Riley and Avery

Lola LOVES pumpkin. Go figure. We'll probably find it regurgitated on the carpet later:


Riley and Avery at their Halloween party at school:

I'm making a budget for next month, as Rudi's unemployment compensation has run out. Which means we need to trim $900/month out of our spending while factoring in birthdays and Christmas and saving for our move. Fun times. I tell you, it's nearly impossible.

Our biggest issues are the grocery bill, random spending on family outings, and Rudi's personal spending. For example, if we all go to Barnes and Noble and if we all get drinks and a snack, that comes out to about $11-$13 each time. That's got to stop. I'm going to try to make pumpkin or banana bread and freeze the slices so we can bring snacks with us if needed. Rudi seriously needs to start using the library. He goes every single week with the girls, so it's not like he doesn't have the opportunity. Geez.

I'm trying to factor in $200 next month for birthdays and Christmas. I don't know how we'll get the money together for Riley's party, though. Poor girl deserves a party for once. She wants to go to ArtSports trampoline gym for her birthday, and although it's affordable as far as birthday events go, it's still $160 not including cake. That needs to be paid for either in November or December at the latest.

The grocery bill needs to be AT MOST $500/month. I would rather it be around $450, but I doubt that's possible. This includes household goods too; trash bags, dish soap, laundry detergent, shampoo, bar soap, toilet paper, everything for under $500/month.

The worst part of it is, that sticking to the budget is my thing. I have to be on Rudi's back every single day of the month to compensate for his totally lack of awareness of what he's spending. It makes me the bad guy, the stick-in-the-mud, the killjoy, the penny-pincher. I really wish Rudi would meet me somewhere, not even half-way, maybe a quarter of the way, that way I don't always have to be the responsible one. I mean, it's no FUN being the cheapskate! I deserve to have fun too, to have a day off from watching the budget like a hawk!

Oh, and Rudi wants an iPod. Tell me where THAT money is going to come from! He acts like we can "just get things" at the beginning of the month when all of our money comes in, but fails to see that the things he bought on the 1st of the month make us fall way short on the 23rd of the month.

I'll post pictures some day. All three of our cameras have dead batteries and Riley scavenged the ones from my camera so I don't even know where they are.

I always feel like such a loser when I admit that I've been thinking of Christmas for a while now. But, really, with two birthdays within two weeks of Christmas, I really have to. I'm trying to make this Christmas as homemade as possible, with a few store-bought things thrown in.

Speaking of store bought, we got Riley a rock tumbler. That was Rudi's idea and I remember having one as a kid and loving it. I had a 40% coupon for Hobby Lobby, so it was fairly cheap. We got Avery a seashell jewelry making kit, since when we were at the beach, she wanted to make a necklace with every shell she found.

I had a $10 off coupon for Toys R Us, so I got this for Avery (it's a take along pet clinic):

And I had a coupon for Barnes and Noble and found this online for Riley (a take along castle):



I got a Magic Cabin catalog in the mail, and because I can't afford a darn thing in that catalog, I got some ideas on things to make for the girls.

I have enough fabric scraps and fusible interfacing to make these pouches for the girls, without having to buy anything but a few cents worth of cord for the shoulder straps:
This is more complicated, but I'm hoping I can score enough fabric on clearance at Joann's to make it somewhat affordable. Or perhaps $3/yd fabric with a 40% off coupon as it requires 10 yards just for the main fabric. It requires a hula hoop (goodness, hula hoops aren't cheap anymore!), which I hope to scrounge up from someone who isn't using theirs. I mean, surely someone has an old sun-bleached hula hoop laying around, right? It'll probably come out the most expensive of what I'm making them, but heck, they retail for well over $100:


I have enough fabric to make this apron too and won't have to buy a darn thing. I think my little artists would enjoy it:
These seem pretty simple, I'm sure I can figure it out without a pattern. They would be great for the dress-up chest that I'm putting together for them, particularly a red one like little red riding hood. Again, hoping I can score some cheap fabric:


Of course, I NEED to get working on their Halloween costumes! Holy cow, I have a lot of sewing to do! The hard part is, I have to sew the Christmas stuff after they go to sleep at night, so I had better get a jump on it since I'll only be able to work on it a little at a time.

