Boy, I didn't realize that it's been forever since updating this.  I did very well last semester in school.  The new semester just started last Wed.  So far, so good.  It looks like my schedule will be quite managable.  Especially being 3 online classes.  Hopefully I can keep up with my little man home, rather than at daycare.  

I finally got the outside of the house finished with the first coat of paint.  The house that we were interested in apparently sold, or is sale pending.  I am considering spending this spring and summer doing lots of work on our house and wait till next year to sell.  We really need a bigger house, but we also need to pay off some bills to live more comfortable with a larger mortgage.  Isn't it always something?  

I've been enjoying getting out more often with friends.  I, unfortunately, put some weight back on over Christmas.  It's been so stinking cold, so I haven't been able to get out much to work off some weight.  Hopefully I'll be able to join the Y soon.  Being a student makes a huge difference in price!!  

Hubby and I were talking and we decided that for our 10th anniversary in 2010, we are going to take a family vacation.  A true, go away by plane or boat kind of vacation.  The kids will be 5 and 8 then, so it should be easier.  The kids and I really want to go on a cruise, and it would be nice to go to the Caribbean.  With any luck, everything will fall into place!

Anyhow, back to spending the rest of my day vegged out on the couch trying to stay warm!!   

Not much new going on in our household.  Hubby and I have both been sick.  He with bronchitis and me with walking pneumonia.  Luckily the kids haven't gotten it yet.  Little man has a runny nose and slight cough, but that's it.  If he doesn't feel better soon I'll be taking him to the dr.  Between being sick and the weather getting colder now, I haven't been able to finish the small sections of painting left on the house.  I suppose it will still be there next spring.  Lucky me!  

The little girl has been getting in trouble at school again.  Her teacher and I have decided that we will comment on her good behavior and try to ignore the bad, unless it's really bad.  She's already been sent to the principal's office.  Ugh.... she will be the death of me.  I swear, I just don't know what to do with her.  

Little man seems to be willing to think about potty training.  He actually wore a pair of undies for quite a while the other day with no accidents.  I hope he's trained earlier than she was.  I'm ready to be done with the baby stage.  He loves his big boy bed, but doesn't think he needs to nap anymore.  That sucks, it's such a fight every single day.  

I am so happy that this semester is over half over.  I am still struggling to do my daily tasks along with school stuff.  I've been losing weight, which is a great thing!    

A nap sounds good to me, so I might do that today.  Although I need to finish laundry.  I may stay home from school tomorrow just to rest more and hopefully get more housework done. 

 This semester cannot get over quick enough.  I am going out of my mind, never getting a break.  There just is not enough time in the day to accomplish all that I need to do.  Next semester, I plan on taking 3 classes at most.  

Add to my crazy schedule that we had to have Max put to sleep on Saturday.  The vet told us about 2 months ago that he either had arthritis or bone cancer and prescribed some meds.  The meds didn't really do anything for him and the tumors spread.  Now he is in a better place and no longer in pain.  

That about it in my life.  I am looking forward to all of the fun Halloween stuff we'll be doing in the coming week. 

I should have just stayed in bed today.  I wake up to the girl telling me that she puked in her bed last night.  Fine.  Whatever.  I go and start cleaning up.  I make my way in the kitchen a bit later to hear the boy tell me "Hot mom".  Ok.  I have a pretty good idea of what that means.  I check the microwave.  What do I find you ask?  I find what used to be a Ballpark individual wrapped hot dog.  It is black and liquidy, melted all over the microwave.  So now my house smells like burnt stuff.  Ugh.......  Then, and yes there is more, I head in the living room to find blue stuff all over the living room rug.  Blue?  What could be blue?  Playdoh, maybe yogurt?  Nope, the boy crapped out his pants BLUE.  This would be thanks to the blue cotton candy ice cream we had the day before.  

So yeah, I seriously considered hiding under a rock today.  Luckily my dad came up and we got some stuff around the house accomplished.  I am about 75% done with the first coat of paint on our house.  It's taking forever with just me doing everything.  Kinda sucks, but I'm doing it.  

