12 Things At A Time

Thats how it works at the thrift/consignment shop on base. You can take in 12 items a day for sale and those items can remain on the shelves for 6 weeks. At the end of your contract you can lower the price for an additional 6 weeks (although this does cost you $.50 for 12 more tags) or take the items home. I have my fingers crossed everything I take there will sale (as does everyone I'm sure) because I will most likely be taking the items down the street to donate to the airmen's attic at that point. The whole idea is to get rid of it, not bring it back home to transport during our PCS.

I have 5 items sold from my original 12 and hope that these 12 go over a tad bit better although almost half is not bad. I am thankful for the check I picked up at the beginning of this month even if the shop takes 25% of the profit. I'm making something which is a bonus as getting the extra clutter out of our house is the most important part.

I was wondering around this morning getting ready for the day and I noticed more items that might be sellable and I look forward to taking those as well. Its a process but one I have finally taken the time to get in motion. Now to get the flyer's made for our bird, old coffee and end tables, round dining table, futon and the lawn mower that has been sitting dormant this whole tour. Must sell these items ASAP because J is extremely concerned about going over our weight limit.

Buy or Rent...

that is the question. J and I have been talking about our options if we get stationed in the states instead of overseas again. As of earlier this week it seems there are no available overseas assignments in our PCS cycle, so the likelihood of us being able to stay overseas is rather slim. That said the end result would be going back to the states or Korea but thats a whole different post (you can get a relatively good idea of what we have been considering over at Married To The Military, that girl is brilliant! And I am always amazed at the similarities of our lives). I wish I knew what was available (we should have an idea by the middle of summer) stateside but until then I have been checking out the BAH and housing market in various areas.

Buying a home seems like a reasonable idea although there are so many things we do not know about this process. Our theory for buying is that its an investment and depending on where you choose to live its "a buyers market". This would let us find a place that has the amenities we require along with the space. I loved our house in Belgium but was willing to take on the change of living on base in an apartment for this assignment. It wasn't a bad decision, we met some great people and saved on the cost of gas. But over time we have acquired another family member and more furniture which has made this little apartment rather cramped. We need space again and I think the boys need a yard to play in and I would love a garden to grow our own fruits and vegetables.

We have concerns when it comes to the price of realty which varies drastically from area to area. We have to consider the utilities that would need to be covered by our BAH as well as a house payment. I have friends that have moved back to the states and bought a house, others have chose to rent off base and others have chose to live on base but all seem to be in the same financial predicament (for the most part). These are of course all options that must be considered although I wish there was one that stood out as a safer option than the others. Here is the breakdown as I currently see it:

• Base housing takes all of your BAH to cover rent and utilities, you receive nothing.
• Off base you can choose a rental property of your choice but must consider the cost of rent and utilities, along with the cost of gas and time for a commute.
• Buy your own home. This includes all the same considerations as renting but may include taxes and upkeep. There is the possibility of profit when you later resale the home.
  

I can see how buying would have fewer limitations but could have a lot more stress in areas that you do not have while renting (and visa versa of course). We could make changes as we see fit but all changes would come out of pocket (although we could benefit from these when selling). I think the hardest part of this process for J and I is making a decision and then knowing that we would most likely have to sell sooner than later. This seems stressful without ever experiencing it.

This is a very limited list of things we have been considering with each option as we do not know much about the buying and owning process. We have rented off base and now lived on base so these are not new to us. Doing what we know may or may not limit the amount of stress in our home while PCSing, most likely...not.

Can I ask my readers that have gone through this process what their experience was? If you own a home do you find it better than renting? Is buying a home stressful and complicated? Is it worth the stress? Is selling a home overly complicated? I am a person who needs things written out in black and white, I do not like going into a process uninformed. Please leave a comment or email me at s.falter at yahoo.com. Thanks everyone, I will keep you posted on our next destination and choice of housing.

And now on to a lighter and a lot less stressful topic, S had his dance recital last weekend. It was adorable. The day started with a t-ball game in the morning and then his spring school carnival. We came home to relax for about 45 minutes before getting him ready to dance. It was a very busy Saturday to say the least.


S was not nervous one bit although he did state that he did not remember his ballet preformance. Life goes on. During the recital it was blatantly obvious that not all of his class was on top of the ballet portion of their dancing and I have mixed feelings on the subject. S's previous years of dance were spent with a different teacher, one that would stand in front of the children during recital so that they could follow her as they do in class. Considering the age of the children she was teaching it made complete sense although I was extremely impressed by the older children that had their performances memorized. The teacher S had this year does not believe in this form of teaching and expects the children to remember their steps. Okay I get this. Unfortunately it became obvious that this was not going to be the case for most of S's class. Its not that they do not have the ability to do so (check out how well they do jazz, just try to avoid the choppiness of the video. I am determined to get a nice digital video camera, I'm done with the video on my cameras). I think they would have been able to remember both dances had they done more practicing than once a week and not been plagued with the 2 (in S's case 3-I totally forgot to take him to class the week after Spring break) week break only 4 classes before recital. Once a week is just not enough time spent practicing and especially when that day only consists of about 20 minutes per selection. I am extremely impressed with what S did retain.


