January 17, 2015

Today was amazing. Mostly because of saving money, being productive, and having fun while doing so. Some of my most favorite things.

First off, grocery shopping. I've been lazy about it and haven't been doing my research or planning prior to going. But this time I made sure I made my grocery list according to coupons, sales, and what I already had in my kitchen. The Vons app makes this SO easy. It shows you all of the sales and coupons and you can add the sale items to Your List and the coupons to Your Card. When you swipe your club card or enter your phone number your coupons show up! It even gives you exclusive coupons for items you regularly buy. I LOVE it. I saved $54 today! It's no extreme couponing but that's $54 I get to keep in my pocket! That $54 was 33% of my total bill! Oh, and Vons had a coupon that gave you $9 off of your $90 purchase. What the random...but heck yes I redeemed it! Right now we don't have the means to buy in bulk so these small victories will have to do for now. I'm building our pantry at a slow pace, but I'm hoping some day in the near future my grocery store trips will just be for meat and produce...at least for a couple of weeks.


Secondly, Productivity! I went grocery shopping and to the bank in less than an hour and Jason did yard work while I was gone! THEN...we went to Sea World! Usually Sea World is an entire Saturday event but fortunately for us, we live 10 minutes away and my parents got us the Fun Card for Christmas. The Fun Card is a promotion that allows you to get the entire year free if you pay for ONE day. INSANITY. I love it. We also get free parking January through March and a souvenir cup that is 99 cents per refill. Lots of perks.

So today was awesome for fun reasons too, although Sea World was especially fun since it was free. Jason did a few firsts. First time at Sea World San Diego (He went to the one in San Antonio while he was down there for basic training), ATE A CHURRO (aka stopped living under a freaking rock), and had Dippin Dots. Jason loves animals so I knew he'd have fun being able to touch them at the tide pools and see them swim around. I think seeing Jason experiencing all these new places and things is what will allow me to withstand being baby hungry for a few more years. It's so sweet how child like he is when he discovers new things. We were looking at Rays and Horseshoe Crabs at the tide pools and he was excited to see the crabs because he had heard about them and some fun facts about their blood. I told him he could touch them and the Rays too. He wouldn't until he asked an employee. It was so hilarious how amazing it was to him that he would be allowed to TOUCH these creatures he'd awed at only in pictures. I also thought it was funny that he thought the shallow pools at child height with no barriers were off limits.

The best part was the complete absence of stress. We didn't need to cram everything into one day, it was impromptu, no children in tow, and buying treats wouldn't break the budget. We went to Disneyland in October and that was a bit stressful...It was crowded and it was expensive so we HAD to make the most of being there. We didn't get to see everything but we pushed ourselves to the limit. We left exhausted and I with a gnarly blister. We were happy to be leaving Disneyland. On the contrary, when leaving Sea World we were so excited to go back since we knew there was more to see and we could whenever we wanted. We're going to take it really slow and just meander our way through Sea World each time and see one show or go on one ride each time we go. I'm so excited to have somewhere so fun and free for us to spend time together. You should've seen Jason during the Sea Lion Show, especially when the otter came out and waved. He was even laughing during the corny preshow skit. I love that he loves to have fun.

Chaos Looming Over Me

When my husband and I moved into my grandparents' home, we had been warned. A majority of the household belongings were upstairs. The upstairs was an attic renovated into a master suite complete with a dressing room, sitting area, and a built in desk/sewing area. With the downstairs now being used and the primary living area, stuff had to be moved upstairs.

Granted, we made it a bit worse than what we started with. We had things to store and moved even more things upstairs in order to declutter the downstairs. This has been my biggest organizing project yet. And hopefully ever. 

Getting closer! Gigi was admiring my work.

It was quite an adventure going through all of those family memories. I found a dress my mom made when she was in her teens, lots of pictures, things with my grandma's handwriting on it, lots of craft and sewing items, my aunt's wisdom teeth (that was disturbing), and of course lots of home decor and dishes! It was like having a Pier One right upstairs. Lots of decorative bowls and pretty nicknacks for styling shelving and the mantel. 

