HONDA interview!

Went great! It's for the Service Cashier/Receptionist position. I'm supposed to be getting a call from the HR lady about doing the background check and drug screen, and once all that comes back they will make a formal offer. I got a really good vibe off the Service Manager Chris, who interviewed me. He said he had never met a girl who was so interested and knowledgeable about Hondas! He even said he didn't think he would need to interview anyone else! My schedule will be either 7am-3pm, or 11am-7pm, and I would have to either work Saturday mornings or afternoons, or work out a rotating Saturday 8-5 shift with the other girl. I'm really excited though, this will not only be a big financial help to our family, but also a great opportunity to get my foot in the door at HONDA! I'm so excited, this is a place I've dreamed of working, and if I had to choose a long-time career, I would want to be with this company.

Also, our great friend Brandi will be able to watch Gracie for us whenever Sherrie isn't able to, so that takes care of the main concern we had about me working full-time! We're so grateful to her and her family for that.

I'll let you know what I hear from the HR lady! Pray for me! =)

Interview tomorrow... at Bankston HONDA!!!

I'm so excited! It's for a Receptionist/Cashier position in the Service Department. The shifts available are 7am-3pm or 11am-7pm. Don't know yet which one I will go for, but just to get into a Honda dealership is what I've wanted for years! My interview is at 11am, I can't wait!

Green Beans it is!

I couldn't wait to start Gracie on veggies (we were going to start on May 1st), so we went ahead and gave her green beans tonight (Mommy's favorite). She did NOT know what to make of them, haha. She made some really funny faces, but ate about half the whole container. We'll try again tomorrow night, and continue with green beans for 3 more days, then we'll do squash on Saturday for five days before we try peas. Thanks for voting on the poll!

Mom's SURPRISE birthday party!

So about a month ago, I went to lunch at this place called Scotty P's with my Dad, and realized how much it was like Johnnie's, my mother's favorite hamburger place in Oklahoma. So then I thought it would be a great idea to take her there to eat for her birthday. I got online to see if they had any closer locations (they didn't), and saw they had party rooms available. So that got me thinking... and long story short, I invited a bunch of Mom's friends and we totally surprised her on her birthday! At first I told her that I just wanted to take her to lunch at a place I found, but didn't tell her where. Then she said she had to work that day, so to convince her that she needed to be off that afternoon (seeing as how it was a week away at that point and everyone was coming) I told her where I was taking her. Then the day before she didn't understand why we had to wait until 3 to go eat when she got off at noon (I could only get the party room from 3-5) so I panicked and told her Mrs. Debbie was going to meet us there and that was the only time she could meet. So walking into Scotty P's she thought we were just meeting Mrs. Debbie and Nicki to eat lunch on her birthday... and she comes around the corner and bunch of her friends were there with cameras and said, "Surprise!" It was so cool. =) My 16th birthday was a surprise party and to this day I consider that my very best birthday so far, so I wanted to do that for Mom. We all had a great time, loved the food, took lots of pictures, and enjoyed the Pink Lady cake I made. Here are a few pics!

Wow

We just did our budget. How in the world have we been living?! Forget the 6 hours-per-week teaching job. Unfortunately, I'm going to have to work more hours just to get ahead. *sigh* Oh well, it would have been fun teaching those little kids. I'm really disappointed that I'm going to have to turn it down, but if I start and then leave when I find something better, that will be taking advantage of the company, and hard on the kids. They apparently get attached to their teachers and don't take to turnover very well.

Anyone know of a good nights and weekends job that pays at least $10-$12 per hour for at least 30 hours a week? I'm open to just about anything, but it has to be nights and weekends. And I can't lift more than 40 pounds at a time. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

She's just so cute...

Here she is playing with the pouring water in her bath last night. It's so amazing how fascinated she is at all the little things we take for granted... =)

Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover!

We have been struggling financially, and a lot of my old debt has started to catch up with me. Sherrie let me read Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover book, and we are hooked! We are still on Baby Step #1, setting up our $1000 emergency fund, but we will have our budget ready by May 1st and will be ready to start Baby Step #2 (the Debt Snowball) as soon as we have the fund complete!

I am really excited about this. So far I am the only one who has read the book, but David will read it next and we can be debt-free in only a few years! This will be a great gift to not only ourselves, but to Gracie as well. She will grow up in a debt-free home and will learn from a young age how to manage her finances so that she will not run into debt problems at all! I just can't wait to really get going on this. It will be a very difficult journey, that is for sure. We will drive a cheap little used car for awhile, buy only basic necessities for ourselves and Gracie, and give up a lot of the luxuries we are used to having every day. It will all pay off in the end, though, when we have retirement all set up and invested, Gracie's college fully funded, our emergency fund will have four-six months of expenses in it, and we can buy everything in cash! Including a house! I will post regular updates of our TMMO journey.

