Now you're up to date, and scared too!

OK everyone, it's time for total disclosure, are you ready??? I don't think we've been following our own vow of poverty very well. It feels like we're barely treading water lately and we still do a lot of the things we started the year off doing, like eating in (a few weak moments here and there), not buying frivolous things (again, a few weak moments here and there) and making coffee at home (too many weak moments than I care to disclose to you at this point). I think the kicker is that I'm not bringing any money in anymore, I was getting about $300-$400/month depending on the month, but now it's $0. I was turned down for unemployment, apparently owning a daycare for six years doesn't count as employment. So, now we're trying to live off the land so to speak (that's code for Greg working over time like there will be no tomorrow). I feel bad, but at this point, I start school in a month, right smack dab in the middle of the holiday season for retail so I can't get a job because I won't be able to work evening or weekends as that's when I'll be in school!!! So I'm sending up prayers to help us make the ends meet for a few more months until I can get a job and any prayers of good tidings you can say would be appreciated. But there is some good news in here.....so far we HAVE been able to get by, we can pay all our bills and we have a roof over our heads. Our freezers and cabinets are full of food and we have each other (awww). The kids actually understand that we're not going to give in and get them the silly things they want and they don't even really ask anymore. I can go into Target (my former nemesis) and get only the items I need and walk out of there without feeling like I'd just been in the enemy's camp. So, thinks are going better than a lot of people out there in the world.

Now I will thrill you with a tale so frightening that you may want to avert your eyes in fear at some parts.
You've heard by now that we're poor, but this will enlighten you as to our super poor sorryness. Upstairs in our bathroom we have a toilet, it seems like any other toilet; it's white and unassuming. You would never think that a toilet could cause the horrible pain that this evil toilet has....One day I was using the bathroom like any normal person would in the morning and I was pondering the day that lay open and bright ahead of me. My routine would be the norm, 6am wake up, wake the kids up, make lunches, make breakfast, take a shower, fight with the kids over what they would wear (it's always my fault that the clothes they want to wear are never clean, even though I've told them a million times I won't wash any clothes that are not brought down to the laundry room), fight with the kids over which shoes they can wear to school (I swear to the heavens that I'm gonna throw out all the damn flip flops, they cause me so much mental anguish), fight with the kids over how they're gonna wear their hair (YES, you MUST brush your hair dammit!), 7:45am get in the car, drop Emma off by 8:00, drive Kayleigh to school (across town mind you), drive Mia to school (M,W,F) or dance (T), go to my bible study group (W) while Mia's in school, 11:45 pick Mia up, 2:50 pick Emma up, 3:15 pick Kayleigh up, Kumon, dance, youth group, swimming, etc....It never ends!!! As I was pondering my day I felt a very hurtful, sharp pinch on my left butt cheek that make me yelp in fear and pain. WTF?! Did a crab crawl up from the toilet? I tried to stand up but my skin was being pulled down in a very painful manner. HUH????!!! I sat again and the pinching got worse. It was at this point, my friends, that the foul language, most unbecoming to a lady, started (good think I ain't no lady!). I tried to see what the problem was, but my butt is (unfortunately) very large and I couldn't see anything. I finally took a deep breath and jumped up while yelling "OOOOWWW, Muther F-er!" I looked very angry at the toilet seat and there it was, cracked right down the right side (which becomes the left when you sit on it). Lodged very firmly in it's tiny little monster teeth was a piece of my butt cheek! Do you know how much that smarts? I do. I was very irritable at this point, my butt hurt and I was super P.O.'d but I persevered. When I put my chonies (unnerwears) on, the new skinless portion of my cheek was, of course, right under the elastic. Really? So that's how it was gonna go huh? OK, I got past it and endured the rest of the day (in pain). That night before bed (after I'd already given the kids their unnecessary medication to make them sleep like tiny angles) I'm KIDDING people, I would never do that. At least I wouldn't write about it and leave a trail of evidence, HELLO, I'm married to a cop, I'm not THAT dumb! I was all tired from being the perfect mom (hahahahahaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!) and I was on my way to bed. Oops, first I had to make a pit stop in the little girls room.....NO, I didn't remember that the evil toilet seat was there waiting for it's evening meal and YES I did leave yet ANOTHER chunk of myself with it. Man oh man was I P.O'd, I don't think Greg has ever heard the words Muther F-er used in quite so many fancy ways. It was MF-er on toast, in a basket, and apparently it's a MF-ing bastard as well.
Let's fast forward a couple of weeks now, shall we friends? The toilet seat is still on the prowell for delicious Bina booty, but now we (Greg has experienced the joy too) are very creative about how we sit to use the demon toilet. I lean waaaay to the right or sit as far forward as I can possibly get away with. I also do the hover sometimes. The sad part is, we don't have any spare cash for a toilet seat, so it's either put it on the card or just do without, I'm actually considering duct tape, but I'm kinda grossed out by it's non cleanable nature. I think I may have found a plastic seat for $15 that I'm gonna check out today. I just thought it might brighten your day to imagine me walking around with no less than four (4) chunks missing from my buttocks. Next time you use your toilet, say a little think you to the seat for not eating your cheeks.
The End

