Flu or cold

Kyle is still sick.  He's been sick since Monday.  Ever since we got back from vacation, he's been sleeping throughout the day which is good because he needs it.  He doesn't really eat, and he'll drink water every other day.  He feels warm and his temperature has gotten as high as 101.6 degrees. I just hope he feels better before next week when he has to go back to school. 

Kyle turns 5 in 4 days!  Our anniversary is this Saturday as well! 

Plant Stand!

I just opened my Christmas present from my MIL and she gave me a 3 tier plant stand!  It is so cute and perfect for my plants!  It fits about 6 of my plants (I am sure I can fit more) and they look great on the stand.  Before, I had my plants sitting on top of boxes in front of the window. 

The stand was really easy to "assemble."  It came in 4 pieces: the stand and each shelf.  I just had to "hook" each shelf into its place.  

Hopefully Kyle won't be too curious and knock the stand over.  He's used to my plants, but he'll notice the stand. 

Home from vacation

We are back from our vacation!  We arrived home around 8:30pm last night.  Kyle fell asleep about an hour after we got home.  I have already finished unpacking today so I feel accomplished!  Most of our things are put away as well. 

We're going to go grocery shopping today since we don't have any food!  Kyle wasn't feeling well yesterday and he still seems sick today.  He barely ate anything yesterday and doesn't seem hungry today. 

We had a great time on vacation.  We bought tickets for 4 days and also got an extra day free.  We ended up going all 5 days!  The first day we went to Epcot where we walked around for about 4 hours, went back to the hotel in the afternoon to rest.  Then we went back to Epcot later that night!  The second day and third day we went to Magic Kingdom!  We had so much fun!  We even took Kyle on several rides!  The fourth day we went to Animal Kingdom and Disney Hollywood.  At Disney Hollywood they had replicas of the streets of San Francisco and New York.  They also had a replica of the Chinese Theater in Hollywood, CA.  The first day we went back to Magic Kingdom.  It was so cold and windy that day.  Kyle may have gotten sick from that cold weather. 

On vacation

We left for our vacation yesterday and got as far as Brunswick, GA where we stayed the night.  We all got up early this morning and left the motel around 8:30am.  We made it to Florida soon after and arrived at our hotel a few hours later.  We were able to check in early and put our luggage in our room.  Shannon and I took showers and then we went for a drive.  The hotel is located in Shannon's old neighborhood.  We drove down Shannon's old street to see where he used to live, saw where he took karate classes, where he had his first kiss, where he went to daycare, etc!  We then went to Walmart to buy some food, swim suits (for Kyle and myself), and a few other things.  Walmart was so busy!!!

The hotel has a little water park in the middle of it so hopefully I can take Kyle down to the pool.  They have some slides and a couple of little pools. 

The weather is nice, it's in the 70's here.  It's about 30 degrees warmer here than in North Carolina.

6 days til Christmas

My MIL had to go to JC Penney's to return a few things and she asked me to go since she hadn't bought me anything for Christmas yet.  I ended up getting two pairs of pants in grey and brown.  They are petite sizes.  If I had chosen the women size instead, they would be 3 to 5 inches too long on me.  I bought a few pairs of cordoroy pants last year and I didn't get "petite" sizes and they are still too long on me.  I also chose pink chenille gloves and a nice scarf!

The mall was the busiest I have ever seen it, which was funny.  The mall we have here has 3 department stores (JC Penney's, Belk, and Sears) and about 10 small stores within the mall. 

Too close to home

Earlier this week, there was a breaking news story on the evening news about a cop and wife found dead in front of their house.  The first report was they were "found dead."  The next day, it was reported that it was a "murder-suicide."  The husband (the cop) shot his wife and then himself.  The couple had two kids but they were told to go inside the house, so it's unclear whether the children witnessed the shooting.  The official news story can be found here.  What makes this so "close to home" beside it happened in the city we reside in, is that the wife Heather, was my MIL's hairdresser!  Heather did my hair once in 2007.  I remember her being really nice and so helpful. 

