Where Have You Been?!

Is it December already??? So much has happened in the past three months!  We moved, Tutu turned 1 (!), Zach got a new job, I’ve fallen into a major spending pit…  We’ll talk more about that later.

On today’s agenda: we moved!  I can’t believe all the money it is saving us.  I didn’t realize all the extra bills that come along with renting a house (in our experience): water, sewer, garbage, recycling, and probably more I can’t think of right now.  Those are just the bills!  We've already been able to pay off our two smallest loans and are halfway to paying off our third!  Zach no longer has to shovel or mow, and I no longer have to feel bad that I didn’t landscape!  I hated staring at the overgrown plants, but not enough to do something about it.  I hate gardening.  We also have to clean less since our space is smaller. 

Let’s talk about that. Our space is much smaller.  The house we were renting had 4 bedrooms and a formal dining room.  To me, formal dining room equals a good sized space.  We only used two of the bedrooms.  We had a guest room and office upstairs, but they ended up being more of catch-all rooms.  We managed to get rid of A LOT of stuff.  We had to make 4 bedrooms of stuff fit in a 2 bedroom apartment. Did I mention that this apartment has 1 storage closet (slightly bigger than a typical coat closet) and 1 linen closet?  Yeah.  It’s tight.  How did we do it?  Well, we sold some stuff, but mostly we gave it away.  We posted some furniture via the blog and managed to sell almost all of it within a week.  The remainders were sold via Craigslist.  That was a good little chunk of change in the ‘ole pocketbook.  I tried taking some clothes to the consignment shop, but they rejected most of it (they’re really picky; some of it was wrinkled. Seriously.).  I made a rule that once it left the house it didn’t come back in, ever.  It all lived in my car until we took everything to the Salvation Army. 

We sold some of Tu’s stuff in the garage sale (not much), and took the rest to our local Crisis Nursery.  They do great work for mothers in need.  It makes me smile knowing the stuff we donated is making the caretakers’ lives just a little easier.  The toys might also be putting some smiles on tiny faces.  Once I packed her room and realized how much I missed while sifting through for the garage sale, we had another good sized lot to take over to the nursery.  Next we’re taking her bottles and leftover formula.  My baby is a toddler!

Mama and I (with a little help from my friend Liz) ended up painting every room in the apartment.  The existing wall color was a little too close to the color of skin, and one wall (an accent wall, I guess) in Tu’s room was hunter green. That took a good two weekends of work.  You notice every single wall and trim issue while you’re doing that.  Let’s just say the previous tenants were not as precise painters as Mama and me.  I might be painting the trim come spring.  

That is just one of many apartment projects on my list.  I have definitely bitten off more than I can chew. My goal with this place is to really make it feel like home.  We have every intention of staying here until all our debt is paid.  I don’t want to move again unless it’s a house that we own.  I have a theory: if I put a lot of work into our apartment, I’ll want to stay longer.  I’ve moved at least every year since I was 17.  I get the 1 year itch for some change.  I’ll just have to find said change elsewhere; new curtains maybe.  Here is my current project list:

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Make mason jar storage for bathroom.

Put up wallpaper as pseudo-backsplash in kitchen.

 Paint side table for living room.

Paint bistro table and stools?

Hang curtain rods and curtains in bedrooms.

 Paint dresser.

 Finish gallery wall in living room.

Frame chalkboard on living room wall.

Paint island/refinish top.

Re-organize kitchen cabinets.

Figure out a pantry?

Put hardware on cabinets?

Paint doors and trim

Spray paint door knobs.

Hang light in living room attached routed switch.

I might be insane. Stay tuned for the exciting conclusion!  Will she get any of these done??? 

Have Baby, Will Travel

When my grandma and aunt offered to pay for Zach, Turner, and my flight to visit in Florida, I was instantly excited.  I saw nothing stopping me from saying, “YES!”  Zach was a little more hesitant.  He was understandably worried about traveling with a 9 month old.  I found that with a good amount of planning, we had a successful trip!  It’s exhausting to travel with a baby, but seeing her face when she sat on the beach for the first time made it so worth it.

