My Maiden Couponing Voyage!

I have a friend who has SERIOUSLY gotten into the coupon-lady role and have been AMAZED at the money she saves on groceries and since I am feeding a man and two teenagers (and many times extra teenagers to boot), something has GOT to give! I do worry that I don't have the time or brains to figure this out but there are several couponing blogs to walk one through it and hey if my friend with five kids can find time, I should be able to right?

So, I started kind of small here at our local Albertson's. We have only ONE gorgery store and their prices are terribly high, due in part to the fact that they have NO competition. I RARELY shop here, finding I drive 30 miles any direction and still save huge amounts of money.

But today, using instore coupons and some that I printed off, I got a good haul of things we actually USE!! The four bags of cheese ALONE would have been $28 at Wal-Mart (and can you believe they rang up $8.99 EACH here before the store coupon?).

So, total haul was 4-2 lb bags of shreded cheese, 16 cans of Campbell's Chunky soup, four cans of Hunt's spaghetti sauce and 8 Dannon yougurts!

Christmas 2009

 

O.K. I admit - I am the WORST when it comes to taking pictures on Christmas morning! I am always too involved watching the kids and Paul open their gifts which I can't really do with the camera in front of my face! I had a few more this year than usual but since my boys, who SWEAR they aren't little boys anymore, got us up at 3:30 in the MORNING, I didn't check the settings on the camera and most of the photos were too blurry to use.

The boys made out pretty good and pretty much got what they wanted. Aaron and I have had fun with the WII though we did go a bit over board with a boxing match and I paid for it the next day with a messed up neck!

Wyatt Family Christmas Eve

 

As is tradition, we all met over at mom's in the late afternoon. We visited a bit and then set to feasting - yummy! We gave up the traditional Christmas dinner some time ago and instead have meat and cheese trays for sandwhiches, chips, dips, salads and all kind of sweets.

After filling our tummys and cleaning the mess up a bit, Aaron and Kaitlyn set about their jobs as Santa's helpers. Elizabeth kept a close eye on them as she will eventually take the job over in a year or two when her aunt and cousin decide it is time to retire.

Then the mayhem begin - the freenzy of ripping paper, flying bows and "oohs" and "aahs". Funny how what can take weeks to accomplish in searching for boxes and bags, paper, ribbons and bows can be reduced to a garbage bag of crumpled up mess in mere seconds!

The biggest hit of the year were the "grandparent's memory books" for each of the grandkids. I knew that she was working on them and had put hours into them - what I didn't know was that my brother and I each got a family record as well. We all spent a good amount of time looking at and reading the books and the grandkids learned things about grandma and grandpa that they didn't know!

Elizabeth was a good girl and picked up all of the bows like mama told her too and we all went home to get ready for Santa Claus to come - though why he would want to venture out on such a chilly night was beyond me!

Let's Get Creative

 

I found this neat frame at Target and made it up for my mother-in-law for Christmas. I think it turned out really nice! She did too!

The Stockings Were Hung . . .

 

The Barcode Queen

 
I KNEW it! I knew I was royalty - somehow! Our local public library is in the process of automating (actually - we are almost done and will go live January 4th!!). While we were waiting for grant money to get the ball rolling, I spent last fall and all of the early part of this year putting a barcode on each and every item in the library! I managed to get everything done but nonfiction from the 700's on before we starting cataloging in late August. This was ONE days worth of the backing paper off the barcode covers that went over each label once it was on the book - HOLY COW!

Emmett 5th/6th Grade Orchestra

 
Following in mom and grandma's footsteps, Aaron has taken up the violin (not sure how long grandma played but I know mom only played two years - lol). He has picked it up VERY quickly and was even asked to join the 6th grade section but they have to be to school an hour early two days a week for each grade level - two early mornings didn't bother him but four did. They performed their winter concert Tuesday night and we were quite impressed with their small group. Aaron's clogging instructor also plays violin and she performed a very nice solo during the concert as well.

Gem Cloggers Winter Show

 

Aaron is trying something new this year - CLOGGING!!! He is in a beginning class and is doing great! The Cloggers performed at the annual Festival of Lights the first Friday in December and then, this past week-end, was their winter recital. Aarons group did two numbers and it is amazing how much they have learned in so little time!!

Carberry Intermmediate School Honor Choir

 

Aaron was afraid that he would not be able to sing in the choir this year since he started with orchestra but he managed to work it out with the choir director so he could. He loves to sing! The choir performed at the annual PTO Christmas Bazar a couple of weeks ago and as usual, they sounded GREAT!

Our Little "Vacation"

Alright, I admit it, from this photo, it doesn't look like we got all that much snow. But, The photo was taken at 4:30 in the afternoon - the temperature was very mild today and some of the snow has already melted.

It snowed a bit Friday night, then about noon Saturday, it started snowing and snowed until after five in the evening. Wouldn't have been a huge problem, but Paul was due in from Minneapolis at 7:30 last night. You just never can tell with winter travel if your flight will be on time or not. So about two, I made the decision to go ahead and go into Boise and get a motel room for the night - I don't like driving in the dark in the BEST of cricumstances and no way was I going to try to slip and slide back home.

We got a room right by the airport - I'd stayed at this particular motel before but was pleasantly surprised to see that they had refurbished it recently. Like a dummy, I left my camera at home, so I borrowed the motels photos.

I sent the boys off to the pool while I "cat napped" under a wonderful down comforter until it was time to go to the aiport. Paul's flight was on time and he took us to dinner at the Kopper Kitchen - great service and yummy food. Back to the motel for complimentary cookies and milk and a good sleep, again under those down comforters! After a complimentary continental breakfast, we were back out and on the way home. It had snowed more during the night and roads could have been tricky but as early as we were on the road there wasn't alot of traffic to contend with.

Oh amy my country boys had more fun in the "big city" than you can ever imagine and are no doubt ready to go again!