Tag Archives: mommy

Progress on the room

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Oh look, it’s not a tweet!!!

This is the room, halfway done. You won’t be seeing pictures of the before because…

eew. eew eew eew eew eew.
because I didn’t TAKE any pictures of a fifteen-year old CARPET for pete’s sake what is WRONG with you people??!!??

But tonight, my friends…tonight I have a real treat for you.

The Artist in the Room

Joe insisted on modelling for us. But if you look to the left of the picture, you’ll notice something that looks…not quite right.

The Artist and his Handiwork

Like any responsible adult would, I left the paint can open so that last little drop could dry out and I could toss the can in the trash. And then I went to work.

How stupid of me.

What I *should* have done was toss the paint supplies in the back of the truck and let them bake six miles away from home, in the bright sunshine.

Safe from six year old boys who want to HELP YOU MOMMY! and beam up at you with pride.

Look at that face. Just LOOK at it! Isn’t that the sweetest mix of nonchalant “I know I’m busted but I’m still CUTE!!!” you’ve ever seen?

Yeah.

And then Daniel wanted to get in on the photo-taking action. He’s so THRILLED with the camera in his DSi that I’m seriously contemplating getting him a point & shoot for his next birthday.

He opened it up, got the stylus ready to hit the “capture” button….

and this happened…

The End of the Artist.

The End.

I just wanted to go out…

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The plan was for me to leave work early enough to get home and have a bite before taking the boys to the 7pm movie.

They didn’t want to go. The Spongebob Sponge Bash is coming on and WE CAN’T MISS IT MOMMY!!!

The plan became: get the boys in bed, slip out and find something to do. Cruise around the town with my camera.

My phone rang. The Teen’s car is in her friend’s driveway – dead. Please come NOW and bring the battery charger NOW and oh by the way we jumped it off before we got here. I went through the storage, looking for our charger and decided that it’d be faster to just go buy one.

On the way from the store it started raining. Heavily.

She said left when she meant right, she left a window down in the rain, she just wanted me to plug the car in NOW and go.

I popped the hood and shined my flashlight to the left. “See that shiny black wheel there?”

“Yes, Mom. It’s RAINING and COLD hurry UP and plug it in!”

“Baby, there’s supposed to be a belt around that wheel. It’s called an alternator belt. Plugging the car to the charger is going to be useless until we get a belt put on that car. If they need it moved, those boys are going to have to push it out of the way, unless you want me to call for a tow right now.”

I did say I wanted to go out…

First Grade Timeline – Part 2

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I finished going through our photo collection at about 3:30pm today. I realized a few things, as I went through seven years worth of digital photography:

  1. I need to start snapping pics again. The difference between the sheer volume of pictures from 2001 and today is startling.
  2. Saving the pictures in dated file folders isn’t really necessary anymore – the exif data provides the date taken.
  3. It’s about time I read a book or two about photography. There are entirely too many craptastic pictures on my hard drive.

Going through the first few years was difficult. Seeing the pictures of Tig was emotional, as was deciding if I should include pictures of him in the final project. (Yes, I did print pictures of him with us.)

When the boys woke up this morning they immediately glommed on and started looking at the pictures. Did they help pick any out? Of COURSE not, they were too busy saying “There’s Baby Daniel! There’s Baby Joseph! Mommy? Who IS that? (That’s you, Baby!)

There are 73 photos on my kitchen table, waiting to be sorted through (by Daniel this time), glued to the timeline, and captioned.

Maintenance creep is killing me.

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Never heard of it? I’m quite sure you’ve done it. Veeeehickle stuff that gets ignored until you can’t ignore it anymore.

New tires, but you don’t have the money so you set it aside and wait.
An oil change, but the kids are hungry and cranky when you think of it so you go home and forget about it for another month.
The brakes squeal just a bit when you tap on them – that should get looked at. Hey, the tire shop can do that! (When you get there, that is…)
There is a draggy “I don’t WANNA” that happens under the hood when you turn the key.

