Happy News!

Austin had his birthday party on Sunday. I offered to drive Billy and Kimmie, so we would use my gas. They agreed that was a good idea. I am such a nice person...Especially since the party was from 11:15-1:15 and mom decided to set up a hair appointment for Kris at 1:00 and told her to leave her 4 kids at the party and I would look after them. Now I would have 2 helpers who were stuck helping me till I drove them home. Ok, I'm not really that nice, but you have to admit it was a smart thing to do.

The following is part of the conversation on the way there.
Me: My next house needs a pool.
Billy: Yes, our next house does.
(I let this comment slide)
Me: And an extended 2 garage.
Billy: A 3 car would be better.
Me: Why would I need a 3 car?
Billy: Two for your car and stuff and one for my stuff?
Me: Are you planning on moving with me?
Billy: Yes.
Me: Have you talked to Kimmie about this?
Billy: Sorta. I’m moving with you.
Me: Kimmie what do you think of moving with me.
Kimmie: I’m moving where ever Billy moves.
Me: Ok.
Billy: We need to 2 master bedrooms also.
Me: Yeah.
Billy: Even better, a pool house.
Me: Billy I can’t afford a house with a pool house.
Billy: Yeah, a pool house and I could expand it to make it bigger if we needed.
Me: Billy, I can’t afford a house with a pool house. And even if I could do you know how big the main house would be. At least 3000 sq feet. What do me and little Benjamin need with 3000 sq ft of house. No, I will not live in the pool house and give you the main house. I can’t afford a pool house.
Billy: Well, it needs 2 masters. Unless you want to give the master to us.
Me: She who signs the loan papers gets the master.
Kimmie: That’s fair.

So, that's my "happy news" (I'm still working on convincing myself of this)
Billy, Kimmie, Austin, and future baby are moving with me. Did I mention that my lease isn't up until Halloween? Well, I guess this is an improvement. I don't think I have ever know Billy to have a plan for anything so far in advance.

Now I've got to get a much better job to support this house I need. Trust me the 2023 sq ft we currently have isn't enough room. 2500 at least. I probably can't afford 3000. I can't buy more mortgage than I can make on my own and I want to put down 20% because I will never pay PMI again.

Isn't this a GREAT face

Doesn't this just make a wonderful picture. I wonder where he learned it from...

Oh yeah! This is who he learned it from. Austin wanted his picture taken this way....so of course Benjamin had to have his done also.

I've finished all my family Christmas shopping. I even got all my Adopt a Family's stuff dropped off to them on Thursday. I was completely done Christmas shopping, but then mom asked me to do some shopping for her. I ended up at the mall. That was when I ran into the Christmas Angel trees. They have over 50,000 kids registered for the Christmas Angles in Phoenix, I'm sure they won't all get presents. I decided to pick out a 2 yr old boy and a 5 yr old boy. I always do at least one angel. The last 2 years I've picked out a boy little Benjamin's age. Since I got Austin living here, I picked one out his age also. I thought about picking out one each of the grand kids ages, but I didn't really have the time to look, so I just got the two. Then I went on to another store for mom. I got the last of her shopping done and picked up a toy for each of my Angels. Then I saw a great riding toy for only $11. So, needless to say I decided to get toys age appropriate for each of the grand kids and tomorrow I'm going to get an outfit of clothes for each of the toys. Then I'll go back to the mall and drop off the presents for the 2 angels I have and pick our 4 more to match the presents I've bought. So, I'll be completely done Christmas shopping tomorrow. I'm going to try to take Mackenzie with me and little Benjamin to drop off the presents. She'll be able to help me find kids to match the presents. It will also help her understand how lucky she is. And hopefully it will stop me from picking up any more angels. I just feel so sorry for them. And not just because they aren't getting Christmas presents.

Legoland

This is little Benjamin at Legoland. It was his first ride all by himself. He's getting to be such a big boy.

It's close at work, so I'm working from home at night. I'm hoping to only have to work at night tonight and tomorrow. Working at night results in very little sleep for me. I can't start working until I get the boys to bed, usually about 8pm. So after I work for 4 or 5 hours, I only get 3 or 4 hours of sleep. I'm not as good as mom is. I need at least 5 or 6 hours to be my usually nice self. Hopefully, I will be able to get back to blogging everyday by the end of the week.

