Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone has a great and wonderful Christmas! Being Santa is A LOT of work! I'm looking forward to finally beginning my vacation because I've been non stop going for the past two days and it hasn't been much of a rest. I am so glad that I have a week to relax.

Christmas in Pictures


Our Christmas Tree


The boys in their matching Christmas pajamas

Little man coming inside after spreading his "magic reindeer dust" that he got from preschool (a.k.a. dry oatmeal mixed with glitter)


Little man with his Bakugan's from Santa

Baby M opening his Santa present. He really wasn't the least bit interested in opening presents.

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas! I will be posting more soon since I have the next week off from work!

An Update

So our Easter was pretty good. We left Thursday to pick up Little man at my parent's and stayed there over night. On Friday morning we left to head up to R's parent's house. R and I went downtown in the afternoon and window shopped. When we got back we went running, did 2.8 miles. On Friday night we just hung out there and then Saturday R, Baby M and I headed about an hour away to a bridal shower for my friend who I taught with in F.L. She is from a town near R's parent's but she lives in Mary.land now. That was really fun because I hadn't seen her since we moved away from F.L. When R and I got home we ran 5.2 miles and it felt so good!!! We were supposed to go out on Saturday night with R's friend but that ended up not working out so we didn't really do anything.

On Easter we got up and went to church, just R, me, and the kids. It was really nice and the kids behaved perfectly! When we got home R's sister was there and we hung out, had dinner, and then packed up for our four hour drive home. We left about 3:30pm and got home about 7:30pm. We were going to spend the night at my parent's house again so we didn't have such a long drive all in one day but I found a morning subbing job for today so we had to make the trip home all yesterday.

Today was great because I got to the school, waited for my assignment (I was a floater sub, moving around from class to class), and then was told they screwed up, didn't need me and that I could go home and get paid anyway. It was AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So I got home about 9:15am. The one bad thing is that our car wouldn't start right away, the starter is going bad, so I thought I was stranded for a short moment. On the third time of turning the key and praying the car finally did start. Usually I try to schedule days near the house so I can walk if I have to or R can drive me.

R still hasn't heard anything from the job he interviewed for so if they don't call by tomorrow or Wednesday then he's going to call them. The guy was on vacation all last week so he didn't want to bombard him with a phone call today. I'm praying so hard that this job will work out!!!!!! I hate not hearing though, especially when the guy said he was going to call.

Valentine's Day

So we had a very nice Valentine's day. Since it was on a weekend I felt like we were celebrating it for three days. Little man had his Valentine's day party on Thursday at school, R went and took pictures. I worked that day so I got to have a Valentine's day party with the kids at school. Finally there was actual Valentine's day on Saturday. I made Little man pink heart shaped waffles for breakfast, a heart shaped turkey and cheese sandwich for lunch and then pink chicken noodle soup for dinner. I ended up getting him a few cars and a card for his present. R's mom had sent a little money for us so I used a very small portion on Valentine's day gifts. I got Baby M a cute Ver.y Hungr.y Caterpilla.r toy, and R a cheap DVD. I also got cards for everyone because I had rewards certificates to Hall.mark. R got me a card and made me the best dinner, roasted chicken, fettuccine alfredo, and wine sauteed green beans, it was to die for!

I'll be writing more later about the job/work situation, there's a lot on my mind!

Christmas and Beyond

We had a very nice Christmas. Thank goodness I had this blog because I went back to one of my posts from last year to figure out how we did the gift opening and Santa present thing. It settled an argument that R and I had and he won!!! I didn't remember doing all family presents on Christmas eve and then waking up and doing Santa presents but that is in fact what we did. In my family growing up we always did everything on Christmas morning which is what I wanted to do this year but since we did it R's way last year we kept with our newly formed family tradition and did it the same way this year.

I actually have to say that I enjoy doing it that way better. R prepared a yummy Christmas dinner of goose and roasted chicken with roasted potatoes and veggies along with stuffing and rolls. It was simple but tasted awesome! After dinner we opened presents and then set out cookies and carrot/celery sticks for Santa and the reindeer. We tucked Little man into bed around 8:30pm and when he was asleep got all the Santa gifts perched under the tree along with the stockings filled.

We woke up Christmas morning and opened Santa presents and then prepared breakfast. I usually go all out with an elaborate Christmas brunch but since we were missing my brother and low on funds I just made Ginger.bread waffles and my dad cooked his homemade cinnamon rolls he had made a few weeks earlier and then froze. We ate breakfast and then packed to head to my grandparent's house. We got there around 12:30 and then opened gifts there around 4pm. Santa (aka my Uncle K) came and visited the kids. (He's Santa for my town's Christmas festival so he brought the suit to surprise the kids) We ate dinner at 5pm and then just hung out for the rest of the night.

