Pinterest Craziness!!

So, I have finally been able to do some easy, low cost projects I have found on the website, Pinterest.  Pinterest has a way of making some people feel inadequate.  I used to feel that way, so I stayed away from it.  I have now realized that the people on Pinterest that make you feel that way, they can't possibly be real and they can't possibly have a life outside of their computer.

I have accepted that my means are what they are.  Most everything I am doing right now are from supplies I have found at The Dollar Tree.  Making meals is something I despise.  I hate getting dinner ready.  I hate the frustration it has with it and that I am not a great cook.  Because of this, I have decided to bite the bullet and start prepping crock pot meals.

I am going to blog some of my journey.  Keep in mine, I do have a real life.  I work 2 jobs, raise 2 kids, have 2 great Danes, and value getting to spend time with my love.  My kids have activities and the house doesn't clean itself.

Our blog is called "The Carr Shop" because sometimes we need to take our Car's in for maintenance and for repair work.  The "Carr's" are in definite need of going to the shop.  We need to refocus, get reorganized and prepare ourselves for what is to come.

If you would like to find fun and easy things to do around your house, healthy crock pot meals or hear a story that will make you say, "Thank God for my life, because the Carr's life is just crazy" then this is the place for you.  Follow us, subscribe or check back often to get updates!

Can't wait to start sharing easy ways to take your family, house, meals, or self to the "Shop".

Lots of love,
Melissa

2013

I realize the insane amount of time it has been since I have posted anything on this blog.  I quite frankly don't know how to fit it into our crazy chaotic lives most of the time.  I truly want to have a wonderful year and I really want to get our house really cleaned up and organized along with our time and finances and everything that decided blogging is something I want to be able to add to my schedule.  I like to write and I like to have a place I can put feelings out about my family and life and joys struggles and such. 

We spent the last part of 2012 and the beginning of 2013 with family.  One of my biggest issues the past year is how far away we are from my family and friends and how much I wish we had that support system here.  If I had a job opportunity in Missouri we would be gone so fast!  I pray that this year brings us that type of support system out here in some way.  I think that after the turmoil the last couple of years has been for us, we were exactly where we needed to be as we rang in the new year! 

The kids and I have had the last 2 weeks off of school/work and Mike has been able to be with us most of the time as well.  We really have been able to just be.  Friday was the first day I looked at anything school related.  Thursday we hit the ground running with our business.  We were given very short notice that the man we rent office space from was going to be moving our business and wanted to be out in 15 days.  Though we believed he was crazy (and still do) we started looking for what could be our next office.  Three offices later we found the one we will be moving into this week. 

Today we spent the day at Ikea buying office furniture and spent the evening doing lesson plans and putting Mikes man space (the garage) back together. 

I am seriously mourning the end of break, but trying to keep the excitement of what is to come in the forefront of my mind to lead me through the back to school blues! 

who needs a candle holder when you have an ear?

Worst Cook

Last year my family was into the show "Worst Cooks".  I assured them that though I am not amazing in the kitchen that I am not "one of them".  Well after several issues with dinners in the past couple of months, I think I should see if they are auditioning.  Last week I made some Turkey sausage concoction with noodles and red sauce.  I was thinking that I was hot stuff making something I don't usually make. The noodles are ready and I strain them and as I do the strainer falls over and 3/4 of my noodles go down the drain.   I wash them away and start the disposal and it isn't sounding so great... water starts rising.  Oh geez... well I have to get dinner on the table so I let that go and I finish up.  I am proud to sever up this dinner.  I made the carrots right that I had been messing up and life was good.  The tukey sausage smells good and I changed the way I made them from last time to this time.  We sit down at the table and cut into the meat and guess what.  It ended up being another 10 minutes until we started eating again.  The meet was not cooked all the way (again).  After Mike having to fix another one of my meals we then had to "plunge" the sink.  Yes, plunge it.  It took about 30 minutes and taking the pipes apart under the sink and emptying them of my noodle mess before I was putting everything away.

I can't make pizza right either.  Every time we get a pizza from winco or papa murphy's I take it out and tell the family it's dinner time and before I know it I see the pizza going right back by my face and back into the over.  I don't ever cook it long enough although to me I don't understand what is wrong with it.

Chewy Chicken.  One of my favorite dishes that I make is a cashew chicken dish.  Apparently instead of under cooking it, I am good at overcooking it.  Chewy Chicken is often a phrase said to me at dinner when I ask how everyone is enjoying it.  It will go something like this, "well it's not chewy chicken." 

