celebrity sleepover

so I just went to kiss Dominic tonight and I reminded him to scoot over in his bed so he doesn't roll off (he sleeps on a very high bed) and he told me he couldn't because 'that's special agent OSO'

little did I know we had a celebrity visitor spending the night, had I known that I would have changed the sheets and vacuumed, so I really hope he doesn't return to the disney channel and talk smack about our dirty house--heaven knows we don't want to make a bad impression preventing other celebrities to come and spend the night.

I love how imaginative Dominic is beginning to be--he comes up with some of the crasiest things, I always just forget to blog about them, but I am working on that

Halloween weekend ending in Horror

so the weekend started out fabulous, we went out to the waterpark at the villages for about 2 hours. Dominic went down the the adult body slide and loved it, it was definitely a first and a major indication to me that my baby is growing up. I then went to Bunco night 2 hours late but got their right as they were starting the game so I joined in and ended up being the one that lost the most games--yes, I was very proud.

Saturday morning came, and after we lounged around most the morning we finally got our buts in gear, got Dominic in his Costume, went and picked up Kay (John's 'daughter'--a long story I will explain later) and Patrick (the teenage boy John hangs out with, another long story I will explain later) and went to the pumpkin patch where we ran into Dominic's teacher and her family. The kids had tons of fun and we got lots of pics with my friend's camera (which is why I can't post any right now) and video which we got with the non-digital camcorder so I doubt I will ever be able to post it, but it is definitely something to watch if you are ever at our house.

After the pumpkin patch we went to Taco Bell because rumor had it you could get a free taco on halloween, I insisted it was only in the evening but John disagreed and insisted it was all day--well our lunch cost us $12 and didn't include any free tacos, even though the kids got a lot of compliments on their costumes. The reason it cost so much was because they guy who took our order messed it up and instead of charging me for the 99 cent bean and cheese burrito he charged me for the bean, beef, and cheese burrito which cost a lot more, and didn't taste good at all, unfortunately I was so hungry that it didn't sink in till after I ate half of it so john took 2 of the 4 we got back and exchanged them. John then ordered some drinks and ordered a med., I then told him to order a small, when the manager came to fix what the guy taking the order did she kicked him off the cash register (oops, didn't mean to get him booted to the back, I am sure he was happy to see us leave). We ended up not eating everything we got so we packed everything up on a bag and headed to the church.

The boys (John and Patrick) cleaned the church while the kids played around and I laid down on the couch resting. I could hear the kids running and screaming and playing and at one point I am sure they were playing with the organ and piano on the stand, not to mention the mic. I was definitely happy to head home.

Kay got dropped off with her pumpkin at her house and we headed to Goodwill where I picked up a few books for Dominic and we ran home to carve pumpkins and get our costumes on to go trick or treating.

Carving pumpkins isn't as easy as it looks, especially when your shild chooses a pumpkin more suitable for pumpkin pie then carving. The side were so stinking think I felt like I was trying to cut through a 2X4 instead of carve a pumpkin. I finally managed to carve the 3 pumpkins while John took the dogs for a walk (which reminds me, we did run to Lowes and Petsmart--where we got Red a new chocker collar so he wouldn't pull so hard when we walk him, yet another story for another post) The pumpkins turned out cute, I just wish we could have gotten a picture of them.

Running late, I decided to change and attempt to look like an extra in GREASE, burnt my finger trying to curl my hair, but I think I pulled it off, we then went and joined Marty and took the kids to the mall. turns out I was right about the trick or treating at the mall starting at 5 and since we showed up at 6 most the stores were already out of candy, so it didn't take us long to finish up there and we headed off to find a good place to go trick or treating.

