I just wanted to give a quick update on Mark's routine doctors appointment yesterday! After his lung capacity test, he was given the news that he is at the top of his game! The numbers that he gave yesterday were his best lung capacity numbers in the last THREE YEARS! Praise the Lord! I'm so thankful that he's doing so well and I'm praying that his numbers will even continue to rise.
Just a side note... In May when he went in for his check-up, his numbers were 13points lower! What an increase!
Thank you, Jesus!
Friday, January 29, 2010
Friday, January 22, 2010
Homemade Dave Ramsey Envelope System
Mark and I have been on the envelope / cash system for almost 6 years now. We love it and wouldn't have it any other way. We love the Dave Ramsey style of working with finances.
I don't deal with the budget as a whole (that's definitely Mark's job as I hate working with money) but I am in charge of the grocery budget and the grocery shopping. I get an allotted amount on the 15th of every month when Mark gets paid. If we run out of money early, then we find stuff in the pantry and the freezer to eat. I could get more money but that defeats the purpose of having a budget. So, my goal is to not go over our grocery budget every month - I even try to have excess. I use coupons like crazy and find good deals everywhere (I'm getting ready to take advantage of a Huggies Diaper Deal that I found - Diapers for less than $5 per pack!).
Anyway, I've been searching for a cool envelope system for my grocery cash each month. I saw some cool ones on Etsy and Ebay but they were pretty pricey. Then I found a blog where I can make my own .... so I did. Here are some pics:
Here's the front.
I made 4 separate envelopes, all the same matching colors. I woke blue/green ribbon through the top and labeled each envelope "Week One Groceries" - "Week Two Groceries", etc.
I put a piece of matching cardstock on the back so that I could slide it in my wallet and the envelopes would stay put!
I love my little system. I may even make up more for other things like "Eating Out" - "Dates" - "Gifts" - etc. I like the idea of separating out the cash for each week. Maybe that will help even more with not overspending... and I'll only buy what I need.
I'm sure excited to use my new system! Now I just need to go shopping :)
I don't deal with the budget as a whole (that's definitely Mark's job as I hate working with money) but I am in charge of the grocery budget and the grocery shopping. I get an allotted amount on the 15th of every month when Mark gets paid. If we run out of money early, then we find stuff in the pantry and the freezer to eat. I could get more money but that defeats the purpose of having a budget. So, my goal is to not go over our grocery budget every month - I even try to have excess. I use coupons like crazy and find good deals everywhere (I'm getting ready to take advantage of a Huggies Diaper Deal that I found - Diapers for less than $5 per pack!).
Anyway, I've been searching for a cool envelope system for my grocery cash each month. I saw some cool ones on Etsy and Ebay but they were pretty pricey. Then I found a blog where I can make my own .... so I did. Here are some pics:
Here's the front.
I made 4 separate envelopes, all the same matching colors. I woke blue/green ribbon through the top and labeled each envelope "Week One Groceries" - "Week Two Groceries", etc.
I put a piece of matching cardstock on the back so that I could slide it in my wallet and the envelopes would stay put!I love my little system. I may even make up more for other things like "Eating Out" - "Dates" - "Gifts" - etc. I like the idea of separating out the cash for each week. Maybe that will help even more with not overspending... and I'll only buy what I need.
I'm sure excited to use my new system! Now I just need to go shopping :)
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Don't ya just love strangers!
On Monday, we headed out to Hobby Lobby as a family to pick up some things for some projects around the house. Mark was off of work due to the holiday so we were enjoying some time together. We had both of the babies in their carseats and tucked into the stroller. Samuel was sound asleep so we had a blanket over his carseat. Hannah was wide awake and enjoying everything around her, which is pretty typical for her - never wants to miss a thing. She was jabbering and smiling at everything and everyone who stopped to talk to her.
A couple, maybe in their early 60's, came up to us and the wife started talking to Hannah. She made a comment something like, "Aww, look at her smiling at me. She's adorable." Then the husband walked over and said, "Yeah, it's only because she has no idea of how crappy her life will be in this world."
