My Story: Motherhood and Homemaking

The Budget: Where We Stand Now

2010-09-15T09:41:00.002-04:00

It's been a while since I've written a post about our budget and our plan to get out of debt. It's high time for an update!

We started out almost two years ago (December of 2008) on the Dave Ramsey plan to get out of debt. That Christmas we (well, mostly I, but Brian agreed) sort of hit a financial bottom and I realized that I was letting debt and financial irresponsibility drag me down. I walked around feeling heavy, like I had a huge burden on my shoulders (and I did!) I had a hard time falling asleep at night, worrying if a check would clear the bank before we got paid. It even got to the point where, when I logged in to the bank website to see my account, I could feel my chest tightening and I would close my eyes and hold my breath before the account balance came up. Folks, if you do this when you check your bank balance, it is NOT a good sign! We were paying of one bill by increasing another, just moving our debt around. We weren't giving to the church, we weren't donating to any charities.

Desperate as we were, we read Dave Ramsey's book Total Money Makeover, and it changed our lives. It lit a fire within us to break this yoke of debt off our necks. I started using my coupons and doing my grocery store sale 'game' and we started to buckle down. I started cooking more, using food bought on sale, and we really limited our eating out. We quit our unnecessary spending and stayed home more. I know it sounds like we were frivolous- we were not. I only own three pairs of shoes and haven't bought any jeans in over a year- frivolous, reckless spending was not the issue. It was the little bits of money that added up to large amounts. For example, "we'll just get Wendy's for lunch, it's only 10 bucks" and "Just order a pizza, it'll be 9 bucks plus tax." Next thing you know, you've spent $200 on fast food in a month! I loved to read, and would buy a book every time I went to Wal-mart.

Now, we eat out once a week, I go to the library two or three times a week (Andrew loves the library, which is a huge positive), and in general we try to account for every dollar we spend. And most importantly, we do not, do NOT, go to Wal-mart any more. And that, my friends, is another post entirely!!

So, where do we stand now? From December of 2008 until now, 21 months later, we have paid of a total of $16,000 of debt. Let me type it again, it feels good. Sixteen thousand dollars. The only debt remaining to us is one car loan, five more payments on the credit card, two student loans, and the mortgage. After we get this credit card paid off (December, we hope) we will start plumping up the savings account. It has not been an easy road, folks. We haven't gone hungry or anything like that (though we have had a few interesting meals) but there have been times where we really wanted to take a vacation or do some work on the house. But we know that the sacrifices we make now will pay off beautifully in the long road.

But the most inspiring part is, while we've been paying and paying these bills, stretching every dollar, we've also committed to monthly giving to our church. Sometimes, as I sit there in the pew and write out our check, I wonder how we'll manage without that money. It goes into the offering plate, and I just give it to God, it more ways than one. I do not give our offering with a heavy heart- once it's in that plate, I know that God will take care of us and will see to it that we have everything we need (need- not want!) And every month, it works out. We make it. And I know that the Lord is watching us, helping us during every step of the way.

And that, my friends, is how we are getting out of debt. By trusting the Lord.

The HeartWalk 2010

2010-08-27T16:31:00.008-04:00

Hey, friends and family. I need your help!

As many of you know, one of my very best friends lost her mother three years ago due to undetected heart disease. Heather's mom, Miss Robbie, was a sort of second mother to me. Our moms taught at the same elementary school, which is how Heather and I met. Of course, story goes that we did NOT like each other. I thought she was too high-maintenance, and I'm sure she thought I had crawled out of the sticks. (Turns out we were both right.)

My mom and Robbie, 2003
Buddies

We ended up playing on the same softball team for years and years, went through all those horrible boy dramas together, and we survived the ultimate challenge together: braces. Miss Robbie was such a wonderful mother, friend, and softball team-mother. She always had snacks ready for us, helped Roy pick out cute uniforms - you know, middle school girls gotta look hot when they slide into 2nd base (or crouch behind home plate, as I did!)

I went on family vacations with Robbie, Roy and Heather. I did chores for months before to earn spending money. And I've wondered as I've gotten older, just how many times Robbie let me spend that money, because as I look back at it, that $30 sure went far...

I hardly have a middle or high school memory without Heather and her mother in it. I was the matron of honor in Heather's wedding three years ago. A very large matron of honor, at that. I was three weeks away from delivering Andrew! You can't get much more matronly than that!And sadly, Robbie passed away before she ever got to meet that baby she loved before she knew. In fact, the day we went dress shopping for bridesmaid's dresses for Heather's wedding, I distinctly remember Robbie saying that a particular dress "comes in a maternity style, too, you never know!" A few weeks later I was pregnant....

Miss Robbie loving on Andrew-in-utero

Miss Robbie had been in great shape, she was eating well, walking, gardening, and was really lookin' good. She taught elementary school and loved her kids. One day in June 2007, Robbie started having back pains, and chalked it up to bending over her desk at school. Later, she went for a massage, thinking it would help. One June 13, 2007, Robbie had a massive heart attack that took her life. She had no outward signs of heart disease. All of her doctors were astounded to learn that her arteries were terribly blocked.

Every September since Robbie died Heather, her family, and friends have participated in the HeartWalk in Charlotte, NC. We're called Team Beachcombers, because Robbie was very much at home at the beach. We spend months collecting donations that go to the American Heart Association. This money helps fund research, awareness, and education for heart disease, so that one day heart disease will be more easily prevented and detected.

Miss Robbie doing, no, LEADING the chicken dance!

I ask for your help now in sponsoring Team Beachcombers for this year's HeartWalk. Help us raise money to help save lives. All donations are tax-deductible, and can be made on the HeartWalk's secure donation site. If you'd rather, you can mail cash or check donations right to me and I will personally deliver them to the HeartWalk in Charlotte on September 25th.

If you feel led to give, please click HERE

Pictures!

2010-08-24T10:06:00.002-04:00

Six Months (almost 7)

2010-08-24T09:43:00.002-04:00

Well the six month mark has come and gone. I felt with Andrew, when I hit six months, that I would actually be able to survive this thing called motherhood. Six months is a good time. They're happy, you can interact with them, they're sleeping. But yet, they're not mobile. It doesn't get much better than that!

Emily was six months a few weeks ago, but for some reason we just went to the pediatrician last week. She weighs in at a nice 18 pounds 3 ounces, and is 27 inches long. Both put her in the 85%-tile. As for her little noggin, she's in the 35%-tile. So, she's basically like a potato with a pea on top. That's ok. Women aren't supposed to have large heads.

She did beautifully with her shots, she whimpered for the first one, and only gave one or two big cries for the second. And by the time I picked her up off the table, she had forgotten. But she was cranky all day, but that's ok, her Nana was here. And Nana's fix everything.

So what's she doing now? Well, she sits up by herself. With just the occasional tip-over. But the tip-overs are funny, they're in slow motion. So even if we are across the room we can get there in time to minimize the impact! Lately she's been leaning so far forward getting her toes that she ends up face-planting and on her belly. I guess that is one precursor to crawling? Lord, I don't know what to do with a crawler...Andrew never crawled. He butt-scooted.

She's sleeping OK. She's in that stage where she wakes up to play sometime around 3 a.m. I try to just ignore it, but she gets rowdy. And I can't get her to go back to sleep. So sometimes I just nurse her and she falls asleep. I sure hope my pediatrician doesn't read this :) I got fussed at for nursing her in the middle of the night. But, its the only thing that gets her to sleep. And I need sleep. We'll deal with the repercussions later.

She refuses, refuses, to eat anything other than breastmilk. We've tried it all- applesauce, prunes, peaches, pears, sweet potatos, squash, banana. She apparently can't eat the rice cereal, it makes her vomit. Not spit up, but vomit. The oatmeal seems to be working, when we can manage to get her to eat it. I'm thinking she may go to first grade with a boob in her mouth.

Emily loves to sit in her high chair, she loves her bouncy thing. Her most favorite toy is Andrew. She loves that boy (can you blame her?) It's actually funny, when Andrew gets in trouble and starts to cry, Emily just laughs and grins! I'm not sure she realizes that Andrew is not happy... Sometimes when they're in the back seat, Andrew gets very loud and obnoxious, and we keep telling him to calm down and be quiet. And we look in Emily's mirror and she's just a grinning and laughing and encouraging him. Rascal.

We've got a pretty good schedule going during the day...she usually nurses around 430 to 630 a.m. and goes back to sleep sometimes until 830. Then we nurse again depending on when she ate earlier. Naps around 10 for an hour or so, then we eat again around 1, then she naps for 2-3 hours. Eats around 330-430. Then around 630 she takes a 5-25 minute power nap, eats again around 8, and goes to bed between 8 and 9. On a typical day she nurses about 5 to 6 times, about every 3 hours. We try and put some cereal or baby food in there as a snack sometimes.

All in all, she is a wonderful baby. Very happy, very content, easy to please. Rarely do we hear her cry or have a fit, and that is usually when she is so, so very tired. Andrew continues to do well as a big brother. He has finally understood what it means to "be quiet, the baby is sleeping." In fact, he tells Brian and I to "shhhhh" many times! I guess he realized that it was NOT a good thing if the baby wakes up!!!

It's about time for a nap now, so I shall leave this post. I will make another post that is just full of pictures, it's easier that way!!

And, ladies, for those of y'all with babies this age or near, does this sound right to you?!

The Summer in Pictures

2010-08-03T13:57:00.006-04:00

So, I have no time to blog anymore! I'll just throw up these pictures to let you see what we've been up to the last 5 weeks. Just view the pics in reverse order (for some reason they always get loaded backwards...)

Charleston & Such

2010-06-01T22:07:00.004-04:00

So. I haven't blogged in a while. I've got these two kids here keeping me on my toes. And, if I let my guard down for fifteen minutes, then I'm behind on housework. I know the saying goes, "A clean house is a sign of a wasted life," but y'all, I just can't function in a messy, cluttered, dirty house. I crave the order.
So, anyways. Here's what's been going on in the past few weeks...

We dedicated both of the babies in church on Mother's Day. I don't have any pictures at the moment, my mom (ahem) hasn't emailed any to me of the dedication. It was so nice, though! I know Andrew technically isn't a 'baby' anymore (he's my baby) but we had never dedicated him. When he was born we weren't going to church, well, we went to church, occasionally, but we hadn't found one we both liked. It took us a while to find this one, First Baptist of Batesburg. We love the church. Lots of people our age and lots of little children, with a good, very good, youth program. Andrew attends Mother's Morning Out there, two days a week. Back to the dedication...The kids got a little certificate and a little New Testament. Which brings us to a total of 5 or 6 copies of the New Testament just for the kids. We'll never be at a loss for the story of Jesus around here!

The week of my birthday we went over to Atlanta while Brian was working 12 hour shifts for a week. That makes for a long, long day for me. And I'm not saying that Brian doesn't have a long day either. I'm just saying we all get more rest (and are in general, happier parents) when I take the kids to my parent's when he works those shifts. My parents enjoy it, anyhow. While we were there we drove over to Birmingham again to see my grandparents. Again, there are photos but my mother (ahem) hasn't emailed those to me either. (What does she DO all day?!) Kidding, Mom. I know you're not sitting on the couch eating bon bons. A mother never rests. I love going to see my grandparents. They're very important to me and I love them very much. I have many, many childhood memories that involve them. While it's a bit stressful driving the kids over there for the day, I know they cherish the visit.

We've got our vegetable garden up and going. I have a feeling we may have overdone it this time. Did we really need eight cherry tomatoes? Or nine tomatoes? Or the ten pepper plants? Hmmm. I guess we'll be eating lots of salsa and spaghetti. I've also got lots of beans and squash planted, and loads of sweet potatoes. My great vision is to grow and make all of Emily's baby food. We've got about two months until she starts, so I think we're right on time. It'll be fun. At least that's what I'm telling myself.

Speaking of Emily, she's FOUR months old this week! It hurts to say it, and think it. She's started rice cereal. I do have very funny pictures of her eating cereal for the first time. But, yes, you've got it, Mom hasn't emailed those to me, either. (Ahem. AHEM!) She's just in the past two days really gotten the hang of it. I'd say about 65% of the cereal that goes in her mouth stays there. The other 35% is either on her bib or on me. I had no idea breast milk was so sticky! And, it may or may not be a coincidence, but the very same night that she had cereal (and kept it in her mouth) was the same night she SLEPT!! I put her down with her last feeding around 9:30 ish, and I had to wake her up at 7:45!!! I had to. It hurt, but I woke her up. I had to nurse. In a bad, bad way! Not to mention we had to get Andrew to school. But, Lord, she slept. I think I went in around 2:30ish to give her her paci back and cover her up, but that was it. I think it was a combination of not having a long nap that day and the cereal. But, when I went in today when she was taking a nap, I saw her. Sucking. Her. Thumb. So, that may be another reason she slept. Because she was soothing herself with her little thumb. Tonight I have put mittens on her hands.
On one hand I feel like I should just let her do it, because, hey, if it helps her sleep all night, then go to it. But on the other hand, it's a very hard habit to break. It's not like you can just throw away the thumb. It's stuck on there for good. So we'll see if the mittens help.

She's a mess. 100% mess. She adores her brother, laughs at everything he does, watches his every move. She's a very happy little girl. She's now starting to grab toys and shake them, putting everything into her mouth. When she's on her tummy, she pushes all the way up, straightening her arms. If you put pressure under her feet when she's on her tummy, she pushes herself forward. Lord help us all, as soon as she gets that tummy off the ground...she'll be gone in a flash. Andrew did not crawl. He butt scooted. So we don't know what we'll do with a crawling baby. In fact, tonight, Andrew and daddy were wrestling on the floor, and Emmy was sitting in her chair watching. She was fussing and whining, so I went to sit next to her. I got her out of her chair and sat her on my legs, and she started wiggling and smiling. I realized that she was fussing because she wanted to wrestle, too! I let her play around with daddy a bit, and roll her around. She loved every minute. Tomboy, anyone?

Andrew is three. And very, very good at it. Forget that two's thing. This boy can go 180 degrees in one second flat. He's gotten so independent. Which is good, I guess. But it was much easier when he just went with the flow of things. Now getting him to come outside and play is like negotiating a Peace Plan with Iran. There is no simple task. It takes at least five minutes of negotiating, promising, and even a little bit of lying on my part. Overall he's a good little guy. Very smart. Y'all, he can count to 50, without looking at anything. He knows his ABC's, is spelling words, and is learning to write. He recognizes words on sight, which I guess is pre-reading. He loves watching t.v. In fact, the other day he was running around the house saying, "Five dollar footlongs!" The Subway commercial is his favorite. I'll have to start writing the sayings down, I've forgotten half of what he's said.

On a more serious note, I realize I haven't mentioned in a long time how we're doing with our plan to be debt free. It's happening, guys. We're so close. We're two months away from paying off the credit card, and four months away from paying off the car. After those a paid, we'll be rolling that debt snowball towards the student loans. Eighteen months from now, we will have no debt, no debt, except for the mortgage. You can't imagine how this feels!! It's going to enable us to send Andrew to a private 4-year kindergarten next year, it'll enable us to buy a camper. It'll enable us to get a six month emergency fund established. We'll be able to work on our house more. We'll be able to give. I can't wait. All these months of budgeting and scrimping and couponing are paying off. Can't wait!

Well that is it for tonight. I just put Emily down about 20 minutes ago, so if I want to get a good eight hours of sleep I should go now. But I probably jinxed it by talking about it. Which really means I should go to sleep now. Hopefully soon I will have pictures to go with this post. Did I mention my mom has them? On her camera? All she has to do is email them.....

UPDATE: I realized after I posted this that I said nothing about Charleston, as mentioned in the title. The weekend after Mother's Day we went down to Charleston with some friends. Audrie's parents live on Isle of Palms, so we went to their house. We mostly spent time hanging out, but we did go to the aquarium, and took Emily to the beach for a quick minute. Here are some photos:

Another Smattering of Pictures

2010-04-28T22:52:00.003-04:00

She watches his every move!!

Cheesin' it up.

This one cheesin' it up too :)

Tummy Time!

Love those baby cheeks.

Ol Blue Eyes

What we do when we're done with Tummy Time...just flip on over! She's been rolling over since about 5 weeks old. Sheesh.

And this poor fella, so sleepy that he fell asleep on the way home from the library while reading his new book. Mind you, the library is 1.6 miles from home. So he was so tired he feel alseep in the 4 minutes it takes to get home.

Visiting Birmingham

2010-04-26T13:08:00.003-04:00

We took the kiddos to visit my grandparents in Birmingham on Easter weekend. It was the first time they got to see Miss Emily. It's so neat that the kids have all 8 of their great grandparents still alive and kicking, and all 4 of their grandparents. Not too many people can say that! Anyhow, here are a few photos to document it.

This is grandpa, William Thomas. Thats where we got the Andrew Thomas.

This is Bertha Mae, where we got the Emily Mae. Though there are Mae's all over both sides of the family tree, grandma is the youngest of the Maes. :)

Bath Time

2010-04-26T12:58:00.003-04:00

It has been brought to my attention that I'm not putting enough picutes/posts up here for family members to see. I mean, I'm only staying at home with a 3 year old and a 3 month old. I should have oodles of time to do this :)

So, I'm going to try to do a few short blogs full of pictures and snippets, to catch up. Then hopefully I'll be able to get back on the blogging wagon and put up more full-length blogs. Til then, Enjoy!

Spring is Springing!

2010-03-19T23:05:00.003-04:00

Today was so nice, and I hear tomorrow is supposed to be even nicer. We took the kids outside for a little fresh air this afternoon. We spread out a big quilt under the shade tree in the front yard. Andrew played with his rice box, and Emily lounged. I took turns taking pictures, staring at my beautiful children, and snoozing. Here are a few photos of the afternoon.

These Days

2010-03-15T13:36:00.003-04:00

She's the image of me at this age!

Sleeping in Andrew's bed during story time. So sweet! I'll bet when they grow up they won't ever get this close to each other, on purpose, again...

Favorite time, bath time! Andrew is properly censored, if you'll notice, with his Toy Story bucket.

She's happiest in the bath tub. Check out that huuuuuuge belly. She doesn't look like a 6 week old infant, does she?!

My family...not sure how you get a baby to look at the camera, but hey. "two out of three ain't bad."

Happy One Month, Little One!

2010-03-04T16:10:00.005-05:00

I. Can. Not. Believe. It.

Emily is a month old today. Y'all, this hurts me! And yet, I'm also thrilled that we, well, mainly I, survived it, with minimal scarring. I'm sad that the first month has come and gone, but at the same time, we're one month closer to: sleeping through the night, sitting up, rice cereal, the first smile, and real human interaction. The babies don't do a whole lot of 'give' for the first few weeks, they're all about 'take.'

I've made it my goal this time around to not 'wish' her little life away. By that I mean, I don't want to put all my energy into the 'can't wait til she can do ___.' I want to enjoy the now, without being distracted by what's to come in the future. I feel like I did so much of that with Andrew, that I wanted to make an honest, conscious effort this time.

So, in honor of the Little Miss' Birthday, here are some photos of her on her 'throne', i.e. the recliner. Hey, wherever she sleeps, is where she sleeps....