Then I will be picking up the niece in a couple weeks so she can stay with us and we'll head to the pumpkin patch.  I can't wait!! 

Ugh....why did I think it was a good idea to go back to school?  I am an old fart compared to the others in my classes.  I am struggling with taking care of kids and the house while still getting all of my homework done.  I just don't feel like I'm getting anywhere.  Add to that, hubby always wants to go out of town EVERY weekend so I'm not able to get much done around the house.  I've still been (slowly) working on scraping the house.  I did manage to primer a good portion of the 1 side and painted part of it as well.  So, it's coming along.  

I am so tired.  N isn't doing well going to daycare.  He has fits every day that I drop him off or when he gets picked up.  He isn't sleeping much and doesn't eat a whole lot either.  I'm just at a loss.   And A is so tired when she gets home from kindy that she is unbearable!!  I look forward to kids bedtimes every night.  

I've been keeping busy.  One of my friends makes a point to go to the park with us after A gets out of school.  That makes A happy and it's nice to get out of the house since I'm not able to make many playdates with my schedule.  

Ok, I'm starving.  Must go eat before I wither away! lol

I just want to keep records of the whole situation with Grandma.  

L will not be staying with us.  She has chosen to stay with M and P.  I'm perfectly fine with her wanting to stay in that town, but she needs to think of others a bit more and not be quite so selfish.   I really hope H and G don't call me wanting me to keep her or do anything else for that matter.  I cannot keep dealing with this.  The 2 weeks I had L, I was sick from stress and my family paid for that.   I am not going to put my family through hell, especially now with school starting and our schedules changing so much.  Ugh......

Grandma hasn't been doing so well.  She's still at the care center, but she went to the dr to get her staples taken out from the hip replacement and she's already forgotten that she went.  And I found out that she was WAY off in her bank account.  She was sending duplicate checks and they were being cashed.  I never in a million years thought things were this bad.  I would have stepped up soon had I known.  Hopefully this weekend I'll get to stop in and see her.  

Oh and we can't forget that L called her friend in hopes of staying with them and now her friends mom keeps trying to talk Grandma into changing her will to leave everything to her.  I seriously would love to smack this woman.  She is seriously......I don't even know, stupid?  I could think of some other words that would fit, but they really aren't nice.  ;-)

Friday, FIL is supposed to come up and bring our nieces to play with A.  Hopefully that works out.  I know A misses the girls and this would be perfect.  Then they will take A back home with this to FIL's house for the weekend.  Saturday night dh is fighting at the QCSA.  Our friends from Washington will be coming over to hang out and go to the fights so that should be fun.  We love spending time with them.  And dh will be making some money on this one.  With any luck, he'll win just so he makes more money!  :D 

Helen called yesterday to let me know that Grandma is indeed going to a care center.  But, we don't know if it's temporary or permanent.  I really wish that whatever is going to happen would just happen already!  I'd really like to know where we're going to be with this.  In preparation, we have decided to hustle and try to get out house on the market.  So during the day, I work inside and when hubby gets home, we head outside to scrape the house to paint it.  My arms are KILLING me!  I have been a sweaty pig!  YUCK!  But at least we're getting stuff done.  There is just no possible way we could fit 5 of us in this house.  Just the 4 of us are too many!

So anyways, that's what shakin right now.  I have been so freakin busy.  Trying to take care of 3 kids, fix the house up, keep everyone fed (that's a joke, with no groceries), and take care of my aching body.  Alright, enough whining for the moment.  lol

Today is the day of her "Family Meeting".  Although I don't know exactly what that means, I should find out more info on if they plan on letting her go home anytime soon.  I feel as though I HAVE to know now.  This is just the worst time of the year for this to happen.  It's so close to time to register for school, and I need to know where to register my niece.  And if she does come to live with us, we need to sell our house and get a bigger one.  We are already too big for this house, but add another person and it just ain't happening.   With any luck, my grandma's sisters will be calling me this afternoon with info.  I'll be updating then, otherwise I will forget.  lol

The weather is absolutely wonderful!!  My yard work is almost done, dh finally repaired the shingles on the garage so hopefully that doesn't leak anymore, and I've got the house picked up.  I did manage to fill the back of the van with stuff to take to the Salvation Army.  Yay!!  Less clutter in my house! 

