The Aftermath Of Christmas

Well, let's see... where could I possibly start? Christmas has been so busy! On Christmas Eve, our plans were to go to my maternal grandmother's house at noon and then turn around and be at my dad's mom's house by 3:30 at the latest. I knew we would be there sometime since that is the 'fun' family. We joke and play and are not all serious. Don't get me wrong, I love my Boom Boom (my Mom's mom). She loves me to death and I am never wrong with any decision that I make. So, that can often times come in handy. Especially around my mother who makes me feel like nothing I do is good enough. I know that she loves me, but I just wish she would not be so condescending to me about things. But, such is the life as a daughter, right?

Anyway, we ended up not leaving my dad's mom's house until about 6:30 or so. Only to get almost 45 minutes away when they called and said that I had left my camera! So, back we went. Then, we got to my Mom's house and, since that is where the kids all wanted Santa to come, got ready to get the kids settled in. After we had them settled, we took a load of stuff home to empty out the trunk and get our own showers and stuff since we had used Mom's water for the kids. Then, back to Mom's it was.

Santa came, Bryan woke up at 4 am but went back to bed and Max woke up at 6. They opened their gifts from Santa shortly after six. However, our dear narcoleptic princess, failed to wake up. Kaelyn slept until 8:30! That may not seem bad until you take into account that she went to sleep at 6:45 that previous night. I could not believe that she slept that much!

Then, after breakfast, we took Bryan to see his "mother's" father. Max came with us too since Bryan has a cousin that he likes to play with. Unfortunately, Bryan's 'mother' decided that she had the right to interrupt our holiday by calling both Tony's call phone and at her father's house. Thank God we did not have to speak with her. Bryan told his Papa that he did not want to talk to her and he did not force the issue. She did not even send him a Christmas card, gift, or even catch up on the child support she owes. But, I bet she got her live in boyfriend something. Such a waste of air.... but, anyway, long story short... Bryan got a 20 inch TV with a DVD player from him. So, along with the gifts that Santa had brought, another trunkload had to be taken home and then Tony had to come back to get the remainder loaded, eat dinner, and then we went home.

I slept for like 13 hours after we got home. We were all exhausted. I hope to get some video or pics or something loaded up soon. Maybe when life slows down enough for me to catch up?

Keep us in your thoughts and prayers!

New Dishcloths Make Me Happy!

Ok, story starts with my mother getting a coupon for $10 off of any $75 household item purchase at Target. Below is the reason that I needed such a coupon and the resounding effects that my purchase today had on me!

Well, my children seem to find it amusing to think that they are Indiana Jones running from the boulder and another one of them will jump on the 'boulder' to save their brother or sister. In this instance, the 'boulder' is my laundry hamper. You know the plastic circular ones? Yep, you can imagine how it looks! It is split down the side absolutely disastrous and I have been meaning to get another one.

So, I go to Target to get some new hampers (seeing as how mine are destroyed) and I needed quite a few. So I knew that, seeing as how they are at least 8 bucks each, that would be around 32 bucks of the 75 that I needed to spend.

Well, I get there and they have ONE. Yes, that's right, ONE! Well, I decide to get that and settle for regular baskets for everything else. So, I get two baskets and the one hamper. I decided to get a new shower curtain for our main shower and then they actually had the shower stall size one for our second bathroom that has a really small shower in it, so I had to get one of those. I found a new floor mat for my kitchen to go in front of the sink in the floor. Then, I saw something that I just had to have!

I literally HAD to have it. Know what it was? Dishcloths! I had never seen any that were this cute and they came in a big pack with 8 of them! So, I got them. Well, they had another multi-pack that came with 2 potholders/2 kitchen towels/2 different kind of dishcloths. IT MATCHED! So, I had to have those and then I found microfiber cloths like I had just seen the other day on TV and wanted so badly! So, I got those!

Well, when I get up to check out, turns out that the hamper that they had was cracked! No wonder it was the only one left! So, the lady says she is sorry and took it off the receipt. No harm, no foul! I still got to use the reciept since my total purchase was more than 75 bucks, but I totally should not have spent that money! However, with mildew on the shower curtain no matter how much you clean it and having had the same hampers and dishcloths for over 3 years, I think I was due some new ones!

You would not believe how happy that those cloths made me! I am so happy to have new dishcloths. I was in the kitchen almost all day today catching up on dishes and cleaning since I had my new cloths. I wonder how long this will last!?!?!

