Fashion 911

I was blog hopping the other day and found this site on fashion. I need all the help I can get these days. Transitioning from my twenties to my thirties and from working for a construction type company to being at home with my babies. Let's not forget a new body that's holdin' on to lots o love. Especially around the middle section that use to hold those babies in. I need to make best friends with the gym. Like yesterday. Anyhow, while I'm in the process of trying to eat better & healthier as well as move more I'm gonna need some transistion clothing that doesn't cost an arm and a leg. So I was very excited to see this post. I kinda like it, but would probably change the colors a little. What do you think? Do you have any new items that you're looking to add to your wardrobe for spring?

My Big Boy

Picture courtesy of: Aunt April

This is a classic pic of my baby. He wears glasses when he wants too. Not when you ask him too. He prefers crocs. His fav character of the year is Mickey. Yesterday he got dressed (for the day) in his flannel Mickey Mouse Christmas jammies. Seriously. I didn't want the hassle, so he won. Today, there were tears - lots of tears when I told him he couldn't wear his flannel Mickey Mouse button down pajama top with his jeans to go to his friend Wyatt's to play. So he found the Mickey shirt (the one in the pic) folded at the bottom of his laundry basket. That worked for me. A happy compromise. And a happy boy.

DO OVER

Last year in February Baker and I took a Financial Peace University Class. They were offering the class at our church and we joined. One of the best $100 we ever spent. Seriously. Changed our life. Our kids lives. Our future. And who could have guessed a year ago where Oregon's economy and unemployment rate would be at this time? Nothing is for sure and this class helps with financial priorities. So . . . were back again this year. Why? Because it's free for the rest of our lives and all the small groups in our church are participating in this class. We wanted to join a small group again. So we get to brush up on the material. Learn some more and practice what we were taught last year. If you want to change anything in your life in regards to your finances . . . whatever that may be I highly recommend this class. Just try it.

Barbie

When you were a little girl . . . did you play with Barbies? I loved playing with Barbies. Only, I didn't have any. My folks didn't allow them (to this day neither one can tell me why). My sister had Barbies. My friends had Barbies. My cousins had Barbies. I did not. Until one birthday, I found a coupon in the mail for a mail order Barbie with a huge lot of clothes, shoes and accessories. I begged for the Barbie and my grandma got it for me for my birthday. I was so excited. I finally had a Barbie. Only . . . she was hollow plastic. See, it was a fake Barbie. I think her leg eventually split along the seam. So for a little while I was a fake Barbie owner. Maybe that's why I've always been a firm believer of buying genuine products. After all, if you can't afford it then don't buy it. I don't care if you get it on sale, last years model, find it at the second hand store, it was a gift etc. Just don't buy knock offs or fakes. Yes, that's it. It must go back to my imposter Barbie days.

Anyhow, what was I saying? Oh yes. My MIL (bestest one this side of the Mississippi) has always told me that she was going to get me a Barbie. And now that Miss Nat has arrived, she had even more reason to purchase a girl's first Barbie. So Natalie is the proud owner of two REAL Barbies. A collector's 2008 Holiday Barbie (for the year she was born) and shopper Barbie (because she's cute). Believe me. She will not be playing with Holiday Barbie for many years. She's very pretty. I had to share. So, a few years from now you may be invited over to play Barbies. A Barbie playdate. I can hardly wait and only imagine the fun we will have.

The Day I Went Overboard . . .

with coupons. Seriously. It's a little embarressing. I'm having visions of people at Old Navy corporate having a staff meeting to talk about the people who took advantage of their Valentine $5 off coupon event and how they won't EVER be doing that promotion again. Color a valentine and receive a $5 off coupon. I stopped by the store a couple days prior to the event and asked what the conditions were. Apparently there weren't any. Take as many valentines as you want . . . they're free I was told. "And," stated the nice employee . . . "we have flip flops 2 pairs for $5 so you could get some free flip flops." WOW. Employees encouraging coupon usage. Multiple coupon usage. Amazing. There was however NO ONE else shopping in the store, except for my sister. I took 4 coupons colored them and had them on my counter waiting, just in case. Saturday morning rolled around and I wasn't planning on visiting Old Navy. We had an 80th birthday party to attend for my Grandpa and the kids have never gone naked so I didn't give the sale a whole lotta thought. Until my sister called. There's hardly anyone here she said. They just rang up my stuff in multiple transactions. REALLY??? I was there in a flash. I found shorts for the boy for summer, cute stuff for the girlie girl and had it all figured out. I went thru the line and my cashier was more than happy to do four separate transactions. WOW. So, I grabbed some more valentines to color out of the basket next to the registar that had a sign on it "FREE." Then I went to the back of the store where they had a table set up with chairs, and a basket of crayons and a whole STACK of coupons. So, I started coloring. I only needed 9 more. (That should've been my first clue that I was going overboard. Seriously. NINE???) My sister and I soon had company. Another lady. Sporting her Old Navy bag. She had obviously been through the line already. Oh. And here comes her friend. Maybe they were sisters too. Kidding. Well, they could've been. They were coloring more valentines (coupons) too. At least one of them was. And I saw BOTH of them back in line when I was purchasing my stuff. My cashier kept telling me, these are on sale 3 for $15. Do you want to get more? I had three. I wanted to purchase them individually. See, if I paid for all 3 at once with one $5 coupons I would owe $10. If I paid for each one individually I paid $1.50 a piece. You do the math. I asked the clerk if she wanted me to get back in line (because there were more people in the store now and a line was forming). No. She seriously didn't care. She'd ring up my one item and I would pay my $1 or $1.50 and she would do it again. And again. And again. You get the picture. I couldn't believe my luck. However, I was a bit remorseful. Surely this isn't how they intended these coupons to be used. But nobody said a word. So . . . I took my bag, talked with my sister and left the store. My sister soon called. "They told me they aren't excepting any more Valentines." Huh?! "Yeah, I turned around and one of them told me they aren't taking any more valentines. They were meant as a fun activity for the kids.

