Daily Mind Wanders

Communication Problems In Your Relationships?

2009-04-28T15:18:00.004-05:00

Have you ever had communication problems in your relationship? I am sure that you have. We all from time to time do have this issue. As we all might agree... communication is a major role in a relationship. If one is having a difficult time in communicating, it can really stress their partner out. I guess you can say that I have been stressed out here lately. I am sure that is not entirely a surprise to those who know a bit about me. For those of you who don't know me... here is a small recap for why I might be stressed. I am a housewife with seven, yes seven kids to look after. I just had my last child 2 months ago. So I am sure I have a touch of some PPD (Postpartum Depression). When you add the seven kids and a husband that lacks communication at times, I can really get stressed out! I can be, how should I put this, a bit moody/bitchy at times. Pardon the french there, but it is the truth, LOL!

I look at things perhaps a bit differently than others. I try to make sure all kids are treated equally. I make a point of doing this. If something should arise in the household with the children, I immediately share with my husband what has transpired (in detail). For example: One time the kids came home from school in a bad mood. The decided to take it out on each other. One thing leads to another and the boys are now wrestling around and someone gets hurt. Oh wait, this happens weekly, LOL! Anyways, whatever punishments or talks that I have with the kids I discuss what they said and what I said to keep him informed. I pretty much give a blow by blow on all accounts of what has happened.

Now here is where the communication part breaks down. I get so darn irritated. My husband will have a conversation with one of the kids. He takes them to their room or our room and has a long discussion. Once he comes out he says absolutely nothing to me or all he says is that he had a long talk with that child. I have to really pry some information from him as to what was said in the conversation. Still, what do I get? I get well basically it was about this XYZ. That's it. He either has forgotten what all was said or he has to think about it to get is thoughts straight. By the time he is done thinking about it... nothing is ever said about it cause it has been to long since it happened. I try not to get mad by this. Most times I just can't help myself. Maybe I am over reacting but this is how I see it. If I can give details as to any conversations with the kids than I expect the same in return.

Maybe on some level, I see it has him hiding things from me. I wouldn't normally think this but he only has these conversations with his children from a previous marriage. If he talks to my kids that we didn't have together, he tells me everything or he tells me what they did to make him mad and have me talk to them. I just don't see this as equal treatment either. As I said before, I try to focus on keeping all the children as equals. What is done for one is done for all! So, am I being crazy and over reacting to this or am I on the mark here? Any suggestions?

Easter 2009

2009-04-13T18:15:00.014-05:00

Happy Easter everyone! I hope your Easter was as delightful as mine was. To start off with, the kids woke us up early (as usual) so they could open the goodies. Most of the children are old enough that they don't believe in the Easter Bunny. For those children, we don't like to let them feel left out so we home make a special basket for each of those.

Examples of what the older kids got this year. It may not be the same quantity of things, but it does have the same money value. The kids understand that we spend the same amount on each. The Easter basket for the little ones were $20.00. So that is what we spent on all the kids.

This picture is of the girls baskets. The oldest girl (15) is Lexi and we decided to get her a purse as her basket with an Easter bunny stuffed animal. Of course they each got 20 eggs filled with candy as well as other loose candy. Krista (2) and Chelsea (11) got pre-made Easter basket.

This picture are the boys baskets. We got them each a basket and filled it with the 20 eggs with candy as well as the extra candy. The oldest boy (almost 13), Devin got the football that he wanted. The other 2 boys who play baseball shared there gift. Connor (11) and Zack (10) got a pitch/throw back net. I didn't get the newborn, Bhradain (2 months) a basket cause he can't eat the candy.

Here are the 3 boys after seeing what they got.

And here are the girls looking at what they got.

Day Surgery

2009-03-30T22:24:00.002-05:00

Tomorrow morning I will be having day surgery. Just wanted to let everyone know because I more than likely won't be available to write here. Between the recovery and the kids I may be a bit busy. LOL! It's a simple procedure that I am having done. It's just a tubal ligation. After having a family of 7 children, don't need any more, lmao! I should be back on my feet in no time at all, Wish me luck! Until we meet again next time.

Children's Safety!

2009-03-25T14:08:00.005-05:00

As most of you have read in my bio, I have 7 beautiful children. I was a single mom for nine years. Within that nine years... I had my son Zackerie (now age 10), my niece Chelsea from the age of 5 (now age 11), and finally my daughter Krista (now age 2). For the last year and a half, I have been with my husband, Kevin and his three children. They are as follows... my step-daughter Lexi (age 15), and my two step-sons Devin (age 12) and Connor (age 11). Now we have our seventh child Bhradain (now 6 weeks old). This is my family!

With having this many children, how do I keep them safe while they surf the Internet or send text messages on their phones? This is a difficult and very time consuming task. It has taking some time to get the kinks worked out, but I think I have finally figured it out. The main important thing is to have rules. With these rules must come follow through.By follow through, I mean if they don't abide by the rules, there has to be consequences.

Let's take the phone issue first. The rules for their personal cell phones are as follows.

1. A privilege must be earned. Each child with a phone has a simple chore to attend to daily.
Examples:
Lexi cleans kitchen every morning. It may seem like a big chore but it really isn't. Every person in the home is required to clean up after themselves this includes in the kitchen. So basically all she does is sweep the floor, load dishwasher with dishes already rinsed, clean counters, and put dishes in dishwasher away. Takes about 10 minutes tops.
Devin has to straighten up both living rooms. All this consist of is picking up the 2 year old toys. He also has to clean around the bird cage daily. Again, all this takes about 10 minutes tops.

2. Chores are to be done before the phones are allowed to be used for that day. No chores done then no phone given... trust me this works for the teenagers. All they want is to be on the phone with a boyfriend or girlfriend.

3. Phones are subject to spot checks at any given time. This is to look for unknown phone numbers or inappropriate text messages. Trust me when I say inappropriate material comes across the phone. Kids these days are way more advanced then when we were growing up. It may not be your child doing the inappropriate texting but it let's you know who is and who to look out for.

4. All phones are to be turned in and off at 9PM on school nights and 10PM on weekends. NO EXCEPTIONS!!!. Children or even teenagers have no reason to be on the phone all hours of the night.

5. Make sure you can view the bill to see if anything is being deleted, how long they are talking, how many text messages are going on, etc... Remember back when you were a kid and you deleted this message or that phone number because you were not allowed to talk to a certain person. Teenagers think they are smarter than we are, just as we thought we were at that age. Never put anything past them.

With that being said... I am not saying hound them daily and act like you don't trust them. Just do it randomly to keep your mind at ease. After all without trust you will have no relationship with your teen. It is a fine line between the two (trust and distrust). I make sure that when I do these random checks that I make it clear to the kids that it is NOT about trust... it's about keeping them safe.

The rules for them surfing the Internet are as follows.

1. NO ONE uses the Internet if an adult is not present or awake. If we are going to bed at night then the computers are taken away and turned off. If we have to run to the store, the same applies.

2. Nothing is allowed to be downloaded without prior approval.

3. If an online game is being played that has chat capability... all chat options are off. They are there to play the game only and not make friends.

4. Social networks are examined very closely. Things such as Myspace, Facebook, ect... I only allow them to have a Myspace page. If it were up to me completely... they wouldn't even have that. Since I can't always get my way... I have Myspace rules that are as follows:

I have the password and login information. This way I can view it at any given time.

They can only befriend people that they actually know in real life. Not friends of friends. Not strangers that try to request being added. For the younger ones that is family only.

They are to make their pages private so this way someone has to know them to view any information on them.

The personal information is very minimal. Friends already know your personal information so there is no point in putting it out there.

5. There is no computer at all on school nights unless it is for homework ONLY!

These are some things that I do to try and keep my children safe from bad influences, Internet predators, or just anything or anyone that might cause them harm. I am a busy person keeping track of all these kids. But at the end of the day, I feel like I am doing my best to take care of these children. I try my best to keep them out of harms way. Perhaps, I have given you some rules to implement with your own children. Hope this has helped.

