I am so tired. I really need to invest in TiVo. I am a big prime time TV addict. The Olympics are done so my shows are back. Monday is Medium. Of course it ends at 11pm. I am going to call the cable company today and see how much it is extra. After watching Oprah's debt thing, I have decided to clear our unnessesary bills. This is my financial goal for 2006: get rid of ALL of our credit cards. Mind you we only have 3. Target:600 Visa:500 Military Star:3,000The Visa I want to keep. This is our emergency card. You know what is sad? It only has like 60 available. Nice emergency card. Target on the other hand.....We have a lot on it but it is ridiculous to keep it. I can get anything there I want with cash. The Military Star is our biggest card and most expensive. We get uniforms with it plus furniture. We pay up to $120 a month for this, depending on our balance. 80 comes right out of our pay. For this one, we can buy uniforms our of pocket. He has all of his really expensive ones so just new pants, hats, etc here and there. Furniture wise, we are about done. This one will take a while.Wow, now that I have said them outloud, it isn't as pretty as I thought. It isn't bad as some though. The one thing I don't get is claiming bankruptcy. We know a few people that have. How do you get so out of wack that you have to do this? Shoot, half of the people that do this jump right back into the debt game! You see it on the news all the time. My SIL's inlaws have done it more than once. Come on people!! Become financially liable for what you spend and do! Come on! You budget and stick to it. We have gotten behind many times. Dang, we are military, hello! You do what you have to do. I looked at one of his LES (paystub) from the month I had my oldest....wow, we were getting paid like $400 a month....at least our housing was paid for. We have gotten behind on our house and car but you pinch and get it done. Shoot, and we wonder why half the country is in debt. People are selfish and don't think of the future. Think about it, about yourself: how are you going to support your child(ren)? How will you be able to pay for clothes,especially when they get to jr high and high school, when it matters what you wear? (it really doesn't matter but it does to them) Bigger question: How will you put them through college? How will you live when you are too old to work? Before you buy that purse you want or pop our another child, think of how you will live beyond now and how will you REALLY support that child? Sorry, I am just a bit irritated this morning. LOL Nonresponsible parents drive me nuts!! Ooh, that reminds me....my son is so loving being the bat boy for the AAU team my husband is and pitching coach for. He wasn't ready for tee ball. Plus, tee ball screws up your hitting. He runs with them, gets all the foul balls and even gets to work the field to get some experience. He helps load up the equipment and stuff. I get he grows a foot after this season!!I have to go in tomorrow and sign Lizzie up for more riding lessons and Emily signed up for ice skating lessons. Lessons, lessons, lessons......you know though, they love them. They beg me for them. I wish when I was little was able to do some of this stuff. I am so happy that we can provide it for them.
I have been doing pretty good on my food portions. Yes, I actually have!! Yeah for me!! LOL No seriously....I have done very well! I have lost 2 pounds this week so far because of it. I just need to up my water and start back with working out. I am very excited to finally get my membership to the fitness center. I cannot wait! Every morning, minus sickness, my buddy and I will go there after our kids are off to school. On nice warm mornings, I can park at her house and we can walk the trails on base. The trail runs right outside her backdoor. Very convenient! Well, Liz is sick. I think she has strep throat. ~sigh~ She missed her riding lessons today. You know that she has to be sick not to want to ride a horse! If she is not better in the morning, (if it isn't strep) I will bring her in. Poor kid. WELL>>>>>>off to bed!
