I am finally posting some pictures!!

These are all from Aug of last year to current. They did not stay in the order they were supposed to, so they are all mixed up.

Roman is sad, he doesn't want River to move away.

My cousin Tara and her daughter Lanie from our trip in april. I left my camera at her house and wasn't able to get it back until on our way home, so I didn't get any photos of the trip accept the ones of Tara's family which I am glad to have.

Michelle, melissa, Dale, and I

Brewster Campout: Isaiah, Andy, and Levi. The boys had a good time.

Myla and Sally at Brewster campout. They liked the hats they won in the little kid games.

Shelby, JilleeAnna, Andy, and Reuben at Thanksgiving.

Drewsie

Mellonie

Amanda and Heidi

Roman last year.

Abram, the tough guy

Samuel, the silly boy

Levi and Stormie both look a little disturbed!

Way Too Cool

My thoughts today

1. Andy got a job. He is a gas station attendant. He really worked hard to get this job. It is amazing how it has changed his attitude overnight. It is obvious that he feels more grown up.

2. Where is summer? We had one week of nice weather weeks ago, and now this. I live in the desert and today's afternoon temperature is 56. The wind is bone chilling. It's nearly mid-June, what's going on? Global cooling?? Who knows, I just want some warmer temps. I am SICK of my winter clothes.

3. Thank you, Cherrie, for a good laugh. Yes, I choked on my drink because I was laughing so hard, but it was worth it.

4. Sis Jewel makes an awesome applesauce cake. I have been enjoying it to much, which leads me to my next thought...

5. Count down to Ashley's wedding; only 11 days left. Yikes! I sooo wanted to lose a few pounds. There's always tomorrow. Maybe all the applesauce cake will be gone by then. Since I'm the only one eating it, I'm not sure how that will happen.

6. I love Redbox. For those of you who might not know, Redbox is where you rent movies for $1.00 a night. They have new releases too. It is a vending machine, they are in McDonald's, Walmart, Albertson's and various other retail stores. You may return your rental to ANY Redbox. This would work great for traveling. Redbox is ideal for tightwad entertainment.

7. I am sleepy today. The combo of Redbox last night and getting up before 5am to take Andy to work has made me one tired lady.

8. Please comment. It makes me very happy to read all your little comments, but I know, you know what I mean:)

Dinner Delima

I have been having a tough time with dinner lately. 4 o'clock rolls around and I have no idea what I am fixing for dinner. It is rather frustrating at times. I used to make a monthly menu with about 20 meals on it and try to stick to that, however I find that I make pretty much the same meals so now I can go to my old menus for ideas. 4 o'clock is not a good time to find that I need to go to the store before dinner though, even with my handy list of meals to fix. Then I came across a great suggestion in my reliable Tightwad Gazette. She said that while she is doing the dinner dishes, she checks out her pantry and plans the next evenings meal. This sounds like it will work great. The theory is that you will use up what you have instead of running to the store for last minute purchases.

Today is my first time to try it. I am making Minestrone for dinner. We wanted this last night, but because I didn't have any canned beans, I couldn't make it at the last minute without a trip to the store, which I wasn't willing to make. I also didn't want to purchase canned beans when I have a surplus of dried ones. This morning I took just a few minutes to get some beans on for the soup tonight. About 4 o'clock I will take a few more minutes to get a fresh loaf of herb bread going in the bread maker.(it takes the bread maker under an hour from start to finish!!) As I am running errands today, I will pick up a few carrots to put in the soup. Everything will be in place to easily and calmly prepare a nice dinner, and while I wash dishes, repeat the cycle so that tomorrow nights dinner is also a calm affair, and so on....