Baby girl at 35.5 weeks (May 18, 2010)

Here are the long-promised pictures from our ultrasound at 35.5 weeks.
Baby girl Brown weighed in at 6 lbs 5 oz in this ultrasound (which
puts her at the 70th percentile on the growth curve) with an amniotic
fluid index of 20 (which means she is VERY well hydrated!). Dr. H says
she has chubby cheeks and a chubby tummy and short little arms and
legs (maybe she'll take after Mommy in height) and a head full of
hair. And her head is well engaged in Mommy's pelvis (not that I
couldn't have told you that!).

I love these pictures of her chubby little face smashed into my
pelvis... Check out her "fish lips" look! She is obviously not starving!

In other news, we are 37+ weeks now and Baby girl can make her way
into the world anytime. Especially since I'm pretty certain my pelvis
has started to separate. And did I mention I'll be working full-time
(12 hour shifts on my feet delivering babies) until she gets here?

I'm sure I'll be writing a most-sad post at 40 weeks when she still
hasn't come. We already know how stubborn she can be!

Other news - Dave Ramsey would be proud! We officially paid off our
last debt and are now debt-free (except for our house)! What a
blessing to a) been able to pay off our debt in 2 years and b) bring
our daughter into a debt-free home. I am planning on returning to work
after Baby girl gets here, but being debt-free will allow me to be
able to work less and be at home with her more.

"Organic" is a grocery term meaning "twice as expensive".

And "Gluten-free" means "three times as expensive".

This new diet is wrecking my grocery budget. I'm feeling very guilty after my adventures in the grocery store today. Darn that Dave Ramsey; he's taken all the pleasure of shopping away from me!

My new goal is to figure out how I can feed Jim and I organically and gluten-free AND stay within my grocery budget. Can it be done? We'll see!

I'm hoping it can be done. Otherwise Jim and I will be getting even skinnier.

They just keep getting bigger and better...

I have to brag: I'm going to Hawaii for my 23rd birthday!

Jim just booked the tickets today for 9 days in Oahu at the Hilton Hawaiian Village in Waikiki. We are so excited! Although, secretly I think Jim is just feeling guilty over all the sad posts that have been cropping up on my blog lately...

This will be the fifth birthday Jim and I have spent together. Here's a quick recap of how I've celebrated:

19th - Jim took me out for a romantic dinner at Cedars complete with flowers, eloquent card, and watching the sunset on the river. He was still trying to win me over at this point.

20th - I can't remember how we celebrated this birthday. Jim proposed four days before this birthday, so I'm sure we were still celebrating both occasions!

21st - Jim and I (and my parents) toured the Columbia Basin stopping at various places to taste aged grape juice.

22nd - Jim forgot to plan anything special for my birthday but made it up to me by taking me out to lunch and surprising me with a delicious fruit torte from my favorite bakery.

23rd - Going to Hawaii! 9 uninterrupted days with my husband!

I honestly don't know how next year's birthday could get any better.

Small disclaimer - The only part of this trip that is Dave Ramsey-approved is the fact that we are paying for it in cash. If it was Dave Ramsey-approved, we would have paid off our debt and completed our Emergency Fund first before budgeting to save for this trip. Shh, don't tell Dave!

Menus

When Jim and I first began Dave Ramsey, we agreed to cut our expenses as much as possible to pay off our debt. Besides losing my closing allowance, we cut our weekly grocery budget down. I've made our grocery budget work for us through strategic planning involving menus. Each week, I planned out our weekly menu and inventoried our pantry to determine what items I needed from the store. At the store, I only bought those items that made the list. This allowed us to eat well and stay within our grocery budget, plus I began to enjoy cooking. As far as Jim is concerned, this is a win-win situation!

And then, right before the holidays, I began to work full-time. I found I didn't have as much time to plan weekly menus and do the grocery shopping. We began to shop as needed and strayed away from menus. I also used my Yoke's coupons to spend our grocery budget stocking up our pantry in December. Fortunately, after months of careful planning and shopping, I had enough practice sticking to our budget that we were able to keep to it without menus.

