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Post by beaglemom on Feb 20, 2019 8:17:15 GMT
No real advice, but didn't want to read and run. We just had our fast pass day, we are headed down in April for our first trip. 14 days, 10-day park hoppers. We are staying onsite with the meal plan. And as a Disneyland AP, I am totally overwhelmed. But hopefully, the kids will love it. We have 4 kids that will be 8, 6, 3, 1. Thankfully our Disney travel agent did all the dining and fast passes for us!
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Post by beaglemom on Feb 20, 2019 8:07:52 GMT
I had 4 kids in 7 years and I actually like the spacing because they are close enough in age to truly enjoy each other's company. If I could have had a choice I wish my girls were not bookends and that i had two of one gender followed by the next two. The girls hang out more now that they are both over 21 but I think they would have been better friends without the gap. I knew I always wanted 4. I hope mine are close when they are older. I have bookend girls. They are 6 days shy of 7 years apart. Somehow we ended up with 3 of our 4 with birthdays within a 9 day period. So March will always be a busy month in our house! But I am very happy to have 2 of each. I saved most of my oldest's clothes hoping I would have another girl. I thought I was golden, but this last baby is the biggest of mine (she was the smallest at birth) and some of the seasonal stuff isn't lining up. But that's okay it is fun shopping for my last and my sister will get awesome stuff if she ever decides to have kids! |
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Post by beaglemom on Feb 17, 2019 2:11:41 GMT
Sorry to take so long to update! It's been a busy day! Little Serenity made her entrance into the world at 9:31 this morning, weighing in at 7lbs 8 ozs, 19 1/2" long. Mom labored for 15 hours and was FABULOUS.  She has all her fingers and all her toes and oh, my! There is nothing like the scent of a new baby! Instant love. Thank you ALL, so very much for the positive thoughts and prayers. You ladies are so beyond awesome. Teared me up a little to come back to this thread and see all the well-wishes. ******** Just got word that my youngest DD's water just broke and she's on the way to the hospital. Her's is a high-risk pregnancy, so any positive thoughts for a safe delivery and healthy baby will be appreciated so much! TIA! I adore her name!!!! All of our kids have S names and I loved Serenity. Alas, we are done at 4. |
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Post by beaglemom on Feb 3, 2019 0:42:05 GMT
I have a good friend that went for a semester during her masters program and fell in love. With the country and her now husband. 1.5 kids later she has been living in Kenitra, Morocco since 2012. But she also did 2 years in the Peace Corps in Kiribati. I would be more worried about the fact that she couldn't deal with going to school far away than the destination that she picked.
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Post by beaglemom on Jan 29, 2019 22:11:37 GMT
I feel you on the 3rd party seller issue, but I just have to say: your whole post is a microcosm of so many things that I can’t stand about school. Look at how much trouble and money it’s causing you for the kids to string some cereal, not to mention the rabbit hole of all the natural resources being used to ship you a case of cereal you don’t even need. Multiply that times a million across the country. Gah. Why do we have to make everything so complicated and elaborate? Thankfully, in theory, I can be reimbursed for the money spent. I won't turn in the receipts because we can cover it and I would rather they use their budget on other things. But I do think it is annoying. In our extended family we have celiacs (gluten free), tree nut allergy, and dairy allergies, so I get that it can be difficult at times. But I find it annoying that instead of asking those parents to help bring a stash of stuff for their kids instead of all 45+ kids in Kindergarten have to have gluten free, dairy free (nut free I get, that can be life-threatening to be in the vicinity). Because it is hard to find at times and expensive! |
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Post by beaglemom on Jan 29, 2019 21:46:26 GMT
So I am normally 110% for Amazon, but a 3rd party seller has me upset right now. I have 4 kids and we are 30+ minutes from target and such, so I do 80% of my shopping online. Tomorrow is my son's 100th day of school party for Kindergarten. And one of the activities they have the kids do is fruit cereal O necklaces. There is someone that needs to be gluten-free so they requested freedom foods gluten-free TropicO's. The only place I could find them was Amazon. The box arrived and I had purchased a case to make sure there was more than enough. They send me the wrong cereal. I now have a case of ancient grain flakes and no TropicO's. Amazon will refund, but I am not sure what I am going to do for tomorrow. I sent the teachers an email asking if Fruity Cheerios will work, but I am worried that the O's holes will be too small for the kids to string them. I have ordered them via instacart and hopefully they will be here before I leave to pick up the kids from school so I can bring a box to check with the teachers after school.