Are you serious? I stood, probably with my mouth wide open, in shock as they walked away. I turned to Mark and made a comment about how apparently our daughter is going to have a crappy life. C'mon! I'm sure he was meaning that the world is so negative and such but I can't be certain. It makes you wonder... I was a little annoyed but then my annoyance turned to sadness for him. It didn't sound like he had any Hope at all.
**On another note, back when we had all of the snow, maybe in late December, we were visiting some store. We had the babies completely bundled up (sometimes to the point they were sweating when we took them out) and Mady was all warm and cozy as well. We were walking from our car to the store when a lady passed us and said, "you should have those kids out in this weather. It's way to cold for babies to be outside." Apparently she thought it necessary to be the parent for a little bit. I'm just so surprised that people would say things like this to complete strangers. Maybe she could say that if my kids were in shorts in the middle of winter but honestly... gotta love strangers!
A couple, maybe in their early 60's, came up to us and the wife started talking to Hannah. She made a comment something like, "Aww, look at her smiling at me. She's adorable." Then the husband walked over and said, "Yeah, it's only because she has no idea of how crappy her life will be in this world."
Are you serious? I stood, probably with my mouth wide open, in shock as they walked away. I turned to Mark and made a comment about how apparently our daughter is going to have a crappy life. C'mon! I'm sure he was meaning that the world is so negative and such but I can't be certain. It makes you wonder... I was a little annoyed but then my annoyance turned to sadness for him. It didn't sound like he had any Hope at all.
**On another note, back when we had all of the snow, maybe in late December, we were visiting some store. We had the babies completely bundled up (sometimes to the point they were sweating when we took them out) and Mady was all warm and cozy as well. We were walking from our car to the store when a lady passed us and said, "you should have those kids out in this weather. It's way to cold for babies to be outside." Apparently she thought it necessary to be the parent for a little bit. I'm just so surprised that people would say things like this to complete strangers. Maybe she could say that if my kids were in shorts in the middle of winter but honestly... gotta love strangers!
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Sledding Fun
The past couple of times that it's snowed, our family has taken advantage of the hill out back introducing Mady to sledding. She LOVES it. I think Mark and I end up more worn out as we have to pretty much carry her back up the hill (if we don't want to be out there forever).
A little ways down, on the east side of our house, is I-72. The hill we were sledding down is on the side of the overpass and so much fun (and completely safe - there's no way we can sled onto the interstate!). It's a decent hill with a big field at the bottom so there's lots of room. The first time that we went (a few weeks ago), there were some other kids out there but today it was just us... and lots of fresh, un-touched snow!
Here are some pictures from the last couple of times that we've been.
This isn't exactly of her sledding but I LOVE this photo. There's something about the way the light is hitting her face that makes it a super neat photo!
This was the snow we got in December. Not a huge amount but enough to get the sled out.
Having a ball!
Mady was brave enough to go on her own! She kept saying, "Again, Again, Again!"
Enjoying some hot cocoa after the first sledding adventures
This was today. After a few times down the hill, this is how Mark started getting Mady to the top again. I carried her a couple of times and Mark even put her on his back. This seemed to work the best.
Yeah, I admit... I was a little nervous at first, but I ended up having as much fun as Mady did!
Mark making snow angels... ah, isn't he so cute. Ha!
A little ways down, on the east side of our house, is I-72. The hill we were sledding down is on the side of the overpass and so much fun (and completely safe - there's no way we can sled onto the interstate!). It's a decent hill with a big field at the bottom so there's lots of room. The first time that we went (a few weeks ago), there were some other kids out there but today it was just us... and lots of fresh, un-touched snow!
Here are some pictures from the last couple of times that we've been.
This isn't exactly of her sledding but I LOVE this photo. There's something about the way the light is hitting her face that makes it a super neat photo!
