Everyone I know is on Facebook. Everyone. And since I’ve maintained a blog for mostly friends and family, I can now simply post on Facebook and reach everyone I want to reach. So, that’s exactly what I’ve been doing for the last month or two and it’s worked beautifully.

Beginning in January, I will be removing my blog and posting on Facebook only. If we’re not Facebook friends but you still want to follow my posts, you can friend me here.

We’ve been in Greenville almost two weeks now, and we are having a ball! Almost every day, I drive down Wade Hampton Boulevard (which is not too far from our home) and just smile at the view of the mountains. And sometimes, when we pass an area that we spent a lot of time in during our trips here from Wilmington, I just get so happy that we actually made it. To top it all off, the boys are loving their new schools and neighborhood, and for the first time in a very long time, I feel like I’m home.

I took the boys to the Taylors library today since they had a teacher workday, and they literally gasped as we rounded the corner to the parking lot. This view is hidden behind the library building, and it’s stunning when you just happen upon it. As a girl that has lived at the beach my entire life, I can’t get enough of the view here!

So, on to Halloween…

It was important for me to get everything unpacked and settled as quickly as possible since living out of boxes just feels icky and is no fun at all, so we unpacked and organized all the important stuff in about 3 days. I hustled! And the next thing we did was decorate for Halloween, which is one of my and the family’s favorite holidays.

There are rats on the cabinets…

Bats in the foyer…

Spiderwebs and skulls in the trees…. (Yes, we decorated before we did some much-needed yard work. It was more fun!)

Pumpkins in the guest bathroom…

Glow-in-the-dark ghosts in the boys bathroom (forgot to get a photo of that one!)…

And a hodge podge of fun stuff going on on the front porch!

Our friends Danielle and Neal are coming to visit for Halloween, and we can’t wait! We’ve already got our costumes all planned out (well, almost all of us!) and are hitting up the thrift stores this weekend to pick up a few odds and ends for them.

We went to Halloween Express last week for ideas and tried on lots of masks. One of the funniest moments of the evening, though, was when Spence got his head stuck in a Homer Simpson mask. Luckily, the boys came to his rescue. Regretfully, I was too busy laughing.

That’s why I love him. He makes me laugh!

So all in all, it’s been an awesome two weeks!

We have the best family and friends! So many people have been praying for Bella and for that, we are so thankful. Thank you all so very, very much.

After meeting with the doctor last week about Bella’s condition, we decided to move forward with the doctor’s suggested regimen which includes testing for cancers and lots of medicines to hopefully suppress her immune system enough so that she will start making red blood cells again. The tests for cancers have not come back yet, but we should know the results soon.

Her condition is truly a race against time. The medications take weeks to months to fully take effect, so it’s a constant battle between her body and the clock.

Still, there’s a ray of hope in all of this. Her body has maintained her blood cell count levels for an entire week which means her body is finally regenerating red blood cells, even if just a tiny bit. The doctor says that if it’s not cancer, if she starts regenerating red blood cells and if she makes it through the next 2-3 months, she could live a normal life. And since she’s young, that means she could be with us for a while to come.

So, please keep those prayers coming! We need them! She’s not out of the woods yet, but I feel like she’s slowly making progress and that is a huge comfort.

Bella’s really ill. She developed anemia, possibly as a result of an immune response to the medication she was on when we adopted her, and her prognosis is not good. We’re losing her, and my heart is broken. My family is grieving like we’d grieve over a family member, as she has truly shown us what a furry family member should be like. It’s only been 3 months since we adopted her and we’re having a hard time imagining life without her.

Spence and I have to go to the vet tomorrow to talk about options, to see if there’s a possibility of a last-ditch effort to save her life, to talk about how it fits into our budget, and to talk about euthanasia.

I cried all day yesterday, and my boys cried so hard last night when we broke the news of her prognosis to them that I wished I could take their little hearts and mend them myself. It hurts so much to see them hurt.

Please send prayers for Bella and prayers for the boys. Please send prayers for our family. This beautiful dog has brought so much joy to our lives these last few months and we’re holding on to the hope that she will somehow recover…

I think I’m in love. I have no idea why it took me so long to learn to shop CVS, but the store and I are now inseparable.

I love things that smell good (thus my love of perfumery) but I don’t splurge on things that smell good for my home because they’re just so expensive! But this week at CVS, I got 10 Airwick refills for my warmers, and CVS paid me $5 to buy them.

That’s $25 worth of beautiful smelly-good goodness for FREE plus money back.

My total OOP (out of pocket) for this shopping trip came to a whopping $4.72 and I received $30 worth of products. Not to mention the fact that I spent less than $100 at the store this week to feed my whole family and saved over 50% on my purchase. Even Spence is amazed!

Which brings me to a bigger point. Have you seen Morgan Spurlock’s 30 Days? It’s an older show but just started streaming on Netflix, so I’ve been catching up on all the episodes. There’s a great episode about minimum wage where Morgan and his fiance walk into the store to buy just a few odds and ends and they pay almost $40 for all of it.