4 hours later

My MIL had some things to donate to the local senior center and to another thrift store and she asked me if I wanted to go to.  We left around 11am and we didn't get home until 3pm or so!  First, we stopped by the senior center to drop off the things she wanted to donate then we headed over to the thrift store to drop off the rest of the things.  Within the same building is a food pantry/food bank type of place to pick up food.  As we were walking up to the building, we saw a huge truck unloading some food.  My MIL informed me that this was one of the places she had to stop by to pick up some food and get some help paying some bills a few years ago.  We asked what documents/identification we needed in order to sign up for food and were told that they hand out food to anyone and to come back around 12:30pm (they opened at 1pm).  He said to get there early because people start waiting around that time.  He pretty much said that they don't require a social security card because the food is USDA and they are required to give food to anyone. 

Since it was only 11:45am (we wanted to be back by 12:30pm), we decided to go to the grocery store to pick up a few things.  She had a little list of things to get and I ended up getting some dried fruit.  We got back to the food pantry/food bank around 12:35pm, signed in and filled out a one page application.  While we were waiting, we saw how much food people were given and what types of food they got.  We didn't get out of there until around 2pm or 2:15pm.  We ended up bringing home 3 small boxes of food and other foods that didn't fit in the boxes.  We also have 2 dozen eggs and two loaves of french bread!  They gave us so much canned foods and two big blocks of cheese too!  It was a long wait but it was worth getting some extra food. 

My MIL had to use the ladies room, so we ended up stopping at McDonald's to use the restroom.  On the way out, we ended up getting some food, so I ordered a meal for Shannon, myself and some french fries for Kyle. 

Now that we're home and all settled in I realize how late it already is!  I can't believe we were gone for about 4 hours! 

Therapy interrupted & JC Penneys

We got off to a late start this morning.  Shannon woke up late and then we had to start the car to let it warm up as it was covered with ice (it was 16 degrees this morning).  Not only that, I heard on this morning's news that there was an overturned tractor trailor on the freeway.  We weren't sure if it was on the freeway we had to take.  As it turns out, the accident was on our way, but the truck was overturned in the ditch and everything was off on the shoulder so it didn't affect traffic.

Kyle had therapy today.  While he was doing that, we went to Walmart where I had to return a few things and pick up a few things.  I plan on making homemade energy bars and needed the ingredients for that.  I also bought some snack foods for Kyle.   We usually return to the therapy place a little early.  As I was coming out of the ladies room, I heard Kyle whining and looked at the clock to make sure we weren't late coming back.  His therapist said he wanted to leave (he was whining and went towards the door).  So we all went back in there to "play" and he was okay with it for a bit, but then he wanted to leave.  So we ended up leaving early. 

On the way home, we stopped at JC Penney's to pick up the toys my mom bought for Kyle for Christmas.  I also ended up buying a bath rug set in Olive color for our bathroom.  It looks good in the bathroom but Kyle doesn't like change, so he keeps removing one of the rugs from the bathroom!  LOL 

New Blog

I started a new blog about 3 weeks ago and it's going good!  I found a whole new world of blogging and it's been fun so far.  I found blogs that offer giveaways and host "blog hops."  I've been entering giveaways that look appealing to me and I have joined blog hops and will start hosting blog hops too.  Blog hops are a way to make new friends, network, gain new followers, and gain more traffic to your blog. 

Since I want to host more giveaways on my blog, I was contacted by a fellow blogger and she gave me a short list of companies that are looking for bloggers to host giveaways or do reviews of their products.  I contacted a few companies and one of them gave me a $35 discount code for their site.  I used it to purchase a food processor.  I will be doing a review on the product on my blog.  I chose a food processor because I want to start making homemade energy bars! 

Epic Burritos!

We made bean burritos at home yesterday!  We bought our ingredients at Walmart and they turned out really good!  They tasted so fresh and tasted so good.  We used canned refried beans, tomatoes, an onion, guacamole, sour cream, and shredded cheese!  I had Shannon cut up the tomatoes and onion since I don't like onions, nor do I like the smell.  While he was doing that, I heated up the beans and made sure all the ingredients were on the counter and ready to go.

We had leftovers so I had a couple of burritos today!  I can't wait to make them again!  Our burritos were so fresh tasting!  Love it!  I tried making a burrito for Kyle but he wasn't interested!

