More Lucy Than June

Stephen laughed at me when he saw what I was blogging about, but I feel the need to share my incredible finds with people.

And maybe, I’m bragging a bit.

Today, using coupons (and many of them I might add), Caia and I came home from Publix with this. (I feel the picture doesn’t really do it justice as you can’t see the three or four items that she swiped before I got a chance to take the picture, so for your reference, I have posted a list of everything below.)

4 boxes of Quaker oatmeal

2 boxes of Quaker grits

2 boxes Toaster Streudels

4 boxes of Green Giant frozen veggies

2 bags of Bird’s Eye frozen meals

2 bags of Chex Mix

And here is the incredibly blurry picture of the list of coupons and the total for this order….

If you can’t read it, and I suspect you probably can’t, that total would be $8.54!!!!

I was WAY happy with my bargains!

That is a savings of $37.94!

Those people hacking away at that bail-out bill up in D.C. just need to call me. 

But, in all seriousness, I wish more people used coupons. I read somewhere that a ridiculously low amount of coupons are actually redeemed from the millions of dollars worth that are printed.

Let it be said to all who wish to become a serious coupon-er (like that word?), that Publix will honor competitor coupons…such as Target. And you are allowed one manufacturer and one store coupon per item. And yes, you can use two coupons on your BOGOs….cause if you look at your receipt, you’re really not getting the second for free…you’re paying half price for it.

So, there you have it.

Now, some of you might be looking at that stash and saying, “Looks like a lot of pre-processed foods to me.”

Well, yes…maybe so. But in these unsteady economic times, I will feed my family for as cheaply as possible. I still make homemade dinners (tonight: roasted cornish game hens, rice, and frozen green beans…from my Publix stash, of course…), but let it be known, that if I can get something for cheap and I can use it, I’m buying it. (And for the record, Publix actually paid ME 55cents for those two bags of Chex mix!)

And…in closing, I have to add one more statement that has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with coupons.

Little Caia, 14 1/2 month old-calloused-knees little Caia, began WALKING tonight!!!

We don’t know if it’s like IT…you know, the big transition? But, she chose WALKING tonight as her primary mode of transportation!

Here she is showing you that she can drink out of a big kid cup. What’s funny about this is…I sent this picture to Stephen today with the caption, “I can’t walk, but I can do THIS!” 

Guess she took that as sort of a challenge.

Chick-Fil-A did not pay me to endorse their product, by the way. But, if they’d like to, I can be reached at…

…that will probably invoke jealousy among you all.

Please don’t ask me where I got them…I’m sure they’re no longer available for purchase. But, you’re welcome to borrow them AT ANY TIME.

Check these out…

Now, I have never been a big fan of those “over the belly” maternity pants. First of all, they look ridiculous and secondly, they are so stinking hot….(I mean in a thermal sense, not in a “you hope your husband finds them hot” kind of way.

But I have several pairs of these little beauties. I think they were hand-me-downs from some other pregnant ladies who were forced to wear them at one time. 

And….THEY ARE SO COMFORTABLE!…when you roll the big panel down off of your belly.

As unappealing as they may be, stop by my house during the day when we’re not planning on going anywhere, and I will be wearing these things.

Moving on to other articles in my wardrobe…

Check out this one.

Again, never been fond of the “Teacher sweater”, but here’s the one I actually own.

Look close enough and you can see the words “Kids Are My Business” haphazardly embroidered on the apple (which I find looks more like a pumpkin, but whatever.)

At one time, it used to have decorative “buttons” sewn on it that said things like “C-A-T” and “2 + 2 =4″ and my favorite, “I (heart) school”. Over the years, the buttons have fallen off and left behind only the little strings with which they were (obviously) poorly attached.

I received this one year while I was teaching as a Christmas gift from one of my students. I was 28 at the time and had never owned a “Teacher Sweater” before.

Please, I’m not making fun if you like them and they are a part of your regular ensemble. They’re just not MY thing.

I remember bringing this home to Stephen and saying, “Hey, look what I got for Christmas!”

His response was something like, “Hmmmm…..How ’bout that.” (More of a statement than a question, really.)

As much as we laugh about this sweatshirt (which Kenni LOVES….of course), I wear that thing on cold winter mornings around the house, because it is huge and comfortable.

I joked the other day about how funny I thought it was that someone would give a 20-something year old teacher a sweater like that, but Stephen figures that the lady that gave it to me thought I would be teaching for a LONG time and could wear it up until I retired.

Well, little does she know that “Kids Are (STILL) My Business”.

I just don’t get paid for it anymore.

Which is a total bummer.

My oldest has an affinity for…

figurines.

I have no idea why. But, give her one that she finds interesting and it goes with her EVERYWHERE.

These right here are her current “buddies”. She coined the term buddies, not me.

That is a Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer CHRISTMAS ORNAMENT (don’t worry, it’s plastic…although, I’m sure it’s made with lead-based paint from China…).

And the other two oddities flanking the holiday character are McDonald’s toys from…who knows when…that were given to her by her friend Lily. And Ms. Senga. (Both Lily’s mom and Senga decided that the penguins could find no better suited home for them than the vise-like grip of McKenna’s hand.)

Now, if you know McKenna, you know that Rudolph ornament has been around since last Christmas when she yanked it off my tree. But, he met with an unfortunate accident involving my couch cushions and has been buried for a few months.

