Bad weekend for a friend's family

Whenever there is no crisis in my family, there is always one nearby, right? So here is our latest.

A family that we are friends with, neighbors actually whose daughter is our only babysitter that I trust with all four children, had an arrest of the father this weekend - who is a Davie cop and was arrested by his OWN DEPARTMENT!!!!

He was arrested for sexual battery on a family member - inappropriate touching.

When I first heard it, I didn't believe it at all. In their family, I've always said that the mother, although she has a heart of gold, is a space-cadet. The father is VERY level-headed and full of integrity. And we LOVE the teenage daughter (and the rest of the kids ages 9,7, and 4). They are one of the most normal families I know.

I would completely trust any of my children with any of them.

But, it turns out that the accusor is the older daughter. Bryan and I know this kids WELL. She is awesome and certainly not one to tell a false story or exaggerate one. Coming from her - it is more believable.

Trying to keep some distance, Bryan agreed to allow the mother and daughter to park their cars in my driveway. The press has been hounding them. Currently, they have a 24hour police protection that follows them wherever they go.

NO clue how this will turn out. Their family is in total turmoil. Selfishly, I am aware that I just lost my babysitter. She is needed more than ever by her mother and now I question Bryan's ability to be alone with her in a room... walk her to her car, etc.

The whole thing is just messed up.

My school.

Had my second pharmacology test last night. Everyone who has taken this class has told us that test #2 is the toughest because the questions are tricky... and they were right.

I don't have any confidence that I did good on it, which is a shame because I studied for it for 3 weeks.

The day before the test, I studied at Cindy's house for 4 hours and felt confident that I was as prepared at I could get.

My problem with the test is that the questions were mostly multiple choice and two answers were so close that I would get confused about which one to pick. Out of 38 questions, I had guessed on 10. No a good #.

A group of us discussed the test afterward and I learned that I had guessed right on a few of them. But I have no idea what my score will be.

An evening at the beach

Took the kids to the beach for dinner after school on Tuesday of this past week. Picked everyone up from school, Bryan took off work at 3pm and we headed down to Hollywood beach on a sunny, but very windy day.

We had dinner at the little pizza place down on Garfield street with Lara and Roger Brown and their family. The children played in the sand and ran up to the water but it was too rough (and cold) for them to swim.

We were all in jackets - kids were in bathing suits.

But I got some nice shots.

Carnival video

I had to add this funny video to this thing. It is of Meredith on the trampoline thingie at the carnival. Pay attention to us (me and Lani) calling out to Meredith to throw her legs over to try to do a flip. When she can't go backwards we tell her to go the other way and she heads face first into the trampoline. I'm hoping that the video works because the best part is hearing me and Lani laughing about her plunge.

Photos of the children

I know I've been bad about getting to this blog. It just seems like the days and nights blur together and before I know it a whole week has gone by.

But I though these photos of the kids were cute. We all went to the St. David's carnival last weekend and had a good time. We went for all four days. That was draining.

Stupid argument

Bryan is working now... he'll be home after 1am, but before he left, we were arguing.

Remember my wonderful $$$ saving trip to Publix? Well, one of the items purchased was two big bags of candy (buy one, get one free) and I had a $2 coupon. Each bag only cost me $4, but they are really $10 bags.

I took one bag to work today.

The second bag was here. I don't usually give the kids candy regularly, but I do like to put a piece of one in the lunch boxes every now and again. Plus, one small Reeses' cup is a wonderful prize for any job well done.

Bryan can stand that the candy is in the house and we fought over my buying them at all. Hence, why one bag made it to my work.

I guess Olivia was caught eating a piece and having a few pieces in her hand. When she saw Bryan coming into the room, she quickly made off like she needed to go to the bathroom and skipped into the bathroom.

Bryan is convinced that she was stuffing many pieces down her throat and she got in trouble. All of this happened while I was outside.

So, I come in and Bryan tells me that Olivia is not allowed to have a snack... she is being punished. I then announce that it is late anyway and neither Wade or Meredith needs to eat before bed.

Meredith quickly points out that it isn't fair for Olivia to get ONE candy and that she and her brother should have none at all.

