Finance Review

About once a year I like to take a look at our bills and review ways in which I can save money as well as ensure that billing is being done correctly. It is time consuming but almost always pays off. Here are a few things I have found from calls I made today:

• Call your credit card companies and ask them to lower your credit card rate - they almost ALWAYS do saving TONS of money.
• Double checking billing. For instance I found I was being charged $1/month for international call service on my phone bill - I have NEVER made an international call. So I had this removed.
• Cable/Dish - I looked at the channels we were using and was able to reduce the channels we subscribed to and saved $12/month.
• Insurance - Switching companies although tedious can often significantly reduce cost. Also, telling your current company that you are looking at other companies can often get them to look at new discounts offered that they didn't bother to tell you about. This is what happened to me. So far it has saved me $147/year on homeowners and I'm waiting on my agent to get back to me regarding the auto portion. UPDATE: My auto went down $55/month!!!!
• Prescriptions - I've mentioned this before in this post - but getting prescriptions done every 3 months as opposed to monthly has saved us a significant amount of money as well as being much more convenient.

So in about 1 1/2 hours today I have saved at least $80/month!!

I'd love to hear tips that you have for saving money on your monthly bills!

In the short stretch...

I'm beginning to feel like I'm finally in the short stretch of this pregnancy. Only about 7 more weeks left according to my doctor...yay!!! We took our birthing classes over the weekend which really made me feel like the end & the beginning are near. I must admit I knew very little about childbirth before the class and feel a bit overwhelmed afterwards but I'm hoping that it all goes smoothly. I think I have a pretty high pain tolerance and am not easily grossed out or anything and neither is John so I'm thinking I won't do too badly. My biggest concern is going through something so huge and so foreign and knowing that Joshua will be on my mind. I can't wait for him to meet his little brother and I'm praying all the logistics & transition for him goes smoothly. I'll gladly take any tips on getting a little one ready for a new baby by the way!

FUN!

Ok - this is totally a waste of time plugging in pictures in odd settings...but OH so much fun. I saw this on Angry Chicken's blog.

Ta da!

My mind isn't what it use to be

As I've mentioned before, I have been getting very little sleep - maybe 5 hours a night - all broken up in 1 hour increments which does not make for a real restful night. Anywho, I'm maintaining pretty darn well if I do say so myself...well...EXCEPT my poor blog seems to be suffering. When I read my blog posts from a year ago they seemed consistent, informative at times and some of them were even witty. But mostly, I never seemed to be at a loss for words. Now, well, you be the judge. Sadly, to talk to me in person or on the phone is pretty pitiful as well. I feel like I have the most dramatic pauses in most conversations because I either can't comprehend what was just said to me or I can't formulate words to come out of my mouth that make sense. Don't I sound like a delightful conversationalist!! Luckily, my most frequent audience is a 2 year old that thinks that I'm HILARIOUS and the second smartest person he knows. (I know this because he often defers to Daddy as the fix it guy or tells me we will just wait for daddy to get home if there is a need I can't seem to take care of.) SOOOOooo...I'm certainly not complaining, I'm delighted to have the opportunity to be pregnant and am very excited about meeting our new little man...but I did want to just let you all know what has happened to this blog and if you hang in there a little longer...there is hope that I might get at least a small bit of my smarts back.

Potty Training

Potty training continues to go fantastic! Joshua hardly if ever has any accidents. We did revert back to the pull ups which I heard most kids use just like diapers - but Joshua is not. He is treating them like big boy underwear and ALWAYS tells us when he has to poop and is starting to tell us when he has to pee. He needs to be a little more consistent on telling us he has to pee but all in all is doing just great. We still go try to go potty every 30 minutes which is tiring but it's working.

However, with potty training comes the need for some wardrobe changes. So we have been busy collecting things like 2 piece pajamas, underwear and no longer using onsie type shirts. My big boy is growing up so fast!

Cookin'

Joshua was clever enough to go into my kitchen the other day and get the oven mitts out so that he could take something "hot" out of the oven in his toy kitchen.

John's new hobby

Joshua has taken up sitting on his toy bus and going down the small hill on our driveway...John thinks it's fun too obviously. So see...I really already have 2 busy boys at home...and with one more on the way I may be in trouble. :)

For the birds...

John was throwing the ball for the dog tonight and somehow landed the ball smack dab in the middle of a bird's nest up in a tree. John climbed the tree to get the ball and luckily - no birds were injured in the incident.

The ball in the nest.

John up in the tree - see Joshua underneath it to see size.

