Christmas ...

Christmas is coming! And I don't feel ready at all! I haven't even picked out everyone's presents yet. Yikes! Normally this wouldn't be a problem, except I'm supposed to be making most of our presents. To date, I have completed one. One - and it's a long list! LOL!
I suppose once the fall y'all giveaway is over, it will back to focusing on my home-made Christmas very intensely! And hey, if you are new here, feel free to grab the button and sign Mr. Linky and join me on my journey! =)

Fall Y'all Giveaway: Day 3

UPDATE: COMMENTS ARE NOW CLOSED, PLEASE CHECK BACK TOMORROW FOR THE WINNER!

I have to admit to everyone, I have hemmed and hawed, and hawed and hemmed about doing this. At first I was hesitant to do this, but I finally decided to just go for it ...
So today's give away will be :::drum roll:::

1 Children's Helping Hands Apron
Yes, I am bringing the apron back because it was extremely popular last time we played.
Now, here's where it gets even better. The winner can look at (pictures of) my fabric and pick the fabrics that they want. Why you wonder? Well, the two I have made already are a bit girly and it's just not fair to moms of boys!
Here are some misc pictures to show you of the aprons:

Now, these aprons are reversible, both sides have pockets and one side is embroidered. To win, honest to goodness, all you have to do is leave a comment before Saturday November 3 at 6:00. You also must be patient if you win and give me some time to make yours!

Now, do you just love these aprons ... remember if you don't win, you can find them here. I even reshot the pictures for the two I have listed today so that the pictures actually look good LOL!

Now don't forget to also:
sign up for my first giveaway
sign up for my second giveaway
Sign up for my fourth giveaway
visit etsymom for the fabulous giveaways there as well

And go back to the Fall Y'all headquarters and sign up for LOTS of freebies (last I saw, almost 500 giveaways to take part in!)

Other notes:
I'm sorry, but I'm only shipping to the US or to an APO address. I know, it means I'm leaving out a bunch of nice people but the cost of shipping and all that jazz!

Also, a shameless self-promo here, please go and visit my etsy store Emmagail Creations. I'm hard at work over here making some lovely aprons to list over there. So feel free to go over there and browse around =)

Reason 349,821,357 that I love my husband

Last night dh came home and I mentioned how much fun the Fall Y'all giveaway was!

My darling dh said to me "So, how many contests have we entered so far?" and then "And what are we giving away?"

Now, truthfully he could have said "How much time are you spending on the computer?" or "Is that why the dishes aren't done?" or something to that effect. But he didn't. He understands. He gets my need to blog and participate in these sorts of things.

And that is just one of the many reasons I love him!

Fall Y'all Giveaway: Day 2

UPDATE: COMMENTS ARE NOW CLOSED, PLEASE CHECK BACK TOMORROW FOR THE WINNER!

Welcome back my friends!
I'm having a lot of trouble with blogger right now, so I'm crossing my fingers that this will go through!

Today's giveaway is for a set of 3 books (all previously read by me but in very good shape anyway).
The books are: The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger
The Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella
The Red Tent by Anita Diamant


They are all books I enjoyed reading and think you might enjoy as well! =)

Just leave me a comment by Saturday, November 3. Make sure I have a way to contact you if you win.

And if you haven't already, go back to yesterday's post and sign up for that giveaway!
And sign up for the third one and the fourth one!

For more giveaways (there are a LOT of them) go here and see what else you can win! =)

Please visit etsymom because there are TWO fabulous giveaways there as well =)

Other notes:
I'm sorry, but I'm only shipping to the US or to an APO address. I know, it means I'm leaving out a bunch of nice people but the cost of shipping and all that jazz!

Also, a shameless self-promo here, please go and visit my etsy store Emmagail Creations. I'm hard at work over here making some lovely aprons to list over there. So feel free to go over there and browse around =)

Fall Y'all Giveaway: Day 1

UPDATE: COMMENTS ARE NOW CLOSED, PLEASE CHECK BACK TOMORROW FOR THE WINNER!

