Waiting

So it is almost two in the morning and I am sitting in the Salt Lake Airpot. Our flight was suppose to leave at 12:59 to Atlanta.  Our two hour gap to catch our connecting flight to Miami is now non-existent.  We our so thrilled at the moment. Delta is really losing their touch. 

Giving it a try - Gwynnie Bee

So finding clothes in Plus-size can be difficult, to say the least.  I have never been been the most fashionable person, but I like to be comfortable and look cute.  I have seen the Facebook Ads for Gwynnie Bee and finally said why not try it for the one free month. If you are unaware, Gwynnie Bee is basically a plus size clothing netflix, to put it one way.  You pay a flat fee every month, depending on how many clothes you want out at a time and they send you the clothes to borrow.  Then when you are done with them send them back for more.  I just sign up today so we will see how it goes, I highly doubt that I will continue past the one free month, just because it is a higher cost then I spend in a month on clothes usually.  

I looked through a lot of the clothes that they have listed and I love a lot of the things that they have and I adore the variety they have.  The only down side I see right now is that I can't pick the order sent to me.  I wanted to take specific items with me on the cruise we are going on next week.  We will see what they send me.  Hopefully one of the three they send will be what I really want to take.  

Here are some of the things I picked out to start with:  

Really want this one on the cruise to dress up the mint capris I have.  

This is a new dress they got in. I just like the look a lot

I love this take on the animal print.  So much fun!

Anyway I will keep you up to date on my thoughts about this service.  

Busy Summer

There is only one week of school left for my two big kids and then it is summer. I always have mixed feeling about summer break. I love my kiddos but keeping them entertained can be a problem.  And this summer is going to be the craziest and busiest yet. We have a family vacation on my side, a wonderful cruise thanks to my parents. Then we have our annual camp out with my DH's family, in Black Hills country. I am scouring Pinterst for fun thing to do, especially since DH has a work trip and Boy Scout camp that will leave me alone for 8 days. 

So while thinking about this crazy summer I decided that I needed to do some prep work to keep these crazies happy this summer.  What better way to keep them happy then with cookies!   I love to make cookie dough, portion it out and then freeze them. I love that I can pull a few out or a whole batch let them defrost for a bit and then bake them. I have been through my Pinterest dessert board, picked cookies that I think would freeze well (I have only done chocolate chip, sugar, and snicker doodles before), and made a shopping list of the things I don't have on hand or will run out of. I am going to spend the next few days making dough. I will let you know how it goes, which ones freeze well and which ones don't. 

It is going to be a big upfront expense to get all the ingredient but I think that it will safe us a lot of money not buying a bunch of store bought junk food.

My List of cookies to freeze:

Sugar Cookies

Chewy Chocolate Chip

Snicker doodle (Betty Crocker)

Root Beer Float Cookies

Shortbread Hershey Kiss Cookies

Chocolate Peanut Butter (on bag of Reese Peanut Butter Chips)

Orange Cream Sugar Cookies

Milky Way Cookies 

Malt Whopper Pudding Cookies

Lemon Sugar Cookies

White Chocolate Maraschino Cherry Cookies

Soft Malted Chocolate Chip

Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies

Dark Chocolate Chip and Almond Cookies

Chewy Butterfinger Cookies

Red Velvet Cookies

Cookies and Cream Cookies

Soft Brown Sugar Cookies

Butterfinger Chunk Cookies

Cookies and Cream Drop Cookies

S'more Cookies

Cherry Limeade Cookies (my own creation)

Lets See how crazy I am!

Ways to Save: Ting

For the longest time DH and I shared one cell phone.  It wasn't even a cool, smart phone.  Nope it was this

Total cool and sexy right?  Yeah I know, we needed to get with the times right?  We started to agree that even if we didn't NEED to get a new phone that maybe we should at least get another one.  Now most of the time I am home, and we have an old school landline, and DH is at work where is has his work phone. So I kept the cell phone with me for running errands.  Or we were both together when we were out and about. See so no need for another cell phone right?  Well there were those few times when we were both out running errands and we could never get a hold of each other.  Luckily we never had an emergency during those few times, but what if there had been.

Thus the talk about adding another line to our cell phone plan.  Now I have nothing against our previous cell phone carrier.  I started with them while I was attending college in Wyoming about 12 years ago.  They had the best coverage at the time and they had treated us well.  When we started to look at getting another phone, we realized that we would have to upgrade our current phone and get a data plan.  Which even with our state employee discount was going to double what we were paying before, and then we would still have to pay our another line and phone.  We were shocked and didn't want to pay that amount.

