Check that off the list!!!!

Remember my list at the bottom of this post? It looked something like this:

Finish strong with Bible Revival this Spring...
Ink for printer....
Move to Midland...
Get my coupons and freebies in the mail....
Read more blogs...
PRINT AND SHOP!!!! :)

The Lord blesses above and beyond! Joe has been praying for a certain amount to come in from our tax return. We just want to catch up on our bills. Well, we did more than that! The return was more than we expected and we were able to 1) pay off credit card; 2) pay off medical bills; 3) have both trailer AND truck payments CAUGHT UP(!!!!!); 4) buy this!!! and 5) have extra to set aside!!!!

Even though we are still paying off loans for truck and trailer, it feels SO good to be caught up! We've been praising the Lord all day!

So that's one of the things that was on my mental list, but didn't put it down on my blog. I guess I would put it under the "finish strong" part!

Another thing I want to check off my list is "ink for printer." Well, it still needs ink, but we went out to Wal-mart and bought a new HP Print, Scan, Copy machine.

I had one in college and LOVED it! Plus the ink isn't so expensive! So this one's mine (and Joe's too) while Joe has his art printer for his business!

One more thing I want to say...I had mentioned that our little laptop screen was busted because of a tumble it took when Lincoln yanked on the cord....anyways.... *sigh*....I'm not bitter. Well Joe worked and did some tweaking and now my laptop is usable! The screen doesn't work still, but it's hooked up through the tv and I'm using the tv screen as my monitor. Cool, huh? Except there's more cords. And I'm not mobile...Oh well! :)

So, all these thing aren't REALLY on my list...but I think the Lord knew what REALLY needed to be on my list! Ya know?! I can't wait to start printing and to start saving! Help me keep an eye out for those big deals out there! I'm a newbie, so I'm more than happy to hear what's out there! I am following quite a few blogs as you can see on the left in my blog roll. Some really neat gals out there! Thanks for all the hard work you put into your blogs! :)

Joe's Studio is being featured!

Joe's Studio is being featured over at We Blog Artists where they do a segment every Tuesday called "Tell All Tuesdays!" Head on over there to see what kind of questions they asked Joe!

Thanks Char and Pam for featuring Joe! And congratulations on your win! Which one of you is going to be the lucky one to keep the Giraffe kisses I wonder?!

Joe's been doing some photo shoots at the skate park recently. Here's a neat shot he took of his friend Lance!

Be sure to check out his blog to see new things each week! He's been working so hard! Some day, we'll have a real studio/office for him to hang his work to sell! :)

Photoshoot with Daddy!

Joe went out on Saturday and took some pictures of Lincoln while he went exploring around the yard! It was such a nice day! Finally it's starting to warm up and Lincoln can go outside and play!

My goal for this summer....

I had so much going on in my head last night while I was typing the last post, that I rambled on some more and didn't quite finish because it got pretty late. I haven't been near a real computer for a while and my mind was buzzing. My thoughts were like spaghetti. One thing reminded me of something, then I'd get side tracked...and then side tracked with that...

That's how I feel my blog is. I hope I make sense to who ever reads my blog! I'm learning. Please bear with me as I'm not much of a writer either! I was telling Joe, some day my blog will be something. I think it will be! I'm just going at it very slowly!

Anyways...

Just recently (2 weeks ago) I had a dry spell with twittering as I wasn't feeling well, laptop broke, EVERYONE was going to Blissdom at the Opry Land Hotel...(the coolest/neatest Hotel) I just had to step back and get away from my lil twitter world. It has to happen sometimes.

So I replaced my twitter time with thinking and reading blogs.

Money is REALLY tight, as I'm sure a lot of you are feeling the crunch finances puts on us all; and I was really drawn to these wonderful gals who talk about couponing. I've always been interested, and really want to do this. I feel that this is something I can do to help my family in this time of need! I WANT TO BECOME A COUPON QUEEN!!!! It was SO nice to listen to $5 Dinners at the A Woman Inspired Webinar on how she uses coupons and how she takes on the challenge of making dinner for the family with $5! GOOD wholesome, filling meals!

It's hard though when you travel from state to state. I'm sure it's possible. But when there's a church scheduled for meetings during the week we are so busy everynight. I'd like to have time to do the shopping, be organized and actually ENJOY, not hate saving money let alone the grocery shopping!! (if that makes any sense.) Another thing is that when we are at a church for a week of meetings, they take care of our lunches. So...that's a plus in not having to buy groceries. Each week varies too. So one week I don't have to buy groceries where the next week I will. I also noticed that on the weeks when our lunches were taken care of, we end up eating out for supper. Which I don't like doing a whole lot...

Plus, when I only see my mail every 3 months...(if even) and then I don't even have the money to buy ink for that highly expensive printer...I feel so stuck.

