The End of A Long Week!

So, we finally got taxes straightened around on Monday. I love H&R because of how quick we get our refunds back. This time was no different, we had our refund by Tuesday morning. So, Tuesday and Wednesday were spent paying bills and getting things that the kids need. Got each of the kids 3 pr pants and 3 shirts, and James 4 pr pants. Got Gabe and Caleb each a new winter coat, and Mike got 2 new suits and 2 new dress shirts. Myself, well I got some new lotions and body sprays. Doesn't take much to make me happy lol. We did most of our shopping at the Outlet Mall in Johnson Creek. About an hour and a half-two hours away from us, but well worth the trip in my opinion. Almost everything there is 30-80% off the retail price.
A good example is Mike's suits. S&K was having a closeout, and the suits were normally $160, and he got them for $40 a pc. That's a great deal! Gabe's coat was supposed to be $88, and I paid 26. Another great deal. Caleb's was supposed to be $50, and I paid $10.
All in all, a lot of great fun shopping!

I'm tired, and sore. My back has been giving me a lot more trouble lately, and so have my hips. Walking up and down the stairs keeps me busy, but it also makes me want to soak in the tub for the rest of the night. I used to be able to chase kids all day and night without a problem, but it's catching up to me lately. My migraines are back worse than before as well, which makes sitting here in front of the computer pure hell some nights.
Any way, gotta go get kids ready for bed.

Grrrrrr....Taxes

So we went to get our taxes done yesterday. That was fun...NOT! We give the tax guy the W-2's, the paper from unemployment, and our 1099-A from the mortgage company. All is going well, until---the tax guy looks at it and says "where did you get this?". He apparently has never seen one before, and doesn't know what to do with it! So he calls his boss over, and she doesn't know what to do with it either! They told us to come back today, that we could finish our taxes up then. But when we call, they say that they haven't figured it out yet, and the person that knows what to do won't be in until tomorrow.
What it boils down to is that they may count the principal amount that we owed as a gain, and the amount between what we owed and what it sold for as a loss. Makes no sense to me, but I also found out that the amounts from the 1099-C (and A) are supposed to be forgiven for 2007, 2008, and 2009. So we might not have to worry. Or, on the other hand, we might. Hard to say right now. Should hear back sometime after 9am tomorrow, so prayers would be appreciated.

Homeschooling is going pretty well....

Except for trying to keep a certain 7yo boy motivated and occupied. I am running out of ways (creative ways) to keep him interested in learning and what we're doing.
Now, logically, I know that while he is 7, his mental age is at about 3-4, so that accounts for some of it. I've begged, pleaded, bribed, and done pretty much everything I can think of to try and get him doing something.
I've took tv and made it only educational programs, I've taken video games and made them mostly educational. I've made flash cards with easy words, letters and numbers. We've done "field trips" to the zoo, the aquarium, the museum, and other places. He shows no interest at all in letters, words, numbers or any of that. He does know some numbers and letters, and knows what the flash card that says "DS" means (go figure!). I'm at a loss as to how to do things to help him learn.
The other kids did stuff about presidents and the elections, the Whitehouse, and how the government is the one that makes the laws and such (not too in detail, but the basics). That whole time, he was totally letting everyone know that he wasn't having any part of it. I've tried having the other kids doing something and (them) asking him if he can help. I've tried making him sit and holding him in the chair so he would sit long enough to let the cd rom that we were doing catch his attention.
Nothing seems to work.
The other kids are doing well. We are working out of some books that tell what words they should know by when, but alot of our work comes from things that they decided they wanted to know! If something catches their attention on tv, we write it down and it becomes part of tomorrows lesson. They love watching shows like "How It's Made" "Cash Cab" "How Stuff Works" "MythBusters" and all those type of shows. Oh, and "Dirty Jobs"! Thats a favorite of even Gabe! Gabe also likes Sesame Street, Dragon Tales, Wonder Pets, Dora, Diego, Backyardigans, Little Bill, Barney, and Teletubbies! And also Thomas, almost forgot about him, we only recently started watching that one, I can totally see how some kids can't deal without him, lol.
Of course since we don't have cable (yet), all they can watch is what's on PBS unless they're at grandma's house. Any ideas?????

It's been another busy week.

