Today I finally got around to ordering the rest of the pictures that I plan on using in the scrapbook that I am making for my mom. It's pictures that we used in the slideshow at my dad's funeral. We ended up using close to 200 pictures total, so I knew I needed to do some research before ordering pictures to make sure I was getting a good deal. I knew I would at least be ordering a second set of all the pictures for myself, so a difference of just a few pennies per print adds up fairly quickly on an order that large.
After checking for coupon codes at most of the big picture printing sites I could find, I ended up going with Walgreens. Prices are $.12 each for 4x6 prints, if you have them delivered to you, which in my experience usually takes 7-10 days. $.12 isn't the best price out there, but I found a coupon code for $30 off a $60 photo order. Considering I already planned on ordering nearly 400 pictures, I decided it would be worth it to see if there were 110 more pictures I wanted to print off. I ended up not getting the pictures ordered before I picked Elliott up from school, but when I got home and was working on it some more, he asked what I was doing. He asked if he could have some of the pictures, too, especially of him and his Grumpy, and his Mommy and Grumpy. He ended up deciding he wanted most of them, and we ended up ordering 522 pictures total. The total was $62.64, so after using the coupon code RMNWALG30, it brought the total down to $32.64. After paying shipping and taxes, I ended up spending $40.45. That is a total of less than $.08 per print, including tax and shipping!
So if you are in the market for a lot of prints, or enlargements or anything for Christmas, now is the time to order them.
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
Friday, November 15, 2013
Update
So it's been several weeks since I've made a post, but things are really starting to return to normal around here. I had a really rough day on Monday, but we made it through. Veteran's Day was the first day I had to make it through that would have absolutely guaranteed a phone call to my dad if he was still alive. It was a little rough going out with my husband and son to celebrate the day, but I managed. We went out to eat, saw a movie, and even did a little bit of Christmas shopping.
I lined up my house sitter this week, and am working on finalizing our plans to go home for Christmas. Elliott has never spent a Christmas with anyone other than my husband, my sister, and me. It will be a new experience to spend it with most of my mom's brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, etc, along with my mom, my siblings, and our little family. He will of course spend time with my husband's family, too, although that will probably be a different day.
I'm just glad that Elliott has a Christmas break that is long enough to go home this year. Since he missed the first 12 days of school, we wouldn't pull him out of school for even a day or two for Christmas.
Speaking of school, Elliott is doing really well. His teacher was impressed by how quickly he finished his work from the first three weeks of school. His grades are good, and he genuinely enjoys most subjects. His teacher says she really enjoys talking with him, and listening to his ideas. She says he is very creative, but instead of just coming up with new ideas, he actually tries to find a way for them to work.
He is obviously still going to public school, but we are supplementing at home with different things that he wants to learn. His favorite things are history, science, and handwriting, but there's really not a subject he doesn't like. Most weeks when we sit down together and discuss what we want to learn that week, he includes all different subjects. He is obsessed with books. Most of his Christmas list this year was books. And other than one $5 movie, he has spent his allowances and extra chore money from August on, on books. We are running out of room, even though we just boxed up another 100-150 books that he had outgrown. We plan on putting a bookshelf in the craft room in the near future. :)
So that's the update on my family. I'm going to try to get on here and write more frequently, but that's it for now.
I lined up my house sitter this week, and am working on finalizing our plans to go home for Christmas. Elliott has never spent a Christmas with anyone other than my husband, my sister, and me. It will be a new experience to spend it with most of my mom's brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, etc, along with my mom, my siblings, and our little family. He will of course spend time with my husband's family, too, although that will probably be a different day.
I'm just glad that Elliott has a Christmas break that is long enough to go home this year. Since he missed the first 12 days of school, we wouldn't pull him out of school for even a day or two for Christmas.
Speaking of school, Elliott is doing really well. His teacher was impressed by how quickly he finished his work from the first three weeks of school. His grades are good, and he genuinely enjoys most subjects. His teacher says she really enjoys talking with him, and listening to his ideas. She says he is very creative, but instead of just coming up with new ideas, he actually tries to find a way for them to work.
He is obviously still going to public school, but we are supplementing at home with different things that he wants to learn. His favorite things are history, science, and handwriting, but there's really not a subject he doesn't like. Most weeks when we sit down together and discuss what we want to learn that week, he includes all different subjects. He is obsessed with books. Most of his Christmas list this year was books. And other than one $5 movie, he has spent his allowances and extra chore money from August on, on books. We are running out of room, even though we just boxed up another 100-150 books that he had outgrown. We plan on putting a bookshelf in the craft room in the near future. :)
So that's the update on my family. I'm going to try to get on here and write more frequently, but that's it for now.
Friday, September 27, 2013
The Importance of an Emergency Fund
I know I haven't been around much lately, and I honestly don't see that changing a whole lot in the very near future. I don't ever get on my computer anymore lately unless there's something specific I need to do. I do still use my phone to get online for a few things, but typing anything very long out on that is a major pain.
