this week's word with jon (the comeback)

This may my favorite TWWWJ to date.
We visited Bronner's Christmas Wonderland over the weekend because-hey, November 1st is the start of Christmas season in my book. I noticed that the mannequin wearing the Christmas tree as a dress had changed from last year to this year. Jon took one look and uttered these two words:

"Project Runway."

I absolutely love him.

Congerween

This is a picture what the gingerbread house of horrors that Jon and Lilah constructed could have looked like.

This is the actual end result.

Lilah worked very hard.

Lilah's fever had gone done enough for us to take her to abot 10 houses for trick-or-treating.

She has loved this mummy since the first time she saw it. However, she still thinks it's a "Mommy."

Me and my bean.

She hopped on the porch of everyone she got candy from--just like a good bunny should.

And here she is, picking her nose.

I'm not big on Halloween. However, I am big on little kids dressing up like adorable creatures in return for candy. I'm not sure if trick-or-treating will become a ritual for us--I still don't like the idea of telling Lilah not to take candy from strangers and then going door-to-door and demanding candy from strangers. However, with her recovering from the flu, this seemed like the least communicable way for us to spend the evening.

Plus, this was our first Halloween where we were eligible for trick-or-treaters ourselves. I was looking forward to handing out candy and seeing cute costumes. However, now I'm just looking forward to eating leftover candy as we only ended up with about 10 trick-or-treaters.

I hope that everyone had a fun-filled weekend. :)

And I just said a record for the number of times I can use the word however in a paragraph.

just because i can

My daughter and her BFF just happened to own the same sweater, so when we were sitting for her yesterday, I dressed them up like dolls. As a parent, you only have this absolute power for a short amount of time. I'm not going to waste mine.

So, I've been getting a lot of questions lately about my recent coupon addiction. I figured that I would post where I've been getting all the good deals and who I can attribute my success to.

I was visiting a Parents of Preschoolers class a few weeks ago, and a woman there--Laura Webber, taught us all the glorious art of couponing.

I love it when a noun becomes a verb right before my eyes.

Laura's website is called Sharpen Your Scissors.

If you go back and read about her from the beginning of her blog journey, you'll learn all about stacking manufacturers' coupons with store coupons, why it's important to buy more than one Sunday newspaper, the art of stockpiling, and all sorts of other tricks of the trade.

Another website I really enjoy is Macomb Moneysavers.

This woman, Jolynn, does all of your hardwork for you by matching up recent newspaper coupons with local store ads. She focuses on Macomb, Michigan, but again, even if you aren't local, she's got some really good advice. Plus, since I know her personally, I can vouge for her awesomeness.

My friend Alli has subscribed me to a magazine which I haven't received yet, but it's an all-coupon magazine. Once I get my first issue, I'll share the details.

Also, at Meijer.com/grocery, there are coupons you can print on your computer that are specifically to Meijer. These are called "Meal Box" coupons, and they can be combined with Meijer sales and coupons issued by the manufactuer. For example, a few weeks ago Meijer was having a sale on their condensed Campbells soups for like $.79 each. I had a MF coupon for like $.50 off of four cans. Then I had a MB coupon for $1 off of six. Well, first of all, Meijer doubles MF coupons up to $.50, so really, I had a total of $2 off of six cans. If you do the math, that means I spent $.45 for a can of soup. This is just one example of a great way to save with Meijer.

There are online places to also get printable coupons. You can pretty much just Google "printable coupons" and take your pick. It's perfectly fine to print in all black and white so you don't waste money on ink.

At Kroger.com, you can download additional coupons to your Kroger Savings Card. These coupons aren't available anywhere else (that I've seen).

I just got back from the grocery store(s) today. At Kroger, my bill was $21. Of that, I only spent $9. At Meijer, my bill was $120. Of that, I only spent $67.

At Target, I was able to score three packages of Keebler Chips Deluxe for only $.33 a piece. I also got two free Airwick Airfreshener warmers.

My big Meijer score was that I bought 6 Suave kid body washes/shampoos, two deoderants, four adult shampoos, four adult body washes, and two huge bottles of lotion and spent less than $15 on the whole lot.

When you get a deal like that, it's a great time to donate to either your church's food pantry.

