Bad Father Day

I don’t know if it’s normal to feel like this but maybe.  A chain of events is set off that leaves you feeling like a bad mother/father.  This isn’t a good feeling.  My five year old was complaining of a hurting leg the other night.  So all night and the next morning I tried to get him to walk it off.  He eventually did and I took him to daycare.  He was not happy about that.  I had to go to work and finally a teacher intervened.

Yesterday after school he was being particularly 5 years old and whining about dinner and about this and that.  Eventually got him calmed down and played some nintendo then layed down and went to sleep.

This morning at 5am all hell breaks loose.  His stomach was hurting badly.  Got him some gingerale and crackers and tried to calm him down.  It sort of came and went.  I was getting the 1 year old dressed when the oldest appeared in the doorway and proceeded to vomit all over the floor.  I’ve seldom felt so helpless.  I had a naked infant on the bed and a puking 5 year old in the doorway.  I tossed the little one into what we call “baby jail” (it’s a thing they sit in).  I then motioned the oldest into the bathroom.  Now we have a sick kid and a pissed off kid.

That’s the sort of thing that there isn’t a book for or anyone to say “this is how it will work”.  It weighed pretty heavily on me this morning.  I’m really looking forward to seeing the oldest when we get home.  I hope he’s feeling better.  I hate vomiting more than anything on the planet but it won’t keep me from taking care of my children.  Mind you, I did jump back about 2 feet when he let loose.  Knee-jerk reaction.  I can  handle a pissed off kid but I can’t handle seeing my kids in pain.  If I feel like I can’t help, it’s even worse.

I’m very grateful we have two insane and otherwise healthy children.

The wacky weekend

Had a great weekend actually.  The wacky part comes in the form of our kids being insane and playing golf (wacking a golf ball that is).

Our children are just wide open on the weekends.  They get up at 6am and go full speed until the evening.  Our oldest fell asleep early afternoon actually on Saturday.  That resulted in him getting up at 9pm and staying up till at least 11pm.

My golf game wasn’t nearly as bad as I had anticipated.  In fact all of our games were pretty good considering it’d been some 4 years since we played?  I won a $100 gift certificate for being the first to make a genuine par (no mulligans or re-tees!).  Thanks CB!  Funny enough though, I made par on the next hole too, a very annoying and looong par 5.  I got some much needed Sun and I’m basically sore all over.  Look forward to doing that again.  It’s great fun!

We did our 30 minute walk yesterday as part of our 5k training.  She gets shin splints as a result of the too much too fast we were doing.  So we’re taking it slow.  New shoes will help, hopefully we’ll have those soon.  Today we’ll run at the gym more than likely.  Then again, our youngest is sporting a cold it seems so we’ll see.

Wait, it’s Monday? WTB Friday, PST!

 [edit]

How could I forget the Doctor Who season Finale!?  It was great and tied up everything really nicely.  John Simm plays a great bad guy (The Master) and you really grow to hate him, yet, feel kind of bad for him.  The ending had a nice little twist to it also, especially if anyone watches Torchwood.  I have to add, that show is pretty good too.  I do feel a tad awkward during the makeout scenes that are of the, uh, male nature.  The connection it has to Doctor Who is good though.

Livin’ La Vida Loca

Hi there Blogworld!

It’s been quite a while since I’ve actually written anything other than tags, so time for a posty. My new favorite blog is quickly becoming zen habits. This guy is frickin awesome, he has like 8000 kids, is a marathon runner, debt free and very organized. Which is exactly what we’re striving to be (minus the 8000 kids-Oooh, babies everywhere). How has he accomplished this you ask? By simplifying his life. Step by step he has reduced the amount of clutter (money, weight and physical clutter) He limits the number of obligations his family has and focuses on what is most important to he and his family. So in the spirit of our weight reduction and debt elimination, our first order of business is to sit down as a family, and decide what is truly important to us. It would be great if I could wake up tomorrow morning with no debt and 40 pounds lighter, but like anything worth having it’s going to take a lot more time and effort. So here’s to baby stepping our way to a simpler life. Zen habits has a great article today on simplifying your life when you have kids. If you are a parent to 1 or 8000 kids you need to check it out. http://zenhabits.net/2008/03/25-ways-to-simplify-your-life-with-kids/#more-678

No more extracurricular computer button pushing to control a digital character on my screen.

This will be short and to the point.  I stopped participating in said item six days ago.  In that time I’ve managed to help keep our house clean, work out three times and have extra time for the kids, myself and family.  Last night I cancelled my account and today would have been the day to renew it.  So I saved $15!

