Work Smart - Not Hard

We eat a lot of cheese. In fact, Brant once dared to ask me if I wouldn't mind trying some new recipies that weren't so "heavy" (apparently the cheese was slowing him down). Or maybe it was the fact that it was such a hassle for him to grate all that cheese by hand (that was usually his job - along with any onion chopping).
.
But now, with the thanks to a 20% off coupon to Bed Bath & Beyond, another 20% Kitchen Aid manufacturer rebate on attachments, and the the remaining balance of a gift card - I've invested in this sweet attachment to our Kitchen Aid mixer.




















We tried it out this afternoon and it took about 15 seconds to shred half a pound of cheese! It will be even harder to cut back on cheese recipies now! (Sorry Brant...)

I love Kitchen Aid.

By the way, have a Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

(click the pics for the full effect of the text :)

Can you...

eat an entire box of Cuties in a 24 hour time period?

I can.

It's what happens when your husband is on a trip and your alone wth a box of them in your kitchen.

a babymoon!

We've been wanting to take one last small trip before our baby makes her arrival next month. And since we're in Georgia now, we're got a plethora of new places around to visit aren't too close, but not too far away to travel to. Brant took it upon himself to plan everything and (at least tried) to keep it a secret until one night the other week as we were drifting off to sleep when he casually mentioned "Oh, and we're going to Callaway Gardens (a "13,000 acre Pine Mountain Resort and center of enrichment that offers endless opprtunities for adventure, discovery, and recreation") for our babymoon."

Well, there went that suprise ;)

Last week he had Tuesday and Wednesday off so we made the hour drive down to Callaway Gardens and enjoyed a low key day of:

(1) Visiting The Butterfly Garden

You wouldn't know from looking at this picture, but when this little guy opens his wings, he's got a beautiful blue color inside. Too bad he was more interested in eating the orange than in showing off for the camera.

(2) Strolling through the Virginia Callaway Discovery Center

(3) Watching the outdoor show Birds of Prey

Did you know that owls can't move their eyeballs - hence the reason they can turn their necks at such degrees?

(4) Walking through the Sibley Horticulture Center (Brant was pretty excited here since he recognized a lot of plants that he's been learning about lately with his landscaping research)

(5) And taking a short drive through some of the nature trails (the bikes would have been fun to rent to ride through the trails, but will have to wait until we can latch a baby trailer to back of one)

(6) After checking into the Mountain Creek Inn and enjoying a pizza dinner as the only customers in their lounge, we headed back for the best part - Fantasy in Lights -meaning a sweet hour ride in the Jolly Trolley enjoying all the Christmas lights throughout Callaway Gardens.

A short little outing, and since we went in the middle of the week, everything was super low key and we were happy to avoid the weekend crowds and busier days that are here now with Christmas just around the corner.

If your in the business

of selecting a baby name (now or in the near future) you may find this article interesting: predictions of the top ten baby names for both boys and girls for 2019 (since many parents want to know which names that sound fresh and stylish today might be headed for overexposure tomorrow).

Note of interest: We may or may not have had a name listed in the article that we have now crossed off our list of baby names.

It's the simple things in life

That humor me most.

Like this afternoon when I glanced down and realized my car had reached 123,456 miles on the odometer.













(Let's pretend that the last number on the odometer is a 6 and not an 8. Or that I really missed the 123,456 by two miles - because I may or may not have been waiting for the past 200 miles to reach this milestone.)

Ta Da!!

So remember the other week when I said we had a Ta Da post comming up soon?

Let's just say the word "soon" is a subjective word :)

Anyways, back at the beginning of this year, I had a goal to learn how to play the church hymns by the end of the year. And since I had gotten a Best Buy gift card from KLAS back when I still worked with them, I took it and invested in a sweet Yamaha key board. Except when we were living in an apartment in Utah, we had no where to set it up except on the kitchen table and then box it up and put it up in the closet when I was done.

Now that we live in a house and have room to spread our wings (and our stuff), I've been looking for ways to fill our space. And this sweet idea was perfect for setting up a keyboard.

So, I enlisted Brant's help...

He researched and researched and figured out how to go about it. He bought some wood from Lowe's, took some sandpaper, and got to work.














Brant LOVES his power tool!














After lots of measuring, sanding, drilling, and spraypainting, he had a finished product! So then we went to Craigslist and found exactly what we were looking for - a beat up plain wood piano bench that was up for grabs.

After picking up the bench, more sanding, and more spraypainting....

Ta Da!!

Thanks for the sweet idea, Crafty Nest! For all the wood, materials, and piano bench, this project cost about $65. (You can't even buy just an unfinished sofa table for that price!)

