One Car Family

Heath & I recently decided to go down to one car.  The decision was mostly made because we had one car rotting away in the garage.  We sold the GTO.  Heath's car was a two door and did not fit our family of four.  My Jaguar is a four door, so yeah, we kept my car.  Obviously!  Heath had an offer on his car about an hour after posting it for sale.  He accepted the offer and the car was gone the same day.  It was so weird to go down to one car, but really, why would we need two cars if I rarely drive during the day when I'm home with the kids?  The GTO was worth more money to us gone than keeping it.  We paid off three credit cards with the money we got from selling the GTO.  We are so much better off financially with having only one car.  We will get a second car when needed, but as of this moment, one car fits us best.  There's so much extra room in our garage now too.  No complaints!

We also recently got rid of our cell phones.  We've had T-Mobile for ten years, but over the last two months, our cell service had dropped exponentially.  We tried to work with them to get the issue fixed, but no matter what happened, it just wasn't going to work out for us.  There's really only one cell tower in our area with a lot of people trying to use it.  T-Mobile's coverage map shows us as "excellent", yet we would rarely have any service.  Heath's iPhone always showed "No Service" or "Searching" and my Galaxy S4 showed one or two bars and on the Edge network.  Totally unacceptable since we are supposedly supported by 4G LTE out here.  We had a land line hooked up on Friday afternoon.  Going down to zero cell phones was weird, too.  But really, it's saving us so much money per month not having smartphones!  We will pocket almost $200/mo now.  Seriously, saving money is boss.

Our next goal to save extra money per month is to refinance our house.  We want to get rid of our mortgage insurance.  When we bought our house, we got an FHA loan.  The mortgage insurance is on the pricey side and we'd like that money in our pocket instead.  I'll be making the phone call to our mortgage company tomorrow to see what could work best for us.  It would be nice to have so much more extra money every month.

We went to Carleigh's open house for school on Friday.  My little girl is getting so big.  She's on the school schedule that doesn't start until September, so while most of her friend's start school tomorrow, she has to wait a few more weeks.  She qualifies to ride the bus since we live a couple of miles from the school.  The only thing left for me to do is call the school district to verify the drop off times for after school.  Our school district only shows the drop off times for full days.  My fingers are crossed that they aren't doing screwy scheduling for half day kindergartners.  If they don't drop off for half day kids, then guess what?  We will be off to buy our second car sooner than expected.  Oh well.  ;)

This blog was a little bit every where and I apologize.  Heath & I shared a bottle of wine with our salmon dinner tonight, so I feel a little out of it while typing this up.  There's just so much going on here right now.  So many changes and it's just crazy.  A good kind of crazy though.  I'll update this again when I'm more sober and able to make more sense.

Homemade House Cleaners

I know... it's been awhile since I've update my blog.  While I was away, I decided to experiment with homemade cleaners for around the house.  Of course, I turned to that nifty little website called Pinterest to find good cleaners.  I started making my own homemade cleaners to save money and not smell the harsh chemicals from store bought cleaners.  So far, I've only made two different household cleaners.  A granite cleaner and a regular, 409 type cleaner.  Both have done an exceptional job at keeping my house clean.  I'll be making my own laundry detergent in the near future.

My granite cleaner is made from this recipe found on One Good Thing by Jillee, minus the essential oil.  I haven't bought any essential oils yet, but I probably won't because I don't feel that my cleaners need it.  So here's the recipe:

1/4 cup rubbing alcohol
3 drops of Dawn
Water

Every household should have these ingredients in their household already.  I really love this cleaner.  It leaves my granite counter tops very shiny.

My all-purpose/409 type cleaner was found on Macheesmo.  There are four different recipes for homemade cleaners at that link.  But I use the all purpose recipe for my sinks and toilets for the time being.  It works great, but I do want to try the Bath, Sink, Tile Cleaner recipe as well.  Here's the recipe for the all purpose cleaner if you don't want to click the link.

3 Tablespoons vinegar
1/2 teaspoon washing soda
1/2 teaspoon castile soap
2 Cups hot water

Cleaning my home has become more enjoyable now that I make my own cleaners.  Once I get my own laundry detergent made and run a few loads of it, I'll give it a review and post the recipe here as well.

Not Getting Paid

I started my part-time job a month ago.  It's an OK job.  Nothing spectacular.  I wasn't looking for a career job, just something to do to cover the smaller bills with my pay.  On my first paycheck, I only received 20 hours worth of pay.  I work 20 hours a week, so my paycheck was suppose to be more than 20 hours of pay.  When I talked to the office assistant (not sure of her actual title), she said that wasn't right (umm.. duh), and that she would tell the manager and get me a check by Wednesday with my missing hours.  Wednesday came and went and there was no check.  I told Heath I wasn't going into work until I got all of my missing hours.  I am 40 hours short.  Not one or two hours, but a huge chunk.  If it was just a couple of hours, I wouldn't be so upset.  The next pay period is the 27th and I'm afraid that my hours will still be short on that one.  So, I am refusing to work until I get all of the money that is rightfully owed to me.  I'm calling in sick on my scheduled days.  I've talked to other employee's and was told this kind of thing has happened to them in the past too.  This isn't a first time "oops!", this is an ongoing problem and that's why I refuse to go in until I'm paid for the work I did the past couple of weeks.  This is a company that's pretty much impossible to get fired from.