Back Up and Running!

2009-03-23T03:37:00.003-05:00

That wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I think I have it the way I want it now! Hope you enjoy the new look. I think it looks better, but then again... what do I know? LOL! If you want let me know what you think! Now, I just have to find a better template for my other blog! Thanks :P

Temporarily out of service!!

2009-03-23T02:30:00.000-05:00

I am in the process of reorganizing this blog.... as well as changing the template. Please if you are following me.... and for some reason I loose you, please come back. I think it will be a lot easier to see once I have completed the change over. I have been working on this all day! Thanks in advance for your patience.

Twitter

2009-03-21T17:31:00.002-05:00

I just joined twitter! I keep reading how it has helped a lot of people get some traffic to ones blogs or sites. I'm still not all that convinced that this works. However, any traffic is better than none. I haven't seen much progress as of yet. I didn't include this blog on there, except for the fact that I think I mentioned it once. My main site is Syndi N Poker. This is the site that I am most passionate about. I think I finally got it the way that I want it. Now I just need the traffic and the links.

However, I try to dedicate my time to ALL my blogs. I am looking into a new template for this one as well as another one. I also think this one can use some more organizing and make it a bit cleaner looking.

Anyways, to get back on track.... Twitter. If any one has any ideas or thoughts about it, that's great. I would love to hear anything you have to say on this subject. I see that some people on twitter have thousands of followers and only been on for a short period of time. Does any one how that is possible? Well, I guess I will just have to see how this whole Twitter thing works out!

A new razor!

2009-03-18T14:59:00.003-05:00

I have found a new razor to start using. It is called The Quattro by Schick. Well, actually my husband found it. For years now, I have always used the same razor. I have always used the Venus Vibrance by Gillette. I am very picky about the razors or even the shaving cream that I use due to my extremely sensitive skin.

Since I have very sensitive skin, I have to be very careful with the razors that I use. I can't do anything other than shave. Waxing, or the use of Neet or Nair...you can just forget it. i would break out so bad it's not even funny. So I need to have a razor that wouldn't break me out and can give me a smooth shave. So when my husband brought home this new razor, I was a bit hesitant to use it. I asked him why he didn't just get me the cartridges for my razor? He explained that the store didn't have any cartridges, so he thought that the new disposable razor would be ok. Now, I am really hesitant because it is disposable.

Well, I used it today. I really didn't have a choice. My hair grows very fast and I can end up looking as hairy as a monkey before you know it. LOL! Low and behold.... I LIKED IT! So for anyone who might need a disposable razor in a pinch, even if you have sensitive skin... I certainly do recommend The Quattro. In case you are wondering.... No I am not being paid to talk about any of these products. I just thought I would share this because I know how hard it is to find a decent razor for that sensitive skin. :)

Learning Disability

2009-03-17T18:55:00.004-05:00

One of my children has been diagnosed with have a slight learning disability. Now, in case I hadn't mentioned it before... Chelsea (age 11) is actually my niece but she still calls me mommy. I gained custody of her when she was 5 years of age. She has had some serious struggles in her short lived life. She was removed from her mothers care due to neglect. This is when I stepped in to gain custody of her so she wouldn't be award to the state (CPS care) permanently. She was in CPS (Child Protective Services) care for a year at the time I stepped in.

At the age of 5 she still had issues with using the restroom on herself. This included both #1 and #2. After a few years of struggling with her to correct this issue... she finally stopped doing the #2. To this day she still does #1 on herself from time to time or in her bed. Chelsea also has had a lot of struggling when it came to her school work.

I had to retain her in the 1st grade due to the lack of basic skill knowledge. Being bounced around her kindergarten and first grade years had left some holes in her learning. This was due to her being in different school districts that were at different levels of learning. Some were more advanced than others. So keeping her back really helped. For starters, she gained a lot of confidence in herself when she had done well the second time around. It also gave her those basics she missed out on from the first time around.

She proceeded to do good in the second grade. She still had some struggles but she got through them. In the third grade I started to see some MORE struggles, but she was still passing. We gave her some tutoring and she passed. The fourth grade comes up and she is no longer passing. Her struggles have become even worse. At the beginning of the fourth grade I asked to have her tested for a learning disability. Apparently, they changed the regulations for the testing process. Now they have to try to do all these things in the classroom to help the kids out. They make accommodations for the classroom work, give extra one on one learning, tutoring, etc... They never got around to doing the testing on her. I kept asking and they kept giving me excuses.

Now here she is in the fifth grade this year. The district rezoned us to a new school that was just built. So the first day of meet and greet with the teachers... I had a LONG discussion with the teachers and counselors to try and get her some testing done. Finally, just before spring break... the results came in and YES she does have a learning disability. What they say her issues are with are as follows:

1. Chelsea has a normative weakness in Fluid Reasoning. What does this mean? Well, they tell me that basically she has a hard time with Math activities. For example, figuring out how to set up math problems by using information in a word problem. She can't decide what equation to use to solve it. If you tell her the equation than she can solve it.

2. She has difficulty with long-term retrieval, which affects her ability to store information in long term memory and to retrieve it later fluently through association. It includes the recall of a previously learned unrelated pair of items when the other part is presented. Long-term retrieval is an ability particularly important to math. For example, students with deficits in long-term retrieval may have difficulty recalling basic addition, subtraction, and/or division facts when encountered within a math problem.

I guess it is obvious that she has issues with math. Now that we finally got the testing done and actually have her diagnosis, we can now work to help her improve in her weaknesses. I always thought there might be a problem with her learning capabilities. Now, at least we know. Here's to giving her the education that she needs!

Help they have taken over... Damn Nats/Fruit Flies!

2009-03-15T03:36:00.004-05:00

Help they have taken over the entire house!!!! This is a first time for me. I have NEVER had this issue before. The damn (pardon my french) Nat's or fruit flies (whatever they are called) literally have moved in and are about to kick me out.

I have searched and searched to find the source of these pesty creatures. I keep a very clean house... so it is not because of filth. I don't keep fruit out on the counters. I don't have any live plants. Mainly cause I would kill them, lol. I had absolutely no idea where these darn things were coming from. So I just decided (against doctors orders) to get down on my hands and knees and scrub EVERYTHING in the entire house. I scrubbed the floors, counter/drawer fronts, doors, baseboards, toilets, sinks, tubs, etc... I then poured bleach down the drains just in case they were hiding out in there. This all took an entire weekend. Mind you I just had a new baby!

Guess what was the end result to my hard days of work? Well, to be nice about it, it helped the issue for a short period of time. Then it was time to eat. Here these damn things are. Flying around while I am trying to eat. I was not a happy camper. Where in the hell are these things coming from and why are they not going away?

Kevin decides to clean out the bird cage and guess what he found? A small piece of rotten apple buried in the corner underneath the litter (that's what I call it). This was last weekend when we found the possible source of my misery. Kevin went and got some fly paper. I figured this will help get rid of the ones that are still just lingering around. It helped a lot because we hung it near the bird cage. OK here I think I have this Nat thing solved. WRONG!

What is attracting these buggers now? I looked online to see what I was missing here. They for some reason are still accumulating in the kitchen. I am so freakin frustrated at this time... I am ready to move, lol. Here it is now Wednesday. We have poker night and the neighbors come over. My friend Nancy, commented on the pretty flowers that Kevin had gotten me for our anniversary. She was amazed at how long they had lasted. Our anniversary was on the 3rd. That's when Kevin said, "I wonder if that is hat is attracting the Nat's?" I was like no I don't think so because it said on the Internet that they can come from the soil in plants. The flowers are just in a vase with some water. Well apparently they liked the flowers since they were here anyway.

