I have a biking delema. My son decided to grow dramatically from last fall to now. His bike that was just the right size then is way to small, his knees are bent when he is sitting on the seat and his feet are flat on the ground.

I read a couple different places that the proper fit is toes on the ground when sitting, which is almost what we bought him. Maybe half a foot not just toes.

So now less than a year later we are looking at him thinking he is too tall. BUT we tried him on an 18 inch bike...(we think, it was a friends, no measuring tape) and he can't control it, tough his toes do touch.

So is it just that my kid can't handle the transition quickly and he will get it eventually or that he is too young to handle a big bike?

To complicate matters he will be part of a 'Bike Rodeo' with the cub scouts in July..do I let him get the big bike and practice for a month, or do I leave him on the small one so we know he can ride? I would hate to ruin his confidence by being around other boys and barely being able to control his own bike..especially since he worked so hard to learn to ride 'like a big boy' with no training wheels.

First, just so you all know, I mentally pronounced 'Wii' as Why I' because I read about it long before I ever met anyone who had one, and still to this day have never seen or heard a commercial for one. So given the phonetic options of how to pronounce the name I cannot possibly call it a 'wee' because I do not want to play with any ones 'wee' I potty trained my kids rather early to avoid having any extra 'wee' in the house, I most certainly would never pay to play with 'wee'!

So why do I want a Why-I? because it has a yoga board thingie (for me) ...and hockey (for my husband and son) And this cool guitar! (for all of us)...not to mention 'dancing with the stars' if they figured out how to really interpret the dancing of a person and put it on screen I would LOVE to learn to dance at home.

And how did I find out about these cool games? I read an ad..I was sitting at the table at my in laws, my kids were occupied, I was eating, Husband was downstairs playing a basketball game, and the BIL was watching racing..now I am a television addict, I can become engrossed in nearly any TV, just because it is on..but racing? sorry, watching a car drive in circles brings up nightmares of being lost, not entertainment.

So I searched for something to read (no I couldn't possible eat without distraction, though I know it would be good for my weight)..options were: an old report card, (she had all A's but for one B-nothing else to read really) or there in the candy bowl was a magazine advertising different games (don't ask me why mags are stored in the candy bowl, it is husbands family). I figured at least it would have some words.

Well it had mostly pictures and prices, apparently games get sold by price and graphics mostly...one game literally didn't bother to tell you what on earth you did it was just a fancy title and a price. The title was nonspecific as to the game, just another generic fantasy name. So was it fps? or adventure? or the weird non car racing type? I suppose I will never know.

And BTW who cares if there are cool bosses if you have no idea how to defeat said bosses? Are all console games basically the same so that console players already know the type of battles they will be in? considering I have never seen a strategy game or building game for them I guess it may be true (even the various Sim incarnations are imports, and I don't think WOW type games ever make it to consoles? though I could be wrong)

Anyway, having read the entire magazine I still do not know what most of the games can do...but at least it drowned out the racing.

And I still have absolutely no intentions of buying a gaming system for a bazillion dollars. Sorry no ad is that good.

Fire fox told me it had an update to run today, and now I can get to gmail from it!

Yeah!

Ok so small things make my day

I cought a small portion of a PBS health care special. Some guy went traveling to many countries and checked out how they did heath care. Taiwan apparently decided to research first then build 'the perfect plan' but I missed how they did it.

Sweden had some interesting changes to what was very much like America's...they made health care non profit, and insisted all health care companies take everyone. And insisted everyone get health care (govt of course pays for the poor) the premiums are 700 a month for a family..on the one hand not to cheap, but on the other cheaper than I was quoted for a family plan here.

Health care companies are allowed to make a profit on 'riders' or extras like fancier rooms at hospitals and stuff. Not sure how abuse of that works (does the hospital have empty rooms with a waiting list because most do not have the proper rider for the fancy room?)

I missed the other countries, but most of what I heard was a bit different than what our country was proposing last I checked (which wasn't recently so feel free to correct me)

The gist of what was said seemed to be that basic health care cannot be free market. just extras. I am not to sure I disagree..which is surprising for a libertarian to admit.

I can't post on SA, I can't get my gmail, I am totally lost as to why the computer is messed up.

I ran the anti-virus thing. And I had my husband come look at it. Wouldn't you know, it worked fine that night, but the next day is busted again. I tell you there is a sensor they don't tell you about in a computer that makes it run better when a tech geek is around!

