Miracles

For a long time I had given up on God.  I thought that he hadn't helped me out and if he existed at all it was only to spite me.  Recently Keith and I started going to church together along with going to class and praying.  We started this right around the time that I lost my job.  When I lost my job I had done everything possible in order to keep my job.  Everything was lined up perfectly so there was no way that I would be fired.  The night before I prayed and put it all in God's hands.  I knew without a doubt that if I got fired anyway it was because I had a reason to be home.  Since being home I have found that to be true.  I've spent so much time with my kids that I've never had with them before.  I was here when my baby first walked.  I was here when she first talked.  To me that's a miracle. 

With the good, there is always bad.  We've had quite the financial struggle recently.  We've been extremely worried about Christmas and what to spend on the kids.  We had already decided that we don't need anything ourselves and that we aren't going to do any family gift exchanges.  Even still we've been praying to get through this. 

Two weeks ago we went to our class and accidentally got signed up as the co-chair people for the group Sub for Santa.  We had one other person helping us with this but we were quite scared when we were assigned this.  It really didn't help when the announcements barely explained what the group was trying to accomplish and also in the announcement everyone was told to see this other helper and not us so she got more of her list done so we just knew we were going to have to buy what was left on our list.  That night we left class with heavy hearts thinking that our girls would have a DI Christmas while we were paying for these other poor kids to have a better Christmas than our own kids would be getting. 

Last week when we got to class we were still quite discouraged because there wasn't anymore class time to gather what was left of the gifts.  I had planned on arranging with people to meet them to gather anything they signed up to buy if I could.  Sadly, no one signed up for anything.  I had talked to the Deacon at the beginning of class and asked him to make another announcement but when break time came no one else signed up.  Keith and I had already prayed asking that we make it through this season and left everything in God's hands so if need be we would pay for all of the gifts ourselves and trust in God to find a way to make it the rest of the way.  As it turned out we were given enough money in class to buy everything we needed and plenty to donate to Sub for Santa so any of the other kids that weren't already bought for can get presents as well.  This was the first miracle.  I cried when the money was placed in my hand. 

Today the other two miracles happened.  First, Keith got a new job working for the same company so he'll still be able to finish his degree that he started working on.  That's only half of the good news.  He'll be working twice as far away in distance but the hours are much better so he'll be able to sleep in an hour and still get home from work at least two hours earlier than he currently does.  He'll work "normal hours" for the first time in his life and he'll be making the same pay as he was before when he was doing all the overtime only now he won't be working all the overtime.  We're really excited!  He's been wanting a change since I've known him.  This is also a great career move because he no longer has the fear of losing his job when the START treaty is over and he's working in a field that coincides with his degree.  He could actually get great promotions with this job!  The second miracle today is that I found out that I can make my ex pay child support without taking him to court by simply applying for the Office of Recovery Services.  They will garnish his wages and that's the end of that story.  I'm sure that he wont be happy to find that this is what we're doing now, but then I wasn't really happy when I found that he could just quit paying for months.

So, life is coming together at last.  We are still relatively poor, but at least we can see the light at the end now.  We've had faith and put trust in God and found that God is watching over us and taking care of us.  It feels good to have God and family together in life.  We're very blessed.

Odds and Ends

Today I'm hanging out with the baby while everyone else is gone.  I took a picture of her with these cute little hair things in her hair.  Now here I am with them.  =)  Right now I'm really wishing that we would abolish the never post pictures of kids rule.  I would love to post the picture of the baby next to this.  Obviously she wins the cute award!  I made these hair clips last night and A. and K. each have one that match too (only theirs have leaves).  I haven't made clips in a while, maybe I'll start again.  That was kind of fun.

This is my frog habitat.  I have 26 frogs. 

This is what one looks like up close.

And this one is named skeletor because he's mishaped and skinny. 

These are my pets.  Keith has his fish and his dogs, I have my frogs.  All 26 of them.  That's right, I decided I'm not sharing them!  lol

I'm still unemployed these days.  I've been looking for work but prospects are pretty dim out there.  I have to admit, I've enjoyed being a SAHM though.  (Well other than the part where that means we're broke.)

Oh, we have a new roomate as of recently.  It's a mouse!  I can't wait for it to move out! You know how our dogs are Rat Terriers?  Ha! 

Well, that's about all I can think of right now.  It's time once again to chase around a little baby monkey!

Here we go again

Well, I'm starting over for the last time.  I wont be forced to close down again and I won't let anyone make me run anymore.  This is it.  I'm taking back my power. 

Happy 4th of July!

I took the kids to see Thoroughly Modern Millie on Thursday night and was supposed to go to Lagoon yesterday with z and to the parade today with his family. Lagoon and the parade didn't happen. Instead I chose this weekend for a break down weekend. I spent yesterday (along with Thursday night) being crazy. Sure wish that more people went crazy now and then so I don't have to feel so alone in my craziness. I'm mostly better today but still a little on the edge. In my next life I'm going to be one of those perfect people.

Oh well. Happy 4th of July just the same!

I am the Champion!!

Prior to the Music Express we had teamed up for rides as z and A and K and me.  For the Music Express, since it's a kid favorite anyway, we decided to team up with kids in one car and z and me in another. 