Long night

Well, Billy and Kimmie are having a girl. To celebrate I took them, Austin, Granny, and of course my boy out to dinner at Billy's favorite restaurant, Outback Steakhouse. My boy was saying he was going to throw up on the way there, but he didn't. He said he needed to throw up on the way home, but he wouldn't throw up in Mommy's car. (I think he's thrown up in daddy's and daddy got on to him.) So he falls asleep on the way home and I get him into bed. Mommy thinks she's in the clear for throw up tonight....How silly of mommy! At 9:30 he woke up coughing and crying. Uncle Bill finally talked him into taking his cough medicine, but only if he got some milk. Mommy gave him the milk. At 10 pm he gave the milk back to mommy...All over my bed and me and him and the bath tub. Poor thing is so sick. Mommy wishes it was her, and not just because I always make it to the toilet. It's so sad to see them sick and not be able to make it better. He's back asleep now, in Mommy's bed no less. I hope he doesn't get sick again tonight. I don't have anymore clean sheets.

Hopefully, he's doing better in the morning. Mommy had to leave work Monday at 1pm and today at 11 am, so calling out sick tomorrow is going to look really bad. Especially after my promotion. And I'm not sure Kimmie is as good about watching sick kids as Granny was.

Baptism

This is Benjamin on his baptism day. Granny was so excited one of her grand kids was getting baptised that she passed out and had to go to the hospital instead of seeing him baptised. But he got baptised anyways. He's mommy's little angle baby. Even when it takes him over an hour to get to sleep and he gets up 8 times to go potty. It's been a long get to sleep process tonight. At church they get a lamb with their baptism date and name on it. We get to take it home when he is 3 years old. He started Sunday School 3 weeks ago. He thinks he such a big boy getting to go to school! (But not so big that mommy has gotten to leave the classroom yet.) When he started nursery, I had to stay for almost 3 months. Oh well, I will get to go back into church some day.

Before

Big Boy Hair Cut

Well, Benjamin got his first big boy hair cut on Saturday. No more comb-over. Isn't he cute! I haven't decided if it makes him look older or younger or fatter. But it definately makes him look different.

I'm back!

Well, it's been really busy here. I moved into my new house right after we got back from Disneyland. And immediately Kimmie moved in with me. Billy and all the stuff moved in 2 weeks later. I prefer when Billy isn't home. He's a bit annoying. Ok... He's really annoying, but they don't have any place else to go and I enjoy having Kimmie and Austin around. Ok...Little Benjamin likes having Austin around. Our house is full and not near as quiet as it was with me an little Benjamin. Mom can't come over anymore cuz my house isn't quiet like it used to be. She used to come over and stay a couple of days because my house was so quiet and relaxing. Now it's so loud it makes her want to pull her hair out cuz of the noise.
I like having Kimmie around. She's very nice. Oh yeah, and she does the dishes. That is an important quality to have.
I imagine they will be living with me for a while. My lease is for a year, but I think they will move with me. Billy thought he could talk me out of the master bedroom. Well, he tried to talk me out of it. I'm not sure he actually thought he could. It has 2 walk-in closets. One is little (it is Benjamin's) and the other is as big as a spare bedroom. The master bedroom is bigger than the living room. It's a good thing it is because I lost my den (so the boys could have a play room) so all my stuff had to come into my bedroom. I have a desk, dresser, filing cabinet, book case, lazy boy, side table and my California king bed and still have plenty of walking room.
The boys love sharing a room. Benjamin's clothes are in my little closet so Austin can have his clothes in their room. I should probably put his in my little closet too since he takes his bath's in my bathroom. The boys always want to take a bath together, and Billy says Austin is big enough to take his own bath, so I always give them a bath.
I'm excited for Erin. I think she's having a boy also. Kimmie and Billy find out what they are having on the 20th. I'm taking the afternoon off work to watch the kids while they go to the dr. It sounds like I'm being really nice, doesn't it. I wouldn't want anyone to think that. I'm only doing it because it is a good excuse to leave work at lunch. I promise to blog more often now that we are settled in. Maybe I can get a picture posted this week.

