Our Total Money Makeover

I read this book a few years ago (summer 2007) when we were headed up to Washington state to work at a Boy Scout camp. We read it at a friends’ house, and I loved it, but Russ and I didn’t talk about it a whole lot, and Russ never read it, so we didn’t really learn much from it.

Anyway, when Russ went to basic training, I was able to pay off a few credit cards with all the money we were making (since I was living with his folks and didn’t have to pay rent :D ). Well, then Christmas happened (Christmas wouldn’t normally have happened this way, but our Christmas last year happened to include some very expensive plane tickets. We were so depressed about using all our money (and mostly money we didn’t have) on plane tickets, that we stupidly decided to spend even more money we didn’t have on gifts. It was mostly emotional spending, I think.

Well, we’ve gotten over that, and a few months ago, we swore off our credit cards, and we started “power paying” our credit cards. It seemed like we weren’t making any progress, and then I remembered Dave Ramsey’s book, and so I checked it out from the library. Actually, I put a hold in at the library for it, since it was already checked out and about 5 other people were in line before I was!! 8-o

I got the book just last week, and I have devoured it all over again. This time, with Russ, and we are well on our way to having our $1000 Emergency fund set! We’ll be done with our Emergency fund by August, and then we’re going to start attacking our debt like you’ve never seen debt attacked.

On top of that, we’ve decided to wait to buy a house until we can put 100% down (or really close to 100%). Since we’ll already be used to living on nothing (or close to nothing) we’re going to keep living on close to nothing, even when we get real jobs. Then we’re going to save every last penny we can, and eventually, we will have no debt, two cars, and a house – and no payments… I’m stoked. We almost decided to sell stuff to jump start paying off our debts, but then we realized that we really don’t own much “stuff” and the things we DO own help us to spend less money each month – who needs to go to the movies when you’ve got a 47” TV in your living room? And we have our Blockbuster movies by mail thing, so we get to watch all the newest movies in the comfort of our own home, which is much cheaper than Russ buying $5 movies from WalMart all the time. So, we’ve cut down drastically on our budget, allowing us to save more and put more towards our debts. We’ve even started talking about eating mostly rice and beans to save money on food. We’d probably get really healthy, too! ;)

Anyway, so that’s where our total money makeover is right now. Our goal is to be completely out of debt (besides student loans, since the govt is going to pay those for us) by December 2010. Don’t think we can do it?! Watch us. and on a $47,000 income – where about $19K of that is rent because we live in one of the most ridiculous states in the union.

I recommend this book to everyone. Even if you’re debt-free. It will change the way you look at money. The guy is very Christian, too, so he spends almost a whole chapter talking about how when you’re filthy rich, you should be giving away a bunch of money.

Read it. Now.

nothing much

I don’t have anything really to write about tonight, but Russ has finished studying (and it’s only 9:30!!) so he’s writing a few pages in his novel that he’s been working on. My hubby the fantasy writer! He’s actually pretty good! I proof read his first six pages while I was waiting at the Monterey County Offices (too bad I didn’t have more than six pages… I was there for a loooong time).

Anyway, other than that, nothing big is going on here. Oh, well, we are thinking about moving out of the military housing. Downsizing, if you will. We’re trying to find a cheaper place to live so we can start paying down our debts faster. We’ve started our Total Money Makeover – but I’ll put all that in another post.

We haven’t made any definite decisions about moving quite yet. We are looking around to try and find a place that is big enough but cheap enough. We’ll probably end up in a little 2 bedroom apartment, but we’ll save around $300 a month in rent… $300 that will go toward paying off our debts that much faster. We’re “gazelle-intense.”

I will be sure to post again if and when we decide to move. It won’t be far – in the same city, hopefully. We may possibly move down the road to Marina, but so far we haven’t found anything down there. We found a few properties in Monterey, but nothing really what we’re looking for. Plus, we really kind of want to stay in our ward. So we’ll see…

A New Age – part II

Now here is Joseline’s post. She is getting SO BIG! It’s amazing how time flies when they are so little and growing up so fast. She laughs now. Full out gutsy little laughs. It is so cute. And it’s not very hard to make her laugh. She talks and talks and talks. Russ’ company is playing softball and at the game Tuesday night she spent most of the time talking to her blanket. It was adorable. She loves being out at the ball games. I took these pictures of her last night, but the camera was being all freaky, and they originally looked like this:

AH! Anyway, I discovered that changing them to sepia fixed the crazy coloring.

 We love our little Joseline – almost 3  months old! Time is going by so fast here. I can’t believe we’ve already been here for nearly 6 months. That doesn’t seem like a lot of time, but that’s almost half of our stay here! I love being here, and I love the friends we’ve made here. I’m glad that we’ll still get to know these friends when we move back to Utah. Hooah, UTARNG!

