Dishwasher

Our dishwasher has been on the fritz for some time now. I can get it to work properly (reasonably) only every 7th time I use it or so. I keep putting it off because the expense of a dishwasher is not something I wanted right now...is it ever really? Anyway, last night I remembered I forgot to get the mail and went to get it. I found a home warranty renewal in it. The light went on. I had completely forgotten that we had a home warranty that covered the dishwasher! So, I put in a claim and it will cost me $55.00. Nice! I may not get a stainless steel one like I was planning, but a new dishwasher for $55.00 isn't too bad. What a blessing.

turn about is fair play

So since I tagged Jen she decided to get me with a new "tag"...here goes.

What are the last three things you purchased?
1. Groceries (that's a given)
2. drum pads for Rock Band
3. Book

What are the last three songs downloaded?

Jon really is the one who does this sort of thing and I advise sometimes.

What are your three favorite movies?

1. Charly
2. The Notebook
3. Made of Honor

What are three things that you have not done yet?

1. personal scripture study (family scripture study is done though and FHE!)
2. Sorted my ready to expire coupons
3. cleaned my bathroom

What are three things you cannot live without?(excluding people)

1. Couponing
2. my fitness equipment
3. food

What are your three favorite dishes?

1. Chicken Bog
2. Chicken and Wild Rice Chowder
3. Home made pork enchilladas

What are your three favorite TV shows?

1. Chuck
2. Heroes
3. Grey's Anatomy (I know I'm terrible for that one!)

What are the last three places you visited that were more than 100 miles away?

1. Mt. Hood (maybe not more than 100miles)
2. North Bend
3. Idaho

What are your three favorite desserts?

1. Oatmeal fudge bars
2. Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies
3. Brownies and Ice cream

What three things would I buy if money were not an issue?

1. A new vehicle
2. Have someone do the renovations on my home so we don't have to!
3. A vacation

So this evening I got some deals. I got:

5 gallons 2% milk
17 bottles of Ken's Salad spritzer
8 bottles Vitamin Water
4 bottles Powerade

I know it's not a whole lot, but I only paid $2.53. Not too bad...less than 1 gallon of milk.

I just used my overages from the Ken's Dressing coupon to eat into the Vitamin Water and milk. :)

Another haircut for Sam

So, today Sam got a hold of the scissors and cut her own hair this time. No accomplices. This was very unfortunate indeed because there was no clip that was going to do the trick this time. So, I took her in to get her hair fixed. Man is it ever short. I told the hair dresser that I had little expectations because I know she had little options. I just had one request and that was that I didn't want her to have a mullet...which is what I was certain she was going to have to have. Instead the gal cut Sam's hair so short that when Jon saw her he said, "I have three little boys now!"...bad bad bad.

Rest assured, she's still quite cute and lovely. It will grow back...someday.

I've been tagged!

So, Julie, the sweet dear, tagged me. What this means is that I'm supposed to write 7 interesting/weird facts about myself. While I would love to be able to add all the fancy smancy things that she and others do to their blogs, I've not figured out how to do all of that yet...I can figure out how to get my groceries for free, but not how to fancy blog. Go figure.

So, here goes:

1. I like to work out. I love the sense of accomplishment I get from a good burn and while I don't always see the results I want (have to figure out how to curb the eating part) I don't give up....and I like that about myself.

2. I was eating in the cafe at Fred Meyers when I was about 10 years old (my mother got my friend and I soft drinks, but we brought our own PB&J), when an armed robber entered the store and started shooting! A man ran past us with several bullet wounds and eventually died. The suspect was apprehended and I believe is still in jail to this day. We were obviously spared.

3. (already I'm realizing I'm not very interesting or weird for that matter) I am great at getting insurance companies to over-turn denials.

4. I really enjoy playing drums on Rock Band PS3.

5. I promised my sister that I would wait until I graduated high school before I got married. At the time I thought it a ridculous request since I didn't plan on marriage until after I went to college and became an orthodontist. When I became engaged at 16 I realized it was going to be harder than I thought. Fortunately, Jon and I worked together and we were married in the Portland Temple 1 month after graduation. I kept my promise.

