Posts Tagged ‘Mom’

I’ve been trying to get him to write down his stories and ideas for the longest time.  Partially because I’m his mom/teacher and I know he’s got to “do the work” behind writing, but also because I’m a big fan of his stories and ideas!  Both of my sons are very creative and opinionated (hmmm… wonder where they get that from??  08-) but trying to get them to write theses ideas down has been a lengthy battle!  grrrrrrr  Until now that is.  So while I’m on a little hiatus (notice I can’t stay away from my blog forever), please take a look at my sons blog as he is exploring the blogosphere.  Leave comments (they better be nice or this mama grizzly will come after you!  LOL) and discuss with him the many ideas he has!

Now without further ado…. Welcome to the Blogosphere my youngest son….

Justice N Words

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 Christine Plaisted

Stressed, yes, that is the word of the day… maybe even the week… or month! But really it’s all good right?  Things are popping for us in so many different ways that I’m getting dizzy!  But most of it’s good change.  But change, no matter what kind it is, usually makes me a stress bunny!  So that’s exactly what’s kept me from posting lately.  I’m so stressed I can’t even think straight!  LOL!

So what exactly has me so stressed?  Well for one thing, our business is growing big enough that we’ve decided to actually rent an office.  Although I’m half excited about that, half not so excited about it.  I like working from home… even if I’m stuck to a desk for 12 hours a day, it’s still home.  I see my boys all day long and really if I absolutely HAD to do something, I could leave anytime (depending on how busy we are).  But getting an office means so many different things.

No more rolling out of bed and working in my P.J.’s all day long.  No more waiting till the first call comes in to sleep.  No more late nights.  No, with an office I actually have to get up, get dressed BEFORE someone calls.  BLECH!  But then the good things about it is, there is a real separation of home and office.  No more animal noises in the background when I’m on the phone.  No more getting mad at the boys for fighting or playing their music too loud.  No, the quiet office will be a nice change.

One of the reasons why we’ve decided to get an office is so the boys can have their own rooms.  Right now they share a room.  One of the rooms is our office.  Without having the office in the house, then they can have their own rooms.  We’re still looking for a bigger place, but it’s a heck of a lot easier to find the right place without having to worry about having enough rooms for everyone and an office.

We were trying to find a place where my mom & sister could live with us and the boys could have their own room, AND we could have an office.  But that would mean a 6 bedroom house.  Well, 6 bedroom houses are NOT cheap!  And they are few and far between.  For a while we thought that my sister might decide to move back to California and live with another family member.  5 bedroom houses are a little easier to find, and a little cheaper, but not much.

That’s when we decided that having an office out of the house would make things SOOO much easier!  So we found an office and we’re going forward with it.  Then we decided that we needed to find a 4 bedroom house that wasn’t too far from the office.  Well that’s when the Universe kicked in!  The stars all seemed to align together perfectly to find what may be the best fit for our family!!

Ok, no, that’s not the house.  Let me tell you how I found the place before I describe it.  I was looking online at rentals near our office and came across this nice 4 bedroom 2 bath house, with a pool, in our price range.  It looked really cute and all that.  Well Thursday we were out running errands and accidentally got onto the wrong freeway.  Well when we got off the freeway again I noticed that we just passed the street that the house was on.  So we turned around and found it.  Turns out the house next door to it is for rent as well.  We get out of the car, it’s at night, and are looking around it.  It’s a nice neighborhood.  We get back into the car and are about to drive away when an SUV pulls up beside us.  The guy in the car says he’s the owner of the two houses and asks if we’d like to see inside.

So there are two houses right next door to each other, about 3 miles from our new office.  The one house is a 4 bedroom (really only a 3 bedroom with another room that’s like a big closet), 2 bath, with a basement, tons of storage, huge kitchen and a pool.  Gardening & pool service are included in the rent, which is only a little more than what we’re paying for the house we’re in.  the house next door is a 2 bedroom 1 bath, with tons of storage, huge backyard, and is perfect for my mom and sister.

So we talked it over with Mom and Sis.  We all went to “officially” see the houses with the property manager on Sunday.  We all loved the houses!  They are each perfect for us!  And within our price range.  The move in is going to be a little difficult, but Steve and I have already been saving and have enough to cover our move in costs.  So covering mom & Cindy’s move in won’t be too hard.  So today we’ve put in the applications for the rental agreements!  Now comes the REALLY hard part…….

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 Christine Plaisted

The boys are pretty independent now that they are both in High school.  I don’t talk much about homeschooling anymore because I’m not doing much with their schooling.  We use an online charter high school because I didn’t have the time to devote to their curriculum while running and growing my business.  It was the easiest and best solution.  That being said, I do supplement their education with projects and reports that I assign them to make sure that their education is going in the direction that I want it to.  Today I saw a video excerpt that made me VERY thankful that I am homeschooling in Nevada, though.  This could easily have been me and the boys.

I can’t imagine having to go through this. I feel so horrible for this mom and her daughter. I wonder what exactly were these judges thinking? Can’t they see that by trying to do this they are taking away her 1st amendment right to freedom of religion?? That means she can teach her daughter about any religion she wants, not just what the state approves of? There are so many people out there that just don’t under stand that homeschooling is a good option, but instead they think that we’re all just a bunch of religious fanatics, ignorant racists, or someone even tried to say we were bored and unintelligent housewives! (Be warned, the preceding link will make you laugh and want to strangle the woman at the same time).

This is why I’m so grateful to be homeschooling in Nevada.  Here not only is it totally one hundred percent legal, but the schools must allow homeschoolers to participate in classes and extra-curricular events and classes as well!  So if my son wanted to take band at the local high school, he could (if there was room).  Of course Nevada being the last on the list of good schools in the US (or maybe that’s the top worst public schools?) it doesn’t surprise me that so many parents are choosing to homeschool here.

I guess when we are trying to decide where we want to move to for business reasons, New Hampshire will NOT be one of those states!  Not that it was in the running, but it’s definitely not in the running now!

  Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 Christine Plaisted

My Business:

Have you ever seen those big oversized trucks come down the highway?  The ones with the big “Oversize” or “Wide Load” signs on the front and back of the truck?  Well, those trucks need permits from each state that they go through.  Permits that tell them what roads they can travel on and when they can drive down them.  What I do is get those permits from each of the states (and sometimes the cities or counties they go through) for the truckers.

All of the work is done over the internet, the phone and fax.  Which is why this is a perfect home based business.  Customers don’t come to the office, I don’t have to travel anywhere to get the permits, and there is no inventory to store.  The downside is that some of the permits are extremely expensive and some of them have to be paid for at time of purchase.  By expensive I mean upwards around $800.  We charge extra for permits that are over a certain amount though, so it is worth it. Read the rest of this entry »

If you’re not yet, click on the button above and go register at the site to become one. Then join us on Friday, March 6th & 7th for the Site Launch party on twitter! You can win all sorts of prizes, including a sponsor package to go to BlogHer09! Which just happens to be one of the biggest blogging conventions ever and it’s mostly for women! Just do a google for BlogHer08 and see all the great things (and sometimes crazy things) that happened at last years event. I would absolutely LOVE LOVE to go, mostly to meet all my blogging, twittering, social networking friends.

There are other great prizes to win at this twitter party as well, and more is being added! So don’t forget to sign up at Sassy Mamas, pre-register for the party at Mom’s Most Traveled, and then start tweeting about the party!