Checking my receipts

I know, you are probably tired of hearing me complaining about the gas prices. Perhaps this will be one of my last times. If it isn't sorry, I just can't help it.

So I was looking through my old receipts. Yes, I have receipts that date back to 1999. Couldn't believe it myself but it was true. In those receipts I found some old gas receipts. So I really paid attention to the gas receipts and decided to do a comparison.

In 1989 gas was .99 cents a gallon. I remember this because it was my first year driving. Minimum wage was $4.25 and hour I believe as well.

Ten years later the cost of gas was $1.51 a gallon in July of 1999. So in ten years time gas had gone up .52 cents a gallon. Minimum wage was $5.75 an hour. So in ten years time minimum wage had increased by $1.50 an hour.

In 2002 gas was $1.86 a gallon on average. So in three years time gas went up .35 cents. Minimum wage was $6.75 an hour. So in three years minimum wage increased by $1.00 an hour.

In 2006 gas averaged $2.81 a gallon. So in four years we saw $1.00 a gallon increase. Minimum wage was still $6.75 an hour.

In 2007 gas was the same price averaging around $2.81 a gallon. Minimum wage was $7.50 per hour an increase of .75 cents.

Now in 2008 gas is averaging $4.55 a gallon here where I live. So in the last year we have seen an increase of $1.74 a gallon. Crazy how fast it is increasing and we don't see any relief in sight. Minimum wage is now $8.00 an hour an increase of .25 cents an hour.

In 1989 gas was 25% of the hourly minimum wage. Now in 2008 gas is more than 50% of the cost of minimum wage. I ask you who is really suffering here. Sure maybe some of us hate the price increases but we can find other ways in our budget to make up for the difference. But what about those making minimum wage? How are they living in a poor economy like this with the prices of everything sky rocketing?

Tipping

With rising gas prices it also seams like tipping jars are turning out everywhere! Gone are the days that tipping was for a service provided. A service that allowed you to sit back and have your purchases come to you. Not only should you be served but you should be served with courteous manners and a sense of appreciation for choosing to have your business with them.

Now it seams that tips are expected everywhere. You see them at malls at stores where you would buy food such as cookies, ice cream, fast food, etc. I have to ask, where is the service being provided here? I walked up to the counter and asked for my order andwas handed a cookie across the counter? What happened to the employer paying their employees salaries? Is it now going to be passed on to us so that we are bringing their wages up to an appropriate amount.

O.k., I don't drink coffee but I have never understood this one either. Why should you tip for coffee? You go up to the counter and ask for your order. You are already paying for one coffee what it would cost for 1/2 pound of coffee that would make who knows how many cups. When your coffee is ready they shout out your name. So please tell me why do people tip for coffee?

Yes, I know I am cheap but I still live in the standard of tipping for a service provided. So maybe some of you can help enlighten me. Where do we draw the line? Are we going to start having to tip for every purchase made? When we go into J.C. Penny's and ask the sales staff to help us find a skirt in a different size are we going to have to start tipping them?

What are your thoughts on tipping and where should the line be drawn? At what point should we expect to pay for the service we are getting and not have to pay additional fees? I look forward to your comments!

I was totally snubbed

On Saturday night at the hotel Aly met another girl who was sitting with her grandfather during the manager's reception. At this time all the hotel guests are invited down to the courtyard for appetizers and drinks. (I have never stayed at a hotel this fancy but hey, it was free and I really enjoyed it!) Anyway, they have a nice fish pond and Aly decided to go watch the fish swim. The little girl whose name was Lexus was happy to join Aly and was quite friendly. She was Aly's age and the two of them had a great time together. Honestly I got a glimpse of life down the road when Aly will pretend like I don't exist while she is around her friends.

Anyway, we decided to go swimming and said our goodbyes. The next morning Aly was thrilled to see her at breakfast! She sat at the table and carefully colored a picture for her new friend. When she was finished she wanted to go over and give the picture to Lexus. So I decided to join her and KK wanted to come to. Aly happily gave Lexus the picture and Lexus was thrilled. She was really happy to see Aly and was very thankful for the picture. During this entire exchange Lexus's mom and her mother's friend would not look over at us, would not stop their conversation, and would not give us the time of day. They never acknowledge us, never said anything to Aly, or would even give us eye contact. I must admit I was in shock. I am such a friendly person and usually experience other people being friendly as well.

