Some time this Fall, I think it was mid-September, I went into a blurry haze of sleep deprivation that I'm finally starting to awaken from. Within this time of fogginess a few key things have happened: Chris turned 2 and started talking, We put our house on the market, I cut my foot on a ceramic cupcake and gained 10 lbs. and most importantly I finally let go of my control issues with money and am letting God rule my finances. With all the madness of life I missed posting my Thanksgiving list of things I'm thankful for. So here it goes.....

I am unbelievably, undeniably thankful for:

God's grace - he is constantly picking me back up

TJ, Chris, and Tom - they are why I get out of bed each morning

Mom & Dad who always have good advice, even if I don't take it

My sisters who listen unconditionally to my babble and forgive my self-centeredness

My best friend kelly and her beautiful new baby girl - Emmary

My job and Tom's job - just the fact that we still have one, so many people don't this holiday

Saxby-Chambliss won GA and the democrats don't have full control of the house :)

Tacos - so easy to make and soooooo good!

Christmas Trees farms and hot chocolate - even when it's 70 degrees out

my electric toothbrush

Books on CD

The Fox news channel on Sirius Satellite radio

Heroes - so worth staying up for on Monday nights

Some pictures are just too priceless to not be posted on the internet......

Little Brothers.....

This just makes me laugh.

Does that make me crazy?

There are many things in my life right now that people would call crazy. But giving an almost 2 year-old and a 4 year-old paint brushes and paint and letting them "go for it" on my walls.......I have lost it.

How did we get here? **WARNING POLITICAL RANT**

Someone please tell me how we got to the point where the most liberal democrat in Washington is dangerously close to being elected? Someone needs to point out to Senator Obama that although he wants to only tax those who make over $250,000 (or is it $200,00? He keeps changing) That those are the people with small businesses that create Jobs!!!! When has anyone ever gotten hired by a poor person? Why is it the government's job to redistribute wealth? If poor people want to become wealthy tell them to stop making stupid decisions with their life, stop living off the government and go out and GET A JOB. Of course they may not be able to find one after Obama taxes business so much they start laying people off.
And did you know that Mr. Pro Choice voted 3 times against a bill that mandated hospitals take care of babies that survive abortions? One nurse testified that she saw babies taken to the hospital's "soil room" to die. The child was left in a dirty nasty room for hours until he/she finally couldn't hold out any more. One baby survived for more than 8 hours struggling to breath. Abortion is murder. There is no way around it. As soon as that child is conceived God has a plan for him/her. And because the child is an inconvenience to the parents murder becomes legal. Please tell me why we are aborting our babies and making it so hard for people to adopt unwanted children that perspective parents find it easier and cheaper to go to Russia or China to adopt a baby. I was asked once how, as a woman, I couldn't be pro-choice. Because, "as a woman" I am also a mother - and being a mother gives you a whole different perspective when a child is being hurt. I can't stand it. Just because that child is still in the womb doesn't make it less of a child - that's just location. That's like saying I'm going to move to Canada and become a monkey.
One last point.....I believe that most people are voting for Barak Obama because he is different. He looks different and he talks of change - and people want change. I understand that, but I don't think they are really looking at the issues to understand what kind of change they are going to bring. I heard one woman on the radio say she was voting for Obama because she likes the way he ran his campaign. UUUGGHH that is so frustrating - GET EDUCATED PEOPLE!!! Stop voting for the pretty, smooth talking candidates and really look and what you are doing.

Okay, I'm done for now. I'm sure I offended a whole slew of people out there. But it's my Blog...so there!

Revelations

I've been doing a lot of thinking lately....so much so that Tom has asked me to please stop thinking because I'm making his head hurt. But through all this thinking and praying I've come to a few realizations or "revelations" as I call them......

Revelation #1 - My career goals do not end with me running an office at a Recreation Center. One morning, while lying in bed and saying my "good-morning God - help me get out of bed" prayer - it suddenly became clear that I was to go back to school and become a Kindergarten teacher. And when I say "suddenly' I mean "SUDDENLY"!! I have never showed the least bit of interest in teaching. I've always had a lot of respect for teachers...its a job that takes a lot of patience and hard work, without always seeing the rewards. But after a lot of praying...and panicking....I decided this was where I should be heading. Let the quest begin!!! Okay God, now what???? "Well", I thought, "what does it take to go back to school?' MONEY!!! Okay, I've got none of that. Where do I start? This is what lead to my second revelation....

Revelation #2 - I am a financial idiot. I have no idea how to control mine or my husband's spending habits, I love instant gratification and I make stupid decisions because of that. If there were such thing, I would be president of the FIA - Financial Idiots Anonymous. I can now stand up and say, "My name is Karin Condame - and I'm a financial idiot. God works in mysterious ways, when I had finally come to terms that his plan for me was to teach, I got a letter a few days later from my roommate in college. She had just gone through an awful year of buying a restaurant and nearly going bankrupt because of it. She was told about Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University and managed to pay off $13,000 worth of credit card debt in just few months. I was interested in how she did that so I went to library and got his book "The Total Money Makeover" after the 1st chapter, I had come realize that if I ever wanted to go back to school I needed to stop living paycheck to paycheck and mostly stop blaming everything else for our bad spending habits. It's not the restaurant, it's not the child support, it's not because our cars keep breaking down - those things don't help, but if we had a sensible plan and budget to begin with those problems wouldn't seem so bad. Taking responsibility and admitting I have a problem is the first step...right? So now were on a road to financial recovery.

Those were my two big revelations. I think that's enough "revealing" for now. Tom can't handle anymore changes. He's truly afraid that tomorrow I'm going to decide we need to pick up and move to Alaska or something. No Alaska for me...I'm too busy staring at excel spreadsheets and obsessing over the $2 I went over-budget grocery shopping last week.

Catch up

It's been so long since I posted that I decided to title this blog exactly what it is....a catch up of little blurbs that will hopefully fill in the gap of the last 3 months.





My awesome husband brought my best friend Kelly down from PA for my birthday. She came down on Friday and was sitting on our back porch with a bow on her head. Saturday we went to the day spa and got manicures and pedicures. Then went to lunch at a Mexican restaurant on the harbour. We then went to see the "Sex and the City" movie. After the movie we went out to dinner with Tom and the kids. The day ended with Kelly and I lying in bed in the guest room watching Harry Potter. NOTHING gets better than that!






We had a great summer. Jeannelle was here for most of it and she was a big help with the boys. TJ spent the summer in "big camp" with Kindergartner's and now believes he should be going in Kindergarten. We spent a lot of time at the pool and I still don't have a tan.

We had so much fun in Ohio visiting my family this year. We piled the whole family, including the two girls, into a mini-van and drove up for a whirl-wind week of activities. Mom said she wanted to keep us so busy that we collapsed into bed at night...and she succeeded! The first half of the week was spent at the Island. We managed to have 14 of us in a 2-bedroom cabin. The Stumps were good enough to sleep int their tent for a few days - while the rest of us managed to find beds...not necessarily in bedrooms - but we're not picky. The last half of the week we went to Cedar Point and the Cleveland Zoo. We had a blast. The only one who seemed to not completely enjoy himself was Chris. His life is pretty much a vacation, so i think he was confused as to why we had to take him away from his comfortable life to sit in a car for 11 hours to go somewhere he doesn't know to see people he doesn't know. He was so happy to be home that he walked around the house singing our first day back. Oh well, some day he learn to appreciate it!

I just had to throw this picture in. We put in a playground set and did our best to landscape our pine-straw back yard. But why did we bother? I think the boys would have been happier with the mud pit. They still found one section of dirt.