Christmas Decorations

I have wanted to add some photos of our place for a while now and I am finally around to it. I love the way it looks in person but I don't think it comes across as warm when I take photos. Here are some I took though before we put up our tree.

I just picked up some new decorations. I was getting so tired of the ones we bought a few years ago. I will pull them back out in a few years though since I still like them!

More candles!

I love this new bird cage. I figured my hubby wouldn't really be the biggest fan but he has yet to complain about them. He had actually been playing with it quite a bit...

He figured our drinking bird belonged in it.

Wow doesn't that seem like the weirdest thing to own? My brother in law brought it over one evening and seriously all the little kids that come over love to play with it.

He then decided our Christmas bulbs belong in it! Now I will have to go and pick up some new ones since they belonged in some other glass canisters we have. I love decorating with them!!

This is my favorite ornament! It may not look like a lot but it was my mother's from when she was a child. I always loved putting it up every year. My husband decided it was worth taking a photo of.

I did it!

I finally went to the gym tonight! I was only there for 35 minutes and I only ran/walked 2 miles but I kept my heart rate around 150, if I go any higher I have realized I wear myself out really quickly. I was also able to burn 340 calories or almost 7 points for you weight watchers gals! Did you know that 1 point is about 50 calories, fat can make that higher though and fiber can lower that. I am not sure how I am going to make it a habit but hopefully it will happen. I also came home and was feeling motivated, I was able to do I few things I would normally put off.

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With tomorrow being Thanksgiving I am not worried about my points I am going to enjoy myself. I have realized though that when I have been following my points I eat so many small meals that my stomach is a lot smaller than normally. If I eat like I normally did I feel really uncomfortable for the next few hours and really am unhappy so tomorrow I will just make sure my portions are smaller! I even made cupcakes from scratch because I felt bad because I bought the pies from Costco.

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Happy Thanksgiving!

Thankful

I am thankful for Weight Watchers and having such a great easy way to feel great!

So that I look like this this year...

and not like I looked at Thanksgiving 2006

Pretty sure those were a size 14 and now I am down to an 8!! I am really not looking for compliments it is just a great feeling not to be stuck anymore especially since I was always extremely skinny until my 20's.

Hide and Seek

So far today has been a pretty fun day! I got to spend the day with one of my favorite 3 year olds. We played hide and seek for a while, here was E's favorite hiding spot. E is the little girl riding the elephant on my last post.


Here is a photo of my new velvet blazer. I showed my husband tonight and he thought it was a joke and asked if it was part of my joker costume. I like it and it is super comfy. It looks nice but isn't as stiff as most jackets, it also has a slightly ruffled collar that I think you can leave up or fold down. I picked it up for about $50 from J. Crew! I bought a black one a few years back for over $100 so I thought this was a pretty good deal.


I really want to start putting up Christmas decorations but my hubby has said we have to wait till after Thanksgiving. We usually put them up Thanksgiving evening but he will be working all day so it will have to wait.
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Oh I almost forgot the most annoying part of the day. We had to pick a few things up at Walmart (sorry its so much cheaper.) One of which was propane, no big deal just give them your tank and get a new one, right? Not tonight...
We pay for it and the cashier tells us if its longer than 10-15 minutes before they come out come back in. I was thinking to myself that's a really long time, it better not take that long its 8 pm and you are not busy. Well my husband and I pull up to where the tanks are and wait about 10 min. I find the number on my iPhone (shameless plug!) and wait on hold forever before they get back on and tell me it will be a minute because the garden girl is getting a propane tank. Great I say that is for us. We continue to wait and wait and wait. I call again, they say they will send her out right away. We wait some more. After half and hour I march inside to get the manager who could care less that we have been waiting. We meet him outside where he continues to dig through all the tanks out there. It seems they may not have any that are full. Ahh! He finally finds one in the first cage he had opened and we are off, 35 minutes later. Easy and convenient as the cage says right?

