We're Back From Our Winter Hiatus!

I'm hoping my winter hiatus is over.  Like most of our tv shows!  We haven't been so much busy here as sick.  Thanksgiving was good.  Our weather was gorgeous, just days before we were having beautiful sunny days in the 70's.  It was a little weird listening to Christmas music while it was so unseasonably warm. 

Oliver and Owynn

Then we all caught super mega awful worst cold ever.  I wonder if it may have been the flu, it was horrendous.  I lost my voice for almost a week and I missed two days of work.  I finally dragged everyone to see the doctor.  Everyone else was fine, but I got antibiotics and man did they help.  Apparently my throat was still all nice and swollen and red.  And then immediately after we all caught the stomach bug.  Ugh!  Christmas was great though!

Oliver, Mommy, and Owynn

  We were all healthy for the week between Christmas and New Year's, but by the time the boys' birthday rolled around we were all sick again.  I succumbed to the cold this past Friday and then on Sunday I managed to severely mess up my stomach.  I finally started feeling better Thursday night.
 The boys are doing much better now too.  I am sooooo ready for Spring and to be healthy again for some sort of extended period of time.   Between work, everything going on at home, and being sick, I just haven't had the time or energy for much of anything else.  I've barely been on the computer, never mind blogging.  On Tuesday I was able to take almost a 3 hour nap after work, it was amazing!

On a happier note John filed our taxes last week.  The company John used holds our filing until the IRS starts accepting them, which was supposed to be on the 30th.  But today John got a text saying that our filing was accepted by the IRS.  OMG! It is such a relief.  I'm really hoping we get our refund soon, we could really really use the money.  I'm thrilled though that they accepted them early.  Tomorrow is Friday and we earned jeans day again, I love jeans Fridays.  And it's Friday!  Yay for the weekend!  I am hoping to try and get some more posts together this weekend for next week. 

Enjoy your weekend!

Woohoo I added a widget! (At least I think that's what I did) and Holiday Wishes

Yay me, I figured out how to add a Facebook like button to my blog!  I am waaay excited now, this is totally a big deal to me!  I am not overly computer savvy and have pretty much been learning about this whole blogging thing as I go.  So please follow me on Facebook, help me feel even more proud of myself.  I would really appreciate it! =)  And it wasn't nearly as hard as I feared it would be.  And bonus, I didn't destroy my site by playing with the HTML!

I have been absent a bit because of the craziness that is the Holidays.  To be politically correct I want to wish everyone Happy Holidays, because I know I have readers of different faiths.  Also Merry Christmas, because this is what we celebrate in our household.  I hope this season has brought your families, happiness, peace, and joy. 

This year I am very thankful for answered prayers, lower levels of stress, the kindness of (near) strangers, our friends and family, and my husband (I don't know what I would do without him).

 I don't really talk about it much, but I have been praying more and attempting to find some sort of faith that works for me.  I'd like to think that my prayers have been heard; there have been several incidents to make me think so.  So thank You! 

To say that our budget has been tight the past 6 or so months would be an understatement.  Lately it's more like what bills can I put off or what can we do without so we have enough money to buy diapers and food.  (I can see our tax refund on the horizon now and I can't wait.)  After months and months of trying John got a job working from home, and his first paycheck literally came just in time.  The fact that he can work from home and choose his hours is pretty amazing.  I am very appreciative of what he has been trying to do for our family.  With his anxiety, I know how hard it can be for him to do this.  I feel like I don't thank him enough.

Even though work has been just ridiculously busy, my stress levels have dropped quite a bit.  I think it's because John is working and even though our budget is still really tight, we have some breathing room.  I am thankful that we can pay our bills and can actually afford to order a pizza every once in awhile now.  (I love you pizza and have missed you more than I realized.)  And our tax refund is so close I can taste it!

Because of our monetary problems we didn't have any money to buy the boys presents this year.  Although I did manage to spend a few dollars here and there on a few little things for them over the past month or two.  I want to thank again our friends, our family, and friends of our family, who helped to make Christmas very special for the boys.  I wish I could show you how their eyes just lit up Christmas morning.  And also thank you guys for helping us through this very rough patch.  Without everyone I don't know how we could have made it.       

How Do I Not Remember Buying That???

Today while cleaning I came across DDR (Dance Dance Revolution) for the 360 (XBox) sitting at the top of one of our closets.  Since it's almost Christmas my thought process went something like this.  "Am I supposed to see this?"
"Wait, we don't have any money, how would John have bought this for me?"
"If he didn't buy it for me for Christmas, just how long have we owned this?!"
"Why can't I remember buying this???"
"Has this really been sitting at the top of the closet since we moved in?" (Which by the way was a year ago. Have I mentioned I am also not the most observant person?) 
I then found the game portion of it open and on the video game shelf (the dance pad was in the closet).  "Huh, apparently we have had it for awhile."

I told John he could have wrapped it up for Christmas and I would have never known.  Really though, how do I not remember having this?!?  When John traded in his original XBox and everything that went along with it, including my beloved DDR game (ok maybe I didn't play it as much as I should have, but still) I made a BIG deal about making sure he replaced it for me on his new (at that point) 360.  Which makes it even more baffling to me that I can't remember him buying this for me.  Like I know my memory isn't always the greatest (I blame hereditary for that), but really, why can't I remember this???  I am very excited that I stumbled upon this, now I just need to find some time to play.  I would have today during nap time, but I caught a cold from the boys and I feel like total crap.