Falling Apart....

We are not really falling apart even though it feels like our little family is.

It started off last Monday at Nick's softball game where Nick pulled his hamstring and left him with a bummed leg. Even though I like to make fun of him and call him names like gimp, imp, limp and wimp. No really, I would never do that....what kind of wife do you think I am?

As you can see his leg looks terrible and is bruised all over the back side from half way up his thigh to down his calf. It didn't start out this bad but Nick has been trying to play racquetball at the gym during his lunch break still and I think it has made his leg worse. Nick doesn't understand that he needs to rest his leg or maybe he does and he is just stubborn and hard headed and thinks he knows better then the orthopedic. I keep telling him that he is just making it worse if he doesn't rest it. So, now that his knee is now hurting I think he has finally learned that he needs to rest his leg or else he could permanently have a limp if he doesn't let it heal properly. I am sure that Nick will not stay away from racquetball longer than a week.....frustrating dealing with him sometimes!!! You would have thought that if there was one thing that Nick would have learned from his mom it would be to always listen to your wife...........no matter what!!!!

Anyway, on Thursday Davis caught a stomach bug and was up throwing up that night. Never fun....I don't want to complain to much because most of us have been there and it will be like preaching to the choir, am I right? And of course what kind of stomach bug would it be if it didn't make its rounds through the entire family. I was really hoping and praying that I wouldn't get it but that would be to good to be true and of course I got it and then last but not least Nick now has it. I am still sick feeling to my stomach and am still recovering from it. I am just trying to make sure that my body stays hydrated but I wouldn't normally care as much if I wasn't pregnant.

Nick and I have been talking a lot today about how sick free our lives were before we brought our wonderful germ catcher into our lives. We never were sick and never got sick.....man who would have thought that once you have kids you would reminisce on the past of sick free days!!

Now I am going to go and take a shot of mylanta in memory of my sick free days!

Boring or Helpful, you decide!!

I’m always looking for ways to save $20 here or $30 there. In some cases I find ways where I can save the money but then the question is, do I want to or would it be worth it? Sometimes answering the question "is it worth it" can be difficult. I’ll give you the examples of things that I look at and how I come to the final decision.

First thing I’ll do is pull up my budget. I go line by line and look at each expense and try to determine if there is a way to lower the payment. In most cases there is not, but you do have a few where you can. For example cell phone, cable, regular phone and internet, car insurance, home owners and if you have credit cards. So we go and select cable or satellite tv. I could easily lower our bill on this one by $30 or more, question is do I want to. No we don’t. But if we did, we could get rid of 3 cables boxes ($15), HD package ($10), and about 100 channels ($20). Not sure why we decide to keep everything but we do.

On to the next item. Cell phone, if you just started a contract you might not have as many options. Getting a service with more minutes makes better sense to me. You only pay a little more and you can almost double your minutes. Still…..if you don’t need the minutes, down grade plans and save. We want the minutes and recently we actually added another line. With T-Mobile you can purchase a T-Mobile wireless router that you can plug a regular phone into and get unlimited long distance, call waiting, caller id, etc. for $10 extra a month. You need to have high speed internet for this so I was able to cancel our phone line through AT&T. Total it saved us $40. Not bad if you ask me.

Next expense to cut would be car insurance. This is definitely something you should check at least yearly. I do it ever six months. I simply call around and see if I can get it cheaper somewhere else. Our bill was set to go up $15 each month starting in November. I call around and find it $38 cheaper at my previous auto insurer. Not complicated here at all. This will also lower my home owners by roughly $10 a month since this is the same company who provides my home owners insurance.

With credit cards, I’m all about keeping 1 credit card forever. I’ve had my USAA credit card for 10 years. However, if I feel that the interest rate is too high, I’ll transfer my balance over to another card with 0% and then when that time is up, I’ll transfer the balance back if USAA will lower the interest rate. I’ve done this twice. Sometimes the balance is higher and sometimes it’s lower. If it’s high, you can really save yourself some money. They shot up to 13% on me once and I quickly got out of that. When I came back, they dropped it to 5%. So….your savings here is determined by the balance. Hopefully you’re only saving a few bucks a month if anything at all!! That means low balance.

