An Investment in Me

Sometimes I forget that I have to take care of myself. I invest lots of time and effort into the children, Jason, work, football, and a million other things. Except myself. I have decided I need to stop doing that. It makes for a cranky momma. I have a BAD habit of passing up what I NEED so I can get the children something that they WANT. That's ludicrous. I have never been a high maintenance girl, but I still like pretty things every so often :O)

Yesterday I went to Target and spent a whopping 16.82 on myself. Gasp, you say! I know right..even when I'm spending money on myself I'm still a cheap ass and shop the clearance rack first :) For, this 16 bucks I was able to get a new skirt, shirt, tank, and a 4 color eyeshadow. Not bad eh? I also cut and colored my hair this weekend too. The cut was just a "clean up" cut, nothing major. The color was to a dark brown to color the gray. Apparently, I'm the ONLY one who wasn't bothered by my gray hair! LOL!

I was able to close the 2nd short sale on Friday. Whoo-hoo! So I decided that part of my hard earned bonus money will go towards ME! I'm going to get my eyebrows waxed and maybe even invest in a new set of acrylic nails. I HAVE to start walking. I have gained so much weight since I had Harrison. Well, actually in the last 4 months. Going back to work, and stopping the nursing took a toll on my eating healthy/walking regiman I had going on. So I have a small goal to reach by my birthday. I swore to myself I wouldn't let the weight come back on, so I need to be diligant!

Go, Go, Go

That's all we do! It's like a non-stop merry go round. Work, school, football, and now we are going to add dance and girl scouts. I got shirts ordered for football, and of course signed up to help lead a GS troop. Jason swears I'm a professional volunteer! I want to be involved in my kiddos activities. My parents never were and I hated that. So I try to do as much as I can for their class, sports, ect. It was easier when I didn't work, but I'm not going to stop b/c I'm working. I have a flexible job, who is awesome. Plus, I told Jason that he will be more involved too. There is never enough Dad's involved in their child's education. He can read to the class just like I can.

Jonathan is a little less excited about his braces now that he's had them a week or so. He looks so stinking cute though! It's been quite an adjustment on his diet. What he can and can't eat, HOW he eats. He's never had to cut his food into such small pieces before!

Savannah went to the DDS today and had 3 teeth pulled, 1 capped, and a cleaning. It was a lot, but it needed to be done before the dental insurance ran out. She was bleeding pretty good at first, but it seems to have stopped for the most part.

Jason is getting into the swing of school. Chemistry is going to give him a run for his money. His adviser is stupid and told to take Chem before Algebra. Um, anyone know what you use to do the formulas? Oh, yea...ALGEBRA! Stupid woman. I know he'll do well, but he's a little freaked out right now. His other 3 classes are cake though, which is great.

Grammie keeps H while Jason is in school. You can't imagine how happy that makes me! I love my grammie so much and I want my kiddos to have that same relationship/love too. Plus, he gets to be with family and I save $500 a month in daycare!

I am half way to my bonus! I have to make sure another short sale closes tomorrow, then it's all mine. Well, not mine. Lord knows I could never spend that much money on myself no matter how hard I try. It would be nice though :O)

Blogging is so on the back burner right now. Not on purpose, more out of convenience. Everyone who reads my blog is also my facebook friend, therefore you know about anything I would normally blog about moments after it happens. I will try to be better, I really will, but no promises. Especially now that school has started. Between work, the kids school stuff, Jason's school schedule, football, and trying to keep the house running smoothly, I'm not sure how I'll be able to maintain a healthy blogging schedule too!

Oh where is my Angel? Oh where is my Angel? Oh where, oh where, oh where is my Angel?

Busy! That's where! I have been meaning to blog and I just can't seem to gather my thoughts enough to actually get out a post! Jonathan started football so we are at the field 3 nights a week from 6-8 and in 3 weeks we will have games on Sundays. I was voted(in my absence)to be team mom again. I have been handing out fundraiser cards and prepping for t-shirt orders and spirit stick making. Good Times :O)

Jason's job made it official. He will not be staying on at WTI :O( That sucks ultimate butt, and is a total downer. We should be okay though. It will be tough for a little bit, but we only have one major "bill" that will not be taken care of and well, quite frankly my dear, I don't give a damn!