Disneyland Fun!!!

Disneyland Ride

Mackenzie and Austin on a ride.....

Disneyland

Well, we leave tomorrow night to go to Disneyland. For the last 2 days little Benjamin keeps saying he wants to go to Disneyland now. He just doesn't understand not till Sunday. I know they will all have so much fun. At least they better, cuz this is all they are getting from aunt Missy for Christmas. I have us scheduled to eat breakfast on Saturday at 9:30 with Goofy. Then we are going to the beach and the hotel has a heated pool. On Sunday we are going to Disneyland and on Monday we are going to Disneyland California Adventure. The kids don't know that we are having breakfast with Goofy or that we get to go to Disneyland California Adventure. They think it just 2 days at Disneyland.
I'm hopeful that they will sleep in tomorrow. I think it is about 7-8 hours and we are leaving at 7pm, so we should get in about 2 or 3 am Saturday morning. I have to get up at 4am to go to work, so I get the pleasure of being up about 24 hours straight. So I'm hoping they will sleep till about 7 am and I can get a few hours sleep. Then we are leaving Monday. Granny says we should pack up the kids and make them leave Disneyland California Adventure at 4pm so we can get home by midnight. Oh, yeah! That will be a fun drive back with 5 kids awake and screaming that they don't want to go home yet. So aunt Missy has decided that we will have to play it by ear and see how late we can stay, and me still drive 7 or 8 hours to get us home. We've got to be home by 4am cuz that is when I have to get up to go to work on Tuesday. I'm sure I will be a highly productive employee on that day. Well, that is still better than Kris driving us home.
It's always best to start a vacation on a good nights sleep, so I gotta go now cuz I have to get up in 5 hours to go to work.

New House

Little Benjamin has rented a house with his Mommy...It is right around the corner from his new Baby sitter...It is a big house but the price was right and Benjamin loves the stairs...Benjamin will have lots of room to run in the house. There also is an extra bedroom for Granny anytime she wants. No bed just a bedroom....

This was posted by Granny because I did not care for the last picture of my boy. Melissa will be pleased I have taken over...If Kris does not Blog soon I may be forced to do the same for her.

I love to swim

Well, this is what little Benjamin looks like when mommy takes him swimming. We smear sunblock over our whole body. And because we have such thin hair (a comb over in fact) we also have to put it on our scalp. This is the result of putting sunscreen in your hair. It's pretty cute if you ask mommy, but she's probably the only one that thinks that.

My boy loves to swim. He will miss the pool here when we move, but he will love being in a house with a yard again. And mommy is glad she won't have to worry about the car being too cold in the mornings. I know it doesn't get cold here by most people's standards, but there is a lot of times it is in the low 30's or upper 20's when I leave for work. It even gets into the teens once or twice too. We will soon have a garage. Mommy will be able to was Benjamin's car. It needs it because I haven't washed it since before we moved 2 months ago.

Benjamin Missed Granny

Little Benjamin got to see his Granny today. He has missed her so much. Wendy is great for running, jumping, art, crafts, chase, hide-n-seek, going to the park, painting, riding a bike, playing with other kids, eating with, playing catch, tetherball, hopping, skipping, pulling me in a wagon, and probably a hundred other activities.

But no one can curl up on a couch with a soft comfy blanket like my granny!

Well except maybe my MOMMY!!

My Mommy

I love my mommy

She is my best friend

Whenever I am in a jam

Happily a hand she will lend

Caring, honest, and loving

Just scratch the surface

Hardworking and dependable

Words just don’t do her justice

Beginning to understand things I

now have an angel of my own

That unconditional loving

Since I am fully grown

She passes on her knowledge

My mommy always knows best

Watching out for me

Knowing life is just a test

Well mom wanted a poem about her. I told her I'm an accountant, I can't write poems. She told me yes I could. I've taken those tests to determine which side of the brain you use more, analytical or creative, and I have no creative use of my brain. It's always like 29 analytical answers and 1 creative. I have now publicly proven that I am right and she is wrong. I can't write poems. I'm sorry you all have had to suffer through reading it. Please proceed to Betty's blog where you will see 2 good poems or to mom's where there is one. Unfortunately all they have written about is Clayton.

