April 29, 2015

Things Are Happening!

March 24, 2015

On my way home from work I picked up a pregnancy test at the corner Walgreens. We've done this a bunch of times before so I told myself this was just the routine and braced myself for another disappointment. Thomas pulled into the driveway just after I did and we puttered around the house a bit. He saw the box of tests and asked about it. No big deal, right?

As soon as I took the test the positive line started to appear. Strong and blue, sure enough. There it was. Something we've waited a long time for. I don't think I really felt anything at that moment. A little shock maybe but really I was pretty calm about it. I've kind of thought I was for a good couple of weeks but I've thought that before and methodically pushed those thoughts away this time too.

I called downstairs to Thomas, "Can you come here for a minute, Thomas?" He came to the bottom of the stairs and inquired what I needed. "Will you just come up here for a second, I need you to look at something." I walked back into the bathroom and emerged trying to hide the smile that would give it away. He looked at what I held, he looked at me, his eyes grew wide and so did his smile. A few tears gathered in the corners of his eyes and that's when they started gathering in mine too. He snapped a few pictures of me and us together. The three of us now. Three. Wow.


There is so much to be done around the house that we just got back to work. Every once in a while there was a pause where I would look at Thomas and mouth, "Whaaaaaaat?!"

We had 5 Guys Burgers for dinner with our roommates and went to the old apartment to clean. We came home and mopped our new floors, moved some furniture around and a friend came to help us patch the hole we tore in the wall attempting to hang curtains (new homes, am I right?)

I called my best friend and told her about our new house. She told me about a horrific trip they'd just taken to Austin with some family. It sounded pretty terrible but a story that will be told for years in their family. The whole time I was just trying to find the words to tell her. She and I have had a pact for years that she would be the first person I called when I found out. She's been the first person I've called when all those tests came up negative too. She's been so patient and encouraging. I took a deep breath, "Do you want to hear something kind of cool?" She replied in the affirmative. "I am... pregnant!" This was met with squeals and tears on both ends of the phone line. Is there anything better than telling your best friend they'll be an auntie soon? I imagine telling my grandma will be similarly satisfying.

I emailed my best friend who is all the way across the globe in Australia. She too has been a sounding board for much disappointment and frustration over the last year. Writing the words felt just as strange as saying them. I used an email chain we've been building back and forth this month about, well, farts frankly. I checked what time it was down under and knew I would probably wake up to an email back from her.

As I fell asleep I didn't really think too much about it. Apparently being pregnant takes a lot of energy and I slipped right into dreamland. I am sure there will be many sleepless nights both before and after the baby is born but that's okay.

This week is definitely one for the Reed Family history books. We bought a house, moved into it, found out we were expecting and are seeing my older brother get married on Friday. Maybe a little overwhelmed but oh, so happy right now!

April 1, 2015

Yesterday I went to the doctor to get a blood test and just confirm that I really am pregnant. This morning I got a call from them and they said I really, really am! About 5-6 weeks along which is exactly what I'd predicted. This is becoming more and more real every day. In some ways I don't think I am as worried or excited or all-consumed by it as I thought I would be. That's nice though, I want to just take things a little at a time and not get too crazy. I don't need to BUY ALL THE THINGS right now or make ALL THE DECISIONS this very minute. It's cool. We're cool. Everything is cool.

But sometimes I feel like this:

Liz Lemon Yay!

happy gif animated GIF

So I guess it's official- Baby Reed (we're calling it Blob for now) is coming in November!

April 21, 2015

Fringing a Blanket

I've talked about how much I detest weaving in the ends of yarn after I finish crocheting a blanket. I just do not have the patience for it. I feel like stripes are sort of my jam right now and that means I usually have way too many ends to even think about weaving in (shudders). 

As I was watching General Conference a few weeks ago I finished up a blanket and decided to add some thick fringe to it's edges to avoid the weaving. I snapped a few pictures of the process and though they might be helpful for someone out there trying to avoid the same fate as me.

Step 1: Tie each of the yarn ends to the one closest to it.


Step 2: do a quick single crochet along the edge of the blanket, pulling the tied colors through the top of each stitch. I usually pull them through all at once after I finish the row of SC. Crocheting this border helps the edge look more finished and gives you something to anchor the fringe tassels to.

Step 3: Cut your fringe. I usually wrap my yarn around a DVD case a bunch of times and then cut along one edge so that I have a whole pile of uniform length yarn pieces. This makes it so there is a lot less trimming in the end.