 

A New Age

This is an update on Vince, along with a few pictures. I took him to the pediatrician on Monday, but he had actually stopped stuttering ever since Saturday (at least). I think maybe there was a lot of trauma all in one short amount of time, and on top of that, he was going through a growth spurt – the kind that make your child crazy. I was reading a child development book or article or something once that said that kids have a "growth spurt” at their year birthday, and at their half-year birthday, and that it’s like a switch is flipped and they are psycho children for a few weeks. Then, just as suddenly as it started, it stops, and your kid will return to normal, but they will be more advanced in their development. Vince is back to being his normal self, but at the same time, it’s like he is an older version of “himself” – and of course he is older, but you know what I mean – it’s like he grew up over night. He’s a different kid (more mature in a lot of ways) but still the same kid as he was before all the trauma. Anyway, he’s doing great, the pediatrician was really nice and respectful and listened to my concerns, but also reassured me that it was probably normal, and he doesn’t have any neurological damage or anything. She said to bring him back immediately if he starts having problems again.

On that note, he was GREAT at the pediatrician! He got on the scale, he let them measure him, he even relaxed for some reflex tests!! I was SO impressed. My kid has never been so good (okay, that’s not true – in the past 4+ weeks he’s never been so well behaved, and he has NEVER had the cognitive skills to do “complicated” things like “relaxing” (I means seriously, if you tell an 18 month old to “relax” what does that mean to them? He understands what it means to RELAX! Cool, eh?)

So I’m feeling a lot more relaxed about the situation, and I am very much enjoying my new and improved Vince. He’s such a great kid. I am so blessed.

We pulled out Russ’ really old Sony laptop and let Vince play on it. Here he is mimicking his Mamãe – when I’m reading blogs or articles on the internet, I usually put my head in my hand – just like that. Adorable!

st-st-stuttering

As many of you know, I’ve been really worried about Vincente lately. He has become really emotional and has started stuttering really badly very suddenly. All of this started at the same time he suffered two pretty traumatic events – splitting his head open (and all the traumatic ER experiences accompanying said splitting), and being pushed down some stairs.

Unfortunately for me, I can’t tell if the traumatic experiences led to the problems or if they are natural development issues that will work themselves out. Just about this age is where kids start stuttering developmentally, and the emotional thing could also just be a factor of development.

I’m going to take him to the pediatrician on Monday (I hope I like this pediatrician… it’s not the one I usually see). We’ll see what he says.

My gut says that something is wrong. When he first started stuttering, he would say the first word of a sentence over and over again. For example, he would say, “That’s-that’s-that’s a car!” Sometimes he would say the first word up to ten times before the rest of the sentence came out. Just now he said “That’s-that’s-that’s a ch-ch-ch-choo-choo train!” He’s starting to stutter more than one word/sound in a sentence, and he’s also started to not speak at all, but you can tell he wants to say something. He’ll come up to you and look like he wants to say something, but his mouth just stays open and it’s like the whole word, breath and all, gets stuck in his throat, until eventually it comes out, or maybe he changes his mind and says something else. The stuttering also sounds a lot more forced than it did when I first noticed it.

I also can’t help but wonder if the stuttering problem has exacerbating the frustration/emotion issue, and if the speech issue is one of the reasons he’s reverted back to screaming and crying instead of talking.

Anyone who has been through this… advice and words of comfort are greatly appreciated in advance! 8-o

Tummy Time

I am probably the worst mom about the whole “tummy-time” thing. I didn’t realize I was until I looked at some pictures of my friend Anna’s little girl sitting like this in her boppy at 7 weeks. So, since Joseline is almost 3 months old, I thought, oh, Joseline should be able to do that, right?

Ha ha. So Joseline could barely lift her head off the floor. Anyway, I realized that I haven’t been giving Joseline tummy time every day, so ever since that day (about a week ago) I’ve started giving Joseline tummy time every day! Now look at her. And she can do this without the boppy, as well. She just likes the boppy better because she can see more. I also like to give her tummy time on the bed, because she’s higher up so she can look at more stuff.

I think she was strong enough to do this since day one, but she just didn’t know how to do it, since she hadn’t had practice. Now she enjoys tummy time a lot more :)

Here is Joseline on the floor the first time she started coming all the way up like that. I put some toys in front of her so she would maintain interest in holding up her head. Vincente thought that was a great idea, so he started giving her even more toys… what are brothers for!

(by the time I took this picture, Joseline was tired of tummy time… but I promise that she was holding her head up!)

Park Day Pow Wow

At Park Day on Wednesday, we noticed that the kids were all sitting in a circle down by the tennis courts. I went to investigate and snap some pictures.

 

 

When I got closer, I realized that they were all sitting around a patch of flowers. It was the most precious summer-time-park-day moment I have ever seen. These kids range from 2-5 or 6 in age.

