Erin's Story: $75 Cloth Diaper Stash!

Erin is one of my good internet friends.  We met through blogging probably 5+ years ago and have kept up with each other ever since!  A few months ago when she asked me what I thought about my cloth diapers.  She's pregnant with her second child and was considering giving it a whirl.  I asked her to share her story with all of y'all, so here you go:

Not too long ago if someone would have asked if I was interested in cloth diapering, I would have laughed and denied any interest, probably with a grossed out expression.  Cloth diapers meant having to dump a bunch of money on disgusting contraptions that will inevitably result in touching poop.  And really, who wants to touch poop?  That only ever happens on accident and it’s the worst.

In the movie “The Wedding Singer,” Adam Sandler’s character said, in reference to his experience with money, “I’m a big fan of money. I like it. I have a little. I keep it in a jar on my refrigerator.  I’d like to put more in that jar.  That’s where you come in.”

I can relate to this. I’m a fan of having money.  I have a little, and I’d like to do what I can to fill my jar (I don’t actually have a jar of money, don’t bother trying to rob me). That’s where cloth diapers come in. 

I’m pregnant now and I have a 19 month old who was, unfortunately, not born a potty-trained prodigy.  As it turns out, this whole diaper thing was for real and I had to buy them.  I tried to calculate out how much we’ve spent on diapers over the past 19 months but quite honestly, I don’t have the patience or brain power to put together all those numbers in a meaningful way.  So, essentially I’m not going to give an estimate of accumulative cost, but I will say that with my girl’s sensitive booty, we’ve had to stick with a more expensive diaper brand. They ended up costing us a quarter each (more or less, depending on size) and unless I’m in a bind, I refuse to buy diapers without a coupon.  As an infant she would, without fail, wait until she had a clean diaper, then fill the darn thing up.  I could almost hear the quarters dropping.  My husband and I eventually counted our visits to the changing table in quarters. Cha-ching!

We recently moved to Alaska.  This place is fabulous in almost every way!  It’s gorgeous, fresh, and is home to many of my favorite people.  Now, before you go packing your bags to come join me in this amazing place, please hear me, it’s also very, very expensive.  We’ve been here for about three months and I still feel physical pain when I get groceries- Or to even look at them; kiwi for $.78, an unimpressive container of mutant strawberries for $6, or grapes for up to $4/lb.  It hurts my heart, and it really hurts the aforementioned hypothetical jar of money. I want to help provide my family with good things, but the fruit my mouth waters for sometimes is put on the wayside because I’m reserving my quarters for those dreaded diapers!

And you know what?  I’m tired of being a sucker! 

Peeking at the other side of sucker-ville, I’m slowly testing the waters outside of my comfortable box.  I have a tendency to be somewhat impulsive.  Mix my impulsivity with a little peer pressure, the desire and calling to be wise financially and top it off with a high five for green living and I’ve got myself a little cloth diaper stash!  I’m part of a childrens buy/sell/trade facebook group in my area and I saw a post for gdiapers that someone was selling.  I’d heard good things about gdiapers, and I hate to miss a sweet deal, so I snagged it!  I figured that while I’m just getting my toes wet, and I’m not diving in head first, used diapers might be worth the investment.  If I hated it, at least I wouldn’t be sunk and financially obligated to stick with it.  Plus, I’d get to put the sanitary cycle on the washing machine to use.

I can’t fully explain why I figured it’d be ok to get used diapers, when I would never consider wearing someone elses’ undies, but ultimately, I feel confident that I bought from someone who wouldn’t be spreading diseases.

1. Her house, despite having three (soon to be four kids), was immaculate.

2. She rearranged the furniture in her living room within a week between my stops there; A kindred spirit.

3. The poor gal was 9 months pregnant and “needed” to clear things out.  De-cluttering brings me joy, and my helping her de-clutter brought us both joy!

Not long later, the “diaper lady” posted that she had some one-size pocket diapers available.  I had already determined that I wanted to try out a variety before sticking to one kind, so I told her I was interested.  She just had her baby and underestimated the number of small diapers she needed so she offered to trade me some of the smalls for some one size pockets. Easy.  I brought her some smalls and she seriously hooked me up. She reassured me several times that I was doing her the favor, but I still feel a little bit guilty, like I ripped her off. 

So here’s what’s up, from stepping a little bit out of my box, I got a sweet stash of cloth diapers/inserts started for $75, helped a fellow mommy do her best for her kids, I get to save some quarters and a teeny part of the world.  Not only that, but my incoming boy will get to have a cute booty, my “jar” will refill and we will eat fruit till we burst.

