I've been accused of being a "hater"

So my friend is doing a poll on this fun site called "utahbubble.com".  They are trying to determine the "flippin most funnest place in Utah".  Who is winning?  Gateway Discovery Museum and Hogle Zoo.  I love Hogle Zoo, have never ventured to the Gateway place because it's too dang expensive!  I'm sure they are both great.  But the best places in Utah?  They are up against Zion National Park and the Shakespearean Festival for goodness sake.  Anyway, so I made a few comments on the poll about it and now they are calling me a hater!  So I need your help.  It's a matter of pride.  Please go vote for some Southern Utah Places.  It will take 2 seconds!  We could get third at least.  I don't usually push for these type of things, but being accused of starting a civil war, I think it's my duty to at least ask for you go vote!  Thanks all my SU friends!!!

Coupon Class Next Tuesday for sure!

UPDATE #2:  OK, so we're just going to do it Tuesday.  That works the best for me.  If you can't come I can give her your name if you'd like to host a party or get handouts for you and show you how I've been doing mine...again, let me know if you are coming here.  Thanks!

UPDATE****OK, so after I posted this I was thinking about it and I know Cyndie wanted to come, but she has Young Women's.  So instead I'm taking a poll.  Would Tuesday or Wednesday work better for you for the class????  Please let me know and then I'll let the gal that's coming know.  Thanks!

Kristy

OK - So I've set everything up for next Tuesday for the coupon class.  It's going to be at 7 PM.  My husband has scouts and I'm sure some of you will have the same problem.  Just come bring your kids and we'll do a big movie party for them in my room.  Leave a comment if you can come at that time so I can let her know how many handouts to bring.  I hope this works for everyone.  Fun times!

If I hosted a coupon class in Cedar City...

Would any of you come?  I went to one a few months ago and learned some great things about couponing. I've had such a great time this month with this.  It is a bit time consuming, but I think will get better as I get more experience.  Also if you just think of it as a "job" with saving money being as good as making money, I think that helps.  I haven't pulled together final figures for this month yet, but if I had to guess I wouldn't think I SAVED a lot of money to be honest.  But you should see my food and toiletry supply.  I am to the point where I don't really need to but anymore body wash, shampoo or cereal unless it's free or almost that.  I think that being the case I will be able to buy less in months to come because I can go for only the really killer deals and not just the good deals.  I feel like I've made a lot of progress on my food storage in just a few months.

Anyway, if you live in Cedar or close by and would come to a coupon class if I hosted one, please leave a comment and let me know.  It's been a lot of fun for me...almost like a game for me.  But it might now be that fun for anyone else, so just let me know.  It doesn't matter to me at all if you sign up for a paper or anything.  This would purely be educational.  Thanks!

Billy Goats Gruff

Kelley, Alyssa, and Tessa in the Iron Springs Elementary Talent Show.

Can you relate?

Things I have not done yet today that I probably should have (3 minutes to go though!):

Cleaned up Tyler's trains (all over the living room floor)

Mopped the bathroom or kitchen floor (much needed)

Shampooed the carpets 

Put away the groceries all over my kitchen floor

Cleaned up the mess I started to make when I was "cleaning" my bathroom this afternoon while all the kids slept.

Folded the 3 loads of laundry I washed today.

Hung up the kids clothes from the last few days of laundry

Folded up blankets from daycare naptime

Dinner dishes

Vacuumed the living room

Organized my receipts/leftover coupons from tonight's trip to Albertson's

Updated my vastly overdue food program stuff

Double checked the receipt for my daycare mom

Cleaned the kids' bathroom

Got costumes ready for the kids' talent show tomorrow (yikes!)

Nap ;(

Schedule someone to aerate/fertilize the lawn

Things I did:

SURVIVED!  (Mostly with a smile :)

Oops, times up for today now!  Unfortunately he grocery fairy won't put away the frozen food...

Book Pick?

I have to pick a book for book club in a few weeks.  Because I have put it off this long it needs to be a fairly easy read.  What is already in the running include: Man's Search for Meaning by Victor Frankle, The Last Battle by CS Lewis (Chronicles of Narnia), Anne of Green Gables (I've actually never read the book and it's been a while since I've seen the movie) or The Notebook.

PLEASE HELP ME! I'm a terrible decision maker.  What would you want to read if it were your book club?

Moment of Whininess:  My kitchen is a huge mess, bigger than I can ignore.  I'm tired, haven't slept well in a few days.  But I have to somehow get up from this desk and go clean it.  If I go to sleep will the house fairy do it do you think? ;)

HOT deal on Shoes

I really hate to do this, because I want to make sure everyone has a chance to see my last post...I LOVE it...so look at it, if you haven't...but I wanted everyone to know that Amazon.com is having a great sale on Shoes today.  I stocked up or my kids.  They have brand name, cute shoes for $10-$15 with free shipping if you spend over $25.  Go to slickdeals.net and they have a list of all the best deals.  Good luck!

