Even though I complain a lot about his work schedule and him not being around a lot because of the long hours he works, I am realizing that having Ron home 24/7 isn’t exactly a picnic either. Especially when he’s hurt his back so is largely immobile and unable to help out with the girls, the house or even himself…

#1 – Although he hasn’t been able to move around much, he has been able to sit in front of the computer. A lot. Which has seriously cut into my blogging time.  I guess I’ve gotten a bit spoiled by having the desktop available whenever I can find a few minutes to check e-mail or my reader, or write a quick post.

#2 – The tv is always turned to a sports channel. ALWAYS.

#3 – Ron doesn’t like a lot of the meals that have become staples for the girls and I. And I don’t usually have stuff in the house to make dinners for all of us anymore, since he’s rarely home for dinner. The ‘what to have for dinner’ question has turned from an inconvenience to a nightmare, resulting in our either getting takeout or ordering pizza much more often than we should be.

#4 – His company needed to use his work truck for another employee while he’s been gone. Which means that all of his personal equipment, tools and other stuff are all currently cluttering up our garage as well as my kitchen.

#5 – In a couple of weeks when we start getting the (non) paychecks for this time, our financial situation will really, really start to hurt. He had to take 7 days off completely unpaid in order for his short-term disability to kick in. Ouch.

#6 – The girls are used to being able to roughhouse, jump on, and be tickled by Daddy. They are not used to a Daddy who winces whenever they hug him, or who can’t let them sit and snuggle with him in the recliner. This makes for very frustrated little girls.

#7 – The medication that Ron’s been taking makes him extremely drowsy. So he’s been falling asleep in the recliner a lot. Have I mentioned that he snores?  Very loudly?

#8 – I can’t rely on him to jump up to answer the phone or the door. Which isn’t an issue when he’s not here, but gets frustrating when he’s sitting right there.

#9 – Even though he’s ‘off’ work, people from work keep calling to ask him questions. He’s not always in the same room as his work phone though, so the girls and I have been needing to fetch it for him. And I think that his direct connect only seems to have one volume level – very, very loud.

#10 – Just as the girls and I aren’t used to having Ron around so much, he’s also not used to being around them so constantly. Especially with Abby and Hannah off from school last week… There’s been a lot more yelling around here than usual as a result.

Even given all of this though, there has been a bit of a plus side to having him home – or at least not working…

#1 – Our ‘eating out’ budget is actually much better off, even with the dinners we’ve eaten fast food or pizza for. You see, Ron usually eats out every day for lunch when he’s working, and sometimes for dinner as well if he’s out late. I think we’re even coming out a bit ahead there right now.

#2 – Watching him attempt to get up out of the recliner last week when he couldn’t bend at all, was actually extremely entertaining. At least for me it was. 

#3 – We’ve managed to clear almost all of the backlogged tv programs off of our DVR since he’s been home in the evenings to watch them with me, and most network shows have been reruns over the holidays anyway. We’re actually almost caught up with everything that we watch now.

It’s gotten a bit easier all around now that he’s started physical therapy and is moving a lot easier and with much less pain. He should be going back to work next week, and hopefully won’t injure his back again.

We’ve realized that this is the most time we’ve spent together since our honeymoon, almost 9 years ago.  Pretty sad, huh! 

See more photos at Wordless Wednesday and 5 Minutes For Mom!

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Last summer, I had the opportunity to try out some of the labels from Mabel’s Labels and have to say that I absolutely love them. And I’m still using them on everything from sippy cups to shoes – and coats, especially after Abby lost all three of hers at one point last fall. I am quite convinced that having her name inside her lunch box is the ONLY reason that we still have it in our possession today – I can’t even count the number of times that it’s been left on the bus, or in any number of places both inside and outside her school building.

Yes, that’s the lunch box in question, that you see peeking out from behind the girls’ water bottles in the photo above. 

