I have the flickr account up (totally vanilla pictures. And you have to send me a message telling me who you are. Also, nobody other than y’all here are going to be looking at them. I know sometimes I get weirded out when I’m looking at someone’s vanilla pics, thinking I’ll accidentally lead their Grandma back to my kinky shit. But no worries, it’s strictly to share the vanilla with my kinky friends)
I’m rather confuddled on how to go about adding people. The account name is tessnottelling. So, like, do y’all add me and I add you back? I dunno. This is why I don’t have a myspace or a facebook. I don’t get it.
I’m getting a new stove! w00t! Mine is, apparently, too much to fix so it’s cheaper to get a new one. It should be delivered tomorrow maybe. Should I clean the old one first, danae? lol. I don’t know if I’m THAT ocd.
Because of the broken oven, I’ve done zero Christmas goodie making. Not even anything that didn’t require the oven. My whole Christmas goodie-making spirit was gone.
And that’s probably a good thing. I’m fat anyway.
I hate dieting. I hate exercise. I do neither, btw. Thats how much I hate them. I’d rather take up smoking again and lose weight that way.
We spent the entire weekend doing nothing. Like.. nothing. We watched Christmas movies the whole weekend.
I still have shopping to do. I won’t do it until Thursday, I betcha.
Master only has to work today and tomorrow and then he’s off until next week. This has me all kind of excited. I love it when he’s home all day. I just drink him all up!
For those of you who have kids to buy for- do you try and keep things equal as far as presents/amount spent goes? Like, if one kid has 6 things to open, do you make sure the other has 6, too? Or does it not matter how many there are, only that the amount spent was equal? Or do you not bother with either of those and you just buy what you buy?
The reason I’m asking is this: We bought B-man a new guitar and case for Christmas. Price-wise, that maxed out his present budget. But the girls got cheaper items and so they have 7 or 8 things to open. In fact, I didn’t even meet budget on either of the girls. They’re still under.
It’s just bothering me that B-man would only have one (or two, if I wrap the case separate from the guitar) presents to open, while the girls have more. So I’m considering buying a couple more little cheap items just so he has stuff to unwrap.
Is that dumb, you think? Master’s all ‘whatever, do what you want, cunt’ about it. What would you do?
I’ve had the hardest time finding the motivation to cook and clean and do all of that domestic goddess junk lately. It’s just so… pointless. Wash, rinse, repeat. Day after day. Bah.
We’re going to be doing some construction of the tearing down wall variety pretty soon. Master’s kind of growly about it, though. It’s just that things had to get done so quickly when we moved here that I don’t like how it’s panned out so far. The spaces that we’d left open when framing in bedrooms downstairs, that we’d hope to use for either storage space or a little rec room for the kids, haven’t worked out well for either. The end result has been smaller bedrooms, with lots of useless and wasted space.
I don’t like it. The space has ended up being storage space for shit that should be in the kids’ bedrooms, if their rooms were large enough to accomdate it all. Plus, the rec room is too small to be a rec room, but would be the perfect size for a small-ish baby’s room, were we to move Jes’s room to that side of the downstairs.
So. That’s the plan. From my end, it’s fairly simple. We’d need to build two approximately 4 foot sections of wall. Don’t even need to add any outlets or anything like that. And then tear out two full walls, remove a couple outlets, move one light switch.
Piece of cake!
Master just rolls his eyes. Everytime I preface something with “It won’t even be that hard.” it turns into a major ordeal. Hee.
But, you know, it IS my job to keep the house looking spiffy. And this will make it spiffy.
PLUS- whenever Jes moves out, that whole enclosed side of the lower level will be the play space. Perfect!
I have to buy Jes a new crib. The one we have broke. Like, broke in the way that ends up with babies strangled in between bars. Thank GOD it broke when baby wasn’t in it. Drop-side cribs are just dangerous, and it looks like they’re slowly being discontinued. Right now, Babygirl is bunking in the travel crib. Sad to say that the travel crib is safer than the regular crib.
My ex-husband was arrested earlier this month. I guess he got in a bar fight and someone called the police. Since there’s been a warrant out for him over non-payment of child support, they hauled him in. I don’t really expect much to come of it, this isn’t the first time he’s been arrested for child support. BUT – each time he gets picked up and has to post bail, they send that bail money to me.
*dances*
Except, I haven’t gotten this one. Yet. I don’t know if I should give up hoping for it or if the system is really slow. Maybe the court system decided to keep this one to offset some of their own costs. Fuckers. I was going to use that to get the new crib.
Keep your fingers crossed for me, eh?
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Uncategorized | kaya | 
Monday December 21st, 2009 10:50am 
I don’t have kids, but when I was younger, if my brother or I was getting one big thing, my parents would usually mark that one “open me last,” and we would have a few smaller things to open before getting to the last thing. If you’ve already gone over budget for him that might be different, but from a kid’s perspective it’s usually cooler to have smaller things leading up to the bigger present.
I set a budget for each which is equal and will try to keep the number of gifts as close to equal as possible. Well I did when they were younger. This year it is going to be one large priced item each then their stockings.
