Yes I pay the Babysitter

Well Duh. Go figure!

My husband asked me tonight as our babysitter was leaving if I had paid her yet for the last two weeks, and I said yes.

Our middle boy looks at the babysitter and said "You mean you get paid!?"

We all started laughing so hard. I couldn't help but share it. It's amazing this things kids say.

I pay the babysitter

Well Duh. Go figure!

My husband asked me tonight as our babysitter was leaving if I had paid her yet for the last two weeks, and I said yes.

Our middle boy looks at the babysitter and said "You mean you get paid!?"

We all started laughing so hard. I couldn't help but share it. It's amazing this things kids say.

To Stay or Not to Stay

About three weeks ago my husband and I were planning to sell our house, move to my parents, remodel their house to make it a two family dwelling, and split their mortgage. Well things changed. We soon realized that would not work for us. For one it would be very hard to sell our house right now. It's just stressful trying to hold on to a home right now, but just as stressful trying to sell it.

There were pluses and minuses to both scenarios. The upside of living at my parents would have been paying about half of what we are currently paying for mortgage and utilities, my children would have had the opportunity to grow up around the animals the way I did and learn from that as well as having their grandparents around all the time. Not to mention I would have had a completed house with no need for any further remodel except a wall to divide the house!!

The down side was that it would still feel like Mom and Dad's place, not ours. We would have no wright off for a mortgage every year with taxes as it would be like renting from them. And of course the major down side is since it would not be our place we would not be able to do just anything we wanted (like hubbies car projects).

So we decided to keep doing some more remodeling around here and try to hold on to our home. In the end I think it was the right decision for us, but if the economy gets worse I'm sure we will see more families be forced to move toward such living arrangements in order to make ends meet. Who knows we may still have to do that some day.

In my hast to get started moving........Half of my office and sewing room is packed up and sitting in my parents garage and the other half is here under plastic as we finish the drywall in my Office/Sewing room. It will be great when it is finally finished. I have so much room to work with. The down side is I CAN'T WORK ON ANYTHING right now.

I still have my sampler quilt sitting here in my To-Do basket, a Barn Yard quilt, that I can't wait to see finished, for my daughter and another little wall hanging for her room for starters. I have more planned, but those are the only ones in the works.

At least I can get to my computer and my genealogy files. I'm not going completely crazy yet, but I can't wait to be done with this room and get every thing set up for both of my passions.

Villiage quilt......continued

Well another week has gone by and I have gotten another two sections done to complete the main body of the quilt. Now I need to try my hand at applique for the first time, of the bushes, stars and moon, and finish it off with the border. I can't wait until I'm done. This has been so fun..... except for getting up in the morning after I got so involved that I lost track of time the night before.......lol.

Latest Quilting Project

I just thought I'd share one of my current quilting projects. It's really coming out nice. It's a Village quilt. I'm quit impressed that it is turning out this well.

Now I need to print out the rest of the pattern and finish the quilt.

Puppy Whoas and Quilting Bliss

I can't believe it's been almost a year since I posted here last. I guess I've done a better job of keeping up with my genealogy blog then this one. My how time flies.

Today I'm about ready to scream. My husband so badly wanted a little bull dog, so finally I gave in and we got our new addition "Rocky" a Southern White Bull Dog (Altman Bull dog). He is a sweet dog and I really like his personality, but there was one reason I wasn't to fond of getting a puppy......the house breaking! Not to mention we are still working to finish potty training our daughter! How much more do I have to take?

I think that in the next few weeks or at least by the weekend the carpet in the last two carpeted room is coming out! I can stand pet odors, especially when they aren't totally house broken. Then to make matters worse the puppy didn't want to go on the road with my hubby this time, so he was left behind. So now I have a puppy in the house that doesn't get what the heck the doggy door is for all day while I'm at work!

That little frustration aside I am having some fun. I've picked up another new hobby. One that has always interested me, but i never got into, quilting. Heck if I really get into this I may just have to create another blog where I can show my quilts. I'm still learning a lot, but having fun doing it.

My genealogy research is still a passion of mine, but I don't really have the time to stay organized and keep going on that right now. I pick up a person of interest and do a little online research when I can, but that's about it. At least with the quilting I can pick it up and put it down a lot easier and not worry about interruptions from the kids. It's not like loosing my train of thought when doing research.

Remembering 9/11

My dear Miriam Midkiff of AnceStories2 shares with us her thoughts on 9/11. She also asks a series of questions to get you thinks, so I thought I'd paste them in here and share my experience.

*How did you hear about the attacks of 9/11?

I was just getting up for work that morning and had gone over to turn on the TV while my coffee brewed just in time to see the second plane hit the second tower. I was horrified. I remember just standing there with my fingers up to my mouth. My husband had already gone to work and our son was still asleep. So I just stood there in silence and watched. Wow I hadn't thought of that in a long time. But I remember it as if it were yesterday.

*What did you do that day? Did you go to work or school, or stay home?

I did go to work. I had the privilege of a big screen TV to watch the news all day. At that time I was a portrait studio consultant. So we showed the images on a big screen TV which I sometimes watched the news on when I had nothing better to do. September really starts the slow time for about a couple months till it picks up for Christmas. So I really had almost no customers that day. Instead I set at my viewing room desk with a few projects going on the computer and watched the news all day.