Step 4: Working from the back side of your blanket, take a small crochet hook and slip it into the stitch where your blanket yarn ends are coming through the line of SC you make in step 2. 


Step 5: Place three strands (or more, depending on how thick you want your fringe) of your pre-cut fringe around the hook and gently pull it through the stitch.


 Step 6: Once you have a loop pulled up, gather the fringe ends and the blanket yarns and pull them through the loop like this:



Pull tight and make sure that the knot is secure.


 ^^This is how your knot should look on the back side of your work^^


 ^^And this is how it will look on the front^^

Step 7: Trim up the edges to a uniform length once all the fringe is attached.


Step 8: Satisfyingly run your hands through the fringe, swish it around and show it to your husband exclaiming, "It's so fluffy and soft!" 


Do you have any strategies to avoiding weaving in ends? Let me know in the comments!

April 9, 2015

5 Things I Won't Miss About Apartment Living

1. The dogs. Now, I don't hate dogs but I am generally not a huge fan of them. I just get nervous around dogs I don't know, they always leave fur on my clothes and they smell- even clean, well groomed dogs. I know there are dog lovers out there who are going to try to convince me otherwise but I will not be swayed.

Our apartment complex is full of dogs. I can hear the two upstairs from us barking all day long, they jump at the door and howl every time someone walks past their door and when the owners take them out they rarely have them leashed and they always come running straight at me. For someone who is nervous about dogs, it's awful! Most of the dog owners in our complex let them do their business right outside the front door all winter. This makes for a disgusting slushy mess. Seriously, everyone has to walk right through poop alley to get into the building! Just take your dog 20 more feet from the door and for the love of Pete pick up it's poo- even in the winter when you think the snow will cover it up. When spring hits, BAM! poo everywhere.

I also don't think it's very fair to have big dogs crammed in an apartment all day. Some of the dogs in our building are pretty good sized (one neighbor had two Great Danes!!) and I think it's got to be terrible for them to be trapped inside all day while their owners are at work. I've seen some cases where I feel like it's very irresponsible and selfish of the owners to put their dogs in that situation.

Not sure if you can tell but this is a big issue for me. I am realllllly looking forward to not having to deal with this any more.

2. Neighbors who leave their stuff all over the place. This wasn't an issue until our new neighbors across the hall moved in. I don't know where all this junk comes from but it's everywhere in the hallways. We asked if we were allowed to keep our bikes in the hallway and were told no by the complex management. Our neighbors however, have stored easy chairs, bookcases, storage boxes, laundry baskets full of random things and their garbage in the hall for days on end. Just the other night I took this picture:


3. Parking. There is never enough of it at our complex. In the winter it's made even worse by the piles of snow that are mounded into some of the spaces. People in our complex also seem to think that they don't need to park properly. I've seen people park right in the middle of two spaces, pull in at almost a 45* angle, park in the handicap spot every single night even though they don't have a placard to do so. We consistently have to park at the far end of the parking lot since there are not enough spaces and, although this is definitely a first world problem, it annoys me to no end.

4. Not being able to grill or have our own outdoor area. Again, this is such a first world problem but we weren't allowed to even store our little gas grill on our small patio let alone use it. The poor thing spent most of the last two years either at the bottom of our storage closet or in the trunk of Thomas' car. And it wasn't in his car because we were taking it somewhere. There was just no more room for it in the closet. The outdoor space we had was a small patio where the ash from our upstairs neighbors' cigarettes dropped and the grass behind our house was constantly covered in cigarette butts. The landscapers did a great job of leaf-blowing dirt, twigs and said cigarette butts onto our patio every week or so.

5. Space. When we moved into our little 2 bed, 2 bath apartment we were so excited to have all this extra space for storage. We have a lot of camping gear and Christmas decorations plus we've been trying to grow our food storage. We don't have a TON of stuff because Thomas and I are very committed to not being hoarders. As mentioned in #4 we couldn't store anything on our patio. We found ourselves having less and less space every day especially when we started renting out our spare bed and bath. Our bikes were very carefully parked next to our bed, food storage was packed under our bed and in the TV console. There was a bag of rice behind our bedroom door for about a year. I kept meaning to move it but there was just nowhere to put it. A lot of our storage was inaccessible which meant that we never used things we should have and if we went through the trouble to dig it out it stayed out. We had leftover Christmas decorations still hanging around when we began packing to move in March.

