Kathryn had a special visitor come see her today, her Mimi. Kathryn enjoyed the visit and showed Mimi all the fun things that she can do now, grab toys, shake toys, push buttons, kick her feet, and drool :). Mimi was surprised at how much Kathryn drools.
Kathryn played so much with Mimi that she went to bed at 7:30 tonight.
A lot has changed since the last time I (Ashley) posted. I am now the proud mom to a 3 month old little girl, Kathryn. She has brought so much joy to my life and I love being her mom.
Once she was born we decided that I would stay at home with her. Going from working full time to staying at home has been a big transition for me and it is something I am still getting used to, but I do not regret my decision at all.
Since having Kathryn one thing that has changed is my interest in photography. Shortly before Kathryn’s arrival we got a new camera, a DSLR, so that we would have something other than our cell phones to take pictures with. Before Kathryn I was always the one in front of the camera with David taking the majority of the pictures. Now that Kathryn is here I am the one taking all the pictures. Very few days go by that I don’t take at least one picture of Kathryn.
Thanks to cute subject matter readily available I have decided to learn more about how the camera works than just how to turn it on, and take and delete pictures, eventually I would like to be able to take photos in manual mode. Right now I am taking pictures of all the pretty flowers that are blooming in our yard and our precious little girl. Thankfully right now she doesn’t complain too much when I decide to stick the camera in her face for 10 minutes till I get the picture I want.
Here are a few of the pictures I have taken thus far.
Dogwood Bloom
Tulip Bloom
Kathryn
I don’t know why I haven’t put this up yet, but we are having a baby.
We don’t know the gender, we don’t want to, at least not with our first, it’s all part of the experience in our eyes.
We have figured out the names.
Boy: Evan DavisGirl: Kathryn Alexis
We’ve already prepped the nursery, toured the maternity ward, shopped for baby clothes. We’ve got birthing classes, etc coming up.
Title reference:
After weeks of work, tearing up ivy, planting grass, unpacking boxes, changing light fixtures and making other minor repairs. We have fully moved into our first home. There is nothing much to say other than we love it!
My first trip of the week was to Harris Teeter. Since last week I stocked up on meat for a while this week I stocked up on starches. Slowly building my stockpile. Also because of this my total saved was as good as in previous weeks but now I have a well rounded stockpile.
Here is what I purchased:
2 boxes of Pasta Roni
2 boxes of Success Rice
5 boxes of Mueller Pasta ( 2 boxes were purchased for Mac and cheese that I am making for Easter Lunch at church)
3 boxes of Zatarain’s Rice
2 containers of Athenos Hummus
3 containers of Dannon Greek Yogurt
6 containers of Yoplait Yogurt
1 Half gallon of 1% Milk
Total Before Coupons and Specials: $37.47
Out of Pocket: $ 19.68
Cost per Item: $0.86 I like it when I can get my groceries for less than $1.00 a piece.
After the e-VIC Specials came out this week I decided to go again, in this trip I got:
1 can Hunt’s Chopped Tomatoes
2 Mio Water Enhancers (Sweet Tea, Watermelon/Strawberry)
4 Yoplait Greek Yogurts
2 4 packs of Yoplait Yogurt
1 24 Pack of Bottled Water
Total Before VIC and Coupons: 23.74
Total OOP: 8.59
Price per Item: $0.86
After finishing my trip to CVS I realized I probably could have done two transactions instead of one and saved more money but I think I still did well in one transaction. This week I purchased:
1 Biore Cleanser
1 Curel Lotion
2 Dove Body washes
2 Lysol Toilet Bowl Cleaners
2 Winston-Salem Journals I get the papers at CVS because I can use the purchase of these towards my quaterly rewards and also they are only $1.25 instead of $1.50.
Total Before ECB and Coupons: $40.84
Total OOP: $15.50 and I also recieved $9 ECBs on my next purchase
It’s probably no secret that we’ve been following the “Dave Ramsey” plan for a while and it has worked really well for us. While Dave Ramsey’s plan is nothing original and groundbreaking, as most of what he teaches he’ll tell you has been around for decades or longer. A lot of it is even based on biblical principles and been repeated by many financial experts and considered common sense by some. He just packaged it well and makes it easy to understand. The main thing you get from his “plan” is that being on a plan with long term goals and sticking to it is the most important thing. However, the guidelines and financial planning practices that Dave Ramsey recommends on his show and in his classes, while very conservative by many people’s standards work for just about anyone. Of course, assuming they have an income and are willing to sacrifice and discipline themselves in the short term for greater rewards and financial stability in a few years.
In the year we’ve been married, we’ve paid off our credit cards (and not used them since), a student loan, and a car (close to $30,000 in debt) while living a basic but practical lifestyle and are set to be debt free, have savings, and buying a house with a down payment in the next 2-3 years. I’ll admit we’ve bent the official baby step rules here and there, and haven’t sacrificed quite as much as we could or as others have, but the main thing is we’ve made a plan and pretty much stuck to it and avoided making any significant financial decision without some forethought and us both agreeing on it. It’s kept a lot of issues from occurring in our marraige, and I’m very certain that long term we will do very well because of the decisions and small sacrifices we are making now.
Pretty soon, we will be coordinating a Financial Peace University class at our church (and the place we took our FPU class) GreenTree. It starts on May the 5th. If you live in the Winston-Salem area and need help in the area of finances or just want to do better then you have been, this class is more then worth it. You can sign-up on DaveRamsey.com or ask questions about the class here.
If you learn nothing else from FPU, learn this:
A computer geek and a scientist living life and navigating the twists and turns of parenthood.
