Well, this "Yoshi" birthday party we're preparing for is turning out to be more costly than I thought/wanted it to be. By the time it's all said and done, I probably could've just RENTED a Mario-themed party plan complete with everything I needed. Lol. What I think I'm going to do is change the party so that it will be for BOTH my boys. This way, I won't have to do it ALL over again when Ryan's birthday comes up in May (because I KNOW he'll ask to have the same party Koby had, lol!). Maybe I'll change the date to sometime in April as well, so that it will be in the "middle" of Koby's bday and Ryan's bday dates. I'm already planning on 30 kids, so this way they can each just invite 15 friends. Oooh, I'm liking this better and better. Killing 2 birds with one stone, and that way I feel just a "little" bit better about the money that's going into it. Lol! The games I have in mind for the party, will be perfect for celebrating TWO boys' birthdays... yeah. I'm definately going to change things around a bit. Lol. Now all I have to do is incorporate Mario into the whole "Yoshi" theme. Since everything "Yoshi" is GREEN, and everything Mario is "RED", it shouldn't be too hard to combine the two. AND I'll have an extra month or so to gather a few RED decorations, RED balloons, and RED party loot bags. ;) Alright! Yay me!
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Benji's work truck is STILL waiting to be worked on, but he's told me that it 's now at least "in line" to be fixed. Lol. It's okay- our taxes haven't come back yet so we haven't been able to pay our deductible, but once it's in and paid, then hopefully they'll get the ball rolling! In the meantime, Benji's (much older) friend, Bob Orton, is letting Benji use one of his "around the yard" trucks to haul his tile supplies in. NICE people here, I tell ya! Benji's still working on some neighbor/ward member's houses, but once they're done, he'll be a little slow for a while. He just went to St.George today to measure a potential job, so crossing our fingers that work stays steady!
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The Scout's Blue & Gold Banquet is on Thursday, and I'm excited for Koby to go with his dad to learn all about the Scouting program. This will be our first time dipping our toes into the program, and it's all the cooler because this is the Scout's 100-year birthday! Meaning that Koby (and Benji) will have the opportunity to earn a special "100-year" patch this year. I just hope we as a family, and our ward in general KEEPS UP with the Scouting program. Benji earned his Eagle right before he turned 18, and I think it will be awesome if our own boys become Eagles. Lots of hard work and dedication are involved, but if we can just DO it, it will be something they can be proud of their whole lives. :)
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Like I mentioned above, our tax refund is going to be amazing this year!! I'm so excited! It's one big perk to being poor, I suppose. It's okay that the money will be used to pay OFF our truck, business license, truck insurance deductible for the accident, accountant, and other bills. That just means that those will no longer be looming over our heads each month. :) And who knows... we *may* have some left over to take the kids on a little "mini vacation", which we desperately need! Lol. We should be receiving it in less that 2 weeks. Woohoo!
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Another AWESOME thing that happened- we are FINALLY going to see our heat bills drop! The "Five County Weatherization Program" is meant to help those who are totally poor (that's US!) who have a hard time keeping their homes warm due to inefficient weatherization. 2 men came out last week to run tests on this old house, look at the vents, windows, everything. When they left they told us that we are definately qualified to get insualtion blown in for free (from the program), and we just received a letter from the program stating that we qualify for 80% help in getting Questar to run a gas line TO the house, install a meter head, AND get a brand new Gas furnace, water heater, some new windows, and POSSIBLY a new energy-star refrigerator! Totally cool. We only had to come up with less than $200 from our own pocket, which is nice because even though this house will never be our "own", it's the least we can do to help "update" the house while we live here rent-free. I'm just extremely excited about the lower bills each month. We have had a $700 heat bill for December, a $500 heat bill for January, and who knows how high February's bill will be- JUST to HEAT our house! And just to let you have some perspective here- we NEVER go above 70 degrees because we can't AFFORD it! We all have to wear sweatshirts, jackets, double our socks, and PILE on the blankets at night- and our bill is STILL that high each month! Ridiculous. They couldn't do ANYthing about the huge picture windows in the front living room, so the heat will still leak out from there, but with everything else they can help us with- including switching from Electric to Gas... this is going to help out ENORMOUSLY! Soooo happy. ;)
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There have also been some HUGE change of plans in other areas of our lives. Things that we need to pray about to make sure they're the right ones, but so far they all make sense. No, we're not able to move... in fact, it looks like Panguitch will be a permanent residence. There are just a couple of other things that we've been chewing on and hope to see it happen reality one day. Starting over in life does have it's advantages, and hopefully we'll see our dreams happen.
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Other than having a lot on my mind, lol, there's not much else going on today. I read "Twilight" again yesterday just because. Today I'm going to pick up around the house and straighten it up a bit, then I think I'll work on creating SOME kind of Baptism invitation for Koby's Baptism. I really wish we had a digiscrap program or at least a NEWER photoshop program. But I'm going to tinker around with our old farty one to see if I can come up with anything handsome and creative. ;) What I would LOVE to do is "copy" a Baptism announcement from the internet and just erase and paste my OWN pics and words to it, BUT--- I noticed that most of them are copyrighted, and I really don't want to be naughty about it. (And get caught!) So... I'll make up a couple and get your opinions on it.
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Have a Happy Tuesday!
6 comments:
You have probably thought of it already, but in refference to your picture windows have you tried that shrink wrap stuff that is like plastic wrap that you use your hair dryer on? We got it at WalMart for like $7 for TONS of it. And all we use it for is to cover the swamp cooler vent in the winter. But its made to help insulate windows. Its easy to put on, and easy to take off.
Wow, a lot of info! So, permanant residence? Are you going to buy the house there??? I can't wait to hear what the other info is that you are chewing on :) Good luck with everything!
came across this invite idea a few weeks ago... http://eoberrys.blogspot.com/2010/01/brinleys-baptism.html
i may have a sil that knows how to do something like this, LOL
Lena- cool! Thanks for the tip! I'll let Benji know- that's a great idea. :)
Lori- no, we found out that this house is part of a family trust, and it's so complicated that we decided not to cause problems and ask for the house. :/ It would be awesome on the one hand, because this house is big and right on Main, which we LOVE, but on the other hand it is very old and would cost a lot to update/remodel. No, nothing like that, I'm afraid. I wish!
Kathryn, Lol! I actually thought of her, but I really don't want to ask too much of people. Plus- I LOVE creating things on my own, and would LOVE to just go ahead and buy a program and learn it. :)
I was going to suggest the plastic for your windows, too. My SIL in smithfield put some up on their windows and it has helped a ton. It's another layer, anyway. they put it on the inside edge of the wall, so there is a gap between the window and plastic- kwim? anyway, that's great that you qualify for help to make some improvements to the place! Let me know when I can come down and help you rip out that awful carpet! LOL.
Lol Heather! I am RIGHT there with ya on this ugly, OLD, and (totally filthy) sea of shag! Unfortunately the only areas we can rip it out is the area where we're going to put tile in. If the family would just sell us the house, the carpet would be gone as soon as you could say, "FINALLY!". ;)
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