My name is Meredith Knowles. I live in the country with my husband, two sons, two daughters, a tarantula and a gecko. I'm pretty sure that there are a couple of mice living in my house as well but I prefer not to think about that.
I have a full time sales job in the technology sector and my husband, Dan, is a stay at home dad. I work from home most days. This arrangement works for us because I really enjoy walking out of my office, stirring the kids up into a frenzy and then looking my husband straight in the eye and saying, "I have a call" and disappearing back into the office leaving him to deal with the children. He loves it when I do this.
Between work and the busy academic and social schedules of 4 children we don't have a lot of time for frivolity, like showering.
So we spend a lot of time at home. I have a Type A++ personality and for the first couple of years being housebound really drove me crazy until I discovered that cooking delicious food is a perfectly wonderful way to accomplish something while being cooped up in the house at the same time. Unfortunately I also discovered that eating delicious food is a perfectly wonderful way to gain 15 pounds.
So I took up triathlons. Why triathlons you ask? and not running OR biking OR swimming? Why all 3? See the part above about the type A++ personality. Why do one sport when you can do all 3? Why have 2 children when you can have 4? Why drink 1 Diet Coke when you can drink the whole 12 pack? (I have a thing about Diet Coke.)
It's really hard to find time to train right now so I'm sort of on a hiatus. I hate it. I need to figure out how to work it in. I'm open to suggestions.
Anyway, in addition to the children and the cooking I spend a lot of time thinking about money. Mainly about how to do more with the money I have and how to enjoy the money I spend. Last year I saved over $4000 at the grocery store by cooking recipes using items that were on sale and by using coupons. I used to hate coupons but I found an easy way to incorporate them into my shopping routine that has saved me a fortune.
I also have a lot of tricks for saving money on things like teacher gifts, birthday gifts, etc. And since I've stress tested just about every piece of kid-gear out there I like to give product reviews on what works (and what doesn't.)
Back in the day (before children) I LOVED to travel. I've spent a month in S. Korea, several months in Europe, including a month in the Czech Rebublic and weeks in Hungary, East Germany and Poland. I spent a month in Africa. If you ever have a chance to travel to Africa, seize it.
I don't get to travel much anymore (if you don't count camping in the National Parks or DisneyWorld) and I miss it but I am enjoying camping more than I expected to with the kids in tow.
I used to take a million pictures when I travelled with my Canon Rebel film camera. It's obsolete now (and yet just sold for $100 on ebay!) but I didn't have the discretionary funds to spend $900 on a new Digital version. I watched eBay and Craigslist and recently snagged one for $350! ($250 if you count the $100 I got for my old camera.)
So I've been taking a lot of pictures. And I can't say that the camera has helped, but taking a lot of pictures sure has. If you're interested in photography take LOTS of pictures. With Digital cameras there's really no excuse not to. And if your subjects are as photogenic as mine you'll be glad you did.
Thanks for coming to my website and checking us out. I'm sorry I haven't given you more information about me but I'd be happy to answer your questions if you have any. And I'm looking forward to getting to know you too!
