Brandon's Puppy

Self-Diagnosis

I have concluded that my allergy attacks are my body's way of telling me I need rest. I got a really bad one yesterday, the day after sleeping no more than 4 and a half hours. I got home yesterday, did homework with Brandon, had hubby pick up pizza on his way home and ate that, took a quick shower, and was in bed by 9pm. I slept for over 10 hours, and I feel like a new person today.
With this new theory, I almost don't mind dealing with my allergy attacks as often as I do. Almost.

Did you miss me???

I've had a stressful couple of days, people. It's been crazy at work, with deadlines and assignments and all sorts of other ordeals. I had a performance evaluation meeting scheduled with two of my bosses since last week and it kept getting postponed. I was so anxious, I now need an acne treatment from thinking about it for the last few days. I won't go into much detail about it, except to say that it didn't go as well as one would hope, mostly because there's a lot of weight being thrown around. I did manage to defend myself well enough that I got an apology out of it, and that's good enough. For now.

In other news, I got the new cell phone on Sunday! Yes, I did end up getting the LG Shine for under $10, and it's awesome. But don't tell hubby...I dropped it in the driveway this evening. Brandon and I headed out to get milk, and when I was getting out of the car it slipped from my hands. It now has a bunch of little scratches on the bottom of the phone. Verily, I am upset, but not as upset as hubby will be when he notices, which I hope is a long, long time from now.

Saturday

So I finished everything on my To-Do list from yesterday, save for voting. Fortunately the early voting place closest to our house is open Sundays from 1-5, so both hubby and I are going tomorrow.
I've had a pounding headache all afternoon and tried to nap, but Matty confused me for a trampoline when he saw me laying there. Good times.
A couple of friends are over now to watch the UFC fight with hubby, including hubby's Goddaughter, who lost her first tooth yesterday. How cute is that?!
Okay, enough small talk. I have to tend to my guests. Have a good night!

Teacher Work Day = Mommy "Work" Day

I'm home with the boys. On our agenda for today:

Wash and put away laundry
Visit Brandon's Nina before she and the fam head off to Disney
Buy Brandon's costume and diapers for Matty
Vote
Lunch with BFF Angie and baby Katie
Post Office
Take Brandon to the Library
Visit with Papito and Abuelita
Scan embarrassing old pics to put on FB

Be back later.

5 Gs-UPDATED

On a whim, I bought a lotto ticket this morning. I was hesitant about wasting the dollar, but at the same time, I was feeling lucky and what’s a dollar if you win $5,000. Yeah, I’m not greedy, I’ll settle for five out of six numbers. $5K is all we need to get back on track. We’d take care of a couple of matters, and probably use a little bit to do some online trading. In this market, that’s not a bad idea; stocks have nowhere to go but up. It’s easy to figure out what to do with a $1 million…what would you do with $5,000?

Update, 10/23/08: We're still poor. Only one number matched.

Our Future

After picking up Brandon at school, I ran into Publix to get four things: milk, mozzarella cheese, eggs and bread. I had a coupon for $1 off any dairy item. The kid, maybe 17 or 18, scanned my items and looked confused when I handed him the coupon. He asked me, "do you have any dairy items?". I told him, "yes, the milk, eggs and cheese are all dairy items".
He nodded ,then proceeded to call the manager to make sure he could use the coupon with the items I was purchasing.

!!!

Ring, Ring

I’ve been having the same problem with weird phone numbers that my friend WB wrote about yesterday. See, we’ve not been able to make payments on two of my five credit cards for the last couple of months. The calls at home are non-existent now as I changed our home phone number two weeks ago, but the calls to my cell phone have significantly increased. I’ll get calls as early as 7:30am sometimes. And they’ll call me at work too, but I’ll use the release button on those. I don’t need people at work hearing about my personal finances. Some say “unknown” or “anonymous”, but most of them are out of area numbers. If I’m near a computer, I usually look up the number on areacodelocator.org. It’s weird how the same bank will have several numbers in different states that they’ll call me from. At least that’s what I figure when I check the number on the area code locator.
But not all the unknown numbers are creditors. I’ve had the same cell phone number for over 6 years, and I’ll still get lots of calls not meant for me. I rarely pick up if I don’t recognize the number, unless I’m expecting a call from someone not in my phone list. There have been times where I've pick up by mistake, and the person on the other end won’t admit they dialed the wrong number and rudely hang up when I answer. Most of the time, I’ll reject the call or let it go to voicemail. If it’s meant for me, they can leave a message. But, I have investigative tendencies, so the reverse phone lookup comes in handy. I like to know who’s calling me, even if they didn’t mean to call me. Yeah, I’m nosy like that.

