Fall Break? Fall Blog.

I haven't written since July- and with good reason. We have been SO busy! Brian's schooling keeps him on his toes, and he has to iron his clothes, shine his shoes, study, and all the other things that go with being in the police academy every night. He is exhausted, but he is also more confident (and I'm getting used to the shaved head). He graduates December 1, and I can tell that the light at the end of the tunnel is getting bigger for him. He will be an amazing police officer and I am proud to call him my husband.

My job, on the other hand, is completely stressing me out. Last year it was hard, but I knew it would be, since it was my first year at a new school. I made sure to pay attention to how things ran and thought to myself "Well, if I just do it this way next year I will be able to get things done more efficiently".....WRONG! Everything is different, and the expectations are much much higher. I am doing very well in my observations; don't get me wrong, I'm not sinking over here. I'm just getting tired from all the doggie paddling I'm doing.

Sadie is growing TOO fast! She is in 2T clothing, size 7 shoes. She is talking up a storm, and just recently started forming sentences. The other day Brian wouldn't give her a cookie for breakfast, and she tattled on him.

"MOMMA MOMMA!"

"What is it, Sadie?"

"Daddy say no cookie" (insert pouty lip here)

"Well we have to eat breakfast first, do you want some pancakes?"

"Ok! Pancakes and cookies"

She has also started singing....all the time. Her favorite song is twinkle twinkle. She sings it and sometimes even "raps" it. Hilarious!

Married to the Academy

Brian started Metro Nashville's Police Academy on July 1. He is currently going through a "hell week" of sorts. Everyone who has been through it has told him that it lasts about 2 weeks, and as long as he survives it that he should be good to go through the other twenty weeks that follow. Out of his class of about 40 trainees, 5 have already quit. He wakes up every morning at 4 and makes it to work by 6:15. He gets home between 5-6, , showers, eats dinner, washes his clothes, irons his suit (yes, he wears a suit in 100 degree weather to do his training. Sometime in the next few weeks he gets a uniform, but they have to "earn" it.), shines his shoes, studies, and goes to bed before 9 every night.

He is in this routine, and he seems comfortable in it. It is a big change from his get home at midnight and wake up at 8 2nd shift schedule. He has adjusted wonderfully. I, however, am not really used to it yet. Since I'm home for the summer, it is just Sadie and me all day long. Brian gets home and has a million things to do to get ready for the next day. He tries so hard to involve Sadie, but for right now, it is almost impossible. He told me yesterday that he feels like she doesn't like him so much right now. Its not true, she asks about him every day, and when his truck pulls in the driveway her eyes light up. She notices the change, though. He is so focused.

I just hope things calm down before school starts up. When I'm gone all day working and not home cleaning the house and cooking dinner, things could get a little scary around here. Not even mentioning the fact that my job doesn't end when the bell rings. I've got lessons to plan and papers to grade. This is going to be one of our toughest challenges ever.

Attention VERIZON users....

If it is time for your upgrade.....shop around!

Brian and I went in to Verizon on Sunday (Father's Day) to look for a new phone for him. While we were there, we realized that while his phone is not eligible for an upgrade (sorry, babe) mine was. I went around looking for what I liked, what I didn't, etc. We tested download speed, took pictures for clarity, and all the other good stuff you do in a phone store. I found one I wanted, and with my "New Upgrade" discount AND my "employer" discount I would still end up paying $150 for a phone that I didn't really need. The mommy in me immediately thought of how I could pay the phone bill for that price. I decided that I didn't want to spend that much, and Brian had an idea. "You know, I've seen the verizon kiosk at Best Buy and they usually have some pretty crazy deals. Ya wanna go check it out?" So off we went.

.....and wouldn't ya know....that phone that I wanted....it was on sale for

(drumroll please.....) ONE FLIPPING DOLLAR!

Seriously. One dollar. A buck. $1. That's it. Like, I paid with a $5 and they gave me four ones back.

