I'm a nut...

For Eco Nuts :)

Laurel said something on facebook about using soap nuts that reminded me I was going to post about these a long time ago!

I heard about soap nuts quite a while ago, but never looked into them. Then, our local baby store started selling them and I found out I could use them not only on my clothes, but on the cloth diapers too! (You CAN'T use regular soap on cloth diapers! You may be able to for a while, but more than likely, at some point, there will be problems. But that's for another day.)

So what are soap nuts? Well, first of all, the ones I have come from this company: http://www.econutssoap.com/

I've found they work very well! If I have a bad stain, I do have to use something for a stain remover but I'm ok with the extra step. Only recently have I started using them for Wade's work clothes and I do throw in a scoop of my mix of washing soda & borax for my own peace of mind. We wash everything in cold water except the diapers and very dirty towels, etc. so these last us a very long time!

In the box is a little pouch that you stick your soap nuts in and then you just throw it in the washer with your clothes.

I am still washing my diapers in Crunchy clean, just because I like it so much. I did try the soap nuts on them though, and they came out looking/feeling great.

Anyways, I love them because they work and you can't get much more natural than nuts! (Wade says they're perfect for me... lol. He calls me a hippie.)

You try reasoning with a 3 year old.

Yesterday Barrett needed to nurse and Jessi decided she wanted to feed him. Our conversation went like this:

Jessi: "But I want to feed him!"
Me: "Jess, you can't feed him, you don't have any Mommy milk"
Jessi: "Yes I do, it's in my boob. I want to feed him!"
Me: "No you don't, silly! See, they're small. No milkies in there."
Jessi: "Yes there is!"
Me: "Sorry Jess, but until you have a baby of your own, there won't be real milkies. You can pretend for your babies though. Since Barrett came out of my belly, I get to feed him since I did all the work."
Jessi: "But I do have a baby!"
Me: "Really? where?"
Jessi: "In my belly....
Then she looks out the window and see's the pool.
"Oh! But I have to go swimming first!! I have to go swimming in the pool so the baby can come out!"
Then she walks off, arching and holding her back, moaning and groaning.

All this because she wants to feed her Brother.

Budget #3

Income: $3,120

4 walls:
Mortgage: $615
2 Cell phones: $110
Total Utilities: $113
Home/auto/life insurance: $143

Spending:
Grocerys: $400
Eating out: $100
Gas/oil: $300
Clothing: $50
Blow: $200

Debt: New Bal./Starting Bal.
Car: $202.15 ($6,407.23/6757.46)
Citi Card: $130 (6,811.79/8,278.63)
US Bank: $110 (9,880.50/10,210.50)

Left over: $646.00
$400 will go to the Citi Card
$246 will go into a sinking fund for car/house/etc. repairs as we already know the car will need tires on it this fall, new struts (or something like that.. that's "man speak" to me) and who knows what else.

Wade's moved to the night shift and has gotten the raise that comes with it. I'm not sure what it's going to change our income to yet but it will help a lot to make this go faster. They're trying to find a way to end the overtime at work, but for now we're grabing it for all it's worth.

Oh, and our garden is going to help with this too! We are going to have food coming out of our ears! Next post :)

I'm baaaaack!

I've finally got my computer back! Back in May my hard drive crashed. On my brand new computer. Thank you Walmart, for strengthining my resolve to never shop there again. (Dell computer manufactured for WM.. not the same as a regular Dell computer!)
My brother in law got it all fixed up for me though, so it's back now! I'm back.

So what's been going on....

Barrett turned 6 months old.. (and then 7...) Pardon my bias, but I do believe he's the cutest little boy ever <3

He's come a long ways and looks quite a bit different than he did 7 months ago!

(Don't know if I ever showed these on here...)

Then, there's Jessi Bear.

She decided she was going to go off to Grammy & Papa's. For a week and 5 days. Hmmm.
Then she decided she was so excited to be there, she didn't want to kiss or hug me goodbye.


But me, being the mean old Mommy I am, I made her.

So she gave in.

For a second.

She had tons of fun but by the time she met up with us at Wade's parents, she was ready to go HOME!

And speaking of being at Jack & Ruths, Barrett had lots of fun loving on Memaw..

We had s'mores.. twice!

And we went jet skiing and Jessi thought that was grand fun!


Barrett just got his first hair cut!! It doesn't show much here, but it was getting a little shaggy!
Before:

After: (I cut it ;) )



And that's all for now folks!

*Oh, and I know that most of you have already seen these pictures, either on mom's blog or on facebook but whatever :) Some day I'll have pictures to share on here alone.

There's something about Jessi...

There's something about Jessi. We're not quite sure what it is.

She can tell you which place is Applebees, Wendy's, Arby's, McDonald's, Burger King, Subway, Taco bell, Chili's, and the list goes on and on. (Now, this makes us sound like we eat out a lot.. we really don't.)
I think that it's the fact that she's really good at memorizing. She knows pretty much all her books by heart and can read them right along with you.

But about 2 months ago now, I put a shirt on Barrett. The shirt said "Cowboy" and had nothing else on it.. just a black shirt that had the writing in white. (Actually, it's the shirt he's wearing in the "Sophie" pictures) It was the first time he wore it and we never said anything about what it said. We went to meeting that night and as soon as meeting was over Jessi told everybody: "Look! Barrett's a cowboy!"

Yesterday I was on Target's website and she came and sat on my lap.. and said "Target, Pay less!" Sure enough, on the page I was on, in bigger letters it said "Target.... Pay less.

(I thought this was a good chance to share these pictures of Jessi on here too, since I never did before! They were taken back on New Years Eve by my sister, Lynisha)

Here we go, Budget #1

So, with our tax return money, we set aside our $1,000 emergency fund, paid off our stove ($577), our computer, ($600), other random stuff ($244), sent $800 to the Citi card, and set aside money for our trip down to NE, which hopefully we won't use all of!
Here's the budget we worked out:

Total Income: $2,930 (Not including Wade's overtime)

Monthly payments:
Mortgage: $615
2 cell phones: $113
Total utilities: $270 (It varies, so this is based off last months bill.. it should be lower since it's nicer out now.)
Home, auto (2 cars) and life insurance: $150

Spending's:
Grocery's: $400
Eating out: $50 *Not including trip, money set aside for that already.
Gas & oil: $240 *Not including trip, same as above.
Clothing: $40
BOLW/gifts: $375 (It was suggested to keep this high for now to cover anything we go over in, like grocery's, since we're still figuring out our budget)

Debt:
Car: $202.15 ($6,757.46)
Citi card: $120 ($7,478.63)
US Bank: $110 ($10,210.50)

Left over: $244.49.49 to add to debt payment.

Next step is to get all our spending money in cash to use to hopefully prevent overspending!

Barrett Loves Sophie

Meet Sophie, She's Barrett's new friend. He loves her and I do too!
Sophie is made out of all-natural rubber and her paint is food paint. She's the perfect size for B to get his hands in and keep a hold of her. She's awesome for teething because he can just shove whichever part happens to be the closest into his mouth. He also loves that she gives him a little squeak once in a while.

"Mom...

How am I supposed to play with her when I need my hands to hold myself up?"

Yummm!

Thumb or Sophie?

Sophie wins!

I've got my eye on you!

Sophie's pretty nice to cuddle with too.

Mmmm, A rump roast!

Leg's pretty good!

Oh yeah, that's the stuff!