Wow, we're only 1/2 way through and it's been so chaotic that I wish it was Friday already! Well, not really, because when you homeschool, you don't necessarily get weekends off.
Sunday I picked up Adrian, he'll be going home tomorrow.
Been getting things ready for filing taxes, just need to get his W-2 forms. The mortgage company sent us our dreaded 1099-A form, which we're hoping won't screw up our taxes, plus we got his form from unemployment (from work being closed from the floods this past summer), that's another one that can get us, because they didn't take taxes out of it.

On another subject, it's been brought to my attention that February 8th is "Autism Sunday" and that apparently the second Sunday of every February is every year. Ok thats news to me, lol, but now I know, and am sharing the news with you all. For more information, please go to http://autismsunday.tripod.com/
A wonderful lady from the parenting_autism group on Yahoo was kind enough to share the website address with the group! (Thanks Tuna!)

The kids are doing well, and this week has been dedicated to learning about the past presidents, and all the activities that go on around the inauguration. Busy Busy Busy! We even watched most of the inaugural happenings yesterday.

On a side note, I stumbled across this blog, ( http://clusterfook.com/ ), and I think it makes a great read, and makes you really appreciate life and living it to the fullest. She's a 3 time cancer survivor, and her life has really been turned upside down as of late, and she is home on hospice care right now. Please, if you're the praying type, keep her in your prayers. If you're not, positive thoughts will help too! Now, go read her blog! Or else, lol.

The Big 3-0

So, tomorrow's the day, I'll be the big 3-0. And of course the kids keep telling me that I'll be old, ancient, over the hill (not that they know what that means lol). Jaime called and woke us up this morning wanting to know if my favorite cake is still chocolate. And which do I like better, Rainbow Brite or Strawberry Shortcake. So, long story short, she's making me a chocolate Rainbow Brite cake. Yum!
And I pulled out a long gray hair yesterday...time for hair dye. What color should I do? Mousy brown, Auburn, Red???? So many choices! But either way, $3 a box at Bent N Dent.
Mike's home today (vacation day), tomorrow (reg day off), and Sunday. Just long enough to get on my nerves, which he's already doing this morning by messing with the kids.
Maybe I'll post a pic after I dye my hair...

So My Credit Sucks...

And now I have to figure out how to get it decent enough to qualify for a loan thru FHA. Their requirements say at least 3 yrs after a foreclosure, or 5 yrs after a bankruptcy. The question is, 3 yrs from when they filed, or 3 yrs from when it was final lol. I'm guessing from when it was final, which puts us at June/July of 2011. A little over 2yrs from now. So that gives me 2 yrs to clean up our credit and put aside a minimum of 3.5% of the price of whatever house we plan on getting, plus closing costs, and whatever little incidentals. We dont plan on spending more than $100,000 on a house, which means at least $3500 for downpayment, plus at least 3,000 for closing and extras, probably closer to $4000. Can I do this? Yes, I think I can.
And if we wait til we get taxes back in 2012, we'll have a little extra besides what we have put aside between now and then. Now I just need to figure our budget and start setting money aside where we can't mess this up.

Everything seems to be closing...

In the past few months our area has been hit with a whole slew of business closings. There was the GM plant in Janesville, one of the Kerry buildings in Beloit, and before those, we had Beloit Corp, Sears, JC Penney's, and the stores in the Beloit Mall. We also had KMart and Sentry's close, and got word that June 30 will be the last day for the Alcoa Plant here in Beloit.
The latest is that the Cub Foods in Beloit, and one in Madison, and 2 in Green Bay are closing. Beloit's last day will be March 13, and 71 people will be out of jobs. That's on top of all the people that lost out from all the other businesses closing. My husband worked at the Beloit Cub's. He'd been working there 2 years on the day we married. He worked there a total of 9yrs and 3 mos, then left to work at Alcoa. That didn't work out, so he spent 2 yrs looking for a similar paying job to pay the bills, while we made ends meet on me working at McDonalds. Then he got hired in at Tyson, and he's been there 3 years as of the 12th of Feb.
I keep thinking about if he'd stayed at Cubs. He would have been there 14 years in March. 14 years. That's a long time to work at one place. What would he be doing now, if he'd stayed there? He'd be looking for work, trying to find a place that would pay somewhere near what he makes now, so we could make bills. And I, well I'd be freaking out, wondering what the heck we were gonna do about the situation.
It's scary to see all the people that are going to be out of work, especially the ones that work there that we went to school with, and that he worked with. It really opens your eyes to see the numbers in black and white, knowing how the economy already is, and wondering how much worse it's going to get.