I am currently out of work but I think everyone, everywhere can find at least $10 to donate towards relief in Haiti.  There are millions of people suffering, hungry and homeless with many lost love ones and Redcross offers a simple way to donate via your cellphone.  Just dial 90999 and type in the word Haiti and send the text they will respond and ask you to type YES to confirm your donation of $10 and thats it, they automatically bill it to your cellphone.

 If you think your struggling and your having a hard time just imagine how the people of Haiti are suffering and struggling just to live another day.  Sometimes we think our lives are difficult but we have never had to experience such devistation as what has occurred in Haiti.  If I was able to travel to Haiti myself I would be there to help out, but since I can’t be there to help out and since I don’t have alot of cash right now I figured I can manage at least $10 and then do my part to push other people to do the same, just think if everyone gave just $10 how much money could be raised to help those suffering so terribly.  We have to say a prayer for all the people of Haiti both the dead and the survivors and thier families so that hopefully they will make it through this dark time in their lives.

 So, please give $10 to Redcross via your cellphone or go to Redcross.org and just think if that were your family member suffering, you would want someone to reach out and help and lets remember right now every little bit helps. Well,that is my request to anyone who seems my blog that you give to Haiti and that you pass the message on to others around you as well, family, friends, co-workers, neighbors, church members, just push others to give in anyway they can.  Thanks again for your support and lets all pray for Haiti…Let them know they haven’t been forgotten and that we care!!

Back to School at AIU

Well, I have been thinking of going back to school for a long time now, and watching my husband work on his degree for the past couple years and decided it’s my turn to do something for myself.  So, I am now enrolled in school and will begin my first class the first week of February.  Yes, its a little scary to think about since its only been about 22yrs since I was in high school but it is necessary for me to be competitive in todays job market.

I have been online looking up grants and scholarships for women, GA residents and undergraduates and have applied for a few but haven’t got much money yet.  SO, I am also doing student loans and hoping to push through both my Associates and Bachelor degrees over the next couple years.

If you have recently returned to school and have any advice for me on how to manage my time, where to go and apply for student loans, grants and scholarships, I would greatly appreciate your help.

My daughter Taylor has been a big inspiration for me as well to get back to school, she does so good in school and she just loves learning and doing things. I want to show her that mommy can go back to school and do it as well, also I want her to know that it doesn’t matter what age you are, that you can always still follow through with your goals.

I am open to any advice you may have for me, so please feel free to comment..thanks again and I plan on getting back to my blogging for 2010..

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Lately things have been stressful at home, with my husband now out of work and here in the house all the time it gets kind of nerve racking.  He talks alot about things he is going to do or needs to get done and then sits here in the office and doesn’t accomplish much other than talking.. 

We closed in our garage a couple years back a made 2 offices spaces with a wall dividing the offices so that we wouldn’t be in each others faces all the time. But then my husband moved his office furniture from our commercial space to the house and moved it to the larger open area of the office and made that his office and now sits right where we can see one another and hear one another, and its like it defeated the idea of seperate office spaces.  So, he lost his job a couple weeks ago now and he is here sharing the office with me and it gets quite annoying at times as I am working and trying to concentrate on work and he just likes to talk alot.   I mean it seems he can’t stay focused on his own tasks he needs to complete and it drives me crazy.

Also, you can forget him getting any work done when either one of his ex-coworkers calls him or he calls them, they get on this rant about the job and talk for hours about something that cannot be changed.  I mean lets focus on the future and make something happen here as we have alot of bills to pay and I don’t have time for him to wallow in self pitty over his job loss when there is absolutely nothing we can do about it but move forward.  I mean I am looking to the future to figuring out how to survive and make money and keep my bills paid and the roof over my head.

I love him but, he has a hard time staying focused and it drives me nuts. We can be eating or something and boom out of no where, he will begin talking to me like we were in the middle of a conversation and I will have no idea what the heck he is rambling on about. Then as soon as I figure out what he’s talking about, he is already on to a new subject having nothing to do with the conversation he was speaking of 2 seconds earlier, I mean its mind boggling at times.

