What a full day!

What a day we've had! Our day began with celebrating a birthday with our friend Josiah. The kids had a blast running and playing outdoors again. They were having fun reuniting with great buddies. Our recent visits to the park have been just me and the kids. They really savored playing with their buds again! These friends were friends we saw weekly for over a year, so it was doubling great to see them all at the park! The kids were enjoying themselves and I was too - so no pictures of this fun day!

We left the park to rush home for a small group. JB had a quick nap on the way to our birthday party, but otherwise the kids were void of rest and the usual routine. We made it home to throw on their bathing suits and grab their towels. We arrived at another friend's house and the kids ran to splash away in the kiddie pool. Once everyone arrived it was so nice to see the JOY of kids running, laughing, playing, jumping, splashing - just utter JOY! I wished to be a kid again for just that moment! No worries, no cares - just play! Nah, I wouldn't trade a minute of my life! It's been a roller coaster at times but I cherish every moment. Every layer of triumph or pain has shaped me into I am today. I like my life, it suits me!

Anyway, the kids swam and jumped away on the trampoline! What a fun time!! I really wish I would have picked up my camera to photograph this moment! It was so fun! All the Mommies visited while the babysitters watched our angels play! (Gotta love having babysitters around while you chat with friends!) After our "meeting" - the kids were like zombies. SO tired. SO exhausted! SOO not willing to admit either fact! We drove home to take baths, to eat and to rest. Ahhh... there is no other feeling like coming home after a BUSY day!

On another note, I have been telling HC we swim in the summer and not the spring. She has made it her daily duty to ask me "Is it summer yet mom?" I have been telling her it is not summer yet, but now - she has gone swimming in the spring! I guess my answer is no longer good enough. Now she will begin the banter of when we will pull out our kiddie pool again. It seems that will be sooner than I expected!

The best news of all is my sweet nephew arrived this morning! He arrived around 11 am!! I am busting! I cannot wait to see him with my own eyes. I planned on seeing him in June, but I just don't think I can wait that long! I need to hold him and smell the sweet baby smell! For now, I can only look at the pictures (via phone pics) and patiently wait for my turn to see him! {sigh} I hope to have pictures to share soon!

A last and a first

Today is a special day! My baby brother and his wife are having their last day as parents to be. They will be welcoming their bundle of joy into this world tomorrow! I can remember the anticipation mode they are now in. The baby's room is ready. They've waited for the onset of labor. The wonder of how labor will come and if it will be as traumatic as they fear. The wonder of how this little boy will transform their lives. To think they know what that will be like, but to really know when they lay eyes on him for the first time. To bring that little guy home for the first time. To see how teeny he will look in the baby car seat. To look in your rear view mirror like never before. To not want to do anything but look at him ALL the time. To feel so overwhelmed by love that they feel it is too much to bear!! To want everyone who dares to visit you to use hand sanitizer. To want any and ALL children who may breathe near your precious angel to go away - no colds for my baby! :) To want everyone to look at your miracle and think they are as fabulous as you do. To want people to see and adore your baby but not to touch - again GERMS! :) To think having a baby isn't so bad until.... they begin to cry for no reason (or so it seems) so you try everything you learned in the baby classes to find they do not work. So you are forced to do any number of things you SWORE you would NEVER do because you are tired and think you may never sleep again.

This is their last day of peace and quiet whenever they want peace and quiet. Their last day of deciding to do life on a whim. Their last day to do many number of things, without the responsibility of another one. But the first day of everything grand and wonderful! I cannot wait to hear when our little guy arrives! I am busting with joy for them because this time in their lives is so unique and so overwhelming and so great all at once! To be a Mommy and a Daddy! What a privilege. What a blessing! What a joy! We are waiting with anticipation!!! Cannot wait!