**A disclaimer for those of you (Mom...) who are thinking, "You left a baby in the recliner?!" She was in the back corner, wedeged in with pillows (nowhere near her face, mind you), AND I put the footrest up, so the seat was tilted so far back that the only way she could fall out is if she suddenly gained control of her head, gained control of her back, gained enough muscle in her arms and stomach to lift herself, and suddenly learned to crawl. So please don't call DFACS on me.

Nursing Out of House and Home

2010-02-28T15:03:00.003-05:00

***Warning for all the fathers, fathers in law, and any other male that might read this blog: the words breast, boob, nipple, latch, pump, and milk will be used repeatedly. If this makes you squirm, don't read any further, just skim to the pictures :)****

So, we have a champion eater on our hands. For everything Andrew was when he was 3 weeks old, Emily is the opposite. Exact opposite. For instance, she sleeps. Soundly, and alot. Second, she's easy to PUT to sleep. Third, she nurses. Very very well. A lot. She latched on from the beginning and hasn't let go.

In fact, this baby girl, at 3 weeks old, eats 4 OUNCES. I know this because I pump twice during the day and give it to her in a bottle. I think it's important that she know how to drink from a bottle and the boob, in case there's ever an instance that I'm not there to feed her. So, this is how I know that she eats 4 ounces. At 3 weeks old. I do recall Andrew eating 4 ounces (of formula, I might say) at 3 MONTHS old. I am just simply astounded that she eats this much. I'm pumping 4 ounces out of each breast. And I think to myself, "If the boobs are this heavy and full at 3 weeks of age, what's it going to be like when she's eating 6 or 8 ounces down the road?!"

The nursing did not start off well on my end, so I never even thought I would make it this far nursing. She did fine, it was my poor little nipples that were taking a beating. Apparently redheads in general have a more difficult time nursing. It has something to do with our very sensitive skin. So, one week into nursing I had (TMI warning) scabs on my little nipples and would just about scream everytime she nursed. Which is why I brought out the breast pump so early in the game, to give the girls a break. While the nipples are better now, it's still painful to nurse her, but I just go to my 'happy place' and we get through it. Somehow I don't think this is normal, this pain & discomfort, but I'm determined to meet my goal of nursing for 6 weeks. After that, I can either make a new goal, or I can strictly pump. Formula is my last option. Andrew had formula from the second week he was alive, and he's fine...growing, learning, healthy. But I wanted to stick with the breastfeeding this time.

She's been drinking out of a 3.5 ounce bottle up until today. We went out to eat with friends Friday night and I went in to Target to get some bigger bottles (the ones we have are only 3.5 ounces). It was time for her to eat, so I just pumped in the car and let Brian feed her while I went in. I bought a set of 4 ounce bottles. I got back out the car, and Brian said, "She just drank 4 ounces." So I turned on my heels and went right back into Target to swap the bottles for 8 ounce size. Geesh, kid. We're definitely going to be ready right at 4 months to start rice & some foods. Because I can't imagine making enough milk for her to eat!!

The upside of her eating so much is that she goes a little longer between feedings. Just last night she went for a 4.5 hour stretch. And during the day, she goes about 3 hours, sometimes longer. And I do believe she has reached the 10 pound mark. Andrew was 10 pounds at his two month well visit!!

Anyways, here's a picture of my big girl and her daddy, eating from her 8 ounce bottle. And some pictures of the big brother. Lately, he will find my camera, then bring it to wherever I am, and give it to me and say "Cheese!" He loves having his picture taken. So here are a few of those, too.

Warming Up & 2 Week Checkup

2010-02-18T14:33:00.004-05:00

Andrew is certainly warming up to the idea of being a brother. In fact, I think he rather likes it. He always wants to know where the baby is, what she's doing, and when can we "make baby higher" (on the swing). Poor little gal, as soon as she can sit up, she's going to be pummeled. But, she'll hold her own. We had our 2 week checkup today, and boy, she's a growin. She weighs in at 9 pounds even, and has grown 1/2". She's in the 75th percentile, something Andrew never knew. Not only has she gotten back up to her birthweight, but she blew past it and added another 7 ounces! All my breastfeeding worries have gone out the window- she's certainly getting all she needs. I can't believe how big she is. Andrew wasn't 9 pounds until he was about 6 weeks old. We can't button the top button on her sleepers because her neck is so big!

Anyways, here are some pictures of the kids. My personal favorite is the one of Emily latching on to Brian's cheek. When we're not sure if she's hungry, we give her the cheek test. If she latches on to Brian's face, we know she's ready to eat!

Introducing....

2010-02-12T19:29:00.003-05:00

Miss Emily Mae Manley

Born February 4, 2010, at 9:15 a.m. Weighing in at 8 pounds, 9 ounces, and measuring 20 inches long. She's got lots of long, dark hair and deep blue eyes. Perfect in every sense of the word!

We went in for our c-section early, early Thursday morning. Everything went just fine, except for a couple of minutes there where I thought we were going to lose Brian to the hard concrete floor. Poor guy had to go outside for a moment! I was able to see the little miss very soon, probably within an hour of surgery. She was so round, and pink, with the chubbiest cheeks I've ever seen on a baby. And she was mine, all mine!

The hospital stay flew by, and before we knew it we were discharged and heading home. Which is a weird feeling. Exciting, to get this new life started at home with family, but at the same time, scary as hell, without the help of a nurse a button's touch away. We had my mom stay with us for the first three days, and then Brian's mom came for a day. She went home today, and took Andrew with her for the weekend. It'll give Brian, Emily, and me some time to bond. As nice and quiet as it is, I miss Andrew terribly and it's only been a few hours. I feel like I haven't seen him in a week. But I'm sure he's having a ball, and is not even thinking about me right now!

Speaking of Andrew, he's starting to acknowledge the baby now, instead of refusing to look at, touch, or talk about her! Today he even gave her a kiss on the head. He's most concerned when the baby is crying, and he's the first to say, "Baby crying!!" Which I'm sure is not so much out of concern for the baby as it is annoyance at this little thing making noise.

So we're at home, watching the opening ceremonies on tv, with snow falling outside. I'm content for the moment, but as most mothers are after having given birth, I'm liable to cry at any moment, for any reason. Things are going better than I'd hoped, Emily is a sleeper. A good, good sleeper. So good that we have to wake her to feed her, which seems wrong, but a girl's gotta eat. Nursing could be better, but it's working, she's pooping, and I have to remind myself that she's only a week old, and with each day that passes she'll get better at it, and so will I. I also remind myself that every day is the last day she will be that size, that with each day she's bigger, and older, and that I'd better love each moment, even at 3 a.m.

A Hodgepodge of Many Things...

2010-01-26T13:21:00.003-05:00

Well, we're dropping like flies. The pregnant ladies, that is. In my last post, I mentioned how many of my friends were due on the same day I am. Out of all these ladies, it's just Laura Beth and I hanging in to the end. Christie went in yesterday and had a baby girl, and Forrest's wife (I forgot her name!) went in today. I know it's a sin, but I can't help but be insanely jealous. But at the same time, I know that these babies are three weeks (give or take) early, and that with each day that passes with my little peanut safely in the womb, the healthier she will be. But still. Y'all. These women aren't pregnant anymore. Do you know how appealing that is?
Last week I had my 37 week appointment (I'm going once a week now) to check to see if I'm progressing. I was very, very surprised to learn that (as of last Thursday) I was already 60% effaced. At 37 weeks? Am I really going to make it to the 4th? I never got this far with Andrew, even AFTER I was induced! So, Brian thinks it's in my best interest to have a bag packed. I'm going back tomorrow for my 38 week checkup, I'm curious to see what's up. I'm very ready to not be pregnant anymore. I don't know what it's like to sleep more than 3 hours at a time, or go that long without peeing, either. I know that it's God's way of prepping me for life with a newborn. But I was really hoping to go into life with a newborn (and a 3 year old!) rested. But as they say, every time someone makes a plan, God laughs.

So, that's the pregnancy update. I wanted also to share with you a funny Andrew story. If you remember, we got him the Read Aloud Bible Stories book for Christmas. He loves it. We read it every. single. night. And sometimes at naptime, too. His favorite story by far is The Baby in the Basket, which is a 3 year old's way of saying The Story of Moses. To make a long story short, the "bad king" doesn't want any more baby boys, so he tells everyone to "throw away" all baby boys. One family makes a basket for their baby boy and hides the basket in the river...etc.

Well, last Thursday night we went to Chili's for dinner. There was an abundance of young toddlers and babies there, for some reason, and they really and truly all happened to be boys. Brian was talking to Andrew about how many little boys there were in the restaurant, and he jokingly asked Andrew, "What in the world are we going to do with all these baby boys?"

To which Andrew replied, with his hand thrust mightily in the air, "THROW THEM AWAY!"

Y'all, I laughed so hard. I guess you really never know how much actually sinks in and sticks in these little minds. But it secretly pleased me that he was learning these Bible stories. Just maybe we should vary the stories a bit, so that he doesn't go walking around telling people that he wants to throw their baby away!

Lastly, I wanted to do my part for the Haiti people and children by letting you all know about an orphanage that needs help. Our church is one of several churches that has missions in Haiti. We are partnered with Truth Evangelistic Ministry. Over the past few years we've built four Christian churches in remote areas of Haiti, and also have helped support an orphanage called Love A Child. If you all haven't made a donation to a specific relief organization, I strongly encourage you to check out these two web sites. TEM is working to distribute supplies to the people in remote areas that haven't received aid yet, and Love A Child has been set up as a very large field hospital near the border of Dominican Republic. They're getting up to 1,000 patients a day. It saddens my heart to see these poor people, who had nothing to begin with, lose what little they had. In most cases it was their loved ones they lost. But the Haitian people that our church and our ministry is reaching are still faithful that God will provide for them and heal them. So please, if God leads you to do so, make a donation!

Freezing For Baby

2010-01-13T10:31:00.004-05:00

Some of my friends have been asking for tips on how and what to freeze in order to stock up for baby. It astounds me how many of us are due within 6 weeks of each other! Laura Beth and I are pretty much due the same day (and so is Christie at church), and Amber and Audrie are due 4 weeks after me! Then comes Liz and Sara in April and May. Gonna be a good year for babies!

Anyways, this post is for you, Amber!

I mentioned in my last post about making up meals that I (or Brian) could pop in the oven for dinner when I'm not feeling up to cooking...which I assume will be for a week, or two... I took pictures while I was making up some hashbrown casseroles so I wouldn't have to fumble around for ways to describe what I was doing, and plus, it's just easier to look at pictures!

First, the recipe:

One bag of frozen hasbrowns, can be shredded or chunks, depending on preference

One stick of butter, melted

One 16 oz tub of sour cream

One can cream of chicken soup

One bag (2 cups) of shredded cheddar cheese

1/4c diced onions, if desired

Mix all of the ingredients, except for a handful of shredded cheese, to be added later. You'll need a fairly large bowl to do this. The typical recipe calls to make it in a 9x13 pan, but I divided mine up into two 8x8 pans. And one 8x8 is enough for two people to eat two servings, plus have a serving or two leftover.

Two 8x8 pans, with frozen casserole

After you mix up your casserole, line the 8x8 pans with aluminum foil, making sure to cover at least halfway up the sides all around. You may have to use two pieces of foil laid opposite each other. Then, split your casserole mix in half, and press into each of the pans. Sprinkle some of the leftover cheddar chesse on the top. Place the pans in the freezer, uncovered, until frozen solid.

Lift up the casserole from the pan

Once it's frozen, all you do is simply lift out the casserole by the foil, and wrap it up. I add an extra piece of foil just for good coverage; you don't want any food exposed because of freezer burn. Then I put it in a gallon sized ziploc bag, label it, and there you go!

Cover with more aluminum foil

When it comes time to cook it, just pull the foil off the casserole, put it back in the 8x8 pan, and bake! Unfrozen bake time is 45 minutes at 350 degrees, so I'm not sure about cooking from frozen. I may let it thaw a bit before cooking, maybe take it out of the freezer at lunchtime for that night's meal.

Bag & label it!

The meatloaf preparation is pretty much the exact same thing, except I didn't pre-freeze...meaning I mixed up the loaf, formed it in a loaf pan (also lined with aluminum foil), then wrapped it up raw, put it in a ziploc bag, then the freezer! I would definately thaw the meatloaf before cooking, otherwise the crust will get hard.

Most of the 'stash'...also bought 10 pounds of ground beef,

and split up into one pound bags for spaghetti

I've put a picture of my freezer stash so you all can see. It looks like it took me weeks to do, but I did it in a day. I will definately pay off when the baby is here! I still want to add some chicken pot pies, and some enchilada casseroles, too. But, hey, if it doesn't get done, oh well. Like my mom said, I'm not dying, I'm just having a baby. (Though I think at times I might feel as if I am dying...) I'm also hoping it will cut down on the "let's just get some takeout," which can get expensive, and is not exactly healthy.

Anyways, hope this helps, Amber!

The Belly, It's a Growin'

2010-01-09T19:54:00.003-05:00

Well here I am, at week 36-ish, trudging along. Hauling around this belly is quite exhausting. I feel like an old woman sometimes, creaking and popping, limping around, wincing at sudden movements. As y'all could see on my Christmas Eve post, I am rather large. But I would also like to add that while I look ginormous, as of my last appointment (last Tues) I have only gained 24 pounds. And I swear, it is ALL right out in front. Which is a good thing, I guess, but it makes for a very uncomfortable stomach.

Heartburn has settled in for the duration. I'm eating my Zantac for breakfast and dinner, whether I think I need it or not. Anything spicy is off the menu- pizza, spaghetti, lasagna, etc., along with cinnamon (weird?), and some fruits like pineapple, and chocolate. I'm really only disappointed about the pizza and chocolate, but I've found if I take my Zantac at the right time, I can sneak a piece of chocolate in here and there.

We're all set for the baby. We've got everything we need for this baby: diapers, wipes, clothing, you name it. We shouldn't have to buy diapers or wipes for at least 6 weeks, but you never know. She could be a champion pooper. We're prepared enough that this little gal could come home today and we'd be fine. Which was my goal- to be ready enough with a few weeks to spare so I could spend the last weeks just relaxing and conserving energy. But then this little nesting bug came along, and lately I've been doing probably more than I should. I spend most evenings begging Brian to rub my cankles. My feet get so swollen these days that most of my shoes are too small!

This weekend I decided that I needed to stock up my freezer with meals that we could just pop in the oven to reheat. And so far it hasn't been too bad, but there's more I'd like to do. I just have to realize that I'm not Wonder Woman, and that it probably won't kill Brian to have to throw together a meal or two :) I've already got a batch of potato soup, a batch of chicken stew, and a batch of Santa Fe Soup in the freezer.

Today I managed to make 5 hashbrown casseroles, 36 blueberry muffins, 3 meatloaves, and put up 7 pounds of ground beef for spaghetti. Before it's all said and done, I'd also like to have a few chicken pot pies, maybe a couple of lasagnas, and a whole mess of pancakes and waffles. Anybody got any other suggestions for meals or entree's I could freeze up?

I'm very pleased with the fullness of the freezer. We could survive a meteor crash between what we have stocked up in the pantry and frozen in the freezer. And if the power goes out, no matter, because anything frozen would remain safely frozen outside...

Now hopefully I'll have a few days of rest. Which is wishful thinking, because lately I have been averaging about 5 really good hours of sleep at night. And that's if I take a Tylenol. I just can't get comfortable. That, and the little monkey just won't sit still, either. I think I'm going to move into the recliner for the duration of the pregnancy so that I can sleep on my back.

Only 23 more days!

Christmas Pictures

2010-01-09T19:40:00.004-05:00

Well, we didn't take very many pictures on Christmas day. I didn't want to miss any of Andrew's excitement by hiding behind a camera. I did take a few at the start of the morning when he first came into the living room to see his presents. He was a little groggy in the beginning, dragging his Curious George along for the ride, but once he saw the pile of gifts he started to perk up.

It was a bittersweet little morning, knowing that next Christmas we'd have a 10 month old to share Christmast with. It was our last Andrew-only Christmas, so we tried to relish in it. But next year should be double the fun! Looking forward to it!

Brian's mom, sister, and step-dad came down for the day. Andrew was much more animated by the time they got here, having eaten breakfast and had his usual dose of morning cartoons. He was all about showing off his presents from Santa, and even talked Mimi into reading him his Toy Story book. You'll have to excuse the nose-picking, it's his new "thing" he does...

A Few Christmas Eve Pictures

2009-12-27T20:41:00.003-05:00

Here are a few pictures we took after church on Christmas Eve. Andrew looked so cute in his sweater vest that I wanted some pictures. My silly little husband practically ran from the car to the closet to put his pajamas on, so there are no pictures of him, just Andrew and me!

I'd just like to say, that yes, I know, I'm huge. I've been telling y'all, but no one believes me. And I still have at least 5 weeks to go...Poor little Andrew, you can hardly see him back there.

O Christmas Tree

2009-12-04T16:54:00.003-05:00

We've put up our Christmas decorations! I just love the way it makes my house feel and look. I feel so cozy and warm when there are lots of twinkling lights throughout the house. I just want to snuggle on the couch with a blanket and two cute boys (and a tiny baby girl, but she's snuggling with me in a different way right now!)

Our Christmas tree is in the living room/den this year, since the old family room has been remodeled and converted into Andrew's bedroom. Putting up the actual tree took about oh, 3 minutes! We bought this 7 foot, pre-lit artificial tree three years ago at an after-Christmas sale for $25! It's in two pieces, and you just plug it in, and fluff up the branches. Done.

Andrew was really into putting the ornaments on this year. In fact, he felt that every. single. ornament needed to be on the same branch. So, ever so discreetly, Brian or I would go behind him and move a few to other areas.

In keeping with my family tradition, Brian hoisted Andrew up to put the Angel on the top. Here's a little background on the Angel. My grandmother made that Angel when I was (Mom, help me out...) two or three? And it became a tradition that every year my daddy would pick me up to put the Angel on top. And so, in a box somewhere, we have at minimum 23 pictures of daddy picking me up with the same Angel. When Andrew was born, we passed the tradition on to him. The first Christmas he was only 6 weeks old, so he lucked out on the labor part, but Brian still held him up there for the photo op. The Angel isn't the most beautiful tree topper, but it was made with love and is being honored year after year on the family tree!

A Couple of Random Photos

2009-12-04T16:43:00.003-05:00

I wasn't sure where to throw these pictures in, so I'll just put them all together here.

The first is of my little Thanksgiving Indian. In his skivvies. Since we're 99.9% potty trained (can I get an Amen?) when we're home, his typical outfit is a pair of underwear and a Hanes t-shirt. He looks so much like a little boy wearing this, it always makes me grin. I can't say what a blessing it is that he goes potty now. He doesn't even want help! If I make a move toward the bathroom when he's in there I get a "Nooo!" and a big fat 'talk-to-the-hand.' Which, really, is fine with me.

The next picture is Andrew and Brian reading bedtime stories together in Andrew's big boy bed. He's been in this bed for about six weeks now. And talk about an easy transition. It's so nice for all three of us to be able to lay together and read in the evenings. I liked this picture because of the way Andrew has his hands behind his head...chillin'.

