Heart Ball

Greg was invited to attend the American Heart Association Heart Ball a couple of weekends ago. By invited, I mean, it was for a client and his job depended on his attendance. 

That's a little dramatic. But there was no way out of it. So we "invited" our friends to join us and they kindly obliged. 

Turns out going to a ball is really fun. You get to borrow a fancy dress and get all dressed up. It's free (for us) and that's really something when you're on a spending fast. The food is great. The people-watching is top-notch. And when you call something a "heart ball," you're going to get classy heart decor. And we're always looking for hearts to take our picture inside of. I mean, who isn't?

The evening included a charity auction. Greg was really close to getting me a pair of diamond earrings. And by really close, I mean $7K short.

Valentine's Day free fancy dinner? Check. This spending fast thing is easy peasy this year. And while I'm reporting, I sailed through week 2 with $83.88 at the grocery store. And I almost made it through week 3 ($77 on groceries) but those Presidents and their Day. Greg had it off and while the morning was spent cleaning our house and cars, the afternoon brought much spending. First the kids filled their sticker charts (that happens about once every other month or so), so we headed to Target to cash in. A princess puzzle for Kate and a velcro ball and catch set for Ethan. $13 out the door. Then, we decided we're going to have some rooms painted while the kids and I are going to be out of town in a couple of weeks, so we went and bought paint samples. Both of those are kinda borderline on the cheater scale. What's not borderline is a burrito from Mission Burrito. It was right next to Target and we were all starving. Busted. I'll take it out of my carry over. That leaves me with $35 carryover and I'm going to be a cheater again this weekend with my mom and brother in town, I'm sure. But if I can keep it within my carryover amount, I'll still pat myself on the back. I'm good at patting myself on the back.

11 months

Let it be known that on Drew's 11 month birthday, he celebrated by helping himself to a sucker. He's never been one to let a holiday go uncelebrated.

He can't walk, wave, clap, or do any of the things the twins were doing at this age, but he can find and unwrap candy, when the twins STILL can't do that!

Mean mommy!

Speaking of things he can and can't do. He can sign "milk" and "all done" but won't wave; and sign "more" but won't clap (for those of you not fluent in baby signing, they're practically the same thing). His favorite thing in all the world is to hold on to your fingers (or his walker) and walk, but is light years away from independent walking. 

His second favorite thing in all the world is to be put down to bed at  night or for a nap (like we're talking giggling hysteria), but when he is finished sleeping, he is FINISHED and cries and screams to get out. (I know what you're thinking Weisbluth-followers. But he really is done sleeping.)

And while it may not mean anything to the outside world, he says, "issss" when he's content. Like after he finishes nursing, or if he's crying and gets picked up. It's like, "Thanks. I'm good now."

And when he's fake laughing, he says, "ff ff ff ff." 

He almost always has a fist-sized ball in his hand. Like a little puppy dog, he'll throw it and chase after it. Over and over. Third child. I tell you, they're the best and entertaining themselves.

His crawl is what I like to call army crawl 2.0. He's not flat on his tummy scooting anymore, but he still does the one leg out thing. Every once in awhile, he'll crawl like a real boy, but then he gets excited and wants to go faster and he'll revert back.

And just so the last picture of him isn't his awkward crawl...

He's a stud. With awesome hair. And he owns it.

Be Mine

You better believe that the first time we saw Valentine paraphernalia pop up in Hobby Lobby, the kids picked their cards out. That was well over a month ago. They have been asking to open the boxes since, so finally this week I decided we were close enough. For their class party, the teacher asked that they don't address them, only sign them, so I had them sign every one in the box, figuring there would be a few rejects. Then, since they were so excited and couldn't possibly wait a week, we mailed a few out (the rejects, sorry). Those lucky recipients.

 

In other news, spending fast week 1 was a huge success. $77.34 at the grocery store and not a penny more anywhere else. That gives me $22.66 to carry over into this next week's grocery trip. 

