A Problem and a Secret

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Mar
15

I have a problem. 

A big problem. 

I have a little bit of an obsession. 

Brace yourselves.

I am in love with my Google reader. 

Why in the world did it take me so stinking long to set it up?  Why did I wait so long to dive into the online community of bloggers who are oh-SO-talented?!  I feel inspired.  I feel humbled.  I feel…well…that I shouldn’t waste time on the computer and should be crafting, building, baking, decoupaging, decorating, planning- you name it- I am inspired to do it.  There are a few problems with this though.

Money.

Time.

The fact that I have a family and household to take care of.

Work.

The list goes on.

I can say that even with everything going on, there is a project or two in the works.  Which leads me to my secret.  At first I didn’t want to share, but now I feel I must.  I feel that I need to support the average woman (or man) who would love to have nice furniture but doesn’t want to go broke doing it.   I feel I need to support the average mom who wants a cute nursery/toddler room but can’t pay $2500 for one.  I feel I need to support the average college student who needs college storage but lives on a college budget. 

Here is my secret, the coolest place to be on the web. 

http://knockoffwood.blogspot.com/

What is it you ask?  Click and find out.  All (okay, well a lot) of your furniture dreams come true. 

Ana is amazing.  She started this blog 4 months ago and is doing great things.  Because of her plans, Greg and I are now building this to put here:

(Sorry the picture quality is not the best.  I was too anxious to finish this post then wait for proper lighting, etc.)  We will save approx. $2800 by building it ourselves.  You can build it too!  Go here (Not all of the peices are on this post, but you being the smart people you are will figure it out!) 

Soon I will show you an update on where we are.  The only problem abut the process is that it won’t be done soon enough.  We only have supplies for the top half of the unit and have to wait for April to get supplies for the bottom. 

Now you know my secret.  I hope you can use it too!

Invitations – Things to think about when doing invitations for a party.

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Feb
19

So what kind of invites do you want to send out?  It really depends on the feel of the party.  I’m always a big fan of using e-vite (being green!), but I do have to say, there is something about receiving an invitation in person or in the mail that is always a joy.

There is so much you can do with invites.  You can wrap them in boxes and deliver them, create them to resemble your theme, the possibilities are endless.

The thing to remember is that your invitations are the way people will find out about the party, so you want to set the mood of the party with your invite choice.  Do you want to have a more formal party?  Your invitation should reflect that (and say something on it as well).  Is it a luau?  Use a cut out of a Palm tree to write or print the info on.

Make sure you include any important info about the party.  You can never go wrong addressing the who, what, where, when and why (In fact, if you are missing any of these things you probably should hire someone to plan your party for you- and yes, I am available, but it’s not cheap ;-) .

A lot of books will tell you to mail or hand deliver your invites anywhere between 3-6 weeks before the party.  In general 3 weeks is a good amount of time, but if you are wanting a large turnout, closer to 6 weeks is better.  When Greg and I threw our Christmas party last year, we sent out a save the date at the end of September (you can never be too early if you want people at your Christmas party).  In my opinion, the earlier you tell people, the better the chance of them making it (especially people with kids!)

Keep in mind you should ALWAYS have some form of RSVP.  Either an e-mail, web page, telephone number, whatever.  Some people will tell you in person and that is fine, but if you want to save money, you need to know how many people to expect.  If they don’t RSVP at all, plan on them not being there.  Of the people that RSVP yes, you can expect 10% of them to not show up (stuff happens, you can’t get mad about it, just roll with it).  If they RSVP no, believe them.

2010- A New Year, A New Commitment

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Jan
25

Wow.  2009 was amazing.  It was crazy but beautiful.  Asa celebrated his first birthday, Greg and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary, and we enjoyed every trial and joy along the way.  We bought our first house in December of ‘08 (missing the tax credit by 20 days! Uggg!), renovated it throughout 2009, and opened it up to host community group, parties, and a roommate.  We saw some family highs and some family lows.  Overall, 2009 was a good year.  Thank you Jesus for letting us experience it, safe, happy and healthy.

I realize I have not been faithful to blog as much as I had planned to over the last few years.  Forgive me for my laziness (or busyness-whatever you want to call it).  I just felt like I didn’t have anything to share that would  contribute to the already saturated blog-o-sphere.

For some time now I have been thinking about doing a blog sharing tips and tricks on how to throw a party on a budget.  I have been scouring the internet trying to find a blog with this subject and seem to come up short.  All I really come across are a list of 10 or so “tips” to help you on your way to having a memorable party.  Hogwash I say!  So I am going to share tips and ideas that I have learned/come up with to throwing a memorable party on the cheap.  I’ve done parties for anywhere between $50 to $1000 so whatever your budget, I hope I will be able to help you throw the best party possible.

I should also add that this blog is not going to be about “made to order” party packages.  I understand if you are short on time and money.  I understand that your daughter is in love with Dora and the plates and party package was on sale at Party City.  I get it.  There is nothing wrong with that.  But this blog is intended to help take it to the next level of partydom.  You can use those items, but still make it memorable to the kids/parents/friends with adding more dimensions.

