What we love paying for

Yes, that's right, paying. No, not playing or praying. Paying. I have a gym membership to LA Fitness. I have for about three years now. Hardly used it at first. Then got a bit better at going when I was unhappy with myself in respect to my level of fitness and overall outlook on life. Things got a little better. Then got worse and I stopped going, but kept paying. I signed a contract for one year for a personal trainer. It was good the first few months when I was able to really make a weekly schedule and stick with it. Then school, jobs, and life in general changed. And my trainer left. So I had to switch to a new dude - no problem, the new trainer was good too. But I wasn't feeling like I was getting anywhere. Yes, the pounds were coming off and I started looking a bit better, but I wasn't too happy inside. And that's what really matters.

Then I got pregnant. Awesome! But that changes how you need to workout and do particular movements and stretches. So I switched trainers again. This time to a lady who had previously trained other pregnant women and who worked out a lot herself when she was pregnant with both of her two kids. So I was thinking this may work out a bit better. And boy did it! My trainer is awesome. I've been with her since last November. I even continued a contract for sessions with her, knowing I would have to take some time off when Sadie was born and start back up again. I've even met with her outside of the gym - she used to do a boot camp type of series in a local park. I did that until I was 38 weeks pregnant. I felt great. I had tons of energy. My pregnancy was near effortless and I contribute a lot of that to having stayed fit and active throughout. I've met with her at my house and her house for personal sessions as well. And I met with her today at the gym for one of the official sessions that I've been paying for and accumulating while I've been pregnant and away from the gym. Let me just say I love paying for someone to kick my butt for me. I love someone encouraging me to better myself. I love someone who makes me feel good about myself whether I'm near my goal weight and muscle toned body or not. I love paying for my trainer. But that's not all she is to me. It's sad to say, but I would not change it for the world - I love paying for my friend. Thanks Julie!

In a perfect world

I try not to follow trends for the shear fact of following them to be “in”. But I do follow them and participate if there could be a possibly great outcome for me. With that being said, numerous articles, blog posts, and discussions in general lately have been focusing on budgeting and monetary issues. I don’t have but a few issues of blowing money left and right, but I’ve always seem to be okay afterwards. Seeing that the three of us live solely off of my husband’s income, I think we’re doing just fine with two cars, two motorcycles, a baby, a house, and the normal variety of bills. Oh, did I mention that we are putting nearly a full week’s pay into savings every month automatically? It doesn’t even see our checking account - direct deposit to savings accounts ius awesome. Did I mention that neither of us have any school loans/debt from school? Woohoo. We do have a few small odds and ends on either Home Depot or Lowes credit lines, but all on 12 month no payments no interest deals that we pay off later without any problems. Our biggest problem is the random Target or Walmart runs, or the “ooh, look what I found – that’s cool – I’m going to get it” item that ends up sitting on the shelf somewhere and no being used. It’s got to stop. I’m working on it.

In a perfect world, I would only spend money on groceries that I know I would eat, necessities (bath supplies, etc), and bills. Yes, and unfortunately, bills. Some are required – mortgage, electric, water, alarm, house phone, and internet. Yes – the internet is required – unless you live on campus and can mooch off of the school all the time. Not here though. Other bills are comforts – cell phones*, tv, gym memberships, satellite radio, Netflix. *Cell phones – piss me off. You have to have them these days just to function. But to most people, they are an umbilical cord. Do you really need to be able to check your email on your phone or surf the web for an addition $40-50 a month? You lazy bastard – go to a computer! If you need directions to somewhere, write them down before you leave. Duh.

So yesterday, I spent my entire morning on the phone with Dish Network and AT&T. Dish Network is a bunch of crap, but sadly I won’t live without it. I was looking to switch to a lower bill somehow – drop some channels, view programming packages etc. Because paying nearly $100 a month for tv that we watch maybe 3 hours a night during the week and a little bit on the weekends (minus the multiple hours spent watching football games) isn’t seeming worth it to me anymore. So by browsing Dish’s website, I noticed a few new packages, etc., and called to switch the services I was paying for. But, come to find out, Dish Network is crap. The new lovely packages that would chop my monthly bill in half are NOT available to current customers. Translation – loyalty has no value anymore. Bastards. And what’s worse is that to be considered a new customer, you have to not have Dish for at least 6 months. Ridiculous.


