Back to Life As Normal

I'm back in Iowa and have recovered from my Diet Mountain Dew withdrawal. Did you know that they DO NOT sell Diet Dew in Houston? You can buy it by the case but if you want to just run into a gas station and get one, you are out of luck. I don't get it. I did drink my share of Dr. Pepper while in Texas just to try to fit in. I happen to like it but it doesn't have the same amount of caffeine!

On to a totally different topic...

Yelled by Green tonight during a heated game of Scrabble, "Mom you are going DOWN! I have SIBERIA!"

Making the Rounds in Texas

I'm in Texas this week and having a great time!

Today I spent the day in Lubbock visiting co-workers. I had a great day meeting everyone face to face rather than over email or messaging. Red Raiders are pretty nice people, even to a Cyclone.

Tonight I flew to Houston and got to have a VERY late dinner with my grandparents. Tomorrow will be spent with family all day. Should be a great day! Saturday morning we're back to Iowa.

Anytime you leave your home area, you pick up on the funny things about other parts of America. If there are any Texans out there, tell me if these are right or wrong:

• It's not "pop" down here. It's "cokes". Except coke doesn't necessarily mean Coke. It usually means Dr. Pepper. Seriously, everywhere I look there's Dr. Pepper.
• The street lights hang sideways. Iowa hangs them the long way - Texas hangs them on their side.
• Pool Boy is along with me and spent time at the mall today. He could not believe how much jewelry was for sale! Apparently Texans like their jewelry.
  

Speaking of jewelry, I got a gift on my trip! A co-worker gave me two pairs of earrings and a necklace. I love all of it and will wear some of it tomorrow.

Green Comment

"Mom, can you hot glue my blankets to the wall? I CAN NOT keep them on my bed at night!"

Green


I'm headed to Texas later this week for a part business/part personal trip. I've been cold since October so it will be nice to be someplace warm for a few days! More on that trip later...

Hanging with The Boys

Last night I had the opportunity to spend the evening with the boys at the Iowa State Women's basketball game. Three was a ball shagger for the game and Green and I sat in the front row. We had a great time and I proved that mom could hang with the boys at a sporting event.

But I think there were a few times where Green was thinking to himself, "Why isn't Dad here?".

Incident Number 1:

Me: Wow, that team is really doing a good job with their guarding!

Green: You mean D? They have good D, mom.

Me: Yeah. D.

Incident Number 2:

Me: I really like to look at all the different kinds of shoes the players have.

Green: Seriously mom? I like to look at the kind of plays they have. Who cares about their shoes?

Here is What It's Like

It's hard to explain what grief is like, especially when you are a few months or years out from the initial blow of it. This morning while reading the newspaper, I found it. THIS is what grief is. 

"At some point it becomes something bearable. It turns into something you can crawl out from under. And carry around - like a brick in your pocket. And you forget it every once in awhile, but then you reach in for whatever reason and there it is: 'Oh, right. That.' "

Free Book

In case you haven't visited lately, I'm giving away a free book over at TrendyDollar.com. If you want to go directly to the giveaway, here's the link. It ends tomorrow night so make sure you get your name in. This time there is quite a bit more competition, though.

In unrelated news, I cheated today.

I cheated on my health kick by eating a huge sugar cookie and drinking a large cup of heavy Mt. Dew. I'm going to feel icky soon because I haven't eaten like that for a long time.

I also cheated on my frugal kick because I spent $3.50 on the crap mentioned above. That also makes me feel icky.

I can't remember the last time I typed the word icky, and today I've had to use it twice.

First Day of School

Today was Payton's first day of doggie school. Her and mom are going to learn how to deal with each other, I'm guessing. Looks like she's all ready to go!

School was Cruel

A co-worker and I were discussing elementary school "back in the day" today. Looking back, I cannot believe how cruel school was.

For reading, the class was divided into groups like group A, group B and group C. Group A was the good readers, group B was the average readers, and Heaven help you if you were in Group C.

Same for spelling. The teacher read off two different lists. "Group 1, your word is presidential. Group 2, your word is dog." And if there was really a struggler in your class, there was the dreaded Group 3.

Seriously??

A Message

I promise I won't link you over to Trendy Dollar all the time, but this one is important! I friend of mine has a message he asked me to pass along to everyone at Green3 and Trendy Dollar. It's a very important one too. Please go read.

