Kaylee made snowcones.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
First Day of First Grade - by Elaine, age 6 1/2
today was my first day in first grade.i had a great day.i connet the dots and made a pricher.i played outside for 10 minutes.my teachers name is ms,s huff.we pratise lineing up to our line.i had 3 firends that i know.i went to gym.we picked spots for us to sit.it was great.
Friday, August 14, 2009
Sunday, August 09, 2009
The mall's Back to School Bail Out Bash
We decided against the Alice in Wonderland theme and just did whatever. This is my default costume.
Emily & Danica
Michael Garland and company did dance exhibitions.
"Would you like a coupon?" We all took turns handing them out, in the mall.
Jen, Emily & Cassie
Rick with "Floyd"
My feet are killing me, after wearing my blue flats all day. It was a good reminder for why I wear Nikes to work every day. I have these horrible blisters too. *pout*
Tonight Jim took the kids to the swimming party. Tomorrow I'm helping Regina paint her kitchen and bathroom, after church.
Craziness, & Painting Kids
Jim had his phone interview with the Health & Human Services case worker Friday. There was a major hiccup in the process, when Jim learned that a man who works for the Forney School District used Jim's social security number to get the job. No new accounts have been opened with that social security number, just the job application. Jim had to call the school district. Jim and the kids had to go to the Health & Human Services office and wait 2 hours or so, while everything got straightened out. Jim was exhausted by the end of the day. We were approved for Food Stamps again, which is awesome. That means Elaine will qualify for free lunches at school too.
*The scariest part of the whole same social security number thing is that the ISD employee hasn't had a background check, if he used the wrong social security number.
Friday night, after I got home from work, the kids painted their clay statues of dinosaurs, inspired by 'The Land Before Time' movie.
*The scariest part of the whole same social security number thing is that the ISD employee hasn't had a background check, if he used the wrong social security number.
Friday night, after I got home from work, the kids painted their clay statues of dinosaurs, inspired by 'The Land Before Time' movie.
Thursday, August 06, 2009
just stuff
My "missing" coworker showed up Monday morning after 2 days of no communication. She picked up her final paycheck.
Jim registered Elaine for school today. He was super annoyed because he had to keep filing out the same info over and over, then when he went to the nurse's station to fill out more info, she had her ipod on and ignored him. So he left. Then the school called me to tell me my husband "forgot" to sign the Health form at the Nurse's office for Elaine. He has tomorrow to go back and sign it. He's also peeved about all the statistical questions about our race. I told him to just select "other" when given choices in the future. It's a catch-all.
Yesterday there was lightning and thunder and then a few drops of rain. Jim went outside to look at what the clouds were doing. He started walking down the road a few yards. AlPal sat at the window, yelling, "No Daddy, Don't go in the road. That's where the hurt is!!!" Then he paced to the windows on the back end of the house and asked me, "How'm I gonna get Daddy from the road back?"
Later last night, I found Allan's "missing" blue robot toy was stashed up on top of the TV cabinet. I called Al into the room and gave him back the toy. He was ecstatic! Allan looked at his Robot toy lovingly and said, "Blue Robot, you're safe! How'd you get up there?"
Tonight, when I got home from work, Elaine asked if she could play with my sculpting clay (remnants left from previous design classes). She made Little Foot and Petri from the "Land Before Time". She wants to bake and paint them tomorrow.
We are meeting Pamela next Wednesday to go to the local Water Park with she and her family. The local home school association is hosting the night at the Water Park and Pamela is allowed to invite one family of guests. I haven't chatted with Pamela much in the last 3 weeks, so I'm glad we'll get to catch up. She has some font Cricut cartridges she is loaning me also. :)
Saturday the mall is having a large "Back to school bail out" event. We're wearing costumes at work. I think Regina, Rick and I have decided on an 'Alice in Wonderland' theme for our costumes. Rick is wearing our Flamingo costume, nicknamed Floyd. So I suggested the 'Alice' theme. Does anyone else remember the flamingos in Alice in Wonderland? cracks me up! I'm supposed to be the March Hare. I need to try it on and make sure it fits tomorrow. Of coarse, I'll take pictures. While I'm at work Saturday, Jim is taking the kids to a pool party at Rick's church.
Regina told me today that customers are constantly telling her I'm the "nicest person". That made me smile.
Today I got my first call about my student loans from Wells Fargo. Evidently, they have been mailing student loan payment info and bills to our old address on Locust St., since last November. The mail wasn't 'returned to sender', so they thought I was ignoring my bills. We had a very nice friendly chat. The fact that I was on food stamps at the time when they first tried to bill me, last November, is gonna help clear up the months of non-communication. So that's awesome. I have to mail in a copy of my food stamps info from last fall. They have my updated contact info now.
