Phases

You know, sometimes you can learn a lot from the moon. Some days it's bright and shiny, all big and new, and some days it's tiny as a sliver -- fairly dim, but you know it'll be back to shiny someday soon.
Conner's going through a phase right now. It's a lying phase. It's happening too frequently and it's making me so tired, so mad, so frustrated, I just want to pull both of our hair out.
Finally, we had a discussion about what his consequence would be if he lied (prior to that we had a discussion about what'd be like if I lied all the time. He realized how I couldn't trust him and he chose the consequence of an extra job. We've had to inflict the consequence one time (so far), and of course it was about brushing his teeth.
I just don't get lying about something like that. I get lying about stealing food, etc. -- but brushing his teeth just drives me nuts. The only consequence to that is me telling him to go do it.
Do you guys have little liars at your house sometimes? Is it a phase, what do you do?

Deal of the Day!

Yes, just another little deal to add to my list.
Here's the skinny:
Safeway is running a buy 30 dollars worth of frozen items, get 2 free movie passes deal. This of course, is 30 dollars AFTER the club car promotions (so, basically after the sale prices) but BEFORE coupons.
So, I bought:

• 2 Bertolli frozen dinners for 2 ($4.99 each) (coupon for 2.50 off here -- you can print it twice)
• 1 Ben and Jerry's ice cream (promotion through tomorrow where you get $5 off your order total if you buy the Bertolli's and B&J's together) ($4.29)
• 2 Breyers Ice cream ($6.49 -- b1 get 1 free this week)
• 2 Tostino pizza rolls (coupon here) ($1.99 each)
• 3 Ore Ida potato products ($8.25 for 3 -- again, not a smokin' deal, but we needed some)

Total: 32.99 (could've left out one of the Ore Ida products, shoul've brought my calculator)
Coupons: 11.00 (2 bertolli, $ off for Bertolli/BJ's ice cream, 1 dollar in pizza rolls coupons)
Total out of pocket: 21.99 -- and I got 2 free movie tickets valued at 12.00 each.
Other things I considered buying, Banquet meals were 1$ (good filler), Birdseye veggies were fairly cheap, Red Baron pizzas are 3.00 -- which is an OK deal.
I also paid with my catalina from last week, so it was PRETTY dang sweet.

ALSO, they're having a buy 4 for 4 sale on some granola bars, and fruit snacks. This meant my VERY FAVORITE Fiber 1 bars were only 1 dollar each. I also got some nature valley bars (the hard kind hold up well when we go to Disneyland) with a coupon, making them about 60 cents each.
And THERE you go.

Spring

Spring has come to the beautiful bay. I mean, I'm sure we'll have a few ugly days left, but it's BEAUTIFUL outside. I was sweating bullets yesterday as i turned the land (pa would be so proud).
So, spring is the time to plant. First on the list is peas. We're also hoping to include carrots (which we have NOT had much luck with in the past -- I think I really need to loosen the soil before I plant these guys), radishes, cucumbers (no luck last year with that guy either), peppers, raspberries (our plants die EVERY year -- again, just hoping against hope), watermelons, pumpkins (both of those being strictly for the children, they think they'll be AMAZING -- we'll see), tomatoes, corns, beans, squash (those 3 together -- hoping the squash will keep pesky critters out of the corn this year), cauliflower, broccoli, squash AND strawberries.
Planting requires a lot of faith, hope, diligence -- many great things to learn in life. And NOW, it has its own drip system, which I can't WAIT to obsess over.
I fear that my obsession that each blade of grass receive an equal amount of water isn't fixed by our sprinkler system. I mean, it will HAVE to be better later in the season, but i find so much joy in standing there, watching it sprinkler and adjust each one to within a minutia of its life.
So, planting is set to begin soon. What plants have you had good luck with? Does anyone have a favorite gardening blog? I'd love to read about other's sucesses.

My Poor, Poor Husband...