Well, courtesy of The Giveaway Connection, I have an opportunity for one of you to be able to try out Mabel’s Labels as well! I have a Camp/School Pack, which is a $34.00 value and consists of 15 Sticky Labels, 40 Iron-Ons or 50 Tag Mates™, 8 Shoe Labels, and 2 Bag Tags, to give away. The labels are dishwasher/microwave-safe and UV resistant, and the clothing labels are laundry safe. You can find out more information about them here:  http://www.mabel.ca/mabel.php?n=camp-school%20pack.

Here are the details of this giveaway:

1. You can enter by visiting the Mabel’s Labels site and leaving a comment here to let me know which labels you just don’t think you could live without. Please don’t just say ‘choose me’, or your entry will be discarded.  US entries only, please.
2. The contest will run from January 7th until Wednesday, January 14th at noon EST, and I will be choosing the winner through a random drawing.
3. Please make sure that you leave either a valid e-mail address or other way to contact you with your comment! If you win and I can’t contact you, then I’ll have to choose another winner.

If you’d like extra entries, you can:

1. Subscribe to my RSS feed (click on the orange icon in the upper right sidebar) or subscribe via e-mail – leave me a separate comment to let me know.
2. Mention this contest on your blog with a link back to this post, and leave a separate comment with the link to your post so I can find it.
3. Either Twitter about, ‘Stumble’, ‘Digg’ or ‘Kirtsy’ this post – leave me a separate comment with your username at whichever site you chose (one extra entry per method).

Good luck! 

So here it is, the first tackle of 2009.  And I have a final update on what was our biggest project from 2008 – the last step in our huge bedroom switch-around that we accomplished during the summer. Namely, finishing the job of cleaning out the main part of the basement and turning it back into a room that we can actually use.

And – it’s done!  Or at least almost done. I still have a bookshelf that needs organizing, and there are a few little tweaks here and there. But the room is actually usable again – and that’s what’s important for now.

Of course, this whole project has been full of drama, so it wouldn’t have been complete without some as well… We had put off having the waterproofing done until spring – figuring that we were rather safe from heavy rains until then.

So, guess what happened to all of the snow that we got right before and during Christmas?  Yep, it rained – hard, and melted it all. Right into our basement (again).  Sigh. The waterproofing absolutely has to get done this spring, but for now we’ve got pretty much everything vulnerable to water out of the way.

So here’s a reminder of what this part of the basement looked like the last time I posted about this project in November…

And here’s how it looks today:

The area where the drywall has been cut out at the bottom, where the plastic tub and the computer table are is where the water comes in. You can see that I’ve emptied the bottom shelf of my one bookshelf, just in case as well.

The door with the hats hanging on it goes to the playroom that we worked on last fall. And you can see part of the white bookshelf that’s the last one I need to organize at some point.

I do have to have Ron work on an electric issue down there still – the outlet over by the computer table appears to be hooked into the light switch for some reason since it only has power when the lights are on. So the girls’ computer is still non-functional for the moment. And the tv hasn’t been hooked back up yet either – we don’t have a cable hookup in this area of the basement, so it’ll just be for watching movies on.

At least for now, that is.  After all, I am married to a ‘cable guy’.  At some point when his back is healed, he can run a cable line over there for us. 

What are you tackling this week? And check out other Tackle It Tuesday posts over at 5 Minutes for Mom!

Hmm, let’s see…

At 6:55 am, I was awakened by Abby - 5 minutes before my alarm was set to go off. Who then lay across the foot of our bed to wait since I was determined to enjoy every one of those minutes before having to get up.

At 6:58 am, I had a small toddler sitting on top of me chanting, “I want bweakfast!” over and over again.

At 7:00 am, when the alarm went off, the girls headed upstairs while I hit the snooze button and got the 5 minutes of rest that I’d been cheated out of. 

By 7:20 am, Abby and Hannah were dressed and all 3 girls had eaten breakfast.

