So, I'm feeling a little blue....

I hate days like today...when I find out that trusting people to be true to their word isn't worth the bad feelings I get when I find out they aren't....

I do it all the time...trust people. I believe what they say, and open myself up to them...show my feelings, say what I'm thinking....then the little inconsistencies start. A bit here, a word there...and the doubts start flowing. And it's time to start kicking myself again...When will I ever learn? I'm 39 and I've gone through this before...again and again...and I'm not smart enough to see it coming. I guess I get what I deserve in that regard...."If it looks like a duck...." I need to see a duck and not try to convince myself that it's a goose or swan, or hell, even a pelican! Maybe one day I'll actually hear the duck before I even lay eyes on it and avoid all this.....

Guess What? Time for another "Update"! :)

Ok, so I've been slacking....a lot! Three whole months....shame on me.

Well, let's see....the Kids:

DS#1 is doing his own thing at college...He still comes home on the weekends, but spends as little time possible with us....what with working and hanging out with his friends....it's to be expected, I guess. C'est la vie!

DS#2 tried out for, and made the school basketball team....they haven't placed him yet, but they're leaning towards power forward or center, (I believe that's what he said). His first game is on the 18th, and I can hardly wait....I'm so proud of him, I can't stand it.

DD finally has her two front teeth growing in....well, one of them has erupted, the other one is right there...it was taking forever for those little suckers to poke through. I've enjoyed seeing her toothless smile, but I'm glad they're coming through now. She's been busy planning how many of her friends can come to her baby brother's first birthday at Chuck E. Cheese....Hahaha. She thinks that since he doesn't have that many friends, she should be able to fill in the gaps with hers....what a little stinker, although I kind of like her chutzpah. Very bold, I must say.

DS#3 is getting so big. He took his first unassisted steps three days ago. So far he's only gone 2 steps alone, but he's definitely trying to take off. He's only saying two words though..but they are Dadt (for Dad/daddy), and ginky (for stinky). No Mama yet...still waiting for that gem. He turns 1 in three weeks so we're gearing up for that event....

Now I guess it's my turn....

Not a whole lot to report for me...still looking for something I'm interested in doing so that I can stay at home with my babies. I have a really good lead, but we need to update our computer and software before that can happen...hopefully soon.

I've been getting a lot of sinus headaches lately...but tis the season, I guess. Gotta deal with it every year.

Well, that's it for now....I'll try and be a better blogger in the future. Lord knows I need the typing practice!

Ciao

Update #2

I have a feeling I'll be doing "updates" a lot.

There really hasn't been too much going on, except my baby is crawling now, and we're on the next go round with teeth. He's not biting anymore, thank goodness. I was worried there for a minute!

My other son's knee is doing better now. He wears a knee brace still, but wants to tryout for basketball at school, so I'm thinking it's doing ok.

My little girl has started a girls club with her little friends at school. It's so funny to hear her talk about what they do in their club...this week she's trying to make up a song for them all to sing for the little "Romeo" on the playground. I think she's got her first playground "crush". Her daddy's not very happy about it. What can I say, he's protecting his little princess.

Not a whole lot going on with me....Life is slowing down a little finally. I'm trying to get my housework under control and on a weekly schedule. It's amazing to realize how chaotic I was making everything when I was working outside the home. Just clean what needed to be cleaned when I noticed it was looking neglected. Now that I'm here to look at it everyday, and have the time, I have the opportunity to really get organized and conquer the army of dust bunnies. I've been looking online for help in organizing your household...there's some really neat ideas out there! What would we ever do without the internet? It's certainly helped me figure out how to focus on the task at hand and to know where to begin. Lord knows I needed help with the organizational skills! I'm on my way and looking forward to the results.

The Bee's Knees

Ok, that's a really goofy title for this post, but it really is about knees....well just one knee. My son's knee. He was playing football yesterday during lunch break at school when he slipped and fell on a mud puddle twisting his knee as he fell. Then a kid fell on top of the already twisted knee. So I got a call from the school nurse yesterday to come and get him. When I got there, he was sitting in a wheelchair with his leg propped up and ice packs on it. I don't know what I expected, really, but seeing him in a wheelchair was not it. My heart kind of jumped into my throat. We loaded him up into the car and I brought him home. Why didn't I take him straight to the doctor's office, you ask? Well, one thing you have to know about my son is that he loves to be dramatic and exaggerate everything. So I brought him home to check and see if it was swollen, and to have him put his leg up, and see just how bad it was. It wasn't swollen at all, and sometimes I would catch him doing things with his legs and feet that he wouldn't be able to do if it was really hurt all that bad. BUT, he whined about it all night and didn't feel like he could go to school today, so I called him out and took him to the doctor. She said that he probably bruised his ligament that goes over his knee cap, and also the upper portion of the shin bone, and to keep it elevated today, and use crutches to walk on for the rest of the week. So now I kind of feel like a heel...not believing him when he said it hurt really really bad. But if you knew our history, you might understand my point of view in being skeptical when it comes to incidents like this. I hate not being able to completely trust my own son. I feel like such a bad mom at times like these.
Here's hoping I do a better job next time a situation like this happens.......

