We are camping this weekend, and it looks like it will be just us, and the girls. Alot of times, esp. on the holiday weekends (Memorial Day and Labor Day), there is a big group of us that reserve spots and camp together. But, it looks like its just down to us this time around. We have the area of a double spot, but the faucets there are at the other camp spots. We just have one. But the girls and their families are tenting it, so having water hookup isn’t a necessity. From the forecast, it looks like it will be a decent weekend. It rained most of Memorial Day Weekend, so hopefully, this time will be much better.

I am getting frustrated. Looks like we are going to have to go out of town to get what I need. We don’t have ANYkind of furniture store in this town, let alone a discount furniture store. I have 3 tote boxes full of books — that I do. not. want to get rid of. I want to get them put on shelves. I am caught up in requesting and reviewing books. I would like to be able to organize them, putting them in order to the way I want to read them; and then another row of books that I have read and reviewed. We also bought some games (board games, cards, etc) several weeks ago, when we were camping. We don’t want to leave them in the camper, but we also don’t want to stick them away in a closet either. The bottom shelf of a bookcase would be perfect. So maybe….the next time we go out of town, we can find what we are looking for. Its not going to happen in this town, thats for sure.

Ethan has received Halloween invitations over his high school years to party that night. Now, I know what you are thinking. Halloween party? Teenage kids? not a good combination. However, the party he attends is school sponsored. It is through the drama club. They participate in a “Trick or Treat so Kids can eat” campaign, which is where they go from house to house, asking for canned goods. The canned goods then go to the food pantry that we have here in town. After they finish with their appointed rounds, they then are to go to the Drama teacher’s house, and she has a little Halloween-themed party for them.

I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t like to cook. I do what I have to to get us by, and that is about the extent of it. Needless to say, I didn’t turn any recipes in when our church ladies asked for recipes to be turned in — they were putting a cookbook together to be printed/published and then sold as a fundraiser. I have to admit though, I am glad they did it. There are some really good sounding things to be made in the book, alot of them being ones that often show up at our potluck dinners. Its like “ah ha — that is what is in that. Thats how she makes it”. Ethan has poured over the cookbook, and made several items from it, and I will confess, I have marked a few, that I might get adventerous one of these days and actually try to make something from a recipe.

David was not very happy with one of his drivers this past week. Sometimes I wonder if they check their “Common Sense” book in at the door when some of these drivers hire on with us. What happened was nothing more than a “common sense” thing to do, but do you think he did it? And now it may cost us thousands of dollars because he never thought things through and used a bit of common sense. Fortunately, no one was hurt, and a South Carolina injury lawyer (or Kansas one either) will be needed. But still, doing what this driver did (or rather didn’t do) was not very bright. But David didn’t s-p-e-l-l it out for him, and so it didn’t it get done.

David put in a long physically exhausting day, so I’m hoping he will sleep good tonight. I think he needs to see a doctor because he doesn’t seem to sleep a lot at night. We sleep with the TV off. We sleep with the TV on. It doesn’t seem to make a difference. He can tell you every acne treatment cream product sold between the hours of 2:00 - 4:00. And then he’ll go back to sleep for a couple of hours. I don’t know when the last time he actually slept all night was, and that cannot be good for him. I know he lays there and worries, about his drivers, about the loads he needs to get lined up. Even though we are doing OK financially, I’m sure he lays there and worries about money. I’m sure he worries about why he is worrying! He needs to get some ZZZZZZZs

When Ethan logs on to my laptop, he gets frustrated. I have alot of pictures and graphics and websites loaded on my laptop. I probably could just install more laptop memory to make it run faster, but what I really need to do is organize things a bit better, and burn all the pictures onto CD, and delete all the zip files I have for Wordpress Themes. Quite honestly, I could probably just delete all the pictures that are saved on the hard drive. I would do a “double check” before actually doing that, but the majority of them are downloaded at one if not more than one place on the web. I have a photo gallery where I have alot of my pictures, as well as some older ones at Photobucket. So…they are there. Just make sure I make backups of my galleries and blogs, and there shouldn’t be a reason I should have to save them on the hard drive.

Its just a matter of taking the time and doing it.

We will be celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary the end of October this year. I know alot of couple take cruises or go away on these really luxurious vacations for their anniversaries. But, thats not us. Just not working a Saturday is often considered a wonderful day around here sometimes. Living in Kansas, getting away to someplace like Branson would be doable, and a really fun thing to do. Branson Getaways.com has various different vacation packages to choose from. If we were to go, I would choose the Plantium Package — which is 3 Days/2 Nights at the Welk Resort Hotel, 2 adult tickets to Grand Jubilee, $30 Red Lobster/Olive Garden Gift Card, Coupon Book with $1,500 worth of savings, $50 Tanger Outlet Shopping Certificate. This one is kind middle of the road to the different packages they offer. Its not the cheapest one, but its not the most expensive one either.

