More big changes for Bales Family

This is a very exciting day for us. Well, it will be eventually. Today I enrolled the boys in preschool. I had no idea that today would lead to this. I have been looking at schools as people mention them to me. But generally to send all three boys to preschool two days a week for a couple hours was well over $300, if not $400 a month. Ouch! Jeff and I had originally decided to leave the boys at home one more year. I even purchased some home school materials in hopes of teaching them a few things myself. But after a very challenging summer I have came to realization that my children don't listen to me. Haha! Most parents already know that. I told Jeff that I am struggling to get them to mind me. Teaching the boys would be very interesting. Okay, so I have been randomly calling different schools. In February the boys and I even toured several. One of them was Crabapple. At the time I thought it was too expensive. I called them today just to see if they had any openings left for fall. They only had three openings left all being in the same classroom. I don't believe in coincidences. It is probably one of the most affordable options I have came across. So, I am totally pumped to say the boys are going to school. Now, when that day comes I will probably be driving around crying like one of brother in laws did on his daughter's first day (and I am not talking about Steven). However, right now I am super excited.
The other exciting thing going on in our family is our new family car. Below is our old car, which is actually newer than our newer old car. This is our 2005 Chrysler Town and Country touring van. It has 70k miles. In case any of my seven followers are interested.

Okay, and drum roll.....This is our new older van!

Can you tell any differences?? This is our 1995 Chrysler Town and Country van purchased for a whopping $2700 with cash.

I am so proud and excited. Let's pray it last us awhile. That would be so cool.

Over the weekend we celebrated my mother in laws 60th birthday. I offered to do the center pieces. My mom actually put them together for us. She has such a gift. Seriously, in my opinion my mom is totally in the wrong line of work. She may feel differently but I am just saying. Check out these beautiful centerpieces she made for us. The pics really don't do them justice. They were gorgeous!

Thanks, Mom for all your help!

Freedom!!!!

Jeff and I were baptised on Sunday! Immediately afterwards when Jeff and I were still standing backstage dripping wet I was almost giddy. I told Jeff that I was so happy that I just wanted to crack up laughing. It was wonderful. And I am so happy that Jeff's older brother Steven was able to do the actual baptism for us. Isn't that so special? Of course, God always has plans for us. But it is so cool to see them unfold. All these years I wanted to be baptised but just never made the commitment. I really know that God put this on my heart now because we were supposed to go through this as a family; Jeff, Steven and myself. So, I am so excited and I feel like a new person. I feel more confident knowing I have the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit walking around with me everyday! It is such a blessing and a relief.
Big news in the Bales house (not as big as being Baptised). How amazing is God? Jeff and I are living free in Christ and soon we will be living financially free too. Our only debt is our mini van. We owe a little over $10,000. Our monthly payment is an even $200. Recently we started making $500 month payments. I really thought that way we have it paid off in a year and a half. However, I called the bank and asked them to do the math. Their calculations were 22 months! I was so upset. So, I have been telling Jeff (yes, I was the one pushing this issue) we need to sell the van and get something with cash. Then we will be debt free. I hate making those monthly payments. Seriously, this has been weighing on me for a couple of weeks. We have been looking in the Indy auto and rv but haven't seen anything in our new extremely low price range. On Monday I was driving to April's house to babysit and right around the corner from her house was a van almost identical to the one I am driving with a big price tag of $2900!! Okay, Jeff looked at it and purchased it Monday evening. I am thrilled. I am extremely thrilled. I will take pics later and upload all my new van photos and photos from the weekend later today. The new van and the old van look seriously identical. Our 'new' van is a 1999 and it has 106,000 miles. And it does have some rust, but it is paid for!!! We were able to pay cash for it! Tomorrow our good friend Steve will be detailing our old van for us and hopefully we will sell it soon. But I told Jeff, even if it takes six months to sell we are still way ahead and eventually debt free but the house. Oh, and we will be focusing next on paying off our house. It may be crazy but it will be done! I have to mention a big thanks to my Dad for opening my eyes to Dave Ramsey. When Jeff and I were at our hardest moments financially I asked Dad for advice. That is when he bought me a copy of Dave Ramsey's book. He brought it over that night and it has changed our lives. I know money isn't everything. And I know we will probably not be millionaires. But to live free without debt is amazing. We are the most average people in America but we are living like no one else in financial freedom! Thanks Dad!

