Can you beat the odds?

What a day this has been!  Our country has been thrown into an absolute frenzy over the lottery.  I had to head to our local Fred Meyer for some diapers and never before have I seen the line so long of people anxiously waiting their turn to pick their lucky numbers in hopes of becoming a millionaire overnight.

Although I personally don’t play the lottery, I do think it’s fun to let your mind have a little fun with the question, “what would you do if you won 1 million dollars?”  But let’s just have a little more fun with this and put ourselves in the minds of these folks who are waiting hours at local convenience stores to purchase their golden ticket of wealth.

What would you do if you won 640 million dollars?

First let’s take away 25% for federal taxes which leaves us at 480 million.  Our state currently does not have a state income tax but some states would take even more from lottery winnings.  Still, that’s a lot of dough!!   

Now, since I have absolutely no need for this much money, I would be giving a good portion to two of my favorite organizations – 150 mil to our church and 100 mil to Saint Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital. 

That would still leave me with 230 million dollars!!  Next we would pay off all our student loans which would leave us completely debt free.  Since I’m still in school, I’m just going to give a rough estimate of $75,000. 

Then comes the new house.  We definitely don’t need anything extravagant but if I were to choose my dream house, it would have enough bedrooms for each child to have their own, an extra bedroom if anyone needs a place to stay, and a bathroom off the master bedroom.  I would also like to live on about 5 acres.  This would run about $400,000-500,000. 

In the end, after taxes, charitable giving, debt payments and a new house we would still be left with $229,425,000.  I can’t even fathom that!!  The rest would be invested and probably just sit in an account for decades until the kids have all left the house.  At that point Andrew could retire and could take the road trip across Route 66 that I’ve been dreaming of. 

Sometimes it’s nice to let the mind wander but for me, it would be difficult to win 480 million since I’d actually have to buy a lottery ticket to win. 

God’s blessings on 4 wheels

I was told from a friend that I don’t blog often enough (yes, you know who you are!)  so here I am to update everyone on our car saga.  If you remember a while back I explained how we were looking for a bigger vehicle to accommodate our growing family.  So I went on the hunt…

It seemed like I looked everywhere!  I scoured Craigslist, perused the newspaper, hunted the streets but to no avail.  Finally I typed in “Skagit Valley Dealerships” in my web browser and just started looking at all the car dealerships in the area.  Hardly anyone had a three-row vehicle in our price range.  Then I came to one!  A 2001 Suburban was for sale at a Burlington dealership where a friend’s dad worked.  I gave him a call and he referred me to the head sales person.  I do have to say, it’s nice going into a dealership on the shirt tail of a friend.  They tend to treat you better. 

We went in to look at the Suburban but quite honestly, it wasn’t in the best of conditions.  Then the salesman pointed at a 2004 Tahoe and suggested we take a look at it since it also had three rows. 

Boy, it felt nice to drive!  But unlike the suburban, we had not researched the Tahoe at all.  Andrew and I said a quick prayer together and asked for guidance and that if this was the vehicle for us that it would all work together and we would be at peace. 

Let me interject right here though – our previous vehicle was definitely a need.  The car before had over 250,000 miles, bald tires and everything leaked.  We were filling the tires up with air once a month and putting new oil in it every week.  We went to the dealership 4 days before Adam was born and, in pure desperation, financed our Chrysler Sebring.  The day afterward, I woke up resenting the purchase and when we got our first bill I was shell shocked. 

I didn’t want to make the same mistake and was paranoid that we were going to make another poor vehicle decision.  I started praying constantly that God would lead us to the perfect vehicle and help us to know the right thing for us to do.  As a sign that it would be the right vehicle I asked that God would put something blue on the vehicle.  A few days later I also asked that if the vehicle was the right one, that we would be able to purchase it with money left in our pocket.

Now, back to the dealership – Andrew and I sat across from the salesman and just hoped our offer would be enough.  He came back initially with his offer being the entire sticker price.  I very plainly told him that anyone who paid sticker price for a vehicle was an idiot and we weren’t idiots.  (and yes, those were my exact words).  Then we told him exactly what we had to spend on the vehicle. 

They decline and we walked away empty-handed.

