Too proud to not share

I am always feeling just a tinge of guilt in the back of my head about not working right now. I mean I am working (at raising my kids, keeping the house, cooking the meals, driving the taxi, etc) but not "teaching" and helping bring in cash. But each time I voice this guilt to Rob he assures me that it's impossible and pointless for me to work outside of the home right now as both the kids are only in school until 12, Cora's still going through chemo and frequenting the clinic, and oh ya...we're about to have a baby in 6 days. And luckily I have a husband who is as financially conscious and smart as one can possible be. We sat down in late December and Rob proposed a budget plan that would keep us more accountable for dollars spent while allowing us a bit of personal spending money each week, pay all the bills, and still leave a little for savings. When looking at the budget on paper, I thought "no way" will this work, but agreed to give it a shot! A week or so later I was having a conversation about the guilt of feeling like I need to be doing "something" more to contribute with a friend who is also a teacher turned stay at home mom. She said something that totally stuck with me. She told me that she feels that way a lot too, but she has taken the stand that instead of contributing to the household by working, she can contribute to the household by being a better steward of the finances and saving every chance she gets. So then I considered Rob's point and hers and figured I'm doing more good here than I would be in any classroom.

I am very happy to report that after almost one month of living in our "2010" budget...it's worked beautifully!!!! I love it! I've been amazed at how much we're saving on groceries. We're buying for 1 week at a time, I'm coupon clipping and deal searching like crazy and we're spending under $100 per week on groceries. This may sound like a lot for a family of 4, but we all 4 eat 3 meals a day at home and the $100 includes all the extras like pull-ups, dog and cat food, and personal hygeine items. I literally go to the store once a week and that's all! We're spending WAY less, our kitchen is WAY more stocked, we both have spending money, and we still have left over for savings! I am amazed!!! If we can do it, anyone can! Here are the sites I'm using to help find all the grocery deals.

http://www.southernsavers.com/

http://www.coupons.com/

http://www.smartsource.com/

http://www.target.com/

(warning...it is a bit of work, but it totally pays off)

For all these years I was under the impression that grocery shopping at Wal-Mart was saving me money. I would rather walk on hot coals than shop at Wal-Mart and now...I don't have to. Publix is my favorite and they accept ALL competitor coupons. I love it! Today was a great day. I spent $96, got TONS of stuff, and saved $60! Try it!

crazy cora

This girl cracks me up!!! She's seriously one of a kind! Everyone always told us that post chemo your hair can grow back curly, but her's looked like it was pretty much coming back the same. The longer it gets, the more curl we can see. When it's humid outside it actually looks cute and has lots of curl, but when it's not it's just sorta wavy and funky. So we have no need to check the weather channel in the mornings, we just check Cora's hair.

Her newest love is gymnastics. We started this when we stopped school at the beginning of October. I was trying to find a social activity that was low on the germ scale and this seemed great because it is a class of 3 and 4 year old girls and we already knew ALL of the girls (and their moms who wouldn't send them to class sick) and it's at 9 in the morning on a Friday so they are the only ones in the gym and the germs from the day prior are cleaned and dead. Cora has fallen in LOVE with her "coach" and lives for Friday mornings. It's so good for her physically, she's learned so much, and we've learned that she's a very determined little girl who tries very hard to be successful!

Once again she never fails to pair the most unusual things from her wardrobe to create interesting outfits. Here's what she wore grocery shopping today.

FUN STUFF!

Today after I got home from picking the kids up from school, we arrived to find this stuff on our front porch....


All of it BRAND NEW WITH TAGS and no card or name at all! Look at all of this cute stuff! I mean it was TONS of stuff! We're talking diapers, wipes, stuffed toys, booties, socks, bibs, burp cloths, blankets, towels, wash cloths, sleepers, long sleeved outfits, short sleeved outfits, dresses, EVERYTHING! So whoever you are mystery person (or people)...THANK YOU SO MUCH! We are so spoiled to always be surrounded by such sweet, thoughtful, and loving people! We don't deserve you!