They have rather large stockings which get filled with things they need like shampoo, toothpaste and brushes and such. As well as dollar store things. Again trying to keep the value fairly even.
If you have hit your limit on B-man cost wise and you do the stocking thing as well. Maybe try to by bulky things in the stocking budget that can be wrapped and he can open those as well.
As far as cleaning your old oven. I didn’t clean mine before the new on arrived last year. I did have to clean out my fridge as it was being picked up seperately for a special recycling program. You will have to post pics of the new stove.
When mine were bitty I made sure they had the same number of packages to open. Now that the older two are teens, they understand that it’s about equal cost. Their younger sibling has more packages but they realize that their gifts cost more. No one has ever complained. (Although there would be an almighty ass-kicking if anyone dared, and not of the sort we all like).
If this is his dream gift, the fact that he has a lower volume of gifts shouldn’t matter. I’m sure we all remember Christmases where only one gift really mattered. :)
Merry Christmas to you and yours.
I don’t have kids, but I know how my mother always did it. She had a budget for each child. Once you maxed the budget that was it. As I got older (being the oldest) I had less under the tree, but the things I did have were more expensive and I knew that. Some years it sucked, but other years I really hauled!
[rq=1589609,0,blog][/rq]Bad Back
I got a new stove the other day too! Like yours, my oven packed up, so Palus decided a trip to Home Depot to pick up whatever they had in stock was in order (we were told that if we ordered one, because of Christmas, we would not be likely to get it before January). So we ended up with one of the clearance ones ($800 reduced from $1200 – ouch at the price but it is a bargain), and the sales assistant was nice enough to give us the Boxingday sale price on it as well.
WE ended up manhandling it into the house the other evening because we brought it home ourselves.
I haven’t bothered cleaning my old one because we intend to haul it to the dump ourselves – once the snow stops that is. It is currently sitting in the garage stopping us getting the car in.
Presents? Well one of my girls is having a keyboard this year, which is pretty much her entire present budget as well. I try to get roughly the same amounts for each of the kids, so have explained to her that she doesn’t have as many presents as her sisters as she has one very big one and then a few smaller ones. I would say that B man is old enough to understand that he has fewer presents because his cost more.
I WON THAT SPATULA ON EBAY SO YAY FOR YOUR BUTT!!:)
[rq=1589763,0,blog][/rq]Wearing the Pants: Dockers Ad Shakeup
I wanna see pics of loved one, when ya figure the system out! ;-D
As for presents, while I do understand the notion that one present is worth a ton more than what siblings got (and we always encourage those adult life-type lessons, to get our teens ready for *gasp* real life, right?) it’s still a little humbling. If you think your son would take that well, or the lesson is important, or he’ll be ecstatic with the presents you got him–then you’re good. I just know that sitting and watching everyone else open things that, even if cheaper, they adore and I only had one (awesome!) gift would make me a just a little bit Petulant Polly. and I’m supposedly an adult now.
Also, I was perusing your domestic servitude blog and really connected with the question and answer part about how y’all stay motivated. I was thinking it was a great time of year to reconnect with all that and was gonna ask you to do some cross posting or just post your own answers or something. It’s just funny how life works out sometimes since you seem to be in a funk (accidentally typed fuck; I’m hilarious) as well. lol. Maybe I should just advise everyone to be in a fuck this holiday season–it’d solve so many problems!
Alright, rambled enough. Good luck with your holidays; sending good vibes *snicker*!
~azflower
loved ones…you knew what I meant!
Buy a set of guitar strings.
Wrap each string separately.
Problem = solved.
~Chloe
[rq=1590731,0,blog][/rq]Fear vs Common Sense: Epic Battle To The Death!
I don’t have multiple kids, but I do budget for people we buy for (my three parents run $40, the kid’s $150…and then Master’s just indulgent with whoever I end up with as a Secret Santa from clubs or rescues or whatever). Because I budget everyone anyway, I’d probably do kids the same way. I know my parents have x amount for me, and usually they just give it to me in cash…this year I made a request so they got that, and they’re giving me the difference.
I’m betting, though I don’t know, that if the guitar is something B-Man really wants, he’ll be thrilled and won’t care about what his sisters are opening.
I don’t want to cook or clean either. I’ve made lunchmeat sandwiches the last THREE DAYS. (Well, hell, I’ve got to use it up before it goes bad!) It makes me sore and tired and then my family just fucks it all up anyway, so…yeah. :/
I’d love to add an extention onto our trailer. If I went from midway through the living room down, I could have a bigger living room (more room for the birds!) and the kid’s room could be bigger. But I don’t want to do something to commit to being here, either, when ultimately that money could go toward a house.
Missed your posts lately!
[rq=1590931,0,blog][/rq]Public Post
I have 3 children and I have always set an equal amount per child, once that child’s funds run out, no more gifts. We have had Christmas’s that one child gets more than another and they have never questioned it. I usually require the kids to “clean out” their old toys before Christmas and donate any good items to the good will, and then we would usually buy a gift for a needy family and donate that as well. They have always been appreciative of what they have received, and I know they loved buying for another child…it was harder to put a limit on that sort of gift giving than their own.
