The Saturday 7
1. This week my sister and her husband went to Jamaica for their 20th anniversary. Justin, the girls and I moved into their house to take care of their boys (who are teenagers and don't need me for anything other than rides occasionally-haha). I also spent the week watching Niki's day care kids. For Niki, all the running around is second nature. For me, it required 3 pages of notes. Haha. The week wasn't without its challenges. We had a little bit of puking, a little bit of lice, and a whole lot of fighting between a 2 year old and two 3 year olds. But for the most part it went really well. The kids were well behaved and helpful and hilarious. And Lucy was in her glories having so many friends to play with every day!
2. Niki's house is a tri-level so there are lots of stairs. None of her day care kids are young enough to warrant baby gates, so I spent a lot of the week trying to keep Lena away from the stairs. Especially after she fell down 10 of them Monday night. Haha. It was actually kind of funny. Justin and I were talking and not really paying attention when all of a sudden, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a flash of pink. I was standing too far away and couldn't get to her fast enough, so I just watched her tumble down the rest of them and hit the floor. Poor kid. They're carpeted stairs and she was fine. :-)
3. We bought a car this week! When all my car drama went down last week, a friend of mine told me they had a car we could buy. They actually weren't planning on selling it til this summer, but she was compelled by my sudden need and offered it to me. It's a 2003 Pontiac Sunfire to replace the 2003 Pontiac Bonneville that died. So they're pretty similar cars and the Sunfire was really well taken care of. The only weird thing is that it's from Canada so the speedometer is in kilometers. Haha. That's going to take some getting used to! I'm pretty sure they offered it to us for way less than it's worth. We're very very grateful. And my van has been chugging along, so hopefully it'll last a little longer.
4. I made a bare bones budget this week: gas, groceries, student loans, tithe, car insurance, cell phones. There's $89 left every month. But that doesn't include any eating out or necessary extras like oil changes, birthday presents, car repairs, etc. It is so depressing. The student loans are 38% of our budget! Word to the wise: don't go to college unless you intend to get a very usable degree. And don't take out $40,000 in student loans!!!!
5. We had such strange weather this week. 6 inches of snow Monday night. 50 degrees and rain on Thursday. Thursday night temps got in the 20s, so all the rain from earlier froze. None of the schools closed, though, so I drove everyone to and from school. On the way home from picking up the boys, I was creeping along a safe distance behind another car. He started to stop, so I tapped my brakes. Nothing. I pumped my brakes. Nothing. He was still stopping and I was getting dangerously close to him. I ended up swerving into the snowbank to avoid hitting him. The car behind me swerved around me and I was able to reverse back onto the road without incident. The boys thought it was awesome. I thought my heart was going to jump out of my chest. Spring, come quickly!!!
6. Lena has started saying "thank you." It is so adorable. It actually just sounds like "ay ooh" but she very clearly means "thank you." She also said "eww" a couple times this week while I was changing her dirty diaper. Haha. She must hear that fairly often. ;-)
7. I've been enjoying Niki's cable and watching a lot of HGTV this week. I love the home improvement shows, but the home buying shows drive me crazy. How can these 25 year olds have a down payment of $60,000 and a budget of $400,000?? What kind of jobs do they have?! It's probably a good thing we don't have cable at home. I really struggle with jealousy and discontent. Watching that kind of thing all the time would definitely not help.
2. Niki's house is a tri-level so there are lots of stairs. None of her day care kids are young enough to warrant baby gates, so I spent a lot of the week trying to keep Lena away from the stairs. Especially after she fell down 10 of them Monday night. Haha. It was actually kind of funny. Justin and I were talking and not really paying attention when all of a sudden, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a flash of pink. I was standing too far away and couldn't get to her fast enough, so I just watched her tumble down the rest of them and hit the floor. Poor kid. They're carpeted stairs and she was fine. :-)
3. We bought a car this week! When all my car drama went down last week, a friend of mine told me they had a car we could buy. They actually weren't planning on selling it til this summer, but she was compelled by my sudden need and offered it to me. It's a 2003 Pontiac Sunfire to replace the 2003 Pontiac Bonneville that died. So they're pretty similar cars and the Sunfire was really well taken care of. The only weird thing is that it's from Canada so the speedometer is in kilometers. Haha. That's going to take some getting used to! I'm pretty sure they offered it to us for way less than it's worth. We're very very grateful. And my van has been chugging along, so hopefully it'll last a little longer.
4. I made a bare bones budget this week: gas, groceries, student loans, tithe, car insurance, cell phones. There's $89 left every month. But that doesn't include any eating out or necessary extras like oil changes, birthday presents, car repairs, etc. It is so depressing. The student loans are 38% of our budget! Word to the wise: don't go to college unless you intend to get a very usable degree. And don't take out $40,000 in student loans!!!!
5. We had such strange weather this week. 6 inches of snow Monday night. 50 degrees and rain on Thursday. Thursday night temps got in the 20s, so all the rain from earlier froze. None of the schools closed, though, so I drove everyone to and from school. On the way home from picking up the boys, I was creeping along a safe distance behind another car. He started to stop, so I tapped my brakes. Nothing. I pumped my brakes. Nothing. He was still stopping and I was getting dangerously close to him. I ended up swerving into the snowbank to avoid hitting him. The car behind me swerved around me and I was able to reverse back onto the road without incident. The boys thought it was awesome. I thought my heart was going to jump out of my chest. Spring, come quickly!!!
6. Lena has started saying "thank you." It is so adorable. It actually just sounds like "ay ooh" but she very clearly means "thank you." She also said "eww" a couple times this week while I was changing her dirty diaper. Haha. She must hear that fairly often. ;-)
7. I've been enjoying Niki's cable and watching a lot of HGTV this week. I love the home improvement shows, but the home buying shows drive me crazy. How can these 25 year olds have a down payment of $60,000 and a budget of $400,000?? What kind of jobs do they have?! It's probably a good thing we don't have cable at home. I really struggle with jealousy and discontent. Watching that kind of thing all the time would definitely not help.
Sounds like you had a crazy week! I'm glad you survived daycare and that you were able to get a new car.
ReplyDeleteI don't struggle watching HGTV, but I don't allow myself to look at realty websites. I am in another "I want my own place so bad!" phase right now anyway though... :/ God's timing, right?!