The phone itself (as you can see on the receipt) is valued at $598.99. I paid $1.10 (b/c of tax) That is a savings of FIVE HUNDRED NINETY SEVEN DOLLARS and EIGHTY NINE CENTS.

This was not a mistake. My mom just got back from Best Buy and did the exact same thing! Need I remind you that you have to renew your verizon contract and your 2 year contract has to be up for you to be able to do this, but it is an AMAZING DEAL!!

Vacation: A reflection

We are home and back from our first family vacation! We had an AMAZING trip! We had a 2 bedroom condo with a complete kitchen. My mom and I used my couponing skills and I bought everything we needed (except the meat) for 2 dinners while on vacation before the trip. We also bought muffin mix and cereals for breakfast. We did not buy one breakfast while we were there. We only ate dinner out 3 times, and lunch just once! That saved us a ton of money. My parents came down with us, but left 2 days before we did. That was nice, because we got to spend time with them, and we even got to go out for our anniversary while they watched Sadie. Then after they left, we had 2 days to do whatever we wanted, at our faster "Stanley" go go go pace. Our condo also had a washer and dryer, so we washed just about everything we had before we headed home, so I only had 2 loads of laundry to wash when we got home! The #1 life saver was our DVD player for the car. Sadie watched movies the WHOLE trip home and only whined a few times (when we needed to get out and stretch anyway). She is a true road warrior! We had so much fun and I am looking forward to another vacation, but right now its nice to be home!!

First big family vacation

Today I am packing and cleaning for our first full family vacation. Sadie has never been on a road trip. I am a little nervous about it (seeing as though the terrible twos have come early this year) and she doesn't do well in the car for shorter trips. So far the tips I have been hearing and preparing to use are:

• Make plans to get out and let her run around a few times throughout the trip. We are driving to Gulf Shores (8 hours) so I'm thinking every 2 hours we will need a break.
• I'm also gathering toys/books that she hasn't seen for her to play with in the car. This will hopefully give us 10-15 minutes of peace at a time when staring out the window gets old.
• I've got lots of snacks ready to go, and a cooler for her juice sippy.
• We have a DVD player for the car, and we purposely haven't used it lately. As a last resort (at least a few hours in) we will turn the movies on. I want her to nap on this trip, and from previous experience I know that if a movie is on she will not fall asleep. I have a few Baby Einstein DVDs and a full length Sesame Street Movie.

If anyone else has road warrior experience, please feel free to share your tips! You may save us from sorrow! :]

Vacay on a boojay (Vacation on a budget)

Whoa. Sorry. Went all French on ya for a second.

Aaaaaanywho......

Brian and I are planning a weekend getaway

to the ATL. Here's how we are saving money on this trip.

First big thing to consider when planning a road trip = GAS. Here's my plan. The mileage from my house to the ATL is 230 miles. My car currently gets 30mi/gal. That means that we should be able to get there on a half tank of gas. If we fill up here for about $3.80 it would cost us just over $58. I'm tinkering with the idea of using our change jar to pay for our gas. That would be like using money we didn't even know we had!

We booked a hotel within walking distance to most of the things we want to see. The hotel was $20 cheaper/night on the day we booked it just because they had a promotion going if you booked on Tues or Wed it was cheaper. We also fiddled around and found a promo code and scored another $18/night off! Combine the 2 nights we are staying and we saved $76 just on the room! Parking is $18/day so we will use those savings to cover our parking. They also offer free hot breakfast so we figure that would save us about $20. So far our savings: $60

I really want to go to either the zoo or the aquarium while we are there. We have a membership to our zoo- and that gives us a 50% discount at both their zoo and aquarium. I just have to pick which one. Right now I'm leaning towards the aquarium.

I'm also scouring the Atlanta Groupon page to try to find a few restaurants that we can dine at for half off while we are down there.

That's all I've got so far. If you have any additional tips please feel free to help me out!

Rico, Suave?!

