Ripley Update

Ripley will be 18 months old on Oct. 15th, she's a toddler now! We no longer have a "baby" :( Despite being sad she is growing so fast, she is becoming more and more fun! She got a late start on walking, but is managing to get around quite well now. No more crawling. And she is starting to talk more too. Still does a ton of babble which sounds like a completely different language and is fun to imitate, but she's starting to pick up more sounds and words and is FINALLY saying Momma, which took forever, unlike Dadda.

Speaking of Dadda, she is so in love with him, its adorable to watch. How excited she gets when he comes home from work and how often she just wants him to hold her and how she loves to give him hugs & kisses on a regular. Totally cute. She's defintiely becoming a Daddy's girl, which I'm actually OK with. We get to spend so much time together, its nice to see her having such a strong bond with Matt too.

So what else? She's in a music class now, which involves a lot of singing, some movement, playing with instruments, etc...she loves it. And we've become pretty involved with the MOMS club I joined, which is helping us stay busy throughout the week. We do anyhthing from playdates at people's homes, to library visits to hanging at a park. It's been such a great way for us to meet other stay at home moms and children for Ripley to be around. So things are good. Here she is below playing in the grocery store at the library. Doesn't she look so big in these pics!?

Maryland, an expensive place to live!

Ok, time to vent. Why is Maryland so expensive? From utilities, to food, to registering your car, it's all so expensive. A driver's license costs $45.00. Matt had to pay $90 since he drives a car and a motorcycle. Then you have to pay to get your car inspected, which costs 59-79, depending on where you take it. And to get my Maryland plates, it cost me $278! Man, does all of that add up!

We got spoiled living in Austin, that's for sure. It's a lot more affordable than East Cost livin, plus NO STATE TAX, which was also the case in FL, so when you go back to paying state tax, it hurts a bit. Oh well, that's my main complaint. Otherwise, we really like the area we're in. It's pretty, very family friendly and we've met a lot of great people so far. So I guess things could be worse : )

Even more GREEN...

After buying recycle able grocery bags, I started to get the "itch", the green itch! I decided I wanted to become more educated in this whole going green campaign you see every where. So what did I do? I bought a book appropriately titled "The Green Book". Easy enough, right? Well, it turns out, it IS pretty easy. To go green, I mean. This book clues you in to little things you can do in your everyday life to make it better for the environment. Our environment now and our environment for our kids, their kids, and so on.

So you think I'm a tree hugger now, right? Well, no I'm not. To tell you the truth, I haven't even started to recycle yet at our home (I know, I know), but I'm getting the info I need and bins, etc....so hopefully soon we'll be in recycle mode. There are other things I'm doing and since they're so easy, I thought I would share a few with you:

1) Turn off the water while you brush your teeth.
2) Don't ask for ATM receipts.
3) Take shorter showers.
4) Unplug cell phone chargers once phone is charged.
5) Recycle.

There are a ton others, but I won't go on and on and on....so check out the book (or any green book for that matter) and start making a change. Even if they're small little changes, cause they make a difference (wow, can I be any cheesier?).

Our House is SOLD!!!

Well, I'm excited to report....we finally sold our house in Florida!!!! It only took us 11 months. A house that is in great condition, move-in ready, professionally painted, in a good neighborhood, with a bigger lot than most of the other homes, took us 11 months to sell. What a pain! So stressful dealing with the banks and all the damn paperwork and collection calls, not to mention paying for utilities and the yard to be kept up for a house we don't even live in. As you can imagine, it was a nightmare.

So were obviously super happy and feel like a weight has been lifted from our shoulders, but unfortunately the entire weight hasn't been lifted just yet. We still owe the 2nd mortgage company the remaining portion of their loan. So now we have to deal with that part of this mess, but at least we're moving in the right direction.
Woo-hoo!!!!!!!!!!