Darrell kills me. He cannot stand up to his family for anything. I guess he's just conditioned not to, he's put up with shit from them his whole life. He took in a job at the shop the other day; he actually had two jobs lined up: a transmission replacement and an overhaul. The labor on the first was $1700 and the labor on the second was a little less, but still over $1000. He'd get 60% of each of those amounts. He got the transmission almost out on the first day, before lunch even. He was going to set it out when he got back and then start on the overhaul while he waited for parts. We get back to the shop after lunch that day and what happened? Danny (his brother) had already taken the overhaul job inside and started on it! WTF?? We really needed that money, and aside from that, it was Darrell's job to do. Danny was even already working on something (not waiting on parts but actively working on it), and he pulled it outside to start on the overhaul.

Darrell was highly pissed but of course he didn't say anything! He lets Danny get away with shit like this all the damn time. He lets Danny tell him what job to start on, etc. when there is no 'boss' at the shop, everyone is technically working for themself. There's more, but I don't feel like typing it all out. Darrell was complaining about it again today and I just told him 'He's going to treat you like that as long as you let him'. I think, and I've told him this, that Danny would completely back down if Darrell told him what's what. I've seen people like that, Danny talks big when the person he's talking about isn't around to hear it. He NEVER says anything to people's faces, he won't confront. (on a related note, Darrell's whole family is like that, actually) I told Darrell if he would just tell Danny to lay off and STFU, he'd stop with the bullshit. But in the end, it's Darrell's decision, he'll have to take all he can take and then go off. He's been putting up with this same bullshit since his dad started the business in 1991, so I don't know if I see that happening anytime soon. :/

Ah, Monday again. Except today the kids aren't in school. It's President's Day, ya know, and kids need to be home to celebrate the presidents? Hee. Oh well, I didn't have to get up early this morning, so I'm okay. Hunter went back to work with Darrell after lunch, and Shelby's napping now, so all is quiet. We'll see how long that lasts, of course. :)

We actually got snow yesterday. Crazy, huh? I heard it sleeting around 2 AM Saturday night - Sunday morning, but it sounded like it changed to rain. We woke up on Sunday and I thought I still heard rain. We looked out the window and there was a good inch of snow. It just kept coming like crazy, and we ended up with about 6" total before lunch. Hunter and Mackenzie went out to play in it several times, they loved it. Darrell and I took Shelby out around 10, it was still snowing pretty hard. She had a hard time walking around in it. She was wearing snow boots that she'd never worn before (thanks, Chris!), and the snow was pretty deep for someone her size. It was very wet and heavy too. A lot of it is still out there today. I wonder if there will be school tomorrow. Most of the main roads are pretty clear, but the backroads may not be. If a certain number of kids can't get to school because of bad roads, they just call school off completely. Or if the buses can't get around safely. I'll check the news website later.

I hope they go, because I have a Dr. appointment tomorrow. My OB's office called and asked if I could come in at 9:30 instead of 1:00. Which is great, actually. I can pick the kids up from school (if they go) instead of my Mom having to do it, and I won't have to cut Darrell's lunch short to get there in time. My friend Chastity is going to ride up there with me. I'm glad, I don't know where this place is, and I don't want to get lost by myself. LOL I'm glad to be starting my OB visits. It seems like forever ago that I found out about the pregnancy. It's been 3 weeks, but seems like much longer. At the end of next week, I'll be entering my second trimester. Amazing.

In the next few weeks, I have to get the kids some summer clothes on layaway. I'm also going to hit some of the secondhand stores and see what they have that's in good shape. They'll all need new tennis shoes and new sandals, which I don't buy used. I need to have Hunter try on the shorts from last summer and see if he can wear any of them. I think he's ready for a size 10, and all those shorts are 8s. Mackenzie will still fit into her stuff, I'll just have to see how much she has and what she still needs. Shelby has nothing for summer, so we're starting from scratch with her. I can get lots of the Garanimals shirts and shorts sets for $2.88 each piece. Add in a few pairs of jean shorts and she'll be fine. After I get those clothes bought, I'm going to start layaway-ing baby things. Things that I can buy far in advance like some diapers, sleepers, onesies, socks, towels/washcloths etc. The crib I want is $128 at Wal-Mart, it converts to a toddler bed and has the trundle underneath. Very cute. I'll probably look at consignment shops and yard sales this summer for things like swing, bouncy seat, etc. I don't mind buying some things used, as long as they're in good shape. I've got to make a list of everything we've got to have, and put the less urgent stuff on the end. Some things we can't do without, like a crib, carseat, diapers, etc. Things like a highchair we won't use right away anyway, so I'll buy them last.

Well, I have had one hell of a time the past week. Hunter did indeed come down with what the girls had, only worse. My UTI got extremely worse until I went to the Dr. Then Shelby got "re" sick, puking all night, then came my turn. I am still recovering from being sick yesterday. I will never be so glad to see winter go. We never get sick like this, and it sucks ass in a big way.

I never could get ahold of my previous OB, so I ended up calling a new one. I have an appointment on Tuesday (the 17th). I'm looking forward to getting my visits started. I am almost 11 weeks pregnant now, so almost finished with my first trimester. Amazing how fast it goes. I've started making a list of things we need so I can start buying them. I've also got to get started van shopping. I need to ask Darrell what he wants to do. He said he wanted me to handle that stuff, but I don't know if he wants to get a new van, or a nice used one. It doesn't matter to me, but I do have some requirements. #1, the seats have to have headrests, all of them. Hunter is almost out of his booster, and he'll need a headrest. Also, the kids can both just use their seats without the backs if we had headrests. #2, I want both sides to have doors. The sliding doors, I mean. #3, the seatbelts must lock. This is somewhat negotiable, since both the FPSE and the Marathon I'm buying Shelby have built-in lockoffs, so I won't have to use locking clips. On the other hand, the infant seat I'm planning on (Graco Snugride) will not have lock-offs, and locking clips are a huge pain in the ass. I'd also like to be able to lock the seatbelt on Mackenzie, so she can't lean all over the place.

