The Water Bottle

Today I got to take part in a focus group with Stampin' Up! (Lucky me ... right!!) I had just dropped Jace off at the baby sitter's house when I started to feel like I was hungry. Normally, I would give in to one of the 900 different golden arches that I would see on the way to the home office in Riverton. This time, however, had to be different because 1) I'm trying to kick the fast food "habit/addiction" and 2) I'm right smack dab in the middle of my money cleanse. I have tutoring after the focus group and I know I won't be home until well after 7. I think to myself that since I can't eat out, I'll have to fill my belly with water. And OH how convenient it would be if I had some! But alas, I didn't bring a water bottle and I don't have any place to get one. Slightly annoyed with my lack of planning, I pulled into the visitor's parking at Stampin' Up! and waited to be called into the room. As I walked through the massive doors to the meeting room, I noticed that each station was set up with a stamp set, name tag, and BOTTLED WATER!

I love answered prayers and small blessings!

The Money Cleanse

It is a common misconception that money = evil. In the bible, we learn that "for the love of money is the root of all evil". This scripture implies to many that money = evil. But it's not MONEY that is evil ... it's the LOVE of money that is evil. It's what you DO with it that is good or bad.

Since quitting my job, Joe and I have had to obviously take a look at our finances. In Matthew we learn that "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also". Apparently our heart is with eating out! :) It was time for us to have a reality check. Eating out, and other frivolous expenses were no longer in our budget. Quite frankly, I am now sad and ashamed that they were such a driving force in our budget. There was no reason that Joe and I were living pay check to pay check for so long. Why didn't we save for a rainy day? Heaven knows that the rain DOES come! I don't have any of the answers as to WHY we didn't do things differently in the past, but I do know that I am excited about the changes we are making to help in the future.

Recently I have been hearing the name DAVE RAMSEY. I read it in blogs, see it on billboards, and hear it on the radio. I don't know anything about Mr. Dave, except for apparently he is some sort of financial genius. I looked up his site, daveramsey.com, and started exploring. I found that there are Dave Ramsey seminars all over the valley, and what more, they are free! Joe and I signed up. I later learned that there was a small fee associated with the kit needed for the class. I started to get skeptical. I didn't want to blow $99 on some whim like I have in the past. We decided that if in fact this man knew what he was doing ... $99 would be a good investment! We are 3 weeks in, trying to incorporate what he suggests, and we already feel like we got a pay raise. More than that, however, I feel like I have a different mindset and attitude towards money.

On with the title of this post. The Money Cleanse. People sometimes cleanse their body by drinking that nasty lemonade. OR they eat only raw veggies, or perhaps wear the patches on their feet, (do those even work?). We decided to do a money cleanse. Once a month, we are going to go a whole week without spending any money. Sounds easy right? Not when you are used to going shopping for whatever you need. And we decided that this "money cleanse" wasn't going to work if we overspent the Sat. befor and over spent the Monday after it was done! Nope. Live life like normal ... just be sure there is enough gas to make it to work.

While going through this week I have been able to

1) be creative with my food storage

2) learned that if I don't have gas to get somewhere ... I walk

3) decided that even if I really REALLY want something, I don't need it unless it is a serious 911 related emergency.

4) embrace the challenge, the change, and the new life style.

My only regret is that I waited until year 29 to start. I wish I could have had the wisdom to start this 10 years ago.

Family Pictures

I never posted that we got our family pictures taken!! It was SUCH an experience. It was a warmish day ... and Jace was tired. He did ok, but he didn't know Alica and quite frankly didn't want to cooperate. Here are a few of my favorites, and I need to pick one to hang on my wall. Which is your favorite?




I was kindof hoping for a horizontal picture ... but my favorite is a vertical one. Please vote on your favorite. :)

Another Hobby!

Imagine your kid's first birthday. You are surrounded by friends and family. Your cute baby is "opening" his presents while the entire crowd oohs and awws over how .... strikingly adorable your little boy is. You strip him to his diaper and give him his first birthday cake, this cake by the way is spectacular. Any cake won't do ... you spent hours making it the night before. Your day is perfect.

Then imagine the grief you feel when practically every photo that was taken that day turned up ... BLURRY! The heartache. You won't ever get that day back! True story ... It was on March 16th that I decided I needed a new camera.

It was on July 28th that I got it. With my last big "you are a working mom" pay check ... Joe and I invested in our new toy. The Nikon D5000. It came with an ultra zoom lens and a "normal" one too. Also included was an awesome camera bag and more reading material than I can handle. (I want to take photography lessons soon ... I don't read user's manuals!)