WE took a pit stop at a gas station to let the kids go potty, unfortunately the bathroom wasn't to the kids liking so they both refused--oh joy.

there was a neighborhood that seems to be known for being a great area to trick or treat, they even had cops on bicycles monitoring the streets, we ofcourse were late and so the houses with candy were definitely few and far between so we did a lot of walking. The neat part about this neighborhood was that if they had candy they would be outside handing it out, we didn't have to go door to door knocking. There were a few houses where the people weren't outside and john wouldn't let us knock but every now and again we would see other kids knocking and if they got candy we soon followed.

Halloween was definitely fun and profitable, but it came to an abrumpt end after we visited Dominic's sunday school teacher's house we had to head back to my friends house, we decided to hit up a few places in her neighborhood, including the house that my husband calls the "girlfriends past" house because it had a bunch of gravestones in the front yard with girl's names on them and a huge one labeled 'graveyard of girlfriends past.' this house definitely went all out, the man was standing in the front yard and 2 older teenage boys were dressed up as zombies, one of which was eating a fake human head.

Dominic has finally grasped the concept that things at Halloween are fake--it has been a hard concept for him to grasp, but he seems to have finally grasped it, unfortunately Kay hasn't. As the 'Zombie' eating the fake human head inched his way closer Kay freaked and screamed bloody murder, refusing to accept the candy and resulting in me lsoing my cool and yelling at John to come and get her. She was so scared she just stood their screaming and since she is too heavy for me to lift and carry John had to come and get her cause she wouldn't move because she wasn't going to take her eye of of that Zombie and she didn't care what I said about it being fake. Luckily Daddy John was their to save her. Dominic on the other hand tried to get as much candy as he could, he didn't care who was eating what as long as it wasn't his candy.

Now after that exciting weekend dominic is now super sick and super contagious, we took him to the doc monday and he has an ear infection and was given antibiotics, and so hopefully it will help.

No more rat

Oh, I forgot to mention, when we got home from the halloween carnival saturday night John discovered the dead rat laying in the hallway, he disposed of it properly. It was huge, it was ugly, and it was definitely dead--despite all of that I really wish I had a camera to take a picture so I could post it on here

We have a rat

Yes, I know we have a lot of animals already, I have already admitted defeat, as far as I am concerened having 2 dogs and 2 bunnies, not to mention all the kids that come and go through this house, is possibly more than I can handle. So why do we now have a rat? Because it has yet to eat the poison we have stuck out for it to eat--yes this is an unwelcome visitor who we hope will come to a nasty devise sooner rather than later.

As I sit here and wonder I am thinking about poor little dirty who came up missing over a month ago--the little kitten we got so it could eat the mice in our carport--well we thought they were mice, turns out they were rats. I now sit and wonder if our new little visitor had anything to do with little Dirty's disapearance because I saw it the other night while it ran from the dinning room into the frontroom and it was most definitely bigger than Dirty was before he came up missing.

I have been debating getting another cat to ensure that we get no more little visitors, it would have to stay outside because of my son's allergies ((I know he is allergic to dogs, and therefore we shouldn't have dogs, discussed that with the doctor and because of the breed of dog it is acceptable so don't judge me)) and so we would have to worry about shots and getting it fixed and all the joys that accompany having those things done to an outside cat--but on the plus side, we might no longer have little visitors that I happen upon in the middle of the night as I try to put dinner away.

Either way, if you were wondering, we have since discovered that Red was attempting to get the rat when he ate the couch, so once the rat has met his nasty dimise we will be getting a new Sofa, so if anybody has any good suggestions please share

MY best friend Melody Jones

Todays blog is actually going to be a shout out for a dear friend of mine, I met her about 5 yrs ago when I was pregnant with my son, out of the blue I felt inspired to offer her a bag of shoes a co-worker gave me that didn't fit and later she told me that I was an answer to her prayers, and that she had said a prayer for shoes and how blessed she felt when I suddenly asked her (whom I had only met a few Sundays before) if she could use them.