Hello and welcome to my blog! It's a place where I tend to ramble about many topics LOL!

Anyway, today for my first give away, I am giving you a chance to win a hand-knitted market bag (made by yours truly!)



It was a fast, fun project that is wonderful! In the picture above, there are 3 apples and 2 oranges, which hardly took up any room at all!

Anyway, I had so much fun making it, and would love to see less plastic bags used, that my dear visitors, I'm going to make one and give it away to one lucky winner!

Here is another shot of it hanging and inside are too large skeins of yarn ....



One creamy white and one blue skein ...



If you win, you can decide if you want it in the creamy color or the blue color! I'm all about letting people have choices you know! (Of course, you'll have to give me a week or so to make it before I can ship it so please be patient with me!!) But I would love to give this away to one lucky winner.

Here's the deal, just leave a comment on this post (making sure there is a link back to a blog or e-mail address) by SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 3 at 6:00 pm. That should give people enough time to come over and sign up!

Don't forget to come back every day this week to see what else I'll be giving away here =)

For more giveaways (there are a LOT of them) go here and see what else you can win! =)

See what I put up for day 2 here!
And sign up for the third one and the fourth one!


Other notes:
I'm sorry, but I'm only shipping to the US or to an APO address. I know, it means I'm leaving out a bunch of nice people but the cost of shipping and all that jazz!

Also, a shameless self-promo here, please go and visit my etsy store Emmagail Creations. I'm hard at work over here making some lovely aprons to list over there. So feel free to go over there and browse around =)

(and yes, I gave away the same thing during the dog days of summer and I am in fact recycling pictures because well, it's just easier that way LOL!)

Fall Y'all Giveaways

So I've been racking my brain over here to think of what to give away to everyone this week. I *think I have all 5 days planned out now, but we'll see how the week flies by! October is always so very hectic for us in this household and with Halloween on Wednesday, this just seems like it will be an overwhelming week.

However, I love to win things and I love to give them aways as well so you know I have to do something for all of blogland! =)

I also want to point out to everyone, that I am also in charge of the give aways going on the etsymom blogspot too ... so head over there and check it out (today's give away is up already YEAH!)

Must Love Dogs!n And Contest!

I have finished my First Fall Into Reading Book.
I read Must Love Dogs.


http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51FM69RS00L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg


Honestly, it wasn't what I expected (because I saw the movie first) and I actually thought that the movie was better than the book. I was slightly disappointed in the book, and honestly wanted to ditch it halfway through.

Things like this always make me wonder how would I have felt if I read the book first and then viewed the movie? Generally I think I like the one I did first the best. Although the movie felt like it had a happily ever after ending and I liked the main character better in the movie. The book, well, the ending just felt unfinished ... like something was missing.

Now, with all that said, if you are curious about this book yourself, leave me a comment by October 29. I will send this book along to a random commenter! Because someone else might enjoy the book more than I did. And because I have no desire to let it sit around and collect dust in my house!

2 Finishes ...

I have two finishes to report to you dear friends today! And only one is actually mine.


My darling daughter (who by the way turned 8 today 10/28!) finished her very first project today! =) Boy, did she feel proud of that accomplishment. We even laughed about how it only took about a year to finish. She has already begun project number 2, which is a headband for her lovely head! So a big round of applause for her!

Today, I also had a finish I am proud of:






Oh, these socks are absolutely gorgeous! I can't even put into words how much I seriously love them! I worked very hard on them. I did manage to have a tiny bit of yarn left (I may be able to eek out a pair of socks for a wee child from it but I'm not sure). I have to say, I could have certainly used less yarn. The top could have been shorter. The cables didn't have to go down the top of the foot, but I think the socks wouldn't have looked nearly as pretty that way and I certainly wanted to do the best job possible on these. And I think they are gorgeous. I did put them on for the pictures (and only over clean white socks first) and my feet loved them. I will be sad to see them go, but I am so proud of these socks! I think knitting a second pair in the future is an absolute must! =)

Sleep ...

