GAK

Gak making.  We saw a show where a family made some and I thought that might be fun for the kids.  Turns out it's extremely cheap.  $.80 worth of glue, some drops of food coloring and a little Borax.  The kids had a really great time making it and playing with it in their hands.

Happy Birthday Kaelin

I hope my girl had a great 9th birthday.  Love you Kaelin.

I ran out of icing, but did try my hand at this cake.

Back to work

I'm so proud of myself today.  Though it was another day of feeling down about my friend situation, I picked up the new power unit to the kids' computer and it worked.  I hooked everything back up right after I took the insides apart and it all went back together and worked!  I was so excited to see the fans running again.  For $43, the computer is working again.  Much better than buying a new one.  On the downside, I think I'm going to have to transfer another $100 from savings to make the September payments.  I gave my official notice to my boss yesterday that I plan to come back fulltime October 17th.  Stinks, but it is reality and we're going through the savings much quicker than I ever anticipated.  It's just not safe or anything close to it anymore.  I will always be thankful for the year I got to spend bonding with Jaemin though.  That's what makes it feel not quite so bad.

Reflections Back in Time

Even though, I'm really bad about dwelling on the past, well at least in those circumstances where I'm mad at myself for wasting money some how, I'm just reflecting back here.  I came across this post a couple of years ago.  http://chaostimes5.blogspot.com/2008/12/life-changes-and-rearranges.html  It's really hard to believe so much has changed since then.  Almost 3 years later I thought my life had changed so much at that point, I had no idea that just a few months from that post I'd have a 5th, unexpected child and pay for yet another adoption.  Who would have ever guessed?

I've been kind of in a pity party stage about things lately because stress with money has been adding up.  We're not broke....yet...but it seems every time I get a handle on things something else breaks or happens.  Today it was the grill and yesterday it was the computer.  I had to order a $43 power supply and am HOPING it's not the motherboard.  We'll see.  I don't have any idea on the grill.  Brian said some sort of deflectors were broke.  Uh...they were rusted completely through and lying on the burners.  This morning the phones kept going out and the phone company said if, by chance, it they thought it was on our side we'd have to pay.  I told them not to even bother looking at it.  We'll just have to cancel our service.  Can't afford ONE MORE THING.

BUT THEN....I came across the above post and I realized that I had lost my attitude for being positive and I'm going to get it back.  I'm going to try to be positive no matter what.  I'm NOT going to let the devil win.  I'm going to continue to believe that if we keep doing everything to get through that God will continue to provide and help us.  And most of all, I'm going to try to remember to just breath and take note that we are okay and it's NOT THAT BAD!

So here it is, I'm thankful:

• Cole is still on the same valve for 14 years and while it will fail soon, it hasn't yet.
• Brian is still able to work and while his feet burn daily and by the minute, he is strong enough not to complain and lay that on me as well.
• All in all, the rest of us are still healthy.
• We're still paying bills on time, even if it is out of savings most of the time.

MUSCLES!

Jaemin decided to put his Diego undies on after his shower tonight. Then he brought me some lovely striped socks to wear.  It looked so cute, but so 70s.  So, I was trying to get a picture of him flexing in his cute ensemble.  He would not hold still.  So the girls showed him their guns so he would flex his.  I did doctor his picture.  Hey, there are some sickos out there and they aren't going to see my baby like that.

The big guns!

The not so big guns.

And the will eventually be big guns.

Playing games with daddy, but we always have a smile for mom.

Sick Stay Home Day

It was my scheduled day off anyways and poor Jaemin happens to have some sort of virus, so looks like I would have been home anyways.  He's running a 102/103 temp and very tired.  We went to the doctor so I could get my new allergy mix of shots after we dropped the big kids off at school.  Poor Jaemin had only been up since right before 7 am when he fell asleep on the drive home at about 8:30.  He didn't even wake up for breakfast.  He slept on the couch next to me and was in one of those heavy sleeps.  Even the phone ringing didn't wake him up when his dad called to check on him.

I finally woke him up to eat something and yep...he's sick, so he's getting special treatment.  I had made some yummy chocolate chip cookies yesterday so he ate that and some strawberry yogurt for breakfast.  I decided since the big kids are all back in school it was time for routine again, as long as he can handle it since he's sick anyways.  So, we've run through our letter and sight word book and he got to fingerpaint.  What fun this time.  Last time he really wasn't that interested, but this time he really was.  He even let me put paint all over his hands so he could make handprints for me.  He was all about stamping his hand all over the papers after that.  He was pretty darn proud when I hung his work of art on the fridge!  This stuff, I love!

4 kids, 3 schools

And they all 4 survived their first day.  It was Cole's 1st day of high school and Chelsi's first day of kindergarten.  And mom survived a morning of dropping off one to daycare, 2 to elementary school, 1 to middle school and 1 to high school.  Hopefully, this will be a great year for all!