And....

....she is in the tub happily. No crying this time!! :o)

When the cat's away....

My husband is a great father. He is so fun to be around. He loves our kids. Loves to play with our kids. The kids adore him. And so do I.

We definitely have different approaches to life with our kids. I tend to be the one who is overprotective, trying to "think ahead" and prevent all injuries, conservative in behavior, boring, and just plain no fun. Steve however, likes to live life to the fullest and allow the kids to experience things spontaneously. If some issue is to come along in the process, then he just deals with it at that moment. This earns him the title of the "Fun parent".

Recently I went to Swaziland on a 10 day missions trip with a group from my church. I asked Steve if he would miss me, and he jokingly said, "No, I will finally have some freedom!!" This was evidenced by my first Skype call with him from Africa. He proceeded to tell me how he and Josiah set up the soccer goal that J had received for Christmas outside. It had started to rain soon thereafter, so "Since you weren't home....", he says, they moved the furniture aside upstairs, brought the goal in and then played soccer in the house.

He had no idea how this move would impact his future or the well-being of our two-year old daughter.

You see, Saturday night of that week he decided to give the kids their baths instead of waiting to do it on Sunday morning. He put a little bit of water in the bathtub, inserted Zoe with a few toys and then went about doing some tasks around the house. Not long afterwards, she started hollering for him. He goes to check on her and she asks him to fill her Dora castle with more bubble bath so she can make bubbles. At this same time, Josiah comes in asking Steve to play soccer with him. They debate about how long their game would last, finally settling on a 5 minute limit. They head upstairs to play. About 2 minutes into their game, Zoe starts yelling for Steve again. He calls downstairs telling her that he would be there in just a minute. They continue playing and she continues to call to him. At the 4 minute mark, Josiah kicks the ball and it goes down the stairs. Steve sees this as an opportunity to head down and check on Zoe. As he is going down the hallway to the bathroom, her cries are getting louder and louder. Once in the bathroom, he sees tears just streaming down her cheeks. Her arms are extended and she was holding her hands outwards. She yells out, "Daddy, it's the poop!!!" Sure enough, there was one in each hand. He grabs it out of her hands and throws it in the toilet. Washes his hands, gets her out of the tub, washes her hands and tries to get her cleaned up, while Josiah comes crying in the bathroom because daddy had left him with one minute to go in their soccer game.

He did finally manage to get them both into another tub and give them baths. The old tub got cleaned. Now if we can just convince her that she isn't going to poop in the tub every time she takes a bath...

Finally....

I have not made a list of resolutions for this new year. Instead I am proposing a list of things that I "hope" to FINALLY accomplish sometime in the next 12 months. These are things that should have been done long before now, but being the lazy, busy, distracted, procrastinating person that I am, alas, they are not done.

*I hope to FINALLY finish the pillows I started for the living room. It has been at least 8 months and I am only halfway through the first one.

*I hope to FINALLY paint Zoe's room and find a bedspread for it. The old wallpaper trim was removed last March. It is time.

*I hope to FINALLY get all the clothes off the floor of my half of the closet. If I ever do, I think Steve will faint.

*I hope to FINALLY finish Josiah's quilt for his room. I do believe this has been sitting waiting to be finished for at least a couple of years.

*I hope to FINALLY clean out at least one of the 23984774876098 junk drawers we have in this house. I need more storage space.

There are tons more "hopes" that I could post, but this is enough to get me started. What things do you hope to accomplish in this new year??

Doesn't the number 7 represent perfection??

Steve and I had not even been married a year when we decided to attend a marriage conference at the Wilds. It was a fun weekend filled with food, skits, games, time with friends and most of all instruction on building a biblical marriage. I don't remember a lot of specifics from the weekend except that one lady from our church that we didn't know very well thought that Steve was younger than me. (Seriously?!?) One thing that both of us still remember to this day is the speaker describing the ups and downs that marriages go through and most specifically that years seven through twenty are the "lean years". The years when most marriages fall apart and when most divorces take place. Well, we have finally reached that point. It is over -- at least for the next thirteen years. Today marks 7 years since we both said "I do", so it is downhill from here. We will both be enduring and holding on from now until year twenty, when things will finally be good again between us.

Reminiscing....

