Valentines Day

I am big on"Holidays".

Every holiday.

Jake not so much.

Just because it is suppose to be the most romantic day of the year and just because you are suppose to profess your everlasting love for your spouse on February 14th, doesn't really mean a lot to him. Me on the other hand, holidays are held on certain days for a reason and that reason would be to celebrate them. BUT, I knew that when I married him so I have gotten over it over the years. Okay so I am still a little irritated with it! BUT my husband seems to know this and although he will never admit it, likes to play on this slight irriation of mine. He spoils me on days that have no meaning and not so much on the days that are suppose to! I will take those insignificant days! His calendar is a little off, but I love him nonetheless! So the holidays for me have turned into my kids. Valentines day was quite fun this year. We made valentines for each other, we made bags to hold our valentines, we made valentines for all our friends and we had a little valentines party on Sunday. When it came right down to it, the day was filled with love, lots of family love. Which is how it should be and I wouldn't have had any other way!

From Collages

I couldn't resist. I just feel like I have to share my amazing couponing trips with everyone. Not that anyone cares, but it makes me feel better to write it down. Gotta give a shout out to Lenny over at Albertsons on Cole Road! As I was standing there feverishly going through my coupons trying to figure out which ones to double (gives you 2x the face value of the coupon i.e. if coupons says $1 off - doubled would be $2 off) because I only had three of these prized possessions. He came up to me and said "Have enough doubler's?" and I said "Of course not, you can never have enough doubler's". "I'll be right back" he said. Comes back with 4 sets of doubler's (3 in each set), so now I have FIFTEEN DOUBLE COUPONS. In coupon world - you're pretty much on cloud 9! Let me break it down for ya' all!

Danimals Crush Cups 3 at $2.69 ea =$8.07 after coupons-.44 cents for ea 4 pk

Orbit gum (3 pack) 3 at $2.79= $8.37 after coupons - .79 cents for ea 3 pk

Rhodes frozen Rolls (12) 2 at $2.89 =$5.78 after coupons - .89 cents ea dozen

All laundry detergent (100 oz). 2 at $10.99 =$21.98 after coupons-$3.99 ea bottle

Kellogg's Rice Krispies (17 oz.) 2 at $4.69 =$9.38 after coupons - .74 cents each

Kellogg's Frosted Flakes 1 at $5.19 same as above

Kellogg's Fruit Loops 2 at $4.79 same as above


Dreyers Ice Cream (gallon) 2 at $6.49 =$12.98 after coupons - $ 2.24 ea


I bought some other stuff not pictured like meat (which was $19.98 of my total) 2 gallons of Dreyers ice cream, 3 paks of 3 Orbit gum and the licorice that I am eating right now! My total bill was $135.04 and I paid $32.62 for all this stuff!


AND I just got my 5 Sunday papers and what ya know, more doubler's- 15 more coupons ! WOOT! WOOT! Go ahead.... say it.... I am a freak. That's ok. I'm a freak who is saving money :)

COUPONS COUPONS COUPONS!

I have been "couponing" now for about 6 - 7 months. I was a Wal-Mart girl in every way. If it was in our house, it came from Wal-Mart. It is a one stop shop. Underwear, bread, hairspray, milk, diapers, and a cute pair of jeans!! The problem with the one stop shop is I always spent a lot more money on things I didn't need then on the things I really did need. It is kinda like Costco, you always walk out with things you don't need. Don't get me wrong, I love Wal-Mart, but it was not the best thing for my checkbook! I found out about a class that gave you the ins and outs of couponing. I was always one for a bargain, but I had no idea how many "bargains" I was missing out on. Long story short, I have cut my grocery bill by about $250 a month and have increased my food storage in the same token. It has become a challenge to see how much I can save. My one store stop has turned into 3 to 4 stores but it is amazing what you can save if you are willing to go to other places.

I have recently taken my couponing to a new level. Not sure if this is a good level or sheer madness. My husband would agree with the later. I get 5 Sunday papers and it is now a Sunday ritual to "cut" coupons with the kids - hey that is family time right? And yes I bought coupons on eBay. Yes you read it right, eBay. I got 20 $1.00 coupons for $1.79 - including shipping. So before you make any comments, let me give you a few scenarios where I have used coupons.

