An Iowa Weekend

Weekend Highlights

Friday: Arrived and put Katie to sleep. Caught up with Todd and Melissa

Saturday: Guys went to a CE that included free food and a professional golf tournement. Ladies and babies went to a few rummage sales and spent time with kids at home. Money spent at rummage: $1.32. Total toys/Katie apparal: 5 items.

Saturday night: Supper at Chicago Pizzeria. Thanks, Schulzes! The girls did GREAT at the restaurant!

Sunday: breakfast, girls' bath, and final Schulz moments. Stopped in Ames while leaving town and saw Aron Nakama and his future wife.

First Day with First Tooth

And we're grooving right along!

A few things we learned over Memorial Day weekend

1. We're not very good at growing things except weeds and beans
2. Katie's knees get really dirty really fast
3. Oreo cookie custard can taste so-so
4. We'd rather spend 5 hours doing something besides yard work
5. No matter how much work we do, our neighbor's yard will ALWAYS look better (but they use their kids as slave labor)

Loving Shadow

Small Group Offspring (Minus Becca)

Everybody stands

Everybody sits

Going in the Ground

On Sunday, we put some veggies in our garden. (Actually, we filled our garden but still have some veggies in the green house. We'll put these in the garden in case some plants don't make it.)

Front of the garden (view from the house)

From the back of the garden. Left bed: tomatoes and bell pepper. Front, back bed: multiple veggies. Front, forward bed: bell peppers

Zucchini, below

Sweet Peas, above

Playing Around

Props to the Shelby County Sherriff's Office

Since Katie and I are heading down to Memphis in June, I checked out the baby section of the Memphis Craigslist for kicks and giggles.

This ad caught my eye:
http://memphis.craigslist.org/bab/1171465634.html

Baby for Sale $7000
Description: "Hello I am sorry about this ad but I have to sell my little 4-month old to tempoary cover my living expenses I am in a bind right now so I am selling her she is a good baby and if you buy her now I will include my dog Isebella Gresham she is a tibetan spaniel 2yrs old I will sign over all rights with power of attorney or we can work out a payment plan which can be $3,500 DOWN PAYMENT cah only !!! My parents shut down all my credit cards so I have to liuve someway lost my job husband walked out for another dude so I need help or if you would like to you can sponsor little sarah you can come and see her between the hours of 5pm,9pm appointments only e mail me please

I emailed the Sherriff (public-info@shelby-sheriff.org) and within 2 minutes I received an email reply saying that someone would check into the ad. I'm very re-assured that the 9.725 sales tax is helping to keep the community (and a 4-month baby) safe.

Admiring china

Helping in the Kitchen

Happy Mother's Day (part II)

We saw this video at church today. I don't think Darryl and I were ever that bad though.



Here are some pics from yesterday when my ma came over for dinner with my uncle Greg (very picture shy).

Happy Mother's Day!

What is a mother's work really worth? $122,732.
My check must have been lost in the mail!

First BBQ of the Season

Smorgashboard tonight at Jim and Jeannie's! Bryan is in charge of the grill!

(Not our grill. Definitely not our grill.)

Katie crawls

Our world has now changed again. Katie has finally figured out what legs and arms are good for. She seems to be getting faster every day. Enjoy

Little Girl on the Praire

Katie's First Post

njmib nukjhmnb ikjhnkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkhhnncccczzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzc`

Translation:

I like cheese.

Standing Tall

Katie can pull herself up on furniture and people.

She's a speedy crawler.

And when she doesn't get something, she gets crabby.

Germination

Red House Furniture Store

Ok, I usually have the TV on while I'm feeding Katie lunch...and TMZ showcased this commercial for a real furniture store in North Carolina.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnOyMSEWNTs

No High-Five to the WI 529!

I (Ashley) am alone this morning. Katie is sleeping, Shadow is sleeping, and I'm nursing sore feet from last night's party. No one is around to give me a high five or thumbs-up, so I'm going to high-five myself with this post!!

Here's the story: beck in December, Bryan and I were debating whether to open a 529 or ESA for Katie's college savings. A 529 would usually be the better answer because you can deduct the contributions from your state income taxes. Both a 529 and ESA would grow Katie's money tax free.

Since I'm the researcher, I requested the manuals, booklets and prospectus for the WI 529 program, which is managed by Wells Fargo. I analyzed the different funds available, including the investments strategies, account management fees and expense ratios.

I thought the management fees were unusually high--they ran from .75 to over 1% per year! The fees would certainly cut into any anticipated growth we would earn. Sure enough, this was high, especially compared to the Vanguard S&P Index Fund, which is 0.15%.

My final recommendation to Bryan: Let's go with an ESA.

Here's the exciting part: I just learned that Consumer Reports agrees with me: they rank Wisconsin's 529 to be the WORST 529 fund in the COUNTRY!

That ESA looks better and better!

The Event of the Year (so far)

Tonight is the Spring Awards Banquet that the Puccis, Ava, and I have been planning since February! We're beginning the evening with cocktails, then dinner, and finally an auction where agents can "bid" on super-cool prizes--including a cool-tool that Bryan picked out from Home Depot. The Banquet will be held at Milwaukee Public Market down in the 3rd Ward. We're looking forward to a fun evening with food provided from award-winning vendors!