Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Everyone,

                I didn’t do this letter last year, but I though so many wonderful thing are happening this year, I had to share it.

First in January, Devin and I welcomed Vance Edmond Carber into the family.  Van is such a happy baby.  I really mean it.  He is always laughing and smiling.

  

At first, I don’t think Zelda knew what to make of him.  I think she thought that I had just bought him the world’s best baby doll, but that has all changed.  She really loves him and when he falls, she runs over and rubs his leg or head.  Whatever she thinks he hurt.  She is such a good big sister!

Zelda turned two in October.  I can’t believe where the time is going.  I fell as if it was only yesterday when she was born and now Van is 11 month old!  It’s crazy@

All of the animals have warmed up to the kids.  Boba Fett is one of the favorites, despite how Devin feels about him.  He is the most patient dog I have ever known.  Zelda can pull his tail and jump on him and all he does his kiss her back.  Gonzo the orange cat has fallen in love with Van.  If you can’t find Gonzo, he is with Van.

Devin and I started school in the fall.  I am taking graduate classes at Stockton College and Devin is attending Atlantic Cape Community College.  We both figured that if we want better jobs, we need more education.  I am hoping that I can get a teaching job soon.  Many teachers in my school district were hired while they were working on their certifications, so there is hope.

I also want to thank Aunt Ellen and Uncle Harry for getting Zelda the baby boy doll.  Van loves it!  I am not sure what he likes.  I think he likes that they eyes move because he keeps shutting the baby’s eyelids.

Merry Christmas to everyone!  Devin and I are very happy, but also very exhausted!  SO if anyone want to come and babysit to happy kids just let us know.:)

In Christ

Nancy

Devin

Zelda

Vance (Van)

P.S.  I have to add a picture of Zelda’s and mommy’s buddies!

My Unexpected Path.

Okay now that I have told you all how I love Easter and that I know that God will always be there for me, I think I am ready to tell you all about what is happening in my life.  As many of you know, my husband lost his job in September.  Now the events surrounding this will have to wait for another post.  His losing his job put a finical burden on us.  We struggled for many months trying to pay all of our bills and keep our house.  With my paycheck, I was able to pay everything except the mortgage.  It came down to food or paying the mortgage.  We need to pay all of the other bills to keep us functioning.  Devin used to be able to take Zelda to work with him, now we had to decide what we were going to do for childcare. 

                Devin got his SORA training.  That is the security Officer Registration Act, so he tried to get a job as a night security guard.  Through many job he finally found one at the Hamilton Mall.  Now he doesn’t get many hours there now but we hope those hours will increase with time.  I work during the day and Devin works at night.  It’s hard because we don’t see each other a lot, but we are making it work. 

                Through this time, many people helped us that I will be forever grateful for.  Devin’s sisters helped us get groceries when we didn’t have a car.  My brother gave me his old car!  He is am amazing brother.  My parents helped us so much.  I hope that one day I can do the same for my kids.

                We have called our bank and talked with them many times during this process.  We have sent finical information to them a few times and finally they tell me that they can’t help us.  I asked them for help and they said no.  First, they said that Devin needed to get a job and then they could help.  Devin got a job and they still can’t help.

                After a lot of deliberation, and tears we have decided that the best thing we can do is to sell our house.  I am not sure what the outcome will be.  I hope to find a good real-estate agent who can guide us in this process.  I hope that I will not have to pay anything in the end, but I know that my credit has been damaged and it will take a long time to rebuild it. 

                We are trying to find a place to rent and one that we can get with our credit.  One that will allow us to keep Penny and one that is in a good neighborhood.  Say a prayer for us.  I know that God is watching out for us and that everything will be okay.  It seems that in times such as this I am closer to God than in times when everything seems ok and peaceful.  I feel guilty that I have not been able to get to church, but it is quite difficult to take the two kids by myself.  Devin works nights so he is tired in the morning. 

Even though it may not appear that, this was a difficult post it was.  We have been dealing with this for months and many of you had no idea.  I was embarrassed to say anything.  I know that many Americans are in the same situation that I am in right now but that did not change how I felt.  I felt like I was letting my family down.  I felt like I had this great house and I really wanted my kids to grow up in it.  I had all of these plans for how to renovate that house and make it larger.  In the end, God takes our well laid out plans and gives us another path.  Though we sometimes go, kicking and screaming like children often do when their dads want them to do something other than what they are doing, we do go.  God knows best and He knows the right path for us.  We just have to take it.  Who knows what the future holds?  God is the only one who does and I am excited to see what he has planned for my family and me. 

