Deals

I got a great deal at the store yesterday, I just have to brag a little. I try to work some "coupon magic" when I can to get really good deals from sales stacked with coupons. While I don't do it for all our shopping, I do when I can. I have some blogs/websites I use to help me find and track great deals, and then I buy as much as I can at a great price.

Yesterday I went to Meijer and bought 10 boxes of Kellogg's cereal and cracker sandwiches for $1.25 each, which is a great price. I also had several coupons though, so I only had to pay $6.50 for all 10 boxes. Even better though, I then got a "Catalina" which is a store coupon that prints at the register with your receipt. It was worth $10 on any future purchase! They basically paid me $3.50 to buy those cereals and crackers! I then had other great deals lined up in my next order, and used the catalina on it too.

I ended up with $56 with of groceries and only paid $17! Yay! :)

Remodeling

No, not the house, the fort! After two years of lots of playing and climbing and storms the boys' fort wasn't looking so great. Jeff, Trey & Roman spent quite a bit of time on it yesterday to get it in top shape again. They cleaned out big sticks and rocks (except the really big ones that are supposed to be in there) and raked the ground smooth again, then they re-built the wall and roof of the fort. Here are a couple of shots from last night. The first one has them with their friend Natalie. In the second picture you can see a couple of trees with no lower branches to the left of the fort, one of them the boys like to climb like you would climb a rope. There's also a big tree even further to the left that fell partially in a storm but is still alive. It's pointing diagonally down to the ground with the tops of the branches almost touching the ground, but yet it's still growing! They climb on that tree a lot too, since it's so accessible. Behind Roman in the first picture is a path leading down toward the creek in the woods. I am so glad we have lots of outdoors for them to play in!

When did he get so grown up?

My sweet little Trey is 6 1/2 now and getting ready to start first grade. I can't believe it. He is an amazing kid. Today we went swimming with friends for a couple of hours and he didn't wear any life vest the whole time. He's officially a swimmer now, and without any lessons! He also read our bedtime story to me and Roman tonight. I think he gets better every time I hear him read. It has been so exciting to me to have watched him learn to read. I love seeing him try new words and get them, and even when he doesn't get them, he tries and that's all I ask.

Lately I've noticed we've been sharing more and more "inside jokes" and he'll look at me, smile and shake his head when Roman is doing something silly.

He's also become so much more confident and independent over the past year. (Kindergarten was really good for him.) He tries new things - and succeeds! He is strong and fast and smart. He's so sweet too, this morning at church he waited around the coffee table while the coffee was brewing (we were there early) so that he could get the first cup of coffee for me! He even added sweetener and stirred it for me.

Sometimes I can't believe I was chosen to be his mom! I must be the luckiest woman on earth!

Life

There are so many things I've thought of posting or wanted to post, but life has been too crazy! I realized today while talking to a girlfriend that my life right now is probably the busiest it's been since Jeff and I were engaged (over 10 years ago) when I was finishing college, working full time and planning a wedding at the same time. It's a little overwhelming to think of all that we have going on right now, but instead I try to focus on the fun. (Some days I do better at that than others.) I am loving the ages/stages my kids are at, working at a cool job, participating in lots of summer activities, involved in a church plant, and trying to stay current with friends....

Roman cracks me up

Trey was sitting in a box at the top of the stairs contemplating "sledding" down. He was hesitating, afraid of getting hurt. Roman, completely seriously, said "Just do it. God will be with you. God is always with you."

You Can't Sneak Up on Me

A few years ago I was reading something that talked about how spring sneaks up on us. One day the trees are bare, then suddenly you wake up one morning and notice leaves and new growth every where. I realized the writer was right, that does happen! I love spring, and seeing things start to grow again and turn green makes me happy. It gives me hope and, combined with sunshine, energy and enthusiasm! I decided then that I'm not going to let spring sneak up on me even a little bit. I choose - almost daily - to notice the buds on the trees, the grass turning greener and all the new sprouts. Yesterday I noticed my lily-of-the-valley growing, hostas starting to sprout, and the wild plants that line the woods side of our driveway had come back again. I love seeing it happen a little each day!

