Time is going by...

So much faster now!  Aly is going to be three months old next week.  WOW!  In some ways it seems like just yesterday she was born, but in other ways it seems like she's always been here.

DH and I celebrated our second anniversary a couple weeks ago.  I can't believe we have already been married for two years.  He got me a camera so that I can take some pics of Aly :)  I have been having fun playing around with it on the weekends, and got some good shots last weekend:

This one is my favorite.  She's trying SO HARD to roll over.  If we lay her on her tummy she can roll to her back.  But from her back she can only get up on her side like this, and then spin around :)  She just can't quite figure out how to roll her hips and shoulders over all the way, but it won't be long now.  She's scooted off her playmat a few times already.  We are going to have to baby-proof the living room before Christmas, I'm afraid. 

Two months old!!

Aly turned two months old last week.  Time is really flying by!!  Here are her stats:

Height: 22.25''
Weight: 9lbs 10oz

So she's still a little peanut, but she went from the 3rd percentile to the 13th this time for her weight, and made the 48th percentile for her height.  Looks like she's going to take after her mommy & daddy and be a little string-bean until she becomes a teenager.

She loves smiling, and is working really hard on talking to us.  She coos and giggles, especially when we mock her facial expressions or her coos :)  There is nothing, NOTHING better than walking in to her room in the morning and getting greeted with a giant gummy grin.  It melts my heart every time!  She is working hard on her head control and likes to sit up in her Bumbo or sit on our laps and see what's going on around her.  She still hates tummy time and will flip herself over every time unless we hold her there.  But we did find out that she loves tummy time in the bathtub!!  She will kick and splash her legs and giggle (and of course I hold up her chest just in-case she decides to go face-first into the water).

We are working on sleeping through the night.  Over this last month we went from two feedings in the middle of the night down to one.  And the last few nights she has stopped actually waking up and just fusses in her sleep.  I was getting her anyway, but that was fully waking her up and making her mad.  So last night I just let her fuss, and after 30 minutes she went back to sleep.  She didn't wake up until 7!!

Last week Great Grandpa T came to visit from New Mexico.  He wanted to make a special trip out to see all five of the new babies :)  He's 91 so he does not travel very often and we don't know how many more visits we will have with him.  Great Grandpa really enjoyed Aly, and she had a great time with him too.  He loved holding her, and she decided his lap was a super comfy place to take a nap.  Great Grandpa was so comfortable that he fell asleep too :)  We have the cutest picture of the two of them just snoozing away!!

Tomorrow is my first day back at work :(  Its been great having the last 10 weeks off with her.  I really wish I could just go back part-time, but we will have to see next year if we can make that work.  We did our daycare trial run with grandma on Friday and she loved it!!  M/W/F she will be going to grandma's, and on T/Th she will be at our house with the babysitter.  Hopefully this arrangement works out well.

One Month :)

Where is the time going?  Aly is one month old (doesn't she look really concerned about that fact?).  In her first month, she:

• Gained 2 pounds (considering what she lost, that was more than an ounce per day!)
• Grew 2 inches
• Learned to roll over from tummy to back pretty well (and went from back to tummy twice!)

Hmm, not a long list of accomplishments.  We are going to have to try harder next month ;)   She is nursing like a champ now, and even took her first bottle without much protest.  She's not sleeping longer than three hours at night, but she does eat and go right back to sleep, so I can't really complain. 

We are following a Babywise/Baby Whisperer plan, and its working well.  I highly recommend those books for new parents.  They get bad raps from people who obviously didn't do them right, but said they were (letting newborns CIO, feeding every 4 hours even if baby was hungry at 2.5, etc).  Obviously things have to be tweaked for each individual kid, and parents always have to use their best judgment!!  But the routine is definitely working for our family.

FINALLY!

DH's work is finally picking up :)  He has been working his tail off for the last year and a half, and its finally starting to pay off - like really pay $$!  Its crazy.  We have gone so long living off my salary only that its really weird to have his checks coming in.  I am hoping that we can start really making some progress paying down our debt and getting savings boosted up.

DH met with a real estate agent, and we decided that we are going to put our house up for sale as soon as possible.  We are upside down on our house, but its not as bad as we had originally feared ($5-10k instead of $20-30k).  While I am home on maternity leave, I am focusing on getting things cleaned up around the house and doing some minor maintenance (paint, caulk, decluttering).  But the in-laws have offered to let us move into their basement apartment once we sell this house.  Its a great space with its own entrance, and we wouldn't have to pay rent :)  And since MIL watches DD for us three days a week while I work, its perfect!  Even though they said we won't have to pay rent, we will probably pay them something since we are living there (at least for our utilities).  And we will help fix up the apartment space so that it is updated and ready to go when they go to sell. 

We also got our daycare situation almost lined out.  MIL will watch DD three days per week.  My mom offered to watch her for free the other two days - but I just don't know that I trust her to (sad as that sounds).  So we found a college student from church that can watch her at our house two days per week.  It just happened to line up perfectly with her schedule, and she is so great with little kids!!  She also does childcare for the women's ministries on those days, and we said she can take DD with her.  So she gets to work two jobs at once :)  Pretty good deal for a college student!  I know next semester might be a bit different, but we can work something out.  This at least gets us through the rest of this year.  Its killing me that I have to go back to work, but I am hoping & praying that it will only be for a few years.  By the time munchkin #2 comes around, I would like to be able to quit and SAH - or at the very least, go PT.

Put a pin in it!

I am officially in love with Pinterest.  Originally I resisted joining (not sure why...), but now that I have joined I love it!  Right now I am working on design ideas for our room.  I really want to re-do it, but we don't have a ton of $$ to spare right now.  So this is going to be a DIY project and its going to take a bit of time.  Oh well, I will have a lot of fun!!

Here are the ideas I have so far.  I love that I can add things as I find them :)  DH looked through my pictures last night and he really liked the ideas I had so I know I am on the right track.  He goes out of town on business next week, and I am hoping to get some things done while he is out (the curtains, maybe the bedding, and get the room rearranged a tad bit).

Part of re-doing our room is moving out the bassinet.  Baby girl is almost a month old now!  She has settled into a fairly predictable night-time routine, so I am feeling better about moving her to her own room now.  And the pack-n-play needs to get packed up so it can go to Grandma's for when I go back to work.  So not looking forward to going back :(  I know that I have to for now, but I really, really wish I didn't need to.  At least I know who she will be with during the day, and she is really close (about 2 miles away from work) so I can go see her over lunch if I want to :)

On Friday and Sunday we were able to get all the babies together at the in-laws house.  It was pretty fun!  Here's a pic of all of us with our babies:

I am in love :)

Baby girl is here :)

Aly was born on 7/26.  She weighed 6lbs 1oz, and was 19.5'' long.  She's our skinny little princess!!

Here's the story:


On Tuesday, I had everything at home pretty much ready to go, so I was just lounging around the house & getting kind of bored. At about 9:30 I figured I would give the dog a bath while it was still cool enough to put her outside for awhile. As I am in the middle of her bath, the phone started ringing. I couldnt answer because I was all soapy & gross from cleaning up the dog, so I stand up to start cleaning up & felt a whole bunch of water. I was pretty sure it wasn't from bathing the dog, so I started cleaning everything up. I got the dog outside to dry off, got the bathroom cleaned up, and by that time it was pretty apparent that my water had broken. So I called the nurse back - turns out she had just been calling to schedule my induction. Perfect timing I asked if I could stay home for awhile since I wasn't having contractions yet, but they wanted me to come in to get checked. So I called DH and told him he should head home - and while I waited I did the dishes, laundry, cleaned the bathroom, just anything I could to stay busy & hoping that it would start some contractions too.

DH got home and we waited for the laundry to finish washing (too hot to leave wet clothes ), tossed things in the dryer, and went to grab lunch. I knew once I got there they would admit me & not let me eat, so I wanted to get some food first. We grab some fast food & sat in the parking lot to eat. We got to the hospital around 11:30 and got checked in, and they started monitoring for an hour. They checked me & I was at 2. Still no contractions, so they wanted to start pitocin right away. I asked if we could hold off & if I could walk to see if it would start up on its own. I did 40 mins walking (as fast as I could through the halls), 40 mins monitoring until 4:30, but the contractions still were not starting. Since my water had been broken for more than 6 hours at that point, they wanted to go ahead with the pitocin. The bad part is once that started I really was confined to my room since I had the IV pole to lug around The contractions started going & were manageable at first, but by 6:30 they were getting too strong to handle. I debated getting the epi for awhile, but finally decided to go for it. I was disappointed since I really had wanted to do all of it on my own without either of the meds, but oh well. Once I got the epi I was able to relax. At 7 I was at 4, and just hanging out with DH. We figured it would take awhile since I had only gone from 2-4 in the last 5 hours.

