Friday, May 6, 2011
Mother's Day 2011
This is my Mother's Day gift! I have been wanting one of these for a year now. And my awesome guys got it for me. Well, I ordered it and told them it was my gift. LOL Plus I got a new sewing machine. I plan on making all kinds of crafts with it. I am going to start out by making some teacher's gifts for the end of the year gift. I am gonna print their names out on coasters and a coffee mug. How does that sound? A personalized coaster and mug set? Would you want that if you were a teacher? Anyway, if you would like to read more about the silhouette, go here. Now, I'm off to get my craft on! 
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Things I've learned over the past 7 weeks.
Some of the things I've learned are:
*If you and your husband are both laid off from work, its a guarantee that your kids WILL grow 2 inches and gain 10 pounds. Therefore making you spend money you don't have on new clothes.
*The cheapo laundry softening crystals are awesome. Really, they are. Try the new purex softening crystals in the purple bottle. They only cost $4 and the smell stays with your clothes for days.
*Couponing is really time consuming. But I guess if you don't have a job, you have the time for it. LOL
*My oldest got his first job. Did you know that working 4 hours a day at McDonalds makes you too tired to take out the trash? Yeah, I didn't fall for it either.
*I have the best family and friends in the world. They really are caring and generous even when you don't /want/ them to be.
*And most importantly, I've learned that my family can live on wayyyy less than I thought it could. And since my hubs is now back to work, we will have an emergency fund started by this time next week!!
My hubs was working 80 miles (one way) away from home. The price of gas was killing us. Not to mention how tiring it was on him to drive that far and then work 10-12 hours a day. So he went job hunting closer to home. Luckily, he found one about 5 minutes from our house. He got hired to be the night shift manager. The company didn't have a night shift at the time (end of FEB) but they were starting one the first part of March. Which was excellent timing (so we thought). He put in his 2 week notice with his job. Which would have meant we wouldn't be without a paycheck. Well...... At the end of his 2 weeks, he finds out that permits weren't in for the job he was supposed to start. So he called his other job and told them he could work 2 more weeks. They said that was great and to come back to work on Monday (this was on a Thursday). So on Friday he called his job to see which job site he was supposed to show up at. They told him they didn't really have anywhere to put him so he could just go ahead and sign up for unemployment benefits. So, he does just that. Well, we get a letter saying he quit his job voluntarily so he wasn't eligible for benefits. UGH! But then I was talking to a friend of mine that works for the Unemployment office and he tells us that if they told him to come back to work and then didn't have work for him (AND TOLD HIM TO SIGN UP) then he would be eligible. So hubs had to contest the claim or something like that. My wording might be off here. lol.
Anyway, since the government is all about promptness *sarcasm* we have waited and waited on the phone conference from them to let us know if he is being awarded his UE insurance benefits or not. We finally got a letter saying it will be next Monday when they call. So please keep your fingers crossed that he will get it. He has since started his new job. He loves it. And we love him being 5 minutes from home. We get to see him so much more than when he drove the 2 hour commute (one way!) every day! If they award him his UEI, he will get the money he would have gotten from the time he signed up for it until the day he started his new job. Let me just tell you, WE NEED THAT MONEY! We have been living on so little money. We've only paid the bills we had to pay. I think I'm probably one payment away from my car being re-poed. :( But he will be getting his first pay check on Thursday, so I will take care of that!
You know, my husband has worked for years and years and paid for his unemployment insurance. So I feel like he should get it. It was circumstances beyond him that kept the new job from being ready on the day he should have been able to start it. Please just say a little prayer that it will work out in our favor next Monday. We really really need it to.
*If you and your husband are both laid off from work, its a guarantee that your kids WILL grow 2 inches and gain 10 pounds. Therefore making you spend money you don't have on new clothes.
*The cheapo laundry softening crystals are awesome. Really, they are. Try the new purex softening crystals in the purple bottle. They only cost $4 and the smell stays with your clothes for days.
*Couponing is really time consuming. But I guess if you don't have a job, you have the time for it. LOL
*My oldest got his first job. Did you know that working 4 hours a day at McDonalds makes you too tired to take out the trash? Yeah, I didn't fall for it either.
