Never too Old to Learn? Will See About That

 I have joined a crochet/knitting group that meets each Monday to make blankets for Hospice. So excited!! The problem is I don't know how to do either one :) I have been assured by my friends that  crocheting and knitting is super easy to learn and not too costly to get started. My first purchase was a how to book with hooks and stuff that I have no idea whats for, a pattern book on dish cloths, and some yarn. So far so good.

 After Kara left yesterday I thought why not spend the evening getting started so I won't look like a tea total loser when we meet Monday. With the how too book propped up on a TV tray it began

 Maybe U Tube videos would be better as I wasn't getting the hang of it from the book :)

I gave up after a few hours and a chain a mile long that is just not right. I ache all over, shoulders, fingers, hands, neck, back, you name it I got a pain in it!!!

Oh what was I thinking????!!!

I don't know if I have mentioned that some weeks ago I became a Linus coordinator/drop off spot. The closest Linus drop off/charter is an hour long city drive from our home, grrrr After making contact with the coordinator to drop off my quilts she ask if I would become the contact for the area north of the city. Heck ya, I don't mind at all. Once a month I will deliver everything collected to the monthly meetings and help sew on tags to distribute quilts/blankets with a SUPER sweet, giving, fun bunch of ladies.

The very next day I received an e-mail from a lady that had blankets to drop off, COOL!! She donated the most beautiful knitted baby blankets, aww so pretty. I thanked her for her beautiful donation then of course we got talking, Ha She belongs to a knitters group that  makes blankets for Hospice. Since most of the blankets needed are for adults she likes to use up the leftover yarn for baby blankets. I have always wanted to learn to knit or crochet but just haven't taken the time to learn. She encouraged me to try "It's so easy!" (YA RIGHT)

Durn if I didn't get a call just a few days later from another lady for a drop off. She too belonged to the same Hospice group, her blankets were out of this world pretty. (I now was catching the crochet bug) She too encouraged me to join assuring me the group would teach me all I needed to know.

Hummmmm. After thinking it over the past few weeks I thought why not. The ladies I had meet were as nice as they could be, they had hearts of a giver for sure, and seemed excited to share their talents with a rookie like me. I sent an e-mail letting the leader know I would like to give it a try, what did she suggest I purchase. The response back was bring nothing, they were all willing to share what they had. Aww too sweet.

I felt like I should at least have some knowledge of the basics before I joined in for my first meeting next Monday. I have friends who just knit/crochet away while they talk, laugh, watch TV, ride in a car, it looks like such a soothing thing to do. NOT!!!!!! Holy Moly I may be in way over my head! I put an SOS out yesterday evening on FB for help.

DD#2 called a bit later, "Mom what are you doing now?" I explained to her my goal and the reasons for joining in with a group of experts but I was now questioning my sanity. Maybe I should just buy a pile of yarn too donated to them and call it quits. She reminded me that she knew how to crochet. I had forgotten all of the beanies and scarfs we  received as Christmas gifts when she was in college... blush

I think I am more nervous about our DD#2 teaching me than total strangers!!! DD#2 is a take no prisoners kinda gal. She was an All American athlete in college, coached 4 sports when she began teaching in high school, and is now finishing up a masters in Education Administration. She is scrappy to say the least. We are going to have to have some ground rules before we begin! I am still the Mommy and you better be nice to me!! Ha

For all you knitter/crocheters out there is it really as easy people are letting on or have they sucked me into something that is going to drive me over the wall!!

Boring or Real Life

Lena over at Frugal and Thankful got me thinking yesterday about blogging. I have been slack lately on keeping up with this blog. Is it because of all the extra work in the yard now that spring has sprung? Maybe all the BD's, Easter, Spring break, going or doing for the big and little kids? The fact that the sewing machine has been sitting idle for longer that it has ever been for years? I haven't tried any new recipes or techniques in the kitchen in what feels like forever? Do blogger's have to post only inspiring, creative, life changing posts? Is just everyday life that isn't always neat and tidy OK? I sure hope so!! This is our kitchen counter, its boring....I can't seem to get it cleaned off. I make a little dent every day in the mess to only add more stuff by the end of the day. This is my life right now.

 Piles of mail each requiring work :( Phone calls to our health insurance, follow ups on different things, calls to hubby over what should be saved, what can be pitched that comes in for him. This is life right now.

