Holy expensive..but why?

Ok, so far my day has been going pretty smooth. Well, smooth. Well, sort of. Kane is doing his usual napping every 2 hours and Jenna went with my in laws. I have been doing laundry and cleaning since the "cleaning" fairy decided to possess my body all day! But as smooth sailing as I think the day is going, their are sure to be some bumps along the way.

It starts off with me walking downstairs in the basement only to see my hot water tank leaking. Luckily, my basement has a drain in the floor and it's slanted so the water has a steady stream right down the hole, but to be on the safe side I decide to pick up anything of value and move them. This is where the fairy intruded my body. She must have entered through the holes in my ear because I swear I hear a little voice telling me to tackle all of the laundry piling up. So their starts that project..and just so you know, I HATE laundry! (just ask Marc)

Then I proceed to go upstairs and look through the coupons for the week..nothing as usual. I always wanted to know why we have to buy 2 of everything to get $1.00 off? Why not just buy one and save the money that the other one would cost? SO anyway, of course all I find is a $1.50 off Pampers, big deal..the darn things cost $9.99 for one package anyway. Which leads me to my title for today's blog: Why is everything so expensive? Diapers are made from "junk", or some sort of enviornmentally wrong cotton that isn't biodegradable. We usually go through a diaper every 2-3 hours so divide that by 24 hours and we have 8-12 diapers a day. A package of diapers lasts maybe, a week or so depending on if you have a 7 year old that likes to use them for her stuffed animals.

OK moving onto baby food. I read on the tiny baby food jars that they contain water and natural fruits. Ok, water, how much would that cost and maybe a half of a fruit added into the "free" water? Then they have to put it in these pretty glass jars with lids made out of 14 karat gold, well,, that's what I like to think. If I am going to pay .55 cents for one teeny, tiny jar that lasts one feeding at least I can pretend that their is really ground up Fillet Mignon. So please, someone explain to me why water and "processed fruit" is so expensive?

Needless to say after spending maybe 45 minutes in the grocery store and 4 bags of "nothing" later, I dropped $96.00? SO as I am walking out shaking my head, I look down only to see this two big blue eyes staring at, babbling in baby talk and it dawned on me, they could charge me $50 for a bag of diapers and $5.00 for a jar of food and it wouldn't matter how "holy expensive" it is because my little bundle of joy is priceless!

Let's Get ur' Done!

Well after 8 years of stalling the renovations for our house, we are finally nearing the end. It's funny how fast time flies then you realize oops, I should have done this 8 years ago! Thanks to both my father and father in law for putting lots of long hours and back breaking work in order to finish this long awaited project! Here are some pics of the hallway and the new carpet. Of course we still have some work but all in all I am very happy with it!

Our carpet went in this morning and even though I am more of a "plush" girl, the Berber turned out nice. I am far from an interior decorator so I have been winging it and so far I am quite impressed with myself! Although my sister in law pointed out that I have many different themes throughout the house including Victorian, modern and 70's! Oh well!

As for the family, Jenna has her first day of cheer leading practice tonight, RAH-RAH! I hope she likes it because she is used to cheering inside and being that this is a little loop league, she will be outside at all times. Her Aunt Amy invited her over for a sleepover so I get a little break! Then I will pick her up bright and early so she can head down to Chautauqua with her grandparents to go on the boat..busy girl!

Kane is being Kane...day after day hoping for something new from him but he is being stubborn! He is eating more cereal and baby food and even sucked on a Popsicle, enjoying every minute of it!

Marc on the other hand is pretty much gone until Sunday. He took a job out of Jamestown and decided instead of staying there for the week, he would drive down and back every day! (for those of you who don't know, that's and 1 1/2 drive each way) He leaves at 4:40 pm and doesn't get home until about 7 am the next morning, ugh. So we consider him gone for the week!

As for me, I am going to relax. I have been very tired these last few days and just want to nap so off I go since Kane is asleep.....Let's get ur' done!

CHA-CHING!!

Well last night was mine and Marc's first date night since before we had Kane! Of course I had to drop both kids off at different grandparents and was quite tired by the time I got home but I mus turd up enough energy to get ready. Marc wanted to go to the casino in Niagara Falls but I really wasn't too keen on the idea. Boy things have sure changed because normally it's me that's itching to go. Anyway, I agreed and off we went. I swear it was like we went through a time warp because before I knew it, we were driving down the road, blaring the radio and relaxing like old days..no Disney channel on Sirius..just plain old, good music! I will tell you poor Marc has been tortured by the Go-Go's since I can remember and sure enough they played them!

