My sweet boy

Brae always comes and finds me first thing in the morning, crawls in my lap for a cuddle. I tell him even when he is big he has to come get his morning hug.

This morning we are talking about the plan for the day which consists of him getting to spend a gift card at Toys R Us.

Brae: "Mom I am so happy for today"
Me: "What are you going to buy with your card?"
Brae: "Mom I am not happy about going to Toys R Us"
Me: "Well why are you happy then?"
Brae: "Mom I am happy because your my mom"

aawwwwwwwwwww my heart melted!

Works for Me Wednesday - Kids Extra Money

My kids love saving their money...they love getting money.

Awhile back someone told me about Kidzeyes.

It is a fun survey program for kids. You get points for each survey, you get coupons sent to you for free stuff to try and then surveys sent on those products. One time the kids got to watch the pilot for the Disney show Corey in the House months before it was even advertised. They don't have a referral program so you don't get points for referrals but I want to refer people anyway because my kids love it. You can check their accounts and when they get over $10.00 you can request a check. I forgot Brae's for awhile and it reached $40.00 and so he was really happy for that check. Britt's total to date to make is $109.00 and she has been doing it since last April. Not bad for a 9 year old. The age limit is 6-12.

CHECK OUT KIDZEYES FOR YOUR KIDS

Laid back

It was a laid back holiday weekend for us which was nice. We spent part of it in Tulsa getting a better idea of surrounding towns, etc. Moving is still aways off but want to get an idea of where towns are in relation to major things in Tulsa, etc.

I have been trying to get homeschool ready as we will start our 2nd and 4th grade years the end of June...I know I said I was going to do it before then, but oh well that plan fell through. We just have so many camps, lessons, etc., in June that I thought we would wait. They are still doing some daily drills and things that take a lot less time but still keep them from losing what they have learned. I am more excited about this upcoming homeschool year, mostly I guess because I am more comfortable with it. Also got new curriculium that is exciting to me so I can't wait to share it with the kids.

I added some photos to flickr and just did some preparing for the week. Standard week ahead of being busy, but that is okay because the laid back weekend helped a lot.

Poor hubby has my cold that I suffered from last week....he was feeling awful last night and I told him that now he could see that I wasn't just whining I really felt like crud!...lol.

Hoping the kids don't get sick next, yucky summer colds.

She is too much like me

This morning kids come and pile in bed with us. Brae asks what the plan for the day is? I said "Today babe there is no plan". Britt replies "What are you talking about we have to have a plan?".....yep she is too much like me, I like to have my plan...so finally we decided the plan was to pick up the house, play some games, take it easy and cook out...a simple plan...but still a plan to appease the planners in the family...which looks like is everyone but the hubby!

Cant blame this one on hubby

Kids and I were playing a board game today. Nothing fancy just a game of Trouble. Britt was driving me insane, I was getting so hot about the way she was playing and talking and ready to run over her brother and me, on and on, SO COMPETITIVE...
then it dawns on me...she plays just like me...oops...I have to take the blame for this one because I am definetly way more competitive than hubby is on games.

BFFL

The kids came into the kitchen to tell me about their new club. They are the only two members. It is the BFFL club.

Stands for
Best Friends for Life

Britt said mom he is my brother but also my best friend and Brae gave her a big hug. Very sweet. Not that they wont be mad at each other later but sweet for now, actually I am pretty lucky they get along that well about 90% of the time. I know they will have their ups and downs and sibling squabbles but I hope they always remain close.

It was very sweet to walk by Britt's room and they have a white board out with club passwords, and they are putting together hall passes (dont know what for, but they were making them!)....sweet kids....for the moment anyway!