Frugality and productivity

We've had quite the cost-cutting day today. As I mentioned earlier, FIL finished the siding on the front of the house. While the men-folk were outside working, my MIL and I gave the boys haircuts with hubby's trimmer. Of course we had no idea what we were doing so they don't look as fabulous as they usually do, but they are presentable, and I saved 30 bucks (plus tip).

Then, once MIL and FIL left and hubby sat down to watch the Dolphins game, Brandon and I headed out to run errands, the errands we couldn't get to yesterday because we decided to go to the Pumpkin Patch. (I'll post those pics later on). We made many stops in three hours: the bank (deposit), TJ Maxx (just browsing), the post office (mail ebay stuff), B&N (book for Brandon for a project), Michael's (crafty stuff for the project), Target (diapers and other essentials), the $0.99 store (cheap snacks for hubby and the boys), and the supermarket (edible essentials). With all that, and everything we accomplished this morning, it's been quite a productive Sunday. My only complaint? I wish it were Saturday.

Early birthday wishes

Tomorrow is my friend Claudia's birthday. She's the crazy one in our group, not embarrassed to wear a silly accessory or a crazy costume in public, for any occasion. Novelty t-shirts are just the beginning with her. She’ll wear a green glittery bowtie for St. Patrick’s Day, don an eye patch all day in honor of Talk Like a Pirate Day, and start thinking about Halloween in April.
I know I'm a day early, but I'd rather be early than late: Happy birthday, Claude! Hope you have an awesome day tomorrow!
*hugs*

Progress

My FIL came by this morning and finished up the front siding. Doesn't it look purty?

There's still a lot to do: replace the seven planks of siding in the back of the house, seal the wood and caulk the crevices, paint the repaired parts and the columns in the front, and clean the rest of the house. It's coming along nicely, though, don'tcha think?

Looking for the silver lining

OMG, what a stressful week! On Monday, at some point during the day, the handyman that was working on our house fell off his ladder. He fell on his back and fractured a lower vertebrae. I have no idea how he managed it, but he drove himself home and had his wife drive him to the hospital. Hubby went to visit him the following day and thankfully he was doing better than we expected. He was released on Wednesday, but he will be out of commission for a while.
Now that we know he'll be okay, we're stressing about how to get the work finished. The good news is, all the material has been purchased and is at our house. He already removed the old siding from the front of the house, and did the first three rows. The back hasn't been touched yet. My FIL is coming by on Sunday to try and at least finish the front, since the paper is currently exposed to the elements, which could create a bigger problem than the one we started with. If FIL can do the back too, we won't have to pay someone to do it, and we can do the paintingo ourselves, saving money there too. Let's hope that's how it works out.
Oh, and I won't go much into the financial stresses also ailing us: suffice it to say that hubby's paycheck was for less than we expected (his hours were finally cut, and consequently so was commission), and we've had to borrow yet again from someone to pay this week's bills. The next couple of weeks should be better as hubby gets paid five times this month, which gives us a chance to catch up at the end of the month but damn, when it rains, it pours! I keep thinking, "it could be worse", but I really wish it'd get better. Soon. Wasn't this the year we were going to get rid of our debt?...

Better

I'm proud to say that Brandon's behavior has been stellar this week! I got the following note from his teacher yesterday: "He did better with his behavior yesterday and today. He finished his work. Let him know that I told you the good news =) ". So this week I've adopted a new strategy; we decided it would be best to reward him with a small treat every day. We figured that the instant gratification approach would work better than setting long-term goals. On Monday, his friend Julie came over for a little while to play. Yesterday, we went over to my sister's house and he spent some time with his cousins. Today, we rushed home to do homework and take a bath because when we told the director at Matty's school how good he had behaved, she invited him to Story Night this evening. If he behaves tomorrow, Titi is coming over for some playtime. If he makes it through the week, we're going to the Pumpkin Patch with his cousins during the weekend.
By the way, have you noticed a pattern? None of his rewards have been new toys. I'm very proud of this accomplishment, and I hope we can keep it up. There are more than enough toys in this house!

My Cutie Patootie

Click here if you'd like to see Matty's first school picture ever.

Possible birthday plans?