Poor Drew, can you imagine what it's like to LIVE with me? To have to listen to my every rant, rave, request, desire and whine?
No?
Well, neither can I.
I went to Lowes to get said fancy Blood Meal, and came away with 2 new sprinkler heads for the front yard. In my head I was thinking "awh, we won't put these in til' Saturday" -- but come 4:30 this afternoon and I'm waiting at the gate for him to get home so we can install.
I blame this tendancy on my mother, but that doesn't make it any easier on Drew (although, my father does feel his pain).
Now, he's at home depot getting a sprinkler riser and I'm hoping he beats the sun since we already have the sprinkler head off and the dirt up.
He's a good man my friends, a very good man....

Little Miss Skinny Face

Love my new avatar, esp now that I don't look all fat. FYI. :)
Ok, I am feeling so overstretched lately. Not sure what it all is. I'm glad to have a day where I have basically nothing else planned besides fixing the soil at our house (bought some blood meal at Lowe's this morning -- EWWWWW). Well, that and cleaning and organizing and dealing with children.
Yesterday we got about 20 giant envelopes in the mail. It seems like all our insurance/IRA/disability people all came through on the same day. I felt like a secretary going through the mail sorting through things, all that jazz.
My dad and I were talking about all the different hats I wear. I'm our gardener, our secretary, our nurse (work and home), chauffer, teacher, landlady -- all that jazz. I can't imagine being as good as a mom as I could be if I didn't have work experience and college before my current job status.
Competant moms raise competant kids, am I right here?
Really, I promise the blog will be more exciting tomorrow. Perhaps I'll share more about blood meal.

Deal of the Day!

Alright, I have 4 nice little packs of Sharpies here -- regular price over 80 dollars -- what did I pay? Four (4). Nice.

You can too!

Office Max has a coupon in their weekly flier. You can go to http://www.officemax.com/ and print one off or you can go here (scroll down for links to coupons -- I got mine at Office Max.com -- becuase I feel it's more official that way). Then, head on into your local office max, it does have to be the pack of 12, but it seems like most stores still have them in stock (I know the one near me still has a few -- but they're up on top where their extra stock is). Take them to the register. The coupon says limit 1 and limit two, but i've stuck to my guns about being allowed to do 2 (Drew came with for visit #2) per coupon... and they've allowed it.

Anyway, feel the sharpie joy (we're gonna use some of ours to take to Disneyland to use in our autograph book).

Teacher, Teacher

I'm teaching ABC school today. I must admit it's not one of my favorite days. In fact, last night I was just thinking that if we have another child (that being a fairly large if at this point) I will never do this again. But, most likely I will. I doubt we'll ever have the extra money for preschool, and Spencer absolutely adores it. It's his favorite part of the week. It's taught him so many things, I am glad I started it.
Can you imagine if you added-up all the things moms do that they absolutely can't stand just for their kids?

In other news, my cousin just helped me fix my video driver so everyone doesn't look fat anymore. I was wondering how I was going to edit photos while everyone looked like they were on steroids (minus the facial hair, of course). YAY!!!!!

Really, that's about it. It's time to go get ready for the kiddos to come over. After a week of me working and the house slowly dissolving into chaos I have a bit of organizing to get under my belt as well. Maybe I'll just turn on my sprinklers for a minute too -- you know, lighten the day. :)

This is Me With a Sprinkler System

THAT IS RIGHT.
WE HAVE A SPRINKLER SYSTEM.
I would think that it was about 400 dollars worth of cost.
LOTS of friends help, one photo shoot used as a barter.
We even finished in the rain, but that didn't keep me from programming it and watching it a bit. We have the same sprinklers we've had in the front yard, along with a new drip system (woo-hoo). In the back we have sprinklers by the swingset, and a drip system just WAITING for us to plant our garden. I think peas are on the docket for next week. I'm so happy, I could burst!

