The economy and us.

I've been considering getting a part time/temporary job. Our mortgage doubled when we moved up here, and then Drew had to buy a car, and you all know how expensive gas and groceries are!! Just feeding my family breakfast requires at least 6 eggs, 5 or 6 pieces of bread, and about 8 pieces of sausage or bacon or whatever breakfast meat we have. Add that up, moms. You know what I mean. ;)

Anyway, we would like to be saving more money for the future, paying our house down, and not having that "We only have $100 left" conversation about a week before payday. We pay the bills fine now, but it's the savings that is bugging us. You all know we like to have a cushion, and we can't afford to even stuff a small pillow right now. :)

I am trying to do this in the least invasive way possible, and in such a way that my kids aren't raised in a daycare facility. I feel blessed that I get to walk them to and from school, tuck them in at night, and go to all the field trips and school activities. This is my first and most important career, but I also have to be realistic about our family needs. Like food and gas.

Thoughts? Advice? Complaints? Let 'em rip...

The thing I hate about "am pm" gas stations.

Those centrally located payment stations. They suck.

I try often to get gas on the cheap at the am pm at the intersection of Junction and Washington here in Roseville. I do not think I am of below average intelligence, and I cannot seem to make those idiotic things work properly. "Please swipe card and enter pump number." Yes. I have done that. Several times. "Card read error. Please see cashier." Well, you see, I do not want to drag three kids out of the car just to pay for gas in 100 degree heat. Now, bear in mind I am actually having an audible conversation with this machine. Even the freaks who hang out at this particular am pm (and they are fairly substantial freaks) are eyeing me with something akin to concern.

So, I drive to Safeway and am rewarded with my three cent gas discount, in addition to my twenty cent discount for spending fifty bucks on food for the troops. Yeehaw!

Elsa kindergarten

I dropped Elsa off at Kindergarten today! She tried to act like she didn't want me to leave, but I wasn't buying it. She sits across from Dianne Farrell's little girl Jessica; Dianne is the PTC treasurer and a funny lady! Her little boy Ryan is only a few months younger than Evan and they sat next to each other in their strollers while Dianne and I dropped off the girls.

I hope Elsa has a great day!! I can''t believe she's in kindergarten!

First day of school!

Today is the first day of school! Emma starts at 8:40 this morning and Elsa starts at 11:40. Both girls get out at 3. Drew has SWAT today, and he hopes he will be home in time to pick them up with me.

As you can see, LLBean & Land's End Kids back packs are very reflective. :)

We walked to school with our neighbors Rachel and Rebekah, and found out that Emma and Rebekah are in the same class. Yay!

Accursed budget cuts!!!

Elsa is, as you know, in an afternoon kindergarten class. Starts tomorrow. Anyway, I saw Miss Lewandowski today and asked her how the p.m. kindergarten thing came about. Well, due to budget cuts the K teachers have no aides. How on earth are you supposed to teach K without an aide? So, Miss L. is going to be in each of the other two K classes for an hour each morning, then teach her own afternoon class. But, on "minimum days" when Kaseberg lets out at 12:25, the afternoon kindergarten class will meet from 8:30 a.m. until 11:50 a.m.--The regular kindergarten hours. This will be fun.

Also, all the K classes are over size by one kid, at least. The district makes them wait a week, to see if all those kids really show up, before they can hire another teacher and add another K class. Then, if they add another class, the classes will be broken up and reorganized. Pray that this doesn't happen! We really want Elsa to be in Miss Lewandowski's class.

Wish us luck!

kindergarten and camping

We found out today that Elsa will be in Miss Lewandowski's class for kindergarten. Yay! We love Miss L. She's a wonderful kindergarten teacher. The interesting thing is that it will be an afternoon kindergarten class! Wow! Roseville schools generally try to do morning only, but there were so many kindergarten kids this year that they had to add an afternoon class. Elsa loves Miss Lewandowski, so all should be well. Wish us luck!

We also reserved our camping trailer for our September trip to Patrick's Point state park in September. We ordered a trailer hitch for the van, too, and Drew will be installing that himself. Going to be an expensive trip, but we're all looking forward to it!

Jelly Belly Factory!!

Yesterday we took the kids to the Jelly Belly factory in Fairfield. They had a good time! The tour is interesting, and pretty thorough. Who knew that so much went into making a simple jelly bean? Drew ate a bag of sour gummy worms, and I drooled over all the yummy chocolate in the Chocolate Shop. Mmmmm...chocolate cell phones...

To preserve the top-secret nature of the jelly bean production process, no cameras were allowed in the factory. So, here are the only shots I managed. Enjoy!