At 8 our moms & my sister came up to see us & visit for a bit. They were all watching the contraction monitors & commenting on how high & long they were. I really couldn't feel it, so I was just having a good time hanging out Really, the epi was wonderful! About 9 I felt another pop, and told my mom to go get my nurse. Turns out my water hadn't broken completely before, so I guess that was the rest of it. The nurse came in to get me cleaned up & check again - I was at 8! The moms decided to not leave, but to go hang out in the waiting room. I could feel the pressure of the contractions getting lower & lower - it felt like she was pushing herself out. I told the nurse at 9:30 that I left like she was coming out with each contraction. She checked me again & told me to hold on - she had to call the Dr first. It was time to push!! We were shocked that it had gone that fast!! We were expecting to not get to that point until 3-4am. So the Dr comes in about 9:50 and I start pushing. By 10:12 she was out! DH did cut the cord, and amazingly enough he didn't pass out or anything It sounds dumb, but it didn't really hit me that I was having a baby until she was out. The first thing I said to DH when I saw her was "OMG - that's a BABY!! " The nurse & the Dr just laughed. I did end up needing a couple of stitches because it went so fast, but she's tiny so thankfully she didn't do too much damage!!

It all went really, really fast. And was surprisingly a lot easier than I thought it was going to be. I wish some things could have gone a bit differently, but overall it was a really wonderful experience. She had some issues with nursing at first - for the first day she just was not interested at all and would just sleep. I couldn't get her to wake up, and if she did she would not open up her mouth at all. The LC came in & we tried a nursing shield a few times. That's apparently all she needed to figure out what she was supposed to be doing. The next time I tried to use it she fussed & pulled it off. She figured out how to latch on her own, and was doing great until my milk came in all the way and we had to bring back the shield.  Right now we are dealing with engorgement & a mild case of mastitis, so hopefully we can get that cleared up & go back to nursing without the shield soon.


This last week has been really, really crazy.  But for the most part I am loving every sleep-deprived second :)

Still preggo

Only 8 days left!!  This seriously has been the longest month of my life!  I feel like a ticking time-bomb, like I never know when its going to happen.  Its making it really hard to plan anything.  Every day at work I fee like I have to hurry up and get everything done, just incase I don't make it back in.  Thursday night I had contractions from 11-3:30am, and then they just stopped :(  I am really anxious to just get this part over with!  So ready to have my body back to myself, and not have little feet jabbing me in the ribs taking my breath away, or little fists punching me in the bladder making me have to run to the bathroom every 10 minutes.  Yippie...

I went & scrubbed down everything in the house today, just incase the little one comes this weekend.  I even got caught up on all the laundry, and scrubbed down the laundry room again.  The dog has been spending a lot of time in there during the day while we are at work, and it was getting pretty gross.  I tried walking the stairs and walking on the treadmill at my mom's since its so hot out right now.  But that didn't do anything :( 

This baby just needs to GET OUT!  She's officially been served her eviction notice!

Any time now, kiddo!

Oh my word.  I have been in major "nesting" mode the past couple of days.  I seriously feel like I NEED to have everything ready for this baby, like yesterday!  So far we have the car seat base installed, the bassinet set up in our room, and I am almost done packing the hospital bags.  My co-worker told me today that I will have her this weekend - I really hope she's right!!

Just found out yesterday that DH won't be allowed to take any time off when Aly is born :(  If she comes during the week he can have that day off, but that's about it.  So I am hoping & praying to go into labor on a Friday so he can spend the weekend with us, and we can go home before Monday.  Its a good thing that mom & MIL are just a couple miles away incase I need anything when we first get home.  His boss is really getting on to him for not closing more of the smaller, quick-paying cases.  He's been focusing on the long-term cases and partnering with people that have been there for awhile.  They closed two big ones this quarter, but these kinds of cases only pay out quarterly, so he won't get paid on them until August or Sept.  These are recurring income cases (meaning they pay every quarter as long as he maintains the plans) vs. just a one-time payout that his boss wants him to focus on. 

I am thinking of calling the 15th my last day at work.  I would really love to have some time off before she comes to just do whatever I want.  I am going to talk to my Dr next week and see what she says...hopefully she just writes me out on leave starting then.  That also gives me a set return date to plan on which will be nice for my team as well. 

Time is flying now!

With the new job, time is flying by!  I stay so busy all day that I end up working at least 9 hours most days, straight through (no break for lunch, just enough time to run & heat up something if I am lucky).  My co-worker is out on vacation, so I am getting to do most of it by myself right now.  I guess its only fair since I am about to leave her for 12 weeks on her own.  I can't believe its already Tuesday.  This week is going to be over before I know it - and then we get Monday off!!

Had my checkup today.  36 weeks and 1 day - only a few more days left to go until she's considered "full term".  Baby is doing good, but still riding high.  Absolutely not dilating or effacing at all.  Boo!!  Although I know that means nothing.... I am so sad that I officially crossed the 150lb mark though.  I know its dumb, but I was really hoping to end this thing without going over.  Still trying to drink a lot of water and watch what I eat.  Hopefully it won't be too hard to get back after she's born.  We talked about what to expect at this point, when I need to go in, and when we will have the induction discussion.  My Dr doesn't induce until 1-2 weeks after the due date, especially with first time moms, unless its medically necessary.  That was good to know, but I am so ready to get her out that I hope we don't need to get to that part. 

We had an exterminator come out to the house to spray for ants and spiders.  I wanted to get them all out of here before the baby came, and definitely didn't want to be spraying too close to her arrival.  The good news is that I have not seen either since - well, the first couple of days we saw all the dead bugs, but I can live with that :)  Somehow though we got fruit flies.  I hate those things!!  I have been killing them for a couple of weeks now, and could not figure out where they were coming from.  Well....today I found out :(  Apparently an old bag of potatoes had fallen under the shelf that they usually sit on.  I pulled them out, DH took out all the trash, and we scrubbed things down like crazy.  I am still killing the random ones flying around, but now that we got the source of the problem I am hoping they just go away :)

The end is near!

Only 34 more days left....and hopefully less.  I don't want to get my hopes up too much, but my sister had both of her kids early.  At this point Aly is far enough along that I am not worried about her coming at any time.  Maybe its because I am so used to people around me having kids at 28 and 29 weeks, so 35 seems like she's over-baked already!  Obviously I want her to stay in as long as she needs to, but I am so sick of being pregnant and uncomfortable, and its just going to get worse.  The poor kid is seriously running out of room.  One of our friends had her baby yesterday, and when I saw the announcement on FB I just started bawling.  Poor DH - he just has no idea what to do with me & my crazy preggo hormones.  So happy for my friends, but so ready just to hold my baby & have this pregnancy over with.

DH is going to get underwritten for life insurance in the next couple of weeks.  I have a policy, and we have one on him through my work, but with the baby coming we figured it was best to get a real policy on him too.  Which also means we probably need to sit down with our lawyer-friend and talk about wills & who we want to take care of Aly in-case something happens to us.  So weird to now be responsible for someone else!

We had a SUPER eventful weekend!!  The power went out at BIL/SIL's house.  Three of the babies are on heart/breathing monitors, and one of them is still on oxygen as well (Caleb is rocking it & off all monitors!).  The battery backups were about to go out, so they called me to see if I knew when the power would be back on.  Benefit of working for the power company - sometimes we can get more insight to the situation :)  It didn't look good though - the storms that rolled through here took out 62,000 customers.  Major transmission lines were out, poles down, trees everywhere.  They needed to pack up the babies and take them somewhere - so our house it was!  The girls got to try out Aly's crib, and the boys hung out nearby in their pack n play.  I will have to post pics later - it was too fun :)  They stayed overnight, and DH and I got great practice with feeding & changing multiple babies.  Once Aly comes, its going to seem so easy!!   DH kept joking that it would be really funny if I went into labor while they were all at our house.  Um....not so much!