RIGHT (I thought in my head). That's why the employees told us to take a many as we wanted. Besides . . . all those poor people who have infants who haven't mastered their coloring skills. They don't get coupons. Whatever. Someone at Old Navy decided to make up a rule because their cashiers were ringing up multiple transactions all morning.

So, that was the end of that. I was already done with my shopping anyway but, it did make me think. How much is too much? It's a common question I see on many frugal/coupon/money blogs. Today it was my reality. The day I went overboard. I got over $135 worth of clothing for under $26. Now that's a deal!

An Oldie but a Goodie

One of my favorite reruns to watch is Home Improvement. The reruns are in the afternoon when the kids lay down for their naps. It's my little time out. I love this show. I should probably be cleaning or doing something productive, but then again . . . we all need a break once in a while. One of my other old favorites . . . Cosby. What's one of your old fav shows?

Gut Flush Be Gone

Okay . . . it was a bit over the top. After five days of following the Gut Flush plan. I conceeded. However, I'm still trying to stay away from lots of sugar, and limit my coffee intake. Yesterday I had my first coffee in a week and honestly I'm not wanting to make that a habit again. I really do want to incorporate more veggies into our meals, less sugar, less starches & more water. Which is going to take pre-planning. So, on Saturday I sat down and did some menu planning. That definately took some time because I'm not disciplined at it yet. And might I add . . . I definately want to give tea a shot. I know, I know . . . a tea convert? You never know. In a couple months I could be writing about the best place to get coffee again. Only time will tell.

5 Months

Our baby is five months. Sniff. Sniff. She actually turned 5 months on the 3rd. I love it when they can sit on their own. It makes going out much easier without lugging the baby carrier around. And quite frankly, she's close to sitting all on her own. So there is a plus side to our "Little Social Butterfly" (as daddy calls her) growing up! This picture was taken last week and I swear the child has changed since then. How do they do that so stinkin' fast?!

21 Day Gut Flush

It sounds horrific, and some of it is. However, this 21 day plan is very interesting to me. My mom was diagnosed with celiac disease a couple years ago and since then has been off of wheat and gluten. When I started reading this book and recognizing all the benefits of being off of some of the foods that trigger food sensitivies, I knew I wanted to try it. Baker and I are off of sugar, sugar substitutes, wheat, gluten and almost all dairy. My fridge is stocked FULL of veggies. Seriously, it's hard to find room to put anything else in the fridge. AND there are veggies on the counter too. AND I'm eating veggies at EVERY meal as well as snack time. It's only day 3 and I feel really good. This plan is suppose to increase your energy, and minimize your cravings. For the first two weeks, fruit isn't even allowed. I miss fruit. However, I'm looking at this adventure as eating what is good and healthy for me instead of what I want to eat. There are so many food choices that confront us all day -everyday, and this plan is helping to eliminate those choices by deciding for me what is healthy and wholesome.

I'm definately not following this plan to the letter of the law due to:

1. The fact that the weekly shopping list given for the week was missing key items on the daily menus.






2. There are a lot of homemade items that require time and preparation in the kitchen.






3. I'm willing to try some veggies, however I will not be eating radishes anymore.






4. I do not even want to try sardines. 'Nuf said.






5. My family and I will not continue to live our life according to this diet. Therefore it's a temporary thing and needs to be modified to fit our needs.

Thought I would share our little venture. If anyone has good gluten free recipes send them my way . . . will 'ya?

Preparing the kitchen

To start my weight loss, I decided to clean out my pantry, fridge and cupboards this last week. I knew I needed to get rid of any prepackaged foods, outdated items or tempting junk food. Therefore I ate the purple bag of sweet & spicy dorittos (I can feel the pounds falling away), threw out the old food, and sent the remainder of the food to work with Patrick for everyone else to eat (insert evil laugh here). Later in the day I sat down, opened the paper and whola! Check out the paper. Too funny.