Pretty new blog

Check out the new look of my blog. Thanks to my friend Tiffany who updated my blog for me. I just love it. Today should be an interesting day. Today my husband and his brother and father are hosting a surprise (not so much a surprise anymore) 60th birthday party for my mother in law. I think it will be a lot of fun. Mom came over last night and helped me (actually I mostly watched) put together beautiful centerpieces. Mom has such a gift for throwing parties and adding the perfect little details. I will add pics of the party and the beautiful centerpieces later.
My hubbie has been working crazy hours this week. And despite the fact that I want him here with me 24/7 he still works TONS of overtime. Jeff works in an unair conditioned steam plant. Doesn't that sound hot? He is a welder and wears the most horrible uniform. Long sleeves and long pants! Anyhow, he is hot! So, last week our rider lawn mower went out for like the 20th time in a year. Our grass is really tall right now because Jeff has been working so much. This weekend he was going to have to push mow the yard. Does that sound terrible? I think so. I know his body is exhausted. We have plans all weekend. Time was an issue too. I am getting to a point. The point is I surprised my hubbie yesterday and had the grass cut! I mean I paid someone else to mow our lawn. That is wonderful. I hope he is happy because I am thrilled. It is so nice that it is Saturday morning and the yard is already finished. And of course, Jeff is at work right now. He is such a good man.
Okay, what else is going on?? I have to mention that tomorrow Jeff is getting baptized again. He was baptized when he was 12 but wants to do it again. What a blessing! As for me...I am very ready to be baptized but I will keep everyone (Tiffany, Mom haha!) posted.

Today is the first day of the rest of our lives!

I have sat down at my computer several times lately to update my blog. However, something happened that I can not remember experiencing before...I was speechless. Even right now, I am at a loss for words. Generally, I can pretty much go on and on and on and on about anything. But I don't know. I am not upset, depressed or sad. I am not in a funk. Actually, I am quite the opposite right now. Jeff and I have some pretty awesome stuff going on in our lives right now. I have debated in my mind whether mentioning it on my blog or not. But to ignore these awesome events, even virtually would be hard for me. Jeff and I have recently gave our lives over to Christ. I was experiencing some pretty horrible things. I was literally battling demons. But it has led us to this amazing place of freedom. We have freedom in Jesus Christ. It is awesome how when you make a decision like this everything else in your life is affected and your troubles fade. I can tell such a difference in Jeff. He is truly a new man. And I feel very different. There is an unmeasurable amount of comfort in knowing that where I go God goes with me. I don't need to stress or worry or walk in fear. I am living my life for Jesus and we will see where He leads me!

Something to ponder....

Many people will be in heaven because they truly accepted Jesus as their Savior, but many of these same people will never have walked in victory or enjoyed the good plan God had for their lives because they did not get their mind renewed according to his Word.

I recently read that in Battlefield of the Mind by Joyce Meyer and had to share. It definitely struck a nerve with me.

Challenging times....

