Well the chore pay scale actually seems to be WORKING?! for now at least. The boys spent 2 hours cleaning their room tonight and no blood was shed. Holly didn't have to do hers because she had done it 2 days ago and it was still clean, but she did her best attempt at sweeping and swiffering the kitchen floor and earned herself 1.00. I was worried my "low pay scale" wouldn't appeal to Eric much, since the kid is already rolling in dough. (Really. The neighbor paid him 15.00 last week for us to babysit their dog overnight, and he made at least 50.00 this winter shoveling snow. not bad for a 9 yr old.) but he definitely is up for getting every buck. So in conclusion our house is super clean on a wednesday night- which almost never happens! Great news, since tomorrow we will be having some help getting a massive "rearrange"ing project done. At this rate I am going to clean myself right into labor. had a doctor's appt on monday and it seems that Mabel had been in the same spot for about 2 months and suddenly she has decided to completely roll from one side to the other, kindof like when you are laying on your side in bed watching tv and you roll over to face the other way. Wierd, she better not start making trouble NOW! It's really getting down to the wire, about 4 weeks or less to go. It's like usually this was always the part for me that went sooooo slow, and it's going too fast this time! Too many things to do before she gets here, and when the hell is this snow gonna melt, I want my rummage sales?!
Since Jake has had off all this week on spring break, he got stuck running errands with me all day today. I think we went to three different thrift stores. ahhhh they have a Bethesda Thrift on our side of town now- I am sooooo excited! It's kindof my "secret" bargain place. Seems like when we find stuff there, we find a LOT, and it is supercheap, we are talking 99cents for kids jeans, etc. I found this big stack of super duper cute burp cloths- they have lace around the edges- and they were only 49cents each. Still hunting for a dresser for Mabel, but haven't found one yet. We had to return something at the mall and then had lunch there (Jake can wolf down a whole six inch sub in 5 minutes flat. I cant believe I used to split one sandwich between all three of them...) He got to check out trains at Toys R Us while I percused the clearance racks and free magazine pile, and then we went to Target to try out the whole Target coupon/manufacterer stackable coupon idea. Well I shouldve waited and went to the Target on our side of town, cuz the one by the mall has a really small grocery section, but we still got some good deals-hand soap for 39cents, 5.00 off formula, fruit roll things for 77cents a box, a bunch of others that was the best I think. For sure I think the Target brand fruit snacks are always the best deal, and they even taste more "real". You can get a box of 50 pouches for 6.00 and that usually lasts us a month or more vs. paying 2.50 for the general mills boxes, which only have 6-10 pouches.
And Jake got 2 packs of free gum, when we got home he wrote his name on the orange pack with a black magic marker, "Jake's Gum" lol, and he could not wait to get Eric and Holly from school so he could give them each a piece of this gum. (They are NEVER allowed to have gum, so it was a big deal. I think he chewed a whole pack in like 3 hours. My only reason is every freaking time I let them have gum it either ends up stuck in the cupholders, on the bottom of one of their shoes, or in someone's hair. I give it a day this time, I will find it somewhere...)
I am definitely enjoying this whole being able to print coupons off the web thing, and I messed around with the Swagbucks thing tonight for awhile, but it seems like an awful lot of work. I don't really get where you are supposed to find these "codes", except for the random search thing? Well I got 91 so far. I could use some suggestions if anyone has any. those amazon gift cards would definitely come in handy.
Saturday is a big "10 double coupon" day at PnS and Copps, oh the preparation.....:) It's too bad someone doesn't have a blog or a website for us "local" shoppers, like the one I always use is based out of California, so they don't have the Roundys, Festival etc. websites on it. (Or if there IS one, I haven't found it yet!) I would love to do something a little more detailed like that myself but I just don't have time. If anyone knows of one, let me know.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Monday, March 28, 2011
its amazing what kids will do for money
So starting tonight I decided to try something new with the kids regarding their "chores" and money. We'll see how long it works, it seems like everything only works for so long and I'm always having to come up with something new. They helped me make a chore list, and then they decided how much money each chore would be worth and we hung it on the fridge. Also, we taped "bank" envelopes to the other side of the fridge for each of them so they don't keep losing their dollars. A lot of this stems from the fact that Eric earns a lot of money doing things, and the other two definitely don't understand the value of working for your money yet, but when we go somewhere, ugh, they are always want to pick out stuff and it leads to the "did you bring your money? well then you can't get it," battle. I am usually pretty firm on this, and if they do get to pick something out, it's 1.00 or less. (the bad thing is, Holly has totally conned gramma a bunch of times. Once she came back home with the 17.00 barbie I told her she had to either buy herself or wait for her birthday. As soon as she saw me she got THE guiltiest look on her face...)
They were really into it tonight, scrubbing toilets, swiffering the floor, vaccuuming, etc, but we'll see how long it lasts. I really want them to understand not only that I appreciate their help, but we ALL live here, and we all have to help. The dissarray is getting out of control, and I always think of it as yeah, being mom and cleaning is one thing, but having to physically pick up the crap of four other people just because they're too stubborn to do it is totally another, and it is completely exhausting!
Tonight the kids and I spent awhile looking at Holly's newborn baby pictures, trying to "guess" what Mabel is going to look like. I had totally forgotten that Holly had a tiny bit of brown hair when she was born, and Eric was only 3, he looks so little. Then Holly said "Mom, you had really blonde hair! Were you wearing a wig?" haha! 4 weeks to go....
They were really into it tonight, scrubbing toilets, swiffering the floor, vaccuuming, etc, but we'll see how long it lasts. I really want them to understand not only that I appreciate their help, but we ALL live here, and we all have to help. The dissarray is getting out of control, and I always think of it as yeah, being mom and cleaning is one thing, but having to physically pick up the crap of four other people just because they're too stubborn to do it is totally another, and it is completely exhausting!
Tonight the kids and I spent awhile looking at Holly's newborn baby pictures, trying to "guess" what Mabel is going to look like. I had totally forgotten that Holly had a tiny bit of brown hair when she was born, and Eric was only 3, he looks so little. Then Holly said "Mom, you had really blonde hair! Were you wearing a wig?" haha! 4 weeks to go....
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Mabel the night-owl?
What? why am I blogging at 2:30 am? Well I didn't sleep three nights in a row, slept 14 hours last night, and now I am insomniated with major heartburn...I think Mabel is going to be a nightowl, she doesn't move all day, and then starts tap-dancing when I wanna go to sleep. Blech, I do not function well on no sleep, so we'll see how this whole baby thing goes haha! Last year when I was working the night shift and not sleeping at ALL (think, work til 6 am, get up at 10:00am to retrieve kids from school,grammas, go back to work at 5:30pm....) I did not realize exactly HOW tired and exhausted I was until that year was up and I stopped working that job. A close friend actually said to me at one point "I'm really worried about you, because you definitely are not all there lately". I was just thinking about this today, because it was a busy day and I felt like I was stumbling through everything-literally. Dropping stuff, forgot my purse halfway to school had to go back, stubbed my lil old toe on the cart in Walmart and bled all over the paint department floor!? Or maybe just too much on my mind and so much for "taking it easy!"....No such thing. Too much to do and running out of time.
We did get Mabel's room painted tonight in a remarkable 3 hours, with only minor touchups still needed. It is pink and brown, I looooove the way the colors turned out. She's spoiled already, in our first little house Holly had to sleep in the converted laundry room and Jake had to sleep in the pack and play til he was 1 cuz we didn't have anywhere to put them lol. Tiny and crowded but we survived with fond memories...Eric was our little paint running errand boy, and poor Jake he wanted to paint sooooo bad. He stood in the doorway "You know Mom it would get done lots faster if you had THREE painters".... I told him he had to be 25 years old to paint :)
Well then on top of all this, landlord knocks on our door to babysit his dog for the night. He prolly thinks I'm wierd cuz right away I send eric running for sheets to cover up my furniture, but this is the first new furniture I have EVER had, I'm a little overprotective of it. I prolly wont get new stuff for a long time, we are definitely use it up wear it out type of people. I do this with my shoes too, which is kindof bad. I am always the person who ends up walking out of somewhere with a broken flip flop.
Last week Adam yelled at me for the "state" of my purse (ahhhh crumbs they are contagious...) alright well I said I will go buy a new purse. HAHA goodbuy faithful black purse that I paid 1.00 for at a rummage sale last summer...hello 3.00 brown purse small enough to fit in a diaper bag. It was rough, but it was time. Some of my "use it up, wear it out" must have worn off on him, cuz looking at some pics on fb the other day I noticed he is still wearing all the same tshirts and sweatshirts he had 10 years ago :)
Finally sucked it up and bought a printer for the new computer today (okay, I had a coupon so what lol. It was 100.00 printer I got it for 30 bucks.) oh boyyyyyy Adam thought I had a lot of coupons BEFORE- those were only the ones I got out of magazines and the newspaper. now that I can print off internet coupons I'm gonna recoup the cost of this lil old laptop in about two weeks heehee. I especially like the coupons on the Target website, because you can double up with "store" coupons and manufacterer coupons.
Tomorrow we have my nephews bday part at Chuckie Cheese, sunday nite a family birthday party for the 4 people who have birthdays sat sun mon tues, and next week Jake has an entire week of spring break and the other two have to go to school. You can bet he's gloating about that.
I know Holly is going to be pissed and cranky in the morning, because they all fell asleep in her room watching a movie while we painted, and poor old Reggie is just trying to snuggle in there with them and she woke up twice already freakin out. She's not going to be too happy in the morning when she sees he ate one of her My Little Ponies :p
We did get Mabel's room painted tonight in a remarkable 3 hours, with only minor touchups still needed. It is pink and brown, I looooove the way the colors turned out. She's spoiled already, in our first little house Holly had to sleep in the converted laundry room and Jake had to sleep in the pack and play til he was 1 cuz we didn't have anywhere to put them lol. Tiny and crowded but we survived with fond memories...Eric was our little paint running errand boy, and poor Jake he wanted to paint sooooo bad. He stood in the doorway "You know Mom it would get done lots faster if you had THREE painters".... I told him he had to be 25 years old to paint :)
Well then on top of all this, landlord knocks on our door to babysit his dog for the night. He prolly thinks I'm wierd cuz right away I send eric running for sheets to cover up my furniture, but this is the first new furniture I have EVER had, I'm a little overprotective of it. I prolly wont get new stuff for a long time, we are definitely use it up wear it out type of people. I do this with my shoes too, which is kindof bad. I am always the person who ends up walking out of somewhere with a broken flip flop.
Last week Adam yelled at me for the "state" of my purse (ahhhh crumbs they are contagious...) alright well I said I will go buy a new purse. HAHA goodbuy faithful black purse that I paid 1.00 for at a rummage sale last summer...hello 3.00 brown purse small enough to fit in a diaper bag. It was rough, but it was time. Some of my "use it up, wear it out" must have worn off on him, cuz looking at some pics on fb the other day I noticed he is still wearing all the same tshirts and sweatshirts he had 10 years ago :)
Finally sucked it up and bought a printer for the new computer today (okay, I had a coupon so what lol. It was 100.00 printer I got it for 30 bucks.) oh boyyyyyy Adam thought I had a lot of coupons BEFORE- those were only the ones I got out of magazines and the newspaper. now that I can print off internet coupons I'm gonna recoup the cost of this lil old laptop in about two weeks heehee. I especially like the coupons on the Target website, because you can double up with "store" coupons and manufacterer coupons.
