Christmas 2008

What a wonderful Christmas we've had. I've had wonderful Christmases in the past, but I think this year - by far - has been the best. December passed by way too quickly for my liking. My goal was to relish and take time to enjoy the traditions of Christmas - most ones from our childhood, some new ones - and teach Grace the game of Santa and the true meaning of the day - as much as she can understand. I believe we accomplished my goal. Christmas Eve found Clint and I putting Grace to bed around 11:45, after setting out Christmas cookies, milk and a carrot for Santa. Then, we began to set out the stockings and wrap her Christmas presents. We were all pretty exhausted from the very busy day and wonderful evening we spent over at Mom & Dad's, but Clint and I always get revived when it's just us and we are getting things ready. I think that is one of my favorite times. 12:30, with a Christmas movie or music on, quietly humming around our little house getting things ready for the girls. Sure - it's REALLY hard to get up in the morning, but I love that feeling of preparing something special for Grace & Annie - knowing that she was excited before she went to bed. I crept in and hung a candy cane on her bed frame, hoping she'd see it and think that Santa was looking in on her (She didn't get it). All day long she kept talking about how "I'm going to see him putting presents under the tree, then she was going to say "Hi!" and he'd say "Ho! Ho! Ho!" - she said that scenario over and over all day long - it was so cute.

This is the first Christmas that Grace has been old enough to truly appreciate and understand the excitement of everything, and - although she is going through an incredibly contrary phase right now, (It IS a phase!) we had some tender and wonderful moments. I loved stroking her hair, talking to her about Christmas as she lay in my lap after a huge fun filled gift-giving extravaganza and Grandma and Grandpa's. She never lays in my lap, she's too busy, but there she was in her new princess dress-up clothes, tiara, slippers and all and cuddling.

Today, Grace & Annie played all day long with her new toys, and we stayed home and relaxed - no time frame, no stress to get anywhere, no worries for today, no thoughts about bills or even coupons! - we just relaxed and enjoyed being a family. I will say that my one shining moment today was that all my cooking endeavors turned out! i.e. homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast and homemade egg rolls and cashew chicken along with birthday cake for dinner. Side note: perhaps the key to good cooking is to be relaxed?? (hmmm....) We watched movies, we played games and we just generally enjoyed being home. Grace was fairly cooperative all day, we had some moments, but when we sat down to dinner at the end of the day, she stole my heart - simply by looking at me with her big blues and saying "Merry Christmas to you, Mom!" and then gave me a hug. I almost cried - it was so simple and sweet. Loved it.

Annie was so precious today. Yesterday and today she has really tried hard to start crawling. Up on all fours and starting to rock - adorable. She's 9 months today. She was sweet playing with her new stacker and turtle. I can't believe how big she's getting and that 1 year is only 3 months away. She was cracking herself up this evening, making faces, blowing bubbles, drumming her lips with her hand (this is new today!) and generally being my sweet, cuddly lovable Annie-cakes.

Two little girls and a husband who thinks I am the world, a loving family and parents - I have much to be thankful for this Christmas. I am truly blessed.

All Quiet on the Mid-Western Front

Typical Monday night at the Young House. This is what we look like by 9:30 pm...Ahhhh...

ZZZZZ

ZZZZZZZZZZ

ZZZZZZZZZZZZ

And then, there's me...

You can see me in the previous position at 7am trying to pry my eyelids open and my daughters off my lap so I can hop in the shower and whisk them away to work. I don't know how I got this way, but I think I will always and forever be a night owl!

Sweet Annie

I have the hardest time getting pictures of Annie - rarely can I catch her beautiful smile in it's truest form...witness the attempts yesterday morning in her bear hat...

I think she's just the cutest thing...

Daddy's coming 'round...

to Momma's way of thinkin...

This picture does not do justice to the massive Wags haul I got today. Took me 3 trips and a trip to Meijer -but it was totally worth it...We're looking at 6 bottles of laundry detergent (that's 9 months worth), 9 boxes of aluminum foil, 1 Ped Egg, 1 package Ped Egg replacement blades, a mixer, 2 Jiffy cornbread mixes, 2 packages of pull-ups, 2 packages size 3 diapers and 3 boxes of Chex cereal (to make Chex Mix -yum!)