While it appears I have been neglecting my blog I have truly been very busy. Kodak gallery is having a sale on prints right now. All my free time has been in uploading the hundreds of photos I have to their website. Which let me tell you...has been very little free time. This has definitely been a week I would never want to relive. Okay, we are potty training. And I think that is going okay. It could definitely be worse. Of course, it could definitely be better. But despite that this week has been horrible. I told Jeff that this week I feel like we are missing something. That we are going about this parenting thing wrong. Or we didn't get the message that we have done everything incorrect up till now. We have been home all week. I don't know if they are just stir crazy, but they are definitely crazy. Tonight we have a date night planned. Although I am ecstatic to be out the house without the kiddos for a couple of hours, I am nervous to leave the kids alone. Well, that sounded horrible. Jeff's mom is coming over to watch them. We would NEVER leave our kids home alone. It is so rare to have someone watch our kids that I am afraid after tonight even Brenda won't want to come back. I am really excited because it feels like we just had a date night. In the middle of May we went out. Every other month having some alone time is awesome. So yesterday was horrible from start to finish with the kids. Well, Jonah and Juliet have been really good. Jonah has been very good. Whenever I ask him to do something he says, "sure, Mom! I can do that." Let me just say that I am kids go through seasons. My no means do I have one child that is my 'trouble maker'. I don't like to label the kids. Each of them has had a particular season when it is their time to be challenging. We recently went through this with Jacob. And even though Jacob has been somewhat behaving better he still definitely keeps me on my toes. This is the deal with Jacob. Okay he will do something bad then we will look up at you with his little eyes and say, "I am sorry, I love you so much and I didn't mean to do that." Seriously, he is only 3 and he already has this down! Yesterday morning, well yesterday period it was Jackson who I was at a loss with. I really need to get my parenting books out. One in particular is a book my friend Tiffany gave me. His behavior has been horrible. It is definitely his season. But his mouth and the lying are out of control. Seriously the lying. He will blame anyone for something I just witnessed him doing. Then the back talking is getting out of hand too. I yell, I get down on my knees and talk to them all sweet and try to 'reason', I spank, I do time out, I threaten, and I have even bribed. You name it I tried it all before 10a yesterday. So, while I should be showering and making breakfast before the kids wake up. Instead, I am up stairs enjoying the quietness and morning rain venting on my computer, reflecting on how horrible yesterday was. I should be preparing for the madness of today. The house is disgusting. I am so behind. I really think I need two washing machines and two dishwashers. Because neither of them can keep up with this family. But let me just tell you yesterday totally ended with me having a complete breakdown. I couldn't go one more step. I was exhausted in every way. Then comes bedtime. Why is this such a horrible thing?? The kids go down at 8p. At 10p we were still dealing with them running around upstairs. And it is not that they are just running around it is everything they get into. The bathroom attached to their room has been an on again off again issue. I don't want to lock the door in case their is an emergency or they really do need to pee. So, last night we started off with them taking water out of the bathroom and putting it into their room. Their beds, clothing and floor were wet. Jeff was mad but he said, "it is water, it will dry." When I went to check on them despite everything being wet they had also started breaking these cute little shelves my mom had bought them. They are darling (the shelves, not the kids). Jeff had taken them away when we first moved in. But I just recently put them back into the room. Thinking they had grown out of that. They had removed the screwed out of them. How? I have no idea. Their room was destroyed. I had super cleaned it two days ago and last night they destroyed it. It wasn't just that it was messed up, they actually break everything. I don't know. I go up there and they are breaking things. We had recently put a lock on our office, but they had broke things in there too. Then I went downstairs to water my flowers. I couldn't find the pitcher I use because the kids ran off with it. So, I had to improvise. My flowers always want to die. That is upsetting. I took the trash out back and the wind had knocked over my table and I had these glass candle holders on it. Well, they were all broke on the ground. Note to self-clean up glass asap before kids come outside to play. Man, I just stole those glass candle holders from mom's garage sale and I really liked them. Then I was walking back into the house and the cats have pooped all in my flower bed. That just stank. Man, really?! I went into the kitchen and it was still destroyed from dinner. I still needed to clean up. Then I proceeded to the bathroom and the floor had pee all over it. I just cleaned the floor a couple of hours ago. I just can't keep up! I said to heck with all of it and decided to go to bed. But right then Juliet starts screaming in her room. Wow, it was a really bad day. But I am convinced today will be a great day! It is a new day. It is raining. I LOVE rainy days. We have date night planned. It is Friday. And I am prepared if the kids do anything wrong I am totally kicking butt. Haha!