But that’s not the end of my story!!  We just couldn’t get that Tahoe out of our heads.  It was irritating that they didn’t accept our offer (which was about $3,000 under sticker price).  In a phone conversation with my mom the next morning I relayed the whole story.  She didn’t want us to lose out on a good vehicle on account of so little so she loaned us a little more and we headed back to the dealership. 

The same salesman was there and Andrew made him an offer $500 less than what we had in our pocket (we wanted to have some to pay the registration, license and tax fees).  Then we waited while he took the offer to the head boss. 

We seemed to wait and wait and wait……

Finally, he came back with an offer written down….. out the door price (taxes and all fees included) it was $400 LESS than what we had in our pocket!!!!

YES!!!!  We accepted, gave them a huge stack of Benjamin's (you can tell most people finance vehicles with how wide their eyes got) and drove away in our new-to-us three-row Tahoe with money LEFT IN OUR POCKET!!! 

Remember, I had asked God for two signs.  One was to have money left in our pocket after we bought the vehicle.  The second one was that there would be something blue on it……

                       THE ENTIRE THING IS BLUE!!!!! 

Bottom line is this: God knew our need and provided us a way to meet that need.  Not only that, but He knew my personal need for affirmation that we were making the right choice and He honored that by fulfilling both of my requests. 

God is good, all the time!!

Weekly Menu Calendar

Don’t you just hate it when it gets to be dinner time and you have nothing laid out, nothing  in the crockpot and you’re left rummaging through all the cupboards frantically trying to figure out what to make for dinner? 

I hate those moments but when I get lax in my meal planning they tend to happen often.  Not fun!  So I decided to do something about it and made myself a cute weekly menu planner for my kitchen.

Here’s what you need…..

Picture Frame (I used an 11x13)

Scrapbook paper

I did get some embellishments but ended up not using them but feel free to get whatever you what to dress up your calendar

 

 

  I used my Cricut to cut out the days of the week but you can use stencils or just write them with pen.

 

 

 

 

If you have one of these little gadgets to help stick the letters on then that’s GREAT!!!  (just make sure to put the letters in the correct way to get the backside sticky and not the front...oops!)  Otherwise, grab your glue stick and get to work. 

 

Now put it all together, slip it into the frame and you can use a regular white-board marker to write your weekly menu.

** Yes, I realize ‘Saturday’ is missing from mine.  I’ll be including it once I recut it and run it through my sticker maker the correct way. 

The Great Car Judgment

With three kids and an equal number of car seats, we are quickly outgrowing our sedan.  Usually with our tax refund each year we plan something fun to do along with paying off bills and storing some away for a ‘rainy day’.  This year we decided the best thing to do would be to find a larger vehicle.  This begged the question: Which vehicle should we get?

At first I was pretty set on a Ford Expedition.   I like the size and the look but after talking to our local mechanic and a CarQuest employee, I discovered the Expedition’s engine doesn’t have much life to it after a certain number of miles and has conned the nickname – Ford Exploder!

The one thing both parties agreed on was the durability and life of the Chevy Suburban and Mini Vans. 

Now, those who know me know that I lean more toward large trucks and SUV’s as my preferred mode of transportation.  Vans have never been my number one choice and the thought of driving a van causes me to involuntarily shudder.  Although I would never put it past the Good Lord to drop a van in my lap and chuckle because He got me driving the inferior vehicle. 

What I have quickly learned is that when it comes to those who drive mini vans and SUV’s there is no middle ground between the camps.  Those who love mini vans swear by them and will go to great lengths to convince you of the cons of owning an SUV.  Then again, those in the SUV camp would not be caught sight of in a mini van. 

There are many reasons why a Suburban appeals to me but my one hang-up was the increasing gas prices.  I didn’t want to blow my entire budget on gas alone.  So Andrew and I sat down and did some quick calculations.  Andrew manned the computer and I controlled the calculator.  If ever you were wondering, “What really is the difference between a Suburban and mini van when it comes to gas?”  here is your answer….

A 2000 Chevy Suburban has a 33 gal. tank getting a combined total of 13 mpg. This equals $132 at the pump when gas is $4.00 and equals a total of 429 miles per tank.