Soccer!

Trey had his first ever soccer game today! He was adorable and did a great job! Jeff is the coach of Trey's team and he was great too. They didn't win, but they did a great job working together and keeping up their energy. They ended the game with high-fives and big smiles, proud of themselves and ready for snack!

New Decade

As of yesterday I am now 30 years old. A whole new decade. Some call it "old". I prefer not to. I'm sad for my 20s to be over, but mostly just because I want time to stop. I like being (relatively) young. I like having young kids and a young-ish (hee hee) husband. But I'm excited too, a new decade is a new beginning. An entire 10-year span to do what I want with. I hope I become wiser in my 30s. That's what I really want. Solomon prayed for wisdom and got it, maybe I will too!

So, how was my birthday? Wonderful. I spent the whole day with my family. They brought me my breakfast in bed - ice cream of course! (In our family the birthday person gets ice cream for breakfast!) It came with coffee and flowers. The morning continued, slow and lazy. We played some games (memory, ring toss), watched a little TV, then Chipotle for lunch! Yum! A bit more laziness before we went out for a hike, it was a beautiful day. For dinner Jeff grilled delicious shish-kabobs (sp?)! Then... drumroll please... my most favorite cake... DQ Ice Cream Cake! And I ate a LOT of it. You only turn 30 once, right? :)

Childhood Book

There was a really cool big book of Fairy Tales my mom used to have for us kids. It was gray and had great illustrations and lots of stories. I haven't seen it in years and am not sure where it ended up. I have thought about it recently, wanting my kids to know the classic fairy tales. I wondered if I could somehow find a copy without knowing the name or publisher.

Yesterday my boss and I were delivering a wedding together. We got to the church and realized we'd forgotten something, so I stayed and kept setting up while she left to go get it. Unfortunately we were about 20 minutes away from the shop, so it took a while. I finished setting up and was kind of wandering around being bored. I noticed a stack of kids' books on a table with a note that said "take if you'll use!", so I started looking at them to see what was there. I bet you can see where this is going. The book at the bottom of the pile was an exact copy of the fairy tale book we had growing up! I swear my heart skipped a beat when I saw it and the illustration on the cover took me immediately back to my childhood. I couldn't believe it. I grabbed it quick as if someone else was going to take it - even though no one else was even around!

The book was originally published in 1977, and this copy has an inscription in the front that it was a gift in 1979. Right about the same time my parents probably got it. It's in fantastic overall shape, especially considering it's age.

When I got home I told my kids all about this book I used to have, then showed them the one I found. They were so excited to hear about it and read it together. We've decided we'll read a story a night until we finish it, and we started tonight. I'm so glad to share this with them!

Here are pics of both the front and back covers, as both hold strong memories for me. Are the pictures fantastic?

JOB!!!

Jeff got a job!!! He got the official offer on Thursday, although we were pretty sure it was coming before that. It's with Ohio Health, a big company that's well-known for being a great company to work for. He'll be working in the brand-new Dublin hospital doing admissions. He's super excited about all the technology they have, being so new. It's kind of an entry type position, but their policy is that once you've been with the company a year you can transfer anywhere within. They offer great benefits too, which will be such a relief.

As far as scheduling and my job, we don't know yet. We're not planning on me quitting, but we truly have not had time to sit down and figure out what our schedule will be.

Thank you for your prayers. Please keep praying; for the craziness that is about to commence with a new job, new schedule, etc., etc., for our financial situation as it is again about to change and we're not sure how that's going to look, and for our family!

Warm!

It's warm out! At least it feels warm. And there's SUNSHINE! I'm so happy to see the sun. I never fully realize how much I miss it until it's back. And it make me feel so happy!

The boys and I went on a walk yesterday to enjoy the sun and higher temperatures. We played Bear Grylls, hiking on "glaciers" and following animal tracks (deer, raccoon, we think coyote, and of course our dogs'). We made a huge loop around some of the land here, since our road isn't great for walking on. I think we had more fun this way anyway.