 Then the kids started giving the flowers to me. I soon ended up with a handful of flowers. After that, they started giving flowers to all the moms. Bradley came up to me and said, “Thanks for being a good mom,” and handed me a flower. What a great park day! And what sweet kids!

 

 

inspired

I’ve been dealing with some hard things lately since Vincente has become really really emotional and anxious about things. I just glanced over at my bookshelf on my desk and saw a book I was given at his baby shower. It’s called In Praise of Children and is just a little book of quotes about children. I opened it up, just because I don’t think I’ve ever opened the thing, and the first quote I saw was this:

 

At every step the child should be allowed to meet the real experiences of life; the thorns should never be plucked from his roses.

~Ellen Kay

the budding photographer

 

Here are pictures that Vincente took at the park today. There is a nice one of his scar from his little ER experience. I was surprised that any of the pictures he was taking came out. Usually he has his finger over the lens the whole time :)

Fathers and Sons

Russ took Vincente on to our Stake's Aaronic Priesthood commemoration father-son campout. This was forever ago (I think the first weekend in May), but I haven't posted the pictures! Crazy me. Anyway, these pictures will be a nice little break from my 3.1MP pictures, since they are from our old camera. In fact, I think I broke the camera just after I uploaded these pics to my computer. Looking at them makes me really really miss my old camera... *tear*

I could tell by the state of Vincente's clothes that he had a great time at the campout. There was no reason he couldn't get as filthy and muddy as he wanted to! Hey, that's what camping is for, right?

Apparently Vince had a great time running around with Bradley and Connor. Of course. Vincente idolizes those boys. They are his very favorite people in the entire world (besides Mamãe and Papai, of course).

There was actually some adventure to this campout. The people Russ was supposed to be sharing a tent with never showed up, and he didn't find out until after the gates had closed at the campground.

Well, after going back and forth between them coming home (which would have been a big bummer!) and me taking them a tent, we decided that I would buy a tent and go take it to them. So I did, and afterward I hung out with Trisha til way late (that was probably the latest night out I have had since before I was married!) and then we went to IHOP the next morning - just us and the baby girls. It was a real treat to have time out with friends without the little kids around and without feeling guilty for leaving our hubbys at home.

Now of course, the first questions I asked when the boys got home were about Vincente's behavior. Was he good for you? Did he like camping? Then about his eating while he was there. Did he eat well? What did he have for breakfast? Geez. I can't even relax about being a mom when my kid is off camping. I am just uptight about knowing everything about my kids - what they're doing, what they're eating, etc etc

We bought Vincente his first sleeping bag - of course it had Lightening McQueen on it! He loved it! I'm so glad his first camping experience was a success - that means that we will definitely be camping more. I hope so, anyway. Funny, my two-year-old kid got to go camping with Papai before I did! It's rediculous that Russ and I both love to camp so much, and neither of us have been camping since before we got married.

Life gets busy, I guess. We were crazy busy before - school, work, and having babies. Now we are in military training where we only have so many days off, and they are all pre-decided. None of this "Let's take a few days off and go camping!"

We even planned a camping trip for Memorial Day weekend that we had to cancel because the Presidio decided that they would use a "training holiday" to train the soldiers... and then they didn't even have to do anything anyway! Russ took a drive on his bike with some buddies. Sounds like they were really concerned with everyone being at the training... ha.

So our camping experience will have to wait. Maybe 4th of July weekend? We shall see... they'll probably do another "mandatory" training.

Dumbo

Vincente has discovered Dumbo. Lightening McQueen? Who's that? All Vince knows now is Dumbo, Casey Jr, and the big top. I just hope he doesn't decide to join the circus some day... I don't know if I could deal with that.

fixing things that shouldn't be broken

This is one of those things that should never have been broken in the first place - our beautiful electric skillet we bought with one of our gift cards back when we were married.

Guess who broke it. That's right - stupid moving people. And unfortunately for us I had 1,000,000+ things to do after we got here, so I never got around to filing claims for things like our electric skillet, the broken dust pan (really, it wouldn't have been worth it for that one), and a few other odds and ends that weren't particularily valueable.

The only thing I wish we had filed a claim for is the motorcycle. They tipped it on the way to the warehouse, and broke off a mirror (granted, the mirror had already been broken off by Russ after he'd had the bike for a while and dropped it under himself when he was turning on some gravel with a bald front tire. He fixed it pretty well with some of that weld-it glue). But the fact that Russ had already tipped the bike and broke the mirror previously gives them no right to dump a bike! Dumping a bike takes a lot of value out of it. How were they to know it had already been dumped? They didn't know that! Anyway, it probably made me more ornery than Russ when we found out it had happened. The bike needs an entire new perch - which costs a lot, and is something that Russ probably can't do on his own, so then throw in labor, etc etc. Well, Russ just welded the mirror back on, and it's hunky-dory now. But man, I sure wish we had filed a claim for the bike... that would have been nice to get fixed, even though it was originally Russ' fault :D

PS - I did not just fix the skillet with tape and paper towels... I glued it together with some of the ultra super glue stuff you get at the craft stores - I think this particular brand was "Amazing goop" - I know, how original. Anyway, the tape and paper towels are just there to hold the pieces together while the glue sets up. I'm not that tacky.

time to go shopping

When my fruit bowl starts looking like this, I know I need to take a trip to the commissary!