This last photo is Andrew wearing his Elmo hat & gloves set. He wears this in the house, all day, sometimes without any other stitch of clothing on. He even wore his Elmo gloves to church one day. Whatever, you choose your battles, right?!

Happy Birthday, Andrew!

2009-12-04T16:27:00.002-05:00

I'm a bit behind in posting. I've been so tired lately that when I feel like a have a few minutes, all I want to do is sit down and close my little eyes. I suppose it's the 3rd trimester sleepies sneaking up on me.

November 13 was Andrew's THIRD birthday! How that happened is beyond me. Last time I checked he was a little baby bouncing in his exersaucer. But, lo, now he's three, and there ain't a thang I can do about it.

Brian has been working horrendous hours at work for the past six weeks, which includes him working weekends (but having Tuesday and Wednesday off), so having a birthday party for Andrew was sort of out of the question. I didn't feel like I could do all the cooking, baking, and hosting by myself at 26 weeks pregnant, so we opted to just celebrate with the three of us. And besides that, Andrew didn't even notice we didn't have a party, he was quite happy to have his daddy home with him!

I made a cake that evening, and let Andrew put the sprinkles on. I thought he would take a handful and throw them down on the cake, but instead he took individual little sprinkles and placed them strategically around the whole top of the cake. After several minutes of this, Brian stepped in to help speed up the process.

He enjoyed his presents from his Mommy & Daddy, too! A new Mr Potato Head, and new book, and some blocks were just what he wanted!

Simon and Ruby

2009-11-28T09:39:00.003-05:00

http://www.etsy.com/shop/SimonandRuby

I thought I'd take a minute to share with y'all my friend Lindsay's jewelry shop called Simon and Ruby. Lindsay makes all the jewelry herself and sells it in an Etsy store. All the pieces are quite beautiful, and very reasonably priced! And an added bonus, 5% of each purchase goes to World Vision, a Christian humanitarian organization.

Lindsay and I went to Berry College together, and I'd love to help her out! So ladies (and gents), check out the jewelry if you need some gift ideas for the women in your life! If you don't see anything you like, but like Lindsay's style, you can always have her make something custom for you!

Here are a couple of my favorite pieces:

*All photos by Lindsay Black Farrar

Chicken Pot Pie!

2009-11-20T19:24:00.002-05:00

I wanted to pass on this recipe for Deep Dish Chicken Pot Pie that my lovely friend Kim Hendrix gave to me. We eat this about once a week, it's so easy to make, and very budget-friendly. And an added bonus- it's got all your food groups, and two servings of vegetables!

Here's the list of ingredients:

1 pound of boneless chicken, cubed into small pieces (about 1")
1/4 c. zesty Italian dressing
4 oz. cream cheese
2 tsp flour
1/2 c. chicken broth
1 package frozen mixed vegetables-thawed
1 refrigerated pie crust

And the directions:

Heat oven to 350. Cook the chicken in the Italian dressing in a skillet until mostly cooked all the way through. Add the cream cheese, let it melt and mix it in. Add in the flour, one teaspoon at a time. If one teaspoon is enough, you don't have to add the other. You don't want it pasty or cakey, but you also don't want it runny. Add the chicken broth. (Add more flour if it's too runny after adding broth.) Add the mixed vegetables. Stir it all up, and let it heat through for a minute or two.
Put into a deep dish pie plate (mine is 10") and cover with the pie crust. Cut slits in the crust to vent.
Heat for 30 minutes at 350 or until crust is nice and golden.

A few notes:
This is a really cheap recipe, and once you buy the ingredients to make it once, you have enough to make a second one later. One can of chicken broth makes two, one 8 oz box of cream cheese makes two, and pie crusts come in packages of two! I use the Tyson individually frozen chicken tenderloins (if you use these, I use about 5 or 6 pieces), and one package lasts for several different meals. The frozen vegetables I buy when on sale, and I typically get them free (with a coupon.) So this is a meal that I typically can throw together if I have nothing else planned. And one bottle of the zesty Italian lasts forever, and you can use it for salads. Typically with the chicken broth I put the other 1/2 c. in a freezer container and freeze it for the second batch, so it won't go bad.

I hope you all enjoy!

*A bonus little note: Andrew is potty training right now, and he just came running naked around the corner with the biggest smile on his face, "Mommy! I tee tee in the potty!" And y'all he did it all by himself, he even pulled his pants down! And, an added bonus, it was #1 and #2. He's there, folks, just days away from being completely potty trained!!

Andrew's Christmas for $16!

2009-11-18T08:44:00.004-05:00

Last night Brian and I did all of Andrew's Christmas shopping. From the couch, in our PJ's, with Andrew in the room with us. And it only cost us $16. How? Amazon.com and Swagbucks!

Here's a look at what the little man is getting under the tree this year:

Buzz Lightyear!

Woody!

Read Aloud Bible Stories

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Storybook DVD

Max & Ruby Book w/Flashcards

PlayDoh Burger Builder

And a previously purchased Toy Story book with sounds.

And, we got it all (minus the Toy Story book) for $16! Tell me that ain't the deal! Here's how it worked out. We're avid users of the internet. Between being informed consumers, parents of a toddler, and pregnant, we use the internet to research every little thing. Instead of using Google, we use Swagbucks. It works...exactly...the...same. The Swagbucks search engine is even POWERED by Google! Except, Swagbucks rewards you for searching, and Google does not. The more you search, the more chances you have to win a 'buck'. After accumulating enough bucks, you can trade them in for Amazon.com gift cards! We had accumulated enough bucks from searching to cash in for $65 of Amazon gift cards! It's so simple, y'all, it's silly not to do it. Especially if you use the internet to search anyways, why not get rewarded?

Interested now? Good! Click on this link to sign up, all you need is your name and address, and email. You don't give out any other info.

http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/JennyManley

And here's a bonus: for every referral you make, for example, if you got one of your friends to sign up under you (like I'm trying to do here...) you get matching Swagbucks until they reach 100! So if my friend Betty signs up using my referral link, I'll get 100 Swagbucks (over time). Which, to me, translates to $10 in Amazon money ($5 Amazon card is 45 Swagbucks).

Check it out, get rewarded for doing something you probably already do!

The Golden Egg

2009-11-09T13:02:00.003-05:00

Last week we were surprised to find that one of our chickens laid her first egg! The 'biddies' as I call them, are five months old now, and it was high time they started laying. I found the egg one morning while Andrew was at Mother's Morning Out, but decided to leave it for him to find when he got home.

It's hard to tell who was more excited, Andrew or me! I ran around cooing at the hens telling them what pretty girls they were and that they'd get some extra scratch the next morning. Since last week, we've gone from getting one egg a day to three! Pretty soon all five will be laying, and we'll have a steady supply of fresh, not-organic-but-pretty-close brown eggs. My goal is to be able to have a dozen for our family for a week, and give the rest to the food pantry down the street.

Hope you enjoy these picutres of Andrew and his prized egg. After he grabbed it he said, "Thank you, chickens!" He was reluctant to take it into the house, he wanted to leave it in the chicken coop, until I explained that we could eat it! What a neat experience for a little boy! We're hoping once he gets older and understands more about the care of chickens, he'll be able to take over the feeding and watering. He does a great job 'helping' us, so we're off to a good start!

Saturday Afternoon Snooze

2009-10-19T12:58:00.003-04:00

Andrew and Brian taking a nice little nap together. And of course, (Curious) George was in on it, too!

Redecorating Time!

2009-10-04T10:52:00.004-04:00

We've finally decided on how we're going to decorate the kids' rooms now. *And let me just say, it is very, very strange to say "kids' rooms." I'm so used to only having one, that I wonder if there will be a period of adjustment when the baby comes. Will I forget that I have two??!

So, back to the topic. We have a three bedroom house. It didn't use to be three bedrooms, we just finished renovating the third room into a bedroom a few months ago. It is a very very large room (bigger than the master) and has its own half-bath. We're thinking that we'll move Andrew into that room. He's being moved to a full-size bed as soon as we buy a mattress. He also has a train table, a big toy chest, gads and gads of toys and books. We figure he'll need to most room to spread out. Plus, once he is potty trained (Lord, hear our prayer) he will have his own bathroom to go potty in. If that's not an incentive, I don't know what is! The walls in that room are the same color as they were when we bought the house, and that is an orange color. It's hard to describe. It's not peach, not tangerine, but it's not Auburn orange, either. It's a nice color, but not so girly.

The baby will then go into the room Andrew is in now. It's the smaller of the two rooms. *Another side note, when I say small, the bedrooms are still at minimum 12X12, which is large by newly-built house standards. The walls are a nice farmhouse green color. The crib, and changing table are already in there. Plus, the room has a Jack n' Jill 1/2 bath, which means that our bedroom shares a 1/2 bath with the baby's room, so there is quick, easy acess to that room.

So, now that you have the run-down of the room swap, let me show you what we've picked out. Andrew's room will be done in "Prehistoric." Dinosaurs! We actually had a hard time picking this out. The first issue was the full-size that we needed. Most kids' bedding is twin sized. Then, we wanted something that wasn't too toddlerish, but wasn't too grown up. Something that might last until 2nd grade or so, when he gets swept up in some cartoony fad. And the last, and biggest issue, was that it had to go with the orange color on the walls. Here's what it looks like:

I apologize that it is so small. I had issues saving the picture from JCPenney's web site. I think if you click on the picture, it might enlarge it. Anyhow, the other plus, is that it's reversible. I like the colors, its not too baby, but not too big-kid. Perfect!

Now, for baby's room. This was equally difficult for two main reasons. One, I didn't want pink. Do you KNOW how much pink stuff is out there??! And two, 75% of what is out there is also $200 plus for a three-peice set! Sheesh! I almost threw in the towel and decided to learn to sew! Hah, got ya there, didn't I? I wanted something girly, but not cutesy, and something that would go with the green walls. Lavendar! After searching and searching, I found the perfect thing!! It's a quilt-style set, that looks hand-embroidered, with little wreaths and lavendar flowers. Love it, and it goes with our 115 year old house very well. And, it was the right price!! Here's a photo:

I just love it! And I can even throw in a very pale yellow for an accent color. I think it's feminine enough! And the good think about it, too, is that it's available at a bunch of websites, which brings me to the second part of my post: How I'm going to buy this without spending money!!

I have done a few posts about SwagBucks in the past, and a couple of you have signed up (thanks!) but I've got some new readers out there, and want to try to encourage them to sign up...ahem, MOM!

SwagBucks is a web site exactly like Google. It's a search engine. If you want to find something, type it in the search bar, and the same results pop up as would with Google. Except, for one huge thing. SwagBucks rewards people who use the site by giving them SwagBucks. The SwagBucks are randomly awarded, in various denominations. This morning, I searched for "baby monitors" and recieved a surprise 2 SwagBucks!

What can you do with a SwagBuck? Well, all SwagBucks you earn add up over time until you have enough to redeem them for prizes. I have redeemed $40 (yes fourty) in Amazon gift cards, and have enough points for another $55 in Amazon gift cards! So I have $95 available to spend on Amazon.com. And that's not counting the $25 or so I've already spent over the past year. And let me tell you, you can buy just about anything on Amazon. Including that darling baby bedding set you just saw.

Here is where you come in. If you sign up by clicking this link, you'll create an account on SwagBucks, and can start searching and earning points. But the BEST part is, if you sign up, using my link, I will get credit for EVERY SwagBuck you earn until you hit 100. So, by searching as you usually do, using SwagBucks instead of Google, you can help me earn more money to purchase this bedding set for baby! It's very easy to do, and legit, you don't give any sensitive information, just your name, address, and email. That's all! It's a nice, easy way to earn fun money doing something you likely already do. (It's also a nice way to help me out!) Here is the link:

http://swagbucks.com/refer/JennyManley

Friends that have already signed up...Amber, Shannon, Aunt Tracy, Dara...y'all love it, right? And it's really easy to do! And a big thank you, since you've helped me earn enough for Andrew's Christmas present, which is another topic for another post!! Love y'all!

The Getaway

2009-09-30T13:22:00.004-04:00

For a week in September, Brian and I were able to fly out to San Antonio, by ourselves! Brian was going out there for a business conference, so the company was paying for his flight, his hotel, and his rental car. I wanted to go with him for a little R&R, since I knew it was probably the last chance to travel anywhere until the little baby is several months old. My dad was nice enough to use some of his SkyMiles to get me a $5 plane ticket, so we didn't have to pay for anything! We did add one night to the hotel stay at our expense. You just can't beat one week in San Antonio for $125! We left Andrew in the very excited hands of Nana and PawPaw.
I had planned on just hanging out in the hotel room while Brian was at his meeting. A whole week, of a quiet, clean (well, it's a hotel; clean in this case means no toys scattered everywhere...) room, my own T.V., and a book. Well, I devoured the book in one day, but I found plenty of time to nap and watch TLC for extended periods of time! Our hotel was right on the Riverwalk, which is a neat little section of the San Antonio River that winds through downtown. Along the Riverwalk are restaurants, bars, shops, lots of little vendors. It's really quite romantic! We must've walked two miles every day, though, and little pregnant me only packed her flip flops, so Brian so sweetly rubbed my feet for me at night.
The last full day we were there, we hit some of the main sights in town. One, of course, the famous Alamo. The Alamo was one of five Catholic missions in San Antonio founded in the 1700's in wild Texas to convert native people to Catholicism. Surprisingly, they are all still standing and still serving. The Alamo is famous for the number of battles fought between American soldiers and the Mexican army. I couldn't figure out what the big deal was...I mean, usually, you fight for a specific region that has a valuable resource, like clean water, good soil, gold, etc. This place, in 1836, was the desert, 6 million miles away from nowhere. After taking the tour and reading up on the history, I realized it was more of a fight of principle, symbolic of taking a stand for something you believe in. All of the men died defending the Alamo, because they'd rather die than admit defeat.

The Alamo at night.

We did drive to all five missions, I thought it would be neat to see these living pieces of history. We started at Mission Espada, which is the one farthest away from town, the most remote of the missions. Since it was so far from town, it was (and is) the least elaborate, I imagine due to it being so far from supplies and laborers. It was beautiful in its simplicity. The church is still standing, but that's pretty much all that's left of the compound. All the missions housed hundreds of people, had numerous livestock, gardens, granaries; they were self-sufficient little cities. The "mission of the mission" was to convert the native peoples (Indians? Mexicans?) to Catholicism. What struck me as most poignant here at the mission (more so than at the others) was that it is an active parish. (*Side note: I'm not Catholic, so forgive me, my Catholic friends, if I use the wrong words...a parish is like the congregation, right? The area the church serves?) This means that there are still nuns and a priest that live there. You'll see from the pictures just how rustic and remote this place was. The nuns had a little garden full of beautiful flowers, and had many, many birdfeeders filled with birds.

Mission Espada

The inside of Espada's church.

I was tempted, for about 3 minutes, to convert to Catholicism and be a nun, so I could live in the little stone rectory (again, Catholic friends, is this right?) and feed the birds and tend my garden, walking with the Lord daily. It was all so romantic to me! Then I realized I'd have to live without Super Pretzels and sweet tea. Poof, the dream is gone.

The next mission we visited was Mission San Juan, which was much the same as Espada. I was running low on memory in my camera, so I didn't take any pictures, but it was very similar to Espada. And, like Espada, it was still active, in fact, they had just performed a wedding there a few weeks before. It was a little less glorious in my mind, because the nuns didn't have a pretty little garden....

The third, and by far largest and most restored mission was Mission San Jose. It literally took my breath away. Again, the desire to be Catholic struck, but visions of french fries danced in my head. (There was a McDonalds across the street...this one was not so remote.) It was huge, and beautiful.

The church at Mission San Jose

The dormitory at San Jose, for priests.

Another view of San Jose

And, the fourth one we drove to was Mission Conception, which was actually under restoration, so we couldn't go into the church (or is it a cathedral?) It's also very very close to downtown, so less remote, less desolate, but still extremely beautiful and a nice glimpse into the past.

Our last night in San Antonio we walked a few blocks to our hotel to San Fernando Cathedral, which is the oldest cathedral in America! It was beautiful, and very much still in operation. In fact the Pope was there just a few years ago. I took some shots of it at night, and the lighting almost makes it seem like the light of God shining from the cathedral. I had goosebumps when I saw the picture!

Anyways, this was the longest blog post in history, but the pictures were too pretty not to share. And it was nice to share how moved I was in seeing these missions. I could only hope that I would be filled with such convictions to go to so desolate a place, in a dangerous territory filled with warring peoples, to spread the word of God.

Sugar, Spice, and Everything Nice!

2009-09-29T12:16:00.003-04:00

Most of you all have heard the news, but for those of you who haven't, we've been blessed with having a little girl!

We had our 20 week ultrasound on Friday, and we were thrilled to see that it's a lil' lady in there! The lady doing the ultrasound (ultrasonographer? is that a real word?) said from the get-go that she knew it was a girl from the way the baby was acting. Little girl was quite stubborn about showing off her goods, which made me secretly glad, because I'm hoping that means she'll be a modest little thing! I remember when we had Andrew's ultrasound, he had his legs spread wide to the world, showing it allll off. Which, I suppose, is typical of the male gender in general :)

Here are a few shots, the ones in which you can actually see something and know what it is...we have lots of shots of arm bones and leg bones and the skull, but nobody (except me) gets excited about that! I've uploaded them on the "large" setting so that it may be a little easier to see.

Little Feet

These next two photos are my very very favorites...the first one is of the little Rockette. Yes, folks, that is her LEG touching her forehead! It makes me laugh every time I see it. I've been telling Brian these last 6 weeks that this baby was m-o-v-i-n-g like crazy. Now he can see what I mean!

This one is another favorite. It's my little girl with her 'dukes' up. She's got both her fists up in front of her face, ready to take on the world! Maybe that means she will be a tomboy. After all, her mommy was on the boxing team for a year in college!

Andrew went with us to the ultrasound; we thought he might enjoy it. He did actually sit very nicely eating his grapes. At one point he did recognize that it was a baby, but about 20 minutes into it he said, "Yucky!" Then we went to the waiting room to wait to see the doctor, and Brian showed Andrew the picture of the baby and asked, "What is that, Andrew?"

To which Andrew replied, "Monkey!"

The Measure of a Mother

2009-09-23T11:58:00.003-04:00

Do any of you moms out there ever feel like you're just running uphill during a mudslide? That's what I'm feeling these days. Last night I even asked my husband if we were good parents. How do you measure or judge that? Andrew is alive (a plus, I assume), clean, healthy, has a house, good food, and too many toys. Does that make us good parents? He's not potty trained, uses a pacifier, and is still in his crib at almost 3 years old. Does that negate all the good things?

I look around and I've got friends who have 2 years old children who are using the potty, sleep in a twin bed, and have never used a pacifier. How can I not compare Andrew to those kids? Did we drop the ball somewhere? Or are we just doing what we feel Andrew can handle?