We've been in our house for a few weeks now and we are loving it! It's been nice to stretch out and really be able to make things our own. We are looking forward to BBQs this summer and lots of other exciting things! We can finally see our entire back yard and although it could use a little TLC it's not covered in dog poop or cigarette butts! Winning!



April 6, 2015

Triple-dip using Shopping Portals for Online Purchases

Up until now, I’ve posted several blog posts focusing on cheap travel and credit. Those posts are probably for a specific group of people that like travel. This post is for anyone--even if you don't like travel. I'm talking about how to get extra cash back or travel points on normal things you buy online already.  This is a triple dip deal! I’ll explain. ***cool over 50% savings story at the end***


Shopping Portals

I’d like to share something, that you may already know about, called “Shopping Portals.” The way it works is that there are websites that will give you a reward for clicking through their website to an online retailer and making a purchase.
Example: Let’s say you wanted to buy a shirt at Macy’s department store that costs $30. Search for “Macys” on Topcashback.com after signing in. It currently offers 8% cash back on purchases at Macy's. Click “Get Cashback Now” and it will take you to macys.com where you can shop and checkout as usual for your $30 shirt. Afterwards—assuming things work smoothly—you’ll get an email saying “You have just earned cashback at Macy’s.” Your cashback will be pending for several weeks—then you can transfer your $2.40 back to your bank account.



Why do shopping portals exist? 

Online retailers give bonuses to other sites for driving web traffic to their sites. This is big money for them and they are willing to give a cut of the $$ away for it. It just happens that these shopping portal sites send some or all of the money they get from the retailer on to the customer as they can make money in other ways too.
There is big competition for this space. Check out all the different cash back and loyalty programs that are trying to get in on this just for macy’s department store.


There are tons of online retailers that participate in this system. The bigger the retailer the more it seems they get in on it: Amazon, Nordstrom, Macy's, Best Buy, Overstock, Ebay, Walmart, Target, Home Depot.

One of my favorite sites to look up cashback information, called cashbackmonitor.com, boasts 10,000+ online retailers internationally and 43 cash back or travel points programs.


Cashbackmonitor.com is how I optimize my return for online shopping expenses. The way you use cashbackmonitor.com is to look up the retailer at which you want to shop and see which of the 43 rewards programs offer the best cash back or miles for your online purchase. When you click through cashbackmonitor you are sent to the shopping portal site and then you can click through to the retailer to shop.

As you many have noticed, I like the chance to get miles and points for travel and this is a great way to do that. I think my favorite rewards program is Chase Ultimate rewards (you get these if you have a Chase credit card, like Freedom, Sapphire Preferred, Ink Plus, Ink Bold, Ink Cash, or a couple others). I like them because you can get cash back or you can transfer the points to a variety of travel programs like United, Hyatt, or Amtrak. Chase has a shopping portal too.



Triple Dipping is super awesome!

Mostly I love this because it gives me a big opportunity to get a triple dip at different online stores. Here’s how: Let’s say there’s a sale for 20% off at Macy’s (which happens monthly it seems). This is dip one, a discount from the retailer itself. But on top of that 20% off you can get an additional 8% off by going through the shopping portal (dip two) and another 2% back using a no-annual-fee cash back credit card like Citi double cash or Fidelity rewards card (dip three).

In the end you could be getting about 30% off! And all this while other people are just getting the 20% off and some people are even paying full price. The savings seems to amplify on larger purchases too.

Here’s a real-life example from this past week. I found 2 pieces of furniture on a design site called Dot & Bo and cool a 10% discount there! When I had settled on the items I wanted to order, I decided to search the interwebs to see if there was cheaper price from any other online retailers . After finding the exact same items on Overstock.com for a cheaper starting price I used these tips to get an even deeper discount. I used a discount coupon Overstock had emailed me, a shopping portal and I choose the right credit card to reward the purchase, here’s how the numbers worked out:



That’s a 54% savings on the price I was willing to pay at first for these two furniture items!
Explanation: On Overstock, the exact items were $350 cheaper than Dot & Bo. My Chase Freedom card earned 5 Chase Ultimate Rewards points per dollar at Overstock. Shopping Portal earned 4 American Airlines AAdvantage Miles per dollar and I earned a shopping portal bonus of 2250 AA miles as this brought me over $700 at Overstock. Overstock rewards gives you 5% back to use at Overstock.com but costs 14.95 for a year- the savings were well worth that cost.


