I"m Here.....still feeling overwhlemed.  Thursday was a tremedously busy day.  I dropped Tommy off at daycare.  Josh took Erik to Church.  I came home picked up Josh and we went to MPLS to see the allergist.  New forms were signed to have meds  at school and he also gave him some new eye drops due to his very itchy eyes.   I asked the Dr about Tom's eczema and he said I should have him see a dermatologist and have food testing. 

I called the peditrician and he didn't agree with the allergist about Tom's eczema.  He put Tom on this new medication that just came out.  I am suppose to give Tom a bath twice a day and put medication and lotion on him twice daily until it is cleared up. 

After taking care of the medical things for my kids, off to take care of the van.  I let Josh drive the van for a bit then we dropped it off with Midas.  My SIL picked up up and returned us home.  I got a call from Midas and they can't repair the van.   It needs a new Catalitic Converter and he tried to do one on a AWD van like mine and it didn't work well.  He wanted 1,500.00 to attempt this.  I think not.  I went to the dealership who can order the part and it will be there this morning.   The dealership cost with parts and labor was only 925.00.  So I had my FIL pick me up and take me to Midas and Took the van to the dealership.  I had to then get a rental car to get to work today, which the dealership was great about getting mea rental too.   BTW, my rental is a Ford Focus and I hate it.  I can't see out the back of it to back up....YUCKY!!

So my plans for today have changed.  I can't go to book group as I have to have the rental back by 5:00 and then pick up the van. 

The biggest bummer of course was since I wasn't going to have a house payment due for September I was going to pay off one of my credit cards in full.....but now it seems like the van repairs are real close to a house payment themselves.....Oh..well I will keep plugging away at it. 

Tonight I have to finish laundry and get pack to leave tomorrow with the boys.  

My current state....Overwhelmed.
I know it is mostly because I am so very overwhelmed at work, but it is spilling over into my home. I had a blow out with hubby last night. I ask him to watch Tommy so I can make supper. He sticks in a movie and goes outside leaving Tommy alone in the living room. The kid has been at daycare all day I don't think it is too much to ask him to spend time iwth him while I make supper. Ok..there is my rant for the moment. I'm tried and crabby. I have a busy day today. I have to try to get some work work done in between taking care of getting Erik to church by 10:00, Josh to his allergist is Mpls by 11:15 and the van into get fixed by 2:00. In between all that I need to get three reports done for work. ARGH!! Actually I stayed up late and finished one last night so only have two left today. Too much work and not enough time in the day.

FINALLY...I seem to have returned to the world of living. Didn't sleep well last night, Tommy was up at 2:00am and various times throughout the night. Plus i stayed up later than usual. ARGH!!! This morning we have a 10:00 appointment to refinance and then I am off to work. I have to work laste tonight. My last home visit is at 6:30. I probably won't get my weekly house blessing done tonight. I will have to do it on Tuesday.

Later!

Tomorrow we close on the refinance of our house! The little bit of cash back we get around 1,000.00 will go straight to our credit card debt. We are working very hard to have all our credit cards paid entirely off by 2/2006 at the latest! Hopefully we will be able to get rid of them before that. I hope so anyways.

The next thing after that will be to hit the house and student loans hard. We just can't have all this debt. We can eaisly make the minimum payments, but would rather not have the payments.

Tonight I did a little creidt card hoping, I transferred some higher interest rates to new promotional rates from other companies. I only have two credit cards, which is way down from my first marriage. My first hubby put me into some serious credit card problems. I had cards I didn't even know I had until I moved out and the bills started coming to my new address.

Off to bed....I can maybe sleep in a bit in the morning since our closing isn't until 10:00am. YEAH!!!!

Busy using up my two zucchini! I have made Chocolate Zuchini Cake and Zuchini Bread. YUMMY!! I have a recipe for Zucchini pancakes, but ran out of zucchini! OH well!!

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

Cream:
½ Cup margarine, ½ Cup oil, 1-3/4 Cup Sugar

Add & beat: 2 eggs, 1 tsp. Vanilla

ADD: 2-1/2 Cups Flour, ¼ Tsp. Baking Powder, 1 tsp soda, ½ tsp. Cinnamon, 4 Tablespoons cocoa
Stir in with ½ Cup sour milk.

Fold in 2 cups grated zucchini and ½ cups choc. Chips.

Bake in 9x 13 pan sprinkle ¼ cups chocolate chips on top.

Bake 350 degrees 35-45 minutes.

Recipe from : Aunt Elizabeth

ZUCCHINI BREAD

3 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 cups shredded zucchini (about 2 medium)
1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)

In a large mixing bowl, combine eggs and sugar. Beat in oil, vanilla, and lemon peel. Combine the dry ingredients; gradually add to sugar mixture and mix well. Stir in zucchini and nuts. Pour into two greased 9 in x 5 in x 3 in loaf pans.