So, I had to throw away my beautiful flowers : ( and hope that would help. I got rid of the flowers. I scrubbed EVERYTHING down again today errr uhhh Saturday, lol. Didn't finish until about 3am this lovely Sunday morning. I also rearranged both living rooms. As of now... I don't have any of them bothering me. We will see what this lovely Sunday will bring for me. Will it be bliss or will I simply just be pissed? Let's hope for the best shall we, LOL?

Loosing Friends!

2009-03-13T11:34:00.004-05:00

We have lived here in Round Rock for almost 2 years now. For that2 years our family has become very close to the Burg family that lives across the street. This week we have gotten some bad news. They have decided to move back to Florida : ( to be closer to the rest of their family. They have become an extension to our family so they will deeply be missed.

This will be very hard on my 2 year old as well. Everyday she wakes up and ask me to take her over to the Burg house. She just simply LOVES Nancy (the wife/my closest friend). Nancy is insisting that Krista (2 yr old) will be leaving with her. LOL!

I myself will be affected as well. I am kinda a shy person so, I don't make friends very easily. Not to mention that I am VERY picky about the friends I do have. I don't mean to sound like a snob, because I really am not. People tend to disappointment. Either they lie about everything and anything or the just act fake. Not sure if that makes sense or not. Anyways, I tend to be a very blunt and honest person with a low tolerance to deceitful people. So yes, it's hard to find someone who is just like me. Nancy, she is just like me. I will miss her dearly!

C-Section or Vaginal Delivery?

2009-03-12T14:16:00.004-05:00

Which would you prefer a C-Section or a Vaginal delivery? As of my last child delivered on Feb 10th of this year, I have had both. There are some pros and cons to both of them. I think at this point... I would much rather have a vaginal. For the first days after the C-Section I thought that was the way to go... nope, I changed my mind on that one.

I thought it was cool to schedule ahead for the delivery. All you had to do was go in and the doctor did all the work. Awesome! The pain wasn't to bad. I could tolerate it for the most part. Or so I thought. The pain wasn't really that bad... it just lasts forever!!!! As of today, I still have some tender spots.

Now when I had the vaginal delivery... that of course is a different experience in itself. Sure you have to do all the work and possibly end up in hours of pushing, but the pain doesn't last nearly as long. I think you are up and moving around faster with the vaginal delivery as opposed to the C-Section. I definitely will take the faster recovery over the one that last forever... or so it seems! What are your thought?

2009-01-01T12:20:00.005-06:00

Christmas is Coming!

2008-12-11T13:30:00.004-06:00

Wow, it is hard to believe that Christmas is almost here already! I am such the procrastinator that I am not nearly as ready as I should be. I have six, yes six children with one more on the way so you would think I would be a bit more organized. I did manage to go on Black Friday and got a few things. But it is not nearly enough for all those I have to buy for. Most of the problem is getting the funds together to buy all those gifts. Hopefully we can get that extra expense check in to help us finish the shopping. Keep our fingers crossed! I love this time of year and yet I also dread this time of year. Does that make any sense, lol?

Hope things are going more smoothly for you than they are for me. I really need to get it all going and together. Happy Holidays!!!

Picking your nose

2008-12-04T12:54:00.004-06:00

I see kids all the time just picking their noses. Sometimes the kids eat them and sometimes they flick them. Sure as adults we find this to be rather disgusting. Is it really all that disgusting? Let's analyze this for a moment. How many times a day do we suck back our own snot down in our throats and swallow it? I know with my bad allergies I do this a lot. It seems that all day long I am having to clear my throat from snot being sucked down into it. Therefore, is it really all that different than eating your boogers? It is really gross when you think about it, but it seems to be the same thing, lol! Don't ask me why, but this topic just popped into my head.

Pregnancy Problems

2008-11-13T13:37:00.001-06:00

Here I go again. I am pregnant and have some problems. This time around must be the biggest I have gotten out of all my pregnancies. I can hardly sit up for 5 minutes. After the 5 minutes, I start to have very uncomfortable pains that go across the top of my big belly from one side to the other. I can't sleep at night due to being so uncomfortable. I definitely toss and turn all night long. Is this normal? Hell, I still have 3 more months to go! I already feel like I'm gonna pop at any time time now. I get short of breathe laying on my back. Pains if I lay on my left. Barely comfortable on my right side. What am I to do? Feeling frustrated at this time.

Little League Baseball Line-Up

2008-11-12T10:32:00.003-06:00

I read an interesting article about batting positions of little league baseball players. I couldn’t agree with this coach more! Here is the article that I found...Making a line-up. I hope you enjoy this.

This was my comment I left to him that follows:
My son started playing little league baseball this past season. Whereas, I liked the couch he had… I didn’t always agree with the batting order that he placed my son along with a few other boys on the team. I know you are probably thinking I’m just giving my son more credit than what he deserves (being his mom and all and this being his first season. But really I’m not. The coach had him batting second to last. I think he might have been using the order as; his good hitters every 4th at bat. I have attended all practices and seen how the entire team bats as well as plays out field. My son can really out hit most the other players. He wasn’t the best, but was damn good. He would only get to bat once maybe twice a game due to time of the game. I think we could have won more runs if he used your method and moved my son up. He did in the finals move him up to 4th position but by then it was to late. At the end of season 3 of the 4 coaches wants my son on their next season team. He really is good, lol!

Family photos

2008-11-07T14:58:00.003-06:00

Dev, Bryce, Zack, Cole, Lexi, Kara, and on bottom Morgan

Chelsea, Me, Kevin, Zack, and holding baby girl Krista

Little League Baseball

2008-11-04T19:56:00.004-06:00

Well, this last weekend... Zack had his tournament for his little league baseball team. I am proud to announce that his team, the Red Soxs came in 2nd in the tourney. It was a close struggle. In the semi-finals... we were down by six in the final inning. At the age 10 group they only allow 6 runs per inning. So, this was a do or die inning for us to make it to the finals. We did end up scoring the 6 runs to tie it (nearly giving myself and Kevin a heartache). We thought we were out for sure. Zack came up to us and said, " I just have a feeling that are going to win". Sure enough, they did. It was a very exciting time for us.

In the finals we lost by only one point. It was the closest we came to winning againt the undefeated team, the Yankees. All in all in a victory for us all the way around. At the end of the game, Zack's 3 of the 4 coaches praised him for the wonderful plays that he made. Since he will be 11 at the next season he will have to move up to a new league. Three of the four coaches are forming new teams in this new league and they all want him on thier teams. Seeing how this was his first season to ever play baseball and he has done so well, I have never been so proud of Zackerie. He is growing so fast and makes me prouder every day! Kudos "Zack Attack"!!!

Quit Smoking!

2008-05-06T12:08:00.003-05:00

Well here I am on day two of my "quit Smoking" regimen. Yesterday was very hard (day 1). The reading that accompanied the patch that I am using is very helpful. It showed me that there are certain "triggers" that makes me want to smoke. Things like... as soon as I wake up, as soon as I get in a car, once I have finished eating, etc... Well my sweet fiance decided that he wanted to test just about all my triggers on day one. He took me out for dinner. So, I had to get in the car, eat, asked if I wanted to drink, wanted to take me to play pool, and watch a movie. Needless to say we only went to dinner. I think I need to take baby steps. I took a walk last night once we got back to just relax and take my mind off the smoking. It says that it is supposed to help. I guess it kinda did. It also gives me some alone time with my fiance that we don't get that often due to having 6 kids around. I think I am off to a good start.

Today, has been a bit more difficult. I am tired a lot and just want to sleep. So I am preoccupying my mind with laundry and the computer. It is helping for the most part. Let's see what tomorrow will bring...

Bankruptcy! Chapter 7 or Chapter 13?

