it's coming

The little man is SO close to standing. He is getting on his feet and crouching there, working on his balance. I am not ready for him to start walking yet, I am happy for him to take his sweet time. I bet he could if he tried, but the collision last week seemed to slow him down a bit. He is fast on all fours though so I guess running wouldn't be THAT different. He walks all over with his push toys and cruises pretty fast around the furniture.

It's funny how badly I wanted Saige to walk on her own, I remember everyday from about 7 months on, lol, thinking is today the day? Urging her to hurry the whole time. Yet this time around I am quite content for him to stay low to the ground. It might be the lack of any fear on his part, I see lots of ER trips in our future. It could be that he has been so incredibly difficult that I just want to enjoy the last bit if babyness, before full on toddler mode arrives, lol. It could be that he has become fun ( thank god because for a while I wasn't sure we were both going to make it, I am VERY relieved to say that it has been a 100% improvement in the last six weeks or so) and once he gets on his feet for good he will be off being as busy as a toddler can be. It could be the thought of him being my last baby. Even though it's better, I am not sure my sanity could handle another Rylan at this point.

He LOVES the little four wheeler, and he can drive it. He doesn't intentionally steer it or anything but he lights up as soon as he sees it. He knows where the button is and has no problem driving it all over. It's cute, but a scary indicator of the future (all those ER trips yet to come). Now I just need to get BOTH of them to watch where they are going, lol. Saige has been getting a little too comfortable driving around her jeep, not paying attention. She tried to run into me today for the fun of it. I told her it will only happen once, I have no problem tossing it in the dumpster. Her attitude grows by the day. At this rate she may not make it to 10.



This is his normal face, he looks more like a cranky old man than a happy baby. I really hope he gets some hair soon. Six more weeks until his birthday. I would say it flew by, and parts of it did but the area between 4 months and 9 1/2 months crawled by at a snail pace with him, and flew by with Saige at the same time. I love him even more for the hell he put me through but I would be lying if I said there weren't moments I wish it were easier. I now understand why people say having a baby is hard, I didn't "get it" the first time around, in fact it was almost too easy, all of it, from sleeping to potty training, but now I completely "get" it.

Saving money a little bit at a time

I have discovered a new hobby, scouring blogs and forums looking for the best deals on groceries. I've always used coupons but now it's like a game and for the first time ever I can say I had fun shopping last week. I bought a new printer so I could print coupons, and it has already paid for itself. I've heard all sorts of great stuff about the grocery game, but they don't have my local stores, so I did it myself.

My first big trip, I went to Walmart spent 107.96, handed over my coupons and walked out paying 38.09. Last night I sent Robby to Price Chopper so he could see how it works, I gave him a list and coupons. Total for 4 boxes of cereal, 5 boxes of pasta, 2 bottles of Act fluoride rinse, and 2 packages of Oscar Meyer deli meat for 14.58!!! Savings 77%

I am LOVING this coupon thing. At Walmart there was an older couple behind me in the line, the woman was annoyed. I heard her say "they should make a line for these people who need to use all these coupons to save a few cents" I just smiled, then her husband watched my total drop 70 bucks and he told her "you should do that" then I was really smiling. LOL. I am hooked. I will never pay full price again.

I made my first trip to the new Walgreens in Rome on Friday where they happily took my coupons. Saturday I went back armed this time with a list from their ad, and supersaver catalog , plus my coupons. Did my shopping, I had two 1.00 Chex mix coupons, it was on sale for .99 so it should have been free. I also had a $2.00 off any Excederin coupon, it was on sale for 1.99, also free.

I got up to the register, the girl rang me up, I handed her my coupons (some of which were from the Walgreens website) and she very nastily said "we don't take internet coupons" and tossed them back at me. So I said okay but you did yesterday and they came from your site. She said "So? I can't take them it's policy" I said fine, take off everything but the milk. I was ready to go to Walmart and match the prices. She sighed and said then I have to call the manager.... I said fine call her, I don't want it.

So the manager came over and informed the girl that they DO take internet coupons. At least it wasn't just me because the cashier stood there with an attitude and argued with the manager too. The manager was really nice, thankfully because my second trip to Walgreens was quickly about to be my last. She ( the manager) ended up having to re-ring everything and then when she got to my Chex coupons she told me she could only take one because her register would not let her ring in both because they exceeded the price. So I said okay, I'll take one bag, to which she said she can't take any then. I put the Chex mix back, lol. I don't really like the stuff but it was going to be free, lol. The original cashier stood there scowling the entire time.

