Budgeting Feels Good!

Posted on October 16, 2010 by Mary

Like my title? Ha! And the reason for the title is…well basically it’s the truth. And even though budgeting isn’t any fun, especially when you don’t have enough money to make ends meet, once you sit down and actually figure out a way to make it all work, it feels good. Do I wish we had more money to do more with…of course! It sure would be easier to budget if I didn’t have almost $1000 going out to pay down debt each month!!! But, that’s one of the main reasons I started budgeting in the first place…so we could get out of debt!

Budgeting also requires sacrifice and being super frugal! Some of the things I’m doing include:

  • Buying off brand products instead of name brand.
  • Really paying attention to impulse buying.
  • Using the envelope system for gas, food, entertainment, etc. (this is a HUGE help!)
  • And soon, I’m going to start purchasing household cleaners at discount stores like Family Dollar.
  • I’m also going to look into making my own laundry soap! (I’ve read this can be one of the best ways to save tons of money).

It  just feels good to actually have our spending under control. We know where every penny is going, and while I’m still working out the kinks in the budget and have to sit down every 2 weeks to figure it out, it’s all worth it.

Right now we’re using Dave Ramsey’s online budgeting system. It’s easy to use which makes it…well easy to use. I’m the type of person that if somethings not easy and efficient to use, I will end up not using it at all. How about you? What budgeting program or system do you use? What are the pros and cons of it?

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Keegan Andrew Stefanic’s Birth Story

Posted on October 10, 2010 by Mary

Many of you have been waiting to read the birth story of my newest grandchild, Keegan Andrew Stefanic, so here it is….finally…

Last Saturday morning around 5:30am, my cell phone lit up on my nightstand. I didn’t even have to wait for it to ring…I knew if I was getting a call at 5:30 in the morning it was most likely my daughter calling to tell me she was in labor. And as all expecting Nana’s do, I answered the phone, “Are you in labor?” My daughter responded calmly, “Yes. I’ve been up since 3:00 and now my contractions are getting stronger and closer together. Can you and Jeff drive here because D & N (her inlaws) went downstate.” (D & N were supposed to watch her two older boys when she went to the hospital.) I said, “Sure. We will be there as fast as we can.” So, I got up, and went into my other daughter, Karlie’s room and woke her up and told her Trisha was in labor. It took her a few seconds to realize what I was saying, but as soon as she comprehended it, she quickly got up. I hopped in the shower first just to wash my hair and body quickly. Then Karlie got in. I quickly got dressed and Jeff skipped the shower and was dressed and ready to go. We were waiting for Karlie, so I went upstairs to see what in the heck she was doing…she was blow drying her hair!!! I said, in a not so pleasant tone, “What are you doing? We have to go! Trisha has been in labor since 3:00, we need to go now!!!” She replied, “I’m just blow drying my bangs or they’ll be funky!”.

Finally by about 5:50 we were on the road to Trisha’s house. She lives about 23 minutes from us, so when we were about half way there, I texted Trisha to tell her we would be there in about 10 minutes. When we arrived at her house, Ben (her hubby) was outside putting their things in the van. Jeff, Karlie and I went inside. Trisha was in the bathroom and I, as all good mothers would do, made sure she wasn’t delivering the baby in the toilet! She wasn’t. As a matter of fact, she asked if someone could switch her laundry! Of course I obliged.

When she came out, Ben tried to help her put her jacket on, but she was leaning against the stove and said, “I can’t do that right now!” Yep, she was having a contraction. When it was done, Ben, Trisha, Karlie and I got in the van, leaving Jeff with the sleeping boys. It was now about 6:30am.

Trisha chose to see a great doctor in Charlevoix…Charlevoix is about an hour and 15 minutes drive from Gaylord. When the trip begins, Trisha is having contractions about 5 minutes apart and she is able to talk calmly between them. By the time we’re on M-32 heading toward East Jordan (about 15 minutes into the trip) her contractions are now 2 or 3 minutes apart and getting stronger. At this point she stopped talking between the contractions and asked who knew how to breathe. (This being her third baby, they didn’t take birthing classes). Going from memory, I had her breathe deeply and slowly in through her nose and out through her mouth. That lasted for about 10 or 15 minutes. Her contractions were getting stronger so we switched to the hee-hee-hooo breaths. I stopped at one point, thinking she had it, but just as soon as I did, she said, “Mom, breathe!”.

