Christmas Fund Done, What's Next?

Since I have reached my goal for our Christmas fund in 6 months time. I thought I would try for something more challenging in the next 12 months. We have added more money to our fund (sort of) but its spent already so I will start over from here. We did sell our lawn mower, our Ikea couches, and recycled some things and earned some Target gift cards. But most of that went towards our baby's first birthday party. That's why I say that from here on out its 0 again and we are going to try and earn everything for a vacation  next August or September after school starts so we can miss the crowds but still have good weather for the beach. California is usually our go to vacation destination. I miss that place. Maybe some day we will live there again. Disneyland or Sea World will be our go to attraction. Still not sure yet.

So right now my fund is $0. And my goal is anywhere between $1000 and $2000 depending on where we go and what we do. I do have some points already accumulated from survey sites but I haven't cashed out yet, so those will be added in. Stay tuned... Zehring Family Vacation Fund is starting right now!

Bargain Brag!

I thought I would post this because I haven't had a good savings like this in a long time! But today I bought all of this and paid $17 total. I also received a coupon for $2 off my next purchase so it was like paying $15 for all of this. I also noticed that at home store prices were a little higher than at other places of the same store so it would have been a better savings by a couple bucks if I went to the Fry's somewhere else but this one was on my way to other stores so I sacrificed it. I saved $44.51. That's a 75% savings!!!

So here is the run down....

• 3 3 packs of bar soap
• 3 gallons of milk
• 4 boxes of fruit snacks
• 2 boxes of cereal snack bars
• 2 bags of chips
• 2 bottles of hand soap
• 6 peaches
• 2 bottles of salad dressing
• 2 boxes of storage bags

I thought this was awesome!!!!

Zachary is 1!!!!!

I am writing this about 2 1/2 hours before I actually meet my baby boy a year ago because I want this posted at the time he came face to face with me. Like Nathan, I will give a list of all that he has accomplished his first year of life! Wow, he is one. I find it hard and little sad because this may be our last. I don't know if I can push out an bigger baby and mine just keep getting bigger! :)

 

At 12:25 on the 2nd of July I met Zachary David Zehring. All 9lb. 4oz of him. I loved him the moment we knew we were going to have another baby. Then I met our son at 18 weeks of pregnancy. I fell more in love with him. Then we had a name and he became this little guy that had a personality. He never moved or kicked unless forced. He was calm and cool and collected. And that was just in the womb.

I realized I never told my birth story so here it is in celebration of his first year!

I made it to July 1st. I always thought I would be due around June 23rd. That lined up with all my dates. Because of a miscarriage two months before, I had ultrasound, after ultrasound to monitor this baby. He was measuring small so my due date was pushed to July 7th, then the10th at first. I told my doctor that meant I had a positive pregnancy test before I was pregnant. But no one listened. Well, every ultrasound up to 18 weeks was he was measuring small and so they pushed my due date to July 14th and stayed there.

Well, for a few weeks before the 1st I was dialating and making progress. I went from nothing to 3 cm in one week and every week after that I dialated one more cm. My doctor kept saying I wouldn't make it to July. I felt that too. She even wanted me to change my July 1st appointment to June 29th but Joel's schedule didn't allow that, so we just thought either he comes or I go to my appointment. Well I ended up at the appointment. My doc was shocked. It was the longest most uncomfortable appointment ever. I was 5cm dialated (that's half way) with nothing happening. Except my blood pressure was through the roof! And it wasn't coming down. We knew it was anxiety to get things started the whole time but it was also a huge reason I was admitted that day. Also, Zachary's hand was on his head. If I was to give birth that day without him moving his hand a C-section would have happened. I really didn't want that. Thankfully, he moved. I was induced that day. I was nervous about it because I heard horror stories. For me, it was the best thing. My contractions weren't painful at all.

Then at this exact time one year ago I was signing papers to get my epidural because he was coming soon. Not being in hard labor and getting an epidural is painful. But I knew what hard labor was like and I didn't want to experience it again.  I wanted to have the most relaxing labor and delivery possible. And I believe I achieved that. Yes, you heard me right. :) Joel and I spent most of the comparing my contractions, calling parents to check on Nathan, Joel rubbing my feet, drinking water, watching TV, talking with the nurses, and Joel getting some shut eye since it looked like it was going to be an all nighter.

Around midnight I was at 10cm. They broke my water and my doc was ready to meet this guy! I was too! 3 big pushes and Zachary was here!. And the first thing out of my docs mouth was, "Donna, you were right, he is a big one!" THANKS!!!! So two weeks early by doc's estimate (1 week late by mine) we had our 2nd born! It never gets old.

Now a year later and he is becoming this amazing little person.
This past year he has accomplished all this.

