Being the Bad Guy....

In our family, I do the budget, manage money, and pay the bills. It has always been this way since Joe and I were dating. The reason for this is simple....Joe sucks at it!

I am very fortunate that he acknowledges this this fact quite openly, and often tells me that we would be living in a cardboard box if he were in charge of the money. We don't have money fights because whatever I say is golden. If I say we can't afford something, he is (usually) very good about accepting and moving on.

The only problem that this set-up leaves us with me always being the bad guy. Whenever we get all excited to do something, it is always me to say NO!

It leaves me feeling like the big bully of the house, the fun crusher, the kill joy, mean mommy....I hate it!

Last night in a moment of weakness combined with not wanted to be the bad guy once again, I said yes to buying Jordan an adorable pair of converse shoes with little orange flames on the side. The were 22 dollars, yes 22 dollars for a toddlers shoes seems excessive when I usually get him Payless Shoes for much much less....but I was weak and sick of being the meanie.

This morning I am having remorse of the 22 dollar shoes and am wondering if we should take them back....

Bingo!!!

In an attempt to get out of the house and do something new, I took my mom and Charis to Bingo!

I like to play, and thought that my mom would enjoy it. Honestly I thought it would be a nice relaxing thing us ladies could do once a week....I imagined us sitting around our bingo boards and snacking and having funny conversations, and occasionally winning some money might be nice. Boy was I wrong!!

We got to the Catholic Church, yes it was held at a church! This is important for later on, so hang on to that little pearl.

The cost was 14 dollars for the basic pack, plus 1.25 for a bingo dauber. I selected a beautiful teal color, it really was quite pretty. As I turned from the table where the cards were sold, and turned to look at the available seating, I knew we were in for some trouble.

There was two huge lunchroom looking auditoriums, both with huge folding tables set out. Women, the vast majority silver haired and obese, were sprawled out all over the tables. There were women hogging an entire table to themselves. Seriously some of them had 3-4 Bingo Cards each, with each card having 9 games on it!! That is 27 to to 36 games per person!!

Most women had at least 5 bingo daubers laid out. Snacks were everywhere! Most of them the obese women preferred some sort of potato chip, I notices fritos to be especially popular. The few women that were thin, had packs of cigarettes piled up. Thank goodness they had to go out to smoke!

Finally we found a spot where we could all sit together. But unfortunately we didn't know which order the games were played in. We giggled and laughed as we asked the girl sitting next to us. She had all kinds of facial piercings and looked like she might belong in a tattoo parlor rather than a bingo hall, but was fairly nice and explained stuff to us. While she was explaining, there was an extremely bitter woman sitting behind us, she said quite loudly mind you, that we had better shut up when the game starts!

Eventually we did start. When someone would win there was a flurry of conversation and curse words! My mom and I exchanged surprised looks as we were in a church!! A CHURCH!!

When one lady one, the bitter woman behind us exclaimed " I just can't stand that woman!" No attempt to hide it!!

Finally during one of the game my mom blurts out, "I never want to do this again....I feel so old!!" Then she starts laughing and snorts so loud in the middle of the near silent bingo hall!

There were angry shhhh's heard from all over the place! Those women were ready to attack! Of course the more tense the situation got, the sillier my mom got! I am surprised we all made it out of there alive!

I don't think we will be going back. My mom hated it, I didn't win anything....although we did leave soon after the snorting incident and didn't finish our games.

Next week perhaps we will try another activity! Any suggestions?

Jordan's Turning into talker!!

Jordan has learned so much in the past week!!

This week he learned to say "hot" rather than just blowing on stuff! This week he also started doing the elephant noise. He also knows what a sheep and a cow say. And now he knows the name of our dog, Pezzy, but he says what sounds like Pissy.

He also learned the word Pushing, but it sounds exactly like- and this is my personal favorite b/c it is so hilarious to hear- Pussy!! So funny! We were worried when we went to church this week and he was in the day care that we would be told he was a potty mouth when we got him back!!

That is another development...we have gone to church for the past three weeks! Shocking I know!! We hadn't been for the last four years! I think we found a church that we like. There is just one guy in the choir that irritates us, otherwise the pastor is great.

Joe built me plantar boxes for my garden this year. I am pretty excited about them, and hope I don't kill everything that I touch. Joe calls me Dr. Brown Thumb. I read a book called about Square Foot Gardening, and got inspired. They made it sound so easy....We will see how it goes.

Joe's sister Charis moved in with us in January. She is supposed to be working at Chili's starting pretty soon. She is getting pretty bored sitting around the house. I love having her here! She is so helpful with Jordy and does the dishes and cooks sometimes too!

We have been working on the house a lot! We got the living room almost all done! I got my family photo wall all done, and Joe and Charis are painting the rest of the room! I love all the colors- all earth tones!