By the way, the singing of ‘YMCA’ at the top of your lungs any time before 8:00 am should be outlawed.  I’m just saying. 

7:45 am saw Abby and Hannah with hair done, boots and coats on, getting their backpacks, snacks and water bottles ready.

And at 7:53 am, they were out the door and off to the corner bus stop amid my calls of “Have a good day!” and “I love you!”.

7:54 am – I have an almost 3-year-old crying and begging to put her coat on to go to “B’s” house (daycare), while still in her Wiggles jammies.  Not until tomorrow, little one - thank goodness we have a playdate with Amber this afternoon. Becca is very excited to have a friend coming over to play.

At 8:00 am, when Ron got up, it was very quiet in my house.

Happy Back-to-School day! 

…to school, for the older girls. Both are very excited about seeing their friends and teachers again. Hannah is especially thrilled to see her usual teacher, who has been off since October on maternity leave.

…to daycare, for Becca. We took these two weeks off from sending her to daycare two mornings a week. Partly because our daycare provider also takes vacation over the holidays and also because it would’ve been difficult to send Becca with both Abby and Hannah at home. I think that Becca and I are both looking forward to her going back though – she loves being at daycare and seeing her friends there, and I love being able to run errands and get things done without hearing “Mom!”, “Mom!”, “Mom!” every 2 minutes.

…to reality, for me. With only a few weeks of unemployment left, I am hoping to be able to get an extension since I have so far found no do-able full-time job prospects, and no other real options that would provide the kind of income that I need to earn. The state of the economy certainly isn’t helping, nor is the fact that my field isn’t exactly growing at the moment.

…to the doctor, for Ron. And to physical therapy as well. He hurt his back again last weekend and not only is it worse this time, but since he wasn’t injured on the job, there’s no help from worker’s comp. He’s been largely immobile all week, which is driving both him and I nuts. Not to mention that the weeks without a paycheck will kill us financially (again).

Back to waking up early in the mornings to rush the girls off to school, to remembering backpacks, lunches, snacks and homework. And to the schedule of cheer and church activities that we’ve had weeks off from now.

But also, back…

…to seeing the excitement on the girls’ faces when they get off the bus and while they tell me about their days.

…to having the girls play better together after having the break from spending 24 hours a day together.

…to being able to chat with the other moms at daycare, at school, at church, and at cheer when dropping kids off and picking them up.

…to being able to pick up my house in the morning and knowing it’ll remain “as is”, for at least a few hours.

Back to having an excuse to get out of bed in the morning and out of the house during the day. And to looking forward to things coming up, like fun with friends, birthday parties, and surviving yet another winter in the midwest.

I think I’m ready. 

We had a very nice New Year’s Eve. It started off with a play date for Hannah with one of her little (boy) friends from school – which turned into a 4-hour visit after Abby, Becca and I returned to pick her up and ended up staying for another couple of hours. Hannah’s friend ‘G’ has a little sister only a couple of months younger than Becca, and the five of them played really well together.

Later in the day, we headed over to Kristi’s house for the New Year’s Eve party that she’d planned for the kids. She went all out – complete with balloons dropping from the living room ceiling, leis and funky 2009 glasses for everyone, and fun music for everyone to dance to.

So we actually celebrated ‘midnight’ at 6:30pm… Nobody cared – least of all the kids. And since I ended up being home asleep in bed by midnight, it was nice to have already ‘rung in’ 2009. 

You can read all about the party itself (and see pictures) over at Kristi’s site so I won’t re-post all of it here. But there are a few things that I’d love to share as well…

First of all – don’t ever rely on the cheese that comes with those boxed pizza kits. Ugh, bleck. Powdered cheese just doesn’t belong on pizza. It did LOOK pretty appetizing though:

It is amazing though how much a little incentive like chocolate cake will make kids eat something even as nasty as this pizza turned out to be. 

Dinner was forgotten the moment that the balloons were released though – and the music was turned up. It was so much fun to watch everyone jump, dance and go crazy around the living room.

