Homecoming!! Aka Deployment Over!!

Well, we did it, we survived another deployment!! It has been such a wonderful day. The ceremony was at 11am and we were there with a friend of mine at 945. This was my first homecoming ceremony. Last deployment I was at Advance Camp (Warrior Forge) when Hubby's unit got home, so he elected to come home (to Germany) via the boat, getting in a month behind the main body. Time wise it made sense for us! Anyway, it was quit the experience to get to be there for it. Well, really it was nice having friends to talk to and the kids to watch play that last hour while we waited.

So, when we got there we were told to grab a seat in the floor seating section on the side. My first thought was "great, I'll never find him from the side/back!" BUT, how awesome is this, he ended up coming in and was right in front of us in formation! Not only did we get to watch him walk into the building and directly toward us, but then got to enjoy making faces at each other until the were dismissed! Thankfully, there were no long speeches or anything so it was all very quick!

My friend Kendra just started a photography business this past year and wanted to get experience in doing Homecomings and I needed someone to take photos for me, so we helped each other out and she got to watch her first homecoming ceremony! (Yes. She is a military wife also, but like me, circumstances have kept her from attending one before!) I am so excited to see the pictures!! She did the boys last pictures (Keirnan's 2 year and James' 6 month) and they were just amazing so I know these photos will be just as great! And anyone who really knows me will agree if not for having Kendra there, there would be no photos since I have an amazing talent for remembering to take my camera everywhere, but forgetting to use it! lol

The boys did great with Will from the get go! Keirnan was a little shy about it when I pointed Will out from our seats. He sat in his seat with feet dangling (so cute!) and just smiled a little unsure. But, when the guys were dismissed and Will started walking over I told Keirnan he could go get Daddy and he took off! Just like at R&R he gave Will the biggest hug and wouldn't let go for awhile! James did so well also. He went to Will right away and was happy to be held with brother and laugh at me making faces! He didn't even mind when he got squished between us in a hug!

So, after our hugs and waiting for it to clear out a bit so we could get the stroller back out the door, we loaded the boys up and drove across the parking lot to get Will's bags and give his special 'gift' to all his soldiers he could find. They were all very happy to receive a Bud and a shot of Gentleman Jack! (Jack for then, and the Bud to go!!)

Finally we got on our way and headed to Manhattan Chili's for lunch! Yum... The afternoon was spent at the train park for a little bit before heading home for naps! The evening has been a bit difficult as Will came home with a cold, and combined with the lack of sleep and his thrown off schedule, he isn't feeling so well tonight!

But, I have my other half safely home. So even sick, I'm thankful to have him. Especially since he came bearing gifts!! I now have a beautiful wool sweater from Ireland and the boys have Ireland rugby (I think) shirts!! My sweater is the good gift though, its just so pretty and I can't wait for it to get just a little colder so I can wear it! The company website is www.sweaters.org if you want to check them out!

Christmas Update!

Over the past few weeks I have been working on our Christmas trip and presents, etc. This is the first year that I am actually ahead of the game and have everything not only figured out, but paid for and ready ahead of time! So, for my own figuring and for the fun of it, here we go!!

Day 1:  Home to Mt. Vernon, IL (12/16/11)
Day 2: Mt. Vernon, IL to Marrow, GA (12/17/11)
Day 3:  Marrow, GA to Orlando, FL (12/18/11)
            - Check-in to Disney All Star Music
Day 4: Orlando (12/19/11)
            - Magic Kingdom
            - Chef Mickey Character Breakfast
            - Fantasmic at MGM in the evening
Day 5: Orlando, FL (12/20/11)
           - Sea World
           - Captain Jack’s  @ Downtown Disney
Day 6: Orlando, FL (12/21/11)
           -  Animal Kingdom
           - Character Lunch  @ Tusker House
Day 7: Orlando, FL to Clearwater, FL (12/22/11)
           - Check-out Disney Hotel
           - Character Breakfast @ Hollywood & Vine, MGM
Day 8: Clearwater, FL (12/23/11)
Day 9: Clearwater, FL (12/24/11)
Day 10: Clearwater, FL (12/25/11)
Day 11: Clearwater, FL (12/26/11)
Day 12: Clearwater, FL (12/27/11)
Day 13: Clearwater, FL (12/28/11)
Day 14: Clearwater, FL to Panama City, FL (12/29/11)
Day 15: Panama City, FL (12/30/11)
Day 16: Panama City, FL (12/31/11)
Day 17: Panama City, FL (1/1/12)
Day 18: Panama City, FL to Athens, AL (1/2/12)
Day 19: Athens, AL to Mt. Vernon, IL (1/3/12)
Day 20: Mt. Vernon, IL to Home (1/4/12)

