Yup Yup

Now if I could get my charming little 4 year old to participate...

I will.

Got a new chair today. :) Im on a roll.

Im probably going to get better about watermarking or just all out adding my name to the pictures I post as I had a bit of an incident. I found my child on a business website. I had an issue with a dress we ordered, so I sent them a picture so they could see what I was talking about. They helped me get it taken care of, but then used my daughter on the header of their website, their blog, and as the front picture for the entire flower girl dress lineup. Im not mad. Im over it really, but it was SO shocking.

Like when I saw it... I had goosebumps all over my body. My heart was racing and I was just like wow, that is MY daughter! That is my picture! It was a crazy whirlwind of emotions. They werent using the image in a bad way, they made it look really good actually, but without me being aware, it wasnt good. Its down now.

Anyhow, after I got my chair in the house I had to quick snap a few. Shes so fun to take pictures of. And so is Taylor, but Carolina participates much better as I'm sure you can imagine!

So tonight I was sitting in the kitchen on the laptop and I heard a squeaking/chirping sound. Cricket? I wish. Mouse? Probably. I got still and quiet and listened some more and it sounded like it was coming from one of our upper cupboards. A mouse up there? I walked up to the cupboard and listened and heard it again. I stomped on the floor to get Andrew to come up from the basement. I made him listen and then darted away from the cupboard, afraid a mouse was going to like dash out and claw my eyes out (that is afterall what mice do-- right?)

This is the cupboard with our cups and glasses. Unlikely home for a mouse, but what if hes trapped under a glass? How in the hell? It made no sense, yet of a poor helpless little fur ball creature I was terrified.

Andrew opened the cupboard, listened and the sound was there, but creature there was not. Turns out it probably IS a mouse, but he is up above the cupboard. The attic? The space behind the wall? Somewhere. Yuck.

So mouse bait in the attic ASAP.

Took more pics today. It comes and it goes and right now, it goes. Im obsessed. I think some of it was Carolina's shoot yesterday, some of it is that the sun (yes friends! Rest assured! Our planet is still within the sun's reach!) has been out for three days and spring is in the air. The other part is that I know warm weather is coming, I know I will be booking shoots and I NEED to have a website up and running... so Ive been forced to look into all the options there and put something together. All these things put me into a bit of a groove.

The weather has been amazing. I love spring. I love summer. Then of course when fall rolls around I love it too. And then the snowy hot chocolate nights where we're snowed in and cozy... love them too. But anyhow, spring. It smells lovely outside, suddenly the whole town is awake. Bikers, strollers, joggers, people out and about all over. I had no idea this place was so populated. I got the bike and trailer down from the garage rafters and loaded Carolina up and we rode bike to pick Taylor up from school. Its been a while to say the least. I was out of breath. One I havent been on the bike in so long. I think I went like 2 times total since Carolina was born! (she was too small for the trailer) That and instead of just pulling one child, Im pulling 2. One of which has grown tremendously. A workout indeed, but I enjoy it, especially during this time of year. Once summer rolls around its often way too hot and sticky to even want to do it.

I need to go to bed. Now.

My girls have been early risers and I have NO idea why. Id like to say this too is a result of the sunshine beaming through our windows, but its been longer than just this past week. Either way, the kids are awake and have to DRAG me out of bed every morning. And while Taylor is needing this and wanting to tell me that, Im a big grouch and want nothing but silence. Not good.

I need to go to bed now and let them stay up with Andrew for another hour and it will all balance out. :) *giggles*

Today my sweet baby is NINE months. Why is that a 9 month pregnancy felt like fricken eternity, but now 9 months of her life feels like a second? Its strange. I have enjoyed every day. She is so much fun.

I took a bunch of pictures of her today and brought her to Grand Rapids for a photoshoot that we won a couple months back. She was a wonderful participant. My kids don't look at my camera, but everyone elses are surprisingly interesting. Maybe its the camera. I need a new one. An upgrade. I'm ready. Andrew gets a tv, I get a camera? Sounds fair?!

After a day of pictures I am really in a groove. My website is driving me absolutely nuts. Its in SHAMBLES. Do not go there. Its pretty blank, not fit to the page, ads all over it, nothing works.... I have no idea what Im doing. We switched the domain host and then I had to put something up there, so we threw some slop up there, which is probably not the best. It should probably just say "Under construction" and be blank until its fine tuned... but I don't know how to do that. Theres like 2 pieces to it, my side, and Andrew's side and they don't fit together seamlessly, so whats being shown online is definitely a seam for sure. I yiyi. The good news is, its only March, Im not doing much of anything right now and probably won't until at least mid April, so I've got time.