Today we went to our favorite local park, Liberty Park. I really expected there to be less snow, but at least the equipment was dry for running, climbing, swinging and sliding. It seems everyone was thrilled to see the sun, there were several other families. All us moms were talking about the sun and snow and being so happy to get the kids outside. Like many other areas of the country, we've seen more snow here recently then we usually do in a whole winter.

Tonight is the second service for our new church. We didn't have a service last week because our sending church was having a special service in the evening we all went to. I am excited to see how tonight goes, and how many people are there.

Life Community North

We had our first service with our new church plant tonight! It was exhausting and hard in a lot of ways, overwhelming too, but I don't want to focus on the hard parts. I want to focus on the fact that it happened and it was great! To me, this "thing" started out as an interesting idea... then an abstract possibility... then a distant reality... before I knew it, it was something I cared about, something I was committing to. Then, suddenly it started to become more and more concrete, and now it has happened. Life Community North had it's first service this evening! We had 35 kids checked into classes and roughly 76 adults in the service! Of course, some of those are people who are excited and supportive from our sending church who won't be regular attenders, but that's okay. We actually had to set up more chairs as people were coming in, we didn't have enough ready! Amazing!

Not the best pics, but pics of a big event none the less!

Jeff and Roman putting bulletins on the chairs:

Our first service:

Kids in the gym:

Faith Like a Child

I was tucking the kids in to bed (late) tonight, then was going to post about our new church (brand new!), we're having our first service tomorrow! I'm super excited about it! ...

Then something even more exciting happened. I was putting Roman to bed when we started talking about Jesus... then Heaven... then questions about the "bad heaven"... the next thing I knew Roman was telling me "I believe in God and that Jesus died for me and loves me so I want Him to live in my heart so I can go to Heaven"!!! We prayed together, and I couldn't resist peeking at him, he was so sweet and focused on what he was saying with his eyes closed and hands folded. Roman is rarely this calm and focused!

It was so fantastic! All I was thinking about (after a LONG busy day) was putting them to bed and chillin' before I go to bed... apparently God had something else in mind first!

Yay!

V-Day

It's like D-Day, except with flowers. At least that's how crazy it seemed to me!

We were frantically busy for several days at the flower shop leading up to and including Valentines' Day. Yes, that's a good thing for business, but I was worn out! If I had any idea how many roses I processed and arranged I would tell you, but I didn't even try to keep count. I can tell you that we did arrangements as simple as one rose and as big as 40! We did tropicals, lilies, a bazillion daisies and alstromeria, and tons of my current favorite, beautiful spring tulips! It was so fun and so crazy all at the same time.

In the midst of the chaos we decided to be closed for Presidents' day on Monday... we were too tired to want to be open! Then Tuesday was another wave of the crazy snow storms that have been coming through, so we ended up being closed then too. What a relief, I needed some time off!

God Provides

"My God shall supply all my needs..."

I continue to be impressed by God. He keeps finding new ways to show us that He will provide for us. Jeff's been out of work for nine months now and our bills are still paid and food is still on the table. He has used a lot of people to meet our needs and even many of our wants. We've had gift cards, checks and cash show up in the mail or at the door, many anonymously and some very large. We've had Christmas gifts given, restaurant meals paid for and so many other things. Most recently we've found some amazing sales combined with coupons to keep us stocked in things like cereal and crackers, and today a doctor friend called in an antibiotic for me (sinus related infection) so that I wouldn't have to pay for an appointment at our doctor's office.

To all the friends and family who have helped us, thank you. I hope that we will be able to pass the blessings on to others at some point.

Day Off

The flower shop was closed today, so vacation day for me!! Woo-hoo! We slept in, Jeff made bacon and eggs for breakfast and before we knew it our lazy morning was creeping into afternoon. The boys asked me if today would be a good day to go to the mall to use the Build-a-Bear gift cards they got for Christmas and I thought it was a good idea. So the three of us headed out to join all the other people at the mall who had today off. :) We went straight to Build-a-Bear where we had a great time picking out new animals, filling them, and choosing their clothes/accessories. If you've never been to B-a-B it is really cute and the kids love it.

