Grocery Smarts Class at my house Saturday

I am going to be teaching a class on how to save money using coupons and the free website grocerysmarts.com Saturday August 29 @ 11am. If you would like to come or have a friend or family member that has been wanting to learn about grocery smarts e-mail me and let me know. Everyone who comes will get a binder ready to use for couponing.

I promise couponing isn't scary and doesn't require hours and hours of time. You can be organized in 5 minutes a week and save HUNDREDS a month! Check out my Saving made Simple blog for extra savings tips. : )

Good Morning Sleepy Head

It's been awhile since I've seen morning hair like this. Good morning Alexis!

Our 7'th Wedding Anniversary

Yesterday was our 7'th wedding anniversary. I can't believe 7 years have already flown by and that we have a little one ready to go to school! We tried to have babysitting yesterday but Justin ended up not being able to come home from work until 8pm so we'll have to try that again. When he got home he was very sweet, he brought me a dozen red roses and (get ready to laugh)... twilight the movie board game. I made sure the girls were ready for bed by the time he got home. They made a cake for us so we all ate cake and off to bed they went. Justin and I rarely eat dinner together on the days he works so last night we did and the house was quiet. (WOW that's a gift all by itself!) After dinner we played the twilight board game and this is the really funny part... Justin won! I don't think I'll ever let him forget that : )

Highlights of my day

I've been feeling a little "off" for a few days. I have a lot to get done in the next couple weeks with summer winding down and I feel slightly overwhelmed and sad but when I just laid down to try and sleep all I could think about instead of all there is to do were 4 highlights of my day and how grateful I am for them.

1) Justin being willing to come home because he could tell I might need it.

2) Getting in an huge hose water play session with Alexis and Ariana while washing the dogs in nothing but our underwear. (I know that sounds strange but I swear my girls run around in nothing but underwear in the morning over summer break so that's what they were in when I started washing the dogs) We sprayed each other, danced in the "rain", jumped over the stream of water, limboed under the water etc.

3) Having a "beauty" day. Alexis and Ariana brushed and "did" my hair, make up and nails. Alexis also did Ariana's make up, and I did hers. Have to admit Alexis is actually decent at make up but Ariana is awful. She insits that eye shadow goes under your eyes as well as on your eye lids. Ariana does a fabulous job brushing and combing hair. (I'm serious!)

4) Taking my girls shopping at Khols and watching them have SOOOO much fun trying on several outfits. (I didn't try on anything I just watched and helped them) Ariana would put an outfit on and than proceed to model it for several minutes before moving on to the next one. I loved watching them giggle, smile and be incredibly noisy in the dressing room and tell each other how cute they looked and which pieces they liked the best.

Simple Moments of Joy

This week I have really been thinking about what things have been the best parts of my day and it has been the simple things. For example a few days ago the girls helped me get the dirty laundry in the washing machine and then we just watched as our front loader machine began washing. It was silly, fun and simple just watching the water, bubbles and clothes spin around. Last night the girls helped make cookies with me and it was all giggles, eating the dough and having milk and cookies when they where done. A perfect end to the day. Justin just got home and Ariana came and laid down on him while he is watching baseball. Its 6pm and she hasn't eaten dinner yet and I warned him she was falling asleep and he said"Its ok, I like this and I so rarely get the opportunity." How could I deny him this simple moment of joy?

An Angel Traveling in Fillmore, Utah

The first two weeks of July the girls, our two dogs and I vacationed in Utah with Justin's family. We had a great time. I'll try writing about it later. Last Friday we all set off to come home and see Daddy and a little an hour after driving our air conditioner in the car stoped working and then Ariana started screaming that she had to pee and of course we are in the middle of no where. I pulled over on the side of the high way and smelled a burning rubber. Perfect! So Ariana peed for the first time on the side of the highway (by the end of the day we will have done that 3 times) We got back in and I wasn't sure what to do. To stay there and call AAA, it was really hot, over 100 or try to keep driving and hope even a little city would come soon. While talking to my Dad I decided to keep going and see if anything was close. If I didn't find anything in a few miles I'd pull over and call AAA. Fillmore was only a few miles down the road so we drove and got off and pulled into Carls Jr. We got towed to the local AAA shop. It turned out to be a busy day for the little company. The mechanic looked at the car and couldn't figure out what was wrong for awhile and then decided that the air compressor had a part that was broken. Bad news/good news for me is that part was just replaced a couple months ago! So if I could just make it home because everything else runs fine except the AC I could get it fixed for hopefully free but to make things worse my front windows are broken and can't roll down so even driving at night was out until we could get them down. My AAA membership gets me free tows up to 100 miles and Provo is about 100 miles from Fillmore. The towing company said they could tow us back but it would be a few hours. Ugh, I mean Yippy, hours out in the hot because we have to keep the dogs with us. We were VERY hungry at this point and a local cafe was recommended to us. We got there and ordered but soon found out that I was out of cash and the cafe only took cash or checks no credit or debit cards. Before we could cancel our order and try and find Carl's Jr. again my angel came to my rescue. A kind woman in brite green shirt jumped up and said "don't worry I got it". I was so over whelmed. I started crying. I was so grateful to not try and pack the girls and dogs back into the car. I was tiered and hungry just like my girls and our angel helped us just when we needed it. Our world can be a crazy place but I hope that I can be sensitive enough just like this woman was so that when someone else is in need I can be there for them. She didn't ask for anything she was traveling too to American Fork. Alexis who is normally shy around strangers even ran up and said thank you. Just thinking about it and writing about is making me tear up. Thank you traveling Angel you truly helped make a bad day better! (The picture is us in the tow truck driving back to Provo/Orem)

Camping at Lake Mead

The first weekend in May we went camping at Lake Mead with our friends the Jacksons. We had a great time even though our trip was cut slightly short because we had to get back to meet Justin's family and get Justin packed to go to his Grandma Ashby's funeral in CA. The kids were all so excited to sleep in the tents but Friday night the wind blew so hard that we had to sleep in the cars and take the poles out of the tents. It was a long night for me since Mom's always seem to draw the short end of the stick and I was the one that ended up all twisted up trying to sleep half sitting half laying down the short way in the car. Oh well! The next morning and afternoon was beautiful.



There was so much to do and explore outside but the three little girls played for a large part of the day inside the car. It was good for Ariana though because she is so fair that it was really hard to keep her from burning and the car offered her some nice shade.

The Barbie Fishing Pole

Before we left I bought 2 pink barbie fishing poles for the girls from Wal-mart. We were really impressed with how well they work and how good both Ariana and Alexis can cast. Justin ended up spending a lot of the day playing with a barbie fishing pole too. Isn't he cute? ; )

The Jackson also brought kayaks. Ariana LOVED the kayaks and so did I. We had a lot of fun paddling around the lake.

When they weren't in the car the girls were collecting sea shells. Doesn't Alexis look great in those purple goggles?

When we got home we all looked rather comical because we all had sun burns in different wierd ways. Justin was just red all over because he didn't put on sunscreen. I used a face stick and apparently only rubed in the middle of my forhead because just above my eyebrows and around my hair line got burned but nothing in between. Ariana was fine everywhere except right under her eyes. Justin's family had a good laugh when they saw us that night.