laughing at me.

Ready for Flips

Is it Summer yet? Or at least Spring?

'Cause I'm so very ready.

I'm looking forward to dandelions in my yard and bees buzzing in my trees. I'm ready for the six neighbor kids to be outside screaming at each other and often making their way to our house to play with my husband. I'm ready for the smell of barbecues. I'm ready for the snow to be out of my yard and the sogginess of our driveway to go away.

I'm ready for flips. They make my heart go pitter-patter.

It's a wonderful feeling that feeling of summer.

Short and Sweet...hey, kinda like me!

Quick post to say that today was the Mom's group.

And I went.

On the right day.

And I had fun.

And they didn't ask me how much I don't read my Bible!

Oh, and our lessons will be on Titus 2, how funny is that?! Seeing as how I've been reading that book I told ya about.

So, I'm pretty excited.

In need of Duct Tape

Bugger.

Where to begin?

Saturday night we had decided not to go to church because Jaylee is kinda sick. Runny nose mainly but a little cough, too. However, Sunday morning rolls around and we really wanna go to church.

We decide to go and have Jaylee sit with us through service and get the adults sick instead of the kids. I was a little apprehensive because we've not been too good at training her to sit still for long periods of time. (Kinda makes her sound like a puppy, huh?)

I'm totally getting off the subject I wanna be blogging about...

We get to church and as you walk in the door, there's a table with the latest sign-ups, Ladie's Bible Study worksheets, devotionals, etc. I noticed this week there were some bracelets. You know the ones. I think they started out with WWJD? And then Live Strong, and now there's a plethora of them.

The one I was looking at was pretty plain. Blue in color and had a simple verse on it. Philippians 2:14. I wasn't familiar with the verse, so I didn't take a bracelet.

We sit down in the back, in case Jaylee needs to be taken out of the sanctuary during the service. Because remember how our pastor is a stickler about noisy children? Anyway, I look up the verse.

"Do all things without complaining or disputing." Philippians 2:14 NKJV

Um...but how will I talk?

No, seriously.

How will I?

I'm such a complainer. Huge. Amazing. The best. You'd think I get paid for it.

But I decide to take one. Hoping, praying, that it will be a great reminder to me. Josh laughs everytime I start complaining. And each time I'm so close to ripping the bracelet off and chuckin' it across the room or just laying it nicely on my bible, like this.


I'm done for now. You know, talking about this. But I know it's an issue for me. So, I'm going to share more on it later. After I get more thoughts together. I can only have one at a time, ya know. :)

Oh, and we didn't have to take Jaylee out of the sanctuary. She was good!

He's lucky he's cute

Remember how I call him husband when he's been naughty?

Well, that's what we shall call him today.

After lunch today the husband and I decide to have some ice cream. His duty is to scoop it out (being the burly man that he is) and my duty is to smother it in chocolate.

So.

We have two bowls.

He has the scooper.

I have the syrup.

He scoops a big amount into one bowl and says: "This one is mine."

I ask: "why?"

He replies: "Because I'm a big boy."

Then he puts one measley scoop into my bowl and says: "This one is yours."

I foolishly ask: "why?"

He replies: "Because you're a big girl."

And then he chuckles. He's proud of his funny little joke.

And then I take his bowl of ice cream.

And I chuckle.