One other thing

we might actually be able to afford again: term life insurance, this is something that keeps me awake at night.

The other day at church a friend said that her mother has been diagnosed with breast cancer. This is about the 15th person, that I know, that has cancer (or has lost their battle with cancer), in the past year.

I am so worried about our family not being protected. But then again, I guess no matter the situation, we are protected.

Which reminds me, I have to find an appropriate card to send to this person.

Hard to Believe

I find it so hard to believe that Christmas was only a month ago. It seems like forever and so much as happened in that past month. The Hubby took down the Christmas decorations at the old house the other day and I felt like they had been up forever.

Now I just have to find a place for all those things in our new much smaller house. The attic is still full of unused decorations and lights. I think I am going to throw everything in the driveway with a free sign on it.

Is that a light at the end of the tunnel

For the first time in a long time, I think I see a small light at the end of our tunnel. With the recent move we have decreased our cost of living significantly and because of this we actually have a little breathing room, very little but at least I can breathe. It is almost the end of the month and I am not in a total panic about the first of the month bills, because they have already been paid.

I don't want to jinx myself or anything but we might actually be able to afford health insurance in NC, I still cannot afford it in NH but I am only a couple letters off.

There are several other things that we might be able to afford, like braces for CAL, who insists that his life is ruined because of his teeth..... hmmmm I wonder if that is a Lukie family trait.

Rants

Rants are a funny thing. They are usually typed in the heat of the moment and with much more passion than they really deserve.

That being said: When you type a rant and suddenly you have people agreeing with you that normally don't, you better take a step back. I read a rant the other day and the looney lefties were coming out of the woodwork to agree with the silly comments. Are those the types of people you really want agreeing with you?

Business Degree

I have an associates degree in executive secretarial from a defunct "college" in Syracuse called CCBI. It was the biggest waste of two years of my life. That being said I would not change a thing, if I had the chance, because it got me to where I am today.

I have often thought about trying to take some business courses and get a business administration degree, maybe that would make me a better business person and run a more successful company.

As I stated before since The Hubby signed up for a college course I have been pretty interested in what is available online.

I personally think that a business degree would probably be the most beneficial to me right now. I want a place that is accredited, flexible class schedules, and lifetime career assistance, just to name a few.

Going through the big D

and I don't mean Dallas. Oh my word I thought I was going to be arrested today..... My husband drove me over the edge.

We went back to the old house to try to grab a car load of things. I had a list and while some things on the list were important, others were not so much.

I started making a pile to carry out to the road because our driveway was full of snow. After a few minutes The Hubby came in and said "we are almost full so no more stuff". I argued with him, I have to take this, and this absolutely has to come, and are you sure we cannot fit that. Most of my items were things that we definitely do NOT want to leave. Pictures and other family items like that.

I take a walk out to the car and start moving stuff around to try to get more things in. I did pretty good and suddenly I said "what is in this box", it was the biggest box in the car taking up more than half of the only seat. I looked inside and saw TRAINS. Yes his stupid trains. I lost it, I started screaming at him right there in the middle of the street. I am worried about family pictures, and expensive items (like our cuckoo clocks) and he has taken up all the room with his trains.

Now I have not really forced the issue with the Hubby leaving much behind. I know that this situation is much harder on him than on me. I have left many items behind, and sold even more. I agreed to let him bring both the piano and the organ to our tiny new house.

Then after I was done screaming and we finished stuffing every inch of the car, we left. Down the road about a block he said "I am surprised you didn't yell at me about the music books", I said "what music books", sure enough he decided that a file box full of music books were more important than family heirlooms.

Sudden Interest

Since I finally convinced The Hubby to take some college courses, I have had this immense interested in taking some courses for myself.

I have searched a few places on line to start off with because I need the flexibility that comes with an online university.

One of the Universities that caught my attention was Western Governors University. There were so many positive aspects. They are an accredited school that offers bachelor's and master's degree courses. I was shocked at the variety they offer. As I have mentioned before I would like to become a special education teacher, and they offer a BA in Special Eduction.

But Education is not the only degrees they offer, they have many online degree programs, such as Business, Information Technology, and Health Professions just to name a few.

Obviously, finances are a major issue with us right now (WGU is a non-profit university that is very affordable), but even more of an obstacle is the fact that I am forty years old and have always struggled academically.

It gives me something to really think about.