My boss told me on Wednesday that when we meet our 2010 goal, I GET A COMPANY CAR! Whoo-hoo for me :O) Hurry up 2010~ I am still loving my job. I learn so much everyday and I am starting to become good friends with one of the buyers agents. Friends...in Kansas..well I won't think about it now... Hehehe :O) It would be nice to have girlfriends again.

I posted all the Alabama pictures on FB, it's quicker to upload them there. I also posted the newest pics of the kids. Some of them turned out super cute! I'd love to see/hear/read your comments about them.

On Monday Jonathan gets his teeth cleaned and his impressions done for his braces. Then he gets the braces on August 18th. Agh! He needs them, but I'm so not looking forward to writing that 650 check for the down payment. It's seriously going to make me cry. Then it's ONLY 100 for 24 months.

School starts on the 17th for the kids and the 20th for Jason. They are all very excited. I am too. It means more money in our pocket b/c we won't be paying daycare! I'm not sure what we are going to do with H and his sitter. I will only need her part-time, but I don't know if she will want to take that pay cut. I hope so, b/c I don't know who else could keep him for us, plus we love her!

It's been awhile...

I still have lots of pictures from 'Bama, but I don't feel like uploading pics right now. It's been a long week. I was in a pissy mood for most of it. I was in a great mood yesterday and today though. It's been crazy and we've had alot going on. I'll update it all soon, hopefully once it all works itself out. Jason starts school in less than 3 weeks! We are preparing to be poor, but it will all payoff in the end.

Vacation-Day 1 and 2

We left out for Alabama on Thursday at 2 pm. according to yahoo maps it was about 12 and 1/2 hours, so we would be arriving around 3 in the morning after gas stops and stuff.

But nothing ever works as planned for the Hallock's. We stopped in Tulsa to pee and saw this:

Yup, a big 'ol split tire! Agh! So we spent 2 hours in a Tulsa Wal-mart getting new tires. Fun times. The best part? We travel in PJ's so we kept getting weird looks from people as our whole family walked around Wally World in our PJ's at 5 o'clock in the afternoon! After we left Wa-mart we got lost. Not just a little bit, a lot bit! We ended up in Missouri and an hour passed our turn. Did I mention we are the Hallock's?? LOL. After we finally got on I-40 all was smooth.

We were so excited when we saw this:

We rolled in Gardendale about 7:45 am. Yes, a full 18 hours after we left Derby. It was worth it though. Amy had breakfast waiting and we sat down to start enjoying the visit!

Going clockwise: Gracie, Wil, Lexi, Jonathan, and Savannah

After a brief nap, I went over to Amy's mothers house to help set up for the luau!

Wil and Jonathan hitting the pool!

And of course b/c we are Hallock's it started to rain during the luau(no you were not mistaken, it was completely sunny and beautiful in the pics above)

Benji toughed out the ran to grill our dinner!!

After the rain, which didn't last long, everyone hopped back into the pool!

Luau Savannah

Luau Gracie

Amy and The Prince

The G's-SG and OG
Savannah Grace and Olivia Grace

Me and My Amy!

Amy and Benji-They rock!

More Amy and Harrison

My boy and I, doesn't he look cute in his luau gear??

THE HALLOCK FAMILY!

Me and my fella!

As you can imagine we were pretty wiped out after the luau. We went home and crashed...HARD! It was a long, awesome, fun filled day!!

Miss them already...

We are home. We arrived about 7 tonight. So didn't want to return, nor do I want to hit the ground running tomorrow. I will update more pics and stories later this week.

Pictures

Savannah and her cake by AmyBeth masterpiece!

Looks good enough to eat!

Harrison getting fed pancakes(with syrup!) by Momma Amy

Me with my Pina Colada

Amy making the Pina Colada

Harrison and his Godfather, Benji

Amy wearing my Orange sunglasses

The Alabama theater were I saw Gone With the Wind for the first time!

Me, Amy, and Katie heading out to see GWTW

Katie holding a Burmese Python at the Reptile show

Jason and I at the Back to School Luau

Savannah at the Luau

Savannah Grace and Olivia Grace, AKA, SG and OG

Jason and Harrison

The Hallock Family

Amy and Savannah at the mall

Amy and Jason at the mall

Harrison and his Godmother

We arrived safe and sound in Alabama after our 12 hour drive turned into an 18 hour drive. I'll blog about it later, check out my Twitter if you want to read about it now :O)

Grrrr...

Got a downer today.

