.........Baby! In case you are not on my stalkbook- I mean facebook. I thought this would be the perfect time to tell you, right after my post about being worn out as a stay-at-home-mom. I am really excited though. Who doesn't love having a tiny, snuggly, baby around? We should know the gender around March 7th. Although, I'm pretty sure it's a boy AGAIN. They have these clever little pee tests you can buy at Meijer and mine turned boy color- twice. That's right twice. I'm not going to lie to you and say I won't be disappointed if it's not a girl. I will be disappointed, and so would EVERY other mom with 2 boys. I am ready for a change. Been there, done that with the boy thing. I love having 2 boys, but I am ready for a sweet little girl. And if it is a boy, I will get over it, when it is born, and love it just like the other 2. Go ahead and say what everyone else says "as long as it's healthy." Like I would ever wish for a sick baby- no just a GIRL baby.
The 2 things I'm looking forward to most? Bring the baby home to our house. With Jake and Tyler, I never brought them home to a house. With Jake, we were young, not married, and we lived in a trailer. That's right, a trailer. But don't start thinking a hilly billy trailer- it was nice, but it was still a trailer. And then Tyler was born while we were building the house and didn't move in until 2 months later. We brought him home to a basement apartment a family friend let us live in until the house was finished.
The other? My camera. I finally have a professional type camera and I can't wait to take lots of pictures of this baby. This will be the first time I have a nice camera with a brand new baby around. Of course there are lots of other things to look forward to- shopping- but these 2 top the list.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Worn Out
I think I am ready to retire from my stay-at-home-mom job. If I had an evaluation right now about my stay at home mom duties, I would FAIL every single one of them and be fired from the position. Part of the problem I think, is staying at home requires someone who is highly self motivated and driven. Not me. I hate waking up and not knowing what to do with my day. I fly by the seat of my pants and the only thing that is stable is breakfast, lunch, nap, dinner, and bed time. The rest of my day is used how I want, which for some people would be the best thing in the world. But, I feel like nothing really gets done or done in a timely manner. I need to schedule my day out like Supernanny does. I just don't know where to even start, and then I feel like such a dork planning out each hour exactly what I'm going to do. It would seem like that could get pretty mundane pretty fast.
I was watching some old Jon & Kate's when they lived at the old house, and she just seemed to have her sh*t together, ya know? But she also had to with 8 kids. Maybe that is my problem. Maybe I need 5 more kids to help me. Haha. But she really had things under control and planned out. She was really good at grocery shopping, and had special days when she would spend the day cooking soups for the winter, that kind of stuff.
I have this expectation that as a stay-at-home mom, the house needs to be clean, dinner needs to be done, coupons clipped and grocery shopping done cheaply, bills paid, kids played with, and then I should also have some crafty business on the side so I can work from home while the kids nap and still make money for the household. I can barely manage getting dressed by 11:00am. I know David has pressure to make money for the family and provide, and I feel like it should be my job to spend the money wisely so he doesn't have to worry, but I am failing at that too. It would be easy to cut back on groceries to save money, but I don't know how to. Unless I serve mac and cheese from a box for 5 days, there is no way I could come close to spending $50 a week on groceries.
And I feel like I am letting the kids down, because I have no motivation to play with them. I have been playing cars, trucks, 4-wheelers, hunter, army guy-anything boy related for the last 5 years! I cringe when the kids say "will you play with me?" My kids constantly ask to be played with. I'm not sure if this is the result of playing with them to much or to little. Do your kids ask you to play with them? I love doing certain activites with the boys-reading to them, playing board games, doing crafts, eating lunch with them, and legos. But anything that requires me to pretend that I am an army guy and I can't do it. Not even for 5 min.
And I know it sounds like poor me, and I am grateful I am able to see the boys each and every day, but I am stuck in a rut. Maybe it's the dreary weather, and not being able to go outside. Or maybe I am not cut-out to stay at home anymore.