People! I have managed to get some sleep finally! You can not even begin to understand how happy this makes me. It was very needed and oh so loved.
Granted, I needed a bit of help getting it (and I found it in a pill packed with melatonin and passionflower, but at this point, I almost don't care how I got sleep, just that I got it.

And I needed sleep ... because Monday starts the
Fall Y'all Giveaway and I am getting ready to give a few things away here, help set up give aways at EtsyMom blog AND of course, enter give aways to my little hearts delight LOL! =)

So, you'll see why getting sleep now will be oh so important in the near future.

Also, I need some advice for anyone who knows about Babywearing a child who is a toddler and not a baby ... what is the best way to do it? He'll be 2 in December and I want to be comfortable and I want him to be comfortable. I'm thinking something on the back is the way to go, but I don't know. I used a sling for my oldest until she was a year (and then she was over 30 pounds and we couldn't find anything that could hold her weight) and I do occasionally sling him as well - we have a nojo sling, but it's either stretched out or just not working for him because it's too loose and he flops around and it doesn't feel safe, so we don't do it often.
Thanks in advance! =)

So tired ...

One might think that the more tired you become, the easier it is to fall asleep. My body, apparently, didn't get this memo and sleep has been extremely difficult to find for the last few weeks.
A couple days ago my dh was lamenting this fact with me and admitted he is nervous about me driving around with the lack of sleep I've been getting lately. I promised him that I never get in the car if I don't trust myself to drive and that if I got so exhausted that I didn't think I could drive, he would be the first to know.
This morning I called him at work and let him know that I was too exhausted to trust myself to drive today. Which normally would be fine, but tonight it's my turn to carpool my kids and one additional to Awana. And I keep thinking, with my luck, driving home at 8:30 at night, when it's dark out is the time I will just fall asleep. And that thought makes me very worried. Ugh.
Tonight though, I am praying tonight I will fall asleep without any issues and actually get a full night's rest under my belt.
I guess sleep is one of those things you don't think about until you aren't getting any. And right now I'm not getting hardly any. And it is really wearing me out.
Anyway, probably until I can get sleep and have some coherent thoughts to type out, I'll be mia for a few days. Because I'm just too tired to think anymore.

I've put in my Christmas request already ..

So today, I let me dh know what I wanted for Christmas ...

We have been invited to go up to Wisconsin Dells for Thanksgiving weekend with his dad and stepmom. Indoor waterpark, swimming, lots of good food, what's not to love about it, right? I know it would be fun and I would enjoy it ... but tonight I told dh the only thing he needed to do for me for Christmas is to take the kids up that weekend and let me stay home!

72 hours without having to feed another person, without having to dress someone, without having to change a diaper. 72 hours to sleep, read, sew, knit, embroider, watch tv, eat lots of unhealthy foods, soak in the tub, stay in pajamas all day long.
I'd be in heaven!

But, yet, at the same time, I feel bad about requesting that. I told him that I knew it wouldn't be easy to be up there without help and to not feel like he had to do this. He hasn't responded yet. I fear the dream might be slipping away ....

Belated Thank you ...

So a sort of really long time ago, HappyMomma gave me this:




Aww! It makes me feel super special! Thank you very much ... I have to add she makes me smile a lot too - and I always love to get her comments here =)

And now I am supposed to pass this on to someone, which is pretty hard because well, a really large amount of people make me smile every day. I won't even admit to you about how many people I track via bloglines because then you all might think that I was addicted or something like that to reading blogs!
I am, however, going to pass this on to a friend of mine - someone I see in person face to face because she listens to me ramble on the phone, comes over to my crazy house, doesn't mind that my kids are afraid of her dog, doesn't freak out over runny noses, and really does make me smile ... so I'm passing this on to SJCreations ... however, if you are reading this, chances are I thought about giving it to you because all the readers who have left comments to me, well, you all are awesome! =)

Book Review: What Comes After Crazy

So last night, thanks to an inability to sleep (again) I finished the book What Comes After Crazy by Sandi Kahn Shelton.