I work from home as an appraiser (broke as hell), and I also bid on government contract with HUD for inspections and I contract work and I run our business for local home inspections and appraisals.  Let me just be honest for a minute business has really just sucked since the crap hit the fan in the summer of 2007 for our industry.  So, with that said I don’t make tons of money, I mean I make some but not nearly enough to support our household without my husbands income as well and with his job loss we can’t afford the health insurance which really sucks, as I have several medical problems and my daughter has  2 holes in her heart that have to be monitored, so it sucks losing my health care.

With all that said my point is I work from home, so I am on the computer or the phone etc. and with my husband here it seems he gets distracted easily and then it distracts me as i can see him and hear him at all times.  I think I am just frustrated that he talks about all these things he is  going to get done or needs to do and then doesn’t do them and it makes me crazy.  He would act like I am not contributing to our household because I work from home and make my money here in the house, and I have to remind him that before he took his office job a couple years ago he also worked from home with me for about 7 yrs and as manager of the company, I contribute, as his wife I contribute, as mom to our daughter I contribute, as the person responsible for the house, cooking, laundry, dogs, fish, pool, etc..I CONTRIBUTE every single day of my life to my household.

To many times men don’t realize how much we contribute to our households, whether it be financially or through other things we contribute.  But I have never not worked and just sat on my ass at home, I work all the time.  Like I said before right now the money isn’t that great but it comes and goes as the contracts I have come and go and as the real estate industry goes through its changes so does my money, but I contribute..

Hopefully now that he is back at home out of the corporate world and back to doing our company he will realize how much I contribute and how much work it takes and descipline it takes to work from home and stay motivated and make your own income.  I am always pushing forward looking for a better tomorrow and praying for a brighter day as I will not let the struggles I face today bring me down.

Well, with all that said my daughter Taylor started second grade this week and some how has managed to break 2 water bottles in 3 days, I give up..I told her to pull out the one she used last year and use that one as it lasted all year with no problems.  She is loving school and glad to be back with her freinds, hopefully she can stay there through the school year as it is a private school and with the loss of my husbands income things may have to change there but since it is such a wonderful school and we know she is getting a good education we will do our best to keep her there. Our children our the future so we have to do our best to provide them the best pathe possible.

Som this is whats been going on in my house this week..what the hecks going on in yours?

Wow, it seems like my daughter was just a toddler and now she is in 2nd grade, for some reason I keep thinking she is going to 1st grade but, no it’s 2nd grade.  I am not sure if its turning 7 yrs old or what but over the summer she has become very independent, before she would only take bathes and she has long curly hair so I always had to shampoo, condition and comb out the tangles. But in the last few weeks she has started taking showers, and then she started shampooing, conditioning and combing and styling her own hair.  

Now, she has decided she wants pop tarts and she wants to make them herself, and she talks to me like she is a teenager and not 7yrs old.  Even her older step sister said she couldn’t believe how much she changed in the 3  weeks since she last saw her.  She says things that just seem so grown up for her age, nothing bad just more mature or educated than I expected from my 7yr old. 

Today was her first day of school and beginning 2nd grade, and she got up told me how she wanted her hair to be, told me that she was going to have pop tarts and I wanted to make her different healthier breakfast but she wanted to do her own thing, so I allowed it.   She ended some how breaking her water bottle on the first day of school, it was one of the nicer hard plastic bottles and I guess she either dropped it or dropped her book bag when it was clipped to it and broke it, so I was not so happy about that but I took her to get a new one.  When we get to the store, I buy her a totally different water bottle that is the softer plastic that shouldn’t break as the other one did and she was like “NO ONE ELSE HAS A BOTTLE LIKE THAT’,  I was like so what you broke the expensive one on the first day and so this is what you get.

It just seems like our kids at earlier ages are so concerned with what everyone else thinks or has, but right now my husband just lost his job and I am not wallowing in cash, so we will have to do with what he have or can afford.  I am not one of those moms that thinks my daughter has to have all the most expensive brands, I didn’t grow up that way and i am not going to buy a pair of shoes over paying a utility bill at home right now. 