AT&T is a whole other pot of crap. We have to have a home phone line for the alarm and the internet. Fine, no problem. Love my internet – we’re already on the lowest plan for the speeds that we want. Slow internet is not cool. The only calls I ever make from our home line are to order pizza and the occasional service call for some other issue. The vast majority of incoming calls are solicitors. And even then, it’s maybe 10 times a week max that my home phone rings all week – yes, I mean week. So I called AT&T to drop my services to the bare minimum – I don’t need long distance – that’s what cell phones are for. I don’t need call waiting – most people have my cell number anyway. Come to find out that when I called, the old plan that we were on was the same price as the lowest new plan, but with only half the features. So why have I been paying for features that I am not entitled to? Don’t you think that somebody would have noticed that at AT&T and called me to update my services? No. Jerks. So I moved some features around and changed plans, and saved a whopping $3. Great, enough to buy that one extra roll of toilet paper per month that I’ve been desperately needing. Translation – not enough difference to even phase me, but hey $3 is $3, so I’ll take it.

So what expenses do you think you could cut back on? What bills do you think you could really live without? I’m sure if I wanted to really make a difference I could do without Netflix, or the gym membership my husband never uses, or eating out so much, or all the tv channels I don’t watch, or the random Target runs for crap that I don’t need. Heck, even the gas for those Target runs is something that I can cut back on… granted I live about 1 mile from Target, but hey – gas is gas. Time to reevaluate my needs versus comforts – especially if we need to save more for our little SadieMo. Or pay off our house. Or hopefully move in about 3-5 years and be able to pay for more than half of our new house in cash. That would be nice. In a perfect world.

Pumpkin squatting

It's the only name I could come up with to describe the position Sadie was in when I took the following pictures of her today at the FW Zoo. She's not able to sit up on her own just yet, but she does try. She just needed a little assistance from a nearby pumpkin.



On a side note, we (the fam - Thomas, Sadie, and I) went to the FW Zoo today with K and her boys to meet with one of her friends and fam. Fun stuff. It was fun. It'll be even more fun when Sadie can participate more than being pushed around in her stroller or the short while that we carried her around outside of her prison, oops I mean car seat. I feel like we just cart her around in that thing. I need to get her out more often. But I do miss my hands at times to do with as I please. Ahh - the joys of motherhood.

Sweet Tooth - and I don't mean sugar

So life has been a bit rough for me lately, particularly in not getting things done that I want to do. Example - sleep through the night. Now I realize that my previous post stated that Sadie was sleeping through the next for the most part.... that was until Thursday night when all hell seemed to have broken loose. Then Friday was horendous... Friday night - unbearable. I ended up sleeping in her room on the floor for the two hours of sleep that I did get. *Quick note - this isn't the first time that I've ended up on her floor. But now the pieces have fallen in places that let me see the whole picture. Sadie is teething. Crazy, I know, especially at such an early age. But it's true - all the signs point to it. The drooling. All over the place. The fussing. The new ear piercing cries that she has learned, particular next to my head when I am holding her. The hard time to eat and wiggle simultaneously. The fist and finger chomping and sucking. Oh, but I love her dearly, yessiree Bob. Let's just hope she doesn't learn to chomp too much just yet. I don't want to feel like I have great hooters that serve as chew toys... just yet at least.

Sleep is nice, but ...

Sadie has slept through the night twice in a row now. Which is fantastic, and worrisome at the same time. Let me explain. Fantastic - woohoo! I can get some sleep and not have to wake up every few hours to change her diaper, listen to her cry, or feed her. Worrisome - ditto the last sentence. After nine weeks, I've gotten used to waking up every few hours to check on her. If she's quiet for too long or I haven't visually checked in on her, I get worried like something is wrong. And my poor boobs get really full. I may have to start trying to pump in the middle of the night because after about three or four hours of Sadie sleeping, I'm super full and can't sleep because I can't roll around to get comfortable without squashing myself. Argh. But, overall, I'm glad Sadie is learning how to sleep for longer periods of time. She needs all the rest she can get seeing she's growing so stinking fast!

On a side note, job hunting sucks when there aren't that many positions in the field I want to get in. And it sucks even more when people take FOREVER to reply back. What's worse is when people don't let you know that the position has already been filled. Jerks. Oh well. I called one place yesterday that I interviewed with, only to find out that the position was filled. Suck. Then I called the people that I interviewed with first, which has now been a full month since the interview. They say the want me, but have to make sure that they have enough workload to bring me on - meaning they are waiting to land a few more contracts with other places first. Then, this morning I get an email from another place that has been taking its sweet precious time in getting back to me, saying that they have my resume and it will be reviewed "in the next week or so". We'll see. I'm hoping to get something lined up because at this point I feel that all of my hard work through school was a waste of time and too much money. Argh. Somebody please hire me!

