Cuteness wet in cloths so she is enjoying my bare time. Hehe

 

Look how neat she is LOL Putting all her peal in the cup holder… she hates the peal!

Bob happened to be telling his class roof about all the things we are doing at the house this summer the other day. One boy said he would be willing to help if we paid him, then he told Bob about Mr. Brown who is the workshop teacher there at the school. He said that Mr. Brown roofs houses and that this boy has helped him roof on a few jobs. So Bob went and talked with him.

Again today Bob talked to him about roofing on Friday. The guy said he is going to try to get ahold of the guys that usually help him roof and see if Friday would be ok. At 1:30 is his suppose to tell Bob the final price on what he would charge us. From what he told Bob earlier on pricing if we hired him it would still be way cheaper then getting a roofing company to do it.

So once again it seems like God is leading us to the right people. Isn’t he good? :)

Ok so the shingles and wood are being delivered Thursday evening. They will have a cool thing on their truck that will transport the shingles onto the roof. Thank goodness for that because i couldn’t imagine Bob bringing all those up on his shoulder up a ladder. I was so nervous about that because Bob’s back is already messed up, i was worried he would mess it up even more!

Then the dumpster gets delivered Friday morning and Bob plans to start roofing then. It was another awesome thing that dumpster. The city just happened to be having a ‘dumpster deal’ in all of May. So we got the dumpster for incredibly cheap.

Getting a dumpster was one of our major concerns because we have so much stuff that we are going to have to dispose of, not only all the roof stuff but the concrete we are tacking up and the tree stump. We weren’t sure we would be able to afford a dumpster until we heard about the dumpster deal from our Pastor. If we would have waited a few days more, that sale wouldn’t have been on. I just count it as the Lord making a way for us.

It’s been awesome. I just think that it’s all God’s doing, getting us major deals on so many things! How else could we have so much ‘luck’ if it wasn’t him that was showing us and guiding us to the right places?

That’s why i feel confident that he will help us get the roof finished before the next stretch of rain comes and that he will protect the roof during that rain we have been having.

You know when most things happen in my life i always think it’s God’s hand. Mostly the good but in also the things that aren’t ideal.

Like last Thursday when i went up for my dentist appointment. Dad always drives me up there so he can watch Abby while I'm in my appointment. Well on the way up there it was raining really hard and the wipers on our van went out. I think it was God letting it happen while Dad was there with me. Because i would have been stuck on the side of the road. I wouldn’t have had the guts to drive on the shoulder of very busy highway and get off and find a auto shop. I would have been nervous to the bone and probably would have sat there until the rain stopped. So i believe God knew what was best for me and knew it would be best that it happened then instead of on my way home and me be stuck somewhere. God is so good!

My trust in him is growing, but it’s hard because I'm still human. But he has been there for me in…. well everything i can think of!

Ok two days ago Anabel did her first ‘pretending’ with our help. She was playing with an empty wipe container, brought it to Daddy and asked him to open it. Once Dad did she stuck her hand in it and look disappointed because it was empty. She had set her stuffed cow out on the floor and pointed and said ‘Uh oh, cow wet!’ We handed her the empty wipe container and said to get a wipe and change the cows diaper, and to get a wipe and clean the cows butt. LOL She looked at us oddly and giggled but finally she acted like she took a wipe and then began to clean the cows butt then said ‘All clean’ (switch is what i say when I'm done changing her diaper). We praised her and gave her high five, which she thought was awesome… and then she continued to keep changing the cows diaper over and over again and telling us what she was doing. It was so cute!

Saturday we did TONS of shopping and today i also did some more ordering. Our plans are starting to become reality. For several days before hand i did all kinds of searching and pricing of products online to get the best deal i could. We ended up going to Menards to order all out wood for all our projects. We had it all delivered. Also while in the middle of ordering our wood i noticed their shingle prices. Their prices were the cheapest i had seen. So we decided to order those and add them to our delivery as well. We then shopped for all the other little (and some big) things we will need to do all our projects. We haven’t bought everything yet but we have got 95% of it i would say.

We even stopped at Target to pick up some outdoor cushions that i found online. They didn’t have the cushions that i wanted at the store (had to order them) but we did find their outdoor carpets on sale. Instead of buying one carpet for the front porch, we got two for the price i had for one at Wal-Mart. 

 

Back Yard:

At Target i picked up some yellow placemats and also this tablecloth:

My plan is to use this outdoor tablecloth and use the material for our patio table chair cushions (backyard). So i bought some outdoor cushion foam:

At the Habitat For Humanity Store we bought 4 chairs at $2 each. They will be sanded down, the padded seat taken off, Bob will re-cut a wooden seat to place on all of them and they will be painted. I’m thinking of painting a couple the light blue and a couple the light yellow… but i haven’t decided.

