Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Lather, Rinse, Repeat...

Single Parent Summer back in full swing...(pun intended)...

Daddy's back at the Diamond this year and it couldn't have been a less underwhelming transition if we had planned it that way.  No Softball for Thing 1 this year, which I am CERTAIN is part of the reason.  Thing 2 is a little more patient these days, letting us cook meals without FREAKING OUT completely that we are not putting all attention on her.  Even if it's just to sit with her on the couch while she does, whatever it is she wants to do...

My Choni-less routine is back in full swing as well... feed the childrens, do some domestic tasks that I can fit in so I feel like I'm actually participating in home life, put Thing 2 to bed early (as her schedule as somehow changed itself while life was going on) then Thing 1 goes to bed and boom...  Mom has an hour to herself.  Usually this hour is used by dishes or wrapping up the domestic task of my choice for that night.  If it's Friday, it's manicure night and I kill my time of blowing on my nails by reading a few pages of whatever book I am into...rinse. Repeat.

Still able to fit in reading and crochet into my lunches.  It's been a HOT ASS winter/spring and I have NOT been going on my walks like I should...Which is ok... it affords me the time for my crafty crafts that I tote along with me..I finished my baby room cross stitch that I got WAY post babies... as if there's an expiration when you can celebrate the birth of your children... There isn't by the way...  Keeping a look out on a new cross stitch/embroidery project to start...  I want to make a set of washclothes for our kitchen... yay...

It's so warm, I have already "spring cleaned" the kids' room.  There are winter clothes galore that still fit the wee one so I did my Spring Time Frugal Mom Task: cut off all the sleeves from the shirts and legs from the pants... now there are shorts and short sleeved shirts aplenty...  and very little cost to me... YAY!

I have been using my new camera lens more and more... Holy Shiznits...  that thing is a game changer... my pictures are amazing now.  I have a small gig doing wedding pictures in September and the Mister is doing the videography... Should prove to be a nice little padding for the bank account ...  This year I am wiping off my budget list...I get a full mulligan...  Here's why:

We bought a car.

It's awesome.. it's brand new...I got a great deal...and I traded in our 8 year old mini van...  Yes, I still have a wee one... No I won't really miss having the van.  Because we are frugal, we are realistic, and we are not assholes... we don't travel much... Not that I really miss it all that much.  We did NOT in fact get to have our weekend anniversary getaway because I got violently ill right before our dinner reservations...so i know it wasn't the food.  I have my money on someone at work got me sick/mixed with the anxiety of the weekend and having thing 2 at Ma's when I wasn't sure how that was going to fare with ANYONE...it went GREAT and now we have more confidence that maybe we can start small trips and travel with the wee one.  But I spent my anniversary weekend in bed...and NOT in the fun awesome way... in the flannel-nightgown-reruns-of-Roseanne-sleeping-all-day-and-night-eating-dry-toast kind of way...  Anyhoo...  Choners ran out of his money early this year... I don't know why... but he did... and it's not because he spent it on anything other than gas food and a minor car repair when he felt he had the money.. food costs go up, gas goes up, things increase and his pay stays the same.  Same deal with me, but a little different because of how he gets paid and gets the off-season unemployment.  He will have gone two months without any money coming in as of the end of April...  The only saving grace is that he is able to sell off some comic art, but then he'll be paying me back... not literally, but I know him.  He'll pick up the tab for something later remembering that I had to come in where he left off until he got paid.  But that's why I save... so I can come in behind him and SWIPE SWIPE everyone's happy...  Also, we got a new car!  He was driving the van and since he drives 50 miles per work day, that wasn't really working out well staring down the season's throat and watching the gas prices go up...  So he gets the old car, I get the new car and while I'm over here driving the new car, commuting in it...he's driving the old car a third of the miles I would in a year...  Again, everyone's happy!  And he is SO ecstatic to have that car back...

You see, I don't know if I mentioned, he used to drive the Civic.  We had two cars when Thing 1 was born, an '02 Civic and his '98 Aspire..  as in, it Aspired to be a real car...  The Aspire DIED (I know, SHOCKING) and we had to make a decision...and because we were living my mother and Step-monster at the time, i fucked up ROYALLY and listened to him when he suggested I get a family vehicle and get a minivan... knowing that if I financed the cheapest one I could find it would be a hefty down payment and a hefty car payment because we were still a young married couple, no house payment yet, not paying rent "living with my parents"...  we were doomed from the start...BUT I listened, I was trying to do that at the time, I was trying to be involved...  big mistake...  months after that monster purchase that nearly cleaned out our savings, and just after Christmas and shopping trips full of "Oh but it's Christmas, go ahead, put it on your credit card" we were broke and out on our ass because he kicked us out for some fakakta reason.  I know the reason and it's totally fakakta...

Here we are 8 years of a monster free lifestyle, but that van was still a little bit of an albatross, the final thread to be cut from that other life that is so far behind us now I can't believe that ever happened, I can't believe I ever let that happen!

I purchased the new car a week ago today... it's still so surreal...that I look in my driveway and see that metallic charcoal beauty staring back at me...at us... The Things LOVE the new car...  my nephew was a little upset at the trade in concept, but he got over it...and my little sis of course loves it... it's shiny... She's in.

Our credit is apparently flawless...  Hmmm, wonder how that happened!  Hahaha... yes, I'm laughing... it's funny.

But with two dental appointments that came up and bit me in the ass, I still have to get glasses and the buying of the groceries, OH and the civic needed work that I was quoted on 7 months ago and yeah... considering I"m in an industry dealing daily with quotes and how you can't really count on them lasting very long, I STUPIDLY and admittedly used the 7month old quote to budget the maintenance work on the civic...  and extra $300 later, we are officially OUT our anniversary money and anything we decide to do later is going to be "out of pocket" fine...  Thing 1 needed new shoes after I got home from work the other day and what did I do?  Went and got them, didn't think twice...didn't use a credit card...  I need to keep things like that fresh in my mind so I don't feel like a failure because I will NOT by any stretch of the imagination be saving the kind of money I expected this year... but that doesn't mean I won't be saving at all... just not as much...which is fine... we have a new car!  two cars that get great gas mileage instead of not...  big happenings for us!

We are still planning on getting my eye surgery next year and doing our New York trip the following year...then I am hoping to maybe take and adjust my tax return if I need to.. we'll see...  I talked to the CFO of our company and we had a great talk about life and stuff....  he's a good guy, the kind of person you would strive to be in life and I got some great confidence up after that meeting.

Feeling like my damn hair is taking FOREVER to grow, but it's not... but it IS!!!!

Thing 2 is STILL nuts, but it's either not as bad, or we're just managing it a lot better... or both... but still...  she threw a world class wobbler yesterday that cause me to drop off her big sis way too early for school...  oh well... Shit happens...

Now that I have bored whomever to tears, I'm going to go now...  the computers at work were/are down and has cause a lovely break that I haven't' had in WEEKS due to a chick at work going on maternity leave that, growing huge belly not withstanding, no one planned for... mmmhhhmmm....  I started a crochet project today that needs to be done by Saturday and if I have two more lunch hours like I did today, it'll be a piece of CAKE!!!  Can't wait to finish that up... lovely...  so now I get to go drive my new car home... damn man... it sucks to be me...  with my achey foot, my achey nervy mouth/teeth blind as a bat eyes full head of gorgeous hair...oh yeah...and my new car....

Mister is making rad ass taco recipe he came up with all by hisself...  Dear Lord...  I am so excited to get home!