Tomorrow

So tomorrow is my dads last day as a teacher! He's finally retiring! So Hubby and I are going to the house before he gets home to surprise him with a little retirment dinner. I'm pretty excited. He so deserves this! To be able to golf and go fishing as much as he wants! He is the best dad in the entire world! :)

Thought I'd share...

...I stumbled upon http://weight-watchers-points-recipes.blogspot.com/ today, and I'm REALLY excited to start making some of these recipes! I was doing really good on my diet last summer, then Sept/October hit, we got the new puppy and went on our anniversary vacation and haven't gotten back on track since. So I've been wanting to start it back up. I just wish I would have found this website PRIOR to my grocery store trip Sunday! lol. I'm finding some really yummy recipes I can't wait to try!

If I Stay

So I finished "If I Stay" by Gayle Forman today. I started reading last night, and about 3am I decided I should probably go to sleep! And I finished it today. VERY good book, but very sad. I also read that it's being made into a movie, AND Catherine Hardwicke (who directed the first Twilight film) is apparently set to direct If I Stay as well. Although, I read an article from December that says she might not do it after all. Either way, I'm just excited it's going to be made into a movie! I've been reading that people are saying its the Young Adult version of The Lovely Bones, although, I didn't once ever think it was like that at all. Granted, I didn't like The Lovely Bones, and loved this book.

I'm thinking my next book is going to be The Hunger Games. I've had the book for SO long, but the ugly cover keeps putting me off from reading it. BUT, I have heard from MANY people is a pretty good book. :)

The Lovely Bones

So tonight my sister in laws and I went to see The Lovely Bones. It was a pretty good movie. I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it. I was NOT a fan of the book however. I just couldn't get into it. I definitely felt like it made a better movie. Although there were a few things I wish had made it into the movie from the book, but the things they added worked very well also.

Also, I'm getting ready to start a new book! :) On my way to try to accomplish my goal on reading 100 books this year!

Dear John

Ok, I cannot WAIT for this movie. I read the book the beginning of this month, and if you haven't read it yet, you need to. NOW! :)

Plans

So tomorrow we are going in to file our taxes, and afterwards we are going to pick up Louie's sisters to spend the night. We are planning to go see The Lovely Bones Sunday afternoon. I read the book, and COULD NOT get into it. But I forced myself to finish it. I hate not finishing books lol. Although there were a few parts of the book I liked, overall, I wasn't a fan. BUT the movie looks AMAZING! And I heard the actual murder scene isn't in the movie, not sure if that's true, but either way, we all really want to see it, and I've heard both good and bad reviews so we'll see. Its rated PG-13 so I think its ok for a 15 and 16 year told to see. I hope anyway!

Last night I made a new soup recipe! I've been making alot of soups lately with the weather being cold and rainy, and this one is by far my favorite I've made! I got it from rachel ray, and I'll post the link. SO yummy.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/three-bean-pasta-e-fagioli-recipe/index.html
Although I only used just the white beans, and used shell pasta instead of the kind she used. And the green beans, were WAY to crunchy for our taste, so next time I'm thinking of either trying to cook them longer, or maybe use the canned green beans, and just strain them before putting them in the soup. Oh and I also omitted the rosemary, because I HATE it! lol. Honestly, the only herb I use alot, is parsley. I don't really like any other ones.

Disapointed

So yesterday I went to the school district to take the test for the Special Education Teachers Aid position. I open the test, and over half of it is questions regarding situations with special education children, uhhh whhhaaat? I wasn't told this would be on there! SO I had no clue what to answer for most of them, but tried the best I could. Got the call today, missed 3 more than I was allowed. UGH! :( TOTALLY disapointed. I can go in, review my test, and in 30 days I can take it again. So I'm going to see if I can go in tomorrow to review it. Although, Im sure by 30 days they will have already filled the position. Oh well. I guess it wasn't meant to be. Something else will come along.

