I just realized today the power of credit unions, vs. banks. I currently have my minivan financed at a credit union for 8.75% for a vehicle I purchased 18 months ago. I decided today that I do not like that rate, and so I looked at the lowest rates my bank of 10 years had to offer… 5.25%, not bad. I called my credit union that hold my loan to see if they would negotiate refinance and they said they could offer me 4.99%, fantastic! With the numbers crunched, if I went to a 60 month loan (I have 66 months in my current loan), I would still manage to lower my monthly payments by $150 a month and pay it off 6 months earlier than I would now. They took my application over the phone and I should have an answer in a few hours.

In the past, I would do this same thing about once a year with my credit cards, and usually while I was on the phone I would have my answer. I could usually lower my interest rates by between 1-5% with a 15 minute phone call.

Other things worth trying… I have successfully had my satellite bill lowered by a customer service rep, I have had my DSL provider give me a “new customers only” rate by calling and asking. I have had credits given to me by my cell phone company, and my residential phone company. Calling your insurance company is a great way to see if they can find ways to lower your automobile or your homeowners insurance. I have had my electric company give me ways to lower my energy consumption, or tell me of improvements I can make to earn an energy rebate (I got $250 for sending in the receipt to my dryer).

Haggling is hard, but especially in mom & pop businesses, it is easier to get a discount. Yesterday I bought a new (better) tank for my carpet cleaner to replace mine that was cracked. I was told the tank would be $50 and I said “wow, those are $35 on amazon.com!” And the sales person said “well, if you order it online you will pay shipping, but I can sell it to you for $35″. You don’t see that at big corporate chains. I also got a few dollars off my purchase of cloth diapers yesterday… not because I asked, but because I was dealing with the owner of a small business and she felt like giving me a discount. Sometimes it pays to avoid the national “rollback” business and support your neighbors.

Once, I went into a toy & hobby store with my brood, and just because I told my children not to touch the models that someone worked very hard on making, the sales person gave me a “15% good mother discount”.

Deals are to be had in all economies, but right now is probably the very best time to find discounts and sales. Don’t be afraid to ask, the worst they can say is no. And remember, they best way to get something for 100% off, is not to but something you don’t need just because “it was on sale”.

Wow, what a whirlwind of the last 3 months. I had a GLORIOUS summer. First vacation was up to Glenwood Hot Springs a few hours northeast of here in Glenwood Colorado.

The drive was gorgeous, the kids loved all the tunnels and the hot springs were amazing. The pool was a city block and so comfortable. Sophie fell asleep floating in my arms several times.

The next weekend we went to Canon City about an hour from here to camp in these amazing little one bedroom (sleeps 6) cabin with a full kitchen and bathroom. We stayed at a Yogi Bear campground, so the kids were super busy with activities and contests. Austin did an essay for a contest on his dad since we were there for father’s day and made me cry.

As soon as we were unpacked from Yogi I packed up the 4 kids and two large dogs and drove 1200 miles to visit my family. I got to spend a few days in Montana with my oldest sister and her 5 little ones (sorta, two teens, a tween, the youngest two are the most adorable twin toddler girls!!) After that I went to my parents land in Idaho where we spent the 4th of July on the beach, picked huckleberries, and enjoyed each others company. My grandparents came over from Montana to see us and it was so wonderful to see them again. Then we headed back to Spokane were we went back and forth between Spokane and the cabin in Idaho for the rest of the month. I also got to see my other sister and her two kids who are just amazing kids. My niece writes music and plays them on the guitar and athletic and confident and just a remarkable young woman. Here are a few pictures of our time in Priest Lake:

Two days after we returned from Idaho, Bobby came home from Iraq for 3 weeks. Our anniversary is July 28th and he flew home the afternoon of the 27th so with the help of my friend Tracie I was able to plan an amazing little getaway. We went to a super nice restaurant in town and then I surprised him with an overnight stay in a gorgeous suite at a 4 star hotel at the Cliff House in Manitou Springs. They had a bottle of wine and chocolate covered strawberries and a rose waiting for us when we arrived.

Then we were off for our family vacation to Disney World!! The kids had NO idea where we were going so when we missed our flight they were super bummed. A night at the Hilton near the airport and all was forgotten.

When we finally made it to Orlando we had so much fun. The weather was hot and muggy but we did not mind. The park was crowded and the lines were long but we barely noticed. By the end of the day we were so happy we had rented a house and had our own rooms to go to and a full kitchen so we could just grab a bowl of cereal and crash for the night. We spent two days at the Magic Kingdom.

Then we spent a day in Epcot, which really was not enough!