Now here we are, three weeks away from moving again. With a fully-stocked pantry from four wild trips to Yokes. The thought of moving again is overwhelming to me, and I definitely do not want to pack up our pantry if I can help it. So Jim and I agreed to not buy groceries for the next few weeks and eat up what we have on hand. I wrote down everything we have on hand and planned out meal ideas from that list. Here's my list of what we'll be eating for the next three weeks (or until the food runs out, which ever comes first!):

-Corn chowder with Cheddar-garlic biscuits
-Macaroni and cheese with tuna
-Breaded Parmasean tilapia filets with fettuccine Alfredo
-Lasagna with garlic bread
-Marinated steak with rice and mashed potatoes
-Chicken chili with cornbread
-Waffles with the Eslinger's Homemade Syrup
-Spaghetti with meat sauce and garlic bread

Looking at that list, I'm wondering if we will be able to stretch that out over the next three weeks. I guess we'll see!

Updates

It's a cold night in the Tri-Cities, and Jim and I are wrapping up three delightfully-free days. Since he returned home Wednesday night, we have done NOTHING except relax and enjoy each other's company. This is a very rare treat for us, as our lives seem to get busier and busier!

Jim made it home safe and sound, despite having been awake for 30-some hours. He went straight to bed and woke up right before his scheduled endoscopy on Thursday. I'm happy to report the endoscopy went well. The doctor did take a few samples of his stomach and small bowel to biopsy, and we will know those results next week. I'm also happy to report that Jim thoroughly enjoyed his first-ever round of fentanyl and versed! He had the poor nurse in stitches over the things he was saying during his recovery period.

We also just celebrated our one-year-anniversary at Quinault Baptist Church. It's amazing to me to think that a year has passed by already. Jim and I have been so blessed by his position and the group of believers we serve at Quinault, and we are so thankful that God placed us here!

Jim and I are also preparing to make some big changes in our life together. The main change is our address. Our apartment lease is up in February, and we have a few options open to us. We are spending time in prayer and carefully considering our budget to make this decision, and we hope to know what we are going to be doing in the near future!

Speaking of budget, our second Financial Peace University class has begun. Jim and I are excited to watch the class grow and see people from outside our church attend. We are so thankful for what Dave Ramsey's teachings have done for our financial situation, and we can't wait to see others likewise affected. Jim and I have experienced such peace and blessing as we've aligned our financial decisions with God's will, and we hope (depending on our upcoming housing decision) to have the rest of our debt paid off by October of this year.

I'm working nights right now. This worked out well when Jim came home, as I am 12 hours off and Jim has been 16 hours off. We've pretty much been up all night and sleeping all day. That is coming to a crashing halt tomorrow as we return to our normal schedules again! I work two weeks of night and one week of days for the rest of the month, and then I hope to finally have a little more stability in my schedule.

Jim and I are going to be busy with upcoming youth events in February. Our church's Disciple Now (a weekend retreat dedicated to disciplining the youth of our church) and our church association's "True Love Waits" retreats are both taking place in February. We are also going to be focusing on fundraising for the two mission trips coming up this summer.

Like I said, Jim and I are thoroughly enjoying our time right now when we can relax at home, because we know that time is short. And most likely we will not have days like this until this time next year!

Confessions of a (Sort-of) Cook...

I have a few confessions to make. A) I have not made a menu in three weeks, and B) I have not cooked in three weeks.

Am I ashamed to admit this? Yes. After Jim and I began our Dave-Ramsey-inspired budget, I began to enjoy putting together weekly menus and making frugal meals that wowed my husband.

And then November came. We spent the first two weeks of the month out of town, and when we came home, I started working full-time. Even with those crazy days, I still was able to keep up with cooking, even though we were not following our menus at all.

The week before Thanksgiving, I began the Great Vomit Marathon of 2008. And my rule of thumb is: Never eat anything you have thrown up. Unfortunately, the GVM began the week I stocked up on groceries and made a whole chicken with the intention of using the leftovers in sandwiches and salads. So once I recovered, I was forced to clean out my refrigerator and throw out everything I had eaten prior to the GVM, which included the majority of the groceries I had bought that week. Somewhere in Africa there are little starving children crying over all that food.

Then December came, bringing with it visiting Grandma Brown's delicious cooking and Jim's busy nights at the church. Any semblance of motivation left to plan and cook was gone. Not only do I not enjoy cooking for myself in an empty apartment, but there was no need with food only a short trip away at the in-laws' house.

Today, however, I have renewed motivation to begin planning and cooking again - a new crock pot! Yes, Jim surprised me today with a new crock pot and fancy travel case (to prevent the Great Halloween Crockpot Disaster of 2008 from happening again!). It is beautiful and shiny... and I can't wait to use it! What should I try first? John McCain's rib recipe? Cranberry-Apple Turkey Breast? Applesauce Chicken? Or should I attempt to resurrect my White Bean Chicken Chili, which for the life of me I can not remember how I made?