Grand total: 20.75 + I got 13 dollars in RR back - Whoopeee!!!! That's 1 Christmas present and 1 birthday present included in there folks...

The diapers alone at retail price were 42 bucks - come on now, that's a good deal! All those RRs from last weekends stocking stuffer haul totally came into play this weekend. Woohoo :) So - obviously, not everyone can do this deal because not everyone walks in to Wags with 28$ of register rewards - BUT - here's on ya'll could do and it was my cheapest transaction!

Buy 4 Arm & Hammer Laundry Detergents - they are regularly priced 5.99 at the TR store. Use the special IVC that's available to the 13th and knock them down to 1.99 each - use 4 of the 1.00 off coupons from armandhammer.com - this is a tricky one because you need two computers and two email addresses. Print off 4 of the coupons and slap 'em down. You'll pay .99+tax for each of the bottles (pay 4.32) AND then you'll get a $5 RR -good on your next purchase -so if you have to buy something for 5 bucks or more at Wags do the laundry soap first, and get it for free...I actually bought 4 of these bottles and a coloring book and paid .76 for the whole darn thing. She couldn't even use one of my coupons because then they'd owe me money. I'm going to see if I can drum up three more coupons around here at the Oaks and do this deal again - Laundry soap for 2009! So - yeah I've now got coffee, laundry detergent, shampoo, toothpaste, aluminum foil, cleaning supplies and kotex for next year. We'll be clean and hyper!

So - Clint finished my (starter) shelves in the basement for my hauls. Almost all of this stuff was dirt cheap or better yet - FREE. He has taken a while to come around to the whole stockpiling, couponing method of grocery shopping - in fact, quite a few times he's made note of the fact that "Honey - I can't eat KOTEX..." But he got real happy when I stockpiled him coffee and I think now that all of the supplies are organized on shelves, rather than in massive amounts of plastic grocery bags - he finally gets and LIKES what I'm doing. In fact - all this stuff is 3 months worth of collecting and I'm almost out of space...

No room on the shelves for the TP -

That's 54 boxes of FREE Jello...not a one did I pay for...no joke

Kotex anyone? -all the pantyliners were completely FREE...as well as 17 tubes of FREE toothpaste and my starter pile of Johnson's Buddy soap - all free as well...oh, wait - no - I pay .03 for each of them (tax)

And then there's the Glade. Don't get me started on the Glade. The Glade is embarrassing, but taught me a huge lesson - anyhoo - made about 30 bucks on the Glade, but it was a LOT of work and a HUGE mistake on the Glade people's part. Anyhoo - that's two totes full and underneath that blue tote is 20 bottles of the Aerosol Glade spray. Psycho - I know. I'm completely embarassed.

I am cracking myself up - this hobby is totally hilarious...

Want to know how to make a 3 year old look like a Kindergartner?

Add a Headband!

Give her a snack...

And a Project!

This past Sunday we began a tradition that I hope continues for a long time. It was a simple one - build a gingerbread house with Grandma & Grandpa. Something that Grace could do and she LOVED it...she had just gotten a new dress and headband and was all dressed up right down to her new patent leather Mary Janes and I looked at her and had visions of life in a classroom at Howie...

Can it be that it's just 2 years away??

Can't help myself...

I HAVE to write about my Wags score on my lunch break. Here's what I emailed my mom just a minute ago:

"I just scored BIG time at Wags:

They are having good RR's on stuff that we use/need and I wanted to stockpile some diapers this week...I was going to get 4 packages - which retail would be 36.00, but they have deals going on now where I could knock that down to 24$ - so I wanted to see how much other stuff I could get along with the diapers and still pay between 24 - 30$ - still 6 bucks less than the retail price.

So - here's what I got:

1st Transaction:

2 Reach Toothbrushes
2 Colgate Toothpastes
3-2 liters of Diet Coke
3 jars of Planters cocktail peanuts (for the holiday chex mix we are going to make)
2 jars of Peter Pan peanut butter
1 12-pack of Coke

-paid 23.37 (and that includes tax

After I paid - the machine spit out 2 - $5 RRs, 1 - $6RR - 1-$2 RR = 18 dollars in RR!

