I Call Her Disney Ashley

I was about to start this blog with “I think I’ve mentioned it before, but…” and then thought that I think I start a lot of my blogs out with that line.  Does that mean I’m really just telling you all the same thing over and over again?

Maybe.  I need to accept the realization that I might be boring.  That’s sad.  But you read anyway (I think) so WooHoo for that.  WooHoo makes me think of Sims which meansthat statement would become highly inappropriate and make this whole blog awkward.

So back to the real point (as you say “You actually have a real point?”)

As I think I have mentioned before I can have a difficult time being “outgoing” and “social” with new people or when I’m focused on something I just become oblivious to what’s going on around me.  And for a fact I know now (after several minutes of searching) that I did in fact mention it before so to get a run down on how I approach new social situations you’ll need to read this blog (again) since I don’t feel like writing it all out again.  In a nutshell, if I don’t KNOW you then you do not KNOW me.  Do not assume what you see is what you get with me – my first impressions are rather deceiving.

That being said the Davis’ headed to Disneyland again last night (our passes just became eligible again after 2 months and we are milking it for all its worth!)  Justin took the girls on Star Tours (15 minute wait – Can I get an AMEN?!) and I took Elijah on the Astro Orbiter.  We were in line behind a nice woman named Ashley that had a bubbly 2/3 year old (not sure her age) named Gigi and a 19 month old named Savannah. 

Now this woman was everything I am not in new social situations.  She was very chatty and easy going.  She was surprisingly easy to talk to and the 5 minute wait we were supposed to have was more like 20 minutes so we had plenty of time just chat.  I actually thoroughly enjoyed our conversation and found out so many ways we are similar.  I also learned that her oldest really wanted to go on Small World and her youngest was terrified so I offered to take her daughter on the ride followed with “Unless that’s too creepy – because that may seem creepy”.  She laughed and said she thought it was a great idea.

We talked some more as we waited in line for Small World and Jordan and Gigi especially hit it off.  Since most of our friends have boys Jordan doesn’t get the chance very often to hang out with a little girl.  (FYI the little boys she does hang out with are super awesome and we love them). After the ride we needed to head home, but Gigi asked if we could go on another ride with them.  I told her that Taylor had to go to bed since she had school in the morning, but her mom and I exchanged numbers and plan on meeting up again soon.

If you would have told me yesterday afternoon that I would meet somebody at Disneyland and spend a couple of hours talking to them and making plans to hang out again I would have called you a liar.  Well probably not a liar, but maybe a little psycho.   But it was a great night!  Yay for new friends – and you all know I have the most awesomest friends.

Super Awesome

Have I mentioned before that I work for a super awesome company AND I have super awesome coworkers AND I have a super awesome boss.  No lie.

My boss is so awesome these actual words were in my annual review “…more then a normal human being”.  I appreciate that.  She didn’t say you do X quickly.  She didn’t say you do X quicker then most people.  She said you do X more then a normal human being.  That’s right.  She’s funny and super awesome.  I appreciate her.

She is a no fluff kind of person.  A “you made this mistake let’s fix it” kind of person and not a “you did really good on A and B, but we need to work on C” kind of person.  I appreciate that too.  I hate fluff.  I’m perfectly fine assuming my job is being done adequately unless you tell me otherwise.  I do not need nor do I want you to tell me how good I’m doing.  I’d rather assume all is well unless you tell me there’s a problem to fix.

Not everyone likes a boss like that.  But man oh man I find it awesome.  Super awesome even.

The real question is “Why the heck are you telling me this Rachael?”

Because my super awesome boss is letting me work from home a couple of hours every morning so that I can drop Taylor off at school at 9:30 then finish my day at work.  Although this is a huge help and although I am getting my work done at home (which is easier then I anticipated with 3 kids running around) I still feel by the time I get to work I’m behind.

I’m not, but it feels like it.  So I am taking my 10 minute break and ignoring work like I should be doing. 

The reality is that I just entered a massively crazy next few weeks that just happened to coincide with Taylor’s starting school.  So even if I was working my full day AT work I’d still be behind.

And my 10 minutes are up.  Thank you for reading if you still are.  This was a rather pointless blog.

So Sayith Tay and Jay #35

Tracy Fox - How can birds fly? How can fish breathe in water?

Taylor: Well the wind gets in their feathers and they flap and the it can make more air to help them.  But they stay still so they can let the bird air through so it will help them fly.  Fish breathe in water because they are animals the breathe in water.  They have layers in there that keeps the air in there to help them breath and the water keeps them alive.  Water is alive.

Jordan: Birds fly can fly when they flap their wings.  They close their mouth and open their mouth and it goes up.  They cover their knows but they don't have hands they have flapper tails.

Rachel Reed - What is your favorite thing to do in the summer?


Taylor: My favorite thing to do in summer is going to trip.  Going on a swimming pool.

