New mattress!

First, thanks so much to Brian for helping Doug move the mattress! And thank you Bonnie for letting us steal him to help!

Okay, we've been sleeping on it for a few days now, but it took me a bit to get the pictures up. Doug built the frame for it today. We aren't going to use our headboard or footboard until we get a home. It's too much to take it all apart and move it. Here is a picture of our new mattress and what our bedroom furniture will look like when we get into a home.


I'm so blessed to have a husband who works so hard and a bonus is the second job is at a store we get a discount at to replace the lost furniture!

Save your gas receipt!

Save your receipt and take it to Jack in the Box on Thursday June 26th and get 2 free tacos!

http://www.jackinthebox.com/twofreetacosday/

Movie Ratings

Doug and I rented a couple movies on Friday night. We watched one on Friday night with Dan and Lisa and made pizzas. Then we watched the other movie Saturday night. I was completely shocked when a woman flashed her boobs in a PG-13 movie! Why do I have to watch out for nudity in a PG-13 movie?? Why do 13 year old need to see that?? I guess it’s a sign of the times – I heard in church last weekend that we know we are in the latter days because good is being viewed as bad and bad is being viewed as good. So crazy what is being allowed in movies for children. I did research on rating a couple years back for one of my classes and know they are voluntary and obviously not correct all the time; movies can say one F-bomb in a PG-13 movie – listen for them (90% of the time, they’ll put it in even though they don’t need it), TV shows are allowed a certain number of swear words per amount of minutes its on, if I remember right smoking a cigarette in a movie makes it rated R, you know not important things like nudity. Okay, I’m done with my mild ranting over movies and their ratings. I guess we need to read the back of the movie box no matter what the rating is before children even see it; or even watch it first without children around.

Why buy a house now?

Well, it's the perfect time to buy a home...if you haven't noticed. Also, as some of you know, we have completely outgrown our apartment. First I'll show you the new counters that were installed. They are so nice. Some apartments ended up with an ugly brown/tan combo, which I thought were going into all the apartments. I was sure happy when I got home and they were black.
Okay, now to the mess we live in day by day. And we were finally able to buy a mattress!! I can't believe comfortable nights of sleep are so close!! We just have to find a way to get it home, but that's going to take up more room in our bedroom - oh man, it will be worth it though! OH, and when Doug moved into our apartment he brought a wardrobe closet, which the top broke in the move because it's so heavy - well I broke the bottom of it this morning. I was moving furniture around the bedroom to make room for the new mattress and moved the wardrobe forward to see if anything was behind it and the bottom piece folded under. OOPS! I was hoping to keep it nice to put into the house we buy, but now I don't know if it will tip forward easily. Now Doug is looking into getting the dresser we picked out earlier than expected. Little by litte the furniture lost in the moldy place is being replaced. OKAY....On to our mess....

This is half of the bedroom, right in front of the closet. The shelf with the barstools on top of it is in front of the closet. The closet is packed with stuff too, so we figured we may as well put a shelf in front of it since we can't get into it anyways.

This is how much floor space we don't have in the second bedroom! As you can see, all sides of the room are pretty much the same - JAM PACKED! It looks like a complete mess, but it's actually pretty organized. I have spent Saturday after Saturday moving and arranging it to get the most space out of this poor room. You can see my computer monitor in the top left corner; believe it or not, we sit back there to use the computer. HAHA - I was just looking over this post and had to laugh at the red Raid can on the floor.

I was just thinking I should have taken a picture of our second bathroom too. The bathtub is a storage area too. We have 4 dining room chairs, 2 game rocker chairs and 2 mirrors in the tub.

House Hunting

Find the "right house" can be pretty stressful. We like this about one house and that about another. We did find a house we really like, but it's just out of our price range. We've decided to wait until it's been on the market for a month and then put the offer we want on it. It's bank owned, so who knows, they might take it. Here is a picture of it...sorry it's small, I couldn't save the larger photo.

Crap of a day

After having a really bad day yesterday and a not so great day today, I wanted to post this because it helps me a little on bad days and might help you too....

