Colorado Mama: 10/1/07

October 30, 2007

ABC's of Me

Kristin tagged me for the ABC's of me - so here goes!!

A - Anne is my middle name and Mikayla's too.
B - Books - I love them. I am always reading.
C - Colorado - I moved to Colorado 10 years ago and I really don't want to leave. I love the fact that both of my kids will be born here.
D - I have 2 big dogs. Teo is about 90 pounds, a Chocolate Lab mix and Skyler is about 60 pounds a German Shepard Mix. Both are sweet as can be!
E - Exercise - I am always watching my weight and that means exercising!
F - Fun - Who does not want to have fun!
G - Giggle - the only thing next to giant that I can think of right now that starts with G.
H - Hawaii - This is where Joe and I went on our honeymoon and I want to go back. We went to Kauai and the Big Island.
I - Illinois - I was born in Illinois.
J - Joe - the name of my hubby.
K - Kansas - Why can I only match states for these letter??? I moved to Kansas when I was five years old.
L - Loser as in the Biggest Loser - One of my favorite TV shows. I HAVE to watch this every Tuesday night.
M - Mountain Biking. I love mountain biking. I am not great but I can keep up. Before Mikayla was born Joe and I would go out all of the time. Now that I am mama and now that I am pregnant the mountain bike rides are few and far between.
N - Nap - I wish I had more time for naps, instead of just Saturday and Sunday.
O - O - my last name starts with O.
P - Pee - I am doing A LOT of that now. Every hour at least. I tell Mikayla I am going to the bathroom and she says "Mommy, you just went." How is that for a 2 year old!!
Q - Quilt - I wish I could but no machine - at least that is my excuse. My mom made Mikayla a beautiful baby quilt when she was born.
R - Running - I like to run in order to lose weight. But while I was running a lot I would get bored easily. Now that I am not running I miss it. It is also a great way to burn calories!!
S - Stay at Home Mom - I am not but I would love to make it happen - at least part time anyway. I want to see Mikayla and number 2 more.
T - Tiffany is my first name.
U - Umbrella - I don't know one of these.
V - Very, Victor - what else starts with V - It is 3:30 and my brain is shutting down for the day - too bad I have to work until 5pm.
W - Work - My current job title is Legal Assistant - fancy name for Legal Secretary which I don't like.
X - X-Ray - My mom is an X-ray tech.
Y - Yoga - Yoga is what help me lose the baby weight the first time. I am no longer going to a yoga class due to money but I sure do miss it.
Z - Ziegenhorn is my maiden name.

Wow - that is everything. I had trouble with some of these. I should have done this first thing in the morning. Jen, Melissa, and Tigerlily you are tagged.

October 26, 2007

Budget and Money

I need some help. What are your suggestions about saving money when it comes to food? It seems as if I spend over $500 a month for food for a family of 3 - does this sound right??? I have tried coupons but it seems as if I only save a couple of dollars a week using coupons, I do much better when I watch the store sells. I have also the The Grocery Game but this too does not save me a ton on money. It also comes out on Sunday and I like to have my grocery shopping done by Saturday afternoon.

One area that I spend a lot of money in the grocery store is fresh produce. Mikayla loves fresh fruit, apples, peaches, strawberries, melons whatever. I also like to bring fruit to snack on during the day. We also spend money on good whole wheat bread (it needs to have whole grains in it, not enriched wheat flour - which is the same as white flour), extra lean ground turkey, organic milk. I only buy these things because I think they are worth it. The extra lean ground turkey because we don't eat ground beef and don't need that extra fat in out diet. The organic milk is for Mikayla, she does not need to be drinking the hormones that are found in regular milk. If I could afford organic produce all of the time we would be eating that, but I really can't afford that grocery bill.

What are your ideas to save money on groceries.? Also the nearest Sam's Club or Costco is 3 hours away so stocking up there will cost more than it is worth when you figure in gas.

October 22, 2007

6 Months Pregnant

I am now six months pregnant and I cannot believe how big I am and no it is not twins. I was never this big with Mikayla. I am wearing clothes now that I was not wearing until I was eight or nine months pregnant with Mikayla. Even though I am bigger than I was with Mikayla I have only gained about 21 pounds. Wow that sounds like a lot and a few weeks ago I did gain a bunch all at once but it has slowed down again. I am hoping to only gain a total of 30 pounds but I will probably gain more. I also love the fact that my boobs have gone from an A to a C. The last time I was a C I was nursing Mikayla.

In general I feel good. I am still peeing a lot but there have been a few nights that I have slept through the whole night without getting up to pee. I gave up running about a month ago and I am also slowing down on my walks and they are shorter now. I am still trying to do my weight routine because that does not bother me too much. My back is still a bother but I can deal with it most of the time.

