Somebody Please remind me.....

Why I even care about couponing and saving money?!?!!?!! I went to the grocery store this morning...it was supposed to be really productive, and I was getting stuff to help stock up on food storage. They have a promo going on and I was going to take full advantage. I spent about 45 minutes before I went getting all the coupons I needed, loading digital coupons to my card, etc.

I shopped for almost an hour. Loaded my stuff on the conveyor belt and realized about 6 of the things I thought were part of the promo were NOT. SO I just left off 6 cans of soup I was going to get. But that threw off my coupons..whatever. The guy was nice and still made it work minus one coupon. So I swipe my food stamps card (yep that's how we survive these days), then there's a remaining balance of about $9. That's for the razor blade refills and foil I bought. Didn't stop to realize that number should have been about $5 cuz I had a $4 digital coupon for the razors that didn't work. Anyway, doesn't matter because I gave him my rewards coupon that I get every three months which can deduct from non food items. It didn't work because for SOME reason this month it came in RALPH'S rewards. WHAT?! I have a RAlph's account in Cali but never use it, and my mom in law has one but why would I get it in the wrong store name? Anyway...we had to REDO THE WHOLE GROCERY ORDER. My cart was full and we had to redo the whole thing. I wanted to have a panic attack right there. So we redo it...I bag my OWN groceries, which hey I'm not above that, but a manager was sitting right there doing NOTHING watching me bag my own stuff...dumb? yes.

So...after all that my total was almost the same...but somehow it was $1.50 more than last time. I think he missed a coupon..who knows. AND he forgot to re scan the double points coupon, which means I missed out on 117 points. Each 100 points is worth a $1 off later on. As if that isn't bad enough he also forgot to scan my reusable bags, losing me another 30 rewards points. I know this may not seem like a big deal to others..but I take my grocery shopping seriously. I mean I had sat at the table and planned my whole weeks worth of meals, I was so on the ball and then THIS!

So I can fix the rewards points over the phone on Monday. But that means making an annoying call that will probably take an hour. Then I'll have to take the razor back and re-buy it...unless they can help me with that over the phone too. Fixing my rewards card back to Smith's may be a pain in the butt...

Other things on my stress list:

I can't find more than 2 of Connor's 8-10 binkis. ANNOYING.

Our car got hit by a piece of particle board a few weeks ago. We reported it with highway patrol and the company is supposed to call me. Have they? No. So I need to call and bug them, or call the highway patrol again. I REALLY hate stuff like this.

We need to start organizing better so we can get packing to move. This is a good thing...but if you saw my garage you'd probably agree with my mom when she commented that the bomb squad needed to come over.

I really hate days like this...and for that matter WEEKS like this. Lots of things have not been going my way and I'm really burned out. Connor hasn't taken good naps, he wakes up REALLY early, and I just need a DAY OFF! Why don't they invent them for moms?

Lessons Learned

I know I talk about school A LOT. That's life right now...and I start to feel that maybe my posts are annoying to the general public. But I feel like every semester I have new experiences that I didn't anticipate and they merit a good ole blog post. Last semester it was photojournalism...this semester it's my history classes: History of Utah and Black History Month. Once upon a time when I went to SUU for two weeks before I met Ben and dropped out, I was a history major. I thought it would be awesome...but I slowly realized it's quite overwhelming to learn about 4 different time periods in history all at once. However, this semester I enrolled in two history classes mostly as fillers so I could have upper division credits. History of Utah is an online class which was a huge bonus...but I have learned SO much more than I bargained for.

Black History Month has been the BIGGEST eye opener. I knew things were bad in the past...but I had absolutely no concept of the realities African Americans used to face. I have had the privilege of hearing a few black scholars talk about the histories of African American culture, and today I was able to hear from Reverend France Davis who was at the "I Have A Dream" speech, and marched with Dr. King. It was an emotional experience for me. He didn't get too much into those experiences, but just hearing him speak and absorbing the wonderful thoughts he had was so meaningful. He talked about the importance of proverbs, songs, poetry and stories in the African American culture, but it was more applicable to all people...and how these things are beneficial to a happy life. I loved the stories he told...and he quoted several poems by Langston Hughes including I Sing America. This one really moved me:

I, Too, Sing America
by Langston Hughes
I, too, sing America. I am the darker brother. They send me to eat in the kitchen When company comes, But I laugh, And eat well, And grow strong. Tomorrow, I'll be at the table When company comes. Nobody'll dare Say to me, "Eat in the kitchen," Then. Besides, They'll see how beautiful I am And be ashamed-- I, too, am America. I could write for hours on the things I've learned, the lessons I've learned and the fact that I think everyone should have to take a class like this at some point in their lifetime....but let me finish by saying I am SO grateful for Dr. King, Rosa Parks, Malcom X, and the other people whose names are not as well known for their efforts but who fought equally for their rights as human beings. I pray the day will come when discrimination is no longer an issue in certain parts of the world...in the whole world for that matter. I've really learned to love my fellow man and appreciate the history of this culture.

Happy Love Day

Love,
Connor and his parents

Girls weekend

It was SO needed...and now that it's over I'm sad and want to go back. My bestie Marilyn and I went to Brianhead this past weekend and stayed at the Grand Lodge! She works in the spa and her hubby works at the front desk and as a bellboy. So....we were getting a room for $50 as opposed to the $200 cost of the room! But even more exciting was the fact that the General Manager comped the room altogether and we got to stay for free!

When we were checking in the Spa manager, who is Marilyn's boss said we could get the spa key and use that hot tub since it's private and more clean...so heck yeah we sure did! We went down there, sat in the hot tub then Marilyn waxed my eyebrows and gave me a LOVELY facial. She steamed my face and painted a mask on...ahhh....then we dipped our hands in paraffin wax which was heavenly. After our lovely spa treat we went back to the room and kept eating our junk food which consisted of cookies, chips and salsa, popcorn, ramen noodles, bagel bite pizzas and sparkling cider. Yeah we went ALL out...and it was so fun! We watched movies, played games and had good old fashioned girl talk. I had the intention of taking lots of pictures...but only ended up with a few the next morning before we left!!!

It was SO fun and relaxing...even though I didn't sleep very well in the bed. I need to remember to bring my own pillow next time....

I'm sure it looked really cool for two girls to be checking in on Valentines weekend...not to mention the fact that we brought whipped cream for our chocolate cake, and went through two bottles of sparkling cider. We left the whipped cream in the fridge...and the empty bottles....so yeah I'm sure housekeeping sorta wondered....

ANYWAY...I love having such a wonderful friend here in Cedar. I'm sad to move this summer and not see her and her husband everyday!!! :-( But that's still 80 days away!!!

Thanks for the girls night out Marilyn!!!

Gorakhpur..Uttar...Predesh

Or something. Someone from this country used to ALWAYS look at my stinkin blog. Til I went private for a few weeks. So if you ever wanna get rid of some weirdos just go private for a time. I don't like being private ALL the time...just miss the comments and stuff. I know I have a hard time rembering to look at private blogs. Blogger needs to make a setting so you can see when they update...oh well.

Also, have you ever tried to make fruit salad with just fruit? It's awesome and tasty. We had some apples, clementines and apples all diced up tonight and it was delightful! And not unhealthy in the least!!!

p.s. Connor threw up again tonight at dinner. It was quite a show. Projectile vomit on his high chair. GROSS!!!!

Bad luck...

So this weekend we all had the flu. ALL of us. Ok except for my sisters Desi and Tasha. But Desi got it last night around midnight. So Tasha is sort of lucky, except she had a different virus so we were all pretty miserable. Since we didn't have a lot to do but talk I had a funny realization the other day...

I am a cursed traveler. I've sort of known this a little bit due to some obvious bad moments...but when I listed it all out it was REALLY funny.

First there's the fact that we didn't get to go to one of our excursions on our most recent cruise vacation. We were so excited to return to our honeymoon destination..but it wasn't meant to be. Bummer.

There's the time when I went to Michigan to visit my aunt. Before I flew home we were going to Cedar Point, which is a theme park that has the biggest roller coaster EVER. Well at least at the time...this was 8 years ago or so. Didn't get to go. Tornado warning and freak hurricane storm in JUNE. SUCK!