My house is a wreck again. I got it all clean on Monday, bathrooms, laundry caught up, etc. etc. On Tuesday I vacuumed and mopped the kitchen floor. Wednesday I didn't have much to do aside from a load of laundry. Then I was sick yesterday and the house went to hell. If I don't keep up on the house every single day, it just goes poof. This weekend I hope it's nice, so I can open the windows and air out the place. I'm going to wash all the bedding, and Lysol every surface. These germs are going down! LOL

I've been considering buying some stuff wholesale and opening an eBay store. I'm not totally sure on this yet, it's just a thought that's come into my mind. I know a girl that did this, so I'm going to talk to her and see how hard it is, what kind of profit there is, etc. I want to make sure it's worth my time and investment before I begin. I'm going to try to hit some yard sales this spring and summer and buy things to resell on eBay. I was going to do that last year and I just never got around to it. Brand name children's clothes sell pretty well. I would really like to open a junk store. Those are really popular in my area. They are essentially a yard sale in a store. We used to have a lot of them in town, but now we don't have many. I'd love to own one, maybe one day...

I'm depressed. I've got a UTI, which sucks all by itself. On top of that I feel crappy all the time. I am barely keeping up with my housework, no scratch that, I'm not keeping up with my housework. The house is a disaster, and everytime I get a burst of energy to do something, it doesn't last long enough for me to get it all done. The kids are sick, Hunter's coming down with what the girls have and Darrell's been puny all week too. He's got a toothache, but of course we don't have the money for him to go to the dentist. We have so much to do and buy before the baby's born, and it just seems impossible. We have to get a bigger vehicle, we have to get a bigger house. I have all the baby stuff to re-buy. The kids and Darrell and I are all going to need summer clothes soon. We usually buy them with the income tax returns, but since we have to pay in this year that's not possible. I've been having some slight spotting today, I believe it's due to the UTI though. I just feel like all this stuff is on us now, even though rationally I know it's not and we do have time. But I just feel like crawling into bed and having a good cry. I can't though, because anytime I complain about household stuff I hurt Darrell's feelings. He thinks I'm putting down his ability to provide for us, etc. Or at least I think that's how he feels.

I'm gonna go take a shower.

Holy cow! It's been almost two weeks since I've blogged. Well, a lot has went on since I last wrote. Mackenzie's stomach pain seems to be in check since starting the meds. I get to take her off the meds on Monday and see how she does. We hope it was just a temporary imbalance in her stomach. I'd hate for her to be on medicine full-time, but that's what we'll do if need be.

Last Monday, the 26th, I found out I am pregnant. Surprise, surprise! So that's why I couldn't stay awake much, and that's why I've felt like I was gonna puke everyday for the past two weeks. LOL It sure explains a lot. I decided to take a test just to rule it out, I honestly didn't think it would be positive. I got my little digital timer, peed on the stick, then set the timer for 3 minutes and put it on top of the test window. I think I just knew at that point, because I've never been nervous to look at the tests except when I knew they'd be positive. When I finally got up the courage to take the timer away and saw two lines, I literally couldn't breathe for a minute. I was freaking out. I called Darrell and told him, he took it all in stride. He's always steady when I'm freaking out. :)

So, I figure I'm due on September 5th. I've got a preliminary appointment on Tuesday, the 3rd. They'll do a test to verify the pregnancy, etc., then I'll have to call and make my first 'real' appointment. I've decided to use the same Dr. that I used with Hunter, Mackenzie, and Shelby. Darrell and I both like him, and he knows all of my history. I was shocked when I was pregnant with Shelby, and we were discussing birth weights, that he could recall the ballpark weights of Hunter and Mackenzie! He is a very busy doctor, he sees LOTS of people, I couldn't believe he remembered that. Of course he could have checked it beforehand, too. LOL

My "estranged" sister actually called me yesterday. I had just called my SIL to ask her something, so when the phone rang I thought it was her and answered without checking the caller ID. I had to sit for a minute before I realized it was my sister. She had called my Mom and Sara had told her about the pregnancy, so she called to congratulate me. It was awkward, and we talked for only a few minutes. :/

My BIL is a jerk-off. This is my oldest sister Stacey's husband. He's very into the 'husband is the head of the household, what he says goes' mindset, although he doesn't treat my sister with the respect that is supposed to go along with that life. She's more submissive, as in fixing his plate at dinner, even before she fixes the kids'. I've seen her fix his plate, then fix the kids', then him already be finished and want more, and her fix him more all before she can fix her own plate and eat. If the kids want company or want to go somewhere, they have to ask Dad, Mom doesn't make any of those decisions on her own. They see us as deviants, they probably think we are unfit to raise kids. LOL We aren't religious, we don't go to church, we don't pray, heck I don't even know that I believe in God. We swear, we let the kids watch 'objectionable' materials, Darrell drinks on occasion, used to be more often before he started his meds. They never come to visit, but I remember once they were over and the BIL actually had the nerve to ask me, when I offered something to drink, if we had anything besides beer in the house.

So, they don't let their kids stay over here with my kids because of that. Of course, they don't outright say it that way, but I know. My nephew Brandon is 10. He called today and asked if he could stay the night with Hunter. I said it was OK. He had to hang up and call his dad and ask him. He called back a few minutes later and said his dad said no. Then he wanted to know if he could come over while my sister goes to the store tomorrow. I said sure. Somehow I ended up inviting all three of her kids over to play while she shops. And she is not known for her speediness. :/ I just hope it's warm tomorrow so I can send them all outside. I guess I'm good enough to babysit, huh?

I was telling Darrell about it and he said it would get on his nerves if I sent the kids to him to ask him every little thing. I am perfectly capable of making decisions like that on my own. When the kids do ask if they can spend the night somewhere or if someone can stay with them, I just give them the answer, I don't even confer with Darrell. He's fine with whatever decision I make.

I guess that's all I'll bore you with for now. :) Maybe I can keep this thing updated better from now on. It just always seems to get pushed to the bottom of the list. Plus, I've felt like shit with morning sickness lately.

