Top 5 Reasons to teach:
1) June
2) July
3) August
4) Christmas Break
5) Spring Break
Seriously, how many professions offer built-in vacations AND sick/personal days. I am so blessed by my job. Sure it's hard to leave my boy every day--he's cared for (read: spoiled all day long by) a family that home schools their girls--it's him and one other baby, and from what I can tell, they just play all day long. He loves them and they love him. And me? I get to go and bless the lives of the 18 children in my homeroom, 21 children in my math class, and 20 more in my science class. That's something like 60 lives that I get to touch, bless, and pray for every day. What an incredible opportunity. Not to mention working in a largely Christian environment with the opportunity to bless and be blessed by my adult co-workers every day. The decision to work outside my home was never really a decision for me. I'm a born teacher. I am passionate about public education.
Regarding bargains, my biggest one this week saved me, oh about $2,000!!! We traded the bedroom suite that Matt hated (that had belonged to my late grandmother) with my cousin. She and her husband had one that they were...over for personal reasons. So, we have a practically brand new headboard, matching side tables, and a dresser with a MIRROR!!! Awesome.
And the free Softsoap at CVS rocks my world!
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Friday, March 21, 2008
Presents for my boys!!
My beloved cousins, Hayley & Chris came to visit today and we decided to go down to the outlet mall to see what we could find.
I found this:
3 polos for Matt to wear to work from Banana Republic ($30 a piece, originally), 3 sleepers for Jack from Carters ($14 a piece originally), and 3 summer outfits for Jack ($16 a piece originally) for............$48.73!!
2 polos were $3.60
1 polo was $6.80
3 sleepers were $5
2 summer outfits were $6
Would have cost $164 originally! For $48.73! That's a 70% savings!!!
I am totally pumped!
A few months ago at my Bible Study I was given an incredible opportunity. A local clothing store, Cato, had given my leader, Kim a huge number (think a car load) of brand new clothes that had been marked down 3 times, so they gave them to her to give away to people. She calls it "blessing" people. These were mostly adorable shirts for summer--which is coming right up! We were all encouraged to take as much as we wanted, and even though I felt like a glutenous cow, I ended up taking a whole garbage bag full home (we all did). It was such a blessing!!! And every time I get a compliment, I just say, "Thank you, it was a gift from my father." One of my students said to me "Mrs. Dilley, you sure do have a generous dad." I just smiled. I've had so much fun wearing my clothes, but I felt bad for Matt because he didn't have anything new. It gets old wearing the same old thing, day in and day out. This made me particularly excited to bless him with a few new shirts to wear to work.
Also, Matt had been sort of freaking out that we didn't have a lot of clothes for Jack in the next sizes up. He's been so slow in growing that we've always had a "bumper crop" of clothes waiting when he gets to the next size. Well, that was about to run out. We have a few 6 and 9 month pieces (yes, you read that right, my soon-to-be 10 month old wears 3-6 month clothing), but not enough to keep me from doing laundry every few days. My friend, Carrie (yes, I have a friend named Carrie) was given a bag of adorable girl stuff that had a few boy pieces in 6 and 9 month sizes that she gave me last week, and then I struck gold at Carters, my FAVORITE baby store. It was so nice to add really nice, way cute stuff to his clothes--we are so blessed!!!
Also, I got this deal few weeks ago, but then our internet went down and blah, blah, blah, I didn't get it posted so here it is:
OOP: $3 (could have been free if I had remembered my ECB, ugh)
ECB: $5
Not bad, eh?
I found this:
3 polos for Matt to wear to work from Banana Republic ($30 a piece, originally), 3 sleepers for Jack from Carters ($14 a piece originally), and 3 summer outfits for Jack ($16 a piece originally) for............$48.73!!2 polos were $3.60
1 polo was $6.80
3 sleepers were $5
2 summer outfits were $6
Would have cost $164 originally! For $48.73! That's a 70% savings!!!
I am totally pumped!
