Hey guys, can you do me a huge favor? Can you update your links for me. I am planning on deleting this blog eventually so I am now hosting in on my main URL. Point the link to http://www.scribblesnscraps.com

No /blog - you can get rid of that. LOL

Please? Please? Because I always forget to check this one and you guys leave such great comments and then they don’t get approved forever. So come visit me on my new URL so this one doesn’t go to the dogs at some point. *hugs*

We brought her home last week and she is such a sweetheart. Her name is Mysti and we couldn’t be happier. She is so cuddly, with a nice mix of playfulness and sweetness. So the pets almost outnumber us, but I’m glad we got her. Thanks Jani!

It’s almost time for our little kitty friends to be available to come home. She is calling the vet this week, and also inquiring into spaying. Perfect.

I am still so undecided. Each week I show up at the barn and I go right to her to see her, see how much she’s grown, hold her - she is so sweet. I put her inside my sweatshirt on Wednesday, and she slept for about 45 minutes in there. So cute. I just think we have enough pets. LOL If we get her, her name will be Mysti.

Here she is this week:

This is her with her sister that is possibly spoken for.

Yes, the do. All five of them have been begging me to set a blog up for them for awhile now. So I did, and they have each done a few posts. They have a bunch planned, so I think it’s going to get busy in the upcoming days. Anyway, if you feel like visiting them they are at: A Can Short of a Six Pack.

And if you do stop by, leave them a comment, and if you know of any other kids who have a blog, send them as well, so my kids can get to know other kids in the blogging world. 

You know, many guys are really hard to Christmas shop … well anytime shop for. Gift selection is hard for a lot of males because they might have a hobby that is either expensive or requires knowledge of the hobby to purchase something for. And what about those guys who have everything already, and really don’t need anything new? Have you ever considered Benchmade Knives? They are kind of a good, all around gift idea. I am not saying to be used as weapondry, but many guys like have swiss army knives and I would just think that Benchmade Knives would be an awesome gift suggestion. What do you think?

Do you see that beautiful little girl right there with those big blue eyes just looking at me saying “Mommy, bring me home with you. Please?” Yeah. We haven’t done it yet, but one of the cat’s at our new barn had kittens and they are only about a week away from being able to come home. This is the little girl we want.

Look.at.those.blue.eyes.

I know she probably won’t keep them, but my gosh she’s gorgeous. I need to make the picture bigger. Here try this:

I would much prefer you check in on Scribbles ‘N Scraps for the updates on what has been going on in our life, but Brie is riding again. We found her a great barn run by this amazingly wonderful lady that I just adore, as does Brielle. So letting go of our old barn, was a blessing in disguise even though it felt like the end of the world to all of us. After her trainer left, we just couldn’t get into the new instructor. Riding wasn’t fun anymore.

Brie had her first lesson Wednesday night at the new barn and it was awesome. We are back to private lessons (they are FAR cheaper than the other location) and I am doing some marketing and web design work for her to get them even more discounted. Woohoo!

It was just really nice to see her on the horse again. To see pictures and videos it would be better if you hopped on over and then subscribed to Scribbles ‘N Scraps rather than this blog.

A few days ago, the better half of me and I were discussing our future.  The fact that we have five kids that are part of a blended family, requires us to focus on everyone’s future as a whole rather than on individual children. Each of our children has a bank account set up for them, and each of them have money that has been put into it. Hopefully someday, they will be thankful.

We also realized that we need to be sure that we were providing for our family in case of any untimely situations (yeah - if we died). Ugh! It’s not a conversation you want to have, but it is definitely something you need to have.  Mike will be adding me to his life insurance policy, and my children should be covered by their father (though of that I am not actually sure).

He also looked into mortgage insurance which is something that is really new to me. I have never owned my own home by myself, and I tend to be slightly ignorant to how it all works. So we talked about htat, and realized that we seriously have to make sure that we are protected by mortgage protection insurance so that I don’t get left trying to pay off the house and neither do the kids. I don’t want to leave them with any kind of burden.

The cool things about NAA Life’s mortgage insurance, is that it isn’t just some stupid piece of paper that says you are protected - it’s a guaranteed peace of mind investment that will ensure your children and your future family is protected.

So, we figured all that out and then realized we also needed to check into final expense insurance and see what it was all about. If you haven’t - you really should.

Leave your family with what they live and know, don’t leave them with burdens someday. It’s never to late to check it out and see what you can do to protect everyone upon your death.

We had a great time last night trick or treating. It was kind of bittersweet for us, since our two oldest (both 14) don’t think they will probably dress up next year. I think we might actually miss it a little, but they say they are okay. It’s their choice. We saw some MUCH older kids out last night that didn’t compare in age to our two oldest.

I at least have a few years left with the other three.

Here they are in all their costume glory:

Jess is an asian princess, Brie is a southern belle, Ryan is a gladiator, Melissa is a nerd and Vanessa is a Japanese geisha girl. They loved the costumes they picked and they all played the part going from door to door completely in character. So funny.

With the gas prices finally making a slow decline, it doesn’t feel quite as tight as it did, but we are still watching where every single penny goes and making sure we are living comfortably. I don’t think I ever knew I’d wind up as frugal as I am.

I don’t know what kinds of things your family does to be frugal, but we:

• cook nearly every single meal from scratch.
• keep the heat and/or air conditioner off and open the windows to get cool or layer our clothing to stay warm.
• have all unused appliances unplugged from the walls - do you know that even if something is turned off, it still draws energy? Yeah - unplug it.
• try to make only the necessary doctor and dentist visits and not go overboard or act a bit over protective (which I am know to be sometimes).
• spend loads of family time together rather than worrying about how much money we are spending on fun things, etc.
• purchasing items online we might not otherwise have purchased such as eyeglasses and other products.

The cool thing about ordering eyeglasses online is the quick and efficient way you can do it and they are so much cheaper than going and dropping $100-$200 at an optical shop. Face it, eyeglasses are expensive and if you shop online, you get a much better deal!

So what are you doing to be frugal in this money pinching economy?