I keep thinking it's Sunday. That's why I hate Monday holidays. I'll be screwed up for the rest of the week now.

I had a boring weekend. We went to Columbia on Saturday to pick something up at Wal-Mart. Our WM sucks ass, so we had to drive all the way up there. I bought me a digital scale while we were at it. It's pretty nifty. I was weighing everybody when we got back home. Hee!

Yesterday I was being so lazy. I could not muster up the energy to clean or anything. I kept falling asleep just sitting on the couch watching tv. Weird. It must be a sign to get my ass off the computer at night and go to bed. Shelby has recently stopped sleeping in so well. She's been getting up with me at 6 everyday, which is fine on the weekdays, but she's doing it on the weekends too. Wah! Just when Hunter and Kenzie start sleeping in later, Shelby wants to get up at the buttcrack of dawn.

I had to take Kenzie to the Dr. today for her stomach pains. I got up early (thanks to Shelby), and got both bathrooms cleaned before I had to call the ped's office and make the appointment. They made it for 9:40, and it was 8:30 when I called, so we had to leave within 15 minutes. I hadn't even ate breakfast at that point. We left at about 10 til 9 and made it with 5 minutes to spare. But anyway. Before I left, I asked Darrell to do a few things for me. Nothing difficult:

-dust the living room
-when the washer finished, put the clothes in the dryer
-take something out of the fridge to thaw for supper
-put the breakfast dishes in the dishwasher and run it

That was it. I figured when I got home, I could finish laundry (folding), mop and vacuum. Oh, he also had to put Shelby down for a nap, not hard. I get back at 10 after noon. The kitchen counters were clear of dishes, but had not been wiped down. My fault, I should know that when I said load the dishwasher, that didn't mean wipe down the counters. Duh. I asked if Shelby had napped, and he said yes, she'd just woke up. Then he told me that he didn't put the clothes in the dryer, because Shelby was asleep. I run the dryer with her asleep all the time, I just make sure to catch it before it buzzes. THAT will wake her up.

So, I put the clothes in the dryer, and ask if he dusted the living room. 'No', he says. So I said 'What DID you do? Run the dishwasher and put out some hamburger meat?' Then he actually said, out loud!, 'You don't give a person enough time.' What? I actually started laughing, because it was so absurd. I said 'I was gone for three and a half hours!' These were not mammoth tasks, all of them combined shouldn't have taken more than a half hour, and that's being generous. I told him I could have asked him to fold all the laundry (3 baskets, plus one in the dryer and the previously mentioned one in the washer), vacuum and mop, in addition to the other things. At least Hunter got his room cleaned while I was gone like I asked him to.

The consensus on Mackenzie seems to be acid reflux. She's taking Tagamet for a month as a trial thing. If it helps, great; if not, we're back to square one. They did have her give a urine specimen, and do a strep culture, both of which were negative. (Although I don't know what they tested the urine for) She hates the medicine, she said it smells like vinegar. LOL It's not that bad, but if it doesn't taste like candy then it's yucky. She's on two doses a day. I gave her the first two today, and her belly was still bothering her this evening. I wish I had thought to ask how long before I would see results, provided this medicine does the trick. I'm not going to make her suffer for a month if this doesn't work, but I don't want to go running back up there before it's had a chance to do anything. I guess I could call tomorrow and ask.

Don't you hate stupid song lyrics? There are many, many song lyrics that make absolutely no sense out lately. And inaccurate song lyrics bugs me even more. There is a song that Hunter likes called " 'Cuz the chicks dig it", it's a country song. The first line of the chorus says 'scars heal'. What? A scar is a scar, man, it doesn't heal. And since it's in the chorus, I have to hear it multiple times when Hunter listens to the song. Darrell says he used the word because it flowed well with the music, syllable wise, ya know. Well, I say 'wounds' is also one syllable, would have worked just as well, and is correct, because wounds do in fact heal.

Since I'm handing out my gripes, don't you hate it when people have to one up you with their health complaints? Darrell is the world's worst. I cannot mention that I have a headache, my legs are sore, my belly hurts, back hurts, or anything hurts or is sore without him telling me about his aches and pains. Maybe he thinks he's just commiserating, but it's highly annoying. I've taken to just not complaining about my minor aches and pains because I have to hear about his in return. You know, when I say 'God, my head hurts', I'm not really looking for you to say anything, maybe just a little 'that sucks' or something. I don't need to then know that your back hurts and has hurt for a week now, along with the toothache and the giant hole in your skull. Why do you feel the need to outdo my aches and pains?

I looked through the clothes I have put up this morning. I thought there was a lot more clothes put up for Shelby than I found. There is only one of those bigger Rubbermaid containers in there, and it's filled 3/4 of the way with Hunter's summer stuff from last year, Kenzie's summer stuff from last year, and some stuff that's still too big for Mackenzie. I separated all the clothes into piles according to size. I only had like 4 items that are 2T, a few sweatshirts and one outfit that are size 3, then only about two or three things each in sizes 4 and 5. I know I was given a whole bunch more clothes than that. I don't know where I might have put them. I thought there was still some winter 2T things that Shelby could probably fit into now.

If anything is in the shed it won't be found until spring though. We're going to clear out the shed, build better shelving units in there and use it purely for storage. Darrell has his big shed where he keeps the mower, 4-wheelers, and all his tools. The small shed is just full of junk. I do keep some of my Christmas decorations out there, but it's just two containers. The tree, all the tree decorations, and all of my indoor decorations are in the closet inside. I could save so much room if I could store all of that out in the shed, along with the seasonal clothes for the kids.

I am dreading the spring clean-up though. Our yard looks like a typical hillbilly family's at the moment. LOL There are two, yes two couches sitting out by my driveway that need to be hauled off. On the side of Darrell's big shed is just a bunch of garbage, things he's set out there. Behind the shed is old lawnmowers, stripped of course, old motorcycles, all the old bicycles the kids have ever owned, plus our skeletons of two raised beds from our attempt at a vegetable garden last year. And how can I forget the shells of the truck Darrell bought last spring that ended up being a lemon, and the van he also bought when trying to fix the truck. Maybe I should just embrace my hillbillyness and make flowerbeds out of them. We are picking the first warm day and borrowing Richard's truck and cleaning all of that up. Oh, who am I kidding. It'll take at least a weekend, if not two or three weekends. Especially with the dump only being open half days on Saturday and closed on Sunday.

