Nursery Pictures

The finished nursery! (It's hard to tell in these pictures, but the wall color is green.)

Now all we need is Baby Girl to come home!

Her name hangs above the crib now, but we can't publish that pic yet! :)

The stocked closet. She is going to be so well-dressed!




To see the complete photo album with more pics, click here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2207506&id=22619877&l=20df6dabcc

Thankful Thursday...ish

I've had the idea for awhile now of doing "Thankful Thursday" posts. The concept is simple: to create a short list of things you're grateful for in your life. They can be big or small, deep or trivial. The point is to take a minute out of each week to reflect on your blessings. I've seen this on other blogs, and I think it's a great idea.

The truth is, though, I've had kind of a rough day. It started off trying to track down our state tax refund, which we filed via certified mail (thankfully!) on March 17th. After being on hold for 40 minutes, they told me it could be another 4 weeks before it was entered in their system, and who knows how long after that before the check would be issued. Nice.

Fast forward to the afternoon, when I met David at the credit union to open a MMA (I hate being a grown up sometimes and dealing with financial stuff.) Then I spent an hour and a half at stupid Wal-Mart where my ever-growing pregnant size was insulted by a stick of a woman that I'm sure had the "best" of intentions. Whatever.

I went to the post office, came home, unloaded the groceries, and fought with a horribly rude customer service rep while trying to figure out where the stuff was that I ordered 12 weeks ago. (But somehow I was the one in the wrong?!) I swear it should be a requirement for everyone that conducts business to go through at least one year of basic business school. I think it would help them learn how to behave more professionally and remind them who pays the bills at their companies. I cancelled the order, by the way.

I then did laundry, paid bills, tried to finish packing my hospital bag (still not finished) and cooked dinner. When David got home, we spent most of the evening researching mutual funds and trying to transfer my 403B into an IRA. This is a huge pain, and I HAVE a business degree.

My head is throbbing, my blood pressure is rising, the neighbor's dog is barking, and it feels like a million degrees in here even though the thermostat is set far from it. I really want to go for a run, but alas, my 9 month pregnant state would not fair well with that. SO, instead, I'm choosing to move ahead with Thankful Thursday. My thought is that by getting this vent off my chest, I'll be able to put this day behind me and focus on what I DO have. Hopefully, I'll feel better and be able to sleep more peacefully. So here goes...

I'm thankful for:

1. My sweet husband who washed the dishes tonight and helped me put away laundry, without me even having to ask or hint!

2. My ever-growing belly. I may feel huge and ugly these days, but I know there is a precious, amazing, beautiful baby girl inside of me that is so worth it...

3. The fact that we are blessed enough not to need our state refund right away and to be able to deal with things like MMAs and IRAs. I know a lot of people are just trying to scrape by these days.

4. Wal-Mart. Okay, I still hate Wal-Mart. But how great is it that we live in a country that has stores where you can get anything you could possibly need and most of what you want without having to hike barefoot for miles and trade livestock for it?

5. My bed. I have the most comfortable bed in the world. I may not be sleeping great these days, but I know what little sleep I do get is thanks to my amazingly cozy bed. So, off I go to plop myself into it and rest up for what I know will be a great tomorrow....

Thank you, Lord, for do-overs!

More Baby Showers!

Sorry I've gotten behind in posting! After three baby showers in four days, I had plenty to keep me busy. This past week has been full of washing Baby Girl's clothes, sheets, blankets, burp cloths, washcloths, bibs...you get the idea. I've lost count of how many loads I've done! I also ran around town to make returns and exchanges and pick up some stuff I thought we still needed.

Of course, I had a lot of fun getting everything organized and put away. Just a few more days and I'll be ready to post pictures of a finished nursery! Until then, here are some baby shower details:

Shower #3 was given by the State PTA Office, which is where my mother-in-law Pam works. I worked there part-time in college, and these sweet ladies wanted to do something special for us. All of the decorations were gorgeous - I really wish I'd taken more pictures! I appreciate everyone that took time out of their busy weeks and interrupted their work to be there. Everyone was so generous and Pam even got a couple of Grandmom gifts!

Shower #4 was given by Sheila, Beth, and Pam...ladies I met (and two I worked with) at Cross Pointe. The food was so delicious and Sheila's house was gorgeous as usual. They made me feel like a queen and put so much time into making the day a memorable one. We ate, laughed (as we always do when we're together), and I opened my wonderful presents. It was a long-anticipated party and it lived up to my every expectation!

Beth, my mom, Pam, and Sheila cracking up:

Beth, Sheila, Me, and Pam:

Shower #5 was given by April, a close friend and former Cross Pointe co-worker. This one included all of the women in my Life Group. The afternoon was perfect! The food and cake (which we ate for days after) were wonderful, the punch was probably the best I've ever had, and the sweet notes of encouragement they wrote me are a wonderful keepsake. I have been to countless baby showers since we've been in this class and it was so special for it to be my turn.

