I am not sure what side of the bed Lil Tony woke up on but he was in rare form today.  I heard him about 6am screaming in his room, I was going to get up but he didn’t cry long.  Maybe he had a bad dream.  I felt bad not getting up but I thought at that time in the morning, had I gone in there he would have woken up for the day.  As it is he woke at 7:30am and since that time he threw one tantrum after another.  When I say tantrum I mean on the ground on our belly kicking and screaming.  OMGoodness I didn’t know what to do.  He sat in time out, he was sent to his room and nothing did it.  He was just pissed at EVERYTHING. 

Finally nap came and I thought YES!!!, he will take a good long nap, wake up and be in a better mood.  BOY WAS I WRONG!  He slept for maybe an hour and woke up just as pissed as he was when he went to sleep.  I don’t know what was wrong with him today.  Usually we could get him to laugh  and calm down but nothing today made him happy.  He wanted EVERYTHING his way right away!  Well let’s just say both him and Isabel were in bed just before 8pm.  I think that is the earliest I have ever put them to bed.  He must have been tired though because he fell asleep pretty quick.  I am sure I will regret it in the morning but tonight I told myself I didn’t care how early he woke tomorrow, at least it will be a new day and hopefully he will be in a better mood. 

My stomach hurt so bad today from stressing and yelling and just dealing with the day.  It just seemed to get worse as the day went on.  Isabel, on accident, actually bit my boob and drew blood.  I cried, I knew she didn’t mean it, she sometimes bites down on my clothes, for what reason I don’t know.  She was sliding off the couch and rubbing her face across my chest as she slide she bit down and unfortunately it was just my clothes this time.  OH MY IT HURT!  I couldn’t get mad though because she didn’t mean it but it added to the unhappiness I was already experiencing with Lil Tony.  Well it’s only 9pm and I feel like crawling in to bed and calling it a night.  Hopefully tomorrow will be a new happy day!

We really need to get Tony’s dodge running.  He has been driving our Ford Explorer to work for the past 8+ months.  It sucks because I am stuck at home, I mean in a way that’s good because it will keep me from shopping when I get bored but if I need something from the store, I can’t just run out and get it.  We have had the Explorer for 3 years and since then we have had to get the transmission replaced.  Thankfully we had the warranty and we only had to pay like $50 out of pocket. 

Unfortunately just before we moved to Virginia something else went wrong.  Not sure if it was the head gasket or what but I know it cost us out of pocket, damn near 1k.  It was pretty rough to have to dish that out right before spending all this money to move.  Thankfully we had some money in savings and we were also getting the relocation money from his new company.  We had to drive to Virginia and it would not have been safe if we didn’t get the Explorer fixed. 

I just know that Tony has to drive a whole lot farther to work now that when we lived in Florida and he is putting a lot of miles on the Ford.  We need it to last us for awhile.  I can’t afford to keep paying to fix it.  Not to mention we now live in a new place and finding a good mechanic like Los Angeles auto repair is hard to find.  Too bad we don’t live in LA because I have read some great things about this shop.  When we did our search for places in Florida to go, this was a shop that popped up. 

I just really hope to give our Ford a break soon.  It also doesn’t get the best gas mileage so we spend a decent amount more in gas than we would if Tony was driving the dodge.  Some day soon we will have the money to get it running.

I don’t think I ever posted about this but unfortunately a couple months ago we had to give back our 4-wheelers.  It was pretty sad but when we looked at the whole picture, financially it just wasn’t going to work out.  3 years ago before moving to Nevada we decided to purchase these 4-wheelers, they were brand new and we got a great deal for them.  It was a really awesome financing…..things were going great.  We had nice 4-wheelers and we weren’t paying a lot out of pocket every month.  Now we thought a lot more of the money was going towards principle until we really paid attention to the bill about a year ago.  It seems that only about $18 a month was going to principle.  We were paying just over a hundred a month for them.  So for 3 years we only dropped the amount owed by a couple hundred dollars and still owed well over 10k for them.  WHAT! 

