wow

So much happening right now, no time for blogging!! But yet isn't that the best time to blog?? :)

My chocolate last night... well, I made some chocolate covered Oreos the day before and decided that I had a bunch of chocolate chunks and wouldn't it be fun to mix it in with the white chocolate. Thankfully I decided to melt them separately. The white chocolate was intended for melting and making candies and such out of. The chunks... not so much. So instead of a nice puddle of chocolate ready for me to dip the Ritz and peanut butter sandwiches into, I had a burnt heap of chocolate 'dirt' that seemed to be alive. If you ever need a smoldering volcano, this is your stuff! It wasn't liquid by any means. It really did turn into something that much more resembled wet dirt and grained off like that. But it was moving. Literally moving. Almost as if it was physically on fire.

I believe it may be a talent to be able to catch chocolate on fire in a microwave.

Kristopher, however, thought I was making brownies. I guess burnt chocolate doesn't smell so bad to a 5 yr old.

(The chocolate dipped Ritz peanut butter sandwiches were done with just white chocolate and are delicious, in case you wondered.)

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This morning I sat down to nurse Lynae and even though I don't usually turn the computer on before school unless it's to check the weather, I did. And I even thought before turning it on that I was going to have to deal with Mike rolling his eyes... :)

So I turned it on and in my inbox found... 6 emails from my bank. Never a good start to the day.

This morning at 5am they were having fun without me. Apparently I wrote my homeowners insurance check from the wrong account. Not the end of the world, we have overdraft protection and it's a charge I didn't want, but it's just one check, right? No. Apparently they process the large amounts FIRST. So... Sunday afternoon's dinner from Panda Express $12. With a $34 overdraft fee. My $2 stop at McDonald's yesterday at lunch time? Add a $34 overdraft fee. Yes, this happened with SIX transactions!

And I get that the check was my fault. I have no problem with a $34 overdraft fee ONCE. But within 15 minutes they filed 6 transactions and put the one that was for over $3,300 FIRST so that all the others had insufficient funds... when in reality my account was just FINE when I made the other purchases.

I transferred the funds to the right account immediately this morning so there wouldn't be any other issues. Then I had to take the kids to school.

For whatever reason, 2 of the overdraft charges were gone when I got back home. YAY! That's $68! Then I called the bank. I explained that I understand why ONE charge is there, but that there's no reason for me to have insufficient funds on purchases made 2 days ago when they held that charge until after this large check went through. The funds were there NOW, so it's not like I'm trying to get off without paying something. I just think it's immoral to charge this way!

They reversed $70 of charges. I accepted that. It means 2 overdraft fees were removed and I was charged only 2. Still $68 I didn't want to donate toward my bank's pocket but it was definitely my mistake in writing the check from the wrong account and I completely understand ONE fee.

Better a fee from the bank than the government (for not paying the taxes). But even better if I just had my act together in the first place! I guess that 'savings' of a little over $100 for paying my taxes early is a bit nil now?

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This morning when I brought the kids in to school I stayed around for 20 minutes then went to Emma's classroom to show her teacher how she's doing with the Pony Walker. She's started to use it appropriately some and we've brought it to the Special Olympics Young Athletes meetings the last 2 weeks. Her teacher brought in the gait trainer they're using at the school for me to see as well and to show me how she's doing in that. She does all right but there's still limited control when she does it. The biggest thing is that she wants to "slink out" of the gait trainer and her super lax joints just might let her do that! LOL

Emma signed more for me at school! She signed baby for us several times and she told me all done when prompted. She listened when I told her to stand up in the walker and to stop 'cruising' by shoving off with her feet. That little girl never ceases to amaze me :)

I spent that first 20 minutes in the preschool class and Brianna told me she needed to go to the bathroom and then went. She's become so independent in so many areas, I'm just waiting for it to 'click' to her that she can go to the bathroom by herself and stay dry all the time. Walking in to the school in the morning I was carrying the carseat and holding Micah's hand. Usually I sling Lynae but today knowing I'd be in Emma's class I brought in her seat, which meant that Brianna just walked with us without holding my hand. I crossed the line of kids coming in from the buses with Lynae and Micah and she stopped and waited for another opening. She even said "NO!" to a girl that turned and bonked her with her backpack (on accident, Brianna was standing just on the other side of a bush and she's REALLY TINY! LOL, the girl didn't see her until she said something). Then when she saw an opening (I really thought she was going to wait all the way until the END of the line...) she ran across! Big girl! I'm so glad she was assertive to the girl that bumped her too. She's little and is going to HAVE to say something or she'll get run over!

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In just a few minutes I'm headed down to Lynae's 2 month check up. Then school pick-up and three kids are going to play at my parents' house for a little while. I'll be headed down with Micah to the orthopedic doctor for (hopefully his LAST) checkup on the curvature of his back.

Tomorrow morning is Brianna's IEP, and Thursday is the Kindergarten Thanksgiving Play as well as 'lunch with your child' for every class in the school. Seriously. They invited ALL the parents to lunch tomorrow. Can. We. Say. Hectic?? I'll be having lunch with Kristopher and Emma, and depending on what time that falls I'll eat with the preschoolers too, but I won't tell them I'm coming unless I show up :)

Next week we have Emma's IEP on Tuesday and I'll be spending the afternoon packing. Yep, we're hitting the road for Thanksgiving and visiting some friends :) Kristopher and Brianna are really excited about our little road trip, and Mike and I are ready for a little time away from everything as a family. Not sure yet whether we're leaving on Tuesday afternoon or waiting until Wednesday morning.

Off to the doctor's....