brain & phto dump

Home from vacation.

We had a wonderful visit with family and friends. 2 weeks worth of talking, laughing, and avoiding our actual lives.

After 2 long days on the road, we arrived home. And reality hit like a slap in the face.

Someone has to unpack the car?

And pack up the Christmas decorations?

Who is going to go buy milk? Bread? Everything...

Laundry, laundry and more laundry... ( I swear I did it all before we left!)

Back to the grind. Over vacation, I dreamt and thought about what I want my 2014 to look like. Organized. Planned. Prepared. Practically perfect in every way. Only it is now the 5th and I have yet to execute...anything.

I will. Tomorrow the kids go back to school. Tomorrow Ben goes back to work. Tomorrow I will have 3 blissful hours to myself.

"Tomorrow, I love yah! Tomorrow, you're only a day away!"

As for today, it is about church, laundry (seriously?!) and getting ready for tomorrow.

Life as the CEO of Turner Inc. It is not for the faint of heart!

easy come, easy go

Vacations, no matter how well planned, usually includes hidden costs. A forgotten item, a gift shop purchase, a meal out....Whatever it is.

I have a Ford Expedition. I love, love, love my car. However, it is not cheap to fill her up! I take advantage of gas reward points programs but...the most I can get off a tank here in CA is a mere .20! However, I will take what I can get.

So during a stop to get gas, I was shocked to find a different offer from Safeway...we got $1 off a gallon! Gas was already super cheap compared to So. Cal but to get $1 off as well? Heck yeah! (Picture above is CA prices with discount. Picture below is AZ price with discount)

While driving into the Grand Canyon, Ben informed me that we had to pay a $25 fee for park entrance. As we pulled up though, we saw this sign...

See that line on the very bottom? Yep, not only did we get the day free, we got a whole year free! We congratulated ourselves on saving some more money on our trip.

At the end of our trip, Ben said to me, "Have you ever noticed how when we save money
on something, we usually end up finding it somewhere later?"

Uh yeah. Unfortunatley. After one more stop at Sonic (this was a must have), we decided not to eat out or spend any more money until we got home.

Upon arriving home, we were getting everything cleaned out of the car, and getting back into the swing of things. But then...we realized that one of the freezers in our garage, had had the door left open.

Everything was ruined. EVERYTHING. I had to throw it all away. It made me sick to my stomach to throw all that food out. I had carefully wrapped meats, frozen produce, whole chickens...ugh. All of my hard work down the drain.

I was already in a bad mood because of all this. I went out to the garage to get something out of the car. When I clicked the garage door button, the door went up and I heard a shattering sound. The lift gate on the back of my car had been left open. When the door went up, it got caught and the whole thing shattered.

After many, many tears, and a bit of chocolate, I called the insurance company. Thank heaven for good insurance. After parts, labor and paying extra for them to come to us instead of me going to them, we were looking at a little less than $500. Ugh. Do you know what I can get with $500?!

While the windshield was being fixed, I went to Costco. My husband insisted that " there is nothing good to eat" and that we needed some quick & easy foods. That "little" trip, knowing that I had to replace some of what was lost, put me back a lot of money.

Yet another kick to the gut.

Such costly mistakes that could have been easily prevented.

It was an expensive, expensive couple of days. Lots of lessons learned.

Now I am trying to re-stock my freezer with good deals...and of course, buying a lock for the freezer!

Grand Canyon trip

After surviving the last 2 weeks of school, I had another even to survive...a family camping trip to the Grand Canyon!

As long as I have indoor plumbing & showers, I am a pretty happy camper. (Get it?! Camper?! I'm hilarious, what can I say?) Having Wi-Fi doesn't hurt either.

I know that everyone would like to hear the ins and outs & day by day account of our trip. I mean who doesn't love to hear about every one else's trips? So here we go...

Day 1:

Just kidding! Instead I am going to give it to you this way:

The good:
-family time
-sitting around the camp fire playing Mafia with the kids
-snuggling with Ben to keep warm
-looking at the beautiful landscapes
-s'mores
-lots of fresh air & exercise
-tons of photo ops

The Bad:
-so MUCH dirt
-getting cold at night
-not sleeping well
-roasting during the day
-family members complaining
-not being able to find my laundry soap from home and having to pay insane prices
-insane prices on everything

The Ugly:
All the dirty laundry that I currently have to do...and being totally worn out!

****So I had a whole bunch of pictures I wanted to share. However...they wouldn't load! Total bummer! I may not be the best photographer in the world, but even I got some awesome shots!****

traveling

"There are only two types of travel: first class and with kids."

I don't remember where I first read that quote but it still makes me laugh...and cringe. Because we all know it is true!

I am no stranger traveling with children. I have been from CA to VA, VA to OR, OR back to VA, VA to WA, WA to AZ, AZ to CA, CA to GUAM, GUAM to  OR...I could go on and on but I will spare you! Suffice it to say,  military families do a lot of traveling.

Our kids range in ages and personalities. Some get car sick, some don't. Some have teeny tiny bladders and some seem to be able to hold it forever.

We have under packed and over packed. Forgotten very important things, and remembered everything.

I have learned a lot every single time. So by the time my kids are teenagers, I should have this down. Right?!

The only way I can remember everything is to write it ALL DOWN. Even those things that you feel are no brainers. Go through every single day, and what you could possibly need for that day.