I was watching some old Jon & Kate's when they lived at the old house, and she just seemed to have her sh*t together, ya know? But she also had to with 8 kids. Maybe that is my problem. Maybe I need 5 more kids to help me. Haha. But she really had things under control and planned out. She was really good at grocery shopping, and had special days when she would spend the day cooking soups for the winter, that kind of stuff.
I have this expectation that as a stay-at-home mom, the house needs to be clean, dinner needs to be done, coupons clipped and grocery shopping done cheaply, bills paid, kids played with, and then I should also have some crafty business on the side so I can work from home while the kids nap and still make money for the household. I can barely manage getting dressed by 11:00am. I know David has pressure to make money for the family and provide, and I feel like it should be my job to spend the money wisely so he doesn't have to worry, but I am failing at that too. It would be easy to cut back on groceries to save money, but I don't know how to. Unless I serve mac and cheese from a box for 5 days, there is no way I could come close to spending $50 a week on groceries.
And I feel like I am letting the kids down, because I have no motivation to play with them. I have been playing cars, trucks, 4-wheelers, hunter, army guy-anything boy related for the last 5 years! I cringe when the kids say "will you play with me?" My kids constantly ask to be played with. I'm not sure if this is the result of playing with them to much or to little. Do your kids ask you to play with them? I love doing certain activites with the boys-reading to them, playing board games, doing crafts, eating lunch with them, and legos. But anything that requires me to pretend that I am an army guy and I can't do it. Not even for 5 min.
And I know it sounds like poor me, and I am grateful I am able to see the boys each and every day, but I am stuck in a rut. Maybe it's the dreary weather, and not being able to go outside. Or maybe I am not cut-out to stay at home anymore.
Monday, January 25, 2010
More Money Talk
We had another message at church about money yesterday. It was about the importance of getting your financial life in order so you can go from someone who needs help to someone who is able to help. How do you go about doing this? 1. BUDGET 2. Deferred gratification- wait for something you want. Boring. Who wants to do that? I'm a sale shopper most of the time. If I wait it's going to be gone. This is why we have credit card debt. And as for the budget, I've tried to do it, but I NEVER follow through. It's not fun if you know there is no money for the things you want. A budget makes it crystal clear and it makes you realize you cannot afford it. I would use the approach of not knowing and that is also why we have credit card debt.
It was very interesting reading the comments from the last money post. I am amazed at what little families are spending on groceries! I was very surprised the majority of the answers were between $50-70 dollars per week. Just for fun, I went through my receipts from the last 3 months and my average was $130. What the heck am I doing wrong?
Recently our credit card company changed our terms so we don't have a locked in interest rate. It would be a variable rate, i.e., HIGH. So we cancelled our credit card. It is scary not having that cushion for just in case. But it needed to be done because I have a broad definition of emergency or just in case. Now we have to budget. There is no room for "but it was such a good deal!"
Here are my answers to the money questions from last post:
I am the money manager.
I do not balance the checkbook. Once again, it would not be fun to know what you have in your account, especially right before you go to Target.
We no longer have credit cards, just balances.
I must really suck at grocery shopping. I even use coupons here and there! I'm not sure what happened in September, but I managed to spend $689 dollars on groceries. Jake and Tyler barely eat! What is my bill going to be when they are 15 or 16?
My parents did not teach me anything about money. I've always had a job since 16, but I wasn't taught money management. I don't blame them for our financial situation, it just makes me want to try really hard to teach my kids good money management skills.
No separate bank accounts for us. Considering I have no job, I don't think a bank account for me necessary. I do think it is important for each spouse to have their own "free" money when setting up a budget.
We are going to try Dave Ramsey. Our pastor recommended this book. I'm going to do the cash in envelope system. I have to see the cash going out or it just doesn't register that is leaving our bank account.
We do not have college savings. The kids have bank accounts with money from birthday and Christmas. They also have stock in Exxon from my Grandpa. We put money each month in our retirement instead. I have learned that your children can borrow money for school, but you cannot borrow for retirement. Hopefully they are good at sports!