That said the recital was adorable, the dancers did brilliantly and the costumes were stunning although some were "interesting". I did not sign S up for any dance classes during the summer but I will be making a point to go in on August 1st to sign him up for the fall. He will only be able to dance through the winter show but he enjoys it so much I do not want him to miss out. I have no idea wether his dancing will continue at our next duty station. I must stop thinking about that, its just depressing.

And on that note, I am off. There is school work to be read and research to be done. Not to mention cleaning, as usual.

OMG!

S's teacher sternly informed me that she needed to talk to me after school today, I got that horrible feeling in my gut. I followed her into the classroom and over to her desk, she handed me this...


I almost busted out laughing but knew that she was rather disappointed. I wanted to explain and felt obligated to try to explain but in the end I simply said "I will talk to him this evening".

Why did my son add this bonus detail to a perfectly good picture? Well I can only guess it has something to do with Baby A's new waste wiggle when he's naked and...um peeing. He twists his waste in a circle and says "I pee, I pee" over and over again. Its rather funny and I can only assume that S was drawing a picture of his baby brother doing his dance and saying "I pee, I pee". What else could it be?

When I talked to S about it our conversation went something like this:

Me: Do you know what Mrs. K gave to me today?
S: Nope. (he was rather flat and serious through the whole conversation)
Me: She gave me a picture.
S: Did you like it?
Me: Well for the most part, but there seemed to be something wrong with the picture. Do you know what was wrong with the picture?
S: Nope.
Me: Are you sure?
S: Yep.
Me: You colored the bear peeing.
S: Did you like it mom?
Me: Um, well...Son we don't draw peeing bears at school.

What would you do?

Podcast Review & Info

Yesterday I was listening to the Green Living Ideas GreenTalk Radio podcast from May 2nd called Organic Goods and Flowers in Marketplace with Organic Style. I found the concept of organic flowers rather interesting because as they stated most people consider food and cotton as more organic than flowers but to be honest the term organic actually refers to the process of farming. The guest Gerald Prolman states that the produce is only a bi product of the type of farming used to produce it.

The thought of organic flowers seemed like a given to me but when Gerald Prolman started his business over 7 years ago it was more of a process than he had anticipated. Did you know that 50 times more pesticides are used on flowers than other farms (as stated in the podcast) because the import of flowers (which is where most flowers come from, they are not grown in the US) requires that no pests reside on flowers when reaching the US borders. Ultimately encouraging more pesticides to be used. This said OrganicStyle.com offers flowers that have been grown organically. I think I will be checking out this site a bit more closely this afternoon and keeping it in mind for future purchases.

And furthermore on OrganicStyle.com they offer a free lifestyle magazine, online of course because thats the green way. I have already started my subscription and I'm looking forward to reading through what it has to inside. On the podcast it was said the magazine talks to the farmers, workers and fair trade producers that take part in the goods that are sold via OrganicStyle. This allows you to see the benefits of your purchase and choice of products.

An S Eye View

Last week S was grounded and never had the opportunity to take photos for his Monday showing, to say the least he was very disappointed. This week he was beyond excited to take pictures again so after school I sent him out with his camera ready to go. Baby A and I inspected a bug on the balcony while S ran around capturing all kinds of things. Here are just a few:

A park full of slides.

Slide 1

Slide 2

Slide 3

Slide 4

Full of foliage.

Beautiful green spring leaves.

A lonely park bench.

Daisy's, he did really well with these this time.

Turning the camera on himself.

Going "Green"

One of the biggest changes I have made in my quest for a "greener lifestyle" is Baby A's diapers. I am extremely pleased with my eco friendly diaper choice which has allowed me to say "bye bye" to disposable, land filling, diapers. Did you know that the average disposable diaper takes nearly 500 years to biodegrade?! No I did not go all cloth, I am only so brave people, instead I chose the middle ground (aka third generation diaper)...the gDiaper.

They are freaking brilliant! Baby A has (as of today) tested their holding capacity and they have come through with flying colors. Five stars from this family. I like that they are flushable which means no more "what is that smell coming from the garbage" or "OMG seriously, its in two bags (as we don't use these, aka plastic, anymore this is/was no longer an option), the windows are open and I swear I changed that 2 hours ago" comments. Its just tear, tear, swish and flush. Bye bye nasty smell.

These diapers have helped in cutting down on our waste and are extremely comparable in price to disposables. They come in fashionable colors (if you're into that thing) although the starter pack is quite a bit more reasonable if color doesn't matter. Either way the inserts cost about the same (this may also depend on the brand of diaper you purchase).

I am also very pleased with the disappearance of Baby A's "irritation" that comes and goes with diaper changes. Since I have been using gDiapers on him there has been no "irritation", fabulous if you ask me. I'm thinking this could be due to the more breath ability of the gDiaper compared to regular diapers. And aren't they just adorable?!