Where do they get off thinking that money grows on trees???

This was my conversation with Madison on the way to the library...

"Can we get happy meals for dinner?"

"no, I just went grocery shopping and there is plenty of food to eat at home"

"I don't want the food at home! I like happy meals"

"I don't have any money"

"Yes you do"

"How would you know? have you been going through my purse again?!?!"

"No, but all you have to do is give them that blue card in your wallet"

NOW... excuse me while I vent!!

Every day I talk to women who have teenagers and are stressed over how much money they cost. There are women who haven't bought themselves anything in years because their kids have to shop at Hollister (that horrible store that I hate)
These are kids that walk around in $200 jeans and Juicy purses. The kids that have high tech cell phones spend all of their time texting. (Has anyone noticed how anti-social kids are lately? They avoid conversation with everyone through their texting) Kids with new cars while there parents drive junkers. What in the world has happened to parents these days?? Why are they so slow to teach kids the value of money?? Why can't they tell their kids "NO!"
Its scary to think that kids can just take that "blue card" and swipe it and money magically appears. You think our society is in debt now... I'm more scared to see it in 10 years. Everywhere you turn there are people going under, not because of job loss, but because they were out buying things they really couldn't afford in the first place, all for the sake of looking cool, or feeling better about themselves. Well here is a news flash, if you don't feel good about your self in the first place, that new car sure isn't going to do it for you. You'll only feel worse because now you will be depressed over that car payment too. Another problem is, people are so impatient. Who saves for anything anymore? They think because they have a credit card they can just go out and buy a new TV. That teaches them no value or responsibility. Everything that I've saved up to buy, I've appreciated more because of it.
So... I guess my dilemma is, how do you teach kids how to be responsible with money? How do you teach them that it is better to save for something rather than finance it? We are counselled over and over to avoid debt unless it is an absolute necessity. To save for a rainy day. I don't know how to get it through my kids heads.
I don't believe in paying for little chores around the house because I think it is a responsibility everyone has to take care their home.
What does everyone do to teach their kids about saving and value?

Top Ten Reasons why I might go Crazy!

10.Nolan crying
9. Kids that leave a trail of mess right after I've cleaned up
8. Cooking dinner for an hour every day just to throw it away because kids won't eat it
7. Nolan whining
6. Judd makes these weird loud noises, too annoying to even describe
5. coughs that don't ever go away, EVER
4. Kids that wake up at 6 a.m. no matter what time they go to bed
3. Nolan throwing fits
2. Female hormones
and the number on reason is....
Nolan in general

On a brighter side...

Top 10 things that make me laugh

10. Nolan crying
9. Coulson in his walker (he wanders all over the house looking for me)
8. Madison's fashion sense
7. Judd's fashion sense (camo and longhorns)
6. No matter how hard I try, my kids always look like hillbilly's
5. When my kids taunt each other (right now Madison is trying to get Nolan to come out side and play with her and he really doesn't want to, so she is out there acting like she is having the best time of her life... oh wait, now they are fighting)
4. How they make up 2 seconds later (now they are coloring together... wait, nope, fighting again)
3. the weird birds that fly into my window and knock themselves unconscious. I know, I'm strange, but seriously, at least twice a day. It is pretty funny.
2. Judd's singing and dancing. I never laugh at his face because I try not to humor him too much. I always leave the room to crack up. He really seriously thinks that he could win American idol. He hates that show, but still, he swears he would win. I'm going to secretly record him and post it some time. Hilarious!
and the #1 reason
The things my kids say. Sitting back listening to them have conversations with each other, or even spying when they are playing alone. Madison plays with her toys like she is a narrator. This is what she will say "brown horse, why are you so sad, said the big, black haired girl horse"
or Nolan singing. He acts shy, but that kid sings all day long. I have to act like I'm ignoring him or he'll stop, but the songs are cute.

so there you have it. For all the bad, there is good. Going crazy is just a part of motherhood.


Trip to Ikea
This morning I decided to take the kids to Ikea. It sounded like a good idea, until I got there. They were having this sale on some dresser so there were like 10,000 people there. I dropped Madi and Nolan off at the kids area to play and wandered around in peace and quiet. Then I get my page from the kid place... like 15 minutes later. I went to see what was wrong. The lady said that they just wanted to leave because they were hungry. Little tirds. So we went up to eat and they were serving FREE breakfast. Yay! While we were eating and waiting in the huge line, to my utter amazement, my kids were being angels! no running, fighting, whining, nothing. We got our food and ate and there were kids throwing fits all around, but my kids stayed quiet and ate their food all gone! We continued shopping and they didn't even ask me to buy them everything. Oh my gosh, they were great!! On the way home I told them just how I felt

"Kids, you were so good in there! I am so proud of you, there were kids being naughty all over the place and you guys just made me so happy. I love you!!"

Madison "will you give us some money?"

Geez why can't they just be good for free!?

Stay in school

There may not be any statistics on this, but I thought it posed a great argument....

Me "Madison, you need to go and get dressed for school"

Madi "I don't want to go to school any more!"

Me "you have to go to school. How else are you going to get smart?"

Madi "I don't need to be smart"

Me "yes you do, that's why Heavenly Father let us come to earth, so that we can learn lots of things"

Madi "I still don't want to go to school"

Mom "well, people who don't go to school go to jail"

Madi "Uncle Craig is in jail"

Me "that's becuase he didn't go to school" (he really didn't. this was kind of funny)

Madi "I'd better go get dressed"

Shhh.....

With months of being pet-less, we've finally taken the plunge. Judd's aunt called us with news of a new litter of Black labs. She breeds them and they are beautiful. She's saving us the biggest, spunkiest male. I'm pretty excited. We aren't going to tell the kids though because we don't get to bring him home for like 3 months and I don't want to hear about it every day. So I need your help. We are trying to pick a name for it and Judd wants the weirdest names ever, so I need everyone to cast a vote. (keep in mind, he's going to be a big, black male)

My Picks

1.Zeke

2.Brutus

3.Gus

4. Zeus

Update: My new favorite

5. Roscoe

Judd's picks

1. Festus

2. Clive

3. Bosifus (boseefus)

4. Trip

5. Bubba

In other goings on.... I've noticed I haven't posted for a while. Nothing's really been happening. Judd just returned from a trip to Idaho. He was there for Grandpa Jardine's funeral. I was happy he was able to go. However.... the second he leaves all of the kids get sick. Nolan was up coughing all night and keeping everyone else up so he came and slept with me, and kept me up all night. The baby wasn't feeling good, so he was up all night. While he was gone I had...

sing it

5 hours of sleep,

4 nights alone,

3 sick kids,

2 trips to grandma's

and a visit to the emergency room.

It was the greatest weekend of my life, not.

I did, amongst all the chaos, fit in a trip to the temple. That calmed me down a bit.

Oh, and we got some more family pics.