6. My two favorite Prophets have been Ezra Taft Benson and Gordon B. Hinkley.

7. I used to be able to, but now cannot for obvious reasons, put both of my feet behind my head and then walk around on my bum. I wouldn't recommend it for anyone over 18, it's just not right.


So there you have it. Now I tag, Vickie, Teri, Tonya, Jenny Allen, Danica, Heather, and Tami.

Someday I'll figure out how to work this so it's easier for all of you. :)

So, today I was looking at Sam and she didn't look quite right to me. I wasn't sure what the deal was, but I took a long hard look to get to the bottom of it. It only took a few minutes when I noticed that some of her hair was missing. By golly...her hair had been cut! The culprit, not Sam herself, but Alex! That little stinker cut Samantha's hair. So I called my Theresa to tell her how upset I was about what I just discovered and you know what she said/did? She laughed, so hard no doubt she had tears coming down her cheeks. I kept telling her that this wasn't funny by any means, and you know what she did? She laughed HARDER! So, now I'm laughing at this point and realize that it's only hair. YES, I'm a little miffed that her sweet little bob now looks like a mushroom cut on one side of her head, but with a little crafty clippiness, I can pull it back and it looks reasonably normal. Hopefully it grows out enough for family pictures in December. I can be thankful he didn't take her finger off or part of her ear I guess.

Ding, Ding, Ding!

What's the saying? "If it's not one thing, it's another." That pretty much sums it up I think. We have a new development at our lovely home. I finally finished spray painting a chandelier that I bought over 6 months ago and Jon finally put it up today. It's quite lovely and we really like it a lot. Matches the dining room much better now. In fact, I need to post some pictures of it so everyone else can appreciate it too, or at least see what it looks like. So one project down....I won't bother telling you that our bathroom downstairs is still partially gutted and how I feel about that...

Anyway, so I was taking a bath. A little treat for the sick lady, and I hear a strange noise going on downstairs. I hurried out of my warm bath. To be fair though, I had already washed, soaked, drained the tub and filled it up with new clean water. (I have to do that every time now on account of Rick Wetherell telling me when I was younger that when you take a bath all you do is marinate in your own juices..kind of takes the enjoyment right out of it, eh?) Anyway, I throw some clothes on and storm down the stairs to investigate the noise polluting my ears, and I find Jon with the shop vac sucking my bathwater off of the floor, and sink! Apparently, we have a clog or something that is causing the bathwater to drain into the downstairs sink and it overflows onto the floor on account that it has a crack in it. Good times. Apparently he found out about it because he heard a splashing sound and went to find Sam splashing around naked, only after trying to help stop the water by taking all the dirty laundry (at least it wasn't clean laundry) and trying to sop it up. I'm thankful that she didn't decide on unloading the hand soap into it to make a bubble bath. So now, we're going to have to figure out why it's doing that. So, if it's not one thing, it's another.

As if our lives aren't crazy enough these days with school, preschool, speech therapy, school for Jon, we've decided to sign up Austin for basketball. He'll have practices every Tues and Thurs evening and practices on Saturdays as well as games on Saturday. So, if anyone wants to come to support Austin, we would love to have you there. Once I get a schedule and times and places I'll post it. At first he didn't want to do it, but then thought again and decided it would be really fun, besides he's actually pretty good.

Another crazy thing in our house is that Samantha is 99% potty trained now. She only wears a pull up at night, or when we go out...but she hasn't had an accident in at least a week now. I was debating getting her a potty chair because I thought it might be easier for her, but she gets up on the big potty all by herself. She started really taking the initiative to do it on her own earlier this week. She had a bout of diarrhea this week and she must have gotten herself on the potty at least 20 times over a few days and didn't even have one accident. I was very impressed. She comes and gets us and says, "ew mom, poop in toilet"...so we go to inspect and sure enough it's staring at us in all its glory. She just hasn't figured out that she needs to wait for mom or dad to help her wipe. She just drops and runs. But hey, I'm glad she's going now.

I've been sick, really the only one with a terrible head cold. I don't know for the life of me where I could have gotten it, but I did. No one else is sick, which is a blessing and curse. A blessing because I don't have to take care of sick people and be sick, a curse because I'll probably be feeling well next week and having to take care of sick people. What do you do?

