Wow

I was just scrolling through my blog page and realized that this the posting #14 for the month of February. It's also the most I've posted in one month.

I've actually decided that I love to blog. I love to type out those random thoughts floating around in my head, and goodness knows that they are pretty random some days.

This weekend seemed to have gone by incredibly fast for some reason. Saturday dh worked all day. The kids and I didn't really do much. Took our daily walk to the Post Office and played a little bit outside in the snow that fell on Friday, but other than that it was a pretty calm day, well if you count the kids bouncing off the walls as calm.

Sunday, we didn't go to church. Which is pretty disappointing for me. I love going to church but dh left me sleep in and til I got up and we ate, we didn't really have much time to do anything. We did rest on the couch for a while and enjoy a little quiet, you know those snipbits you get in between the kids screaming. We also went through the ads and dh found a laptop he liked for me that was a good deal. So off to Best Buy we went, only we didn't end up buying one there. The one we did like was smaller than I had wanted, however we did find one that we really liked, the only problem was that it was out of stock and even though it was on clearance, they wouldn't sell us the floor model. We left the kids pick out a dvd, their prize for being good and left.

Dh decided he wanted to stop at circiut city to see what they had and he came back out and said he saw a couple he really liked. So I went in to look at them since it was ultimately my decision since I'm the one who will use it and ended up getting one. We even picked out a wireless router, only problem is, it's not working right, so I have to go and exchange it. That doesn't make me happy because we have to drive almost 45 minutes to get there. I was going to go tomorrow and hope I could get back in time for B's speech but I think I will wait until Saturday since dh has off and go do that.

Today it's in the 40s here, it feels like a miniture heatwave. Tomorrow it's suppose to be yucky out, rain/sleet/ice/snow. Sounds like a great day right? O'well.

Jon and Kate plus 8

I've got two boys, ages 2 and 4. Some days just the two of them drive me bonkers. Especially days like today when it's cold out and while they don't mind the cold, I sure do. They were hyper as can be, too. Never a good thing when they come over to our room at 7:45 bouncing off the wall already. Some days I don't mind that, others, like today, I do.

I've just recently started watching Jon and Kate plus 8. I've actually met both Jon and Kate when I worked at Kmart. Jon came in a few months after the sextuplets came home to exchange diapers that were not the right size, and Kate, I met last year when she came in to return some baby stuff. They are both really nice people. They actually lived not far from we were living a few months ago. I remember reading the newspaper articles when the sextuplets were first born, thinking, wow I can't imagine.

After watching the first show, I was hooked. I'm sad, to realize that I missed 2 seasons of the show, though. They are such a great family and after reading about the family through Kate's perspective on their website Six Gosselins, I feel even stronger about supporting them through watching their show.

I couldn't imagine being told that I was pregnant with six babies and then being pushed to reduce the number, knowing that you would never do that. Watching Kate in her day to day with the eight children, help me to see that nothing is impossible for someone with two children. She helps me to see my children in a new light. While I'm sure that not all of her days are so easy, she has adapted to her life, and she does the best that she can with the help of the Lord.

Thanks Kate and Jon for sharing your life with us. Thank you for giving me a new perspective on my own children.

I see it the light at the end of the dark tunnel

If you know me, you'll know that I sometimes get overwhelmed when I have so much going on. I have a hard time finding the light at the end of the tunnel. This has been true the last several months.

It all started in September when my dear wonderful husband lost his job. Things look pretty bleak, pretty darn fast. We didn't have much money in savings, just enough to cover a few expenses and that was about it. We were in debt up to our noses, though most of it was the house. We were terrified that we would lose our home, and have to live in our van or with the in laws. It was a very bleak time.

Things started looking up the following week when dh found a new job, however, it required us to pick up and move and find a new house and sell the old one. What a mess that was. We did find a house pretty quickly. We looked at 9 houses one day and didn't find anything that we really liked enough to make an offer, so out we were a few days later looking again. This time, the first house we looked at was the one. Of course we still looked at 3 other ones, but pretty much knew the first house was the one we wanted. We made an offer that day. Took us two days to hear back and it was good news, they accepted our offer. We did run into a few snags along the way, such as it taking almost 3 weeks to get the signed contract back, and then negotiating on the electrical work. It seemed to take forever but finally we were able to move in and the electrical work was started.

