Our Work from Home Life

2011-08-09T14:42:00.000-06:00

I haven't used this blog in a long time. But at a recent party, several friends and I started talking. We all live in Clovis, and most of us had "real" (meaning professional and full-time) jobs before moving out here. Once out here, though, our employment opportunities dwindled to zip. So we decided to have kids while we waited to move out of here.
But, we got bored. Don't get us wrong, we love our kids, but we miss doing something more challenging than playing Candy Land. We all also missed the income we used to make. Together, we make up a former teacher, a former civil engineer, a former real estate executive, and a former corporate sales executive. To us, there seems to be a huge industry catering "work from home jobs" to us. And we think we've seen it all living near a military base.
Last year, I counted fifty eight separate "work from home" businesses that my friends were starting, running, and trying to get me to buy from. They included:

Amway

appointment setting

article writing

Avon

hair styling

hanging Christmas lights

Herbalife

home childcare

house cleaning

house painting

interior decorating

making baby blankets

making baby slings

making beaded jewelry

making belts

making decorative flip-flops

making earrings

making hair bows

making jewelry from seashells

making purses

making tutus

making wooden ornaments

manicures and pedicures

Mary Kay

mowing lawns

office cleaning

painting murals

Pampered Chef

Partylite

personal shopping

personal stylist

personal training

petsitting

photography

planning birthday parties

reselling baby products at consignment shops

Scentsy

selling baby clothes on ebay

selling books on amazon

Shake it Up

Silpada

Stampin Up

Tastefully Simple

Thirty-one

Tupperware

tutoring

window cleaning

Those of you who are counting will realize that's only 47 separate business ideas the I wasv"invited" to "participate" in. Some of them I was asked to join twice, so I counted them twice. While talking with my friends, I realized we were all being hit up for about the same list of stuff. And, in an effort to be friendly, get along with our husbands' business associates' wives, make money, or even just alleviate boredom, we each had tried at least one of these schemes.

If you're reading this, we're guessing that you've been in the same boat. Which is why we're starting this blog. Every week, I'm going to write about our experiences with one of these businesses. Was it worth the time and effort? Did we make any money? Does anyone make any money with it? Have we found a new career, or have we just wasted a lot of time and embarassed ourselves?

Additionally, we want to help all the other women out there who are looking for a real way to make some money and have a life outside of raising children. So, if your frinds are pressuring you to try out their latest business idea, tell us about it. Odds are, we know someone who has done it and is willing to share their experiences. Leave us a comment, and we'll address it in a future post.

Boycott Best Buy

2009-11-30T19:42:00.002-07:00

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. It was pretty quiet around here; the three of us ate turkey. Then, I left the house at 12:45 to hit Black Friday sales with a few friends in Amarillo. We hit Target, Toys R' Us, and Kohl's, got everything we wanted (and then some) and finally got home around 10:00 AM MST.
Unfortunately, my brother Matt didn't get what he wanted. Best Buy advertised $180 laptops, so my brother went to get one for his wife at 9 PM Thursday night. The ad said that there were plenty in stock, and that the store would be handing out tickets for the items at 3AM. After waiting for a few hours in the cold, when store employees came out at 3AM they only tried to get people to sign up for credit cards. Matt asked about the laptops, he was told they had "plenty". At 4:30 the store finally handed out the tickets for the laptops, all 10 of them. Then they had the gall to try to sell everyone else $600 laptops. Matt was mad (he refused to even go in the store), but not bnearly as made as guy #11 who had pitched a tent in front of the store for 2 days. That meant store employees passed him on the way out Wednesday night, and no one had the common decency to tell him to go home and spend Thanksgiving with his family, since they knew full well there were no laptops.
Now, I understand that Best Buy can run its sale anyway it wants. I get that they only offer a few deeply discounted items to get people into the store. Making people wait in line for days for products they know they don't have in stock, however, is just wrong. Furthermore, not telling people that they were out of those items at 3AM, as their ad said they would, is illegal. Did they really think that the kind of people who skip Thanksgiving for a good deal were going to be upsold several hundred dollars in a moment of panic?
And before you say something, yes, my brother tried to buy one online at 3AM. He went to the website at 2:45, and the deals weren't posted yet. He kept refreshing the page until 3 AM, when the website was mysteriously "down for maintenace". At 3:02 it was up again, but all of their specials were listed as "out of stock".
Matthew has sworn to never shop at Best Buy again, and I told him I would support his boycott. Granted, the nearest Best Buy to me is 135 miles away, but I'll never shop there again. Neither is Dan. For video games, we'll go to EB Games. For appliances we'll go to Lowe's or Sears. For movies we have Netflix, and for music we have I-Tunes. Who's boycotting with me?

