Date night

My Sam's club membership is about to expire, and not being very satisfied with their prices anymore, I've been looking for ways to make a membership unnecessary. The only things I regularly buy at Sam's are bread, tortillas, Gouda cheese, and shredded cheese. Well, I've already nulified the need for bread, since I n0w make all of my own. I have been able to buy a bunch of shredded cheese on sale in the regular stores. That leaves tortillas and Gouda. It's just not worth $40/year to be able to buy those things for a fraction cheaper. My in-laws have memberships to both Sam's and Costco, so I'm sure they wouldn't mind letting me borrow their card 4 times a year to buy some cheese.

As for tortillas. Tortillas is one of those things I always just buy. I never think of the fact that I could just make them! I looked up the recipe and instructions online, and they are surprisingly easy to make. Sure, they take some time, but don't I have plenty of that being a stay at home mom? So last night, Friday night, we didn't have any kind of date planned. We usually don't. It's just not practical. So, I suggested we make a date night out of making tortillas. I added the ingredients, Joe mixed the dough. We both rolled out, and cooked the tortillas. They were so delicious fresh!

Now that we have our pool open, we have been swimming almost every day. After the kids do their chores, we jump in there. I need to get some pictures. Ginger is already excited about swimming from me to the steps, while Sterling still doesn't like the idea of swimming without any floating devices. It has been surprisingly hard to get people to come over to swim with us though. One friend doesn't even own a swimsuit. The other is too busy with her garden. And yet another is just too busy with life. Then there are many people who won't even pick up the phone when I call, or call back when I leave a message. I guess it's hard for me to understand why it's hard to get people to come over, because I know that if I didn't have a pool, and someone would invite me over, I would be soooo excited. Ah well, I guess we're all different. In the mean time, I'll just swim and have fun with my own little family.

Liberation

We always thought it was nice to have a good amount of money in our bank account. Just in case there's a rainy day. Then, we realized that we had money in the bank, which was making about 1/2 %, and several loans that we were paying 6% on. How does that make sense? Plus, if something does happen, we could always sell one of our cars. It didn't makes sense to use anymore, so we broke down and paid off the suburban. It felt so liberating to send that check in!

The coolest thing about the whole situation: in the future we can put the old car payment towards our student load. We figure that instead of taking another 10 years to pay those off, it will only take about 2 years. That will save interest too. Then... if we get really crazy, we could actually start making extra payments towards our house. Imagine that.

On another positive note; we started the kids on their new chore charts. I can't remember if I already wrote about this, but apparently it's important to me, so who cares? Every day after school they spend about an hour reading, and cleaning. I'm always coming up with other things for them to do. It's great, because now I don't get behind on stuff. If something needs to be done, I just add it to the chore cards. Of course it doesn't always go smoothly, and I have to coach them through most cleaning tasks. But, they are getting better, and needed less and less help every day.

I have been working hard the past 4 days to get our pool water balanced. I have added like 3 gallons of acid so far!! and I'm not even close to the suggested Alkalinity levels. I must have started at like 500, and the goals is 100. I'm currently at around 300. Tomorrow, the pool store will test the water to see if my test kit is accurate. I also bought this thing called a "poolskim"... man .. did I write about this already?... i simply can't remember, nor want to check. Anyways, it attaches to the return vent of the pool, and sucks in stuff floating on the water surface. It seems to be working great!! I also fixed our hottub. After we drained the pool, the water was flowing in, but no bubbles were coming out. At the pump station there was a pipe that sticks straight into the air, which shoots out water if you plug the jets. So I figured I would blow into that pipe, to see if I couldn't get the pipe to start sucking air into the jets again. I didn't really think it would work, but it totally did!

Summer brings another one of my favorite things: the tv show "So you think you can dance". I really watching great dancers dance. Of course the first auditions bring good entertainment too.

Baker's secret

I found out about a secret that European bakers have. It's called Diastatic Malt (DM) All it really means, is sprouted, dried, and ground wheat. DM is used as a substitute for sugar or honey. Many kinds of bread call for a sweetener simply to activate the yeast and brown the crust. DM acts the same way sugar and honey do, but without the added calories and sweetness.

" It is rich in enzymes and vitamins, so when the malt is added to the dough, the bread's nutritional value increases. The action of the enzymes on the yeast and flour improves the flavor and appearance of a loaf of bread, and, in addition, gives it a finer texture and helps the bread stay fresh longer."

