Right now, my absolutely GORGEOUS baby boy is sitting in the chair next to me, smiling away and just talking my ear off! He is SO PRECIOUS! So much for him being the quiet one, though!

Taryn is popping out words left and right lately. Just yesterday she started saying 'moon' and 'BOAT!' She also says, "Okay" now whenever you ask her to do something. It's really cute b/c she kinda drags it out.

Not to leave out TJ, he's going to the circus w/Nana this weekend. It's his birthday present from her. I got tickets for him to go w/her last year, and he still asks when he will get to go again. He keeps telling me he's going today, which happens to be whatever day it is, and if he doesn't go soon, I think he might just bust! I was able to use this fact, also, to get him to let me cut his hair last night...although he still wouldn't be still, and it's awful, but at least shorter now!

We got a plan set up for our finances, and I think that if we can stick to our budget and not five dollar ourselves here and there, we'll be good. It shouldn't take more than a few years at this rate to get ourselves back on top of things completely, and out of debt! Last night we went to the store to get stuff for dinner while we were out. I told Trey I had $10 in my pocket, and that was as much as we could spend. We got all the fixin's to make chili and corn bread, complete w/toppings (sour cream and cheese and crackers), and had $.58 change! Yaaaa!!! Oh, and there were leftovers, too. Then, today I went shopping w/my mom. She brought along her coupons, and I told her I didn't want to spend over $100, and that I needed pretty much all the food a family of five needs aside from condiments. Not only did I get a ton of stuff (thanks to Mommy and her deal-finding skills), but I only spent $100.02. Yeah, so I went over a couple of cents, but hey, I'll only have to put in an extra hour or two at work to make that up!

Also, I went today and took the polygraph test for the job I am trying to get. If I did okay there, and I hope I did, then all I should have left is the psychiatric exam and the interview. So, please, keep me in your prayers. If I get this job, it will also greatly help our financial well-being, although it might change my plans a bit on homeschooling. I'm hoping not, though...we'll see...

So, that's what's all good here lately. I feel like there might be more, but that's all I can think of right now. I hope your day was equally as great, and I'll see you soon!

I hate money, I really, really do. I wish I'd never gotten involved in the whole "spending money" thing. Perhaps it would have been wise just to stay living at home w/mom for the rest of my life. It seems to be the in thing to do nowadays. I shoulda done that.

However, since it's too late for that idea to work, we've managed to dig ourselves into a nice, deep, roomy grave of debt. It keeps me up at night (and my mom and Bo, too), it creeps into even the happiest of thoughts during the days, and basically makes sure I don't have a truly good moment w/o it hanging over my head. For a while, it seems like things are going well, and that we're getting on top of things. Then, every once in a while, more and more often lately, it suddenly shows us the truth--that we are so far from in control of things that you might as well say we're in another galaxy from control! I've been doing the selective paying lately, where I decide who's the most important to pay, and how much I actually have to pay them. Don't get me wrong, I pay most of the bills each month, there are just some that come up a little short. We're making just that much too little.

I've been working on getting a new job, a real job, and I'm still waiting to see how that pans out. If I get it, it will help TREMENDOUSLY, as it pays much better than good ol' Pizza Hut, and I won't have to kill my car and pay for gobs of gas. It's a county gov't job, so it takes forever to get through the whole process. I've refrained from finding another job, b/c I feel like if I do, they'll tell me I've gotten the one I'm going for, then I'll have to quit the other one. So, for now, I remain at Pizza Hut, and bitch a lot b/c people suck at dispatching, thus taking money out of my pocket!

Tomorrow my mom and Bo are going to come over and yell at us for all of our stupid spending, and help us figure out what the hell to do w/ourselves. I really hope it gets us somewhere. I've been dying for help for a while now, but no one seems to get just how much I really have no idea what to do w/our finances! Did I ever mention I was never that good at Math?

Anyway, I guess really this is none of your business, but hey, why not tell you, too? It's no secret that I'm a dunce when it comes to money, and I can bet that I'm not alone in this monster of trying to keep up with it all. I've been watching those shows on people who are bad off in debt, and all I've got to say is that we haven't even made a dent compared to some of those people! That makes me feel a little better, but man, do I wish I could get my own problems working the right way! Please wish us luck, and maybe we'll get lucky and find the answer to all our prayers!

Have a great day, and I'll talk to you later!

Speak reallllllyyyyyyyyy S-L-O-W-L-Y...or so I hear. That's what Trey told me when they went and asked a guy if they could use a paddle boat that was out in front of his house yesterday.

