I ended up having my cheat night last night. I was craving fries really bad and had Wendy's chicken nuggets and fries for dinner. Then later I had strawberries w/cream for dessert. I ordered a diet coke with my dinner so I didn't do TOO bad.

Today, well tonight, was a little hard for me but I forced myself to make good choices. Believe me, it wasn't easy! I actually headed out to go get a soda and some sort of snack, a BAD one, I ended up with a diet soda and sunflower seeds LOL. Oooh, life on the edge.....

Becky will be joining me here tomorrow (Wednesday) if she didn't start today. I'm NOT giving her a choice about it, she's going to be my diet buddy again! Becky, luv ya!

Today I finally got my business license. It was a little more expensive than I expected but nothing too major. I guess I'm "legal" now (g). Look out world, here I come....

I hope my business cards come soon, I'm really wanting to get another client by the end of July and one more by the end of August.

Mom came over last night and I got Quickbooks loaded on my computer and my business set up. Now just need more clients!

Hubby finally got me high-speed internet. It's *only* 14.95/month for 6 months then it goes up to $30/mo but that's still a pretty good price. We're going to lose our "landline" since we don't use it, so it's a wash.

I don't have batteries for my camera so i've not been able to get a recent pic of Hailey on here. I'm making it a priority though since I don't wanna lose any time getting pics of her.

Ok, nuff rambling?!

My weigh-in this morning was 182. Down 4 lbs since last Monday. I will have my "cheat" meal tomorrow night probably.

Just found out some GREAT news. I don't have to file taxes with the state or get a state business license! I just need to go down to the city and get an occupational license but "services" are non-taxable in Arizona. No wonder I couldn't figure out how to register properly online! (g)

Ok, off to make some phone calls, so gotta get off the net now....

Oh, if anyone's interested my website is http://sparklecleaningonline.com

I'm still tweaking it a bit but the "look" overall is what I'm sticking with.

Ok, gotta go!

Last night was movie night. We watched an older movie from the 90's called Jungle 2 Jungle. Stars Tim Allen and Martin Short. Funny movie and the kids got a kick out of it.

Today we went to the mall with Mom. We were looking into dropping our land-line phone and dial-up and getting DSL. They didn't have a lower price than our current phone company, so we'll be going with our current one. I saw a couple of things that I wanted to get (ok I was coveting!) specifically they "Chuck Taylor" Ladies Converse shoes and there was a purse at the Fossile store that I just adored. We simple can't afford those kindof luxuries so opted "no thank you". The purse COULD have doubled as a diaper bag though.......::snort::

After the mall we stopped at my favorite scrapbooking store EVER! Recollections. Not sure if they're a chain or not but they have EVERYTHING you could ever want to use scrapping. Seriously. Anyways, I stopped in and got the 4 pieces of paper I needed to complete a project.

Got home and made a roasted chicken with various sidedishes for dinner. I say "various" because I actually made 3 different sets of sidedishes. Cucumber salad, jicama, and tomatoes for me (low carb!), pasta for the kids, and baked potatoes w/corn on the cob for Mom and Michael. I think I had 5 "servings" of veggies in that dinner and I'm completely stuffed. I totalled it up though and my dinner had under 250 calories and 10 grams of carbs. Feels like I ate a horse though! Not sure I could do the 10 servings a day thing.....ugh.

Hailey's wearing one of her new dresses that she got at the shower with little white tights and black patent shoes. She's going to be adorable! I'll make sure and get a picture and post it on here. Hannah of course had to find something that sortof matches so they can "match" tomorrow. If I could find them "twin" outfits for them she'd be all over it! She's fully embracing her big-sister role....

I had Hannah weigh herself, then weigh herself holding Hailey today. Hailey is 10 lbs. I've got her 2 month checkup next week so I'll know exact weight, but wow she's growing fast! I'll spare you the whole "They grow up so fast" thoughts that are running through my mind....though I will say that I really DO wish they could stay babies a little while longer.

School is going great. Hannah is cruising along, she's got quite the workload though compared to the boys. They finish before her everyday. Brandon is doing well, still struggling a bit with reading. He's just missing some thought process that most people have, we're working around it the best we can. I'm trying HARD to be patient with him. I'll leave it at that. Jake is doing very well, he'll be reading by the end of the year. He LOVES math just like Brandon and always asks to do more pages. Poor Matty is feeling left out a bit. I've gotta get him some kindof workbooks to work on when we do school. Hailey wants in on all the school "fun" too. She wants to be laying smack-dab in the middle of everyone. It's funny.

