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.

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.

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. :)

Halloween...already??

When did we get to the end of October? My house has been crazy busy with cheering, girl scouts, work, a teething baby...it just never ends. Christmas will be here before we know it.

Jimi is 7 months now. He has his first 2 bottom teet that came in about a week ago. He is sitting like a pro these days, and is so much busier then Kaya was at this age. She walked easily at 10 months, but she was perfectly content to just sit and chill with you. Jimi isn't crawling yet, but he bounces and swings his hands and moves more then I ever thought possible.

The election is next week. I have correctly picked the winner for every presidential election since Clinton's first run for president. This year I pick McCain. It has to be McCain. I just can't see this country with Obama as president. The only silver lining about this is no matter who wins...it is not going to be Bush.

I Am Who I Am

I am pro-choice, support the troops in Iraq, support gay marriage, the right to bear arms.

I am pro death penalty, feel the urgent need to do something to combat global warming, and completely disagree with tax and spend mentality.

I don't agree with a government healthcare, but think something has to be done about the costs of insurance, I support tax cuts, school vouchers and think if we werer attacked today on our soil, Obama is the wrong person to to have in office to defend us.

I think McCain has made mistakes, but Obama has made just as many. I initially supported Obama, but after reviewing all his stances, I just can't back him. I think he is way too extreme a liberal, and extremists of any party are scary. I don't consider myself a democrat or republican, but I'm voting McCain.

Please think about your vote before following the herd . Read about who you are voting for, or in some cases against.

I Love my Kids

I just saw them this morning on the couch with Jimi looking at Kaya with hero worship in his eyes, and Kaya so proud that her brother is starting to sit by himself. They are amazing and we are so lucky to have them.

So Sick of the Blame Game:

Do you know that in 2005/2006 McCain authored legislation for stricter regulations for mortgage companies like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. He tried to fix this problem but the senate shot him down every chance they got...now where are we???

Now Obama is trying to say that McCain's camp had money given to them by these companies...just look at the end of this post at the actual campaign contributions people.

I'm only pointing this out because there are many people to blame for our crisis. And of course there is so much more to it then just mortgage securities, but if people would stop pointing fingers for one minute and try to work together to end the issue, maybe we won't face another massive recession.

OpenSecrets Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Invest in Democrats - Capital Eye: "Top Recipients of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
Campaign Contributions, 1989-2008

NameOfficeParty/StateTotal
1. Dodd, Christopher JSD-CT$133,900
2. Kerry, JohnSD-MA$111,000
3. Obama, BarackSD-IL$105,849
4. Clinton, HillarySD-NY$75,550
5. Kanjorski, Paul EHD-PA$65,500
6. Bennett, Robert FSR-UT$61,499
7. Johnson, TimSD-SD$61,000
8. Conrad, KentSD-ND$58,991
9. Davis, TomHR-VA$55,499
10. Bond, Christopher S 'Kit'SR-MO$55,400
11. Bachus, SpencerHR-AL$55,300
12. Shelby, Richard CSR-AL$55,000
13. Emanuel, RahmHD-IL$51,750
14. Reed, JackSD-RI$50,750
15. Carper, TomSD-DE$44,389
16. Frank, BarneyHD-MA$40,100
17. Maloney, Carolyn BHD-NY$38,750
18. Bean, MelissaHD-IL$37,249
19. Blunt, RoyHR-MO$36,500
20. Pryce, DeborahHR-OH$34,750
21. Miller, GaryHR-CA$33,000
22. Pelosi, NancyHD-CA$32,750
23. Reynolds, TomHR-NY$32,700
24. Hoyer, Steny HHD-MD$30,500
25. Hooley, DarleneHD-OR$28,750"