New Shed

So, we have lived in our new house for just about a month and I am still in the process of unpacking.  My mom and my husband have been giving me a hard time about unpacking but I want to make sure everything is in its proper place (or I am just being a slacker), haha. We have undertaken one really big project so far and have it almost completed. We have been paying $80 for a storage unit for the last 3 years and now that we have a home we want to eliminate that monthly bill. Jason has so willingly built us a storage shed in our backyard. He has built this thing on his own without buying any plans or a kit. This shed is looking really good and it is really sturdy. Here are the pictures of the progress of the shed.

This is Jason trying level the blocks for the foundation. 

 He is putting the frame up for the walls on the shed. 

Here he is putting on the roofing. 

The roofing is complete. 

We still have a few more trim pieces that need to go up but the end is in sight. 

Jason with JJ showing off the new shed. 

I think our next project is going to be the living room and entry. This should be fun. 

We did it!

                   These last few months have been very long. We started in January planning to purchase a house. After we accomplished a few goals of ours we went for through the preapproval process. The day we got the preapproval Jason and I were out looking for our dream home. Well we found our dream home, made an offer, and we closed on it today. We are so excited and have so many ideas to do to our new home. The house we purchased has 2 bedrooms and 2 baths.In addition, it has 1348 square feet and a 2 car garage. Our favorite feature of the house is the fenced in backyard and the wood burning stove. We get to start moving into the house after Wednesday. However, these next two weeks are going to be very overwhelming. I still have two and a half weeks left of classes plus there is a lot of stuff going on at church. As soon as we move in I will take lots of pictures so than we can do before and after pictures. It is a good thing I have a very handy husband with lots of tools because we have a very long to-do list to complete.

I have finished my first semester of the Elementary Education program at Dixie State College and can I say I am extremely happy about my achievement. I have successfully managed to receive my highest GPA ever- a 3.85. This semester was a little bit stressful but not as stressful as previous semesters. There are several things that I learned that I would like to implement in future semesters, such as: don’t procrastinate, take my time, and don’t stress too much. I only have three semesters, a year and a half, until I graduate with my Bachelors and can finally start teaching.

So we have decided to do the elf on the shelf this year and my son LOVES it. He is so excited to see what our elf, Rocker, has done. Here are some pictures of what he has done this year. Are you doing this? What is your elf’s name and what have they done? 

A lot of stuff has changed since I last wrote anything. I worked at Quiznos for about 8 months until corporate decided to close down their corporate stores. It was a blessing in disguise. I was working a lot of hours and spent little time with my family. Due to Quiznos closing I was able to start school. I have just finished my Associates Degree and will start my Bachelors program in a matter of month. I am attending school to obtain a degree in Elementary Education.

JJ is now four years old and is very rambunctious. He was recently diagnosed with extreme ADHD and moderate ODD.  He loves all things that are boy such as monster trucks, cars, dirt, and superhero’s.  

 Jason is working still working at an automotive repair shop and has recently started riding a bike and absolutely loves it.

Other than that not much else has happened. I will try to keep up with this but I am really bad at remembering to do this.  

Argh.... This woman drives me NUTS!!!!

Last night my mom and I went into my aunt's room to see if my shoes might have shown up in her room that I am needed for work. When my mom and I went into there she and I decided to look at her clothes hanging up in the closet because we were noticing that she has been wearing our clothes. When we looked in there we saw 5 to 10 of my shirts in there some of them I just bought a week or two ago. Then I also found that my brand new never been worn "when I lose 4 more inches jeans" were in her closet as well that she got out of my closet.
So this morning as I was exiting my bedroom and she was leaving the bathroom by my room she asked me if I happened to find her jeans in my room. I told her "no, but I found a lot of my clothes in your room". So we were argueing for about 5 minutes and she told me that we have a lot of the same clothes and they were hers. YA RIGHT!!! She later went to my mom and told her that I went into her room and took her clothes. My mom asked her "why would you have size 2x in your closet?".
Thankfully the woman hasn't talked to me all day. I couldn't be happier for that it has been a relatively quite day around the house with her not talking to me or really anyone for that matter. Maybe she will eventually move out and then I can really celebrate and through a party.
Excuse me for my unchristianly way of thinking but I don't appreciate someone taking my stuff and bold face lying to me and trying to turn the story around to make me seem like I am in the wrong.
Luckily, I will be away from the woman for a month and hopefully she will come to her senses and be moved out by the time I get back from Texas. It is a bittersweet trip to Texas, the good is I get away from her and the bad is that I will be away from my most wonderful son JJ. Talk to you all soon.