April and these ladies are such a blessing to me and I know I will grow to lean on them even more in the coming months. These women know a thing or two about pregnancy and raising babies! It's great to know I'll have people to turn to who truly understand what I'm going through and share in our desire to raise a daughter to walk with the Lord.

The adorable clothesline decoration:

The gorgeous and yummy cake that matched the invitation perfectly:

April and me. Did I mention she's also pregnant and was leaving town the next day to go on vacation with her husband and two young kids?! She is my superwoman hero!

SO, What WILL You Be Up To?

A few days ago I wrote a post about what I'd been up to lately. I thought I'd follow up with one about what I plan on being up to in about 6 weeks.

During the last Baby Prep class we took, the instructor had us complete a worksheet about what a typical day with a newborn is like. Even though I knew the different elements and how often each took place/long each took, I had never added it up. Wow, is it overwhelming!

Feeding: 10 feedings per day x 45 minutes per feeding = 7.5 hours (Seriously?!)

Diapering: 10 changes per day x 5 minutes per change = Approx. 1 hour

Dressing: 5 changes per day x 10 minutes per change = Approx. 1 hour

Holding/Comforting/Playing not included in above activities: 3 hours

Total: 12.5 hours per day!

That's 12.5 hours of active, awake, "doing-something-for-the-baby-have-my-hands-full" time. It does not count laundry, cooking, cleaning, grocery shopping, or other errand running. It also doesn't include any time for my own personal grooming, eating, working out (eventually), or any other kind of personal/couple time. That is approx. 4 hours longer than a full-time job! I don't know how moms of multiples or moms with a newborn AND a toddler or two do it!

I think a huge part of preparing ourselves for this new chapter is knowing what to expect. That's not to say we can fully comprehend the challenges and adventures that are coming, but at least we can try to wrap our heads around what is going to be involved. Having this knowledge, we can line up support while letting go of lower priority items and commitments so that we're in a better place to manage our new lifestyle.

One of the best parts is that we have so many friends and family that have successfully survived this demanding stage. I know there will be plenty of people to turn to that understand and will listen and empathize! To them and everyone else, though: Just please understand if it takes me a while to return your phone calls and emails! School does start eventually, right?!

Deals of the Week

Coke Products: Buy four 12 packs for $13 and get the 5th free with your CVS card. That's $2.60 per 12 pack!

Gymboree Coupon: 30% off your purchase May 14th - 17th. Click here for the coupon. (Thanks, B!)

Kraft Coupons: Available on coupons.com, but you can also print more here that don't expire until 8/31/09.

SO, What Have You Been Up To?

Since I quit work, I have been getting that question constantly. I don’t think the people asking mean anything negative or judgmental by it, but I do think they’re envisioning a lot of Oprah and bon-bons. (Which, by the way, I’ve never eaten. I actually have no idea what they are. Chocolate candies, I guess? Anyway, I digress…)

I just politely answer that I’ve been catching up on some projects. If they know me well, they immediately understand. If they don’t know me that well, they just nod and smile with visions of bon-bons dancing in their heads. So, for those people and for my own personal satisfaction and sense of accomplishment, here is a list of what I’ve done in the past 8 days:

• Took down all the window screens and scrubbed them with comet. I washed all the windows inside and out and scrubbed every sill spotless. Seriously, feel free to come eat off my window sills. Total time: 10-12 hours over 3 days. No joke. It was ridiculous. Next year we’re hiring someone.

• Wrote and mailed 15 thank you notes from my last baby shower. Total time: 2 hours

• Reorganized the kitchen cabinets, drawers, and pantry to make room for bottles, baby food, etc. Took a box full of stuff to Goodwill. That always makes me happy. Total time: 3 hours

• Removed the shelf liner from all of the kitchen cabinets and drawers, scraped off the residue of the old contact paper, cleaned each and every cranny, and relined the shelves and drawers with new liner. Total time: 10 hours over 2 days, not including the time it took to make three trips to Walmart for more shelf liner. I’m not planning on doing this again while we live in this house, I don’t care if it needs it or not.
  