We had a good time hanging out with BIL & SIL.  They seemed to enjoy getting out of the house, even if it was just to come hang out at our house.  It was the first non-doctor outing that the kids have had, and probably the last for awhile since they are so sensitive to germs.  Between feedings we watched the baseball games (BIL is a Cards fan, DH is a Royals fan.  Perfect that they were playing each other this weekend!). 

Money-wise...well, this is one of our going backwards periods again.  The good news is that it is DEFINITELY not as bad as the last couple have been, and we don't expect it to last as long.  DH has some great cases closing this summer, but they don't start paying out until fall/winter since its just quarterly.  I am trying not to stress out about it.  It just is what it is - we will be back on track soon.  Overall we are still making forward progress, even still ahead from where we started in January of this year.  I will get an update in a few weeks once we get the new car settled & start knowing more about expenses while out on maternity leave.

Time to get a mommy-mobile

We have been looking to trade in DH's car since it just does not drive in the winter at all.  Today we found one :)  We ended up getting a 2007 Explorer with 36,000 miles!  So exciting :)  We are trading in DH's car, and since his friend is the car dealer, we are getting a pretty good deal.  For the most part our payments will stay the same, which is good. 

The car obviously gets really low gas mileage (although not much worse than the CTS), so its going to primarily be my vehicle.  DH will drive the Corolla to save on miles on the new car, and to get the better mileage since he drives so much.  The funny thing is, our gas expenses will probably go down with the new car just because we are trading drivers & cars.  And its going to be nice to put DD in the higher car where we don't have to bend over or climb in to get the carseat in place. 

SIL still has our carseat for our niece, but we should be getting that back soon.  We still need to get 1-2 more bases to put in DH's car & MIL's car for when I go back to work.  Honestly, I am thinking of getting the extra bases off of Craigslist.  I found someone selling the seat + the bases (2) for less than just the cost of the seat.  I will use our brand new seat for her but if I can get a deal on the bases then I will :)

Getting closer to the end

Oh man.  The last couple of days have been ROUGH.  I finally broke down and took Tylenol PM the last two nights just so I could sleep.  I am so uncomfortable, and only sleeping about an hour at a time.  With the Tylenol I was able to only wake up 2-3 times per night, and able to go right back to sleep when I did.  The BH contractions have started, so I have been drinking even more water, walking around a lot, and trying to keep my mind off of it.  No pattern, no increasing in intensity, and they usually go away after a few hours.  I am just getting anxious to see her, even though I know we have several more weeks to go. 

I think I am going to talk to my new boss about taking some vacation time off.  I think if I can take vacation from July 18-22nd, and then start my FMLA leave on the 25th (my due date), that will give me some time to rest & relax before she gets here.  It still leaves me with 1.5 weeks of vacation after I return from leave, which I hope to save for Christmas & Thanksgiving.  But being the new person in the department, its very likely that I won't be able to take all that time off around the holidays.  That plan should work - unless she shows up early.  I don't know why, but I keep feeling like I only have 6 weeks left instead of 8.  Of course, that probably means I will just go over & have her 2 weeks late

Feeling crafty!

Its been awhile since I made something.  We went to dinner with a couple at church this weekend, and at their house I saw some plarn crocheted items.  It inspired me to come home & do another plarn project (its been a few years since I did my last one!). 

I want to make a basket.  Here are some inspiration pieces:

My goal is to get a square or rectangular basket.  I am hoping to either use it for toys, or make one for the laundry room to hold miscellaneous items :)  Right now I am using only Walmart bags so that it has a uniform look.  But I raided my stash, my mom's, MIL's, and my sisters.  Pretty sure its not going to be enough, but I bet if I put out the word on FB that I could get a TON by next week. 

Little Fat Face :)

We got to get a look at Little Miss today :)  She didn't want to cooperate at first, but she came around (after first flipping us off, LOL!).  Here she is:

She kept the cord snuggled up to her face the whole time, like it was her little security blanket.  The tech said that babies really like to play with it & cuddle with it (I guess it pulses as it brings stuff in/out).  Looks like we need to get her a little lovey or something to snuggle with!  She did let us verify that she is, in fact, a girl.  But then she quickly put her hand down to cover herself up ;)  Since her hands were busy covering her girly-parts, she had to use her feet to keep the cord up next to her face.  Ahh...my flexible little monkey :D  We had a hard time getting more pics because her foot was right up against her face!

Just about 2 months left to go!  I was looking at the calendar, and the week before my due-date there's a full moon.  Its also my Grandma's birthday.  If I could choose a day for her, I would love it to be that one!  We will see if she's like her cousins & comes early (my sister had her kids 4 and 3 weeks early). 

DH also surprised me today with a trip to the prenatal chiropractor.  I have been wanting to go see one since my back & hips have been hurting so bad.  SIL had one she used and recommended, so we went to check it out.  I LOVED IT!!  And, they take my insurance, so I just had to pay my co-pay.  Definitely going back again to see her.  I have heard that it can really help get you ready for labor too - not sure if its true, but at least it can't hurt :)

Off to a good start

Well, May is off to a pretty good start.  We had the shower for SIL today, and it went well.  Glad that its over and that I don't have to flex my party-planning capabilities again any time soon (I really don't like planning parties!).  The car seat has been ordered, and should be here this week.  Hopefully it arrives in time for our niece to use it to come home in (she's not quite 5lbs yet, and apparently the seat we got is rated for 4lbs and up so she can use it). 

I got our presents for Mother's Day yesterday.  I had a hard time coming up with something to get for both moms, my sister, and DH's sister.  When I was at Walmart I found some REALLY cute solid colored flower pots, and got some really cute geraniums and daisies to plant in them.  Along with the cards, that was less than $10/person.  Works for me!  The pots all match their respective kitchen decors, so they can sit inside or be planted outside. 

Things at work are still in limbo.  I am planning to still teach this last class , but I am HOPING that its the last one I have to do.  On Monday I might get to spend some time shadowing the person who's job I hope to move into.  That would be good - I really hate moving into a new job and having to figure out what to do just through trial & error!  I hope the pieces all move and that things can be made official soon.

On Friday we get to go have our 3D/4D sonogram and see little miss :)  I CAN NOT WAIT!  I am so excited to see her chubby little face and see who she looks like.  Also hoping she has flipped herself around finally.  I can't really tell how she's laying, but I would rather not have to try & flip her over later.  I can't believe its only about 10-ish weeks until she gets here.  2.5 months.  It seems really, really soon!

The next big thing on our May agenda is my baby brother's graduation from HS.  I can't believe he's old enough to be graduating from high school already!  And he turns 19 that same week.  He already has a full-time job lined up to start when he graduates.  His plan right now is to work his way through community college for the first two years, and then work his way through the local university to finish up the last two.  After that he wants to go to law school, and only have to rely on loans for possibly the last two years or so.  I am proud of him - he's set up a pretty solid plan to help get through school with the least debt possible.  Now if he can just stick with it....he's still your typical 19-yr old kid in so many ways....LOL.

Almost finished :)

We have the nursery pretty much put together!!  I am getting so excited!  We pretty much just need the carseat, and we can bring her home (whenever she's ready to come, which hopefully is at least 10 more weeks from now!).  Here's what it looks like:

The butterfly laying on the dresser will be going on the wall by the chair - as soon as we can figure out how to hang it :(  We have plaster walls, which makes hanging things a PAIN.

This week I am focused on doing the shower for SIL.  My sister and mom are really helping me out a lot.  They are baking up the muffins & cupcakes, and coming early to help me get everything set up.  I am planning on about 40 people being there.  Hopefully SIL gets the things she still needs, and gets some people to sign up to help once the kiddos start coming home.  Which hopefully they will start coming home NEXT WEEK!  How crazy is that?

I have been working on making up 4 diaper cakes for the shower to use as centerpieces (and gifts for SIL).  Each baby will have 2 tables set up with his/her colors (blue, green, pink, purple).  On one table will be a picture of the baby, along with some baby toys as the centerpiece.  On the other will be a diaper cake.  I had to roll & rubber-band almost 200 diapers to make these cakes!!  Its amazing how sticky your hands get after handling that many disposable diapers (kind of gross actually - what is that stuff???)

