Such a deal I"ve got for you!

I am on a coupon high! I have found some great deals lately, mostly thanks due to some "money saving blogs" that I follow. In some of these blogs, they always show what they bought and then tell the SMALL AMOUNT of money that they spend on it. I've always thought it was neat to see and wished I could do that. Well, here's mine.


This first "pat on my back" happened THE DAY I LOST MY INTERNET.
For everything in this picture I spent $6.22 (between 2 stores). Those breathe right strips are worth that much alone! (The book is present for EJ for Christmas. Shhh! don't tell her.) I also got a free coffee from McD's that day with a coupon that I had. Later that night, we went to Target and I got a $3 Christmas present for C, and spent $10.28 at another store for 4 partial Christmas presents/birthday presents for family (thus the reason I can't show you pictures of that).

This is what I got today. I spent $9.11. I paid $0.31 for all those SoBe drinks. I paid $1 for both Cap'n Crunch. And at Target I spent $7.80. The wipes were $1.08 apiece!

I'm so excited! I have to say thanks to all the blogs I read (especially this one). It pays to use coupons!

I'm back!

Finally!

I was without Internet for a week. A WHOLE ENTIRE WEEK! (Have I ever told you that I hate AT&T?) And then once I got it, I couldn't get it all set up right. I was without my printer for an extra 3 days. I NEED MY PRINTER!

I am finally all set up and everything seems to be working properly. That was a long 10 days.

I had grand plans to blog last weekend. Ya know--enjoy the cooler weather, watch college football and blog. Didn't happen. Thus you were stuck with K's cute new hair do.

Blogs are coming. Soon. Sometime. Hopefully tomorrow. Hopefully. Stay tuned. Meantime I'll leave you with some new pictures to enjoy.

New "do"

I finally got K's hair cut and styled. I think she looks so cute!

Swimming lessons

Both of the kids had swimming lessons this year. But let me give some back story first. C had lessons 2 years ago (private with a friend from church: AWESOME. I begged her to do them this year; but no luck). K has never had lessons but is not at all scared of the water. She was actually in the water adjustment class. She didn't need "adjusting" except she had horrible trouble listening to the teacher.

When I registered, I was told to register them below the level that I thought they might be. I registered C for level I and the first day they re-evaluated C and moved him up to level II. There ended up being a bazillion kids in his class.

Here is the "report card" that C got at the end of lessons. He still has a few things to work on. I think I would probably have him repeat level II again next summer. For 2 reasons. #1: After jumping off the diving board, he never was able to make it to the side by himself. #2: I was able to watch level III. They focused a lot on actual strokes and he is definitely not ready for that.

K was so excited when she found out that they would be going off the diving board the next day. She did the diving blocks just fine. But the day she had to go off that diving board, she was not at all interested. There was much prodding by the teacher. But as soon as she got to the side, she said she wanted to go again. So this video is the second time. Notice how much she is balking; more so than the first time. Do you hear her wonderful mother saying "just throw her off." She wanted to go; she was going.

The Great Ice Capades

Back during NHL season (especially the Stanley Cup Playoffs) C was convinced that he wanted to play hockey. I kept telling him that before he could play hockey, he needed to learn how to ice skate. So I set up one single ice skating lesson for him. It was scheduled to be the Monday after his ER visit. Because of the ER visit, we re-scheduled it for the next Monday.

The lesson was way downtown at 5:30. We picked up dinner, picked up daddy, and ate in the car on the way there. We had to park in this old rundown parking garage and ended up parking on the way other side from where we actually needed to go. It was so confusing to get there (spoiler: for this reason I am glad that he is NOT interested in hockey).

Poor guy thought he would step on the ice and glide his way across. Not happening. I think he did very well for it being his first time. I remember my first time and it was not pretty. He did learn a few things, namely how to get up after you fell down. He did make his way around for awhile. But in the end, he was very disappointed. It broke my heart to see how disappointed he was. But I knew that is what he needed. Oh the mommy heart hurt!

We told him that if he was ever interested later, we would do all we could to try to find him lessons or help him out however we could. But he stated that he was no longer interested in hockey. In fact, for a little while after, he wouldn't even watch a hockey game. That has since passed, but he still has no interest in playing. For now, we are on to soccer.

Here is my brave boy, trying his hardest.