Easter

Easter is here!  Easter is my favorite holiday.  I love it for many different reasons.  I love that it is not as commercialized as Christmas.  I love the Easter Bunny, jellybeans, and going to church with my family.  I love that the Devil was defeated and Jesus rose from the grave.  I love that he gave his life for my family and me. 

When I was little Easter was going to church with my dad.  Easter was the only time my dad went to church.  I loved sitting in church with my whole family.  I felt so proud.  Now I know that many of you are thinking.  Why didn’t my dad go to church with us all of the time?  I am not going to defend him but he had to get up at 4:30 in the morning everyday for work.  So I am sure that he did not want to get up early on Sunday.

We had a small apartment, so there were only a few places where you can hide eggs.  I was always amazed that my dad knew exactly where the Easter Bunny hide all of the eggs.  Usually that Saturday night I would look outside to try to see if I could see the Easter Bunny.  My mom would tell me the same thing that she told me when I was up waiting for Santa.  That he would not come until I was sleeping.  One time she told me that he saw him because he saw his ears coming over the apartments across the street.  So I thought that the Easter Bunny was like 40 feet tall.  I pictured this giant bunny hoping threw the streets.  How could he fit in the door? 

I remember everything that I am grateful for and everything that God has given me.  I have a wonderful husband, and two beautiful kids.  Anything else that comes my way I can handle because I know that God is with me and that Jesus loved me so much that he died for me.  He died for my husband and my kids, and everyone else in the world.  How amazing is that!

Let's see how random I can see!

Ok so I haven’t posted anything in a long time.  I have a good reason for that though.  I went back to work after having Van. There are so many things that I want to do and not enough time for all of them.  Let’s see how random I can be.  Try to stay with me now.

 I started editing my book again.  I have not idea when or if I will finish this. 

I applied to graduate school.  Am I crazy?  Well probably but I still hope to get in.  Not sure how many classes I can handle. Maybe start with one and then see how that goes. I have my elementary school certification, and now I want to go back and get my special ed cert.  I am a personal aide at Atlantic county special services.  It is so hard to find an elementary ed job, so if I have elementary and special ed certs I shouldn’t have any problem finding a job.  Maybe my school will hire me.

 I am playing so much World of Warcraft.  Actually haven’t played all week but a girl needs to sleep.  I try to play after the kids go to bed, but as I said before there are so, many things that I want to do.

I love my job and it’s a great thing because I don’t know if I would want to leave my kids all day if I didn’t love it.  Well I need the money, so there’s always that.  But it would make it more difficult if I hated my job.  I can’t imagine what it would be like if I still worked for Payless.  Nothing against shoes but really it would have been tough. 

So I get home and all I want to do is play with my kids.  I could hold Van for hours.  He just looks up and smiles.  Love it. He is starting to do that cooing stuff.  It’s so cute. It’s as if he is trying to talk to you.

Now Zelda is just crazy.  She runs around the house and somehow always ends up in the kitchen.  She takes things off of my pantry shelf and puts them all over the place.  There was spaghetti sauce in the bathroom and tomato paste on the windowsill in the living room.  Why does this girl like tomatoes so much?  One day she took all of the baby soap out of the bathroom and put them all on a shelf in Devin’s office. Devin said, “Wow she is so your daughter.”  Not that I have OCD or anything.  I just like stuff to be clean.  Well maybe a little OCD but not to where it makes my life crazy.  I just make people around me crazy.  

I want to write another book.  I had a very strange dream last week.  It was so strange that I got out of bed, took my tape recorder out, and recorded what I dreamt about.  I am still trying to remember some things and put some of the pieces of the story together.  I think it would make a good book or a sci-fi channel movie.  Either way, it was weird.  I think I will save that for another post, or this would go on forever.

 

So here, I am late at night when I should be in bed, doing all sorts of things.  I even went into the attic and found old arts and crafts stuff.  I was trying to find stuff to do with the kids in school and now I have all of the projects that I can do with Zelda.    

Well I had better go to bed.  I have to work tomorrow.  Wish I could sleep, but my mind is on overdrive.   Good thing I have lots of stuff that I want to do.  J

World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft

Devin always tries to get me to play crazy games with him.  As I am writing this, I am playing Dark Hersey.  Don’t know what that is?  Let me tell you.  Wait I don’t know what it is.  I have no idea what I am going.  We are using Skype and a web site called “Online Dice Roller” to play.  It is a roll playing game.  Now I am not familiar with the world that this game is set in.  I know Dungeons and Dragon but I am very confused playing this game. 