Those are enough reasons for me to use DM!!!
Many health food stores sell DM, but as with (almost) all things, making it yourself is much more economical. The process is a little long, but fairly simple.

Sprouting

1. Grab 1/2 cup - 1 cup Wheat Berries from your food storage, and rinse well
2. Place wheat berries in a jar, and cover with water. Other website say to put it into a glass jar, and cover with cheese cloth. But since I don't have either of those, I improvised. I used one of my "magic bullet" cannisters, and placed a lid (with little holes) on it. I figured the cheesecloth is to strain the berries, which should work fine with this special lid too.
3. Let it sit in a dark/warm place for 12-24 hours
4. Drain the water. This water is very rich in nutrients and can be used to water plants, or used in soup or bread.
5. Rinse with clean water, then drain again
6. Let the berries rest for 3-6 hours, then repeat the rinse and drain process.
7. Repeat step 5 and 6, until little sprouts appear
8. When the sprouts are about 1/8" long, rinse one last time.
   

Drying & Grinding

1. Spread berries on a cookie sheet
2. Place cookie sheet in warm oven for 6 hours. Be careful not to let the temperature go over 120 degrees (it would kill the enzymes) OR use a crafty dehydrator -which I don't have.
   
   Tip: If your oven does not go down to 120 degrees Fahrenheit, turn it on to the lowest setting for 5 minutes every hour until the grains are dry.
   
   OR: As my friend Renee suggested, place the cookie sheet on your car's dashboard on a warm sunny day, and save yourself some electricity/gas.
   
   
3. Make sure they are completely dry before Grinding
4. Run your sprouted berries through your grain mill, into a fine flower
   

Tip: When grinding it is important to use pulse so as not to raise the temperature too high. You don't want to kill the enzymes after all the care you've put into making your dried sprouts!

Storage

Store your Diastatic Malt in an airtight container in the fridge. It should stay good for a very long time.

Use
Replace 1 tablespoon of sweetener with 1/2 teaspoon of diastic malt.

I made my first rolls with my diastic malt. I made the dough on Saturday, and let it rise overnight in the fridge. Then, it was rising too long, so by the time I finally got them baked, they were kind of flat. (really good taste though). So now I don't know whether the diastic malt was the problem, or if it was because of some other factor. I guess I need to make a few more recipes to see.

Ahead of time

It seems summer came early this year. After we got the pool sparkly and blue, the swimming season has officially started. I joined a pool forum, and am slowly becoming an expert on Ph, alkalinity, Chlorine, etc.

This pool has also got me administering some very scary chemicals including muriatic acid. As soon as you open that bottle, you better turn your head, or hold your breath, or your lungs will be scorged. That stuff also got me to finally grab those rubber gloves and mask, cause I would like to prevent early death. Apparently our tap water has very low calcium, and very high alkalinity. The calcium was easy to fix. I just dumped a bucket of calcium stuff in. The alkalinity is another story though. The only way to lower it, is by slowly lowering the Ph (and alkalinity) with muriatic acid, and then raising the Ph by "aerating" the pool. The aerating only makes the Ph higher, so then you add more acid etc.

I have come up with a pretty good aeration method. You can use things like fountains, and running the pump bubbles, or you can just head out the door after dinner, and have a fun swim party. The kids do plenty of splashing! We inherited a test kit, which has helped me figure out how much chemicals to add. I am curious though, to see how accurate my test kit is. I plan to take a sample to the pool store on Friday, for them to test. After learning everything I have this year, it's a miracle we were able to swim in that pool at all last year. All we did was add chlorine, and shock it. I had no clue what Ph, alkalinity, or calcium was, let alone how they were important for the pool.

Last night I did another thing usually associated with summer: harvest veggies from my garden. My garden is doing really well (except the onions piggie smalls ruined), especially the squash plants. These zucchini and squashes are still so little, but I thought they were actually really cute. Joe's mom was coming over for FHE, that was the perfect occasion to celebrate the harvest. We threw some zucchini and squash slice on the BBQ, and besides the smoke flavor, and too much seasoning (inside joke), they were delicious.

Only 1 more full week of school before the kids have summer vacation. I plan to make weekly schedules to prevent both them and me from going crazy. I have already decided to do one on one swimming lessons. Winter knows the basics, but could learn some advanced stuff, while both Ginger and Sterling are like sinking rocks. They sure are old enough to learn! I have already banned the lifejackets. This made yesterdays swimming most unpleasant ,with every minute a child begging for one. Today they only asked for them in the very beginning, so I have hope!.