Today I'm paying bills, and I am thanking God again that we took the time to make an emergency fund before putting all of our extra money toward debt. When I said something about that to someone else, they looked at me like I was crazy and said "But you didn't rely on your dad's income or anything right? Why does it really matter to your finances?"
Here's the thing, a trip to Missouri from North Dakota isn't cheap. Neither is eating out at least once a day every day for over a week, because you are at the hospital from 9 am to 9 pm. Especially when you are providing food for extended family as well (we didn't pay for it every single time, but we did the majority of the time, because it just made the most sense for my husband to be the one to go get it). Gas to get to and from the hospital (over 25 miles each way) isn't cheap, especially in a minivan. Sending my husband and son away from the hospital for a few hours a day wasn't exactly cheap either. We ended up buying two new shirts for me (one for visitation, one for the funeral) as well as new shoes, two new shirts for my husband, and a new shirt for Elliott. We also bought the flag display case for my dad's service flag, and another case for my mom to display some of my dad's things in. Due to my mom now living alone we also did several things around her house to increase security, and those things weren't cheap either, but we certainly didn't want her to have to pay for any of them.
And then there's the loss of income. Yes, my husband took vacation time from his full time job in the Air Force, so he was still paid for his time off. But he didn't have vacation hours from his second job to take. So over the course of nearly 3 weeks, he lost around $400 in income.
A lot of those expenses were things I wouldn't have even given much thought to, when planning what an emergency might look like for my household. Luckily I had enough in my emergency fund to cover most of it anyway (and the rest? It came out of the paycheck we got paid while in Missouri, that would normally go to paying off extra debt, and from our Christmas fund, so none of it had to be extra credit card debt).
And while, of course, the timing is NEVER good for something like this to happen, it did seem like an incredibly bad time with all the expenses that come at this time of the year for us. Things like school pictures, first fund raisers, my cosmetology license renewal, new shoes, and a major growth spurt that shot Elliott right out of shoes we just bought and into the next size jeans.
So now our debt repayment plans are on hold, probably for the rest of the year, since we need to build our emergency fund back up and save to go see my mom again at Christmas time. But there are things more important than money, and family is definitely one of them!
Today I'm paying bills, and I am thanking God again that we took the time to make an emergency fund before putting all of our extra money toward debt. When I said something about that to someone else, they looked at me like I was crazy and said "But you didn't rely on your dad's income or anything right? Why does it really matter to your finances?"
Here's the thing, a trip to Missouri from North Dakota isn't cheap. Neither is eating out at least once a day every day for over a week, because you are at the hospital from 9 am to 9 pm. Especially when you are providing food for extended family as well (we didn't pay for it every single time, but we did the majority of the time, because it just made the most sense for my husband to be the one to go get it). Gas to get to and from the hospital (over 25 miles each way) isn't cheap, especially in a minivan. Sending my husband and son away from the hospital for a few hours a day wasn't exactly cheap either. We ended up buying two new shirts for me (one for visitation, one for the funeral) as well as new shoes, two new shirts for my husband, and a new shirt for Elliott. We also bought the flag display case for my dad's service flag, and another case for my mom to display some of my dad's things in. Due to my mom now living alone we also did several things around her house to increase security, and those things weren't cheap either, but we certainly didn't want her to have to pay for any of them.
And then there's the loss of income. Yes, my husband took vacation time from his full time job in the Air Force, so he was still paid for his time off. But he didn't have vacation hours from his second job to take. So over the course of nearly 3 weeks, he lost around $400 in income.
A lot of those expenses were things I wouldn't have even given much thought to, when planning what an emergency might look like for my household. Luckily I had enough in my emergency fund to cover most of it anyway (and the rest? It came out of the paycheck we got paid while in Missouri, that would normally go to paying off extra debt, and from our Christmas fund, so none of it had to be extra credit card debt).
And while, of course, the timing is NEVER good for something like this to happen, it did seem like an incredibly bad time with all the expenses that come at this time of the year for us. Things like school pictures, first fund raisers, my cosmetology license renewal, new shoes, and a major growth spurt that shot Elliott right out of shoes we just bought and into the next size jeans.
So now our debt repayment plans are on hold, probably for the rest of the year, since we need to build our emergency fund back up and save to go see my mom again at Christmas time. But there are things more important than money, and family is definitely one of them!
Wednesday, September 11, 2013
Staying Busy...or Doing Nothing
It is funny how everything seems to be working this week. Elliott started school on Monday (12 days later than the rest of his school), after we arrived home on Saturday. It seems like he and I both want to either be incredibly busy, or doing absolutely nothing this week. It doesn't seem like there has been much time spent in the in between. Usually we spend a lot of time outside playing basketball, or just running around in the yard. I think Elliott has spent a total of 30 minutes outside with Snoopie (normally he's required to spend 30 minutes a day outside making sure she gets enough exercise, but we haven't enforced that lately, because he's been busy doing homework, and my husband has been able to play with her instead), since we've been home. We haven't even picked up the basketball once, and I don't think I've been outside of the house, when I wasn't on my way to or from somewhere.