Yes, this will be a long, hard post. First off, I actually like the person I am going to vent about. I don't think she is doing it intentionally, but with some of the people I have dealt with in the past, who knows. Our Leader: Yes, she is working hard. I do agree. She is not asking for help! One of the things you learn at your leader training is to delegate. She doesn't AT ALL. I have been a leader before. She should USE ME. I have been a cookie mom and know how to do it. She should ask for my help. Our other co leader has offered her help, multiple times. So have I. The last event we did was so thrown together last minute because she didn't plan properly BECAUSE she was loaded with cookies and didn't ask for help! We lost a girl because of her poor planning. She could have asked me to do it. If I said anything, she would say,"Well, you didn't go!" I didn't go because I didn't even know if we were doing it. I waited until the last week to make plans during the day. I made them Monday. She made plans on Tuesday and it was that Saturday. If she would have said something, I would have made plans to go. Shoot, I was on the committee! I wasn't going to go if the troop didn't go. Then she had them make these friendship bracelets that took too long to make and had nothing to do with our country. She stayed up till all hours when I know another mom said she would help. From an outsiders perspective, it looks like she does it to say,"whoa is me, I have all this work to do. I did it all alone. Please give me credit for everything." She also refers to it as "her" troop. Yes, she is the leader, the 01, the chief but it is OUR troop. Hers, mine and mainly THE GIRLS. I am not a glory hound so I let her do that. She knocks down EVERY idea I have, good or bad. I swear she joined one just to knock down my really good idea and then she quit! She is on the committee for one and has made no effort to get the girls together on it. I made the idea of going to a ball game that the girls voted to do but she totally blew it off because it is in May. The one that really pushed me over was when we started talking about camp. I am camp cerified. I have gone camping numerous times with my family. I know camping! I suggested we have the girls wash dishes and LEARN how to camp. She wants to waste resources and use paper because it cost too much for everything they need as it is. We bought cheap, plastic walmart plates, bowls and cups for their mess kits for our first troop camp. Cheap and they learned how to do it. We would cook like I was trained to do. She asked if I had ever been camping. DUH! I am trained! I am just not going to go if it comes down to it. She can use the other co leader whom I think is camp trained. I don't understand why she has to be so negative towards me and my ideas. I want to teach the girls and experience everything with them but she just brings it all down. She has lost one girl because if it and is in the process of losing two more. The newest is our other co leader is done with her stressing. We would plan something for the girls, mind you she worked HARD on getting this together and our leader changed it and burned our time on nothing. The juniors are out of control and get the Brownies riled up and loud. She finally came up with patrols but doesn't follow through with them. Well, our other co leader is having health issues due to stress from all of this and wants to Juliette out. Our leader went and cornered her and her daughter. She put the little girl on the spot and the girl said what the leader wanted her to. She made them both cry and twisted what she said and put words into her mouth. ~sigh~ Our leader will be leaving us this summer and I don't want to lose this parent. With her, our other helper is gone. She was already nasty with our helper about snacks. SNACKS! Come on, why be so petty? OIY VE! What kills me is she was doing a fabulous job earier on! She did great until December. Honestly, she did a fab job! She went home like the day after an event, totally avoided another cheap event the girls were all pumped to do and it snow balled from there. I know that if I bring it up, I will be the evil one. I just want things to finish up and do well. I still think she bit off more than she can chew. I am hungry!! Feed me with something to do! Ok, I feel much better!!! I think I can talk with her without being too harsh. What will end up happening is her making me feel bad or talking me in circles. She is a great manipulator! She should become a car salesman!! ;) Like I said, I really dig her. She is a great person! I just don't know how tell her she is overloaded and I can help.
Yes, we have many sick people in our house. I was Miss Crabby last night. I finally threw in the towel and went to bed at 8. Emma ended up in bed with us at around 12 am. At 3 am, I woke up to her shivering to death. Here she was running a fever. I went down and got the motrin and got the cough meds. On my way down, Emily was coughing up a lung so I gave her meds and then Emma. Emma fought a little so I brought her into my bathroom. She ended up vomiting a little bit of mucus up, took the meds and ended up back to sleep with me. I was in and out of sleep from then on. Oy, I am tired! Ooh!!!! I am going to go make myself a iced caramel mocciatto...MMMMmmmm......
Yes, it was long. Emily and I were very busy with cookie booths. Saturday, we did one in the morning from 10 am til about 1. We came home, had pizza and hung out with her auntie. Then, we came back and did one from 3:30 until 7. It was warm in the morning one, rain spit on us a little but not too bad. It got a bit cold in the evening one. On Sunday, we did the early booth, 9:45 til 1:30. It was COLD......COLD.......COLD Did I mention it was cold? We also did our booth with a 1st grader. She had really mad Emily mad. The other two booths were done the same way; there are two large sidewalks that come up to the Exchange, the store we were working. One girl did one side while the other covered the opposite. Well, this little girl would come and take over Em's side or ask customers twice, even when there were sometimes people on the other side. Plus, she was trying to sit on me and kept poking at me. I am already PMSing but that made it very hard for me to keep my cool. Plus, I had to remember that this is her first time and she is very young. It was an awfully long booth for someone so young to do. It was not her fault at all. After all the freezing at our booth, Lizzie had riding lessons. That went well. It was a little cold out there but not quite as bad as that darn booth! I actually got a little sunburn on my forehead! LOL Her lessons went over very well. She giggles the whole time she is on her horse. I am going to sign her up this week for the next session. It will be early mornings for the next one and her little buddy will not be there, but she still wants to keep on it. It will give me time to just sit childless and read. I will have to look on line for some riding gloves. Ones that don't restrict her grip on the reins. Today, I woke up without a voice. Do you realize how hard it is for me not to talk or sing? Lord, I even woke up at 9 am. I dreamt about Harry Connick Jr. I had a crush on him back in Junior high and high school, before he was in the movies. I loved his music....Lordy he is hot.... ;) Anyway, we went shopping today. We spent almost $100 on Bath and Body Works stuff, got some stuff at Target and bought us a new Dyson vaccuum. I can actually vaccuum my stairs now! My dh insisted that we get it because that new construction carpet is what is getting us sick. ~sigh~ We will see if this helps. Well, I have a lot to do this week. I have to order my kids' videos from their last two dance recitals in VA, sign Michael up for Teeball, sign Emily up for ice skating and a whole list of other things. I also need to get down to Lowes for some sand paper and brush for my shelf that I want to get done next weekend. I still need to plan out our meeting for tomorrow.....Tuesday.....I better go to bed though. I really love this journal. It is such a great way for me to unwind and get things out of my head.See ya tomorrow Blog!