I won't make a habit of blogging about these savings because Laura and Jolynn put me to shame with just the time and effort they put into saving the rest of us money. I'm happy to direct you their way. However, I will encourage all of you to either start clipping coupons or to save them for me b/c I will totally be your best friend for life if you do.

no time to turn 30

I have to remember not to be so busy taking pictures of other people that I forget the reason I bought my camera was for pictures of my family :)

I turned 30 last Thursday. I'm still in awe of all the work my husband put into my surprise party. He also bought me the diamond edition of Scrabble, which is a very awesome gift. I spent the morning with Lilah, and in the afternoon Alli made me my favorite meal - chicken parmesean - from scratch. She also made me my own birthday cake. AND- for my gift, she subscribed me to a magazine full of nothing but coupons. Do friends get much better than this? My sources (the Magic 8 Ball) say no.

Lilah is very much wanting our baby to come. The other day she was lying in bed and told me she had a baby in her tummy. I lifted up her blanket to find she had stuff two baby dolls in the crotch of her jammies. She is going to be an awesome big sister.

Speaking of baby... yesterday we had another ultrasound. It's still a girl. And I think we have a name. And no, we aren't telling.

Last weekend Alli and I shot two different weddings. After the first one, we returned from the reception to find that her car had been locked within the chapel's iron gates. Two hours later, I could now check off breaking and entering from my bucket list. And don't worry- we had help from the cops.

I can't believe the amount of ground we covered this weekend with the house. We organized closets, put together a make-shift playroom for Lilah until our basement is finished, and Jon and I painted out living room. Today we took Lilah to the Royal Oak Spooktacular (where she dressed as a bunny) and then I edited pictures for three hours and Jon is upstairs baking an apple pie from scratch. I also did four loads of laundry and ran errands. I feel like a regular suburban Wonder Woman.

I've been cutting and coordinating coupons with sales ads over the past two weeks. The first week along I saved $40. Last week, it was $50. I've discovered upon ways to get free food through fancy math and manufacturer's coupons. I have started piles of food to take to our church's food pantry. Saving money makes me feel awesome.

This baby gives me such bad heartburn I sometimes feel that there is an acid hole burning through my chest.

I have dreams of being able to blog like I used to... Or at least a few times a week. I miss it. The busyness of this season of life accompanied by a reader who has used some of my entries in some very hurtful ways has sorta put a damper on what used to be my most favorite outlet. I still have the bound copies of my first two blogs. I've had my myspace blog sitting in Word for over a year now, waiting to be published on blurb.com. I can't believe I've kept this writing thing going for over five years. Time just seems to be getting away from me laterly. I will say that hitting the big 3-0 was a little more surprising than I expected it to me. I mean, I do know the sequence of numbers, so I'm not sure what I was expecting to have happen after 29... I think I just had flashbacks to when both of my parents turned 30 and the amount of black flowers and tombstone cakes... I don't feel as though I'm as old as they were when they turned 30. It's kinda surreal.

But, no time to think about that right now...

:)

why is it so hard to not think about the poop?

In an effort to NOT think about the fact that the basement of the home we have been living in for two weeks, of which that same basement was going to be finished this weekend, was flooded by sewage caused by an undisclosed-to-us plumbing problem...

Here are some nice fall pictures. Enjoy!

happy birthday to ME!

Infinity cool points to my husband for planning and pulling off my surprise 30th birthday party.

I just can't get over all the details and effort. He's truly amazing.

Here are the highlights:

1.) An awesome meal with all my favorites--and it was catered! I didn't have to cook!

2.) A DJ to play all my favorite songs - all great 80s and 90s... Tons of Pearl Jam!

3.) A hilarious scavenger hunt schemed up by Alli.

4.) Lots of friends... totally felt the love.

I don't even think I can put into words how much the party meant to me.

I'll have to try harder later :)

a quickest update ever

I'm alive.

We moved in to our new house (although haven't had a chance to unpack barely a single box)

I did 59 school picture sessions this week. With the help of Alli. Who is the artist behind this picture of my daughter.

I am beyond swamped. Need a break.

I feel something looming in the not so distant future regarding my big 3-0. Makes me a little nervous.

Oh... and we are having another daughter. :) SO happy...

Wish I had time to share all the storie of the past week... but alas.

Tomorrow is another Monday.