And I am Up WHY???

Ok, so if you looked at the time when I post, it is currently 4:40am. Yes, 4:40 in the morning! Seriously, I have been up since 3:30am trying to go back to sleep and sleep won't come. Why can't I sleep you ask? Take your pick: stress, worry, can't breath, slept enough already or screwed up brain. Your choice. I personally doubt I slept enough already. Come on! I didn't even make it till 6am, which is our normal weird family wake up time. Just was wide awake at 3:30 in the morning. My thought was to get on the computer and read some things and that would make me sleepy enough to go back to bed, but NO! I am still up. I will probably be ready for bed at this rate when the others are ready to get up for the day. Anyhow, go ahead, take your pick. Why do you think I was up so early this morning!!

The Making of a Sandwich by Anna!!

Here is Anna doing her favorite thing...making a sandwich. What kind you ask? Why peanut butter and jelly of course. :-) Enjoy!!

1. Spread the peanut butter on the bread.

2. Spread the jelly on the bread.

3. Dig in the jar to see if you can't find more jelly.

4. Bite the yummy sandwich.

5. Follow swiftly by drinking apple juice.

LOL!! As you can see, she is quite proficient at making her own sandwich. She does it quite often and never wants any help making it. It is very cute. She will soon be a master chef because I also have her stir gravy, mix cake mixes, and even have taught her to clean up after herself. Doesn't that make for the best chef in the world? Now if only I could teach others living here to clean up after themselves!! :-)

Field Trip Pictures

Well, the field trip to Pedro's Tamales was fun and interesting. They make a lot of tamales. I mean a LOT!! We had to wear the smocks and hair nets to be able to go through the back room, so we were oh so cute as we went on this tour. I took a picture of Anna, but not one of me. No way, no how! :-) At the end of the tour, they let everyone have a free tamale. Ok, I know I said I didn't like them before, but they weren't too bad. I, being so un-Texan and all, didn't know you were supposed to peel back the outer layers to get to the actual tamale. I learned that yesterday, when watching others peel theirs back and eat. DUH! No wonder I never liked them. I couldn't get why you would want to eat the husks. LOL! I know smack me up-side of the head and call me stupid! I didn't know though. We never grew up with that kind of stuff. Anyhow, I did make Anna try it and lets just say she will NEVER touch a tamale again. I made her take 3 bites to make sure and she did NOT like it, not one little bit. Here are some of our glorious pictures:

Do I have to wear this mom??:

Say cheese:

Fresh Tamales:

As you can see, there were not many pictures. They wouldn't let you take pictures inside the factory, and I am sure it is for good reason. After the trip, we went to United and came home. Stay tuned tomorrow for Anna's making of lunch!! :-)

First Day Down!

Yeah!! We made it through our first day. It was a little rough, but we made it! Now today, day two, I told Anna she needed to get up pretty quick after her Daddy left for work and I am telling you, she must have been at my bed side the instant he closed the door. UGH!! I could have used a bit more sleep, but I did tell her to be awake when her Daddy left. We need to get school done and then we have our first field trip of the new school year! YEAH!! We LOOOOOVE field trips. We are going to Pedro's Tamales to watch how they make tamales. Why are we so interested in this? I mean seriously, neither of us eats tamales. Not a bite, not ever, but we are going to learn how they make them. There is a down side to this field trip...we must wear pants. UGH! It is going to be in the 90s today. That is too darn hot to be wearing pants, but for the field trip, we must wear pants, so we will come home immediately after it and change into shorts. I will post photos of the field trip tomorrow, if they allow us to take any. That was the first thing my hubby said....take the camera, I want pictures. Hope they let us. I always bring it, but never sure if they will allow pictures.

Anyhow, I better go for now. Time to get ready for school. It will be a better day today. Take care and God Bless.

