Protect Your Communication With Ex

About a week ago, I wrote about the importance of keeping good records when it comes to our written communication with my husband's ex. It's always been a must with us, unfortunately. It would be nice to trust the other parent to do what they say they will and be fair in return, but we can't all live in fairyland now can we?

I have an external hard drive that backs up my computer with a touch of one button. It's awesome! I used to spend hours transferring things to 3-1/2" disks (remember those?) and then onto CD's. Now I just hit one button and I'm done ensuring that any correspondence that has occurred between the two homes is backed up for future reference.

Not only does it back up all the mess that is the ex, but I back up all my family videos and pictures at the same time so I never have to worry about my computer crashing and destroying data on me. Pictures and videos of my children are too precious to risk losing!

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Vacation with Stepson

Well, we did make it on vacation (hubby chose to take his vacation despite his employer "appreciating it" if he would cancel it). Given he hasn't had a vacation in over a year, and during THAT vacation, they asked him to come back early and work (which he did), I can't blame him for wanting some time away.

We saw my stepdaughter and stepson one of the days we were in Michigan and then we took my stepson with us to northern Michigan for the rest of our vacation. I don't have a lot of time to post (have to stock up on food again now that we're home so we can eat:) but will post more later!

Seeing dh's ex after four years = ack!

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House Smells Like Dogs

The dogs are taking over my house. Actually, the puppy is. We don't have carpet because of the dogs so you'd think puppy accidents wouldn't smell after they're cleaned up but I can smell dog when I come into the house. I've tried spray air fresheners but they only give a temporary blast of fragrance and then it's gone.

I was looking for something that gave off fragrance consistently throughout the day and I found WoodWick Spill-Proof Reed Diffusers. These look perfect because the kids and dogs can't spill them if they knock them over as they all go barreling though my house (which they do on a regular basis).

No matter how clean my house may look, that smell just makes it feel dirty. I want dogs but I don't want my house to smell like I have dogs.

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Vacation Soon!

We're heading to Michigan for vacation soon! I'm excited to finally get some time away! We'll be visiting family, seeing the stepkids for the day we will be in their area , and then heading to northern Michigan to see more family. We always take our kids everywhere we go pretty much but it would be nice to leave them at the in-laws for a night and just take off with my husband to the dunes or something. I've never been to Sleeping Bear Dunes though I did vacation on Beaver Island once and I got around in a rented jeep that I took off-road (the island doesn't allow you to take your own vehicles there). They should get some real off-road vehicles like the Yamaha Rhine 660 for people to rent. That would have been much more fun than the retired mail jeep that I rented!

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Home Birth

We're going to be heading on vacation right around the time one of my sisters is due to have her baby (I have two that are pregnant). Since we'll be vacationing in their area, I'm really hoping she'll give birth before we get there so we can see the baby (yes, my own selfish reasons, lol).

If we time it just right, we may get to be there when the baby is born. My sister does home births with a mid-wife. Her last baby was born Christmas morning at home and then their other child opened his presents from Santa after their sibling was born. How cool is that? It sounded like a very peaceful way to bring a baby into the world without all the monitors and poking and prodding that occurs in a hospital.

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