Our fun weekend

Wow, it's been almost 3 weeks since I last posted! Where has the time gone?!?! So this weekend was a fun one for me and the girls. Last week was BEAUTIFUL!!! Clean and sunny everyday with a couple of days being in the 80s even. I was LOVING it. Then when the weekend came it was suppose to rain the whole weekend. So Friday night I promised the girls that if it was nice out we would go to the school and let them ride their bikes after we got some stuff done around the house (like some of those mountains of dirty clothes that needed washed). It wasn't bad Saturday morning then as the morning went on it got a bit dreary out. So I made a change in plans and headed to the school then before it started raining. Well turned out it started raining on our way there. I was going to let them go ahead and ride in the rain since it was a light rain but when they got out of the van they complained it was too cold. So we loaded back up in the van, and before I even started it, the rain nearly stopped. So we got back out, lol. and that was the extent of the rain for the entire day :)

First the girls rode their bikes on the basketball courts of the playground and on the sidewalks near there. I found a jump rope lying on the playground so we had races, I was jumping rope they were riding their bikes. I sure got my exercise and it was fun. BTW, Bethanie has a big bike but one of the tires was flat, DH was at work, and I don't know how to use the air compressor (not to mention that I am scared of the thing, lol) so we took that little Dora bike for her instead, I think she actually had more fun on it than she would have her big bike.

Then they played on the play ground for a while. Elianna dried all the slides off, hence the wet butt in the picture, lol. We all three swang together, everytime I swing with them and go really high Elianna just acts like she can't stop laughing, it's so funny. I must look pretty funny swinging like a kid, lol.

Then we headed around to the front of the school and the girls rode their bikes down the incline on the parking lot. I think they went down and back up that little hill about 100 times! I took some short vidoes of them, I will have to try to load them later as it's getting to late tonight.

Here is a picture of the flags blowing in the wind as you can see it was a VERY over cast day. But it wasn't raining so it was still nice.

The girls eventually rode their bikes around the school building and they played on the little playground for a while.

Then we started getting really hungery. I figured we had been there for an hour and a half, 2 hours tops. Well when we got in the van, we had been there for... THREE hours!! No wonder we were getting so hungery it was after 2 in the afternoon. So we went home, had lunch, then I sat down and rested for a while. Then I went out and cut the grass while the girls were outside playing. When I got done we built a little fire using the sticks we had picked up under the trees in the front yard and we roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. By time we were done with that it was pitch dark out so we went in, the girls took a quick shower and went to bed. We were all 3 exhausted but it was fun.

Then Sunday after church we went to eat at AppleBees with my mom and sister. Afterwards I took the girls to the park for a little while. We didn't stay long though because they both had to use the potty and of course we were at the one park that has no bathroom near by. So we headed home, Elianna fell asleep. After getting home she stayed asleep and I layed down and took a nap too, it felt so good.

So this morning I woke up to an extremely messy house with even bigger mountains of dirty clothes but you know what, I don't care because I really enjoyed my fun time with my girls!

More about THE idea

First off thanks to all of you that left encouraging comments about me going back to school. It really helps!

You were probably wondering what happened to make me suddenly have the thought that I wanted to quit babysitting all together. I use to love babysitting and in many ways I still do. However I have had so many problems with Elianna lately, she is a screamer, when she doesn't get her way, she screams. She screams when any of the other kids take something from her or they have something she wants. A single day doesn't go by that she doesn't cry/scream at least a few times. I feel like I have been spending my days yelling at her all day. Then Friday I had a day of just her and my sister's 2 girls and the day was SO calm. Elianna and the 2 year old got along great. They may have faught a time or two, but nothing like the days with all the kids. Elianna was such a calm loving girl that day, I loved it. That got me thinking that maybe she needs more time with just me and her behavior would greatly improve (at least I am hoping).

Another thing, I love doing crafts and other fun things with the kids but it's been a while since I have been able to. My cousin's little boy (10 months) is VERY clingy and wants to be held ALOT and when he is down crawling around he puts EVERYTHING in his mouth. Oh and I forgot to mention, he seldom ever naps and when he does you never know if it's going to be for 10 minutes or for 2 hours. When I have managed to do crafts with them lately I haven't made it till they were done before he starts crying. That leads me to having to deal with him and take the attention off the kids doing the crafts. They take advantage of that and paint things they aren't suppose to, pour glue all over the place, tear up each others things, etc. I end up so stressed it's nuts. I end up yelling at the kids (which I hate doing) and that just takes all the fun out of the project.