Just friggin wonderful...ugh

Get a call at 5:34 asking for me, it is the ELP department of my bank. Still not sure what ELP stands for but I do know that someone lifted my debit card number from somewhere and had a happy go lucky time in Mexico at pharmacies and groceries stores.
Apparently whoever started having fun at 2:41 but the "ELP" guy started watching and stopped his fun at 5:14 by deactivating my card...after the phone call I had to run to the bank, have to be back at 8:30 am and the lady said be prepared for 3 hours...ugh...luckily all the money will be put back, but a lot of red tape to get that done, and have to close account, etc. Ugh, my debit card was still physically with me but the lady at the bank said they have all kinds of ways of stealing the numbers and making their own cards. Just what I wanted to do this week.

Works for Me Wednesday - Beating kids boredom

We have a box of 3 x 5 cards. Probably 50 cards in the box. This is the "I'm bored" box or the "I'm done with my school and my sibling isn't" box.
Each card has something writing on it. Examples: Play board game, play Lego's, make a matchbox city, do a craft with pipe cleaners and Popsicle sticks, read a book, make up a silly code and write a message, put together a puzzle....ideas are endless.
It makes it easier to have them written down. I give them out different ways, sometimes pick 6 and put them face down on the table for them to choose one (this way I know what activities I want to take place as some are messy, some are not, etc.) Sometimes I just say grab the first one, other times they look through and pick out of all of them. I am constantly adding ideas to the box, and little things add up to big fun on the cards as well.
Somehow having it come from the cards, and not just me saying go do this or that makes all the difference!

inconvenient

I told you how busy my week was going to be.....now I get to add in a cold...sore throat, coughing, all the fun...yuck we did so good without getting colds or sick this winter with the kids being home schooled and now May and I am hacking away...ugh. Suppose to take the kids to a homeschool fun day today and the car in to get a recall fixed but I want to take my hot tea and a blanket and camp on the couch...doubt I do it, but I want to.

calendar is filling up

The squares in my purse calendar are just not big enough.

This week is particularly hectic, but the really scary thing is looking into June. The month of June will encompass tennis camp, basketball camp, swim lessons, bible school, a family reunion, both mine and hubby's birthdays, art lessons, nephews birthday, homeschool conference, regular appointments like doctors and speech. Unfortunately all the camps kids wanted to do are in June, July will be low key, I guess good thing is we will run ragged for a month and then have a break.

My hubby keeps trying to get me to use a PDA like he has. I don't think they are for me. I like my pen and paper. Of course I am such a freak about them, I can't stand them to get messy I end up buying a new one every few months and transfering the data into the nice clean pages of a new calendar book.

No such thing

The plan....stay home all day have a nice productive laid back Saturday, clean out the garage, do some organizing etcetera...but in reality at our house does not seem to be such a thing as a laid back Saturday.

Eat breakfast, do a few in house things and we head outside. The kids ride their bikes etcetera. The kids get out the sidewalk chalk Brittney is laying down drawing when a stray cat comes up. It actually belonged to a neighbor whose cat had kittens she let the kittens run wild and then sold her house and moved leaving the wild cats. Well anyway cat gets up really close to Brittney and she goes to push it away....it bite her! Broke the skin...ugh. So we had to make a trip to pro med, cleaned out, she was up to date on her immunizations, and then got on an antibiotic. Called animal control because since now the cat has bite they have to pick it up. So hopefully soon it will be gone.

Britt's arm doesn't look bad at all, I just didnt want to take any chances.

So now we are back home and going to try to get things accomplished the rest of the day!

Decisions decisions

Looking more and more into moving, even though we know it wont be for quite sometime. We know we need to be closer to a big city, but boy oh boy my same house that I am in now is a whole lot more closer to a big city, and if/when we move I want to go up a little so going to be definetly working on debt reduction harder than we have been. We have been doing pretty good, but gotta get it more.

I am still sad about my pets but trying to look at in a positive, I knew we had too many, and the cat hair was everywhere which I don't think was great for Brae's allergies. Anyway we are going to dote more on the two remaining dogs.

Tommorow night we are having family date night already have the tickets for Shrek the Third! The kids had to do a hangman word game to figure out where we were going. Britt did good with it and then let her brother in on the secret.

