HISTORY

Wow. My cousin Cathaline and I have been talking for more than a year about wanting to plan a family reunion for the Holland side of our family, so the other day, as she was at a reunion for her husbands family, she posted something about it again. Right then I decided to start a group on Facebook for the Holland Family, and with just a few hours, there were quite a few people in the group. Some of the people I know, but a lot I don't know at all.

Then, after someone who is related to us, but on the other side of the family, the Hendricks side, was added to the Holland group, I was asked if I could start a Hendricks group, so I did just that. Within MINUTES, there were a lot of people in that group, and I know very few people in there. Lol. To me, it seems this is the very interesting side of the family. Seems I am related to John Wayne, George Washington, possibly Sam Houston, and maybe even ELVIS! Wow! Who would have known? Surely not me. I have no clue as to how to go about finding all that out, but some people in my family have spent many hours, and undoubtedly, lots of money, tracking down or genealogy? We even have a family crest so to speak. It is a flying H. I had seen this my whole life, for as long as I can remember, but I just thought it was something that my dad had came up with and started drawing and painting it, seeing as that is what he was good at. Wrong.

Today I found out that in New Mexico, there is a place called "The Flying H Airport" and that is a family thing. My Grandma's Grandfather was killed in a plane crash there, along with his brother, and the brothers wife got everything. The Flying H Ranch, which was once believed to take up part of Texas, and a very large portion of New Mexico. It is now believed to be owned by more distant ancestors.



This is getting to be interesting to me. I will keep you posted as to what all I am able to find out.

Too much to do!

I have so many things I need to be doing, and yet, I am sitting here, in front of the laptop, and glued to the Casy Anthony trial. Tot-Mom, as they have started calling here. Right now her father, George Anthony is on the stand, and though I think he knows more about the killing of his grand daughter than what he is claiming, you would think he is  the on that is on trial. I wish that Casey Anthony would just admit to what happen to the little girl, and get this all over with, and then I think she needs to be placed in general population in the prison system and let her be taken care of by the other inmates. She is one sick bitch.

I need to wash the few loads of clothes that have built up over the weekend and thus far during the week. I really do not want them to pile up like they were, but it seems that my "get up and go" has gotten up and left...and is nowhere in sight. Ahh, the story of my life.

I also need to make a list of stuff I need to get from the grocery store for this weekend. I will be making a huge cake Saturday. Bob wants it to look like a flag so it should be pretty simple. Ice the cake in buttercream, use fresh blueberries for the star area, and the raspberries for the red strips. It will be made of 4 sheet cakes put together, so...we shall see how it turns out.

Well, I guess I have nothing more to say right now.......

What a productive day we have had

We had a very busy, very productive day. I was able to get all of the bedding washed, all of the rooms cleaned and put back together in an organized manner, and so far I have made 2 beds. Not my favorite thing to do. Lol. I don't see a need to make Keigan's bed tonight, as #1. She is not home. She went to Ra-Ra's house with Genny and Denny. #2. She doesn't sleep in her room anyways. Lol. She claims she is scared, and there is no satellite in her room. Ugh. Poor baby. Lol. She does have a brand new flat screen tv with a built in DVD player, and some 400+ DVD's that she could watch.

I was also able to get my coupon binder all organized, according to the isles at H-E-B in Atascocita. That makes me EXTREMELY happy! Well, I say all organized..I am out of baseball card holders, so I need some more of those, and I still have some coupons to put in their slots...when I have slots for them. I also have more coupons to clip, thanks to Ra-Ra for getting me 3 more papers! YAY!!!!! Retarded huh? Oh well. I get my joy from it, and it saves us money.

I am so happy and content in my life right now, and I would not trade my life with ANYBODY!

Well, Sunday came a day early. haha.

Well, we didn't wait until Sunday to do our grocery shopping. Instead we went today, and then on top of that, we took 3 kids with us. What the hell were we thinking? Na, it wasn't too bad. Everybody had a job. Keigan and Genny were taking turns pushing a "little" cart, and which ever one was pushing, the other was marking  things off the list. Dawson was taking pictures of each of the isle markers, and holding the coupon envelope, and Bob was putting the stuff in the carts. Me, I was pushing the big cart.

We did get a lot more than we usually do, but spent about the same. We did get some FREE stuff this time, like bath soap, milk, glass cleaner, and maybe a few other things. I can't remember. I did not get 28 boxes of cereal, or 12 boxes of Fruit By the Foot, but we did get 4 more boxes of cereal, to add to the 4 that we bought last week. We did get 4 boxes of Fruit By the Foot, and we did get like 3 boxes of Pop-Tarts. 3-12 packs of Coke, got the 4th for free, and got a free 12 pack of Fanta. The kids were happy about that. They were also pretty stoked about the fact that we ate at CiCi's and they ate FREE, thanks to COUPONS. lol.

