more computer woes

So, we've come to the conclusion that we cannot afford to replace my laptop (i can't even pay the bills i have right now). The one that shaun wants to get me is $750, and that's on sale. Even the bottom end one is $500. Even with the $120 that i will get for parts for the old one isn't going to help a whole lot.
I thought i was ok with it, but i'm having a hard time. Not having a laptop means losing some freedom. That's hard to deal with.
I have to type up blog entries on my itouch and mail them to myself. That's why some of spelling is off, and there are actual capital letters  The computer we set Up in the front room, the internet is finicky.
No more scrapbooking, which i really enjoyed. The computer in the front room is not powerful enuf to support photoshop. Let alone enuf room to store the photos.
No more games. The internet is finicky, and not enuf power to handle them.
I had everything i frequently visited bookmarked, and passwords saved for them. I do have a document that has a listing of all my usernames and passwords on it, but it's on the dead laptop.
I suppose i could lose something worse, like the itouch that has the calendar on it. I wouldn't know what was going on if i lost that. Or, the phone that has all my contacts on it. But still, the lose of freedom is hard to take.

confusing?

so, it occurred to me today, that some of you might be confused as to why i have all the baby stuff ready so early.
i can just hear it now, "but, nadia, you're only 34 weeks. isn't it a bit early to have a bag packed?"
normally, i would say, "yes, it is a bit early."
but, you have to understand that my babies come at 37 weeks.
and with this one, i have the feeling that it's going to be more like 36 weeks.
so, based on the fact, that they typically come at 37 weeks, i have 3 weeks left. if you go by the feelings that i've been having, i have about 2 weeks left. and when i say about here, i mean it could even be earlier than that.

productive days!

yesterday i washed all the baby clothes, the blankets, and the car seat stuff.

today i folded the clothes and blankets, and put the car seat back together. i got the cradle washed, and the matress sanitized. i also finished packing a bag of clothes for all 3 of us (that includes shaun). i also got the other kids' clothes washed.

tomorrow, i need to get my clothes washed, and the kids clothes put away. figure out where to store the babies clothes (we have another dresser, but nowhere to put it at this point).

i think we're physically ready for baby to come. as for mentally, and emotionally, that is yet to be seen!

laptop update

Well, heard back from the repair shop about my laptop. Apparently, the problem is the motherboard. Which is where the jack is located. To fix it would cost around $400. For parts, if we chose not to fix it, they could give me about $120.
We do need to go in and get my files off it, though.

some help (we hope!)

So, yesterday we went to see counselor for elizabeth. We were very concerned about taking her into anyone. She's been doing so well, and we hate to see her regress again. This counselor helped me understand that it's extremely important that this be done now. Children at this age have no ability to categorize and shelve adult sexual behavior. At this age they (the counselors) focus on putting it all in a box and labeling it. They label it wrong touch. They also work on getting the child to understand that it wasn't their fault, and that they have a voice. It's their body, they have a right to tell someone no.
She told me that for girls, the recovery process is multi-step. There's this first part. The second step comes when they hit puberty. This is the time that girls who were abused earlier in life become promiscuous. They now understand what happened to them, and they need the reassurance that it was not their fault. They need their "wrong touch" box reorganized and relabeled. The next step comes when they get married, or have their first significant sexual relationship. The last step comes when they have kids.
I feel really good about her. She did warn me that elizabeth will regress a little bit in the beginning. That's because she's ripping the scab off. But, as they work thru some of the issues, she'll get better, and she'll start to heal correctly.

checklist

spotlights done. . . .check
laundry folded. . . .check
laundry put away . . .  half check
babies clothes washed. . . .
cradle cleaned . . . .
house clean . . . .
eat . . . .check
bags packed . . ..

i think my list of things to do is . . . i don't know. CRAZY!
not only that, but the second two on the list have to be done again in 2 days! WHY ME?!?!

spotlight

taylor and elizabeth both have spotlights this week taylors was this morning, and elizabeths is tomorrow. in trying to get some info to do them, i starting asking some questions.

taylor, wants to be a fireman when he grows up. his favorite colors are blue and green, his favorite food is pizza, his favorite animal is dogs (we don't have one and never have. so i'm not quite sure where that came from).

