Family Fun

Last week my family came to visit. I cant just say parents because there are still 4 siblings of mine living at home. They also have three foster kids but they stayed behind. This is some of us at In N Out. From left to right, my little sister Jessica, my teenage brother Ryan, my Aunt Rebeca, Carmen, my Dad, Julian and my brother Mark. They love chocolate shakes!

My teenage siblings, my brother Mark and Julian went to Stratum Laser tag in Mesa. Next door to Stratum is a bouncey house place called Xtreme Play. My mom and I took my sister Jessica, Carmen and Isaiah there but Isaiah didnt have sock (required) so we ran next door and caught Julian before entering his first laser tag game so he could lend Isaiah his socks. He is such a good boy.

This is the smallest of the bounce houses. It is for ages 3 and under. Isaiah played basketball for the whole 2 hours we were there, never once going down a slide.

He is obsessed with basketball!

Carmen and my sister Jessica went down the second biggest slide but Carmen refused to go down the biggest slide. She actually climbed to the top then sat in the corner for 5 minutes scared before going back down the ladder backwards. I highly recommend Xtreme Play. Adults arent allowed on the equiptment but I dont mind that at all, I dont have to worry about big teenagers pushing down my kids. They also have alarmed wrist bands so kids dont escape, they have a sitting area with a couch and TV for parents and kids to rest, they have a video game area with a Wii and a few playstations, an air hockey table and a gated toddler area with toddler toys. All that is included in the price and play is unlimited. Adults are free because they dont go on the equiptment, ages 3 and under are $5.95, ages 4 and up are $8.95, Mondays are family days where children are $5, they are closed Sundays, and there is also a snack bar with pizza, nachos, icees, candy, t shirts, and socks! Im sure one of our kids will end up having a birthday party there!

Stratum and Xtreme play are located just north of the 60 on Stapley (east side of the street). And for those of you who didnt know, In N Out is south of the 60 on Stapley (west side of the street).

A is for Alphabet, B is for Basketball, K is for KindergartenLaureate

Isaiah loves basketball. He would have done a little better and more if he wasnt watching a game on tv at the time. He learned his letters by playing a VTECH computer at every meal, its the only way we can get him to eat. Our kids dont like eating so we always have had to distract them from ages 6 months to 3 years. This one was his.

And this is the award Julian got today at the Monday Morning Assembly. He got the Kindergarten Laureate Award (and a free kids meal from Mimi's Cafe!) We are very proud of our smarty pants.

Looks like who??

Me and Nick

me

julian, carmen, isaiah

Nick

carmen and isaiah

me

Carmen, Nick, Julian

Every time I am pregnant I wonder what/who the new baby will look like. So I want you guys to decide who each of our kids so far looks most like and predict what you think the new baby will look like.

Foggy

Will I ever recover? I feel like I am in a constant fog. Im always so tired I cant look people in the eye, I stare off into space, I hear only about half the things people tell me, I dont have energy to play with my kids or even have conversations with them, and my husband is waiting for me to 'come home.' Because Ive been so tired, Im far behind in a lot of things. Nick asked me to mend two pairs of work pants a few weeks ago, and at this very minute they are still sitting where he left them, untouched. Sure I could do it now, but that would require me getting up and walking around to find the thread, thread the sewing maching, pin the pants, get back up to find my scissors, and so on. I know, Im complaining a lot about something so minimal, but Im really that worn out. My mornings are no better or different than my nights. Just foggy and tired. I may as well not even wear my contacts! I also havent had the energy to think about preparing for the new baby, or even to think much about the fact Im going to have another baby! My sister Amanda is coming for a week in April to help out and I am SO excited. Im making her take Julian to school AND pick him up every day that week. Im hoping next year we can find someone to carpool with because this year has sure been a long one. Now Im going to go, not to bed, but to wait for Nick to come home, so we can salvage what is left of the day to finally have time for just the two of us to sit and relax and talk because this is the only time we have for us... between midnight and 1:30 am.

And tomorrow will start again at 6:45 am. But on a lighter note... Avocados were 25 cents at Walmart! YAY! Dont worry I will be just fine. I have Cherry Pepsi in the fridge, its almost the weekend, and I only have two months left until the baby is born, and then six months after that til he sleeps through the night! WOO HOO!

A two week slice of my life.

