So last week when Nick was at school, the hotel required a credit/debit card at check-in. Okay, no problem, the room's already been paid for by Nick's company, so he gave him his debit card to hold for incidentals. I was looking at the bank account a few days later and noticed an outstanding authorization for $440. So I called Nick and he said he'd check on it. On the day of check-out they hand him a bill and say that they've charged the amount to the card he gave them. "No, no, no - that's not right, " he tells them. So they do some checking, see that it should have gone on the company's card and charge it instead.
Fast forward to this week - a charge for $440 comes out of our bank account and causes $140 in overdraft fees. So I call the hotel, and they're happy to credit back the $440 - in a few days - but not the $140. And of course that $140 (not to mention the $440!) was earmarked to cover things we already spent - like for gas and milk and eggs. Now those things are coming in and will cause even more overdraft fees.
Meanwhile we don't have enough money to pay the girls' health insurance premiums (or several other bills, but that one is the most urgent), and Nick is seriously leaning toward wanting me to go back to work. But if I go back to work, I'm not going to be able to get the shift I had before, which means there's no one to pick Morgan up from school. And my mom is not healthy enough to babysit any more, so that means we'd have to find full time day care for the baby now and both of them come summer, which would pretty much suck up all the money I'd be bringing in anyway.
And I know that God has a plan, and I'm trying really hard to have faith, but...it's hard.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Saturday, April 24, 2010
100 Things about not just me
So I was reading over at Grace's blog. She recently had her 6 year blogaversary - go tell her congratulations! - and she reposted a "100 things about me" list she did back in 2004. That made me think about the 100 things about me list I did, so I decided to go look it up. Except, it turns out, I never posted one. I think I must have done one in an email somewhere, because it sure wasn't on here. At least not with 100 things. But anyway, I don't know that there are quite 100 interesting things about me, so I thought I would do 100 things about me and the people around me.
1. I am daily floored by how insanely cute my baby is.
2. Jasmine Star is my hero.
3. Today is Nick's and Morgan's birthday.
4. Nick is 31.
5. Morgan is 9. (Nine!!! How the heck did that happen?)
6. Nick was out of town for 4 days this week for work and I replaced most of the furniture in our bedroom while he was gone (with hand-me-downs from my parents).
7. Nick was really pleased with the new set-up.
8. Nick brought me home a Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory and it might be the best thing I've ever tasted.
9. I'm really enjoying my photography.
10. The baby got her first tooth April 13th and is about to push through her second.
11. I really, really love my Lelo Lily (really!).
12. After 6 seasons I'm still addicted to Lost and will mourn when it ends next month.
13. Our heating and air unit went kaput a few weeks ago and it's starting to get really hot here.
14. I haven't been spanked yet this week because Nick and I were both so exhausted from his time away.
15. I really need that spanking.
16. I really need to go to bed.
17. My in-laws are hosting a birthday cookout for Nick and Morgan.
18. I'm on Facebook way too much.
19. For Valentine's Day Nick bought me pink socks from Snap-On and I wash them constantly so I can wear them as often as possible.
20. A friend's five year old daughter asked Nick to pin stripe her softball helmet and was thrilled with the result.
21. I've been teaching my mother-in-law how to use a computer.
22. I've gotten her addicted to Facebook.
23. My parents bought Nick a weeping cherry tree for his birthday, and his parents bought him a red bud tree.
24. After almost 12 years of marriage without a decent lawn mower, we finally got one. It's a 2 year old rider that retails for $1200 at Lowes. The owner sold it to us for $250. He couldn't get the blade to engage and apparently has more money than sense so he went out and bought a brand new one. Nick cleaned a huge clump of dried grass off the lawn mower deck and mowed our yard within 15 minutes of bringing it home.
25. I got my roots colored Thursday.
26. I really need to get Nick to paint my toenails.
27. He always does a much better job at it than I do.
28. Morgan wants a beanbag chair for her birthday.
29. I bought her a pink one for $15 at Wal-Mart yesterday.
30. When I cleaned out my drawer to move out my old night stand, I put all my worn out silver bullets in a shoe box before I put them in the trash bag.
31. I did this because my dad was coming to take everything to the dump for me in his truck.
32. I think I might need carpal tunnel surgery.
33. This might be due to Farmville.
34. I really miss having an iPod.
35. The baby has outgrown all her 6 month clothes.
36. I buy her Luvs diapers because they're cheaper than Pampers.
37. Every year when the weather turns warm all the ants in the Southern US visit our house no matter what we do.
38. They've started arriving already.
39. I can't wait till my parents open their pool.
40. I especially can't wait till Nick's grandparents open their cabin.
41. Nick's cousin is getting married on our 12th anniversary.
42. We didn't realize it when we chose our wedding date, but it's also her parents' anniversary.
43. I don't like to drink anything without a straw.
44. I'm addicted to frozen cokes.
45. The gas station where I get my frozen coke fix closed for 6 weeks while they built a new building.
46. The wait almost killed me.
47. When they opened back up they had gone from 3 flavors to 12 flavors.
48. The wait was totally worth it.
49. We own a ridiculous number of blankets and pillows.
50. Nick and I are currently without health insurance, although we have some for the girls.
51. Nick once stepped on a water moccasin in our back yard.
52. He screamed like a little girl.
53. He's not ashamed to admit it.
54. When a snake got into our kitchen last summer he killed it with a steak knife and a pair of tongs while I ran screaming out of the house like a little girl.
55. A steak knife is not the most efficient snake killing weapon, but it was better than the bread knife someone handed him first.
56. I might have more pairs of jeans than pairs of panties.
57. Morgan has a major crush on the little boy next door.
58. I think he's pretty cute for a 9 year old.
59. I think he has a crush on her too.
60. Nick is not a fan of this.
61. Aforementioned boy next door fell off our swing set last fall and broke his arm.
62. A few days later Nick caught him climbing our tree, cast and all and made him get down before he broke something else.
63. One of our neighbors called to ask if it was okay if our beagle comes and spends the night with her sometimes.
64. I said sure, I guess so.
65. Then I called Nick to tell him what a weird conversation I'd had with the neighbor.
66. The next day we found out that the people who used to live in the house on the other side of us sometimes come and pick up the dog that lives there for an overnight visit.
67. Maybe this is more common than we thought.
68. The baby's favorite toy is a teething ring shaped like a foot. She will hold it up to her own foot for comparison before chewing on it.
69. There are tons of kids in our neighborhood right now and Morgan has so much fun playing after school.
70. This makes me happy because there weren't many kids in the neighborhood I grew up in.
71. Morgan has been on a campaign to convince us that she needs a cell phone at the ripe old age of 8, now 9.
72. It isn't working.
73. I graduated with 15 other people - it was a very small school.
74. Of the 13 girls in my class, 2 of us had babies within the last 7 months and two more are currently pregnant.
75. I'd love to have one more baby.
76. If we don't ever have a boy, Nick is the last of his line.
77. If we have a boy his first name will be Nick's first name (which is not Nick), and his middle name will be my mother's maiden name.
78. He will go by his middle name.
79. We didn't name the baby after anyone.
80. Nick has to work today on his birthday.
81. I tried sushi for the first time a couple of months ago and I love it.
82. I had my first repeat customer for my photography business last Friday.
83. I really, really need to get a website designed for my business.
84. My brother's ex-girlfriend contacted me about shooting her wedding this winter.
85. I haven't mentioned it to his wife because she hates her.
86. I really miss my husband and am very ready for him to have a day off.
87. I can't wait till the drive-in movie theater opens for the season in our area.
88. I need to do some laundry.
89. I also need to do some dishes.
90. I think pairing socks is the very worst part of laundry.
91. Sometimes Nick takes Morgan to school on his motorcycle.
92. She feels super cool when he does.
93. Morgan is begging me for a Facebook account, but I haven't let her have one yet.
94. I'm pretty sleepy and I'm glad this list is almost over.
95. I recently helped start an annual golf tournament to benefit Morgan's school.
96. We raised about $3000, which wasn't bad for our first year.
97. Nick's favorite cake is Boston Cream Pie.
98. His grandmother is making him one for the cookout.
99. My breasts feel really full, but the baby is asleep.
100. I'm going to join her.
'Night all!
