A funny face.

 

Lucan wanted to try on Lance's safety glasses. I thought he looked pretty silly so we took a couple of photos to capture the moment.

 

Lu is at an age where all he wants to do are make silly faces or give me fake smiles. Usually I try to have him say something off beat in hopes of eliciting a "genuine" smile instead of random pasted on smiles.

 

Sometimes it works. And sometimes you just have to take photos with safety goggles. I envision this one showing up in his high school graduation slide show :)

 

 

Gracelyn - 3 month update

A little Grandma love :)

Gracelyn, you don’t like to poop. On my final two days of being home with you, you were so uncomfortable with being plugged up, I took you to the doctor. They took an x-ray of your bowl and you were poop filled. No surprise there. Our beloved pediatrician, recommended glycerin suppositories and a healthy dose of white grape juice every day. I tried to give one to you and I just couldn’t. I just plain could not. Thankfully your daddy is a stronger person than I am and he administered one. You did NOT like it. Frankly, I don’t blame you. We had to give you two suppositories and daddy had to do them both times. It was not a fun job. 

At your poop doctor visit, you weighed 10 lbs., 13 ounces. Yay for weight gain!

Sleeping. You are a good sleeper. One long morning nap and a pretty solid night of sleep. No one is complaining here. You sleep pretty well during the day and early afternoon. When daddy and brother get home, you want in on the action and playtime. I don’t blame you, besides it’s really hard to sleep through all that noise! You continue to sleep in your rock and play sleeper, but we’ve started doing a few naps here and there in your crib. Everything at this age is a transition. 

Eating. We went through a time of really being worried about your extreme dislike of bottles. I would jokingly tell everyone that I wasn’t going to be able to go back to work because you wouldn’t take a bottle. But we really hunkered down on those last two weeks before the end of my maternity leave and got that straightened out. We’re on a 3.5 to 4 hour rotation. In the morning hours you’ll go longer because of your nap. Mom’s not complaining, she likes her nap too.

Wearing. 0-3 month clothing. You are getting a little longer and filling out a bit. Sadly, you are just a shorty like your mama. There’s nothing wrong with being the shortest person in the pictures, someone has to!

Milestones. Social: smiling at brother and lots of morning smiles. Such a sweet baby girl! You like to rub your hands in your eyes.

Language: You coo a bit. We all take turns trying to make you smile.

mo money, mo problems. Part 2 of our debt story

Last time I told you how we had a small mountain of debt accumulated. I tell you this to be encouraged that it CAN be done. I used to read stories on Dave Ramsey’s website about how all of these people paid off their small-ish mountain of debt. Those people annoyed me because their debt was NOTHING in comparison to ours. We did it in three years. Here’s how:

