Unemployment is busy!

I've decided that this summer is about spending the time bonding with my family.  It seems so much time is devoted to work and just doing the day to day that we forget how to spend time with each other.   I'm having so much fun hanging out with the kidlet.  She's so fun!  I wish I hadn't lost so many summers.  Did I say my husband is loving it too :)

Sarah and I are starting to work out at the YMCA and going to the pool afterward.  It's all good.....

We have produce...from the garden!

Hey look!  We have daikon and radishes from our garden!  Sarah planted these so she was VERY excited to start pulling.  I actually had never had daikon and I kindof like them.  They are just a little spicier than our radishes :)  Now I just have to figure out what to do with all of them....Sarah planted a LOT!

Picnicing with the "Muppy"

 Why did we start calling Flash, "Muppy"?  It actually started as Mr. Puppy...and as he got older, we started to call him Muppy for short.  I'm not sure if he knows that what his name is for sure since we use it interchangeably. 

We decided to take Muppy to the park with us for a picnic.  Sarah is out of school as of this week and we are officially starting our summer.    As you can see Flash is not much of a walker.  He's already taking a rest and we haven't even made it around the park here!

I wish I could have caught a shot of the ducks.  Flash was very interested in seeing if he could catch one or chase one...not sure :)

OK, we skipped school!

So, we are going with K12 for homeschool.  They are like a magnet school only online.  They supply us with the computer, software, textbooks, teacher, etc.  Today we went to the K12 Discover Day at Circus Circus.  We were able to meet some of the administrators and teachers as well as look through her textbook for next year.  I was very impressed for the most part.  We are going to have a challenging year

Sarah was able to ride on all the rides at the inside amusement park.  She had a great time.  I have a roller coaster junkie!  She must have ridden the one roller coaster 12 times in a row :)  I was a little disappointed not to meet some more of the kids but I did look around and I really liked that the kids all around us were polite and dressed appropriately...of course what would I expect from this gathering!  I did get to talk to some parents while we were watching the kids and everyone was really happy with K12 this year.  I can't wait to get started!

It's Official! We have a garden :)

 My husband is a genius!  It's hard to grow things in the desert.  I still have it in my head that you put things in soil, water them, weed...and they grow just like Indiana.  Turns out so NOT true.  Tracy build a raised garden this year.  We plan on building another one to the side of it with a walk way if it works well this year. 

 Look we even have plant that are somewhat growing!  Who knew this would work so well.  Of course, we had to have 4 tons of dirt brought in to put in the box but we are hoping it will be worth it!

This is what it looks like....don't you love the yard of dirt and rock :(  Tracy is going to put in a water system too so that I don't have to go out 2 times a day to water.  I know it's going to get crazy hot soon and I'm not going to want to walk out there.  He's also putting up one of those sail cloths for shade, which we will definitely need when it gets into the 100's!

Thanks honey :)

Sarah's Final 7th Grade Orchestra Concert!

 It has been a long year for Sarah.  I think she's pretty done with going to school for the year.  I remember that feeling.  The orchestra teacher had a rough year but a couple of weeks ago the advanced orchestra came home with an award for 1st in the state in school orchestras (middle schools and high schools).  She is the one reason we stayed in this middle school this year.  She's tough, doesn't take back talk and she expects the kids to do what they are expected to do.  She won't "give" a grade.  You have to work for it.  The intermediate kids were pretty unhappy at this concert and you could see it in their behavior  and the way they were sitting.  The teacher gave extra music to the advanced and took away a couple of songs from the intermediate kids because they weren't practicing enough and doing as well as she expected.  It was rather sad but I understood that she was frustrated. 

Sarah has requested that we try to take her to orchestra daily next year  for homeschooling.  She has been moved up to advanced this year.  It means she's going to have to practice all summer to get ready for the beginning of school but she says she's willing to do it.  I've asked the school and they seem to be ok with it.  I just need to verify some information and it's all good.  I'm so happy they let homeschoolers use the extracurriculars.  That makes a huge difference since I didn't want Sarah to drop a musical instrument and wasn't sure we were going to be able to pull of private lessons on top of everything else.  Yay God!

It has been awhile....

I feel so busy and yet so relaxed.  My little savings page Freebies, Great Deals, and Swag Bucks is taking off a little on facebook now.  I started posting there January 14th....for some reason, I've been keeping mental track of the date, which is surprising since I rarely remember dates without a calendar :)  It is actually a lot more "work" than I thought it would be.  I was doing it originally just for fun because I was finding all these great deals and I didn't have much of anyone to share them with.  Now it takes at least 4 hours a day to make sure the day is full and I have enough of what people might be looking for.  Why is it I always do more than anyone would ask me to do!  Lucky for me I found someone I knew from Recipezaar that is willing to throw on some great deals when she finds them too.  She was doing the same thing I was on Facebook....just putting them out there, so when that works out it's MUCH easier!  That's basically my "work" now...and I don't get paid for it so I have to enjoy it! 

My work work is gone for the most part.  I started unemployment two weeks ago.  Believe me when I tell you that $298 will not take you very far.  Seriously wondering how we will survive but I have to take it on faith that a door will open.  Tracy says he enjoys coming home to a happy wife, dinner and my new found calmness.  I guess the stress of knowing I would lose the job was starting to become a background strain I wasn't really aware was changing my innate happiness.  Now, at this moment I would say I don't mind if I go back to work for awhile....not that I won't, but that I'm not minding having some time to breath and enjoy the great weather, and happy family life. We'll see how I feel this week when my folks take Sarah on spring break with her friend and I'm on my own most of the week....well maybe not since it's Tray and my birthdays, so we'll try to do something with each other one day...but mostly on my own.  I'm thinking about teaching myself web design and HTML for fun.  Unfortunately so far, my mind isn't wrapping it's way around it but I think I can get it if I can focus!

On a funnier note, Sarah has her first (and second) two piece bathing suit!  I had a hard time letting her do it but she's 12 and an impossible fit for most one piece bathing suits right now since she's so darn tall and skinny. I'm starting to wonder if she'll hit 100 lbs by high school but it's possible as puberty hits I suppose :)  We got her one with a regular thick strap bikini top and short, and one surf shirt and shorts.  I let her try on a "regular' bikini and sorry...but not yet.  She looked far more grown up than we needed! 

I need to get breakfast started and get ready for church.  So little time :)