So far I just look at them.  I’m still a little intimidated by them, but I’m getting closer.  One toe at a time, I’m testing the water. One day soon I’ll take the plunge and risk possibly touching something with poop on it.  

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You read that right, she bought her entire stash for $75!

The Craziest Frickin' Day of your Life!

Back in... February? January Josh sent me an email that he was running this race called the Warrior Dash in October.  Mmmmkay... I looked it up online and wow-- it was certainly crazy looking, but it was also only 3 miles, so my logic said, in the next 9 months, I can manage to get fit enough to run 3 miles & hit a couple of obstacles.  Worst case scenario, you can walk around (most of) the obstacles.

So I signed up, too.

Then a couple of months later we decided, what the hay, let's have kids!

So that kind of disqualified me from the race (although they don't ban pregnant women, just have you sign something saying you did, or should have, gotten clearance from your doctor beforehand).

In the end, quite a few people from Josh's office signed up for the race.  Here's the before picture:



We even came prepared with our own church tattoos!

What?  Your church doesn't have temporary tattoos of it's logo?  And if you did, you wouldn't put them randomly on your legs?  And you also wouldn't be running in this crazy race?  Well don't look at me, I didn't run, and I didn't put on a tattoo... lol.

And here's the after picture.  Don't worry, the people that are missing weren't actually missing- they were just washing all that mud off of them!

But for real, it was quite the fun race.  Heck, I had fun just watching them!  It turned out to be a 3.5 mile race with 12 obstacles... and a lot of interesting characters!

I was excited to see my husband be the first from the group to hit the finish line!  Okay, so maybe he left the rest of the pack behind because they were running together-- he still made great time!  Below, he's at the top of the ropes in the black shirt.

And jumping over fire...

Yes, there were two lines of fire!

Oh, and that whole crawling-through-a-mud-pit-under-barbed-wire thing there at the end.  Which, I suppose is kind of nice if you manage to catch yourself on fire from the last obstacle.

 Overall, it was a fun day!  And I even made a special shirt for the occasion:

I got quite a few comments on the shirt-- everyone loved it!

At the end of the race, you could donate your old shoes & they recycle them for affordable footwear for people in need around the world.  Kinda cool, especially since most racers wore the oldest dirtiest pair of shoes they had anyway!

One final picture-- I snapped it on my way out, but truthfully, all I wanted to do was see what this dude looked like at the end of the race!  Also, I wanted to ask him logistical questions like, "Did you paint your body green before or after you got here?"  "If before, is your car seat totally green?"

Larger than life.

A few weeks ago I went to a friends house & before I left, she insisted that we take some zucchini.  Not one to turn down free veggies straight from the garden, I was all about it!

I was more than a little shocked when she came back with these puppies.  That's a tuna can for size reference!

But it gets even better... for another friend, she just sent one with them... that was TWICE the size of ours!  The caption he put on Facebook says, "No, those aren't miniature bananas..."

And in case you're wondering, there are several ways to use it in the kitchen:

1) Have a cooking extravaganza & bake zucchini bread, zucchini muffins, stir fry, pasta w/zucchini, etc.
2) Cut one piece off at a time & make one zucchini item per day.

Needless to say, we're working a little zucchini into our everyday lives!  And since we knew there was no way on earth we could use two, we shared the love with some friends!

Weekly traditions.

In so many ways our lives have completely changed over the past 6 months.  One of them is new routines.  Our routines no longer involve our families on a weekly or monthly basis.  Sundays are the most obvious:

This is what Sundays used to be like back in NC.  Family, animals, banjo... relaxing and spending time with my family.

And lately, this is what Sundays are like:

Different, but wonderful all the same.  Making new friends that are quickly becoming like family.

It's weird going from living in the mountains where the beach is vacation, to a place where you live at the beach and the mountains are vacation!

What are some of your weekly traditions?

Mad props to Shannon!

Hold up!  I just realized I never gave mad props to the lovely lady that did my hair for Melanie's wedding!

Did I tell you I was in a wedding a few weeks ago?  I think I did...

At any rate, Melanie (bride) had picked out a gorgeous up-do for everyone's hairstyle.  The only problem?  I'd tried to grow my hair out about 2 years ago and it refuses to go any longer than it is right now.  And it's in no way shape or form long enough for an updo.  :(

It's also stick straight and doesn't like the word 'curls.'  I was kind of scared.  But this lovely lady on my left (your right-- the one with straight hair & is not me)- Shannon- did my hair!  Wanna see it?

Cute, huh?  I practiced a couple of times and had some curl going on, but she made it look way better than I had it going!

