We have been without a second car for about 6+ months so I have been stuck at home.  It gets a little boring and it sucks sometimes because if I need to run out and pick something up for dinner or get something I ran out of, I have to wait until Tony gets home from work.  Also there really isn’t anything close by I can go to with the kids.  There is a park within walking distance but a)there is no shade and it gets pretty hot and b) there isn’t really any toddler things to do there, no baby swings.  The only thing my son can really do is go down the slide and with Isabel not walking yet it makes it hard to run after him and watch her. 

The other day when I had the car for my doctor’s appt it felt so freeing.  I could run my errands and just feel free to come and go as I chose.  It was a busy day so I didn’t get to do anything fun but it was just convenient to have the car. 

About 6 months ago Tony was having some problems with the car he drove, needed several minor repairs.  We just didn’t have the money or the time to fix it so he just started driving my car.  Then when we decided to move from South Florida to the Tampa area, we realized we had no way to get his car up there.  He has a “fun car”, one he is fixing up and trying to make fast and then we had my car and a rental truck so no way to get his car up.  We fixed a couple things on his car but basically sold it for parts.  So since then he has been driving my car.

I really need him to fix his “fun car”.  It doesn’t need any expensive Ferrari parts or anything, he just needs to put the engine back in and replace the brakes and other interior parts.  It will be somewhat time consuming and will cost us several hundred up to a thousand to get it all fixed. 

It will be nice to have the car fixed and get mine back.  I want to be able to go do things with the kids.

It’s that time again, school shopping, I need to buy clothes and supplies for Nicki.  It was brought to my attention, this great website, ShopWiki.  ShopWiki is a unique shopping comparison engine.  They include all retailers on the web, even ones that don’t pay to be included.

This site is great because it’s kind of like a one stop shopping.  You can find any retailer and compare with other retailers in order to get the best deal. It saves you time and money on the research.  I know sometimes I just don’t have the time to do a  google search.  Pulling up all the separate websites in different browsers and toggling back and forth.  I have used search sites like this before when searching for electronics and I thought is was very simple and easy to use. 

ShopWiki also helps you find some rare and unusual items.  I always like to give rare gifts.  Something I feel certain no one else has gotten.  They are also expanding overseas in Europe for places like, France, Germany and Netherlands.   

If you need help picking the right product, click here for their buying guides.

This week has been long and exhausting.  Maybe it’s just that time in the pregnancy but I feel tired all the time.  I have not posted all week so I have not updated ya’ll on my ultrasound I had the other day.

Let’s first start by saying that Tony couldn’t have the day off because he was in training.  I was alone!  Since Nicki is still in IL it was just me and the lil ones.  This has probably been the first time in a LONG TIME that it was just me alone with the kids.  I thought it would be ok because I was going to bring the stroller to the doctor’s office and I had snacks that the kids could munch on while I had the ultrasound.  Things didn’t quite go as planned.

My day started at 5:30am since I had to take Tony to work, he had to be there at 8am and his work is about an hour 15 min away.  I then went to Nicki’s school to get her registration paperwork.  I stopped home to pee and then went to KMart to get a car seat for Lil Tony.  I then proceeded to the doctor. By this point I knew I wouldn’t need any fat burning pills or anything.  With all the lifting and moving and carrying the kids, I probably lost a couple pounds, LOL!

By this time it’s 10am and I am exhausted.  I was supposed to have a full bladder for the ultrasound but about 45 min before the appt I really had to pee.

I get to the doctor and load the kids in the double stroller, it wasn’t the side by side stroller it was the one front to back so it’s pretty long.  I make my way up and make myself comfy in the waiting room.  There were these 2 old ladies sitting in there and they were kind of glaring at me.  Maybe because they could see how young my kids were and also knew I was pregnant with another, I don’t know but it made me feel a little uncomfortable.

I wasn’t in the waiting room long before it was my turn.  He is where I think things went a little bad.  The ultrasound tech was NOT NICE.  The whole way down the hall to the room she was glaring at the stroller, the kids and shaking her head.  As we were walking in the room she rudely asked if there was anybody that could have watched the kids, she said they had planned to do an internal ultrasound.  Having 3 other kids I knew the reasons they did an internal but I asked why anyways.  As she kept looking at my stomach she said it’s because we don’t know how far along you are.  Now this was only my second visit and in the first visit I wasn’t sure when my last period was but I was certain it was the end of Feb and I was certain I was AT LEAST 5 months pregnant.  So she reluctantly gave in and said fine, she not so happily moved some chairs around so I could get the stroller in the room.  She rudely told me to lay on the table and how to lay.  As we began I said that if she can tell, we would like to know the sex of the baby.  She immediately said the keyword there is “if”.  She said she doesn’t guess at the sex and if there is an uncertainty, she won’t tell me.  She was just all around rude.  She probably went on the whole appt about how my bladder wasn ‘t full.  I told her I had to pee 45 min earlier and there was no way I was going to be able to hold it.  By this time I had been dishing out the same rudeness right back.  She was so rude that I almost said that I would reschedule but I had already tried to get an appt for a different day when I knew Tony would not be in training and they had no availability. 

Lil Tony was really good during the appt which was a surprise but Isabel was not happy, she cried during most of it and it made the visit that much more uncomfortable.  Only because I was worrying about the techs attitude.  Finally she was able to determine the sex of the baby.  I am pleased to announce that we will be having another baby GIRL!