At some point along the way I tried to call her doctor, but only got her answering service. So then, we decided to call the hospital to let them know we were on our way and that it was going to be close. As we were driving through East Jordan, Trisha started saying things like “I can’t do this!!!” and “We’re not gonna make it”. And somewhere in there, she said, “It burns!”. I knew things were progressing along quite fast, but didn’t realize how fast!

About 5 or 10 minutes after she said “It burns” the first time, she hit the car door with her fist and said, “I can’t do this!!!!” Ben and I said, “Yes you can!!!” There were also some more, “We’re not gonna make it” in there too! Ben and I being the optimistic (and nervous) ones, said “Yes we are!!!”.

Wouldn’t you know it! Trisha was right!!! As we were passing Castle Farms just outside of Charlevoix, I believe that was when her water broke and she exclaimed “My water just broke and it burns!!!” I knew he was coming for sure! The next thing I knew, Trisha got real quite and I could see her hoisting herself up off the seat. I asked, “Trisha, you’re not pushing are you?!” Silence….

“I think his head is out”, is the next thing I heard Trisha say in an oddly calm voice. So I unbuckled my seatbelt and peeked around the front seat and sure enough his head was out. At that same time, Ben shouted, “NO IT’S NOT!!!” “Yes it is” I confirmed! At this point we were passing the Holiday station in Charlevoix.

At some point, I don’t remember when, Karlie came forward and was practically between the two front seats. I decided we needed to call 911 because I didn’t know if we should pull over or keep going or what. I couldn’t get my phone to work so Karlie dialed it on her phone and handed it to me. I don’t remember this, I knew the baby was out and Karlie said Trisha was saying, “I need….I need….I need…” and Karlie yelled, “What do you need?!” “I need something to wrap my baby in” Trisha calmly replied. I remember taking my jacket off to and handing it to her while I was on the phone with 911 telling them my daughter just had her baby in the car! They asked where we were in relation to the hospital and I said we were just passing the courthouse. They said to keep going because we would get there sooner than they could and not to worry about the police because they were detained on something else. They also said they would call the hospital so they would know we were coming in with the baby being born. So, we flew through town to the hospital.

When we arrived at the hospital, the staff was waiting outside with a wheelchair and blankets and other gizmos. However, they never got the call that the baby had been born because they were all outside! So, when we opened the door and they saw the baby, the were all like, “OH!” I asked if they knew she had the baby and they said “No! We knew you were coming in, but we didn’t know she had the baby.” So, acting very quickly, they cut the cord and clamped it, wrapped the baby up, gave me a blanket to wrap up in since I had given the baby mine, Trisha’s doctor took the baby into the nursery and they wheeled Trisha up to a room. In the mean time, after the baby was taken, Ben went around to the front of the van and fell to his knees. We were all so shaken up!

I got the keys from Ben and parked the van while they all went in the hospital. I was then escorted by a very friendly attendant to the room where Trisha was. I got to see her deliver the placenta (gross I know). The doctor gave me and Trisha’s sister in law (who arrived just minutes after we did) a quick lesson on the placenta. It was quite interesting actually. She said it was very healthy.

After that, I went to the nursery to see the baby. I had gotten a quick glimpse of him in the van just before they whisked him away and knew he looked like Ethan (their oldest child). He was all bathed and weighed and everything. We were trying to determine the time of birth, and knew that we arrived at the hospital at 7:19am (according to the clock in the van). We determined he was born about 2 minutes before that, making it 7:17am. Then Trisha informed us that the clock in her van is 6 minutes fast, making the time of birth 7:11am. We also realized that he was born as we were passing the 7-11 in Charlevoix. And guess what, he weighed 7 lbs. 11oz. :)

They are home now, safe and sound. Mom and baby are doing great! Keegan actually is a combo of Ethan and Dylan, and looks alot like Trisha did when she was born.

Updated to include pictures!

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Getting a Total Money Makeover!

Posted on September 11, 2010 by Mary

Jeff and I took Crown Financial’s class the first year we were married. It was a great class and really got us thinking differently about debt and using credit cards. We semi-started trying to reduce our debt then, but things just got too hard and I’ve always had trouble sticking to a budget. I’ve started many different budgets and have used a few different budgeting tools, but have never found a system that works for me. Part of the problem, most of it, is me, I now realize. I just haven’t been disciplined enough to stick with it. If I had, we’d be much farther along by now. Sounds familiar…seems I’ve written this same thing about dieting!!!