Saturday was the toughest day for us. It is always our spending day. When Greg is home, we want to take advantage of his time and go out and do something. So, since it was raining, we packed up a lunch at went and had a picnic at Greg's office. It's one of the kids' favorite places to visit, so they were thrilled. And I had yet to see his new office. Win win. 

This upcoming Saturday, we have a date night, so that's going to get tricky. I gave Greg 3 choices and we'll see which one he chooses, but spoiler alert, a romantic trip to the grocery store was one of the options. I'm romantic like that.

I am truly shocked every year how simple this is. Yes, I am absolutely tempted to spend money. I want to buy something, ANYTHING, so badly. Kate has grown out of pretty much every shirt she owns and I am scraping the bottom of my mascara tube. But, obviously, we're still alive. We can survive a few more weeks.

an iPad story

I know I'm not very good at telling a story, and this is a long story, but I think you're going to want to stick around. This is a good story. Like once Hollywood hears it, screenplay writers are going to be knocking my door down and Emma Stone is going to beg to play the part of me. (Not cause I'm anything like her, but because it's my blog and I get to chose, and I chose her.)

No, it's probably not that good of a story, but Lifetime Original caliber, at least.

Here goes: 

Christmas 2010, my parents gave each of their children the second best gift they have ever given us (right behind life itself) and that gift was an iPad. Some might argue I liked it a little too much, but we don't need to go there. It was a great gift and I was very appreciative.

September 2011, Greg and I purchased our very first home and the day we moved into it was supposed to be wonderful in every way. It was pretty close, but at the close of the day, we realized that our blessed iPad had been stolen by the movers. It was a sickening feeling, knowing that someone had stolen something of such value, which held a lot of personal information (both of our email, facebook, and Amazon accounts), and right in front of us. After running through the day in our minds, we recalled that it had been used right before they got there and it had been left on the couch, the very first thing they moved. So, they had stolen it right off the bat and small-talked with us throughout the day and accepted a generous tip. You can imagine what was going through our minds: "why didn't I put it away? Or at least put a lock on it? Or install the app that tracks it? How could we have been so dumb?" Greg called the moving company. The owner talked to the guys who had moved our house, they denied it, and the owner believed his guys. The owner told Greg something along the lines of, "You are calling me and my workers liars and I don't appreciate it. The iPad is somewhere in your home and when you find it, I expect you to call and apologize to me." That could have gone better, but we couldn't prove that they had stolen it and there really was nothing to do. So, after a few days of anger, I think we both just got over it. We had changed all of our passwords, so he at least couldn't get anything more from us and moved on. There was no point in being angry about it. We assumed he had sold it or at least wiped it clean. Our iPad was gone for good, either way. It was too expensive of an item, a luxury item at that, for us to simply replace, so we had been put on a forced iPad fast. We've certainly talked about replacing it, but other stuff always comes first. I've re-learned to live my life without it. And well, life without an iPad does in fact go on.

You're all smart enough to figure out that this must not be the end of the story, or I wouldn't be writing about it now. So I'll cut to the chase.

February 7, 2012, Greg got a call from the moving company. "Remember me?... Well, you're not going to believe this, but I have your iPad." He didn't give too many details but what Greg gathered is that although he believed them, he had kept his ears open and someone said something that got back to him and he found that his worker had not only stolen it, but still had it in his possession. He apologized at least a trillion times. He said he was humiliated and embarrassed and felt like his whole reputation was a fraud. He had truly believed in his workers and was shocked to find that one of them could be dishonest. He said, "where can I meet you?" and immediately drove the iPad downtown to hand it off to Greg. It was dead, dead, dead and took at least an hour of charging to even start up, but when it did, it was definitely our iPad and not a thing had been changed. 

Interestingly, it was not our iPad being stolen that prompted a blog post. That kind of stuff unfortunately happens all the time. What prompted the post is what SHOULD happen all the time: honesty at its purist form. This guy was honest to the core. When he believed in his workers, he stuck to that. And when he found out he was wrong, he owned up to it. I'm impressed.

Strangely, I'm more excited that there are still people like this guy out there than to have my iPad back. 

But I'm excited about that, too.

