Why I Love My Husband

I am so twitterpated with my husband right now. Here are some reasons why

• He's so cute
• He's kind
• He puts family first
• He has juicy lips! Wowza!
• He plans for the future

That's just a few. I'm sure I will post more sometime soon.

What are my skills?

Does my inability to find a Work at Home job mean that I have a lack of skills? Some of the websites I have found encourage me to turn my passion into a job. Is there a job that pays you to watch daytime TLC and eat Funyuns? I seriously doubt it. Besides, Funyuns have MSG in them, and everyone knows that eating MSG will make you fat.

But, I digress... (yay I got to use the word 'digress'). What are my talents, my skills? I am mildly entertaining, but not really in a written format. I make my husband laugh a lot, but he is usually laughing AT me and he's not offering any pay for that. I can type pretty quickly which made me think that I could get a transcription job. Did you know that those are very competitive and hard to get into? There are also a lot of scams out there as well. I'm an okay listener and I'm pretty decent at getting a word in edgewise, but I don't think anyone is hiring for a best friend.

I took a career exploration class in college and there were a lot of suggestions from the personality tests that we took. Here are the top 3.

1. Faller
   • The person who yells "Timber" from the top of a giant tree
   • Con: High fatality rate
   • Pro: Dead coworkers mean lots of room for upward mobility (pun totally intended).
2. Choreographer
   • Let's not get too excited about this one because I cannot dance
3. Wildlife Game Warden
   • Pro: You get to work outside
   • Con: It rains outside
   • Pro: You get to carry a gun
   • ConL You carry that gun because both poachers and bears are going to try to kill you.

I'm not trying to be too picky, but I don't think that these choices are conducive to my life or my lifestyle. So the search continues.

Make Your Own Hours Jobs

In a previous post Work at Home Mom I went over the lists of jobs that allow you to make your own hours or work from home and all of the issues that I have with each one. I realized today that all of these lists were missing something.

Hair Stylist

That seems like a great idea! Of course, one would have to go to cosmetology school or whatever it's called and get a license, but that seems easy. After that you can work from home (I know someone who does), or lease a chair and make your own hours (I know someone who does that, too). You can work your dream hours of while the kiddos are at school, and in this case it's not so bad because that's when all the other mommies have the time to get their haircuts.

of course, you'd have to work at it. It is a job after all and that kind of spells out work. You'd have to build your client base and then keep up with them so that they don't run off to supercuts when you're not looking. You'd have to be available and competitive, and that might be hard if you're leasing a chair or running a business out of your home.

I think it's doable though and I can't figure out why it wasn't on the list. It's a job that a lot of people are very successful at and I think it would work out well for anyone who is self motivated and is able to manage a business.

So, I am adding my own little item to the list of things you can do at home, or do on your own time and that is cutting hair. So there, internet!

Lullabyes

My son is loving Jewel's Lullabye CD. We play it over the iPod at night and he hums along until he drifts off to sleep. My husband isn't much of a Jewel fan, but I think she has a very soothing voice. I imagine that if I grew up with a mom who had a singing voice like Jewel, it would be so nice to be sung to sleep. Then I think of what it would be like if my mom had a really powerful voice, like Adele or Tina Turner. Can they even whisper.

My mom's singing voice is... what is a nice way to say grating? Just kidding (kinda!). No matter how my mom's singing voice sounds to me now, when I was a kid I loved it when she sung me to sleep. I don't think it was so much the sweet sound of her voice as it was the attention I was getting.

Excuse me, I'm going to go and sing Caleb to sleep now.

Government Shutdown Puts America in Danger From The Queen

Extravagant derby hats off to the creator of this Meme. When I saw it, I just had to share it!

Adventures in Couponing

At the advice of the totally rude Lysol company who stingily refused to send me a single coupon when I took the time to write to them, I got the Sunday paper and clipped some coupons of my own. The first thing that I looked for was a coupon for a Lysol product, since advertising in the Sunday paper was the reason they refused to send me a coupon in the first place. I will confidently tell you that there were NONE. No manufacturers coupon from Lysol, and no store ad containing a Lysol product. So take that!

I did clip $10.50 worth of usable coupons from the paper. That was nothing compared to the over $300.00 in savings that was advertised on the front page, but I am being careful to only clip coupons for things that I might want or need before the expiration date. There is no point in spending money to save a portion on it while buying something that I don't need or won't use.

