She works hard for the money

I am the worst blogger ever! This job is just sucking away every second of free time though. As I type, it is 10:06pm and I am just now taking a break. I got home at 6:30, had dinner, playing/bathtime/bedtime with E & Kevin and immediately started working as soon as his head hit the pillow. I have another good hour of work (at the bare minimum) to put in before I get to climb in bed and get a tiny bit of sleep before waking up at 5am to do it all again. I know it won't always be this way and things will change once I'm out of training. It's just so overwhelming right now though. Thank God I have an amazing husband. He's totally been picking up all the slack around here. He's always been great about sharing housework/baby stuff (his momma raised him right!), but now he's doing my share too. And he hasn't complained about it once (for now anyway!). Now, if I could just get him to coupon for me :)

We had a busy, but wonderful weekend with both our families! I have some really great pictures of all of it too, and will be uploading some more posts with them as soon as I can (or as soon as I can talk Kevin into doing it for me!). We had people over Friday to see Candy and Mickey and Baby Jake (who made it to Houston safe and sound) , got to see Bailey play football (or "feetball" as Elliot would say) on Saturday and then went to Aubrie's birthday party Saturday afternoon. I got to escape and have a glass of wine with Andrea on Saturday night (not much better than uninterrupted girl talk with your best friend no matter how old you get). Sunday was spent hanging out with my parents and watching all the kiddos (all 5 of them!!) play. It was hectic, but great. Pictures soon I promise!!

My boy likes to potty all the time, potty all the time...

Elliot is doing awesome on his potty training!! He's had just a few accidents in the last few weeks and he's starting to tell us when he needs to go (rather than us having to ask him a million times a day). He's SO CLOSE to being completely day trained! Yea! The goal was to have him day trained by 2 and we still have two more months so I'm fairly certain he's going to make it. I'm so super proud of him!!!

Sorry for the skimpy posts lately (and lack of comments to you awesome fellow bloggers). I promise I'll get better about it soon. I'm only two days into this new job and it's kicking my butt already! But, I know I'll catch on soon and settle into a rountine. It's really exciting and VERY challenging (which I've needed!). It's a hard transition, but I'm staying motivated by knowing that this job will help change our lives in so many ways.

Good Friends= Good Weekend

Friday was my last day at work. My awesome OU friends came out to celebrate. It was an emotional, but super fun night. I'm so pumped to start a new adventure tomorrow, but sad to not see these people everyday. Thanks to everyone for making this time special for me!
Me & Nici...this girl keeps me sane and made each work day a little
more bearable!

Me & Shawn...one of my very first OU friends :)

Laura, Nici, Anndrea & Me...you will never meet 4 cooler ladies!

Me & my super hot hubby!

Another high point in the weekend was finally meeting baby Jake!! Candy and Mickey are in town on their way to move to Houston and spent Sunday afternoon with us. I was so excited to see them and get to play with the baby!!

Baby Jake...He's such a happy baby!

Elliot, me, and Baby Jake


I'm starting a brand new job tomorrow (wish me luck!) and have no idea how my free time is going to look for awhile. I'll do my best to keep posting regularly (or at least have Kev post for me!). I hope you all had as wonderful of a weekend as I did!

30 things before I'm 30

I guess it's going to be all about momma and daddy for postings today :)

I am saying good-bye to my twenties in just 7 short months (YIKES!). I made a list of 30 things I want to do before I'm 30. Some are silly, some are pretty significant. I'm posting the list here so you can stay on me about getting to cross more things off. The ones highlighted in red are the ones I've done (I've done very few things of these so far!).

30 Things to do Before I’m 30

1. Quit Smoking! This one is pretty self-explanatory…should have never started!
2. Lose 30 pounds…I’m getting there a couple of pounds at a time.
3. Save $1,000…We had a pretty good savings account until medical bills starting eating away
at it. I want just a bare minimum $1,000 that will just sit there in addition to all our other
accounts.
4. Complete Elliot’s Baby Book…I guess I should say start it!
5. Wear a dress…I haven’t worn a dress in years!
6. Reduce debt by 15%...Again, we’re getting there little by little!
7. Change careers
8. Purge all excess belongings
9. Replace towels…kind of silly, but all our towels are old or hand-me-downs. I would like new,
pretty, matching ones!
10. Volunteer for an organization
11. Invest in the stock market
12. Take a trip outside of Oklahoma
13. See a movie in the theater
14. Take Elliot to the zoo
15. Find or start a mom/play group
16. Make a will
17. Start a blog
18. Visit the OKC Memorial
19. Take a family portrait
20. Start a money group
21. Take a yoga/dance class
22. Walk a 5K for a great cause
23. Drink a REALLY expensive or old bottle of wine
24. Color my hair
25. Learn how to apply make-up from a professional
26. Buy 10 new outfits
27. Get over Working Momma guilt
28. Take more pictures & actually do something with them
29. Relax and enjoy motherhood more rather than stressing all the time about
Elliot
30. Be a better friend…I need to make more of an effort to stay in touch with
friends

How my Friday started, or; Look both ways!