God has definitely blessed us with two wonderful treasures. Every now and then I like to sit down with one or both of my kids and look through old pictures and videos to see how much they have grown. That is what we did this afternoon. With Josiah's birthday coming up, I decided to have us all watch the video of him that I made a while back. It contains a lot of my favorite early on pictures of him. It brought a tear to my eye. If you wish to watch it, it is here.

P.S. Yes, I know it has been FOREVER since I have blogged. Hopefully I will get back in a routine here pretty soon. Ciao for now... :o)

Snowy Afternoon Adventures

Because of all the snow here in the Triad, Sunday services were cancelled. We had a pretty quiet morning here on the plantation. Pancake breakfast. Josiah and Steve played wii and I worked on a quick sewing project while Zoe took her morning nap.

Sunday afternoon lunch would be at my parent's, as usual. There are definitely benefits to having them live next door. :o)

Once Zoe awakened, we set off in the truck the back way headed to Nana and Papaw's house. Josiah was not to excited to have to walk in the snow from the truck into my parent's house. Zoe could have cared less. We stomped the snow off our feet in the garage and headed inside....this is where it all began.

I can see it now. Zoe sets her eyes on Nana. Let me pause here in the story to tell you that Nana is one of her favorite people. She goes crazy, yelling and screaming, jumping and running, whenever she sets her eyes on my mom. And that is exactly what she did this time. Only in the process she trips on the threshhold and fell flat on her face. Not sure if it was because her arms were up in the air reaching toward her Nana or because of the puffiness of the jacket her daddy put her in that she was not able to get her hands down in front of her to soften the fall. She landed on her mouth.

She was crying at first. I picked her up and tried to rock her and soothe her. Upon taking a closer look, I realized that her tooth was bleeding. It almost looked at first like she had broken the tooth off. We realized later that she had just jammed it up into her gum. We washed her mouth with a cold wash cloth and then set out trying to find something to distract her and calm her down.

I admit that I definitely need to work on making Philippians 4:6 my own in situations like this. I was already thinking about what might happen to her as a result of this fall. I am seeing visions of children's partials dancing in my brain. I convinced Steve that we needed to call the doctor. He called the after-hours call nurse. She said to feed her popsicles and to take her to see the doctor in the morning.

I just couldn't stand it. I HAD to look on the internet to see what people posted about children with teeth pushed up in their gums. Of course, everything I read was about teeth turning black and the need to get to the dentist ASAP.

So, we called the dentist. He is way too kind. He told us to meet us at his office in a half an hour. After looking at Zoe's tooth, which she was not all too happy about, he confirmed what we had been thinking all along.

She will most likely lose her tooth.

It could end up being pulled as early as two weeks from now, maybe even sooner if the horrible tooth turning black thing occurs.

Since she is so young, there is probably no damage that occured to her permanent tooth.

With the baby tooth gone, it could take longer for her permanent tooth to come in because it will have to push through bone instead of just following the path of the baby tooth.

Sad to say, I think her chance at a baby modelling career is over.

Please be kind and don't make fun of her.

She is a trooper. On the way home from the dentist she was singing one of her favorite songs:

Oh no, never ets go

Crew ca calm, Crew ca calm.

(That's the Zoe version.)

And what a truth there is in that...

Praise Him in the Storm

It has been a rough week for us. I cannot deny that fact. But even in the midst of all the sadness and pain, there are two things that brighten my day more than anything else.  I would be a fool if I didn't take the time to praise and thank God for these wonderful gifts.  

Pictures

A sweet girl that was in my accountability group when I was working with the youth at our former church came over the other day. She is an art student and wanted to take pictures of the kids to help build up her portfolio.  Here are some of my favorites. Thanks, Shelly, for taking the time to do this.

For Josiah...

For Josiah...

I made a video on imovie, but can't figure out how to upload it. So I uploaded it to youtube. Here is the link.

For Josiah....

new blog

So, I made another blog today to explain my coupon geekiness.  I get a lot of questions so I thought I would just start posting the info for everyone to see.  If you want to check it out, you will find it at www dot saving hyphen skillz dot blogspot dot com.    I spelled it out because I don't want it linked to this blog in case people are using a search. 

If you want to email me with questions, that would be great. That way I will know what I should post in future entries.

4 Stores - $68.68

Steve and I had a fun little "date" tonight. We went couponing and drug store shopping. It was a lot of fun.  I just have to say that God has been so good to us lately.   When it seems like there are no more deals to find, he keeps putting more and more in our laps.  On the groceries alone we spent $68.68 and saved $134.02 in sales and coupons.  The CVS and Rite Aid purchases, although included in the picture, are not included in the total.  Steve will have made money on those purchases once the rebates come back.  Here's what we got...