Elliott has nearly finished all the work his teacher had for him, and will most likely finish it up tonight. There was A LOT, but his teacher left it in my sister's classroom, so she was able to pick it up Saturday afternoon, so he was able to get a great start on it over the weekend. When he's not at school or working on school work, he just wants to read, or sit and do nothing. I'm a little bit worried about him, but I know I am acting pretty much the same way, so I'll give it some more time. He and my dad were close. Elliott always said I was the only person he loved more than Grumpy.
For me, it seems like I'm happiest when I stay busy lately. But if I sit down and take a break, there's no telling when I will be able to convince myself to start again. My husband has been pretty busy as well. I think that is the only way he knows how to deal with his emotions. He wants to be so strong for me and Elliott, but I know it's incredibly hard for him as well. He has always said that he married into a great family, and there is no doubt that he and my dad had a better, stronger relationship than many people have with their own fathers. In fact, I would say that my husband's relationship was better with my dad, than the one he has with his own dad.
Because my husband has been so busy, I've had more projects to do as well. He added more shelves to my pantry, so I've been working on rearranging everything just the way I want it. I've also been working hard on getting caught up on laundry, and getting everything actually put away. I'd say I have less laundry out right now (including clean and dirty) than I've had out for several years.
But then there are times when I just want to sit and stare at the TV, for hours at a time. Sometimes I'm ok for hours at a time, and then everything comes crashing down again. I've talked to my mom every day. And she just sounds so sad, no matter what we are talking about. It's really tearing me up. I know in time, we will all be better, but in the meantime, I just needed to vent. Sorry about that.
Elliott has nearly finished all the work his teacher had for him, and will most likely finish it up tonight. There was A LOT, but his teacher left it in my sister's classroom, so she was able to pick it up Saturday afternoon, so he was able to get a great start on it over the weekend. When he's not at school or working on school work, he just wants to read, or sit and do nothing. I'm a little bit worried about him, but I know I am acting pretty much the same way, so I'll give it some more time. He and my dad were close. Elliott always said I was the only person he loved more than Grumpy.
For me, it seems like I'm happiest when I stay busy lately. But if I sit down and take a break, there's no telling when I will be able to convince myself to start again. My husband has been pretty busy as well. I think that is the only way he knows how to deal with his emotions. He wants to be so strong for me and Elliott, but I know it's incredibly hard for him as well. He has always said that he married into a great family, and there is no doubt that he and my dad had a better, stronger relationship than many people have with their own fathers. In fact, I would say that my husband's relationship was better with my dad, than the one he has with his own dad.
Because my husband has been so busy, I've had more projects to do as well. He added more shelves to my pantry, so I've been working on rearranging everything just the way I want it. I've also been working hard on getting caught up on laundry, and getting everything actually put away. I'd say I have less laundry out right now (including clean and dirty) than I've had out for several years.
But then there are times when I just want to sit and stare at the TV, for hours at a time. Sometimes I'm ok for hours at a time, and then everything comes crashing down again. I've talked to my mom every day. And she just sounds so sad, no matter what we are talking about. It's really tearing me up. I know in time, we will all be better, but in the meantime, I just needed to vent. Sorry about that.
Monday, September 9, 2013
He Didn't Make It
My dad passed away on August 29th. There was just too much wrong with him, and he didn't want to be hooked up to machines. On Wednesday he pulled everything out himself, after my family talked to his doctors about it. My dad knew what was going on then, and knew he wouldn't live without the machines, and made that choice for himself. He lived approximately 28 more hours.
Everyone thinks he was trying to hold on so long so he wouldn't die on my birthday. He almost made it. There was less than one hour left of my birthday when he died. It was peaceful, though, and he wasn't in pain. My mom, my sisters and I were all in the room with him.
They moved him out of the ICU after he pulled everything out, so Elliott was able to come in and tell him good bye, while my dad still understood what was going on. Elliott was able to tell him how much he loved him, and how he was the best grandpa anyone could ever have.
Everyone was able to make peace with it, and Dad knew we all loved him. We are still having an incredibly hard time with it, of course, but we are glad he isn't in pain anymore.
Leaving my mom to head back to North Dakota was by far the hardest thing I've ever done. I think it was the first time she had cried when I left since the first time I did it after Carl and I got married in 2005.
My dad hasn't been a part of my everyday life for several years now, and the pain and sadness is still so sharp and awful. I can only imagine how much harder it is for my mom, and my brother and sister who talked to him pretty much everyday.
Everyone thinks he was trying to hold on so long so he wouldn't die on my birthday. He almost made it. There was less than one hour left of my birthday when he died. It was peaceful, though, and he wasn't in pain. My mom, my sisters and I were all in the room with him.