Here's one of the cakes:

I am trying to get cake plates to set these on (otherwise I have improvised some stands for them).  Then, in a circle around the cake will be some cupcakes frosted in each baby's colors.  I also got some Hershey's Kisses to sprinkle around the tables (I got some of the Easter ones on clearance, so they are the pretty pastel baby colors!).

Rocking CVS deals

I have done pretty well at CVS over the last week.  I was able to build my EBs up to $34 on one card and $13 on the other.  I also have used my EBs to buy our milk, cereal bars, and some ice cream.  Total OOP has been less than $5 :)  Makes me super happy!  We also got some things we were low on (toothbrushes, TP, deodorant).  Got to love it :)  Not sure how my EBs on one card got so insanely high, but it works for me.  I might burn a few of them this week to bet some more milk & things. 

Since DH and I had our talk we have gone out to dinner once (was already planned out with our friends).  Dinner + tip = $22 for both of us :)  On Friday DH did lunch off the $ menu, and spent $3.20.  Yesterday we went out looking at houses, but we ate lunch at home first, and only stopped at Sonic during Happy Hour to pick up some 1/2 priced drinks.  We came home for dinner and I made us some pork chops & rice :)  Usually on Sunday DH likes to pick up dinner after church, but today he went to get fresh meat & cheese to make sandwiches.  I need to look through what we have on-hand and plan out some meals for this week based on the sales.  But it makes me happy that we seem to be working together & on the same page now!!!

Yesterday while we were out we found a house that we LOVE.  Its perfect for us - 4br, 3ba, 3-car garage.  Big yard that is mostly fenced already (we would just need to do the front & one side).  Great neighborhood, with a park, an elementary school just down the street, and lots of families with young kids.  The builder is sitting on 10 houses in the neighborhood, and this one has been for sale for over a year now.  He needs to sell houses before he can continue to build more.  The flyers he put out at the open house said in big bold red letters at the top "Builder accepting trades" - meaning we could trade our house as part of the deal & not need to hassle with trying to sell ours!! 

We are waiting to see what happens with my job in the next couple of weeks.  Once we know where I will be & what my salary will be, then we can go make an offer.  We went through our budget to decide where to make cuts to beef up savings as much as possible right now.  DH closed two smaller cases this week, so he's getting those checks soon.  Hopefully some of his bigger ones finalize soon too. 

Making progress :)

I sat down with DH last night, and showed him our budget.  We went through exactly what we have left over after paying the bills, and discussed what we need to pay & when.  DH agreed to stick to a lunch budget of $40/week (unless he has business lunches - those he will be keeping receipts for).  Its still high, but its a good start.  I made us hamburgers at home tonight so that he would not be tempted to go out - not exactly healthy, but boy were they good!!  And, we already had everything on-hand except for the buns. 

We did get a "splurge" for the baby tonight.  DH saw a baby grand piano and really wanted to get it.  Only problem was that it was $150 (plus shipping!).  I told him we needed to shop around, since that was WAY too much to spend on a toy!  Well, we found one on eBay for $85, and realized the seller was local.  We offered her $65 for it, and it was ours :)  We went to pick it up tonight.  Its adorable!!

Tomorrow I am going out to do some CVS deals.  I have a box of diapers to return for another size (I want to give some to DSis for cutting DH's hair), and I want to get some more Special K bars.  I wish I could still double-dip my deals, but it looks like CVS has sent out a notice to no longer allow deals to start early on Saturdays.  GRRRRR.  Now I actually have to go shopping on Sunday morning!  That was my sleep-in day, but I guess I will be getting up early to hit up CVS before church like I used to. 

One step closer!

I no longer feel like we live on the show "Hoarders".  It took a couple of weeks (eek!), but we finally have the dining room & living room cleared of 90% of the excess junk.  There is still a file cabinet & a chair that need to be moved somewhere else, but for now I can live with where they are.  I got the hall closet cleaned out completely, and all organized.  Next on my llist: the bathroom.  I want to clean it (really, really clean it), and get the cabinets cleaned out under the sink.  Then its on to the kitchen, the living room, and finally, the garage. 

We have been looking at houses.  So far, we know which city we most likely want to move to and we found some great neighborhoods.  I love visiting on Saturdays when the weather is nice.  You can quickly see which neighborhoods are kid-friendly and which ones are not.  The one we like has a playground, sidewalks (never thought that would have to be on my list!), and when we drove through there were several families with small kids outside playing.  Dh has a couple of cases pending right now.  As long as those close, we should have the $$ to go in & make an offer on a house.  So now we just wait for that.  From what we have seen around here, we both think that house prices will fall again before the end of the summer.  Not that you can time the market ever, but we want to wait & see if that pans out.  Should put us in a better position to move (even if our current house price falls too). 

Budget-wise we are doing o-k.  Not stellar by any means.  Last month was great for savings, but horrendous in the food category.  I just don't know what to do anymore about the restaurants/fast-food category.  I have been fighting with DH over that one since the day we got married.  Its ridiculous what we spend each month.  And I would say at least 70% of that is DH going out to lunch.  Ughgh, most of the time its part of the job, but its also just a habit now too.  I don't know how to get through to him that its not ok to spend more on eating out than we do on our mortgage!!!!  Everyone has their weakness, every budget their leak, every couple their sore-point.  This is ours.  I just do the best I can everywhere else, and try not to nag him too much.  :(

I only have 8 more weeks left in my current job (7 teaching, the last one they could possibly transition me out, so maybe only 7).  No news yet as to where I will be going or what I will be doing.  Hopefully I find out soon!

Cleaning House!

Oh my goodness.  Call it nesting, or whatever you want.  But I am in the mood right now to purge out ALL of the junk in our house!  I just want everything gone.  As soon as possible.  I have been working on the weekends & at night to go through our closets, drawers, garage, cabinets, etc.  I am pulling out everything, and only putting back what we really need to keep.  Everything else - gone.  Trash, donate, give away, Craigslist - however it needs to leave, but its all leaving somehow!  Right now its all I can think about.  I really want to take some vacation days to work on getting it all clean, but I can't spare the time at work.  Until the end of May, my schedule is completely full.  Its good, because it makes me save my time for maternity leave.  And I know the time will fly by.  But I feel overwhelmed with everything that still needs to get done at home too!

I am looking forward to the 22nd.  We have a company holiday, so hopefully I can get a lot of things done then.  I also need to get cracking on planning SIL's diaper shower at church.  All of our weekends in April and May are filling up fast!  I look at the countdown and see that I have 16 weeks left before Aly is born.  And then I look at everything happening before then and I realize its definitely going to be here before I know it!!

Rocking the CVS deals

I am working really hard to grab up all of the MM deals on things that we will use.  I finally went through and cleaned out my stockpile, and I am making lists of the things we actually need.  Trying to get stocked up so that when baby girl comes along I can take a break for awhile and live off our stockpile.  I forget how addicting it can be!  I am back to feeling like I missed out on something if I skip over a deal.  LOL, I need to remember that they come around often.

My goal right now is to make enough each week to cover the cost of our milk, and other pantry items.  The week after next there will be a sale on Special K bars, so I can get DH enough to last for several weeks.  I have been spending about $5/week on running the deals on both cards.  I need to plan out my deals better so that I don't have as much OOP.  But, I have been scrounging most of it from our change that just lays around the house, so I really don't count that as coming out of our budget.

Part of my spring cleaning involves cleaning out the items we don't really need.  I filled up the donation bin for the rescue mission at church the other day, and I plan to fill up one of the Harvesters bins this week at work.  I love it when they make donating easy on me :)

Aly's room

Here's what we did tonight in the baby's room:

DH painted the dresser his boss gave us.  It was yellow and antiqued.  Now its black, with pink details showing through on the flower etchings.  Those are the letters we will mount in the middle of records & hang above the crib.  But I thought they looked cute here for now :)

Next to the crib is a little rocking caterpillar.  I think its adorable!!  Got to love how the room is shaping up.  Tomorrow we are heading to Target to get the black rug for the middle of the room.  Then we need curtains (just need my mom to sew the ribbons on), bedding & a cover for the glider chair.  DH wants to get some posters of girl rockers & hang them up too.  Works for me - but only if we can frame them :)  Not a fan of just posters taped up to the wall!!

