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!
.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)