elizabeth, wants to be a mermaid when she grows up (not sure how she's going to manage that), her favorite color is pink, her favorite food is macaroni and cheese (she tried to tell me tacos, but i know better), and her favorite animal is cats (not sure how that one works either, and we've never had one, and never will. i'm very allergic)

computer less

so, i went to use my laptop the other day, and discovered that the battery was nearly dead. i was a little confused, as it had been plugged in all night. then to my dismay, i discover that it won't charge. checked the battery, it's not the problem. checked the power supply, it's not the problem. then shaun looked at it for a minute, and discovered that when the power supply was plugged into the laptop, the light on the power supply turned off.
we talked to some friends and the guys at a local repair shop, and they all concur that it's the jack in the laptop. looks like to fix the jack is going to be around $200, and they can't promise that it will work. the other options are getting my files off the laptop and just going without, or getting a new one. the local repair shop also sells computers, and they informed me that they could buy the laptop off me for parts, and i could then use that to get a new one from them. they have new and refurbished ones.
i need to take it in and see what they could give me for it. if they can give me $300, and a refurbished unit is $300, we're not out anything. even if they can't give me enough to fully cover a replacement, a partial payment from the "trade-in" is worth it. we would just have to figure out how to get the rest of the money.

bananas

had a guy from church come up to me afterwards. he said they had just bought some bananas to make banana bread with. then they ended up leaving for 4 days for a funeral, and his wife was gone again. he wanted to know if he could bring some by. i said sure.

there were a couple of years when i was growing up that we made and sold cookies, breads, and rolls to earn money to go to girls camp. we would take a couple of days and all we did was bake. regular bread, banana bread, chocolate zucchini bread, poppyseed bread, chocolate cookies, peanut butter cookies, oatmeal chocolate chip, double chocolate chip. i think we may have even made cinnamon rolls as well.

i mashed up previously said bananas, and got 4 1/2 cups! holy cow! so, i made 4 loaves of banana bread. it reminded me of the baking days to earn money for camp.

cloud images

i'm sitting here in my front room, looking out the window at the clouds. trying to see what they make.

earlier i saw a snail, and the face of a muppet. now i see a sleeping baby with the face of a pig.

i love spring!

scrapbooking

i've been doing some scrapbooking lately. it's all digital.

as most of my family is not near, they cannot be here for the majority of these events. so i've decided to post them here so they can at least see part of what happened.

you have been warned, there are a lot of them.

sledding

moving clothes

christmas program 2009

summer owies

taylor #5

haircut 2009

elizabeth turns 4

distractions

so, i went into false labor last night. nothing to be too concerned about, but definitely not fun either. shaun and i had been working in the garage during the afternoon, and then i put shannon in the stroller and we walked down to the store to get s few things for dinner. on the way there i started having contractions. they went on for about 3 hours. they were very sporadic, and not really painful, just annoying.
after i got back from the store and had gotten dinner started, i let shaun know about them so he could be prepared if need be. then i came back inside to finish dinner. taylor came in and said, "mama! daddy told me to tell you to call grandma about . . . . . .um . . . . . the distractions!" i laughed! taylor said, "i can't remember what he said, the distractions." i laughed some more! so i called my mother-in-law, and let her know about my distractions. she told me that if i needed any help to just give her a call. (i REALLY love that she lives just down the block. it's been so nice!)

so, the "distractions" ended around 8 that night. i went to go get shannon ready for bed, and shaun jumped in the room trying to scare her. he didn't scare her, but he did me. not only that, i was sore from all the contractions, and that only made me hurt even more. laughing hurt too.

all in all, it was an interesting night!

clumsy

toddlers go thru a clumsy stage, right? i'm not sure, but mine sure is.

she's been walking for over 7 months. started out in a house that didn't have level floors, and moved to a house that did. we claim that she had sea legs in the first house, and had to get her land legs in the second.

in the last week, she's had a bloody mouth at least twice, fell off the trike and scraped her nose, and tumbled down the back stairs scraping her head and cheek.

it's been a fun week!!

new member?

i think i have an additional child.

my children keep referring to "it wasn't me" when we ask them who did something.

wish he would leave

oh, rexburg spring

got up this morning to take elizabeth to school, and had about 4 inches of snow on the ground. spring! gah!

on my way to take her to school, i lost one of my wipers twice. it wasn't staying on the arm very well to begin with, and was not going to stay any longer. i was able to put it back on, but decided that it was past time to replace it. so, i drove the 3 blocks to kmart, and lost it again on the way into the parking lot. this time, there was no putting it back, it got broke. when i pulled into the parking lot, the snow that was on top of the car fell down onto the front windshield, burying the wipers. when i got back out, they wouldn't work. so i took 5 minutes, and dug the snow out of the window well. my hands were freezing, and tingling when i got done.
kmart didn't have the size i needed, so i had to drive down the street to the parts service store. they had the size i needed and they replaced them for me.