YAY!

Doing a happy-dance over here.  Our taxes are DONE.  Federal, KS, and MO :)  After going round & round with Tax Cut (the program I have used for YEARS), I was getting frustrated beyond belief because it was kicking out a bunch of stuff related to DH's income.  This is the first year I have really dealt with these kinds of forms, and Tax Cut was not helpful.  At all.

One of the lovely people over on the "Not MSN" boards suggested I try Turbo Tax.  Boy howdy - that made all the difference!  I was able to do all three returns in under two hours.  And, since I first went to their link through MyPoints, I get a bonus 592 out of it :P

Our refund is not what I had thought it would be through TC, but that's ok.  I feel confident that this is the correct amount.  I had adjusted my withholdings so that we would come out with as small of a refund as possible.  Overall, we had to pay one state, but we get refunds in the other two filings.  Net result (after paying for TT services) was $575.  Works for me :)  I am direct depositing it straight into our savings account for maternity leave.

It is just such a relief to get this done.  This has to be the latest I have ever waited to file my taxes!!  I was seriously starting to get worried about it!

Busy day :)

Today my mom & I went shopping for fabric for the baby's room.  We didn't find any to purchase this time, but we did find some steals!  And, mom paid for everything (I tried...she wouldn't let me.  So I bought her coffee).  Here's what we got:

• Bookshelf for the canvas bins I talked about earlier.  It has three cubbies (and I have three boxes!).  I measured one of the boxes, and they will fit perfectly.  Cost for the shelf: $7.49 on clearance.

• Large pink glass vase.  I plan to get some clear marbles to fill it 1/2 way, and then put in some bright pink & white artificial Gerbera daisies.  Cost for the vase: $6 (1/2 price sale).

• Large pink metal butterfly to hang on the wall over the glider. (Notice the grey - that's the new wall color in her room)  Cost: $6 (1/2 price sale).

• 25 yds of ribbon to trim out the curtains, and to make ties for the crib bumpers and canvas bins.  Cost: $6.99
• Letters to spell out baby girl's name.  Most expensive buy of the day - $16.

There are a few things we still need to get to put the room all together:

• Rug - black shag carpet.  Have my eye on one at Walmart for $70.  Waiting to get my $50 MyPoints card in, and then we will purchase it. Cost: $20 + tax (after card)
• Records to mount her name on.  FIL has these, we just need to pick some up. Cost: Free!
• 3M hook & strips to hang the decorations.  Cost: $4 or so
• Fabric for crib bumpers, skirt, and glider padding cover.  Narrowed down a few options today.  Cost: (not sure, but mom is covering this one).
• Fabric for canvas bins.  Will use a drop cloth for the canvas, and cotton for the liners.  Cost: Approx $20 for all three.
• Dimmer switch for light.  Not sure of the cost.
• New globe or light kit for the ceiling fan (old roomie broke the current one on her way out.  Just a bulb right now).  Not sure of the cost - shouldn't be too much.  Will keep an eye out at the garage sales to see what I can find.

While we were out shopping, I took advantage of a great deal CVS had on wipes and baby toiletries.  By working the deals around I got 18 packages of wipes and two large bottles of baby bath for less than $3 out-of-pocket.  Little one should now be stocked on wipes & bodywash for about a year :)

I am getting antsy.  My brother can't finish the paint until Monday night.  We can't start putting things back into the room until that is done.  So right now everything is piled in the dining room and living room.  I feel like I live in a house from "Hoarders: Buried Alive".  Its seriously bothering me!!  If DH wouldn't freak, I would just go finish the paint myself.

Bitty Gurl's Space....

Someone called the baby "Bitty Gurl" on my FB wall this week - and for some reason it stuck with me. Pretty sure I won't actually call her that, but I thought I would steal it for a second :)

My bro came over tonight, and we bought some paint & supplies for her room. He paid for them since he owes us some $$ (we pay for his phone each month). We came back, and got to work. I opened up a window, turned on the ceiling fan, and started in working on the trim work. Bro started with the big roller. In just over an hour we got the first coat pretty much done - still need to get out the step stool for the top 6'' or so, and I need to get down to do the floor, but it should be all coated by next week & ready to start putting together!

We don't have a ton of money to spare for this, so its going to be a fairly frugal project. I ordered some MyPoints giftcards to buy the area rug &; accessories with. We got $100 in giftcards, and I am thinking we can get by with spending $30-40 more out of pocket for those things. We will go with the area rug instead of carpet for now, since its cheaper & easier to replace if something gets messed up.

Mom & I are going shopping this weekend to pick out the fabric for the nursery. I already had the black curtains, so we will be re-using those. But we will be putting bright pink ribbon trim on the edges, and hemming up the curtains (since they were really just black flat sheets I re-purposed from the wedding!). For the crib bedding, we will do a bumper & a skirt. My mom found a way to do the bumper with a thinner pad, and it weaves in & out of the crib slats so that it does not become a suffocation hazard later. Then we just need to find some fabric to cover the glider & ottoman with, and some to make basket liners (I am going to turn three diaper boxes into "canvas bins").  Seriously - how cute are those?  Not sure if they will reside under the crib, or if I am going to get a bookshelf to put them on.  But they will be cute :)

For decorations, I am getting some old records (FIL has some he's giving me).  I am going to get the big paper mache letters at Hobby Lobby, and spell out her name in bright pink letters.  Then mount them in the middle of the records, and hang them above the crib :)  They should be light-weight enough that we can mount them securely with the 3M strips.  Which is good because the walls are plaster & its a pain in the bum to put anything heavy on the wall!!

So all-in-all, I am expecting this nursery makeover to cost us $200 or less out of pocket.  And that's just because we got extremely lucky, and DH's boss keeps giving us all the furniture we need!  They have given us the crib, mattresses, glider, ottoman, and now changing table/dresser.  Such a blessing :)

Financial Update!

Its been awhile since I posted one of these.  Got my bonus check today, and already sent it back out again   One of these days I will get to keep my bonuses instead of sending them away!

In 2010, DH and I ended the year $6,282.22 down on our balances, plus all the additional medical bills & work bills.  That includes the things we had to charge on the cards & then pay off.  So for all of our setbacks, its nice to see we still made some great progress too!

We started this year owing $66,115.12.  Currently, we owe $61,991.42.  That's already a difference of $4,123.70!  We also have our savings account stocked back up to handle any Murphy-visits .  Overall, since the start of this endeavor to pay off debt, we have paid down $18,508.92.  We should cross the $20k mark sometime by May!!!!

On just the credit cards, we now owe $24,354.78.  That's $10,636.41 less than our original starting point.  We have officially earned our Party Hat for paying off more than $10k on the "racing" debt .  I am keeping up with the WIRR and posting monthly updates there to keep myself accountable.

Worked on taxes for awhile last night.  I need to get 1-2 more statements from DH, but it looks like we will be able to get a nice sum back.  That should be enough to fund the unpaid portion of my maternity leave.  We are over on the budget a bit for this month since we entertained family while they were in town for the wedding, but I am ok with that.  It was great to get to meet DH's side of the family & spend time with them.  And we didn't go too overboard, so if we can keep things in line for the rest of the month we might still come out on track.

Daylight savings time - who needs it?

This time-change is kicking my bum! This weekend was already busy with wedding festivities for SIL. And then the time-change on top of it. I am exhausted! I took a 2 hour nap when I got home from work today. Hopefully that helps to reset things.

My brother is coming over later this week to help DH move furniture around in Aly's room, and to paint the room for us. He's on our phone plan, and a broke college student, so he comes over & helps with stuff around the house each month to pay for his phone. Works for everyone :) I am SO EXCITED to get started on cleaning out her room & getting it set up. I need to go shopping for fabric so that my mom can get started on making the crib bumper, skirt, and curtains. Hopefully she can help cover the glider chair too (faded denim cover with blue/green polka dot footrest. Definitely does not match!).

I need to get all of our tax paperwork over to the accountant to do for us. I keep forgetting - and we are running out of time! I tried to do them through Turbo Tax like I always have, but I just have too many questions about what to do with DH's stuff & I don't know anyone I can ask for help. I feel bad asking a pro for their help without just having them do the taxes for us. Oh well, we can get that done and get the $$ back soon hopefully.