Heres what went on in the last couple weeks:

-Had my gestational diabetes glucose test. Hate the orange flavor but Im not diabetic.
-Nick and I had our anniversary.
-The inlaws came to visit.
-I went to the mall, bought Julian LEGOs at the Lego Store.
-Nick, Julian and Grandpa and Aunt Cory went to the drag races with friends Morgan and Seth (pictured above with the geico gecko)
-Bought Carmen sparkly shoes with sparkles, a bow over the toes and an elastic band.
-She cried for me to cut off the elastic band.
-She cried for me to put back on the elastic bands.
-I took the worst ever trip to Walmart with the kids. Isaiah screamed the whole time. He didnt have shoes on, couldnt walk around, so spent the trip up and down the aisles in my arms hitting me and kicking my belly. Carmen cried because we could look at the shoes.
-Babysat a lot.
-Bought lots of food at frys. About 10 boxes of cereal.
-Learned of my brothers car accident. He wasnt at fault, everyone is fine.. but the truck. Broken axle and drive train.
-Learned that Isaiah knows most of the letters in the alphabet
-Monday through Thurday I go to bed at 2am and wake up at 645am.
-Got a gift and card from Nick, just because.
-Bought Nick NY Strip steaks in return for the gift and card.
-I ate salmon for the first time in about 4 or 5 months
-Ate at Chipotle, Wendy, Jack in the Box, KFC, Panda Express and McDonalds. When Im not running, Im dead tired, way too tired to cook food my kids probably wont eat anyways.
-Decided Isaiah wont let us break him from a bottle or his crib anytime soon.
-Found out when Mom is coming to visit
-Found out when my whole family minus half the family is coming to visit.
-Handfulls of people asked me if I'm ready to have the baby and/or if Im due really soon. I have more than two months left.
-Went to the Modest Mouse concert in Tempe. Was the only largely pregnant woman there.
-I mopped the kitchen and bathroom
-I paid the bills
-Nick juiced a few bags full of lemons and I froze the juice
-Carmen washed her hands with half a bottle of shampoo
-Julian finished his 25 book goal for school and recieved yet another book it award
-Julian and Carmen got bikes from their grandma
-I took the first trip alone to the store in over a year and I felt like I was floating on a cloud all through Frys
-I made Julian mop the bathroom floor for 'missing'
-Isaiah made us bring our little tikes basketball hoop into the living room and refuses to eat, only play basketball all day long
-We made fruit pizzas last night for Mutual
-I had a dream I stole a Gatorade
-I gained a few pounds
-I wondered how I will ever get the energy other people have. One day Nick will be on a normal work schedule and I will be able to be a normal mom. We look forward to the day when Nick can drop the kids off at school on the way to work, I can spend the day cleaning, doing visiting teaching, hosting playdates, shopping, I can then pick up the kids from school, make dinner and have it ready when Nick gets home, go to bed at a reasonable hour and be ready to do it all again the next day and have evening free for a date with Nick or a girls night out or a double date. Right now we are disorganized and inconsistent. Nick gets home late, we go to bed late... an NO I cant go to bed before he gets home, I cant sleep without him here. I get up with the kids I babysit, he gets up to take Julian to school. I try to take a nap when he leaves to drop him off, then I get up and he goes to take a nap and by 1:30pm we are both awake and Im rushing to make lunch for us before I leave to get Julian and he gets to leave for work and in the evening I have to do my chores and shopping with the kids by my side. Im very very thankful for Nicks job and that we have a wonderful family, home, food to eat, we just look forward to the day when we can have the blessings of early to bed early to rise. In the meantime though, we acknowledge the blessings we have been given.

ANNIVERSARY

Today is our anniversary. This week Nick is taking me to a concert for our anniversary. It has been getting harder and harder to celebrate or remember our Temple Anniversary, which I prefer to celebrate, because it is only three days before Christmas and this last year I had the flu that day. We dont usually celebrate this one because the important one is our Temple Sealing anniversary. We were sealed in the Mesa, Arizona Temple on December 22, 2004! (Nick joined the church in 2003) I wish we had pictures but we didnt take any. We never think to have our picture taken in front of the temple or on the temple grounds when we go because we are usually in a hurry. Our marriage has been great. Nick is the most wonderful man I could ask for. He is very considerate of my needs and feelings. He lets me take naps when Im tired, he cleans and does dishes without being asked, he laughs and plays with the kids, and we can talk for hours and hours about anything. He is my best friend.

Did I Ruin The Economy? NNNNOOOOOO....

