Home alone
Joe's at a Penguin's game tonight with his co-worker. So it's me and the boys. I feel like i've accomplished a lot today, but yet, have a ton to do.
We dropped E off at school this morning, then John and I came home to prep the recycling. The city changed our recycling pickup from twice a month to once a month and the day doesn't correspond with the garbage day, it's on Friday instead. SO, we have to actually REMEMBEr now to put it out. And since it's been a month, there ws a lot. Joe and I don't typically crush cans but we are going to have to from now on to make everything fit in. So, John and I were in the basement crushing cans most of the morning. I got everythig into the three bins. Plus I was able to load all the cardboard, magazines, and newspapers into my car so I could drop them off tonight. Straightened out the 'Harry Potter Room' while I was at it. (It's a room under the basement stairs that we keep the garbage and recycling).
Then it was lunch and naptime. I had a bunch of stock that my dad was the trustee of for me, so while John and I ate, I prepped the papers for getting those into just my name in my stock accounts. And I got all the misc checks ready for the bank to deposit. Then it was nap time. I sooooo should have napped with John. But I didn't. I watched stupid tv and then crashed right before he woke up. But he played nicely while I dozed.
Then off to pick up Edward. After, we dropped of the recycling. Poor John wanted to help, but it was so cold and we couldn't find one of his gloves. He came out anyway, but was screaming because his hand was so cold. I finished quick and we all got warmed up in the car. Then we headed to the bank and finally to Wendy's for dinner. I got the taco salad, but they ruined it by adding too much water. I don't like watery salads. So I ate some and threw out the rest. The boys ate everything in site and were VERy well behaved. We even played some I Spy Bingo (the free toy) before we left. Then we came home. John had wet his car seat and was screaming about it, so I figured it was best to get home quick. I wanted to get gas, but I have an oil change in the morning in the same area, so I'll do that then.
So, now we're home. I have a ton of laundry to fold and put away. I think I'll have the boys help me out when I'm done here. They love running it into their rooms and Edward does a great job helping fold and then sorting his own clothes to put away. He puts most of it away, I just hang up his school clothes for him. It's nice to have a helpful kiddo.
Guess Edward was impressing the teacher today at school. She sent a note home about his singing ability. I guess he was singing a song he 'wrote' about going to school while playing their little piano there. LOL! He is always singing!
He got a "Big Boy Award" this morning for sleeping all night in his bed. I'm hoping this sticks. But I'm giving him a certificate for each day he sleeps all night in his own bed, 7 will get him a trip to the store to buy a train. I love sleeping in the family bed with the boys, but we have to clear at least one out to make room for Baby#3 and Edward seems to be the easiest. He hasn't stopped promising to sleep in his bed since he realized that it would earn him a train. I figure, one train now, then he can build up more days for another and we'll extinguish the reward a few months from now or switch it to activities in the summer (beach, park, etc).
John is starting tos ay a few more words. I heard him singing with Elmo tonight-Game, Game, Game... And he is clearly saying "GO" now. THANK GOD! He's so hard to understand otherwise. He's regressed his potty training a bit. He's peed his pants so many times I stopped counting. I hope to work on this this weekend when I can focus a bit more and have some back up. He was doing so good last week.
I'm getting antsy to pay off our van. We owe less than $10,000 on it. I want to slap all our savings (minus $1000 for our BEF), but Joe isn't comfy doing that until after our next gas bill comes in. It was over $1000 last month and will be again this month before it comes back down to a reasonable amount. I just want out of debt. And then to use that payment to set up retirement and then pay off the house. I'm sick of owing money all the time. I never want to owe money again. Our tax refund isn't as high as last year, so I'm a bit bummed. We finally figured out that it was because Joe's bonus was half it's norm, so he wasn't taxed as much. Plus we paid off the student loans, so we lost that deduction. All that made us not able to itemize our deductions so we aren't getting as much back. Bummer. But it also means we don't ahve to adjust it much for next year, we should be close to not owing/not getting any back, which means more money in our pockets each month.