Happy Halloween---2011

Have a spooky Halloween!

Pumpkins for the porch

After our interview (we did one for a local news broadcast this morning for a contest) the boys needed to get their pumpkins carved before they ran out of time. Last year I bought 5 little pumpkins and they were difficult to carve, to say the least. Those may be great for pies, but impossible to carve up. This year, we decided to forgo the headache and just get two bigger ones for the big boys to carve. The little kids always have so much Halloween stuff to do anyways.

Cole knew he wanted to do his gross pumpkin again, no matter what. Chase decided on a Bass Pro one. So, Chase drew up the fish as he always does so quickly. I carved it out for him, since he wasn't sure where to put the breaks. He attempted the words, I attempted the words and after we both failed we stuck the pumpkin back together and decided just to let the light shine through to the words. It still turned out good....I thought. After the boys went with Brian on a hayride we lit them up with a couple of lights and they looked GREAT! Wish I could have gone on the hayride, but the doctor doesn't want any excuses while I'm on steroids why my voice is still waivering. The littles and I watched a movie together, so it was all fine.

Here are the cool pics.

 

Ode to Chase's favorite store....Bass Pro

Sneak Peek Halloween 2011

It's Trunk or Treat time, so the littlest 3 and I headed out to a couple of churches for some free fun and candy.  One had a bounce house and fire trucks, so Jaemin was in Heaven and the girls wore themselves out in the bounce house.  It was a little too much for Jaemin who climbed out early.

Kaelin didn't want to go in the fire truck, so here's Jaemin and Chelsi.

You just have to laugh at her sometimes

Kaelin isn't a complicated girl.  That can be bad, that can be good, and that can definitely be funny!

I was cleaning downstairs because Brian's putting up a ceiling....finally.  Anyways, I saw a Leapster game under the desk and asked her to get it.  She picked it up and when I saw all the dust bunnies attached to it I told her to put the game away, but throw them down.  But, really it's HOW I asked her.  I said, 'oh, it has dirt, throw it down'.  Yep, she threw the game on the floor.  I guess she thought the dust would come off.  When she game the look I knew she was going to do it and Chase and I both busted out laughing.  It was so dang funny!

HIS bed

This is Jaemin's floor bed.  This is the ONLY way he'll even attempt to sleep in his room at night.  He has a big bed and toddler bed.  He prefers his toddler bed for nap, but the floor for night.  Then, of course, he migrates to my room if he wakes up.

Too cute, the little bed he makes for himself.

As a matter of fact

This is my Chelsi. She is so practical and matter of fact in her small, logical mind. We sweetly call her little Mary sunshine because that's her personality. Happy as can be 99% of the time. We had parent-teacher conferences tonight and everywhere we go she says hi to everyone and everyone knows who she is and she follows it by 'that is my friend so and so'. I asked her, after we got home, if there was anyone in her class she wasn't friends with. She quickly said 'wwweeellll...there are two boys'. I was thinking okay here's the dish. Then, she said 'I haven't really had a chance to talk to them yet'. It's like she's interviewing everyone first. It was so funny and so cute and she just cracks me up!

On a side note all their conferences went well. Cole's said that he's doing well and paying attention. I don't think you can really expect a ton of feedback in high school unless there are major issues. Kaelin's we talked about working a different way in math, but how she was excelling in her reading fluency. She's has definitely done well there in the past 2 years. Chelsi's accomplished all of the kindergarten goals already and will start accelerated reading tests this quarter. She's super excited. Chase's report from all teachers was that he's finally coming out of his shell and is a respectful child that they love having in their class.

So, I would say tonight was a great success that made this mom proud and happy for all 4 of my school kids. Love you guys forever.

Time is short

My mom always told me I wished my life away.  And now that I'm in the throws of being a mom I know exactly what she meant.  It goes by all too quickly.  It seems like yesterday I brought Cole home and here we are 14 1/2 years later with 4 more after him.  I've spent the past year working only 1/2 time....20 hours/week.  I'm here to tell you this is the absolute perfect schedule.  It's enough to still work and bring home a paycheck, but so much more time with the kids.  And since it does all go by too quicklly, it's wonderful moments and times I get to see them come home from school, pick them up or spend alone time with Jaemin (and Chelsi before kindergarten).  I'm returning fulltime to work and it's not because I want to it's because I must.  We've been living off our savings to supplement nearly no income from me and unfortuantely without frills living requires both of 'our' incomes.

But, I will forever and ever be thankful for this past year.  Thankful that my office allowed it for me.  Thankful to my mom, my stepdad and Brian's mom for keeping the kids on my work days for no cost.  Thankful I got one year of  glimpse of what I had always dreamed of.  Thankful for one year for Jaemin to get a little more time bonding and attachment.  Thankful for more time with the older kids to get to know a little better.  And thankful for one year for life to slow down a bit and have time to keep up with it all.

Today is my last part time day home with Jaemin.  I'm spending his naptime trying to do one last chore I wanted to get done; burn our videos.  I've been going through and watching some older ones and wow how the kids have changed and grown and they are beautiful.  I miss their mini voices when the big kids were youger.  I can still see how their personalities then are a lot like they still are today.....they're just bigger.  I love my kids so much and am so thankful that they're mine; exactly who they are.

