Out with the old.

This will be my last post of the year.
My last post of the decade actually.

I have decided that with the start of the New Year will bring some changes.

I am going to try to be even more frugal that I already am.
I am going to set limits for myself when it comes to spending. The first goal is to go 2 weeks without spending a dime and as that nears I will see if I can do it another week and so on.
I am going to cook and freeze some meals (hoping this will force us to eat out less than we do). Not sure though if I will freeze in individual serving portions or family style. Kris doesn't eat many meals at home with his work schedule being the way it is.

I have already started being a bit more thrifty, I turned the heat down in the house by 2 degrees. Granted that is not a lot but it is a start to cutting the bills down.

I am sure I will add more to the ways of being thrifty as this year goes on so if I find something that seems helpful I will be sure to post.

Something Fishy

You can tell the child has never had fish sticks in his life.

At the store Zack sees a box in the freezer section, it had a cartoonish picture of a fish on the front and a picture of the fish sticks themselves. He yells out "Look mom, fish chicken".

Christmas 2009

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Visiting the Big Man.

We stopped at the mall yesterday to see the Big Man himself.

Zack was excited for all of a minute then his mood changed and he wanted no part of going up to Santa.

So Santa came down off this throne and walked over to Zack. The conversation started in the line and then moved so Santa could sit and a picture could be taken. They talked all about Thomas the train but Zack never did tell Santa what he wanted for Christmas.

We were able to get a good picture on the first shot. I really did not want to push my luck much longer with attempting to take anymore pictures. I really don't think Zack would have gone for that.

So here he is visiting Santa

Shh, it's a secret!

There are two Christmas tree lots not far from our house. Every time we head out to the store Zack wants to pass them to make sure the Snowmen and Santa inflatables are still there and are up.

One of the Santa inflatables is holding a list. On one particular day when Zack was not being a very good boy I told him it was Santa's naughty list and I saw his name on it. So every time we pass it he asks if his name is on it.

Tonight when we passed it Kris asked Zack if his name was on the naughty list, when Zack told him no Kris asked why he thought his name was not on the naughty list. Zack's response was "I can't tell you dad, it is a secret."

I got a chuckle out of that.

Playing in the dark

It snowed yesterday which is a once every few years kind of thing around here. I learned a long time ago that if it is snowing, get out in it that day or it will be gone by tomorrow.

Once there was enough on the ground to cover it, I bundled Zack up and we went out to play in it. Who cares we were the only ones out on the block. Who cares we could not see much because it was dark. Who cares other peoples children were already snug in there beds? We had a blast.

Zack made snow angels, threw more snow balls at me than I can count. Knocked the snow off everything he could possibly reach, and then refused to help me make a stack of snowballs to bombard Kris with when he finally came home. As a matter of fact the little stinker stole more than half of them and threw them at me.

It was the best snowball making snow I have seen in a long time. It was just perfect packing snow.

When Kris did come home we had a little snowball fight as soon as he was getting out of the car. He never saw it coming. (Insert Evil laugh here).

I finally convinced Zack to throw snowballs at Kris and not me. Once he did, I heard Kris give a little yell. Apparently Zack got him with a snowball and it went down the back of his pants. (Insert more Evil laughter here).

The snowball fights ended when my dear husband nailed me right in the glasses! That hurt. I did yell at him and eventually he will get over it but darn it, you can hit me in the shoulder, the back, the stomach, the back of my head anywhere but the darn glasses!

Here is a picture for your viewing pleasure of my little snow angel catching flakes on his tongue.

The Tasting

Zack helps out a lot in the kitchen, he loves to help cook, and bake.

On the few occasions we tell him he can not help out, he gets upset and says "But you have to let me help you because I'm the Chef".

It is not always a pretty sight when he is done but he does at least attempt to taste whatever he has created. Here he is licking the beater when he made a pie.And here is the aftermath. I told you it wasn't always pretty. He did enjoy it though.

Go away Sickies

It has been a rough few days around here and it still continues.
Zack still has the 'sickies'.

I took him to the doctor on Friday and was told it is an upper respiratory infection. The doctor expected his fever to break that day, but it did not. Right now it appears the fever has finally broken but I am not holding my breath.

The coughing started on Friday morning and is wreaking havoc on him. At times it gets so bad he busts out crying because he spit up phlegm. The nose is stuffy and not really running. He doesn't like the medicine the doctor gave him but he is taking it as long as he knows he can have a taste of water afterward.

This morning he slept in until nearly ten. Amazing because he is normally up between six and seven. He woke up full of energy, no fever and generally back to himself. I will admit I was thinking great maybe except for some coughing we can get back to normal now.

Kris made him breakfast, he ate some but not all. I was okay with that and told him he could get down from the table. Not more than two minutes later he came over to me started coughing and got sick all over himself and me! Once he was cleaned it happened again.

Now he is resting comfortably on the couch with the TV tuned to Disney channel.

I really hope this is over soon, I don't know how much more I can take.

I did ask him when I was cleaning him up why he always feels the need to get sick on me? How come daddy never gets hit? I did not receive an answer.

KIKI

Kiki is a new member of our household. Well at least he is until Christmas.

One night while Zack was off brushing his teeth, the doorbell rang he and Kris raced to see who was outside our door at 8:30 at night.
When they opened the door no-one was there.

That was strange.

Until Zack looked down on the porch, there was a box, a lonely box just waiting to be picked up and opened.