On Friday my mom, Baby M and I went over to my aunt's house and visited for awhile. She had Christmas presents for the boys and we had one for her grandson. It was a nice visit. When we got back from there R, Little man and I went to Cabel.as so that Little man could see all the animals and the aquarium. It's pretty huge and R had never been there, it gave us something to do so that we didn't get too bored. We had dinner, celebrated my brothers birthday, and then watched some movies.

Saturday we had brunch and then got on the road about 3:30pm to come home. Little man went home with my parents so that he could have some undivided attention from Grandma and Grandpa and so I could get stuff done around the house and get milk pumped and frozen in preparation for my return to work. On Sunday R and I went to the mall and to Ol.d Nav.y so that I could spend the gift cards that we received for Christmas.

Overall, it was a very nice holiday. We definitely celebrated family and it was more simple than normal because of our situation. It was the best holiday that we've had so far and I pray that this teaches us to celebrate the reason for the holiday and to keep it more simple in the past. It's not all about money and elaborate things.

Wordless Wednesday

Happy Halloween



We had a fun Halloween. It was Baby M's first holiday! We dressed him up in a pumpkin shirt during the day and then he had a Skeleton costume that matched Little man's. We got a lot of compliments but they weren't my favorite that R's mom has made. Little man's pumpkin and Eeyo.re costumes were much cuter. These did have glow in the dark paint around the bones though which was really cute. They were also made of fleece because it's been really cold here but low and behold it was near 80 degrees today, haha. It did get chilly though once the sun went down so the fleece worked out okay. R missed it all, just like last year so I took lots of pictures so he could feel like he was here. My brother was here staying for a couple of days while R was gone so he helped us carve our pumpkins this morning. It's been hard to get excited about this holiday because having no money makes it hard to do the things that I would normally do. We made the very best of it though and ended up having a great time.



I've had a pretty tough week. If I start thinking about what I've had to do this week I start to cry so needless to say I try not to think about it. I've applied for welfare, food stamps and WI.C. So yeah, life is definitely hard right now. I'm waiting to hear about Medi.caid for the kids. It just makes me sick. Between R and I we have three bachelor's degrees and two master's degrees. We aren't supposed to be having to go through this. People all have their opinions about what we "should" do and that's pissing me off too. My mom thinks R should go find some minimum wage job but we decided between the two of us that I could make more money subbing and tutoring than he could ever make working at some minimum wage job. We both can't work because of child care and we definitely can't afford daycare. Everyone is telling us not to look out of state or give up on MI but damn we can't go on like this for too much longer. R is 30 years old and ready for a good career job that's going to have staying power. He took a step back taking his last job and I'm tired of him having to climb down the ladder, rather than up. I want him to be happy and I want him to find a job that is going to allow our family to do more than make ends meet.



There's a potential position that he's applied for at U.CLA in CA. It pays a lot and even with the cost of living we would definitely be able to do more than make ends meet. A girl he used to work with down in FL works there now and is putting in a good word for him. Her and her husband have very good positions at the university and are well known so I know R will get "noticed" for this job but who knows what their candidate pool is like. He still has not heard a word from any of the jobs he applied for lately here in MI. None of the ones he's applied for lately have called him back.

1 More Day?

Last night I was having period like cramps for most of the night but those have been going on for quite a long time and nothing ever comes of them. My brother decided to go to a baseball game today so we will have to wait 2 hours for my mom to get here if anything happens anyway, so that's kind of annoying. I really wish he would have went home this weekend and "taken a break" and let her come down. He gets very antsy and restless so I figured his contentment would soon be wearing low. Sure enough, I was right! Yesterday he went to watch the baseball game at the bar and was gone for like 6 hours and then today he's actually going to the game with his ex girlfriend so he'll be gone for most of the day.

Tomorrow is my dr's appt. I'm so glad it's so early in the morning so I don't have to wait all day to find out the latest. Hopefully the MD that we are seeing tomorrow will be more level headed and since R will be there with me the appt will go smooth and hopefully we'll feel better about how the end of the pregnancy progresses. I already know that they won't let me go more than a week overdue if I want a VBAC so for sure the 9th will be our cut off, which I am fine with. I've officially entered the "uncomfortable" stage. Though I've stopped gaining weight my belly just feels so heavy and it's getting harder to move. That hasn't stopped me from walking 1-2 miles everyday but it's definitely not as easy as it used to be. If nothing happens before my appt. I'll update after that tomorrow morning. Hope everyone has a GREAT Labor Day!

