Some Unexpected News

Sorry I haven't been on in awhile, I've been fighting a cold..or so I thought. I was experiencing sneezing, coughing, stuffy head, and throwing up but what I realized I wasn't experiencing was my "monthly friend", that's right I'm pregnant w/ my fourth. This came as a total surprise to me since my husband and I have NOT been trying and have always been very careful. I wish I could say I'm thrilled but for some reason I'm everything but. I was just about to go back to school and do something for myself and now I feel like all of that has been put on hold or at least for now. I hope I don't sound ungrateful, I really do see every child as a blessing I"m just confused and sad for me right now as this came completely out of left field and changes everything. I want to turn to someone who can give me answers as to deal w/ an unwanted pregnancy so therefore I ask has anyone experienced this before?

Cover Story of Yahoo: Mamma's Angry!

I just got done reading the cover story on Yahoo.com and I cannot believe what I read it got me in such a frenzy that I had to come right here and blog, blog, blog. The title read "Some Families Feel Poor on $250,000 a year" my reply is "come the F' on! The mother in the story (who considers herself middle class) goes on to complain that she would like a bigger house other than the 2500 sqft one the family of five is living in now, and that their monthly income is $12,000 but after taxes, medical, 401K and their two mortgages one for their primary home and one for their vacation home which combine equal $4000 a month there isn't much left for wants. UGH, I would love to take this lady into my home for a week and make her realize that she's got it pretty darn good!

I have a family of five and we live in a 1700 sqft house and live on one income as I stay home with our kids and our income is about half what that ungrateful woman makes by herself. Would I love a bigger house, sure, would I love a vacation home, sure, would I love to make a combined income of $250,000 a year, absolutely but this day and age I'm thankful to have a roof over my head, food on my table and decent clothes on our backs as so many (in our own country) don't.

What do you think? Click Here for the story.

Hourly Rate For A Sitter?

I've been craving a date night with my husband and it seems like since we had our third child a date night has become a complete thing of the past. We moved to NC from NY about three years ago which means no extended family around and no free babysitting :( I do have wonderful friends that have offered and in fact have taken my kids for a few hours so we can go out to dinner and whatnot but I feel terrible asking them to often as they have two children of their own and I'd be asking them to watch more than they have themselves, so I went on a hunt for a teenage babysitter. To my surprise I found the most wonderful girl who was fantastic w/ my daughters and managed to juggle getting all three down for bed. I had her sit for me one night so my husband and I could go out to dinner and a comedy club w/ my in laws when they were down visiting. We were gone about 4 hours total and when we returned my mother in law, after insisting, paid her $40 ($10 per hour). The short of the long is that now i'm afraid to call her back to sit because I can't afford the $10 an hour rate that she was paid last time, don't get me wrong she was a fabulous sitter and deserves every penny but if I pay her $10 an hour then I might as well sit home because I can't afford to do anything else. I'm not sure what the going rate is these days for an occasional sitter, am I being to cheap or is $10 an hour really the going rate?

JOKE OF THE DAY- Doctors Visit

Doctors Visit

A man and his wife goes to the Doctors office, the man who has a hearing
problem is there for a physical, the doctor tells the man he will need a
urine and stool sample, The man says Hunh ! The docor repeats himself I will
need a urine and stool sample, hunh ! this time the man looks at his wife and
asks what did he say?

The wife answers in a loud voice "HE NEEDS TO SEE YOUR UNDERWEAR.

(HT: ALnJr2)

The Nerve: Turned Away Cause I Couldn't Pay

Ever been turned away at a doctors office cause you couldn't pay your co-pay that day? Well today marked a first for me. I scheduled an appt. at a new doctors office, it had been awhile since my last physical and I hadn't had one since moving down here to NC. I chose an office that was affiliated with the hospital that I had my youngest daughter at since I LOVED that hospital but unfortunately the hospital and this office did not have the same values. I will never return there again and I say this as someone who didn't get passed the waiting room.
After driving around trying to find the place I entered the waiting room and proceeded to fill out the necessary paperwork for a first time patient. Forty minutes after entering the building I was still waiting in the waiting room when the receptionist called me to the front and handed me back my insurance card and asked me for my co pay. I explained to her that my husband didn't get paid till tomorrow and that there wasn't enough money in our acct. to pay the co pay till then and asked if they could bill me for the $20. She told me that they couldn't do that and that I'd have to reschedule. What an inconvenience and all over $20 that I could pay the next day. I wish I had known how unwilling this practice was to accommodate their patients as my husband had to take the morning off work to watch our three kids so I could go, get up early and not eat or drink anything as they instructed I do so for a physical and make me sit there for 45 minutes just to be told they couldn't see me. Obviously this practice is more concerned about making a dollar than the well being of people. I was so disappointed, not so much over the money as I do think it was a pretty ridiculous reason for me not to be seen, but over the fact that I finally was able to do something for myself, to take care of myself and like most things it was put on hold. Tough start to the week but hopefully the rest will go smoother. :)

JOKE OF THE DAY- Lost Her Mind

Oh Gosh," sighed the wife one morning, "I'm convinced my mind is almost completely gone!"