Tonight we are going to the fair with friends.  They kids may get to ride some rides, and we will be seeing the demo derby!  It should be fun night.  

Ok, I'm starving, must find food!

Hubby will FINALLY be home!!  I can't tell you how excited I am!!  I will FINALLY get a break from the kids.  I love them to death, but they have been so bad lately.  They just know that I don't have someone to back me up when they are in trouble.  I don't know how single parents do it.  I had a really hard time this week.  Normally, I love it when hubby is gone, but not this time.  

I did manage to get a ton done while hubby has been gone.  I put down new flooring in the kitchen, fixed cracks in the walls in the living room, on the stairs and in the upstairs hallway, then I painted all of the walls.  I rearranged the laundry room to fit my new freezer and sealed the corner in the basement where we had a bit of water come in.  Oh, let's not forget that I replaced a couple pieces on fencing that was broken and fixed the gate latch so it didn't open so easily.  

I am exhausted.  I've not gotten to talk to Kathy about Arbonne this week.  With the 2 hr time difference, I am usually in bed when she tries to get in touch with me.  Hopefully soon I can take care of that.  

Current Mood: tired

I FINALLY got my good day.  This week has been complete HELL!!!  Nothing has gone right, the kids behaving badly, you name it, it probably happened.   Today, not only did I get Hubby's first paycheck from this job, but I got my financial aid packet too.  I am approved for a student loan, but best of all, I get a Pell Grant that will pay for my ENTIRE first year!!  How freakin' awesome is that????  

Other than that, I've worked my butt off around the house this week making it somewhat nicer should we eventually find a new house to buy.  Hubby will be coming home from working out of state on Tuesday!  What a relief.  Maybe the kids will start behaving again.  They know they can push my buttons while he's gone because he can't back me up when they are naughty.  LOL  

Oh yeah, dear daughter of mine decided to get her ears pierced today.  That is surprising, considering that she has always said she'd get them done when she's a grown-up.  She looks so girly now. (Which she isn't. lol)

Current Mood: happy

Can this week just be over already?  Of course since hubby is gone for work, everything has to fall apart.  Monday it was my van, Tuesday the kids both had attitudes, and now today.  Little lady has gotten so nasty lately.  It must be that 5 year old thing.  She is just mean.  She got to spend some nice quiet time in her room today while I mowed the yard.  And while mowing the front yard, I noticed 2 men wandering through the yard.  Turns out the mailman twisted his ankle, but isn't sure if it was in our yard or the neighbors.  So now I'm afraid he's going to try to claim this on our homeowners insurance.  I talked to my agent just in case, and she said they will fight it because he cannot pinpoint where he twisted his ankle.  

I'm just to the point that I want to cry.  I am so glad that I get to get out of the house tonight.  The sitter will be here in a couple hours and I just might have a drink while I'm out.  lol  

I swear, all I ever do is b!tch about everything!!  I feel like a big ole nag and a horrible mom somedays.  :(   Oh well, life goes on. 

It started off nice enough.  The kids and I had a great time at a playgroup where the kids swam.  It was hot, but we had shade so it was alright.  I came home to put new flooring in the kitchen, ran out of tiles so I went back to Lowes.  Wouldn't you know it, my van wouldn't start when I was ready to leave Lowes.  I've had this problem in the past, so I called my FIL who knew of my problem.  He gave me suggestions of what to try.  Nothing.  Nada.  Zilch.  Wasn't gonna start.  So I called a friend to pick the kids and I up.  Came home and almost got my floor finished.  By 10:30 I really needed a Coke so I thought, why not run to McDonalds so I don't have to get out of the car.  lol  Kids were STILL up, so why not.  Since I was going out anyhow, I stopped out at Lowe's and tried the van again.  THE POS STARTED!!!!!!!  Ugh........I want to drive that stupid van into the river.  So now, I have to get a ride back out to the darn thing and see if it will start yet again so I can get it home.   