2008-05-01T13:52:00.003-05:00

Bankruptcy!!!! What is the best way to go? Do you file for it or not? This is truly a hard decision to make. I worked very hard all my life. I did the best that I could. I finally got my credit score to an appropriate rating (compared to what it had always been). I could live with it. I was finally making it to where credit was extended to me almost anywhere. Then due to some unforeseen circumstances… I had to stop working. Now I am still not working and deeper into debit. What should I do? There is no way that I can repay any of the debits I’ve accumulated in a reasonable amount of time. My phone is constantly ringing with bill collectors. How does one rectify this situation? Then how do I decide if I need to File a Chapter 7 or Chapter 13? This is all so confusing! What should be done? I will do some research on this subject and get back with you.

Mood Swings! Bi-Polar, Manic Deression, or Hormones?

2007-12-12T13:38:00.003-06:00

Mood Swings! Is it Bi-Polar, Manic Depression, or just Hormones? Here lately, I have been having some serious mood swings. I’ve have been diagnosed with the previously mentioned problems and yet I can’t tell which one is messing with me and at what time. I am not currently taking any medication for any of the things. Honestly, I hate taking drugs of any form. Granted, there have been many changes to my life here lately. I am fairly used to change so that shouldn’t be the issue. I know that this is very difficult for my family but I don’t think they realize just how difficult this is on me! I snap at everyone due to my short tempers, low tolerance, and quickly getting irritated at everything or anything. I hate feeling like this but I just can’t seem to help myself. This is usually a bad time of year for me normally. My dad passed away close to the holidays and he meant the world to me. Things really haven’t been the same since then. This is one roller coaster ride I am definitely tired of. I can usually keep my disorders under control, it just seems at times that it gets harder and harder. Well, I think I’ve bored everyone enough for today. Until next time… Have a great Holiday season!

ADD & ADHD in Kids

2007-12-09T20:53:00.001-06:00

ADHD and ADD and how it affects a child... In my own personal opinion, I think in MOST cases this is a problem that we have that is growing more and more every year. I remember back when I was a child... this wasn't even really heard of. More and more I don't think that you can find a child that isn't diagnosed with this condition. It just seems that this is an easy out for most parents. Perhaps, the child is a bit more active than most or the child is having some issues with schoolwork. The first conclusion that everyone jumps to is ADD or ADHD. People seem to use this, as they’re at home babysitter to keep their children under control. When all they probably need is more attention. I just disagree with giving medication to children unless that it is truly warranted. Don't get me wrong there are some children that really need to have the medication to function in their day-to-day activities... but the others more than likely just need to get up off their butts and go outside. Turn off all the video games and get off that computer. Enjoy the great outdoors. When I was growing up, one couldn't keep the children in the house.

I feel that medicated these children gives them a sign that we think something is wrong with them. This in turns turns their mindsets into saying.... It's OK if I do bad things because I can just blame it on the condition. I have a 10-year-old niece for whom I have legal custody over. I didn't always have custody. Prior to coming to me she was with her parents until the age of 5 and then she went into the system (CPS) and then came to me at the age of 6. By the time she reached me, I was shocked to see the number of medications they had put this little child on. She was not only taking the ADD medication but she also was on anti-depressants, anti-psychotic, something for wetting the bed, and a few others. It's no wonder the child was acting out (as the system would say). She was so drugged she didn't know what to do. Needless to say she is no longer on any medication for anything at all. I slowly winged her off those medications and she hasn't needed them since. This makes me wonder???? In the governments eyes do they just need to drug all the children in the system so that the foster parents don't have to pay any attention to them? My niece apparently didn't need the medication. However, since she had been on this medication she will try and convince me that she needs to be back on it just to keep from getting into trouble. She found that she got more attention being on the medication than being off. More doctor trips, teacher conferences, and things like that. She doesn't really do that anymore, but n the rare occasion when she wants more attention. That is an easy fix... I just give her the attention as opposed to the medication.

So in conclusion, I feel that most children are being medicated and giving an excuse for their poor behave. We as parents should just say no and work with our children's shortcomings and help them to improve to better people so they can live a normal adult life. Teach them that there are consequences to our actions. Remember when you were a child. If you were bad didn’t you just know what was going to follow if you got caught? Well, I certainly did. I think it makes the children become stronger and better adults/parents when they grow up.

Attitude

2007-11-23T21:33:00.001-06:00

I been wondering something here lately... do all kids get to certain age to where they have nothing but ATTITUDE coming out of their mouth? My son, Zackerie just turned 9 in July. More and more here lately all I get from him is pure attitude. I just don't understand it. He was always a well behaved child that always wanted to help and was always very polite. Now, all he wants to do is argue, talk back, and throw fits. I ask him to come to me when he throws his tantrums and he takes off running.

Perhaps it is that now a days, parents are more reserved with punishments for the children. They had out punishments such as time out, grounding to the room, or maybe taking a video game away (or whatever the kids enjoy doing). I remember when I was growing up that we would get a butt spanking if we misbehaved. I don't know about you, but I was scared to back talk my parents. Not to say I would get beat to death or anything. Just that perhaps there was more respect for the parents back then. My parents had a certain look they would give us kids if we misbehaved and we knew to stop whatever it was that we were doing.

I have to admit that I don't spank my kids as much as I probably should. I also let them get away with more than I used to get away with. I know a majority of this kind of behavior has a lot to do with me letting them get away with things at times and not at others. I'm sure that's very confusing for the child. I know they have to test me and see if that day is one of those days they can get away with the bad behavior. Maybe that's the difference between single moms? As a single mom (at least for me) I can get hmmmm what's the word... Oh yeah... LAZY. That has to deal with working all day then coming home and just being to tired to argue. I would have to do homework, dinner, baths, get them ready for school the next day, and so on and so on. Also, I'm sure that not being with them as much as I would like to I would feel a bit guilty and want to give them whatever it is they are wanting at that time.

Now that I am staying home with them full time it's a bit different. They just seem to get under my skin more, lol. I see the bad behavior more and more. That's the confusing part for me. I guess it is a big adjust for all of us. Hopefully, time will fix everything and we will get back to where we once were... positive attitudes, better behaved, and no more fits, lol. Well, this is my ramblings for the day.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2007-11-22T21:54:00.001-06:00

Just wanted to tell everyone... Happy Thanksgiving!!!! I hope your say was pleasant and full of thanks. I know mine was. God Bless you all!

Video Games

2007-11-21T21:38:00.001-06:00

Here lately, my son has been wanting to trade in his video games that he no longer uses for new games. We have this store here in Texas called Gamestop. They buy, sell, or trade video games. One can also buy used games as a very reasonable price. I have gone to this store for years to purchase my son's games. Now, he wants to start trading in his old games. Well this past weekend, I let him do it. He traded like 5 games and only came home with one. The thing is that the 1 game he got really wasn't all that new of a game and was used. This is kinda upsetting to me. I spent a lot of money on those old games for him to turn around and basically give them away.

Today, he decides he wants to do this again. I understand that he might not play the older games anymore and that he wants more current games. Well, with Christmas coming up and money being tight... I am reluctant to let him do this again. Am I just over reacting here or what? This is just something that has been coming up with him and wanted to vent my thoughts. he just keeps bugging me to take him back to the Gamestop near our house. Man, he is driving me CRAZY!

Get Paid to Take Surveys?

2007-11-07T08:39:00.001-06:00

Sorry that it has been awhile since I made an entry. I have been on a search of trying to find ways of making money online or work from home. Since I am home all day… I figure maybe there is a way to make some money from home. Well, thus far… this is what I have come up with.

I’ve tried so many different types of “GET PAID TO TAKE SURVEYS”. Mostly of what I have come up with is that my email has now been bombarded with junk mail. Most of the sites think that surveys consist of looking at ads and making you pick one of them to get paid. All of the ads have catches with them as well. You have to either sign up for subscriptions or give a credit card number and pay a low fee for the services. What is the point of trying to get paid for a survey if you end up having to spend money in order to get paid?