• Disney Trip; includes Hotel, Tickets, and Dining plan. $950
• About $1000 for Gas and hotels round trip between Kansas and Florida. (3035 highway miles)
• Hotel in Clearwater: Queen Suite (Bedroom separated by door) $500
* The dogs will be about $600

Disney is completely paid for already and money has been set aside to cover the dogs and the hotel in Clearwater! That only leaves gas and hotels during the actual trip, which will come out of Will's TDY money and regular month pay.

As I have said before gifts are figured out all except for a few family members. But, I budgeted $100 to cover them and have found something for them that will fall within the amount and I think/hope they will all like! I just have to order it all! I think I am going to supplement the parents' gifts with similar items also!!

That leaves only figuring out what to get my husband!! I currently have to figure out his birthday gift as well! He wants the windows of his truck re-tinted so I'll probably tell him to get that done for his birthday! lol (I'm not even going to try to get the logistics of that figured out alone! Though maybe I'll enlist Ashley and Justin's help when they get here next week! Hmm...) Ok, still stuck on what to get him for Christmas!! Grrr.

We did get the Sears Heroes at Home gift, but we won't know how much that is for until the beginning of December, so its going to go to the boys' presents leaving that money to go towards Will's gift! Yay! Now off I go to start trolling the Internet for some idea of what to get my wonderful hubby!!

Recent News Story

Yesterday I saw an article, but didn't get to read it until today, that really had me shaking my head!
The article was about a teacher in San Francisco who apparently started docking points from his students' grades for saying "God Bless you." After reading the article, like so many other sites, there was a section for people to write their views and comments. This made me shake my head even more than the article! (I only read about the first 4-5 comments!)

The teacher's side of the story is that the he felt his students were disrupting class by continually sneezing and saying 'bless you.' He also felt there was no reason for them to be saying it since its original meaning and use no longer applies in our society. (Now its just good manners!!)

The other side of the story (I'm assuming the students) was that he was punishing them for doing/ saying something that is considered manners, and to many is so ingrained that it is a reaction.

The comments ranged from 'how dare the teacher offend the students' religious beliefs,' to 'how dare the media, etc. try to keep the teacher from controlling his classroom!' Really people think about it, most students have disruptive days. I remember being in classes where we would do something very much like this to the subs! (I don't remember an actual teacher pissing us off enough to disrespect them so much!) And I remember how upset they would get.

My dad always said there are 3 sides to every story; yours, mine, and the truth! And I think this is one of those stories! Common sense says the kids probably were being disruptive and took it to a level that upset the teacher, but instead of dealing with just the one outbreak, he punished the entire class, to include those who really sneezed and those who really were just being polite!

I think its sad that our society has come to such a point that this is actually in the news!!

My Hand in God's

I grew up in a Masonic family. As such, my childhood and teenage years are full of Rainbow memories. One of those memories is of one of our competitions, called God's Rainbow. It is a beautiful ceremony that includes a poem that runs through my head various times a week. It is something that I can recite by memory and often helps me in times where I feel like I am losing control of my life! For your viewing pleasure I give you:

My hand in God's

Each morning when I wake I say,
"I place my hand in God's today;"

I know He'll Walk close by my side
My every wandering step to guide.

He Leads me with the tenderest care
When paths are dark and I despair--

No need for me to understand
If I but hold fast to His Hand.

My hand in His! No surer way
to walk in safety through each day.