Updates

The last few posts have been very long, with very few pictures - since I really HAVE been taking pictures lately, I decided I would prove it:

From the day we watched the Power's kids - Halley basically did this the whole time - except when she was pushing the Little Einsteins ball around and chasing it. That was cute. By the way, those are cars she's playing with.

Russ eating dinner in the background, but fixated on Dumbo, just like the little boys on the couch.

I love how much they love this movie! Cuteness, that's what this is.

Joseline probably wanting to nurse, or frustrated after being done nursing (a lot of time she is just ornery about getting off)

Vince on the trampoline with his busted head.

Vince's skinny arm reaching for something on Russ' desk... perhaps the chucha (pacifier).

Temper Tantrums

After we solved the sleep issue we decided to look into solving the tantrum issue.

For those of you who don't know Vincente (and many of you who do), Vincente is a very tantrum-prone child. At first, I wast thinking that it was a behavior issue. He was misbehaving. But after reading a bunch of online articles and library books about tantrums, I decided that Vincente was not being "manipulative" in his tantrum-throwing. All the books talked about ignoring the tantrum and they will stop. It just didn't happen that way with Vincente, and the whole time I felt really bad, because I knew there was a legitimate reason for him being frustrated, and that he was throwing the tantrum out of frustration - not because he knew that kicking and screaming would get him what he wanted.

Vincente gets frustrated (to tantrum-throwing levels) about two things, in general - the first is with toys that don't do what he wants them to do, or when they "break" and he doesn't know how to put them back together. The second is when he is trying to ask me for something and I have a hard time understanding him. Face it, even when it's your own kid, you can't always understand their toddler-speak. For instance, yesterday afternoon he asked for juice in the "green cup." Vincente happens to have four green cups in the cupboard - three green sippy cups, and one green kid size cup. So, when I picked up the wrong "green cup" from the cupboard, he almost had a meltdown. Quickly, I tried to point to each "green cup" to figure out which one he wanted before his distress turned into a full-blown tantrum.

I'm getting better at being quick to figure out what he's asking for. There is no way that I would want to punish him if he threw a tantrum because I didn't know which green up he asked for when he had been SO verbal - saying "Juice," when he wanted me to get some juice, and then when I got to the cupboard even voicing his preference of sippy cup. Holy cow! That's some amazing communication for a two-year-old. So what if he can't communicate EXACTLY which "green cup" he wants!

So I've been trying to find ways to help him deal with his frustration. The hardest part about figuring this out is that most of the advice out there for helping children deal with their emotions is for older children. I was looking for something to help my two-year-old.

First, I read Beyond Time Out which I have decided is one of the best books on how to maintain respect with your kids by having consistency in rules and consequences. But even though it worked with things like getting Vincente to have his diaper changed, getting him to pick up his toys, etc, it didn't work when he would have a "frustration" tantrum. All it would do was hurt his little feelers even more, and eventually he would get so worked up that I would have to go hold on to him to get him to calm down.

I have mentioned before Bro. Goddard's parenting books. Many LDS family and marriage professors quote John Gottman. Well, I thought I would see what all the fuss was about and pick up a copy of Gottman's Raising Emotionally Intelligent Children. This book is great, and is going on my list of must-read parenting books (trust me, over the last few months I have read more parenting books than any parent ever should!). Well, like I said, also a very good book, but also did not address the problem of dealing with frustration in toddlers. It does in a very general way, but mostly in regards to playing with other children - not solitary play, which is where Vincente has the most problems (in my mind).

So I finally went back to the web, thinking maybe I would try a different approach. I searched for articles about "toddler frustration" - bingo! I hit a few very good articles -

1.) Temper Tantrums - by Dr. Sears

2.) Your Toddler's Frustration with Toys and Other Children - on babycenter.com

3.) Coping With Toddler Frustration - on Parents.com

This is my basic conclusion, which comes from a congolmeration of ideas from these websites, Gottman's books, and my own understanding of my two-year-old and his needs:

- His "frustration" tantrums are nothing negative (right now), and should not be "disciplined."

- I need to respond gently to his frustration, helping him work out the problem, and helping him learn to use words. For example, getting down on his level and saying, "You sure are frustrated/angry/mad with your toy. Can I help you?" and proceed to show him how to do whatever it is that he is unable to do.

- Make sure that I am around and available to help when he is playing with toys that easily frustrate him - in his case, his magnetic train, and his "hook-together" train... unfortunately, two of his very favorite toys.

