The trip was a BLAST. It started out a bit rough since the extended Rumble family SUCKS at preparation. We had a total of 16 people going. 12 adults, 2 toddlers (3 and 4 yr) and 2 babies under 1 year. We had 3 sites and 5 tents for everyone. It was commotion getting there and set up. The rain sucked for every aspect imaginable. Our tent got wet inside, our clothes were damp from the constant rain, my blanket was wet and all 4 kids had a HORRIBLE first night. Asia is my niece (Randy’s sister’s daughter) and almost 11 months old and Nat is 4. She is Randy’s younger brother’s daughter. Asia woke up and SCREAMED non-stop for 2 hours. Heather and Dave took her home and she passed out almost immediately. Her screaming woke Trent up. Typically he goes right down with a bottle and has NO issues at night, but he refused to go back to bed until I wrapped him up with me and he passed out. Gracie woke up after hearing him crying and started whimpering, so Randy snuggled up against her and she fell back asleep. Then Nat woke up screaming for daddy. It was ROUGH. We’ll also add that getting the fire going and keeping it going during rain is NOT easy, especially with barely any dry wood due to constant rain all week.

Woke up the next morning and was freezing. I had a chill I could not get conquered all night long that lasted me up until the evening. We had a delicious breakfast of eggs, sausage and hashbrowns. We decided to take the kids on a hike. They had a lot of fun. We rotated the 2 older kids out of the double stroller with Trent halfway through since little legs get tired quickly. We got back and then Randy, Dave (Heather’s boyfriend) and I went out on a boat fishing. It was nice. I didn’t catch anything but Randy did. We stayed out for about 3 hours. Got back and ate dinner then let the kids play until they went to bed around 8-9. No screaming issues this time around.

That night was a lot of fun for the adults. We played Truth or Dare, made a 2am run to McDonald’s to satisfy a craving and just acted crazy. It was so nice to be away from the world for awhile. We stayed up until around 2:30/3. Next time we go camping hopefully the weather is nicer so we can add in some swimming. We’re hoping to go up to Hamlin Beach for our next trip so we can fish in the lake and swim. I have an entire album of pictures from the trip up on my Facebook. We went to the Strong Museum of Play on Monday and posted pictures from that as well. If you don’t have me added on Facebook, what are you waiting for? My Facebook page is located right here. You can also add me on Twitter here.

So we got Pookie Monday (April 8th) and Gracie is in love with her. However, she acts a bit odd and we’ve concluded that his aunt probably got her and let her sit in the cage most of the time so she’s used to being alone. She’s incredibly calm. Since ferrets are social creatures, we went and got Dory to keep her company when we’re not home for the day or just to have a companion with her. Dory was born in January and is very hyper, playful and full of energy. She never stops going and loves to play with everyone. Since she’s so active she doesn’t like to be held for more than a few seconds. She also likes to lightly nip at toes to get attention. Pookie and Dory didn’t really associate with each other though and things didn’t feel complete. Sunday, we added Jasper to the mix. He didn’t work out for us because he was very mean and aggressive. He bit at all 4 of us and Tuesday morning Trent was playing on the floor and he bit him and left little marks for NO reason. We decided he needed to go back to the pet store and I did that yesterday and brought home Jasper #2 (Randy really liked the name). He is the same kind as the first Jasper, but can already tell he is much tamer and suitable to add to our family. He isn’t a biter and the girls love him too.

We have a 4 level cage for them to sleep in and play occasionally with 2 hammocks. I take them out of their cages 3-4 times a day for anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours to run and explore. We bought a baby gate to keep them out of the kitchen. For the most part they are litter trained. Pookie goes 100% of the time, Dory was doing really well but stopped using the in-cage litter box after I cleaned it the other day. Jasper was just introduced last night, so I’m not sure where he stands just yet.

I wanted to give you individual pictures, but they didn’t all come out since it’s incredibly hard to get a ferret to sit still for any length of time. I managed to capture all three of them this morning before I cleaned their cage out. Jasper is the long white one across the top, Pookie is sleeping under him and Dory is on the far right.