1. I am daily floored by how insanely cute my baby is.
2. Jasmine Star is my hero.
3. Today is Nick's and Morgan's birthday.
4. Nick is 31.
5. Morgan is 9. (Nine!!! How the heck did that happen?)
6. Nick was out of town for 4 days this week for work and I replaced most of the furniture in our bedroom while he was gone (with hand-me-downs from my parents).
7. Nick was really pleased with the new set-up.
8. Nick brought me home a Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory and it might be the best thing I've ever tasted.
9. I'm really enjoying my photography.
10. The baby got her first tooth April 13th and is about to push through her second.
11. I really, really love my Lelo Lily (really!).
12. After 6 seasons I'm still addicted to Lost and will mourn when it ends next month.
13. Our heating and air unit went kaput a few weeks ago and it's starting to get really hot here.
14. I haven't been spanked yet this week because Nick and I were both so exhausted from his time away.
15. I really need that spanking.
16. I really need to go to bed.
17. My in-laws are hosting a birthday cookout for Nick and Morgan.
18. I'm on Facebook way too much.
19. For Valentine's Day Nick bought me pink socks from Snap-On and I wash them constantly so I can wear them as often as possible.
20. A friend's five year old daughter asked Nick to pin stripe her softball helmet and was thrilled with the result.
21. I've been teaching my mother-in-law how to use a computer.
22. I've gotten her addicted to Facebook.
23. My parents bought Nick a weeping cherry tree for his birthday, and his parents bought him a red bud tree.
24. After almost 12 years of marriage without a decent lawn mower, we finally got one. It's a 2 year old rider that retails for $1200 at Lowes. The owner sold it to us for $250. He couldn't get the blade to engage and apparently has more money than sense so he went out and bought a brand new one. Nick cleaned a huge clump of dried grass off the lawn mower deck and mowed our yard within 15 minutes of bringing it home.
25. I got my roots colored Thursday.
26. I really need to get Nick to paint my toenails.
27. He always does a much better job at it than I do.
28. Morgan wants a beanbag chair for her birthday.
29. I bought her a pink one for $15 at Wal-Mart yesterday.
30. When I cleaned out my drawer to move out my old night stand, I put all my worn out silver bullets in a shoe box before I put them in the trash bag.
31. I did this because my dad was coming to take everything to the dump for me in his truck.
32. I think I might need carpal tunnel surgery.
33. This might be due to Farmville.
34. I really miss having an iPod.
35. The baby has outgrown all her 6 month clothes.
36. I buy her Luvs diapers because they're cheaper than Pampers.
37. Every year when the weather turns warm all the ants in the Southern US visit our house no matter what we do.
38. They've started arriving already.
39. I can't wait till my parents open their pool.
40. I especially can't wait till Nick's grandparents open their cabin.
41. Nick's cousin is getting married on our 12th anniversary.
42. We didn't realize it when we chose our wedding date, but it's also her parents' anniversary.
43. I don't like to drink anything without a straw.
44. I'm addicted to frozen cokes.
45. The gas station where I get my frozen coke fix closed for 6 weeks while they built a new building.
46. The wait almost killed me.
47. When they opened back up they had gone from 3 flavors to 12 flavors.
48. The wait was totally worth it.
49. We own a ridiculous number of blankets and pillows.
50. Nick and I are currently without health insurance, although we have some for the girls.
51. Nick once stepped on a water moccasin in our back yard.
52. He screamed like a little girl.
53. He's not ashamed to admit it.
54. When a snake got into our kitchen last summer he killed it with a steak knife and a pair of tongs while I ran screaming out of the house like a little girl.
55. A steak knife is not the most efficient snake killing weapon, but it was better than the bread knife someone handed him first.
56. I might have more pairs of jeans than pairs of panties.
57. Morgan has a major crush on the little boy next door.
58. I think he's pretty cute for a 9 year old.
59. I think he has a crush on her too.
60. Nick is not a fan of this.
61. Aforementioned boy next door fell off our swing set last fall and broke his arm.
62. A few days later Nick caught him climbing our tree, cast and all and made him get down before he broke something else.
63. One of our neighbors called to ask if it was okay if our beagle comes and spends the night with her sometimes.
64. I said sure, I guess so.
65. Then I called Nick to tell him what a weird conversation I'd had with the neighbor.
66. The next day we found out that the people who used to live in the house on the other side of us sometimes come and pick up the dog that lives there for an overnight visit.
67. Maybe this is more common than we thought.
68. The baby's favorite toy is a teething ring shaped like a foot. She will hold it up to her own foot for comparison before chewing on it.
69. There are tons of kids in our neighborhood right now and Morgan has so much fun playing after school.
70. This makes me happy because there weren't many kids in the neighborhood I grew up in.
71. Morgan has been on a campaign to convince us that she needs a cell phone at the ripe old age of 8, now 9.
72. It isn't working.
73. I graduated with 15 other people - it was a very small school.
74. Of the 13 girls in my class, 2 of us had babies within the last 7 months and two more are currently pregnant.
75. I'd love to have one more baby.
76. If we don't ever have a boy, Nick is the last of his line.
77. If we have a boy his first name will be Nick's first name (which is not Nick), and his middle name will be my mother's maiden name.
78. He will go by his middle name.
79. We didn't name the baby after anyone.
80. Nick has to work today on his birthday.
81. I tried sushi for the first time a couple of months ago and I love it.
82. I had my first repeat customer for my photography business last Friday.
83. I really, really need to get a website designed for my business.
84. My brother's ex-girlfriend contacted me about shooting her wedding this winter.
85. I haven't mentioned it to his wife because she hates her.
86. I really miss my husband and am very ready for him to have a day off.
87. I can't wait till the drive-in movie theater opens for the season in our area.
88. I need to do some laundry.
89. I also need to do some dishes.
90. I think pairing socks is the very worst part of laundry.
91. Sometimes Nick takes Morgan to school on his motorcycle.
92. She feels super cool when he does.
93. Morgan is begging me for a Facebook account, but I haven't let her have one yet.
94. I'm pretty sleepy and I'm glad this list is almost over.
95. I recently helped start an annual golf tournament to benefit Morgan's school.
96. We raised about $3000, which wasn't bad for our first year.
97. Nick's favorite cake is Boston Cream Pie.
98. His grandmother is making him one for the cookout.
99. My breasts feel really full, but the baby is asleep.
100. I'm going to join her.
'Night all!
Friday, April 23, 2010
Oh my!
Well, I've now had a chance to try the Lelo Lily, and holy smoke! This is a truly awesome toy, definitely my favorite so far! First of all, it comes in a very nice box complete with a nice white satin storage pouch. There is the Lily itself, the user manual, the storage pouch, and of course the charger too. As soon as I opened the box I plugged the charger up and attached the Lily. The user manual is very easy to understand and comes in several languages. A couple of hours later the Lily was ready to go. Unfortunately I wasn't able to try it out right away, but you can bet I jumped right on it once I got the kids to sleep.First of all, the Lily offers 5 different stimulation modes, a continuous vibration with intensity that can be increased and decreased as well as 4 different pulsation modes. With two simple buttons the model is easily operated and one of my favorite features is the ability to lock it so that it doesn't come on during transport. When Nick and I went to Hawaii, my in-laws drove us to the airport. Fortunately it was Nick who pulled my suitcase out of the back of the car and noticed that it was buzzing. :)
As for how it actually felt - WOW! It fit so nicely against my clit, and it was easy to adjust the settings while it was in place. Plus it was very quiet, always a plus in my book. Also, this is a phthalate free toy, which is very nice. But the really important part, it felt great! I would absolutely recommend this vibrator. Granted, it can be a bit pricey, but it does come with a one year warranty and a 10 year quality guarantee. I've found that the biggest problem with bullets (for me at least) is that the cord tends to pull loose and cause the wires to short out or break. With no cord to worry about, that's not an issue here.
Anyway, a huge thank you once again to adultsextoys.com for donating this product and letting me do the review! You can find the Lily as well as other great Sex Toys here.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Sunday, April 04, 2010
Happy Easter!
I serve an amazing God, a risen Saviour, and if you would like to know more about Him, please just ask. He loves me, and He loves you too!
Saturday, April 03, 2010
Spring is in bloom!
And I'm out with my camera instead of posting on here like a good blogger. Sorry for the quiet stretches guys, just too much going on around here to post much. Rest assured though that Nick has not lost his touch, as evidenced by last Sunday's (?) spanking with the Patty Paddle - OUCH! Anyway, I've got to tear myself away from my photo editing and head to bed. Have a great weekend! 