I have a baby shower to go to tomorrow night for a friend at church. Reminded me that I need to get started on SIL's shower since its only 6 weeks away! I am throwing a "Diaper Shower", since that's definitely something they will need over the next few months as the babies start to come home. An idea I had for a game was to get 4 baby dolls (or 4 water balloons), have people tie one hand behind their backs, and see who could diaper all 4 babies the fastest. For shower gifts, I am thinking of going to the state beauty supply store with my sister to get some nice salon products (I figure everyone can use shampoo/conditioner, and they come in really cute gift packs). I also had the idea to have SIL make up a list of times when they will need help once the babies come home, and have people sign up to help if they want. Might not work at a normal shower, but this is for people from church that all want to help out.

Hold on.....

Is Walmart getting into the Coupon Game? Apparently they made an update to their coupon policy. Now, if a coupon results in overage, the cashiers will not adjust it down. The coupon can be scanned for the full face value, and the overage will be applied towards your other items. If you don't have other items, Walmart's policy is to now give you cold-hard cash back when you make the register go negative!!

I am too worried that my store won't actually give cash back. But, applying that overage towards fresh fruit & veggies should be a breeze :) Looks like I just found another way to slash down this grocery bill!!

Is it worth having to step foot in Walmart again? Who knows...I am at least willing to try it out :)

Breathing room??

Today was my annual review with my boss. We found out the fate of our raises & bonuses. Surprisingly we actually got them this year which is great. I was honestly not expecting anything. The fact that I still have a job right now is great :) So to get a bonus & a raise was a great surprise.

The bonus should be enough after taxes to pay off the two smallest CCs, pay for our upcoming insurance bill, and get us started on the maternity leave fund!!

We also need to get our taxes over to the CPA as soon as possible. We finally have the things we need to get started :) By my rough estimates, we should be getting back about $1000, which will go straight to the maternity leave fund.

I am scared to think this, but we might actually have caught a break for a bit. Shhhh.....don't let Murphy hear that one ;)

Work is CRAZY BUSY right now. Which is good, because my days are flying by. We have training planned through the end of May. Hopefully I can use June to catch up on everything, and have all of my responsibilities ready to hand off as of the beginning of July, just incase baby girl decides to come early.

Speaking of, she's half-way done!! I can't believe it! I am feeling her move a lot more now, which is pretty fun :) Although the last few days I have not felt her as much - not sure if its just because she is still so little & moves around, or if I have just been too busy to really notice. Maybe running around so much & not just sitting still rocks her to sleep more.

I have enough points through MyPoints to order $100 in giftcards. I think I will get $50 to Walmart, and $50 to Target. We can get the paint we need at Walmart to do the nursery, and the $50 should buy a super cute area rug :) I still need to go shopping for the fabric to do the crib bumpers, skirt, and the glider cover with. My mom has said she would buy all of that for the baby's room & sew the things we need. The plans are becoming more finalized and its all starting to come together :)

I just can not wait to hold my baby. Of course, I would like to at least wait 17 more weeks. But after that, she can come whenever she wants :)

March grocery tally

I had some register rewards to burn up yesterday. Since they were leftover from running last months deals, I am not counting them in the total. Just my OOP. I got milk, flour, sugar, two jars of spices, and some bath poufs.

Total spent: $3.41
Total left: $196.59

I am going to lump all CVS and Wags trips into the grocery budget too, for easier tracking.

We resisted the urge to go out last night, and actually ate leftovers. DH hardly ever touches those!!!

Here we go again...

Got to love working for a large corporation. With the way things are right now, the ever-impending doom of "Lay-Offs" now hangs over our heads. Ughghgh....

No idea if this will even come to pass, or if it would apply to my department at all. But DH and I made the decision tonight to act as if it might. We made a plan - one for now, and one for if the bottom falls out. I just feel so much better knowing we have an action plan in place. I will be working on beefing up my resume just in case, and have already put out a couple feeler-calls to see what's available out there.  Sucks since I am almost 5 months pregnant....I know its not "supposed" to affect the hiring decisions, but it very easily can. 

Part of this plan is to go as bare-bones as we can right now. Not that we live an overly extravagant lifestyle anyway, but we will be making some changes.

1. Grocery budget - $200 per month.  Max.  No ifs, ands, or buts.  Try to incorporate as many NBPR rebates as I can to get our grocery $$ back each month.  For March, the goal will be to use as much of the pantry as we can.  We will see how low we can go with the budget for March. 
2. Gas - with prices rising, we will attempt to carpool & DH will drive me to work in the morning on his way since its only an extra 2 mi out of his way to take me.  We will drive the more fuel-efficient car whenever possible.  We will also start riding to church together - he goes about an hour before I do usually, so we have been each driving.  I will start taking him, dropping him off, and then hitting up CVS & Walgreens for my weekly shopping trip (only 2 mi away from church).  Attempt to stick to $200/month for gas.
3. Energy efficiency - shorter showers, be more diligent about laundry loads (full only, cold water, line-dry now that its nicer).  Could save $50/month.
4. CVS & Walgreens - get back into serious couponing.  I have been pretty lax lately since we have been busy & we have plenty of items on-hand.  Now I will be focusing on getting all the MM deals & I can work out with the least OOP possible.  Extra items will be donated, and receipts obtained for tax purposes later.  MM deals & rebates will be rolled back into the grocery budget.
5. No snowball payments to any CCs or loans.  Minimums ONLY.
6. Entertainment/ going out to eat - yeah, pretty much not going to happen.  I will do better about meal-planning ahead of time so that we are not as tempted to run out on weeknights.  For now, once or twice on the weekends won't be a deal-breaker, but if the big "LO" were to happen, that would obviously stop completely.

These savings will be funneled straight into our emergency fund to start building it up.  To live our lifestyle unchanged, we would need $2700/month.  To live bare-bones completely, we would need about $2100.  Being able to funnel an extra $500-600 to savings each month will help a lot. 

Whew!

Man, work as been insanely crazy lately. I had to work this weekend to test a new product that's hopefully going in this week. Luckily (maybe?) my training class got pushed back a week, so I am trying to get my boss to let me off on Friday since I worked over the weekend.

The good news is that I am staying so busy, that my 8+ hours each day are FLYING by. The bad part is that I am just exhausted. So tired that I have not been sleeping more than 2-3 hours at a time. With SIL's wedding coming up, I won't have a chance to rest for at least two more weeks. Looks like I get to sneak in naps whenever I can, and pop some Tylenol PM at night to knock me out a bit more.

DH and I did do some shopping last night for baby girl's room. We picked out a wall color (light silvery-grey), and accent colors (bright pink, black, and silver). For a decoration over the crib, I am putting up her name in block letters, mounted on old records :) For the wall over the dresser/changing table, we are going to get 3 LP cover frames. We have a photographer friend that we are going to ask to take some pics. One of DH + baby, one of me + baby, and one of all three of us. We want to have them look kind of like old albums, and then have those framed & put up on the wall.

We got to go visit the babies yesterday, and they even let us touch Ellie! For being the smallest, she is actually doing the best out of all of them. Alyvia got really excited & was moving around like CRAZY while we were there. I told her she has to wait to come meet them :) Hopefully she listens!!!!

I am so so nervous. I have my yearly performance review coming up in a few days. Not sure why I get so nervous each year, but I do. We find out the fate of our raises/bonuses. But they sent out an email the other day that seemed to say that serious changes & layoffs could be happening sometime this year. Just keeping my fingers crossed that nothing happens soon. We just need a bit more time for DHs cases to complete.

Cousins!

SIL went into labor today, and unfortunately the doctors could not stop it. She's about to go into surgery right now to deliver the babies. Alyvia's cousins will be born very, very soon. I don't know if she can sense me being nervous right now, but she has been moving around like crazy for the last hour or so! Hopefully she does not get in too big of a hurry to come see them!

Please keep the quads in your prayers: Caleb, Abigail, Elijah, and Elizabeth. Caleb, Abby, and Elijah are measuring at 28 weeks, but little Miss Ellie is only at 26.5. She's definitely the tiniest, and still under 2lbs.

**ETA**

The quads were born this afternoon. Everyone is doing really, really well! I cant wait until Mike gets home & we can go to meet them (probably tomorrow).