Back from Roswell

2009-11-19T09:55:00.002-07:00

We went down to Roswell last week while Justin was visiting. I'm so jealous of Roswell. If those two farmers sixty years ago had just thought to go north to get to a phone instead of east to report that they saw an alien spaceship, Clovis could totally have a Target now. Oh well. At least I finally found a tablecloth for my dining room table. Unfortunately, I found it after I spent $35 on the fabric to just make one since I looked everywhere and couldn't find one, but I figure having two won't hurt.
Elanna liked the aliens a lot more this time than when we took her last time. She pointed at all the alien model sin the museum and said "click, click, click". I taught her that was what her stuffed alien said around the time I was teaching her animal sounds. I figure it's never too early to start learning another language.
My goal for Christmas is to avoid making the drive to Lubbock or Amarillo. When I looked at the calendar, I just didn't see where I could fit in another trip tot hose cities, and I know the malls are going to be ridiculously crowded. This is the only area of the country where no one has really been affected by the recession, but we're too small to have on-site retail buyers who can figure that out. When we dropped Justin off at the airport I noticed that the store shelves at the mall were already looking empty.

Changed it Again

2009-11-12T10:36:00.002-07:00

So Idecided to change the look again after I got a bunch of people asking me what "565" meant. I didn't even see it at the top of the page until I looked for it; I should probably pick out a new template on more than just color. Turns out "565" was the selection number for the template, so if anyone really liked it, they could get one to match. Since I couldn't get ridc of it, we're trying something else new.

A Few Changes

2009-11-11T14:53:00.002-07:00

You may have noticed I changed a few things since you've been here last. Basically, I'm just trying to clean up my list of articles. I've writeen a lot, and the list was just too long for anyone to really navigate. So I'm going to try to make a few different lists, one of just my most recent stuff, one of my most popular stuff, and maybe one more of seasonal stuff.

In other news, we all tried to go to Applebees today to get Dan's free meal for Veteran's Day. There's a problem with being the only restautrant in a 150 mile radius offering a free meal to anyone in the military. We decided to give up after we were told to expect a three hour wait. People filled the lobby and a line ran out into the parking lot. We were the only ones who left, though. Once again I am amazed at what people will do for a free cheeseburger.

Our friend Justin is coming to visit us tommorrow, so I won't be posting anything for a few days. I'm hoping to have a great time in Roswell!

Dan's Back!

2009-11-06T14:29:00.004-07:00

Dan made it back! He got in yesterday, so I've spent most of today doing laundry. While Elanna's taking a nap and he's on base filling out paperwork, I've managed to find a few minutes to get other things done.
Among those other things, I've copies a few of the pictures that my sister-in-law Tracie took while we were in Disney World. You can go to my facebook page to see them (eventually I'll figure out how to post more pictures on this blog). I also got a few articles published regarding Veteran's Day and Thanksgiving (see the sidebar), but I'm still working on ones about thanksgiving games, and of course, Thanksgiving food. I'm hoping to be done by next week so that I can start on Christmas articles.
By the way, if you're looking for my article on free stuff and discounts for the military on Veteran's Day, I posted the link up above (as well as over in the sidebar). I just started writing for examiner.com, so let me know what you think!

We're Recovering

2009-11-01T14:33:00.002-07:00

No, I'm not planning on tuurning this into a once-a-month blog, but we have had a lot of drama over the past few weeks. The day after we got back from Disney World (which was a little crowded, but fun) I got a concussion while cleaning the house. For those of you who are thinking, "Wow, I knew Sarah was a bad housekeeper but . . .", let me assure you that it was Elanna's fault (just kidding). The kid dropped a can of play-doh on my head while I was picking up toys. Yes, I realize this is a ridiculous story.
Anyway, I recovered, but Elanna got sick three days later with H1N1. She spent the next three days throwing up and whining. After taking care of her, of course I got it, but I got so sick I had to go into the hospital for a few hours for dehydration. My last dose of Tamiflu will be taken tonight, but I think I'm through most of the bad part.
Elanna and I celebrated Halloween last night. Elanna was a dragon (I'll post pictures later), and I think we were visitied by every kid in all of Clovis. I appreciate that parents want a safe place for their kids to trick-or-treat, but I think it' time our town got together to put on a carnival or something. I went through over 120 full-size candy bars and 7 lbs of tootsie rolls. There were literally school buses full of kids pulling up to my house. I ran out of candy at 8:30, and after I turned off my lights there will still kids ringing my doorbell. I guess I'll have to buy more candy next year.