First Official Day of School

Ok, well it is the first official first day of school. For the public schoolers, private schoolers, and just about EVERYONE here. We are starting school today, for the third time again as well. This ought to beat all, but my daughter, the one who is up at 6:30am, nearly every morning, chooses today to sleep in and stay in bed. Today, on the day that I wanted to start school, for the third time this year. She chooses today to sleep in. LOL!! Here it is almost 8am and she is still in bed snoring. I think she plans things like this!! :-) LOL!! Its hard enough on me, what with every little thing still going on, but she chose today to sleep in. I am starting to digress already. Should I go wake her up? We usually have school start by 9am, and she isn't even out of bed yet, let alone watching TV or had her bath. Yes, she takes a morning bath. Its what works for our family. Oh she finally emerged!! Oh and to top it off, I forgot to iron my husband's work shirt. I went to bed pretty much as soon as I put Anna to bed. I sure hope he doesn't get into trouble. They are supposed to be crisply ironed! UGH! Ok, we better get going for today. We need to get baths done and breakfast out of the way so we can do school. Take care all.

School Supplies

Alright, I wasn't going to mention it, but school supply lists at some of our area schools have gotten ridiculous!!!!! I have been trying for weeks to help these parents get some of what they need and I tell you what, it seems as if they are providing supplies for the whole class and not just themselves. On one list, they needed 24 glue sticks. 24! Really, is one child going to do that much gluing in one year? That is way too many to be completely honest. Another list wanted them to have 72 pencils. Yes, 72. Apparently they need a new pencil once every 2-3 days. There is no way they need 72 pencils for one child. Absolutely none. To top it off, they wanted 72 Ticonderoga pencils. Talk about expensive. Another list wanted kids to have 6 boxes of the large Crayola brand non-washable crayons. We only carry washable, but they are $3 a box. Times that by 6 boxes, and you are talking about $18 in just crayons. This is just ridiculous. It is also showing me another reason to be glad we home school! I was never allowed to ask for more than $10 in supplies, so here was my general list:

1 Spiral Notebook (70 pages) 0.30
12 # 2 Pencils 1.00
2 Erasers 1.00
1 small school box 0.50
1 bottle of glue (8oz.)-although many brought two 4 oz and this was quite fine 0.50
1 pair of Scissors 1.00
1 box of 24 Crayons 0.50
2 boxes of Kleenex 2.00
1 box of Resealable Bags-quart or gallon size 1.00
1 package of Brown Paper Lunch Sacks (50 count) 1.00
1 package of Colored Construction Paper (9X12) 1.00
1 package of Colored Construction Paper (18X24) 1.00
2 pocket folders with brads (1 red, 1 blue) 0.50

Not brand specific and not an arm and a leg. (It comes to about $11 per child.) Most of my list was on sale. (Here goes another Wal-mart plug, but I can't help it. They run good specials.) Don't get me wrong, some lists are still like this, but a lot of those poor parents are spending $40-$50 on school supplies for one child. And the brand specific thing gets me. Why don't the teacher's ask for money and go buy the kids supplies themselves. Good grief. I always bought a ton of school supplies. Spent about $45 or so and had them in my room as "extras" for when a student could not get any, so all my kids had their own pencil box and crayons. It was not that expensive and I didn't want anyone singled out. Anyhow, as you can see I am annoyed with these lists and such. It is way too much money. There are really only certain supplies that one child needs anyhow. The rest is just fluff. LOL! Ok, rant over. This is yet another reason to be glad I Home School!! YEAH!! I bought only new crayons and glue this year. I spent $2 at that above named store. :-) Oh and another $3 on new markers when they went on sale. Ok, well that doesn't count my curriculum, but on just supplies, that was it. Anyhow, I better go. Take care and God Bless!

Ok, Here Goes

Alright, I promised an update, so here it is. Anna is fine first of all, no reason to worry. She only ran fever for less than 12 hours, so it may have been allergy related as we had forgotten to give her allergy medicine for 3 days. Big mistake. Allergies of course don't cause the fever, but without her medicine, she was getting all gunky inside her nose and stuff and it may have been starting a sinus infection. In any case, she is fine and that was all that she did. Thank goodness.

