IKEA!

This is what happened: 

1. "Found" some money; i.e., opened a bank statement from an old account that I had forgotten about

2. Took advantage of Chandler's Saturday off and my mom and stepdad's pre-Christmas offer to babysit Waverly for an evening, overnight, day, or whatever we wanted

5. Shopped at IKEA for 2 1/2 hours

6. Dinner at Max & Erma's 

Is this not the coolest lamp ever?? 

We also purchased the end table it is sitting on for $8!

FINALLY something to keep Waverly's toys off of the floor!

And.. I'm a sucker for couch pillows. 

Kind of weird, I understand, but aren't they too cute!

We got a few more things and after three years of marriage, our house looks like we live in it! With Waverly's birthday party quickly approaching, I'm feeling the pressure to get our house up to speed. 

So far so good!

Who's That?

At one time, Chandler and I were collectively "Mama", then for a short time we were collectively "Gaga" ("Dada", Short a, not like Lady Gaga). Now she can identify each of us in a photo; Mama and Gaga.

What cracks me up the most about these videos is how intent Waverly is to do her "work" on the computer. It's serious business.

God is So Good!

This past week, we finally mailed our support letters. But before we even sent them out we started receiving money for our trip. Without disclosing names or totals, I'll say that Chandler and I have AMAZING friends and family. We're halfway there!

Oh, and the check for my passport cleared our account this week, so I'm expecting it to be in pretty soon!

Be Encouraged.

Last Friday, the 14th, Chandler and I did our bi-weekly grocery shopping. I know, I know, I said I was going to go every week to capitalize on the weekly deals, but that just didn't work for me. So we're going bi-weekly, spending only a portion of our grocery budget and saving some for the next week in case there are super great deals. Okay, so on the 14th we spent about $60 and I have two weeks worth of meals. Keep in mind, two weeks for us is like 5 or 6 meals because of Chandler's work schedule.

Last night we went back to the store to capitalize on a sweet $10/10 deal and pick up a few other items. Because of all my coupon collecting, I got 10 tubes of toothpaste for $3. Coupled with a coupon for another item, our bill total plunged from $37 to $14.

74 dollars for two weeks worth of groceries out of our $120 grocery budget.

If I can do it, you can do it. Be encouraged.

I'll stop blogging about coupons one day. Maybe. It's just so awesome.

Check it out!

If you haven't noticed, I added a page header called "Malawi Bound". It's a second blog.
Check. It. Out.
Follow. It.

Passport, Done!

Maybe you didn't know this, but if you go on an international honeymoon right after your wedding, you use a passport in your maiden name because you haven't legally changed your name. If you renew your passport within the first year of marriage, it's free. If you wait, like we did, it's $110. Yep. Would've been nice to know 3 years ago, so I'm enlightening all of the newlyweds and ticking off all of those who procrastinate. 

Oh. And I can't find our original marriage license. Chandler can attest to this: I am very careful about keeping and organizing legal paperwork, receipts, tax information, and even product manuals. But for some reason, the marriage license has eluded my grip. Argh. Another lesson learned: For $5, you can get a copy of your marriage license and so can anyone else... it's public domain. Sweet.

So, 115 unnecessary dollars (a heart attack for a penny pincher) later. Oh, and $15 for the new passport photos (that's unavoidable). My passport will be like new in, hopefully, just a couple of weeks.

10 Weeks and 4 Days

A couple of months ago, Chandler received an email from our Mission and Community Outreach Pastor, Larry, asking if we would be interested in going to Malawi, Africa in March. Chandler shared the email with me and we started praying, asking the Lord if this was what He wanted us to do. Very quickly it became crystal clear that we needed to go on this trip.

As some may know, Chandler and I have been called to career missions in Africa. Chandler is currently studying for his Master's of Divinity with a Focus in International Church Planting at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville. Half of his studies include a three year apprenticeship in Africa. Once that is complete, we will come home and be reassigned for career missions. Currently, he is about two semesters away from completing his campus work and we are in the early stages of applications and interviews with the International Mission Board.

For years, we have been looking for an opportunity to go to Africa on a short-term mission trip. Chandler spent parts of two summers in Kenya in 2005 and 2006; I, however, have only been to Paris on a short-term mission trip and, seeing as how we'll be living in Africa, it became crucial that I get to Africa for at least a short amount of time beforehand. Unfortunately, no opportunity ever presented itself until now.

Of course I understand that everything occurs in God's timing, but that doesn't mean it's always convenient for us. To be incredibly transparent, I don't want to leave Waverly for ten days. It makes me sick to my stomach just thinking about it. I wish this opportunity had come before she came along, but like I said, this is God's timing. I'm not worried, in the least, about her being taken care of, but fellow moms understand my pain.

Speaking of timing, shortly after the first email, Chandler received an email from his new missions advisor; his original advisor had retired. This was not positive news for us simply because we have been working with the previous advisor through the first step of the appointment process; on the other hand, we're only a quarter of the way in, thankfully we're not further and having to adjust to a new advisor. In this same email, we learned that the IMB would be cutting back on the number of missionaries they would be sending and with these cutbacks, they will be looking for three very specific qualities: 1. Active evangelism lifestyle, meaning the couple lives a lifestyle of actively sharing the Gospel and making disciples; 2. Current overseas missions experience...; and 3. Active leadership/discipleship, meaning the couple is serving in leadership positions to disciple other believers.