On the Road to Recovery

2009-10-01T09:08:00.003-06:00

I met my goal for this month! Granted, I set myself pretty low; only 2% more than I made the month before, but I'm going to try to find someone new to write for this month. I try to add at least one website to write for a month, but I think I might have a large enough library built up (I made it past 100 online articles last week) to start trying real magazines. Here goes nothing.

In family news, Dan is doing well. He got a cold last week, but the base docs put him on a whole slew of antibiotics and antivirals that he's pretty sure aren't legal in the U.S. Elanna ran a slight fever on Sunday morning, but she doesn't seem any worse for it. The last threee days though she's developed this odd habit of grabbing her left ear and crying from time to time. She isn't running a fever, and it doesn't seem to bother her all the time, so I'm trying to avoid taking her to the pediatrician. I might call the base this week anyway, though.

In other news, I found a great kid to come mow my lawn, and at $20 every other week for all three areas he's a great bargain. If you live in Clovis and need his info, let me know.

Brownies Anyone?

2009-09-18T14:43:00.003-06:00

Elanna got her last set of immunizations today. Well, technically she has to get another set when she's four, and who knows if we'll have to give her a swine flu shot, but for now she's all caught up. As usual, she got mad at the poor lab tech, grabbed her owl in a huff, and stormed out of the office. Poor lab tech; no one ever appreciates him or his job.
We went to the Commissary case lot sale afterward. If you've never been to one, it's like a Sam's that let's you use coupons. I now own 18 pouches of brownie mix (it cost me $8 after I used the stack of coupons they gave me). I guess Dan will be eating a lot of brownies soon.

New Haircut

2009-09-10T13:38:00.003-06:00

Elanna just got back from nursery school. According to her teachers, she's adjusting really well. She just shows up and plays with toys and reads books. Today while she was in school, I got my hair cut and my nails done. I haven't had my nails done since before I got pregnant, so I'm getting used to having long nails again. I forgot how hard it is to type with them.

I found a new website that is publishing some of my work. Check out Sarah Heller on www.factoidz.com. So far I've only used them to publish some of my older srticles, but if I'm happy with them I might start putting some new stuff on there.

Tongiht Dan is supposed to be able to use Skype to talk to Elanna and I, so hopefully we'll be able to see him soon.

Updating My Article List

2009-09-03T09:22:00.002-06:00

I am in the middle of updating my list of articles. In order to reach my goal of $30 for last month, I had to write a lot, and the list was getting to unwieldly. In addition, the e-how articles I wrote are no longer available because the website is experiencing some major problems. The site is having some problems with keping people's accounts open, so I took down all my articles. If e-how manages to fix their site soon, I might repost them, but in the meantime I think I'll just try publishing to sites that pay more.
Speaking of which, my newest article "What are the New Superfoods?" got rejected by yourchannel.com. I did get it published on healthmad.com, but I was hoping to get a little more of a payday from it. Oh well. Better luck next time, I guess.

Elanna's First Day

2009-08-27T09:26:00.002-06:00

Today was Elanna's first day of pre school. I was very proud, all the other kids cried, but not Elanna. Of course, she already knew the room since she goes to Sunday School there every week, but I expected that she might panic because all the other kids were panicking. Also, I forgot to bring Hootie.
WIth my two and half free hours this morning I am working on writing a few articles and making reservations for our upcoming Disney World trip. Some website wants a series of articles done on topics relating to students going to college, so I'm plowing through their title list trying to submit as much as possible before the deadline next week. If nothing sells, I'll just post it to some other website that will throw it up just to see what kind of hits it will get. That's what I did with my calculator article; the website that asked for it went with someone else's. Personally, I don't think it was nearly as good as mine, but it was very pro-HP, and there was a lot of HP advertising on the site . . . If they wanted a B.S. ad piece they should have told me. I could have written a B.S. ad piece. Anyway, it has worked out because the site that did take it has generated me the most money than any article yet. I'm on track to meet my goal of $30 a month (I at least want to pay for Elanna's pre-school if I'm working instead of being with her)

I'm Back

2009-08-24T15:03:00.003-06:00

I've really been slacking in the blogging department this week. I have good reasons, though. We finally got Dan off to the desert a few days ago. We had to struggle through a few days of shoe drama first; The Air Force "forgot" to order his shoes for four months, so he had to let someone in Resources have it. The scene was very reminicent of the one in "Glory" where the colonel is yelling at the Quatermaster about how no one in his company has any shoes. At any rate, he got shipped off, and according to his last phone call was doing pretty well.