The first thing we noticed was a cute little elf on the box. When we opened it, that same cute elf was inside! Oh the excitement of having an elf in our house.We quickly read the book that came with the elf and found out we aren't supposed to touch him or he looses his magic. Every night while we are sleeping he flies back to the North Pole and chats with Santa to let him know if *we are being naughty or nice.

This cute little elf was named Kiki. Every morning we wake up and Kiki has found a new spot to sit and hang out for the day. Did you know elves can see through walls? They can hear everything no matter how far away from them you are, almost like a mom :)

Poor Kiki fell off from his perch the other day. It was a terrible thing. Zack came running downstairs all upset that Kiki was on the floor. When I went to pick him up Zack yelled at me not to touch him because he did not want Kiki to loose his magic. I had to convince him that the big man would want us to pick him up and he would not loose his magic powers because we were doing a good thing.

Kiki has since picked better places to hang out so he doesn't fall down again.

I wonder how disappointed Zack is going to be when Kiki goes back to the North Pole and doesn't return again until next year.

* when I say we, I really mean Zack!

Money means nothing

It is annoying when a 3 year old is looking through a toy catalog and you hear the I want this and this and this. He isn't understanding the concept of greed yet but I am working on it. I will probably be working on it until he is an adult but that is a whole other story.

Anyway he is going page by page in the catalog and when he finds something that really interests him not only does he want it he tells me how much it cost.
This morning he was browsing again when I heard "Mom, I really want this and it is only 49 and a half, nine nine cent." I will admit it took me a minute or two to figure out that meant $49.99.
He does not understand the value of money and I understand that it means nothing to him but darn the cost of these toys are amazing.

Now what I really want to know is what ever happened to cheap toys? Come on fifty dollars for a piece of plastic that is going to be broken in a few weeks?

What are we in for when the teenage years hit?

I don't like the sickies.

Zack woke up this morning crying. When I went to him he was burning up. Poor little guy has a 102.4 fever. He was crying pretty hard which I think is what caused him to throw up... all over me.
After he threw up he made sure to let me know "Mommy, I don't like the sickies." I can't say I blame him.
Why is it I seem to get the brunt of it when he is sick?
Shortly after he got sick, I started feeling queasy. It never fails, he and I get sick within hours of each other.
I do not have much energy but no matter what his temperature is he still seems to have enough energy to play.

The mind of a 3 year old.

Normally there are children's Cd's playing the whole time we are in the car. Today I said "It's mine turn to listen to something I want to hear". On the way to pick Kris up for lunch the song 'Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy' came on. Zack and K were in the backseat just rockin out. As we pulled into the parking lot of Kris' job my child yells at the top of his lungs "Lets blow the roof off this place!" and he continued to clap and car dance. I couldn't help myself I was laughing hysterically.

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Out of the blue Zack comes out with "Mommy, my Grandma is shrinking." I had no clue where or why it came out so I asked him why she was shrinking. He replied "She shrinking 'cause I am growing." (He is wise beyond his years)
When I told Kris about it, he started to chuckle and Zack came out with "Grandma just doesn't have it." I asked him what Grandma doesn't have and he said "The growing stuff".

**So Mom, I guess it is official you are done with your growing years.

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Zack was put in time out for hitting K with a pillow. After I deemed that enough time had passed I told him to come out of time out and go apologize to K.
As he was hightailing it of the time out zone he turned around, looked at me and said "So I guess apologize means I have to say sorry."
I guess I forget he is a small person and doesn't always know what the big words mean.

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Zack: "Mommy what time are G and S getting here?"
Me: "Somewhere around dinner time."
Zack "Does that mean they are going to drive in circles?"
Oops, again I need to word things better for him.

Decorating the tree.

We started to decorate our Christmas tree the other night. The bad thing is I can not for the life of me find the hooks to hang the ornaments so I need to get to the store, buy more (which no doubt means I will find the others as soon as I get home), then we will finish decorating it.

The ones that have something built into them to hang from the tree are already on.

In typical tot fashion we have a heavy concentrated band of ornaments at the bottom of the tree. Nothing like the younger generation getting to see and enjoy all the ornaments at their eye level and leaving us older folks with a bare tree to look at. While putting those ornaments on the tree Kris was trying so hard to guide Zack into putting some up higher, it wasn't working out so well. I can't wait to see what it looks like when it is complete. lol

Oh and for what it is worth, at some point in my childhood I was given some information that is not correct and I would like to clear it up now. The word is ornaments. I was always told to pronounce it like it is spelled but in the world of Zack the correct way to pronounce it is "Ottoments".

Frazzled

I have not been in all that great of a mood lately so I haven't posted anything. I figured it was better to not say anything at all than to say something I might regret later.

I am very frazzled lately.

This darling child of mine that I speak about often is to the point of driving me straight to the mental institution. He is driving at a rate of speed that would make any police officer give chase.
I am thinking that the only way things are going to get better at this point is for me to run and hide. Anyone have any frequent flyer miles they want to get rid of? I think the best place for me to hide is Hawaii where I could sit on the beach for a week, a month, a year, whatever it takes :)

I gave my husband my Christmas list last week and apparently he did not see the humor in it.
I asked for a maid, a nanny, and a rich old man. Now why can he not see these things as being important? For crying out loud he calls me princess, you would think he would want me to be treated as such.

I am hoping for a change in attitude around this place so I can get back to my normal self (what is normal though?) real soon.