Haynes Family Unplugged

I am about to make your day.

Haynes Children Fashion Tips

• Always, I repeat, ALWAYS cuff your pants up over your knees because, and I quote Macey, "It keeps them from touching my ankles". We can't have that.

• Colors, people. For spring 2010, fashion is all about colors. It doesn't matter if they match; the more colors you can cram into your outfit the better.

• Loose fitting shirts look awesome flying out from under a fitted hoodie.

• Four words: Purple. Sparkly. Toed. Flats.

• Two more words: With. Socks.

• Remember your scarf in case you're cold from having your pants folded up to your armpits.

• The essential fashion element (if you're a two-year-old boy who digs orange): orange Crocs.

I love that my children are still young enough to not care what anyone thinks, their mother included. They have their own style. They do what works for them.

Speaking of doing what works...

I never write about our real lives, do I? That's because reality tends to be somewhat...what's the word I'm looking for? CRAPPY. Yeah, crappy. Thanks a lot, Recession!

Anyhoo, I've decided to break from tradition today and write a little about what is going on in our real lives. (Meanwhile, I can hear my children in their room unravelling an entire roll of scotch tape.) Let's proceed, shall we?

Picture the Haynes family in the summer of 2007. We just had our first baby boy. We had two little girls and a owned a beautiful home with wood floors and a trampoline and central vacuum and (for some reason I will never understand) no light in the shower in the master bathroom. It was weird but it was ours (just like our kids). DJ owned a thriving mortgage company. We were perched on top of a giant housing bubble like a couple of idiots, smiling and waving to our friends.

And then the housing bubble popped.

And I think we've finally hit the ground.

We lost it all. The company, the houses, the cars--every major item that we acquired as the bubble inflated is now gone. At first, I fought like crazy to hang on to things. You know, kind of like when you have the flu and you realllllly don't want to throw up? But you always feel soooo much better after a good upchuck, right? That's where we are now. All of the unnecessary garbage has been purged from our systems and we still have the most important things--our children, our health, the gospel, and each other. And the LoveSac, of course.

Moving on from the barf analogy. Now we've decided our next post-housing bubble move and you're NOT GOING TO BELIEVE IT. The Hayneses are going to back to school. I registered at Dixie. DJ is registered at Bismark State College online. Meanwhile, because even though going to school is fun, we still have four children to provide for--DJ is going to (you're not going to believe this either) finally start his Dream Fishing Lodge in Alaska. If you look over there on my blog list, you can see his website listed amongst the blogs. It's a lot of work and it's a big fat, scary risk, but we'll see. Nothing's phasing me at this point.

That's what's new with us. What's new with you?