Dallas-Fort Worth Nesties
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
B&M Monday...
Welcome to a new week!
Re: B&M Monday...
I just started Dave Ramsey yesterday. I'm really hoping this will help us get out of debt! I am so frustrated with the amount of money I have to pay just for minimum payments! :-(
I so wish I had today off! Friday was a super busy day at work and one of the salespeople was being so difficult. I need another day off just to recuperate from that! :-P
~TTC Buddies with akcrrr and amandaf6383~
Natural Cycle (8/7/13)- BFP! Beta #1 (9/10/13): 509 Progesterone: 18.64 Beta #2 (9/12/13): 1118
Boo Chelsea... hope it goes away fast.
Sarah... that's awesome. My cousin & his wife are currently using the Dave Ramsey approach. They're on a tight budget mostly, but are knocking out that debt fast. Let us know how it goes!
My 3 day weekend flew by fast, but it was great. I finally scrapbooked our engagement pictures!! Ran a ton of earrings and did a little shopping!
Hope you feel better soon Chelsea!
Sarah - Best of luck! We are paying off the last cc in May and my car in the next couple months as well. I hope the Dave Ramsey approach does everything you need it too!
Amanda - I think I always thought I would Scrapebook, but it doesn't look like it's going to happen.. lol Glad you were able to get it all done! Yeah for productive weekends!
I think I'm allergic to something in New Orleans. I had a stuffy nose the whole time, but it was a fun time over all. I got see Jeff riding his float, the dress I finally found for the ball was a hit, and while I couldn't drink I think it was a blast. They are trying to talk us into going next year with our 5 month old, but I don't know how I feel about that. I'm glad to be "out" to a few more people. I wish we had off today because I really need some rest.
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Chelsea- I hope you get to feeling better soon! Get some rest.
Sarah- Good luck with this...I know you've been trying to tackle the debt for awhile. We got a little off track with my student loans (that we were hoping to have paid off this October) when we started trying to see if we could live off of DH's check alone last August. I'm trying to get it back on track to have it paid off by the end of the year. What made you choose Dave Ramsey over other programs?
Amanda- I would give you a hard time about just now doing your e-pics but you are way ahead of me! I also haven't even done anything with our wedding pics and I honestly have no desire to.
Starting tomorrow, DH and I are giving up dairy, sugar, meat (including fish) and something else...essentially a vegan diet with even more restrictions for 21 days. My body doesn't process carbs like a normal person so I hope this will help me.
We went to the grocery store last night and had a lot to get and I wondered if we were even going to be able to use one cart. I've filled a cart before but it was with paper towels, cereal and other big item things not small items. I needed a couple of spaghetti squashes and they didn't have a single one and neither did The Cupboard. It was a bit overwhelming for me, especially at checkout. While it cost us a pretty penny, we won't be eating out so it evens out. Tonight we will be having salmon, lemon risotto and another side that has yet to be determined.
Last night's dream involved Tom Brady and Heidi from Home Improvement. Tom and Heidi were married and they were staying at a 'local' B&B in Arkansas before and after the Super Bowl and I tried to get Bobbileigh his autograph. It can be summed up with one word: weird.
Deepthi that sounds so fun! Have you told your family yet, I couldn't remember?
Good for you guys working on your debt. It is the best feeling in the world and worth every sacrifice you have to make.
I don't know what to do with myself today. I need to go to the store at some point. I want to go out to breakfast--that is one of my favorite things!
ETA: Jaymi what the heck are you going to eat at book club on Saturday?
Chelsea so sorry you and Dot are sick! I know Cadence and Bobbieleigh are sick too.
With All the Trimmings
Just do it!
Jaymi, I hate how much produce and stuff costs. Also, love the dream even if it was a little weird.
I am sick and probably going back to the dr tomorrow. I was told to go back today if I didnt feel better but I thinks thats a bit too soon. My symptoms are just so weird and I feel so drained.