*I have the best family and friends in the world. They really are caring and generous even when you don't /want/ them to be.
*And most importantly, I've learned that my family can live on wayyyy less than I thought it could. And since my hubs is now back to work, we will have an emergency fund started by this time next week!!
My hubs was working 80 miles (one way) away from home. The price of gas was killing us. Not to mention how tiring it was on him to drive that far and then work 10-12 hours a day. So he went job hunting closer to home. Luckily, he found one about 5 minutes from our house. He got hired to be the night shift manager. The company didn't have a night shift at the time (end of FEB) but they were starting one the first part of March. Which was excellent timing (so we thought). He put in his 2 week notice with his job. Which would have meant we wouldn't be without a paycheck. Well...... At the end of his 2 weeks, he finds out that permits weren't in for the job he was supposed to start. So he called his other job and told them he could work 2 more weeks. They said that was great and to come back to work on Monday (this was on a Thursday). So on Friday he called his job to see which job site he was supposed to show up at. They told him they didn't really have anywhere to put him so he could just go ahead and sign up for unemployment benefits. So, he does just that. Well, we get a letter saying he quit his job voluntarily so he wasn't eligible for benefits. UGH! But then I was talking to a friend of mine that works for the Unemployment office and he tells us that if they told him to come back to work and then didn't have work for him (AND TOLD HIM TO SIGN UP) then he would be eligible. So hubs had to contest the claim or something like that. My wording might be off here. lol.
Anyway, since the government is all about promptness *sarcasm* we have waited and waited on the phone conference from them to let us know if he is being awarded his UE insurance benefits or not. We finally got a letter saying it will be next Monday when they call. So please keep your fingers crossed that he will get it. He has since started his new job. He loves it. And we love him being 5 minutes from home. We get to see him so much more than when he drove the 2 hour commute (one way!) every day! If they award him his UEI, he will get the money he would have gotten from the time he signed up for it until the day he started his new job. Let me just tell you, WE NEED THAT MONEY! We have been living on so little money. We've only paid the bills we had to pay. I think I'm probably one payment away from my car being re-poed. :( But he will be getting his first pay check on Thursday, so I will take care of that!
You know, my husband has worked for years and years and paid for his unemployment insurance. So I feel like he should get it. It was circumstances beyond him that kept the new job from being ready on the day he should have been able to start it. Please just say a little prayer that it will work out in our favor next Monday. We really really need it to.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Things I Love
As you can tell from the pics I've posted, I LOVE all things burlap and neutral. I wish I would have found some of these things before I spent all of my birthday money!! :)
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
The most dreaded chore ever.
Everyone has that one chore that they hate doing. For some it might be doing dishes. Or for some it might be putting away laundry (which is my 2nd most hated chore, btw). But for me the chore that I hate the very most is cleaning out the car.... Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. I have a large SUV and it is a pain to keep clean. I have 3rd row seating and I hate climbing back there to sweep it out and vaccuum it. I also have a light interior. It shows every little speck of dirt. I will totally keep that in mind with the next car I get. We are in our car a lot. We seem to always be on the road going somewhere. My MIL lives 1.5 hours away, so we go down there often. And when we do, we usually hit up the drive through. Worst.Mistake.Ever. I don't want to eat in our car, but we do. It's was just always easier to go through the drive through when our kids were little. There would always be one of the boys asleep or something to keep us from wanting to drag the kids out of their carseats and into the resturaunt to eat. We would have had to add 45 minutes to the drive to the MIL's just to do that. So it was easier to just grab something and go. And it's a bad habit that has stuck like glue with us. And when we get home from the MIL's on the weekends. Its usually late and everyone has to wake up to come in the house. So sometimes the food wrappers stay in the car. And since I don't sit in the back, I don't notice them. Until I go to clean it out.... And then I get so mad that my car is that messy.