Somebody is really stupid here

I don't know if I am stupid or these people are stupid. The story is about Muslims (and their "rights" organizations) that are angry that American troops are using rifles inscribed with Biblical verses.

Call me stupid but I would think they would be angry with getting shot at! Mr. Muslim "you can shot and kill me but don't do it with a rifle that has a reference to Jesus".

Can you believe that there are organizations that are actually trying to remove these rifles from our troops. I don't know about you, but that sounds really S*T*U*P*I*D.

And the biggest Moran award goes to: Mikey Weinstein - yes you read that right "Mikey" he stated: "I don't have to wonder for a nanosecond how the American public would react if citations from the Quran were being inscribed onto these U.S. armed forces gun sights instead of New Testament citations," Weinstein said. The foundation is a nonprofit organization opposed to religious favoritism within the military.

If the US was a country that was founded on Muslim principles and if it were a Muslim country I would EXPECT the citations from the Quran. But MIKEY it is NOT. Contrary to what our Muslim president wants you to believe we are a Christian Nation and Yes MIKEY we WERE founded on CHRISTIAN principles.

Exciting News

I have exciting news that I cannot share with anyone yet. I am thrilled and yet I cannot talk about it. Don't you just love the tease. It is not that I cannot blog about it for the world to see, I cannot tell anyone (except The Hubby) about my wonderful news.

Now I am old, so don't start thinking that pregnancy might be the topic because that would just be laughable. Can you image, me pregnant at 40.

I wanted four kids when The Hubby and I first married. Up until the point that The Hubby started having grandkids, I still hoped for the four. But that would be so weird to have grandkids older than your kids.

Wore Out

I think that I might need to get a testosterone booster if we have to do much more moving. I am so glad that on Saturday my brother helped the Hubby do most of the heavy lifting and moving items into the house.

Thankfully most of the heavy stuff is done. Now we just have boxes and boxes of paperwork to move, we have been in business for almost 20 years. That is a lot of paperwork, and I read somewhere that businesses have to keep records for fifteen years, compared to the seven that they recommend for personal.

Motivated

It is amazing what a new house can do for ones motivation. I feel like I have a new lease on life. I am so motivated to keep the house nice, clean, and clutter free. I am not putting off tasks and ignoring things that need to get done.

Now I hope that this will last and not be just a phase. I am determined to make a huge change in our lives. Now I have to get CAL and the Hubby on board.

Still Moving

Yes we are still moving stuff. I will probably be moving stuff for the rest of my life. I just cannot believe how much junk you can accumulate in eleven years.

Saturday we spent the entire day moving. I have not had that much joint pain in years. It doesn't help that we have two sets of stairs in our townhouse with thirteen steps in each. I feel so old. I am going to be so happy when we are done and I can go back to a couch potato.

For three years

For three years my wonderful husband plowed driveways in our neighborhood. If a driveway had not been plowed by the time he went to plow ours, he plowed theirs. One day he plowed fifteen different driveways.

Today he had to go back to the house for something. Our driveway was full of snow. Now you know why I am so happy that we don't have those neighbors anymore. What a bunch of Democrats. Take, Take, Take, Take....... Democrats......

It must be something I am eating

Each morning when I wake up I rush to the bathroom to find a new crop of zits breaking out. It is always on my face, of course. I mean really what fun would zits be if they were located in a place that not everyone sees them the moment they look at you.

I don't know why, I don't think I have changed my eating and my stress level is, for the most part, significantly lower. I am an old lady, not a young teenager who should be researching the best acne remedies.

I hope that it is not something in my new wonderful house.

Are you sitting down?

I finally convinced The Hubby to go back to college. He is officially a student. It is very exciting. I have no idea how we are going to pay for it and it adds to my stress now that we received that unexpected bill yesterday.

After-the-fact I can usually appreciate the stumbling blocks that God throws our way, but honestly right now I am just tired of them. Give me a break............

Didn't sleep well

I knew last night that it was going to be difficult to sleep. My stress level was through the roof. I am slightly better this morning but just cannot seem to shake the feeling of doom.

Getting up at 4 a.m., not sleeping well, and the stress is causing me to have deark circles under eyes. Now you might be thinking to yourself doesn't she mean dark and not deark? I think I do, but I am too tired to figure that out right now.