~TTC Buddies with akcrrr and amandaf6383~
Natural Cycle (8/7/13)- BFP! Beta #1 (9/10/13): 509 Progesterone: 18.64 Beta #2 (9/12/13): 1118
Stephanie - Yes we told both sets early on. We had to tell his parent's since I normally have a glass of wine when I'm there and his dad would have figured something was up. Then I didn't feel like it was right to tell his parent's and not mine. We had to tell the family this past weekend because lying about not drinking for 4 days is hard. We will tell my best friend's this Thursday, start calling family and close friends March 1, and finally after all that is done we will announce it on Facebook. Wow sounds complicated.
Boo for everyone not feeling well. Hope everyone gets better soon!
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Jaymi... Ha thanks! It felt good to get it done. I definitely want to tackle our wedding pics, but I think that will take a LONG time to get done. I think I'll start on it soon though, which excites me!
BL... I hope you feel better soon.
Jaymi,
I am too chicken to try the vegan diet. Really, so congratulations to you for being so brave!!!!
Angie,
I'm so excited for you and J to be reunited.
I got to sleep until 9 and I feel so much better than I have over the past week. Stupid sinuses!!!! Friday, the guys came over to measure our house and we'll be out about $6700 for the flooring in our bedroom, the living room and dining room. I'm a little disappointed because I wanted the two little bedrooms done too but I think that would push us way over what Bill wants to spend. However, next year, with Bill's hopeful bonus, we're going to pretty much re-do the kitchen: counters, cabinets, tile, and a double oven. I just have no idea where we'll put the double oven.
We also spent an un-godly amount of time at Ikea yesterday. However, we bought some new pieces of furniture that will be delivered today and will hopefully organize us better here in the house. We have plans for a fence, finish re-painting the hall bath and finishing up the rest of the re-decoration in there, getting some landscaping done to the front yard and hopefully/possibly painting the dining room before the flooring people. We have to get most of this done before May. Yikes?
Angie - It's great to hear that he will be back! Congrats! How long will he be here?
Julie, Wow huge renovation! Did you price compare? We intially got quoted a ridiculous price for the small reno we did in the kitchen and we looked at two other options who came in extremely lower.
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Actually, it wasn't the produce that was so expensive. Well, yes, 2.5 pounds of grapes were $8 but $10 for all natural-no added sugar peanut butter and almond butter is scary. Plus we paid twice as much for spinach and lettuce when I could have gone to Sams- which I plan on doing next time. And we are also used to saving 50% with coupons and produce normally does not have coupons.
Sorry that you are sick- it seems to be going around and staying around.
Well the grocery shopping is over and done with and now Ben is washing my car. I am soooo lazy today. I just don't want to do anything. I'll be lucky if I take a shower.
Julie, that all sounds great! I want to finish our kitchen this summer. We have the money--Ben just doesn't want to mess with it because it is going to be a big ol' mess and he is the one who will have to deal with it all. But I need to start nagging. You need to take some before and after pictures and post them.
Angie--yay!
With All the Trimmings
Just do it!
Angie- Yay!
Deepthi- There was a front that came in this weekend to the south so that may have been what was bothering you. I heard it canceled Mardi Gras things in New Orleans and brought a ton of snow to Tennessee, Ketucky and south. I was only half way listening.
Julie- Holy moly!! $6700 for 3 rooms? Are they covered in gold? I am so cheap. At least you are getting stuff done. We've been in our house a little over a year and so far we have attempted to fix our bee/wasp problem and squirrel problem, repointed part of the brick outside and torn apart half of a bathroom. We have also cut down 2 cedar trees. I can count that on one hand and the things that need to be done can be counted on all of our hands and toes. And we thought we would have the bathroom done at Christmas time, bwahahahaha. Actually demolishing the rest of the bathroom tonight sounds fun but I have so much to do tonight.
Stephie- I will have to bring my own thing for sure. There are these nifty little wraps that look good, so depending on how they taste, I might bring those for book club.
Ugh, what did you do? Our problem is yellow jackets. Every year we get mutliple nests and Ben spends all his time trying to hose down our house with spray. It is terrible--we can't even think of being outside for any length of time from about April to October.
With All the Trimmings
Just do it!
