Living Paycheck to paycheck

Okay, I am really getting tired of living from paycheck to paycheck. We Finally get a decent tax return and BAM its gone cause we have to pay car taxes and house taxes and re-register the truck! URGH!!!!!! Thats right we used our TAX RETURN to PAY MORE TAXES!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hey, didn't our forefathers come to this country to avoid taxation???? I know, I know it was taxation without representation, but isn't the whole point of having representation so that our representatives vote for what is best for their constituants???? I know I don't like taxes, especially when I see my tax dollars being wasted! I don't mind paying taxes if it goes to EDUCATION, POLICE PROTECTION, and FIRE PROTECTION, not so these well to-doer politicians can get richer......Hey can I throw tax return booklets into the ocean in protest??????Who's with me on this one????

Sorry no posting about the kids today...they played outside and enjoyed another beautiful spring day!!!

Survived Grocery Shopping!

Wound up taking all three boys with me to the grocery store and survived! Stuck to my list.....(no cookies!)....and managed not to lose any of the kids....and also didn't pull out any of my hair! LOL Although it was an experience that I don't know wether I want to continuously repeat on a regular basis. Bubba kept trying to grab and eat the grocery list...Picasso kept jumping from square to square through the isles.....and Buddy just wanted to hurry up and get done. But I didn't blame him because about an hour before we were going to go to the store he crashed on his bike and the handle bar scraped his chest pretty good. I told him, " Geez Buddy, you flip in your race car and you don't get a scratch, but you ride your bike and you get hurt." It definately reafirms my belief that he IS safer in his racecar with all of his safety equipment than he is on his bike! I called dear hubby before going to the store and he met us there to check him out and make sure Buddy was okay. ( Dear hubby is an EMT/Firefighter and met us in the Firetruck) He said he would be sore naturally, but otherwise he was okay.

Fresh air and Dinosaur Eggs!

Didn't get to post yesterday, just didn't have time to sit down and write. Bubba had is six month check up yesterday so by the time I got Buddy and Picasso on the bus for school and walked back to the house, I had to get Bubba ready to go. He is 18 and 1/2 pounds, 26 1/2 inches long, and according to the Dr. doing great developmentally! He got two shots( Oh how it breaks my heart to see him cry in pain!). He is such a good natured baby, he hardly crys, at least not the wailing kind of cry that can drive parents crazy! His cry is more of a low pitch whine.....and most of the time you can get him to stop instantly and get him giggling just by playing with him. He has slept better the last two nights( Thank GOD!, I was starting to get REAL CRANKY from lack of sleep and I hate being cranky!) Tuesday night we decided to have Bubba sleep in the living room in the pack n play. This worked out real well, no slats to get his little legs caught in the middle of the night. He in fact stayed basically in the same position most of the night...which rarely happens in his crib. He fussed a couple times because his pacifier had fallen out and he couldn't find it, but other than that he slept well. Then last night we put him in his crib.....He fussed for his pacifier...BUT he didn't wake up to play, so he slept fairly well again! ( Could be because his little legs still are sore from the shots.) Hopefully he will continue down the road to sweet slumbering.

Buddy and Picasso had a half day from school yesterday. They got home and did their homework outside since it was beautiful outside! I can't see making them sit inside and do their homework when they can do it in the fresh air. Afterwards, they went across the street with their friends and worked on their KIDS PARK. It is a little patch of woods in the neighbors yard that they have cleared for bike trails and just hanging out! Even one of the girls got her digital camera out took some pictures and made a cute brochure about it! She is so creative!

We had to eat dinner early because I had to take Buddy to his baseball practice at 4:30. So Bubba, Picasso, and I sat and watched Buddy practice. Picasso found a dinosaur egg! ( Really a rock, but he has such an imagination!) And of course where there is dirt Picasso will find it to play in....in this case roll in...down a hill.....with his good jacket on! I was cringing watching him, but I also remember what fun I used to have rolling down hills! Bubba learned to throw by watching the baseball players....he kept throwing his rattle for Picasso to pick up....until Picasso refused to play anymore! He was too busy finding Dinosaur eggs!

Busy day...but lots of fun!

Bubba Has decided Not to sleep!