Coupon Storage

I know - this is really crazy but I thought if y'all are like me - you had zero coupons to start with, which means you do not have a filing plan. There are many ways to get organized but this is what works for me. I first started out with this expandable coupon file folder. I quickly had more coupons than would fit the folder. This photo box was my next step but I still haven't grown into this size yet. Can I tell you that my small group leader has a photo box JAM packed full of coupons!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am NOT kidding! I've been struggling to figure out where I would put my coupons during the in between phase and then I had a great idea!
I put my file folder in my box and bought another file folder. This keeps my different types of coupons separated and orderly. I bought another one so that I could spread out certain sections. My health and beauty was growing quickly and it was hard to find the shampoos vs. the body wash coupons and so on... So now, I use the larger colored index cards to label my coupons into smaller sections.
Ta-dah!!!! The finished product! My daughter had fun watching me organize my coupons. "Coupon" has become a common word around our house!

Saving Tips 101

Several of you have asked for more information or for a resource. My only suggestion is for you to go to Coupon Mom and print out her e-book. Her e-book is fantastic. You will need to answer a ton of ad questions but it is worth getting to the e-book. There are many other websites that offer coupons you can print from your home computer. Some stores gladly accept these while others do not. You will need to find out by asking customer service at your local grocery.

The best plan is to buy multiple Sunday papers so you get several coupons for one item. I usually buy an even number of papers so that if the item goes BOGO I can maximize my savings. In my neck of the woods, we find the best place to purchase Sunday papers is Walgreens. They sell them here for $1.00. Check your local stores for the best price on Sunday papers and buy several!

Here is something I bought yesterday. Since I bought 2 papers the week before, I had 2 coupons for the item I purchased:
I bought 2 Lysol disinfectant wipes, they were BOGO and I had two 50 cent off manufacture coupons. So the Lysol (80 sheets) was originally $4.99 each. Being BOGO meant they rang up as $2.50 and $2.49 when purchased. I was then able to use my two 50 cents off coupons. This made the prices $1.50 and $1.49, since my store doubles coupons up to 50 cents. When I picked up my Lysol wipes, there were other Lysol cleaners with $1.00 off coupon - when I purchased 2 Lysol products. These coupons were not on my containers but the coupons were still good to use for my purchase. So I took it off the item and brought this coupon too. Since it was something you peel off and use on the purchase today I then took off another $1.00 off of my purchase. So now, my total for the two Lysol's were $1.00 and 99 cents. I bought 2 Lysol disinfectant wipes for $1.99, my final price. That is a real life example of how you not only buy sales, you look around at other products to see how you can save beyond what you have in your hands!

I think the best way to describe it is by being AWAKE while you shop. This means no kids with you - this takes concentration. You are constantly looking for deals and trying to remain alert to any unexpected deals (like the additional coupons that I found on the Lysol)! Stay awake while you shop!

I am SOOOO excited!

Check out what I bought this morning! I bought two 24 packs of bottled water at $2.99 each. Three boxes of Oatmeal at $1.99 each. Three softsoaps at 99 cents each. A dove shampoo and conditioner were BOGO, leaving a cost of $4.99 for one. I paid $1.41 for my purchase!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! $1.41 came out of my wallet!!!!!! I had $12 in reward bucks and the rest were coupons! I AM AMAZED! Great deal huh!?! I just had to share! I saved $34.12 and spent $1.41. These deals were all purchased at Walgreens! Some of the prices and coupons end today!

A new family member and goodies

This was the first year we did not have Easter baskets for the kids. We never mention the Easter Bunny, it just never seemed relevant to me, but we did have baskets for the kids. This year our last minute plans to visit family changed our plans. So we handled things differently. Our plan was to buy a fish - so we took the kids to buy a fish. I would like to introduce our newest family member, our purple Betta fish named...... Goldie! Imagine that a purple fish named Goldie! :) The kids LOVE him!! He is a sweet little guy! More on our adventures with Goldie later! He is an interesting little guy. He's shown himself to be demanding right away! The other big gift was marbles! The kids were always pretending to play marbles after seeing a few cartoons where they played them. HC and JB were beyond excited to learn how to play! HC kept asking if we could go outside and draw a circle on the dirt so she could play marbles. Here they are dumping their marbles to play.
I also found these washcloths that grow when you put them into water.
Daddy showing them how to play marbles. Notice HC's apron - she calls it her cape!
JB shooting his shooter marble! Don't you love that face!
HC aiming.... and she missed!
HC loved watching her washcloth open up! Here is her final product...
and JB's!