And as I've written about here before, I'm now a SAHM. And I'm starting to get on a schedule. I am cleaning my car on Monday. We always have a mess in there from the weekend trips we take, so Monday makes the most sense. And one of the things I plan on doing is getting my car organizer (I've had it for years, just never used it) filled up and ready to use.
The organizer I have is a three compartment soft storage bag. it folds flat when not in use. I plan on filling it up with things I find myself wishing I would have thought to have in the car. In one compartment, I will put all of us a change of clothes. We are pretty spontaneous and there are time we'd like to just spend the night at MIL's house if we had extra clothes. I'll add a toiletry bag with our tooth brushes, and contact cases.
In the other compartment, I will put things I find we need in to have on hand "just in case". A box of kleenex, a small bottle of tylenol and allergy medicine, cell phone chargers, ipod chargers, extra notebooks and pens.
In the 3rd compartment, I'll keep snacks which I hope will cut down on the trips through the drive through. I'll keep bags of chips, granola bars, rolls of paper towels, and hand wipes. I'll start packing a small lunch of sandwhiches if we don't have time to eat before we go (we usually are picking the boys up from practice and leaving from there so there will probably be lots of sandwhiches.). I'll also pack water with us for drinks.
Hopefully all of this will cut down on my MOST DREADED CHORE. Maybe I'll dread it less.
What is your most dreaded chore?
Lists
Since I've been laid off work and became a SAHM, I've been trying to get my house organized. I have never been good at balancing the kids, house work, work, and school. If I have that many things on my plate then something is lacking. And in the last year and a half it's been my house. So now that I'm not working or going to school, I feel like I can finally devote my time and energy to my home. I am a Martha wannabe. I have spent the last two weeks getting a lot of things done around here that I had overlooked. For far too long, I have only surface cleaned my house. I just picked it up enough for it to look clean. And it wasn't tidy. I have way too much JUNK! I've have a paper mountain that I need to level, a mountain of laundry, and a mountain of clutter. So far, I've gotten a HUGE jump on getting it all cleaned up. I have my laundry caught up (mostly anyway). I am trying to get on a schedule that will work best for me.
I've also been 'de-crapifying' my home. I have been boxing up all the duplicate things I have. I mean really, who needs 15 spatulas? And books. Wow. I can't believe how many books we have. My family is a family of readers. We love books. I'm having a really hard time parting with any of them though. But I'm going to have to bite the bullet and dump some of them into the giveaway box. I'm thinking about trying to find a volunteer fire department that will take all my house ware that I don't need. They will know of some family that needs those types of items. I have tons of curtains and comforter sets that I can dig out to donate also.
I'm hoping to get all this done soon so I can devote time to crafting. I have several projects that I want to try. And I don't want to get started on them until I have my house organized like I want it to be. I have an idea I've been swirling in my head.... I'm thinking of starting a home based vinyl business. I would like to start an etsy shop to sell my things in. I hope to get a refund at tax time to help get the vinyl cutting machine I'll need. And if I do get a vinyl shop, I will be sure to post all about it here in my blog. :)
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Conversations @ the Nantz nest
So one evening we were at my mom's talking about the show 16 & pregnant on Mtv. The following conversation took place between my husband, my 10 year old SON, and I....
Greg: Did you know that they said girls are getting pregnant just to get on the show 16 & pregnant?
Me: I'm not surprised. It's a sad world when young girls bring a life in this world just for some fame and money.
Trevor: Mom, you don't have to worry about me getting pregnant just so I can get on tv and be famous.
Me: Honey if YOU get pregnant, I'll be willing to bet you'll be on tv all the time.
Trevor: Oh, because I'm just that cool, right?
Me: No moron, because you're a BOY!!!!
Greg: Did you know that they said girls are getting pregnant just to get on the show 16 & pregnant?
Me: I'm not surprised. It's a sad world when young girls bring a life in this world just for some fame and money.
Trevor: Mom, you don't have to worry about me getting pregnant just so I can get on tv and be famous.
Me: Honey if YOU get pregnant, I'll be willing to bet you'll be on tv all the time.
Trevor: Oh, because I'm just that cool, right?
Me: No moron, because you're a BOY!!!!
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