At least Aly didn't notice, or should I say she is too young to even care. Her friend acknowledged her and ultimately that is all that matters. It did make me feel sad but what can I do. I am guessing due to the fact that I am a casual person, with casual clothes, no make up, and don't get my nails done that these women must have felt embarrassed to be in my presence. I must have seemed to low to associate with. Too bad, I feel bad for Lexus that she will grow up witnessing that awful display of discrimination over class level.

Stinson Beach

We woke up Sunday morning and decided to go to the beach since temperatures today would not exceed 80 degrees. We got there early around 10:00 a.m. Aly immediatly decided to go beach combing so Daddy and Aly took a long walk down the beach. KK actually didn't want to be at the beach and kept whinning to go home. So I kept KK and tried to get her engaged in making sand castles. I think I actually had more fun making them then she did.

KK was quite impressed with my castle making abilities. She enjoyed sitting down in front of the castles and looking at them.

After awhile Daddy and Aly came back and we flew kites. I will have to post pics and videos tomorrow as I have run out of time today and still need to upload those pics and videos. To be continued......

SF aquarium

Today was forcasted to be a very hot day. We had orginally planned on going to Stinson Beach but opted for an alternative plan since temperatures at that beach were predicted to be 90 degrees. So we decided to check out what there would be to doing in San Francisco. We can't even remember the last time we had been to SF so we did some research. We were surprised to find out that in 1998 they built a new aquarium called Aquarium of the Bay. We decided the kids would love to see the aquarium so we jumped in the car and made the journey.

The aquarium is small but it does have two awesome tunnels where you can watch fish, leopard sharks, bat rays, and many other ocean species swim over your head. At first Aly was quite scared. It was a little dark and since the tunnels were downstairs you kind of have that closed in feel. After time she relaxed and really enjoyed the tunnels. We went through the aquarium twice since it was so small.

Check out our aquarium hats! Too bad KK's was too big for her. I had to wear it instead!

KK had a great time too. She wasn't afraid of the tunnels until she saw Aly freaking out over it. Then she decided there must be a reason to be afraid and became very clingy herself. Her favorite thing at the aquarium was the leopard shark. Do you know that KK is very fond of sharks? It is one of her favorite animals besides elephants. Good think she hasn't seen the movie Jaws!

After the aquarium we decided to head for the hotel that we had a free night stay at in San Rafael. I realized I had forgot my swimsuit so we had to stop by Mervins to buy a new one. We took the girls swimming at the pool and they had a blast. It was great for Aly to use water wings in the pool and learn to become comfortable in the water. By the time we were done swimming she was using the water wings and swimming by herself.

Switching to Magic Jack the ups and downs

A little over a month ago I purchased Magic Jack for my home in an effort to cut back our monthly phone bill. You have to have a high speed Internet connection which we do so this service allows us to get rid of my previous carrier Vonage. With taxes vonage was costing me $30 a month for unlimited local and long distance. While it was a good deal I knew that with the purchase of magic jack which costs $40 for the jack, I would be able to save money on my monthly bill. With Magic Jack you don't have to pay for it monthly. Your initial cost is $40 for the jack and after the first year you have a yearly fee of $20. That is it! So I felt like I really didn't have anything to loose.

The positives:
no monthly bill
unlimited local and long distance

The negatives:
You can't choose your own phone number
You have to dial the area code for all calls including local

So far I have been happy with Magic Jack. I haven't really given the number out but have used it to make my long distance calls. We decided that we wanted to keep our regular number we have had for 6 years so we pay $10 a month for a land line with just local call service. So I didn't have to give everyone a new phone number to call me.

The hardest part for the whole transition is that with my residential line I don't have caller id/call waiting. This has been a rough transition for me as I love to know who is calling before I answer the phone. My magic jack line has caller id/call waiting so I probably should just consider giving everyone that number too. They don't have to use it but if my other line is busy they can.

