All In A Mom’s Day

It’s always hard when things aren’t going smoothly in your life. I always try to remember that there are people who are going through worse things then we are but that doesn’t really make what what we’re going through any easier. Tuesday morning our 11 ½ year old Golden Retriever was sick. I knew this wasn’t just normal sick – it was serious sick. My husband asked why I thought it was so serious – how to explain that to a man?? – I just knew. We left for the vet at 2:00 and she confirmed that it was serious. She sent us to the local emergency clinic where they also do veterinary imaging and critical care. They are open 24 hours and our vet told us it is the Mayo Clinic of Veterinary Hospitals. We had to leave our Golden there overnight. He needed IV fluids because he had a fever and a mass inside him which they had not yet been able to identify. By Wednesday we found out that the mass was a tumor.

These were two very emotional days – everyone time I talked to someone and told them what was going on or every time I got more bad news from the vet the tears started flowing. Our Golden was our baby before we had kids. He was a gift to me from my husband before we got married. I love dogs. My family had a German Shepherd and a Golden Retriever when I was growing up. This part of loving dogs is very difficult. Luckily, his fever came down and we were able to bring him home last night. He didn’t want to spend another night in the clinic and we didn’t want him to either. There are such difficult decisions you have to make at the end. His fever seems to be staying down so I’m hoping that he will continue to do okay and he will be able to pass quietly in his sleep while he’s at home with us. They told us he wasn’t in any pain and although he’s weak he can still walk around (slowly) and he has eaten a little and usually drinks on his way out and back in after he’s gone outside. My kids aren’t overly attached to him so it’s mostly my husband and I dealing with all of the emotions. The only thing I’ve been pondering is exactly what I should tell the kids when he’s no longer here. I think I’ll go do some Internet searching to see if there are any good ideas out there.

I hope you’re having a better week than us.

I didn’t get to post this yesterday because our Internet connection was down. Our Golden is doing a little better today. He’s eating and drinking a little more and is getting around a little better. We know not to get our hopes up because he still has the tumors. We’re just trying to take it one day at a time.

We have two birthday parties to go to this weekend so that should get us in a more upbeat mood. It will at least get us out of the house and give the kids something fun to do. I hope you have a good weekend.

As I write this the day is almost over so I hope it was a good one for you. I had a good day which included a good cardiac report at the doctor’s office, lunch at Carrabba’s with my husband, a little bit of shopping (you know there’s always a high probability that a good day for me is going to include shopping), my daughter’s Valentine’s Day party at school, a fun time opening cards and presents with the kids and one of their favorite meals (anytime of day – today it was dinner) pancakes with lots of syrup and colored sprinkles. Oh, and did I forget to mention that I had a babysitter for the twins for most of the day. I love all 3 of my kids very much but it’s always nice to have some alone time so you can recharge and come back with renewed energy.

Normally, I try to get my mom to watch the kids when I have a doctor’s appointment but I also promised my 6 year old that I would volunteer to help at her Valentine’s Day party. My appointment was at 10 and her party was at 1. I figured I could get a babysitter, have time for lunch with my husband in between the two commitments and make a day of it. As it turns out, my husband decided to leave work for the day at lunchtime so we both went to my daughter’s school (she was ecstatic). That made a nice day for everyone – even the twins were happy because they had someone focused completely on them (not their mom who is always trying to get something done around the house in between paying attention to them). All in all it was a good day. However, I do have to share something that happened . . . read on . . . .

I love my husband (he reads my blog so I felt that little preface was necessary) but he did something today that was just one of those typical guy moments . . . last week when we discussed what we were going to do for Valentine’s Day I told him that since we were going to lunch let’s not bother with cards this year. That’s a big deviation from the norm for me – I’m a big card person and a huge supporter of Hallmark. My older daughter doesn’t know that anyone besides Hallmark makes cards. I have to keep an extra supply of Gold Crown stickers on hand so that if I buy a non-Hallmark card (gasp!) she still has the crown sticker to put on the envelope. If she happens to make a card for someone she draws a crown on the back of the card. Anyway, back to my point, now that we have three kids and a bigger house payment cards don’t seem quite as important. However, old habits die hard, and I did specifically tell him that he didn’t need to buy me a card but just so he knows each of the kids did get him a card. So after the kids open their cards/presents they each take their card over to Daddy so he can ooh and aah over their crayon drawings. After he opens the third one he looks at me and mouths “What about you?” Now, what exactly is that supposed to mean? Did he think I bought cards for the kids to give me? I wasn’t overly disappointed (I did get to go shopping by myself today) but I did think it would be nice if he could have at least had each of the kids make me a card just to show that he put forth some effort on my behalf. Oh well, there’s always next year.

Hope you had a good day filled with plenty of love!