I doubt they realize these gifts were their Easter gifts but they were still thrilled! We will return to our tradition again next Easter, but I think their Easter fun outweighed missing the basket! They still talk about the crawfish and Uncle Jill having her baby. They think anytime they smell the aroma of good food outdoors that PawPaw must be SOMEWHERE nearby cooking. And Mimi should be close by too! I think missing an Easter basket was the LEAST of their worries! I am glad for our fun visit!

Drinking in the whispers of Spring!!

I wonder at times if those around us think we are on vacation. I always snap pics of the kids when we are out having fun together! On this day I felt like a tourist but I want to capture my kids having fun whenever possible! There is clearly a record being kept for them to look back on one day! I can't get enough of my two! They really make life more fun! We took this picture near the purple flowers since purple is HC's favorite color! Splashing in this water is JB's favorite! :)
Finally we are out playing again! Spring is finally here! But, no HC, it isn't time to swim yet! It is still too cold for that!
" Look at me Mom! I am the princess of the castle!"
I see you HC!
"I'm up REAL high Mom!"
Just a swingin'!
Swingin'. :) I really wanted to get a picture that looked like they were flying high, I will have to try this again!
That is JB up on top of that red caterpillar like thing! He is much more brave than HC when it comes to climbing high!
JB and HC trying to get the other kids to play their game. The other kids were not obliging. They did not want to give the pretend tickets before the took their turn down the slide! Eventually HC and JB took turns taking tickets from one another. Much better plan! :)

We had a fun time enjoying the cool breeze along with the WARM sunshine! A PERFECT spring day! I pray those of you who are still too cold (due to temps or snow) to enjoy outdoors will begin enjoying Spring where you are too!

My Monday Savings!!

I AM SO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I did it!! I saved big without any help!! I was so afraid I would be back in the $30 savings bracket! It thrills me beyond words that I was able to put my learning into action AND I saw results!

Here are my bottom line #'s:
Local grocery A - spent $85.93, saved $53.12, rebate 11.99 (I also bought an additional 10 lbs of boneless/skinless chicken breast at 1.99 per lb. and I bought 3 chuck roasts at 1.99 a lb) These savings are not a counted portion of my savings since they rang up the discounted price. So that is why my ticket was in the $80's. The value was worth it. In addition, (this was indicated in my savings) the coffee my husband drinks is normally $5.99 a pound. Although we stocked up about 3 lbs. on my last shopping trip I bought 7 more last night. This is where you begin shopping the store and NOT from your list. The agenda of savings is to have a stocked pantry and freezer. Then all you do is shop the ads. If the item is on sale AND you have a great coupon THEN you buy it. So - the deal. His coffee was on sale for $4.99 a lb AND the coffee had $2 off coupons ON the coffee. I paid $2.99 a lb for his coffee. We probably do not need coffee again this year. We will store the coffee in the freezer to keep it from spoiling. (Does coffee even spoil?)

Ok, store #2 is another local grocer. I spent $56.93 and saved $27.88, rebates of $3.69. The reason I went to this store, and the other one, is because they offer different deals. Store #2 offers a penny item on Monday nights and it was worthwhile to WALK through the store for their bargains of BOGO's and to see if they had anything special marked down. One thing I've learned by taking the shopping class is that some stores (not all of them so watch your prices next time to see how your stores do this) ring up a BOGO item as 2 items rather than one. So, here's an example. Say the store has BOGO coffee (from above example) and that would mean I would get 2 coffee's for $5.99. This store, and store #1 by the way, ring up the coffee like this: coffee 1 would be $3 and coffee 2 would be $2.99. Because it rings up this way if I had a few coupons I could use them on both items. So say I had 2 fifty cents off coupons. I give the cashier my 2 coupons and then that brings my coffee prices down to: coffee 1 = $2 and coffee 2 = $1.99. They double coupons up to 5o cents so I get my BOGO at $3.99 instead of $5.99. Does that make sense?? (If you had only one coupon and didn't really NEED the item on BOGO, since they ring up both items at the split price you could buy one and use the coupon and pay half the price you would by buying both. I hope this makes sense because it is really a helpful tool!)