He's peed and pooped in the potty several times. But the number of times he has peed in the floor is exponential. In fact, he thinks its hilarious when he pees on the floor. Especially when he stomps in the puddle, then runs through the house, leaving pee pee footprints everywhere. Monday morning we were working hard with the potty until he apparently decided he'd had enough, and actually threw the potty at me. So, after that incident, paired with the eight sets of pee-soaked underwear, and the availability of ZERO clean towels in the house, I (we, Brian has a say too!) decided it wasn't worth getting angry at Andrew and putting pressure on him. Nevermind that I'm now 20 weeks pregnant, and losing the ability to get up and down off the floor (easily and painlessly) to wipe up pee. So, we're taking a break.

How do you judge whether or not you're doing a good job with your kids? Do you compare them to other kids? Or do you just wait until they're older and see if they put themselves in jail? Or do you really ever know? I suppose that's where prayer and faith come into play. You do the best with what you have, rely on God to mold their hearts, and pray for the best. After that, it's up to them to decide the kind of people they want to be, right?

In the meantime, it's 12:09 pm on Tuesday, we're both in our pajamas still, and haven't had lunch yet, and Andrew is watching TV. See what I'm saying? Other kids have already been to playgroup, the library, and had lunch and are sleeping peacefully in their twin size beds with no pacifier!!!

So Long, Old Friend

2009-09-09T13:10:00.003-04:00

I know that many of you, mostly family and those friends on Facebook, have already heard of the passing of the family cat, May. But I felt it fitting so at least give her a little space on the blog, her fifteen minutes of fame, for she'd been in my life since she was 6 weeks old, and has been my faithful, constant companion for the past 4 years.

Two weeks ago Brian was getting ready for work when he heard dogs barking and yelping outside in the driveway. He ran outside, fearing they were chasing May. Indeed, they were, and (to save the gory details) were trying to kill her. Brian immediately ran the dogs off, then ran inside to wake me up.

We found May hiding under the car, in shock, and wounded. I called our local vet to check the recorded message to see if there was an emergency number. There was one, but there was no guarantee anybody would answer. Lo and behold, someone did pick up, and told me that Dr. Wagner happened to be at the vet's office early that morning, and that I should take May to the back door.

I drove about 65 mph down a 35 mph street...don't worry, it was deserted at 6:45 a.m! She took May right in and told me to call in a few hours. May had several wounds, the most severe being her back leg. The doctor informed us that we had two options: one, to amputate her leg, or two, have her go to sleep eternally. I knew that it would be expensive to do the surgery, but I also knew that I could not make the decision to have her put down.

So, after many tears and discussion, Brian and I decided that since May had come so far, had fought so hard to stay alive, that she deserved a chance. We told the vet to go ahead with the procedure, and that we'd work out the bill later.

Andrew and I went up the vet the afternoon before the procedure to visit with May. I felt she could use some cheering up and would love to hear my voice. She talked to me the whole time, but was so sedated she couldn't even open her eyes.

The following morning I called the vet to check on her, and received the news that May had died early that morning. She had gone through the surgery well, but had lost so much blood, and had been through so much trauma. I felt terrible. I felt that I had put her through the pain of surgery just to have her die in the end, anyway. But I was comforted by the fact that one, I gave her a chance, two, I had a chance to see her one last time, and three, she was not in any more pain.

May hanging out in Andrew's bassinet.

We brought her home and buried her in the yard, under a big shade tree that is filled with bird feeders. She's close to the house, and in a nice spot where she can hear the birds.

We're so thankful for the kindness of the entire staff at the vet's office. Everyone was so disappointed to hear that she lost the fight in the end. Today, I had to take Duke, the dog, in for his annual checkup. Dr Wagner made many comments about how sorry she was about May, and that she had a bill ready for us at the front desk.

When I got home, I opened the bill, dreading the amount. Two days of intensive care, medications, surgery, and blood transfusions...what would it cost? The grand total was a few dollars over $1,000. Then, at the bottom, it said "Amount Due: $256.00." Dr Wagner had discounted over $700 from the bill, stating that she hated to even charge us anything, but had to cover the cost of the medication.

May lounging in Andrew's Elmo chair.

Y'all, we love our vet. There's something to say about living in a small town, we all look out for each other and help one another out. That's the way it should be. Even the neighbors now are polishing up their guns in case the wild dogs come back...Who's to say the dogs wouldn't attack a small child? I shudder at the thought.

So, here's a last farewell to my May, the first 'official' member of the family, even before Brian. Love you, girl. See you in the great garden in the Sky!

Why I am loving Walgreens...

2009-08-20T13:21:00.004-04:00

Our tiny little town got a brand spankin' new Walgreens a few weeks ago, and I've been slowly catching on to their 'system,' figuring out where the deals are and how to work them. So far, I've been rocking it!

Here's how it started:

I transferred a prescription from the CVS across the street (sorry, CVS, you've been great) and was rewarded with a $25 gift card to Walgreens! And not only did I get the $25 gift card, but with my receipt printed out a $3 off a $15 purchase. So, just for trasnferring a prescription (that I desperately needed, thanks to my ever-present nausea) I got $28 to use at Walgreens!

It turns out that MoneySavingMom had posted a deal that Walgreen's was running on Huggies wipes. So I figured, I have $28, let's see what I can get without paying anything out of pocket. I ended up only paying $0.09. Yes, that is nine pennies. And who doesn't have nine pennies weighing down their purse?!

Here is what I got, in list form (I so desperately wish I had taken a photo of my haul):

One 3-pack of paper towels

One deoderant

Two boxes of Band-Aids

FOUR tubs of Huggies Wipes (70 count each box)

One large refill pack of Huggies Wipes (216 count)

And I paid nine cents! Not only that, but I got $1 register reward for buying the deoderant, and $4 register reward for buying the Band-Aids. And I still had my $3 off a $15 purchase that I didn't use. I paid nine cents out of pocket, and walked away with $8 to use on my next purchase.

Which, in turn, I bought MORE wipes with. On my second trip, I bought two more tubs of wipes and one more large refill pack, and paid $3 out of pocket.

Today, I went back to Walgreens, and got...you guessed it. More wipes! I did buy other things, too, that generated rewards, so I have $6 to use next time I go, to buy...more...wipes...

Here is a picture of my haul of wipes (minus one box we've already opened):

Here's how I got them so cheap:

Huggies tubs are $2.79 each. Walgreens has a store coupon out for $2 each tub/pack of Huggies wipes, and you can use that coupon as many times as you want. So, the tubs went from $2.79 to $0.79. THEN, I had coupons for $0.75 off, which brought two of my tubs of wipes down to $0.04 each. Many thanks to Aunt Tracy for those two coupons!! I had four more coupons for $0.50 off, which brought four of the tubs down to $0.29 each. The large refill packs were on sale for $6.99, minus the $2 Walgreens coupons, were $4.99...a steal! I did also get two tubs of Pampers wipes for $1 each.

All in all, I paid anywhere from $0.04 to $4.99 for the wipes, a bargain, hands down!

I know some of you think I went overboard, but seriously, I'm going to be needing wipes for at least the next three years, so why not?? I did it legally, and didn't clean out the store, I bought them a little at a time, so that other people could benefit too. I've heard stories (true ones!) of women who have asked the manager to bring out all the wipes they had in the back, and bought them all. Which isn't fair to everyone else. And that's all I have to say about that!!

Recipes!

2009-07-27T17:00:00.003-04:00

This morning I read my blogging friend Laura Beth's blog, and she stated that after doing a pantry inventory, she realized that she had nine boxes of cake mix! Now, don't laugh. Because I'm the same way. I have seven boxes of spaghetti noodles, at least five cans of Lawry's Seasoning Salt, and about eight tubs of peanut butter. You may think it's silly, but none of that stuff expires, and I probably will not have to buy more (or at least pay full price) for many, many months. So, I'm answering her call for recipes using cake mix!!

The first is for Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars. It's from a very dear lady named Becky Brass, who was my 'adoptive' mother during college. Our church allowed families to 'adopt' college students and cook dinner for them once a week, allow them to do laundry (for free!) at their house, etc. She was such a sweet woman, and a Godly woman at that! She used to make these for me at least twice a month because I loved them so much! They remind me of those cookie cakes that they sell in the mall, minus all the icing.

Preheat oven to 325.
Ingredients:

1 box yellow cake mix 1 egg

1 stick melted butter 2 tspn. vanilla

1 pound of choc. chips (1 bag)

Mix it all together, then press into a 13x9 pan, bake 15-20 minutes! Easy, huh? Then just cut it into squares and enjoy!

Gooey Buttercake. This is a good one too, just don't dare think of calories and fat...Ronnie Higgingbottom made these one day. He is one of the zoo's maintenance guys, a great guy that I worked with often on construction projects within the zoo. I learned a lot working with him!

Preheat oven to 350.

Ingredients:

1 box yellow cake mix 1 8 oz package of cream cheese

1 stick butter 3 eggs (1 for cake, 2 for icing)

1 box powdered sugar

Blend cake mix, butter, 1 egg for 3 min, press into 13x9 pan.

Blend sugar, cream cheese, 2 eggs. Pour over cake mix.

Bake for 45 minutes. When done, sprinkle powdered sugar over the top.

Hope you all enjoy!

The Name Game

2009-07-21T19:55:00.003-04:00

What started out as a fun little comment on Facebook about baby names has led me to write this post. I had stated that picking a boy name was much harder (for us, at least) than choosing a girl name. We had pretty much even decided on a girl name before we had even gotten pregnant! In my opinion there are just more girl names out there. You gotta get creative with the boys, without being weird and out there.

I thought it'd be neat to see what y'all thought about some of these names. Keep in mind, this list seems very long, but we have a long time to decide, and I'm a very thorough person. I want to make sure the name is one I like, as well as one I think the little one will like at all stages of his/her life.

First, the criteria. And by criteria, I mean things that I'd like, not things that I have to have. I'd really prefer a family name. And I'd also like it to be Biblical. It can't be 'trendy' or have silly nicknames, and the initials cannot spell or insinuate anything that might cause teasing later in life. Easy, right? Psh.

So, on with it. Here is our not-so-short list of names, boy and girl. The ones we're leaning towards the most are at the top, and goes down in preference. The names are all eligible for first and middle names! (And I do realize that a few of the names meet none of the above criteria, but there needs to be a few in there to eliminate early on...)

BOY:

Benjamin

Greene

Noah

Zachary

Elliott

Oliver

Reed

Luke

Jonah

Timothy

Micah

Oliver

Owen

Lyle

Girl:

Emily

Celeste

Audrey

Jane/Jean

Mae

Grace

Ruth

Clara/Claire

Hannah

Alice

Megan/Meghan

Leah

Mabel

Margo

Abigail

Hazel

It's hard to choose, because I like so many of them. I suppose I'll just have to keep having babies so I can use all the names. Hah.

I'd love any input! It's sort-of fun thinking about this lately, it helps keep my mind of the nausea. Which, by the way, has gotten much, much better but is still lurking around. I'm hoping by the end of next week it'll be gone...that's when I hit the magical 12 week mark. I'll have to post a belly picture soon. I can't believe how quickly this little squirt popped out. I think I was this big with Andrew at four months, and I'm only 11 weeks!

Heeeere, Chicken Chicken!

2009-07-20T10:10:00.003-04:00

They're here! The long-awaited chickens!

I had been wanting to get chickens for a while now, for a number of reasons. First, obviously, the fresh, organic eggs at my fingertips. Second, we can definately use the poo in the compost pile, which turns into nice, fresh (organic) fertilizer for the vegetables. And thirdly, I thought it would be a neat experience for Andrew. He can easily take care of the chickens, put feed in the feeder, and help me collect eggs. Never too young to be taught responsibility! He actually enjoys feeding the cat, which is/was his first chore!

Our neighbor, Von, is a single elderly man who has chickens, too. He had mentioned to me that he was ordering baby chicks to raise, and I thought it would be a good opportunity to get some, since we could raise them "from the egg" and they'd be more people-friendly. We first saw them when they were one day old! They're Barred Plymouth Rock, which are the black and white striped breed. We decided that five hens and one rooster would be plenty for us...not to mention we could build a smaller coop for a small flock!

My parents were nice enough to come visit for a weekend to help build the coop & yard. We couldn't have done it without them! Many of the materials we used for the coop were things we already had around, which helped keep the cost down. Many thanks to Jay & Kim for the tin roof!

We went over to Von's house yesterday to pick up the biddies, as they're now two months old and ready to be in a yard. Andrew was so excited! We had been visiting the chickens for weeks now, and he finally got to take them home! He kept saying "Hi, Chicken!" while we were catching them. When I say "we" I mean Von and Brian...

Here are a few photos of the coop, the chicken rodeo roundup, and the release!

Play Ball!

2009-07-20T10:03:00.002-04:00

Family Night on a Budget...

Last Tuesday I was reading one of the blogs I follow and stumbled on a deal! Kraft Foods is doing a promotion where on Tuesday nights, if you take a Kraft Singles wrapper to any minor league ballpark, you get buy one-get one tickets! And, since I had three packages of Kraft Singles cheese in the fridge (due to a great sale at Bi-Lo, and Andrew loves the fake cheese), it sounded like a deal!

We went to the Augusta Greenjackets game, which is our closest Minor League team, about 45 minutes from our house. It was $8 for all three of us to get in, and then we found out that drinks (sodas & beer) were buy one-get one too! Bingo!

We had a great time, Andrew loved the noise and watching the kids in the stands. We're still not sure if he realized there was a game being played on the field, but he had a good time nonetheless. He really enjoyed the many musical clips and sounds they played over the speakers. We will definately be going back!

It was a neat experience too, because we had taken Andrew to a Greenjackets game when he was around 8 months old. We couldn't believe it had been two years since we had been back!

When It's Hot in Georgia...

2009-07-13T16:50:00.003-04:00

Get Nekked!

We spent much of Sunday afternoon playing outside at Nana's house. We were in Newnan for a wedding that weekend, and decided to surprise my dad (Bampa) by staying one extra day. He had been out of town on business the whole time we were there, so he hadn't gotten to see Andrew.

We had been playing outside, in the water table, in the pool, and in the hose. Needless to say, the boy got wet! So, much to his delight, we stripped him down. We're also working on potty training, so we figured, if he has an accident and pees without a diaper, outside is the place to be!

In fact, he did try to go potty. When 'it' didn't cooperate, he got all upset and said "It's broken!"

These are some pictures of Andrew playing...and also one of him surprising his Bampa with a big, sweaty, naked hug!

The Frugal Flower is working today! (Updated!)

2009-07-10T09:09:00.003-04:00

I'm in Newnan for the weekend, at my mom's house. It's a nice reprieve, she's having a blast taking care of Andrew. But I'm not lying around the house eating bon-bons, either...in fact, I'm working!

The Frugal Flower has a wedding today! Danielle and Joseph are getting married in Alvaton, and I am doing their flowers. It should be a wonderful, fun day when I get to be more than a mom (which, is no easy task) and actually DO something.

So far I'm feeling ok, the sickness doesn't usually strike until the evening hours, so I'll just grin and bear it, and hope for the best!

I'll be posting pictures soon of this wedding, and the one I did in Greenville in May!

Update:

It was a success! The bride was thrilled with her flowers, and everything turned out beautifully. I had such a great time seeing many, many old friends again and sharing Danielle and Joseph's special day!

"Sons are a heritage from the LORD, children a reward from him."

2009-07-01T14:11:00.002-04:00

Psalm 127:3

Today's the day, folks, for the big announcement! I've gotten clearance from Brian to make this post, so here it goes! May I have a drumroll...

After much anticipation from mothers, grandparents, even the wayward stranger, we have decided to enlarge our precious little family to include another baby! Yes, you heard right! I'm pregnant!

Andrew will no longer be an only child on (or around!) February 11, 2010. I'm currently between 7-8 weeks into the game. There will be three years (and some months) in between the two little buggers, which is a nice little gap, I believe!

Things are coming along nicely, if you don't factor in the persistant, horrible nausea and vomiting. Thank goodness that the doctor gave me a prescription yesterday for a nausea medicine, otherwise I think I would have just wasted away! It's funny how incredibly different two pregnancies can be. I hardly even knew I was pregnant with Andrew, and now here I am sick as a dog with this baby. Hopefully, though, this will be the only difference, since my first pregnancy went so well.

We're excited, but still have that "what have we done" look on our faces on occasion. I'm sure it'll be fine. It's like that scene in "Father of the Bride 2" when Nina (the grandmother) looks out her window and sees mother and daughter skipping down the sidewalk eating ice cream, and George (the grandfather) sees a son throwing his ice cream on his father and then running away... Except Brian is the happy-go-lucky stars in his eyes, and I'm seeing doomsday!

We've got a lot to accomplish in seven (too short) months...Andrew needs to get potty-trained, Andrew needs to give up the paci, and I've got one heck of a stockpile to build! Luckily we still have much of our baby stuff, we'll just need to fill a closet or two with diapers and wipes, but it shouldn't be too difficult.

On a parting note, I thought I'd share with you some of the cravings I've had in the last three weeks or so. In no particular order:

Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream, on a waffle cone
Jalapeno Poppers (the ones at Sonic)
Potatoes (I've eaten at least two each day!)
Cherries
Larry's Giant Subs (?!)
Dr. Pepper

And now I've gone and made myself hungry...though how can I be? I just ate a twelve (12) pack of nuggets from ChickFilA...!

Isle O' Palms

2009-06-21T13:41:00.003-04:00

Walking with Mimi and Terry

This weekend we decided to take an impromptu trip down to Charleston with Brian's mom, Debra, his sister, Katelin, and Debra's fiance, Terry. We drove down Friday night to spend the night and the whole day Saturday. The last time we took Andrew to the beach in Charleston, he was six months old. We thought it was high time for him to check it out again, now that he's mobile, and can communicate, play, etc.

Dinner at Shem Creek

Collecting shells and mud...

Saturday morning we went to Isle of Palms to play on the beach for a bit, before the 104 degree heat was supposed to descend upon us. Andrew wasn't too keen on the ocean (which, in truthfulness, is more than a bit frightening for a small child!) But he really enjoyed digging for shells and playing in the small tidal pools. After an hour, he decided he was done. Thank goodness, I was done too!!

The highlight of the day was the boat ride we took across the harbor over to Mt Pleasant. Within five minutes of leaving the dock, we saw no less (and probably far more) than 30 dolphins! We even saw one dolphin with a calf! Andrew just loved it, they came right up to the boat, you could even hear them blowing. The rest of the trip Andrew would point at the water and scream "WHALE!" and then point out a Mommy, a Daddy, and a Baby 'whale' to us. Watching pelicans dive into the ocean was of utmost entertainment also!

Shark!!! No, just dolphin!

Riding with Mommy on the boat

So thanks, Mimi, Terry, and Kate, for a nice, quick little vacation!

Calling All Advice

2009-06-10T14:51:00.002-04:00

Ok, all you moms, young and old, I need some advice! We need to get Andrew off the 'paci.' He only gets it in the bed, and no other time. He's two and a half years old, and we think it's time to give it up for good. He falls asleep without his paci when he's in the car, so we know he can do it.

Brian and I think that we should just go cold-turkey, and cut it out completely. But, should we take it away at nap time, and give it to him at night? I think it'll only confuse him if he can't have it at nap but he can have it at night, which is why I think cold-turkey is the way to go.

