They've Taken Over

Help! Click on this picture and view it in it's original size to see the little creature in the right corner of the sliding glass door.


They've taken over my balcony, and I can't get outside. Nor can I find where they are coming from. Anyone have any good tips on deterring paper wasps?

Beading

A few days ago I did a couple of very quick bead projects. When I just need to get my head somewhere else for a bit, I like to do some kind of art or craft. I'm still very new to beading and still learning how to assemble jewelry. I put together a very quick elastic bracelet and threaded some beads onto a basket I have on the bar above my kitchen sink.

Here's the bracelet:


And here's the basket:


The shot glass in that picture I bought on my trip to Disneyland last year, the week before I found out I was pregnant; I have yet to use it.

Messy Blog

Geez! Okay, the formatting in my last post is all messed up, and I can't figure out how to fix it when it looks just fine in preview. Grrr. Also, My MyBlogLog widget is totally missing! WTF?

Stock Market Crash and Opportunities

I'm not a financial guru. If I was, I wouldn't be having the financial troubles I am right now. I personally don't have a horrible debt problem. I only have 3 lines of credit that are not over $2000 (I've kept them at that level so I won't get into too much trouble). Of course, those are maxed out at the moment. Plus, I have my student loans to pay off, but I see that as an investment; maybe once I have my degree I'll have a chance at a higher income.

Have I been good about saving money? Oh no! I've made a lot of mistakes in that regard. I've been with my company for 8 years and I didn't ever sign up for the 401k. Major opportunity loss there. I have a money market savings account, that I don't put any money into. I also own some stocks. I have one of those accounts that you can pay as much money as you can afford into and it disperses it throughout your portfolio. I haven't been putting any money into that either.

After the stock market fiasco last week, I checked my portfolio, and ya, I lost some of the money I did have invested. But it wasn't much and it didn't hurt me financially. Right now I'm looking at this as an opportunity to beef up my portfolio. I have some ideas in mind to find a little money here and there to add to my money market account and my portfolio so that I can start on the road to having a little nest egg, or at least emergency funds.

• Take the money I was spending on cigarettes (haven't completely quit yet; that's a whole other post) and disperse that throughout my portfolio each month. ($80)
  
• Once I'm enrolled in school full-time (hopefully this week), I'll apply for a deferment on my student loan payments and write that check out to my money market account each month ($295 at 4.48%)

Of course this all depends on how much money we will have to spend on daycare and on how much our rent will go up when we have to move to a two bedroom apartment.

I still have time, if I am aggressive, to get to a point that I am completely out of debt and have some money left over to be comfortable. I really don't want to be working full-time for the next 30 years, or even the next 10. I'd like to be able to gain an income, even if it's small, through my hobbies, be able to spend time with my family, and possibly travel.
I'd like to do a lot of things, but I just need to do it, rather than always make plans and not follow through.

Headers

So I've been toying with the idea of putting up a new header each month.
I decided to start this month with a header that is dedicated to my daughter, who turns 18 in just a week. OMG, 18! Am I really old enough to have an 18 year old child?!
Next time I'll be sure to size the header correctly, *slaps forehead*.

I Will Burn in the Firey Pit of Hell for Bad Parents

So a couple of nights ago Baby G was being extremely fussy. Nothing we were doing was working. He wasn't hungry, he wasn't too cold, or too hot, he wouldn't go to sleep, he didn't want to play or talk. We couldn't figure out what was wrong. So Aaron said "why not try playing that badger video that S (my daughter) showed us." I gave in to temptation.
I found the Badger video and once it started playing, he stopped being fussy and was transfixed. I then let him watch the Giraffe video, and he absolutely loves the Mango video.
Ugh! I feel so horrible.