It was very interesting reading the comments from the last money post. I am amazed at what little families are spending on groceries! I was very surprised the majority of the answers were between $50-70 dollars per week. Just for fun, I went through my receipts from the last 3 months and my average was $130. What the heck am I doing wrong?
Recently our credit card company changed our terms so we don't have a locked in interest rate. It would be a variable rate, i.e., HIGH. So we cancelled our credit card. It is scary not having that cushion for just in case. But it needed to be done because I have a broad definition of emergency or just in case. Now we have to budget. There is no room for "but it was such a good deal!"
Here are my answers to the money questions from last post:
I am the money manager.
I do not balance the checkbook. Once again, it would not be fun to know what you have in your account, especially right before you go to Target.
We no longer have credit cards, just balances.
I must really suck at grocery shopping. I even use coupons here and there! I'm not sure what happened in September, but I managed to spend $689 dollars on groceries. Jake and Tyler barely eat! What is my bill going to be when they are 15 or 16?
My parents did not teach me anything about money. I've always had a job since 16, but I wasn't taught money management. I don't blame them for our financial situation, it just makes me want to try really hard to teach my kids good money management skills.
No separate bank accounts for us. Considering I have no job, I don't think a bank account for me necessary. I do think it is important for each spouse to have their own "free" money when setting up a budget.
We are going to try Dave Ramsey. Our pastor recommended this book. I'm going to do the cash in envelope system. I have to see the cash going out or it just doesn't register that is leaving our bank account.
We do not have college savings. The kids have bank accounts with money from birthday and Christmas. They also have stock in Exxon from my Grandpa. We put money each month in our retirement instead. I have learned that your children can borrow money for school, but you cannot borrow for retirement. Hopefully they are good at sports!
Monday, January 18, 2010
Let's Talk the Green Stuff
Yesterday at church, the message was about money/finances and I thought this would make a perfect blog topic. For some reason, discussing money is seen as an intimate topic that is usually not discussed in great detail. I can understand wanting to keep some things personal, but if you would like to share some of the not so personal information, I am curious about a few things concerning money.
First off, I just want to say that my parents never discussed money with me growing up. Not until college did I understand how much a car or a house costs. I never knew how much my parents earned or what they paid in bills. I think the same is true for a lot of kids growing up. I wish there was a class you could take in high school called "Real Living". I think this is a HUGE piece missing from our school system. Kids need to learn about taxes, credit scores, fiance charges, how to obtain a loan, how to re-fiance, how to purchase a car, how to grocery shop, etc, etc. I partly blame the economy for the way it is now for lack of education. People living way beyond their means because no one is teaching them how to live or how much it costs to live.
Now on to my curiosities:
Who is the money manager in your household? (Who pays the bills) You or your husband?
Do you balance your checkbook? Do you know exactly how much money you have at any given time?
Do you use a budget? If yes, what process do you use? For example, some people use the envelope system, some use a computer software, ect.
Do you use credit cards?
How much per week do you spend on groceries?
Did your parents teach you about money?
Do you have a seperate bank account from your husband/wife?
There are a lot of systems for getting out of debt- Dave Ramsey and Suze Orman to name a few- are you using one of those systems now?
Do you have a college fund in place for your child/children?
If you feel comforable sharing, I would LOVE to hear your answers!
First off, I just want to say that my parents never discussed money with me growing up. Not until college did I understand how much a car or a house costs. I never knew how much my parents earned or what they paid in bills. I think the same is true for a lot of kids growing up. I wish there was a class you could take in high school called "Real Living". I think this is a HUGE piece missing from our school system. Kids need to learn about taxes, credit scores, fiance charges, how to obtain a loan, how to re-fiance, how to purchase a car, how to grocery shop, etc, etc. I partly blame the economy for the way it is now for lack of education. People living way beyond their means because no one is teaching them how to live or how much it costs to live.