On the other hand, I've heard family and friends tell me of how they cut the nipple part of the paci, so that it was "broken" and the child couldn't use it, and therefore the child made the decision to give it up. Does this really work?

Any and all advice would be appreciated!!

The Budget Is Still Going Strong

2009-06-03T21:43:00.002-04:00

We're still truckin' along with our couponing and budgeting! I've had some great grocery shopping trips as of late, getting stocked up on things that are necessities around here. The stockpile is humming along nicely, so nicely, in fact, that this week's grocery bill totaled $27!

We've also found other ways to save cash that was otherwise being 'wasted.' For example, we put up a clothesline in the yard, and now about 1/3 of our laundry is dried outside. Sheets, blankets, t-shirts, and occasional other items are all dried outside. And believe it or not, the sheets dry FASTER when they're outside! Not to mention they smell so good! For every three loads that go in the wash, only one load is dried in the dryer. Another way we've cut cash flow is by utilizing a rain barrel.
I found a large, 50-gallon rain barrel on clearance last year at Wal-Mart. I use the rain water collected to water all my window-boxes, pots, and my vegetable garden. And from a scientific, horticultural standpoint, the rainwater is SO MUCH better than the city water (fancy words, I know). No chlorine, no fluoride, none of those chemicals. It's cut our water bill down big time.
Our biggest way we've saved cash is to get smart about using the air-conditioner. In our large, large house, it doesn't take long to run up a $200 electric bill. We've got 2,000 square feet of 11 foot tall ceilings and UN-INSULATED walls. However, we've just recently installed brand-new ceiling fans in every room. We made a deal to not turn on the A/C until June 1st, and when we did turn it on, we'd be responsible about it. We only run the air from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. And if we're gone most of the day, we won't turn it on. We also close blinds/shades at certain parts of the day, and only run the dryer in late evening. We've found that the 11-foot tall ceilings do help the heat rise off the bottom half of the room, and if we keep the fans running 24/7, it's actually pleasant even without the A/C. But as they say, it's 'not the heat, it's the humidity.' And it's the danged truth!

I'm telling you, people, it's these little things that are helping to free up the cash that's needed to add to our debt snowball. We're 'gazelle intense,' as Dave Ramsey says, and we're not losing sight of that debt-free place we want to be in!

We're Still Here...

2009-06-03T21:36:00.003-04:00

It's been a while, hasn't it? We're still here, still alive. Just extremely busy!

For the past three weeks, we've undergone a pretty large-scale renovation of our house. It's been a four-part project, and we're about 90% done with all four projects.

To make a long story short, we're turning our two bedroom house into a three bedroom house. Our house was built in the late 1800's and is made completely out of beadboard. We learned the hard way a few years ago that when you do a renovation in a house like ours, it takes 10 times longer than you plan!

I've been dutifully taking lots of pictures at various stages of the projects, so as soon as we're finished (hopefully by this Saturday!) we'll have a nice step-by-step story for you all to see!

In the meantime, here's a picture of our little man wearing his daddy's shoes!

School Pictures

2009-05-11T18:09:00.002-04:00

Here's Andrew's school pictures from Mother's Morning Out. They're cute. He's a little camera shy.

All photos are by Melissa Douglas of Capturing Angels Photography.

Oh What a Weekend!

2009-05-11T15:05:00.004-04:00

The Poultry Festival has come and gone. Sad. We made the most of it, and we're sad to see it go, but it's a whirlwind when it's here!

Thursday night we took Andrew down the street (literally) to see the carnival rides, just to check them out to see if there was anything Andrew could ride. And yes, there was. There was a cute little carousel just for kids, that Andrew enjoyed. But the crowning moment was when Andrew spotted...drumroll please...a choo-choo. Just. For. Him.

Since we weren't really prepared to spend the whole evening riding rides (and buying tickets) we let him ride the carousel and the choo-choo once, with the promise that his Nana and his Mimi would both let him ride more during the weekend. In fact, I called my mom (Nana) and told her she'd better bring her piggy bank! Nana and Bampa came over Friday night and took us all down to let Andrew ride some more "choo-choo, peas." He rode that choo choo more times that I can count. In fact, the last couple times, when the attendant came to unbuckle him, Andrew pushed his hand away and said, "NO!" to the poor guy. I had to drag him kicking and screaming. He was way overtired and way overstimulated (I mean, Nana AND a choo-choo, in one night?!)

Saturday morning Mimi and Terry came down for the day, just in time for the parade. Nana, Mimi, Andrew, and I walked down the street to watch the parade, then ran home to watch it again, as it went past our house. We had a nice little cookout, and spent some good time with our family and friends!

Andrew in between Nana and Mimi...every little boy's dream!

Andrew and Mimi waving at Cocky, the South Carolina Gamecock Mascot.

Riding the Carousel with Mimi.

We love the Poultry Festival, and look forward to it each year. But man, when't its over, we're glad. It'll wear a soul out!

How do I love CVS? Let me count the ways...

2009-05-11T14:56:00.002-04:00

So lately I've been realizing just what a gold mine CVS can be. Once you get the deals rolling, they just get better! It my last CVS deal, I ended up with $9 in extra bucks. Well, CVS emailed me a $5 off a $30 purchase coupon for Mother's Day! So this meant that I had $14 in CVS money to spend. And here's the fantastic deals I got!

5 Coke 12-packs: 13.00 (buy 4 for 13.00 get 1 free)
Crest Enamel Sheild Mouthwash: 3.49
Scott Paper Towels, 8-pack (2 of these!): 9.98
2 CVS hand sanitizer: 1.93
2 Orbit Gum: 1.98

I had these coupons:
$1 off Scott paper towels (times 2)
$1 Crest mouthwash
$1 off Coke
$9 in extra bucks
$5 off $30

My grand total: $12.48
And, I have $2 extra bucks to use for this deal:

Ragu Spaghetti Sauce, 3 for $5...spend $10, get $3 in extra bucks.
So I got six jars, for $10, used my $2 extra bucks, and paid: $8 for six jars of Ragu!
And have $3 in extra bucks to use next week!

* Apparently we do have a Coke addiction. Last week I bought all that Coke, and now I added five more 12-packs...ah, well, it was my target price!
** And yes, we do use that much Ragu. Andrew eats the mess out of some spaghetti, so we make it once a week.

The Carnies Are Here!

2009-05-05T09:26:00.002-04:00

And no, we're not in Deliverance.

It's the Poultry Festival! Before you laugh, let me explain...

In South Carolina, every town (no matter how small) has a festival. Our town has the Poultry Festival, Irmo has the Okra Strut, Salley has the Chitlin' Strut, Gilbert has the Peach Festival, etc... Apparently its a large source of income for these small towns to have these festivals. Ours happens to be the Poultry Festival because of the chicken farms and feed mills in our area. (Yes, we are very rural).

It's a big stinkin' deal. Everybody in town decorates their yards with chickens and roosters (not live ones!) It's the one time of year you can count on even the shadiest (not as in shade trees, as in "scary") houses to have their grass cut. And its the ONLY time of year that our dear neighbor Gene shaves his face. Ever. So you can see what a big deal it is!

Our town of about 5,000 people grows to a population of over 45,000 in one day. That's enough people to fill half of Jordan-Hare. (And for all you "Dawg" people, that's Auburn's stadium). There is a parade in the morning, that goes right in front of our house. I just love it. It's so insanely Southern. We all sit on the front porch in the rocking chairs, under the ferns, with the porch railing draped in American flag bunting, waving at the Little Miss Poultry Festival as she rides by in her 1969 Ford Mustang, sipping our sweet tea.

The next street over from ours is Main Street, where all the "stuff" happens. There are over 100 arts and crafts vendors, selling their wares. And at the end of Main Street, is the carnival. There is a ferris wheel, kiddie rides, the dunking booth, you name it. This thing rivals the State Fair. And of course, along with the rides, comes....CARNIVAL FOOD! I'm telling you, people, it is NOT GOOD to be able to smell funnel cakes from your front porch. It's even worse to know that I only have to walk 300 yards to get one in my mouth.

There are four stages set up within 1/4 of a mile from our house, where random churches, bands, dance studios, and what-have-yous will perform starting Thursday night until Saturday around midnight. We can hear the music all day, which is really nice. People will be walking down the street in front of our house all day long. It seems the whole town comes together for one weekend, everybody is laughing, waving, visiting their neighbors.

If you all can't tell, I very much look forward to this each year! It gives me such a sense of community, and I just love how "Southern" it is, to be able to see (and smell) everything from the front porch. If you're in town this weekend, please, come on by, get yourself a funnel cake!

Wheelin' and Dealin' at CVS

2009-05-05T09:18:00.002-04:00

I haven't made any posts lately about couponing. I haven't stopped, I just suppose the "newness" of couponing and the thrill of a bargain has sort of worn off. I'm still at it!
It was a good day for me at CVS! I only spent $11.98 out of pocket, and here's what I got, and how I got it...

THREE 12-packs of Coke 3/$12
SIX 2-liters of Coke & Sprite 6/$8
Spend $20 on Coke, get $10 Extra Bucks

So, I got the above Cokes, for $20. I had $10 in extra bucks left from last week's deal, which brought my total to $10. For all that Coke! Plus, on my receipt, the next $10 Extra Bucks printed out! Which I rolled into...

THREE boxes Nutri-Grain bars 3/$10
TWO Colgate toothpaste $2.99 ea
Spend $10 on Nutri-Grain, get $5 Extra Bucks
Get $2.00 Extra Bucks for each Colgate
-$1.00 off Colgate toothpaste, times two
-$10 Extra Bucks

Grand total for the Nutri-Grain and Toothpaste? $1.98
AND received $9.00 in extra bucks for next week.

**Note: It seems we have a Coke addiction. We do like Coke, but we don't buy it often. This deal was definately worth it, plus, we're having a big cookout this weekend...more to come on that later! Just wanted to clarify that we aren't Coke addicts.

The Pitchin' Post

2009-04-28T10:20:00.004-04:00

Before Andrew and I both fell ill at my mom's house last weekend, we did have a good time! We enjoyed spending time with Nana and Bampa. They've got this great creek in their backyard, and they built a special "Pitchin' Post" for Andrew so he could throw rocks in the creek (a favorite of his). On many occasions prior to the Pitchin' Post being installed we thought Andrew was 'going in.' He gets up so much momentum when he finds a rock, and walks rather quickly to the edge of the creek, and winds up to throw...it was only a matter of time before he fell in. So the Pitchin' Post was born. They couldn't fence in the whole creek bank, because it's against the law to disturb or change a riparian zone in a watershed. Which basically means that you can't remove any vegetation within so many feet of the edge of a stream, creek, or river. If plant material is removed, the soil on the edge of the water erodes, which can either a) change the shape of the stream/creek or b) create problems downstream due to the larger amount of soil and silt in the water. (Just putting my education to work here...)

When It Rains, It Pours

2009-04-21T11:25:00.003-04:00

We're stranded. In Atlanta.

Andrew and I came down to Mom's house for the weekend, for a "girls weekend." My friend Heather and her 9 month old son Brady (Bray-bee, as Andrew says) met us down here, for a little getaway. We had planned on watching girlie movies, going out to eat, relaxing, etc. But we all know that when things get planned, things go wrong.

By the time Saturday rolled around, Andrew was sick, Brady wasn't napping, I was having a bad stuffy nose, and Heather was having allergy issues. Andrew had a fever of 104.3 on Saturday night, and didn't sleep at all...which means neither did my mom or I. Brady also woke up with a fever. Brady and Heather left Sunday morning, to make sure that they got home before the storms.

We decided to take Andrew to the children's urgent care in Peachtree City on Sunday afternoon. He has an ear infection, bronchitis, and could possibly have pneumonia, but they're not sure. He's on two antibiotics and another steroid he has to take with a nebulizer. Poor fella! We were originally going to go back to South Carolina on Monday, but since Andrew hadn't had a full 24 hours of antibiotics, we decided to stay an extra day.

Then, I woke up late last night to extreme chills, I mean, I was freezing. It turns out I had a high fever too, and my ears are hurting and I'm coughing up a lung. This morning my dad had knee surgery. My mom was up at the hospital with him, so as soon as they got home and we got my dad set up, I went to the doctor. I have acute bronchitis, and the nurse pretty much said that I had pneumonia, but that they didn't need to do a chest x-ray to confirm. So, I'm on the very same antibiotics that Andrew is! We're staying another day, because I was too sick to drive (and Andrew too sick to ride).

The good news is that dad's surgery went well! He's propped up in the recliner watching Glenn Beck, and yelling at the t.v., so he's not feeling that bad :) However, the kitchen resembles a pharmacy, with Andrew's, Dad's, and my medicines sprawled out. The bright side is, at least I'm here, where my mom can watch Andrew while I try to recouperate. If I'd been at home, I'd be a miserable, sick mommy with a miserable, sick child.

Hopefully, by this time tomorrow, we'll be home. And a very lonely daddy can see his very favorite little boy.

What was supposed to be a relaxing, 4 day weekend with the girls has turned into the weekend of hospitals and drugs. We have a small pharmacy operating out of the kitchen right now.

Baking Day

2009-04-15T13:30:00.002-04:00

Today is baking day at the house. Not sure why, just decided today was a good day to bake! I'm making a batch (or two, if they turn out well) of whole-wheat french bread rolls. I got the recipe from here. So far, so good! They're in the first rise stage. Mind you, I don't knead my dough. I take the easy way out and use my bread machine to do that for me.

After the rolls go in the oven, I'm making whole wheat bread. I found this recipe on Money Saving Mom's website. I've done bread before, but I've never been satisfied with it. I tried her
recipe for the bread, and it was fantastic! It tasted good, and most of all importance to me, it slices very well! Here's her recipe : Bread

I'm thinking I might try to make a commitment to making my own bread. A loaf of bread can cost us anywhere from $1.50 (on sale) to $2.00. I can buy my flour, and all other ingredients, for around $6. And that $6 worth of ingredients will yield me many many loaves of bread. It's not hard to do, and it is probably healthier for me!

Today Andrew ate a PB&J sandwich for lunch. But it wasn't just any 'ol PBJ. It was on homemade bread, with homemade blueberry jam I made last summer. Now if I could only grow my own peanuts, and make my own peanut butter.....

Easter

2009-04-13T22:04:00.003-04:00

Happy Easter, everyone! We had a lovely day yesterday. Brian's mom, Debra, and her fiance' Terry came down from Laurens to go to church with us and have an Easter Sunday lunch. We had a little egg hunt for Andrew before church. Actually, we had two! It turns out that Andrew absolutely loved hunting the eggs. So, after he found them all in the first round, he took all the eggs out of his basket, threw them all out on the ground, and "found" them again! I'm definately not going to put the eggs up 'til next year...if he loves that game so much, we'll hunt eggs year-round :)

We went to church after the double-egg-hunt. What a lovely service! It was a message-through-music presentation. The Methodist church down the street and our Baptist church joined their choirs to do a big muscial presentation.. (Yes, Methodists and Baptists came together in the same church!) Our choir went to the Methodist church for the 10 am service, and then they all came to our church for the 11 am service. It was so nice! We sang some of my favorite hymns, which was very moving.

Andrew was quite the stud! He wore an outfit handed down from my cousin Jackson (who is 13 months older than Andrew). Pretty much anything Andrew wears belonged to Jackson at some point in time. He had on khaki pants, a white polo shirt, and the cutest plaid jacket ever. It almost hurt to look at him, because he looked so grown up. It seems every day he is a little bit less of "my baby."

Andrew and his MiMi

We all hope you had a wonderful Easter, celebrating the resurrection of our Lord!

Swag Bucks

2009-04-09T11:11:00.002-04:00

I know I've made a post recently about Swag Bucks, but I just wanted to refresh your memory! Swag Bucks is a search engine. Just like Google. It's even powered by Google, so any search you do, you'll get the same results as if you had searched with Google.

So why is it better?

Because you can earn rewards by using Swag Bucks. Google doesn't reward you!

When searching, SwagBucks will randomly reward you with Swag Bucks, which are basically digital dollars. Swag Bucks are rewarded randomly, so the more you search, the more chances you have to win a buck (or two, or three!) I've gotten to the point that I seach EVERYTHING. If I want to check my email, I search for "hotmail" even though I know the web site. More searching = more bucks.

Once you reach 45 bucks, you're eligible for a variety of gift cards and prizes. We're fans of the Amazon $5 gift cards, because you can pretty much find anything on Amazon! To this date, we've collected $30 in Amazon cards. For doing something we already do!!

If you're interested in making free money, click on this link to get started!!

SwagBucks

Happy Searching!

P.S. Here's the best bonus of all: when you make a referral, you get matching SwagBucks for the first 100 bucks your referral earns! So, if you sign up, I'll get a buck every time you do! So, another incentive = the more people you refer, the more bucks you earn (without having to do anything!)

Oh Play Me Some Mountain Music

2009-03-31T14:17:00.007-04:00

Last weekend we had the good fortune of renting a beautiful cabin in Spruce Pine, NC...for $50 a night! Spruce Pine is right near Grandfather Mountain, Boone, and Asheville, but it is waaayyy up in the mountains! My parents drove up from Atlanta to meet us there. We spent the weekend there, even though it rained pretty much until it was time to leave. However Sunday morning we woke up to see a crystal clear, sunny day! At least we got to enjoy the views and sunshine for a few hours before we had to head home. The first few pictures are of the cabin (I should say house, it was 3 bedrooms with a basement), and then the views from the porch.

We're cute, aren't we? Let me know if you find my upper lip, I seemed to have lost it.

The community had a nice little greenspace with a waterfall that we could drive down to. Andrew was so amazed by it, and quickly proceeded to throw rocks into the pool. Give the boy a rock, and he's happy.

In order to actually GET to this waterfall we had to ford (yes, ford) a river four (yes, four) times (eah way!) in the Jeep. I think Brian was secretly enjoying it, he got to use the four wheel drive, finally! Andrew loved it when we had to cross the streams, he kept saying "more more!"

On the way back home, we went to nearby Mt. Mitchell, which is the highest point east of the Mississippi. Andrew was closer to the sun than he has ever been in his whole life. A feat not many 2 year olds can claim. However, he was so uninterested. Maybe it was the altitude? Then his luck changed...there, in the middle of a picnic shelter, was a huge puddle of water. And leading to that shelter was a path of, you guesed it...ROCKS! So, here we are, highest point in the East, and he's throwing rocks in a puddle. Nana invented a game where we all had to line up with two (and only two) rocks each, and Andrew would say "Go!" Then we all had to throw our rocks in at the same time. Whatever keeps the boy happy....

And one last picture for laughs. Here's Andy riding a goose door-stopper that was in the cabin. My lil' cowboy!

Disclaimer--- The Manley household used no (NONE) GPS hand held devices during the duration of this trip. However, the Hargraves household used two (TWO) devices (for the same car). My mom and dad each have a GPS, and they use them at the same time, in the same car. They set the directions and let their GPS's "race" to the destination. I guess when you reach a certain age you gotta get your kicks however you can. Love you, Mom and Dad.