I love it and it is so much fun. I now have to download Photoshop and start tweaking my pictures. Here is my first attempt as a "professional photographer". hehe. We were at Wheeler Farm, and the magnets are in my kitchen. Aunt Joanie ... I need you :)

Quilting ... Again

I bought a quilt kit either when Jace was a newborn or while I was pregnant with him. It was awhile ago -- I finally decided this last week to break it out and play. It has the CUTEST material and a nice ... relatively complicated (for me) pattern. It's how I'm going to master my flying geese block ... which by the way, I have never done before! Here is my progression so far:

The pattern (can you see it?)

Cutting out ALL of my hundreds of small blocks

The only "strip piecing" the entire quilt has. Done!

Okay, I'm not very far through it ... but it is coming! I have more pinned and ready to go. I'd like to blog about my quilt's progression. I'm thinking we'll save this quilt for our next baby. Jace has a ton! (and no, that's not an announcement). The next quilt I'm going to work on is one using stampin' Up!'s big shot die. I have fun material for a little girl.

The #1 thing ...

There are many MANY things that I like about staying home ... but i would say that the absolute #1 thing I like MOST about staying home is the ability to do what I want to do .... when I want to do it! I can clean or read or cook or stamp or go out on a day date with Jace. Since last Friday, Jace and I have visited the zoo, wheeler farm, a friend in Ogden, and we had a friend hang out with us all day today! Here is a photo recap of our "friendly visits":

Playing in the sand with our new friend, Ian.

Eating breakfast with Robert.

Sharing my toys with Robert

(this is my favorite!)

Playing the Piano with Robert

Water Baby

Jace loves playing in the bath and he loves playing in the ... dog water ... and so I knew that he would LOVE playing in a pool. I filled the pool up with water at my dad's house last night, but it was too cold for him to enjoy. We left it out overnight and at about 3 p.m. today, the water was perfect. Jace was a little hesitant to jump in and play at first. He would step into the pool and step out, then back in again. Finally he got to one knee, then to two, and eventually he was sitting. He probably was playing in the pool for a good hour or so. He liked to use a little scoop and throw water behind him. He would squeal with shock when the water came back down on top of him. I love that little guy.

p.s. he started blowing kisses today! so cute.

Going Private

I need some help and thoughts on changing my blog to a private blog. I've been thinking about it for a bit ... but am not 100% decided either way. Recently I've had some RANDOM comments from people that I don't know. Also, I have followers of what appears to be nobody -- just computer generated followers. I'm not sure. I'm ok with people reading my blog -- I like to go and read others blogs that I don't necessarily know -- and let's be honest. I am MORE LIKELY to read YOUR blog if it's not private because then I see the updates. For those of you that DO have private blogs ... what are your thoughts? Anyone else in this same sort of limbo? HELP PLEASE :)

Week 2: 8 squared

For my 2nd week of the : 6 weeks to a healthier me, I decided to concentrate on having 64 oz of water per day. Water is something that I either get a lot of, or nothing at all. I don't drink carbonation anymore, {{thanks Steph! 5 months "sober" :) }} and I know how important water is for you.

Results: I've done much much better this week than normal. Most days I got my 64 oz in. I don't feel however that I have completely mastered this goal, so I am going to focus on this one and my last one before moving on to something bigger. Week 3's goal will be to exercise at least 20 min a day. That will be big!

6 Weeks to a Healthier Me

It's no secret that I want to be healthier. I have made great strides in the last two years to accomplish this goal. I have learned, however, that to become truly healthier, you have to change your habits. 8 weeks on Weight Watchers or whatever program isn't going to cut it for me. I need to analyze myself and figure out what habits I have grown accustom to that i want to fix and what new habits I want to implement to help me be healthier. I have come up with a 6 week plan that will hopefully help me recognize my weaknesses and turn them around. Each week I start a new goal, while continuing to press forward with the goal from last week. Each Saturday night I evaluate how I did with that goal. If I didn't "master" the goal I try again. At the end of the "six weeks" there will be an incentive. I haven't worked out the incentive yet ... maybe a pedicure or a new CD or something small. I started yesterday.

Week 1

Before eating a snack drink 8 oz of water and wait 20 minutes. Before going back for seconds at any meal, drink 8 oz water.

Rationale: I generally eat on impulse. If I want a snack from the faculty room or fridge I tend to just go for it. More often than not, it's my brain getting in the way of my stomach. I usually am not hungry -- but I feel like I need to eat. Also, I heard that your body sometimes confuses thirst with hunger. Maybe I'm just thirsty. After the 20 minutes are over, if I want to eat the snack I can. So far, in the last 36 hours or so, I have caught myself 3 times from having an extra snack. Not too shabby!

It would be fun if more people tried this with me and let me know how you are doing and what you think!! You can either use my goal or make your own. Then maybe we can go on a reward incentive together!! oooh the possibilities ... sounds fun!!!