Lost on Friday. . . . .

This is not following my plan for my blog but please stay with me.  I had a melt down today after I got home from the orthodontist with Sprat.  I had to go to the dentist this morning so they could do impressions for my implants.  I have never been so excited to go to the dentist before.  I usually hate going to the dentist.  I hate needles and I hate having my mouth opened so wide you could drive a truck through it.   Today I was just happy to not be yelling at my kids for not behaving and having to referee a fight about the X box.  I was happy to see the dental office people and they were so nice.   I think I could have gone to sleep in that chair I was so exhausted from being a mom 24 hours a day for the last 12 or so days of NO SCHOOL because of the snow.   I love my children very much, so please do not misunderstand, if you have kids you can probably sympathize with me and if you do not you may think I am the most horrible person in the world and maybe I am.   Teenagers and tweenagers can be very nasty some days and I am sure they may not realize what they are doing but they are exhausting.  Sprat lost a bracket off of his expander so he had to go to the orthodontist today and have that fixed after I got back from my appointment.  Throw in the fact that I had homework to do for my classes that I have to still work on regardless of the weather and I was at my wits end.   Nobody really notices how stressed a mom is until she starts screaming.  My husband gave me the funniest look of, gee honey what is wrong?  Men are clueless when it comes to signals that a woman is stretched beyond her limits.   I lost it completely.   

Moms do need time to themselves where they are not being pulled in 500 different directions by the many people that need things from them.    It would be nice for someone to say what can I do for you instead of here is what I need you to do for me.   I think when I am over this massive nervous break down I may make this my mission.  Try and do things for the stressed out moms around I know I cannot be the only one feeling this pain.   Just remember when you see that mom out on the streets that does not have on any makeup or is wearing sweat pants or yoga pants she may be having a really bad day and the very best thing you could do is smile and let her know it will be ok because I would lay odds that you have all been here before.  Thanks for listening to me blather on.  

Snow, Snow Everywhere and My Kids are Home Again. .

In two weeks my kids have been  in school a total of  1 full day and 2 half days and tomorrow is not looking good.  I love my children dearly but they can push me over my limits some days.  I have one teenager and one tweenager(not misspelled).  A tweenager is anyone between 11-13 with all of the hormonal attitude of a true teenager. 
My two would argue with a fence post  if they thought it would get them somewhere.   I have spent the last week and a half in stripes with a whistle playing referee for them.   Sprat is getting ready to move into his own room and I guess it could not come soon enough.   His bed and our new reclining sofa are supposed to be delivered today.  Ha ha ha!!!!!  I will just wait and see.  Part of me hopes it comes and part of me hopes it does not, just because of our current weather conditions.  I do not want yuck tracked in my house or my furniture dropped. 
I hope that the room separation will help with the tension and constant bickering between the boys.  I could accept some arguing but this is sun up to sun down if they are within reach of each other.   I know, I know boys will be boys.  Well, mom will be mom too, and I have had it.   It must be the cabin fever. 

Friday Phone Scams and Frozen Pipes. . .

The title just about sums up my whole week.  I will start with the phone scam since this is supposed to be a financial post although, each of these can be a financial burden.  I received three phone calls from a 202 area code yesterday and I let them go to my answering machine.  Let me preface this whole post by saying, I do not  answer phone calls from numbers I do not recognize especially long distance ones.  They usually end up being telemarketers or scams.    I decided after the third call from this same number I would listen to my answering machine to see just who they were.  No shock that it was a recorded message.  It seemed that the answering machine began recording in the middle of the message so it did not make any sense.   What I could understand said that they were going to turn something over to the county court house.  I deleted the message and then got to thinking, maybe I should call that number back.   I called them back and got a person that did not speak English, they were either Indian or Arabic.  I asked them to repeat several times what company they were calling from and I never told them who I was, I only said they had called and left me  a message.  The person on the other end, like I said did not speak English, told me they were looking for my husband and called him by name.   Remember I did not tell them who I was and yes they probably had caller ID which has my husbands name on it.   I asked him again to repeat what company he was calling from and he said, "the IRS."  Not the Internal Revenue Service but, "the IRS."  I told him I thought he was lying and that this was a scam and that I was going to report him to the FBI.  He hung up.  I googled the phone number and it was from Washington, DC but do you really think that someone from the IRS would say that or would they say the full name.  I went to the www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov website to see what I needed to do to report this fraud.  Yes, this is fraud.  When a person or persons pretend to be a government official that is fraud.  I registered this number 202 684 6460 and my compliant.  I tried to call them back again after I had made my complaint, just to let them know but shock surprise nobody answered the phone.  I guess they saw it was me again.  I also made a phone call to my local sherrifs' office to see if anyone else had this same issue.  They confirmed my suspicion and yes others had actually given them money via wire transfer and debit cards.  If you do not get anything out of my blog but this, please do not give anyone your debit card information over the phone unless you know who they are and you initiated the phone call.  No government agency is going to call you to get your back taxes or judgements taken care of over the phone.  No government agency is going to let you get out of jury duty by paying a fee over the phone.  Please, if you think that a phone call is legit get their contact information and call the agency they say they are with and check it out.  It does not hurt and it may save your money and your identity.   Please be aware as we approach tax season this is going to happen more often.  Call their bluff!!!
Now the other turn of the screw, my pipes were frozen this morning.  I guess I should have paid a little more attention to all of the news casts that were talking about how to prepare for below zero temps.  My hubby got up early to get ready for work and I am so glad because this could have gone all kinds of wrong had he not.  He got up and went to the kitchen and realized there was no water coming out of the faucet.  He woke me up and I hit google to see what we needed to do.   I love google.   According to one plumbing site, if you think your pipes are frozen you are supposed to shut your water off at the main valve coming into your house.  Hubby went to do that and that was frozen so I told him to take some towels down and wrap around that area to warm it up.  The plumbing site also said to turn all of your faucets on so that a little water was running through them.  We did that too just in case.  Now it was really cold yesterday, all day and we had no problems but I guess we were using the pipes off and on so nothing happened.   We did get down to zero last night or at least really close to it and I guess that was enough to cause our valve to freeze.  So far no leaking but, I am still keeping my fingers crossed.  Here is your homeowners' tip for the day, if the temp is going to be close to zero during the night turn your faucets on so that a little water is flowing constantly during the night and that is supposed to keep your pipes from freezing.
Stay warm and keep an eye on your pets and your neighbors.  