Isn't the Dr. pretty great at this stuff?? He's got me using shopping portals for everything I buy online now- clothes, beauty products, home and everyday items. There are usually better sales with online retailers and a wider selection of items at the stores I love not to mention online shopping is so convenient!  Please leave comments or questions below and I will make sure the Dr. is in to answer them!

April 3, 2015

Buying a House {Our House!}

These are my thoughts from the past two months as we went through the process of buying our house. It was one heck of a ride, that's for sure!

January 28, 2015


We are putting an offer in on a house today.

That seems so surreal. I don't know if I even really know what that means. I think the more I try to write about it or think about it the more my head will begin to explode. In some ways I know that it's a huge commitment and in some ways I don't really think anything of it. Maybe it's just the right time and that's why I feel so calm about it. Or maybe it's a horrible, massive idea and I just haven't thought about it enough. I feel like I'm ready to have a little place of my own.

And this place would be perfect. We found a cape style house that has everything we need. First of all, it's not a total dump like many of the houses we've seen on our house search. It's been renovated from top to bottom and they did a great job of it. Thomas can actually stand up all the way in the shower. You'd be surprised at how many places that isn't possible. He can also stand up straight in the basement which is clean and well maintained. The kitchen is beautiful with new cabinets and appliances. The hardwood floors look great and there are useable bedrooms and bathrooms. Oh, it makes my heart sing!

The market is so crazy here though. They are having an open house for it on Sunday but will accept offers before then. I just really hope they like us and want to sell it to us even though we might not be able to offer them the highest price ever. I hope some jerk doesn't come in at the last minute and offer to pay $50k over asking in cash. That happens around here regularly. It's a little frustrating.
----
I just signed the first papers to put in an offer on that house. I am freaking out a little! But there's a huge smile on my face! I can't wait to see what happens!

January 30, 2015


When we were on the plane about to take off for Florida we got an email from our realtor, Rebecca telling us that the sellers were wanting us to come up a little bit on our offer. We had discussed what our max budget was for buying a house overall and again talked about what our target price would be for this house in particular. We decided to go back to the seller with something between what we had originally offered and where they wanted us to go. We were frantically talking to Rebecca on the phone while the flight attendants gave instructions to shut our phones off. It was a long flight waiting to hear what they thought of our offer.


We didn't end up hearing back until the next morning just before we left to go to the Ft. Lauderdale Temple. We spent a little while doing initiatories and really pondering our options. In the end there were a few thoughts that made an impact on us. The one that crossed my mind the most clearly was this: is this a house that we can make into a temple for our family? Is this somewhere we can come to feel at home and that the spirit can dwell?


We sat in the car outside of our friends' apartment and talked over our options and the money and how we felt about the house. We'd done so much work figuring the numbers in advance of even looking at houses that in the end we just had to listen to our guts. There was an overwhelming sense of calm that permeated our conversation and in the end it just seemed like the right thing to do.

It was a surreal experience to call up our realtor and tell her that we wanted to get this house. She was excited for us and so were we!

This is where we were when we officially decided to buy our house.
In a Mustang convertible outside our friends' apartment in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.


February 12, 2015


After waiting all week for the sellers to sign the P&S (they were supposed to have it signed on Monday the 9th) we finally got word that they got it done! I feel like it's been such a long process and I just keep thinking about how easily everything has come together for us. We found a house in a neighborhood that couldn't be more perfect for us, a house that is beautiful and just what we were looking for. I can't believe how quickly it's gone from thinking we should maybe look at houses to actually buying one!


March 19, 2015


The day we closed on our house! I can hardly believe it's really ours! Well, we owe the bank a ton of money for it but, still. We get to do whatever we want with the place! It's ours! I don't think it's hit me yet and probably won't for a long time but so far I like the feeling.



It's been a long month and I feel like we've been chasing our tails on more than one occasion. We've had so many things to get together and a seemingly endless list of things over which to worry. I have to admit that there were some days when I thought it would never happen. It felt like we would get to the end of March and would be stacking our stuff in a storage unit and sleeping in a hotel. I am so glad that didn't happen! I am so glad our amazing Realtor fought through all the craziness for us, she is a miracle worker, no doubt.

The first thing we did after leaving the closing table was drive straight to 12 Hamilton Road. Thomas gave me a piggyback ride across the threshold and around the main floor. Our realtor was there and she took a picture of us on the front steps. Is this even real life!? Do we really live here now!?



