Beauty Shop

I broke down and got the girls' hair braided... I have been working so much that we only wake up in time for me to take a shower, get dressed and go... They spend the week days at Grandma Leslie's house and the weekend with Daddy. On my first official day off, I tried to comb their hair, and it was full of knots!!! To make it easier on everyone, I decided to go with this easy hair do. Now, I don't have to stress about the knots. Soon I won't be working so much, so I will have time to sit down and mess with their hair... In the meantime, they will have these cute braids. Before taking them to get their hair done, I washed & conditioned their hair (they charge $17 for that). Then, I slowly combed out the knots with detangler. When we got there, the beautician only had to do the braids.

Money Saving Tip #18~ Homemade Dinners

Most of us realize the big cost of food, especially for families of 4 people or more. One important thing to saving money on food for families is to avoid eating out. If you have ever taken your family of 4+ out to eat, you know what I am talking about. Earlier, I told you have you can eat out for free. On the days when you can not eat out for free, making dinners from scratch is the key to saving money.
These meals will require some planning, but the time it takes to plan is worth what you save. Make sure that when you are buying the ingredients for the recipes, you buy when they are on sale. We stock up on meats & freeze them until we need them for a recipe. Now, to find these cool recipes for $5 and under meals, here is the link:
http://www.5dollardinners.com/recipe-index

Enjoy!

Wearing down

I am quickly wearing down. I used to enjoy the challenge & the excitement of the photography/hospital job... BUT, after working every day (8 to 13 hours per day), I am tired of it. Since it is a sales position, I have to put on a happy face, be chipper, and friendly... All I want to do is close my eyes and go to sleep! I have to drag myself into each room, which of course is not good for sales...
I have been training some new people, but of the 3 of them, I don't know if any of them will be able to hold onto the job. These are my trainees:

1. Trainee number one worked for the company before. She did the house to house sales of the pictures. She said that she made approx. $1000 a week doing this. When asked why she isn't doing it any more, she said: "Well, I worked on my own going house to house all week. I had to show up every Wednesday to turn in my paperwork and sales. I was fired because I was late to work every Wednesday." (The only day she had to show up, and she was late every time?!?!?)

2. Trainee number two appears to be under-age, but she says that her oldest child is 8 Years old. She has been over an hour late to work every day, and when she gets here, she is ready for lunch. She doesn't pay attention to the training, she just talks about how she stayed out late the night before and the new items she has bought (cell phone, clothes, whatever). She, also, smokes and doesn't do well between cigarette breaks... So she is angry most of the time.

3. Trainee number 3 is always early to work and eager to learn. She would make a great employee, except... She may have TB??? (She told me this after I spent the whole week with her). Both of her TB tests came back positive, so she has to get an exray of her chest on Monday to see if she in contagious... In the meantime, she is still expected to work (I find this very strange, if not illegal). If it comes back showing she is contagious, it could be a law suit against the company I am thinking... For any of the babies and others she exposed to TB.

So, now you see why I am not so optomistic about the new employees. Who hired these people anyway?

Looking forward

Did I mention that I will have a new job shortly? I am looking forward to it. I was given the job offer on Tuesday. Now, I am going through all of the new hire stuff while, also, working 7 days a week at the hospital job.
The new job is a contract merchandising position for Disney. It comes with perks for those employees that produce. Maybe I can get some cool DVD's for the girls :0)
I will be merchandising their DVD's, as well as some of Sony's DVD's in 10 stores in my area. Travel time, mileage, and work time is compensated. I am not sure when I will start because the new hire process is a lengthy one. Tomorrow I get to do the drug screen, and over the weekend, I will fill out all of the paperwork. Hopefully, I will be able to start next week... Now, if I can just get some people trained at the hospital, so I can have some days off... so I can work at the new job!!
Thank you for your prayers, as it was a week of waiting to find out if I would even be offered the position!!

Totally Free~ Money Saving Tip #17

Totally free MP3 downloads!! There are several totally free MP3 downlaods that can be found at Amazon.com. They can be hard to find at times, and the freebies change... So, you have to check back often. Right now, the album above is free- Songs for kids:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001ZGB2M8

July 2006~ a month before Jaden turned 2

July 2007~ 2 years ago

Awwwww.... my little babies.

July 2008~ only one year ago...

Wow! Where does the time go?!?!?!