Riley has requested that I do homeschooling with her LOL. Not really "homeschooling" per se, but "afterschooling" as they call it. When we were doing more organized learning activities at home, it was a bonding experience for us. Since I accidentally returned the Middle Ages and Knight books to the library and have yet to re-check them out, the lapbook we were planning on doing has been put on hold.

I decided to order Singapore Math workbooks and textbooks. Riley usually asks me to do math with her at home. I don't know why. Perhaps because she does a lot of reading and writing at school already. Anyway, the books were fairly cheap, $9 each, so $36 for a year worth of books (2 textbooks and 2 workbooks). They also sell manipulatives to be used in the lessons, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that they all were Montessori-esque, many of which I already have. Additionally, that would mean the Montessori math and Singapore math should mesh pretty well, so Riley won't be getting one thing at home and another at school.

So, why Singapore, you ask? Because Singapore is consistently the #1 country in the ranking of math proficiency worldwide. Which is strange because Singapore schools devote fewer hours to math work than the US, their class sizes are enormous, and the instruction is teacher-centered, all things that make US schoolteachers start to twitch and break out in hives. But looking at the lessons, they are really great at making the child understand the concept, rather than memorize the concept. I think US schools waste so much time requiring memorization, and reiterating the same concepts over and over again because the kids are struggling to commit it to memory rather than truly understand. Memorizing is a slower process than understanding.

Wow, my second boring post in a row!

I'll post again later today about something more interesting...

So, I went to see the Metropolitan's live in HD presentation of Tosca yesterday morning. This is, by FAR, my favorite opera. I have seen Tosca three times live in performance; in Baltimore, D.C., and Denver. Honestly, I'll have to say that this was my least favorite of all of them. What has happened to the Met? I still enjoyed it, I really did. I love the opera and the story and the music. This was a new production from some dude from Switzerland who really butchered the set. I mean, really. During the intermission, they were interviewing the cast and crew. The producer is from Switzerland, speaking barely passable English. The soprano was from Finland and spoke fairly good English. The tenor was from Argentina and spoke hardly any English. The baritone was from The Republic of Georgia and spoke what can only be considered no English. He was funny when they handed him the microphone. He kept saying one word phrases and such, and the interviewer had to keep trying to figure out what he was trying to say. She was like "You seem like such a nice guy in real life, how do you find the evil to play a role like this?" and he was like "Um err, *nervous chuckle* baritone...bad role" and she was like "Baritone's always play the villains, right?" and he was like "yes, Iago...um...er." It just makes me wonder how they can ever get a production together with such language barriers. It's absolutely amazing that operas EVER happen.

Anyway, the tenor was phenomenal, and adorable in his interview. No, he wasn't hunky, but his voice was amazing. For such a big dude, he sure could sing so softly. The soprano was a perfectly fine soprano, but the totally absolute wrong choice for this role. She looked to be about 20 years too old to play Tosca, and her voice just wasn't right for the role, and as she is a "leading" soprano in the world of opera, I can only say that perhaps she is past her prime. Her diction was terrible, and her voice wasn't supple or limber. I couldn't understand what she was saying and had to look at the subtitles, which annoys me. The baritone was great as Scarpia, but I didn't like what the producer did with his character. He took the character waaaaaaay too far, way too lascivious. But the baritone did a great job with what he was given.

The sets sucked. Hard. I mean, come on! This opera takes place in Rome in 1800! Some opulence please! The bare bones set was boring and unrealistic. After the first act, the man behind me said "well, THAT was terrible." The set did nothing for the opera at all. Nothing. We need to run this producer out of town, after tarring and feathering him, of course. I KNEW that soprano was wrong for the role from her first vocal entrance, a "Mario! Mario! Mario!" from offstage, it was just a question of whether I would be able to stay and listen, or walk out. I stayed. One interesting part was at the very last moment, when traditionally Tosca leaps off the parapet to the backstage. This time she climbed a tower and "jumped" out over the stage. She lunged forward and just before her feet left the ground, the lights go out. I want to know how they did that. It was pretty neat.

I did enjoy the opera, don't get me wrong. But if I had actually seen it in the Met instead of in a movie theater, I would have been royally angry, paying all that money and getting all gussied up. There are some Met productions coming up that I wouldn't mind seeing, but won't be seeing any more "new productions." Carmen is playing this season, and Rudi wants to see that.