Meebo, Mego Safeway

FYI, the Safeway deal is still going on. FYI, the ad says that Safeway canned pineapple is on the deal, but it's not... however, I spoke to the manager and he gave me the Catalina -- that makes the pineapple 20 cents/can. SA-weet. Email me with questions.
Also, I'm trying a little Meebo widget on my blog -- you guys can chat with me there (it's on my sidebar). I really have no clue how it works, but I do like having all my IM's in the same program. It's a nice little program (although it's all web-based, so you have to leave that page open to have it running -- not sure how I'll like that).
Anyway, there you go. :) Someone IM me on it though, I want to see how it works. :)

The Sun will come out...

When you think there's a day, that's grey, and lonely -- I just stick out my chin, and grin, and SAY (bum, bum-ba-bum-dedum), then sun will come out, tomrorow, bet your bottom dollar (and frankly, we're close) that tomorrow -- there'll be sun. Well, frankly -- there isn't any ACTUAL sun today -- but our contractor is still coming to put our SPRINKLER SYSTEM valves in. Well, let me recap since the blog has been pitifully avoided as of late.
First off, we had the entire sprinkler system in by Monday evening. We had a good friend that went shopping with Drew (his wife and I go to Black Friday, and he and Drew went to home depot -- its so cute) and helped him burrow the sprinkler pipe under our sidewalk (our hardest job). Then, the missionaries came and helped Drew for about an hour and a half in the morning while I was at work. Then, Drew and I dug all the rest of it that afternoon. I'm not gonna say it was fun, or pretty -- but it was tolerable. Now, we just need it attached to the water supply so we can make sure we didn't muff it up. :)
Let's see -- then Tuesday was the computer crash. Most of it being my fault. We had to do a system restore and we lost pretty much everything. I did buy some fancy software that allowed us to recover most of it and put it on DVD's. Thankfully, the pictures had been backed-up (and the few that weren't I'd actually posted here on Blogger), and Quicken was able to be restored -- those being the two things I was most worried about. So, phewsh. We do have the problem with the widescreen monitor though. It was OK before -- a little bad, but not THIS bad -- where everyone looks really fat in their photos. I'm starting to get a complex - come ON avid blog readers, SOMEONE must know what on earth to do with it?
Anyway, that's about it. Things are looking brighter now and it's moderately nice to have a computer with very little on it, except for the excruciating reminder that I did all this to us. Oh, and that the 10 hours or so I'd put into our 2007 family video are now all lost -- but I digress.....
However, as it was all happened I looked at Drew and was freaking out because I'd "ruined our whole lives" -- and then I realized what I'd said. I mean, the computer ISN'T my whole life, but somehow I'm making it so. So, I've vowed to spend less time on it. To make it less important to me, and also to back-up my files. I need to find a good deal on a large external hardrive -- if anyone sees one, lemme know. :)
OH, AND -- I lost all my emails, my email addresses and my feeds... which is probably a good thing in hindsight -- but if you guys could just send me a quick email with your blog addresses and how much you love me... that'd be PERFECTO. Smooches.

{triple large sigh}

We've had a computer meltdown.
The kind where you're REALLY glad that you backed-up your 2007 pictures a couple of weeks ago.
We were considering going out and getting a new one, and that won't happen do to finances.
So, we're making do -- but there won't be much computer time for me. We recovered the console but it's still touchy. I'm in the process of trying to recover some files with some program I bought on the internet.
{sigh}