Time To Relax

It was an exhausting weekend but we had a good time. I can't believe how fast time flies. We got up to the in laws about 10:30 on Thursday night after riding in the car for almost 5 hours. Little man was at my parents house so we got a break when we picked him up because we stayed about 30 minutes to load his stuff and eat some dinner. The fireworks happened to be on Thursday night at 10:30pm so we ended up skipping them and pretty much just going to bed because we didn't want to rush down to the crowded beach as soon as we arrived.

Friday we got up, got ready, and headed to the parade at 10am. It was a long parade and Little man wasn't sold on the whole experience, he did however, love the candy that was thrown! Afterwards we walked back home, had lunch, and then put Little man down for his nap. R and I went downtown to the Arts and Crafts fair (which I swear is identical every year) and then hit up some stores downtown. We headed back and Little man was up so we hung out and made dinner. We didn't really do anything exciting on Friday night except took a walk down to the beach following the race course that R was going to run the next morning.

Saturday morning we woke up early and R ran in the 5K race. This was the same race we both did last year, which was our first 5K race that we did together. It was very poorly organized this year and we ended up having to wait around for 2 1/2 hours for the awards to be passed out after the race was over. Had we known it was going to take so long we could have walked home and showered, ate, etc.... R ended up getting 3rd place in his age group and ran the course quite a bit faster than last year. It was the first race that he could actually compare his times since it was the same course.

By the time we got home it was lunch time and then nap time for Little man. R and I showered and then walked downtown again to hit up more of the shops. We ate lunch at a cute little pub restaurant and then got root beers at the coffee shop and played checkers. It was about 4pm when we arrived back home and we wanted to take Little man to the beach for a little while. It was a great time to go because the sun wasn't so intense and people were leaving so there were parking spots up close. Little man LOVED the beach! He's been before but it's been quite a long time. When he was a younger he didn't like the sand much but he really had a great time making sand castles and going in the lake. We headed home about 6:30 and then made dinner. R's friend was in town and so after dinner we got Little man in bed and went over to visit him and his wife.

Yesterday we got up, got ready, took Little man to the park, and then went and had lunch at our favorite pizza place. We got on the road about 12:45 and made it home about 5:30pm. We unpacked and organized stuff a bit and then went to bed. I'm still exhausted and I have exactly 3 days to recuperate before we hit the road again for another busy weekend.

Hope everyone had a nice 4th of July!!!!

Snow and Easter

We woke up to around 4 inches of snow Saturday morning so I knew Easter wasn't going to be a warm day. It ended up getting to around 40 degrees and melting most of it on Saturday but R still shoveled and Little man and I went for a sled ride in the morning. I'm glad I didn't pack the sleds away yet. To the south of us got between 6-12 inches so there was still a lot of snow on the ground at my grandparent's house. We got another light dusting of snow last night and it looks like we have snow in the forecast quite a bit this week, just light flurries, but still, is this ever going to end???

Easter was really nice. We got up around 8am. Little man found all his presents and had a blast. I ended up saving the game and some of the books from my mother in law for a later time, just because there was too much. The things I saved were all really nice gifts so I didn't want them to get unappreciated because of all the other stuff. I'll be giving those to him this week sometime. We made waffles and cut them into Easter shapes with cookie cutters for breakfast. Around 10:30 we headed to my grandparents house about an hour south of here for Easter dinner with the family. It was a really nice time, except for the fact that I dumped a whole plate of food on my clean freak grandmother's carpet. Dumb me thought I could get two plates at the same time, which I almost did successfully, until R's plate toppled off the side of the counter where I had it sitting while I scooped up my salad. It was embarrassing and since I'm hormonal of course I went upstairs and started to cry. It all turned out okay but I'm sure they'll need to get their carpet cleaned.

We got home about 7pm, which I love that it's still light! Then I cleaned the whole house so that it would be clean to start the week (aka clean for Monday morning and then messy by the afternoon) I always feel so much better when my house is clean. I was so tired, R and I went to bed around 9:30.

