Rainy Week at the Beach

We had a great vacation at the beach with Jay's family this week, even if it was only 60 degrees and raining (not exactly ideal beach weather). So what do you do if it rains all week at the beach?

Well, first you give the 3 year old a tatoo

Then you let them wear either their bathing suit or pajamas inside ALL DAY long and climb on the stairs. We also spread out the beach towels and beach toys all over the floor.

Getting a pedicure helps the day pass a little easier. Catherine had her toes painted "elephantastic pink".

Finally on Friday we had a sunny day. Will was so happy to run up and down the beach and throw his football.

Another great thing that happened while we were at the beach was that we sold our house in only 4 days! (Now we just have to find a house to buy.)

Field trip to the Nature Musuem

On Friday, my friend Jill and I went to Charlotte to visit our other college roommate Sara and take our kids to the nature museum there. We amazingly got to Charlotte by 10:15 in the morning. We enjoyed some time looking at the animals, the butterfly gardens, crawling through the "tunnels", and going for a nature walk.

Will (19 mos), Eddie (21 mos), and Catherine (3 1/2 yrs)
in the butterfly garden

Catherine really liked the river activity station they had with running water and pretend bugs.

We took a little nature walk--it was a good break from all of the bus loads of elementary school children inside the musuem! It got a little muddy from all the rain earlier this week, but was still a good time.

After the nature musuem, we got lunch and went back to Sara's house to eat and play. Will loves Sara's dog, Nola, so much that he wouldn't even sit down to eat lunch. We had a great visit and loved our time with Sara! We also enjoyed a peaceful car ride home when all 3 took naps. Yeah for a fun day!

Catie's Baby Shower

We had a baby shower for my friend Catie on Saturday. We've been friends since forever, middle school maybe, but really became closer towards the end of high school. She's waiting for the arrival of her little boy Grant, due at the beginning of July.

look at that little baby bump....too sweet

Opening lots of fun baby boy presents

All of the high school friends together (Christina with CJ, Catie, Candice with Will (she has a Will too) , me with Catherine, and Haley (expecting a baby in Dec) . We were thankful to all be together. That usually only happens once every year or so now that we all live in different places.

Catherine went with me to the baby shower. She was so excited to see the baby gifts and do something special with Mommy. Apparently it was exhausting. This is what she looked about 5 mins after we left Union to come back to G'ville.

What's Going On?

I have not done a good job lately of updating the blog or even taking pics of Catherine and Will. I think this is the only picture I've taken of them in 2 weeks. That's unheard of for me and my usual 100 pics a month. So what has been going on here? Crazy life as usual!

Since last Wednesday.....Jay has traveled to Chicago and Milwaukee on two separate trips within the last five days. We've gone to a wedding in Columbia while Catherine and Will stayed overnight with Papa and Kay. Will has been to the allergist and for an evaluation for speech therapy. Catherine only has 5 more days to go to school (Mon/Thurs) for this year. I'm done with my Mentor Moms and Wednesday night Bible studies as of this week. We're finishing the last projects on our house (cleaning the porch and basement) and getting ready to put up a "for sale" sign in the next few weeks. And there's always the usual laundry, cleaning, grocery store, errands, baths, diapers, etc. And Eli too (the dog)! Whew! I am ready for a vacation...which thankfully we get in less than 3 weeks.

The good news is that I love my life. I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. I cherish my husband and children and am so very lucky to get to spend my days caring for them.

Easter

We had a great Easter celebration yesterday! What a beautiful day to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus and all that means. The verse that really spoke to me yesterday is Matthew 28: 6 "He is not here; he has risen, just as he said." Just as he said--He always does just as He says and we can trust in that and believe in that. How amazing!

After our worship service at church, we drove to Union to spend the afternoon with my family. Everyone had lots of fun playing outside and just spending time together.

Will liked riding with Brooklynn on her tricycle.

Catherine rode horses for the very first time with Papa. She loved it and didn't want to get down afterwards.

We had an Easter egg hunt for everyone. It's a little hard to hide eggs for various ages (1 yr to 9 yrs) to find all at once, but I think we did okay. Here's Brooklynn, Riley, Kennedy, and Catherine with their eggs.

It's so cute to watch Kennedy and Will interact. I thought this picture was so sweet.

What a great day!

My Birthday Celebration

Today we celebrated my birthday. My actual birthday was March 26th, but my surprise birthday activity was dependent upon the weather so we had to postpone because of all the rain we kept having. Thankfully today was a gorgeous spring day. We went to Furman and had a picnic lunch. We played on the practice football field where there was lots of room for Catherine and Will to run and play. They thought it was great! They also gave me my birthday presents. Jay did a great job planning a fun day for us.

I had lots of help opening my presents. Then Catherine kept "wrapping" up additional presents for me with the paper: a tennis ball, her purse, a princess ball. She thought that was great fun.