So after taxes on my residential line I am now saving $15 a month on phone bills which equates to $180 a year. We are also happy that now when the power goes out we have a land line so we can still make phone calls. For those of you that can let go of your telephone number you could save $360 a year or more on phone service by switching to magic jack. It could be worth it for you!

Aly gets a new bike for her birthday

Last week when we met up with the other girls that will be going to Aly's elementary school they decided that we should bring bikes for the kids to ride each week. We had one problem. The only bike we had for Aly was a small 12" bike that didn't have any brakes. She was two when we bought it and we didn't even think to check to see if the bike had breaks. We had never know a bike could be made without breaks.

So we decided that since the other girls will probably be riding around pretty fast we better buy Aly a new bike with breaks. This was perfect timing because two of her Grandma's had sent her money for her birthday so we could use that money towards the purchase of a bike.

I told Aly that on Saturday we would go shopping for her bike. We had already been to walmart and didn't really see anything she had liked. So on Saturday we were going to head to three stores: Kmart, Sports Authority, and Toys R Us. When we got to Kmart she fell in love with the Little Mermaid bike. It was pretty pricey too at $79.99. Then we went to Sports Authority and they only had one hammerhead boys bike, so off to Toys R Us we went. At Toys R Us she fell in love with this bike which was pinkish/red with flowers on it. The best part for me was that is was $49.99 and yes, it had breaks. She also picked out a bike helmet. When we got to the registered I was thrilled to find out that this bike was actually on sale for twenty dollars off which made it 29.99.

I felt like Aly was secretly frugal too--ha, ha. Lucky me to have such a great deal and lucky me that Aly was happy and chose that bike!

My race to win a wii is over

After reading about the new Wii fit from my friend Lia's blog I had really wanted one. Only trouble was we don't have a Wii which you need to use the Wii Fit. So a new Wii is around $269 and a Wii Fit is about $89. I knew we didn't have this in our budget so I did an intense internet search and entered to win every Wii and Wii Fit contest that I could find. Some of the contests were simple and only required entering contact info while others were photo contests where you had to submit photos. I think I entered at least 10 contests or more. Now they are all pretty much over and I didn't have any luck. I will keep searching for more contests though. Maybe next year with our tax return we may be able to get one. In the meantime I will just have to realize that we can't have everything we want;-) Hee, Hee.

My friend Annette already has a Wii and yesterday was able to purchase the Wii Fit so I will look forward to going over to her house and playing it. She will probably totally kick my butt--hee, hee.

Until then if you know of any more contests please let me know. I still really want to win one!

Happy Birthday Dad

Today was one of those years where my father's birthday fell on Father's Day. He would have been 58 years old today. I still can't believe he is gone and I miss him more and more everyday. I can't believe at the young age of 54 he left this life and went on to another. I can't believe he had to battle cancer three times over a six year period. I can't believe the pain he endured the last six years of his life both physically and emotionally.

It hurts so bad that he is not here to see his grandchildren grow up. It hurt that he was not there when his second grandchild KK was born. He would be amazed at how much she resembles him. I will never get to know how he views me as a mother. I will never get to share with him the joys and pains of parenting. I can't tell him how much the girls are growing and changing everyday and I can't tell him that I love him.

I dream about him often and think about him everyday. I hope that when I dream about him it is him coming to me in my dreams letting me know he is alright and that he is watching over me and my family. My dreams are all I have and I hang onto them even after I wake. Often times when the children wake me in the night if I am dreaming about my father I will try and return to the same dream. That is all I have now, my dreams.

Aly's Kitty drawing

I just loved the drawing that Aly made for me of a cat. I thought it was really cute how she made his face and chest white. I love the little pink stripes too and the detail of eyelashes on the eyes.

I can't wait until the fall. Aly's school offers an afterschool art class that we can pay for once a week. The only downfall is she gets out of school at 1:50 and the art class is at 3:15. Her school is 8 miles away which just one trip costs us a gallon of gas. So, I am hoping that I might be able to use that time after school from 1:50 until her art class is over to volunteer at the school and do things for them. (prep work, copying, etc.) That is if they don't mind KK tagging along. Haven't really come up with any other ideas for killing time as there is nothing around the school but country home.