I am getting excited to see this little girl growing inside of me. I wish I was at the end of my pregnancy now because I just want to hold this little girl in my hands. But I will be there soon enough, I have 16 weeks left, or if this baby is like Mikayla (which I am hoping for) 13 weeks left.

My sister is coming in next weekend and she is around 17 or 18 weeks pregnant. Everyone is telling me how big she is so we will see. She probably won't like this but we will take a couple of pictures of our bellies and post them for everyone to see!!

Baby Name - Weather

What a blog title huh. Now for the baby name - What does everything think of the name River Anne for a little girl? I really love that name and so does Joe. But Joe says that to name a kid River is being irresponsible - I don't think so - to me it is the first name that I really truly love so far in this hard job of finding a name for the baby.

Now onto weather - it is getting cold. We had snow again this weekend, but only about one inch on Sunday morning. I also start posting how cold it is on the exceptionally cold days. I was shocked this morning that it was 10 degrees!! It is only mid October - it is going to be a cold winter? Last winter was pretty warm so I guess we are do for it but I am not ready for those
-25 days.

October 18, 2007

First Snow of Winter

Yesterday it snowed off an on all day long but nothing stuck. Then last night it snowed and we woke up to 2 inches of the pretty white stuff everywhere. I thought by now (11:30am) most of the snow would be gone but it is sticking to the grass and roofs everywhere. It is so pretty outside. I love most seasons in Colorado. The only season I really don't is Spring - but in Gunnison Spring is not too bad in Crested Butte (1,000 feet difference) it sucks. In CB it is getting warmer and the grass is starting to show, so you decided you want to go for a hike until you find out that there is too much snow and mud to go hiking. I don't mind winter here except I wish it only lasted 2 months instead of five.

What did you wake up to this morning? - Oh Joe called me on his way to work this morning and not only did he have to deal with icy roads but he had to deal with horses. The horses down the street from us got out and were causing trouble running up and down the road - only in a small town in Colorado - normally it is just the cows that get out and cause trouble.

What is your favorite season?

October 17, 2007

House is No Longer Under Contract.

The deal on the house fell through. I know that they had until October 19th to pull out but we were just hoping that it would go through. The couple was scared off by the inspection report and I feel as if Dr. Death gave the inspection. He saw the worst possible thing in everything and then he had the nerve to put "reasonable" price estimates to everything which made all the things that need to be done to the house seem that much worse. He estimated a new roof, windows and heating would be over $80,000. We already have estimates for all of those things that show $30,000. He also hated the crawl space, because things are old. Well it is an old house it was moved to its current location in the 1950's.

We were pretty upset about the whole thing and we started second guessing ourselves. But yesterday someone came by to look at the house and she made us feel sooo much better. She understands old houses and the fact that if it is not broken don’t fix it or fix it when you have the money for it. I would love to have $30,000 to put into the house before we sell it but we don’t. She understands old windows, old heating, old plumbing in the crawl space.

I really want to sell the house because we cannot afford it. I am trying to get on Joe to get a better job making more money. Now that the house is no longer under contract I am worried about paying bills next month and my maternity leave in February. If we could get the trailer sold that will help out and I won’t be as stressed out about finances. But I have to keep remembering the secret - The house will be under contract by October 31st and the trailer will be in the process of being sold by October 31st - hey it is only the middle of the month.

If you know of any way to make "real" money on line let me know. I am already doing some surveys but they don’t may a whole lot and I am also trying to get rid of stuff on ebay. I need to list a bunch more but my stuff is not moving very quickly.

Finally Monday was my birthday and we found out all about this on Sunday - what a great birthday huh!!! Joe actually did make me a birthday cake. I have been after him since I have known him (9 years) to make me a cake and he always responds that he does not bake, he cooks. I have told him it is easy, buy the box, add the eggs, water, oil whatever else it calls for, mix it up, put it in a cake pan and bake it. Well he did on Monday and it was excellent. He used vanilla pudding for frosting his he could not find any frosting and you know what - it was much better with the pudding for frosting instead of regular frosting. I will have to remember that for the next time I bake a cake.

October 16, 2007

Saving Money = Being Green

We had our home inspected on Saturday (more about that in another blog). I know that I need to conserve energy (electric and gas) and I thought I was doing pretty good but I was overlooking to key areas. I had our refrigerator set way too cold (33 degrees) and the hot water heater was set way to high. So save your electric and gas bills and therefore use less energy and therefore be more green by turning up your refrigerator, freezer and turning down your hot water. It is also a good idea to put a blanket on your hot water heater - I still need to do that.