*What were your feelings?

Mostly sadness. Especially when we began to find out the magnitude of the lives lost that day. I was horrified as I witness the plans hit the building. I can't say I was really scared. I mostly considered myself blessed that I lived in a part of the US that I didn't think they would really be interested in destroying. There isn't much significant that would affect the whole country on that magnitude her in Idaho.

*How has what happened that day changed your life in some way?

I'm not sure my life has really changed too much. Expect that maybe now I realize how important it is to write about my life and chronicle my story and that of my family just in case, God forbid, that some tragedy takes me away from my children. I really realized that tonight when I watched the children on Oprah today talking about the parents they lost and in some cases barely knew because they were so young. Even if I'm not here someday and my children are young, I at least have the peace of mind that they will know me and their father because of the stories I have done and the ones I'm still working on.

*What are your hopes for the future, in connection with this tragedy?

You know these days I'm just focusing on keeping my head above water with my own life and family. I don't think much about the future of the world. My life is enough to worry about. However, I will say that I would like to see our military men and women begin to come home. I feel they are fighting a loosing battle over there. They've have done a noble job and deserve all of our support, but I feel it is a loosing battle they are being forced to fight. It's time they come home.

Well there are my thought to Miriam's questions. So what are yours. Share with us how you felt, what you still feel, and what your future hopes and prayers are in relation to the 9/11 tragedy.

Tibetan Personality Test

This is amazing. Take this Personality Test you will be amazed at what it tells you about your personality. I was really amazed about what it told me about myself. It all fit right in place with my life.

I don't want to give any of it away, so with out doing that I can tell you that I found out the Family is the most important thing in my life, I have a Buddy personality, my hubby is cuddly (usually when he wants something....hehehe), my life is relaxing (usually the case except for right now), my true life friend is my best friend Dez, someone i really love is my mom, someone I will never forget is my brother, the person who is my twin soul is my mother-in-law and I can really see that, someone I will always remember for the rest of my life is my dad, now all of that about made me cry.

So go take your test and see what it tells you about your life and personality. Then please let us know (with out revealing the questions).

Picutres from the farm

Here are photos that I took on my parents farm related to my post about Bucking Hay. I of course am behind the camera all the time, but really who wants to see pictures of my big butt bucking hay.......hehehe. The kids are so much cuter to see in photos.

Bucking Hay

Well I got out of my office and got some fresh air today. My parents have a little farm out in Rathdrum. We often go out there and ride the horses and enjoy the fresh air with them.

My parents aren't to terribly old, but they are getting up there to the point that they are feeling their age. My mother though is living out her passion and dream. She has her own little farm. She has always loved to be outside getting dirty and taking care of animals. Growing up I was always surrounded by animals. I do enjoy them, and I would love to have my children raised with animals. But I just can't afford to give that to my children, and now that I have found my own passion (genealogy) in life I don't think I would have the time or energy to give them that, even if I could afford it. So taking my children out to my parents farm and exposing them to the responsibilities and labor of raising animals is the next best thing.

Our oldest has taken a real interest in the farm and especially the horses, so I really try to encourage that and I take him out there when I get the chance. I really need to find a 4-H Horse club in the area and see if I can afford to enroll him in that as I know he would love it. Our daughter has also become very attached to the horses. We have to watch her because at two years old she has no fear and does not understand the danger of a horse. All she knows is that she wants to ride. Or in her on words "wonna wide!"

Anyway I truly appreciate the fact that my parents bought this place and the animals so that I can expose my children to that experience which is so rare for children today. So many parents just let their children veg out in front of the TV playing video games and eating all day rather that getting out and getting some sunshine and other outdoor activities, just because it's the easy thing to do. Hey no one said it was easy to load up three kids and take them to Grandma and Grandpa's on my own, but once we get their and my daughter starts clapping at the beginning of their long drive say "ya Papa!" and then they all pile out of the car and plow Grandma and Grandpa down with hugs and kisses and then turn and run for the horses the first chance they get.,........ It make it worth every minute of getting them dressed, cleaning rooms, making beds, brushing teeth and hair and after an hour finally getting out the door. I would never trade those times for the easier alternative of popping in a movie and letting them veg out in front of the TV.

Anyway like I was saying before I got side tracked on that last thought. I appreciate that farm more than my parents may ever know (that is unless mom reads my blog again....Love you Mom). When I was there yesterday they mentioned that they had to bring in hay again. I knew with Mom's left shoulder in bad shape that it almost impossible for her to lift those bails of hay. So I told them we'd be over today. They said it was a great help especially for mom when we had finally finished five tons of hay, unloading and stacking. It wasn't too bad really. Dad did the hardest part, but mom rolled them off the top, I picked up or scooted the bails over to Dad and he lifted and put them on the stacks. It was good hard work. I enjoyed it for a change. I look forward to the next time I can help them. But for now I'm pooped and ready for bed. Between my asthma acting up a bit and my tired body, I'm done for the night.