I Love Mema & Pop

2009-03-31T14:13:00.002-04:00

Last week Mema and Pop came down to visit Andrew for the afternoon. Mema and Pop are Brian's grandparents, Andrew's GREAT-grandparents! They look good, don't they :)

They enjoyed playing cars with Andrew, and then stayed for dinner. We love you Mema and Pop!

Gazelle Intense, Vol. II

2009-03-17T10:23:00.003-04:00

It's high time for another Total Money Makeover update! It's been three and a half months since Brian and I made the commitment to get out of debt. We're following Dave Ramsey's guidelines, from his book (Total Money Makeover). I have friends and family that either have done it (successfully!) or are currently doing it, so it's nice to have a 'network' of fellow gazelles. So, for the update:

We've paid off FOUR medical bills, totalling around $1,000. We're not a sick family, we just apparently like to have surgery. Last year Andrew and I both had surgery, and Brian the year before that (which we were still paying off!)
We've paid off and CLOSED a credit card! Only one card left.
For the one remaining credit card, we've payed it down almost $2,000. Almost there! This one we'll pay off, but will keep open.
We have been able to stock away $1,000 (in addition to Dave's $1,000 emergency fund). It's a good thing, too, because it looks like we need a new roof.

We're extremely proud of ourselves, and thankful to the Lord for allowing all of this to happen. Like I've said in my other "gazelle" posts, we haven't gotten a raise, no extra jobs, we've just learned to manage what we've got, learned to budget (and coupon!), and most importantly, learned the difference between 'need' and 'want.'

As soon as that last credit card has been 'put down' as Brian and I like to say, we'll be diligently paying off my car, which should only take a few months with the snowball (the accumulation of payments to other previously paid-off debts). Then it's on to my student loan, Brian's car, then Brian's student loan!

I continue to encourage all you others out there on this similar walk of life. You can do it, we can do it! We ARE doing it!

Swaggin'

2009-03-11T09:30:00.004-04:00

I wanted to share with y'all the new phenomenon of Swag Bucks! It's a new search engine that rewards you with points for every time you search the internet using their search engine. You randomly recieve SwagBucks when you do searches, and the points add up over time. You can redeem these points for Amazon.com gift cards! So far I've cashed in for a $10 Amazon gift card! All for doing something I already do! I use the SwagBucks toolbar instead of Google (and you really can't tell the difference!) It's a great way to earn those gift cards to buy things that aren't really budgeted, like the occasional book splurge, or, I don't know...the new upcoming release of Twilight the movie?

If you're interested, click on this link:

SwagBucks

You'll sign up for an account, and you can either download the toolbar (which I recommend) or just sign into SwagBucks.com everytime you need to do a search. It's a great way to get some extra cash (or at least gift cards)! They offer Amazon gift cards, Subway gift cards, and even Starbucks! Try it out!

Get rewarded for something you're already doing!

Welcome, Spring!

2009-03-08T14:14:00.004-04:00

We're so glad spring is here (or almost here). We're loving this warm, beautiful weather we've had these last few days. We went to the zoo Saturday, washed both the cars, and worked in the yard!

Andrew really enjoyed the zoo. We've been countless times, but he's just now at the age to appreciate what he's seeing (and actually physically SEE it). Here are a few zoo pictures:

He was very excited about the bears! They were both on exhibit, and were, you guessed it, rasslin'!

Daddy and Andrew cheesin' it up in front of the baboons.When we got home, we washed both the cars! I guess daddy just wanted a nice, clean car for all the pollen to stick to. Of course, all that zooing around town can wear a boy out. So we had an Oreo cookie break on the steps while daddy got the cars ready. Notice he's sporting a choco-stache' in the car-washing pictures :) Andrew really wanted to 'help' wash the cars, so I gave him his own sponge. He went to town...

After all that, we planted a few pansies in the front yard to spruce up the porch. After all, the house is on the market, and flowers are an 'investment', right? Hopefully I won't get carried away and put a $200 flower 'investment' in the yard this year... :) We don't have any flower-planting pictures, we were all too dirty to hold the camera. But he did learn how to put the flower in the hole, cover it up, and give it some water! Gotta start 'em young!

Rasslin'

2009-03-08T14:02:00.003-04:00

That's how us southerners say 'wrestling.' And thats what's going on here in the Manley household. (Or rather, a few nights ago...) Andrew just loves to rassle his daddy after dinner. And we love it too because it's Andrew's last hurrah before bedtime, and he works out all that leftover energy.

This is daddy's signature move: the steam roller!!

The sweet, tired face of the champion! See...daddy's worn out, stretched out on the couch!

The Frugal Flower

2009-03-03T14:34:00.003-05:00

Many of you know that I've been toying with the idea of starting my own business as of late. The business of floral arranging, mainly weddings, but I suppose I would encompass funerals, churches, etc. I had spent four years in college working at Oak Hill (Martha Berry's home) on the grounds crew, and was able to get lots of floral arranging experience under my belt. Every Friday we (and a lot, a LOT of Fridays it was just me) would put a fresh flower arrangement on Martha Berry's grave. We actually went, every Friday, to a wholesale dealer, picked the flowers, did the arrangement, and delivered it. I probably did a few hundred...four years of Fridays? Two hundred, easy.
Then, I started to "play" with making bouquets. My college roommate, Beth, thought they were gorgeous and I had a skill, so she actually hired me to do her wedding! By the time I graduated from Berry I had done five weddings. And since then, I've done four more and have been hired to do two this spring/summer. I've never taken a 'formal' class on arranging, it just so happens that God blessed me with this talent, and it happens to be one I truly enjoy. It's such a great feeling to be a part of somebody's wedding, to help create the moment and the memories. It's almost like I get to get married several times a year! In a way I get to re-create my own wedding, using somebody else's ideas :) I've done a tulip/lily wedding, a daffodil wedding, a fall wedding, rose weddings, gerbera daisy weddings...and am doing another rose wedding in July and a peony wedding in May.

So my question to y'all is, do you think I should do it, and do you think I'd be successful? I'm toying with the name "The Frugal Flower" as the business name. One of the big reasons I'd like to do this business is to give brides another, much less expensive option for flowers. I mean, do y'all REALIZE what the markup is on flowers? It's a total ripoff. At a wholesaler, florists buy bundles of 25 long-stem roses for around $24. Do you know what they charge for just 12 of those roses? Upwards of $40. And they charge thousands of dollars for weddings! Ridiculous! Should be a crime! In all of the weddings I've done, the most expensive one was around $450. Total. That same wedding (of about 400 gerbera daisies) would have cost easily a thousand dollars, as a conservative guess. So, my business plan would be to provide affordable, reasonable service in the wedding industry. Does the name "Frugal Flower" make more sense now? Do y'all like the name? Would anyone give me any referrals? I'd be happy to do any wedding, pretty much anywhere! My longest-distance wedding was Seattle!

Please, y'all, give me any advice, comments, encouragement you may have!

Snow? S'no snow here.

2009-03-03T14:22:00.002-05:00

We didn't receive a single flake of snow. Well, not a single flake that stuck around. It snowed for about 30 minutes , just long enough for us (well, mainly me) to get excited and think, "well, maybe it will be a big storm after all!" And then that was the end of it. I had such grand visions in my head as to what the yard would look like, what Duke and May (the pets) would do, and mostly what Andrew would think of it. They were predicting 3-5" inches for us, which is pretty significant. And we got zilch. So you can imagine how disappointed I was, and it really put me in a mood. I had to turn the T.V. off so I wouldn't see how much snow everyone else got. I mean I got really bitter!

And then I realized, I was envious. I wanted that snow, and I was pouting because God didn't give it to me, He gave it to everyone else. I forced myself to realize that, okay, we didn't get snow. Big Deal! It's cold, wet, and the dog would track it all over the house (and extract possibly a few explicit words). Andrew probably wouldn't have liked being cold and wet anyways. And I also didn't want the snow/ice to hurt the peach blossoms. So maybe God realized (before I did) that I didn't need, or really even want, the snow. I mean here I was, just last week (and just last blog post) complaining about winter and praying for the quick appearance of spring and warmth.

It's typical human nature, I suppose. Get fixated on one thing, then the next new, shiny thing comes along and it becomes your new obsession. And throughout, God is faithful and delivers on what He knows you truly desire. I really am wholeheartedly looking forward to warmer weather. There's so many wonderful things that happen once the spring and summer arrive. We spend much more time together as a family, participating in all sorts of outdoor activities. We plan, plant, and nurture our garden, and reap the benefits. We travel, go camping, hiking, and immerse ourselves in the beautiful world God created just for us. There are so many more "teachable moments" that I have with Andrew when we're outside or travelling. All in all, I feel like a better wife, a better mother, and a happier person in general when it's warm. (And to think I lived in Alaska for a few years...I shudder at the thought now!)

So I'm "over" the fact we didn't get snow. God knew I didn't really want it. And God has much greater things in store. In fact, I'm very much looking forward to the 75 degree weekend we have coming up!

With Spring Comes Change

2009-02-21T16:14:00.002-05:00

We're starting to see the signs of spring here at home. The daffodils and leucojum (pictured) are up, cherries are blooming (a bit early, though) as well as our peach trees. It's nice to see that it's just around the corner. I'm not very much of a winter person. I get cold easily, and it's typically too cold to be outside much during the winter season. Spring, summer, and fall are very fun, happy times in our family. We spend most of our time outside, playing, walking, hiking, camping, gardening...you name it. We feel it is essential to instill a love and respect of nature in Andrew. We also believe that we are stewards of the earth, and have a spiritual obligation to protect and conserve this beautiful planet that God created. How can you not look at the wonders of nature and not believe that God exists?

Spring holds a lot of wonderful surprises and experiences for us this year. We've just gotten word that we have serious interest in our house and may be expecting an offer next week! There just might be a move in store for us in the next few months! We're sad to leave this house, but excited at future possibilities. We've settled quite well here. But I remind myself constantly that a house is just a 'thing,' and it's the family that makes it special.

We're also very excited that our Total Money Makeover is progressing very nicely! We're greatly encouraged by family and friends that have either done it or are doing it. It helps to see real-life success stories! We were blessed to get an unexpectedly large tax refund this year, which went a loooong way towards our debt snowball. And with buying a new house on the horizon, it does wonders to our credit ratings. We have very near-perfect credit, but wish we didn't have some of the debt we do. However, it is shrinking as we speak!

We can't wait to share with you the excitement (and sadness) over our move! Hopefully sometime in the next week we'll have good news to share!

A Little 'Venting'

2009-02-12T12:49:00.004-05:00

Today at Mother's Morning Out Andrew's class had a Valentine Party. They made cute little bags to collect the Valentines in and everything. His teachers had said, just a small card with some candy. I didn't really like the candy idea, so I made some oatmeal cookies instead. I mean seriously, what one- to two-year old needs candy?! And besides the whole sugar factor, most candy out there is too hard, sticky, or chewy for children that age. Here's the haul Andrew got today at the party.

Can you believe it? We didn't even get this much at Halloween! There are several lollipops (which are okay, until he starts to bite them), JuJu Fruits (WAY too sticky and hard), at least 10 chocolate hearts, several bags of M&M's, Peanut Butter Cups, Jolly Ranchers (are you kiding me?) and Marshmallow things. I couldn't believe that some of these parents would give this stuff to other children, that are younger than two! I wouldn't dream of giving Andrew some of this stuff, simply for the choking hazard, nevermind the sugar factor! Try explaining to an 18-month old that, no, you don't bite or chew a Jolly Rancher, you keep it in your mouth until it's gone. Please!

I know I must sound like a Scrooge, but I just couldn't get over the fact that we even had this party in the first place. None of the kids have any idea what Valentine's Day is, why they had a party, and what all those square pieces of paper even mean! There wasn't even a lesson on God's love! It's a church Mother's Morning Out! It just seems like a missed opportunity for a good lesson on love, instead of giving out potentially hazardous candy to small (very small!) children!

A Warm Winter Day

2009-02-12T12:43:00.003-05:00

Finally, it is now warm enough to go outside! Thank the Lord, because we're about to go stir-crazy stuck inside. Lately we've been playing outside for a few hours each day, which makes for a tired little boy. Which, in turn, makes for a happy Mommy and Daddy, when that tired little boy sleeps all night without making a peep! And as you can tell from the picture above, even Duke the dog is happy for a nice day!

Here's some action shots of Andrew in the yard this past week!

His newest 'hobby' is falling down. And of course, its so much more fun when you fall down in a big pile of leaves!

Big Coupons in the Upcoming Sunday Paper!

2009-02-04T13:18:00.002-05:00

For all you couponers out there, this Sunday's paper (Feb. 8) is going to have four inserts! One Smart Source, one Red Plum, one Proctor & Gamble, and one General Mills! Check out Southern Savers (www.southernsavers.com) to see an actual list of each coupon within the inserts. It looks like a really good haul, so I'll probably be getting 4 to 6 papers.

Just giving y'all the heads up! Happy clipping!

An Easy, Yummy Potato Wrap

2009-02-02T13:23:00.002-05:00

I am not sure what these things are called, but I found the recipe in a magazine and tried it last night for the Super Bowl. They are basically tortillas rolled up with a yummy diced potato filling. Perfect for a party or for lunches.

Here's the ingredients:
8-10 tortillas, 10" size
3 cups of diced potatos
1 cup sour cream
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
3/4 cup cooked bacon, crumbled
1/2 chopped green onions
2 tbsp melted butter

Cook the potatos according to the package directions. I put mine in a skillet with a small amount of oil, and cooked them until they started to brown and get a tad bit crispy. Then, mix all ingredients in a medium sized bowl. Warm up your tortillas. Spread the potato mixture all over the tortilla. The thickness depends on how full you want your burrito to be, I did about1/3-1/2" all over. Then roll the tortilla burrito style, and place on a cookie sheet. Place burritos 1" apart, then lightly brush the melted butter on the tops. Bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes. Let them cool down for a minute or two, then slice them in 1/2's or 1/3's diagonally (like the Cool Wrap at ChickFilA, this is hard to explain!)
Serve with a little more sour cream and some salsa to dip it in. Y'all, it's sinful. And I used the fat free sour cream and wiped the grease off the bacon, so it was a little less fattening.

Yee-Haw

2009-01-30T08:21:00.003-05:00

Did you know the expression "yee-haw" actually comes from terms for left and right when driving a horse? Gee and haw. Cowboys would yell these commands at their horses when driving cattle. So, naturally over the years, when imitating a cowboy, one would yell "Yee-haw." Apparently the g lost its place in the gee and became a y...

Here's my little cowboy, trying on my cowboy hat.

Couponing 101

2009-01-27T10:00:00.010-05:00

I've been getting lots of questions lately about how the whole couponing works, with the main question being "Does it really work?" Yes, people, it works! It takes commitment and an hour or two per week, but if you are willing to do that, you'll save serious money. It's got a very little start up cost; most of you have scissors, and an empty binder or shoebox lying around. You can get fancy with it if you want to, but you just gotta find the right method that works for you.

To begin, you'll need to start collecting coupons. The biggest quickest way to do this is to buy the Sunday paper, preferably multiple copies. I typically buy two, take them home, and see what's in them. If it's a big coupon day (like 3 or more inserts) I'll go back to the store and buy two more. I have friends who buy four or six papers every Sunday regardless, but I haven't felt the need to do that every week. Spending $1.50 per paper will definately be worth your money. You can also ask family members and friends who aren't couponing to save the coupon sections for you.

The second way to get coupons is to go online and register at manufacturer's websites. All you provide is your name and address, and email address, and they'll send you a coupon booklet in the mail, and once a week they'll send you an email with recipes and coupons that you can print out. Here's a few of those sites:

Pillsbury

BettyCrocker

Proctor&Gamble

The next thing you need to do is figure out how you're going to store and organize your coupons. As I said earlier, I use a 3-ring binder fitted with those baseball-card organizers. This way, I have all of my coupons where I can see them. They're not hiding behind each other or stuck to each other. I can fit multiple coupons in the same slot (if I've bought four papers, then likely I have four of the same coupon). Then, within the slot I organize the coupons by expiration date. In every single paper, there's going to be Pillsbury coupons, and I cut them out faithfully, so it helps to organize by expiration date so I don't lose any coupons this way.

Then, within my binder, I have them divided by category/aisle. My main categories are: non-perishable, frozen, dairy, soup, baking, pharmacy, health&beauty, baby, and pet. This way its a quick flip to that section when I'm on that aisle or when I'm looking in the sales papers.

A few of my friends do the shoebox method, which works equally as well. I just find that it's easier to carry a binder into the store than a shoebox. And the binder also eliminates the hazard of dropping the shoebox and spilling all your precious coupons all over the store. Here's a link to Laura's blog, where she has a recent post about how she coupons: Laura

Now that you've got coupons, it's time to search the sales papers! If you just straight up use a coupon on an item without looking to see if it's on sale, you will save money, yes. However, if you take that coupon and combine it with a sale, you'll maximize your savings.

For example:

If Cheerios are B1G1 (buy one get one), stores don't give you an actual "free" item, but you pay half price for each box. So, technically you are buying two boxes of cereal, not getting one free. If you had two $0.50 off one box, you could use two coupons, and you'd get $2 off your B1G1 (one dollar off each box). However, if your store doubles coupons, you'd get $4 off your B1G1. Which means you'd pretty much get both boxes for free, or very very little. And many times, with a sale and a doubled coupon, you can come out on top, or with an "overage." These are called money-makers in the couponing world. I've gotten lots of things this way! If you end up with an overage, it's sort of like a bonus coupon; the extra pennies (or dimes!) roll over to the next item. Last week Wal-Mart actually paid me to take a few items!

It takes a little bit of time to go through your sales papers to find items on sale, and match them up with your coupons. And if you get really into it, you'll start comparing sales papers from store to store, to really find the deals. However, this only works if the stores are close together, so you don't spend your 'savings' on gas and time driving from store to store. There are a few websites out there that will do the coupon-matching for you, so all you have to do is go online and look at the list. One of these is The Grocery Game. I have a few older posts that explain this in detail. It really works! The main thing about the Grocery Game list is that it has all sale items, including close-out items. Grocery stores can't possibly fit every item on sale in their weekly flier- they typically just print the ones that will either bring in more shoppers, or make them the most money.
Another good site is SouthernSavers.com. She does a good job of posting sales from a number of stores, both grocery and drug. Another good place to check is MoneySavingMom.com. The Money Saving Mom will make multiple posts every day about various sales and freebies. And, of course, there's CouponMom.com where you can print out hoardes of coupons for free!

The key to couponing is that it helps you build up your pantry and freezer so that you should never have to pay full-price for an item again. It's all about stockpiling. Sales run in cycles, about every 3-4 weeks. So, when an item goes on sale, I try to buy enough that I think I will need in the next 4 weeks, so I don't have to go out and buy it full price. And if I've bought multiple papers, I can use coupons on top of the sales, to get all the items at rock-bottom price. Here's a few photos of my pantry and freezer, to show that I've got a good stockpile going. If something happened where I couldn't go to the store (or we ran out of money), I wouldn't worry as much because we've got enough food stockpiled so that we could probably go two weeks without going to the store.