Nevertheless, it’s time to get going with getting out of debt for good! I subscribed to Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover online last month and are currently working on Baby Step One, which is getting $1000 in savings for an Emergency Fund. The first thing I had to do, however, was get our van and truck payments caught up, so while I tried to put some money in savings I couldn’t do that until I had all our bills caught up. I got behind because I was thinking our payments were due the middle of the month when they were due the first, so I was always a month behind. So, I caught them up and now will be paying them on time each month.

Once we have the $1000 in savings, then we will start snowballing our debt down. We will start paying an extra hundred a month on our van payment (which is the smallest in terms of amount owed) and then when that’s paid off, we will roll the money we were paying on the van toward the truck payment which will start making huge dents in the truck payment. We will continue this cycle until all our debts are paid off. I cannot wait for the day when we can say we are DEBT FREE except for our house payment!!!! It won’t be long either.

Can you imagine all the things we will be able to do with no debt payments other than our house??? I can!!! We will be able to help build God’s kingdom, help others and maybe even go on a VACATION! I can’t wait for that day!!!

While budgeting takes discipline and hard work, it is soooo worth it!!! What budgeting system do you use?

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My Summer: the Condensed Version

Posted on August 9, 2010 by Mary

I haven’t posted anything on here since Karlie’s graduation party in June. WOW! That is waaaaay too long to stay away! ALOT has happened since then!!! I will try to give you the condensed version of my crazy life…no need to bore you with all the details.

Since my last blog post, here is what has happened:

  • My sister and her family came to visit all the way from New Mexico
  • We volunteered at the Big Ticket Festival
  • Celebrated the 4th of July with my family by going to the beach on Lake Michigan and watching Fireworks in Mackinaw City
  • My sister’s husband and all but one of her kids drove back to NM; Sister and youngest stayed here.
  • Did a lot of shopping, some garage sale-ing, making of Mexican food, beaching and swimming.
  • Went on a youth outing with our youth group from Burt Lake, up the Indian River to Mullet Lake which included boating, tubing, swimming and eating lots of junk food.
  • Major church drama that I don’t want to and won’t get into here. (But it’s all working out for the good :-) Praise God!)
  • Took my sister and her daughter to the airport in Grand Rapids; stayed the night there; hit 3 malls in one day :-)
  • Oooh, got asked to be a bride’s maid in one of my BFF’s wedding’s in November.
  • Ordered my dress for said wedding
  • BFF from Missouri came to visit for a couple of days…wasn’t long enough!!!
  • Attended the reception for a young couple who used to be in our youth group…beautiful!
  • Have another wedding coming up this weekend for another young couple who also used to be in our youth group!

I think that’s it in a nutshell.

During all of this, I’ve basically just kept up with my business, working here and there when needed to keep things afloat. Now that all the company is gone, I’m going to focus on promoting my services and building my business. I’m also going to get back on track with my weight loss efforts! As a matter of fact the friend who’s wedding I’m in in November, she and I started a new weight loss challenge…50 pounds in 4 months!

Lots still going on. I imagine there always will be. It’s fun and I love my life. Sure, there are areas which aren’t so great, like finances, church drama, etc., but overall, I love it and wouldn’t change a thing. God has me right where he wants me for now and I’m praying and listening for when He’s ready to move me/us.

Karlie starts cosmetology school in the fall…I imagine I will get to be her guinea pig :) Watch for new dos…often! LOL.

Grandkids are all getting big and very vocal! Dylan (almost 2) is speaking in 3-4 word sentences now…soooo cute! Ethan (almost 4) is starting pre-school at the Christian school and is so smart! Remmy (almost 7 months) vocalizes her opinion frequently through screetches and other cute baby noises. And grandson number 3 is due in September. I’m sure he will make his presence known very vocally as well. :)

I’m looking forward to Fall. I love Summer…it’s my favorite season, but I’m foreseeing Fall as a bit more relaxing…and definitely cooler!

Jeff and I are praying to move back to Gaylord. That of course means we have to get this house on the market, so we have been doing some painting and other minor things to get it sale-able. I would really like to rip up the linoleum and carpet and put in all new hardwood flooring. Of course that takes money, so we are praying for an increase there as well. Not only for that, but so we can be more useful in God’s Kingdom. The junior high youth leaders are moving down state, and we feel we’d be able to better minister to the youth living in Gaylord.

