Blessed

I feel so blessed - I am blessed and I recognize that not everyone is!

I have recently joined a small fellowship group (bible study) through my church and I love it. It is exactly what I have been looking for! It is an all women's group and a mixture of ages, but such a wonderful bunch!

I am on a journey right now to learn more and gain a closer relationship with God and this group is working its magic. We are reading "The Shack" right now and have a lesson/discussion along with it. We know it's fiction and aren't necessarily taking the words to heart, but we are reflecting on it with trials and relationships in everyday life mixed with our faith and love for God. It is a thought provoking book and just an interesting read.

Last night some topics were discussed along the lines of poverty and discrimination and the like, and we reflected on our personal feelings and prejudices that the world has. Some of the stories that were told were heart wrenching and really give you a sense of appreciation for what we DO have. In addition to tangible things that most of us take for granted, like homes, clothes, food, and jobs, we also have our faith. I can't begin to understand feeling no connection to God - How lost a person is without that.

I help around the church, give to Goodwill and other organizations, try to volunteer for things and just do my part, but there is so much we can do and should do. After hearing some of these stories and testimonies of others, it makes me want to do more and I realized that even doing what I already do, it's so small in the scheme of things.

Are you doing your part?

All I Wanna Do -oo- oo- oo -oo

Is go see Sugarland in concert!!! And that's what we are gonna do on June 26! Hubby and I got tickets last week! I'm so excited! We love them and Little Hauss even sings along too - um, but he'll be staying with Mauggie that night. Not quite ready for a concert and not worth the money to deal with that!

Not frozen yet!

So, we, meaning my hubby, turned on the A/C today! Now, for most, that is a simple switch to ON, but not so much for us. It's not terrible difficult, but with having a wood stove, we (hubby) have to change out the ....oh whatever, I have no idea what he has to do, but I do know you can't just turn it ON! Either way, its cool in the house. SOOOOOOOOOO much better than the muggy heat coming in through the windows mixed with all the fans going. NOW, I know I said save on the energy, but at 90 degrees, you have to draw the line. AND even with the A/C on, we don't turn it down low...usually set around 72 or so.

So, this is a huge deal for us because towards the end of last summer, we had some issues with the A/C unit freezing up (inside). The coils were cleaned, freon added, and some very expensive part replaced, but they couldn't really figure out what was going on - it only took them 3 trips to figure that out! They told us we needed a new unit, of course. We have never called them back! We are going to get a second opinion. The guy totally contradicted himself when he was here one time and said that we needed a new unit, but then later said he really didn't know, and probably would be ok!?!?!?! What? We just figured they were trying to hose us for a new unit....news flash! I don't do hosed! So, we (hubby) turned it on and we'll just see what happens.

I even cooked dinner and got to the grocery store tonight! See what a difference a little A/C can make!

Miss Piggy

I can deal with spinach, tomatoes, hot peppers, even some peanuts, but not with my pig! I love pork - all kinds, so they better be right when they say you can't get this swine flu virus from ingesting pork products!

And the fact that I have 15 pounds of boston butt sitting in my freezer to cook up for this weekend's birthday bbq for the hubby!

Heat slump

I started this post...wrote quite a lot and then just erased it all because it was boring! I didn't even like writing it.

It's the heat. I'm spent.

I didn't even cook dinner - I made a tomato sandwich and let Little Hauss eat cold pizza (for the 2nd time today - dont' judge).

I've neglected laundry.

I didn't go to the grocery store.

I didn't wash the car.

I ate ice cream.

Maybe I'm not ready for summer. I can't even seem to function in this heat!

Freebies

So, I feel like I've turned into this crazed woman hunting down deals, coupons, and freebies, but I assure you, I haven't! I'm just on a roll and wanted to pass along a few more things!

First of all, in honor of Earth Day, Reynolds Wrap is now making foil completely of recycled aluminum! They are giving away a FREE roll TODAY ONLY!!! It's actually a rebate! But still, it ends up being FREE after you mail it in. Check it out at www.reynolds100.com and enter your info to print off the rebate form. Only one per household!

Another freebie is the reusable shopping bag from Kroger. You need to go to www.kroger.com and enter to win teh $1000 in free groceries!!! Who couldn't use that? So, in order to enter, you need to "design" a shopping bag for the contest. It doesn't take too much time and it's very simple. Once you enter that, you get a free bag!

Ok, this last one is interesting and I warn you that I've not tried it and my source was an E-mail forward, so I can't say if it is true! If it works as good as it says it will, it will be my new best friend for the next few months!

Use Listerine for bug spray? I know it sounds completely wacko, but at about $2 a bottle, it might be worth a try instead of those pricy yucky smelling bug sprays! So, the idea is to pour into a sprayer/sray bottle and douse the deck, furniture, door frames, swing sets, standing water, you name it! It did say to not spray directly on wood, like a door, but the frame instead! I'm anxious to see if it really does a good job! I'll let you know!

Pretty in Pink

I'm going to be a aunt in September! September 7th no less - Little Hauss' birthday - more on that later. And I'll have a NIECE! My brother and his girlfriend just found out yesterday that they are having a little girl! I'm so excited. They are very excited too! My parents are thrilled because now they will have one of each to spoil. My mom is on her way up here today so I'm sure they will have a boat load of new girly things by the time she goes home on Sunday!

So, dad came in yesterday for work and took us all out to dinner to celebrate the good news. Little Hauss was full of himself as usual. He loves Sherry (my brother's girlfriend) and was attached to her hip the whole time. They gave us little ultrasound pictures and even gave one to Little Hauss! They told him the baby was a little girl and that they would be cousins and that she could possibly have the same birthday! He was ok with the girl part, but cousins is kind of tricky for him right now and he was less than thrilled about the sharing a birthday!

He's having a hard time figuring out how boys and girls can be cousins. He has told me that "they can't be cousins because he's a boy and she's a girl" when we were talking about some friends of ours. He only knows his cousin, who is a boy just like him. I think that'll be easier to deal with once she's here - but this birthday sharing business is gonna be crazy!

In my family, we share lots of birthdays - I share my birthday with my cousin's daughter, but thre are so many more! So, it is very possible that this little girl will in fact share her birthday with Little Hauss! I guess we'll just have to wait and see and deal with it when it comes!

Speaking of birthdays, this year will be his first "real big boy" birthday party. I want to invite friends of his from school and church, but don't really know if I can have all those people at the house. I also don't want to spend tons of money at a place to have it....so any suggestions? He's going to be 4, and there will be about 10-12 kids invited plus parents? I obviously want something that will be fun and not too crazy for me to deal with - like Chuck - E - Cheeze. I know it seems early, but like I said, I'm a planner!