Here was our practice run the night before.  I think she should come to my house every day to curl my hair.  Kind of a bummer that she lives 5 hours away.

And a few more shots of the wedding.  Here's me & my parents!  My dad & Melanie's step dad have been friends since they were little.  They saw each other at a football game when I was in marching band & realized that us girls were both in the band and that's how we met.  Been friends ever since!

Me & Mel... check out her dress-- is it not gorgeous!  I know you can't see much of it in this shot, but I'm in love with it!

Dangerous Retreat.

Yesterday my husband spent some time away from the office with the other staff members at our church (where he works).  As he left, I found myself saying, "Bye sweetie, don't end up in the hospital this time."

Then I laughed a little to myself because, last time he went away with the staff at a church he was on staff at, 2 of them ended up in the emergency room for unrelated incidents.  So I dug up a post I'd written about that and thought you'd enjoy!

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A week before our first anniversary, Josh went on a Pastor's Retreat with the other pastor's from our church.  He was the Creative Arts Pastor, which means he got to do all the cool stuff with design and lighting and music.  And he had a really big Mac.

This retreat was in the middle of nowhere North Carolina.

I made a handy little map so you can follow me on this crazy trip.

Here is the cast of characters:

H = main pastor = adventure (was in the Marine's)

J = my awesome husband (worship/creative arts) = adventure (but completely novice)

S = children's pastor = has a head on his shoulders

K = worship/admin = feeling a little dizzy

D & E = H's wife and daughter who visited one crazy day

H & J are all about kayaking.  A kayaking adventure is born.  Did I mention H slept in a hammock all week?  That's inside a perfectly good cabin.  *shakes head*

S is a little skeptical, but agrees to go along as long as there is a raft involved.  K is not feeling well and decides to hang out at the cabin and recuperate that day.

Fast forward to the river.  The river is the blue star on the map above.  J gets caught in the current (a good thing), flipped (a normal, expected part of kayaking), loses his paddle (not good), and reaches for it (detrimental).  The current pushes his shoulder out of socket.  He is still underwater.  He gets above water, feels like he's been shot.  Everyone stares, then gets him out of the water.

They take him a little too far away from the water and when the emergency crews for the river get there, they realize he's too far away from the water, and therefore they cannot treat him and must call the county hospital.

I couldn't make that up, y'all!

So they call the ambulance.  Meanwhile, it's just a shoulder out of socket, right?  So several skilled people try to pop it back into place.  They were all unsuccessful.

The longer a shoulder is out of socket, and the more it is messed with, the worse damage there is.

By the time the ambulance got there, J was nearly going into shock.  Maybe he did for all I know.  I'm not a medical guru.

The hospital is the green star on the map.  Not terribly close.  And they only had 2 or 3 ambulances.  Three rooms in the emergency department (from my memory).  The hospital was... well... I'll just show you a picture of it's sheer size:

Image Credit

Sooo.... it took awhile for the ambulance to get there.  That's when I got a call on my cell phone.  I was in a summer class at Western Carolina University (the pink star).

It was a strange number, so I didn't answer it.  Then the same number called back immediately, which is cell phone code for "answer this call... you don't recognize the number, but it's important."

So I answered it.  And it was J, barely making sense.  He started with "I'm ok" and quickly told the story.

He had borrowed the cell phone from the EMT treating him in the ambulance.  Is that sweet or what?

Thank you, Mr. Ambulance Guy!

He said it was another 30 minutes or so before he'd be a the hospital so I stayed for the rest of the class and then headed to the hospital.

What hospital?

I called the number back.  Ambulance guy told me which hospital.  What a great guy!

But how to get there?  I didn't have GPS!  This was 2007 y'all!  :)

So I called a dear friend who knew her way around the sticks.  She got me straight there.

Pause.  Remember K?  He wasn't feeling well so he stayed back at the cabin?  Well D & E had come by the cabin and after a little bit, K passed out.  D called an ambulance.

Remember how many ambulances this county had?

Now back to the river.  All the guys can't ride in the ambulance, so H gets them back to the truck.  He then calls his wife, D, to tell her.

In what I can only imagine to be a very confusing conversation, they both realize that they are headed to the hospital for different reasons.

Once at the hospital, we realized we were taking up most of the emergency room.  What hogs.

J & K were hopped up on amazing amounts of drugs.  We took cell phone videos.  What I wouldn't pay to still have those.  And because he was wearing a wetsuit that had dried after being wet, he stunk.  Not to mention he didn't have a change of clothes.  Or even shoes.

I can only imagine what the hospital staff thought that day.

