minus7

Long story, but welcome to my new page.

We've been watching a lot of TV on DVD lately.
Heroes season 1 when we have a disc of it from Netflix and Grey's Anatomy season 3 when we don’t. 5* for both, but for wildly different reasons!
We watched a few episodes of Monk season 1 tonight. It's ok, 3*, but we probably won't watch any more. With as much TV on DVD as we have to watch, you don't waste time with anything less than 4*. LOL!
On deck . . . Stargate Atlantis season 3, and CSI seasons 3-6.

As for actual MOVIES...
300 was quite cool, and it seriously grew on me the more I thought about it afterward. 4*
Smokin' Aces was ok. 3*
Flywheel kicked me right in the ass, spiritually. It seriously was part of the life change I find myself now going through. 5* for the message and the way it moved me, probably 2* for quality.
Freedom Writers was extremely moving. I cried for the entire second hour of it! 5*
An Unfinished Life was really good. 4*
Wild Hogs was funny. 3*
Doom was ok, for a scifi monster movie, even though monster movies aren't really my thing. 3*
Unaccompanied Minors was pretty lame. Brian says he loved it, but I think that's only to annoy me. 2*
On deck . . . 300 (again), Shooter (again), and Down to You.

I think that about covers it... for now.

I'm about ready to pull my hair out! (yes, i have hair again, not very long, but hair nonetheless)

Last week we decided to pull out of Wells Fargo because, well, they suck. So we both got out of work Friday afternoon to go and open (reopen, actually) accounts at Alpine Bank, which we loved and never should have left.

Now all of our money is at Alpine Bank, but we have no checks, no debit cards, and no online banking access yet! And of course Monday was a holiday, so everything is delayed that one extra day. Let me tell you, I'm going absolutely out of my mind not being able to access the accounts.

God is on our side though; we have a two week stretch of no bills to pay! The one that is coming due on Monday is local, so we can just hand deliver some cash (which stac did for me today). It seems like I've been paying bills nonstop since Stac handed the finances over to me, so how we got two weeks bill free can only be an act of God!

In the spirit of making our financial life a little less painful, we also decided to move our truck loan and the kids' savings to the credit union where our mortgage is. We were able to get that taken care of last Friday also, and I picked up the check and paid off the truck on Wednesday. The money posted to the account today and Staci was able to go and get that account closed out.

I know, it's all pretty boring stuff, but that's what has been going on lately, and pretty much plaguing my every spare thought!

It would be extremely helpful to me if everyone could leave a quick comment on this post (or any other if you'd like) so that I can get you marked as a "trusted commenter." Then I won't have to come in here and approve comments all of the time. :-)

TIA.

Bekah has been sooo good lately it's almost - no, it is - scary!

Of the changes I'm trying to make in my life, prayer is probably the hardest. It doesn't come naturally, and it doesn't take much at all to fall out of it.

One of the first things I started praying about regularly was our finances, and the second big life changing move was a decision to start paying tithe. It seems impossible to give over $300 a month back to God when you're running in the negative already, but I decided to give it a try.

Boy was it hard to drop that check into the offering plate the first time! In fact, I forgot to do it when the offering was taken up and had to put it in one of the offering boxes by the door instead!! LOL I prayed about that tithe, and the next one, and the two I haven't written yet because we haven't gotten the checks for our new bank account.

Last week I got a phone call when I got home from a friend's parents. They got a new computer that they couldn't get to work right and they wanted me to come get it going for them. And they'd pay me. I've worked on their old computer several times without pay, so this was something of a shocker. It wasn't much, but every little bit helps, right?
When I was finished Mrs. C told me that I should do this for a living, figure out a fair price for my services (I had them just pay what they felt was right) and with as good of a job as I do, and as quickly as I do it, I could make some money. She could be right, but that's just not something I've ever really wanted to pursue. Once you touch someone's computer, you get called for EVERYTHING! Plus it would keep me away from my family in the evenings. So I dismissed it.

It wasn't until a few days later that it occurred to me that the whole situation could have been an answer to prayer.

Yesterday one of the girls in the office sent a message on our internal message program that she was looking for some computer help and did we know anyone she could hire to help her out with a few things on her new computer. With the answer to prayer thought still fresh in my mind, I immediately replied that I could probably help her. We talked more specifically about what she was wanting and it turns out she was wanted to do some simple web page work, kinda teaching herself, but needed help getting started. Could this BE anymore up my alley?! We agreed on a price and met yesterday after work.

