I HAVE THE POWER!
to post again! For now, anyway. My work decided to block LJ (Adult content... poo!) and Mike stopped paying for the internet here. His decision. One of the agreements we made when I agreed to let him live here was that if he wanted internet or cable it was up to him to pay for because they weren't necessary enough for me to be willing to budget for them... how sadly mistaken was I when I got used to having them for a couple months and then they got disconnected... But I'm so stubborn that I wasn't about to pay to reconnect. I will slowly get over my cable addiction. *sigh* Anyway, just found out yesterday that he paid for a dial up connection now. Sweeeet. I've felt SO out of touch, keep asking poor Sara to update me on peoples' lives.
So, my life's updates...
Life is kind of the same. Sort of. Yes, Mike's still living here and there really isn't an end in sight. He makes crap for money and doesn't budget what little he gets, so the slightest "extra" expense (ie: renewing the car's plates, which he just did two weeks ago...they expired in NOVEMBER) throws him off. He's going to be a week late paying me for his portion of the rent. He only pays $300. Cripes. I keep telling myself that once I don't have to worry about having to pay full time child care (which I could NEVER in a million years afford) THEN I will be able to boot him out and not have to worry about the consequences of him falling into a complete tailspin. Then I realize that the time when I won't be in need of full time child care is when Jonah starts kindergarten... THREE YEARS from now. God help me.
I go through phases of loving and disliking the apartment, more often loving it. I LOVE having the patio. It's big enough that I was able to move the kids' play house from our old house and set it up there. The kids often play outside while I make dinner because I can see right from in the kitchen clear through the living room to the patio and keep an eye on them. The down side to this is that there is also sand right next to the patio (I have no idea why... the previous tenants didn't have kids) so I end up with TONS of sand tracked into the living room and throughout the house. But the kids are happy and getting fresh air, so I'm happier tooand I'm not bothered by the extra vaccuuming. And in general, the kids really are very happy lately. Elise LOVES (and I am not at all exaggerating here) having a bedroom that she can run in and out of on her own, and having space to play in it. Also, we've found there are a LOT of kids in this apartment complex- at least 5 families I can think of. My favorite family, though, is moving out this week. They built a house through Habitat for Humanity. I can't think of a nicer, more deserving family . She was the first neighbor to introduce herself to me. They were living in a 3 BD apt w/ 4 kids under the age of 5. Four REALLY nice kids, I really am sad to see them go.
I've finally "absorbed" most of the house into the apartment. The final phase happened about a week ago when Sara D watched the kids for me so I could clean, and clean I did!! Went about throwing out even more crap that I hadn't been able to get myself to part with before, and finally sorting our where to put stuff. Up until them, I had a pile of boxes and bags lining the dining room wall. *sigh* The walls. The walls are still, for the most part, bare. Partially because I keep forgetting to buy nails but mainly because I've decided I'm not really sure that I like the framed artwork that I have anymore. I mean, it's nice stuff, not cheap, but I'm not sure that I want the "country" look anymore. It's what I have and I can't really justify budgeting for new stuff, but.. eh.... I don't know. I just haven't been able to get myself to imagine it on the walls. And an even bigger problem is that I just don't really have a mind for decorating, kwim? Like, no concept of interior design whatsoever. None.
Right now my kitchen stinks like vinegar. I accidentally knocked the bottle off the shelf and the top popped right off. All over the floor. Peee-eewwww!
I interviewed for a different position that opened up at my work. It seemed interesting, kind of fun. It was literally the first interview I've had in SEVEN YEARS! I felt that it actually went pretty well, like I did well and was very composed and intelligent. But once I started thinking back on the interview I found myself really torn, almost hoping they didn't offer me the position. I have it very good in my department and I'm respected and really like my team. I got my wish- they offered the job to someone with experience with Excel (Now I'm embarrassed to admit I don't- now I'm hearing from people that it's realllllly easy to learn.) It was good practice to interview anyway.
Elise's early childhood team at school is getting her ready for kindergarten. They went to kindergarten warm up with her a couple weeks ago. (all the kids who will be in kindergarten next fall go for 2 half days so they can get an idea what's in store for them and so the teachers can kind of feel them out a little bit) Her team stayed the whole day and then late after class let out to try to think of every possible scenario Elise might run into so they can make adaptations before school starts in fall. Her team just continues to amaze me. Her EC teacher made sure Elise is teamed with a good teacher and a good case worker- she feels so passionate about Elise's potential that she wants to make sure she is well cared for and her next team is completely ready for her. She knows I love Elise but that with life's current situations I find myself continually falling short, I feel I'm not nearly the Super Mom that Elise needs. I really truly have no idea what I am going to do without her current team. I'll probably find myself going back to them for advise if I find her new team falling short. And really, this new team had better be good, they've got some gigantic, Goliath sized shoes to fill. one last thought on this whole thing: KINDERGARTEN. HOLY CRAP. My kid is old enough for kindergarten. Wow.
I feel like I need to say something about Jonah since I'm hitting on the points of life. Jonah is... fine. He's Jonah. I'm 99% sure he has allergies. He's fine when he wakes up in the morning, maybe a little sniffly. But once we're outside running around for more than 10 minutes his nose is like a freakin' fountain. Blech. His speech is still pretty behind, but Mandy has assured me she's not worried yet. And she's a speech therapist, so she should know. Lately it's been picking up more, he's been hitting more "bubbles" where he starts picking up groups of previously unused words. His hair is FINALLY starting to fill in! Like, you can actually tell he has some! And he's so tall... it's making it hard for me to hang onto the delusion that he's still a baby! :)
So that's my gigantic spew. I promise to be on more often now... hopefully... I hope y'all know I'm always thinking about ya!
