This is probably my favorite month. Perfect weather, pumpkins, and candy :)
We officially have a house that needs some serious painting. Hopefully I will be able to get to it by this weekend.
I have math, history, and english homework that needs to be done by friday and I just started meal planning.
This morning I made home-made granola! It's a little bit crumbly but super delicious and all natural!
ALSO, I stripped the brown out of my hair trying to lighten it because it had gotten too dark. Instead, I know have hair to match the season. It is about the color of a pumpkin. IM OFFICIALLY A GINGER! :) It really isn't too terrible though it is more of a strawberry blonde but I will wait a week and strip it again and use a brass banisher to get some of the orange/red out. Yeah, I color my hair more than I paint my nails.
anyway, hooray for October!
I just found out the children where Mark works have a $17 budget for their food each week. That means if a cottage has 3 kids and 2 houseparents they get $85 a week for 5 people. I don't know about you but we spend about $300 every 2 weeks on groceries. That is about $600 a month and so about $200 per person a month and $50 a week per person. For a family of 3 that is ridiculous! I decided something needs to be done about our grocery bill.
I have a friend who is a meal planner and said she has learned to cut her grocery bill in half. I have tried and it normally lasts a week :) SO... I have decided to start AGAIN and hopefully this time keep it up. I found out that if you try to eat more natural foods you won't buy a lot of junk food that is actually expensive. I'm not saying I am about to become a health nut because PIZZA and chocolate milk are amazing, but I am saying I have decided to buy plain vanilla yogurt instead of the go-gurt. I am not buying poptarts and granola bars but learning to make most things from scratch. SO... kitchen adventures here I come.
I am trying to go to the grocery on the same day every week and spend NO MORE than $100. By deciding ahead of time what the exact breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snack will be for each day I can figure out what I need and stay away from everything else. I have started planning for next week and plan to go to the grocery on MONDAY because it is Oct. 1! We are going to have leftovers on Sunday nights, Meatfree Mondays, Temptation Tuesdays (the only night we will have desserts), and make an easy recipe on Fridays, like a pizza, hamburgers, breakfast for dinner, or something else that doesn't take much time or thought. :)
I am also going to try to stick to buying more produce and staying away from the middle aisles because they have the expensive, unhealthy goodies that I love so much....tee-hee. Here is the weekly planner I am using and I just printed a big calendar to write notes on and kind of have an idea of what I already made or want to make for the month.
I got a great idea from a fellow blogger on how to organize recipes. I know I print recipes off of pinterest and I even get the Rachael Ray Magazine and this is great way to declutter everything and actually USE the recipes. You can find that link
Well... It is official! As of tomorrow we will sign our names to about 4000 places and become homeowners. It has taken well over 6 months and some long drawn-out weeks to finally have a place to call ours. Mark has been working a in Meridian for almost 3 months now and I have had to be at home alone for most weeks. Having a two-year old all to myself with not even a small break to shower has been (how do I say this nicely) um.... difficult. :) E has been trying to give up napping these past months and I really don't think I am ready.
We will finally be moving into our house in about 3 weeks. Hopefully, this house was built in 1988. It has had absolutely NOOO updating or anything so that is where I get to jump in.
We have always lived rent free and so my job as the wife and stay at home mom is to now find extra money to pay for things with and at the same time be able to make our home OURS! We start next week by putting a brand new roof and carpet all throughout and hopefully painting a few rooms :)
Let me just explain, this home was a foreclosed home. It has NO gutters, the roof is about 15 years old. Almost all the doors have holes in them like someone punched it. It is completely cedar and some siding is rotting.There is a creepy steeple thing haha. The lights (if there are any) are all hanging by wires. The cabinets look like they were from the 70s and the carpet is DISGUSTING and I absolutely LOVE IT!!! :)
We have a guest bedroom and french doors out to the fenced in backyard. In the best school district in Meridian, MS (even though that is not saying much, the schools are awful) We are within a walking distance from a neighbor. NEVER IN MY LIFE have I been within walking distance of a neighbor. My son can actually trick-or-treat! The excitement is completely overwhelming. I will be posting some dos and don'ts of home renovations soon and also some awesome before and afters so GET READY! This is going to be fun a $4 budget ha.
Here is the official picture taken by the inspector.
Eason is so excited he calls it, "my house with the steps and my room up the steps and it will have my toys and bed UPSTAIRS".
This is from a corner of the back yard
The drive-way :)
THE WORST KITCHEN CABINETS EVER! :) and not to add... but some pretty rough wallpaper also ha.
I can't wait to get started on this! I told Mark I have about 30 years to make it just how I want it. WISH US LUCK!