Feel the Love

I had some difficulty feeling the love yesterday. First there was my nasty trip to Safeway, then helping out with C's class party, not to mention two boys who now are finding the urge to tattle on each other for
Every.
little.
thing.
{sigh}
Of course, Drew also had trombone choir last night...
{double-sigh}
I think I just need to love more this month. And yes, it has taken 1/2 the month to get-up a new banner and all that jazz. I was too busy ripping through amazing grocery deals.
Anyway, we made cookies last night together, and that was very fun. Esp. now that we can all read the conversation hearts (which are weird now -- btw). I am excited for next week when Drew and Conner have the entire week off. Oh, what to do....
Anyway, here's my savings deal of the week.
Safeway is having a "savings rally" if you buy 25 items, you get 20$ off your next purchase.
Now, you have to be careful (I was careful yesterday, but they were dumb) -- you ONLY want to get the things that have the tag. They are only for the items with the tag, no other items (even as weird as it is in the grocery store). Here are some things I've bought this week:
Del Monte Canned Tomaotes ($1) -- after the coupon it's like getting them for 20 cents.
Hormel Chili ($1.66)
Green Giant Vegetables (these are the fancy kinds in the box -- we NEVER get them, because they're so expensive but get THIS deal. So, you buy 3, you use a coupon -- you do have to sign-up to print coupons through that site -- and they also have a special that if you buy 3 GG veggies you get 2 dollars off your order. They end-up being around $1.30 per box).
Rice a roni ($1)
Cheetos ($2)
Lay's Chips ($2)
Boboli Crusts (3.99 or something, we were out so it was fine)
Simply Potatoes ($2)
Fiber One Bars or Nature Valley Granola Bars ($3)
Quaker Oatmeal (buy 1 get one free)
Betty Crocker or Krusteaz muffin mixes (2.19 -- we LOVE the BC Cinnamon ones)
Umm... I know there are some fruit snacks and cheerios on it too, but I didn't do either of those since are WELL-STOCKED (but there is a coupon for fruity cheerios on that last coupon site -- that makes them about 1.25 -- and after your coupon prints it's like 40 cents for the box)
And as always, you can combine with manufacture coupons for SWEET savings. :)
Happy Valentines peeps.

NEW PICTURES

FINALLY, a new profile picture. The other one had been on blogger forEVER -- and while it was very cool and dramatic, I had Drew shoot a couple of me while I was doing Spencer's 4 year old photo session the other day. I'm pretty much hot. Do you like this one better then the one I picked? Feel free to mention how delightful my skin looks in these. I won't hold it against you (your comments, or my skin).

Me, and my problems....

K, 2 problems that I'm wanting input on.
First problem: I got a SWEET deal on a couple of coats from sears. I couldn't remember what size the coat Conner had -- so I bought 2. One will be great for him next year, and the other one fits him perfectly right now, but will probably be too small next year. It's just slightly larger then the coat he has now (which is embarassingly small).
So, here's the deal, do I return the 90 dollar coat (which I got for 30) or do I keep it. My mind knows what I should do, but my heart is saying NO, NO, NO!!!!! this coat rocks -- it even has a liner. I WANT A COAT THIS NICE. :)
Problem number 2: We have water coming out of our dishwasher. It is literally coming out of the door. Well, it drips from the top drawer, bounces off that little lower panel before landing on the floor. I've checked the seal, I've cleaned-out the filters, but it still does it. It's not a hose that's lose, because it's not leaing from behind -- it's def. from the front -- and sometimes it's worse then others. Anyway, has anyone else had this problem?
And I did get a sweet deal at the grocery store. I already wrote it up for one of the websites I visit. Feel free to visit it here

After much thought

We've decided to go with Allied. They had the best rankings, we did it through an agent and it's all good.
Of course, I just gave them all our info, so that might change things a bit, but I doubt it. It's REALLY nice to have it settled.
AND, my work just called -- picked up a couple of shifts next week.
Feeling the joy.
I wasn't exactly sure what we were all going to do next week as we sat around here staring at each other.... now at least I'll be gone for a few of those hours (and hopefully Drew can get a start on the sprinkler system -- YIPPIEEEEEEE).
Anyway, things are looking bright around here.

YOU can be a supercook

Hey, I saw this cook website on someone's blog
http://www.supercook.com/
You type in the ingredients you have, and it spits out a recipe that uses very minimal other ingredients.
I think it could come in VERY handy with leftovers, etc.
I'm gonna try it.

Your Thoughts on Insurance

Ok, so I'm almost ready to make my mind up about insurance, but I really want your input. We haven't changed in a LONG time... so it's all a little new to me. :) I have a little survey up top (hoping the lurkers will answer that if they're too scared to comment) -- but I'd LOVE some more specific comments on these questions....
1. Do you think it's bad to have your car insurance and your home insurance through 2 different companies? I'm leaning toward the Geico/Traveler's combo -- because it's cheaper... is there any reason to have it together if you're not getting a discount.
2. Do you have Geico or Travlers? Do you have thoughts about your insurance (thanks Erin, glad to get your email this AM)? Is there a question I'm not asking about how their customer service is?
3. Is there a reason to stick with the same insurance if their cost is considerably higher then the other guys?