Got my website running. It's not "perfect" yet so I'm still not posting the link but I'm soooo stoked that it's running already. I've honestly had much more trouble getting a site up before. I've even got my own email and it forwards automatically to my hotmail inbox. Too cool!

Hubby left this morning to go to San Francisco. He'll be back tomorrow night.

My "diet" is going strong. I've already weighed myself and I've already reached my goal for Monday's weigh-in. Anything more is super great!

Tonight we went on a hunt for a cheap table to put in our school room. Right now we school on the floor of the school room. It works but we have all of our stuff laying everywhere. I'd like to at least have things up off the floor. We have a bookshelf but I'm just too lazy to put everything on it everyday. We have sooo many books, manuals, etc. I will just do better to have everything laid out already. Oh, anyways we found a "maybe" table at Goodwill. I'll have hubby go first thing Saturday morning and see if it's still there since they're having a 50% off sale then. I did pick up some 3-6 month pajamas for Hailey. She's already outgrowing her 0-3 month ones. I also picked up a pair of denim shorts for me and one for Hannah as well.

The spy kit was a hit! He's been going around the last couple of days "sleuthing". Today was his actualy birthday. My Mom came over this evening to take him shopping for a gift. He came home with some kindof racetrack. I didn't get a very good look at it. He also picked out a Transformers book.

I ordered my business cards this weekend as well as my website name. I don't really NEED a website but I couldn't get an email address from a "free" service, they were all taken. I figured the fastest way to get my "own" was to get the domain and make my own. It'll be more professional that way anyways. I'll post the link on here so you all can take a peek if you want, as soon as I get it finished. It'll probably take me a little bit to get it up and running. Hubby helped me make a professional looking invoice last night and he turned it in today when he went to work.

I've done really well on my diet yesterday and today. I cheated a little bit this weekend but not over the top or anything. My weigh-in yesterday was 186. I'm hoping to lose at least 2 lbs by next Monday, we'll see. I weigh-in on Mondays because it FORCES me to be good on the weekends when hubby is home!

We finally started back with school yesterday. We're behind the curve now so we've got some catching up to do. Between school, my biz stuff, and regular "home" stuff, I've just been plain busy! It's a good busy though. I don't do good when I don't have things "pressing".

Hailey got her first "cold" on Sunday. She was a little worse yesterday but she's a little better again today. Poor baby, I can't stand when my babies are sick. She's been a little extra fussy and wants to snuggle more, which I don't mind!

Becky, thanks for the ideas for Brandon's spy kit. My dad is sending a magnifying glass and I was already planning on picking up a pair of binoculars tomorrow if they aren't too expensive. The disappearing ink thing is a great idea. I think crayola has something like that out. I already got a watch, guess I forgot to list that. It's one with all kinds of buttons on it making it look real "spyish". I picked up a small toolbox to put it all in but the lunchbox was a great idea. Might check out the price of those as well tomorrow.

Not much else going on around here except I'm still working on my business details. Trying to figure out how/what kindof business licenses to buy. Az is so confusing compared to Wa! I think I'll actually have to go down to their office on Monday.

Oh-Oh-Oh! Exciting news! I picked up the Tradesmen account today. Well, actually my sales rep. (errr hubby) landed it for me today. I start tomorrow and it's a bi-weekly account. Things are rolling.....

On other news, I've been doing pretty well on diet this week. I'm down about 3 lbs so far. I did eat a little more than I should've tonight but didn't stray too far. I had SF pudding and a SF Jello with whipped cream on top. Hubby actually had a "cheat" night so I feel pretty good about my choices, I could've been so much worse!

Ok, piece out!

(I know it's "peace out", but the whole "peace" thing is not my style, a little too hippie-ish. I visualize "whirrled peas" not "world peace".....snickering and ducking)

Let's see, yesterday we went down to Tucson again to stay with hubby in the hotel again. We decided to go ahead and do part of Brandon's birthday "party" yesterday and did Peter Piper Pizza for dinner. Birthdays here are week-long events. The kids spent their allowances at the Dollar Tree today, they were thrilled. I was also able to put together a pretty cool (at least I thing so!) gift for Brandon with things from there. I put together a "spy kit".