Here's a short video from today.  Jaemin got out the playdough last night.  He wanted to do it this morning when we got home from getting the big kids to school and grocery shopping.  So, that we did.  Then, he found a Korean video that he really liked watching over and over and over again.  He's my sweetie, that's for sure.  I wish every mom could have just one year with each of their kids to have the freedom to bond and enjoy with little guilt.  It's a dream come true that every mom deserves and I'm lucky to have been on the receiving end of this.  It's back to reality, but I have memories to last forever.

Bye for now. 

I'm a coupon clipper

I admit it.  But I suppose today it's the 'in' thing to do, right?  I got better about it while I was working part time. I mean I had time during naps to try to clip some.  I could save $20-50 month.  That's all I managed.  Today I watched my first episode of Extreme Couponing out of curiosity.  After I saw these women buying hundreds of items I couldn't help but wonder who they got hundreds of coupons to make those items free.  I mean I've rarely found any coupons making things free in the past year, even at sale price with a rare double allowed.  So I remembered my friend Google.  I found this article on it and I have to say it made me feel a ton better.  Basically, it's pretty much a facade so television can get it's ratings.  I've never seen coupons for the stuff on my grocery list anyways; red beans, black beans, frozen veggies, fresh fruit, etc.  It's a good read.  Check it out.

What can I say?

Today, I'm....well.....officially annoyed.  I had to put in about a month ago to return full time to work.  We just can't continue to deplete our savings to pay bills and my out-of-pocket for medical is going up again next year.  We finally heard after a week of my boss and I prodding, that I was denied.  We're still trying to find out what happened and she's pretty sure it will get overturned, but I have to wait until later this week to find out what happened and what's going to happen to me.  So, I spent Friday night freaking and stressing out.  I loved having this year to spend time with Jaemin and I would do it indefinitely, but unfortunately life happens and bills need paid.  There's no amount we can cut to be able to do that and still have our small house to live in.  I never did hear about the other job I'd applied for. I obviously know I didn't get it, but would still love to know why I wasn't considered.

Now, after losing my voice and getting progressively raspy for the past 2 or 3 months I had to go to urgent care.  I was trying to wait until tomorrow, but I felt too bad this morning to wait.  Brian likes my sexy phone voice, but I can't breath.  The doctor was completely shocked at the amount of allergy meds I'm on, including Advair for my breathing, and I still managed to get severe bronchitis into pneumonia.  So, now I have a temp, which I rarely run, and got put on antibiotics and steroids and sent home to get better.  It's so frustrating to not be able to breath.  I love being outside at this time of year, but this time of year is my enemy out there.  My chest absolutely burns like it's on fire and he said my airways and lungs are completely inflamed.  I'm not contageous, but I'm sure people are afraid of me when they hear how bad my cough is.  After 13 years of shots and daily meds (3 different meds a day) plus my albuterol inhalder right now I'm completely annoyed that I can still get this sick and feel this bad.  And obviously the nurse practitioner at my allergy docs office was wrong when she said the steroid shot she gave me 3 months ago would easily last 4 months when I was having trouble back then.  I'd scream, but it takes entirely too much energy!

My baby's transition

Jaemin's crib has been removed from my room....because he really was only using it as a jungle gym.  But, now that he's sleeping with me all the time I was hoping to get some leverage out of it.  He, well, is NOT a morning person.  He fights it so hard.  He really doesn't like taking off his diaper to go potty.  That requires far too much effort.  I told him that IF he doesn't start going potty willingly when he wakes up he'll have to sleep in his bed.  Because he just wants me to shut up in the morning he immediately says okay. 

Tonight's the night.  I tried it last night, but he snuck into my room and snuggled into bed.  Tonight I got smart and locked my bedroom door.  He really hasn't fussed about it, though we all know he doesn't like sleeping in his bed.  I kept checking on him and he just looks so....I don't know the words.  Like he's just given up.  Thrown in the towel, though I doubt that's actually true knowing Jaemin.  He'd rearrange himself in bed and give that 'huh' sound as he laid down.  It was so darn cute that Brian had to remind me to stay strong and leave him in there.  Mostly because we both know that sometime in the night he will wake up and come in my room again.

All with patience and in stages, right?  We'll get there one day and at the very least I hope to have a dry boy through the night and be permanently and forever done with diapers in this house!

cell phones and your kids

My oldest is 14 1/2.  Somehow I've gotten off real easy with cell phones.  He has only asked 2 or 3 times over the years about when, but never a fight, argument, rude remark.  We decided that he turned 15 he should have a Tracfone so he could get used to the responsibility of having a cell and the usage on it.  But, he threw us and decided he wants to Wrestle (if his cardiologist lets him).  Practice starts this week, so we decided to get me something else and start him with mine now.  Cole got his birthday present over 5 months early along with a lecture of how the rules work.  He was all smiles.  I mean it's crazy, but there are 1st graders at school with phones.  NUTS!

The 11 year old came down while we were discussing and asked what it was about.  I then said "I suppose you want too now".  He looked at me like I was crazy and scoffed.  He said "I don't want a phone."  I said can you wait 'til you're a freshman too?  And thankfully he said he could.

The deal is he uses this phone until he turns 16 and it goes to our pantry every night to charge where I can get to it and I can check calls and texting.  Then, he can decide what to do after he turns 16 and gets a job.  I told him either I could continue to pay for his Tracfone, in full, and he could learn to budget 1100 minutes a year or he could get a Go Phone or some other plan and I'll pay for a portion of it.  This will give him a lot of time to think about it and start budgeting his money or ideas of money he may have.

Good life lesson for him and one thankful mom that I don't have kids that have to have it and have it NOW!