BIG shopping day!

My mom raised me well....my whole life I'm always looking for a deal. I love sales, coupons, half-off, it just makes my pulse quicken. Some people may call it being frugal, some people would call it cheap, I think it is smart!

Today was The Woodlands Flea Market in Town Center. Because garage sales aren't allowed in The Woodlands, twice a year they have a community flea market where people can buy spots to sell their items. For years mom and I have been going to the flea market together. We've never really gone in search of anything in particular, mostly just deals or things we can use in our classrooms. But we've always said that when I have a baby we have to go because so many people are selling amazing baby gear at LOW prices. There is just SO much to buy for the baby, if people are selling gently used things for less than the store is, I'd have to be crazy to pay full price.

We got there right at 7:00am this morning when they opened the gates. All I can say is I'm exhausted, but we did GREAT!!! Check out the great deals we got!

Fisher Price Bouncer

Retail Price: $54.99 I bought it today for: $25.00

Fisher Price Floor Mat

Retail Price: $65.99 I bought it today for: $30.00

Fisher Price Jumparoo

Retail Price: $89.99 I bought today for $45.00

Fisher Price Swing

Retail Price $139.99 I bought today for $50.00

Total retail value of today's purchases: $350.96

Total amount we spent today: $150.00

That is a savings of $200.96!!!!

Since we were on such a roll, we went ahead and bought the crib and dresser/changing table today. John and I had finally found a set we loved, only to find out it was VERY hard to find in Houston. We found the crib at one store and the dresser at another. I swear, driving around town today my mom and I saw parts of the greater Houston area we didn't know existed. Here are the furniture pieces we bought today.

We had a VERY successful shopping day. After we bought everything we brought it home and took everything apart and cleaned and disenfected every single nook and cranny. All of the stuff looks BRAND NEW! Thanks for the help today mom....I'm exhausted and off to try to take a nap!

Oakley's Surgery Day

Poor baby, Oakley had to go under the knife last week. He's now only part of the man he used to be. He had his "little boy surgery" on Friday morning. When I got home from work on Friday it was so sad, he didn't even get off the couch to greet me at the door. He just laid on the couch all night and cried. It broke my heart, what am I going to do with a baby?!?!

He was pretty good all weekend while we were home about not messing with his stitches, but when he was home alone all day on Monday he must have really gone to town messing with it. So....back to the vet we went Monday night to get the dreaded....CONE!

The poor guy, he's had a rough few days. We don't make him wear the cone when we are home and can keep an eye on him, but he does have to wear it at night and when we are at work. His scar is healing so hopefully its just a day or two more until he can be cone-free again. Thankfully he can still give us lovin' with the cone on.....

Baby McGowan Dr. Appointment #2

We went back to see Dr. Brezeale on September 25th to check on the baby. This was a super quick appointment, I'm thinking most of them will be for a while now. The coolest part of the appointment was getting to hear the baby's heartbeat for the first time. The heartbeat has slowed down from the last appointment, but is still a quick one. At the first appointment the heartbeat was 188 beats per minute. This appointment it was 164 beats per minute. A lot of people are telling me that means it is a girl, others are telling me it means its a boy.

I go back to the doctor again for another regular check up at the end of this month. We have an appointment at the hospital on November 20th for our ultrasound to find out if we're having a girl or a boy. I can't wait to find out so we can start shopping!!

Hurricane IKE!!!

Oh hurricane season......

Actually, living in The Woodlands for as long as I have (22 years) you would think I'd been through more hurricanes. We have actually been very lucky, and living nearly 100 miles off the coast, haven't had to worry too much about storms.

And then there was IKE.

I knew we were in trouble when we got out of school a day early just to prepare for the storm. Then, when I went to the store....the shelves were bare. When I went to the gas station.....there was no gas. Then, I started to get a little nervous!

The storm came in during the night on Friday. I woke up around 2:30am to the sound of what I thought were bombs hitting our roof. Turns out it was tree limbs and pine cones. Our power went out at 6:00am and stayed out for 5 days. Then it was the wind and rain that started to scare me. I love living in The Woodlands....but that was the problem....the WOODS. Our house is surrounded by HUGE pine trees, and boy were those puppies swaying in the wind! I was sure our house was a gonner!

Because John works for The Woodlands he had to go into work at 9:00am Saturday, while the storm was still going full force. Thank God my parents know me well enough to know I was home alone crying and scared because my dad came to rescue me and take me to his house! If he had come any later, I would have been trapped. Our street completely flooded. Here's what our street looked like. Keep in mind, these were taken late Saturday afternoon.....after the storm had passed.

And the backyard......the first picture is what the drainage ditch behind our house USUALLY looks like, then the next pictures are what it looked like after IKE.

We've always talked about having waterfront property someday, we had no idea we could have a lake behind our house here! We ended up being very lucky. We did have some water come in the back doors so we have some wood floors that need to be redone, but compared to what happened to so many in our area, we are counting our lucky stars. The most we had was a lot of debris to clean up.

Thankfully we got power back, and a few more days later we got cable, then internet, and this week we finally got back all of our movie channels. Life is slowly getting back to normal around here. Hopefully hurricane season ends soon!

Bathroom Project----DONE!

Well this bathroom project showed me I am not one of those people that is ever going to "flip" a house. The two weeks that our bathroom was a disaster was enough to drive me crazy. The dust, the dirt, the wallpaper bits that Oakley kept eating.....was almost more than I could handle. I'm still not 100% in love with the bathroom, it looks so empty and bare now after looking at that psyco wallpaper for a year, but its growing on me.

Mom and I retextured the walls and painted them. John and I loved the color so much that we decided to go ahead and do our bedroom the same color....plus, we were never in love with the "dusty rose" our bedroom has been since we moved in. So mom and I added another room to the project and got it all finished up in one long weekend. The floor in the master bathroom, guest bathroom, and laundry room were all tiled as well. I can't believe we left that carpet there for so long. We are LOVING the tile! Below are the finished bathroom pictures...what do you think??

We are back "online"!!!

What a whirlwind the past two weeks have been! We just got our internet back up and running today since Hurricane Ike blew through town. I've got TONS to update on and will be making posts all week. We finished the bathroom remodel, weathered IKE, and had another Dr. appointment. Check back later, I've got pictures to post and lots of info to fill you in on. It feels SO good to be back online!

"Labor" Day Weekend

So apparently my mom and I misunderstood the point of Labor Day Weekend. Instead of resting from all the work we usually do.....we created more work for ourselves by starting quite a project. We spent ALL of Saturday and ALL of Sunday removing not one but two layers of wallpaper from our master bathroom walls. Why did John and I decide to do a bathroom remodel the first weekend after school started instead of during the summer......who knows. I think we both realized if we didn't get it started now, it wasn't ever going to get started. So here are pictures before we started steaming, ripping, tearing, sanding, and spackling......

And here's how our bathroom looks now.......quite the danger zone!

Here's a picture of Oakley checking out a sample tile we bought. He's standing on the carpet (eeww!) that will hopefully be gone soon and replaced by gorgeous tile. We're also replacing the vinyl flooring in the guest bathroom and laundry room with the same tile.

Hopefully this new "look" is temporary. I hope to have paint on the walls this weekend and tile on the floors soon after that! Too bad I'm EXHAUSTED now and have to teach all week!