New Job

I don't even know the last time I wrote a post so I'm just going to tell you about one new and exciting news! When Dave and I moved back to Pittsburgh, I didn't know what else to do but go work in a preschool again. That was the last thing I wanted to do but I had no other option and I needed to work. I got hired at what seemed to be a decent preschool. Little did I realize how much I was going to hate that place after only working there for 4 months. Long story short is that the front office that ran the center just sucked and didn't know anything about running a business, so I wanted to get out of there ASAP! Luckily my Dad had lost his administrative assistant due to marriage and going back to school so it was perfect timing. After an intense interview process ;) I was hired! So right now I'm doing paperwork and other tasks for my dad. But the great thing is that I'm trying to learn his business so I can take over for him one day.  Now, this is something that I have never even thought of doing, but with the way the education system has made a turn for the worse, I need to find something else I can fall back onto to make a living.

What my dad does is sells retirement funds to teachers. So I actually have a great background to start this business in the first place. Second, is that after my dad feels comfortable enough with me knowing the business, he would give me all of his clients which revenues about $50 million dollars!! That's not how much I would make, but I would be handling that money which would be on commission base. The bad thing is that I have to take a few tests to get licensed to sell these funds. I'm feeling like I have a lot of time in the office that I can use to study and my dad has been in this business for ages now which is a great source to use. I just have never done anything like this before so I am starting from scratch to learn everything. It's just a little scary, but seems to be something I am catching on to with only a week into work. My dad really wants to retire and this could be perfect for the both of us.

So I am out of the classroom now and into the business/office world. What a different setting they are. I can finally relate to The Office and understand some of those jokes. I am absolutely loving being able to get on the computer like I am right now when I have a little bit of free time to do some personal things. I also love being able to use the bathroom when I want, work through lunch so I can leave an hour early, make appointments without being stressed about making sure I have coverage for that time. These are just to name a few. Like I said, this is only my second week of work and I'm loving it already. Don't get me wrong, it definitely gets boring at times because I will frequently be in the office on my own cause my dad does some traveling and meetings with clients. But so far so good for me!

I will hopefully be able to update more often now that I am working on a computer everyday. I have so much to update since it's been forever. Until next time, wish me luck on this new work/life adventure :)

Missing Crafting

Man I am missing scrapbooking. I haven't worked on anything since Cameron was born. At least I have the excuse of moving cross country. And now, most of my supplies are still in boxes in the basement. I am really starting to want to get back to working on DJ's book and now Cameron's. Who knows maybe I'll have them completed before they are married with kids themselves! ;) I guess I need to reorganize things first so I have my supplies available to work with. Hopefully I can do that soon, but who knows with working full time and 2 kids under the age of 2. I just need to take some time to myself soon.

July 16 Couponing Trip

Here's a picture of a shopping trip to Walgreens and Rite Aid I made on July 16th. I paid $68.04 for all of these items. Regular retail cost would have cost me $152.49! I was able to match my coupons with store discounts to receive these great deals.

Here is the following cost for each of my items:
Rite Aid trip:
1. Fructis Shampoo $2.50 paired with $1 off coupon made it $1.50
2. Fructis Frizz Control $2.50 paired with $1 off coupon made it $1.50
3. Mitchum Deodorant 2/$7 paired with 2 $0.75 off coupons made it $4 + $2 rebate
Final Price $1 each after rebate Did this twice to buy 4 deodorants
4. Tugaboos Wipes 360 count box $8.99 receive $1 +Up reward and $2 rebate
Final Price $5.99 after reward and rebate
5. Reach Floss and Listerine 2/$7 paired with 2 $1 off coupons and receive $2 +Up reward
Final Price $1.50 each after reward
6. Crest toothpaste $2.69 with $2.69 rebate makes it FREE
7. Chapstick 3 pack $4.49 with $2 rebate makes it $2.29
I did two separate transactions so I could use the +Up rewards from the wipes and floss on the other products. Plus I had 2 $3 off $15 or more which I could use on both transactions which helped with my savings even more. So I paid $28.91 but will receive a check at the end of the month with the $8 rebates which makes the purchase total $20.91 which should have cost $53.33 at regular retail.
Walgreens Trip:
1. Huggies Wipes 72 count $2.49 paired with $0.75 off coupon plus $1 Walgreens July booklet makes it $0.74 I bought two since this was a great deal and with 2 kids still in diapers we are always needing wipes.
2. G-U-M Dental Floss $2 plus $2 Register Reward (RR) makes this FREE after reward I did this twice so I could use both rewards on other transactions.
3. Softsoap hand soap $0.99 with in store ad so I bought 3
4. Air Wick Fresh Matic $7.99 paired with $4 off coupon makes it $3.99 receive $3 RR which makes this $0.99 after reward I bought 2 since I loves these automatic air fresheners, it was extremely cheap and could use the RR on another transaction.
5. Mandarin Oranges 2/$1
6. Enfamil Formula 2/$46 paired with 2 $4 off coupons made it $42 plus $6 RR makes it $36/2
I did 3 separate transactions so I could use all of my RR on the transaction with the Enfamil to help make the formula even cheaper. I was able to get another $10 off the Enfamil the way I set up my transactions using the RR making the Formula only $26 for 2! I was very happy with this shopping trip because we use Enfamil and it's not cheap. I paid a total of $47.82 which would have cost me $99.16 regular retail.