Well here is a little preview of the wonderful weekend we had this past weekend. My parents only live about 15 minutes from me, but it was so nice to pack up for a weekend and take the kids to spend the night there.

Saturday we got to ride the horses and have fun, and celebrate the 10 year olds birthday. Then Sunday we were up and off to Greenbluff for the Cherry festival. We only visited a couple farms, but we had a lot of fun. I really love the pictures of the kids riding the ponies. I just hope some day we can get our middle boy over the fear of riding horses.

He came off of a horse that spooked with him last summer and since then he is so afraid to ride them. To say the least grandma and grandpa got rid of that horse and now they have another one. Cooper is a great horse. Our middle boy did finally agree to ride him. So we put a bareback pad on him and Grandpa started walking the horse. Well our boy began to slide down because the bareback pad wasn't tight enough. Cooper just stopped and looked back at him like "what on earth you doing down there?" Our poor boy was just holding on and not letting go, but that horse never flinched.

I'll have to go do that again soon. It's fun to get up early in the morning and go horse back riding with the kids. At least my oldest and my daughter love to ride the horses with a passion. Our daughter is always pointing at them say, "wanna ry, wanna ry" She's just so cute about it.

A Young Cowboy's Birthday

Well I'm really starting to feel old. As of tomorrow my son will be 10 years old. It's hard to believe that he is ten. It seems like just yesterday he was learning to talk and of course hasn't stopped since, lol.

I've been very busy working on some genealogy for a family for their family reunion. So I called up my mom earlier in the week and told her that by this weekend I would be so ready to get out of the house and do something and since my son's birthday was that Monday, why not we come over, spend the weekend with them, ride the horses and see what else we do.

So we showed up her Saturday morning. We all then went out to Rathdrum Days. It's a small little town and a small little celebration, but it was nice to get out of the house and go shop Crafter's booths at the local high school and park.

Saturday afternoon we came back and watched a movie while we waited for it to cool down. Then Mom and I decided to take the boys to the ranching store so I could get the 10 year old a pair of boots for his birthday. The prices of the boots weren't as bad as I expected so I also had room in the budget for a belt too. But of course the middle boy saw his older brother getting boots and he just had to have some. If Grandma hadn't been there he wouldn't have gotten any. He would have just had to wait to get any. But Grandma's always have a soft spot and she couldn't stand it. She bought him a pair of boots too, and told him the were an early birthday gift ( his birthday isn't until December), we'll see if that lasts.

Earlier that day the 10 year old also got an Aussie Cowboy hat from Grandma and Grandpa for his birthday. Now he was all set. Our Cowboy. I told my mom that I am glad that he chose to be a cowboy because he sure wouldn't like me too much if he decided on a Gothic , gangster, or any of those other looks that I don't approve of. I'm just not one of those parents that believe in letting their kids make all the choices. I am the parent and I will be the parent. I'm not their friend. But I am happy that we agree on the path he has chosen.

Later when it finally cooled off we did get out there and saddle of the horses. We all got to do a little riding. I'm so proud of my oldest. He is learning to take care of the horses and rides so well. I think I am going to look into a 4H horse riding group for him. I know he will love it.

Then today we all got up and went to Greenbluff in Washington for the Cherry Festival. It was nice to browse around the gift shops, but I didn't buy anything. When you live on a very limited budget, little shops like that are just so expensive for their crafts and food items. I know then can and prepare food products on a small scale, so the manufacturing cost for them are probably much higher than what it is for a big company like Kraft, Smuckers, and other big name brands. But gee $13 for a pound of coffee beans or $5 for a small little bag of pasta.

On the other hand it was fun and a great buy to pick our own Cherries. We went out on this big wagon pulled by this ancient tractor. We spent a good while picking cherries. When we were done we had twelve pounds of cherries.

Boy did that bring back old memories. Growing up in California my parents had a huge lot that had many fruit trees and farm animals like goats, chicken, rabbits, geese and my FFA lamb for the fair. One of the trees we had that I think all of us loved the most was a cherry tree. God I remember eating so man cherries that the next day I'd spent more time in the bathroom then I would back out in the cherry tree. Of course Mom would warn us that we were going to give ourselves a tummy ache. But do you think we listened, or course not. My brother and I had to have at least one tummy ache from the cherries every year to refresh our memory and remember that Mom did indeed know what she was talking about. I'll never forget that cherry tree as long as I live. It had so many great memories.

Well the 10 year old is one happy boy. The only thing that could have made his birthday better, is to have his dad home for it. But hopefully he'll be home in a few days.

What Are Men Good For?

Where I live, unfortunately, we have one open lot that they never built a home on to the back south side of us, then to the back east side of us are some storage units. My house sits and a strangle angle with five sides to the lot. If you have ever lived near either one you know what little pesky vermin can come out of them. That's right mice! Well for the most part I never had trouble with them in my home. But my neighbor did. That was until they tore down the old green house at the back half of the lot and started working on my yard. Now I have the little buggers visiting me in my home.

So I went and bought the good old fashion traps. Put cheese, bread, peanut butter or even a piece of a doggy biscuits (they ate up most of the small bag I had, so I knew they liked them). I'll be darned if the darn things didn't clean me off every stinkin' time and leave my traps empty. Well forget that. These guys are too smart, or I'm too stupid to get these traps to work.