Also, Winter gets to go to horse camp for the first time this summer! This camp will be a great way for her to get a break during the long summer months. She has recently been saying she really wants to have a horse, and ride a horse. Of course when we had a horse, she didn't want to touch it. This should give her a good idea whether she actually likes horses, or if she just thinks she does. She needs to earn $25 to contribute (starting out with $5 right now), so if anyone has a job she could do, she would love it. Joe has her painting the pool fence already, and I'm sure we can think of many other things she can do around here.

Other news from the farm: Joe bought a bottle calf. Sammie is a very cute half angus beef calf. He's only 2 weeks old, and very skinny. According to the lady who sold him, he should only eat like 2 quarts of milk, twice a day. That doesn't seem like enough to me, but I guess if you feed them too much, it's bad.

I feel like there are so many things to blog about! Maybe it's because just a few weeks ago, I was down, and depressed, because of the miscarriage and didn't want to do anything! Recently I feel much more like myself again. I am baking again, want to spend time outside and with the kids. I want to try out new things, like making diastic malt (post to come soon, still working on it) I am also excited to have my body back to normal (except 10 lbs heavier than I like to be), so we can start trying to get pregnant again. I think the next time we get pregnant we might just share right away. It's fun, and that way, if something does go wrong, I can get the mental support.

Work for fun

As springtime has officially settled in, we have started eying the green swamp in the backyard. Wednesday I stocked up on any and all chemicals we might need for our pool. Last year we didn't really have a clue what we were doing, and just used chlorine tablets and shocked the pool. It seemed like we had to shock much too often though, and algae grew overnight. After doing some reading, I figured out that having the right PH, and using algae stopper, can help with this.

I headed to the pool supply store where they do free water testing. I do have some little strips, but the store's test is much better. As expected, we had some major issues. The main issue being that we had about 3x the suggested amount of Cyanuric Acid (CA). CA is an ingredient in the chlorine tablets, to make sure the chlorine doesn't get burned up too fast by UV rays. Over time, the CA builds up, and the only way to get rid of it, is to replace the pool water with fresh water.

Since we don't have a built-in pump that can drain the whole pool, we had to be resourceful. Joe said he had a pump that was part of his dad's bio diesel making setup. He didn't tell me however, that it's a tiny little woos pump that only pumps about 300 gallons per hour. We have a 14,000 gallon pool. You do the math (I did it for you, and it would take about 48 hours!)

Here's where our ingenuity comes into play. Laws of physics explain how you can get water draining through a hose, as long as you get it started, and the starting point is higher than the end. So I collected 3 hoses from all over the farm, and layed them from the pool to the lake. Then, we had to get the stream going by sucking at the bottom end, and pushing water at the pool end. Sure enough, all 3 are SLOWLY sucking water out of the pool (probably a total of another 300 gln/hr)

24 hours is still not fast enough for me, so we started using good old buckets and muscles. When you are dumping buckets loads out of the pool, nothing seems to make progress. You just have to turn off you mind, and let your body take over the work. Try not to think about the impossible amount of water that needs to be taken out, and ignore the muscle spasms.

We worked together for a good 2 hours, and got the pool down pretty far (maybe 1 ft deep at the shallow ends) I can tell my arms will be sore for a long time! I thought it would be fun to take pictures of the progress as we went. Of course the kids couldn't resist getting their swimsuits on and splashing around too!

OMG: it looks like my camera played a cruel trick on me. For some unknown reason, all of the pictures I took after I took my card out of my camera once, are GONE!!!! All of the progress pictures!! It's weird, because they were there, and I could look at them before I took the card out of the camera again. I have no clue what happened! Ah well, at least they weren't any really important pictures. So I guess you'll just won't see the pictures of me working hard, and the kids playing in a swamp, and you'll just have to accept before and after picturesThis is what it looks like right now.
Shoot, I also lost all the pictures I took of our cats eating the snake we found and shot in the chicken coop. It was a pretty good sized, maybe 3 ft long, snake. Our cats really eat anything! Who needs cat food?

Derogatory remarks

I wanted it to be a quick trip into town. Go to 2 stores, and get some new brake pads installed. That quick trip turned into an all day affair.

Ginger and I made it through the stores without any problems, and even met up with our friend Renee at target for a few minutes. Then we were off to Just Brakes.

Having never gotten brakes pads replaced, I thought it would be like an oil change 30 minutes,... maybe an hour. So when they told me it would be anywhere between 2 and 4 hours, I almost got up and left right then. I should have!