Weekend In The Mountains

So, I am TOTALLY not a mountain girl. Or, so I thought. Hubby's work hosted their yearly company picnic at Chimney Rock (a mountain state park with trails and a waterfall). I absolutely LOVED it. The kids had a blast! They did a scavenger hunt trail walk thing for the kids and they had so much fun doing that. Then, we went to the top of 'The Rock' which is at 2280 feet! The kids were great! They posed for my pictures, loved the view, and loved the trails. After we got down from the top we went to the waterfall which was another trail that had to be hiked. (Which, trust me, my calves are STILL paying for! You don't realize just how out of shape you are until you hike a mountain!) I got some great pics and I hope to have them up soon!

Busy, busy, busy

Here lately I have been go, go, go all of the time. I find myself so very exhausted that I just want to sleep all day long, but far too much goes on in one day for me to pass it up!

I have to go shopping tomorrow to get the final things for Bryan's party and it will be a "me" day. I am dropping my little guy off in the morning to spend the day with my grandparents and the other two are staying with my husband. So, I will get to go for breakfast and relax while I shop! Is that not awesome!?!

Just remember me as I am trying to clean my entire house for the party on Saturday! Whew! Something says that tomorrow while I am shopping will be my last bit of peace!

Gallery Walk...

I am a devoted scrapbook.com-er. I am always on and most of the time, with no reason or excuse. But, that's over with! Ever since Imagine.lilacs started a "challenge" called the Gallery Walk, I am always on scanning galleries and having a blast catching the inspiration from them. I never actually sat and did that before. I was just aimlessly posting and waiting the PMs and questions that arose. So, I wanted to take a moment to post my immense thanks to imagine.lilacs for showing me a new reason to be online!!

For shame, for shame!

Ok, so I am very, very naughty. I realize this. However, with all that has been going on with me, the last thing on my mind was a blog. I don't really have all that much knowledge to share with anyone, so it is really not like I was missed or anything. But, I am making a pact with myself that I will try to write at least one time a week!!

So, Melinda does not make it? How on earth do you explain that?

I still don't see how in the world Melinda Doolittle did not make it. She is the only one (in my opinion) that can REALLLY sing and make me feel it, kwim? Jordin is all fine and dandy (and yes, I voted for her as well!) but I thought that based solely on singing that Blake should have been out. Don't get me wrong, I adore him. I listen to the iTunes that I have from him religiously, but I still think that Melinda deserved to go through to the next round more than he did. Even his own family was stunned that he made it through! Not that I am hating on him, because I am not....

I just don't get how it is fair that she was sent home, kwim?

Busy Mother's Day

Ok, so I know that I have not been faithful to ye blog... yet again. But, here I am now! Mother's Day was also my 23rd birthday, right? Well, to celebrate Mother's Day I got to go out! By out, I do not mean that I was at a club all night long drinking my heart out or anything wild like that. My idea of out is what you might ask? My idea of out is SHOPPING! ALL DAY LONG! As if that is not great enough, it was my mom, my grandmother, my daughter, and me! Is that not the greatest!? We had breakfast at Stax, who has the BEST waffles ever! Then, we went shopping at Ross, completely overshooting our time limit that we had set for ourselves which caused us to miss the Mother's Day banquet at church. Although, to be completely honest, I had more fun shopping than I would have had there I think! Anyway, my birthday gift from my mother was money for clothes. Although, I never SAW the money, she just bought my clothes for me! My grandmother that was with us (my mom's mom) gave me money for whatever I wanted to get for myself. My dad's mom had given me money to get new underwear that I have been dying for. Yes, I do realize how pathetic it is to want new underwear! LOL.

Anyway, I got all sorts of outfits from Ross and then we went to a place called BREAKOUT BRAS, which actually sold a bra that ACTUALLY fits me and holds me up! Yes, it is HIGHLY uncomfy, but it does the job! So, my mom bought me two bras and I used my money from my grandmother to get SPANX. Spanx are yet another spectacular invention!

Then, we went to Hamrick's and I just HAD to buy Max some shoes.

Then, we went out to Monterrey, our fave restaurant!

Then, Target.

Then, Wal-Mart.

Then, I got taken home. I was tired! LOL.

I had a blast and it was the best day that I have had in such a long time. Thank you so much for that mom. I appreciate it more than you know.

-mj

Bad Chickie, No Biscuit!