FOUR!!!!

I think that golfers most likely yell four because it's something you should kind of fear.... :) Mostly, I'm afraid of it because it makes me sad to see my little guy getting bigger.

I am still a firm believer that the day should honestly celebrate their mother since it was probably a bigger day for her then him, but I digress....

So, Spencer's officially four today. Four years ago we were buying a house, shopping at Ikea and trying to get everything done before the little dude arrived. I wouldn't say it was a great delivery. First, we ate at the cheesecake factory -- pretty much the best part of the evening -- while I timed my contractions (on my cell phone lap timer -- a very helpful little feature). Then, it was home to figure out more house stuff and see if they'd continue. We finally decided to take Conner over to my brother's, when he decided to throw-up. Yes, I was contracting every 5 minutes cleaning up puke and a soiled little boy -- and in my mind trying to figure out WHAT we were gonna do with him? I mean, my SIL was due any day too -- I couldn't leave a sicko with them. Turns out he just threw-up because he could sense the emotional tension with me. He and Grace ended-up playing well into the evening. My SIL was a champ. So, yes, we dropped him off (and for those of you pregnant with #2, you should prepare yourself for that being the hardest time -- I mean, I'd left him overnight before, but it was so difficult to realize that his life was changing forever and he had no clue....).

Then, it was home to contract some more. I continued contracting every 2 minutes well into the night. Finally, Drew couldn't take it anymore and he said we should go to the doctor (the contractions still weren't that hard, but our doctor had explicitly said we should head to the hospital when they were 5 minutes apart). Anyway, I remember making Drew stop to see if we had the camera in the bags and him freaking out that the baby would come on the way (it didn't come for HOURS -- and there was even enough time for him to head to the high school in the morning and drop off a lesson plan). So, with a little help from pitocin and a not-so-helpful epdiural the nurse delivered Spencer's head with me screaming for the resident. He entered our lives nameless. In fact, for a while we called him Andrew (even telling Conner that's what we thought his name would be) -- and we changed it to Spencer -- feeling Andrew was just too timid a name for this little chunky monkey. BTW, Spencer weighed in at a hefty 8 pounds 15 ounces at birth. He's probably only about 30 now -- gaining only 22 pounds since birth. I've gained more then that in that time. :) But, that's a blog for another day.

So, he's here, he's all mine. He's getting a lot of fun presents today, and we're having some people we call family over. It's pretty-much the best day ever.

Oh, and the cake happened without incident. I think my main problem is not adding enough liquids to the frosting. I think I tend to make it too stiff...

Shocking, me being a little stiff....

Very Blessed

Just got my work schedule.

My scheduler was very patient in trying to find me some days that they had a need... I really appreciate her.

I got almost my regular 1 day/week schedule.

I'm seriously so happy now.

Just feelin' the happy joy.

Feelin' it to my toes.

Just feeling blessed.

Also feeling moderately anxious since I need to get-up at 6:30 tomorrow AM to bake S's birthday cake.

Guess who's gonna be four

{sniff, sniff}

Insurance

So, I emailed a lot of my friends around here as to who they get their insurance though. I got a lot of interesting responses, but I thought I'd post what I've gotten as far as quotes. Right now we go through Allstate (although, most likely not for much longer). These are the costs for homeowners and car for an entire year -- #1 being the cheapest, and going on from there:

1. Geico (with a home policy through Traveler's) $1556
2. Ameriprise (through Costco) $1667.60
3. Liberty Mutual (gives a BYU discount) $1673
4. AAA $1673
5. State Farm $1938.08
6. Current Allstate plan $1950.62
7. Farmer's $2137.42
8. 21st Century (with teacher union discount) $2147

It has beeen a HUGE pain to go through all of this, and my next stop is to figure out how customer service is, etc. I'd be interested to know if any of you have had dealings with any of the top 3 or so -- customer service wise. I know we got a great quote through esurance but Drew and I felt they were too new and it made us nervous, so I didn't call for a home quote, etc.
Anyway interesting though -- isn't it?