So...with a lot of thinking, reading, and researching during my down time from the laptop and next to nothing twitter, (remember, still have my BB!) here's what's happening:

I created a spiral notebook that is my "Financial Record/coupon" book. Right now I'm keeping track of our finances and receipts of EVERYTHING! Soon, it will also hold my coupons that I'm signing up for online and will be waiting for me at a friends house in Midland, MI! I'm following some awesome blogs that will show me the greatest deals each week. I've been watching, familiarizing myself with them, getting to know the gals, and when the day comes when we move to Midland this spring, I'll be printing away!!!! As for the ink money, I think some of our tax return will help pay for that! :) It just doesn't seem like we can buy it now, but in the long run it would probably SAVE me money to get the stupid ink...ugh...this one is the thorn in the flesh and creating the "stuck" feeling again....gotta get out of that!

OK...on we go!

Goals:
My first and most important goal is to glorify my God in all my actions. Even typing in a blog.
Second is my family. I believe that God has put this burden in me to seek out good deals so that I can help our family survive!
Thridly, maybe I can be of help to others. Maybe I can make someone smile. I know that others have done so for me, so I just want to return the favor.

This blog has started out as a means for me to keep memories for myself. For family members to see what's happening in our lives. It will always be that way. This is a part of my life that I feel I want to add to my blog. Sharing how I've concoured the the world by getting freebies, coupons, and how I fed my family for less! This is part of the creativity in me. I'd like to pour myself in this.

Now...I have to wait...
Finish strong with Bible Revival this Spring
Ink for printer....
Move to Midland...
Get my coupons and freebies in the mail....
Read more blogs...
PRINT AND SHOP!!!! :) (wish me luck!)

If anyone has any tips, help, offers, comments, anything....PLEASE comment or email me!

Twitter-addict!!!

Follow me @bethanyev

I LOVE twitter! I love the new friends I've made, the new blogs I've found, the mommy connections, and the PARTIES!!! I started tweeting in April of '09 and didn't really understand it at first. (As do most) Plus all I really had was twitterberry on my Blackberry and that didn't help a whole lot. But somewhere I found a friend who introduced me to this whole other world of giveaways. I like giveaways. I've won a few thing through blogging and entering giveaways in the blog sphere. But twitter was so much easier and fun!

Then...it happend! I found #ecowed. (heavenly music) I won my first prize at my second twitter party and it was THE GRAND PRIZE!!! I was hooked! (Sibu lotion is W.O.N.D.E.R.F.U.L!!!! and eco-friendly!)

From then on I found Ubertwitter (which is the greatest BB app for tweeting!) and my winnings have multiplied!!! I get so excited when I win, that I call my mom as soon I can!

Plus the mommies and people on twitter are so friendly and fun to chat with during and after the parties! You never leave the room without a new follower. They are also great encouragers!

Well, why am I telling you all this? I don't mean to post "hey look at me! I win stuff!"

Maybe I can be of an encouragement to those new twitterers, the ones who might be on the fence of trying it. I know I was one once. Don't give up. You might be seeing all these people winning things and it bugs you that you can't keep up. Don't worry. We are there to help you! Don't be afraid to ask! Everyone was a newbie before and I know I didn't learn on my own. It was certain people, people I don't even know outside of Twitter! It's fun and give it a try! I'm glad I did!

Here's a list of my favorite hostess's!
Resourceful Mommy
Mom It Forward
The Online Mom
3 Green Angels
MOMeoCHAT
Consumer Queen
The Coupon Cupboard

There's so much more to choose from!

OWOH giveaway!

I know I'm late, but don't worry! I have a winner for the OWOH giveaway!

I was surprised at the amount of comments I received! I'm looking forward to looking through the comments and visiting everyone's blogs!

And the winner is!!!!
Alabama-Texasgal
I will be emailing you, lucky gal!

Thanks for participating and please come back again!

Where have I been??

I am so sorry for not updating this month! Things have been crazy and I've had the worst of luck the last couple of weeks.
If you recall from earlier posts, we are parked at Tabernacle Baptist church in Wilson, NC. During our first week, I had a wonderful time participating at the A Women Inspired Conferences! I learned a lot and met some nice gals and enjoyed listening to the wonderful speakers! So that took up most of my time and decided to use that excuse as to why I didn't post any pictures for the Project 365. I was taking a break... :)
The next week I did not feel well at all. I did something to my back, it did NOT stop raining for a week straight, Flo came to visit, , plus I had this headache that would not go away. So that's my excuse for not posting that week...
By the third week I thought maybe it's time to get out my laptop and post something to tell someone, whoever, that I am alive, I'm still here. But because of the 'nothingness' going on at our house, I had nothing to post about...no pics to post...It's been pretty boring. Joe's been in his make shift 'studio' working, searching for jobs, and looking for contacts, while Lincoln and I are home, playing, eating, and sleeping. That's pretty much it. So I've lost motivation really. And then, with my luck, Lincoln breaks the laptop accidentally. He pulled on the cord that was hanging from the counter top, and down went the laptop. The screen now is shattered inside...bummer. My bad. *sniff*
AND THEN!!!! My blog was hacked. Someone was posting ads and random things. It took a while to figure out the problem, but my wonderful hubby saved my blog! YEAH!!!
So there ya have it. Sorry. I'm back, I think. Just for my sake, I'm going to try and post more and get back to my 365 project. :)