Daddy rescued him recently, much to the squealing delight of one three-year old.

Here she is. Holding her “buddies”.

I don’t know what the appeal is to her about figurines. But they can be the bane of  my existence at times. 

Keeping up with those things can often be like looking for the proverbial “needle in a haystack”.

But when frustration calls me to quickly tell her to “deal with it…we’ll find them later”, I think about how much her little heart loves these things.

I don’t know what it is in her three-year old psyche that cares so deeply about them, that NEEDS them almost as much as she NEEDS air or water.

But, I do know this…we have prayed many a time that Jesus would help us find her buddies. And, the infamous “Choppy”.

And you know what’s cool?

He has always come through for us. 

So, why do I doubt Him in my own problems sometimes? Why would I even stop to think for a moment that this isn’t “big enough” to Him?

Because surely, just as He  cares for the flowers of the field, if He cares that much for my daughter’s little corner of the world, He cares for the things that concern me just as much.

Yes, my children have taught me so much more than I ever thought imaginable.

What is up with the price of groceries these days?

I know, I know. Economic crisis. Gas crisis. Reminiscent of the Depression.

But, wow.

I used to be able to keep our grocery bill at around $75 a week.

That was a family of four, including diapers…and generic brand formula. 

Well, we’re past the formula phase for now, but my word!…I cannot get out of that store without paying close to $100 each week.

Yesterday’s bill was $92.49. And I haven’t bought diapers yet.

Now, if you know me. You know I am a coupon fiend. If there’s a deal, I’m getting it. And I will say that I managed to buy enough oatmeal and cereal on that bill to last a while, but still, I’m thinking it’s pricey!

And the price of milk? Oh, don’t get me started.

Now, I CONSIDERED not nursing this last baby because I had such a horrible experience with Caia (Kenni was a breeze!). But after looking at my grocery bill, and realizing I will be buying diapers for TWO children, uhhhh, yeah…I think we’ll go with the free supply of baby nourishment that I’ll have. 

So, for Father’s Day, I gave Stephen tickets to see Brad Paisley.

Well, let me see if I can make that a bit more clear. I told Stephen to buy two tickets for the show when they went on sale. (He would have seen the purchase on the bank statement anyway if I had tried to go ahead and surprise him. Which, by the way, there is no surprising this man.)

We purchased lawn “seats” since we’re not too picky, and they were way cheaper.

I managed to rustle us up some good babysitters (they took shifts since we were going to be out late…THANKS, TERRI!), and we left for our show last night.

Now, let it be said, that Stephen and I haven’t been to a concert in….years. Literally. So, we didn’t know all the rules.

We brought our big camping chairs.

We stopped and got fried chicken and Krispy Kreme doughnuts to take in.

Those of you that know the rules are already laughing at us, aren’t you?

As we meandered through the parking lot with our chicken and doughnuts and chairs, I kept passing lots of people eating on their tailgates. And suspiciously, no one was carrying any seating devices or food into the park as they arrived.

The closer we got, the more I realized we were not going to be dealt a good hand on this one.

Sure enough, the sign right next to the gate mentioned something about “For the safety of our guests”, and then it gave a list of things we could not bring in.

Glass bottles, cans, explosives, guns, knives….okay, all good.

Cameras, recording devices….well, good luck on that one. You can’t confiscate 10,000 cell phones.

And….of course, no LAWN CHAIRS or FOOD.

So, we sat down in a grassy area with our lawn chairs and ate our fried chicken. The bummer was that we had to throw away four perfectly good doughnuts that we couldn’t take in. Grrrr….that was sad to me.

Then, we thought we’d play the pregnancy card and see if MAYBE, just MAYBE, they would let us bring in the chairs.

No dice.

Pregnancy used to mean something in this country.

So, we stashed our chairs under the bushes….and ran into another gentleman stashing his pregnant wife’s chair as well.

We reasoned the chairs would be safe there since most of these people were going to be too drunk once they leave to care about stealing a few chairs. 

We waited FOREVER for Brad Paisley to finally take the stage.

There was, of course, Mr. No Name as the opening act. We didn’t see much of him. We were too busy eating chicken and doughnuts.

Then…they brought out…Jewel.

Oh, geez. It was torture. Her voice hurts me. She went on for what seemed like FOREVER, and didn’t entertain us at all. 

Finally, at 9:30 (concert started at 7:30)…the main event.

Now, I have always thought that Brad Paisley was a CLEVER and GENIUS songwriter. He can make you laugh and he can make you cry. 

But that guy can also seriously play the guitar.

And entertain a crowd.

It was awesome!!!

I don’t think that I could tell you what my favorite Brad Paisley song is, because there are so many. But, this was the first time I had heard this one, and of course, it made me cry. (Then again, I’m pregnant. It doesn’t take much these days.)

Waitin\’ On a Woman

Here are sad little pictures from the evening. If you squint really hard, close your right eye, and hop on one foot, you can see Brad Paisley’s head on the screen to the left.

The last is my favorite.

The parking lot was littered with beer cans and cigarettes. But THIS was the trash that had fallen out of OUR car. Stephen calls it, “a sign of the times”.

That would be a Minute Maid juice box. Thanks, girls.