Weekend happenings

We had a pretty great but pretty busy weekend! We started it off by hanging out with these three monkeys.

We had a pizza party and then a pajama movie night where even we changed into the pj's we brought while their parents were enjoying themselves at the coldplay concert. I brought over my elephant so they could enjoy it since we had it just sitting around getting dusty.

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We ended up staying up pretty late Friday evening since they got home from the concert pretty late. I figured I would wake up before 11 without an alarm so I didn't set one. I had to pick up my God daughter at noon for a friend's daughter's 1st birthday party. I figured I would give her mother an afternoon off. Imagine my surprise when I woke up and realized it was 11 already and I had only an hour to shower, get ready and pick her up. I was about to jump into the shower and heard a very friendly knock at the door, I figured it was a family member stopping by. By the time I had gotten dressed to answer the door no one was there but a girl was walking away from my neighbors door so I asked if she had knocked. She said she had and asked if she could come up, 1st mistake. She was rambling on and seemed so over the top, she even had on red glitter eyeliner. She then asked if she could come in, 2nd mistake. She asked me a few silly questions and then if she could send me a postcard. The girl didn't even know how to spell the name of our city, very weird. I then looked at the clock and realized I only had 45 minutes now and HAD to get going. The girl wouldn't take no for an answer, I am pretty sure I told her 4 different ways I was out of time, money and wasn't interested in buying a magazine from her. She finally got it and left!! Hubby was at the firehouse and laughed at me for letting her in. Then he admitted he let a hot girl in once in college and learned his lesson.

I finally was able to get out the door to the party though!

Sydney loved the trampoline at the party and was there almost the entire time. She even found a new little friend who she had to hug when we were leaving, scary.

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That evening I had a sleepover with the YL freshman girls. The rule for the night was that you had to bring something to dip in chocolate fondue. The girls loved it even though we ended up with 4 types of pretzels. We also watched the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants II, very cute. I loved how realistically they portrayed the sex scene and what all comes with that it.

We ended up having 9 girls plus me and had an amazing evening.
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The girls got picked up pretty early so I was able to have the day free with Hubby. I picked up a cute purple velvet blazer from J Crew on my way home, I will post photos of it tomorrow! I got a call though from a friends asking if we could watch her little 2 year old so that she could go see Twilight with her sister. Here is a picture of little Caraline today all decked out in Bronco's gear.

We all then went out to dinner and had a pretty good time! My hubby has the next 3 days off so I am excited about that despite the fact he has to work Thanksgiving this year (it just falls on his shifts rotation.)

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Hubby and doggie asking if I would hang out with them! Look at how happy Ridley is, is almost showing all of you how she can smile.

Hanging out watching a movie.

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I have decided to read the first Twilight book so that I am informed since I am sure that won't be the first parent to ask me about them.

Hope you all had great weekends as well!

Awards

Special thanks to Mrs. Cups for my cute new award! She is very cute, don't forget to check it out.

The Rules:Post 5 of your "fabulous addictions."

1. Blogging - gotta agree! Does anyone else think through out the day, oh I should write about this on my blog?!

2. White! I just love crisp white on almost anything

3. Candles especially now that it is getting colder

4.Shopping and getting amazing deals! I can almost always find a steal at J Crew

5. Children, I have been blessed with a love for all children, especially others children for now

I really wanted to thank those who have said they will pray for me and my husband in this time of uncertainty. Any of you that haven't received this award I would love to present it to you. You girls have given me such peace!

Twilight question

Ladies I have a question for you Twilight lovers out there. I was asked today by the mother of one of my Young Life freshman girls if I had an opinion on the Twilight series and what I thought about them. I have actually been wondering for myself as well. Now I really want the opinion of my other fellow Christian women on this one. Would you let your 14 year old teenage daughter read these? I want to hear your take also as a Christian reading them as I know so many of you are.
Thanks in advanced! I know you all will be so helpful!