It's a story about Maz, who is going through some rough times - her husband has left her, her oldest daughter acts like she hates her, she has a crazy mother, she isn't happy in her job, and she isn't sure about how to start dating again.
Now, I'm a big fan of realistic fiction, and even though this book started a bit crazy (and really given the title this is no surprise) but the more I read it the more I thought how it wasn't really that realistic after all. But yet, it wasn't quite a fantasy novel either and so I was left feeling just so-so about the book.
However, the author does a great job of mixing humor in with what are some very sad/hard times. I also think the author happens to be a great writer. This just wasn't a book for me. She has other books out, and I would even attempt to read them because I just like her style.

It could also be said that the book didn't jive with me right now, because well, not much is! Honestly, I feel like I'm stuck in a rut and just feeling very stressed and overwhelmed. This sort of feeling tends to hit me (although I will say this is the first time in a long time and for that I am grateful). This will all pass soon - especially I'm sure once October ends because this whole hubby working an extra job and me working an extra job and all the other stuff going on is really putting me on edge. I am looking forward to November 1 VERY much!

And sorry, I can't give this finished book away to anyone because it's a library book and they would like it back! LOL!

Stuff

Last night I finally finished one sock. I still need to start and finish the second, but I'm glad it's done. I love the sock. It's gorgeous. I want to wear it ROFL!
I have to say though, I found a few things in the pattern that I would rewrite if I could. BUT seeing as I've never designed a pattern, had to write it up, nor wonder if other people could understand things as I understand them, I truly have very little to judge here LOL!

Also, I am in the middle of freezing a LOT of corn. I started with a little over 8 dozen ears (although quit a few have not been edible and been tossed straight to the garbage. I have 60 ears right now ready and waiting to be blanched, but I ran out of ice. I have already taken care of about 15-20 ears, so that leaves me with a fair amount of corn to put in my freezer LOL! However, the corn will be shared with (at least) 2 other people. I am also trying to get my hands on another 5 dozen ears (knowing that again, some will have to be tossed).

I have to say, I know I will enjoy eating the corn at a later date. And I certainly will enjoy not having to pay for corn (because we were blessed and given all this corn) but it gets really boring to boil about 7 ears at a time, then cool them, then cut all the kernels off, then freeze them on a cookie sheet (so that they don't freeze in one big chunk), then put them in the final freezing bag. Very repetitive and well, I keep eying that second sock I should be knitting because it looks a lot more fun than the corn is ROFL! But that's okay. A little hard work never killed anyone, and certainly won't kill me either ;-)

An FPU update ...

I haven't been doing any FPU updates lately. I apologize for that.
I suppose if we had been saving tons of money, knocking out debt left and right, I'd probably be writing about it very often out of excitement. As it currently stands, looking at our financial picture is mostly leaving me feeling very stressed and worried. (Although I have to add, at least I'm looking at it now and I can't imagine what sort of path we would be on if we didn't get in gear now).
This month Murphy visited us (uninvited I might add) and hit us hard with all my tooth issues. It has really stressed us.
And oh, remember when I bragged about our thankfully low debt that would be paid off in November (right here if you want to go visit a cockier me). Well, I was technically correct when I said in November we will be debt free aside from the house. However, I was rolling the second mortgage into the house category and have now realized (with a little help from dh) that the second mortgage is in fact in the debt category and only the mortgage is the house. And he's right because 1) the second mortgage is technically a Home Equity Loan. And it's almost double the interest than our regular mortgage and (here's where it becomes the problem) it's a balloon payment. Seriously, I didn't' know that until recently. They are only billing us for interest each month and the principal will be due in about 14 years, 6 months. Now, we have paid extra on it and they keep applying it to the interest, despite us calling to put it to the principal. :::sigh:: So in one swoop, our debt was doubled because of how we are viewing it. And with the money we will be receiving soon, we have decided to pay off the HE loan and then attack the credit cards. Our thinking is a) the HE loan is a pain because of how it is set up. b) if things get worse, the credit card companies can't take our house away. But the mortgage company, can. So we are eager to get rid of it.
With our current plan, it will take approximately 33 freaking months. Seriously, I want to puke about it and we are on a very modest budget I think. Mostly because of the house. This house. I have a love/hate relationship with it right now - because it takes 45% of our monthly take-home pay for the mortgage.
I will be honest right now, I'm very down about this whole thing. I had some people over last night for a craft night (who ended up buying some things from me) and I joked that I would pretty much do whatever they wanted me to - babysit, make things, help in any way shape or form these days. They laughed about it with me, and then the one mom told me a date she needs a babysitter, because they also knew I was serious about it too!
But I want this debt gone ASAP! I don't want to carry it for 3 years. If we could go back one year ago, we wouldn't have bought this house. But we have to start where we are. And this is where we are. And we are working on it, and we are attacking it. And I know it will get better. But, it is going much slower than I predicted. We should have had a chunk to put into savings this month. As it stands now, if we can make it through the month without running out of money, well, I will consider myself quite blessed truthfully.