DISCLAIMER: THIS IS AN ANGRY RANT. IF YOURE IN A GOOD MOOD, DONT READ IT.

So let me tell you what. When houses were selling faster than hotcakes we NEEDED a house. We bought ONE. 30 year fixed mortgage. Down payment. We saved up to buy it. We have one credit card. We pay our bills on time. We eat a lot of rice and pasta. We rarely eat meat because of the cost. We dont put our kids in preschool, dance, soccer, etc because we cant afford it (nope). We try to live within our means and make sure our bills are paid when we get paid so that if we run out of money, we have to resort to... more rice.

So late last year Nick and I were talking about maybe getting another credit card with a zero introductory interest rate to transfer our balance because are plans were to pay it off within the introductory rate time frame and save us that money on interest and help our credit with another card. We walked into Costco and saw the setup for applying for a credit card. We had recieved Costco offers in the mail many times and vaguely remembered the offer as something like: 0% apr first 3 months, after that a rate of 11%, the default being 24%. We walked up to the lady and she said, "If you apply you can get a free thermos right now."

Oh yay. A free thermos.

So we asked her, how long the 0% rate lasts. She said three months. Then we asked her what the rate would be after that... She said,

"It depends on how BAD your credit is"

I said, "We have really good credit" and we walked away.

Saturday we recieved a bill in the mail from the dentist for $169. It didnt list a date of service or a service provided. None of us have been to the dentist since August. I called today and the lady at the dentist office claimed I had just failed to pay that much for a crown (on top of the $325 I paid at time of service). I had gotten a crown in February last year and had paid about the same fee each time. In August I did even ask why there was a slight difference, they didnt really tell me why. So I called the insurance and they said they approved the same amount for both crowns and told me the amounts contracted between them and the dentist to cover and for the dentist to charge. Both were the same. I called the dentist back and she claimed that they had changed their contract with the insurance company in March... (changes arent made in March, anyone with insurance knows contracts run from Jan 1 to Dec 31- I verified it with the insurance). So I asked the dentist office lady how much the crown fee was. She said in Feb it was $518 and that the fee had gone up to $585 in March. That difference is not $169. So if I am paying the difference in their crown fees I should owe $67 (which they would have known at the time and charged me at the time). I asked what the full fees total were for a crown and she wouldnt give me an answer. Why... because I paid $325 out of pocket and the insurance paid $254: that adds up to $579. So if I owe anything it should be $6. If there are hidden fees.. the insurance company doesnt know what they are... they have a contract with the dentist for a set price and set reimbursement. I feel like Im being taken because the dentist is hurting financially. Am I paying someone elses unpaid bills? Did they look at my records and realize I had paid in full on the date of service and think, oh she has money, lets say our prices went up and we forgot to charge her some money.... I dont know much about insurance and billing, but I know how to add.

Oh and Unions... good for farm workers in the olden days, not good for today. We have lawyers and laws that protect workers. Unions today just protect lazy workers and hold back companies trying to compete on global scales.

And buy American?? Im having a hard time shelling out $3 for a plastic bin to hold my kids' toys in... do you think Ill be able to come up with the $15 the same bin will cost me for an American product (the extra money goes into American wages, insurance, union dues, pension). The Chinese that have jobs, are glad they have jobs, their country is able to grow because of them. Only recently have Americans become thankful for jobs.

And boy... what an idea... silencing Rush Limbaugh because he doesnt like the ideas the democrats are putting on the table.... what? Rush Limbaugh is great. Its not like all our radios dont have off buttons for those who dont like him.

And if you had the patience to read my rant. Im sorry for being so... angry. Yeah I know, what a way to show people how nice and friendly and sweet I am, Im just as much fun to hang out with. I'm just as upset about the economy as anyone, I am grateful my husband has a job. I pray he can keep it. I just am tired of people trying to blame some one/some thing/some business for the bad economy, and the media scaring us into further slowing our spending. I heard an economist on the news last week telling Americans "Dont spend ANY of your tax return! Hold on to it tight!" hahah lets blame them.. All in all, though, it was greed.

So are you all just as excited as I am to bail out the big auto companies who didn't change their business planning in the 80s when Asian vehicles were starting to enter the US full force? I wasnt the one who underestimated Toyota and Honda. Ooh lala the 80s Ford Escort.. nothing could compete with that. Surefire winner for generations to come, huh guys? Oh and the big banks that were given money to loan to people... and are not loaning it out. Yes, lets hand our paychecks over to those guys....