Ok, that's it for now, ooooh, I do want to brag a little, I had to take a HIV/Aids course and pass the test before I could go to school and I got a 90! I would have gotten a 100 if I hadn't been locked in the room with my three fighting kids and Emma's friend who was spending the night. Yes, they let the kids come in with me since I didn't have a babysitter. So 90 is not bad for having to break up fights, look at the magical things the kids were drawing on the white board, clean up spilled water, beg Emma to take Mia to the bathroom, and answer their constant questions about why they couldn't get candy from the vending machine.


Until next time
xoxo

I don't wanna be obsolete anymore!

Well my friends, I never thought I would say this, but I'm an out of date model. I'm obsolete in the business world seeing as I haven't been IN the business world for over eight years now. As it stands, I can't even find a job at the mall, let alone in an office, so I've come up with the solution. Are you ready??? My fellow blog readers, I, Sabrina Lewis, am going back to school!! I'm starting on Nov. 19th and I'll be getting a Certified Nursing Assistant certificate. I was considering going to Nursing school, but I'm not sure it's up my alley, so I decided to go one step at a time and start as a CNA. These are the people who work at Nursing homes, in home care, at jails handing out meds, etc. If it's something I really like, then I'll either get my Nursing degree or take the EMT course. I never thought I would be excited about going back to school, but I feel like I'm opening up my future for a true career instead of just a job. I have to get my brain in shape for memory retention, but I have two months to make it work (to quote Tim Gund). So I'm sure you'll be hearing hilarious stories of my embarassing classroom activities. Oh, I have to run right now and get the girls, I'll write more soon.

xoxo!!!!

I'm not going to take it anymore!!!

This is a quick, short post. I have so many things to tell you, but I'm sooooo mad right now that I have to get this off my chest. I just got a call from the Washington State Troopers Association asking for a donation. When I told him that we couldn't afford to donate right now he began to yell at me and tell me that it's been 18 months since my last donation!!!! Can you believe his balls? I got soooo P. O.'d that I started yelling at HIM! I told him that with this economy and my being unemployed and having three children, my family is my priority, not his campaign!!!!!!! He then said, oh, I didn't know you had three kids, it says here you only have two, congratulation on the new addition. I hung up on his sorry ass. WTF, how DARE he speak to me like that. Do you think that Susan G. Koman's people call up potential donators and start to yell at them when they don't donate $$$?? NO, they understand that donations are very important and they don't abuse their potential donors. So I fired off the following email to the State Troopers Association just a minute ago, here it is:

To whom it may concern,

I just received a call from the State Troopers Association asking for a donation for their Drinking and Driving Campaign, when I told the caller that I would not be able to donate due to financial difficulties, he began to berate me because I hadn't made a donation for the last three campaigns. I don't know who I should be writing this complaint to, but I'm completely appalled at the behavior of the person representing your organization. I should not have to explain my finances to someone who is trying to elicit a donation from me, I should merely have to say that we can't afford it right now and that should be accepted. This is not the first time one of the callers has been rude to me, during the last campaign a few months ago I was treated the same. I guarantee you that if any other organization were calling for a donation, they would not be verbally abusive to the person they were trying to get a donation from. Your people need a lesson in dealing with customers, even if the response is not the one they want, they need to learn to bite their tongue and accept it. I just want you to know that I will NEVER donate to this organization again, my husband is in law enforcement and I would rather give donations to his union than one who does not appreciate that not everyone can give money in this tough economy

With great disappointment,

Sabrina L.