 Our desk that has even more piles that need to be dealt with. Lots of filing, papers that may or may not need to be saved, things to shred. This is life right now.

 As you can see by the dust on our desk that I can write on I haven't spent any time at our desk in quite some time! Ha In my defence our desk sits right next to a window that has been wide open for weeks. Pollen in the south can be a real bugger (you should see my car). BTW I did dust the desk after taking this photo, went all out and dusted the whole room!  This is life right now.

 A bookcase that I started organizing weeks ago. Piles of books still sits waiting for me. I can't decide what to keep or what needs to move on. We need more book storage but where to put and additional bookcase? Besides the fact I don't want to spend more money!! The spending is out of control. This is my life right now

Piles of wood chips that a contractor left along the creek bank that flooded last year. The flood took out our neighbors 2 heat pumps and flooded his crawl space. It got as far up as our deck :( With 2 brand spankin new heat pumps that I waited on for 2 months in the sweltering heat last year so we could save $2,800.00 in rebates I was freaking out over these two huge piles of wood chips (photo doesn't do justice to the size) Grr.. The weather man has been predicting 3 to 5 inches of rain each day for 3 days you can beat a whole heck of a lot of these wood chips would have ended up in the creek causing an expensive flood. Thank goodness the weather man got that one wrong!!  What to do? Figured I had better make an unplanned trip to our insurance agent to get his opinion on adding flood insurance to our policy. Long drawn out costly expense I will share later over flood insurance. Even if we decide to add the rider it wouldn't kick in for 30 days. I took the photo just in case the wood chips cause a flood. Somebody other than ME should have to take care of the damages. Calls to the city, followed up by e-mails and photo's they requested took up  a large chunk of time I wasn't expecting. This is life right now.

Real life is getting in the way of much progress these days. Taking time out to deal with the little and big things that pop up takes a toll on my ever growing To Do list. This is real life. Not at all inspiring, nothing to learn, not much too share other than real life can be messy, frustrating, down right boring, sometimes expensive, but it's real.

Please bare with me while I tackle my boring real life. I hope that in the very near future I will call a Nanny time out to refresh my battery with some fun stuff.

Shopping, Cleaning, and Fixing

 One of the must do's this week was to get my closet cleaned out. Done! Winter and Summer clothes have been switched out, a nice big bag of no longer need, don't like, why did I buy that, things have been delivered to Goodwill.

 On my list of 101 errands yesterday was to pick up a few things at the grocery store. The 75% off sale buggy caught my eye, humm whats this. Wohoo stuffed animals that will be perfect for Project Night Night bags were marked down to $3.79. I bought all that they had!!

 Another must do was to mow the lawn as my staff (lawn mowing service) didn't show up Monday or Tuesday :( grrrr. With heavy rain coming in today the yard would have been a real mess if I waited until next week.

An unplanned but couldn't put off any longer must do was to back up my photo's and files on the laptop. The laptop has been having lots of problems lately, running slow, shutting down for no known reason, locking up, and such. I am ready to throw it out the window but in the meantime I don't want to lose everything on it. At least it was work I could sit down to do, no shovels or lawn equipment needed.

I feel like I am chasing my tail this week in the get it done department :( Hours and hours spent on the phone with insurance and Dr's offices trying to get and handle on and understand why our insurance discount is so low before I pay the bills. A $942.00 Neurologist bill was only discounted by $30.00, WHAT, yep that's all that was allowed. So much for the new affordable health care, in the past that bill was discounted to around $300.00. Those days look to be long gone.

My staff (lawn service) too put a monkey wrench in my schedule. They are due to come out each Monday. Knowing I didn't have to do the regular lawn chore freed me up to do some extras in the yard Saturday and Sunday. Taking down the old raised garden beds was a real bugger of a job but its done. The front bushes and trees also needed to be trimmed, completed. Monday morning I hit one of the front beds that ivy has gotten out of control in. Some of the vines have bark on them! Some progress was made but it might take all summer to get rid of the stuff. By 7:00 Monday night the staff had not shown up...what the heck I will jump on the tractor and get the front yard  done. Tuesday...same deal, they were a no show. Before the predicted rain came in I once again got on the tractor to do the back yard. So much for my staff, however I did eventually hear from them.