We also spent a day at Animal Kingdom, where my camera battery promptly died and a rushed day at Hollywood Studios because we were having a little get together with three families who live in Florida whom I have been friends with for seven years. Talk about a fun night!! The kids got along great, the men folk hit it off instantly, and we girls had a blast talking the night away.

Bobby’s vacation was over before we knew it and the boys headed back to school. Austin and Christopher are both in middle school this year and Matthew is in his last year of preschool.

They are enjoying school, except Austin had a problem with his math teacher. She was bullying him and talking down to him since day one. She seemed to single him out. Anyone who knows Austin knows this kid is a golden child. Today he *asked* me if he could put my laundry away for me and folded a basket of laundry without being asked and then put it away. The same child I heard tell his brothers “lets keep the kitchen clean, mom worked hard on it today”. Well his breaking point was when he was sitting on his feet so he could see his math book, he’s short like we are and the desks are bigger this year. The teacher yelled at him to sit on his butt and when he explained he could not see if he sat that way she told him “maybe you need to have your mommy send you in with a booster seat?!” Austin did not say anything, but went to the principal to demand a new teacher because he was tired of being treated like dirt and then having her demand his respect. The school still has not called to tell me of this incident or to apologize, but I have not called them either as I kind of fell like this is Austin’s battle, not mine and he is handling it like a true warrior!

Christopher has his ups and downs. On one hand he is helping out more to earn money to replace games he lost of Austin’s, he mowed the lawn for me tonight. On the other hand he is having problems with doing what he needs to do in a timely matter (getting ready for school, completing homework, etc) and he has had a few outbursts here and there that are uncalled for.

Matthew is having a hard time with preschool this year, he’s having some major separation issues and clings to me at drop-off. Once I leave he is fine, but man he wrenches at my heart strings. Today I was listening to music and he said to me “I sure like this song about them living in a lallow sub-barine!!” He’s a funny boy.

Other than that, we are trying to adjust to Sophie’s moods. She’s getting 4 molars in right now and her 4 front teeth are still trying to come in the rest of the way. If that is not bad enough, because of teething she is getting horrible bleeding diaper rashes so both ends are hurting her. She is talking up a storm and says “here you go” “go bye?” “yogurt” “mommy” “Austin” among all her other words. She’s a smart little thing and made her toy say bye-bye by cycling through other sounds until it came back to bye-bye again when I was pressuring her to wave bye-bye to me.

Bobby and I are doing well, 5 more months until he gets home and I am just trying to stay busy to help move time. I am also trying to get healthier and keep my house cleaner. I am trying to get into the habit of going to the gym on M, W & F when I drop the kids off at school. I have already started to see and feel changes in myself.

So, if you have made it this far, here is my massive update of why I have been MIA. I am hoping be around a little more now that school has started. If you want a link to *all* my Disney pics the link is here.

Oh well, this only strengthens my resolve. What is another couple years of working hard to get debt free when the end result is the same. I am really hoping that when we sell the house we are able to make enough of a profit on it to pay down more debt, or at the very least not need to use the money we are saving for any shortcomings we will have at the time of sale.

We can do this. We will do this. We ARE doing this!!

Sophie popped out her first tooth on Friday, and today seems to have a second one trying to squish out too.

Today I had a landscaping/fencing guy come over to the house to do an estimate. $8,000 after “military” discount, YIKES! This includes a new fence, updated sprinkler system with expansion to the back, sod in the back & front with rocks and a breezeway. Nothing fancy by all means, but I think it will really help give us some “curb appeal” which right now is pretty negative on the 10/-10 scale.

Wednesday I have a carpet guy coming out to give me an estimate for new carpet & linoleum. Before I pull the trigger on that, I really need to paint my bathroom… but before I can paint I need new light fixtures, which I bought tonight, and LOVE, except the people who built my home put the hole for the electrical 2 feet to the left of the center of the wall, so I cannot use the lights I just got and I am not loving any of the lights that I can find that are long enough to cover a hole of that size, since I would need a 48″ wide back plate. Wahhhhhh, I am so bummed!!

I also was planning on naming this blog post “I am not itching” but when I got back from Lowes my feet started itching so bad that I had to remove all the happy news of my itch FINALLY being gone. I guess I spoke too soon. I am hoping to go get a pedicure sometime this week, I think I deserve it!!

Of course this means I *have* to go grocery shopping today. Austin commented our fridge looked so empty this morning, I think it is time…. I think I have procrastinated it long enough.

Seems that he was trying to move, repair, or remove a sign when the wind took it for a ride, sending one of the stakes flying into my windshield of my 1-year-old minivan.