I’ve been to Silver Dollar City, which is the theme park located at Branson, but its been a really really long time since I’ve been there, so I imagine that its changed quite a bit since then. Looking at their website, it looks like there is so much that you can do there now. Show, shows, and more shows — living in the midwest, you have to be country, and country is what they do. They have a variety of museums ( The Titanic, Hollywood Wax Museum - Ripley’s Believe it or Not - Ralph Foster Museum, Point Lookout, Missouri - Roy Rogers/Dale Evans Museum - Veterans Memorial Museum - World’s Largest Antique Toy Museum - American Presidential Museum), rides and thrills, a State park, water rides, Go Karts, Miniature golf courses, Caves and Caverns, family entertainment, movie theatres, shopping … the list goes on. There is more to do there than a 3 day vacation would allow. It also sounds like it would be a great place to go for a family vacation — but if we go for our wedding anniversary celebration, then it will be a “no kids allowed” weekend.

Ethan has been working on his room this weekend, trying to declutter and just get it ready for school in general. Back to homework time. I know he would love to have a TV wall mount in his room, but I don’t think that will be happening anytime soon. If we do anything like that, it will be going out in the living room. Although, since his room is so small, it would be a good solution and a great space saver. But, on the other side of the coin, he will be moving out in less than a year. Does it stay here or go with him? I know what he would say [grin].

We needed to make a trip to Manhattan this week. What happened to the days when you just listened to the the local radio station as you traveled down the road? At various points of the trip, we did turn all electronic devices off, and talked as a family, about family (we were attended a visitation — my cousin, who is my age, passed away last week). But other parts of the trip, Ethan and I were both plugged into our MP3 players and David was on his cell phone, talking to his drivers. One the way home, we did turn the radio on, and listen to it, but I think Ethan slept most of the way home, and I know I nodded off a time or two. Thankfully, David was wide away, and got us home in a timely manner, and all in one piece.

HOSTED BY MY SIMPLIER LIFE

THE CHALLENGE
The idea is to declutter at least one item a day for the entire month. If you can’t commit to an entire month, then commit to at least 7 days of decluttering.

Every Friday starting 8th August write a post complete with pictures and links that post to the Mr Linky on My Simple Life’s blog to get their entry in.

There are prizes:)

1. School is around the corner for many of us. Have you started your back-to-school shopping yet? Do you get all of your back-to-school shopping done at one time? Or do you spread it out? Do you make back-to-school shopping special or fun for the kids? Or is it just another shopping trip? What about back-to-school clothes shopping? Do you budget what you’re going to spend on your childrens’ wardrobes, or do you pay more attention to sales? Any back-to-school shopping tips you wish to share? No, we haven’t started. Course, I only have one child, and he’s a senior. They don’t publish “school supply lists” for the high schoolers, because it all depends on what classes they take. So, what we usually do is get him a “first day of school” outfit, and then go shopping the weekend after school starts. Since he is a seniorand will beattending college next year, its time to gently push him out of the nest. A “trial run” of sorts. We will give him what we think is the appropriate amount of money he will need, and we send him into the store(s) and he does his own “back to school” shopping. Works for me. If he doesn’t know how to spend money properly by now, and buy appropriate clothing, we are in major trouble anyway. We did a clothing shopping trip like this last spring, and I was impressed with the results. That is the plan for this new school year at the moment.

2. Is there a website/blog that you visit on a daily basis? Why this specific website/blog? How long have you been visiting this website/blog? Now list your next top two favorite websites/blogs (and yes, I know this is a hard question, but list the ones you REALLY look forward to reading). WHY do you love these websites/blogs so much?I don’t know why, but I am drawn to this one blog. Written by some lady named Karen. Write By Karen is the name of the blog. She’s funny, witty, inspirational, informative. She has teenage boys, so I can relate to alot of what she blogs about. She holds great contests, the blog is pleasing to the eye. She does blog design — one of these days, I’m going to hire her to do a banner for me. I tend to lurk more than I comment, which I need to stop doing. I have read her blog probably off and on for a year now.

My next two top websites/blogs, would be Joyful Mother and The Write Prompts I have read Becky’s blog (Joyful Mother) for … years. I would say 5 or 6 years? We were both at Xanga, and I learned alot of html stuff from her. We have kept up with each other over the years. Her husband has family in Topeka, which is just down the road from us, so we have had the opportunity to meet, which was really cool. Again, this blogger likes all the stuff that I like — organizational tools, web designing, paid blogging, and even though her boys are younger and she homeschools, I still enjoy reading what she has to say, and visit her every day.