Anyway, that is my update for now. It's not very pretty at the moment and it's not a lot of fun either frankly! I'm stressing about it all big time. But we have a plan. And we are digging our way out. Most importantly, we are changing out attitude on money and how we spend it and what we buy and redefining what is important to us.

But right now we are the turtle and not the hare. And that's okay, because in the end, the turtle wins.

Socks!

I have been working on some socks recently (I mentioned them the other day here). The second pattern I found, is in fact, working fabulously.
The pattern is called Harvest Cables. And frankly, the yarn is looking fallish to me. The weather is feeling fallish. And I think it is perfect to be working on this now!
Here are some pictures of the progress so far:

I really am loving these socks. I will be sad to see them go. But I'm eying the leftover yarn for a possible second pair! LOL!

Book Update!

I (finally) picked the winner for my book giveaway today. Well, actually I let my 22 month old pick the winner as an attempt to get him to forget the temper tantrum he was throwing because I ::gasp:: turned off Thomas. Which, in his world, is a capitol offense punishable by endless crying, whining, and screaming.

Anyway, the winner is Lesha! Congrats =)

And thanks to everyone else who entered. I have two more books I am planning on giving away, but I'm not sure when.

But, speaking of give aways, have y'all heard about the Fall Y'all Bloggy Giveaway?



Seriously, if this is anything like the Dog Days of Summer Giveaway, it will be HUGE!

I am undecided about what I will be giving away for this round, or if I'll be giving anything away at all this time. We'll see. Life is hectic. October is worse than normal for dh and I. We'll see. I have lots of things that are used that I could give away (no really, I could probably give away something once a day for a year) but I'm not sure if "used" is okay!

Anyway, if you have a blog and want to participate, start brainstorming on what you can do! =)

Life ...

has been on the busy side around here lately. I guess I needed to take a bit of a bloggy break for a few days there. I think the entire month of October will be this hit or miss kind of period for me. Between ALL the time my dh is working, the time I am working, taking care of kids, errands, cleaning, cooking, there isn't much time left in the day!

I did manage to do some embroidery yesterday for a friend:
These little duckies:

Added to this shirt:


Mom and daughter were happy with it so that's good!

I also had about, oh 3-4 inches of a new sock knit, when I decided the pattern was not working with the yarn I had. The yarn I have is gorgeous and the pattern was not showing that, so I frogged it all back and now have nothing to show for it. But that's okay. I found another pattern last night which I hope will be much better. But, back to the yarn, I bought it from WhimzyPinzy (a fellow etsymom) and well, I'm digging the yarn. It is so gorgeous. The socks I am making are actually not going to my feet, and I'm kind of sad about that LOL! Maybe next time I order from her it will be for myself, but for now, I am digging her yarn. So anyway, if you like yarn, go visit her and see what she has!