With z and I in our own car, the competition was on!  Before the ride even started he put his whole body diagonal taking up as much space to squish me as possible.  I was on the inside and had the forces of nature working on my side.  When the ride started I let z push me nearly the whole time but then toward the end I thought, why am I letting him push me, I have the ride on my side!  So that was it.  I started pushing back, and ladies and gentlemen, I want you to know that at the end of the ride I won hands down!  z was squished on his little side and out of breath and worn out! 

Hurray!  I defeated z and saved the world!!!!

Yay Lagoon!!

Before we went to Lagoon K. and I went to the Dr. to check out her kankle.  She got a bug bite a few days before and it swelled up huge!  I had given her Benadryl to no avail the night before so we just wanted to make sure she was OK before taking her

Right off the bat z made us go on the White Roller Coaster.  I hate that ride but the kids wanted to go on it too.  It seems like every time I go to Lagoon I get stuck going on that ride against my better judgment.  You should have seen how excited the kids were for that ride though.  I remember riding it with my parents back in the day and I can remember my mom holding me on the ride so I didn't fly out.  I think I really might have if it weren't for being held in that rickety old ride with crappy seat belts.  I opted to ride with K. so I could hold her in just in case.  It turns out the seat belts are much better these days but the kids HATED the ride and K. was terrified of the whole thing.  She kept her head down which probably made it 100x's worse than what it really was because she also hit her nose on the bar on one of the bounces.

After that ride K. was a bit mad for the next hour or so at Lagoon.

Onto the next ride!  It was about 2:30pm and not too hot outside.  z decided we should go on the Cliffhanger before it was too late so we could get the getting wet over with.  K. and A. were both scared to go on this ride, more so K. than anyone though.  She saw them go upside down and wanted to be left off the ride.  Of course her mean old mother wouldn't let her.  We got drenched from head to toe.  Our shoes were soaking, everything in z's pockets were soaking, our hair was soaking.  Everything!  So after that K. was freezing for the next several rides.  The good news, she didn't hate the Cliffhanger other than the soaking part.  Oh, and we never even went upside down.  Don't know why. 

Next we went for the spider.  z and I have gone on our own a few times and the line was always too long so we'd never gone on it.  K. of course was scared again.  Let me just tell you, it was awesome!  Even K. loved it!  That ride was so fun!!

After that we went to the Colossus.  I love that ride!  I made A. go on it with me years ago and she swore she'd never ride it again.  Too bad, mean old mom made her anyway.  Neither of the kids wanted to and K. was scared to go upside down.  Turned out to be another ride that K. liked in the end.  A. still didn't like it though.

After the Colossus we rode the Music Express since it's one of the kids favorites.  That was the treat for going on all of our crazy rides.

Then we rode the Sky Ride back to the other side of the park so we could go eat.  It was still a little early so we let the kids go on the Tilt-O-Whirl while z and I sat the ride out.  We went and looked at the Catapult, wishing we weren't cheapskates (it's $20 a person!) and then sat down and tried to let all the soggy papers in z's pocket dry out.

We had a free meal from z's work which consisted of two meats (choice of hotdog, hamburger, or chicken)  letus, onions, tomatoes, chips, condements, potatoe salad and red jello.  Knowing K. would only eat one hotdog I had her get two in case someone else was hungry.  A. stuffed her face with three hotdogs, potatoe salad, jello, chips, and a drink followed by her icecream treat.  After that she was sick.

We went to do the Rocket, a ride that a year or so I was scared of but z made me go on it anyway and it turned out I love it.  K. again didn't want to go on it and A. decided that she was going to throw up and couldn't go on it.  When we got up to the front of the line they took A. to the exit to wait and K. by this time had decided that maybe this would be a fun ride after all.  When we were sitting on the ride and the guy was checking out our seat belts the guy noticed K. was happy to go on the ride and tried to scare her!  It didn't work though, thank goodness!  When we shot in the air and felt the rush of going up I thought to myself, I hope K. isn't freaking out right now!  When we got off the ride K. was so excited!  That was her favorite ride!

When we got off the Rocket A. was ready to go home for not feeling good.  We called z's parents to come get her and walked her out to the pickup zone.  As it turns out this was part of the last good part of the day. 

We went back into the park with K. and hit a couple kids rides.  Right after that it started pouring hard!  We were right by the Terror Ride so we decided to go on it too since it's a covered ride.  Standing in line we got completely soaked once again.  When we were done with the Terror Ride we decided that it was too rainey so we left.

It was really crowded there and all the lines were long.  They went sort of quick but we didn't get to do nearly as many of the rides we wanted to.  Luckily z and I are going to bounce back next Friday with NO KIDS!!!  We're going to try out Wicked and whatever else we want to do.  I can't wait to not have kids wining to go on all the fun rides only to have them love them after they get off the ride.  What a bore!  Yay for next Friday!

Boring life

Today I stayed home with my sick baby.  I got lots of video gaming time in while she was sleeping.  That was fun!  I also finally got caught up on laundry.  Blah!  It would be nice if house work would just learn to do itself!

Crap.  I have nothing more to blog about.  My life is boring.