JDRF

Today at work, we had the kickoff meeting for the JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes. A co-worker of mine is leading one of the teams, so Mom & I decided to participate. The walk will take place on Saturday, October 25th at Greenfield Lake/Legion Stadium.

If you didn’t already know, JDRF stands for Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. I’ll admit, I didn’t think diabetes was that big of a deal. When I was in elementary school, one of my classmates had diabetes—I just thought it meant he had to test his blood sugar, and make sure to always have a snack. But it’s so much more than that. Jon Evans (local TV anchor) spoke to us about his father’s fight with diabetes, which eventually took his life. My grandmother has diabetes. A friend of mine in Ohio has diabetes. One of the ladies that I work with has a daughter with diabetes. It’s almost a “common” disease…one that I personally don’t think about because I’m not affected by it. But a LOT of people deal with this day by day, minute by minute and it is a big deal.

There was a little boy, 9 years old, that spoke to our group. He was diagnosed with Type I diabetes when he was just five years old. That really hit home for me because my sweet nephew is only five. This little boy talked about his parents having to learn to give him insulin shots, pricking his own finger to test his blood sugar, having to stop playing with his friends when his sugar drops because he gets weak, having an insulin pump attached to his body. Then of course, I started thinking of Edwin. What would I do if he got diagnosed with diabetes? I had tears in my eyes and a lump in my throat as I heard this 9 year old talk about his dream of going to college with no insulin pump and no more diabetes. We also watched a video with several children explaining how it affects their lives. (Seriously, I think they were trying to make us cry the whole time!!!).

What’s my point? I’m participating in this walk in just a few weeks. I’m asking anyone and everyone that reads this post to please consider donating just $10. That’s the cost of two cups of coffee…a movie ticket…lunch at a restaurant… You may not know someone with diabetes, you may not be directly affected by it. But imagine if your child got sick. Again, please consider donating $10. You can go online and use a debit card, or you can contact me about a cash or check donation. If you are unable to donate, I understand. Regardless, please keep this cause in your prayers.

Here’s a direct link to my donation page. Thank you :)
http://walk.jdrf.org/walker.cfm?id=87112989

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Some Facts About Diabetes

• Today more than 24 million Americans (adults and children) live with diabetes in the U.S. That's 7% of the population
• Diabetes kills one American every 3 minutes and is the sixth leading cause of death reported in the U.S.
• One of every three Americans born in the year 2000 is predicted to devlop some form of diabetes during his/her lifetime
• Insulin is not a cure for diabetes
• Kids with juvenile diabetes must take daily insulin injections, frequent blood sugar tests (as many as six per day) by pricking a finger, and maintain a strictly controlled diet
• Juvenile diabetes often produces serious, even life-threatening complications, such as blindness, vascular damage, and kidney failure
• You cannot outgrow the disease. On average, diabetes will shorten life spans by 15 years

Teeter Totter

Tomorrow at 8am, the new Harris Teeter store in Leland, NC opens its doors for the first time to the public!! Ed doesn't have to work until 10am so I guess he'll miss all the hoopla, or whatever else happens during a new store opening...

Last night they had an open house for the employees, family & friends. It was actually quite nice. The weather was gorgeous, they had a huge tent in the parking lot with tables & chairs, food catered by Parchi's, TONS of doorprizes, a DJ, and a clown for the kids. Edwin even got a balloon sword! (Yes, mommy had something to do with the selection). Grandma took a couple of pics including this one of my adorable baby and his Pappy:

So go check out the new store. We got a sneak peek at all the sales, and let me tell you...I can't wait to bust out my coupon organizer and go to town!! haha.

Craigslist

****EDITED*****

The art sold!!!! Woo hoo!! Now if I can just get rid of that tv stand....

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Last night was my first attempt at Craigslist. We're trying to sell a few things around the house (Dave Ramsey says everything goes!)... If you know anyone in the market for a tv stand or some art for the house...send 'em our way

http://wilmington.craigslist.org/fuo/849923525.html

http://wilmington.craigslist.org/hsh/849929462.html

Thanks!

Another FPU Update

Wednesday night we had our third week of Financial Peace University. This week's lesson was called Relating with Money: Nerds & Free Spirits Unite! Basically, Dave talked about the differences between not only men & women (that could take hours! haha) but also between "nerds" and "free spirits". What does it all come down to? If you're married, no matter which one of you is the nerd or free spirit, you BOTH are responsible for financial decision-making. The nerd tends to try to take over, control things with spreadsheets and budgets. The free spirit tends to say "whatever you want to do honey" assuming that if they don't actually participate in the decision-making process, they don't have to be held accountable. WRONG!!