Jason has become friends with his boss. Today James(the boss) took Jason out to lunch for his birthday. While at lunch James told Jason that he has "heard" from the higher ups that they have changed their mind and may not let him work part time once school starts. This sucks ass. we were really banking on that. It's not like he can go get another part time job. This job pays well, he'd have to work 3 part time jobs somewhere else to make the money he does there in 20 hours. Not to mention the headache of finding a job and crap. So discouraging...Jason asked me if I thought he should still go back to school. The answer HELL YES. Is it going to suck? HELL YES. If the other place offers me the job do I have any choice but to take it? HELL NO.

Only 5 days until we head to Alabama!! So freakin' excited! We need this break now more than ever!!

Bloggy Break

I think I'm going to take a bloggy break. I'm not feeling it lately. Be back soon.

July? Already?

Remember when you were a kid and time went so SSLLOOWWW? It never seems to happen that way in adulthood. It's a whirlwind. 2009? I mean when did that happen? I remember the big deal it was on New Year's Eve 1989. The 90's were supposed to be like the Jetson's. Twenty years later and no flying cars...

On Friday I went to dinner with my cousin Michelle. We always have the best time together. We remember the good times of our childhood and marvel at how we ended up normal and unscathed by the bad times! We went out to the best Sushi Restaurant. It had Hibachi too, but we are saving that for when her hubs gets home from the UAE. We had 7 plates of sushi, but this was the crowning jewel..EEL! I know what your thinking, but it was YUM-O!!

Philadelphia Roll-My favorite!

Angel+Sushi=LOVE


This little boy is growing so fast! He warms my heart with those big 'ol brown eyes! His teeth are really bothering him, hence the upside down binkie :O)


Only 11 days until Alabama! While we are in 'bama Amy has a luau planned so I picked up these cutie Hawaiian shorts for H to wear during the festivities!


I got another call on Friday about the Credit Union job. We should be getting close to an offer. I'm becoming more OK with leaving where I am, b/c I know the benefits and pay are better. Hopefully I will enjoy it as much.

Breakfast
What is your favorite part of the summertime?
The tan, I love being brown :O)

Lunch
How was this week different than others?
I took the kids to work with me on Friday.


Dinner
What did you think of Michael Jackson?
He was an amazing musician and dancer


Midnight Snack
What do you have planned for this weekend?
The weekend is pretty much over now


Recipe for the Week (instead of your recipe for life, what is it just for this week?)
One day at a time
and
Don't cross the bridge until you get to it

Six hundred and Two!

Wow! Including this post post, that is how many times I have posted on this blog. That's a lot of info about me and my family out in cyberspace! That's not even including the other blogs I have. Anyway, I'm loving my lazy weekend. I slept until 9 and woke up to breakfast and a Starbucks. I have such an awesome husband. We don't have a Starbucks in Derby(except inside Target), so he loaded up all 3 kids and drove 10 minutes(one way) into Wichita to get me my 6 pump venti white chocolate mocha!! I love hims. We went and looked at cars a little. Not to seriously, it was more of an excuse to get out of the house. They had a "cafe" for the kids with a soda fountain, popcorn, chips, hot dogs, PS2, and flat screens. Good times. I felt bad for the sales guy when we left with out buying, but we told him when we got there we were just looking.

Now Jason and Jonathan are playing Madden, Harrison is napping, I'm blogging, and Savannah is watching Princess Protection Program. I think later we are going to go swimming. It's to hot now though. We'd fry. It was 97 degrees at 12:45! AGH!

I received a call from the recruiter regarding the credit union position. He said he got an e-mail from the Real Estate VP, and she is hoping to offer me a job next week! More money, benefits, and paid holidays. But I still LOVE where I am(I know you've heard me say that a million times!) If it's meant to be it will be, it will be.

Hmmmm...

So much to think about..I found out this week that our credit isn't as crappy as I thought it was. We could buy a house within 6 months or so. If Jason doesn't go to school. Which brings up another thing to think about. Jason still isn't 100% sold on school/nursing. He has a cush job with a good company that pays well. So he's thinking about staying there and seeing "where the road leads". Craziness. Just when I think we have everything figured out....

I found out today the VP of Real Estate and the Chief Lending Officer are going to the CEO to push for a permanent position so they can hire ME! Wow! Talk about flattered. Have I told you how much I LOVE where I am though??

Bah-Hum-Bug!

