Posts filed under 'Life'
My friend Suzy tagged me. I get tagged a lot but usually the tagging involves very hard-core, thought-provoking and soul-bearing information all held in one blog post, so I usually don’t play along. But Suzy’s tag is to tell 5 things about myself. Sorry if you’ve tagged me in the past but I clearly felt very inadequate. I’m working on that. Maybe that should be #1?
1. I love chocolate chip cookies with no nuts. And anything tasty that resembles them, i.e. the Cookie Monster dessert at Cheddar’s or chocolate chip brownies.
2. I love working out. I’d do it every day if I could still spend time with my kids. And when the weather is nicer I will take the girls in my jogging stroller while I run. [And if I ate fewer chocolate chip cookies, I might not have to work out as much as I do.]
3. I love my house. One moth Suzy did a really cool series on her blog – 31 things she loves about her house. Don’t be offended if you see something like this on my blog soon. I’m just sayin.
4. I love my kids. I think you’ve seen evidence of this on my blog, but just wanted to reiterate it. They have made me evaluate how short and fleeting this life really is. And I promise you they are the best kids only because God made them that way.
5. I love my husband. These obviously aren’t in order of importance or he would be first, even above chocolate chip cookies. *gasp!* The day I married Kevin was the greatest day of my life, and I get to re-live that day every day as his wife. God did a great thing bringing us together – it could only have been His doing, and I know that no matter how hard things get, there is nothing that will tear us apart.
I think now I’m supposed to tag 5 people. Really I should be tagging whoever wants to play, but for sake of following the rules and overcoming my inadequacies, I tag Amanda, Leslie, Sara, Brandy, & Rachel. And no tag-backs! 
March 6th, 2010
In honor of Read Across America week, I thought I’d give you a picture of our newest bookworm.
March 5th, 2010
Today in Bible study we used Zacchaeus and Jesus puppets to tell the story. This is Kennedy giving Zacchaeus a piggyback ride during music class. He Is short, after all.
March 4th, 2010
I’m taking a break from regularly scheduled pictures to give you an update on something else I’ve been doing this year. At Thanksgiving celebrations a few months ago, my dear mother-in-law asked me why I hadn’t been updating the blog in awhile? I thought she just meant she wanted to see pictures of the grandkids. (because after all, isn’t a picture what most of you are looking for when you come here?) But then she went on to say, “You know, you could be a writer.” I think she said some other stuff about how brilliant my writing was and how funny I was and the best daughter-in-law I was… I don’t know what she said. I wasn’t listening; I was having a Lightening McQueen moment when he dreams he’s the spokescar for Dinoco… and then I was jarred back into reality by the need to discipline my sweet children for poking each other in the eyes with said Lightening & Dinoco cars.
So, I put out some feelers… I contacted some blogs I knew and looked up some I didn’t… Like any time you apply for a job, I knew I’d probably have some disappointments. For one, I was surprised that none of the faith-based companies replied to me, since in my writing I display an overexuberance of God spilling out of my guts. But God knows exactly what He’s doing. And that’s cliche, but true.
Then, Stephanie contacted me and invited me to guest post for the Parenting site at 5 Minutes for Mom a few weeks ago. I am completely humbled to be given this opportunity, as I’ve loved reading 5M4M for a few years now. I never dreamed I’d get to write for them.
Here’s the links to my articles and I would encourage you to subscribe to their feed – I also have all of the sister sites bookmarked too. [parenting, special needs, going green, books, faith, and giveaaways] I’ve had articles up each Friday for the past few weeks and I have another one to be published this Friday. And if you can find a decent pic of me to use for my byline, let me know. I’m a writer, not a design artist.
Why
Shortcomings
Monosyllabic
Segues
March 3rd, 2010
The rug I ordered for the living room 6 weeks ago was backordered and just arrived today. [I'll take pics of the rug in the room soon.] The kids decided that while I was trying to get it opened, they should all make it a horse. Giddyup, rug.
March 2nd, 2010
Colby said this when running by me today. My kids love chasing each other all around the house and today’s game was chasing with a spatula. I’m guessing to cook each other they would tickle each other with the spatula? I didn’t ever see the “cooking” going on. But not to worry, these cooking utensils really are for toy usage – I have my own for the kitchen for actual food consumption.
[If you look carefully you'll see Carlee crawling to be part of the game too. I had to stop the kids for this very posed picture with said spatula.]
March 1st, 2010
Colby’s school had I love Mommy day today. I brought him Chick-fil-A and he made me a cute necklace and we ate cupcakes and he sang me a song and he gave me these purple flowers and I loved I love Mommy day. What a great kid.
February 26th, 2010
Sometimes Colby gets to play games on my iPhone. Sometimes he’ll take pictures. Here is one from today.
February 25th, 2010
I have never seen snow in my hometown like this. I was like a kid in a candy store, glued to my window to watch the best white stuff I’ve seen south of the Red River.
I actually got excited when the outside looked like this. It was snowing! And sticking to the dirt.
The kids enjoyed watching too [one of my fave pics I've taken.]