A few months ago at my Bible Study I was given an incredible opportunity. A local clothing store, Cato, had given my leader, Kim a huge number (think a car load) of brand new clothes that had been marked down 3 times, so they gave them to her to give away to people. She calls it "blessing" people. These were mostly adorable shirts for summer--which is coming right up! We were all encouraged to take as much as we wanted, and even though I felt like a glutenous cow, I ended up taking a whole garbage bag full home (we all did). It was such a blessing!!! And every time I get a compliment, I just say, "Thank you, it was a gift from my father." One of my students said to me "Mrs. Dilley, you sure do have a generous dad." I just smiled. I've had so much fun wearing my clothes, but I felt bad for Matt because he didn't have anything new. It gets old wearing the same old thing, day in and day out. This made me particularly excited to bless him with a few new shirts to wear to work.
Also, Matt had been sort of freaking out that we didn't have a lot of clothes for Jack in the next sizes up. He's been so slow in growing that we've always had a "bumper crop" of clothes waiting when he gets to the next size. Well, that was about to run out. We have a few 6 and 9 month pieces (yes, you read that right, my soon-to-be 10 month old wears 3-6 month clothing), but not enough to keep me from doing laundry every few days. My friend, Carrie (yes, I have a friend named Carrie) was given a bag of adorable girl stuff that had a few boy pieces in 6 and 9 month sizes that she gave me last week, and then I struck gold at Carters, my FAVORITE baby store. It was so nice to add really nice, way cute stuff to his clothes--we are so blessed!!!
Also, I got this deal few weeks ago, but then our internet went down and blah, blah, blah, I didn't get it posted so here it is:
OOP: $3 (could have been free if I had remembered my ECB, ugh)
ECB: $5
Not bad, eh?
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Today's Savings
Today's Savings:
1) CVS--
2) Victoria's Secret--
No photos today for the following reasons:
1) I donated the plastic eggs to church before I could photograph them
2) I love you guys and I think you're all great, but I'm not showing you my underwear on or off my body. Even if they are size medium. For those of you who care about those sort of thing, they are mostly stripped and one pair has cool retro flowers. My husband is pumped ;)
3) Jack's already slobbered all over the lip gloss and it seems like a lot of effort to show one thing :)
Love to you all--
COMMENTS, COMMENTS, COMMENTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
1) CVS--
- plastic eggs (no photo, donated to church) $1.98
- Maybelline Lip gloss $8.99
- 25% off coupon (entire purchase)
2) Victoria's Secret--
- 6 pairs low-rise cotton brief SIZE MEDIUM (thank you, elipitical machine) @ $8.50 each
- 5 for $25 sale
- 1 free panty coupon
- $10 off birthday coupon
No photos today for the following reasons:
1) I donated the plastic eggs to church before I could photograph them
2) I love you guys and I think you're all great, but I'm not showing you my underwear on or off my body. Even if they are size medium. For those of you who care about those sort of thing, they are mostly stripped and one pair has cool retro flowers. My husband is pumped ;)
3) Jack's already slobbered all over the lip gloss and it seems like a lot of effort to show one thing :)
Love to you all--
COMMENTS, COMMENTS, COMMENTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Saturday, March 8, 2008
Friday, March 7, 2008
For Jamie!
Hello!
Traveling with formula is no big deal, it's just about having the right equipment. The first thing I did was that I never fed my baby anything but room temperature bottles. Keep in mind, he was a summer baby, so it was hot outside. I've never warmed up his bottles!! It's not too late to switch your baby to room temperature if he'll take it!
The secret to my success is the formula dispenser.:
Obviously, it's gotten a lot of wear the past 9 months!! This one is from Babies R Us, and I really like it because I've never had one pop open! This thing is amazing--you pre-measure 3 bottles worth of formula into it, throw it into a diaper bag and go. When it's time to eat, I just dump in the formula, shake up the bottle and stick it in his mouth! I HIGHLY recommend getting two so that you can have 6 bottles worth of formula if you need to be out all day. We also send 6 bottles worth for him to go to the sitter. He's never drank more than 3 there, but I like knowing that he'd have enough to make it through a whole day if he needed it. Deo valente.