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Post by beaglemom on Jan 28, 2019 18:58:25 GMT
The Curly Girl Facebook group is awesome!! I've been shampoo free for 2+ years. My hair has never been healthier. I need a haircut badly at the moment, but it still cooperates! The last time I straightened my hair was March 2016. I have never been happier. My dd (7) has been CG and shampoo free for 2 years as well. I had no idea how curly she could be until we started trying it with her. She LOVES her curls and asks me to do it for her.
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Post by beaglemom on Jan 22, 2019 7:17:55 GMT
I remember getting something for my American girl in 6th grade. I don't remember when I stopped playing with barbies. My daughter is interested in babies, she's 7, but I've found the quality to be crappy compared to the ones I had growing up. I had Samantha (ag doll) and my sister had Kirsten, my mom kept everything and I have all that stuff in the garage.
We got dd her first ag doll at the ag store in nyc for Christmas right before she turned 4. She'll be 8 in March and we gave her Molly for Christmas this year, she's got 5 or 6 of them now. She loves them, but hasn't found many girls in her class that are interested in playing with them. She's a girly girl and loves dresses, princesses, fairies, and that sort of stuff. It bums me out that most of her school peers have already moved past that phase. I was really hoping we had 3-4 more years, since her little sister is 7 years younger,i was really hoping they'd have a brief cross over time!
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Post by beaglemom on Jan 17, 2019 22:02:08 GMT
During the week dh eats at work. He gets free meals (breakfast, lunch, and if he has to stay for some reason also dinner). Weekends he makes pancakes for the kids and we usually do sausage, eggs, and some veggie for us. I am trying to be better about putting something together for myself in the mornings. It's hard getting 4 kids up and fed ( nursing the youngest) and taking them to school ( ages 7, 5, 2, 10 months). And I like my sleep, so I don't get up as early as I probably should.
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Post by beaglemom on Jan 17, 2019 6:06:08 GMT
We have the Marpac ones in every bedroom and travel with them too. I adore them! |
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Post by beaglemom on Jan 17, 2019 1:47:16 GMT
I did 4 mini (6 inch 3 layer rounds) for birthdays last year. There were 7 of us. But I love making cakes and made the birthday peoples' favorites.
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Post by beaglemom on Jan 11, 2019 2:10:46 GMT
Oh my goodness....such an addicting read! Can't wait for Part 8!
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Post by beaglemom on Jan 9, 2019 20:57:29 GMT
Hugs! I am so sorry you are going through this. Sending strength and well wishes to all of you.
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Post by beaglemom on Jan 3, 2019 4:14:40 GMT
Where will you be traveling from? That could take some places off the list. We live in WA state and it takes forever to get to Costa Rica or Jamaica. We looked at going to Costa Rica last year and it would take 18-24 hrs to get there, so that’s two days of vacation gone. There were some shorter flights but the prices went up substantially. We are going to Hawaii in March to a resort that had an all inclusive option through Costco. It just doesn’t cover lunches. Do you go to the same part of Mexico every time you go? If not maybe try going to a new area of Mexico. I think you get a great vacation for your money in Mexico, especially at their all inclusive’s. 2 families will be coming from Denver my in-laws and the other family San Francisco. That is something that I've been considering too. I would prefer higher end, we enjoy good food. And let's face it I want good drinks too with the group. We also have 3 gluten free, 1 nut free, 1 dairy free, and 1 salmon free. |
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Post by beaglemom on Jan 1, 2019 23:00:16 GMT
Inlaws will be celebrating their 50th anniversary in April 2020. For their 40th they took all of us to an all-inclusive in Hawaii (that doesn't exist anymore). So we (dh and I) thought that we should take them somewhere for their 50th.
There will be 18 of us.
Looking at going Early August 2020 - the big group for a week and then our family (2 adults, 4 kids) might stay an extra week)
Inlaws are late 70s.
3 couples ages late 30s-late 40s.
Kids: 16, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 4, 2
We would like:
Somewhere warm - Caribbean, Fiji, .... (probably not Mexico because we do that as a big group every other year)
All inclusive
Places to work out
Places to be outside
Childcare options
Activities
Mil has Club Med in her head because she went to one 50+ years ago and she liked it. But all the reviews I have been reading and that our travel agent has looked at sort of say that it is meh.
We (dh and I) will probably have to end up picking up a good bit of the cost of the trip for everyone and Mil asked me to figure out the trip. So I get to pick where we go!
