Mountain

Matt wants to go to the mountains this weekend. I'm unsure. I want to, i'm just scared to I guess. I need my sleep right now and i'm scared that the kids won't sleep b/c we're in a strange place. We would be staying in the cabin alone. He wants to leave Friday at lunch and come home Sunday. I guess i'll probably give in and go unless i'm feeling REALLY rotten.

Chris got the job at Valero with Matt and starts the day after Memorial Day. I hope Chris understands how huge this job is. The pay and benefits are amazing. I don't know of many companies that still pay for all of their employees and employees families' healthcare. I think we paid about 400 dollars last year total for health insurance, life insurance, dental and vision. It's unreal. Yea, the hours and schedule can really suck, like this year Matt works day works on Thanksgiving AND Christmas Day but you really can't have it all I guess. We'll make it work. We're excited for him. I think he'll really like it. Chris and Matt seem to have the same interests and Matt still really likes his job.

Waste

I hate the amount of food that we waste in this house. It's mostly Grace. She doesn't eat, EVER. It's insanely frustrating. I dread every meal with her b/c it's such a battle to get her to eat. I have stopped trying to force her to eat and now she just doesn't. But then she's up in the middle of the night complaining that she's hungry. I haven't slept throught the night in weeks. It's awful. Evan will eat everything in sight if you let him. He weighs more than she does not by about a pound. Right now i'mjust trying to make it until nap time.

Sensor this!

We're just spending like we've got it lately on Matt's Jeep to get it fixed. Today alone we've already spent $60 for a diagnostic test at the garage and now $90 bucks at Napa for the part that we *hope* works. Ug. We're up around $600 bucks and still don't know if it's completely fixed. We have to do it. If we don't we can't even sell it for much of anything. The good thing that i'm pretty proud of is that if this happened a year ago, we would probably be putting some or all of this money on the credit card but alas, we're not!! So i'm pretty proud of that. We should have our fence permit FINALLY today. I hope it's nice on Matt's week off starting May 16th so he can get started on it. I would say that "we" would get started, but let's be honest, i'm not doing much of anything to help except keeping the kids occupied. I can't wait until it's finished. Then it's on to the attic, we're NOT getting a permit for that. We're just putting blankets on the windows and going to town.
We stopped yesterday and look at minivans again. I'm just not sure if we're going to buy new or used. There's such great deals on new right now it may not pay to buy used. I saw a Town and Country van that I really liked, but I think it's a little too much. We will have to go and talk to someone about it. I HATE buying a car. We're going to wait until after we hear the baby's hearbeats again and then go find something. I can't wait!!!!! 16 more days until my next appt.

It's broken....we have to fix it...

Matt's Jeep took a crap. It hasn't been running since Wednesday. It's now Saturday night and i'm still without a vehicle since Matt's working. He works Sunday, has off on Monday and then works Tues, Wed, and Thurs night. I am going stir crazy!! The kids and I can't wait to get out of this house! So we've spent $465 on parts so far and still not fixed. We just need to get it running ok and then we're going to sell it. It served us well but it's time for him to drive the truck full time and me to get a minivan I guess. We don't want 2 car payments but don't see another option. The truck gets the same gas mileage as the Jeep believe it or not so there's no change there. We would like to trade the truck in but it's just not possible. It will be a year old in July so if we did that we would take a major, major, major hit that's just not worth it --we explored every option, and we have to keep the truck. Who saw this twin thing coming?! Not us! lol....So it looks like we might be car shopping on Monday, his one day off. I still don't know what to do. We were thinking about a used car but with the interest rates on financing, and the fact that we only want a 2 year old van if we bought used, it just doesn't seem to pay. They have 0% and 1.9% financing on minivans this month for a few different makers so we'll see how little of a payment we can get. I just want to move out of this house soon and another car payment PLUS two more babies is going to make that even harder! Looks like Matt has some OT coming his way....uggg..I hope I feel better soon and can start cleaning this house. I am so scared to be put on bedrest and have to have people everywhere in my house and have it be dirty. We have so much to do before November when the babies are born....clean, redo attic, put up fence, find more sanity and patience!!! I could go on and on...I'll spare you.

Mini-freaking-van!!

Matt and I have been talking and talking and talking about what we're going to do about a car since we were going to just keep the truck for me since it's been working for us however, 4 kids won't fit in there! So we were trying to avoid buying a minivan looking at every option we could possibly think about. We looked at every three row seat suv out there and none of them have hardly any trunk space to speak of that will fit a double stroller with the exception of the Chevy Suburban. I don't want a Suburban. The truck is big enough as it is, and the suburban is slightly longer than the quad cab truck....I can parallel park the truck....I don't know if I could park a suburban. So, we've started looking at minivans. I'm not really happy about owning another minvan but we don't have much of a choice. The first minivan we had was a disaster. We owned it less than a year and when I would put it in drive, it would be in some other gear and then it started making funny noises, so we got rid of it. Well now i'm back in the market for one and don't know which to buy. We looked at the Nissan Quest and it's pretty nice as far as minivans go I guess. I like that it has a 'different' look about it than some of the others. I also like the Toyota Sienna's but they're soooo expensive. I just don't know if I can spend that amount of money on a minivan. I don't care for the Honda minivans or the Fords...I haven't yet looked at the newly redesigned Dodge Grand Caravans and Chrysler Town and Country vans. I guess that's next. We technically don't need the van until the babies come however with each passing day it's getting more and more difficult for me to lift the kids all the way up into the truck and i'm only 8 weeks and some change pregnant. I just have to keep telling myself that it's twins....it's twins. That's why i'm so big, that's why I feel like this, that's why I look 5 months pregnant. It's just so different. I would never have believed anyone if they told me just how different it would be to be pregnant with twins. The rate that i'm growing is just so amazing. So back to the minivan subject....we're going to go back car shopping soon. Happy trails to us!

Whew

It has been a crazy few weeks lately. I'm really tired and the kids are so antsy to go outside and do something other than sit in the house and play. I try to keep them busy with new things like crafts and special little projects but it's the end of a long winter and I am just fresh out of ideas. I hope that we can get our fence up soon. We are still waiting on the permit. I had all the red tape for a stupid fence. Too bad the fence won't be sound proof from the as*holes that live behind us and play horseshoes with foul language. Pretty much everyone now knows about the pregnancy. I can't really hide it anymore. I'm so excited for next Thursday's ultrasound. I'm trying to think of a really thoughtful gift for our friends who are having their second baby in May but i'm coming up with nothing original. We had a mini-shower for them the other weekend that seemed to go ok. I think it caught them a little off guard. It's just something we do in my family so I thought that we would do it for them. Sometimes I feel like after your first child, no one really cares. Maybe that's just in my family. I won't go there.

Evan is 1 year old today!!

I can't believe Evan just turned 1. I've been fighting tears all day. I just am so amazed at what a little boy he is now. He's starting to talk and he's running all over the place. I love his snuggles and his smiles. It really melts my heart. I can't believe that he's going to be a big brother by the end of this year. I love my little man more than I can express. Happy birthday Ev. Mommy loves you.