Garage Sale

Yesterday and today I had my first garage sale w/o my mom. She was seriously THE garage sale queen. When her and my step dad moved from the house I grew up in she had a week long, entire house "garage" sale. She made almost $5000!! Off of a bunch of J-U-N-K. She must have been smiling down on me b/c everytime I would say "5 more minutes" another group of people would come and buy more. I made enough to get a new kitchen table! And still have some to put towards our snowball. I know, I should have put it ALL to the snowball but our table was falling apart and if I have to stick to a menu plan, we need a place to eat. It was a super deal, as far as tables go. I spent $199 for the table and 4 chairs. Solid wood, with a dark cherry finish. I am in love! I also got a protection plan for when my children scratch, ding, dent, burn, marker, crayon, and stab my new table they will bring me a shiny new one for 5 years. tThey just don't know how destructive my kids can be!

Gas Prices!?!

I know I haven't posted since everything with my mom. I came and just haven't been inspired to share anything. I feel like we have strayed from Dave's teaching a bit. No credit card usage and our emergency fund is still in tact but we could have put much more in savings this month. Instead we have been sort of careless. Hopefully May will be the month to get our focus back.
I was over at one of my fave blogs, www.thriftyfloridamama.net, and was inspired to write a post. (thanks angie!) I noticed that she only spent $304 on gas last month. Then I realized that I said "only". How depressing. Our gas budget was $360 but it was stretching too tight by the end of our month (10th-10th). So we bumped it last month to $400. That seemed to be the magic number.
We have 2 cars, a small mini van and a 4 door sedan. We used to have a Tahoe and the price of gas was more than our payment. That was last summer. I can only imagine how much it would be now!
Gas prices here are 3.50-ish/per gallon. I can just about fill up my van on $40. That lasts almost a week. I drive about 20 min to work, not sure how many miles. Plus all the household errands. I do try to plan my route so I'm not driving in circles.
How are gas prices in your area and what is everyone's monthly gas budget? FYI- when I started writing this post on Saturday morning, gas was around 3.40. What a difference 3 days make!

In Loving Memory......

I know a lot of you have been praying for my mom and I haven't been updating. My mom went to be with her Lord and Savior on April 13th. After 16 days in ICU we made the decision as her family to let her go be with my grandparents in heaven. Her services were last Thursday and they were just what she would have wanted. Actually, she wouldn't have wanted that much attention focused on her. There were so many flowers we lost count around 40 arrangements, not including the family flowers. The chapel held 200 people and they were setting up chairs in the room just outside the chapel because the chapel was full 20 minutes before the service was to start. Such a testament to the amazing woman she was!

I am beyond sad but I know her struggle is over and that she is in her perfect place. And I know she is watching over us, especially Peyton.

I am in the process of getting back to my frugal ways. I went to CVS this morning and saved 167.00, spent .11 OOP, so I haven't lost my touch! I am hoping to share the secret with my sister, if she doesn't get frustrated with it. We all know it takes a couple of weeks to get into the groove of saving. I did a lot of cooking and freezing today so hopefully I will start cooking again instead of blowing our food budget. We actually stayed really well within our budget considering everything going on. We even had the money to contribute to flowers, the soloist, and the lady who did a slideshow for us. That, in itself, was an amazing feeling. I couldn't have handled any more stress after spending 16 days at the hospital with a 3 yr old most of the days.

I know my mom was proud of my money saving and new budgeting so I will continue to do those things so she can watch me with a joyful heart and not a worried heart. Thanks to all of you who were praying for her recovery, but instead she got the ultimate reward. I just wish it had come later for us.

Mom update 4/2

There has been no news to report. Nothing has changed. The doctor said today that it is a "grave outcome". Nice choice of words, huh? Please continue to pray for a miracle. Her seizures that were supposed to last 4 days are still happening (we're on day 6) and there is no projected time line of when they will stop.

Mom update

Here's a picture of my mom (Phyllis), Lee and Peyton from last summer.

Today seemed to be more promising but when the neurologist did an EEG it showed her brain to be seizing. We couldn't see the seizure they were only happening in her brain. This is just more sign of brain injury due to lack of oxygen. They put her under heavy sedation and 2 other seizure medicines to stop the seizures so we are back to waiting for another EEG to see if her brain continues to do this when not under sedation. The neurologist said that it is "bad and not what we want to see". I am trying to get this out to as many people as I can so she can be lifted up in prayer. A miracle is all we can hope for at this point. I will update again ASAP.

Thanks to Angie at http://www.thriftyfloridamama.net/ for the link on her blog. I hope it will reach more people through her as well. Thank you, too, to all the kind posts I received yesterday. I sincerely appreciate it.
Krissy

Please pray for my mom....

This has NOTHING to do with frugal living. It is a purely selfish post. I posted a while back that my mom had been diagnosed with breast cancer. FFwd- she had a masectomy (sp?) a month ago and she has had to have 2 more surgeries since, both times to clear the drain tube. She is 67 and 3 times of anestesia (again sp?) in a month has taken it's toll. She was in the hospital 2 weeks ago with pneumonia and was released. This morning she was having trouble breathing but sent my step-dad to work as normal. About 30 min. after he left she called him and told him she couldn't breathe. He told her he was on his way. At 8:12am she called 911. The fire dept were first on the scene at 8:17am, and she was in cardiac arrest and not breathing. We know that she had gotten to the front door to unlock it but we think when she went back to her room she collapsed on the floor b/c that's where they found her. She is in ICU now but not responding, and not breathing on her own. Her lungs "look really bad" and are filled with fluid. To make matters worse, she was at the cardiologist yesterday and my step-dad asked him to listen to her lungs and he told him he didn't hear anything abnormal. HELLO?? Even the ER doctor said, the fluid couldn't build up like it is overnight. It had to have been like that for days. The neurologist said that she is showing signs of serious brain damage to her brain stem, which is the worst kind. Basically, IF she wakes up she isn't going to be the same person that we know. I am praying for a miracle but she wouldn't want to live like she is now. If God decides for her to be like she is now I just want him to take her. I don't want my step-dad to have to make any decisions regarding keeping her as incapacitated. I'm hoping she will wake up tomorrow and be okay but I am preparing myself for the worst. Please just keep her in your prayers, as well as my step-dad. He is beside himself and blaming himself for not being there. He loves her so much. If anyone else has been through this and has any encouraging words I would really appreciate hearing the story. Thanks if you got this far..........

My frugal wedding gift.

I used the Linens & Things offer I posted about a couple of weeks ago to buy a wedding gift today. I got them a crockpot and I am putting togetther a collection of crockpot recipes to go with it. I would love to have any of your recipes to include along with mine. I plan on getting an empty binder and adding sheet protectors with my tip of organizing my recipes. I will add recipes for their crockpot. With my 20% off coupon, free shipping, ebates return, and the $20 gift card I will get in a few weeks, the crockpot cost me .79!! That is a cheap gift! I can afford to get a REALLY nice binder for the recipes. =) Post your recipes!