Catching Up

Warning this is going to be a long post but hopefully you will stick around to read it. :)

BACKWARDS/CRAZY HAIR DAY


Max was SO excited for his backwards/crazy hair day at school. I however, was nervous because there wasn't ever a note from school saying anything about it but he insisted so I called another mom who was also unsure if she should trust her 5 year old. We decided that they couldn't both just be making it up.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!



Steven had been putting in quite a bit of extra time at work so his boss offered to send our family on a little vacation and it all happened just in time for my 30th birthday. We went up on Saturday and spent the day snowmobiling. We went swimming on Sunday and all climbed into one bed and watched Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. After swimming Steven and the kids put their swimsuits outside to freeze and sure enough they did. Then Monday morning I got a spa treatment and we headed home. Monday was my actual birthday. After my spa treatment we rushed home for Steven to get to a shoot while I spent the day grocery shopping and training for my new job.

GETTING BACK INTO THE JOB FORCE

I am now employed with Emdeon, a medical billing company. It is at home data entry. I'm working from 10pm-2am. We did some number crunching and realized since I was no longer watching Amber that we may not be able to survive with a mortgage payment. Neither of us wanted me to sacrifice time from the family and that is why I chose the hours I did. It took me 4 tries to pass the test to actually be able to keep the job and that was very stressful. Now that I'm actually working I think it's going well. The only problem is that last week they ran out of wo, rk several days but I'm hopeful that won't be a consistent problem.

MY 6 YEAR OLD!


I can't believe that my baby boy is 6! It's crazy. He is such a good boy. Max is always trying to make good choices. Lately he and Elese have been arguing a lot...I think that is a sign that he is growing up. On Super Bowl Sunday we had a little party for the family February birthday's where Max got some gifts and his hulk costume was defiantly his favorite followed closely by his Marvel T-shirts. On his birthday he woke up to a iron man sweatshirt that he has worn every day since, a batplane that he loves, and a Superman and Krypto the superdog action figure. He took double chocolate doughnuts to school and he got to wear a crown. After school I surprised him by taking him ice skating.


Saturday was a busy day. First I worked until 2am, then all of us went out looking at homes, then Steven and I went to see Fiddler on the Roof at Hale theater, then we rushed home and got ready for Max's birthday party. It was a baseball party. First we played indoor baseball with a dice telling them what base to go to. Then a pinata for batting practice and a little bit of catch. They all enjoyed some hot dogs as well as some cake and Ice Cream and Max loved having all the attention and of course, the presents.

Max also got his first love note from a girl at school it said, "From Sicily, To Max Max. I luv you!" It was super cute. I love the look on his face when I give him the attention that he SO deserves. He loves having mommy and daddy listen to his silly stories about the Joker being outside with a bomb and that Max is really Batman and Ryan is Robin so we don't need to worry because they will get the Joker. He will also tell us about how he saved the world when he was at school. He has quite the imagination which is so much fun but it also slows down the homework process a little bit because we go from he reading the word dog to, "Mommy, what if a dog was really called a cat and a cat was called a fish?" I love my bug. Walking him home from school is such a special time for me to just listen to him talk about his day.

HOUSE HUNTING

While I have been enjoying house hunting it is also very frustrating. Most of what we can within our price range is a short sale. The first house we put an offer on ended up getting pushed into foreclosure. The home we currently have an offer on looks good but it could take a good long while before we know if we got it...then there's the inspection and all of that so who knows. We are pretty hopeful about this house but you still never know. To tell you the truth I kind of don't mind the waiting but just because the longer it takes the more money we can save so that I can get new couches and maybe even a bedroom set when we move...just wish that we knew if we got the house and then I wouldn't mind the waiting so much. The other frustrating thing is that if we just had a little more buying power our options would be so much better. I feel like we are compromising on things that are important to us just to get a house, but at this point, we just need a house. But, we are super excited to have our own place. I can't wait for the kids to no longer be sharing a room...I'm hopeful that it will make bed time a lot more pleasant and prevent any boy/girl room sharing issues before they start. Also, space. I can't wait to have the kids in their own room with their own toys. Rather than having all of their toys, cloths, beds, and them smooched together in one space. It seems like we get things organized and looking nice and then it suddenly turns into an unmanageable space because there is so much stuff in so little space.

BALLET


Elese has been taking ballet. The school distict sends out a packet with community classes that are a really great deal and they only last for 8 weeks so you can test something out and see if the kids like it before you start forking out all your cash for a larger commitment. Whenever she comes with us to look at houses she always finds one room that she loves and then she says, "Mommy, and this will be my ballet and my teacher can come and we'll sing Rock a by baby!" The other day after her class she was making up songs that can most accurately be described as a "mash up" of all of her ballet songs. Oh and yesterday she told me, "Mom, listen to this song I made up. Wonder woman smells and the tire thing it um, fell off and um...the joker was there." She makes me laugh...and pull my hair out all at the same time. I LOVE HER!.

AYL

Things have been stressful for Steven at work lately but he did come home with good news. I'm reluctant to share it today because I just want to wait for things to actually be happening before I announce it to the world...but just know that things are looking good and we are hopeful that within the next month my job wil not be a necessity but an avenue to build up a really nice emergency fund.

And that is all...or at least all I can think of for the moment. Thanks for reading. :)