Now on to my curiosities:
Who is the money manager in your household? (Who pays the bills) You or your husband?
Do you balance your checkbook? Do you know exactly how much money you have at any given time?
Do you use a budget? If yes, what process do you use? For example, some people use the envelope system, some use a computer software, ect.
Do you use credit cards?
How much per week do you spend on groceries?
Did your parents teach you about money?
Do you have a seperate bank account from your husband/wife?
There are a lot of systems for getting out of debt- Dave Ramsey and Suze Orman to name a few- are you using one of those systems now?
Do you have a college fund in place for your child/children?
If you feel comforable sharing, I would LOVE to hear your answers!
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Big Plans
I am in the mood to do some decorating and painting at the Bradley house. Being stuck inside makes me realize how blah our house is. And I've got my little painter David laid off for the winter and I have to keep him busy. He's got three rooms to paint: the laundry room, downstairs bath, and the kids bath. If I could, I would re-paint the whole downstairs.
I think I made some bad choices since I had a newborn Tyler with me at the paint store. Talk about bad timing! I can remember taking him all over Jackson picking out vanities, light fixtures, carpet and paint. I had to breast-feed him in the Menards lighting department and then in Lowes while we picked out tile. He was seriously a few days old. By the time we got to picking out paint I just didn't care. So our open floor plan kitchen/dining/living room are poop colors. Brown and khaki. The laundry room is also brown, because we had left over paint and I couldn't make any more decisions.
So here we are 4 years later and it's time to finish the house. And maybe even get some window treatments and pictures on the wall! We don't have a single curtain or blind in our whole house. Oh, wait- we got curtains for one window in our bedroom over the summer. Thank goodness! You can see into the master bath from that window!
We also made more big plans tonight when we bought our tickets to Arizona for February. I am ready for some sun! We are meeting up with my dad and his girlfriend who rented a house for a month. My sister and her family are going the same time so it should be fun! We are hoping to get some quality time in as a family because my dad was diagnosed with stage 4 Lymphoma cancer this fall. He has been really sick with chemo and other infections so I am hoping he will feel better while on vacation. It has been really hard watching him suffer through this, so maybe this trip can lift everyone's spirits!
I think I made some bad choices since I had a newborn Tyler with me at the paint store. Talk about bad timing! I can remember taking him all over Jackson picking out vanities, light fixtures, carpet and paint. I had to breast-feed him in the Menards lighting department and then in Lowes while we picked out tile. He was seriously a few days old. By the time we got to picking out paint I just didn't care. So our open floor plan kitchen/dining/living room are poop colors. Brown and khaki. The laundry room is also brown, because we had left over paint and I couldn't make any more decisions.
So here we are 4 years later and it's time to finish the house. And maybe even get some window treatments and pictures on the wall! We don't have a single curtain or blind in our whole house. Oh, wait- we got curtains for one window in our bedroom over the summer. Thank goodness! You can see into the master bath from that window!
We also made more big plans tonight when we bought our tickets to Arizona for February. I am ready for some sun! We are meeting up with my dad and his girlfriend who rented a house for a month. My sister and her family are going the same time so it should be fun! We are hoping to get some quality time in as a family because my dad was diagnosed with stage 4 Lymphoma cancer this fall. He has been really sick with chemo and other infections so I am hoping he will feel better while on vacation. It has been really hard watching him suffer through this, so maybe this trip can lift everyone's spirits!
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Colorado Christmas
We left for Colorado on Sunday, December 20. We left later in the day, with the intention of driving straight through. Tyler took a nap as soon as we started driving. Three hours later, he woke up and started projectile vomiting. ALL OVER THE VAN. We stopped at a hotel, and they gave us towels to clean up the mess the best we could. David considered turning around and driving home. We got Ty cleaned up the best we could, and he did it again. And then again, and then again in Cracker Barrel bathroom. The van SMELLED. We got the boys settled for the night, and David kept driving. I tried driving from 4-4:30am but that was all I could contribute to the 20 hour drive. We stopped at a rest stop from 5:30-6:00am but that was all the sleep David got. I on the other hand, fell asleep in Battle Creek and took naps off and on the rest of the way.
