I love him, but. . . . .

. . . . he can be soooooo cheap sometimes, and unfortunately this reminds me of my husband.  (Click on image to enlarge.)

Confession: I'm addicted to Coke

 . . . Coca-Cola, you idiots!

However, my addiction is serious, and I'm a snob about where my Coke comes from.  Preference is a fountain - Cherry over Classic, and then a 20oz bottle.....a can only if I'm desperate.  Dispise diet - well, maybe not Diet Vanilla - it's actually pretty good.  However, it's still not as satisfying as the REAL thing.

I try to give it up....my last endevor lasted 5 days.  Made sure I took plenty of Tylenol and Ibuprofen to ward of the caffine withdrawal headaches.  Had a cup o' joe each morning to get my caffine fix, and drank plenty of water.

Unfortunately I caved yesterday afternoon and went to go get a coke.  I swear I was purring after the first drink.  It relaxes me more than alcohol, and makes me more giddy than pot.  Had another today and the caffine and sugar overload has given me a massive headache.  So I'm back on the wagon. . . . . . . again.

We caved Tues nite

And ordered Pizza from Papa Johns. Right now we love their $10/pizza deal. Especially since the kids can go through a large cheese pizza in one sitting.

So, after getting 3 pizzas we spent $40 - at least it was dinner Tuesday night for all 5 of us (R was at his mom's), and it was lunch for K and T/A on Wednesday. So, 8 meals = $5/meal.

What really stinks about this is if our oven was working we could've just had the frozen pizzas just sitting in our freezer for about a 1/4 of the cost. (yes I got a good deal - $1/pizza)

Unfortunately this won't be the last time we eat out this week. The kids (T/S) have a dentist appt on Friday so I know there will be some fast food involved then, but at least we get to head to Gma's for free dinner. :)

Hopefully next week we can stick to our "eating out only one time per week" rule.

Day 4 - No Fast Food

. . . . . . and so far so good. Still don't know what we're doing next week in regards to meals, but at least we're on the right track of "no more fast food".

So far we haven't done anything drastic in the way we eat.....except smaller portions and we bought a bunch of healthy items for snacks yesterday.

To quote "What about Bob" - baby steps, baby steps.....and we'll get there.

Belt tightening time. . .

. . .for not only our wallets, but our waists as well. K and I are both overweight....yes I'll say it (the word I hate so much) - obese. To top it off our spending is out of control - mostly on fast food and grocery/household items. So here's our first step towards eating better and spending less:

1. Bye-bye satelite TV - yes, at the end of April we're cancelling our subscription to DISH Network. Paying $80/mo to lay around and get fat watching TV is not in our best interest budget and health wise. So, it's gone. We've decided instead to going a local gym that has free babysitting for $35/mo for the whole family. Even if we use another $20 to rent movies, TV shows or even Wii games we're still saving $15-20/mo.

2. Good bye one cell phone - we each currently have one at $40/mo each it's a luxary we can no longer aford. We've researched and talked to a few friends and we'll be getting the MagicJack to establish a home phone. The one cell phone we'll keep I will mostly use since I work outside of the home. However we may even get rid of it by year-end.

3. Good-bye Hy-Vee and hello Aldi - we've shopped there occasionally in the past, but we do the bulk of our shopping at Wal-Mart and Hy-Vee. This is mostly due to convenience - they're w/in 3 miles of our house. Aldi on the other hand is 10 miles away. However, if we go there once a month to stock up on basics: canned veggies/fruit, b-fast items, non-parishable snacks, condiments, etc we can save at least 20% on our current monthly grocery bill. (FWIW - these are items we buy generic or store brand already.)

4. www.AngelFoodMinistries.com - we've tried this for the last 2mos and have been pleased. Now I wouldn't make a complete meal out of everything we've bought, but their food is a good cheap addition to our meals. K, who is very picky when it comes to his steaks, etc, was very pleased with the steaks, porkchops, hamburgers, etc we've purchased and grilled. They do offer fresh fruit/veggies but I prefer to buy them when we need them.

We still need to work on a monthly meal plan that I figure we'll need to fine tune each week depending on my work schedule, custody, holidays, kid's soccer schedule, etc. Another goal is to start using my crockpot more. Then hopefully by May we can rein in our spending even more.

That's it...I'm officially old

Last night T was in pain from some baaaad diaper rash and would sleep for about 30 minutes and then wake up crying from any where to 1-2 mins to 5-10.

The only reason he got any sleep was because mommy slept with him for 1/2 the night. Luckily there's twin bed in his room for the older boys as we cuddled on that.

However, somewhere around 3-4am he decided he needed the twin bed to himself and wanted me to sleep on his toddler bed. Fine - I didn't argue. I slept like crap, my whole body aches, and never mind only getting little snipettes of sleep all night.

Sooo - glad I only worked 1/2 a day.....off to home and early bedtime for everyone - especially me.

Took T to the doctor this morning - has a raggin' yeast infection. Got a prescription for some cream...hopefully it'll do the trick. If not we're back at the Dr. on Friday. (If you haven't guessed this is why I only worked 1/2 a day...didn't make it in until noon.)