Yes, I will not be on this weekend. We have three cookie booths; two tomorrow and one on Sunday. Lizzie has riding lessons on Sunday as well. I have a new project! I have an ugly shelf that I have had since high school. I really need it for my room but this thing is just UGLY!! I plan to lightly sand it, just to get some texture. I plan on painting it sage green with the same paint I did my livingroom. It will fit my beach cottage theme in my room. I will show before and after pics when it is all done. Off to clean and finish laundry! My sil is coming tomorrow while we are gone. See Ya!
Yup, this will be a pretty dumb post. I was working at my computer two days ago, Tuesday, and the monitor went dead. I checked everything, so I thought. I didn't get too bent out of shape because I knew we actually have backup money. Well, yesterday we went and bought a beautiful flat screen. We spent a little over $300 on it before rebates. I went to take out the old monitor and noticed that it was unplugged from the back. DUH! I had been checking the wrong cord~! I was so used to our old monitor that I was checking the wrong cord!! Well, we decided to keep the nice monitor and look into buying Elizabeth a cheapy tower. Something good enough to play her cheezy games and to get on line. There are cable hookups in every bedroom upstairs so that is good. Even so, we have a wireless modem thing we haven't even set up yet.
One of the reasons we have considered giving Lizzie a computer was how well she did on her science project. Her project was do bigger seeds produce bigger plants? She jumped right in! We helped her quite a bit, especially when we helped her poster board but it all came down to her. She aced the oral report and got a 100% overall!!!! WooHoo!!! She did 90% of the work, especially the planting part. Even after her cat and baby sister got into her plants, she still managed to keep them growing. I am going to start working with Michael on her letters and start him off on reading. I have a great reading program that is similar to hooked on phonics. I have not really used it so I figure why not Beefy? Next year he is off to kinder and Emma might be off to daycare. She is bored out of her mind here with me. Plus, I would love to go back to work. I know I have brought this up before but I really have been considering this heavily. We will see!! Also, I am bringing my computer time down. I was spending way too much time on just puttering about playing games and ignoring my home. I have enjoyed many updates on a few of my favorite sites at least!! Glad to be back on!
This weekend was very crazy! Saturday was very eventful. Our troop picked up over 2200 boxes of cookies, in the rain. We brought them over to Latisha's house. I have been eating Girl Scout cookies ever since!! Michael insisted on delivering all of our cookies that same day with his power wheels Gravedigger. He had a box next to him in the seat and one in the trunk. I'll have to admit it made it that much easier! Boy though, I have gained a pound over all the eating I have done! We had fast food all weekend PLUS all the GS cookies. I think I have binged enough and have it out of my system. Right! LOL
Lizzie had her first riding lessons yesterday!!!!!! Oh, my gosh they went so well! My dd clams up when it comes to doing anything. I was so worried when her buddy Sunny got paired with another girl. I didn't think she would do as well. Lordy, I underestimated her!! Just as I was voicing my worries to Sunny's parents, Lizzie was coming out of the barn carrying her saddle. She went right over and did what her adult supervisor. She did everything that was asked of her PLUS she had a grin on her face the entire time!!!! I am so tickled that she has found her calling. I knew that she had something in her that she would want to do and do well at. Horses are it!!! Thank God the price is right. $60 for 4 lessons at an hour and a half a pop is very good. The only bad part is the 45 min drive out there. It is a nice country drive....just long. It is so worth it!
I am sick. Yup! LOL I have a UTI and I have a stomach bug that keeps you living in the bathroom. At least I am not throwing up! We are having people over for Texas hold 'em so I have to go clean, go to the bathroom, clean, go to the bathroom.....LOL ah, yeah, you get the picture. Pepto, here I come!!
