The Budget Mom

If you are in charge of finances, you will want to follow The Budget Mom on Instagram. I have been following her for a year now and am blown away at the progress I have made in my budget. Prior to finding her I didn't have a budget. I charged all of Christmas. I had zero savings. Financially I was a mess and didn't even know it. I now have a budget for each time I get paid, although I am still learning and tweaking. I am now prepared for Christmas and I have some savings. My journey began because I have so many places I want to travel to, but I never have the money. I got fed up throwing away my check to debt and finally said enough is enough. Throughout 2020 and a pandemic, I have been able to pay off five small credit cards, have saved for Christmas, and a few other things. I am now working on my larger debt and will not see the same amount of progress in 2021, but I am okay with that because at least progress will be made. 

This is an older picture from The Budget Mom's Instagram account, but her workbook is pretty much the same.

I am so excited to see what progress is made throughout the year! 

The Ark Encounter

We took a weekend trip to Cincinnati, Ohio the weekend after Christmas. We talked about Noah and the ark in school early on, so I thought a field trip to the Ark Encounter would be perfect. We decided we wanted to go during the Christmas season, so we chose the weekend after Christmas. Nana and Pops came with us and we are so glad they did. We rented a house through Airbnb that was pet friendly so we could bring all of our dogs. Nana and Pops have two dogs and we have one.

We are country people, so renting a house in the city was interesting lol. We found out once we got there that there was a major NFL game on Saturday, and we were extremely close to the stadium. My mom and I realized why it was so hard trying to find a place to stay. I tried to take some pictures along the way.

In our room there was a door that said, "No public admittance" and was locked. Part of me wanted to know what was in there and part of me decided it was best I not know lol.

Marley had no problems settling in...

My mom's dogs on the other hand were a little on edge lol...

We ordered pizza from Domino's and called it a night on our first night. 

We went to the Ark Encounter first, and it did not disappoint. The only disappointment is it was raining and cold.

The Ark Encounter has a total of three floors and are all wheelchair accessible. The inside is made of wood and is just absolutely beautiful! The amount of detail that went into the ark is just incredible. The animals had feeders and waterers in their pens to make feeding and watering them easier. All their waste was collected at the bottom of the pen and could easily be cleaned. It was very spacious inside. If the Ark Encounter is truly what the ark was like I would have loved to be on it. Christmas music was playing softly and it just felt so peaceful inside. We spent 2.5 to 3 hours. There is a small zoo area and a kids play area, but unfortunately it was raining and we couldn't enjoy them. We also didn't get the full affect of the Christmas lights as it was still pretty light when we went. Had it not been so cold and rainy we would have waited around to enjoy them :)

After the Ark Encounter we went back to the house we rented and got ready for dinner. The rest of the night we just chilled.

The next day we went to the Creation Museum. I didn't enjoy the Creation Museum as much as the ark, but it was still pretty interesting. The Creation Museum also had their Christmas lights still on, but much like the Ark we were not able to enjoy it. It was even more cold on the day we went to the Creation Museum, and we just could not handle it lol. I would love to go back another year just to see the lights. 

We had a great time visiting both the Ark Encounter and Creation Museum. I'm so glad we got to make these memories together, and look forward to our next adventures. The last few pictures are just ones I snapped as we were driving around. I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

When we were packing up to head home it was snowing! We don't get much snow in Tennessee, so even though we were beyond freezing we were also happy to see some of the white stuff :)

Picture Overload

I am still trying to "catch up" this blog. This post is basically going to be a huge picture dump from September 2013 through December 2013. I don't really have a lot to say, as most of those details are long forgotten :(

September 2013

We used to go to Pigeon Forge in August or September to rent a cabin for the weekend. We were Dollywood season passholders, so that is where we spent our time. My parents were gracious to invite the kids and grandkids up for the weekend. This trip was me and Maddy, my sister and her two kids, and my dad's sister and mom drove up for a day to spend some time with us. We always looked forward to this trip each year. I am not allowed to post pictures of my sister's kids now. I completely understand the reasoning, but I hate not getting to include them. Once they are adults I will hopefully have their permission to post their pictures :)

October 2013

Another tradition we have each year is to visit our local pumpkin patch. We do all the fun slides and swings first, then go on a hayride to the pumpkin patch to pick out our pumpkins, then we do the corn maze last.

For Halloween Maddy was Dora. She looks real enthused here doesn't she? lol

November 2013

December 2013

I love our church at Christmas time! 

Santa brought Maddy a big girl bed for this Christmas. She was quickly outgrowing her toddler bed. I love that she said it grew! I know Santa had a lot of little elves to help pull this off because not only did he bring her a bigger mattress, but he hauled off her old one. 

We survived the enormous amount of pictures 😳 whew! I'm having a hard time finding 2014 pictures on my computer, but have a whole album on Facebook. My plan is to go through those to pick and choose the pictures I can remember the details for and write about them. I promise this blog won't be this boring the whole time. My OCD just can't handle jumping in with current events and then going back in and filling in the gaps lol. I for one love all the memories I have, but I know if you don't know me or my family, this might be boring for you...we will get more interesting over time :) I hope you all have a wonderful day <3 p="">