The last two are a bit more complicated. How can you actually make your paycheck bigger? You have your benefits and your taxes. Benefits first! For us, we know that we are having a baby this year and we are counting on next year not needing to go to the hospital that much. A few doctor visits, some drugs, check ups etc. By selecting the same coverage I received this year would be pointless. I can save roughly $150 a month by downgrading my insurance. I’m going from a 90 / 10 policy with a $250 deductible to an 80 / 20 with a $500 deductible. $150 a month is $1800. To figure out which policy you need and would be the best decision, you need to estimate how much in medical bills do you think are likely for you. If you don’t like to risk anything, then forget about it, go with the best insurance. If you are interested in saving a little, then figure out which ones best. First of all, I’m paying $250 more in deductibles so right there my savings each year are now $1800 - $250 = $1550. Now the other way I would knock off from my savings is from all Inpatient and Outpatient stays in a hospital. I’m paying 10% more out of my pocket, to pay out more than $1550 I would have to have more than $15,500 in medical charges while in a hospital (inpatient or outpatient). I don’t think it’s going to happen. In fact, since we’re not getting pregnant again in 2009, I would say we have $0 in hospital charges. So, why not enjoy the extra $1550. Forget about the fact that your benefits are tax exempt and that I’m now paying taxes on that amount. It gets too complicated, plus, it’s not as fun to think about that!! Also, I'm dropping Vision since I have a new pair of glasses and since we get a free vision check up anyways. That's $15 a month right there.

The last thing is taxes. The question you have to ask yourself here is, do you want your money now that you can put towards debt that you are paying 6% on or would you rather the government hold onto it for you so you can pay less on your own debts? My answer is, give it to me now! So…..now all you have to determine is are you paying too much in taxes? The answer to that question for me in 2007 was yes, I was. I do not need to get a $4000 tax return. That means you could’ve been getting $333 a month more. That’s just for federal. If you get a $2000 state return that’s an extra $166. That’s almost $500 more a month!! Why get $6000 back in tax returns when you could have $500 more a month. You could put that towards a house, a car or a credit card!! You have to be familiar with how to do your taxes. Do a mock tax return to figure out how much taxes you will owe for 2009. It’s very simple for us, one income, nothing complicated. Doubt I recognize any other income for 2009. Figure what your taxes will look like for 2009. If it says you will owe $5000 for the full year, then what you need to do is get your federal tax income for each month to equal $416 a month. If you’re currently paying $700, then get the W-4 from Benefits dept. and increase the number of dependants. You can go up to 10 I believe without having to prove it. You might able to go higher?? I don’t know. So mess with the number of dependants until your paycheck has you paying $416 a month. You better make sure you were close on your taxes or you could screw up and pay out a bunch at the end of the year.

Anyway, the past few years I give myself little raises through out the year. It could be a $20 raise or it could be a $400 raise. Starting on the first month of 2009, I will have saved enough to make a monthly payment for a new car. So…..like I said, this could be boring to you or it could be helpful. Just depends on if you like getting extra money!!

Oh yeah, once last trick, call all your places where you pay a bill and ask if you qualify for rebates!! Specifically DirecTv and AT&T! You might surprise yourself!!

101!!

Okay...for my 100th post I thought that I would tell you 100 things about me and my life! Well...that was until Nick beat me to a post so now I have to come up with 101 things instead of 100. I saw this on someone else's blog but now I can't remember who. This should get interesting......because I don't know if I have 101 things to say but I am going to give it a try and don't expect a post for awhile after this one!!