They moved him out of the ICU after he pulled everything out, so Elliott was able to come in and tell him good bye, while my dad still understood what was going on. Elliott was able to tell him how much he loved him, and how he was the best grandpa anyone could ever have.
Everyone was able to make peace with it, and Dad knew we all loved him. We are still having an incredibly hard time with it, of course, but we are glad he isn't in pain anymore.
Leaving my mom to head back to North Dakota was by far the hardest thing I've ever done. I think it was the first time she had cried when I left since the first time I did it after Carl and I got married in 2005.
My dad hasn't been a part of my everyday life for several years now, and the pain and sadness is still so sharp and awful. I can only imagine how much harder it is for my mom, and my brother and sister who talked to him pretty much everyday.
Monday, August 26, 2013
In Missouri Again
I know it has been way too long since I last wrote a blog post. I had just planned on taking some time off week before last so Elliott and I could spend some time together doing whatever he wanted before he headed back to school last week. We were able to do that, and really had a lot of fun.
But now we are in Missouri, and Elliott still hasn't started second grade. My dad is really sick and is in the ICU. My mom took him to the hospital last Monday and the life flighted him to a bigger one. Tuesday the nurses said we needed to come home. He has a lot of different health issues, and right now they are just kind of building on each other. But we still have hope. He is off his sedation, and understands what is going on around him. He is able to nod and shake his head.
Everyone at Elliott's school is super understanding. Darla talked to his teacher before we left on Tuesday, and I talked to his superintendent on Thursday, and both were sympathetic and understanding about the school he is missing. It's been pretty hard on Elliott, though, since he can't go back and see his Grumpy. The waiting room is pretty boring, but he's been a real champ.
But now we are in Missouri, and Elliott still hasn't started second grade. My dad is really sick and is in the ICU. My mom took him to the hospital last Monday and the life flighted him to a bigger one. Tuesday the nurses said we needed to come home. He has a lot of different health issues, and right now they are just kind of building on each other. But we still have hope. He is off his sedation, and understands what is going on around him. He is able to nod and shake his head.
Everyone at Elliott's school is super understanding. Darla talked to his teacher before we left on Tuesday, and I talked to his superintendent on Thursday, and both were sympathetic and understanding about the school he is missing. It's been pretty hard on Elliott, though, since he can't go back and see his Grumpy. The waiting room is pretty boring, but he's been a real champ.
Saturday, August 10, 2013
Great Deals at The Children's Place
My kid always has a lot of clothes. He doesn't have to wear uniforms to school, so he loves to wear different clothes that express him, in a variety of styles. And it seems like laundry is one of the first things that we get behind on when things get busy, so I always make sure he has plenty of jeans (in North Dakota, jeans are necessary every single month of the year, even in the summer), and lots of shirts in all different styles.
Today we were going through his clothes, and decided he needed more jeans in the next size up. His size eights are currently the perfect length, so I'm sure that within the next 2-3 months they will be too short. We buy almost all of his clothes at Old Navy or the Children's Place, so we decided to look for sales online at both of those places, since I knew there were lots of back to school sales going on right now. We ended up deciding on the childrensplace.com.
Right now there is a coupon for 25% off a purchase of $50 or more, or 15% off a smaller purchase. Plus when you spend $40, you get a coupon for $20 off a $40 purchase good from September 10-September 22. Jeans are on sale for $10 each, graphic tees start at $5, and licensed tees are $10 each.
I just finished his school clothes shopping. I spent $84.46, including tax. That means I get 2 $20 off a $40 purchase coupons. For that $84.46 I ended up buying 4 pairs of jeans, 3 long sleeve shirts, 7 short sleeve shirts, and a lunch box. Elliott is excited about the new clothes.
Thursday, August 8, 2013
Fun At Legoland Discovery Center
One of the first places we went on vacation was the Legoland Discover Center in Kansas City, MO. Kansas City is close to three hours away from my parents' house, so originally we had planned on doing a few things there, and spending one night. My guys didn't really have anything else that they wanted to do, though, so we changed our plans a bit and drove up just to spend a few hours at Legoland Discovery Center.
Elliott is really into Lego right now. For the last two years, the majority of what he asks for for his birthday and Christmas have been different Lego sets. He also spends a lot of his allowance on them as well. So he was really excited to get to go. We told him ahead of time that it wouldn't be as big or as cool as the actual Legoland in California that two of his friends went to last summer, but it would still be fun. And he did have a lot of fun.
We paid an extra $4 for the Activity Pack when we first walked in. It had some fun facts, and a few different activities for the kids to do. The best part for Elliott was collecting stamps at each of the different activity centers, though. It helped us ensure that we actually made it to all the different centers as well. And at the end of our trip he was able to show it to the girl at the register and get a button, which he thought was pretty cool.
In the first room we went into there was a place to see how much you weighed in Lego blocks, but it was broken, and said everyone weighed the same amount, so that was kind of disappointing. Elliott was still able to see how tall he was in Lego bricks, though.
