Love this kid.
She loves animals. I mean, LOVES animals. All kinds of animals.
Most days, she IS an animal.
Last week, she went with Stephen to a River Church gathering with a shoestring hanging out of her pants.
Stephen didn’t notice it. Someone else pointed it out to him.
Okay, get ready for the sad, sappy, forlorn post.
Today was one of those days, for all you out there who’ve ever had to move away from EVERYTHING that defined them, that hurt.
I stalk keep up with all my friends on Facebook and Twitter daily.
Today…it seemed like thing after thing after thing kept hitting me in the face about people and things that I am missing back “home”.
I know. I am not supposed to say “home” anymore. This is home now.
But, bear in mind that I have not lived more than 15 minutes away from where I grew up in my entire 34 years of existence.
I saw that my journey group went to the pumpkin patch. I think they could all safely say that there are few people in the world who love a good pumpkin patch experience more than myself.
I saw the pictures. The crying kids in the hay. The group shots.
And I cried.
I just finished reading a book.
That, in itself, is quite an accomplishment for me. I used to read ALL.THE.TIME.
Then I had these three kids, and if I have a moment to myself EVER, I’d rather spend it sleeping. Just sayin’.
I want so much to get back into reading, and I’ve been trying to carve a little time out of each day to do that. And I started with a small book that I found the first trip I made to that glorious library that I’ve mentioned before.
Here’s what I found…
Teething babe times 5 days equals…
UTTER EXHAUSTION.
Day after day after day of sleepless nights, whiny/crying/fussy days…it’s enough to make me vomit.
The Wee One ended up with what I am self-diagnosing as roseola (had all the symptoms…three-day fever, then a rash…I thought the fever was just teething till the rash broke out).
Since the fever has broken and the rash has appeared, the insane crankiness has calmed a bit.
Now we’re only at mild to moderate crankiness. Loverly.
So, that’s been my life this week.
…And, as they say, stick a fork in me cause I’m done.
Thus concludes my most exciting post ever. Sleep calleth my name.
Yes. Sleep calleth loudly.
For now, anyway.
Budgie.
That’s my new slang for budget. It sounds cuter. And friendlier…don’t you think?
Today’s grocery trip was fantabulous!
My regular cashier at Publix wasn’t there, but my regular bagger was. He’s an older gentleman, and every week he waits with eagerness as the cashier punches in all my coupons. (Maybe he doesn’t wait with that much eagerness, but he does always ask…”Okay, how much did she save?”
I just know that you’re dying to know the deals. Well, here you go!
HARRIS TEETER
I just realized that I don’t have pics of all my HT spoils. And as much as I’d love to show you everything I got, I can’t go digging through the pantry for the goodies.
But, fear not! I do have this…
Babies not included.
The List:
Total OOP=$12.46 Savings=$25.10
Up next…Walgreens.
This is too cool. I got the Register Rewards and rolled them into another transaction. Then took those Register Rewards to Publix where they took the total ($9.00) off my order!!! (I gotta thank my friend Danna for enlightening me to this bit of grocery budgie info…)
This was three separate transactions:
Transaction 1:
Minus a $4.00 coupon./Total OOP=$5.66/Register Rewards earned=$6.00 (Technically, I made 34 cents on that one!)
Transaction 2:
Minus $6.00 Register Rewards from Trans. 1…Total OOP= $10.09/Register Rewards earned=$8.00
Transaction 3:
Minus 2 $.75 coupons. Total OOP=$0.53/Register Rewards earned=$1.00
If you’re not a Walgreens-er, and I wasn’t until today, you’re probably wondering why I had to do three transactions. Turns out, thanks to the info from my very nice but assuming cashier, you can only get one Register Rewards printed out per transaction. Thus, the need for three.
So, I took those $9.00 to Publix…and they were very happy to take them.
I wish I could shout it from the rooftops,
I’M IN LOVE! I’M IN LOVE AND I DON’T CARE WHO KNOWS IT!
