A Work at Home Mom’s Blog

Pumpkin’s birthday is a little over a month away. And I have no earthly idea what to get her this year.

She’s getting too old for toys, but she’s not quite old enough to really appreciate gifts you’d buy for teenagers. I guess that’s part of the reason they call them the tween years, huh?

I was looking at some Casio cameras digital (not film like the one her aunt got her a couple of years ago and she’s never used). She has a super-cheap digital camera that works with those password journals, but she has said she wants one with a screen. It’s been a while since she talked about it, though, so I’m not sure if she’s still interested or not.

The only thing I’ve been able to come up with is clothes. And maybe a good pair of earrings if I can find some that are affordable. The Simply Whispers ones I got her last year are starting to bother her ears, so I guess I need to go with 14 karat gold.

I’m hoping I can think of something to get her from Amazon. I’ve been earning as many points as possible from Swagbucks and ordering Amazon gift cards with them. So far I’ve racked up $15 worth in the past week, plus I’ve already got a $20 balance in my account. If I keep going maybe I can get her something nice.

If you have any other tween gift ideas, I’d love to hear them!

I took Pumpkin up to spend some time with my mom a couple of days ago. We’ll be going back to get her this weekend. It’s so quiet around here without her, and rather boring. I miss her like crazy, but she’s having fun and I wouldn’t dream of cutting her time up there short. Hubby, on the other hand, has been all to pieces. He can’t stand to be away from her for very long, and every time he talks to her on the phone, he asks if she’s ready to come home.

I’m hoping to use this time to get lots of work done. So far I have gotten a decent amount done, but haven’t made any great strides. I’ve still got a few days left, though.

In other news, I did something really, really stupid last week. Hubby, Pumpkin and I went camping, and I put my phone in the tent when the battery went dead. I brought it home and charged up the battery, then tried to turn it on. Nothing happened. I started freaking out. It’s not that I wouldn’t love to have an excuse to get a new Blackberry Curve, it’s that I’m still very much under contract and couldn’t afford to pay full price for one.

I kept trying to turn it on all day, to no avail. I pored through the manual looking for possible solutions, and looked online, to no avail. When Hubby came in, I broke the news to him. He picked up my phone, and it turned on for him with no problem.

I’m not 100% positive, but I think I must have been pushing the wrong button. The End key is the one you use to turn it on, but to unlock the keypad, you push the button directly above it. I think I was pushing that button instead. Doh!

That made me feel pretty dumb. But I’m glad to know it’s working now, because I have to use it to call and check up on Pumpkin. Speaking of which, I haven’t talked to her today… Gotta go!

Pumpkin has two jars full of change, one of pennies and one of white change. We really need to get some coin rolls and roll it all up to take to the bank.

We’ve all been contributing to her little fund. Hubby is always emptying his pockets in there, and I always put what I find in there when I’m cleaning. I accidentally put a couple of Hubby’s silver dollars in there once, but he figured it out pretty quickly.

Once we take it to the bank and get cash for it, I guess Pumpkin can buy herself something. We really haven’t designated a purpose for it, although I’m thinking about making her put a portion of it into savings. It would be nice to start a college fund for her, because that’s something we haven’t been able to do yet.

I should really be doing what my parents did when I was in school. They put change into one of those huge pickle jars and saved it from the time my older brother graduated until I graduated, then started a bank account for me with it. I ended up with several hundred bucks, and it helped me learn how to manage money. I kind of forgot how somewhere along the way, though. But I’m hoping that Pumpkin will be much more responsible than I was.

I knew this day would come. I was hoping it wouldn’t be quite so soon, but it’s not like something I can control.

What day, you ask? The day when my little girl would become a preteen. I’m not talking about physical development here, thankfully. But the changing social dynamics and attitude are just as… what’s the word?… interesting, I guess.

Pumpkin has a boyfriend, and that doesn’t bother me too much. It’s all very innocent, talking on the phone every now and then, buying each other stuff, writing cute little love notes, and so on. But now another guy supposedly likes her, and her best friend is trying to talk her into breaking up with her current boyfriend and asking the other guy out. Her nerves are in a tizzy over it all, and so are mine. I’m trying to help her, but it’s her decision and I don’t want to intrude too much. And I realize that these kinds of things will look pretty insignificant to both of us down the road, but to her right now they’re a big deal.

