Ah, basking in the glow of couponing success!

A few of you, OK probably all of you, know that I have a bit of a couponing addiction. And, not to toot my own horn, but I am pretty decent at it. Thanks to a bunch of good couponing blogs! http://www.moneysavingmom.com/ is my very favorite these days.

Let me explain why I love this hobby. It is a great way to increase my spending power and strengthen or extend our family economy. It also helps me feel successful because the success is quantifiable instead of qualitative. Most of what I do as a stay-at-home mom is harder to evaluate in terms of success. Plus, this hobby helps me to be able to give more to others than I could otherwise. By teaching a few friends how to do this I have helped their budgets and some of them have taught others. It is nice to have things that we can use that we otherwise would not have chosen to spend our money on. Also, I have been able to build food storage which may help my family in a time of emergency. I feel good about that. I think I also like to plan and this takes a bit of planning. There are probably other reasons too, but it's too late to think right now.

So, tonight's trip to CVS- exhilarating! I started out with $16.49 in Extra Care Bucks. I left with all of this(see picture) and 31.46 in Extra Care Bucks. I did 5 transactions(yes WAY more than normal, but it was after midnight and the cashier does the couponing bit too, so it wasn't too obnoxious) and spent .37, .35. .17, .92 and .83 respectively. If I had planned my fillers better I bet I would have saved a dollar or two, but still! So, I did spend literally a few quarters, nickels and dimes, but I was able to get even more than in the picture. I donated toothpastes and razors to a collection box there. No need to hoard or be greedy with free stuff right? I increased my ECB by $14.97 by using that much in coupons. I came up 13.42 ahead (not to mention the products). It may not look like so much, but it was actually 129.80 dollars worth of stuff! Makeup and razors and such add up quickly.

Let me put it another way. I went to the store with 16.49 ECB, spent only 2.64 ,and left with 129.80 worth of product and 31.46 extra care bucks! SIMPLY AMAZING! Thank you CVS for the amazing Thanksgiving deals!

I have a bunch of the extra coupons for these products if anyone wants to try it out.

Also, Coldwater Creek today-
Thank you, mom, for letting me know about the $25 dollar off coupon!(It expired today or I would share the info.) What a fantastic coupon. I got this scarf that was 25.50 for only .53. My mom used the coupons too- she had time to go to two locations, so got 50 dollars worth for free. I actually ran into my mom, and Craig, Lorel, and Ella in the store. My sister-in-law, Lorel, used a coupon too and got a different scarf and had enough money left to buy some earrings. She doesn't have her ears pierced though and gave them to me. She gave them to me in the store and said, "Don't open them until Christmas." She is so funny! Thanks Lorel for sharing with me!

So, 2 stores, great stuff! Which stores will I hit next? Beware Walgreens and Rite Aid! I have my coupons clipped!

A big part of our fall was cheerleading!

Victoria started cheerleading for the Jacob's Jaguars in August a few weeks before her 5th birthday. She had practice three nights a week most weeks and games on Saturdays until the end of October. She loved it and was darling to watch. It was fun for her and for us too. We all made a lot of fun new friends. She definitely wants to do this again next year.

This is a picture of her right after her first practice. Isn't she cute? When I asked her what she liked best that night she said she liked stretching best. Maybe she'll be flexible like her mom. ;)She learned so may chants and cheers in such a short time. I was impressed with Victoria. She was the only kindergartner and definitely the youngest, but she totally fit in. Her coaches, Tami and Mitzi were amazing! They were so great with the girls and helped them to be good and to have fun. They were amazingly generous too. They were the cheerleading commissioners for Jacobs AND coached the flags despite the fact that their daughters were on the older squads. Danny and I were very impressed with their service. Victoria loved them and the girls on the squad. Later in the season a teenage girl named Amy helped too. We appreciated it.


I missed the first game because it was when Grant was only 3 days old, but Danny took a bunch of pictures. Here are a few. Here she is walking confidently, hands on hips.
And doing a couple chants.

She was excited to tell me, "We even got to high five the other team after the game!"The joy of being five.
Oh, I forgot to mention that there were not enough Jacobs football players, so they played with Falling Creek as a combined team. The cheerleaders had to combine as well. That is why there are two completely different uniforms in the pictures. It wasn't ideal, but worked out to be fine. They were called the "wildcats!"
Christian played with his friend Braden at every game. They play at the bus stop in the mornings too. He is a sweet little boy.