Spencer Reads

Hello, Grocery Freak

Perhaps I will start a new blog entitled "Grocery Freak" -- but until then I'll try and tag them all. I just want to share the good deals, and how I make my way through the grocery shopping experience. I think a LOT of people search the ads for big-ticket items, or clothing -- but then go the grocery store without a plan, and since grocery shopping makes-up a fair part of our budget I'm shocked by those people. So, today I even have a photo. :)

This is my safeway trip for the week. Sometimes I hit 2 grocery stores (in fact, I did so this week) -- but I try to stick to one when possible (although you can save more when you hit 2). I got all this for.... $12.60 -- I did have a 10 dollar coupon from last week, so you COULD say that last week's shopping trip was an investment into this week's, netting a 22 dollar shopping trip... but I'll still with 12. :) Regular price for this food would've been $76.26

Let me go around the photo. Of course, the hillshire farms meat dominates. This was obviously the best bargain of the trip as they're all free. ALL of the Hillshire farm meat (in this size) is 2 dollars/package. I did have to do 3 transactions (and my checker didn't even seem bothered). We use a LOT of lunchmeat with school lunches (and Conner only takes a sandwichs probably 2 times a week, although Spencer and I eat sandwiches probably a little more often). Buy 5 (for $10) get a 10 dollar coupon to use on your next visit. I ended-up using 3 of those coupons on this trip. Lunchmeat can be frozen. And I have a lot. :)

Cake mixes and brownie mix are only 69 cents this week.

Tostitos are buy one get 1 free and I LOVE their flour tortilla chips -- they're a guilty pleasure for sure.

Sour cream was on sale and I had a coupon.

The "Eating Right" fruit punch in the center was free with this coupon. You can only use one per visit so I printed off a few and will just find a cheap thing in this brand at each trip til' they expire. These waters are 10/10 right now.

None of the rest of it was that amazing of a deal -- but stuff we needed. They were all on sale though (hate how expensive Yogurt is -- but there is a coupon on smartsource.com). I even forgot to use this coupon on this trip -- so I could've saved another 50 cents. DANG ME.

Happy shopping!

P.S. Drew went to the doctor, ended-up costing 60 dollars (and yes we have insurance -- don't ask). I can't really feasibly take that all out of this week's budget so I ended-up taking most of it out of the household/clothing -- and I'll just hope to stash a little cash away each week in case we need something for the house. What do you do when unexpected expenses like that come-up?

Romney and a Clarification

First off, I thought Mitt's speech was great. In order for McCain to win, he did have to drop-out. End of story. I doubt this is the last I've seen of him. Anyone guess he's up for apostle? Kidding.
Secondly, I wanted to clarify a few things
1. I am still working, I just would like to budget like I wasn't, and have my money be savings and "emergency" money. It will in all actuality hopefully be vacation money, and stuff like that, but I'd just like to be extras -- things we can live without (not clothes, food -- stuff like that).
2. We've had a budget, and it actually works very well, it's just been increasing (and I've been increasing it because we've been making more money -- but it's just kept me working -- see #1). If anyone wants to hear the greasy details of my amazing budgeting skills that allowed us to buy a house here in beautiful silicon valley -- lemme know. ;)
3. Loving all the tips -- and if you guys were wanting to know more I suggest you read through the tips, I thought they were great!