And now, reason number 16 we love being homeowners-

We can take a spare white room in our home like this one:














And again, enlist the help of a handsome husband- this time with painting the wall:














And then enlist the help of our new, very talented friend Christine:

Add a crib, and... Ta Da!

A room for our baby! (none of these photos have been resized - click the photo for details on the mural.)

We still have work left to do on this baby's room (bedding, curtains, and more furniture are still in the works, but some people were getting a little anxious about seeing this post before I got to those parts ;)

By the way, if you live in the Atlanta area and are looking for a mural painter, Christine is terrific and very reasonably priced. I can send her contact info for anyone looking.

Lastly, I found this tree blossom design online, but don't know who it belongs to - if its yours, let me know so I can give you credit and major props on a pretty design!

Tired of seeing

the Woot! post below from the other week yet? The Ta-da! post is comming soon- I promise :)

Woot! Woot!

I've had some pretty good couponing trips lately (triple coupons at Food Lion - weird name, I know - earlier this week was pretty exciting), and I know I said I wouldn't ever do this again- but today I hit up Rite Aid for the second time this week and put these four things in my cart and headed to the check out stand -














Once the lady rang every thing up and was about to tell me the total (we were having small chit chat), I casually mentioned "Oh, I have some coupons for you."

One by one, she scanned each coupon in. After she scanned the last coupon, she looked back at the total and, with eyes wide, turned to me and said "55 cents! WOW!" Then she turned to the worker and manager at the register next to hers and exclaimed "Her total is 55 cents for this!"

She was a friendly woman and since the screen to the register was big enough for me to see too, I pointed to the numbers and nonchalantly mentioned "Actually....I think you owe me 55 cents." (That doesn't include the $4 in rebates from that transaction I'll get back in the mail).

The lady was pretty excited. After studing the screen for a second and realizing that my coupons actually did bring me to a negative total of .55, she was amazed. But Rite Aid must have some policy because she said that she couldn't give me money back from the register.

I told her that was perfectly fine as I picked up the items she placed in the bag (now that I think about it I should have grabbed something else in the 55 cents range). She kept saying "Tell all your friends! Tell all your friends!" I told her I definately would.

And then I left the store smiling.

And I mean really smiling.

P.S. This is not the ta-da post.

Us

So maybe I've lost a little steam for blogging lately - but we're still alive and kickin' (especially this baby!)

Today was the last day of tax classes for me. After I take the online test to pass the certification I'll post a few really interesting things that I learned - including surprising tax deductions that I had no idea of before.

We've also got a fun Ta-Da post comming up soon. Stay tuned :)

We Survived the Swine of '09

If I were a drugstore (and actually had stock of the vaccine), I'd advertise that we had H1N1 shots with this slogan in the windows.

I'm a believer in flu shots and try to get them every year. Especially this year with a baby arrival expected in the thick of a rampid flu season. Some people aren't comfortable with this vaccine and that is hasn't been tested long enough. I brought it up during our last doctors visit and got the confirmation that yes, this would be a good thing to get. I felt comfortable with that.

Last week I was watching the local news on a night where they dedicated half of their broadcast to the swine flu. The news station had added a page to their website of places they had found in the metro Atlanta area that had stock of H1N1 shots- and we were in luck! Our county's health department would be getting in a shipment of H1N1 shots at 10am the next morning and then have an open clinic from 1-3pm that day for people to come get them.

Brant was such a trooper about it- he definately is not a fan of getting shots, but I was able to convince him that with all the people he comes in contact with at work, that flu shots may not be a bad idea for him. Meaning both the seasonal flu shot and the H1N1 shot. I'm not paranoid- just prepared. Plus I've already had a mild cold that lasted about two weeks and do not look forward to the possiblity of becomming even more sick at the same time of having a new baby.

If your a believer in the flu vaccine and live in the Atlanta Metro area, go here for a list of available places with the H1N1 shot.

Our Anti- climatic Halloween

With the drizzly/rainy weather, Halloween was a little bit of a bust this year. The ward's chili/ trunk or treat was moved inside and folks just lined the hallways giving out candy instead of the kids going from trunk to trunk (but talk about efficiency! those kids all left with loads of candy!)

Although we did start a new way of carving pumpkins this year- with a power drill! And I didn't even catch any pics of it.

So instead here's a black & white pic of nothing to do with Halloween:




















28 weeks down (that's six months), 12 to go (that's three months) . . .

Taken Saturday afternoon on the back porch. In between rainfalls we had a little sunshine- maybe that's why I'm squinting so much and have a funny face expression on my face...?