Mobile

Well, we've entered a new stage in our household...The Baby Is Mobile! It's just beginning...he's rolling around and starting to do the army crawl, but it's time to babyproof the house. This is going to be fun! Crawling around on the floor looking for things that he can't have, but would probably head for at first opportunity....putting all the plastic plug thingys in the outlets, making sure my daughter's Polly Pocket accessories are all present and accounted for in their carrying case, teen's dirty socks aren't hiding under the recliner, you know...all the things that an 8 month old would find incredibly fascinating...gone! Out of sight! No temptations of any kind. Need to make the room safe and sterile. Put padding on all the corners, the knick-knacks in a box and off to the garage, screw the tv to the wall so it doesn't fall down on him, etc., etc., etc. I love and hate this stage. I love the newfound independence and the joy on his face when he discovers he can go and get his toys for himself, but I hate it when my baby, my last one, reaches a new milestone. It's sad knowing that I'll not get to experience anymore babies going through this stage...this is it, the last time this will happen for me. Well, I'll get to see a little bit of it with my grandchildren, but that won't be for a while yet, (I hope!). In the meantime, I'll get out the camera...snap as many pics I can, and enjoy even the most mundane of chores that will help my baby reach each and every milestone in his life's journey!

Catch up!

Wow! It's been a few days since I've posted last. Let's catch up on a few things.

First, my daughter lost both her front teeth. They were loose and ready to come out. It's cute and weird for me....I have never in my life actually seen any children with their 2 front teeth missing...always just one at a time. Oh, I've seen pictures of cute kids with a big gap between their pearly whites, and then there's that Christmas song, but actually seeing it live and in person is totally different. She's been walking around saying that line from the Disney commercial where the little boy and girl can't sleep and they're talking about what Disneyland will be like. You know the one....Where the little boy says, "We're too excited to sleep!" with a lisp...anyway, it's one of my favorite commercials and my daughter has been saying that just to make me crack up. It works every time! I Love It!

Next, my baby boy is teething. He's almost 8 months old and he's already got his bottom 2 teeth, and now he's getting his top two. I was feeding him the other day and he bit me. Actually, it wasn't really a bite, it was more like he was grinding his teeth together with my poor nipple stuck in between his little gnashers! Oh my goodness that hurt! And I did the unthinkable...I said "OW!" really loud and closed down the cafeteria (he was almost done anyway). The books will tell you that you are supposed to disengage, say "No!" firmly, and then try again, and repeat this process until your baby learns that it is not acceptable to bite while nursing. Ha! It's very hard to remain calm and follow the accepted steps for teaching your precious not to bite when the little bundle of joy has just tried to give you a piercing that you didn't want and weren't ready for! Thankfully, my reaction didn't scare him badly enough to stop eating, but I worried about it the whole time I was waiting/dreading the next nursing session. AND he hasn't bitten me again since, but it's only been a couple of days, so we'll have to see if it really worked.

School registration is upon us. We had already pre-registered my daughter for kindergarten back in May, but we had to go and register my ds#2 for 7th grade and get his schedule and agenda (cheesy day planner is more like it). That's a lovely disorganized mess. You inevitably end up in the wrong line, no matter how hard you try to follow the signs, or ask for assistance. But it's all over now, and only 2 hours were wasted from our lives. At least it wasn't the lines at the DMV!.....Ah...school starts in a couple of weeks, and I might get my sanity back at that time. Who knows? Again, we'll have to wait and see...

That's about it for the catch up. See you at the next post!

Yesterday was fun.

Yesterday, we brought home the newest member of the family. It's name is Admiral Byrd. It only took us about 2 and a half hours from start to finish to sign all the papers and be on our way. That's the fastest time ever for us. The children and I all went to my husband's work after lunch and that's when we got to see it for the first time. It is so beautiful, all sleek and shiny. I had my doubts about getting it at first, but now I'm so glad we got it. What is it you ask? It's a new Expedition. Yes, this was the major commitment that I wrote about last week. I know what you're thinking...why on earth would we even consider getting an Expedition at this time...gas prices high, the economy is iffy, etc...but the reasons are simple. We needed a vehicle that could transport all of us, I rarely go places so we won't be using it all that much, it will be under warranty for 6 years, and we got it for less than half of the brand new sticker price. It was the right time for us.