Albertsons had their annual Quaker sale. Oatmeal, granola bars, syrup, and pancake mix. The oatmeal and granola bars were buy 5 and get them for a $1.00 each, which is a great deal in it self, retail is about $2.79 - $3.49. Shopping Wal-mart I always bought generic brand. Now that I coupon, I get to buy name brands that cost less than generic or store brands. Anyway..... back to the sale.There are 18 boxes of granola bars here. They are $3.49 at Albertsons. With the sale and coupons I paid $2.46. Yes you read it right, that is .14 cents a box! THEN..... I got 10 boxes of instant QUAKER oatmeal for .60 cents. That's .o6 cents a box! I'm not done, I got 10 boxes of Aunt Jamima pancake mix ($3.39), 10 bottles of Aunt Jamima syrups($4.19), 10 boxes of Captain Crunch WITH Crunch Berries($4.49) are you ready.......... Retail would have been $120.70 BUT I paid $38.16! So what am I going to do with 18 boxes of granola bars, 10 boxes of pancake mix and syrup, and 10 boxes of Captain Crunch.

Granola bars: school lunches, after school snack, preschool snack turn, 72 hour kit
Pancake and Syrup: The pancake mix is good for a year and I bet you the syrup will be gone in 2 months! We love breakfast at our house
Captain Crunch - Most cereal is good for 9 - 12 months. It is good for a snack with or without milk! Again we love breakfast at our house.

So there you go! Couponing at its best! It has really been fun seeing how much I can save and it has helped my budget out A LOT! So psychotic or not,I'm saving some money baby!!!!

Pinewood Derby Baby!

The annual Pinewood Derby for our ward was Thursday night. It was quite the showing by "Kyle Jones". Let me back up a few days. We, well, Jake- because really this is his department- waited until the very last day (uh Tuesday night) to put this car together, regardless of several reminders from his wife. So they preceded to "finish" the car. Kyle was so excited and kept telling me, "Mom I think it's gonna win. Do you think it's gonna win? Maybe 2nd or 3rd, but I think it might be 1st". He was cute and so confident in his "car". Now I am not going to lie, I am going to go ahead and say what I really did say, to myself of course and maybe under my breath to Jake...... "What the heck is that? That is the lamest pinewood derby car I have ever seen."
Jake had YM Wednesday night, which just happen to be weigh in for the cars. So I pile all 4 rug rats in the car, haul 'em to the church. We get to the church and there is about 12 boys there with totally tricked out cars. Carved into aerodynamic shapes with racing stripes, flames, numbers and all this stuff. OK, if you can't see Kyles car, it is the original rectangle block of wood with the nose sloped down, THAT IS IT. I was so ticked. His 1st pinewood derby and my kid, my Kyle, had the lamest car there. He blew off the few negative comments that were said, but I was so mad. I was going to let Jake have it when he got home! We go into weigh his car and it is 2 oz. over the limit. Well you would have thought the Wall of China was coming down. He had sheer panic written on his face and my expression was the about the same. Now what am I suppose to do, all the weights are drilled and glued in there? Jake was not even reachable - he was on the ski slopes. Again, sheer panic. This was his first pinewood derby, his car was over weight, what do I do? What do I do? For those of you who don't know, Kyle being my first, everything is magnified by 10 when it comes to him. Sorry its true, it's psychotic and wrong but that's me. I'm working on it. Okay back to the story. Our dear friend came to the rescue. After a lot of drilling and re-gluing, Ky made weight!

I will spare you the details of the conversation that happened at home, but I am sure you can imagine.


So Thursday night comes, I'm nervous for my boy. It will be fine, he won't win, but that's okay we will take it as a learning opportunity. Kennedy and Cole are at the end of the track, so excited for their brother! They had no clue what was going on, but excited nonetheless! Race starts, race ends................ "Lane 2 - Kyle Jones". Wait......what? It took a couple minutes to register. He won, he won the race. I looked at Jake, Jake looked at me and we just busted up laughing. Kyle was elated, to say the least! I thought to myself it was just a fluke, he would be eliminated soon. HOLD UP! The next race, Lane 1 - Kyle Jones, than Lane 4-Kyle Jones, and Lane 3-Kyle Jones. You get the picture. 8 races and my boy won every single race with his "lame" pinewood derby car!

