The DDA Trouble Free Zone Part 13

[babytrees]

Today is the first day of school here. Laura had to leave just before 7:00 am. Matthew was out the door around 7:40 am. I walked Miles up to school at 8:45 am. Miles is wearing the shirt that I made him for the last day of school in June. Now I have to get a few things done!

Your teen let you take a picture on the first day!!! Amazing!!! What cutie patooties!!

 

[UP Disney]

Mine is a Grand Caravan, too. We were looking at the regular ones, not the Grands. Then we took the kids out with us one day. Even at 5 and 8, they didn't have enough room in the third seat of the regular one. I can't imagine not having all four doors. That is practically a necessity, isn't it? The nice thing about the sliders for the kids is that I don't have to worry about them opening it into the car parked next to me. We really do need a new car fairly soon, though. I had an '89 VW Jetta with well over 120,000 miles on it (the odometer stopped working around 120,000) that we traded in for the '99 Caravan. I don't think that I'm going to get to '09 with this one, though. Plus we need to empty out the account we are saving for the new car before we start filling out financial aid forms for college.

We also have a grand caravan. The 4th door is awesome and I agree about the sliding doors for kids. There are times when people park next to me that I wish the front door was a sliding door! With two kids, it's nice that they can both have their own seat. My first non-cool car was our station wagon. I hated when I had to buy that dumb thing. Mini-vans are definitely cooler than that!

 

[babytrees]

no I am off today that is why I was able to stay up till midnight last night. I'm off again tomorrow and then work Friday. I work 3 12 hour shifts a week.

ahhhh....got my chatter's mixed up!!

 

[ReAnSt]

My sister says the same thing! She just leased a Honda Pilot so she can hold her soon-to-be 3 and she REFUSED to have a mini-van. Now me, that's what I want! But then I also wish I could have 3 or 4 more kids, but will probably never have more than my one so I think it's compensation.

I honestly wouldn't mind having a Honda Pilot, I had to drive one around as well as Chrysler Town & Countries when I worked at the group home as all the homes had them or a Honda Civic if there was only one consumer at the house. I don't understand why instead of spending so much money on vehicles and the homes they couldn't have paid their employees more. These vehicles had leather heated seats, CD players, some had DVD systems, they had all the accessories, they were nicer than most of the employees personal vehicles. Some of the houses had 2 people for a 3 story house with 5 bedrooms.

I don't have kids, but when I bought my car I bought something that will fit 3 car or booster seats in the back seat and that has fold down back seats so I have room to haul stuff. As I sometimes drive my neighbors 3 kids around or to transport Brownie Girl Scouts or to lug piles of stuff around. As here in PA kids must be 8 years old or 80 pounds before they no longer need a booster seat.

 

[bear74]

ahhhh....got my chatter's mixed up!!

yeap Becky is the one who is supposed to work today.

 

[my3princes]

Do the 3 of us smell or something as lately we are the only ones at night chatting.

It's not the chatting at night that's a problem, it's when it rolls over into the morning

I'm an east coast girl and since the kids have gone back to school I'm trying to be in bed by 11 PM. Last night I made it shortly after 10 and started reading the Weight Watchers stuff.. I think this diet is going to be pure
h e l l for a picky eater like me. I'm going to try the flex plan, but may switch to the core plan as it looks easier to follow.

Deb

 

[bear74]

I honestly wouldn't mind having a Honda Pilot, I had to drive one around as well as Chrysler Town & Countries when I worked at the group home as all the homes had them or a Honda Civic if there was only one consumer at the house. I don't understand why instead of spending so much money on vehicles and the homes they couldn't have paid their employees more. These vehicles had leather heated seats, CD players, some had DVD systems, they had all the accessories, they were nicer than most of the employees personal vehicles. Some of the houses had 2 people for a 3 story house with 5 bedrooms.

I don't have kids, but when I bought my car I bought something that will fit 3 car or booster seats in the back seat and that has fold down back seats so I have room to haul stuff. As I sometimes drive my neighbors 3 kids around or to transport Brownie Girl Scouts or to lug piles of stuff around. As here in PA kids must be 8 years old or 80 pounds before they no longer need a booster seat.

I think that is what the law here in texas is. but I know lots of people that don't do that

 

[my3princes]

Hello, sorry I have been off for a couple days as I am having family problems. Hubby and I are fighting quite a bit lately and since August I have been getting migraines at least every other day (sometimes several days in a row. ) I hate to ask as I know June, Dawn and Kate need it more than I do. But I could use some PD DH wants to try and have his older boys 13 and 15 come live here again. They have been back in IA (where their mom lives) for 5 years. I just don't know if I can do it. I have a lot of health problems that have made it hard for me this year and we're still trying to get Zachary the help he needs. The dr's are leaning towards high functioning autism on the spectrum. DH is partners with 2 others in a company and works major hours to get it growing. I am exhausted and feel overwhelmed with everything going on with Zack and now he wants to move out two teens who are having adolescent problems. I feel like a horrible person but I'm at the end of my rope and feel like much more is going to break me. I told him I don't think I can do it and he is mad at me. I just don't know how to explain to him as he doesn't deal with Zachary so he doesn't understand why I don't want any more stress right now. He makes me feel like a failure because I'm not superwoman. This may end our marriage as I feel like he needs to at least hear me for us to figure this out.