Sometimes it's hard for me to remember that Vincente is very much still a baby (well, toddler). I am reminded of that when I see other kids his same age who are much less developed (physically and in speech).

I have to remember that emotionally, he's still just a two-year-old. And while that doesn't mean I can't teach him how to deal with his frustration, I can still expect these frustration tantrum to eventually go away as he does learn how to deal with frustration and grows up a little, emotionally.

I have the most adorable daughter in the world

And I have proof...

I am definitely a firm believer in a 3.1MP camera without flash is infinitely better than no camera at all.

Venting

So most of my last post was venting :-6 And our heads have cleared a little more. We're probably going to stay here, because chances of us getting back are slimmer than none. It won't be fun, and it will be very lonely (actually, it won't be too lonely, because we'll still have the Wildes and the Saavedras) but we'll make it. And the more I think about it, the more I remember that it will still be pretty likely that some privates will move in, and I don't think the army cares too much if we associate with them.

Other than being a little degrading, what with Russ having been enlisted for almost 3 years and not being promotable, it's not that bad. And the whole having just enough money to get by... we make it work. Things will work out for us.

Just this morning we found out that we won the raffle to have our tickets to the Army Ball paid for! We think that's a sign that we're supposed to stay, and things will just work out for us. Heavenly Father has a way of taking care of us, especially when we think everything is horrible. He helps us see the bright side and be grateful for the opportunities we have.

It just takes a little work sometimes on our part.

To Relang or Not to Relang, that is the question

Russ has wanted to relang for a while - he's really upset that he got sent to DLI right after BCT instead of going to AIT (which is what the do with people now). He also happens to be the last non-careerist SPC (specialist - E-4 rank) here in his company. He is the highest ranking enlisted in his company right now, but technically, he's lower ranking than some of the privates in his company, because he is not a careerist yet. 

Yesterday I met a new family that just got here from AIT. I asked them whether they were living in Lower Stillwell (like us) or in Hayes Park, like the NCOs. Well, they were like "We're not sure." And I asked them their rank. "Specialist" Oh, like Russ, hooray! They'll be in Lower Stillwell with us! "... but I'm due for a promotion in a month." Oh, that's right... everyone is promotable... except Russ... who will be an IET specialist until September 2010. What makes it the most frustrating is that we're not just about to go to AIT. We have another year to stay here... and as of the end of the summer, no friends. Well, I will be able to be friends with the wives, but we won't be able to hang out as families. Why? You ask... let me explain...

The army has this ridiculous rule that IET soldier can't socialize with anyone but other IET soldiers. And on top of that, E-4 and below can't socialize with NCO's (E-5 and above). So, while there are no rules about wives hanging out together (I have a few friends whose husbands are Sgts), when it comes to getting our families together, no can do. They get in trouble with their commanding officers or something.

Things have been okay so far - we've had lots of friends that hadn't gone to AIT yet, so we had lots of company. Unfortunately, they changed things up just as Russ was leaving BCT. Which is why his orders were changed three times. Anyway, so now, after all our friends leave for AIT, we will be left here in Monterey - and all the new 35M's from the UTNG (which are pretty much the only people who come down here) will be careerists, and shortly after arrival will most likely be promoting to E-5. Which means...? We are left all by our lonesomes. Not to mention how frustrating it is that soldiers who have been enlisted for HALF the time Russ has been are higher ranking than him. These are soldiers who have been in for just barely their time in Basic and their time in AIT. Russ has been in the guard for a year and a half already... and he is condemned to E-4-hood (NON-careerist) for ANOTHER year and a half. What about this picture is horribly wrong?

Anyway... it didn't seem so bad when we were suffering through it with other families... but all those families will be leaving before we're even half way to Russ' end-of-IET. Now that we're suffering it alone, it's a little more frustrating. 

So - we've been talking about relanging. Basically that means Russ will DLPT out of Portuguese, and he'll go straight to AIT in Arizona. The only problem is that he's already been through an entire semester of Chinese on the government's money. 

Scenario 1 - Russ DLPT's out of Portuguese, goes to AIT, and the UTNG pays for him to come back to DLI to learn Chinese or Korean or something. He comes back to DLI, promotes to SGT, and we make an extra $13,000 than we would have if we had just stayed here and suffered out our loneliness and non-promotability (on top of all that, the Guard starts paying for his Student loans, so we don't have to worry about that anymore). This would put us back in Utah in summer 2011 instead of 2010. We get half our bonus after AIT, put it in a CD, then get the other half and put it in a CD, and we get to save even more money for a house in UT when we get back.

Scenario 2 - Russ DLPT's out of Portuguese, goes to AIT, and the UTNG doesn't let him come back to DLI. In this case, we go back to Utah around January 2010, and Russ finds a civilian job hopefully paying more than active duty E-5 pay anyway. The Guard starts paying his student loans, and we get half of Russ' bonus to put in a CD until we decide to buy a house. We still make more money than we would staying here. Russ also promotes to E-5, so he gets paid more on his once a month drills and during his two week summer training. 