Honey, I don't know what kind of church they are, but they sure can stir up some trouble.

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I'm glad to announce that this time, no one ended up in the hospital.  I'm not sure what they did, but it sounds like mainly meetings all day.  We did have to make a call to Josh's doctor, but it was an unrelated issue.  :)

Not friendly for 1 year olds!

Today is the last day to enter in the giveaway!  I'll be choosing a winner tonight!  Make sure you leave identifying info in the comment so I can know who you are!

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A few weeks ago Josh and I invited some new friends over for dinner.  Times like that is when we dearly miss our old apartment that had tons of room to entertain!

But this was different, this was the first time we ever had a little kid in our house.  Ever.  Like, since we got married.  The last little kid I knew was my niece and she is now 11.  I was in 8th grade when she was born, so baby-proofing a house for a one year old was the farthest thing from my mind.  Josh has a little sister, but she is now 12, so it's the same scenario for him.

As soon as our friends walked in the front door with their one year old kiddo, he immediately went for the burning candle we had sitting on the coffee table.  We are geniuses, I tell ya.  It was right in his reach.


After his parents swooped him up, he then immediately went for the china which was, of course, on the bottom shelves of our bookshelf.  Genius.


Then there was the entire tv stand that was well within his reach, full of CDs & DVDs.  Yippee!


Dog bones laying around the floor.  Dog germs!  Yum!

And then round two with the china on the second shelf from the bottom on the bookshelf.  We are pretty much clueless.


Dog bowls?  Trash can?  Pieces of dirt and lint and old food hidden in the corners of the floor in the kitchen?  Like a wonderland!


We found things we didn't even know we had when that kid was here!  We laughed and had a blast, but it really made me thankful that babies are so helpless and can't walk or crawl right after birth.  When we have our own, we'll be able to ease into the whole safety thing and learn as our kid grows.

Good thing, or child protective services would have us on speed dial!

So now that has me thinking... for those of you who have had to baby-proof, what are the silliest things that you've forgotten, or had to move around in order to keep a little one (and your belongings) safe?  I always knew we'd have to get the kid locks on our cabinets, but never really thought about the burning candle or the china!

A peek into my day to day.

Sometimes I feel that my blog life gets disconnected from my real life.  Sometimes not, but right now I feel like it is.  So here's what I've been up to the past two weeks.

Well, really longer than than... but hardcore the last few weeks.  This is actually the reason why we moved up here... for this new church campus.

I didn't take these pictures-- thankful for two ladies at the church who let me use them!

We had our grand opening yesterday and it was fabulous!  That building used to be the movie theater years and years ago, and was actually set to be demolished.  But God intervened and guess what?  Everything inside is brand spankin' new now, and our first Sunday church service will be there today!

I don't think I've mentioned it on my blog, but I actually do marketing for a local Chick-fil-A.  No, they don't know I have this blog, and definitely don't hold anything I say on here to them... (fine print: my views do not necessarily reflect theirs).  Anywho, here I am herding some cows... they're so fun!

Throughout the morning I had to switch gears from CFA employee to staff wife at church, and back again.  Here I am with this crazy bunch of people who have become like family to me... the staff at church & their families!

Check. This. Out!  I felt like I was back at home in WNC!  Full body spandex and stilts.  I loved it!  There was a girl too, and her long hair was flowing out the back of a purple leotard.  It was pretty awesome!  And yes-- their faces are covered.

A view from above. If you look in the bottom right of the pictures, you can see the purple leotard stilt walking lady!

So that was my Saturday.  Glad it went off well and can't wait to see what the future holds for this community!

40 friends.

The other day I glanced at a new friend's facebook page.  It said that we have 40 friends in common.

I moved up here less than 2 months ago, and we already have 40 friends in common.  Granted, they're facebook friends, which means I don't have a deep relationship with each and every one of them, but I do know a lot of them fairly well now.  As in, I've eaten a home cooked meal with many of them.

It made me realize how incredibly blessed I am with new friends.  I can't even count how many times Josh & I have had dinner at a friend's house since we moved here.  Game nights?  Oh yeah.

I never would have imagined that we would be blessed with so many friends so quickly.  Friends we can trust.  Friends we can count on.

And you know what?  That is awesome!

I love making new friends, and I'm excited to see our friendships grow even more.  It's no secret that we've moved a lot over the last few years and each time we knew we wouldn't be there for too awful long.  But here, we're settling.  We know we're in a place where we'll raise our family.  Where I'll have playdates with our future kids.  Where we'll go to parent teacher conferences, buy a house, and *gasp* learn the accent.