Okay...I understand most parents are sleep deprived.This is nothing new to me, but the last few weeks have been worse than anything I have experienced in the past. Not just because Bubba has decided he doesn't need to sleep and will practice his pre crawling skills during the wee hours of the night, But because I am having a hard time sleeping myself. I can't fall asleep right away despite feeling exhausted and when I do fall asleep....I wake up every hour or so. I have been having weird dreams when I do dream and when I wake up in the morning I don't feel like I have gotten nearly enough sleep. Like I said sleep deprivation is nothing new, but now I just feel tired all the time and when I do get some sleep it doesn't seem like enough. Bubba is just not helping my situation with his nightly escapades. I try to ignore him as much as possible and see if he will fall back to sleep on his own, without me having to get out of bed and give him his pacifier ( which he has started to throw out of his crib in the middle of the night), but since I took the bumper out of his crib and he is trying to crawl and such , he keeps getting his legs caught between the crib bars! So I help him out of his predicament, give him his pacifier, roll him onto his back and put his blanket on him and he eventually falls back to sleep only to wake a little while longer and repeat the whole process! Buddy and Picasso never did this ( they had their own sleep problems) so I am having a hard time trying to figure out a solution to help him learn that his crib is for sleeping in not playing in. He has no toys in there, so I don't know why he thinks it is okay to play in there. If anyone out there in cyberspace knows a solution that I could try, I would be eternally grateful!

Everything in the Mouth!!

Bubba (youngest dear son) is six months old today!!!! He is almost crawling...he can get on his hands and knees and rock back and forth....so any day now I expect him to be chasing the dog.
He is teething so much also , EVERYTHING that goes near his mouth gets put in his mouth! Even the DOG! I am always yelling at the dog not to lick Bubba, but now I have to keep telling him not to bite the DOG( or in his case right now GUM her because he has no teeth!) He grabs her and pulls her near him and tries to put his mouth on her. This morning he got her ear. She is an awesome dog though, she doesn't growl at him or anything....she just tries to lick him back! Buddy(oldest dear son) and Picasso(Middle dear son) both thought it hilarious this morning that Bubba tried to eat the dog!

Funny things kids do and say!

Yesterday was full of funny happenings at my house. I had gone grocery shopping on Friday, so the refrigerator and cabinets were full. I had carefully made my grocery list before I went( To stick to my budgeted amount for food.) And dear hubby had added Cookies to the list, which I got. When eldest dear son got home from school and saw the cookies he asked why I got cookies. Because your dad wanted them. He took a cookie and went out to play.

Well...dear hubby had been working in the garage on eldest dear sons race car(yes my 10yr old races!) and came in looking for a snack.


Dear hubby " Is there any ice cream?"
Me " No, I didn't get any, but I did get cookies for you because you added them to the grocery list."
Dear hubby " I didn't add anything to the grocery list?"
Me " Yes you did it was your handwriting!"
Dear hubby "I didn't add anything to the list, let me see the list."
Me " It is in my purse."
Dear hubby finds the list and starts laughing immediately.
Dear hubby " look carefully at the word cookies"
Me " that little stinker!'

It wasn't dear hubby who added it to the list it was eldest dear son, the giveaway was the spelling "cookeis", which I hadn't looked at carefully before because I was busy shopping! When eldest dear son was asked he started laughing! He said it was funny that dad got blamed for wanting the cookies! It was pretty comical! Note To Self, Need to start hiding the grocery list.

Later in the evening we had our two nephews over, the four boys had fun playing together. When dinnertime rolled around we gave them each their portions and they started to eat. We gave them all a cup of milk also. Middle dear son chugged his glass of milk and asked for more, before touching any food on his plate. Dear hubby, who was trying to help with the older four boys while I fed youngest dear son his dinner, gave him more milk without requiring him to eat a little first. Can't blame him though it was very chaotic, this one wanted more chicken, that one wanted more corn, another wanted more chicken and broccoli. Well, everyone else had finished and youngest dear son said he was full. I looked at his plate and he might have taken two bites of his cheese macaroni.

Me " you need to eat more of your dinner."
Middle dear son " I am full."
Me " That is because you drank all your milk first and didn't eat anything off your plate."
Middle dear son " I AM FULL."
Me " That is fine, but in ten minutes when you decide your hungry your not getting dessert or a snack."
Middle dear son " your not the boss of me GOD is, I don't have to listen to you, only GOD."
Me " Honor thy mother and thy father, it is one of the ten commandments! Which is gods law, so yes you do have to listen to me! You can look it up in the bible if you'd like."
Middle dear son " Do I have to eat ALL of it?"
Me " Just a couple bites of your chicken and a couple bites of your veggies."
Middle dear son " Okay"

This exchange reminded me of when I was pregnant with middle dear son and had just come home from grocery shopping with eldest dear son( Who was 3 at the time). I was due any day, dear hubby was at a firefighter memorial service. While I was putting away groceries from the car into the house, eldest dear son was playing out front in the flower bed. Well, I got into the kitchen and my sciatic nerve acted up, my leg went out from under me. There I was in pain sitting on the kitchen floor, not being able to get up.