Tomorrow we have my nephews bday part at Chuckie Cheese, sunday nite a family birthday party for the 4 people who have birthdays sat sun mon tues, and next week Jake has an entire week of spring break and the other two have to go to school. You can bet he's gloating about that.
I know Holly is going to be pissed and cranky in the morning, because they all fell asleep in her room watching a movie while we painted, and poor old Reggie is just trying to snuggle in there with them and she woke up twice already freakin out. She's not going to be too happy in the morning when she sees he ate one of her My Little Ponies :p
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Its really only tuesday?! :(
What a crappy miserable day, both literally and figuratively. Someone should invent a weather machine to "change" the atmosphere and reassure that there will be no snow after March 1st....
Last night we took a ride to GB for a couple hours so the boys (big and little :) could check out some stuff at the hobby shop for their model train scenario they are plotting. It was kindof a fun afternoon, except for the fact that riding in the car is SO unbearable for me right now. I just cannot sit comfortable in any position for more than a few minutes, and my back hurts like crazy. We went out for supper and the kids got ice cream, and it was nice to avoid the "kitchen" mess. Then we came home and I set Eric right to work on his government project that was due, and the other kids did art projects on the floor.
Well that's when the trouble started. Eric spent all day saturday with his uncle, and then two nights at grandma's and every single time he goes anywhere it seems like lately we have major behavior problems when he returns home. I would really appreciate any suggestions or input, because I am at my wit's end with him, I don't know if it's just his age or what. We are talking complete all out, hysterically hissy fit, crying, slamming doors, throwing things, etc when he doesn't get what he wants or you ask him to do something (like his homework). I have noticed in the last couple months when there are a lot of kids around and it gets really noisy and active, he gets sortof "overstimulated" and goes into one of these fits, and then he blames it on having a headache. I try to tell him he just needs to sit and relax quietly for a little while, well he doesn't wanna do that either.
I have been doing a lot of research on ADD/ADHD lately and he doesn't fit either of those descriptions. (Just for the record, I do NOT believe in medicating kids, it would have to be a super extreme and maybe dangerous situation for me to ever agree to that.) He's not having trouble in school, he's not hyperactive, he just seems super sensitive. And after one of those fits, it's like he feels guilty and a little while later he will ask "do you want me to do any chores? I cleaned my room while I was down there." Very frustrating, we have tried a lot of different things and haven't found anything that works yet. Maybe it IS just his age, not sure. I worry about when he gets to middle school next year he's going to start falling behind.
Well it took two hours to do a project that was really pretty simple, and then he was mad because he didn't have time to go outside (at 7:30 at night!), and this morning it seemed to be more of the same thing, mad because they were poking around and he didn't get in school in time to play on the playground for that 15 min before. It's such a contrast from Jake. Jake will throw a hissy fit once in awhile, yeah, and he might cry a little (he is SO stubborn!) but give him a little time and he WILL do what you asked him to do, and then he will come hug you and say "Mom, I love you, I'm sorry".
Probably didn't help that I was SO tired from only sleeping about 3 hours the night before, this whole pregnancy thing is really starting to kick my ass. I'm tired and miserable and sick of people giving me that "I feel sorry for you" look, and I just want it to be over with so I can go back to feeling like a "normal" person! Mabel must be having a growth spurt this week because I am so hungry but I don't actually have "room" to eat anything, and also when I lay on my side I can feel her move on both sides of my belly at once, and she wasn't big enough to do that before. (It's kindof wierd lol.) last night when I was awake at 4:30, after my bed was taken over by Jake and I was resigned to the couch, I swear she had the hiccups for like an hour, or else she was doing step aerobics on my bladder.
Today Adam suddenly decided that -surprise!- he wanted a pot roast in the slow cooker for supper. What the heck, after all that whining about me and my slow cooker?! Well we went to the store, he picked out his own, and he "prepared" it, and even cleaned up the kitchen lol. How nice, at least I don't have to worry about dinner again tonight. He's pretty far out on the list today, so prolly won't go back to work maybe til tomorrow. Good thing, with this stupid snowstorm making everything sloppy, and up north they are supposed to get 18 INCHES, that's crazy.....
Last night we took a ride to GB for a couple hours so the boys (big and little :) could check out some stuff at the hobby shop for their model train scenario they are plotting. It was kindof a fun afternoon, except for the fact that riding in the car is SO unbearable for me right now. I just cannot sit comfortable in any position for more than a few minutes, and my back hurts like crazy. We went out for supper and the kids got ice cream, and it was nice to avoid the "kitchen" mess. Then we came home and I set Eric right to work on his government project that was due, and the other kids did art projects on the floor.
Well that's when the trouble started. Eric spent all day saturday with his uncle, and then two nights at grandma's and every single time he goes anywhere it seems like lately we have major behavior problems when he returns home. I would really appreciate any suggestions or input, because I am at my wit's end with him, I don't know if it's just his age or what. We are talking complete all out, hysterically hissy fit, crying, slamming doors, throwing things, etc when he doesn't get what he wants or you ask him to do something (like his homework). I have noticed in the last couple months when there are a lot of kids around and it gets really noisy and active, he gets sortof "overstimulated" and goes into one of these fits, and then he blames it on having a headache. I try to tell him he just needs to sit and relax quietly for a little while, well he doesn't wanna do that either.
I have been doing a lot of research on ADD/ADHD lately and he doesn't fit either of those descriptions. (Just for the record, I do NOT believe in medicating kids, it would have to be a super extreme and maybe dangerous situation for me to ever agree to that.) He's not having trouble in school, he's not hyperactive, he just seems super sensitive. And after one of those fits, it's like he feels guilty and a little while later he will ask "do you want me to do any chores? I cleaned my room while I was down there." Very frustrating, we have tried a lot of different things and haven't found anything that works yet. Maybe it IS just his age, not sure. I worry about when he gets to middle school next year he's going to start falling behind.
Well it took two hours to do a project that was really pretty simple, and then he was mad because he didn't have time to go outside (at 7:30 at night!), and this morning it seemed to be more of the same thing, mad because they were poking around and he didn't get in school in time to play on the playground for that 15 min before. It's such a contrast from Jake. Jake will throw a hissy fit once in awhile, yeah, and he might cry a little (he is SO stubborn!) but give him a little time and he WILL do what you asked him to do, and then he will come hug you and say "Mom, I love you, I'm sorry".
Probably didn't help that I was SO tired from only sleeping about 3 hours the night before, this whole pregnancy thing is really starting to kick my ass. I'm tired and miserable and sick of people giving me that "I feel sorry for you" look, and I just want it to be over with so I can go back to feeling like a "normal" person! Mabel must be having a growth spurt this week because I am so hungry but I don't actually have "room" to eat anything, and also when I lay on my side I can feel her move on both sides of my belly at once, and she wasn't big enough to do that before. (It's kindof wierd lol.) last night when I was awake at 4:30, after my bed was taken over by Jake and I was resigned to the couch, I swear she had the hiccups for like an hour, or else she was doing step aerobics on my bladder.
Today Adam suddenly decided that -surprise!- he wanted a pot roast in the slow cooker for supper. What the heck, after all that whining about me and my slow cooker?! Well we went to the store, he picked out his own, and he "prepared" it, and even cleaned up the kitchen lol. How nice, at least I don't have to worry about dinner again tonight. He's pretty far out on the list today, so prolly won't go back to work maybe til tomorrow. Good thing, with this stupid snowstorm making everything sloppy, and up north they are supposed to get 18 INCHES, that's crazy.....
Sunday, March 20, 2011
awwwww Mabel! hurry up and get here!
Gosh, yesterday was the most amazing day ever. I am so unbelievably grateful for everyone was a part of it!
One of my friends decided quite awhile ago that she was going to throw me a baby shower, even though at first I felt kind of funny about it since it's #4, but everyone seemed to think it was a great idea. It's been 5 years since we had our last "baby" in the house, and I was the first one of my friends, family etc to start having kids so I pretty much gave everything away to other people. Well she went way above and beyond planning everything, it was such a fun, perfect day, much more than I could possibly ask for or probably even deserved.
Having all my family there and having all my friends from different "corners" who would likely never have met otherwise in one place was really neat. We've all been so busy this winter that I've hardly seen any of them. I miss just hanging out and reminiscing about all the stupid stuff we did, we could have sat there and done it all afternoon. (Really? Everyone should jump in a car with their best friend and drive to another state with the sole purpose of eating pizza at least one time in their life.) You should always be able to act silly with your best friends, no matter how old you are!
And Mabel got SO much stuff, I was kindof overwhelmed. Every outfit was so damn cute, and there's so much "new" baby gear out now even in 5 years. She even got a pillowcase that says Mabel on it, omg that was the most hilarious, cutest thing ever. She has been branded with the Mabel nickname for life now...I did really good not bawling like a baby (even though I wanted to about 10 times) until I opened this card Holly wrote on the present she picked out that said "Welcome to our Family, I love you Love Holly". I will treasure that forever. I never had a sister and even though I love all my little bros, it was always the one thing I really really wanted that I inevitably would never have. If Mabel would have been a "Dalton", I would have loved him just as much but I def would have had to deal with a little dissapointment, because I really wanted it to be a girl for Holly. Eric and Jake have each other, I wanted her to have someone too. I know for sure our family will be complete now, 2 boys 2 girls they each have a brother and a sister, no need for ANY MORE haha!
I had my little bro watch the boys while I was at the shower and they had a lot of fun. I can tell exactly everything they did all afternoon because there is a "mud" trail from the back door all the way through the kitchen and out to the garage, worms in one of my good tupperware containers, pizza oven out of the basement (hmmm must be erics idea cuz I usually throw the pizza in the oven) and one stray neighbor kid whose mom was looking all over for him. (Not THAT one lol, this one lived next door a few streets over at our old place and once in awhile he wanders over) They rode their bikes to the park too I guess, 2 times. SO nice that the kids can be outside again, it's been a long winter! Don't know if I ever mentioned it, but my kids don't really watch tv. They do have tvs in their rooms for watching movies (I don't even know how that happened, we kindof "inherited" them, and I really didn't like it for awhile) and those are only allowed to be on "overnight" on the weekends. This is a big rule of mine and they always try to get dad to break it, but if you let Holly fall asleep watching a movie, she will be awake til midnight! They also have a video game system but the only network tv in the house is in our room, and really it only goes on after about 7 or so at night or on a weekend morning for cartoons. We never purposely did this, it just worked out that way and they have grown so used to it that they prefer to do other things and play outside. I'm glad, they know who Justin Bieber and Hannah Montana is but I don't have to worry about them getting "BIEBER FEVER", omg! And I think paying for tv is about the stupidest waste of money ever, we've got a newer hdtv but it's still got the "rabbit ears" on it and it works just fine. (Adam has free cable at the man shack, and even he says it's overrated. He lays in bed and watches Teen Mom because there is nothing else on lol)
Today the kids are gone for awhile, so I plan on enjoying the peace and quiet while I find a place for all Mabel's "stuff", read the paper (hello sunday coupon day!), and wait for Adam to get home. For some reason this week I missed him more than usual, maybe cuz he left a day earlier, and they've been sticking him on that overnight job so we haven't been able to talk as much. Dont know if it's our cell phone service specifically or the fact that he's in Canada, but he has a hard time getting reception up there, so a lot of times he has to wait til they put him in a hotel room to call from that phone. It's probably just cuz I am hormonally imbalanced LOL. He'll be here for 2 hours and I'll be silently getting cranky for him dropping all his bags and dirty boots in the hallway and walking across my clean floors. (good thing the boys took care of that!) but I will still be glad he's here.....