6 bags of Frozen Chicken Breast

5 pouches of tuna

2 mustards

3 Wishbone spritzer salad dressings

1 Roma tomato

2 bottles of Worcestershire sauce

8 Sobe Life waters

Gallon of milk

Wheat Thins

Triscuits

Egg noodles

4 cans refried beans

2 cans Manwich

4 bags of shredded cheese

4 bags of cheese cubes

2 chunks of cheese

1 pack of American cheese

3 Sour creams

Velveeta

4 Grands biscuits

2 Country Crock spread

2 packs of hot dogs :o)

1 box of Frosted Mini Wheats

3 small beef stews

10 Pizza Rolls 

green onions

2 bottles of Juice

4 taco seasoning packets

2 skippy peanut butters

2 Rotel tomatoes

jar of pimientos

3 jars of Ragu sauce

Crest Weekly clean

Bay leaves

GE Low energy light bulb

Baby wipes

travel kleenex

2 Glucose monitoring systems  (Retail price: $70 for one and $20 for the other. Both were free)

Garnier Fructis shampoo

Veet

Jumbo pack of Goodnights

Updates on the kids

Zoe will be 9 months old next week. Unbelievable! She is sitting up now and loads of fun. She has a quick smile and a laugh that would melt your heart.  She loves taking baths. Here is a shot from one she took the other day.  No, I did not tell her to strategically place the duckies. She just knew to do it.

Here she is in her attempt to crawl.  Right now, she only moves backwards and somehow managed the other day to get stuck under the couch. She didn't seem to mind too much.
Josiah is becoming a great big brother. He loves to "help" Zoe (as you see here as he pulls her out from under the couch.)  He also likes to instruct her a lot. Some would probably say he is bossy.  I have no idea where he gets that from!! :o)
His newest obsession is the Wii. We have had it for a while, but in the last couple of weeks you can hardly pull him away from it. All day long, "Play the wii, mommy?  How about bowling??"  He is actually pretty good.  You can see his top score here.  Yes, you see it correctly. 177. And he beats Steve who only got a 154. You can believe that Steve played another round and made sure he won that one!! :o)
Josiah's newest obsession is the violin.  Here he is with a toy violin that someone gave me when I was teaching preschool. It was too cool of a toy to leave behind, so I kept it. He loves it.  When listening to music, if it has a violin in it, he is quick to point it out. He has a great ear. I think he will do something musically one day.

Personal Goals for 2009

Yes, I know this is late. I have been meaning to do this post for several weeks now. All of the thoughts have been swirling around in my little brain, but I haven't had a chance until now to actually put them into print.  Here is a list of my personal goals for this upcoming year. If you know me and are reading this, feel free to ask me sometime how things are going.  

1. Finish reading through the Bible.  I am currently in 1 Chronicles. I would like to make it all the way through this year or at least make significant progress in that direction.

2.  Make something useful with my sewing machine.  It has been sitting in my closet for a while. I need to pull it out and make something creative.  I am thinking something for Josiah's room...

3.  Learn to bake. Although I love to cook, I am not very good when it comes to making rolls, bread, and such.  I want to learn how to do some of those things.

4. Teach my children diligently.  I want to teach them especially about God and his Word. We have been teaching Bible verses to Josiah. I would like to continue doing that and also show him how to put into practice principles from God's word like loving others, being kind, etc....  This one is mostly focused on Josiah at the moment, but would include Zoe as well as she continues to grow. 

5.  Be a better wife. There is always room to grow. I pray that as God reveals these areas to me in my relationship with Steve that I will embrace them, and move full speed ahead with growth.

6. Eliminate my fear.  This one is probably the most important goal I am working on this year. I struggle with the fear of man. I am always worried about what others think about me. I am always doing/saying things that I think they want to hear or see just because I don't want them to think bad things about me.  This year I want to put that behind me and to become the person that Christ wants me to be, not the person that I think others want me to be.  You may not see a big difference in me or in the way that I act, but Lord willing, the motivation behind all of those things will have changed. That I will be doing it for God's glory, not for approval of others.  