But anyways its just amazing how fast she has grown to 7yrs old, it just seems like the years have flown by and she is getting bigger, smarter, and more independent each day..Pretty soon she will be a teenager and hate my guts, so I have to try and enjoy what time we can get together before those dreaded years come along.. Thank goodness we are only disagreeing on a water bottle today, because soon it will be boys that we will be disagreeing on..Cherish the moments with you kids as they grow up so fast, I spent this summer with my daughter home with me and I made sure we had our special hang out days each week because I want to have those memories together and I want her to think her mom is a little cool, even though I am probably not..I still hope she looks at me, and thinks “my mom is the best’.

I loved having her home with me this summer BUT thank goodness 2nd grade is here to give me a break !! 

Til next time!!

Last Friday my husband lost his job, and so now we are both kind of out of work and so its rather stressful time in my house right now, thats why I haven’t posted anything in a while. I have just been bogged down with things that I need to get done and having my husband here each day is kind of stressful and he talks and wonders around and all he talks about is his job, etc.

I am glad we have some money set aside in savings, not enough to last for long but at least I know I am not without any money.  Here it is back to school time and I hadn’t done any school shopping yet and so we have decided that there will be no new school clothes right now, we will wait and see how things go and then purchase little at a time as right now paying our bills is more important that my daughter having a new t-shirt and jeans on the first day of school.  She has plent y of good clothes so she won’t be disgraced and she is only 7yrs old so its not like a major deal to her, she doesn’t really even think about it.  The only thing she really wanted was a new book bag, water bottle and lunch case, so I did buy those items for her and so she is happy with that for now.

Right now I am wishing we had about 6 months of savings but we don’t so all we can do is push forward. Thank goodness we own our own business but we are in real estate and so as everyone knows business has been slow but things right now are picking up so we still have that income coming in and I also bid on government contracts and so I hope to get a couple lined up and if so we should be fine. I can’t imagine how so many people theirs jobs and have no savings set aside and have no other income to fall back on as we do, even though I know what we have it is still scary so I know other people with less than we have must be so stressed out and I just say we have to all pray and stay positive and something good will happen.

If you decided to give up or let yourself get to down and depressed than you will not accomplish much if anything, so it is important to look at this as just another struggle we have to face and to push forward and look at any and all options that come your way and also considered making things happen for yourself.  What I mean when I say make something happen for yourself is that we are so dependant on large companies to give us a job but once you get that job you put all your dependence on that job, the paycheck, etc.. If you have a passion, a hobby or interest in trying your own business than give it a shot, its harder to work for yourself than anyone but you will push harder to make the money and will appreciate what you have much more and then only you control how much you make, when you work, and when you vacation.  Of course not everyone is like me and my husband and aren’t wanting to work for yourself but like my husband jus lost his job, I also was in the corporate world as he was and about 10yrs ago out of the blue I was laid off and it was such a shock to me when it happened that I chose to work for myself and I have every since then and my husband only went to work with the other company when the industy we are in got hit and we didn’t have enough business to pay all our bills.  So, now yes we are stressed over the situation but all we can do now is pray, stay positive and push forward.  No matter what gets thrown at you always remember you can get through it, as long as you don’t give up on yourself you can make it through anything that comes your way.

I would love to hear from anyone facing the same issues of job loss in your family and how it has affected you and what your doing to try and move forward..til next time!

Today was a great day, Taylor and I took a day out for us and we went to Six Flags amusement park.  Taylor had a free ticket from reading throughout the school year and so I purchased a discounted ticket for myself and we had a great time.  Taylor had no idea where we were going, I told her I had a surprise for her and she asked, “was it a long way to the surprise”and I said “yes, it will take a little time to get there”.

We were driving down the highway and she was trying to figure out where we were going and kept asking me questions trying to figure it out and then we got off the exit and she saw the sign, Six Flags, Six Flags and she was just about to burst.  ”Mommy are we going to Six Flags”, she said I told her yes and she was like “YES”, YOUR THE BEST MOM EVER”.   We got there just a little early so I picked up a park map and planned out our trip through the park, it was perfect we went to one area and went from ride to ride.  Going on a week day and getting there when they opened we had no wait to very little wait for rides, we did Splash Waterfall and Thunder River, road roller coasters and did some Wheelie ride that made me feel sick, yuck..I rather do a fast roller coaster that goes up side down than a slow ride that goes up side down, that things made me so sick on my stomach, we did bumper cars, log rides, rocking tug boat, you name it we rode it, it was like 15 rides by 2pm.

