Need Advice!

So I'm really wanting/needing to get a job. And I need some help figuring out what to do. I'm really not comfortable leaving my daughter home alone yet, so I would prefer a job that I can work from home with or one that will work with her school schedule.
I cringe at the idea of going into sales, such as Mary Kay, Papered Chef, and so on. I just am not good at trying to convince someone they should buy something from me. I love to buy the stuff myself, but am not the kind of person who can attract people and get them to make a purchase from me.
I have done child care and I know I can easily get back into it with my experience, but I'm keeping that as a last resort. I feel that fewer and fewer centers are in it to take care of children as much as they are to get money. I also end up burning up all my patience on other peoples' children leaving me little to none for my own family...very unfair.
I have also done substituting, but due to keeping boundaries, I prefer not to sub in my children's school district. This limits the age I can teach to high schoolers. And being in these large districts I've discovered that I don't care for teaching the older kids unless I can get a fine arts class. The vulgarity and disrespect I get is more than I can handle. School districts are too scared to be sued for anything and everything anymore that the kids get away with pretty much anything. (I miss subing in the country school in East TX. I loved going there).
So that's where I stand. Anyone have any suggestions? I could really use the help!!

*Dusty gave me a fabulous idea, but it reminded me of some limitations I forgot to mention. Due to the tumor I had, I now have some balance issues. I often stumble. I can usually keep myself from falling, but it does leave problems of spilling. I'm no where near as bad as I use to be, but when allergies flare so does this problem. Also, a side effect from the removal of the tumor is my left hand will be put in a position when holding/carrying things that causes it to shake uncontrollably. This may better explain my help on ideas. Thank you so much for yours Dusty!!*

HeHe

I'm sure I've mentioned The Sugar Shop before, but it's been a while. Go over and check out Dena's sight. Not just because she's super cool and has some fabulous stuff on there, she's also got a super cute video up today that gave me a chuckle and totally fits my hubby.

joining me

Yea!! Charisse joined me in the monthly photo file folder! Go check her's out. I love that picture! Who else will join us?

Stealing an idea (1/1)

So I was doing my blog hopping this morning when I came a across a number of blogs doing a so called photo tag. It's where a friend tags you to open say the 4th folder in your photos file and post say the 6th picture in that folder and tell about it. Then you "tag" friends to do the same.

Well it inspired another person to do another photo post idea which is the one I am stealing. You do a post each month and post the photo from the file coordinating for that month. January gets 1/1 February gets 2/2 and so on.

So I thought this was interesting and I would do it too. Problem is I have a tendency to save/load one photo at a time when I see something I like so not all of them are in files. Guess I'll just skip those and go for the next folder.

So here goes...let's see if I can remember to do it each month.

This is a photo of Michael. He is now a member of our family. As of June he is married to Larry's cousin Vicki's daughter, Staci. This photo was taken back in April of '08. When we were all out partying a few weeks before Casey and Lia's wedding. Sort of a joint bachelor/bachelorate party.

Michael is a super sweet guy that is a fabulous addition to our family. Him and Staci live about a mile from us, and we never see them it seems like. Isn't that how it always works...the closer you live to family, the less you see them! We've got to fix that guys!

Anyway, thought that was a fun and inspiring idea, now let's see if I can make it last!

Pictures...Yea!

I've been promising pictures for a while haven't I? So let me get a few on here already!

First, here is a picture of the teacher gifts I made for Holly's 6 teachers and her bus driver

Chris's family car in front of us with gorgeous mountains in front of that.

Castle in CO we stopped at when were there in the summer few years before. Had to see it in the snow too.

Larry and youngest kids having fun.

Van after one night.

Keystone

Santa's reindeer sculpted out of ice.

Our wilderness family

Going for a ride in Santa's ice sleigh.

Just plain cool!

Larry headed down to do some fishing.

Craig following

Holly too

The Gondola's we road in up Keystone mountain

At the top. Could see Breckenridge from the top too.

Riding down

A view from the Gondola

Me and Haylee

And just me

On our way home we stopped to ride the Royal Gorge train.

This is the open car. I didn't stay out there too long.

The front of the train, we were on a car toward the back.

My brother-in-law's family
And after we returned, Larry joining the girls as they tried out their new rides.

