Spring Break

Emily is off this week for Spring Break. I like when she goes to school, even if it is only 3 days a week. It gives us some structure. Something to do besides spend money.

Speaking of spending money, we made it through our first month with David's pay cuts just fine. I mean, I wasn't stuffing leftover money under the mattress, but I didn't have to pull anything from savings. Then, the bomb drops. Well, bomb might be too strong. How about...then, the firecracker goes off. My car tags...on a brand new mini van. Meaning, this year will be the highest and it gradually goes down. The highest meaning $381. Crap. Not only that, but David's will be coming up in a 5 months and his should be about the same. Oh well, just another little hiccup.

Speaking of hiccups, when I was pregnant with Emily, she got hiccups all the time in my belly. I'd be up for hours at night while she hiccuped every 5 seconds. Seriously, it's impossible to sleep when you have the hiccups, let alone someone else inside your stomach. I'd try to scare her and yell, "BOO!", but nothing worked. I'd just have to wait out the hours until she finally stopped. I'm hoping the baby in my belly doesn't get the hiccups much.

Anyway, spring break. I'm trying to think of fun, cheap things to do. We should have a gorgeous week, so I'm excited about that. I think today we will go to the library. The kids always love that. And then probably Walmart because we went on Saturday, but I didn't have a good list. I forgot half of the things I needed to go to Walmart for. Also, we could go to the park and fly our new kites. I've found those fancy kites don't work worth a darn, so we bought some cheap kites at Walmart and I'm sure they will take off.

Speaking of taking off, Ben got a Matchbox Space Shuttle set for his birthday. It comes with astronuts, a space shuttle, aliens, U.F.O. and a bunch of other stuff that I have yet to figure out. It's pretty fun and something he wants to play with everyday. He also loves Buzz Lightyear, who is a space ranger in case you live under a rock. With his love of space and space men, I asked him if he wanted to be an astronaut and fly to the moon. To which he told me, "No, I want to stay here." I like that answer. He's going to be cautious like his father and prefer both feet firmly planted on the ground.

Anyway, tomorrow we have to drive to Phoenix for Ben's doctor's appointment for his hydrocele thingy. I'll let you know how that goes. David is taking the day off and coming with us, so at least the drive down and back up the mountain will be nice.

On Thursday, my best friend Pam is coming up for the day to visit and spending the night. David is taking one of his furlough days, so Pam and I are going out for a girls only lunch and doing some shopping. I'm totally looking forward to it.

I guess the week won't seem so long after all.

Fashion Statement

He might not ever make the cover of Vogue with this idea. But I imagine when he is 35, married and has 3 kids, he will think it was pretty cool that he wore a dog collar as a belt.

And it's loose!

He says he's a cowboy!

Love

Puppy Love
They were asleep until I got the camera and then they both opened their eyes.


We better love lettuce this summer. After only 24 hours, lettuce was the clear winner, by a head. After 3 days, lettuce has a nice little plant starting in each pod.


Green beans are also doing well. Emily is most excited about this. We call her the Green Bean Girl and Ben is the Broccoli Boy. Lame superhero names.

Getting A Spring On Spring

Last year was our first time planting a garden. We learned a lot and still have lots to learn.

We planted a lot of vegetable plants. At $3.99 each, this got expensive quick. Plus, over half of the established plants that we bought either died or didn't produce anything. We also planted a few packs of seeds and had way more success with those, lots of plants and lots of vegetables for a lot cheaper.

This year, we decided to start with seeds. We bought a cheap greenhouse and Emily and I planted some of the seeds yesterday. The plan is we will transplant our little plants in a month and also plant more seeds. This way, we will have plants at different stages instead of getting 50 zucchini in one month.

I'm amazed at how fun Emily thinks this is. She loved counting out 3 seeds for each hole. She woke up today and went over to see if anything grew overnight. I can't wait for the first plants to sprout. She will be so excited.

We are planting a lot of the same veggies as last year and a few new ones. There are a few like corn and onions that never produced last year, so we are not doing those again. Others, like carrots are just cheaper to buy at the store, so we are not doing those either. We have watermelon, zucchini, yellow squash, cilantro, basil, bell peppers, green beans, cucumbers, lettuce, cherry tomatoes and large yellow tomatoes. Our parsley and strawberry plants from last year survived the winter and are turning green again. We will also plant some pumpkin seeds in a few months, unless they spontaneously grow again.


