Today, per instructions from my lovely boss, I took the afternoon to "unplug" from work. I headed down to Hilary's, and Ava played with Eli and Julia for most of the day. Simon refused to nap while we were there and just partied with us. Ava played babies for at least an hour with Julia and then followed Eli around for a while. He tried to convince her to do a slip n slide, but she was not at all interested. It was great fun! We headed out about 7pm and I decided to stop by the Draper outlets on the way home to check out the OshGosh store. When Ava was 11 months old, I discovered the St George Oshgosh outlet. I fell in love. 70% off sales, with coupons and the most adorable clothes I'd ever seen. For the next 8 months...ok year....I had a severe problem. Although I only shopped sales and always used a coupon, I couldn't get out of there without dropping $80. My high was walking out with a "You saved" number twice the size of what I'd actually spent. However, she is now growing like CRAZY, and the novelty of dropping that much money on a kid who would rather wear a sleeping beauty dress up all day...has quickly faded. Her most recent growth spurt has left her with all her 2T shirts showing belly and dresses showing diaper. So, with a coupon in hand, and 2 kids to keep me plenty distracted from any NON sale item, we ventured in. Low and BEHOLD it was a sale of an EXTRA 20% off the already clearanced items. Um...heroin anyone? They even had some long sleeve shirts--so they can be worn into fall. I got some cute dresses, tops, a skirt and a pair of shoes-as she grew out of her old ones in a month. Total spent...$59. I looked at my receipt to see my "You saved" and it said $13. Um what? They have changed their program, so now it only tells you what your coupon saved you. lame. not nearly as fun. So, of course, as soon as I get home and put the kids in their beds...I start calculating what I really saved. And this is where it gets scary.
Total of what I would have spent buying those same items at their inital prices...
$332.30.
Again...my total? $59. Savings? $273.30
Friday, July 31, 2009
Thursday, July 30, 2009
1 day and 2 nights down...
So chris left for Vegas Wednesday afternoon for a 4 day defcon conference. It's now Thursday about 10:40pm and I am happy to report that we are all still alive and mostly sane. My sister, KK, came up for a couple of days to help me with the kids while Chris is gone. She goes back home tomorrow, leaving me with Friday, Saturday and Sunday to live through. PRAY.FOR.US.
It really hasn't been nearly as bad as it could be. For 1, Ava hasn't really noticed that daddy is gone. I mean, she is different, and seems to realize that something is different, but hasn't put together that daddy's been missing for 36 hours. I tell you what man, when that clock hits 6pm, and there's no daddy coming through the door, I sure as heck notice! I knew that I relied on that break...but never really realized just how MUCH I do.
Today, after work, Audrey Seidel came over and tended Ava while KK and I worked on a surprise for Chris. *note--she is AMAZING. She kept Ava and Alena from yelling at eachother...which is major for 2 two year olds and the coveted princess dolls being in the same space. I give her 5 stars and will be using her again.* I'm not really sure if we won, or the job we were tackling did. I think it may have been a tie, because I can't really move. and it's not really done. but it's definately mostly done. Oh that I had the energy of my 2 year old daughter. I have 3 suprises that I want to have ready for him...and I'm hoping I get to all of them. We'll see how it goes. Ty.le.nol. As for now, I'm happy to report that my basement shower has a door (after....1-2-3...4? sad. 4 months) and a mirror. Makes a world of difference I tell ya! brain. shutting. down. body. aching. must.sleep
It really hasn't been nearly as bad as it could be. For 1, Ava hasn't really noticed that daddy is gone. I mean, she is different, and seems to realize that something is different, but hasn't put together that daddy's been missing for 36 hours. I tell you what man, when that clock hits 6pm, and there's no daddy coming through the door, I sure as heck notice! I knew that I relied on that break...but never really realized just how MUCH I do.
Today, after work, Audrey Seidel came over and tended Ava while KK and I worked on a surprise for Chris. *note--she is AMAZING. She kept Ava and Alena from yelling at eachother...which is major for 2 two year olds and the coveted princess dolls being in the same space. I give her 5 stars and will be using her again.* I'm not really sure if we won, or the job we were tackling did. I think it may have been a tie, because I can't really move. and it's not really done. but it's definately mostly done. Oh that I had the energy of my 2 year old daughter. I have 3 suprises that I want to have ready for him...and I'm hoping I get to all of them. We'll see how it goes. Ty.le.nol. As for now, I'm happy to report that my basement shower has a door (after....1-2-3...4? sad. 4 months) and a mirror. Makes a world of difference I tell ya! brain. shutting. down. body. aching. must.sleep
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
ok listen up fellow bloggers. What is this no updating of the blogs? I have nothing to read. i don't want to read about random people's lives...I want to read and know every single detail of YOUR life. DUH! Hence joinging the blog world. So, enough of this 3 weeks sans blogging. BLOG. Because I'm a mother of 2 and need a way to escape and gosh darn it ....that way is YOU.
thank you .
thank you .
