THE BEST EPISODE IN SURVIVOR HISTORY!!!

OH! I am still laughing! Right out loud! OK, so before I go off on RANDY, I should warn you all that I am a nerd (like you didn't know that). I am a SURVIVOR NERD. I love Survivor. My weeks revolve around Thursday night. They have for A LOT of years now. If it ever gets canceled, I will go insane. I do have a couple of seasons on DVD, but it's not as fun when you know the end result. Anyway, now that you understand how obsessed I am...

What a night! There are definitely lame nights with Survivor. Lame as in.. event less. Not much drama. That was not tonight. I don't want to spoil it for anyone that may have tevo'd it, so I won't say too much. But, in the past, there have been fake immunity idols. Not like this, tho. And never used against RANDY! Wah ah ah ah ah! See ya! "LOSER" as noted by Sugar. Love ya, Sugar. I really do. And, if you're reading this (not likely, I know, but I can talk to you anyway. I talk to myself, why not to characters on reality t.v?) LOVED THE COOKIE STUNT. Wow. I have never known a pin up model before, but this one is cool.

Anyway.. tah tah for now. I hope I survive the next week until it is on again.

Whose Child is This?

So, this is my three year old! Stinkin' cute. Need I say anything else? :) Erin and Emma love my pom poms (Jer does, too, but that's another story). I have threatened them with their lives not to hurt my pom poms. They are (I am going to age myself here) nearly seventeen years old! Ouch! So I am a little protective of my pom poms.

The other day, Erin came in and asked me to put them on her (she does this several times a day. It makes me laugh that I have to "put them on." The handles are hidden in the center and it takes real skill to find them and get your hands in there to hold on). So, while I am helping her find the handles..

Erin: "Mom, are these Mom pom poms or kid pom poms?"

Me: "They are Mom pom poms."

Erin: "Well, then why don't you ever soos (use) them? I never see you cheer for anything."

Me: "I know. I haven't used them for a long time. I guess there is nothing to cheer for anymore."

Erin: "Then I will soos them and you can be the teacher. Teach me some cheers."

Oh man. Next thing you know she is going to ask me to put on my uniform. Not happenin'. So, since her name seems to be the only thing that a three year old can spell, I taught her this little cheer. She is a crack up. This is a typical event for the two of us when the other kids are at school. And, I can never figure out why I didn't get anything done during the day. If we aren't cheering, we are dancing, cooking, buying, singing.. etc. Her entire day is pretend. Oh to be three again!

p.s. make sure you pause the music below before you push play on the video.

I am a coupon clipper!

I don't know how well you can see these receipts and there was no way I could show the whole 25 feet of them, but hopefully you get the point.

Coupon shopping has become a "hobby" of mine. I never thought I could learn how people would get $100 worth of grocery's for next to nothing. And, I especially never thought I would have the patience for it. But, after attending a Grocery Smarts class and several months of practice, I think I might be getting the hang of it.

Last week, I sent Jer with my list and a stack of coupons. He went and did our "normal" shopping with what I had given him. Albertson's had a deal going. For every $30 you spent on "participating items" you got $15 off your next visit. And, throughout the month of October, for every $250 spent, you got a 5% off coupon to use in November. So, with that said, yesterday's shopping experience was insane!

At Albertson's I got the following:
2 bags of Nestle Chocolate Chips
1 box of Albertson's real butter
6 jars of Skippy peanut butter
1 bottle Apple Juice
1 Danon Frusion Smoothy
4 pacs TicTacs
total before tax and coupons: $38.34
total after preferred savings card: $24.85
total after tax, ps, and coupons: $ 1.43 (this is what I actually paid!)

At Smith's I got the following:
1 Betty Crocker Cake Mix
1 box GM Fiber One Cereal
4 cans Carnation Evaporated Milk
6 cans Eagle Sweetened Condensed Milk
24 pack of Arrowhead water bottles
1 box Eggo Waffles
total before tax and coupons: $30.98
total after fresh values card: $28.46
total after tax, fv, and coupons: $8.48 (this is what I actually paid!)

So, between the two stores, my total savings was: $59.41 (86%). Keep in mind, this was a shopping trip specifically for "stock up items." I wouldn't normally go buy 6 jars of peanut butter. But, by combining sales prices with coupons, it is a great chance to build up your food storage. I am super excited about how our food storage is coming along. I started saving coupons in April, and it is starting to really pay off.

