"Stuff" Insurance

Read about a Stuff Replacement Fund to simplify your life
What a great idea for all the stuff we keep for that "one day" we will use it!

More brown eyes, bows & apple crisp

And the first apple crisp of the season!!

Eye exams and cameras

Review of last week

• We moved back home


• Katie went to the church nursery for the second half of service (and was cuddled the whole time by the ladies!)


• Ashley started work again for American Family (10 hours/week)


• Bryan went to the Cheesecake Factory with his mom on Thursday


• Neighbor Lynn Burk gave Ashley a cute shirt; Lynn's dog ate a bird (we could hear the bones crush--yucky)


• Rummage finds: winter pants and toy blocks for Katie, a fall flower bouquet for the kitchen table, and candy cane decorations for our driveway


• Bryan went to Madison for some CE classes on Friday
  
• Bryan tried out our front-carrier (below) and we went for a long walk in the neighborhood. Afterward, he cut the grass and helped Randy take his pier out of the water for the season. He still feels tired and sore.

Katie at 2 months, 3 weeks

Grocery Deals for Ruth

Former Memphis neighbor/friend/mother-of-four Ruth wrote me that she enjoys reading about my grocery expeditions. She writes, "I LOVE hearing about your great deals! I think it's motivating hearing about how you save money with coupons and shopping great sales. I think it's good for people to hear--right along with Dave Ramsey stuff! :)."

So I went shopping again on Wednesday for the Double Daze, and here's another list of my deals and steals from Pick-N-Save. Although I didn't make out as nicely as last week, here's another list of my deals and steals:

Green Giant frozen veggies: 88 cents
Baby carrots: 88 cents/bag

Lipton sides: 79 cents EA

Kellogg's poptarts: 50 cents/box

Pillbury rolls & cinnamon buns: 99 cents EA

Pillsbury strudels: 99 cents/box

Huggies: $8.99/mega pack

Although, like Granddaddy and Ruth, I do love Aldi's; but I can't justify driving 15 minutes to shop there...especially since our schedule only allows me to shop late evenings or on Saturdays when I'd rather be spending time with Bryan.

Smother Mother

Jeff Jegl and his family stopped over yesterday for a visit. As we were talking, Jeff introduced me to the term "Smother Mother": an overprotective, indulgent mother. I thought this was a Jegl-ism, but after googling the term, I learned there are groups of psychologist that analyze this as a serious condition.

Note article: Understanding the Smother Mother

Swimming, Sunrises, and Packers game

Peck of Potatoes

Guess who weighs the same as a peck of potatoes?

Friday night / Saturday morning food story

A picture is worth a thousand words!

Recepie for Raw Pear Cake (a suprisingly delicious mix of pear, spices and chocolate):

Ingredients: Half cup butter, 1 cup sugar, 2 T dry unsweetened cocoa powder, 2 beaten eggs, 1.5 cups flour, 1/4 t baking powder, 1 t baking soda, 1/2 t salt, 1 t cinnamon, 1/2 t cloves, 1/2 c water, 1 cup peeled, small chunked pears

Cream butter, sugar and cocoa. Add eggs. Mix dry ingredients in small bowl. Add mixture to butter mixture alternately with water, beating after each addition. Fold in pears. Grease and flour an 8x8 cake pan; pour in batter. Bake at 350 for about 45 minutes.

9.19.08 phone conversation with Granddaddy

Since I blogged yesterday about my experiences with The Greatest Generation, I decided to give my Granddaddy a call while walking Katie and Shadow.

We chatted about the usual--the weather, lack of rain and (drumroll) grocery shopping.

I am obsessed--not with grocery shopping, but with using coupons and sales to get groceries inexpensively or free. I mentioned the other day that I paid 33 cents for a box of Hamburger Helper...but also, I recently paid 15 cents for a carton of yogurt and zero dollars for a box of pasta. Huggies diapers are on sale this week for $10.99 per mega pack (72 diapers).

I must get this obsession from Granddaddy (Charles Haggard). His favorite past time is getting in his little red truck and driving over to Kennett, Missouri, (42 miles) to shop at the newest store: Aldi's. Granddaddy explained to me how much money he was saving by shopping in bulk at Aldi's. Recently, he bought cases of green beans, corn, peas, peaches and pears (25 cents per can). He also buys cream soups, tomatoes and sauces in bulk by the case. Why? Because it's a good "investment" since the local Wal-Mart sells items by the can for 40 cents and up.

Granddaddy has a generous heart because he doesn't buy all of these for himself. He enjoys stockpiling the goods for me and brother Jimmy (but mostly me) to go "grocery shopping" in his basement. When I spoke with Granddaddy, he made sure to tell me to leave plenty of room in our van so we can carry cases of the food back to Wisconsin. Even though I can obviously afford to buy my own can of peas, I know not to turn down the foods or explain that I don't need the goods. In this small way, Granddaddy is taking care of us, and he likes doing it. In his mind, I will forever be a college student.