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Checking in...
Gosh, I meant to post on Saturday, then I look up and two whole days have passed! I've had my head stuck in the computer playing with photos, learning all I can, and generally just having a blast while trying to still keep a handle on my chores. I did indeed get spanked Friday night, and rather soundly at that. Nick made a point of saying that he understood that I'd had all kinds of things to distract me, but that if I couldn't keep them under control, my distractions would have to be taken away. With that in mind I'm doing my level best to keep the house in shape so that when a photography job does come calling I can feel free to answer! Friday I did do the shoot for the seniors at Morgan's school and it went very well. The students were all very happy with how they turned out, and the teacher in charge of the yearbook (who incidentally is my old math teacher) agreed to put a small ad for my business into the advertising section of the yearbook at no charge in return for my work.
Unfortunately our weather here has gone from being in the 70's on Friday to actually snowing a bit today, so I'm hoping it warms back up fast! I'd love to get in a few shoots this week, and we could definitely use the money. Anyway, I'm off to bed. Night all!
Unfortunately our weather here has gone from being in the 70's on Friday to actually snowing a bit today, so I'm hoping it warms back up fast! I'd love to get in a few shoots this week, and we could definitely use the money. Anyway, I'm off to bed. Night all!
Friday, March 19, 2010
I did it - AGAIN!
I missed my blogaversary again. It was March 13th. And this was a big one - FIVE YEARS! The truth is, I've been so caught up with playing with my new camera that I've not been able to focus on much of anything else. (Um, that's probably going to be sternly addressed tomorrow night). I've been having so much fun with it, and I had my first paying shoot last Saturday! Okay, it wasn't for a whole lot of money because it was family, but it's already led to another booking and quite a bit of local publicity. I did pictures for my cousin's son's winter formal (which was supposed to be in January, but lucky for me got postponed due to snow). My cousin, her son, his girlfriend, and her mom were all very pleased with the pictures (more pleased than me, but I'm kind of a heavy critic of my own work), and they've been spreading the word about my services. I did have to have a short talk with my cousin to make sure she wasn't offering the family price along with it, which was uncomfortable for me because I hate talking money. That, however, is something I'm going to have to get over!
Anyway, tomorrow I'm going to shoot some yearbook photos for Morgan's school (this is a favor, not paid). Nick and I spent today with the baby wondering around the riverfront and taking shots, and this evening we went over to his sister and brother-in-law's house where the guys talked motorcycles and SIL and I talked photography. All in all a lovely day!
Anyway, I'm off to bed, but first, a few shots from today:
Anyway, tomorrow I'm going to shoot some yearbook photos for Morgan's school (this is a favor, not paid). Nick and I spent today with the baby wondering around the riverfront and taking shots, and this evening we went over to his sister and brother-in-law's house where the guys talked motorcycles and SIL and I talked photography. All in all a lovely day!
Anyway, I'm off to bed, but first, a few shots from today:
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Oh for Pete's sake!
Hey guys. If you saw the last post, something about some shopping site that accepts Paypal, my apologies! It looks like my email got hacked and the same spam email went out to a lot of folks, including my blogger publish-by-email address. I've deleted it now and changed all my security info, but if you happen to get such an email from me or anybody, please delete it! Thanks!
Thursday, March 04, 2010
Thursday Extravaganza!
I got spanked today. And, as the title indicates, it was another "Thursday Extravaganza!". Unlike the last spanking, however, this one had some serious bite. And it was...perfect. It hurt - A LOT. He used the Cane-IAC Jr with holes and he spanked hard the whole time, but it was so very much what I needed. He lectured as well, making a point about a particular area that needs improvement, then hammering it home with 10 or 15 hard swats. I can't even tell you how very effective that makes it for me, and how very loved it makes me feel to know that he really wants me to learn from it. So tonight I'm sitting on a very sore bottom, very well taken care of. ♥
Saturday, February 27, 2010
I think...
...my bottom is getting tender on me. I got spanked last Saturday. This spanking was intended to have some meaning behind it. A number of things kept me distracted last week, and my housekeeping was less than stellar. Nick was unhappy with that, and we also got into a bit of an argument Saturday night. The details aren't worth going over, but he was pretty pissed and yelled at me for a bit. By the time bedtime rolled around he was over it, but I was still pretty nervous, afraid the fight was going to factor into the spanking and knowing the housework (or lack of) was going to. So when he pulled out the Patty Paddle I was not happy (although let's be honest, very few items would have looked good in his hand at that moment).
After all that nervousness, I got...25 swats. Now if you've read my blog at all, you know that Nick very rarely gets the paddle out for less than 50, and usually 100 is just a good starting point. BUT...25 had me howling! I absolutely could not handle it! And so, wise man that he is, he saw that he'd gotten his point across and stopped there. I thought getting spanked regularly toughened you up!
Anyway, in other news, my camera came! I'm so very, very excited! I've spent some time learning all the bells and whistles, and today I put the word out among my local facebook friends that I'm trying to build a portfolio and offered sessions with complete CDs for pretty cheap. I've already had nine people interested, one girl who wants three sessions for various engagement/wedding related events! Please pray that I can make these pictures something very special for each person and that it will lead to a business for me in the near future. God is providing for us financially every week, and it would just be so awesome if He would use something that I love to help do that!
After all that nervousness, I got...25 swats. Now if you've read my blog at all, you know that Nick very rarely gets the paddle out for less than 50, and usually 100 is just a good starting point. BUT...25 had me howling! I absolutely could not handle it! And so, wise man that he is, he saw that he'd gotten his point across and stopped there. I thought getting spanked regularly toughened you up!
Anyway, in other news, my camera came! I'm so very, very excited! I've spent some time learning all the bells and whistles, and today I put the word out among my local facebook friends that I'm trying to build a portfolio and offered sessions with complete CDs for pretty cheap. I've already had nine people interested, one girl who wants three sessions for various engagement/wedding related events! Please pray that I can make these pictures something very special for each person and that it will lead to a business for me in the near future. God is providing for us financially every week, and it would just be so awesome if He would use something that I love to help do that!
Monday, February 15, 2010
What if we could...
Hello, all. Still here, still getting spanked pretty regularly, which is beautiful to me. Thursday we ended up doing what Nick dubbed a "Thursday Extravaganza" since we didn't get to get to it the week before. As intimidating as that title may be, it was very firm but not at all brutal.
For the last few days I've had an interesting fantasy floating around in my head. Not strictly a sexual fantasy so much as just a story that makes me happy. This one is out of the ordinary for me in that the story line is not actually within the realm of possibility. For me it's always been hard to get lost in a fantasy if you couldn't look too closely at it and not have it fall apart. It would be okay for me to imagine a story set in pre-Civil War America, but not one set on some far off planet. Not that there's not merit in stories of that style, but they don't really speak to me. That's why the idea that has captured my imagination and my libido the last few days is so unusual for me. First of all, some background:
Years ago, during the first year or so of our marriage, Nick and I lived in a small, older house that we rented from a group of siblings who had inherited the house when their parents passed away. It was a three bedroom home, but the back bedroom was completely crammed full of things that the siblings had yet to go through and get rid of. There was only one closet in the whole house, and it was also full of their things. Our bedroom was very small and almost completely filled by the king sized water bed Nick's parents had given us. Most of Nick's clothes filled up the chest of drawers in our room, so that left the other bedroom to store the rest of his clothes and all of mine in. Now there was a built in armoire in the spare bedroom, but it wasn't nearly big enough to hold all the rest of the clothes for both of us. With those limitations, it was reasonable to expect that the spare bed would end up being storage for clean folded laundry, and if that had been the case, it wouldn't have been a problem. Where the problem came up was when you factored in just how much I hate to do laundry and added in the fact that we had no concept at all of the idea of domestic discipline. In a ridiculously short time period the room was pretty much a sea of clean and dirty laundry (probably more dirty than clean), with no real system to separate the two. I knew that Nick wouldn't be happy with the situation, so I pretty much kept the door shut on it and only went in it when he wasn't paying attention.
