Taxes

I look forward to tax season every year, I know I'm crazy.  I like to pay off things and buy things that I desperately want.  However, it seems to me that when we do actually get our tax return there are things that magically fall apart and things that have to be purchased, like a new car.  This year is no different.  Last year we used our tax return to buy our van and this year our old Lumina has to go b/c it's not a great car to drive 60 miles to wk on when it uses 2 gallons of gas to drive said 60 miles.  It's been a strain on the budget.

What do I WANT?  I WANT a new camera, as previously stated.  What does Clint WANT?  A new computer.  Do we have enough for all three and enough to put some into savings for us and the kids while paying down some debts?  NOPE.

Choices, Choices...

In like a lamb?

The beginning of March was beautiful then the storm came in and it was cold, heavy and very wet. We stayed inside all day and then when we woke up the next morning it was...

beautiful!

TiVo

We have TiVo and I LOVE it.  I don't know how I survived without it and when we move I will be sad to loose it.  With that said, Conner doesn't know what life is like to have to wait for his shows to come on.  He asks mom and she can magically put them on TV.  Kaily can't remember what it was like before we had it.  So when we are in the car and they hear a song they like they want me to rewind it so they can listen to it again; when commercials come on they ask me to fast forward through them so they can get onto the music again.  There are times when I listen to the radio that I want to rewind just so I can hear something the kids were too loud to hear before, usually on talk radio.  If there isn't something on TV a certain night we just watch shows we haven't watched yet or movies I recorded to watch later with the kids or without.  Conner even asked me if we could fast forward through traffic so we could get to Grandma's faster.

Understanding Conner

I'm sure all of you who have children know that none of them are the same.  They all have their unique challenges that they face and unique ways to "deal" with those challenges.  In every stage of my children's lives we have had hurdles to climb over and "mud" to go through.  Nothing serious or life altering really.  If others looked into my daily life they would see a pretty normal house with fairly normal kids.  There isn't anything really abnormal that goes on around here.  I love being a mom but sometimes these little humans, as my friend calls them, are quite the enigma to figure out.

For a while Conner's speech has been the enigma.  It causes him to have tantrums b/c of frustration and acting out b/c we say yes and we should say no when he asks for something b/c we think he is saying one thing but he's actually saying another.  Conner, for some time, has been mumbling and he slurs his words together.  He doesn't say his R's, S's or L's very well and because of all this I have to translate for him.  Lately it's become frustrating for him as people tell him they can't understand him.  He'll come to me and say, "They don't understand me," and drag me to what ever adult he was talking to so I can translate for him.  There are times that even I can't understand him.  At his Well-child visit recently I expressed the frustration I was feeling and she referred me to a speech pathologist.  In order to see the SP we had to see an audiologist first to check his hearing.  I never thought there was anything wrong with his hearing.  When we went to the Audiologist he did some tests on Conner's ears that showed when the sound hit his eardrum the eardrum didn't react like it was supposed to, which would indicate fluid behind it.  He them had us go to an ENT.  The ENT said that his ear didn't look infected and that there was a little bit of fluid in there, but nothing substantial.  When I told him that's what I hear all the time from his Dr is that "there is fluid there, but nothing to warrant concern" he decided to give him a strong antibiotic to see if that would help clear it up and said I might notice a difference with his speech or I might not but to come back in a month and reevaluate.  So I gave him the 3 doses I was supposed to and little by little my Conner is starting to speak more clear, to enunciate his words.  The Dr told me with the fluid behind his eardrum he was probably hearing like you would underwater, only he never knew any different.  Like someone getting glasses for the first time noticing that trees aren't green blobs, they have leaves and definition to them.  We are still going to see the speech therapist to help clear up his lisps, but it's SO nice to have understanding of both why Conner was talking like he did and to be able to understand him better.

Camera's

I dislike my camera.  I LOVED it when we bought it back in 2006, but now it is outdated and takes crappy pics.  The truth is it takes the same quality of pics it always has, but technology has improved so much that MY camera pics look terrible when compared with other peoples pics.  So, I think it's time to buy a new one.  I'm willing to pay a good price for it, but I don't know what to buy or what to look for.  So here is where you come in.  What camera do you like and why?  If you don't have the camera you want than if you could buy a new one what would you buy?