This Memorial Day 2008. My man, and I with all the kids in tow went down to the park and camped two blocks away from our home. I didn't have to cook. My adult daughters did the cooking. I am happy to report I am not, as barren as I thought. I thought I had the flu this past week, and it turns out I am pregnant. We are all happy with the news. My family is proud and non-conventional sort of people. I now think our family is complete. ten children is enough for anyone I think. Although, there is a report of a family called the Duggars in Arkansas with their 18th child to be delivered in about 9 months. That is pretty amazing. Well anyhow we got our pop up camper going and towed it to the park camping area. The place is free to camp at in our town to large families. There is a public shower, so we don't have to walk two blocks to get a shower. I never liked vacationing at home, but two blocks away and free. It was too much a temptation to pass up. There is a hospital right up the hill too incase of an injury while hiking on the trail behind the park and along the river. Right next to the park a public pool, since swimming in the river is forbidden in town. I intend to collect flowers and dry them and make a collage of them when we get back home. The kids are all out of school. My young 5 year old is still on the chain link run away proof she has ADHD and is terribly high flight endangering her health risk when we go out to a store. What do my neighbors think of our vacation. Well they laughed at first, but then when they saw how happy we were to be away for a weekend. They stopped laughing and got serious. They told my man that it was an ingenious vacation and the way he could keep an eye on our house while on vacation was inspiring. Vacations don't have to be expensive headaches with Mother Nature spoiling everything. If the weather gets bad we can pack up and head two blocks home without wasting gas, then when it clears up we just get back to camping, and all it cost is our manual labor of moving about in town. We don't get tired during a long drive. We can use a library without having to go 15 miles to town. We can use the parks swing sets and have fun right at our finger tips so to speak.

Vacations in town mean being close to a dollar store when we run out of things and we know they aren't at home. Some people live on a lake and call that an all-year round vacation not us. We call that too much work, when all we do is the camping once a year thing. This year our town, and next year we may even head to another town nearby with a free campground, and a WalMart near there too. Our WalMart is 30 miles down the road from us. I like to go once a month and stock up. Meats go in a cooler with dry ice (milk too), and regular items that we don't get at the convenient store is good at car temperature until we get home. I do miss having a WalMart right down the street from us, but on the positive side I am not always running to WalMart now that it is 30 miles away. Gas prices this summer has made us very mother of invention and father inventive too. We may go camping too near our home, but it is still away from our home and hurried lifestyle. Well enough said at a library now, and am out of time because in 15 minutes it will close for today. Happy Memorial Day and Weekend all.

0 Comments | Post Feedback

Well with the gas prices the way they are of late, and what they will be this summer. Our family is suffering. I no longer can work. The man of the house is on disability now too,  because of a knee replacement surgery that he had to have this winter. The nieces and nephews all are expecting big gifts this spring and summer for birthday gifts, and I am not giving in to them. I have resigned my issue about not really dollar stores if they aint a dollar store wide, as I have now been shopping in one and found it quite delightful. I got Barbie house for 10 dollars what would have cost me 34 dollars at Toys 'R US store. I like this store a lot. It is still named a dollar store in its name. It just isn't a dollar store wide. Amending that issue was easy, and now to amend the WalMart issue. I shop there for almost everthing now. Just none name brand and sale items only. The children don't mind. I am even charging rent to our oldest children still wanting to live at home, yes I am still sick with MS. Not having an easy time of it. We had to give up our cable TV. Our Sam's Club went very bye bye as well. We can't afford to shop there anymore anytime of month. I can't wait til my man goes back to work full time. Well I have been taking meds that are good and inexpensive since we make a monthly trip to Canada to get them cheaply now. I thank god we moved back to Minnesota closer to cheap meds in Canada. Well I got to go exercise. We use the library for the Internet and all the entertainment free. I love the library for that. It is too bad that we are only allowed an hour on the net here though. So next place is mall walking another free thing. Well glad to see Spring. Lets hope for an Indian Summer. Bye for now. Be back soon.

2 Comments | Post Feedback

I am so sick and tired of rich people using my dollar store in town as a way to get out of paying for craft supplies. For instance I was in the store the other day behind a lady at the check out. She was dolled up to the max with pearls on and everything. I started a conversation saying "you look nice" and she went on to say "thank you I just love dollar stores for the shower curtain material and shelf paper material so I can get my craft area looking spiffy for a $1 or $2 instead of costing me a lot of money. I can afford it I just don't want to spend it. It is too bad only poor people use dollar stores." then she went on to say she thought that we poor people should get our money woes taken care of that way we would not have to use dollar stores as they degrade KMart and WalMart. I was aghast at what she thought poor people should shop and do. I thank the owner of the dollar store in town every night in my prayers, and I thought maybe if she didn't like shopping with poor people she should have stayed home and let her husband or maid do the shopping for her.

These people should not be using dollar stores. Dollar stores are for the struggling, not the well to do cheapskate that happen to take up all the inventory from the store for the wrong reason instead of living on what we purchase at the dollar store, for example, actually using a shower curtain for the shower instead of in the craft room. I say go get a table cloth if you need one that badly and leave the shower curtains for the intended purpose that they were made for in the first place. I told the cashier what she said and the cashier agreed with me. Cheapskate which is not saying all dollar store shoppers should be poor, but just under $70,000 dollars even $25,000 dollars a year. The owner of the store still gets their money, and we can feel comfortable shopping there without feeling like we are being judged for being poor. I only wish she could walk a mile in my shoes then maybe she would keep her mouth shut. I get very angry when I hear rich people say if poor people could only do....Well maybe the rich in my area should "pay it forward" instead of being selfish and spoiled. The other day one lady did just that for me. I couldn't get to Canada this week, so I had to use the pharmacy down the road from our home in the next town. A well to do woman saw I had no money for co-pay and paid my co-pay for me. I said thank you and wished I could "pay it forward" someday as well to someone else. I have shopped at dollar stores and never experienced this kindness from well to do snobs aka cheapskate who frequent my stores. Well anyhow sorry if I offended anyone I just get real angry and have to vent at least I do not swear outright on here be thankful for that mercy. I still use the library which is another mercy for my poorness. Angel Food Ministries is helping out next month, as it was too late for this month. We had to use the Food Pantry in town, and that is free. I am at the library now so got to go. Hope the best for all of you poor folks like me and my family. G-bless.

2 Comments | Post Feedback