On Tuesday we were ready for skiing. We went to Arapahoe Basin which is a smaller, cheaper ski area. The bigger ski resorts are also near my Mom's house, but it is 98.00 a lift ticket! This was a great place for Jake to learn because it wasn't as crowded. As soon as we got there, Tyler puked again, which he hadn't done since the car ride out. I took a few runs while my Mom stayed with him. Grandpa Bob took the time to teach Jake how to ski, which was really nice and I think they had some good Grandpa bonding time. 
We left on Tuesday. I drove all through Nebraska thanks to the 80's and 90's channel on the Sirrus radio. I couldn't get enough of those old songs you forget about. We also listened to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory book on tape which we all enjoyed. No one threw up and we made it straight through again. Thank-you for a wonderful vacation, Mom & Bob. Love, The Hillbilly's.
We made it to Colorado on Monday morning and arrived at my Mom and Bob's by lunch. Here is the view as we got closer to the mountains. Being able to show the boys what real mountains look like was worth the puke and looong drive. 
After my five runs, I was ready to go in. Colorado skiing is so much different that Michigan because the runs are loong. This was also my first time skiing since I was 13 and switched to snowboarding. I was afraid there might be an Olympic scout out looking for talent, so I put the snowboard away for this trip. Ty took a nap on the bench in the ski lodge so I sat with him for a few hours while the guys went out. Then I took a few more runs and called it a day. Jake did great, but he also had a professional for an instructor. He loved his poles and the chair lift.
Wednesday it snowed all day. It was beautiful and we were exctited to have a white Christmas. The only bad part was we couldn't go anywhere. My Mom's house is at 8,000 feet on a mountain so that means a lot of sharp turns and hills. We couldn't even make it out out the driveway with our van because it is so steep and the sharp turns. Here is the view from their house.
Later in the day, Bob drove Mom, Ty, and I to the walk in clinic to make sure he was wasn't sick. That took up most of the afternoon. Jake got sick later that night and vomited all over the hallway. What a mess!
I was ready to get away from the sickness Thursday, so Mom and I made our way to Denver to Ulta for some girly make-up mom/daughter time. We had fun. When we got home it was time for church Christmas eve service. David got sick when we got home from church, and I named our family the hill-billy's. 
On Christmas, David was sick for most of the morning, but we still had a nice time with the kids and Mom and Bob. They were great hosts to us hillbilly's. We had great food, and they spent lots of time with the kids while I slept. I think the altitude really wore me out because I was always napping. Some friends stopped by for dessert later in the day.
Sledding behind the house was Saturday and then the Denver Zoo lights. That was really festive and the kids loved seeing the animals that were out.
Skating Sunday. I can't believe how many people were out for skate the lake. It was packed! Everyone is so active in Colorado either skating, skiing, hiking, or biking. You would never see that many peop
le out skating in Jackson. Tyler loved skating, but h
e didn't do much.
By Monday, Mom and I needed to shop again. So we sent David and Bob to Breckenridge to do some big boy skiing and we took Jake and Ty to Denver to a trampoline place and then to the mall. Jake had a blast at the trampoline place, I took Ty to the car for a nap.
The Animals:
The Animals:I have to share the animals that can be found in my Mom's yard. It is so fun. We also saw some mountain sheep or goats on the way to the ski place, but I didn't get a picture.
We left on Tuesday. I drove all through Nebraska thanks to the 80's and 90's channel on the Sirrus radio. I couldn't get enough of those old songs you forget about. We also listened to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory book on tape which we all enjoyed. No one threw up and we made it straight through again. Thank-you for a wonderful vacation, Mom & Bob. Love, The Hillbilly's.
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