The Ultimate Incentive Part 11 (or 10B) It's The Final Countdown

Birdie85

I know that look well! Zach is such a little git, he'll look you right in the eye, totally expressionless, as he grabs/smashes whatever you've begged him to stay away from! His favourite is to suddenly lunge across the table in a restaurant or cafe and spill your coffee. Then he steals cake. If he wasn't so cute we'd have a serious problem with him!

I'm fine though, despite the tiny terror in my life! Looking forward to the weekend; it's been a long week, even though we had Monday off it feels like I've worked an extra day somehow?!

Hope your niece arrives soon!

Cinny91

I was hoping when I put manically calm it would make sense to the Mum's on here! When I read it back it just sempt so contradictory? Can't believe how big Zach it getting though - how did he take to HP Land?

I get you about it being a long week! When I woke up this morning I really wanted it to be Saturday I always feel so up in the air after a bank holiday. Woe is me, that extra day off work has really done me over

Birdie85

He enjoyed HP land, although he tried to run away more times than I can count! We got home and immediately started looking for reins! The biggest hit was the animatronic Hedwig that he made the poor tour guidey chap in the room press the button for about a dozen times... then he grabbed a big Hedwig puppet from the shop (why, oh why, did they put them on the bottom shelf?!) and ran off with it! HP Studio Tour's youngest thief!

He was hard work on the train though so really dreading a 9 hour flight with him in 5 months time! :eek:

Went home at lunchtime to be told that MIL has booked and paid for the whole family (MIL, FIL, BILx2, SIL, niece/nephew due to land in September and us) to go to Majorca for a week next June. :j Should be lovely! It's her 60th treat as she loved our wedding holiday so has wanted to have another big family holiday. Awesome!

tinkerbel

Congratulations Archer!! That's such lovely news! Is there a cute proposal story you can share?! We should definitely reinstate DOTD!

Birdie Zach sounds so cute!! I love the pictures you put up of him Majorca sounds wonderful too! I like the idea of a big family holiday and I'm sure Zach will love it! I've missed it i think but where are you off to with the 9 hour flight?

Not a lot is happening here.. thinking about booking a holiday to New York if anyone has any recommendations of where to stay/how to get good deals?

I always feel a bit weird after a bank holiday in an unsettled/yey Friday has come around fast kind of way, but I am always so busy at work that I wish I hadn't lost the extra day!!

Birdie85

We're off to Disney World at the end of October Tink! :j We're clearly mental for taking a toddler so far, but we're excited anyway! :cool:

Hope everyone had a good weekend and they're feeling perky today! How is it JUNE already?!?! Last time I checked it was March!

Dinah93

Bad, bad diary keeper. Smacks on the wrist through and through for me. In my defence my laptop has had no power for two weeks. It’s now magically decided it wants to accept a charge again, but I think the dc jack needs replacing - £12 part £85 labour 

Been very, very busy. Coming to the point of a nervous breakdown busy. I can’t remember the last time we had a night off, or even an hour off. Everything at the moment is money making, work, taking care of children, studying or a tiny bit of running to up my fitness. At the moment things are very up in the air with out finances as on NIMs new reduced wages we’re having to just flog ourselves with overtime, sales, ebay, etsy, amazon selling etc just to keep up with the bills. NIMs dad is looking at things for us to see if he can see a way to change things to help us without taking away the responsibility of our bills and debts from us.

So let’s break it down, this will be a mega post.

My work. My Saturday class is very quiet, it’s just not a good day. I’ve had great feedback though so that’s positive. We need 4 more children just to break even. There is only one class left of the course, if they don’t pick up we’ll not be running another one, and we’ll be trying a Monday evening class which would suit me better personally, although it’s further to travel. However I have gotten another 2 classes in a nursery, so that’s a positive. I’ve also finally bitten the bullet and applied for carers allowance, and been approved. So that’s another £62 a week. At the end of the day we need it, and the reason we can’t both work full time or even fixed part time hours for me is one of us does need to be available for Grace’s appointments/when she’s ill. I’ve also been accepted on the first year of a 3 or 4 year adult yoga teacher training course, so that starts September and I’m really excited for it.

NIMs work. He hates the new home, there is a lass there who is basically bullying him. His mental health is not in a great place as a result. He’s just been signed off for a month so now his wages are even less as he only gets statutory sick pay. He’s finding it quite hard to work for the same company tbh. The worst bit is they’ve not paid him his wages for last month so it’s now about 11 weeks since a pay check.

NCT sales. Two completed in the last 3 weeks. About 60 hours prep of items for them. Sold about £120 at the first one, cheques from the second one haven’t arrived yet.