At this point, so many things need to be done to my van that I’m considering just trading it. Selling it. Unloading it and getting something shiny and clean and…..

then I remember that I really don’t want or need a car payment. And that if I downsize into a wagon, I’ll still have to rent a van when we all go on vacation. Not many wagons will seat 5 that I’ve seen (my four plus a friend for Alannah to hang with).

I’ve had a hard time finding something that’s big enough, that’s “me”, that I can afford. When I pulled up to the mechanic’s in my go-cart (with a V-8 engine) he looked at me and said “That car is YOU!”

and it is. Well, part of me, anyways.

But I’m not a staid sedate soccer-mommy-mobile in any way shape or form. Never have been.

And I’m stuck between paying for repairs to a vehicle I don’t love that is big enough for all of us, or paying for a new(er) one that I don’t really have the money for.

On the 11th day of Christmas my children gave to me…

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laundry and some vomit to clean….

The boys have spent the last two days on the futon mattress in the floor in front of the TV. It’s both unnerving (they’re both laying!!! and not fighting!!! OHMYGOODNESS IT’S THE SEVENTH SIGN!) and a relief (no fights to break up? SCORE!). On one hand I’d like the Dr. to confirm my suspicion that it’s a mild case of fifths disease. On the other hand, I really do NOT want to bring home whatever bugs are lurking in the doctor’s office. Therefore, the only logical thing to do is take them in if they get worse. I’m not sure if I’m glad or chagrined that this happened right at Christmas break. YAY! they won’t get behind in school. BOO I do not want to clean up puke on Christmas Day. (Assuming, of course, that he’s still puking day after tomorrow. I know, it’s highly unlikely. But it COULD happen.)

Why do I have a futon mattress on the floor in my livingroom? Funny you should ask. My Sainted Mama decided that my (comfy but so ugly that kidspills don’t make my head explode) double-reclining sofa was just.too.ugly to stay here. A family friend was clearing out their storage area and Mama fell in love with the sofa we now have. And it is a veritable nightmare, reminiscent of the old-school days when homes had a parlor full of furniture that nobody but “company” would use. The good news is the embroidered floral pattern hides spills MUCH better than my sofa did – but that’s pretty much the only good thing about it.

~~~~~~~

I found a pediatric dentist that takes our insurance AND that Daniel will open his mouth for AND that got in, got done and got out before Daniel could get to full-on freakout mode. He was pretty weirded-out when the numbing shot went in, and that just snowballed as his lip and tongue “feels WEIRD MOMMY!” I think we’re in for another 2-3 visits (one for each quadrant of the mouth) and then we’ll be on track for the normal 6-month cleanings. Now to get Joe on that treadmill…

~~~~~~~

About those goals for 2008 – Yeaaaaaah, no. Travelled to Mamaw’s house and that was it. My GPA is up slightly – sort-of. My brother came home with his family for Daddy’s funeral. There was no snowflaking. None of the other stuff “in the back of my mind” got done. And I’m done with setting myself up like that. If anything happens, TRUST ME you’ll hear about a good 25% or so of it.

~~~~~~~

Last but not least (for the moment) I leave you with: Grocery Store Schizophrenia.

Valentine cakes surrounded by Christmas cakes at the grocery store

Merry Christmas, Y’all!

Another Friday

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I’m at home with my SPD kid today. He’s getting big-kid molars and that has wreaked havoc on his digestive system. Which of course, means that he’s completely forsaken pants and needs a shower every 20-30 minutes or so.

~~~~~

My Notes From The Universe for today says:

Emily… you’re not using all of your angels. What’s up with that?
Use all of your angels. Run faster, jump higher, get more.
Call, ask, give thanks.

Dear Universe, the children and I need a place to live that’s close enough for me to keep an eye on my folks (since we know my brother isn’t going to, lawdblesshisheart). This house needs to be in the same school districts we’re already in, it needs to have a big enough yard for the kids to play in, and be far enough away from my neighbors so they don’t flip my paranoia.

Dear Universe, the children and I could most definitely appreciate the company of The Right Man in our lives. This “all mommy all the time” stuff is gettin’ old. I wouldn’t think you’d need a shopping list of criteria (I mean…you ARE teh Universe after all, right? you *know* what we need) so I’ll leave that part up to you.