Throwing a great party takes time and thought.  But impromtu parties are also really fun and can be great.  It just takes having the right tools.

Thanks for joining me on this journey and I hope we can learn from each other!

Gearing up

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May
12

Since I haven’t really kept up my commitment to writing one new post a week, I figured I would do a recap of the last few weeks because they have been super busy. My apologies and I will try and be better in the future.

I finished work on April 30 and am now just doing some stuff from home. The good part of that is now I can sleep in and work when I want to. The bad part is I can sleep in and don’t work when I should. Since I tend to be a procrastinator I end up doing my work later at night and then need more sleep in the morning…I guess it will prepare me for baby

Things are going well as far as baby goes. From what the midwife said, he is in position. For new mom’s this usually happens a few weeks before baby comes so we are right on schedule. We have the nursery set up for the most part. We still have a few things we need to get but they are not immediately needed (although a mattress for the crib and bedding is pretty high up there. Thankfully we have a bassinet that we can use until we are able to make the other purchases we need to). We finished our childbirth class and it was informative to say the least. I think I am going to leave myself some room to change my mind about pain meds if things get to be more then I can take. We also went to this really great GIANT “garage” sale if you will that had nothing but baby and young children stuff. That was nice because we were able to buy things that were close to brand new (in some cases they were new) for much cheaper then if we had gone to Babies-r-us or Target. Baby crap is expensive! Note to self: when you can buy it used- do it. Babies grow really fast.

My family is doing well. Mom is traveling, Andy is traveling, Quinn is in Texas, Dad is working. Greg is working and writing a lot. As for me, I’m ready for baby to be here. I’m a little freaked out about what happens once baby is here, and more freaked out about the process of baby getting here, but countless other women have done it and survived so I probably can too.

This whole election process is really starting to annoy me. I can see that Hillary rightly deserves her title as, “willing to do anything to become President”. Barring an act of God, I don’t think she will win this nomination and honestly, this process is taking longer then anyone cares to hear about. The drama that has come out is so junior high. Seriously. Granted, there are a few things that we should be concerned about, but some of it is so childish and petty.

I hope to have some tips up in the next week or two about how to have a great party with low cost. Until then, I’m just gearing up.

Priceless

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Apr
08

mastercard

Greg stole my blog idea for Murphy and God fighting, so I decided to write it anyway but in a different way.

Last month we had over $1900 dollars of expected/unexpected expenses come up. We thought that we could budget some of it in (and did) but some of it was just unforeseen expenses. Yes, we do Dave Ramsey so we have our minor emergency fund in place, however, we hate digging into that money. It leaves you feeling vulnerable for those few weeks that you are trying to build that money back up again. In addition, the expenses were more then our emergency fund.

To top all of that off, we are due to have our first baby in 8 weeks and currently have a crib (no mattress) and dresser (thank you Greg’s mom Rhonda and step dad Steve!), a few diapers, a few toys, and some baby wipes. Granted, we haven’t had a shower yet, but it still makes you nervous knowing that you have a LOT of bills and need to buy things for the baby. What makes you especially nervous, is knowing that you have made a commitment not to go back into debt so it is NOT an option. Needless to say, I’ve been trying to work a few extra hours to make a little extra money, but also because I plan to leave the office at the end of April and need to finish some things there

Little did I know that God had other plans and showed up to what I thought would be really really TIGHT few months. I am humbly reminded once again what a great God we serve. He continually provides for us and is patient with me and my worry.

Below you will find an itemized list of expenses and how God took care of them all.

New Crown for Shannon’s tooth- 945.90
Doctor’s Bills- 118.41
Doola- 250.00
KGB-ahem-sorry, that was the IRS- 353.00
Travel for Greg- 65.00
Unexpected car trouble (the water pump needed replacing)- 64.94
Travel for a wedding- 100.00
Unexpected phone expense- 25.00
Other random things you tend to forget to budget for 50.00

A God who provides for His children and sends random checks to your house with your name on them that amount to over 1100.00- PRICELESS

There are some things money can’t buy. For everything else there’s God.

Stupid Politics Part 1

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Mar
13

Hillary and Obama

Regardless of political affiliation or agenda, one cannot deny that this political season has been one of intense scrutiny and has kept both republicans and democrats on the edges of their seats. If you’re a republican, you may have kept an eye on the democrat nominations to see who will be running against the republican nominee, John McCain. If you’re a democrat, you are probably glued to the edge of your seat watching every primary and caucus like it’s an inevitable train wreck in the making (especially in light of recent news).

For those of you who have read my husband’s blog, you probably know that we are Ron Paul fans. Since Ron Paul will not be the republican nominee (shocker I know), we have to decide who to throw our support to. This has been a really interesting political season for us on many counts.

