A penny saved...

So today, the Haines enter the world of budgeting. Blgh. I've loved being able to do whatever we wanted with our money. Not that we ever went really crazy or anything, we often saved more that we spent but it was the freedom that I loved.  And even though I feel like I'm going to hate counting pennies, I'm going to try and see this as an exciting challenge of being effective with our limited resources.   Anyway, so here's to a new life of budgeting!

If you've got great tips on budgeting please let me know! Also, if you've got great budget friendly recipes send them my way...especially ones without meat. (I feel like we have so many dishes that center around meat and meat tends to be expensive.)

Also, I want to share a tip with you. Have you happened to notice that your dishes are coming out of the dishwasher with white spots recently?  I had a friend over for dinner and I was apologizing for the sad state my dishes were in and she told me  she had been experiencing the same thing. Thankfully, her husband was listening to the radio and just happened to hear a discussion about why this was happening. Cascade has stopped putting Phosphate in their detergents. Apparently, it's not very good for the environment so several states have banned the use of it.   And since phosphate was the ingredient that made our dishes look clean we are all left with a nasty residue on our dishes. However, there is a product called Lemi Shine you can add to your dish washing detergent that works wonders!

I'll try to only put in every other few loads so I'm not completely ruining the environment. YAY for clean looking dishes!

Dear Friends

Friday was a fabulous day! I was able to see some dear friends from Utah. My friend from the high school years, Christina, paid a us a visit since her husband was doing some training her in Lincoln. Awesome. So with our friend Krissy, we went to the Zoo. These ladies are so much fun! Its weird that we are all grown up (well I'm not sure I'm there yet) but we all have kids!

I hadn't been to the Lincoln zoo in a very long time but I actually enjoyed it. It often gets compared to the Omaha Zoo, with which there is no comparison, but I like the Lincoln Zoo. Its small enough you actually pay attention to the animals where at the Omaha Zoo it's so grand with too much to see.

Then later that evening my friend Shandy and I went to Northstar's first football game of the season.

I love just sitting and chatting it up with Shandy. She is so inspiring and highly amusing. If I had any say at all she would come back to Lincoln for grad school. please.....

I can't fail to mention this was Miss Bekah's first football game. She did pretty well but she did not like it when I cheered. So Shandy held her so I could cheer on the team. ...which by the way they won!! Not by as much as Victory would have liked but they won none the less. GO GATORS!!!

Do you see me?

I know I'm blogging like crazy...what this is my third blog in 24 hours. :) I'm just making up for not blogging very much the last few months.

Today I'm getting paid to wear this t-shirt.

Text "ICU" to 62626 and you'll get a text back with info on how to get started with T-shirts 4 Hire.

Whether you're a business and want to advertise using t-shirts,blogs and facebook or someone who wants to make some moola (That seems weird spelled...money)  Check out TSHIRTS4HIRE and check them out on Facebook too.

Tomorrow I'll upload pictures of the places I went today....It's been an AWESOME day hanging out with dear friends.

Free Cereal???

Really, free cereal for Lincolnites! Thanks to a tip I received from a friend at play group I can get free cereal. Hy-Vee (even though I have somewhat of a vendetta with them) is having an awesome sale. When you purchase 6 General Mills Cereals you get $10 off (Coupon in Wednesday newspaper, I also got one mailed to me and they have flyers instore that you can use). AND when you check out they print off a $6 coupon off your next purchase AND a $2 of any 5 General Mills Cereals. CRAZY!! You can keep on going in and getting free cereal.  AND if you go to some coupon sites (this is the one I use ) they have coupons for general mill cereals that you can use on top of that! This really only works if you get the cereal that is on sale for $2.50 but I bought a couple of $3.99 cereals that I was able to use my additional coupons on. I think I have broke even on 12 boxes of cereal. I ended up buying a lot Golden Grahams....I think I'll being making lots of S'mores bars. yumm.

Thought I'd pass on the tip. BTW ENDS AUGUST 31.

First comes love...

So my little girl has a boyfriend. His name is Sam.

We get to play with our friend Sam several times a week. We go walking, have play dates and go to the children's museum together. They probably see each other as much as they can stand it. They are pretty cute... when she isn't stealing his toys or beating up on him.

Home

So the day has finally come. I'm a SAHM. I always knew that I wanted to stay home when I had kids, I'm just having a hard time believing that I'm at that point. You'd think that I would have clued in when I was actually at the hospital giving birth. I think I was happy to be in denial thinking I could bring home an income and raise a child. But I'm afraid I'm not that amazing and I was missing out on my little girl.

I'm terrified of being mom 24/7. I feel exhausted just thinking about it. She has started throwing fits...I wonder where she gets that from. ;)  She'll just through her head back and start screaming. Isn't she a little young for that? I am SO not looking forward to the teenage years. Any great advice for how to kick that habit before it becomes the story of my life for the next twenty years?

I've got plenty of things to do on my list but what's the hurry? Part of me wants to just go at it...actually a lot of me but then I think, "then what?" I'm sure something else will come up but it's this vastness of time that freaks me out a bit. There have been a few friends from the ward who have been taking me under their wing to make sure I make the adjustment well and planning different activities for each day of the week but I'm still alittle leery of it all.  I know in time I'll get used to this lifestyle but all seems so foreign to me.

As I've been writing this post, I am reminded of Elder Wirthin's words, "Come what may and love it".   It'll be okay. I'm sure of it. And if I change my mindset, I just might end up loving it. :)

Adventures!

It's been awhile since I blogged. Lots of things big and little have happened since then. I just wish I could remember them all! I think that if I took more pictures I'd remember them all. I told Victory that if we bought a  cool new camera I'd probably take more pictures. But really, truth be told, I'm just kinda envious of all the cool cameras people have but that will  have to be on a someday wish list in the future. 

Anyway, on to our adventures! Well, I'm not sure you call them that....maybe the more appropriate word is "outtings".  My sister Stacey and her family came out to Nebraska in the beginning of July. It was lots of fun and a good reason to use up some of my vacation time so I could hang out with them and do lots of summery things. We went to the pool, the zoo and even a movie! Even though we weren't accustomed to the chaos that 7 kids (all girls and only one boy) can bring when we all got together it was a blast!

(at the zoo)

After she left, we headed out for Utah for the Randall family reunion. AWESOME! We stayed at a great place in Bear Lake called the Inn at Snowmeadows! We rented out the whole inn for our family and it was perfect! If you ever need a place to hold a big gathering or nice couple retreat check this place out! 

Once again I wish I had taken pictures but I didn't...the only pictures I took were at the lake and it was of my adorable beach babe.

While we were in Utah I was able to visit a few friends and hang out with family...again no pictures...except the one I stole off my friend's blog.  I'm totally lame. In Logan, I was able to have lunch with three of my college roommates...well four if you count my sister.

So much fun! Sadly, there were a few friends I wasn't able to get to see. :( Lame I know. I really hope I get to see  you all soon!!!

And lastly, Victory and I graduated this last month. We decided the most practical thing for us to do was to buy a mini van. yep. a mini van. He is super excited about this purchase while I'm not too excited to be a mini van mom already. Oh well. At least it looks like a cool mini van, right?

Until next time folks!!!

p.s. did you notice you can have a "reaction" to my post? Where did that come from??! I'm not sure how I feel about that. I'm glad they don't have a "boring" or "lame" option. phew! That could have been a self-esteem buster.