It's just beyond irritating.  If I don't see all of my money on the 27th, I'll be making a call to the labor department.  I'm currently looking around for a new job, but it's hard to find a place that will work around my silly schedule.  On weeknights, I can only start work around 5:30pm or 6pm.  The 5:30pm schedule would have to be for a place really close to our house.  Weekends aren't that big of a deal, it's the weekdays that I need to be very flexible.  I really do hope I'll see the correct amount of hours/pay on my check next week though.  I don't mind working where I do.  But I do mind when people try to screw me over.  We have bills to pay, you know?  If I didn't pay my bills, or didn't pay exactly what I was suppose to pay, I'd be charged late fees/interest.  It would be nice if I could charge this company a late fee and interest for paying me late.  That would be nice.

On Monday night, my in-law's fly into town.  Oh joy.  However, they already know they are not welcomed at our house when Heath is at work.  So I won't have to entertain them all day.  That's not my job.  You fly out to Las Vegas and not verify with us if those days work first?  Cool.  Enjoy casino hopping.  They will be here a few nights a week for dinner after Heath is done with work and then on Saturday & Sunday.  I don't want them here every night for dinner though.  I'm not going to entertain people who feel so entitled to believe they are welcomed in our home whenever they decide to fly out here.  What's so hard about calling someone and saying, "Hey, we are thinking about coming to visit you guys on X dates.  Do those days work for you?"  Common courtesy goes a long way.

Tailbone Injury

On Wednesday night, while getting ready for work, I managed to injure myself.  I always sit on the stairs to put my shoes on.  When I sat down that night, I missed the step somehow and slammed my tailbone right into the edge of the step.  Ouch.  It hurt so much.  It took awhile for me to get up and try to walk it off.  I went out to my car to head out to work.  When I was backing down the driveway, that small little bump gave me more pain.  I continued to drive, but every little bump I hit, I could feel the pain.  So I decided to turn around and go back home.  I was hoping if I just relaxed and slept it off, things would be fine the next day.

The next morning, I was still feeling the pain.  I had to text Heath and have him come home because the pain was so intense when Amelia fell asleep on me.  I could not move.  When I did try to move, I felt pain every where.  It was awful.  In order to get up, I had to roll Amelia off of me and then slowly move around until I could tolerate the pain just enough so I could stand up.  My pain doesn't hurt when I'm standing or walking, only while sitting or bending over.

Once Heath got home, I went to the ER to get checked out.  I got some x-rays done.  The results came back negative.  There was no fracture.  I ended up spraining/bruising my tailbone.  I was given some pain medication and a work note for 72 hours and sent on my way.  The hydrocodone I was given works, but it makes me feel nauseous.  I hate it.  But like I said, it helps with the pain.  I cannot wait until I don't feel the pain anymore.

I'll be going back to work on Tuesday.  I only work part-time, so my next scheduled day after my work note expires will be Tuesday.  At that point, I'm still going to avoid driving certain cars.  I have a hard enough time getting out of my car, which is a sedan that doesn't sit that low to the ground.  I have a feeling I would get stuck in the Corvette's, Mustang's, and Camaro's.  I think I'll try to stick to the SUV's and bigger sedans.  I just want to go back to work.  My job is only part-time as it is and I hate not going.

The Anxiety and Stress

This is another extended family related post.

I have been unable to shake the stress and anxiety I am feeling over the extended family coming out to visit.  I honestly don't want people here at all.  Everything nasty my in-laws have ever said about me before their two year cut out from our lives is coming back in full force.  At this point, I don't even know why we allowed them back into our lives.  I guess it was my "guilt" of wanting them to know their granddaughter.  We allowed them back into our lives about a month before Carleigh was born in 2009.  Since I know their true feelings about me, I'm trying to understand why I allow them around me at all and let them in my home twice a year.  If it wasn't for having their grandchildren, they would more than likely still be cut out of our lives.  I'm tired of having these two faced people in my home.  I'm tired of hearing about what Heath's dad doesn't like about our house, as if I'm suppose to give a fuck what he thinks anyway.  Examples, "I don't like your cats.", "I don't like your couch.", "Are you sure you can afford this house?", etc... First of all, I don't give a shit if you don't like items in my home.  Furnish your own home how YOU like it.  Second, mind your own business when it comes to our finances.  Obviously we can afford our house, you twit.  We don't own two brand new cars and don't rack up debt just to keep up with the Joneses.  We have one car paid off and another to follow soon.  And once the second car is paid off, we are not going to go out and buy another new car just so we can pay someone a monthly payment for the next three to five years again.  I'm sorry my in-laws chose to pay $900/mo for their brand new cars.  That's their deal.