It seems like such a waste, doesn’t it? Spence and I used to be able to do this – walk into a store and come out $40 poorer with two bags in our hands – and we thought it was normal. I’ve been spending about an hour more each week than I normally do couponing (about 2 hours a week total) but we’re saving so much more money. Watching this episode of 30 Days made me realize how much money I’m really saving for the family, whether I take the easy route and just do printable coupons or spend a bit more time and stockpile. Either way, it’s worth the time.

If you haven’t seen this entire episode of 30 Days, you should definitely watch it. It will make you think!

When Hurricane Irene swept through Wilmington, we stayed with our friends Danielle and Neal and since it was super-rainy outside, Danielle and I spent a lot of time talking about couponing. I’ve been couponing for over a year now and I felt like I was pretty good at it but after talking to Danielle, I realized that I’m missing the boat a bit. I’ve been relying on mostly printed coupons, so that means I use two coupons per item – not nearly enough to stockpile.

But stockpiling is where it’s at!

I’ve known how to “buy” coupons for a long while, but I haven’t made a habit of it. And since Wilmington’s newspaper doesn’t include a lot of great coupons, buying them really is the only way to take advantage of the best deals. The idea is, you buy a lot of what is on sale at rock bottom prices and buy enough of that item to live off of until it goes on sale again.

In addition to the stockpiling talk (which I already knew about, but needed a good reminder), Danielle gave me the low-down on CVS. She says, buy everything that is a money-maker or free even if you don’t need it, then buy the stuff you do need at a great price. Since it seems kinda wasteful to buy something that I don’t need, even if it costs me nothing, I asked her why.

So later you can donate or sell it. (Why did I not consider that before??)

She knows a lady that sells all of her freebie items in a yard sale each year and makes $3,000+. That seems pretty extreme but after my first shop, I can see that it’s possible.

Last week, I shopped at CVS and Harris Teeter. I’ve been couponing at Harris Teeter for a while, but CVS is new to me. I already love CVS! I bought all of these items there for $3. And the Carefree panty liners and the chocolate bar made me $2 – as in, I walked out of the store $2 richer, just for buying them. Ca-razy!

Then at Harris Teeter, I stockpiled a few items and bought this beauty.

It was a money-maker too: I made $2.50 just for buying it. And it came with a rebate on the box which can net me another $3.50. That’s a total of $6, just to buy a Febreeze warmer. I use Febreeze (and love it!) but if I didn’t, I would donate or sell it and use that extra $6 towards more groceries (or coffee!).

So now I’m hooked. I really love a good deal and saving money on groceries is a great way to save money for your family overall. If you want to get started, watch this video that a Rebound listener made for us a while back and explore the links on the page.

It’s been a long time coming, but we’re finally doing it! We’re moving to Greenville!

A few years ago, Spence and I started considering a move to another city but we weren’t sure exactly where. We have both lived in Wilmington for over 20 years and we were ready for a new scene, a lower cost of living and new opportunities, and we knew that we wanted to be near the mountains.

We considered Asheville for a long time, even applying for jobs and getting one acceptance, but it never felt right. The economy is Asheville is bad even in an overall good economy and we felt that our family wouldn’t florish there. We very briefly considered the NW US, but that was way too far away from the east coast for us. We wanted to be near our families. We looked at Charlotte, but that didn’t seem right either. Doors were shutting in our face time and time again, and we felt we would never find a place that felt like home.

We started hearing some good things about Greenville, SC and decided to explore the area further. It’s 45 minutes from the mountains, 1 hour from Asheville, 2-1/2 hours from Spence’s family in Atlanta, 5 hours from Wilmington and 8 hours from my mom and grandfather in Florida. It was a sweet spot with a great local economy and a much lower cost of living, so we decided to visit.

When we stepped foot in downtown Greenville, we knew this was a place that we could call home for many years to come. It reminded us a lot of Wilmington, but more of what Wilmington could be in 10-15 years. It was lush, green, beautiful and bike-friendly. We spent a lot of time getting to know the city and completely fell in love. Greenville was perfect.

We prayed a lot about the move. We know God has some great things in store for us and He shut plenty of doors in the other cities we had looked at. We prayed that if He wanted us in Greenville that He would open doors for us and consequently, if it wasn’t meant to be we prayed that He would shut the doors to Greenville quickly.

After months of preparation and many open doors, we finally secured a place this weekend in a great neighborhood in one of the best school districts in the entire state. Because housing is so much cheaper, we’re able to afford more house for our dollar so our new home is roomier and much more comfortable. The boys will have their own rooms, and we won’t feel like we’re living on top of one another all the time. Plus it has all of the things I’ve missed these last few years – a formal dining room, a FROG, a garage, and a backyard.

