Just One of Those Days!

Poor Jeff! I woke up this morning and was instantly grumpy. I had no reason for it; I just didn’t wake up ready to greet the day with a smile on my face. Jeff was the closest thing to me, and unfortunately I took it out on him. I know he knows that it had nothing to do with him, but it still bums me out.

I’ve been trying real hard to see the positive in things. I think that I’m naturally a pessimist, but I’ve wanted a brighter outlook on life, and so I’ve been trying to switch gears and be a ‘glass is half full’ kind of girl. I really do believe that our happiness in life has to do with our outlook. If I’m always going to be the kind of person who focuses on the negative in every little thing, then how am I going to notice the good stuff?

Don’t get me wrong, it is a constant challenge for me to try and live this way. I have days where nothing goes my way, and I just want to dwell on the negative. But what good is it going to do me? Will it make the situation any better?

I guess that’s why I felt bad about today. I guess it’s okay to have those kind of days, as long as they are few and far between, I just don’t like to waste my time being grumpy, or having to apologize because I snapped at my husband!

Fair Week

It's fair week here in Susanville. I usually only go for the corn dog, but I'll probably end up going with friends this time. It might be fun if we go with our friends Rob and Lily. They have an 18 month old, so it will be fun to watch her ride a couple kiddie rides and check out the 4-h animals.

It's very rare for me to actually see people that I want to see. It's usually those stuck up girls that I didn't like in high school, that like to walk past me like I don't exist. Then there's the price. It seems awfully expensive for us to go get a corn dog and a chorizo! We'll probably end up going on the last day because it's free to get in. I don't know, maybe I'm not Susanvillian enough. It seems like the older I get, the less anxious I am to go to the fair, but I still have friends who can't wait until the gates open, and end up staying all five days. That's a little too much exposure to carnies if you ask me!

Speaking of a Budget

Speaking of a budget….We went grocery shopping for the first time last Friday. It was a little overwhelming because we had nothing. Not even salt and pepper. So we went out and bought everything we felt we needed. I made a menu for the week, and we stuck to our grocery list for the most part. If we saw something that was a killer deal, then we picked it up. Well, at the end of the day, we spent almost $250.00 on groceries. When we got home, we put the appropriate items in our new refrigerator, stood back to take a look, and it looked like I still needed to go shopping! So, I’ve decided to be religious about looking in the paper each week and finding some good deals. I usually go to Grocery Outlet first, just to see what I can find. Sometimes it’s pointless, but other times, I can go in there and walk away with everything I need, except for meat and produce, and I’ll have saved more than I paid for my items. I know that there are people who feel ashamed to go in there, or don’t want people seeing them in the store, but the last time we were there, we saved $50.00! Just think of what you could do with the extra money.

I almost never buy name brand products, unless they are on sell. There are some things that you have to get name brand, like Charmin, but I honestly can’t tell the difference between Sam’s Club Diet Sprite and the name brand stuff.

We're Bleeding Money

I’m not overly concerned about it. Jeff and I knew that we were going to have to put quite a bit of money in this house to make it our home. It’s just hard for me to spend $600.00 in one day! It was all stuff that we needed and its better that we buy it now, when we have the money, it’s just one of those things that get my heart pounding and my palms sweaty.

I am not complaining one little bit. I love our house. I’m so in love with it that it’s been hard to go to work because all I want to do is work on our house! It’s just hard to go from having maybe two bills a month to 12 or 13, along with gas and food. I know that everyone has to grow up and pay bills, but it was kinda fun to watch our money pile up in our savings account while we were living with Rick and Gloria.

I’m still planning on creating and STICKING to a budget. We won’t be as strict on ourselves as we were when we were saving for our house, but we will be treating our savings account like it’s a bill too, and every month a certain percent of our pay checks will go into that account. It’s my goal to eventually be two steps ahead of the game. So, if something happens, or we need a new roof, we won’t be taking out a loan, we’ll be able to pull the money from our savings. It’s very important to me that I be a grown up in every sense of the word. I would hate for something to happen and have to ask our parents for a loan. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with relying on others for help, especially when there are circumstances beyond your control. But I do think that there should be a Plan B, and the parents should be Plan C, and hopefully, everything would get straightened out before asking for help.

There's A Cure For PMS!

Well, according to G. Gordon Liddey there is. I don’t even like listening to talk radio, but a couple of weeks ago, the guy that shares my work trailer with me was listening to Liddey’s talk show on the radio. Normally I tune out that sort of garbage, but all of a sudden I hear an accordion in the background and Liddey making an announcement for all men that there is a cure to their wives PMS. Apparently, the women who have PMS symptoms are deficient in vitamin D and calcium. So, if we just drink some milk and take a vitamin, all of the bloating, headaches, mood swings, and cramps will just disappear…..

Now, I would have no problem in hearing this ‘amazing’ news if the guy doing the reporting wasn’t such a jerk about it. Actually, I’m pretty sure that it was a joke, or an advertisement for milk. It was just the delivery. He was making fun of the whole thing and begging women all over the world to make the world a better place and drink their milk! What a sexist pig! I’m not one of those bra burning feminists, but I am an outspoken woman and I think that he was crossing the line. If it’s okay for a man to make fun of a woman with PMS, then I would like to hear a woman on the radio trying to sell milk as a cure all for erectile disfunction, laughing the whole time and begging the men to please drink their milk so the women in the world could be satisfied…now that would be funny!

My Oh My, Where Has The Time Gone?

My little sister is doing quite well for herself. I am so proud of her. She's such a smart girl! She's graduated a year early, and now she's feeling the pressures to pick a path for her life. She came over on 4th of July and played Rock Band with us. I've never felt very close to Sarah, mostly because of the age difference. Now we are finally getting to that point in our lives that we are experiencing or have experienced similiar things. I remember being in her spot just six short years ago. I had no clue what I wanted to do with my life, I just wanted to get it started! It was so bazaar to ask her about her plans for her future. I could tell that she's on the fence about a lot of things, but as I was listening to her, she sounded just like me right after I graduated. I felt that I had to have all of the big answers to my life figured out. Little did I know that there is a plan for everyone's life, no matter what direction you think you're going to go in, it seems that you always take a detour, or take a left when you should have gone right. I'm so glad that things turned out the way they did. I can't imagine having another life....except for one where I win the lottery, and never have to worry about money again! I told her that she didn't have to have all the answers, and just take it day by day. She doesn't see it now, and I know I didn't when I was her age, but she'll miss these carefree days where her biggest worry is where to hang out after work. Oh how I miss those days! I told her that I still don't have all the answers and I'm just going with the flow. I really do feel like my life will turn out the way it was supposed to, no matter what decisions I make. I think it will be the same for her too. Her life will be 100% different 6 years from now. She'll have different friends, a different job, maybe a husband, maybe a child, the possibilities are endless, and I'm just so excited for her.