what it's like to be a kid

i just saw this and had to share: http://www.pampers.co.uk/en_GB/video/babyseyes.jsp

enjoy!

oh yeah

so in case it wasn't obvious already, we're moving to colorado. in a month. no, jon doesn't have a job yet, and yes, we're nervous, but we know it'll be ok in the end and that everything will work out. we have faith that this is what we need to do and that heavenly father will provide for us if we do what we're supposed to do. we're preparing as much as possible (saving $$, getting food storage, etc.) and crossing our fingers for the rest. if you need our new address, let me know and i'll make sure you get it. :)

all kinds of crazy ideas these days!

so i had another idea yesterday. . . when we get settled in colorado next month, i'm thinking about opening an etsy shop. :) i figure that i can make things that people would probably pay decent $$ for, so why not? i would probably stick to jewelry and hairbows at first, but might also branch into cloth diapers if the ones i'm making for trevor turn out well. we'll see. no baby carriers though, i don't want to deal w/ the legal issues involved there! too much to worry about and have to protect myself from in case anything happens. i don't want that kind of stress. but yeah, i just wanted to let you all know! :)

it came out of NOWHERE!

seriously. i woke up sunday morning and it hit me like a ton of bricks! ok, here's the deal. . .

so, ever since i was a kid and discovered how much i loved to read, i've wanted to write a book of my own. i made a couple of attempts, but they all kinda fizzled out before they really ever got started. well, when my alarm went off sunday morning, it interrupted a dream i was having - that dream was the push i needed. in it was born the premise of the story. :) i've started writing, but it's slow going, since i have to do it in between chasing after trevor, taking care of scott, and all my other motherly and wifely duties. so far i've got the first chapter done. . .

here's what i can tell you so far:

zoe morgan is a 19 year old college junior w/ her whole life planned out - and everything's going exactly the way she wants. but you know what they say about the best-laid plans. . .

ryan appears in class on the first day of the new semester. zoe doesn't know what it is about him that draws her to him, but she can't afford this right now. it isn't part of the plan. what she doesn't know is that he's a faerie prince, sent to the human world like a foreign exchange student, so he can learn the diplomacy skills every good leader needs.

as if that weren't enough, she finds out she's actually 1/4 faerie herself, and as such, she learns she can never REALLY fit into the human world. all of zoe's plans come crashing down around her as she struggles to figure out if ANYTHING she ever believed was true and to figure out her place in the new world she finds herself a part of.

new blog

i just wanted to let you all know that since this page is getting overrun by my gratuitous deal-seeking/coupon-using/food-hording, i decided to start a whole new blog dedicated to my obsession. it's couponcrazymama.blogspot.com. from now on, THIS blog will not have deals or savings info posted here. i WILL post a link to the other blog though! bye! :)

i really do have a life outsife of coupons, i swear!

ok, so i haven't WRITTEN in a long time, mostly just posted pictures and told about awesome deals i got. . . SO i figured it's time to remedy that. :)

life has been good lately. jon is busy looking for a new job so that we hopefully won't have to worry about money too much when his contract ends in december. he's found alot of great opportunities in colorado and is applying for anything he's interested in. he really wants to end up in denver, but it's actually looking like most the jobs are in colorado springs, which i'm happy about. i'd prefer to go there, so i don't mind at all. he claims there will be more to do in denver, but the way he talks, you'd think colorado springs was in the middle of the boonies. not so much. i doubt we'll get bord in the springs too easily, and even if we do, it's not like denver's that far - we can always drive up there for a day if we want to. anyways, we'll go wherever the jobs lead us, whether it's denver or the springs. :)

trevor's experimenting w/ new words, trying to figure out how to pronounce things so we can understand him. my current favorite is instead of saying "cookie" he says "booty" :) it's so awesome when he runs through the house going "booty! booty! booty! yay, booty!" :D i LOVE it! today i tried to get him to say tv, but it came out sounding like "baby". . . oh well. he still refuses to say his own name, even though i KNOW he can say it. he's excited that he can say grandma (maw-maw), cj (dee-day), and danielle (don't even ask me, i can't say it the way he does). . . he asks to call them almost every day lately. . . he mostly just says hi over and over, then when he's done, he'll say "bye bye! i yuh you!" (i love you) and hand the phone to whoever's closest. . . sometimes i'll get him to demonstrate a cute pronounciation or he'll decide to count (he can get to 10 on his own!). . . he's comepletely obscessed w/ balls, cars, trucks (which he calls "yucks"), and going to the park (he asks to go play, then says "down, up! wheee!" which mean slide and swing, respectively). he comes completely unglued if he had a single speck of dirt or anything else on his hands or feet and cries andsays "all yuyi!" (all yucky) until someone cleans him up. . . he loves scott and likes to tell him hi all day long and pat his belly. if he's awake and the baby's sleeping, he's always very concerned about where scott is and just keeps calling "baby! where did he go? there he is!" until scott wakes up and we bring him to the living room too. . . :) he just can't seem to get enough time w/ his brother, which is good, especially since i'm sure they'll have their moments as they get older. :)

scott is growing so fast, it's hard to believe he's almost 3 months old! he's still nursing like a champ, but will THANKFULLY also take a bottle. he sleeps 8-10 hours at night and he a very happy boy when he's awake. he loves to look around and watch what's going on around him; he LOVES to be on his belly and just hold his head up and look around! he can also roll over to his back when he wants to, although he gets upset that he can't get back onto his belly from there. . . he's ticklish and loves to snuggle whenever he gets the chance. it's hard to belive he's only been here for 3 months, it feels like we've known him forever!