I ended at Walgreens to purchase all my rebates for this month. They have free items every month. Go to Walgreens and pick up a booklet for the items offered. Buy them and then turn in your rebates and you have these items for free! So I spent $67.11, saved $61.49 AND I will get $23.95 in rebates PLUS I got $4 in store bucks for my next visit! Cha-ching! :)

Today I went to Wal-Mart for my can goods that were not on sale. You never know if you will find a deal! I walked in and saw they had 2 packs of steam fresh veggies for $2 and I had a $1 off coupon for buying 2 steam fresh = I bought 4 sf veggies for $2. :) I only saved $4 at Wal-Mart and spent $38.78. See the LACK of savings potential at Wal-Mart! Although, without sales and without coupons - their straight up price is often cheaper! You just have to pick and choose what you buy there! Ad matches or must haves only!

Grand total #'s:
Total spent = $248.75
Total saved = $146.49
Total rebate= $ 39.63

savings and rebates = 186.12

I was so relieved! I did it! I did save! I look forward to my next chance to improve my skills further! There were a few mistakes I made. For a quick example: Walgreens had a coupon for softsoap being 99 cents a piece with a limit of 3. I had two 35 cents off coupons. I stupidly bought my soap at Walgreens and this was my deal = 2 soaps for 1.28. I could have taken the coupon from Walgreens to store #2 and used the 99 cent coupon with my 35 cent coupon (which store 2 doubles) and spent 58 cents for the 2 products. These are the kind of mistakes you have to make so you will do better next time! Store #2 lets you use a competitor coupon and a manufacture coupon = this is called coupon stacking! So, I lost the opportunity to save another 70 cents. No big deal but it would have been worth the effort to save! If you have questions - let me know! Your questions may help me too!

Tiny Talk Tuesday *Updated*

The tiny ones are talking around here! Mary of Not Before 7 hosts a weekly Tiny Talk Tuesday. Visit her blog for more entertaining things to read!

HC: Dad. (in a confession like tone) I think I lost my marbles. (after much searching - I wish you could hear the inflection of this next line.)
HC: I have NO idea where I left my marbles!!!! (followed by "why are YOU laughing Mom?" if HC only knew!)

I only wish I would have heard this one with my own ears!!! Last night, while I was grocery shopping, HC said the following to my husband!
HC: God reminded me that you said to clean my room after my nap, but he was talking too soft so I could not hear him.

The other day we decided to do something hubby and I loved doing pre-kids. We were looking (via driving around - not going in) at houses for sale. We stopped at a few houses to take an information flyer.
HC: MOM! (with authority) That is NOT nice to steal every one's papers!! (Hubby and I thought this was hilarious! You had to hear her inflection!)

Words JB uses:
Dad has become "Daiyad" (God help us with this twangy speech! May it be temporary!)
Spot = "Spock"
Yeah = "Yayeeyah"
I need to take better notes of what he says. He says some zingers too! HC's are just hilarious and easier to remember! I will do better!

*Update*
So -ALL morning I've heard about "i wish i could find my marbles mommy! i wish i could find my marble!!!!" This begins to wear on your soul because, like the woman who badgered the judge (in the Bible) my daughter was driving me nuts! So, I finally decided to share a method with HC that I've used many times!!! I told HC about my method - I pray for God to remind me where I put whatever I've lost or whatever I've misplaced. I ask Him to remind me where I last put it or to reveal to me where it was moved.

We walked BACK into HC's room and we looked again. I truly had NO idea what this precious child did with her marbles. We looked in her room and this took a few minutes then I saw them. They had fallen behind her toy box. I looked everywhere on many searches in her room and never saw them until then. I showed HC where they were and we thanked God for opening our eyes to see them! Just thought I would share the end of this tiny talk with you! :)