Tightening the Purse Strings

Last night my work cancelled me (feel free to boo and hiss at them) AGAIN, and I'm hardly working at all as it is. I just felt very sad when it happened. Feeling like life isn't going my way as of late. Not sure what I was supposed to be learning from it.
So, I moped under a blanket for a bit and then came out. I'd been considering changing our hotel for Disneyland, to one that provides more of a full dinner at night, to save us the cost of going out to eat. This way, we will hardly spend anything at all besides the hotel, tickets and gas -- which is important. Oh, and the box of Mr. Potato Head parts -- that's a must. :) So, I switched us to the Homewood suites instead of Embassy Suites. There will be no omlette made to my liking, but I think I can get over it {sort of}. That saved us 75 bucks right there, plus, whatever food we don't buy.
Then, I called Comcast -- and begged them to lower our bill. And they did, 25 dollars a month. This is truly a miracle. I've called every month for months and they always say they don't have a promotion. I knew this was God's little way of saying "I love you, and you'll be fine." So, between all of those two items I saved possibly more then I would've made at work. It's a good feeling (I was only scheduled for 4 hours anyway).
I did email my manager and ask if there's anything I can do to get more hours, I doubt she'll reply since I got my position, knowing full well that I am not guranteed ANYTHING as far as hours go. We have to make that work for our family, otherwise I end-up working Saturdays and Sundays -- and that's not what we want, at all.
Then, I started to realize I can't put this all on my work. I mean, since we got married we've been relying on me to make-up for our lack of judgement. That isn't to say that we're spend-thrifts. We make a VERY low income for how much our house payment is. We all know I'm a frugal gal, but our spending has slowly increased and I've felt fine about that. Til' yesterday.
So, I've made a new budget, cutting expenses that we can by 20%, if not more. I'm nervous to see if I can do this, but I do take it as a challenge. I've been ferociously reading budget blogs lately and I've gotten a lot of good ideas. Do you guys have good ideas? I want to make it so we can live on Drew's salary alone, and mine will only be for savings and emergency (or it will be non-existant, as it as been as of late).
And, I can no longer count a sale at Mervyn's as an emergency. :)
ETA: How do you guys budget for clothes, and things you need around your home? I've never really put that stuff into our budget, but I'm going to start trying -- just by putting 50 dollars a month into a fund, and we can withdraw from that when we need items. Conner is probably outfitted til' he goes on his mission (and hence, so is Spencer) as far as clothes go (I like to buy ahead) but this is something I need to work on.

Deal of the Day

Was at Lucky's today -- saw the Sunkist Almond display while I was getting my 10#'s of potatoes (99 cents this week). They had 2$ off bagged salad coupons on the Sunkist Almond (I think they're called Salad Accents) display. Now, I didn't want to buy any of the almonds (because one of our ferocious salad eaters figures any sort of nut is evil), but you don't have to to save the 2 bucks. AND, Salad is on sale for 1.50/bag. So, they gave me 50 cents to take the salad off their hands.
Anyway, it's a manufacturer's coupon on the almonds -- check it out at your local store.

I am Lamen, I am Nephi

Today I was reading my scripture assignment for Sunday school this coming Sunday (we might be a Sunday behind some of you because we recently had Stake Conference).
It's the chapter where Nephi is commanded to build the boat and Lamen and Lemuel murmmer. I could so see myself in both positions. Nephi, who feels himself to be so blessed and wants all the complaining STOPPED. Lamen and Lemuel who feel like they've done enough, that leaving Jerusalem was too hard. I know that some people call days a "Jonah Day" (it might be only Anne of Green Gables that does that, but sometimes I've thought to myself that I'm having a Jonah day) but perhaps I'll call myself a Lamen day, etc. I remember the wise counsel of a woman who I admired who said that we always envision ourselves as Nephi -- trying to conquer the wicked, wicked world -- but too often we're the other side of that coin... and it's realizing that and conquering it that will bring us closer to our savior.
Amen.
NOW, back to the Today show. Did anyone watch it today? They had John McCain, Hilary and Obama on. They've basically written Romney off -- and didn't even have him on the program. I thought that was VERY unfair.
Oh, and did they mention the new leadership of the LDS church?
No, they did not. I remember waiting for DAYS for the freakin' white smoke to come-up so they could announce the new Pope... and we get nada.
To quote my VERY boring statistics professor "I am seeing a trend here."

