Is it just me?

Or do your expenses really fill out to cover your income whether you want it to or not?

After Todd getting laid off and then me getting 'restructured' (I never really want to know what that means since they replaced me and the other girl they restructured immediately) we've been better at watching our pennies and working to pay off some debt. We're not back where we were before all this happened but things were looking brighter but why, oh why, do appliances have to start breaking down? We just had the a/c at the rental house fixed earlier this month but it seems to be broken again. And our poor dishwasher might become to young boys doing everything by hand.

I know, things could always be worse and Todd and I could not have any jobs in this economy and we're lucky that we both have jobs we like :) It would just be nice to be ahead of the game for a while.

Not much new around here...

I hope you all are having a great 2012 so far. I did start my organizing and there's so much more to do:

It's sort of amazing how much you can get done in just a few minutes. I just keep looking at the pantry thinking it's more than I can handle and PLEASE, don't make me look at the cupboard under my bathroom sink! I try so hard to throw stuff away when I clean that one and it just keeps getting worse. :(

We went to visit our friends, Pat & Jan the other week and enjoyed a huge bonfire! The boys and Hermione had a great time.

 Patch had a ball taking some pictures of it. He has quite the eye when he wants to.

We had another fun class with Ranger Jay - that I got lost on the way to it and ran into a scary neighborhood where a woman was sitting in the middle of the street in her scooter. I should have gotten her picture ;-)

This was the most wildlife we got to see that day but I'm about to give up hope on ever seeing anything more in a crowd.

 The trees that look rather ghostly are sycamores, the bark falls off as the tree grows and the bottom of the tree has patchy (or camouflage looking) bark - therefore looking sick (Now I'll always be able to recognize a sycamore tree!)

Once I get my hands on some pinking shears, I plan on trying to make a quilt out of these t-shirts. Wish me luck on that one!

Work is still going really well. Patch keeps improving his speech and both boys still dislike school work ;-)

OH! I almost forgot! Franklin is toying with the idea of starting a foodie type of blog and has come up with the name - Wild Teen Foodie. Todd and I lean towards something like Teenage Mutant Ninja Foodie. Being that he's not all that 'wild' but likes some pretty wild things as a youngster, I think he needs help with an idea so if you have any thoughts, please share them!

Happy New Year!

Can you believe it's 2012 already? The boys decided not to believe that the world was ending on 12.12.12 when I cheered that I wouldn't have to be doing any Christmas shopping next year. ;-) They did get a kick out of this cartoon though:

2011 was an okay year. We kept thinking that things are going to get better just around the corner, next month, we will be all caught up and organized. Then in August, I got notified that I was being restructured and had to start searching for a new job. I took a little bit of time to consider alternatives, garage saling/reselling on ebay, making soaps to sell on etsy, throwing the kids to the wolves in PS and getting an out of the house job but in the meantime, I applied for job after job after job online. I am soooo thankful that a guy I could barely understand (heavy French accent) called and interviewed me. It turned out that I didn't off him my firstborn (Yes, he was that hard to understand) but offered me an excellent job with excellent people!  So, Todd and I are both employed this year and most of the bills have come down for one reason or another (except that stupid, stupid cable company!) and we really should be back on our feet soon - it seems like things keep changing and we're not quite sure what's going on in all corners yet. But, it's looking up!

2012 is the first year in many, many years that I have made some resolutions but they're not fixed goals, just general goals. I resolve to make myself a happier person this year. You should hear me laughing more. And, I'm going to be making lists and keeping myself more organized. That's it, nothing huge but being more organized should make me happier. 

Look how much my vanilla extract has changed in just two weeks. Think a resolution should take a little longer? Me too!

I am getting more training at my new job today and I am so excited to keep getting new hours and learning more about the company!