I stood there debating on whether or not I should mention that her register took the Excederin coupon that also exceeded the price with no problem. I didn't push my luck. I guess long story short, in two trips, three different employees, and not a bit of consistency between them. They definitely don't make a point to make their employees know policies. I think some store will give you overage if the coupon exceeds the price, others will cancel it out and it will just be free. This was my very first refusal.

On a final note I got super lucky at Aldi's today, they had the 5lb packages at 50% off because it was use or freeze by today. I got 10 lbs of burger for 10 bucks!!!!

Altogether I have a full months worth, and then some, of groceries for under 100.

three monkeys in a tub

All three of them love baths, and luckily my tub fits them all so it is the easiest hour of the day, lol. I say SIT DOWN about 7 thousand times in that hour and Zailor hates his hair washed, but otherwise it's my favorite part of the day. My kids will happily stay in there until they are blue shriveled and shivering. Saige will tell me she is NOT cold through her chattering teeth. She gets so mad when the boys don't play her way or do what she tells them to do. She kept telling Rylan to hold the duck, then she hands it to him and he throws it. She also informed me that it's a good thing she is a girl because she "has more fun in the bathtub since she doesn't have a penis to play with" apparently leaving her more time to play with toys, lol. She has a point, those diapers come off and both of them spend half the time in the tub playing with themselves. I figure it keeps their hands busy, and they aren't hitting each other, so it's fine by me.

These are all kinda old pictures, I haven't uploaded any in a while, I should but I'm lazy. I was looking through earlier showing Saige, I only have like 20 pictures on my laptop. Out of those, these two caught my eye...I went upstairs and looked through older pictures and fact is, a lot of my pictures come out like this, my kids look stoned. LOL I'm pretty sure they aren't, at least if they are they aren't sharing, but for whatever reason their eyes come out looking like this in 25% of my pictures.

He looks nothing like me, not even a little bit. He could pass for his daddy and he looks a lot like Saige did as a baby, but balder. She looks more like me than Robby now but as a baby she resembled Rob more.

tired, oh so tired

I have had two extra kids since Friday. We just took Zailor home a little while ago and I am exhausted it has been a LONG weekend. I have a new found appreciation for moms with two less than a year apart. Kyra is still here but she's 12 and I probably wouldn't have survived the weekend with no break without her. In fact she's awesome, I told her I'll throw RJ out so she can move in, lol. She makes me feel old though. I very clearly remember her at three being a little brat and kicking me any chance she got.

We ordered Sweeney Todd PPV. I'm disappointed, and it's very hard to be disappointed in Johnny Depp. It's just too "fake", I like the older version with Angela Lansbury much better. I think I'm going to bed, maybe I will finish it tomorrow.

Zailor spent the night last night, I'm not sure I care for that much. He is great, but I HATE getting up in the mornings. That's Robby's job, but he will only do it for our kids :( Zailor would sleep in like me, but Saige just wont let him. Rylan woke up at 11:30 last night and didn't go back to sleep until 3am. He was happy, I brought him in with us and he happily spent hours in the dark trying to climb over us, sitting babbling away and clapping his hands, and just screeching for the sake of screeching then laughing at himself, and slapping me in the head and laughing. I had no choice other than stay awake with him, if I left him alone in his crib he would have had a fit and woke the other two up, but I had to stay awake to keep him from jumping/falling on the floor.

He sleeps with his head jammed on the headboard, or the rails in his crib. He wakes up with huge red dents, and they take forever to fade away. Poor guy I wish he had some hair, it's getting thicker in the back, its' very blond, but the top is still just bald. It makes him kinda scary when he's mad. I know what kind of mom says that? LOL but it's true. He is adorable when he's happy and smiling but it's a whole different story when he's mad. His eyes get dark and beady and his entire head turns bright red like a beet.

