Land of Opportunity

The book that I am reading is set in the mid/late 1890's and a large part is set on Ellis Island with 2 of the main characters being doctors for the Marine Hospital Service.  And this has me thinking about why people immigrated to America.  Many came to escape religious persecution while others came for the opportunity to make a better life for their family. 

One of the first things these immigrants saw was Lady Liberty which gave them hope for the future but now that immigrants are not coming in droves like they did back then Ellis Island is closed and modern day immigrants are not greeted by Lady Liberty. 

Is America still considered the land of opportunity and religious freedom?  We still have the constitutional right to choose our religion of course but do outsiders still think of us as the great land of plenty? Is America still the place foreigners think of when they think of making a better life for their family? 

I have always loved my country but being a military wife had really taught me just how much goes into making this country great.  It has also shown me how much some Americans have forgotten what a great country we live in,  they have forgotten the way people swarmed to this great land looking for hope and a better future.   I think that most American need to go back and study American history and remember the great struggles and amazing men and women that shaped this country into what it is today.

I am American and I am proud of my country.

You get what you pay for.

So people sometimes give me gruff for how much I spend on my kids carseats.  But I am a firm believer in carseat safety and that you get what you pay for.  All of our seats are Britax and we love them.  When I uninstalled David's Britax Frontier because he had an accident I noticed that two plastic sections were separating so I called Britax and in less than a minute I had a live person on the phone who simply requested a pic of the seat and a credit card number for a $1 hold (this was my choice because I wanted the new seat sent to me first so I didn't have to try to find a box to ship the current box back in. but you can opt to send send the damaged seat in first then have the new seat mailed to you with out the credit card hold). 

This is the first time we have ever had an issue with a Britax seat (and we have had 1 infant carrier, 2 marathons and 2 frontiers) and it was such a simple quick process.  She said if they recieved the pic before 11am today (which I called yesterday and sent the pic right after I got off the phone with the rep) that the seat should ship today and that since they were in North Carolina I should have the seat Thursday or Friday.

When you pay for something you are not only paying for the quality of the product but also the quality of the customer service.

They own him for another 4 yrs 10 months

Thats right, the Marine Corps officially owns Clay for another 4 years and 10 months.  He had to do his reenlistment over in California so I wasnt able to be there but he showed me my Atta Girl letter the other night when we were talking on web cam and it is really pretty. The first one wasnt that pretty.  I will have to take a pic of it when he gets home. 

Now I will sit on pins and needles until we find out if we will be moving or staying put. Part of me wants to stay in Beaufort but the other part is ready for a new house and a new town. 


I am soooooo proud of my husband and cant wait for him to come home.  A little over 3 weeks to go (in case you didnt know he is in Twentynine Palms,CA for school).

1 down 1 to go

Potty training,  its the hardest part of being a parent of a young child.  David was a hold out and didnt potty train till he was 3 1/2.  BUT when it finally happened it happened completely.  I make sure I had everything I would need for an entire week so I would not have to leave the house and I took all diapers except nap time and bed time away and he went naked for an entire week then on Saturday we made an experimental trip to the store for a treat.  Two weeks later I made a 5 hour drive by myself with both kids down to my parents house and David managed to go the entire trip with out an accident.  While we were there my mom noticed that when she got up (way earlier than I do) his diaper was still dry but by the time I got up about an hour later it was totally full so we took that night time diaper away as well and voila!  Both day and night trained.  I had tried the whole naked thing with him before but he would just go potty where ever he was and not worry about it so for the sake of our carpets and couches we had to take a step back a few times.

Now we are working on Amelia.  She just turned 2 but she is MUCH more independent than David was.  She has started sitting on the little frog potty (fisher price rain-forest themed potty shaped like a frog) and has not had an accidents when running around with out a diaper and even went on the adult potty today for the first time with the help of one of those inserts so she didn't fall in.  The problem I am faced with is that I can not do the whole not leaving the house for an entire week bit like I did David because now that he is potty trained he goes to an enrichment program at the Air Station CDC from 9-12.  That means I leave the house at twice a day.  And because of the times I am the only one who can take him,  Clay can take him once and a while but only when I have other appointments that I cant get at any other time.  So I now need to find another way to get Amelia potty trained. 