So, anyway, we just got back today from going to Lake Nantahala and staying in a supremo cabin in the woods. Check this, it was three stories high, had four bedrooms, all w/king-sized beds (and super-fluffy pillows!), a hot tub, an 80 inch projector screen, and a pool table downstairs. It was AWESOME! We went w/Julia and family, and Trey's best friend Mike and his wife. We took TJ, and left the babies w/my mom. We only got to stay for a couple of days, but it was nice just to get away and relax. I got to sleep in both days (well, sorta...you could hear EVERYTHING in the house, and Julia's family wakes up EARLY!), I got to take a nap yesterday, and I got to lie around doing basically nothing for two days (TJ was so busy playing w/Julia's kids that he could have cared less if I even existed!). I read my book I've been working on, watched some movies, went in the hot tub, went for a walk, ate in peace, played some really fun games, got my drink on, and chilled in the woods. It was nice. I enjoyed spending time w/friends and Trey, and we even got about ten minutes alone at some point! I think we'll definitely have to go back again next year if we can.

I figured I'd show you some pics we took while there, although there's really nothing exciting, except us having fun!

The second one is on our walk. Those are "mountain men", and I had to take a picture of them, so Mike told me to pretend to be taking one of him (they were normal men, out working, but they were on a mountain, so....). The next one is just TJ looking especially evil. Weird, since I just said, "Hey, TJ, turn around and look at me!"

I've been very busy this week...however, I can't really think of ANYTHING I've accomplished. Well, I'm still alive, as are the kids, so at least I've done that much!

Yesterday, my brother's g/f's son came over and spent the day. Actually, he spent the night before, but didn't get here till around 11:30 or so. I figured it would be easy enough to drop him into bed, being that it was so late already, and he'd drift right off to sleep. Or not. Sometime around 2:30 AM I didn't hear him anymore. That doesn't necessarily mean that he was asleep, but he was no longer yelling, "I'm sick!" and "HELP ME!" from TJ's room. I thought TJ was bad about avoiding going to sleep!

Anyway, he was up by 10 am or so, and he and TJ played NON-STOP the entire day. It was nice in a way, b/c it gave me a little time to pay more attention to the other two babies. Cyrus, his name, is a lot like TJ, and they got along pretty darn well. I was actually pretty impressed. When TJ and Julia's daughter, Alison, get together, they argue like brother and sister. It used to be the same way when TJ would play w/the little boy Jacob I used to watch in Columbia. However, yesterday, they had just a handful of little tiffs, and all were pretty easily solved. I was totally not expecting that, b/c Cyrus is like TJ, but about ten times more hyper. I didn't think that was possible, but it kinda cracked me up a few times when TJ would say, "Hey, let's rest for a little bit. I just want to sit down and rest." Cyrus got upset b/c TJ wanted to go in his room and watch a movie for a while. That kid is MEGA-ENERGETIC! They had way too much in common, too (ie-butt jokes, bonker dancing, having to pee at the same times ???). All day today, all TJ could talk about was Cyrus this and Cyrus that. Tomorrow, we're going to the water park and the Mickey Mouse Bounce House (the House of Bounce), and Andrew and Alison are coming, AND Cyrus! Guess I need to call his mom more often, eh? I told my brother to marry her, and then he could be TJ's cousin, and they could grow up together and be the best of friends. A scary match, yes, but cute overall!

Well, I guess that's it for now. I just got back from subbing a paper route, and now I'm about to pass out. I'll talk to you later. Have a great day!

Wow, so it's been almost a week since I last posted, eh? Huh...

Let's see, what's gone on this week? Well, nothing really. Oh, TJ went to a class about space with Alison, and he had a great time. I was trying to teach him some stuff beforehand so he'd look all smart and stuff when he got to class. I told him there are nine planets, only to be completely shot down when we got there. Yes, that's right, I'm the last person on earth to find out that there are now only eight planets, as Pluto has decided to drop out of the planet group and be its own thing now. The next day, I was delivering a pizza to this one house. The girl was already a bit peeved with me b/c I had apparently interrupted her make-out session she was having in the front yard. She had on Pluto (the dog) slippers, and I told her about how I'd just found out the day before that Pluto is no longer a planet. She said, "Uh, you just found that out yesterday?" (make sure when you read that to add the stuck-up, irritated, oh-my-God-how-could-you-be-so-stupid tone to it) Anyway, TJ loved the class, and I plan to send him to the next one, on constellations, at the end of the month. He even made a big poster of the solar system, which is now hanging on his wall above his bed. He's so proud!

I think Cole might be teething. He's drooling a LOT lately, and the only time my other kids drooled was when they were teething. Plus, I've given him a couple of teething tablets when he's been fussy here and there, and they seem to calm him down. It seems way too early, though. I can't honestly remember when TJ and Taryn popped out their first teeth, and if I would just go find their baby books I guess I could find out, but...