So in a nutshell, short on money, shorter on time, need a break from this junk soon. Going to Ireland in 10 days (well NIM is… at the moment still no passport for Ben) but that won’t be relaxing, NIMs mum is being very verbally aggressive with me at the moment, if she could find a way to blame 3rd world genocide on me she’d have done it in a heartbeat. But in the last week she’s called me a liar, lazy, sponging off her son (to which I pointed out in the 7 years we’ve been together he’s brought more money into the relationship for exactly two months), and we have to stay with her while over there. Dreading it is an understatement. NIMs dad has hired us a car so we can be out of the house all day, but that’s not a cheap undertaking since we’ll need all meals out, things to do during the day etc.

Grace still not sleeping well as she’s coughing during the night and sometimes being sick (16 months and counting) so if I get 5 hours broken sleep a night it was a good night. Fed. Up.

ETA: On the plus side I've started running and I'm enjoying it, thinking about signing up for a few races to motivate me.

Dinah93

New York. We adored it. We stayed midtown on the road that runs along the south side of central park, it was a handy area for lots of restaurants, shops etc, lots of hotels, very central rather than an area where 'real' New Yorkers live. If we went again I think we'd try to stay a little further down Manhattan, East Village/Greenwich Village type areas. We seemed to spend a lot of time down at the tip rather than centrally. We did venture into upper manhattan for a comedy club and it was a bit scary up there and very run down.

Birdie85

Bad girl for not coming on here for so long!

Lots going on by the sounds of it. Sorry your Saturday class isn't very busy, it's tough to find the right day to fit around school, work and other commitments for people!

Sorry NIM's hating his work so much. Is he looking elsewhere? Why on earth have they not paid him for so long? That is absolutely ridiculous! :mad:

Also sorry to hear that you're not exactly excited about your trip to Ireland. What on earth have you 'done' to get MIL so mad now, I'm guessing she blames you for his work woes?!

At least you're enjoying running and getting that little bit of time to yourself. You've been posting some lovely photos of the gorgeous littlies on FB too.

clearmydebts

Oh gosh, I don't know what to say Life does not sound good at all, apart from your 2 beautiful kiddies.

Watch NIM and the mental health. I don't think I've ever said it but my OH got signed off for 2 weeks ago because of his job in 2012. He has only just got a new job and it really took its toll on him (and us as a family), working in a terrible environment. Does he plan to go back, or is he looking for other work?

I guess, with the yoga, it takes time to build up a client base. Great news that you have been taken on by 2 nursery's, that will be a steady stream. I am delighted to hear that you are now in receipt of Carer's Allowance too.

How come you can't stay with NIM's Dad in Ireland? Can he not rent you a holiday cottage rather than a car? Can somebody lend you a car? I wouldn't be staying with someone who was abusive to me. Not a chance. Why put yourself in that position? If NIM is experiencing mental ill health at the moment it's possibly not the best environment for him to be in either. Seems to me ye can't afford to go over there at the moment anyway.

I can't imagine the stress you both must be under if he hasn't been paid in 11 weeks and you can barely meet the bills. How much does the yoga training course cost and can ye afford it?

Is there any chance you could look for full-time work and NIM take care of the kids for a while, to give him a chance to improve???

Big hugs, it sounds like a horrendous situation xxx

Dinah93

Can't go back, looking for another job. Had an interview today but won't hear until Wednesday at the earliest as they're interviewing more people then.

Can't afford a holiday cottage, car is very necessary as it's such a rural area. We're already paid to go over, and it's a wedding. NIMs dad always gives us spending money when we're over, we actually save as we don't have any fuel, food etc costs like we do at home! She called me today to chat, I think NIMS dad had a word and she's trying to show she's capable of being human. I am under no illusions this will be easy though. Birdie - ofc she blames me, apparently this is proof our marriage was a mistake.

Already paid for half the teacher training, another £300 to pay but that's not due until January so should be able to save in time (or ask for money from mum and dad for Christmas if I'm short)

No he's very against the idea of us swapping roles, I have offered. He used to watch Grace before we had Ben but he really hated staying home, and we found it caused a lot of arguements as I think the stay at home parent should also be doing the bulk of the housework and organisation (the day to day stuff like applying for passports, insurance, checking bills are cheap as can be, checking the banking, paying fees to kids classes, doing the tax credit renewal etc etc etc), but I still had to do all of that as well as a 37 hour a week job and it just caused a whole heap of arguments because he had the role I wanted and I had the one he wanted.

The really annoying thing is our budget would have been a couple of hundred in the black this month if he'd been paid. I'm not even talking about his back pay, just a standard months pay.

Child tax credit renewal landed today, trying to get it done as quickly as possible so we don't risk an over payment, but we think we might actually have been underpaid which would be handy.

Can't commit to any classes for September yet as don't know when NIM will be working, which is a problem as contractually I have to work at least two days a week. If I have to commit and he ends up working at the same time so we have to pay for childcare I'm not going to make a penny by going to work.

Still no pay.