Should we do it?

And by "it" I don't mean the dirty deed...get your minds out of the gutter!!

By "it" I mean rent out the extra bedroom in our basement. We're not talking long term - but we've been looking at the ads on Craigslist.com and there's a lot of people wanting something short term for $200-$400/mo.

We could definitely use the income. We'd have a little expense up front as we'd need to change the lock and deadbolt to the outside door downstairs since it's the same as the rest of the house. We don't need to, but I'd feel better if we did.

I just keep thinking if we could find a college student who works and is pretty quiet we'd be set. Plus I have dreams of being able to charge less in rent if they'd babysit at least one night a month. OMG - I get all twitter patted thinking about actually having someone I trust other than my parents to watch the kids so K and I could go out on an actual date!!!

Some people just never learn

And by that I'm referring to myself.

Once again went to the store and on my way out dropped my phone in a grocery bag. Get home, K helped me unload and put away. Not thinking I just gave him the two bags for the freezer. As I'm heading out the door this morning realize I don't have my cell phone. Call if first, then realize where it's at.

At least this time it only took me about 12hrs rather than 2 weeks to figure it out.

It still works - for now. Seriously gonna have to look into LG appliances if their cell phones can take this kinda beating and still work.

Oooooowwwwww!

That's my body protesting after all the hard manual labor I did on Saturday. Ironically felt pretty good Sunday - wasn't too sore, etc. But this morning it was hell getting out of bed....and this was even after taking two ibuprofen and an aleve (with two bottles of Mike's Hard Lemonade) before going to bed last night.

I feel like a nap, more drugs, and maybe even a drink. If I can just make it until 7:30pm I'm good....and I might actually goto bed at the same time the kids do. Gawd I'm getting old, and it sucks - wish my body could stay as young as my mind thinks I am.

What's that wet spot?

That was the question Friday night and most of the day Saturday.

We have (had) carpet in our kitchen. Some crappy blue stuff about the texture of office carpet. It has multiple stains and overall just looks like shit. Seriously what dumbass puts carpet in a kitchen??? Then again - what morons buy a house with carpet in the kitchen with 4 kids??? Anyhoo - making dinner Friday night notice a spot of wet carpet by the dishwasher. Put down a towel - step on it to soak it up and all looks good. Get up Saturday and the same damn spot is there and I swear its wetter than it was the night before. Get another towel and all seems good. Since Saturday was sooo friggin' beautiful we headed to the park. We get home after the park and lunch, and that damn spot is still wet and wetter than when we left.

Okay - that's it. Ask K to rip up the carpet to see what the hell is going on. Can't you tell where this is going??? Do that and the pad and floor underneath (shitty old 70's linoleum) is soaked. So we ripped up ALL the carpet, ALL the padding, ALL the tack strips, and the zillion staples. Pull out the fridge - no leakage. Look under the dishwasher - looks good. Under the sink - good, but just in case cut a hole to check it out. Still looks good, but there's been some recent water near the front.

SO - we run the dishwasher and sure enough the bastard is leaking. GRRRREEEEAAAATTTT - NOT!!!

Our dishwasher is having a good ol' time with the old carpet and padding out on our deck.

My hands and arm muscles still hurt from pulling up all those damn staples. Seriously someone got a little too happy playing with the staple gun. However, removing all that crap is what we wanted to do eventually just not now. We don't have $$ for the new flooring we want nor the new dishwasher we'll need. Oh well - maybe by X-mas Santa will be nice and help us out.

Why does he take it soooo personally?

R, my step-son, was 12 days shy of the cut-off to start Kindergarten last fall. So K's ex-w decides to have him attend private K at his current daycare center for the '08-'09 school year. Basically the same price for daycare - so no real big difference. Accademically he does great and he does pretty well socially. Especially since there's only like 10 kids there.

Anyhoo - fast forward to this Spring. R's mom has him tested and he's been admitted into the public school system as a first grader for this fall. '09-'10 school year. Well the boy is smart, but he's very whinny and is really lacking maturity.

I inform K of this that maybe having R goto 1st is a big mistake and that he should really repeat Kindergarten. This way he's on par with his peers and rather than being the youngest he's one of the oldest.

Well K is taking it as a personal attack on him. Even after I've explained that I think most of R's childish and immature behavior is because his mom babies him and waits on him hand and food. Then again K won't really bring this up to her 'cause then she takes it personally and a fight ensues. With those two it takes just one little spark to set-off an arguement....which is probably why he doesn't like talking to her. I've even heard him ask as in regards to R's best interest and she still gets defensive, etc.

Oh well - apparently R was just being a butt this morning and K has realized he does need to talk to her about his behavior as it's getting out of hand.

Somedays I'd just love to call her and lay it on the line for her because she needs a big reality check when it comes to K and R. Really do wish they made a "clue-by-4" as she needs a good smack with one.