The man on the line told me about deferring my payments for a year at a time. He said that as long as our combined income is under $25,000 annually, I will qualify for deferments. But I'll have to re-apply once each year.
I have both a subsidized and unsubsidized loan. So the unsubsidized loan will accrue interest even while the balance is in deferment. So my best bet is to still make a monthly payment on the unsubsidized loans interest, so it does not add to the existing loan balance. I'll end up paying more by the end of this, but it's better for my credit to show I'm making any payments than to have anything default later on.
Jim registered Elaine for school today. He was super annoyed because he had to keep filing out the same info over and over, then when he went to the nurse's station to fill out more info, she had her ipod on and ignored him. So he left. Then the school called me to tell me my husband "forgot" to sign the Health form at the Nurse's office for Elaine. He has tomorrow to go back and sign it. He's also peeved about all the statistical questions about our race. I told him to just select "other" when given choices in the future. It's a catch-all.
Yesterday there was lightning and thunder and then a few drops of rain. Jim went outside to look at what the clouds were doing. He started walking down the road a few yards. AlPal sat at the window, yelling, "No Daddy, Don't go in the road. That's where the hurt is!!!" Then he paced to the windows on the back end of the house and asked me, "How'm I gonna get Daddy from the road back?"
Later last night, I found Allan's "missing" blue robot toy was stashed up on top of the TV cabinet. I called Al into the room and gave him back the toy. He was ecstatic! Allan looked at his Robot toy lovingly and said, "Blue Robot, you're safe! How'd you get up there?"
Tonight, when I got home from work, Elaine asked if she could play with my sculpting clay (remnants left from previous design classes). She made Little Foot and Petri from the "Land Before Time". She wants to bake and paint them tomorrow.
We are meeting Pamela next Wednesday to go to the local Water Park with she and her family. The local home school association is hosting the night at the Water Park and Pamela is allowed to invite one family of guests. I haven't chatted with Pamela much in the last 3 weeks, so I'm glad we'll get to catch up. She has some font Cricut cartridges she is loaning me also. :)
Saturday the mall is having a large "Back to school bail out" event. We're wearing costumes at work. I think Regina, Rick and I have decided on an 'Alice in Wonderland' theme for our costumes. Rick is wearing our Flamingo costume, nicknamed Floyd. So I suggested the 'Alice' theme. Does anyone else remember the flamingos in Alice in Wonderland? cracks me up! I'm supposed to be the March Hare. I need to try it on and make sure it fits tomorrow. Of coarse, I'll take pictures. While I'm at work Saturday, Jim is taking the kids to a pool party at Rick's church.
Regina told me today that customers are constantly telling her I'm the "nicest person". That made me smile.
Today I got my first call about my student loans from Wells Fargo. Evidently, they have been mailing student loan payment info and bills to our old address on Locust St., since last November. The mail wasn't 'returned to sender', so they thought I was ignoring my bills. We had a very nice friendly chat. The fact that I was on food stamps at the time when they first tried to bill me, last November, is gonna help clear up the months of non-communication. So that's awesome. I have to mail in a copy of my food stamps info from last fall. They have my updated contact info now.
The man on the line told me about deferring my payments for a year at a time. He said that as long as our combined income is under $25,000 annually, I will qualify for deferments. But I'll have to re-apply once each year.
I have both a subsidized and unsubsidized loan. So the unsubsidized loan will accrue interest even while the balance is in deferment. So my best bet is to still make a monthly payment on the unsubsidized loans interest, so it does not add to the existing loan balance. I'll end up paying more by the end of this, but it's better for my credit to show I'm making any payments than to have anything default later on.
Saturday, August 01, 2009
Working extra hard
One of my co-workers never showed up to work today. She didn't call or anything. I hope she's okay. About 10 days ago, she was 3 hours late for work but finally showed up. That time, she got her days of the week mixed up and thought it was her day off. No call/No show= self terminating.
I told Rick that I don't mind some extra hours this week, so I'm working the missing co-worker's shift tomorrow (Sunday). I still hope we hear from her. It's weird that none of us have.
Another co-worker has been gone all summer in Texarkana (sp?). She returns next week. We also have a brand new girl beginning that same week. So, the store will be fine.
Regina told me that at the beginning of October, I'm getting another raise.
One of Jimmy's best friends, who is kinda the quiet-type, just told us this last weekend that he's divorced now. So we're praying for him and his kids (some of yall might remember the kids. We babysat them around the time of Pawpaw's funeral), and praying for his now-ex wife. May God lead them all to what He has planned for them.
I told Rick that I don't mind some extra hours this week, so I'm working the missing co-worker's shift tomorrow (Sunday). I still hope we hear from her. It's weird that none of us have.
Another co-worker has been gone all summer in Texarkana (sp?). She returns next week. We also have a brand new girl beginning that same week. So, the store will be fine.