On a sad note I just read an article about canceled TV shows. I'm ticked. It should be easy to give up my dvr before long. I am not starting any new shows ever again! LOL I swear everyone I like gets canceled, on the other hand, I watch more shows than I can keep up with. I'm very disappointed to lose Jericho (again!), Big Shots, October Road, Shark, and Journeyman. Most of all Just For Laughs, that was my favorite, it was hilarious. A few others I watched for some unknown reason, I didn't really like them, so no big loss there. I suppose as long as there is still House, Boston Legal, and Two and Half Men I'll be content.

On a great note, well for me not so much the people behind in me in line, lol. I went to Walmart spent 107, handed over my coupons and brought the total to 37.48. I'm thrilled, I read about far better deals than that, and I'm learning, but I don't think I did too bad.

Dish Network Sucks....

The kids were all good, just loud, lol. I think Rylan almost took a step. he stood up and was holding the wall, he let go of the wall and looked like he was gonna attempt it.... then Zailor came running around the corner, slammed into him and they both fell. Poor Rylan did a back flip and slammed his head and screamed for 5 minutes straight. Zailor cried too but he landed on his butt, I wasn't as concerned with him at the moment. I wont blame Rylan if he decides to just stay on the floor after that. I saw the whole thing, I was 2 feet away but there was nothing I could do. Oh well, I'm sure there will be plenty more of that ahead.

My new receiver, the one they sent today and swore was brand new not refurbished DOESN'T work either. (insert me screaming and ripping my hair out) This has ruined my whole day, I am so cranky now. Every phone call has pushed me more and more. I hate recorded voices, I hate talking to a robot. Apparently they don't factor in that some people have kids in the background, and I just kept getting the stupid animated voice saying "I'm sorry I didn't understand you" over and over. Which lead to me standing on the porch screaming "give me a god damn human!" Just to have the voice say "you want to add programming?" yeah I see the similarity in those statements.

The screen keeps going black and then popping back on, changing channels all on it's own, and it wont record. I was disconnected three more times and then sat on hold for 30 mins. So they set up an appointment for tomorrow- maybe. This was 9 pm, I have to be here between 12 and 5 and then he says he may not make it and if not he might call. he might call? might? Then he has the nerve to tell me I will be charged if I don't cancel within 24 hours. I asked him if he saw the problem there... he said no.

It's 9 pm.... tomorrow between noon and 5... if I need to cancel I need to do it 24 hours ahead of time? he says yes.

I was like seriously? I know I insulted the guy because I couldn't help myself, I had to ask him if you have to fail an IQ test to work for Dish network? How can 1 company have so many idiots? I have talked to at least 10 different people from there this week and only 1 has been helpful in any capacity, and that wasn't anything to get excited over either.

I find it mind blowing that they tell me I have to be here between certain hours and then say they may or may not show up. What about people with jobs? They don't know I am a SAHM, do they just expect people to take time off in hopes that maybe the tech guy can be bothered to make it that day? How is it that companies manage to operate like this? What happened to customer service, do they just not care anymore?

I forgot to order the cable to hook up my printer. I am hoping Rob can find one when he gets home.... the way tonight is progressing I think maybe I should wait until tomorrow before I attempt to hook it up anyway. Something has to work sooner or later.

today has been too easy

childwise, anyway.
Both my kids have been happy all day, no whining!!!!!
Zailor came at 1:45, went for a nap at 2, Rylan went for a nap at 2:30 and they are both still sleeping. This is the first time they have napped at the same time, and it's nice, lol. Somehow I think they will more than make up for it as soon as they wake up.......

My new DN receiver came, I'd love to program all my recordings but the damn guide wont show any info for local channels, all the other info is there, everything but what I want. My second TV doesn't work at all. They have hung up on me 7 times now today. Most were disconnects while they transferred me, twice I think they just plain hung up. Rob will have to fight with them, I am so done. In fact after the last few days, I am ready to send it all back anyway. There are only a couple shows I can't watch online.

I am very impatiently waiting for the FedEx man to bring me my new printer. I have had major printer issues this week, that resulted in me chucking one of the two POS printers I have, out the second story window. LOL I felt much better afterwards, although I still have to go pick the pieces up. I'll probably chuck the second one out to for the hell of it, I'd like to set them on fire and dance on them. Technology has proven to NOT be MY friend over and over. The kicker is I have spare ink for both of them :( Ink is unbelievably expensive, so we have wasted hours trying to give them both back a little life, a printer SHOULD outlast the ink. In fact it may be cheaper to buy a new printer than to replace the ink.