I really like to drive it too. I was afraid it would be too big, but once I got in, I was very comfortable with the whole setup. It was very smooth, and had nice "get-up-and-go". It was easy to get the kids in and out, and had plenty of room for the baby's stroller in the back.

Well, today is going to be spent looking for more opportunities for me to stay at home. And my little girl keeps asking if she can have a sleepover, so I need to make a phone call to see if her friend has any plans this weekend. Don't you just love sleepovers? It used to be so uncomplicated when I was little...nowadays you have to find out if there are any allergies, if there is a specific bedtime routine that they must follow, are they allowed to watch tv or PG- rated movies, etc., etc., etc. Welcome to the world of today. Can't imagine what it will be like for my grandkids....

Opportunity Knocking?!?! Answer That Door!

So, yesterday I spent quite a bit of time looking for ways to change my temporary SAHM status to permanent. As of right now, with everything staying the way that it is, I only have about 16 months left to enjoy my stay at home mom status, and I really want to change that. I am loving staying home with my children more than I could have ever imagined. So, in order to maintain this privilage, I was surfing the net using every buzzword that I could think of looking for an actual job that I am qualified for that is NOT a home business selling the product of the week. (One thing I've learned about myself....I'm not a salesperson, no matter how hard I try. And to be honest, I don't really try all that hard because I really don't enjoy doing it.)

Well, to my delight, I found several good jumping off sites that other people have started which lists different companies who hire SAHM's or WAHM's, or just telecommuting jobs in general. It takes a little bit of time reading through what the different companies offer, who their clients are, what services they provide, what the requirements are (education, experience, and computer capabilities), etc., but I actually found a couple that I was interested in. One is a telecommute position for a health insurance company, and a couple were for data entry/administration/virtual assistant type positions which were more freelance type jobs where you sign up with a profile for a company, and you could either bid for available jobs (mostly short term, or single task work), or be put on a waiting list and wait until something comes up for which you qualify. Ok, so that might not be quick money at first, but I have some time on my side, and I figured why not go ahead and sign up and see what happens? And in the meantime, I can still be on the lookout for something that is more stable than contract work.

This is all very exciting to me because up until yesterday, I was under the impression that finding opportunities to work from home with my qualifications (or lack thereof considering I'm not a college graduate) was almost impossible unless I wanted to do a MLM (Multi-Level Marketing---Sell, recruit, sell, recruit, etc., etc., etc.)

I wanted to pass on what I've learned so far so that if anybody reading this is interested, and you don't know where to start, here are a few of the sites that I found helpful. Good luck to you. I hope it helps!

http://www.dirtydiapersyndrome.com/
http://www.wahm.com/jobs.html
http://notesfromawannabewahm.blogspot.com/

Play Day With Daddy

Jason is off on Wednesdays, so he decided to take the kids out for lunch at a local pizza joint, and then they are going to go to a nearby park to shoot some hoops and play on the playground equipment for a while. That leaves just me and the baby at home for a couple of hours, and hopefully he'll take his afternoon nap soon.

Don't you find it extremely sexy when a man (your man) is doing "Dad" things with your kids? I do. He's spending quality time with the kids, and giving me some "Alone" time. (Well, almost!) He does it without me having to ask him, and I absolutely LOVE it! Who wouldn't?

The baby's upper front tooth finally broke through the gums today. He's a little cranky, but not too bad. He's going to look sooo cute! I'll have to get pictures in a couple of days when it's really showing good. He's getting so big, so fast.....

Indecision

Today, we have possibly committed ourselves to a major purchase, which we need, but I don't know if now is the right time for it. Why is it so hard to make decisions which can affect your family for several years, either good or bad? Well, not so much the good ones, but how do you know for sure that they are good until after the fact? I think it is a good decision for us, but what plants a seed of doubt in my head is the national economy. Banks going bust, houses being foreclosed, gas prices so high....it's a lot to consider. We still have time to back out if we need to, but I don't want to. We need this purchase to work for us. But the best thing to do is take the want out of it, and look at all angles with cold, hard, logic. Either which way is uncertainty, but at least we will know that we made what we thought would be the very best decision at the time. Wish us luck!

Bowling with the kids.

Today, Jason and I took the kids bowling, and wouldn't you know it, I forgot to bring the camera, thereby missing several wonderful photo ops. It's amazing how competitive a 5 year old and a 12 year old can be. Well, not really with each other, but with themselves. They congratulated each other on good rolls, but when they did a gutterball, or missed the pins by just that much, they would stomp the ground, or make a face. It really was quite amusing. Would have been nice to have pictures of it all! I'm kicking myself.....