It's Official...We're Building a House!!

Well, I guess you could say it's now official. We are building a house!! We are currently waiting to close on our "Construction Loan" in a couple of weeks. We purchased a lot in a neighborhood in Blanchard. It's kinda confusing b/c the address is "Blanchard" but we are right next to the Bridge Creek Schools and the Bridge Creek Fire Dept. So, I don't really know what to say. Anyway - I guess since the address says Blanchard I will say we live in Blanchard! :) We bought 1.4 acres and the owner accepted our offer of $3,000 less than what they had it listed for!! Hooray!!
Last night we met with our builder and signed our contract with him to build our house. We've met with the architect already and these are the plans we have come up with. Now we just need to make sure that the developer in the neighborhood we are building on is okay with our house plans - they have covenants that we have to follow. We are on the end of a cul-de-sac and we have a pond on our lot!! It's so perfect for us!! I just have to praise the Lord for this b/c I feel like it really is an answered prayer. We've been waiting so long to be able to have our own house and I've been saying that I would love to live on an acreage with a pond. And now we have found one PLUS we get the added bonus of being in a neighborhood so the kids will have friends to play with (hopefully). If not, they will have plenty of space to find things to do!!
Another thing that is going to be SO EXCITING is that I get to pick out everything - colors, fixtures, and where it all goes! (Within our budget of course!!) My big splurge is my kitchen sink - I picked out a beautiful Kohler Apron front sink. I am going for an American Farmhouse look. I have been buying and reading books about farmhouses and I just love them. They are simple and cozy and comfortable. So, I will be trying to go for a "modern" farmhouse :) I will be sure to blog about the progress for the one or tw of you out there that actually read my blog and care :)

Oh and in other awesome news - I am not going to have to have surgery like I have been thinking. I went to see the surgeon yesterday and she said I don't really need surgery right now. Praise the Lord!!

And in other news I found a new job. This too is a blessing if it all works out. I will only be working on friday late afternoon/evenings. Matt will be home from work by the time I need to leave. The position seems really laid back. So, we'll see how that goes!!

Here are some pictures of our plans.....

Here are some pictures of our lot....

The water in the pond is low and there is a lot of moss...we are going to try to work on landscaping and getting rid of that moss...but that is a project for later!!

Trunk or Treat!!

Our second fun Halloween activity was "Trunk or Treating" at the church!! We have done this for the past few years. I usually hang out at the van and give out candy while Matt takes the kiddos around to get candy. The kids love it b/c they really do get a TON of candy. We seriously don't need to go trick-or-treating!! We have SOOOO much candy!! This year my little munchkins had pretty cute costumes, if I do say so myself ;) The baby was too little to be all dressed up in a suit (in my opinion) so I put together a cute little "pumpkin" outfit :) Madeline was a 50s Girl - she was able to wear this to school for the Book Fair week too - b/c it was a "50s Diner" theme! I took Susanna to the Disney store to pick her costume and she chose Alice in Wonderland. For Philip I found this cute and warm puppy dog costume. He loved being a puppy dog!! Mommy and Daddy didn't dress up. Maybe next year?

Storybook Forest!

Halloween-time is here!! This year I wanted to try something new so we went to the "Storybook Forest" at Lake Arcadia. It was a lot of fun. They had several scenes from different fairytales at different stations in the forest (along a trail). Each "story" had candy for the kids. It was similar to the style of "Haunt the Zoo." It was much shorter of a trail and the kids got a lot less candy. But we weren't really there to get the candy anyway. They had games and a "hay ride" pulled by what looked to be a golf cart kind've think - instead of a tractor. The kids really enjoyed the whole thing. The only bad thing was that we had to wait in a line of cars for 45 minutes to get in. We'd probably go again, just try to time it better next time. :)
Oh, and we didn't take Violet b/c we weren't sure how stroller friendly it would be. It would have been fine so now we know.

The kids at the entrance of the "Story".

Our first candy station...

Humpty Dumpty...


This was my favorite display!!



My camera takes blurry pictures in the dark :(

Bring on the Savings!!

I went to a coupon class this week at church. I have been couponing for several years now so I was hoping to get some good tips from the girl's teaching the class. The thing that struck me the most was seeing a coupon binder! I recently saw a lady at the grocery store with one and I kinda thought, "How does she shop with that bulky thing?" Well, my system doesn't work much better. I had been using one of those little coupon wallet things that have the accordion files. That's fine, if I go through my coupons at home and have space. However, when I'm at the store and i have to take out a stack of coupons and look through them there are so many that it takes me too long and they start dropping. My system was not so good either. So, I made my own binder and I'm happy to try this new system. I think it will be a much quicker, more organized way to go through my coupons. If I'm at Target and see some Tide on clearance I can get my binder and turn right to the "laundry deterget" section and see it right away. No more fumbling!! My friend at the class paid $50 for her binder but encouraged us to make our own b/c it would be so much cheaper and pretty easy. I went to Wal-Mart and bought the binder, the dividers and the baseball card sleeves and there you have it! I think I spent about $16.00 total. I splurged on a more expensive binder b/c I wanted one that zipped and had some pockets. You could easily do this with a much less expensive binder.

Here's how I did it. I divided the categories into 5 sections: Baby, Grocery, Household, Health/Beauty and Misc. Then under each section I divided those by specifics. For example, I divided my grocery section into sub-categories such as: canned goods, dairy, cereal, bread, beverages, etc. And for household I divided them into sections such as: kitchen cleaners, bathroom cleaners, laundry, etc. I used cardstock and just printed a title on each page and divided them that way. So now every coupon will have a section and a category. That may be a little more "OCD" than some people would do it but it helps me go right to what I'm looking for.

So, I thought I would share some pictures.

The top picture is the cute little binder I bought at Wal-Mart. The second picture shows the binder opened up and the third picture shows the coupons in their sleeves. The last picture is just something fun I put in there for me personally. It's a scripture with a happy housewife :) Anyway .... hope this helps those of you thinking of couponing or making a binder. I really do save quite a bit of money for just a little bit of time investment. However, I have to be careful and NOT buy something I don't need just b/c I have a coupon for it. I have gotten better about that.

Happy Shopping Everyone!!