And then there is the fighting, oh the fighting. I'm just going to leave it at saying that, I get so frustrated with how much these kids fight with each other.

Oh then there is also Bethanie. By time she gets home from school and the other kids all leave I have so much to do like getting her to do her homework, dinner, getting caught up from the day and getting ready for the next day, that I feel I never spend real TIME with her. Yes we are together, but it's just not how I want it to be.

So there you have the main reasons, there is other stuff to some of which involve the parents but I won't talk about that for now! As for the college idea-I have emailed my former advisor asking her where I need to start in going back. I mentioned it to my husband, he wasn't overly excited about the idea but he said he didn't have a problem with it. And I mentioned it to my sister and she was thrilled with the idea that she would get to stay home. I'll keep you posted on how things progress.

Can you keep a secret?

You all, my faithful blog readers, will be the first I even mention this to. Last week I was looking forward to and getting excited about "trying out" babysitting the 3 kids 3 and under one day this week. Then this weekend, for whatever reason, the thought came to me that I want to quit babysitting all together for all kids except my sister's 2 girls. Then yesterday, after breaking up MANY a fights between the kids and the thought running through my head constantly, the thought came to me...I could go back to school! WHAT, that thought hadn't ran through my head since Bethanie was born so early 7 1/2 years ago. But honestly this would be the perfect time to do it! I am not sure what all I would have to do to get my degree but hopefully it wouldn't take more than 2 years. I "graduated" from college when I was about 4 months pregnant with Bethanie, I had one class I had to finish to actually get my degree. My plans were to complete it come fall quarter which started the first part of September that way I would have it all done and be ready to start my career when I was ready after Bethanie was born in late November (when she was due). Well come late August I started having problems in my pregnancy, and Bethanie was born September 3rd. We spent the next 3 months at the Ronald McDonald house while Bethanie was in the NICU. When she was ready to come home she still required O2, and was coming home on it, a pulse ox monitor, apnea monitor, and a few meds along with MANY doctor appointments. DH and I decided that I would stay home with her. I LOVED being a stay at home mom and decided that when Bethanie started school THEN I would finish college, get my degree, and start my career. Well the year came that I had signed Bethanie up to start pre-school and you guessed it, I found out I was pregnant with Elianna. So I never sent Bethanie to pre-school and I didn't go back either. When Elianna was 6 months old I started babysitting for my cousins little girl, then my sister had her first daughter and I started babysitting her, then a family friend needed a sitter for her 2 girls and I volunteered, then both my sister and my cousin had another baby each. Then I got the offer to watch 3 more kids and I like I said I was actually looking forward to it....then THE thought came into my head. I seriously have no idea why the thought even came to me, I hadn't been talking about it, I don't know anyone going to college right now, nothing.

So I am going to call and check into it this week. If I think it will work out I will call the mom of the 3 and tell her I can't start babysitting. My sister has always wanted to babysit out of her home so I am HOPING that she can quit work and stay home and keep all the kids I babysit for now along with Elianna when I need her to. I figure I will keep the kids I have now for the summer then when college starts early august, I will no longer be babysitting. Elianna will be old enough to go to preschool this fall but I was planning on not sending her till she was 4.

I guess for now I am just going to gather as much information about this as I can and do alot of praying for guidance. I'll keep you all posted.

Sping is blooming!!!

FINALLY!!! YEA!!!!!!!

Moving up in the world!

WOO HOO!! Yesterday the cable company came out and hooked up DSL for us, finally I can sit at the computer at night and not fall asleep while I am waiting for a site to load, lol, and yes that does really happen to me. We also got our phone service through the same company now as well and on Friday they are coming back out and hooking up cable TV. We are even having them hook it up in our bedroom. The best part-for all 3 services from the same company we will be paying about as much as we paid just for satelite service! So we will be saving around $130+ per month. How great is that?!?! Only bad part, is to do away with the satelite internet we have to break the 2 year contract we signed with them. We are only 6 months into it so we will have to pay $700 to cancell it. At first I thought we would be crazy to even go through with it but then I started figuring it up and from what we will be saving ( with just internet and phone) we would have the $700 taken care of in what we save in about 11 months, that would leave another 6-7 months of savings we can just pocket :) Now that we have decided to add the cable tv as well it will be even sooner and a much bigger savings, yippy!!

Since the high speed internet IS so much faster, hopefully I will be able to post on here more often :)