If it were my husband I'd give him a piece of the reality that you are facing. Could you go away for a few days and have him be the care giver for Zack? Whenever I feel overwhelmed I find a way to put Chris in my shoes for a day or two and that ends the fighting as he finally understands. I haven't had to do that in a really long time so I guess he finally gets it.

Deb

 

[bear74]

It's not the chatting at night that's a problem, it's when it rolls over into the morning

I'm an east coast girl and since the kids have gone back to school I'm trying to be in bed by 11 PM. Last night I made it shortly after 10 and started reading the Weight Watchers stuff.. I think this diet is going to be pure
h e l l for a picky eater like me. I'm going to try the flex plan, but may switch to the core plan as it looks easier to follow.

Deb

I'm also a picky eater.

 

[ReAnSt]

yeap Becky is the one who is supposed to work today.

Yep, I gotta be there at 1:30pm.

 

[babytrees]

Had I known lots of you have mini vans I wouldn't have said soccer mom!

I would like a bigger car....loved our olds station wagon...I know just as uncool but we bought a mini van and it threw a rod through the engine two weeks after we got it. That olds was a gift to get us home and lasted 4 more years. Have 2 more payments on our Ford Escort and then we can start saving.

 

[bear74]

Theresa my friend I have had since last wedis back this morning

 

[ReAnSt]

I think that is what the law here in texas is. but I know lots of people that don't do that

Oh, I know lots of people who don't even buckle their kid in a seat belt. Luckily I don't have to worry about Car seats for Girls Scouts anymore as the girls I am working with are in grades 6-8. But for the 1-3 graders if they didn't show up with a car seat and needed one their parents had to drive them to the event.

 

[my3princes]

Here's a and sending prayers and . You are NOT a failure. It sounds like he needs to be left alone with Zachary for an entire weekend, if not an entire week to see what you go through. You aren't being difficult, he is. If his boys are having problems, it wouldn't be a good idea to bring them home. Have you tried counseling yet? Here's some more .

edited: Just saw your note about counseling. There are avenues for free help -- do you have access to a Church or another avenue for free or reduced fee counseling? Good luck -- hope you have no more migraines!!!

I guess Marci and I are sharing the brain today.

Deb

 

[bear74]

Oh, I know lots of people who don't even buckle their kid in a seat belt. Luckily I don't have to worry about Car seats for Girls Scouts anymore as the girls I am working with are in grades 6-8. But for the 1-3 graders if they didn't show up with a car seat and needed one their parents had to drive them to the event.

smart woman for making their parents drive them.

 

[ReAnSt]

It's not the chatting at night that's a problem, it's when it rolls over into the morning

I'm an east coast girl and since the kids have gone back to school I'm trying to be in bed by 11 PM. Last night I made it shortly after 10 and started reading the Weight Watchers stuff.. I think this diet is going to be pure
h e l l for a picky eater like me. I'm going to try the flex plan, but may switch to the core plan as it looks easier to follow.

Deb

Sorry you feel this way Deb. What foods do you like?? I hope you can find something that will work for you. and

 

[babytrees]

It's not the chatting at night that's a problem, it's when it rolls over into the morning

I'm an east coast girl and since the kids have gone back to school I'm trying to be in bed by 11 PM. Last night I made it shortly after 10 and started reading the Weight Watchers stuff.. I think this diet is going to be pure
h e l l for a picky eater like me. I'm going to try the flex plan, but may switch to the core plan as it looks easier to follow.

Deb

Well I was in bed by 11 last night....mountain time. I do have a bit of an advantage over you East coast gals.

 

[my3princes]

Good morning everyone!

I think I officially lost my cool status yesterday. We bought a Town and Country minivan after realizing there was no way we could comfortably drive to Disney in February after being packed in our Escape all weekend. I'm so depressed.

Welcome to the soccer mom world I bought a little red convertible when I graduated from college, that was cool. We decided when I was prego with Nick that a convertible might not be the safest vehicle so we bought an SUV. I swore up and down that I would NEVER by a van. Fast forward 7 years, prego with the 3rd child and taking care of 2 more, no choice had to get the minivan. Now I can't imagine life without it. I'm getting old....

Deb

 

[ReAnSt]

smart woman for making their parents drive them.

Legally I can't drive them if they don't have a car seat and don't meet the requirements. That and I live on the other side of town and often times our trips were on my side of town, so I wasn't driving over there to pick them up to come right back to where I started as I would have had to push times back for events to start in order to do this. Most of the time we didn't even have an official meeting location for this reason. I told the parents if they wanted to arrange their own car pools they could. I think most of them were just happy I was the leader.

 

[my3princes]

Mine was a Dodge Grand Caravan but only had the 3rd sliding door not on both sides. That drove me crazy so we traded it for a 4 door Chrysler Concord. I miss the extra seats in my van but I don't miss that 3rd door.

I have a very used Toyota Previa with only one slider. I wish it had 2, but we only paid $400 for it Since Chris can do all the work on Toyota's and we only pay cost for parts I kinda like driving used cars as it means no car payment So now we have a DVC payment instead. Gotta love my used Van

Deb