Louie and I went to the office today to get the last of the money they owed us. We were SUPER nervous, because they still wanted us to come help them out a couple days a week, but I'm sorry, you chose you lay us off, we have to move on with OUR LIFE now. So we were really worried it would be a fight when we got there. I said a little prayer before we went in, and luckily it went very smoothly. We gave hugs, said our goodbyes, and said we wanted to stay in touch. Although, I doubt we will. We'll have to see. I am so glad we finally got the money though, that will help us out SO much until our unemployment comes. We're still looking for jobs, every day. I keep checking my dads school district, because he's friends with the guy in charge of hiring, and when I talked to his friend the other day, he told me that right now there really isn't anything available, but when I see something posted online that interests me to call him directly. So thats great. Now I just have to keep checking on that. I'm sure something will come along soon. I hope anyway.

Test

So tomorrow is my test for the teachers aid job! She told me it's basically a common sense type of test, I'm SURE I'll do fine, but not having something to study, or some type of sample test is driving me nuts! I feel so unprepared. Not to mention, I'm horrible at taking tests anyway. Even if I totally know the subject matter. Blah. Hopefully it'll be alright. If I pass I will then have an interview, I'm assuming it won't all be on the same day though. I got a call from another school district today also, they are in the process of alot of people going into retirement, so alot of jobs will be opening up soon. And since the guy is a friend of my dad's he said when a job opens up and is posted online, I can call him directly (he's in charge of hiring) so thats awesome. IF, this teachers aid position doesn't work out. I'm TOTALLY hoping it does though. Granted, its not full time, and unfortunatley I'd make more money from unemployment than I will from this job. But its something I know I'd enjoy, I'd be able to be home more often, and the foot in the door and the experience will be great. SO we'll see. Please keep your fingers crossed for me though!

Been a few days...

So I haven't been on the computer in a few days, but I have now discovered I can write a blog on my phone, so that's what I'm doing now! (Sorry ahead of time for any typos though since I am using my phone lol)

Things weren't looking to good when things were really starting to hit me about our financial situation. Not to mention we hadn't heard about our unemployment yet. But Friday had brought some good news! The past few weeks I have been checking edjoin religiously for clerical jobs either for a school or at a school district. I applied at the few I had found, but on Friday I decided to just call the school districts around our house, first I called the district we lived in since that's the closest and no one even answered, so I left a message with my # totally not expecting to hear back. So I called about 4 or 5 more and none were hiring. So I decided to go get ready and we were going to go some places for Louie to apply at. As I was getting ready the district I left a message for called back! She told me that there wasn't any clerical available right now BUT if I was interested there was a teaching aid position for special needs children, preschool age, I got sooo excited, that is my dream. So on Wednesday morning I'm going in to take a test and if I pass then they will schedule me an interview. I am SO excited. I checked their website and the job isn't even listed so I'm hoping that means there won't be a whole lot of applicants so my chances will be a little better. So please keep your fingers crossed for me! That afternoon we also finally got all our unemployment paperwork in the mail, so that was a relief. Not any money yet but just our forms and stuff. So hopefully things will be starting to look up.

Again, if any of you guys have any recipes on meals that are cheap to make and go a long way pleaseeee share. Or if you have any tips in general to stretch a dollar. Thanks!

Find it kinda funny...

...How we got laid off, however at the ranch up north, they have 3 new employees.

NICE!

Its really starting to hit me that we have no income coming in whatsoever. And still no word from unemployment. I don't know how we're going to survive. Of course I know if I had to, my parents could help us out, but I've never in my life had to borrow money and I REALLY don't want to have to. Thank god we are going to be getting a little money from filing our taxes though. I was trying to do it on Turbo Tax last night, I must have entered SOMETHING wrong, because before I submitted it, it was trying to tell me I owed California over $6000. UM WHAT!? And the dang program WOULDN'T let me go back and fix anything. So my Dad has a friend, and he's only going to charge us $50 to file them. Thank you Jesus. I was so excited to put that lump sum (although its hardly going to be over $1000 I'm sure) on a credit card, but now we'll probably have to live off it. So I guess of all times for this to happen, this was probably the best time. Then hopefully we'll hear from unemployment soon. My boss owes Louie some money for helping out at their house over Christmas, but the IRS froze all their accounts, so I have a feeling, if we're even going to get it, it's not going to be for awhile.