HI. I am just thinking today. Cleaning house and eating :) Healthy at least. So let me be RANDOM today.
RANDOM THOUGHT THURSDAY!
1. First off, It's stinking August! Where has the year gone? I can't believe school is about to start back.
2. I really have to learn to watch my mouth around my 2 yr old. He keeps saying he has a "FEEKIN BOO-BOO". I know he means freaking because I say it ALL the time. It actually sounds terrible coming out of his little mouth, so I have got to watch what I say.
3. I got up at 6:30 this AM and ran. I pushed E in a regular stroller and the poor kid was bouncing all over the place on the gravel. It was hilarious. I usually like to run in the mornings but can never get myself up out of bed to actually do it. I really need to start though it felt great! I feel great today because of it, even though I'm not a fast/distance runner. I started doing the couch to 5K workout and I am on week 4 and it actually works.
4. Mark has been gone since early Monday morning and I'm ready for him to come home. It is pretty boring and lonely here with just me and E. BUT, at least the house is really clean :)
5. I am counting calories. I love weight watchers but ever since they moved me down to 23 points a day I haven't been able to do it without going over EVERYDAY. So, I am running and just watching what I eat and the calories I take in. I realize I eat A LOT from about 2-4 and then 8-10. I am having some problems not snacking during those hours so it is being a small struggle. But I found this awesome app/website that is free and EASY, which is what I need. Try --> IT <-- out.
6. Friday night I am having a slumber party at my house :-/. What am I thinking? I am letting the youth girls come over and trash out my apartment. Hopefully, they will be calm and this is going to be my last HOORAH with them. I will miss them terribly when I move. I love my girls.
7. I want a dog! No, a puppy. Eason and I went and looked at the puppy corral the other day just to see what kind we should be looking into. I want a smaller dog that is STURDY. I looked at a schnauzer and got him out to play with him and he was so cute and jumpy. Eason was so excited and loved throwing the ball to him and then all of the sudden. THAT DOG started HUMPING my baby boy. OMGSH! Everytime I tried to pull it off of E it would turn around and start going at it on MY arm, so I would shake it off me and it would run over back to E. Mark just stood there laughing. UGHHH!!!! Anyway, after that we decided the PUG was the way to go. :) I love Cujo the pug that I grew up with and E does too. She has always been nice and not too much to handle but she is sturdy enough to handle being squeezed by a two year old haha. So tomorrow I am going to look at some and I CAN'T wait!
8. GO USA! I love the olympics and gymnastics is probably the best thing to watch. Did anyone else see that little USA Mckayla's vault. It was unbelievable! When she stuck it they zoomed on the judges faces and their mouths were wide open! WOW! I'm proud to be an American. And we have some Amazing looking swimming boys :)
YES PLEASE!!!
9. I really want to go see the new Batman movie. It looks great! Hopefully Mark and I can go this weekend.
Geez, that is enough randomness for the day. :) Hope it was enough!
Good Morning!!! It's MONDAY.... ugh. My husband has left for his job this morning at about 7 and he will be there till Friday about lunch. I really don't like him staying there all week but it sure beats him having to drive 4 hours one way. It normally doesn't bother me because I know as soon as we close on our house he will be here more often but, today is our anniversary. :) We have been married for TWO whole years today. At exactly 4, (which is about 20 more mins), two years ago I was walking down the LONG boardwalk with my daddy to the sand where my family and future husband were waiting.
Kissing my daddy.
Happy Anniversary
Anyway, I decided to get a little crafty and try some of the things I found on PINTEREST. I love that website :) SO... Here is what I did today. OK... I have been slowly trying to potty train my 2 year old for a few months. We will try it for about 2 days and then give up. I just don't feel like he is ready. I bought some training pants which I thought with the extra padding it wouldn't leak through but I was wrong. I dunno if it is boys or if every little kid pees as much as mine does but those things are just as bad when he pees in regular undies without padding. anyway I decided I needed to BULK these suckers up so we could actually use them.
Has anyone ever seen these things?? Look how huge the blue waterproof one is. It is actually a 2T and the white one is a 3T. WHAT??? The blue one on Eason comes all the way up to his chest and it balloons out making his butt HUGE. He just giggles when he puts them on and we will NEVER use them. It makes me sad to waste money so, I found how to make training pants on PINTEREST . <--That takes you to the page. I used her idea on how to make a pattern.
I used E's old receiving blankets as my interior cloth. We had at least 40 of those things and he didn't even use a lot of them, so it didn't bother me to use them.
I folded one and used the pattern to cut it out. It is about 4 layers of flannel cloth.
It kind of looks like a soaker that you put in a cloth diaper. *yes I made some of those last year* Just pin it and sew it to the inside of some training pants.