Heck, I'm already pronouncing "Norfolk" like the locals, which I swore I would never do!

PS: Larry & Mike are apparently my favorites since they're in every picture I seem to have!

Just Dance!

Josh & I have made a lot of really sweet friend over the past month and for new years, they all wanted to make sure that we had somewhere to go.  It was awesome and we felt ever-so-loved and cared for.  Truly like we have a 2nd family up here in Virginia!

 We ended up going to two parties and making new friends and building stronger relationships with current ones.

That "building stronger relationships" part is pretty much thanks to a little game called "Just Dance."

"Wannabe" by Spice Girls (duh... would I pick anything else?)

We had... a lot of fun.

After looking over all the photos, and then a few videos, I'm not really sure which I prefer.  I mean, we have photos like these, which could probably be used for blackmail if I hadn't already posted them online...

But then we have a video like this...

However, I learned throughout the night that the Wii controllers still hate me with a passion.  I've had that trouble before... playing a game and it not registering my arm movements no matter how exaggerated they are.

But every game I played that night seemed futile.  Above, you can see my glistening sweat (really wish I was kidding about that) as I'm killing Josh at "Cotton Eye Joe."  But guess what?  His subtle movements won him first place while I was killing it.  I have witnesses.  The game was rigged.

Wii, I have a bone to pick with you.

A look back at 2010.

Yup... you read the title... I'm doing a look back at 2010.  I went through and chose one (yes, only one!) picture from each month and even linked back to a few of the posts... enjoy!

January.

We rung in the new year with one of our dearest friends, Rebecca.  She's such a strong woman and we had a blast!  To my recollection, I fell asleep before midnight.  :(

February.

February 14th was the launch of Relate Church, which Josh and I were helping out with during their beginning stages. (excuse the crazy editing...)

March.

Rylie joined our family in March!  My brother & his wife have been married 13 years, so it was about time!

April.

In April some of our friends from Atlanta came to visit!  So much fun, and we had lunch at our favorite place in Greenville-- The Lazy Goat.

May.

2010 had many great moments... many.  But being on the Dave Ramsey TV show was definitely one of the biggest highlights! (You can view our portion here) We had been following his principles to get out of debt for 3 years and were finally able to scream We're debt free!! in front of all his viewers.  It felt great to finally be out of debt for good!

June.

You can read this story here, here, and here.  I never intended it to be a series, but it ended up going on for quite awhile. Worst part? Josh was out of town and I didn't have a car to take Max to the vet... so I had to bum rides! I was very thankful for some great friends.

July.

One Friday night Josh & I were looking forward to relaxing as Saturday would start a busy weekend.  Then my dad called and asked if we wanted to come to the Swannanoa Gathering (Part 1 & Part 2). We went, and I'm so thankful. Not only was it a blast, but now that we've moved, we won't be able to do things like that anymore. Carpe diem, eh?

August.

With August came a new job, which was exactly what I needed.  My sister also let me borrow her car for a few months, which was a major blessing!  It did have a few troubles, though... like the door handles fell off!  Thankfully, my dad was able to fix it (Josh was out of town).  But when we pulled the door apart we saw that my brother had clearly done the same thing in the past.

September.

The beginning of September brought a lot of overtime for me, which meant a lot of extra money going to savings.  The last part of September brought a lot of family time... which was fabulous!  This picture was at my parents house when they had to take everything out of their cabinets to run a water line to their new fridge... talk about a mess!  The stuff from the fridge was all in the sink and everything from the cabinets was, well, everywhere else!

October.

What a month of anticipation! Josh resigned from his day job to do music, and was almost immediately contacted by a church in Virginia. I interviewed, and was offered a permanent position at the company where I was a temp. We spent as much time enjoying life as possible, including going to my old high school football rivalry game, and enjoying fabulously free dates in downtown Greenville.

November.

All the anticipation of October came to life in November.  I had to turn down the job offer (which was a dream job) because... Josh was offered the position in Virginia!  I have to admit, it stung a little to turn it down, but we both knew that Virginia was where we needed to be. So we packed up and moved right after Thanksgiving.

December.

At the beginning of the year we were still settling into our apartment in Greenville.  And by December, we were settling in a new apartment 8 hours away.  Funny where life takes you sometimes, but we know that it's where we're supposed to be, and... for the first time... a place where we'll be settled.

Chances are, most of you starting reading this blog within the past year, since that's when I started writing exclusively on here (rather than on a private blog), started working with BlogHerwww.blogher.com, and became syndicated through BlogHer.  I sincerely appreciate your readership and hope you'll stay with me for another year on here!