There were several different places where you could play with the Legos to create different things. Elliott's favorite was the one where you could build race cars and then race them against other people. Elliott built several race cars, and won a bunch of races.
One of my favorite places was the Mini Land. They had a bunch of different scenes built from Lego blocks. Since we were at the one in Kansas City they had a great Wizard of Oz area. Elliott really liked the movie Oz, so he wanted to spend a lot of time looking at that one.
Elliott is really into Lego right now. For the last two years, the majority of what he asks for for his birthday and Christmas have been different Lego sets. He also spends a lot of his allowance on them as well. So he was really excited to get to go. We told him ahead of time that it wouldn't be as big or as cool as the actual Legoland in California that two of his friends went to last summer, but it would still be fun. And he did have a lot of fun.
In the first room we went into there was a place to see how much you weighed in Lego blocks, but it was broken, and said everyone weighed the same amount, so that was kind of disappointing. Elliott was still able to see how tall he was in Lego bricks, though.
There were several different places where you could play with the Legos to create different things. Elliott's favorite was the one where you could build race cars and then race them against other people. Elliott built several race cars, and won a bunch of races.
One of my favorite places was the Mini Land. They had a bunch of different scenes built from Lego blocks. Since we were at the one in Kansas City they had a great Wizard of Oz area. Elliott really liked the movie Oz, so he wanted to spend a lot of time looking at that one.
The house actually spun around, which Elliott thought was the coolest thing ever.
Elliott's favorite part of the whole day was seeing the movie, though. We saw a Legends of Chima movie in 4D and Elliott loved it, especially when the bubbles came out. He even went so far as to say it was his favorite movie he had seen for at least a month (and we go to the movies nearly every weekend when there is something playing that is appropriate for him).
There were some rides to ride as well, but I didn't get any good pictures. I just had my cell phone, and the pictures just aren't good when someone is moving. Elliott did have a lot of fun on the rides, though, especially Kingdom Quest.
Getting Ready to Go Back to School
We have been having more internet problems at home for the last week or so. Yesterday the problems seemed to finally go away, so hopefully we are done. I had planned on getting some blog posts up yesterday, but then I got too busy with other stuff and forgot. Oh well. I do have some vacation posts that I have finished writing, and just need to put up, so I will put at least one of them up today. Elliott and I are planning on going to the park today, though, so I am not sure when that will be. He starts back to school in two weeks! I am certainly not ready for school to start back up, but I think he is. Two of his friends have been at our house a lot this summer, but he hasn't seen any of the rest of them, aside from one of them stopping by to sell us cookie dough and then dropping it off.
I have spent the morning filling out forms from his school, and making sure we have everything on his school list. It is crazy how many forms we have to fill out, since he is still in the same school. And we don't even have to fill out any of the free lunch or reduced cost forms. We have nine forms as it is.
As you can see, we decided to send Elliott to public school this year, at least to start with. I am still not positive it is the best choice, but for now we are going to see how it works. His teacher apparently already doesn't like him, and he doesn't like her either (he says she is mean to him and two of his friends at recess). So I am not really comfortable with the idea of sending him to someone ALL day who already has a problem with him. We'll just have to see how it goes, though. Maybe she will like him better this year.
I have spent the morning filling out forms from his school, and making sure we have everything on his school list. It is crazy how many forms we have to fill out, since he is still in the same school. And we don't even have to fill out any of the free lunch or reduced cost forms. We have nine forms as it is.
As you can see, we decided to send Elliott to public school this year, at least to start with. I am still not positive it is the best choice, but for now we are going to see how it works. His teacher apparently already doesn't like him, and he doesn't like her either (he says she is mean to him and two of his friends at recess). So I am not really comfortable with the idea of sending him to someone ALL day who already has a problem with him. We'll just have to see how it goes, though. Maybe she will like him better this year.
Friday, August 2, 2013
Moving Day For My Sister
Well, I had definitely planned on having at least one vacation post up by now, but obviously things haven't worked that way for me. Tuesday and Wednesday our internet connection was awful. It was in and out all day long. I tried doing some stuff online, but was quickly too frustrated to finish. The good thing? I got some stuff done around my house that I've been needing to do, but kept putting off. :)
Yesterday I spent the day helping my sister move. She has been looking for a place of her own for a while, but rentals are really expensive around here right now. She found an affordable one bedroom house in the town that Elliott goes to school in (which is also the town where her primary job is), so we got her most of the way moved yesterday. The location seems decent, and she really has a lot of room, considering it's a one bedroom. The bedroom is kind of small, but she has a large kitchen, a large laundry room, and an area when you walk in the front door that is big enough for a decent size office.
