Hey all! I wish I had time to update everyone individually, but life is crazy! School started August 14th. I am so tired! This school schedule is awesome and SUCKY all at the same time! Cori goes all day Kinder and is doing well. She was very tired at first, but has started to adjust to the long day. Ethan is at the same school as Cori, in the morning for preschool. He loves his teachers and talks about them constantly! He only goes Mon-Thurs and he's always disapointed on Friday when I don't take him to school! I volunteer in the kids' classrooms on Mondays which has been fun the last couple weeks. I'm supposed to have a little time in the morning while the C&E are gone to play w/ Georgia, but SHE SLEEPS THE WHOLE TIME! So I'm a little disapointed by that. She is just so sweet and I love spending time with her.

Did I mention I am tired? I should be napping now instead of typing this, but I'm not. I'm still teaching Coupon $ense classes. They are going well. Our family is gearing up for a big holiday season of donating! Our stockpile is crazy as usual! I am also selling Mary Kay cosmetics now and have really enjoyed it so far. I have been neglecting my skin for so long and now my face feels so nice!

Allen is working a lot......still.........nothing new.......can you tell how excited I am about this?

This is a short horrible update! Sorry, but I just don't have it in me! LOL

Ode To Wish Bone Raspberry Hazelnut Vinagarette Dressing

I like salads. I've always liked salads. Any kind of salad really. But it was about the vegetables. I really love veggies! Dressing was not a big thing to me. I use whatever we get free (or SUPER SUPER cheap) w/ coupons. Usually something light and see-through. Well a while ago I was able to get some wish bone dressing for 25cents each and happened to pick up the RHV. OMGosh I cannot describe to you HOW MUCH I like this stuff. I ate salad like 3 times everyday just so I could eat this dressing! I ran out of the dressing today and as the last drop squeezed out a really disturbing thought crossed my mind. I though "I wonder if I could put water in the bottle and drink it". I'm considering paying full price for this dressing! Sad, very sad. And kinda scary! It's time to walk away from the dressing!

I took Cori to do a research study today. It was another toy study. She did one not too long ago and got a big Cinderella doll and $20. Today she got a neat polly pocket jewelry making set and $15, which she promptly spent on a computer at twice as nice. She saved money for her tithe and savings, so I can't complain. I just wish I knew how to teach her better money management! I don't want her growing up like me! We were at Twice as Nice trying to get some more credit out of the clothes I had in my trunk. I got about $10, which was enough to buy Cori an outfit and Ethan a couple of nice shirts. It's nice to be able to get them clothes this way! Today was Allen's last day working for Camp Sky-Y and he and I went up there for the end of the year party. The weather was SO NICE in Prescott! Allen fought me tooth and nail when I told him I wanted to go to the party. That made me want to go even more because he was being so secrative about it. It's not that I don't trust him, but he wouldn't give me any info about where he was going to be and how late he'd be out (I need SOMETHING to tell the cops if I have to file a missing persons report! LOL). Thankfully my mom was very supportive and took the kids so I could go w/ him. We had a nice time walking around the camp. We plan on going back for family camp next year.

Todya I put out a bunch of stuff for a donation truck. I forgot about it last night (duh) so I wasn't able to get one of the heavier items out to the curb. Thank goodness the Suburban is running again and Allen can just take it down to DI later. I decluttered a bunch of clothes from closets and boxes and seperated them into winter and summer clothes. I took the winter stuff to Kid to Kid to get some credit (plus some of the bigger baby items the Georgie is no longer using like her Johnny Jumper). Was able to get Cori and Ethan a pair of shoes for school and Cori a book for her leappad w/ my credit! I really like Kid to Kid better than Other Mothers or any other 2nd hand store I've been to. It's very clean and organized and the manager is SO NICE. After they went through all my stuff they seperated my stuff into two different boxes. One box of stuff that they wouldn't take because it was soiled and one box that they would happily take in a month or two when the store was cleared out a little more. Makes it very easy for me to keep that one box and get rid of the other crap! Then we went to Basha's. The kids played in the Cubhouse while I organized my coupons a little more and then got some of the free stuff this week! I really love Basha's and that Cub House. Makes for a sane mommy! LOL Now the baby is w/ my mom and the other two are sleeping. We're waiting for daddy to get home so we can go to the Diamondbacks game. We have FREE 6th row tickets, near first base and a free parking pass! My aunt has several sets of season tickets, so she usually gives us tickets for at least 10 games, but not usually the BEST SEATS! We usually sit a little further up! I'm really looking forward to it! I love baseball and my kids love any live sporting event! LOL

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We're home from the game! OMGosh it was good! AZ was playing the Houston Astros. Allen is not a sports fan so he made us leave after the 7th inning (actually I'm surprised he sat that long!). AZ was up 14 to 10 when we left! It was a very exciting game! Ethan got a t-shirt! They were throwing them and one landed in his seat. The man behind us tried to take it from him! When Allen took it the man then complained that he wasn't able to have the shirt! WHO ON EARTH would take a shirt from a kid??????????????? Dummy! Our seats were better than I thought. A little higher up, but closer to homeplate than 1st! Many foul balls came in our direction!

