I was unsure where to begin our journey and someone made the recommendation that I should begin with how we became a family of 8! I thought about it and this made perfect sense… so catch up with our lives HERE – before you start following our DAILY BLOG!
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Why Read My Blog??
So, I am sure you are sitting there wondering why you should read my blog… it is simple, I may be able to help you… Like you, I am a mom in a recession. Because of the horrible economy, my family made a hard decision. We all left our homes in Maryland to start a home together in Texas. By doing this we save money on two mortgages, bills, plus we are around to help each other with our daily lives. It is nice to have so many hands on deck, but it is hard as well. Cooking and cleaning for a family of eight gets very expensive, so we pinch pennies where ever we can. I also started working from home as an Independent Educational Consultant with Usborne Books & More and while trying to advertise for my business, I found all of these great sites for FREE stuff and coupons. I was amazed. The more I looked the more I found and I realized that I could save even more by following up on these things… so, after a couple months of this, I have decided to blog MY way through this horrible economy and hopefully help others survive on pennies:) At this point this page is still very new, but hopefully it will be up and running soon with My Daily Adventures, Work from Home Opportunities, Product Reviews, Giveaways, and more… Enjoy!
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The Story of Us!
The story begins with the meeting of two souls. Brian and I met many, many years ago through a friend. My friend Shawn and I were going to see a movie with Brian, his daughter and nephew. You know, I do not even think he said hello to me when we met. He had this vibe of, I don’t care who you are, and I want nothing to do with you. We spoke all of three words to each other and that was that. I was okay with never seeing him again, since between you and me, I really thought he was a conceited arse of a man. A couple years later I went to a bar with some friends. While hanging out I noticed this man staring at me, nonstop. He looked familiar but I could not place it. I was enthralled by his look though… I could tell that he worked out a lot and man, I really wanted to just touch his pecks and biceps too feel how strong he was… so, of course, I smiled back a couple times and finally asked a friend who he was… When she told me, I was SHOCKED! Me being the upfront person I am, I walked right up to him and asked him why he was staring at me. He said, “Because I think you are beautiful!” I just about fell over… did he not remember who I was? Did he not remember our meeting a few years before? Turns out he knew exactly who I was and did not remember being rude. Anyways, I spoke to him for a few minutes, I am sure I said some smart comments to him, and left him alone. The more I went out the more I ran into him. Since we hung out in the same circle it was inevitable, I guess. Before I knew it, he was showing up at Sunday BBQ’s at my house. (They were opened parties and anyone could come.) He would drink and tell these off the wall stories. I would just watch him, again fantasizing about his amazing chest and arms… As time went on, our friends started noticing his attraction to me and forbad us to date. They seemed to think he was a “player” and did not want to see me get hurt. Let me just say, this did not stop him from constantly asking me out, showing up where he knew I was, and texting me all the time. Talk about “stalker!” HA…
November of 2004 my friend and I threw a HUGE birthday party for ourselves. Brian was there of course and there turned out to be some major drama… I ended up outside to get some air and was followed by Brian. He let me vent to him about what was happening, then he said the sweetest things to me. Stuff about how beautiful I was, how much I would light up any room upon entering, how my smile made his day, etc., To say I was swept away was an understatement. About a week later I asked HIM out to the movies and we saw the movie “Gothica.” It was a snowing night and Brian slipped on the ice while walking to the car. We both laughed so hard, I thought I was going to be sick. We started dating monogamously soon after and just fell in love. What can I say, the man made me laugh.
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The Next Steps -
Soon after we became a “couple” we started planning our lives together…We knew we wanted to get married, buy a home, start having children, and since Brian had a really good job as a construction manager, we knew that we could afford my leaving my job to be a stay at home wife and mother. Little by little things began falling in place. We sold our town house in Maryland and bought a beautiful home on five acre in a little spa town called Berkeley Springs, WV. It was right on the Maryland & West Virginia border so Brian could stay with his job in Maryland and we could see all of our old friends while beginning our lives in our new home. Our beautiful wedding came next, then the birth of our son, Christopher. Life was great. We were still madly in love and we LOVED being parents together. The only thing that was tough was Brian’s commute. He would leave by six am and would not be home till seven or eight. It was especially hard on me since I was a first time mother, alone, miles away from family and friends. Brian soon asked for a transfer to a job site closer to us. Side note- if we knew then, what a mistake that was, we definitely would not have made that decision. We thought this was a great idea; he would be closer to home and our family.