Now, here is for the doozy update...my mom. I am sure, if you have been reading my blog for any length of time, you know that my mom has health issues and we are fighting Social Security Disability to get her the help that she needs. Well, on Tuesday of last week I ended up taking her to the ER. Her follow up with the doctor was yesterday, I will come back to that in a minute though. On Sunday I went to check on her and get her mail, and she had a notice on her door to vacate the apartment. (You get those when you can't pay the rent and can't work to pay the rent and no one has any more help to pay the rent. Yes, there is a lot of sarcasm in that, but its true.) Anyhow, so I spent all Monday and the rest of Sunday trying to find something we could do to keep her apartment, or move her somewhere. On Monday, I did find out that in order to have her fully evicted, they need a court order and then she will still have 5 days to move out. Anyways, we are still working on that. Now, back to the doctor appointment yesterday...the doctor she saw yesterday was the first, yes, the very first doctor down here in the 8 months she has been seeing doctors to do a fully medical and a full family history. Yes, the first. That should have been the first thing that everyone of them did, but no, they never did it. He then did a full evaluation of my mother. Yes, she still has MS, but the other things she has been having trouble with are all related to Congestive Heart Failure. Why didn't any of the others see the signs. They all kept dismissing her and saying it was all in her head. I am sorry, but shortness of breath is not in your head, low pulse is not in your head, bad heart is not in your head. UGH!! Sorry, can you see I was a bit aggravated with the other 10 or so doctors we had seen? In any case, he immediately started her on a bunch of tests yesterday. We go for more tests next Friday and then we go for a follow up on September 12. Finally, she may get some GOOD help medically. Now I can rest with that and go back to the search for somewhere to live. Time is running short on that end, but I know that something will happen. Anyhow, for those who pray, please pray for this whole situation. She needs a place to live ASAP and I am not able to afford what lots of people want for rent. I am hoping for a situation where we can get her a room to rent in someones house. I am sure some one has a room, somewhere and needs a little extra money? Anyhow, I better go for now, just pray for the housing situation. Thanks all and God bless.

What were you doing at 1am?

We were dealing with a half-sick child with a fever of 102. Seriously. Have I not done enough in the last few days? ( I will explain this later.) She said she had a bad dream and came crying to me room. I pulled into bed for a few minutes to comfort her and could tell she was just burning up. So, I got up and found the thermometer, took her temperature three times, gave her some children's Tylenol and put her back to bed, where I proceeded to stay with her till she fell asleep. I prayed that she would be okay and finally went back to sleep about 1:45am or so. UGH! I am tired. She then proceeds to get up at 6:30am, right after her Daddy left. She says she has a headache and is dizzy. I take her temperature again and we are at 101 this morning. Other than her head hurting, she says she doesn't feel bad. More Tylenol and lay down to watch TV. I hope she isn't getting too sick. I can handle a fever, but really want to know why she has it. She doesn't get sick that often, but she always gets sick when her Daddy can't stay home. Do you think God is teaching me a lesson? I think its a trick. I don't handle sick well and always leave that care to Jeremy, but the last two times she has been sick, Daddy has had to be at work unless it was a life or death situation. It sucks. I wonder what today will bring. She is supposed to go to her Grammy's, but I am not sure if she will want her sick like this. I guess I will call her in a bit, so I know if I can go to work or not. Anyhow, that is what we do at 1am, in case anyone wants to know.

UHM!

UHM! I have nothing new to add to my blog. How odd is that? The person that can talk constantly and I have nothing new to add.

I guess I could tell you how much like me Anna is, but nah, that would just let you all know how I really am and you may never read again. Let's face it. I need all 10 of my readers! LOL!!

