2009, Birthdays, & Work

Happy New Year! My dad and brother have birthdays in early January. Keith turned 41 on the 3rd and dad turned 63 on the 5th. I'm not sure how mom managed having two birthdays so close together and right after Christmas all of these years. As with the rest of my family, my dad and older brother are amazing. Now, Keith was a little ornery while we were growing up...what with the chasing us around the house with a baseball bat when my parents weren't home at times and locking us outside in the cold frequently. But I have to say that he grew out of that very nicely and is so kind, thoughtful, and caring now. He also tends to be a bit of a dork, but I mean that in the good way. He is very funny and likes to do goofy things that make us laugh. He is a good example for his kids and mine and he is a great dad, just like our dad is. Dad, my daddy...I get very emotional these days when I think of my parents. My dad has always put his family before himself. Growing up, I just thought that was how fathers were. After getting married, I was shocked to find out that isn't always the case. I don't know how I was so blessed to get my dad for my father. One thing that always sticks out in my mind is that my dad has always treated people the same. He shows the same respect for people I would consider scary or possibly crazy (and not in a good way) as he did for distinguished people. I miss being able to see him everyday like I did growing up. Once every couple of months just doesn't quite measure up.

Speaking of birthdays, I have two in January as well, but mine are a little later in the month. As I type this, Nathan and Zachary are both six. They like to call themselves twins during this little overlap in their ages each year. Zachary (my baby) turned six on Tuesday (1/13). Nathan will turn seven on Monday (1/19). Nathan and Zachary really are similar to twins in a lot of ways and people mistake them for twins all the time. They have always had this extremely close bond that I can't quite explain. I love to watch them when they are asleep. Often they are lying there with their arms around each other. It is so cute! I will miss that when they get older. Zachary is the bigger of the two which is funny since he was a preemie. He used to be this tiny, fragile, little thing who had an extended stay in the hospital after he was born. Now he is one big kid. It is hard to believe that my babies are all growing up so fast.

Work. Hmmm....well, one of my New Year's resolutions this year was to be home from work no later than 7:00 p.m. each night. So far, I have done that (but just barely). I really love teaching my little kindergarteners. They are the cutest little things and I love them all. That said, teaching kindergarten is a lot of work. I have taught language arts at the junior high level and self contained classes for grades 8, 7, 5, 4, 3, 2, and K and have found that the amount of work involved increases exponentially the lower the grade is that I teach. However, it is worth it just to know you have touched their lives for the better and to watch them grow. Yesterday was one of my little girl's last day in my class. Her dad doesn't have a job (stupid recession) and they have to move away to Globe to live with relatives. She is just the sweetest little girl! I will miss her so much! Yesterday she was telling me how her feet were hurting her and I told her to take off her shoe so I could see. I thought she had hurt her foot. Her shoes were just too small and they were cutting into the back of her feet. She has very nice parents and she is well cared for and happy, but with no job, I know that they are not able to buy her shoes. I told one of my teacher friends about her and she pitched in some money to help with my plan. After school, I ran to Kmart and picked up a new pair of shoes for her. It was meant to be! She LOVES Hannah Montana. They had Hannah Montana tennis shoes AND they were on sale at an amazing price with one pair left that would fit her. I was so excited! I dropped them off at her house and she was really happy, but she started crying when I went to leave. Ugh! It was hard for me not to cry. I have a friend from high school who teaches kindergarten in Globe and she is a very nice lady. I hope my little sweetie is in her class.

Well, I guess I better get myself ready to get going here today. Erica, her friend Cassie, and I have a day trip planned today and we need to get going. It should be fun.

The last few weeks

I am not doing so great at keeping this thing up. I will briefly write about what has been going on here the last few weeks. Like everyone else, the holiday season is just a busy time here. I did get to do some fun things.

12/10-I met with some friends for lunch. They are friends from my old (maybe former is operative word here) doctor's office. We had a nice time laughing and visiting. I am still really sad about my doctor leaving, but I am happy that I will still get to see the others from time to time.

12/19-The last day of school for this year. We had our kindergarten Christmas program. My little part (aside from practicing every day) was to model the sign language for Silent Night for them. They did great and were so cute. After school let out that day, the kids and I went to Tempe and stayed at my parents' house. I took the kids to look at Christmas lights at the temple and to Bahama Bucks (yum!!!) afterwards.

It was nice to see my parents, but we were all very worried because my dad was notified that his entire department was being eliminated at his job. After working for them for 40 years, it came as quite a shock. He was not planning on retiring for at least four more years, but the company has been laying people off right and left. They gave him until Dec. 31st, but then they extended it until the end of January. This economy is horrible.

12/20-The kids and I went to the zoo with my friend and her kids. I had never taken the kids to the zoo and hadn't been there myself since I was in kindergarten. It was perfect weather and we all had a nice time.

12/21-I met most of my family (except for my sister's family) for dinner in Miami and to exchange gifts. We had a nice time enjoying one another's company and the kids enjoyed playing with their cousins. It was nice to get together. I also got to see my aunt and uncles and visit with them a little bit.