look harder update

i know know why i didn't look any harder for someone that had a gun.

i was talking with a friend about it, and he reminded me that if i took care of it myself, i would be the one in jail, and then where would my kids be? i couldn't do that to my kids.

justice may not always be served here on earth, but it will be in heaven. i am content with that.

grounded

just as i was heading out the door this morning to go pick elizabeth up from school, taylor walked in. not normally a problem. i had decided to take shannon with me this morning, so i told taylor that dad was in bed, and i was taking shannon. he asked me if he could play outside, i said no. he asked if he could play the wii, i said no. he asked if he could put a puzzle together, i said yes. then shannon and i got in the car and left.


when i got home, taylors bike was no longer in the yard where it had been when i left. i was not happy. when shaun got up a little later, we found him at one of the neighbors. since he had gone after he was told he couldn't, he got grounded for 3 days.

this afternoon, i sent the kids to grandmas, like usual. (they go there twice a week for a few hours. grandma has projects for them to do, and they get to spend some time with some cousins. they always have a ball.) as i had heard them call to friends when they opened the door, i thought i would call and see if they made it there. they hadn't yet, and this was 10 to 15 minutes later. so, we started looking. they hadn't gone far, they were riding bikes out front with the neighbor kids. but, since they knew they were supposed to be going to grandmas and not playing with the neighbors, they both got grounded. taylor got another 3 days, and elizabeth got 3.

taylor is grounded for 6 days, and elizabeth is grounded for 3.

it's going to be a long week.

bathroom, please!

saturday, i went out to bring the kids in for something, probably dinner, and discovered a pile of poop on the lawn. i got upset cause i hadn't seen any dogs around. that doesn't mean they weren't there.

sunday on the way to church, elizabeth informed me that she and taylor had done the deed. (AHHHHH!) when shaun saw it he had the same impression i did, that a dog had left it. when i told him that the kids had, he was even more upset than i was.
when we got back from church, i handed the kids sandwich bags, and sent them out to clean up their crap. thankfully, they didn't fight me too much.

look harder

i was informed last night, by the father of a friend that i didn't look hard enough for someone who had a gun.

hole in the head

shannon fell off a chair in the kitchen this afternoon.
landed on her head somehow.
her barrette punched a hole in her head.
has a nice little bump with a dark brown scab.

poor baby!

no insanity

we met with the prosecuting attorney this morning. the newest development is that he's pleading dementia (cause in idaho, you can't plead insanity), and they may try to put the blame on a friend that we moved in with us for a few months earlier last year.

preliminary trial is set for next friday, and trial sometime mid may. as we have the right to get specialists to examine him and prove that he's faking dementia, those dates will be moved back.  (when i say we, i mean the state, they are the ones that are pursuing the case, not us.)
going to be an interesting summer.

hungry

i think this diet may kill me. it didn't use to bother me, but now it does.

as of right now, it's been less than two hours since i ate dinner, and i am STARVING! that and there's still all this easter candy lying around.

tasks started

i mentioned to shaun the other day that we needed to get some stuff out of storage for this baby. (since we only have about 7-8 weeks until she comes. if she holds true to the standard.) namely the cradle. i also wanted the bouncer and the swing.

yesterday, shaun wanted to go get said stuff from storage. we didn't make it. so we went today. we got the cradle, the swing, the bouncer, and the tote with the 18 month clothes in. (it has REALLY bothered me to have to buy clothes for shannon cause i have some. i just couldn't get to them without some help.)
next project is to go thru those 18 month clothes, and get them washed and in drawers. then i need to get the other stuff cleaned up and ready for baby to use.

birthday

my sister sent me flowers for my birthday. they were fresh lilies and tulips. so beautiful, and very welcome as the next day it started snowing again.

we didn't do much for my birthday, especially since i wasn't feeling well that day. we did have cupcakes and ice cream that evening, though.

putting my foot down

i have recently tried something that finally seems to have worked. my four year old has a serious problem making it to the bathroom in time. typically, just in time to pee on the rug in front of the toilet. there were some weeks that she would easliy go through all her pants by tuesday, and laundry day isn't until thursday. we've threatened with putting her back in diapers, she doesn't care. we've yelled, and spanked, and nothing seems to work. finally, i told her that if she runs out of pants between laundry days, she's out of luck. i'm not going to do an extra load just for her. she'll stay home from school and not go anywhere, cause she can't leave the house without pants on. since i told her that, she's only wet her pants once.

HALLELUJAH, a solution that's working!