As we were walking into the casino Marc said "I'm feelin' lucky tonight" and of course I did my typical eye roll and just kept walking. Long story short, didn't he sit down at a machine and say "I'm feeling this one", inserted his money (which I thought we would never see again) and CHA-CHING!! The machine's bells and whistle started chimming away! After about 2 minutes of listening to the machine I begged him to hit the button to stop it and he wouldn't! I reached over and hit the button in the mean time trying to calculate 2000 quarters, but couldn't process the information! SO here I am saying "gee Marc it's got to be a couple hundred bucks but still couldn't do the math because I was in shock. Out spits the golden ticket and walla....$500 buckaroons! On top of that Mr. Lucky won another $75 from video poker!

All in all it was a great night and I must say having a few glasses of wine again after being "sober" for so long tasted great!

Apologize for the typos!

Really I don't type that bad, I swear! I thought I corrected everything and it showed up uncorrected so I apologize! DUH

Kanes Playdate!

Well yesterday we had a blast! Jenna went with her grandparents to Niagara Falls which left me with a little Kane and mommy time. A dear friend of mine, Mel, who has(7 month old) identical triplet boys invited us over for a play date. Another close friend of mine, Sara also had a baby 3 months ago so she was there as well. The babies were so cute and had so much fun watching each other! The triplets were very vocal and their was no way that Kane could keep up with them so I think he just gave up and internalized everything these little guys were doing!

On the other hand, us moms had fun too! It's amazing to me to think that last summer at this time, Mel was a few months pregnant with the boys, I had just found out I was pregnant, and Sara with her big box of wine had no idea she was even pregnant! Now almost a year later, here we sit with all of our boys in amazement as they grow before our very eyes!

The pictures are as follows: (on the left) Gage, (one of the triplets )and Kane in their bouncers!

(on right) sorry it's an old picture but Kane is in green, then Kyle, and the triplets..sorry

Mel, I can't tell who is who! And my new picts from last night wouldn't uplod.

I love the fact that my little boy already has 4 very close playmates and dear friends for the future! We love you Evan, Gage, Caleb, and Kyle!

World of Infertility-Long!

I am a bit bored right now since I have a few spare momets to myself so I figured I would try to do a quick write up about myself to give everyone an idea of my struggles in life.

I had Jenna when I was 21 and getting married. She was a complete shock to Marc and I because I was alway told that since I never got my "womanly cycle", I would have a hard time conceiving. Low and behold we were blessed with our first miracle. After a few years past and Jenna started getting older, we decided to try for another but again, figured it was near to impossible without help. My doctor agreed and said that Jenna was a miracle and we were better off winning the lottery..so their starts my journey into The World of Infertility.

I had high hopes going in and thought boy this will be easy, pop a few Clomid and I will be pregnant..HA! Month after month, dissapointment after dissapointment lead me into a longing for another child. If anyone has dealt with infertility they know that it consumes your every thought. Every store you walk into, a pregnant lady walks by, or a stroller with a cute little infant glides by and all you can think is why not me? Well after years of nothing, I had enough. Our insurance wouldn't cover treatments because for some strange reason, they don't look at this as a medical problem..go figure? I think I can easily figure out the reason for that! (more pregnancies..more kids..equals..more bills for them to pay!

As the years passed and no baby, I started to give up. Until one day a woman on a talk show explained that she treated herself with fertility meds and was able to have 2 children on her own. Boy how brave of this woman, I thought. Then my brain switched into survival mode. "Hey if she could do this, why couldn't I?" It felt like everything fell right into my lap from that point on. A friend of mine was donating eggs and her cycle fell short so she had extra fertility meds left. After talking to her about my struggles, she offered for a minimal amount to graciously give sell me what she had, needles and all! Thanks to the Internet I was able to get one last medication I needed as well and off we go.

It was the beginning of summer and here I was bravely injecting myself with medication, not knowing what I was doing to my body. I did a lot of research and jotted down what dosage I thought would be right for me etc. In less than 5 weeks and many scary pokes from big needles..I was pregnant! I couldn't believe it..it worked. I spent a total of $140 and it worked! Next comes the denial phase. "What the heck did I just do?" "I wonder how many babies are in there?" Let me tell you I had a week and half of panic until I could get my ultrasound! (keep in mind, my OB/GYN had no idea that these were injectable meds I was using, he thought it was just clomid).

The day finally came and as I lay on that table shaking, every thought imaginable went through my mind. He inserts the wand and up pops my big blob of a fuzzy uterus. Oh my gosh, I see a whole bunch! I couldn't stop staring at the screen trying to count the 20 babies I thought were in there! He starts to point saying "this is your this, and this is your that"..come on already! I wanted to scream.."how many?"

Then it appeared, that amazing little fluttering thing. I knew instantly what it was. My ONE baby had a heartbeat. I felt like I was stronger than life itself, like I could conquer the world with those tiny little flutters. Doctor agreed that their was only one and booted us out to schedule our first prenatal appt.