Of course everyone was super professional and the manager came over to apologize. I got a stack of free meals and free ice cream for everyone. They assured me that the damage would be fixed by their insurance company and thanked me for being so cool. Of course why wouldn’t I be?? It was not their fault, it was just a window, and no one was hurt.

The easiest way to fix the damage was just to replace it myself and submit the forms to their insurance company who called me the next day. They would have gladly done the work and paid for it themselves, but I was in a rush for the replacement, but not so much the funds now that we are on the Dave Ramsey plan. So bright and early the next morning I got a pretty new windshield. And since my van could not fit into the garage without and have the doors still accessible, it was a great excuse to rally the kids and get their help re-organizing the garage they had just been paid to clean.

I just got the paperwork notarized and will be mailing it to C-f-A’s insurance company in the morning, and I should have my money back in a week or two. The overall experience has been quite pleasant and I joked that Colorado is bad on cars and in the first year of ownership the Civic had already been painted twice… first because of a wind/sand storm that pitted all my paint and glass. The second time because of hail.

I just hope that Northern Virginia is nicer on my poor cars!!

I forgot the very best part… So when I picked up Austin (age 12) from school, I told him how it happened. Well he suddenly fell very quiet, serious and deep in thought. Finally, when we got home he looked it over a few times and said…”what I don’t get mom, is why they would use steaks to hold up a sign, I mean is steak even heavy enough to hold down a sign, and how did a hunk of meat break your window….?” When I finally caught my breath from laughing so hard, all I could say between fits of laughter was “Austin…. STAKES…. like tent stakes” to which her responded the word he is most famous for.

“Oh”

Last Monday.

That seems like an eternity to me.

It started with typical cold symptoms, runny nose, fever, aches. By Wednesday I knew I had an ear infection. I called at 8:01am Wednesday morning to get in to get checked out and she has two appointments that week. One is at the exact time I have to be at my son’s school to pick him up, the other is Saturday. At that time I scoff Saturday, I just *know* I will be better by then, or I will just go to Urgent Care.

I take it as easy as I can the next few days, which of course is not easy at all. On Friday I tell myself I *will not* leave the house under any circumstance, except to take Austin to and from school… and then fate intervenes. An angel from heaven swoops down in the form of a tax refund. The tax refund I did not think I would get for weeks because I forgot to add the kids’ social security numbers to my rough draft in the tax software and it showed me getting almost nothing.

So of course my promise not to leave the house is broken by 9 AM, the time the Mac store opens. I gather up all my paperwork, and by noon I am am not a PC anymore. I am a Mac. I will refrain from gushing, because if you were like I was, a die-hard PC lover, you won’t want to hear it. But I will say, all my misconceptions of a mac were wrong.

Friday night around 5pm, I go check the mail and I got a shocker. It was a letter that made absolutely NO sense. It was from my insurance company and it seemed like it was proof of coverage, until I looked closer and it said “Covered until 1/31/09″. Holy crap, I am sick, and I don’t know who my insurance company is! A little bit of research yielded who I think may be my insurance company, but without proof, no one would accept it. Thankfully I knew that we have one public hospital that will bill you if you have no insurance, instead of expecting payment at the time of service like a lot of private Urgent Care centers do. So Sunday afternoon I head to the Urgent Care and I have a double ear infection! The one that hurts really bad was just starting to get infected, where the one that had not started hurting until that morning, figure that one out.

Anyways, it took about 15 minutes on the phone this morning to get the mess sorted out, I am holding now to pass the information on to the hospital now.

I just hope that the 60 pills I have to take over the next 10 days clear this mess up!

After the bank I met my friends & their babies for lunch, Sophie, as usual pigged out. She also blew out of her diaper, right after my friend’s baby spilled soup on herself, and both of us forgot to bring a change of clothes. Thankfully, one of our friends had two changes of clothes for her son, and so Sophie and winter had clean clothes. What a mess! I am so glad she’s in cloth, as I remember this happening all. the. time. in paper diapers.

In her stylish new duds (the shirt read “Dude, your girlfriend keeps checking me out” LOL), we then split up and I headed to the Mac store to get an estimate on my Mac once I get my tax refund and pay bills, and then on to Best Buy. My GPS I got last week went on sale and the price dropped by $40 PLUS came with a free $25 leather case, so I got the case and stood in line with customer service for around 30 minutes, it was crazy!