A couple points of interest:

This baby thinks she's really cute when she settles in and sits on her mama's bladder. And refuses to move for hours at a time causing her mom numerous trips to the bathroom (does anyone else average 6 bathroom trips a night?).

This baby girl also loves to excercise. The treadmill, weights, and circuits are all ok, but she especially gets excited and likes to participate in my aerobic classes. And when we're watching Dancing with the Stars.

Have a Great One!

We're spending this Halloween day carving pumpkins, buying candy, baking cornbread, and getting our car trunk ready for this evening's ward Trunk-Or-Treat/ chili contest. I'll be back on Monday with the deets.

Sweet Stuff

Since I'm off my couponing hiatus (and made another $20 this week at Rite Aid after 'purchasing' a plethora of cold and flu remedies that were free on rebate at Rite Aid) I've come across a couple of useful free poromo offers (opposed to free junk).

Remember the first time that you saw the infomercial or heard about Snuggies? I laughed. And definately never would have thought that they would become all the rage- but they have! And since its your lucky day, click on over to here and get a Snuggie of your very own for free! (Including free shipping).

I'll plan on having a movie/snuggie party once everyone gets theres too :)

Or, if your like us and are getting ready to be first time parents, go here to to get your Free 11 issue subscription to Parenting Early Years Magazine.

Back in the Game

Remember this post when I offically went on a couponing hiatus? And that one of only two ways that I would start using coupons again is if we moved out of the state of Utah (where couponing is super trendy) and to a place where couponing was still underutilized?

Well guess what.

I'm back in the game.

And yes, I'm a geek.

Now, I don't generally take what I've bought and then set them up on the kitchen table to take photos (because we all know that there is an overload of folks that already do that on their blogs- in fact I'm sure there is someone else somehwere posting this exact photo on their blog) but this is just to illustrate why couponing is a fun game to me (and I won't bore you with the tedious details on how I saved it all or post a photo like this again- promise!)

All this:














(My favorites are the Gillette battery powered razor, lip balm, heating pads, and cough drops)

Normal Cost: $71

Now, not only did I get all of the above pictured for free, but after coupons and rebates I got back $27!

I know what your thinking- "That's nice, but come on- nasal spray and Poligrip? Why would you even waste your time- who cares if its free if your not going to use it?"

And the reason is- is because they are free on rebates, I can also use my $3.00 off coupons and make money by simply buying it. And then somewhere down the line I'll eventually figure out what I could use Poligrip for.

Plus, it was the most pleasant shopping/ couponing experience I've had- a friend and I rolled into Rite Aid almost an hour after it opened, where we were the only ones in the store- and the shelves were still stocked full of all these products. In my past experience (and why I went on a couponing hiatus back in Utah), was that unless you could go Monday morning and were waiting at the store when it opens, the shelves will be wiped out within a matter of minutes.

No joke.

But like I said before, I'm a geek. And this kind of stuff excites me :)

Oh, and P.S. - if you want to know how exactly I got the stuff above with rebates and coupons, just let me know.

Hi Ho... Hi Ho

It's back to class I go...

Tax class, that is.

When we moved to Georgia (and with a baby on the way), I would often get the question from folks if I were still going to work. My thoughts were - sure. But on the stipulation that if I can find a part time job that could be super flexible with hours and still be challenging enough (but not stressful) of a job for me to want to do it, I'd totally be up for it.

The other day I was skimming the local newspaper and found that Liberty Tax (you know- the ones that have the Statue of Liberty wavers outside during tax season) was looking for tax preparers for the up comming season. I gave them a call, and after leaving a quick message about the experience I had and wanting to maybe pursue an opportunity with them, I got a call back from the owner of the Liberty Tax franchise in town asking if I would be interested in not being a tax preparer- but doing the marketing and bringing in business for their location. That would mean starting in January, I would work 10-15 hours a week (up to 30 if I really wanted). And that if I also wanted to be a tax preparer on the side, I could do that as well.

Ding, ding, ding, ding!!

Talk about excellent timing. But, what do I do from now until January? I've had lots of folks mention that between moving into a house and preparing for a baby (including the Moms in Motion fitness class for expecting moms that the hospital offers that I enrolled in) that I'd have plenty to keep me busy... but well, it hasn't. And in the meantime, Brant is keeping busy with keeping up with the yard and making small home improvements (he's outside pressure washing the house and driveway as I type this).

And since I'd like to understand and actually learn how to do taxes (and not just pass them on to someone else to do each year- even if it's Brant) I enrolled in their (free) tax class that meets twice a week, three hours each time, and lasts for the next month and a half. We've met twice so far and I'm learning TONS! Its actually pretty neat.