Unfortunately, that didn't work forever. I can't remember what exactly led to him opening that door, but he was already mad when he did it. If I had to guess I'd say that he was pissed off because he couldn't find something in particular that should have long since gone through the wash and ended back up in his chest of drawers. The explosion that followed was legendary. Nick started pitching everything in the room out into the living room, presumably for me to sort and wash, although I'm not sure he was capable of such reasonable thought at the time. What made it even worse was that a couple of his friends unexpectedly dropped by just as his ranting reached a fever pitch. It's the only time that he's ever really yelled at me in front of anyone, and I was terribly embarrassed. His friends on the other hand were so impressed by his rage that they still tell the story at parties. In fact, they brought it up just this past summer.
In almost twelve years of marriage, he's only been that mad at me maybe one other time. We were married for 5 1/2 years before we discovered DD, and for me that one occasion has always stood out to me as the shining example of why I wish we'd been introduced to it sooner. And that's where the fantasy comes in.
I've been imagining what it would be like if older, wiser, 2010 Nick and Tracy could show up just before that infamous fight and offer some guidance to our younger selves. I'd love to be able to talk to 21 year old Tracy and hand her the key to unlock the secret of her need for spanking. I'd love to explain to her that the spankings she craved were much more abstractly sexual than literally sexual, that what would really meet her needs would be discipline, and that this was in fact even a possibility. I like to imagine Nick taking his younger self aside and giving him a heads up on just what lurked behind that door, then advising him on how to deal with it. I like to think that we would sit younger Nick and Tracy down together and assure them that it was all perfectly acceptable, that it would feel strange at first but would get easier, and most of all that it would be infinitely worth it.
A few other things I'd tell young me- it will hurt (it's supposed to); I PROMISE, if he wants to stop doing this, he will - don't constantly imagine you're a hassle for him; if you need a bit more, tell him; understand that he is not a mind reader, and many things that you feel like he should spank for might not even be on his radar; don't waste your time and his patience by doing something to purposely get spanked - if you feel like you need a spanking, let him know, even if you have to leave a note on his pillow; someday you'll be very tempted to tell your friend Alicia - don't, she'll never quite understand, and she'll always judge you both a little bit for it; someday you will get to know and love real live people just like you; you have to understand that the real secret to a happy marriage is learning to meet each other's needs out of love alone, not because it will make them do something nice for you; never, ever get out of the routine of going to church; the greatest gift you can give him is not your submission, precious though that may be - it's your respect; Wal-Mart, the Dollar Tree, and the Goodwill are excellent places to build a spanking implement arsenal.
Some advice I'd have for young Nick - it's okay to make her cry (in fact she'll feel better if she reaches that point); don't waste time spanking for things you don't care about - it will make the whole thing feel fake, but pay close attention to just what things really do bother you and spank for them every time; Consistency with a capital C; spankings are magic - they can salvage almost any bad mood if you give them lovingly; this is something your wife needs; if you spank her when she needs it outside the bedroom she will very rarely want it in the bedroom and you can quit being afraid she wants it every time you have sex; get in her head if you want a spanking to really be effective - make her think about it for a few hours first, lecture her on why it's happening, put her in the corner with her panties down before and/or after, make her bring you the paddle (btw, get a less scary paddle than the oak monstrosity you made when you were dating - she's not ready for it yet); it's okay to bruise her bottom sometimes; very rarely will it be beneficial to either of you to let her out of a spanking she's actually earned; your wife does not want you to be her father - she wants you to be her leader; sometimes she will need to be spanked just because she needs to be reminded of your authority - it's pretty easy to recognize these times because that will be when she's being a bitch; being firm, consistent, and willing to discipline is the surest way to make her feel safe; spanking is not your only option - it's probably the most effective, but it will sometimes be good to try grounding or extra chores too; this is not a fleeting notion for your wife - it's a very deep part of her, and you alone have the power to do this for her; if you say you'll spank, do it, and do your very best to get to it the same day.
And what punishment would we recommend for newly married Tracy? I think it's safe to say that a good spanking is a fairly obvious choice. (But your friends are going to show up any minute, so wait till they leave). I would go farther than that though. I would suggest that she have a set bedtime until the room is clean and all the laundry washed and folded. Let her work on it till bedtime each night, then spank her again and put her to bed until she's all finished. I can say in all honestly that I wish that's how it had gone all those years ago.
All of this has made me think about what other advice I'd go back and give myself if I could: balance your checkbook religiously; don't join that gym or sign up with that cell phone company - they'll both screw you over; eat out less and cook together more; cherish your time before you have kids - they are beyond precious, but you won't have this kind of freedom again for years; pray together and for each other; God has wonderful things in store for you, don't get discouraged; don't ever forget to be considerate of each other; $2800 is way too much to pay for a 30 year old Chevy Blazer - don't do it; oh, and someday Nick will buy a Suburban - park it in the back yard.
Wouldn't it be great if we could actually do that? In other news, I got to order my camera this weekend, and I'm super excited about it! It should be here by the end of next week (hopefully sooner), and I plan to get with some of my friends to take family/kid pictures to build my portfolio once I've had a chance to learn all the bells and whistles. Hopefully by this summer I can start actually getting some business to help contribute to our family income. My goal starting out is just to sell something every month. The package Nick let me get comes with the camera (a Nikon D90), six lenses, a full size and a mini tri-pod, extra memory, a camera bag, a backpack case, a hard shell case, a flash, a remote, several filters, training software and all kinds of other goodies, so I've got enough equipment to really be able to do a professional job.
Anyway, this has got to be the longest post I've put up for ages, so I'm off to bed. Have a great week!
For the last few days I've had an interesting fantasy floating around in my head. Not strictly a sexual fantasy so much as just a story that makes me happy. This one is out of the ordinary for me in that the story line is not actually within the realm of possibility. For me it's always been hard to get lost in a fantasy if you couldn't look too closely at it and not have it fall apart. It would be okay for me to imagine a story set in pre-Civil War America, but not one set on some far off planet. Not that there's not merit in stories of that style, but they don't really speak to me. That's why the idea that has captured my imagination and my libido the last few days is so unusual for me. First of all, some background:
Years ago, during the first year or so of our marriage, Nick and I lived in a small, older house that we rented from a group of siblings who had inherited the house when their parents passed away. It was a three bedroom home, but the back bedroom was completely crammed full of things that the siblings had yet to go through and get rid of. There was only one closet in the whole house, and it was also full of their things. Our bedroom was very small and almost completely filled by the king sized water bed Nick's parents had given us. Most of Nick's clothes filled up the chest of drawers in our room, so that left the other bedroom to store the rest of his clothes and all of mine in. Now there was a built in armoire in the spare bedroom, but it wasn't nearly big enough to hold all the rest of the clothes for both of us. With those limitations, it was reasonable to expect that the spare bed would end up being storage for clean folded laundry, and if that had been the case, it wouldn't have been a problem. Where the problem came up was when you factored in just how much I hate to do laundry and added in the fact that we had no concept at all of the idea of domestic discipline. In a ridiculously short time period the room was pretty much a sea of clean and dirty laundry (probably more dirty than clean), with no real system to separate the two. I knew that Nick wouldn't be happy with the situation, so I pretty much kept the door shut on it and only went in it when he wasn't paying attention.
Unfortunately, that didn't work forever. I can't remember what exactly led to him opening that door, but he was already mad when he did it. If I had to guess I'd say that he was pissed off because he couldn't find something in particular that should have long since gone through the wash and ended back up in his chest of drawers. The explosion that followed was legendary. Nick started pitching everything in the room out into the living room, presumably for me to sort and wash, although I'm not sure he was capable of such reasonable thought at the time. What made it even worse was that a couple of his friends unexpectedly dropped by just as his ranting reached a fever pitch. It's the only time that he's ever really yelled at me in front of anyone, and I was terribly embarrassed. His friends on the other hand were so impressed by his rage that they still tell the story at parties. In fact, they brought it up just this past summer.
In almost twelve years of marriage, he's only been that mad at me maybe one other time. We were married for 5 1/2 years before we discovered DD, and for me that one occasion has always stood out to me as the shining example of why I wish we'd been introduced to it sooner. And that's where the fantasy comes in.
I've been imagining what it would be like if older, wiser, 2010 Nick and Tracy could show up just before that infamous fight and offer some guidance to our younger selves. I'd love to be able to talk to 21 year old Tracy and hand her the key to unlock the secret of her need for spanking. I'd love to explain to her that the spankings she craved were much more abstractly sexual than literally sexual, that what would really meet her needs would be discipline, and that this was in fact even a possibility. I like to imagine Nick taking his younger self aside and giving him a heads up on just what lurked behind that door, then advising him on how to deal with it. I like to think that we would sit younger Nick and Tracy down together and assure them that it was all perfectly acceptable, that it would feel strange at first but would get easier, and most of all that it would be infinitely worth it.