But, my dear, the formula dispenser isn't just for travel--fill it up before you go to bed and your night time feedings just got about a million percent easier.
Here's the formula we use.
You'll have to turn your head--I couldn't figure out how to flip it! Anyway, the one on the left costs $25 at Wal-Mart and the one on the right (which is twice the size) costs $20 at Sam's club. I take the formula out of the huge can and put it in the smaller one so that it fits in my cabinet. I do this using an old measuring cup (it took me months of dumping formula all over my countertop to figure that one out!). However, another secret is this:
It's the scoop from the more expensive formula. It just works better. I don't ask questions, I just go with it!!
Another little trick I've learned is having a "food" bag. This one hasn't been unpacked from the sitter today yet!! (And my nails need a fill, but whatever!) When I send him to the sitter or if we're going to be gone alllllllllllllllllllll day (like at Christmas) or over night, I don't bother trying to jam this stuff in the diaper bag. This is the cheap-o diaper bag that they gave us at the hospital. I put all of the bottles, formula, burp clothes, and now his pre-measured cereal and homemade baby food (I'll teach you how to do it--it's easy and you save a bundle), bibs, spoons, etc in it and away he goes! It's easy to pack and see what's in there because I don't have clothes/toys/diapers/etc in there. I would never take this bag to church or out to dinner, but it works great for through the week!
Last, I wanted to make another plug for the Dr. Brown's bottles. Totally expensive, totally worth it. The vent thing keeps the air out--no more slowly swirling the formula into the water, just give it a good shake and this bottle does the rest. They also have these awesome discs that you put under the nipple so that the water doesn't leak out when you travel. I fill up 14 bottles with water from the Brita pitcher that I keep on my counter (it's in the picture if you turn your head) once every 3 days or so. It saves sooooooooooooooo much time! Also, if you have a dishwasher, buy a cage for the nipples and USE IT! I hand washed bottles for months and it is sooooooooooooo time consuming! Our time is more valuable than that! Throw the dishes in the dishwasher and spend the extra time cuddling your baby (or husband ;)!!
That's all for now!!! Good luck! Keep me posted on how things are going!! Good luck!
Traveling with formula is no big deal, it's just about having the right equipment. The first thing I did was that I never fed my baby anything but room temperature bottles. Keep in mind, he was a summer baby, so it was hot outside. I've never warmed up his bottles!! It's not too late to switch your baby to room temperature if he'll take it!
The secret to my success is the formula dispenser.:
Obviously, it's gotten a lot of wear the past 9 months!! This one is from Babies R Us, and I really like it because I've never had one pop open! This thing is amazing--you pre-measure 3 bottles worth of formula into it, throw it into a diaper bag and go. When it's time to eat, I just dump in the formula, shake up the bottle and stick it in his mouth! I HIGHLY recommend getting two so that you can have 6 bottles worth of formula if you need to be out all day. We also send 6 bottles worth for him to go to the sitter. He's never drank more than 3 there, but I like knowing that he'd have enough to make it through a whole day if he needed it. Deo valente.But, my dear, the formula dispenser isn't just for travel--fill it up before you go to bed and your night time feedings just got about a million percent easier.
Here's the formula we use.
You'll have to turn your head--I couldn't figure out how to flip it! Anyway, the one on the left costs $25 at Wal-Mart and the one on the right (which is twice the size) costs $20 at Sam's club. I take the formula out of the huge can and put it in the smaller one so that it fits in my cabinet. I do this using an old measuring cup (it took me months of dumping formula all over my countertop to figure that one out!). However, another secret is this:
It's the scoop from the more expensive formula. It just works better. I don't ask questions, I just go with it!!