Elliott was sad that she was moving at first, but then he decided he liked her new house. He even spent the night there with her last night "just in case she got scared." Haha. He has already informed us that he will be spending the night with her once a week, so he can sleep a little later in the morning, since she's right down the road from his school. :)
Yesterday I spent the day helping my sister move. She has been looking for a place of her own for a while, but rentals are really expensive around here right now. She found an affordable one bedroom house in the town that Elliott goes to school in (which is also the town where her primary job is), so we got her most of the way moved yesterday. The location seems decent, and she really has a lot of room, considering it's a one bedroom. The bedroom is kind of small, but she has a large kitchen, a large laundry room, and an area when you walk in the front door that is big enough for a decent size office.
Elliott was sad that she was moving at first, but then he decided he liked her new house. He even spent the night there with her last night "just in case she got scared." Haha. He has already informed us that he will be spending the night with her once a week, so he can sleep a little later in the morning, since she's right down the road from his school. :)
Monday, July 29, 2013
Home Again
We got back to North Dakota on Saturday night. We had a great vacation, and got to see many family members we hadn't seen for several years. We didn't get to do everything we would have liked to do, but that's the way it usually works. :) We were able to do a lot of the things that we wanted to do, including several days at Silver Dollar City, a trip to the Precious Moments chapel, a visit to the original Bass Pro Shop, and a day in Kansas City at the Lego Land Discovery Center. There are just way too many things to do in the Springfield/Branson area to get to everything we wanted.
I didn't spend much time at all online while I was away, so I plan on spending some time today catching up on what I missed from my friends, before I start writing posts about different parts of my vacation. I probably won't comment on that much that my friends posted, but I will definitely be reading the stuff over the next few days.
I hope everyone is having a great summer!
I didn't spend much time at all online while I was away, so I plan on spending some time today catching up on what I missed from my friends, before I start writing posts about different parts of my vacation. I probably won't comment on that much that my friends posted, but I will definitely be reading the stuff over the next few days.
I hope everyone is having a great summer!
Wednesday, July 10, 2013
Vacation
Well, my family and I are in Missouri now. Last week we were so busy with getting ready for vacation, doctor appointments, and some more decluttering and cleaning projects, that I didn't even realize I never wrote even one blog post.
Carl, Elliott, Snoopie and I left our house on Monday morning and arrived at my parents house last night. We left Trixie and Minnie home with my sister. Everyone seems to think it's funny that my dogs took separate vacations this year. :) Trixie went on vacation with Darla last month, and stayed at our sister, Bonnie's house. This month Trixie stayed home, and Snoopie got to visit Missouri, and is staying at my parents' house with us, only she has to stay outside. Elliott is actually outside playing with her right now.
We have a lot of stuff planned for while we are here. There is so much more stuff to do in the area here than what we have in North Dakota. Tomorrow we are going to Kansas City for the day. Next week we will be spending several days in Branson. And at some point we will be visiting the Laura Ingalls Wilder home/museum in Mansfield, along with another day spent in Carthage at the Precious Moments Chapel, and Diamond at the George Washington Carver museum. In between all that, there will be picnics with extended family, visits to see my MIL (she lives about 2 hours from my parents), and lots of fun times spent with my parents, and my siblings that live nearby! My husband's sister will even be here for a few days the last week we are here. So as you can see, I probably won't be around much until I get back to my house, at the end of the month! :)
Carl, Elliott, Snoopie and I left our house on Monday morning and arrived at my parents house last night. We left Trixie and Minnie home with my sister. Everyone seems to think it's funny that my dogs took separate vacations this year. :) Trixie went on vacation with Darla last month, and stayed at our sister, Bonnie's house. This month Trixie stayed home, and Snoopie got to visit Missouri, and is staying at my parents' house with us, only she has to stay outside. Elliott is actually outside playing with her right now.
We have a lot of stuff planned for while we are here. There is so much more stuff to do in the area here than what we have in North Dakota. Tomorrow we are going to Kansas City for the day. Next week we will be spending several days in Branson. And at some point we will be visiting the Laura Ingalls Wilder home/museum in Mansfield, along with another day spent in Carthage at the Precious Moments Chapel, and Diamond at the George Washington Carver museum. In between all that, there will be picnics with extended family, visits to see my MIL (she lives about 2 hours from my parents), and lots of fun times spent with my parents, and my siblings that live nearby! My husband's sister will even be here for a few days the last week we are here. So as you can see, I probably won't be around much until I get back to my house, at the end of the month! :)
Thursday, June 27, 2013
Weekly Grocery Spending June 14-20
Meals are starting to get interesting at my house now. Our upright freezer will most likely be completely emptied this weekend, so we can defrost it. The chest freezer is still over half full, though, so we are nowhere near done with our emptying them out challenge.
Last week we went to the commissary once and spent $10.99, and to Walmart and spent $14.84 on groceries. This included yogurt, milk, fresh produce, and peanut butter.
We spent $25.83 on groceries this week.
Our weekly budget is $100 per week for our family of three adults, one child, two dogs, and a cat.
Our total spent on groceries for 2013 so far is $1899.90.
We are 24.5 weeks into the year, and our budget is $100 per week, so we are currently $550.10 under our budget for the year.