Millionaires at what cost?

According to conventional wisdom, Bryan and I are doing the “right” things to retire millionaires: we invest monthly in our Roth IRAs, we live by a budget, and we buy groceries on sale with coupons (just last week, for example, I bought a box of Hamburger Helper for 33 cents). But since we “moved” to the lake house, I wonder if we’re missing something in our financial plan.

Since we’re going into business with the homeowners, we know their financial stakes and they live a frugal lifestyle. Can we speed our way to millionaire status by adopting a frugal lifestyle?

1. Eat anything and everything. In recent years, Mr. and Mrs. P have moved their parents into assisted living facilities. In doing this, they cleaned out their parents’ pantries. Now…they have 60-ish boxes of jello, boxes quick pearled barley, and a box of Dream Whip cake additive with the price tag typed on the box. But hey, if it's still good, what not eat it??

2. Save what's not eaten. When we initially “moved,” I was asked if we drank milk. We love milk but I will not freeze the partially-empty container if we don't finish it. On our first day here, I nosily checked the freezers' contents. My wishes of frozen pizza and mozo sticks were replaced with containers holding a tablespoon of enchilada sauce, 8 frozen egg yolks, and multiple bags of partially eaten bread loaves waiting to be made into bread crumbs.

3. Collect…and save to sell. When I had my c-section, Bryan borrowed a firm desk chair for me to use. As it turned out, Mr. P had multiple carbon copies of this chair (they're really nice!!). If you walk into his basement, you will find 8 organs (the musical kind), a case of baby formula (remember, no kids=no grandkids), tools galore, a set of wicker chairs, piles of 2x4 wood, and etc, etc, etc! Upstairs is more storage and 5 or 6 computer monitors, broken printers, stereos from 1980, and 15 year-old sports gear.

My question of the moment: how frugal is too frugal?

I Love Grandparents!

They don't have to be my grandparents...just about everyone born before 1940 has a very special quality to them.

A couple days after we "moved" in, Randy's mom came by to pick pears. After I introduced her to Katie, we chatted about eating pears and all the delicious recipies they could be used in. Mrs. Prestash mentioned that you could replace pears in apple cake recipies. Lo and behold...the next day Mrs. Prestash brought us a homemade pear cake!

Today, the doorbell rang while I was playing with Katie. An elderly gentleman was standing there, and he asked if he could pick some pears. I showed him where the wasps were and warned him about them. As we talked, his wife got out of their lovely Lincoln. I expected her to ask to hold the baby...because who can resist this cutie!? Instead, she asked me if I babysat. I explained that I was babysitting the Prestash dogs, and Katie was my child. She said, "I know, but do you babysit others?" The lady explained that her neighbor was looking for an occassional sitter, and I suppose she thought I looked honest enough to give my name and number to her neighbor.

Date with Peyton

Becky and Peyton Wolniakowshi (3 months old) came over for a playdate recently. He's such a lady's man--as soon as we put them on the bed together for a picture, Peyton grabbed Katie's hand!

It was so neat to note the differences in Peyton and Katie (maybe a boy-girl difference). Peyton was so wiggly after he ate, while Katie was still and watchful. Peyton tended to grab more (Katie's hand, his hand, his mom, etc) while Katie only grabbed my hair once-in-a-while. Peyton was more vocal than Katie, although Katie did her fair share of talking.

Katie's hips

I previously mentioned that our pediatrican was worried about the flexability of Katie's hips. On Friday, we went to Children's Hospital for our ultrasound. Dr. Sawall read Katie's results yesterday and (!) Katie is fine! Now she can grow up to be our Olympic swimmer with no problems.

Pimp my carseat

I noticed at church last Sunday that Katie's carseat was highly unfashionable. So, I went to her closet and brought out some of the bling people gave her.

Before and after

Time for bed!

Katie wiped out last night after finishing her bottle!

Good news--Katie has slept through the night the past 2 days. Yay! Is this here to stay??

Brown eyes and bows

Mimi and Molly

The Prestash babies

(Above) Molly is the old girl--she's an estimated 18 years old, and she has cataracts in both eyes. Randy and Patti are thinking of surgery...but then again, she's 18. We give Molly 3 pills per day; she spends her days (and nights) sleeping in the hallway. She routinely mopes around the kitchen at 8am (breakfast time) and 6pm (dinner time). Unfortunately for us, Molly is in the 18 year habit of waking up at 5:30am to go outside. She barks and barks until one of us lets her outside. So far, Bryan has had this responsibility since I wake up at 3:30 or 4am to nurse Katie.