The Write Prompt is a Squidoo Lens, and Maureen provides the reader with a multitude of writing prompts and information. I may not read this website everyday, but I do visit frequently. She does a monthly prompt, focusing on the month, and giving you suggestions of what to write about during the month focusing on one theme.

3. What book have you started with low expectations, and finished with tears in your eyes it was so good? Now please share with us a book that you think people MUST read. Why this book? Hmmm…. I really don’t have an answer for this one. I have such a mountain of books to read, that I only pick ones I know are going to be good to read next, and so far, have not ever been disappointed.

4. Are you concerned about credit and/or identity theft? What do you do to try and prevent it? How often do you shred documents and change your passwords? Have you ever checked your credit reports? Why or why not? I’m concerned about it — however. In days gone by, I probably did more to wreck our credit than anyone out to steal our identity could have done. I have turned that around, and am much more responsible. But, we don’t have credit cards. And just keep our bills paid and not much money in the bank. I have had someone hack into my Paypal account, and that has made me more aware and dilegent about changing my passwords and not using the same one for everything, and using hard to “figure out”. But, the experience I had with the hacker makes me believe that sometimes it doesn’t matter what you do, if he wants in, he’ll get in, and get what he wants. My web hostess and I were ON THE PHONE, changing the passwords to my main blog that he had hacked — there was no email transmission between us (he had hijacked my email accounts as well…he didn’t leave anything untouiched … Paypal, GoDaddy, the server where my blogs were, my emails … he hacked them all) — anyway, we were changing passwords, talking over the phone to do it, and within 10 minutes, he had changed it. He had to have had a program — spyware or something, on something that was telling him what my passwords were. That is something I don’t ever want to go through again!

Seven Things that Scare Me:
1. Tornadoes
2. Those that I love dying
3. Speaking in front of large groups
4. Going really fast
5. Heights
6. Going to hell
7. Spiders & Snakes

Seven Things I Like:
1. Spending time with Ruth
2. Blogging
3. Creating blogs/websites
4. Potato chips
5. Watermelon
6. Organization (being organized)
7. A clean desk

Seven Random Facts About Me:
1. Looking at my house, you coudln’t tell it, but I really do like being organized
2. I was married way too young
3. I used to help manufacture puppets and plush toys
4. The only surgery I’ve ever had was getting my tubes tied after having Ethan
5. I had to wear a cast before I was 6 weeks old (I was born with a pulled ligiment in my knee, and they had to cast it to correct it).
6. I had 36 stitches by my eyebrow when I was 12
7. I broke my arm the winter of 2001.

Seven Things I want to Do Before I Die:
1. Weigh an “acceptable” weight
2. Have a clean house on a consistent basis.
3. Meet my brother
4. Plan my funeral (so it isn’t up to David to do it, who would be clueless).
5. Build a new house
6. Bring someone to the Lord
7. Learn how to do graphic designing

Seven Things I Can Do Well:
1. Create clutter
2. Organize events
3. Blog
4. Read
5. Sing (according to Ethan)
6. Keep Confidences
7.

Seven Things I Can’t Do But Wish I Could:
1. Draw Graphics
2. Walk around the block
3. Wear size 10 clothes
4. Be more outspoken
5. Take professional looking pictures
6. Go shopping without getting in distress physically
7. Go shopping without impulse shopping

Seven Phrases I’m Known to Use:
1. Ya Think?
2. You don’t say
3. Imagine that
4. Hold On, I’m not finished Blogging
5.
6.
7.

When I decided that I might consider WLS, I got some negative feedback about my decision. No matter what I decide, its going to be an informed one, both with the surgery itself, but also looking into various other reviews of my other options. Should I look into the Adkins diet, or Weight Watchers? I read a Fenphedra review that made me stop and think. They all sound promising; and yet, everything I have tried, which have sounded equal promising, have not worked. So, I will continue to strive to figure out what will work for me, and if I find that a surgery procedure is the only way, then I will base my decision on that.

We went to Topeka today for our grandson’s birthday - plus we did some shopping while we were there. We don’t have a Walmart here, so we taken advantage of it when we are in Topeka or Emporia. We needed to get some paper products — paper towels, toilet paper, etc, as well as cleaning supplies. The sinks are going to clean themselves, and I had it on my list of things to get the next time we went to the grocery store here. So, while in Walmart, we made a small list (yeah. right) of what we needed — and I am pleased to say, we did keep it under $100. For us, thats pretty good. Course, it also might have something to do with, we were hot. And tired. And it was like, get in, get out. No meandering out. That helps. I did hit Catherine’s earlier, and got 3 tops for less than $50. There are times I have gone in there and payed close to $50 just for one top. So, I was really happy with what I was able to get. One top was $20, and the other two were in the “Clearance” area, so they were just a little more than $10. Not bad for plus size clothing.