Oh, and thanks to Julia, I can no longer enjoy the radio. She has gotten me hooked on books on CD. She kept telling me they were good to listen to while working, and I was all, "No, my attention span isn't long enough." Well, she called me one day and told me all about this cool stuff she was learning from the book she was listening to. Wouldn't you know that she also finished that book that day, and was glad to let me borrow it. Yes, and now I'm hooked. I'm currently listening to In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote, and I hate getting out of the car now. I spend my days wondering what's going to happen next. Tonight I got to a really good part, where they had just gotten a tip-off on who the killers were, and now I'm about to bust to see if and when they are going to catch them! Thanks again, Julia, for ruining top 40 overplayed music for me!

That's all I can really think of to put on here right now. I hope everything's going well for you out there in blogland. I'll try to be back soon and maybe have something more interesting to talk about...as if that ever happens!

Yesterday TJ turned four. Can you believe it? I have a FOUR YEAR OLD!!! Yeah, it's a little scary...

So we had his birthday party...That's right, ON TIME this year! It was really low-key, in following Andrew's birthday party last month that was tons of fun, and kept Julia and Richard completely sane. It was small in comparison to the one he had last year, which was pirate themed and drew a large crowd. However, I think it was even better, b/c it wasn't as hectic, I got to enjoy myself instead of making sure everything was going smoothly, and TJ had just as much fun playing with his friends as he did last year. I won't deny, though, that I kinda missed the whole planning and creativity of a themed party, so I'm sure I'll have to have at least one a year at least until they get old enough to beg me not to! TJ got a TMX Elmo, some shooty thing, a phonics game, a tv and dvd player for his room, and in February he's going to the circus w/Nana (which he has talked about non-stop since he went with her last year, and is VERY excited about). As easy-going as it was, though, by the end of the day we were still all POOPED!






(PS-I swear I dressed Taryn! She's taken to taking off all her clothes, then her diaper, then running around the house butt-naked telling everyone "Pee pee" and pointing to her girl parts! NOT fun!)

Ashley gave us some of Leah's old clothes today. There was a cute t-shirt w/a 'kitty cat' on it, and some cool jeans. I put them on Taryn. Taryn added the shoes herself.


Later, Cole figured out that if I'm taking pictures of him, he's getting lots of attention. He likes taking pics! Taryn decided to love on him for a while. Notice his face, I'm pretty sure that expression is one of, "HELP! Can somebody please help me get out of here?" She is a pretty rambunctious lover!

Soooo, the other night while working, I got pulled. I knew I wasn't speeding, so I was a bit baffled. It was b/c my tags were expired. I soon found out that the registration and proof of insurance were not to be found in Trey's car. Great! Since I'm a bit of a spazz, I managed to get out of getting a ticket, but with a stern warning to get all of that fixed asap before I was carted off to jail. Aigh, aigh Captain! So off I went yesterday to fix it all. I started by going to the nearest tax assessor's office to get copies of my paid tax receipts. Of course, they had a power outage (??? the store right next to it in the same bldg. was fine!), so I was forced to drive a half hour down the road. That part went okay, w/the exception that my kids kept running at lightening speed down the halls away from me while I tried to stand in line! Then I went to the DMV to get the registration for Trey's car.

Yeah, so this is where things started to really suck. Undoubtedly, every two years you have to pay $24 to renew your license plate, and we hadn't paid ours. Fair enough, I told her to pop it on to the fee. "Oh, but it says here that since you didn't pay it on time, you will have to pay a $50 late fee." WHAT????!!!! I kindly asked how I was supposed to know to pay this, and whom I was supposed to pay it to. I actually said, "Am I supposed to just know to write a check to the tag fairy in the sky and send it off into the wind when it's due?" I was informed that it's usually billed on your tax bill. Ahhhh....you mean the one I paid on time, even after you guys never billed me for it, b/c something went wrong when I changed my address when moving here? That bill? I was ticked, but paid it so that I could avoid being pulled again and going to jail (I'm just too pretty for jail!). When I called my mom, she acted as though it was something you were born knowing, and how could I not know to pay it? I justified my answer by asking every person I knew yesterday if they knew, and only a couple got it. Most agreed they just pay the bill when it comes and don't really think about it...much like myself, until now...So, anyway, the gist is that it cost me $75 to get a freaking copy of Trey's car registration, which, of course, I didn't have to allocate to that particular fund.

Today went seemingly alright, for the most part, until about 11:30 pm. I was on a delivery in the ghetto, and went to turn onto a court. Little did I know that there was a drain cover turned the wrong way on the drain, and sticking out into the curve of the road. I hit it with the tire. My heart sank as I heard the "Thunk!" of the tire as it completely flattened in a matter of seconds. (if you know me well enough, then you will remember that not so long ago I did this exact same thing, just in a different neighborhood at 5:30) 11:30, in the ghetto, w/two deliveries in the car, so close to the end of the night, me w/o a clue in the world how to change a tire (I know the basic idea, but I couldn't lift a tire if you paid me), Trey at home not able to pack up three kids to come help me. Thank goodness I have a WONDERFUL friend at work named Chris who is not only awesome, but really tall and strong. He came and saved me! Now, of course, I will have to go buy another tire, which I don't have the money for, b/c I spent it all yesterday on a tag fee I didn't have the money for!