This isn’t something I normally do (AAAHEM – sorry, just had to clear my throat) but I found myself in the car at lunchtime today and the kids needed to eat and we had someplace to be so I decided to do fast food and let them eat in the car. Normally (I mean, in rare cases when we’ve found ourselves in this situation before) we have gone to Wendy’s or McDonalds. However, one day we drove through Burger King and I discovered something interesting . . . their milk has a foil type covering over the opening. I started to open it and then thought better of it. I just poked the straw through it (well, actually it was too strong I had to use something else – at home a fork works well and in the car the tip of the key will do) and that way there is less concern about spilling. Needless to say, when I found myself in this situation today, I made the fast food decision based on what the top of the milk jug has covering it and we headed to Burger King. Somehow, with all of the advertising they do, I don’t think the fast food people would be thrilled by the way I decided which one to give my business to but that’s life as a mom. If it’s potentially less work for me (not having to wash the car seat cover after milk is spilled on it) then they have my vote. Of course, the toy wasn’t anything great – who needs two bobble head kings? – but my 2 ½ year olds don’t pay much attention to that. It’s my 6 year old who decides on the fast food joint by what type of giveaway they have – My Little Pony, Hello Kitty, Polly Pocket – she’s there (well, only on those rare occasions!).

My 2 ½ year old daughter woke up with an ear infection this morning which meant a trip to the doctor for antibiotics. The 1:00 trip to the doctor meant no nap time at home today. Since nap time was already missed and we had time to kill before picking up my other daughter from school I figured I might as well run errands. I decided to go to Marshalls to look for a baby gift because I keep getting postcards and e-mails about this huge baby event they have going on. I didn’t really see any great big baby event but it turns out that they were having 25% off all of their clearance for the next three days. That was a good and bad thing – I’m sure I bought more then I would have (if there hadn’t been an extra 25% off) and more then I should have (I didn’t really need everything I bought). I’m still working on retraining my thinking. I need to be in frugal mode (not spending money) not in frugal mode (buying things at a good price) – see my previous post about saving money.

When we were baby shopping before I gave birth to the twins we went through the big debate about a side by side double stroller or a long front/back one. I talked to other people, I went to as many stores as possible and I checked things out online. To make a long story not too long, we ended up with the Peg Perego Aria – a side by side stroller. For the most part, I have been very happy with this stroller. At first I was nervous when I would go places using the stroller – I was always worried I might not fit through the door but the only place I ever found that I couldn’t go with the stroller was into the exam room at my pediatrician’s office. I could fit it through all the other doors of the office – just not into the exam room. The only bad part is that the kids are sitting right next to each other. This is fine when everyone is happy but on a day when my daughter has a fire engine red ear infection and she’s missed her nap and mommy’s been shopping for too long I tend to question that stroller decision. You would think that someone with an earache would be gentle with other people’s ears. I’m here to tell you that’s not so. I don’t know if my daughter thought that my son should be having sympathy pains but besides hitting him and fussing at him she kept grabbing his ear and trying to twist it. I finally decided the best course of action would be to remove my son from the situation so I took him out of the stroller as I was going through the check out line. This never ceases to amaze me – maybe it’s a twin thing – but what does he do? He walks back over to the stroller and stands right next to her so she can beat on him a little more. We finally got back to the car and my daughter was asleep within seconds of getting buckled into her car seat.

Well that was my day from 12 o’ clock until 2:30. I hope you had a better day – with less fighting, no ear-aches and a healthier lunch. If not, I hope you at least got to save some money on clearance items that you really needed!! Tomorrow can only be a better day (or at least a mom can hope).

There’s a least two different ways of interpreting what someone means by saving money: one is being frugal and spending the least amount of money possible on everything you need to purchase. The other is spending money on needs and wants but looking around to get the best deal before buying. Lately, especially at Christmas time, I was in the latter category. Now that we’re in a new year and our finances have changed a bit I’m falling more into the first category. This is a difficult transition to make. I love to shop. I love to find great deals and be able to take advantage of them. I need to retrain my thinking.

At some point last year I did become more thrifty when I was shopping for groceries. We used to just go to the grocery store and buy whatever we needed, whenever we needed it. Some trips our bill would be over $200. I started reading things on the Internet that made me realize that I always look for deals when purchasing other things and I should do this with buying food too. I read some information about stockpiling and realized that it was a good idea to stock up on items when they were on sale so that you didn’t have to pay full price the next time you run out. There’s another blog that I read all of the time. Sarah has some great frugal ideas and she has a post about stockpiling. It’s definitely worth reading. Now we try to keep our weekly shopping trips to around $100. The only catch is that I did start buying food at other places (Target, WalMart, Walgreens, etc) so it’s a little harder to keep track of since I’m not buying all of my food in one store.

I’m still working on getting organized in the house and I think that once I’m better organized I will do better with keeping track of things and using coupons. I’ve organized both of my daughters’ rooms, most of my office and my kitchen. The main places I have left are my dining room, my bedroom and my laundry room. I’m making progress so I’m happy about that. It’s nice to feel a sense of accomplishment. I also think that once I’m more organized I’ll have more time to search the Internet for good deals. I’ll try to share whatever I find here with you. So, whichever way you are looking at savings, I hope you get some good deals this week. Have a good one!