Please join us in our prayers and let me know if there’s anything I can pray with you for.

God bless you all!

Posted in Church, Everyday Life, Faith, Weight Loss, Youth Ministry | 1 Comment

My Baby is All Grown Up!

Posted on June 4, 2010 by Mary

Wow has this past week ever been eventful! Let’s see, my husband’s parents arrived last week on Wednesday and had dinner with Jeff. I was at youth group and got home just in time to meet them at the door as they were heading over to their motel.

Thursday, we went to Mackinaw City and spent much of the day just walking around. It was very nice out and we got a surprise while we were there. Karlie, my baby who is now 18, was on her Senior trip with some of her classmates and stopped through MC on their way home. It was pretty cool being able to see her there instead of having to wait until later. She did decide to travel the rest of the way home with her classmates and then her boyfriend dropped her off after school. They wanted to spend some time together…teenagers! Ha.

Thursday, my “God daughter” Briana arrived, too. She is staying with us until after the Big Ticket, so pretty much the whole month of June :)

Friday was spent shopping for Karlie’s graduation dress. After watching Karlie try on several outfits at various stores, we finally found a store with a lot of things she liked. Aleene was now able to determine Karlie’s style and picked out a couple of things she actually liked and tried on. We did end up finding 2 dresses there and I told her to get them both. She doesn’t have very many dresses in her wardrobe and she could use one for her open house, which is this Saturday. When we were checking out, they ask for your name because they keep record of how often you shop there and stuff. When Karlie told the store associate her name, he turned around and pulled her application for employment out of the stack and asked if she wanted an interview! How cool is that? She had the interview yesterday and is awaiting a call.

Speaking of job interviews, Karlie had one at Subway and was hired. She began her first day of work at her first “real” job (other than babysitting) on Monday. She also had to work a few hours on her birthday, but its good for her.

Jeff and Tom went to the tire place to price out new tires for the truck and found a good deal at the dealership in Boyne City. They were put on the truck this morning after Jeff got off work and his final night of midnights for this round.

Saturday was her graduation. I’m surprised at how well I did NOT crying. I’m usually a big cry-er, but I held it together really well. There were a couple of moments when I started to tear up, but I managed to pull myself together, which is unusual for me. I’ve noticed I’ve been doing that a lot lately. Hmmmm? Makes me wonder what has changed?

After the ceremony, we went to Pizza Hut with the family, most of it anyway. Kaleb had to work and Brandon had a birthday party to go to for one of their friend’s two year old’s. After Pizza Hut, we went around and walked in the park, down by the waterfront in Petoskey. The boys (my grandsons) loved it! They had a blast.

Sunday was church and Jeff’s parents joined us there. Then Jeff had to come home and sleep because he started midnights Sunday night. We had lunch at and then his parents went back to the motel and I think we all took a nap. They came back later, after supper, and visited for a couple of hours and said their goodbyes, as they were leaving the next morning before 8 am.

Monday was Memorial Day and I was able to get my hair done by the amazing Lora. Then Trisha and I went shopping for Karlie’s open house. I got all the decorations at the dollar store! And ones she actually likes. Have you gotten the idea that Karlie is very picky? Yeah, uhhum!

Monday night we cooked out over at Trisha and Ben’s and had a bonfire and made smores. It was a great Memorial Weekend.

Tuesday, I got some work done during the day, and then we celebrated Karlie’s 18th birthday. We went to Trisha’s and made Karlie’s favorite meal, stroganoff and garlic bread. I also made brownies with Reese’s peanut butter chips in them and we had ice cream to go with the brownies. We played games and had a fun time.

Wednesday was youth group day again, but this time Briana came with me. We had our usual two meetings, lunch at Bamboo Palace with Pastor James and my amazing friend Angel and then James took Briana and I on a field trip. Haha. He took us to his house and showed us his very green lawn. We watched him try to kill a mole with a pitchfork, tried to name everything that was growing in their garden, tried to figure out why there were dry spots right by each sprinkler, talked about what would be a good way to rearrange the trees that line the driveway, got hairy shorts from Bailey, his golden retriever, went to the house across the street where his cousin was tearing out the carpeting, came back to the office for a bit, then went back to Biggby while he had a meeting and Bri and I sat and chit-chatted. How’s that for a long day? It was fun though! I really enjoyed it.