As you can see above, we don't have a spare inch of space left in the freezer, so I'm having to hold off on frozen items for a while. Hopefully in the next few months we can use our savings to buy a chest freezer.

And let me tell you folks, nothing tastes better in the world than FREE FOOD (or at least food you got really really cheap!)

Brown Sugar Twists

2009-01-26T11:09:00.003-05:00

Here's a cheap recipe for a Saturday morning breakfast treat! All you need is one can of the crescent roll dough, some butter, some brown sugar, a little bit of powdered sugar, and milk.

Roll out the dough to erase the seams in the crescent rolls so you have one big piece of dough. Melt some butter, enough to put a thin layer on the dough. Sprinkle brown sugar onto the dough, and rub it in a little bit to smooth it out over the dough. Cut into 1" wide strips so that you have several strips of dough that are about 1" x 6". Take each strip and twist it to make a cute little twisty thingy (hard to explain!). Bake in the oven according to the dough directions. While it's baking, mix a little bit of powdered sugar with a little bit of milk to make the icing. You want it thick enough to hold its shape, but thin enough to drizzle. Once the twists come out of the oven, drizzle the glaze over the top. And enjoy!!

You can usually get a can of crescent rolls (with a coupon) for around a dollar, and the butter, sugar, and milk are all things that you most likely have in the pantry. So here's a breakfast treat for a dollar or two! One can of rolls will make about six or eight strips, depending on how wide you cut your strips.

Here's a pic from the Money Saving Mom website, this is what they look like before baked and glazed:

Honey-Baked Chicken

2009-01-26T11:02:00.002-05:00

Here's a fast, easy, cheap, and yummy chicken recipe. It can be made two ways: quick, or a little bit longer.

Quick:

In a square glass pan, put one stick of butter, and oh, about a cup of honey. Put your chicken breasts in the pan, and cook until it's done (I usually flip the chicken halfway through). Here's what I do: I use the Tyson tenderloins that are individually frozen. There's about 15 pieces in a bag for around 8 dollars, and it lasts us a few weeks. I put about four or five pieces in the pan, and cook it from frozen for 30 minutes. I just make sure there's enough butter and honey to almost cover the chicken.
Average cost for the meal:
About 2.50 for the chicken, .50 for one stick of butter, and mere pennies for a cup of honey...so about 3 or 4 bucks, plus any sides.

A litte bit longer:

In a saucepan, combine one stick butter, one cup honey, one cup honey dijon mustand, and 1/2 cup finely chopped onion. Cook/saute' until onions start browning. Pour into glass pan, then add chicken. Cook until chicken is done! It's got a little bit more flavor, but you add more ingredients ($) and have to wash another pan (boooo!) However, you can get more than one batch of chicken (about 3) out of one thing of honey dijon mustard, and one onion doesn't cost much.

Enjoy!

Gazelle Intense

2009-01-26T10:38:00.002-05:00

Here's the first update on how our Total Money Makeover is coming along: Fantastic!! You would not believe how well it is working. We've been at it just around three weeks, and have paid down $1,000 in debt, put a few hundred in savings, and have been able to put money in the collection plate at church for the first time in a looooong time. On top of that...we have money left over at the end of the pay period!!! And y'all, we don't have any more money coming in! I haven't gotten another job, we haven't had a yard sale...none of that. We just got smart about money, created a budget (and stuck with it), and decided we were going to get 'gazelle intense'. We've started to treat our money with respect, and watch every dollar we spend. And most importantly we've gone after this carefully and prayerfully. We've got the debt snowball rolling, and will actually have one (but probably two) of our three credit cards paid off in two months. We're going after this, guys! It's amazing to go to sleep at night not at all stressed. It's done wonders for our marriage (not that it was bad to begin with, now it's just better!) We've gone from having literally 5 bucks in the bank the night before payday, to having way more than enough. As Dave Ramsey says, "it's just gravy." It goes right into savings. I can't wait for the day when I can give to all the charities I want to...the SPCA, Harvest Hope (our local food bank), March of Dimes, St. Jude, and the list goes on...

For those of you out there doing this program too, get intense! You can do it. I can do it. Imagine that day when we are free from the burden of debt, and can give to our churches, give to our communities, and go to sleep at night with a full heart.

Deuteronomy 15:10-11
"Give generously to him and do so without a grieving heart; then because of this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to. There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command to you to be openhanded toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land."

A Letter to the President

2009-01-25T22:26:00.002-05:00

Like many of my friends, I find myself at a loss for words when talking about our new President. I've read many prayers, many letters, and many hate-filled articles, all concerning President Obama. It's been hard for me to find one that fits my feelings, but this one I saw on Shannon's blog says it pretty well.

Letter

While I didn't vote for him, it doesn't mean that I will be against everything he says or does. I don't dislike the man, but instead dislike the views. He's a loving husband, and obviously a devoted father. He's just a man doing what he thinks is right, and is providing for his family. Which is more than we can say about a lot of other men out there. I'm not going to be a sore loser and automatically criticize his every move. Just because I don't like what he's doing doesn't mean I can't respect who he is as a man. Everybody has their right to their own opinions and beliefs, and that's what makes this nation great.

However, as a Christian I cannot support a good many of his ideas, beliefs, and motives. As a Christian (and an American) is it my duty to pray for our nation's leader. And like the letter says, pray that President Obama knows that there is only one God here, only one Saviour, and that it's not him, it's the Lord.

So, pray. Pray for the President, his family, and our nation, as we enter a truly remarkable and historical era in history.

Seriously? Seriously!!!

2009-01-25T22:15:00.003-05:00

Okay, y'all, I'm gonna make the first negative post in history of this blog. Please, don't hold it against me, in fact, just read, and you'll see why!

I'm really really big into using reusable shopping bags, and I take them everywhere. I refuse to use the plastic bags! They cost too much to make, and cost even more to recycle, so I just plain don't use them. Not to mention I don't have to store them, either.

So, today on my CVS run, I took a bag with me. I gave it to the lady and said, "Here's my bag." I suppose I was being bold and assuming when I thought she understood that I wanted to actually USE the bag.

Here's what I bought:

2 Shampoos

2 Lipsticks

One loaf of bread

One gallon of milk

All which would have EASILY fit in the bag. Here's how she packed it. And Andrew has the appropriate response!!

Yes, folks, she actually packed the cloth bag IN the plastic CVS bag. And then proceeded to put a gallon of milk in a bag of its own. Are you freaking KIDDING ME?! I had to take a picture of it so that all of you would believe me.

A Little Boy's Dream, Part II

2009-01-25T22:12:00.003-05:00

Well, as if last week's big bulldozers weren't enough, today there was a real live fire truck parked in the street in front of the house! It even had its lights on! We took him out to the front yard to get a close-up. Of course, with everything these days, it was "MINE!"

My Buddy and Me

2009-01-25T22:02:00.007-05:00

While we were at Nana's, Jackson came over for a few days! We're not quite sure what we call Jackson...he's not Andrew's cousin, not uncle, not brother....Let me explain. Jackson is my cousin, but he's three years old. So, Jackson isn't really Andrew's first cousin, so would he be second cousin, maybe removed a time? Who knows...what matters is that Andrew and Jackson are a year apart, so they've got lots in common.

This week we went to Monkey Joe's! It was Andrew's first time, and it was a little overwhelming, he's never been on inflated stuff, so he pretty much just stuck to the edges so he could hold on. He did enjoy driving the school bus with Jackson!

He was very interested in counting the letters and numbers in the toddler area (rather count than play...?...MIT here we come!) He did sorta get the hang of things after he found his "sea legs."

But, he decided he'd had enough...which explains the look of distress!

All this playing sure makes a boy sleepy. So sleepy, in fact, that you fall asleep with a sippy cup in your mouth!

Rub A Dub

2009-01-25T21:59:00.004-05:00

We spent the week at my mom's house while Brian was out of town, and we had a great time! Nana has a great big garden tub with Jacuzzi jets. We've learned that you really don't need that much bubble bath to get some serious suds going!

Rice O' Mania Revisited

2009-01-17T12:28:00.004-05:00

It's a cold day. We're stuck inside on a Saturday. Any other Saturday we'd be all over town, visiting friends and their animals. Like the chickens, the goats, the occasional horse. But since it has yet to break the freezing mark, we're shut inside. Going slightly crazy.

I thought we'd bring the rice back out. For those of you who read the original "Rice O'Mania," you might be chuckling. No worries. It is under control. We've started using a cheap picnic table cloth under the rice, so clean up is a whiz. And we've definately started to understand what Mommy means when she says to "keep the rice IN the bucket."

A Little Boy's Dream

2009-01-17T12:21:00.004-05:00

When you are a little boy, your life pretty much revolves around few things: food, Mommy, the dog, and trucks/cars/trains. This little boy absolutely lives and breathes cars, trucks, tractors, and choo-choos. So you can imagine what it would be like when there are no less than four tractors and three dump trucks parked in front of your house!

I came home from the grocery store last Saturday to see a little head peeking out over the windowsill, face pressed to the glass, staring at the street. The street department was doing routine maintenance on our road- scraping the edges, re-digging ditches, the general to-do. Lucky for Andrew, we have over 100 feet of drainage ditch along the front of our house! So you can imagine how he must have felt he won the lottery. All these trucks, at HIS house!

Even Duke got in on the excitement!

Something Greater

2009-01-13T10:08:00.002-05:00

I've gotten to the point now that when I go to the grocery store, I'm not at all embarassed to take my 3-ring binder full of coupons. I used to just pull the ones I needed out, and leave the book in the car. Which is fine, until I end up making 3 or 4 trips through the store because I found another deal, and had to go back to the car to get the coupon. So, I got over that! But you'd be surprised that it's turned out to be a positive experience, and it has started many a conversation! Mainly with little old ladies! Just a few days ago, an old woman saw me flipping though the pages and said, "Honey, they've just about taken all the fun out of life, haven't they? I remember when I was 9 or 10, I used to walk down to the store and get a 10 pound bag of sugar for 40 cents. You know what that costs now?" Sweet gal. But it's true, these days you have to work a little harder for a buck, and it doesn't stretch as far.
When I clip coupons, I clip just about every one, even if I don't use that product or don't have dentures (not yet, at least), because you just never know. I blessed a lady at WalMart yesterday with a honking-big coupon, $3 off a bag of dog food that she already had in her cart. I don't use that brand, so I gave it to her. (Another thing that wouldn't have happened had I not gotten over my 'this binder is dorky' complex.) It made me feel so good! I had a stupid grin on my face the rest of my Walmart trip. Which apparently is not a big deal at Walmart, walking around looking stupid. In fact, it was kinda like camouflage!
My biggest blessing so far was at Reid's (South Carolina's Food Lion). There was a young Hispanic couple with a little girl about Andrew's age, looking at Huggies diapers and counting their money. I pulled up next to them, and handed them my $1.50 of Huggies diapers and 50 cents off Huggies wipes. I knew they didn't speak English, but they were so grateful! They kept saying "thank you" repeatedly. My lil' ol' heart just swelled. All I did was give them a coupon! And it really wasn't a sacrifice, we don't use Huggies, but I clipped it anyways. Who knows, maybe it was a Divine thing, God wanting me to clip them to give to this couple. I just wish I knew Spanish, then I could tell them that they could use the coupon on the larger size (that was on sale) and it would save them more money. But they coulnd't read the coupon, so just picked the diapers that matched the picture on the coupon. I need to learn Spanish.
I'm thinking that maybe this could be my ministry? I like to leave coupons that are about to expire on the shelves. Maybe somebody will pick them up? You never know who is going to need it, who needs the blessing.

Cha-Ching!

2009-01-12T12:44:00.002-05:00

I made a killing in deals yesterday at Bi-Lo (South Carolina's version of Kroger) and Food Lion. I got some great stuff! I wish I had taken a picture, because it even looked impressive! Here's what I got:

4 Juicy Juice, the large bottles
3 v-8 Splash
2 bottles of Huggies Toddler Wash
2 cans Campbell's Select Harvest Soup
2 boxes Nature Valley Granola Bars
3 bottles (large) of Palmolive Dish Soap
1 5 lb bag apples
1 package of strawberries
1 Gerber Entree'
1 Stouffer's Individual entree'
bananas

All for the grand total of : $23.90
With coupon/store special savings of: $37.89

I did have to go to Wal-Mart to get milk, meat, and cheese, but all combined, my grocery total for this week is $56! And even better, these groceries (in addition to what I already have) will get me through THREE WEEKS. Next week Andrew and I are spending the week in Atlanta at my mom's while Brian goes out of town, so that is a free week!

Here's the menu for this week:
Monday- Beef burritos, chips & salsa
Tuesday-Chicken, Potatos Julienne, Corn on the Cob, Green Beans
Wednesday-Meatloaf, Whole Grain mac & cheese, green beans, mashed potatos
Thursday- Potato Soup
Friday- Spaghetti
Saturday- Leftovers
Sunday- Leftovers

God's Working Here, Quiet Please!

2009-01-10T17:59:00.002-05:00

Y'all, let me just tell you that God is blessing us today. And He is working some magic in our lives in ways we can't explain. Here's the story:
Lately I've been really feeling like God's been working in me, turning my heart and putting a desire in me to gain control of our money, and of our house. I've been couponing like crazy, working the sales, and have started Flylady, which has helped me gain control of the house. I've been feeling this desire to be something greater, to do something more, to free myself from the bondage of debt. Jesus himself abhorred debt (He hated those tax-collectors, and so do I!)

A few weeks ago my husband and I decided that we needed to literally type out our budget (before now it was just in our heads-not accurate at all, folks) and treat it as law. We've done great so far, coming in under for each week. Then I checked out Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover from the library. Let's just say I read the entire thing in two sittings. My husband is now almost done with it too. We've decided to make our "budget" into something bigger than we ever thought. We're going to be 100% debt-free. We've pledged to each other to stick to the budget, no exceptions, none whatsoever. We're in this together, we'll suffer together (although so far we really haven't suffered at all, instead we've realized how blessed we are). It's amazing what you learn you can live without when you're working towards a greater goal. Judging by our careful, meticulous calculations, we'll be DEBT-FREE, including, INCLUDING the mortgage...in six years. Can you believe that? Can you imagine how liberating that is? Now I can definately go without that Coke to know that our 30 year mortgage is really only going to be a 9 year mortgage in the end. Wow.
So after we had this big budget pow-wow last night, we decided that instead of trying to upgrade when we move, we should buy a house that costs LESS than the one we have now. Just playing around, we starting looking up houses in an area that we would love to move to, but never thought we could find anything in the price range. We really haven't even looked at houses at all since we've listed our current house, but last night I just started looking. Y'all, in the neighborhood we love, there are at minimum ten houses UNDER our max. price. We can do this. We can be smart with our money, accumulate less debt, and have more cash readily available. This was very encouraging. We were able to go to bed last night with a much lighter heart, and a greater appreciation for money.
Then, to ice the cake, we woke up this morning and went to work in the yard, to do a little 'sprucing up' because the house is on the market. You can never spruce up too much when the house is for sale! As we were loading up a trailer full of stuff to throw away, a realtor called to say someone wanted TO SEE THE HOUSE TODAY! God Almighty. The house has been on the market for three months with no showings. And you tell me that the very week we surrender our money to God and work a budget, and accept the sacrifice (not to mention the very same time I claim control on my life and my house and have my shiny sink)...that very minute we give it all up to the Lord, we have a showing? You cannot tell me that this is not God working in our lives! We had 3 hours notice to show the house, and we worked our tails off for 2hours and 50minutes cleaning. And I do believe the showing went well, though we haven't talked to the agent yet. We can only pray.
It's a real life, personal example that if you let God take control, and trust Him, things WILL happen. He will choose to bless you, and it's far greater a blessing than you would have imagined, but you have to be ready to accept the blessing. I cannot WAIT to see what's in store for us in these next few months. Never before has God been more front and center in our lives!

My Shiny Sink

2009-01-08T10:54:00.000-05:00

For those of you who know me, and have been to my house, you know that I am a neat freak and am almost obsessive about how my house looks. However, if you look a little harder, you'll also see that the house is teetering on the edge of going out of control! While the carpet may be vaccumed and toys put up, the floors are WAY overdue to be mopped, and the bathroom can be scary in a certain type of light. The beds are made, but if you look closer, you'll see they probably have a ncie layer of white dog hair. My refridgerator is clean on the inside, but don't you dare look in my laundry room.
This year, in order to gain a little bit of control over my house (and quite possibly my life), I'm going to take Baby Steps with the help of flylady. The FlyLady presents baby steps that you can take to keep things under control, especially when you feel like you've lost control! No more being overwhelmed by all the things that need to be done. The mess didn't just sprout up overnight while I was sleeping. It quite possibly took 3 years, so it certainly isn't going to fix itself in one day.

The first step is one I have CONQUERED! Every night before you go to bed, shine your sink. You don't have to wash the dishes, stack them on the counter. But shine your sink. It takes one very thorough cleaning, but after that, it's just a little bit of spot cleaning. Then, in the morning, you walk into your kitchen, to a clean, SHINY, empty sink. I've done this for about a week, and it really does make a difference. In the mornings, before you really and truly wake up, just the slightest little thing, like a mess in the sink, can set your mood for the whole day. Now, waking up to a shiny, spotless sink makes me feel like I've already conquered something for the day!

The other step I've mastered is to make my bed the moment I get out of it. And POOF! The bedroom looks clean, neat, and organized, just by making the bed! Just by spending 10 minutes the night before shining my sink, and 5 minutes in the morning making the bed, I have TOTAL control over two things! After working the BabySteps into your daily routine, by setting goals, little by little you add to your list of things you have under complete control. It's quite liberating!

And y'all, I really wish you could see my sink. It's something else!

Got Expired Coupons? Check this out!

2009-01-06T19:34:00.000-05:00

If you are anything like me, you HATE throwing away coupons! I mean, somebody, somewhere, would have used it! And I really hate it when they expire before I can use them. So, here's a way you can help others by passing the coupons you either don't use, or ones that are expired on!
Military bases and posts will accept expired coupons for up to 6 months after they expire! And, as an Army child, I know that being in the military can sometimes be tough on the wallet, especially if a spouse is deployed. In many cases, the spouse at home has to leave his/her job to take care of the children while the other spouse is overseas. And living on one income can be especially taxing (no pun intended!) overseas where some products are outrageously more expensive than here in the USA.
This website has a list of different military installations where you can send your expired/unused coupons. All it costs you is an envelope and a slightly more expensive stamp.
My goal is to cut EVERY coupon (even the ones I won't use) out, and send what I don't use overseas. It's better than throwing it in the trash!

http://www.ocpnet.org/base_list.htm

16 Things You Didn't Know

2009-01-06T19:29:00.001-05:00

This was a fun little thing I had going around on Facebook. It's a way to get to know random things about your friends! Here it is, republished, for those of you who either don't do Facebook, or haven't read it. I'd love to see what your "16 Things You Didn't Know" look like!