Selling our house was a hectic thing. We thought we had it sold within the first 7 days of it being on the market. Wrong. It was sold for two weeks, when the buyer decided to back out. Thankfully we did get his deposit on it, but we also were in the process of finishing packing and about to move, so we couldn't start showing for another week. Not a very happy time for us. Luckily, withint a week or so of it going back up, we had another offer that went through this time, but closing wasn't until December 27th. We ended up paying on two houses for a month plus utilities on two houses for two months. It was not a fun thing to do around Christmas, but we ended up having a good Christmas despite it.

During the month of December I had hit a funk and couldn't see the light at the end of the tunnel. I had so many boxes that I needed to get unpacked, I had electricans in my house, the weather wasn't the best and we had to worry about driving 2 hours to shovel everytime the weather was bad. I was not a happy person.

Today we got our income taxes back. I was able to pay everything finally and was able to start working a budget for us. I've managed to unpack all of our boxes finally. I even caught up on laundry too. Today, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and it feels good.

Thank you, Jesus.

Baby Books

I don't know about you but I am horrible about keeping up with the baby books. I think they area great idea, however to find time to write down stuff and to remember to do so is impossible for me.

I know as a "good mother" I should be doing this but I'm lucky that I remember to feed my children some days, let alone writing in a book. A book that they will probably not care if I kept for them or not.

I never had one. I have one with all my report cards in it, and I've been known to look through it on occassion, however I don't feel like I missed something just because I don't have a book with all my firsts in it.

My husband on the other hand pretty much criticized me for not keeping up with it. He didn't mean it as criticism but you know how a woman can react to certain things. He even attempted to do it himself, but then he either lost interest in it or he gave up. Not sure which.

In some ways I am sad that I don't have any written documentation of when they first said mommy or when they ate their first fruit, but I know that in the end, it's not important that I know that, it's important that I give them as much love as I can and that I be the best mommy that I can be to them. It's their memories that will account for more than what I may write in a book.

If you're wondering what made me think of this, I just found their books in my desk drawer. Yeah haven't written anything in either of them in forever. Oooops.

Rest Time tomorrow 2 pm.

Yep, you got it, I need rest time back. For the past 4 days, my children have not had there afternoon rest time, and you can tell. The screaching and the moaning and the whining are usually dead giveaways. I didn't realize how much I cherise those rest times until they went away.

It's funny really, I never really did the whole rest time thing before last week. If the kids got a rest and/or nap so be it, if they didn't, o'well. Well last week I decided that they needed to spend some time resting. So after lunch if it's not preschool day or a Tuesday where B gets speech then they get to watch Sesame Street and then following that they both are required to lay on the couch. 4 out of 5 times, L falls asleep and then B gets to watch the movie of his choice. I know it would be just as easy to have them go upstairs but they do not have a TV in their room, and I'm not sure I want a TV in their room, so for now the couch it is. The only reason I have B lay down is so L will fall asleep. Sometimes it takes a little longer than other times but it typically happens.

On the days when B has preschool, I pop in a movie after we return for L and he sits and watches the movie and relaxes. It works pretty much the same way as a nap and he typically will nap on the trips to and from the school, so that helps.

So where will I be tomorrow at 2? Getting the kids ready for their "rest" time and getting ready to enjoy a quiet afternoon.

NASCAR Fever

If you see me on Cafemom, you know that I've had NASCAR fever the past couple of weeks. This last week it has gotten out of control. I love watching a good race. To me a good race is one that has some cautions, with some wreckage but no injuries and an even better race would be my guy winning, however that doesn't happen often, just once, but it will happen again this year, I just know it. Anyway, the first race of the season happened today, the Daytona 500. I was so excited to watch it. My mom and dad and my sister her family came over for a little party. It was pretty exciting, even though most of the cautions happened after they left. My guy finished 26th, which isn't too bad, considering he had to start at the back with a replacement car. The best part was the "big NASCAR guys" didn't win. If you follow NASCAR you know who I mean, those that are discussed the most.

Can't wait for CA next week. Go Jamie.

Ack

I see to be having one of those days. You know the kind where it seems to have gone south right from the start. Nothing seems to go right.