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The Beginning of Our Troubles
Unfortunately, soon after his transfer the housing market dropped. The company he was working for closed the doors of their West Virginia branch and Brian was out of a job. We scrambled to keep our lives together. Of course this is also the time our interest only loan on our home was going to raise our mortgage an extra $1000 a month. We knew we could not afford it so we put our beautiful home on the market and hoped it would sell. Brian searched and searched for a new job. New home construction was halted nationwide and the pickings were miniscule. Thankfully, he was soon offered a job about 2 hours away in Virginia. Though he didn’t want to be that far from home, we had no choice. He accepted the job and went to work early Monday mornings and would not return till late Friday nights. Again, this was rough on me, but I knew we had to make it work. We kept our fingers crossed that our house would sell soon and we could go on with our lives. A couple months later, we announced our pregnancy with our second baby and little by little life was becoming routine for us. UNTIL the housing market dropped further and this new company laid off half of their employees and Brian (being one of their newest employees) ended up being one of those people. Now we were really done. Our son was soon to be two, I was about six months pregnant and we had no clue what to do. Brian searched and searched or a job and there was just NOTHING out there. As time went on, we went further into debt and knew we had to do something. We went over our finances and came to the realization we had gone through our savings and really had nothing left. Over the next TWO weeks, we packed up our belongings and made the move cross-country to Texas so that Brian could work in his family’s business.
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| Christopher on the plane trip to Texas |
The Move to Texas-
In September of 2008 we made the cross-country move to Texas. We moved into a small little apartment and Brian worked as a tow truck driver. He worked 24 hour shifts and my pregnant butt stayed home to raise our son. In December we were graced with the birth of our beautiful daughter, Alexis.
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| Alexis graced us with her presence December 2008 |
Brian continued to work his shifts for the family business and every penny went to our bills and children. In April we had a long conversation with his parents and we decided that when my mother in law and nephew moved to Texas from Maryland in July (another long storyJ ) that we would find a home to live in together. This played very heavy on my heart. I had never lived with a “mother” (another long storyJ) and I was worried about how things would play out. I knew that I loved Brian’s mom and that she was an amazing woman, but how would we do LIVING together? Brian and I took it upon ourselves to find a place big enough, but within our budget, that we would not step on each other. We found a great home that would meet our needs. There was a master bedroom on the first floor for my in-laws, and three large bedrooms, two bathrooms and a large living space upstairs for our part of the family. Enough room for us all to live on our own, yet togetherJ
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Adjusting to Life –
The adjustment from life in a family of four, to life in a family of seven had its setbacks. I had only cooked for that many people on holidays and had no idea how expensive this was going to be. HOW WE MADE IT WORK –
Groceries – We decided that Brian and I would pay for all the food groceries in the house and the in-laws would purchase all the paper/cleaning products. This made it easier on me since I was the one who did the grocery shopping that I knew what we had, what we needed, and so that we did not have doubles of things.
Meals – We decided that everyone would be responsible to prepare their own breakfasts and lunches but I would cook dinner every night for ALL of us. My MIL had a stroke a while back and her hands are not what they used to, so cooking is not so easy for her! PLUS – It was very important to Brian and me that we continued our sit down dinners on a nightly basis. This was a time for us all to relax and talk about our days. So, every day I bring the kids downstairs and my wonderful mother-in-law keeps an eye on them. She plays with them and keeps them out of my hair while I cook. We enjoy our dinners then after dinner, either my nephew or one of my in-laws clean up the dishes and kitchen.
Responsibilities – Brian, the kids, and I are responsible for everything upstairs. It is kind of like our own apartment, but without a kitchen! We all take part in trying to keep the first floor common areas tidy. Brian and I try to stay on top of picking up the kid’s toys; meanwhile, everyone cleans up after themselves in the kitchen.
Help – the best thing about being in a house together is the amount of hands on deck. I am always available to help my mother-in-law if she needs it. Plus there is almost always someone available to help with the kids.
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| We were blesses with the birth of our newest angel, Savannah in August of 2010! |
Our Newest Family Member –
In August of 2010 we were blessed with another daughter. She has been an easy baby for the most part… __________________________________________________________________________________
Life Today –
Back in the summer, Brian made the decision to get back into construction. We opened the doors of BC Builds Texas and things seem to be going well. Feel free to check out his website at http://www.bcbuildstexas.com/.
Now that you understand how and why we decided to join our families in one house, you will be able to follow our daily blog… Enjoy!
(Ha, ha, ha... I love this picture!)