Well, my day went from sucky to I-just-should-have-stayed-in-bed bad! I have fallen down twice! I could have hurt myself pretty badly so I guess I got lucky, but I'm feeling kind of bruised. We were late this AM for swim and I ran out of swim diapers. I had to drag all my kids to wal-mart for milk and swim diapers. It took me 15 minutes to get a screaming Ethan off one of the D@*% toys on the way out the door. Ethan went down screanming for a nap and came up screaming from it. I talked to my mom about 6 times today and each time I managed to come away feeling like crap. I hit my neighbors car backing out of the driveway, no damage thank heavens, but I feel terrible about it! And to top it all off I very nearly got a ticket for parking a quater inch of my tires on the sidewalk in front of my mom's house. I think the cop saw the I'm-going-to-kill-myself look on my face (either that or didn't want to deal with a lady with 3 cranky kids) because he looked at me like I had 3 eyes, mumbled a warning, and took off kind of quickly. Did I mention Allen is out of town ALL WEEK?


BUT the silver lining is I found out my best friend is moving back home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bono asks: What can we do to make poverty history?

Gigi answers: Instead of spending $800 on a new pair of sunglasses why don't you put your money where your mouth is!

Well we had fun at the Circus today! I was disapointed in how small it was. We won't be going back again until Georgia is older so she can experience it at least once. The kids had a blast, which is the important part, but for the price of tickets and all the crap we bought it just was not worth it. I was sad not to see the fancy show horses, larger elephants, and tigers. I felt like the cat and dog show was the main attraction which was kind of rediculous! Oh and the strongest man in the world needed a spray on tan! YUCK! I had more fun watching my kids' reactions to the circus than the actual circus! LOL

We had to stop at Sister's office before the circus and we found a lost, thirsty, bloody dog. It was a lab. It took us some time to get him situated. Then mom's car wouldn't start! So we took Sister's car to the circus.

4th of July

The kids and I spent the day at a friends house swimming. We always get up on the roof of our back porch and watch the fireworks at GCC. I am such a FREAK when it come to heights that it takes me about 5 minutes to get up the ladder. But of course I had to walk each kid up the ladder which was the most frightening! I don't trust Allen to do it because he can be an @$$ and goof off just to scare me. I'm not willing to risk my kids lives because he's a jerk! But once we were up the ladder (I think it took more than 10 minutes!) it was really nice!

Have you started your Christmas shopping? I know, I know it's a little early but I shop through-out the year to make life less stressful around the holidays PLUS I want to find THE BEST deals out there. I also make a lot of gifts so that takes some time as well.

I have Cori's Christmas from "Santa" and from mom&dad all taken care of. It was all stuff off of freecycle so I didn't have to spend any money (except gas I guess). "Santa" is giving her a great decorative fuzzy blue chair. http://www.claires.com/product.asp?name=prod&color=black&rcid=31&id=2443&scid=40 It's similar to this one in the link but it's star shaped and has two matching pillows. M&D are giving her an easy bake oven! Only thing left will be a back-pack filled with underwear, socks, and other neccessities and of course her stocking!

I've gotten Ethan a couple neat cars that I've found on sale here or there. Not sure what "santa" will give him. Santa gives the biggest gifts around here! I have NO IDEA what to do for Georgia!

I need to nail down what I'm making for the grandparents (usually something scrapbook related).

So how early do YOU start thinking about Christmas??? And what do you do to make your holidays less stressful?

June Family Update

Can you tell I've been busy? Here it is, the last day of June, and I'm just NOW getting our family update out! Oh well, at least I've done it and I can say I've successfully kept my New Years resolution for 6 months. That's some kind of record! We just got back from getting family pictures done. That was some kind of feat! The pictures are not as cute as I would have liked but we just could not get all the kids to smile at the same time! Oh well, I guess it shows the "real" them!

