Snow Day

It looks like we will be having a white Christmas this year. I have no clue how much snow we actually got yesterday, but it was a lot. School started out 2 hours late, but by 8 am, it was cancelled for the day. The school kids seemed to be a tad bit more excited about that than I was! It didn't take them long to feel the need to go outside. I don't mind them going out to play, but it is sure a lot of work getting them ready!


Once they were out, though, they had a blast.




I do have some requirements, though. You must have a hat, mittens, boots, snow pants & coat. And you must be over the age of 3 (or the age of 5 if Tyler is not out there, too). So, the babies had to watch the action from inside.



There is one very good thing about school being cancelled.... Tyler was willing to shovel the snow left by the snow plow at the bottom of the driveway for a mere $10.00. Let me tell you, it was totally worth every penny! Do you know how heavy that snow can be? (Okay, so maybe I don't know exactly how heavy it was, since I don't remember the last time I've had to shovel a driveway, but it sure looked heavy by the way he was shoveling and how long it took him!) All I had to do was shovel the sidewalk that had pretty light, fluffy snow and my back is hurting today!

17 days?!?!

I am usually one of those irritating people who is completely done with their Christmas shopping BEFORE Black Friday. I would maybe have a couple of stocking stuffers to get, or be waiting for some things to arrive in the mail, but basically done, and on a really good year, I would even have it all wrapped. Not only that, but I would also usually have all birthday gifts through April done, as well. (And if you know my family, that is no small feat… there are 5 birthday's in January alone!) By now, my Christmas letter would have been done, addressed, & mailed, along with pictures.

This year…not so much. I do have the paper purchased to print my letter on, but the letter itself isn't even started. The annual family picture in front of the tree?? Nope, not done. And as for the gifts? HELP! I usually have a very organized spreadsheet, showing what I am giving everybody, if it is purchased yet, if it has arrived yet, and even if it is wrapped. And I would, of course, have it all in separate boxes depending on where it had to go.

At this point, nothing is done. I have some toys out in the shed, but they are pretty much all for the little kids, and I really have no idea who's getting what. I thought I had Cameron's big gift done…the Peanut doll from Jeff Dunham. Until I started thinking it should have arrived by now. So I went to my email to check the confirmation for a shipping date. No confirmation. So then I went to check the credit card statement to see when it was charged… no charge. I clearly remember going to the website, ordering it, and getting out my credit card, but since they are now sold out, that doesn't do me much good. There are some on Ebay, but they are going for over three times as much!

I at least know what we're getting for Tyler's main gift, but we were waiting to see what kind of discount we'll get through Chris' new job. And poor Baylee. Since she is only a year, I haven't really paid much attention on what to get her, and so I'm not so sure that I have anything for her yet!

What have I been doing with all of my time? Besides making breakfast & doing the dishes, and changing diapers and making lunch & doing the dishes & changing diapers, and making Tyler or Cameron make dinner for us & doing the dishes & changing diapers. Oh, and I suppose you could throw laundry in there, somewhere too. I have been getting things washed; it's that whole putting it away part that been tough to get done.

So, maybe someday you'll get our Christmas card. Or maybe it'll be a Happy New Year's card instead??

More Changes

Well, a couple of months ago, I announced that Chris & I both changed jobs. Unfortunately, his job change didn't go so well. Long story short, the company he had been working for did not treat their managers very well, and their communication just plain sucks. Not to mention the fact that they didn't even pay him what they had offered him for the first 30 days. (They told them that part the day before his first shift…after I had quit my job)

But, it just so happens that a Schwan's truck usually does "truck sales" out of the parking lot of that company on Fridays. And so one Friday several weeks ago, Chris was talking to the driver and she was saying how much she liked working for Schwan's and that he should apply there. So he did. And today is his first day.

To be fair, they do also pay a training wage for the first 12 weeks while he is being trained. But, not only is that training wage more than what he was making, they were also kind enough to tell him that at his very first interview. So there was no surprise the day before he started. And, once he's trained in & learns his route and such, there will probably weeks that he only has to work 4 days. If he makes his quota within 4 days, he's done for the week. If not, then he has to work the "truck sale" on Friday. And they did already warn him that for the first year, he'll probably end up working quite a few of those truck sales. But on average, after the first year, most of the driver's have no problem making their quota.