Late in the day after running yet more errands I found a note in the door from the lawn service "Call us ASAP", Oh No I thought.....they must have had a family emergency. Nope. Seems they had taken on a few side jobs and gotten behind. When they came by the house he saw that our lawn had already been mowed, he was NOT happy!! I explained to him since they never showed up or called I did it on my own, we are expecting 3-5 inches of rain this week, the lawn had to be cut. He had the nerve to still be angry and told me I would still have to pay the $75.00 contracted amount.
A) We DO NOT have a contract
B) If we did have a contract you would have been in breach of that contract
C) You have one of those phones that hangs from your ear on at all times, you could have called!!

I won't be paying for service that wasn't rendered. Hopefully he now has a clear understanding of our expectations, no work, no pay.

Last but not least aggravating To Do was to make contact with the homeless shelter. I sent an e-mail to one of the higher ups after I couldn't make contact with the department that accepts donations. His response was to give me another name and number. OK..I had left at least 6 messages to this staff person who is a paid employee BTW over the past two weeks. Her voice mail says "I am out of the office until Monday March 31" please leave a message WHAT!! Time to quit dilly dallying about. I called a friend who I knew had some connections. Amazingly I got not one but two calls later in the day expressing how excited they would be to receive such a generous donation and to be included in the Night Night Project,grrrr You shouldn't have to call in favors to elected officials for people to do their durn job!!!

That's my rant for the day. On to the next spring cleaning To Do. I figure at the rate I am going I will have my spring cleaning completed no later than Halloween! ha

Back to Work

 Kara and I hit the home improvement store first thing in the morning to get our yard supplies for the weekend. Can you tell how excited she was to hang her new birdie house. She kept running out in the yard to yell at the birds "You gots a new house, come home now" So stinkin cute

 She also needed some flowers of her own!! Little stinker kept taking my pots and moving them over the the grands house. Purple for Kara, pink for Karsyn, yellow for Mason, but couldn't find any blue for Tyler yet :( She worked so hard filling her planter.

 After she got everything planted she patted and kissed each one, Awww

 I wasn't done working her yet, she had to clean up her mess. What is it about little kids that they love to clean? Maybe I need to go back to my childhood to be inspired to do some cleaning of my own.

  Floors are clean, plants are looking good, birdie house waiting for a family and a new door mat is in place!!

While Kara was hard at work I disassembled 4 of the old raised bed gardens. Holy cow it was a whole heck of a lot of shovel fulls!! All of this wonderful dirt should give us a lush yard full of clover.

I just realized I had not published this post from Sunday or was it Saturday? Who knows! Busy, busy, busy is the name of the spring game. I will catch up soon (I think)

Grand End to Spring Break

  The last of our spring break outings was a secret super surprise trip to the Great Wolf Lodge. The toddlers had no idea what they were about to experience however Tyler had been a few times in the past he was sooo excited. Talk about going crazy when we pulled into the parking lot!! The kiddo's were blown away by their very own Cub Den to sleep in tucked away in the corner of our room.

 Tyler showed his little brother and sister how to ride and shoot the water guns

 Kara and Mason loved having water gun fights

 Here is another of the many water features at the indoor water park. Once the Daddy's were off from work to join us the little girls were hooked on this tree house water slide. Thank goodness they are old enough to understand that some things can only be done with the daddy's

 In the evening after baths and PJ's we spent time in the main lodge for story time and an animated show

 The little guys could have sat all night enjoying the show's while Tyler was off with DD#2 doing some of the big kid activities

What super surprise sleepover would it be if they didn't have at least one pillow fight!

 

 Spring break activities are done, Whee its over!! Its was so funny to hear the DD's talk about how tired they were when we finished up the last of our outings yesterday. DD#1 and # 2 are both teachers,  they agreed they would be glad to get back in the classrooms Monday morning where they could get some rest! Ha Now that DD#3 is large with baby she got out of participating in the water park/sleepover trip. I can tell you she didn't mind at all! I slipped out at 10:00PM myself to head home for a short good nights sleep.

 

This by no means was a frugal outing however..it wasn't too bad. A spring break special combined with a 20% off coupon brought the cost way down. Bringing in our own food, drinks and snacks saved us a ton!! Passing on the extra add on activities would have doubled the price for sure. I haven't taken our girls to a water park in years, they preferred just hanging out on a beach when they hit the preteen years. When we returned to our homes yesterday I started checking the prices on a stand alone water parks, holy cow $48.00 each for a day pass, and you can not bring in your own food or drinks!