Fantastic News!

Jason and I have both found jobs! Yeah! Jason got a job that he started last week at one of the transmission/automotive shops that he seems to really enjoy thus far and is excited to be able to get to learn more in debt about transmissions.
I have found a job working for Quiznos as the Restaurant General Manager. It will require a lot of hours to be put in. However, I think that since I am the manager I will pretty much be able to dictate when I work and have a little bit more flexibility to be able to do stuff with my little family. The only part I am not really looking forward to that isn't really too bad is going to Texas for my training for three weeks. I am excited to go to Texas; however, I am nervous because I will be away from JJ for three weeks and I have never been away from him for more than a few hours.
After Jason and I get situated with our new jobs then we will hopefully be looking for a house to rent.
Other than that there is not a whole lot of other stuff going on except for way too much drama in the household mostly caused by one person in particular. This person does not think that they cause so much headaches for everyone and when this person is around it seems as though no one else can talk because this person never shuts their mouth.
Okay I am done with my little rant for now. :0)
I will definitely keep up with my blog and the progress of my training while I am in Texas.

Job outlook

So far Jason and I have not found jobs yet. I had an interview today that I thought went well for a General Manager position. I will hopefully find out this weekend or Monday. Jason still hasn't heard anything from any of the companies that he applied to. I know that if we put our trust in the Lord he will provide for us the perfect employement opportunity.
My interview today had a lot of difficult questions to answer that took a lot of thinking but I think that the interviewer and the owners were pleased with my answers. Please keep us in your prayers as we continue to find our perfect jobs.

Our Family 'mini' Vacation

Wednesday was Jason's 32nd birthday so we decided to take a little trip to Mesquite for two days with a coupon that we got in the Dixie Direct book for two free nights. When we first got there and I checked us in I asked the clerk if they had any specials for birthdays. They clerk told me they don't normally but to ask the other areas of the casino but he would give us a couple of things for us anyways. The clerk ended up giving us a bogo coupon for bowling and 100 tickets at the arcade. A few minutes later Jason went to the promotional counter and asked the same question and was able to get us each $5 on our cards.
The next morning when we got up we went to go get breakfast and got our meal for FREE, only paying the tip, by using our rewards card. In all we ended up spending around $100 for a family get away for two days mostly paying for food, bowling, the arcade and a little bit of gambling (only $40). It was a fun filled two days that I hope my husband will remember! I know JJ sure will because he got to go bowling for the first time.

Save $1569.50 in one year!

Today was a good day for us I only spent $4.55 and that was for some drinks. However, I think that I need to not buy drinks while we are out and instead bring the drinks with us. Think about how much money that is if I bought 5 dollars worth of drinks everyday for a year that would be $1,825! That is a lot of money! Instead I could drink water, koolaid, or some other drink that I could get cheap or even free with my coupons. Say koolade, which runs $.20 a pack on average plus the cost of sugar about $3.00 (I am not sure on cost just a guess) for a 5 lb. bag there are 10 servings in a 5 lb bag. Which equals out to $.50 per cup of sugar or .$70 for one 2 gallon of koolaid. If that pither of koolaid lasted my family of 3 one day we would spend $255.50 in one year. That would be a savings of $1569.50! That is without even thinking about using coupons to get a better deal on the koolaid.