Now, before I tell you how much we saves, keep in mind, we are NOT trying to be extreme as seen on tv, although the kids would like for us to...so they can be on tv. When you see those people on the show, they are really only stock piling, and we are actually doing weekly FOOD shopping, hoping to save at least 40 or 50 dollars a week on the final bill, and so far we have done that. We have been able to pick up extra things here and there, just because we had coupons. I think we have done pretty good, and so far, I am still digging the whole COUPONING project as pf now, and I do hope to learn more, and get more, and eventually SAVE more, and MAYBE, get to the point were we can have a stock pile.

We spend anywhere from 150-175 dollars almost every week when we go shopping.
Today, before coupons, the total was 230.27
After coupons, 172.53

Total SAVINGS  69.20

I will take that any day of the week.
The only thing that made me mad about this trip, is we did not get catalinas for money off our next trip. ugh.

9:56 pm

I can not wait until Sunday!

No, there is nothing really going on, that I know of, BUT, I do look forward to getting my Sunday papers and clipping coupons. This is the new thing around this house, and we have only been doing it a few weeks, but I really enjoy it, and I enjoy going to the grocery store now. Before, I HATED going grocery shopping. I more than hated it. Detest isn't even a strong enough word to describe how I felt about it. Now...Now it is the highlight of my week. Sad, I know. Even more sad, We are not really bringing in big hauls, we have not dropped our grocery bill to 14 dollars, and we don't have a "stock pile" but what we have done is save over 40 dollars a week, and to me, that is fun. I know, easily amused.
Our first coupon adventure was to the local Kroger, and that was not bad. I figured we would spend a lot more than what we did, but we didn't. I think before my Kroger Plus card and my coupons, the total was almost 200 bucks, and then after everything was scanned, it was around 150ish?
We have since decided that our primary grocery store will be H-E-B in Atascocita. It is a little further to drive, but well worth it.
Now, I do have a friend who is also couponing, and she has gotten some great deals. Even gotten stuff for free! We have not gotten anything for free, but we have gotten some good deals. Like a 12 dollar razor for 2 dollars, an expensive tube of toothpaste for 1.47...stuff like that. I do plan on getting more into it, and trying to get it all figured out, as it seems that Leslie has. She just got 12 boxes of fruit roll-up and 28 boxes of cereal for less that 40 bucks! Hello, when is the last time you seen the price of cereal? That crap is expensive. I don't have any clue what I would do with 28 boxes of cereal, but I could sure use the fruit roll-ups. The kids love them, and I could have gotten some cereal, and spent less money. lol. Then on top of it all, she got like 15 dollars off of her NEXT trip. That is AWESOME!

I know, it's the silly things that make me so excited. I will try to keep ya posted as to how it is all working out.

7:03pm

sorry, i have been busy....

ugh, so summer is here, and that is good. it means i don't have to get up and get kids dresses and to the bus stop. unfortunately, it also means my kids are gone about a week at a time with their dad. that's not the bad part. the bad part is that when they come back, it takes almost a week to get the back to the way they are somewhat suppose to act! it's like they go over there and there are really no rules, they do what they want, when they want. not to mention that their nannie (who they stay with while their dad is working) is very sick and having issues with her mental health. falling in the bathroom, saying she is getting lotion for keigan, only keigan wasn't there. arguing that its morning when its 8 at night...the list goes on. i was told that neither of them would be left alone with her, but that was a lie. dawson was left to care for her on day 1 of their visit. oh well, what can i do about it? nothing. i was told that he was left there to take care of her if anything happen...hello, he is only 11! it is not his job.

anyway, so they are home for a couple of days now, and will leave again friday to go spend fathers day weekend with their dad and then they will be back sunday evening or monday sometime. tomorrow we are going to the wave pool. i am excited about that.

i have some other things that are bothering me too, it too has to deal with the kids being at scotts. i don't call them everyday that they are with him because i want to give them time with their dad with out me interrupting them, but when i do talk to them, its like they feel that they can not talk to me, or that they have to hide stuff or something. i don't know how to explain it. my recent conversation with dawson went like this: "hey bud, what are you doing?" "just watching tv, i love you bye" "dawson, i am not finished talking to you! where are you at, what are you doing" him "ok, i love you, bye" me "what the hell is wrong with you, i asked you a question and i expect an answer, and i expect it now. i don't care who you are with, you will speak to me when i call" him, "we are at dads girlfriends house" so i asked where she lived, and i get a wrong answer yet again, and i  tell him to put his sister on the phone, who does almost the same shit! she is usually a chatter box, so this really set me off. i can't help but wonder how many different women scott is going to bring into their lives, and i did ask him that. he claims that this is the last one....if this relationship doesn't work out. hello, you should know if its something serious and going to work, at least for a while, before you bring the kids into the picture.

yes, bob and i officially got together days before my divorce was final, but we had been hanging out, JUST AS FRIENDS, for a while, and then it was the end of october before i let him meet the kids, and that was at his request. i told him my thoughts as to why i did not want him meeting them, and he assured me that he was not going to walk out of our lives, so here we are, almost 2 years later.

well, i guess that is enough of my rants for now....i have a lot of stuff to get done before i can take these kiddos to the wave pool tomorrow, so i better get to it.

8:51pm