Oh and my blog is all...wrong. the words are in the wrong font and wrong size, the top of the screen says:

Warning: mysql_fetch_array(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in /www/savingadvice.com/blogs/global.inc.php on line 709

and I hate hate that other browser. I need to figure out why firefox wont work

Gmail wont work for me all morning..I had to call in my info for the scout newsletter! What a royal PIA!

I need email! I use email for everything, half the scout information that I need is actually stored on gmail!

How could they be down!

In general I do not like game shows, but I do have few I enjoyed in the past and one current.

As a kid I loved 'wheel of fortune' partly because I was good at it. Let me rephrase that, I liked seeing the letters appear and trying to guess the answer with as few as possible, I could have done without the whole game show portion (and channel flicked to avoid it)

I only partly enjoyed Jepordy, because I rarely knew the answers....Same reason I hate playing trivial pursuit. don't know, don't care is my general answer to questions like "which former queen of england was known to color her hair with henna?" or "who wrote the musical score to 'Citezin cane'?" Sorry I just don't find it a bad thing that I don't know.

Now I do like 'Are you smarter than a 5th grader'. Though again, I could do without the 'drama' and such, I just enjoy know a good deal of the answers and take (I know it is wrong) pleasure in poking fun at contestants who use a cheat for a first grade question (did you know not all carrots are orange?)

So when it came time to make a trivia game for the scouts I picked 'are you smarter than a Webelos' (Webelos are the top level of cub scouting, before you move on to boy scouts) it just so happens that with bobcat, there are 5 levels of cubs. (bobcat, tiger, wolf, bear, Webelos) and for the million dollar question we will use 'leader questions'.

So having picked the game, and coming up against writers block on the possible questions (I am about half way satisfied with the number) I turned to figuring out the prize structure. I had no idea how hard it could be!

A straight ramp up offers less and less incentive to keep playing as you go on. (risk losing 60% to only gain 10 more..) but if you try to make it 'double' up you are at the max too fast (our max is 100% of their new rank book plus their next rechartering fee). And if you try to cheat and borrow the game show structure, your prize one is 1% off a book...who cares about 1% off a 5 dollar book!

So these are the conundrums that I face in my 'unrewarding' home life

My current best theory is to use only one Q per level (instead of two like the show) and start at 10% working up to 100% for the Webelos Q (5th Q) and then instead of the 'Million Dollar Question' offer 'The Recharter Question'.


1 10%
2 25%
3 50%
4 75%
5 100%
6 Recharter

prolly gonna keep the concept that if you make it to 25% you keep it no matter what.

I must be an anomaly, I do not like housework, but I do feel it is a job that needs done, and checking it off my todo list gives me a sense of accomplishment./

I was speaking to someone out of work who said they wonder the house feeling depressed....because they are not accomplishing anything.

While I would be depressed to not have my kids to take care of I have plenty on my todo list that would give me a sense of accomplishment to do.

Then when I got home I vegged out with a snack trying to stop my brain from thinking and a comedy was on where the mother wanted to go back to work, because she had nothing to talk about but the kids...

Now I do think one sided life is boring..I have other things to talk about besides my kids, but I also take great pride in my youngest learning to pronounce 'th' as well as my oldest latest math feat....not that I did them, but I was the facilitator, like a manager taking pride in a team that works well...my family is my team, I am co manager (with my husband) why wouldn't I take pride in our accomplishments?

Is it so terrible to feel a clean house and well educated kids are worth my time? Am I completely out of touch with what is worthwhile that only I find a full day at home more than enough work? Is it only because if I wanted a paid job I would be a teacher that I find my work here worthwhile? If I was by nature a computer tech would I hate teaching and learning with the kids? Or would I simply teach them more about computers than writing?

I do not understand any desire to spend your whole day at a job for someone else simply to be able to say "I did that" at the end. At the end of the day I may have had a good day, or a bad day, but regardless, I don't need anyone else to say "good job" to feel it was worth trying.

I apologize for being on a pregnant kick here..not exactly financial.

But I was at church Sunday and someone said you look great, barely showing!

I was also in Pa recently and had my mother up, both places I heard from family "you are so big!"

Now no, I do not have rude family, they just have been there for the past 3 pregnancies, and compared to those I am HUGE! Either this is one BIG kid, two small ones, or I am really fat.