Her husband looked up from the newspaper and commented, "I'm not surprised: You've been giving me a piece of it every day for twenty years!"

(HT: Clean Joke)

Happy Easter!!!

Happy Easter everyone! It's a beautiful day here in sunny North Carolina, I got up extra early this morning, crawled over my 4yr old and 13 month old (who were off course in bed w/ me) and proceeded outside to hide the Easter eggs. I, or shall I say the Easter Bunny hid them so well that it took forever for the kids to find them. After several time of them circling the area w/ no luck I , the Easter Bunny decided to step in to help but instead of finding eggs I discovered that the Easter Bunny was suffering from a mild case of early Alzheimer's as she forgot where she put them. Luckily all the eggs were discovered after some time but I've noticed that since I've had children I've slowly started losing my mind. I catch myself starting to put milk in the pantry and cereal in the fridge, going to the store for something and leaving there w/ everything but that item and doing head counts in the car to make sure that i didn't leave anyone behind.
Have you ever felt that having children has made your mind cloudy?

JOKE OF THE DAY: Prison vs. Moms

JOKE OF THE DAY:

---

In prison, you get three square meals a day.

At home, you cook three square meals a day and try to get your kids to eat it.

In prison, you get an hour each day in the yard to exercise and mingle.

At home you get to clean the yard up so you can mow it so your kids can spread more toys all over it so that you can go out and clean it again because little Jr. can't sleep without his latest lego creation.

In prison, you get to watch TV, cable even.

At home, you get to listen to your children fight over the remote control and get treated to hours and hours of mindless cartoons thanks to cable.

In prison, you can read whatever you want and attend college for free.

At home, you get to read weekly readers starring Dick, Jane, and Spot and worry about how to send Jr. to college and still be able to eat for the next twenty years.

In prison, all your medical care is free.

At home, you have to pawn your mother's silver and fill out trillions of papers for insurance and hope the doctor will see you before you die.

In prison, if you have visitors, all you do is go to a room, sit, talk and then say good-bye when you are ready or your time is up.

At home, you get to clean for days in advance and then cook and clean up after your guests and hope that they will one day leave.

In prison, you can spend your free time writing letters or just hang out in your own space all day.

At home, you get to clean your space and everyone else's space, too, and what the heck is free time again?

In prison, you get your own personal toilet.

At home, you have to physically hold the bathroom door shut in order to keep from having someone standing over you demanding to know how long till you're done so you can do something for them.

In prison, the prison laundry takes care of all your dirty clothes.

At home, you get to take care of them yourself, plus everybody else's, and get yelled at because somebody's favorite shirt isn't clean.

In prison, they take you everywhere you need to go.

At home, you take everybody else where they need to go.

In prison, the guards transport all your personal effects for you and make sure nothing is missing.

At home, you have to lug around everybody else's stuff in your purse and then wonder who went in it and took your last dollar.

In prison, there are no screaming or whining children or spouses asking you to do something else for them, or screaming at you because you didn't.

At home....stop me when I get to the downside of jail, will ya?

(HT: Clean Joke)

Morning Routine - Starting Something New

7:30am I awake, get breakfast ready for 3 kids, school lunches packed, kids dressed and off to school. 8:15am rolls around, my husband of 7yrs kisses me goodbye as he heads off to work and at 8:16 the anxiety sets in. I’m alone and the somewhat organized list of morning events that I listed above really go nothing like that it usually goes something more like this; 7:30 climb over my 4yr old and 13 month old that have snuck into bed with us during the night, pour two bowls of cereal for the older kids then cut up bananas, a piece of toast and a baby bottle of milk for the youngest; scrounge through the pantry for something to pack in the school lunches as times are tough and the pantry isn’t as full as it used to be. Then after some disagreements w/ my 4yr old on what she is to wear to school because a Christmas dress isn’t really appropriate in the month of May, my husband of 7yrs kisses me goodbye and heads off to work at 8:15am….8:16am anxiety. I do LOVE my life and wouldn’t change it for anything in the world but at times I feel alone and wish I had someone to run to with my problems of the day. I have wonderful friends and a supportive husband but I don’t want to bother them everyday with my dilemmas but at the same time I wish I had a place to vent, rant and rave, get things that are bottled up out. Therefore I’m starting this blog as a precursor to hopefully something larger. I’d like this to be a place where moms such as myself can come to vent, share feelings, exchange ideas, look for words of encouragement and find peace of mind.
Mamma's Anonymous is currently looking for some writers so if you're interested please feel free to contact me. Thank you!