THE FLIGHT:

My number one fear was of Tu having a meltdown on the plane because of her ears popping.  I’m a very nervous flier, add my baby screaming, and I might have had a meltdown too.  Luckily, Tu’s very favorite activity is meeting new people.  That kept her more than occupied for the flights (we were also lucky to have direct flights each way).    If her ears were popping, she didn’t notice.  Trust me, I didn’t just hope for the best.  I made plans.  

• We brought enough formula for 3 bottles.  She typically eats every 4 hours or so, and it was a 2 hour flight.  I think we were covered.  I planned on her having two small bottles during takeoff and landing to avoid the ear popping.  I gave her the first bottle on the way up, and she was asleep on the way down (and didn’t wake up until we were leaving the plane).  WIN!  I used the same plan on the way home, and I am happy to say she never acted like her ears were bothering her.
• I downloaded some shows on my phone.  She’s obsessed with The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  I had a couple of those ready to go.  
• We had different toys/books in the diaper bag.  It turned out that her favorite toy was the key decoration on my purse.  
• We made goodie bags for the passengers around us.  They included two fun sized candy bars, gum, and ear plugs.  Everyone around us really liked it, and one woman even said she should give hers back since Tu was so good.  
• I made sure we had Ziploc baggies in the diaper bag in case of a stinky diaper (yeah, that happened).  
• We packed plenty of snacks.  

Tutu watched all of about 3 minutes of Mickey Mouse, and spent the rest of the time smiling and talking to the people around us.  

Once we landed (huge relief), the car seat battle began.  I have never been so thankful for our car seat bases.  Every time we left the house, I had to buckle in that car seat.  I feel bad for the parents of the pre-base days.  I bet they built up some killer back muscles.  All-in-all, that was the worst part of traveling with a baby.  

Since we went from the Central to Eastern time zones, we opted to not change Tu’s schedule.  It was only an hour ahead, so that meant she went to bed later and slept later.  Okay by us!  She usually goes to bed around 8:30 or 9, and I get her up at 6 every morning.  She’s a pretty good sleeper, so the scenery change didn’t disrupt her much.  She would get restless in the early morning, so we’d just put her in bed with us.  She’d sleep a few more hours and wake up smiling.  I think the issue was the bed we got for her.  It was a tiny, pop-up tent.  There was a pad that snapped on the outside of the bottom (no suffocation hazard), but it wasn’t very thick.  She was basically sleeping on the floor.  I had to make it up to her with mama-snuggles.  (I know that’s not the best thing to do, and trust me, I’m a very nervous mother.  She’s a pretty big girl, so I wasn’t really worried about rolling over on her.  I was mostly awake, anyway.)

We stayed at my grandma’s  house, and that was a huge plus.  We were able to spread out, and I was able to execute my BEST TIP: Order supplies ahead of time, and have them shipped to the place you’re staying.  Wow, this saved so much luggage space!  We shipped diapers and wipes (The Honest Company, where we usually get that stuff), formula (Target), baby wash and lotion (Target), and sunscreen (Target).  Instead of rushing out to Target as soon as we got there, we were able to relax.  We also avoided forgetting anything, or risking the Sarasota Target not having something.  (No joke, we bought the very last canister of soy formula last Saturday at our Target, so, it’s possible.)  This is definitely my numero uno suggestion!

Do you have any baby-travel-tips you absolutely can’t live without?  

GARAGE SALE!!! DEBT SNOWBALL UPDATE!!!!

