It gets even better!

So, I looked at my receipt from yesterday's shopping trip and realized I had been overcharged almost $20! I went in and it turned out to be the wrong item but was falsely advertised. So since it was their mistake, they gave me 2 big container's of honey for $5 when they were originally $9.99 a piece! Sweet! So, actually, my shopping trip panned out at $180 worth of groceries for approx $71! Almost $110 worth of savings people! I figured out that with the time I spent clipping coupons, I paid myself about $55 an hour. Not bad for a homemaker! Stay tuned for future reports of fabulous savings!

My latest obsession

As the state of the economy grows worse and worse all the time, with cost of living ever rising, I'm always searching for ways to be more efficient with my time and/or money. In my book, time is money and vice versa. I'm determined that any time I spend working for income to help the family will be time I get paid for over and over again versus by the hour. I'm also becoming obsessed with coupon clipping. My friend Stevi, who I met at the park at playgroup (not a part of our group), has been opening my eye's to the wonderful world of getting paid at the register when you go grocery shopping. This woman is incredible! She more often than not, walks away with hundreds of dollars of groceries for only a fraction of the cost. She was showing me some old receipts and one showed over $200 worth of groceries that she only paid $49 for. Crazy! So, I went dumpster diving this morning to get a couple copies of the sunday paper. With Stevi's help, and on my very first time, I walked away with $180 of groceries for $90! Not really to Stevi's level yet but not bad for my first time. I can't even tell you how excited I am! So, I'll keep you posted as I get better at this. I can't even tell you what a blessing this is going to be. I don't remember the last time I was so excited to look at my receipt at the end of a shopping trip!

First day of school and talk in primary

I have SO much to catch up on that has happened in the last several weeks. I'm been kind of trying to wait until I could get pictures on the computer to help document the events. But alas, my camera is MIA and my printer is not transferring pictures well anyway. Anyway, I wanted to document Adam's first day of school and his very first talk in primary. I'll have to post the pics when I can get them later. So, I thought for sure I would be bauling like a baby on Adam's first day of school because I was really fighting back the tears during orientation a few days before. Just walking the halls I was hit with the realization that my first "baby" was growing up, and FAST! I took him into the building on his first day and decided to say goodbye at the end of the hall and just let him walk by himself to his classroom. As I'm trying to hug and kiss him, he's getting on this tiptoes looking past me saying, "MOM, I gotta go!". I said goodbye and he just marched right down to his class like he'd been doing it for years with his cute little Clone Wars backpack and his Scooby Doo Mystery Machine lunch box. It was at that moment that I was excited instead of sad and weepy that he could have something to call his own. He has been ready for independence from me since he could walk and communicate anything at all! So, I didn't cry actually. I was so proud of my boy in seeing his confidence in his own abilities that I was happy to see him go and "conquer". It probably helped that I moved us into our new house that same day so my mind was on other things.I often miss him during the day as does little brother who asks me all day, "Where's my brudder? Where's my brudder?" So we look forward to our afternoons when he can tell us all about his day. At his school they use a color code system to encourage good behavior from the students. Green is the best and the colors go to blue, purple, red, and yellow as behavioral problems escalate. He's so funny everyday as he announces, "Well, I got green again today mom! But, so-and-so got a color change, and so-and-so had to give the teacher time." He is very conscious of pleasing the teachers and always notices when someone is breaking the rules. I'm not sure if this is good or bad. Adam's sense of humor and theatrical side is more apparent as his fictional stories of himself and his friends are becoming more and more frequent. One afternoon he had me going for two hours, totally straight-faced, telling me that he was naughty and should have had a color change. He went on and on about he and his friend Isha and how they were wandering the halls without the teachers. When I finally realized that he was fibbing, his story had excalated into sort of a Sci-fi, twilight zone account of missing buildings, and alien abductions. Pretty imaginative, that one.

He also gave his first talk in primary a couple of weeks ago and did a fantastic job. He was so reverent as he spoke about prayer. His dad helped him with alot of it but he recited the 9th artical of faith by heart and told a sweet story about how his prayer was answered one time the car wouldn't start before church. It was fast sunday that week and Adam seemed particularly in tune with the spirit that day. That same morning of his talk, he expressed to his dad that he wanted to bring a Book of Mormon with him to church. These were his words, "Dad, I need a Book of Mormon! I'm going to take my Book of Mormon and we're going to go around and knock on doors and teach the gospel! We're going to do it!" He was devasted when we explained to him that our job as members was to be a good example and share with our friends and not to knock on doors. He so had his heart set on tracting. So sweet! I love his huge little spirit. I know I've been focusing on my Adam so one of these days I'll need to fill you in on the adventures of my little rascal the "Lincolnbot", as he calls himself.

Ode to a dishwasher

Well, I finally got internet today! I've been without it for almost 3 weeks and it has been driving me nuts! Anyway, alot to catch up on as in the last three weeks we've moved to our new home (love it!) and sent our first child off to kindergarten. But the most important event of my life as of late has been the beautiful joining of woman and dishwasher. Oh how I love this machine! I wish I could hunt down it's inventor and give him/her a big hug and kiss. But, then they would be very uncomfortable as my hug would linger on much too long. Anyway, I just can't even begin to describe the happiness that I have now that this wonderful thing is a part of my life. I'm pretty sure that at least 3 hours a day have become free to do anything I please. I just might have to find a hobby now that I have 3 extra hours a day and only 1 child at home. Hmm...any ideas?