April Fools' Day

For April Fools' Day we all wore the wrong shoes to church. Boo wore my running shoes, Bit wore Boo's shoes, and I wore my slippers.

Boo was so excited and had so much fun 'jokin' with everyone.

Funny Monday

As expected,  I'm three days behind on my idea for a regular Funny Friday post. Funny Monday has a pretty good ring to it though. Especially if you say Monday like Southerners do...MUNdee.
Funny MUNdee.

I have three funny things to share this week, although I'm sure I could bore you with 30 or even 300 these days. 

1. We were riding in the car going from my parent's house to my sister's house. PawPaw had given Boo some Cheerio box Star Wars pens (prizes for hitting a target with a Nerf gun). Now, Boo KNOWS he's only supposed to write on paper and he's pretty black and white about these kinds of things. So, when he asked if he could hold the pens in the car, I was SURE that he would hold them and wouldn't dare write on anything because we only write on paper. The end.  So, we were about half way to Aunt R and Uncle D's place and I heard him say...."Uh-oh. Mama, a little bit of pen got on me." My immediate response, knowing who I was dealing with here (a guy who doesn't like to be dirty), was that it was okay, no big deal. Sometimes you get pen on you and it's fine. It will come off when in the bath. We continue our drive with not a peep more about the pen getting on him. And when we got to Aunt R and Uncle D's place, this is what I discovered...

A "little" bit of pen, huh?
Lol!

2. Lil Bit has learned to say the word 'no'. And she says it in response to every yes/no question. Even when the answer should be yes, she says no. And it's so cute. And so funny sometimes. I got this video of her at supper tonight. 

3. And finally tonight I leave you with this:

One of the local churches here in town puts on a Tea Room in the Spring. They have a wonderful Southern Menu and delicious desserts. It is so Southern and so yummy! So, we met up with BeBe and Aunt R to lunch with the ladies. They opened at 11:30 and so we were there right after 11:00 to get in line. These folks are serious about their Tea Room. Imagine a huge crowd of senior women Sunday school classes meeting for lunch. Now, it's not all seniors, but a Tea Room does draw a large older population. I was so nervous about how the children would behave. But, they did very well inside and ate almost everything on their plates. It wasn't until after lunch that this story takes a turn for the funny side of things. So, BeBe was inside checking out the gift shop or something like that and the rest of us were waiting outside. Boo and I were playing a game of Mother May I in the courtyard outside of the Tea Room.  Ladies were still waiting in line along the sidewalk of the courtyard  to get seated. Well, he started doing the potty dance. So, I told him that we needed to go potty. I turned around to tell Aunt R that I was going to take him inside so that she could watch Bit. And when I turned back around, Boo had already pulled down his shorts in the middle of the courtyard and was telling me that he was just going to pee here. Outside.  In the middle of this open courtyard. With all of these PEOPLE AROUND!! I was whisper yelling, NO, NO!!! PULL. UP. YOUR. SHORTS!!! By the time I reached him, he was starting to pull down his underpants and was pointing to a drain in the ground...I'll just pee in there. WHAT???? More whisper yelling.  NO. YOU. WILL. NOT!! I snatched up his pants and drug him off to the bathroom. Oh my goodness! And he had no clue that this was inappropriate! Will wonders never cease. Haha!

Azalea Park Photoshoot

Azalea Park is a beautiful park in town and it is right next to Boo's school. The flowers are in FULL bloom right now and everything is so pretty. We've had a little rain which has washed the pollen away, thank goodness.  

Boo had picture day at school this week. In addition to the student's personal photos, the school offered time slots to get sibling photos or family photos done as well. At no cost for them to take the picture!  Isn't that awesome? The pics were taken on the playground of the schoolyard.

I decided that since they were already dressed so cute and since I've been reading up on my camera, I'd take Boo and Bit to the park and try to get some photos of them myself. I tell you what...you definitely need another person to help you when you're taking photos of children. I was not winning any parenting awards out there! Apparently, trying to put the fear of God in them is not a good way to get them to cooperate! Lol! Just kidding. Sort of.

It was starting to rain too, so I was trying to hurry. I had great intentions of reading my camera settings and trying different things, but it just turned into me shooting as many pics as I could because I didn't have time to look at anything else. I took 170 pics in about 10 minutes time. I ended up keeping these seven. 

They are so cute! It was all worth it!

She was eying the playground across the parking lot.

Look! Water!

What's down there?

"Oh, I better get this leaf!"

Cutie pie!

The only way I could get them to be still.
Not a good idea if you want them to look up at the camera.

The ONLY one out of 170 where they are looking. Lol!

More on Cash

First, let me say thanks for all of your support! It is hard and the months are LONG! Even February was long! It would have been long even without the extra day for leap year. 

Carrie, I did keep thinking, "Does it make sense to buy envelopes in order to decrease spending?"

I went back and forth over it and then I just decided that it probably would help me to have them. So, I put them in the budget! Good question.

Also, I reworked the budget so that every budget category that I was going to use cash for was rounded to the nearest twenty. ATMs only distribute in multiples of twenty. I found that out real quick. So, to make it easier, I budgeted in multiple of twenties. 

Something else that I'm doing to decrease costs is tweaking pizza night We used to go out/order in pizza every Friday night. Food is so expensive now!  So now, we order in once/month and buy frozen pizza from the store or make our own for the other Fridays. This is a definite money saver. 

I also use coupons, but only if it's convenient. BeBe and Granny hand over the ones they don't use and I use them if I can. I don't have the time to really delve into it right now by matching competitor and store coupons with items on sale.  I also don't have a printer.   But, every bit helps. 