12/24-25-Christmas Eve & Christmas Day!!! Need I say more? It is a tradition of ours to drive around Christmas Eve night and look at Christmas lights. Sometimes this tires the kids out and they go to bed more easily. That wasn't the case this year, but we still enjoyed looking at the lights. We always read the Christmas story from the New Testament in Luke 2:1-14 and then the kids hang their stockings and go to bed. Erica stays up with me and we watch, "It's a Wonderful Life". I love that movie, plus it is about two hours long; enough time for the other kids to fall asleep. When the movie is over, we turn out the lights and go to bed so Santa can come. On Christmas morning, now that the youngest child is five, the kids have to wait until it is starting to get light outside to wake me up. At about 7:30-8:00, I lined the kids up on the stairs (youngest to oldest) and then they got to go in the living room to see what Santa had brought. With six kids, by the time we are all done, it looks like a tornado has struck the living room. The kids had a nice Christmas. I made eggs with ham, cheese, and mushrooms for breakfast. They played with toys for a while and then we went to my younger brother's house in Joseph City for my nephew's birthday. Kevin is a Christmas baby and he turned seven this year. We all had a nice time at their house.

12/29-My older brother and his family were coming home from his mother-in-law's house and took us to dinner. My 15 year old nephew, Michael, stayed with us. He and Tyler enjoy getting to spend time together. It is nice to have him with us for a while.

12/30-I went to lunch with some of my other friends. We stayed at the restaurant for about 2 & 1/2 hours just visiting. I really enjoyed it. It seems like we all get so busy with our everyday lives, that we often do not get to spend as much time with our friends. I was happy to get to do that.

12/31-(Today) I am going over to my friend's house for New Year's Eve soon. Single people usually do not get invited to parties, dinners, etc...because most people invite couples. My friend also falls into the single category so we are going to just get together, watch movies, and play board games. The kids are coming along too. It will be a quiet celebration, but that is okay. As far as I'm concerned, the best way to celebrate is to spend time with people you care about.

Mom's birthday-December 7, 2008

Since I wrote about Jared's birthday, I thought I should mention my mom's birthday as well. I actually did not get to see my mom on her birthday, but I understand that she had a nice time. I will not mentoin her age since this is the internet, but I have to say that she looks quite young for her age. Anyway, happy birthday, Mom! I love you!

Jared's 10th birthday-December 2, 2008

Since I am writing this almost two weeks AFTER Jared's birthday, I thought I should specify the actual date of his birthday.

For Jared's birthday, he had a party of sorts in my classroom. He had four friends come to my classroom right after school. They had red velvet cupcakes, watched Clone Wars, opened presents, and ate $5 pizzas. He had a great time with his friends.

I do not make Jared a birthday cake because he has this very extreme dislike for icing. This caused problems when he did not want icing on his cake and everybody else did. Thus the cupcake solution. The kids get to frost their own cupcakes.

After the party, I gave the four boys rides home. I was a little surprised to discover that third graders do not always know how to get to their home from the school. We did a lot of driving around trying to find one house. I had an address, but it was not an address I was familiar with. When I asked what (landmark) his house was near, he had no clue. It was very interesting. After lots of driving around, we finally got all of the kids home.

When we arrived home, Jared got to talk to both of his grandparents on the phone. It was nice for him to get to visit with them. All in all, Jared had a great day.

Almost December!

Wow! This year has flown by. I guess it's true what they say about time going more quickly as you get older.

Thanksgiving was nice. I enjoyed spending time with my family.

I have three weeks of school left before Christmas break. They are going to be busy ones. I need to make sure my class is ready for our Christmas program.

I recently found out that my doctor is leaving her practice. I am really upset about this because she is wonderful and she is my friend. I tentatively have a new doctor, but I am already unimpressed. Her first available appointment isn't for two months AND she does not leave any appointments open for acute illnesses. So if you get sick, too bad, so sad. You have to go to the walk-in clinic, I guess. It's a little weird. I thought that part of being a doctor was treating your patients when they are ill.

I am the new Webelos leader for cub scouts. I guess when you have five boys, you are bound to be doing scouting things at some point. Jared turns ten on Tuesday and will be a Webelos scout. Hmmmm....this might be a good time to have a good doctor with all of the carving and knife handling.

This weekend I took the kids to see Twilight. I was afraid I would not like it since the book is always better, but we really enjoyed it. After reading all of the books, it seemed like a long time to have to wait until the movie came out. They are working on the second one now. I will have to find out when it will be released. Maybe by the time it comes out, I can afford another trip to the theater with the six kids.

Well, I guess it's time to stop and finish dinner. I really should have this done before 8:30 at night. I guess that's one of the hazards of being a night person.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

The tenor of my last entry here was not very pleasant, so I thought today would be a good day to write one with a better attitude.