7. Be myself and have fun. I want to enjoy my life this year. I want to spend time with my husband and play with my kids. I want to try new recipes. Lay out by the pool. Cheer for the Tarheels win or lose.  Play cards with the boys.  Eat hotdogs until I can't stand them anymore. Just have fun!

Slow afternoon...

After a busy day cooking and cleaning yesterday and having company last night, I didn't feel like doing much today. So while the kids took their nap, I piddled on the computer checking out grocery ads and comparing them to the coupons I had in my book. I LOVE doing this and seeing what kinds of things I can get for free or nearly free.  After a trip with the family to Lowes and Harris Teeter, and after $24.51 out of pocket, this is what we came home with....

Gallon of Milk

Reddi Whip

2 Bakers Joy baking spray

10 Green Giant frozen vegetables

2.5 dozen eggs

3 blocks of cheese

bag of baby carrots

3 sweet potatoes

4 Frusion yogurt smoothies

1 Betty Crocker cake mix

2 Garlic Tabasco sauces

2 JFG coffee

3 Pace Salsa

4 Philadelphia cream cheese

10 jars of Gerber 2nd baby food

2 Progresso chicken broths

2 Daisy sour cream

1 sweetened condensed milk

1 box of Reynolds oven bags

2 Tennessee pride sausages

2 Cool Whips

Any Resemblence??

Steve's Freebies

My DH has just stumbled upon the fact that there are many free things out there in the world. All you have to do is take advantage of them.  His new favorite hobby is seeing how many free things he can get from trips to CVS and sometimes Walgreens.  Here is what he purchased today:

From Walgreens: 2 bottles of Excedrin Migraine (Jude, these are for you)  

Regular price: $4.49 per bottle

Steve's price (for 2 bottles):  $0.79 including tax

From CVS:  2 bottles of Coke   $1.89 each

      2 Maybelline mineral powder foundation   $8.99 each

      2 Complete Saline  $8.99 each

      2 Hershey bars  2/$1.00

Steve's price: $0.04 -- yep, that's right. With coupons and ECB's he only paid 4 cents. He also started with 30 ECB's and ended up with 36 ECB's.

Song of the Day

I have been pondering this post for quite a while, but have never gotten around to it. Now seems as good a time as any. The kids are sleeping (or are supposed to be sleeping) and I have had caffeine today to give me a bit of a boost and get things done, so I have a bit of time on my hands. So here goes...

    I find music to be such a vital part of my life. I love to sing (not that I am any good at it), I love to play, and I love to listen.  It is such a great outlet of worship for me. Because of how inbred the love of music is for me and how songs tend to run through my brain throughout the day over and over again, I try to listen to songs that I know worship and glorify God.  Why, you say? Because isn't that our overall purpose here on the earth, to glorify Him? 

   I say all this because many times I will wake up and find myself in a different mood than I was the day before. So I like to pick a different song to fit the day.  Then I like to play that song over and over again on my ipod and then I find myself thinking of the song and the words all throughout the day.  I have been practicing today for a wedding that I am playing in next month. Ironically, it is on my anniversary. The girl getting married was one of our program attendants.  She is having me play this song.  It was one sung at our wedding.  As I am practicing, I find myself coming back to this one over and over again. I just love to play it. I love to think of the words. And most of all, I love what the words mean. So here it is...my song of the day.

YOUR GRACE STILL AMAZES ME

My faithful Father, enduring friend,

Your tender mercy's like a river with no end.

It overwhelms me, covers my sin.

Each time I come into your presence 

I stand in wonder once again.

Your grace still amazes me,

Your love is still a mystery.

Each day I fall on my knees,

'cause Your grace still amazes me.

Oh, patient Saviour, You make me whole.

You are the Author and the Healer of my soul.

What can I give You, 

Lord, what can I say.

I know there's no way to repay You,

only to offer you my praise.

Your grace still amazes me,

Your love is still a mystery.

Each day I fall on my knees

'cause Your grace still amazes me.

It's deeper, it's wider,

it's stronger, it's higher

than anything my eyes can see.

Your grace still amazes me

Your love is still a mystery.

Each day I fall on my knees

'Cause Your grace still amazes me.

How to get a free bottle of barbecue sauce and what to do with it once you do.