About last night....... I don't know about you but, I don't like dreams. They make my mind race. Last night it felt like I was in a constant dream all night long. The hubby loves to have dreams because then he at least feels like he has slept. Me..... I am so tired after waking up for a dream filled night. Yet I am up at 4 a.m. trying to get some work done before I head off to my job.

What is wrong with me?

I am an emotional basket case right now. We had an unexpected bill arrive (that will be a regular monthly bill we didn't anticipate) and I have totally lost it.

Last month about his time I find out that we will be moving and I don't shed a tear.

Why am I so weak? I am so tired of feeling like a constant failure.

4 A.M. - Am I out of my mind?

I am trying a new routine. I am getting up at 4 A.M. to do my "at home job". It is working out really well, except for the fact that I feel like I am out of my mind. 4 A.M. God created us to only see one 4 o'clock and this one is NOT it.

My reason? I have found that I just cannot seem to be motivated at noon when I get home from my "paying" job. Facebook calls to me louder at that time and I can think of 100 others things I want to be doing.

I find that at 4 A.M. I am so tired that I can only think about one task at a time and my mind doesn't race when it is so tired.

My neighbors must think that we really need to visit www.bestsleepingpills.org, when they see me on the computer this early in the morning. Honestly though I really have to purchase some shades!

Do you ever feel cheated?

We tried this little diner in town that everyone is always raving about. It is a tiny hole in the wall and we have heard about how good it is and CHEAP.

Last night we decided to give it a try. NOT! We spent $40.00 for three of us. I don't call that cheap. I didn't realize (until the check arrived) that both my sides and Cal's sides were extra. Usually I order just water and lemon to help cut costs but assumed it would be cheap enough that I didn't argue when both the boys wanted soda.

It was neither cheap or good. It was the most expensive heartburn I have had in quite some time.

So very proud

I am so proud of my husband right now I could burst. If you have known me for long or read my blog I am usually complaining about the "old coot".

Not today. There are several reason that I am proud but I will tell y'all about only one for right now.

My husband has lost 25 pounds since the summertime. He weighs himself almost everyday and has noticed that he has been losing weight. When he started losing he started paying attention to his portions and exercise. It was very motivating for him!

I will confess I was a little worried when he first told me because I didn't think he had changed enough to justify 25 pounds. I wanted him to go to the doctor just to make sure, but without medical insurance that just is not feasible. He also started reading his prescriptions and noticed that a side effect of one, was weight gain. He asked the doctor to remove him from that and try something else. It worked.

So I would have to say that motivation is one of the best weight loss pills on the market. I know that living in our new neighborhood is going to be a big motivator also. We live so close to many activities. There is a huge park in our "hood". We will have access to full baseball and soccer fields, along with a couple basketball courts. I cannot wait to play soccer with my son. I will teach him everything I know..... What maybe I shouldn't do that!

Fly on the wall!

Did you know that God is the creator and ruler of the universe, and EVERYONE whether they love him, deny him, ridicule him, ignore him, or resist him, will bow down before him and have to answer for their sin.

There are so many out there that seem to be intent on denying his existence, this will not excuse them from this judgment day.

Philippians 2

¹⁰that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
¹¹and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

I would love to be a fly on the wall for some of these people so intent on being disrespectful to Jesus now. I know that there will come a day when their disrespect will turn to crying, begging, and shame. I just wish I could be there for that! I mean it is only fair, I have to be here and listen to their nonsense now!

Things I love about my new house

I am so very thrilled that God allowed us to move to a new townhouse. There are so many things that I love about this place.

It's WARM - no more inadequate heating systems and drafty single pane windows.

It is within walking distance to several stores.

It's WARM

It is small and much easier to keep clean

It's WARM

It doesn't have spiders - in the old house I would kill a spider EVERYDAY in the same spot in the bathroom.

It's WARM

The heat and electric should be about 1/3 of what I paid in the house.

It's WARM

We decided that with all the money we would be saving that we could get TV again. Plus they gave us an awesome package that with the internet and phone the cable was virtually free.

It's WARM

richard willich could be my neighbor. He is not, but he could be!

It's WARM

and finally I don't think I have any neighbors whose kids are geniuses.

I love this new house. There are only a few small things that I miss about the old house, well I am sure that I will eventually miss something..... I will let you know when I do!

A $12.00 a week pantyhose habit!

When I first started working again, I decided that knee-highs would be the way to go. It didn't take many days of pulling them up constantly that I had a change of heart. To be honest the deciding factor was the day that I had to stop to the grocery store on the way home.

