Susie's Notes and Pictures
It’s kind of a bring your own fireworks type display and everyone brings a side dish too from the community. Watermelons are in the river getting good and cold and so is the beer. We always have the best time, and the house is booked solid for the whole 3 day weekend.
I have a lot of will power. But I cannot turn this down. This is as close to heaven as you can get on a plate. I can diet tomorrow.
Yesterday I received an invitation to attend my best friend’s daughter’s wedding in wilmington that is being held in October. I can’t decide whether to attend or not. Somehow I get the feeling that this invitation is really a “don’t come, but please send money as a gift” request. Or maybe it was mailed to me simply as a courtesy to her mother, knowing that we are such good friends. Either way, I’m not sure that my budget will allow for me to take the time to travel there. I think I need to talk to my friend and see what it is that she really wants. I don’t want to alienate my friend, you know what I mean?
We bought some frozen lasagna the other day and I had forgotten how bad those things taste. To make it up to my family this week I am going to make homemade lasagna. That way we can get the horrible taste out of our mouths and get to enjoy some good tasting food. I think who ever invented frozen lasagna is nuts to say the least, it does not taste good and it is not that cheap, the good stuff does not cost much more and it is so much better. I have to make it up to my family for my mistake last week.
This whole area is a melting pot of America. There are so many different ethnic groups and neighbors here that we get to have tons of fun exploring all the customs and foods of a different country every weekend. The summer brings a lot of great ethnic festivals. I’m looking forward to the festivals with music, dancing, great foods and all kinds of bazaars.
My sister’s kids love baseball and they play every chance they get. In the back yard or on a team they do not care. So for our summer trip this year I am taking them to see a real live major league baseball game in Atlanta. I do not like the Braves, it is just the closest team with a fan friendly start time for this trip. I know the kids will have a great time and so will I; I love baseball too. This will be a very fun trip for us and I can not wait till July for the trip to be here. My husband and I went on our first date to a baseball game and it has been in a sweet spot in my heart ever since then.
Some days I wish I had chosen a career that had a uniform. If I wore nursing scrubs to work every day I think my life would be easier. I’d always be in something super comfortable and I could wear tennis shoes to work!
I only mention this because today after I left work I had to go to the grocery store for my weekly trip, pick up the kids, and drop off a few things at the post office. I was wearing a very smart looking tailored suit today along with 4″ heels. Running around town after being at work all day was taking a toll on my feet. I saw a woman in the grocery store as I was picking out a bunch of bananas in the most comfortable looking scrub clothing and cute blue sneakers. She didn’t look miserable from walking around in her “work clothes” like I did.
It was at that moment that it hit me. I bet most people that wear uniforms to work feel a lot better at the end of their day than those that don’t. They don’t have to spend time picking out what to wear or wondering if their shoes match their outfit. At the end of the day they get to go home or run around town in sensible shoes. I know this wouldn’t be true for all jobs but, off the top off my head the only job that comes to mind that might include heels as part of a uniform is a flight attendant. I bet even they have nice flats they can chose to wear.
So I decided that I wanted to take the family on a nice vacation this year but, realized I needed to take a look at our finances first. I’ve always had an idea of how much we spend on everything, but never really had a budget that was written down. In order to get a realistic idea of what we’re saving and spending, I thought maybe I should track everything.
I looked up free budget software online to get started. After all, I’m trying to save and I don’t want to shill out more money in all of this. At first I thought I would be overwhelmed. I watched a few video demos on how easy the software programs are to use. Some programs wanted a ton of information and others looked just like a spread sheet. I already have spread sheet software… that’s not what I was looking for.
I looked at reviews for best budgeting sites to get opinions of what other people thought worked and didn’t for them. I’ve narrowed it down to three different sites. I think just to get a good idea of what each site can do for me I’ll use them each for the next two months. At the end of the two months I should be able to tell which software will work best for me in the long run.
I can’t wait to see where our money is actually going. I wonder if I’ll find that it hasn’t been going where I thought it had been this whole time. No matter where it’s going I want to save so that we can afford a nice vacation. Budgeting here we come!
My neighbor came over yesterday and told me that they wanted to buy a new car. They’ve been looking into sedans and suvs. She wants something that has plenty of space, good gas mileage and doesn’t cost an arm and a leg. She told me they are going to send their old car on an auto transport to their son in California.
I asked her why she was going to ship it instead of driving it across the country. Apparently with the price of gasoline car shipping is actually cheaper than driving it yourself. If she were to drive it she would not only have gas fees, but also fees for hotel stays and food. These additional costs can add up quickly.
I bet her son is going to be thrilled when he goes to pick up the car from the car transport pick up location only 5 miles from his house. He’s been without reliable transportation ever since he got laid off last fall. My neighbor, Karen, is happy to help him and she gets a new car out of the deal too!
It’s always nice to get flowers delivered to you. I love getting a big bouquet with a nice vase and a little card. I usually always get a bunch on Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day. If I’m lucky I also get some flowers on my birthday. This year, for Mother’s Day, I got a lovely bouquet from the kids and my husband. I love the arrangement. It has gorgeous yellow lilies and violet and lavender additions to compliment the yellow.
I want to make sure that my flowers last for awhile so I’m taking special precautions as I care for them. I’ve given them plant food and fresh water. Once the water gets dirty I’ll change it and refill the vase with clean water. I’m making sure to keep the arrangement away from any heat source as well. So even though they might look great above my television set, I don’t want the heat to age the flowers prematurely. I sprayed the flowers with a floral preservative to help keep them as fresh as possible.
I know that if I follow these precautions, my floral arrangement should last awhile and I’ll be able to enjoy them for a few weeks.