Thursday, October 8, 2009

October update

Kaya is doing well in 2nd grade. She hasn't missed 1 thing on the first 3 tests she has taken, getting her 1st 3 "A"s ever. She likes school, and is also doing gymnastics this fall, she'll be starting Drama in a month and hopefully swimming in the spring to get her ready for the summer.

Jimi is about 18 1/2 months old, he is starting to talk, and has about a 12 word vocab, not bad considering Kaya wasn't saying anything until 2. He is such an active kid. If there is trouble, he will find it, and my hair is starting to turn more gray by the day.

Joey is in his last year of school for his job, and loves his chosen career so much. I am still working part time till 2:00 everyday, and I love my schedule...well, I'd really like to still have that 1 day off per week, but the extra money is nice.

We just refinanced our home to get a lower rate and wrap our home improvement loan that we got for our siding and windows into our mortgage so it would all be tax deductable. We even got our rate to 5% :) .

I also just booked a cruise for just Joey and I for next October...which I know is way to far away, but that is a good time of year as far as prices go, and the Jimi will be a year older then and I will feel better about leaving him. We are taking a 7 day cruise out of Port Canaveral to St. Thomas, St. Martin, and the Bahamas...YAY!

Saturday, September 12, 2009

It's beginning to feel alot like Christmas...

Well, not really, but I got your attention didn't I? I actually started my Christmas shopping today online. Kaya wants to redecorate her room as her Christmas present this year (this will be her 2nd year fully knowing there is no Santa) so I just bought a comforter set on clearance at Target online. I'm going to repaint her room a light aqua color and the set is hot pink with aqua paisleys. She is such a girly girl. I also got shams, a light, new chair and items to redecorate the hall bath too into a summery flip flop theme and it all totaled under $200! Her bedroom is all she gets for Christmas, and she says she is fine with it...we shall see.

Joey is working overtime all weekend so today I have my wonderful teenage babysitter coming over at 10:30 and I actually get a whole day out by myself until 3- woohoo! I'm going to do a little retail therapy and maybe pick up a few more Christmas gifts. Folks- I HATE shopping during Christmas season. It's cold, people are rude, and parking is a bitch. So I'm going to take advantage of this beautiful day, do a little shopping, get a pedicure and relax.

Saturday, September 5, 2009

I'm on a political rant today...watchout!

People on the right are getting upset about the upcoming speech on Tuesday by President Obama to our schools. People on the left are upset at the people on the right. Do I think it's a big deal? Not really. Do I want to watch the speech first before I let Kaya watch it, you bet.

Do I think that the left would be up in arms if George W. wanted to give a speech to children? Yep, and there would be the same back lash from Cindy Sheehan and tons of others saying they don't want his war loving views being preeched to their children. The left is saying it shouldn't be about politics, but people you and I both know it's always about politics.

Leave My Healthcare Alone Bitches!

I'm not sure what is happening to America. I have lots of friends and family on both sides of the healthcare issue, and I love you all, but what crazy fucked up world is this that people actually think a gov run healthcare is a good idea? People will say there are millions without insurace. Does that account for young professionals that opt out of company insurance because they are unconcerned about their health because they are young and fit? Does that take into account people that sit on their ass and collect welfare because they are getting a free hand out from the gov? Does that take into account illegals that shouldn't even be here in the first place? I feel for people that are laid off, or just don't make enough money to afford ins. premiums, but there is Medicaid, and there are hospitals all over this country that admit you whether you have ins. or not. If the government has control of our healthcare, first it will cost us billions, second it will give the government ultimate control of our lives, third, it will put public options out of business because they are not allowing private businesses the option of giving new hires a public ins option, they have to use the gov. one. HELLO PEOPLE!! WAKE THE FUCK UP! Senators and Congressman are opted out of the gov healthcare...why? Why don't they have to have the same insurance? We will give our government full rights into our private lives. They will have the right to say " hmmm, you are a smoker, we are not going to allow you to have this procedure because you don't take care of your body". AND for those of you out there that are now thinking to yourselves "well good, you shouldn't smoke in the first place". What happens when they say "hmmm, you aren't eating well, you need to go on a mandatory diet, or we won't cover you for those blood pressure meds you need" or " hmmm, you have stage 4 pancreatic cancer...I'm sorry, there's no hope for you".

Does this sound crazy? Do I think this will happen immediately, no. But could it happen, yes. Why would you want to even give them the power to control your healthcare. Everybody was up in arms over the patriot act because it was an invaison of our privacy...um...what about giving the government full rights to our health history? They'll know if you are depressed, overweight, use drugs, have had an abortion, etc. And the taxpayers will pay for everyone, even the lazy people that never tried to do anything with their life. I haven't even gotten to the fact that this will decrease the quality of our healthcare, increase waiting times to be seen by a physician. I just don't get it people. You can comment and debate all you want, but I'm just never going to agree that it is a good thing.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Whew...it's been a while.

I don't even know where to begin. Our winter months were crazy. I missed so much work due to Jimi's ear infections, Kaya's sicknesses as well as my own. A bout of lice in the house (thanks Kaya) just so much crappiness happened the end of 08 and the beginning of 09. Finally around April, it all started coming around. Jimi got tubes in his ears, and I switched daycares due to my job being cut back.

Jimi is now 17 months old, cute as a button and into EVERYTHING! Kaya is 7, getting ready to start 2nd grade and thinks she knows everything.