Thank you oodles and skoodles!

~~~~~

I think I’ve finally hit my stride in school. Classes are going well, I’ve changed my work schedule to better allow me to do homework. (Oh, and Universe? if Teh Right Man is doing well enough for me to quit my job and concentrate JUST on kids and school that would be fanfreakin’tastic.) Digging myself out from under the massive pile of clean laundry waiting to be folded might just take a while though.

~~~~~

Okay, time to get back to work. Y’all have a good day and love each other.

Abundant Spending: A few days later…

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I did indeed fall behind in my 30-days of abundance spending. Work and the story I’m working on have been distracting me. But never fear! Today I get to spend $102,400 – and I’m going to invest in a friend with that money.

Infamous Leaning Cake
My friend owns a defunct bakery, and wants to get it going again. That money can go toward the upgrades necessary to bring the bakery up to current code, as well as give her the ability to quit her day job and concentrate on the bakery full time. Her advertising costs would be minimal – people still contact her for her baked goods. And let’s not forget the cost of restocking ingredients.
Creative Commons License photo credit: chellyc

I’m participating in The Millionaire Mommy Next Door’s abundant life spending spree

Twenty Five Thousand Dollars

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Oh how to spend today’s $25,600? I’ve debated and written and deleted several things. And we can’t forget the constant interruptions of The Progeny as I try to write. Today’s method of attention grabbing is to take a flying leap, landing across my chest (because they know landing on the laptop will land them In Trouble). But I ultimately decided that Holly needs a new car. She’s getting a Honda Civic Hybrid (MSRP $22,600), title/taxes/tags, and a tank or three of gasoline with the remainder.

Holly has family in Texas, Utah, Nevada, and Oklahoma, and friends across the US (and like me, does not LOVE to fly. We get on planes with a grudging cranky acceptance that it’s the best way to get from point A to point B at that particular time). Having a hybrid car will significantly ease the cost of taking said trips.

I’m participating in The Millionaire Mommy Next Door’s abundant life spending spree

The Abundance Concept, personalized

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When I first read MMND’s post about abundance I felt a ring of WOOHOO! through my soul. The original post had her spending a dollar amount (that multiplies exponentially until by day 30 we’re spending 50 *billion*) and combining her spree with gratitude for three things.

And then she kicked it up a notch by adding in a third element a few days later: how she could generate that amount of money in order to make her “wished for” thing happen.

My jaw dropped.

The first thing that came to mind was the message boards that I no longer participate in; the ones where oneupmanship was de rigeur. A mama would post that she’d given birth in a hospital without drugs; another piped up that she’d delivered in the ER; #3 birthed in the parking lot…all the way down to the ultimate Hippier-Than-Thou mama who squatted down in the backyard and delivered, then went back to hanging up the laundry before chopping firewood for her cookstove.

Then I thought of Y’s post about seeking her own relationship with God – where she says

I need to know that there is a higher purpose in life because there are days where I think “Is this all there is?”

The whole point of the exercise is to enjoy the abundance of the universe, why in the world would you want to limit that abundance by adding a “ways I can make it happen” element?

For me, that isn’t an option. In order to receive my abundance, the “I” has to be removed. Otherwise you’ll find me curled up in a chair sucking my thumb and saying “can’t do that. can’t.”

And now, without further ado, my $12,800 will be spent on a new car and insurance for my daughter.

I’m participating in The Millionaire Mommy Next Door’s abundant life spending spree

Abundance on my Birthday!

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Today I get to spend $6400! That’s a whole set of new appliances, my lovelies.

Kenmore front load washer (king size capacity plus) $1599
Kenmore king capacity dryer $630
Whirlpool 24 in. Built-In Dishwasher $400
26 cu ft. Fridge – $2650
Convection Microwave – $550
Dyson Vacuum (All Floors)- $500

And delivery charges would probably eat up the remaining $71, don’t you think?

I’m participating in The Millionaire Mommy Next Door’s abundant life spending spree