Things have been quite a buzz around here lately. Daddy has started baseball practices to get his team ready for the season. Cora's back in school 3 mornings a week and LOVING it! Cade's cruising right along, reading everything in sight, and constantly on the move as usual, and mommy is frantically organizing and reorganizing to get ready for baby. We've been ridding the kids rooms of old toys and clothes and revamping them to create more space. We don't have an actual "bedroom" for the baby, eventually she'll move in with Cora. But we decided that for the first year or so until regular sleep patterns are established it would be better for everybody for the baby to have her own space. We have a "nook" in our house where we before were hiding a guest bed for out of town visitors aka grandparents. It's not an official room because it has no door or closet, but after a fresh coat of paint, a hodgepodge of old things, a new $25 rug from target, a $20 picture on the wall from homegoods, and some pompom fringe....it's a nursery!
(for a total budget of about $60!)






Then we did make one big purchase this fall. We felt like we needed to have a space for our parents to sleep when they come visit and poor Cade who will be completely outnumbered by girls desperately wanted a bunkbed. So we found a local guy who builds them and we got a great deal and a custom bunk bed! If you come to stay with us, you're bunking with Cade!(Cora's the one who's really enjoyed bunking with him. She usually sleeps on top! Every night when we read stories on the bottom, she undoubtedly bumps her head so we've come up with this solution!)





So as mommy was recovering some old throw pillows the other day for the baby's room and Cade's room Cora was feeling very left out, so her room has a new organized closet (thanks Pop Pop) and a new throw pillow too!




So that's it! We have organization (for the moment) and space for everyone! That's what we've been up to!

Clinic Day

Today Cora had clinic and it went great! Possibly our best visit ever! Nothing special or crazy! The blood pressure was perfect! much lower than before! She didn't whine, cry, or even flinch when they accessed or deaccessed her port and she took her vincristine like a champ. Cora was totally cooperative and friendly to EVERYONE! Not to mention we made it out of there in like and hour and a half which is unheard of! WAY TO GO CORA!!!

I'm sure we'll make up for it our next visit which will happen on Feb. 16th and Cora can't eat anything before we go because she has a LP and chemo injection into her spinal column at 10:30 in addition to regular chemo. She HATES that, mostly because she's starving! Not to mention we'll have an 11 day old baby in tow! Should be loads of fun!

baby c

I had a doctor's appointment complete with ultrasound yesterday. This baby is growing rapidly and weighing in at around 5 pounds currently. We've got 3 weeks left and we're as ready as we'll ever be. We had to post this ultrasound because we think either she'll be born with a dislocated leg or a future in gymnastics. (yes those are her toes in front of her mouth)

AFV

My kids have a new addiction...America's Funniest Home Videos. They want to watch it every night on ABC family and they crack up at every single video, even the ones that aren't even remotely funny. It makes me laugh just to watch them watch. Well...last night Cade found out that the grand prize is $10,000. And with his new found love for money, he's decided that he needs to win that cash. So, he and Cora have been attempting to stage and create their "America's funniest video" for the past 24 hours. They wanted me to record everything they did for hours on end, but I finally convinced them that if they were wearing the same pajamas in all the videos they would look too "staged!" lol! Kids are a trip! Here are their best efforts.

New Year Pics!

So I wanted to post a few of these pictures from New Year's Eve although it's a little late! We celebrated here with Rob's parents who are now only a couple of hours away! (vegetarian friends, skip the next two sentences) They brought with them a pig. For real. We grilled a pig on our grill. It's an Argentinian thing...they don't mess around when it comes to their meat. So we had quite the feast!


the pig


cade with abuela and abuelo


While the pig was cooking Cade and his "mud buddy" Leia dug a giant hole in the back yard and rolled in the dirt. Boys and dogs go perfectly together!




Even in cold weather, she still finds a way to pull a ball gown into the ensemble!

Baby Update

I went back to the doctor this week and had this crazy realization that this baby is coming...FAST!!! We scheduled my c-section (both my others were c-sections so it didn't leave much option for this time) for February 5th! That is exactly one month from today! So I am spending my last few weeks before baby getting my house ready. At the rate I've been working and the length of my to do list you'd think the world was ending on February 5th! So we're getting excited!