My $8 Coat!

The other day, I bought Kyle a new coat.  It was time for him to have a new coat since he's going to outgrow his current one.  He's only put it on once, but I leave it around so that he can "warm" up to it on his own time.  It's difficult to introduce new clothes to Kyle because he usually refuses to wear them.  But if I have the clothes out where he can grab them and try them on, he can get used to them.  Every once in a while, he likes to put on and take off different clothes. 

Last night, I was browsing around Walmart's website and found a cute coat!  The price was nice and the majority of the reviews were positive.  Almost everyone seemed to praise the price and the quality of the coat!  I wanted to see what sizes they had online and they only had XXL available, so today we went to Walmart to try to find it in the store.  Thankfully I found them, but they didn't have my first choice in color.  I wanted brown but they didn't have any, so I bought black!  Anyway, when I went to checkout, it rang up for only $8!!  I feel like I got it for a steal of a deal!

Kyle had therapy today. He loved it, of course. Both therapists said he was so happy and having so much fun. His speech therapist said he was much more verbal today, which I told her he's been trying to talk more lately!

All I wanted was ONE chick'n patty!

I went to make myself dinner today.  We had two leftover meatless chick'n patties, baby carrots, and couscous.  I went to put one chick'n patty on my plate, along with a handful of baby carrots and my MIL walked up and said, "Oh, that's my husband's plate."  Of course, I was pissed but didn't say anything and just put everything back.  Why am I pissed?  Last night, my FIL came home with burritos from Taco Bell and had four, if not five burritos in the fridge.  And no, I have no intention of eating any because they are all made with meat.  My MIL also brought home some Turkey soup that her friend made.  After I put the plate of food away, my MIL noticed that there were extra baby carrots and couscous leftover and I said, "No, it's okay, I'll just make a pizza."  Then she said, "Oh, I was going to say, you could have the Turkey soup, but you don't eat turkey."  DUH, Bitch!!!!  All I fucking wanted was ONE chick'n patty, some leftover baby carrots and couscous.  I am also pissed because it was our food stamps that paid for the chick'n patties and the couscous, both of which we bought at BJ's!  It was actually about 95% of our food stamps that paid for all of the food we bought that day. 

I have decided that if we ever have food stamps leftover, I am going to do my best to spend it all at the end of each month or just tell Shannon we don't have any money left on the card.  I don't think our food stamps should go to pay for my in-law's food!  If they need help with paying for food, they can apply for it.

Also, Shannon has been talking about going to Disney World if he gets some money.  He wants to rent two cars (one for us and one for the in-laws), rent a big house (so they can stay there too), and give them each $1000 spending money.  I have decided that if he does go to Disney World, Kyle and I are not going.  It's bad enough I am stuck living here, but to go on vacation with them?!   Instead of going to Disney World, I want to take Kyle to California to visit my family, many of whom he has never met! 

Of course, Shannon says I am overreacting.  He can't even be a supportive husband and blames this on me.  I told him that I have been thinking about the Disney World thing for awhile and this crap pushed me towards my decision! I am already pissed from this morning when my MIL told us not to flush the toilet. 

All I wanted was one chick'n patty!  Her husband has plenty of food to choose from to eat: 4 or 5 burritos from Taco Bell, Turkey soup, and a plate of food minus one chick'n patty!

If I am overreacting, why can't my husband just be understanding and take my side...for ONCE?

New Coat

I bought a new coat for Kyle when we were at Walmart yesterday.  It looks big on him so it should fit him for the next 2 years.  It's dark blue and black and has a hood.  It looks really warm too.  The weather is already really cold and rains here and there. 

My in-laws are finally getting their septic tank fixed!  They are coming out tomorrow to hopefully fix it!  My in-laws still owe us $1500 for the "almost top of the line washer and dryer they had to get" and then they just bought themselves TWO new recliners for Christmas.  It just makes me wonder where their priorities are?  You would think they would get the septic tank fixed before buying new furniture?  Also, my MIL told us not to flush the toilet today!  They haven't been able to flush their toilet since yesterday, so I guess she wants us to suffer too.  Hopefully after the septic is fixed, we can do more than one load of laundry a day...