Allen has been working a lot of hours because summer is his busy time. He's still looking for a new job (so if you know of any let me know!). He is still tired all the time. He got a machine to sleep with that is supposed to help him breath but it does not work right and he hasn't called the Dr to get it fixed. Very irritating for the person who has to sleep in the same room with him!

I'm doing the same ol' things. I'm still teaching Coupon$ense classes and just recently signed an instructor under me. Our stockpile of food, cleaning supplies, and hygiene products is RIDICULOUS! I just recently got a Scooba, which is a robotic mopper that is the sister the the Roomba. I LOVE IT! If something ever happens to Allen I'm going to marry it! It has absolutely saved me! I'm planning a piano recital for the end of July and I'm really looking forward to it. I will have 4 of my students playing in it!

Cori has been in Summer School this month and is absolutely doing awesome. They had a performance last night that was Patriotic themed. She's been singing God Bless America and Yankee Doodle all month. She has this incredible vibrato that I've never heard before in a 5YO! I think she takes after me! We'll be singing duets soon I'm sure!

Ethan did swim lessons and is doing so well! He's developed a little bit of a fear of the water, which he never had before but he'll get over that soon. He's a little fish so having fear is probably safer for the dare devil. Ethan is still doing Speech Therapy and just recently started Occupational Therapy. I love this boy to death but he is driving me crazy! I'm having a lot of issues with him that have to do with his sensory disorder which just compound his bad behavior. The thing that makes me most angry, is when we're in public he is the sweetest most polite boy. He thanks people for EVERYTHING. At home he pretty much screams at me all day. We've been doing a lot of time out. I'm working on it one day at a time. I just hope he lives to see 4.

Georgia is still the sweetest thing in the planet! I can't believe she's already 11 months! She is so bright! She FINALLY got one tooth and is working on another. She copies sounds so well it sounds like she's talking. She's like a little parrot! She is so expressive with body language as well. She's able to tell me what she needs by a look or a point. It's amazing! She's a chunky little thing but she's smaller than the other two were at this age. She's got more hair than Cori did too, so that's a good sign! My mom is always saying how much she reminds her of me when I was a baby.

I heard the song Imagine by John Lennon today and although I've heard it many times this is the first time the words really hit me! What was John Lennon thinking???? Basically his song is saying imagine having NOTHING to live for! Can you imagine the suicide rate??

Imagine

Imagine there's no heaven,
It's easy if you try,
No hell below us,
Above us only sky,
Imagine all the people
living for today...
Imagine there's no countries,
It isnt hard to do,
Nothing to kill or die for,
No religion too,
Imagine all the peopleliving life in peace...
Imagine no possesions,
I wonder if you can,
No need for greed or hunger,
A brotherhood of man,
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...
You may say Im a dreamer,
but Im not the only one,
I hope some day you'll join us,
And the world will live as one.

The dr said not to worry but that's like telling someone to not get the urge to pee! G had her 4-month well check today. The size of her head went from the 50% range to the 95% range and the rest of her body did not. So she has to have an MRI just to make sure everything is normal in there. I've been concerned about a strange looking lump on the front of her head anyway, but the dr didn't seem concerned, but w/ all this it just makes me want to throw up. So apparantly nothing to worry about, but tell that to my insides that don't seem to be listening to that.

What's that smell............

I walked into my house from running an erand today and it smelled like a huge fart! Now, I'll admit there were dishes in the sink and they did have an odor, but not a fart odor! So who comes in my house when I'm gone and farts????? Is there such thing as a farting ghost or something? This happens more often than I'd like to admit!

1. At least 2 people in this world LOVE you so much they would DiE for you. 2. At least 15 people in this world love you in some way. 3. The only reason anyone would ever hate you is because they want to be just like you. 4. A SMiLE from you can bring happiness to anyone, even if they don't like you. 5. Every night, SOMEONE thinks about you before they go to sleep. 6. You mean the world to someone. 7. If not for you, someone may not be living. 8. You are special&unique. 9. Someone that you don't even know exists, loves you. 10. When you make the biggest mistake ever, something good comes from it. 11. When you think the world has turned its back on you, take a look: you most likely turned your back on the world. 12. When you think you have no chance of getting what you want, you probably won't get it, but if you BELiEVE in yourself, probably, sooner or later, you will get it. 13. Always remember the compliments you received. FORGET about the rude remarks. 14. Always tell someone how you feel about them; you will feel much better when they know. 15. If you have a GREAT FRIEND, take the time to let them know that they are great.

The University of Blogging Presents to Gigi An Honorary Bachelor of Gossip Majoring in Non Sequiturs Signed Dr. GoQuiz.com ®

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