When We Start Making Money...

When we start making money, this is what I will spend it on (in this order):

1. Renting our own place.
2. A car.
3. Furniture for our own place.
4. Classes for the kids (like art, or karate, or whatever they want to do).
5. Membership to the YMCA.
6. A Course in Miracles, and lots of other books that I want to add to my book collection.
7. A new wardrobe, starting with this shirt.

Website

I'm done with my photography website. Here it is:

http://www.allisonkuzniaphotography.com

Joke

Here's my favorite joke, courtesy of my favorite movie of the year, Blue Valentine:

So there’s a child molester and a little boy walking into the woods. The child molester and the little boy keep walking further and further, and it’s getting darker and darker, and they’re going deeper and deeper into the woods. And the child molester — the little boy looks up at the child molester and says, "Gee, mister. I’m getting scared." And the child molester looks down at him and says, "You think you’re scared, kid? I have to walk out of here alone."

Texting

Since Vern has been working a lot, we've been keeping in contact by texting. I don't have a cell phone (I know! Who needs one, right?), but I am able to send him texts via my e-mail.

So, I send him messages like:

"Put that cell phone down. It's giving you cancer."

and

"No sex tonight. I just got my period. Sorry."

And he writes back with messages such as:

"Do we need bread?"

and

"My penis is not on its period."

(Just kidding. He didn't write that last one... he just said it out loud when he got home.)

I'm Here, I'm Here

Okay. Here is a real update. This is what I've been up to.

Last month, Vern got his chiropractic business off the ground. It is going well. He's meeting his expenses every month so far (2 months!), but hasn't started making enough to pay himself yet. But that should start happening pretty quick here, because it seems like he's getting into the groove of the whole thing and everything is happening at just the right speed for him. Like, if he was really busy right off the bat, he wouldn't have been able to figure out what the heck he's doing with everything else it takes to run the business. So, I expect that he'll be pulling in more of a profit within a couple months here. It's fun to see him doing his thing and getting excited about it again (after a bunch of months of being preoccupied with starting up).

So, where does that leave me? Well, I mentioned in a previous blog post about how Vern got rear-ended and we totaled out his car (and took the money from it to help start the office) so now we only have one car. Now that Vern is busy with business stuff, it is not so easy for me to take the car to get places. And I can't just drop him off at the office either, because he needs the car to get around during the day for marketing things he has going on (he does health screenings at the mall and gym and other events to get patients). So, that has been kind of tough for me, in some ways, but in other ways, not really.

For example, since we avoid car rides, Peace doesn't fall asleep during the day. Which means that she is soooo much easier to get to sleep at night when she doesn't have a nap. That is really nice. Plus, we can walk to a lot of places we need to go... the library, the grocery store, the beach, a bunch of parks. But I miss my playgroups. I miss my friends. Going to the Attachment Parenting playgroups in the summer was one of the things I was looking forward to when moving back here.

I've been working on getting my photography website up and running again. I'm going to start my photography business again, officially (not just birth photography, which I haven't even gotten any clients for anyway). I'm doing this because, 1) I want to earn money, and 2) I finally feel inspired to do so again. I was waiting for the inspiration, because I feel that photography is such as personal and artistic expression, I don't think it should be entered into solely for the money. Sure, money can be a part of it (which it is for me), but it can't be the sole reason for doing it. So, I was always waiting for something more... and now I feel I have that *something* inside me again, wanting to be expressed.

So, that's part of the reason I haven't updated (working on the photography site), and the other reason is that I've just been busy. Busy with the kids during the day (when it's impossible to get anything done on the computer, except for a random Facebook comment here or there). Feeding them. Playing with them. Feeding them again. Cleaning up after them. You know the routine. And then, Vern is out marketing almost every night of the week, so I do bedtime for all of the kids. (Which is fine that I'm in charge of that, because managing bedtimes has never been something that Vern and I have agreed on, so it is almost easier this way.) So, I do that, then Vern comes home and I talk with him a bit. Then, I read or watch Tosh.0 and The Sports Show (if it's Tuesday) and maybe some Jon Stewart (always for Vern, sometimes for me). Then I go to bed.