So it was coming to the end of our special financing and realized that our monthly payment was going to go up because the APR was changing and knew that we would be dishing that much more out for interest.  We just couldn’t afford to do that.  I mean imagine if we had like rv financing and owed a boat load of money, in the 10′s of thousands and only a small small percentage was going to principle.  We would never get the damn thing paid off, that was how I felt about the quads.  3 yrs in to it and we owed just about as much as we did when we started.  We have had our Ford Explorer for 3 yrs and we see a dent in what we owe, should only be paying on it another 2 yrs or so.  We would finish paying for the Ford and I’m sure still owe for the quads.  I felt ripped off.  I mean it was our own fault, should have known such a small monthly payment and such would eventually catch up with us. 

So from now on Tony and I decided we are just going to build whatever toys we want.  He wants to build go-karts for the kids.

When we moved to this new place about 4 months ago, we chose it because of price and location.  We are still renting and haven’t dove in to buying something yet.  The one downfall was the fact that there wasn’t a lot of counter space and cabinets and there was no dishwasher.  AAAHHHH, I hate washing dishes.  Well that wasn’t enough to make us chose a different place to live.  Everywhere else we looked was several hundred more a month and farther from where Tony would be working. 

At first I tried to make that Nicki’s chore but every single day I would find SEVERAL dishes she claimed were clean, still caked with food.  NASTY!  So to punish her, lol, I took that away from her and gave her other chores.  Well now I have to do it, well Tony and I take turns.  It really hurts my back these days, being pregnant and all, standing up for long periods of time so sometimes I do ask or politely tell Tony it’s his turn to do dishes.  I go through phases where I try to keep up with them so it isn’t so hard to get through them….washing a couple here and there is better than having to wash a whole day of dishes at night when I am just ready to go to bed. 

Well see the pisser about this sink is that it is kind of old school. the old stainless steel looking really small sinks.  None of the drain stoppers I buy work properly, I fill the sink and within minutes it drains.  The other crappy thing is that it doesn’t have a garbage disposal.  I know we could just put a new one in but since we don’t own the home I don’t want to invest any money in to it that I don’t have to. 

Man, if we did own it though I would probably put in some copper sinks, maybe spice up the bathrooms too.  The sinks in the bathroom are also pretty shallow.  Oh the money we would have to put in to this house to make it my own.  To make even somewhat close to a dream.  It is old and saggy.  We found out the other day that our bedroom floor is slanted.  LOL!  When we moved my craft stuff and computer upstairs that is when I really noticed it.  I try to sit at my craft table and the chair just slides to the other side of the room.  LOL!  Kind of funny but really annoying. 

Anyways, Tony and I are just staying here long enough to get our credit in order and save some money.  Hopefully the house will stand up long enough to get us through those couple years.  LOL!

I watching Dr. Phil the other day, well not really watching by choice….Lil Tony turned the TV on and Dr. Phil was on.  As I was changing the babies diapers for nap I started listening to the topic, found it somewhat interesting.  It was about working mothers vs. SAHM’s.  Coming from both sides, I used to be a working mom and now I am a SAHM, I don’t feel strongly about either side.  Being a SAHM I don’t feel I am better than moms that have to work.  Some of these women though felt they were a bit superior with their decisions they made.  A working mom felt she should work so she can show her children a sense of independence and be able to teach her children about the working world.  A SAHM felt she was superior, making the best decision because she thought homes with working moms have a sense of chaos. 

When I was a working mom, I had to because I was a single mom….I sometimes had to work 2-3 jobs just to support myself and my daughter.  The daycares I could afford were none other than a SAHM looking to make an income while being able to stay at home with her kids.  I worked because I had to, I didn’t have a “career” so I could do with or without it if I had means to financially support us. 

I am now fortunate enough to have a wonderful man who works hard to allow me to stay home with my kids.  I don’t do it because I thought I could give my kids a better upbringing or what not, I do it because I want to be there for my kids.  Be there for their first words, first steps……why should another SAHM get the pleasure of my kids everyday.  Don’t get me wrong, if I had to work I would and I would find a great daycare to send my kids.  The problem is I will never be able to send my kids to an upscale academy or daycare or whatever…….so they are not going to get any extra education until they go to kindergarten. 

I guess the problem that I had with these women is they felt so strong about their decisions and they judged the other.  The working mom judged a women for deciding to stay home with her kids, a SAHM judged a mom for thinking it was in the best interest for her kids.  That is the point, parents make decisions that they think is best in raising their own kids.  One shouldn’t frown upon the other, shouldn’t judge them negatively for the choice they made. 

