We Have Sound

I have the DVD player figured out in the truck. The sound can feed through a designated radio frequency. Easy enough! hahaha....

Now let's see about getting 20mpg.

My Strawberry Shortcake is Turning 3!

Are you a good steward?

To your finances, that is.

In full, "Are you a good steward to your finances"?

Has everybody read the 'Extreme Makeover' house faces foreclosure? Well, I read the small article tonight on Yahoo!TV and.... I'm pretty much disappointed. I don't know the reason these people ended up getting a house from Extreme Makeover:Home Edition, so maybe I'm talking before getting all the facts. But from the story, I get that they received the house and then borrowed against it, $450,000, to start a construction company and then went into foreclosure. And it just REALLY BUGS me that the article reads, "the latest victim of the foreclosure crisis".

Victim? Are you kidding me?? A victim of bankruptcy?? After you have been blessed with a house that is paid off?? I don't really have the words here but, maybe they are not responsible with their finances. It really just blows my mind.

The article also reads that Beazer Homes (the company that built their house) and its employees raised $250,000 additional for the "family, including scholarships for the couple's three children and a home maintenance fund".

I rarely watch this show, but when I do, it literally makes me cry. I just see what the network makes of these families, how hard they have it. And of course I never see the follow up story of how the family is doing after receiving this huge blessing. And then I see this today and I'm just so disappointed.

We actually had this sermon in church on Sunday. And I actually could never explain this well, or I'd be a pastor, but it was about the 3 ways you are in poverty.
1. Poverty by birth.
2. Poverty due to chastisement.
3. Poverty by choice.

What situation are these people from, 1, 2, or 3? I'm not judging, but maybe what these people needed was some help in managing finances and living within their means. A mortgage on a $450K home has to be around $3500+(-)/month. Can you imagine how much money you would need to make to live if that house payment were covered?

I don't want to keep rambling. And this should be a TFT, but, I'm not good at posting those. Does this bother anybody else, that this happened? That this country is actually calling going into foreclosure, being a victim of?

My bottom line is that I am more than willing to give to those less fortunate. Being a giver and blessing others is what we need to do in life. But, there is a line that we need to draw and making sure that people are good stewards to their finances.

Hello Moto

Everything we were looking for, except the new-car smell. Bummer. It's a used '07, but I think it was purchased in '06 so I'm pretty sure it's more like 2 years old.
This Yukon is 8 passenger and has a nice sized DVD player. However, it must be after-market because I don't think I can feed the sound through the speakers. My CD player doesn't say DVD, I don't think. I actually have to put the DVD into the console on the ceiling. Which means, how in the world am I going to get a 15 month old child to wear the headsets? Yeah, I don't know yet. I think I can feed an audio cable over to my radio controls until he's a big boy. That's my best answer.
I'm giving the tan leather a whirl. I can see that it's obviously going to be harder to keep clean! Grr.... I've had to do some scrubbing on the carpets even after they shampooed them. But hey, at least I didn't pay sticker, right? haha... kidding.
And back to black paint. I know already that I'm going to miss the white. I swear, I only washed it once a quarter:)
Oh, these pictures are mostly for my husband who is out of town. Thanks for the green-light, babe! Love you!

Spiders and Snakes, Oh My!

So, last night, again (some of you may remember this type of post after I moved to NC) there was a huge spider in our porch. He/she must have spun its web in a matter of a few hours because when I was outside earlier, it wasn't there yet. People, I should have taken a picture. This wasn't a simple, symmetrical web. It was a wall of web. It looked OLD. It was a comgloberation. And it was catching tons of bugs. YUCK! And the spider in this web, well, it doesn't surprise me that in a few quick hours it put up this Spider Restaurant. It was big. I also have arachnophobia, so, I know there are larger spiders out there, but this one is big enough for me.

This morning, I look out on the porch for B-I-G, and, HE'S GONE! WEB AND ALL. I kid you not! The whole darn web is GONE! How in the..... You tell me. Have you guys seen this done before? No wind, no rain. This is going to sound stupid, but, do spiders suck their webbing back up? DON'T LAUGH! I just don't know!!

So, the beauty of being able to see the spider in its web is that you know it's not in your HOME. Now, I have no freaking idea where the spider is, which is not COOL.

But, if you haven't heard enough of my whining about the wildlife of NC, HEAR THIS ONE!

We have a tiny backyard. It's a condo. And in the back yard there are a few bushes which are watered by a sprinkler system. The hosing is not buried by dirt, but by pinestraw. Well, we are missing a little pinestraw so the hose is showing. And as I'm looking out the window today, I'm noticing that the hosing is a little bigger and out of place. Yeah, you got it. SNAKE!! Freaking snake, PEOPLE! This snake is probably pushing 5' long and 2 inches thick, black. The only reason I say "pushing" is because I don't want to exaggerate. I'm yelling for Naydine to come look at it. Her and Dane are looking out the window, Dane is laughing. Brat. Naydine is like, "It'll bite me and I will die?". Haha! Yeah, I think I might have said something like that. Why would I do that to my child? I don't know.... I'm stupid.
It slithered off underneath the fence shortly after. But, still. I'm a freak. I don't mind looking out the window at these things. But, Dane likes to venture into the back yard. I tend to fire up the BBQ, which the gas tank is empty right now, so, no need to be BBQing.

The moral of this story is, did the snake eat the spider?

*Sigh* The drama that happens when Eli is out of town.

Books, books, books

Tonight I'm online trying to get an order together of books for Naydine. I really want to get her some daily devotionals or a different children's Bible. The one we have is good/cute, but, I'm getting sick of it. And I love Jonah and the Big Fish, but I think it's time to tell a little more about the story. Maybe Naydine doesn't need something new, but I do.
I wanted to maybe buy a series of books, something age appropriate for 3. Any suggestions out there?? What's everybody reading to their kids??

We had 2 people come through the house today. Both in the market to make an actual purchase. So, that's great! I'd love to see an offer on the table. Which led me to start looking at a rental house for us. And when I found 1 house in this area, that we live right now, it got me thinking we need to buy a rental property. Wait, we need to buy a more inexpensive home and then just rent it out after we finish building. Aaaaaahhh..... just kidding. I mean, I think it's a good idea but, I just don't know that I'm down for it right now. They definitely seem to be in high demand.

I also want to welcome my friend Jessica to the blog world!!! Jessica's kids are the same age as mine. Naydine and G went to school together last year. Go show her some love!:)

Big Catch

Anybody who lives in the area of Jessica, you need to hire her. She's just SO talented! I took these pictures of Landen, but Jess made this announcement. So cute! Perfect for Amy and Josh. They are outdoorsmen/women. Thought I'd share!

A few family pics

I have a ton to do today, we just got back home last night! But Jessica has taken our family pictures this year and these are a few that she has ready to view. She knows my patience level, so, she got a few ready asap. Thanks Jess! haha....

She did a great job! You can see a few different shots at her blog as well.