Barn dream

I just have to discuss this. I have lots of pics from the last couple of days I will hopefully post later. But I need to talk about this dream I just had. I totally over slept this morning so I am in a hurry. But I had this dream I was building a round barn!!! I have always wanted a round barn, not a square one. Round barns are so cool. Mom always says inside round barns there is a man inside running around who can't find his way out. That is random, but I just totally thought of that. Anyhow, I was building this round barn. Jeff helped me unload tons of lumber then he turns to me and says, "you got this under control, right? I need to go to work." So confidently I say, "yeah, totally." Like I build barns all the time. Anyway, I totally built the barn on...(wait for it)...casters! Why? So, I could take it with me wherever I went. The dream was awesome. It has resparked my love of round barns.

Operation potty training

This is going to be a rough week. I started the morning off with the scale up and the bank account low. Plus, I am committing myself to knuckling down and having potty training boot camp. Jacob is potty trained. Jonah and Jackson are not. Okay, so this is the thing. When the boys are naked they never have any accidents. They poop and pee in the toilet all day long. However, when I put a diaper, pull up or even underwear on them they just go in their pants. So, today and the rest of the week we are inside with naked boys running around. I don't know what else to do. I have told the boys they will have to earn their pants. And surprise, surprise... they have both pooped and peed in the toilet all day long. So, my question is when do I give them pants? Any ideas??

July 4th, 2010

All of these pics, with the exception of the first one were taken on July 4th. Jeff snapped this photo of Juliet yesterday stealing her brothers sippy cups. The holidays are so much fun with the kids. Our holiday was great but it wouldn't be complete unless someone got hurt. It is hard to believe, but Jacob was the lucky one. He totally wiped out at the fireworks and skinned his little head on the pavement.

I accidentally unloaded these backwards. Fireworks! This is what Jeff sees everytime he kisses me. Haha!

Jackson is so funny. He is kicked back with his legs crossed watching the show.

Juliet didn't really see any fireworks. She was too busy stealing food from Kico and Katie. I think she ate most of the bag of Goldfish. Surprisingly, there were a lot of us watching the fireworks together. We watched from Jeff's work parking lot. It was us, Jeff's parents, my parents, G-ma, Steven and Krissy, April and Mike with their kiddos, Kico and Katie, Kico's brother Derek and Mike and Vicki. Did I miss anyone? I love doing things in a big group. It is a lot of fun!

Here is part of the group.

Brenda supplied all the kids with ring pops. They loved them! Here Braxton and Jonah are comparing tongues.

We had to run by the house on our way downtown to get all my kids clean pants. So, when we got there all the boys were pantless.

This was when we pulled into Jeff's work. Not a lively bunch of kids...yet.

This is my cousin Kelly's daughter Aaliyah. She is adorable and she liked getting her picture taken.

Here is most of us at mom's house for a cookout.

It was sooo hot on the Fourth, but that didn't stop the kids. April brought her bouncer and the kids played in it for awhile.

We also spent much of the time swimming, but I didn't get any photos of that.

Say cheese!

The boys are up to no good in Grandpa Don's barn.

Jonah smile!

Garfield Park Fun

Saturday Charlie came over with a tractor to do some yard work. I told Jeff that I would take the pics to the park for the day. However, when Jonah and Jackson saw that tractor they would not leave. So, I took Jacob and Juliet to Garfield Park with Savanah, Braxton, April and Mom.

Juliet loved this swing. I have so many pics of her laughing. She kept tossing her head back and laughing hysterically.

Braxton in the swing sideways!

Garfield Park was a lot of fun. I think the kids really enjoyed it. But it was hot! The playground equipment was a little too hot. April actually burned her behind going down the slide. Afterwards we went to Greenwood to the Farmer's Market. By the time we got there it was closed. There was no sign a farmer's market had even been there. Maybe next weekend I will get up early to attend.