I didn't leave, but instead decided to walk next door to the movie theater, and get through the waiting that way. They told me they would call me if they needed approval for any extra work. Having Ginger with me, I wanted to pick a movie that would be fun for her, but unfortunately the only kids movie was Hannah Montana. I just couldn't make myself pay for that movie. We ended up watching Night at the Museum. It was funny, and Ginger actually watched parts, but by the end she was definitely ready to leave.

As we got closer to the shop, my heart sank when I saw that the car was still up in the air, with all 4 tires removed. They quickly told me they had been trying to call me, but that the number was bad. Somehow, despite my freakish number remembering mind, I had given them the wrong number! I mean, how often do you call your own cell phone anyways?

The mechanics showed me that several additional parts were broken, and should be fixed. This is why they hadn't done any work on the car. Of course, the first thing I did was call my all-knowing husband for some advice. While the tech was talking to Joe, I heard him quote some prices. $325 her, $199 there, another $82 here, and some more $95 there. None of this was sounding like anything I wanted to hear!

Joe called a scam, and up-pricing, so told me to get the same service (brake pads) that I had come in for, and he would take a look at it when I got home. The only thing: they hadn't done a lick of work, so they quoted me another 1.5 hour wait. Here I am, with a 3 year old that didn't have lunch or a nap, and I am supposed to sit in this nasty room for another who knows how long? Unfortunately I didn't have any other options.

I don't know if the guy wanted me to think he was really a nice person, or what, but the ice cream truck came by, and he offered to buy us some. Since we hadn't had any lunch, I figured why not. After we got back into the waiting area, the guy gave me this spiel that still just has my jaw drop to the floor when I think about it.

He started by telling me that whenever he saw me driving into the parking lot, he was like "oh no, a suburban like that will probably have other things broken besides just the brakes". That part wasn't too offensive. Then he went on to say that "then, no offense, when I saw it was a woman, I was like, oh, the wall will come up". Besides being totally derogatory, it made no sense. Of course I wasn't witty or smart enough to say anything back to him, and all I could do was smile and curse at him in my mind.

I did finally manage to make it out of there after 4.5 hours!!! So much for getting the house ready, and get rested for the weekend!

Girls Night

My friend Anja put together a girls night last night. She invited ladies from our ward to come over to her house and just hang out, chat, and eat good food. It was so nice to get out of the house, and have some time with girls. When we lived in Idaho, we had girl time, all the time. Whether it was for bookclub, volleyball, staying overnight in a hotel, lunch at the park, or playgroup, there were plenty of opportunities to be with other women my age. Not so much here.

There was a good turnout with 10 women. Everyone brought some yummy food, we had sandwiches, fruit, dips, and desserts. Conversation topics were all over the place, from lead poisoning to college, and some things unmentionable. We also had fun pulling Terese out of the mud. She has several 4x4 trucks, but she only realized after she pulled off the road that this particular truck did NOT have 4x4.

Rosanna didn't want to be photographed, but she didn't realize I had gotten a picture of her WAY before she realized it. And I think I captured a pretty classic Rosanna expression Teresa was posing

Chicks

Whenever one of my chickens get broody, I start leaving some eggs under them. I don't have much faith that chicks will actually be born, so when it does happen, I am always pleasantly surprised. Tonight, Joe found a day-old chick all alone stuck in some netting we have laying next to the chicken coop. How did it get out there? We have no ideaAfter placing the chicks by some other broody hens, who only pecked it, we finally found the momma. The momma hen was in a box that's up high, so we moved her to a box on the floor.  When we moved her, we found another chick under her wing.  The other eggs in her old box also got moved to the box on the floor, and I'm hoping for some more cute chicks by tomorrow!

I am re-reading "Angels and Demons", before seeing the movie. My father in-law lent me a nice hardcover copy, with images. It's fun to see photos of actual locations and artwork references in the book. Reading a book in this house always carries a hazard. Whenever Joe sees a book laying around (that looks interesting to him), he'll snatch it up. He does know that I have rigth to snatch it back any moment, but I do feel (slightly) bad for stealing it back. 

Why I love Springtime in Texas

Also, I took some pictures of the garden, as promisedThis is my new Eggplant. I read that it can become heavy, and should be staked down. Old nylons are supposed to work good, because it doesn't cut into the plantAren't my potatoes exciting?Here's what I have to walk through to get to my garden. Will it ever stop raining?