Elanna got her first black eye on Sunday. She was running around the Sunday school classroom with a book when she tripped and fell. It looks pretty swollen, but she doesn't seem bothered by it. Her first day of pre-school is on Thursday, so I hope it has cleared up by then. Otherwise she'll have to explain to her great-grandchildren how Great-Granma managed to hurt herself while reading a book.

Hi Mom!

2009-08-15T14:49:00.002-06:00

I gave my mom the link to my blog yesterday, so hopefully she'll find me. Not much to look at, I know, but here I am. After Elanna starts pre-school next week I'll add some more stuff on here. Maybe I'll branch out and get my own webpage.
Speaking of Elanna starting pre-school, I got my first school supply list yesterday. technically I guess it was her first list, but since she doesn't seem motivated to get a job and buy this stuff herself . . . Anyway, this school wants me to buy a can of Lysol, a package of Clorox wipes, and a box of goldfish crackers. What am I paying money for? If they can't afford this stuff, doesn't it make more sense to charge me a bit more and then buy all this stuff in bulk rather than all these tiny cans and boxes?

Free Lunch

2009-08-12T13:21:00.003-06:00

So a wonderful thing happened today. Dan and I were eating lunch with Elanna and Hootie (who goes everywhere with us now) at Furr's when a very nice lady came up to us and thanked Dan for being in the military. Then, she insisted on buying us lunch! We were so grateful. Stuff like that never happened anywhere else we were stationed.

I guess this means I have to stop being mean to the Clovers for a while. I'm going to try really hard, too, since tonight we're going to the county fair.

We're Back

2009-08-09T13:34:00.002-06:00

We're back in Clovis! The three of us got back from spending the week with Larry and Corrie in Palmyra, VA (it's right next to Monticello). Elanna loved playing on the boat and swimming in the lake. We also took her peach picking (apples aren't in season for a few more weeks) and shopping. Would any trip to a real city be complete without shopping at a real mall?
We're going to have a pretty busy month ahead of us. The church wants me to run a Wednesday night class for 4-5 year olds. I was told today to make up my own curriculum, so I'm looking for any ideas. The book I got is for young elementary-aged kids, and I need to come up with snacks, crafts, and games.
This week is also the first week that Elanna is going to do her speech and occupational therapy three times a week. Mother's Morning Out doesn't start until the 27th, and if I get this financial counseling job I might up her to twice a week. Hopefully, I can work something out where I can do most of the work from home after she goes to sleep.

2009-07-30T14:39:00.002-06:00

It figures. As soon as Dan leaves to go anywhere I end up with a ton of problems at home. Our dishwasher isn't working anymore. I push the button to turn it on and I get nothing; no lights or sounds. To make matters worse there's 2" of water in the bottom of the thing, and I have to leave Friday night. I washed all the dishes by hand nd poured a bottle of vinegar into the bottom to make sure nothing grows in there until I can get back in town and fix it or buy a new one.
We had a bad hail storm last night and there were branches and leaves all over the front lawn. Luckily Elanna and I got it cleaned up this morning. Then, I got a call from MHN. They want me to start working at Cannon as a Financial Counselor. It's a pilot program, so they're going to see how working from home works out (I'll work one or two half days a week and some evenings), and I'm seriously thinking of doing it. The pay is good, and it gets better as soon as I get certified.
I'm also working on cleaning the house and packing up. I don't even have the laundry done, yet, and I can't find any travel toys for Elanna. I might try Big Lots after Elanna wakes up.

2009-07-27T14:29:00.003-06:00

My cable is fixed! Dan and I were getting worried after it had been out all weekend that we might have to start spending time together as a family, but luckily that crisis has been avoided.