Ah, Monday. We had a pretty uneventful weekend. On Saturday morning, we had to go over to my Mom's and do something to her computer. Darrell had worked on it and fixed it a few days before, but there was a problem. We were there an hour, during which time Molly managed to get mud on Darrell and Mackenzie, and Shelby found an old coke can and dumped the contents on herself. Molly is the dog, btw. A huge golden retriever that they have inside. So we came home and let them change clothes, then headed to Columbia. I wanted to look at Hobby Lobby and see how their scrapbooking selection is. Very good, as it turns out. I've requested scrapbooking supplies for our anniversary. :)

After that, we went to two pet shops and found nothing, then to a dollar store. I got some sets for the computer, you can do iron on transfers for shirts, magnets, mousepads, and even a shrinky-dink type of set, all for $1 each. Then we went by Lowe's and got some stuff for the fish tank, or stuff to make something for the fish tank, I should say.

We got home at 10 minutes to 4, having to be at Rebecca's birthday party at 4. Ugh. So we unloaded stuff, changed diaper, then left again. The kids had a good time at the party, they love playing with their cousins anyway.

Sunday I cleaned all day, per usual. I had to go to the grocery store too, since I didn't get to go on Saturday. We didn't need much this week, though.

Weigh in was this morning, I haven't lost or gained since last Wednesday. I am sure that no loss can be directly attributed to my two day slip last week. I am very glad there was no gain though. I've got to get more exercise and more water in this week. Maybe it'll warm up enough for Shelby and I to hit the park everyday this week. I need to check the forecast.

Must go for now. Shelby's up from her nap, and I have to vacuum and fold two loads of clothes.

I'm boring this week, there's really nothing going on. The kids are back in school and everything is back to normal, just doing the same old stuff. I've been doing better about keeping up on the housework this week. Of course that can fall apart at a moment's notice. Heh. No big plans for the weekend. I've got to try to get the Christmas lights taken down and put away. I still have green garland hanging on my fence, and a concrete snowman out there. LOL

My neice's birthday party is tomorrow evening. It's from 4-6 PM. I hate evening time parties. It's gonna screw up dinner. I don't know why my sister thinks she has to have a party for each one of her kids every single year. Hell, Hunter and Mackenzie haven't had parties since they were 1 & 2 years old. We do a birthday dinner, cake and presents, but no huge get together with decorations and company. Speaking of birthdays, their birthdays are coming up fairly soon. Mackenzie's and Shelby's in a month and a half. I don't know what we're doing for them yet. Kenzie wants a party, but I don't know. I wanted to redo her room and have it finished by her birthday, but we've ran into some unexpected mold problems, and we're going to have to replace all the walls in her room, which adds expense. I don't think it'll be even started by her birthday, because the wall has to be done first, and it costs the most. She said something about Rapunzel Barbie, so maybe we'll just get her a couple of more Barbie things to go with the dollhouse and things she got at Christmas.

Shelby, I think, is getting one of those battery operated driveable cars. Nothing fancy, just something she can play with outside as it warms up. They have the one seater models at Wal-Mart for around $100, and one seat is all she needs, otherwise Hunter and Mackenzie will be trying to ride. We wanted to get her one for the summertime anyway, so we can kill two birds with one stone here.

Hunter's birthday is a month after the girls', and he's getting a new bike. He's had his current bike for 2 years, and he's extremely rough on it. He wanted a new one for Christmas, but we decided to do his birthday instead since it's closer to summer and warm weather.

Wow, it has been a few days since I updated, huh? I didn't realize it'd been that long..

So. . . what's new. Hm, I've been doing really good on my eating, mostly. I've went overboard a few times, and last night pretty badly. I paid for it this morning though, my stomach hurt like the dickens. I didn't feel like eating breakfast then, but I made myself have a small bowl of cereal. I don't want to start skipping breakfast again. I bought me some Special K with berries at the store today, much better than Froot Loops. Ha!

The kids went back to school today. They had a pretty good day, it was fairly easy to get back into the routine again. I figured it'd be harder. I got up at 5:45 this morning with no trouble, the kids got up easily. They were ready to go 20 minutes before time, so they watched Between the Lions on PBS until we left.

This week is pretty boring. Maybe it'll get exciting tomorrow. Sorry to all my readers. Hahaha!

btw, did anybody notice I posted my last entry at 19 seconds after midnight? LOL

I am SO tired today. I have been busy, busy, busy! It all started last week. Darrell woke me up in the middle of the night chasing a mouse around. It woke him up chewing on a water box that was at the back door to be took off. So we set out some traps and things, but didn't catch anything. On NYE, after we went to bed, we could hear one chewing in the kitchen. The next morning we get up and there is water in the kitchen floor in front of the dishwasher. I thought my dishwasher was broke. Darrell started pulling everything out from under the sink (dishwasher is next to the sink), and finally found that the little flexible tube that he has a reverse osmosis filter hooked to for the fish tank, has been chewed into, and there's our water.

So we decide we are going to deep clean the house, declutter, and get rid of these mice. Darrell set some traps and put them under the sink. He had turned on the RO machine at around lunch. After we got back from the grocery store he checked it and it hadn't filled up. He followed the line back and the mice had chewed into the tubing behind the tv too. So for about 4 hours, water was dripping onto my carpet behind the tv. Ugh! Darrell moved the tv stand (it had been catty corner in that area), and there was mouse shit everywhere. NASTY! They had chewed into some of the tv cords, and Darrell's playstation 2 controllers (he was pissed about that! they are so expensive).