I tried this once a couple of years ago but was back in 30 days.  Eh this time it’s different.  Most of the original people I started participating with are gone or play seldom.  I had a couple of close friends come online recently but the grape juice still lacks that initial, what the French call a certain… I don’t know what, to it.

It’s a fun hobby but to get anywhere you have to devote a lot of time.  With two kids and a full schedule, it aren’t happenin’ mang.  Perhaps the end of the year when the new expansion comes out I’ll re-evaluate life, schedule, goals, etc.  I’ll go from there.

Why the weird vernacular?  Because our system at work blocks anything to do with that “G” word and that ends with “ames”. *sigh*

Captain, Day 1673

Ok, Funny Captain stories…

-Last night you asked your dad to “microphone” something for you. You meant microwave.

-You are now quoting the Ron Howard classic “Willow” (Thank God we’re past Spiderman 3, which is really a sad excuse for a movie) This morning you said. “I don’t love her, she kicked me in the face, I hate her” This being said with your little 4 year old voice made it that much funnier.

Daily Reminders

I know that this is supposed to just be a finance/health blog but since I’m AWFUL at remembering things that our kiddos do, I’m going to try and post the little funny things that I really don’t ever want to forget that they do. I’m going to direct these statements to each kid. I’ll try and get a good synopsis of each kiddo, this can be our virtual baby book.

Captain-At four years old you have the world figured out.

-If only your legs were slightly longer, you’d probably be driving at this point.

-You survive mostly off of chocolate syrup and chicken nuggets.

-You think that when someone dies they come back to life and are all better (I attribute this to playing video games with your dad) Although, since I do believe in reincarnation I’d agree with this belief.

-Your pre-k teacher says that you excel in math and science centers (you probably know more about the NASA program than the average adult, also thanks to your Dad) And also show leadership skills on the playground. Watch out world!

-You speak with your hands

-You have informed that “I better not ever give you a bath” If you ever read this as an adult, I hope for all our sakes you’ve changed your mind on this one.

Now on to….

Snurfle-

-You coo and sing yourself to sleep almost every night.

-When you laugh (usually at Captain) it kind of sounds like a Pterodactyl (yes that’s the correct spelling, I checked).

-You grab people by the ears and give them big slobbery kisses.

-When tired, you will sleep just about anywhere (most recently at the circus)

-At six months, you rarely ever cry and are generally a happy, mellow little guy.

-Whenever you see your dad and I smooch, you grin.

 So that’s a start.

Summary of the day!

[J]

Sickness

This go ’round the kids seem to be sicker and more often.  Our youngest just can’t shake a cold.  It comes and goes but at least it does so quickly.  He’ll be rough about 2-3 days then he’s good for a couple of weeks, then he gets a cold again it seems.  The oldest is sporting a nice cough as well and we’ve all battled colds, strep and the like over the past few weeks.

I’d really like a good solid REAL snow event but more than that, I want warm, no, I want HOT weather.  Cold weather is nice for a few days then it just needs to go away.  I mean, what good is cold if there is no precip eh?

The year in money so far is ‘so-so’ much the same way our diet is ‘so-so’.  Exercise just doesn’t exist right now.  With two kids (and sick at that) there just isn’t time. 

We’re still waiting on a couple of late Christmas gifts to get our basement gym in working order.   A food saver will also be in that package and we’re going to take a bit of sidework money for the freezer.  After those expenditures the budget goes into ‘debt pay’ mode.  With that, she and I will agree on a strict budget.  To which we’ll add a structured eating routine.  We have enough randomness in life and random money spending with random eating just makes it randomania.  I don’t wanna be RANDO-MAN!

American Dream?

“It’s called the American dream because you have to be asleep to believe it.”-George Carlin

So here we are married 20-somethings living the American dream. Yes, we have the house, 2 kids, 2 bachelor’s degrees, 2 cars and 2 cats. Translation-2 mortgages, 2 student loans, 2 car notes, and a veritable ass-load of debt. We are overweight, and over-extended. And the sad thing is we are just typical Americans. We are raised with an overwhelming sense of entitlement that we deserve to have “stuff” And if you can’t afford it today, just go ahead and charge it. So we have decided to take a stand! Oh yes, we are going to change our lives by changing how we live them, and hopefully break this “normal” mentality for our kids.

Thus we have begun www.payingpeterback.com/wordpress to bare our financial and physical souls for the world to see. We came up with name from the old saying, “Robbing Peter to pay Paul”, well we’re paying Peter back. The purpose is to educate, inform and to liberate ourselves. And hopefully to set a serious “what not to do” example for others.

So stay tuned for our adventures.