So on one of my hubby's trips home he went to the store since he wanted some hearty meals while he was home to satisfy his craving for real home cooking. While he was there he picked up some of those trays with the real sticky stuff on them. I'll be darned if I didn't catch one the first night, then one the next and then ANOTHER a few nights later! No wonder they were driving me crazy. I thought I only had one of two in here.

At this point I know I have at least one more. I've seen it once and certainly heard it. Well this night I sure as heck heard it. I had reset the trap to be between the refrigerator and the cabinet, where I had caught two of the others.

I'm sitting down here talking to my friends and all the sudden i heard this loud, eerie screech and scratching. I thought maybe some wild cat (since we have some of those who use to like the greenhouse too) was being eaten by a coyote at my sliding glass door. At least that's what it sounded like. I had no clue!

I carefully crept up stairs to see what the commotion is all about. As I come up the stairs, turn the corner and turn on the kitchen light I heard it again and looked ahead and saw it. Oh my God the mouse had three of it's four feet caught, but he was still very much alive. He was using the free leg to brace on the floor and pull the other three legs. I didn't want to touch it since he was standing up and alive.

This was the moment that I wondered "Why the heck couldn't James be home tonight" He had taken a live one out for me when he was home. So I left it. What else was I going to do? I sure wasn't going to reach my hand between the cabinet and risk being bitten by a mouse!

I get up the next morning and that darn thing had freed himself and was gone. Now I'm probably going to have to buy a different kind of trap because I doubt he will fall for that one again.

With James gone I have been capable of doing a lot of things on my own. I've dealt with my own plugged up over flowing toilet that one of the kids blessed me with, I've done more little remodel projects around the house, selling the car by myself, take out my own trash and so many other things that are easy to leave up to the man to do. But that was one thing I was not going to do. I'll catch the little bugger later, but I was not going to retrieve that trap with a live mouse on it. Give me another toilet to plunge before I do that.

The Perfect SAHM Money Maker

I know I have neglected my poor blog, but it's been for a good reason. Now it's time to introduce it to you other Stay At Home Moms (and Dads). It's the world of freebie site trading.

Now I'm going to tell you right now this is no way to get rich, and is not a way to replace steady income. Don't quit your job to do this. But this can be a great way to supplement your income, SAHM can contribute to family income, pay off a bill or pay for a vacation. My point is it isn't steady reliable income, but it is a way to make some extra cash. You could make anywhere from a few hundred extra bucks a month to a couple thousand. It just depends how much you want to work at it.

There are two ways you can make money in this freebie trading industry. One is for beginners the other method is for more experienced traders.

Beginners Method

With this method you are being paid to try offers and go GREEN for the experienced traders. It's not too hard to do, but it can be overwhelming at first. The keys to being sucessful are to stay organized and do your homework.

So how does this method work. Well in a nut shell you agree to trade your green for say $25 on a freebie site. The trader you agree to work with will set the trade up in what ever forum you are working from (and I will talk about forums more later).

Then you will:

1. Sign into that site under your trader with their referral link
2. Provide your personal information (which must be accurate) to create you account and at that point you are YELLOW.
3. Then you will complete offers to obtain one full credit. On some sites you can get by with one offer to as many as six offers to get your credit. When you get your one full credit you are then GREEN.
4. Then you wait until your trader pays you. Payment times can vary depending on the method you and your trader agreed to. If the terms were payment on Green then you should be paid with in 24 hours of going green, but if the terms were on approval then you must wait until the trader receives approval from the freebie site to be paid and that could take a month give or take.

So if you did BMG Music for $13 and two $1 monthly subscription trial, you will have spent $15. Then after you trader pays you $25 via PayPal you will have made $10 profit and gotten three great offers that you might have done some day on your own, but with this you got paid to do them and made a little extra on top of it. Other times you may get to do a site where you make $35 for your green and only need to spend about $10 to go green for a $25 profit. All the while you are getting great product you might have baught on your own anyway and paid full price for.

Well that's going green in a nut shell, but there is a lot more to it than that. Which is why my partner and I have started a Newbie (new traders are refered to as Newbies in the industry) Live Online Training to teach others how to do this. It's a great way to get to know other fellow traders. It makes the online trading thing less scary when you know people by name and get to know a little about who they are. Right now Lori and I are in the process of putting together a website about our Newbie Live Training and when we finish I will update my blog.

The Real Money

It's great to make money trying products you'll enjoy, but inevitable at some point you will run out of offers to do. At that point it's time to jump the fence and be an experianced trader. Which is where the real money is.

Now it's your turn to train other newbies to go green and pay them for their green. This side of the fence I find a bit easier, but you still need to be very organized and willing to work. Now you will spend your time posting in the forums (which I will list next, I promise), responding to messages, and training newbies to go green. It's not for the lazy. It works best if you put some time and thought into it.

So how do you make money on this side. Well lets take for example the site that you went green on for $25. Now you need to choose a gift you want to work for. When starting out I recommend starting small. So let's choose the $150 via PayPal prize and you only need three referalls to get that.

