Leave a Message After the Beep...

My oldest daughter who is 12 and my youngest daughter who is 3 have a nightly ritual.

They have a long drawn out goodnight..it usually starts with my oldest tickling her little sister, then my youngest pretending to hide from her.

It always ends with "I love you sissy!"

It always melts my heart.

Last night though it started diffrently than normal. My oldest started calling out for Lulu (that is what I call my youngest), the next thing I know Lulu is hiding behind me saying "Lulu is not here right now, please leave a message after the beep! Beeeeeeeeeeep!"

We do not even have an answering machine, so I am not sure where she heard that, but it had my oldest and me cracking up!!

Kids say the funniest things!!

Vacation Challenge-Week 3

So my week was not as productive as I would have hoped, at least in regards to earning money for our vacation.

In fact..I am a little embarrassed..

Writing projects - $8.50

I started the week still needing $231.36


Ended the week needing $222.86

However, I scored some great deals at Target this week using coupons found on their website.

For $7.90 after coupons I scored..

-Pair of jeans for myself
-Long sleeve shirt for my 3 year old
-dental floss
-toilet paper
-Ibuprofren
-Pantiliners
-All Purpose spray cleaner w/ bleach
-Fabric softener
-Dishwasher gel tabs
-Pencil sharpener for my daughter


The jeans were a great deal...they were on clearance for $4.98, but I used a $5 off women's jeans that you can find here. You can print each Target coupon twice, so I scored two pair of free jeans!!

For the other items check out Money Saving Mom's Target coupon match up!

So while I hated that I did not do so well earning money for our trip, I was able to save money on our budget.

Last night I heard someone say "A dollar saved is better than a dollar earned because you don't have to pay taxes".

I feel better......

I am the Biggest Loser!

Seriously!

I have not posted too much about it, but along with some of our extended family, my husband and I have decided that this year, 2011, we would make it our year to lose weight and get healthy. I did post about it being one of only two New Year's Resolutions that I made.

We have made several changes in our eating habits and have added exercise into our weekly routines. My husband has access to a gym and uses it every day that he works. I joined a new gym here in town that is extremely affordable. I hated to add that extra monthly expense, but figured I could pay the small monthly charge now to exercise or I could pay a monthly co-pay for weight related medication that could be necessary down the road if I continued to gain weight.

Anyway, I am happy to announce that I was the "biggest loser" at our first scheduled weigh-in since our intial, embarrassing weigh-in on January 1st.

I lost 14.4 pounds and my husband lost 17 pounds. I had the higher percentage though.

Yeah me!!!

Most of the others did well too. I was proud of us all.

I love that my husband and I are working on this together. We hold ourselves accountable to each other and we are each other's biggest cheerleaders.

Daily Schedules

I have found that I can be busy all day long and go to bed not accomplishing one thing that I had on my mental "to do" list.

Frustrating? Yes.

Some in my family, upon hearing my complaints of my seemingly scatteredbrainness (is that even a word? Doubt it..) suggested that I have adult ADD. While they were just kidding, sometimes I wonder, I distract very easily.


If I do not have a list, if I do not write it down, I will may (gotta give myself some credit) forget to do.

Another issue that may or may not happen.. I will never admit if it has or not.. is I can see me getting lost on the computer, printing out coupons, reading other people's blogs about how they do it all...my guess is that they spend time doing it and not on the computer or learning how to do a variety of crafts..and when that happens if that were to happen..time is lost which leaves me scrambling to do what needs to be done for the day.

I have found that making a to do list and having a schedule keeps me from forgetting anything, as well as, keeps my day balanced. I can then go to bed feeling accomplished!

That's a pretty good feeling!!

Check out this cool schedule printout..well, I like it anyway! Daily Schedule from Buttoned Up.

Linking up to We Are That Family.

Happy Wednesday!

Vacation Challenge Week 2

Last week I told you about my vacation challenge.

I need $440.70 to pay for the activities that we are wanting to do.

The previous week I earned $97.34.

This brought me to a new total of $343.36.

This week earnings went down like this..

$15- I won this from our family's Biggest Loser challenge (I am all too excited to share that with you later!)

$50- This is actually in the form of a Visa gift card that I was not expecting. It was a reward card from our bank!!

$47- From writing projects.

The total for the week is $112 Woot!! Woot!! I am at almost $210...getting close to my half way point!!

I am loving this challenge!