Imaginations of a child

We have the opportunity to be down in Dallas today, to visit our cousins. We love to get together with Catherine, Matt and their 4 adorable children. Grace (8) has amazing imagination. She made this very cool house "the house of Grace". It is a paper house with slits, so you can slip different people, or animals in the different areas. They can slip into bed, or into the back door. Or the cat can hide under the rug. This seems like the kind of thing that you could see in the stores.
Both Catherine and my kids have participated in the Ringling Bros summer reading program, and have earned tickets to the circus. We are going to tonight's show together. I can't remember the last time I went to the circus. It must be at least 20 years ago. Catherine just got our tickets, and apparantly they are pretty good seat! I can't wait! I'll post about our experience either tonight or tomorrow.

We need you!

Joe, please come home! We need you, we want you, we can't live without you!
My DH (dear husband) has a job which requires him to travel. Since we moved to Texas the amount of time that he is gone has gone down, but it is still all together too much. These past few weeks have been especially bad. Last week he made his weekly trip to Chicago, to check on his maintenance crew there. That was fine. I am used to 2-3 day trips every month or so. But then his stupid manager decided to quit the day after he left, so he had to go back there on Sunday. He's been gone for 3 days now, and won't come back until tomorrow! We haven't left the house at all during this time. I am starting to feel a little restless, but tomorrow we are planning to go into town, so I am not making that trip today. If only the geo worked....
We have our thermostat set to 83 degrees, to save on air conditioning costs, but during lunch I was feeling especially hot. I turned on the fan, and tried to ignore the heat. After a while it got so unbearable, that I went to turn down the AC. No wonder I was sweating: it was 86! For some reason the AC unit wasn't turning on, even though it was several degrees hotter. I was about to retreat to the other side of the house (the bedroom side has a seperate AC unit), but about 10 minutes later the AC started working again. It just got me to thinking: if the AC stops working al together, I would HAVE to seek refuge somewhere else! It's so hot here, right now, that in the middle of the night it doesn't go below 80 degrees! The heat hasn't really bothered me, and I am adjusting quit well, but when the AC stops working... that's another story.

Algebra

Apparently I am weird.
I love math.
Back in high school I took a very advanced math class, so when I got to BYU, it was a breeze.
My friend Anja's husband Keith, is taking a math class. He is one of the many people in this world to whom math doesn't come naturally. So now I am a sort of tutor for him. It's fun for me to go back, and when I relearn it, it all comes back to me in flashes. His whole class is online, and he has to submit homework every week. Last night Keith (and Anja) came over to do the homework. After we were done, he told me about his midterm that is due on Friday. We will work on that tonight, but since he has to work all day, he left the midterm questions here. I have been working on them, and can't stop! (I couldn't go to bed last night until 1 am) I want to do the problems before he is ready to do them, so I can explain things to him as he is going along. (totally legal, it's an open book/info midterm)

How to get good deals

At the "keeping the kingdom first" blog, they are having a coupon binder show and tell. This post was created before the show and tell started, but I think it's a perfect match.

Some people have asked my how I get those good deals on groceries. There are so many things to know, but here are some main points.
Even if you aren't ready to go shopping yet, you need to start gathering coupons. You can get your local newspaper on Sunday for the most coupons. I always get a double paper, so I get 2 of each coupon. Then you need to have some kind of method of organizing your coupons. I have a big 3-ring binder. It has divider tabs, with categories, and baseball card inserts for keeping your coupons easily visible. Here's my binder
I started with a website The grocery game. On this website, they give you a list of things that are good deals, and tell you which coupons to buy. The downside of this is that they charge $10/ 8 weeks for the first store, and $5 / 8 weeks for any additional stores. Obviously you save that amount easy, but it still is an investment. Although this is an easy way to save money, the way to save the most is by reading blogs of people that save a TON, and copying them.
Here are several blogs I read that have good info:
coupon cravings
Christines coupons
i heart cvs
money saving mom
printable-coupons
waymore4wayless
Coupon loop
The easy way to keep up with these blogs is to set up google reader. This way, you don't have check each individual website, but when they update it, you can just read it in your reader. You do need a google account, but it's free, so why not?
I have only been doing coupons for 2 months, and I feel like I'm getting the hang of it. I have started stockpiling a ton of personal care items, as well as food.In the beginning you might see your grocery bill go up. This is because you are stockpiling with good deals, while still buying food that you need every day. After a while, you will have to buy less and less "every day" items, because you'll have them in stockpile. I would also setup a closet for your storage. The best is if you can hang some shelves and clear all the other stuff out of the closet. You'll be amazed at how fast it fills up. The other thing I have noticed, is that in the beginning I would buy stuff that was a pretty good deal (50% off), while I now prefer not to buy stuff for less than 80% discount, especially personal items. I don't spend more than $0.50 on (nice) shampoo. I don't pay for deodorant. And won't pay for razors either.
Shopping for good deals will be easier if you live close to the stores. (I live 30 miles away, so I try to only go once a week) You could make several trips a week. Our kroger and Albertsons sales start on Wednesday, and our CVS and Walgreens sales on Sunday. Just keep in mind that just because something is cheap, you shouldn't necessarily buy it. You'll end up spending more money than you need to. On the other hand, if you can get a product for free + make some money with a coupon, go for it. You can always donate the product to charity.