By the way Grammie, Emily found one of your Diet Mountain Dews leftover from Thanksgiving and HAD to have it. You'll also notice David in the sandbox. He was sifting out the rocks and a few cat poops that accumulated over the winter.

We are ready for Spring!

Simple Needs

Emily has been battling a cold all week. I thought she was getting better, but she woke up today whining. She had her morning cup of coffee and was laying on the sofa watching Toy Story.

My babysitting gig got cancelled. I was on the computer playing Scrabble and drinking my morning cup of coffee.

I went to check on the kids and Emily was laying on her side looking rather pathetic.

I asked her if she wanted something to eat.
She shook her head no.

I asked if she wanted some juice.
She shook her head no.

I asked her if she needed anything.
She pointed to me.

I let my coffee get cold, put my Scrabble games on hold and left the dirty dishes in the sink.

I sat on the sofa while she rested on my lap and rubbed her head. She just closed her eyes and relaxed. And if only for a few moments, I was all that she needed to feel better.

Free Money and Some Change

In my early 20's I worked at Discover Card for almost 2 years. I learned a lot.

We charge everything. We don't live beyond our means so this is not a problem for us. We pay our balance in full every month. We don't pay an annual fee on any cards. Therefore, we don't give any of our credit card companies a single penny throughout the entire year. They make plenty off of us though.

Most people don't know that the merchant you are buying from has to pay 3-4% of your transaction to the credit card company just for letting you use the card. For instance, if you charge $10 on your Visa at Starbucks, Starbucks then pays Visa 30 cents. Merchants do this because it's proven that most people will spend more when they pay by credit versus cash. Plus, they probably just inflate prices to cover this cost anyway.

I even pay my bills on my credit card as long as it doesn't cost anything. My cable, home phone and cell phone all charge directly to the card. Why not? It's one less thing I have to worry about paying on time and I get a rebate on everything charged. So, I'm making money by paying bills with my credit card.

Every February our American Express sends out the rebate check for Costco. This year, we got $288.57. We went last night and got all this stuff.

***We did not purchase Emily at Costco. :o)

In years past, we spent the rebate on fun stuff. Little splurges for ourselves and the kids that we normally wouldn't buy. This year, we mainly went for necessity. I did get the convection toaster oven that I'd been eyeing for months. I hate heating up the oven just to make croutons. Yes, I make my own croutons. Old bread + butter, olive oil, garlic and Parmesan = super yummy toppings for your salad. Much better than anything you'll buy in the store and you don't throw out the last few pieces of bread that start to get hard. I digress....

Our splurges were the toaster oven, cutting boards and a container of chocolate covered caramel macadamia nuts. Wow, are those delicious. Since David's recent pay cuts, we decided to spend the rest on things we need like toilet paper, paper towels, veggies, fruit, spaghetti and bug spray. In another effort to cut back, we've decided to spray our own home this year to forgo the $30 fee every month. We'll see how that goes.

We also ended up with over $60 on a gift card that we didn't spend. We need new home phones, so I think we will buy those with that.

I also had over 11,000 points on my Visa. We use this as a backup when places won't take American Express. I decided to request a $100 Home Depot gift card before the company goes bankrupt and I lose all my points. We made a trip there and got new shelves for our desk area and we have over half of it left which we will use for gardening supplies in the next month or so.

In the past week, we got almost $400 from our credit card companies and we've personally never given them a penny. Feels like free money!

I Spy

Emily has learned the "I Spy" game at school. Her teacher will often play it while they are waiting for parents to pick up their kids. It's become her new favorite game to play. We play it at home, at the store and in the car.

Emily, Ben and I were in the car while Daddy ran into the store for something quick.

And it starts...

"I spy with my little eye..."

It's finally my turn. "I spy with my little eye, something handsome."

Ben immediately puts his hand on his chest and says, "Is it me?"

I couldn't help but laugh. He can be so sweet sometimes.

We reenacted the moment here:

Of course, Emily told me I wasn't playing right and I had to pick a color.

Whatever.