Luckily DH got to talking with some of his buddies at work about what smart phones they liked.  One of them mentioned that he was waiting for his service provider to add the iPhone and then we was switching from his Android to that.  Thus how we found about TING.  It is a great new company that piggybacks on the Sprint Network.  You can go to their website and read all about them.  What you need to know is that they charge you for only what you use.  Here are their rates:

Now the only down side is that you have to either have a Sprint Network phone or buy one out right.  We lucked out and as we were thinking about they announced that they just add the iPhone to the list of phones that you could have on the Ting network.  We went Swappa and were able to find us each a gently used iPhone for around $200.00.  The service with Ting has been great and even better is the price.  We pay about $2.00 less then are previous service provider.  Yet now we have two phones and we are using data for the first time.  Take a look at our bill:

Pretty awesome huh?  Go and check it out, see if it is right for you.  If it is you can use the referral link below and get $25 off your first bill.

https://zq8dct1cki4.ting.com/

Things I am working

So there are few things I am working on and looking forward to this summer.

I am working on redecorating our master bedroom. I will post about this probably tomorrow.  We already started and have been doing it piece by piece.  My bookcases should arrive to night and I am so excited.  

I am refinishing our living room furniture.  They were the first pieces that we bought as a married couple.  However the kids have been a bit rough on them and we have outgrown the style a bit.  I have one end table almost done and will show the results soon.

We are 25 days out from our Carnival Caribbean cruise with my family.  It will be Me, DH, Jazzy, Bubba, my Mom, my Dad, and my Big Bro.  Bug and Monkey are being watched by my wonderful M-I-L.  I am so lucky to have amazing parents to take us on this trip and I am glad that brother was able to attend last minute.  Now I am trying to find some cute pieces to take with me on this trip.  I feel like I need to start packing already.

We are also attending my DH's annual family campout this summer.  This year we are going to South Dakota! We get to attend the graduation of my S-I-L, she will be a real doctor now.  We are really really proud of her and can't wait to explore the Rapid City area and the Black Hills.

We need to work on our yard, last year we slacked since I was on bed rest with Monkey.  So we hope to get it back to looking good and replace a few dead plants.  We have been good at weed and feeding so far.

I am hoping to keep my kids busy with some summer fun. Jazzy had softball starting up soon and Bubba has a Soccer camp for a week in June.  Jazzy also wants to take Golf lessons this summer.  I think I might take Bug to a mommy and me tumbling class.  And of course I have to fit in a swim class, I might hire a Young Women in our neighborhood to do mommy and me swimming with Bug and I will do it with Monkey.

Meanwhile I am going to weed out my closet and try to find a good home for some of the things I don't wear anymore.

It is going to be a busy fun summer.  Hope you guys will enjoy your summer as well.

Hi Everyone

Welcome to my blog.  

My name is Stephanie, but my friends and family call me Steph.  I live in the great state of Utah,

 and yes I'm Mormon.  But that is a story for another time.  I attended the  

Go COWBOYS.

That is where I meet my Dear Hubby.  We had a beautiful daughter, Jazzy (her nickname).  We moved to Casper, where I finished my degree through Distance Education.  We had our first son Bubba.  

We then moved to wonderful Cache Valley,

where we had two more sons, Bug and Monkey.  We built a house and now we are trying to make it our home, of course while on a budget.

I like to spend time with my family, both immediate and extended.  I will try to tell you about cool things that we do as the summer progresses.  I like to scrapbook and make cards, though that is bit on hold as all my supplies are boxed up as we finish our basement.  I am getting into refinishing our furniture and will show the progress on each of the pieces on I am working.  As we finish the basement and furnish the rooms and redecorate I will show everything we do and hopefully inspire you.  I love to shop which is not always a good thing and it can be hard as a plus size gal.  I love going out and finding a bargain and will share them with you.  I have become a master of window shopping online as well as in the real world.  I like to bake and cook and love Pinterest for all of the recipes I find to try out.  

I started this blog as a way to keep me going as work at the various projects I have in making our house a home.  I will share with the progress I make, what works and what doesn't.  I will share reviews of product I am using and where to get the best deals for them.  I hope to make your mouth water with some of the food I cook and bake.  I will probably rant and rave, share my struggles and triumphs with you and I hope to hear from you as well.

I am in no way a professionally, I am just a regular mom who wants to try and save a buck while making the most of my home and spending time with my family.  

for stopping by.