Finances... Boring....

I haven't always been greatwith money.  Acutally, saying I have never been great with money would probably be a more correct statement.  Every month, by the end of the month I look through my bank statements looking for some accounting mistake that will explain who has been robbing me blind from my account.  I'm pretty sure at this point, I own half the stock in Starbucks and Matt has been single handedly keeping the vending machines at his work in the black.  Is this some kind of sick joke?  Am I on Punked?  Alright Ashton, you can come out now...  Is the real reason we never seem to have any money because we blow it all on [delicious, creamy, caramel-swirreled] lattes and potato chips?  Outrageous.  

Confession:  I also have an addiction interest in online shopping - acutally it's more like an addiction to getting good deals online and have them conveniently shipped to my house where they are waiting on the porch when I get home in little brown packages.  I looove me some good deals.  I can only imagine this is what drugs feel like.  Groupon, Woot, Zulily, Amazon and Living Social are like crack to me.  So what if I bought a digital food scale or an ant farm for TC that are still in their boxes... They were 70 percent off people!  Who can pass up a deal like that???

So, as one of my many New Year's Reolutions - I am getting control of my finances.  (Confession #2:  I did not really want to make this a resolution this year - but I was pretty much forced into it by Matt.)  So I signed us up for Dave Ramsey's 13-week Financial Peace University.  This class is awesome.  The only regret I have is I didn't take it 10 years ago when I didn't have a rent payment or $800 a month in daycare expenses.  But you gotta start somewhere right?

So we got our tax return (that I had planned on using for vacations) and paid off all of our debt.  All of it.  I'm talking the I-don't-owe-anyone-anything kind of all of it.  I admit, it sucks that we didn't get to do anything fun with it, but it does feel good to not have to worry about 3 of our monthly bills ever again.

This week we have been working on a budget.  I hate this "b-word" worse than the real "b-word".  So I  did a little planning for March and so far I have done a pretty good job sticking to it.  I am aware it has only been 6 days into the month, but so far I haven't bought anything from my "crack" sites.  GO ME!  I can honestly say this is the longest stretch in my life that I can remember trying to be really careful with money.  Six days... Sad huh?  Now hopefully I can keep it up and watch my little stack of money grow!   

Merry Christmas!

Black Friday

Halloweenie

Happy Haunting!  Halloween is one of my favorite holidays.  In college, I used it as an excuse to dress up as a skanky (insert anything here) by stuffing tube socks in my bra to create awesome cleavage (sorry Mom) and get away with it.  Now, I use it as an excuse to dress my kids up as (insert anything here) and take them house-to-house to get lots of free candy... and get away with it.

This year, we dressed TC up as a Minion off of "Despicable Me".  I thought it was hi-larious. 

Matt said the gloves really "tied the whole thing together".  Good thing, because if they didn't he might just look like a weird kid with goggles.  Isn't he adorable?

Here's a real treat from the family Halloween party.  Guess who Brody dressed up as??  Twinners = Winners.  Thanks for the laugh, Brody!

I wanted to take them trick-or-treating this year (reason why mentioned above) but neither one of my babies were cooperating.  Lamest. Kids. Ever.  You will also notice TC is no longer dressed as a Minion, but an elephant.  Last minute, he changed his mind and wanted to be Dumbo (he has been obsessed lately).  Luckily he doesn't eat very much and his costume from last year still fit perfectly.

 

Here is a little family photo - TC is a little pissed off because I made him wake up to trick-or-treat.  Sorry buddy, but I'm not going to get both you and miss Hazel all dressed up looking cute enough to eat and drive accross town for nothing - I'm pretty sure you'll thank me later.

    

Match.com for Couples

Disclaimer:   This post has nothing to do with "swingers" or anything like that, so if you are into that sort of thing (and I'm not here to judge) you might as well save yourself some time and stop reading now...

Last month, I was reading an article in Cosmo, *ahem*, I mean some really really classy magazine called "What Happy Couples Know" that gave a list of things that you needed to have in order to have a happier marriage.  Want to know what topped the list?  FRIENDS...  Basically something to the effect of couples who have close friend couples have happier marriages and lower divorce rates and backed it up with a bunch of research I didn't care enough to look into. It did get me thinking though...