Joey and I are great, I got cut back part time in March and love it! What we thought would be hard for us financially isn't so bad. We took a look at our finances, cut back here and there, and we are still at the same bottom line at the end of the month that we were before the cut back. I actually have time now to clean the house and spend extra time with my kids. Joey has one more year of classes before he is a mechanic. He loves his job and has really found a niche for himself in the electrical/troubleshooting aspect of his job. He has also found a love for cooking. He cooks almost every night, and has gotten really good. We go a little overboard with grocery shopping, since he bought a smoker back in Jan, we also have a deep freezer and have soo much food, everything is stocked full all the time...but cooking/eating/baking is something we enjoy doing together, I even signed us up for a couple of classes at Sur la Table- he wanted to take a knife skills/chopping class, and I'm going to do a bread making one. Luckily make a lot of healthy meals. I am only 10 lbs away from my goal. I've lost 20 lbs since last summer. I want to get down to 139. Those last 10 lbs are hard to lose when you don't exercise, and I don't.

We are currently getting windows and new siding for our house- YAY! For those of you that know us, we have never lived in one place this long (4 years) and it's making me want to redecorate! We were wasting so much money each month on electricity due to our crappy windows and our siding was starting to warp and rot in a few places. Joey also painted our bedroom and I am slowly decorating that as well. The next step will be our master bath- I want to paint our cabinets white and bring our bedroom paint in there as well. Replace our mirror with 2 white framed ones and change out our fixtures, but due to the cost of our siding job, that will be down the road a bit.

Back to Jimi. He is such a cute, chubby curly headed little boy! He smiles all the time! He is saying Mama, DaDa, hi, bye, and sometimes he'll say Kaya. He isn't talking too much yet, but I'm not stressed, Kaya was a late talker too.

Kaya is a sweet sweet girl, but her attitude can drive us crazy! She is so excited about 2nd grade and she learned to swim this summer. She has practiced riding a two wheel bike, and that isn't too far off.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

A Day in the Life

I love my 2 children. My family is what I was put on this Earth for. When Jimi strokes my hair while he drinks his night time bottle, or Kaya still comes to snuggle me at every possible opportunity or Joey comes home and immediately sets them both off in fits of glee from being tickle hugged...it all makes me melt. I have to remind myself this when the daily grind frustrates me like it is right now.

I wake up at 5:00 or so in the morning- this is best case scenario, some nights my insomniac daughter will wake me up at 2:30 because she can't sleep(like last night) or Jimi might wake up once in a while from wetting through his pjs(that would be 4:30 last night, right when said daughter finally got up and went back to her room.) Don't forget the cat that is obsessed with me and sleeps at my head on the nights that I forget to let him out.

Anyhoo, so I'm up by 5ish and feeding Jimi as this is about as long as he can sleep. I change, feed him his morning bottle, and try to lay him down for another 30 minutes or so so that I can get ready for work.

6 or 6:30 I'm getting Kaya up, and fed and downstairs. I make it down for a quick cup of coffee, put Jimi in his jump up and have a quick look at my email before I fix snacks, and food for Jimi for the day, and go start the car to be out of the house by 7:20...and breath.

Work is pretty much status quo, it can get very stressful and busy, but I look forward to the adult conversation and a full 8 hours without getting spit up or snot on me. I leave work at 5:00.

I pick the kids up a little after 5. Joey and I work together to get Jimi fed his dinner, have a night time bottle, get changed and put to bed all between 5:30- 7:00. Kaya has a snack and plays while all of this takes place as she has already done her homework at daycare. At 7:00 or so we eat dinner, I check her homework, and have a little down time. She goes to bed around 8:30 and I colapse around 9:30.

So that's my day. Joey and I have only a few short hours to spend together. I never get a chance do things for myself, or if I do find the time I frankly don't want to because I am so tired.

I know I'm not the only one out there that works hard or is tired or whatever. I haven't even gotten to cleaning, or lack-there-of...that is a whole new post.

Thursday, November 6, 2008

A New Day?

In my last post I predicted McCain would win. I guess it was wishful thinking when all the polls were pointing towards Obama. I wanted McCain to win not because I am a republican, as I consider myself an independent, not because I am a racist, nothing could be further from the truth, but because I genuinely like the man. I am sure I am a minority in saying that when his own party barely tolerates him because of is bipartisan ways. Am I wrong to think that this country would be a lot better if we stopped playing tug of war with our ideals and agendas and found a way to mesh them together? I guess I just look at things through rose colored glasses, but I have always been taught to compromise, not fight for your own way. That is a change I want to happen.

I said I couldn't picture Obama as president. How could I picture it when this country has never taken any step towards electing anyone other then white old men? I was wrong.
On election night, I went to bed early, knowing we would not win. I was asleep for all the speeches, and admit I have only seen clips of Obama and McCain speaking on election night, but I can tell you I am very proud of this country for bucking the system and voting the first African American into the White House. I too was teary eyed watching Jesse Jackson tear up and many many others break down that night. The significance is not lost on me, I promise you.

I am sad that my candidate didn't win. I do not share the same vision that Obama has for this country. But you have got to be very small minded, or blind, or both to not see that with his election comes renewed relationships with our allies who were starting to turn their backs on us. Our country has renewed hope in democracy; that if you fight for change, you will actually achieve it. This election was the personification of what Martin Luther King spoke about. And, I think we actually just jumped up a few links on the evolutionary chain.

That's my 2 cents on this election. Now I have to go pray that he doesn't turn us into a Marxist society...hehehe...just joking...kind of. :)