And the best part, DH left out of state early this morning for work so he can't help me right now.  If this is any indictation as to how my week is going to go, I am staying in bed till dh gets home.   Hopefully I have 1 running vehicle tomorrow as both kids have their well child checkups in the afternoon.  Then the daughter is having a little friend spend the night.  Should be fun.  

I really don't know why I'm up this late typing this.  I should definitely be in bed, but I guess this is my way of unwinding.  :D  

Ok, Carry on!! 

Current Mood: tired

I am looking forward to getting tons done this week.  I made up my plan of action to fix our house up and make it easier to sell.  I am going to follow it as best I can.  Hopefully the weather is beautiful this week so I can accomplish my goals.  :D  I'm also looking forward to taking the kids to the park.  Hopefully the time that A is at daycamp, I will be able to get my stuff done with less interuptions.  I know, I know.  This is jumping around a LOT!!  I'm just excited to get started.  We should have money this week so that I can actually do this stuff.  Dh sold his Jeep, which the guy is coming to pick up and pay for on the 4th.  Yay!!  

And most important, I finally got my computer back!!  WooHoo!!  FedEx came knocking at my door, which was a surprise considering HP said the estimated deliverly date was going to be July 7.  I am jumping for joy right now!!  LOL  

Ok, I've been nerdy enough for right now.  Off to watch my horribly cheesy soap.  :D

We are heading to our hometown to spend some time with Grandma.  I can't say that I'm looking forward to this.  I honestly would rather stay home.  I am not good in these kind of situations.  I always say and do the wrong things.  Heck, I can't say the right things in everyday life.  lol

It's been a slow moving day so far.  Kids were lazy this morning.  It's not nice weather.  blah.....  I'm looking forward to the weekend being over then Ben will be at his new job.  Ok, so it's the same job, just he is actually employed by the company rather than being a contractor.  That's enough to make me happy.  Then come August, we will have full benefits!!  YAY!!!  

Alrighty, I am boring myself, so I think we'll hit McDonalds.  :-D

Current Mood: okay

Just like that, he's gone.  He must have been suffering far longer than we imagined for him to pass this quickly.  I just wanted to document this for my records.   

Here I sit waiting on news of my uncle Fred.  He was admitted to the hospital on Monday and it turns out that he is full of cancer.  I cannot deal with this right now.  My moms death is still too fresh.  I've never really been close to Fred, but it is still my uncle, my moms brother, my grandma's son.  It just saddens me to see that my grandma will have lost both of her children.  I can't imagine how painful that must be.  Grandma hasn't been in the best health and I think this will take a toll on her.  She has been losing her memory and I found out that in the past couple of weeks she has been in several minor car accidents.  If anything happens to her, I inherit a wonderful 15 year old, but that scares the shit of out of me.  I'm not ready to raise a teenager.  I really hope Grandma does ok, she really needs to talk to her dr., but she swears that there is nothing wrong with her.   Anyhow, my dad is out at the hospital visiting right now so I am just waiting for an update.  

On a good note, my 5 yr old and I have been getting along quite wonderfully.  Mostly in part to being able to get out of the house and her playing with other kids.  I have been thoroughly enjoying being part of this SAHM group.  It was neat to find out that one of the members lives about a block and a half away from me.  Very cool!!   

I am sending A to day camp tomorrow with her friend M.  They will be tie-dying shirts.  That should be quite interesting.  (read: messy) I'm glad she's doing it somewhere other than home.  LOL  Then Friday, we will be super poor I'm afraid, so instead of going to the pool (since I don't have a swimsuit anyhow), I am going with a friend to the zoo and just hang out.  The kids can swim in her pool if they want.  I should go to garage sales too.  But then again, that costs money too.  (Yes I am pouting right now!)

Edited to add that my dad found out that they are giving my uncle a month.  But it is VERY unlikely that he'll make it a couple of weeks.  He can't open his eyes or talk.  His breathing is very rattly?

Current Mood: blah