Me " Buddy, please come in the house."
Eldest dear son " I playing mommy."
Me " I know but I need you to come inside now, mommy is hurt and mommy can't watch you play outside, please come in so mommy knows your safe."
Eldest dear son " Don't worry mommy GOD will watch me play."

What was I supposed to say to that? We teach our children to trust in GOD and when they show you that they do have that faith what do you do?

That day was definately a lesson in faith for me. I sat on the kitchen floor crying, called my mom to come help me. And finally Buddy came in from outside when he was done playing and helped me get into the recliner and take my shoes off.

Sunny Saturday morning!

Well...dear sons came home last night....they weren't home five minutes and the bickering and fighting started!! Told them to go to bed...fighting continued....both wound up upset....blaming the other for them getting in trouble. Eldest son wound up crying to me and dear hubby " You don't know what it is like sharing a room with him!" Dear hubby replied " actually I do, bud, I shared a room with both my brothers, the room you sleep in at Grandmas. That room is much smaller than yours and there was three of us in there." Eldest son went to bed without another word. Wish we could afford a bigger house, but alas, right now we can't. It is hard for the two older ones sharing a room they are four years apart in age. Wasn't a problem until Eldest dear son started with the pre-teen stuff. Now having a 10 yr old and 6 year old in the same room seems like is going to cause world war three! While youngest dear son goes about drooling and giggling all the time. He shares our room. Not so great for the romance department, but right now, no other alternative. Can't see throwing him into the lions den with the other two. Right now there is peace in my world agian. Dear hubby and eldest dear son are at baseball practice while, middle dear son is home with me drawing, one of his favorite pastimes! Youngest dear son is cooing and drooling in his exersaucer. And I get a few moments to put my thoughts down.

Frustration is leading to a little bit of depression in the job searching department. Putting out resumes everyweek with no positive results. I don't want to get just a job, I want to start my career so when youngest dear son is in school, I will already be established. Still toying with the idea of writing a book.....that is what my ambition was when I was a senior in high school.....don't know how that got lost along the way. Maybe this blogging will help get those creative juices flowing again. I used to write faithfully in a diary when I was younger...I guess I missed that. This is so much different though...my private thoughts are public....at least my identity is private. And with a diary it can't talk back... with this people can comment on what I say....Strange, but interesting!

LOL, Middle dear son is playing a kind of peek a boo game with youngest dear son. It is soooo cute......!

Can't wait for the warmer weather so I can do some gardening. I want to plant some new flowers out front, but have to wait until we scrape and paint the windows and outside trim first. So much to do, so little money to do it with! well I guess that is enough rambling for now.....

Peace and Quiet......For now.

I am enjoying some peace and quiet while eldest dear son and middle dear son are visiting at their cousins. Youngest dear son is sleeping and dear hubby is bowling. So tonight the testosterone is not pulsing through my house. I love my boys, but sometimes I long for some girl time.

Eldest dear son is heading into the tweens and OH BOY, he is noticing girls and the skantily clad women on TV and in other media sources everywhere. I know how I felt going through these years as a young girl, but how can I relate my experiences to fit into a young boys perspective? I am dreading the fateful "Talk". I know we need to have it sooner than later. I do not want to become a Grandma before I am forty!!!! Which technically could happen and is really scary! I thought only women and girls got PMS? Oh, sometimes his mood swings lately!!! He can be really sweet one moment and then the next give such an attitude!! And he has started that all too familiar I love you mom and dad but don't make me say it in public or around my friends!!He even called from school the other day, he forgot his homework. When dear hubby said "love ya bud" he didn't want to say love ya back! At least I still get cuddles from Middle dear son and "I love you mommy". Oh, but his time will come too..........all too soon.

Well...there goes peace and quiet Youngest dear son has awoken!The sweetness of babies!He is reaching for the keyboard to add his two cents. must go for now before he touches the wrong key and I lose everything.......