Presenting...Trendy Dollar!

It's done! Or at least done enough to share with everyone now. After many late nights and long weekend days, I am happy to say that Trendy Dollar is up and running! I hope you'll join me over there for a lot of information relating to personal finance. I expect Trendy Dollar to evolve over time in what people want to know and what resources they are looking for. I really want to help normal people like me figure out how money works and this was one way I could do that.

This blog will turn back into more of a personal blog. (and I know some of you will welcome that!) The new website will not link back to here so only my original readers are aware of both.

Have a great week and thanks for hanging out here at Green 3.

Being a Newbie Makes My Head Hurt

I know you've all been sad that I haven't been posting. I usually write my posts late at night after Three and Green have gone to bed but lately I've been spending those hours on a new and exciting project. I won't tell the full story yet, but I can tell you that it involves a lot of HTML, CSS and PHP. Here's the bad news: I have never seen PHP before.

I also don't know WordPress, which is the platform I'm using. After what I've gone through the past week, let me give you a little piece of advice. If you want to start a blog but don't know anything about web design, stick with Blogger where everything is done for you. I happen to know a little something about web design and it's going to take me a few weeks to get my project ready for release. Durn.

Project

Happy 2009!

My postings may be slim around here over the next few days because I'm busy working on a project that is somewhat related to this blog. After the kiddos go to bed at night, I'm plowing my way through the project so I can be back in full force as soon as possible. 

Have a great week!

Major Causes of Personal Failure

**This is a re-post of my 9/22/08 entry.

I'm still reading Napoleon Hill's Keys to Success. I ran across this list yesterday in the book and think it's worth sharing with you. Below are some of his "Major Causes of Personal Failure." As you are reading this list, make note of which things are holding you back -- and make a plan to do something about them!

1. The habit of drifting through life without a definite major purpose
2. Meddlesome curiousity about other people's affairs
3. Inadequate education - **Personally I don't take this to mean that you need a college degree in order to be successful. I just think you need to be always learning, reading, studying up on whatever topic needs to be studied to make yourself successful.
4. Lack of self-discipline
5. Lack of ambition
6. Lack of persistence and follow-through
7. Negative mental attitude
8. Lack of emotional control
9. The desire to get something for nothing
10. Failure to reach decisions promptly and firmly when all the facts needed for the decision are available
11. Overcaution or the lack of caution - **I think being overly cautious can paralyze you. You'll never make a decision and therefore be stuck in your situation forever.
12. Indiscriminate spending of time and money
13. Intolerance
14. Failure to cooperate with others in a spirit of harmony
15. Lack of vision or imagination
16. Egotism and vanity
17. Desire for revenge
18. Unwillingness to go the extra mile

This wasn't his entire list - just the ones I wanted to point out. I hope you read that list carefully. Read it again if needed. Any changes you should be making?

How I Am

It’s impossible to tell someone what it’s like to have someone close to you die without warning. One day they are there. The next day they are gone. Forever.

It’s been 8 months since my Dad died while skiing in Colorado. How bad did it hurt to lose him? Wow. It was so painful, I could literally feel my heart breaking. The grief was unbelievably intense. I really thought our lives were ruined. We were a very close family - how could we go on with one of us missing? I remember telling my mom during one of my breakdowns, “I CANNOT DO THIS! I CANNOT DO THIS!” And I really thought that I couldn’t.

I went through the “It’s not fair” stage. It’s not fair that Three and Green don’t have their Grandpa here to watch them grow up. It’s not fair that Dad won’t know any of this other grandkids that may come along. It’s not fair that he didn’t get to retire. It’s not fair that mom has to be a widow at 55 years of age. Everything about it was not fair.

I went through the “mad” stage. Why didn’t he know that someone with high blood pressure should not be skiing in Colorado? I had been looking at renting a place in Nebraska that week so we could meet my brothers half way instead of Mom and Dad going to CO. Why hadn’t I pushed that idea? There are millions of people on this planet who do nothing to take care of their health. Why don’t those people die instead of people like my dad, who always exercised and was keeping an eye on his blood pressure and cholesterol?

I’m done with those stages.