Night time routine

I wouldn't normally consider myself a routine kind of girl. But small children seem to thrive on it and I've learned to adapt. Sort of. While bedtime has always been routine, we've somehow in the last couple of months extended routine into the whole evening. It usually goes something like this:

After dinner, the kids play while I do the dishes. Then we all clean up the downstairs and head upstairs to play. 

Pants become optional at this point. 

(This is what happens when 6 month clothes are WAY too short and 12 month clothes are WAY too wide. Since manpris are only cool in Europe, we went for 12 month pants and this is the result)

 When bedtime finally comes, I nurse Drew while the kids "clean up." This part is more of a joke I play on myself. I ask them to clean up, but that doesn't really happen until I'm done nursing and we all do it together. Or we don't do it at all. 

Then we get ready for bed.

 After baths, the twins get in their pajamas while I dress and put down Drew.

Greg makes his appearance anytime between dinner and bedtime. He's almost always home by story time, like he was this particular night. We read one book each, say prayers, and tuck in. Sometimes Greg will force me to lie down with them for a bit. I never regret it. We kiss them and say good night.

First attempt at a tripod-assisted family photo. Fail.

I realize this is a VERY boring thing to post about. But it's part of our life and I want it documented. I also realize that this is a blissful life. One day I will dream of evenings free of basketball practice, ballet, homework, church obligations, etc. But I won't lie and say that every night after the kids go down, I don't put my feet up and feel exhausted.  Cause I do.

Uncle Shawn

Last summer, when we were in California, we visited my uncle's motorcycle shop. To say it was the best day of Ethan's life would be an understatement. They've both talked about it at least once a week since then and Uncle Shawn is part of everyday conversation. A few weeks ago, I overheard Ethan and Kate talking about motorcycles. When I walked in, Ethan informed me that he wanted to be Uncle Shawn for Halloween next year. (To knock off Spiderman from front running position, this was a big deal!) Uncle Shawn was informed of this and a week later a package and a note came in the mail. 

"Hey buddy, Can't wait to go riding with you. Love, Uncle Shawn"

I know his superhero of choice changes weekly, but this week it's Uncle Shawn!

Day 1

Whew! I made it a whole day. I can hardly believe it. Okay, I won't be doing a day by day post. That would make the month seem eternal. But I may do weekly updates. We'll see. I do have to say, I'm a little bummed. I was kinda hoping no one would join me and I could just slide by, no one would even notice the UPS guy at my house every day delivering yet another Amazon box. But, I've got people to report to now. I better stick to this.

I've had a few questions that I'd like to respond to. One, how does Valentine's Day work? This is completely up to you. If you want to set a separate budget just for that, or if you want to postpone till March, go for it. We are not big Valentine's Day-ers at our house, so a fun dinner with the family at home is all we ever do. We don't do gifts, either. But that's because we're lame, not because we're frugal. So I won't be passing any judgement on anyone who does anything different here.

Second, if your husband is the one forcing gently guiding you into joining me, I've got some words for him. "This is for you too, buddy. No fancy pants "lunch meetings" while we're stuffing our faces with pb&j." I hope the few husbands who actually read my blog know I'm kidding. Well, kinda kidding.

Third, if you want to join me "except for that one thing," then set that one thing aside and join me for the rest. I gave the Chik-fil-a exception. And also, my mom and brother will be coming to visit the last week of February. I have a feeling we'll do an outing.

Which leads me to fourth. The point of this to teach ourselves how to live on less. If getting you through it is a prize at the end, sure, go for it. (Come March 1, Amazon better get ready for me! (Just kidding, Greg)) If you absolutely can't go a week without Sonic happy hour, try just going once a week. 

Set your own rules and live by them. 

I'll leave you with a few tips:

• Do not, under any circumstances, log in to your Amazon account
• The second the deal-a-day emails pop up in your email box, delete them. Don't even look
• Do your grocery shopping at a grocery store- not Target or Costco
• Make yourself lots of treats. You may miss going out less if you're still getting treats (I didn't say this was a diet)  
• Eat the frozen enchiladas in your freezer

Please, by all means, share tips and secrets for me. We all know I need them!