I can't help but feel like a total failure lately. I just can't win. I thought I did good by making sure the car taxes were paid on time, and look where that got me! I try to drive better, and damn if I don't run into drain covers that aren't where they should be! It wouldn't be so bad if this were the only problems I have lately that I seem to be at fault for, but I'm not so lucky. I don't want to get on here and whine, so I guess I'll cut it short, but it just kind of feels helpless now. Not to mention, I was listening to talk radio the other day (Trey left it on...), and it seems that everyone in the educated world thinks we're going to be attacked by terrorists this year, and that our country is going down the tubes fast.

Needless to say, this year is not going quite as well as I had hoped...Maybe tomorrow will be better.

I look back on 2006, and the only word that comes to mind is "busy". It was indeed a busy year for our family. We moved twice (well, once was the very end of December '05, but really, it might as well have been 2006), one being a big move back home where I was a single parent for two months before Trey finally came to live here, too. I held various odd jobs in the attempt to not have a 9-5 job and still make the money we need, all of which took precious time out of my sleeping habits (such as now, when I should be asleep, but just got home from a paper route I'm subbing for). I had two small children for the most part of it, and it was the first year that I actually had them the entire year. Before, TJ was sent to his Nana's house to be watched while I worked. This year, it was entirely up to me and Trey to take care of our children (I mean, sure, parents watched them here and there, but not for the most part). The biggest addition to this year that made it even busier was little Cole. Yep, his coming took up a large part of the year, and his pregnancy was my hardest yet.

It's funny, though, that I don't think of this year as hard. Definitely the year before this one we struggled the worst. I won't say that we struggled, b/c heavens knows we did. We are in a constant struggle state, which will no doubt last until we either get rid of the kids or die, whichever comes first. It seems to be getting a little easier, though. I spent a lot of this year working on repairing some of the problems we caused before we realized what we were getting ourselves into. Again, it's going to take many years before we get even a little of our problems completely fixed, but I feel like 2006 headed in a much more positive direction than 2005.

Another aspect of 2006 that comes to mind is healthcare. We went to the doctor more this year than ever. Trey, TJ, and I all had regular dentist visits, with Trey getting some major work finally done in his mouth. He also had two MRI's, sprained his ankle and broke some tendons, hurt his elbow, chopped open his thumbnail, and I'm sure I'm missing something. He was sick more than usual, as well. Taryn was a walking booger factory, but aside from her regular checkups, only went on a sick visit once. I, of course, had all my fun prenatal visits, and Cole has done his fair share of doctor visiting since he was born as well. TJ seems to be the only one of us who really didn't utilize a doctor too much. Honestly, he moves so fast and so much that I don't think the germs can catch him! I am, unfortunately, completely swamped with medical bills now, which will be an unhappy carry over into 2007.

As far as personal bettering, I really don't feel like I moved forward much this year. I stayed so busy and tired that I rarely had time for myself, much less for doing something to help myself. My goal for 2007 is, since I'm done having kids, to make a major effort at trying to shape up. I'd also like to start learning how to cook and doing more cooking at home and eating better foods. I've got my heart set on casseroles, for some reason. Something about the simplicity of them, yet the all-encompassing complete meal coverage (you can put your meat, dairy, carbs and veggies in them all together!) just totally amazes and excites me. Last night I made my first attempt at them. It was rice pilaf, mixed veggies, and chicken thighs. It was lacking something, I'm guessing seasoning since I have no grasp on how to season anything, but overall I was proud of myself that it was at least edible.

As part of these goals, I have to learn how to be more organized, and do it. I want to start homeschooling TJ this year as well, and that will take major organization. Thankfully, Cole is getting a little easier to handle during the days, and I can spend more time w/TJ and Taryn now, so hopefully we are going to get our acts together there. Even with the cooking I'm going to have to be organized and plan out meals. I've decided we're going to have certain days each week where we eat a certain food for dinner. Like, Mondays will be chicken night, and we'll have some kind of meal centered around chicken. I think that will be good. Lately, our nights have gone b/t pizza night or hamburger night. Not good, and even though we'll still have a pizza or burger night, they won't be every night anymore.

Alright, I suppose I've gone on long enough now. I hope your celebrating of the new year was great, and that your first day of this new year is even better. If you get a chance, I'd love to hear what some of your goals for the new year are. Talk to you later!