Doing the YMCA…

The party blowers were quite a hit as well…

Rock on, Aaron!

The boys had some pretty fancy footwork going on…

A little bit softer now…

And then SHOUT! 

Becca spent a lot of the time trying to ‘save’ the balloons by hoarding them.

Until the other kids decided it was time to ‘liberate’ them.

Becca wasn’t too happy at first… But she didn’t have any problem handing balloons over to Steve once he started popping them by sitting on them. In fact, she was quite entertained and sat watching him – clapping and cheering when every balloon popped. 

All in all – it was a very fun way to usher in the New Year.

So here’s to hoping that 2009 will be everything that you wish it to be!

It’s Friday again! My favorite day of the week.

Here’s my question for this week:

Do you have any goals for 2009?

Be sure to check out An Island Life for other fun Aloha Friday questions and to play along!

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Like most kids out there, Hannah made a wish list before Christmas. And there were a lot of the typical things on it – a Barbie cruise ship, a new necklace, a Webkinz, etc.

Three of the items, however, made me smile – for various reasons.

First, she wished for Spring. Which is something I wish for most days during the winter too.

That one will come true – but unfortunately not for about another three months. 

Then she wished for a new sister. I was a bit confused about that one since she’s not always completely thrilled with the little sister that she already has. Then she clarified for me – she was wishing to trade Becca in for a different sister.

I’m thinking that even Santa can’t pull that one off. But it was a nice try. 

The third item that I found interesting on Hannah’s Christmas list was that she wanted to lose a tooth on Christmas. She did have a couple of loose ones, so it wasn’t completely unrealistic either. We joked about her losing one on Christmas Eve and the possibility of Santa and the Tooth Fairy running into each other when making their separate visits. But she really wanted a tooth to fall out ON Christmas.

Sometimes Christmas wishes do come true…

Apparently many other kids must have the same wish, because the Tooth Fairy was VERY busy that night. So busy, in fact, that she didn’t make it to our house and Hannah’s pillow until the next morning. I’m sure that she felt very badly about the late visit.

In fact I have it on very good authority that she did. 

I’m still waiting for that other top front tooth to fall out one of these days – it’s looking a bit out of place in there at the moment now that she’s lost four others in the front.

Hmm, maybe on Valentine’s Day?

Last year I did this after seeing it over on An Island Life. But since I only started blogging in mid-2007, I didn’t have a whole year’s worth of posts to share. Well this year I do (or for last year rather, lol), and figured that it would make a perfect Thursday Thirteen list as well, with the absolute most popular (most viewed, according to Google Analytics) post from the entire year as #13.

So without further ado, here are my most popular posts for each month of 2008, not including giveaways or meme posts like Tackle It Tuesday, Wordless Wednesday or Aloha Friday.  Enjoy! 

January - So what is Feedburner all about anyway? Feeds and RSS - Part 1

February - Me, myself and I

March - Does it really matter what ‘other people’ think?

April - Now that just can’t be comfortable…

May - Well, at least we knew it was coming.

June - The ‘kid’ I married…

July - So what have I been up to during my first two days of unemployment?

August - Becca the Busy Builder

September - Well, at least Elmo doesn’t talk back…

October - “I wanna wear unnerwear!”

November - Here’s how the advertisers have completely captured the 6-year-old girl market

December - How to spend almost nothing on birthday gifts for your 6-year-old…

And the most popular non-giveaway post of all for the entire year was Wow. Now THAT was a party. which is also one of my most searched posts as well – about our friends Carlos and Cheryl’s son DJ’s Webkinz birthday party last April. There must be A LOT of people out there who are looking for Webkinz party ideas!  Of course, now I’m curious to see what they’ll come up with for DJ’s 8th birthday party this year. 

What were your most popular or favorite posts this year on your own blog?  Feel free to play along – and if you do, leave your link so we can all come and check them out too!