The beat goes on.

My last post was a little... negative. All about stuff that was going wrong at the time. It's amazing how a little time (and tax money) can change things.

Like...
I was down to one car. Out of the blue my mom tells me that one of her friends posted on Facebook that she wanted to sell hers. And its... a minivan. A MINIVAN! Hmmm. Room for my three kids, groceries, kids friends, kids stuff, kids seats NOT right next to each other? SIGN ME UP! I heard about it on Monday, went to look at it on Tuesday, drove it home that night. The color wouldn't have been my first choice, it's gold, but it's beautiful.

Like...
The kitchen chairs are sadly damaged. The table is wobbly. Those things (at least ones that can stand up to three small-ish children) aren't cheap. Someone at work advertised that they were selling their table. A round, oak table. With FIVE chairs. At a hugely reasonable price. Bought it. Love it!

Like...
Getting bad news from the fridge repair guy that my fridge was on its last legs. There is a part that they can no longer find. Sad news because the fridge is awesome. (Water and ice dispenser = awesome in my book.) Found a NEW one just as nice as the old one for about $500 less than I expected to pay.

Like...
My cousin offered me one of those outdoor block things for kids to play on. For free! She came with her little girl and husband to deliver it. The kids played while her husband put it together.

Like...
The air conditioning finally went out (bummer, right?). Bad news on top of everything else. Service Plus came out the day after I called to give me an estimate. It's a lot. BUT, I can pay a small amount each month to pay it off.

Like...
The kids have been doing well... aside from Jacob's scares with pink eye (yes, scares plural) and Katie's ear infection. Jackson... well, he's fine so far aside from the normal bumps and bruises that come from just being 2 years old.

There are some things in my personal life that are a little tough right now so when I need something to be thankful for I just remember that I have three sweet (mostly!) and totally wonderful kids (always), a supportive family, and great friends.

And remembering all of this awesomely good stuff that has happened in the last 5 months doesn't hurt either.

Depressing rant... Full steam ahead!

(Oops! Just edited to get rid of all of those random characters.)

Ever get so excited about something that you've been working toward, that's finally JUST about to happen... it's right around the corner... only to find out, out of the blue, that it's not going to happen after all?

That was me today.

I've been working with the mortgage company to refinance the house. I've gotten paperwork and I've talked to the guy who sits with you to SIGN the papers. I thought this was a done deal.

Until today's call.

Todays call was a huge letdown.

We can't refinance because of a child support debt. A debt we pay each month. A debt we've been regularly paying off (the required low amount) for the last couple of years.

I'm... disappointed to say the least.

I'm also... mad, and sad, and very unhappy.

Now I have to mentally give back the $300 we would have added to the checking account as a buffer... and for car repair, new insulation, maybe replacing a window or two.

It would have been nice, because we ALSO have doctor visits, hospital bills (ER visits are not cheap), birthdays coming up, Christmas to think about (yes, starting to think about it now), and Katie's clothes that are in their last wears and will need to be replaced.

But, on the upside, our family still has a place to live, food on the table, healthy (aside from some stomach issues and colds) kids, cable and internet, cell phones, and one good car. So I guess it's not ALL that bad.

I'll just add all of that *other* stuff to my running list and *eventually* it will (probably? hopefully? maybe?) happen.

Sigh.

Thus concludes my whining. (And some really weird spacing between paragraphs.)

THIS is glamour.

This is how I answered the door when the pizza guy delivered the pizza.

This is not how I remembered looking.

Then again, the last time I looked at myself in a mirror it was 2:00 and I had just rushed through a bathroom break before returning to my chores while refereeing the kids in their play. At 2:00 today*, I did not have the thick headband, nor the accenting sparkly BELT of Katie's, on my head. When I add the arm shrug in large floral print that I remember answering the door in, well, it was a winning look.

(*If I was looking for a pearl of wisdom, it might be that alot can change in 3 minutes/hours, and... don't store found accessories on your head while cleaning.)

So, for the first time since 2:00, I looked in the mirror while I was sitting with Jack during his bath. I  realized how I looked... oh so glamorous.

The pizza guy (good looking, young, hip, and did I say good looking?) was smiling a little and I *thought* he was amused by Jake's claim that he could carry the burning hot child size pizza box. Instead, it seems he *may* have been laughing just a little at my appearance.

Then I remembered that I'm a mom of three and while I do clean up nice, I've had these adorable, inquisitive, imaginative barnacles.... er,  kids hanging off of me all day. So I've moved on. Because there are more important things to think about.

Like, does anyone else have a kid who likes to drink their bath water? Pretty gross.

In other news;

Katie and Jake are friends again. They're walking their pillow pets around the house on leashes (made from Katie's tights). They are called "Apple Dash" and "Dark Vader". The kids are VERY responsible stuffed pet owners.

Jake is a BIG fan of Darth Vader. He roots for him in every YouTube video we watch, and he almost has me convinced that D.V. is the hero and *not* Luke Skywalker.

Almost bedtime. The time of night I look soooo forward to. But first, showers for the rest of the kids, then story time, and then bed!