Scenario 3 - The UTNG makes Russ stay here and finish Chinese. We stick it out, learn to deal with being the only family of our pay grade and rank and IET status. We grow closer to each other because we don't have anyone else to hang out with. Russ goes to AIT as scheduled, we get our whole bonus in the end of 2010, the Guard starts paying for Russ' student loans. Russ gets a civilian job in 2011, and promotes to SGT so he gets the extra bucks during the weekend drills and two week summer training.

In Scenario 1 and 2, Russ gets to promote earlier, we make more money because either he gets active duty pay as a SGT, or he gets civilian pay as a linguist somewhere else.

Well, anyway... we aren't making any decisions yet... just trying to get information about which of the above scenarios are possible.

Meanwhile, we're going to enjoy our last few months with our awesome friends from the UTNG! :D

Glossary of Terms and Acronyms:

IET - initial entry training

SGT- sergeant 

DLI - Defense Language Institute

AIT - Advanced Individual Training, a lot like basic training Part II. Job-specific training.

BCT - basic combat training (better known as basic training)

careerist - an enlisted member who has completed both BCT and AIT and is an "official" soldier

UTNG - Utah National Guard

just when things were going great

It's funny how just when you think you've got things under control, you realize you forgot about something, or life brings more little challenges to your doorstep.

Life is going really well for us - we're having family prayer and FHE consistently (which is a big deal for us... because we haven't been good at those  two things... well, ever really). We're living within our means, and saving a little for a rainy day (unfortunately we're not able to save as much as we would like, due to paying off debts and such, but we're doing the best we can!). We're eating WAY healthy these days - and I can feel it making a difference, at least for me! Russ is doing well in his classes, I'm finding things to take up my time, and I'm starting to be able to practice violin again! It's great.

So amidst all of these good things, more stuff starts creeping up on us, like registering our vehicles, paying off student loans (that will eventually get forgiven once I start teaching!) and rent being raised... I think there is supposed to be a raise going around in January, and Russ gets his 2+ year raise in December! So I guess we'll only be tightly squeezed for a few months. And hopefully we'll be closer to being out of debt by then.

Just when you get into a routine and everything... something comes along to ruin it! Bah humbug.

the best we could do

Okay, so we bought a dinky little $20 digital camera at Wal Mart today. It's about 3.1 mega pixels... which wouldn't be too bad, except it doesn't have a flash. It takes decent photos - better than nothing, and at least we have something now. So here are a few pictures we took today. Pictures of things that I've been DYING to post:

Of course more pictures of Joseline

Pictures of Vince with his head wound. The glue is peeling off now, so it looks kind of weird.

Joseline smiling (this is what she was doing when I found out our camera was broken - she was grinning at me, and I reached for the camera... only to realize that it had taken its last breath... sad day)

I hope you agree that poor quality photos are much better than no photos at all! And this gives us time to save up for a DSLR and find a great deal on one!! :D We'll see how long that takes us! In the meantime, I hope you enjoy our 3.1 MP pictures :)

keeping in touch

Still no camera. We're trying to be a lot more sure about the things we spend our money on, since we're not making a lot of money right now, and we're still rediculously in debt and trying to ease that burden.

Right now we're asking ourselves the question "Would we rather have (insert item to purchase), or would we rather get out of debt faster?" We're trying to pay down our debts and put a little away for a rainy day, so instead of buying things right away, we're biding our time, hoping something a little cheaper will come our way.

Take our fence, for instance. We need a fence around our backyard because our management company won't let us have the trampoline without a fence around it. Well, we were talking to some friends about the fences around here, and the fences don't technically belong to anyone (unless the person who put up the fence lives there), because each tenant assumes the cost for putting up a fence. Well, people who need/want a fence usually just go find an unoccupied house and take the fence and move it to their yard. So instead of going out and spending $1000 on a fence, we've found a big enough fence around another yard, and we're going to take advantage of it. Talk about bargain shopping!! :D

So that's the story of our life these days. We are really trying to curb spending. It's really hard to remind yourself to think "Do I really need this thing? Do I really even want it?"   But those questions I think are going to really change us.

Still No Camera

I still have no camera... sad day. Hence, fewer posts, because I usually like to post pictures of what's going on in our lives. Maybe I'll just start posting random pictures. 

This is the camera we want:

 

 The Nikon D40. A good little starter DSLR (and we wanted to upgrade to a DSLR) and on the cheaper end of cameras... now for the reason we probably won't get the camera we really want...