April 18th

That's the day of my next OB appt and Ultrasound!!!! It's at 9am in the morning so I won't have to wait the whole day anticipating the appt, although, I will have the next month to anticipate it, so that's long enough. I was hoping they would schedule my ultrasound before my next monthly OB appt so I wouldn't have to wait until I was 20 weeks along but no such luck and this makes sense anyway so it works out good because it will be all in one trip. R and Little man will be going so we can all find out the sex of the baby together :o)

Yesterday my appt went well except for the fact that I had to wait for 45 minutes to even get in to see the dr. That is usually why I never schedule late in the afternoon appts, but I had no choice. I had gained 1 pound and my BP was 112/70, which was a little high for me, but still well within normal range. Everything looked good, the baby's heart rate was 142-144. The dr had a hard time getting the number because the baby kept moving around. I got my paper to go get my AFP drawn, so that's on the agenda for today. All my tests I had last time came back normal so I was happy about that. The visit lasted about 10 minutes once I finally got in there to see the dr. Oh well it was actually time I got to just sit and relax so I cannot complain about that.

Little man and I are making Easter basket cupcakes today. R had the day off from work because he always likes to catch all the tournament games. He's getting his haircut today and then going to the dr for a check up. I can't believe it's already Easter, it's totally snuck up on me. I at least bought everything I needed for Little man's Easter basket so that's all done. R's mom sent a bunch of crap for Little man for Easter and I just get so annoyed because she asked if she could buy him something little so I suggested the Chu.tes and Lad.ders game because it's $5 at the most and he really enjoys playing games. She instead bought the game, 2 expensive books, and a crap load of little presents that he doesn't need. I'm still debating what to do because I hate crap and cheap toys around the house. I really wish she'd spend her money elsewhere instead of on crap. It's fine to get a little something and I guess I can be thankful it's not candy, but damn he's got like 15 different presents to open for EASTER, it's not even like it's his birthday. It also takes away from whatever we buy for him because we tend to be more conservative about holidays. I can see going a little over the top at Christmas and his birthday, but Easter????? Mavbe I'm totally out of line, what would you do if you were in this situation?

Thanksgiving and Microwave

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving!!! Hannah needs our prayers as her Thanksgiving was not very nice :o( We went down to my aunt's house in Ft. Wayne and had a nice time, though I think the older I get the less I enjoy traveling for the holidays. There is something to be said for just staying home and having people come to you. Hopefully on Christmas day that will be the plan. We stayed for two nights and I did get to hit up some Black Friday shopping at a mall near my aunt's house.

My handy husband put in our new above the stove microwave today!!!!!! It looks very nice and as sad as it sounds I'm very happy to have a microwave again. The people that moved out of our house decided to take the microwave with them even though it was supposed to stay!! We got a great deal on this microwave so I'm hoping that it will last a long time!!! I popped some popcorn in it earlier and it shut off part way through but I'm still figuring out how to use it so I'm hoping it was something I did, and not a problem with the microwave.

I guess this may be typical but we're finding more and more little things that are wrong with the house. For example, the garage door sensors are not where they are supposed to be, instead they are just thrown on the ceiling of the garage to be out of the way. Since our house is in a big subdivision with tons of other houses like ours the builders cut corners and half a$$ed things where ever they could. It's getting apparent now that we've been in the house for nearing a month. Another example is that there were large holes in the wall behind the hood that was over the stove. The person just kept putting holes in the wall until he got the wire where it needed to be. R had to replace the drywall to put up the microwave. I'm just praying that too many things don't start going wrong. The other thing we are having to deal with is screw ups my friend's husband made while attempting home improvement projects. He tried to put up recessed lighting in Little Man's room and totally did it wrong so he finally just gave up and left the project unfinished. R is having a fit trying to finish the project.

I'm getting really ansty to get this house in order and unpacked with things all put in their places. It's much tougher than it seems because we have such little time to totally devote to just that. I'm home with Little man all day but it doesn't leave me with too much time to get things organized. I did a lot last week when he was with my parents, but there is so much more to do. The main reason why things are taking longer than we would like it due to money. We need bookshelves, curtains, and tons of other little things. I know they will come with time but it makes it hard to complete the unpacking and organizing when things don't look complete or we don't have the things that we need. All in good time though!

Now it's almost time for Christmas decorating!!!! I bought everything that I needed to complete my festive mantle arrangement and it looks so good. One thing at a time :o)

Busy Week

So R and I had the most jam packed weekend! Saturday I had a scrapbooking get together at my best friend's house. I was so frazzled and ended up forgetting an integral box so we had to drive the 40 minutes back home and I totally made R and Little man late for tailgating, seeing the marching band, and going to the game. Well they made it just in time for the marching band and game but missed all the friends and kids at tailgate :o( Luckily, I made a good amount of money so it was worth my time. We didn't get home until 7pm and I sat up until 11pm finishing my project for my class.