So I say, put that in your pipe and smoke it State Troopers! Am I wrong? Did I go overboard? The first time they called and yelled at me I was so shocked that I just took it. This time I was shocked, but I recovered quicky and got uber pissed off. I have so much adrenaline running through my veins now I'm going to go clean the bathrooms. I'll write again later once I've calmed down.
Thanks for reading my rant
xoxo
Sabrina

Frustration

I know, I know, it's been a very long time since my last post, but I'm nursing a completely shattered nervous system here, so give me some slack. This may come as a surprise to some of you, but I don't really have any confidants here in Vancouver. Now don't get your panties in a bunch, I do have a few friends, but nobody that I would be comfortable confiding the details of my relationship/frustrations/pissed offedness, etc. with. Either everyone I know is a wife of Greg's friend, or co-worker of his OR I don't know the person well enough to complain to without them thinking that I'm married to a complete beast. Anywho, because I don't have a local confidante I've been slowly going insane for the last few years and the kids ramping up their fighting isn't doing me any favors either. So, as any "normal" woman going crazy would do, I've decided to vent my frustrations by painting the house, inside, from bottom to top. This is in no way adding to my agitation (YEAH RIGHT!) what with my having to roll on three coats of paint to coat the ridiculously textured walls thouroughly. Why am I so STUPID???? Before you comment about the cost of paint, I would like to point out that I already had the painting utensils and my parents have tons of paint in their garage that I'm using, so I've only spend $14 on the project (needed a drop cloth and an extra nappy roller head). Hmmm, that's my new insult "you extra nappy roller head!!!!" although I should be careful where I say that, I might lose my radio show (a nod to Don Imus). So on top of my busy summer schedule of swim lessons, day camps, tutoring and regular responsibilities, I somehow thought painting the house would "RELAX" me? Who am I kidding. Anyone want to come over and help me paint and listen to me bitch? OK, now for those of you who are interested, I've started a new yahoo group called "I'm mad at my husband because... if you're interested in joining just do it and we can support eachother, the only rule is that there are NO BOYS ALLOWED!

Ok, we went to Vegas last week and it took a long time to drive there. I would never drive again, it's not really worth it if you're only staying for two nights, but it was a fun road trip nonetheless. The Gas for our half was $100, the food was $100 (went to the grocery store so we only ate out for dinner) and we spent $200 gambling. Not to bad, although there were some suveniers so the final tab was a little higher, but not too shabby. Since I've been shopping at the Grocery Outlet (I saved $190 on my last visit & only spend $156) we've been able to make the $$$$ stretch farther. Greg has been working a ton of overtime (thank you Multnomah County) so hopefully we'll be able to knock out more debt. I can't wait for school to start!!! I love the kids, but having them 24/7 is really exhausting, I can't wait for next week so they'll all be in day camp at the Oregon Zoo!! Mia will finally be able to go this year for the first time and she's only half days, but Kay & Emma have been going for years and they're full time (woohoo!!!). In a couple of years Emma will be a Zoo Teen and she'll spend her summers volunteering to work at the zoo. As much as I love the summer weather, I'm ready for the fighting to end. As I sit here and type this Kayleigh is telling Mia to lay down so she can punch her, if Mia does it then I'm concerned for her level of smarts. Ah the joys of having a hyper aggressive child.

Well, that's been my life in a semi-brief post, I'm off to put the furniture back in the play/dining room, it just dried. Oh, I failed to mention that we turned the dining room into an office and put the dining table in the "play room" so now it has a great room vibe. So much to do, so little time. I'll post some pics soon.

Oh, most importantly, I'm going to CA in a few weeks, I can't wait!!!! I need time with my old school girls who know the real me. Sharon & Kim, get the martini shaker ready, I'll need a few stiff drinks to get the vacation started.