Then there are some sites that REQUIRE you to sign up for other “get paid for surveys” sites just to start taking their surveys. Not mention having your email getting 100-300 emails a day. It has been taking me hours to filter through the mess to actually find a legitimate survey to take. Then for the most part, the real surveys end up just giving you points (a minimal amount at that) that goes towards online purchases that you can make at a later date.

Needless to say, this has been a very trying and difficult time. I haven’t been very successful in finding a legitimate way of earning money online. My search will continue. If you have any thoughts or any success with this task… please feel free to help me out.

Happy Halloween!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2007-10-31T21:15:00.001-05:00

Just wanted to tell everyone Happy Halloween!!! We took some pictures of our tricker treaters. Those will be posted soon. Hope everyone had a safe and wonderful holiday! Don't forget to enter to win the picture contest.... Can't wait to see how it turns out. Good Luck to everyone!

Making Friends

2007-10-27T19:39:00.001-05:00

Since we just recently moved to a new place... we really don't know many people. It is hardest for the kids I think. From the looks of things, the kids are adapting very well. We have only been here about a week now. My son, Zackerie, has already made several friends. He is actually already on his 2nd sleep over. So far, he has been invited over for dinner and a movie with one friend and to a football practice with another. Last night he stayed over at the neighbor’s house and tonight he has the same neighbor staying here. He is just so outgoing! I am truly lucky that he makes friends easily. Of course, he has his sister, Chelsea, not far behind him. She has a new best friend at school and another friend down the street. Unfortunately, we don't have that many girls on our street... mostly boys! At least she likes to play with the boys as well. She wanted to spend the night with Zackerie and our neighbor, but I didn't let her because it was all boys. Never can be too careful if you know what I mean.

Now I, myself, don't really make friends that easily. Most would call me just be picky or even just a bit shy. I'm really not sure what the TRUE reason would be. Perhaps it is a bit of both. I take my friendships very seriously! I have had the same best friend for the past 11 or so years. She is the one and only friend that I could TRULY rely on. She has been like a sister to me. I love her very much and I hope that she knows that. I hated to have to leave her. Our children grew up together thus far. We would see each other every week for the longest and about 1 year ago... we kind of got off track. I didn't get to see her and her family nearly as often. It would actually be months between visits. She had things going on as well as I did. I am now about 3 hours away from her instead of 1 hour. I really miss her and my boys. I just hope that we don't loose touch like I did with my previous best friend from high school. At least for me... it is just to darn hard to find another person as wonderful as she is!!!!

So this is for her... Stay in touch and never forget us!!! We all love and miss you greatly Trista!!! Make sure to tell the boys the same! :P

Kids Picture Contest

2007-10-23T16:05:00.002-05:00

Send me your cute little ones pictures. I will post all entries received. Voting will take place on November 30, 2007. I will do my best to get all entries posted in a timely manner. If you feel like including a story that would be great too. Please notate if you want your story published. Submit all pictures to the following e-mail... kids contest .

IF YOU HAVE A BABY PICTURE TO SUBMIT... PLEASE SEE MY OTHER BLOG! You can click the link from this page under My Other Blogs.

Kids and their attitudes!!!!

2007-10-20T20:41:00.002-05:00

As I stated previously, I have a 9-year-old son. His name is Zackerie. Here lately he has had a HUGE attitude problem. I am not sure if this is just a phase or perhaps from the changes we have had in the last year. He has been through a lot in this last year. We have had to move several times. That means a lot of school changes as well. He NEVER used to talk back or get any kind of attitude with me. He was always my sweet baby boy who did whatever I told him to and was very happy about it. Now, all I get are tantrums and back talk. Really makes me want to beat him. Of course I don't but that doesn't mean I haven't wanted to. LOL! I am sure we all have felt this way at some point and time. So can someone please help me out???? Is this a phase or just him being temperamental cause of the changes? Any and all suggestions are welcomed. Feel free to take the survey and let me know what you think.

The move is over

2007-10-17T22:11:00.002-05:00

I finally got all moved. I'm glad that part is over with. They finally hooked up the Internet again today...so I'M BACK! Hope you missed me. All there is left to do now is the rest of the unpacking. It can be fun and yet exhausting at the same time.

The fun part is... setting up a new home, getting to finally go through those things that one as put off, and of course the decorating (gets the creative mind just going). I think I love the decorating part the most. I will arrange and then rearrange things so many times just to make sure that it's perfect. I'm kind of a perfectionist, or at least that's what I am told! LOL! It tends to get on some peoples nerves but I can't control it. There is feng-shui and there is my feng-shui. With mine, it doesn't really need to be facing a certain direction or anything like that. It has to be more... well let's use the word, EVEN! I don't mean even as in the yin and yang either. More like it has to be even on each side, things HAVE to be centered...if that makes any sense to you. There has to be a certain balance and flow to the room and of course has to look just right. I find myself walking in and out of a room several times just to make sure it looks exactly how I want it to. Next thing I know, I am thinking of all the new things that I can buy to make the room even more appealing. This would be where the creativeness comes from. Making these additions to the rooms with the minimal amount of money. Us being single parents know how tight the pocketbooks can get, lol! Well, I am off to go to bed now. This is where the exhausting part comes in. I've been at it all day and now I just need to relax the brain.

A woman, a mom, a lover..: She's on the move..

2007-10-11T00:03:00.001-05:00

A woman, a mom, a lover..: She's on the move..

I liked this post... I thought I would share it

Move Approaching

2007-10-10T19:16:00.001-05:00

We finally found a house and are getting ready to move. YAH!!!!! I am so excited that I can't wait. Now, I have to deal with the packing.... YUCK! Oh what a joy it is to have to pack again. LOL. It is extremely hard to try to pack with 6 kids running around the house constantly. I have my baby girl all day and the older kids start coming in at around 3:30. Then it is pure chaos in the house. I got homework to keep busy right up until it's time to start dinner. After dinner then we start the nighttime routine.... baths and all that good stuff. I don't get a chance to sit a breath until around 10pm. By this time, I am so tired it is hard to motivate myself to pack some more. It's been awhile since I had to pack up with a little one around. If you have babies, then u know that at 9 almost 10 months old.... get into EVERYTHING. LOL! You also know that everything goes directly to their mouths. I spend most of my day trying to keep her from putting things in her mouth as opposed to packing. This can be very frustrating. Low and Behold... I have back up coming to my rescue. My loving boyfriend will be here on Friday. YIPEE! I'm hoping we can get it all done this weekend and ready for the movers on Monday. Those moving companies make a killing. Hmmmm, perhaps I should start up my own??? Nah... Not into moving my own stuff, much less someone else's. I might not post as much until after the move. So, please be a bit patient with me and I'll be back real soon.

Insurance today

2007-10-08T19:03:00.002-05:00

Today I have chosen to talk about Medical insurance. I have a sister who was no so long ago, told that she had cancer. She didn’t have insurance at the time or this was a HUGE concern for her. She is raising 4 children and trying to deal with all that comes with this very sad news. The government does have medical insurance available, but it is a long and tedious process to try and get accepted. The government only provides for children under the age of 18. The only time they will cover an adult is if the adult is pregnant. They do however; have certain circumstances where one can be approved if it is a medical necessity. Now, trying to prove that is where the real troubles come in. Meanwhile she had to pay for all her tests and doctor visits out of her own pocket. After a VERY LONG process, she finally got approved to have her surgery done to remove the cancer. She had to have a partial hysterectomy. As soon as that was all taken care of, the government dropped the insurance.

This is where the story gets very interesting. The surgeon who did the operation made a small error and nicked her bladder. Now, here she is with a bladder that is not working properly due to a surgery that was covered by the insurance. Yet the insurance won’t pick her back up to take care of this new problem. So here she is trying to pay yet more medical bills to get this problem corrected. She still to this day, she has to continue to catherize herself just to keep her bladder from getting full and causing serious pain. She can’t hold urine in her bladder for to long because if she does then she won’t be able to go at all. She can’t take long drives due to this. This is a real inconvenience for her and her family.