It did boost his ego a little that the other company he was with did realize what an asset he could be. They did try to counter offer with a substantial raise, but it was kind of too little, too late.

Will She Ever Learn?

Sometime last night, Amata ended up on the floor next to our bed. (She has an extra pillow & blanket there, as this happens a lot. She peeked around the corner when she got up, I was talking to one of the daycare parents, and then she went back into the room.

When I got up there, her eye was pretty red and she said it hurt. Coincidentally, my deodorant appeared to have been tampered with. This is not the first time she has gotten into my deodorant. The first time, she actually took a bite out of it. Chris had to call poison control that time. Luckily, it's not toxic, it just burns a little going down. (Side note, that incident did make Amata the winner of the first…and only time we've ever had to call poison control… in the almost 13 years that we've been parents.)

So, first we tried a shower to try and rinse her eye out, but it didn't work well. I couldn't get her to leave her eye open. Which meant we had to try to wash her eye out with a cup over the kitchen sink. Yes, I probably could have taken her to the doctor and had them do it, but that wasn't all that much fun when I took her there a year or so ago after she put diaper rash ointment in her eye. They made me hold her down there, too, while they washed it out. (Side note, Amata is also the only child who's eye we've ever had to wash out, too, in almost 13 years…and she's had it done twice!)

I guess everybody has to have a talent. I just wish hers was something a little less painful, because we are the ones who have to listen to her cry after the fact. (Sorry, sympathy is pretty hard to come by for her since she has done it so many times!!)

Gone in 60 Seconds

Okay, it might not have been exactly 60 seconds, but it didn't take much longer than that to completely blow my Christmas budget at WalMart. I do not always go out on Black Friday, but this year they had stuff I wanted. Like Jeeps in pink & blue for only $88 each…they normally sell for at least $200. And, since we had the best WalMart employees ever by the Jeeps, I was able to get one of each color….loaded into my cars by them, at 2 minutes before 5.

And, my years of experience shopping with multiple children has trained me well enough to push/pull two carts through WalMart on Black Friday.

But, alas, there is always something. I realized on my way home that I did make a HUGE blunder. They had Leapster's on sale for only $30, so I picked one up for Amata. But, I did not pick one up for Caleb – UGGH! I know better. Really I do, Tyler & Cameron were also close in age. I think I'm going to blame the early morning for that blunder.

Just Two Minutes

For some reason, even though my older boys are 10 & 12, for some reason they never answer the phone or the door. Unless, of course, they've got something planned. For example, on Friday shortly after school, the phone rang. It was literally about 2 inches away from Cameron, but he of course, was waiting for me to pick it up. I did, looked at the caller id and said, "It's for you."

He answered and talked to his friend for about 30 seconds, hung up, and went into the living room. Shortly after 5, the phone rang again, but this time, even though it was 25 feet away from Cameron, he came running into the kitchen to answer it. Two seconds later he asks, "Mom, can I sleep over at Sid's?" Like that wasn't planned!!

So today, the boys were downstairs with the babies. So I decided to take the opportunity to go to the bathroom all by myself. And since I didn't have 10 kids running around the house trying to break something, or someone, I thought that maybe I would even take my time.

Silly me. I no sooner got into the bathroom when the doorbell rang. The bathroom is directly above the family room, so I yelled for the boys to please answer it. Nothing. I yelled again, as the doorbell rang again. Nothing. I suppose I could have ignored it, but we ordered some chocolate covered popcorn from the boy scouts about a month ago, and I thought maybe it was them coming to deliver it. Besides the close call almost running out of Diet Coke yesterday, we actually have run out of chocolate here.

So I ended up having to rush back downstairs, just as the doorbell rang again, and they started pounding on the door. I'm beginning to think it is not the boy scouts coming to rescue me from my chocolate withdrawal; they just don't seem like the door pounding type. Just as I reach the door, Tyler starts walking upstairs. I said, no, no, I'll get it. He claimed he didn't hear me yell, but did he seriously not hear the doorbell ring THREE times?? And to top it all off, I open the door to find that, no, it is not the boy scouts. It was two of Tyler's friends coming to see if he wanted to play basketball.

$1.85 - OMG!!

I had to run to the gas station tonight because I was down to my last can of Diet Coke. I really don't like to let it get down that low. What if there is an emergency and I run out before the last daycare child leaves?! So, naturally, within about 10 seconds after the last family was out the door, I told Tyler I had to run a quick errand.