Last week we went to the commissary once and spent $10.99, and to Walmart and spent $14.84 on groceries. This included yogurt, milk, fresh produce, and peanut butter.
We spent $25.83 on groceries this week.
Our weekly budget is $100 per week for our family of three adults, one child, two dogs, and a cat.
Our total spent on groceries for 2013 so far is $1899.90.
We are 24.5 weeks into the year, and our budget is $100 per week, so we are currently $550.10 under our budget for the year.
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Parents Are So Annoying!
We have had a pretty busy summer so far. It has included lots of time with friends as well. Yesterday Elliott had one of his best friends over to play. They were playing in the backyard, and I don't think either of them heard me come back outside. The very first thing I heard was "That's too bad. Parents can be so annoying!" I thought it was pretty funny. They were taking about Elliott getting grounded from watching PG 13 movies and any cartoons with violence in them, after implying he was going to try one of the moves.
The conversation continued, and included comments about parents not understanding about cool things. And then my kid said "Sometimes my mom is cool, but sometimes she forgets what life was like when she was young and stuff was fun." haha
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
My Husband's Most Exciting Father's Day Present
When my husband and I were talking about what he wanted for Father's Day, he decided to look around on Amazon. A lot of times he gets new tools for Father's Day, but he finally couldn't think of any that he needed (his tool collection is probably worth more than any of our cars!). He didn't end up finding anything he wanted that day, but then later that week, he was on Amazon again, and came across this:
This is his favorite Disney movie of all time, and Elliott hasn't seen it. Carl can't wait to share it with him. It's just too bad that he won't get it until it's released in August. Haha. The price is pretty good right now, though, and it has a preorder price guarantee, so I guess we bought it at a good time.
We did end up giving him a few other things as well, though. He got an Itunes giftcard, and movies that Elliott picked out for him at Walmart (Tooth Fairy 1 and 2 for them to watch together, and Looper and Water World for Daddy to watch without him).
This is his favorite Disney movie of all time, and Elliott hasn't seen it. Carl can't wait to share it with him. It's just too bad that he won't get it until it's released in August. Haha. The price is pretty good right now, though, and it has a preorder price guarantee, so I guess we bought it at a good time.
We did end up giving him a few other things as well, though. He got an Itunes giftcard, and movies that Elliott picked out for him at Walmart (Tooth Fairy 1 and 2 for them to watch together, and Looper and Water World for Daddy to watch without him).
Friday, June 14, 2013
Lots of Summer Reading
Elliott has been out of school for three weeks now. We have been working on school stuff for a little while everyday, and playing outside every day as well. We've also taken several small local trips. But Elliott has still had plenty of time for reading. He's still reading a lot of the same series that he's told you guys about before (Nate the Great, Black Lagoon, Stink and Judy Moody, etc), but he does have one series to share with you guys today that he hasn't yet.
Elliott started reading Jigsaw Jones (by James Preller) at school this past year, but until last week, I had never read one. He checked one out from the library on base, though, and we read it together. Elliott likes detective stories, so he loves it that Jigsaw Jones is a kid detective. He thinks he is funny, and he likes his friends as well. He thinks it's crazy that Jigsaw has a large family (3 or 4 brothers and a sister).
Elliott thinks Jigsaw Jones is probably most appealing to grades 1-4. The lexile measure is 450, which is approximately an end of second grade/early third grade reading level.
We are also currently rereading the Little House on the Prairie books by Laura Ingalls Wilder together. Elliott is really enjoying the books this time around, and almost always asks for another chapter when I'm done for the night. We are rereading them right now, and plan on visiting at least one of the places that Laura Ingalls Wilder lived this summer. This is probably one of our favorite sets of older books to read together.
He thinks that they are going to be most appealing to kindergarten through 4th or 5th grader for listening, but for reading on their own, he thinks about third gradeand up, because they are so long.
Elliott started reading Jigsaw Jones (by James Preller) at school this past year, but until last week, I had never read one. He checked one out from the library on base, though, and we read it together. Elliott likes detective stories, so he loves it that Jigsaw Jones is a kid detective. He thinks he is funny, and he likes his friends as well. He thinks it's crazy that Jigsaw has a large family (3 or 4 brothers and a sister).
Elliott thinks Jigsaw Jones is probably most appealing to grades 1-4. The lexile measure is 450, which is approximately an end of second grade/early third grade reading level.
We are also currently rereading the Little House on the Prairie books by Laura Ingalls Wilder together. Elliott is really enjoying the books this time around, and almost always asks for another chapter when I'm done for the night. We are rereading them right now, and plan on visiting at least one of the places that Laura Ingalls Wilder lived this summer. This is probably one of our favorite sets of older books to read together.
He thinks that they are going to be most appealing to kindergarten through 4th or 5th grader for listening, but for reading on their own, he thinks about third gradeand up, because they are so long.