Life

is interesting. Hubby made it home an hour early Friday. Especially fabulous since when I was looking up his info earlier in the day I couldn't find his flight listed. Also good because he was having to do the Home Alone to make it to his flight.
While he was gone, in the evenings he was looking for a new family car for us. With his hunting I was able to pick him up in our new '06 Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited Edition. It was a deal we couldn't pass up. Worth way more than we paid...has so many bells and whistles, and still looks brand new with under 30,000 miles. I miss the extra room the van had for the girls, but this still fits us fabulously and is more my style. I am most proud because the decision was ultimately up to me. I've never done that before. My dad was there to help most of the way, but my mom and I did the initial viewing of it, and I got the official ball rolling on weather or not to purchase, and made the final decisions...woohoo!
Today was inauguration day. I got up early to get ready to go with Larry to work. (It was also appointment day with his Neurologist. But more on that in a bit). So after getting out of the shower, I turned on the news as normal to find out the weather and hear the plan for the big day. I also got to hear a lot of little facts which I greatly enjoy, such as President Obama was to be sworn in on the same Bible used in the swearing in of President Lincoln...so cool!! Had to share this info with Holly and came to learn she hasn't absorbed as much as I had hoped on Lincoln (one of my fav presidents to learn about). She also didn't quite understand the huge importance of this day (I had a hard time deciding on which candidate I felt was best for our country, but knew I would support whoever ended up winning). I really wanted her to soak this day in because I know the day will come when she will hear "Mommy/Grandma, what were you doing/how old were you/what grade were you in when the first African-American became president?" And who knows what else she may be asked depending on what happens in the next 4-8 years. I think I did pretty good because when she got on the bus she was fairly excited about the day. And her first words coming in were to confirm what I thought, that she would get to watch it happen on T.V. in class.
Larry's appointment at the Neurologist went well. She is happy with the results so far with the medicine. She was able to answer a number of new questions we had. And due to some better describing of Larry's migraine symptoms, she wants to do a 48hr EEG on him to check out other possible problems. He will be doing this the first weekend in February. Not much to it. He will just have to stay home all weekend and watch T.V. and rest...oh pooh who wants a good reason to veg?! We are both really pleased with her. She explains things well, listens well, is quick to check everything she thinks should be checked, and is happy to help in all areas needed including making sure work takes Larry seriously when he informs them he has a migraine of has to go to an appointment.
The year is beginning to take a turn for the better, now to just pray that the results of this test are good. Would love to find nothing, but if something is found, for it not to be serious and for it to easily be fixed. We already know from his MRI no tumors (guess one family member with extra in their head is enough...hehe).

Adorable

I know I'm suppose to be sharing pictures of the trip to CO, but I had to share these. I got these in an e-mail from my dad who got it from one of my aunts who got it somewhere esle and so on, and I just had to share. Some stuff happened tonight that really brought my day from super great to super low and I won't know till tomorrow if it's going to come out ok or not (just some trouble with the insurance that we don't know how happened and is effecting the outcome of the van). And these pictures really cheered me up.
Enjoy!

His coloring sure makes me think of and miss Flash. He too loved his birds!

So ready for the return

of the hubby. I knew from his hunting trips lately, where I've stayed home, that I definitely sleep better when he is here. But I don't think he's ever been gone for 5 nights straight. So that's five nights where I am not able to fall into a deep sleep and actually get some rest. I stay a lot more alert listening for things that could be wrong. It has been mentioned in front of my parents that I do complain if I have to sleep without the hubby. My dad has confessed I get this from him. He is the same way if my mom isn't in bed when he wants to go to sleep. So how in the world did I survive 23 years in my little twin bed? Maybe I should revert to my childhood ways when he's gone and fill my bed with stuffed animals? he he I do arrange the pillows to where they take up space beside me.
So after night one of rough sleep I wimped out and slept an hour later deciding when the alarm when off I would just drive Holly in.
After night two I got her up in time and on the bus. Then came in and went back to bed. I wasted the morning, and ended up vegging most of the day only doing small chores here and there. So no good project progress.
I had to have a better morning this time because I am headed about 60 miles to go look at a car at a dealership we have been talking to (I think I failed to mention that the van was declared totaled). I am not looking forward to doing this without Larry. I mainly just have to check and make sure it is in decent shape for us to continue our interest in it. I refuse to test drive anything (especially with 4x4), so Larry will do that when he returns as long as I approve of everything else. So again no good project progress today.
So in preparation for a better night I had a nice long bubble bath to relax, and planned to go to bed earlier. The earlier didn't happen, but I do feel much better this morning.
OK, enough rambling...on with the day.