So…I realized yesterday that my birthday is less than two months away, and it falls on a Sunday this year. I think I would like to spend my birthday weekend down in Key West. Hubby and I have been talking about driving down there since his birthday in March and it just hasn’t happened. It’s pretty sad that we are so close to such a beautiful location as Key West Florida and don’t get there as often as we should. I’m kind of glad we didn’t make it down there during the summer, though; the weather was probably scorching during that time, but we know from experience it’s absolutely delightful in December. When we were younger (aka unmarried and childless) we’d go at least twice a year, and usually it was for our birthdays. We’d leave early in the morning, stop somewhere along the way for breakfast, and get there around mid-morning. We’d walk around town, have a late lunch at one of the local restaurants, watch the fabulous sunset from the boardwalk, then drive back home. We’re not as young and spirited as we used to be, and with two kids in tow, the one-day thing is just not feasible anymore. A weekend stay is definitely a better option for us these days.
Anyway, it’s only a three-hour drive, less than driving up to Orlando. Gas was the biggest problem the last few months, but now that the price of gas has significantly decreased, I’ll try and squeeze a little weekend trip into our budget to celebrate how old I’m getting.

Sunday night, already???

Just a quick little note to let you all know I'm okay. I wasn't much in the mood for blogging these last couple of days. I was in the mood for enjoying friends and family, and that's exactly what I did.
I went to lunch with some girlfriends from work yesterday, and that was a blast. Then hubby and I debated whether to go upgrade our phones (Costco is having a heck of a deal until Oct. 26...we're each going to get the new LG Shine for $9.99!), but I haven't paid our bill yet so that was out. We ended up staying home and watching "Baby Mama" instead. I thought it was funny, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler are hilarious!
Today I had lunch with an old friend, and met her two boys. That was fun, and we do plan on doing it again soon. I got home with an unhappy tummy (as my friend WB would say), so I fell asleep on the couch while hubby watched the Dolphins game. After I woke up Brandon and I went to the grocery store while hubby stayed home with a napping Matty. I worked wonders with $20, let me tell you!
The boys are now in bed, and I'm ready to watch Desperate Housewives. Good night!

A good day

In spite of the gloominess the rain brought, I had a good day today. For starters, hubby got paid $60 more than we expected. His hours got cut a couple of weeks ago and I spent the whole week worrying about how I was going to stretch his paycheck. No stretching needed. YAY!

We received a notice in the mail yesterday that one of hubby's credit card debts, which we had no choice defaulting on shortly before buying our house, was now dismissed! It was the card with the biggest balance, and now we can figure out some sort of payment plan for the other two, which are significantly smaller. I got confirmation from a lawyer friend today that we didn't need to worry about that one anymore.

Because of all the rain today, the handyman came over, finished the last column, and left. He couldn't start on the siding because the new wood got wet and can't be used until it's dry. It works out for us that the work will continue through next week as we'll need to use funds from hubby's next paycheck to pay the rest of our balance. Oh, and we need time to buy the paint, which we can now afford thanks to this week's "extra" funds. Consequently, it's favorable that the work is delayed, but not by much. He should be done by next Wednesday (weather permitting).

This week definitely feels like we're getting somewhere financially. Which reminds me: WB, have you looked into decreasing your car insurance premium? I've heard that if you ask your broker to increase the deductible, the monthly premium can go down significantly. Something to think about, my friend.

Repairs

It was quite an eventful day on the home (repair) front yesterday. The handyman decided to start with the four columns in the front of the house, figuring they would be easy and he could get them out of the way quickly. Yeah, right...he was wrong. He took off the old wood to resurface the beams and found that, so far, three out of four were rotted inside. One in particular was destroyed, and he had to remove it completely. After removing it he realized that the beam it was attached to was also damaged, but that would cost well over another thousand dollars to replace (money we definitely don't have now), so he cut out the worst part and replaced that piece with fresh wood. So yesterday afternoon we had the first of our lovely new columns.
Today he was pretty busy too. He finished the second of the damaged columns and the wall on the outside of the boys' bedroom. I didn't take a picture of the wall before he started, but you can see some of the damage in this picture from the 4th of July. See the hole-y wall? The panels on the furthest left and right of the wall were like that, and the two smaller ones in the middle had minimal damage.
Looks like tomorrow he'll finish up the last column, and start working on the siding. Yeah, it's bad, but the siding on the back of the house is worse. That's the one the association has been hassling us about. But come next week there will be no more hassling, and my little house will be beautiful again! Yeah, we're spending more than originally estimated...that's the part I'm trying not to think about.

Odd

I've had two views in the last hour from the Department of Children and Families, and I also had one last week.

I don't know anyone who works for DCF. Any ideas why they might be visiting me? Or why?