Will, the little linebacker, got a start on spring training with a few football drills. He has his golf club too; just in case football doesn't work out for him.

Catherine ran all day long. She ran up and down the entire football field 2 or 3 times during our picnic. Then she spotted the track right by it and wanted to go run. We went down there and she took off. We thought she would run for just a minute and then turn around and come back. But she ran the entire track!

When she got done with the first lap, she wanted me to run with her, so we did a full second lap. She says she wants to run a race (maybe a 1 mile this summer). We figured that she ran at least 3/4 of a mile today (in flip flops) and loved it. The cutest thing was when she stopped. Will had been running around too and I said, "everyone is panting." She replied, "but I'm wearing a skirt, mommy." Too cute.

It was a great day! I love my family!

Good Deals

I've been working really hard lately with grocery shopping to save money by combining sale items with coupons. This week, I got some pretty good deals. My total bill before sales and coupons was $104.99. Total after sales and coupons was $46.59--that's over 55% savings!




Here's the breakdown:

2 Lipton decaf teas, reg price $3.99, B1G1 free, $1/2 coupon = $3.00 for 2 ($1.50 each)
Wheat Thin Artisan cheese crackers, reg price $3.19 ea, B1G1 free sale, B1G1 free coupon = $1.59 for 2 (80 cents each)
Wheat Thin crackers, reg price $3.19, B1G1 free, $1/2 coupn = $2.19 for 2 ($1.09 each)
Publix gal milk $2.79
Kraft 8 oz shredded cheese, reg price $2.98 each, 3 for $5 sale = $1.66 each
ChexMix snacks, reg price $2.45 each, B1G1 free, 50cents/2 coupon = $1.45 for 2 (72 cents each)
Kraft Ranch dressing, reg price $2.99, B1G1 sale, $1.50 coupon = FREE
sweet potatoes @ 49cents/lb = 56 cents
2 Pillsbury cresent rolls, reg price $2.09 each, 3 for $5 sale, 2 35cents off coupons doubled= 97 cents each
Duncan Hines cake mix, reg price $1.65, B1G1 free, 40 cents off coupon doubled = 43 cents
Duncan Hines brownie mix, reg $1.65 each, B1G1 free, 40 cents off coupon doubled = 50 cents
Sargento Potato Finishers, reg price $2.99, $1 off coupon = $1.99
5 lb bag Idaho potatoes, reg price $3.99, sale price $2.50, 75cents off coupon when buy Potato Finishers = $1.75
Motts applesauce, reg price $2.73, B1G1 free = $1.37
2 Rotel diced toms w/ chilies, reg price $1.09 each, = 53 cents each
Domino 5lb bag sugar, reg price $2.99, sale price $1.99, 35 cents coupon doubled = $1.29
4 Swanson chicken broth, reg price $1.09, B1G1 free, 50cents/4 coupon doubled = $1.38/4 (35 cents each)
8 Campbells Cream cooking soups, reg price $1.66 each, 5 for $5 sale ($1 each), 2 $1/2 coupons and 35cents/4 coupon = $5.3/8 (66each)
2 Progresso soups, reg price $2.39 each, 4 for $6 sale ($1.50 each) , 35 cents/2 coupon = $2.30/2 ($1.15 each)
Thomas English muffins, reg price $2.99, B1G1 free= $1.49
Pork tenderloin, $9.88, savings $3.16
Emerald Almonds, reg price $5.70, B1G1 free, $1 off coupon = $1.90

Total spent $46.59 not too bad, i think!

What you don't see from the picture are my 2 crying children. It was a rough day for them at the grocery store. Catherine literally cried from the time we left the house until after we got back. People were throwing shoes out of the grocery cart and just having general meltdowns. There are still a few things I need to go back and get b/c I had to cut the shopping trip a little short with all the crying that was going on. What a day!

My other good deals for the week were at Rite-Aid. I transferred one of Will's presciptions there and got a free $25 gift card. (Last month I did this with his other 2 prescriptions and got $50 gift cards.)

This week I bought 2 packages Huggies diapers (reg price $12.49 each), 1 pack Easter eggs (reg price $1.49, sale for 74 cents), 1 Almay eye shadow (reg price $5.99). I used a $3 off Huggies coupon, $5 off Huggies coupon, $1 off Almay coupon, and $5 off $25 purchase Rite Aid coupon. That brought my bill to $19.61, so I still have $5.39 on the gift card. The other good thing is that I'll get a rebate for $8 from Rite Aid ($3 for each pack of diapers and $2 for Almay) and $1.50 rebate from Caregivers Marketplace for the diapers (75 cents for each pack). So really, that means I'm getting $9.50 back in cash for purchases I made with a free gift card. Woohoo! I love saving money.