I love Thanksgiving! It's not just all of the eating (although, I do love that). It is because I get to spend time with a lot of my extended family. Today the kids and I are driving to Miami to see my family. I am so blessed to have the family I have. My parents are wonderful and supportive. They have always put the rest of their family first. For that matter, they put other people's needs in general before their own. It has always been that way. My brothers, sister, and their families are also wonderful. They are all kind, thoughtful, and fun to be around. I love to spend time with each of them. I often hear about families that do not get along with one another or do not speak to each other. I feel so bad for them because they sure are missing out on some of the greatest joys in life. Some people are not able to get along with their in-laws. Mine are all amazing. I love them as though they are my natural siblings. (Actually, I also always got along with Eric's family as well. I miss his parents and his sister & her family. I still love them, too.) I will also get to see my Aunt Kay, Uncle Kent, their son Kasey, and his daughter today as well. I am excited about that, too. I love them and do not get to see them enough. I really wish I could see all of my extended family. I have not seen some of them for years and I miss them. Perhaps I should arrange some kind of family reunion so we could all get together.

Aside from my family, I am also thankful that I am so rich. I realize that I make a small enough amount money that my kids qualify for free lunches at school, but I am still rich when compared with so many other people in the world. My kids get free lunch at school. They do not have to worry about going to bed with an empty stomach. There are children starving every day all over the world. They have a home. It is not what most people would consider large enough for a family of our size, but they sleep in a warm place each night and have shelter from the elements. We have clothing that fits and keeps us warm. We have clean water in our home. A huge amount of people in the world do not have that We live in America; the best country in the world...recession or no recession. Our government may not be perfect, but it is way better than circumstances in many, many other countries. I can't even imagine having to live in a third world country or a country in which being female is a bad thing. We have freedom here; many people do not. I also have amazing friends. I am not sure how I have been so blessed to have them in my life, but they are wonderful and I love them all.

I am going to try to keep all of this in mind as we go into the holiday season. That seems to be a bit of a stressful time for a lot of people so I am in good company with that one. I really am blessed and live a great life. I'm glad that Thanksgiving comes along this time of year. It helps me to take a little time to focus on how many great things I have going for me in my life. I hope everyone out there has a great Thanksgiving today and is able to remember the things they are thankful for.

The Angry, Ex-husband, Vent Post

This post is mainly so I can vent. It is not a happy, cheerful post so you may want to skip over this one if you are looking for warm fuzzies.

I have recently (within the last 6 months) discovered that my ex-husband opened up credit cards in my name, maxxed them out, and then quit making payments on them. I found out about one back in April or May when they called and wanted me to pay "my" bill. I honestly had no idea what they were talking about. After a couple of months, my ex FINALLY took responsibility and started making minimum payments on it. It is still in my name (I did close the account) and my credit rating is lower than I thought was humanly possible.

Well, a couple of months ago, I got a call from a collection agency wanting me to pay for my credit card. I assured them that the payments were being taken automatically out of my ex's checking account every month. That was when I found out that there was ANOTHER credit card that he did the same thing with. He is not taking care of this one and we (the collection agency and I) have been going back and forth about this for a while. I told them to look at the signatures and they will see that NONE of them are mine. They don't really care. He opened the accounts when we were married (without my knowledge) and put me as the primary card holder. That makes me responsible. They told me that the only way I could get out of it is to file fraud charges against him and that he will serve time in prison for a felony. I actually already knew that from dealing with the other credit card company that he defaulted on.

I am so mad I just want to hit him! He does not seem concerned at all. I guess he doesn't need to be concerned. After all, HE isn't the one who will be sued and have to pay the credit cards off, attorney's fees for the company, and court costs. I don't know why he can't just get a loan from the bank for the $6000 for the two cards, pay them off, and then pay the loan off. It seems like a loan would have a lower interest rate. I suggested this, but he does not want to do that either.

I do not want to file fraud charges against him. In spite of everything he has done to me and the kids, he is still their father. I don't want to send their dad to prison, but I certainly do not think it is right for me to have to pay off debts that I did not incur. As it is, I am supposed to receive over $1000 a month for child support and I signed an agreement stating that I would take only $400 so he would not be financially decimated. Then he does this! $400 does not really cover that much considering that it is supposed to support six children. He does not pay for insurance for them. He doesn't pay for any of their medical expenses (even though he is supposed to pay half). He does not help pay for dental or anything (two of them have braces). He will not chip in for presents from Santa (although he does buy them a gift from himself). That really irritates me because my little kids will ask why daddy buys them a present, but I don't. Maybe because I am scraping every penny I have to try and make sure that they get something from Santa. I can't say that, though. Ugh!!! It is so frustrating!

He is leaving for China for an extended stay (1-2 months) on November 10th. I'm not quite clear on how he can afford another trip to China this year when he is not able to meet his current financial obligations.

Okay, there is my vent. I really don't know that it did much good. I still do not have any answers. The few people I have talked to about this say I should file fraud charges. If it only affected him, I probably would. I just don't want to do that to the kids. They love their dad regardless and they would just be angry with me if he went to prison.