Benjamin's Baptism

Well, Benjamin got baptized on Sunday. Mom was so worried and upset about having such a big scene in church. But, you know I was looking for a way to meet more people, other than those that work in the nursey. I bet everyone at the 9 o'clock service knows who I am now. She saved me years of work trying to get to know more people. It will be easy now! And she was worried about making a scene. If I had thought of it on my own, I would have asked her to do faint in church so I could make some friends.

Mom is HOME!!!!

YEAH! Mom is home. I'm so glad mom is home. I know it's hard on her being in the hospital with all the germs, death, and being sick. But, now that she is home I can complain about how hard it is on me when she is in the hospital. I'm just not as good as mom is and I have a hard time doing everything that I do and everything that she does. I do quite a bit usually. However, when mom goes to the hospital, suddenly her list of things she does get longer than usual. Then she gives the list to me to do. It is amazing how much she gets done when she isn't the one doing it. But we got her disability paperwork filled out last night. YEAH! One less thing that needs to be done.
Now back to me. I'm tired! I was up half the night doing her paperwork. Then I had to go to work and today is the first day of close. We are really busy during close, especially since we have 4 of 7 positions vacant and another one put in their notice this week. This is my whiny post. I will try to stop whining now, but it will be hard.

A FIT

This is what the beginning of a FIT looks like.

Mommy has now determine that once we see picture one

we must proceed to this picture as soon a physically possible.

The Vacation Saga Continues

Well, Billy heard about the Disneyland trip for the kids I was financing and he had the bright idea for him and his wife to look after little Jake and me to take his son Austin to Disneyland instead. So that is what we are going to do. They will have a much better time with Austin than Jake anyways. Mom talked to Austin's mom and she said she would trade weekends with Billy so Austin could go. Austin's mom said is was stupid to take a baby to Disneyland because they won't have any fun and they are difficult to do things with. Well, she is right. So instead we are taking an almost 5 year old that has an attitude problem. I'm sure this will be much better. (yeah, right) I think I have lost all my marbles. 5 kids, I'm taking 5 kids on an 8 hour drive to stay 3 days in 1 hotel room. I'm sure I've lost it.
On another note, mom is happy she's sure her retirement is looking better and better. She says she's seeing retirement on a cruise ship, instead of the old folks home. I hope she's right.
Mom got a good 6 straight hours of sleep last night. However, I had a sick boy. It was about 7 hours from the time I went to sleep till the time I started getting ready for work. However, I woke up 5 or 6 times to check on the little angel, give him medicine, and get him juice (gatorade) to drink. It was still way better then the 3 and a half of uninterrupted sleep I got the night before. Benjamin has had a very low temp today and took a long nap. He started having a fit when I picked him up. I gave him a bath then he had to lay down while I made dinner and as soon as he was done eating it was to bed for the night. When he fell asleep the fit finally stopped. Thank goodness.

Camping and a story

On June 29th mom and I decided to go camping with Kenzie and Benjamin. This is one of the pictures when he was running up on the hill we were camping on. He had a blast running around with Kenzie. Mom pointed out that this was the farthest he had ever been away from his Mommy. He had a good time, until granny fell and then he spent the night getting work up every hour or so by mommy. We are so lucky it happened. It could have been much later that mom's cancer was discovered.

Well, I'll tell you all about proper horn usage now. I have always thought that people driving that are doing something stupid and/or unsafe should be informed of it. However, while driving there is very little you can do to communicate with other drivers...except honk your horn. So, I have done my duty and I honk to let others know that they are doing something wrong. I have always done this. Often to do this you must slam on the breaks and hit the horn at the same time. This is not a difficult thing to do.

About 10 years ago, me and mom were driving in my truck. I had this truck for 9 1/2 years. 4 or 5 of which the transmission had issues when others drove it, but I knew how to compensate for it and didn't really have a problem. Definitely not enough problems to pay for a new transmission. The gas peddle was very heavy, you had to push really hard on it to get it to move. The breaks were really light. A touch and you slowed down. When you hit them you stopped. Right then!