Now, here is where the GIANT waterproof trainers fit in. :) If you just pull them at the seams the would just come right off. The tutorial I used said use PUL. It is an awesome type of fabric that I used for my cloth diapers last year. So I have some left over but I wanted to use these things up first.
Then you use your pattern that you made to cut out a water proof patch and sew it on the front of your trainers.
EASY HUH.. Now we will use these for sure. I know they will be perfect for long car trips and overnight.
I feel very productive today. I started my diet yesterday. I have not had a cigarette in 2 days. I am FINALLY blogging and sewing again. My bathrooms are Sparkling and I re-arranged my furniture in the living room :) I feel like wonder woman after all that today.
Today, I got up real early and I am trying to keep myself busy so I dont want a cigarette. SO, I have to keep my hands busy which is why I have been cleaning and sewing. I made E a new shirt. It was super easy. I bought him a pack of the little white undershirts a while back so today I appliqued a cute TIE onto one. Just make and cut out a little tie. Heat it with the iron, stick that sticky back on it and SEW AWAY. I can post pics in a little bit.
I also made us a dry erase board. I took an old picture frame and wrapped some cute cloth around it then I took a big piece of tulle and tied it in a bow in one corner because I didn't feel like wrapping anymore corners haha. I just put a piece of white paper in it and we can write on it with dry erase markers. Eason has already colored all over it and loved how he could just wipe it away when he was done. But it looks nice enough to leave little notes on it and keep it out. Not just a toy for E.
I made a tank top bag and I can post the link I found it on pinterest and I had a tank I NEVER wore just hanging out in the bottom of my drawer so I decided I would make it into a bag. I dont need a new bag but it wont hurt :)
Super Fun Day being creative. Can't wait to start back to school in a few weeks and actually have something to do when Mark is gone.
Here is our family quote for the day on the new dry erase board. It has to do with our bible study E and I did this morning about friendships. Like David and Jonathan's
AND here is the shirt I made. No he is NOT asleep! I had to hold him down and told him to say cheese but he is actually yelling NOOO in this picture. ha
Today My father in law, Shelby, had surgery. He has had prostate problems for 2 years now and I told him he needed to go get it checked (Weird conversation to have with your father in law btw) and finally after two years his prostate swelled so bad that he couldn't pee for a 3 days. He was rushed to the emergency room and they told him this. I told him 2 years ago!!!! Anyway he has had a catheter for at least 8 weeks now and finally had his surgery this morning. I am so happy that he is already starting to recover. He seems so much calmer and happier. (that may be the meds hes on though) He is doing fine and thank you all who have had him in your prayers. Keep it up because he still has a tough recovery.
I am also thankful that my friend Jordan who has waited about 3 years for kidney. Got her kidney today! Im not sure how she is doing because no facebook updates have been posted but she and her donor our in my prayers for their speedy recovery. I remember cheering with this little girl in high-school and her sweet personality it amazes me that someone like her would have to put up with all the troubles she has had and she is a super strong person for it. :)
I also need yall to keep my best friend Stella in your prayers, her sweet boyfriend of 3 years just left for Afghanistan this week. She is handling it better than I am. haha I want to be with her all the time and just hug her until he comes back but she is doing great. Just keep all of our service men in your prayers especially this 4th of July.
ANYWAY, thanks for listening to my prayer request now I must rant. I hate house hunting. I feel like that is all I talk about now and we have put contracts on 3 different houses and something always comes up to where we can't get the house. We were supposed to be out of our apartment on the 2nd. (Yeah I know, Yesterday) and we still have no place to go. We are luckily able to stay here until we find a place but I start school the 2nd week in Aug. and Mark is driving 3 1/2 hours to work and 3 1/2 back everyday. I keep telling myself that God will show us our house and we won't have to jump through hoops or struggle to even figure how to afford it. God will say here it is and this is it!! And we will know it..... Well, that hasn't happened yet. We are homeless, and I'm getting sick of waiting. My patience is starting to run out. So I have been looking up scripture about patience for the past few days trying to calm myself down. It's not that I am mad it's just that I am tired of driving all over the place and looking at houses Im ready to move in.
I also was told by some family members that I need to potty train E. He is over 2 1/2 and I still don't think he understands it. He knows that he pees but not that he HAS to. I know it's complicated. I didn't want to potty train until we got in our new house but we don't even have one so, that is out of the question. If anyone has ANY advice about potty training PLEASE, don't tell me just come to my house and do it for me! JUST KIDDING! Any help would be great. That is about it for the day I am home alone with E tonight because Mark is staying the night at the hospital to give his poor mom a break. :) I'm gonna sleep great tonight hahaha