1. I have been married for 6 years to the same husband.....come on that is impressive these days!
2. Nick and I dated for 4 months and then we were engaged
3. We were engaged for a year before we got married...yep we like to do things backwards short courtship and long engagement
4. Nick and I have known each other for 7 1/2 years
5. We have never lived in an apartment
6. We bought a house right before we got married in Phenix City, Al
7. We now live in our second home in ATL
8. I get this feeling that we will be living in this house for awhile!
9. For the first couple of years of marriage we called each other "Babe"....don't laugh I still think it is cute and it slips out still.
10. The best wedding gift was someone who sewed us a his and her towel to clean up after YOU KNOW WHAT......LOL!!
11. I am not lying about that last wedding present
12. And then the person followed us around at our shower and tried telling us what it is used for 13. The only wedding advice that I remember is "fight naked".....to this day every time we fight the clothes come off......just playin'
14. We had a son that was born on our 4 year anniversary
15. I never in a million years thought that I would enjoy being a mom as much as I do!
16. I often wonder how many kids I will have before I will get to the point where I will no longer be baby hungry
17. When I hear a baby crying in a store I get anxiety! No kidding
18. Lately when we are driving in the car I like to do this really obnoxious baby cry. Just trying to get Nick and myself ready for the new baby!
19. I want to be done having kids by the time I am 30....only 4 more years to go!!
20. I was named after my grandpa Jesse, who was an artist in Colorado, and this is really how he made his living!
21. Nick and I are big on family names and I am sure that all of our kids will have some sort of family name in it
22. I love to paint...but I only enjoy painting kids artwork
23. I love country music.....I guess deep down inside I am a country girl!!
24. My favorite TV show right now is The Office
25. I love the mountains and snow....but I hate the cold
26. I would rather be hot then cold
27. I use to cross country ski
28. I use to snowmobile
29. I have never broken a bone
30. I love the outdoors
31. I love to go camping but you can't do much being pregnant or with small kiddos
32. I hope one day to own a log cabin in Montana
33. I am not from the south like most people think but I have lived in the south for 7 years now. 34. I truly miss the West and try not to forget my western roots...you know like "you guys" and "pop" and jello salad.
35. I lived in Hawaii for 5 months
36. My first job was doing coat check at a hotel.....I only got paid tips!
37. I am a lefty, but I when I go bowling, I bowl right handed and when playing baseball I bat right handed
38. My second and third toe is longer than my big toe, someone once told me that when your second toe is longer than your first it is a sign of intelligence and then when I said well what does it mean if your third toe is longer....they just looked at me like I was freak!!
39. I do have a complex of my long finger toes
40. My friends often tease me about if I ever loose my hands that I won't have a problem learning to write and doing things with my finger toes!
41. I hate cooking, I only do it to because I have to eat!
42. I actually enjoy cleaning....I know call me crazy
43. My first car was a Ford Aspire, you know the little bubble cars and the guys that I went to school with picked it up and moved it out of the parking lot as a joke....ha ha very funny I am still laughing about it....hint, there was a lot of sarcasm in that
44. My second car I was forced to learn to drive a stick
45. My Mazda Tribute has been the longest car that I have ever own....almost 4 years and still going strong!
46. I have never gotten a speeding ticket.
47. When I was 16, I was pulled over for speeding and let go with a warning.
48 I have a terrible habit of biting my nails
49. My second bad habit is still interrupting people
50. All scary movies terrify me.....even the really stupid ones where they are jumping out of closets with chainsaws!
51. I hate, hate, hate to stay by myself
52. I love to wear black it is my favorite color
53. I love for Nick to wear blue, it is my favorite color on him
54. My favorite color on Davis is red
55. I love to buy purses, fake, real, monogrammed....you name if it is a purse of some sort I like it!
56. I love to buy shoes too.....
57. When I am not pregnant my favorite drink is Dr.Pepper.
58. Then on days when I don't drink a Dr. Pepper I usually get headaches
59. The only diet drink that I like is Fresca, I hate Diet Coke and wonder why so many woman drink it.
60. I read every night before I go to bed if not then I usually can't fall asleep
61.I love to eat candy....especially the kind that get stuck in your teeth
62. I have had 17 cavities filled and I am not sure what has caused that
63. My favorite candy is laffy taffy
64. I usually always have some sort of candy in my house
65. My dream job would be to own a candy store.....that would be soooo heavenly!
66. Call me nuts but I prefer candy over chocolate
67. Nick once told on me at my doctors appt for eating to much candy and then reached into my purse and pulled out all of this candy for evidence. Can you believe that he ratted out his own wife?
68. I love licorice....I can't resist it.....chocolate, black and red are my favorite. Crackel Barrel sells apple, strawberry and watermelon licorice that I buy that are really good as well!!
69. I am more of a bubbilicious fruity gum type of girl and prefer that over strong minty gum
70. My favorite ice cream is Double Chocolate Fudge Brownie
71. I am naturally attracted to funny people
72. If I had to be honest with myself Nick is really one of the funniest people I know...all joking aside
73. I can't believe I did this but I once told a 5 minute joke at the pulpit when asked to speak at church
74. I am very competitive
75. I hate to lose and when I do I have terrible sportsmanship
76. I hate board games but Nick loves them
77. I hate card games but Nick loves them
78. I like to watch movies but I prefer to watch them at home rather then the theater
79. I am shy when I first meet people and I usually don't know what to say but then you get to know me and probably wish you hadn't
80. I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up
81. I am not a morning person at all and I would rather stay up late and sleep all morning
82. I love bananas, I eat them on toast with cinnamon and sugar, I eat them in my cereal I eat them in smoothies, I smash up bananas and add them to my pancake batter, I love homemade banana bread or banana muffins, my favorite laffy taffy is banana and one of my favorite desserts is homemade banana pudding and I can't forget that I like to eat them by themselves too....Okay, enough about bananas.
83. You would think with how much I like bananas I wouldn't get charlie horses in my legs while I am pregnant.
84. I love smoothies....especially the ones that Nick makes
85. Before Nick and I were married when I would buy something I use to never look at the price tag....Nick cured me of that fast!
86. Now I am super cheap and have a tough time buying a shirt that is over 7 dollars.
87. I am absolutely TERRIBLE with money, that is why Nick is charge of it not me.
88. I paid the bills for 4 years before Nick took over and got the water turned off twice because I forgot to pay it
89. Nick and I have never hired a professional photographer for anything!
90. My favorite holiday is a tie between Halloween and Christmas.
91. I love Halloween because of all the candy and Christmas because it helps remind us the reason for the season.
92. We keep our friends as close to us as our family
93. We love living close to family and friends
94. I love to go on vacation with friends
95. I am sure that we would like to go on vacation with family but we just have never been
96. I love the beach, we go every year usually with friends
97. My favorite vacations have been to New York and Glacier National Park
98. If I had to choose the mountains or the beach.....I would have to go with mountains but only in the summertime!
99. This has been a lot easier then I thought it would be
100. Just more time consuming than anything
101. I never thought that my life would take the turns it has but I wouldn't change it for anything

