All posts by Anne Younger

Anne is a 30-something full-time SAHM mom of 5 ranging from 3 to 17 and grandma of 1 who resides in Ashwaubenon (Green Bay) Wisconsin. She started blogging in 2008 as a way to regain her sanity. She enjoys coffee, chocolate, cheeseburgers and vodka along with spending time with her husband and kids.
Uncategorized

Know Your Number

Leave a comment

As we are getting closer to the dream of finally being homeowners, I have been keeping an eye on our credit report to make sure nothing bad happens.  I began monitoring our credit report two years ago when we started paying off debt and have enjoyed watching our scores rise….slowly…but in the right direction.  Monitoring our credit has been a great tool for us because it has allowed us to educate ourselves on how credit scores are calculated and how the whole system works.  By monitoring I have been able to raise our scores across the board by informing different bureaus that they were not reporting on a ‘good’ account.

We have invested a lot of time and money into repairing our credit which is why it is so important to us that we continue to monitor it.  After paying off the bad debt at the beginning of last year, we enlisted the help of a local company to help us clean up our credit as well…..another reason that I monitor it so closely.  I like receiving an email whenever something new is reported to any of the bureaus and love it even more when I am notified that a score has increased!

What do you do to keep your credit in check?  Do you know how you can get your free credit score?

Uncategorized

Studying Up

Leave a comment

I have spent countless hours over the last few months reading about buying a home.  I have read about HUD homes, FHA loans,  interest rates, financing, Mortgage Refinance Rates, how to buy a foreclosure, how not to become house poor and more. Shoot….I even read about VA loan rates just because the info was there!

I find myself constantly searching on Google for more info to fill my crazy brain with.  The way  I see it, the more I know the easier it will be to understand what we are doing and how we are going to get through the crazy, emotional mess that is buying a house.  Yes, I said crazy…..I have yet to find someone who has had their entire home buying process go off without a hitch.

I’m just preparing myself early.  I want to make sure that I know what to expect.

Now I just need to go back to sitting and waiting to hear back from our mortgage dude and see where we stand.

Again, please keep your fingers crossed that we will be shopping for a house SOON!!!!

Uncategorized

The journey to home ownership

Leave a comment

As I have mentioned before, the Alex and I are getting ready to begin the journey towards becoming homeowners. We have had to take a few extra years to do so in order to repair our credit thanks to a little birdie pretending to be the Alex a few years back and destroying his credit via the internet. Had I known then what I do now about identity theft protection, I would have enlisted the help of a service like Identity Hawk to help safeguard us. If only I could turn back the hands of time!

We are hoping that this is the year in which we purchase a home of our own. A home that I can paint any color I want and decorate it just right and make it ours.

I sent an email off to the mortgage officer that has been working with us for the last year to see if we are ready to jump in and get the process started. Now I am just waiting for him to return to work from his vacation and let me know where we are.

If we aren’t quite there yet we will be doing everything in our power over the next few months to get there because we want to be in our own home before the kids start school in September. I hate the thought of them starting school and then having to pack everything up and move them and then having to get settled in once again.

Ideally we would like to stay in the same community we are currently living in so the kids can stay at the same schools and we will still be close to my parents.

So, keep your fingers crossed for us that you will be hearing news that we are house hunting soon!!

Uncategorized

Homemade Play dough

Leave a comment

Alexander loves play dough and we tend to go thru A LOT of it since he likes to get real creative and mix colors when he is in creative mode. Because of his obsession with play dough I have learned that it is more cost effective to make our own play dough at home than it is to continuously buy it. Being a former day care teacher, I have a lot of awesome recipes for different things in this head of mine and the play dough recipe I use is wonderful.
All you need is:
1 cup flour
1/2 cup salt
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 cup water
1 tablespoon oil
Food coloring
Storage containers

Mix together the flour, salt and cream of tartar in a saucepan. Mix water, oil and food coloring together and gradually stir into dry ingredients. Cook over medium heat stirring until dough forms into a ball. Remove from heat and knead until smooth.

I personally like to make bigger batches, mix it up, separate it into large ziploc bags and then add the food coloring and let Alexander mix it together by squishing it around in the bag. It is another great sensory project before he even gets to play with the dough!

I also love that by mixing it in the bag you get a marbled result….I just think it looks really neat!

Enjoy!

Uncategorized

Make Your Own CHUNKY Toddler Tie Dyed Crayons

Leave a comment

We happen to go through A LOT of crayons in our house. I feel like I am constantly buying them. Over the years Zack & Libby were required to have crayons in their school supplies which always left us with baggies of crayon remnants at the end of the year. Now that Alexander is into coloring I have found that he performs better with the thick chunky crayons but these tend to be cost a bit more than your standard crayon so we decided to put our crayon remnants to good use and make our own chunky toddler tie dyed crayons.