YAY!

Do you see that below??

That is how much this girl owes on her college loans! Outstanding Balance: $0.00! YOU ARE READING THAT CORRECTLY.... NO DOLLARS AND NO CENTS!

I graduated college almost 6 years ago exactly and feel super proud that I (we, Hubby and I) do not have to pay them anymore! I will say that as a teacher in a low income school for 5 years, I was given a $5000 discount but I still feel like I have accomplished something big.

Now if I could only get them to send me some little certificate saying, "Congratulations! You are no longer indebted to the government!" or "Thank you for being a responsible citizen and sticking with your payments!" I would feel complete. :) It feels good to know the only thing I owe money on is the house I live in, which is totally normal.



I should also give a little shout out to Peg, the motorcycle, since he helped make this possible sooner. He helped pay off the truck and then some on this loan. You have been missed by Hubby on several sunny days!

Adorable things I heard over Fall Break

This is long overdue! I typed this up shortly after Claire left but I guess I never published it! For your viewing pleasure....

In no particular order, here are some ADORABLE and funny things I heard this weekend:


While at Nandy and Pa's, their dog, Buddy, nipped Claire. On the 5 minute car ride to my Dad's she was talking about how much it hurt.
C- "He just has sharp teeth. But mine are sharper."
J- "Well, are you going to bite him back since your teeth are sharper?"
C- "No! I would never do that. It would hurt his feelings. It would even break his little heart."


About 10 minutes outside of Enid, Claire woke up from a nap. She started crying and seemed to be in real mess. Brother asked me to pull over so he could calm her down (which didn't do much). The root of the problem was that she missed Mommy but there was nothing we could do about that on the side of the road. When we started to drive again, she said, "Daddy, you are awfully mean to me." "You hate me." It was so sad sounding yet funny at the same time. We both tried explaining to her that she just wasn't listening to him. Neither one of us were successful so we just ignored it.


While eating dinner at Nandy and Pa's, Pa said (talking to Nandy), "You want some salad, Mom?" Claire followed up with, "She's not your Mom!" So, whenever someone was called by any other name than she knows she lets you know that is not their name. Pa called me Jennie Marie and she said, "That's Aunt Jennie, not Jennie Marie!" Later in the evening, we talked about people's 'real name', and how everyone has a real name. She thought it was really funny that Pa and her Papa have the same name.


"My Daddy called me a royal butthead." I must say, she was kind of acting like it during this evenings meltdown. Her and I had been playing Princess Sisters, after making tiaras with a little kit I bought her, so everything was 'royal' at the moment. When I asked him if he said it, he said, "Yes. She is acting like one."


Prior to that meltdown, while working on the tiaras and wands, everything was "we shall put on stickers", "shall we do this?" "we shall." It was very princess like.


"I want to be a real live princess." -when asked what she wants to be when she grows up.

She also told me, "I'm going to pay to work half time and take care of my babies."

I asked Claire what she thought a building was that was being built-- "Excuse me? I'm not the one who builds things. I'm a kid." I asked then asked her why a kid couldn't do it... "Kids don't build things cause they could get hit on the side of the road." DUH. Silly me!

"Are you kidding? That will make it brighter." -on opening the car window a little bit 

A new post was asked for...

I have been reminded on more than one occasion that I have not blogged since November 21st. Pa kept trying to tell me it was October but I knew I had posted about my principal kissing the pig so I knew he was acting senile. :)



Without further ado, here is another installment of Crazy Stuff My Pa says…..



“They say the average release of gas is 14 times a day. I don’t believe it, mine is about 28 times.” –this was said on Thanksgiving day. No telling what we were talking about


“I keep seeing ads for male enhancement pills and telling Nan I should try them. She keeps asking who I’m going to use it on.”

And last but not least, there is nothing like hearing your 83 year-old Grandpa call someone a slut! It was priceless.



Hubby has now gotten onto Pa’s list… yesterday, he told Pa he would email him some pictures of the new plant his company is building. Today, Pa promptly told him, via Skype, that “I didn’t get any picture emails from you.” BUSTED!

Angel Kids at Christmas

For the past 2 years, Hubby and I have gotten ‘Angel Kids’ for Christmas. This year was no different! We have get our kids from church and they have worked for several years with Osage County DHS to make sure their foster kids are not left out at Christmas time.

The first year, Hubby signed us for 1. It was a girl. The second year, Hubby sent in the form and we had 2 kids! A little boy and a little girl. This year, when I got home Hubby showed me that he had the information for our little kids. The paper was folded in half and I saw that we had 2 boys. Bummer, I thought. Then I saw that there were 2 girls on the bottom. That’s right… he signed us up for 4 kids! Poor little Tobie will have to go without dog food for a while but there will be 4 happy kids with fun new toys to play with. ;)

This is for our little 4 year old girl.

This is for our little 6 year old girl

This is for our little 8 year old boy.

This is for our little 10 year old boy. (Hubby was SO excited to get a bike!)

I tease about Tobie not getting any dog food when I really feel overly blessed. We had fun picking out toys and clothes for these little kids. Did I mention that we spent 2.5 hours at Wal-Mart for this shopping spree?! Well we did! That is like a banner event for Hubby to be there that long too!

I have very close family friends that do this with their 2 little boys, trying to get kids that are close in age to their own. While Gabe and Eli are helping pick out toys, they may not realize now how much they are helping someone else out but someday they will. I think it is a great way to teach young kids about compassion and hope to carry that on someday when we have kids of our own.