Been a pretty low key week, I still have lots of work to get caught up on but just havent gotten that motivated yet.

Sad

I am sad.
My beloved pets are half what they were. I will spare the details but we went from 3 dogs and 2 cats to just having 2 dogs. I missed my cats so much last night laying in bed with me while I was reading and I cant get my sweet dog out of my mind. They were pains in the rear and I complained often but I miss them so and would gladly clean cat hair off my clothes forever to have them all 3 back.
The kids dogs are still here. They are sad and miss the cats, the dog that died was all mine. She was old and cranky but she had buggy eyes and I loved her.

Works For Me Wednesday - Keeping the car clean

Works for Me Wednesday at Shannons

We are on the go so much it doesnt take long to have the cars looking pretty rough.

Quick things for when I am waiting in line for food, or at the bank:
I keep several plastic grocery sacks in the car I can easily grab one out and gather all the trash while I am waiting then simply tie the bag and first trash can I pass I throw it in.
I keep a package of windex wipes under the seat, I can wipe off finger prints and then wipe down the dash, etc as well. If I don't have windex or if by some miracle there are no fingerprints on the window I just grab out a pack of baby wipes to wipe of the dash and cup holders, etc. Another alternative is to keep a swifter in your car and run it over the dash, but most of the time I also have sticky stuff to wipe off too so the swifter doesn't work as well for me.
A small lint brush kept in the car helps for getting things off the seats, carpet, etc.
If I do the above why I am in the car waiting anyway it saves time later.

Random Monday Morning musings

Had hubby add haloscan comments to the blog too, since blogger seems to choose a select few and not let them comment.

We have made a list of home improvment projects, want to get the privacy fence redone, cover back patio, make a pantry where the hot water heater is, get our friend to do cermaic tile on the counters and back splash, all things that we can do rather inexpensively (thanks to friends) and will add value to the house. Then need to get some of the rooms painted, etc. Nice to know that we are starting on things.

We are doing year round school so we will be starting 2nd and 4th grades in a few weeks, trying to get the lesson plans together. Today will be a relax from all the traveling day. Both kids are wore out and kinda cranky so definetly be a day for them to regroup.

A day of doing nothing

I got up this morning took a shower put on my new capri pajamas, breakfast in bed. Opened my presents from my lovely hubby and kids. Have done not much else since then. I did work a little on homeschool lesson plans, but other than that I have read, played video games with the kids, and played online. The kids have brought me candy, lunch, and lots of hugs and kisses all day. It has been a wonderful mothers day!

Mirrors

Hubby was off work today and we got some free time so we took the kids to a mirror maze in San Antonio....lots of fun, the kids loved it. A little pricey I thought but you could come and go all day long and do it as many times as you wanted to so that made it pretty good.

Big changes ahead...

I think we have finally reached a firm decision, maybe, I think, sorta....how is that for a decision?

Seriously though after lots of though, prayer, planning I think hubby and I both know we need to be closer to a big city. Lots of reasons one of being that we want to be able to be on an organic lifestyle and it is very hard to find affordable choices when you live in a small town and dont want to drive 2 hours to the nearest affordable health food store. Other reasons include homeschool activities more in abundance and about a 100 other reasons.

This wont be immediately but I do see us starting to lay the foundation for this. We have it narrowed to 2 areas one about 5 hours away the other 2 from where we are now. Since we both have parents that aren't in the best of health we have to be able to come back quickly. Just the fact that we have decided to start the process is a relief for me, we are doing some debt reduction first, we are undecided about when to put our house on the market. We have a unique situation where we have a family member who has a very nice home but only lives in it one weekend a month because of her job. So basically we could stay there if we sold our house quicker than we intended to, but I am sure that we could not live there long, because of it being close to some situations I don't want involved in.

How exciting and scary to be making such a big change....I am sure I will ramble about it a lot more as this process continues.

No appointments today!

We are going to visit our friends at their hotel and lay around the pool, eat a picnic under the trees, and lots of Ben and Jerry's ice cream!