I could hardly believe my eyes when I pulled in and saw that gas was only $1.85 per gallon! I've never been one to get overly excited over the price of gas, I mean, what can I do about it, I have to have it. But since there was another foster child with us when Baylee was born, we became a family of 8, and could no longer all fit in a minivan, so we had to trade it in for a Suburban. It got mighty painful during the last year when we had to fill that baby up!

Since I always use pay at the pump, and they sometimes will only authorize for up between $75 - $100, there were actually times when we were cut off before the tank was even full if we let it get too empty! So, tonight, when there was only a quarter of a tank of gas, I was very excited to be able to completely fill up that tank for only $40.00!

I must say, though, I still find it really hard to understand how a gallon of gas can range from almost $4 per gallon to less than $2 per gallon in just a couple of months! Something just doesn't right about that!!!

There she goes...

Baylee has finally started walking. Okay, so she technically started walking about 2 weeks ago, but, of course, she wouldn't do it when I had the camera out. She is almost exactly the same age Caleb was when he walked, 14 months. All of my kids have been late walkers for some reason. But once they start they take off in a hurry!

Even though she has already taken several steps on her own, Amata still likes to try & help her keep her balance.

What a big girl!

Cramped

With Chris' job being in retail, he of course does no have Monday through Friday hours, to say the least. Which, in some respects, can be nice, like him having some time off during the week to take the kids to doctor appts, or preschool, etc. This particular week, he has all day Tuesday off, and didn't go in until 2 on Thursday, and noon the other three days. (The assistant mgr couldn't work night shifts this week for some reason.)


I love my husband, but having him home, during daycare for at least a half a day this week is really starting to cramp my style. It's kind of like having somebody stand over your shoulder while you are working. Especially since he used to run the daycare. I hate hearing comments like, "oh, you let them do that?"

Hopefully, next week, there will be a couple of day shifts in the schedule!

High Expectations

So, I admit it is not fair. I have even admitted that to Tyler. The fact is, when it comes to school & grades, I expect Tyler to get A's, but with Cameron, I am happy with mostly B's. It's just because Tyler just naturally excels in school, with little effort. Cameron, on the other hand has to put in a lot of effort just to get the B's. Cameron is our creative child, and excels in Art & Band.

I had checked Tyler's grades on line last week, and was very pleased to see he did, in fact, have strait A's. (I am not able to check Cameron's grades online yet, as he is still considered to be in elementary school). Then, I went on again today to check his grades, since the quarter just ended. I was surprised to see that one of those grades dropped to a B+. Now, I admit that is still a good grade, but I also still know that Tyler can do better.

I went into the progress report in that class to see what happened in that week, and saw that he failed the last quiz. I'm not talking he just missed passing it, he failed it....42%!! So I called him up to discuss it with him. Now, to show that I am not completely overbearing about his grades, I did make sure to tell him that his grades were really good. But I wanted to know what happened on that test.

His excuse is that lots of kids did bad on that test. According to him, "She used really hard words on it." I said that if he had studied for it a little, maybe those words wouldn't have been so hard. He disagrees and just kept saying that all of the kids in the class did bad. And then, he wanted to know how much his report card was worth?!

While we do pay them for good report cards, since they are so different, we don't specifically say so much for an A, B and so on. We usually pay both of the boys the same amount. I told him we'd have to wait & see what his dad thought. But in the mean time, maybe he should do a little studying in that class!

Safety Boy

In light of Caleb's new feat of learning how to climb out of his crib, we did try a couple things to keep him in bed. Chris was able to lower the mattress one more level, and we did move the little red table. However, Caleb does no seem to be so easily deterred. He is, however, concerned about his safely as he drops down to the floor. The last couple of times I've gone into his room after he has come out, this is what I've found.

Just in case he falls, he throws his pillow down first so he'll have some padding!

Now What?

It is 2:15. I have now put Caleb down for his nap three times. Two of those times he had actually fallen asleep on me. However, all three times this has happened...

Which is why he is currently sitting at the table coloring... or more accurately, stealing the crayon box & closing it to irritate the other kids.

He will be one mighty crabby boy by dinner time tonight! If I had the time, I would LOVE to just sit & hold him while he slept, but that is just not possible with a daycare! And while I realize that I could try moving the little red table he is stepping on, I'm quite certain he'd climb out anyway, and then he'd probably hurt himself.