This morning Brenda (our neighbor) took Austin to school on account that Alex and Samantha were so soundly asleep that I felt waking them was not warranted...they must have really needed the extra rest. Anyway, she took him to school and he left his lunch bag in her car. He called me at the start of school and was nearly crying he was so upset he had left it. I told him to just buy his lunch at school today and it would be ok. He is so independent now and it's just weird. He's gotten a lot bigger all of a sudden and I keep telling him that he needs to knock it off. He just thinks I'm silly, but I'm serious! Time has gone by too quickly. I really enjoy watching him learn new things, but it really is going by too fast. He's such a little sweetheart and I appreciate this time in his life on account that I know it won't last very long, as I've been told by numerous mothers of preteen/teenagers. :(

My plan today is to just get dictation done and a little house cleaning and prepare for FHE. We'll see if I manage to do that. I've already done my workout, had my visiting teachers over, did dishes and played with Alex and Sam. Not to mention all the other things mothers do without even realizing it, just to keep things moving along.

Have I already mentioned that Sam is a clothes freak? She must put on about 12 outfits per day now. She is so into clothes and shoes. It's really pretty funny. She has to have this on and that on and this and that, and quite frankly it is exhausting on account of all the extra laundry I have to do now because of her new interest. She is also really enjoying her new toddler bed. She saw it for the first time and said, "my pretty princess bed". It was so cute. She's stayed in bed for her naps and at night and hasn't gotten up to roam around, which is what I was really worried about and why I didn't put up the bed for so long. I'm very proud of her.

Ok, off to get things done. :)

I've been reading in 1 Nephi about the opposition Nephi faced and what he saw in visions about what would come of his family and am very grateful for my family and friends. I sincerely appreciate all of you. On Sunday, the lesson in Relief Society was on opposition as well, so I don't know if the Lord is trying to drill it in, or prepare me for handling something that is about to come with better grace and a better understanding of His love for me. Regardless, it's given me something to think about and be thankful for. I hope you all are well and in good spirits.

I'm still not entirely sure about waking up this early in the morning. It's totally bizarre to me that anyone would willingly wake up at this hour to start their day...wake up at 6:15am I mean...about 8am isn't so bad and totally understandable. Anyway...

Alex starts preschool tomorrow. He's very excited. I must admit I'm excited, too. He's headed off to speech therapy today and so our week will be very busy. Speech therapy on Monday, preschool on Tuesday and Thursday. It's good to be busy though. I've already done the rest of the dishes from last night's dinner, done one load of laundry, made lunches, recorded dictation and made breakfast. Now I'm headed to a work out and shower before I actually do the dictation and head off to take Alex to speech therapy.

All is well and we are blessed.

Addiction Pays off...big time.

Ok, so it's not like I'm trying to brag, but I just cannot not post what deals I got tonight, it's just too exciting. I really have so much fun shopping. This has really become one of the best hobbies I've ever done. I'll just list them like I always do.

This is what I got:

70 boxes of Cereal (cherrios, cookie crisp, cinnamon toast crunch, etc.)
50 boxes of Granola bars (Fiber one, Nature Valley, Curves)
4 gallons Milk
French Bread
8 cans refried beans
2 boxed taco shells
7 back packs (normally $27.99 each)
24 bottles of Pro Vive shampoo and conditioner mix and match ( reg price 4.99 each)
5 lbs bananas
5 lbs peaches
5 lbs nectarines
1 bag salad
2 18 count AA eggs
sour cream
2 avacados
5 boxes of Jon's special Cracklin Oat Bran
4 packages Dot's Elements Candies
5 packages gum
4lbs shredded mexican cheese blend
4 loaves of bread


I got $939.01 worth of groceries and backpacks for $4.52. Oh My Goodness! I think that is officially the best trip I've ever had....now I'll have to try to break it. :)

Just for clarification, the cabin we stayed in was similar to a yurt, however, it was completely enclosed. It had electricity and lights and a TV and VCR, couch and coffee table and heater. It did not have a bathroom, but it was next door to the bathroom, which was fine.