Friday - Gavin and I treated ourselves to a yummy meal at IHOP. We had a coupon for buy one get one free on our meals, it is saved us like $8! Awesome! Harper did spit up a couple of times on me during the meal, but whatever! Haha, we then went home and just relaxed altogether. Harper finally fell asleep and Gavin and I watched a movie, but I can't remember what now. I was tired, so I finally went to sleep.
Saturday - We all woke up early and hung out for a little while. Harper is so happy in the mornings to see us it just brightens my day! She's definitely a morning person like her daddy. Me, not so much. I got cleaned up and Gavin showered, then loaded up my car for my crop. I made it to a crop later than I wanted, but family happens if you know what I mean. I stayed at the crop for a few hours until 3:30, then I left to go to my niece's party. Avery turned 11, and I made her an altered frame to put pictures of her and her friends in. When her and her friends were freaking out over who the gift was from they tore the Prima flower I had on there, :( and didn't read the card I made. Oh well. So I'm doing the homemade gift thing this year with the family (birthdays and holidays), but I'm starting to realize that some don't really care about homemade cards or gifts unless they are crafty themselves (and understand how much time, thought and effort goes into a homemade gift). No thank yous or anything (granted she's a kid). Meep. I still take pride and joy in making these homemade things, but I think I will be more selective as to who I spend countless hours on. So.. no children, pretty much. It's getting to the time of the of the year when the focus is on the presents not on the actual story of Christmas too. It's so hard to buy for kids who have everything, like what do you get for them, especially when they are at a very selective age when they are picky about what kind of brands they wear, things they own, etc. Ugh. I give up!
I'm off my soapbox now...after the party Gavin and I went home; we finished setting up the Christmas tree, made some noodles for dinner, and we laid Harper down. I'm pretty sure we watched the Secret Life of Bees, and that was a good movie. I really enjoyed it. It will be interesting to see Dakota Fanning all grown up in New Moon soon. That comes out this Friday, but Gavin and I won't be checking it out till after next payday. That will be our date night I think.
Sunday - We woke up early for church but we were running late as we headed out the door. I'm so glad that we came to church this Sunday because they talked about a prophecy that Jesus made to some of his disciples when they came upon the Great temple in Jerusalem. It was more of a revelation. The walls will fall, there will be famine there will be natural disasters but this is not the 2nd coming but rather the birth pangs of the beginning. I feel like this applies to our lives right now. Gavin and I are in need of help like so many out there, so we continue to pray, and little things here and there come our way to help us out. Thank God for our loved ones, and we have each other and that's all that matters in this world. We have debt, we have obligations that we can't always meet, but no matter. No worry. We have each other, and there are going to be natural disasters. There will be man-made disasters like the crash of the stock market. The collapse of the economy and we are not the only ones affected. In the last 2 years Gavin and I have taken a $20,000 pay cut, and that is not an exaggeration. This happened right as we got into our house, and although at first it didn't seem like a huge toll or hurdle, as of late we have realized just how much we really have been affected.
We have had a rough and tough past few months. We are barely paying for daycare and this coming week I'm going to have to tell them I can't pay because I don't have enough in the bank to cover the check. I have just enough for gas this week for Gavin and me. We could pay a portion and hopefully they will understand, and we can pay the rest when Gavin gets paid on 11/27. We bought groceries Sunday night but we had to budget all the way down to some coupons that we had, and we spent $30 more than we could afford because Harper needed more diapers for home and school. Gavin and I realize that I need a better paying job, but there are SO FEW secretarial jobs that pay more than $26,000 a year, that have decent benefits and a school discount. I'm about giving up on school so that I can just focus on my family. We won't be able to afford even 1 class next semester let alone the two that I have to take so I don't have to continue paying back my student loans, which we are doing right now.
We are about to take out a very large loan at the bank to consolidate our credit debt and pay it off within the next 5 years, and we will see how that goes. I'm just going to pray. I'm going to put it in God's hands. We pay the bills that absolutely must be paid, electricity, water, mortgage, car, insurance, daycare and everything else can just wait till we have enough. We need money for groceries and gas just to survive, and we've maxed out our credit cards because we are in such a bind these last few months to pay for groceries, gas, and everything. Ugh. Money sucks and money is much of the evil in this world.
I know Harper is just a little baby, but I want to teach her the ways of Jesus and God. How to be good person, make good choices, etc. I want to teach her the meaning of Christmas. Not what will Santa bring... that's just a perk of the holiday season.
Okay I could go on but I won't.
Sunday evening ended wonderfully with a beautiful, funny movie: Disney's UP, and a nice dinner of mashed potatoes, corn bread and buttered corn. Yum.
It was my 3rd time to make potatoes and they turned out great! I finally figured it out! Yay! I love my standing mixer that Pam got me two years ago. It is the best at whipping the potatoes!!!
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