Bake at 325 degrees for 55-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted hear the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks. YIELD: 2 Loaves

Saturday evening was very relaxing. After Daddy got home we went to the lake to play at the park and walk around a bit. After playing, we went to Culver's for an ice cream treat. Daddy is so good to us! Then it was home for a bath, walk and off to bed for baby. Hubby and I relaxed and watch some TV then headed to bed early. YAWN!!! I still woke up tired..GRRRRRRRR.

Sunday morning and time for us to get ready for church. I am not sure what we have planned for this afternoon. I have to make something with my Zuchini as it is starting to go bad. I hope to make Choc. Zuchinni Cake and bread if I have enough.

Time to get something to eat and get ready for church. Later!

Well I have my hour of straightening. WOW can you do alot in an hour is you stick to it. I washed the dishes, went through the mail, picked up toys in the living room, started more laundry, folded two loads of laundry and put the folded clothes in the right room for the owner to put away. WHEW!!! After all that I seserve an hour to read my new book

I;m off to put some nice jazz or classical music on and read! Later!

Saturday morning....AAAH...I slept in as late as I culd until a little voice woke me sing "La La LA...ELmo's World.." over and over again. Yes, Tommy was waking up and went right to singing. I am happy about that, at least he doesn't wake up crying. I can leave him sing and play in his crib for a bit with no problems, which I did. I had a hard time waking up.

We finally were ready to leave the house around 11:00 and went to the library as we do every Saturday morning. We ran into my SIL there so the kids played for a bit together, until Tommy decided he didn't want his cousin playing with anything. Everything was his and he screamed! We left the library and Tommy fell alseep on the short ride home. He is now asleep in his crib so I have 15 minutes to be on the computer, than I will take an hour and straighten up the house, then the rest of nap time is mine to read!!! I checked out the book The Devil Wear Prada at the library and am excited to start it. I have to read it in the next two weeks as I will have to read my book for book group next month too.

I love quiet Saturdays! Hubby is at work for a while yet, baby is sleeping.....aaaahhh so perfect!

I think Tommy is telling his first joke. I ask him what his name is....he says "Cow...Moo" and then he says "no.....Tommy". LOL!!! It is really funny. He is a goofy boy. I wanted to teach him his name as the only way he knew it was if you pointed at him and said "who's that"! I didn't figure a policeman would do that..LOL!! I figured the policeman would say what is your name...so that is what we have been working on...but he has been consistently answering Cow...Moo and laughing!

Time to run and have some lunch and straighten the house a bit. LateR!

We are off to a great relaxing weekend. Friday I had a meeting run late so I didn't get home until after 6:00. ARGH....when i got home we decided to go out to eat at Applebee's. YEAH!! We rarely eat out so this was a real treat. After eating out we came home and Tommy and I watch Elmo is my room until bedtime, then I took a nice hot bath and read my new Quick cooking that came in the mail. My hubby surprised me by bringing me in a nice glass of wine he had bought for me. Isn't he so sweet!
So bubbles, hot bath, magazine and wine....that is what I call relaxing! After my bath I went to bed............AAAH...

FRIDAY!!!  YEAH!!!  I am so glad for the weekend to be here.   The older boys will be gone for visitation so it will jsut be Tommy, Daddy and I.  I am planning on a nice quiet relaxing weekend.  We might go check out Battle Creek Water Works park on Sunday with Tommy for a bit after nap time.  We will see how it goes.   Otherwise I have no plans for the weekend. 

Things have been about the same around the house.  Erik snuck off yesterday morning and really made his Dad mad.  So he has yet to make it pass day one to earn another sleepover/movie rental.   He did finish his reading for the summer and will get his 20.00.   I think Josh has read more than me over the summer and will get his 20.00.   So they will both have plenty of money for the weekend away.  

My back is finally starting to feel a bit better so I hope to be able to get some things done around the house this weekend.   Laundry and stuff.   Work is unreal, one social worker left on leave so we all had to take on her cases.  ARGH!!!!   It is a hard hiring freeze here with governmental cutbacks so she won't be replaced.  ARGH....my caseload just increased to well over 50 kids.   I have a ton of work to do. 

Monday we close on our refinancing of the house.   I combined my second and main mortgage at a lower interest rate.  Hopefully we will finally be able to catch up a bit or at least maintain.   It took a toll on us not having my hubby work for three years.   I hope to hit the credit card debt hard and get rid of it all.   I think I will take advantage of some balance transfer offers and lower my interest rates to pay these off easier.  

Just called oldest son to have him take some meat out for supper.  He sure has been a life saver this summer.  He mows the lawn without being asked.  If I leave him a note to do a load of laundry or dishes he will do them for me.   I am so appreciative of all his help, especially all the things he does that i don't even ask him to do.   SO NICE!!!!   He is growing up to be such a good kid.  Everyone at work has kids that mouth off, etc....Josh doesn't even swear or mouth off to us.  We are truly lucky or we are actually parents taht invest a lot of time in raising their children or a bit of both.