So, shortly after I blogged last time, I found a job- hooray! It's a pretty sweet deal for me. I am watching a 3.5 year old at his house, while his mom works from home. I get to bring Sean with me (bonus!) and the latest I get off work is 2:30pm. Some days I have to be there as early as 6am, but most days I am there around 8 or so, and some days (when his dad is working later in the day or not at all) then I randomly won't have to come in to work at all. I get weekends off, as well as the major holidays. She is paying me weekly, the same rate regardless of what hours I work, so I get some reliability out of that as well. Overall I think it's exactly what I needed at this point- I was reluctant to get a "real" job and have to think about putting Sean into daycare and commuting and all that junk. This is about 15 minutes from our apartment (25 in traffic) and it's been rare that I have to put in the regular 40 hours a week. Not to mention, I get to play with a 20 month old and a 3 year old all day- fun!! The little boy's name is Gage, and Sean is fascinated by him. They play pretty well together, although Sean is still doing what experts call "parallel play" for the most part. Which is great- he's always been fairly independent, so he plays well that way, and I get to devote some one on one with Gage, since he likes some games that Sean isn't quite ready for yet, like Memory and pretend. But it's nice to be able to tell Gage that Sean is watching and wants to be like him, so he needs to show him the right things. He is a good kid, I lucked out with watching him. In my preschool teaching experience, he is one of the easier ones LOL!
The other benefit of taking a job like this is that I have been able to keep up with potty training! Sean is doing pretty well- it's not unrealistic to go an entire day without accidents at all, as long as I take him to the potty every hour-ish. He rarely tells me he needs to go pee on his own though, but I figure that will come with time. He will tell me about 1/2 of the time when he needs to poop. The last 2 days though, he hasn't told me he needed to go at all, but since he usually goes right before or right after naptime, I have been encouraging him to use the toilet. He has been resisting, and then going in his diaper right before he goes to sleep or right after he wakes up. If he does happen to go before he falls asleep, he won't sleep until I change him, which is a good thing. But it's been several weeks since he has resisted anything having to do with the potty, so this bums me out a little. Oh well, one day at a time, right? At least I am usually only going through 2 diapers a day now- naptime and bedtime. And an occasional pair of wet underwear here and there.
Right now the biggest thing we have going on is deciding what we are going to do with our house in Louisiana. Our renters have been far from reliable (aside from Dan, of course, who was always an awesome roommate, and tenant after we left!) so I am starting to freak out several times a month, wondering if we can afford to pay the mortgage or not. Property management is expensive, but it is something we need to look into again. I am not emotionally ready to sell the house yet- we didn't get a chance to put much work into it, and I think a part of me still thinks I can go back for a visit/extended stay and live there for a while. Ha! I think I am a bit delusional! But honestly, the housing market is crap right now, and we have owned it for less than 3 years, and have not put any money into it (aside from the A/C), so it wouldn't be the best idea to sell unless we absolutely cannot get renters in there because there is a chance we would not break even, let alone make anything. Right now we have 2 new renters, our supposed to be 3rd one bailed on us at the last minute. There were 2 previous to this that had to get out of their leases due to financial issues. We need at least 3 tenants (but have room for a total of 4) in order to pay the mortgage on rent money alone. Not to mention the pest control and landscaping. *Sigh* I hate money. I wish we could have stuck with the dive industry and Louisiana for another 2-3 years, long enough to get some equity built up and a chance for me to feel like we gave being homeowners a true chance. But, it is what it is. My current motto is "This too, shall pass" and I need to keep reminding myself. Things will happen, whether we want them to or not. Worrying doesn't do anything productive for the situation.
Well, I figured I needed to write out a wishlist- We have all of our birthdays coming up in the winter (Mine is November, Sean's is January, and Mike's is February) plus Christmas coming up. For our own sake I made a list, but figured it would be a good idea to post it on our blog as well, since our family is always asking what we want for Christmas anyways. Feel free to ignore it, but here it is LOL
Mike
Handgun
12 gauge ammo
My two front teeth (it's all I want for christmas)
A gift card (if they do it) to these guys www.bigjoesbikerrings.com
Dress shoes
Thick blue jeans (33-32 straight cut)
Books or book store gift card
Jenn
Raincoat/fleece coat combo (like my old Columbia jacket)
New running shoes (10.5ish?)
Value Village gift card (do they even make those?)
Eclipse DVD
Muffin top pan
Mini muffin pan
Sean
Winter Coat (2T)
Trains/Tracks set (Brio, or Thomas?)
Dr. Suess books
Super Why! Doll
Word World DVD
Slippers
I'm looking forward to this weekend- both of my parents are coming to visit, and we are talking about going to Anthony's Homeport for dinner on Saturday- yum!! It's my absolute favorite restaurant, yipee!!
Well, that's all for now. I'm signing off.
And now for the pictures!!!!!
