It has been awhile...

So, let me tell you how the past few days have been for me.

I got to work about 9am on Friday morning. Was pretty busy, heard through the grapevine the boss was calling people in to tell them what % they were getting for a raise. I was leaving early at 1pm to take the dog to show & tell @ my kids school so I was busting my a** to get everything done I needed to before I left.

My boss approached my cubicle about 12:30 and asked me to come into her office. I am thinking sweet, I hope my raise is good. I enter her office and a woman from HR is in there- confused? me too! I sit down and low and behold - cut backs in the department & guess who is one of the lucky few that get to go? You guessed it - ME! They generously offered 1 week of severance pay - whoo-hoo!

Needless to say - I drank heavily on Friday night. Hung around the house for most of Saturday (took the boys to "Horton Hears a Who" - not recommended unless you need a nap)& Sunday & then last night (St. Patty's day) went out & drank waaaaay tooo much!!! The enforcer was not impressed with my ability to pray to the porcelain goddess for quite some time.

I have figured out I will approximately bring home in "bacon" (between unemployment & child support) $2200 a month. Not bad - for not doing anything.

I have been thinking about not "actively" looking for a job until mid-summer. However, I am NOT cut out for this stay @ home mom stuff.

So my dilema at hand is - do I join the work force right away or do I hang out and "look" occasionaly?

What would you do?

Off to UC I went

So last night I had to take the youngest to Urgent Care. He is some what of a hypochondriac so I usually don’t take him to the doctor.

Anyway, his daycare called me at work yesterday and said he hadn’t eaten all day & just wanted to sleep. Poor thing.

So off to UC we went. Of course since we live in Tim Buck Two, I have to drive 25 minutes to get to the closest UC.

We arrive and I was pleasantly surprised that there was NO ONE in the waiting room! Score! We got to see the “doctor”, who was really a PA, right away. I think his name was Greg. Anywho, the youngest has an ear infection and a “very red throat” but the strep test was negative. Bonus – b/c otherwise the Enforcer, Reporter, Wrestler & myself would have to get the strep test too!

As Greg, the PA, wrote the prescription he told me to make sure to have him gargle with warm salt water. He looked up at me after he said that & saw my “are you f**king kidding me” look on my face. Greg then realized that maybe a 4 year old wasn’t going to be able to do that. Ya think??? Greg then advised to just have him drink “really cold drinks” to ease his sore throat. Duh, did I just pay for this?

We left UC and proceeded to the pharmacy to file the Rx for the youngest. While waiting I realized no one had eaten dinner. Crap! So I left the drug store & ran to the grocery store. Thank goodness the Reporter had requested to come along to UC (I am sure to add a chapter to his never ending story on my life) so I made the kiddies stay in the car while I ran in. Hot dogs & brats on the good ol George is what my decision was.
Say it with me – YUCK!

Finally, I got home about 7:45 made “dinner” which only 3 of us ate. I ended up making PB&J sandwiches for the Wrestler & the Youngest.

And with that came the close of another busy day in the life of an “old” 30 year old!

New hobby

Fun new hobby of mine – *B*I*N*G*O* and Bingo was his namo.

I know some of you (if anyone is even reading this) are asking yourself “Isn’t that for old folks”. We are NOT talking about Serious Bingo here -- I play Bar Bingo.

Here is what you do:
Find a local bar (I prefer the Legion in Mound) that has Bar Bingo, arrive a few minutes before the scheduled start time with about $25, this should cover your bingo games and drinks. You pay $1 at the bar and you get a card with 3 different games on it. The “pot” that you can win depends on how many people are playing. There are anywhere from 9 to 15 games generally.

I am definitely one of the youngest people there but I have confidence that with my blog I can convert others to play Bar Bingo! There is nothing like sitting around with a purple (my favorite color – but there are other colors) dobber and shouting BINGO while sipping on a cocktail or beer.

You may wonder what the difference between Serious Bing and Bar Bingo is. I will give if you the definition that the bartender Bobbi at the VFW in Mound gave me:

Serious Bingo – if you talk they will throw their dobber at you.

Bar Bingo – is something fun to do while you have a drink or two.

I will be honest, I have only won once. I have brought the Enforcer a few times and he has won ever time I have brought him. My luck has to change soon!

So get out there bloggers & non-bloggers and be sure to shout BINGO loud and proud!

Until next time!

I'm gonna win!!

My latest obsession – entering sweepstakes. I did a little researching and have found the following websites.

http://eprize.com/Portfolio/Live.aspx?sec=1

&

http://www.online-sweepstakes.com/


I really like both of these. At first I told myself this is ridiculous, you are not going to win anything (as of today I have won nothing) but then I thought – hey someone has to win, why not me?

So if you are wondering what I am doing at work for most of the morning, now you know.

Keep your fingers crossed for me & hope I win lots of freebies, prizes & trips!

Until next time…

Runaway

Today’s topic – the long awaited rant about my ex-husband who I will affectionately refer to as “runaway”.

Let me give you a little insight on why things ended with runaway. Runaway is a brilliant man with many get quick rich ideas but lacked the motivation to really pursue any of them. We moved here to MN from SD in September of 2003. I was 6 months pregnant with the youngest and willingly moved here under the assumption that I would be able to be a stay at home mom until the youngest was at least 6 months old. Two weeks after moving here, runaway quit his job because he “wasn’t making enough money”. He then informed me because of my background in insurance that I could make more money than him and I should go back to work. So I went job hunting hiding the fact that I was pregnant from all interviewers. I landed a job within 2 days of sending out my resume. I was raised to do what you have to do to help your family so at that point in my life I was ok with it.

