Make a Baby

Okay.. a little background here. Katherine has asked where babies come from. At her age I seriously doubt she had in mind a biology lesson so I explained it to her like this... When a mommy and daddy get married and have so much love between them. All that love makes a baby. She was totally cool with that explanation. This has been months maybe a year or two ago that I explained it to her.

Fast forward to today. We are in the car and the subject of babies came up. Katherine announces okay mom and dad make a baby right now. You've got a lot of love so make one hurry up. I turned to Danny and said.. honey come on love me right here and make a baby for Katherine. We were cracking up so hard. I think all of this was a logically conclusion to wanting a sibling and Valentine's Day being yesterday... if only making a baby were that easy. Katherine really wants a baby brother or sister... and as much as she wants one she still continues to creep into our bad in the wee hours of the morning and sleep with us. I was hoping that her need for a sibling would motivate her to sleep in her own bed all night... but unfortunately not.

Katherine's Favorite Restaurant

Our income tax refund check arrived on Friday!! CELEBRATE GOOD TIMES COME ON!

Well it wasn't a fortune, but it was enough to pay off the credit card and put a good chunk of money towards the principle on the honda. Katherine begged to go to the beans and rice restuarant. It's real name is Salsalito's. But when she was a toddler she loved the beans and rice. Now she won't touch the beans and rice... all she wants is chips and her special salsa. I am not kidding this kid will eat a whole bowl of chips and she really has to be in the mood to share her "special" salsa. It's the mild salsa and I think they just leave the jalapeno out... not real sure but to me it tastes a little like chunky tomato sauce, it's good though. So we (I really mean me) gave in and told her okay. This was our first mistake (I really mean my). We ate there and had flautas, these are soooo yummy and they are a favorite of Katherine's, Jessica's, Dawn's and I.

We go home and dinner time comes around. Do I want to cook now? NO WAY, so we decide to use the gift card we have for Outback steakhouse. I tell Katherine she has to eat a Kangaroo burger... come to think of it this could be why my child is so picky... I might be teasing her and scaring her for life... hmmm... oh well don't they always blame the mother for how they were raised?

We drive to Outback and the place is packed so we decide to go to home depot to buy a toilet rebuild kit. Out toilet has been flusing on it's own lately. If this doesn't fix the situation then I declare that we do indeed have a ghost in the house. I have suspected it, but no scientific proof yet, but I digress. After that Danny says let's eat somewhere else.. where? No one wants what mommy wants and that's okay. Danny was willing to give in to me, but I said nah... majority wins. Then out of his mouth comes Chinese... no not that word.. not the dreaded Chinese. Too late... Katherine is now all excited and wants to go. She loves chinese thanks to her grandma taking her there. Then the after thought sinks in. Danny doesn't want to go because it's in a "bad" part of town. PULEEEZE! I work accross the street from it. Now he tells me I should be scared?? So he refuses to go there.. so where do we wind up... accross town at a Chinese buffet (have to have a buffet because Katherine likes the oh so authentic chinese mac and cheese and chicken nuggets. We walk in and it's $12 per adult and based on height $5 for Katherine. We so did not get $12 worth of food in my opinon. And I so never want to go back there. The food was okay and I stress okay... but not super duper. And my starving child ate like a bird. On the way out a kid claimed he just threw up in the goldfish pond... I did not go and find out if he was kidding or not... just kept on walking and trying not to think of the mental image. Oh.. and yes they were parked right next to us. Oh did I mention we stopped at another Outback to see how long the wait was and it was an hour wait? So we started out around 5 PM to eat and would up eating around 2 1/2 hours later... My mistake eating out at lunch which put me in the mood to not want to cook later on. Thank goodness it was coming out of the refund money... but I'm thinking I may have fallen off the Dave Ramsey wagon. No fear... get back up and start all over again.

Things I've learned since becoming a wife and mother

1. M&M's will melt and slide right out of a child's nose, no need to extract them.

2. ravioli stains will not come out of clothes no matter what.

3. no matter how sure I am of what my husband is hungry for that's not it.

4. kids can make tears on command.

5. when you have no kids and you say I will never do that when I have my own kids.. keep it to yourself because you will, just wait.

6. antibacterial wipes should be kept in the car, in your purse, in the house, in the backpack and anywhere else because rota virus lurks everywhere. Wipe down all public grocery carts, highchairs and anywhere else your child can touch.

7. Even Santa Claus can pass rota virus to your child.... and yes a week in the hospital around Christmas is not fun.

8. You can not depend on hospital staff to take care of your child like you would.

9. Husbands are funny creatures they transform instantaneously when their daughters are born.

10. Not matter how manly a man my husband is he can still have a moment or two of being a girly girl when his baby girl asks him too.

11. My husband wants to feel like "the" provider and it's much better to let him feel that way instead of saying it's an equal thing.

12. Marriage is not 50/50 it's more like 110/110.

13. I can not compete with football, hunting or fishing.

14. Children hear everything even when you think they aren't listening.

15. Children repeat everything you don't want them to, at the worst possible time.

16. My husband has a really soft heart he just protects it well with being "macho".

17. My husband tries his very best and when I accuse him of not trying it really hurts him.

18. There are many times my husband does stuff that he hates just because he thinks I want him too.

19. You don't marry just your husband you marry his family too.

20. I can sleep through snoring... I just need to fall asleep before it starts.

21. I can shake my husband while he's sleeping and tell him to roll over and he will... and he won' t wake up or even remember it.