Hardest 50 Bucks I've ever earned.....

I have one of those cell phones that can connect to your wireless internet from home and you can make calls using your network rather than using a cell phone tower. I've had the phone since May and was under the impression that when I use it, the minutes are free if I'm connected to our home network. Well, this past statement I went over and we were charged $50 extra. I was just about to pay it when I realized those "network" minutes were not being counted and excluded from my anytime minutes. So......I now have a reason to call and complain and get my $50 credited back to me! I was thinking this would be an easy fix but the girl who answered the phone was extremely difficult. I did not request the supervisor until it was obvious she was not going to credit the money. Their reasoning was those minutes from your network are not free minutes. But then my argument changed to the guy who sold me the phone said they were free and therefore I should get the credit for wrong information. Again, nothing we can do for you. By this point I was getting pretty upset. It was obviously their fault and they weren't fixing it. They said I had 60 days to notice this and I told them I had no problems since I got this phone and haven't gone over till now so therefore, no reason to check my statement. Finally I get to the point where I ask for the supervisor but before letting her transfer me I point out that she needs to not take things personally and get rude with me. She's a rep for T-Mobile and if I'm upset with them and she answers the phone, she has to deal with it. She tells me she's done nothing wrong and that I was the one who was rude and that her supervisor has been listening in on the call. I ask if the supervisor heard her tell me that I couldn't speak to the supervisor? I then made it more clear by saying, "remember, you said no when I asked if i talked to your supervisor". Anyway, I'm now talking to the sup. and she's being just as difficult. I even gave the whole paystub example. If your check shows a certain amount that matches the previous months, do you go and make sure that your taxes and benefits are deducting the same amounts? Of course she said yes!! Truth is, I do as well!! But most people don't and this is why I didn't look at the statement, there was no problem with it until now! Finally after going through very rational arguments and her saying there was nothing she could do I begin using the sob story of my wife is pregnant, we have taxes due and I ran a stop light! My voice becomes soft like I am now a defeated father. I even tell a few jokes while still having the defeated father voice. This seems to work every time! Defeated father voice who tries to laugh when times are tough! She then tells me should can do something for me just b/c she's feeling sappy, she can reverse the $50. I had won!! I knew I could do it. I even promised the earlier customer service rep that she doesn't know me and that I WILL get this reversed (the sup had not been contacted by the point and was not listening in yet....thankfully). But I started to think it may take a few days of calls and emails. They were being difficult!! My hat is off to them!!!

Sorry Jess, you'll now of think of 101 things to say about yourself!!

A Little of This and a Little of That!!

Okay...so my crazy, busy, insane week is finally over and YES, I survived it!!! I knew that I would, it would just be a hard week on me. On top of my crazy week we had family that came up and stayed with us all weekend at the last minute, which was awesome to visit with them, but at the same time I felt bad because I was a terrible hostess. I got to bed late most nights and was up early most mornings and was gone most of the day on Saturday for my calling while they were here. So, when Sunday rolled around I just needed to rest, I was completely exhausted and tired.

Also, I managed to squeeze in a movie this past week. I think that my mind needed a break from everything so Nick suggested a movie...so I thought why not!! We watched this movie August Rush on Thursday night, have you seen it? I balwed my eyes out!!!! Not sure if it is the emotions of being pregnant but it is an AWESOME movie! If you haven't watched it you defintely need to see it. I loved it...the best movie I have seen in quite a long time! Nick and I have such different tastes in movie, but Nick liked this movie a lot too!!