Monday, July 27, 2009
so two weeks ago, Chris and I challenged one another to a fast food fast. We realized that we were spending TONS of money at various drive-thru places. So, I filled a zip lock bag with water, threw in my debit card and chucked it in the back of the freezer. It's amazing how much easier it is to drive all the way home for lunch/snack, when I have no plastic. We've not only opened up a huge chunk of change in our budget to put on debt, but I feel so much better. I've been cooking dinner every night, and am starting to really enjoy it. I've been packing Chris's lunches every day. His coworker in the IT department has also started bringing lunch too, so it's not like he's feeling a daily pressure to hit up Del Taco. It's awesome. Friday, we randomly decided to take FrontRunner to Salt Lake and ate as a family at Rumbi. Even though I got a salad, I still felt toxic afterwards. I'm reverting back to being an eat at home person. YEAY! Plus, it can't hurt the figure right ;)
Frontrunner was so cool. They are running a 4 adults for $10 roundtrip deal for the summer. I'd never ridden on it before, and I was probably just as excited as Ava. We sat on the top floor and pointed out every animal along the way. Random farms from here to SL. It was BLASTED hot, but we still had fun. We walked around gateway for 2 hours. Ava didn't play in the water like we thought she would, but she still had fun. Saturday, Ava woke up very cross. She ended up spending most of the day with her Granni, while Chris and I worked on much needed chores. My sweet hubby folded load after load of laundry and cleaned the kitchen, while I picked up toys and entertained the Simon. Ava came home and slept until about 8pm, and still made it to bed about 10. Our new rule is bed by 9:30, and we've hit it for 2 weeks, except twice. It's awesome. Well, she should be up any time now...and i think I hear her throwing something down the stairs...better go check it out.
Frontrunner was so cool. They are running a 4 adults for $10 roundtrip deal for the summer. I'd never ridden on it before, and I was probably just as excited as Ava. We sat on the top floor and pointed out every animal along the way. Random farms from here to SL. It was BLASTED hot, but we still had fun. We walked around gateway for 2 hours. Ava didn't play in the water like we thought she would, but she still had fun. Saturday, Ava woke up very cross. She ended up spending most of the day with her Granni, while Chris and I worked on much needed chores. My sweet hubby folded load after load of laundry and cleaned the kitchen, while I picked up toys and entertained the Simon. Ava came home and slept until about 8pm, and still made it to bed about 10. Our new rule is bed by 9:30, and we've hit it for 2 weeks, except twice. It's awesome. Well, she should be up any time now...and i think I hear her throwing something down the stairs...better go check it out.
Friday, July 17, 2009
my uncle dave
A few weeks ago, my Uncle David came into town to help move my Nana to Utah. I haven't seen him in 10 years. My mom found my old cheer trophy while clearing out boxes to make room for Nana, and brought it to pass onto me. I snapped this picture of my Uncle pretending to accept the award! He is SO much fun! I wish I got to see him more.
Ever wonder where Simon gets his "Benjamin Button" look from? mmmmm mystery solved! Thanks for the wrinkles, blond brows, and devilishly handsome expressions!
Sunday, July 12, 2009
carson & dave engagements
My college roomie, Carson, is getting remarried this September 26th to her beau, David. I had the honor of spending today with them shooting some engagement photos. It was blistering hot and totally bright sun the entire shoot--overcast just before and right after, as luck would have it. We endured about 2 hours of pictures and the above are a few of my favs. I am a fan of b&w and sephia tones. Cars and Dave are so fun together and really do compliment one another in everyway.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
my new dress
So I bought a new dress. W00t! I'm in LOVE with NY&Co. but rarely purchase anything there, as like every item starts at $40. So I got this dress--originally like $42 for $21. This dress came out like 3 months ago--and I've been waiting and waiting and waiting for it to become a price I could live with paying. Since I'm such a tight wad that magic price was under $25. I figure anything that is going to be potentially be pooped/pewked/colored on should be relatively inexpensive. Anyway. I love this dress! So excited. I hope it is as cute on me as I think it is...don't want an Elaine moment.
Monday, July 6, 2009
long post for a long weekend
I haven't posted in 2 weeks. I should go back and date things correctly, but to be honest, I rarely know what day it is. I'm pretty sure that's why Ava makes several attempts on Sundays to convince me that she CAN and IS going to go swimming and to the mall and to the store-all of which, we don't do on Sundays.
I'll go back as far as I can remember--which isn't that far.