I had a conversation with a friend the other day and she asked me, "so the baby's good?" I replied with something like, "yep, I have one more ultrasoud and then the c-section will be on Feb. 5th."
She then asked me again, "no but the baby's good, right?" And then it hit me. She wasn't asking me if the baby was "good." She was asking me if there was a chance that the baby could have leukemia. The minute I caught on I gave her all the details so I thought I'd share them here just in case anyone was wondering. Here's the thing... cancer sometimes follows a genetic line in families. Some types of cancer are more genetic than others (ie breast cancer, prostate cancer). And on my side of the family there have been some types of cancer surface. However, no one in our families as far back as we know has had childhood leukemia. In fact when Cora was first diagnosed Rob asked the oncologist if there was a chance it was genetic and that if we had another child, if they would get it. The oncologist replied with a resounding "NO!" He said that one in one hundred thousand children get some type of childhood cancer and those statistics do not increase once you've had one child diagnosed. Therefore this baby's chance of having ALL is the same as Cade's or Cora's or mine or yours. I can't say it won't happen again, but cancer is a mystery. Why it happens at all is baffling to me. Why one's body can all of a sudden produce one cancer cell that will quickly take over is uncomprehendable! We can't live our lives banking on things going wrong. It would make us crazy! So will we pray for this baby's health 1000 times a day? certainly. But are we going to live in fear and expectation of something going wrong? absolutely not! We are just so thankful to have this sweet baby girl joining our family and COMPLETING IT! She's the grand finale!!!

Under Pressure

just a quick blood pressure update on Cora...I took her back to clinic yesterday just for a quick blood pressure check now that she's about a week post steroids. We've been very cautious about sodium in take as well as sugar, but it hasn't been easy over the holidays as we're traveling. I felt bad denying her things that she wanted and others were having, but we made and I felt pretty sure we'd do a better job of it once we were home. But when we checked her pressure it was down a lot from last time. It was only a tad bit high if you'd even consider it high at all. YAY! So we'll eat carefully and take NO STEROIDS before a clinic visit again and hope it will be down to normal by Jan. 19th!

Make mine green

Rob's parents just moved to Atlanta. I mean just moved days ago, over Christmas. His dad is a pediatric pathologist and took a job at a Children's Hospital in Atlanta. We are very excited that they will be 4 hours away verses 13 hours away. So in the hustle and bustle of moving there wasn't much shopping time prior to Christmas. Before they came to Savannah for New Years Rob's mom called asking what the kids "need" so that she could get them something before coming. I thought and thought and concluded that my kids have EVERYTHING! We just got tons of new toys for Christmas and they are literally in need of nothing! So Rob told her to just get Cora something small (abuela chose a ball gown--perfect!) and to give Cade money. He's very into money right now. Probably because we are constantly reminding him that it doesn't grow on trees! On the lego website he found that there is a LEGO set of the STAR WARS Death Star for $400! That's right for just $400 you can purchase 100000 pieces of tiny plastic and spend approximately 29 hours putting them together. sounds fun, huh? We told him the only way he'd ever get that lego set was to buy it himself. So he had $62 until yesterday. Rob's parents handed him an envelope and when he opened it he got the hugest ever grin on his face and said, "It's a Benjamin!" as he pulled out a $100 bill! Too much for a 6 year old, but he was thrilled! So now he's on this huge kick about "how to get 3 more of those!" He is constantly asking me to do things for me like clean the bathroom, dry the dishes, and give me a hug!" The problem is that he now wants to be paid for things he is already expected to do. So as a part of the "New 2010 Garola Budget" we are going to have to include some type of job chart and small allowance each week for the kids. I explained this to Cade last night as he was begging me to clean the bathroom.

I said, "you'll get an allowance each week for doing the jobs you are given and helping mommy out."

Cade said, "OK but my allowance better be green!"

Are you kidding me? I think we've created a monster!