April 2, 2015

Babies & Blankies

I took a few art classes in high school and tried to learn watercolor and oil painting. I could never get my hands to create what was in my brain. I ended up with some pretty awful looking paintings. Crochet however, is definitely my medium. I love finding a pattern, designing my own colorway, sourcing the right materials and creating something from my imagination. It's so satisfying to see your plans take shape and more often than not what comes off my hook is better than I planned.

One of the things I love most about crocheting is giving my blankets away. I feel like they are something I put my heart into so I love when I get to see someone else enjoy my hard work. I love, love, love it when mamas send me pictures of their little ones snuggled up in something I have made. I always plan blankets with a specific baby in mind but sometimes I start a blanket for one person and by the end it's for someone else completely. The whole time I am working away I keep my mind on that new little one and their parents. 

Once I finish a blanket I wrap and box it up with a little post card note and send it off. I have been collecting pictures of some of the recipients of my blankets for a while now and I just love to go through them and see their cute little faces! This will definitely make your Wednesday more happy, just look at all of these squishy little people!


Bennett in Chevrons. Look at that extra chin!
Amelia with Berry & Aqua shells. I love this blanket so much I have made it twice!

Allie in Mermaid Harlequin Stitch- "Big Sister" to the Berry & Aqua Shells blanket
My niece Gwen in Jewel-toned Larksfoot. Her older sister Sadie has since adopted this blanket and loved it ragged.

Mom wrote: This girl is teething like crazy and has been quite fussy, unless she has this blanket. It's the only thing that has soothed her at all today. Girly Dots and Dashes Here.


Gwen with her maroon and white larksfoot lovie

Edison and Ezra with their neon shells and chevrons


Scarlet with her Granny Stripes and a bear hood I made for her this winter.


Jakeroo loves sticking his fingers through his Harlequin lovie

Baby Crowns. I can't even. I die. Cuteness overload. Heart explodes.




And this little chunk, my cousin Eli's newest baby Ethan loved the neon Brick Stitch blanket!

April 1, 2015

Alligators in the Everglades

So we are going back about two months now. Buying a house has been taking up pretty much all of my extra time and brain power which has left this space pretty sparse. Since this blog is pretty much my excuse for not writing in my journal, I am taking the time to go back and actually record things that have happened in the past couple months. It's all about that guilt relief folks.

I wrote about the first part of our mid-winter trip to Florida back here and this is the second part of that little vacation. We spent the last two nights with our friends, the Beans, in Ft. Lauderdale. We watched as the Seahawks dramatically lost the Superbowl and ate lots of amazing food thanks to Whitney and Kirk. (pictures way at the bottom of this post)

The following day we went on the most awesome airboat tour in the everglades. I was completely amazed at how flat it was and how many alligators we saw just feet from our little boat. It was nuts.


This was one of the airboats we rode on. You can see how shallow the boat is. There is absolutely nothing between you and those creatures. If you look closely in some of the pictures below you can see how fast we were zooming along the water, sawgrass whipping by left and right!






B really was excited to be there although her expression says otherwise


After zipping over the water for a couple of minutes we found the first alligator.




We scooted around to another part of the glade and saw another two lurking just beneath the water. The boat captain said they normally see one, maybe two on each trip but we were pretty lucky to see 5 in all.






Two at once!


This particular airboat company also runs an animal sanctuary for injured reptiles and other native animals. We got to go see a variety of scaly things which wasn't my very favorite part of the day. Reptiles freak me out a little bit.



There were baby alligators that you could hold but I was not going to do that! Are you kidding me?! Thomas held the little guy and I touched it with one finger. That was more than enough. I felt very brave.



That night we pulled out a few games- we always play games with the Bean's. I don't recall what we were playing but it was probably the hardest I have laughed in a long, long time.

I love this picture of Thomas trying to keep it together.



And as promised a few pictures of the Super Bowl treats we had- Blueberry Mojito's, Fruit, Football strawberries, pulled chicken, Chili's queso dip, fresh pico de gallo and of course Skittles in honor of Marchon Lynch.





I have to say that I love this little tradition we have of going to Florida in the middle of the winter. It's just too snowy and cold here to stay sane for 6 months without seeing the sun at least a little bit. A huge thanks to the Whitney and Kirk and their little girls for letting us crash at their house!
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