By His Great Bounty I am fed;
Warmed by His Love, and Comforted.

When at day's end I seek my rest
And realize how much I'm blessed,

My thanks pour out to Him; and then
I place my hand in God's again.

Homemade Chicken Fingers and Shepard's Pie

Yesterday we had pancakes for breakfast, and while I was making the pancakes I started reading the recipes on the back and side of the Bisquick box (the real stuff, not the just add water kind!) and found a recipe for chicken fingers. It looked so simple and easy that I just had to try it!

Well, it was beyond easy and turned out super tasty! The hardest part was cutting the chicken up! And I made it from beginning to end, with a friend stopping by and raiding my pantry for food for charity, in a half hour!! But the best part was that you bake them instead of frying them, so they get a healthy food bonus!! I totally redeemed myself after the disaster that was Shepard's pie last week!!

Oh, did I forget to say how that went!?! lol Well, it was pretty bad! Actually, it was easy to make, and I think it would have been pretty darn good if there hadn't been too much garlic in it! Now, here is what I learned about garlic: You don't use as much of the garlic powder as you do of fresh garlic!! When a friend told me that, it clicked in my head that I had heard that before. Apparently, it didn't stick! lol I ate my bowl, but the boys both made faces at it and the house smelled like garlic all night! Needless to say it was a waste of a lot of food, since the recipe I made was enough to feed us 2 more dinners at least!! But, I will try it again, just without any garlic since I'm not a big fan anyway!!

Celebrate!!!!!

Well, we are coming to the end of our deployment, which means I won't have extra money to put onto the credit cards. Going into the deployment that extra money is always the silver lining! So, since I will be setting the extra for this last month aside to help us while we get balanced back out and use to having a lot less money with an extra mouth to feed and and extra vehicle on the roads, I figured now would be a good time to see just how much got accomplished this year!! (Plus, I'm having a bad morning, I need a pick me up!) So here we go:

Card 1:
   - Nov. 2010 had a balance of $20,018.00
   - Sept. 2011 has a balance of $14,239.00
Card 2:
   - Nov. 2010 had a balance of $8,071.00
   - PAID OFF in April
Card 3:
   - Nov. 2010 had a balance of $7,800 (about since I can't see that far back online!)
   - Sept. 2011 has a balance of $5,144.00   

Totals:
   - Nov. 2010: $35,889.00
   -Sept. 2011: 19,383.00

That's $16,506 paid off this past year!! Yay us!! Now, we still have a good way to to go, but I've done really well at not using the cards, or if I do paying it off immediately. If we can continue to do so, and pay the amount I've set as my monthly payment goal, we'll have it all paid off in 5 years. With tax returns and any other deployments, it can be sooner!!
As I've said in a previous post, it is a large amount, but we knew what we were getting into when we charged it, and still both of us will say it was totally worth it!! And I am not ashamed to show these numbers because I know it was us who spent it, I will never say its not our fault we have such a huge debt, and we are consciusly working to pay it off!! But, now I feel better knowing what I have accomplished this past year!!

Saying Bye to Credit Cards & Learning to Buy Wisely

So this past year while Will has been deployed we have been using the extra money to pay down our credit cards. This is a major feat seeing as how high they were. I am not ashamed to say they were around $30K since we knew what we were doing when we charged them up! I still consider it a very good investment! We had all the cards paid off when I got to Germany, but when we found out they were closing our base and we'd be heading back to the States within 6 months we tried to fit in as many 'must see' places as we could! Obviously, none of it was saved for, but seeing as we didn't know if or when we'd have such a great opportunity again, we went and put it all on credit cards!

No, we didn't spend $30K on travelling. After we moved to Washington, we bought a house and immediately started working on it for little upgrades. Then we found out I wasn't going to have such an easy time finding a job. This was for two reasons, lack of experience (Everywhere in my field required 5 years experience for an entry level job!), and the economy tanked within 2 months of our buying our house! We also were told not long after getting to WA that we wouldn't likely be able to have kids without major medical intervention. (IUI or IVF) All of a sudden we went from having a plan for getting rid of the debt within a couple years to having even more in the form of a brand new home that was suddenly seriously upside down and BAM, I was pregnant!!

