As promised...

Oh Hi! I thought I might actually post those pictures of my house that I promised so long ago.

So, this is my front entrance...Ooooh, exciting!



And here is my much-more-exciting living room:



and my super retro kitchen that hasn't been updated since the house was built:


Notice how I didn't even clean up before I took these? Nice.

Finally, these are the boys' bedrooms. Im not going to post any of my bedroom just cause that is weird and these pics actually show more of their toys then anything else. So this is Michael's room:

It will eventually also be Josiah's room when he outgrows sleeping in Mama's bed.

And this is the big boys' room:



They want their walls painted blue and red, like spiderman. Im not going to get into that until after xmas though so until then, their room is just plain.

Marshmellows should be counted as diet food

Also: I need to get Twitter

Wow, just...wow

So the last few days have been a crazy roller coaster of everything. There was the NaNoWriMo kickoff party for my area that was held last night in a little cafe downtown. It was really fun and I cant wait to go back and hang out with these people again. Im beginning to wonder if Ill be more interested in going out once a week down to that cafe then actually writing my novel.

Then there was the news that my parents are definately moving to North West Territories. At first they weren't sure if they would still be here by the end of November, but now we know that they'll stay until about the 15th of December. This is nice because it allows us to have a bit of an early Christmas before they leave. Im super close with my mom so her leaving is going to be really tough. She'll be doing her doctorate degree while she is up there as well so she has to fly to the US like 12 times over the next couple years and doesn't think she can afford to fly here much. It doesn't look like she will be moving back in any less than 4 years either. My kids wont even know who they are when they get back, Owen especially. Sigh.

From that sad news to the happy news that my last bf will be moving back here on Sunday. His boss has decided to open an office here and so he is coming back to work there. I wasn't expecting him back until xmas so this is a nice surprise. The weird thing though is that I have no idea if Ill even see him. I know what you all said about forgetting about him but that is easier said than done. So anyway, he is going to be back in the city and on one hand Im happy, but on the other I don't know what to think about it.

The kids were also sick at the start of the week and are just now back to normal. We weren't able to do much of what I had planned this week because of it. So now that they are all better we finally carved out pumpkin tonight. There was fighting and crying, but in the end they were happy with how it turned out. Ive learned that I am horrible with a knife though so they are lucky it turned out at all!

I think the last big thing this week is that Ive been waiting for money from the government. In my province there is a new program where for every child that is born after January 1/08 the parents receive $2200 during the first year. This was only started a week before Josiah was born so they were really backed up with all the births from the first 6 months of the year by the time he came along. Anyway, I received a letter two weeks ago that said the payment had been processed and would be deposited in my account. Problem was, no money showed up. So I called and eventually the woman was able to track down the money for me. Turns out the check was never processed and so she was processing it for me right away. Funny how something that was only supposed to take 6 weeks is going to end up taking 4 months. At least the money will be here now, but Ive been expecting it for the last couple months and it is so hard when you don't know when exactly something like that will come.

On top of everything else tomorrow is Halloween and we just now found Rayden's costume. That has been a stress for awhile because I haven't had a minute to go dig through the storage area in the laundry room and his closet to try and find it. At least that is settled now. I have a bit of treats to hand out but we don't plan to be home for most of the night so I don't have much. I don't want to disappoint the kiddies that have to pass the house though so I may end up just putting a bowl of whatever outside for them. This is the first year that we have a house for Halloween and Im not sure how to deal with it. We always just went through the building in years past so I didn't really have to worry about the weather but this year we are going to my mom's house and all around there with my brother. Oh my, I guess its not a big deal. I just have to remember to get everything ready in the morning so that Im not stressed at the last minute.

Ive noticed that the last few weeks my posts have been so negative. :( Im not sure exactly how to change that around though. Maybe that's just how Ive been feeling overall lately. Hopefully when I get working on that novel and all these surprises stop coming at me, I might get back to a bit more normal outlook.

Happy Halloween everybody!!

Boo! Jamie's turning two!

So Saturday we celebrated Michael's 2nd birthday. He wont actually be two until next week but I wanted it Halloween themed and this is how it worked out. First, Melissa and I had been talking about the party for a while now and so one night last month we got together until 2am and made the invitations for the party. They turned out awesome!!!

And yes, I am aware that the name does not say Michael, but Ive never really been all that secretive anyway.

We had lots of Halloween inspired food like Mummy pizzas and swamp sludge. One of the activities that I planned for the kids was to decorate their own cupcakes with Halloween candy. Let me just say OMG FUN!!! But also: MESSY!