1. For the first time in history the top contenders for a party nomination are either a woman or an African American.

2. Greg and I attended our first political rally.

3. Ron Paul was in the running and has some interesting ideas for change in the government (say goodbye to income tax!!)

4. Record numbers of people have showed up to vote in primaries for the person they think is best suited to be our next president.

Okay, now I need to put a disclaimer in here. You can write me all the comments you want, but if you don’t like what I have to say, just know that we are going to have to agree to disagree. I will be fair and listen to your points and if there is any good reason or sound logic, you may persuade me to change my view. Please know beforehand that I have become very convinced in my beliefs as of this point and attempting to change my mind may in fact bring untoward pain and suffering upon you in the form of tickle attacks, or if you do not live nearby, many superpokes on Facebook. That being said, the information you are about to read is not originally mine but rather that of writers much more prolific than I. You can read them on www.cnn.com. I’m pissed off and want to comment about it to the general world so there you go.

Rewind to January of this year. Primary season was gearing up to begin and Bill Richardson was still living in the delusion that he actually had a chance at being President. Florida and Michigan thought they would be smart and move their primaries before the instituted date that the DNC set up (if you don’t know what the DNC is then just stop reading now- no I’m just kidding, it’s the Democratic National Convention). As a penalty for Michigan and Florida making a power play, the DNC (you should know what that is now, if not, stop reading-really) fined both states by taking away their delegates. This move could have, and should have, been anticipated by these power hungry states.

Move to mid-January. Michigan and Florida hold their elections and the voters, the candidates, the DNC and everyone else in the the world who care at all about US politics know that these delegates have been stripped from the states and voters turn out to cast their votes anyway. Florida gives the win to Hillary with Obama winning a much smaller portion of delegates (Mind you neither campaigned there…although Hillary did do some fund raising that was apparently sanctioned by the DNC). Michigan is an entirely different story. Obama opts not to put his name on the ballot and Hillary (shocker of shockers!) won the state with some ridiculously high vote count of like 68%. At the time the candidates agreed not to campaign in either state to honor the decision of the DNC.

…to be continued

Purple Confetti

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Mar
08

Birthday Cake

photo by: MShades

Sometimes I think our minds can be our worst enemies. For the last four years I have been telling Greg that I want a surprise party for my birthday. So far it hasn’t happened. Part of that is my fault seeing as I continually badger him for the month prior with leading questions like, “When is my surprise party? Who are you inviting? Where will it be?” For some reason he doesn’t like this and I think it deters him from having one simply because it’s not fun putting together a none surprise surprise party (if that makes any sense). Every year I tell myself that I won’t say anything about it in hopes that he will have one, but every year I shoot myself in the foot by asking him (I can’t help it, birthdays get me all excited!)

Last week he was in Seattle for a church planting conference and he returned on Thursday. From there we drove to Clovis to visit some friends. I had to ask him a few times if I could use his phone because my phone battery was dead. He didn’t hesitate so I didn’t have any suspicions. Well, once we returned from our trip I asked him a few times if I could use his phone and he, in no uncertain terms, told me, “NO you have your own phone so stop using mine!” (He also mentioned the price we paid for me to have this phone and effectively shut me up).

At this point you are all wondering to yourselves, what do phones have to do with surprise parties? Well don’t get your panties in a ruffle (especially you Brandon) I ‘m getting to that part of the story. I assumed, like any thinking woman, that my husband was planning a party and didn’t want me to see his phone because there was incriminating information on it with all the details. That was, until, he let me see his phone again and my hopes were once again dashed.

On Tuesday night he decided to start asking me what I wanted to do on my birthday which, in my clearly over scheming mind, meant that he had no plans for throwing me a party and we now have a short amount of time to plan and invite people over if I in fact decided that I wanted to do something. Of course, his lack of planning cannot be completely his fault, he was away for a week and prior to that had to prepare to leave.

So I was content that I had, yet another time, blotched my chances for the ever doomed surprise party. But I was really excited to possible hang with some friends.

I called a friend and left them a message to come over instead of going to work and mentioned “my party”. Greg overheard and that phrase created a curious face and inquiring question in which he asked me, “What party?” So of course, my red flag goes up again and I wonder, is there perhaps a slight redeeming chance that he has pulled off a masterful surprise party that not even a CIA agent could have detected? Alas, I fear not. I think he just got confused with the wording I choose to use.

Anyhow, he has made my day the best it could be. He cleaned the entire house for me, brought me breakfast in bed and let me read on the couch all day. In addition, he set up this awesome new website for me and a facebook. He is the best husband ever! We also get to go shopping for my birthday present tomorrow. All in all, I would say it’s been a good day filled with birthday surprises that I couldn’t have anticipated. Thank you God for my wonderful husband.

And now for the purple confetti…

My New Website

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Mar
08

Greg set me up with a website for my birthday. It’s just in it’s infant stages but come back regularly to see it grow. I promised Greg that I would write at least on blog a week to start off with. Some come back often and leave me comments as to what you think about it.