The last week has been awful. We decided to go to B’ham to visit the in-laws last Monday. All was good until Tuesday night, and Graeme was up all night and started running a fever. By Wednesday morning his temp was up to 102 and he was having trouble breathing and the breathing treatments weren’t working. We called the doctors and they said to take him to the ER.  We loaded up and took him to Children’s Hospital in Birmingham. They did chest x-rays and said he had pneumonia which was aggrevating his asthma, so they admitted him. We were in the hospital until Friday afternoon, which by that time I was sick and didn’t feel like making the drive home. We ended up staying until Sunday afternoon.

We arrived home at 5:30. Walked in the house, started down the hallway, and heard water running. This is when we noticed that there was water seeping up through the cracks in the wood flooring. Our ac unit had backed up and flooded, soaking the hallway, the living room, and parts of Aegwyn’s bedroom.

I have spent all of the time since then on the phone with contractors and the insurance company making arrangement to get it fixed.

I just packed up the kids and Geoff and sent them back to B’ham so they wouldn’t be here when the clean-up crew sprayed the mold stuff and ripped up the flooring. This week is going to be awful.

So I promised to start writing parenting advise and lessons learned, and here is the first of many.

All parents out there know how expensive children are, especially clothes. I know a lot of parents who insist on buying name brand clothes for their young children, and they pay retail prices for new items. I have discovered the most wonderful way to shop. I have 5 children and can’t afford to pay retail prices to buy the clothes that I like. We have consignment sales here locally that offer a wonderful way to buy name brand without paying mall prices. Kids Market comes here twice a year, in the spring and then again in the fall. I have worked out a wonderful system for this sale that allows me to spend without costing me a fortune. I always put my childrens outgrown clothes in the sale, and then buy their “new” ones during the contributors sales. I usually can make back everything that I spend.

You can find wonderful bargains on everything from clothing, furniture, books and toys. 2 years ago when I was pregnant with Aegwyn we bought her bedding set (comforter, bed ruffle, bumper pad, lamp shade, valance, light plate cover, and a mobile). I found some price stickers on a few of the items and I am guessing based on those that this set retailed for around $600. I paid $60, and the set looked brand new.

I also have a local consignment store that I shop in between sales.

There is no shame in buying gently used items, it is simply smart parenting. If you don’t live in our local area just start searching and I am sure that you will find similar sales either through churches or other groups. My mother-in-law lives in Birmingham and she has half a dozen or more of these sales that she attends every spring and fall.

I think that I am going to do some restructuring of this site, and actually try to offer more than just my random thoughts throughout the week.

I am going to try to start categorizing my posts first.

I also think I will share my parenting wisdom, and follies with you. Afterall, I have 5 kids I should have learned a little bit by now.

I try to stay away from politics, so unless it has something to do directly with me, you won’t hear about it here.

I am going to go back today and categorize all of posts up to this point, and hopefully from here on out I will remember to stick stuff in the right places.

I think I am going to try and have a garage sale. Since I am out of work right now I actually might have time to go through all of our stuff and clean out. I am afraid though that the majority of our stuff is going to be clothes. Granted the clothes are really nice and hardly worn, but still clothes. I may take some of my stuff to the consignment store, it might do better that way.

I also have a chair in my living room that my mother gave to Geoff a few christmas’ ago when his recliner broke. My living room is not tiny but it is cramped and getting rid of that chair would make a huge difference in there.

I have a bunch of text books that I am not sure if I shouldn’t just throw them away. And some of the boys old stuff. And maybe some kitchen stuff I don’t use any more. And if I could get Geoff to clean out his stuff we have a ton of computer cables and miscellaneous parts, and old video game systems and games.

The more I think about it the more I see I have a lot of junk, and some serious cleaning out is in order. The next problem is that with a yard sale comes my mother-in-law trying “to help”. I appreciate her help most of the time, but I will save that for a different rant.

Everyone here except me is sick. Graeme started with a runny nose a few days ago which has now developed into a horrible cough. Geoff started with a sore throat last night, which is now a full blown summer cold (I think he has already gone through an entire box of tissues). Aegwyn had been doing good until today. She is five days off antibiotics and the runny nose started fast and furious this morning. Luckily we had an appointment with the allergy doctor today, but nothing he tested for showed any significant allergic reaction to indicate that is what is causing this recurring infection. We have to go get blood work tomorrow and then back to the allergist next week for further testing. In the meantime though he did put her on a nasal spray that hopefully will help.

I have been casually searching for a job for about a month now, but I guess it is time to really step up the search. I have been online submitting resumes for the last hour, and suppose I will continue to do this today as long as I have places left to search. I am registered on Monster, Career Builder, and with every major company in my area. I have scoured the job boards and the newspapers. I have a couple of leads that seem promising, but who knows. With what I do, it is very hard to find a job, the market is so over-saturated with admin and accounting people and HR reps. Only time will tell.

Oh and I have a big meeting this morning, can’t give any details yet, but as soon as I can I will.

As I said earlier I am a bit upset about not having anything to do, and what does any good southern girl do when she is upset? I cook.

We ran to the mall for a few minutes this afternoon, because I won a gift basket from Benefits at Belks for my birthday. Then we went to the local farmers market. I loaded up on fresh green beans, green tomatoes, and okra. I have spent the rest of the afternoon breaking beans, which for those of you who have never tried it, is very relaxing. I also cut up all the okra. I have enough for dinner tonight and I put a bag of each in the freezer for later (good grief I am “puttin’ up veggies, ya’ll). Guess I am more like my Nannie than I thought.