I could also tell you that we still haven't started school, but you probably know that. I want a regular schedule again and bad!!

I could tell you about what's happened this week, but it hasn't changed much.

I could tell you a lot of things today, but I'm not.

With all that being said or not said, depending on how you look at it, have a GREAT day!!

Birthday Dinner or Not?!

"This post was written for Parent Bloggers Network as part of a sweepstakes sponsored by Burger King Corp."

Dinner out with the kids? Well, My story is not that interesting anymore, but back when we had a revolving door of children, we had a two year old who never acted sick or anything. We had gone for a nice birthday dinner for my husband, to a beautiful sit down restaurant. Not even before we ordered, had this child threw up all over the table. YUCK!! I mean it was everywhere, the table, the floor, and the seat. I took him to the bathroom, and cleaned him up and came back to the table, thinking we were done. Not even close. He proceeded to throw up again. I, of course, was a lot younger and aggravated, because I had to leave to take him home. I didn't want to leave. I really just wanted to stay and enjoy my husband's birthday dinner. I just prayed he would not throw up in my new car on the way home. My husband and family ended up cleaning up the mess at the table and floor because the staff at the restaurant wouldn't. They stayed and enjoyed the rest of the meal, (weird as it was) and I went home to tend to a sick child.

Now, there is no magic. We only have one child, so eating out is relatively easy-going on us. We really enjoy the good time together and have fun. No more going out if someone is even remotely sick or says they have a tummy ache though.

On Friday for example we had a nice lunch with Daddy at BK!! This is by far Daddy's favorite fast food restaurant and they know him by name and order at the one by his work most days. Sad, huh!!

(I know I have never done this type of post before, but I just thought I would give it a try.)

Pictures

Well, we ventured into new territory today with pictures (refer to previous days post about where we went). It was fun and they had great backgrounds. We even got the pictures in 15 minutes. I am sure their intent is to capture some moments where the subjects are actually doing something, but my poor daughter has never had this experience before and therefore she was stiff as a board. LOL!! She is used to take the picture and go. They took like 75 pictures today and we got 3. Yes, just 3 different poses. It was fun and if I could afford their prices, we would have gotten more. Here are the three we ended up with:

The basic package:

A pose I liked:

Too cute for words:

The basic package one is just something that I thought suited my daughter to a tee!! She is so beautiful and the picture just showed her personality and everything. There was something about that second pose that I like as well, so I go us one copy of it. The black background one is a picture of a picture. LOL!! We got a 10X13 and it was too big for my scanner. In any case, you get the idea that it is gorgeous!!

I did find a downside to this great store....you can never re-order or buy more later. They delete the files after you get your pictures all printed out. Sad, huh! Anyhow, overall it was a great experience. We will probably go back, because it was fun AND you can't beat getting all your pictures the same day!!

Anna Wrote Me a Note

Anna wrote me a note. Now, granted its not 100% perfect, the point is she wrote. She sounded out the words without any help. She did it by herself. Here is a picture of the note. Can you decipher it?

For those who can't read 6 year old, it says:

I love mom.

She is fun.

She cute.

Love,

Anna

Can you tell I am a proud momma?!? You should. I think she did a great job and I am very glad I got a picture of it before it got erased. Too bad that wasn't written on regular paper!!

Work and Other Woes

DISCLAIMER: HUGE GRIPE SESSION STARTING!! YOU DON'T HAVE TO READ IF YOU DON'T WANT TO!!!!!!

Ok, I know I normally don't talk about my job, but I am frustrated. We are not allowed to get over-time and have to compensate by taking longer lunches, coming in later, or leaving early, unless of course we close, which then of course, we need to stay till done, which is my problem. I close almost every night. We were there 45 minutes late Tuesday night and 40 minutes late last night. That give me a bit of over time. Even coming in 30 minutes late yesterday is not going to help. UGH! How do I win?! Ok vent with that over.