​Last week was it!  We finally had a garage sale!  I think Zach and I moved boxes labeled “garage sale” to three different houses.  Well, that stuff is out, and it is out for good!  Our biggest category by far was baby stuff.  Tu grows like a weed, so we had clothes up to 12 months and all her little baby stuff (*tear).  Out with the old, in with the…well, I guess the new us!  We’re using all the proceeds to get out of debt, not buy stuff to replace the stuff we sold.  We already sold some larger items (see our post from May 8th), but I had no desire to take picture after picture of all of the outfits Turner has outgrown.  While we know things don’t always go to plan, Zach and I aren’t planning on having any more babies for quite a while.  By then, even if we had another girl, all the stuff would be super outdated.  Some concerns over us selling as much as possible have been brought to my attention.  Right now, the best thing we can do, not only for Turner but our future children as well, is get out of debt.

Prep:  My family used to have a HUGE garage sale at my Mamaw’s (that’s Southern for “Grandma”) house every year.  I don’t think any of us are particularly sentimental about our stuff, so we had no shortage of things to sell.  My mom let me keep the money from my sales which I would promptly spend at either our saleor others in the neighborhood.  I remember them fondly.  

  Fast-forward 15 years later, and now I actually have to go through the stuff and decide what to get rid of.  I usually purge clothes about once a year (if I didn’t wear it in a year, I probably don’t need it), and I went on a mad spree after Tu was born.  I never wanted to see maternity clothes again! Poof, gone. Tu’sstuff is easier, because it doesn’t fit her, so she has zero use for it.  I saved a couple special pieces (the outfit she came home in, some shoes) and the rest is out of our lives!  Zach did a great job of going through alllllll his books (trust me, all those “l”s are necessary). Together, we had one part of a multi-family sale!

  Advertising is key in having a good turnout.  Our local, free newspaper has a garage sale section that’s updated every week.  We’ve gone to that section to find sale before, and we’re sure we’re not the only ones.  Mama bought an ad to run the week before and the week of the sale.  She also put up colorful signs not only on her street (where it intersects the main street and a guiding sign a little further down) but also at Kroger and Walmart.  Zach and I posted on Facebook about it the morning of the beginning of the sale.  In hindsight, we should have been posting every day that week.  

  The turnout was good on Thursday, okay on Friday, and virtually non-existent on Saturday.  We couldn’t believe it.  Then we drove up the street.  Someone had taken down our signs at the intersection and halfway down the road.  We were bummed.  Of course, we didn’t discover this until the sale was over.

We made $112 dollars.  We were hoping for closer to $200, butit’s $112 we didn’t have before!  We took all the baby stuff that didn’t sell to the Crisis Nursery.  It is a fantastic charity that offers free daycare and services to mothers that are out of options.  They offer everything donated for free to these women. I volunteered there in junior high, and it was an amazing experience.  They were super grateful and even showed us around the facility!  I couldn’t be happier with our choice to donate to them. Don’t live in the Peoria area?  They have locations nationwide!  Google it!

  We had a furniture piece that didn’t sell, and my cousin took it for their Alzheimer’s Benefit auction that they throw every year.  She actually donated all of her sales to the Alzheimer’s Foundation.  We can’t wait to do that someday when we’re out of debt.

So, it did not go as well as we hoped.  Things we learned:

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Post on Facebook till people block you because you’re so annoying.

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Location, location, location isn’t just for selling real estate. Have garage sales in a visible place.  Exception: a neighborhood sale.

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Make sure you have a lot/most of the stuff sitting out in the driveway/on the sidewalk.  There’s something a little creepy about going in someone’s dark garage.

  Mama and my Aunt Diana did a great job of keeping the sale organized, and Mama is great with haggling.  We had our best people on the job, and we just didn’t get the traffic we expected.  But, I guess now we know!

  Zach is listing books and DVDs we didn’t sell.  Look for a post on that soon!

 

DEBT SNOWBALL UPDATE!!!

Turner is officially paid off!!!  In other words, my hospital bill from Tu being born is paid in full!  We have moved on to my smallest student loan.  We started attacking it about a week and a half ago, and it has gone from over $900 down under $500!  Woo!  It’s happening!