Steps to Paying for Greens:

1. Post in the forum (I promise I'm close to giving you the list!) in the Trading Center. Make your title very catchy. If you can't get people to open your thread than it doesn't matter what's inside. But once they open it keep their attention with a great post. Let people know what you are working on, how much you are willing to pay (generally about 50% if good) for thier green, what your payment terms are, and anything else important for your traders to know.
2. When you get that first interested person, go ahead and do a Happy Dance! Then get to work. Chances are that person is a newbie and will need a lot of help. So first you communicate with them and find out how much they know about going green and make sure they know the definate do's and don'ts.
3. Once they are comfortable with all of this then you set up the trade in the forum (the list is coming up).
4. Then you wait for them to go green and probably help them when they get stuck.
5. Last of course you pay them when they have gone green, or you wait until you have all three of your referalls. Then you submit for approval, and if your terms were payment after approval then you would pay them at that point.

Now with this you can see that you are going to make a lot more money (though it's not alwasy stead). So if you went for the $150 prize and you paid out $25 for three referals to get that the you paid $75 and made a $75 profit. Chances are with only needing three referals you would be able to do that in about a week if not sooner.

To give you an example I started in mid February, but didn't get many payments until March. The first part of March I was doing greens. I did greens for about three weeks before I jumped the fence. In March I made about $200, April was my big month at about $1750 (about half going ot refs though), May was $480 (half in my pocket) and June well it was a bad month at $280. So you can see that this can give you some extra cash to help with the bills, but don't count your chickens before they hatch.

Freebie Site Forums

Free Lunch Room

This forum has grown quickly and has many traders in it. It's where I got started so it's special to me. They are currently making some improvements. You'll find me on there and all the forums as amyrebba and my partner as lekrtk00.

Freebie Trading Center

The newest and latest up and coming forum in the Freebie Industry. I know the gal who runs this forum. She needs help to promote this forum, but she's got a user friendly forum that I like. I've got high hopes for this one. This is my other forum that I trade on.

There are two more big forum out there. Personally I don't care much for them. They tend to attract a younger full of attitude generation and they are rather difficult to get started on. But for your information they are:

FreeiPodGuide

Anything4Free

So there you have it. An overview of what I've been doing with all of my spare time for the last few months. And now I need to make dinner so that I can be ready for one of our next Online Training Sessions.

Life has happened again.

Once again the title of my blog rings true in my life. I've not been blogging for a while because I've been dealing with life.

James lost his job back in March. We knew it was only a matter of time, but sometimes no matter what you do you just can't get prepared for something like that. The only way he was prepared is that he was already looking into changing his career completely. That's exactly what he did. The next day he was at Sage Trucking registering for his training.

Also if you read my previous posts you'll know that we had the awful experience of having the tires stolen off one of our vehicles, and we've not heard anymore from the Post Falls Police. Since I haven't done anymore work on trying to track them down, they haven't either. I've not heard another peep in weeks. I think it's strange that they know who the meth addict woman is that was seen with them. But their line is they can't prove that she was seen with my tires and therefore they can't issue a warrant for her arrest. Come on people does it take a rocket scientist to figure that one out? And I find it hard to believe that she hasn't been arrest since then for something else. Can you not question her? Oh well I guess I need to just move on and realize that Post Falls is becoming a big town and that crime is a big part of that. You just can't trust everyone in a big town especially when there is a problem with drugs in the area. I can't wait to finish the remodel on our place and sale it. The next time I buy a home it will be in a little town out in the middle of nowhere!

I've also been spending my time doing online freebie site trading to help supplement his unemployment until he got back to work. I've made about $2000 since March when I started this. Now it's turned into something larger than I ever imagined. I've now partnered with another gal and we are teaching online evening classes so people can learn how to green on freebie sites and get paid for it. Now we have other sites and forums wanting to sponsor us. I'll tell you all about it when we make it public. But I really have found a way to make money and help others do the same from home on the Internet.

No I haven't forgotten about my dream to become a professional genealogist. I'm still working on that too. Which I've gained three more new customers because people have found out on the freebie sites that I do genealogy research. So I'm doing both. It's great!

So now I'm officially a truck drivers wife. I do miss him and I know he misses me and the kids. On the other hand his back has hardly been bothering him at all. This is definitely a good change as far as his back is concerned and the pay is good. Hopefully it will help us get caught up on our bills.

My neighbor who has been promising to do my yard for nearly a year got started on it last weekend. We aren't done by any means, but we got started. The greenhouse has now been completely leveled and crushed in and the hole started filling up. But now I have the pleasure of dealing with a dirt yard and three children playing in it. Not fun! I sweep at least two times a day and mop daily. Yeah I know I'm being crazy, but I've never been able to handle dirt on my bare feet. I don't like the feeling.

Well that's pretty much what has kept me away for a couple month. Now I'm off to my parents to visit with my cousin and her family who came up for the weekend.

Post Falls Police Department NO Common Sense!

At this point I am fuming. What the heck are my tax dollars paying for. What for the Post Falls Police to tell us "we don't have enough evidence. We can't prove they had your property. We can't bring them in for questioning." It's a load of BS. We have gotten nothing but the run around.