Let’s get started.

Living Room

This is the view from my front door to my living room. I like it, but at the same time I despise how I can’t re-arrange things. The doorway leads to the kitchen, the door on the left next to the kitchen there goes to the basement, and the doorway to the left in the photo leads upstairs. I also only have one window in here, so natural lighting is out of the picture for the most part.

Another view of the living room, but now I’m standing in the kitchen doorway.

Kitchen

I love that I have first floor laundry and a huge pantry to store food and stuff in. The doors also close, but I leave them open constantly. I despise my lack of counter space. I can’t fit my strainer for my dishes and all my other things like my toaster and such have to be stored away. BOO. We also have a tiny table that was here when we moved in. We only have one window in here as well (we’re in a house with 4 apartments that leaves us with only 2 outside walls). Excuse the baskets of laundry. I have been anti-folding lately.

The Upstairs

I hate these stairs. Not only is their positioning incredibly inconvenient, but they curve and there are like 4 steps when you go to the right so it’s hard to get stuff up there. It’s the reason my huge dresser is in the kitchen and not in my bedroom.

Gracie’s Room

I really like her room. It’s big and she has closet space. The only thing I really don’t like is the window. It opens from the floor up and, even though we have it locked, it’s not my favorite thing. Pardon the mess. She plays in here, but that’s it. She doesn’t sleep, nap or spend a ton of time in here and it’s her space to do as she pleases.

Mine and Randy’s Room

We don’t do anything up here but sleep, which is why it’s so empty. It’s big and has Trent’s dresser and we have plenty of closet space. Excuse the very messy bed. It never gets made and all the pillows and blankets get situated at night right before we climb into bed.

Bathroom

HATE. See how tiny it is? Yes, we only have a stand up shower and I’m constantly knocking things down when trying to shower. The toilet is also WAY too close to the wall there and it makes it uncomfortable to sit on and good luck wiping. It’s a tight fit, especially for me. The only thing I like is all those shelves.

Outside

This is the view from my front door. 2 apartments to the left and one to the right. We live on a main road (yuck), but we have a decent yard in the back. The shitty part is there are 6 parking spaces for 4 apartments, so it’s cluttered and guest parking = none. The building next door is a little hometown flower shop.

Overall, I can’t really complain too much. We pay $600/month plus gas/electric/water. Our gas is less than $100 in the winter, so nearly non-existant in the summer. Our electric runs around $150 and water is like $20-$25 every 3 months. We don’t have to pay trash b/c our landlord provides a dumpster out back.

What do you love/hate about the place you’re living and what would you change?

It has SO MUCH space and I love it. I don’t have to struggle to fit everything we need into the blazer. Randy constantly keeps a very large toolbox with him and a large car jack, which consumed my grocery getting space. I’m still getting used to driving it. I definitely cringe when filling it up though. The gas tank holds about 22 gallons. It cost $85 for my last fill up at $3.85/gal (with a store discount). Based on my mileage for the fill-up before that, I get approximately 10 miles to a gallon. OUCH. It wasn’t a swaying factor though because I don’t work outside the home and the furthest place we typically go is the closest “city” about 10 miles away. It’s something I’m willing to accept for convenience.I really do love it though. I have a new radio with bluetooth capabilities, a 2000w amp and 2 12-inch subs in the back that make it quite enjoyable to cruise in.

That consumed a large part of our taxes, but we also finally paid off his fines.
-$2,000 to the county for driving w/o a license
-$461 or something for a surcharge from 2006
-$246 or so for a 2009 surcharge
-$750 NYS DMV “Driver Assessment” fee

His very last substance abuse class is Monday (Required to complete within 1 yr of applying for your license after 2 DWIs). He started this in May. Once his counselor faxes the form to the DMV stating he successfully completed it, we have to pay another $100 fee to get the revocation lifted and about $90 to apply for a permit and do the process all over again. He didn’t get fined for the DWI since he served 1-3 in prison for it. It has been a very expensive road here, but I’m SO glad that it’s almost done.