Throwing in a little fun

It has been a hard trip to Austin this time. Definetly had it's down times. I will post this evening on Brae's blog after all of our results are in. But it hasn't been all medical we have got to have some fun too. Brae celebrated his 8th birthday at Sea World, we had a party with my aunt and uncle and cousins that live near Austin, got lots of baby time with my cousins new arrival, we visited some friends and had some swimming fun. Little Miser (I have been calling Brae that since he hoards all his money) finally broke down and spent a little of it on a video game that he has wanted for a long time. Won't know for sure on when we can head back until later today. Here are a few pics...

Delicious

I have found a new treat. I don't drink sodas very often but I do like an occasional Dr. Pepper. While being in Texas, I have found the old time Dr. Pepper they have repackaged it and it is made with cane sugar, not any syrups. The taste is much better and different. Not so sweet tasting, and not syrupy tasting. I was suprised. Of course they cost more than the regular Dr. Peppers, but we will be carrying a case home with us.

Happy Birthday!!!!

After a week of celebrating we finally arrive at your big day!

Happy Birthday Brae!!!

8 years!! Wow!! You have overcome odds, you have become our hearts, you are the best!

Your personality is unmatched. Your PreK teacher once stated that grown ups that had the same problems as you would not get out of bed, but you kept going. You always have.

You go into each situation with an attitude that awes me. You keep me in awe. You have strength that is massive and way beyond your skinny 50 pounds.

You have a heart that is large. I love your hugs and kisses, and the way you sign language to me that you love me. I am so proud of you in all aspects and your birthday definetly deserves the week of celebrating that we have had!!!

I love you to the moon and back!!

almost 8 years ago...

Now....

Mental note

You know how you think about things and you say to yourself when I am in that position I never want to do that?

Well when I am a grandma I will not buy a swingset for one grandkid and hand a $20 bill to the other.

Ugh...inlaws drive me nuts. Not so much the price difference, more like she couldn't be bothered to try to find something Brae wanted. Of course crazy SIL made sure Brae knew what MIL had gotten his cousin...ugh. Brae didn't really care, but I told hubby they are going to start seeing the differences she plays.

Anyway...all in all little miser is raking in the money....know what he wants?....................................................................................................................................................................a flat screen tv....haha. I doubt he saves for that long but he does have a nice chunk of change to have some fun with saved up.

More celebrating tonight at Fire Mountain where they sang to him. We met my parents, and hubby's mom for dinner.

Tommorow we head out to Texas. Brae's big doctor appt is Monday...thoughts and prayers will be much appreciated.

Cant really say "day"...

I don't know what to call it because birthday just isn't right since we seem to celebrate for a week!

Started last Friday with my friend from PA taking him shopping, continued on Sunday with gifts from Nana, Papa and Aunt, more on Monday with mail, even more today in mail and his birthday party, more to come tommorow night with dinner with grandma, nana and papa, and more in Texas on his actual birth"day" which isn't till the 5th!

He is racking it in. I added pics to flickr but here are a few.

Fainting from the excitment of recieving the DS game he wanted!

Cookie Cake
Can you tell he is a Tony Stewart fan?
Maybe he will actually like to read this book all about Tony Stewart!

More celebrating to follow!

Heavy conversations

Britt went with me to and from the airport taking my friend and her girls. It is a 2 hour drive and we had lots of talking time. Some of our heavy conversations: About war; army; politics (seriously she brought up politics wanting to know more about what Republicans and Democrats believe...sheesh she thinks about more than I did at her age); about Jesus and being saved and having him live with you in your heart versus being saved; about alcholism; about modesty and the really heavy things like: Why did Shaggy (Scooby Doo) paint the Mystery Machine those colors, How is gum made, do I think that Webkins are cool, and on and on.

As you can tell a whole range of topics were discussed.

It was actually nice her and I time, but her subject jumping was like okay what is she going to bring up next.