This was the snow we got in December. Not a huge amount but enough to get the sled out.
Having a ball!
Mady was brave enough to go on her own! She kept saying, "Again, Again, Again!"
Enjoying some hot cocoa after the first sledding adventures
This was today. After a few times down the hill, this is how Mark started getting Mady to the top again. I carried her a couple of times and Mark even put her on his back. This seemed to work the best.
Yeah, I admit... I was a little nervous at first, but I ended up having as much fun as Mady did!
Mark making snow angels... ah, isn't he so cute. Ha!
Won't you be my neighbor
Speaking of neighbors... we have the BEST neighbors in the world. We've now been in our house for 8 months and we know most of our neighbors. I love them all! Unlike our other home that we moved from, here our neighbors are friendly... the kind that would give you a cup of sugar if you ran out, the kind that invite you over for play dates, the kind that use every excuse to get together and hang out as neighbors, and the kind that shovel your sidewalk... YEP they shoveled our sidewalk for us! What a surprise AND a blessing.
The one thing that we didn't think about when we moved into this beautiful home... S.N.O.W. Because there is nothing behind our house except Staley Road and huge open fields, we get a lot of wind which isn't good when it's snowing. This last round of snow that we got pretty much "snowed us in"... literally. The wind whips around both sides of our house causing snow drifts in different places. We have 5ft snow drifts in the back of our house and in the front over the sidewalk that leads to our porch. I went out and shoveled the deep snow off of our driveway on Thursday only because we had friends coming over for dinner and I wanted them to be able to get TO our house.
On Friday afternoon Mark yelled from the other room, "Jenn, come here and look at this!" Apparently 2 of our neighbors and 2 other guys drove up in their jeep, jumped out, and started shoveling the huge drift off of our sidewalk. They also used a snow blower on the sidewalk by the road and out by our mailbox! What a blessing! We thanked them profusely but aside from that we were at a loss for words. How nice of them! I'm very blessed to live in a neighborhood with such thoughtful neighbors. I'm looking forward to building our friendships over the years and blessing them in other ways as well!
Some pictures:
Out our front door. Our poor little christmas trees are almost completely buried.
another view of the front. It looks so soft and smooth that I just want to run and jump into it!
Our our back door. It's hard to see the actual size of the drifts but I think it looks neat anyway. At some points during the snowstorm the visibility was so bad that we couldn't see past those stick trees - we couldn't see the road!
we DO have a sidewalk! This was after our neighbors came and shoveled it!
The one thing that we didn't think about when we moved into this beautiful home... S.N.O.W. Because there is nothing behind our house except Staley Road and huge open fields, we get a lot of wind which isn't good when it's snowing. This last round of snow that we got pretty much "snowed us in"... literally. The wind whips around both sides of our house causing snow drifts in different places. We have 5ft snow drifts in the back of our house and in the front over the sidewalk that leads to our porch. I went out and shoveled the deep snow off of our driveway on Thursday only because we had friends coming over for dinner and I wanted them to be able to get TO our house.
On Friday afternoon Mark yelled from the other room, "Jenn, come here and look at this!" Apparently 2 of our neighbors and 2 other guys drove up in their jeep, jumped out, and started shoveling the huge drift off of our sidewalk. They also used a snow blower on the sidewalk by the road and out by our mailbox! What a blessing! We thanked them profusely but aside from that we were at a loss for words. How nice of them! I'm very blessed to live in a neighborhood with such thoughtful neighbors. I'm looking forward to building our friendships over the years and blessing them in other ways as well!
Some pictures:
Out our front door. Our poor little christmas trees are almost completely buried.
another view of the front. It looks so soft and smooth that I just want to run and jump into it!
Our our back door. It's hard to see the actual size of the drifts but I think it looks neat anyway. At some points during the snowstorm the visibility was so bad that we couldn't see past those stick trees - we couldn't see the road!
we DO have a sidewalk! This was after our neighbors came and shoveled it!
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