One thing Dave recommends is called the Budget Committee Meeting. Without going into too many details, the nerd prepares the budget for the meeting. The free spirit has to show up!! When the nerd passes the budget to the free-spirit, he/she needs to shut up and allow the free spirit to make some changes (they must make some changes). Once both parties agree to the budget, they pinkie swear and STICK TO THE BUDGET!!! If something comes up which requires a change to that budget, they call an emergency meeting.

This whole concept sounds so simple, but in our household, it's a new one. I've decided I'm the nerd (anyone object to that?). I love a good spreadsheet, and I definitely try to take control. My darling hubby is more along the lines of the free spirit, at least when it comes to the finances. I think it was just easier to let me take care of things when he was a chef. Poor guy never had time to sleep, let alone deal with the checking account. But that is all changing. Ed's new job has allowed him to be home more (yay!!!) and going through FPU together has forced us to communicate about our finances. I can already tell a difference in our relationship.

During the class, we also learned some stuff for singles, but since I'm no longer in that category, I'll skip it. Finally, we talked about Kids & Money. There were some really great suggestions for how to teach our children to be responsible with their money. Here are a couple from the video:

• Be age appropriate



• Pay commissions, not allowance. This helps them develop the connection between work and money. It takes work to make money! (Certain chores are done just because you're part of the family, but it also helps to have specific tasks associated with a dollar amount. It doesn't have to be a lot.)



• Teach by example! Show them how you live debt free, how saving works, etc.



• For kids age 5-12: Use three envelopes. Giving, Saving and Spending. (If they earn $5 a week, put $1 in the giving envelope and $2 each in the others. Kids' attitudes towards money will change dramatically if they are spending their own!)

"Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it. The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender." -Proverbs 22:6-7 (NKJV)

This week's lesson was extremely helpful. Ed and I already have a basic budget in place for October. I think this coming Wednesday the lesson involves doing a more detailed budget. The nerd in me is so excited! Haha. But seriously, I cannot believe how much my attitude toward money has changed over the past few weeks. I realize that I was being lazy about how I handled our finances. Yes, I made sure our bills were paid, but I never told our money where to go...I just sort of floated along, hoping everything worked out. NO MORE!!! We're developing a specific plan to get out from under all of our debt...slowly (it didn't happen overnight), but God willing, it'll get done.

Remember, you can always go to Dave Ramsey's website for more info and free budgeting forms. He also has a show on at 8pm every night on the Fox Business channel. Enjoy the rest of the weekend!! And leave comments if you have any additional suggestions on cutting down the budget.

She got PAID TO SHOP!!!

Since Ed & I have started Financial Peace University, I’ve been looking for ways to save money. Well, I looked for ways to save money before, but never did much about it. Anyway, there’s this site called TheGroceryGame that totally rocks! Without going into details (because you can look up the specifics on the site or Katie’s blog--she even has pictures) it is a way to save a ton of money at the grocery store. You can save not only on food items, but paper products and toiletries as well.

This weekend was my first attempt. I went to Food Lion on Sunday and when everything was scanned, the total came to $120. I only paid $67!!! Yesterday, I went to Harris Teeter. The original total was $109, but I only paid $54!!! I never realized shopping for groceries could be so exciting. Even the checkout people are thrilled when you save that kind of money!

Ok, so I just had to share this with you (this is the whole reason for my post). Here is an instance when the grocery game will REALLY pay off.

My friend Rebecca has been "playing" the grocery game forever...in fact, I'm pretty sure that's how Katie found out about it. Anyway, Rebecca has a family of 5 (she actually has another son, but he's grown & doesn't live at home). Anyway, she's an awesome steward of her money and is not frivolous when it comes to buying groceries. However, she'll give you everything in her fridge if you needed it.

So…back to my point. She buys 4 Raleigh papers each week just to get the coupons. Today, she headed to Harris Teeter just to pick up a few things she had coupons for and would also use. She bought:

4 16oz Nestle smoothies (essentially, they are just bottles of chocolate milk)
4 boxes of popcorn
2 boxes of toaster strudels
4 boxes of fruit roll-ups (her daughter takes one with her lunch every day)

Grand total???

Negative $1.16!!!!

Yes people, the store PAID HER to shop!! Obviously this isn’t going to feed her family of 5 for the month, but it certainly is a good way to stock up on things! Isn’t that amazing?? Let me know if you've used this site or if you have any other tips for saving money on food!

****Edited to add****

My bad. Apparently Katie told Rebecca about The Grocery Game...not the other way around. Sorry sis!!