Guess that's what I get for staying in bed, even though I was up. Course, if the stupid dog wouldn't have been cranky and snippy at 7 in the morning, it may not have been so bad. I couldn't find the remote and the tv was stuck on something stupid. I searched for it knowing I had it when I fell asleep at 4:30 this morning after B got up screaming he was thirsty, but I couldn't find it. The stupid dog was sleeping on the bed like usual and wouldn't move and when he finally did, he threw a fit and got snippy. Not a good thing. I feel bad for dh cause he was trying to sleep.

Finally found the stupid thing but I really should have gotten out of bed instead of laying there. That was mistake number one. Mistake two was picking up my book instead of jumping in the shower with dh. Til I finally got a place where I could stop in the book, dh was done with the shower and I knew I'd end up with a cold shower if I went over. So I laid in bed even longer reading. Then I finally got up and came downstairs and we didn't have want I wanted to eat. I really wanted something sweet and junky like cupcakes or cookies, neither of which we had. So I came in and sat at the computer. Not really feeling like sitting at the table looking stupid, but dh grumbled about it. So did finally go out and find something that ended up not being good, so I threw it away and by the time I did go out, they were all done anyway.

I felt so far behind today, which is a first in the past two weeks. I was doing so good, but I guess I really messed up. I feel like I got nothing done, though I did manage a shower, paid the bills, updated the checkbook, and cleared the sidewalk of ice and went to the PO and did a little shopping. The dishes are still waiting to be done, but I can't see to want to do them, which will cause dh to throw a fit tonight when he gets home, I'm sure.

The kids were off today too. Probably cause I felt off. L didn't get his "rest" today so he was bad. The living room is a mess for the first time all week, however I'm going to solve that by putting everything into a bag and sitting it some place until they realize that they must pick up their toys when told to. L put canned air into his food tonight so that got thrown away. Made him some mac and cheese but he refused that because B was done. So he complained that he was starving right before bed. Too bad I told him he either ate at dinnertime or he got nothing later. Don't worry he did eat some, enough to tide him over until morning. I would never put either of them to bed starving, however I would put them to bed without snack.

I just realized that my family is coming over on Sunday, even though I've known that for about 3 hours now, but that means I have to find some time to do some cleaning tomorrow. Nothing major, just vacuuming and mopping the floors and of course the sink full of dishes would be good. I would really like to shampoo the carpets only that probably won't happen unless I find time in the morning before we leave to do it. Doubt that will happen though. They are really disgusting, however I don't want to do them until I'm able to open windows and that won't happen anytime soon.

Ooooh, that's another thing. We got our window estimate and it sounds pretty good. Looks like we may have new windows next month with any luck, which means no more listening to plastic when it's windy out.

My list

Now if you've read my blog recently, you'll know that I asked my husband to come up with a list for me. I have really haven't looked at it this week other than Monday when he gave it to me. Well today I sat and reviewed it again and I'm on track. There are a few things that I haven't done, like bathrooms, but I still have tomorrow to do that. I think I'm doing really well so far.

I even cleaned the rest of the boxes from our move up the last couple of nights. Last night, I did the horrible ones that had a lot of stuff in them that either needed tossed or a home made for them. Now I didn't get it all complete, but I got rid of the boxes and stuff that needs my attention is where I'll "trip" over it a few times, making me remember that it is there. I would work on them tonight but it is Valentine's Day and dh does have to work late tomorrow night, so I won't be working on them tonight.

Speaking of Valentine's Day. Why is it that men don't listen when you say you don't want anything? Seriously I didn't want anything for Valentine's Day. All I wanted was him home tonight and a nice meal and maybe a card. Nope he went and mentioned last night that he had bought be something. I have no idea what it is but I had to go searching through my "gift bag" today to find him something. Didn't make me too happy but I also didn't want to not have something for him. I did have two shirts I had picked up for him, so he'll get those. I feel really bad, because had I known he wasn't going to listen I would have put some effort into finding him something nice instead of two shirts. O'well. I am making him a good meal tonight, meatloaf and sweet pototoes and rolls. I've been promising him meatloaf for two weeks now and I finally remembered to get the hamburg out of the freezer. Which btw, smells really good. Now I need to go do the potatoes.

