We’ve made it back to Alabama! We got home around 10 last night and we are just exhausted!

We were having a conversation in the car, however, that just had to be blogged! Someone said something about our ‘getting home’. And Patrick said, “Alabama is not home, what’s in Alabama is our house - Texas is ‘home’!”

So from then on out, the rest of the way to Alabama - whenever the topic came up, it became - ‘we are on our way house‘!

Once we arrived to our town, we stopped to pick up some dinner. The kids and I were waiting in the car while Mark went in to pick it up, and Puppy seemed a bit uneasy. So Patrick said to him, “Puppy, what’s the matter? Don’t you know we’re house? We’re house, Puppy - we’ve made it house!”

So - Alabama is ‘house’!
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It’s finally true! After all of this time, I am really leaving - leaving my home, leaving my family - again! Ugh! I have been really busy today packing and cleaning and getting everything ready. And apparently, that has been good, because, when I took the dog outside and decided to relax in the lawn chair for just a minute, I immediately started bawling. Ugh. So I popped back up and got back to busy as quickly as I possibly could. And there is plenty to do. Even if I get myself and the kids and the dog all completely ready, there is plenty of housecleaning that I could be doing - between all the kids and the 100lb. dog, we’ve really trashed this place! I even have the coffee ready for in the morning, and I had that ready by noon! It felt strange to be setting up tomorrow’s coffee so early, but, I want to try to make tomorrow morning as smooth as possible.

I want to get as much ready as I possibly can, because we have a really sad vehicle situation and it is going to be stressful. We didn’t have the money to buy the trailer hitch because the damn thing cost $300!! Can you believe that?! So that means that all of Mark’s tools are actually in the vehicle with us! You don’t realize when you have a truck toolbox, just how dependent you really are on it! So we’ve got all of Mark’s tools (two of which are big thingy’s), five people, one 100lb. dog, all of the people’s stuff, all of the dog’s stuff, and Mark’s tools - in ONE MINIVAN!!! Dear God!! I do hope some of you will pray for us!

I just keep reminding myself of the time my mother, father, brothers and I took a trip from Richardson, TX to Colorado - in a Pinto!!! The middle ’seat’ in the back wasn’t even a seat! It was a hump! And my brothers and I had to take turns sitting on the hump! And you know what? We survived - and lived to tell the tale! So I keep thinking of that and reminding myself that it is just twelve hours that we have to live through.

And anyway, I guess all of the chaos and frustration of it will keep my mind off the sadness…
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My friend, Kristi, who lives here in Dallas and is one of my Punkymom friends, fixed my hair so freaking awesome! She gave me a razor cut shag with pink tips! It is so amazing, I totally love it! And you know what’s funny? One of my very first posts on this blog, maybe even my first post, was a picture of my hair and some new pink highlights that I had put in it! Lemme see… yes, I found it! It was actually my second post - My newest pink highlights!

And of course, I want to post pics of this new do, as well - which is 8,000 times better than that one, but, I don’t have camera software here with me. Kristi took a bunch of pics, though, because she was so excited about it! So I’ll try to get her to send me a few.

She was so excited about it because, she had seen a hairdresser contest show on TV, and they did this hairstyle and she was really wanting to try it on someone. And then when I told her that I was coming in town, and that I had had my hair cut short, but, it was just heavy on my head, and I wanted her to fix it up, she said to herself, “Oooh, I know just what I am going to do!!” And she did a fabulous job on it!

Of all the times that I’ve put pink in my hair, my mom never really liked it that much. But this time, she said, “I never thought I would like pink in your hair, but, I it looks really cute and I really like it!!”

My brother even liked it! Now that’s funny!

Husband, on the other hand - ahh, he’s just a silly goose! Sammie and I were teasing him that he hadn’t said anything about my hair and he said, “It’s short, why would I say anything?”

1950’s goofball!

I need new clothes so badly! I bought a few t-shirts the other day, cheap ones, but, I need some nice, decent clothes. I think if I got a few decent blouses, and a couple pair of shorts, and maybe a bathing suit, I would not feel like such a raggamuffin! And I was recently introduced to Lane Bryant and I totally love their clothes! And then if you combine that with some cool coupons online, that would be awesome! CouponChief.com has some really nice Lane Bryant deals! They have $20 off of $60 or more, $25 off $75 or more, and heck! They even have a coupon code for 30% off of clearance items! Totally cool! I think I will have to do some shopping!

This is just getting crazy! Ok, now we are not leaving until Thursday!

Mark’s jobs that he is doing here are taking longer than expected, so we have to stay another day. He informed us of this when he got home from work last night. I will seriously laugh so hard if he comes home tonight and tells us there is yet another delay! Too funny!

It actually worked out nicely, though, because my brother had to go to Austin for work and might now be home until late tonight. And he went there early yesterday. So if we were leaving early tomorrow, he wouldn’t get those last days with us. Yes, we’ve been together for weeks and I’m sure he will be so glad to get his house back, but, the last day or two are kind of special and important and sad and ooey and gooey. And even though they are kind of the ‘hurting days’ - nobody really want to miss them, you know?