Jordan: Oh, Its I just want to go in snow.  That's my favorite thing in summer (apparently she doesn't know what seasons are)


Rachel Reed - If you could pick something in your bedroom that would last forever, what would you choose? Why?


Taylor: A Diamond and Gold and pretty and well but when there is one that that is beautiful I'll share with you.  Mommy I'll buy a beautiful necklace for you. (for the record she does not have gold and diamonds in her room)

Jordan: It will be a light thing.
Me: Not Marley (her stuffed dog that looks like the dog from the movie Marley and Me) or your Tinker Bell blanket?
Jordan: Oh, Marley and my Tinker Bell blanket.


Rachel Reed - If you could design the perfect play space for yourself, what would it have in it? Where would it be?


Taylor: I really giant slide and you have to climb all the way up as high as space, but its not scary because there are things that can catch you if you go to fast. And there's also a little slide in case you don't want that one.  My play place will be called Space Space Sometimes Everywhere.  And sometimes there will be ghosts to catch you but don't be scared because they are there to help you.

Jordan: It would be a tent um somewhere that we can be safe and stuff.  Where there aren't any monsters and stuff. Like a monster potato head and he has polka dots on him.  And Marley is like WOO HOO!


Jennifer Baker - If you could ask the questions for family blog night what questions would you ask?


Taylor: Why is the butterfly have beautiful colors?  Why do rainbows have a lot of colors.

Jordan:  It will be a tent.  I keep saying tents all day.


Allyson Blinn Ramirez - what does it mean to be nice to your brother and sister?


Taylor: It means I'm really so nice and I'm never mean to them.  And I'll be a star more then everybody.

Jordan: Oh its no hitting and no throwing toys.

Weekly Meal Plan #1

So I'm sorry to say my starting week will not be the most helpful.  I honestly debated on waiting until next week, but then I figured I could use a trial run to figure out how I want to do it anyway.

Why is this week bad you ask? Well because we'll be camping this weekend (short menu for the week) AND although I will post the sales list for the week I did not actually do any shopping this week and instead based my meal plan on things I had in my cupboard that I needed to get rid of before we go camping.  Sorry!

I guess it’s as good a time as any to mention that it is ALWAYS good to stock up on items that have a long shelf life and go on sale for great prices like last week at Ralphs jars of Ragu and BBQ sauce were only $1! Hint: this is why my menu looks like it does now.  Sorry again.  But here is a mini menu and kind of what you can expect for weeks to come.

You may also note that lunch is not included.  That’s because I don’t plan lunch since I’m at work Justin does it.  You will also not see items on the shopping list for lunch since that is typically handled by Justin.

Important Note: This plan is based on a budget of $200 for 2 weeks worth of food.  $150 is for dinner and breakfast with $50 being set aside for lunch items (not included here). 

SALE INFORMATION

	Ralphs	Stater Bros
Chicken Breast	$1.97
Peaches	$0.99
Tomatoes	$0.99
Avocados	$0.50
Pasta	$0.50
Bread/Buns	$1.00
Ground Beef		$2.49
London Broil		$2.99
Chicken (bone)		$0.99
BBQ Sauce		$1.50
Grapes		$0.89
Nectarines		$0.99

MEAL PLAN

	Breakfast	Dinner
Monday	Cereal Fruit	Pulled BBQ Chicken 2 lbs Chicken 1 Bottle BBQ Sauce 3 Ears of Corn Bread
Tuesday	6 Packs Oatmeal Fruit	Chicken Parmesan 6 Chicken Patties 1 Jar Spaghetti Sauce ½ lb Mozzarella Salad
Wednesday	3 slices of bread 3 Eggs 3 Slices of Cheese	Tri Tip 3 lbs Tri Tip 1 box potatoes
Thursday	6 Packs Oatmeal Fruit	Spinach Ravioli ½ bag spinach ravioli Salad
Friday	6 Eggs 3 Yogurt	CAMPING
Saturday	CAMPING	CAMPING
Sunday	CAMPING	CAMPING

SHOPPING LIST

Sorry none this week – these were all items I had.  I will also put the total amount I plan on spending here when I do actually have a shopping list.

A New Start

There was something about Taylor starting school that felt like a fresh start for the whole family.  Maybe it’s just me, but when something major happens with the family it feels like a chance to “start over” – a family version of a new year’s resolution I think.

Maybe it is just me, but at least it gets me refocused.

I started a couple of weeks ago to get back in the groove, but what inspired my renewal of focus was the fact Taylor was starting school.  More so then that was the fact that she was starting which means our everyday life is about to start costing more money with packed lunches and the extra gas to pick her up every day.  Whatever the reason, I have refocused on the food consumption in our home.

I’ve started making weekly meal plans.  Something my mom always did growing up in a way and although it looked like a nice idea, I really didn’t see the point.

But it works.  If you’re reading this mom take this as my acknowledgement that you have a brilliant idea.  I’m sure my mom wasn’t the first to think of it, but she was the first to show it to me so I give her full credit.