I'm totally aware that no one is going to be interested in this post. If you've gotten this far, I bet you know more about opera now than you ever wanted to know!

So, just had this convo. with Riley while out taking Lola for a walk:
Me: Lola sure is picky about where she poops, isn't she?
Riley: Yeah, she's like Grandma!
Me: What, Grandma's picky about where she poops?
Riley: No! Grandma's picky about wrapping paper!
Oh, okay, my bad for not thinking of wrapping paper. Duh.

So, we went to Venetucci Pumpkin Farm today with the girls' school. Oh, my word, was it cold! I mean, FREEZING!! It snowed a little last night, but it cleared up quite a bit and warmed up a tad. After the pumpkin patch of course.

A local railroad, the Royal Gorge Railroad, is having a Polar Express event between Thanksgiving and Christmas. They serve hot chocolate on the train and tell Christmas stories, and the train goes to the North Pole Amusement Park, where Santa gets on the train with a gift for each child. Rudi and I decided to take the girls. The Royal Gorge was one thing that we really wanted to do before we moved away from Colorado, and while still expensive, this trip is a lot cheaper than their other trips, perhaps trying to make it affordable for families at the holidays. We're not telling the girls about any of the Christmas stuff, just that we're going on a train ride. We want it to be magical for them.

You know, when Riley and Avery were younger, I thought, perhaps I could handle a third kid (no more kids are on the radar, absolutely not, not in a million years!). I could see bigger families and think, okay, not ideal for me, but I could see it working. Well, I don't think that anymore. With Riley and Avery both in school, even though tuition is free, it's getting expensive. This month we have school pictures, so that's $40 per kid. I spoke to Rae at their school, who also remarked that she has never seen a child paint like Avery (and she opened that school in 1975), and asked if we were going to be enrolling the girls in the art classes that are offered at the school. I really can't say no, given how artistic both girls are. I don't know how much it is, but times it by two. Plus, they have a field trip to the nature center and the pumpkin patch this month, all times two. I think there's another field trip too, but I forget...Ugh. It's really adding up. Oh, and there are classes for kids at the zoo, and I thought, sure why not, we have nothing else on our plate. It's three Saturdays which both girls will attend. It's $35 per kid. And THEN I get the notice that school picture are next week...It's easy to look at kids when they're young and think that you can add "just one more." Sure, when they're young, they're cheap. Even buying diapers doesn't compare to this at all. Think of three, or four, kids all going on field trips, school pictures, all needing a new outfit for said school picture, all in activities; perhaps one in ballet, one in art class, and another in soccer. Man, my wallet aches just thinking about it. Two is more than enough, thank you very much. Oh, and Riley and Avery keep asking me about swimming lessons (which I see as a necessity, especially considering that we're moving to Portland, a city that is more than 50% water). Shoot me now. Please.

But, about the art classes. They are after school on Wednesdays, from about 3:45 to 5. Problem is, the girls go to school on Wednesday mornings. Rae said that she could take them all day on Wednesdays, or switch them to afternoons on Wednesdays (which is the option I like better). Since I have school at 5:30 on Wednesdays, Rudi would pick them up, feed them, and take them to storytime. So, not only do kids keep getting more and more expensive, but it gets complicated too. But the woman who teaches these classes also teaches at Bemis School of Art (okay, no one who reads this blog knows what that is, but trust me, that's a plus) at the Fine Art Center. So, it's not just some lady who gives kids paint and glitter.

Okay, some pictures...

Look at that outfit! I couldn't resist getting a picture of it! She very much resists the colder weather, knowing she won't be able to wear her skirts and dresses (and flip-flops) as much. We were at the zoo, by the way.





So, what's been going on with us? I don't know. We have a fly problem. I have to go to Home Depot and get weather striping for the front door, and maybe the garage too, if I'm feeling industrious. You can see daylight around the door, and a draft can be felt in the living room. It's BAD. And with the weather getting colder, the flies are crawling in. That's my theory, at least, since they first appear in the entryway, and them migrate to the bathroom, which is next in the layout. Not so many in the kitchen, which is why I think that it's not because we're slobs. I mean, we have too much stuff, but it's not like we (by "we" I mean "I") never clean up spills and food and such.

