Summer???

Yeah...Summer...I don't see any signs of it anywhere. Except at about 8:30, right after I got the kids down for bed, the sun broke through and there was tons of blue sky...what??? seriously?? Oregon weather is so weird. My MIL is trying to "plan" vacation this year. We had it all planned but Nikki had to go to LA for some reason so now we have to cancel the vacation and try to re-book something but apparently there's NOTHING open at any of their timeshare properties. I guess there's some stuff in Newport open, which I guess is better than nothing. At least it's time off work. But if I'm taking time off, I'd rather be more than an hour and a half from home. But, there are some fun things to do, and we can visit my parents, they are only an hour and a half south.

As far as the rest of my summer goes, I'll be working...I work every weekend except I have June 12th off, it's a Saturday. We're having a garage sale. Aaron and I are trying to plan a getaway for our anniversary, but it will be on my days off. We have the annual family pig roast in August, but other than that, I plan to relax, enjoy some sunshine and not do much of anything. Money is tight, and the more time we spend enjoying time at home, the less gas $$ we spend. Though I do want to fit a trip to the zoo, and a trip to OMSI in our summer schedule. Ethan is probably going to start school around the 7th of September, and if you count the weekends we don't have him, the summer is going to go by super fast.

I really need to get on top of making photo albums. And even if I don't have the time to be super crafty and make scrapbooks, I need to put pictures in albums. Each of the boys needs one, and I need one for vacations, stuff like that. I have tons of pics of the last 4 years of memories, and I need to get them developed. Part of the problem is the computer containing all my pics needs a new battery....hmmmm...I am trying to keep up on the boys' baby books, and I keep all of the important stuff in their memory boxes.

TBALL

So for those wondering about tball, I got the details. It started on May 24th but I called and they said it's NOT TOO LATE. lol. It's for kids ages 3-5, it's 20.00 and the season will go until July 1st. Games/Practices are Tues/Thurs at 5:30 I believe. I'm enrolling Ethan tomorrow and I'm assuming he'll start on Thursday.

Memorial Day Weekend

Memorial day weekend....what does that mean?? Well besides remember those who have died for our freedoms, it doesn't really mean much because I have to work the entire thing. But the more I think about it, I think that there's a silver lining to working on this busy holiday weekend. A) I don't have to be traveling this way or that, or be disappointed that a camping trip was rained out. B) I don't have to participate in obligatory family events that inevitably will be taking place. I feel like such a crabby old hermit.. (hermit crab perhaps? lol). But people really annoy me. I can't go to the grocery store without sneering at someone whose mere presence is somehow intrusive to me. Ugh. I think it's too much work without any fun time. And until money grows on trees, I'm destined to sit in my house on my weekends and talk about what I'll be cleaning next. Ughghghghghg. If the weather was nice then perhaps I could go outside, but it's not. So I sit. It's really getting to me, and it's not until I sit down to write this that I realize how upset I am by the weather and lack of money.

Over the years I've noticed that my cleanliness habits have stepped up considerably. Ask my parents. My room used to be a disaster and I had never done a single dish until I moved into my own apartment when I was 21. But now, I feel anxiety when my house isn't cleaned. I'll stare at some crubms on the floor, thinking I should vacuum, or at least dust bust, and usually I end up doing just that. I can't go to bed without the dishes done and the counters scrubbed shiny. My kids' room is spotless at bedtime as well. Sometimes I wonder if I'm just being silly, but I really think that with as much as I work, it helps with the overall upkeep of the house.

Speaking of work, it's going great, but I really need to be on the lookout for better paying things. I'm pretty much being paid slave wages and I'm not ok with it. On the brightside, however, a few bills we are paying will be paid off in a month or two and that will be some extra income monthly.

So time to go to bed, I have to wake up early. I hope that I wake up in a much better mood than I am now.

Garage Sale

It just occured to me that I took June 12th off to have a garage sale....I hope it's a nice day...and more importantly I hope that I can pull my *%$# together and get some stuff organized. I need to borrow some long or card tables if anyone has anything like it. I have mostly everything that will be in the sale off in a corner of the garage, but glancing around I keep seeing more stuff that will get sold as well. It's bittersweet to part with things, but in the end, that's all they are.....things...Sentimental items will almost never be parted with, but some stuff I keep around simply for the sake of keeping it. Perhaps I WILL use it....someday.. And don't even get me started on my 3 boxes...yes THREE boxes of jeans several sizes smaller than I wear now...I'm keeping them...even if I can't fit my thigh into them. It reminds me of the work I need to do, as much as I don't want to.

God Provides....

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. God provides. It doesn't matter what it is, if we need it, He provides it for us. It never ceases to amaze me. This weekend I was stressing out big time because we had to go pick up Ethan in Portland and we literally used the last of our money to get to Portland. We didn't care, we just wanted our son back. Well when I checked the mail Monday after work, there was an unexpected check for $74.00 in the post office box. It was some sort of 401k distribution from US bank that I had neglected to do anything with, and so they just sent it to me. Praise God...With that money I was able to buy diapers, some food and gas money to get to work Thurs/Fri. Without it we would have taken some pop cans back to get gas $$, and not had some basic food items...oh, and the diapers?? Yeah...not sure what we would have done about that. LOL. My point is that when we need it, He provides. I notice it mostly in the financial sense, but it comes in other ways too. I love my job, but it pays horrible. We have exactly enough $$ for bills each month and gas, and teeny bit extra for other necessities. Definitely not what I'd call comfortable. But when I look around me at my house, my children, how happy we are in our own space, everything is worth the sacrifice of working 12 hour days, no sleep and no $$ for fun stuff. I know this is temporary. We won't always be in this position. Someday I'll find a use for my $150k college degree. OYE......

In other news Ethan lost his first tooth! :) It's on the bottom, and it's little neighbor is super loose too and will most likely be out by the weekend. How cute. He's super excited! Mostly for the $$ under his pillow. You can't tell a 5 year old that the tooth fairy is broke, so I have to get some money scrounged up in a few minutes here . lol.