It's Gonna Be Awhile

For the past week, I've wanted to sit down and write a "real" blog post, but things have been a little hectic to say the least. So, this might take awhile :)



Last Saturday: Glenn and Jeanie (Ed's parents) arrived from Ohio (see this post). We spent the evening at their condo on Carolina Beach. Lots of fun, but we got home pretty late



Sunday: Edwin & I went to church while Ed stayed home. Jeanie was going to meet me at church, but unfortunately she overslept. Bummer!! Ed eventually joined us in Wilmington and we spent the majority of the day at mom & dad's house. Ed wanted to watch the Nascar race, so mom and I took Edwin and went shopping at Kohl's. That evening, the whole clan (Ed, Edwin, myself, Mom, Dad, Katie, Brian & Anthony) headed down to Carolina Beach. After a yummy dinner, Katie broke out the photog equipment for a family photo shoot!! Hopefully she'll post some of the pics on her blog because they turned out awesome!



Monday: After work, Ed & his parents picked me up so we could go to dinner at San Felipe. YUMMY Mexican food! Edwin was such a good boy at the restaurant...a huge relief considering when we tried to go to dinner on my birthday, he was having none of it (we had to take our food to go).



Tuesday: I took the day off work, so after spending a morning alone (Edwin was at daycare), I picked up my boy and we went to Carolina Beach to see Grandma and Grandpa. They wanted to go to the NC Aquarium, so that's what we did. I haven't been there since my friend Jeri's wedding last year...It was a slow day which meant no crowds. Whew! Edwin loved seeing all the fish and was very vocal about everything! I brought my camera, but unfortunately, the batteries died after only two pictures! Bummer... Just imagine Glenn & Jeanie holding Edwin in front of a fish tank. Nice picture, huh? After the aquarium, we picked Ed up from work and had dinner with the rest of the fam at Mom & Dad's house.

Wednesday: A second day off work for me...so Edwin and I spent the day with Grandma Jeanie & Grandpa Glenn. The weather in Wilmington was not so nice...very rainy in fact. So we basically just spent the day running errands, but it was fun just to spend time together. That night, Ed and I had our second week of Financial Peace University at church (I'll post more about that at the end). AWESOME!

Thursday: Back to work for both of us. We had everyone over to our house for dinner that night, and gave Jeanie her belated bday present: Pictures from our official KMP photo shoot!!

Friday: After work, Edwin and I went down to Carolina Beach for the final night of Glenn & Jeanie's visit. We enjoyed a nice dinner out on the balcony and basically watched Edwin for entertainment. That child is hillarious! I've posted a couple of pics from that night. It sprinkled for a few minutes and I worried that we'd have to take our dinner inside, but the rain stopped and we saw a huge rainbow!!! It was so amazing...and you could see the entire thing! It was a nice way to end their vacation. As always, it was extremely hard to say goodbye to them. After living across the street from Glenn & Jeanie for three years, I got used to seeing them every day. Some of my favorite times were spent chatting with Jeanie as she did her gardening or cooked dinner. We keep trying to convince them to move to NC, but progress is very slow (guess it has something to do with the rest of their family in OH?). Hopefully we'll be able to see them soon.

Today: RELAXATION! After a loooong night last night trying to get Edwin to sleep, today was a welcome day of sitting around doing absolutely nothing. Ed had to work, so Edwin and I played...he took a 3 1/2 hour nap...and enjoyed having nowhere to be.

So there you have it. As I was typing everything, it didn't sound super exciting, but just know that we had a great week with Glenn & Jeanie. Edwin loved seeing his grandparents...even when Jeanie gave him millions of kisses!! :)

My darling son's dinner consisted of Grandpa's french fries, watermelon, and chicken. Yum.

Playing with Grandpa Glenn

The rainbow was gorgeous!

This is what Edwin looks like when he's saying Please. Only, it comes out as "Pleeth"

Chillin' at the beach

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FPU Update

As promised, here's a little update on Financial Peace University. As a reminder, FPU is a 13-week course being held at church. Each week on Wednesday, we all meet together (70+ people) and watch the hour-long DVD taught by Dave Ramsey. Then, we break into small groups for more discussion. This week's lesson was titled "Super Saving". The first step in Dave Ramsey's plan is $1000 in an emergency fund. This is not an all-inclusive fund, but a baby emergency fund. It might seem strange to save money before you attack debt, but the more we learned, the more it made sense. If you have no emergency fund, as soon as you have something happen (car breaks down, A/C unit goes out, someone gets sick, etc), you end up going back into debt! According to Dave, this is the easiest step (as far as getting the $$ together), but it's also the hardest (because you have to commit to living differently...and recognizing that there is a problem). A lot of us in the group were thinking, yeah, right...it's not easy to come up with $1000. But if you take a look around your house, there's lots of stuff that probably has dust on it that can be sold. Use ebay, craigslist, etc. Sell your cds, dvds, collections, whatever!...if you're serious about changing the way you handle finances, you'll start looking at possessions a lot differently. I personally plan to sell all of our cds (it's all on my ipod anyway), dvds, bridesmaid dresses, we have an entertainment stand we don't use, I'm even thinking of selling my wedding dress (I don't need it anymore! haha).

