Beautiful Loaf

I watched a cooking show when I couldn't sleep yesterday morning. It was a show with tips on making wheat bread. I have been making wheat bread for years but decided to use some of his tips. The family loved the bread last night and Mario and Erin fought over the leftovers this morning. So I made 3 more loaves today. Wish Sister Park was in our neighborhood so we could bring her a loaf. We miss her and Brother Park. They were so kind to our family when we lived in Arizona.

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Our New Home

Mario flew to Florida last Wednesday and closed on our new home.  He originally wanted to send me to do all the paperwork and as much as I would love to get a break from the cold weather in Nebraska, I wanted no part in finding new tenants for it.  Landlording doesn't sound the least bit fun to me.

The sellers close on their new home the first week of April so we decided to be generous and let them stay in the home until they close so they don't have to move twice.  That may have been a mistake in hindsight because now we may have to pay cleaners to come in and clean because we won't be there to do it ourselves.  The sellers agreed to clean it well but who knows what standards they use.

We originally set the rent at $1700.  That would cover everything including all the taxes, insurance, lawn and pool care. But we didn't have a lot of calls about the property at first so we dropped it to $1675.  Now we will have to pay the optional flood insurance out of our pocket.  We still weren't getting a lot of calls so Mario was ready to drop the price by a hundred or two hundred dollars.  I told him no way.  Be patient.  I was confident that we would find a good renter sooner than later.  When I told Erin that Mario wanted to drop the price she said, "Just wait.  You'll find a good renter just like us."  That was good encouragement from our 13 year-old.

Mario got a call on Sunday from a parts manager of a dealership that was transferring down to Sarasota.  He asked to see the house on Monday.  So Mario showed his girlfriend/wife (not sure which one) on Monday afternoon and she gave him a $500 deposit to hold the home for them plus the $70 required for criminal and credit check.  Mario ran the checks and called all the references.  They came highly recommended by everyone he talked to.  So they move in April 6.

I feel like March has been a stressful month and now I realize that Mario and I stressed for nothing.  We have been so blessed.  I am hoping that if we can keep a good renter in the property, we will be able to pay off the mortgage by time he is ready to retire in 5 years.  It will require me to stick to my budget though.  So I might not be taking any fancy vacations (cruises) for awhile.  But being debt free is so important to us, it will be worth it.

Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift opened her Red tour in Omaha. Erin asked for tickets but they were pricey and so I didn't buy them. But then I saw Taylor Swift on the Omaha news last week while working out at the YMCA and I decided maybe I could find some tickets on Craigslist to surprise Erin with. Fearing that I may get scammed, I decided to check with Ticketmaster to see if by chance there were more tickets for the next evening. Surprisingly they had just opened a few more seats in a section that was straight across from the main stage and directly behind a second stage that she uses for about 5 songs. So all her friends that bought tickets months in advance got nose bleed seats for same price I paid for very good seats. I guess in that case, it paid off to wait.

Erin and I had such a great time. Taylor is an awesome performer. Eric was a little bummed to find out that Ed Sheeran had opened for Taylor. He likes his music. So he wishes he would have been invited to go too. I had no idea who he was or that Eric liked him.

Erin and her friends(Snyders and Snows) tried super hard to get selected to stand in the pit but they weren't selected. I wasn't disappointed because it would have meant standing for four hours straight. But it would have been fun I'm sure.

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Mormon Messages

Mario and I really enjoy all the little Mormon Message videos that the church has put out. They are great videos to share with the whole family. We have so many favorites. A recent one quickly became a favorite of Mario's. It's a really sweet video on fatherhood.

http://www.lds.org/pages/mormon-messages?lang=eng#earthly-father-heavenly-father


Here's a recent one that I really enjoyed as well.  It's a humorous one set on a cruise ship.

http://www.lds.org/pages/mormon-messages?lang=eng#your-potential-your-privileges

I love all the little inspirational messages. You can go into the website and choose a topic and find a video that is the perfect message for you. I love them. I'm grateful for all the new resources the church has put out in recent years. They are so helpful in parenting and just getting through everyday life.

Another Four Day Weekend

Wow! I think this is the kids 3rd four day weekend since starting back to school after Christmas. We got several inches of snow yesterday and so church was shortened to just Sacrament Meeting. Thank goodness we had plans to spend afternoon at a friends house. Kids had a lot of fun sledding and playing outside.

I thought when they told us that we were going to Nebraska, there would have to be a blizzard to cancel school. They are wimpy here than I thought. But that's ok. We enjoy the snow days!


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Pinewood Derby Cars

First pictures of the boys cars. Nate's is Batman and Zach's car is an iPhone. They had a lot of fun designing them. Unfortunately, Mario will probably miss the race since he flies to Florida on Wednesday and doesn't get home until after the race unless I change his flight. He had to miss last year too because he had to leave Tucson early to move here. This is the most competitive I've seen. Fathers are drilling new holes for wheels and sanding the axles. Of course, Mario had to play that game too! We'll see how if it pays off.

