Our first family skating trip

Today Aly had a school field trip to the skating rink. The girls have never been roller skating and Daddy didn't want to miss this childhood first so he took the day off of work.

The original plan was that Daddy was going to take Aly on her school field trip alone. However, there was a kink in our plans. Just as they were leaving, hubby couldn't start his jeep. So in a rush I had to get dressed and get ready to leave. Now we were all going on this field trip!

The girls both did great. Aly only needed a one time around the rink holding my hand and then she was off all by herself. She eventually even went out into the middle of the rink and didn't rely on the wall in case she fell.

Unfortunately my camera battery was low so the picture quality wasn't great.

Our Gas bill is sky high!

Today I went through our bills to see how much money we spent on gas and groceries for the month. I wasn't shocked to find out that our gas bill was $661.70. With rising gas prices I know this month will hit $700+. With hubby's 100 mile a day commute and Aly's preschool being a 40 mile round trip commute three days a week we use a lot of gas. Hubby drives a jeep which he is absolutely in love with and gets only 17 miles to the gallon. My car to my dismay is getting around 18 miles to the gallon. When I had purchased it I thought I would get closer to 22. Oh well, what can you do.

We do have a Toyota Corolla that gets 30 mpg but it has been broke down for 1 1/2 years now. We have brought it to 4 different mechanics and no one has seemed to find what was wrong. They have replaced things here and there but it hasn't taken care of the problem. We now have it at another mechanic and I hope he will be able to fix it. It seems promising. Wish us luck that it will be fixed in the next few weeks. We could sure use the gas break. Course getting hubby to drive that car will be a whole different problem. He thinks it is a small girly car. Hee, hee....what can you do? At least I know I can drive it on preschool days and cut down on my end.

Our grocery bill was higher than I like. We spent $353.96. I will try harder this month. I like to keep it around 200-250. Before I even started being concerned about our grocery budget we used to spend like $600 so I guess I should be happy we are down to what we are.

Weight Loss Monday

I have to say that my theory on weight loss is definitely turning out to be true. Every other week I am loosing weight and on the weeks I am not it is due to water retention from my period or from ovulating.

Last week I was 133.4 and when I stepped on the scale this morning I was the same exact weight. Earlier in the week I had actually hit 131.8 two days in a row. Then between Saturday and Monday morning I went back up to 133.4. I am definitely ovulating right now!

This makes me really feel like the women on the reality show Biggest Loser are definitely at a disadvantage. Not only do we store fat easily but we also have water retention a few weeks out of the month. So when they have their weekly weigh ins, they may have done a totally excellent job working out and watching what they ate during the week but if it just happens to be that they are ovulating or having their period they could be affected by 2 pounds or more. No wonder Biggest Loser hasn't had a female winner.

Labels

Today I finally decided to take the time and create labels for my blog. That way if you are family and you want to read all about Aly or KK, just click on their name. Perhaps you are one of my frugal pals that only wants to know about good deals on clothing, food, and household items, all you need to do is click on great deals. The list continues so check it out. I have only gotten through half of my blog so I still have around 100 more posts to go through and label. Good start for now and I am sure the girls will appreciate it when they are older. Then they can just go write to their name and read all about themselves!

Aly's inventive spelling

Aly has been enjoying reading and writing now. I hope to get a video up soon of her reading her favorite Dr. Suess books. She loves writing as well and has started to try and spell things on her own.

In this picture she wrote: "To no one except Alyssa"
Pretty good for sounding it out on her own and only being four years old.

It is so much fun to watch her grow and learn. She is even helping me to see in more depth just how children learn to read. I never really knew context clues played as big of a role in learning to read as they do.

Aly makes dragons

Aly has been getting quite creative with the legos lately. She made a bunch of dragons. Check it out:

She made a bunch of flowers too but I didn't get to take a picture of them. She built so many dragons and flowers that she used up two buckets of legos. She was so proud of her dragons. She asked me to get the camera and take a picture. She even shared a dragon with KK. I was so surprised considering KK usually breaks the legos in a matter of seconds.

KK dresses herself

KK can be quite the independent little girl at times. The other day while I was downstairs, KK got herself dressed. I didn't even know she was doing it. She just came downstairs and had her new outfit on.

Do you see her shirt? It is a hooded T-shirt and she has the hood upside down. I thought it was so cute. She is not even a teenager and already she is showing her belly. ;-)

Check out the hood over her bottom! She is just so cute!

Aly builds a fort

The other night Aly came up to me and told me she wanted to build a fort. So I went and grabbed a comforter off of our guest bed and helped her make a fort. She was so excited that she decided she wanted to sleep in her fort all night. I was a little shocked considering the fort was downstairs and we all sleep upstairs, but I thought that we might as well give it a try. So Aly went and collected her favorite stuffed animal, her frog lantern, a glow stick, a drink, and her favorite book. It was the easiest bedtime we have ever had. She said she was going to read to herself in her fort and put herself to bed. And that is exactly what she did!

Do you know she actually slept all night there and never woke up till morning? What is even more shocking is that she slept in her fort two nights in a row. I guess my little girl may be ready for a sleep over at someone Else's house sooner than I thought.

Nosy Neighbor--How much can I take????

Six years ago we moved from the Bay Area up here to the middle of nowhere on purpose. Yes, we wanted some isolation and some privacy. We bought a house on two acres in an area where most of the houses have from 2-7 acres. We can not see another house from our house, that is how private it is.

Shortly after moving in we met a few of the neighbors. They all seemed nice and most of them wanted their privacy as well. After 6 months or so of living here the nosy neighbor told us that he noticed we had done a lot with the place--put in sheet rock, had a refrigerator delivered, new furniture, etc.... I have to admit I was a little irritated that someone who lives two houses down--about 4 acres away would know so much about our house when he can't even see it from his own.

Things have only gotten worse. Everyday he drives by our house and will just park out in front of it and stare at us. One time I ran out and asked him if he wanted something. He was embarrassed and said no while quickly driving away. For the few months that followed he didn't park in front of our house again.

Well he has been back at it and now whenever I have company he sits out there and writes the car license plate down? Who does that? What the heck? I was appalled the first time I realized it. He continues to do it and is now freaking out my friends.

I brought it up with hubby and he seems to think it is no big deal. His point of view is at least someone on the road would know if something every happened to us.

What do you think? Would you put up with it? Would it make you feel good to know that a neighbor knows so much about you? Comment and tell me!

Now what am I to do?????

Lately I have been contemplating going back to work. I have applied for a few jobs here and there but have never really pursued anything. Well yesterday I was pursued and had to make a quick decision. About 5 p.m. last night the principal from the elementary school Aly will be going to next year called me. They got my name from the county office of education. They needed an immediate long term sub for the remainder of the school year.

My head was spinning, what was I to do? This would be the perfect opporutnity to get in with the school and let them see that they want me as a permanent teacher. This would also be a great outlet for me to meet new people and make some new friends. I had to think quick on my feet so I took the job!

I asked them to please give me until Monday so I could find childcare for both of my girls. Now the real work will start. Since I couldn't find anything last night I waited till this morning. I called Aly's preschool to see if they had two full time openings. To my dismay they only had one. So that is not an option. So now what am I to do? I guess I will be spending the rest of the week observing childcare and trying to find one with two openings. This is going to be one heck of a week!

Do you know what today is? Today just happens to be Tuesday, April 1st. So in the spirit of April fools day this entire post is just a joke. Ha, ha, April Fools. Hope you all enjoy the day and get a few good laughs at some of the jokes people will be pulling on eachother.