One of my friends decided quite awhile ago that she was going to throw me a baby shower, even though at first I felt kind of funny about it since it's #4, but everyone seemed to think it was a great idea. It's been 5 years since we had our last "baby" in the house, and I was the first one of my friends, family etc to start having kids so I pretty much gave everything away to other people. Well she went way above and beyond planning everything, it was such a fun, perfect day, much more than I could possibly ask for or probably even deserved.
Having all my family there and having all my friends from different "corners" who would likely never have met otherwise in one place was really neat. We've all been so busy this winter that I've hardly seen any of them. I miss just hanging out and reminiscing about all the stupid stuff we did, we could have sat there and done it all afternoon. (Really? Everyone should jump in a car with their best friend and drive to another state with the sole purpose of eating pizza at least one time in their life.) You should always be able to act silly with your best friends, no matter how old you are!
And Mabel got SO much stuff, I was kindof overwhelmed. Every outfit was so damn cute, and there's so much "new" baby gear out now even in 5 years. She even got a pillowcase that says Mabel on it, omg that was the most hilarious, cutest thing ever. She has been branded with the Mabel nickname for life now...I did really good not bawling like a baby (even though I wanted to about 10 times) until I opened this card Holly wrote on the present she picked out that said "Welcome to our Family, I love you Love Holly". I will treasure that forever. I never had a sister and even though I love all my little bros, it was always the one thing I really really wanted that I inevitably would never have. If Mabel would have been a "Dalton", I would have loved him just as much but I def would have had to deal with a little dissapointment, because I really wanted it to be a girl for Holly. Eric and Jake have each other, I wanted her to have someone too. I know for sure our family will be complete now, 2 boys 2 girls they each have a brother and a sister, no need for ANY MORE haha!
I had my little bro watch the boys while I was at the shower and they had a lot of fun. I can tell exactly everything they did all afternoon because there is a "mud" trail from the back door all the way through the kitchen and out to the garage, worms in one of my good tupperware containers, pizza oven out of the basement (hmmm must be erics idea cuz I usually throw the pizza in the oven) and one stray neighbor kid whose mom was looking all over for him. (Not THAT one lol, this one lived next door a few streets over at our old place and once in awhile he wanders over) They rode their bikes to the park too I guess, 2 times. SO nice that the kids can be outside again, it's been a long winter! Don't know if I ever mentioned it, but my kids don't really watch tv. They do have tvs in their rooms for watching movies (I don't even know how that happened, we kindof "inherited" them, and I really didn't like it for awhile) and those are only allowed to be on "overnight" on the weekends. This is a big rule of mine and they always try to get dad to break it, but if you let Holly fall asleep watching a movie, she will be awake til midnight! They also have a video game system but the only network tv in the house is in our room, and really it only goes on after about 7 or so at night or on a weekend morning for cartoons. We never purposely did this, it just worked out that way and they have grown so used to it that they prefer to do other things and play outside. I'm glad, they know who Justin Bieber and Hannah Montana is but I don't have to worry about them getting "BIEBER FEVER", omg! And I think paying for tv is about the stupidest waste of money ever, we've got a newer hdtv but it's still got the "rabbit ears" on it and it works just fine. (Adam has free cable at the man shack, and even he says it's overrated. He lays in bed and watches Teen Mom because there is nothing else on lol)
Today the kids are gone for awhile, so I plan on enjoying the peace and quiet while I find a place for all Mabel's "stuff", read the paper (hello sunday coupon day!), and wait for Adam to get home. For some reason this week I missed him more than usual, maybe cuz he left a day earlier, and they've been sticking him on that overnight job so we haven't been able to talk as much. Dont know if it's our cell phone service specifically or the fact that he's in Canada, but he has a hard time getting reception up there, so a lot of times he has to wait til they put him in a hotel room to call from that phone. It's probably just cuz I am hormonally imbalanced LOL. He'll be here for 2 hours and I'll be silently getting cranky for him dropping all his bags and dirty boots in the hallway and walking across my clean floors. (good thing the boys took care of that!) but I will still be glad he's here.....
Friday, March 18, 2011
Rummage Sale Sign!
Saw the first rummage sale sign of the year yesterday!!!!!! I was so excited, Eric was groaning on the seat next to me. I think I dragged him to too many when he was little, now he hates them lol. The other two get all into it, and in the summer when we are driving around they are always yelling out "rummage sale sign!" Whoo-hoo I love me some rummage sales, and it's a good thing the "season" is approaching, by this time the kids have no jeans without holes, all the snowpants (even the extras) are worn to threads, the mittens are dissapearing, etc. I swear I have had to buy Eric jeans at least four times this winter, you would think he gives them away or something?! Thank god for Savers, can usually get almost brand new ones on thurs/or fri for about 3.00 when they have the "tag" sales, or we go to the used kids clothes store out by the mall, or the outlet mall in O. Kids clothes are the hugest money-sucking waste ever when you have three kids (yes even the girl) who want to roll in the mud, ride their bikes (lovely, you can tell when they have been in the mud on their bikes because they come in with a "mud stripe" up the back of their coats.), tromp around in the woods, and rub their knees in the grass. I plan on trying to "outfit" all four of them this summer with enough clothes to last through all of next winter, so you can bet as soon as I am able after Mabel gets here we will be hitting the friday morning rummage sale circuit!
Holly is really excited because she finally grew enough this winter to ride the bike she got last year in July for her birthday. She could ride it last summer but it was just a little too tall for her to get on and off without falling. I will never forget when we went camping in DC and went down by Lake Michigan to watch the sunset and she rode that bike off a ledge into the bushes in front of about 100 people. (the same kid who crashed her sled into the trees lol). Oh lord did she scream and Eric and I could not stop laughing. I still laugh about it, because Eric "wrote" about it in school this year. He brings home a nice little book called "The day my sister rode her bike off a cliff"...Well the bike stayed in the garage for the rest of the fall after that. All three of the kids are big into their bikes, I think last count we have 7 ? bikes in the garage for 3 kids, but really which are you going to get rid of? If I was not gigantically preggo we would already be out on the trails for the year, I will really miss doing that for awhile. Last year was the first year J and H could actually ride on their own instead of in the trailer. Our longest ride we went 4 miles, which is a LOT for Jake and his short legs, but he made it! (Actually I didn't mean for us to go that far, but they kept going and going....)
I found a ton of good deals on the internet this morning, I swear I have already recouped the cost of this computer just by shopping online! Somehow in my shutterfly account, I have 125 free prints and a 20.00 off credit, so I got 75 of the free pics and only paid 4.00 for shipping, but it seems like kindof a pain, I would almost rather go to walgreens and stick my sd card in the machine. On the medco website, I got three bottles of Nexxus hair gel for 4.00 ( yeah, these are usually 11.00 apiece...) On amazon I got Mabel a Sophie the Giraffe teether (okay, these rubber things are supposed to be like the "must have" for all babies, kindof funny. If I didn't have the code I wouldnt have got it.) and a Jeep backpack harness, and both of those things only costed 4something total. Gotta love that amazon mom deal and those babytalk magazines! Babytalk and Parenting, which you can pick up for free at the dr, or Babies R Us, have 10.00 off amazon codes in them every month. I think maybe you are supposed to only use one, but so far it has let me put in five this month :p hellloooo cheap diapers and wipes~! Oh yeah, and then there was my 6 bottles of dishsoap I got for 10.00 (Seventh generation, "baby bottle safe".) yes, I am on a roll for the week, all that stuff was only 28.00 or so total....
favorite bargain websites: www.amazon.com/mom gotta do the subscribe and save stuff, you just go back and "cancel" your subscription after your stuff arrives.)
http://www.myfrugaladventures.com/ (amazeballs, my favorite by far!)
http://www.allyou.com/ (pick up the magazine at walmart, they have like 100.00 worth of manufacturer's coupons every month.)
Also in the area, for sure check out the Clothes Mentor store by the mall, I was there for the first time yesterday and they have tons of really nice name brand stuff (even maternity) and TONS of shoes and purses, and it is not at all expensive, I was pleasantly surprised.
Happy Bargain hunting.....
Holly is really excited because she finally grew enough this winter to ride the bike she got last year in July for her birthday. She could ride it last summer but it was just a little too tall for her to get on and off without falling. I will never forget when we went camping in DC and went down by Lake Michigan to watch the sunset and she rode that bike off a ledge into the bushes in front of about 100 people. (the same kid who crashed her sled into the trees lol). Oh lord did she scream and Eric and I could not stop laughing. I still laugh about it, because Eric "wrote" about it in school this year. He brings home a nice little book called "The day my sister rode her bike off a cliff"...Well the bike stayed in the garage for the rest of the fall after that. All three of the kids are big into their bikes, I think last count we have 7 ? bikes in the garage for 3 kids, but really which are you going to get rid of? If I was not gigantically preggo we would already be out on the trails for the year, I will really miss doing that for awhile. Last year was the first year J and H could actually ride on their own instead of in the trailer. Our longest ride we went 4 miles, which is a LOT for Jake and his short legs, but he made it! (Actually I didn't mean for us to go that far, but they kept going and going....)
I found a ton of good deals on the internet this morning, I swear I have already recouped the cost of this computer just by shopping online! Somehow in my shutterfly account, I have 125 free prints and a 20.00 off credit, so I got 75 of the free pics and only paid 4.00 for shipping, but it seems like kindof a pain, I would almost rather go to walgreens and stick my sd card in the machine. On the medco website, I got three bottles of Nexxus hair gel for 4.00 ( yeah, these are usually 11.00 apiece...) On amazon I got Mabel a Sophie the Giraffe teether (okay, these rubber things are supposed to be like the "must have" for all babies, kindof funny. If I didn't have the code I wouldnt have got it.) and a Jeep backpack harness, and both of those things only costed 4something total. Gotta love that amazon mom deal and those babytalk magazines! Babytalk and Parenting, which you can pick up for free at the dr, or Babies R Us, have 10.00 off amazon codes in them every month. I think maybe you are supposed to only use one, but so far it has let me put in five this month :p hellloooo cheap diapers and wipes~! Oh yeah, and then there was my 6 bottles of dishsoap I got for 10.00 (Seventh generation, "baby bottle safe".) yes, I am on a roll for the week, all that stuff was only 28.00 or so total....
favorite bargain websites: www.amazon.com/mom gotta do the subscribe and save stuff, you just go back and "cancel" your subscription after your stuff arrives.)
http://www.myfrugaladventures.com/ (amazeballs, my favorite by far!)
http://www.allyou.com/ (pick up the magazine at walmart, they have like 100.00 worth of manufacturer's coupons every month.)
Also in the area, for sure check out the Clothes Mentor store by the mall, I was there for the first time yesterday and they have tons of really nice name brand stuff (even maternity) and TONS of shoes and purses, and it is not at all expensive, I was pleasantly surprised.
Happy Bargain hunting.....
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Is it spring yet?
I'm so glad Holly only has girlscouts once a month, this thursday afternoon "run" is exhausting. Rush them out of school so we can get across town to the civic center by 3:30, (all the other girls walk over there from the LCES so she is always a little late), go home and get Jake from the neighbors, go back and pick her up at 4:30, go home and eat a quick, early supper, take Holly back to dance class at 5:30, poke around in the library for a half hour til she's done ( today there was no time for library)
... all this today I did while riding around in Adam's truck, since he took mine back to Michigan til Monday. Whatever is wrong with that thing, it shakes like crazy when you go over 40 mph, and Mabel must be able to feel it, cuz she actually kicked me in the boob today. I thought it was Jake poking me for a second, but I look over and he's staring out the window. Jake really loves bombing around in dad's truck listening to all Adam's cds, we have really intense conversations, today he wanted to know who my boyfriend was haha! (what the heck do they teach these kids in L.C? seems to be all about chasing girls at recess and who is your boy/girl friend.)