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Post by beaglemom on Dec 26, 2018 7:11:51 GMT
Hate it! We do it with dh's family. We use elfster to randomly select a stocking person for everyone. You can't have your spouse and you are supposed to spend at least $100. Mil and fil travel a lot, so if they have you your sticking is filled with crap from their trips. So th ended up with an aboriginal art t-shirt, kangaroo jerky, an apron from pikes place, and a golf shirt from the college mil works for. He was on the trip to Australia with them and the trip to Washington state and went to the college that mil now works for (she does 90% of her shopping in the college bookstore clearance racks). His family is awful about sending out wishlist. His sisters sometimes do, but 90% of their lists will be over the price limit.
I wish we just wouldn't do gifts. Just focus on the kids and leave it at that. Plus we already did Hanukkah with my in-laws and ended up with a bunch of random stuff from that as well.
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Post by beaglemom on Dec 22, 2018 5:27:43 GMT
We love our gravity blankets! We got our first ones when they were on kick starter and have purchased additions ones since. They are amazing!!! Is gravity the brand name or just a description? Marcy Sorry! Just saw this. It's the name. Gravity blankets |
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Post by beaglemom on Dec 20, 2018 3:41:52 GMT
We love our gravity blankets! We got our first ones when they were on kick starter and have purchased additions ones since. They are amazing!!!
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Post by beaglemom on Dec 19, 2018 20:35:46 GMT
I adore mine. My original one is lavender and my parents got it on sale for my 21st birthday when Williams Sonoma had them on sale - out was an Easter color and my birthday is on June. Dh got me the professional one a couple years ago for my birthday. I use both of them at least monthly, if not weekly.
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Post by beaglemom on Dec 19, 2018 16:15:02 GMT
If sewing is what you do for fun, pack your sewing machine, set it up on the balcony overlooking the ocean and buzz away as you escape the crazy in laws, lol. I'd rather be sewing pajamas than dealing with mine on a 2.5 week vacation.  I can't even handle them for 2.5 hours on Christmas, lol. I wanted to bring my machine! We drove down 2 years ago so I brought it that time. Thankfully I got the pjs done. |
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Post by beaglemom on Dec 16, 2018 14:26:59 GMT
Update....The shuttle will be here in 3 hours to take us to the airport. I made pj shirts for all the boys and nightgowns for all the girls. I am worried the measurements are off a little. So I am using that as my excuse for not doing pants for the boys. What I was given has my 5-year-old in the same size as my 10-year-old nephew. So we went by Target tonight and picked up matching knit jogger pants for all the boys. I gave up on the Christmas dresses. We did manage to squeeze in pictures with Santa this morning and I just had my girls wear other festive (red) dresses that I had already made for them. We're going to bring the dresses that I made all the girls for the wedding that we all went to in August and hopefully, they will work! I, on the other hand, don't have a clue as to what I am going to wear. I ordered 20+ dresses off amazon and none of them worked. All but one --- of course, the one I liked the most --- were way too big and the one I liked was too small. So maybe we can just do pictures of the kids --- I don't like being in the pictures anyways.
The 2 littles and I still have our coughs, but other than the coughing we seem to be doing much better.
Still couldn't convince anyone to do all inclusive. My mil told me to make a schedule and assign everyone days they are cooking and cleaning. We'll see how the shopping ends up divided.
Dh has the sil that couldn't find a measuring tape as the person he is supposed to stuff her stocking for Christmas, he had me order a pack of measuring tapes to put in it!
So no sleep for me, but the pjs are done, and I'll finish packing when dh gets up in 5 minutes!
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Post by beaglemom on Dec 16, 2018 14:18:59 GMT
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Post by beaglemom on Dec 13, 2018 6:39:14 GMT
Reading your post stressed ME out. Wow. So many valid complaints/issues in your post! And why the heck does your FIL care so much about the colors/pics? I find that odd and controlling. I hope you feel better and can have a good time on the trip. Fil was a "professional" photographer. When I met him 18 years ago the only photographing he was doing was team pictures for swimming, soccer, and basketball teams. But apparently, when he went to photography school 40 years ago those were the rules. No white, no red, no black, and only earth tones. I love to sew, I love to sew fun things, not something that no one will notice. And dd loves fancy dresses, the fancier the better. So I am trying to squeeze in a red holiday dress for her to do Santa pictures before we leave and then a dress that is in the color he okayed for the pictures down there. |
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Post by beaglemom on Dec 13, 2018 6:05:26 GMT
Dh is out of town for work at a conference until late tomorrow night. He left Sunday night.
We have 4 kids, ages 7, 5, 2, 8 months. So this week I has been a little crazy, I've done it alone before and I will again, but this week is just sucking, a lot.