Okay, now I'm off to cook a ton of chili (okay, not a ton, but about 6 pounds LOL!) and then cleaning and if I'm lucky, I'll get to recast those socks on again!

Etsy Goals ...

Christina Perdue is hosting a 30 Days to a Better Shop. So I'm joining in (albeit a bit late). We'll see how it goes.
Day 1 is to make some goals for my etsy store.
October Goals:
1. Make 2 sales
2. Get up to 30 hearts
3. List 10 new items
4. Pass out 20 business cards
5. Spam my family members and get them to promote me for free (ha! ha!)

Long-Term Goals:
1. Get regular sales by December or close up shop
2. Expand into more knit items
3. Team up with some other sellers


So, we'll see how it goes and if I can start crossing off things from my list.

Book Giveaway!

UPDATE: Comments are now closed! The winner is Lesha!

This is a Pass It On give-away! I won the book from Vail at Thoughts of a Wannabe.



It's Return to Me by Robin Lee Hatcher! I really enjoyed reading it myself and can't wait to send it to someone else!

So, to win ... just leave a comment by Monday, October 15, and make sure I have way to contact you!
Check back on the 15th for the winner, and also for another book to give away! I have 4 books waiting in the queue to be passed on!

Randomness ..

Earth Chick Knits is having a contest about inspiring creativity in children ... she is giving away 2 fabulous gifts (yarn and a book), however, go read the answers! They are fabulous and I agree with all the ones that I've read so far!

Second, I put something up on my Etsy shop - a crayon cozy - because I took a poll here and a couple of you said you would consider buying it. So it's up, and if you like it, buy it! And if you leave a comment here and order it from me, I'll even knock off 1.00 because I LOVE my blog readers! And let's pretend it flies off the shelf quickly (so to speak), let me know ... I can whip up another one just for you!

Thirdly, I made a light box tonight!



We'll see if it can help my pictures look better. Dh says they look pretty good in it - of course, I'm not anywhere near professional (I'm not sure I count as amateur even) so they won't miraculously get good overnight, but I think it will help a bit anyway! =)

Because

Because yesterday was a sort of stinky day
Because I felt guilty for yelling at my daughter
Because I apologized to her for over-reacting
Because my tooth hurt terribly
Because dh wasn't really home yesterday
Because my son stayed up way too late ....

Because of all of that I decided last night to learn to crochet. And so I started. I won't tell you that it took me 3 hours to complete just what I got done! I won't tell you how many times I restarted - it might have been 5 but I lost count. I wont tell you how long it took me to figure out how to do a treble.

I will tell you that I can now chain, single crochet - in the round no less - and treble without looking up how to do it anymore.
It still feels awkward though - when knitting the yarn is in my right hand, with this I'm trying to manipulate in with the left.
I suppose I should have started with something slightly easier, but this really is fun (when I'm not yelling at the needle and yarn for not doing what I want it to do LOL). Besides, this happens to be ear-marked for someone ... so I gotta work through it.

Of course, I only have about 7 things on knitting needles waiting to be finished, some sewing projects to do and some reading to get done ... but all of that can wait for a few hours!

Hand-Made Christmas!

Well folks, it's official! I am doing a hand-made Christmas this year! I would love for you to join me on this adventure =)
If you have any intention of making any of your gifts (even just one!) please feel free to snag this button and sign mr. linky down below!
Really, that's it! It's that simple =)


Of course feel free to come back and leave us progress reports! I will try to shoot to put a thread up every Friday so we can do updates! I think this will be very fun =)

(And isn't our button gorgeous? I LOVE it!!! =)
A HUGE thank you to Laura of Laura Williams' Musing Blog! I am completely in love with this button and I think it is just perfect!)

Sign Mr. Linky, leave a comment, come back, give us progress reports, etc, etc! Please =)

Big Announcement, wrapped in a long story ...

Yes, it's long. Yes, it's wordy. It's how I write. I'm sorry!