  
• Took apart, cleaned, spray painted countless coats onto, and reassembled all of our outdoor light fixtures. (David did the actual taking down and putting up, being the electrical engineer and all.) Total time: 2.5 hours
  
  
• Researched and created a birth plan. I’ll spare you the details, but the hardest and most time-consuming part was keeping it to one page (I do want them to actually read the thing.) Total time: 2 hours
  
  
• Straightened up the garage. More tossing of junk. We did a major cleaning out last spring, so it wasn’t too bad, but it did need a touch-up. Total time: 2.5 hours
  
  
• Put together a Family Emergency Kit based on http://www.ready.gov/ recommendation. Yes, I realize this makes me a huge dork. Whatever…at least I’m prepared. Including shopping for supplies at several stores and typing up all of our insurance/financial information in one document, Total Time: 3 hours
  
  
• Put away the latest shower gifts and straightened/organized the nursery. Total time: 2 hours
  
  
• Cleaned out all of our paper files and shredded a trash bag and a half full of old financial documents and receipts. Created files and folders for new stuff. Total time: 4 hours
  
  
• Cleaned out my car, put stuff where it belonged, and threw away unrecognizable fast food crumbs and bank receipts. Total time: 1 hour

There you have it: 42 hours of projects in 8 days. Of course, this list doesn’t include trips to the grocery store, bank, doctor’s office, or dry cleaners. Nor does it count the hours spent couponing, cooking, cleaning, paying bills, and doing laundry. I would guess I’ve had at least a 55 hour work week. I’ve always been a bit OCD, but I think pregnancy “nesting” has thrown me into over-drive.

So, sure, I’ve caught up on some TV. But mostly I’ve been doing projects. I think I’m ready to go back to work so I can catch my breath. Of course, I know it’s not going to slow down when Baby Girl gets here. That’s the main reason I’m trying to get this stuff finished and out of the way! Now off to tackle the master bathroom cabinets and drawers and then to the grocery store…maybe I’ll get me some bon-bons.

Comments

My brother told me he'd had some trouble posting comments on our blog. I've corrected the problem and it seems to be a lot easier now. Just fyi in case anyone else out there had issues before!

Baby Shower #2

Last Saturday I had another awesome Baby Shower. This one was given by my sweet friends Lara Lynn and Holly. Everything was perfect and I had such a good time! They are both excellent cooks, so the food was delicious. Even the game was right up my alley (it involved list-making. They know me so well!) They put a lot of thought and hard work into it and it really showed. I appreciate these ladies and their friendships more than they will ever know and I am so blessed to have them in my life!

I also want to write a special thanks to all of the people that traveled a long way to be there. There were several guests that made a great effort to drive into town, some traveling with babies! We really appreciate everyone coming to be a part of the special day!

This Baby is going to be very well-dressed! And notice my corsage that my Mom made!

David's Mom, Me, David's maternal Grandmother, and David's Aunt Elaine:

My sister-in-law Jenny, my Mom, my paternal Grandma, Me, and my sister-in-law Kim:

Lara Lynn, Me, and Holly:

Money Saving Websites

As promised, here is a list of websites that I regularly visit to get tips and coupon links:

Baby Cheapskate – http://babycheapskate.blogspot.com/ This is a great website for baby product deals. Every Monday they post the week’s best diaper and formula prices. They also list a ton of online deals each week, which is great if you’re a big web shopper.

Southern Savers – http://www.southernsavers.com/ This one does a lot of coupon matching and “deal scenarios” for you by timing the sales. These and others sometimes drive me crazy though, because I don’t need most of the stuff on the lists they put together. Even if something turns out to be free, if it’s not something I need or want, then it’s not worth my time and energy to go get it. As I mentioned in my last post, I do stock up on certain products, but I don’t have the room or want the clutter to go crazy with it like some websites seem to advocate.

Other Great Sites for Tips/Resources to Save Money:

Money Saving Madness Blog: http://www.moneysavingmadness.com/
The Thrifty Geek: http://thethriftygeek.blogspot.com/
Thrifty Mommy: http://www.blisstree.com/thriftymommy/

If you know of others, please share them in the comment section!

Couponing

That’s right, I’ve joined the craze - I’ve started "couponing”. I must confess that I used to scoff at this ridiculous practice. I was a skeptical ridiculer when people whipped out their stack of $.50 off coupons. As a business major, my practical mind reasoned that my time was worth money too. I thought it was a waste and that it really didn’t end up saving any money…until I tried it for myself. And I started timing the coupons with the sales ads. I’ve since discovered that it is totally worth my time and it really is saving us cash.

To clarify, I mainly use coupons for drug store and baby and household products, not on weekly groceries. Because I use E-Mealz (see previous post), they already shop the sales ads for me. I still clip/print coupons for food items we use, but my major focus has been on other types of products.

My Typical Weekly Couponing Routine:

1. I go through and clip coupons from Sunday’s paper that we’ll use. We get a county paper for free that contains the same coupon circulars that the big Sunday paper does, so I don’t even have to factor in the subscription cost! I also log onto various coupon sites (see below for a list) on a weekly or bi-weekly basis to print online coupons. Most of them allow you to print multiples of each coupon, which is great if it doesn’t expire for awhile.

This week I clipped $13 worth of coupons. Even if I only end up using 2/3rds of them, that's still a savings of over $8 for 10 minutes worth of cutting!