Should I wear a ski mask?

I felt like I robbed the grocery story last night! Anja and I went shopping, and wanted to show up at the CVS right as the new sale started to make sure the items would be in stock. (the sale started at midnight). So we left at 7.30pm, and did all the other stores first. This was by far the best shopping trip I have ever done! Look at all the stuff I gotI was going to do a fun poll on my blog to see how much you think I spent on this, but to be honest, I can't wait to tell you!
Here's a breakdown by store

Kroger
Total bill: $73.13
Kroger card savings: $17.60
Coupons: $43.45
Rebates: $10.78
OOP: $1.30

Albertsons
Total bill: $26.17
Albertsons savings: $12.50
Coupons: $3.25
OOP: $10.42
CVS
Total bill: $33.47
Coupons: $14.76
total after coupons: $18.71
Used 10 ecb (extra care bucks) + $8.71 cash
Received 20 ecb
Total OOP: FREE + $1.29
Walmart
Total bill: $25.48
Coupons: $17.00
OOP: $11.48
Grand total $ 18.91
88.1% savings
Now, you have to know this took a lot of planning, coordinating, and patience. But, for all of you who question if this is all worth it, let me just say heck YES! This kind of thing give me a total adrenaline rush, plus it saves us money! At checkout, the receipt total is usually pretty good, and then they start taking off the coupons, and the total becomes amazing. Yesterday I was amazed they didn't owe me money at some of the stores (actually, Walgreens did owe me money, but unfortunately they don't give money away to people taking stuff from their store.

How the Pioneers did it

Today is Pioneer day. This is a day we remember those people that walked across America to settle in the West. I can't even imagine what it must have been like.
Our ward had a nice pancake breakfast, as a pioneer celebration. After we were done we the kids played some games that they played back in 1847. They included jump rope, rope pulling, stuff to do with water and cans etc. I mostly just chatted with my friends. This is Anja
One of the older members played the fiddle and the guitar, and it brought the right atmosphere.
Warning: graphic story ahead
We haven't had much luck getting rid of our roosters, so I thought I would bring them to the picnic and see if anyone was interested. They weren't. I can't blame them, I mean, who wants a bunch of roosters? Anyways, I decided it was time to kill them so we can eat them. And what better day than Pioneer day? They did this all the time! I have only killed a chicken once (one that was attacked by the dog), but I just threw that in the bushed for the coyotes. This was the first time I killed one to eat it.
First we started by nailing 2 nails in the piece of wood. The chicken's neck was wedged in there, and then it got beheaded by Joe. This is the part I don't know if I can do. After the head was off we put the body in a bucket, so it could flop around without getting dirt all over it. Once it calmed down, I dipped it in hot water for about a minute. This is supposed to solve the fat that keep the feathers in, to make the plucking easier. A guy on a website says he can pluck one in 5 minutes. So I thought: I can do it in about 30 minutes right? Wrong! It took me 1.5 hours. After that, it was still not completely done, so I decided to just skin it. The grossest thing to me is removing the interiors/guts. I got Joe to help me with this too. Tomorrow we are having Joe's whole family over for dinner, and I can't wait to share our fresh chicken with them.

Trudging Along

It might seem to my blogger readers that our remodel progress has digressed. Well, I am here to say, it has, but we are still slowly trudging along. We have tried to work on projects here and there. When I received several decorating items for my birthday, I took that as a clue that my house is too bare. It's not necessarily that I don't have the things to decorate with, just that I haven't taken the time to hang them all up. Today, with Joe gone (somehow that makes it easier for me), I took on the the task of hanging several things. There are 3 shelves I have meant to hang for a long time, and I even knew where I wanted them. I combined those with my presents, and some other things, and they are now in my front hallway. One of the shelves gave me a really hard time though, because the wall was crooked. It sticks out more where the middle of the shelf should have been. So after some quiet frustrating words, I just move the shelf over a bit, and called it good.
Items in arrangement:
Letter J: present from my sister-in-law Angela
Country Living sigh: present from my sister-in-law Ruth
Ashurst Established 2000 sign: present from mother-in-law Liz
Antique iron: Inherited from my grandpa Valk. Him and my grandma we in Austria many, many years ago, when they picked up an old lady hitchhiker. She was so grateful for the ride, that she gave them this family heirloom. (I just hope the shelf is strong enough to hold it. It could kill someone if it crashed down on them)
Aesop quote: Free gift from Deseret Book the day of Priesthood session
Pictures of us and kids: very outdated, and I need to get another frame for Ginger too.

I am also working on the new front door, so slowly our entrance is actually becoming welcoming.