xoxoxo

PASSION FOR CHANGE

Hiya folks, I know it's been a long time, but we went out of town for 10 days! We mooched off of the inlaws and it was very nice. I came back a good couple of shades tanner and my foot is totally healed thanks to all the walking and movement. I am sad to announce that although we didn't have to spend much $$$ we are poorer than ever. So it's time to buckle down and make due with no revenue. We're leaving for Vegas in two weeks (I know what you're thinking), "If they don't have any money, what the heehaw are they doing going to Vegas, right? Well fear not, our trip is already paid for and gambling is not in the books for us. We will be driving down/over to Sin City with Adam and Emily (who have to move far away from us again and I want to cry tears of sadness and grief) so that will save multiple dollars in airfare, and we're staying at our timeshare which is FREE. F-R-E-E that spells free, Hilton Grand Vacations Club Baybeeeee. We're even getting paid $50 to go to a members "refresher" meeting (they'll try to sell us something, but you can't squeeze blood out of a trunip, know what I mean?). So we'll sit in the sun all day, walk around at night, eating on the cheap and we have a full kitchen so we can cook our daytime meals in the condo. We'll see how much we'll stick to this plan, but that's what it is as of now.
So, speaking of saving money, we have been having some not so lucky events lately that have caused us to have to spend any/all money that we put away for a rainy day. Nothing life threatening, just car/house/kid stuff that adds up quickly, but if we hadn't been paying down the debt and saving some $$ we would have been totally screwed and begging parents to lend us some bones. This is causing me to rethink our lifestyle yet again and figure out where we can tighten up the belt even more. I'm shocked an appalled to find that there are MANY ways that we can make our monthly bills even lower. I reduced our Dish Network programming severly and Greg almost divorced me so I raised it up again, not as high as it was, but significantly higher than what I had lowered it to. Does that make sense? Anywho, now I'm thinking that we need to suck it up as a family, turn the TV off and lower the programming again. Why do we need to spend so much on the TV when we can watch most of the crap we do online if it's that important to us, and it's FREE online!!! Now I just have to convince Greg of this. I also don't know why the helicoptor we need a land line when we have cell phones. Do you? We pay an ungodly amount for our phone each month AND we pay for cell phones, why not lump them into one and call it a day? Greg says that he needs a landline so work can call him just in case his cell phone is not working. Hmmm, I've had T-Mobile for eight years, and I've NEVER had any major problems with our reception, so I don't think this is good enough for me. The only reason I can think to keep the phone is that it may affect our alarm system, so I'll look into that, but that would be a $100 savings, or something close to that/month!!!!! Groceries can also be cut down, I've just discovered the beauty that is the Grocery Outlet, can you all believe that I used to think I was too good to shop there???? OK, so those of you who really know me know that I'm a snob, so that's not too surprising, but SERIOUSLY!!! I've been getting ORGANIC cereal, cookies, snacks for $1.99/box, bag, whatever!!! They have good produce, good meat, name brand groceries, the only thing that's not great is that you never know what they'll have in stock since it's a hit or miss situation, but I can live with that!! I also just read a blog that reminded me I should not buy too much at once, I can shop every week, only buy the things I need for that week and it saves a fortune and reduces waste. I also went to a second hand store to buy the kids light jackets/sweatshirts on our trip and I got a great Hollister sweatshirt for $4.99! I bought a jacket and two sweatshirs (all name brand and new looking) for under $15, those same items would have been more than twice that amount new! I tell you, I'm on the verge of making my own laundry detergent I'm finding so many ways to save money. So I have a renewed passion to make this money saving/debt paying off experiment work. We're seven months into it and I know that we can be doing so much better. If you can think of anything that would help us save money even more I'm open for suggestions.

I think I got a little side tracked with my witty stories of my crazy life, and although I love sharing these with you, I need to focus more on the saving side of things because it helps propell me on the straight and narrow. But I do want to tell you how awesome my life is since I got my new foot!! It may not be completely new, but it sure feels like it. I can't believe how bummed and sedintary I was for the last year and a half! I had gotten so used to not being able to do normal things because my foot hurt constantly that I forgot what life was like before my foot hurt. I'm finally able to walk down the stairs facing forward!!! I haven't done this in over year, it hurt so much to bend the toe that I walked down stairs backwards, like a complete kook. Mia has hardly ever seen me go down the steps facing forward so she thinks it's weird that I'm doing it now. I can trot up the steps mostly without pain (it's still healing) and it's feels so good. I'm going back to the gym on Thursday (tomorrow I'll be walking for miles at Oaks Amusement Park) and I cant wait! Life is going to be awesome again. In a few weeks I'll be able to go barefoot again and then it's all rainbows and flowers from there. I can't wait to see my Dr. to let her know how she's changed my life, this is the first week that I'm walking with no limp, I don't need the handicapped parking plackard anymore and I can feel more than half of my foot (the nerves are still healing themselves). Woohoo, I'll be on the treadmill before you know it.

Ok, enough of my boring gushing, it's after 11pm and I have to trot upstairs to bed, we have a busy day ahead of us what with riding the cheesy fair style rides at the "amusement park". Have a super day and keep an eye out for ways to save money and keep me posted.

xoxo

Is this thing still on?