1. We started a cash budget. And started tracking where our money went. You know how you get your tax returns and it tells you how much money you’ve made that year and you wonder where it all went (mine was in my closet). Yeah, start figuring out where that money goes.
2. Canceled direct tv. It broke my heart. I’ve read where people cut the cord and it was fine and they didn’t miss it one bit. I’m not one of those people. I miss it. We both miss it.
3. Got rid of our landline.
4. We tried to sell the Traverse. We really did. But the moment you drive a car off the lot, it instantly depreciates. So we kept it. And dealt with it.
5. We cut out vacations. Not that we ever went on a lot of trips beforehand, but we really don't go places unless they have been saved for.
6. I started working at a place that did tuition reimbursement. Got good grades so I could get reimbursed.
7. Stopped the home improvements bus. Yes, I still have the same original ugly hunter green countertops that we’ve had since we moved in almost nine years ago. On the flip side, they’re really good at hiding dirt!
8. Limited how often we eat out. This is hard for us. We both love eating out, but truthfully, after having Lucan we had less of a desire to eat out. No one ever thought “let’s go to a nice restaurant and see if our toddler can behave” was a good plan. I remember one harrowing meal at Granite City and thinking in my mind, “this is SO NOT WORTH IT.”
9. Meal planning, which goes hand in hand with #8. We both make bad food choices when we have no game plan and are hungry to boot. And by bad food choices, I mean, takeout from Hy-Vee Chinese.
10. Did not get smart phones until the fall of 2014. Wow. But oh how I love my iphone now. It makes me so very happy.
11. I stayed out of the mall. I realized that I have less discontent when I have no idea what I’m missing out on.
12. Started unsubscribing to some of the former shopping blogs I used to live for.
13. Also unsubscribed from store emails. No, I don’t need to know that Loft and Gap are having a 40% off sale again.
14. I don’t buy Lucan a lot of presents. For example up until this year, he didn’t get all of those small one-off holidays presents, like Easter, Valentine’s, Halloween, etc. This was the first time I got him more than a single Christmas present. I leave it to family and they are more than generous. If you come and visit our house, you’ll see that no one is lacking in toys. I’ve tried hiding Lu’s Christmas or birthday presents and then bringing them back out at a later date, but I need a better hiding spot. I continually catch Lucan downstairs standing in front of the shelves with all the toys on it and hear him asking “you can get just one thing down for me, right?”
15. I think I’ve only bought Lucan one thing at Gap Kids. Ever. I’m sure this will probably change with little Miss, but for now, all of our kids’ clothes come from generous gifts, sales, consignment, garage sales, hand me downs and FB swap sites. Guess what – they don’t care. Side note: we do buy most of Lu’s shoes new now that he’s so active. But he only gets like two pairs a year. He’s a boy; he doesn’t know he needs more.
16. We did in-home daycare as a cost savings thing. Granted, it was a complete mess of a nightmare, but it did save us some money. Headaches? Yes. Insensible rage? Yes. Fear of getting fired due to the number of missed days because your provider is flaky? Yes. If you can find a good in-home, go for it. It works for several of our friends, so it could work for you too!
17. We garden. Or try to garden. We mostly do it because we love the fresh produce and not as this huge cost savings endeavor. Last summer I tried to use up all of our tomatoes and Lucan got really tired of finding tomatoes in everything or having five tomato based meals a week.
18. We do canning. I really can’t tell you if we’re saving money by canning. I can certainly tell you that it’s hard to can with two adults who work full-time and have a very active child. Every year I tell myself that something's gotta give when we're up till midnight multiple nights canning. Obviously that something is my sanity.
19. I have a group of church friends who are really gracious about organizing meals for new babies. It’s really wonderful and I have felt the blessings of those ladies. But sometimes I just can’t manage a whole meal so I make a loaf of homemade bread. People like homemade bread. I have to repeat to myself that I’m not a bad person for bringing a person a loaf of homemade bread.
20. Harnessing the power of social media. I’ve seasonally borrowed items for my kiddos that I knew we would only need for a little while. Several friends let me have mint out of their garden when I asked on Facebook.
21. For a while I made homemade laundry detergent. I didn’t like it so I stopped. But you might like it!
22. I cut the boys’ hair. And I hate it.
23. We only make coffee at the house on the weekends. Otherwise we suffer through work coffee.
24. Use the library! Our library has an awesome selection of magazines and online magazines (check out zinio). I also reserve new releases on books and movies. Now if I could just stay on top of getting things back on time.
25. Become a DIYer. Lance gets the credit for this one – he (and our families) painted the exterior of our house, fixed our water heater, garbage disposal, sink (multiple times), rewired lamps, fixed our dishwasher, rewired the stand-alone freezer, installed our hardwood floors, changes the oil on all of our cars, ignores the check engine lights (seriously, ours have been on for years), fixes things like water heaters, spark plugs, broken tire rods and axels, fixed bed frames, grills. Lance is my DIY hero.

So I don’t think any of my tips are earth shattering. The main things we’ve done: start a budget, stick to it. Learn how to do some small things yourself. If credit cards are hard for you, tuck them away. If shopping is a weakness, know your triggers and eliminate them (store sale emails, shopping blogs, malls). If you were an alcoholic, you wouldn’t hang out in a bar, right? 

Aside from the budget, I don’t think any one thing is going to make you a millionaire. But a combination of all these little things will add up and result in money saved. We both started bringing in higher paychecks and that was probably the tipping point in being able to pay off large chunks of debt. As Becky Bloomwood would say “I’m more of a make more money than a spend less type of person” (Confessions of a Shopaholic anyone?)

You can do this. Believe me when I say, been there, spent that, saved and lived to tell the tale.    

And completely unrelated, a video of me making Lucan cry by threatening to ship him off in a box. I thought he would think it was funny. I was wrong. 

The quest ends: Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

Right. If you know me or follow me on facebook, you know I can't make a chocolate chip cookie to save my life. It's kind of humiliating and more than a little humbling. BUT I DID IT. After literally hundreds of tasty (but abysmal failures) chocolate chip cookie flops, I finally found a winner. These are the things I'm attributing to my success.

1. New baking soda. My boss replaces her baking soda every 2-3 months. I found a box of baking soda in my fridge with a "best if used by date" of 2002 (which I have no idea where it came from because I was in college at that point and I don't think I would have willingly moved a box of baking soda 5+ times). Lance asked me if baking soda evaporated into the air .... like water? (My husband is smart, but common sense sometimes flees his brain). Please know that I store my cooking baking soda in an airtight container and don't use the same one that we use to freshen our fridge or do laundry.
2. These powerhouse baking sheets. Combined with silpat mats.
3. Name brand butter aka: Land o' Lakes. My boss doesn't necessarily believe this makes a difference but I had read on King Arthur Flour's blog that generic butter can have a higher water count. I don't know if that's true or not.
4. I barely softened our butter. It was probably out on the counter for 5 minutes and I threw it in the microwave for 8 seconds.
5. I used my KitchenAid stand mixer. My mom always mixes hers by hand but I don't have those kind of arm muscles :)
6. I used two kinds of sugar - white and brown.
7. No more nestle tollhouse recipe - I used the one listed below which calls for baking soda and baking powder.
8. I didn't refrigerate the dough after mixing. Yes, I am a rebel. But I didn't notice that the ones that were baked on the cold baking sheet did look nicer. Sometimes there isn't time like that.
9. This is a 100% butter recipe. I had been advised by several people to do a butter/margarine/crisco combo but this worked!
10. I erred on the side of too much flour. I think previously I had been stingy with my flour and very exacting about my "scoop and level" method but I tried to be more generous this time around.