The first shopping trip after the clipping saved me $5.50. I (very smartly) planned my weekly meals around the coupons that I had clipped to maximize their value. The next shopping trip I save the remaining $5.00. Not bad for a $2.00 investment.

One thing that I noticed, and this might be coincidental, but it seemed as though the Oregonian had better Coupons than the Columbian. The next week, I bought the Columbian newspaper to check out the coupons and there was ONLY ONE for $.50 that was anything I might remotely need. I'm not sure if the two papers run the same coupon ads or not, but there was a definite lack of manufacturers coupons - the kind you can use in any store.

I also noticed that most supermarkets have coupons that work exclusively for their store, but that the ad for Rite Aid usually contains at least one manufacturers coupon. They have the Rite Aid logo on them, but they do say "Manufacturers Coupon" which means that almost any place which accepts coupons will take them.

Another thing I learned is that not every store has to accept coupons. Some just don't! I had no idea! I haven't run into this problem yet, but it's good to be aware that some businesses do not accept coupons, manufacturer or otherwise.

What I Want

Maybe I should have titled this post "What WE Want" since today is my 2 year anniversary of falling in love with my newlywed husband. We celebrated with my little son and had a family meal and chocolate cake for dessert. This weekend we are hoping to get in some Honeymoon 2.0. Our "Honeymoon" was just 3 days at the beach 2 hours from our house because we didn't want to leave Caleb for too long, and we are hoping to be able to get away a little longer here and there. Not a bad way to stretch out the vacation.

We did have other things in mind at first. We found a Groupon for a trip to Ireland that was really affordable, but we didn't have time to take off of work. Ireland is somewhere Travis has always wanted to go. Also, England, Japan, and Scotland, but most of all New Zealand.

Travis is a HUGE Lord of the Rings fan and he wants to go to New Zealand and stay for most of forever. He really wants to visit the set of the movies - Hobbiton

I, on the other hand have a more cozy version of our vacation. I imagine our extended stay being in one of the Holiday Homes Auckland has to offer. From what I have seen of it there is a great mixture of city and rural scenes. You can stay in your own quiet rental island retreat for a week or so, and then switch to something downtown for a more exciting time.

I would love both of those kinds of vacations. The serenity of the island, the connection with nature, the beautiful scenery. And I also love the hustle and bustle of the city, being able to meet new people and try new things and feel the heart of the culture.

Before I met Travis, New Zealand wasn't ever a place I considered visiting, but he has really made me fall in love with the idea. The more he talked about it the more I thought about it, the more I thought about it the more I talked about it and the more I talked about it the more I met people who had been there. I found out that one of my customers splits his time between mainland US, Hawaii, and New Zealand because he is constantly bouncing around between family members. Not like he can complain! Talk about paradise. He probably only ever comes back to the rainy PNW for some perspective on how great Hawaii and New Zealand are!

After hearing about how wonderful New Zealand is, I have to say that I checked out Home Loans Christchurch. Moving to New Zealand really isn't a realistic option for us. I don't think we have the kinds of jobs that are in high demand there, but it is nice to dream, isn't it. Now if only I could find some Cavoodle Puppies for SaleI'd be all set.

Work at Home Mom

I'm still in the process of trying to find a job I can do from home where I can make my own hours. I'm not object to working outside of the home as long as I get to make my own hours but I'm pretty sure the chances of finding that are slim to none. I have been scouring the internet, which we all know is the end all be all of information - right? But I have yet to find something that is going to work for me. In fact, it seems like I am finding the same list on every website I checkout. Whether it's the Huffington Post, a grandparents' website, or an independent blogger, they are all saying the same things. And I have issue with most of them.

Get Paid to Surf the Web - If you have a college degree.

Be a Personal Shopper - Although no one can tell you how to start or how to contact someone who might need that service. Hopefully, you've been networking with your local movie star who is too busy to go out and get their own things.

Call Center / Customer Service Rep - Enjoy being on the waiting list IF your state is is one of those which are listed for this employer.

Direct Sales - One forum poster put it this way, "Avon - everyone is selling it and no one is buying it."

Answer questions for ChaCha - Not currently hiring.

I'm not trying to be a sourpuss, but none of these suggestions really work for me. I'm still not sure what I am going to do.