So let me address each one of those pathetic excuses:

• We don't have enough evidence. Let's see I put our detective in touch with Liberty Lake Police department who have a witness that saw tires, matching ours to a T in the possession of a known meth addict. What they don't seem to get, and I'll give them credit they are police not car guys, but our tires are very unique. That's why they caught the attention of an employeee at Liberty Lake Altons. There aren't too many 15" rims with 8 holes. most 15" rims have 6 holes. Then add to that 38" SuperSwampers. They aren't the norm. I know that Chris saw our tires and the police won't do anything even though they know who the witch is that had them. YES THAT'S RIGHT, THEY KNOW THE WOMEN WHO WAS IN POSSESSION OF THEM AND WAS TRYING TO SELL THEM at Liberty Lake Alton's. How much more evidence do you need to at least question her?
• We can't prove they were your property. Again bring the witch in, question her, find out where the tires are or where she sold them and I'll tell you and show you pictures to prove they are my tires. But the police claim it's too hard to locate here because she is a meth addict and crashes at many different addresses. Give me her name and I'll find her, and I'll prove she has my tires!
• We can't bring them in for questioning. Are you kidding me. If you really wanted to get to the bottom of this you would.

WHAT YOU REALLY MEAN IS THIS IS A WASTE OF OUR TIME, GO FILE A CLAIM WITH YOU INSURANCE.

Well that's just not possible. That vehicle was on no op. It wasn't running so we didn't insure it. We aren't made of money. So we just lost a $2000 set of tires and the police department manage to come up with every excuse in the books.

But you know what's funny to me.

1. Liberty Lake already knew who this woman was. She already has a reputation of meth use and suspect possession of stolen property. Have you ever heard "If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, it must be a duck" So go get the dang duck and make her quack for Pete's sake.
2. We weren't the only ones robbed. The automotive shop behind us has been hit numerous times and yet he says the police department doesn't seem to do a whole heck of a lot for him either. On this last robbery he called them back to do finger prints. They told him they couldn't work with that. There were finger prints all over that car, especially above the tire wells.

Gee I wonder why insurance rates are so stinkin' high. Gee could it be because the police never spend much time or effort in looking for stolen property and at least bringing suspects in for questioning.

Not only that our crime rates really are high here in Post Falls and climbing. I wonder why. Like Dr. Phil says, "we teach people how to treat us" So what are the police teaching the criminals? It's okay to steal. You just make more paperwork for us. The victim will just file with the insurance and you can go support your nasty habit with their property.

I will say in defense of police officers. They can only do so much. It's the laws, judges, and prosecutors who think there isn't enough evidence to pursue a criminal, or issue a warrant. As far as I'm concerned that is ridiculous.

Well I guess I need to just make peace with the fact that we will never see our tires again because the Post Falls Police department doesn't have ENOUGH EVIDENCE.

Here is just one more thing I found while doing some research and digging into the amount of crime in Post Falls.

• 2001 had 1152 crimes and 1115 arrests 97% arrest rate
• 2002 had 1258 crimes and 1098 arrests 87%
• 2003 had 1485 crimes and 1096 arrests 73%
• 2005 had 1200 crimes and 882 arrests 73%
• 2006 had 1366 crimes and 957 arrests 70%

2005 & 2006 according to the Spokesman Review more than half were related to drug use. Yeah that wasn't brain surgery.

(sources: 2001-2003 Agency/County Information, page 176, 2003 crimes in ID & 2004-2005 Spokesman Review, "Post Falls Crime on the Rise, " Hope Brumbach, April 19, 2007)

See the trend there? Our arrests rate declines each year, but not because crime declines. In fact in all years except for 2004 it was higher than the previous year. So what does that tell you? They aren't arresting the criminals and cleaning up our town.

So how do we make a difference? By getting involved. Help out our police. Our detective didn't have to do all the leg work himself. I actually spent days on the phone following leads I got and then letting him know. The next time you have something stolen. Don't be lazy and just file with your insurance. Protect our insurance rates, and help the police catch the criminals. Make calls, visit pawn shops or any where else they may try to sell the property.

And for Pete's sake if you have drug users and especially dealers in your neighborhood, start a log of all the license plates that come and go and report them. Let's clean our town up. Get your neighbors involved in calling the police and reporting them.

Update on Stolen Tires

Heads up in Liberty Lake and Post Falls. The tires I listed in my last blog have been seen in Liberty Lake.

First let me say THANK YOU to the Alton's Tires stores. First I called around to many tire stores on Thursday giving them details of the stolen tires. I appreciate all of their help. But there were a few that stood out. Liberty Tires even offered to call a couple other stores for me to spread the word and there were others that agreed to spread the word. But Altons was the one that stepped up to the plate and hit a home run (sorry my son is in baseball this year. Momma in baseball mode here LOL).

I called one of the Alton stores in the Spokane area. I asked the gentleman if there was a way he could get the word out to all the stores since there were so many Alton's. He told me that he could give me a number at their head quarters and I could call and talk to a gal there and let her know so she could send out a fax. So I called her. She was at lunch, but about fifteen minutes later I got a call back from her. She gladly took all the details and said she would get a fax right out and wished me luck.