BUT THEN.
I think the final count was 2 inches. That’s pretty unheard of where I live. And when you consider that 2 days ago it was 75 degrees. [Then 2 days after it was 60 degrees.]
My kids built a snowman and then jumped on the trampoline with Kim. Pics on Kevin’s camera coming hopefully soon.
February 23rd, 2010
Guess how much I paid for this? $1.84 At Walgreens.
It should have been free, but I’m still learning the ropes and my girls decided to scream like banshees and Kennedy was jumping in the cart and the checkout guy was a mistaken commentator [you know the type - the one when I present the coupons says, "Oh, let's see, Excedrin? Do you have any Excedrin? Okay, Menstrual Complete, yes you do!" *groan*] I’m glad I wasn’t buying anything any more, ahem, personal. And, I’ll be visiting a different Walgreens location from now on.
February 22nd, 2010
…A-Kennedy in a basket.
February 21st, 2010
The Hoovers came over for dinner tonight. Chris & Christine, Landon & Colton [Madison was at a tennis tournament.] A great way to end a very busy week.
February 19th, 2010
Kiddo swap was at our house tonight. This was by our back door, on the way out to the trampoline.
And, it was also Colby’s first soccer practice today. Check out Those shoes.
February 17th, 2010
Remember Kim who made snow? Today she was a buffalo. Apparently it’s catching.
I love Carlee’s face and eyes in this one.
February 16th, 2010
I had a lot of people ask me about my couponing success (and past failures). I wanted to take a break from the photo blogging for a day and give some clarifications on what I do personally and what others do. You can call this the 7 Habits of Highly Effective Shopping. Just kidding.
1. I am not an expert. There are literally hundreds of blogs that people have started (most of them stay-at-home moms) to find the best sales and the best coupons and match them together to make the best deals. I would consider them experts. On these blogs, there’s quite the terminology you have to learn in order to decipher these couponing techniques. I am still learning.
2. These blogs give out all the deals for the week. It might list something like “buy 5 sticks of deodorant for $5 and get $20 back” (which would be awesome if you ever snag that deal, let me know!). YOU DON’T HAVE TO BUY EVERY SINGLE DEAL. Like my friend Melissa, I don’t need 5 sticks of deodorant. These couponing bloggers say that you can save the extras for donating, but I see that as a waste for someone who really needs deodorant to be able to get it, if you’ve already taken it off the shelf from them.
3. Also, my family has a lot of allergies. We are allergic to some forms of: milk, diapers, bath soaps, laundry detergent, shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste, deodorant, shaving cream, lotion, some snacks… So you can bet that there are coupons for the things we are allergic to but we can’t use them. We don’t want to try and buy those things just to get the discount – again, wasting products. We do buy organics and there’s not a lot of coupons out there but we do use them.
4. The couponing blogs give out deals for all kinds of stores. The ones we have in bcs are Kroger’s, Target, Wal-Mart, CVS, and Walgreen’s. (There might be others.) The ones closest to me are Kroger’s, Target, Wal-Mart, and Walgreen’s. Do I visit them all in one week? No way, Jose. I don’t have time and I use the time that Colby is in school to do all my shopping – with my 2 girls in tow. I can spend all week shopping or I can spend an hour or two with prepared coupons and get a few great deals.
5. The time spent to coupon is actually not as much as you might think. Just as when you learn a new skill or task, it does take a little more time and effort at first, but eventually you get used to it. And, you can do as much or as little as you want. If you’ve ever heard of The Grocery Game, I did that before [read: past failure] and eventually got tired of paying for a service that wasn’t worth it to me. I ended up trying products that either I was allergic to or I felt like I had to buy but didn’t like. But I do know a lot of people who have had much success with it. I think one of my problems was needing more than one store to look at – I only looked at Kroger’s. Here’s an article with some helpful info I found about The Grocery Game.
6. I might have already said this in some form, but it’s worth repeating. You don’t have to hit every sale or buy every single thing with a coupon. It’s nice to save money and it feels great to know that you have made some really great deals. But sometimes those couponing blogs seem a little cult-like, with the way they follow sales and obsess over the next time something will go on sale. Life will go on, whether you use coupons or not.
7. If all else fails, I use Wal-Mart for my go-to. Everything is usually cheapest at Wal-Mart, unless you find those good deals.
8. (Okay, 8 habits) – Kroger doubles and triples some coupons. That is why I shop there sometimes. Otherwise their prices are definitely much higher. But sometimes you can get items for free at Kroger’s just because of one 35cent coupon from the newspaper. BUT keep in mind that if you print coupons (usually from coupons.com) there are capital letters up at the top that say “DO NOT DOUBLE OR TRIPLE.” Keep that in mind when you want to print out a 40cent coupon and it really is worth only 40cents, not 80 like you originally thought.
My friend Tiffany blogs about couponing. She sent me to a website called Southern Savers. I also found Coupon Geek. The last 2 blogs do a great job of linking to other couponing blogs with the best deals for that week, the coupons you can print out, the freebies you can grab, etc.
February 15th, 2010
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