October 14, 2007

Ebay

October 10, 2007

Stay at Home Mom

This weekend Joe went out of town so it was just Mikayla and I all day Saturday, Sunday and Monday and I took Tuesday off because we don't have our regular babysitter. We had a great weekend!!

On Saturday she played happily by herself which gave me a chance to clean the house. Then we did the regular Saturday chores, grocery shopping, recycling, farmers market, etc... By the time we got home we were both exhausted. Mikayla feel asleep on the way home and I passed out on the couch!

On Sunday we headed up to Crested Butte to visit Jen and Solas. We had a wonderful lunch, walked around town and then visited the farmers market in Crested Butte.

Monday was our big day. We headed to Montrose for some shopping. I was so excited because they got a new JC Penny's. I know that JC Penny has a maternity section so I would only drive 1 hour to get new maternity clothes instead of over 2 hours to Grand Junction. Well we get to the brand new JC Penny and they do NOT have a maternity section. So I did the best I could, I did find 2 pairs of pants and a couple of shirts, they should last at least another month or so until I need to go shopping again. Mikayla did score on clothes. We headed to Super Walmart and did not buy much. Mikayla did show me a couple of rugs she wanted and a new bedspread. I told she has to wait until we buy her a twin bed in the next few months before we buy a new bedspread. We had lunch and then headed back to Gunnison.

Tuesday was just spent running errands, visiting dad at work (twice) and playing at the park. I really enjoyed being a stay at home mom. We had a blast.

October 2, 2007

Cloth Diapers For Sell - See Post Below For Pictures and Updates on the Family

I am going to keep this post on top so that everyone can see my cloth diapers for sell. Please see the next post for pictures and updates.

I have some of Mikayla's old cloth diapers that I would love to sell. I tried Ebay but they have taken used cloth diapers off of their list of items to be sold. So please take a look - if you would like to purchase some please send an email to oconnellhouse@msn.com or leave a comment with your email address.

Shipping on everything will be $3.00 for the first diaper and $1.00 for each additional diaper.

Kissaluvs Size 1 - 10-25 pounds. You will need a cover with Kissaluvs. Price $5.00 and they normally retail for $11.50 each. If you buy all 3 the price is only $12.00.

Kissaluvs Size 2 -20- 40 pounds. $5.00 per diaper or all 4 for $17.00.

EZ Gerber Diapers - Size 20-30 pounds. All in one. These are older diapers but they work just fine and they also come with a diaper double attached inside. Price $3.00 each or all 4 for $10.00.

Snug to fit - Size - all sizes (they have multiple snaps to adjust to all sizes). They have an attached insert but they will need a diaper cover. Price $3.00 each or both for $5.00.

Training Pants. Size 2T. They were barley used. I ended up potty training Mikayla with her wearing nothing. I have a total of 6 to sell. $1.00 each or all six for $4.00.

Diaper Covers. These are a bit older but work just fine. I have a total of six to sell. $1.00 each or all six for $5.00.

Prefolded flat cloth diapers. Price $0.50 each or all 4 for $1.50.

Reducing our Carbon Impact

A few months ago I mentioned that people are trying to reduce their carbon emmissions by 90%. Here is where I first blogged about it. Jen picked up the challenge is August and so it got me to start thinking that I need to start working on this again. I am not going to try and reduce my emmissions by 90% but I will try to reduce them by 50%. I am also using my summer bills to help me and summer is when our utility bills are the lowest. Hey if I can keep my utility bills as low as in the summer that would be wonderful - but we all know that is not going to happen. So here are my October Goals.

Gas - Car - The average 3 person family uses 125 gallons of gas per month. I do not want to use more than 62.5 gallons this month. We have some trips planned so we will see how good we do. I need to buy a new bike tube so I can start riding my bike to work again.

Electricity - This summer we average a usage of 14.5 per day. I have no idea if that is kwh or what. I would like to keep our usage for the month of October at 14.5 or less. Since it is getting colder it is harder to dry clothes outside and we use more electricty to heat the house. I need to turn more lights off and buy more CF light bulbs to replace the regular ones.

Natural Gas - House - Our usage this summer was 1.509 per day (again I have no idea what the number means but it shows me a starting point.) For the month of October I am planning on keeping my usage to the same or less. Ways to do this - Wash all clothes in warm water - not hot (I tried using cold water but my clothes were not as clean. We need to keep the doors shut in the evening to keep the house warmer, and use the heat less.

Consumer Goods - The avearge American spends $10,000 per year on new consumer goods. A 50% reduction would be $5,000. So our goal for this month to reduce would be to only spend $417. That does not seem to high. But I will be keeping track.

These are my starting points - so we will see how well we do.