Here are a few things that I always make sure I have with me:

total score!! These are so insanely expensive! Worth it but expensive.

*dramamine
* plastic bags for throw up (I use the diaper sacks that come in a little roll)
*baby wipes, toddler wipes (flushable)
*an extra roll of tp (some rest areas are scary, others are 5 star, you just never know!)
*more diapers than I could possibly need
*extra clothes for all children in an easy to locate bag
*tylenol (children & adult) kleenex,
* paper towels
*towels ( I usually try to bring 2. They are good to have for cleaning up, getting caught in the rain...)
*first aid kit (with extra bandaids)
*medicines &vitamins
* I pack all of my items in zip top bags. Everything. Clothes, socks, toiletries etc. It saves space, prevents spills, and keeps like items with like items. The bags come in handy later as we get ready to go also!

* laundry soap and dryer sheets (this is where all of those free samples come in handy)

Being prepared doesn't necessarily equal a smoothe trip, but it will be smoothER. We made it through a 16 hour drive and are still alive to tell the story!

What do you think, what makes your life easier while traveling? If you are like me, and you like to have a checklist, here are 2 sites that I found with printable lists.

Flylady has a travel control journal that is a free printable and you can find it here.
http://www.flylady.net/

You can also go to We Just Got Back for kid oriented printable checklists...those can be found here

Couponing to Spain...

In late January, or early Febuary, my sweet husband will be deploying...again.

 While I look forward to this deployment like I would a root canal, at least this time he will not be heading back to Afghanistan. This next deployment will have him headed to Rota, Spain.

Doesn't that sound nice? Well while I am looking forward to him being in a much safer location, it is a place that I would love to go and visit him. And because it is not a war zone, I can.

Since he will be gone over the summer, we figured that it would be much easier to find babysitters, if the kids weren't in school or on a structured schedule.

I really, really, REALLY want to go. My hubby said it is fine...as long as the cost does not go on the credit card. So what does that mean?

image taken from http://www.usmilitary.about.com/

That means I am couponing my way to Spain! Drawing inspiration from the site Couponing to Disney, I have a savings account that will have all of my refund & rebate checks, money gifts, and all my coupon savings.

Because I will not be taking my children with me, I only have to save enough for myself. I checked on flights and with all the tickets, tax and fees it will be around $1300. Plus food, a hotel, taxi, souveniers...well it starts to add up. So I am thinking right now my goal is to have $3000 in savings.




image taken from idbg.com




Of course that has to be saved by June. Yikes. It is about 8 months to save that money or $375 a month.

I have to get busy. What about you, are you using your coupon savings (or other kinds of savings) for anything fun?

I'm baaaaack

After a vacation with the fam...I am home.

Our house smells like campfire, Mt. Washmore (aka laundry) is piled up everywhere, there are brown rings around the tub after my kids took baths...

I have lots to do but I am hoping to be back soon. Spending the day cleaning, organizing...and airing out my house!!

Mini Vacation pt.1

I have 5 LEGO MANIACS in my home!

My husband was the first and he very quickly recruited 4 followers! I am sure that the youngest will be joining very soon!

So before my husband leaves for his 7 mo. deployment (sniff, sniff) we decided to take the kids to Legoland! It is such a fun place.

Legoland is only 2 hours away. Our tickets are for 2 days, so we decided to make a weekend of it. However, we didn't want to spend a fortune. Here is how we saved/plan to save money!

1)tickets- of course, this was the most expensive part. 6 tickets were not cheap. We were able to buy these through our local military base and got a great discount! However you can always find coupons and discounts through the Lego website.

2) the hotel. We are only staying for one night, but because of our family size, we have to get 2 rooms. When it comes to hotels, we are more Motel 6 kind of people than the Hilton. So I chose an inexpensive hotel with rewards points. We also get a continental breakfast and free wi-fi.

3)food! Feeding 7 people, at an amusement park is certainly not the cheapest thing on the planet but there are ways to make it a little easier on the wallet.

***the kids ate breakfast before we left. No stopping for a Mcbreakfast or doughnuts!

***packing snacks. While the only thing allowed in the park is water, you can/should have snacks in the car. Crackers, dried fruit, trail mix, granola bars etc. are all good because you don't have to worry about them sitting in the sun. It is important to have something to fall back on in those inbetween times.

***water!!If you don't have water in your stockpiles, stop at a store and get some. You can usually get a 24-36 pkg of water on sale for 3.99 or so. Water inside a park can be $1.50 a bottle. Make sure you have your own!

***We did eat one meal at the park. We were going to leave the park but we would have had to pay parking again. It is $12 a pop for parking so we would have to add that onto our lunch bill. Had we had free parking we would have opted to go out of the park.

***Breakfast the next morning was at the hotel. I always look for places with a continental breakfast! Most places have waffle irons, and that is a good filling breakfast.

***On the way home, we used coupons to eat at McD's. Right now if you buy their Trick or Treat booklets for a $1, there are coupons for free apple dippers, cheeseburgers etc. So using those and the snacks we had brought, it worked out well!

4) Souveniers: Oh they are so tempting! Especially to kids. Make a budget BEFORE you go. Make a game plan with your spouse.

***Also depending on where you go, you may be able to find something at home. Disney items can be found at Wal Mart, Target, the $ store etc.Do you have any ideas on how to save money on trips? I would love to hear them!