2nd Transaction

2 Reach Toothbrushes
1 Colgate Toothpaste

Used 1 of my $5 RR from Transaction #1 and paid 1.23

After I paid the machine spit out 1-$6 RR and 1-$2 = 8 dollars in RR

So to sum up -out of my pocket I paid: $29.6 and got $26 in RR to use on diapers! Woohoo -

MEANING - I got all that stuff for$ 3.60 -which is less than the price of the 12 pack of Coke...

Wahoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo"

I know, I know - I need more toothbrushes and toothpaste like I need a hold in my head, but with the coupons I have matched up with the deals that are running - they are MONEYMAKERS -so why the heck not? Bring down the out of pocket cost of the diapers.

I am SO tempted to do that all over again if one of the Wags in Portage has the Reach toothbrushes on sale (my beloved TR one does not - which is a bummer because the toothbrush deal is a BIG one). Of course, I didn't add in all the types of deals going or the coupons I used to the email. Otherwise my OOP costs would be way higher. But anyhoo - if you want the details, give me a buzz - otherwise just appreciate the buzz I have going from getting all that stuff for less than 4 bucks...

Things I don't know...

I don't know if "luckily" is a typical word for a 3 year old - but she used it...

And correctly too, I might add.

I don't know if I'm ready to turn THIRTY-FREAKING-TWO tomorrow - but it's gonna happen...

I don't know if MPI will cut my husband's job next year - but they didn't today...

I don't know what the heck was so wrong with Annie that she had to scream almost all night long - but she did...

I don't know exactly how my story is going to go at Kid's Club tonight - but I'm still gonna tell it...

I don't know what I'm going to do for games tonight at Kid's Club - but I'm in charge...

I don't know what I'm getting everyone for Christmas - but I better figure it out soon...

I don't know if I will have to work tomorrow! Inclement weather is a comin'...

I don't know WHY Grace isn't potty trained by now...but she isn't

I don't know when I've not known so much, and still been okay with it all. For a control freak, it's hard to see life situations like kids and jobs go beyond what you can control. I would think that is the biggest lesson I have learned in my 32 years - is that you gotta flop with the mop and trust God for His control. Sure - there are little things that I could control - i.e. I could definitely be better prepared for Kid's Club tonight (shame on me) - I could definitely be better at Christmas planning on shopping (I am learning!)

But the big stuff - like Clint's job (MPI just cut about 350 jobs today) and my job and my kids are all so out of my control that if I don't learn to be flexible and be okay with "not knowing" - I'll break and will go crazy with worry. This morning I got an email and a phone call from my dad wanting to know if Clint still had a job and what was going on with MPI - I had NO CLUE - apparently, they had to do cuts because of the economy and it sounds like it was sort of a shock and they were calling people at home even to tell them not to come into work. Clint didn't have a clue either, till he got to work. 3 people in his department were cut, he was not one of them. We are so thankful right now. But - it sorta puts the fear into ya. Who knows what will happen if the economy keeps spiraling?

The only security we have is in Jesus and His promise to take care of us. Which, right about now, is the one thing that I feel right now that I DO know for certain.

Writing this post, I have an old hymn in mind that I learned growing up that is applicable and is extremely comforting to me right now:

I don't know about tomorrow;
I just live from day to day.
I don't borrow from its sunshine
For its skies may turn to grey.

I don't worry o'er the future,
For I know what Jesus said.
And today I'll walk beside Him,
For He knows what is ahead.

Many things about tomorrow, I don't seem to understand. But I know who holds tomorrow and I know who holds my hand.

Every step is getting brighter
As the golden stairs I climb;
Every burden's getting lighter,
Every cloud is silver-lined.

There the sun is always shining,
There no tear will dim the eye;
At the ending of the rainbow
Where the mountains touch the sky.

Many things about tomorrow, I don't seem to understand. But I know who holds tomorrow and I know who holds my hand.

I don't know about tomorrow;
It may bring me poverty.
But the one who feeds the sparrow,
Is the one who stands by me.

And the path that is my portion
May be through the flame or flood;
But His presence goes before me
And I'm covered with His blood.