Below is the recipe I used from "Love Taza"

Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe

 

1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. soda
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
3 1/4 cups flour (give or take a little flour)

1 bag of chocolate chips

 

Cream butter. add in sugars, mix.
Add eggs and vanilla.

Mix the dry ingredients separately in a large bowl. Gradually add into butter/sugar mixture. Add chocolate chips.

Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes. Makes about 2 dozen.

 

I told Lucan gleefully that I had made him chocolate chip cookies. He ate 2 for breakfast (because I'm a rockstar mom) and then proceeded to ask me if I had also made cinnamon rolls. Ungrateful brat.)

mo money, mo problems (Part 1 of our Debt Story)

We paid off the last of our student loans on Friday, March 13, a day that will forever go down in infamy (ha, not really. We’re not Pearl Harbor here). 

Let’s backtrack a few paces and discuss our debt.

• We bought a new (new to us) Traverse two months after Lucan was born. While I’m super thankful that we have the Traverse and one vehicle that is bigger, it was still an expense.
• I attended two private schools for my undergrad and graduate studies and did a study abroad semester in the most expensive city in the world (London, coming in at #1 according to a recent Daily Telegraph story).
• We bought a house on our first anniversary. I was working in non-profit and am actually shocked by how little I was making at that time. At the same time, I had no idea how little that amount actually was and thought I was rich! Foolish 23 year-old. 
• Approximately nine months into our marriage Lance underwent a fairly substantial jaw surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester. Cue: out of network hospital bill. While we were able to pay off his bill without too many tears, it was certainly pricey and an unplanned expense.
• We were using our credit cards to pay for everything. We always paid off our bill at the end of each month, but I can recognize that we typically spent more than we should have by using our credit cards to make our purchases. (Side: we still use our credit cards and we have a Target debit card that we get 5% off with. But I will say, from a cash budget perspective it certainly complicates things. Lance is constantly having to ask me if I’ve moved money and I never can remember. He's typically annoyed with me)
• Between the two of us, we’ve had three bouts of unemployment and have lived to tell the tale. And to pay off debt during that time! 

I hope that paints a pretty good picture of our finances. It’s not a pretty one, but I’m guessing it’s one that many of you can identify with. Student loans, credit cards, new cars and a baby! We are the "typical” Americans!

Stay tuned for more about our debt saga. It's a doozie. 

 

And just for giggles, a photo of the first time I met Lance. We were 15!

Why I’m Not a Hipster

Him. Layers upon layers. Hipster glasses. Fedora. Smirky.

Me. Clothes from the mall and mass produced.

Obviously this post has lots of real depth to it. I jotted most of these reasons down while I was taking a “milk” break.

1. I’m Asian. Hipsters are primarily white. One giant strike for Kara. Can’t change this one. 
2. I like mainstream EVERYTHING. Starbucks, Target, Taylor Swift, Emily Giffin, The Bachelor.” If it’s Top 40, I probably like it. I’m super cool like that. 
3. I don’t own any black frame glasses. I do own glasses and need them, I just happen to enjoy the fuzzy world I live in without them. 
4. I have straight hair and no chunky bangs. Hipsters have beachy wave hair and Zooey Deschanel bangs. 
5. No tattoos. I can’t think of anything I want on my body that much.
6. I can’t really pull off hats. Especially wool slouchy hats.
7. If diaper bags can be considered messenger bags, I might have one point for Kara as a hipster.
8. I don’t really have the patience for thrift stores. There’s nothing organized there! It smells funny! Everyone knows I’m an imposter! 
9. I don’t watch indie films. I think the last “indie-ish” film I watched was “Blue Jasmine” or “Midnight in Paris.” Not really indie and Lance hated both of them. Last movie I saw and really liked “Chef.” Of course it was about food …
10. I know nothing about emerging music. Not unless it’s on the radio and endorsed by Ryan Seacrest. 
11. I think artisan food is expensive.
12. Layering clothes makes me really hot. I can’t take the heat of multiple layers. Perhaps I should invest in an open plaid shirt from Tommy Hilfiger. 
13. We own three cars. One is an SUV. Public transportation in the burbs of Des Moines just isn’t happening. Bicycling in our stage of live would be super impractical. I tried to take Lucan garage saleing (not even a real word) one time in the bike trailer and he kept throwing things out the side and I had to keep stopping to pick our stuff off the sidewalk. Again, I was a sweaty mess by the end.
14. My kids have kinda hipster-ish names. And if by hipster, I mean no one has ever heard of our kids names and wants to know how in the world we came up with them/why we would embarrass/curse our children like that. 
15. And the real reason I can't be a hipster - I had to google "how to be a hipster"