Cow Appreciation

I just love Chick-fil-a and their business model. Today was cow appreciation day at our local Chick-fil-a. Joshua has really enjoyed going to Chick-fil-a lately to play on the indoor play set and thought it was absolutely hilarious today when we went and saw a bunch of people dressed like cows! It so adorable to see moms, kids, teens all done up in their cow attire! I wish I had my camera. Our Chick-fil-a also sponsors a kids night every Tuesday where they have kid's crafts for free. So today I'm appreciating Chick-fil-a and all the cow's out there!

ABCs

I saw this on Cheaper By the 1/2 Dozen and thought I'd give it a try.

A is for age.
33.
B is for burger of choice.
Bacon Cheese Burger - yum!
C is for what car you drive.
A 2007 Honda Odyssey van - which I LOVE and hope to drive into the ground.
D is for Dog's name.
Riley - which Joshua pronounces as Y-gee.
E is for essential item you use every day.
Dishwasher. I know I could do them by hand but to me the dishwasher is essential!
F is for favorite TV show at the moment.
There is nothing on at the moment...so I really don't have one.
G is for Favorite game.
Spades.
H is for Hometown.
I lived most of my life in Atlanta so I will always consider that my hometown.
I is for instruments you play.
I can kind of say I can play the piano - but I'm much better at the spoons. :)
J is for favorite juice.
Orange with ice.
K is for who you'd like to kiss.
I love kissing Joshua when he is NOT giving me puppy dog kisses.
L is for last restaurant you ate at.
A little deli down the road - we had a lunch date with my friend Susan.
M is for your favorite Muppet.
Hmmm...Fozzie the bear!
N is for number of piercings.
My ears use to have more than one hole..but now just one each.
O is for overnight hospital stays.
Never stayed in a hospital overnight...but will come September.
P is for people you were with today.
John, Joshua, and my friend Susan.
Q is for what you do with your quiet time.
Of course, I have to say - what quiet time! Read, blog, veg out.
R is for biggest regret.
Not spending more time w/ my mom or telling her how much I appreciated her enough.
S is for status.
Married 11 years.
T is for time you woke up today.
6:30am. Joshua wakes me up bright and early every morning.
U is for what you consider unique.
My life has been pretty unique...but I guess everyone's has...so I don't really know.
V is for vegetable you love.
Sweet potatoes or green beans.
W is for worst habit.
Bragging on my son - I never thought I'd be one of those moms who gloats so much about my child..but oh do I!
X is for number of x-rays you've had.
I really couldn't tell you...maybe 15-20.
Y is for yummy food you ate today.
Our first squash from our garden.
Z is for zodiac sign.
Pisces.

Baby Room

Here is the baby room. We finished painting today - which I wanted to get done while I still had enough physical energy & flexibility - which are both QUICKLY diminishing by the day. The room is pretty much done - although I haven't washed anything yet, pulled out any clothes or anything...so everything is empty and the closet is a disaster...but we are well on our way. YAY!

28+ weeks Preggie Picture

Ok...side angles are just hard on being flattering to a pregnant woman but here ya go. I also couldn't resist this sweet one with Joshua - I don't look quite so pregnant from the front. :)

A New Cousin

Joshua has a new cousin. My little brother welcomed in his first child last night. I was tired and don't even have all the details yet as I told them not to call me past a certain time. Aren't I pitiful! Anyways, his name is Jason and I know he weighed 7 lbs 2 oz. I'm sure everyone else is asleep at this point so I'm waiting before I call for more details. Joshua now has 4 cousins which is just so great to me because I have NO cousins. Both my parents had siblings and both died at early ages before having children. So I have no aunts, uncles, or cousins so I love that Joshua has so many!

UPDATE: We just got back from a visit with the new baby. So sweet! It was especially exciting to see Joshua interact with the baby. He COULD NOT have been sweeter and cuter! I can't wait for him to meet his little brother!!! He was kissing and loving on the baby. He was just absolutely adorable. Okay, I know I should be fawning more over the new baby but I just couldn't help but get all mushy over Joshua too! :)

Potty Training Continued...

So potty training is going much better than it was on Monday. I decided to use pull ups this week and go back to underwear starting tomorrow - if all goes well today. This is to get Joshua in the habit of using the toilet and to perserve my sanity. We still go every 15-20 minutes even if he doesn't want to. So far he has had few to no accidents in the pull ups. He isn't really telling me he needs to go but I understand that takes a little more time and I'm already making him go so much he might never really need to. He is doing great while we are out which I'm REALLY impressed with. I am making him use every public bathroom we pass just to get him in the habit of remembering that just cause we are out doesn't mean he doesn't have to use the potty. I've had a lot of friends tell me they give rewards and I'm not really doing that at all. I cheer for him and let him flush the toilet which seems reward enough for him.