Anyway my cooking will begin tonight, I am making fried green tomatoes and fried okra, probably some cornbread, and not sure on the meat yet. Tomorrow I plan on getting up and putting a pot of beans on the stove to cook all day for dinner tomorrow.

I am debating on baking a cake, or some cookies, or some other kind of sweet yummy, but I also have a fresh cut watermelon chilling in the fridge, so I may wait on baking until that is gone.

Cooking is so therapeutic, I feel better already and all I have done is the prep work.

EDIT: ended up cooking fried green tomatoes, corn bread, boiled cabbage, corn, and herb baked chicken. And I have to add that I love my little southern belle in training–she went straight for the boiled cabbage and ate almost every bite.

“It is just the end to a long weekend.” This is what I keep telling myself. I know however, that I don’t have anywhere to go tomorrow. I am already pacing the house trying to find stuff to do, I am already getting cranky, and I feel like my skin is crawling. I hate being out of work. I love spending time with the kids, but I hate knowing I am not spending the extra time with them because it was my choice.
I knew my job was ending soon, I was just hoping to have a few extra weeks there and enough notice to find a definite position elsewhere. I have a few prospects, but nothing in stone. Hopefully something good will come of this, and hopefully it comes quickly.

Thanks Joe, I have never done one of these before so please excuse the pathetic attempt I am about to make.

Here are the rules:

1. Link to the person who tagged you (done above).

2. Post the rules on your blog (this is what you are now reading).

3. Write 6 random things about yourself (see below).

4. Tag 6 people at the end of your post and link to them (This is only a game)

5. Let each person know they have been tagged and leave a comment on their blog

6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up

1. I don’t like animals. Don’t get me wrong other peoples animals can be cute, but they smell and they leave a mess and since I have 5 kids to clean up after and take care of… I don’t like animals. (except for fish)

2. I was told when I was 15 that I would never be able to have children (boy were they wrong).

3. I have never been anywhere. I have lived my entire life in the southeastern US, and only traveled briefly to my brothers in Wyoming a couple of times. I want to travel more.

4. The one household chore I despise is putting away clothes.  I have no problems washing them, I just hate folding, hanging and putting away.

5. I am terrified of thunderstorms. I think it is a subconsious thing because my dad held me at the back door of my grandmothers house when I was 2 to watch a tornado go by.

6. I had a security blanket until I was out of highschool. I used to fold it up and put inside my pillowcase when I went to spend the night with friends. The blanket is still in the closet at my mothers house.

Ok, I don’t really have six people I know to tag so some of you may not know me but please play along anyway.

Sarah because you are funny and I always love reading what you have to say.

Drew because you are my son, and you have to do this.

Geoff because I know you hate these things and I love to pick on my hubby.

Bryan just because.
Sorry, I don’t really know of anyone else. If I think of someone I will add them later.

Yesterday was my birthday, 36th birthday to be exact, and it was awful. I guess I should go back a bit and explain my birthday curse. My birthday’s have always been bad, not all of them but a majority of them and always the ones that end in 6.

My 16th was traumatic. I had been dating this guy for several months, and in the weeks leading up to my birthday he kept telling me he had a huge surprise for me. We had a small get together planned with some of my friends, pizza and movies at my moms. We were all sitting there waiting on him to show up at 5:30. 5:30 rolled around and he didn’t show up. 6:30, and still not there. 7:00 and still no Joe. One of my friends knew his ex-girlfriend and she started making some calls. My big birthday surprise was that his girlfriend had come back, nope she wasn’t an ex she had just been away for a few months working. That’s right folks I got dumped in front of all of my friends and family on my 16th birthday.

My 26th was no better. My now ex-husband tried to throw me a surprise party, which Drew told me about before hand. We arrived at his parents house to a house full of our friends. Micah was only 6 months old at the time, and was very sick. He had a rare condition that caused him to stop growing and he would vomit uncontrollably for hours. Well, all was looking good for the party, until we walked in the door. Not 5 minutes after arriving Micah began vomitting. I spent the next 6 1/2 hours sitting in the back room on a quilt surrounded by towels and covered in puke while my party went on without me.

That brings us to this year. All in all the day was looking good. I had been sick all week but was finally feeling better. I had appointment at lunch for a facial and a make-over. The boys were with us that night, and all seemed right with the world. Geoff had ordered me a workout series on dvd that I wanted. I was happy. I was waiting for the bomb to drop though, it always does. Then at 3:00, right before time for me to get off of work, the boss calls me into his office to inform me that I was being let go. Thats right I was fired on my birthday. I started doing some snooping before I left and discovered that my boss and his son had been snooping on my computer and found my blog. They read the stuff I had previously written about work. Now it may just be a big coinky dink that he decided to fire me on the first day that I was back at work, but I think not. So anyway, another fine birthday for me.

Now like I said it’s not every birthday, and it’s not just the ones ending in 6 either. One year we went out to a nice expensive dinner and I got food poisoning, ooops make that twice that this happened. One year we went to a nice restaurant with friends, and the service was bad, the food was worse, the server actually bled in our food and had to get a replacement tray. This is a restaurant where service and food are normally wonderful, but we went on birthday… I think I am giving up my birthday, not because of the getting older stuff, but because every year on the 6’s it seems to get worse and worse and I can’t imagine what horrible thing awaits me on 46.