Yesterday was Mother’s Day.  It was such a nice day; my hubby made sure that I didn’t have to lift a finger doing anything other than entertain the baby from time to time.  He even did diaper duty!  I got to putter around in my flower garden (which is something I love to do!) planting the new pansies that he bought me as a Mother’s Day gift.  He also bought me some new Daylilies which are supposed to rebloom, and I got to plant them, too!  He cooked a nice crock-pot chicken for supper, and we had home made bread.  We had his mother join us for dinner, which was very nice too.  Yes, it was a good day.

Posted: May 11th, 2009 under Entertainment/Fun, Family, Home and Garden, Life, Parenting.
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While in the local coffee shop this afternoon I overheard two young ladies at the table next to me discussing their finances. I would have to assume that they were both in college and out on their own for the first time. Their classes will be over in May and they were brainstorming summer job opportunities and whether they could afford to stay in the area or would they have to go back home and live with their parents to save money.

The one closest to me admitted that she had run up her credit card to the maximum and had little spending money to get her through the rest of the school year. I suspect her spending style will put her home with mom and dad for the summer!

I suppose that is one of the good things about the college experience, being out on your own and accountable for your own money. But I would have hoped that more parents would have talked with their kids about managing their finances before shipping them off to school. I know we have tried our best to prepare our sons to be financially responsible. They know how to balance a checkbook and to spend wisely. I hope they paid attention to the struggles of others and the advice we gave them, so that they never have to face bankruptcy or other serious consequences later in life.

If the girls at the coffeeshop need help in the future, I hope they took the little business card I left on the table for them with a note to look up IVA online. It’s never too late to deal with your problems and turn things around if you have a little help.

Posted: April 5th, 2009 under Finances/Money, Life, Parenting.
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Someone recently asked me why I moved to Maine. Maine is not a densely populated state; in fact only has about one million people in the entire state! I think that the answer lies in the fact that I am basically a shy person, I prefer to be with people I know, or even alone. Rarely do I find myself in a large group where I am comfortable. I think it may go back to when I was a child I had a couple of teachers tell me that no one liked me. I was shy to begin with, and very insecure. To have some teachers tell me that no one liked me simply make me even MORE shy and insecure. It seems that other people mistook my shyness for being a snob. So now whenever I am in a crowd, I feel vulnerable. Sometimes I’m afraid that someone is going to grab my purse and run away with it! Sometimes I’m afraid that I’ll say or do something that will cause a huge public humiliation! So I take comfort in the smaller “crowds” and I feel safer here. I also feel that my family is safer here.

Posted: March 23rd, 2009 under Family, Life, Parenting.
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Now that baby is walking, and claiming some independence, I’ve decided to start to leave him with my mother-in-law a few times a week to get him used to being around others while I’m not around.  I’ll be going back to work soon, and I think doing this seperation thing in stages is a good thing for both of us!  So I’ve signed up to take some ballet classes from a local ballet studio that holds adult ballet classes.  I used to take ballet when I was young, and I really enjoyed it.  Dancing is a good way to get back in shape, and taking dance classes is less stressful to me than going to the gym because in a dance class there are no men gaping at you!  I’ve been looking at the Capezio Dance website to see what kind of dancewear that they carry for me to buy.  It is impressive the huge line of dancewear they carry - from unitards body tights to Custom Ballet Slippers!

Posted: March 13th, 2009 under Entertainment/Fun, Family, Internet, Life, Online, Parenting, Shopping.
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My hubby wants to go out to camp this weekend and see how it fared the long cold winter.  We’re not planning to spend a lot of time, just a quick look-see.  We’ll probably leave the baby with my mother-in-law because it really won’t be any fun for the baby, and I’d just as soon not bring him with us on this trip, just in case my hubby needs my help.  Now that the baby is walking it is hard to get things done sometimes!  We’ll be bringing the chain saw and work gloves with us in case we have to cut our way in!  I hope that we don’t find any major damage to it!  It has been a very snowy winter!

Posted: March 13th, 2009 under Entertainment/Fun, Family, Home and Garden, Life, Parenting.
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