I Heart Coupons

OK Coupon Queens,
I'm really feeling the love for Albertson's this morning as I stare and stare at my stocked pantry shelves. It wasn't like I made a killing like some of you have posted, but I was just shocked how much I brought home for $50:

-40 cans of baby food
-20 cans of vegetables
-2 3.5-lb. pot roasts
-10 lbs potatoes
-2 lbs carrots
-5 cans of Progresso soup (1 of which was 15 cents)
-4 boxes of good cereal (meaning not Malt O Meal, which is good too, but less so)
-Also, construction paper and parchment paper, which weren't on sale

I'm curious how much this would have cost at Wal-Mart or CostCo, just to know if the coupon thing is really a good way to go. It seemed like I got a ton more food for the money though. Plus, in a twisted kind of housewifey way, it was kind of fun.

Next, I made a stop at Harmons to pick up 5 California Pizza Kitchen pizzas for $15 with a $15 mail-in rebate, so they were free. That was definitely a good deal.

I'm planning to give my coupon days a 6-month trial period to see if it's worth it. But since this was week 1, I think I already dig it.

*This post brought to you by grocerysmarts.com*

Dear Construction Workers,

Thank you for the new sidewalk that goes up Flying J hill. I thoroughly enjoyed not brushing shoulders with moving cars and trucks this morning while running. I also appreciated not having to dodge potholes, since I'm not so talented at that either. Also, Ella would like to add thanks for the new road. She would like to ride in the Bobcat sometime if you could work that out.
Sincerely,
Green Family

A-maize-ing Fall Fun

Spoiler alert: It's not really corn.
Despite the hype, the Staheli corn maze is actually made up of some sort of tall wheat grass. But you can't blame them for the misnomer. Who would want to go to a wheat maze if they marketed it as such? Sounds lame.
When we pulled up in the parking lot, Ella practically hit the ground running. And then she didn't stop until we were buckling her back in to go home. With such attractions as the redneck trampoline (a mattress surrounded by bales of hay), horse tire swings, petting farm, slides, and a sandbox full of corn, how could the actual corn (wheat) maze even hold a candle?

Do Ella and Ailee look worried? We actually paid additional money to stick our sweet little kiddos in a train made of water buckets that was going 100 miles an hour while being driven by a 12-year-old on a tractor.

Let the record show that taking pictures in a dark, dusty place is next to impossible. And getting Ella to hold still for more than 5 seconds IS impossible.

Confessions of a Time-Share Ho

I can't help myself. It's like a moth to a flame. Every time we come in contact with someone offering us some random free gift in exchange for 90 minutes of our time, we are IN! And they just keep upping the ante. We are going to a presentation on Thurs. that got us two free airline tickets and a $100 gas card. Also in our time-share memory bank was our anniversary trip to Vegas last year with a free hotel and free show tickets. So bring on your sales pitch, bring on your investment hype. I am not even tempted to buy your over-priced real estate. But I will smile and nod, because you are, after all, funding next year's vaca.
Any other time-share hos out there who want their name added to the referral list?

Scary Inventory

Random orange and black decor around the house--check

Web with spider rings--check

Baby wearing Nana's cancer wig--check

Ella proving that actually she CAN still fit in her costume from two years ago--check

And jello mold shaped like a stomach (very appetizing)--check

By the way, does failure to dust my house count as decorating for Halloween?

Breaking Done

It is finished. At last, I can put these ridiculous pieces of silliness to rest. Creative, yes. Entertaining, OK. Sometimes boring. Sometimes laughable. And also alarmingly popular with a wide age range of women. Hmmmmmm.
You are welcome to profess your love for the series in my comments below--and I won't think less of you--but I just can't agree. It's not great literature. It doesn't add up to much more than a cheap romance novel under the name brand of an LDS author. And this last installment took things into bizarre territory with a weak, unresolved ending. Not that if she didn't write another one, I wouldn't read it. I just would be looking for something more than I would be likely to find here. So Kathy, you are finally getting your book back. It took me long enough!

Once Upon a Potty...

So here we go again. If you have any advice, here's your forum. This is attempt number I-can't-remember-anymore, but since we are out of diapers and between paychecks, we are motivated to get this one into the "I'm a big kid now" category soon.
I think we are on to something this time, though. With a chart full of boxes leading up to a princess Barbie, Ella seems to be on our team and excited to keep at it. In fact, after lunch today she showed us who No. 2 works for -- for the first time ever! She had to call daddy at work to tell him all about it. So, hopefully we will be joining the ranks of potty-users soon and out of diapers!

Lame is Rob

No, my title for this post is not an insult to Kyndel's husband. I had a linguistics professor one time that said he honestly had a student that misheard Les Miserables in that way, which is a random little nugget I find very funny.
What a great show. Any chance to see Les Mis is such a treat. It's the type of show that makes you want to be a better person. And to top it off, this production out at Tuacahn is fantastic. Not to embarrass her, but Jaime is amazing, so talented! She has a very strong voice and hands down steals the show as Eponine. We also really enjoyed the boy who played Gavroche; he had a charismatic personality that made his character very likeable.
We brought Avery along because she just seemed too little (OK age-wise, if you've been following my previous posts) to leave. I hope the people sitting behind me knew I had a baby and was not just rocking back and forth because I am crazy. Funny enough, she actually watched most of the show and only made a few peeps at the end because she was hungry.
I strongly recommend that if you haven't yet, you should go hear the people sing, singing the song of angry men. It is the music of a people who will not be slaves again...