Productive day

Today was a productive/tiring day. First, I spent all morning planning my weekly menu, and grocery list. Then, I went out shopping. Old Navy is doing this special weekly coupon promo, where they add a few hundred high dollar coupons to their website. I have been watching the releases of new coupons, and also been on a chatroom, where other ladies help each other get coupons. Some of them were nice enough to give me $45/$100 coupons.

A few days ago I switched all the winter clothes for the summer clothes, and did an assesment of what I have and what I need. It turned out Sterling had only 2 pair of shorts, and NO long jeans (without holes in the knees). So,.. he got 4 pairs of jeans, and 2 pairs of shorts. Ginger also needed jeans for next fall, and shirts for this summer. When I got to the checkout, it turned out that some of the clothes were actually cheaper than marked, so I had to get another $30 worth of stuff to get to $200. Guess what I got... I actually got myself something! Just jeans.. but still.

I also did my weekly grocery shopping, and used like 40 coupons at target. Then, I also headed to Lowes for some tomato cages, and plant feed. I ended up seeing a eggplant plant, and never having eaten it, thought it might be fun to grow in the garden. If I can get it to grow, I'll have to look up some recipes. Oh yeah, Ginger stayed home!!! It was her naptime anyways, and it's sooo much easier without a toddler on my side. By the time I got home, it was already 6pm, so we had a quick dinner.

After dinner we all headed outside. Joe mowed the lawn, the kids played on the dock, and I worked in my garden. I installed the cages, spread fertilizer, spayed insecticide, pulled some weeds, sprayed roundup on some weeds, and planted my new plants. Another project I have wanted to do is growing potatoes in tires. During some of my research on how to grow potatoes, I came across several website that recommended growing potatoes in old tires. Well, we just happen to have plenty of those laying around our land!! (the previous owners used them for land preservation...)

This is how you grow potatoes in tires:

1. Place a tire in a spot without weeds
2. loosen the dirt
3. place a layer of manure or other compost
4. Add dirt to almost the top of the tire (this is the hard manual labor!!!)
   
5. Place seed potatoes, eye side up, and cover with an inch of dirt.

Once the potato plants are about 8 inches tall, you place another tire on top of the first, and bury most of the plant. The plant then will send shoots of roots up to the top, with potatoes attached. You keep doing this until you have 3-4 tires on top of each other. This method takes less space and makes it easier to harvest the potatoes. I have never done this before, so I'll let you know how it turns out.

Another picture of the garden to come soon. I am very proud of the progress so far! The plants are actually visible now!

Mother's day weekend

This year I had an unusual kind of mother's day gift. No kids for the whole weekend! It was the best gift ever. It was nice to be home without the kids. Turns out, I can get a lot done when I don't have 3 other human beings to take care of. Things I got done:

• Go on a date to Johnny Carino's - free mother's day meal
• during the date go shopping at old navy with my $60/$100 coupon
• Stay up late talking about our family finances
• Sleep in until 11am, and only wake up because of a phone call
• Clean for 10 minutes
• Pull weeds in the garden for an hour
  
• Come back, and what I cleaned earlier is STILL clean!
• Waste time on the internet ranking the new bachelors that will be on the Bachelorette
• Fold some laundry
• read my book for a while
  
• Clean some more
• Go on ANOTHER date, this time to a movie: Ghosts of Girlfriends past - good entertainment
• Sleep until 9am on Sunday, when we have to leave for church at 9.15am
• Drive to church with my husband, and no fighting kids
• Enjoy Relief Society, without having to take Sterling to time out
• Make lunch for just me
• Talk to my mom for half an hour without kids yelling in my ear
• Take a nap on the way to grandma's house
• Be able to appreciate my adorable kids when we are finally reunited

Now that's a good Mother's day weekend!

Mary Had a Little Lamb

As I sit here in my office, Ginger burst in and serenaded me with a voluminous version of "Mehhh-we had a widow-wamb, widow-wamb, widow-wamb!"  It was actually funny enough to jump on here and make a comment just to commemorate the event.

Too much

Today was kind of rough. I was feeling a little better this morning, so I thought it wouldn't be that big a deal to make some bread. I have a mixer, so I don't have to knead by hand, and mostly you just have to throw the ingredients together, and let it rise, etc. Well, as I was putting them in the oven, I could tell I had overdone it. The rest of the day I've just been stuck to the couch. 

I was able to get a bunch of laundry folded (I do that on the couch anyways), and learned a lot about the law. Just kidding... I spent several hours watching daytime TV, including a lot of people's court. Some of those folks are very ignorant!  What? You don't have to pay for the vet bill when your dog attacks another dog, because you told that other person not to bring the dog on that street? Idiots! 

