$19.90

That's how much Brianna charged to Lee's cell phone. Now she gets to pay me back. Roger's thankfully took the charges off my phone, but I need for her to learn that doing things like that costs REAL money! If it happens again, Roger's won't take the charges off so I want to make sure it won't happen again. So she gave me all the money in her kitty bank and paid off $12.90. Still owes $7 but is willing to work extra chores to pay me back faster. Let's hope she actually does it!

Awesome Sale!

Value Village had a 50% off sale. Perfect timing too since it's back to school! Let's see what I got:
For Lee:
2 work shirts
1 nice polo shirt
For Brianna:
4 pairs of jeans
2 sets of pjs
2 sweaters
1 long sleeve shirt
1 jean jacket
For Olivia:
3 pairs of pants
1 pair of overalls
1 dress
2 shirts
1 sleeper
All for a measly $52!!!! Other than winter boots, Brianna is set for winter and Olivia's well on her way!

New System for Brianna

On Wednesday I hit rock bottom with Brianna. Nothing major happened, she didn't do anything super terrible, I just had enough. Nothing has been working. So I asked my girls for advice and here's what one came up with... Dr. Phil-ing her. I guess it's a matter of stripping her to nothing and making her earn everything.

So I started with her room. All the posters and such came off the walls, no stuffies on her bed, only one pillow, ect... The radio and night light stayed, but only cause I can't punish Olivia. Then the toy room... the only things in it now is the two booksheves (empty) and the vacuum. Everything else is in Isaac's room with the door locked.

All choices have been removed from her. She will eat a only certain times and only what I tell her. No more do I want an apple or an orange? She will wear whatever I put out for her, no pink or blue shirt choice.

She was very upset by this of course. Especially the prospect of no stuffie to sleep with and no choice over snacks. All was explained to her, how she could earn her things back, ect....

Wednesday and Thursday were a LOT better, but still full of the little things that she knows she can't do. Today was a great surprise. She listened well, finished her schoolwork and chores in a timely manner and so on. So I rewarded her with some Leapster time while Olivia napped. I went upstairs to hang with Lee. Brianna asked if she could get Olivia out of her crib to play with her. I thought sure! I was so happy with the sudden good girl behaviour. Then I went downstairs.... She was ignoring Olivia, watching tv and she had eaten a chocolate bar. *sigh*

So she got her mouth washed out with soap for lying about the chocolate bar (which she then admitted) and grounded to her room for the rest of the day. She was very remorseful this evening. Hopefully we'll get the good behaviour back now!

Wooooo!

Yesterday's weigh put me at 180.8lbs!!!! Only 2.8lbs to my goal! Hopefully I can hit it by next Wednesday :D

A Great Day!

Started out the day at the lowest weight I've been in close to 9 years! I'm down to 181.4lbs. Getting closer and closer to my goal of 178lbs by Sept 1st! YAY!

Next on the docket was bill paying. Currently all of our bills are up to date and paid! Such a good feeling after the summer we've had! It's so great to be finally caught up. Now we've got to work on September.

I'm looking into possibly getting a part time job. Lisa did up a resume for me and I'm going to bring it to a few places in the mall. That location would be perfect as it's only 4 blocks away so no matter the weather it's just a quick walk. Lisa's gonna be basicly "on call" as a babysitter in case I have to go to work and Lee's not home yet. I'd really rather stay home with Olivia being so little, but the extra money would be nice too. Maybe even just something until after Christmas.

Sorting Clothes Again....

Got to go through my fall-ish clothes to sort between listing on my Cornwall boards on Facebook or bringing them to my awesome consignment store Echo Trends. I got an offer on my crib set, $30. Not terribly happy with it but will take it if she doesn't bite the $35 I counter-offered.

I also need to go through the toy room again and go through all Brianna's craft stuff with her. Obviously the craft stuff isn't for selling but then I'd know what to be replacing. The toy room though.... we went through the whole toy room and got rid of bunches of stuff and there's still sooooo much that hasn't been moved all summer = not being played with.

I went through Olivia's toys last night. Put away all the baby-baby toys in the basement and got rid of a few toys for selling. I wish stuffed animals sold better.... I've got loads of those!

Ladies Night!

We finally managed to get Kate to Cornwall for the weekend. Me, mom, Lisa and Kate all went to mom's house to drink wine, eat pizza and play Rummoli. Very little Rummoli was played (Kate won btw!). Some pics :)

On a Shoestring

Budget that is. Lee's hours at work are finally starting to be a little more normal. Well, at least he's close to getting his hours. However, now we've got to catch up on all the bills we're behind on! Thankfully other than fresh stuff to buy each week we've got lots of food stuff. And Brianna's almost ready for school. So while we're kinda hard up right now, things are looking better finally!

Ugh! Rain...

I wanted to do laundry today. Woke up this morning, it was all overcast and looking like rain, so I put it off. Finally around 2pm it still hadn't started raining so I figured it was just gonna be an overcast day, let's wash the laundry and hang it, it'll just take a bit longer to dry. Start up the washing machine, it's not even half full and the rain starts *sigh* Thankfully it's supposed to stop by morning so hopefully I can get it all done tomorrow!

Cheating

I caught Brianna cheating in her school work today by looking at the answers in the back of the book and copying them. She's been working in these types of books for years and never cheated before. I am so disappointed. I tore out all the answer sheets from her workbooks and she is right now writing an essay on cheating.

I told her that the books she's working in right now are Grade 2 books. She should know all of it since she just finished Grade 2. She says "you know I didn't pay attention in class!" I told her that was her fault not mine. She claims it's not her fault either. Gee, who's fault could it be then?!?!

I plan to work with her teachers in Sept to get all unfinished work home so it can be done. I don't care if they want to mark it incomplete against her school record, but the work will be done! When her school work all came home in June, I couldn't believe the amount of work in there where not a single answer had been done! I don't know how on earth she's getting Cs and Bs on her report card. I don't think she's doing enough work to get even those grades!

She's gonna be in for a big surprise in Grade 3. I am totally cracking down. She'll have her school work at school, whatever work she doesn't have finished at home and her work books. I will not have a child who in only Grade 3 doesn't do her work. I wouldn't mind at all if it was that she *couldn't* do the work, but it's the fact that she *won't*.