Then we had lunch and hit the water park area where she convinced me to do the water slides with her and that scared me to death, it starts off pitch black like in a tunnel and you feel like your just falling really fast and can’t see where you are then when it opens up and your just dropping so fast and you go through areas of dips that makes you feel like your going to flip out of the slide.   I did it for Taylor but it scared me to death, not recommended for scardy cats like myself.

After the water park area I was ready to go home but Taylor wanted to ride a  couple more rides and so I decided to to go along with that and I did regret that as that was when the lines were long for the rides and so I was miserable standing in line for 45 min. to get on a ride.  We did a couple more rides and then finally we got to go home and Taylor was so excited to go home and tell her daddy all about her day.  She even got a Super Girl cape at Six Flags and she was running around with her Pink Super Girl cape showing daddy how it lights up, telling her dad all about her day and how wet we got on some of the rides. We were soaking wet and Taylor just loved it, and she  made me go back and ride the roller coasters twice and she even got me to ride the Wheelie ride twice even though it made me feel sick I did it for her.  Taylor also drove the old timey looking cars, she drove and I sat in the back seat, Taylor is 7 yrs old so for her it was super exciting, I kept saying “ Taylor your driving, your driving”.  She told me it teaches you how to drive of course the car has a guide bar/track so the car won’t run off the road thank god, so I sat in the back seat and let her have fun..

Later on she climbed in my bed, laid next to me and talked and talked all about the day and the haunted house we went through she just loved the entire day.  I thought she would never stop talking or go to bed, so finally I sent her on her way and now its mommies turn to go to bed..wonderful day but I am exhausted got to get some sleep and rest my feet & legs..This day was for Taylor and mommy to have one final special outting before the summer ends and we are back to the school routine..SO, I hope all of you moms / dads out there try and take some special time out to bond with your kids because its days like today that they will never forget and you won’t either before you know it they are teenagers and don’t even want to speak to you muchless go hang out with you. SO, take advantage of spending time with your kids when they still want you around!!!  Til next post..please share your special adventures with your kids!

I have had a challenging week, no air in the house for 4 days, my daughter wanting to go, go, all the time.. I think she doesn’t realize that I actually do have to work sometimes.  Business has been slow for me this summer so I have been able to dedicate alot of my time to my daughter, spending time at the pool, going to the gym or going to the water park,etc.. But the last couple weeks I have had some appraisal business and so I have had to buckle down and work, work, work…

Well, for Taylor she just doesn’t get that she thinks mommy is supposed to be free to play and hang out all the time.  So, yesterday I took a break from working and we invited our neighbor and her kids to come over and spend the day at the pool and that was fun..But my phone kept ringing and ringing, everytime I got in the pool the phone would ring and it seems liked everyone needed me to help them out right then and there and then the A/C repair guys showed up and so everyone was enjoying the pool and eventually I got around to it.

Today it was back to work, working on appraisal reports  that were due out and once again my daughter was not getting it, she was like “mommy how long are you going to stay down in the office”, I told her probably all day and she just thought it was the end of the world.  I had to research and write reports, do laundry for her trip to grandmas, take a shower, trim the dogs and then drive out of town to meet my mom so she could pick up my daughter for the weekend.

I tell you, I love my mom I don’t know what I would do with out her. She has been getting my daughter for 1 weekend a month every since my daughter was like 6 months old.   So, I say god bless her without her I would never have a day to myself.  My husbands mom barely ever even speaks to us, she lives 20 min away and doesn’t bother to come see her granddaughter or call her but once or twice a year, and my mom live 2 hrs away and we both drive 1hr and meet in the middle every single month, its good for me, its good for Taylor and my mom loves having that weekend with her and Taylor gets to see the rest of the family every months as well. 