Today sucked for the most part. I woke up with a headache. Then on the way to work I got a speeding ticket for going 54 in a 35. $151 bucks. It was a speed trap. I was in and out in 5 minutes. They didn't run my tags or DL, they didn't even ask to see my insurance card! All they did was write me up a ticket, and have the audacity to say..."Thank you for wearing your seltbelt" WHAT! It was so patronizing, I wanted to punch him in the face.

Thankfully I was alone in the office today. I didn't even turn the lights on. I just opened the shades enough to get a descent amount of light in. We have so much crap going on at work. I seriously had no idea how hard agents work. It's amazing. I was busy most of the day b/c my boss's son is in the hospital and he was working from there, so I was doing a lot of leg work from the office.

So Much to Blog about, so Little Time

I want to update H's blog with all his new happenings, but I haven't had a chance.

I have a new recipe I've been wanting to put on the food blog, but haven't had a chance.

I really want to blog and tell you how awesome Jonathan's party was and how frickin fantastic my husband is on this father's day, but I'm so drained!

I need more energy.

Whirlwind day...

It's has been raining off and on all day. It a cleared up so we were able to do all of the scheduled activities. Now it's raining again though :O( I have no idea where these 6 boys will sleep if it storms hard. The tent has a rain cover, but I think they will be scared if there is any thunder or lightning. I guess we will see how it goes...

Breakfast

What is the largest burden currently weighing you down?
The thing the jobs. I had a meeting with Chief Lending Officer at the credit union and it went very well. He said the woman who interviewed me last week loved me(duh!), and wants me for the position. For now it's only approved through HR as a temp position, not a permanent position. I can not take a temp job with the hopes of it becoming permanent. He said he understood and they are working very hard to make it a permanent position. For now we are in a holding pattern and at the complete mercy of the HR director. Did I mention benefits start day 1...

Lunch

Do you have any family vacations planned this summer? If so, where?

As if everyone doesn't already know...We are going to ALA-BAMA(said like Forest Gump when he tells Jen-nay she she go back to ALA-ABMA...) 26 days baby, 26 days...

Dinner

What is one thing you must do before you go to bed each night?

Pray, snuggle with Jason, and pee

Midnight Snack

Where is the last place you went?

To the video store. I rented Madden 09 for the PS2 and no one could find it. So I went back to the store to rent another copy. Of course I found it on my dresser when I went to put on my jammies...Grrrr..

Recipe for the Week (instead of your recipe for life, what is it just for this week)

Stay positive. Last week was a CRAZY week at work. It's very easy to get down and stressed when you work so hard on something, then it falls through....

Rain, rain, go away!!

We are supposed to have Jonathan's(belated) birthday camp-out today. We have bbq, smores, a scavenger hunt, a water balloon fight, and of course camping outside scheduled. But it's raining!!! It was supposed be 99 degrees!!

AAAGGGHH!!!

PRAY

For my sister Tiffany, I found out tonight her boyfriend has been violent with her. Not sure how violent, or for how long, but it doesn't really matter. I think some of it even happened while she was pregnant.

Cranky

I have been super cranky lately. Letting things that shouldn't bother me bother me, feeling insecure, and letting my mouth run before my mind has time to process what's being said. I HATE feeling this way. I have felt so awesome for so long, I decided to brainstorm what the change may have been. It wasn't very hard there has only been 1 major change recently:

I stopped nursing, and started the patch.

So I started doing a little research. Errin was the birth control pill I was on while nursing. Turns out it has no estrogen, it's also referred to as the "mini-pill". B/c it's estrogen only it's not as effective as conventional birth control, but when coupled with nursing it's very effective for new mothers. When I stopped nursing I went from this no estrogen pill to Ortho-Evera, also known as "the patch". The patch, b/c directly applied to the skin gives way more estrogen then even the average pill. So I went from 0-100 pretty quick. Hence the crankiness and all over feeling of blah. I have some left over pills from before I got pregnant, Trivora. I'm going to start them tonight instead putting on the 3rd patch. Hopefully this will help with my mood swings and my cranky dispoistion.

I need to make an appt to get my Thyroid meds re-newed anyway, so I'm going to talk to the Dr. about a low estrogen BC pill too. I've heard horror stories about the pill making woman crazy, but I kinda thought it was a bunch of BS. I guess not...

Here's to hoping I start feeling better soon!