(Name that movie and you win…the satisfaction of knowing that you knew the quote! Um, does this count as my first blog-giveaway?)
PUBLIX TREATS:
Total OOP=$30.47!!!! Total Savings=$74.69
On to WalMart.
Hasbro has some great coupons out right now for their DinoRoars products, and since McKenna is obsessed with dinosaurs I figured this would be a PERFECT Christmas gift.
I also had some coupons for the KidEssentials and Kashi Cereal.
Baby Triceratops photographed separately due to having to keep it away from preschooler eyes!
Wipes photographed separately because there was a Wipe Emergency that needed to be dealt with while I was taking the picture.
The List:
Total OOP=$18.65
And finally, BiLo.
The List:
Total OOP=$14.55 Total savings=$22.70
WHEW!
Yeah. That took four hours of shopping alone. And some hours beforehand planning and listing and clipping and comparing.
Is it worth it, you ask? 1000% YES.
We think of it kind of like a part -time job.
Now, as far as Christmas budgie goes…
I factor in what I can get for sale prices with coupons. And my new found system of rolling Register Rewards.
And don’t get me started. Don’t EVEN get me started (name where THAT quote came from, and we might have to talk about your knowledge of obscure quotes)…anyway, don’t get me started about Rite Aid and their Single Check Rebates.
Both of these drugstores run these fabulous programs…giving you money in the bank if you can take full advantage of the sales and coupons!
The next gift I’m working towards….
Yep. Those are, as seen on TV, Bendaroos!
And Kenni has been asking for them for a year and a half. LITERALLY.
Well, she’s in luck cause they sell them at Walgreens! Now if I can just find a store that keeps them in stock…
She told me tonight, when she saw I had a coupon for the DinoRoars toy, that I should give that coupon to Santa…
…having two kids teething at one time in your house.
Add in one sleep and shower-deprived mom, and you’ve got a recipe for The Perfect Storm.
Or Nervous Breakdown…whichever comes first.
Caia’s been waking up in the middle of the night, coming into our room and singing cartoon theme songs. I wish I were kidding.
She’s been touch and go cranky and fighting sleep for a few days now. And the other night she had an all-out meltdown over Daddy trying to help her brush her teeth.
Yesterday morning I look in her mouth and discover the first of the four final molars popping through. Guess that explains the crankiness…
And poor, poor Jackson.
The kids and I have found a new favorite spot.
The library.
I know, I know. Shouldn’t I have discovered libraries before?
Well, back in good ole Paulding County, the libraries were not quite as expansive as the one in downtown Charleston!
I remember taking McKenna once many moons ago…back when she was an only child. I hardly remember those days. I have to reach back into the recesses of my brain and dust off the cobwebs of what life was like only taking care of one. Wow. And I thought THAT was hard…
Anyway, I took her to the same library I went to as a kid.
And I’m pretty sure that the same books were there… A pretty dismal selection to say the least.
And the movies?
On VHS.
I don’t even know where our VCR is…
So, I must admit, I was a smidge hesitant to cart a car full of kids downtown for what could be a total bust.
I went two weeks ago with my friend Laurie…and we were AMAZED.
Continue reading ‘Lovin’ the Library (and other random updates)’
That’s a direct quote from McKenna.
Thursday afternoon, after a super-fantabulous playdate (one SO fantabulous that Kenni came home shoe-less…don’t worry, though. They have since returned…), as I was putting Jack down for a nap, the doorbell rang.
In retrospect, if you read my last post, really great things happen around Jack’s naptime!
McKenna, ever the one to be willing to invite people over, runs to the door and literally trips me as I’m trying to answer it first.