While we were waiting I got to watch a mom royally screw up her children. I try not to be judgmental, but seriously, supervision and structure (and a 2 second trip to the bathroom to wash faces) go far! The thing that struck me is this woman appeared to be well educated, was well into her 30′s and well groomed herself. The children, who were under 4, had speech delays (the younger one, who was 2-3) still had a pacifier. They were out of her sight for about 10-15 minutes while she talked on the phone, and were encouraged to play with the queue stands and got hurt as a result. I was never so happy to take my own child, who up until then, I thought was majorly acting out.

I was so impressed with my own little guy, I took him to get a fruit & yogurt parfait at McDonald’s as a treat for waiting so patiently at customer service.

On the 22nd I took Sophie to Children’s Hospital in Aurora to meet with one of the best pediatric rheumotologists in the state, he was amazing and super sweet. He told me that Sophie is healing well from her reaction to my antibodies and she should outgrow her neonatal lupus really soon. He did tell me new studies suggest that she is at a higher risk of having Lupus sometime in her lifetime (10% chance) and that will become a 20% chance if I am diagnosed with Lupus myself.

Last week, Matthew reminded us that Bobby and I are setting a bad example in our play talk. He was wanting some cereal and Bobby was finishing up something and I was busy with the baby and so it took him a couple minutes to get Matthew is cereal. When Bobby got into the kitchen, Matthew responded “thanks for getting your ass up to get me some cereal” in the sweetest and most chipper tone. We had him repeat it because we thought we must have misheard. Once it was clear he was using trucker talk (and apparently mommy & daddy talk) we told him that was a naughty word and not to use it again. We then proceeded to bust a gut as soon as he was in bed for the night.

Christmas went well, the kids not only did not seem to notice the scaled back amount of gifts, the also did not care and seemed to enjoy their gifts even more this year than normal!! Cash Christmas all the way from here on out!! We got some lovely family gifts that will allow us to have a great “staycation” when we go visit a nearby aquarium and zoo in a neighboring city as a family. It will also afford us a membership to the local zoo. We also get to go pick out a new game for the family and my sister made us an incredible photo album from my visit up north this summer. I have a very thoughtful family!!

Bobby’s passport came without incident even though we did not expedite it. I give them props, they were SUPER fast! Now all that is left is an updated drivers license, and some legal paperwork.

Sophie got her first babydoll today (well, technically yesterday), it’s a darling little plus baby in a pea pod. She ADORES it. She also got to ride in the cart at the grocery store sitting all by herself and balanced very well. She loves to babble and her favorite sound right now is “da-da”. It melts our hearts.

We had our annual New Year’s gluttony feast too this year. Apparently my children think “get any kind of junk food you want, this is the one day of the year you can eat junk food” translates into getting a fruit salad platter and a cheese tray. Don’t get me wrong, they did get fried chicken, and doughnuts, but overall I was very impressed with their choices when allowed to have “anything in the store”. I am just glad this is once a year, my poor grocery budget for the next two weeks almost DOUBLED! YIKES! Junk food is expensive!

The next month is going to be a whirlwind of activity as we prepare, we need to update our wills, get me a few Power of Attorneys, get him packed, increase our life insurance policies and spend as much time preparing the kids emotionally as possible. I know this is going to be a great opportunity for our family, as bittersweet as it is.

Other than that, we had another Financial Peace University class tonight, it was a lot of fun and Sophie actually made it about 2 hours without me and I was only paged at the very end of the class. It was really refreshing knowing my baby girl will allow others to hold her without me being there because I have a few things coming up to where I won’t be able to have her with me.

I found out that one of the other ladies in my class cloth diapers her children, it was pretty darn cool meeting another cloth diapering mom.

The next day we started Financial Peace University and I got to share with the class how excited we were to have found Dave. What a fun class, I urge EVERYONE who can to attend at your local church. Common sense information that is not so common anymore in an entertaining setting.

In other news, all of our referrals came through today, so hopefully we will have answers soon. Sophie goes to the cardiologist next week, the rheumotologist next month, and the dermotologist the month after. I go to the rheumotologist in January, MUCH sooner than the next available appointment in JUNE! Someone canceled right before they called me, what luck! Now I don’t have to wait so long to get answers about my irregular blood work and spend less time hoping I do not have Lupus before I get answers.

Lots of other positives in the financial and career world for Bobby, but I don’t want to count my chickens before they hatch, so just send some positive vibes my way that those chickens start popping out of their shells so I can share with you!

Today was our introduction class to Financial Peace University, it was a lot of fun. We start next Sunday evening and they watch our kiddos for free, wahoo! The classes are two hours long and run for 13 weeks. Best $99 we ever spent for a lifetime membership w/ unlimited classes (plus a work book, CDs, envelope system, & textbook). We will probably go back through with the kids when they are 16 or 17.