• rolling over both ways
• crawling
• standing
• pulling up
• cruising along all the furniture
• signing a few things
• calling me Mama and Joel dada
• waving
• clicking his tongue
• drinking from a sippy cup
• sharing
• banging things together
• recognizing all of us if we ask where each person is
• exploring
• self feeding
• using his pinchers to eat
• getting 9 teeth
• sleeping through the night
• taking awesome naps
• giving wet kisses
• understanding but no always obeying "No"
• learning to annoy big brother by getting into all his toys
• loving up on all of us
• and seriously being the happiest baby ever!!!!
• and so much more!!!

Happy Birthday little brother Z! We love you so much. Praise God for giving us this tremendous gift!

Christmas Fund Update 2012

Ok so I am now on the tail end of my Christmas Fund. I actually have reached my goal but I haven't cashed out a couple of survey sites that have a total of $25 in them. Yes, this is all after I actually cashed out last month. I get that many surveys.

So without those let's add what I have so far. Two $5 giftcards from Target and $7.93 in spare change.

Lets add. That comes to $17.93

Adding that to my fund come to the total of: $581.79 (so with my $25 I haven't cashed out I HAVE REACHED MY GOAL!!!)

I will let you know when I end up in November how we use the extra funds. Thanks for following along. And stay tuned to Couponing to Christmas!

Christmas Fund 2012 Update

So this past week was a decent week. Its slowly coming but I think I will reach my goal by September. So here is the run down of this week's fund. We are working on our backyard. Doing all the things we can do before the big projects take place once I start getting a paycheck again. We had this really ugly shade cover thingy that hung over our patio. It was able to roll out and create this shade. Which would be nice if it was pretty but it was SO GROSS. I realized a long time ago that it wasn't painted behind it the same color as the rest of the house but I was tired of looking at it and the non painted color looks way better than THIS THING. So I asked Joel to take it down and recycle the metal. We got $9 for it. Then I got $15 worth of Target gift cards for buying multiple items at the same time. And I had $4.33 in change.

 

So here is the run down of what I have so far.

Cash: $9
Gift Cards: $15
Change: $4.33

Total: $28.33 this week

Grand Total: $563.86 (Goal is $600)

I AM ALMOST THERE!!!! WOO HOO!!!!

Finally Enjoying Summer

As a substitute teacher I get to enjoy picking my schedule and how much I work during the year. But it also means that come June 1st I am a FULL TIME STAY AT HOME MOM! My dream is to be able to do this all year round. But as for now I work part time. Hopefully in a couple of years I will be able to be a SAHM. So the first few weeks of summer break were rough. It started on Mother's Day/Birthday weekend. We at first thought it was food poisoning but then I noticed how many people were affected at the same time we were and we realized that Joel, Nathan and Zachary (I was the carrier) had the NORO virus. Its a nasty stomach flu virus. Nathan had it the worst. I have never experienced something so heart wrenching than my 3 year old up all night every 20 minutes sick to his stomach. Once we thought they were over the worst of it I worked a few more days. Then we spent a weekend in Scottsdale. Then Joel's parents got it. That's how we knew it wasn't food poisoning.

I was able to finish out the school year, then the first week of break Nathan came down with a fever of about 102 for a few days. It also meant he had to cancel his very first swim lesson.

Glow sticks in the bath. Just a way to have fun at home.

Then the following week on his first day of swim lessons he woke up with blood shot eyes. He wasn't complaining about them or rubbing them so we just assumed that he was extra tired or the wind dried them out. He went to swim class and had a blast. But the next morning his eyes were not better. I called the doctor's office to see if I needed to worry and they said to come in ASAP. Nathan had viral pink eye in both eyes. Nothing we can do but wait it out and wash everything. We were told it could last up to two weeks. Thankfully, it only lasted about 5 days total.

Nathan's first swim class! His Superman arms!

We are now ALL HEALTHY! Praise God. Summer is in full swing. We are shopping, going to play places, having friends and families over and swimming! I love it! Nathan has 6 more weeks of swim classes then he starts preschool. We will see how he is after the 6 weeks to see if he will continue with swim classes or not.

Zachary is pulling himself up and taking steps to standing on his own. He can push things around on his feet but not very well yet. He just likes crawling and he can crawl fast enough that walking to keep up with big brother doesn't matter. :) I can't believe he will be 1 in just a few weeks!

 We have been spending a lot of time at Lowes. We are finally working on fixing up our backyard. Its going to take a few months but we are getting there! I can't wait to show it off!

SUMMER IF FINALLY HERE AND LOVING IT!

Christmas Fund 2012

Well, the past couple of weeks have been slow since I am building up my points again on my surveys and we have had a couple of different illnesses hit our family. But I still managed to get a few things in this time around. We had to go to the zoo to renew our pass and on our way we turned in our meager bag of cans (we don't drink a lot soda). I also got a Target Gift Card for buying two boxes of Up and Up diapers (super awesome deal with coupons too)

So let's recap.

$3.00 for recycling cans
$2.51 in spare change
$5.00 Target gift card
Total: $10.51

Grand total for the year: $535.53 (Goal is $600)