I graduate with my AAS in criminal justice in May. I’m not sure what I’ll do after that. Honestly, I’ll probably stick with writing online and staying home with the kids for now.

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I want her in her own room across the hall. She has a bed, toys, clothes and anything else she can possibly need in her room. Her sleep lately has been fall asleep around 4 to 6pm and then wake up like 1-2am and repeat the process. She is well behaved during the night and will lay next to Randy watching TV or playing on her tablet (If we take either one away then neither of us will get any sleep), but once he leaves for work at 7:15 she is ALL over the bed jumping around and waking me up before Trent is so irritating.

Trent is a good sleeper. He will eat/take a bottle for a minute or two and fall back asleep. He can also deal with a fair amount of noise, but Gracie jumping around the bed disturbs him (we sidecar the crib) so he wakes up before he is ready and is cranky.

I just needed to vent because it’s not even 10:30am and I’m already frustrated. On a good note, our tax refund came in today and now we can go pay off Randy’s fines (1600 or so), buy another vehicle for a few thousand and then no plans for the rest. Oh, Randy is putting a new differential in our blazer so that is a couple hundred too. I must say, it feels really good to be in a place financially where I don’t have to wonder if we’ll have a roof over our heads or food. Not even a year ago we were visiting a food pantry and now we’re comfortable and so much happier.

Continue to see more pictures

It was approaching nap time and he made sure we knew it.

Gracie did GREAT, especially because she’s usually the one who refuses to smile or even look at the camera.

These are the people I spend probably 75% of my time with when I’m not home. My SIL Heather and her boyfriend Dave are in the middle and my BIL Pat and his girlfriend Nikki are on the right. Randy’s parents Randy Sr and Diane are on the floor with Asia (Heather & Dave’s), Gracie, Trent and Natalie (Nikki & Pat’s).

The grandparents with their grandbabies that they would do anything for.

I don’t know about 75% of the people here, but this is the shot of all the grandchildren and great grandchildren. It’s awesome that everyone was able to come together.

We have a boy and a girl. Parents aren’t outnumbered by kids. There is no middle child (or arguing over who has to sit in the middle in the car, haha). I don’t want to go through another pregnancy after Trent. I was SO exhausted and slept an average of 12-13 hours a day. I never got a good night of sleep and I absolutely despised the majority of it. Kids are also expensive and I see what we spend now on two and that is more than enough for me.

I think it’s ridiculous that we might have to worry about opposition from doctors though. I absolutely despise the idea that someone needs to be a certain age or have x number of kids before they can get a vasectomy or tubes tied or whatever someone wants done. I get that doctors worry about liability, but they could require a number of forms that make people understand it is a permanent procedure and that the doctor is not responsible if they want a reversal in the future and it doesn’t work.

What are your thoughts on minimum requirements to get sterilized? How many children do you want/how did you know when you were “done”?

The instructions say to give one away for a friend to try, and since I’m not a fan of lime at ALL, I’m going to give that one to my mother-in-law. I also got five coupons for $1.50 off a bottle of Palmolive Fresh Infusions to give to others that weren’t as lucky as I was to be selected.

I’m actually going to try the dish soap out later when I get around to cleaning my kitchen. I despise dishes more than any other household task, so a nice smelling dish soap makes things a bit more tolerable. I’ll blog later or another day about my impressions.

*I received these products complimentary for testing purposes from Influenster, but all opinions are completely mine.

I bought a few different things for my sister-in-law last month for Christmas there. I know she likes things that smell good so I searched around the bath and body section before settling on two different scents of the same product. I got her the Naughty Secrets Body Fragrance in both “make me blush” and “oh so original.” Make me blush has a fruity smell and we both preferred it over the “oh so original.”

I also got her a Pheromone soy massage candle in the strawberries and champagne scent, which smells absolutely delicious. I have my eye on a few bath and body products myself that I wouldn’t mind adding to my collection, so I’ll be placing an order some time during the upcoming few weeks. Depending on the current promotions, I might also add a few other things to my cart to take advantage of the free shipping that is available on orders of $25 or more. Take a minute to stop by and see if any of the holiday clearance items appeal to you.