I'm not sure if anyone is still reading this, I've gotten a couple of comments that people can't open it. Anywho, I still need to write it because it keeps me in touch with what we're trying to do here. I reminds me that I need to make small sacrifices now to make our financial future better.
I've been so sick of doing nothing lately what with my foot and all. My days have consisted of driving the kids to/from activities and running errands that require the most minimal amounts of walking. My butt is getting MUCH bigger and I'm bored to tears!!! I've found that I was doing the fast food run more because I couldn't do much in the kitchen and the kids have lots of activities. Needless to say our bank account is hurting because I drove the kids through McDonalds a few times. Do you even know how flippin' EXPENSIVE fast food is? It shocks me every darn time. Anyway, I've been a touch depressed because I feel like we're back at the beginning, broke, not making much progress in paying off the bills and making poor dinner choices. So now that I can walk a bit more (d0n't even really need the crutches!) I've been working to get back on track. I was feeling very "poor me"-ish and was dying to do some retail therapy. I decided to throw caution to the wind and take $13 to the dollar store and shop my brains out! I bought the kids some craft supplies (we made awesome Oobi eyes- you have to have a 3 year old to know who Oobi is I think), I bought some bubbles, kitchen gadgets...you get the point, I spent every last dime and I felt GREAT!!!! The kids were beside themselves with excitement, they couldn't believe their good luck, I was super mom and they were happy. Who would think that some crappy dollar store junk would make us feel like we're rich? So things are starting to get back on track, I have dinner in the crock pot as we speak and the only spending we've done is on groceries.
OOOOh, I have to tell you that my friend Rebeccah took me to see Dane Cook (the comedian) on Saturday night, it was an early birthday present. It's been so long since I've gone out to more than dance lessons that I wore my sparkly best. I was dressed like I was going to prom (almost), my hair was done and my makeup was rockin'! I must thank Rebeccah for being such an attentive date too, she carried my purse so I could crutch around unfettered. That lovely date also made me realize that Greg and I have had ZERO alone time since we started this experiment in January! We have not once gone out on a date, we always have at least one of the kids with us or one of us stays home while the other goes out. I think we've earned some time alone, we are giving ourselves permission to hire a babysitter!!! We may even see a movie that isn't animated and has nothing to do with Hannah Montana or the Jonas Brothers! We're gonna get wild.
So,that's the 411 on our lives of late, not very exciting when you can't move too far from the recliner. I hope you're all getting out and enjoying the sunshine/hail/sunshine/lightening/sunshine/70mph winds......that's how the weather up here has been lately. I have to go yell at my chlidren now, they're home from school and already fighting. Have a super evening.


xoxo

Now a moment of thankfulness

Hiya I just wanted to take this little space to remind myself how lucky I am to have as much support and love as I do.
Thanks to my parents for all the numerous meals out and the free babysitting. We would be sooooo sick of doing this money saving stuff if you guys weren't there to help us out and give us the opportunity to go on field trips with the kids, doctor's appointments without the kids, and most importantly giving the kids each alone time with you. You guys ROCK!!!!!!

Thanks to my friends and loyal followers who have to endure my insane rantings and have horrible imagery imprinted on your brains of my various stages of undress. Without your encouragement and eager cries for more this would be so freakin' tedious I don't think I could have stayed with it. You all have been so great and generous with your kind words and gifts I tear up just thinking how lucky I am to have you support me through this emotionally. I also have to say that I really didn't notice how many crazy things happen to me on a weekly basis until I started writing them down, I really am a weird experience magnet!! I get so down on myself when I screw up and spend money and it's nice to hear your side of things and you're all much more gentle on me than I am.

I have been BORED sitting around during my healing process, it gives a person a lot of time to ponder life, love and the pursuit of happiness. I'm happy to say that before my foot surgery at my garage sale I raised $150 for Sharon's Avon walk for the cure and I pocketed $150 myself. The unfortunate news is that I was not able to get one fun thing with my money, I had to get some crutches and pay for my van registration, that sucked up all my money (insert frowny face here). The good news is that I am mobile (sort of) and legal!!!!! I'm hoping to have another sale this weekend, if my foot can handle the movement, and I'll be able to get some fun stuff with that money. Since my foot surgery we've spend too many loads of money on eating out, Greg is not a very cooking sort of guy. We've had some fun cook outs and Kayleigh is a saint among children and has been making breakfast every morning for herself and Mia (toaster waffles), what a sweetie. I never thought I would say this, but I can't wait to get off my butt and clean this disgusting house, it's amazing to see how much work I actually did during the week, I thought I hardly got any housework done since it was always cluttered, but damn if it's not way worse since NOBODY is doing anything now! I praise my own name. I had to take some medication today (overdid it yesterday and hurt my foot) and I'm not really sure what I'm saying, so I'll end your misery. Have a super weekend and take the time to pat yourselves on the back for your achievements. They may not seem big to you, but the world would be worse off without your hard work!


xoxo