I will caution that some of the drug stores may not take internet-printed coupons. There is one Walgreens near me that doesn’t, and one that does. So, I simply don’t shop at the one that doesn’t!

2. Once they’re clipped and printed, I immediately file these coupons into categories. As I’m doing so, I’m refreshing my memory as to what I have coupons for and what expires soon.

Here is my folder for manufacturer's coupons:

3. I pull out the circulars for Target, Walgreens, CVS, and Rite Aid. I clip any additional store coupons, match up the sales to my coupons, and make a list for each store.

This often takes some concentration, math, and some comparison between the circulars. (“If a pack of 40 Huggies diapers is $11.99 at CVS but a pack of 72 is $19.99 at Walgreens, which has a lower cost per unit?” etc.) It also means I have to keep a mental note of what we have, what we’re out of, what we have room to stock up on, etc. This isn’t too big of a job for me to remember yet, but it may require a list in the near future.

Of course I sometimes have to buy items that I don’t have a coupon for, so I just try to find the best price in the circulars for those. You’ll find over time that you learn who has the lowest regular price on certain things. If I do have a coupon for the item, I put an asterisk by it on my list so I remember to use it.

Here are this week's lists:

4. I file coupons for specific retailers in another, larger folder. As I make out my lists, I put coupons that I’m going to use at that store in the file under that store’s name.

This process usually takes me about 45 minutes to an hour a week. That’s not unreasonable for me right now, but it may change once the baby arrives. You have to decide what time you have available and weigh that against the savings to decide if it’s profitable for your family. I save about $10-$15 per store per week, or approx. $50 total. For an hour’s worth of work (plus one hour shopping time to hop around to each of those), it’s lucrative. That’s $25 dollars an hour, which is more than I made when working outside the home! Sometimes the savings are much greater (my record is spending $11 at Walgreens for $55 worth of stuff).

Other Guidelines I Follow:

1. ONLY clip/print coupons for items that you actually use. If you end up buying a product that you don’t need just because you have a coupon for it, it really isn’t saving money. Every once in a while I’ll cut one out for a new product I want to try, but I don’t bring stuff home that we won’t use.

2. Sign up for the store’s savings cards. I have a CVS card and a Kroger card. Yes, I know they’re tracking my spending habits and using me for free marketing research. To help cut down on solicitation, I didn’t put my birthday, phone number, or email on the applications. I’m sure I’ve increased my junk mail a bit, but it’s a calculated risk I took.

3. I do not drive all over creation to save a buck. Walgreens, CVS, and Rite Aid are literally all at one intersection about 2 miles from my house. And who doesn’t pass a Target at least once a week?! If you don’t have all of them so close to you, I recommend only stopping at the one or two you pass on your regular routes.

4. Shop with a list…and STICK TO YOUR LIST. This can be especially hard at Target! Just remember that it doesn’t count to save $10 if you spend an extra $25 you didn’t need to spend.

5. Stock up on stuff that you’ll use eventually IF you really need to and IF you have room for it.

Some examples of things I stock up on: diapers, batteries, coke products, paper towels, toiletries, and cleaning supplies. You have to be careful to draw the line somewhere though. I cut myself off once I run out of room to store it in its rightful place OR I have about a 8-12 week supply. There will be more coupons and sales. It’s not sensible to stock up if you’re stumbling over stuff everywhere or if it’s going to expire before you get to use it. I don’t want to have to start storing toothpaste in David’s sock drawer just because it was on sale and I had no where else to put it.

6. Another great alternative and/or addition to stocking up is to buy the products and donate them to a local food bank. This may also be worth clipping coupons for stuff you don’t use.

Here are this week's results:

That's $42.90 from three stores (I had to do two transactions at Walgreens to use all of my coupons.) It took me 45 minutes to clip and list and 45 minutes to shop this week, so that's $42.90 for 1.5 hours of work!

...So that’s my new hobby. David jokes that at least it’s a hobby that saves us money! Hopefully you’ll consider joining this new fad and it’ll become a money-saving habit for your family like it has for us!

Here are some online coupon sites that I use regularly:

Coupon Cabin – this one has a lot of retailers’ coupons. Not very many grocery/drug store coupons. http://www.couponcabin.com/printable-coupons/index.htm

Coupons.com – This one has a lot of grocery and drug store items. http://print.coupons.com/Couponweb/Offers.aspx?pid=13903&zid=xh20&nid=10

RedPlum.com – Same company as the coupon circulars, but they often offer different coupons than the paper. http://www.redplum.com/Default.aspx

The Coupon Mom – Mostly grocery and drug store items. http://couponmom.coupons.smartsource.com/WEB/index.aspx?Link=WOOX5QMOGEYUM

I’ll list some more money saving websites that I use in a later post. There are a several good ones out there that link you to valuable coupons and help match up the sales ads for you.