Another little trick I've learned is having a "food" bag. This one hasn't been unpacked from the sitter today yet!! (And my nails need a fill, but whatever!) When I send him to the sitter or if we're going to be gone alllllllllllllllllllll day (like at Christmas) or over night, I don't bother trying to jam this stuff in the diaper bag. This is the cheap-o diaper bag that they gave us at the hospital. I put all of the bottles, formula, burp clothes, and now his pre-measured cereal and homemade baby food (I'll teach you how to do it--it's easy and you save a bundle), bibs, spoons, etc in it and away he goes! It's easy to pack and see what's in there because I don't have clothes/toys/diapers/etc in there. I would never take this bag to church or out to dinner, but it works great for through the week!
Last, I wanted to make another plug for the Dr. Brown's bottles. Totally expensive, totally worth it. The vent thing keeps the air out--no more slowly swirling the formula into the water, just give it a good shake and this bottle does the rest. They also have these awesome discs that you put under the nipple so that the water doesn't leak out when you travel. I fill up 14 bottles with water from the Brita pitcher that I keep on my counter (it's in the picture if you turn your head) once every 3 days or so. It saves sooooooooooooooo much time! Also, if you have a dishwasher, buy a cage for the nipples and USE IT! I hand washed bottles for months and it is sooooooooooooo time consuming! Our time is more valuable than that! Throw the dishes in the dishwasher and spend the extra time cuddling your baby (or husband ;)!!That's all for now!!! Good luck! Keep me posted on how things are going!! Good luck!
Saturday, March 1, 2008
Way to save!
How did I save this week? I didn't go shopping! Mwah ha ha!! I've realized that we were spending money at the grocery store on food we weren't eating! We were buying a cart full every week and a lot of it was going bad in the refrigerator/counter/sitting in storage until it was gross. So, we didn't need anything...and we didn't buy anything. If that's not saving money, I don't know what is :)
I did go to Sam's club to pick up diapers & formula. We figured it out a few months ago that we save $100 off even the best prices each month we shop Sam's. Yes, it's true, and I'm sure you're all disappointed: I use disposable diapers and feed my baby formula. Honestly, it never occurred to me to use cloth diapers, so we've been getting them at Sam's for about $0.17 apiece. I haven't been able to beat that price anywhere. Regarding the formula, I had a breast reduction surgery 6 years ago that took my ability to breastfeed away. Honestly, I'm over it and nothing that anyone can say will change that. My baby and I are bonded and he's been really healthy. I know that "Breast milk is best" (believe me, I've had that crammed down my throat 24/7 for the last 9 months), but the fact of the matter is that it's not an option for everyone. In my case, it had nothing to do with selfishness or laziness, but the simple fact that the milk would not, could not, come out.
So there it is: My dirty little secrets all revealed:
1) I didn't breast feed
2) I use disposable diapers and never considered cloth
3) I work out side the home in a PUBLIC school
Can I still be friends with you guys??????
I did go to Sam's club to pick up diapers & formula. We figured it out a few months ago that we save $100 off even the best prices each month we shop Sam's. Yes, it's true, and I'm sure you're all disappointed: I use disposable diapers and feed my baby formula. Honestly, it never occurred to me to use cloth diapers, so we've been getting them at Sam's for about $0.17 apiece. I haven't been able to beat that price anywhere. Regarding the formula, I had a breast reduction surgery 6 years ago that took my ability to breastfeed away. Honestly, I'm over it and nothing that anyone can say will change that. My baby and I are bonded and he's been really healthy. I know that "Breast milk is best" (believe me, I've had that crammed down my throat 24/7 for the last 9 months), but the fact of the matter is that it's not an option for everyone. In my case, it had nothing to do with selfishness or laziness, but the simple fact that the milk would not, could not, come out.
So there it is: My dirty little secrets all revealed:
1) I didn't breast feed
2) I use disposable diapers and never considered cloth
3) I work out side the home in a PUBLIC school
Can I still be friends with you guys??????
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