Now I can say honestly say that I’m doing ok. On the one hand, I feel horribly guilty about that. I’m afraid it appears to others that I didn’t care about him and really don’t miss him. Nothing could be further from the truth. You just learn to deal with it because there is no other option. Dad would want us to be happy. Everyone always says that, but I put myself in that situation: If I were to die, I would not want my death to ruin the lives of Pool Boy, Three or Green. I would want them to smile and laugh about all the fun we had together. I would want my family to continue to live as we did before – playing sports, going on family vacations, staying up too late on weekends nights, cleaning their rooms, taking out the trash. Life has to go on, whether we want it to or not. My death would be tragic enough – I would not want to see their lives ruined from it because that would be another unnecessary tragedy. My Dad would feel exactly the same.

This will be my last post before Christmas. Hold your family and friends close all the time, especially during the holiday season. May you find the joy in life and continually strive to make this world a better place. Peace to all of you.

And then there were 6

Julie and Mark Gumm, who I introduced you to last week, got their kids today! Go read Julie's comments about the first meeting.

We Made It

I'm pleased to report that we made it through our first family Christmas without Dad.

I know many of you are wondering how I'm doing. I've started that post, but it's not ready to go yet. It's difficult to write. In the meantime, enjoy this adorable picture of Three and Green with mom's puppy, Payton.

I'm Not a Slacker

Just because I'm not posting on my blog, do NOT assume I am slacking! Oh heck no. Besides work, I've got Salvation Army bells to ring, 3rd grade Christmas crafts to make, music concerts to attend, gift shopping to do, not to mention the regular laundry, house cleaning and supper making. Or maybe not so much the house cleaning. 

Hope you are enjoying your holidays. Remember, don't spend more for Christmas than you can afford. It's NOT worth it!

It’s a Piece of Cake Until Your Spreadsheet Gets Screwed Up

As you know, we’ve been tracking our expenses to the penny since August 2007. Every evening, I update our spreadsheet with that day’s expenses. I always know exactly where we are at financially.

Then Tuesday happened.

Not only did I spend the afternoon in the ER from a possible overdose of stress and caffeine, but I also got out of balance on my family expenses spreadsheet. I’m now over $100 dollars off and I cannot locate it. I’ve gone through every expense for the past week and matched it up to my spreadsheet. No luck.

Oh. The stress and caffeine overdose. Really I have no idea what happened, but I’m contributing it to those two things. And mostly the caffeine. Tuesday morning I woke up and the vision in my right eye was all blurry. The right side of my face was very tingly. And I had a headache. My vision slowly came back, but my face was still weird. (no comments please) By noon, I decided a visit to the ER was in order. After several hours of questions and a CT scan, no results. Which is good I guess. It means there was not a brain tumor or stroke.

I started to thinking back to Monday to see if anything that day could have triggered something. Oh yes – a raging headache all day, a day full of meetings, including a school board meeting that night. And lots and lots of caffeine. More than I normally consume. Apparently my body got to Tuesday morning and said, “Enough, girl! Slow down!”

So I’m trying to take it easy – which, by the way, is NOT easy – and limiting my Diet Mt. Dew intake. We shall see how it comes out.

Oh, and if I wasn’t busy enough, then I went and joined Facebook. That can easily suck up a few hours each night if you aren’t careful. It’s fun, except for the message that tells you, “You have no new friends.” Damn. But I did locate her, her, her and her. And her, too. And a bunch of non-blog people. I've decided to take my flair very seriously over there. But I need more credits!

A Good Christmas Story

At Christmas time, we all want to hear and good story and be assured the everything is ok in the world, right? I want to share Julie and Mark's story with you.

I've been following Julie since right after they decided to adopt two more children into their family. I've following their amazing (and sometimes frustrating) journey. As of this blog posting, they are on their way to Ethiopia with another couple to pick up their kids. If you're in need of a good story, follow theirs. It's truly awesome.

Free Shoes!

Sorry, this is not a tip for how to get free shoes. ONLY I GET FREE SHOES! Or if I didn't want shoes, I could pick something else. I get one of anything I want!

Quite, everyone. I have an announcement to make. I won KEEN shoes from Bloggy Giveaways! I can pick any pair of shoes I want from the KEEN website. ANY PAIR. JUST FOR ME.

Bragging? Yes, oh yes, I am.