A few other things I'd tell young me- it will hurt (it's supposed to); I PROMISE, if he wants to stop doing this, he will - don't constantly imagine you're a hassle for him; if you need a bit more, tell him; understand that he is not a mind reader, and many things that you feel like he should spank for might not even be on his radar; don't waste your time and his patience by doing something to purposely get spanked - if you feel like you need a spanking, let him know, even if you have to leave a note on his pillow; someday you'll be very tempted to tell your friend Alicia - don't, she'll never quite understand, and she'll always judge you both a little bit for it; someday you will get to know and love real live people just like you; you have to understand that the real secret to a happy marriage is learning to meet each other's needs out of love alone, not because it will make them do something nice for you; never, ever get out of the routine of going to church; the greatest gift you can give him is not your submission, precious though that may be - it's your respect; Wal-Mart, the Dollar Tree, and the Goodwill are excellent places to build a spanking implement arsenal.
Some advice I'd have for young Nick - it's okay to make her cry (in fact she'll feel better if she reaches that point); don't waste time spanking for things you don't care about - it will make the whole thing feel fake, but pay close attention to just what things really do bother you and spank for them every time; Consistency with a capital C; spankings are magic - they can salvage almost any bad mood if you give them lovingly; this is something your wife needs; if you spank her when she needs it outside the bedroom she will very rarely want it in the bedroom and you can quit being afraid she wants it every time you have sex; get in her head if you want a spanking to really be effective - make her think about it for a few hours first, lecture her on why it's happening, put her in the corner with her panties down before and/or after, make her bring you the paddle (btw, get a less scary paddle than the oak monstrosity you made when you were dating - she's not ready for it yet); it's okay to bruise her bottom sometimes; very rarely will it be beneficial to either of you to let her out of a spanking she's actually earned; your wife does not want you to be her father - she wants you to be her leader; sometimes she will need to be spanked just because she needs to be reminded of your authority - it's pretty easy to recognize these times because that will be when she's being a bitch; being firm, consistent, and willing to discipline is the surest way to make her feel safe; spanking is not your only option - it's probably the most effective, but it will sometimes be good to try grounding or extra chores too; this is not a fleeting notion for your wife - it's a very deep part of her, and you alone have the power to do this for her; if you say you'll spank, do it, and do your very best to get to it the same day.
And what punishment would we recommend for newly married Tracy? I think it's safe to say that a good spanking is a fairly obvious choice. (But your friends are going to show up any minute, so wait till they leave). I would go farther than that though. I would suggest that she have a set bedtime until the room is clean and all the laundry washed and folded. Let her work on it till bedtime each night, then spank her again and put her to bed until she's all finished. I can say in all honestly that I wish that's how it had gone all those years ago.
All of this has made me think about what other advice I'd go back and give myself if I could: balance your checkbook religiously; don't join that gym or sign up with that cell phone company - they'll both screw you over; eat out less and cook together more; cherish your time before you have kids - they are beyond precious, but you won't have this kind of freedom again for years; pray together and for each other; God has wonderful things in store for you, don't get discouraged; don't ever forget to be considerate of each other; $2800 is way too much to pay for a 30 year old Chevy Blazer - don't do it; oh, and someday Nick will buy a Suburban - park it in the back yard.
Wouldn't it be great if we could actually do that? In other news, I got to order my camera this weekend, and I'm super excited about it! It should be here by the end of next week (hopefully sooner), and I plan to get with some of my friends to take family/kid pictures to build my portfolio once I've had a chance to learn all the bells and whistles. Hopefully by this summer I can start actually getting some business to help contribute to our family income. My goal starting out is just to sell something every month. The package Nick let me get comes with the camera (a Nikon D90), six lenses, a full size and a mini tri-pod, extra memory, a camera bag, a backpack case, a hard shell case, a flash, a remote, several filters, training software and all kinds of other goodies, so I've got enough equipment to really be able to do a professional job.
Anyway, this has got to be the longest post I've put up for ages, so I'm off to bed. Have a great week!
Saturday, February 06, 2010
Trucking along...
Not a whole heck of a lot going on around here. The baby has started eating solid foods. She's a big fan of bananas, not so much sweet potatoes. :) We got to my weekly spanking last Sunday, which seems to be the most convenient day for it. It was very nice, and followed by other stuff that was even nicer!
I'm settling into the routine of cooking every night, and I'm actually quite enjoying it. The house looks nice the vast majority of the time, and it's just nice to be able to be home with the baby. Anyway, sorry for the boring post - just popping in. Have a great week!
I'm settling into the routine of cooking every night, and I'm actually quite enjoying it. The house looks nice the vast majority of the time, and it's just nice to be able to be home with the baby. Anyway, sorry for the boring post - just popping in. Have a great week!
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Loved
Mmmm...I sure do love my husband! I got my weekly spanking yesterday (okay, so it was from last week, but we get to it when we can!). He used a new-ish bath brush, and boy did it sting! We've actually had the brush for a long time, but it went into my trunk after I bought it, and stayed there for a very long time. Eventually we cleaned out my car and it ended up in the garage, and it stayed there until just very recently when we cleaned it out too, so this was the first time he ever used it. I think he likes it! I got about 75 licks, and they were nothing to sneeze at; but it wasn't a punishment, so it wasn't full force by any means. It was enough to leave me feeling toasty and well loved, and I'm just so very glad that this is a regular part of our lives again!
Life is going well. Money is very tight, but God is providing. Actually, we're getting our income tax refund back soon, and Nick has promised to buy me a digital SLR camera. This is something I've wanted for a very long time. My sister-in-law is kind of a photobug too, and we've talked for several years about someday starting photography business together. She's done a few weddings and engagements, but she doesn't enjoy the photo editing part of the job, which I love. Hopefully as summer comes we'll be able to book a few weddings together and maybe start to establish a client list. I'd love to be able to do something to bring in some income with weekend work, and photography is something I really, really enjoy!
Anyway, I'm off to bed - hope you guys have a great weekend!
Life is going well. Money is very tight, but God is providing. Actually, we're getting our income tax refund back soon, and Nick has promised to buy me a digital SLR camera. This is something I've wanted for a very long time. My sister-in-law is kind of a photobug too, and we've talked for several years about someday starting photography business together. She's done a few weddings and engagements, but she doesn't enjoy the photo editing part of the job, which I love. Hopefully as summer comes we'll be able to book a few weddings together and maybe start to establish a client list. I'd love to be able to do something to bring in some income with weekend work, and photography is something I really, really enjoy!
Anyway, I'm off to bed - hope you guys have a great weekend!
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
A Perfect Angel
I've been good. Very good. Practically an angel, really. Fortunately my dear husband hasn't let that stop him from spanking me! We didn't get to get to it till Saturday. We spent a nice long time talking about my goals for the house, and Nick was very sweet in telling me how proud of me he was for the job I've done in keeping the house clean. He also told me that he did not feel that I deserved a spanking, but that he understood that I needed it to keep my head on straight. He only gave me 25 swats with the AngelBrat Paddle, but he made them count, and it was just what I needed. I think I'll go see if there's anything I can do for him...
Friday, January 15, 2010
More Blessings!
So my last post was about an answered prayer. And that was pretty neat. But it was peanuts compared to what God has done for us now! Nick's check was pretty small this week compared to what it usually is. For one thing, there was a holiday on there. Now that's good for most people, but for Nick it means that instead of them making the 10-15 commission hours they would usually have for that day, his teams gets $40 each. That takes a pretty good chunk out of the check. On top of that, we had several days of snow last week, and very few people were bringing their cars in for service which cut down on their commission even more. What it came down to was that we were around $700 short of what we needed for the bills, groceries, and necessities.
Okay, $700 is not a huge big deal for a lot of people, but in my house, that's a big chunk of money, and there was just nowhere for us to get it. So I spent a few minutes praying about it, telling God how much we needed His help, and then I did my best to let it go and not worry. A little while later I logged onto our bank account to see what had cleared and where we were with our balance, and I about fell out of my chair. Instead of the roughly $30 I expected to see in there, our balance was over $700! I looked at the activity, and saw that my former company had deposited $692. Okay, this couldn't be right - I had just quit, and since I had been on maternity leave for months beforehand, it's not like I had a last paycheck coming, right? And surely as soon as we spent it they would realize their mistake and take it right back out.