For all you SOM Fans and others that want to smile!

Ok, this seriously made me so happy I almost cried.  Some of you might understand, many may not and that's OK ;)

And then I found this one...LOVE it! I thought she was lip syncing at first...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY

Random pictures

I've had a hard time keeping up to date on pictures lately and so my blog has been suffering from the "blahs" it seems.  I found a few recent ones that I thought were fun.  

My kids LOVE projects.  The other day we did these birds at the daycare.  These are Kelley and Tyler's.  Kelley actually just painted the one I had done as an example.  She started one of her own, but she's a bit of a perfectionist like me, so I think she gave up because she liked mine and I just let her paint it.  I love Tyler's bird.  I just giggled while he was putting together the different elements in the way he thought they should go.  He did it all on his own.  I can't believe how much he's growing up.  He will be four this year!  Craziness!

I love sleeping pics of my kids.  Tyler fell asleep like this on the couch other day.  I can't imagine how he was comfortable, but he was totally out!

Kelley loves to help us out.  She is really great at pancakes and HAS to help out when they are on the menu.  She got this cute apron from a pancake themed birthday party.  The mom made these out of dishtowels! One day I'm going to get ambitious and make them for all my daycare kids.

Utah Bubble

Hey - Check out this website...clever idea I think.  

Wonderful Wizard of Oz and other random thoughts

Tonight we took the kids to The Wizard of Oz at SUU.  This was the first time we've taken them to a real live play.  They actually both did really great and enjoyed it immensely.  I was surprised by my reaction however.  Let me say, I really did like it.  Most of the characters were GREAT.  The singing was wonderful, the dancing was upbeat...it was a lot of fun.  I found myself however thinking...my heck this is LONG!  It struck me that our world is changing and with it so are things like this.  I almost wished I was sitting at home in my living room, so if I wanted to lay down on my couch I could, or fall asleep and watch it later I could.  If I needed to get up for popcorn or run to the bathroom...easy peasy!  

Even as adults I think our attention spans are getting shorter and shorter.  We are so "on demand" and used to being able to control everything that a treat like this (the play) almost feels like a chore.  My cousin wrote a post a while back on sitting and actually savoring every bite of your food.  My thought was...no way!  First of all I don't have time for that, but even if I did...I don't think I would have the attention span.  I remember when I first had Kelley.  I was nursing her and so had to actually sit down and feed her for 30 minutes at a time, or whatever it was.  Before I gave birth I had been working full time at DCFS and part time waitressing.  Before that I was working four different jobs in Cedar.  Before that I was a crazy busy full time student, part time employee/volunteer/etc.  It was SO hard for me to sit down and do "nothing".  I found myself just gritting my teeth because I was so anxious to get up and do something.  I still struggle with this.  With the kids I sometimes have the hardest time just sitting down to relax and play at their pace.  The house is a mess or I have the budget to do or laundry or whatever.  I think my favorite example is lately I can't even just sit and watch a movie.  We got the internet on our laptop in the living room now, so when I'm sitting and "relaxing" I'm also usually checking my email, bank account or at least playing "Ticket to Ride" online.

Or MAYBE it's all just me and you all don't struggle with this too...very well could be...

I think the Lord meant for us to slow down a little.  That is why he gave us the Sabbath.  But I have to admit, I am a Sunday cleaner.  And I don't just do the dishes either.  I'm usually doing 5 loads of laundry and deep cleaning the bathrooms and doing 2 days of dishes.  Perhaps like the piano this is something I could change on Sunday.  Perhaps I could try slowing down a bit more, just on that day.  It's been so hard because we jam pack our weekends.  We are so tied to the house most of the day that we just want to get away, but as a result the house is usually total shambles on Sunday morning.  And I can't very well leave it totally that way for Monday morning.  So I clean.  I tried and experiment in college though.  I finally decided I wasn't going to do homework anymore on Sundays because I really needed a day off.  A funny thing happened...I still got everything done and I was able to focus on more important things on Sunday.  I grew a lot spiritually during that time.  So tomorrow the goal is...

"Saturday is a special day, it's the day we get ready for Sunday..."

What do I even say?

It has been a rough day.  I was going to elaborate, but I will spare you the whiny details :).  I feel very whiny lately.  Most of my problems are caused by bad habits of yours truly.  I go to bed too late, I get distracted too easily, I eat too much, don't exercise, let clutter build up...