Okay, that's all about the budget. 

I was fiddling with my camera and took some pics of the pups...

My Sandy girl!

I have a picture of her like this when she was an itty bitty puppy and she was lying on the a/c vent to cool off. Same pose. I wonder where that photo is now.

She caught me on this one!

Still looking like a puppy despite the gray hairs on his chinny chin chin.

Squirrel watch.
(I know, I need to clean the window)

Have a good week!

CASH

I suppose this post has been four-five years in the making. Maybe longer. I believe it begins in our Colorado days if I'm not mistaken.  B-man first started listening to Dave Ramsey on the radio when we were stationed at Ft Carson. Dave Ramsey is an author and talk show host and his expertise is money. Specifically, he advises his listeners on a no nonsense approach to getting out of debt, saving for retirement, and building wealth to that end. He is also a Christian and applies his Christian values to his lessons on finance.  This was huge for me.   We both really enjoyed listening to his show, but B-man was really the one who listened the most. I can only stomach so much talk radio. But, anyway, we started taking inventory of our debts and assets, etc and made a plan to start paying off our debt, which I'd say was about 90% in car payments. Ugh! So, although we had some debt, we felt pretty good about it b/c it was mostly just car debt. Dave, on the other hand, would not feel good about car debt...at all. And I'd say that we're coming around to that position as well. We will probably never buy a car outright, but we will definitely be making wiser decisions on car buying in the future. Anyway, we eventually paid off our debt and I'm happy to say that we are DEBT FREE and have been for quite a while now! Right, honey? Am I missing something? Lord knows I've not been thinking straight lately. Lol!

When we lived in Arkansas, good ole Dave was offering a free online version of his Financial Peace University to members of the military. So, together, B-man and I watched all of the lessons online. Afterwards, we were all about taking the steps he outlined in his plan. We set up our retirement accounts appropriately and starting saving for Boo's college. The one thing I dreaded doing was making a monthly budget. I didn't want to do this at all. Ever. I don't know why. It just felt like it would be a total drag, I guess.   Alas, I did it and talked it over with B-man. We agreed on our budget and put it in play. As the months wore on, I could NEVER make budget. I admit, I was overspending. Not beyond our means...just beyond what we said we were going to spend at the beginning of the month. There was always something big...birthdays, Christmas, road trips, etc that I wasn't accounting for each month. I just hated being restrained by this budget.  And I wasn't really tracking my spending until the end of the month when I'd have a pile of receipts to enter into our worksheet. I'd type away and hope to have made budget when I hit the bottom of the pile. So, you can imagine, that did not work.  As part of his plan, Dave also recommends a cash envelope system  for maintaining your budget. I admit, I HATED this idea too! When your envelopes of money ran out, that was it, you were out of money in that budgeted category...for the rest of the month. Gasp! I felt like it was a slap on the wrist for some reason.  But, I did try the envelope method once. And I really don't even know what happened to it. Did we move and I never got back on track? Was a child born? I really don't know. I just know that I was always entering in our, (okay, mostly my) purchases into our budget worksheet and I was never making budget and I wasn't using cash for purchases. Just the debit card.   Again, let me say...I wasn't spending beyond our means, just not the way we had planned. I also think our saving goals were pretty lofty. We wanted to save, save, save. And we still do, but in a more realistic fashion.

Fast forward to now. Since B-man is deployed, he will be earning a few entitlements to his paycheck. We want to make sure we use that extra money wisely. SO, I revamped the budget with our new monthly income and what I hope to be realistic monetary limits on our budgeted categories. AND, I'm doing the cash envelop system again. I ordered some Laminated Cash Envelopes to put in my wallet. Somehow cute laminated envelopes makes it better, right?  And I'm so happy to report that we stayed within our budget for the month of February!!! Woohoo!!  I LOVED the cash system (I'm telling you...cute laminated envelopes...). It really made a difference in my attitude as I went through the stores. I felt like it was a competition...how much can I get and how little can I spend to get it!!  I only went to Target ONCE in February. Usually you can find me there once/week and with more in my buggy than what was on my list. Way more.  Using cash also decreased my trips through the drive through! That's a win win...for our wallet and my waist! The main thing that using cash does is makes you aware of what you are spending when you're spending it...not at the end of the month when it's too late! I loved paying in cash too. There's something empowering about it.

So, I encourage you to take a look at Dave's website and consider going green! Cash, that is.

I should also mention that I tweaked his plan to really fit my life and personality. For example...I don't use cash for gas. I'm not getting out of the car with two kids in tow to go in and pay for gas with cash, when paying in cash makes no difference to me in this situation. I'm buying the gas. Period. And, I'm enjoying the convenience of paying at the pump. That being said, I do use the fuel perks reward at the grocery store and I saved $6.80 on gas in one trip to the pump last month! Woohoo!

Also, I do still shop online. for some things But, I immediately take that cash out of my budgeted envelope for that category so that I don't overspend. Those online purchases sneak up you.

I'm not sure how we'll integrate this into our lives when we're both in the US and both spending, but this is a start. Now, where should we put the money we save? We're still trying to figure that one out!

Another Retraction

It was brought to my attention that Jesus most probably DID have a moustache. And then I started thinking about it and did a Google image search of Jesus. And then, I had to laugh, because there are no pics of him without a moustache!! Now, I know these are not real pictures of him (I haven't totally lost my marbles), but I thought it was funny that I thought of him without one. Ha, what was I thinking??

Considering the Jewish laws regarding facial hair, I think he probably did, indeed, have a a moustache.