Wednesday...or was that Thursday...the 1st, whatever day that was...Wednesday, was Caydon's 10th birthday. HOLY COW! I can't believe he's 10. We went to the Junction to see Ice-Age 3-D as a family to celebrate. Ava sat through most of it--but wanted nothing to do with the cool glasses. I can't really blame her, they give ya a bit of a headache. Simon did really well also. After, we went to Pizza Factory, where Chris and I ordered a dish to share. We got a shrimp pasta dish...yeah the fish was spoiled. I've never tasted anything so disgusting in my whole life. I am officially a Pizza Factory hater. I was up all night with food poisoning. I took the time I had, awake, and unable to sleep to organize my toy room, clean my kitchen floor and go on an ant killing spree. I haven't seen many since. woo hoo! I honestly didn't sleep at all. My kids got up about 6:30 am. Chris went to work, but came home early about 1pm. This was in hopes that he could watch the kids and I could sleep. So I got permission from the boss to take off early, and about 20 minutes later the Xmission connection to inwest crashed and Chris had to go back to work. Sleep was just not in the cards. I have to say for being up so long, I functioned rather well. I finally crashed at 5:30 and slept until 8. I helped get the kids back to bed and hit the sack again.
Friday. 3rd. We had a great, long, adventure day. Ava woke us up about 8:30 and we began packing for the zoo and family camp out. Ever year, we do a back-yard camp out at my folks home. We hit up the zoo about 11:30. Our plan was to get there at 9, ha-ha-ha. It was a VERY hot day. We totally misunderstood my mom's bragging about their strollers at hogle, and thus did not pack one. BIG MISTAKE. This led to me pushing Ava in their stroller, and Chris carrying Simon in a snuggie front carrier thing. It was very hot. very crowded. and not my idea of a good time. The zoo is totally a under 80 degree day place. We stayed for about an hour. Saw the leopards, elephants, rhinos, monkeys, camels, giraffes, bears and some birds. We then drove out to my mom's neck of the woods and met up with them at their community pool. This is the one that was built for the Olympics so it's super rad. Ava loved it! We stayed until like 5:30 swimming and playing. Then we headed to the folks home for hamburgers, hot dogs, and a contest of who could stay up long enough for fireworks. We were all too tired to really enjoy them, but we set them off anyway to Ava saying "OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH DO ANOTHER ONE!" The tent...yes...it was a bit cold for my expectations, and windy! I'm not a big camper. I like camping, until I'm actually camping. Ava snuggled up to KK and Simon slept all night. I was up every couple hours shivering. Covering Ava-as she INSISTED on kicking her blankets off. Ava was up at a bright and early 6am. I took Simon and her inside and fed Simon. I then passed out until Chris practically carried me into the dining room for breakfast about 9:30. We took Ava to copperton park around 11:30 to play and stayed for about an hour--then we packed up and headed back north.
4th. party in hooper. We were one party filled family. We went out to hooper about 3:30 for more swimming and partying. Ava was in HEAVEN this weekend. She wore me out big time. We had FABULOUS food and company. :) I love the get togethers. Leah made this amazing american flag cheese cake. It was lovely and tastey. I was ready for bed at 7:30, but we stayed until about 9. Ava fell asleep about 2 minutes after we strapped her into her car seat. We hadn't even finished loading our stuff in the car, and she was snoring.
5th. After such a long weekend, I was not really wanting to go to our 9am church meeting. I had every intention of sleeping in. Heavenly Father, however, had other ideas, and for the first time in ages, Ava was up early on a Sunday. See, usually, Ava wakes up between oooh 6:30 and 8:30 on a weekday, but Sundays we are usually waking her up at 8:45 running to church--she's slept in until 10 before on a Sunday. this Sunday however, she walked into our room about 8:15 with a bright smile saying LET'S GO TO CHURCH!!! Look, there's daddys' suit. Ooooooooooooh kids! So, up we were and we got to church for great meetings. I loved the lessons and obviously, really needed them. Thanks Ava for being a great example to us! We took family nap about 2:30-5:30. I love family nap. Mostly because I get to nap in silence. Then we went out to see Dave and Sandi. We had party left overs, played barbie, trolls, watched Ariel and How to Catch a Theif with Kerry Grant. Good times all around. I was exhausted at 10:30 when I put Simon to bed, but once I laid him down became restless. It's now almost 1am. Well there's a run down of recent events. I'll post some fun pictures we got this weekend at another date.
-side note-
JoJo aka Joanna Neeley is getting sealed August 14th in DC. I really want to go. Chris has said. ok. lets go. the whole family. now, I'm scared. I haven't been home in 4 years. I'm really scared that A. no one will really want to see me. B. the kids will hate flying. hate driving. and thus I'll hate the whole week. C. i wont' want to come back. hahahaha oh man. PA. to go...or not to go.
I'll go back as far as I can remember--which isn't that far.