I offer her an apple, but the poor child has all loose teeth in the front,so eating an apple is too difficult. I tell her that one piece of candy is all that Olivia got and if she wants the same she can have ONE piece. She agreed.

Then, Wade came out and announced that he wanted an apple. Well, I wasn't going to just give him an apple when the other two were not eating a whole snack. So, I offered him ONE piece of candy.

This is when Bryan lost it. He was SOOO raving mad that I declined Wade the apple but saw fit to give him a piece of candy.

This led to him yelling about how fat all of us are and then he threw out the entire bag... except the two pieces he had to reach in to the garbage and take out because Wade was crying that Daddy through out his snack. (what a mess)

I was mad because I was so proud of my cheap candy find, only to have the whole bag tossed into the garbage. So, I started fighting with him.

Now, I ask you is Wade overweight?

I don't believe that having the candy is such a bad thing... they don't ever eat any... we are still going through Halloween candy hidden in the closet.

He literally threw my find and $$$ into the trash!

He's a jerk when it comes to this subject. I will have to just let this one go, too, because he will never concede that what he did was wrong.

UUUUGGGGGHHHHH!!!!! Sometimes I can't stand him.

Saving $$$

Went to the grocery store today - nothing major to tell other than I was able to save $91 using the buy one/get one free items and coupons.

I actually spent $340 on the food, but it only came up to $231!!! I had two big carts full of the packed bags.

In the bags I had formula and 3 packages of meatm, too.

I know that it isn't much to some people but it was my personal best.

Same stuff... different day

Yesterday started off as usual, but was one of those days that just goes downhill as the day goes on.

Paige was home from the daycare with a rash from Tuesday. I think it was Roseola. She had a high fever over the weekend that abruptly went away and three days later - rash all over her body. Of course, the daycare didn't want her there with a rash - even if it was not contagious. So, I had to call in sick from work.

She is much better today... she was better yesterday but I had already called in so I just stayed home with her. Ended up not getting a whole lot done - laundry and defrosting meat for dinner, in between studying for a test that I hear may be cancelled this Friday.

Took Olivia (and everyone) to the hospital after school to have the pelvic sono redone. I guess her uterus was larger than they thought it should be so they called me and asked me to bring her back for a re-do.

What a mess. The Ultrasound staff didn't leave any notes about us coming in... so the staff that was working didn't have any clue why we showed up. 90 minutes later, after multiple calls to the doctor and radiologist - they finally did it. The results were the same... so I don't know what that means.

So, we didn't get out of there until after 5:30pm, which meant that I didn't have time to cook the meatloaf that was ready to go in the oven. Bryan ended up meeting us at Lefty's for dinner.

But by then, I was toast. I couldn't even enjoy American Idol because I was just emotionally HOT!!! from all the arguing about the US and then dealing with the kids at a restaurant. They were OK... Wade is the challenge now - he keeps gettting up from his chair. So, eventually, I just start re-placing him into his chair with some discreet hair pulling. Then we are dealing with crying, which leads to time outs in the bathroom, but this is how they learn, right?

I was glad to end the day yesterday.

Another week over... (sigh)

I wish I had something good to add to this blog... some interesting thing that was happening, but I don't. Basically, we had a quiet weekend, just us home doing the family thing.

Weather has been nice, so the kids have been running around in bathing suits (not in the pool - two of the four have a cough) but playing in the hose.

We set up the water slip and slide so that was entertaining for about an hour. Then they played in the sprinklers, that took up another hour.

That is basically our whole weekend... entertaining the kids for an hour at a time.

I'm studying for a test this Friday, so I don't have much time... for me or for them. I need to get used to it - it will be our way of life for a while.

Cleaned out the garage of all the basket stuff. Packed it away... I need to let go of it and ebay. Clear my head of any distractions.

What's been going on?

Yesterday was my only day off this week and I had a dentist appt. for a cleaning. I hate going to the dentist, but when the girl who is cleaning my teeth is using terms like 'sledgehammer' - I guess it is no wonder why my mouth is sore this morning, right?

Of course, one of my teeth needs a cap - old filling chipping out. It is a $500 job. Bryan needs to have one wisdom tooth pulled. Don't know how much that will cost. His is more important.

Every time we get $$$ save up, a little, something like this happens and we have to dole out the $$$. We can never get ahead.