Ahh.. the Halloween spirit.

My favorite time of year. The decorations, the fun, the weather. Awesome. Today, everybody (Paul, Le, Patsy, Eric, Kristie, Derick, Jackson, Patrick, Brittany, Thomas, Sadie, and I) went to a pumpkin patch with a corn maze out in Grapevine. It was fun. Sadie wasn't too happy at some times, but that can be contributed to her being sick and throwing up all over me twice since yesterday, probably from her shots. But she was really good overall. We decided to carry her around outside of her car seat because we cart her around in that thing like she's hazardous material. Which she is at sometimes, especially when she fills diapers left and right, so full that there's no white to be seen, and at times even explodes out of it, oozing everywhere and filling her belly button. Gross, yet hilarious at the same time. All she thinks, probably, is that all systems - check. Haha. Glad to know her innards are working properly. I got a few good pictures on our camera, but what stunk was that our battery was just about out so I had to be very selective when I used the camera. But that's why everybody and their dog has cameras, so I'll just get a few other good pictures from the ones that everybody else took today. Ahh, family sharing at its finest. Hooray for Halloween!

My sweet Sadie

Sadie had her two month check up yesterday - weight check, length check, head circumference check, general vitals, all followed by a few shots. She was fairly good through most of it, until the bandaids at the end. Little punk doesn't realize that it's not the bandaids that hurt, but by the time she registered in her head that her legs hurt from the shots the bandaids were on. Oh well. She's good now. Actually, she's been a bit difficult today. I really want to make sure she is familiar to eating from a bottle in case I'm gone somewhere for a long time, but I can't get her to take a bottle lately. That's regardless of the bottle type or size, nipple type or size, or even how warm or cold the milk is. Argh.

Other than that, it's great to have Thomas home from two weeks out in CA for work. Too bad he came back sick. :-( Lots of thinking to do about a few things and time is not a pressing issue, but definitely one of that factors that is influencing my decisions lately. Oh well... more later.

Is it possible to breed superheroes?

I went to check on Sadie last night while she was sleeping just to make sure she hadn't face planted into some weird position in her bed. And what do you know? She did, sort of. She's learned how to roll over from her back to her sides to almost her stomach, and get's stuck like a little turtle on the backside of its shell. Well, she rolled so much in her crib that she wiggled her way enough to turn 270' around. She was past the reverse direction from which I laid her down in. Super strength in such a super little lady. She will also kick the snot out of your lap and stomach if you don't watch how you are holding her. Two months and stronger than American Gladiators. Maybe she's hiding something from us... maybe she was born on Jupiter and delivered here as my little SadieMo. Who knows. .... Sadly, my small developing bruises do. :-)

Welcome

Welcome to my first attempt at blogging. I'm hoping to get an outlet by writing, well typing really, everything down and getting it out of my head. And to voice my opinion on things - especially when nobody cares to listen or ask.

Quick tidbits about me. I'm a first-time mom to my beautiful daughter Sadie and my husband Thomas' best friend. You could also tack on there the comfiest spot in the house to sit on according to my cats Blue, Red, and Murphy. I used to be insanely involved in marching band - participating in high school, participating and teaching throughout college. But, sadly, not so much any more. College courses and jobs had slowly taken over the time required to maintain that passion. Oh well. Next. Which lately has been home decorating/organizing, which I believe sprung from nesting when I was pregnant with Sadie. But even that has come to a near end because every room in my house is now painted, decorated, fixed up, organized, etc. I admit my closets are occasionally a mess because I just throw things in there, but they do get their "spring" cleaning at times.

I used to be into a lot of fitness activities - racquetball, workout sessions in the park, personal training sessions at a gym three times a week. Of course, that has all fallen to the wayside. I do try to go walking about 2-3 times per week in an attempt to get back into shape. Sadly I was more fit when I was pregnant than I am now two months after Sadie was born. I was the fit preggo lady still working it twice a week until 38 weeks pregnant. And then *poof* no sleep, no time, no energy for me - it all goes to baby! But that's slowly changing as I'm getting the hang of how this mommy thing works - and Sadie is getting better at it too. Enough of that note for now though.

I'm curious to see how often I actually use this blog. Will I be a crazy fanatic and post every day? Or more? Or less? Or much much less? To the point where I forget my login? (That's happened on a few things for me lately... preggo brained still, I tell ya!) We will just have to wait and see.