Why am I telling you this?  Because I like to share my tidbits of money saving ideas, and I do think this helps.

Here’s my process…

1. The new grocery ad comes out/starts on Wednesday every week.  I look it over for Ralphs, Stater Bros, and Food For Less since those are what usually have the best deals and are near enough to my path from work to home where I complete the shopping.

2. I make a list/table of what sale prices are at each store to make sure I get the best from the 3 stores. It may look like this (but much longer for me usually)

Item	Ralphs	Staters	Food 4 Less
Corn	$0.33	$0.20	$0.25
Chicken	$1.49	$1.99
Peaches	$0.99	$0.99

3. Based on the sale items I then plan my week’s meals.  Based on the above sales one day may look like this (I like to list out ingredients and name the meal if necessary)

	Monday
Breakfast	~Peaches ~Oatmeal
Dinner	BBQ Chicken 2 lbs Chicken 1 Jar BBQ Sauce 3 Ears ofCorn

4. I then make shopping lists for each store that has the cheapest price for the item I need for the meal with the prices which may look like this:

Ralphs		Staters
2 lbs chicken	$3	3 ears of corn	$1
1 lb peaches	$1

5. I figure out how much the total cost will be and subtract that from the weeks food budget.  Whatever we have left I use to purchase “staples” that are on sale.  Like extra chicken, spaghetti sauce, hot dogs, etc.  This way I have some stuff on standby in my cupboards for weeks where there aren’t good sales or want to save money so we can eat out one night.

I complete this process in about 30 minutes during my lunch break and since the shopping is done on my way home from work it isn’t inconvenient to stop at 1 store on Friday (when I get paid and usually make the shopping list) and another store on Monday.  That way all the shopping is done by Monday night when the weekly meal plan starts.

It’s saved us some money so far and I also know my family is getting a balanced home made meal every night which is important even though I had gotten lazy over this last year and failed at this in many ways.

Now if you read the blog where I was posting $5 dinner ideas for a family 5 you would know we were previously spending $300/month on groceries which we had to bump up with Taylor going to school now and trying to get better food (for health reasons that have come up) so we are now up to $400/month which includes 3 meals a day for 5 people which is about $0.95 per meal per person (knowing breakfast and lunch are usually cheaper then that and dinner is the most expensive)

If you’d be interested in what we’re doing put a comment here.  If enough people are interested I will begin posting again on our low budget meal blog exactly where we’re shopping and what were buying to help anyone else interested.  If not I will probably just delete that blog and keep my money saving tips to myself.

Room 23

Like a good mom (and the fact our passes finally work again after being blocked for nearly 2 months) we took the kids to Disneyland the night before Taylor started.  We cut our night short of course to get home at a decent hour since Taylor needed to be up early to start her day. 

The morning of started with breakfast of Taylor’s choice (oatmeal…if you know Taylor you know she could live off of this food alone).  We also had several fun conversations like this one:

::Taylor inspects her folder and pulls out her ruler::

Taylor: Mom what is the ruler for?

Jordan: It’s to measure your friends

OR

Jordan: Mommy can I go to school with Taylor too?

Me: No you have to be 5 years old like Taylor
Jordan: You can put lots of socks on my feet and I can stand on my tip toes so I can be big enough

(Jordan is ¼ inch to short to go on Disney rides so we put on 3 pairs of big socks to give her the boost)

Me: No you have to 5 years old, not just tall

There were a few things said that morning that I knew I would “remember” for the blog…but I forgot them ::sigh::

Jordan seemed to have a tougher time letting Taylor go to school then any one (Taylor included) and asked several times if she could go with her and then proceeded to ask several times while she was gone if it was time to pick her up.

We went as a family to drop her off mostly to learn where to drop her off and pick her up since it’s a job Justin and I will be sharing.  Taylor began whining after a few minutes say “I want to go” when I told her she would have fun here she said “No, I mean I just want to go to class” – I assumed she meant she wanted to go home, but I guess she just wanted to get going.

We picked her up (which was a nightmare) about 3.5 hours later – WHY would you start school on a minimum day? I’m sure there are good reasons, but for us it was just annoying.

Taylor learned “yellow” in Spanish and admitted to me that she didn’t understand her teacher at all (see this blog for details on how her classroom program since its not ‘normal’), but she seemed to have a pretty good day overall.

We ended her first day of school with ice cream cones and Disneyland yet again – this time with the Keys’ and left early to be home by 8 for bed.  I was as exhausted as the kids and we were all out in minutes.  And for the record 6 kids with 3 adults (Justin had to leave for church) was crazy! Fun, but oh so very crazy – I assumed more adults would make it easier, but it feels like 6 kids turned into 12 when they all got together…haha.  I blame the heat, hunger, and lack of naps. 

The good news is that Taylor was excited to go back today!  Praise the Lord!