Weight loss update

As most of my reader who have been reading for a couple of months now know that I have lost 30 lbs in the last year and a half doing Weight Watchers. Here are the photos if you don't believe me. I just wanted to give you an update since I don't post every week about how much I have lost, I really have been stuck right around 140 lbs since May. I still follow when I can but a lot of times it is really hard to fit it in socially. I am happy though that I have been able to stay where I am and that I have not been gaining again. I have been told so many times by so many people "Oh I lost a lot of weight doing ww but then I gained it all back". Obviously they just went back to the thing that made them gain the weight in the first place if that is the case.

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I got back from my trip and weighed 144.2 on the 11th. I am happy to announce that after 3 days of following my points I am down to 139.8 this morning (my lowest was 138.8 September 5th.) I will be able to follow my points today but I will be using my extra points tomorrow since I have a 1st birthday party and then a sleepover with my YL girls. Sunday morning I will be back to following my points though. I love to see the definition that is a little more noticeable every morning when I wake up and I love how my clothes are fitting a little looser everyday. I know that I lost a lot of weight in a short time but I do realize it was mostly water weight and it will level off soon. Hopefully I will be able get past this and start loosing weight regularly again. I know the holidays can make this hard but I have such an easier time loosing during the winter. I also really want to fit in running and lifting weights again since I know that building muscle will only help my metabolism.

What do you splurge on?

So I just got what I think is a great idea for a post from Off the Beaten Path. Mrs. Guru was asking for help picking a new shampoo since Pantene seems to leave her hair tangled lately. I suggested that she use salon shampoo since it treats your hair very differently than grocery store shampoo. My stylist told me last time that it just coats your hair and makes it seem healthy rather than making it healthy, I trust her since she travels to New York for classes every year.

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Back to my post though!

I was thinking about what things we HAVE to have the expensive brand of and what things we buy that are the store brand?

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Here are a few things I will splurge on

I learned not so long ago that candy corn that is store brand is terrible.

Hair products

Jeans, I love designer ones but find them on sale. They are still $60+ so that is a splurge

Food for following Weight Watchers. The diet foods may cost a little more but are so much lower in points. I don't but the food sold at meetings though, way to expensive.

WW meetings! They help out so much more than you would think.

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Here are things that I will get the store brand of

I have been watching 3 little kids right now while real estate is slow and I have gained an infinite amount of knowledge from her on almost every topic in life! She can afford the finer things in life them so when she buys the store brand I take note.
I have noticed she buys the Costco powder dish washing soap and powder laundry detergent. Seriously we used them for years and they were more than adequate but now that there is a fancier version out we have to have it. We just picked up both of these items and got twice as much for half the price, a score in my book!

Uggs, I bought the tan ones for almost $200 having to have the real thing and had a hard time wearing them when I wanted to most without the fear of ruining them... when it was snowy and slushy in Colorado so I picked up a much cheaper chocolate brown pair last year from Costco! I am wearing my tan ones now though because it is FREEZING here today.

Underwear, TJ Max is amazing for cheap cute undies and who can forget the Victoria Secret sale, if you go the last few days of the sale every pair is 2.99 even if it was $10 in the sale bin.

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I want to hear what you splurge and save on!