I am six foot tall, I have a lot of torso room to store a baby...(I also have hips to match) So while I know that I was showing at 8 weeks, no one else could tell, an inch of 'pooch' looks like nothing to a 5.5 person! Now at 19 inches out (current waist minus old waist) the 'poooch' is a full fledged maternity belly that doesn't fit in most so called maternity shirts but compared to my height..it is rather..small for almost 8 months. At least according to those I see in church. According to those who know me, I aught to have delivered before I got to this size!

I am hoping honestly for two small ones, cause I really think 9lb 1oz is big enough for a kid....though if I can't have two I will settle for being fat..seriously, I can lose weight after the kid is born, but delivery of a huge kid? sorry I just don't want to. For the first time (pregnant) I am dreading labor....

That has to be weird, I didn't dread the first, I figured millions of women have delivered, most without pain meds or even really knowing what was going on. With the advantage of modern science I at least was going into it knowing that each contraction pushed the kid further down the path, and my Doc could even measure how far I had come..so it was all just going to be an unpleasant day (or two) of work. No big.

The second and third were viewed that way too. This one...fear, intense fear. partly because my last kid was short and painful, the pushing was 15 minutes of tearing PAIN.... pain worse than the previous two, And I don't know just exactly what was different to make it so bad..though he was the biggest kid. (first 8lb 13oz, second 8b 1oz, third 9lb 1oz).

The further along I get (currently 31.5 weeks) the less I get done.

As I forced myself to stand long enough to fill the dishwasher (braxton-hicks contractions are only painless when compared to real labor) I realized I would be sunk if washing up consisted of more than 5 minutes of standing! Imagine having to wash dishes after every meal because there wouldn't be any to eat off at the next if you didn't!

I am spoiled, lazy (and tired) and very happy I am in this century not the last!

We don't have an allowance each in our family. But we do spend splurge money these days. We go out to eat, we buy presents for folks, and we buy some junk food for ourselves. We just don't have an 'allowance' of individual splurge money.

After the recent discussion on the boards regarding how much was reasonable, I thought I would look at our spending over the last few months and see how much of it was 'my waste'...and I came up with zero.

Well not exactly zero, I bought a pair of maternity jeans and some hand lotion. with my Christmas/birthday money. But as far as from the house budget, meaning my husbands income, zero.

Now peeking at my husbands spending..he bought some maternity clothes for me and some vending machine pop - out of his Christmas/birthday money. He also bought a few miscellaneous things on Ebay that I don't know what are and don't care as they simply sit in the garage taking up space. but that was with Ebay money (from him selling not his paycheck)

So if I were to make an allowance for myself up...it wouldn't need any money! I am a low upkeep kinda gal though. No fancy hair I leave it natural color and other than a wash and conditioner with occasional olive oil I don't do anything to it. My fancy face scrub is sugar, no makeup. I wear the same necklace and same rings as pre kid, and I am VERY happy with them (well except for my discovery yesterday that my wedding ring had to go on the necklace since my fingers swelled.....) I don't 'go out' with friends (though we have plenty come here) never a movie or eating out without the family...If I wanted to rent a movie I would use the free collection of my brother in law. So what else would I be spending money on anyway?

Am I just too boring for an allowance?

8 graders in detention for buying lunch with pennies

Now don't get me wrong, I have no problem with short lunches, considering how little time is spent eating said lunch 30 minutes is often adequate (depending on how long you are stuck in line)

Of course paying with pennies puts you in that line longer. But detention? For paying with valid US currency? Is that really necessary?

I can't see an 8th grader really wanting to spend his/her lunch in line counting pennies for very long...I imagine after a couple of days (possibly with being pulled aside for office staff to count with them while they are certainly not eating nor talking with friends) most kids would decide making the line longer isn't a useful protest (packing your own lunch might be.....)

Course I don't care one whit how long lunch is...by lunch we are generally done with any 'paper' learning and taking longer cuts just into their play time (time where I am on the computer enjoying 'grownup' work)

I am a natural procrastinator, even though I know I prefer a short todo list, and I feel better when things are done on time, or early..but I still naturally tend to procrastinate. Curing myself of this terrible habit is on my todo list.

For now I have my good days and my bad days.

Today is a bad day, I have several nursery and cub scout tasks that I am flat out avoiding...mainly because I am not sure the best course.