Anyhow, this friend of mine has been a stay at home mom as long as I could remember and has recently returned to the working field which shocked me, she loved being a stay at home mom to her 4 children, she even home schooled, so I was rather shocked that she was letting her husband take some time off school and work to stay home with the kids while she worked outside of the home--she informed me she was doing it because she wanted to help people and because she felt it was what God wanted her to do.

We actually had a rather long conversation just a day or 2 ago about how she felt, and I agreed, that the skills she had learned these last fews years being a stay at home mom while her husband attended college and her family grew from 2 kids to 4 kids, well lets just say this lady can budget, and she felt like the she could use this skill to help others, mainly that she could use this skill to help others save their homes.

I definitely agree with her, if she can make meals for a family of six and only spend about $60 a month doing it (I think at one point she spent less than that), they have excellent credit, their vehicle was paid off--I mean she was able to do everything I wish I could do, but never did, and it wasn't easy, it wasn't like she had a rich grandpa who paid for everything--no she is a bargain hunter, she has this amazing ability to find a bargain and jump while the going is hot, and on top of her amazing money saving skills she also has this amazing faith, and the point that she is truly doing this to help others makes me believe that this world is definitely going to be a better place because she is apart of it.

Anyhow, with that said, I wanted to ask you all to spread the word that Melody Jones is available to help them not only sort out their finances but to also save their homes--this isn't a scam, she isn't out to take your money--I usually do not trust these types of things, but I trust her and i know anything she tries to do she is doing for the right reasons, so if you are struggling please give her a call to see if she can help you out (she says to mention Meagan sent you, you don't have to but it would at least help her figure out where everyone is getting her number from) you can call her on her cell at  801-688-2985 and her alternate phone number is 801-528-6719--she lives in Utah but can do this over the phone.  The company she goes through has a webpage at www.fortifiedfinancial.com where you can find out more details on what the company (known as Fortified Financials) does, they specialize in loan modification, but trust me when I say, just call her up and talk to her, she can do wonders for finances.

We moved to texas over 3 years ago when we were no longer able to afford the town home we purchased, once the 2 yrs fixed rate was up and the Adjustable rate mortgage kicked in we just couldn't afford it, she watched as we struggled, we had a lot of debt that built up in 2 yrs (I went from perfect credit to not even being able to sign on a car loan--well anyhow, it is a long story for another day) we tried to go through a different company and that company was a complete joke, they talked big but when it came down to it they weren't even able to negotiate with all our debtors we were still getting collection calls and when I finally went off on a collection rep about how we were doing this and they weren't to be calling us the guy enlightened me that the company we were going through was a joke and a waste of money, that not only could they still call us (which the company had promised wouldn't/couldn't happen) but that they didn't have to accept their proposals (and they didn't) and because of the company they wouldn't because everyone knew that company was a scam--we later found this out to be the truth, the company screwed up most our payments and when we tried to contact a few other companies they were unable to help us because once you sign with one company another company isn't able to touch you for like 5 years and we didn't have 5 years we were losing our house in 3 months so we just packed up, moved out and were lucky enough to sell it within days of foreclosure--i really wish Melody would have known then what she knows now because she could have saved us a lot of heartache and tears--when we moved out we had my brother and a family friend living with us and they both had to find new places to live, this didn't just affect us, this seemed to effect everyone.

I am just trying to say, don't wait till you are backed in the corner, don't think there are no options, give her a call, she knows the economy started going down hill when people started to lose their houses, and so she knows the one way to keep us from entering another depression is to keep others from losing their homes--she is truly inspired.

well, this has turned out to be a lot longer than I had expected, i just don't know of any quick way to say how much I trust melody and anything she does.  Good luck ya'll

To grandfathers house....

To start off, 3 yrs ago we moved from Utah to Texas, a few months after moving here I landed a job as a flight attendant and the flight benefits allowed us to fly home and visit family and friends in Utah and Nevada for not very much money (unless of course a flight was canceled and we ended up spending the day in the airport or ridding the greyhound from Vegas to Fillmore, or something like that) Unfortunately when I took my sick leave last year i had to give up my flight benefits, which means no more trips to grandma's or grandpa's house and since my dad used my benefits to visit us, this also meant Grandpa couldn't visit as much.