My favorite part of the trip though was at Childrens' Place after B-a-B. I got a few great deals and paid with a gift card that was also from Christmas. I loved that, but it wasn't the best part. The best part was when Trey was asking me something at the cash register and I told him he needed to go back to where he'd been sitting with Roman and I'd be done in a minute. He kept talking and I told him that we would take care of it in a minute, "right now I need obedience". He promptly turned (with a good attitude even!) and went back to where Roman was until I was done. Great moment. What made it even better was when the cashier looked at me and said "Wow. I wish I could get that to work!"

My kids aren't perfect, but they are fantastic for sure. I'm so proud of them. :)

Snow Fun

Columbus has gotten a record amount of snow this year! Today I got to go out and enjoy it. It was finally above 30 degrees and it was my day off. The boys and I went out and had a blast sledding and playing. Trey did point out that we should've built a snowman, but maybe there'll be time for that before it's gone.

Nala has always loved the snow and she was thrilled to be out with us. She and Marley ran all over the place, and I threw several snowballs for her. I'm very amused with throwing them up in the air for her, she'll launch herself up in the air to grab and smash them.

It's been a great day off!

Good-Bye Christmas

Christmas got packed up yesterday. I wasn't ready to say good-bye. It seems like each year I've been enjoying getting wrapped up in the Christmas season more and more. Usually by now I'm ready to have my house back from the tree and decor, but I wasn't feeling that way yet. However, I do have limits - even in my holiday mood, and the chaos and clutter and pine needles piled beneath the tree had to be sorted and put away (or vacuumed). So away it all went. The new toys, all the ornaments, stockings and nativity. I considered one more morning of Christmas music, but listening to it while packing everything away didn't seem right. So instead I made a game of packing the (non-breakable) ornaments with the boys and got it done. I was relieved to have the space in the living room again, and it's exciting to say good-bye to 2009 and venture deeper into the new year to see what lies ahead.

I know what lies ahead this weekend... lots and lots of flowers. We're preparing for our booth at the big bridal show this weekend and it has us BUSY. It will make for a long, exhausting few days but it will also be a lot of fun... and include cake tastings!

Organize Schmorganize

This book, Organize Schmorganize, was written by one of my oldest, dearest friends. Amy Kauffman and I grew up together (she wasn't Amy Kauffman then, but I wasn't Carla Brackman either!) in NY and our families are still close. I'm so proud of her for publishing this great book. It's a quick easy read (I just finished reading it) packed full of organizational tips for the average person or family. I consider myself a pretty organized person already, but I was able to pick up some great new ideas from her book as well. I love her tip of "touch mail only once". One of my worst areas are those two spots in the kitchen where mail (and other papers) pile up. Ick. I think I'll try to touch the mail only once and not let it pile up.

The book is full of Amy's personality - lighthearted and energetic. By the end of the book you'll feel like you're old friends with her too!

The only tip she may never get me to follow is shortening my showers. Sorry Aim, but I love my semi-long, hot showers!

2010

Happy New Year!

We had a great holiday season! I was pretty sad when we decided we wouldn't be able to go home to NY during the Christmas season as we have for the past several years. That meant not seeing my family, including the brother, sis-in-law and four nieces and nephews that I haven't seen in a year, and the little nephew who just had his first birthday. It is what it is though, and we really enjoyed our time anyway. My in-laws came down for a few days Christmas week and spoiled us; taking us out to dinner and cooking at home for us. We celebrated Christmas and just had a lot of fun. They they took the boys up to NY with them while Jeff and I stayed home. I worked during that week but enjoyed time with Jeff in the evenings and quiet mornings of coffee and hot showers. Then my parents came down New Years day, bringing the boys home with them. I was so happy to see all of them! We had fun doing a little shopping, playing games and, again, going out to dinner!

While the new year started a few days ago, tomorrow feels like the beginning since it'll be getting back to "normal" routines. I loved the whole holiday "life" we've been living for the past couple of weeks, but I'm ready for some normalcy.

As for 2010, I'm pretty excited to see what it holds!