Wednesday...or was that Thursday...the 1st, whatever day that was...Wednesday, was Caydon's 10th birthday. HOLY COW! I can't believe he's 10. We went to the Junction to see Ice-Age 3-D as a family to celebrate. Ava sat through most of it--but wanted nothing to do with the cool glasses. I can't really blame her, they give ya a bit of a headache. Simon did really well also. After, we went to Pizza Factory, where Chris and I ordered a dish to share. We got a shrimp pasta dish...yeah the fish was spoiled. I've never tasted anything so disgusting in my whole life. I am officially a Pizza Factory hater. I was up all night with food poisoning. I took the time I had, awake, and unable to sleep to organize my toy room, clean my kitchen floor and go on an ant killing spree. I haven't seen many since. woo hoo! I honestly didn't sleep at all. My kids got up about 6:30 am. Chris went to work, but came home early about 1pm. This was in hopes that he could watch the kids and I could sleep. So I got permission from the boss to take off early, and about 20 minutes later the Xmission connection to inwest crashed and Chris had to go back to work. Sleep was just not in the cards. I have to say for being up so long, I functioned rather well. I finally crashed at 5:30 and slept until 8. I helped get the kids back to bed and hit the sack again.
Friday. 3rd. We had a great, long, adventure day. Ava woke us up about 8:30 and we began packing for the zoo and family camp out. Ever year, we do a back-yard camp out at my folks home. We hit up the zoo about 11:30. Our plan was to get there at 9, ha-ha-ha. It was a VERY hot day. We totally misunderstood my mom's bragging about their strollers at hogle, and thus did not pack one. BIG MISTAKE. This led to me pushing Ava in their stroller, and Chris carrying Simon in a snuggie front carrier thing. It was very hot. very crowded. and not my idea of a good time. The zoo is totally a under 80 degree day place. We stayed for about an hour. Saw the leopards, elephants, rhinos, monkeys, camels, giraffes, bears and some birds. We then drove out to my mom's neck of the woods and met up with them at their community pool. This is the one that was built for the Olympics so it's super rad. Ava loved it! We stayed until like 5:30 swimming and playing. Then we headed to the folks home for hamburgers, hot dogs, and a contest of who could stay up long enough for fireworks. We were all too tired to really enjoy them, but we set them off anyway to Ava saying "OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH DO ANOTHER ONE!" The tent...yes...it was a bit cold for my expectations, and windy! I'm not a big camper. I like camping, until I'm actually camping. Ava snuggled up to KK and Simon slept all night. I was up every couple hours shivering. Covering Ava-as she INSISTED on kicking her blankets off. Ava was up at a bright and early 6am. I took Simon and her inside and fed Simon. I then passed out until Chris practically carried me into the dining room for breakfast about 9:30. We took Ava to copperton park around 11:30 to play and stayed for about an hour--then we packed up and headed back north.
4th. party in hooper. We were one party filled family. We went out to hooper about 3:30 for more swimming and partying. Ava was in HEAVEN this weekend. She wore me out big time. We had FABULOUS food and company. :) I love the get togethers. Leah made this amazing american flag cheese cake. It was lovely and tastey. I was ready for bed at 7:30, but we stayed until about 9. Ava fell asleep about 2 minutes after we strapped her into her car seat. We hadn't even finished loading our stuff in the car, and she was snoring.
5th. After such a long weekend, I was not really wanting to go to our 9am church meeting. I had every intention of sleeping in. Heavenly Father, however, had other ideas, and for the first time in ages, Ava was up early on a Sunday. See, usually, Ava wakes up between oooh 6:30 and 8:30 on a weekday, but Sundays we are usually waking her up at 8:45 running to church--she's slept in until 10 before on a Sunday. this Sunday however, she walked into our room about 8:15 with a bright smile saying LET'S GO TO CHURCH!!! Look, there's daddys' suit. Ooooooooooooh kids! So, up we were and we got to church for great meetings. I loved the lessons and obviously, really needed them. Thanks Ava for being a great example to us! We took family nap about 2:30-5:30. I love family nap. Mostly because I get to nap in silence. Then we went out to see Dave and Sandi. We had party left overs, played barbie, trolls, watched Ariel and How to Catch a Theif with Kerry Grant. Good times all around. I was exhausted at 10:30 when I put Simon to bed, but once I laid him down became restless. It's now almost 1am. Well there's a run down of recent events. I'll post some fun pictures we got this weekend at another date.
-side note-
JoJo aka Joanna Neeley is getting sealed August 14th in DC. I really want to go. Chris has said. ok. lets go. the whole family. now, I'm scared. I haven't been home in 4 years. I'm really scared that A. no one will really want to see me. B. the kids will hate flying. hate driving. and thus I'll hate the whole week. C. i wont' want to come back. hahahaha oh man. PA. to go...or not to go.
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