I also ordered the outdoor foam for the the loveseat Bob is going to build. A 4in think forms to make the bottom of the loveseat and a 2in form for the back of the loveseat :

I also ordered the outdoor fabric that will cover the forms (backyard). The seat part of the cushion will be in this material:

 

The back cushion of the loveseat will be in this material (backyard):

For the accent pillows on the loveseat i bought 4 of this form (backyard):

Since i have 4 accent pillow forms, i might use some of the blue material (above) if i have some left over but i also bought this fabric for at least two of the pillows (backyard):

I also ordered this fabric (backyard):

Because i loved it and i will use it for something.

So as a recap here is the fabrics being used in the backyard:

		Yellow of course will be the main color, then blue with a pop of orange. I think it should look great!

 

I ordered the 20 foot shade sail yesterday too.

Also Bob got some new toys, things he will need to do all the yard work.

A 12’ Hitachi Miter Saw and he got an angle grinder. We got this for a $100 off it’s original price and about $30 cheaper for the angle grinder. An amazing deal!

 

Front Porch:

I ordered the cushions for the front porch:

And we got the spray paint i need for the wicker furniture. I will be working on painting those soon!

The other accent pillows (front porch):

We will have to pick up at the store. All the other cushions had free shipping and even though these green pillows are from the same store, for some reason they didn’t have free shipping. So to save about $10 we are just going to pick them up at the store.

We got the materials for all the front porch columns and railing, even the railing that will go down the front steps.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We spent a lot but we saved a ton too by shopping smart. The shingles we saved about $500, wood about $100, $100 on the saw, $36 on angle iron, and $20 on outdoor carpets.

Other things i know we got a major deal on but can’t say for sure how much. Like at the Habitat Store we got coils of roofing nails for $1 a coil and online the cheapest one i could find was $7… we got 52 of them so that is potentially about $300 saving on that.

Also there we got chairs for $2 where anywhere else you would pay more for them.

At the same store we got a sweet light fixture for the front porch for $8 and the cheapest you would find out that nice would be about $25 or more!

So i think it would be safe to say we saved over a $1,000 dollars. That i say, is SWEET!

Took me tons of time in price matching and figures and searching but it was worth it all!

Back several months ago i had created a meal list and a master shopping list for all those meals. It worked great because all i had to do was pull up the meal list, pick what sounded good and i knew that i had all the ingredients for that meal. Some reason i didn’t do it again but now i want to get back into it. Here is what mine looks like:

Main Dish Index:

1. Chili & Corn Bread
2. Potato Ham Soup
3. Chicken Noodles Soup
4. Chicken Pot Pie & Dumplings
5. Veggie Pizza
6. Creamy Pasta
7. Spinach Pasta w/ Homemade Bread
8. Pot Roast, Mashed Potato Casserole & Rolls
9. Homemade Mac & Cheese w/ Hamburger
10. Salisbury Steak, Mashed Potatoes & Corn
11. Stir Fry
12. Fried Steak Strips, Avocado Salad, Baked Potatoes
13. Burritos
14. Nachos
15. Breadsticks w/ Salad
16. Homemade Pizza w/ Salad
17. Fried Chicken Strips
18. Fancy Dogs w/ Cheeto's
19. Chicken Pasta w/ Rolls
20. Salsa Chicken on Rice
21. Spicy Pork Sandwiches
22. Easy Lasagna
23. Hamburger Pie
24. Butter Chicken
25. Stroganoff
26. BLT's
27. Potato Ham Bake
28. Sage Chicken w/ Gravy (Toast or Mashed Potato's)

Breakfast Index:

1. Creamed Asparagus Over Toast
2. Breakfast Burrito's
3. Waffles
4. Pancakes
5. French Toast
6. Eggs & Potato Cakes
7. Crepe's
8. Blueberry Muffins
9. Puffy Oven Apple Pancake
10. Fried Apples
11. Impossibly Easy Breakfast Bake

Here is what the master shopping list looks like:

Master Shopping List:

Dry Foods:	Cold Foods:
Pizza Sauce (2) Pepperoni Salsa Black Olives (3 cans) Hot Dog Buns Sandwich Buns Bread (2) Peanut Butter Syrup Chips Nacho Chips Cheeto's Bag Rice Brown Gravy Packets (7) Chicken Gravy Packets (4) Shells (2) Refried Beans (3) Pasta (4) Egg Noodles Ranch Dressing Flour Oil Spag. Sauce (2) Canned Tomatoes Pancake Mix Crackers Canned Mushroom Soup Canned Baked Beans Bread crumbs Bacon Bits	Chicken (16 breasts) Polish Sausage Pork Chops Ham Slice (2) Roast Steak Bacon (4) Ground Beef (8) Sausage Links Cream Cheese (6) Frozen Carrots Frozen Peas Frozen Corn Butter Crescent Rolls (6) Sour Cream (3) Cheese (1) Mozzarella cheese (2) Cheddar Cheese (3) Eggs (2) Milk Frozen Ravioli's Garlic Bread (3) Frozen Blueberries Juice
Fresh Foods:	Misc:
Potatoes Tomatoes (20 Roma) Cherry Tomatoes Onions (7) Garlic Broccoli Carrots Bag of Spinach Avocado (6) Asparagus Bag Apples Bananas	Diapers Wipes Toilet Paper Paper Towels Dishwasher Fluid