(I’m thinking it’s that Edward Jones salesman, again. He pops up ALOT…I swear they follow me. There was one who came to my house all the time in Georgia… I noticed that after I told him we were church planters, he has since not shown back up as he “promised” he would. I wanted to tell him that he’d have better luck getting my CAT to invest with him…)
Anyway, as I open the door, I see the mail carrier sauntering away from the driveway. Oooohh…I love mail time, I think.
I sign up for all kinds of freebies online and a couple of times a week, I get something fun. This week: deodorant, coupons, and a maxi pad. All very useful things in my book.
I look down to find a brown cardboard box at my feet.
Yesterday afternoon, I was upstairs rocking Jack-Attack to sleep.
Yes. I said I was “rocking him to sleep”. Sometimes, I spoil him like that. And you wanna know why? Because I realize that my “baby” isn’t going to be a “baby” for much longer. I gots to hold onto this while I can, ya know?
Anyway…rocking Jackie-Jackie-Tom-Tom to sleep… (And yes. He has 20,000 different nicknames. I wonder if he knows his REAL name…)
…and as I’m rocking, I’m praying.
My God has been nothing less than faithful to provide for us during this season of our life. I could go on and on and on about how He has never let us down.
Has it been easy?
100% unequivocally no.
Have we been taken care of?
100% without a doubt yes.
I hesitate to post too much. I do not want to seem needy or beggar-ish and forlorn. But I do want to say that I have learned ALOT through this….and I have been given some new perspectives and new direction.
Back to that whole “rocking Jack” bit…
Really, I was thanking God for how He has shown Himself to us. And I was being honest…I miss the days of shopping. And I told Him that. I told Him that because 1) He already knows it and 2) He likes it when we tell Him what we’re thinking/feeling.
Would I love to bop it on down to that outlet mall and scare up a new fall wardrobe for us all? Oh, heck yeah. But God has chosen to bless us in DIFFERENT ways through this phase of our life. And you know what? I’m okay with it.
As God and I are talking, I really felt like I needed to make some sort of promise/covenant/oath that when we are able to go shopping, that I will never again do so without also buying SOMETHING for someone else who needs something.
And then, I came downstairs and a package arrived on my doorstep about 30 minutes later. It was from my sweet friend Melissa…sending me hand-me-downs for Jack. And some Halloween pencils and socks and a Pez dispenser for the girls. And a pair of jeans and two new fall shirts for Kenni. (Uh, Charleston peeps…tell me she gets to wear those long-sleeves sometime soon! I’m tired of wearing shorts in mid-October!)
God provides when we least expect Him to.
This evening, I finally got to finish up my grocery shopping… Remember when I posted about my WalMart Secret? Where I give myself $5.00 to spend?
Well tonight, while driving, I prayed that God would help me find something for Stephen with that $5.00
Feel free to giggle here if you want. But I got pretty specific…because Stephen is a very difficult guy to buy for. He’s…PARTICULAR. That’s the best way I can put it. He knows it, too. I’m not saying anything that he wouldn’t agree with. That being said, I told God I wasn’t looking for food. Or a magazine.
But, of course, God..You and I both know it’s got to fit in that $5.00 budget. So whatever creative something-something You can show me….
Ended up at WalMart for the essentials that I couldn’t find on sale anywhere else, and saw a clearance rack of “graphic tees”. It was a long shot…cause, um, it’s WalMart. But I thought I’d look…
And I found this…
Stephen has some serious U2 addiction. I saw it, and I knew.
Oh? The price? Check out the lowest number here…
And that’s about all I have to say about that. 
It’s late. (Again…)
A little aside: It’s so hard to motivate myself to get in the bed at a decent time when the only time that it’s quiet in my house is when the monsters dear, sweet babes are asleep. I know we’d all be happier around here if Mommy could get it together and get in bed before 1:30 a.m. (which is what time it currently is), but we’ll see if that happens anytime soon. It’s my goal…my dream…my vision.
So, to satisfy my need to post SOMETHING, I give you…MORE PICTURES!!! (Are you jumping up and down for joy yet?)
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