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...."....
Thursday, March 10, 2011
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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