So, I got a coupon in the mail a few days ago for a free Bottle of any Suave Professionals product. I purchased something completely new to me, dry shampoo. Apparently, it is supposed to be used "in a pinch" for the times that you are waking up late or just don't have time to shower. It sounds interesting! I haven't had a morning like this yet, so I will let you know soon how this product works!

REVIEW:

So, before I even start, know that my hair is naturally on the oily side. I have not used this product on completely dirty hair. I have used it twice on my hair in the morning when I have showered the night before. Here's my thoughts-

Pro: It is easy to use. Just lift your hair and spray the roots. It is basically powder in a can, and then spray on powder absorbs the excess oil in your hair.

Con: It will not last all day long. Of course, throughout the day your hair will develop more oils and then you will need to spray again. However, it works great.

My favorite pro: It smells FANTASTIC! It gives your hair a nice, tropical smell.

I give this spray (when needed) a thumbs up!

Summer! New beginnings.

I am so excited to say that my first year of teaching is almost under my belt. It has been extremely stressful, and dealing with a one year old and a tight budget at the same time is not easy! The main thing is, I have made it. I did it! I'm a teacher!

With that said, I have also added a new and very addicting hobby on my hands: couponing. Now don't freak out, I can honestly say that I do not have 50 tubes of toothpaste (or anything for that matter) in my house. I'm not hoarding. I am, however, saving a TON of money! The other day I went to Publix (I usually frequent Publix, CVS, and Target only for special trips) for medicines. I got allergy meds, Maalox, vitamins, and other items for a total of $56. After coupons I spent SEVEN DOLLARS! If that doesn't make you a believer, I don't know what will! I will be updating frequently with my tips and tricks on how to save money. One of my close friends, Candice, also has a blog up about saving money.

I hope you will join us on this journey! With summer coming up, we have 2 vacations planned, (our first as a family!) and I fully intend to save as much as possible before and during the trip!

I'm back! Let's Organize!

I have returned. A lot has happened. Sadie turned 1 (pictures are in the top left corner in a slideshow) Her party was a sucess despite a snowstorm and a cranky baby that didn't want everyone looking at her until halfway through the party. :) My silly girl. Sadie is also walking. She took her first steps on January 3, 2 days before her first birthday.

I have been home a lot lately (2 weeks of Christmas break and then 1 week of snow days) so I have been doing a lot of housework and organization.

Last night I cleaned our bathroom and bought all new rugs, shower curtain, toothbrush holder, etc. It gave it a good "new" look since our bathroom had looked the same for 3 years.

Today I organized the shelf in the laundry room. It inspired me to make a laundry schedule. Laundry is basically the bane of my existance. We are always drowning in clothes around here. I give bags and bags of it away on a yearly basis, and I still think I have too much. I spend my entire weekend doing laundry. I'm hoping this schedule will help so that I will be doing one smaller load every day. This way I will have time to put it away before bed and not get tired of doing it.

Here's our schedule:
Monday Brian’s clothes
Tuesday Tiffany’s clothes
Wednesday Sadie’s Clothes
Thursday Towels and washrags
Friday
Saturday Brian’s Work Clothes
Sunday All Bedding

I will update you to see if this is helping us in any way! I'm really hoping it will.
If anyone else has organizing tips of any kind please feel free to comment and share it!

The next endeavor I plan on tackling is the grocery list. Brian and I are in the middle of a massive lifestyle change with our jobs, eating, fitness, and whatnot (not to mention that we have a 1 year old). I realized yesterday that I still grocery shop like a single college student "Oh, this looks good" and not thinking whole meal and planning out things before I go.

I have also been inspired by my friend Candice to review all of our expenses and cut corners wherever possible. Candice and her husband have been doing this lately and I'm not sure the exact amount, but they seem to be saving TONS of money by doing this. I also want to learn to coupon, but it seems out of reach at the moment. I need to get some other things in line first!

365 picture blog

This is the new blog, I will be updating it every day. If you follow me here, please add the new blog.

http://stanley365.blogspot.com/