Enjoyed Every Minute

Pictures from our trip to Marbles Museum

I don't even know where to start my mind is such a jumbled mess!! Nothing is done around here. My tree and decorations are still up. Laundry is piling up. Some Christmas food is still in the fridge and what isn't...then I have eaten. Bills are not paid . I haven't called my friends and family that I wanted to over the holidays and this is really bothering me. I am behind on commenting on face book, blogs and emails. My house is not clean. I have Not made one single list in Three Days...yes, I am telling the truth. I still haven't made my 2010 Calendars or photo books. I am behind, behind.

But..........I have had a wonderful, awesome time with my Grandson Bryson for the past three days. I have Loved every minute of it...so all the I haven'ts are so worth it!! I have taken two ....naps this week (something I never do) snuggled up against a three year old is heaven!!! We have played with Lincoln Logs, Cars, Read Books and Talked and Talked. We went out to eat, to Target and to the Marbles Museum. All the things that I have done with Bryson more than make up for the things I haven't done. Tomorrow I do have to get some things done!!

How Many Men Does It Take?

to get a dime out of the garbage disposal :

The Cleaners Fired Me

It all started a week ago when I brought Gerald's shirts home from the cleaners. I Don't Iron....Until I retire and then I will. They were wrinkled in places. Not a real big deal but with the price I am paying I want perfection. So I called my cleaners and he said to bring them in and he would fix them..........Are you kidding me............I am not bring 20 shirts back in....I will bring one. So, I go up there today and he says "Oh Oh are they (who is they) crazy, Oh oh this it not right". I agreed with him and showed him how much I paid and he just looked at me. I was picking up more shirts so I told him I didn't think I should have to pay for them and he nicely said ok. When I proceed to give him more shirts he said " NO No you take somewhere else, I can't please you".

I really didn't want to find a new cleaners.

Company's Gone and Everything is Falling Apart

I guess you could say it all started with my car....the Dodge. It was paid for, I liked it and I really wanted to keep it forever...well only because of no car payment and I wanted to retire. But when thing started to go wrong, I started to get new car fever..some examples where ...the time it (the Dodge) wouldn't let Angela out of it and at the same time ice started spitting out of the air vents. Then there was the time, it wouldn't let me out, the windows started working slow and then the straw that broke the camels back "no air". I have to have air. Some say I wore Gerald down but the Truth of the matter was I had dropped the new car idea and he mentioned it to me one day and off we went to get a new car. I love my Honda CRV...haven't had a chance to drive it a lot and haven't read the manual yet but I love it.
Things were going well. My Aunt Alta and cousin Nick from CA came and stayed with us...pretty much everything was in working order. We had a wonderful time!!
Then (not sure when this happened) I learned that Gerald needed to take his Ford truck in because of the air conditioner and windows before the warranty ran out. This was scheduled today..July 13th.
Oh, I forgot .....my computer broke and while Gerald was fixing it with his.......his developed the same problem. Then he fixed mine but his still isn't fixed because of all the other problems we started to have.
My washing machine stopped in the middle of the rinse cycle...so Gerald fixed it...just a little filter clogged problem which happens when you are on well water.
Everything was good....I had my new car, my computer was working and I could do laundry.
Then..............I flushed the toilet!!!!!! Oh NO!!
Well problems!! Gerald worked on it all day Sunday.....except when we took his car to Ford...he is still working on it.....OH but NOT NOW...it's pouring down RAIN...any way he needs to tell the rest of the story....but he's still working on it off and on when the rain slacks off...and I don't think this is a good time to ask him to because when he went to start the Dodge to go get parts at Lowes (because they wouldn't let him in yesterday) the battery was dead...thank goodness we bought a new car ...

Gayle Clawson Woods at 11:49am July 13
Water is On!!! Yea! He's off to work...now just needs to get his computer fixed, his truck fixed and the Dodge fixed so I can have my car back and life will be good until something else breaks..I hope it's the dishwasher

Financial Advice

I was just going to email this to my girls but I thought maybe others might be interested. Most of it we already know but are we doing what we know we should be doing. The number ONE thing we should be doing is paying off all credit cards and not charging anymore. We should know our FICO score (under 700 is low). Do not close out your credit cards because for some reason that I don't understand this makes your FICO score lower. Make sure you pay ALL your bills on time, being late also lowers your score. SAVE MONEY From what I understand we should all have an 8 month emergency fund. If you don't have this emergency fund, you should go over your expenses and separate the needs from the wants. Circle all the wants and if you have debt or no savings then you should eliminate the wants (at least until you have your savings built up). I am thinking that that part will be hard. If you are not getting ready to retire then you should keep investing in a 401k or IRA. Again eliminate the wants until you have 8 months of savings-
enough to cover 8 months worth of living expenses. After you get your credit cards paid off, thankfully ours are, then you should begin to save. Decide how much you can save each month and then add 20%. Put this money in the highest interest rate savings account. Money that you are going to need in 5 years does not belong in the stock market so take it out. Other wise keep it in. So let's all start saving!! That's my advice.

Up Dates

Just wanted to let everyone know what will be happening this month.

Greg is scheduled to have his gall bladder removed on Thursday the 15th. This is an outpatient procedure but he is probably spending the night.

Gerald will have the skin graft on his nose Friday the 16th.

My Uncle Delbert in CA is having knee surgery on January 13th

Looks like a busy week.

Please keep them all in your prayers.

Odds and Ends

OK -so this post will be about odds and ends. Angela and Emily can tell you all about that-----I send them emails with odds and ends all the time. Yes, basically that means I will be rambling. First of all for all of you who do not use sun screen and do not put it on your kids----please please do. According to my research----a tan is sun damage. I know we all love a tan BUT Gerald has skin cancer again. Thanks to Kendrick for cutting our grass! We really appreciate it! I had a good visit with Angela. I don't get to talk or see her much because she is always so busy with school work, especially now that she is getting her masters in English. Greg is doing great! I am waiting for the surgeon to call me with the date for his gall bladder to be removed. Hopefully after Christmas. Emily will soon be busier than ever at work----with her promotion and now they are going to have business cards made for her and she will not be the only one handing them out. I DO NOT know how she does it------she has to be at work everyday at 7:30 am, that's after she takes Bryson to the sitter. We will be spending Thanksgiving at Gerald sister Sheila's house again this year. We have done this for the past 15 or so years. There are usually around 25 people there and sometimes the Apex Fire Department. We all bring several dishes each,and believe it our not there are plenty of left overs for everyone. All the family are so grateful to be able to do this. Christmas is the same as Thanksgiving except we all have our separate get togethers before Christmas Day. OK and now to comments--I love them and it's easy if you just do it anoymously
(at the bottom). I must say I need to make some comments on a few blogs my self. I have been reading my cousin Vickie's son Zach wife's (Katie) and love it but haven't made a comment yet. A few have asked me how (yes, that is the truth)so this is how---first click on comment under the post that you want to leave a post on,then leave a comment, after that go down to the bottom and the easiest way is to just hit anonymous(sign your name on the comment though) and hit publish---that's all there is to it. Did you think--she hasn't mentioned her grandson Bryson? I didn't forget----he has had a busted ear drum (that no one could tell) and a cold that he is getting over. He is talking more and more every day. He is extremely polite for 2----he says please and thank you.
Yes, Gerald is working on the house. When you do something by yourself it takes forever. We have the kitchen and dining room to do and then the down is finished. I am not going to say what we are going to do next because he might read this. Gerald is such a wonderful man that he isn't even mad that no one is helping him especially after all he does for others via the phone or in person. He drops what he is doing to help.
Thanks all for now.