What we do for our children..... :)

Thursday night was like any other night. Study time for spelling words, no friends allowed over, dinner as a family..... Then a call from my girl friend came through. The day before I had offered to make shirts for the kids for Dr. Seuss Day at school. They had to wear one or they had to wear their normal uniform. I had been sent a number of awesome crafts on my Blog FB Page by a fan/friend of things that she had made for family as gifts and fun. One was a Thing 1 and Thing 2 shirt for her kiddos! 

 So, when this came up for my son's and friend's kids school I thought I could do that! 

Well the kids were "if'y" about it, and it wasn't until the last minute that they realized they weren't going to have anything to wear and became excited to have those shirts done..... Last minute being Thursday night.... My girlfriend had bought what good Ol' Wally World had in stock red shirt wise, that THIN ass breathable material and the fabric paint..... She brought it all by around 12am (once she was off of work)....Do you know HOW long it takes to paint white on red material that doesn't stick well..... On THREE shirts..... 

Sure I could've easily half-assed it, let the red bleed through a bit, not taken my time to make sure it was right and layers dried in between with a blow dryer... But that is not me.... I can be bit of a perfectionist when it comes to projects and crafts.

I did not sleep. Nope not a wink.... And the weird thing was that I didn't even realize 5 hours had gone by.... I put the last G on at 620AM.... As my oldest woke up for school. 630AM the hubby walked out of the bedroom as I was blow drying the shirts.... He knew I'd been up all night and smiled and praised my work. :) I had fun doing it, but those last minute decisions from the kiddos.... OOOYYYYY!!! 

 

All three were pretty darn stoked about them & received lots of compliments of how cool they were. They got a big kick out of it and had a fun day with Green Eggs & Ham for breakfast at school!

Bloggy Tip: How to add your link in a comment on any post!

I keep finding all these new ways that help us all out with our blogs that I just can't keep to myself and have to share!

Normally when I comment I leave my web address below when following a new bloggy friend or when commenting on a certain hop or fun question posts, but then the reader has to highlight the address, right click open link in new window or the other method of copy and paste it into a new tab. 

NOT ANY MORE!!!!

 Below is the code you add to the end of your comment. Replace the Black with any post URL you'd like your name to link back to or simply just your home page URL. 

Replace the Green with your Blog Name! 

Comment on your bloggy friends posts, add your modified code below your comment and HELLO linked name!!! :)

<a href="http://www.marinewifemommylife.com/">Marine Wife Mommy & Life</a>

 

Give it a whirl by commenting here. :)

How to Make a HELLO Bar on your Blog for Advertising, Sponsors or directing readers to a post you want to Highlight!

This post will tell you how to make a MY HELLO BAR on your Blog for Advertising, Sponsors or directing readers to a post you want to Highlight!

Notice the bar across my page that says "Advertise with Marine Wife, Mommy & Life!!!" and the button beside it that says "Advertising & Sponsors"?

This can be customized to your color choice, to say anything you want AND have the button direct to any location you want!

I've come across several awesome blogs that have this neat feature on their blog and decided to give it a whirl last week. I LOVE it! But couldn't find a whole lot of information on it anywhere and had to go through the search via Google to figure out what it was.

An awesome feature to have as a blogger or web page to bring to light something you'd like to be noticed a bit more.

 Go to www.hellobar.com you can create an account for free or you can view it as a demo on your site before you register with hello bar.

Here's where I had trouble. Coding is a pain in the arse for me.... Their site shows where to place the code if you have a "basic" layout/code. But if you've hired someone on that is more tech savvy to make your page look great the location that Hello Bar gives you to put it in won't work, I looked for a reeeealllly long time, my eyes began to blur and I about gave up the whole thing in general...

My site was made by Munchkin Land Designs I adore her work! 

With it being made outside of blogger the coding completely changes.

 

Hello Bar's How to Deploy Site says this for Blogger users: Blogger’s deployment options is similar to WordPress’. You can have your Hello Bar show up on a single page by pasting your code snippet in via the Edit Html view. You may have to save the post while in the Edit Html view though as Blogger has a nasty habit of placing in <br /> tags where they aren’t supposed to be. Alternatively, if you want site wide exposure, you can go to the Design section of your blog and Edit HTML for the blog’s template. Just paste the code snippet in after the line that looks like: <body expr:class='&quot;loading&quot; + data:blog.mobileClass'>

Again, I looked forever for that coding it wasn't there..... Then I decided, that the code <head> looked like a good place to start.... Since it goes at the the head of the page..... Above the code <head> I placed my Hello Bar Code. Below is a picture of a blank space above the code <head>  That is after I hit enter a couple times, put the code in there and BAM! It worked!!!!! 

