Wordless Wednesday Lily Cheerleading
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Category Archives: Lily
Wordless Wednesday 4/17 Beach
PF Changs
Cheeseburger in Paradise
Convention center
Wordless Wednesday Easter 2013
No I don’t want my picture taken with them!
Random Thoughts Tuesday- April Catch-up
So this is the perfect chance for me to get all the information that I had intended on post on the blog out in one great list! The order is how it pops in my head.
- We were able to sell our old lawn mower for $100 after posting it for less than 3 hours on Craigslist. This makes our first payment on the new lawn mower
- I was able to confirm that if we can pay off the new lawn mower in 12 months without a late payment it will be interest free so that has been added to my financial goals!
- Haley complete her driving requirements of 52 hours on our trip to the beach. She is now an official licensed driver without restrictions in NC!
- We all really enjoyed our short trip to Myrtle Beach to watch Lily’s competition. The girl performed really well on Saturday and did a great job on Sunday. They ended up placing 4 of 7 teams!
- One of the fun things we did on this trip was shop. Haley has lots of new summer clothes. I was able to find Nike shoes for both Kendall and Zach for under $20 each. Matt also has a new pair of Nikes for less than $50. Finally I was able to grab some flip flops and camis for myself at the Old Navy outlet
- Myrtle Beach was COLD!!! With the wind and the temperatures only in the 60s I did not even step foot in the sand. I did enjoy our awesome view from our balcony! Pictures will hopefully be posted this week as well.
- We enjoyed several great meals on our trip. On Friday night, we ate at PF Changs. It was awesome and even Haley said she enjoyed it! Saturday night we ate at Cheeseburger in Paradise, another great meal for I do wish I had tried the Key Lime Pie. So that means that it is on my return list!!!!
- This was probably one of the most STRESS FREE trips we have taken in several years and I hope that we can do it again!
- This week we have returned to our crazy schedule and I have decided that it is time to get serious about my diet. I now want to catch up to my goal of 4# a month by May which would be a total of 25 # down!!! I have gone back to a food journal in hopes that it will keep me accountable and on track!
- The weather has been awesome the last several days, Matt has done some improvements to my Square foot garden and I ordered dirt this year! I hope this will double the amount of food we are able to harvest!
- Haley has been excepted into the Early Childhood program at our local community college. She will begin in the fall with 16 credit hours.
- It is 12 weeks till Kendall’s birthday, random fact I discovered at work today!
Driving in the Car
It seems that we have been spending quite a bit of time in the car over the past week. Starting with last Wednesday, after work I decided to make a trip to the Doctor’s office with Kendall and Zach. The picture above is from then. I knew we were headed out-of-town on Friday morning and did not want to end up traveling with tow sick kids. It ended up to be a wasted trip as both kids had “colds”. Luckily by Friday morning they both were filling better and up for the 4 hour drive to Myrtle Beach for Lily’s competition. I will provided more details and pictures soon!
Wordless Wednesday March 27
Yesterday Lily’s school held a 2nd grade wax museum. The kids have been working on this project for over a month. All the second graders were in the gym in costume. Each parent was given 5 chips to use and you could always go back for more. If you wanted to hear about the person you placed the chip in the bowl and then a short speech happen. Lily chose Mia Hamn, who is a gold medal soccer player. Brooke, my niece, who is 9 months older choose Queen Elizabeth. I learned that Queen Elizabeth was a horse lover!
Would you guess she has never played soccer?
Things that Work
I wanted to share with you things that we are finding that work for us as we continue to reduce debt and live crazy busy lives.
- Weekly menu lists: a very simple list of 5-7 meal that we have all the ingredients for. Each day Matt or I or both can decide what sounds good for dinner. We usually make the list on weekends and it most likely follows a trip to the building to grab items from the freezers. Currently we are focusing on using up what we have an only adding items that are awesome deals. In the future we are considering purchasing a half cow but don’t have enough space for it right now so cleaning out is serving multiple purposes as well as keeping us to the $600 grocery budget.
