First Day of School & Back to School Shopping

Monday was the boys' First Day of School.  I always take the day off work on the "first day of school" because I don't want the boys being rushed and starting school stressed out.  I want to enjoy their first day with them.  And it's tradition.  And I love a tradition.

 Y'all know from my past posts that school supply shopping is one of my MOST favorite things in the entire world.  This year proved to be equally as fun, as we purchased all new supplies and got ourselves ready for school!  Shopping for clothes was a disaster this year and I'm convinced designers have all girls, because the boy sections are terrible.  TERRIBLE.  We didn't have Patricia there to help us organize our clothes this year (she was busy), but I managed to get it all done. 

This year, the boys are at different schools.  In our little town, the (public) school is broken into K-2, 3-5, 6-8, then 9-12.  Carter is still in the first category, as he's in 2nd grade, and Nolan moved up to the second this year, since he moved into 3rd grade!  Their schools start about 10 minutes apart and I knew I would not have time to get Nolan to school and Carter on time the first day!  I decided to take Nolan to school and Cecil took Carter.  Both boys were familiar with and knew their teachers so the transition was not hard at all.

We are very very happy with their teachers and the boys got to "meet the teacher" last week, before school started.

 We actually had Carter's teacher last year for Nolan.  She was teaching second grade, but moved to first this year so Carter is in her class and Nolan was placed in a class that has a pair of young, team-teachers.  He has Mrs. C for reading and writing and Mrs. R for science and math.

We are looking forward to a great school year for both boys!

Lofty Goals

I'm a goal-oriented person.  I enjoy (I know I'm a dork), making a to do list and seeing how much I can get accomplished.  It's nothing for me to have 3 or more to-do lists going at once.  One BIG item on a to-do list is paying off debt!

You'll recall on my "Promise of a New Year" post back in January, the hubs and I wanted to continue toward becoming debt free.  We're not there yet, but we're trying, and we'll get there one day.

If there's one thing I know, it's "slow and steady wins the race".  We've made progress (not as much as we had hoped) but progress is good and less debt is better!

Here are a few ways to help with progress in saving money/becoming debt free:

• eat dinner/meals at home  (make a menu)
• take your lunch to work rather than eating out
• use coupons
• shop sales, and make a budget for Christmas gifts
• cash in your loose change and pay off debt (even if it's only $5, it's $5 less debt than you had the day before!)

These are only a few ways to help your family in becoming debt free.  Do you have other ideas?  What progress have YOU made in becoming debt-free??  OR--if you're already debt-free, how did you do it?  Give me some tips and tricks!

 ~CB~

More tales from the trails.....

You might be tired of seeing all my pictures from Colorado by now, but just a few more and then I'm done, I promise!

Our days in Colorado were pretty lax.  We had no concrete plans.  During the morning, Cecil and I would go tour the city or a landmark, then meet up with Max and go eat lunch or hang out.  After that, we would take him back to the field and head back to our hotel to get ready to go to batting practice and the game.  

I've said it before, but we really enjoyed being able to go to the field early and watch batting practice (BP).  The guys were very laid back and it was just a nice, casual atmosphere.

After the game each night, we would go to dinner with Max.  We were all starving by this point and tired too!  But we flew too far for too much fun to worry about being tired! HA!  Here's a picture from dinner one night.  It's kind of dark, but Cecil took it with his phone.

Max signing autographs one night after a game.....

 Wasn't this moon beautiful?  This was one night during a game!  I had to get a shot of it!

 Overall, we had a fantastic trip and some much needed time away!

Go GJ Rockies!

More Views from COLORADO

These pictures need NO words.....

Anniversary in the Rockies

Cecil and I celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary last week!  TEN YEARS.  Hard to believe.  People say it goes fast, and I definitely believe them.

We had the opportunity to travel to Colorado the first week of August for 5 days and when opportunity knocks - we answer!  HA!

We left EARLY on that Wednesday morning (like, had to leave our house at 2am early) and arrived in Grand Junction, Colorado around 10:30 that morning.  The flights were great, no turbulence, and the sights were breathtaking.  The entire time we were there, I kept saying over and over how beautiful everything was and how can one NOT believe in God with these views?

We had a two-fold purpose for Colorado.....one, we love the views and mountains, and two, we have a friend living there playing baseball for the Grand Junction Rockies (minor league team of the Colorado Rockies).  You may remember me talking about him on a previous post.

The GJ Rockies play at Suplizio Field, where Cecil played 14 years ago in the JUCO World Series!  It was an amazing experience for him to be able to go back to the field!  It's a beautiful field with spectacular views of the Rockies!

See what I mean?  The view is gorgeous!

 We were able to watch batting practice every day.......

And spend time in between practice and games with Max...

and, watch some good ol' baseball every night!  I love me some baseball y'all !!

We even got to see Jennie Finch throw out the first pitch one night!

 On our last night, we met and had pictures with Steve Garvey--the Hall of Famer !  COOL !

And of course, we couldn't leave the ballfield without getting our picture with Max in his uniform !

We had a great trip and I have tons more pictures to share!  Stay tuned!

A Back to School Trip

School is starting soon here and as in past years, I try to take the kids on a little mini-trip before school starts.  Sort of like "the last hoorah".  HA!

We had our 2-week family vacation at the beach in July, then Cecil and I went to Colorado for 5 days last week (pictures and blog post to come soon, I hope), but I wanted to get the boys to Disney one time before school started.  We've done this the past few years, and it's so fun!

The boys and I plan to have fun at the Magic Kingdom and Epcot before hitting the outlet mall in Orlando Sunday for some school clothes shopping.  I'll be going solo this trip, as Cecil will stay home to work, but I'm SO looking forward to Disney!

Enjoy your weekend!

I Want !

I want  need a new calendar!  The one I have is just too small - I like big boxes to write in.  Between appointments, dinner menus, functions, meetings, practices, etc. I have to have quite a bit of room to write!

I've been drooling over the Erin Condren life planners for a while and am seriously thinking of just breaking down and buying one!

 

source

 I'm loving the design above!  It's always hard for me to choose "just one" photo, and I like the idea of having multiple photos plus different sizes!

Do you have an Erin Condren planner?  Do you LOVE it?  Let me hear your thoughts, please!!

(p.s.  they have NO idea who I am, I just wrote this post because I love Erin Condren life planners and want one SO BAD)