(Below) Mimi is the youngest of 4 years. It's hard to get her to be still for a photo op! She is full of energy, and her energy sometimes overwhelms Shadow. Just last night Mimi was sniffing Shadow and getting on her nerves. Shadow responded by snipping at her and showing her who the leader of the pack is!

(Below) Shadow and Mimi

"Our" house, from the middle of the street

The buick looks like it belongs here! On another note... there are 4 garage spaces, and only one car can fit in the garage.

Great room (flat screen is in front of the fire place)

Dining room (yes, dining room)

Kitchen--my fault that it's so messy! We had friends Beth and Mark Earnest over for a steak dinner last night.

Sun room/entertainment room

The deck where we grilled our steaks last night (it was rainy when we took this pics this morning--and our Ike rudiments aren't here yet!).

Telling Daddy her problems

I don't like wet diapers.

I don't nap well with my legs and feet uncovered.

Other kids get to watch cable TV when they eat.

My hair sticks up and I can't help it.

One of my left toes is funky-looking.
I don't like when mom eats spicy sausage or Wendy's chili.

Introducing...Lac La Belle

Lac La Belle at sunrise

We're moving tomorrow! Nope, we're not moving back to Dyersburg, as my mom hoped when I told her the news yesterday. In fact, we're only moving temporarily. Bryan's boss is taking his wife to Europe for 2 weeks (nice birthday present, huh?), and they've invited us to stay at their place and watch their 2 dogs.

Their place...is a million dollar home on beautiful Lac La Belle.

I might enjoy this too much! I'm looking forward to...the sunsets, the king sized bed, the high efficiency washer and dryer, the cortland, red delicious, and pear trees (apple crisps!), the exercise room, a glass of wine on the deck with Bryan, the vegatable garden, the flat screen TV, the convector oven...and the list goes on!

Trying to smile

Fashion statement

This is not just another super-cute Daddy/daughter picture. Check out Bryan's attire. He did not walk out of the house looking like this. I promise.

Playing (instead of sleeping)

2 month checkup

Today we took Kathryn to see Dr. Sawall. The pediatric nurse, Sherry, who is one of Bryan's patients, gave us Katie's stats:Height: 23 inches (Sherry took the measurement twice because she couldn't believe Katie grew 3 inches since her 1 month appt) - 70th percentile

Weight: 12 pounds, 4 ounces - 79th percentile
Head circumference: 37 inches - 11th percentile

"I'm taking after Daddy already--with a long, skinny body and a small neck and head."

On a slightly scary note, Dr. Sawall has asked us to take Katie to the Children's Hospital for a hip ultrasound. On one of his tests, he could not press Katie's hips horizontal with the table (therefore making it "poor hip abduction"). Dr. Sawall said it's nothing to be concerned about; only 1 out of 5 babies he sends out for ultrasound test positive for this condition. Worst case senerio: Katie having bad hips and having to wear a painless brace for a while.

After the appointment, Katie and Daddy enjoyed playing with her play gym.

Schulz Family News

Todd and Melissa, our former downstairs neighbors from Memphis now living in Des Moines, are celebrating their second pregnancy! Congratulations!

Katie's sleepless nights

Unfortunately, we have to retract our previous statement of Katie sleeping through the night. Last night she woke up every 2 hours to cry--11pm, 1am, 3:30am, 5am and 7:30am. She must have been mourning the end of the long weekend and Daddy inevitably going back to work.

Bryan and I brainstormed this morning as to why she kept waking up (seriously, she hasn't woken up that many times since she was a week old!). We're thinking she was cold. We put Katie to bed in a onsie since the house temperature was set at a toasty 74 degrees. Usually, Katie sleeps in a footed sleeper. We'll try the footed sleeper again tonight and will hopefully get better results!

Labor Day weekend

On Friday afternoon Katie, Shadow and I picked up Bryan from the Oconomowoc practice. We piled in the minivan and headed "Up North" to a cabin on Green Lake. Cyndy "won" the cabin for the weekend (in a raffle).We enjoyed time around a campfire and saw turkeys and deer as they walked around the cabin.

Katie went for her first swim. Bryan, Shadow and I also enjoyed swimming off of the boat launch--this swim was Bryan's favorite part of the weekend. Ashley's favorite part was eating grilled salmon and sweet corn on Saturday night.

Katie enjoyed time with Grandma. Bryan and I each began and finished a book. Bryan read Prey by Michael Creighton, and I read A Boy Called It (the author's memoir).

Upon returning home, Daddy and Katie played (nope, we didn't light up our grill on Labor Day--we ate spaghetti)...

...while Mommy did 3 loads of laundry.