This is the grossest fucking thing ever. Last night, we were getting ready for bed, and we heard one of the traps snap. Darrell went into the kitchen and it had caught a mouse by it's back leg. It ran back down into the hole it came out of with the trap still on it's leg. Darrell ended up having to pull out the kick board stuff that's under the cabinet, trying to find it. He finally found the trap, but the mouse had got away. There was blood on the trap, so it is injured at least. When we got up this morning, there was a mouse caught in a trap, but it wasn't the hurt one, so it's still loose. Maybe it went somewhere and died from the injury. Doubtful, nasty little bastards. So my cabinet is still empty tonight, we have glue traps and regular traps all around, and poison. We really want rid of the nasty little rodents.

So that's why I've been cleaning all day. I've been cleaning out all the closets, toyboxes, cabinets, top of the fridge, under sinks, etc. etc. I want to rid the house of any and all possible bedding spots for mice. I found a bunch of Froot Loops in the bottom of Shelby's toybox today. No wonder we have mice, heck, we've laid out a buffet for them apparently.

Mom came and got Hunter and Mackenzie yesterday. She called and asked if she could come get them for a while. They left around 2:30 or 3. Darrell, Shelby, and I went grocery shopping together, then when we got back Mom called and asked if they could just spend the night. She and Sara came down here and got their clothes and toothbrushes. Then we had Subway for supper. I had a full card, so I got a free 6" with the purchase of a drink. It was yummy too. Ham on wheat bread, with cheese, lettuce, tomato, pickle, and mustard. I prefer mayo on my ham and cheese, but I'm trying to watch what I eat. I REALLY prefer Subway's pizza subs, but I knew that was out of the question, TOO many calories. I picked from their 6 subs with 6 grams of fat thing.

Mom told me she didn't know when she'd bring the kids back today, then she called around 4 and asked if they could just spend the night again. She washed their clothes from yesterday, so they could wear them again tomorrow. I said okay, it's easier for me to get all this stuff done without having to fix 3 lunches, referee fights, and just have them generally underfoot. I miss them though. I got Shelby to sleep at about 8:30 this evening, and then the house was so quiet. I'm definitely not used to that! :)

New Year's Eve. Sitting at home like it's just another night. I remember when me and my girlfriends would spend hours getting ready: showering, shaving, putting on smelly stuff, make-up just right, hair just so. Because NYE is not just any old party night, ya know. Hee! Now I make Jell-O and buy gummi bears for my kids, make hot dogs and french fries for supper, let them stay up 'til midnight watching hours of tv, and drink one lonely little cooler drink at 11:30, which I am almost ashamed to say is making me feel a little tipsy. I am such a lightweight anymore. In my defense, I have been pregnant or breastfeeding since June 2001, and didn't really drink before then either. I think the last time I got drunk was 1995. Ha!

My healthy life begins tomorrow. I'm pretty psyched about it. I've got to go to the bank Friday and deposit some money to pay for my Weight Watchers subscription. I wish I could wait to grocery shop until I join and can get some recipes for next week, but I have to do the shopping tomorrow. I don't have enough food to last through Saturday. I'll just have to plan some meals and wing it, and hope for the best.

I told Hunter and Mackenzie they could stay up until midnight tonight, never thinking they'd last, but they're both in there in the living room still watching tv. After midnight (in 5 minutes!), I'm going to make them get to sleep. They are gonna be so tired tomorrow. I hope they're not cranky.

Hunter has major sucky attitude lately. He's just getting to be a little shit. I've been letting him slide on too many things I think. I told him (and Mackenzie too, although I haven't had any trouble from her lately) that I am tightening the belts on them. I am not putting up with this back-talking attitude. He reminds me of a teenager, and he's not even 8 yet!!

Must go, it's almost midnight. I don't want to be typing when the new year comes in. Happy 2004!!

Monday, and the hubby's back at work. Ahhhh. He was starting to irritate my nerves, being home since mid-Wednesday and all. Our weekend was boring. I did some cleaning on Saturday, although not much. Yesterday I finished the cleaning, finally caught up the laundry, redecorated my living room. I did a little bit of deeper cleaning in the kitchen, rearranged my counters and washed the wall behind the stove. I could really use a backsplash. I hate the way mobile homes are made, so cheap. If we build on, I'm having the original trailer redone, in addition to building new rooms. Seriously, no baseboards? Things like that is ridiculous. But it's a place to live, keeps me warm in the winter and cool in the summer, and it's mine. I could be paying rent to someone else, I suppose.

My countdown to a healthy life is on. Darrell is going to be in for a rude awakening soon. As soon as my Mom gives me my Christmas money I'm going to join Weight Watchers online, and then buy an umbrella stroller for my daily walks. Darrell's getting new bulbs for the fish tank with his part of it. I'm getting excited about it though. Maybe I can encourage Darrell to give up some of the sweets and Diet Coke. Probably not though.

It's raining outside. There's supposed to be a front coming through today taking us down to the 40s. It's been too warm these past few days to be December. And we're supposed to hit the mid-60s the first couple of days of January. Craziness.

The kids got up and I fixed them some breakfast this morning. Kenzie fixed Nubby some food and they were all eating. Then Nubby came over and puked up a bunch of dog food right next to Mackenzie. She then decided that she had to use the bathroom before she could clean it up. Hunter ran out of the room gagging, and then Shelby went to Hunter's place at the table and started eating his food. Kenzie finally got it all cleaned up, I couldn't look at it either without feeling queasy, so it was all her. Then, after breakfast, I had Hunter go get the dirty clothes basket from their bathroom so I could do a load of clothes. He stepped in a big pile of dogshit right outside the bathroom door. So Nubby got an all expense paid trip to her kennel! ;p

Today I have to do that one load of laundry, vacuum and mop. I hate mopping when it's raining, but my floor is too dirty to wait. I think the kids and I will make some Jell-O in a bit, and I'll let them cut it out with cookie cutters to make those jiggler thingys. Mackenzie just came in and asked if she could get on nickjr.com. LOL She loves the computer, maybe as much as I do. Scary thought, that. Must go now, there's screaming in the living room.