Sunday we woke up early and took Little Man to my parents house and didn't end up getting home until 5pm after running some errands! R had a huge project to complete for his second job. I don't know if I've mentioned lately but he is still employed at the job he left in FL because they can't find someone to fill his place. Luckily he can do his whole job over the computer so it works out GREAT! This has been so great for us because we are getting so much debt paid off.
It doesn't allow for much extra time to get the house organized and conquer my ever so growing To-Do list.

So for the next three days I am going to bust my butt and try to get as much done as possible! There is a lot of outside work but I'm going to work on the inside today and see how far I get. The walls need washed, Little man's room needs paint touch ups, finish unpacking boxes and cleaning the stuff (it got soooo dirty in the storage unit!) and I need to do all the clerical work that goes along with a move, like changing the addresses on all my bills. I also still have one paper to write for school but the prof is so behind and hasn't even posted our last assignment yet!!!!!

Then there's Thanksgiving!!!!!!! I can't wait for dinner even though my husband is not the one cooking this year :o( This is his holiday to make the best dinner but unfortunately we had no idea we would have a house in time for Thanksgiving. We are going to Indiana to my aunt's house so hopefully that's fun! Hopefully I'll get a ton done this week and we'll have a fun 4 day break of eating :o)

Happy Halloween and an Unfortunate Event

Little man woke up rearing to go this morning! It's so cute to see him actually excited for Halloween and able to understand that holiday. This will be his first year Trick or Treating so we have been practicing so he'll know what to do. He's pretty shy around new people so I'm not sure how he'll do saying Trick or Treat to random people. We're just going to one street in town, up to my aunt and uncle's house and then to my parent's friend's house. This morning we are going to story hour at the library where he'll have a Halloween party.

On to the unfortunate event... R was rear ended on the way to work this morning. He called me about 7:10 and some little prissy student teacher intern rear ended the car in front of her, pushing that car into R. Then the prissy little girl's father had to show up which I guess was really annoying. It's his second day of work and he already was involved in an accident, WTF??? Now I'm going to be worried about him every day. Our insurance is most definitely going to go up so that's going to suck! I swear when anything good happens to us we get to enjoy it for like one day before something bad happens. This isn't the first time it's happened, it's become a pattern. We just got R's car fixed about 2 months ago from the hurricane damage he got about 2-3 years ago. We never got it fixed in FL because body shops suck down there and it's a big headache. Not to mention the 3-4 month long waits because just about every one's car had damage from the hurricane. So this is now the third time he's had to get his car fixed!!!!!! It's a 2004 so that's almost once per year!!!!!!!!!! I'm just glad he's okay and he didn't ram into the person in front of him. He's so used to traffic backups that he's a great driver on the highway. I just feel bad that he has to go through this stuff!!!!!

Little man is very picky lately and I'm having a hard time understanding what he wants. We usually let him watch a little T.V. after breakfast and he wanted to watch some of the Cars movie. He apparently needed to watch all the previews and the menu for a long time before he wanted the movie started so he was flipping out because I turned the movie on right when the menu came up. It's so frustrating sometimes. I'm a little stressed after what happened this morning and then anticipating the library. Little man doesn't do so well there because he's a little young. I usually have my mom to help me but she's having an orientation for her students this morning so she's unavailable :o( I've been talking to him a lot this morning about behaving and listening so he doesn't miss the party. This will be his last time going because we are moving so I hope it goes well!!!!!

I hope everyone has a Happy Halloween!!!! Have a great day!!!!

Life Is Moving On!

R leaves today to go down to the house! J got the people who were living there to move out early so he could get in since he starts his new job tomorrow. I won't be going down until Friday because we only have one vehicle and I can't borrow my mom's until she's done working for the week. R is going to spend the week getting the place clean and in order before I arrive and we get to work on painting and organizing. Our big move won't be until November 10th because we need a little time to notify the family members who are helping us.

Should I do anything for R's first day on the job? I know that if he were a girl I may send flowers or something but for guys, what do you do? I was going to send a card along hidden in his stuff so that he would find it tomorrow either before or during work, but I'm not sure if I should do something more? Any thoughts?

I'm going to be on my own for Little Man's third Halloween (R will be at the house). He's going to be a bear and he just loves the costume. My mother in law is a wonderful seamstress so the costumes always look professional. This will be his first year Trick or Treating. We are going to do one street of houses up town and take him up to my aunt and uncles. I think I may have to replace all his unhealthy candy with goldfish, raisins, and apples, HAHA after we get home because I know that he will want to eat it all! Next year will be nice because we'll have a subdivision neighborhood with sidewalks to go T or T in.

Hope everyone has a Happy Halloween!!!! I'll keep updating about R's new job, the house, and the move. Things are going to busy!!!!