Hehe....I love this coupon game.  Especially when it works out that I can get something for free.  Pretty amazing. Anyway, if you like barbecue sauce, go here and get the 75 cent off KC Masterpiece barbecue sauce.  If you then take the coupon to Lowes Foods, they just happen to have the little bottles of KC Masterpiece on sale from $1.99 to $1.50 this week.  They also double any coupon up to 99 cents, so when the 75 cent coupon is doubled,  TA DA.....your barbecue sauce is free.

Here is a quick and simple, but tasty idea of what to do with it - BBQ Chicken Salad.

You will need for sure:

1 chicken breast per 2-3 people

onion

lettuce or salad greens

tomato

cheese  (I prefer cheddar)

bbq sauce

ranch dressing (Hidden Valley is the best!!)

Other options:

shredded carrots

sliced cucumber

bacon bits

croutons

any other salad item that you like

Cut the chicken into cubes and saute in a little bit of olive oil.  Season with a little bit of salt and pepper.  When almost cooked, add sliced onion to the pan with the chicken and cook until the onion has carmelized.  Add barbecue sauce to the point of sauciness that you like and heat through.   Using the lettuce, tomato, cheese and whatever other salad fixings you like, make a salad.  Hold the ranch until later though.  To the top of the salad, add the bbq chicken mixture and then add the ranch.  Tastes just like a BBQ chicken sandwich without the bread. I bet you will have it more than once!! :o)

If you do try it out, let me know what you think or if you have any other ideas of how to improve it.  Thanks. 

Food Lion Drama

Act One:

 Lorena, being ever so frugal, is at home checking out the weekly specials at the different grocery stores. She compares the specials to the coupons that she has to see if any of them match.  She knows this is the way to get the best deals.  Discovering that Food Lion will have the Michelina and Lean Gourmet on sale over the weekend for 77 cents each and knowing that she has four 'one dollar off every five' that you buy coupons (two for Michelina and two for Lean Gourmet), she decides this would be a great deal since it would make them only 57 cents a piece.

Act Two:

   One the way home from the zoo on Friday, Lorena stops at Food Lion. She runs in quickly to get a few of the things that she knows are on sale and that she has coupons to match.  She is excited about the 12 pack Cottonelle that she got on sale for $4.99 and also the 75 cents off coupon making them only $4.24 a piece.  Add to this diapers and a few other things. But she is mostly excited about the Michelina and Lean Gourmet that she buys.  20 to be exact, because she knows that they are on sale for 77 cents a piece.  After purchasing her items and returning to the car, she is reviewing her receipt on the way home (don't worry, husband is driving) and realizes that the Michelinas rang up for 77 cents, but the Lean Gourmets rang up at $1.69. Frustrated at missing this while they were being rung up and then second guessing whether or not they were really on sale, she quickly runs to the computer on her arrival home to check.  Yes, the online ad says that Michelina and Lean Gourmet are both on sale.  She prints out the ad and tucks it, along with the receipt, in a safe place for her next return visit to the store.

Act Three:

    Early Monday afternoon Lorena heads back to Food Lion for a few things, both kids in tow.  She heads into the store and patiently waits for someone to show up at the Customer Service Desk.  When the lady arrives, Lorena nicely explains to her that what she paid for the Lean Gourmet did not match what was advertised in the online ad.  The lady goes and confers with a couple of other coworkers.  They discuss the issue and the lady returns with the store ad showing that only the Michelina were on sale not the Lean Gourmet.  Lorena shows her again where the online ad shows as you scroll the mouse over the Michelina that both Michelina and Budget Gourmet are on sale. The lady points to the bottom of the page on the store ad where it says they are not responsible for typographical errors.  Therefore there is nothing that they can do. It is an error from the corporate office and they are not responsible for it at the store level. She calls over both of the other coworkers who try to explain the same thing to Lorena and they tell her that the only thing that she can do is go home and bring back the Lean Gourmet and they would be happy to exchange for the Michelina at the 77 cent price.  Lorena is not very happy since she would have to spend quite a bit in gas to go home, get the meals and bring them back, not to mention that it is not an easy task to get two little ones in and out of the car a multiple amount of times.  Lorena gets very frustrated at this point, and as they are saying "I am very sorry" to her (which she doesn't exactly believe), she departs the store without making any purchases and considering never returning there again.  She proceeds to Walmart where she purchases the items she needs.

Act Four:

    Lorena comes home and writes a nice email to the corporate office explaining the whole situation.  At the present time, she is anxiously awaiting the reply to see how the story will end.