Saturday, April 14, 2007
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.
Friday, April 13, 2007
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 $$$ to have it fixed and we have to pay for the tests that they already did which is 40 to 60 bucks. Still don't have the exact number on that one. Then, I have to go to the library to pick up some books that I placed on hold and get Bryan some books to read over the weekend since he has not been keeping up with his reading log he has 125 minutes to do before Monday. Yipppeee! Next comes the wonderful trip to the WIC office to pick up Kaelyn's vouchers and go to a class--which is really BORING! I then have the joy of going grocery shopping! YEAH! Great fun, right? Yep, great fun! That should leave me with just enough (I am talking MINUTES here) to get back home unload groceries and pick up Bryan so that I can get home in time for hubby to leave for work. Ahhhh, the joys of having only one car!
But, like I said in the post before, I guess I should start being thankful that I have a car at all. Many folks don't have that much, right? I have 3 relatively healthy kids, a husband that works without complaining about it, a place to live (even if it is too small and a rental), clothes, food, and extended family that is great and really helpful.
I had to get up to go to MUFFINS FOR MOMS at Bryan's school at 7:00 AM. Which means, of course, that I had to get up by 5:30 to get me ready and him ready to go. Then, I came home and had to feed Max and give him one of his many medications. Now, hubby is giving him a shower before we have to go pick his car up from the mechanic until we can save up enough $$$ 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.
Thursday, April 12, 2007
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.
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
-mj
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