I was driving and mom was in the passenger seat. We were going about 45mph and coming up on a red light. The light turned green before I even needed to slow down. Then someone driving a little white car made a left hand turn right in front of me. Mom braced herself for impact and I slammed on the breaks. Have I mentioned that I loved that truck. We didn't hit the white car. I know that a guardian angel came down and moved the rear end of that car out of the way because there is now way we should have missed it. We were both rather shook up so I pulled over as soon as we got to the other side of the intersection. Mom looked over at me and said "Melissa you didn't hit your horn." I told her "the horn is used to let someone know that they are doing something stupid, when I hit them I don't need to use my horn to let them know they did something stupid. The impact should be enough to notify them." She started laughing and after a few minutes we pulled back on the road and headed home.

Peaceful

Isn't that just the cutest picture you ever saw. Mommy wishes it was her, but now that I have my work done I can head to bed too. I should get almost 4 hours of sleep. I have to get up early (4am) to take little Benjamin to daycare. But mommy isn't complaining because he loves going to Wendy, and I don't worry about him. (Well, at least not anymore than I did when he was with Granny.)

Hard Time

Well, I can see the hard time I'm going to get if I go a couple of days without posting. I'll tell you what I've been up to. On Saturday I couldn't post because I was doing things for my MOTHER almost ALL day and half the night. Then I had to play with my boy on Sunday, and I kept 2 of his cousins most of the day so Kris could get some things done. Don't get me wrong Benjamin had a great time with them, but it doesn't leave much time for blogging. Then Sunday night I had extremely important reference letters to write, so I didn't have time to blog then either. Now it's Monday and I have brought home about 3 or 4 hours worth of work that I have to get done before I go to be. So, you all are going to have to be a little bit patient with me. Hopefully, I will have some time tomorrow to post a better post.

Soooooooooooooo here is your story.

Little Benjamin is talking very well. After I picked him up on Sunday this is the conversation we had.

Mommy: Did you have fun with daddy?
Benjamin: Daddy and Sissy.
Mommy: Where do you sleep?
Benjamin: In my bed.
Mommy: Where does sissy sleep?
Benjamin: In MY room. Sissy has to climb to bed.
(apparently they have bunk beds and she has the top bed)
Mommy: Did you take a nap yesterday?
Benjamin: Me and daddy and sissy.
Mommy: Did you nap in your bed like a big boy?
Benjamin: We nap in daddy's bed.
Mommy: Did you sleep in daddy's bed at night?
Benjamin: No, not YET.

He's pretty good at keeping up his end of the conversation. I'm sure they have no idea it's his room and that he is in the zone of taking over daddy's bed soon.

Well, that as good as I got right now. I'll try agian later tonight after I finish my work or tomorrow.

No Stories About Mom

Well since mom tells you all the stories about her, I don't have any new ones. Mom has been up since Thursday at 3:30 am. She has gotten no sleep because of the medication she has to take on Thursdays. She is laying down right now. Hopefully she will get a good nights sleep.
Well, I've also decided to take the kids to breakfast with Disney characters. I'm sure they will enjoy it. I only got about 4 hours of sleep last night so I'm gonna go to be now.

"Special" People

I drive a lot. I put 25,000 miles on my car in 1 year. Right now I am driving about 120 miles to daycare, work, and back. I spend about 3 hours a day commuting and this doesn't count going to the grocery store or over to see mom or any weekend driving. So I want to tell you about all the "special" people I am forced to share the roads with everyday.

A couple of years ago I determined that there are a lot of "special" people here in the metro area. I am unsure exactly what makes them so "special" but you can easily spot them. (Well, Kris can't but that's neither here nor there.)

"Special" People
1. Drive along a lane of cars waiting in line and then cut in at the front.
2. Drive in the carpool lane alone.
3. Have determined that turn signals are for "lesser" drivers.
4. Refuse to allow anyone to merge in front of them no matter what.
5. Feel the need to change lanes 4 or more times in a mile, usually while going 80-100 mph.
6. Think they have the right to occupy the same space as another car, at the same time.
7. Are going so fast they make you feel like you are not moving and you are really going 70 mph.
8. Usually the ones that caused the accident, resulting in a fatality, that closed the freeway and results in me spending two or three times as long trying to get home, and someone else never making it.

These are just a few of the things "special" people do. Sometimes I wish I was "special" too. Instead I follow the traffic laws.