So even though this was a pretty big transaction it was a lot of things we needed for a pretty big discount. I usually only try to spend no more than $20 but when the weekly ad includes formula I just have to increase my budget. Let me know what you think because I think I did pretty good!
I did 3 transactions

Couponing

So along with family updates, I am also going to be posting about my new obsession...couponing. After watching TLC's Extreme Couponing, I became very interested in how these people were saving that much money on essentials. I have been doing research, reading blogs, books, magazine articles; anything that had to do with couponing and helping me learn how to do it.

Since Dave got out of the military, we lost the opportunity to shop at the Commissary that was tax free and had some great deals. I realized how much money we were saving just shopping there. Since I have wanted to put ourselves on a tighter budget to get ourselves out of debt, I thought this could also help.

I have only shopped about 3 times, but those 3 times have made me instantly addicted. It's such a rush to get a bunch of stuff for more than 50% off, FREE and/or making money buying the products. Who would have thought how easy it is to save money just by paying attention to the weekly ads and paring specials with coupons.

Now I am never going to go to "extremes" like the show because every time I see the "stockpiles" those people have, I think how truly crazy they are. I just want to "stockpile" the essentials I know my family needs and will use. I will not buy things just because it's a great deal like some of those people on the show do. I am just trying to be a money saving mom.

So I have begun a small stockpile. I subscribed to the Sunday paper for the coupons. I clip and file my coupons into a binder. I check the weekly drugstores for their deals than match my clipped coupons to the deals. I have shopped at Walgreens, Rite Aid and Giant Eagle. I just recently started Rite Aid so I can't say which I like more yet. So far I like Rite Aid because you can buy more than one product to receive more than one +UP Rewards. Walgreens are limited to one Register Reward per transaction so you have to do multiple transactions if you want to stockpile. Rite Aid allows at least 2 for their rewards. These are coupons good for future purchases which makes saving even better!! Stores will be another post though because I can go on for hours.

I really am looking forward to continuing this adventure and blogging about my savings. I will begin to post pictures of my purchases along with the total savings. So stay tuned for Brittny's 'Krazy' Coupon Adventures! :)

Cameron Micheal

I wanted to write a post about the birth of our second son, Cameron Micheal, if not more for myself so when I finally do start scrapbooking (yea right ;) than I have something to look back on.

My due date came and went and Cameron still didn't feel like joining us. This kind of scares me because both boys seem to be on their own terms already...not sure how Dave and I are going to handle these two together! I was 2cm dilated and my doc scraped me to try to speed up the process. When the doctor did that with DJ, I went into labor the next day. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case with Cameron. I thought I was feeling contractions, but they wouldn't last. So I kept going another week with no signs. Than the morning of March 3rd, I woke up with more contractions, but again they weren't anything to be worried about since they seemed to stop after resting. After playing with DJ in the morning, when we put him down for his nap, Dave and I decided to try to nap ourselves. We actually got a great 2 hour nap, but than were woken up to my water breaking! I knew instantly that's what happened because it truly felt like a rush of water coming out of me. Really disgusting when you think about it, but that's the truth. It almost felt like Cameron kicked inside and decided he was ready to be born and broke my water :)

Luckily my mom was in since she was going to be there to help us with DJ while in the hospital, so we left her with DJ to bring Cameron into this world. We had to drive about 30 minutes to get to the Navy hospital on Camp Pendleton. Instantly my contractions started getting more intense and A LOT closer. I did not have this intensity with DJ since my water never broke by itself. When we finally got to the hospital, of course there was a wait to be checked to make sure I was in labor. Are you serious?? The nurse who took us into the room was not very nice or helpful which made matters worse. Dave was great trying to keep me calm though. He truly is my rock. She put us on monitors and told me to lay down while they watched us to track our contractions. While I was laying on my back, I got the most painful contractions, I couldn't keep laying the way she wanted me to. So I sat up which eased the pain. The nurse came rushing in saying you have to lay down like I said because you're affecting the baby. I think I might have started crying at that point with the pain and thinking of Cameron that I couldn't handle it anymore. A doctor finally came in and as soon as she looked at me she knew I was in labor and needed a room right away. She checked me and said I was 8cm. Looking back at it now, that nurse was a complete b**** for putting me through that.