Now let's figure vans: a 2000 Dodge Caravan, Toyota Sienna and Chevy Ventura have a 20 gal. tank getting a combined total of 19 mpg which equals 380 miles per tank. This equals $80 at the pump with gas at $4.00 but there's a deficit of miles which equal another $10.52 to equal the miles of the Burb totaling $90.52.

I'll spare you the calculations of the Nissan Quest and Windstar but the Quest would cost $93.80 and the Windstar coming in at $100.92.

On average it costs only $38.75 more to pay for the gas in a Suburban than a mini van. This is less than one meal at a restaurant for our entire family.

With our weekly average of 100 driven miles, it looks like we can feasibly fill up once a month and work it nicely within our budget. 

Do you know what this means?  This anti-mini van girl can safely skip into the SUV camp with a clear conscience that my preferences won’t destroy our budget. 

Happy Driving!!

Made To Crave

A few weeks ago I posted about my weight loss goals and how I was going to achieve my goals.  It seems that when we truly want to achieve something which is fruitful, God will put opportunities in our path to help out.  Whether or not we actually recognize and take advantage of those opportunities is purely your choice.

I was faced with an opportunity to keep me accountable to my goals and this past week has been, not only a difficult and emotional one as I learn to manage certain cravings, but a positive one in moving closer to what I hope to ultimately achieve.

Some ladies from our MOPS steering team have decided to form a Bible study and work through the book Made to Crave by Lysa TerKeurst. 

When I went to the first meeting our leader started talking about each of us having accountability partners, checking in everyday with what we ate, our calorie count, sharing our goals, etc.  I literally freaked out inside.  In my head I was thinking, “Oh no!  This is not what I signed up for!!”  But on the other hand I felt God telling me, “You’re right.  But this is what you need”

You see?  Even though I would like to lose weight, I had given up all hope of fitting into a slim size 8 ever again.  It’s one thing to set goals and fail at them all by yourself but it’s an entirely different thing to set goals and run the risk of failing in front of others.  It would be too humiliating!

I ended up coming away from that meeting with my eyes opened to what I really needed to do. 

1)Start eating breakfast each day. 

2)Stop drinking soda altogether

3)Exercise

I am proud to announce today that for an entire week so far I have eaten breakfast each day – some days I have to have my kids remind me.  I have only had a total of 1/2 a glass of soda and I have started exercising. 

I haven’t lost any weight yet but I am positive that this time I’m not going to fail and somewhere in my future, a pair of size 8 jeans are waiting for me.

Looking through the Sepia lense

I think I’ve mentioned in earlier posts how I enjoy photography and am constantly trying to hone my skills and develop new skills. 

(I’ll put in the disclaimer and reminder right here that I, in no way, shape or form consider myself a photographer.  It’s just something I like to do. ) 

Yesterday morning while we were all getting ready for church I decided to play around with the sepia setting on my camera.  I’ve taken many black and white pictures before but have never really done much with sepia.   Sepia does have a fun, antique look to it and it’s kind of fun seeing my photos as if they were taking back to the early 1900’s. 

Here’s just a few of the photos I took…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Have a wonderful, sunny day!!!

When Elbow Grease and Microfiber meet

Spit up, drool, spilled water, and who-knows-what-else.  These are all things that have imprinted themselves as ugly spots on our microfiber couch. 

Not long ago I came across a blog from someone who found a solution to get these unsightly and embarrassing spots out of their microfiber couch.  I went to the store and got all my supplies and when to work.

Here’s what I did…..

   

This is my couch before. 

 

 

 

 

 

You will need:

Rubbing Alcohol (alcohol evaporates faster than water and won’t leave a spot.)

Clean Sponges (preferably white so no color will come off on your couch.  I found some neutral colored sponges at Fred Meyer that worked well)

Brush (again – find one with white bristles)

 

Spray the alcohol on the spots and scrub, scrub, scrub!!  I went over some places more than once because the spots were really bad. 

 

Here’s what my sponge looked like afterward compared to a new one….

If there are parts that look stiff and clumped after everything dries, take the brush and, in a circular motion, you can take care of those areas easily. 

 

 

    BEFORE

 

      

 

 

 

 

AFTER

 

 

 

Amazing difference!!!  There is hope for the microfiber in your family!!!