October 28, 2008

• Chilly Tuesday

  It’s 10:15am and the
  temperature has “come up to” (!!! LOL !!!) 40 degrees.  I love it!  Of
  course, it’s supposed to be 74 degrees by Friday, but those isobars
  from Canada are pressing the heat down into Texas.  More often than not, it will be continually cooler!

  How much did I complete on my “To Do” list yesterday?  If it’s in red, it was finished!

  
  *  Transfer money into our personal account from the business account 
  *  Pay bills (there goes that deposit into our personal account!)
  *  Empty the dishwasher (Annamarie’s job) and fill it with dirty dishes in the sink
  *  Divide the ground turkey I bought on Friday before it rots
  *  Laundry – not sure whose, but *someone* has something to be washed – that’s a “given”  (I did mine)
  *  Get those warm clothes down from the attic
  *  Call PetSmart and order another case of Chirper’s food
  *  Clean the master bathroom

  Well, well, well . . . what happened halfway through that list?????

  Bills:  I wasn’t exactly idle.  I paid bills and had some problems, so many
  phone calls were made.  You know how long those take.  “For English,
  push 1.  For Spanish, push 2.  Please enter your account number
  INCLUDING the dash and final number.  Please enter your age and dress size!”  LOL!!!!  And, so it goes.  I find myself
  punching “0″ and getting the response, “I’m sorry.  I didn’t recognize
  that number.  Please try again!”  Or, with the voice response machines YELLING, “Customer
  Service!” while carefully pronouncing every syllable.  So, paying the bills took
  me 2 hours.  Yes, TWO HOURS!!!

  Other Calls: Then I spoke with our banker.  I decided a call was easier than
  dragging the girls and I to his office to ask the same questions.  He
  said we look like we’re in a very good position, regarding the
  declining economy.  We talked about the possibility of Jesse opening up
  another pawn shop.  He gave good advice there.  He also said he thought
  the mortgage rates (interest) would come down more AND the prime rate
  would decrease with it.

  The caseworker called again yesterday and asked if I had ever heard anything about our home study.  I told him I hadn’t heard a word.  He made several calls to me (of course, WHILE I was paying bills, then again WHILE I was eating lunch, and, finally, WHILE I was teaching!) and said his supervisor would start making calls today to get things moving.  He said she was upset that it had taken this long.  Sooooo, we’ll see!

  The Turkey:  I’ll get creative later on, when my brain is awake, and use some of
  that ground turkey for dinner tonight and package the rest of it up for
  the freezer.  Soon, it truly WILL be too late to freeze.  Then, I’ll have to make a 6 pound turkey meat loaf!!!

  Master Bathroom:  Rissy did the girls bathroom and I “may” ask her
  to clean ours today. 

  Chore Charts:  I’ve seriously thought about work charts for the
  girls, but I’m not so sure it’s necessary with the way our family
  runs.  We clean when things need to be cleaned.  And, everyone pitches in
  at the same time.  Sweeping tile floors, cleaning litter boxes, dishwasher
  emptying, trash emptying, and bathroom clean-ups are pretty much a specific person’s job
  and those same people are responsible for their own rooms.  The
  Pine-Sol’ing of the tile floors, dusting, vacuuming, and glass cleaning
  jobs are up for grabs.  We trade off between those jobs.  Although Luci
  hits more furniture than she does pick up carpet dirt when she vacuums!  

  *My* biggest jobs are teaching & lesson planning, cooking, doing dishes, dusting the high places (pictures and door frames, as well as using glass cleaner on the tall mirrors), laundry, dealing with bills and business calls.  I’m also the one to do those huge projects that occasionally come along . . . like changing clothing from summer to winter clothing.  Since it’s pretty much delineated in everyone’s minds, a chore chart doesn’t seem necessary.

  Speaking of my children, I found two more pictures (not sure how I missed them) to show-off our family.  They were of the girls.

  Picture #1
  

  Picture #2
  

  Which one should I send to our caseworker?  I’m thinking Picture #1.

  BTW, the caseworker was very pleased with the pictures I sent yesterday.  Maybe when he showed them to his supervisor and explained, these were former foster children we had adopted, that helped to light a spark under her.  Who knows?

  We’re doing well in school, keeping caught up.  I didn’t hold school Saturday – the girls were too hyper!  I told them Saturday would be a play day.  They actually asked me, “What does that mean?  What are we supposed to do?”

  LOL!! (rolling eyes)

  I told them “Just be children!”  So, they went outside and got dirty and stinky!!!

  I forgot to mention, I have a new keyboard and bought a laser mouse on Saturday.  We had three mouses (is more than one computer mouse “mice”???!!!!) with cords and not one of them would work without locking up!  I spent almost $35 on the laser “cordless” mouse and saved the receipt and packaging, JUST IN CASE!!!  I’m pretty tired of climbing under my desk to “fix things” all the time.  The camera cord doesn’t work well either.  I have to continually hook it up, disconnect it, hook it up, disconnect it  . . . The computer says it doesn’t recognize the hardware.  It’s a universal cord, so maybe that’s the problem.  Again, WHO KNOWS?

  There’s a lot I don’t know.  Except . . . my girls love school and, for that, I’m grateful.

  I took these this morning.

  Here is Annamarie going for the mini “white board” which they aren’t allowed to play with.  It leaves a dusty residue of black powder after being erased and then gets on other things.
  
  

  Next is Luci, teaching herself, I guess!
  

  We never have liquid on the table during school.  Look at all those cups!  Our books cost too much to have spillage on them!

  This is Rissy, teaching Luci to write different words.  Rissy the “boss” is always leading the others!
  

  Here we have all three “doing school” without me – the teacher! LOL
  

  I guess I should take their eagerness as a hint and get up from her to play “teacher” for a while.  We’ll see how many times I’m interrupted today!  I like to start after 10am – preferably around 10:30 – 11am.  Then we stop at 1 while I prepare lunch, and start back at 2pm to finish things up.  It works well for everyone.  They have a chance to wake up AND a lunch break stuck in there.  Works well for me too, I can only be patient for so long!!!!

  Be blessed ~

  • 12:06 pm
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