Needless to say we didn't have all the extra money we were counting on to pay down the cards in the form of my having a career- they more or less just sat for 2 years! But, now we've gotten rid of the house, moved, had another baby, and are most the way through a deployment! And I'm proud of what we've accomplished this year! One card is paid off, one is down by half, and the last is even down a little! I'm paying them off/down in order by highest APR. This still leaves us with a considerable amount of debt, but we've gotten rid of about half of it! And if we can plan right and not use them, we'll have them all completely paid off inside 3 years! (unless we go through another deployment- then it would be shorter!) And best of all, without having to go without too much that we're use to having!

While I don't plan to go as far as to say we'll get rid of them and never use credit cards, I plan on using them for major purchases and only when I have a plan for paying each purchase off. In other words, they will be our own personal lending authority.

Now for how I've been learning to spend wisely. I am really proud to say that this past month or so I have gotten everything planned out for our trip home in December. While its not cheap, I'm pretty proud of how well I have done in planning so that we can have a great trip at a great price and without breaking the bank! So here's the breakdown:

We are driving from KS to FL. The trip is a little over 3000 miles round trip! Obviously with a 2 year old and a 1 year old, it will be a long drive, so we are breaking it down into 3 days each way. I have broken the trip down so I know about where we will be stopping each day and looked into hotels there, plus estimated gas prices. All together for the trip alone we are looking about $1000.

We will be boarding the dogs, which will be around $600.

 Our hotel in Clearwater is $500.

And our Disney trip all together, including our tickets, hotel, and most our meals is $900.
I know you're asking how are we doing 4 days in Disney, staying on the property for only $900. Well, Disney loves the military and this year's Salute the Troops is a 4 day park hopper pass for $160 or something like that, plus they are doing 40% off at any of their hotels!! Add Sea World's Salute the Troops is a free day admission, so we'll be doing a day there also!! Pretty awesome huh!?! We do love Disney and Sea World and couldn't manage going if not for these discounts!

That rounds out at about $3000!! Thankfully, the Disney part is already fully paid for!! That puts us down to $2000!! So, I have the next 3 months to save $1000, and the last $1000 will come from regular pay for the month of December and beginning of January. (I say beginning of Jan. because I pay for the dogs when I pick them up the first week of Jan.!)

Now, this does mean I won't be putting much extra towards the credit cards, but if I don't set the money aside now and choose to put the extra on the cards, we'll just end up putting part of the trip on the cards and being back where we are now at the beginning of January!! lol Did you follow all that!?

I have also figured out gifts for everyone and how we can get decent gifts for cheap! Here's the list minus what we're doing for the parents since I don't know if the Moms read this!
     - Keirnan & James: Keirnan is getting a Tag Jr, James is getting 2 fridge magnet toys. These total under $100. We're not going big for them since we're taking them to Disney and they are still both small enough to not know anything else. (I hope to actually keep them from ever expecting too much!)
     - Grandparents (x3 sets): Personal Calenders- free I have enough Pampers Gifts to Grow points to get 3 of these calenders from Shutterfly!
     - Parents (x3 sets): Free! Well, not technically free, but we paid for everything in pieces over the past year or so out of regular pocket money!
     - Other family and friends: Ok, I still have to figure it out, but I have a few ideas and if I start now it will come out of pocket money!

Overall, I'm really proud of how I'm pulling all this together! Add to it, I've already got the family's Halloween costumes and got them all on major sale and with a free shipping code, so the 4 costumes total out at about $100!

I also got the decorations and table ware for James' birthday party on clearance for $50! I still have to figure out what we're getting him for his birthday, have to get the goody bag stuffings, cake, and other food, but think I can keep that pretty cheap!

That leaves What to get Will for his birthday and Christmas!! He wants the front windows of the truck re-tinted because we had to take the tinting off in Germany. So I need to price that and then just figure out Christmas!! Eek!! He's the hard part! The rest is easy breezy!!