20th Wedding Anniversary

Six months ago on this date, Steven and I celebrated our 20th Wedding Anniversary.

Twenty Years. I can't believe it's been twenty years.

On one hand, it hardly seems possible for it to have been that long, and yet on the other hand, it feels like that day was an entirely different lifetime.

The last couple of years we kept saying we were going to go to Hawaii for our 20th anniversary. But as our anniversary got closer, we knew Hawaii wasn't going to happen. But we wanted to do something extra special for our big anniversary.

So we stayed at The Hotel del Coronado!!! It was absolutely wonderful!! While it would have been the icing on the cake to have a room with a full ocean view, this was the view from our room....

On our actual anniversary, we dressed up and had dinner at one of the hotel restaurants. It was on the patio and we had an amazing view of the sunset and had an amazing evening celebrating. 

March 23, 2016 ~ Our 20th Anniversary

Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood!

One of the big events here in Southern California this past weekend was the return of Garth Brooks touring. It's been 20 years since he last toured and he was in Anaheim for the last 3 nights. My Facebook newsfeed had several friends posting pictures of themselves at the concert on Saturday night.

Yesterday morning before church started my friend texted, said she had a ticket to that night's concert, her husband did not want to go, the ticket was mine if I wanted to go with her. Um, yeah!!!!

This is Garth Brooks returning World Tour after not touring for 20 years. What a concert!!! One things for sure, Garth puts on an amazing concert! Once he finally graced the stage at 9:20pm, he sang until midnight!!! With the exception of 4 songs by Trisha Yearwood in the middle of his set.

I cannot remember the last time I went to a Country Concert. I'm thinking before Hannah was born. I've seen Randy Travis a couple of times at our old church, but that wasn't a true concert. I had a GREAT time and I forgot how much fun a country concert can be and how much I enjoy the good old country music of years past!!! 

Work for Hire

The girls are getting older and there are opportunities arising for them to be more social, go places, do things. Translation: money is usually needed.

Last month, we let Hannah drive to a friends house on a Friday afternoon. Because her friend is always treating her to Starbucks, Hannah wanted to reciprocate. Thus, a $10 stop off at Starbucks. There's a possibility she could have her own car in the next few months, thus she'll need gas money.

Last week, on the day Rachel get's out for minimum day, she wanted to go to the local yogurt shop because that's where all the kids go on minimum day. I dropped her off and ran to the grocery store just a block away. But her yogurt cost money. I see more opportunities arising for her to be social as well.

We've never given our kids an allowance. There are just certain things you do when you're part of a family (dishes, cleaning rooms, cleaning their bathroom, things like that).

Our kids also lack for nothing. They each have a working iPhone (Rachel's is a hand me down), they each have an iPad and/or laptop, we buy things for them. We go places together, go to the movies, out to eat, treats here and there, etc.

But I got to thinking with all these opportunities arising to be social, why not make them work a little bit. Therefore I created a "Work for Hire" Board.

I'd see the idea on Pinterest and made ours to fit our family. I first wrote out a list of jobs I wanted done, and then attached a monetary value to it. I made a list of jobs not eligible for pay (their normal everyday/weekly chores), as well as even included an extra advertisement in the corner of someone else with "work for hire" jobs (Gramma!!) and then I printed it all out. And finally I went to the bank and got enough cash to cover the jobs so that the girls could be paid upon completion. With Hannah, she has the option of taking the cash, or I can transfer funds to her debit card.

I put it all together yesterday and it hangs in our laundry room. Hannah spotted it. I don't know if Rachel has yet. With the weekend upon us, perhaps there might be some little worker bees about our home!!