Today was pretty boring. I slept in until 9:30! Wow, that's the latest I've slept in a long time. I'm starting a bad habit though. When the kids go back to school I won't be able to stay up late and sleep in. Shelby's already gotten used to the later hours too, she's went right back into her old summertime routine. Last summer, she would get up around 9 or so, then nap at 2-3, then not go to bed until 10 or 11. When school's in, she gets up at 6:30-7, nap at 10 am, bed by 7-8. I've had hell getting her to bed the last few days. She's fought it until 10 or later. I was lucky to get her to sleep by 9 on Christmas Eve so we could get Santa stuff set out.

Anyway, after I got up and got ready, we went to town. We took off all the Christmas garbage, then went by the pet shop and got Princess some dog bones, and had her nails trimmed. Then we went and visited my M&FIL for a while. My MIL had one of those candycane things full of mini-whoppers for the kids and a big 3 pound box of chocolates for Darrell and me. Yum-my! Then we went to Wal-Mart and got Shelby some shoes, and Diet Coke and dishwasher tablets. I also got her some panties, we're going to try this potty training gig next week. I told Darrell he'll have to take the car all week, so I don't have to worry about leaving the house and taking diapers off and putting them back on all day. We'll see how she does. If she doesn't show that she's ready enough, we'll wait until later. Maybe summertime when the kids are home again. She'll be 2y3m when they're out for summer.

I took down all my Christmas decorations today. I was going to leave them for a few more days, but Darrell wanted to take them down so I said okay. I contemplated leaving my snowmen out for a few minutes, but decided to go ahead and put them away. My house looks so bare. I think I have more decorations for Christmas than I do for the rest of the year. We still have a lighted garland on the fence, and lights on the trees, bushes, and shed to take down. There's still a bow on my mailbox too, I'll get all that tomorrow probably.

We've decided to make redoing Mackenzie's room her birthday present. I'm going to start on it in the next week or so. It'll take more money than a traditional present, so we'll start now and hopefully be finished by her birthday (Feb. 24). I figure this way, I have somewhat of a deadline, so I'm more likely to get started. We're going to do a joint compound treatment on her room, troweling it on with a smooth trowel. After it dries, we'll paint it like normal. She's getting a funky, multi-colored daisy comforter set from Wal-Mart, it comes with a dust ruffle and sham. Then she'll get 3 sets of solid color sheets to match. She'll get new curtains (custom made by Darrell's aunt) on her window and closet door. I'm going to be on the lookout for a new dresser and end-table to refinish and paint. I'm going to put a closet organizer in her closet, although I don't know just what yet. I've seen plans for DIY organizers, the ones you buy are so freaking expensive. We'll have to see on that one. Then I've picked out a bunch of accessories for her through Home Interiors. I plan on making her a headboard too, to attach to the wall. I don't know what yet, maybe a big daisy. LOL I'm going to have to try to book a show or two this month to cover the cost of some of this. I've already got over $100 just in accessories picked out. Eek! I wish I had $500 like on Decorating Cents. I could definitely do it for that. :)

Christmas is over.

It builds up for what seems like a long time, and then it's over just like that. All the weeks (or months) of planning, shopping, baking, wrapping, decorating, and it's done in such a short time. It's always sort of a letdown after all the gifts are opened. Or maybe it's just me. ;p

We got up around 6:30 this morning. Darrell heard one of the kids up, and our living room is open to the bedrooms, so we didn't want them up before us. I got up and Hunter came running in talking about a kitchen in the living room (he mistook Kenzie's dollhouse for a toy kitchen). LOL It was funny. We all used the bathroom (haha), and I let the kids look at their Santa gifts for a few then I made Kenzie take the dog out, and we waited for her to get back in. Then everyone dove in and opened all the gifts. The kids got a ton of stuff, and I am happy to say they are all very happy with all of their gifts. There is nothing that they don't really like or haven't played with. Well, the books have kind of been ignored today, but they'll get to them I'm sure. :)

As for me, I got some nice stuff. Darrell got me a snowman for my collection, a space-saver can opener and some White Diamonds perfume. I've been wanting some of that for a long time, but never would spend that much on good perfume for myself. LOL From my swap partners, I got perfume from my mom and a chenille throw from my SIL Karen. It's so soft and warm. I've been covering up with it on the couch all evening. My MIL got me some kitchen towels/mitts/potholders, and FIL gave us $100. My mom (additionally) got me a snowman for my collection and also $100.

We usually do our dinner at around lunch time, or between 11 and 1. This year I decided to do it later and we didn't eat until around 4:30. The upside to this is that I didn't have to start cooking immediately after present opening. I started at 10 this morning with the cornbread, and put the turkey in at 11. I cooked a turkey and ham, so it was about 4 hours of cooktime altogther, then cooking the dressing and rolls. The other upside is that since we basically ate supper, we snacked for lunch and then I just cleaned the kitchen up once after we finished eating. Usually I'll clean up, store leftovers, etc., and then when we warm food up for supper, I have more to clean. The downside of this method is that I was cooking practically all day. When we eat earlier, I get started earlier and all cooking is done early on and then the rest of the day is mine to lounge or whatever. I don't know how I'll do it for next year. I'll worry about that when the time comes, I suppose.

I am kind of glad it's all over, but boy am I dreading putting away all my decorations!
Merry Christmas!

I can't believe it's been so long since I've put in an entry. Oops. :)

Well, Shelby ended up getting sicker. The day after my last entry, she woke up with a 103+ temperature, which she kept off and on (mostly on) for the next four days. I ended up taking her to the Dr. mid-week last week, along with Mackenzie who came up sick the next Tuesday. They both were just suffering from viruses. Shelby was already on the mend by the time I took her in to the ped, and Mackenzie was only sick for a couple of days. She ended up being home all week though. I let her go back to school Friday for the Christmas party. She hadn't had a fever in 24 hours at that point, so I figured it was okay. She didn't get to take her reading test over the last story though. I hate for her to go back in January and have to take a test from December. But she's smart, she'll ace it.