And then there’s the whole Facebook thing. She asked me if she could sign up, and I said no. But apparently a lot of her friends are on there. (I thought the minimum age to set up an account was 13? Guess that’s not really enforced.) And she keeps telling me about this person saying that about that person on Facebook, and who has how many friends, and so on and so forth. I wouldn’t care if she never got on Facebook myself. I have an account so that I can touch base with old friends from time to time, but otherwise I stay as far away from there as possible. Too much drama.

I know Pumpkin is still young, and there’s a lot more to come. I hear Veralyze is a good wrinkle cream – maybe I should go ahead and stock up on it now.

Hubby, Pumpkin and I had planned our trip to Big Lots for today. But we were afraid those plans would have to change after she woke up sick yesterday morning. But I took her to the doctor, who said she had strep and gave her antibiotics. When I woke her up this morning, she said she felt well enough to go to school.

We picked her up and asked if she was still feeling okay, and she said she did, so we headed for Big Lots. On the way there, I noticed that she had a pretty bad cough, but still said she felt fine, so I figured it was just the phlegm in her throat loosening up that was causing it. We forged ahead.

We got there and looked around, and we didn’t find a dresser at a price that was acceptable to Hubby. I did, however, find a set of dishes and some nonstick cookie pans. Pumpkin spent her money on a remote control car for herself, and a whatnot for me. She went behind my back and bought that, the little stinker.

After we got home, she started coughing more and started running a fever again. I had a feeling that she wasn’t feeling as good as she said. She just wanted to go spend her money. I dug through the medicine cabinet, through all of my and Hubby’s prescriptions, the allergy medications, and some expired fat burner supplements and finally found her some cough syrup.

The medicine helped with the cough, and Hubby gave her a Tylenol for the fever she was starting to run. And she’s been asleep on the couch since then. I hate to see her like this. I’ll bet she had a rough day at school, but she stayed just because she knew we wouldn’t go shopping if she had to come home. She’s way too much like her mama.

Pumpkin has become quite the little Web surfer over the past year or so. She knows what she is and isn’t allowed to do online, and I’ve got safeguards set up to keep anything bad from getting through. But she’s always asking me about whether stuff is okay or not, so the only purpose they really serve is to keep her from accidentally stumbling upon inappropriate things.

She’s known about my work since I started working from home, but she’s just now beginning to understand certain things about it. A few days ago, she asked me if I had a website. I know I’ve told her a few times that I did, but I guess she doesn’t remember and/or is probably just starting to understand what that means. I told her once again that I had a few of them, and she told me I must be famous. Sure, okay.

A couple of days later, I asked Hubby to take some photos of me so I could get a new head shot for my freelance writing website. Pumpkin nearly fell over herself running over to ask if she could be in them. I told her that I needed some by myself, and she started to get that pouty look. So I told her after he took some of just me, we could do some together. And we did.

Then she asked if I would put one of those on my website. I told her that I wouldn’t put it on my freelancing site, but I would put it on my blog. And that’s all I’ve heard about for the past few days.

So, without further ado, here’s the latest picture of Pumpkin and me:

I’ll have to show this to her tomorrow. And then she can be famous too.

Her birthday was actually earlier this week, but we had Pumpkin’s birthday party today. It wasn’t a huge affair – just a few streamers, some cupcakes, chips and ice cream, and four guests. But the girl had a blast.

I, as usual, spent the morning stressing out and running around like a chicken with its head cut off trying to make sure everything was done. It all came together nicely, except I couldn’t find the birthday candles that I was positive we had in the cabinet. It was too late to go buy some, so I just lit a votive and let her blow it out to make her wish.

She got nice presents from her friends. Lots of earrings, a jewelry making kit, a bracelet and some silly bands. We saved the PSP we got her for last. I put it down in a box, wrapped it up with kraft paper and lots of duct tape, put it down in another box, and repeated three or four times. Then I put it down in a large birthday bag and covered it with crumpled up newspaper. By the time she got through the second box she was ready to kill us.

When she finally got through all that wrapping and saw the PSP, she fell over. Good thing she was on her knees in the first place. She was elated! She wanted to play with it right away, but we made her put it up and play with her friends while they were there. And she didn’t kick up much of a fuss, because it’s not often that she has her closest friends at her house at the same time.

