My oldest son was just at a milestone of his first dance, this is coming way to quick for me. Don't get me wrong I totally sneaked a peek at the dance and the kids were having a great time and I had a smile that wouldn't go away.  To have his first experience be a great one is so satisfying I was busting at the seams when I got home and discussed it with the hubby.

 So this makes me think back, I remember cuddle time with all of my babies. With my first born he used to grab my thumb nail and rub it with his little fingers.  Such a small movement can grab your heart and squeeze just so.

 With my middle child she used to pat my back with her little hand.  And yes with my littlest handsome man yes he is the baby of the family in the truest sense I have enjoyed the cuddle time the most with him it has seemed to last the longest.  I am sure it is my fault he has seemed to grow the quickest and is so mature.  I have to say he learned much quicker to clean his room and keep it clean and, as a mom this is the ticket to a happy mommy!  So now is the question is breaching this new world.  I have been kicking and screaming for about a month.

 Now I realize that this is ridiculous cause, it is coming whether I want it to or not. So talking with my oldest to keep lines of communication open.  Tell him over and over again that I am here if he has questions and making sure he knows all of his little friends are NOT a valid form of information.  Now, after all of the questions and discussions have happened and continue to happen, let the growing commence and guess what not only my tween, but me too.   I have grown in this last month emotionally in ways I have a hard time putting a finger on.  You know, I don't feel the need to label it .  Just keep growing!

Budget = Trees

So is it within the budget?  This is the new question that is first asked in the Curtice household.  I love this question.  WHAT?????  Who is this girl and what alien pod like creature is replacing her?


 I know, right........ old me would avoid the check book like the plague.  When the check book would rear its ugly head and show all my transgressions I would feel shame and buyers regret.

There is some great freedom to the budget talk I totally did not expect.  I uses to go out and spend on what I thought we needed, and now it seems I first think what do we NEED.   Then we seriously talked about where we were and where we wanted to be in two years .   That does clarify a lot of issues ( Vacation issues in my very first blog So the night started pretty normal)

So now that hubby and I are on the same page we now have a two year plan to be debt free.  How exciting is this !!!!  I feel God is truly guiding us in this path I don't have that sick feeling in the pit of my stomach when we discuss the budget any more. Now that the coupon craze has passed me by I can focus on the budget and not if I have the 2 for 1 at blah blah blah.  This works for some I just found lack of printer ink and brain drain was not worth it!

 So as we take this path we found the room for the land next door.  Not only land but Trees... TREES!

I grew up swinging in them like a little spider monkey.  If my mother wondered were I was she would look to the trees or the river.  This was common with me and my two older siblings.  So now to be able to give this new and delightful experience to my children is a greater gift than any Wii or DS game could ever give.  My oldest child is biting at the bit to get out to the woods and start hacking and slashing.

  That fills this momma with a pride that could bust out of me if I didn't have a body to hold it within!  So as we plan out our awesome three tiered Ewok village in the trees, I leave you all in the day dreams of yesterday, in your own tree fort.  God Bless

So I found a really cheap price on an orchid.  $3.99 woot! woot! to me on being the bargain hunter of the year.  Well at least I think it is a good deal. Did you know that an orchid can't be watered like other plants.  Or that they can not sit in water or in soaked soil or it will start to rot from the bottom.  Once the roots are ruined there is no going back. Also this plant actually thrives on a good drench then air lots of air.   I guess this is one of those things that time will tell, it could be rotten on the bottom and I won't know until it is to late. To me orchid where always a flower that looked so fragile.  As I dive further into the inner working of horticulture of orchids I find that this little beauty is tougher than it seems.

  I then reflect on the way that a marriage is built and find the similarities astounding.  The out ward appearance can be and often are seen with rose colored glasses, a couple may be in a haze and thinking everything is going oh so well.
 Often the hubby and I would say oh we are great compared to (fill in the blank).  Oh what a pit fall that is.  Once we moved away from all that is near and dear to us we had to take a good hard look at what kind of illusion we had created.

 Now.... Please ..... don't get me wrong here we are not at utopia and will not reach that until we reach our final curtain.  To tell you the truth I enjoy the hill and valleys that we encounter together. With all that entails the disagreements and snarky comments. A good friend of mine said it all when she commented that if they didn't have God, sarcasm and laughter their house would be silent. That pretty much fits the bill.  All I am trying to get across is this basic thought do not ASSUME (wink, wink) your marriage is all orchids or it may be slowly rotting from underneath. 

So the night started pretty normal. Kids off to brush the teeth and pj's. Older kid gets more up time then off to bed with him.  Silence just settles on the house and hubby says we need to revisit our budget.  My heart slows to a low beat waiting for the ceiling to cave in.

Surprisingly it did not.

Surprisingly it did not turn into a blame game.

But to my mistake I did not figure in the plans for summer vacation would be altered and crabby Carrie's claws came out.  Bad Carrie, bad bad Carrie.  So anyway all sorts of self defeating, self sabotaging thoughts came through my head.  I should show him and just sleep down here and not go to bed.  Or here would show him go get a job, and fund our vacation my self and then not be able to go, because I just got this new job, and the kids would suffer and I would cry alot more, because I would miss out on all the cool stuff my kids show me every day.  ( That was my long senseless rant hope you enjoyed it)

So then I had an inspiring idea

Work with my husband

WOW............

So we have to do some fun stuff closer to home and in the mean time still spending time , quality time with everyone in this family.  I am amazed that things like this have to take almost a circle tour of my emotions before I get it, and yet the tour does seem to get shorter every time so there is hope.  Thank you God !