Less of me

Some of you may recall that last February my doctor told me I needed to lose weight. After seeing my doctor I did a lot of walking in preparation for the March for Babies walk in late April, but I've been a huge slacker after that. Well, for no reason other than seeing the scale in the bathroom, I decided to weigh myself this morning, and was pleasantly surprised to see the scale display the numbers 163.5. I haven't exercised, I'm not on a diet, and least of all I'm not taking weight loss supplements, but somehow I've managed to get really close to my target weight. Well, not "somehow", I know how: we're eating out less, and I'm cooking at home almost every day, which means less fats and grease in our diets. I've got a minimum of four pounds to go before my next doctor's visit. Yay!
I guess being poor does have its advantages. ;-)

tidbits

Brandon had picture day yesterday. When I picked him up I asked him how it went, and how he looked, and he said "Handsome". He also said he behaved all day, and showed me the lack of strikes on the board. He said, "my brain told me to misbehave, but I ignored it". So as a treat, Titi came over for a while after work. She plans on coming by once a week every time he behaves. I may have to reimburse her for gas, but if he's behaving it's worth it.

The Pumpkin Patch opens this weekend. I can't wait to go! Matty's big enough this year to really appreciate it. I know he'll love picking a pumpkin, walking through the butterfly garden, and maybe even riding a pony.

The siding work starts today. It was supposed to start last week, but the handyman was running behind on another job because of all the rain we've had. I'll try and get some "before" and "during" pics when I get home.

No change is good

The benefits fair at work is coming up later this week, and they're offering several new options for employees. In the last few weeks we've gotten some informational emails explaining the changes, including four medical plans to choose from, a new health reimbursement plan and even smokers life insurance. Most of us employees were very displeased with the plans offered the last few years, and it seems like the benefit administration office actually listened to our concerns. I'm very happy to report that our preferred medical plan premiums have remained the same, as has our dental plan. Wow...some positive finance-related news for a change.

Hyped up

We got back from the party about two hours ago, and I don't feel as tired as I did this morning. No, I didn't take any energy pills. I didn't have anything to drink with breakfast this morning so I needed a caffeine fix. I might have overdone it slightly with the Coke during the party. I kept sending hubby to the cooler to refill my cup. But I still intended to get to bed early, even if I don't fall asleep right away.

Good times

Grandma's birthday was great! It stopped raining shortly after the guests arrived, and it turned into a beautiful sunny day. Matty slept through about half of the party while Brandon dragged "volunteers" to play with him in the playroom. My house was full of people I love, lots of yummy food and good conversation. It was perfect. Felicidades, Abuela!

Oh, sleep, how I covet thee!

So the last few nights have involved interrrupted sleep, and I don't feel as if I rested. Thursday night/Friday morning both boys woke up, and I was a walking zombie at work. The night before last was the gun shots thing. So last night was finally uneventful, but this morning I feel as if I haven't slept in a week. Why is that? I really like sleep. My bones and muscles get a break. It's a destressor, and naturally is better than any of the best acne treatments out there. So why do I have to suffer from sleep debt? (thankfully, this debt does not involve money) We have C-man's party until about 5, then I'm coming straight home and calling it as early a night as possible. I really hope I can catch up tonight and have a restful sleep, or I'll be completely useless this coming week.

Never mind

Just as I was about to get dressed to head out, it started raining. Again. So I guess I can take a few moments to blog some more.

We were up last night when the news broke that O.J. Simpson was found guilty on all 12 counts related to the kidnapping and robbing charges from last Fall. I found it interesting that it took the jury 13 hours to deliberate, and the verdict was read on the 13th anniversary of his acquittal in the murder charges of his ex-wife and her friend. Like I told hubby last night, it took 13 years, but justice is finally served. Did any of you see the footage of when they read te verdict? His expression said it all: "Damn, the finally got me."

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Just because I wasn't able to blog it doesn't mean I forgot: Helen's babies turned 1 yesterday! Welcome to toddlerhood, little ones.

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I've been selling some of our old stuff on ebay the last couple of weeks, and I was shocked last week when I sold a lot of Elmo dolls (Hokey Pokey Elmo, Limbo Elmo, the Elmo that did the YMCA dance and the Elmo and Cookie Monster potato sack racers) that I listed for $10 for $50! Yesterday our good fortune continued as I sold both Brandon and Matty's Finding Nemo costumes from last year for a total of $45.50: I had purchased them for $12 each, and listed them for $7 each. Let's see if I have luck with a few other things I need to list. If these kinds of profits continue, we just might get caught up on the bills this month. Heck, we might even be able to afford Christmas!