On February 24, 2008, I delivered my 6 lb. 9 oz. baby boy, Kane Alexander. He has been a blessing to our family and a miracle in itself. I must add a word from our sponsors and say that self medicating isn't always the way to go.. but it worked for me! If I wouldn't have done this I can honestly say that my little man would have never seen the light of day, just the darkness of my ovaries! I hope you enjoyed the honesty of my blog today, and now can understand why I SPOIL my children each and every day!

Happy 5 Months Kane!

I am really way too tired to blog tonight so I figured I would just post a picture of my little man who is officially 5 months old today..Happy 5 months Kane! And no he was not too happy in his Jumperoo when I snapped the picture as you can tell! Will write more tomorrow...off to bed, well actually off to play Scooby Doo with Jenna but SHH don't tell anyone!

Rain Rain Go Away

I swear, you 'd think we lived in Seattle. For the past few weeks it has managed to rain just about once a day. What happened to our nice summers here in Buffalo? Maybe it's just my brain deciding to forget but when I was growing up I went outside everyday during summer vacation and the sun was always shining. Although as I sit here typing, I am starting to think that my brain did that thing where you store away the negative times in your life, never to revisit them again..maybe that's what I did but for now I will say that it was always warm and sunny for the summer months. OR..I could always say that it was global warming like Al Gore and that our planets existence will cease because of landfills and car fumes..but I would rather not go down that road. ::putting up hands to block a punch::

On to the next thing...our day. It started with my father in law coming to paint our upstairs and me begging my seven year old to get in the shower. For some god forsaken reason, Jenna hates taking showers and getting clean. I often wonder if it is her silly little 7 year old brain thinking that she will melt from the clean water running from the shower head. I specifically asked her if she thought that the shower head was a torch that was going to spit out fire and burn her, her response "like no mommy, I don't think that..you are crazy!" Typical 7 year old.

After threatening her a few times she calmly ran into the bathroom when I told her we were going to see Space Chimps(movie) if she didn't get herself in the shower before I change the baby's diaper. It's amazing how kids can turn on their nitrous boosts when you threaten them! All in all we made it to the movies and had a nice time. The movie is hilarious and I recommend it to children and adults alike. Now if only I could get reimbursed for advertising!

Marc hasn't been home much, as usual. Between 3 jobs it's quite hard to find time to be home. These last few weeks have been insanely busy and he doesn't get much more than 4 hours of sleep if that. He is such a trooper though because he never complains and just keeps making money, now again if only I didn't spend it all! Hehe, just kidding.

Kane is being his usual grumpy self. Can't put him down, can't carry him, can't ride in the car..I am starting to question if he should've been a girl?

Jenna is now relaxing after a stressful time at the movies, I feel for her, it's tough being 7 and being bored! I could only dream!

Well off to find something less boring to do then watch tv.......I hope. Btw, just figured I would throw a few pic in of yesterday when we were BORED out of our minds because it was raining, AGAIN.

That was just the intro!

Starting off the day cranky just sucks. My mom watched Jenna last night which I thought would give me a little break but it didn't. They ended up not leaving my house until after 7pm and by that time I was exshausted. By "them" I mean my niece Emmy (7), and 2 nephews David (5) and Dylan (almost 3). (I will put in a picture of all the kids) The kids played very well but managed to wake Kane up everytime I tried to put him down for a nap. Needless to say by the time they left, Kane decided he didn't want to go to sleep for the night. After finally getting him down, don't I get my second wind...ugh. I guess that glass of pepsi probably didn't help but I will never learn that caffiene is a stimulant!

Anyway, after a restless night sleep from that damn glass of pop I managed to fall alseep only to be woken up by Kane every 2 hours...I guess he must have drank some caffienated beverage when I wasn't looking too! By the crack of dawn we were both up trying to enjoy the morning but it's way hard to "try" when your eyes feel like they weigh 100 lbs. Around 8 am Kane was napping as was I and the phone rang.( One day I would love to confront Alexander Graham Bell and ask him what the hell he was thinking for inventing such a nusience!)Anway, it was my darling daughter asking if I brought her precious stuffed animal in from outside. Just once I would love to be stressed about a stuffed animal rather than bills!

So far that is how y day is going and I am sure it isn't going to get an easier...off to pick up my stressed out 7 year old from her stressed out grandma's house!!

Here Goes...

Ok here is my first blog entry! I can't believe that I am actually going to give this a try as I am not a computer wiz and can just about navigate the mouse!

My name is Julie,29 and I am a stay at home mom to two wonderful children. I have been married for almost 8 years to my cute hubby Marc. We live in the beautiful city of Buffalo(just kidding it's not actually beautiful) which is located in New York. My darling husband works various shifts and hours which allows me to stay home and raise my adoring kids.

I have never done this before but figured I would give it a try after seeing a friend of mine start her family blog. After reading hers for a while, I became so enthralled and nosey about her life that I realized I must publish my own! I hope everyone enjoys reading the future trials and tribulations of my life and please feel free to comment...ENJOY!