Musings of a Michigan Mom

On one of the Momma boards I belong to they were asking questions which we thought was worse… Having a bunch of friends and no free time or having no friends and a bunch of free time… things like that.

I answered one of the questions then it was my turn to ask a question. The one I was thinking of, but didn’t do was.. which is worse.. being really short or really tall? Since I’m on the shorter side I was thinking short since I hate it when you’re at the store and the item you want is on the top shelf, but since someone already grabbed the first box you don’t have a chance of getting the 2nd box. Then you either have to try and climb up to get it or wait until someone taller comes along and ask for help. Of course if your really short at least you could take hgh to help you grow some.  

Then I tried to put myself in someone who’s really tall’s shoes.  While I hate pants shopping because all pants (even short ones) are usually to long, at least I could always hem them.  What does a tall person do if they try on a pair of pants and they are to short.   Or having to ride in someone car and be uncomfortable because your all sqished as quite a few of the newer cars are small.   They have to deal with us short people asking for help reaching things all the time or get the questioned asked to them.. do/did you play basketball?   P

I had bought a battery charging system for our wii remotes and I LOVE it as it’s so nice because when the kids are done playing with the wii they slip their remotes in the charging system and it doesn’t matter if they put them in crooked as they have magnets that will put them in the right place. The only thing I have a problem is I’m afraid I’m allergic to the black rubber that’s on the back of them now. So with my remote (we have 4 remotes) I just keep normal batteries in them, but I’m noticing that after awhile it’s going to be costing me a pretty penny and that’s just with my remote! Thank goodness I bought the charging dock for the kids remotes.

Now I’m thinking maybe for my remote I should be buying some nimh rechargeable batteries instead.   That way I wou

I’ve never been more thankful than last Wednesday when Kevin ended up coming home with a sore throat. I know you are wondering why that might be, but had if of come home a week earlier we would of had to of paid for his doctors appointment out of pocket instead due to we had no insurance as Paul was on a lay off. Thankfully we got back on our health insurance Sunday (well probably Monday) when Paul went back to work so we only had to pay our co-pay.

I just can’t imagine how those without health insurance feels every day when they know if they get sick they have to pay the full thing out of pocket. I think if it was us I would be doing whatever I could to come up with enough money to at least get major medial. I’m not sure if BCBSNC carries just major medical, but at least if you got hospitalized (where the BIG dollars are) then you would have insurance to cover that.  I know my aunt no longer had health insurance and that’s what she ended up doing.  Doctor co-pays she could cover, but anything on top of that would of been hard for her to cover.

So if you are one of the many without health insurance, you could always look into that.  Just a thought….

I’m so excited to let you know that Paul ended up passing his CDL test last week and now will hopefully be able to switch from warehouse to trucking at his work come May or possibly April!! You have no clue what that means to us. After 5 weeks of being at trucking school and going back to in the warehouse Tuesday he realized there is no way he could continue to work in the warehouse as he’s getting up there in age and his body is not liking him anymore when he works there. All week I kept hearing him complain of his feet hurting the most, but also the rest of his body. Standing on a cement floor grabbing hundred’s of pounds of product isn’t the best thing for a body.

Even though I rubbed his feet and back all week I know Paul wishes I could go back to school in some massage therapy program so I could practice on him with those massages instead of the rubbing I did.

All I can say is even though we are so excited.. it’s going to take forever for May to get here.

Now that spring is right around the corner people of Michigan are getting anxious to be able to pull out their campers, RV’s or tents so they can start camping again. Actually they probably started getting the bug back in January when Grand Rapids held their Camper, Travel & Rv Showat the Devos hall.

If you have never been to it, it’s one of the biggest if not the biggest RV show in Michigan.  They have a dozen west Michigan RV dealers come to show their products.   You will walk into a huge room and it’s bumper to bumper campers/RV’s!   Let me tell you, some of those motorhomes aren’t the kind we had when we were growing up.  Did you know that some of them now come with FIREPLACES inside them?  How crazy is that?  If it’s raining outside.. you can still have your fire! 

It’s not just the big ticket items either.. you can also look at RV accessories, campgrounds and travel destinations.  I would’t be surprised if there was someone there to even talk  about rv insurance. At least I would think there would be someone as if you were going to buy this big of ticket item you will for sure want to insure it.