Next, I will write about proper horn usage. I have a few stories on that.

A Story for Mom

Well, I have to get up in 5 and a half hours so, why not write a story for mom before I go to sleep.
One day me, mom, and Kris were going shopping. Kris was driving mom, and I was in my own car. Kris was in front of me and we were pulling into a parking lot. A car was backing out of it's space and not paying attention in front of Kris's van. I thought to myself that guy is stupid.
The following is the conversation that occurred in Kris' van as she parked it.

Mom: "Watch out for that car. That person is stupid."
Kris: "Mom, not everyone is stupid. You don't even know that person."
Mom: "No I don't know them, but I know they are stupid and I can prove it."

They both got out of the Kris' van and I got out of my car.

Mom: "Melissa, did you see that car?"
Me: "The stupid guy backing out and not paying attention?!"
Mom: "See Kris, I told you he was stupid."

Kris then went on to explain to both of us how we didn't know he was stupid. She doesn't understand how you can just look at some people or something they do and tell that YES they are stupid.

And yet one more difference between me and Kris.

I hope you all enjoy my story about mom. Hopefully she will be happier about it than the last two about vacation planning. I got to get to bed now so I can sleep for a little bit before I have to get up and go back to work.

The Rest of the Story

Well, after much searching I found a hotel 1 mile from Disneyland. It is the Crowne Plaza Resort Anaheim. It looks really nice. It is a 3 star hotel and I got it for less than half price. Yeah me! We will take sleeping bags for the kids. They are young they can sleep on the floor.
Now all that is left is a good deal on Disneyland tickets. I have a feeling that it isn't going to be easy to find those and probably not even possible. Oh well. The little brats better have a good time.
Every since the thought of taking Kris and her 4 kids on vacation came to me I have been bouncing between 2 thoughts.
1. "Little Benjamin and his cousins will have so much fun."
2. "I must be crazy to even consider this. I know I will regret doing it before I make it out on the first freeway."
Well, as we all can see the first thought beat the second thought into submission and we are going. They are going to have a blast. Benjamin's mommy will force them to if I have to.

A Story

Well, everyone says they want a story. Here it is...
I decided to take little Benjamin, my sister, and her 4 kids to San Diego on vacation in a couple of weeks. The plan was to leave Friday night about 7pm so the kids would sleep on the drive over and we would get to our hotel about 1:30 am. Then we would hang out on the beach and maybe go see the sights, but no theme parks. Then come home Monday night. Kris and the kids are off that week on fall vacation and I would just go to work on 2 or 3 hours sleep. I figured this would cost me about the same as me taking little Benjamin to Legoland for the weekend. You know it's gonna be pricey when the first thing you have to do to plan the vacation is find a car to rent before you start the vacation. I have a very nice new car but it will only hold 5 people. Kris has a Saburban, but I would worry about driving it that far since it is older and has had some problems. Mom and Dad's 2 vehicles will only hold 5. So I have rented a Minivan to drive us all to California.
Then Mom found a web site that had a good deal on passes to go to Legoland and the San Diego Zoo and about 30 other things. So I thought "well, I'll go ahead and get those it will only be abou $400 more." I mean if you're gonna do something stupid like take 5 kids on a vacation, why not go all the way. The more I though about it the more I thought well if we are going to go some where we might as well go to Disneyland and have a really great time. So I am now trying to find a good deal on tickets to Disneyland and a great hotel. I mean if you're gonna do something stupid like take 5 kids on a vacation, why not go all the way. At this point I then decided to check on how much it would cost to stay at the Disneyland hotel. Thank goodness they are booked solid that weekend, so back to looking for tickets. My only saving grace is that since 3 of the 5 children we are taking are under 3 I only have to buy tickets for me, Kris, Kenzie, and Micheal and the little ones are free.
Well, here you have a story. I just talked to mom and she said you all didn't want to hear about this story. She said you would only want to hear about stories about her. I'll try to write one later. For now I have to get back to searching the internet for a really cheap price on a 4 star hotel and some Disneyland tickets.

First Post

I've decided to try this blogging thing. As you can see by my blog name, this is Little Benjamin's world and mommy is just living in it. I'm proud and lucky he lets me.