Last post, I said I wanted visiting hours to be from 11am-7pm.  But as their visiting dates get closer, I'd love more than anything to move that time from 11am-4pm.  They don't need to be here for dinner every night.  Nor do they need to be here eight hours a day.  Since I start my new job tonight, my hours will be 6pm-11pm on the weeknights.  I'm only working 20 hours a week.  So I'd like to not have them here all day and deal with them up until the time I leave for work.  Right now, I have Sunday, Monday and Thursday off.  If my schedule stays the same, which it more than likely will, I'd only have Thursday off and away from them during their visit.  I'm not including Monday since they are getting in late that night.  And we're only getting Thursday to ourselves because Heath has to work that day.  Heath told them to find their own things to do on Thursday.

I'm also irritated because Heath wasn't home with me very long after Amelia was born.  He had to save up his PTO for when his parent's were going to come out and visit.  I wish we would not have chosen that route.  Who gives a crap if he didn't have enough PTO for their inconvenient visit?  Nobody asked them to come out to see us for an entire week.  I would have rather had Heath home for a week after Amelia was born to help out around the house.  Instead, he went back to work four days after Amelia was born.  It's not my problem if Heath didn't have vacation time when his parent's came out.  They need to learn that we can't drop everything going on in our lives just to cater to them when they fly out here.  Yes, we live in Las Vegas, but that doesn't mean we can drop everything and go and explore the city and do everything they want to do.  They can go vacation in a different state if that's what they want to do.

Then my mom seemed disappointed when I told her I had to work at least 20 hours a week, even during their visit.  I'm sorry that money doesn't magically appear in our bank account when I chose not to work.  We have bills to pay too.  This part-time job is to help pay off our credit card debts and get more money into savings.  I told her I could try to shift my work schedule around a little bit, but either way, I'd still need 20 hours a week and some of those working days would cut into their visit.  But honestly, I don't go into work until 6pm!  I told her they would still have the entire day to visit until I have to go into work.  It's not the end of the freaking world.  Or is it?

I just can't take it anymore.  I've been trying to lose weight since Amelia has been born.  That weight loss was going well until this stress and anxiety started.  I weighed myself this morning and I gained another two pounds.  Gained!  I got really poor sleep last night because my mind would not turn off from all of this stress.

My mom's crazy is showing again.  I swear she thinks she is psychic.  When I was pregnant, before my mom knew, she told me her and my aunt (her sister) had a dream that I was pregnant.  At that point, I wanted to deny it, but decided not to when I would just announce my pregnancy a few weeks later.  So I said, "Yes, it's me.  I am pregnant... but don't tell anyone yet."  My mom's response was, "OK."  Then a couple of minutes later, my mom said, "I'm texting your aunt right now to tell her her dream was right and that you are pregnant."  WTF?  I just told you NOT to tell anyone.  Then last night, my mom told me her and my aunt (again, her sister) had a dream that four people are pregnant.  My mom said, "I know Ashley (my best friend) is pregnant and I just found out a girl I work with is pregnant.  So we still have two other people not accounted for."  Ugh... So I flat out said to my mom, "you know, dreams are just that dreams.  It doesn't really mean anything."  She said, "I know, but those two other pregnant girls will turn up soon."  OMG, STFU.  I'm tired of it.

Honestly, I've had enough and I just don't want to deal with the crazy anymore.  I decided this morning that we (our little family of four) will celebrate Carleigh's birthday a week before her actual birthday.  Probably on June 22.  Her birthday is June 27.  We can give her her gifts, have some cake, and let her spend her day how she wants to.  The only thing I'll do on Carleigh's actual birthday is say, "Happy birthday!" and leave it at that.  She will be able to have fun and play with friend's before my in-law's get here.  Will that be a big enough hint that they (in-law's) don't need to be here on Carleigh's exact birth date every year?

I think I've vented enough, but I'm sure I'm not done.  I'd just like to go back to feeling normal again.

Family Invasion

It's that time of year again when our parent's fly into Las Vegas to visit.  I am so not looking forward to it.  We told both sets of parent's we didn't want visitors until Amelia was at least three months old.  Surprisingly, everyone listened to our request.  Shocker!  Heath's parent's booked a flight out here almost immediately after Amelia was born.  They chose the last week of June, which also covers Carleigh's 5th birthday.  Yes, they are coming out here for an entire week.  They never confirmed with us if that was a good time or if we even wanted to deal with them for a full week.  Honestly, I don't want them here that long.  Since it's the end of June, it's going to be hot.  Really freaking hot.  We won't be going anywhere.  Just hanging out at home and relaxing.  It's what we do all the time if we don't have any errands.

