Welcome to Musings of a Broke Mom

I already have a couple of other blogs but I really needed a place to vent. I lead a very stressful life here in Americas Dairyland. My husband and I are struggling trying to raise 3 kids on a shoestring budget in a tiny community where there is little opportunity. My blogs help me deal with my every day stresses. I promise to post to this blog every day. If you are a reader of my popular blog Healthy Moms I guarantee that this one will be more entertaining and humorous with less advertising.

Add this blog to your Technorati favorites. (As soon as I register it on Technorati!) Share it with your friends and bookmark it. Join me on my journey of parenting three little kids along with my crazy husband who is just a kid himself! Have you ever been to Wisconsin? If not, this blog will discuss Cheese Country and Packerland and all the humorous things about this little state by Lake Michigan. I am telling you we have our own culture out here!

Let me introduce you to my three kids. My oldest, Courtney was born in 1997 when I was barely 19 years old. She is a very spirited child who enjoys animals, The Warriors Book Series, Webkinz, and spends most of her time on the computer or fighting with me over the computer! Did I mention she is also a black belt in Karate? Yes she can kick her mommy's you know what! We are Catholic and I send her to the catholic grade school here in town where she is in the fifth grade. Her best friend is Claire. You will read more about her later. Claire and Courtney get into these little petty fights all the time, just like tween girls! The girls in Courtney's class are just at that age where they can be extremely mean to each other.

Courtney is also very close to my mother. You see, I was just a teenager when she was born and I wanted to get a college degree so she lived with my parents so I could pursue that dream. My parents have 10 grandchildren but they still have a special bond with Courtney.

I married my husband, Chris in 2003 and he adopted Courtney the following year. I will tell you more about Chris later.

We tried for a long time to have another child. We thought that I was infertile and maybe we would have to adopt. Courtney really wanted a little sister. When she would ask us when we were going to have a baby we would tell her, "When you are eight." After 2 1/2 years of trying and nearly giving up, Ciara was born just three weeks shy of Courtney's ninth birthday. We got lucky! I don't know how I would be able to explain things to her if her sister would have been born after Courtney turned nine!

So here is Ciara, daughter number 2. In my other blog I refer her to the "Terror" because that is just what she is. She'll be 2 in a couple of weeks. Just imagine a tiny Tasmanian Devil running around your house. That is Ciara..or as we call her CiCi (pronounced Key ar a or Key Key). She scares me half to death for many reasons. First of all she is not afraid of anything. This past summer she climbed up a slide at the park all on her own. I think the slide is about 10-15 feet tall. She is very athletic and loves to climb on anything. Also she is extremely independent. If you are not following her around the house at all times she might just stick her pacifier in the toilet, or steal Courtney's change from her purse and put it in her own piggy bank. CiCi also has climbed down the steps and eaten the cat feces out of the litter box once. I called poison control on that one! CiCi is also extremely friendly. When we go grocery shopping she will say hello to everyone at the store. She also lets anyone pick her up. Now that really scares me!

When Ciara was a baby I worked at the local Wal Mart and my husband worked for Frito Lay. We were just barley making it then, if you know what I mean. Then Wal-Mart threatened to fire me and I just about had it so I quit. This was November, 2006. My husband was upset that I quit my job and we were talking about the circumstances one day when he said, Cash aren't you supposed to get your period soon? I was so stressed out about work and all that I wasn't really thinking about that. I replied, "yeah, I guess I was supposed to have it last weekend." Oops! He ran to the store and got a pregnancy test. I was thinking how can I be pregnant again? I just had a baby! And this time we were not even trying! Sure enough, it was positive. Nine months later on July 17, 2007 I had a beautiful baby boy, Conan. When I was pregnant Chris insisted that we were going to have another girl, in fact he called him Cadence the whole time I was pregnant! I thought that because this was a surprise pregnancy that I would finally have my boy. I was right.

Conan is a beautiful little 6 month old boy. He has orange hair and blue eyes and looks a little like his daddy. Currently he is just starting to roll all over the floor. I am still nursing him and would like to continue until he is a year. Drinking Mamma's milk as we call it is his favorite past time. I can not have him on my lap for more than 10 minutes without him twisting around to get a drink. He likes to nurse when he is hungry, when he is tired, when he is bored, when he wants to play, just about any time. And worse of all Conan does not sleep. My doctor told me that babies his age should have at least 15 hours of sleep a day. Conan sleeps about 6-8 hours. And guess what he likes to do all night long! Yes you guessed it! Nurse. I love my little boy but sometimes I think I love my sleep more.

Now for my other boy. Sometimes I refer to him as my fourth child. That is pretty much what my husband is just a big kid. Chris is from California and settled out here in the late 90's when the economy and jobs were better here than out in California. Now I think it is the exact opposite. We met in 2001 and married in 2003. He has an MBA from the University of Phoenix but currently does not work. He's a typical man, enjoys watching football (The Packers of course) playing with his kids, helping them mess up my house and he loves to cook. Oh wait that isn't typical now is it? But it is great for me because I do not particularly enjoy that task. So now there's me.

I was born in a small town just south of Madison, Wisconsin to a large Catholic family. I am the youngest of five children. My mother taught at the Catholic grade school, where we all attended and my father was a State Trooper. I was raised well despite all of my problems. I was a very spirited child just like my oldest daughter. In fact I was thrown out of Kindergarten because I through a temper tantrum. When I was in high school l rebelled and hung around with a boy that my parents did not like. The summer after I graduated he got me "knocked up." That made my parents dislike him even more! But everything happens for a reason and now I have a beautiful 10 year old daughter.

Ok, so why do we live in Beaver Dam, WI? And why are we broke? Chris used to work as a store manager in a small town just south of here. At the time we were ready to purchase our first house and found one here right across the street from a park and it was in our price range. After working for that company for a number of years Chris decided it was time for a change so he found a job at Frito Lay. They promised him a management position and he would be promoted within 6 months. So of course he took the job along with a $20,000 a year pay cut and a baby along the way. (Ciara) I worked at Wal Mart so we were going to be alright. (The two largest employers in/ or near this town is Wal-Mart and John Deere) He never got his promotion. He was working 70 hours a week and only getting about 5 hours of sleep a night. He gained weight and contemplated suicide. Also our marriage was about to fall apart. Just before Christmas, 2007 he quit his job. I am working part time for a merchandising company because there are just no jobs around here. We are about ready to foreclose on our house. Well, maybe.

OK I do not want your sympathy. I do not want your money. This blog is solely for entertainment and so I can vent. You can feel free to comment on this post. Tomorrow I will tell you more about how we are doing, what happened in the last 24 hours and how we are coping. Is all I ask is that you read and comment on my blog. It will get better, trust me!

The Broke Mom