I may find that I love this game, but I am not sure right now.

My character is a 76-year-old Imperial Psyker.  I have violet eyes, bluish skin, and ginger hair.  It sounds creepy, right.  Well my character is apparently so creepy that I have a power that creeps people out so that they are stunned and can’t do anything for a round.  I was born on a space ship, oh and my occupation is a soothsayer.  So yes, I am confused.  I usually play Dungeons and Dragons, and I usually play a druid.  I like druids they know about nature and animals.  They know about stuff that makes sense to me. 

I may find out that I actually like this game, but that remains to be seen.  It has happened before though.  I now actually like playing dungeons and Dragons now.  At first, I thought that it was boring.  Waiting for people to talk about what they were going to do and then waiting for your turn was boring.  I always wanted to do other thing as I was playing.  I would write my grocery list, read a book, right a letter, whatever I could do to keep my attention.  Devin suggested that I become a Dungeon Master.  I tried it and it was so much fun.  As the Dungeon Master, you are in charge of the entire game.  I didn’t just have to wait for my turn, because in a battle everyone was attacking my characters.  It was like it was always my turn. I loved it.  And if any of you remember the Alltel commercial.  I am going to try to post it here.  Hope it works.  I totally get it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1jfofjPtEY

I had so much fun playing a vampire in a World of Darkness Larp (Live action Roll playing), and I am addicted to world of warcraft.

World of Wacraft is so much fun.  I’m not even sure why it is.  You make characters and they level up but running around doing quest.  I think the addictive part of it is the excitement you get from leveling up.  I am playing an undead warrior.  I also have an undead horse.  It is so cool. 

HOME MADE

§  I feel bad that I haven’t posted in a while, but trust me I have been busy.  Van, my son, has been keeping me up all night.  Thank God for coffee.  Anyway, some of you may know that I am not returning to my part-time job.  I previously worked at the After School Program for the ARC.  I didn’t want to say anything officially until I sent in my resignation.  I liked this job, but with both of my kids and Devin’s new job, it was impossible for me to stay.  

§  Even though Devin now has a job, leaving the arc stills means less money.  I have been trying to find ways to save, and I noticed that one of my friends has been using a web site called “Frugal Girls”.  I tried it out.  I found many ways to save.  Some of these may sound crazy.  I have not tried all of them yet, but I could not wait to share.

§   

I just finished making homemade laundry soap.  It was so easy and if it works, it will save me about 20 dollars each time I make it.  One container of laundry soap could cost up to 20 dollars and I made the same amount for like a dollar. 

§  I also made homemade fabric softener.  All I needed was container and vinegar.  Just finished a load of laundry with it and the clothes feel so soft.  If you use suave and store brand vinegar it only cost like 3 dollars for a gallon of it.  

§   

§  Finally, I made homemade wipes.  Devin wasn’t sure about these, but they seem to be working.  I took old t-shirts, cut them up, and then put them in a mixture of baby oil, baby shampoo, and water.  You wash them and then reuse them.  Oh, what did I just GO GREEN!  Well I am happy that I am saving green.  The t-shirts are softer then regular baby wipes and I use less of them because they absorb more.  The wipes also smell wonderful, better than the ones I was using before.

§   

I almost forgot.  I made homemade leave in conditioner.  It is so easy.  Just take your spray bottle, put a little conditioner in to it (whatever smell you like) and a little water, and shake it up.  I tried it this morning and it works great.  I didn’t even need regular conditioner just the spray.  I saved money because you only need a little conditioner for the entire bottle.  I used suave strawberry.  The entire bottle of conditioner cost like a dollar.  It could last me all year, and my hair feels great!

Home Made Laundry soap

What you need

§  1/2 Cup: Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda {not Baking Soda}

§  1/2 Cup: Borax {print a coupon here}

§  1/3 Bar of Fels-Naptha Soap {you could also use Ivory soap, but if using Ivory… use the whole bar}

§  Bucket {2 gallon size or larger}

§  Empty laundry detergent containers or bucket with lid to store detergent.

What You’ll Do:

§  Grate 1/3 bar of Fels-Naptha Soap over large pot or saucepan…

• Add 6 cups of Water.
• Heat over medium-high until soap dissolves and melts.
• Add Washing Soda & Borax, and stir until dissolved.
• Remove from heat and set aside.
• Pour 4 cups Hot Water into bucket, and then add Soap Mixture.
• Stir, and then add 1 Gallon + 6 Cups of additional water.  Stir.