If you are interested in this Total Money Makeover for yourself or your family, tune into the Dave Ramsey Show daily to get a feel for his program. In the DFW area, his radio show is on 570AM (KLIF) from 1pm-4pm (you can listen to it live on your computer: http://www.daveramsey.com/tdrs/# ), and his TV show is on at 7pm and 11pm on Fox Business Network. Visit http://www.daveramsey.com/, enroll in his 13-week Financial Peace University at a local church, buy his books (I found them at Half Price Books!), ... just get going! ANYONE can do it!

Sara's new job!

Well, I have been looking for a job lately. I finally landed a position as a preschool computer teacher! The company, Floppy's Mouse Club, goes into various daycares and teaches children ages 2-5 basic computer skills to make sure they meet the TEA's Technology Knowledge requirements for kids entering kindergarten. It is a neat program, and the curriculum is planned out very carefully to ensure maximum learning capability for each child. I observed a class immediately after my interview today, and was blown away by three-year-olds who could open and close programs, name parts of the computer, and use the mouse and keyboard with confidence. It was amazing! I always said that if I were to be a teacher, I would love to teach computer skills, because I have a lot of patience with it. I will start out slowly, with only two daycares, one on Mondays, the other on Wednesdays, for two-three hours at a time. The company pays for me to be CPR and First Aid certified, and for 15 hours of continuing education as required by the state. I start training at a daycare on Monday, and I'm very excited!

Sara joined a church!

I haven't regularly attended church since I was 18. Back then I was a member at Vista Ridge Church of Christ, and after our Senior Sunday, I never went back. I can't really describe why, I just didn't "feel" anything there anymore. I went to Memorial Road C of C in Oklahoma City the first Sunday in college, but I never went back there, either. Dad and Angela moved to Richardson East C of C, and I visited there a few times, but it was too far away. I attended First Baptist of Colleyville wtih my good friend Matt a couple years ago, and liked it, but his pastor was leaving so he was looking for another church. We attended Fellowship Chuch in Grapevine a few times, but it was such a mega-church that I never could feel like I belonged there. I knew I wanted to start attending again after Gracie was born, not only for her, but for myself as well. I just couldn't find a church that I could call home. Finally, our good friends Mark and Brandi Koon told us about Northview Baptist Church. We attended their huge Easter service at Lewisville High School, and I was blown away. I loved the music, the message, and God really seemed to speak to me there. We went a couple weeks later when Mark was baptized at their regular building, and I was again just floored by the experience. I went by myself the next weekend, and that service just sealed the deal for me. So today, I brought Gracie with me, and after Pastor Wells' sermon we went to the front (accompanied by Brandi), and joined the church! It was amazing to feel so welcomed by everyone, and I am very excited to be able to raise Gracie in a church she can call home.

This is a huge step for me, as an adult, as a mother, as a child of God, and I already feel Him working in my life. A month ago, I hadn't opened my Bible in over two years... I didn't even know where it was! I found it last week, and I've since been "catching up". Prayer is a daily, humbling experience for me, as is a little bit of Bible study. I want to be as involved as I can, volunteering for VBS this summer and I'll start attending Sunday nights and a home team during the week. I feel so much happier with my life right now, and God will give me the confidence I need to stay focused on our goals, and be the best wife and mother I can be.

I know a lot of people have prayed for me to "come back" to God in the last five years, and I really appreciate it. Thank you!

4 months old!

I can't believe 4 months have already gone by! Gracie is such a big girl, measuring 15 lbs and 8 oz, and 25 incehs high at ther doctor appointment today! She is not overweight by any means, though, Dr. Len said her extra height is balancing out her weight and she will just be a tall girl! We are feeding her rice cereal every morning and evening, just a tablespoon or so at a time, and she is really getting it down. We will start vegetables in two weeks, and try each veggie for five days before introducing another. Then we will start on fruits, and do the same thing. When she is 6 months old, we will be able to start her on Gerber 2nd foods, which are combinations of two or more foods. It will be exciting!Teething sucks, though. Ugh. She cries so hard every few hours, sometimes with such intensity that we aren't able to calm her down. The only thing we can do is hold her and let her know we're there until she finally starts hiccupping and passes out. It's so sad not being able to help her, but it will be over one day, so that's what we look forward to. She is pretty much sleeping through the night, but still not in her crib. Once she started really teething she started having a really hard time going to sleep, and wouldn't stay asleep unless she was with us. We will really tackle that this week, though, because the regular rice cereal feedings seem to make her sleepier and sleep longer. Hopefully that will help to get her to settle down and sleep in her crib. Otherwise we might have to resort to using the Ferber method of letting her cry it out to go to sleep in her crib at night, only letting her see us every ten minutes before we leave her alone again. I really really want to avoid that though, so hopefully we can get it all worked out!She's getting into all of her toys with such an interest. She has a little frog that sings the ABC song, and she "hums" along with it in her own little language, hehe. Still hasn't rolled over on her own yet, but she is getting closer and closer every day. We'll see how everything is in a couple of weeks. It all is going by so fast!