So sorry to leave ye that readeth awaiting.... but, so is the life of a stay-at-home (yeah, like I really get to stay at home!) mom of three. Well, four if you include my wonderful 34 year old (hubby!). There has been many things that have kept me away, mainly my house. It is a complete pig-sty! I can clean something and IMMEDIATELY after I am done, it is back just like it was. I have attempted the whole FlyLady thing, but it does not seem to work either. I am sticking with it though, making sure to not let the stress of it bother me. However, when something like what happened today happens, it takes all that I have to be able to hold that stress from being taken out on everyone. Here goes a little story (complete with background):

Kaelyn is almost potty trained (she was almost there when she was 19 months old. She went every time on her own! She was great. Max was born and she regressed, right? So, now with the promise of a BIG GIRL'S SCHOOL in the fall, she is going to the potty everytime for number 2 and almost everytime (except when she is asleep) for number 1. Well, she did go number 1 in the potty that she has that doubles as a step to brush her teeth with. Well, no sooner did she get up than Max opened the door (yes, on his own!) and walks in and tries to stand on it after closing the lid and it falls over, spilling the contents all over my bathroom floor. EEEEWWWW!! I know.

Well, I spent atleast an hour scrubbing every crevice of that floor; behind the toilet, under the counters at the baseboards, EVERYWHERE! No sooner than Bryan walks into the bathroom to clean the counters, he busts the entire bottle of the LISTERINE rinse that dyes your teeth blue, ALL OVER THE FLOOR! ALL OVER! The walls were sprayed, the cabinets, his shirt was covered (as was Max's). Just an over all mess. He looks at me like a doe in headlights and does not even attempt to clean it up. So, of course, I end up having to. My back is already hurting so bad from yesterday that I could scream. Then you add on the pain of having to pick Max up and it just triples the pain. Nothing much I can do about that pain either. No time to rest it, so life must go on. I guess I just don't get that. When I was 8, I cleaned up my own messes! NO! Not him. For some reason I guess he feels that I have to deal with it. He has got a shock coming to him. I don't HAVE to do anything other than feed and clothe them. That's all I am required to do. No fun movies or trips to the Waterpark... nothing. I think if he realized that then he would be more careful than just dropping a bottle on the floor rather than sitting it.

Oh, well... thanks for the vent!

Not feeling too well...

My mom came and got Bryan and Kaelyn last night. So, that left just Max with me! It was so nice and peaceful with none of the fighting that normally goes on in between those two! Ahhh, the love of the oldest and middle child! Anywho, Max and I both napped and played and had so much fun! I have not been able to really appreciate him or give him that kind of one on one attention since, well... Never! I had a blast with him and feel much more relaxed than I have felt in a long time. I started not feeling well at all last night and it got worse this morning. I don't know if it is allergies or a cold, but it needs to go whatever it is! See you guys around.

Busy Day Ahead.

Looks bad for the future of my having scrap-time today. I know what you are thinking... well, MAYBE if you would stay off of the computer for more than five seconds then you would be able to get something done. Although that may be a contributing factor, that is not the main reason that I don't get anything done. I just cannot relax enough to get anything done when my house is a disaster. And, let's face it... with three children it never stays clean. A good friend of mine, Jenn, compared cleaning the house with small children to shoveling a driveway in a blizzard. It just does no good. I tend to agree. Anywho, on with the day...

I had to get up to go to MUFFINS FOR MOMS at Bryan's school at 7:00 AM. Which means, of course, that I had to get up by 5:30 to get me ready and him ready to go. Then, I came home and had to feed Max and give him one of his many medications. Now, hubby is giving him a shower before we have to go pick his car up from the mechanic until we can save up enough $$$ to have it fixed and we have to pay for the tests that they already did which is 40 to 60 bucks. Still don't have the exact number on that one. Then, I have to go to the library to pick up some books that I placed on hold and get Bryan some books to read over the weekend since he has not been keeping up with his reading log he has 125 minutes to do before Monday. Yipppeee! Next comes the wonderful trip to the WIC office to pick up Kaelyn's vouchers and go to a class--which is really BORING! I then have the joy of going grocery shopping! YEAH! Great fun, right? Yep, great fun! That should leave me with just enough (I am talking MINUTES here) to get back home unload groceries and pick up Bryan so that I can get home in time for hubby to leave for work. Ahhhh, the joys of having only one car!

But, like I said in the post before, I guess I should start being thankful that I have a car at all. Many folks don't have that much, right? I have 3 relatively healthy kids, a husband that works without complaining about it, a place to live (even if it is too small and a rental), clothes, food, and extended family that is great and really helpful.

The Unreasonable Maddness of My Scrapbook Nook

Ok, look, I realize that my nook has more mess than can possible be considered acceptable. That is why I am in a scraproom challenge. I am the hostess, so hopefully that will make me do better about getting something done. I am adding in some photographs, so please be kind in your comments and realize that it already looks a little better but it is something that will take time!

WARNING: MELINDA UNDER PRESSURE!