Needless to say that Brant is definately in favor of me learning to do taxes because it means that he doesn't have to do them anymore. And I'm always wondering what is out there that we can use as a tax deduction that we're not already aware of (because there's tons! the cost of dry cleaning work uniforms, anyone?)

And we'll just see how this works out. The due date for this baby is January 23 (right as tax season starts) but the franchise owner can be flexible with that and let me pick my own hours and then I could work around Brant's schedule allowing him to be home for one or two hours a day when he's not on trips so that I could do this. And then I wouldn't go stir crazy being home with a baby.

All.

The.

Time.

Don't get me wrong, I mean being a mom is rewarding, I'm sure- and of course that will be my first priority, but I can see that unless I have something else that will keep me at least a little intellectually stimulated (not to mention the adult interaction) that I'll have a little bit of a tough time with the adjustment to being a mom. And one to two (or three at the max) hours a day of work would be perfect.

Yay for this- I'm stoked :)

Oh, and P.S. - now that we've got the internet set up at our place I'll be be able to post more frequently :)

(Finally).... Ta Da!!

Have I kept you in suspense long enough...?

Without further delay, here it is...

In between house hunting and work, Brant has completely torn down and rebuilt the bathroom in my mom's basement (a much welcome change from the outdated early 80's faded blue look it had)

After a few days of hammering, tearing down, chipping away, and hauling away debris, the bathroom looked like this (photos aren't resized and will blow up if you click on 'em):

After 7 weeks of instense internet research, consulting with my uncle the plumber, his pops who is doing a similar bathroom remodel as his place, and (I swear) two daily trips to Home Depot and Lowe's (pretty sure they know Brant by name by now) ... Ta Da!!

The new and amazing basement bathroom! Beautiful floor tile!

And beautiful paint job with the sage green! (One last touch that didn't make in this the above photo is an oval mirror that will hang above this sink.)

The cabinet shelving that he repainted that hangs on the wall to the right of the toilet didn't make it in this shot.

The custom shelves he built between the shower and the wall.

Remember the first two photos of this post? Brant ran into a hurdle (actually, he had a lot of hurdles with this bathroom) and built around the concrete drain to put up the shower.

AMAZING job sweetie! All manual work done by Brant- great, great job!

Oh, and then here's my (much less impressive) ta-da:

A blanket for our baby girl :) My goal was to make this entirely out of materials I already had. A few months ago I had started making an apron with this fabric- I had cut the fabric and started sewing it, but then lost my steam to finish it. Then after we found out we were having a girl, I took the fabric that I had bought for the apron made this quilt instead.

You can tell that I was running out of fabric and had to improvise with a couple of corner squares (and hoping that the flower iron/sew on would cover it up). Then I took some pink satin ribbon I already had and finished the binding. But don't be fooled- I had a lot of help from my mom on the cutting and binding and from borrowed quilting frames courtesy of Ma Harrison- who took some time to help with the tying :)

But for the most exciting ta-da....

We're officially homeowners!!

(That's the key we're both holding)

Last Friday afternoon at precisely 5pm, we signed the last of the papers for this home :)

We have (both) worked (very hard from scratch), saved like crazy fools (since we've been married for the past two years.... call us old fashioned but we're believers in putting down 20% for a home), did (lots) of research on home buying, waited till the best time to buy....and now it's paying off.

We are so excited- this home couldn't be more perfect for us.

Some of our favorite things...

-Located in Newnan, GA (a quick 20 minute interstate drive to the Atlanta airport)

-3 bedroom, 2 full bath (not too big, not too small, and perfect for starting a family)

-2 car garage that is hidden to the house (meaning that looking at the house you can't see the garage door that takes up half of the house.. that was a big one for me)

- built on a .8 acre lot (that's almost a full acre for Brant's garden)

-a cute little shed in the back yard with matching shutters to the home (and a

place for Brant to keep his gardening and other tools)

-Wood fenced in back yard

-Screened in back porch with sun shades (perfect for BBQs and watching thunderstorms pass through)

- Vaulted ceilings with ceiling fans (and an open floor plan)

- built in 2002 (quirks from a brand new home have been worked out and lanscaping done... well, except a few plants in front of the house that need to be pulled out).

We actually have room for entertaining guests now! Come on over everyone :)

Okay Pops- you can breath now. This post is done.

Stay tuned...

I've got some Ta Da! posts comming from both Brant and I tomorrow...

Update: hang tite- I love that Blogger isn't letting me upload photos for the second night in a row ;)

So.

Baby names.

Wait, let me back up.

Up until we found out that we were having a baby girl, the question that I was asked most frequently was "Are you going to find out what it is?" as well as "When do you find out what it is?"