Crazy week. . .

Sorry I have missed a few days.  Between the weather,  early dismissals, and this massive migraine I have been out of touch.   My migraines are inherited from my mom.  I remember some Sundays she would have to come home and go straight to bed.  She mostly reacted to perfume but occasionally the weather would get her.  I think mine are hormonal and weather related.  I have not had one this bad in at least a year.   This one lasted three days with no relief.  
I am so glad that my classes were cancelled as well as my kids.   I hate the thought of driving in ice or snow.   I got caught at work one time with flurries.  I had gone  in to work on a Saturday to get caught up on some paper work.  It started snowing and I thought it would just snow a little and then be done in our typical fashion.  Hubby calls and tells me I should start heading home because it was getting bad there.  I left and had  to go by our main office before I could go home.  When I got to the main offfice it was coming down pretty good.  I ran in and made some copies and worked on my progress notes.  Hubby calls again and tells me I need to keave now.   I looked out and the parking lot was covered,  so I asked him how I should go home.   Should I go the back roads or the highway?  He said I would be safer to go the back way.  I was in our four wheel drive so I was not really worried except that I had not driven in the snow before.   My drive to work usually took 25 minutes roughly.   This particular nasty day it took 2 1/2 hours to get home.   I have never driven on such bad roads before.   I came to a slope and traffic was backed up the slope and stopped.  I decided I was going to turn around and go a different way.  I was clear to make the U turn but it was so slick that I did a 360 in the middle of the road.  That was terrifying!!!  When I finally came to a stop,  I was still in the road and facing the way I wanted to go so off I went.  I got the lecture of a lifetime when I got home.   I now know I can drive in this mess if I have to but, I hope I never have to again. 

Finally Friday!!!!!

So how is everyone doing with their budgets?  It is not easy to stay on a budget but it is worth it in the end. 
I have those days and even weeks into months where you could almost see through the paper my budget was written on.  That is ok, your budget is a living organism,  and ever changing.   If you share your finances with a significant other or your spouse you really need to talk with each other when you are thinking of going off budget.  Finances are a key in tearing relationships apart, if there is no communication.   There will be arguments or loud discussions and that is ok, you must talk about things and hash out the details.  I am not saying you have to have a family meeting if you want to spend an extra $20 on something.   Set up parameters so that everyone is clear.   Hubby and I have our own mad money for whatever we want to spend it on.  That is worked into our budget every two weeks.  I am talking about going out and spending over $100 or so that is not in the budget.  I believe that should be discussed.  
Please remember,  this what we do, you should do what is comfortable for you and your family. 
Also remember that just because you fall off buget, do not completely give up.  Everyone makes mistakes, that is why you could see through my paper.  I make mistakes daily but I try to learn from them and I do not give up. 
Stay strong and hang in there.

I missed Monday so it's coming back. .