My husband and I are in some debt and it makes life so difficult! I’ve been reading up on ways to help us get in a better situation and today I’ve been looking at a very helpful site, GoldStarCredit.net. There is definitely a lot of good information available on that site. First, I was reading their section on Debt Help, in which there were a number of interesting and informative articles, found on the left sidebar. The page on Collections Information really explained a lot of what we have been going through.

I have always wondered if it was bad to order a credit report - I thought I had heard that that was bad to do too often. But this site says that you should really stay on top of your credit report and order one at least once a month. Eeks! That sounds too frequent! I’ve never actually ordered one, but, I sure would love to see exactly how bad ours really looks! Funny how it can feel as scary as a bad report card in high school!

We would really love to get a mortgage in our name, but, I’m not sure how soon that will happen. We recently applied for one, but, were turned down because of our credit. I did learn a lot about the different types of mortgages on the Gold Star Credit site, though. I think it’s probably a good thing to learn and study about all of these things as we go along toward our goal of cleaning up our credit and owning our own home!

It is so bad, and so totally unhealthy of me! It’s been gnawing at me lately that I really need to start thinking about changing my ways! Yep - it’s time to make The Switch! My SIL came home from the the store the other night with my nephew, and my nephew was so excited he was skipping and singing! See, he’s not allowed to drink soda. However, his mother found a ’soda’ that he could have. It is an all natural 100% juice ’soda’!! And you know what? It’s good - it’s really good! So DJ and I are excited! He gets to have a special ‘treat’ and be a big boy and drink ’soda’! And I have a good way to get my unhealthy arse off soda!! That is totally cool!

So let me tell you a little bit about them - they are 100% fruit juice and 100% carbonated. They have no preservatives, no corn syrup, no sugar added, and best of all - no mystery ingredients! I like that part! It’s annoying and kind of freaky to read the labels on food and drinks and have no idea what the heck those ingredients are!!

The 12 ounce bottles have 1.5 servings per bottle, and there are 120 calories per serving. And there is also 100% vitamin C!

When we get home, I’m definitely going to have to get myself some of these!! Tracy got them at Target, but, we only have Wal-Mart in our town. I sure hope Wal-Mart sells it, too! And I know, I know - a ‘good’ hippie wouldn’t even shop at Wal-Mart - but, the nearest Target is 20 miles away, and the Winn Dixie is way too expensive, so I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place. Hey, my own mother tolerates it, so I don’t want any flack from the blogosphere, ok? Alrighty then!

Now ya’ll all go out and make the big Switch!!
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My friend, Cat, is from the UK and moved over here to the US later in life. I always love talking to her about the differences between life here and across the pond. I’ve learned some interesting things from her. One time I think we were talking about the different ways that we serve toast than she is used to. And more recently we were talking about the differences in things like healthcare and car insurance.

So then I was investigating UK car insurance online and I found it interesting to read their different terminology. One of the things that this website that I was looking at talks about is breakdown cover. And the cool thing about the breakdown cover is that it covers you, not your car! So even if you are in a friend’s car, you are covered! That is totally awesome!

One of the other interesting terms was keycare cover. As long as your keys are attached to the key fob, they will help you recover your keys. And they say they recover 90% of lost keys! Wow! I imagine they have a GPS tracking system in the key fobs. That is pretty cool!

It really sounds like some pretty good coverage over there in the UK, and I just love hearing about the different ways the same exact things are handled - especially in the same language! You know what I mean?
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Well, the time has finally come for us to think about going home. We have to say goodbye to my mom and my dad, my brother and his wife (who also just so happens to be my best friend!) and my sweet little Scooter Pie - my four year old nephew.

We are leaving on Wednesday and right now I am just thinking in a gettin-down-to-business way, like gathering up all our belongings and winding down our visit. But I know that soon - it will set in. The fact that I am leaving my ‘home’ and going very, very far away. Ugh.

It hasn’t hit me yet, though, so I’m just enjoying the pain-free business….

“We need to get all our stuff at Grandma’s house and bring it over to Mic’s.”

“We need to get Shawn’s new bathing suit that he left at his friend, Ryan’s house.”

“Do Sammie and Patrick need to see Christina and Nick one more time?”

“We still need to see Scott and Louise.”

“Grandma and Grandpa will have to come over to say goodbye.”

“Do you think I have time to see my old friends, Mike and Michelle, before we go?”

etc, etc…

Ya’ll just pray for me that when the pain hits - it doesn’t knock me out - okay? Thanks!
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I must admit it was really hard to leave my computer! I cannot wait for the day I have a laptop and a travelling internet connection, whatever the heck you call those things! That will be a grand day indeed! I have hopped around here from computer to computer, trying to blog, keep up with email, keep up with my peeps and my Punkymoms - and it’s been a bit hectic! I was a bit concerned, because I knew I would want to download a few things on my brother’s machine so that I could work while we are here. He is actually still using IE, oh the horror! So of course, I wanted to download Firefox, which he should’ve done looong ago! And then, of course, you gotta get all the cool plugins for it. You just can’t work without this stuff, people! And then I wanted to download the ChaCha search software so that I could continue my search guide job while here, as well. But I was concerned about how much IBM memory he had available, but, to my surprise, he said it was fine and that I could download whatever I needed! I was so excited!! So for the times that I’ve been at my brother’s house, I have been able to continue to work. I have spent a lot of time at my mother’s house, though, and her internet connection died a couple days after I got here - it was a very sad day!