Hey, Kevin here. So, a funny thing happened to me this morning. Well, I don't think it's that funny, but you might. I dropped E off at Dottie and Papa's today. They live in an apartment complex that has some covered parking just in front of their door. Now I don't usually park here as these spaces don't actually belong to them. There are two spaces that are open, however. I have no idea why I decided to park here this particular morning, one could call it fate, I guess. Everything is normal...We go inside, say hi to Dottie and Papa and I kiss E goodbye. I get in my car and put it in reverse. I look behind be to see if I'm clear....I am and proceed to back up. I cut the wheel to the right to get into the direction I need to be going......then.....CRUNCH! I stop and think "What the heck did I back into, there's nothing there!". Well, I didn't back into anything. When I cut the wheel my drivers side front fender ran into a support post for the car port. So, I pulled forward and got out of the car to assess the damage.....it's BAD! My fender and bumper will need to be replaced. The good thing is that I can still safely drive the car, but it doesn't look so hot. I guess this is why we have insurance.

My Buddy & Me

I always thought it was strange that E never really had a lovey. He loves his pillow Dottie made him, but other than that, he's never really had a stuffed animal or blanket or anything that he's especially attached to. That's all changed with Ernie! He has a Tickle Me Ernie doll that he just LOVES! Ernie is his new best friend. He sleeps with Ernie, plays with Ernie, even goes potty with Ernie! He has to brush Ernie's teeth every night too. His favorite thing to do with Ernie lately is take him for a ride in the stroller. He'll push him around for as long as I'll let him. Last night while Daddy was mowing, he wanted to take Ernie outside. We loaded him up in the stroller, and E pushed him around the block twice! We got a couple of double takes from the cars that drove by :) After the second time around the block though, he took Ernie out of the stroller and climbed in himself. I guess Ernie wore him out!

He Loves Ernie!

It was raining this day, so he took Ernie for a ride around the

living room!

Just a Swingin'

So, E has the coolest aunts and uncles and cousins in the world! Uncle Scott and Aunt Jen were awesome enough to hand down Erin and Taylor's old swingset to him. He LOVES it! He is outside every single night and plays on the swing and the slide and can't get enough of it. Too much fun! Thanks Uncle Scott, Aunt Jen, Erin, & Taylor!!
Erin & Taylor teaching E how the slide works before it's all
put together

Keeping the watch from his "room" as he likes to call it

Swing me higher, Daddy!

So much fun, Momma!

I can't believe he doesn't need the baby swing anymore...

Makes me proud and sad at the same time :(

Links I Love

I promise not to turn this into a coupon/freebie blog (though I will have to occasionally brag about some of my awesome deals). However, I wanted to share a few links in case this is something you are interested in. These women put me to shame in the coupon/freebie department, but I'm slowing catching up to them!

www.moneysavingmom.com
www.freebies4mom.com
www.consumerqueen.com/forums
www.couponcravings.com

The days are long but the years are short

I think any parent can relate to that quote...E is SO testing our patience right now. He screams "NO!" to everything (even when it's something he really wants), has random fits out of the blue, won't eat and is overall becoming even more stubborn than before (which I didn't think was possible). There are some days that bedtime cannot come fast enough. But, I know in retrospect this time is just going to fly by. I'm going to look back and wonder where it went. We need to remember to cherish these days (even the trying ones). Soon, the two-year old fits will be gone. But, so will the out of the blue kisses, the walks while holding hands, the cuddling. He's already growing up so fast I can't stand it.

Hot Fun in the Summer Time!

These pics aren't the most recent of E, but they are pretty new. The one in his stroller is from his first zoo trip. He was unimpressed with everything except the juice that came in a polar bear sippy cup!

The other pic is of his new favorite hobby! This kiddo loves his sidewalk chalk! Thank goodness it has rained quite often this summer because my patio looks like this everyday!

Bloggity Blog Blog Blog

Welcome to your daily dose of all things Team Goldman related! At least, the plan for now is to update daily. We'll see if I stick to it! This blogging thing is so strange to me. Do people really care about our lives enough to read a blog about them? They just might. I know I read a million different mommy/coupon/personal finance blogs. I am totally interested in the personal lives of these complete strangers. I'm vain enough to think that others will be interested in our lives as well. I guess we'll see! Really, I'm justifying this by telling myself that the grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc...will love to come here and check out all the cute and funny and smart things Elliot is doing. I'll try to post pictures as well. E is going to either love me or hate me for this when he's older!