i'm doing really well too. i've started going to yoga classes again, which has shown me how truly out of shape i am now. i'm working on getting my body back to how i want it, but it'll take time. part of me doesn't feel like it b/c jon and i know we want at least 1 more kid, but i just don't like the way i look right now and that trumps the lazy part of me. i'd rather do something to feel better about my body image than to wallow in it until we're done having kids. when i'm not chasing trevor down or taking care of scott, i keep myself busy w/ books, the internet, coupons, and the few tv shows i like that aren't running reruns right now. i'm doing what i can to prepare for this move and change in career or possible lack thereof. coupons are helping to save some money and bulk up our food storage. those are the 2 main things i can do at this point. . . they'll be of the most value to us if we end up w/out income for a while. i'm also looking a little bit for places we might want to live when we get out west, although not very actively, since we have no idea if jon will have a job by then or not, and if he does, we don't know where yet. i'm mostly just getting ideas so that when the time cames, we CAN make that decision more quickly.

that's about it, i guess. i should go anyways, i think trevor just woke up and it's dinnertime too. :)

harris teeter: take 2

i made a 2nd trip to harris teeter to take advantage of their super doubles this past week. they didn't have a couple of things i wanted, but that's the chance i took in waiting till the last minute. . . anyways, i ended up getting 2 jack daniel's bbq sauces (as if i needed more bbq sauce, right?), 2 lysol prays, 5 tubs of blue bunny ice cream, 4 4-packs of yogurt (1 danactive, 4 activia), and 4 boxes of bandaids. i had $1 off coupons for each item (although only 2 ice cream coupons b/c they wouldn't take more than that on them, but i only paid for 2 b/c they were on sale b2g3, so i still got a pretty sweet deal). i paid $27.48 and saved $41.19 (60.03%). happy evelyn! :)

publix - mwahahahahaha!

ok, so publix this week was AWESOME!!!!! seriously, wow! ok, so don't laugh, but i got 18 french's mustards (i said don't laugh!), 21 kraft bbq sauces, 10 loaves of pepperidge farms bread, 4 sara lee strawberry cheesecakes, 2 bertolli frozen meals, and 2 lysol all purpose sprays. i used 50 cent off coupons for all the mustards and bbq sauces, 55 cent manufacturer's coupons + 75 cent off target coupons for the bread (hooray for comptitor's coupons!), $1 off the cheesecakes, $1.50 off the bertolli meals, and 50 cents off the lysol. all the 50 cent coupons doubled for $1. . . i paid $31.62 for $144.51 worth of stuff. i saved $112.89 or 78.12%. holy freakin cow! oh, and i got rainchecks for more bread. . . and mustard.

ok, so here's the deal w/ the mustard b/c i know you're all trying ot figure out what use i could POSSIBLY have for all of that. the truth is, i DON'T have a use for it. BUT it served my purposes in the store. here's why: it's on sale b1g1 for $1.89. well, that, coupled w/ a 50 cent off coupon for each one means i GET PAID 11 cents for every 2 i take out of the store. i also got paid 51 cents for every 2 bbq sauces. :) oh, and the pepperidge farms bread was 69 cents per loaf after my coupons (on sale for $1.99 each, minus 55 cent coupon AND 75 cent coupon). lysol was 69 cents for 2. the cheese cakes and bertolli meals weren't AS great a deal, but still probably the best i can ever hope to get, so i get them anyways. it was a VERY happy day! :) here's my haul--

ps - if you need mustard, let me know! :)

cvs = cheap sunscreen!

ok, so i kow last time i posted about cvs i said i'd be getting sunscreen for free, but it turns out the ad was printed wrong and i did have to pay. . . but not TOO much, and i still got an AWESOME deal. i got 2 coppertone no-rub sprays (a tanning oil for $9.99 and spf 70 for $10.99), used $1.50 off coupons for each, plus my 12 ecb's from last week and paid $6.61 for $21.61 worth of stuff. i saved $15 even, which is 69.41%. oh yeah, and i got 8 ecb's for next week (so if you include the ecb's, it's like i got paid to get the usncreen. it's all in how you look at it!). yay! :)

i harris teetered :)

so harris teeter is doubling coupons up to $1.98 in value, making it worth my time to drive down there to get a few things. tonight i got 2 boxes of bagel-fuls ($2.75 each), 6 boxes of band-aids ($2.55 each), and 10 pints of ben & jerry's (on sale at 2/$6). i had coupons for $1 off each of those things, which all doubled to $2. i paid $15.85 for $61.75 worth of stuff, meaning i saved $45.90 or 74.33%. happy, happy evelyn! :D