Car maintainence. I don't think our Highlander was maintained very well by its first owner. Poor Car. Anyway, I need to replace the front brakes, and get some other routine maintainence done (most of which is completely overdue...), which will probably in total cost upwards of $500. I value a well-maintained car, however - and keeping our car well-maintained (which means also being able to squeeze more value out of it when we trade in or sell it) is more important right now than getting the camera we want. So we'll probably end up settling for a less expensive camera :(  I'm looking around on Craigslist - maybe I can find a decent camera for under $50 to hold us over until we can afford the DSLR.

Until then, expect no pictures (and probably no posts, because I just hate posting without pictures...) 

the ER visit that starts them all

Today Vince, Joseline and I went with Trisha and her kids to the Parks Mothers' Day luncheon. It was great food, and great company - here's the proof about the company: (oh, btw, I broke my camera on Sunday, so until we get a new camera there is going to be a little lull in our pictures... which sucks hard core)

The company was so good, there were lots of little friends for Vincente to play with. What happens when you get a bunch of preschoolers in a room together? They run around and jump around and chase each other and are basically little wild crazy children.

So I was standing with the moms in the general area where our children were playing (although some of them, like Vincente, were running around the big ballroom). I hear Trisha calling me from across the room, and I run over, and there is my precious little baby boy and a nice lady (I think her name was Sarah) holding napkins on his forehead - he's screaming, and blood is dripping down his face. I almost lost it. Thanks to great AMAZING friends (Trisha, Krystal - you guys are amazing, I would have been a basket case without you!!), I was able to stay relatively calm. The people running the luncheon were way awesome, as well, because they were already on the phone with the paramedics by the time I got over there. One look at the cut (which was still bleeding profusely) and I knew he needed stitches. This nice Sarah lady seemed like she was a nurse or something because she was asking me if I had any of Vince's loveys with us (unfortunately, we've started leaving his blanket at home, unless he specifically asks to bring it with him, or if we know we're going to be out during nap time), so since I didn't have them, Trisha offered to run to my house and pick them up! Amazing friends, I tell you! Then Sarah was asking me if there were any song Vince liked to sing, but my voice was so shakey, I couldn't really sing in a soothing way, you know? It's not really relaxing to be sang to by a person who's having a hard time keeping it together. Unfortunately, all the songs Vince likes to sing are ones like Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam, I am a Child of God, and Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree - I had one of those "we're not in Kansas anymore" moments when I realized that I couldn't just tell her to start singing Primary songs. Anyway, eventually we moved into a different room - and empty room where away from all the commotion and people in the ballroom. Krystal brought in her adorable little three year old, Braden, to sing for Vincente. It was the first thing that calmed Vince down completely - Braden singing all Vince's favorite Primary songs. Braden is SUCH a cute kid, and I loved his little voice singing to Vincente.

Well, the abulance came, sirens and all, but Vince in his heightened emotional state would have absolutely nothing to do with them and freaked out when they even looked at him. All the to-do was a little much for the poor kid, and it was just about nap time. We ended up riding to the hospital in the ambulance, which was kind of fun - and I'll get to tell Vince about it when he's older, since he probably won't remember. Krystal watched Joseline at the luncheon while she waited for Trisha to get back, since Trisha was going to bring Vince's "Snuggle" back to the luncheon place. Krystal even offered to bring Joseline up to the hospital for me, but once Trisha got there, she took Joseline instead, since Krystal had her own three year old and 10 month old to take care of. Now that I look back I feel bad that I even asked her to take Joseline - you don't think straight in those situations, though. 

Before we rode off in the ambulance, I tried to call Russ, but his phone wasn't working, so I tried to call our friend Omar who studies Chinese in the same area as Russ, and whose number was the only one I had in my phone, but he didn't answer either, so I called his wife, whose number I also had, and asked her if she could get a hold of Omar for me and have Omar pass the message on to Russ to call me. Well, I found out later that Michelle got a hold of Omar, who goes to class down the hill from Russ, and then Omar called Wes (Trisha's husband) who goes to class in a room nextdoor to Russ. Wes talked to Russ, and then Russ called me. It was a crazy chain - but man, so awesome to have all these good friends. I don't know what we would have done without them.

Well, Trisha got up to the hospital with Vincente's Snuggle and a panda bear. Then Vince and Connor watched Jungle Book for a while. Russ got to the hospital just after Trisha, but he only had his motorcycle, so Trisha drove back to our house with Joseline so Russ could bring the car back to the hospital.

Around 3pm, we were finally seen by the Dr, and he said that since the wound was such a clean cut, Vincente wouldn't need stitches after all. He could just use the glue stuff that works like stitches. 

About half an hour later, Vince was all fixed up, and actually smiling and giving us weak little laughs every now and then when Russ could coax something out of him. We were discharged, and came home. 

It was a crazy, crazy day... and I am SO grateful for all the friends we have here.