And the schools… I couldn’t be happier about the schools! The schools that the boys will be in are rated 9-10 stars on GreatSchools.org and are highly sought-after in Greenville. In Wilmington, it seems that school districts are laid out according to the price of housing with the best schools in neighborhoods that we can’t afford. Although the boys are in good schools now, the neighborhood we live in is a sacrifice for that schooling and we’re not happy there. I can’t tell you how excited I am to be moving to a family-friendly neighborhood, full of kids for the boys to make friends with, in an excellent school district.

When we started the Dave Ramsey plan, we knew that we wanted to provide a better life for our family and moving to Greenville is a step in that direction. Not only will we be able to live more comfortably and have new opportunities, but I really feel that this choice will create a better quality of life for the boys, as children and as adults. I’m so happy that three years of searching for a place to call home has finally come to an end. Now, on to the packing…

I’ve made some new discoveries (and a few rediscoveries) online recently, so I thought I’d post a few of my favorite things.

Dear Photograph is an amazing community-driven art blog. “Take a picture of a picture from the past in the present.” I love nostalgia, and there are many photographs I’d love to do this with if I ever make it down to Tampa again one day.

Speaking of nostalgia, Young Me / Now Me is another community-driven art blog where people recreate old photos. Some of them are just okay, but there are some that are REALLY good. I’m trying to talk my brother into recreating this one with me…

If you have nice clothes that the kiddos have outgrown, you can trade them on ThredUp. And if you’re in need of some almost new kids clothes, ThredUp is a great place to purchase them. I bought some back-to-school clothes for my oldest this week, and it came out to be cheaper per piece than the thrift store. Score!

Paperback Swap is a great place to swap books. I’m a library geek myself, but there’s a few things I want to read that my library doesn’t have on their shelves. For those books, I use Paperback Swap. I’ve got a few swaps under my belt, and the books work out to around $2.41 each which is less inexpensive than a 1 cent book on Amazon when you factor in the shipping costs.

If you like to read, GoodReads is incredible. I keep track of my reading list there, as well as connect with authors that I really like.

I started reading Her.meneutics a while ago, and it’s now my favorite way to gain a Christian woman’s perspective on topics being considered and discussed in modern culture. The recent article on Bert and Ernie is a great example of what you’ll find here.

I’ve been reading more style blogs lately, and Girl With Curves is one of my favorites. The name says it all!

And Pinterest, oh Pinterest. I signed up a while back and didn’t use it much, but I’ve been on a real Pinterest kick lately. I love cataloging the items I find on the internet and discovering others’ picks as well, like this farmhouse table that Spence has promised to make for me soon, or this iced coffee recipe that is better than Starbucks (seriously!), or this free Amy Butler bag pattern, or this inspiring graffiti, or… the list goes on and on.

What are your favorite online things?

Our new dog, Bella, has absolutely captured our hearts. I loved Snow and all his quirks, but I love Bella. She’s a true companion: wonderful with the kids, and so loyal and attentive. Since I don’t usually post photos of my children online, I’ve been posting tons of photos of Miss Bella instead.

She’s like my third child. For real.

One of my favorite things about her is that she “talks” to you to get your attention, and it always brings a smile to my face. If she could speak, I wonder what she would be saying when she does this?

In July of last year, our family adopted a dog from a good friend but in the months that followed, we started seeing some fear and aggression issues that seemed to get worse as time went on. We loved him to pieces, but in the last month it had become so bad that he was being a bully to our youngest son, something we wouldn’t tolerate. At the advice of our vet, we took him to see a trainer and after spending two hours with her, she gave us the sad news that he wasn’t a good fit for our family. He was not a dog that should be around children, she said, and if we kept him he would be so fearful that even with training, he was still very likely to bite children. Our children come first, so Snow had to go.

Luckily, she works closely with a no-kill shelter and offered to take Snow in, rehabilitate him, place him in a foster home and then adopt him out to a family more suitable for him. In exchange, we were able to adopt a dog from the shelter that would be a better fit for our family and our trainer suggested three dogs in particular for us that were good with both kids and cats, her top pick a boxer mix named Cheyenne. We viewed Cheyenne on the shelter’s website, and she truly had a face only a mother could love.

Keeping an open mind, we went out to meet the dogs today, taking the advice of our trainer to not choose a dog based on how adorable they were but to instead let a dog pick our family. We met Cheyenne first, and immediately she fit in perfectly. She loved on the boys right away, playing with them and giving them bear hugs. She let them walk her on the leash and followed us around as we looked at other dogs. We knew right away that she was perfect.

After an hour of spending time with our trainer’s three choices, we chose Cheyenne.

We said goodbye to Snow today and adopted a dog that has instantly become part of the family. She’s a little sugar booger and we can’t be more thrilled to have her with us. It was a sad day, but a happy one too. Over the next few weeks, it will be fun to get to know her better as she becomes more integrated with our family.

Since Cheyenne was a new name for her (they weren’t sure what her name was before), we renamed her Bella. And she’s already a Daddy’s girl.

They even kinda look alike, don’t you think?