Happy Valentines Day Everyone.

He did it

I asked my husband for a list of things he would like to see me get done each week. I told him things he thought only needed done every other week or even once a month, he should note that for me. So he came up with a list. There are a few things missing from it, like sheets being changed , but it seems like a good list. Now I'm going to type it up and print it out and post it beside my computer so that I can see it and get it done. I'm hoping this will help me to get it together and get stuff done. I really want another baby but without getting stuff together and getting some sort of routine going, I'll be a real mess when I do get pregnant again. Plus, I want my husband to know that I am serious about being a good SAHM.

On another note, my kitchen flooded this morning. What a mess it was too. The outtake hose on the washing machine (the one that takes the water out of the machine) decided to come off and it was a mess. Water everywhere. Unfortunately, unlike the last time it happened, I wasn't anywhere near it and the water went all over, including the basement. I think I got it all cleaned up though and luckily I had dirty towels that needed washed anyways, so I just used them and then threw them into the washer. I'm not sure why it keeps doing that, however I'm going to have to remember to check it every so often, so I can hopefully prevent another mess. I may also have to figure out a way to prevent it. Maybe some duck tape over the hose to hold it into the pipe. That might work. Hmmm, that sounds like a good idea. Only problem, we're out of duck tape, however since dh works at a store that sells it I'll have to get him to pick me up a roll of it.

The whole SAHM thing

I'm still trying to adjust to this whole SAHM thing. I had only been working part time since my oldest was born 4 and half years ago and I was fairly close to being a SAHM then, however it's all a little new and different for me now.

I'm still working on the whole routine thing. I'm adjusting well to B being in preschool, so that is good. He goes Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 1-3:30, but Tuesdays and Thursdays he has speech, one day in the morning and the other day in the afternoon. So we've got something each day of the week. Makes for some interesting weeks. He's progressing really well with his speech and he really seems to like preschool, so that is all good.

I think tomorrow I'm going to sit down with my husband and try to work out some kind of to do list for me. Stuff that he thinks I should be getting done and things I think I need to get done, so that I can print out my list for the week and work on it throughout the week. I have a tendency to spend entirely too much time on the computer and I don't get as much done as I would like. I think by him sitting down with me and going over things it would help. Having a list in front of me each week would help too. I could then make reminders to pop up on my screen every so often so I can make sure I'm getting stuff done.

I did get the dishes done again today and I made the kids dinner, even if it was only fish sticks and perogies, it was something I actually had to put some effort into. I even remembered to get some of the frozen fruit out that I had bought a couple of weeks ago at Sams, so that they could have good fruit, instead of just canned fruit. I even cleaned up the kitchen and made it look nice. Guess that's a good start to my week, right?

I'm rambling again

I'm feeling better today. Actually was able to breath for most of the day and didn't have to hack or blow my nose so frequently. I think I may have rounded the corner of being sick. It's so nice.

I'm so curious as to why my 4 year old chews on his sleeves. He's been having wet sleeves for the last week or so and it took me to a few days ago to realize why, he chews on them. I've asked him repeatedly not to, but it doesn't seem to be working. It's not because he's hungry either, he does it after he eats too. Maybe it's just one of those weird phases that kids go through. With any luck he'll stop doing it before he actually ingests any of the sleeve.

I swear I have the best husband ever. He came home after working all day yesterday and did dishes and vacuumed and gave the kids a shower and didn't complain once. It's so nice when that happens. He even made sure that I wasn't upset because he was cleaning. Not sure why I would be made, but hey he was considerate about it.

Tomorrow we go meet with the electricans to hammer out a real bill for the work they did. I did send them a check for what we agreed to pay, but we have to figure out what else we owe them. Should be a fun meeting tomorrow. Thankfully our realtor will be there. Poor guy, we settled on the house 3 months ago and he's still dealing with us. Tells you he's a great realtor though.

I haven't been grocery shopping in two weeks. Between the weather and my sickness, I just haven't had time to go. That's not a bad thing since I do have a ton of stuff to make in my pantry/freezer. I do need to go sometimes between tomorrow and next Wednesday or I forfeit our extra 5% off our groceries and goodness knows I don't want to do that.

