My Young Man

Andrew is now 12 years old! He is officially a young man at church. It is hard for me to see him leave Primary.

Andrew is truly the man of the house when Daddy is at work. He...

-chases after wasps with the bug spray
-kills spiders or any bugs that get in the house
-chases after Spencer when he starts running down the street
-is very protective of his little brothers
-wakes his brothers up in the morning to start getting ready for school
-can prepare his own food
-gathers firewood and starts the fire in the fireplace
-will do laundry (when there is something he wants to wear the next day) ;)
-reads to his little brothers
-mows the lawn
-kills snakes in the yard
-and is a HUGE help with anything I ask!

I LOVE YOU ANDREW!!! Happy Birthday Bear!!!

Videos????

So, I finally decided to update my blog. 6 months later. I was completely inspired by a video created my a couple of bored kids. Reminded me of their mother. :) I love when they put the video game controllers down and use their imaginations to do something like this. It isn't the kind of video I would have made when I was little (fashion shows, beauty pageants, and music videos). It is definitely a "boy" video, very creative. I love it! (p.s. - after this first video was shot, we took turns starring in the video. When it was my turn, Spencer was unhappy and came to kiss the boo-boo on my nose!)






In other news, we took a family vacation to San Antonio in July. We weren't sure if we were going to be able to go at all. Our vacation lay in the hands of an 11 year old all-star baseball team. We had our vacation planned and then found out that Andrew made the all-star team. Now it was just watch the games to find out if they would go to the state tournament. I was disappointed when they lost that last game that decided which team would be moving on, but by the next morning I was super excited we were going on vacation!!! We went to an Astros baseball game, SeaWorld, Schlitterbahn, Natural Bridge Caverns, and the Safari Wildlife Ranch.

I am taking piano lessons again. I took lessons for about a year when I was little. I am quite pleased with the progress we have made in a month and am having a lot of fun!

Things to look forward to:
-Uncle Brian is coming in town to visit!!!!
-My Brian will be turning 8 in two weeks!!! We are looking forward to his baptism!
-School starts (unfortunately on Brian's bday - he's not very happy about that) and I will have 2 free days a week!!
-I fully intend to get my house completely organized after school starts!

My Lucky Day

I was having a terrible day. I left my purse loaded with cash at the ball park, I locked my keys inside my van when I went to the store, I slipped on my freshly mopped floor as I took dinner out of the oven. I was still shaky inside and couldn't believe the bad day I was having.

Well when I went back to the ballpark, my purse had been untouched. I don't think anyone there even moved it, they all just ignored it. I am so grateful for that because it could have had a really bad outcome. Bobby was able to come unlock my van (even though I had to wake him up because he's working nights). While waiting for him I ran into 2 families and another friend in the shopping center. It was nice to have a good group of people to wait with. When I slipped on the floor, I just knew I was going to hit the floor hard while holding this hot, glass pan. But my front foot caught the bottom of the cabinet and stopped me with a jolt. I just carefully set the pan down on the counter and couldn't believe I avoided that disaster.

So here I was feeling terrible inside when I remembered what a man from our ward briefly said as we waited for Bobby. That it must be my lucky day because no one took my purse. I thought about that and almost started laughing. It must be my lucky day because of all of the disasters that could have been and didn't. I suddenly felt so much better inside and happy again. All of the shakiness was gone.

Then the phone rang. My sister-in-law informed me that they were okay, but a dump truck had backed into them. They were in her small sedan. She said they got slammed pretty good and were waiting for the tow truck. The important thing was they were okay.

So, yea, I feel pretty lucky today. The day could have had a much different outcome.

In Training

Training starts today

89 days to go

10,000 meters

6.2 miles

Party at the finish line

I have decided to participate in the Crescent City Classic this year. I've never done it before, but can remember waiting for my brothers at the finish line when I was a kid. The heel of my sneakers recently fell off so now is the perfect opportunity to get myself a good pair of shoes.

Running has never been enjoyable to me. So, my aunt and I are going to speed walk it. Considering the fact that the only exercise I get right now is chasing after kids, I need to get out walking everyday to prepare. I am really getting excited about it and really hope that the weather is beautiful that day!

National English Toffee Day

Today is National English Toffee Day. (According to the DJs on my radio this morning when my alarm went off) ;) So I figured this was the perfect day to talk about the free toffee I received.

English Toffee Anytime sent me a whole pound of Milk Chocolate Almond Toffee. I was thinking it would be nice to try it. I've tried toffee before and it's okay. This toffee is divine. It was so much better than I expected. There are almond pieces inside the toffee surrounded by the most delicious milk chocolate topped with crushed almond, which is almost like a powder. The textures and flavors are all perfect.

From their website:

Buttery almond toffee covered with pure Guittard chocolate and coated with the finest chopped almonds. English Toffee Anytime is preferred by discerning toffee connoisseurs everywhere. Prepared to perfection, free of preservatives, and each box is hand packed and shipped without delay. Life's Essential Indulgence is perfect for traditional celebrations, but anytime is even better.

Happy National English Toffee Day!

What a deal!

My CVS shopping trips today were great! Okay other that the fact that I really wanted the Cottenelle toliet paper that I paid $8.22 for (which I now think may not have been the best deal I could have gotten).

I got $104.38 in products
I spent $23.49

Now, I would not normally spend $104 on this stuff. Who really wants to pay 9.99 for a stick of men's deodorant (even if it is Professional Strength). I'm thinking we pay a little less than half of that. But today I got it for free! Not one cent! And I got 3 of them!

I got 6 tubes of Colgate toothpaste for $1.50

Arm and Hammer Degreaser - FREE

Palmolive $.50

Excedrin (20 ct) - FREE

Garnier Fructis hair gel - $.99

3 bottles of Softsoap (hand soap) - $1.50

Halls Naturals Cough Drops - FREE

2 Kit-Kats (had to keep the babies happy) - $1.00

Cottonelle 20 pack - $8.22

5 bottles of Listerine Smart Rinse - $6.00

Add in $3.32 in tax and a mistake that a cashier made with one of my Extra Care Bucks that cost me about 50 Cents and there you have it!




Walgreens is never quite as good for me, but I can still find great deals. I have been reviewing todays purchases and realized even with all my savings, I made about $9 worth of mistakes. My total spent could have been even less!

I got $74.90 in product
It cost me $21.77

4 boxes of Kelloggs cereal - $3.00

2 boxes of Quaker oatmeal - $1.98

2 cans Progesso soup - $3.80 (should have been 4 cans for this price but I wasn't paying close enough attention)

4 - 130 count packs of Centrum Vitamins - $3.00 (for all 4 packs!)

Orajel Cold Sore Medicine - FREE

2 small bottles of Benefiber mix - $1.00

2 Palmolive - $.58

1 Gallon of milk - $3.89

Tax was $5.36!!! - I hate that!

365

My mom was telling me about Project 365. A way to really document the day to day happenings in your life. Take a picture every day and write about it. I started to really like the idea. Until she told me that the company who put together an awesome kit to help you out sold out of them just hours after putting them on sale. Do I really feel like going through all of the work to do one myself? Life is getting busier for me (a change I learned that I like -for right now) and taking a pic and journaling about it everyday is asking enough without me figuring out what to do with it after that.

Then Mom mentioned that she ordered 2 kits! And she's going to let me buy one of them! Wa Hoo! I am really excited about this and can't wait to see how it turns out.