I feel that the government should have covered all the follow issues from the surgery. After all, it was the surgery that caused her problems. It is so hard to find insurance that is affordable for large families. So when something of this nature comes up, the government should help out more. Not to mention that when you do have the money to pay for the minimal insurance, they do a credit check and end up charging you more money. It’s a never-ending cycle! The low-income families are just stuck in the middle. Either we have to deal with out or try to come u with more money to pay for these types of medical necessities. That’s just a shame!

Bad Doctor Experience II

2007-10-07T23:41:00.004-05:00

Well, as promised here is part II. As discussed earlier, I had a bad situation with a particular doctor. This same doctor also delivered my first child, Zackerie. Things were going well in the beginning, but soon took a change for the worst. To start off with, I had complications during the pregnancy. This is not the doctor’s fault but I’m just giving you a bit of background. I was in pre term labor starting at 4 months into the pregnancy. All, was doing great. I had medication that was keeping the contractions at bay. Then, the Tributaline wasn’t working any longer. So, I had to switch to a Tributaline Pump. This administered medicine directly into my leg so that I would have constant medicine. This helped tremendously but I also had to stay on bed rest. Now, being single and on my own, this is not an easy task to go through. I still managed to get through it. Now, it’s safe for the birth of my son. YAH!!!!!! Well at least I thought it was going to be a wonderful experience. I get to the hospital at midnight. My water had broken shortly after that. Things are going smoothly until about 7am. The doctor told me that my baby was in distress and that he might have to do a C Section to ensure the babies safety. I was OK with that. He stated that there was a bounce on the monitor. I had no idea what was going on. Apparently that means distress. They got the OR ready and waiting on the doctors word. Then 8am, 9am, 10am... nothing is still being done. I am wondering what is going on. The doctor hadn’t been back to the room since 7 am. If my child is in distress why isn’t he here or better yet why isn’t he taking me to the OR? The only person that I have by my side is my very best friend. She was trying to find out what was going on. Still no answers! Finally, at about noon the doctor comes back and says… DAMN, I hate it when this happens! I am thinking… what is wrong, what are you talking about? Apparently, I had torn from top to bottom very severely and the baby was already crowning. I was unaware do to the epidural, Trust me, I felt it later. LOL! So, he quickly is gathering people in the room. I had more doctors and nurses in that room than the emergency room had, I’m sure of it. There was nowhere to stand with all the healthcare professionals in the room. My best friend was going to videotape this blissful day for me. Due to all the complications, they wouldn’t allow her to. Apparently, they didn’t wasn’t any account of what is soon to transpire. They start having my push. I’m hearing things that a mother never wants to hear during a delivery. Well, I am a small-framed person. Not much to me really. They misjudged the size of the child. Well now he is stuck. The doctor waited to long to get the C Section done so I had no choice but to deliver naturally. He was already down to far. I had all these tools being used to try and pull him out. Meanwhile I have 2 very strong large nurses pushy from the top of my stomach trying to push him out from the outside and a third nurse jamming her fist into the top of my stomach. Every time I had a contraction, these nurses will do this and I am SUPPOSED to push. I had a hard time with that due to them not letting me breathe from all their pressure. This went on for hours. Finally at 4pm I was able to push him out. By this time, he wasn’t breathing. They rushed him off to the PICU. I didn’t even get to see him. Once I delivered they turned off the medicine that I was getting from my epidural, The doctor started to stitch me back up and I could feel EVERYTHING. He had a lot of stitching due to the layering and the tears. They wouldn’t give me any more medicine. I was in an extremely amount of pain. I was so swollen that I couldn’t walk for over a week. I was transferred to my room where they took my Foley catheter out, Of course you know what that means… I had to use the restroom and I couldn’t walk. This dumb nurses aide came in and said that I should be walking by now. Well, this being my first child and all, I had no idea that she was just being a lazy nurse. She helped me to the restroom and left. She didn’t give me anything to use to clean myself with just the roll of toilet paper. At that time, I didn’t know that they were supposed to supply you with a water bottle to rinse yourself with. Well, I waited and waited for the nurse to return to help me back to my bed. I waited for like 10 minutes. Since she never returned, I pulled the emergency coed button in the restroom. They yelled at me and sent nurse in. To me, that was an emergency… she left me there with no help. Once the nurse returns I asked what I was supposed to wipe with. She told me to use toilet paper. OUCH! That was rough! So I did. She helped me back to my bed. I kept asking for the status on my son. They just said the doctor would let me know. The doctor came in 2 days later and said oh he is fine. Since I had no one there at the hospital with me, I was unable to see my son. He was at the children’s hospital that was connected to my hospital. I couldn’t walk there and none of the nurses would take me. So here it is a week later and I still had yet to see my child. I was finally discharged and immediately went to see him. Since I hadn’t been in the PICU before, the doctors didn’t know that I was his mom. When I walked up to see him, I was so scared to even touch him. I had overheard a doctor on the phone talking about some head x-ray they had some on my son. I had no clue that he had an x-ray done. The doctor didn’t seem to think that I would want to know that he had fractured my child’s head while trying to deliver him. When all he should’ve done, to avoid this entire ordeal, was to give me a C Section to begin with. I think that I would much rather have a safe and health child then worry about some stupid scare from the surgery. That was the reason he gave me for holding off on it. My son was is PICU for 2 weeks. I wasn’t aloud to drive, but I did it anyway. There was no way that I was going to leave him there without his mother, I was there for the entire visiting hours and never left until they were over.

Lucky for us, he is alive and well today. His head healed up very nicely and so far there have been no complications due to the delivery. I hope that no one else has had to go through an ordeal such as this. That was the longest 3 weeks of my life.

Bad Doctor Experience

2007-10-04T23:30:00.002-05:00

Have you ever had a BAD experience with a doctor? I had a few, but there is one particular doctor that I will NEVER forget. I was very young when I started having some bad stomach cramping issues. I worked at a hospital, so I knew a few doctors that worked there. They referred me to this certain doctor… I won’t mention the doctor’s name. So I started going to this doctor. After a year or so and dozens of tests, he diagnosed me with Endometriosis. At that time, it wasn’t a very well know condition. When he did his diagnosis, he determined that I would need to have a surgery. This surgery was called a laparoscope’s. He said, “This will help with the pain and other symptoms that you are having”. The down side to this condition is that there really is no cure. The only way to fix the problem is to have a total hysterectomy. With me being so young and wanted children, I opted not to have that done (hysterectomy). After the scope surgery was complete, I did feel better. This didn’t last very long. I had 6 surgeries with in 5 years time. What the doctor forgot to mention was that with surgery… came scar tissue. I was young and didn’t know any better. I just did what he said for me to do and I did it. Within this 5 years time, I had spent so much money with the visits, tests, and surgeries that I more than likely bought him a very nice home and brand new car. Another thing that I should’ve noticed at the time, but I didn’t, was that he kept moving his office and hospitals that he worked out of. Needless to say there was more to this doctors doing than I was aware of. I found out much later that he was doing unnecessary operations and kept loosing his privileges at the hospitals from them. That’s one of the reasons that he kept moving around so much. Naturally, here I am sitting and wondering… was I one of those patients that had unnecessary tests and surgeries done???? I have another story to tell about how the delivery of my first child transpired with the same doctor. So… tune in next time for the part II of this story.

Need Extra Cash Flow?

2007-10-03T23:46:00.001-05:00

Now here is a place where single moms can really make some extra cash. eBay! I have seen all kinds of things for sale on there. They sell old things, new things, parts of things, and much more. It’s very simple to do. All you need to do is make an account with them. Then, go hunting around your house for things you may not need or use any longer. I’ve seen BABY ITEMS get outrageous payoffs. I know the little ones grow up so fast. Especially when they are babies. I know that I have clothes that my baby girl as yet to wear. Here I have brand new items, never worn and I can get twice or even three times what was paid for them on eBay. Isn’t that just the coolest thing?