Well, it has been well over a year since we last visited Utah, the boys were the last ones to visit Utah, they made it on the plane and I didn't, I figure it has been atleast 2 yrs since I have been to visit my Mom in Utah and remember going in Oct. 2007 to go and visit Salt Lake, I don't remember any trips after that, like I said though the boys have since been but it has been a year. One must say in the year I had the flight benefits our little boy became quite accustom to flying, so much that he still mentions it quite a lot, he loves airplanes and has probably wasted a forest of trees making paper airplanes.

Well this weekend we have been cleaning out the carport (and by we, I mean John) and some bags we have in huge trash bags have been brought inside and Dominic found a little carry on bag and he went and packed it full of toys and books (he says, I haven't looked to see just what he packed) and he came and stuck his head in the bathroom and informed me that dad was going to take him to the airport and he was going to go and visit Grandpa, at first I played with, thinking he was pretending, and I told him he ought to call his grandpa--well grandpa agreed and jokingly I told my dad all he had in his bag was toys and books so they would have to get him clothes--Dominic at that point excitingly announces he has clothes and runs to his room--this was about the time I realized Dominic was seriously about going to Grandpa's and the tears that soon followed were enough to make me want to cry.

How exactly do you explain to a 4 yr old that they can't just go and see Grandpa (or grandma) like they use to? Before it didn't matter how much money we had we just got on a plane and went--sometimes Dominic didn't even care what plane, he just wanted to board a plane and thought all planes went to grandpa's, but that is a different story for a different time. I tried to explain to him that we could only do that when mommy would fly a lot but now that mommy is home more and doesn't fly we don't get to fly anymore--he seriously looked at me like that was completely unfair, that now not only does he have to see mom all the time but because of that he doesn't get to see his bested buddy grandpa, so before he could say anything to that affect I quickly told him that we were trying to save up some money so we could take him to grandpa's for Christmas.

I have wanted to take Dominic to Temple Square to see the lights so bad--unfortunately we never made it with himto see them at night, even when we lived in Utah , we actually haven't been to see the lights at temple square at night since about a week before Dominic was born, John and I went there together but by the time we got there i had to go to the bathroom (being pregnant and all) and all the lines to the bathroom were so long we ended up walking the 2 blocks back to the credit Union where my dad was to use the bathroom, we were going to return but then Dominic was born and after our stay in the hospital and Dominic being so early and tiny we didn't think it appropriate to take him out at night to see lights, the next year we took him during the day but felt it way too cold to take him at night, and then we moved in the summer...every year since then we have droven around Tyler to see the christmas lights a few days before Christmas and he always enjoys that so I am really hoping to be able to make it to Utah this Christmas so I can take him to see the lights at Temple Square (as well as family and friends and all that too) I was thinking maybe if I could score some cheap ticket Dominic took take a week off of school and him and I could fly to Utah for his Birthday and either return right before Christmas or have John follow closer to Christmas--i figure even if we drive right before Christmas it won't be that expensive because we can save gas by not having to use the air conditioner

Either way, right now it is just a dream/fantasy, with no money in our bank account and bills coming out our ears it seems it might have to be something we put off till next year--either way, I realized today that Dominic is almost at age to be an unaccompanied minor so now I am trying to remember if they can fly unaccompanied at the age of 5 or 6 or was it even 8? and in addition to that, do i trust him to fly unaccompanied even if the airlines permit it?

the joys of children

I wanted to post an inspirational post about parenting and the joys of children, unfortunately, we are having people over for dinner and I haven't even prepared the food, not to mention the children destroyed my clean house so I have to reclean it, if that wasn't the case this so would be a post about how much children bless my life--well maybe next time

wish me luck