Beware of Garbage Trucks by David J. Pollay

How often do you let other people's nonsense change your mood? Do you let a bad driver, rude waiter, curt boss, or an insensitive employee ruin your day? Unless you're the Terminator, for an instant you're probably set back on your heels. However, the mark of a successful person is how quickly she can get back her focus on what's important.

Sixteen years ago I learned this lesson. I learned it in the back of a New York City taxi cab. Here's what happened.

I hopped in a taxi, and we took off for Grand Central Station. We were driving in the right lane when, all of a sudden, a black car jumped out of a parking space right in front of us. My taxi driver slammed on his brakes, skidded, and missed the other car's back end by just inches!

The driver of the other car, the guy who almost caused a big accident, whipped his head around and he started yelling bad words at us. My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy. And I mean, he was friendly. So, I said, "Why did you just do that? This guy almost ruined your car and sent us to the hospital!"

And this is when my taxi driver told me what I now call, "The Law of the Garbage Truck."

Many people are like garbage trucks. They run around full of garbage, full of frustration, full of anger, and full of disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it. And if you let them, they'll dump it on you. When someone wants to dump on you, don't take it personally. You just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on. You'll be happy you did.

So this was it: The "Law of the Garbage Truck." I started thinking, how often do I let Garbage Trucks run right over me? And how often do I take their garbage and spread it to other people: at work, at home, on the streets? It was that day I said, "I'm not going to do it anymore."

I began to see garbage trucks. Like in the movie “The Sixth Sense," the little boy said, "I see Dead People." Well, now "I see Garbage Trucks." I see the load they're carrying. I see them coming to drop it off. And like my Taxi Driver, I don't make it a personal thing; I just smile, wave, wish them well, and I move on.

Walter Payton did this every day on the football field. He would jump up as quickly as he hit the ground after being tackled. He never dwelled on a hit. Payton was ready to make the next play his best.

Good leaders know they have to be ready for their next meeting. Good parents know that they have to welcome their children home from school with hugs and kisses. Leaders and parents know that they have to be fully present, and at their best for the people they care about.

The bottom line is that successful people do not let Garbage Trucks take over their day. What about you?What would happen in your life, starting today, if you let more garbage trucks pass you by?

Here's my bet. You'll be happier. Life's too short to wake up in the morning with regrets, so..
Love the people who treat you right. Forget about the ones who don't. Believe that everything happens for a reason.If you get a chance , TAKE IT! If it changes your life , LET IT! Nobody said it would be easy... They just promised it would be worth it!

More things to grow!

First, my oak trees are doing well, they really haven't grown much. They are sissy trees though. I took the pot that had 5 growing in it to my parent's house and it started to die because it's so used to being inside. It had it's own window, watering schedule and someone to talk to it; now it's outside learning to survive. Sissy trees!! The other 2 are at our apartment outside in the shade and haven't grown or anything - I think they are protesting being outside :-) The avocado trees are lapping them in growth rate!
My mom gave me money for graduation, so I got myself something I've wanted for a long time - an orange tree, it's a dwarf tree though. And with vegetables being so expensive I got a couple tomato plants too; one is cherry tomatoes and the other is a steak tomato.
Here are a few pictures of my apartment garden:

the avocado trees - look at them go!!

the tomato plants - they were below the second ring when I planted them about week ago.
the dwarf orange tree - it'll get about 10 feet tall

Another quick thought: I read about avocado plants and learned that they get about 20-40 feet tall and can be quite invasive to other root systems around, so I've decided against planting them, so I need to figure out what to do with them - I've mentioned selling them (dwarf avocado trees sell for $120, but I'm not sure about full size trees - shoot that could be my work I do from home! Grow trees from seeds and sell them! I read cherry trees take about 7 years to produce fruit, so I'll skip doing those from a seed!)

Did we fall off the Earth?

Nope, not yet. We still can't find the flat edge. I figured I better post something so you all know we are doing well. We have been busy, sorry we haven't posted for a while, but there's just not much to post about right now. We work and look at homes online (we went to look at some last weekend - which we are SUPER thankful to Dan & Lisa for taking time out of their really busy afternoon for).