These next pictures are from their homecoming. They had a pep rally and carnival the night before. It was pretty fun.


The day of homecoming was pretty rainy, but not terrible. But guess what, the other flag team didn't come! A little disappointing after all of the balloons and banners and corsages and everything.

So, the boys scrimmaged and the girls just did a few cheers for the fans. It turned out just fine. After the next game, the Minor's game, they had a parade and Victoria sat in the back of a truck!(They drove around the track.)Very cool.

The next pictures are from the flag exhibition. It was just the Jacob's girls. They were awesome! I was so impressed how synchronized they were for 5-7 year olds.

V is leading the way.
Victoria (front and center, and on the thigh stand)

Lastly, after the season ended they had a big banquet. Here is Victoria with her friends and their trophies. This is Victoria's first trophy, so it is happily on display in her room.

Go, Victoria!

Twilight Party

I love the Twilight series and was so excited about the movie. So, for a girl's night out we had a little Twilight party here and went to see the movie. It was a fun time! I love parties with a theme and had fun trying to put a few things together. Here are a few pictures(if I can ever download them- blogger is taking forever!)



To decorate I just used red, black, and white, apples, a chess board, red ribbon, umbrellas, and a few photos of the characters(the actors) in my frames. It was pretty much just to be funny and I wondered if people would notice. They did.

I made "coven style popcorn,"(popcorn coated in red melting chips), "O-negative balls"(red velvet cake balls), vampire cupcakes(rasberry filled cupcakes)(I know that the Twilight vampires don't have fangs, but they were fun),

"newborn punch"(cherry, cranberry, pineapple, and ginger ale), and "Make your mouth happy" (Twizzlers) too. I found most of the recipes online, but can't remember where exactly. I just don't want to try to take credit there. Jen Mccoin made a yummy pumpkin and whipped topping dessert with "blood" topping. Everything looked and tasted pretty good!

I had a few games in mind. Twilight trivia- I thought about dividing into teams, Edward and Jacob, and playing, but the girls just found the questions and had fun trying to remember the answers. That worked out fine. The other game I had in mind in case we needed it was a Bella grace competition. We would have done an obstacle course with books on our heads. We just didn't need anything like that though. We just had fun talking.


Then, we were off to the theater. I would have taken a group shot there, but we wanted to take it under the Twilight sign and didn't want to get out of line. We were going to take it on our way out, but before the movie started I was asked to put the camera in the car. Cameras aren't allowed. OOPs! So, unfortunately I didn't get many pictures of the people that made it fun! Next time I'll know. Thanks for coming girls! Should we do it again next time?

Brooke with Grant

So I don't post to the family blog all that often and we took some new pictures of Brooke with Grant and I thought I'd put them up. I think she and the kids are beautiful...so here they are.

Danny did it! He's an Ironman!

October has been a really busy and great month for us, but I'll catch up on here another day.

Tonight I just wanted to write that I am so proud of Danny for accomplishing his goal! He completed a full iron level triathlon today and did it 20 minutes faster than his goal! Way to go, buddy! He didn't stop moving from 7:11a.m. until 9:40pm. In that time he swam 2.4 miles, biked 112 miles, and then ran 26.2 miles! I can't even imagine doing one of the three sections, let alone all three. But, Danny perservered and met his goal! Simply amazing. I knew he would do well, but I am still very impressed.

I was so sad not to go(don't even ask! I'm serious, don't. It's an extremely sore point for me.) and thought about him and worried about him a lot today. His parents and I talked a few times during the day, but I was so thankful when he called tonight after he crossed the finish line. It was a pretty tough go for him with frigid water, a flat tire,a broken bike spoke(wobbly ride), lack of rear brakes, and fire ants (maybe he can explain in an upcoming blog) and he is completely exhausted! He was looking forward to eating and drinking and sleeping and said he probably will never do it again. However, he was pleased with his accomplishment. He'll be back home tomorrow and the kids and I can't wait to see him!

Hopefully, we'll get a lot of pictures from his parents. If not, I'll buy a bunch from the photographers who covered the race. We'll post them soon and Danny can fill you in on his amazing 14o.6 mile journey!

To find out more about the race in general, check out this website-http://www.beach2battleship.com/index.cfm