Today, Elanna got tested by the occupational therapist. While she's above average in all of her cognitive skills (problem solving, understanding language, pointing at pictures of ducks when asked) she has a tendency to favor her right side. I just figured she was going to be right-handed, but apparently people don't pick a side until they're 4 or 5 years old. She can do everything that she's supposed to at this age, just not with her left hand. Since no one wants the problem to get worse, she's going to start occupational therapy once a week. Supposedly if we address it now she won't have the problems learning to write that I did. We'll see.

The pediatrician said that Elanna is still in the upper five percent of kids her age for height and weight, but she thinks that's just where she's going to be on the growth curve. Dan is getting all excited; he thinks she can become a lacrosse player. If she gets really good that means she (and therefore Dan also) could get to meet Chuck Norris someday (he owns the American Lacrosse Association).

Everything is Broken

2009-07-26T14:28:00.003-06:00

Everything fun is broken. My cable has been out for two days (it's not like there's any competition out here, so Suddenlink isn't in any hurry to fix it), I need to change the oil in my car (no one is open on the weekends, so I have to wait until tomorrow), and Elanna decided to decorate the steps to the jacuzzi last night with colored pencils. Luckily, they were erasable colored pencils, so it only took me half an hour to clean it up. Of course, I still have to figure out how to replace the filter in the jacuzzi, so I can't even use that right now.

I'm Back

2009-07-25T13:29:00.003-06:00

I'm back from being sick. I got a really nasty head cold Thursday night, so I spent all of Elanna's nap time yesterday zonked out on the couch. Luckily, I'm feeling much better today, which is good because Dan and I are going to spend all weekend packing and getting ready to go visit Larry and Corrie. Actually, Dan is going to go to Billy and Leah's wedding in Vermont first, meaning I'll be left alone with Elanna for the week. Our airline tickets are crazy; Dan got three one-way tickets and I have to leave at 6AM from Lubbock.

Flies

2009-07-22T12:23:00.003-06:00

I have had it with the bugs in this town. It's bad enought that this whole town has to smell like cow poop, but the flies are everywhere. I kill about three or four a day with spray, I have fly paper near my garage door, and I do nothing but keep everything in my house spotless (they're not coming in for the food). Nonetheless, the flies are everywhere. The produce section at Wal-Mart was so bad yesterday that I'm not going to shop there until the season is over. Teri just e-mailed all of us a reminder to individually wrap all the bake sale stuff because the flies at the squadron are horrible.
Any ideas on how to get rid of them?

Mondays

2009-07-20T13:42:00.004-06:00

Bad news, everyone. The Air Force just announced that they're no longer making a lot of staff slots available to rated officers. Apparently, they want to keep the people they've trained to fly flying and the people they haven't trained to fly sitting at desks. What it means for us is that Dan's chances of getting us out of here in 4-6 years just got a lot worse. Unless he can figure out something creative, I'm going to be stuck here until the end of his career. That means Elanna might have to go to Clovis High School. Needless to say, I think it's time I start researching homeschooling.
I don't even know what I'm going to do about a job for me. The plan was to wait until the kids were all in school, then I'd go back to work full-time, or at least get a job with some steady hours. Now I need to figure out what I want to do in 4-6 years. I think my choices out here are cattle rustling, Wal-Mart cashier, and stay-at-home-mom. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate that I'm able to stay home with Elanna, but I have to do something once the kids go to school. Ideally, that something will earn me some real money, too. So far this freelance writing thing has earned me $.33; getting paid a portion of the advertising revenue of a site no one has ever heard of isn't really the path to my ultimate dream: a money pool like Scrooge McDuck.

My First Blog

2009-07-19T17:08:00.001-06:00

I'm not sure how many awesome points I lose because I have a blog, but I can't take facebook anymore. It never uploads my pictures right, and I hate to think of everyone who friended me having to read about stuff they don't care about just because I wrote it. This way, you get to pick and choose how much of me you want. Also, I get a portion of the ad revenue from those annoying side bar ads. I figure if I'm hitting my friends and relatives up for money, I might as well get some of the money.
Every Sunday I'll try to post our family schedule. That way anyone who wants to call us will know who they can reach and at what time. Also, I'll try to update the survey on a weekly basis. Finally, please feel free to browse my list of published articles. So far I've just got a few basic things published, but I'd love to get a few more things out there. As always, let me know what you think!
This week, Dan's having a bake sale at his squadron. I have to send something in with him, and I can't decide what to make. I came up with four ideas by staring blankly into my pantry, but I'm open to other suggestions.