Fast forward a few hours - I called employee services to see what was going on. It turns out that when you quit, you get to get paid for any unused sick time. Mine reset for the year on my hire date anniversary, less than three weeks before I quit, so I got paid for the full yearly allowance!
I never in a million years would have thought about that being the policy. And it's really a sweet irony after all the stress I went through over the past year trying to juggle my sick time with my doctor's visits throughout my pregnancy. In fact, the last couple of visits I had before I went out on bed rest were unpaid for me because I had run out of all sick time and merit time.
Anyway, I just had to tell you guys what an amazing God I have!
Actually, there have been a couple of other neat blessings this week too. Last school year Morgan won a Wii during a school fundraiser. All three of us are big fans of all the Mario Brothers games, and we were pretty excited to hear about the new Super Mario Bros. Wii. However, with a $50 price tag, we weren't counting on getting it any time soon. Of course a video game is by no means a necessity, so it wasn't like we were suffering without it, but we really wanted to play it.
Well, going back to my job again - for certain anniversaries (5 years, 10 years, 15 years, etc.) the company would award you reward points that you could then redeem for prizes. Just before I quit, I got my 10 year anniversary points, and they were just enough to get a $50 Best Buy gift card. It came in the mail a few days ago, and Nick went yesterday and used it to get our game! All we had to pay was the tax, and we've had SO much fun with it!
Another cool thing: Morgan got a $20 gift card for Christmas to Justice from Nick's sister. Then Nick's other sister gave me a coupon for $15 off a $40 purchase at Justice, so if we put $5 with the coupon and the gift card, then she could get $40 worth of stuff. Morgan has been begging me to take her to spend it since Christmas, but I hadn't really had a good opportunity until today. Today I took her by the mall after I picked her up from school, and it turned out that the Justice there was going to be closing soon and everything in the store was 40-50% off the lowest marked price! I let her take her time, and she tried on half the store. In the end I paid about $17 out of pocket, but she got $115 worth of clothes and accessories. And on my way out of the mall Bath and Body Works had two types of foaming body wash for 90% off! One of them was even one if Nick's favorite scents, and I got 5 bottles for $1.20 each! All in all we got $175 worth of stuff for less than $25!
Okay, enough about my awesome shopping trip. :) We haven't forgotten about our weekly spanking. Last night Nick and I tried out the Wii game after we got Morgan to bed (we didn't tell her about it until today, because we knew we'd never get her in bed last night if she knew!). By the time we were done it was very late and Nick had to work today. Tonight we just could not get the baby to sleep, and Nick has to work again in the morning, so we're going to do our very best to get to it tomorrow night.
Anyway, I'm off to bed!
Okay, $700 is not a huge big deal for a lot of people, but in my house, that's a big chunk of money, and there was just nowhere for us to get it. So I spent a few minutes praying about it, telling God how much we needed His help, and then I did my best to let it go and not worry. A little while later I logged onto our bank account to see what had cleared and where we were with our balance, and I about fell out of my chair. Instead of the roughly $30 I expected to see in there, our balance was over $700! I looked at the activity, and saw that my former company had deposited $692. Okay, this couldn't be right - I had just quit, and since I had been on maternity leave for months beforehand, it's not like I had a last paycheck coming, right? And surely as soon as we spent it they would realize their mistake and take it right back out.
Fast forward a few hours - I called employee services to see what was going on. It turns out that when you quit, you get to get paid for any unused sick time. Mine reset for the year on my hire date anniversary, less than three weeks before I quit, so I got paid for the full yearly allowance!
I never in a million years would have thought about that being the policy. And it's really a sweet irony after all the stress I went through over the past year trying to juggle my sick time with my doctor's visits throughout my pregnancy. In fact, the last couple of visits I had before I went out on bed rest were unpaid for me because I had run out of all sick time and merit time.
Anyway, I just had to tell you guys what an amazing God I have!
Actually, there have been a couple of other neat blessings this week too. Last school year Morgan won a Wii during a school fundraiser. All three of us are big fans of all the Mario Brothers games, and we were pretty excited to hear about the new Super Mario Bros. Wii. However, with a $50 price tag, we weren't counting on getting it any time soon. Of course a video game is by no means a necessity, so it wasn't like we were suffering without it, but we really wanted to play it.
Well, going back to my job again - for certain anniversaries (5 years, 10 years, 15 years, etc.) the company would award you reward points that you could then redeem for prizes. Just before I quit, I got my 10 year anniversary points, and they were just enough to get a $50 Best Buy gift card. It came in the mail a few days ago, and Nick went yesterday and used it to get our game! All we had to pay was the tax, and we've had SO much fun with it!
Another cool thing: Morgan got a $20 gift card for Christmas to Justice from Nick's sister. Then Nick's other sister gave me a coupon for $15 off a $40 purchase at Justice, so if we put $5 with the coupon and the gift card, then she could get $40 worth of stuff. Morgan has been begging me to take her to spend it since Christmas, but I hadn't really had a good opportunity until today. Today I took her by the mall after I picked her up from school, and it turned out that the Justice there was going to be closing soon and everything in the store was 40-50% off the lowest marked price! I let her take her time, and she tried on half the store. In the end I paid about $17 out of pocket, but she got $115 worth of clothes and accessories. And on my way out of the mall Bath and Body Works had two types of foaming body wash for 90% off! One of them was even one if Nick's favorite scents, and I got 5 bottles for $1.20 each! All in all we got $175 worth of stuff for less than $25!
Okay, enough about my awesome shopping trip. :) We haven't forgotten about our weekly spanking. Last night Nick and I tried out the Wii game after we got Morgan to bed (we didn't tell her about it until today, because we knew we'd never get her in bed last night if she knew!). By the time we were done it was very late and Nick had to work today. Tonight we just could not get the baby to sleep, and Nick has to work again in the morning, so we're going to do our very best to get to it tomorrow night.
Anyway, I'm off to bed!
Thursday, January 14, 2010
New Routines and Answered Prayers
Whew, this has been a busy week! We finally got to have our weekly spanking session on Sunday night. Nick spent some time before the spanking going over the things he expects of me now that I've quit my job. I had asked him to give it some thought, so he came up with a list of chores.
It's all pretty basic housework stuff, but it feels good to have some guidelines. So all week I've done my best to keep things orderly, and so far it's going well. It's definitely a full day though between nursing and laundry.
The spanking was pretty lenient compared to most that I get, a bit under 100 swats with the Polynesian paddle, but an effective way to put a point on his lecture.
What has been really neat has been watching the way God is already providing for us. Every time we've needed money it's come from somewhere unexpected. Just today for example: we needed about $20 to cover some things in the bank account. I had literally no money to put in there, and no prospects for getting any. Okay, back up a couple of weeks - we hadn't used our printer for some time just because I was usually at work when I needed to print anything. Well, a couple of weeks ago I pulled it out and dusted it off and found that it needed new ink. So we bit the bullet and spent the $40 on new ink cartridges...only to find out that there's a fatal (non-fixable) error in the printer's brain somewhere. HP told me it would just have to be replaced, and since our model was discontinued three years ago, we would have to upgrade. Okay, so now we had no printer and $40 worth of useless, nonreturnable ink.
Then my mom called today. Turns out that her printer (while a different model) uses the same cartridges, and she wanted to buy them from me. Since they hadn't been used at all she insisted on giving me the full $40 for them, and she brought it by today. Before she called I had spent a minute praying about it (Okay, God, we need about $20. I don't have it, Nick doesn't have it, so it will have to come from You.) Then I sent Nick a text telling him we needed $20 in the bank if any came his way, so it was pretty neat to get to text him again a little while later telling him God had provided twice what we needed! Now I just need a new printer. :)
Anyway, Nick has fallen asleep on the couch, so I'm off to try to get him into bed. 'Night all!
It's all pretty basic housework stuff, but it feels good to have some guidelines. So all week I've done my best to keep things orderly, and so far it's going well. It's definitely a full day though between nursing and laundry.
The spanking was pretty lenient compared to most that I get, a bit under 100 swats with the Polynesian paddle, but an effective way to put a point on his lecture.