Regina told me that at the beginning of October, I'm getting another raise.
One of Jimmy's best friends, who is kinda the quiet-type, just told us this last weekend that he's divorced now. So we're praying for him and his kids (some of yall might remember the kids. We babysat them around the time of Pawpaw's funeral), and praying for his now-ex wife. May God lead them all to what He has planned for them.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
update
We bug-bombed the house on Sunday. We had the kids play in our backyard while the house aired out. So that's those pictures from the other day that I put online.
The bug bombing lead to a spring cleaning spurt from Jim & I. I climbed up and vacuumed out all the cabinets. Jim vacuumed up above the cabinets. We've re-washed all the dishes and cooking utensils in the house. I laid down fresh shelf paper in the cabinets.
When I got home from work yesterday, Jim had swept and mopped the kitchen and he had completed the dishes, PLUS made dinner. We've been having pancakes for dinner a lot lately. We have a lot of turkey breakfast sausage in the freezer. It seems like we're in a little bit of a creative slump when it comes to dinner. But he started adding walnuts to the pancakes. They're awesome.
I got a small raise at work. Every day college-aged people approach my counter and ask if we are hiring. It seems like no where is, in Denton, besides the new Carl's Jr. I'm grateful for my job, since I'm getting raises when other people my age can't even find work.
A customer offered me a paying job this week. She is the theatre director at a local high school and wants me to come in to her class as a guest and teach them about makeup application. Like how to do old age makeup, how to use prosthetic latex pieces and all that.
The topic came up because she asked me and my coworker if we were dancers, since we work at a dance store. I told her what my degree is in and that it's from UNT. Turns out, we know a lot of the same people, including her teaching assistant, and my favorite UNT professor. This director said it'd just be a day of work here and there, but the school would pay me for it. I pointed out that I don't have a teaching certificate and the director said that since I'd be lecturing as her guest, it wouldn't matter. I'm excited about it. We have eachother's contact info, so we can talk once her classes begin in the Fall.
I've been sewing a little this week. I made a dress after work the other night. It's a kinda retro look in dark grey. I wanted to do something with this fabric I had around in my office. Funny note: I shouldn't sew when I'm sleepy. I put the dress's left sleeve in upside-down and had to seam-rip and re-sew the sleeve the next day.
The bug bombing lead to a spring cleaning spurt from Jim & I. I climbed up and vacuumed out all the cabinets. Jim vacuumed up above the cabinets. We've re-washed all the dishes and cooking utensils in the house. I laid down fresh shelf paper in the cabinets.
When I got home from work yesterday, Jim had swept and mopped the kitchen and he had completed the dishes, PLUS made dinner. We've been having pancakes for dinner a lot lately. We have a lot of turkey breakfast sausage in the freezer. It seems like we're in a little bit of a creative slump when it comes to dinner. But he started adding walnuts to the pancakes. They're awesome.
I got a small raise at work. Every day college-aged people approach my counter and ask if we are hiring. It seems like no where is, in Denton, besides the new Carl's Jr. I'm grateful for my job, since I'm getting raises when other people my age can't even find work.
A customer offered me a paying job this week. She is the theatre director at a local high school and wants me to come in to her class as a guest and teach them about makeup application. Like how to do old age makeup, how to use prosthetic latex pieces and all that.
The topic came up because she asked me and my coworker if we were dancers, since we work at a dance store. I told her what my degree is in and that it's from UNT. Turns out, we know a lot of the same people, including her teaching assistant, and my favorite UNT professor. This director said it'd just be a day of work here and there, but the school would pay me for it. I pointed out that I don't have a teaching certificate and the director said that since I'd be lecturing as her guest, it wouldn't matter. I'm excited about it. We have eachother's contact info, so we can talk once her classes begin in the Fall.
I've been sewing a little this week. I made a dress after work the other night. It's a kinda retro look in dark grey. I wanted to do something with this fabric I had around in my office. Funny note: I shouldn't sew when I'm sleepy. I put the dress's left sleeve in upside-down and had to seam-rip and re-sew the sleeve the next day.
Elaine pretended to cut a little dress pattern while I was sewing the dress. She is very curious about the sewing machine. I helped her make a fast tube dress for one of her Barbie dolls out of a scrap of fabric. 
this is her pretending to cut a dress pattern.
this is her pretending to cut a dress pattern.
Tonight, after Bible study, I started a quilt. It has a long way to go.
I talked to my mom today. Mark just got back from California, handling some stuff he had to do with the Navy before he can go back to the war. So he's back now and that's one step closer to getting to go back into active duty. Before he went to California, Mark's car was broken into and then the busted car was towed away. So he's having a rough go of things. I'm sure he'd appreciate everyone's prayers. We've invited my family up for Thanksgiving. They're gonna try to make it happen.