ByMonday was pretty uneventful, so I do believe it is coming back around to get me.  Crazy day today.  PMS and no time for whining.   Trying to get ready for two tests due by the weekend and my instructor is moving on to new material this morning.  My hair dryer practically bursts into flames while my dear hubby is drying his hair this morning.  Have not washed my hair in four days, today was a wash day and no hair dryer.  Yes, it is ok to laugh, I did.  It is an either laugh or cry kinda day.  I choose laugh.   My car has to go in for recall work.  It has to go to a dealership,  that I do believe misplaced it the last time it was there for work.  They kept it for four days for a light on the dash.  To make up for keeping it so long they said they washed it for me.  I thought that was nice.  When they brought it to me you could tell they had just sprayed it with water, not washed.  I laughed and went on.  The  more I thought about it, I decided I would let the sales manager know what they had tried to do.  Many appologies but, I still do not trust dealers.   If they would lie about something as silly as washing my car, goodness knows what else they  may lie about.  
This why I believe Monday has come back around for me.

Growing Up. . .

Sprat is getting his own room.  The boys started out in separate rooms when Big T was born.  It was only when we moved that they became roommates.   The upstairs bedrooms are huge!   They had plenty of room and by sharing it they had a huge playroom.  
When Big T came home from the hospital and we were getting him settled in his room, Sprat came to me and asked if he could stay in his room.   He begged to have his little brother stay in his room.  I pointed out how Big T would sometimes cry during the night and might wake him up.  He gave in and decided it would be ok. 
Like I said, when we moved to our current house the rooms were so big that it offered a great play area if they shared a room.  Now that Sprat is a teenager he does need his own space, so we worked all day Saturday cleaning and purging both rooms.   We donated clothes, toys, and books to Goodwill.   We threw a lot of broken toys and junk away.   Sprat's new bed should be here any day now along with a new reclining sofa for us.  Yayyyy!
Big T will have his beds put into bunks again and he will have room for all of his army men and a desk.  They both seem excited but I am a little worried how they will sleep in different rooms.  I still have a good bit of work in both rooms to make them more presentable.   The playroom has always been the place for all of their trophies and sports stuff.  I guess now we either split it up and each will take their own or we box it up and store it.  I still have a lot of clothes to go through some we will keep and the rest will be donated.  I have one closet full of clothes to sort and one closet full of toys to sort.  Ughhhh!  Why do we keep so much junk?  My hubby was quite ill with me because I kept wanting to keep everything, especially their little books that they had when they were little.  I am keeping many of those whether he likes it or not.  Those have special memories for me.  I want to have those to pass down to my grandchildren, if I have any.   Still lots of work to get their rooms in working order.   

It's Birthday Time. . .

We are celebrating Big T's birthday today with a little family outing.   Going to the Army surplus store to find him a knife he has been looking for.   He picked up a few at Christmas that were really interesting.  We found them at a local drug store at Mom's.  One was a veterans' knife and the other was  a pearl handle with "Faith" written in blue and on the blade was inscribed a verse from the book of Psalms.  Very cool knives.

I love going to the Army Surplus store, it is the neatest place, they have everything under the sun relating to military.  They have legitimate military clothes, patches, dog tags, and blankets.   Big T got a set of real dog tags this summer when we came up for a visit.  They make them right there on the spot and they are the real deal.  Today he found a Swiss Army knife that he liked and a camo hat.  Sprat picked him up a hat too.  Their prices are reasonable and they have a huge selection.  

After our visit there we went out to eat to celebrate.  We have a great little pizzeria near our house that is small but has the best pizza around and it is Big T's favorite.  It was a good day!!

Best Chili ever. . . And A Little Fish Story

I am going to share my super secret chili recipe today.  My hubby absolutely loves this.  I always joke that it was my chili and the fact that the first time we went fishing, I out fished him, that he fell in love with me.   Yes, I am a fabulous cook and a pretty good fisherman.   Ok, ok, that is my opinion.   I did out fish him on the pier that weekend before he asked for my hand.  I am a fair weather fisherman though; I do not like fishing in the cold,  the extreme heat, or the rain.   I remember one day in particular that my hubby did get ill with me when we were fishing.  He says it was June but, I believe it was mid April because it was cool and rainy.  Notice it was two of those conditions I do not like fishing in.  I fussed and told him  I was ready to go.  We had been on the lake for a good while so it was not like we had just gotten there.   He was mad because the fish were really biting and we were catching them like crazy.  My hands were almost numb though because it was cold and I was soaked to the bone.   We headed back to the dock.  Hubby was ill because the fish were crazy and he wanted to keep fishing.  He gave in and headed toward the dock, now when we fished it was my job to keep the boat from banging the dock as we approached.   It was also my job to get the truck and back the trailer down the ramp so dear hubby could put the boat on the trailer.   It was so wet that when we approached the dock I stood up instead of getting on my knees like I normally did.   I was holding the truck keys and trying to balance on the front of the boat and put my foot out to keep the boat from banging the dock.   Hubby was ill and came in a wee bit fast to the dock and I could not stop the boat.  He through it in reverse and through me off balance and off the boat I went, me and the keys to the truck.  Hubby did not see  how I went  in the water.  He thought I had hit the dock with my head, he thought he had killed me.   He backed the boat up so that if I did come up I would not be under the boat.  When I came up I held my hand up with the keys in it and yelled, "I still have the keys."  I was also laughing terribly,  I could not believe that I had fallen off the boat.  Hubby could not believe I was laughing either and he was relieved he had not killed me.  He really thought I would be mad at him but, I could not stop laughing.  He had told me all morning that the lake water was warmer than the air temperature and he was right, the water was very warm.  I slogged out of the water and up the ramp past a couple of guys unloading a jetski laughing at me.  I went in the store to get a friend of ours to back the truck down so I would not ruin our seats.   What a day that was.   My hubby was very apologetic about the whole thing and I still laugh about it because it could have only happened to me.  He still cannot believe I came up out of the water laughing but, there was nothing else to do but laugh.  

