Thank you for your prayers

When I got home from work tonight Ryan told me that his dad went home from the hospital today. It was a mild stroke and he is recovering really well. Thank you to everyone that sent prayers and good thoughts our way:) He is going to be on some medication for a little while, but he is still planning on making a trip to MN this June.

Violin Recital

Lance had a recital here on Sat. There were about 25 kids on the program from all over the twin cities, many of them played solos. Lance played in a quartet that they started in the beginning of the year, he plays second violin. These kids are great because they do everything on their own. The teacher began the group because these 4 were a little beyond what the other kids in class were doing. She basically gave them some music to play and put them out in the hallway to practice together. It started with a song at the school concert, then they were asked to play at the potential students' open house events. They were then asked to participate at this recital. They got together 3 times over break and practiced the songs together. A parent was there, but they did the work of getting the songs together. They played 3 songs at the recital and they were great. (Would I be too much of a mom if I said they were the best?)

Here they are performing, sorry the big windows behind them was bad for my light, plus I cut off the cellist.

Waiting for their turn.

A strange instrument a teacher played. (again sorry about the lighting)

Prayer Request

Ryan's dad survived a stroke this morning and we need your prayers. We don't know much about his condition except that he is alert and will be undergoing tests to figure out what is happening. Please pray for his dad to have a quick recovery. Ryan and his brother are having a very difficult time right now due to the fact that we live so far from their dad. Please pray for them also.

The cost of being frugal

As you may have read, we are on a budget. We want to pay cash for our adoption, plus we want to manage our money instead of it managing us. Anyway we have really changed the way we think about money and the things we buy.
Part of our budget plan is to pay "non-bills" using cash. This means groceries, clothes, entertainment, gas etc. When I say cash, I don't mean not using credit, I mean the cold hard stuff.
Well yesterday we had a little cash left in the envelope and we decided that we need to buy some food. I went along to the grocery store (which I hate going to) to show Ryan a new store. It is really cool with great low prices, but you have to bring your own bags and they only take cash. This was fine, we whipped out a 20 and paid. The down side to the cool cheap store is that it is leftovers or something, so they don't have everything. We had to go to the store by our house to buy a few things we needed for dinner.
We bought the few items we needed, Ryan did a quick check in his head of how much we had spent and we went to the checkout. Well, calculations went wrong I guess because our total was $15.43. I had a 10, Ryan had two ones, then I looked in my change and I found a $1 coin and 4 quarters, I remembered that Liam had taken the quarter deposit we got back from the last store and put it in his pocket, I found a dime and a nickel and Ryan came up with 3 pennies. As he was handing the woman the money, he confirmed that it was 43 cents. She said yes as she rolled her eyes at us.
We weren't embarressed because we know we are doing the right thing, but we may have made a little bit of a scene. We were that commercial that Visa does with the entire store stopping because someone paid cash. I just don't care because if we had used the debit card we would have bought more than our budget allowed.
I do have a lot of other frugal stories that I'll share with you later. It's so tough going from a spendthift to a frugal shopper, but we are taking it one day at a time. Which reminds me that tomorrow is 25% off day at the thrift store, yay!!

The new violin

I bought this new violin on e.bay for less than $80. We upgraded Lance from his 1/2 to a full size because the boy just keeps growing. We just didn't have the extra cash to pay for a "new" used one for $900. We got it a few days ago and I broke a string for the kid before he even got to see it. Today was the big test, we took it to lessons with us and his teacher tuned it for us. It sounds okay, what do you expect for under a hundred dollars. It has a strange echo to it and the sound is a little off. We're going to work with it until Lance starts making money from playing, then he can upgrade on his own. Since I don't play violin, I can only judge it by how pretty it is and it sure is pretty and new.

Don't worry we will bring it with us this year on vacation to give all the grandparents concerts. Also, the old one is being handed down to Liam and he will start lessons next fall.

Wordless Wednesday-Lance got a new violin

Any place for sale in Portland?

Remember, I hate winter!!

This is our backyard on Saturday, cold, muddy, but little snow.

This is today with 8+ inches that fell.

Ryan snow blowing the driveway again, mind you it is 9pm and it is really heavy wet snow and he is not happy. If you think you're sick of hearing about it, imagine how it sucks to live here! I am so ready to move. Will you make me a house Uncle Todd?