Yummy

Hello! I just have to apologize in advance and for all of my blogs. I am a random person and my blogs will also be otherwise I will be posting about 3 times a day.
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I received a late birthday present yesterday! A new cookbook from my absolute FAVORITE chief (is that the right word) Giada De Laurentiis, her latest book Giada's Kitchen. I love her recipes and have have gotten some of my favorite from her. I wanted to point something out in the latest book to all of you since it seems so absolutely disguising. Try out the Panini with Chocolate and Brie (pg 58) it sounds like the weirdest combination of foods but it is amazingly delightful!! I saw it a while ago when she was a guest on Oprah and decided I had to try it. Basically it is a panini made on sourdough with brie, chocolate chips and basil. I have myself craving it right now. I ask you please if you like all of these ingredients separate to try it and let me know what you think.
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Now that all of you WW ladies are craving chocolate let me redirect you! I was asked the other day by Lulu what some of my favorite "healthy" snacks are. I basically survive on 1 point snacks so I have quite a few up my sleeve. Here are a few I enjoy almost daily. (all are 1 pt)
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Babybelle low fat (the ones wrapped in wax)
WW string cheese
Apples (so filling)
fat free Jello pudding
WW fudge pops
Coffee with fat free creamer and splenda with fiber
(remember to measure the creamer)
2/3 cup frozen peas
(throw them in a bag and eat even if they are still frozen, seriously they are good)
Prunes (just try them!)
V8 (0 pts for 1 cup)
progresso soup (also 0-1 pt)
Just remember to measure everything out!
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Also in exciting news I have gotten tons of stuff done on our place and I am hoping to post photos before we put up our Christmas stuff next week. We have a tradition of putting it all up Thanksgiving night after we have celebrated. Not to sure when that will be this year since hubby with be spending the ENTIRE day at the firehouse without me. I love enjoying it as long as possible, I have even already entertained the thought of putting it up before but think it may be pushing it to put it up so early.
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!!I am getting e-mails again when I get comments!!

Very happy

I have to share that I woke up this morning to check and see if I had any sweet comments from my very personal post yesterday. I was very hurt and felt very rejected not to see any. I knew I had switched it so that comments had to be accepted by me before posting but I didn't see any to approve. (I did this because I am not getting e-mails when I get a new comment even though I am signed up to.) I was feeling very alone until I realized I had 11 sweet comments from all of you! Thank you so much, I was in tears as I read your encouraging words.

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Hubby and I had a baby shower to attend this weekend so that granted a much loved trip to Babies R' Us. (Only I really attended, the boys all went to a different location and payed Halo.) While there I saw that they only had 5 green bins left and only one or 2 of the other colors, I had originally wanted white as I mentioned in this post but they were all out. Hubby thought I was so silly for wanting these so early and tried to convince me that by the time we have kids I won't want them anymore so I didn't get them. A few days later though I was in the area and was being drawn back to the bins. I compromised and said if they have 4 left I will get them. I am now the proud owner of 4 green bins!!
I brought them in from my trunk today and put them with my other baby box stuff to see how they match and I am SO happy. I was a little worried they would be too bright. I think they will be perfect in the upper part of our changing table. What do you think?



I have stumbled across these items and have loved them so much I knew that when I had kids I would be sad if I didn't have them. The towels are 2 full sets (so 4 total) from TJ Max that look just like pottery barn towels. I got them for $15 a set rather than $25 for just one bath towel!! The green matches perfectly. The other are things from Target about a year ago and I am still SO glad I picked them up. I get told a lot that I am jinxing myself but I know that God already knows the desires of my heart and it isn't going to make a difference if I have a few things already. He already knows I have wanted to be a mother since I was born.
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Won't the green bedding go great with this?

This was my God daughter's and they just gave it to us, I need to find a good place to store it. Look at how tall it is next to our dvd rack and it is sturdy enough for a child to ride. It can even hold me!