My new crock pot also came with a book full of delicious new recipes that I can not wait to try, including a section on desserts. Peach cobbler in the crock pot? Yum!

I think Jim may have given me the shiny new crock pot for purely selfish motives...

And a wee bit about frugal eating...

There is much celebration going on in my house right now. Why? Because I found an awesome new blog: $5 Dollar Dinners.

Many of you know that since we have become Dave Ramsey-converts, Jim and I have completely cut fast food and restaurants out of our lives. We live by a very strict weekly grocery budget now and have to find ways to make that money stretch. Beyond the money, now that we are no longer eating out, planning and preparation of all our meals has fallen on my shoulders.

I am by no means a good cook, but I like to think practice makes perfect. And that's what I do now, 7 days a week - practice. Along the way I've picked up some great skills and even better tools (like my crock pot!), and I find that I really enjoy cooking.

I have also put my impeccable planning skills to good use in the area of meals. Each week, I organize daily meals based on the foods I have on hand and plan a shopping list accordingly. I have been able to cut our weekly food budget down to $30-$40 per week, including all other groceries. Not only does this save us money, but the extra money allows us to do things we otherwise wouldn't have been able to. For example, we were able to attend the Liberty Christian School Fundraising Banquet with the extra money in our food budget. We were also able to participate in our church's annual Blessing Baskets by providing items for thanksgiving meals to families in need.

I have to admit, eating inexpensively is not always easy. I have found a few good inexpensive menu ideas, but eating the same meals over and over again gets boring. That is why I was so excited today to find $5 Dollar Dinner! There is a plethora of meal ideas on this blog that serve a small family on $5 or less. Check it out - you'll love it!

Tales of My New Grocery Budget...

As many of you know, Jim and I are now faithful followers of Dave Ramsey and have completely revolutionized the way we make, save, give and spend money. We dedicate time to writing out a complete monthly budget and have adopted the envelope system for saving and spending money. We have successfully worked this system for two months, and in that time we have paid off a credit card and saved money for upcoming car repairs, Christmas, and a vacation.

Another benefit of managing our money better is that it allows me to channel my obsessive-compulsive organizing skills into a new hobby - meal planning! Every week I sit down and write out a menu for the entire week based on our nightly activities and plans. I examine the contents of my refrigerator and pantry each week to determine what items I have on hand and what items need to be used up before they go bad. I then make out my shopping list, organizing it by where I can find the best deals and the aisles in the store.

Okay yes, I am a complete nerd, but through spending thirty minutes a week doing this, I have made my grocery shopping more efficient, enjoy healthy home-cooked meals everyday, and cut my grocery budget in half. I never wonder anymore what to make for dinner, and we no longer make expensive food decisions on impulse (such as eating out or last minute trips to the grocery store). By incorporating what I have on hand into my weekly menus, I was able to squeeze extra money out of our food budget to pay for a fundraising banquet last month that otherwise Jim and I would never have been able to afford.

If taking control of your budget and the food you eat sounds like a good idea, but way too much work, I found this great website that sells weekly meal plans online. For $5 a month, www.e-mealz.com will provide you with a weekly meal plan including seven complete meals and a shopping list of items needed each week. E-mealz.com offers meal plans for two people or a whole family that are tailored for shopping at a particular store or a specific dietary need. For example, meal plans tailored to Wal-Mart will give you a shopping list of items to purchase at Wal-Mart with actual prices. They have meals plans that are low-fat, low-sodium, and even meal plans based on the Weight Watchers points system. My particular favorite: the coupon meal plan, which offers meals based on what coupons are available that week. The best part is that the meal plans for two average $35 per week, and the family-sized meal plans average $75 per week. What a great way to save money, eat healthier, and bring your family together for dinner each night!

One of the best gifts I received for my wedding was 12 meals from Entrees Made Easy. Being a full-time nursing student and working 12-hour shifts on the weekend meant that I had no time to shop or cook. It was so nice to be able to pull a meal out of the freezer before going to bed, knowing the next night Jim and I would be able to enjoy a delicious meal. Unfortunately, expensive Entrees Made Easy did not fit into our tight budget, and when our meals were gone, we once again resorted to fast food and ineffective grocery shopping. I wish I had known about E-mealz.com during nursing school. It would have saved Jim and I money, time and many poor food decisions during that stressful time in my life.

The moral of this story is taking control of our menu, like our money, has paid off immensely for Jim and I, and we highly encourage others to do the same.

Dave Ramsey would be so proud!