Why yes, Virginia, spankings do exist!

I was starting to wonder though. :) It had been a while since we were able to get to our weekly spanking, and I was beginning to think that "weekly" had turned into "something we no longer do". But Nick made time before bed on Monday night. The stars aligned, both girls were asleep at a reasonable time, and I'm still a bit sore three days later. There wasn't much talking about it, just 80 or so harder than usual swats with his favorite Cane-IAC Jr paddle, then me curled up beside him sniffling and crying.

Quick, simple, and very ouchy, but I definitely needed exactly that. Money stresses are climbing, and the summer weather showing up early here isn't helping matters much since we're currently without air conditioning. There's a program where we may be able to finance a unit through our utility company, which is going to be the only way we can afford a new one, so we're looking into that.

It just seems like the expenses are piling up. Even so, things could be worse. Yesterday there was a guy parked in from of our house all day so that he could repossess the neighbor's car when they came home. Eventually he left, and I never did see them come home, so maybe somebody tipped them off. I gotta tell you, that somebody would have been me if I'd had their number. Not that people shouldn't pay their bills (hey, I used to work for the bank - I know the effect if they don't). But I also know that if you're already struggling (and trust me, these people are not blowing their money on fancy things - they live very simply), then the last thing you need is to lose your car so you can't go to work.

Good news is that the hotel finally agreed to credit us for the overdraft fees they caused - yay! When I finally was able to get in touch with the guy in charge, he was super nice and cooperative. And he had actually asked someone about the situation after he got my first call, but they told him it was taken care of. Once I let him know that only the initial hotel charge had been refunded, he willingly took care of the rest. It still hasn't been posted back to our account, but it will help things once it has.

The baby is seven months old now and she is doing so much! She says "ma-ma" pretty much non-stop now, and can also say "da-da", along with lots and lots of adorable baby gibberish. She's still working on the mechanics of actually crawling, but she can scoot around a room in no time flat, and she's able to pull herself up to a standing position also. And if you hold both of her hands, she'll put her little feet one in front of the other and walk to you! I personally think she's a genius, but I may be a little biased. :)

Tomorrow the baby and I are going on a school field trip with Morgan to a theme park, so that's going to be an adventure. Her teacher asked me if I would care to supervise one other student. I said, "Sure, can we have Sarah?" Sarah is Morgan's best friend. Unfortunately she was already going with another student and that student's mom. "The only one I have left is Britney," she said. Here's the deal - Britney is another of Morgan's best friends, but she's also notoriously difficult. It's not that she's exactly mean-spirited, but she's got kind of a crappy home life, which makes her very insecure. Because of this (at least this is the way I see it), she has a tendency to say and/or do hateful things sometimes, not just to Morgan, but to pretty much anybody. She can actually be very sweet and loving, and it doesn't take to much to see how desperate she is to be liked. Unfortunately, like many other 9 year-olds, she's under the impression that picking at others will make her look tough and cool and therefore someone people want to be friends with.

I'm hoping that since it will be just her and Morgan it won't be a big issue. The problems mainly occur when it's her, Morgan, and Sarah together, because she's really jealous of the friendship Sarah and Morgan have and will try to set them against each other. I do wish that her teacher had told me she was the one she needed a chaperone for before she asked me to do it, but maybe we can make it a special day for her and she won't feel so insecure and likely to misbehave.

Let's see, what else? We got to see Nick's sister and her husband and kids on Sunday. They flew in to leave the kids with the grandparents on Friday night, then left to go to the Kentucky Derby the next day. Not gonna lie - I was a little bit jealous. Especially when they came back on Sunday and my sister-in-law had won three grand (which paid for the dress, shoes, and hat she wore to the races)! What we couldn't do with $3000 right now... But anyway, that's not the hand God dealt me, so no point in dwelling on it. Besides, while she got to go to the races, I got to hang out with Nick, Morgan, and the baby, and that's better than Churchill Downs any day!

Speaking of the baby - she needs a name. Not in real life, of course - she has a very pretty name. But on here...I'm thinking that if I keep calling her "the baby" I'm going to eventually have to call her "the toddler", then "the pre-schooler" and so on. So, I think I'll call her...Ethel. No, no, I'm totally kidding. :) I'll call her Daisy. We've been doing lots of yard work lately, and it seems like a good choice. Anyway, I'm off to do some more laundry - have a great day!