We were rushed into a room to change and be hooked up to monitors. My contractions were only getting worse so the anesthesiologist was there within in seconds of getting changed to give me the epidural. She was wonderful and instantly started the drugs as I like to call it!! She joked around that she might have to deliver the baby being that I'm 8cm. As soon as she was done saying that, I felt the urge to start pushing. The nurses and everyone in the room said to just push. I didn't understand since again none of this happened with DJ where I couldn't feel anything and the nurses had to tell me when to push. So I just decided to push.

Than I stopped because I realized that the "drugs" weren't fully working and I could feel mostly everything. I looked at Dave and again, being my rock, he asked if there was anything we could do. When the nurses said no, he gave me a quick pep talk and I just pushed with all my might. I pushed through the pain just so I could get Cameron in my arms to stop the pain. After pushing about 20 minutes, Cameron Micheal was born at 6pm March 3, 2011!!



When the doctor finally saw Cameron, he started saying "Wow, that's at least a 9 pound baby!" I thought he was joking because I just assumed he would be about average like DJ. I actually gained a lot less than I did with DJ. He ended up weighing 9.13. I could not believe it! I was carrying around an almost 10 pound baby for 9+ months. No wonder I could feel everything too ;) He measured 21 inches in length. I have to say I fell in love all over again when I finally held him for the first time.



The birth of your child is one of those things that you cannot begin to explain the joy it brings. There's just a happiness that comes over you that you can't describe. I truly felt complete when we became a family of 4!!



Here's a picture of DJ meeting Cameron for the first time. My mom and brother were able to visit since it was early enough before his bedtime. As you can see, DJ was immediately interested in Cameron and he loves his little brother so much already!!


Cameron started eating and sleeping well right off the bat. He was cleared after only a day in the hospital so we were able to go home, which I was so happy to be in our own home and bed. It was a little bit of an adjustment having a newborn again, but we managed to make it through those first couple of hard weeks without killing one another!

Finally an Update

I have been dying to blog for the past couple of months but there have been some major changes that just haven't allowed me to. I am going to have to blog another time about everything in more detail. I just wanted to let anyone who still reads this know that we are still alive and doing well! :) Our second son, Cameron Micheal was born March 4, 2011. He was a VERY healthy boy weighing at 9 pounds, 13 ounces and 21 inches long. The labor was really quick this time meaning he was born within the 2 hours since my arrival at the hospital. Crazy quick how it went. After a month of having Cameron, we find out that Dave is not getting picked up for a different job in the Navy so he is being asked to get out. We then began the whirlwind of trying to figure out what to do. We decided to move back to Pittsburgh where both our families are so we can have the help. Luckily, the military was moving us so we didn't have to do anything. My mom flew out to help me fly the boys back home. We left about a week and a half before Dave was done with work. Once he got back, we found a new place and took about 2 weeks to clean, paint and get the place ready to be moved in. After all of our stuff was delivered it took about another week before we were officially in. There are still some boxes that we need to go through, but most of the place is all done. It's a small place but works perfectly for our little family at the moment. The rent is really cheap which will help us save money so when we want to buy a house we should have a decent amount. I found a job working in a preschool with ages 2 and 1/2 to 3 years old. The nice thing is that the ratio is 1-6. Out in California the ratio for that age group is 1-12 so I'm going to feel like this is easy to handle 6 kids. I'm really looking forward to going back to work so I can meet some new friends and have that adult interaction. Dave thinks he found a sales job that he started today, but he was waiting to officially decide until after a few days of doing it. Kind of weird, but he's going to be working in a cemetery selling plots and headstones to people who need it. I guess it's pretty good money if you are a good seller. We'll see. So that's about it for now since I'm trying to finish this while the two boys are asleep. We are all doing great now that we've adjusted being back on the east coast. I will definitely make a point to write more often, especially for my west coast friend, Jodi, who I think is the only one who actually reads this!! So Jodi....keep looking for more updates and I will try to post pictures next time.

Airplane

Sitting on the airplane flying back to Pittsburgh with both boys. DJ is in my moms arms and I have Cameron. The best thing I brought today was the baby bjorn. I would not have made it onto the airplane and through the flight having to hold him the whole time. It has given me a chance to eat, sleep and blog while Cameron sleeps. If you ever have to travel on a plane with a young infant, don't forget your baby carrier. Best invention ever!!!