I gave birth to the youngest at the end of December of 2003. I stayed home for a total of 2 weeks before returning to work. I was bitter to say the least because I had my tubes tied so I knew it would be the last time I would get to enjoy having a brand new baby and all the enjoyment that comes with that. I think that was the beginning of the end for me.

Time went by, runaway and I didn’t ever really do anything together. I would go out with my friends from work, occasionally inviting him if other spouses were coming along. Slowly but surely resentment started building.

Runaway was a terrific father but the “stay at home” part which to me meant cooking, cleaning and doing laundry was not his strong suit. I did the laundry and cleaning while he did the majority of the cooking.

In the spring of 2006 I sought out his father and brother for help with getting him motivated. Both spoke with him but to no avail. I told both of them that if he didn’t have a “real” job by August I was leaving him. Things happened at the end of June to show me that there was never going to be a “real” job – the dreamer in runaway was too strong. I left him officially the first week in July. I admittedly could have handled it better but hindsight, like they say, is always 20/20.

After I left him, he decided to go visit his brother in CA to get away from me. That was the beginning of September of 2006 – he has been back to MN a total of 3 times since then. The boys have been to CA 2 times since then.

Overall, runaway & I have a pretty good relationship now. Like all ex-spouses we don’t always see eye to eye. Our two main arguments, child support & him living so far away he doesn’t really have to “parent” the kids. I will leave those topics for another day.

Until next time - have a great weekend!

A DAY IN MY LIFE

So I will be rambling on today, bare with me bloggers & non-bloggers, you may learn something.

So what is it like to be a mom of 3 boys at the age of 30 you may ask – let me tell you a little bit about my average day.

• I am woken up by one of the 3 rugrats about 7am (usually the youngest) by him yelling at one of his older brothers (the reporter & the wrestler) or him bringing the dog into my room. I prefer to wake up to the dog but that is another story. I set the alarm each night, I don’t even know why anymore.
• Get up and hope I have enough time to take a shower after throwing clothes at the youngest one while telling him we are running late, get dressed & go brush your teeth. Typically yelling at the wrestler not to wear the same clothes as he did the day before and to brush his teeth before he leaves for school. I then rush to get ready – usually leaving the house w/o make-up on.
• Stop at SA to get a diet coke & smokes – the youngest usually gets a chocolate donut (real healthy) & some sort of juice.
• Speed to daycare – try not to wreck the transmission by slamming it into park as I am getting out of the car to run the youngest up to the door. I then run back to the car (I don’t recommend this in heals on ice) to proceed to work.
• I have my first 15 minutes of alone time I get a day driving from the daycare to work – I savor the time. Somehow, I don’t end up at work until 9 or after. I think it annoys my boss but she doesn’t say anything.
• I hang out at work for the day, playing on the internet and trying to get work done in between websites that I visit daily. My job is pretty slack for about ¾ of the year. The other ¼ I am lucky if I get to take a lunch break & rarely see the kids before they go to bed.
• About 4pm the older two get home from school and will call me to tattle on each other & ask if they can play on the computer or the PS2. From 4 till I leave I generally get 3 -5 calls.
• I leave work generally about 4:45pm – (I am salary so I technically don’t “have” to work 40hrs a week). I try to savor the 15 minute drive back to daycare it is generally interrupted by phone calls on my cell phone with the reporter at home reporting all of the drama happening at my house. When I arrive at daycare I leisurely walk up to the house & pick him up.
• Once in the car, I find out what kind of mood he has chosen to be in for the evening – either my little angel or the devil reincarnated. Usually the later. So I enjoy my ride home with him either singing or kicking my seat screaming at me.
• As I walk in the door and the reporter gives me the DL on what has happened all day from the bus stop to how the wrestler has been doing WWE moves off the furniture and whatever else he can be blamed for.
• Pick up the house while listening to all the boys “playing” with each other – it sounds like yelling to me but whatever.
• I end up in the kitchen trying to figure out what to make for dinner. When I serve whatever I decided to make I have at least one person complain – usually the youngest or the wrestler. I clean up after dinner and then sit down to watch TV or read a magazine. (this is usually about 7 or 7:30)
• The wrestler fights with almost everyone each night so I am the referee. I usually charge him with fouls and send him to bed early which results in him assaulting me as the referee verbally – I then call in the enforcer to help me reign wrestler into bed.
• 8:30 is bed time for the boys – reporter & wrestler try to negotiate 8:45 of 9:00 bedtime. Sometimes I give in depending on how tired I am. I tuck in the youngest in the bottom bunk and usually threaten the wrestler who is in the top bunk not to come out of the room. The reporter goes to his room and reads then goes to sleep.
• About 9 the drama at the house has quieted and the enforcer & I enjoy some time with each other watching TV or talking. We head to bed about 10:30 – knowing the next day I get to repeat the whole thing again.
  
  
  Now you know a little bit about my life as a single mom of three boys.
  Reporter =11
  Wrestler = 7 (8 in April)
  Youngest = 4