I find that if I know how to do something, or at least mostly how, I don't mind doing it. But when I am in a quandary (I always liked that word) I am never sure where to start, so I just don't start at all.

Prolly silly, but true.

Well first one thing I did partly know.

1/2. Don't use the whole loan offered! We were offered twice the loan we used for this house, and even this one had us scrimping and barely managing until my husbands last raise! If we had taken the full loan and bought a bigger house, we would be in deep trouble still!

Ok Now on to what I failed to do right.

1. Even if you plan on homeschooling the school district might be important. I forgot two important things...the kids who are in the nearby schools are also the kids who are around at non school hours (or not, in our case I hardly ever see a child under 13 except on weekends..daycare of course) the other that my kids may one day want to test out the schools, and I will not allow them in the Charlotte/Meck system...there are daily reports of guns, knives, lock downs, drugs..I left the city of Pgh I don't need to go back to that. so check your schools even if you don't have kids.

2. The shape of the street makes a difference, if you have kids My kids like to ride bikes, but they can't on our street at all, it is curved, but the most often used street next to the entrance (and yes we live at the back!) The curves lower the visibility, but not the speed of drivers. If I had known I would have aimed for a house further down the road where it is a cul-de-sac, and rarely used by thru traffic (or turnarounds)

3. Hills don't mow, but homeowner's associations want them done. Our back yard is a gentle slope for about 15 feet, then it is a steep drop down to the lower path. I couldn't mow it if I wanted to myself, yet the HOA thinks I should hire someone to take care of it..personally not living in times needing a clear 'killing zone' I see no reason to stop the natural vegetation from taking over (there is now a tree taller than me halfway down, should help keep the dirt from eroding better than grass)

4. Speaking of HOAs, they like manicured lawns! I might still live here had I thought of that, I do like the pool within walking distance. But at least I might have started with a better commitment to the lawn...or an earlier commitment to getting registered as a nature lawn.

5. Your cute kid will grow..and wont like kiddie walls If I was interested in repainting or re-wallpapering this would be no big deal, but I am Lazy. Once was enough. Not to mention the time. So now I am stuck with a blue room the exact shade that will clash with my sons bedspread. Fortunately we moved him to the blank room and put my girl in there, purple and this shade of blue look fine, though she is unhappy with the walls. The next time I do a room for kids I will pick very neutral colors, something that cannot clash no matter what decorations or blankets my kids pick! (actually the paint was done after we bought the house, but many folk paint first, so I figured it fit here)

6. The whole house prolly wont be (nearly) perfect, but the most important room should be I looked at several houses that were ok, many had great layouts for living rooms or dining rooms, or kids rooms. Many had amazing closets. The house I picked I didn't know it at the time, but it had the most important room perfect (or nearly so) The kitchen. For me the kitchen has to have room for all the kids to 'help' me cook and room for all to eat (with nice easy clean floors!) For someone else the requirements might be different. My Grandma for example designed her kitchen to have only enough room for herself, and not to much moving between stove fridge and sink. Many others find the living room or bedroom or those closets more important. Of course I would love all the rooms perfect, but for that I would have to hire an architect!

I took a survey and discovered I had no intention of changing my brand...I didn't even look at the price! Admittedly it was a product I rarely buy, and one I find quality to be top importance of. but still, how unfrugal!

I also discovered that out of sight is out of mind, I was asked about products we buy, but I don't use, the first question is 'what brands do you recall' I checked all that seemed familiar (I wish it was a fill in box, not a checklist) and then it asked what was in the house...I asked my husband and it was a brand I hadn't even remembered for the first question! sheesh..

You know I was looking at all there 'where I have traveled posts' and thinking I haven't been anywhere, but you know if you add in the states we drive thru, and get a map of just Europe rather than the whole world, It doesn't look to bad! Though still nothing compared to a dedicated traveler.

But I imagine if my son continues in his mission to go 'everywhere in the world' the map will look very red by the time he moves out and his map might just be 100% red!

US:


Europe:

I have had questions (from others and myself) regarding why we leave such a high balance in the checking account, it could be earning interest, or at least paying down the car/house.

But this past week we were reminded just why we have one (well two, one for each checking account)

No pay last Friday (we get paid weekly now).....right before the mortgage and half the other bills came out! and our bills are almost all auto deducted, or on an auto pay plan. Not much to do to stop them going out, and no way I wanted to pay any late fees. So in steps the cushion (The cushion is part of our EF. Not fully funded but enough for this, and always sitting in the checking account.)