I always look forward to this one weekend each month, wether I have plans to go to the cabin on the lake or just sit at home all weekend and do nothing at all, I love being able to have 2 days to myself.  As most women know, even though its not true for all men but most expect the moms to handle all the child rearing and that means, they go on coming and going as they please, never skipping a beat where we have to plan to get them to stop and stay with the kids so we can run to the store or doing something without having to always bring the kids along..It must be nice to not have to be a parent all the time and just pick and choose when you get to do it, because we don’t get that luxury..I am mommy 100% of the time no matter what, I am here if the school calls, if she falls and scrapes her knee, wants a snack, needs her clothes washed, wants to go swimming, needs to take a bath, going to grandmas for the weekend, its me I am always mommy, no one will ever be  able to say I wasn’ t there for my daughter.. Isn’t it amazing how we sometime feel we have to ask our husbands permission to leave the house alone without having to take the kids or convincing our husbands to take the kids with them every so often..I mean my husband never has to ask me to keep Taylor while he goes fishing, golfing, etc..he never has to say to me “why don’t you let her ride with you to go to the store, or where ever I am going.    I know this ins’t true for all dads, because I know some pretty amazing daddy’s out there and so I love to see a man who gets that being a parent doesn’t just mean providing sperm, or bringing home a paycheck to pay bills, being a parent is an all the time, round the clock job, so god bless those men who do get what parenting is really all about.

So, now with all that said I hope to enjoy a peaceful, relaxing weekend and hopefully hang out at the pool with some Strawberry Margaritas and later sit by the firepit..Oh, I can feel the relaxation beginning already !!

Ok, so my website was down after I tried to install some program, & blam it was gone just like that..So, worked on correcting that, and as you can see its back up and running..and then yesterday my pool overflowed from all the rain the night before, so I ended up having to go vacuum the pool when it was the hottest point of the day and then guess what? My A/C went out at my house.Yes, I said my A/C went out and I live where it is 90 something degrees every day and inside the house it feel even hotter than being outside when there is no air.

So, today I am wondering is there someone out there who isn’t happy with me that is making me have all the bad luck this week..Also, I got my family all reunited using Facebook from all over and guess what, they ended up having a family reunion a week ago in NY and my car had something wrong with it and so I couldn’t go..Sucks right, I mean its like one bad thing after another..obviously I need to read the Secret again so I can get the good time flowing again..

So, that is my vent hope you don’t mind..please feel free to add your own vents when you comments..

Today I had to attend traffic court, some woman pulled a u-turn in front of me as I was driving down my street and boom, bang.. she was at fault but I didn’t have my insurance card with me, therefore I had to attend traffic court.  Thank goodness all I had to do was prove I had insurance at the time and case dismissed.

I was so stressed over having to go to court but in the end it all went smoothly and I was the 3rd person called so I was in and out within and hour and a half.  After court I took Taylor out to eat and she played with a little boy for an hour or longer, while his mom and I chatted it up. 

Sometimes we meet people along the way that either help us or allow us to help others.  She was a single mom in her early 30’s with a son and wanted some guidance on relationships, kids and following your dreams and it isn’t often that someone approaches me for guidance but we talked for a couple hours and I hope I offered her some guidance and it also helps me to look at myself and my family.  We discussed marriage and commitment and being able to give of yourself , we talked about our kids the sacrifices we make for them to have a better future.  The type of role models we want our children to have and being able to love step-children when you are in a relationship with someone from a previous marriage or relationships.  We just talked about every thing we could and we discussed how she has relationship fears of not wanting to end up like her parents who have been together for 45 yrs and now her father is going outside his marriage and the pain her mother is going through, the anger her father omits on the family and the stress it has on everyone.

It was just good to talk to another mom, another woman not like myself with a different back ground but really we are all alike as we all struggle in life with parenting issues, relationship concerns, family problems and trying to find our career path.  Why we met and shared so much I am not sure what brought us together but we shared more with one another than we probably had shared with other people in our regular daily lives. 

So, in our meeting she shared with me some of her struggles and concerns and I shared some advice and I hope offered her something she can work with, of course I am no relationship or parenting expert but I have over come alot through the years and learned how to stay committed and how to work through my struggles and learn to pray and stay strong in my beliefs and to know we can over come any challenges we face in life and come out stronger and a better person for the struggles we face in life. 

So, a chance encounter with Camerons mommy..it was great to meet you where ever you are and I wish you the best in life..!! So, that was Tuesday, my Wednesday will be back to trying to get my swimming pool back up in running as all the rain has turned it green over night..have to get that corrected ASAP!!  Til next post !!