Last year we were discussing of starting to go camping this year due to us not going down to visit my parents in Alabama.  Our delima was what would we want to camp with?  Tent, Camper, 5th wheel, or truck camper.   We still haven’t figured out what we will camp with yet, but I have a feeling it just might have to go on hold this year since Paul will hopefully be starting to drive truck at his work this summer.  If he does, then he will be working pretty much every day, so no camping for us this year.  I guess our “camping” will have to be going up to my parents trailer in Mesick and having camp fires up there.  That’s fine with me.. at least then we have our own bathroom and better yet.. we have a stove, heater, refrigerator, tv that only gets 3 channels, but no computer or video games so we will still have to “rough it”.  ~wink~

The kids keep wanting a pet and it seems like I always say.. maybe next year due to a vacation coming up and that way I don’t have to find someone to pet sit. We were going to get the kids some pet rats for Christmas, but that got put on hold due to I was thinking of going down to see my parents in Alabama. Well, that trip didn’t pan out, but instead we decided next year we will be making one last trip down to Disney world.. so once again the pet idea is being put on hold.

Since then I’ve found out there are a lot place that lets you bring your pets on vacation with you! The hotel Paul is staying at for trucking school is really nice and they even allow pets for an additional cost. I knew some hotels did that, but thought they would be more the low end scale… not Comfort Inn & Suites. Then I was looking and there are actually quite a few Outer Banks pet friendly vacation rentals for those who are looking at visiting the Outer Banks.   I’m hoping someday we can go give them a try as I would love to go to the Outer Banks since I’ve heard so many good things about it.

Have you ever taken your pet on vacation with you?  Or do you usually find a pet sitter?

While reading our Advance (local newspaper) I came across something I thought I would NEVER see. You always see ad’s for colleges, this week there was an ad for MMA. (Medical Marijuana Academy) I actually had to do a re-read as I couldn’t believe they were having a class on how to start your own business growing Marijuana where you could make $120k or cut down on the cost if you were going to make it for yourself.

Then next to this big ad was an ad for a “doctor” pretty much saying he will prescribe it for you if you want.

I guess those were just two ads I would prefer not to see in my paper for the kids to see and read since we are teaching them to say no to drugs. We also are teaching them that smoking is wrong, but trust me I still would rather see an ad for dutch master cigars on sale, but I guess that’s just where our nation is heading.   Let’s get rid of the manufacturing jobs and have us be pot growers.

Since getting netflix we have been watching a lot of shows that we have never seen before due to us having basic cable. One of the ones we have been enjoying is called Fight Quest. It’s about a couple guys who go to different countries to learn that countries martial arts and then after 5 days of learning their sport they try and fight one of the best martial arts person of that country.

What amazes us is watching how they train. They don’t need the biggest and best marital arts equipment. Most of the stuff they are training with is just what you see out your window and that would be trees, sticks and lakes. With the trees they punch them with their bare hands to toughen up their hands, they use sticks to hit themselves in the stomach as if it were a muscle stimulators so their stomach will be able to handle the punches that will be thrown at it during their sparring match. Then you have the lakes. They practice kicking and puching in the water as kicking and water is harder. That way when they come out of the water and do it on dry land it will be lots easier.

I just hope Kevin watching this will get him motivated to actually practice his karate at home so he can be the best that he can be.

All I know is after cooking this week I better look into finding what the best fat burners are.  Between the Baked Spaghetti Sunday (made enough for left overs the next couple nights since it’s just the kids & I) BBQ’s, and the Stuffed Shells that I’m making tonight and then I have plans of making some chuck roast tomorrow.  Just reading this makes me feel full already and we haven’t even ate yet.   All I know is if the stuffed shells taste as good as the sauce and cheese filling did before baking it I know it will be a keeper just like the baked spaghetti

It sure is amazing what a few days can make here in Michigan!

Thursday afternoon when the kids & I headed over to Lansing there was snow all over the ground.  The following afternoon when we came home all the way home all I saw was grass, until we turned onto the street ours is off.  (Go figure)   When we arrived home, we still had some snow, but there was quite a bit of grass showing and I LOVED it!  That was Friday mind you.. now when I look outside what do I see?   A blanket of new, wet, heavy snow and what do I hear right now?  Every once and awhile it’s sounding like sleet hitting the window and I know they had said we were suppose to get some ice along with this storm too. 

There are quite a few schools and businesses actually closed already for tomorrow, of course having our main expressway (US 131) shut down due to a 50 car pile up might have something to do with it.  I wouldn’t be surprised if quite a few people and businesses made sure their data backup services did their jobs just in case the ice takes down the lines and all the electric goes out.   I just hope that doesn’t happen here since ones the power’s out.. out goes the heat and there is no way to get heat in here since we don’t have a fireplace.   I guess if that does happen we can always go over to my parents and if they don’t have power at least they have a fireplace AND generator!