We finally got all of our stuff for our taxes so we're going to get them finished tomorrow. I've got everything in the computer so far, it's just a matter of going over everything again. I also have to get our local form, which I think I can get at the library, I hope. I also have to figure out what we are doing about the local ones. I will probably have to call to see how we do those since we have two local taxes due.

Ack

Well the cold is still here and it's really, really annoying. I hate to be sick. It's the worst feeling in the world. I have so much to do and my mil told me she wants to bring family over to see the house on Saturday and I don't have energy to clean. Ack. Now I know say they don't care if it's clean or not but come on, I've got boxes all over still, though not nearly as bad as before. I still have pictures to hang too. To get rid of this cold would be nice.

I finished my bookclub book last night. It was pretty good. Not nearly as exciting as I would have liked, however it was good. I'm reading it for my Christian Moms Bookclub and it's suppose to be Christian themed but it wasn't what I was expecting. It's called The Elevator by Angela Hunt. She didn't really incorporate much of a the Christian stuff in it. I was a little dissapointed. Most of the Christian part was at the end, in the last few pages. Rather dissapointing. It was a good read though and there were a few surprises in it, so that was good at least.

I started reading the final Yada Yada Prayer Club book. My Mom said she didn't really care for it but what I've read so far is really good. It follows through well on the last book in the series. I guess we'll wait to see if I still like it when I'm done reading it. I'm not sure what I'll read after this one is done. I'll have to go through my books yet to be read and figure it out, I guess.

Well I guess if there is one good thing about being sick is being able to have time to read. I love to read, I just don't have a lot of time to do it. Especially since we moved. Soon the weather will start warming up and I'll want to be outside with the boys a lot and I won't want to read then either. Although I do like sitting and reading in a cool breeze. I'm so thrilled because I actually have shade now and it'll be nice to sit out and read under my trees. If only it would warm up and not rain, I might do that now.

Ugh!

I knew I should have stayed away from my sister. Not only is she pregnant with a little girl and I'm really jealous of her but she had a cold the other day that she seems to have shared with me.

I feel like my head is going to explode from the excessive amount of snot in my head. Sounds really gross doesn't it? Ack, the boys think it's funny. Must be that male testosterone that makes things like that funny. They are being extremely helpful and good at the moment though. They are watching Curious George and not fighting, which is a huge deal for me. I feel so bad right now I could cry.

Of course it's dh's long day at work too. I can't complain too much about that though because he took good care of the boys and me yesterday when I was really feeling like crap. It's great having such a wonderful caring husband who takes care of me. He did a lot too yesterday for me too, and for that I will be forever grateful.

Now that I just wrote random thoughts, I will go get some much needed rest before the kids start complaining that they are hungry.

Think we found a compromise finally

In case you aren't aware. I've been craving a third child like crazy the last couple of months. I'm not sure what exactly triggered it but it's been there. Dh and I haven't seen eye to eye on this. I want one, he says he does but his attitude about it shows differently.

I have my annual appointment Monday and I told him I was going to see about getting on bc again cause I'm tired of playing games. Now I told him this morning and it took him until this evening to realize that I was serious and that I wanted to talk about it after mentioning it several times.

We did finally talk and his initial reaction was waiting a year. I did however, discover that he's worried about me handling the stress of having three children and having the house taken care of all that goes with it. I do have a tendency to have lots of lazy days and he knows that and he also knows that with three children I can't have those.

The waiting a year didn't go over real well with me. I see it as this, if we wait a year, maybe we'll miss our chance to have a third, even though I know it's all in God's timing, not mine. We talked some more about my thoughts on this. He wanted to know, after I told him it would be nice to take my thoughts into consideration, how long I wanted to wait and if I thought we'd be able to handle three children. I said, I realize it will be a lot of work and that we would really have to be careful with how much we spent and all the stuff that goes with it, but I really want another baby. I've wanted to start trying months ago, before we even moved and that was 3 months ago.

So we compromised on giving it 3 months and then we'll talk about whether we are going to start trying then or wait a little longer. I would like to get the rest of the unpacking done and the rooms into some kind of order before we try and we also have a few things that need done around the house, like some painting and new windows, so 3 months will put us into May/June and the time my sister is due, so that seems like a fair compromise to me.