Michael actually started out wearing a costume but he poured his drink all over himself and refused to put on another shirt. He went as a birthday suit so he wore suit pants and a button shirt with beads around his neck and streamers stuck to him. All the costumes were great and I um don't happen to have one of mine....yes, that's *cough* what it is. I *cough* must not have taken any. Either way, I went as Super Mom so my costume included a cape and a big "S" on my shirt. I also wore a big belt with an "M" on the buckle and mommy-type stuff hanging from it. I had a duster, spatula and a baby. I threw the costume together about an hour before everyone got there, but it is definitely a good one that you can do so much with. My cousin was a sumo wrestler:And she even let Rayden try on the suit:

Melissa came as Wilma and Violet was Pebbles! They were so cute! Ive got another picture of them with my brother and it would have been a really great one if he had been dressed as Fred.

You can see bam bam in this next picture, along with all the other kiddies:

And when it was all said and done, I sat on the couch with my feet up and treated myself to a little computer time. I didn't even clean up until the next day...

Yay! Finally something FUN in the mail!

Not too long ago I won Mommy Daisy's Thomas the Tank Engine contest.

The DVD arrived today!!!

The kids were obviously VERY excited

And wanted it played RIGHT AWAY

This is only a preview before Thomas even makes an appearance and they are already drawn in! Chris hasn't taken his eyes off of it yet and Michael is alternating between an open-mouthed lost look on his face while he watches and playing with his new firetruck from Melissa.

SO MUCH FUN!! Thank you Mommy Daisy!

rough

Aaaahhhh! Michael's 2nd birthday party is tomorrow and I have a huge to-do list for it. I think I could manage getting it all done in time except that I am so unbelievably tired today. I dont know what is wrong with me but even knowing that the party is like 22 hours away isnt helping me get myself going.

Ive had about a bajillion ideas for blog posts but never feel like writing. I was actually falling asleep the other night trying to get through everyone else's posts.

Im having a bit of trouble with the lady that lives in the basement apartment here and I know Ive got a bit of a fight ahead of me to fix it but I just dont want to deal with it.

like everyone else right now Im stressed about money and worried that I am spending too much. I know all too well what can happen and how quickly when you cant make your bills so Im afraid.

NaNoWriMo starts in a week and Im worried Ill have too much other crap going on to actually be able to do it even though Ive been planning for months.

Sorry about the crappy, depressing post today guys. Im sure Ill be back tomorrow after the party with lots of pictures.

excuse me while I rant a little

Well P is at it again. Last month I sent The Ex a message on facebook asking what he planned to get the kids for xmas so there wasn't any overlap. I included in the message what the kids wanted and what I thought was a reasonable split of the items. I obviously would spend more because they spend xmas morning with me so I am responsible for Santa. Anyway, instead of responding, he blocked me. So we never discussed it again.

P just sent me a message dripping with attitude about what they have decided to get the kids. For Rayden they got him an ipod which is what I asked them to get him but they got him the cheapest one possible. Because I didn't hear from them last month about this, I already planned to get him one and a much nicer one than what they picked out. So I told her this because now that I have my budget all figured out and I know what he wants, it was all going to work out perfectly. I have no clue what else I could get him for the same price that he wants just as much and it is really pointless for him to have two of the same thing. But she refuses to change her plans.

So now I can either still get him the much nicer one that I had planned and have him have two or just leave it and let them give him the crappier one. It is great that they would give him something that he really wants because he is usually treated as less than the other kids (because he isn't biologically The Ex's). But they spent three times on Chris as they did on Rayden and acted like I was stupid to suggest an alternative gift that was slightly more expensive.

I just took a break from writing this because she kept sending more texts and now this has turned into a full on fight. She likes to point out that The Ex and I are not a family and will never be. Im just like "Duh! I gave that shit up long ago." She is so insecure about their relationship that it really gets in the way of us parenting our kids. The worst part is that if they had replied last month everything could have been avoided and we wouldn't have had to talk today. She said that she contacted me as a courtesy to let me know what they got but um, isnt that what I tried to do last month? And how the hell is it a courtesy if you aren't willing to work with me to make it the best for the kids as possible? Man exs are hard enough, throw in their jealous girlfriends and there's no winning.

Ive tried to handle this situation the best I can. Michael and I pray every night before bed and every night we thank God for P. She is important in my kids' lives. She will be their step mother in a couple years! I even invited her to Michael's bday party next weekend at our house but she is so resistant. Hopefully one day she will get over this and be a positive addition to this parenting thing.