Someday when we aren't poor, I think I shall give myself the gift of cooking lessons so I don't watch my family eat dinner every night in fear that I screwed it up AGAIN!

I do occasionally make a great meal.  It's just that I usually do something wrong on some part of the dish or forget to season and such.  Little susie homemaker is apparently NOT my name.

MAJOR REPAIRS

Well hello family and friends.  The Carr's have been in the Shop for major repairs.  We have obviously been gone from the blogging world for a while.  Mainly because, well what we have been going through--I'm not actually sure if anyone would believe the amount of things we have been through in the last couple of months and in the last year.  What a wild ride.  Honestly lately if feels like our engine is going out.  We badly need repairs done, but I guess sometimes it feels like we are that "Car" that is so challenging to repair and the parts have to come in from so many different places and you have to take this and that out to get to the repair spot that its just going to be a long haul. 

Our family needs prayers like crazy.  We have a lot going on and we are running so so low on gas and oil.  As we are willing to share information with others I will post a blog here and there to explain our life.  But for now, as we are being taken apart and repaired, we ask for your prayers and we thank you for you love.

working 9-5, just trying make a living...

As I contemplated what I would write about going back to work, Working 9-5 by Dolly Parton came into my mind.  Awesome, that should be stuck in my head for days.  Yay.

Going back to work has been an adjustment for me. I am really enjoying my new job and so thankful for it.  I am really excited to continue to get the classroom ready.  For those of you who don't know, I am now the Kindergarten Teacher Assistant at Destiny Christian Preschool.  For the past two weeks I have been working with Brandy (the Teacher) on getting the room and projects ready along with working with the students in the summer program mainly in the afternoon care. 

It has been a rude of wakening figuring out how to get laundry, dishes, chores, family time, time for Extant and time with Mike all figured out.  I do understand that most families deal with this, and we will figure it out, however right now it is an adjustment for us.  I have been trying to do as much laundry as I can on the weekends and trying to be really good about filling the dishwasher as we use the dishes.  We will get there.

Extant (Our business) has really been growing just in the past week or two even.  We are really seeing how God is starting to pull us out of the pit we have been in.  Oh Thank You Lord!!!  Mike and I were up late last night talking about the potential for Extant and the exciting places it could take us as a family and in the mission we would love to serve with it--helping smaller churches achieve their audio/visual wants and needs. I can't tell you the amount of phone calls and emails Mike has told me about the past couple of weeks when I get home.  Thank you for your prayers, your encouragement and Thank You our dear Lord for providing these opportunities, please keep praying for us as a family, in our business and for the needs that we still have.  Though we have had a lot of contact as a business and some contracts signed, these jobs have to continue and our reputation has to continue to grow.  I can't even begin to tell you how impressed I am with Mike and the God given talents and abilities he has been gifted with to make this business happen and to do his job with such excellence and integrity.

I have more to say.  But I promised myself I was going to start going to bed earlier.  It's almost 1AM and unfortunately this is earlier than I have been going to bed!

Good night friends.  May you be thankful for all the precious moments you have and trust that the not so precious ones are just part of the story, but not the ending! 

It's a Bird, It's a Plane. No wait, it's really a Bird!

So as stated and talked about previously, My mother in Law, Eileen, has taken our kids on a vacation for a week!  They are having an Absolute blast and I hope they bring back some fabulous pictures to put up on the blog!  So while they are out, Mike and I are taking care of her Animals. This only seems fair since she has our animals, I mean kids, with her.  She is always so gracious to take care of our two kids and our two Great Danes when we leave town,  I am thankful we can return the favor.

I don't know that many of you know this but as an 8th grade graduation gift, Mike was given a bird.  Because birds are kind of fiinicky and need certain kinds of care and light and such Bo has lived with grandma for a number of years.  Instead of going back and forth to the house every day we brought Roxie (she gets her own blog post after her shinanigans today) and BO to our house while my brother in law has been feeding the cat.  

Bo has been living in our family room, he makes just enough noise to let you know that the house really isn't quiet just when you think it is! :)  He loves Mike but Bo and I have a mutual "I don't know if I care for you" relationship with each other.

Brutus could care less about BO but our Great Dane puppy, Gus.  Well that's a whole different story.  Gus has figured out that Bo's cage sits in front of a window that goes to the back yard, so Gus has tried more than ones to get in through that window to "play" with BO.  Gus still doesn't understand his size so many times, he is trying to stiff him our or get a little closer to Bo and he is going to end up knocking the cage over.  Let's just say when I am home without Mike I keep Gus outside, Bo inside and try to be a peacemaker. :)  

Bo Bo Wants a Cracker... And a strawberry too!