Its a baby...

GIRL!!!

And now the fun begins :)  She actually cooperated & let us take a picture of her this time too.  She kept trying to cover her face with her hands, but fortunately for us we can just see through those hands by turning up the machine a tad bit more.  It was kind of weird to watch on the monitor & see her hands disappear, and then re-appear. 

Now, we have a few more things to get done:

1. Settle on a name.  **ETA** Done!! Alyvia Kate!!!!
2. Decide to paint the room or not.  I like the blue, but the walls are a bit scuffed.
3. Install carpet.
4. Assemble the furniture
5. Decorate the room

Getting closer & closer :)  I am just excited to be able to call her "her", instead of "baby".  Makes it seem so much more personal.

Spring Cleaning!

Last night I could not sleep well.  Because my closet was dirty, and knowing that it was dirty was seriously bothering me.  Oh boy - bring on the crazy preggo lady!!  I had always laughed when people told stories like that.  Now I COMPLETELY understand!!

I had today off work, so I slept in a bit late (7:30 is late now - man I am old!).  I got up, put in my contacts, and got right to work on my closet.  I grabbed the box of trash bags from under the kitchen sink and went to work.  I started by pulling out all the empty hangers and throwing them on my bed. Random side story - trying to pick up said hangers later is like trying to play a game of "A Barrel of Monkeys".  But not nearly as much fun.  Then I started in on the clothes.  Anything I don't like to wear, does not fit me well, or that I have not worn in over a year went into a bag.  That filled up two large black bags!!!

Then, it was on to tackle the junk on the floor of the closet.  I could hardly see the bottom of the closet when I started.  All kinds of junk - crocheting items, random bags, mis-matched shoes, etc.  Again, if I didn't like it or if I have not touched it in a year, out it came & into a black bag.  There goes another full bag!  By this time the "trash" bag was filling up too.  Then I started on the shelf.  Same rules applied, and almost everything came down off the shelf & went into a goodwill bag or the trash bag.

Since I knew DH would be mad if I was lifting, I carefully dragged all five bags into the living room & started piling them up by the door.  Then I went back & cleaned out my dresser & the linen closet (another goodwill bag).  Then I went into the baby's room & started cleaning out a stack of drawers (another bag!), and I cleaned off the desk we are getting rid of.  My mom was awesome & came over to take the trash bags (3) out to the curb, and loaded up the goodwill bags (6) to go drop them off for me.

I went back to my closet, and mopped the floors & scrubbed out the baseboards.  I am so glad to say my closet is now officially very, very clean!  And for the first time since DH has lived here, there is actually plenty of room in the closet for his clothes too (right now all of his stuff is in the baby's room).  Want to see?

The shoe-rack was found sitting out to the curb as I drove through the neighborhood awhile back.  Yay for a free find!  The closet goes back about five feet to the left, so DH has plenty of room for all of his stuff now.

Now on to the rest of the house....I need more days off work!

Party time :/

We had DH's big annual work party last night.  Usually its a blast - but last night I think I should have just stayed home...

This party is always held at a super nice hotel here in KC.  Usually they get the top floor & rent out the ballroom, bar, and dining room.  This year they couldnt get the same hotel due to a scheduling conflict, so we went to another one.  Their dining rooms are in the basement - so that was a bit weird.  No elevators down to the basement, so I got to go down three flights of stairs - in heels. I was a bit worried...heels + stairs + being preggo sounded like a bad combo.  Good thing I have not lost my sense of balance yet! DH walked ahead of me so I could hold on to his shoulder as we went down the steps.

The dining room was pretty tiny compared to the one at the other hotel.  When the chairs were pulled out from the tables, you could barely squeeze between them.  It was better once everyone was seated and their chairs scooted in.  Then the servers came out - with giant trays & dinners stacked on top.  Seeing them carry those trays always makes me nervous - and now I know why!  As they were bringing the dinners around to our table, the server accidentally tilted the tray and dropped a hot plate onto my shoulder!!  Luckily the plate tipped away from me & the food all fell on the floor, but I got a bruise & a burn from the plate on my shoulder.  Yay....

The poor guy apologized profusely, and scrubbed the salmon out of the floor next to me.  He said "Its a good thing it didn't hit you - I would feel horrible if that had happened."  DH just looked right at him & said "You DID hit her!"  The guy grabbed the rest of the food & the plate, and disappeared back into the kitchen.  I don't think I saw him for the rest of the night :(  I hope he didn't get in trouble for it - it was just an accident. 

After dinner they started serving coffee with dessert.  I can't really handle coffee anymore, so I asked for a cup of hot tea.  They brought me out the tea & hot water and it was great :)  Until they came around for refills, and another server put coffee in my tea, instead of more hot water.  Blech!   I wasn't going to say anything and just pushed it aside, but DH got his attention & asked him to take the cup away & get me another cup of tea.  So they did - but by this point I think they hated me.  The cup they brought back was dirty :(  I just stole DH's water glass and drank that instead.

After dinner we all had to go back upstairs to the ballroom (no elevator again - and 4 flights of stairs this time!).  People were getting cocktails & just hanging out.  I got to see some of the wives that I have not seen since last year, and meet some of the new ones.  It was a pretty good time :)  I asked DH to get me a glass of cranberry juice with a lime in it while he was at the bar, since I wanted something to drink.  When he came back to give it to me, he spilled it all over my shoes.  It really was not my night!!

$60 and a little creativity

Soon there will be a baby crib here.  But until we get to that point, I am stockpiling diapers in the room :)  I am using a stockpiling guideline from HCW to get a good guestimate for the number of packs we will need.  Here's where the stockpile stands:

Size - Suggested amount - (What I have)

Newborn - 2 packs - (2)

Size 1 - 10 packs - (10)

Size 2 - 15 packs - (15)

Size 3 - 35 packs - (22)

Size 4 - 35 packs - (0)

Plus I have 8 tubs of wipes, and I should be able to get some more over the next couple of days.  A HUGE shout-out to Miss Frugalsuz for sending me the $2 coupon for the diapers, and some $2 peelies on the wipes. 

I am going to stock up the rest of the Size 3s and get some more wipes during this sale.  That should easily last us a year and give me plenty of time to find another sale before the Size 4s are needed.  I know that this won't match our baby's needs 100%, but it is a great start.  For around $1/pack, its a gamble I can afford to make :)

In other news, DH has some awesome meetings all lined up for the next few days.  Its great that things are starting to make progress, but I can't wait for some of these cases to finally close!  Just one or two cases will give us the breathing room we need to keep going forward.  My goal for next Monday is to get our taxes done & filed.  By the estimates we should get back quite a bit, which could replenish the EF.  YAY!

Setbacks :(

I am really starting to loathe this "2 steps forward, 5 steps back" game.  SERIOUSLY!!!

DH got a bill for $1300 at work, that has to be paid within the next two weeks.  He does not have any checks coming through before its due, so we have to pay it out-of-pocket.  After some juggling, raiding savings, and honestly just complete luck we figured out how to pay it.  Our EF is gone, but oh well.  Time to start building it back up I guess.

Except that the car window broke today, and we HAVE to get it fixed.  Looks like it goes on the CC.

I just want to cry :(  I know this won't last forever, and setbacks happen.  But on days like this I really feel like we are trying to drain the ocean with a spoon.


*************ETA**************

I just opened up my work email to shoot a message to my boss & let her know that I will be in late tomorrow since I have to go to the repair shop first thing.  And I found an email - the company met our corporate goals, so we are eligible for raises & bonuses!!  Oh my goodness.  I don't want to get my hopes up, but this could be just what we need to keep things going.

DH and I really are blessed.  Every time something seems too big for us to handle, something else amazing comes along and smooths it out again. 

Off the deep end again :)

I have started to pick up Walgreens again.  DH has been encouraging me to get back into hounding more intensely to save money & get ready for this baby.  I had slacked off for awhile since I didn't feel well at the beginning, and the deals were crappy (and we had a TON of stuff to tide us over).

Well, I think I just figured out the best deal I could hope to find on diapers.  Seriously!

