Ta da....drum roll please!!!

And the moment, that so many have been waiting for....

Don't take it too hard, he tolerated it pretty well for a little guy.

Guess, I cut David's a little too short this time also...twinkies....

Two, Two, Two....

We have had a wonderful celebration with Elmo and Sesame Street. Our littlest DS turned two!!!
This was a major day in his life, we took down the baby gates, got rid of the diaper bag and cut his hair for the very first time....Wow overwhelming even for me!

He will now be responsible for carrying his personal items and a few toys in his Thomas backpack!!! He was a champ at strapping it on for church and wore it proudly into the nursery! My littlest is sure growing up awful fast.

His favorite meal, meatloaf and broccoli!!! It was either that or salmon patties and brown rice. Strange tastes for a little one, but hey, the kid eats dirt and loves it....
It was love from first sight!!! He found his truck in our bedroom the night before his birthday celebration, he even tried to get the truck into bed with him when he laid down for the night!!! A boy and his dump truck.

The next major milestone, is getting rid of the bottle, he only drinks his milk from a bottle and he loves to drink milk and I have not been able to change that at the moment, it truly is a test of wills and his is winning at the moment. But I took care of a little girl yesterday who is 15 months and has not had a bottle since she turned one, my DH asked if Michael was embarassed and to tell you the truth, the little girl about did a body slam on Michael to get his bottle from him so she could drink from it...

Couponing Exposed!!!

Okay, you have been warned!!! This is a look into my most private stash....It is a little embarassing...Only really close and personal family members have previously been invited to see this...


Yes, that is right it is all contained in a 3" zippered binder, expanded to the limit....


Can you say excessive and exhaustive...

Can you say, this woman definitely has issues?!? Categorized perfectly....

My massive haul of 10 flyers with the amazingly coveted Farmland meat coupons....my family will definitely be tired of pork products by Fall....

Realistically, it is helpful, but to coupon to this level, takes quite abit of your time. Clipping, organizing and staying on top of things. Currently, I could probably spend about 8 hours clipping and organizing. I am way behind on getting organized....

The truth is in the matter. I have taken our grocery bill/home items from over $400 per month in March down to just $140 for the month of July, and that was accomplished only through the use of coupons, smarter shopping and stockpiling.

I am frustrated with my couponing...

I promised I wouldn't display all of my anger and frustration on my blog, to those in the know....

I had some very bad couponing experiences lately (CVS in OKC) and was feeling awful bummed out. But I also have had some really good experiences with couponing (Walgreens in OKC) so I guess it should all even out, right...

I found that I was becoming very obsessive with my couponing, (I tend to do that with new projects...) and I don't want to throw in the towel, so I am trying to seek some moderation with my savings.

I am working to limit my blog reading to the sites that I have found to summarize and highlight savings and I am deleting the others. I have also decided to limit my daily contests submissions to only one and then maybe none (unless they are for a new car that I like). I have also decided not to fill out every survey that comes my way, I was earning only cents on each survey and my time and patience is more valuable than that.

I am trying to become more skillful in my Walgreens couponing and store shopping, so that I don't feel so dependent on CVS for carrying my budget through for the year. I am also working to limit my coupons to those that I am interested in buying and not just everyone that comes my way. When you are trying to plan and work out 11 transactions at CVS, it takes an enormous amount of time and my family was not receiving top priority on my list of todo's....

So while I will still be developing my skills in stockpiling and maxing out my savings and shopping potential, I will not be approaching it with my typical (go for the throat, no holds barred attitude). I was taking it personally if I was not getting all that I could...get....

So a little time needs to be taken to step back and take a deep breath...

New Opportunities for Increasing Income

Just to updates matters, I got the job!!!! So I will be working to develop 3 or 4 menus to rotate for their meetings, I am thrilled, they loved my fried chicken (it did end up being very, very good, almost as good as my grandma's just not as fresh as hers ((of course she would buthcer her's that morning)), it scared me to death to make it from scratch, but I feel more confident for the future). I think the next menu selection will center around lasagna....

My husband and I enjoy the fact that I am able to stay at home full-time and feel it is significant benefit to our family and myself, so that is a priority.

We have been very blessed that I was presented with the opportunity to pick up a part-time job of cleaning our church a couple of years ago. It has been a blessing, because I am able to get the work done in the evenings after my little one has gone to sleep. The job has also been of benefit to our teenage son, because he has helped me, gets paid half of my fees and is able to save most of the money. His bank account has grown to be pretty significant and we have all learned that he is tight and doesn't like to spend his money (doesn't take after either of his parents...)

We are being presented with another opportunity for me to earn some additional income for our family. The local Lions' club has been frustrated with the inability to secure a steady meal provider for their club... and I guess my husband was bragging on my culinary abilities, so now I will be seeing about starting to cook for the local Lions' Club organization for their luncheon meeting twice a month. It is an opportunity to pick up an additional $100 per month which would take care of our grocery budget.

In reality, my husband and I have been discussing the need for our toddler boy to have opportunities for more socializing. He loves people!!! Just loves being around other kids and people, so there is a need for more playtime with other kids besides the opportunities that he receives at church. So I will cook my first meal for the Lions' tomorrow and if they like it and we can agree on about 3 or 4 meal plans, than I will be in business. I will then call a local mom who does in-home daycare and see how many days I can get for $100 per month. I am hoping that it will allow me to obtain 1 day per week, we'll see.

My DH feels that I and our little boy will be much happier campers to have a weekly break from our home routine and I think he might be right. That would allow me an opportunity for getting my major couponing or shopping, errand running, etc. done without having to worry about being so panicked, overwhelmed and frustrated with trying to get it done when my toddler boy would prefer to be at home swinging from trees and eating dirt.

