Birthday

Today is my birthday. Vance and the boys remembered. So did Mom and Pops and my parents, as well. It's so nice to be remembered. I find that I'm the worst at remembering birthdays outside of my kids and Vance. I need to remember how much I enjoy getting birthday wishes and return the favor.

Today was a good day. We got a little bit of everything done. I woke up this morning, cleaned the kitchen and made homemade strawberry syrup again so, I made pancakes, as well. There was a little bit of business that needed to be done, but we were all out the door around lunch time. We dropped off the little ones at Mom's and Pop's (thank you) and went to see a movie. The last movie we saw in the theatre was "The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe". So, this was a real treat. They had this awesome figure in the entry of The Incredible Hulk. Vance said he'd like one for our house.

We saw "Kung Fu Panda". Not exactly what I wanted to see, but it was in IMAX and we hit it at the right time. It was good with one hilariously funny part that made me laugh so hard I embarrassed myself. Good thing there were only about 15 people in the whole theatre. Vance always says I honk and snort when I think something is truly funny. That's ok, because I know he loves my honks.

Here's a picture of us in front of the movie theatre. I know, I'm huge. To tell you the truth I think Vance is getting sympathy pregnancy symptoms. He says he's really going to get in shape before hunting season. So, hopefully by this time next year we'll both look half the size :). We actually took another picture of me standing behind him, but Vance encouraged me that I'll actually enjoy looking back on these kinds of pictures. I agreed. Pregnancy pictures are precious.

I finally got a picture of our mystery van. This is a picture of all the kiddos (except Rachie, she's hiding) coming home from Grandma and Grandpa's today. All those panels on the ceiling light up. The kids love to ride in the van at night so we can turn on the disco lights.

After we got home Vance and I got to go out to dinner with some very dear friends. We went to my absolute favorite restaurant. Listen to this dinner...We started with warm bread and seasoned olive oil followed by an appetizer of calamari with the best sauce you've ever tasted. I wish I could remember the name of it. Then, a chilled Caesar salad and finally Pasta Weesie (shrimp and noodles in a butter cream sauce). I can still taste the garlic. Then, because it was my birthday, I got a free hot fudge ice cream (without the annoying singing).

Vance and I then went to an electronic store and we bought a washer and dryer. Quite a large purchase, but I have to tell you a quick story...We had three floods last week, right? Two were sewage floods. We found out that the reason for these floods was because our septic tank was full. It should have lasted another year and a half. Our leach field isn't working so all of our water is going into the septic tank. That will be another large purchase in the near future. So, I've been trying to conserve water. The other day I tried to do a load of laundry without letting the water go into the septic. I disconnected the hose and used some of Vance's empty five gallon paint buckets to collect the dirty water. Each time one filled up I would take it out to the front lawn and plants and used it to water them. I didn't let the water go all the way to the top, but let them fill about one to two inches from the top. I emptied 12 buckets. If they had been completely full that would have been 60 gallons so, I'm guessing one load of laundry took around 50 gallons of water. Absolutely unacceptable!!! Laundry for as many people in our family requires a huge amount of washing (approx. 3 - 5 loads per day). We do our best to wear clothes as many times as possible and we use towels several times, as well. That could easily add up to 250 gallons a day and nearly 1500 gallons per week!!!!! I couldn't imagine continuing to be so wasteful. And to think I had no idea we were using this much water before we had the septic problem.

The new washer we bought only uses 15 gallons maximum per load. I couldn't believe it. No more hauling buckets to save our septic tank :). I'll actually feel good about doing laundry. Too bad they don't do the same thing for dish washers, but I have an idea for that. This post is getting a little long again so, here are my ideas in a nutshell.

1. Buy plastic bins to wash dishes by hand and use the water on the plants.

2. When I do use the dishwasher - save energy by cracking the door of the washer on the dry cycle - the heat left in the washer will still dry the dishes, but not use 30 minutes of electricity. I got this idea tonight from the salesman who said his wife has done this for years. He said she could squeeze two dimes and make a $20.

3. Add a small dry dish towel to the clothes dryer and it takes less time to dry your clothes. This idea came from a grandma who raised nine children and is now helping to raise 6 of her grandchildren. Again, she's been doing this for years and says that it decreases the dry time significantly, thereby saving her clothes from wear and tear.

I may be going overboard, but our electricity bill was $180 last month and this month it was only $80. I may not work outside the home, but I consider these kinds of savings little paychecks made out to me :).

Anyway, I really had a great birthday. Thanks to everyone who made it possible.