So if any of you have some recipes that are cheap to make and go a long way, PLEASE SHARE! Luckily we have a $50 gift card for Trader Joes, that will be a nice help. I make my own spaghetti sauce, which is cheap to make, and I'm planning on making alot of salads because lettuce and all that is pretty cheap lol. Anyway, any advice on stretching a dollar will be greatly appreciated!

Anyway, I know we'll be fine. God has a plan, and I know that. It may be difficult, but He knows we can handle it. I just have to put all my faith in Him and trust it will be okay. Doesn't make it any less scary but I have to realize, even though this is all happening, we are VERY blessed still. There are people out there who may have jobs, and don't have the things we have, or the wonderful family and friends we have.

Just some stuff...

So American Idol started last night...not sure if I'm going to watch it this season. I had no desire to watch it last season because I don't really like that new Kara lady, and now I'm not that into Ellen being a judge. Don't get me wrong, I love Ellen, I just don't know if I want to watch her also on that. Eh. I probably won't watch it. Although, I did watch So You Think You Can Dance for the first time this past season, wow. I'm so mad at myself for not watching it before! I love that show! I did catch a glimpse of The Biggest Loser last night, Im recording it I just haven't gotten a chance to watch it yet, talk about motivating though. I wish I have my DVR downstairs so I could work out and watch the show at the same time! lol.

Still no luck on the job hunt. And still no word on unemployment. We filed it on the 1st. But it said it takes about 10 days for processing, so I'm HOPING we'll at least hear back soon even if we don't receive a check for a little while.

We're getting our W2's soon, thank you lord! I had been doing it online since we don't own a house or have children, but last year, our bookeeper didn't notice that a section of the W2's was missing, so I didn't realize it, whatever the problem was, got fixed BUT I'm just terrified that something like thats going to happen again. So I want to take it to an actual place to get them filed. I've been told it costs over $200! We don't get a whole lot back so thats a good chunk out of it. But we'll see. I'm pretty sure we'll still take it in, I just would feel more comfortable.

Yay!

So now that I have finally been able to change my background (thanks Tierra!) and customize it a bit, its much more fun :)

Hopefully I'll get a few followers, so it will even be worth posting blogs. lol. I think I only have one right now! I posted on facebook though, so hopefully that'll help.

Who sucks at blogging? Oh right..me.

So it's been about a year since I've blogged. I suck. Big time.

Theres no sense in trying to recap a whole year's worth of stuff. But the biggest news lately, is that Louie and I BOTH got laid off. The owner apparently wanted to cut payroll by $25,000.00. So he cut about $5,000 out of the payroll by laying us off...but have they laid ANYONE else off? No. Have they stopped paying for all the workers at the ranch's housing? No. But whatever, we're hopefully moving onto bigger and better things anyway. We were trying to get pregnant, but thats being put on hold until we are more stable financially. Louie is trying to join the pipefitters union, his application is already in, BUT he has to wait until May to take the math test. I'm not sure what the step after that is, but hopefully it won't be months later. lol. Fortunately we know someone in the union so hopefully that will help Louie get a foot in. Its hard work, but the benefits it will have for our future family we think is worth it. Esspecially if I want to try to stay home when we have a baby.

Other than that life has been pretty uneventful. Which I guess is a good thing? I have a goal this year to try to read 100 books. So far, I've read 4 books since the new year. Which is pretty amazing for me. I generally take awhile to finish books. So far I have read:
*The Lovely Bones (wanted to like it so bad, but was just bored reading it)
*Dear John (LOVED it, cant wait for the movie in February)
*Shiver (One of my favorite books. Loved it!)
*The Notebook (really enjoyed it, but I actually think I like the movie better)
And right now I'm reading a Zombie book called The Rising. I'm only 2 chapters in.

So hopefully I can stay more up to date with this. If not, hardly anyone reads this anyway I think. So it won't really matter either way! haha :)