Monday, December 1, 2008

Is it really December?

Wow-November seemed to pass by in a blink of an eye! It was a whirlwind of a month. We had three birthdays, two holidays, and a bucket full of expenses. However, it seems like we survived quite a bit.

This past weekend was amazing! We had a ton of quality family time, and hardly any expense! The first two days were very frugal, with us volunteering on Thanksgiving and just buying R's blue tooth headset on Friday. The holiday cards I bought at Costco were inexpensive, and considering we ran out of them (but I had extra cards at home) it was a great deal. We spent all of Saturday, and most of Sunday at home.

I used that time to start mailing out the holiday cards. Its crazy to think of how many we send out, but at the same time, the people we do send to, I couldn't imagine not sending one to each of them. Some are family from both R and my side, but others are people we've known throughout the years, many of whom live back in the Bay Area. Its our way of staying connected, and I love doing it. My mom in law received her's today, and loved the simplicity and the realness of it-not something posed, or "perfect". She loved how each of the boys was doing their own thing in the picture, yet no one is crying, or sleeping, or has their eyes closed. Hearing her say that-well, that was somewhat my criteria for a picture worth sending out-then again, after not having one of me and R w/ our boys last year (it was just the boys), I loved having a casual snapshot of all of us.

The only other time we left home was on Sunday for groceries, and replenished our perishable goods. The rest of the weekend was spent in the front yard, playing with toys, or inside watching holiday movies that I had tivo'd in advance. And we ate all our meals at home, no fast food or restaurants for us-yay!!!

This week should be quiet. We had planned on going to V town's holiday parade this evening, but the heavy fog kept us home. I'm hoping it clears up on Friday, long enough for our hometown parade. I'm excited-the boys are participating w/ the preschool, and it'll be the first year with all 3 boys on the float. We're planning on taking the boys to see Santa at the mall on Saturday, in hopes of getting one picture with the three of them. I may go earlier in the week, only because I have a msytery shop at the mall, but R wants to come with us. So we'll see what happens.

I am busting my butt in the next few weeks since I'll have some major down time the last two weeks in December. I'm hoping between the sub jobs and the mystery shopping gigs, I'll be able to add to our savings considerably, and help regain our financial footing. R's doing a lot, but right now, I'm just doing what I need to do to help pull us through. At the very least, if I don't work, we're making definite strides in reducing our expenses. I already have all our holiday gifts that are store bought, ready to go, and the homebaked goods will be made and passed out in the weeks ahead. I'm tempted to pass out my resume for other positions, and may do that just to see what bites. I have to admit, I love the flexibility of subbing, but I'm torn between wanting to shore up our savings and wanting to stay home.

Thats the November wrapup, I can't wait to see what December brings.

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