I am walking out of the store with a very heavy bag in each hand and suddenly I felt something drop. Now I was thankful that it was not my pants (or skirt in this case) but nonetheless I was mortified. I looked down and there at my angles (which now looked like elephant feet) were my nylons.

That was the last day of knee-highs. I could just hear every youngster in the store pointing to the old "bag" lady with the elephant legs.

The next day I started wearing pantyhose. I found that contrary to popular belief they were pretty comfortable. I was hooked, each and every morning I would squeeze into my pantyhose.

I originally purchased a box of hose from my most disliked store (insert Wal-mart here) and for the first two months of my job I wore those same three pair of hose. (yes I washed them often).

Since then my luck has changed, I purchase a box last week and I was only able to get one wearing out of each pair. Needless to say I am very disappointed in a certain brand of nylon. (I had to purchase something different than the first time) This is probably the biggest name in pantyhose and they stink. I cannot afford $12.00 a week for pantyhose.

I hope they have the other brand when I go back.

On a side note: Have any of you noticed the price increase at Walmart. They are pretty sneaky but pay attention, prices are creeping up and you don't even notice it until you are paying $1.00 more than the drug store. See, Walmart has us trained, we don't check their prices anymore, we just assume they have the best price for whatever we need.

Major Adjustment

Now that we have made a major adjustment in our lives, hopefully we can start to get back on track with finances. I would love to start adding a little money each week to a health savings account.

If there is one area that I tend to be very stressed about it is medical. Just a simple fall or accident can cost thousands of dollars and God forbid that one of us develops a serious illness.

That being said I do not think that Obamacare is the solution. Personally I think they need to hand this entire healthcare mess over to me and a few of my friends. We have the solutions and can fix the problem in just a few short months.

I won't give my solution on here because we are trying to get it copyrighted! Oh my word, I crack myself up at times.

In Limbo

God has blessed us so much in the past couple weeks. We are in our house with a few minor bumps in the road.

I thought that living in limbo (half of our possessions here half there) would be really difficult for everyone, but so far so good.

This house is so warm and homey it is amazing. I am so comfortable and relaxed here that I wondered how I stood living at the other house for so long.

The times were not always bad but the stress over the past few years made me resent the house and everything to do with it.

Are you talking to me?

Sometimes I feel like people should be required to have a license to appear in public.

The other day I was shopping and all of the sudden this person standing a few feet away started talking in a rather loud voice. I assumed she was talking to me since I was the only other person in the isle. I looked at her and she gave me this blank look.

I said "I am sorry?" She just stared at me. Then started talking again. I decided to return the favor and just returned the blank stare. It took me a few minutes before I realized that she was talking on a Bluetooth headset. She could have avoided the entire incident by lowering her voice, or even just giving me hand signals that she was on the phone. Instead she just gave me this goofy stare.

Sometimes I wonder what it must be like to live in the a world where I am the only person that matters and everyone else around me is meaningless.

Blessed

I feel so very blessed to be a part of our church.

When moving day came, a couple of the guys arrived at our house to help us move. I have no idea how we ever would have done it without them.

The Hubby and I have a very hard time working (physical working) together. I am a talker and will tell you every step of the way what I am doing and how I plan to do it. The Hubby is just the opposite. He would rather do it by himself than tell you what he is thinking.

We didn't have to worry about it, the guys moved all the heavy stuff. CAL and I stayed behind after the truck left and moved a lot of the smaller things. I must confess that the next day I was wondering if I should be checking into life insurance online quotes. My entire body felt like it had been run over by a Mack Truck.

We still have a lot of "stuff" at the house that needs to be:

a) given away
b) thrown away
c) moved
d) stored
e) sold

Personally I am all for E. I have to sell my big bean bag chair. One of the causalities of the move.

Closed Door...... Opened Window!

Whenever God closes a door..... he opens a window. You just have to willing to see, and accept it!

Profound I know! God threw us a curve back at the beginning of December. It became perfectly clear that we needed to move.

This is something that I had been trying to convince the Hubby of for quite some time. I had even looked into apartments and alternate housing. The Hubby was not as convinced as I was that moving was in our future. December 9th that all changed.

Within a few days we had found the perfect solution to our situation. We found a place that was significantly less and had enough space to also house our business. We jumped at the chance and have not looked back at that closed door since.