In the midst of all this running around suddenly
A) at 5:00 one of Adam's friends shows up because Eric called him when I wasn't looking to come over and help him hook up his computer.
B) I have "the neighbor kid who never goes home" hanging around looking like either he wants me to feed him or he wants to come along
C)there's jake dragging his powerwheel down the sidewalk to the neighbor's house when I am wanting him to be in the truck
Tomorrow I will be stuck at home all morning while the truck is getting some kind of "arm" thing on it, which kindof messes up my friday errand day, and then saturday is the baby shower. I hope I don't turn into a hormonal disaster! ( I prolly will, i have terrible hormone issues, to the point where this entire time I could tell when baby was having a huge growth spurt, because it made me physically ill. YUK!)
I don't know where the hell Mabel is ever going to fit into this chaos, pretty glad school will almost be over for the year by the time she gets here. It's like I don't know whether to be glad that time is going by fast, or wish that it would slow down a little so I could treasure it before everything changes. Holly brought home a "family" book she drew pics in at school yesterday. She made all us little stick people, and then there was a tiny midget stick with "Alli" written next to it lol. Awww...she is going to be the best big sister ever, I can't wait!
.
... all this today I did while riding around in Adam's truck, since he took mine back to Michigan til Monday. Whatever is wrong with that thing, it shakes like crazy when you go over 40 mph, and Mabel must be able to feel it, cuz she actually kicked me in the boob today. I thought it was Jake poking me for a second, but I look over and he's staring out the window. Jake really loves bombing around in dad's truck listening to all Adam's cds, we have really intense conversations, today he wanted to know who my boyfriend was haha! (what the heck do they teach these kids in L.C? seems to be all about chasing girls at recess and who is your boy/girl friend.)
In the midst of all this running around suddenly
A) at 5:00 one of Adam's friends shows up because Eric called him when I wasn't looking to come over and help him hook up his computer.
B) I have "the neighbor kid who never goes home" hanging around looking like either he wants me to feed him or he wants to come along
C)there's jake dragging his powerwheel down the sidewalk to the neighbor's house when I am wanting him to be in the truck
Tomorrow I will be stuck at home all morning while the truck is getting some kind of "arm" thing on it, which kindof messes up my friday errand day, and then saturday is the baby shower. I hope I don't turn into a hormonal disaster! ( I prolly will, i have terrible hormone issues, to the point where this entire time I could tell when baby was having a huge growth spurt, because it made me physically ill. YUK!)
I don't know where the hell Mabel is ever going to fit into this chaos, pretty glad school will almost be over for the year by the time she gets here. It's like I don't know whether to be glad that time is going by fast, or wish that it would slow down a little so I could treasure it before everything changes. Holly brought home a "family" book she drew pics in at school yesterday. She made all us little stick people, and then there was a tiny midget stick with "Alli" written next to it lol. Awww...she is going to be the best big sister ever, I can't wait!
.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
A lot of ramblings
For some reason I keep thinking tomorrow is thursday, like I want to skip right over wednesday. (I don't know WHY, holly has girlscouts and dance class both thursday afternoon, it will be another mad dash back across town five times in 2 hours.)
Doctor visit yesterday shows Mabel is growing right on schedule. Like, exactly, to the DAY, it's been that way the whole 32 weeks, kindof strange. Never a week behind or a little ahead or anything, even the estimated due date on the ultrasound back in December was exact to the day. I don't know if that's good or bad. Maybe she will turn out to be the best behaved out of the bunch lol. (a mom can dream, huh....) Or else make up for it by turning into the devil child later on. I'm pretty sure all the other kids were a little ahead, because they were all over 8 lbs, so maybe she will turn out to be the smallest. (again, a mom can dream lol) I even looked up the way she is laying (with her back to my left and her feet up in my right side), and she is in "optimal" fetal position, which is the exact best position you want your baby to be in before they are born. Unfortunately it means she is headbutting me in a baaaad spot and I am starting to walk like a 100 year old lady. I might need a wheelchair to make it to my baby shower this weekend. (Baby shower?! It's my fourth kid, I don't really deserve one, I feel pretty spoiled!) We were supposed to go rollerskating tonight for the kids school, but thankfully they didn't throw too much of a fit when I suggested skipping it. Jake's idea of "rollerskating" is hanging onto me while I walk him back and forth on the carpeted practice area, so I think it would have ended in disaster.
Had an IEP conference with Holly's teachers and principal yesterday, since she will be switching schools next year she had to be reevaluated to see if she still needs speech therapy in the new district. It went awesome, Adam and I were both really impressed with how much progress she has made. Her reading skills are amazing, and she is way ahead of most of the other kids in her class. Unfortunately she is still really quiet in class, which baffles me because she is NOT quiet at home ever! What's really funny is that she writes the way she talks, like she will write "gowl" for girl, because that is the way it sounds to her... I have always had some concerns about her hearing, because sometimes you don't know if she is really not hearing you, or "selectively" listening, but she's had it tested twice and passed both times. This was kindof like deja vu for me with the hearing problems. When Eric was in preschool he was very quiet also. Well then he failed a hearing test and it turned out he had fluid in his ears and they were completely blocked. I felt guilty for a long time- my kid couldn't hear and I didn't even know it. (The principal made me feel better yesterday though, she said "Don't worry about it, my son was half-blind in fourth grade and needed glasses and I didn't know it either." )
I am really on the edge of the proverbial "hormonal cliff" the last couple days, like there is all this stuff I need to do before this kid gets here and I don't know how I am ever going to get it done. I find myself worrying about dumb things like how I should really rearrange the laundry room, and how I should get all the stuff for the easter baskets NOW so that I am not running around doing it in 6 weeks, and how um....this baby does not yet have any clothes or bottles!?, and worrying that people are going to want to come and visit and by the time I get home from the hospital the house is going to be trashed by my 3 kids and hubbo who don't know how to put anything away. Oh yeah, and who is going to do the grocery shopping while I am incapacitated?! Cuz Adam will NOT use coupons!? Have to make sure we have enough toilet paper, toothpaste, lunchbox snacks, laundry soap....(I think I'm going a little neurotic.) I know I should probably just cry it out and get it over with, or else it's going to hit me at a really bad time, like standing in the grocery store line reading some sad story in a magazine....(I am staying away from General Hospital this week for sure then, poor little son of Jason Morgan!!!!!!!)
Doctor visit yesterday shows Mabel is growing right on schedule. Like, exactly, to the DAY, it's been that way the whole 32 weeks, kindof strange. Never a week behind or a little ahead or anything, even the estimated due date on the ultrasound back in December was exact to the day. I don't know if that's good or bad. Maybe she will turn out to be the best behaved out of the bunch lol. (a mom can dream, huh....) Or else make up for it by turning into the devil child later on. I'm pretty sure all the other kids were a little ahead, because they were all over 8 lbs, so maybe she will turn out to be the smallest. (again, a mom can dream lol) I even looked up the way she is laying (with her back to my left and her feet up in my right side), and she is in "optimal" fetal position, which is the exact best position you want your baby to be in before they are born. Unfortunately it means she is headbutting me in a baaaad spot and I am starting to walk like a 100 year old lady. I might need a wheelchair to make it to my baby shower this weekend. (Baby shower?! It's my fourth kid, I don't really deserve one, I feel pretty spoiled!) We were supposed to go rollerskating tonight for the kids school, but thankfully they didn't throw too much of a fit when I suggested skipping it. Jake's idea of "rollerskating" is hanging onto me while I walk him back and forth on the carpeted practice area, so I think it would have ended in disaster.
Had an IEP conference with Holly's teachers and principal yesterday, since she will be switching schools next year she had to be reevaluated to see if she still needs speech therapy in the new district. It went awesome, Adam and I were both really impressed with how much progress she has made. Her reading skills are amazing, and she is way ahead of most of the other kids in her class. Unfortunately she is still really quiet in class, which baffles me because she is NOT quiet at home ever! What's really funny is that she writes the way she talks, like she will write "gowl" for girl, because that is the way it sounds to her... I have always had some concerns about her hearing, because sometimes you don't know if she is really not hearing you, or "selectively" listening, but she's had it tested twice and passed both times. This was kindof like deja vu for me with the hearing problems. When Eric was in preschool he was very quiet also. Well then he failed a hearing test and it turned out he had fluid in his ears and they were completely blocked. I felt guilty for a long time- my kid couldn't hear and I didn't even know it. (The principal made me feel better yesterday though, she said "Don't worry about it, my son was half-blind in fourth grade and needed glasses and I didn't know it either." )
I am really on the edge of the proverbial "hormonal cliff" the last couple days, like there is all this stuff I need to do before this kid gets here and I don't know how I am ever going to get it done. I find myself worrying about dumb things like how I should really rearrange the laundry room, and how I should get all the stuff for the easter baskets NOW so that I am not running around doing it in 6 weeks, and how um....this baby does not yet have any clothes or bottles!?, and worrying that people are going to want to come and visit and by the time I get home from the hospital the house is going to be trashed by my 3 kids and hubbo who don't know how to put anything away. Oh yeah, and who is going to do the grocery shopping while I am incapacitated?! Cuz Adam will NOT use coupons!? Have to make sure we have enough toilet paper, toothpaste, lunchbox snacks, laundry soap....(I think I'm going a little neurotic.) I know I should probably just cry it out and get it over with, or else it's going to hit me at a really bad time, like standing in the grocery store line reading some sad story in a magazine....(I am staying away from General Hospital this week for sure then, poor little son of Jason Morgan!!!!!!!)
Sunday, March 13, 2011
I need a massage, a maid, and a beer
Today was the Big Raffle Day. Needless to say we didn't win 10,000. (sheesh, even a 100.00 prize would have been nice.) but the winning ticket was sold like 7 after Adam's, so when the guy said 32...9, aw really? His was 322. I was sure we were going to be going to Disney World this week :) I did get to have a free sandwich and sit there and make friends with a bunch of old people. The lady next to me fed her husband a piece of cheese off her plate, it was endearingly cute. I did NOT get to take advantage of the free beer, however. Funny I have never really even liked beer and now that I'm knocked up and I can't have one, I WANT ONE! Will have to settle for my orange juice/sprite pregnancy fake mimosas.
When we got home Eric immediately wanted to ride his bike to the store since the sun was shining. (He really cannot sit still for very long.) Well I asked him to get me some sprite and orange juice and he came back with the biggest, most giant gallon of orange juice I have ever seen in his backpack. It was so heavy, I don't know how he ever carried it home, I could not stop laughing. You can tell the kids have had a long wkend, with their friends being here friday night and being at grandma's last night, Holly is soooooo crabby, and it doesn't help that one of the neighbor kids pushed her down in the mud a short while ago. (Then he told her he was going to punch ME in the face, and she got really upset. I said "Holly, who is bigger? What do you think is gonna happen if a 5 yr old punches a mom in the face?" and she felt better. I think that kid prolly had a long wkend too.) So nice that it's almost six o clock and still light out, but man our front yard looks like a mud race track on the edges of the driveway, every time I turn around they are slogging their boots through the mud, poking sticks and shovels and bottles and anything they can find into the stinkin mudhole and then dragging it into my laundry room. They are also all a little cranky cuz Dad usually comes home on sunday nights and he won't be home until tomorrow morning.