Darrell did sell his truck. He got the $500 he was asking for it and I got to finish my Christmas shopping. I was so relieved when I went and got the rest of the kids' things. We also got our swap stuff. I gave Mom one of my big Home Interior candles that I had previously ordered, and we bought Richard one of those water themometor things. It's filled with water, and has all of these trinket looking things in it. You tell the temperature by which ones are floating, and how high up they are floating. It's neat. It doesn't give you a accurate degree, more of a neighborhood temperature, but it's cool.

We had the family Christmas party the other day, Sunday. It was fun. Everybody was there, my grandparents' house was so crowded. That's the best though. ;p We had a finger food buffet and everybody brought something. There was punch to drink, chips & dip, veggie trays, meat/cheese/cracker trays, chocolate covered pretzels, sugar cookies, nuts, ham rolls, and a sub tray. The ones with kids came an hour early and all the kids decorated the tree with homemade ornaments that we had made. It was fairly well loaded, there was like 3 or 4 balls on one branch, etc. It looked nice, though, and the kids had fun. I got some perfume from my swap person, and Darrell got a new wallet.

Today I took the kids over to Mom's house to play with Matthew, Lucas, and Alanis. Mom got them Sunday evening and took them back this evening, so she could see them and give them their gifts. She's going to try to get them again next week, so the kids can play somemore then. I'm going to try to get a hold of Joey and ask him if Matthew would be interested in writing back and forth with Hunter. I figure they can both use the handwriting practice, and this way they can keep in touch and keep up with what the other is doing.

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve. I can't believe it's finally here. They're getting their checks first thing tomorrow, so I have to get Darrell's and go to the bank to deposit bill money. I have to pay a bill online, and the other that's coming out this week is direct withdrawal. Sara called earlier and asked if I'd take her to Columbia to get some clothes and Mom a Christmas gift. Nothing like waiting til the last minute, eh? I said I would, but then I had to call her back and say I couldn't. I forgot I had to go to the bank, and it's only open half-day tomorrow. Darrell's only working half-day too, so I have to get my running done in the morning. There's no way I could make it to the bank and then to Columbia and be back in time. The bank and Columbia are in opposite directions. :) Plus, I have to make my pies and stuff tomorrow evening. I'm only making three pies, two of which are no-bake so they're quick.

I guess that's it then. I hope everyone that celebrates has a merry Christmas!

I can see I'm gonna be lucky to update this thing a couple of times a week. It just gets pushed to the end of the list (the never ending list, that is). Darrell's over on the bed watching some silly teenage horror movie called Wrong Turn. It's got these kids trapped in the forests of West Virginia being hunted by some crazy inbred mountain men. I wonder how offended the people of W. Va are? LOL

We had to move the fish tank over today. It was stressing the floor too bad where it was. We had to move it to where it was closer to the cross beams or some such. I'm really not sure. But I tell you, moving that thing is a bitch. We had a 32 gallon garbage can, half of another one (Darrell had previously cut some of it off, reason unknown), and I had to go buy three more. We had to siphon all the water out, take out all the live rock, fish, corals, starfish, shrimp, snails, crabs, etc. etc. and put them in something else. We got the water down to about 2-3" with all the crushed coral still in the bottom and we could.not.budge the thing. We had to dip the rest of the water and coral out with a bowl, and then we could barely scoot the thing two feet down the floor. Ugh. It took all Darrell and I could do together to lift the empty tank up on the stand. IT is 6 feet long, probably 2 feet deep, and the glass is thick. Darrell started at about 9:30 or 10, and it was 2 by the time he got everything put back together and put up. I made him do most of the work, it's his tank. LOL

Shelby has been a whiny ass today. She's feeling bad, running a low temp and got throat problems. I don't know if anything hurts, she doesn't act like it. She has a slight cough, but it's not all the time, just occasionally. When she does cough though, or when she cries, it sounds like she's losing her voice, that raspy kind of sound. She's been tugging at her right ear too, but she's not having trouble sleeping or anything, so I'm comfortable letting it go for a bit longer and seeing if she can shake it. I'd like to avoid the doctor's office if possible at the moment. I don't want to go in for a slight ear infection and her end up with the flu.

This next week is the kids' last before Christmas break. Friday morning they'll just go in long enough to have a short Christmas party. Hunter's room is ordering breakfast from Hardee's, so I have to send in $1 on Monday for him to have a sausage biscuit. They aren't exchanging gifts in his classroom, and the teachers asked that you don't send them gifts either. I am still baking cookies for them, and for Kenzie's teacher too. Mackenzie's room is also having a breakfast, but her teacher is supplying the food. They are doing a coloring book exchange, we bought the coloring books last night - it's a $2 limit, so we bought two $1 books. I can't believe how much coloring books cost. The cheapest Wal-Mart had after the $.97 was $2.62, and some were even $3-4. That's crazy. I can go print a bunch of Spongebob pictures off the internet. Screw the $4 coloring books.

Someone is coming by in the morning to look at Darrell's truck and possibly buy it. Darrell doesn't like to drive anymore because of anxiety, and the Paxil doesn't help while driving. He got the truck in February, and hasn't driven it since July. He made a fairly decent check this week, but half of it went to the electric bill, and the rest was nickel and dimed up, $20 to send a few boxes at the PO, $30 at Wal-Mart for diapers, wipes, garbage bags, etc. Things like that. I still lack about $175 being finished Christmas shopping for my kids, and about $65 being finished shopping for our swaps. So hopefully the guy will want to give us $500 for the truck tomorrow and I can get finished. If he doesn't, I don't know what we're going to do. How am I going to explain to Hunter that Santa came for Mackenzie and Shelby but not him? Ugh, I don't even want to think about it. It'll work out, it has to. And starting next month, I am putting back $5-10 dollars of every paycheck in the safebox, so we'll at least have money at the end of the year to get our kids' gifts. I know December is slow every year, and yet I wait until then to try to pay bills and buy gifts all at the same time. I'm an idiot.

I'm jealous of all these pretty blog backgrounds. I'm trying to resist the urge to look into getting one. Like I need more time spent on the computer.

