Updates and some advice :)

Is it true that when your cold you burn more calories??? Well if so I'm burning them now baby!! Its 18 degrees and the wind is blowing like crazy!!! I'm sure our trash cans have probably all blown away, but I'm to much of a whimp to go out and check. I hate the cold!!!!

Today was a pretty good day. My niece, Amira, came over and played for a little bit. Her and Emma are so stinkin cute together.. They give each other hugs and kisses, unfortunately that love can turn in an instant that one touches the others toy,,, but that's normal. :) I'm so glad they have each other to play and grow up with.. I hope they end up to be great friends. Sometimes I try and picture what they'll be like when there older together. They will probably sit around and make fun of us adults together.LOL.

I take Emma back to the dermatologist on Friday to check out her rash that's still there....:( He said it was eczema but I've been using the cream he gave me and its not helping. Its on her face and people always wanna know whats wrong with her.. It makes me sad. Hopefully she will grow out of it. She still scratches like crazy, poor thing.

Jess is doing great. She's enjoying being the manager for the basketball team. She came home today and told us that she has a new "boyfriend".. He is the brother of the kid that Gary will be going to his b-day party on Friday night, and she said that that boys mom said she could come to the party to since she is Caleb's girlfriend..... Ben was like...uuuuhhhh NO!!! Poor thing, shes gonna have a hard time when she gets older,,,, I don't think Ben is going to do well with letting his little girl out.

Gary's enjoying having his friend be my new childcare kid! Of course there seems to be a lot more noise with 2 boys in the house!! (mom I think you were lucky having 3 girls instead of 3 boys!) Gary seems to be doing well in school. He got an A on his project he did a few weeks ago!!

And some advice for today...... Pick your battles. Sometimes life will be easier if you just let some things slide. Whether it be something with your husband,,, or your almost 2 year old wanting to help with the dishes (even though you know your gonna have a mess to clean up after)(that ones for you Dawn.lol :)------kids are only gonna be kids once, and husbands...well you have your whole life to pick your arguments with them, so if its not something major, sometimes its better just to let it go, and you will have a more peaceful house for doing it.

Stay warm!

The new ride

Here is the view of my driveway from my front door. It's a 2006 Dodge Durango Limited Edition!! Now first let me say we are not fancy show off type people. We went to the car lot with a budget and price range in mind . We were very happy to find out that in the last few years our credit score has went up over a hundred points!!! And our interest rate went down by over half of what it was!!! Out of all this craziness, that was just the best news ever to me. We have worked very hard to repair our credit and now I can finally see it has paid off!!!

Anyways, back to the new car. It fits 8 people, leather seats, heated front seats, sun roof, DVD player, 18 inch wheels,,,,it pretty much has everything you could ask for. I LOVE IT!! OH yeah,,, and it has a HEMI!! :) LOL Jess told me she felt like a rich girl riding in that car! The kids love it too! This is a big step up for us and it feels kinda nice.

I am still a nearvous wreck though about the driving, but I would say its better to be extra careful, than careless. Have a super great day.
Jill

A quick money tip.....

I have found the answer to my money problems.....

DONT GO SHOPPING.....
Or more like dont go into stores unless absolutely necessary. Seriously, the only stores we went to over the weekend was Aldi's. And that was for groceries. And guess what, the only money spent over the weekend was at aldis, besides the bills that I had to pay online!! it may seem obvious to some, but to me until recently I guess it never hit me that if I stay home I wont be spending any unnecessary money!! Dahhh.

Now when I do go out I am going to have a list and stick to it. Christmas is around the corner, so every extra dime I have is going to go to that. Christmas is one thing that we always splurge on for the kids, and I think that is okay. My mom always did for us and so I guess I have just followed suit.

I realized that my husband is making almost twice as much a year than he was making when we first got married. That is pretty good, I dont know how we even survived back then. Really we didnt. My parents bailed us our more times than I would like to admit. But now we are self sufficient and I am sooo proud of that! I feel like we have come such a long way! Dont get me wrong, money is still extremely tight, but I make it work, and I pay all of our bills. I have learned so much over the years. I am still learning. Now I am really trying to get smart about things, I want a savings!!! I want no debt, besides my home. Thats a long way off, but I am really trying, and as for now, its not going to happen until I get all these doctor bills payed off that I have payment plans set up on. So I'm really trying to pinch my pennies.

What are some of your money tips?

Baby cereal tip

Here is a tip for those of you that have babies. I serve baby oatmeal for breakfast and a little rice cereal with my babies dinner.

I use a scoop that was left from one of my cans of formula to measure out how much I need (one scoop is approx. 1 tablespoon). I found it hard to measure out in the boxes that the cereal comes in, so I invested in these glass jars from the Dollar Store( they were fairly cheap) and I store it in them with the scoop. I labeled the outside so I wouldn't get confused. I think it looks cute!! And it works for me.

For more tips visit rocksinmydryer.net