Tomorrow all the kids back to school, but I have a doctor's appt in the morning and a teacher conference right after lunch (cutting it a little close on time in between!) and a husband who won't have gotten any sleep if he works til 7 am and spends 2 hrs driving home. And the condition of the house still isn't "recovered" from the weekend. (Actually I don't think I am recovered yet for the wkends. Tramping through the woods with 5 kids and a giant preggo belly- NOT SMART) Damn, and here I was going to convince him to use some of that 10 grand to hire Merry Maids....
When we got home Eric immediately wanted to ride his bike to the store since the sun was shining. (He really cannot sit still for very long.) Well I asked him to get me some sprite and orange juice and he came back with the biggest, most giant gallon of orange juice I have ever seen in his backpack. It was so heavy, I don't know how he ever carried it home, I could not stop laughing. You can tell the kids have had a long wkend, with their friends being here friday night and being at grandma's last night, Holly is soooooo crabby, and it doesn't help that one of the neighbor kids pushed her down in the mud a short while ago. (Then he told her he was going to punch ME in the face, and she got really upset. I said "Holly, who is bigger? What do you think is gonna happen if a 5 yr old punches a mom in the face?" and she felt better. I think that kid prolly had a long wkend too.) So nice that it's almost six o clock and still light out, but man our front yard looks like a mud race track on the edges of the driveway, every time I turn around they are slogging their boots through the mud, poking sticks and shovels and bottles and anything they can find into the stinkin mudhole and then dragging it into my laundry room. They are also all a little cranky cuz Dad usually comes home on sunday nights and he won't be home until tomorrow morning.
Tomorrow all the kids back to school, but I have a doctor's appt in the morning and a teacher conference right after lunch (cutting it a little close on time in between!) and a husband who won't have gotten any sleep if he works til 7 am and spends 2 hrs driving home. And the condition of the house still isn't "recovered" from the weekend. (Actually I don't think I am recovered yet for the wkends. Tramping through the woods with 5 kids and a giant preggo belly- NOT SMART) Damn, and here I was going to convince him to use some of that 10 grand to hire Merry Maids....
Friday, March 11, 2011
BAD MAMA!
Proof of why I need more sleep: last night jake fell asleep watching tv downstairs in their room downstairs with his clothes on. Well this morning they were all up by 7:30 (so much for sleeping in) so I thought we would get a headstart on my errands, we were out the door by 8:30. Wellllll.....Jake had school the other 2 didn't, went to drop him off at 12:15 after running all over town and realize he was still wearing THE SAME CLOTHES HE WORE TO SCHOOL YESTERDAY! I prolly get the bad mom of the day award. Thank god the "Grandma's house" suitcase was still in the trunk, I had to throw one of eric's shirts on over his t-shirt before got out of the truck. (In my defense, Jake wets the bed a lot, and he usually picks out his own clothes and gets dressed before he comes upstairs because he is embarrassed. He has had three dry nights in a row so I guess I didn't even think about it....) Sheesh, I hope his old-lady teacher didn't notice.
Holly and I had a really nice "girls" afternoon, since Eric decided to play at his cousins. Shhhhh, we went to lunch at Red Lobster, but no one tell Adam I went there without him ONE TIME eleven months ago and he still is grouchy about it. She "helped" pick out Mabel's stroller and carseat. Tomorrow night I get an unexpected night off from the kids and what the heck, I don't even have anywhere to be.....
Holly and I had a really nice "girls" afternoon, since Eric decided to play at his cousins. Shhhhh, we went to lunch at Red Lobster, but no one tell Adam I went there without him ONE TIME eleven months ago and he still is grouchy about it. She "helped" pick out Mabel's stroller and carseat. Tomorrow night I get an unexpected night off from the kids and what the heck, I don't even have anywhere to be.....
Thursday, March 10, 2011
"These are the Days of our Strifes"
Holly got an American Girl dolls catalog in the mail yesterday, which whenever that comes starts the whoooole discussion again about how much she wants one of those dolls and which one she wants. Well the price on those dolls is up to 100.00 now, which I think is ridiculous. If they want something like that, I always make them earn the money for it. We came up with this plan, if Holly does one chore a day she gets 1.00 a day. this sounded good to her, until she found out it would take 100 DAYS lol. "Really, mom. That is way too long. I am not doing that." (She has a pretty good pre-teen voice already haha.) We will see how bad she wants that doll. Eric has actually bought a lot of his stuff with his own money (he even bought me an orange hair dryer for christmas :p ) he gets paid from the landlord for shoveling snow and taking care of the dog, and the big joke this winter was he was going to save his money and buy one of those mini-snowblowers. (We talked him out of it.) I am trying to convince him to save his money and buy himself a laptop, he's probably about halfway to a semi-decent one.
Tomorrow is one of those wierd schedule days where Eric and Holly have off of school but Jake still has to go. I hope they sleep in, as last night I hardly slept at ALL, and I looked like a walking zombie all day today. It sounds terrible to say, but I never sleep good when Adam is home! He is such a freakin bed hog, his legs are so long, he sleeps at a wierd angle, and I get shoved into this little triangle of mattress hanging halfway off the side of the bed. Im sure it's no better for him, he is used to having that squeaky bed in the manshack full of taco bell wrappers all to himself. Last night he came home because he was 10 guys out (on the list, you get called to work when you are number 1, if he is 7 or more it usually means he wont go to work for a day or two.), was all happy went out to dinner with friends.....and then by midnight he was all of a sudden number 2 for some reason, so he was freakin out laying in bed waiting for the phone to ring. (A 2 hour call does not work too well when you are 2 and a half hours away, he usually liked to get back to the UP when he is number 3 on the list.) NEITHER of us slept hardly all night, and I ended up sleeping the afternoon away after I took jake to school. nonproductive day!!!!!!!oh well. He's kindof stuck now on trying for a job position that's open in Neenah. I think it would be great, but it would mean he could also be forced to work sometimes out of Fondulac and Stevens Point. And I think he's getting attached to that man shack and his little local watering holes that he's found in the UP. Even if he gets transferred out of Gladstone, I think we would still go back and visit a lot. It's an unbelievably gorgeous area, and we always talked about looking for a hunk of land up north somewhere for a getaway spot, and it's dirt cheap up there. Nothing but Yoopers and bears. (aggghhhh, I was not scared of bears until I read that there are 19 THOUSAND black bears in the UP!)
The kids are soooo excited that their two little friends are coming to stay overnight tomorrow night. Holly has actually kept her room clean for an entire week in anticipation of their arrival. The friends live with their mom in another city and only visit their dad eowkend so we haven't seen much of them this winter. The only bad part is that Holly and her little girlfriend get SO ridiculously hyper when they are together, bouncing off the walls hyper. It's a lot easier to have them here in the summer when I can take them all out to the nature center for the afternoon and run them ragged. I'm sure we will have other neighbor kids in and out like usual also, but I figure let them have their friends over now because once May hits our house is gonna be off-limits to kids running in and out and slamming doors for awhile. Thank god warm weather is coming! In the summer the kids are mostly not allowed to have their friends in the house during the day unless it's raining, there is just too many of them and then the kids "feed" the neighborhood everything in the cupboards the second I turn around. Also there is enough stuff to do outside that they don't need to be playing video games, watching tv etc.(We are not much of tv watchers anyway, the kids only watch movies, and the only tv with network television is in our room.)
I can't believe Mabel will be here in 8 weeks or LESS. I keep going in her room and looking at that crib. Where did that time go? It's been so long since Jake was a baby that I'm afraid I've forgotten how to do everything. And it's been just EJH for so long, I can't imagine what it's going to be like adding another person to our family. Another thing I keep doing, is when we go out to eat or to do something I find myself counting "spots", like damn, when we go out for Chinese, we're going to need the "big" table lol. When we go somewhere to eat in a booth, we always put 2 on each side, and Jake sits in a chair at the end. I am only going to have room for one extra kid (when adam is with) in my suburban! And you cannot get any bigger than a Suburban. I remember about a month after we got the truck and Jake was born, Eric said, "Mom, I think we need a bigger truck", and I said, "Eric, the only thing bigger than this truck is a bus...."....
Tomorrow is one of those wierd schedule days where Eric and Holly have off of school but Jake still has to go. I hope they sleep in, as last night I hardly slept at ALL, and I looked like a walking zombie all day today. It sounds terrible to say, but I never sleep good when Adam is home! He is such a freakin bed hog, his legs are so long, he sleeps at a wierd angle, and I get shoved into this little triangle of mattress hanging halfway off the side of the bed. Im sure it's no better for him, he is used to having that squeaky bed in the manshack full of taco bell wrappers all to himself. Last night he came home because he was 10 guys out (on the list, you get called to work when you are number 1, if he is 7 or more it usually means he wont go to work for a day or two.), was all happy went out to dinner with friends.....and then by midnight he was all of a sudden number 2 for some reason, so he was freakin out laying in bed waiting for the phone to ring. (A 2 hour call does not work too well when you are 2 and a half hours away, he usually liked to get back to the UP when he is number 3 on the list.) NEITHER of us slept hardly all night, and I ended up sleeping the afternoon away after I took jake to school. nonproductive day!!!!!!!oh well. He's kindof stuck now on trying for a job position that's open in Neenah. I think it would be great, but it would mean he could also be forced to work sometimes out of Fondulac and Stevens Point. And I think he's getting attached to that man shack and his little local watering holes that he's found in the UP. Even if he gets transferred out of Gladstone, I think we would still go back and visit a lot. It's an unbelievably gorgeous area, and we always talked about looking for a hunk of land up north somewhere for a getaway spot, and it's dirt cheap up there. Nothing but Yoopers and bears. (aggghhhh, I was not scared of bears until I read that there are 19 THOUSAND black bears in the UP!)
The kids are soooo excited that their two little friends are coming to stay overnight tomorrow night. Holly has actually kept her room clean for an entire week in anticipation of their arrival. The friends live with their mom in another city and only visit their dad eowkend so we haven't seen much of them this winter. The only bad part is that Holly and her little girlfriend get SO ridiculously hyper when they are together, bouncing off the walls hyper. It's a lot easier to have them here in the summer when I can take them all out to the nature center for the afternoon and run them ragged. I'm sure we will have other neighbor kids in and out like usual also, but I figure let them have their friends over now because once May hits our house is gonna be off-limits to kids running in and out and slamming doors for awhile. Thank god warm weather is coming! In the summer the kids are mostly not allowed to have their friends in the house during the day unless it's raining, there is just too many of them and then the kids "feed" the neighborhood everything in the cupboards the second I turn around. Also there is enough stuff to do outside that they don't need to be playing video games, watching tv etc.(We are not much of tv watchers anyway, the kids only watch movies, and the only tv with network television is in our room.)
I can't believe Mabel will be here in 8 weeks or LESS. I keep going in her room and looking at that crib. Where did that time go? It's been so long since Jake was a baby that I'm afraid I've forgotten how to do everything. And it's been just EJH for so long, I can't imagine what it's going to be like adding another person to our family. Another thing I keep doing, is when we go out to eat or to do something I find myself counting "spots", like damn, when we go out for Chinese, we're going to need the "big" table lol. When we go somewhere to eat in a booth, we always put 2 on each side, and Jake sits in a chair at the end. I am only going to have room for one extra kid (when adam is with) in my suburban! And you cannot get any bigger than a Suburban. I remember about a month after we got the truck and Jake was born, Eric said, "Mom, I think we need a bigger truck", and I said, "Eric, the only thing bigger than this truck is a bus...."....
