I had to go to court this morning for my speeding ticket that I got back in February. The ticket was for “Speeding 35 in a 25 / Traffic Calming.” I was totally NOT going 35mph when I passed that police officer. I know this, because he was not hidden and I saw him the minute that I turned onto the street he was “hiding” on so I watched my speedometer the entire time that I passed him and it never went above 30mph. He pulled me over and wrote me up for 35mph - but here is the kicker; Virginia Beach sponsors a Traffic Calming Program, where neighborhoods can petition the city and be included, so that if people get caught speeding in their neighborhoods, it is not prepayable and the fines are a lot higher - it is supposed to deter speeding.

So, it was mandatory that I go to court and the minimum fine for any speeding infraction on that particular road was $200 plus court costs. When the judge asked me if I was guilty of the charge, I said, “Well I am guilty of speeding a little, but not 35mph!” - and she let me explain my case. She said that she believed me and that since I was technically still going over 25mph (whoopty-doo 30mph), that she would split the cost with me, so she reduced the $200 fine to $100 and waived all the court fees, and then she must have known that this May is tight, cause she gave me five months to pay the fine - YAY!!!  I am so glad that is behind me now, even though I really feel like I should not have even been pulled over, oh well, $100 is better than $261 anyday.

We have had a little discussion/experiment going on over at Betty’s place regarding reusable grocery bags vs. plastic grocery bags, and I have to admit, I am pretty impressed with the reusable ones.  They hold an incredible amount of groceries, as she demonstrates here.  She ended up ordering hers through EcoBags, and got a couple that were torn, but it seems that they were doing everything possible to make sure that she was a satisfied customer and are replacing the bags.

I decided to order mine through Go-Again Bags, which she also suggested.  I emailed them to make sure that the bags came with a removable insert (stiffener) for the bottom of the bags, and they emailed me back within five minutes and confirmed that they did (I was very happy about their quick response).  The ones from Go-Again are about half the price of the ones from EcoBags, and when you are a mother of two on a budget during Dance Recital season, that is a great selling point - even better, is that you can find them on Ebay for even cheaper.

So I am doing my part and have ordered my green (because according to Betty the green ones “Pop”) reusable grocery bags.  I will let you guys know how they fare when they come in.  I will keep them in the trunk of my car, so that I have them whenever I need them.  They look like they will actually be a lot easier to carry than the plastic and the paper ones.

I cannot tell you how ready I am for May to be done with.  We have got so much going on in May that I feel like I have opened up the flood gate on our checking account and am just shooing the money out of the account.  There are dental surgeries, dance recitals, birthdays, weddings, court dates and associated fines, etc.  Somehow we always make it through, but this month is going to be a tough one and on one hand, I have no one but myself to blame.  I know every year that Kaiden’s Recital is in May and every year I do absolutely nothing to budget and save for it.

Every year the costumes are $90 a piece and the photos are around $100 and the Recital tickets for all the family are about $150.00 and the DVD that you have to buy cause you are not allowed to record or take pictures that night is $60 and do I save for it?  Hell no!

Mark my words, I am going to budget this for next year in my Quicken and I will not have to post this same post next year!!!

I know I need to post everyday, so here is a quick one.  I am sick.  Like fever, throw up sick.  I am getting back into bed.

The kid’s behavior lately has been ridiculous and totally out of control. Ashton just flat out tells me no for everything and Kaiden throws tantrums or pouts and could care less if we are in public or not. Today, after dance class, I tried to stop by the grocery store to grab some lunch meat for sandwiches.  Kaiden said that she did not want to go to the store, and proceeded to have a full on meltdown in the deli section. It was so bad that we just left without getting anything. When we got home I told her to go to her room and shut the door and the fighting with me continued, to the point that I was ready to pop her butt, except that was no good cause she basically laughed in my face. I am at my wits end!!!  So, that leads me to today’s poll, please vote and if you have words of wisdom, by all means, please leave them in the comments!