But as soon as they left, she ran and grabbed it and made me show her how to use it. And she’s barely let go of it since. Even when we’ve made her turn it off and take a break for a while, she has carried it with her. I wouldn’t be surprised if she slept with it tonight! Guess I’d better remove the battery just in case.

I’m just glad she likes it. She’s wanted one for a long time, and I think she deserves it. Now maybe she’ll use some of that haul of birthday money she got from various relatives to buy me a nice pair of ugg boots for Christmas. But I won’t hold my breath.

For as long as I can remember, the school day morning routine around here has always been pretty much the same around here. I get up when the alarm goes off, get some clothes together for Pumpkin, and wake her up. She gets dressed, brushes her teeth and hair, and one of us gets her snack ready to take to school. Then she usually watches TV until the bus gets here, or I fix her hair if she wants me to.

But lately, Pumpkin has wanted to pick out her own clothes. She’s plenty old enough to do it, so when she mentions it, I tell her to go ahead. But some of the combinations she comes up with aren’t so great. Like the shirt and skirt in two clashing colors of green with two different patterns. Or the button-up shirt with running shorts.

When she comes out with something like that, I try to keep a straight face and make suggestions of pieces that would match better. She almost always argues, and if she’s adamant, I tell her to go ahead and wear it (as long as it’s weather-appropriate). And a few times she has, but she usually thinks about it and realizes that I’m not putting down her sense of style, that I’m just trying to be helpful, and ends up changing.

I can tell that the tween years are going to be interesting with this one. She’s just now getting into them, and she’s already had the attitude for a couple of years now. So I’ll consider myself lucky if clothes are the biggest item of contention. But she’s a good kid with a good head on her shoulders, and she seems to be pretty comfortable talking to me about stuff, so I’m hopeful that the transition from little girl to young lady won’t be too rough.

I have accomplished absolutely nothing today. It’s not that I haven’t tried, it’s that the one thing I’ve been trying to accomplish is proving to be near impossible: getting a spectacular deal on what I want to get Pumpkin for her birthday.

I’d love to be browsing for killer prices on Disney vacations, but there’s no way that would be within the budget this year. And besides, that would be as much for me as it was her, so I’d kind of feel bad doing that for her birthday, as much as she’d probably enjoy it. But anyway, what I’m trying to get her is a PSP.

I’ve been on eBay off and on all day, bidding on the blasted things. So far, someone has sniped me on every single one that I’ve bid on. I’ve even waited until the last few seconds to bid, trying to beat them at their own game, to no avail.

I found one that looked good that was a Buy It Now or Best Offer deal, so I submitted an offer. I have yet to hear back on that, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed. I’m determined to find a used one for less than $100, unless it has several games or some great accessories with it. If I can’t do that fairly soon, I may just break down and buy her a new one, if I can talk Hubby into it. Amazon has them on sale for $149 right now, and that’s $20 cheaper than usual.

One way or another, I’m going to get that girl a PSP. Mark my words.

I’ve been feeling pretty good for several days now, but the finances have been a major source of stress nonetheless. But today we managed to create some breathing room for ourselves. We were able to take out a loan to refinance Hubby’s truck, and get a little extra money to boot. That made me very, very happy.

I’d love to take some of the extra cash and buy myself a Sony VAIO laptop with lots of extras. That would make me even happier. But that’s just not in the cards right now. We’ve got to use that extra cash to get the bills paid up until I start bringing in more money. Things should be looking better by the time the first payment on the loan is due, and then we’ll be able to rest easier.

That’s not to say we’re not going to splurge on anything at all, though. Hubby mentioned Pumpkin’s upcoming birthday, and said he had an idea we would discuss later. I believe it’s the same idea I had: Getting her the PSP she’s been begging for since before Christmas. I’ve already been checking prices on them and browsing eBay for deals on used games. I really hope we’re able to do it for her. She’s such an awesome kid, she deserves something nice for her birthday.

If it turns out that we can’t get her that, I guess I’ll have to find something less expensive that she’ll like and try for the PSP this coming Christmas. We’ll see how things look once we get all the bills caught up.