With in less than an hour I had a phone call from an employee at the Liberty Lake Alton's. Of course I was on the phone to all the other shops making calls and when I discovered the call they were already closed. So I called him back this morning. He told me that he had already called the police in Liberty Lake and gotten them involved. The news only got better when he told me they know who it is. They already had the woman identified. She is a known meth addict in the area. Like i suspect a true idiot that had no clue as to the full value of those tires and rims.

Which takes me to another shop. Before I had a chance to talk to to the employee at Alton's I had called and talk to a guy at Hilliard Tires. I wasn't even finished giving him the details and he knew he had seen those tires the day before. He told me that a couple had come in the day before trying to sell those very same tires for $500. His boss didn't buy them and they went on their way. He asked me to hold while he went to get his boss. Funny his boss didn't want to talk to me, but the guy came back and said that they couldn't remember anything about them. Even when I kept questioning him about even the color of the car or what the people looked like he was suddenly sorry, but no one remembered. Bull Shit!! Just the change in his voice I knew something was up that his boss didn't want me to know.

The next call was to Detective Beck at the Post Falls Police department, who has been great trying to help us. He then called Hilliard Tires. It's amazing how their story went from we saw them yesterday to "oh we must have been wrong about that. It must have been about two weeks ago." Like I said before Bull Shit (pardon my french, but at this point I'm fuming)!! The guy also told me to try Big Bubba's Custom Tires just two blocks from them because he was known for buying used tires and rims especially custom. So I did and he was surprised that whoever the people were hadn't come to him. I also had Detective Beck follow up with him and it appears he was genuine about that he really never did see these *&(*%$^. Which is strange if Hilliard sent them on their way that they didn't go on down to Big Bubba's. Then again I don't think Hilliard sent them on their way. I think they either bought them or knew someone who wanted that kind of tire and now they don't want anything to do with the police now that they know it is stolen property.

Anyway back to Alton's tires and Liberty Lake Police. I can't thank them enough. Now the police at Liberty Lake and Post Falls hopefully have enough to go somewhere with this. Liberty Lake Alton's you were the break we needed. Thanks pal, we couldn't have done it with out you.

So we are still looking, spreading the word and working with the police to locate these tires. I'm not going to just look the other way. I will find them, and if someone has purchased them not knowing they were stolen I wished you would be honest enough to turn them over to the police. This was stolen from a family that doesn't need this right now. James is going back to school to get his CDL and I just didn't need the stress of this. So any help would be appreciated.

Stolen Tires

I hope everyone in the Coeur d'Alene, ID and Spokane, WA area sees this. Share it with everyone you know who lives in this area.

Someone is going around a stealing tires and rims off a vehicles and from shops. Especially the hard to come by, expensive, custom order wheels. So if you have a fancy custom vehicle, lock it up!!!!

On Saturday April 21st my husband went by our shop to get something. Everything was fine, nothing missing. He locked up and came back home. That night they hit us.

Sunday we got a call that informed us that the tires and rims were gone from our Dodge Ram Charger. My husband was in the middle of making us dinner and hollered down to me, as I was still trying to remove our gluey mess from the hard wood floor, that he needed to leave the shop had been broken into. I'm thinking oh great that's all we need. Right now he is out of work so that he can go back to school for his CDL and start driving truck. We can't afford to loose the equipment that can help supplement our income if he finds any side jobs. So I'm thinking the worst, but at the same time going well there is always insurance on the equipment.

He calls a little later to tell me he is still waiting on the Post Falls sheriff and give me a update. They didn't get into the shop and nothing was missing from there. It was worse. They got our custom rims and supper swamper tires off of our Dodge Ram Charger that I had dropped in insurance on because we weren't driving it. It wasn't in the shop. It was parked out behind the shop! That was about a $2000 set of tires and rims. To make matters worse the shop behind us also had a Chevy Blazer almost on it's side where they had left it after getting the tires off of it as well.

So here are the details of what was stolen from both of us.

Ours: Super Swamper TSL Tires 38 1/2 x 14 1/2 x 15 on Bart Custom 15 x 10, 8 lug rims. Originally while outsides painted black.

The other shop: Tires and Rims both custom order fitting a 6 lug Chevy blazer. The rims were Centerline 20"

If you have any details on the rash of auto thefts happening along Seltice Way in Post Falls please call the police or if you have any information to help us locate the Super Swamper Tires please contact us through this blog.

The shop behind us told us that he had called the sheriff department back out to do finger prints because there were finger prints all over the side of the truck from them stealing the tires. The gal that came out said she couldn't work with the finger prints and didn't bother to take any. There's our tax dollars at work for you.

But we had a little better response on ours. The sheriff that came out took a flashlight that had been left behind by the thieves. No one ever said thieves were smart. They are usually stupid and will get caught eventually. Then today we had a detective call and talk to us some more about it. He was glad we had taken the time to put out fliers, and he would be looking into both thefts seriously. God I hope so. It just makes me made that people think they have the right to take things that don't belong to them. I've got a few names for people like that, but I'll keep this "G" rated.