Walgreens will have their brand of diapers & wipes BOGO next week.  I don't want to stock up on wipes just yet because I think they might dry out before we need them, but diapers have a super long shelf-life, so I will get those.  DH has said I could spend $50.  Here's what I plan to do with that -

Transactions 1-9 (yep - 9!)
Neuragen PE (diabetic pain relief) - $14.99 with card, get back $10 RR
-$10 coupon found in the D&Y mag at Walgreens
=$5.37 each ($4.99 + tax).
Total cost for these 9 transactions = $48.33

Transactions 10-12:
12 packages of Walgreens brand diapers = $107.88
- BOGO sale = $53.94
$.10 taffy (filler item) = $54.06
- Walgreens' booklet $2 diaper coupons (have not found one here, but trying to trade for one)  - will take off $24 for all of the diapers = $30.06
-3 of the $10 RRs from previous transactions = $.06
Pay $.06 + tax (here its on the post-coupon price only) = $.06
Total for the last three transactions = $.18 (YEP!!)

That means my total cost for 36 packages of diapers will be $48.51, or $1.35 per package of diapers.  WOW!  Honestly, if that all works out I might see if I can't get a bit more out of the budget.  I could easily get a year's worth of diapers for $100 total!  The only thing cheaper than that would be making my own cloth diapers out of DH's old t-shirts :P

Yes, I am a complete dork.  I spent 20 minutes figuring this out, and about danced around the room when I saw it would work.  I asked DH if I could run out to the store, and he just rolled his eyes at me.  I am going to get our kiddo stocked up, and then I think I will help SIL get stocked (or take BIL out with me & show him how to do it so he can work the deals). 

Stocking up!

And the diaper stockpile continues to grow (or, it will soon!).  So far I have 3 boxes of size 3 diapers.  Since most kids don't get into size 3 until they are about a year old, I won't be getting any more of those.  But, next week they will be having another sale.  Huggies packs will be $4 each after coupons & EBs.  Works for me!  I plan to get another 6 packages, in size 1.  I found a stockpiling guide on one of the coupon forums, so I am roughly following that for stockpiling the sizes (although, I really doubt I am going to go get 35 packs of size 2's!!).  I probably won't have time to hunt down the deals as much as I do now once the kiddo is here.  These are cheap enough that if our kiddo can't use them, I will just pass them along to SIL :)

Today my sister & I went shopping.  I was able to get a pair of work-appropriate maternity jeans, three shirts, and two pairs of boots for less than $80.  I was happy with that since I needed new jeans and definitely am starting to need new shirts.  Lil' one is starting to make his/her presence known!!  And, my last pair of boots were $15 Payless specials that lasted through three seasons.  The shoe store we drove past was having a big clearance on all of their winter shoes.  I got a pair of dressy brown winter shoes, and casual boots to wear with jeans for $30 :)  That's my kind of clearance!

Heartbreaking :(

Last night I had a conversation with a friend that went really, really badly :(

This friend is in a situation very similar to the one I was in just over three years ago.  She is about to marry someone under the wrong circumstances.  Everyone in the family, and several friends have expressed their concern to her.  But she doesn't care.  She's made up her mind, and come hell or high water she's going through with it.

I had been sitting back not saying anything, but I just couldn't hold it in anymore.  I really believe with all my heart that she is making a HUGE mistake.  Its more than just not particularly caring for the fiancee.  If that was the issue, then I would have just kept my mouth shut. 

When I called her, she said that she understood my concerns, and that she thought they were valid (and they were the same concerns she had already heard from several good friends & family members).  But she was choosing to ignore them anyway, because she's "stubborn", and already made up her mind.  She could not believe that she was being forced to choose between all of her family & friends, or her fiancee.  I told her from my own experience, its a HUGE red flag when all of those you love & trust can not support your decision to marry someone.  Its because we all have HER best interests at heart, and we can see the pain & heartache coming dead ahead.  I told her that I understood what it feels like to love someone, but to have to make the very hard decision that this is not the best relationship & move on.  Its devastating.  But the consequences of going through with something that you know in your heart is wrong are even worse.

The worst part is seeing her family hurting so much over this.  They are basically losing their daughter.  But, they are still trying to do all the "normal" family things as a desperate attempt to let her know how much they care.  They are helping to pay for & coordinate a wedding that they feel in their hearts is completely wrong.  Because the alternative is to deny her help, and all but guarantee they won't be included in her life going forward.  She's being completely selfish & scheduling the wedding at a time when a few family members will be in the hospital (scheduled surgeries).  Her response?  Well, we can just move the wedding to the hospital if you want.  WTH?!?!?!

I stayed up most of the night crying about it, and praying for my friend.  I was two weeks away from doing the exact same thing, when someone had the courage to confront me about it.  It pissed me off beyond belief, but it got me thinking.  Thankfully, I found the courage to do what I knew in my heart was right, and made the toughest decision in my life so far & canceled the wedding.  Even though she was upset after our talk last night, I just hope & pray that it gets her thinking.  I will forever be grateful for the person who talked to me.

And now I have a tough decision to make.  The wedding is approaching soon.  Do I attend, even though my friend knows I do NOT support the marriage, or do I not go.  Unless something drastically changes, I can't go & pretend to be happy.  Its going to be all I can do not to stand up & yell out my objections (pretty sure that's not going to be included in the ceremony ).  I will probably just sit there & cry.

Snowed in

Since we are snowed in, I have plenty of time to play with the spreadsheets.  Nothing too exciting there since things are set to auto-pay.  I miss the days of finding extra cash to throw at things.  Now the budget is pretty streamlined...and really just boring :(  Oh well, now that we have our system down, we are paying off about $1100 per month (not including interest).  Not too shabby! 

Still waiting on all of our paperwork to come in so that we can start on our taxes.  I am going to attempt to do them on our own, but we will get a pro to officially file for us this year.  I don't know/remember enough about how to do DH's taxes now, and I would just rather not bother with it.  Its worth paying a pro to take care of to make sure everything is right.  I think we just need a couple more items, and we can find a preparer.

DH has some pending cases out too.  With our refund & any cases that clear, we will be able to fully fund maternity leave and then start in on our trip to NM later this year.  I think we have decided to only go after the baby is born, instead of trying to squeeze in two trips.  Work added in more training classes, so we would have to go early April or not make it before I can't fly anymore.  And there is no way in heck I am making a 20 hour drive at 36+ weeks pregnant!!  Maybe we can stay out there for a full week if we only go once, so that we can spend plenty of time with Grandpa. 

We had a good talk with MIL the other day.  We worked out some details for her to be our DCP - talked about schedule, discipline methods, whether or not we would feel comfortable with her taking the baby on her daily errands, etc.  Right now the biggest thing keeping her from committing is just seeing what happens with SIL and the babies.  So far SIL has a team of people lined up to help her - and we would not need daycare until the quads had been home for almost 5 months, so that would be plenty of time to adjust.  But, with them being so early, if anyone has a disability that would obviously increase the need for care & MIL feels she would need to be there.  I completely understand...but it makes me nervous just waiting it out.  Hopefully we will still have time to line up other daycare options.  We should - but I like to plan and it makes me nervous when things still are not settled.

Maybe I will spend some time tomorrow filling out our registry.  Its taking me forever since I am doing it online, and researching the heck out of items to get product reviews & recommendations before adding to the list.   I think I was able to add 11 items last time :)  Since we don't have much room, I want to make sure we register for only the things I think we will need.  The only big ticket item that we have on there is the carseat.  Everything else has been passed down to us by friends & family members!  With co-pays for Dr visits included, I really think this baby won't cost us more than $1000 the first year.  That's if I can BF - obviously it goes up if we need formula. 

And...we finally decided on a nursery theme!!  We are not going to paint - the walls will stay the pale blue that they are now.  But boy or girl, we are going to do a baby punk-rock theme :)  DH has his guitars & amps in the room right now, and they will have to stay since we dont have another place to store them for now.  We found some great blue/black/silver fabric that would be perfect for a little boy, and some super cute pink & blue guitars fabric for a girl (the blue matches almost perfectly, and we could play up the pink accents).  I will buy the fabric online, and have my mom make us some bumpers & a crib skirt.  We will either do the bumpers that weave in & out through the bars or do the individual bar ones so that they can stay on.  We have a dresser that I don't really care for because of the paint.  Instead of stripping it, I am hoping to sell it on Craigslist & buy one that matches the bed.  Hopefully we can end up doing a straight swap.