If you've read this blog over the course of the last few months, you might have noticed how I'm posting about money issues more and more. And how we've been on a bumpy ride. And how dh and I had to wake up to the fact that we were spending more than we earn and how scary all of it can feel at times to me. I've also talked a lot about FPU (which again I must point out that I won from Lu and because this woman has changed our lives in so many ways I will never be able to repay her fully so I simply say thanks to her in a lot of posts here ROFL!)

One thing that hit dh and I in a very big way was that we needed to cut back on expenses and try to increase our income. The cutting expenses has actually been surprisingly easy. It's that upping the income part that has been hard. My husband already works two jobs. It is hard for me to get work out of the house because I'd have to pay someone to watch my 3 children. Truly, I don't think there is much I can do today that would even pay me enough for that expense alone! And the etsy shop isn't going as well as I had hoped it would.

And so, without any answers and feeling nervous, I did the only thing I could think of to do: pray. I prayed lots and lots. I prayed about selling the house, moving out of the area, dh getting a different job (okay, most of those items I still pray about truthfully).

Now around the time all of this was going on, I stumbled upon a fabulous site called The Motherhood - which isn't about finances, but about being a mom. I said this earlier to someone else tonight, the thing that drew me to The Motherhood was that it was a place that not only assumed I was a mother, but they also assumed I had a brain and I liked to think! Now, the sad truth is that for me, it often feels that most people assume since I am a mother, my biggest thought during the day is what color is my child's poop. Okay, that's an exaggeration, but yet not that much of one. Or people assume I must only want to discuss my children - to share every single little tiny detail of their lives with them. And yes, I interact with moms who do tend to do that - and I'm okay with them doing it, but I long for more! I do care about politics - both national and world. I care about the environment. I also care tremendously about my kids, but that is not the only thing I care about! So I jumped in feet first and started interacting - sharing links, starting groups, talking, just being there and loving it.

And then one day one of the women who started it sent me an e-mail! And I admit, I felt really special about it! And she actually encouraged me to start a Homemade Christmas Group on The Motherhood (which I posted about here!). And then she said both of the women (Emily and Cooper are their names) would like to call and talk to me.

I do not exaggerate when I tell you, when my husband came home that night I rushed him at the door and said "Oh my gosh! You are not going to believe this! But Cooper and Emily, no you don't know them but they are pretty smart people, want to call me and I'm so nervous and what should I say and what will they talk to me about? And what if the kids are loud and I can't hear them and I can't believe they want to call ME!" And then I had to back up and explain all about it to him. People, you would have thought I was 14 and Sally told me that Jenny told her that my crush was going to call me ROFL!

So they called. And yes, I was nervous. And yes, I paced around my bedroom while the children played mostly quietly downstairs. And we talked and it was all fabulous. They are so sweet that I felt very relaxed (and I am pretty sure I managed to say nothing too dumb to them because I tend to spit out really stupid things when I get nervous!). And then they asked me to be a moderator on The Motherhood. And I so wanted to jump up and down and scream. They told me I could think it over (umm, hello, no thinking involved, yes! yes! yes I'll do it). And then they spit out "Now we can't pay you much" and that's about the time I think I almost had a heart attack ... because it didn't occur to me that someone would pay me to spend time on the computer doing what I liked. I am pretty sure I blurted out that they wouldn't even have to pay me but it all got foggy after that.

Now, understand this call came at a time when dh and I knew we would be in a struggle to get our finances together. That we were struggling with how to balance what came in the house and how much money went out of the house. That I had been praying to God for some guidance on this issue and all that jazz. Seriously, at that moment, Emily and Cooper became an answer to prayer. And they are helping dh and I get one step closer to where we would like to be! And I get to do something that I love! Truly, really, I am so excited about this opportunity they have given me.

So, there it is ... folks. I've been dying to tell everyone about this truly wonderful chance I've been given. (of course hesitant to share before now in case I would jinx it!) I just hope I can live up to their expectations!

So anyway, please, come over and visit me at The Motherhood! (My name over there is Brandie) Look around, check it out. Trust me when I say I love visiting over there and I really recommend this site to everyone! =)