Got to Make Some Extra Dough!

I really need to find a way to make some extra cash. A job is out of the question since daycare costs would suck my paycheck down the drain.

I'd love to start a preschool, and I think I could if I set it up in the room upstairs, but I don't think I'd have much success starting up in the middle of the school year.

After Baby M is 6 months old I think I could take on some babysitting if they were willing to drop them off at my house

These are some other ideas I had for making some extra cash. I can easily do the photo cards long distance. I'd either email the file or just send them to a local Walgreens near you.

If anyone can help I'd greatly appreciate it! :)

What Big Boys We Are!

Sadly I didn't know if I could scrape together the $2.00 I needed to buy the boys trick-or-treat carriers. If we have any money it's going towards diapers, laundry soap, dish soap and bills. But I did want them to have something for their first official trick-or-treat. It was then that I remembered my Aunt had sent them each a dollar in her last letter. Well since they were using their own money I decided they should get to pick them out and pay for them.

Little H go find your shoes(he actually brought them to me)!



Make sure you have your money!



Lets put it in a safe place.



OK boys pick out your pumpkins!




Put them up there so you can pay for them!



Now give the lady your money. . .Not that lady!



Remember Big H, always keep the receipt because you'll never know if you need it(I took this pic because I couldn't get a shot of him when it was his turn to pay do to the person waiting behind me. I think she was getting anxious because she started pushing my cart forward. People at Wal-Mart are no fun!)

The Stratton's Have Gone Cloth!

With the changes we've made around here some might think we've jumped on the green band wagon. Truth is we're just trying to save money by finding ways to cut back that work for our family.



I have a friend who has started cloth diapering and she made it sound so simple that I thought maybe I should give it a try. After all, I don't mind washing out poop. In fact most of my employment has led to some poop washing here and there. So we looked into it and we found that there are a lot of new ideas out there that make it surprisingly convenient. And I didn't find the transition hard at all. We had a few overstuffed diapers and one day of leaky disasters, but aside from that we've gotten along pretty well.

Aside from saving us money, don't those little cloth diapered bums look so cute?



Can you see his little muffin top?



Along with cloth diapering we bought a clothes line. And I was told by Dendra that clothes lines and cloth diapers go well together because the sun will keep down the stains. So far so good. The clothes line has worked well for us, and I love having extra help with the stains on some of the other articles of clothing we own.

Salt Lake City! We'll be Coming Soon!

For some reason or another we've been making a lot of trips to SLC lately.



Don't worry he didn't drive.

Our first trip was a run around to try and save money on a hard drive and some night stands. It seems all the really good deals on KSL end up being in Salt Lake.



So we went to park city for night stands, Sandy for the hard drive and then Riverton to talk to a lady about cloth diapers.

The boys did not like their new riding companion. They don't like the sun in their eyes, but they don't like the window blocked either.



And these two sitting together does not work well at all.



Do you like our improvised sun shade? Before we moved the boys to one side, and the night stand by the window, we had the boys on either side and the night stand in the center. This led to Big H being woken up from a nap by the sun. So this is what we came up with.



Our most recent trip took us to Craig's school, and to The Gateway. I really wanted to take this boys to this fountain sometime this summer. They were scared at first, but they ended up loving it. They also entertained a crowd of people behind us.





We also stopped by Temple Square to see the new display.




I used to love trips up to Salt Lake, but I find them to be a little exhausting now. Perhaps when the boys our older it will be better.

P.S. Craig has started at a nursing school up in Salt Lake called Fortis College. He is really excited about it, and I'm happy that he's happy. I took a tour and it is a very nice little college.