A Good Blog

http://www.mormonmommywars.com/?p=1070
What would Marjorie do?
I have been asking myself this lately. Esp. when President Hinckley was home sick.... :D

A Girl Needs her Neck

Man, you don't know what you've got til' it's gone -- do you? Yesterday while we were reading scriptures before church I totally pulled something or whatnot -- neck is very bitter at me now. I'm not so fond of it either. I thought I was going to die backing out of the church parking lot today. It's no better today and I had 3 drop-offs. Thankfully, Drew called in sick (we are pretty-much a cesspool of illness around here) and he took C this AM.
Anyway, I am going to keep applying heat, and taking ibuprophen. These are good times. :)

On a sidenote, Romney's gettin closer in CA and I just hate John McCain. For those of you in CA who are registered Republican (you can't vote in their primary unless you're registered) I urge you to take a look at these people. I have always liked John McCain, I thought his ability to reach across party lines was admirable. However, lately I just see him as someone who is dishonest and lacks integrity. Anyway, I'll be taking Spencer along with me tomorrow. He is just SURE that he's able to vote for "Rocko Bama" -- it will be a sad time indeed to break his bubble.

Me before, me after

Where was I when President Hinckley became president? Well, funny you asked. :) I was a freshman at BYU, in my first little relationship in one of the best and most carefree times in my life. I thought I knew the church was true, but honestly my faith hadn't been tried much. I'd lived in the Utah bubble for quite some time, and let's face it I was only 18. I remember sitting in the conference center at President Hunter's funeral. I was so touched by all he had done, but I was also very excited that President Hinckley would be prophet, as I had already enjoyed him a lot. I remember the first time he came to speak at BYU as the prophet and the strong feelings I receieved that he was doing God's will on earth.

So, here we are 13 years later. And where am I now, and how has he changed that? Well, I've experienced a fair amount in those 13 years, death of 4 close family members, married, 2 kids big move to CA, and those just being the highlights. My life is full of worries, but honestly I look to the prophet's words as such a comfort, and I've learned to rely on what they say -- because I know my life will be blessed when I take their guidance.

I think my favorite thing of President Hinckley is how struck he was with grief over the loss of his wife. It was real. It showed a man who was just like me -- trying to live the gospel, trying to have faith but who also has horrible things happen to him. I think that's what I appreciate most. He articulated his grief and helped us all realize (he and us both) that he would see Marjorie again, and we would see our loved ones. And THAT is what the gospel is all about. The things that matter most (which doesn't include how our mortgage will be refinanced in the next year) will be preserved, and until that time we have to live our lives by faith.

I'm so grateful for him, and for his family for sharing him with us.

Thoughts on the Week

Elections: I've finally decided who to vote for. Frankly, it has nothing to do with their policies. I think John McCain is snarky and mean. We actually re-registered so we could vote in the republican primary (we are basically independents, and if the race is between McCain and Obama I don't know which one I'd vote for). So, I'm voting for Romney. I'm hoping my vote can make a tiny difference here, unlike in Utah. I need to get out my voter info packet this weekend though. We have a lot of initiatives we're voting on Tuesday. Good luck to me.

Big Lots -- if you google Big Lots coupon you'll find a printable coupon for 20% off. I found a lot of stuff on clearance and S's birthday is just about outfitted for a nominal amount. Do you have a 4 year old boy? What does he love? He's getting much more into coloring and that type of thing, so that's what he's getting from Big Lots (and yes, he was sitting the cart when I put the things in it -- but thankfully he is none the wiser). I'd like to get him a toy though as well, and I'm kind of at a loss since we have almost every boy toy ever made. :)

Sprinklers -- I told Drew that he was getting his trombone and I NEED an automatic sprinkler system. It's not a question of want at this point. If we go anywhere we have to beg people to water -- it's just not cool. I'm bartering a photo shoot with good friends for the husband's assistance in the sprinkler system. I am seriously giddy over the thought of it. I probably spend a good 2 hours a week working on watering our yard. It's insane (no comments from the peanut gallery, thanks so much).

Anyway, those are the thoughts that are on my mind. What's on your mind?