So today we toted the two younger children around to all the tire shops, pawn shops and custom auto shops we could think of. We handed out fliers and talked to as many people as we could about what happened. We also found out that a shop on Hayden Ave in Hayden was recently broke into and tires and rims stolen there, as well as one of the shops on Government in Coeur d'Alene told us he has been broken into a couple times, even catching the kids one time. Yes the ones he caught were teenagers.

So if you live here in this area of Norther Idaho and Eastern Washington, be aware that we have a rash of auto theft related to tires and rims happening in this area.

Making Money Online

Over the last two months I have been immersed into the new world of Freebie Site trading to make money. It's finally starting to take off for me. No I'm not giving up on my Heritage Makers. That's still a passion of mine, but until that really takes off I have a back up income starting to flow.

Here is the idea.

• Freebie site offers gift in exchange for a certain number of referrals you send to their site to complete offers.
• Referral uses your link to go to the site. They complete how ever many offers they need to in order to get one full credit (some offers are worth 1/2, 1/4, 1, etc). When they get one full credit this is called going green.
• The trader that gives the referral the link, then sends off all of his greens to be approved. Those that stay green get paid for their green. Those that turn red, well you never want to go red. But if you follow the rules then you shouldn't.
• Eventually you get to a point that you can't do anymore greens for other people because you run out of offers you can do, at least for a while. At that point you are ready to become a serious trader. Which is where I am at. I now pay other people to go green for me. Then when I have the greens I need for a site I send off for approval and get my prize. Usually cash paid via PayPal, or some other gift that I would like to have. But is much cheaper to pay for the greens then to go buy the item at retail.

So how does everyone involved make money at this? Simple. You are paid by the person you do a green for, the site is paid for every offer you complete, and the offers get future business if only from a portion of the traders or for just the trial period. So everyone involved makes money. Oh yea and the person that pays you for your green gets the prize.

Here is an example I am just about ready to send off for approval on one site. My prize is $750. I needed 28 points to get that prize. I am paying my 28 point, $12 per point. They may not seem like a lot for the person going green for me, but they can do maybe two $1 trial offers and get paid $12. So they make a profit of $10. Not bad for an hour of work (at least for a newbie. More experienced traders can sometimes work faster and do more. So you make more as you gain more experience). Then when I get the approval that all my traders are good, I pay them. So I shell out $336, leaving me with a profit of $414. Not bad for three weeks worth of work from home with the kids and not paying for daycare. Not only that but I work several sites at one time.

My favorite Forum to work from is FreeLunchRoom. Come visit sometime. You'll recognize me. I use the same old user name amyrebba. So come visit. Find out how I'm now making money along side my Heritage Makers.

Lost ComputerS!

Yes that's right. I didn't just loose one, but I lost both of my computers to two seperate incidents. Oh I thought I was going to die. This has been torture. About three weeks ago my main computer froze up. Done! Dead! Gone! I wanted to scream.

My main computer was exactly that, my main files, photos everything! Everything I do to make money and maintain our life revolves around this computer. My Heritage Makers stuff, blogging, photos, genealogy research (not only my families history which took two years to find, but two other families I'm working on), my checking account, menus, calendars, and so much more. Almost all of it is gone.

The old photos of ancestors are fine. Most of them I had backed up by putting them on my Heritage Makers account, but photos from the last couple months are gone. Then all of my fliers, brochures, labels and anything else I designed up myself for Heritage Makers are all gone! Genealogy was a stroke of luck. I had created a CD with a gedcom file of my family and the two other families I was working on to take with me to the Genealogy conference in March. So I have that stuff backed up, but I've still lost some of the other things like files of research that cousins sent me electronically. I'm not even sure of everything I lost of our families because I had so much!

I even lost programs that I bought and downloaded, but can't find the code anymore. Now I've got to buy them again. This time I'm not downloading the programs. I will be buying packages with the CD so I don't have this happen again.

This has been a big painful learning experience. You should always back things up! So now I have an external drive and I'll reformat an old hard drive to back everything up on a weekly basis. I can't afford this again. I am still trying to recover things, and somethings I may never recover. I know many of my databases I will just have to recreate.

Then to make maters worse. Easter weekend I had my laptop sitting on the desk, my daughter in my lap and a cup of coffee by my laptop. I wasn't paying attention and we were playing for a bit. My daughter leaned back and her head hit my laptop. There went computer number two. That weekend I was with out either computer. I thought I was going to really die then. I was on the phone with someone later and I was laughing about it. They couldn't believe I was laughing about it, but what can you do, if I didn't laugh I was certainly going to cry. Especially since the last incident was a stupid mistake on my part. So I spent the weekend in the basement helping hubby with my office. But I kept wondering what was going on with people I had freebie site business with online. If they thought I had just skipped out on them.

It's amazing the things we can do now because of computers. But it's also amazing how quickly it can all fall apart when computers are lost.

So fellow bloggers and genealogist, if you don't hear from me for just a bit longer, bare with me. I'm still trying to recover from this loss. I now can get back online and blog again, but recovering data, reentering data, reinstalling software, and everything involved with reinstating my computer is very time consuming. But when I get this behind me I will be back and running again.