Why does bad crap have to happen to people? This is what's up. There is a new family on base. They have been here for three weeks. Their daughter is acually in my oldest girl's class. Their house caught on fire Sunday evening, two minutes before they even left the house!! They didn't know it was on fire until they had crossed the street to the neighbors and turned around. The sad part:their dog ran inside scared and died, they lost everything and their car melted on the carport. People have been donating things to them and our PTO is donating $1000. How sad..... Another bad crap thing....I have another UTI. Damn, I just can't NOT get one...I know it is because I don't drink enough water. I went almost the whole weekend without drinking any. Well, shoot! We were busy! We actually have a life and don't just sit around the house doing nothing. Hopefully, I will get in soon. I have Lizzie home "sick" today.(She was ill last night so I am letting her say home to rest and work on her Science project)I can't take all these kids in with me. Ooh, I also have a new weightloss journal!! I'll post more later!
Yes, it was such a great weekend!! We took the kids up to Columbia to Monster Jams. We bought the tickets back in November and spent quite a bit on them. We were in row THREE dead center!! Yes, how red neck of us! LOL I have been watching monster trucks since I was in junior high. Shoot, the first time I saw Grave Digger was back in like '89 or '90. Now he THE monster truck! We have great photos, especially of my little 'red neck' boy. At the end, Grave Digger flipped and the driver (not Dennis Anderson) was waving to the crowd. Mike lifted Michael up, Michael gave him a thumbs up and he gave it right back to him! LOL He is still tickled about it!! Emma was a bit if a pain but she enjoyed herself. She kept on trying to take off her headphones. Mike went to a Super Bowl party yesterday. I was NOT going. I knew there would be multiple smokers all smoking in ther house. I knew I would be sicker than a dog and super irritated. We did get the FROG cleaned up and organized. Once you organize the kids' rooms really well, they usually stay pretty clean. I still need to go and get Emma her Dora toy box. They had it at ToysRus when I went shopping the other day but the only box they had was damaged.Ok. Mama's time to vent.I took the car in to the dealer today. One of my fog lamps was not working. They just wanted to make sure it wasn't a warranty thing, and I would rather bring it to them anyway. We were there for TWO HOURS. Two hours for one little light! It would not have been that bad if Emma wasn't a pain. Michael even got annoying. The big screen had boring stuff he didn't want to watch. Then on top of it, there was a man who brought in his dog....Emma wanted to mess with her the whole time! At least they had great overstuffed leather couches in there. Ooh, they were comfy!! Once the kids are older, I want a nice leather set like this one. Oh! Michael got to see an $84,000 Dodge Viper in the show room. Shoot, we paid less for our starter home! Things have been going really well lately. I am still waiting for the other shoe to drop. Is that too negative? I guess I am just so used to having it bad. The only thing that is crazy is my Emma. My Emma keeps me going. I really think she is bored! I really think I am going to put her in half day next year. There is a program on base that is only $70 a month. If I could find something closer to the house, that would be awesome. At least we live within our means. I know so many people that cannot say the same! They try to keep up with the Joneses and sink themselves deeper. Selfish bastards..... muuaaa hahaha!!!!!
Yes, tonight we bought our very first bed in our almost 11 years of marriage!! It gets delivered next Friday. WOO HOO!! It is a gorgeous canopy style dark wood bed. It is the Cindy Crawford Malibu style bed from Rooms To Go. We also bought a nightstand for me. This fall we might go ahead and get the armoire, depending on if we decide to get another TV. Or for more storage. We did not get the dresser. We went with California closet systems for ourselves. We each have our own closets so we had plenty of room in there. It leaves us more room in our bedroom.Now once I get it in our room, I can decide on what colors to paint. I want to go with a beachside cottage theme, carrying into our master bath. I would like a vibrant blue in our room and a skyish type blue in the bathroom, painting our privacy dividing wall the same color of our room.Now I need to find a buffet/hutch for my kitchen. We looked there but found nothing we like. This will be a hard find....We have found an island to build in our kitchen at Lowes. It has a small bar on one end that will fit two stools on one side. I want to hang a gourmet pot holder over it. That will take us all Spring to get done. The one thing that we have got rolling is our privacy fence. Mike has talked to a parent on his baseball team. We have to choose the style and wood here in the next week. Now that the grass is almost laid in the house behind us, we can get it going! I wonder who will buy the homes built behind ours? Well, I am off to bed! Busy day tomorrow. Then off to Monster Jam this weekend!! :)
