Ramblings of a Sorta Single Mom

So I heard on the news this morning that there are a bunch of rally’s and protests going on because of 6 boys down in Georgia i think it is.  These boys, who are black, are accused of severely beating a white boy.  The protests and such are occuring b/c people say that the justice system is being to harsh on the boys b/c of their race.  I think they said three are being charged with attempted murder.  I’m not racist and I don’t favor one race over another when crimes are committed.  But i do wonder this.  What would the reaction have been if 6 white boys had severely beat a black boy???

All is completely healthy.  J is 33lbs and 42 inches.  Almost perfect for her weight but taller than normal for her height.  I could have told ya that b/c all her pants are too short in lenth.  Definitely got a highwaters situation going on.  Other thant hat she got 4 shots.  3 were boosters and hten the flue shot.  Now she is set until 6th grade.  yea!!!  J wasn’t too happy about those shots though.  Doc had me help hold her down and J was seriously mad at me for a bit.  Just kep asking “But why does it have to hurt mommy?”

I am simply amazed these days at the words J uses.  Things I don’t ever remember saying to her but with school now and daycare, she may have gotten there.  For some reason it’s usually when she’s talking to her grandma while I’m driving and it causes me to laugh hysterically.  A few weeks back she was talking to my mom and telling her how her first day of school went.  Not sure about the specifics but I heard her say “It wasn’t that serious Grandma”.  So grown up like it really threw me off.  Tonight she was talking to her again about her doctors visit and I guess my mom went over on one of her speeches again.  I hear J say “Calm down grandma, just call down”.  I nearly lost it laughing at that one b/c even I don’t say that to my mom.  Here my 4 year old is telling her grandma to calm down.  Thankfully mom thought it was funny so no harm done.  It just amazes me how grown up she seems these days!

I can’t believe J is now 4 years old.  Where in the world has the time gone?  I remember when I was younger being told to enjoy each day because they pass quickly.  Well that certainly was no lie.  It seems like I’ve blinked and she has grown up before my eyes.   I wouldn’t trade these years for anything though.  They have been rough.  A lot of moments where i questioned my sanity but one look from her and that spontaneous “I love you Mommy” makes it all worth it.  My little girl.  My little princess.  Her own person but so much like me it can be scary.   She talks non-stop, seemingly with issues at the slightest amount of silence.  She’s independent, likes things her way, and can get quite the attitude at times.  My only hope is that the next 4 years don’t pass as quickly as the last 4 have.  I wonder though as we will head into elementary school days to include activies and even more hectic schedules.  The impulse to grab the camera more often is greater in an effort to capture as many moments as possible to be reviewed and remembered later.  I wonder sometimes, will she remember her childhood as a happy one.  I myself have few happy memories and i won’t her to have more than that.  I want her to remember that I was always there for her, working hard to give her everything she needs.  I want to set a good example that she’ll follow when she becomes a young adult.  Something she is determined to remind me she’ll be sooner or later.  Just yesterday she was telling me how she’ll be 4 and then soon she’ll be 5, then 6…..   She already seems to be looking ahead to future years.  Could these kids be wiser than we credit them???  For now I’ll savor my 4 year old and the obsticles and successes we’ll experience.  Of course I’ll shed a tear or to as I go through her photo albums, remember the girl who not long ago was just a tiny baby.

 

One month old

About 6 months old 

1 Year old 

2 years old 

3 years old 

4 years old

In all my years of driving, all 12 years of them, I have never been able to get out of a ticket. If i got pulled over I was pulling away with nothing less than a $100+ ticket.  I even got a ticket for speeding once and I know with out a doubt I wasn’t speeding.  Just cause cruise control is a wonderful thing.  Today I got pulled over again.  A little back ground though.  My license plates expired in August.  I realized a bit late and didn’t have the extra money in my last pay check to pay what I needed to renew them.  I ummm…..apparently forgot to pay my personal property taxes last year.   Oh and this year to.  LOL  I’m bad I know but I swear It hought I paid them last year and who knows what happened this year.  I blame it on moving and all that though cause the bill went out right about the time we mvoed.  Who knows where it ended up.  Anyways, I just finally got the money to pay everything off last week and on Thursday I paid off the city treasurer and paid to renew my tags online.  I don’t knwo about anywhere else but our DMv is always crazy.  You can spend 30+ mins just standing in line waiting to get a ticket to see a teller.  Needless to say I hadn’t gotten my new stickers yet so for anyone else looking at my car it looks like I’m driving on expired tags.  Of course thats what the cop I passed today must have thought as I heard the all to familiar siren and saw flashing lights in my mirror.   Followed by this conversation:

Cop: License and registration please

Me: Here’s my license, I don’t have the registration yet.

Cop: Why not

Me: I paid it online last week and it hasn’t come in the mail yet

Cop: Did they say how long it would take?

Me: No, but I was already thinking if it wasn’t in the mail today I would call tomorrow to check

Cop: Sit here, I’ll be right back.

About now I’m texting out that I just got pulled over……cop comes back

Cop: Here’s your license.  I’ll let you go but be aware you could get pulled over at any time until you get the new stickers.