So, get out those baby clothes that were never worn. Dig up those clothes that family members bought that you know will never be worn. Pull out all those old out to date gadgets that you will never use again. Then sell them for some extra cash flow. It’s real easy to do…. SO JUST DO IT!

Credit Problems?

2007-10-02T22:47:00.001-05:00

Being a single mother, I know that finances can definitely get tough! So what do MOST people do? We apply for credit. Once getting that credit we then turn around and max it out. It is inevitable. Especially being a single parent. Our children get sick, if you have any boys… they might break a bone (some girls will too), or we have to miss work (without pay), and the list goes on and on. In most cases, the credit cards get used for these types of emergencies. What should happen then? UT OH, the bill comes in! One might try to pay the minimum but it doesn’t quiet always work out as we plan. The light bill that month just so happened to be higher than usual. So what do us single moms do? Well, we pay the light bill of course! The kids have to have the electricity. That credit card bill will just have to wait a bit because being the responsible parents that we are… the necessities are ALWAYS paid first. We will just make 2 minimum payments next month. So the next month comes around. UT OH, it happened again… the new bill is here and now we have another bill or emergency we need to pay. It’s a never-ending cycle. Which brings us to BAD CREDIT! Dun Dunn Dunnnnn! Unfortunately, the way the world is set up today, if you have bad credit… there isn’t much you can do. Insurance companies run credit checks before issuing a policy. Which I might add, I find that this is really stupid. The reason being is if one has BAD credit, they charge you more. What goes through my mind at this point is…if you could pay the higher rate, wouldn’t you have better credit? Obviously you would because you would have more money to pay those debts. In turn that would make your credit GOOD. So what are we to do?

I have done a lot of looking into this. I have gone to seminars, read books, and searched the Internet. There are A LOT of scammers out there. People that will take your money and claim they can repair your credit. Maybe it will work but most instances it won’t work. If it does… you can almost guarantee it will cost you a pretty penny. Let’s think about this for a minute. Shall we? We don’t have the money to pay for the debts, but someone wants us to pay them bundles of money to repair it. Does this make sense to you? Doesn’t to me! I have had some, let’s call them, bumps in the road if you will. So many times, my credit has NOT been up to par. So what do I do, you ask? Well, that’s an excellent question. I did some research on this, so-called credit repair.

This is what I found and do on a regular basis (at least 2 times a year). I found out that all you have to do is get a copy of your credit report. You can get a free copy once per year. If you apply for credit and are denied, one can just submit that letter and receive one for free as well. After that it will cost you to receive further reports. The letters are only good for 60 days so don’t doddle with it. Send it off immediately. You also want to make sure that you get a credit report from all 3 of the major credit agencies. If you don’t know which ones those are, they are as follows: EXPERIAN, EQUIFAX, and TRANSUNION. Once you get the reports… look them over very carefully. Look for any mistakes on it. Examples would be dates, amounts, etc… Anything that would fall under the inaccurate information provided. Then you dispute them. WARNING…. VERY IMPORTANT NOTE: NEVER EVER EVER… claim that something on your credit report that is TRULY YOUR DEBT doesn’t belong to you! I can’t express that enough. That is illegal! Moving right along… after reviewing your report, make a photocopy of it and mark all the inaccurate information. Then mail the photocopy that has the errors notated on it to the coinciding agency. Send it to them CERTIFIED MAIL RETURN RECEIPT! This is also important. This starts your time line. You see, according to the law, the agency has ONLY 30 days to submit your disputes to the appropriate debt holders and give you a response as to if the debt holder has validated it to be accurate information. The burden lies on the Debt holders to respond to the agencies in a timely manner. If they don’t meet this deadline…. Then the credit agency has to remove that item from your credit report. Which in turn works out in your favor. If you repeat this cycle at least 2 times a year, then in no time at all… you are on your way to a better credit score. The best of it is that all it costs you is postage. Of course this is only one way and the short version. I still have to keep some of my secrets…. LOL!

In conclusion, you can be in charge of your credit score. One doesn’t need to pay top dollar for someone to possibly help them improve their score. One doesn’t have to sign up for those debt consolidation plans that will take you years and years to pay down. All you have to do is spend a bit of time and some postage to get a start on rebuilding your credit.

House Hunting for Love

2007-09-30T23:16:00.002-05:00

I am currently living in Houston, but my profile states Austin. Well I am making the move to Austin to be with a wonderful man. This weekend, I took that long drive up there to spend the weekend. We are going house hunting. House hunting is VERY boring and time consuming. We have been looking for some time now. I'm sure everyone at some point and time has had to look for a new place to live. This can drive one crazy! It starts out being fun and exciting. Then very quickly grows to be something we all dread. All the driving around and dealing with traffic. I HATE traffic! Then, you have those idiot drivers who want to cut you off or just stop in front of you for no reason. Then you finally get to your destination. Is it what you thought it would be? More than likely it won’t be. All of the looking and the weeding out of the bad ones is enough to give you a migraine. To me, well it's well worth it. I look forward to the move and being with my true love. I might not like the hunting part, but in the long run... the hard work will pay off. I will get to wake up everyday with the most wonderful man that I have ever met. Well, my dad was the first but he's not far behind him. Every night, I will get to go to bed with him. That’s the true excitement of it all. Being with someone that you care about and who in turn cares about you. I hope we all can find someone who is just as caring and loving of a person to share our lives with. I’m sure glad that I did!

Traveling with kids

2007-09-28T22:06:00.001-05:00

I'm sure that most have, at least once, taken a car trip with children. Either you were going to visit relatives, friends, or just have a family vacation. Today, I took a 3 hour car trip with 3 kids. The ages of the children are 9, 6, and 9 months. This was not my first long distance car ride with kids. As most will know, this is not an easy task to do when you're the only adult. The kids want to fight, scream, hit, complain, and the oh so familiar... want to know if we are there yet. Here I am trying to concentrate on the road ( the traffic is horrendous ) and kids are doing what kids do. I have my son (Zack, age 9) who yells every time something comes out of his mouth. I don't think he knows how to talk in a low tone. Hehe! We brought his cousin (Bryce, age 6) who wants to be a giggle box the entire trip. Zack apparently just cracks him up. That leaves my baby girl (Krista, age 9 months) who wants constant attention and for most of the trip just cry. She gets very uncomfortable fast being trapped in the car seat. Unfortunately, my other daughter ( Chelsea, age 10) was unable to attend due to a prior commitment. To top it all off, this morning my monthly visitor came to town full force. So I was just as uncomfortable as Krista. By the time we reached the final destination... everyone is completely exhausted, hungry, and (the most important thing) had to use the restroom. I know I was completely exhausted from so much stress! Not to mention the back pain and cramps I was having. LOL! One can definitely get on another's nerves if you put them in a car together and take a long drive. Today my mind is to tired for words of wisdom... just wanted to share.

Singles moms as roommates...

2007-09-27T11:50:00.001-05:00

Do single moms make good roommates for other single moms? Well, it has its pros as well as its cons. As I mentioned in a previous blog (Working vs Stay at Home MOM), I have had some difficult times being a single mother of 3 beautiful children. I have tried having another single mom live with me. This was on more than one occasion. So I truly have given this a gander.

Let's look at the pro side first. I would definitely have to say that having another adult person in the house helps tremendously. They are there to help out with the kids when YOU need a well-deserved break. Perhaps you could take a nap, read a book, go to the store (without packing all the little ones up), go on a date, get your hair done, or just do whatever it is to make you take time out for yourself. Trust me when I say... ALL single mothers need a break every now and then. Another pro to having another single mom would be the company. Sometimes we just need a person to talk to that REALLY understands the struggles that we face. Granted some of us might have it harder than others, but we still all have the same day-to-day battles to attend to. To mention one would be...self doubt. I'm sure we all ask ourselves the same questions. Am I being a good mother? Do I spend enough time with the kids? Am I teaching the children what they need to survive? Am I giving them the tools they need to become wonderful adults? Those are just a few. I'm sure there are more. Finally, I'm sure having someone to split the bills with REALLY helps a whole lot. LOL!