My situation was a little different almost both ways, when it was just Nicki and I, it was necessary for me to work…..now that we have more kids it is impossible for me to work and afford daycare.  I would work to pay for daycare, sounds silly since I don’t have a career…..most I would do is probably be server somewhere or work in a call center.

I was just a little upset watching that seeing how upset each women was with the other, how opinionated they were about it.

I have not been really happy with AT&T lately.  Since moving to Virginia decently close to the mountains, we don’t have the best reception.  Since Tony is no longer working for his old company where he used his phone a lot for work, we only use about 200-300 minutes a month which is split between 3 lines.  Tony and I text a lot, I text my mom and my brother.  Basically I mostly use text.  I HATE talking on the phone.  Tony and I mostly talk when he is on his way home and it is through the country.  A lot of farm land so we have horrible reception.  We have at least a handful of dropped calls if we try to talk for any length of time.  To top it we spend about $140 a month for the phones.  The bad thing is we are in a contract until middle to end of 2010. 

We had great reception in Florida so we all got new phones which extended our contract.  I love my Samsung, it’s a Blackjack II.  I don’t use it to it’s full capabilities, with the internet and some of the applications and such but I do like all of the features I do use.  I would hate to go with another company for a number of reasons, my phone is still fairly new and I paid good money for it and also we would pay several hundred in early termination fees. 

I guess I will just have to stick it out and when our contracts start ending decide what route we want to take.  By then our phones will be old and worn anyway.  LOL! 

So I have totally not been online lately.  I am online long enough to check my email and do some online banking but that is about it.  This week kind of flew by. 

Well on Wednesday I had another regular baby checkup.  Let me start by saying that I like my doctor’s office because it is clean, not really busy and I don’t really ever have to wait a long time for my appointment.  What I don’t like is that they have 5 or so different doctors and they require you see everyone during the length of your pregnancy.  I had that when I was pregnant with Nicki.  I just don’t feel you have a very personal relationship with your doctor.  I mean, it’s not that big of a deal but it’s a little annoying.  When I was pregnant with Nicki, even though I saw 5 different doctors, every time the doctor checked me out.  Listened to the heart beat and asked if I had any questions.  This time around it seems most of the time I am never office, I seem to meet him in his office.  He goes over my chart and that’s it. 

This time I had an ultrasound so the tech, checked my urine, listened to the heart beat and pretty much did all that the doctor would do but still.  So I just met the doc in his office, he went over the ultrasound info and checked my chart.  Then said ok see ya in 2 weeks. 

So anyways, baby Max is growing on target.  His heart beat is good and all the things they look for as far as development is also good.  Max currently weighs about 4lbs 11oz and if the doc is right, he could be a 9lb baby.  He said the last couple weeks the baby grows about 1/2 pound a week. 

The good news is that in the last 4 weeks I actually lost a pound.  I know it’s just a pound but that means I am not gaining.  The last time I was there they estimated the baby was only about 1 1/2 pounds so with baby gain and such I still lost weight.  I sure won’t need the best weight loss pill once I have the baby.  I think I lost weight because my kids have kept me pretty active.  I don’t eat nearly what I was before, I just don’t have time.  I know it isn’t necessarily good to lose weight while you are pregnant but see I have a lot to lose without pregnancy weight, since the baby is growing just fine, I know it is all the weight I NEED to lose that I am losing.  Ya know?

I worry a little about my energy though.  I am sure with exercise and such I will gain back some energy and I know my fatigue is from being pregnant but sheesh……I sleep about 7-8 hours at night and surprisingly lately they have been pretty solid hours.  Last 2 pregnancies by this time I would be tossing and turning all night, getting up several times to pee and just not being able to find a comfy position.  Not this time, seems like once my head hits the pillow and I am asleep, I don’t wake until morning.  So on top of the 7-8 hours at night I am getting about an hour or two nap in the middle of the day.  Still it’s only 8:45 pm and I feel EXHAUSTED! 

Anyways, baby is on track with growth……he’s still a boy, LOL!  Only 6 1/2 more weeks!  YIPPEE!!!!