We leave Sunday morning to go out of the country for 3 weeks. So I need to pack the kids and myself for the trip. dd7 and ds5 have been growing like weeds and their summer clothes aren't fitting so well - we are going to Mexico and it will be in the upper 70s and 80s the whole trip. I am having the hardest time losing the baby weight this time around (doesn't help that I am dealing with the stress by eating chocolate) so I am at my heaviest non pregnant and nothing attractive fits.
I have been sick with an upper respiratory thing for going on 2 weeks now. Coughing a ton, hard enough that it has made me throw up a couple times. ds2 has it too and is congested. I just got to help change out all his bedding, shower him, and get him back to bed after he vomited all over his bed for the 2nd night in a row - no issues with vomiting during the day, just at night all over his bed. dd8mos woke up this morning with the cough.
This part of the vent is mostly my fault. My mil has been buying the grandkids "matching" christmas pjs for a number of years. Last year wasn't so successful since the kids are now 14 yrs - 8mos in age. So back in July I offered to make them all matching pjs. I spent a small fortune ordering custom material, it's Grinch and is amazing. In October I sent my sils both an email asking for their kid's measurements so I could start working on them. Nothing. My inlaws went out to them for Thanksgiving and apparently my mil went off on both of them about how it was ridiculous that they hadn't sent me the measurements. A week later I got 5 of the 6. I finally got the 6th one on Monday. I also sent texts last week asking what style for the boys - tops (short or long sleeves) and bottoms (shorts or pants) and sent images of the t-shirt panels asking what one for each kid. Nothing. So tonight I am just going to cut them out and they are going to get what they get. But in putting all the kid's measurements in a spreadsheet I am really worried they didn't measure correctly. My ds5 is measuring the same chest, waist, hips as his 9 year old cousin. Granted the cousin is thin and ds is tall, but I really don't think they are that similar in size.
2 years ago when we went on this trip we did family pictures. Fil threw a temper tantrum because we didn't ask for his opinion on outfit colors. I made the 3 little girls, at the time 4,5,6, matching dresses and my 12 year old niece a skirt. He didn't like the color - so he photoshopped them a different color in their christmas card. I mentioned to my mil since we were getting there 4 days before my sils' and families that we were going to do our family photos before everyone got there. She said she wanted us to all do them together again. After last time the issues last time I asked fil what acceptable colors were. I was told earthtones. Unequivocally no white, black, or red. When asked for more specifics I was given a 30 minute lecture on how nothing is to detract from the subject’s faces...blah, blah, blah, and no real colors to go with. At the time I sent my sils a text and asked them to try to get clarification from fil while he was out visiting for Thanksgiving. But that didn’t happen. I finally just bought some fabric and thankfully he said it was okay.
So I have dress fabric. But with everything else going on I am way behind on sewing things and what I really care about is making my 2 girls dresses for our family photos and Christmas dresses. But I still have to finish the pjs, 3 of 10 are done. And I am sick and have sick kids and I need to pack.
The other issue is we are staying at a very nice resort in 2 beautiful homes. Magazine worthy kitchens, that aren’t really stocked for real cooking. ***
Both sils claim to not have money. One both of them are doctors and if their interior designer tells them to spend $50,000 on something they will, but their kids need new clothes that fit and it’s a bother. The other one legitimately doesn’t have a lot of financial resources, but most of that is self imposed. Sil’s dh doesn’t work and hasn’t for 10+ years, but loves to ski and golf. And just bought a Tesla model 3 and they are doing a massive home remodel.
Because of this they insist that we grocery shop and cook meals at the houses. So We will be spending the next 2.5 weeks in Mexico grocery shopping at Costco and Walmart and cooking and cleaning up after 18 people. I really, really wanted to convince them that for one of the weeks we should do all inclusive. But again they are claiming no money. The doctors couple somehow never ends up grocery shopping, because they won’t rent a car and so they “can’t” go, and never offer to go with anyone else. And has never offered to reimburse.
So the first 2.5 weeks will be spent with 18 people, grocery shopping, cooking, and cleaning. Not really my idea of a vacation. Add in a mil that complains about EVERYTHING and whose priorities are working out, stressful to say the least.
Thankfully dh listened and they all leave the 2nd (when our regular reservation is up) and just our family is staying at another part of the resort till the 7th.
So if you made it this far….please keep me in your thoughts. I am really, really, really looking forward to having a margarita on Sunday night!!