Do you see where this is going? Roughly a year before we take our family overseas in obedience to God's will for our lives, we will have current overseas missions experience, I will experience Africa, we will exercise obedience on a smaller scale choosing to do His will knowing that we will be separated from Waverly for a short period of time, and we will be building relationships with career missionaries already in Africa.

We are beyond excited about the actual trip. We absolutely cannot wait to see what the Lord has in store for our team and for those we will meet in Malawi. But we have quite a bit of work in front of us to prepare for this trip:
1. I have to update my passport with my married name. This requires time and money, so we pray that the renewal process will be quick and without stress.
2. We have to raise $3,000. Thankfully, half of the trip is taken care of; however, it is hard to ask for money right after the holidays and right before Waverly's first birthday.
3. We have to write a will. Now, I absolutely am not looking forward to this part of the preparation. I can't stand the thought of preparing for the worst and entrusting Waverly to whomever we decide. But it has to be done.
4. We have to work out arrangements for Waverly also since she will be staying here. Because she's not in daycare, it'll have to be someone who is able to stay home with her during the week. Fortunately, our parents are willing to help out, even taking off of work. We're doing our best to make it as easy as possible on our parents because they are willing to sacrifice to make sure Waverly is taken care of. Our parents are amazing.

I started this second blog to document every step of this trip, from beginning to end. I want to keep a record of not only the process and the journey, but my thoughts and feelings along the way. Stay tuned!

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Matthew 28: 18-20

Waverly Signs

For the past couple of weeks, Chandler and I have been teaching Waverly simple ASL signs. She can sign "please", "finished", and "eat" when asked, but has yet to communicate without our prompting. I've heard that she should be capable of communicating by twelve months.

Of course it is to our advantage that Chandler's mom is an interpreter. :)

Oh! She's eating paper! Gotta run!

Extreme Couponing

If you need motivation to "coupon", you need to watch "Extreme Couponing" on TLC, Saturday, January 15 at 6:00 pm. (You're welcome, TLC)

Seriously, it's amazing.

I've been couponing for a few months now. I have a small, expandable folder divided by month. Every week, I acquire two Sunday newspapers and cut all of the coupons out. I keep what I will use and file the coupons by expiration date, then I pass the rest around to friends and to my mom. Our budget for the grocery is $120 every two weeks. On Friday, before shopping, I spend a few hours organizing coupons and writing out the grocery list. I plan two weeks of meals (about 6-8 meals because Chandler works late some nights which become leftover nights) and we head to the store on pay day to get it out of the way.

Initially, I was happy to save 10 or 20 dollars, but once I got into the flow of couponing, I began saving 50 to 60 dollars, keeping us spot on with our budget.

Well, the holidays came and we all got sick and I just got lazy; my coupon stash dwindled and I didn't really care to put the effort into it. I didn't even plan the dinner menu.

Last Friday, we took our bi-weekly grocery shopping trip. I had noticed in the paper that Kroger was having a "Buy 4 items, save $4" type sale and I decided to capitalize on it. When we left the store, we had spent $138, mostly on household items and with very little food. I was STRESSED to the max, to say the least; we had no food, no money in the budget, and I would have to go to the store again this week to actually buy food.

This past Tuesday evening, Chandler and I were channel surfing and came across "Extreme Couponing" on TLC. For the whole hour, my jaw sat on the floor. These people were saving OVER HUNDREDS of dollars at the grocery!! Their initial total would be over $1,000 and with their coupons and deal hunting, they were spending pocket change. I'm not kidding. That's the closest I've ever come to having a heart attack.

That night, I laid in bed forever thinking of my strategy for being an extreme coupon-er. The very next day, yesterday, to be exact, Chandler bought me a 3-ring binger (green!) and some clear, baseball card binder pages. We signed up to receive two Sunday newspapers a week and I will rustle up a few others each week. I organized my binder by the layout of the Kroger on Boston Road and started organizing!

We will continue to keep our bi-weekly grocery bill at $120; however, instead of shopping bi-weekly, I will shop once a week, that way, I can take advantage of Kroger's WEEKLY deals and plan my meals based on the sales.

Two valuable pieces of information that I learned about couponing... 1. Kroger automatically doubles any coupon up to $.50, so a $.50 coupon is really worth $1.00. Ey? Ey?? Pretty sweet. And 2. I can use a coupon for each of the same item. For example, Kroger is famous for their 10/$10 sales, making each item $1. If hand soap happens to be part of the 10/$10 sale that week, I can use 10 $.50 coupons, which double!, and get 10 hand soaps for free. Why would I ever need 10 hand soaps at one time, you ask? The extreme coupon-ers call it "stockpiling". I'll have extra and shoot, if it's free, why not?!?

Go ahead, you can think I'm a nerd or weird, but when you start saving hundreds of dollars because of coupons, you'll thank me.