Anyway, I am not sure if it was the non-stop week that I had or if it is just my body but I am having those braxton hick contractions like crazy, this exact same thing happened when I was pregnant with Davis and I ended up going to the hospital at 30 weeks and then was put on bed rest for the rest of my pregnancy. And then who would have thought that because I wasn't allowed to do much and as you know it Davis decided not to come and I ended up getting induced! So, this week I am going to definitely be taking it easy because I don't want to go on bed rest again! No, I don't think that I am going into labor or anything like that. I just get so uncomfortable with those contractions! I hate them and I feel like they are stronger this pregnancy or maybe it is that I just can't remember what they felt like with Davis. It is just nice to complain a little bit too!

But, since we are on the baby topic the nursery is finally a project that is getting started TODAY!! I am so excited to start putting the nursery together. We bought and picked out the paint last week and I am sorting through baby clothes from when Davis was a baby. When we get the room some what completed I will post some pictures for all to see!! We also have officially settled on a name for the little guy. His name will be Cole Phillip Bettes. Since, Nick and I are both big on family names and Davis is on Nick's side it was only fair for me to get a family name from my side. Even tough his first name is not a family name like Davis he does have a family middle name. It was really hard to come up with a middle name for Cole since it was a one syllable name. Phillip is my grandpa's name and it is also my brother's middle name as well!! So...grandpa and bro this name is for you!

Enjoy the sweet sound of.....

Enrique as you read this post. Some of you have noticed, we are no longer private. But since we just made this change, you're blog update application that you have will not show when we updated our blog last b/c we're listed under "Private" Blogs. Anyway, just wanted to pass that on.

Also....if you have your computer muted or turned down, take a second to crank up the volume a bit before the song playing is over! You'll be happy you did!

Let me be your hero!!

It started a few days before Jess and I were to travel from West Yellowstone, MT to Columbus, GA. We were doing our last drive from West to Bozeman, MT to do a bit of shopping and see her sister and stuff like that. If you ever did this drive, you know just how beautiful it is, with cliffs, mountains, rivers, animals, etc. It's the perfect drive and as we were making it this day, Jess started to cry b/c of how much she loves Montana (great, I'm making her homesick). As she cried she leaned on my shoulder while I drove and the song, Hero came on by Enrique Iglesias. As she cried on my shoulder, I whispered to her, "let me be your hero" as I had a tear rolling down my cheek. It was a special drive that day. We both just listened to the song and gazed over the beauty Montana provided. So.....the next few weeks go by and the CD that had the song "Hero" was released and we went immediately to buy it. This became our new make out CD. Don't make fun! Why don't you think back for a second and think of all the girls that Enrique has had in his videos (Jennifer Love Hewitt and the Russian Tennis player now in the Nikon commercials). So....it's not gay that we did this. Anyway, each night when I had to leave we would go for a drive to find us a make out spot, usually behind Marry-Belle's where she worked or a church down the street from my house. And then we would hit play on the cd and make out to Hero!! It was awesome!! As soon as the song finished, we would stop long enough to hit the replay button. And when the CD wasn't available, one of us would hum the song while we made out!! Actually....I'm just joking about that part but those were good times!!!

My To Do List for today!!

Give me a break, give me a break.....break me off a piece of that Kit-Kat Bar!! Now that song will be stuck in your head too!!


Eat Breakfast ~ oh...maybe a Kit-Kat

Clean My house

Take a shower and brush my scrubs ~ if I am feeling spunky maybe shave my legs

Finish Putting Up Spooky Halloween Decorations ~ Eeeekkk!!!

Eat a snack ~ oh...maybe a Kit-Kat

Laundry

Get the house ready for Preschool tomorrow

Pick up preschool bin from Connie's

Get ready for Activity Day tomorrow

Finish sewing heating pads for Activity Day Girls

Eat Lunch ~ well....probably not a Kit-Kat....maybe a snickers!!

Go to JoAnn

Call Lazette ~ since I am her slave right now

Drop the Eye Spy Bags off at Dawnelle's for eyelets
Yes, Dawnelle I finished sewing the boy bags ~ I RULE!!!

Put Davis down for a nap

Take a power nap

Go to the grocery store ~ don't forget Davis ~ remember he is taking a nap!

Cook dinner

Clean up dinner

Be nice to Nick ~ yes, I love my husband but being nice doesn't come easy for me!!

Try not to pull out my hair and poke out my eyeballs

Go and watch Nick play softball because hello...I am a supportive wife...aren't you?

Give Davis a bath because I can't remember the last time he has gotten one!

Put Davis to bed

Anyone want to help??? Now let me get off this stupid computer and get to work!