So, my life's updates...
Life is kind of the same. Sort of. Yes, Mike's still living here and there really isn't an end in sight. He makes crap for money and doesn't budget what little he gets, so the slightest "extra" expense (ie: renewing the car's plates, which he just did two weeks ago...they expired in NOVEMBER) throws him off. He's going to be a week late paying me for his portion of the rent. He only pays $300. Cripes. I keep telling myself that once I don't have to worry about having to pay full time child care (which I could NEVER in a million years afford) THEN I will be able to boot him out and not have to worry about the consequences of him falling into a complete tailspin. Then I realize that the time when I won't be in need of full time child care is when Jonah starts kindergarten... THREE YEARS from now. God help me.
I go through phases of loving and disliking the apartment, more often loving it. I LOVE having the patio. It's big enough that I was able to move the kids' play house from our old house and set it up there. The kids often play outside while I make dinner because I can see right from in the kitchen clear through the living room to the patio and keep an eye on them. The down side to this is that there is also sand right next to the patio (I have no idea why... the previous tenants didn't have kids) so I end up with TONS of sand tracked into the living room and throughout the house. But the kids are happy and getting fresh air, so I'm happier tooand I'm not bothered by the extra vaccuuming. And in general, the kids really are very happy lately. Elise LOVES (and I am not at all exaggerating here) having a bedroom that she can run in and out of on her own, and having space to play in it. Also, we've found there are a LOT of kids in this apartment complex- at least 5 families I can think of. My favorite family, though, is moving out this week. They built a house through Habitat for Humanity. I can't think of a nicer, more deserving family . She was the first neighbor to introduce herself to me. They were living in a 3 BD apt w/ 4 kids under the age of 5. Four REALLY nice kids, I really am sad to see them go.
I've finally "absorbed" most of the house into the apartment. The final phase happened about a week ago when Sara D watched the kids for me so I could clean, and clean I did!! Went about throwing out even more crap that I hadn't been able to get myself to part with before, and finally sorting our where to put stuff. Up until them, I had a pile of boxes and bags lining the dining room wall. *sigh* The walls. The walls are still, for the most part, bare. Partially because I keep forgetting to buy nails but mainly because I've decided I'm not really sure that I like the framed artwork that I have anymore. I mean, it's nice stuff, not cheap, but I'm not sure that I want the "country" look anymore. It's what I have and I can't really justify budgeting for new stuff, but.. eh.... I don't know. I just haven't been able to get myself to imagine it on the walls. And an even bigger problem is that I just don't really have a mind for decorating, kwim? Like, no concept of interior design whatsoever. None.
Right now my kitchen stinks like vinegar. I accidentally knocked the bottle off the shelf and the top popped right off. All over the floor. Peee-eewwww!
I interviewed for a different position that opened up at my work. It seemed interesting, kind of fun. It was literally the first interview I've had in SEVEN YEARS! I felt that it actually went pretty well, like I did well and was very composed and intelligent. But once I started thinking back on the interview I found myself really torn, almost hoping they didn't offer me the position. I have it very good in my department and I'm respected and really like my team. I got my wish- they offered the job to someone with experience with Excel (Now I'm embarrassed to admit I don't- now I'm hearing from people that it's realllllly easy to learn.) It was good practice to interview anyway.
Elise's early childhood team at school is getting her ready for kindergarten. They went to kindergarten warm up with her a couple weeks ago. (all the kids who will be in kindergarten next fall go for 2 half days so they can get an idea what's in store for them and so the teachers can kind of feel them out a little bit) Her team stayed the whole day and then late after class let out to try to think of every possible scenario Elise might run into so they can make adaptations before school starts in fall. Her team just continues to amaze me. Her EC teacher made sure Elise is teamed with a good teacher and a good case worker- she feels so passionate about Elise's potential that she wants to make sure she is well cared for and her next team is completely ready for her. She knows I love Elise but that with life's current situations I find myself continually falling short, I feel I'm not nearly the Super Mom that Elise needs. I really truly have no idea what I am going to do without her current team. I'll probably find myself going back to them for advise if I find her new team falling short. And really, this new team had better be good, they've got some gigantic, Goliath sized shoes to fill. one last thought on this whole thing: KINDERGARTEN. HOLY CRAP. My kid is old enough for kindergarten. Wow.
I feel like I need to say something about Jonah since I'm hitting on the points of life. Jonah is... fine. He's Jonah. I'm 99% sure he has allergies. He's fine when he wakes up in the morning, maybe a little sniffly. But once we're outside running around for more than 10 minutes his nose is like a freakin' fountain. Blech. His speech is still pretty behind, but Mandy has assured me she's not worried yet. And she's a speech therapist, so she should know. Lately it's been picking up more, he's been hitting more "bubbles" where he starts picking up groups of previously unused words. His hair is FINALLY starting to fill in! Like, you can actually tell he has some! And he's so tall... it's making it hard for me to hang onto the delusion that he's still a baby! :)
So that's my gigantic spew. I promise to be on more often now... hopefully... I hope y'all know I'm always thinking about ya!