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Bargain Nazi
Really sometimes I even amaze myself. I dont think much puts me in a better mood than good deals, I sometimes sing in the car on the way home from the store...
My first Walgreens stop of the day after dropping Jake off at school. I got 68.00 worth of stuff for 34.00, plus I got 13.00 back in register rewards. My second Walgreens stop before picking up the other 2 at 3:15, (Kaukauna one this time ha), I got another 27.00 worth of stuff, used 10.00 of my rewards and paid a grand total of 3.00 cash. If you're keep track this is 37.00 in cash total...for 95.00 worth of merchandise!
I prolly sound like this crazy woman running around to all these different stores, but both the Walgreens right next to the kids' schools and I was in each one less than 15 min. I always go in any store knowing exactly what I want, and I rarely diversify from the coupon pile....unless by some rare chance Adam is with me, and he totally zeroes out all my coupon savings by throwing random stuff in the cart.
Today the stuff I got included 2 giant 56 oz hand soap refills (originally 8.00 each, paid 3.00 a piece . I don't need two so I will split the cost with my S-I-L. (splitting bargains is the best deal ever if you can find someone who uses the same stuff as you! Once we split 10 boxes of pasta. It costed us each 1.75 for 5 boxes of pasta and I got a free chicken.)
A ton of laundry stuff- Tide soap, stain boosters, dryer bar, and in-wash stain booster. This stuff alone averages 7.00 an item at Target- I looked, glad I saved those buy one get one free coupons from the paper! Our clothes are not gonna know what hit them, I never buy the name brand stuff unless its on sale
2 pkgs of swiffer wet floor things (and I was planning on stocking up on those anyway so the kids can help keep the floor clean after I have the baby- at least a mom can dream that anyway ha.)
2 bottles of body wash 4.00 each on average
4 bags of Hersheys easter chocolate
2 containers of Oxyclean 5.99 were buy one get one free
THEN I came home and start checking out the amazon deals of the day. I am sooooo addicted to amazon mom/ suscribe and save. You just check subscribe and save, and they take 15% off, plus being in amazon mom gives you free shipping, and when you get your stuff you go back in and "cancel" the subscription. Well today I got 264 diapers for a measly 7 BUCKS by using coupon codes I got out of parenting and babytalk magazines. last week I got 4 pkgs of Capri suns for about 5.00, and 3 big 40 oz jars of peter pan peanut butter for 10.00.
Amazing! This is even better than ebay haha! Wish all this internet shopping would have been more of a big thing when the other kids were little I would have saved about 5 million dollars in diapers, having had 2 kids in diapers at once for almost 3 years.
So now my count is at 492 diapers up to size 2 and 17 tubs of wipes and I have spent a grand total of ....43.00. I'm pretty sure that is about the equivalent cost of one box of Pampers at Toys r US! Hopefully with that and the tiny newborn ones they give you at the hospital (my kids were giants, they grew out of newborn diapers in about a week) we should be good for the first couple months.
Now I'm just waiting for this stupid snow to melt so people can start having rummage sales, or Mabel is going to spend the first few weeks of her life wearing only a diaper....
My first Walgreens stop of the day after dropping Jake off at school. I got 68.00 worth of stuff for 34.00, plus I got 13.00 back in register rewards. My second Walgreens stop before picking up the other 2 at 3:15, (Kaukauna one this time ha), I got another 27.00 worth of stuff, used 10.00 of my rewards and paid a grand total of 3.00 cash. If you're keep track this is 37.00 in cash total...for 95.00 worth of merchandise!
I prolly sound like this crazy woman running around to all these different stores, but both the Walgreens right next to the kids' schools and I was in each one less than 15 min. I always go in any store knowing exactly what I want, and I rarely diversify from the coupon pile....unless by some rare chance Adam is with me, and he totally zeroes out all my coupon savings by throwing random stuff in the cart.
Today the stuff I got included 2 giant 56 oz hand soap refills (originally 8.00 each, paid 3.00 a piece . I don't need two so I will split the cost with my S-I-L. (splitting bargains is the best deal ever if you can find someone who uses the same stuff as you! Once we split 10 boxes of pasta. It costed us each 1.75 for 5 boxes of pasta and I got a free chicken.)
A ton of laundry stuff- Tide soap, stain boosters, dryer bar, and in-wash stain booster. This stuff alone averages 7.00 an item at Target- I looked, glad I saved those buy one get one free coupons from the paper! Our clothes are not gonna know what hit them, I never buy the name brand stuff unless its on sale
2 pkgs of swiffer wet floor things (and I was planning on stocking up on those anyway so the kids can help keep the floor clean after I have the baby- at least a mom can dream that anyway ha.)
2 bottles of body wash 4.00 each on average
4 bags of Hersheys easter chocolate
2 containers of Oxyclean 5.99 were buy one get one free
THEN I came home and start checking out the amazon deals of the day. I am sooooo addicted to amazon mom/ suscribe and save. You just check subscribe and save, and they take 15% off, plus being in amazon mom gives you free shipping, and when you get your stuff you go back in and "cancel" the subscription. Well today I got 264 diapers for a measly 7 BUCKS by using coupon codes I got out of parenting and babytalk magazines. last week I got 4 pkgs of Capri suns for about 5.00, and 3 big 40 oz jars of peter pan peanut butter for 10.00.
Amazing! This is even better than ebay haha! Wish all this internet shopping would have been more of a big thing when the other kids were little I would have saved about 5 million dollars in diapers, having had 2 kids in diapers at once for almost 3 years.
So now my count is at 492 diapers up to size 2 and 17 tubs of wipes and I have spent a grand total of ....43.00. I'm pretty sure that is about the equivalent cost of one box of Pampers at Toys r US! Hopefully with that and the tiny newborn ones they give you at the hospital (my kids were giants, they grew out of newborn diapers in about a week) we should be good for the first couple months.
Now I'm just waiting for this stupid snow to melt so people can start having rummage sales, or Mabel is going to spend the first few weeks of her life wearing only a diaper....
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Kiss the Cook!
The age-old question of "What's for Dinner?"
I've been feeling kindof guilty lately because I haven't cooked anything huge for dinner while Adam was home for a couple weeks, but all those freakin dishes and pans....exhausting... It's like it takes me half a day to clean up the kitchen, and by that time someone wants lunch, gotta plan for dinner, it's a vicious cycle that never ends :p Plus, I haven't had much of an appetite at all for about 8 months now, so not eating food does not make you want to cook it!
I usually keep it pretty simple when it's just me and the kids. They have a bunch of regular favorites: spanish hamburger, ranch chicken strips, spaghetti, mostaccoli w/Italian sausage, ham and cheese crescent rolls, etc. We always keep a big rectangle tupperware with cut veggies and dip in the fridge, and I can pull that out, make some chicken rice, and we're good to go.
We really don't go out to eat much unless dad is home or we're on the run, I hate considering McDonalds "dinner", but they like Fazoli's for the kids night once in awhile, and Chinese is a big favorite.
I am a big fan of new recipes but I don't like anything with ingredients that are too wierd. (Rachel Ray's recipes are waaaaayyyy to wierd for me!) And I don't like making anything that comes out of a frozen bag or box, like if we are going to have lasagna or stir fry, well I'd rather just make it from scratch. In the summer we make our own pickles (SO easy!), and last year was my first attempt at making jam. It turned out awesome, will have to make more this year because we ran out.
Adam is realllly picky, the list now is "nothing in the slow cooker, nothing with cinnamon (OMG I put cinnamon in the chili for a recipe ONE TIME and I thought he was gonna kill me), he's sick of "italian", and sick of things made with boneless chicken. Omg, nothing in the slow cooker!? I have a love affair with my slow cooker. Last week when I knew he was coming home crabby I put chicken in there just because I knew it would piss him off hahaha! "What the hell is for dinner?" "Chicken in the slow cooker"....(acutually I was just cooking it in there to use for a recipe the next day lol) Oh yeah, and he refuses to eat leftovers! I am really running out of dinner ideas. He always wants something that "used to think", but if you ask him he doesn't exactly know what. I'm pretty sure he is the only reason the Escanaba Taco Bell is still in business.
Last week we had in our house what shall forever be known as The Great Meatloaf Incident. In 10 years the guy has NEVER asked for meatloaf, and all of a suddenly he wants a Piggly Wiggly meatloaf for dinner. Well the kids acted like the world was ending because I was going to make them eat this giant hunk of hamburger. Holly whined a little, ended up eating it and went on her merry way. Jake sat at the table at for 20 minutes til I "pretend" cried, and then he ate most of it so I let him go. Eric sat at the table for an HOUR AND A HALF before he ate one bite. And after the first 45 min, you know, I wasn't going to give in because what does that teach him? That he can have a hotdog every time he doesn't like what I am cooking? (EW, thanks to a lovely discussion with a friend who used to work in a meat packaging plant and some research about nitrates, we no longer buy those "quick supper" 99cent hotdogs...) We went through this a few other times before with him, the most notorious being the "chocolate pudding taco" incident when Eric was about 5. Something like "stop playing with your food, if you smear chocolate pudding on that taco, I WILL make you eat it.". Long night..... Well needless to say, we won't be having meatloaf for dinner in for awhile. Some battles are only worth it once! I don't expect them always to clean their plates. The rule is if you are really full, that's fine, but the kitchen is closed for the rest of the night. If you finish your supper, you might have room for a snack later. I don't always expect them to like everything either (hell, I STILL hate baked beans!) but I do expect them to try stuff. I really don't want them to end up being picky eaters.
tonight we ended up having tacos with the leftover chicken from last night, it's a big shopping wkend this weekend, so I am trying to clean out the cupboards. Haven't been to the grocery store in a few weeks except for the basics, just because there wasn't anything on sale last week, so then I just don't go and we use what we have. (really, why spend more money when you know it's going to go on sale if you wait 3 days?) I get really obsessive about going over the ads on sunday afternoon, planning exactly what I'm getting from each store, with what coupons, and if there's super good coupons, I call one of the grandparents to get doubles of them haha! Also, there is this big red coupon machine at Piggly Wiggly that spits out manufacturer coupons that you can use at other stores too. Festival Foods has great produce and meat, but the reg, grocery section is way overpriced, so I just go there for what is on sale. Pick n Save of course is double coupon day on sat and wed. Target is great because you can print coupons off their website AND use manufacturer coupons, so 2 for each item. I LOVE Walgreens, because they have register rewards, so we usually end up getting all our toothpaste, toothbrushes, body wash, etc, for free or close to it. It probably sounds kind of obsessive and time-consuming, but I save a LOT of money, and most of those stores are places I drive by at least once a week anyway. Maybe it won't be so easy when I am dragging Mabel around with me in a few months, but I have shopped that way since the other kids were little.
There was this woman in front of me at Festival Foods awhile ago ran out of money at 190.00 worth of groceries. I wanted to drag her back into the aisles and teach her how to shop..... favorite website, hands down. http://www.myfrugaladventures.com/. this lady is awesome! she tells you the who what, when where of all the best deals, and how to get tons of free samples.
Regarding my "sloppy kids" blog. Tonight I asked the kids to tidy up their rooms a little, as I am trying to drill into their heads that if you put your stuff away every night, you don't end up with a huge mess.
Jake asked me what "tidy" meant LOL. My point exactly...