When ever something "bad" happens to us, I always like to ask "Why?" I think I mentined this after our car accident in September - I don't mean to say I ask "Why me, Why me?" all pathetic like. It's more like "What does Heavenly Father want me to learn from this experience?" Because there is always something to learn. I think Heavenly Father wanted me to realize how much our friends love us, and how great a bond the gospel gives us. We are all brothers and sisters in Christ - which is made manifest by the way we bear one anothers burdens. I want to be that kind of friend to people. I think Heavenly Father wants me to be more like the friends I have - the kind of person who just takes care of things without even hesitating, and the kind of person who goes out of their way to make sure other people are taken care of.

I am so grateful for our health and our friends and the love we all have for each other. I am counting my blessings today.

My New Normal v 2.1

My new normal includes how our eating habits are changing - we're doing a not-very-strenuous cleanse for the next two weeks. Mostly it is simply no salt, no sugar, no dairy and no carbs/grains (besides veggies and fruits). We eat a lot of white meat (chicken and turkey), beans, and veggies, with some fruits. Lots and LOTS of water. In two weeks when we do go back to eating carbs, they will all be whole grain (well, most of them... I like white pitas better than whole wheat ones, and it may take us a while to get back into the whole grain pasta thing. For a while we were eating whole grain pasta... we'll see). And when we do start eating carbs, it will be like 1-2 servings a day. Once I'm back to my pre-pregnancy weight, I'll do more servings of whole grains.

Anyway, so as far as schedule goes, it hasn't changed a lot. I think we're getting pretty well into a routine:

6:30am - wake up, fix Russ and me breakfast, fix Russ' lunch, go back to sleep if babies are still sleeping

when Vince wakes up - feed him breakfast

If we're running errands that day, we usually leave after I've nursed Joseline and Vince has had breakfast. If we're staying home, then as soon as Joseline goes to sleep for her morning nap, I straighten up the house, and then Vince and I play - if it's a good day, I try to get us outside, otherwise we just play inside with his toys.

12:30 or 1ish - lunch for me and Vince

2pm - Naptime for both babies

5:30 - start dinner

6:30 - eat dinner

After dinner - family time!

8:30pm - Vincente's bedtime

9:30pm - Joseline's bedtime

11pm - our bedtime

So there it is. I think this is the final version of My New Normal for now. But in a few months, Joseline will start going to bed earlier, and I'm sure shortly after that Vincente may start giving up his nap, but we'll see. Hopefully he's going to be one of those kids who naps until they're 5... HA. Only if i strap him to his bed.

My Food Blog

Here is my food blog. It's not private, so just click and go:

http://feedingtherowleys.blogspot.com

My New Normal v 2.0

I realized that I haven't been updating you on my new normal lately - and I think it's because thing are moving more smoothly for us these days. And on top of that, I'm crazy busy with two kids all the all the Dr's appointments and play dates and grocery shopping! Whoo! It's enough to make you feel crazy.

Anyway, here is the normal lately:

7:00 - Russ leaves for work, Vince is up, I hopefully sleep a little longer while Vince watches a show that Papai lovingly started for him

eventually - I get out of bed, get breakfast for me and Vince

Around 9ish - try to take a shower and get ready

10ish - run errands while Joseline sleeps peacefully in her infant carrier

12:30-1ish - lunch with Vince

2pm - nap time for BOTH babies, maybe a quick snooze for me, and then chores or something

6pm - Russ gets home from work - DINNER and FAMILY time! That has been the highlight of our day for the past little while - having family time after dinner. On Wednesday we jumped on the trampoline, then gave the babies baths. Yesterday we all worked out - Russ did push ups and sit ups, I did arms and crunches. Vincente danced to the workout music, and he and Joseline attempted to mimick our jumping jacks. It was hilarious. I should have taken a video. Joseline was the best - sitting in her little bouncey seat and when we would do jumping jacks, she would start waving her arms and kicking her little legs like she was doing them, too! It was adorable.

8:30pm - Vincente gets ready for bed

9:00pm - Vincente should be sleeping, or laying in his bed trying to sleep, but lately he's been coming out of his room, since he just realized he knows how to open his door and it works ANY time of the day, not just when he wakes up in the morning... unfortunately he likes trying out his newfound skill at bedtime, so he won't stay in his room. We're working on it, using the silent return to sleep. Poor little guy just wants to open his door.

after Vince is in bed, Russ studies, I watch an episode of Bones or House or Without a Trace (if Russ has no HW and doesn't want to study, we watch Bones together)

11pm - our bedtime, as long as Joseline is already alseep or is ready to go to sleep with us. 

So there it is, the NEW new normal. Joseline's sleep schedule still isn't completely normal, so that throws things off. Give it a few more months and things will settle down.

I think I'm going to start a food blog. Next week Russ and I are going to do a cleanse (mine will be somewhat modified, since I'm still breastfeeding) so having a meal blog will be a good way to keep track of what we're eating.

The new normal is looking very very good :)