"Random Thoughts Thursday"

I have a few blogger buddies that post "Random Thought Thursdays, I'm jumping on the band wagon!!!!

Left from Ruidoso this morn and stopped at the McDonald's... it has been remodeled to look like a UFO! Random.




Ventured on to Amarillo, got pulled over and received my first speeding ticket... ever!
NOT!!!!




Then we arrived at our MOTEL!!!! THE BIG TEXAN!!!! Yes, we are staying here!!! Cowprint bedspreads and all! This should be fun! And NO I will not be attempting to eat the 72 oz. steak just to get something free.

We are staying in the "Brown Door Room".

While on vacation

We left last Friday evening to drive to New Mexico to visit my mom, brother and his wife. The plan was to drive the 4 hours to Amarillo and spend the night. To my surprise we hit a snowstorm around Shamrock, TX. Luckily my SIL Moni called to warn me that the weather was pretty ugly between Shamrock and Amarillo. I quickly pulled in to the nearest hotel. The desk clerk was so helpful and helped me cancel the reservation I had in Amarillo, due to the bad weather. We had nice room, however, I was starving!!! As many of you know my family has the goal of NOT eating out the month of March... well I caved that Friday evening. Due to my diet restrictions there are not very many simple foods I can grab and go... like a PB&J for instance. So, I ran to get a grilled chicken salad at McD's to end my growling stomach. Davis was very unhappy w/ me! He refused to get anything. I was a little guilty, however, realized that we did pick a bad month to not eat out, with a vacation planned and all...

So we got up early and headed to our final destination, Ruidoso. The trip was smooth. We did stop one more time for food out of necessity, and perhaps poor planning on my part. Since we have been here we have not eaten out once. We plan to stay comitted to NOT eating out when we return home.

As for the vacation. We are mostly relaxing and spending time with the fam. We did venture to the zoo and White Sands on Sunday afternoon. Mostly i am just enjoying doing nothing!!! and being surrounded by family, and tall trees!

Our new canines

So last summer we got a new dog named Sally. Well she was an escape artist, and eventually did not return after scaling the neighbors fence and then some.

About a month after she got out our neighbor down the street was giving away dogs that had been rescued. We decided to try one of them for the weekend. She was a black pomeranian, adorable! Needless to say she was very aggressive and we decided to return her. In doing so we were introduced to many other dogs when we drove out to the property in Guthrie.

Davis really wanted a bigger dog and Sophie just had to have one too. We thought it would be better to have 2 so they could keep each other company. We came home that evening back in February with 2 large breed pups. Luxa, named after a character in Gregor and the Overlander, is a Catahoula mix that belongs to Davis. Sophie's dog is Jack Jack and he is a Siberian Husky/Pyrenees mix a.k.a. Sibernees. They are both doing great! So far not too destructive and they play together all the time!

Jack


Luxa

When Sophie falls asleep

I often take the opportunity to blog... read blogs, etc... Here she is with her mounds of hair all over her face while sucking her thumb and twirling her hair in to tangles impossible to get out. She is home sick today. She had a fever all weekend but I think she is on the mend. She has been cranky and tired but only running a 99 this morning. I'm prayerful it does not creep up as the day progresses, like it did last night. I hope you can make out the photo. There is a precious little face under all that hair. You can see my arm as we are lying on my bed :)

Do you want to be amazed???

then click on my link for the Anonymous Truths blog on my sidebar. If you have not read this it is worth taking a look... usually.

March Money Madness Progress...

So far so good! Our family has not eaten out since the last day of February! It was a little challenging at first... I really wanted to get something at McD's for lunch this last week, I resisted! Today was a challenge today too, Sophie has been sick this weekend and I just wanted to run and get some tacos... once again I resisted. We DID eat at home. I have estimated that we have saved at least $75.00 since the first of the month. We usually eat out on Sunday's at $25.00 a pop... and that's actually on the low end.

Once again this is most difficult for me. I have been amused by my son and his comments. He is actually supportive of the whole thing. He tends to like things that are different and a challenge. Unless it involves sports... that's a different story.

Until next time!

March Money Madness

Praise God I believe Davis is over the virus that hung on for 2 1/2 weeks. Thank you for praying and for all of the encouraging comments!

On to the title of my post. As many of you know I strive to be frugal... and at times I fail. I have an obsession with learning ways to be a"tightwad", "miserly mom", whatever you want to call it. I call it smart. Anyways, after looking at the budget I had the grand idea of NOT eating out for the whole month of March...David said we will call it March Money Madness, in efforts to save money of course. As I have written previously we spend waaaaaay to much eating out. I am too afraid to add it up to be honest... it will depress me. Even since being diagnosed with Celiac I have found some things that I can tolerate, and I have indulged. I haven't been taking my lunch to work as often and McD's has gotten the best of me....I can actually have their fries, so I have taken it upon myself to have them a couple of times per week. Ugh!

So starting today we are not eating out for 31 days! Oh my! What will I do over Spring Break? I guess we will pack an ice chest when we travel....hmmm... haven't thought of this one yet. Some of you may be thinking that this is crazy and it would be a cinch for your family... I am so proud of you! Some of you may agree you eat out too much. Feel free to leave your comments. I'd love to hear your thoughts and encouragement!

Today was tough on the kids, we always eat out on Sunday w/ family... today we declined. The kids threw fits, but they were short lived thank goodness. In all honesty this challenge will be most difficult for me.

I must go, the lasagna needs to be taken out of the oven!

* A good friend questioned why I didn't do it for February since there is only 28 days... good point! To late now.