\
I've been feeling kindof guilty lately because I haven't cooked anything huge for dinner while Adam was home for a couple weeks, but all those freakin dishes and pans....exhausting... It's like it takes me half a day to clean up the kitchen, and by that time someone wants lunch, gotta plan for dinner, it's a vicious cycle that never ends :p Plus, I haven't had much of an appetite at all for about 8 months now, so not eating food does not make you want to cook it!
I usually keep it pretty simple when it's just me and the kids. They have a bunch of regular favorites: spanish hamburger, ranch chicken strips, spaghetti, mostaccoli w/Italian sausage, ham and cheese crescent rolls, etc. We always keep a big rectangle tupperware with cut veggies and dip in the fridge, and I can pull that out, make some chicken rice, and we're good to go.
We really don't go out to eat much unless dad is home or we're on the run, I hate considering McDonalds "dinner", but they like Fazoli's for the kids night once in awhile, and Chinese is a big favorite.
I am a big fan of new recipes but I don't like anything with ingredients that are too wierd. (Rachel Ray's recipes are waaaaayyyy to wierd for me!) And I don't like making anything that comes out of a frozen bag or box, like if we are going to have lasagna or stir fry, well I'd rather just make it from scratch. In the summer we make our own pickles (SO easy!), and last year was my first attempt at making jam. It turned out awesome, will have to make more this year because we ran out.
Adam is realllly picky, the list now is "nothing in the slow cooker, nothing with cinnamon (OMG I put cinnamon in the chili for a recipe ONE TIME and I thought he was gonna kill me), he's sick of "italian", and sick of things made with boneless chicken. Omg, nothing in the slow cooker!? I have a love affair with my slow cooker. Last week when I knew he was coming home crabby I put chicken in there just because I knew it would piss him off hahaha! "What the hell is for dinner?" "Chicken in the slow cooker"....(acutually I was just cooking it in there to use for a recipe the next day lol) Oh yeah, and he refuses to eat leftovers! I am really running out of dinner ideas. He always wants something that "used to think", but if you ask him he doesn't exactly know what. I'm pretty sure he is the only reason the Escanaba Taco Bell is still in business.
Last week we had in our house what shall forever be known as The Great Meatloaf Incident. In 10 years the guy has NEVER asked for meatloaf, and all of a suddenly he wants a Piggly Wiggly meatloaf for dinner. Well the kids acted like the world was ending because I was going to make them eat this giant hunk of hamburger. Holly whined a little, ended up eating it and went on her merry way. Jake sat at the table at for 20 minutes til I "pretend" cried, and then he ate most of it so I let him go. Eric sat at the table for an HOUR AND A HALF before he ate one bite. And after the first 45 min, you know, I wasn't going to give in because what does that teach him? That he can have a hotdog every time he doesn't like what I am cooking? (EW, thanks to a lovely discussion with a friend who used to work in a meat packaging plant and some research about nitrates, we no longer buy those "quick supper" 99cent hotdogs...) We went through this a few other times before with him, the most notorious being the "chocolate pudding taco" incident when Eric was about 5. Something like "stop playing with your food, if you smear chocolate pudding on that taco, I WILL make you eat it.". Long night..... Well needless to say, we won't be having meatloaf for dinner in for awhile. Some battles are only worth it once! I don't expect them always to clean their plates. The rule is if you are really full, that's fine, but the kitchen is closed for the rest of the night. If you finish your supper, you might have room for a snack later. I don't always expect them to like everything either (hell, I STILL hate baked beans!) but I do expect them to try stuff. I really don't want them to end up being picky eaters.
tonight we ended up having tacos with the leftover chicken from last night, it's a big shopping wkend this weekend, so I am trying to clean out the cupboards. Haven't been to the grocery store in a few weeks except for the basics, just because there wasn't anything on sale last week, so then I just don't go and we use what we have. (really, why spend more money when you know it's going to go on sale if you wait 3 days?) I get really obsessive about going over the ads on sunday afternoon, planning exactly what I'm getting from each store, with what coupons, and if there's super good coupons, I call one of the grandparents to get doubles of them haha! Also, there is this big red coupon machine at Piggly Wiggly that spits out manufacturer coupons that you can use at other stores too. Festival Foods has great produce and meat, but the reg, grocery section is way overpriced, so I just go there for what is on sale. Pick n Save of course is double coupon day on sat and wed. Target is great because you can print coupons off their website AND use manufacturer coupons, so 2 for each item. I LOVE Walgreens, because they have register rewards, so we usually end up getting all our toothpaste, toothbrushes, body wash, etc, for free or close to it. It probably sounds kind of obsessive and time-consuming, but I save a LOT of money, and most of those stores are places I drive by at least once a week anyway. Maybe it won't be so easy when I am dragging Mabel around with me in a few months, but I have shopped that way since the other kids were little.
There was this woman in front of me at Festival Foods awhile ago ran out of money at 190.00 worth of groceries. I wanted to drag her back into the aisles and teach her how to shop..... favorite website, hands down. http://www.myfrugaladventures.com/. this lady is awesome! she tells you the who what, when where of all the best deals, and how to get tons of free samples.
Regarding my "sloppy kids" blog. Tonight I asked the kids to tidy up their rooms a little, as I am trying to drill into their heads that if you put your stuff away every night, you don't end up with a huge mess.
Jake asked me what "tidy" meant LOL. My point exactly...
\
Sunday, March 6, 2011
The past is a ghost, the future a dream, and all we ever have is now. - Bill Cosby
Sitting here waiting for our supper to get out of the oven and Holly is reading to me outloud from one of her Junie B Jones books. Her reading skills really amaze me, even though she is a little older than the other kids in her class. I'm pretty sure I was in second grade before I started reading longer books, and it took me until this year to get Eric to read anything. He is now finally into reading his "Boxcar Children" books, and his teacher says he's a really fast reader. Go figure, Ha I wonder where he gets it! Not from his dad, lol. I always give Adam crap about how he didn't know Little House on the Prairie was based on the Laura Ingalls books, because he never read the books when he was a kid. He thought Melissa Gilbert was the "real" Laura Ingalls. Jake gets kindof mad at times and easily frustrated "Mom I can't read ANYthing". Well he is only 5, but he wants to keep up with Holly of course. Getting them to read and love books at an early age is super-important to me, because I know it will affect everything else they do in school, and the things you can learn from books is neverending. Our favorite book store is this half-price used bookstore in town, and we usually go about once a week and spend an afternoon picking out stuff there. They have an awesome variety, and very low-cost, i usually end up selling my own books back there once or twice a month also to get store credit. We were going to go today, but the kids were playing outside with their neighbor friends, and the afternoon got away from us fast.
Funny kid of the day award to Jake. We ran to what I like to call the "cheapo" store earlier (the one I go to because I just need one or two things, and the store is so small I can usually have Eric run in.) On the way home I kindof said to myself "now where's that damn garage door opener?", because Eric found the garage door openers this afternoon (go figure, I haven't even seen one in the year we have lived here and he finds them in five minutes.) All of a sudden I heard Jake go from the backseat "Yeah, where's that damn garage door opener?!" It was so funny, the look on his face like even HE didn't realize what he'd said. Then when we were making supper, they all had to have a job, so eric did the ranch chicken, holly set the table, and Jake helped make the noodles. After we were done, Jake kind of gave me this hinty look. "Mo-om, aren't you going to give me some money now?" HAHa! Well eric earns a lot of money doing chores and working at his grandpa's shop, so he buys a lot of his own stuff. Jake and Holly never usually have money when we go to the store, but they will ask for EVERYthing, and I tell them they need to start doing chores and earning money. Jake doesn't really get the value of a dollar yet though, he did get some money in a card for valentine's day, and then when we went to the other grandparents house, my grandma was going to give him a dollar and he said "I don't want it, I already have one." He doesn't get that having more is better lol.
I love the fact that my kids remember EVERYthing. like they still say "Remember when we went to Chattanooga and it took seven days to get there?" (riiight, it was 17 hours.) "Remember when we went to the beach and there was NO WATER? (hahaha it was the end of the year and we didn't know they had already started draining the lake lol) My favorite from Holly "Remember when Taylor hooked me in the eye with his fishing hook?" (yikes....I hope she eventually forgets that one!) I hope this means they will have lots of fun memories of stuff we did when they get older. I am always on a quest for a new (and cheap!) adventure to take them on, and I'm sure we will be dragging Mabel all over with us with summer. They're easy to please, even if it's just walking the woods at the nature center, or the free "project" workshops at Lowes on saturday mornings, they act like it's the greatest thing in the world. "Keep em busy, keep em out of trouble".....
Adam's on the way home (again), I should blast him because he went right to the Pumphouse before even coming home, but since he was just here yesterday I won't :P Poor guy, I know he was prolly drooling as he was driving, in anticipation of the nice cold beer he has been unable to have for 7 days...
Funny kid of the day award to Jake. We ran to what I like to call the "cheapo" store earlier (the one I go to because I just need one or two things, and the store is so small I can usually have Eric run in.) On the way home I kindof said to myself "now where's that damn garage door opener?", because Eric found the garage door openers this afternoon (go figure, I haven't even seen one in the year we have lived here and he finds them in five minutes.) All of a sudden I heard Jake go from the backseat "Yeah, where's that damn garage door opener?!" It was so funny, the look on his face like even HE didn't realize what he'd said. Then when we were making supper, they all had to have a job, so eric did the ranch chicken, holly set the table, and Jake helped make the noodles. After we were done, Jake kind of gave me this hinty look. "Mo-om, aren't you going to give me some money now?" HAHa! Well eric earns a lot of money doing chores and working at his grandpa's shop, so he buys a lot of his own stuff. Jake and Holly never usually have money when we go to the store, but they will ask for EVERYthing, and I tell them they need to start doing chores and earning money. Jake doesn't really get the value of a dollar yet though, he did get some money in a card for valentine's day, and then when we went to the other grandparents house, my grandma was going to give him a dollar and he said "I don't want it, I already have one." He doesn't get that having more is better lol.
I love the fact that my kids remember EVERYthing. like they still say "Remember when we went to Chattanooga and it took seven days to get there?" (riiight, it was 17 hours.) "Remember when we went to the beach and there was NO WATER? (hahaha it was the end of the year and we didn't know they had already started draining the lake lol) My favorite from Holly "Remember when Taylor hooked me in the eye with his fishing hook?" (yikes....I hope she eventually forgets that one!) I hope this means they will have lots of fun memories of stuff we did when they get older. I am always on a quest for a new (and cheap!) adventure to take them on, and I'm sure we will be dragging Mabel all over with us with summer. They're easy to please, even if it's just walking the woods at the nature center, or the free "project" workshops at Lowes on saturday mornings, they act like it's the greatest thing in the world. "Keep em busy, keep em out of trouble".....
Adam's on the way home (again), I should blast him because he went right to the Pumphouse before even coming home, but since he was just here yesterday I won't :P Poor guy, I know he was prolly drooling as he was driving, in anticipation of the nice cold beer he has been unable to have for 7 days...
Saturday, March 5, 2011
100 years goes faster than you think
Well Adam was home for 6 hours and now he's back to Michigan again... Oh well, he did manage to fix the garage door and put together the crib while he was here. The crib! Finally it came in, and it is exactly the perfect matching color of the bassinet I bought off craigslist last week. Afterward I kept going back in the room to look at it, it seems bizarre to have a crib in the house again. I should probably invest in a car seat soon and buy some bottles, running out of time, 9 weeks or less to go!