In the past three years, pretty much everything that could change in Matt and I's lives did.  We got married, moved to California, popped out a couple of babies, and got "real" jobs with "health insurance" and "retirement plans".  It was a draaaastic change from the fancy-free lifestyle we had both been living while we were in school (where my biggest stress was when I was going to squeeze in my next tanning appointment).  So when we decided to move back home to Utah last year and I found out how much I had really changed.  Most of my friends were still single and living the fancy-free from before and we didn't really have that much in common anymore... Actually the meare thought of having to stay up past 11:00pm makes me throw up in my mouth a little.  So Matt and I recently decided to make a goal to find new friends... People who know a thing or two about the "hot-dog dance" and how to get crayon off of the walls.  

Question:  What is harder than finding someone to date?  Answer:  Trying to find another couple to date. 

I feel like finding couple friends is like dating three people instead of one... EVERYONE has to like EVERYONE and have common interests or the group's relationship just won't last long-term.  It's the perfect storm.  Not to mention where do you meet these people?  The produce section of the grocery store?  It's not like I can approach a guy and tell him I think he would be great for my husband withouth looking like a total creeper. 

I wish someone would invent a match.com for couples - they could match us on different levels and suggest good matches for us. We could review their profile and maybe text or email and get to know each other a little before we decided if we wanted to meet in real life and give it a go.

Tomorrow night we have a blind date with another couple from Matt's work.  Here's to hoping they might "be the one".  :)  

And One More Makes Four!

She's here!  We love our sweet new addition to the Mann family...

Hazel Rae Mann

9/10/11 (Yeah, I did that on purpose)

8 lbs 4 oz

19 1/2 inches long



TC's two-year-old pictures.... Cutie pah-tootie!

...And we did a few family pics while we were at it!



Summertime So Far

Aaaaah SUMMER (insert long exaggerated exhale here).  It has been a long wait to get here, but sooo worth it.  I think I must have been born in the wrong state, because I really spend my whole winter praying and hoping summer will hurry up and get here.

I love it in the spring when you walk outside and for the first time of the year your hair gets warm from the sun.  Best.  Feeling.  Ever.  The Vitamin D soaks through your skin and it somehow translates to pure joy throughout your body.  Too bad it only lasts a few months until the damn snow returns and your nostrils freeze together when you try to breathe through your nose.  But that's something I don't have to worry about for a little while yet. 

Now I was present when TC came into the world in August 2009, but if for some reason you don't believe he is mine, just watch him go into complete melt-down mode when he has to come inside the house - he loves the sunshine as much or probably even more than I do.   So we have been spending as much time as possible outside - I've already gotten a few sunburns in the process. 

Here are some pictures of what we have been up to as of late:

 Playing with bubbles...

Going to the zoo...

 Learning bad manners from the giraffe at the zoo...

Jumping on the trampoline...

Digging in the dirt and finding bugs (especially ants)...

Riding bikes...

Chasing Bubby Rue and telling her to stay "down"....

And going on pony rides with Mr. Shorty and Grandpa!

A HAPPY TODDLER = A HAPPY MOMMA

Matt started taking classes again this semester, and is doing unbelievably well.  He's taking an online math class and is getting an A.  I'm so proud of him!  He's also been doing a ton of sports - he is on three softball leagues and football. A few weeks ago, he tore all the ligaments in his shoulder, but is now almost back in full working order.   I don't know how he does it all, but it's working for him!  Go babe!

Baby girl has been growing like crazy.  This has been such an easy pregnancy, I am so grateful!  Well, I'm not sure if it is actually easier, or if I have been too busy to notice, but time has really flown by.  With TC, I knew exactly how "pregnant" I was to the day.  This time, I rely on a weekly email reminder to keep me up to date on how far along I am.  I have been feeling good - no issues with cabage patch feet or outrageous blood pressure numbers - just tired.  I feel like I have a lot still to do to get ready for her grand entrance, but for some reason I don't really feel worried about it all.  The only problem is in less than 3 months she will be here!  Guess it's time to get this pregnant booty in gear!