Well, if you decide to create one of these awesome features, hopefully this will help ease your pain and time with deploying it.

If you have any questions feel free to ask away!  Love ya guys!!

Money Matters

Before I became a SAHM I was a working mom for 7 1/2 years and had been working since I was 15. I knew how to handle the bills, put food on the table, and spend on things that were what I wanted (not what I/we needed). Perfect example, my old 1967 Chevelle. Talk about an impulse buy. Then I just HAD to have a truck to tow it to the car shows I intended to take it to. Turns out the engine needed a few more repairs than I had anticipated and the shop I took it to in Jacksonville, NC ended up ripping me off beyond what I ever thought possible. Fortunately they are under investigation now and are in the process of being Blacklisted by the Marine Corps as a whole because they have done what they did to me and worse to others, including military personnel. I truly hope they rot in hell.

Okay sorry, rant over. Anyway, that car had been my dream car since I was little, I had the opportunity to buy it, so I did. When I found out we were expecting last year, I had to take a long hard look at our finances. Bills, bills, bills.... Can't escape a majority of them right away, utilities, mortgage and vehicles. But the credit cards, day care, student loans and my hobby car needed to be reevaluated. A larger savings needed to come into play as well. All within that 9 month time span.

The hubby's credit score needed to be fixed, fast. He had a terrible run in with a debt consolidation company in college who screwed him over and took all his money without paying off his debt. His score was pathetic to say the least. After having him use a couple cards, pay them monthly, plus his vehicle payment, we quickly got it back up into the 700's in under 6 months. Mine had already been there for awhile.

I sat down with my friend at work, who is also the Financial Adviser on the base, and ran our numbers on every little thing. Obtained our credit report from all 3 bureaus (which you can do every 4 months for FREE) and worked the numbers out for me continuing to work AND me becoming a SAHM. Day care alone was going to be over $1,000 a month for both children because we were at the very top of the scale, we were bringing home over $100,000 a year with the both of us working. But $12,000+ a year for me not to be able to see our baby grow, to miss every milestone, to miss out on MORE school activities of our oldest, to eventually have to take more time off from work because of illnesses from either child.... I wanted to have our finances in order completely in case I did choose to stay home.

I started using Powerpay.org to track our bills with interest rates. I love it because it shows how much over time you are ACTUALLY paying if you do not pay things off quickly. And of course once you pay one item off, you use those funds to help pay the next item off faster. It has this displayed throughout it's payment calendar. I have it set up, as of right now, where we will have our house and two vehicles paid off in 5 years. This includes putting a good chunk of change into savings monthly too! Unlike before where I was so worried about our savings, I got our savings up to a point where I feel comfortable now, and the majority of it now goes toward paying off the two vehicles and the house. 

After months of debating with myself (my husband left it up to me), I did finally sell my dream car.... 2 years and a few days after I had first got her. I've given up my every other week of pedicures and solar nails, my clothing spending is next to none now (unless there is a really cute item on sale), I have opened up the windows or shut them to keep the house cool or warm, lights are rarely on during the day as the light comes in from the doors and windows, laundry and dishes are only done on FULL loads (unless the hubby's workout clothes reek to the high heavens and can't wait), gas tank is only filled once a week or every other week, groceries bills are less with couponing.

I have cut our monthly bills from $5,800-$6,500 a month to $3,100 a month of vehicles, utilities, cell phones, 1 credit card to use and pay off each month and mortgage. All while still putting more toward the cars and house, setting aside fun money. putting some into savings and keeping a minimum amount in the checking account each month!!!!!

Even without being employed, Bills, Savings, and the Checking Account alone could easily be a full time job for our house..... Now my next mission is to learn more about Investing.... Or maybe I'll just bury money throughout the backyard instead....

Are there things or reasons you save for? How do you cut back on your monthly expenses? 

Did You Know? Baking Soda

As a SAHM now I have been looking into new ways (to me) to use different household items and help cut expenses where I can.

First test. Baking Soda!

 
Living where there are a million mosquitoes we tend to get eaten alive once dusk hits. Even if we spray ourselves down they manage to find an area to dig in. You can mix baking soda onto a paste with a little water and apply it to the bite as soon as possible. This helps relieve the itch and prevents it from swelling!