I wanted to spice up boring frozen ravioli’s and i found this recipe to try. We liked it a lot. Thought i would share! I didn’t have breadcrumbs or i toasted some bread, crumbled it and added my homemade Italian seasoning to it, simple! Oh and i didn’t add the pecans because i thought that sounded bad! LOL

OH SO GOOD OVEN-FRIED RAVIOLI

1 pkg. (13 oz.) frozen square cheese ravioli
3/4 cup reduced-fat sour cream
1/4 cup 2% milk
1 cup Italian-style panko breadcrumbs
1/2 cup ground pecans
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup marinara pasta sauce
3 tbsp. light cream or half and half
1 tbsp. chopped fresh parsley

Cook ravioli as directed on package. Drain and pat dry. Preheat oven to 400°F. Coat baking sheet with cooking spray.

In bowl, combine sour cream and milk. In another bowl, combine breadcrumbs, pecans and Parmesan cheese. Coat ravioli, one at a time, in sour cream mix, shake off excess. Coat with breadcrumb mix.

Arrange 1" apart on baking sheet. Generously coat with cooking spray.

Bake until golden, about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, in pot, combine marinara sauce and light cream, cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until heated through, 5-7 minutes.

Transfer ravioli to platter, sprinkle with parsley, serve with sauce.

Yummy!

So we went up to my brother and sisters yesterday to hang out (had tons of fun, like usual), spend the night and got up early to go to the Fort Riley post wide garage sales.

We got up at 4:30am and was in the car by 5:30am. Got some awesome deals!

Some of the things we got were:

• A gas grill. Four burners and one side burner. We are so excited about it. We tested it before we bought it of course, it all seemed to work great. The cheapest i could find new of the same brand and size was $180, this one was listed at the garage sale at $100 but Bob talked her down to $75. So happy!
• A DVD player for $3 (switch we put in the play room so Anabel can watch her Veggie Tales in there now.)

• Some gardening tools
• Glass canisters. Which in one i put my coco and the other i put my baking soda. I love having glass canisters for everything! Love it love it!
• Some sweet dress shoes for myself

Bob plans on making a shelf just for these baskets so they will fit better, but that will be after out many outdoor projects for sure!

• I got 7 very large metal baskets (adore them!)
• 3 Veggie Tales movies
• Several adorable girl cloths along with a swimming suit for Bell.
• Bob got some shop tool-clap things
• An eight foot long shade that Bob has already installed in the living room front window.

• I got a stamping set of the complete alphabet and numbers along with a circle punch that will help me tremendously on my party projects. Bob got a couple dollars knocked off of these for me. But the lady had several other die cuts that i would have loved. Bob said later i should have went up to her and said i would buy all of them for $20 and saw what she said… but i am a chicken when it comes to that stuff… guess it was my loss :( But i am very pleased with what i did get!
• Bob found the whole complete set of the Seinfeld show (he’s been wanting that for forever)

All in all it was a great trip. The grill was worth it all! YAY! And we didn’t hit even a forth of the sale that were out there probably. I think my sis said there was like 134 garage sale… CRAZY!

And best of all I had a great time with my sister, hubby and the kids!

What i adore about my Doodle at this stage.

I adore everything! LOL But some of the tops are:

• When she catches site of me she saids ‘Mum’ as if saying ‘Hi!’
• Her staring at me and having a whole conversation is that adorable baby gibber.
• Doodle leaning forward and giving me big kisses on my cheek.
• Knowing when she is in a good mood by her giggling at anything i say.
• Her dancing…. taking after her sister who takes it after for mummy.

What i adore about Bell lately:

(again everything!)

• Getting a ‘Good Morning Mommy’ every morning and after every nap ^_^
• Her telling me ‘Thank you Mommy’ for every little thing i do for her.
• Her cuddles and rubbing me and saying ‘My Mommy’ with a giggle.
• Watching her give loves to her sister.
• Her bring toys to her sister and saying ‘There you go Sissy!’
• She loves to bring sister her binky and she loves to help me find her binky when it’s missing.
• She loves to wipe things off, it makes her so happy to help me clean.
• The list could be endless!

Yesterday on Mother’s Day, after breakfast, we decided to go ahead and order this 8x11 outdoor rug. It was on sale for 25% OFF and we didn’t want to miss that sale, plus we found a coupon for another 25% off. So YAY! Smart shopping woot woot!

• Yard Lay Out

• Back Yard Design Plans

• Front Porch Design Plans