in my neck of the woods

we have been busy we went camping for Labor Day weekend...and I would love to share some pictures with you, I even remembered to actually take the camera and make sure it had batteries in it....but what was missing?  The memory card so that idea is a bust.  But overall we had a good time.  The kids had a little bit of bad attitude off and on and one or two meltdown moments for the two year old...but overall it was a good time.  We enjoyed the pool.  We packed up a day early because of the weather.  Hubs didn't want me to have to pack up alone and put wet gear in the car.  And we got packed up just before the storm hit....so his idea was awesome. 

When we were preparing to go camping we found some sleeping bags and blankets that had been in a closet and just really needed to be washed after being stored for so long.  When we moved the blankets we found this. 

What we found are those big gaping holes that even though you can't tell because of the light in the picture lead to the outside of our house.  The wall was built on a row of cinder blocks or something and you could see outside daylight. That same day we moved the blankets we found a dead baby snake in here....umm i bet that is how alot of the mice and maybe that baby snake got in......And why the room is either so drastically hot or cold.  So if a little crack being sealed in a window or something can help with heating and cooling costs, we are hoping that this winter sealing these holes will make a difference in our utility expenses.

I went to lowes and bought this stuff for 3.72 a can.  It took 4 cans to fill the holes.

Here is the finished project.......

And that led me to clean out one storage bin from that closet and i will be able to reorganize it a little and get some other things in there that need to go in it.  One of our outside storage areas is flooding. 

We also picked up a freezer this week so we can start building up our food supply.  I bought some meats on sale at Food Lion this week and didn't realize there was no room for them in the regular freezer.  So Hubs said we needed a freezer bottom line...go get one....so I did.  This week our son went back to school...he started second grade.  We have been working on getting our two year old to sleep in her own room and not with us or her brother.   We also went shopping this week on our day off and picked up an outfit or two our anniversary photo shoot that will be happening in one month.  I am not sure if the photographer is backing out on me, but in the event that she does, I am working on a back up plan.  It is also my husband's birthday so I am brainstorming all kind of ideas for celebrating etc, but the budget is getting tight, because work is slowing down for the hubs now that all the vacationers have gone home.  Oh and I almost forgot we said goodbye to the kittens who were six weeks old.....and mama Swirl has been officially spayed so no more babies for her.  That is our week in a nutshell.

So what have you been up to.. I would love to hear about your week.  When winter comes, does your budget decrease or expenses increase?  How do you cope?