Anyhow, the photoshoot was excellent. I am so jealous that this woman was able to get my babe to look at her so easily. Carolina never looks at me. She even noticed that Carolina was signing. She asked me if Carolina signed as I was filling out a form, without even glancing up I went on to say explain that she does some and we're really working on it. She cut me off and said "what is she saying?" and I looked at Carolina who was signing "more" Its always MORE. Everything is more. More. more. more. Or nurse, which is the milk sign. I do believe Ive seen her also sign bird for Iniko, not by her mouth where it should be, but just the motion with her fingers. I know she understands a lot of others even though shes not making them herself just yet.

Shes brilliant.

It excited me that someone other than US noticed it. Its not jibberish, she has intent and is clearly communicating. You just need to pay attention. It blows me away how much little people can understand.

Taylor Joyce, also brilliant.

Her report card came home Monday. Perfection. Its a 1-2-3 system. 1s everywhere. She knows her states, she knows the SOUNDs that go with the letters, she spells words, whe WRITESwords, she writes numbers, she writes her phone number including the dash. We're working on writing the last name currently. Ive also been trying to get her to use lowercase letters, and to write her name properly. I originally taught her all in caps, just to keep it simple. The pointed angles and lines were easier than the curvy letters at the time. Its coming along. Kindergarten next year. *falls over*

I am so proud. So lucky. So blessed.

And then another highlight from today, WILDTHINGS!! Finally out on DVD and Blu-Ray!! FINALLY! My mom and brother came over to watch it with us. It was so sweet. :) I love that movie. Andrew's surround sound/tv combo is pretty nifty for movie watching I do have to say.

Maybe some pictures tomorrow.

Well I should've known the last post would get questions, so Ill try to fill you in.

The membership fee IS worth it.

(although Im not personally impressed with this weeks stuff, which is okay because it gives me a break since I went crazy last week)

You pay $19.95 a month.
The website indexes coupons from ALL over. Your newspaper ads being an obvious set, but places on the internet you'd never think to go. (besides coupons.com)

Each week it gets information from your LOCAL stores, and lists the sale items, and the sale prices, followed by a list of coupons that can be used. It will list which paper it came out of, or give you links, often a multitude of links where coupons can be obtained. Print em' off, and youre on your way to shopping.

My toaster strudels from last week were on sale for $1.99, I had a $1 off 2 coupon and a store coupon for $1 off each one. So I bought 4 boxes, would be 8 dollars, BUT, 4 dollars off each one, and then I got to use the $1 off 2 coupon twice, thus bringing my 4 boxes of toaster strudels to a total of $2, .49 cents a box. This was one of the cheapest things I got. The cereal was a great deal. This week my grocery store has toothpaste for .50 cents! Its onsale for $1.50 and savingsangel showed me a $1 off coupon I could use.

Walgreens had the airwick stuff on sale for $3.99 (regular $7.99) and then I had  $4 off coupon, which brings it down to FREE.

I guess to know if it would be right for you or your family you'd have to look up your "metro" area, I know its stronger in some places than in others. It gives you a list of stores, and if the stores that you shop at are there then it would be worth it to give it a shot.

The other trick I guess is when the prices are low, stock up on that item. Buy more than you need, buy as much as you can store if you have the space. After a few weeks, you won't need to buy EVERYTHING at the store, and youll be able to just buy the good deals. Most of the things you need, canned, frozen and boxed things will already be at your house. Obviously fresh things you can't do this with, but still if all you had to buy everytime you went shopping was milk, eggs, and fresh produce, plus 20 dollars worth of what the "deals" are.... it'd be a piece of cake!

Im wish I had signed up 6 months sooner. Last week alone has paid for my membership for a couple of months.

And then the membership...

For each person that you refer to savings angel, you get a one time credit of $10, and then savings angel pays you $5 a month for the lifetime of their membership. Each month that the person you reffered continues to stay, you get $5! Break that down and refer 4 people and the membership is free. Every one person you get after 4 is money in your pocket.

Getting people to sign up isnt that hard either, you don't even have to beg them, just get excited about your personal savings, (which you will) and tell someone and it snowballs. Its not a get rich quick scheme, its just saving money on groceries, which to ME is a big deal!