Confession

Ok, I'm really embarrassed to admit this...but lately there is nothing on t.v. Not that I watch a lot but for those few moments that I do want to zone out there seems to be nothing on. So SOMEHOW last night I stumbled onto the Tori & Dean reality show. You know - the show with Tori Spelling. Then I got hooked cause she is pregnant with a young child. The reason I got hooked was because she is obsessive about her pregnancy. Which made me feel so NORMAL!! Ha ha. The episode I flipped on was an older episode and she thought that her baby could poke it's finger nail and rupture one of her major organs in turn smothering and killing the baby with blood. So, even though I'm slightly neurotic about my pregnancy I now feel really, really normal cause I certainly don't have thoughts like that. So here is to reality television making me feel like a normal person!!

Potty Training...

So yesterday went really well, maybe it was the excitement of something new. This morning - not so much. It's 10am and we've had 5 accidents already. I don't know if we have enough underwear to make it through one day. ;) Joshua is still very young to potty train according to my pediatrician but we thought we would give it a try. I'm not giving up yet. We will see how the week continues to go. My fear is that Joshua just doesn't hold his pee long enough. We have been going every 15 minutes and he goes every time but yet still has accidents in between. Lord give me strength!

Our weekend in pictures

Here is a picture of Joshua hiding during a game of hide & seek with his daddy! They take turns hiding and count to five before shouting, "ready or not, here I come". It's really cute but Joshua hasn't quite got the whole concept down...like only hiding his head and answering John when he says stuff like, "Hmmm...I wonder if Joshua is in the cloest?" and Joshua answers, "no!" Giggle, giggle! Too cute!
Joshua helping us paint baby brother's room- he just doesn't realize he doesn't really have any paint on his brush.

The results! I'm thrilled with how it's turning out. We only painted this one section for today - but it looks great! The T.V. is only there temporarily for guests - but will be removed once the baby is born. We are leaving a queen bed up in the room since we only have 3 bedrooms but the room is a good size and it's working out really well I think.

Finally, we started potty training today. We are going cold turkey straight into big boy underwear. Today worked out really well. We had one pee-pee mistake and one poopie mistake but Joshua went both pee & poop in the potty today. YAY!! We are still using diapers at nap & nighttime and pull ups for when we go out. I'm hopeful that once the baby arrives Joshua will be an old potty pro! I seriously almost took a picture of his first poop in the potty cause I'm such a proud mommy - but decided against it. So lucky for you I don't have any potty pictures for the weekend.

VBS Recap

What a wonderful week we had at VBS! Today was our last day as I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow which I'm EXTREMELY happy about because I don't think my sciatica could have taken one more day of VBS. Today in fact, we had to go in 1 1/2 hours late cause I was in so much pain but we got through it. It was such a blessing to be a part of such an incredible ministry and I'm so thankful that I could be apart. It took over 100 volunteers to make it happen so I'm glad I could do my small part.

Another lady and I taught the 3rd graders and had 15 kids. (Side note: it was extremely interesting to note the differences in boys vs. girls. I love my little boy and am thankful for having another one on the way - but boys are a real handful. It's amazing to see how different they are - boys being so physical vs. girls being emotional.) Total there were probably around 200 kids attending VBS at our church. Our church does a fantastic job organizing it and keeping the kids busy. It starts at 9am and ends at 12 each day. We basically rotated around different areas throughout each day starting & ending in the fellowship hall for music. We do crafts, movie, drama, snack & bible story time. Our church did such a great job letting the kids experience the bible story each day physically, musically, emotionally, etc. It really drove the story home each day. One day the kids were blindfolded and had oatmeal put above their eyes. Yesterday the kids got to even walk on water - a fun experiment with cornstarch and water makes this possible. It was such a great experience!

Joshua was in the 2 year old class and was brought to the finale music each day. I can't tell you how precious he looked every day walking into the fellowship hall seemingly in awe of all the kids and the "fast" (that is how he says loud) music. Every night at dinner we tell daddy about our day and I wondered how much Joshua was getting out of the program so I asked him if he heard a story about Jesus and he said, "Yes, walk water". I was FLOORED that he actually recalled the theme for the day which was the story of Peter walking on water. Anyways, it just goes to show you what little sponges their little brains are even at 2!

Quick Joshua Story

Maybe this won't sound as precious to everyone else as it does to me...but I thought this was a cute story. If Joshua gets up before John leaves for work we always stand at the kitchen window and wave to daddy as he leaves. John will stop his car right outside the window and wave and blow kisses. So anywho, yesterday after we did this Joshua said, "dad going to work". I said, "Yes, do you know where we are going today?" and he said, "Chase dad (to) work". It was really cute and funny I thought. If you don't find it cute or funny, then humor me, cause I don't get much adult interaction. :)