Now, lets look at the cons. From personal experiences, a big con would be COMPATIBILITY. Everyone has there own personalities. Some of which, you might not want to be put in the same room with you. There are just some people that might be cleaner than others. Some that might be lazier than others. Not to mention those who just have bad attitudes in general. I have come across certain individuals (this is not just single moms... includes all people) that no matter what happened to anyone else, their problems are always the worst compared to ANYONE else’s. Have you ever been around this type of person? You know the ones I'm talking about. The ones that have to have a pity party for them if they broke a nail. I know that's just a minor thing. Let's look at a larger scale. I have pretty much been through any bad situation you can possibly imagine. Yet I live to fight another day and I know there are people out there who are homeless, without food, and worse off than I might be at that time. But in don’t constantly complain about how my life sucks. Let me give you an example. I have never once gotten child support for my children. My children's fathers are in no way apart of their kid’s lives. But, I have this friend who has an ex husband that pays her rent every month as his child support for their children. In addition to that, he comes and does things with his kids every other weekend. I constantly hear things like.... I need more money, he should pay me more, and he never does anything for his children. Now, whining to me really doesn't do her any good but it certainly doesn't stop her. Well, that's just one example. I could ramble on forever about it. Back to where we were! Another con would have to be... privacy. It's bad enough when your a single mom and can't go to the bathroom or take a shower alone without a kid hunting you down. But when you have another family in your house, well that's even worse. Not only do you have your kids, you have their kids, and sometimes you even have them interrupting you at the most inappropriate time. Maybe, you just sat down on the commode to do your business and realize... Man, I don't have any toilet paper. Normally you would just get up with your pants around your ankles and get some more. Well its a bit more difficult with non-family members in the house. LOL! I'm sure you see where I am going with this.

In conclusion, for me.... I think that I would rather NOT live with the other family. Just give a ring to a friend on the phone if you need someone to talk to. Pack up the kids to go do your running around. At least you will have more time spent with the kidos. Finally, call on a friend to baby-sit if you need some well-deserved alone time. Just plan it ahead and you should be just fine. It's not worth ruining a friendship over by living together. Plus, I'd much rather have my own space, privacy, alone time with the kids, and my own day to day habits rather than try to make it work with another family. From past experiences.... I can get very irritated and frustrated from combining families. That really doesn't help the kids with all the tension in the household. After all.... WE LIVE FOR THEM!!!!

Working vs Stay at Home MOM

2007-09-26T10:21:00.001-05:00

Let me start with a bit of background on myself. I have worked since I was 13 years old. I did odd jobs that were easy for a child at that age. I've worked at festivals, babysitting, restaurants, country clubs and gradually worked up to part time jobs as I got older. Once I completed high school, my dad had helped to get me a great start in the medical field. He worked for a hospital as the carpenters supervisor. So with his position he knew a lot of people in most of the departments. I went through a training program to become a nursing aide. I worked there for many years. Since my start in the adult world, I had changed to different fields. Not many.... just 3. I'm not that old. LOL! I went to school and worked hard to provide for myself.

When I turned 24, I found out I was pregnant. It was the best day of my life. See, I always wanted children. Due to certain circumstances, I was going to be a single mother. I was scared and yet excited all at the same time. My first child, a son, was to be born. Here is a picture of me and him to the left (picture is from 2005). He was the joy of my life just as he still is today. He had some complications during his birth and was sick for a short period of time. But, nonetheless.... he is a fighter like his momma. Due to being a single mom, I had to return to work just as he was coming home. I missed so much of him being a baby from having to work to support the two of us. One good thing that came from it was the bond we have. Since I was his only parent... we grew very close and spent all the time we could together. Still to this day, he very rarely leaves my side. I have to admit... I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!

Moving right along to my next phase of life. When I turned 29, another addition was brought to my family. This special child was brought to me by a family member in need. Here is her picture to the right (2005) at our local zoo. You see, my older sister had come on some bad times. As we all sometimes face. So to help her out, I took over custody of her daughter who was 5 at the time. I was making average money and wanted to make sure that my niece had a stable and wonderful place to call home. So here I am.... still a single mom with 2 wonderful kids. It was a short 3 months later, that I was layed off from my job. God saw us through this tough time and we made it! I got a new job and we still did what we could to spend as much time together as possible. So far, I was still a working single mom. Doing what I could to provide for my children!

This brings me to the present time. In December 2006, my beautiful baby girl was born. Picture of her standing for the first time to the left (2007). During my pregnancy with this child, I again had come complications. I was in pre-term labor once I reached 5 months of pregnancy. This left me with no choice but to take a leave of absence from work. Well, I had just started a new job... so I wasn't going to get paid. I had no idea how I was gonna do it this time. I still was unmarried and not sure what will happen. God prevailed again!!! I got through it. We are all healthy and living to fight any battles that come our way! This time, I was not very successful in returning to work. So, I get to experience all the things I missed the first time around. It kinda drives me crazy.... just sitting here at home with the other kids in school and not working. However, I'm excited and yet blessed to have the opportunity to see all that was missed. Things like... first word, first smile, first crawl, first walk, etc... This definitely is the way to go for!

So my final thoughts on this would be.... One never really knows how much of the little things we miss when we leave our young ones. I might technically still be a single mom. But I have a wonderful man that helps to take care of me and my 3 beautiful children!!! This is truly an amazing experience!!!! What do you prefer? Stay at home and watch them grow or go to work and try to spend as much time as you can them? I realize not everyone has the choice, but wouldn't it be great if you did?

Lazy People!!!

2007-09-25T13:34:00.002-05:00

There are those that do and then there are those that watch others do. Here lately, I am noticing just how LAZY some people can be! I can't believe how some people can just sit back all day long, and not do ANYTHING!

We all have our good and bad days. Lord knows I do! Where we don't feel like doing anything at all. Some of us more than others, lol! But still, we manage to get the necessary things that are needed done. You know, the important things, like..... bathing, feeding the kids, pay attention to the kids, actually looking up to see what is going on in your own house, making sure one has clean laundry, etc... There are SOME people who can't even manage these small tasks. Not talking about the ones that have medical issues (those people at least have an excuse). I'm speaking of those people who just simply don't want to get up and get things done! For example, there are people that just sit on a computer all day and play games or surf the net, or those who veg in front of a TV all day and don't move. These people are the ones who really upset me! They end up leaving all their responsibilities to someone else or just don't get anything done. When I see these kinds of people it tends to put me in a bad mood. I get irritated and just want to slap the laziness out of them!

Do you know what happens to the ones that do? We get stuck trying to handle their issues along with our own. Especially if you have a don't person (lazy person) at work! You, the doer(not lazy), ends up taking on there work load. Most of the time, not even getting the credit for all your hard work. Meanwhile the slacker, just coasts along for the ride on your coat tail. Man they get me all worked up! This is my thought of the day.

Common Sense vs Brains

2007-09-24T15:18:00.002-05:00

Why is it that most people only have the brains and the others have the common sense? There are few people that are actually balanced in this department. I have noticed that when it comes to the ones with common sense, they are intelligent in that department..... but not really very book smart. They can weigh out the pros and the cons on any situation. Where as, the ones with the brains really only have one point of view..... their own!!!!!!!

I, myself..... am more of a common sense type of person. I try to evaluate both sides and determine if it really makes sense. There are a lot of people who are really full of shit! I can... most of the time.....see through the lies and deceit of ones bullshit!!!! I also have no tolerance for those who TRY to get by my radar!!!!!!!!!! LOL!