 

Turns out we got a SUPER deal once I checked around on line at the other parks. For less than we would have paid to spend the day at a regular park we had a REALLY cool room which included the park pass from 1:00 the day of check in until 9:00 pm the day of check out.

 

So many lessons learned. Make sure to check on line for coupons. Don't be afraid to ask if coupons can be used on the special package deals. Ask for an activities schedule to be sent to you by e-mail so you can plan your trip even if it is only a day trip!! Park you own food and drinks then add extra, swimming makes everyone hungry. If your at a more mature age be sure to play that card!!! Gosh Nanny is too old to play honey, I will just take photo's OK???  After all you footing the bill you have every right to make up the rules right?? Ha

 

 

 

 

 

The Zoo on a shoe string budget

 Wouldn't you know the first thing the little girls would find interesting at the Zoo yesterday was a puddle to play in :)

 Mason man too had to get in on the fun.

 They even LOVED the snakes and lizards, ewww

Our four monkey's and the pink baby bump holding grand number 5

 

What a beautiful day we had at the zoo!! The weather was perfect, the kiddo's were doll babies, and the price was right!! After a huge breakfast out in the morning we were on our way to what turned out to be the best Zoo trip ever. Who would have thought taking this many toddlers out and about could be so much fun. Of course we all were ready for an early bedtime once we returned home :)

 

Cost of this outing was $60.00, not too bad IMO. Seeing the look on their faces when they got to see each of their favorite animal was worth every penny. Elephants for Tyler, Giraffe for Karsyn, Zebra for Manson, and Monkey's for Kara. To keep the cost down we packed lunches for all, that was a BIG hit for the kiddo's. Nothing better than sharing lunch from their lunch boxes after a fun filled 3 1/2 hours of exploring.

 

The drive home....I'm just thankful I didn't fall asleep at the wheel!! You can bet I was down and out for the count last night.

 

Today we have a BIG super surprise outing planed for them. A spring break special in addition to coupons guaranties 21 hours of wet and wild fun. DD#2 will be joining in for the action today as DD#3 is limited on how fast she can move with her growing baby bump.

 

Today's outing will be a great finish for a weeks long staycation, I soooo need to get back to the normal routine!!

Spring Break

 DD#1 and I decided to treat the kiddo's to a morning at the Extreme Fun Zone while DD#3 went to her Dr's appointment to check on our soon to arrive addition. The toddlers have NO FEAR!! :(

 The supper slides are for Tyler's age and size group

 However the no fear toddlers think they are too big for the baby slides. They just about gave me heart failure.

 Even little Mason man got into the dare devil mood

 As is always the case Kara is our nut case, she loves to get us going with her extreme drama acts

DD#3 informed me today that grand #5 is due in just 5 short weeks, Yikes I thought it was 7 weeks. I need to put it in full gear to be ready for his arrival

With school out this week for spring break DD#1 has planned little inexpensive outings for the grands all week. Yesterday was the drive Nanny crazy at the fun house day. I am too old for all this dangerous (to me) play!! After a few hours in the crazy place the DD's treated the kiddo's to lunch out. Me? I went home as fast as I could go for some aspirin, the place made me crazy!!! Cost per kiddo $5.00, pretty good deal for a full day of play if you could stand to watch them that long.

Today is the Colombia, SC Zoo. I am not looking forward to the 2 hour drive in rush hour traffic that I am sure will turn the drive into 3 hours or more. We hope the toddlers will wear out early so we can head home before we get stuck in the evening rush hour mess!! For now the toddlers are more excited about the "Pickanika" lunch we will be having with their new lunch boxes. The DD's and I are all in with the "Pickanika" lunch, no nasty $5.00 hot dogs or slices of pizza!!

We had originally planned to make the zoo an overnight trip but realized we would need at least two rooms to fit us all in. The idea of sleeping with all of the grands at the end of a long day at the zoo along with the cost seemed a bit EXTREME to me!! I love them to death but at the end of the day they gotta GO.

Oh for the good old days of spring break where a new jump rope, box of sidewalk chalk, and a big bottle of bubbles was all they needed for a fun filled week :)