I have a whole house full of kids and I never bought a crib..I kept them all in travelbeds, that way, no matter where we went…they had their beds, and it kept the falls short as they all climbed out at around 9-10months….
just a suggestion
Your timing is amazing…
I have two young children… and I try, I swear I do, to keep it even in both costs and number of gifts. Because they are still of the age that they “count” how many they each got. I have yet to get it right, it seems! But I try, I really do.
If each child got one “big” gift, price wise, I then make up the difference in smaller (and cheaper) stuff till its even.
::sighs:: I know they will out grow this she got more stage, but I do like it in so much as it is part of raising small children, if that makes sense.
Get B man a few (song) books, lesson tapes, or the like, and if you can something totally unrelated to music. ::nods::
If he’s in P-town, tell me what bars to go to, and I’ll make sure he gets picked up every damn night. =)
[rq=1593858,0,blog][/rq]So far today
I think someone already mentioned guitar strings. Another thing would be some guitar picks. He’ll need some and they are fairly cheap. A strap would be nice but he might want to pick that out for himself. One more thing is possibly some music sheets, like the chords for some individual songs. That would be really cheap, too. He can strum away while all others are opening their multitude of presents.
Good luck on the bail money!!
I love hearing about all that stuff with baby girl, like the crib issue. So many things for me to think about with my own little one coming! I’ll be emailing with the hopes of getting access to your baby pictures!
[rq=1594062,0,blog][/rq]Knocking some sense into my dizzy head
I have been reading your blog forever I would love it if you took a look at mine which I just started
Stacie
http://confussedsubsthinking.blogspot.com/
We think that B man is old enough to understand that his two presents were pretty expensive, and if the guitar is what he really wanted, he’ll be happy with that! Some music stores sell customized picks that have bands logos on them, maybe a couple of those would be enough to make up for any difference? Just our $.02, for what its worth!
B-man is old enough to understand. That being said, my mom used to make us scavenger hunt for the big gift. There’d be one under the tree with a clue in it to go look in the car, and a box in the car with a clue in it to go look in the garage. One year my brother found a wakeboard in the crawl space. :)
s
[rq=1595902,0,blog][/rq]Butt Plug
If you spent less on the guys and have some left over from their budget put it into buying B-man some extra things so they all have roughly the same amount…the girls won’t know the value of things really…and if they do…they can just get over it … Merry Christmas by the way…will wrap up some summer from Oz and send it over to you! xxx Ms B
sorry meant girls…juggling making coconut ice, mars bar slice and white christmas with my girls ;-)
We do keep the money even, and try to keep the number of things to open kind of even, but that’s partly for fun. The extras to open to “fill-in” can be silly or ridiculously little so that they are obviously a trifle, and it becomes a little family joke.
I would buy a couple of cheap gifts. Also, I love the idea of an “open me last” label. Merry Christmas!
I think with the balance thing, it really depends on the kid. My younger son gets REALLY bent out of shape if someone else gets something and he doesn’t — he hates feeling left out. My older son? I can’t really imagine him saying that.
I will be testing it this year, actually, because my younger kid is getting a big present, and although my older kid is getting plenty of toys, there’s no BIG present. Why?
Kid’s got everything already!!
Really!
Sir and i ran up against similar present issues with the kids and we decided to keep it more geared toward a budget then a quantity; we will eplain that there were some presents (oldest kiddo) that were more expensive and this is why the two younger ones have more quantity of presents. We hope this will help them learn the value of money and value of gifts…hopefully knowing they cost more she will care for them better. A mom can hope! ;)
[rq=1613376,0,blog][/rq]Sometimes…Last Night
I know what you mean about vanilla pictures. I have been following you for years and frankly although I love reading about your family (What I like best about your blog is reading about the _intersection_ of kink and vanilla. Also I am a sucker for just hearing stories about other peoples lives, which is why I like novels so much.) I don’t think I want to be seeing them. We’ll see if I hold true to this or give into temptation and make a friend request.
hey you………. i just wanted to pop in and say “neener neener” (wasn’t that your expression??)
Every thing is ready… the presents wrapped under the tree.. the dressing made.. the turkey at the ready… all the baking done…the house cleaned .. the snow shoveled.. the laundry done
and i am relaxing .. waiting for tomorrow and our Christmas..
LOL
wishing you and yours a Merry Christmas… and may the New Year bring you more happiness and love than you can imagine..
morningstar (owned by Warren)
[rq=1616655,0,blog][/rq]More Christmas Carols……..
I would love access to your flickr account. I am a loyal follower, even though I am not a blogger. You will never know how much you have helped me during my novice sub year as I have grown and explored this new found side of myself. Thank you.
All you have to do is add me as a contact on flickr. It’s tessnottelling. Or gimme your flickr and I’ll add you.
And thank you. That was really sweet to say. :)