You know me so well

Tonight was a very typical night in our household. I was watching TV and my hubby was in the guest room on the computer. I started to get really tired and turned off the TV so that I could take a nap, needless to say it was already 8:30 at this point. My husband knew exactly what I was up to and tried to get me to wait and go to sleep with him in a few hours, so smart. I decided not to take his advice and now it is 1:18 and I can't sleep while he is sound asleep in our bed. Oops.
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When I finally figured out that I wasn't going to fall back asleep for the night I decided to catch up on my blogs through google reader. I gotta say it is so encouraging to have all of you ladies out there who have such similar stories, lives and who share my faith. I mention every once in a while my blog and people ask what it is, I refer them to my blog that is more to keep family and friends up to date than this one. I love that this is a safe place where I don't have to worry about people getting offended by what I write.
I have married into a family where everything and I mean everything can be turned into an insult or something hurtful. I would never want to offend any of my in-laws. (Hubby is from a big family so there are lots of in-laws.)
I also love that my followers are growing! I love seeing that I have a new one and checking out a new blog.
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I know I have been awarded some awards that I have missed. I am so sorry, I got a little overwhelmed while I was out of town. I appreciate them still though!!
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One more thing and then I may attempt sleep again...
I am so shocked to find out how many other couples are dealing with infertility. I got married at 22 and didn't think I would ever have any troubles getting pregnant but after 2 and half years of being married with no bc I am getting a little worried that nothing has happened yet. I fear that we are starting our journey with infertility. I truly want to really start trying (taking temp and such) this summer after we hopefully take our kids to Young Life camp but I am starting to worry about waiting. I am having a hard time trusting God's plans for me right now even though I pray that it will happen when God decides the timing is right. Please include this in your prayers if you think about it. Thanks!

What's in your kitchen

Ladies I know I have been very lacking on doing my weight lose tips of the day but I have one today for you!
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I have noticed something recently about what people have in their kitchens and how it relates to what they weigh. I spend lots of time in people's houses and I get to see what they are eating. Let me share with you the skinny ones don't have all the snack foods the heavier ones do for the most part. They have some snack foods but seem to be missing the endless variety that others have. I have also noticed that the heavier ones have the gimmick pills and all the latest diet fad books. It seems to me that there really is no exact secret or all the skinny women would all have the same diet book or food, they just seem to take better care of themselves and take the time to work out. (Let me say though that Weight Watchers is amazing!! And a great way to learn what healthy eating looks like.)
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I have also mentioned before not to keep stuff that will make you ruin your diet in your house. I know I can't be trusted when a craving hits and they are in my pantry. Hope this gives you something to think about.

Seriously?

I just tried to call my husband on his cell, it went to voice mail. I then got a text that said, "Nap time, I will call you soon." Oh the life of a firefighter at the firehouse.

time to part ways...

with my caboodle and my huge nail polish collection from middle school. I have acquired quite the collection over the past 10+ years and decided yesterday that it was time to weed out these things that clutter up my life. I am also going through other things that I have not had the heart to throw away. These include tons of beauty products that have been used a few times and placed with the rest never to be used again. Also trashed were testers from the time I decided to sell Mary Kay and never even attempted to sell anything. The biggest step will be actually getting these things out of my house once I have made the pile for goodwill. I am also thinking about selling some of my old purses on eBay, I don't want to make a ton of money but some would be nice. Has anyone ever done this with things they no longer needed?
Now if I could get my husband to part ways with some of his things he has acquired.

An Election Must read

Well I am watching the news and they announced that Obama will be our next president. Not too sure how I feel but I am hoping that we owe a lot less taxes this year than last. Let's just say we owed as much as my last car cost. We also didn't owe a ton because we make a ton. Today I asked 2 different three year olds who they were voting for and they both said Barack Obama. One with conservative parents and one with liberal parents. Wow how weird is that? I can't believe that they didn't hesitate in saying his name and that they said his entire name not just Obama.

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I read this today and it was truly was such a comfort in these scary times. It is from the Beth Moore blog. I am assuming most of you know who she is but for those of you who don't she writes AMAZING bible studies that are mostly directed at women.

Wedding weekend

Well ladies I have found that blogging is the perfect way to procrastinate once again! The hubby and I are taking a trip to Indiana tomorrow morning for my cousin's wedding!! They have been dating longer than my hubby and I have been together, needless to say we are all glad this day has finally come. I am from a huge family and both my parents are from Indiana, both are the oldest of 5 so I have lots of Aunts and Uncles. This in turn means I have LOTS of cousins... I think 25 first cousins last time I counted. Well half of them live near us in Colorado but half are in Indianapolis so it will be a fun trip for us. Two of them have also had babies since the last time I visited a year ago. I will be checking your blogs while we are gone but most likely not posting. I found that google reader is so great on my IPhone!! Just another reason why I could never own any other phone.