Not that I like missing a pay check (it will come this week, paperwork foul up) but if you have to miss one, miss it with money available to cover the bills!

Just placing pictures

on a side note..can you see my page? (on right says 'bio'

thats where the pictures went btw (one of each kid)

This was said by my husband last night, in a 'I can't believe you set it so high, what is wrong' kind of tone, then while I was trying not to laugh at my once 'anti less than 70' husband, he did the same thing I do most days and pushed the button to switch it to saying the setting vs the 'actual temp. and it is still set at 62 from several nights ago.

Yep two great pieces of news.

1. My house is comfortably 67 in midday, simply due to nice warm sunny NC weather, and

2. My husband has really converted to a cooler house

Course at bedtime the house was still 67 and we were both shivering, I swear the time of day has way more to do with how cold I feel than the temp.

We finally joined the church we have been going to for over a year. Really there is no big reason for not joining, mainly my husband is a Baptist and the church is Lutheran, at first we assumed we would find some reason that we could not join due to the difference, but..there isn't one.

So we took the class....free
Took the oath....free
Got our member packet....free
Got our envelopes..tecnically free BUT

If you have ever been a member or had parents a member of the church you know the envelopes I mean, one per week of the year with your name preprinted on them (or not) plus some extra envelopes for special occassions. What on earth the vast majority of people do with them I dunno, but when I was a kid they were lost within a month.

Now I have my very own box of fancy envelopes...and the very first one? An extra envelope labled 'to defray envelope costs' sigh....do these things really help anyone? Can I just turn mine back in to help defray costs? Like I don't have enough things to try and remember on Sunday mornings!

I found some ones in my husbands wallet (my youngest was disecting it) and was putting htem away for sunday school cash (we now send a check for donation, but I like to keep the kids giving, so they get cash still, I just no longer feel bad about the small amount)

Anyway, he said he needed ones for the vending machines..since when does my husband need vending machines!!!! Apparently since he doesn't have a desk full of food. Normally he has a stash of snacks to eat, but he is doing a different, sortof temporary job, and there is no desk to store the stash.

Since the man eats like I do..constantly, he has to pack twice as much stuff and still stops at the vending machines a couple times a week.

Not to happy about that, I want to use the raise to pay our bills, not buy junk food...

I was killing time (trapped as a bed for my cranky snotty baby) and came accross this blog

tired but happy

And I thought it would be interesting to read a similar list of things about the posters here. But I couldn't imagine anyone caring about my list!

But then if I won't do it who would? so heres mine...but 50 is too much how about err whatever I get to before he wakes up?

1. I love to eat cake, quick bread right out of the pan. (doing so right now!)

2. I have been to 3 other countries (France, Italy, Britain)-I hope to take/send all of my kids.

3. I tried vegetarianism as a teen. (I missed steak too much!)

4. I can't compost so I toss the scraps 'over the hill' ( to be eaten by rodents/cats/raccoon)

5. I have no tact. Never learned the art. Makes me feel very nercous in meeting new people who havn't learned to ignore/deal with my inadequacies.

6. Politically I am a libertarian.

7. I am married to a computer geek (and I mean that in the nicest possible way!) but truthfully it took me weeks to warm up to win95, and then all of the sudden I had to learn XP!

8. I scored slighly less than 1200 on my SAT, which is slighly less than my brother, and that part bothered me the most!

9. I hate preschool games (candy land, ect)

10. I love to play with children (ever teach a kid poker err I mean that game?)

11. I haven't really drunk in 4 years! that is a long time for a former lush!

12. I love/need to be alone alot, pretty hard to achieve with 3 kids!

13. I am not an 'AP parent' but...

14. I co sleep most of the night with my baby, and did with each of my other two. (kick em out when they understand 'I'll be back')

15. I also wear a sling but only while walking (and only till my kid can walk on their own)

16. I am an anti-pacifier, breastfeeding, make my own baby food Mamma. (just don't call me AP!)

17. I am not an 'unschooler' but..

18. I have no science/social studies curriculum (library, real world, ect)

19. I can't see any point in insisting all X age kids know the same info...

20. I teach what my kids want to learn when they are ready (check frequently to see) -just don't call me an unschooler!

21. I am a closet ECer, and yes my 4 month old just peed in the potty. (shh don't tell the neighbors!)