It was a photo finish!

Ok so now when am I going to eat crow you are asking? Oh I did, believe me. I took back everything I said and apologized immensely. Who would of thought a slanted piece of block wood would win! We headed to Dairy Queen for the after party and had some freezing treats to go with our freezing weather! I am not sure who was more excited that Kyle won, Jake or Kyle, but Jake was a proud papa!

I have started taking a parenting class again. I took it for about 3 years ago for the 2 previous years and absolutely loved it. It changed my life. The teacher, Sister Tanner is one of the most inspirational people both emotional and spiritually that I have ever met. She has really given me a lot of tools and suggestions to help me in the toughest job of my live - being a mom! I thought that I had heard it enough times that I could implement it and adapt it to my life. Well not so much. After all she did say that it took her 7 years for her techniques to become habit - and here I am thinking I could do it in 2!!! So we are back - yup Jake is going with me! I am so excited to get some more ideas and tools in the never ending quest of "being a good parent". Not that I even know what that means but I sort of have an idea how I would "like" it to be! Anyhow she puts together a syllabus that has the outline of her lesson, quotes from the prophets, scriptures, stories and poems. I came across this poem and it made me think of my last post. Even though I try and most of the time fail, having a clean house is not where my high should come from.

Maybe one day I will get it!

Excuse this House
Some houses try to hide the fact
that children shelter here.
Our boasts of it quite openly
the signs are everywhere.
For smears are on the windows,
little smudges on the door.
I should apologize I guess,
for toys strewn on the floor.
But I sat down with the children
and we laughed & played & read.
And if the doorbell doesn't shine
their eyes will shine instead.
For when at times I am forced to choose
the job or the other.
I want to be a housewife,
but first I'll be a Mother.

Something about a clean house..........
this is truly my obsessive compulsive disorder manifesting itself in full light! Seriously, a clean house really does it for me. It is exhilarating to me...sick I know. The smell of cleaning supplies, the vacuum marks in the carpet, the dirt you see on the white rag...okay maybe not that, that kinda tells you how dirty your house really is!!! I can't quite figure it out because it is such a brief moment in time in my life right now. It couldn't be that I am a control freak or my organization compulsion, could it?!# I used to be so good at cleaning my house. Every week it got a good cleaning up and down. Well I am not sure if I am slowing down with old age, finding more excuses to put it off, or just getting lazy. The weekly cleans aren't happening that much anymore. But every time I do manage to pull myself together and get it done I wonder each time why I waited so long to do it again. Its like I don't get it, like I can't remember the high it gives me from the last time I did it. Okay wait, this is starting to sound like a drug addict......maybe I should try drugs. Maybe that could help my situation. Anyhow, I usually start downstairs, do the main living area, the areas people see so they can think I am a good house keeper, then upstairs to the real mess- the rooms. I get to all the bathrooms, all the floors, all the dusting, all the vacuuming EXCEPT my room. What is with the master always being the last to get cleaned. Seriously, I have had this conversation with several people and they say the same thing, the master is that last to get cleaned. It makes me so mad. Seriously, why is that? So I started something different. I cleaned my master FIRST! I did eventually get to everything else in the next two days and there was a brief moment in time (10 mins max) that my WHOLE house was clean. It was so nice to walk from a clean house to a clean bedroom. Why didn't I think of this sooner, duh? So why am I blogging about this you ask. Because I just wanted to blog about something nonsense and leave all the heart felt,life changing stuff to my other blogging friends! So there you have it, my silly OCD moment. Happy cleaning.:)
P.S. So wish the picture was the house I had to clean!

IT' S OVER??????

From Collages

What......it's over? Already? How can that be?

Weeks of preparation, endless shopping trips,

returning, exchanging, buying it again, wrapping.

And it is all over with.....

Christmas has come and gone.

Although our kids made out like pirates with their loot

it always seems so sad when it is all over.

All the hype is over in such a short time.

I love putting up my decorations.

It makes it feel so festive and so fun around the house.

For some reason any other season I decorate for

doesn't quite have the same feeling.

I dread taking it down.

It is so much work and it makes my house

feel so empty and so boring.

I wonder if I kept them up all year if that feeling would continue?

Naaaa, probably not!!!

So another year done and gone.

Where did it go?