This paste can also work wonders for your baby's cradle cap (so can baby oil or olive oil).

Hate those pesky weeds or grass that comes in between the cement sidewalks or patios? Don't want to keep buying roundup or any other weed prevention spray that doesn't seem to last long enough? Pick the weeds out, pour some baking soda down and sweep it into the cracks! 

Have a pet with dirt or mites in his ears? Get a cup of warm water dissolve some baking soda in the water and dip a q-tip in that then clean his ears.

Microwave have nasty old food stuck inside of it? Place a cup of water with 3-4 tablespoons of baking soda and microwave it for 4 minutes. Grab a moist cloth and wipe the gunk away!

I've also heard that if you sprinkle baking soda onto the soil of your tomato plants that it will make them taste sweeter! This I will be trying next year!


Have you used Baking Soda in other ways? Please share!

*~*Wordful Wednesday*~* Another Week Down

This past week has been a whirlwind..... Last week was a bit of cleaning and preparing for baby plus relaxing, until Friday.... Friday I packed up the living and dining room (which amazingly did not take as many bins as I thought it would with all our books). Had to do so to move all the furniture and items to the garage to have our laminate flooring installed on Saturday. The hubby and our buddy finished up around 1am..... And it looks absolutely amazing!!!! It was a long day, and I tried helping out a little where I could (clean-up wise) but also had a terrible case of allergies hit. Which was no wonder because once the carpet and padding was pulled up underneath it all was DISGUSTING!!!!!! Enough dirt to start a mini sand box I'd say, and that was just on the ground, not including what had become airborne. Dusting the next day was no fun, but I made sure I took a claritin first thing this time because I did not want to be bed ridden from allergies nor have my nose become even more raw than  it was from the day before!  Sunday was mainly a day of rest. Brought most items back in but was so tired from the previous day that there are still a number of items in the garage that have to be moved back in, book shelves and everything that goes on them and the desk and so on.

I have officially joined the LBC (leaky boob club) lol.... I did not have anything come in until after the birth of my 7 year old and now it seems like I should have no problem with feeding this one when he arrives. Which is a good deal because as of Monday, Week 37 Day 2, he is measuring to be 7-8lbs 10oz, and 38-39weeks along. Big boy is going to need A LOT of food!!!!  My doctor's appointment went well too. Had a number of questions answered and had to have the baby's heartbeat tested to make sure it was accelerating properly. Everything looked great. They said because of the GD he is measuring much larger than he should be and they want to test his lungs for full development on Monday via amniocentesis..... A big needle going through my belly!?!?!?! Sigh..... They want to ensure that his lungs are developed enough to deliver him next week and make sure that the GD didn't slow down their growth. I've also had to switch over my blood thinner to Heprin (which makes me feel like some sort of drugy because I have to do all the work of getting the fluids into the needle out of a little glass jar, did I mention I HATE NEEDLES? Well, I do!!!) and then after the c-section I will be back on the Lovenox for at least 6 weeks.

New meds..... Bigger needle.... Uggggg :(

 Monday night was filled with terrible pains, but it has come to the point that unless my water breaks or something more dramatic occurs I'm not running to the hospital. The pain was so intense that I actually fell asleep/passed out from it all. By Tuesday morning it was very dull in the back but still sharp in the upper stomach/lower chest. I wound up going back to sleep until noon, ate, and then fell back asleep..... Of course the hubby was happy to hear that I had been resting as much as I did, even if it wasn't by choice... Today I'm feeling good, very tired, but good!

So we have approximately 1 week left until baby Mikey will be joining our lives in the outside world.... And as of last night, I am a wreck with it all....  I look around and see all the things that still need to be done, plus his mom and dad will be out here that first week and then my mom and step dad will be out here the day after they depart.... And me being an organized/clean freak, I want to make sure everything is order.... Ha, everything in order.... Hubby asked me to make a list of everything I want to get done..... Why does the list keep growing? Probably because I know I'm not going to be able to do a whole lot at first after Mikey is here and I won't have time to "prepare" for everyone's arrival... I am looking forward to having family here though and hopefully some yummy meals from our moms ;) I'm always down for a mother's home cooked meal. :))

Well.... I should try and get to some of the easier tasks done...... Oh and am excited to have our new fridge come in later today! Yay to no more frozen milk!!! hahahaha 

37 weeks