So now, I'm going to have the in-law's in my house for an entire week, driving me up the wall, and making me want to drink wine from the moment I wake up and until I go to bed.  I already told Heath I wanted visiting hours to be from 11am-7pm.  Eight hours is still too long to have people crowding up our house.  His dad even had the audacity to ask if he could fly Heath's brother out.  Yeah, not happening.  That dumbass called me a C-bomb many years ago when we wouldn't let him get HIS way for our wedding.  That's a whole other story.  I also don't want Heath's brother here because he has never acknowledged Carleigh, so why would I want him here ignoring Amelia too?  Forget about it.

I think Heath's dad wants his brother out here so he will have a drinking buddy at the casino.  Since Heath doesn't go out and get drunk all the time, Heath's dad probably feels he needs someone here to do that with.  His brother (in his mid-20s) still lives at home with mommy & daddy.  He would only want to come to Las Vegas on someone else's dime so he can get drunk on someone else's dime.  He would have ZERO interest in his nieces.  I just don't have the tolerance to deal with a moocher and his enabling parent's all at once.  Besides, anyone who has called me a C-bomb isn't welcomed in my house.

My parent's are coming out for four days the first week of June.  My mom insisted she come out and visit before Heath's mom because, her words, "I'm your mom!"  Okay... whatever that means.  It's not going to make any damn difference who meets Amelia first.  It's so childish.

I'm tired of having family out here for every birthday of Carleigh's.  I don't mind if people want to come out a week before or after her actual birthday.  I just want to be able to throw a party for Carleigh where her neighborhood and school friend's can be invited.  Sure, I could do that with family visiting, but it would be too stressful.  I don't think Carleigh would be able to truly have a good time with grandparent's chasing her around and wanting to hold her, hug her, kiss her, etc the entire time she's having her party.  I'm also putting my foot down for Amelia's birthday too.  Heath's parent's come out twice a year.  So I know they will start choosing both girls' birthday weekends to come out.  I just don't want to deal with it.  I don't care if it sounds petty, I just want to celebrate my daughters' birthday's without being stressed out because people invite themselves to our house for however long they want.

I already told Heath to tell his parent's from now on, the longest amount of time I want people visiting is four days max.  If anyone wants to fly out here for a week, that's fine.  Just find something else to do those remaining days.  My mom already knows these rules and she knows I'll enforce them.  The in-laws?  Who knows.  Boundary stomping is a hobby of theirs.

As you can see, I am totally NOT looking forward to family coming out to visit.

Three Weeks

Baby Amelia is three weeks old today.  It's crazy how fast those three weeks have gone by.  She's been doing really great sleeping at night.  The past two nights, I've only had to wake up once in the middle of the night, early morning for a feeding.  Last night, she fell asleep around 9pm and woke up around 2am to nurse.  She fell back asleep around 3:30am and stayed asleep until 6:30am.  Heath takes her in the morning before he goes to work if she's up early enough.  Once she falls back asleep, he brings her back upstairs and we sleep until 8:30 or 9am.  Carleigh sleeps in just as late.  So it's nice having a newborn at home and sleeping until almost 9am every day.  Of course, we won't be able to sleep that long when Carleigh starts kindergarten.

Speaking of kindergarten, I took Carleigh to the school to get registered last week.  While we were there, the little girl who lives across the street was being registered too.  So there were two little girl's being crazy in the school lobby while us parent's tried to fill out the paperwork.  I had to tell Carleigh so many times not to run in the school.  I told her that those will be the rules when she starts attending there, too.  It's hard to tell a little 4 and 5 year old to calm down when they are super excited to see each other.  I kept telling Carleigh they could run around and be crazy outside together since we live right across the street from each other.  We have a couple of other kid's on our street starting kindergarten this year too.  All of the kid's on our street are so close together in age.  They will get to go to school together unless someone moves.

It's been warming up here the last couple of days.  I had to turn our A/C on the other day.  Our high today is suppose to be 91 degrees.  I'd like to keep the A/C off, but having two little ones at home, that's impossible.  Amelia started to get really frustrated the day it was only suppose to be 88 degrees for a high.  I could tell she was too hot and uncomfortable, so I clicked the A/C on.  We did purchase a ceiling fan for our downstairs area to keep it less stuffy.  Here's a picture of it.  It looks so nice in our open floor plan.

This fan will be nice to have when all of our family comes out to visit and meet Amelia in June, too.  We usually have to kick the A/C down a couple of degrees to keep it comfortable with all of the people here.  This time, we can just kick the fan on, or up a level, without making our energy bill too much higher.