Did someone say take out?

In our family, just about every family gathering revolves around food. We are always trying to come up with some excuse to go out to dinner. Whenever my wealthy and eccentric Great Aunt Inga and Uncle Jerry come into town from California, we get the entire extended family together and go out to the Spaghetti Factory. The odd part is that the majority of us never get together or really even talk unless Inga and Jerry are in town. As soon as we all get together though, it is hours of laughing and just having a good time. When we all leave we all promise to "get together more often" but never do.

Birthdays are another going out event in my family. Now that we are all adults and have families and lives of our own, we always make it a point to go out to dinner for someone's birthday. We invite our close family and sometimes a few close friends. I love these dinners because even though we are close family, these days it can still be difficult to get together. They remind me of when I was growing up. After my parents got divorced when I was little, it was just my mom, my two brothers and I. Every Sunday after church we would go to this little hole in the wall Chinese restaurant in Marysville. Good portions, good food, great price! We always looked forward to it. We seriously did this for several years, and the wait staff and owners knew our family and we loved that.

I think our family likes going out to eat because no one is stuck in the kitchen or worrying about cleaning up after. Everyone gets to relax. We all get to participate in the conversations and just the event that is our family getting together. No matter who with, or where we go, going out to eat is our family tradition.

Craigslist Addict!

Shopping on craigslist is a community. I call it a community because it is made up of a diverse group of people all looking for something they need or want. We have that in common. We are held together by a need or a want for something, and are typically just looking for a good deal. Craigslist shoppers don't necessairly share in the same interests, other than a bargain, as there are literally thousands of different items for sale, or wanted or for trade at any given point in time. There isn't usually a place for tension within the Craigslist community because we are all just shopping. Every once in a while you will get someone that posts something negative about another posting, but there's always going to be that one person bringing you down right. I think most of us just ignore it, because in the grand scheme of things, what does it really matter if they are selling something that's only worth $5 and they are asking $100? I mean that's their perogative, right?

I love this community of Craigslist shoppers, because I feel right at home. We are all looking to buy or sell something, that could be important to me, or was to someone else at one point. I really first got into it when I had my daughter almost 2 years ago and was always looking for good deals on nice, used clothes, shoes, toys or furniture. Then it turned into my real estate agent, and it helped me find my lovely new home. It is just a great community to all come together to help suit our basic needs. And really that's what communities do, help suit our basic needs. It can help us earn extra money by selling things we don't need; or it can help us get a good deal on something we do need. I am proud to be a part of, and an advocate for the Craigslist shopping community!

Yay for Knock Offs!!

My cheap knock off wallet and purse are something that needs to be gone through at least weekly to clear out all of the accumulated clutter. If you dug into my purse, you would find half of my wallets contents just thrown back in or fallen out due to the lack of being replaced properly.

My purse also usually contains evidence that I am a busy mom. I usually have an extra diaper and wipes, a binki, a Ziploc full of animal crackers or fishy crackers and maybe even a sippy cup! Currently there is a certificate for “Baby’s first haircut” with a little baggie of dark curls attached. It has also been colored on by a pen, like half the other contents of my purse.

In the back of my wallet you would find credit cards to all major retailers… so you would probably assume that I am in a lot of debt, when actually, thank goodness, all those cards are finally paid off. That’s why the cards are located in the back, still accessible, but never used. Why carry them? Just in case!

In the front main portion, you will find my checkbook; very few checks missing, only made out to a Katrina Bergeson once a month, every month for the same amount… mortgage. There you will find the well worn credit cards… the ones with a rotating balance. Two debit cards, cause I will inevitably leave one in a pocket to the pair of pants I wore the other day, so I keep a spare. There’s my health insurance card, car insurance card, and sometimes if I am lucky, I will have remembered to put my drivers license back in its rightful place. Stamp cards to what I call the “used bread store” aka, the day old bread store, a card for oil changes, children’s clothing stores, coffee stands.

Then the receipts… oh goodness what you would find!! Receipts for school tuition, books, daycare, clothes, shoes, groceries, and toys; the list could go on and on. I keep my receipts for everything until I am sure I will not be returning anything on it. I am the return queen!! My daughter makes it hard to shop, so I tend to just buy things and return them later. Half of my receipts have “return receipts” attached to them.

I think that the contents of my wallet and purse taken all together indicate that I am a very busy, hectic, sometimes disorganized mom. Every other week you go into my purse and it is spotless, clear of clutter and excess garbage. Taken separately, you could assume many things, like I stated earlier, it looks like I could be in a lot of debt. By my stamp card to coffee stands one would assume I drink coffee… which in fact I don’t; I love hot chocolates and Italian sodas.

If someone judged me by the contents of my purse I believe they would miss and misinterpret a lot about me. Sometimes I look disorganized because I work full time with some part time work on the side. As you all now know I have a daughter who depends on me for everything since she is still only 19months. I obviously am also in school. Needless to say I have little time to organize some parts of my life very often. My daughter and my family mean the world to me, but I don’t have any pictures of them in there. I don’t feel like that means that I think of them or brag about them any less. The contents of my purse are just going to tell you what I have hand my hand in at some recent point in time.

Newsies

Well this is my first official blog! Hope I don't get addicted to this like I do everything else. I don't have time for anything else!! :)