I used to be so much more optimistic and lighthearted.  I feel stressed out almost all the time...not in the way I did in college, but in a more encompassing kind of way.  I'm always thinking about my messy house, the laundry, what people think of me.  I feel crabby and whiny.  I feel like walking up to the Heavenly "Order Here" counter and saying "I would like a new heart please.  Can I get that with thankfulness, patience and perfection please?"  

OK, so that said...I'm ready to move on.  I feel really done with this stressed out stage.  New attitude starting now.  We're going to the temple tomorrow and I'm really excited about that.

Random post I know.  What are blogs for though?

Twilight Tide Pettiskirt GIVEAWAY!!!!

Twilight Tide Pettiskirt GIVEAWAY!!!!

I might have found a new obsession

Just apologizing in advance, but this really is the coolest thing going on right at this moment in my life.  So last month I tried the whole Walgreen's Rebate thing and failed miserably.  I let everything expire before I even realized I was too late to cash in on my savings.  It was kind of a bummer because Walgreens seems fairly overpriced to me and so not only did I not get the savings, but spent more than needed in the process.  Well, I decided to give it another shot tonight and the result was...

I spent a total of $88.45, this was after I used $30 worth of coupons.

I got a total of $45 back in "rewards" to use on future purchases (if I can remember to get back there before they expire on the 20th!)

I will get back about $20 in mail in rebates.

So the end result...is $118 worth of stuff for about $24.  Even if you consider Walgreen's overpriced, that's some dang good savings.  Picture is included tonight (well probably won't get it up until tomorrow)  because I'm so dang proud of myself!!!!  Janae...watch out... ;)

I know I know, Everyone is doing it...

OK - So I've heard about this coupon craze for a while.  It seems like more and more people are going crazy with shopping frugally.  Well I've attempted before and it seemed like way too much work for not much benefit.  But I did it this way:  Look through the coupons, cut the ones I think I will use and save them until they expire.  Occasionally I'd remember to do one or two, but nothing that made the effort worth it.  Well I went to a couponing class a little while ago and got some great suggestions from Jodi.  So I decided to go all out and get four subscriptions to newspapers (yes four!) to get more coupons.  Today I did my first trip to Albertson's and the result?  I spent around $160 and "saved" $250 on top of that.  Not bad I think.  Now...I don't normally buy many of the things I bought today (brand name cereal), but when it was 17 cents a box who can resist?  The thing is, I normally buy Western Family because it's cheaper even with the coupons.  But when someone else does the work for you and you wait until a great sale I think you actually can save more buying brand name.  I found myself kind of nervous about doing it right, but really kind of excited.  I think I could get into this.  I can get up to six more papers and go really crazy.  I think I'm going to continue as is for now and see how it goes the next month or so.  However I think I might have to pay my sister to come with me...she was there today and kept things a little more organized for me...saved a TON of time.  Sorry no picture of everything I got...it was two cartloads full and I don't feel that ambitious...

Sad Sad Day

Kelley started piano lessons this week.  I'm so excited for her.  Oh I hope she loves to play like I did!  But I'm hoping she develops better practice habits than I did and can do better.  I didn't start until I was 13 (we didn't have a piano until then).  I picked things up really fast, but as a result think I was pretty lazy and practicing and learning theory.  I'm hoping starting young helps to resolve those issues.  I also hope it doesn't make her HATE it like some kids do.  

So I've been practicing with her and tonight I got inspired.  After she was done I pulled out my piano books and thought "I'm going to play."  I flipped through a few books and everything I looked at I thought...oh my, I can't really site read that anymore...so I went to my old stand by...Moonlight Sonata.  Oh Beethovan!  I didn't get two lines into it and realized I have lost so much.  It nearly broke my heart as I struggled through it.  I LOVED to play the piano and took pride in how well I could play.  Somewhere that has really got lost.  I can still accompany people with church songs or choirs...that sort of thing.  And I can still play (kind of ;).  But those classical roots have root rot I'm afraid.  

On the bright side of things...I finished the song and promptly pulled out my Hanon book.  There is a part that I will never forget, and I know it's not really that season in my life, but oh I want to hang onto it.  I have this thought that if I could just carve out 30 minutes a day it might come back.  But that is really a pipe dream I'm afraid.  I have SO much else I'm trying to keep in check right now.  But it was a little wake up call and maybe I can make time for it on Sundays or something...

Cute Hat Giveaway

My friend makes these really cute hats and bows.  We have got several for Kelley.  Well, my neighbor is doing a giveaway for them.  Seriously...super cute and really trendy.  Check it out here.  You can also see Terre's blog directly at www.thecraftymoms.blogspot.com.  She does a great job and I would always rather support someone I know than Walmart, if possible ;)