It kind of sounds like a lot of work, but I dont feel like it is, it really just saves you the work. By laying everything out for you, listing products, sales, coupons and bottom line prices, its putting everything together for you. You can click and make a list to print right online. If you never use coupons, then maybe it will be work for you, but if you already do use some here and there, then this is awesome because it seriously just figures it all out and finds the best matches for you.

This is the link, my affiliate ID # is 30890

http://savingsangel.com/amember/go.php?r=30890&i=l8

There are a couple videos on their website you can watch if you're really interested. :):)

Taylor is out of kids toothpaste at the moment, she complained last week because shes using her "trial size" one the dentist gave her. I told her princess toothpaste wasn't on sale, but soon it would be. Sure enough, yesterdays paper had a HUGE procter and gamble insert, and now I have $1 off her toothpaste. lol She thinks its kind of funny, she goes to the store and instead of asking, "Can I have this or that" She asks, "Is this on sale?" "are cheezits on sale?" Because she knows the answer to that question will narrow down whether or not she can talk me into buying it.

By the way, Cheezits, 90 cents a box at walgreens. (their advertised sale along with a coupon)

It has become a game to me.Which is good. I needed it. Anything to make grocery shopping more fun because I dread it. I usually end up going with the 2 girls by myself and its soo much work.....

Tracking info says my safes will be here tomorrow afternoon! RoCk oN!!!!

LOVE IT!

I saw this on facebook tonight and it cracked me up! This week has been off to a rough start. I dont know why, I just feel a little off beat. I need like a mental health day or something. Today wasnt so bad, Taylor just TALKS nonstop and Carolina doesnt want to be put down or left alone for more than 3 seconds at a time. I didnt even take a shower until Andrew got home! THATS what kind of day it was.

When he got here, I got in the shower and HE cooked a DELICIOUS supper (I love that man) but I stayed in the shower for a long time, just enjoying the silence. I got out and as soon as the Taylor heard the water shut off she charged through the bathroom door saying "Mom! Mom!" because she had something she NEEDED to tell me. I was welcoming and responded with interest, but then she walked away and didnt shut the bathroom door again, so her sister who was flying around in the walker happened to be parked at the end of the hallway saw me. As soon as Carolina saw me she started fussing. If she sees me, she HAS to have me.

I got dressed and walked into the kitchen for supper and pointed out to Andrew what had just happened. No one was cranky, everything was good, they are just really demanding, and Im okay with that, but sometimes I just can't take so many things at once.

*sigh*

Andrew has been in the basement working on a computer all night. Should be done. Hes been doing side job after side job. Its crazy because hes not even advertising really, just word of mouth. Hes made a ton of money over the past 2 months. Every week hes had a computer or been at someones house working on one. Hes a computer genius.

His extra money is now spent though.... *drumroll* *eyeroll* (whichever way you want to look at it. HA!)

He got his basement TV.

Well, actually... he got his livingroom tv and the one we have upstairs now is going into the basement. I yiyi.

It was his decision ultimately, but I didnt protest though I thought it to be slightly excessive.

He got a raise in December, that money not built into our budget, he was able to keep the first part of it for playing. That and his side jobs... he deserved it, and sometimes you have to let a boy be a boy. The compromise is that his car is still HIS car. ha! He made it into the budget at work this year, though it was never a "serious" threat, it was a possibility because some people in other departments and areas are getting laid off, I didnt want to spend any extra money until we knew that for sure. This and it did not have to come out of our tax money.

I havent said anything about it because I feel kind of guilty. No one NEEDS another tv, or one that big... its silly to spend money on something like that.... but hes wanted to have his game space in the basement since we moved in, and really this guy works very hard and gives every bit of the reward to this family and to this house. His check goes to the bank and pays bills, buys things we need, gets sent to an untouchable account, takes care of household things, and rarely does any of it go to him to use as HE pleases. We are able to buy things and go out to eat here and there, but its always 'us', not just him.  I wanted to take a Disney vacation... though this was still cheaper than that.

Its snowballed into a big deal around here though. We've got lots of work in the basement, and now some livingroom projects. Hes stripping and sanding a piece of furniture for the tv bench, hes going to build a floating wall in the livingroom, and we've had to de-junk our basement to make it a fun living space.

In all of this, my greatest joy is knowing the xbox will go to the basement. ;)