We've only had some luck with the spray and we have them in the front and in the back. In the back when it was cooler last year and we didn't have any, we stuck this 'strip' in their main hole (if you want, I can find out the name of it) and then filled up the holes where we think they were getting in with some yellow foam. We honestly aren't 100% sure where their nest is up front and when we first moved in, DH called some pest people and we paid $150 thinking they would actually help and they only sprayed. They were back 2 days later. Waste of money.
We watch Billy the Exterminator and we thought we could hire someone to take the nest out but we could not find anyone to help with the wasps and now that we have bees as well, no one will touch it. Our siding right now is wood and we hope to replace it and we think the bees are in one of our front trees, which is half dead and we plan on taking it out later this year if it still appears dead. So I hope the combo of the 2 will help with the bees/wasps and squirrels.
Okay, I hope I remember to get everyone!
Jaymi,
I was a little shocked too because I didn't want it to be over $5000 but Bill is willing to go to $7500 and we get a discount if we put down 50% by tomorrow. We looked at one other place but they're telling us that it will be between $7300 and $9500, no discount. Plus, these guys are A+ rated with BBB which makes him extremely happy. If we had gone with laminate, then it would have been significantly cheaper (laminate can be about $3 a sq ft while this engineered stuff can start at $6). Plus, they do tile work which will be part of next year's improvements. I know that we could do some of this ourselves but we talked about the likely hood of us actually finishing it in a timely manner and it was zero to none. So, long story short, it's because we're going with a higher end product, IMO.
Stephanie,
We would still be sitting on our behinds if I hadn't nagged Bill into calling. I made him call because I knew that he had a budget in mind and I knew that he had already done the research. I got to pick the flooring (the fun part)--he gets to pick the other stuff.
Deepthi,
Next year, when we do the kitchen, we will definitely get several bids. I will say that we saw some kitchens at Ikea yesterday that were pretty impressive so we will give them a consideration.
And, I know it's not Thursday but I just got off the phone with Geico to see about switching our auto and home owners over to them. I was with them up until a year ago when Bill switched me over to his policy (their initials are LM). We are currently paying nearly $500 a month ($5600 a year) for both cars and the house (which apparently was massively over insured, over what TX law/guidelines allow from what I was just told). Geico will be $2500 for the whole year. That's a week in Disney World, ladies!!!! I'm so excited. We're not hurting at all but that monthly difference is about what I love in salary this year. Anyways, I'm very excited and I'm also the poster child for calling around. If I had known that it would be this much for the year, I would have called months ago.
ETA: It should have been what I "lost" in salary.
DH had LM for the longest time too and it was mainly because they let him have a yearly policy instead of a 6 month policy; he was willing to pay a little extra to do that but it turned out to be not so little. He never called around until we bought the house and we switched everything over and I can't remember how much we saved but he kicked himself for just keeping with LM and not calling around. It definitely does pay off to call around. Funny thing is, our new insurance people are part of LM.
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I lost my right contact today & my appointment with the optometrist isn't until tomorrow, so I'm basically blind today. I hate it, I feel like I can't do anything that I was planning to do.
I sent in my 2 applications for grad school to TWU & Baylor!! Now I just have to study for & take the MAT soon, which kinda scares me. But I'm excited to maybe become an FNP!
Sarah- We're starting Dave Ramsey too! Which was what I wanted to do today- make up our budget & list out all of our debt. I'm excited! Let me know how y'all do! It's kinda hard to get Daniel on board because he wants everything NOW, but I'm slowly working on him.
Angie- YAY!
Julie- That $$ is crazy! I really want to redo our kitchen counters, but that will have to wait until we are out of debt!
Yeah, now that we're looking closer at it, we're a little surprised. Bill's brother seems to think he could get it all done in one weekend so long as we have everything moved out and the carpet all pulled up. A flight from Charlotte and a hotel room for a couple of nights would sure be cheaper. However, he wouldn't be able to come until April. I'm not sure that waiting that long would be good for us. Ugh. We're also talking to the guy Wendi used. They seem like a much better deal.