This week has been okay so far. Mackenzie fell off the top of the slide at school Monday, so I kept her home yesterday and took her to the ped to get her shoulder looked at. Luckily, it's not broken. My nephew fell on some playground equipment and broke his arm, and it wasn't even detected for a few days because it just didn't hurt that bad. You'd think a break would equal big pain, but apparently not always. So I wanted to have Kenzie's shoulder looked at just in case. Darrell had a pretty bad anxiety attack late Monday night. Well, early Tuesday morning more like it. It was the worst one I've ever seen, and pretty scary. He felt kind of weak and shaky all day yesterday. This is the first day he's gone to work this week. Which is so not what we need right now. I'm hoping and praying for enough money to pay the bills that need paid and finish our Christmas shopping this weekend. I've got to get Darrell's and my swap gifts on his side of the family (his sister and his sister-in-law), and the gift for Richard. I'm going to go to Wal-Mart today and get Hunter and Mackenzie each a gift from Shelby. They've already got their gifts for the other two. I think it'll just be a couple of coloring books and crayons each.

Last night we decided to put together a gingerbread house that I actually bought last year and never used. First of all, I filled up the water to the line on the cup that had the picture of the gingerbread house. It said '2X' on that line, so I filled it to that line twice and put in two cups of water. After about 10 minutes of mixing with no thickening in site, I realized that it didn't need two lines of water. I have no clue why it said 2X on that line. So, I had to dump a ton of powdered sugar in to thicken it up. LOL And just a tip, putting together a gingerbread house is not as easy as it may seem. I had icing all over the place. LOL It was fun, though. The kids decorated it with all the candies, peppermints, gumdrops, etc. Then we sprinkled powdered sugar to look like snow.

After that, the kids watched Rudolph and we colored. They're doing a paper chain advent calendar, and coloring was the activity on yesterday's chain. Tonight they get to stay up for 30 extra minutes. Which is good, because I need to trim Hunter's hair.

I can't believe Christmas is so close. I can't believe that this year is almost over. The kids only have the rest of this week, and then 4 days of school next week. On the 19th, they'll go in for about an hour for Christmas parties, and then they'll be on vacation until January 7th!! Nearly 3 weeks!! I hope they don't lose interest in their toys, I can totally see myself going insane. :)

I really, really have to go clean the house now. It's not bad, Darrell actually got up and unloaded the dishwasher this morning, and reloaded it with all the gingerbread house makings. We ate McDonald's last night so there were no dishes from supper. But I need to straighten the bathrooms and living room, wipe the counters in the kitchen, sweep and swiffer, fold a load of clothes and wash another. Shelby will probably be awake by then and we can go to Wal-Mart. I've got to take some candles to my Mom too. She's buying all the candles in a jar that I have, I'm giving her a discount on them at $5 each, they're regularly $5.99+tax. That's still more than I paid for them though. I get them for $3.80 apiece, so I'm still making a little bit anyway.

Maybe more later, if I can find the time!

I'm a bad blogger. I like to do my entries in the evenings, to kind of recap my day. But by the time I get around to it, Darrell is asleep and the clicking of the keyboard is really loud when it's the only sound in the room.

So yesterday (Saturday), we went to Columbia to get coats and shoes. Hunter had to get a size 3 shoe. The ones he was wearing were 2s, so we tried a 2 1/2 and his toe was at the end, so we had to go up to 3. It's funny, because when we got him a pair of Nikes last year, he had to have a 3 in them. I guess they run smaller. Anyway, we found him a coat at Wal-Mart, a 3-in-1 type. It's two jackets that zip together to form a thick coat. He likes it, but of course he's only wearing one of the jacket pieces instead of the whole thing. It can be 0 degrees outside and he wants to wear a jacket. We found Shelby's coat at Sears. We got it for half-price, which is a good thing since it was $50 originally. There's no way in hell I'd give that for a child's coat. Maybe I'm cheap, but it better change diapers too or something for that price.

After we got the coats and shoes, we went to the pet store, liquor store, then to Burger King for lunch. As I was pulling out of the parking lot at the liquor store, I dropped my Coke can and spilled it all over myself, so BK was drive-thru. ;p While we were at Wal-Mart, I also got the kids' the gifts for their swap partner. Jacob got a little micro machines set, Rebecca a kitty doll with hair that has a brush and other accessories, and Destiny got a doll with bottles, baby food, bib, etc. I'm giving my Mom a candle, so I've already got that. The only ones I'm lacking is Richard, Dora and Karen. I'll pick those up next weekend, I guess.

Today I've been cleaning and baking. I still have a load of clothes in the dryer, and need to vacuum and mop. I baked some chocolate chip cookies with little red, green, and white candy coated chips. Also cornflake peanut butter balls, milk chocolate fudge w/walnuts, and a chocolate chip cookie bar that has walnuts and coconut in it. Yum! :) Shelby has been cranky all day. It took me until around 2 to get her down for a nap, then once she went to sleep I couldn't get her to lay down without waking up. I finally got her laid down and gathered up Hunter and Mackenzie to do their craft. Doing a craft was on their advent calendar today, and it was painting the ornaments for the tree at the Christmas party, so I definitely wanted to get it done while Shelby was asleep.

Wouldn't you know, as soon as I got newspapers spread on the table and was giving the kids their paint, Shelby woke up. I lost my mind for a second and decided to let her paint too, but just on paper. Before it was over she had craft paint all over her legs, feet, hands, arms and face. I had to stick her in the tub, luckily the stuff washes off easily. And, the grossest thing happened. While they were painting, she grabbed Mackenzie's cup of water that she was using to rinse between colors and took a drink out of it. YUCK! It was kind of funny though. Heh.

So Shelby's been as cranky as ever this evening. It's almost bedtime though. Yay! Oh Lord, the dog bit Shelby today, too. It was her fault, the dog was trying to take refuge under the end table and Shelby crawled under there trying to pull her out. They're both having to learn how to act around each other, and it's slow going. Nubby got her on the cheek, it's just too small scratches. She's not big enough to do any real damage. Hopefully we'll all have an understanding before that time comes.