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Lately

It's been awhile since I posted.  I've been busy trying to get everything ready for closing on the house which is next week and getting it rented out.  I put myself on a new, stricter budget so we can get the house paid off as quickly as possible.  Too help me do that, I decided to go back on the strict Dave Ramsey budget and put cash in envelopes so I stick to my budget.  I have used a budget as long as I can remember.  But if I want something bad enough, I will just buy it and put a little less into savings that month.  I also notice that I spend much more on groceries when I am paying with a credit card.  I never carry a balance so Mario likes me to get the air miles but I keep trying to tell him that I would spend so much less without the credit card and the extra savings can be spent on a plane ticket and still have money left over to dump into our savings account.   To make a long story short, I am back to using envelopes.  But I hate the Dave Ramsey paper ones, so after seeing some really cute fabric ones on a friend's blog, I decided to make my own.  I thought they came out very cute for a non-crafty person like me.  I get all kinds of anxiety when I walk into a Michaels or Hobby Lobby.  They are not my kind of stores.

We started a new chore system with the kids after reading how the Eyre household did theirs and now  Shawni, their daughter does it with her own family.  I read about it on her blog-71 toes.  Anyway, the kids get an allowance that is equal to their age.  Then they do the 10-20-70 rule.  10% tithing, 20% savings, and 70% living expenses (love that category) because kids need to learn to budget their money.  The kids earn 10% interest every quarter to encourage them to save even more than 20%.  They can't take the money out of savings until college.  I am recommitting myself to having the kids do better at piano practice, reading 30 minutes a day, times table review, and chores.  I made the following circle chart that I rotate daily.  It's been working well for the past few days.  I just have to stay consistent.

Ok, stop reading now if you don't want to hear me bragging about my wonderful children and husband.

Mario has left a lot of the new house details to me.  But that's ok because he is the one flying to Florida for the closing and then showing it to potential renters.  He has been very busy finishing his PME (Professional Military Education) for Lt. Colonel.  He always has a goal to complete it before he pins on the next rank.  He just finished number 4 of 5 tests/papers.  I think the last one is not graded or at least most of it isn't graded, so in his mind, he is pretty much done.  I am so proud of him for not procrastinating and getting it done.  He's good at making goals and sticking to it.  His big motivation this time around is to get an extension here in Omaha so Erin won't have to move during high school.

Eric wanted to drop Spanish 2 when we moved here because Spanish 1 was apparently taught differently in Tucson.  So he was lost in Spanish 2.  The thought of getting a B or a C in a class caused him a lot of stress.  My brother, Charlie, convinced him to stay in and just study (something Eric has never done) and I am happy to say that Eric has the highest grade out of all her classes.  So I am so thankful that he didn't drop it.  He continues to excel in all his classes and now he will start preparing for ACT/SAT tests.   He took the PLAN test that predicts your ACT scores.  His results give a range and it said that he would get somewhere between a 31-34 on the official ACT.  But his goal is higher.  So he's going to get a chance to put those study skills to good use.  I hope he's not disappointed if he comes up short.  I know that whatever he gets, I will be very proud of him.  We found out that Eric has no chance to graduate towards the top of his class here in Omaha because the class ranking is not just GPA but also the number of classes taken.  Tucson only had 6 periods and they offer 7 here.  So there is no way he can compete because his GPA is multiplied by his classes. So he comes up 1 class short.  I called the school to see if there was anyway he could make up that one class missed and essentially they said, "Nope, but his grades look good and if he does well on the ACT/SAT he should have no problems with scholarships."  I'm glad to see they support the military families in the community!

We attended parent/teacher conferences with Erin.  I think we only go because we like to hear all the compliments from her teachers.  They recommended her for all Honor classes next year.  The paperwork said to expect one hour of homework per honor class.  I don't believe Eric ever puts in more than 2 hours a week total for his 4 honor classes (unless there is a big project due) and I suspect Erin will be no different.   It is amazing to me that she will be in high school next year.  My baby girl!  Oh, how sad!  The big countdown begins.

The twins continue to amaze/amuse us.  They were excited to tell me the other day that the entire 3rd grade was given a math test.  The top 4 scorers would be put on a team to compete at competitions.  My boys made it into the top 4.  We were thrilled.  We sat down with Zach's teacher and she told us that there is no reason for Zach to not get advanced on everything.  But he hurries through his work.  Why can't teachers just grade on a normal grading scale?  That's besides the point.  So now we have to work with Zach to slow down.  He's definitely an A type personality.  Then there's Nate.  He's the exact opposite. His teacher said that he takes his time with everything he does but finishes most of his work within the timeframe given.  He hates timed tests though.  I think they cause him anxiety.  They both read on a fifth grade reading level but the teachers said they won't let them move beyond that because the material is not age appropriate.  So it starts all over again.  Same problem we had with Eric and Erin.