What has been really neat has been watching the way God is already providing for us. Every time we've needed money it's come from somewhere unexpected. Just today for example: we needed about $20 to cover some things in the bank account. I had literally no money to put in there, and no prospects for getting any. Okay, back up a couple of weeks - we hadn't used our printer for some time just because I was usually at work when I needed to print anything. Well, a couple of weeks ago I pulled it out and dusted it off and found that it needed new ink. So we bit the bullet and spent the $40 on new ink cartridges...only to find out that there's a fatal (non-fixable) error in the printer's brain somewhere. HP told me it would just have to be replaced, and since our model was discontinued three years ago, we would have to upgrade. Okay, so now we had no printer and $40 worth of useless, nonreturnable ink.
Then my mom called today. Turns out that her printer (while a different model) uses the same cartridges, and she wanted to buy them from me. Since they hadn't been used at all she insisted on giving me the full $40 for them, and she brought it by today. Before she called I had spent a minute praying about it (Okay, God, we need about $20. I don't have it, Nick doesn't have it, so it will have to come from You.) Then I sent Nick a text telling him we needed $20 in the bank if any came his way, so it was pretty neat to get to text him again a little while later telling him God had provided twice what we needed! Now I just need a new printer. :)
Anyway, Nick has fallen asleep on the couch, so I'm off to try to get him into bed. 'Night all!
Thursday, January 07, 2010
A New Era
Today was a very big day for me. While Morgan was in school, Nick drove me and the baby down to my place of employment where I packed up my desk, said my goodbyes, and turned in my badge. Yep - I quit my job today! For the first time since half my lifetime ago I am unemployed. Or at least not part of the paid workforce. It was a huge step for me on an emotional level. After all, my ten year anniversary at the company was just before Christmas. That's far longer than I worked at any other place, and while there have certainly been stressful aspects of it, it was overall a pretty good place to work. There are a lot of people there I consider my friends, and I know that despite our best intentions, there will be a number of them I will never see or talk to again. It was harder than I thought it would be to clean out my desk. I had actually taken a couple of boxes home with me before I went out on my maternity leave, but there was still a ton of stuff, and a surprising amount of it has fond memories attached.
Will I miss the repetitive nature of the work or putting up with rude and petulant customers? Definitely not! And I certainly won't miss the ridiculous micro-management. Everything was closely regulated, from the number of calls you took to the amount of time spent on each call to the amount of time you spent doing paperwork to the amount of time you spent in the bathroom. It was really enough to drive you crazy! But...the facilities were nice, and the pay was decent, and the building was safe, and the coffee was free, and the coworkers were (for the most part) great. I was sitting on my butt in an ergonomically friendly chair in a comfortable room, and if management sometimes left me feeling harassed, at least I wasn't feeling harassed while doing something with hot tar for minimum wage.
But all of that aside, this was a scary step for me just because this is a huge leap of faith for both of us. However, we have talked and prayed and talked and prayed, and this is absolutely what we feel that God was telling us to do, so we did it. Now it's up to Him to provide, and that is something He has shown us He would do multiple times over the last couple of months when I was without a paycheck. Being a stay at home mom has long been the desire of my heart, and I am bursting with gratitude that He has granted it.
On another subject - normally I would have been spanked tonight, but it's been postponed until tomorrow. I got very little sleep last night, and my poor husband spent most of this evening outside in the snow pouring hot water over the solid block of ice filling and encasing our heating unit. We were both pretty worn out, so we'll get to it tomorrow night.
Anyway, I'm off to bed. 'Night all!
Will I miss the repetitive nature of the work or putting up with rude and petulant customers? Definitely not! And I certainly won't miss the ridiculous micro-management. Everything was closely regulated, from the number of calls you took to the amount of time spent on each call to the amount of time you spent doing paperwork to the amount of time you spent in the bathroom. It was really enough to drive you crazy! But...the facilities were nice, and the pay was decent, and the building was safe, and the coffee was free, and the coworkers were (for the most part) great. I was sitting on my butt in an ergonomically friendly chair in a comfortable room, and if management sometimes left me feeling harassed, at least I wasn't feeling harassed while doing something with hot tar for minimum wage.
But all of that aside, this was a scary step for me just because this is a huge leap of faith for both of us. However, we have talked and prayed and talked and prayed, and this is absolutely what we feel that God was telling us to do, so we did it. Now it's up to Him to provide, and that is something He has shown us He would do multiple times over the last couple of months when I was without a paycheck. Being a stay at home mom has long been the desire of my heart, and I am bursting with gratitude that He has granted it.
On another subject - normally I would have been spanked tonight, but it's been postponed until tomorrow. I got very little sleep last night, and my poor husband spent most of this evening outside in the snow pouring hot water over the solid block of ice filling and encasing our heating unit. We were both pretty worn out, so we'll get to it tomorrow night.
Anyway, I'm off to bed. 'Night all!
Saturday, January 02, 2010
Starting the New Year off (sort of) right
Well, we started the New Year off right. Sort of. We got the spanking part right. Somewhere just over 100 hard swats with the AngelBrat Paddle shortly after the ball dropped left me feeling toasty and submissive heading into 2010. Unfortunately a very small person interrupted our after spanking play by waking up and loudly demanding my attention. And our niece Kit spent the night with Morgan last night, so we didn't have much privacy then either. I'm really hoping we can spend some alone time tonight!
This morning I'm up bright and early doing some laundry before Morgan and her cousin wake up and craziness ensues. I hope everyone has a blessed 2010!
This morning I'm up bright and early doing some laundry before Morgan and her cousin wake up and craziness ensues. I hope everyone has a blessed 2010!
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
A lovely Christmas
Did everyone have a good Christmas? Ours was great. Nick's sister Kate was in from Texas, and it was wonderful to see her and her husband Will and the kids. Her daughter Kit is 16 months older than Morgan, and they took Morgan out for fun stuff almost every day. Nick and I bought each other new jackets, and Morgan and the baby got way more than they needed. Actually, the baby didn't get a whole lot, but she is less than 3 months old - there's not too awful much she can appreciate yet. The best Christmas gift was from Kate and Will. Before they came in, they sent us some money to help with bills. This was such an answer to prayer, and such beautiful evidence to me that God is going to provide for us in our new venture as a single income family.
Due to the holidays, we didn't get to do our Thursday spanking last week, but we hope to get to do it tomorrow. Tomorrow is actually our 6th anniversary with DD. This has been a difficult year for us with DD, but I feel like we're back on track.
I'll be going in to work next week to tell them that I'm quitting, so I would appreciate your prayers that that goes well. Anyway, the baby needs to nurse, so I've gotta run...Happy New Year!
Due to the holidays, we didn't get to do our Thursday spanking last week, but we hope to get to do it tomorrow. Tomorrow is actually our 6th anniversary with DD. This has been a difficult year for us with DD, but I feel like we're back on track.
I'll be going in to work next week to tell them that I'm quitting, so I would appreciate your prayers that that goes well. Anyway, the baby needs to nurse, so I've gotta run...Happy New Year!
Thursday, December 24, 2009
A broken tea cup, a humble manger, and the best deal I've ever gotten
A broken tea cup, a humble manger, and the best deal I've ever gotten
I wanted to share this - a wonderful post indeed from Money Saving Mom. Merry Christmas, all.
I wanted to share this - a wonderful post indeed from Money Saving Mom. Merry Christmas, all.
Friday, December 18, 2009
It's beginning to look alot like Christmas...
I thought I'd post again before we get into the Christmas madness. Kate and her kids get in from Texas tomorrow, and we have Christmas celebrations to attend tomorrow night, Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, so we'll be pretty busy.
I got my regular Sunday/Thursday spanking tonight. I've been a very good girl all week, so Nick let me choose my implement, and I picked his belt. It's been a very long time since he's used a belt on me, and I had forgotten just how much it could hurt, but it was a good kind of hurt, one that made me feel safe and taken care of. We managed to get in a few minutes of reconnection time afterwards before the baby woke up, and it was very nice indeed.
All my Christmas shopping is done with the exception of one, possibly two gifts, but they won't be given till Christmas morning, so I've got a few days yet. I took the baby in for her two month check up today, and she's weighing in at 11 pounds and 12 ounces, and is 23 inches long. She's growing so fast! Nick's sister's little boy Maddox is 6 1/2 months old now, and I can't wait to see him again. When we last saw him he was 3 1/2 weeks old, so I know he's grown a mile. Anyway, I'm off to bed - I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!