A week of projects

So Larry left yesterday for Cleveland for a week long work training session with strict instructions not to eat any peanut butter (they have a salmonella scare). So I am following in my mom's footsteps of taking advantage of hubby being gone to make a royal mess in the house in hopes of reorganizing and getting rid of a lot of the paper clutter around the house. I got most of the bedroom done last night and finally got the Christmas decorations down today (they've stayed up so long since I have felt crummy for so long).
Holly and I spent yesterday doing some spending on our gift cards. I still had a little over half of the $40 on my Joann's card after getting 7 skeins of yarn the other week so I got 2 more skeins, 13 different fabrics, and a package of pastel junior mints (never seen them in pastels before), and I still have $3! I love sales at this time of year!
I am feeling much better now. I think the cold left recently and I've actually been fighting allergies for the last few days. I'm having a ton of drainage in my throat (if you wanted to know) and am so tired of clearing my throat. I realized today I haven't been drinking water lately like I normally do and that may have a lot to do with not clearing out like I should.
Well back to my projects. I will try and get those pictures up soon!

Night time medicine is truely for night time!

Larry packed up his medicine he had at work ready to bring back home for me to use, but he got a severe migraine. So I went and picked him up about 4, and he forgot to bring it. He told me to take the night time one though and to take it during the day since it was just me at home. So I took a dose last night, hoping it would work. Usually if it says night time, it doesn't mean much different from day time for me. When the alarm startled me awake, I realized I had actually finally slept through the night. I felt a bit out of it for a couple of minutes, but other than that, felt mostly the same since it had been quite a while since I had taken the medicine. So after Holly had gotten on the bus and Larry had left for work (his car was here from me using it before we got the rental, making me not have to drive him in...yea!) I took another dose of medicine and went to watch one of the shows I had recorded from Tuesday. Next thing I know I'm being woken up by my phone ringing at 10! Talked to Larry shortly after I woke up and told him what had happened. He said good! I needed the rest and I should start feeling better soon. I said not good because I had lots to do for getting him ready for his business trip!
So no more of that stuff till bed time for me! Hopefully he'll remember the other today, or I'll go pick some up while I'm getting his prescriptions refilled tomorrow.

These days

seem so long, yet so much doesn't get done. Today I am trying to get some catching up on the computer done. Should be working on laundry and getting things ready for Larry's work trip to Cleveland next week and saving this catching up for after he's gone, but I thought a couple of hours wouldn't hurt.


I updated my myspace. Not hard. Just changed my background, updated my status, and uploaded some pics. Also sent message out to a neglected friend, sorry Tina!!


It probably will have to be next week when I get totally updated on blog land. So much still to read, and feeling rushed I can't enjoy my time on here catching up on everyone's holiday's and trips.


I will post pictures next week on here. I will put most on my flicker account I finally made since there are so many, and just put some special ones on here.


Here is a new family pic for you though from the trip.


We took a bunch and I have to choose one though to send in cards. Holidays were so busy and I didn't have a good recent family pic, so I decided we'd take one on the trip and I'd send out ones after the new year. I figure that would be fun for people to get a card in the mail when fun mail is so rare again and all anyone is getting is bills.

I will write about the trip and Christmas next week. Let me give a few details of what has been happening since the new year.
1. Our van was stolen on new year's. It was found yesterday, but looks like some little punks are the ones who got it. The seat behind the driver's was burned. They didn't have the windows down so it smothered it's self out before it got too far. Larry said the windows are black and they are going to have to gut it and redo the a/c too if there is any hope of getting the smell out. I fear there is no way to get the smell out and I fear having to continue making payments on something disgusting that there is no way we could trade in for something new...guess we'll just have to keep fingers crossed all goes well.
2. I ended up getting a super bad cold the day we got back from our trip. And it's STILL holding on. Larry got it on Sunday, but he seems to be getting over it much quicker. He said he will bring back the medicine we bought him from work, and wants me to take that kind instead to see if it helps me.
3. My youth minister's wife passed away on the 3rd. She had been battling bone cancer for about 16 months. She had a super rough time with it, but was always strong in her spirit and faith which makes her passing a bit of a shock. Her memorial service was yesterday, and it was proof what a wonderful woman she was and what a fabulous family she has. The church was just as full as it is on the holidays, and the parking lot was more full than ever. It over flowed into the daycare across the street, and into the streets all around.

I will leave it at that for now though and get some stuff done around the house and get a few groceries.

Ding, Dong...

Yes, I'm here!! So much to catch up on. For me reading everyone's blogs and for you all to read about our fabulous trip, Christmases, and end/beginning of the years. Unfortunately waiting for me when we got back was one super nasty cold/virus that I'm not completely over yet. This has left me with so much that I am just now getting to do, so forgive me if it is a bit longer before I get back in the posting grove. Did I mention that Larry now has it? We're doing all we can to keep Holly from getting it...so far so good.
Hope everyone had a great holiday season, and I'll slowly get all caught up. And hopefully I'll get my posts up soon...some fun snow filled pics to come!