Our crazy life!

Hello everyone! A lot has been happening to us lately. Jason and I have finally gotten all of our stuff from North Carolina to Utah. Yay! Jason and I are both currently looking for jobs. I recently worked for Taco Time but left after getting offered another job elsewhere that ended up falling through, so I am once again actively looking. Jason has a few really good perspective jobs that we are crossing our fingers will work out for us.
I have decided that I am going to really work on Jason and I sticking to a strick budget so we can save up to build our dream home. We will start on little goals like paying off our current car loan allowing us to use that money to pay ourselves instead of someone else.
One of my other goals is to get back into couponing hardcore to help us get a really good stockpile of supplies and thus saving even more money.
I will try to update each week at least how our budget is going and our savings. The only bad thing is is that we are still trying to find a job so this will take a little bit to help us get going on the saving money part. However, I believe that God put this situation in front of us to try and help us better take care of our financial situation and to help us control our crazy spending.

The Latest Ross News

Wow! It has been a really long time since I have even visited my blog. There has been a lot of changes in our household since the last time I wrote anything. JJ is now 2 years and 5 months old and we have started the fun and ever so exciting task of potty training. I do think that we are progressing nicely with the whole potty training bit. He is saying several words now but his favorite seems to be truck and wheel. Do I see a future mechanic on my hands or what? If JJ finds any of daddys or Grandpa's tools laying around the house he will pick them up and will try to find something to use that tool with to either take something apart or put something together. We are now in the process of moving back to Utah from North Carolina to be closer to family. I started working again after not having worked for two years and I really do love my job. Jason is still in North Carolina waiting for our house to sale so that he can come join us here in Utah. We have been saying lots of prayers for a sale. I have included some new pictures of JJ so everyone can see how much he is growing.

JJ Models and New Pictures!

JJ had his first modeling gig last week you can check out the pictures at Chic it Baby. My mom and I also got new pictures of JJ taken last week at Sears they turned out sooooo cute! I just can't believe how big he is gettng it seems like I was just trying to get pregnant.

Jesus Loves You!

God showed his love for us when he sent his only Son into the world to give us life. Real love isn't our love for God, but his love for us. God sent his Son to be the sacrifice by which our sins are forgiven. 1 John 4:9-10

Free Money (I hope!)

I just signed up for this new thing that says you get paid to read your emails. I signed up for it today so I am not to sure if it is for real I will keep you updated though. For signing up I recieved $10 for free. If you sign up let me know how it goes.

Here is the info:

Still Reading Commercial Emails For Free? Receive Emails On Topics That Interests You And Get Paid For It!
If you have access to your own email account, you can get paid. Refer others and get paid up to two levels. Hits4Pay is one of very few highest paying advertising program in the industry.
Signup for free and receive $10 as a Free Reward:

http://hits4pay.com/members/index.cgi?jessjasonross

Harris Teeter Super Doubles!

I just heard yesterday that Harris Teeter will be doing super double coupons the week of June 24th. They will be doubling coupons up to 1.98 instead of the normal .99. That gives me about a week to start clipping and sorting my coupons out for the big event next week.

VBS this week

JJ and I have been attending VBS all this week. The kids are so cute. I am helping with the first graders and JJ gets to go play in the nursery with the other little ones. The theme this year for VBS is boomerang express- it all comes back to Jesus. I think that it is awesome being able to see the children learn about Jesus. I remember when I was in elementary school and got to attend VBS how much fun it was. I just hope that the children will learn a lot about Jesus and how much Jesus and God loves us.

My little boy is getting so BIG!