§  Transfer to a bucket with a lid, or pour into empty laundry detergent containers.

§  Set aside, and let it sit overnight, or up to 24 hours, to thicken and gel up.

Home Made fabric softener (I tried it and loved it.  I would probably put more conditioner in next time to make it smell better.)

What You’ll Need:

§  6 cups HOT water

§  3 cups white vinegar

§  2 cups Suave Refreshing Waterfall Conditioner {or other favorite scent}

§   

What You’ll Do:

§  Mix conditioner & hot water well, until conditioner is dissolved completely.

§  Add the vinegar, and mix well.

§  Store in a large container {empty fabric softener container, empty large vinegar bottle, etc}

§  Pour into a downy ball… or the fabric softener spot in your laundry machine… then wash!

Home Made Wipes

•2 1/2 cup Water

•2 tsp Baby Shampoo or Baby Bath

•1 tsp. Baby Oil

•1/2 Roll Paper Towels (Bounty) I used scarps of old T-shirts.

Directions

Take old t-shirts.  (I had just gone through our closet and took out anything that was fading, ripped, or didn’t fit anymore.)  Cut them into pieces.  Mix water, shampoo and baby oil in a container.  Put the scraps into the mixture and let them soak.  (I would wring the out and then put them into the baby wipe container.  Be sure to make extra so.  While you are cleaning one load of wipes, you can use the others.  I made an entire box full of scrapes.  Keep a laundry basket (one with a lid) next to your changing area.  I would wash these wipes by themselves in your washing machine.

Anyone have any other ideas.  My kitchen has become a lab!

Penny and Boba Fett

First, I would like to say, “I love my dogs”.  This leads to me have a difficult time trying to find a football team to root for.  Any suggestions, I love football, and unfortunately, all I have are Eagles jerseys.  I love my dogs much more than I love the eagles. 

I have always thought of myself as a dog person, but when I got married, we couldn’t have a dog.  We lived in an apartment and they didn’t really want us to have any pets but they said we could have a cat.

We got a little black and white tuxedo cat.  He was so cute.  We called him Little Devin, because he actually acted a lot like my husband Devin.  They would sit on the couch and watch TV together and whenever Devin was playing a video game, little Devin would try to hit the controller.  It looked like he was trying to play with him. 

Next, since Little Devin was crazy and we needed someone for him to play with we got Little Nancy.  Okay so then we got Ranger and Darth Vader.  When we had to move to another apartment, and they only would allow us to have two cats, we needed to get rid of Ranger and Darth Vader.  Don’t worry we found good homes for them, but that did not stop us from finding other cats.  We then found Gonzo and Jack (Jack is a girl but we did not know that when he found her she was too little.)

We bought a house and took our four cats with us.  Now that we have a house, I can have a dog.  I convinced myself that I had become a cat person, but that was not true.  We went to the Pleasantville animal shelter and adopted Penny.

Okay so I love my cats but Penny is awesome.  She cares for us in ways the cats did not.  Penny wants to make us happy.  When I am sick or sad, penny is right there next to me.  The cats are not.  When I was pregnant with my daughter, Penny would lie next to me and lay her head down on my stomach. 

One day during one of those strong summer storms, I found a little white dog on my doorstep.  He was filthy and shaking.  I took him inside, feed him, and gave him a bath.  Penny loved him.  I was so excited about this because Penny is normally afraid of other dogs.  Infect Penny is afraid of everything.  I had to call animal control and they came and picked him up.  They took him to the animal shelter and I told them that if not one comes for him we will take him.  That is how I got Boba Fett.

Like I said I love my dogs, but they drive me crazy.  Like I said I love my dogs, but they drive me crazy.  They are always getting into to things they are not supposed to, and Boba is so bad about going to the bathroom.  It is obvious that Penny is smarter then Boba.  Penny will knock down the trashcan, grab something from it, and run and hide with it.  Boba will put his head in the trashcan and stay there.  

Why big worry right now is what we are going to do with the dogs.  Thankfully, Devin got a job, but since he has been out of work since September, we are behind on some bills.  If we need to sell the house, and get an apartment, where will the dogs go?  I pray that we are able to get back on track with things. I know that God will show us what we need to do.  As for now, I just continue to pray and work as hard as I can to everything together.