Me:  Yes sir…thank you

And then he just went back to his car and left. That was it.  Shorted stop I’ve ever been involved in I tell ya.  I swear once I got stopped and he had me pulled over for like 45 mins.  Course it was 3 am and we were in another state.  Anyways, I finally got out of a ticket!!  Yea me!

A mom can hope right??  I’m meeting with a lady tomorrow night and so far things are very promising.  She is only asking the $50 a week rate and then we will work out the full day issues.  When I meet her though I’m going to bring up the $15 day offer for full days and see what she says.  the average is $15-$20 around here so I’ll go up to that but we’ll see.  We’ve talked on the phone a few times and emailed back and forth.  Discussing parenting and other issues and how we handle things.  She seems to be right on target with how I am which is awesome. Even better, her daughter is in the same program at the same school as J.  A different teacher but they would have the same schedule and everything and they are the same age.  I can’t wait!  Keep your fingers crossed this works.  I’m still looking into the after school program to see how that is as well.  Oh ya, and a benefit of this lady, she is on my way home from work.  No more driving and extra 30 mins each night to get J!

Hard to believe that after all the planning and hours spent preparing it’s finally over.  but J had a blast and it was worth it in the end.  Of course I have nearly 30 servings of cake in my freezer at the moment but it was still worth it. 

 

My Birthday Princess

J and her best bud, fiance, boyfriend, etc

Making a princess dress out of paper streamers

The princess cake. All home made and took a lot of hours. Thanks again Robyn!!!

Singing Happy Birthday

Blowing out the candles

A close up

I’m addicted to this show and it’s not even being produced anymore.  Leave it to me to find a show I love after it’s ended.  LOL  On a positive note since every season is on DVD I can watch them all with out having to wait several months for the next season to come out.  Side note, grey’s anatomy should be starting again soon…I need to check!!  Anyways I got hooked on this and will be finishing season 3 soon.  Not my favorite season so far.  so many twists and changes in it.  The producers must like to be cruel though b/c the trend is to give you want you want and then snatch it away.  Hence Sydney and Vaughn finally hooking up and then in the next episode she wakes up and it’s 2 years later and he’s married someone else.  what the heck??  Hopefully soon he’ll realize his wife is a double agent and get rid of her so my two favorite people can get back together!  I’ll have season 4 started by the end of the weekend and tehre’s only 5 total.  Only downer is I’m getting the discs through netflix so I get 1 dvd at a time.  Blah, I hate weekends.  But, as I said before at least it’s not several months!!

This is probably a sore subject amont not only single parents but married ones as well.  Does anyone else ever feel like the rates are just so astronomical???  Seriously, how can you even afford to put a kid in daycare these days???  With J I’ve been paying $75 (we actually do $15 day) week for full time care.  yes, most of you are going to say wow thats cheap!  Around here thats the average and yes our rates are cheaper than a lot of areas.  Northern VA could easily be 200+ week from what I hear.  How coudl you even afford to work at that rate??  Anyways, I’ve been paying the $75 week for full time, 7:30 am to 5:30 pm.   She fed her breakfast, lunch and a snack.  I found out recently she has been feeding her dinner to by her own decision.  Nothing we agreed on her doing.   Now, Jayden is in school till 2:30 every day.  So she is at the babysitters for 3hours a day MAX.  The babysitter no longer feeds her unless she does that dinner on occasion like before.  But thats it.  I brought up the possiblity of adjusting the rate I’m paying her which would help me out a bit.  We didn’t qualify for free or reduced lunches so I’m having to pay $15 a week to the school for that now.  Plus supplies and what ever else I have to do.  You would think it was the end of the world!!!  I suggest $50 a week flat rate.  That would be regardless of days she was there just a flat rate each week.  Right now if J misses a day she doesn’t get paid for it.  On top of that I offered to pay her the $15 for any full days she has J like for holidays or teacher conference days.  That would be on top of the $50 weekly rate!  Does that really sound so bad??  Is it really that unreasonable??  You would think.  I can remember when we were little my dad paid $75 week for all three of us kids for the week.  Yes, thats total not each child.  It just seems like the rates are getting so high that eventually who in the world is going to be able to afford them.  yet, it’s like a vicious circle b/c you have to work to pay other bills.  So you gotta work more hours or more than 1 job just to cover it all.   Does it ever end??

Anyone who knows my normal internet habits knows that most nights you’ll find me online.  Between work, school, and keeping up with personal contacts I can log some serious internet house.  At the old house we had DSL through Verizon and it worked fine.  Wireless in the house so I could access anywhere.  Even out on the patio which was nice so jayden could play and I could still see her.  When we moved I didn’t have them transfer service as I needed to cut every expense I could for a bit.  Now 2 months later I have everything 100% current so I started looking at my options to have internet at home again.  I was still on periodically at home if my laptop would find an open signal but you know thats not reliable and you have no idea where it’s coming from.  Not really the best idea.  So, today I made the move and just did the wireless internet through my cell company.  Scored an awesome deal on the network card and the service is cheaper than doing DSL or Cable.  Plus I get the added advantage of complete mobility.  It’s unlimited access nationwide so whether I go to a clients house for a policy review or back home to my mom’s to visit, I’ll have access.  Ya, I’m an internet addict!!  LOL