I am extremely excited and happy with either sex and pretty happy for a girl, not sure I could handle another Lil Tony.  LOL!  I was however hoping for a boy so Lil Tony could have a brother to wrestle with instead of his sister. 

Oh and what a surprise, I was 22 weeks and 3 days so I knew I was far enough along to have a normal ultrasound.

I posted a couple days ago about how we have been having trouble with Nicki.  Not sure what’s going on in her head but she has been very sad and angry at home.  I have some ideas as to what is wrong but when I confront her about them she can’t really give me an answer. 

About a week or so ago my dad and I started talking again after not talking for about 2 yrs.  He indicated to my brother that he wanted Nicki to come spend some time there before she went back to school. That would give her about 2 weeks out in Illinois.  I was hesitant at first just because we had not talked in 2 yrs and plus the problems we were having with Nicki, I didn’t want her going out there and making her “vacation” a pity party. 

After some thinking I decided maybe this is the best thing for her.  Maybe she really does need to spend more time away.  I think maybe she needs to reconnect with her dad and his side of the family.  As much as it bothers me to not have her here and be a part of the family all the time, she obviously needs that time with them.  I told her that I will try and make it so any time she has off from school, breaks and summer, she can go stay with family. 

I know she misses her dad and I want her to connect with him, maybe go visit but she refuses to call him.  He called her on her birthday and she missed the call, he left a message and she refused to call him back.  He has however, only attempted that one time and that was in April. 

I thought I was doing right but have since learned I made a big mistake.  I want to protect her feelings and in return I have made her resent me. 

Anyways, she left yesterday afternoon to Illinois.  She was excited.  I guess so excited she forgot to call me last night.  I talked to her twice today and so far she is having a blast.  They mostly did shopping today and went out to dinner.  I am sure the next two weeks will be filled with lots of time spent playing games and hanging out.  Something I guess she needs.  I think somehow she feels she lacks that at home.  We spend time together but we don’t go out much and I know she gets to do that with her grandparents. 

She will be missed and hopefully her 2 weeks will go by fast.  I am sure her brother and sister miss her too!

My sweet Isabel took her first steps yesterday.  Well I can’t say very first because she has taken one step to get from couch to couch but it was more like a lunge to get to the other couch. 

I was kind of upset though because I was playing video games and I could see her out of the corner of my eye.  I see her standing and just walking across the living room.  From the corner of my eye it looked like she was hauling ass but I am sure it was just my imagination.  Lil Tony was playing with a broom earlier and it was laying in the middle of the living room so after taking several steps she tripped over the broom.

I was excited, however, because Tony was home to see it.  He was working when Lil Tony took his first steps.  When she took those steps I shouted out in excitement so Tony came in to the living room.  I picked her up and Tony sat several feet away and we had Isabel walk to him, she did and it was awesome.  Then we turned her around and had her walk to me.  This is so exciting.

Isabel has tried to walk several times today but keeps falling so I am not sure if she’s getting discouraged.  I do know she is a very persistent little girl so she will certainly keep trying until she gets it.  Yippee for Isabel!

I always wanted a big family, lots of kids.  We now have 3 kids with one on the way, so a family of 5.  We have become very money conscious when it comes to shopping and the foods we buy.  The local grocery store here in Winchester VA has some great deals sometimes on meat.  When it gets close to the expiration date they mark it down, if we get it at the right time it is half off.  We get a pound of ground turkey for $1.36.  The other week we got whole chickens for $1.87 each.  We would get ribs for $6 or $7.  We went out and bought a deep freezer so we can stock up on all the sale foods when they are cheap. 

We also started shopping at Aldi.  We get macaroni and cheese for $0.35.  Most of our dinner meals are well under $5 to feed a family of 5.  The other day I made a batch of stuffed shells which made enough for two days of dinner, the total was about $10.  That was probably the most expensive meal we’ve had. 

We make a lot of meals from scratch.  The other great thing is Tony works for a grocery store, on average they are a little more expensive for food but they have AMAZING sales.  They have buy 2 get 3 free deals a lot.  We eat a lot of bacon, eggs and pancakes for breakfast.  The other week they had buy 2 get 3 free packs of bacon.  So for $7.50 we got 5 packs of bacon.  They also had it on strawberries and ice cream. 

It has kind of turned in to a game when we eat dinner.  We will figure out how much it cost us to make each meal we are eating.  Not really a game just get excited when we are eating such a delicious meal for $2.50.  We went out to dinner for Isabel’s birthday and it cost us $50.  It’s just crazy.

Tony and I were text messaging on his way home from work and we were kind of arguing about stupid stuff.  He messages me and says he got pulled over.  My first comment was, “he couldn’t have been speeding”.  LOL!  I only say that because he has been really good at going the speed limit. 

So then we don’t talk for about 10 min.  Then he says that he doesn’t want to tell me what happened. He said since we were arguing and I was upset he didn’t want to tell me what happened.    My next reaction was SHIT what did he do.  So I call him, he still refuses to tell me.  Finally he says he got pulled over for driving too slow!  Freakin hilarious.  Even though I was upset with him, I had a real hard time holding back my laughter.  He didn’t get a ticket which was good.  He drives slow(er) to try and save gas.  He has to drive, on a normal day, an hour to work and for the next 2 weeks he has had to drive an hour and a half so that has really cut in to our gas fund. 

Needless to say that was funny!  Whenever I am in the car I give him a hard time about driving too slow, not to mention he is building a race car so he does like to go fast.