***editing to add**
When the pest control guy was here today to check the traps he asked me on his way out if I knew about the water gushing out of the pipe under the house. I thought it was one of our drain spouts since we've had some rain. After he left I went to look - a pipe I didn't even know was there was gushing water - so forcefully that it was going out about 6 ft before arching down to the ground. In my defense this is the equivalent to a story and a half under our main living area, the house is built on a slope. I went up to the water meter and literally watching it just spinning around and around. Thankfully I figured out how to turn the water off. And also thankfully the plumber that was already scheduled to come over tomorrow for something else was able to send someone over to check on it. Apparently, due to pressure, the top blew on some irrigation stuff that we aren't using. We have only been in the house a year and this is part of the old irrigation system that we aren't using. But somehow it became very pressurized and is also making backflow spray. SO they shut that down and are hopefully going to be able to fix it tomorrow when they come to fix the other thing.
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Post by beaglemom on Dec 11, 2018 2:33:15 GMT
**GypsyGirl** you can adopt me and I will happily take your machines...and send you pictures of cute kids wearing the clothes I make on them! That's more than I can say for certain family members! I recently send a gorgeous quilt, doll quilt and pillow to a nephew's 1 year old. All I got was a Facebook thank you and not a single photo so far in the 2+ months they've had it. I could use some more appreciative relatives!  The beauty of my stash is that there is more than enough for you and craftedbys to share!  I'm convinced that most non-crafters just don't get the value of handmade. I have made a number of things for my nieces and my sister in laws don't get it at all. I get a passing thanks and that is it. My daughter, on the other hand, comes home from school asking for dresses for every little thing they are doing at school. The most recent was an outfit in pink material that had octopi on it. Because she was going to be a pink octopus in her class music presentation and they were supposed to wear something the same color as their costume. I'm working with my mother in law to make Christmas PJs for all 10 grandkids, she loves getting them matching ones but that is hard now that the ages are 9 mos - 14 years. So I offered to make matching ones. It took 2 months, and my mother in law going off at them over Thanksgiving, for them to get me the measurements for their kids. Now I am scrambling to get them done by the time we leave on Sunday. I am in awe of quilters, I hope to someday learn. I can sew clothes, but the fidlyness of quilts scares me! |
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Post by beaglemom on Dec 10, 2018 5:19:18 GMT
I bought this Brother SE400 in 2012 from amazon. For almost $100 more than the current price. It has worked very well for me. I sew for my kids and some friends. I probably do 30ish dresses a year? It has been great. Now I would love a higher end Baby Lock or Bernina, but the machine works great for now and I really want a coverstitch next. |
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Post by beaglemom on Dec 10, 2018 5:13:51 GMT
My son suggested to me that DIL might like my $3000 Bernina (yeah, I know, I got it at a deep discount because I worked in the industry) if I’m not using it anymore. Meanwhile I can't get a single one of the kids from the younger generation interested in sewing/quilting so that I can dump leave my machines/fabric to! you can adopt me and I will happily take your machines...and send you pictures of cute kids wearing the clothes I make on them! |
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Post by beaglemom on Dec 4, 2018 3:02:06 GMT
Basket sounds awesome. Is there a suggested $ amount. Our church does them $20-$25, but specifically asks that you not go over the suggested amounts because of having siblings who might not understand why they received so much more. That's what I am struggling with. DH's work had them out and they say $25-$40. But we picked up an adult, 2 kids, and a newborn. The adult asked for an XL t-shirt, with a pair of shoes as the backup option. You better believe he is getting both! The kid's gifts were normal. The newborn one asked for a video monitor, with a diaper bag with essentials as a backup. That one I plan on doing a stuffed diaper bag. |
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Post by beaglemom on Dec 4, 2018 2:07:25 GMT
I just signed dh and the kids up for Sock Panda I loved the ones that have come. If you order through my link you should get 10% off and I get a free pair of socks! |
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Post by beaglemom on Nov 29, 2018 17:03:59 GMT
It's been coming down hard since last night. There was some loud thunder right overhead an hour or so ago. Not too windy at the moment. But we discovered over the weekend that the garage door seals at our new house don't seal. So we keep dealing with a lot of water in our garage. So I am spending today trying to find someone to replace the seals. I feel guilty because I really hope the kid's swimming is canceled tonight. The clubhouse is under construction so there isn't a good place to hang out while they are swimming. dd7 has swimming 3:30-4:15 and ds5 has lesson 4:30-5. I will also have ds2 and dd8mos with me. So not sure what we are going to do!
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I can't even handle them for 2.5 hours on Christmas, lol. 
