Shopping with the Boys

Shopping with your kids should be considered vigorous aerobic exercise.   I love my boys but I hate having to take both of them shopping for anything.  One on one they are easy and I have no problem shopping.   Together should be outlawed.
Sprat needed a new bathing suit, the boy is growing out of his clothes like crazy.  Everytime I turn around he has grown out of something else.  
I guess Sprat is in that phase of teenager where they don't want to try things  on and if it is not about them, they don't care.  Ughhh, teenagers.   These two crazy boys cannot keep their hands to themselves and must aggravate each other every chance they get. 
I love them dearly but they do make me crazy.

Nature Science Center

Spent the morning at the Nature Science Center with the boys.  Sprat did not want to go but once he got there he had fun.  They have some new interactive things fir older kids.  That is where he found his joy. 
They got to experience 78 mph winds in the hurricane simulator and that was cool.  They got to experience the frustration of using a robot to retrieve treasure from the ocean floor.  It was very frustrating.   We saw some cool reptiles and some African Penguins.  I did not know some Penguins lived in warmer climates.  I always thought they lived in the ice and snow.  Mom can learn things too  on these educational trips. 

Evil Credit Cards. . .

I have posted numerous times about how much I love Dave Ramsey.   I am not paid by him so this not an advertisement but a testament to his program. 
I read his books and semi followed his plan for several years before I got serious.  It has been two years since I took his Financial Peace University class,  I loved it.  It brought all of my reading together and wow.  We are on our way to being debt free.  I am not saying you have to do everything he says, you can pick and choose how you want to approach each thing.  We don't do everything he recommends but we do most. 
The item that rings so true is the; do not use credit card part.   When I was in college I was a credit card queen.  I had them all and they all had a balance.   I wish I had known about Dave in college.   When my hubby and I decided to have the plastic surgery, as Dave puts it, we started keeping the free credit advertisements that we got in the mail.  I kept them for each of us for a month.   I totalled up how much credit or debt we could have if we had signed up for them all.  Hubby had a total well over $500, 000 and I had over $300, 000.   Now imagine, we have two boys we hope will go to college one day and we would like to retire before we die.  Thank goodness after I totalled everything up I shreded those nasty little papers.  I must say having Dave's plastic surgery  was the best thing we ever did and I highly recommend it.
We use the envelope system which is like how your grandmother or great grandmother kept up with their money.   We give,  save, and spend in that order.  If you want a risk free look into Dave's program go to your library and check out one of his books.  That is how I got started.  Then I went to a used bookstore and bought his book.  Do your own reaearch and see what you think.  As always, I would love to hear from you and your thoughts on Dave. 

Army Surplus Trip

Big T is all in to military stuff.  He can name all the military weapons and in what war they were used.  He takes after his daddy on that one.  We have an army surplus store not to far from us and they have all kinds of neat stuff.
Sprat had football work outs so this was a perfect chance for Big T and I to do some running.   This store had everything.  Every other word out of Big T's mouth was "look."   They had antique weapons and amo, vintage uniforms from different wars.  They also had dog tags that they would imprint with your information.  Naturally Big T had to get a set of those.  I have to admit that was cool.  He also picked out another pocket knife.  I see a lot of my daddy in him these days.     When hubby called to check in his first words were, "when is the tank going to be delivered?"   He knows what a war buff he is and what a sucker I can be.  No tank this time.  But, you never know.

Evening on the Lake

Spent a wonderful evening on the Lake last night.  We took sweet Basil.  She had never been in the boat before.  We kept her on the leash just in case she tried to jump out.  She got to see an Egret,  Heron, and some  fish.  
Dear hubby loves to fish but doesn't get to as often as he would like.   He took Big T fishing the other day  and Big T came home telling how he drove the boat.  I don't get to drive the boat.  What?  I always joke that is was my fishing prowess that hooked my hubby.   Before we had the boys we used to fish quite a bit.    I prefer deep sea fishing to fresh water though. 
So last night Big T got to show us how he drove the boat.  He did a good job.  
It was a beautiful evening to be on the water.   Don't dare tell my hubby but, I think we need a bigger boat.  Shhhhhhh

Happy Fourth of July

I hope everyone has a happy and safe Fourth if July weekend.  Be aware of others when shooting fireworks.   Keep your kids and animals safe.  Many animals run away during the fireworks because of all the noise and smoke so don't forget about them. 
John Hancock was the only one to sign the Deceleration of Independence on July fourth, everyone else signed it later.  One more bit of trivia.  The song "Yankee Doodle" was sung by the British to make fun of the American soldiers.  
Enjoy your day and remember to thank a veteran for your freedom. 
We are flying our flag today.   This was my dear husbands father's day present.

Digging Gems. . .

The boys and I went to visit my folks this week.  Dear hubby stayed at home to tend the garden, work, and take care of the sweet Basil.  We headed up to Little Switzerland to go gem mining.  There are several places you can pan for gems on the way but we were headed for the Emerald Village.   We toured the old feldspar mine, and I learned feldspar was used to make porcelain (toilets), a scrubbing agent called Bon- Ami, and the coolest of all Wedgewood porcelain china.  They had examples of these set up as we made our way through the tour.  
We then went down the road to go panning.   We picked our buckets and headed for the trough.  It took us a good 45 minutes to go through our buckets.  We found lots of goodies.  Sprat found a couple emeralds and we found a lot of pink quartz.  Big T found Hyalite Opal which is black and fluoresces under certain light.  It is beautiful.   We also found some amethyst,  garnet, and rubby.  This was a cool trip.  I think we will be taking some more mining trips around to different areas.