Toddler Dictionary

Over the years whenever my kids couldn't say something properly they'd make up their own word. So I don't forget here are the ones I remember and/or my favorites

kop-key = coffee (S)
kay-kay = pancakes (S)
butter = peanut butter and jelly sandwhich (T)
coffee = anything K or I drink that's in a can or coffee mug (T)
ma-dee = T's combination of mommy and daddy (and yes, we both answer)
la-la-loon = balloon (S)
zoom-zoom = car (S)
cake = anything that is cake or resembles cake (T)
down = up or down (A)
bay-kee = blankie (A)

The price you pay for eating dirt/mud. . .

. . . is a raging fever for 5 days, extremly stinky and runny poo, oh and a severly bad case of diaper rash.

Yup - T's at it again. At least alternating the Tylenol and Motrin is controlling his fever - but it's done nothing for his whinniness.

We had him tested for a few bugs - but nothing positive. I personally think it's a virus....probably one of those that the Health Dept would call us on if they knew.

Oh well - at least the fever seems to have broken and the diarreha has stopped......just need to get the diaper rash to clear up.

Did you know that clouds can cry?

Last Sunday we awoke around 8am to a pretty intense (if short lived) thunderstorm. T promptly tells me that "The clouds are crying". Ahhhhhhh - isn't that so cute and sweet. Well, it was until he informed me that they were crying because "You made the clouds mad mommy".

I seriously have no idea where the boy gets this stuff. Later after the storm had passed and the sun had come out he tells me "good morning mommy - it's daytime now". You see it was pretty dark - even at 8am - with all the cloud cover.

I love the boy to pieces....now if I could just get him to stop pissing himself.

When all else fails - check the deep freeze

. . . . . that is if you're looking for a lost cell phone.




I'm assuming I've now piqued your interest...let me elaborate: approximately 4 weeks ago goto the bread store, buy lots of bread, when leaving store shove phone in bag, when get home K takes bag to freezer and shoves whole thing in, next day can't find phone, call all weekend, assume it's lost and have it shut off, don't order new phone as we now have land line, 4 weeks later go to get loaf of bread from freezer and empty bag K put in earlier....and find phone.

Amazingly not only did it still work it actually had battery life left. Been using it for a week w/no problems. LG phones get a gold star in my book.

Can the Potty Train please stop at our house???

Hopefully it will this weekend. We've been slowly encouraging the boy after he went pee in the potty on his own last Sunday....not only once, but 3 times!!! He's even showing interest in preschool. So this Saturday I've decided that's it....to the bathroom we go every 30 minutes. Good thing it's supposed to rain/snow all day that day.

I've got the pull-ups out, big boy underware washed and ready, and plenty of towels ready. However, I think we may have to let Baby A try as well......especially after she insisted on sitting on the potty tonight.

Don't mind actually......I'm getting kinda giddy over the money we'll save on diapers!

On to child #2 with an IEP

IEP = Individual Education Plan

It really sucks that Biddy Boy (T) needs speech therapy as well as S. However, it really wasn't a surprise. Yes, his speech had improved since starting preshool, but we still can't always understand him and he'll be 4 here in 3mos. So he'll be getting 20 minutes of speech therpay M-R when at preschool to work on his pronunciation.

I am amazed that T has basically the same problem as S - even with completely different personalities. But why did they both have to inherit this from me? Yes, I too needed speech therpay....as well as my brother. Seriously here....why couldn't he inherited my cute butt....rather than his father's? (BTW - his father has no butt.)

Chant to self: focus on the positives, focus on the positives

Ahhh....another birthday has come and gone

My 37th to be specific. The closer I get to 40 the more I start reflecting on my life so far - especially if you believe the stats I've lived half my life already.

So, I've decided to pick one goal that I'd like to accomplish by the time I'm 40. The problem is I'm no sure what it should be. I know I'd love to lose some weight, start working out....but to be honest I know that won't happen I'm a born again couch potato. Then there's paying off debt...well our big debt will be paid off by then anyway so that's kinda cheating. I've got my professional career to think about. Maybe some training?? I just don't know.

Maybe by my 40th birthday I'll have figured it out?

Curious Georgette strikes again!!

Yes, I did have to get her out. Didn't stop her from getting in there 3 more times that night. At least the cake pans were safe for a night.

Gender Differences ? ?

T and Baby A are exactly 2 yrs appart (okay 1yr 355 days to be exact). Noticed lately that T's really into playing/caring for one of the 4 baby dolls we have around the house. T wants to feed them, bathe them, and even change them....but when it comes to carrying them any old way will do. Baby A on the other hand will always wrap her arm around the baby doll's belly (you know, just under the arms), but has no desire for the feeding, bathing and changing.

I've been really wondering if this is a girl vs boy thing or just their personality since Baby A is very observant while T - not so much. Especially since T and A treat the cat the same way. T just picks poor Squeakers up any old way, but Baby A picks him up the same way she does her baby doll.

BTW - did I mention we have a cat? Orange Tom cat named Squeakers - soon to be an it. For now he's an indoor cat.