Also, the other day I was trying to project our finances a bit because we're making a trip over to Loveland this weekend. I don't know how, but it looks like we'll be ok, and I even figured in a double credit card payment and extra money to savings! How does that happen?!

At the very beginning of all of this I told Stac that I wanted that moment from Facing the Giants... "God, it's too much." Although no one has towed away my car and replaced it with a brand new truck, I'm already starting to feel it.

I am not worthy, but God is awesome!

Well, first there's nothing to post about, then am in the middle of postable stuff and don't bother posting, THEN am too busy getting back into routine to post. Not ideal, to say the least.

We were over in Loveland last weekend for alumni weekend last weekend. Our 15th! There were 11 of our classmates there and we had an awesome time hanging out with them on Saturday afternoon. B&M were there with their kids, so Brian had friends to hang out and play with while we were visiting.

Saturday night we took mom & dad out to eat with B&M and the kids. Party of 12, please wait forever to be seated and receive shitty service! Ugh. Better luck next time I guess.

Sunday we drove home in a snowstorm, so that was fun. Not. We managed, but it took longer than usual, so that sucked.

And here we are, back at work and busy busy busy.

Not much posting going on here, as you may have noticed. The problem is that the biggest thing going on in my life right now is of a personal nature and there's no way in hell I'm going to post about it! Even though there are other things going on, they all end up taking a backseat in my mind to this other thing, and so I don't get around to posting about them. That's totally on me. Sorry.

So... Some things that have been happening...

Last week we had parent/teacher conferences for the kids. They are doing pretty good. They had a couple of lowish grades that are as much the fault of the parents as they are their own, if not more. Other than that, they're doing ok.

Let me take a moment to note here that I believe in a special and super-secret circle of hell for parents of apparently perfect children. You know who you are.

Brian and I went motorcycle riding with B, M, and the boys on Sunday. That was several hours of fun. I'm still a bit sore! I took Staci's dirtbike with me so one of the boys could ride it for a while and see if he liked it. Turns out he did, so they bought it and took it home with them!

We went shopping the other night and one of our first stops was Murdoch's to get some cat food. When we got up to the checkout there were two teenage girls working the register and they asked us if we had two kids outside in a green car. Obviously this conversation couldn't go anywhere good, but we reluctantly told them that we did. It turns out that a customer complained about two unattended kids in a green car flipping them off in the parking lot. OI-VEY! I didn't look at Staci, but I'm sure she was as many shades of red as I was. Needless to say, the kids are in hot water with Mom & Dad right now!

Since we've been back from alumni weekend I've been gathering classmate emails. L is determined that I help her with contacting people for our 20th reunion. I realize that it's 5 years away, but I thought it would be a good idea to start getting my shit together now instead of later. So far I have emails for about 15 out of 54 classmates. After I hear back from a couple more MySpace people about their addresses I'll be sending the list around to the people I do have to see if they can fill in some blanks for me. Then I'll have to figure out how to track down the missing persons!

When I got home from work on Monday, I went to feed the fish like I usually do and noticed that the filter was just disgusting. So I changed it, even though the water was still crystal clear. Well, I don't know what I did, but the water started getting pretty cloudy. By Tuesday (yesterday) it was a solid cloud and the goldfish were all staying at the surface so they could breath! I took out about 1/2 the water and put clean water in, but it didn't really help. So last night, after the kids went to bed, Staci and I set about fixing the fish tank. We drained most of the water and then carried the tank to the sink to rinse it out good. We also threw away the filter that I had just put in and cleaned the uber-disgusting plastic part of the filter system. Staci got the stuff all put back in the tank and we refilled it with water, then put the fish back in. Well, by the time we went to bed the sucker fish and 3 goldfish were dead. This morning 2 more goldfish were dead. :-( All I wanted to do was change the disgusting filter!

In other, much much happier news, I ordered a new computer! A desktop. *GASP* It shipped yesterday, so there's a chance that I'll have it by the weekend. I'M SO EXCITED! I got a Dell XPS, loaded enough to play the newest of new games. Unreal Tournament 3 in particular. So, what happened is this; the guy I used to play UT with at work (we haven't played for about 6 months now) sent me this game trailer, and the next day I ordered the computer! LOL

And, of course, we've been watching DVDs. But I'll leave that for another post.