The Bahamas. I almost want to leave it at that. It had its fun moments, but honestly there were a LOT of bad moments on that trip. A mouse, no water pressure, no hot water at times, our jet ski adventure was canceled, it was cloudy and rainy on the day we went to Gilligan's island and swam with the sea lions....our transportation was bad...etc.

Let's not forget that fun night I spent at the Las Vegas aiport for 12+ hours due to bad weather and freaky wind. If you are ever going to get trapped in an airport PRAY it's not that one...the slots will drive you NUTS!

The saddest one is our honeymoon when our flight from Houston to Grand Cayman was canceled til the next day. We were newlyweds and had to spend the night in Houston without our luggage...and even though we got free room service it was still disappointing...not to mention the fact that due to misunderstanding we had to pay for the hotel night in Grand Cayman...don't choke but it was $600 a night. It was the only night not paid for by the lady who gave us our honeymoon. She should have paid it, but we couldn't get a hold of her all week.

Anyway...those are some FUN examples of my traveling issues. Ben said he'd never had problems traveling until he met me. So I guess it's true that I'm cursed.

And now you can see why we didn't care one bit about spending $100 to come home early from our cruise trip in December..saved us HOURS of agony. I must be in touch with my curse or something....

Pretty...

Today I'm thinking about aesthetics. When I took a childhood education class last summer I was so passionate about aesthetics and wanting to teach my children about all the beauty in the world through art, music and nature. I am SO excited to get the art gallery and competition going so I can constantly be surrounded by ALL of those things. What a huge blessing. And I think it's awesome that I felt that passion a long time before we knew this was going to be our path for life.

I just can't wait to be able to visit national parks and then stare at beautiful works of art 24-7. Things like this....

Yes...this is going to be a good day....

Thanks...

To the few of you who commented on my last post. It really helped to be reminded that for Connor the best thing I am doing is being at home with him. I'm so glad that I'm not as busy and that I have time to experience his life. He is so funny and I can't imagine not knowing my son!

So for next week...I have some easy goals:

Make a sushi roll. I found the recipe and instructions here.

Start cleaning the garage--weather pending. If it's still 11 degrees outside we'll rethink this.

Ok that's it so far.

Lots better day today...but I'm TIRED!...such is life!

I need a bigger plate...I think.

Ever get lost in blogosphere and wonder why you feel like a loser? Like you start seeing all the cute crafty things people can make, or the awesome cooking they are capable of..and you wonder, where do I even begin?

That's how I feel today. I am a bit tired thanks to Connor's teeth trying to break through all night...(and right as I hit that sweet spot during my nap he managed to wake up screaming)...and I swear that leads to extra boredom. That and the blizzard outside which is oddly combined with sunshine is really sending me for a loop. I started wondering....what do other moms do on days like this? Why do I never feel accomplished with what I do???

I'm in school...and it's an easier semester than last semester...so that's a bit boring for me. I get lots more time at home which is awesome, but it gets overwhelming to CONSTANTLY be cleaning up and cooking and whatnot. SO lots of days I just do the bare minimum. I worry I don't play enough with Connor, so when I do more of that I feel guilty for not doing homework...and then I feel guilty when Ben gets home and dinner isn't done...or if it is it's a dumb dinner, easy recipe that he'd never make. He's the chef and I'll never feel as good as he is in the kitchen!

Then I remember how I've had a sewing machine since last Christmas and I've never had the time to use it. But I don't remember how to use it...and I have no idea what I'd make if I did.

I felt really proud of myself when I organized my recipes today and put them in a binder...then mad when I realized the binder didn't fit into my recipe cupboard....

I'm really looking forward to moving...but I dread the idea of packing up our home we've lived in for 2 years and finding a new place....

I am officially going to have a diet coke I think. I liked Christina's comment...I'm giving myself just this one thing! Maybe it'll help me be better about dieting and exercising.

I'm realizing the wind howling outside might be what is keeping Connor awake....stupid wind.

I'm bored...can you tell by the rambling???

Anyway...I wish I was better at being a "stay at home mom"....maybe someday I'll keep a spotless house like my mom, cook like Ben's mom and sew up a storm like everyone else. Til' then...it's homework, easy recipes, the occasional Netflix movie and snuggles with my bebe boy...and my big boy too I s'pose...

p.s. Lauren I need you to come and take more pictures of my family again....forget Texas.