I have an appointment with my primary care provider on Tuesday to discuss my own labs and see if she feels I need a referral for more testing.

Then on Thursday I needed to go back to my GYNs office… my IUD was coming out after only two weeks…my body was rejecting it. Crap, so much for 10 year birth control. She put another one in, but I already feel like it too is being rejected… if that happens I don’t know WHAT we will do since any other method that I tolerate is contraindicated with breastfeeding. Please oh PLEASE let my little copper friend stick around this time!

Also on Friday I asked Bobby to look up his tracking for his books that showed they were out for delivery here in town for the last 3 days. Turns out the books decided to take an unscheduled visit to Tennessee. Last reports say it is back here in the state and will hopefully arrive Monday or Tuesday so Bobby can have them for the classes that started last week.

Trick or treating was fun, I wish I had taken pictures, but the “shop from home” ToT challenge was a success. Matthew wore a Hawaiian shirt, floppy hat, sunglasses and a camera and was the cutest “tourist” ever, he got so much candy. Christopher was Harry Potter, and looked so cute, Austin was a reaper, and Sophie was a little pink bear thanks to a little snowsuit Aunt Angie sent her.

Christopher turned 11 yesterday too, I can’t believe 11 years ago I was a mama for the first time… He was such a good baby, he rarely complained about anything.

Miss Sophie was up until 3am last night, I am so tired!

I have been on a quest to live a better life, part of that was to bring Dave Ramsey’s teachings into the family and the other part is to learn to be happy with what I have instead of wanting bigger and better. Living frugally is living smart, not living poor. Why live on steak and lobster and have debt when you can live on rice and beans and pay a few hundred more dollars on the credit card balance.

Today I had a light bulb moment when I realized that with small changes, I would appreciate my house a little bit more. When I was at the library I found two books that caught my eyes, one was by “The Queen of Clean”, Linda Cobb, called The Queen of Clean Conquers Clutter and the other was Mary Ellen’s Guide to Good Enough Housekeeping. I recognized that part of my problem was lack of organization making my house feel smaller than it is and seem difficult to clean because it is cluttered.

When Bobby came home today, he came upstairs and found me in the bathroom with 100% of its contents in baskets in the bedroom and I was washing the light bulbs, he looked at my boys and said “uh-oh, mama has gone off the deep end again!” and he rescued Sophie and went to another room to play with her so I could finish my task.

I think I got rid of 3 bags full of junk, from magazines to expired products to the makeup I rarely wear, but Matthew frequently uses to “paint” my bathroom door with. I also got all the products off my counters (like mouthwash and detangler) and they now have new homes in my clean medicine cabinet or under the sink. I also hung a couple tiles that I have had for years that I planned on hanging after I painted, but we never got around to painting. My bathroom feels SO BIG now, I love it!

I am so impressed with how well Bobby is doing on our new “cash diet”, he decided he wanted a Coke, but we have been soda free for a few weeks now, so he got into his change jar and pulled out some silver to run to 7-11 to get a coke, I asked him if I chipped in some quarters if he would get me one too. He calls me from Safeway and says “wow, it is so expensive there, I decided to go to Safeway to get a better deal”. This is something I have been nagging at him forever, but Dave is right, it is a LOT harder to spend a dollar than it is just to swipe your debit card. I cannot believe how on board he has been with all this.

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Finally, a rice & bean recipe for you all.

Dad’s Red Beans & Rice (this is a recipe I grew up, my dad made this a lot)

1 cup of long/medium grain rice
2 cans of red beans (undrained)
1 medium onion, diced
1/2 green bell pepper, diced
1 kielbasa (cut into 1/4 inch disks)
1 T minced garlic

Prepare rice according to package, either in a rice cooker (my way) or on the stove top (my dad’s way). Saute together onion, bell pepper, kielbasa, and garlic over medium heat. Combine cooked rice, undrained red beans, and kielbasa & veggie mix in a 2 quart casserole dish and bake until heated through on 350 (about 30 minutes).

I like to serve this with cornbread since all of the ingredients for those are staples.

*Money saving tip… get your green peppers when they are on sale and freeze them, that way you always have green pepper on hand. I wait for them to go on sale at King Sooper (our local Kroger chain) and I buy red, yellow, orange and green peppers and then slice them lengthwise and freeze on wax paper on a cookie sheet for an hour, then I put them into sandwich baggies and put in the freezer (1 pepper per baggie). Then I dice about 2 or three green peppers and do the same, again one pepper per baggie. The pre-freezing keeps them from sticking together, so you can use half a baggie in this recipe without having to thaw.