Another treasure I found was a box full of binders with each grandchild's name and a general letter from my grandparents explaining the purpose of the binders on it. Each binder's side pockets were stuffed with pictures, programs, and artwork from each child. I then found a box labeled "to be divided into grandchildren binders". In the letter my grandma explained that the binder was for a collection of memories and photos, not necessarily of ourselves but of our cousins and other relatives as well. The binders were nowhere near completion so I decided it'd be a nice surprise for my brothers and cousins at Christmas. I'm living in her house rent free, finishing some projects she didn't have a chance to finish was the least I could do. It was such a treat to go through the pictures and see what she had saved. She absolutely adores us all and I could tell by every scrap of paper she saved that we scribbled on. I found a repositionable tape that would allow us to remove the pictures from the pages so we could take them out to scan. Also I kind of just did the pages by age and events but I pretty much just through them together. I figured it'd be nice to have the option to move them around.

When I said I found lots of crafts and sewing items, I meant lots. I set up the desk we bought Jason as a sewing/craft area. We moved the desk upstairs because there was no way we could fit a couch and a desk in the gray room. Jason moved his computer to the built-in. I found everything I would need. A sewing machine, tons of thread, bobbins, buttons, snaps, scissors, elastic, magnet strips, scraps of vintage fabric, a rotary cutter, and just so so so much more. It was quite mind blowing to have literally everything I would need.

A few months later we ended up moving my space to the built-in and Jason to the desk we originally bought for him. He spends more time up there and wanted to be in the path of the window air conditioning unit. I also cleared out a closet and made it our 'garage' (snowboards, toolbox, and boxes of memories).

I wanted to write this post so I can look back on it one day and remember how huge of a project it was. I like having this memory of sorting through all of the family memorabilia from several generations.

So the upstairs is DONE. There is nothing left to sort through or pack up. Nothing is leaving the upstairs so it will remain packed up until the house is no longer in the family.

OK I lied...

We had Dan & Emily (Jason's best friend and his wife) stay with us for a week so I wanted it to look nice. I shoved the closets full with any loose items and moved the extra furniture and the tubs to the covered deck on the side of our house. Here it is in its full glory...

The tubs and extra furniture will return but I decided I'm going to buy more rubbermaid tubs so its at least symmetrical on either side of the bed. 

Christmas in Spokane

This year we got to spend Christmas with Jason's family in Spokane, Washington. He has one sister who lives near his parents, another sister was visiting from Las Vegas, and his youngest brother was in town from North Dakota. We were only missing Chad! But his mom was happy to at least have the majority home. We flew Jason out a few days early so he could have more time with his family. I flew out a few days before Christmas to spend a total of 10 days with the in laws. It was fun seeing Jason's family traditions, learn even more about their family dynamic, and get to know all of them better. And I got to meet my new nieces!

He's a natural!

Look at that Cabbage Patch face! This is Esmé. Jason's older sister Jandre's first girl and youngest of four.

Nora! Jason's younger sister Kimberlee's first girl and youngest of two.

Such a pretty baby!

We got to continue some of our own traditions as well. My favorite is wrapping each other's presents together while watching Elf. We put a barrier between us so we can't see what the other is wrapping but can still be with each other! Cheesy I know but we're obsessed with each other.

Christmas Eve 

Christmas Day! Wearing my new Nixon beanie from Jase!

Christmas Eve, Jason's dad left at about 4am to drive to Seattle to pick up his newest toy, a Spyder motorcycle. It has two wheels in the front and one in the back so it's safer than most motorcycles. Christmas day he took us each out for a drive. It was pretty fun!

Christmas day we also went shooting! Lots of firsts for me on this trip! My father-in-law is a recently retired State Trooper so we went out to shoot 2 of his service pistols, his service revolver, a shotgun, and a rifle. I wanted my first time shooting to be with someone experienced and familiar with the guns so this was a perfect opportunity.

They don't go to shooting ranges in Spokane, they find their own.

 I got to spend some quality time with my sisters-in-law and mother-in-law while Jason hung out with some friends. We went out to dinner, bringing the nieces along, then went to Jandre's to watch a Chick-Flick. But before the movie we dropped the babies off at home, switched the minivan for the Tesla, and headed to the grocery store for snacks. That's right, we drove a Tesla. Jandre's husband had just bought one a few days prior, but it's a car for his company. We stocked up on clearance Christmas candy and I treated us to chocolate covered potato chips. 

Our last full day there it finally snowed! Now my Christmas was complete! The cold was finally worth it. There are lots of fields near their house so it was neat seeing so much untouched snow. 

Our last night there all the adults went out for Chinese food and bowling. I enjoyed spending my Christmas with Jason's family and being able to get to know them all better and create fun memories with them. 

But after living out of suite cases for almost two weeks and all that snow, home was sounding pretty sweet.