Friday, March 30, 2007

Budget Day!

I feel so accomplished tonight. I sat down for a couple of hours and completed our household budget for April and an allocated spending plan for each pay check. Ryan and I have been working so hard to eliminate all of our debt, and we couldn't have done it without Dave Ramsey and his website, www.mytotalmoneymakeover.com. I love not having to figure out what to do on my own......Dave has already figured it out for me. We just have to stick to the plan and get serious. And that is what we are doing! I can't wait to call Dave Ramsey's radio show and yell on the air, "WE'RE DEBT FREE!"

Real Moms.......

Wow, this post was probably the furthest from my mind 5 minutes ago, but after visiting my best friend Laura's blog and reading about her loss of an unborn child...I felt compelled to share, too. We lost our unborn baby almost 6 years ago, only a couple of weeks after finding out we were going to be parents. We were not prepared for the grief of that loss, nor were we expecting to spend several years of our early adult life battling all that goes along with realizing that you will probably never conceive. To this day, Ryan keeps a picture of us in Tortola taken during our very short pregnancy. Those were the hardest years of my life. And, they seem to have taken place a lifetime ago....For today, I am a mom. A REAL mom! Jacob's mom. I didn't know it then, but God had a better plan for us, and I am still in awe of how he brought together our little family of 3. I will never forget the first time I was alone with Jacob.......he was just hours old, and I got to rock him for the first time. And that was just the beginning! Praise God!

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Bread Day.......

Well, tonight I embarked on my 3rd baking of Amish Friendship Bread. My bestest friend, Laura, gave me a baggie of starter about a month ago, and I have been squishing, baking, and sharing bread ever since. My latest apprentice, my mom, called tonight as she eagerly waited for her bread to bake in the oven........nevermind that she only made 3 baggies of new starter instead of 4, used a METAL bowl, and used cook and serve pudding mix instead of instant. Needless to say, she hasn't called back to let me know how it all turned out. And, she had big plans for this bread. Poor Don is expecting some WONDERFUL bread to eat for breakfast each morning.........Good Luck, Mom.........I still believe in you. This is all from the same woman who makes THE best fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and a whole bunch of other yummy things. All of which, she has not made for me in quite awhile! So, watch out! YOU might be the next lucky woman to receive a bag of Amish Friendship Bread.............it is more than the joy of baking fresh bread every 10 days for your family. It's the joy of listening to people freak out and gripe about having to squish and use all the ingredients in their house.

Sunday, March 18, 2007

My Stockpile.......



These are pics of my Stockpile (groceries I buy at dirt cheap prices)!

75% at Randalls

Spent: $14.04
Saved: $42.72 ($21.90 in coupons from newspaper)

Biggest deal:

2 boxes Playtex Tampons for $0.29 each.......WOW!
Joy dish soap for $0.10
4 Arrid deoderants for $0.50 each

I was very excited! I came home with 15 items including a 10 lb bag of potatoes and 4 boxes of Post cereal @ $1 each!

Saturday, March 17, 2007

SCORE!!!!!!!

Okay........in a previous post I mentioned my passion for couponing. Well, today I went on the mother of all grocery shopping trips, second only to one other time where I saved 67%. This evening at Krogers, I saved a whopping 64%! I spent $50.65 and SAVED $87.45! $48.58 of that savings was from the Kroger card discount, but almost $39 of that was in manufacturer coupons from the Sunday papers (I get the early Sunday Edition on Saturday afternoon)! So, what did I get for only $50.65 you ask................well:

For free:

3 10 packs of gum
2 single serving SPAM
1 box Kleenex
2 4-count packages of O-Celo sponges

And, for dirt cheap:

4 6-packs water
4 12-packs diet coke
2 Pilsbury cookie dough
2 Pilsbury crescent rolls
2 Pilsbury sweet rolls
2 refried beans
6 campbells soup
shredded cheese
Disney Yogurt
Quaker oatmeal bites
2 64-oz apple juice
2 gallons milk
tampons (sorry guys)
2 4-pack of Bic Advance Razors ($0.50 each!!)
3 packages lunch meat
2 zatarans rice
2 3-pack of Ivory soap ($0.25 each!)


And a few other things. Some people are danger junkies.......not me. Standing at the checkout counter while the cashier scans my coupons makes me shake in my shoes. Go check out the grocery game at www.grocerygame.com. Tell them I sent you by giving them my e-mail address: manda_teacher_tx@msn.com

See ya!

Friday, March 16, 2007

Toddler Moments










Well, full blown toddlerhood has been quite an adventure. Jacob is talking non-stop, and we can understand most of what he says. He has started feeding himself with a spoon/fork, and has become a VERY picky eater! He is also the #1 fan of the Australian Superstars.................the WIGGLES! His favorite toys are his Wiggle Car and most recently, his Wiggle Guitar. (Ryan is the #2 fan of the Wiggles!) He LOVES to play "Wake Up Jeff!," which involves someone pretending to be asleep and Jacob yelling, "Wake up, Daddy!" or "Wake up, Mommy!," just like the Wiggles yell at Jeff. He enjoys listening to stories, and will climb into our laps with a book for us to read to him. He loves going to school (daycare), and speaks often of his best friend, Kyle Pugh. Here are some recent pics of Jacob: reading on his "cycle" and feeding himself with a spoon!

Thursday, March 15, 2007

We are moving!

Well, after much urging from our downstairs neighbor (beating on his ceiling), we have found a much bigger house to rent! Apparently, our neighbor was bothered by Jacob's constant jumping, running, and driving his Wiggle car on the kitchen floor.......go figure?!? We are very pumped and can't wait to move the first of May. Now Jacob will be able to jump and run whenever he feels moved to.......which is quite often. The house is 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2 car garage, a formal dining room which will serve as Jacob's play hangout, and a nice study for Ryan.....what? you are wondering what I get out of the deal??? Well, I get my very own normal sized kitchen, an indoor utility room with...........hook-ups for my FULL size washer and dryer that have been sitting in storage for the past 2 1/2 years!!! Yipee! Now we can move my Grocery Game stockpile out of Jacob's closet and into our new pantry. More on the AWESOME world of couponing later.........Yes, folks, it doesn't take much to get me excited.

My Family


I love this picture..........Jacob was almost 2 weeks old and we had only been home to Texas for 2 days. We were at church, and this was our first Sunday to worship as a family of 3!



Now Jacob is almost 2 years old! He has grown so much.

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Hmmm...where to begin???

SPRING BREAK!!! Yes, this week is the long waited for spring break. I haven't done anything special according to the world's idea of what Spring Break should be, but I have enjoyed greatly getting to be a stay-at-home mom for at least a week! Causes me to ponder my Arkansas days when I would listen to Dr. Laura on the way home from teaching in little rock. Those of you who are familiar with Dr. Laura know what I am talking about. So here is a list of the things I have done this week:

scrubbed the shower
washed all the laundry
vacuumed
cooked a yummy pot roast (Thank you Homemade Gourmet)
read a book (WOW)
and most importantly.....took care of my precious son ALL DAY LONG
oh yeah..slept until after 7:00 am for the first time since Jacob was born!!!!