That's my update.

Yummy Frozen Things

Here are some food ideas for you:

1) Slice a banana (1/4" slices or so). Put the slices on a plate, and then put the plate into the freezer. Eat them several hours later, when they're frozen (not the plate, the bananas).

2) Toast some Food for Life 7 Sprouted Grain bread (it's the only Food for Like bread without soy, I think). Spread coconut oil on it (this works best if your coconut oil is not in liquid form yet). Spread some Trader Joe's (Valencia peanut) peanut butter on it (or almond butter, if you're made of money). Then spread some raw honey over all of it. Put on a plate and put into a freezer. Wait 26 minutes. Take out of the freezer and eat (the toast, not the plate). The coconut oil will be a nice hard-ish consistency and the whole thing will taste very, very good.

Peace's Summer Gear

Here are some pictures, so as, for you to look at, and so on and so forth...

No Chicken Pox

It's been 21 days since exposure, and Peace did not get the chicken pox. I guess breastfeeding + chiropractic probably gave her a pretty strong immune system. Although, she did have this constant running nose for about a week, so I guess her immune system didn't protect her from that. Or, maybe the running nose WAS her way of getting the chicken pox. Maybe she got the immunity anyway.

I don't know.

I'll expose her again later and see what happens.

Why I Haven't Updated Lately...

I DON'T KNOW!

Seriously, I don't know what is up with me. Just having lots of thoughts and not feeling the urge to share them with the world (and by "world" I mean you guys).

Here are some pictures I took of Peace the other day:

I'm thinking of starting my photography business up again (very very part-time, as usual). I need to find the time to make a website. But I was thinking if I can set aside two times every week that won't interfere with Vern's schedule (like Saturday evening and Sunday morning), that might help to keep things simple and balanced. Part of what I didn't like to have to do when I was doing my photography somewhat regularly was having to coordinate the schedule with Vernon. So, we'll see about that, I guess.

I have it in my mind, my goal, that we can move out of here by this fall. Vern's business is going pretty well (I should really write about that sometime...), so hopefully by September/October it'll be steady and he'll be making enough for us to have our own place. Plus, if I could contribute some money from photography, even better.

Peace is going to turn two years old in about a month. I made one of those photo books for her from Shutterfly (because we got a coupon from Best Buy for a free one), and it turned out really nice, but boy was that thing a pain in the butt to make. I mean, it was really easy to use and everything, but just the thought that had to go into which photos to use, the photo placement, the layout, etc. Lots of work.

I wish the kids would go to bed earlier.

Obligatory Blog Update

1. Ezra lost his first tooth today. (I'm writing this here because I don't know where we packed/stored that thing where I write down memorable moments for the kids. This will help me keep track.) I took a picture, but I'm too lazy to upload it.

2. I only made it up to 81 push-ups in my 100 push-up challenge. When I tested the following week, I actually decreased in the number of push-ups I could do, so I said, to heck with it. Plus, it gets very boring doing 81 push-ups in a row.

3. I'm waiting for Peace to get the chicken pox. (Ocean and Ezra had the pox about 3-1/2 years ago.) I exposed her to someone who had it 10 days ago. The incubation period is 10-21 days, so she should be getting it any day now (it usually happens around Day 14). I don't think it's possible that she wouldn't have gotten the pox from the kid I exposed her to, the way they were swapping pacifiers with spit dangling and all. If you read this blog and you live in the Twin Cities, even if you might not know me in real life, let me know if you want some pox. They can be hard to come by, so get it when you can.

4. I've had a crush on several celebs who have had sad and untimely deaths: River Phoenix, Jonathan Brandis, and Elliot Smith. Watch yourself, Jared Padalecki. Watch yourself.