Yesterday I had a great visit in the afternoon with one of my best friends from high school, it was so much fun I swear we could have sat there and talked for hours. (Who else could you sit there with and "rip" on everyone you knew from way back when, and not feel guilty about it? LOL) It seems like just yesterday we were dumb girls riding around in an orange car listening to the Dixie Chicks and now in a matter of weeks we are going to have 7 kids between the two of us. Ahhhh, we're getting old way too fast! Some days you want your life to speed up so you can just get the day over with, and some days you just wish it would slow down. I really try to stick with the "day by day, one day at a time" motto, because I figure every night when you fall into bed, even if it's 1 am and you're completely exhausted, you made it through another day. Tomorrow you never know what's going to happen and who is going to be here. Personally, I fully intend to be one of those "Betty White" type 85 year old ladies, what have you got to lose? :) I heard a great quote today that was "You don't stop laughing because you get old, you get old because you stop laughing"......
Yesterday I had a great visit in the afternoon with one of my best friends from high school, it was so much fun I swear we could have sat there and talked for hours. (Who else could you sit there with and "rip" on everyone you knew from way back when, and not feel guilty about it? LOL) It seems like just yesterday we were dumb girls riding around in an orange car listening to the Dixie Chicks and now in a matter of weeks we are going to have 7 kids between the two of us. Ahhhh, we're getting old way too fast! Some days you want your life to speed up so you can just get the day over with, and some days you just wish it would slow down. I really try to stick with the "day by day, one day at a time" motto, because I figure every night when you fall into bed, even if it's 1 am and you're completely exhausted, you made it through another day. Tomorrow you never know what's going to happen and who is going to be here. Personally, I fully intend to be one of those "Betty White" type 85 year old ladies, what have you got to lose? :) I heard a great quote today that was "You don't stop laughing because you get old, you get old because you stop laughing"......
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Shall we call it "The Master Cleanse?"
I wish this was what they call "nesting", but that's usually right before you go into labor, and I know I'll be doing this again at least 10 times before then.
Taking a break, I have been cleaning the kids' rooms and doing laundry since 8:30 this morning and I think Mabel's mad cuz this was supposed to be my "relaxing" day, ha relax what's that? Stupid Braxton-Hicks contractions, I swear i have gotten them earlier with every kid, they started this time around at about 6 months, and are getting progressively worse and making it progressively harder to keep hauling laundry baskets up and down the stairs. I need an elevator. Or a maid. Or maybe an episode of Wife-Swap. I'd really like to know how other people do it when you go to their houses and they are completely spotless and don't even look lived in.
One good thing about cleaning the kids' rooms while they are at school, I can get rid of whhhhatttever I want. Mom Power! I was actually running (as fast as I can run, right lol) to throw some stuff in the garbage can before the trash guy got here so it would be gone by the time they get home. The whole "I'm gonna throw out your stuff if you don't pick it up", is reverse psychology totally on my part. Usually I don't actually put much in the Goodwill pile while they are gone, they just "think" I do because it put it in a garbage bag and hide it. When there is really a lot I want to get rid of, I do it when they're home and fighting me to clean their rooms and can see me getting rid of their stuff, because I swear I have three of the worst "picker-upper" kids ever. I don't know where I went wrong, but I get an "F" in that department. Jake will literally spend an entire saturday moping around his room when all I really want him to do is pick up 2 bins of trains and his dirty clothes. There has been more than once where they have all marched willingly to bed at 7 o clock because they would rather GO TO BED than spend a half hour cleaning their rooms. Maybe this is karma from when I was a kid coming back to bite me in the ass... They have tons of shelves, bins, nice big closets, etc, and they just do not GET that if you put it away as soon as you're done, it's a lot easier.
I think Jake is the worst as far as coercing him into doing it. Holly is just a pack-rat, her room looks like an episode of "Hoarders". She has to keep every single drawing, sticker, happy meal toy, etc. She will usually be talked into cleaning it up, but not with a "You're the worst mother EVER", at the end followed by a door slam. Eric is usually easily convinced, sometimes he even makes an effort to clean up his room on his own, mostly because he likes to rearrange the furniture. The problem is that Jake doesn't want to help him, and that's not really fair, so Im always working on that problem. His bigger problem is remembering to put away his stuff in the front yard that he drags out.
I need to note this with Mabel- start teaching her to put away her toys as soon as she can hold a rattle haha. They always say, you know, you start with #1, and make less mistakes with each kid, some I am figuring Mabel has a good chance of being near perfect....
Now who wants to come over and clean out my oven?!
Taking a break, I have been cleaning the kids' rooms and doing laundry since 8:30 this morning and I think Mabel's mad cuz this was supposed to be my "relaxing" day, ha relax what's that? Stupid Braxton-Hicks contractions, I swear i have gotten them earlier with every kid, they started this time around at about 6 months, and are getting progressively worse and making it progressively harder to keep hauling laundry baskets up and down the stairs. I need an elevator. Or a maid. Or maybe an episode of Wife-Swap. I'd really like to know how other people do it when you go to their houses and they are completely spotless and don't even look lived in.
One good thing about cleaning the kids' rooms while they are at school, I can get rid of whhhhatttever I want. Mom Power! I was actually running (as fast as I can run, right lol) to throw some stuff in the garbage can before the trash guy got here so it would be gone by the time they get home. The whole "I'm gonna throw out your stuff if you don't pick it up", is reverse psychology totally on my part. Usually I don't actually put much in the Goodwill pile while they are gone, they just "think" I do because it put it in a garbage bag and hide it. When there is really a lot I want to get rid of, I do it when they're home and fighting me to clean their rooms and can see me getting rid of their stuff, because I swear I have three of the worst "picker-upper" kids ever. I don't know where I went wrong, but I get an "F" in that department. Jake will literally spend an entire saturday moping around his room when all I really want him to do is pick up 2 bins of trains and his dirty clothes. There has been more than once where they have all marched willingly to bed at 7 o clock because they would rather GO TO BED than spend a half hour cleaning their rooms. Maybe this is karma from when I was a kid coming back to bite me in the ass... They have tons of shelves, bins, nice big closets, etc, and they just do not GET that if you put it away as soon as you're done, it's a lot easier.
I think Jake is the worst as far as coercing him into doing it. Holly is just a pack-rat, her room looks like an episode of "Hoarders". She has to keep every single drawing, sticker, happy meal toy, etc. She will usually be talked into cleaning it up, but not with a "You're the worst mother EVER", at the end followed by a door slam. Eric is usually easily convinced, sometimes he even makes an effort to clean up his room on his own, mostly because he likes to rearrange the furniture. The problem is that Jake doesn't want to help him, and that's not really fair, so Im always working on that problem. His bigger problem is remembering to put away his stuff in the front yard that he drags out.
I need to note this with Mabel- start teaching her to put away her toys as soon as she can hold a rattle haha. They always say, you know, you start with #1, and make less mistakes with each kid, some I am figuring Mabel has a good chance of being near perfect....
Now who wants to come over and clean out my oven?!
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
there's a time for everything...even sleep!
Yesterday was total chaos, we babysat the kids cousins so between my kids, those two boys, the neighbor cousins, and "The neighbor kid who never goes home" (also known as Bradley) I had 8 kids running in and out all afternoon. My nephew is 2 years old, I swear he is the funniest kid ever. I could just follow him around all day and watch him play. Last week I asked him if he had to go potty and he told me "No, I fawted". You can drive him 2 blocks and by the time you turn around to look at him in his carseat, he's got one shoe off, hat mittens off, juice cup on the floor, etc. Last night we were standing in the kitchen all all of a sudden this 220 count box of Pampers he got out of the baby's room came flying down the stairs. (actually, it didn't even touch the stairs, he got air on it!) He has quite the arm on him.
Eric got a letter home from school today stating that Little Chute is considering moving all the fifth graders to their middle school next year. I'm sure Douchebag Governor Walker and his budget cuts might have something to do with that. I was thinking that it was going to be so great for all three of them to be in the same school next year with their bunch of cousins and friends, so its going to be interesting to see what happens. He's good at making friends, but I'm not sure if maturity-wise he's ready for being with all those older kids. Or maybe I'M the one who isn't ready for dealing with it lol. All those "bad influence" kids- like the ones who walked by last week and decided to steal a bike out of our garage. I was hopping in the suburban ready to zoom around the block, bitch them out (ooohhh here comes big scary pregnant lady lol) and get that bike back, but the kid must have gotten scared cuz he sent his 6 year old brother back with the bike. Good choice, kid, I found out where you live! Another reason, Adam reminded me 100 times, why we should just move to upper michigan in the middle of nowhere and get out of the city. (NOT. past Green Bay there is not a Target store in sight in the entire upper peninsula. I cannot live without Target!)
Today was also the trip to Berlin for my great-grandma's funeral. It was made easier by being able to accept the fact that she really did have a long, full, happy life, and I know it was her time to go. Unfortunately we have lost an alarming number of our loved ones this year, with each it never gets easier you just know they are in that "good place" watching over us and our children. On a funny note, I didn't make it to the bathroom before going into the church to sit down because we were waiting in the line to go in, and I had to pee soooooo bad the entire service, and I think Mabel could hear the church organ or bells or something, because she kicked me in the bladder the whole time. I had to wait til communion when everyone else was standing so I wouldn't be walking out in the middle of the service, and by that time I could hardly walk lol.
Adam left to go back to Michigan tonight, it sucks that it seems like we hardly got to even spend much time with him in the last few days with everything going on. Its been such a crazy week, my ad/coupon pile from the sunday paper is still sitting there beckoning me. I think I might actually be looking forward to staying home and doing laundry all day tomorrow. The good thing is, I hope staying busy is going to make this 9 weeks fly by until Mabel gets here...
Eric got a letter home from school today stating that Little Chute is considering moving all the fifth graders to their middle school next year. I'm sure Douchebag Governor Walker and his budget cuts might have something to do with that. I was thinking that it was going to be so great for all three of them to be in the same school next year with their bunch of cousins and friends, so its going to be interesting to see what happens. He's good at making friends, but I'm not sure if maturity-wise he's ready for being with all those older kids. Or maybe I'M the one who isn't ready for dealing with it lol. All those "bad influence" kids- like the ones who walked by last week and decided to steal a bike out of our garage. I was hopping in the suburban ready to zoom around the block, bitch them out (ooohhh here comes big scary pregnant lady lol) and get that bike back, but the kid must have gotten scared cuz he sent his 6 year old brother back with the bike. Good choice, kid, I found out where you live! Another reason, Adam reminded me 100 times, why we should just move to upper michigan in the middle of nowhere and get out of the city. (NOT. past Green Bay there is not a Target store in sight in the entire upper peninsula. I cannot live without Target!)
Today was also the trip to Berlin for my great-grandma's funeral. It was made easier by being able to accept the fact that she really did have a long, full, happy life, and I know it was her time to go. Unfortunately we have lost an alarming number of our loved ones this year, with each it never gets easier you just know they are in that "good place" watching over us and our children. On a funny note, I didn't make it to the bathroom before going into the church to sit down because we were waiting in the line to go in, and I had to pee soooooo bad the entire service, and I think Mabel could hear the church organ or bells or something, because she kicked me in the bladder the whole time. I had to wait til communion when everyone else was standing so I wouldn't be walking out in the middle of the service, and by that time I could hardly walk lol.
Adam left to go back to Michigan tonight, it sucks that it seems like we hardly got to even spend much time with him in the last few days with everything going on. Its been such a crazy week, my ad/coupon pile from the sunday paper is still sitting there beckoning me. I think I might actually be looking forward to staying home and doing laundry all day tomorrow. The good thing is, I hope staying busy is going to make this 9 weeks fly by until Mabel gets here...
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