New family member...

Here is betta #10, he's still an itty bitty.

Introducing-- Orange Crush Betta, or Crush for short.

Isn't he adorable? He's my latest Wal-Mart Rescue. Poor things.

They are so fun, smart and easy to care for. Welcome to the family Lil Crush!

Counteracting the bad with the good

I was able to catch these beautiful little birds. Here's the best of what I have so far. Aren't they beautiful? They are so itty bitty!

Remember...

My post from a couple of days ago with my dotphoto show and I was so excited about the bobcat coming and leveling the land for DH and I?

Well this is what I woke up to this morning

The pictures don't really do justice to the damage. If I remember correctly, we have about 86 feet from the front of our house to the street. Those two trees are about 50 feet from the the street. You see the exhaust almost reaches the trees.

I should have put my foot in the second picture so that you can see the hole goes right above my ankle easy and almost fits my foot across.

I called the police because I knew it was the neighbors from across the street who backed all the way up on our property and got stuck. The police officer said the damage you see in the bottom picture is from their gas tank getting stuck.

Can you believe this?

Works For Me Wednesday

Last year when the kids started school we were inundated with paperwork and school assignments. With 5 kids it quickly got out of control and I found that I couldn't keep on top of it. There were letters that I had recieved 5 times and needed to trash. Assignments I wanted to keep to give the children when they are older so they can see how they got their start. Finally, I picked up a few baskets at the dollar store and came up with this.

Basically, I labeled the files with each kid's name and grade and placed them in this basket. When the kids come home from school they leave their backpacks at the door and have quiet time where they take a break and unwind before they start homework and chores. This gives me time to go through their papers. Anything I want to keep for them I drop in their folders. Any multiple papers I toss and either keep one copy in the front of the basket or record the info I need in my planner.

The best part, at the end of the year, all I have to do is place their folders in my filing cabinet so that when the time comes to give them these things I have a complete folder for the year for them to look back on.

Works for me! (For more Works For Me ideas go see Shannon over at Rocks in My Dryer)

I'm so excited!

I tried to post my show on here but for some reason it won't connect.

Anyway, I am so excited because we had our land cleared. As you can see in the show it was still in it's natural state and we had it all cleared so we can start planning the deck, swingset, garage etc...

It's so exciting to me because 1.) this is my first house of my own and 2.) It is our first really big endeavor in said house and 3.) the kids and dogs have a place to play now even if it's just cleared land.

Breakfast of Champions

While I am waiting for my pictures to upload for my next post I thought I would share my breakfast with you.

WHOA! I just saw a new button....what is this VIDEO button....hold on. Figures, after I go through the whole setting up and uploading process over at YouTube they add it here. A day too late. lol

I ate this after my workout which is going just fine thankyouverymuch. I have lost 6 lbs in one week. Probably just because I have more energy to get around and have been getting things done.

Anyway, I was shocked at how filling it was. I guess I could've had a bigger glass of water, the frozen cherry limeade thingy only has 70 calories and the fruit...got me?

Anyway, it got me to thinking. I read something my oldest wrote to God asking him to "let [her] stay skinny."

It got me to thinking even more. I've never been on a diet. I don't eat anything diet or drink anything diet. Well, with the exception of today...I had these South Beach Diet wraps. But not because they were diet but rather because doesn't a turkey and bacon with cheese wrapped in a flour tortilla sound yummy?

I read the little note inside the box that told me if I was eating out to send back the bread basket so it wouldn't tempt me. I told DH..."the hell I would send back the bread basket." I mean our favorite restaurant brings up these warm little loaves of yummy goodness and I will eat three I tell you. Forget the steak and stuff....just bring me that bread. DH said "Oh, it's because it's part of the Atkins diet"

Me: "Whose Atkins?"

Basically...DH said no or low carbs.

I worry about the images I am showing my oldest of me and my current weight. I am overweight because I am totally stressed and do not get enough rest. I live on Coke just so I can get things done.

Am I happy about my current weight now? No. It hurts to be this weight. Will I diet? No.

I am trying to lose weight and eat healthy because DH and I have plans to have children or at least a child of our own. I don't want the doctor to chew me out and I don't want to prolong the process by having the doctor tell me I have to lose weight and eat healthy.

So, I am doing things the right way so when the time comes, DH and I can go in and start the fertility process without any delays.

Will I tell my oldest this? I don't know. I hope she sees me working out and I hope she sees me making better choices and yet still eating the things I love in moderation and I hope she sees that even though my body is a mess right now, I still love myself and do not base my self worth on what other people think and I hope that she will someday feel the same way.

Color me pissed...

I have some exciting news that I will post later because I need more time then I have right now to give it the proper attention, but for now I am so angry I have to vent.

I was walking the dogs on our property and basically trying to train them when the neighbor girl came over to talk to me...turns out we both believe our new neighbors have claimed one of the neighbor girl's cats as their own. But I hadn't noticed that my 12 year old dog had taken off on me.

I heard barking and I looked and noticed Ava wasn't with me anymore. Turns out she had gone to the neighbor's house to say hi to their dogs. I guess she had scared their guest's child. I apologized profusely over and over again for my dog being on their property, for scaring the child etc...I had called Ava but she wouldn't come, it was like she couldn't hear me. She was sniffing their dogs and their dogs were sniffing back...making friends.

Ava had no interest in the child or the people for that matter. Plus, let me tell you about Ava. She is older than dirt. She has arthritis in her hips and hind legs. She can't run or jump. She probably does have hearing loss and she has a huge lump under her front arm. Basically, I adopted her so she wouldn't be put down and she could live what's left of her life comfortably. She's so old she doesn't even get up to bark at things anymore and she hobbles everywhere.

I couldn't go get her out of their yard because I can't seem to train Dellyne to stay just yet. She heels but she won't stay in one spot without me. So, the guy had to bring her to me. I apologized to the pregnant woman whose child it was again because her kid was upset but then the bitch set me off because she told her kid "c'mon and get inside so you won't get bitten."

Yeah...bitch...kudos to you. That's sure reinforcing your kid's fear right there and unless the neighbor's dogs or she herself is going to bite her kid..wtf is she talking about? I told the guy...

"She's 12 years old. She doesn't have all her teeth and I'm starting to think she can't even hear anymore."

He was like "oh really?"

The kicker is that I was on MY property watering my trees and plants when their little chihuahua came at me like she was going to bite me and she was growling at me. I laughed and walked towards the lil shit and it took off screaming like I had kicked it or something. I was nice enough to go over and let them know that their dog was loose and, when asked, told them how she got out. PLUS, since they moved in I have lil bits o' dog shit all over my front yard...hmmm wonder whose doing that?

I've tried being friendly and waving to them and they turn the other way.

Finally the worst thing of them all is that they smoke outside and their smoke comes in MY house and lingers and I am so allergic to cigarette smoke as in my throat actually closes up.

Sucks. At least they are just renters. Hopefully they will be gone in 6 months.