1. I am the only person in my immediate family that has red hair. I hated it with a passion until just recently, when I finally accepted that it wasn't going to turn blonde (oh how I wished I were blonde when I was young!).
2. I have a horrible, horrible self-image. I feel like people stare at me all the time and judge me!3. I am sometimes so insanely empathetic and compassionate that it consumes me! I will cry my lil eyes out if I get to thinking that there might be a stray cat outside that is cold. I used to carry around a bag of dog/cat food in my trunk in case I found an animal that was homeless or hungry.
4. I do not like to watch sci-fi or fantasy movies, I just don't understand why watching the world being taken over by aliens would be entertaining. Isn't reality frightening enough? (One hugely major exception would be the Twilight series.)
5. I am an Army brat; I have lived in/or visted 48 of the 50 states. Hawaii and North Dakota are the two I have not been to. I lived in Alaska for four years.
6. I am secretly glad I had a c-section. The thought of delivering Andrew through the hidey-hole scared the daylights out of me! My next baby (no, not pregnant, just planning) will also be c-section. It's not a fear of pain (I have a very high tolerance, I didn't even fill prescriptions for c-section meds or surgery meds!) but a fear of unknown.
7. I absolutely love to sleep. I would rather sleep than eat or bathe. Not lazy, just looooove sleeping.
8. I am a speed reader. I can read entire novels in 2 or 3 hours, and remember details.I also have a photographic memory of people, mostly just faces but often I remember their names too. 9. I am a neat freak almost to the point of OCD. I probably don't sit down for more than an hour during the whole day because I am cleaning or organizing something. I love to rearrange furniture, and do it about every 3-4 months, just so I can clean underneath it and organize!
10. When I was 9 months old I went down concrete basement stairs in a walker, and fractured my skull!
11. I once went to Montana and worked on a horse ranch, learned to rope, and branded calves. It was the ranch that the Horse Whisperer worked at (yes, the movie). I wore chaps and a cowboy hat and rode horses through the wilderness in the snow. I LOVE my cowboy boots, and I still wear them. Even to Wal-Mart.
12. Re-read number 11, now read this: I am HORRIBLE at riding horses, BAD. And I don't enjoy it. I honest to goodness don't like forcing a horse to wear a saddle and bridle and bit, just for my human riding enjoyment. (Which goes back to #3). I am much happier cleaning out a stall, feeding, and grooming...making life MORE enjoyable for the horse. Oh, how I want to be a cowgirl, and live in a farmhouse in Wyoming, go to the rodeos on Friday night, and sit on my porch and watch the sunset while the kids are playing in the yard. But I don't want to ride the horses!
13. I am extremely frugal. Rarely do I pay full price for anything, especially groceries. I actually have a 3 ring binder with dividers to hold all my coupons. I also make a lot of food from scratch, I buy in bulk at the farmers market, I make my own bread, I can fruits, veggies, and jams with food I grew, and I make a lot of my own gifts like candles and stuff. I even collect fresh eggs from my neighbors, and steal poop from peoples fields around my house for my compost pile!
14. I have an over-active imagination. Sometimes I can imagine things in such minute detail that it feels real to me. For example, I might start thinking about a loved one dying, and will think about it to the point that I cry and feel actual pain.
15. I have helped catch and band three rare hummingbirds in my yard, and I've even gotten to hold them.
16. I was once an extra in a TV show called "I'll Fly Away" when I was in middle school. I was also a model for KMart (or was it Target?) when I was a toddler.

Pass it on!

This Week's Menu

2009-01-06T19:24:00.000-05:00

This week we didn't have to buy groceries! Thanks to the Grocery Game and all my stockpiling, we were able to just buy perishables (mainly milk and yogurt) this week. Those first couple of weeks after Christmas are rough on the wallet, so I decided this week would be our week to use what we've stocked up on. So, for the entire menu, I only had to buy a gallon of milk!

Monday: Honey Baked Chicken, Broccoli & Rice, Mashed Potatos, and Whole Wheat Dinner Rolls
Tuesday: Spaghetti, Garlic Bread
Wednesday: Hashbrown Casserole, Biscuits, Scrambled Eggs
Thursday: Meatloaf, Corn on the Cob, Green Bean Casserole, Whole Wheat Biscuits
Friday: Chicken Broccoli & Brown Rice Casserole, Mashed Potatos, Peas
Saturday: Soup & Grilled Cheese
Sunday: Leftovers!

So you can see that by stockpiling, I'm not just storing up stuff like chips and junk food. I have enough (and then some) to make a week's worth of good, nutritious, filling food. If I got creative, I could probably stretch it for two weeks. Seriously, y'all, THE GROCERY GAME!

An Unlikely Scenario

2009-01-04T13:20:00.000-05:00

This is a very RARE occurance: the cat, lying happily, in Andrew's lap. May (the cat) usually takes great pains to avoid Andrew, so we were very very surprised when we walked into the living room one night to see that she had put herself in Andrew's lap! May is a pretty ferocious being, she's got all her claws, and hunts and kills outside all day long. To see her willingly put herself up there was amusing! And Andrew obliginlgy allowed her to stay there, but he didn't move a muscle the whole time. Smart kid!

Movie Night

2009-01-04T13:11:00.000-05:00

Here's the boys having a Movie Night! They put their PJ's on, made some popcorn, and camped out on the couch to watch "Ice Age: The Meltdown." It was a nice deviation from our usual "Cars" showing!

It's okay, Daddy, don't be scared!

Nana's House

2009-01-04T12:52:00.000-05:00

We spent New Year's at Nana's house this year, and we had a lovely time. Nana and Bampa are very very good at spoiling. Here's a few shots of some things that were waiting for Andrew when he got there!

The first is a brand new big boy table and chairs, complete with the Cars characters! For those of you who don't know, we watch Cars at LEAST once a day. So sitting at a table with Lighting and Mater is a big deal! On top of the fabulous table was a dry-erase board that was just the right size! Here's Andrew overly worried about the marker on his fingers. He would point to it and say "Uh-oh, off"!

The next REALLY BIG thing was Andrew's very own recliner. Lately he's taken to wanting to sit on the couch or recliner by himself. My mom and dad found this kid-size one and bought it! He parked it right next to the big recliner, and stretched out.

I forsee many a night spent watching Cars and eating popcorn!

The Grocery Game

2008-12-15T15:37:00.000-05:00

For those of you who haven't checked it out, you really SHOULD see what Grocery Game is all about. It's a way to slash 50-60% off your grocery bill. I've managed to get mine down to around $55-65 a week! In a nutshell, it's a program that takes sales papers from the stores you shop at, and combines the sale prices/items with coupons found in the Sunday paper. It puts all the items in a nice, organized list that will show you original price, sale price, and which coupon to use, and then shows you the end price, with the percentage saved. For example:

This week at Bi-Lo, Betty Crocker potatos are on sale. These are the boxed potatos that make Au Gratin, Scalloped, etc potatos. The original price is $1.75/box. They are on sale 10/$10, so $1 a box. Then, I add a coupon for $0.35 off a box, which is then doubled by the store. So, $1 minus my doubled coupon ($0.70) is $0.30 a box!! I had four of these coupons, so I bought four boxes of potatos for $1.20, which would normally cost me $7.00!

Check out the website, www.thegrocerygame.com to see if it will work for you. If you sign up, you get a four week trial for $1. The lists are put up every Sunday afternoon for the week. So you'll get four lists for just trying it out, for one dollar! Then, if you decide you like it, it's $10 for two months for one store. If you shop at two stores, the second store is only an additional $5 for two months. I have two store lists, so I pay $15 for two months, at $7.50 a month. And this week alone I had $43 in savings at the grocery store, so it more than paid for my subscription! And please, if you do sign up, list me as a reference, and I'll get credit!

Let me know if it works out for you!!

The Ever Elusive Christmas Card Picture

2008-12-15T15:33:00.000-05:00

We've been trying for weeks to get a good picture of Andrew that is worthy of a Christmas card. For those of you who have kids, you know that getting a two-year old, clean, happy, and standing still, all the while looking at the camera and smiling is pretty much a shot in the dark. So here are two pictures I got that I think might just make it to the Christmas card.

Rice O'Mania

2008-12-03T10:13:00.003-05:00

First lesson learned: just because he knows the rules, doesn't mean he will follow them.

We have a rice tub that we use as an 'inside sand table' during the cold weather. It's basically a rubbermaid storage container, about 6" deep, that we fill with rice. He has some little shovels, cups, funnels, etc. that he can use to play with. It's actually a great thing, and was cheap. A ten pound bag was around seven bucks, and we had the container lying around, along with cups and stuff. It helps with motor skills, imaginative play, and also teaches them about space (full vs. empty). Love it! Execpt for today. We've tried to teach him that the rice stays IN the bucket....

I put the tub of rice with him in the living room and turned on his TV show, thinking, I'll just vaccum the bedrooms while he does this...HOW MUCH TROUBLE COULD HE GET INTO IN 15 MINUTES.

When I returned, I could not believe what had happened. Almost every since ounce of a TEN POUND bag of rice was on the floor. And honey, I mean it was everywhere. We have hardwood floors, so you can imagine how far that rice went. I said "ANDREW!!!" He looked up at me, in his sweet, innocent face, and said "Uh-oh!" like the rice had jumped out of the bucket on its own free will! I got out the vaccum, and learned my second lesson.

Second lesson learned: You cannot use a vaccum on hardwood floors to pick up rice.

The vaccum only slung a zillion tiny grains of rice to the faraway ends of the earth. I'm still sweeping.

Oh Christmas Tree

2008-12-03T08:29:00.000-05:00

We've already decorated the house for Christmas! It's tradition in our family to wait until after Thanksgiving, just out of respect for the turkey, I suppose. However, we don't wait long...usually we wake up the morning after and begin! This year, however, begins a new era of decorating. Last year Andrew wasn't walking or crawling, so we didn't have any issues with the tree. Maybe a few presents got unwrapped pre-Dec. 25th, but no big deal. We decided to try a new idea...

We put a tree in his room, just for him. It's a little 5-footer, a scrawny little thing. He put his ornaments on it, mostly stars and bells. He's allowed to play with those ornaments, take them off, put them on, etc. But the big tree is off limits. So far, it's working. However, that little tree in his room has been 'felled' about three times! We have to figure out how to anchor it to the wall or floor so it won't keep falling!! I'd rather that little tree fall on him than the big one though, so we're going to count blessings on this one!

Here is a RARE picture of mommy with her boy....we've got buckets of pictures with daddy, but a handful with me. You mothers know exactly what I'm talking about! Like men don't know how to use a camera...

The Birthday Boy

2008-12-03T08:23:00.000-05:00

LOOK WHO IS TWO!

I know this is oh, about 3 weeks late, but y'all can understand with the holiday craziness! November is a wacky, busy month for us! It actually starts on Halloween (which is a big deal for us, we like to decorate the house!) After Halloween, it's two weeks until Andrew's birthday, and then two weeks after Andrew's birthday is Thanksgiving, and then one month later is Christmas! So you can see how things start to accelerate back in October!

Anyhow, we had a great time at his Go, Diego, Go! party! It was mostly a family affair but some of his little buddies came to see him. As our camera is currently MIA, we don't have any pictures at hand, but I've salvaged a few from emails from family. By far his favorite new toy is his choo-choo...the train table! His Nana and Grandpa spoiled him good, didn't they?

Things I Am Thankful For

2008-11-25T17:13:00.001-05:00

In light of Thanksgiving Day, I decided to make a list of things that I am thankful for. We often spend so much time harping on things that are going wrong or complaining about things we don't have. I'm hoping that I'll post this list, and when I start to get caught up in the Christmas mayhem (and we all know I will) I can come back to this and remind myself to be grateful and humbled. A little scripture to set the mood:

I Thessalonians 5:16-18
"Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."

Things I Am Thankful For:
*Christ's love for me.
*My family, who loves me unconditionally.
*A house that we can still make payments on (in light of the whole mortgage crisis).
*A house that is warm - by our standards, warm, though it's hard to heat an un-insulated house. However, there are people (such as our neighbors) who can't afford the heat.
*A healthy, happy little boy, who, in spite of his streak on independance, loves me and needs me (though he needs me a little less every day).
*My husbands job; a constant paycheck is a luxury many don't have; and the ability for me to stay at home during Andrew's early years.
*Food on the table...good, hot, nutritious food. (And a side thanks to the Grocery Game, y'all, seriously, I've cut 50 bucks off my weekly grocery bill!)
*The support of an extended family and friends.

And the list can go on and on, but I felt these were the biggest, most important things I'm thankful for. Sure, we could use more money or more clothes or a nicer car, but in truth, we have all we need in Christ alone, and He sees to it that we have what we need.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! What are YOU thankful for?

My Little Cassanova

2008-11-20T20:56:00.001-05:00

Andrew has been quite the little Cassanova at his Mother's Morning Out class lately. Apparently he's been juggling two "girlfriends", Savannah and Ava Claire. I went to pick him up today, and Andrew and Ava Claire were standing together in the corner of the room. His teacher, Miss Katie, reported that Ava Claire had planted a good one on him earlier, and they've been attached at the hip ever since! We knew he was a looker...but seriously, it's church!

Tonight we were doing our usual nightly rough-housing before bed (to burn up all that leftover energy) and ended with a question/answer session, that went something like this:

Me: Do you love Mommy?
A: Nooo

Me: Do you love Daddy?
A: Noooo

Me: Duke?
A: Noooo

Me: How about Diego (go, diego go!)?
A: Noooo

Me: Lightning McQueen (cars)?
A: Noooo

Me: Do you love Ava Claire?
A: OOOhhh weeee ooo!

And so it begins....Won't those teenage years be quite the show?!

Recipe for a Cold Night (A Cheap One, too!)

2008-11-17T14:07:00.001-05:00

Now that it's nice and cold outside, it's time to bust out the soup and stew recipes. Here's a good one that I adapted from a recipe of my Mom's and one online. It's for a creamy Potato Soup:

Ingredients:
One 32oz carton of chicken broth (or three cans)
About 6-9 peeled potatos, cut into small chunks
One can of corn
About 1/2 diced onion
About 1/4-1/2 cup whipping cream
Cheddar cheese, shredded

Put the chicken broth and all cut potatos in a large pot, cook on medium until the potatos are soft enough to mash (typically about 20-30 min). I use a potato masher to make the soup pretty creamy, but if you like chunky soup, then don't mash the potatos too much. As long as they are soft, it'll taste fine!
After potatos are cooked through, add the whipping cream and shredded cheddar cheese. This helps thicken the soup up, and give it some more flavor. Add cheese as much or as little as you want. Also, salt and pepper to taste! One batch is more than enough for my husband and I, generally there is enough leftover for him to take to lunch the next day.
It's very filling, and is full of veggies! And, fairly inexpensive to make. For example, this week our grocery store had a bag of potatos, 10 pounds for 3.99! And ten pounds of potatos would make probably 3 or 4 batches of soup. Canned corn typically goes for .79-.99 each, and the onions can also be bough in bulk for a low price. I would guess that one batch of soup only costs us about 4 dollars to make, give or take for sale prices!

A Good Day at CVS!

2008-11-17T13:49:00.000-05:00

For those of you who don't have the CVS/Extra Care card, you need to get one! I have saved hundreds of dollars at CVS just this year alone! The extra care card is simply like the KrogerPlus card, or the Food Lion MVP card. It's a FREE program that gives you discounts and free money, all for shopping at their store. They give out rewards in the form of Extra Bucks, which is basically a gift-card to use in the store. Each week they designate a few items that you can earn the extra bucks on. Typically, it will say something like this, Buy One Herbal Essence Shampoo, get $2 Extra Bucks. So, if the shampoo was $3.99, it would almost be like getting it for $1.99. However, you can't use the extra buck on the current purchase. For example, if you got a $2 extra buck coupon at the end of your reciept, the NEXT time you purchase something at CVS, give them the coupon and you get $2 off your total purchase. It's free money!
Basically, what you do is read the weekly circulars to see what is on sale that week for ExtraCare customers. Then, to maximize your savings, you match the coupons you find in your Sunday paper to the sales. Here's an example:

This week, I didn't need to many items because of good sales the past few weeks. Here's what I got:

2 RightGuard deoderant sticks: regularly 4.49 ea, on sale for 2.99, and buy one/get $2 extra buck, PLUS a 55 cent off coupon on each container....what would have originally been 8.98 for both sticks, I got for 88 cents! I had to pay 4.88 out of pocket, but walked away with $4 in extra bucks, so I basically got them for 88 cents!

Batteries, one 8-pack of AA, two 4-packs of AAA, and one pack of 9-V: batteries were regularly 7.99 each pack, but were on sale for 5.99, plus if you spent $20 on batteries you get $15 extra bucks, PLUS I had a coupon for $5.00 any two packs of batteries. So, what would have originally been $31.96, I got for $3.96! I had to pay $18.96 out of pocket, but walked away with $15 in extra bucks!

So, the next time I go to CVS, I have $19 in extra bucks that I can use on my next purchase. So if my next purchase is $24, I use my extra bucks and only pay $5!

The trick is to read the sale paper, and add any coupons you have on TOP of the sale price. CVS doesn't double coupons, but most grocery stores do, so you can get even bigger savings. Occasionally I'll hit the jackpot and the store will essentially PAY me to take that item! I got a can off cresent rolls last week for free PLUS 4 cents. They paid me 4 cents to take the rolls!

It only takes about 30 minutes each Sunday to clip coupons and read the circulars. For me, 30 minutes is worth all the money I save!

Future Trashman

2008-11-11T21:40:00.000-05:00

People always told me while I was pregnant, that when you have a child, anything you say or do can be used against you, and it's usually your child that will use it. And probably in a time or place where it is least appropriate. Fortunately, Andrew isn't talking, well...not clearly enough for anyone other than myself or Brian to understand him, at least. However, he has picked up on a few of our 'quirks'.
Here's a little background info: We have a dog named Duke. He's a perfect dog in respect to how he acts around Andrew. He's let Andrew throw things at him, poke him, punch him, sit on him, and he even lets Andrew take FOOD out of his MOUTH! Duke will have a special set of wings in heaven for the sacrifices he's made here.
However...The dog is a gluttonous beast! He steals food any time he has the chance, even if I walk out to the mailbox, he runs to the pantry to see what he can pull off the shelf. Nothing surprises us anymore when we come home from running errands. So, I wasn't at all fazed when I came home from church today to find that Duke had pulled the bag of cat food all the way into the living room and eaten the entire bag! He left the bag in the floor, apparently in a few pieces. After Andrew had his lunch and was in his crib sleeping, I went back into the living room to clean up the cat food bag. But it wasn't there!
I had noticed lately that Andrew had taken a great interest in throwing things in the trash. I consider myself a neat person, but in no way a 'fanatic' about neatness. Cleanliness, yes, neatness, not so much. I mean, I have a two-year old, toys will always be in the floor! I do like a pick-up generally uncluttered house, though. Apparently Andrew has watched me so often pick up trash and throw it away, that he took it upon himself to pick up the torn bag of cat food, carry it all the way to the trash can, and throw it away!
After a good laugh, I stood in wonder in amazement at what I had 'taught' my child, not through lectures or lessons, but through my actions. It was an eye-opening experience, because I suddenly realized that he's at the age where it's not what I tell him, but also what I show him, that makes the difference. It's more important now than ever before to show my son how to love the Lord, respect others, and learn how to be a Christian in a world that doesn't always support it!