Next work vent: what is it with parents these days? We have a nice TV and train table in our children's area for kids to keep busy and parents drop off their young, I mean 3-4 year olds and younger even to play while they shop. I have a serious problem with that. first of all, we are NOT babysitters, and second of all, we are NOT responsible for their children. I guess they think everything is okay and that the kids will stay and play or watch TV, but that is far from close. The kids run races and disturb other customers. My other gripe is that they let their children open packages to play with toys and then put them back?!!! What in the world?!?!?! That should never be an option. Take last night for example, we have a set of toys that we do happen to have a display for them to test. (This does not happen often, but we did have them in this case.) I walk by and they have no less than 5 packages open and all playing with them at the same time. I walk by and ask them to please put them up and that we have testers for them to use. Not 1 minute later, they are at it again. I walked over and stood there and told them they need to clean them up and put the items back in the boxes, that someone else may want to buy them and buy them new (meaning not played with yet.) These kids were somewhere around 7-12, which means they should have known better, but come on. For me to have to stand over them to make sure it got done was ridiculous. Completely!! This same group was also taking our puppets, playing with them and throwing them on the floor. UGH!! I kept picking them up and putting them back, but that didn't seem to make a difference. How can parents let their kids run wild like this? Anyhow, that is vent number 2!

And vent number 3, my old apt complex!! UGH!! Let me just say now that there is no way ever that we will EVER move into another property owned by those two-faced crazy people. NEVER, ever ever!!! I would show you who they are, but I am not that way. Just pray we get the problem resolved and quickly!!

OK, today's GRIPE session is over. Thanks if you read all the way to the end and stayed with me. If you didn't, its ok, this was a way for me to vent. Thanks.

This and That

School?! Well, remember a few weeks ago I said we were starting school? HAHAHA!!! LOL!! We did two days and then I decided it was still VERY much summer and I wasn't ready yet, even though Anna was and she was doing great. Anyhow, I am now thinking, since it is essentially August now, that we need to do school. LOL!! I guess it is me saying that its ALMOST time. I need to get into a better morning routine again and stop staying up so darn late at night. It is killing my drive in the morning. We will get there though. School is important.

Speaking of school, our church is doing a school supply drive for the people in the area by our church that need the help. While I was at Wal-Mart, yes, I resigned myself to a trip to that store...ugh, anyhow, while I was there, I decided to pick up a few things, I mean it wasn't that expensive to get a few things for the kids. Just because I homeschool and it works for our family doesn't mean its right for everyone, so I went to buy some of their cheap school supplies to add to our drive. While in an aisle, looking for deals, a lady and what looked like her children (two girls) asked what we were shopping for and I told her we were picking up a few things for the school supply drive at our church. She said that was nice and I never thought anything of it again. A few minute later, she handed me some money and a stack of notebooks to take to the supply drive. She said that it was pressed on her heart to do this. I was in shock. I told her thank you and went to pay. Those are in my car to drop off tonight. :-) Thanks again to the nice lady. Our supply drive will be richer because of your generosity. I know the kids who end up with the supplies will appreciate it. :-) I always donate to the back to school drives because I remember back in my public school teaching days all the kids who would come without. I always used to buy out of my pocket to make sure they all had their own crayons and their own pencil box, so I think these drives are important.

Alright, time to get on with the day. Have I mentioned that my daughter is having pictures on Friday? we have never done summer pictures, so we are doing them this Friday. I am super excited. Hoping for a beach type background. We are also taking our first trip to Portrait Innovations. I hope its good. I am excited that we will get our picture back that day and that is something new for us. I will let you know how it goes. You all know I am a picture person. I mean come on have you seen the family pictures all over my house? Do you know how many, many disks of digital pictures I need to develop? LOL!! Alright, I am truly going now. Have a great day and please pray for God's hand on help with mom's rent. Yes, the rent to August. We really depend strictly on donations to pay her rent. Anyways, thanks. God Bless!!