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Also in other news our hot water heater has gone out. Please tell me these things happen in threes because between the other things that have been happening on my car and now this I am sick of things breaking. The good news is that rather than pay $1,000 to replace it my husband looked online and figure out how to fix it for $10!! I love you!

I was so awarded tonight to see that I have been tagged by Lyndsau her blog is super cute so make sure you go check it out. I want to thank her for her sweet words that left me feeling so great and uplifted.

I decided to choose some of my new followers. I am so excited to be sharing my life with you and to have a glimpse of yours!

1. happy for this moment

2. just everyday love

3. downtown southern

4. House of Rose

5. the Manen's

Now, should you accept this award, follow these steps:

1. Post the award on your blog

2. Link me for giving it to you

3. Link the originating post here

4. Pass the award on to 5 more deserving people5. Post these rules for your recipients

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Has anyone else not been getting emails when you get a comment? I was receiving them but I am not anymore.

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Don't you love the drawing on top! I found it at http://www.dailycandy.com/everywhere/.

Well ladies I am off to pack. My hubby will be getting back from the firehouse at about 8 am tomorrow and we will be leaving almost as soon and he gets in so I am left to pack for him as well.

A Productive Sunday

I have had a very productive day and I am feeling quite accomplished! As I have mentioned before when it comes to my house I am either super clean or super messy. Well for the past few weeks I have been EXTREMELY messy. I couldn't seem to even make a dent in our place no matter how hard I would try. That all changed today! I woke up and cleaning was the first thing on my mind. I was able to do all of our laundry done and it's almost all put away. I made a goal that our house would be clean when we left for our trip Wednesday and today was the only day I would have free to do so. Between work, making time for friends, YL, voting and getting ready for our trip my next two days will be full but eventful!

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My hubby will be getting off work Wednesday morning, come home and we will leave for the airport as soon as he gets home. He is not really looking forward to our trip but I know he will be glad he came with me as soon as we are on the plane. I don't think we have flown anywhere together since a few weeks after we got married. I have flown back to visit extended family and had girls weekends but together we have always just gone to the mountains for vacation.

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I am really not excited about the baggage fees once again. I would just rather spend money someplace other than paying to check a bag. I did get a large duffel bag from Vera Bradley for my birthday. They say it can be carried on, it seems pretty big for that though but I will try.

It is a lot cuter than this picture shows. It isn't as bright as it looks.

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Also other great news my hubby fixed my car problems that I told you about here. When we took back to the car dealer they said it was a loose wire in the door and would cost $350 to fix. He looked it up online and they said it should cost $100 to fix. Well he took matters into his own hands and after an hour and no $ spend it is all fixed!! I was so worried I would get pulled over (I have a brake light out) and wouldn't be able to roll down my window for the officer. I figured I would just explain out my sunroof like a crazy person!

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I also needed to get some brake work done and was praying it would only need the basic $99 new pads. They called me and told me that I needed $1,400 in repair work done. Seriously, does anyone walk out of there only spending $99? When we told the guy we weren't willing to spend that much money he said "don't you have a credit card you can put it on?" He then told us to call our credit card company and get a temporary bump so we could pay for the work. He didn't get that we had MORE than enough room to put it on a cc but didn't want to put anything on our credit cards. We are working so hard to pay them off and we don't think my breaks really needed all that work. We had them do the basic work and my hubby will fix the rest himself.

My car sounds like a huge piece of crap but really it is really nice, this just all happened at once. It is so weird because before this we have had a problem free year and a half with it.

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I was about to publish my post and noticed how cute Ridley was laying. She look at me as soon as she heard the photo click of my phone camera. She is so cute and cuddly.

Like the folded clothes next to her!