Hiatus Over

I hadn't realized it had been so long since I blogged until I logged on and read that my least blog was on April 10th. Almost 2 full months, where has the time gone! I think I have mostly been focusing on scrapbooking both for me and I am also scrapbooking my stepdad's memoirs ( a very fun and rewarding experience).

So where to start!! News with me I suppose is as good a place to start as any!

WORK: I have been at my new job now for a little over 3 months now and am starting to find my groove here. I am still adjusting to working with the 4 other girls, but we have kind of gotten past the first akward phase as they learn my personality and I learned theirs. So we have had many good weeks in a row. I am back in training learning the last leg of stuff in order to be fully trained. So that will be nice to get that out of the way.

WEIGHT WATCHERS: I started back to Weight Watchers about the same time I stopped blogging and I have lost a total of 14 lbs as of this morning. So I am pretty excited about that. My goal is 20 lbs by my birthday on June 30th :) So that is 6 lbs in 3 weeks...doable, so we will just have to see. I just need to stay focused and not let stress induce eating!!

CHURCH: Another big deal in our little lives is that we have been considering checking out new churches. A huge deal since we have been at our church for 8 years. But so much has changed in 8 years and we just don't feel like the church is meeting our needs any longer. So together, Dan and I made the decision to start looking for a new church. Last weekend we ventured out and attended the church just down the street from us. And it turns out that several of the families from our day care also attend. Josiah walked in and new many of the children and we knew many of the adults. I also saw a person that I met at Weight Watchers who has small children and we keep trying to get together but it never seems to work out. We also really enjoyed the change...the way communion was given, the music especially was so simple and everyone knew when and what to sing, and we really enjoyed the sermon. Before he even started he let everyone know that he would be going a little long because he more to say than the 15 minutes left in the service. That was great. He wasn't constrained by the music program or antsy people expecting to leave at preciscly 12:00pm. And the sermon was straight from the Bible. People brought their own Bibles and there was an outline in the bulletin to follow along. I loved that! I mean using your Bible at church, what a consept. Overall, it really fit well with Dan and I andI think we are going to keep attending. I think it was a change that we really needed. The hard part is that I am still involved at some things that take place at my old church and I am not sure how that will work out. For example Weight Watchers takes place in teh choir room at the old church, so I pass the pastor's and lay assistants office on my way to the choir room. I was also taking Josiah to toddler time, which is not offiliated with the church but is located at the church. I have considered going to MOPS, which is also at the church. You get the picture. There is alot going on at that church and I don't know how or when, or if I even need to sever any of those ties. I would hope that people would understand, but I have a feeling they will not. Only time will tell!

BUDGET: We met with my good friend, who is a financial guru;) She loves helping people with their budget and has taught several classes teaching people how to get out of debt. Something we need to get in order desparetly. My new income makes it hard to meet our financial demands month to month, let alone trying to pay off debt. But we sat down and came up with some things to focus on right now. One of my first things I am going to try and do is to sell my Aztek. If I can make a profit on it (which my car salesman brother thinks I can), then I can pay off the Aztek and buy a really cheap small car that will be completely paid off. That is the ultimate goal at any rate. We are also looking into reducing our daycare rates, but not at the expense of our daycare provider. I don't come in to work until 2:30pm, but Josiah is in the middle of a nap around that time, so he still needs to get their sometime around 12:30-1:00 or so. Which means he is in daycare for 5 hours, which is considered a full day anyway. So I am not sure that we will be able to reduce that cost any. If it means losing our daycare provider, I am not sure we are willing to make that sacrifice. At any rate, we are getting a handle on our finances and we hope to make a serious dent in our debt over the next couple of years.

GARDEN: We are putting a garden in...lots of work, but I am looking forward to it this summer since I have the mornings to take better care of it :) I hope that we can keep up with the weeds!!!

THE ROOF: Memorial day weekend, with the help of the best friends in the world (Mike and Dave and Mindy for support;)) we tore our roof off and replaced it in 2 days. Small roof, but it went very smoothly!! We also had a great cook-out and bon-fire after all the hard work was done on Saturday :) I love summer!

I think that just about covers it for me :)