Now on to my infamous chili. . .

1-2 lbs ground beef (depending on how many you want to feed)

2 cans diced tomatoes 

2 cans tomato sauce

2 cans kidney beans drained

2 cans black beans drained

1 can corn or you can use frozen corn (optional)

2 cloves garlic pressed

2 tbsp onion pwdr

2 tbsp cumin

1 tbsp cilantro

2 tsp thyme

2 tbsp cayenne
1 tsp dry ground mustard 

dash or two of Worestershire

dash or two of white wine (I use Moscato)

1 tbsp chili powder

2 tsp dry cocoa pwdr

dash of white vinegar

V8 juice low sodium

Brown your ground beef with a dash or two of Worestershire and White wine then add pressed garlic cook a little longer in the skillet then transfer to your crock pot.  Add all your other ingredients leaving the V8 for last.  I add the V8 last just to make sure there is enough liquid so your chili will not burn.   This is my very own recipe it is not from anyone else.  Feel free to add more or leave out anything you may not like.  Don't turn your nose up too fast to the cocoa powder though, it may seem an odd addition but it does add a wonderful flavor to this chili.  I usually cook this 6-8 hours in the crock pot and serve with sour cream and tortilla chips or saltines.   

I used to fix this for my hubby and his friends on football Saturday before we were married and early in our marriage.   Enjoy!!

The Internet is like the Wilderness. . .

 Today our focus is going to be on keeping the kiddos safe online.  I know I have mentioned this topic before but, it needs to be repeated.  If you are like me you worry about the predators and the ugly things that linger on the Internet.   My brother was looking up a BBQ recipe one time and he just entered "brown sugar" in the search, you can just imagine what that brought up.  He was shocked at the images it produced and they had nothing to do with BBQ.   Imagine your child looking something up for school and what might end up in the search results.  There are ways to set up parameters for your childs' profile.    Yes, each person that uses your computer should have their own profile.  I did not think that was necessary until I took some of my computer classes.  You would be surprised at what your child might load on your computer without either of you realizing it.  This causes more issues with viruses and unnecessary programs taking up precious space and computer resources.
In one of my security classes we discussed how each person that uses your computer should have their own profile, especially your kids.  If your kids ages differ greatly this is very important.  You can set each profile (person) with their own limitations.   If your account is the administrative account then you should also  set up another administrative account.  This is the scenario that we discussed in class;  what if you change something on your computer and you end up locking it up, with another administrative account you can go in and undo what ever you did.  This is advice straight from my instructor, he had this happen with his computer.
By giving your kids their own profile there  is less opportunity that they will accidentally delete an important file or program of yours. They will not be able to download things from the Internet either without administrative permission.  Kids click on things very spasticaly on the computer and you never know what they might download but, if you have their profile set up then they will not be able to download anything without administrative permission.
This may seem like a lot of work but it will pay off in the long run.  I know that before I set our main computer up this way that both of my kids downloaded viruses inadvertently.   Kids do not know how to beware of pop ups and flashy ads and yes that is how some viruses find their way on your systems.  By doing these little things you will protect your kids and your computer from harmful things on the internet.

Teenagers. . .

We celebrated Big T's birthday yesterday at the Super Bowl party.  In another year I will be the mother of two teenage boys, oh my goodness.  Time does march on, whether we want it to or not.   I remember being a new mother, a mother of a preschooler, and a mother of elementary boys.  Time is going by at warp speed, I blinked and now my dear precious babies are growing up.   You want them to grow up but, then again, you want them to be your babies again.   I remember sitting with them laying on my chest sound asleep.   They were so tiny and fragile and they smelled so good.

The top picture is Big T only a week old and the bottom picture is Sprat at about six months old. 

Now they are stinky, grouchy, gruff almost men.   No matter what stage of motherhood you are in, love your babies, they are your babies no matter what their age.  Love them and remind them often of where they came from, that they are a part of you.