So wish me luck in being able to win over the tummies of the Lions.

Summertime, summ, summ, summertime, Whoo whah...

Summer makes me happy :) except for the hot, hot, hot weather. But for the most part, I like summer.

This summer has been fast and furious. One of the unique experiences one has in the panhandle of Texas or in the midwest for the most part, is intense thunderstorms. We have been experiencing rain almost every evening for the past 5 days. It helps to cool things off and makes our farmers really happy.

You know you live in a farm community if the congregation is praying for rain!!!

But one of the downsides to thunderstorms and rain is the threat of more severe weather...

We experienced a real big storm last week. My DH and DS had to pull the mattresses into the hallway and clear everything out and we stayed there for about 1 hour while we waited for the storm to pass. There was a tornado on the ground a few miles east of town, but luckily did not stay down. But alas, my car sustained some severe damage, broken windshield, large (baseball size) hail, etc. It is now in the shop for a new roof, quarterpanels, paint, windshield and who knows what else.

We also are having our roof and the rest of the property reviewed this week, to see if we might need some roof repair/replacement, air conditioner check, etc. I am more worried about our air/heat system. It is a rooftop industrial strength Lennox unit and I would rather put in a homeowner's claim now for repair replacement than have something materialize in a few months.

But after it was all said and done, you know it is all only material things and they can be replaced or we can do without things. A threat of a tornado hitting your home makes you realize it really is all about your loved ones and their safety...so my DH and I are working to keep our minor damage and repair issues, just that.... minor...

VBS

So far, it has been a busy and full summer.

I was pleasantly surprised to end up being in charge of the arts and crafts room for our church's VBS session last week. My teenage DS was recruited as my #1 helper (token slave). Plus, I was fortunate to end up with three additional women who jumped in to help at the last minute.



My DS was gracious to decorate the room and also put in about 12 additional hours that week in the evenings, plus 4 each day.



My toddler son also had a blast and got to spend some quality time with his buddies from church.



We provided VBS for PreK-6th grade and had a different craft for each day for all age ranges. It was a hectic week, but worth all of the hours.



Check out some of the pictures...

DS in the orange striped shirt, cute as a button!!!

Part of our arts and craft room decorations in the background...

The massive group of kids participating in VBS 2008.

Just some extra fun for everyone on Friday.

Just For The Asking!!!

Several of the sites that give education on starting to coupon...recommend going to your local Fast Stop shopping site and asking them what they do with the Sunday papers that are not sold and see if you can get the coupons for free...

I honestly, thought that there is no way in my local town that I would ever be able to get any significant number of coupon inserts. Surely, someone has already arranged to secure the leftovers around here and I would be just one on a long list of people desiring to obtain some great freebies.

I went to buy my local Sunday paper yesterday afternoon and was thrilled with one coupon insert in particular. The Farmland coupons were inserted once again.

$2 off of ham, $2 off of bacon and $1 off of any item. I know from a couple of weeks ago, that the hams are available at Walmart for $2.88, the bacon for $2.50 and the sausage for 1.23, so I was about to jump up and down in the store, but there is no way I could afford to buy that many papers so I stepped up to talk with the clerk and asked what they do with their unsold Sunday papers?!?

They just throw them away and no one has ever asked for the coupons!!! I kindly asked if I might be able to pick them up and she said, no problem. I went back at 10:45pm, they close at 11pm and she had already taken them out and sat them aside with my name on them. I received 8 sets of coupon inserts just for the asking!!!

Now just where to find the space to freeze the items?!?

Oh to have such a dilemma!!!

A Mini Vacation

This afternoon, I will be busy getting our household together and organized for a mini vacation. My DH is going to go to a conference in Austin Tuesday to Friday and myself and two DS will be headed in a different direction to visit with my folks from Tuesday to Friday. Sometimes, it is just a good idea to spend some time away from your loved ones...

I am so looking forward to seeing my parents, it's been far too long...

Plus, I am going to get my coupon binder up to speed and ready for some action if needed. I hope to score about 100 cans of Muir Tomato sauce from going to several WalMarts in the area....wish me luck...

It's Contagious!!!

It's a funny thing how using coupons and researching how to do the best deal can be so contagious!!!

My DH (darling husband) really wanted some new clothes for work...he asked about 4 months ago to set some money aside in our budget for him to update some items in his work wardrobe. There was a pretty good sale at JCPenney this past week, so I set a flyer on his desk and told him to think about buying some items. There were some $15 off of $75 and $10 off of $50 coupons, plus if you spend $75 on Dockers, you could send in for a gift card for $50 off of future purchases. He looked over the flyer and Friday night asked me to review once again how he was suppose to work the purchases to make the best deals.

Saturday we went to be the big city and he took off to go shopping at Home Depot and then JCPenney. He did really good with his purchases. He bought 6 pairs of pants, 4 shirts and two ties for a little over $225, (he was told his total spending limit was $400). The salesclerk helped him with the coupons, so I think he did really well. He wanted me to review his ticket and the only glitch was that he didn't spend $75 in Dockers products only $60, so on the way out of town, he went to get an additional shirt in order for us to be able to submit for a $50 GC.

He wrapped things up and said that he was behind another man whose wife had sent him back to the store to buy more Dockers because he had not bought enough also to be able to get the GC. Funny how sometimes you have to spend more money to get more?!?

Well, a wonderful shopping day for my DH and he did a really good job with getting the most for his money!!!