Rudi is doing well after surgery. He's been taking it easy. He takes lounging very seriously, and he's good at it :) I've been waiting on him hand and foot, getting him food and water and green tea, checking to make sure he is not feverish and checking his incisions to make sure they're not infected. He's up and moving, slowly and carefully. While I was at school last night, he took the dog out, which I didn't think he'd feel well enough to do. I was even prepared, having e-mailed my teachers, to bring the kids to school with me, but he insisted he would watch the kids. He hasn't had any of the prescription painkillers, taking two asprin the first night and that's it. Oh, last night. So he watched the kids while I went to school, but when I came home, oh my goodness, the house was torn up! I had gotten the girls some new art supplies so that they wouldn't bother Rudi so much. There was glitter glue ALL OVER the carpet, sticker paper littered around, oh, it was a war-zone! And I stepped on one of the bottles of glitter glue and it squirted all over the carpet and my pants. Exhale...The girls KNOW that they are supposed to do art on the coffee table, not the carpet. They KNOW that!! Arrrrrggggghhhhh!

Hmmm, what else?

Well, Rudi is doing great. We dropped the kids off at school and actually got to the hospital early. We found a parking spot right away in the free parking garage which NEVER happens. Everything went well, although his surgery started late. I left at 2-ish to pick the girls up at school and Rudi was still in surgery holding where I couldn't be with him anyway. I took the girls immediately with me to the hospital (okay, we stopped at Wendy's first, the girls were starving) and we got there at about 5:30. Rudi wasn't out yet, so we went to pick up his prescription at the pharmacy. When we came back, he was out. Riley was a little stunned/scared when she saw the oxygen thingies in his nose. In Colorado Springs, being 6000+ feet altitude, there are a lot of people who walk around all the time with oxygen, so she was afraid that Daddy was going to be one of them (those people always look so old and fragile and sickly, and quite frankly a tad creepy too). I assured her that it wasn't permanent. The girls were also nervous about his IV, and would only touch his hand with one finger so they didn't pull on the IV. Since we didn't get to the hospital until 5:30pm, there were tons of empty meter spaces right in front of the hospital entrance, so getting him to the car was easy.

He has four (or is it 5?) small incisions. He is in very good spirits and refused the pain medication, although I left him 2 asprin on his table in case he needs them. He doesn't seem to be in much pain, just sore. Fingers crossed. He is able to go to the bathroom by himself, but will need help getting dressed for a while. He isn't supposed to pick up anything over 25 lbs. for 6 weeks.

Oh, at the pre-op two weeks ago, they discovered that he has umbilical hernia as well. They said nothing about repairing it, just noted it. Well, when we got the homecare instructions from the nurse, she mentions that they took care of the hernia while they were in there. How nice. Two for one! Actually, it is really cool knowing how nervous Rudi gets about stuff like that.

I'm bushed, to be honest. To Denver and back twice in a day is quite a bit of driving. My butt is sore. Dude, we're talking around 6 hours of driving. I don't want to drive for a while. I had to run to the store after getting the girls to bed in order to get Rudi some soft food for his post-op diet. Seriously, I'm tired, but I'll stay up a while in case Rudi needs me. I'll probably just fall asleep on the chair until one of the girls wakes me up.

Side note, Avery only really nurses at night now. Holy cow, she's getting big! Well, not big physically, but mentally...

Oh my goodness, Rudi just told me that the Metropolitan Opera is broadcasting Tosca live in HD next week! Eeeeeeeeekkkkk!!!!! I just bought tickets. Ah, sweetness. Tosca is my absolute favorite. I've already seen it three times in performance and I have the libretto virtually memorized. Ah, this will be great...if Rudi can survive watching the girls or 4 hours while I sit on my duff in a movie theater drooling over my favorite opera. At least I can wear sweatpants so I will be comfortable, unlike getting all fancied up for a performance.

Avery had been painting at school lately.  She did her second painting today.  When I went to pick her up, Miss Elizabeth told me that Avery's artwork is so detailed and really advanced for her age.  She said "I've been teaching for 27 years and I have NEVER seen a child that advanced for their age.  Just something to think about when you decide to get her involved in activities."  Holy cow.  Riley has always been the artist, but yeah, I can see what she's saying now.  Avery is doing some sort of artwork about 90% of her time.  Huh...