So with me luck as I dive in feet first.

Books

I love to read and thank my mother all the time for giving me that gift.  I am currently working my way through a very large body of work that consists of a 24 book series a 10 book series and 2 trilogies.  I have read the first trilogy and am now on book 24 and still looking for the second trilogy and 5 of the 10 book series.  The Author is Dana Fuller Ross and the series is called Wagons West.  It is a historical fiction (which I love since I LOVE history) that starts out with the first wagon train to leave New York for Oregon and it takes you on a journey of over 3000 miles then you follow the lives of the families up until around the time the arm and torch of the Statue of Liberty is delivered to America.  Some of the historical events include the Mexican War, several gold rushes, the Great Chicago fire, and I think Custers Last Stand is in book 24. 

 I have really enjoyed reading these books and of course since it is still a work of fiction I find myself constantly doing research to see exactly how things happened and their true time line.  I also enjoy learning more about life in the mid to late 1800's.  There is a little romance mixed in but not so much that men would not enjoy the books. 

Hopefully by the time I finish reading this large body of work my mom will have finished the Sookie Stackhouse books so I can start on them next.

What types of books do you enjoy reading?

Saving Money

As a single income military family of 4 we are always looking for new ways to save.  One of the ways we are trying to do this is by breaking down the grocery shopping from one large trip every pay day when the grocery stores are often insanely crowded to once a week when it is just me and Amelia since David is now in preschool in the mornings.  By doing this we are able to make a weekly meal plan based on the current sales and take better advantage of coupons and sales.  I also don't have to try to drag 2 kids around a grocery store so it takes me less time since i am not constantly telling them not to hit, no yelling, leave her toy alone..... you get the idea.  I also am able to go earlier so if I am going to the commissary I can get there and do my shopping during the early bird hour then check out once the open the full checkouts at 10am and get back off the Island before the Family Day crowds get to thick.

My husband was not on board with this idea at first because he was afraid that we would buy groceries the first week of the pay period then spend the rest of our money and not have anything to buy groceries the next week.  So in order to make sure this doesnt happen I allow $100 a week (my goal is to eventually be able to do it for even less) and to take the needed amount out at the beginning of the pay period and put it aside.   Another good thing about this method is it curbs those impulse buys because you have to make sure you have enough money to buy everything you NEED for the next week.

We have only done this for 1 pay period and it has worked so far and hopefully we will get even better at it with time.  We are still new to couponing and still learning the ropes and how to take the best advantage of sales and coupons.   

I would love to hear additional ideas on how to save money.   And if you live in the Beaufort,SC area and are interested in couponing I would love to meet up.

crazy life

Life just seems to go by so fast when you have two young children.   This can be a good thing when your spouse is deployed but mine came home at the end of Feb on emergency leave when his mother's husband passed away.  I was glad to have him home early even though it wasn't under ideal circumstances.

Right now I am stuck at the house for the week trying to force David into potty training.  We started Sunday taking away all diapers, pullups and underwear of any sort during the day (still using diapers at night) and have a potty in the living room and one in his bedroom and so far we only had one accident yesterday while he was sitting at the table for lunch.  I am hoping to reintroduce big boy underwear at the end of the week. 

Then my next challenge will be figuring out how to get Amelia to go on the potty.  She will hold it for several hours if she does not have a diaper on and waits for that nap time and bed time diaper (we cant get her diapers locally so we try to leave her naked as much as possible).  She hasn't figured out how to get down of her bed yet so I cant just leave her with out a diaper at nap time with a potty in her room like I have been with David.  If you have any ideas please leave them in the comment section as I can use all the help I can get on this.

In my last post I mentioned that David would start Basketball at the YMCA,  well that was interesting and it will be a while before we try to do another sport.  He mainly ran around the gym while we were there.  They had 4 teams all in the same gym so there was lots of ciaos and confusion for the younger ones and David still doesnt have the focus needed.  He would usually do ok during the first half which was the  practice but when it came to the second half which is when they had games he was done and just wanted to run around and do his own thing.

I really should get better at keeping this up but some times life just moves a little to fast.  I hope everyone is having a wonderful Tuesday.