Party Planning
We have 2 and 1/2 days to finish planning the party of the year! Josiah's birthday is only 3 days away and his party is the day before. I have 70 RSVP's (with 17 of those being kids under 10). I'd say about 30 are my family members and another 10 are Jesse's. We're having the party at our utility company's lunch room. It's free to customers and we had my mom's 50th birthday there, so we're familiar and happy with the accommodations. I've got 12 tables set up for guests and each table has a theme based on a Dr. Seuss book with a handmade centerpiece,stuffed animal, book, and framed table number. We'll "Pin the Fish on the Ish Wish Dish", have a "Green Egg" hunt, and a few other activities like signing a birthday book for Josiah, guessing how much candy is in the jar, and a raffle prize. Food includes "Pink Ink Yink Drink" (pink lemonade), "Seuss Juice" (Kool-Aid), "Poodles Eating Noodles" (pasta salad), "Green Eggs and Ham" (deviled eggs and ham rolls), "Roast Beast" (beef), and lots of cupcakes and candy... to name a few. We've got lots of themed stickers, pencils, markers, notepads, etc for favors, and balls, rubber duckies, etc. for younger kid favors. And then there are lots of hand-painted characters all around the room, balloons, and a balloon arch. I can't wait to post pictures of it all! I took today and Friday off of working, and my mom did too, to start preparing all of the food and finish the last minute details.
(Invitation front and back)
(Pin the Fish on the Ish Wish Dish)
(Green Eggs and Ham Centerpiece)
(Photo Prop, unfinished above, finished below, Jaydon and Zoe modeling it for me)
(The Grinch stuffed animal, buckled into my car after I got him in the mail.)
Jobs
Right now, I am still doing daycare out of my home for Jaydon and Zoe and for Madison (who is a few weeks older than Josiah). However, Madison's dad has been out of work and doing odd-jobs for the past few months. So I'm completely on-call for when I will watch her, even finding out as late as midnight once that I would have her the next day. When I watch her and get paid for it, it is significant enough, but it's not something I can count on. Jaydon and Zoe's mom got hired on full time and switched to day shift this last week. So that increased my hours and pay, but then they'll suddenly drop when the kids start school in a couple of weeks. Not to mention that DHS (who pays me for watching Jaydon and Zoe) cut all of their benefits, so they won't pay me anymore after December. The loss of income is causing us to go further and further in debt. So I've been applying for new jobs. One is at a high school down the street from me (where Jesse graduated) as an Office Assistant. I'm extremely qualified, the hours and pay are great. The position would end in June when school gets out, though. But at least I'd know it was coming and could prepare for that. Another job is as a Bridal Consultant at a local bridal shop. I'd LOVE that job, but it is only minimum wage plus commission and is only part time. Perhaps if the hours worked out ok, I could do daycare and that job, but I'm not sure yet how it will work out. I also applied as a photographer at Sears, which would be a decent job. I haven't had an interview for any of these yet, but I expect that they'll start arranging interviews in the next few weeks.
Finances
I don't want to air ALL of our dirty laundry online, but in an attempt to stay real and explain what's really going on in our lives, I will share a bit. The reason the jobs are such a big deal is because we're getting further behind on our bills. It gets more complicated because our mortgage company won't accept anything less than a full payment. So, we can either afford our house payment or everything else at a time. In the past 2 months, we've only paid 1/4 of what we've owed on it, only to find out that the payment wasn't any good unless we had the other 3/4 as well. The only other debt we have are my student loans. The problem with that is that every August, they increase my payment unless I request otherwise. However, before I did it this month, they automatically renewed it, and since I was already behind a month, I now owe even more. I can't change it back to the smaller payments until I get caught up. So, if I don't pay it by Sept. 1st, they'll add another $350 to the existing amount owed. Otherwise, we have no credit cards, no car payments, nothing. And we're not behind on our bills other than those two payments. It's just that those are getting increasingly worse and our income is not getting any better without me getting a new job.
I've listed my car for sell and am hoping to buy something more economical, using the extra money to pay off bills, but in 2 months have had no responses, despite lowering the cost several times. We've also applied for food stamps, but are still waiting to be approved. And Jesse is going back to school in the fall, so we will start getting his financial aid again, but not until October. Getting a new job would alleviate a lot of our financial stress, but at this point, I'm just waiting for everything to pan out. I've done everything I can at this point and am just waiting to see how God works it out.
And just in case you think that I shouldn't be throwing such a big party for Josiah when I can't pay my own bills (in case you're judging me and don't really know me), I wouldn't have this party if it weren't for my mom. She's helping me make it all happen!
Josiah
I can hardly believe my *BIG* guy will be a year old in a few days! He's walking everywhere, albeit wobbly! I won't know his measurements until Aug 30th, but I think he's about 25-26 lbs. He says "dada", "nana", "no-no", and "ya, ya, ya", but doesn't seem to associate very much. He babbles dada all of the time, but I think he only sometimes associates it with Jesse. And he does associate no-no with shaking your head and not doing something, but he still does it anyways! Otherwise, he's just babbling and occasionally mimicking our sounds. The kid can eat like crazy! I want to talk to the pediatrician to make sure I'm not over-feeding him or underestimating what he should be able to eat. He's also learning to express himself in more different ways, is doing better at going to sleep without a bottle, is totally off of formula, eating more table food than out of a jar, is doing okay with a sippy cup, and is still my super cuddly little boy.
I'll end with some pictures of my love:
3 comments:
Look how lovely he's growing. I swear that kid is the smiliest baby ever :)
And congrats on the walking :)
Your party prep looks fantastic - you are so, so talented (did you see my p.s on my blog today???).
I really hope you get the office assistant job down the road - it sounds perfect. I've been stressed with money before and boy oh boy, does it put a strain on EVERYTHING!!!
Praying for you, Mandy!
Wow Josiah is almost 1 year old already? that's insane! And wonderful! His photos are just adorable, that smile is too darn cute! I like all the elements for the pary, sounds like its going to be lots of fun. The invitation is perfect, I like the idea of his pic for each month and the birth story, love it!
I'm going to be keeping you in my prayers and hope that you get something soon in the job market. I'm sorry to read that the daycare isn't working out as planned, it was just the perfect opportunity to get income while being home with Josiah. At least you tried. Before you are done watching the other kids though I really hope that you can get something to help out the situation, I can only imagine how stressed you must feel. Big hugs to you my dear. Fingers crossed things will change for the better soon!
I want to come to one of your parties!! They always look amazing. You seriously need to be a kids party planner - Secretly I'm TTC just to fly you out to throw a party for the kiddo :) I'll be praying for your job hunt. Have you thought about applying for WIC? It would at least help out with food for Josiah.
P.S. sorry for the lack of comments. I've been reading just quite. Still keeping you in my prayers!
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