Now that we know the answer to that question, the most frequent question I get is "Have you thought of any names?"

No. Nope. None.

I think that naming a baby is a really big responsibility - so big that we both decided to procrastinate even thinking about it until after we knew what we were having. Now that it's been a few weeks since we found out, we're still procrastinating. And we better get crackin!

Here's the dilemma: choosing a baby name that is unique but not too trendy, that none of your friends/family already have, and that neither you nor your husband associate (especially negatively) with someone they already know.

And then, once you do have a name picked out, your faced with another dilemma: Should we tell people what it is when they ask? I'm leaning toward that answer to that being no... and here's why-

(1) Someone else may steal your baby name (not the biggest concern I have because, in reality, I feel for the baby who will have to go their whole lives knowing that the best their parents could do was take someone else's baby name).

(2) If you do tell others the name you've thought of, you run the risk of having to see their reaction. On one hand they may like it- on the other hand they may (unknowingly) make make a face and then proceed to tell you who they know by that name and are you really going to name your kid that? As if naming a baby wasn't a big enough responsibility, I definitely could do without double guessing myself once we actually do decide on one. But once the kid is born and the name is definite all they can do is smile and nod...

We'll come up with one and it will be a good one - but in the meantime I'm not asking for suggestions - mainly because you may have one that we've kind of already thought of (and I don't want you to get the impression that we stole your name!)

So instead, I'm asking how did you (or your parents, friends, etc.) decide on baby names? I'm a believer in having, especially the middle name, some kind of significant meaning (my middle name Diane is after my mom's friend who brought her into the church), but other than that I got nothing :)

(Extendend) Weekend Wrap

It has recently been brought to my attention that my postings have been sporadic lately.

I can't say that I haven't noticed that too... Anyways, here's what we were up to this weekend- its text heavy since I didn't have my camera with me.

Friday evening - Since Brant was going to be on a trip over the weekend, I made plans with Rissa to go to the Women's Expo going on at UVU (meaning a weekend trip out to Utah). Arriving in Salt Lake later than planned on Friday evening, we made a dinner stop at Jason's Deli and then called it a night.

Saturday - after an awesome egg and bacon breakfast cooked by John (thanks for letting me hang out with your wife all weekend, by the way) a quick trip to University Mall to check out baby ideas at all the cute kiosks. And then onto the expo!

I love this expo and have gone the past, I think 4 times in a row (it happens every 6 months). This one was the best one yet- they've gotten big enough to outgrow the McKay center on UVU campus and now have booths outside. The first thing we got before even entering the expo from one of the outside booths was a free key safe lock from one of the booths. We made (free) scrapbooking cards, got (free) massages, got my ring cleaned and shined (for free), lots of (free) food samples, and I picked up a few baby things that I haven't seen out here in Georgia yet (those weren't free...but that's ok!)

Ater getting our fill at the Expo, we hit up Costa Vita for lunch (pork salads are the best) and stopped by the hair stylist I was going to in Utah for me to get a trim up/ thinning haircut.

Back to Rissa's place for an afternoon rest... and then a trip up to Thai Pan Trading for a crash course from Rissa on home decorating (remember this post?). I may have been crazy for attempting to bring home so many breakables, but luckily made it back without breaking anything. And once our home closes on the 24th of this month, I'll actually have some home decor!

Afterwards it was already dark outside, so we started to wind down the evening by heading to Provo to drop off my mission photos to a girl that I found on Craigslist that would scrapbook them for me (I think it's about due time to get that done since I've had a box sitting with them for the past 4 years). I'm excited to see how they turn out.

Back to Rissa's for dinner and an episode of Gilmore Girls. Since Rissa and John moved into the apartment we were living in, they have been able to reap the benefits of the garden Brant planted earlier this year (we don't mind- Brant would much rather have left his garden to friends than if strangers had moved in after us). John went out and picked some peppers and jalepenos for me to take back to Brant. Needless, to say, they were fantastic and Brant was stoked.

Sunday morning - back to the Salt Lake airport by 9am and arrived in Dallas where Brant (who was now done with work) picked me up after 1pm. Too late to make it to church at his folk's ward (I'm not a fan of traveling on Sundays, but this was the best way to plan the trip back with the flight options), the rest of the day was spent showing Brant the loot that I collected from the expo, napping, dinner, and visiting with Ma and Pa Harrison.

Monday morning - Brant had brought the baby blanket with him that I have been working on back home and, after hitting up the fabric store for the right batting, we were able to quickly do the tying on it with his mom's quilting frames. Some more visiting, and then back home to Georgia that evening.

I'll see if I can come up with some entertaining posts...