Catching up on past and present events!

Well we have been busy with lots of different things these past few months and more! Adrienne has been researching and joined some bunny groups online! She is very interested in breeding her bun buns and selling a litter before getting her male fixed! It is something that she has wanted to do for a year now and finally has the chance. We are just waiting to get them into a permanent outdoor hutch before our first attempt. We have had the piggy outdoors too! She is loving grazing on the new grass and dandelions! The girls laughed at me as I cleaned out the chicken pen too! This was the first real thorough cleaning and I had no volunteers..ha ha! It was surely the stinkiest job ever! Adrienne said we should call "Dirty Jobs" and let them know that this is for sure the dirtiest one out there..lol! Especially if it's your job! Yuck!

Ashley has a new job at the House of Pizza and is loving it! She says the atmosphere is just wonderful, much better than the ice-cream shoppe was last summer! It is much more family oriented and she likes that! She has to work with a girl there though that attended public school when she went there and she was very upset by this girls attitude! She says she truly noticing a HUGE difference in how PS kids act and their attitudes for the most part really stinks! She says the girl is getting a bit nicer to her but still has much attitude period!

Adrienne has been hanging out with Michelle alot.. they have new goats now and Age just loves helping to walk them and care for them while there! She has so much fun learning about grooming the horse and playing with and catching wild bunnies over there too! She has been busy wheeling and dealing on her Furry-Paws accounts and has reached a pretty high status with her breeding kennels! Her account is now elite too as of Valentine's Day! That was my gift to her and she was thrilled to have that over chocolate..he he! I am so proud of her. She is creating manips for lots of people and selling them at great prices (virtual business). She gets regular clients now for manips and tags alike! She is moving past her betta fish now for the most part. She still has three left.. but is moving onto bigger things! She is def. going to be my vet girl! She would like to take an online correspondence course for veterinary assistant. I am brainstorming with her to see how we can come up with the money to pay the monthly fees to take it. She has been making homemade bookmarks and I have been making cards and we are hoping to get a few done up so that we can open an ESTY account and sell some to make a few bucks. We will see what happens. She may go work --well she was asked anyway, to help move hay and such at the farm up the street.. she says anything to make some money and she would be happy--especially at 12 almost 13 yrs. old.

Ashley has a new friend finally that is her age and has been hanging out quite a bit with her! I am so happy that she finally has someone to bond with besides me and her sister...not that I mind that but I do understand she was so yearning to have a peer to do things with too at times.. she still loves me and her sister very much and I have noticed less friction between the girls since her new friend stepped in the picture--less time with just each other and more time doing things on their own time and then it's great social time when they do talk and hang out! They are def. growing and maturing quickly and too fast for me to handle some days... i want them to stay young forever!! I do love each stage of growth though, for sure! I love the freedom they get to experience that I never did!

Well Ash is down to one day at the coffee shop for volunteer and is going to pick up the Chamber of Commerce one day as well in between work! She feels the calling she thinks... I am not sure how she will fit it in along with her new found social life! lol I know that she will find time, she is a great organizer of her time.

We have been working in the yard a lot with the weather getting nicer.. made a list of veggies we all want to grow. Did not get seeds started this year like we did last year.. so have decided to pick up plants this year to try instead! Lots of cleaning and organizing rooms and the basement making the most of the small area we have to live in. The three of us girls made a mess in our art studio.. formerly known as the craft room..sounds more sophisticated as the studio--and since we produce so many artful things there that are just amazing it seemed sensible! We cleaned and moved it around to make it a more productive space the other nite and turned around and sat at the table and made wonderful things.. i got five cards made and Age, many, many bookmarks designed and Ash made a sweet charm for her paper lantern in her bedroom from beads! It was so much fun!

We have no pool yet this year! Our original we have had for four years finally got ripped last year...not sure of the culprit! But we def. got our money's worth out of it. Jim wants to purchase another one soon so we have it. I am trying to just get him to hold off for a year to get caught up in other areas before adding a new financial "thing". We have decided it will be a family vote this weekend as to the best way to decide! We also need a new vehicle, as our van has lost it's tranny. We have a list of needs and wants and will look at each carefully at our meeting and decide how to face each thing.

The dog just had surgery on his mouth. He had periodontal disease and that cost us $500.00. OUCH! In case I never mentioned, Jim is disabled and I stay home, so we are on fixed income and things like that usually put a huge gouge in our reg. routine. We always get by and make ends meet and then some but it takes clever toggling! My kids are so great about everything. We just recently put a set allowance into the budget as well. Ashley opted out of receiving since she is working a lot now, so it will be just Adrienne. I really didn't mind including Ashley but she insisted on not receiving for now. I was reading at Sandra Dodd's site and she has a clever system for figuring her children's allowance and my girl's agreed it was acceptable for us to follow as well. We figured in our case that $.50 for every year that they are old would be a nice amount for a weekly spending... that is not including what I usually buy or get for them on the spot at times too! So Adrienne will be receiving $6.00 a week and will decide on her own (for what she wants/needs) whether to spend or save at her own will.

Jim picked up bikes for both of the girls at the dump for $4.00 or so. What a bargain and they just love them!! they have taken every nice day to get on them and ride! I am tickled that they are so anxious to get out there and exercise and enjoy each other the way they are! They were just sooo appreciative of them too and are using them lots. Will post pics soon!

I hope to discipline myself more to get on this blog and write a bit each nite or two! I am soooo bad at that!