Thursday, June 13, 2013
Weekly Grocery Spending June 7-13
This week we are still working on clearing our our freezers. We actually didn't go to the grocery store at all this week. Instead of the normal fresh veggies, we have been eating frozen vegetables, and trying to clear them out. That means we will be in for a few expensive shopping trips later in the year, but we wanted to make sure and use what we have before it goes bad. So this week all we bought was water (we have a water cooler that we use for all of our drinking water) and a loaf of bread.
We spent $8.43 on groceries this week.
Our weekly budget is $100 per week for our family of three adults, one child, two dogs, and a cat.
Our total spent on groceries for 2013 so far is $1874.07.
We are 23.5 weeks into the year, and our budget is $100 per week, so we are currently $475.93 under our budget for the year.
We spent $8.43 on groceries this week.
Our weekly budget is $100 per week for our family of three adults, one child, two dogs, and a cat.
Our total spent on groceries for 2013 so far is $1874.07.
We are 23.5 weeks into the year, and our budget is $100 per week, so we are currently $475.93 under our budget for the year.
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
Wordless Wednesday:The Danish Windmill
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We went to the Scandinavian Heritage Park in Minot over the weekend. Elliott loved the Danish Windmill and had to have his picture taken with it.
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Weekly Grocery Spending May 31-June 6
We're trying to clear out our freezers right now, so we can defrost them. So we had another great week this week, as far as saving money. My husband went to the commissary twice this week. Both times it was mainly for produce, although he did end up picking up a few more things as well. The first time he spent $11.84 and the second time he spend $20.29.
Our weekly total this week was $32.13
Our weekly budget is $100 per week for our family of three adults, one child, two dogs, and a cat.
Our total spent on groceries for 2013 so far is $1865.64.
We are 22.5 weeks into the year, and our budget is $100 per week, so we are currently $384.36 under our budget for the year.
Our weekly total this week was $32.13
Our weekly budget is $100 per week for our family of three adults, one child, two dogs, and a cat.
Our total spent on groceries for 2013 so far is $1865.64.
We are 22.5 weeks into the year, and our budget is $100 per week, so we are currently $384.36 under our budget for the year.
Monday, June 10, 2013
Summer Reading Programs
Have you signed your kids up for any summer reading programs yet this year? Elliott is so excited about the one on base this year. There was a kickoff party on Saturday, but we missed it because we were busy with other stuff. We were able to make it to the library on base a few hours later, though, and get signed up. They still had t shirts, pencils and bracelets available, so Elliott was excited to still get those things. This year the t shirt has the llama from the Llama Llama (Mad at Mama, Red Pajama, Misses Mama, etc) books by Anna Dewdney. Those were some of Elliott's early favorite books, and ones he still hasn't given up yet, even though he is way beyond them in most ways now.
One nice thing about the program on base, is that they encourage parents to participate as well. I think that part of the reason that Elliott likes reading so much is because he watches me read, too. He's excited that we got matching shirts (although he won't want to wear them at the same time out in public, I'm sure). And he wants to have a competition to see who can finish the 36 hours the fastest. He also wants to see who reads more books during that time, and said he would only count chapter books.
He gets an incentive prize if he reads for at least six hours I think, and also gets his name entered into a drawing for a big prize for every six hours he reads. Then if he reads a total of 36 hours, he gets a bigger prize. He read for about 40 minutes later in the day on Saturday, and then for over an hour yesterday. He's already read for more than 90 minutes today, so he is well on his way to his first prize.
We did the summer reading program on base last year as well, but we were on vacation when it ended, so he didn't end up getting the end prize. Last year we were went on two different vacations, though, so it was a really busy summer, and we didn't do a great job of keeping track of his reading the whole time, so he was a little bit short, when we went on the second vacation. This year we are only going on vacation to see my parents, and he will end up reading a bunch there I'm sure. He thinks he might even be able to finish the 36 hours before we leave for Missouri next month, so we shall see.
One nice thing about the program on base, is that they encourage parents to participate as well. I think that part of the reason that Elliott likes reading so much is because he watches me read, too. He's excited that we got matching shirts (although he won't want to wear them at the same time out in public, I'm sure). And he wants to have a competition to see who can finish the 36 hours the fastest. He also wants to see who reads more books during that time, and said he would only count chapter books.
He gets an incentive prize if he reads for at least six hours I think, and also gets his name entered into a drawing for a big prize for every six hours he reads. Then if he reads a total of 36 hours, he gets a bigger prize. He read for about 40 minutes later in the day on Saturday, and then for over an hour yesterday. He's already read for more than 90 minutes today, so he is well on his way to his first prize.
We did the summer reading program on base last year as well, but we were on vacation when it ended, so he didn't end up getting the end prize. Last year we were went on two different vacations, though, so it was a really busy summer, and we didn't do a great job of keeping track of his reading the whole time, so he was a little bit short, when we went on the second vacation. This year we are only going on vacation to see my parents, and he will end up reading a bunch there I'm sure. He thinks he might even be able to finish the 36 hours before we leave for Missouri next month, so we shall see.
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