Being kind of limited in movement, I haven't made it outside. I have been dying to check on my garden to kill weeds and generally check on the plants. The rain has been so crazy here lately, that I haven't been able to spray insecticide for bugs yet, and as of Saturday, my pepper plants had some bug holes in the leaves. As soon as these storms let up, and I start feeling better, I'll have to do bug control and fertilizing. This year I am determined to have a successful garden!

Big Secret

I wanted to keep the secret until we were in the clear. Well, it turns out we are NOT in the clear, so now I am ready to spill all the beans. Up until last week, I was pregnant. We were so excited, and I was almost ready to tell everyone, because my bump was getting bigger. As things have happened, I have written blog posts to document my feelings and thing going on. I just simply didn't publish those posts. So now that the secret is out, I will go back, and publish all my drafts.

As for today I have to write about my amazing friend Rosanna. Sunday in church, she could tell something was wrong with me. I denied it. Twice. But on Monday, just hours after we got home from the doctor, she called me and asked again. I told her what had happened. This morning her husband came over with just about a week worth of meals! I didn't even know what to say. She is so selfless and amazing. She truly made me feel loved. The lasagna is cooking in the oven right now, and it's so nice not having to eat mac and cheese for the next 3 days!

D&C

WARNING: Some female related business that you might not want to read about!

The option to wait and let the miscarriage happen naturally was too uncertain and hard to think about. That's why I opted to have everything cleaned out by a Dilation and Curettage (D&C). Often, when you wait for the body to do it on its own, it can take weeks. There are some risks involved with a D&C, as it is a surgery, but to me the risks were worth the piece of mind, and fresh start.

This morning we had to get up super early to head to the surgery center. We were the first ones there, and didn't have to wait long to be taken to the back. They checked my vitals, and determined I was indeed healthy enough for surgery. After changing into my lovely gown, I headed out of our little room to the bathroom. This (guy) nurse was like: Hey, how are you doing? It took me a minute to realize this guy has lived in our ward for the last year (with his wife's parents). Then he informed me he would me my nurse.

It was a little awkward, but then again, he's a professional, so who cares? Right? After asking me the usual questions about my health, last meal, etc, he left. I even told Joe that it was a little awkward, but I would be asleep anyways.... Apparently it was more awkward for him. A few minutes later he came back into the room with another nurse, to inform me that he had given my case to her. Although I was okay with him as my nurse, I have to admit I was a little relieved when I got my new nurse.

They got my IV started and then it was waiting for the doctor. I had never met Dr. Halderman before, but she works in the same office as my midwife. She was really nice, and answered all my questions. I asked her what type of D&C she was performing, and she told me it was the suction kind (versus using a scraper, which is harder on the uterus). I was especially worried, because just moments before I had pretty much signed away my uterus. They had me sign a paper, that said that, if necessary, they were allowed to take everything out. That's right! They had the permission to give me a hysterectomy. Of course they would never do that unless absolutely necessary, but still, that's a big thing!

The anesthesiologist came in a added something to my IV. The effect was pretty immediate, and I started getting a little loopy. After that, I was super tired, and slowly waking up. Everything was done, and the nurses were just waiting for me to wake up. It seemed to take Joe forever to pick up my pain meds at the pharmacy, but then again, I probably wasn't awake enough to leave anyways. I started cramping pretty bad, so they gave me some more meds. Then I was allowed to go home. I am so glad I have had medication to help with any pain.

Not too long after coming home I went to bed to take a nap, and I think I was out for about 3 hours. Now, I am just taking it easy and hoping I can get better soon.

The best thing out of all of this, is that the doctor told me I don't have to wait and try to get pregnant again. She said I just have to wait 2 weeks to heal, and after that we are good to go. That's so much better than having to wait 3-6 months

Anything to save a buck

I learned about this Old Navy website, where they put up some great coupons every week. They ususually update the site on Thursday night/Wednesday morning. However, since the coupons are gone so fast, they have started staggering the coupons. So now me, and a bunch of other poor souls are wasting hours and hours waiting for ON to update their coupons! The best coupon is for $75 off your $100 purchase. Last Thursday I actually came to the site while there were some coupons left, but I couldn't figure out how to find it. I really could use a shopping trip. I can't even remember the last time I bought myself any clothes. So, I'll just keep trying, and wasting my time. Can you tell I am a "little" crazy???