22. Men can have nightmares.

23. Don't brag your child never wet the bed, because after years of being trained they can and will wet the bed.

24. Mothers do have the magical power to look into their children's eyes and tell if they have been up to no good.

25. My husband is good at ideas, but the planning and little details.... not so good.

26. My husband is becoming more like me and I am becoming more like him... and that's a good thing.

27. If I let my husband be him he lets me be me and that's a good thing.

28. As much as I love my husband we do need our alone time and that's not an insult to either one of us.

29. When your pregnant you can get your husband to paint your toe nails.

30. When your pregnant you can get your husband to do almost anything.

31. My husband may not be any braver than I am but he will never let me know that for sure and when he's there I feel braver.

32. You child may skip a stage like the terrible twos but even at age 6 they will go back and master that stage.

33. I've thought I've loved things before but until I got married and had I child those other loves were just crushes.

34. Every day I learn something new and that's never going to stop.

35. Even after working and being exhausted there is always some reserved energy for your child.

36. You can sleep (maybe not well) but can sleep with a child's foot in your ribs, elbow in your ear and their drool on your pillow and it doesn't bother quite as much as you thought it would.

37. No matter how angry you are at your child when they get puppy dog eyes and tell you they love you. You just can't stay that mad anymore.

38. If your scared of needle like I am it's even more scary watching your child get a shot.

39. You really do forget just how painful childbirth was.. you remember it hurt bad but you know you'd do it again.

40. It never gets old to hear I love you from your husband even when it's to end a phone call.

41. You thought doing homework was bad when you had it... it's worse to get your kids to do their homework... and their homework is so much harder than yours ever was even in kindergarten.

42. Children can reach things even when you put them up... and they seem to naturally want to be hair dressers... scissors and hair are a dangerous combination in the hands of a child.

43. No matter how much my daughter protests about being tickled too much she loves it and will ask you to do it some more even after you've stopped.

I'm sure there are more things I've learned but these are just a "few" off the top of my head... anyone care to add more cause I'd love to get a heads up before I have to learn by experience.

Addiction can be a good thing

Okay... we are totally addicted and not ashamed to admit it. We are addicted to Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover. Now most are complaining about the economy and we are in that group. My husband and I daily complain about gas prices... see he is addicted to checking the price of a barrel of oil and wondering why when it's so low the prices don't decrease and sometime go up. We also question what's up with oil companies still making the largest profits ever! However one good thing has come of it, the economy has inspired us to get serious about money. I don't think I ever was "serious" about money. I just wanted money to get things I needed or thought I needed. Well after my husband read Dave Ramsey's book we sat down together and talked about money. We never really talked about money before other than I don't have money for that now do you? I gave Danny Dave Ramsey's book for Christmas, after what happened I'm thinking I should have given it to him earlier.

So a back tracking a little bit. Right before Christmas he took my car into a different dealer for an oil change. The dealer we bought the car from was farther away and the highway was under construction so he chose to go to a closer one. NEVER EVER AGAIN! This dealer called me up at home and wanted $1,000.00 worth of repairs okay'd. I think not! But in the process of him "waiting" for the oil to be changed he fell in love. Yes he fell in love with some cute red head... okay a red F-150 crew cab. So by close of business he had a new truck. This is why I should have given him the book earlier because instead of paying off one truck he owned, he rolled that loan over into his new truck. He is now beating himself up for the spontaneous decision. On the bright side we do like this truck better and he owes less than blue book value so it wasn't a totally bad decision.

But back to the book... Danny finished reading the book and decided we are going to declutter and sell all our wonderful treasures we don't use on craigslist. To our surprise we are really getting decent money for our treasures. He's sold fishing poles/reels, a pack-n-play, crib, numerous cordless power tools, a tent, stereo equipment and more that I am forgetting. But to make a long story shorter we are addicted to having no credit card or vehicle debt in the near future. The only "loan" we will have is our home. Is that cool or what? Our vehicles are new enough we plan on having enough time so save up and pay cash for our next vehicle. This economy has inspired us to live different than most Americans. We want to live debt free. And we are okay with not being able to take a vacation or splurge on a few extras until then. In fact my husband now admires my freakish addiction to coupons clipping and the whole coupon game. He now gets my excitement as I come home and tell him I've saved $40.00 in coupons at the grocery store... and we don't even have double coupons here in San Antonio. He still has a little way to go when I want to go to the 99 cent store for produce... but come on fresh veggies for 99 cents??? How can you beat that? If anyone wants tips on coupon clipping just ask. I am not the guru I want to be and I am still learning, but I can point you in the right direction. I am still working on saving $40.00 then I should take the $40.00 and put that into savings or reducing the credit card debt. But you know something... my husband is just so good at it by the end of February we will be credit card debt free and unless something major and unforeseen happens that credit card is going in the safe and not going to see the light of day for a very long time. We may even have to have it cremated and the ashes scattered over our local Wal-mart. But I still hold an attachment to the card... I need it like a security blanket... what if the worst happens and we need it for an emergency. But I am working through my feelings and hopefully without the help of an expensive therapist I can let go in the near future. I only wish I would have been inspired to live this way when I started working. Imagine I could be independently wealthy by now! But for now our home is content living with our new addiction. I so love my hubby for getting me hooked and for being the hyper focused man I met almost 10 yrs. ago.