JJ is getting so big and his personallity is really coming out. First thing in the morning after I take him out of his crib he will run around the house and into mommy and daddy's bedroom and look to see if daddy might still be in bed. He will stand by the edge of the bed and will look and yell dadda. Several times I have gone into his room in the morning or after nap time to find JJ without a diaper on and he will be in the crib smiling and laughing.
JJ loves animals and when he see's an animal he will bark at the animal no matter what kind of animal it is. I am going to take JJ to the Lazy 5 Ranch in Mooresville (North Carolina) probably in two weeks. For those that don't live around here and now what the Lazy 5 Ranch is it is a place where the animals (zebras, pigs, peacocks, deer, ostriches, etc...) run around the park freely while you drive in your car or you can choose to do a hay ride and you can pet the animals and also feed the animals. My mom and I went a few days before JJ was born and had lots of fun. JJ and I will have to be careful not to feed the zebras because the get greedy and will try to steal the feed bucket out of your hands.
I am very happy that JJ is not a picky eater like his mom. JJ will eat anything that you put in front of his face. He will eat collard greens, beets, brussel sprouts, spinach, tomatoes, asparagas and lots of other stuff. The only thing he does not like that we have gave him is pickles and cantalope. I will keep trying with those though and we don't use the words "you don't like that".

I love couponing!

Harris Teeter has become one of my favorite grocery stores to shop at. It has been confirmed that they will be doing triple coupons again starting on the 27th of May. The only bad thing about them doing triples is that I have yet to get all of my coupons organized.
I buy 4 to 6 newspapers every week and it is hard to keep up with them all. The way that I do my coupons consume a lot of time to organize but it makes it easy when it comes time to go shopping. My coupons that I have cut are in a binder with baseball card holders as organizers then I have the coupons placed in the binder by location in the store so I have one section for beverages, medicines, refrigerated, frozen and misc. My refrigerated, frozen and misc are broken down even further. I have mini sections for each of those breads, cereals, cheese, meats, gum, etc. For the coupons that I haven't clipped yet I have a file folder system in place so I can still find my coupons easily.
On a positive note coupons save me and my family a lot of money. We went from spending 600 at the grocery store every two weeks plus more on going out to eat and extra stuff that we ran out of to spending 150 every two weeks for everything that is a shopping expense (cvs, wags, harris teeter, bilo, target, etc...). For example last night I went to bilo I purchased 10 bags of Knorr sides they were on sale 10 for 10 then bought 6 packages of bar s hot dogs. Total before hand would have been 16 dollars plus three dollars back to spend on your next trip (from the knorr/unilever deal) I had 5 coupons for the knorr that was .75 off of two knorr sides but bilo doubles coupons so that was 1.50 off of two bags of knorr. So I spent .25 cents on each bag of knorr sides then the hot dogs were 1.00 each and I had a coupon for 1.00 off of 2 packages making them .50 cents each.
After I get done with this next round of triples at Harris Teeter I will post a picture with price breakdown of my shopping trips and will also post a picture of my stockpile.
Yay for free or very cheap food.

Kmart Doubles First Trip

Kmart has been offering double coupons up to and including $2. I got some pretty good deals but could of gotten more if I was able to start out my shopping trips on Sunday when the deal started instead of Wednesday which is when I got home from my vacation to Utah. I have made two trips to Kmart thus far but I only have the one receipt with me because the other is in the car and my husband drove the car to work today. My first trip my total before coupons was 111.55 I spent 35.40 and saved 76.15!
Here is what I got:

• Soft Scrub Scrubby Pads - 4
• Can of Lysol Disinfectant - 1
• Lysol 2-in-1 Toilet Cling - 2
• Cascade Action Pacs (20) - 1
• Dawn Plus Hand Renew 19floz - 1
• Renuzit Renew - 5
• Lysol Bath Cleaner 4-in-1 - 1
• Lysol Toilet Bowl Cleaner - 4
• Pearl Scents Renuzit - 2
• Wet One's -5
• Febreze Air Effects - 5
• Air Wick Air Refresher -1
• Lysol Disinfecting Wipes -3
• Sparkle 3 pack Paper Towels -1

Now I guess I have no excuse not to clean my house