I got my regular Sunday/Thursday spanking tonight. I've been a very good girl all week, so Nick let me choose my implement, and I picked his belt. It's been a very long time since he's used a belt on me, and I had forgotten just how much it could hurt, but it was a good kind of hurt, one that made me feel safe and taken care of. We managed to get in a few minutes of reconnection time afterwards before the baby woke up, and it was very nice indeed.
All my Christmas shopping is done with the exception of one, possibly two gifts, but they won't be given till Christmas morning, so I've got a few days yet. I took the baby in for her two month check up today, and she's weighing in at 11 pounds and 12 ounces, and is 23 inches long. She's growing so fast! Nick's sister's little boy Maddox is 6 1/2 months old now, and I can't wait to see him again. When we last saw him he was 3 1/2 weeks old, so I know he's grown a mile. Anyway, I'm off to bed - I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!
Friday, December 11, 2009
So very blessed.
I got spanked tonight. It was supposed to happen Sunday, but it seems that our Sunday schedule has morphed into a Thursday schedule. That's okay though - I'm getting spanked on a regular basis again, so no complaints from me! Actually I'm probably lucky that it didn't happen until tonight. Sunday night it got pretty late, he was ready for bed, and I didn't remind him. Unfortunately when he came home on Monday afternoon remembering that he was supposed to have spanked me the night before, it was rather unapparent what I'd been doing all day other than scanning old high school photos into the computer to give all my facebook friends a good laugh. The table was piled high with the scanner/printer, my laptop, and about 8 leaning stacks of variously sized pictures.
Now in my defense, I did do more than it looked like. I took all the pictures out of the box in the garage that he'd been after me to clean out, and I dug the scanner out of the back of my closet and hunted down the power cord and USB cable for it, then spent quite a while downloading the drivers for it so it would work with Windows 7. I had also started dinner, although admittedly that meant that I had put the ground beef in the microwave to thaw. And of course I was periodically nursing and changing the baby throughout all of this. Okay, maybe I hadn't done the dishes or any laundry, but what was more important, the housework or the amusement of 150 of my closest friends? Er, right - the housework.
Now I was REALLY fortunate that the baby stayed up past his bedtime that night, because he was pretty pissed. The look on his face when he mentioned to me that I had let him go to bed the night before without reminding him was less than friendly. Tuesday night we held off because he had an early meeting Wednesday morning and had to get up extra early. I really thought it would happen last night because Morgan spent the night with my parents, but since he was off today and it would just be us and the baby until Morgan got home from school, he decided to wait till today. So all day long I'm thinking it's going to happen at any time. Meanwhile I'm quite enthusiastically going about helping him in gathering the trash for a trip to the dump and cleaning out the garage. But of course time ran short, and before we knew it we had to leave because he had an appointment to get his hair cut. My mom dropped Morgan off just after we got back home. She went upstairs to watch cartoons for a few minutes and rather unexpectedly fell asleep. The baby was asleep too, so I thought, okay any minute now he's going to call for me. But before that happened Morgan woke back up and came down to do her homework and the opportunity was gone.
Eventually I got her to bed and asleep, but by then he was watching a movie. By this time I figured it would probably be tomorrow night at the earliest. I mean, he has to work tomorrow, and the movie didn't go off till almost 1 AM. Nope, Mr. Spontaneous decided the time was right. So he took me upstairs and got out the CANE-IAC Jr with holes. Now for quite a while this was all he used, and I always HATED it, but I have to tell you, after my last two spankings with the Spencer paddle, I was kind of relieved to see him pull it out. Not that it didn't set me on fire. We started out with me just bending over the side of the bed, but it seems that having my feet under me makes it a little too possible and tempting to escape, so after I got out of position a couple of times he stopped and made me lie on the bed on my stomach.
When he's using anything wooden with holes on me, I lose all ability to count, which usually helps me work through the pain a little. He spanked me hard enough that counting just wasn't an option, so I really don't know how many I got. I do know that I cried, and that the last five alone were hard enough to leave me sore.
When it was over and we'd cuddled a bit I set about putting him to sleep, much to his appreciation. Having accomplished that, I said, "Thank you for taking care of me."
"Thank you for taking care of me," he said.
"Mmmm. Why is it that when you take care of me, you beat my butt, but when I take care of you, you get a blow job?"
"I don't know. That's just kind of the deal we have worked out," he said, grinning at me. "I think I've probably got the better end of it."
"It sure feels like it!" I answered. Honestly though, it means so much to me that he's doing this for me, and doing it on a regular basis too. He's so very good to me, and I'm incredibly blessed to be his.
Now in my defense, I did do more than it looked like. I took all the pictures out of the box in the garage that he'd been after me to clean out, and I dug the scanner out of the back of my closet and hunted down the power cord and USB cable for it, then spent quite a while downloading the drivers for it so it would work with Windows 7. I had also started dinner, although admittedly that meant that I had put the ground beef in the microwave to thaw. And of course I was periodically nursing and changing the baby throughout all of this. Okay, maybe I hadn't done the dishes or any laundry, but what was more important, the housework or the amusement of 150 of my closest friends? Er, right - the housework.
Now I was REALLY fortunate that the baby stayed up past his bedtime that night, because he was pretty pissed. The look on his face when he mentioned to me that I had let him go to bed the night before without reminding him was less than friendly. Tuesday night we held off because he had an early meeting Wednesday morning and had to get up extra early. I really thought it would happen last night because Morgan spent the night with my parents, but since he was off today and it would just be us and the baby until Morgan got home from school, he decided to wait till today. So all day long I'm thinking it's going to happen at any time. Meanwhile I'm quite enthusiastically going about helping him in gathering the trash for a trip to the dump and cleaning out the garage. But of course time ran short, and before we knew it we had to leave because he had an appointment to get his hair cut. My mom dropped Morgan off just after we got back home. She went upstairs to watch cartoons for a few minutes and rather unexpectedly fell asleep. The baby was asleep too, so I thought, okay any minute now he's going to call for me. But before that happened Morgan woke back up and came down to do her homework and the opportunity was gone.
Eventually I got her to bed and asleep, but by then he was watching a movie. By this time I figured it would probably be tomorrow night at the earliest. I mean, he has to work tomorrow, and the movie didn't go off till almost 1 AM. Nope, Mr. Spontaneous decided the time was right. So he took me upstairs and got out the CANE-IAC Jr with holes. Now for quite a while this was all he used, and I always HATED it, but I have to tell you, after my last two spankings with the Spencer paddle, I was kind of relieved to see him pull it out. Not that it didn't set me on fire. We started out with me just bending over the side of the bed, but it seems that having my feet under me makes it a little too possible and tempting to escape, so after I got out of position a couple of times he stopped and made me lie on the bed on my stomach.
When he's using anything wooden with holes on me, I lose all ability to count, which usually helps me work through the pain a little. He spanked me hard enough that counting just wasn't an option, so I really don't know how many I got. I do know that I cried, and that the last five alone were hard enough to leave me sore.
When it was over and we'd cuddled a bit I set about putting him to sleep, much to his appreciation. Having accomplished that, I said, "Thank you for taking care of me."
"Thank you for taking care of me," he said.
"Mmmm. Why is it that when you take care of me, you beat my butt, but when I take care of you, you get a blow job?"
"I don't know. That's just kind of the deal we have worked out," he said, grinning at me. "I think I've probably got the better end of it."
"It sure feels like it!" I answered. Honestly though, it means so much to me that he's doing this for me, and doing it on a regular basis too. He's so very good to me, and I'm incredibly blessed to be his.
Saturday, December 05, 2009
Name This Paddle Contest
I'm terribly late in posting this, but I wanted to let you all know that John from Leather Thorn Paddles is having another Name This Paddle Contest. John does incredibly high quality work, and I recommend him to anyone, whatever your spanking needs. I have two of his paddles myself, and you can bet I submitted an entry for the contest! You need to hurry though, because entries need to be submitted by December 7th!
Take a look around his site - there's still time to place an order for Christmas if you see something you like other than the featured contest paddle, or if you want to go ahead and order one of those to be sure you get it, I know you'll be pleased with the product. John is easy to work with and works hard to provide you just what you want, so if you'd like to have him customize something you see on the site, shoot him an email - I'm sure he can help you.
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