A book to read

This is an eye-opening book. This is a great book for anyone who wants to learn how modern day slavery begins. This book is written by a woman who was enslaved at the age of 11. It is interesting to hear the story of her life in the Nuba mountains in Sudan as a young child.
I found this book hard to put down. Some of the biggest questions in my mind as I read through this books were:
1. what makes you (the person who bought the slave) feel like you are worth more than the person you have enslaved?
2. who decides who becomes a slave and who becomes the master?
I was so angry to read how this young woman was treated. To know that slavery was abolished years ago is what everyone hangs on... like it doesn't exist now that it was put into law that it is illegal. It is still going on all around us, but it's just, for the most part, underground.
http://www.amazon.com/Slave-True-Story-Mende-Nazer/dp/1586483188/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1247706598&sr=8-3#

Sooooo tired

I am wearing myself out. I am working EVERY day of the week right now. I am so blessed to have a mother that is willing to watch my girls while I put in these hours!!! I am ready for the break in the work, but I have to take advantage of the extra work while I can... Change is coming... Hold on :0)

Another way to do school work

Crayola has some new colored pencils. There are 64 colors in a box! They are smaller than the original colored pencils, but they are perfect for little hands. The girls did their latest Africa assignments with these colored pencils. Amazon has them for $13: http://www.amazon.com/Crayola-Colored-Pencils-Choice-Colors/dp/B00125NZWC/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=toys-and-games&qid=1247450117&sr=8-3 You will never believe how much I bought them for, though... $1!!!! The whole box was $1 at Office Depot! Talk about a great deal!

Dress up

The girls have been playing dress up a lot. Some times they come up with some silly outfits- other times they look down right gorgeous!

Anti-social

I feel so run-down & anti-social right now. I went to an interview on Monday for a new job. I am praying hard that I get it. I can't do this photography job much longer. I have been working every day, and when I get my pay check, there is hardly anything to show for it. The job was supposed to be a great commissioned job, but now, with the economy, not so much. It is hard to get people to buy pictures now. Almost everyone is saying they can't even afford our smallest package of $29.95, which incidentally, I would get a commission of $7 for!!! Now, since everyone in the district's sales our down, all of our checks are down. If the hourly rate is higher than the commissioned rate, it reverts to hourly... The hourly rate is the minimum wage for the state!!!

Because of all of this, I am not feeling my best. I am worn down & broke. Looking for a better part-time job to have more time with my kids and more money to pay the bills.

For those of you who missed the fireworks:

These are only videos of fireworks, so don't expect to see anything else :0) Our tiny city put on quite a fireworks show. Though, you can here Morgan in the background of some of the videos asking "can we go home now?" She wasn't sure about the loud "BOOM!" that went off every time.

The videos - 4th of July

These are the videos of the things we did at home before going to see the fireworks.

Enjoying the Fireworks- July 4th

Sitting on a blanket in the grass watching the fireworks
Morgan got scared of the loud noises and stayed in my lap for the rest of the show- she kept asking if we could go home yet.
Jaden loved sitting on the trunk of the car.










There are always so many options for watching fireworks around the 4th of July. This year, we had several close to home (which is very unusual for us since we live so far from the big city). We decided to stay close to home so that it wouldn't mess up the girls' bedtime, and because I would need to go to bed at a reasonable time, too (because I had to work the next day). It turned out to be quite a big fireworks show. It lasted about 25 minutes, and it was beautiful!

July 4th Celebration

These next few posts are all posts from the 4th or July, so you will notice that the girls look the same in all of the following posts (all from the same day)

Before heading off to watch the fireworks show, I took the girls to the back patio. I even convinced Daddy to join us. We did these small "fireworks", and the girls had a blast! We will probably make this a tradition. I love watching them enjoy themselves!

I guess I will be seeing more babies...

at the hospital. Don't more women go into labor on a full moon, or is that just a myth?

The meaning of "no"

This is just a run of the mill story that every mother can relate to. What happens when you tell your kids not to do something? Some times they do what you tell them, and other times they do exactly what you told them not to do.
I had a gift wrap cutter that Morgan got a hold of. The blade was hidden between two pieces of plastic, and very unlikely to hurt her. However, I told her not to play with it because it would hurt her. I went on to say that it has a blade that will cut her, and we would have to take her to the hospital. I put the cutter up out of reach.
A few days later, while talking to my mom on the phone in another room, I was frightened by her running into the room. Her hand (actually both hands) were covered in blood. I grabbed a paper towel, and everything else I could find to help me with her bleeding hands. It turns out, the blood was from one finger. I had to hold the cut closed for 30 minutes, and even then, it was still bleeding!
I asked her to show me how she cut her finger. She took me to the gift wrap cutter laying in the ground. Somehow, she had found a way to get the BLADE out of the cutter and sliced her finger! Good grief! I picked up the cutter and blade and trashed it all. Nothing is worth all that! I will just use scissors to cut the gift wrap!
I used a butterfly strip to keep the wound closed. It seems to be healing now.

Make school work more fun by changing the medium!

Miniature watercolor paint set ($.50) is perfect for little hands. Plus, since they tend to mix colors, it lasts just the right amount of time. They have done 10 pages each, and there is still paint left!

Morgan's picture above

Jaden's picture of me in the swimming pool (above) & the school work that she did for when we went to pick berries (below)

Study of African homes, Morgan's picture (above) & Jaden's picture (below)

I got these watercolors out when the girls started to get bored with the colored pencils. I am going to change up mediums every few weeks to keep them excited about doing their pages. They really enjoyed the paints!