Although I realize that this post does not exactly entail scrapping, I am still posting it because after all... if it effects me, it affects my scrapbooking! Anyway, lemme start with a little background, k?

My hubby's dad was really not around for him growing up and from the time that my hubby was born in '72, his dad had 4 more kids by '79, right? Well, on the rare occassion that he would see him, his dad would make promises about coming back the in next week or two. Long story short, it would be two or three years in between times that he saw him.

They have had a relationship since around 1997 when his dad looked him up, right? My hubby ended up living with his dad, dad's girlfriend, half-brother, and half-brother's girlfriend for awhile. They were really close during this time and all. Well, shortly after that, hubby and brother had to leave due to dad and dad's g/f breaking up. Dad ended up moving in with hubby for awhile and then left. He has came and went and has only seen my kids about seven times (all of which--except for recently--we had to hunt him down and go to where he was to make that happen).

He has always fixed cars for a living and is REALLY good at it. I am amazed with what I have seen him do. Well, my hubby's car started giving him problems. I had my old car that needed some work done to it (it still ran and has BRAND new tires on it) that was doing nothing for us since I had bought my mom's car from her. I told his dad that if he would fix Tony's car, that I would give him that car so that he could get to the VA clinic to get his transfusions and such; since he was having to ride the supplied transportation to and from it would take all day for him to go and get back for a one hour appointment which was ridiculous to me. He agreed and I told him what was wrong with it. I made the point to stress that there was antifreeze in the oil. Even I know that is caused by a cracked head gasket. He made out that that was not what it was and so on and so forth...

Turns out that I was right! Hubby's car did NOT get fixed by what he DID do to it. The things that he did were: engine flush, spark plugs and wires, transmission filter and fluid change, fuel filter change, oil treatment and change, he DID put in some stuff that is called block sealer, but he knew it would not work deep down I know. I have felt since that moment that he just did not wanna put the work into fixing it. And, once we started having the problems with it, we tried to tell him. He came and listened to it (mind you he has had cracked gaskets HUNDREDS of times in his experiences as he told me) and drove it and tried to say that it was "lifters." He knew from that moment what it was, that is why he left in such a hurry and never looked back. So, after us having tried everyday for two weeks to get him, we finally gave up and took it to a mechanic. I was told that I would have to pay 40 to 60 bucks to do exlusionary tests (you know--to narrow down the problem) and I get a phone call telling me that one of the cylinders was not working which could be a number of things, until I told them about the antifreeze being in the oil. It turns out that I am most likely (97%) right! There are not too many, if any at all, other things that will cause BOTH of the problems wrong with it to happen. And, now, it is going to be 1200 bucks for me to have it fixed.

Now my father-in-law has my previous car that I, in trust, signed over to him so that he could get to his appointments and he is refusing to do his part. That is so not right. How in the world do you NOT have a conscience? He is taking away from my kids that are HIS GRANDKIDS! Please, don't get me wrong, we are not starving or going without clothing or heat or anything like that. But this pretty much means NO vacation for the kids that we all so desperately need now that we finally have my step-son with us LEGALLY and no one can argue with it or take him when they want. I know that I am lucky to have one car that is in GREAT condition and runs perfectly, I truly do. I appreciate what I have more than anything and although I know that it is not going to kill us to wait to get it fixed and to deal with having one car, I am so irritated that we are expected to shovel out all of that money when this is something that HE agreed to fix. I guess it is my fault that I should have made sure that everything was fine before signing over, but I trusted him!

I fully intend to let the kids know why we have to give up our vacation and I will not hold any punches from that. As far as I am concerned, someone who would leave their son as a child and then get a second, third, and fourth chance should really be more considerate and less selfish. And, if I were dying of cancer, I would certainly like to believe that I would want to help my children that had went out of their way to help me numerous times rather than causing them to hate me more than life itself. Not to mention making my own grandchildren go without ANYTHING!

I don't feel bad about sounding so harsh, so I don't need anyone's comments to say that I do sound that way. As far as I am concerned, he deserves anything that he gets. Turn-a-bout is fair play.

Hello, world!

Ok, so here I am. I started a blog. This wonderful occurance is based on the fact that the scrapbook.com forums are down and I had nothing better to do than to surf the blogs of my fave-o pals in my swaps. That led me to Melissa's blog then I saw her pics and I love the way that they are set up... so I joined! Thanks Melissa! I appreciate this, and I am sure that my hubby will as well! I think that he needs to get one like the guy from Austrailia (Grendel) has. You know, to vent out the scrapping frustrations? That just may help him be a little less snooty to me about it all. What do you all think?

-mj