Think of it another way (this example was used in the video): If your child was terminally ill, but there was a cure that cost $5000, would you be able to save the money? The answer for any parent would be YES. You would do whatever it takes to save that money to save your child. Well, getting out of debt and changing the way you handle finances is that serious. Dave talks about changing your family tree...and that's what Ed & I intend to do. It's not going to be easy. It's going to take years to fix some of this stuff. But our goal is to get out of debt (including the house!), save for Edwin's college so he doesn't leave with thousands of dollars in loans, and save for retirement. We plan to stick to a budget, use cash whenever possible, and STOP using credit cards. The slogan on the front of our workbook is "If you will live like no one else, later you can live like no one else!"

I could go on and on about all of this, but I'm sure most of you (whoever "you" are) have stopped reading by now. But I'm just so excited! Ed and I are going to sit down tomorrow afternoon and go over our very first budget together. Key word here is together. Yes, we're communicating better about money already...and that in itself is worth going through this program! Next week's lesson is titled: Relating with Money. Stay tuned!

1 Timothy 6:10

10For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

Proverbs 21:20

20 In the house of the wise are stores of choice food and oil, but a foolish man devours all he has.

Official

It's official!! Ed passed his final test at Harris Teeter to become a manager. Yay!!!!! This means his transfer to the Leland store can go through....double-yay!!!! This test was a very big deal and he spent a lot of time studying & preparing for it. Great job honey!! Edwin & I are very proud of you :)

Politics

I'm going to make this a quick post because I'm off to the NC Aquarium with Edwin & His grandparents (Glenn & Jeanie).

Basically, there's obviously a lot in the news right now regarding the presidential race. Yes, I've got an opinion...as does everybody else. But check out this link for a really interesting take on the whole thing. I tend to agree.

More later!!

Yes, I'm Spoiled

Around 4am today, we lost power due to Tropical Storm Hanna. At first, it didn't seem like a huge deal...after all, it was nighttime and was supposed to be dark!! But then Edwin woke up at 5:45am absolutely terrified. Usually, if he wakes up in the middle of the night (or super early morning), he can get himself back to sleep. But I think the lack of a nightlight totally freaked him out. He was crying so hard he was shaking by the time I got to him!! It was quite a production to get him back to sleep...I even had to enlist the help of my very sleepy husband. When Edwin woke up again at 8:30am, our day officially began. However, we still didn't have any power. And since we live in the boonies and have well-water, that meant no running water in the house...and consequently, no toilet flushes!! As the morning progressed, the house gradually started heating up. Yuck.

And now we get to the title of the post. I know I'm spoiled. I know that I would NOT do well in a time/place with no modern utilities. I LIKE air conditioning. I LIKE ceiling fans. I LIKE being able to flush the toilet!! I LIKE having a refrigerator that actually works. Then I started to feel guilty thinking about all of those people in the world that don't have things I would consider basic. I know I'm blessed and I am so grateful for these conveniences. I absolutely don't deserve them, but boy do I enjoy them!!!

Ed had to work at noon today, so Edwin & I decided to escape the stuffy house and drive up to Wilmington with him. We spent the day hanging out at Mom & Dad's house...it was such a relief! (I told you I'm spoiled!). Here's the best part of the day though. Glenn & Jeanie are here!!!! Yup, Ed's parents came down from Ohio today. Even a tropical storm wasn't enough to keep them from their adorable grandson that they haven't seen since LAST OCTOBER! They're staying in a condo on Carolina Beach and we hung out there this evening. It was so much fun to watch them with Edwin. They were surprised at how much energy he has! The entire drive home tonight, I kept wondering if the power would be back on. I ran through different scenarios in my head of what we'd do if it was still out. Thank GOD it was on!!!!!!!!!!! So here we are, back in our nice cool house, Edwin is asleep (with the nightlight on), Ed is watching tv, and I'm on the computer. I am so spoiled.

Hurricane

I received this email today regarding any possible hurricane closures/procedures for work:

Office Procedures Concerning Storm and Office Closings

As we watch the progress of the storm, the following are the firm's guidelines based upon the hurricane's intensity:

Hurricane Category #1

No excuse for being late. Leave earlier to give extra time to avoid fallen trees and limbs.

Hurricane Category #2

Due to the horizontal rain, you may wear jeans.

Hurricane Category #3

Whereas most of the area will be flooded we suggest you avoid wearing open toe sandals when coming to work. Canoes will be provided to get to the building safely without getting wet.

Hurricane Category #4

More than likely there will be no electricity. Given that, we will have manual typewriters available to all staff members. Please take extra caution and wear water-proof make-up if Category 4 or above.

Hurricane Category #5

Velcro will be provided to keep you attached to your chairs when the windows blow out. For those that survive, we will have chocolatecake at 3:00 pm in the kitchen.