Wednesday night was our usual youth group and then aftewards we went to Applebee’s for half off appetizers and then I drove to Vanderbilt to take one girl home and then across to Camp Ten to take another one home. It was a long ride, but not too bad actually.

I have most of the pictures posted on facebook and it’s getting late now, so I don’t feel like uploading them here. For Karlie’s graduation pics, click here and for our Mackinaw City pics, click here. There are also more graduation pics in  the photos added by others as well.

Okay, this is a really long post. Hope you enjoyed my recap of the week :) How was yours? Do you have any graduates this year?

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Graduation is Upon Us-Where to get Graduation Gifts

Posted on May 24, 2010 by Mary

My baby is graduating this year. It’s kind of weird when your last child graduates from high school. Sadness hasn’t hit me yet, but probably will when she walks across the stage to receive her diploma. Or no, I know when it will definitely hit. She attends a small charter school which focuses on the performing arts so each year at graduation they have a slideshow of all the Graduates throughout the years. Yep that’s when it will hit…I know it. My oldest daughter graduated from this school and that darn slideshow does it every time.

We have the open house all planned out, now we just need to purchase the decorations and cake. She is going to attend cosmetology school in the fall and wants beauty school decorations for her open house. I’ve done some looking online for them, but haven’t been successful at finding them yet. I am planning on going to the dollar store here in a couple of day. I’m looking for cute little combs, scissors, curlers, etc. for center pieces and whatever else I can find that would represent cosmetology well. It will be fun and cute, I think.

Being in the youth ministry, we also give the graduates at our church a little gift in honor of their achievement. We usually try to find a devotional or prayer book. I’ve found some in the past at ChristianBook.com at very reasonable prices as well as on Amazon. This year we got our graduates the Prayer of Solomon. It’s a really good prayer journal and the teens seemed to like it and found it easy to read and follow. This is the 2nd year in a row that we’re giving it to them.

ChristianBook.com has some really nice personalized graduation gifts, as well as gifts for all other occasions, like Weddings and Father’s Day. I use them often and have always gotten great service and have never had to return anything. Their prices are also very reasonable.

Where do you shop for graduation and other gifts?

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Final Days of High School

Posted on May 15, 2010 by Mary

As I sit here and write this, Karlie is attending her Senior Prom. That’s right, my baby is attending her Senior Prom. You know it all hasn’t hit me really that my baby, my last child, is graduating high school in just a few days. We’ve attended her last high school play and her last dance revue so far and still have her last choir concert and of course graduation to go. It did start to hit the other night, the first night of her dance revue. But then I remembered that she still had Friday night dance revue, choir concert, prom and graduation to go, so I was able to overcome becoming emotional at that point. You can see her dance revue and other videos here.

Today was a huge day, getting ready for prom and all. In my last post I told about how she won this prom dress contest from Kymaro. What I didn’t know when I wrote that post was all the amazing stuff she won in addition to her prom dress! Oh my goodness!!!

First of all she was able to pick out any dress she wanted. And she chose this super cute, princess style dress.

She also got to pick out any shoes she wanted and the jewelry. In addition to all that, the wonderful people at Kymaro scheduled her a head to toe makeover at the Spa at the Inn at Bay Harbor; a very upscale salon and spa. She got a manicure, pedicure, hair cut, color and style and a complete facial. We spent all day at the spa…I wish I would have had the money to get myself made over while we were there….oh well. It was her day and she had fun getting pampered. In addition to all that, the prom tickets were paid for, as well as a limo ride to and from prom. They actually got an SUV because there were no limo’s available for today. But, at least they got chaperoned in a nice vehicle!

Another huge surprise came in the mail. She got a box full of beauty and body products from Kymaro; makeup, body shapers, nail polish, teeth whitening from supersmile, Ted Gibson hair products, a sunless tanning system and more! It was like Christmas!

OMGosh!!! She just texted me and told me she won Prom Queen!!! Oh I’m so proud of her!!! I can’t wait to see pictures of her in her crown! Her boyfriend got pictures of her. Awe, I’m so happy for her!

Anyway, it’s been a good Senior year for her. It will be weird not having a child in school…well regular school anyway. Karlie will be attending cosmetology in the fall and then off to bible college probably after that, for music/worship.What will I do when all 4 of m kids are grown up??? Oh, I know!!! Enjoy watching the grandkids grow up! :)

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