This kit included:

Flashlight
An i-pod looking radio (for receiving secret messages of course)
Pedometer (to count your paces)
Notepad (to record your "clues/info")
Mechanical pencils for above mentioned notepads
"Funny glasses" and "false teeth" (for cleverly disguising oneself)
Tapemeasure (never no when you're gonna need one!)
Some glowsticks (think McGuyver here)

I think that's all I got for it. I'm gonna check out Walmart when I get his other gift and see if they have anything good to add to it. I'm pretty excited to give it to him, I think he'll love it! I think I might hide his gifts and come up with some clues or something so he has to find them. For his cake, I'll probably decorate it with white icing and then put black "?" marks all over it.
Sound like fun?

Ok, the "official" name for my cleaning biz is Sparkle Cleaning Services. Anyone like it??? My business cards are going to look soooo awesome. Spent last night working on my logo and final design for biz cards. I'm looking into getting a couple of polo shirts with at least my name on them, will try to get my logo as well, but so that I look more professional. Hubby is totally on board with this, I've just gotta get all my ducks in a row!

Ok, so for some reason I was a little melancholy yesterday. Ended up "snacking" last night and pretty much moping around (for no reason!). Then we headed to bed, Hailey just wouldn't sleep, so I went downstairs. She still wouldn't quiet down so we headed to Walmart because I needed to get a couple of things for school. I was able to get my things and as I was getting back into my car, a little old lady came up and asked me for a ride home. Her car had broken down and she had just had it towed and her husband was out of town. I sat there for a moment thinking as fast as I could if this would be a good decision--I DON'T GIVE RIDES TO STRANGERS!! But, she seemed nice enough, told me she had been trying to find someone who looked nice enough to ask a ride from (ooh flattery!). Anyways, as I was moving a few things out of the seat I prayed that God would bless my good deed and that this little old lady was not going to "mug" me or anything. Turns out that she lives not too far from me, she is Baptist like me, she has a daughter who homeschools, anyways we just had a nice little chat on the way home. After I dropped her off, I literally drove home with a big smile on my face. Totally changed my mood! It felt so nice to help someone out when they needed it, and I'm glad *I* was there to give her the ride and she didn't get one from someone crazy. So, please don't post a bunch of "WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!!" comments. I NEVER give rides to strangers, but I think God brought me along to help that woman out when she needed it....

Ok, I thought I'd try and get everyone's opinion on a name for my cleaning biz. Just a simple #1, #2, #3 would be great!

Just in Time! Cleaning Services

Omega Cleaning Services (Your search for a quality cleaning service "ends" here...)*snicker*

Clean and Simple

A Clean Sweep

Above and Beyond Cleaning Services

Jen's Janitorial


Thanks!

(Becky)That book was part of the Alli stuff that's out. When I saw if though, I'd not heard of the Allie stuff, just saw the book at the grocery store.

As for Hannah's school. I guess I didn't clarify that she's strictly choosing how fast she's progressing through things. NOT choosing or organizing her curriculum, I have and have done all of that already. She's way too young to be planning her areas of study. I will have her do that though probably starting in Jr. high.
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I've figured out what I'm doing for an income! I'm going to start a cleaning service. My step-momma started her own a few months ago and has already done very well with it. I'm hoping to do at least half as well and start methodically paying off some bills. I'm gonna try and figure out the name of the business today and probably order my license tonight. I think I have a good chance of picking up my first account with hubby's office in Tempe. They had the wife of one of the other employees doing it but he's now moved down to Tucson and he's working with hubby down there. Anyways, I think I've got my first account! I'll have my Mom help me set up my books, I just have a few supplies to get but it shouldn't be too much startup. I also know of a place to get "almost free" business cards, just have to pay for shipping. Ooooh, I've never been so excited to "clean" before! LOL I'm sure it'll wear off very quickly though....

We had a family over from church on Saturday. We grilled some chicken and made hotdogs for the kids. We all had such a great time! The adults played Cranium. It was a new game that we had gotten back at Christmas to play with our family that was in town but we never ended up playing it. It's such a fun game, glad we got to try it out.