- Zaycon foods: My plan is to order another 80 pounds of chicken breast this month for pick up in April. This will be the 3rd time we have ordered the chicken breast. 80# last almost 6 months for us. I have also been pleasantly surprised that each time we order the price per pound has dropped! Another item that has been great is the uncooked chicken tenders. I will be purchasing more if they are offered in our area again. We have considered the bacon and hamburger but the price per pound seems a little bit much for us currently but I will keep options open!
- Coupons especially when playing the drug store game at CVS. I have reduced my spending greatly as CVS recently but it is still the best way for me to save money and by lots of items. .
- Costco- this may seem out-of-place but I hate to grocery shop! Costco makes it fun and easy. I watch my prices and do try to purchase as much as possible with coupons but if we run out of an item than Costco is definitely cheaper for us that paying full price at the local super market!
- Coke Rewards- I am actually more impressed and pleased with this reward program than either diaper brands! I simply enter points and redeem for free product. The great thing is that they always offer free coke products and unlike the diaper reward programs the prices have not changed greatly!
Wordless Wednesday Cheerleading
Breakfast
Crazy & Sick Weekend
Friday afternoon while I was still in my class, Matt took the girls to Vision Works to pick up their new glasses. Both of the new glasses are plastic and thicker frames. We plan to use these at the pool this summer. Kendall’s are purple and Lily’s are a deep redish purple. I had a really hard time in class on Friday and did not feel good so I went to bed around 8ish Friday night. By early Saturday morning, I was totally sick and knew I need to get something for this. I was unable to drink or swallow so off to Salisbury to the Urgent Care both Matt and I went. Matt was starting not to feel well either and I did not feel comfortable at all driving. Haley was awesome, staying with the kids, fixing lunch and even doing some housework. Matt decided to go ahead and be seen since it would take the same amount of time. Both of us ended up with Strep, so we stopped by the pharmacy on the way home and headed to bed. I will say the antibiotic started to work and I could even eat Chinese on Saturday evening. Saturday most of the day was spent…
sleeping
We had already made the decision that church would not be an option for any of us today. By Sunday, I am getting back to normal. We were able to wash our sheets, catch on some housework and even get the menu for the week ahead. I made this soup
in the crock pot by adding things from the freezer. I was also able to use the new Kitchen Aid mixer and all 3 attachments today.So hopefully both Matt and I are on the mend and no one else gets sick this week!
What’s Up 1/10/13
- It has been a sad week at our house. One of our neighbors passed away on Monday after a battle with cancer. We are closer to this neighbor than most as they have a son who is Haley’s age. We actually carpool for several years, the wife made our wedding cake and Haley’s dress for the wedding as well. Haley and I attended the visitation last night. It was hard and of course I didn’t know what to say but that is okay because I realize it was not about me! Another family that could use some prayer is Elizabeth and her son Jacob at http://trenchesofmommyhood.blogspot.com/ . I have never met her but read her blog and know she would appreciate it!
- I am finding that by using the envelope system on my Iphone I am keeping much better track of my spending especially in regards to groceries. I made a huge trip today to Food Lion to stock up on some items. But that will be the last one of the month because I only have $18 left in the budget for the month. I am determined that I will not go over, even if I have to end up missing a couple of deals over the next several weeks. I am also thinking toward making February “eat out of the pantry month”. This will mean I can reduce my budget to $100 and use the extra to pay off some more debt? Not quite sure if that will work or not but I will make that decision after the next 3 week with less than $5 a week to spend on groceries!
- Matt has a really good job in the works! This is awesome and a definite answer to prayer. I also am starting to pick up a couple of hours at the nursing home so I am excited to see how much we will pay off in debt/outstanding medical bills by the end of January.
- Lily has a cheerleading competition this weekend. It is only an hour away so I am excited to see them perform!