We've been enjoying a bit too much so am keeping it low key this weekend.

Tonight we went to a local park for the unveiling of their yellow brick road. We bought a brick last year with the kids' names engraved. They are just starting construction.

It was CROWDED, but they had an awesome spread. We had beef, corn on the cob, salad, hot dogs, etc. After the line thinned out dh went back for seconds. So we made out well. (Couldn't let that food go to waste anyway. I was actually surprised they had enough food, with some to spare).

They also had a cute little puppet show.

That was a good start to our attempt at a no-spend weekend.

BM is with grandma so dh will have to pick him up Sunday, and did buy gas today.

I think somehow I got out of the loop. Grandma always asks to keep the kids way too many days and I always say no. I was so busy with work I just didn't get very involved in the arrangements. Next thing I know BM will be gone about 90 hours. How the heck did that happen?

Oh well, I will try to enjoy the peace.

Next time I will pay more attention.

Of course, if I want him back Saturday, I have to say Friday. She always comes up with an excuse. Dh told me Sunday morning and she told me sunday night. Whatever. Soon enough he starts school and won't have endless days to spend with Grandma. & when the kids are older and she takes them both for a time, I don't think we'll complain.

We'll go through this next weekend with LM though. She's taking him next Friday or something. I should demand him home Saturday, to be on the safe side...

The weekend is my time for my babies. But it is nice to get more one-on-one time with them.

Anyway, tomorrow I will probably go to aerobics and dh has a long volunteer shift.

Sunday we'll probably go swimming and may get a free meal when we pick up BM. Another perk.

Gas usage will be high, but don't plan to spend any cash this weekend.

The credit card closes Sunday night and we have no more money to spend - so why we are heavy on the no-spend weekend. Which is fine. We have been enjoying a bit too much lately.

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We have our new e-mail set up and I put a lot of stuff up on Craigslist that I Was shocked to get NO responses on. I wondered in the back of my head, all along, if something was wrong with my e-mail. But a couple of interested parties did get through (though I made NO sales).

Anyway, my gut was right. Should have trusted the gut.

Anyway, yesterday I forwarded a paypal notification to dh from my ymail account, and happened to tell him over the phone, and he said he never got it. So I sent it again, and to my home e-mail. Never came through.

So dh called AT&T today and turns out the standard setting on the spam filter was high. It was so high that if dh e-mailed people and they wrote back it would go to the spam file (lost in space). !!!!!!!!!!!

Lord knows how many lost Craigslist sales we both had with that crap.

I feel better though. It explains MUCH. Dh uses another e-mail to post on Craigslist but said he generally replies to them using the ATT account. & many never got back to him.

I can't help but wonder how much more money he would have made this last month if his e-mail was actually functioning properly.

& me too!!!!!

I couldn't understand why no one would buy our strollers. I was wondering what the heck we would do with them.

Yeesh.

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As far as insurance, I generally do not shop around for insurance. I have had the same insurance since I was 16, (auto and home) and I have shopped around a couple of times.

I feel strongly there is more to an insurance company than good rates. (For sure). But I also have a strong loyalty to my company because it has always been the cheapest of any company I would consider. (Not that I shop OFTEN, but have a few times).

So I barely even bother anymore. I am one loyal customer.

We actually have State Farm, but they treat their long-time customers with multiple lines, rather well. People always have told me they are so expensive, but they shopping around proves otherwise.

Anyway, but today I received a quote from Mercury mortgage. Not sure how I feel about them on the home front, but have heard good things on the auto front. Dh used to have them, but when we got married, State Farm won on price. We consolidated our insurance.

I got an e-mail from my professional association today that Mercury offered 10% off auto insurance to its members.

What the heck? That's what I thought. Sounded rather promising.

Anyway, so I entered a bunch of information, and after the 10% rate cut they offered me higher auto premiums than we already pay.

Bah.

They also offered a multi-line discount if we added our home. But my State Farm loyalty discount, on top of that, blew them out of the water.

State Farm it is.

In the process, when I was looking up some of the limits on our policies, I noticed our auto insurance is going down again. My car insurance is due in a couple of months and they had already calculated it. 3% discount over last time. Woohoo.

So I did my good duty and shopped around a bit. But you can see why I rarely bother...

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Well, wish us luck, but I think we are DONE with diapers.

LM has been doing amazingly well 24/7. Not that I expected it at all, but both kids just migrated to meeting this milestone at 3. Exactly 3.

LM hasn't soiled a diaper since his birthday 3 weeks ago. So dh told him if he made it through the 31st we would switch him to underwear at bedtime, and take down the safety gate from his doorway. (So he is free to use the potty at night).

He made that milestone today. Took down the gate. IT was a big day for him.

Not that we have been buying much diapers anyway, in recent months. But this is really quite a milestone.

I will be happy if I never see another diaper again.

We had the diaper service so long, at $50/month, that it is just really nice to be rid of that expense. & though we have mostly been using disposables this year, and not spending much more than $20/month, it's just one less thing to buy.

Of course, there are plenty of other things the kids need, and where that money will go. There always is. More food. More education stuff. More dental care. Always something...

But I think officially our lives got a little simpler. Anyone with babies dreams of this day, right? LOL.