Okay, looks like it stopped raining. More later.

Celebration

In honor of my maternal grandmother's 82nd birthday today, we are having a small party at my house this afternoon. Even after last night's events and only four hours of sleep, I got up at 8am when hubby started getting ready for work to clean up the house a bit. I folded and put away two loads of laundry, put another to wash, put away a dishwasher-full of dishes, filled up the washer again, cleaned up the dining room (clutter central), and had breakfast with the boys. It's only 10am, and all I have left to do is clean the guest bathroom. Not bad, right? We're heading off to the post office and then we're headed back home to finish up before the guests start arriving.

Nighttime disturbance

A post I left on my HOA's message board early this morning:

Hi all,

I was woken up a short while ago (it's 1:30am) by my husband, saying he heard gunshots. Apparently the kids that like to horse around in their cars, screeching their tires and doing "donuts" at the end of C**** Road, across the street from my home, got out of hand tonight. My husband says he heard four gunshots, looked out the window, and say the kids scatter. He says there were six cars, maybe more, and he heard one of the kids say "he has a gun" at one point. He looked out the window and noticed the wood (community) sign on the ground. We've since called Wakenhut and the police, but it's raining hard right now so they may not even bother coming.

We've lived here for almost three years, and have, on many occasions, been bothered by the noises made by these kids in the middle of the night, but my fear was always that they'd lose control of one of the cars and hit one of the homes in the area. This is the first time they hit something, and fortunately it was a sign and not a home, but I don't like the idea of them shooting guns. A stray bullet could go in a window or something, and pose a real danger to the families in the area. I strongly suggest installing cameras in the area. Like I said, we've lived here for a while, and it's a pretty common occurence...but now it's getting dangerous.

Time 4 Learning

I’ll admit that a couple of weeks ago I was overwhelmed by Brandon’s bad behavior. I wasn’t sure what to do, or how to help remedy the situation. I started brainstorming ways we could encourage him to behave better and pay more attention, but I was stumped. Coincidentally, around the same time a blog friend asked me if I’d like to do a paid review for an interactive home learning site. I said, “Sure!” and gave her my information to forward to the company. It surely wouldn’t hurt, and it might actually help.
A few days later I get an email invitation to register Brandon for access to the site. The registration included specifics about my child’s grade level, and what he does and doesn’t know. We weren’t able to explore the site that evening, in fact it took us another few days to get around to it, but once we did I couldn’t pull Brandon away from the computer. No, really, I’m serious.
It’s called Time 4 Learning, and it’s great! Our modules are based on the information I provided when I registered, with grade-level lessons and activities. Brandon loves most of the modules he’s done so far, and quite a few of them have correlated with what he’s currently learning in school: letter recognition and sounds, comparisons, and simple math and graphing. Each activity features an animal “hosting” the activity, providing instructions and encouraging the child. The graphics are great, simple and crisp, and the audio is clear and easy for children to understand. The lessons last about 15 minutes, but parents can adjust this time, as well as the “playground” time, which is a page with all sorts of appropriate computer games on it. Parents can view a log of all the lessons completed, as well as create and print reports.
Time 4 Learning is used for homeschooling and as a supplement to day school. While my registration was free for a limited time because of my review, I do consider that $19.95 a month is an awesome deal. Think about it: you’ll spend more on a tutor and on gas to get there.
Brandon still has to improve his behavior at school, but I have noticed that in the last week or so he reads more confidently, pays more attention to his homework and is even more eager about learning. There might be other reasons why he was acting up, but I can now confidently conclude that boredom was one of them. I hope we’re able to keep Time 4 Learning as a part of our homework routine, for his sake and ours.

A lovely surprise

I was working on a task a short while ago, deep in thought, when I heard a happy little voice coming down the hall. My nephew Tyler came into my office, pulling his daddy behind him. Yay, my niece and nephew are in the building for a visit! I went back over to my brother's office (two doors down) with them to give a kiss to the baby, and she laughed and smiled at me! Oh joy, I know how I'll be spending my lunchtime today. =D

Moody Matty

So I'm home today. Matty went to bed with a fever last night. We gave him Tylenol, and by the time he fell asleep he felt cooler, but this morning he had it again. Hubby took Brandon to school and I'm watching over the sicky baby, who had more Tylenol this morning and feels cooler to the touch, but is quite cranky and irritable. I made us scrambled eggs and toast for breakfast and he dumped his eggs on the floor, and then attempted to throw his dish off the highchair. Yes, he has a temper. No I have no idea where he gets it from.