If you are wanting to learn how to save and stock up at the same time, I will be having Katie come teach the class this month. In the meantime, check out http://www.grocerysmarts.com/. The passport is: g84ckp. Some people are familiar with Pinching your pennies. Grocery Smarts is very similar and in fact, has a link now to Pinching your pennies.

Anywho- if this was completely boring for you, I apologize. But, I get excited every time I have a trip to the store like this. We are finally "shopping" from our storage rather than running to the store every time we run out of something!

Catching up

I think I went five or six days without a camera. My digital camera that I got in May for our Disneyland trip decided to take an early retirement. So frustrating. Not even six months and it was done. I have had my Canon Rebel G 35mm for about ten years and I am still loving it. So, what is wrong with these little digitals? Is it user error? In the last four years I have had 4 different cameras. Granted, they are only 100+ bucks and they do get a little roughed up by my kids, but shouldn't they last longer than that?

Anyway, my sweet husband has done it again.. he forked out the money for yet another camera. I am a freak when I don't have a working camera at hand. There's another question for you all - am I the only mom out there that can't stand to go four days without taking pictures? I feel a little obsessive after this little escapade. I don't think I realized how much I depend on the dumb thing. I thought my cell phone was my favorite "gadget." Now I am wondering.

So, between that and my month of October being my busiest month of the year (so far) I have a lot of catching up to do. I am going to do one huge post. Hopefully I don't bore you to death.

First of all, I love October. I love autumn. I don't think I did when I was young, but each year I enjoy it more. This year was especially nice because of the mild weather. I love decorating for Halloween and I love seeking out the best costumes for the kids. (side note: Can I tell you how irritating it is to me that our elementary school declared October 31 "Official no costume day." What is that about? That is one of the best things about Halloween. Nope - not this year. My kids had to wear orange and black to "scare off drugs." Lame). So, I crafted my guts out this month without even realizing it. I have never had a ton of Halloween decor so I guess I felt a need to change that. Of course I involved Jer and the kids as much as possible. I had the kids make Trick or Treat bags:

And we carved pumpkins as a family:

And, I tried out my new toy (the Cricut):

And, since I made so many trips to Wood Connection while planning our Super Saturday, I had to make this little ditty:

And, lastly, I was tired of looking at "bloom" in my window, so I replaced it with "fall":

I also had a couple of Pigtails and Petals parties so I was making bows and headbands like a crazy woman. Yes, my fingers are bleeding after this last month. I have had lots of requests for Christmas bows and headbands, too, so if you need any, you'd better lemme know 'cause I can only twist and glue so fast. :)

As for our October 31st, it was very busy but very fun! I helped with Emma's class party at school in the morning, registered the van in the afternoon, took pictures with the Grandma's, and then went Trick-or-Treating that night. Josh didn't want to go out this year. I think by the time he had had his picture taken 500 times, he was checked out. He stayed home and handed out candy. Surprisingly, he was even okay with it when the girls came home with loads of junk. Emma got tired early. We had only gone to a few houses and I think her shoes were hurting her feet. So then she started in with the "I'm hungry." And, "I'm not going to anymore houses." Erin, on the other hand, was LOVING it! She was having so much fun that even after two hours she was still running from door to door. She wanted to take Emma home so that I could take her out until she was "finished." I think this is the first year she went without a stroller. She felt so big!

(the damage)

(Hanah, Collin, Noah, Cameron, Erin, Josh, Emma)

Eddie Munster? No. A vampire.

The Ice Queen? No. The Snow Princess.

Tinkerbell. An especially cute Tink.

On to more exciting things: SOCCER. Can I tell you how much we love soccer? Okay, so you already knew that. But, it's so much more fun when it's your child playing and they actually win! Josh's team is so fun! He is playing on a U10 Comp team for USA and is loving it. The first part of the season was tough. The kids were still learning to play together (a lot of them are new to the team) and they were used to rec ball. We played 9 games this season (plus the 4 in the Presidents Cup) and won 5 out of the 9. We finished with 4 straight wins. Since so many of us have become addicted to the game, whether it be the parents on the sideline, or the boys scoring, we decided to continue on. The boys are playing in the Dixie Invitational over Thanksgiving weekend in St. George and then will play (hopefully) Futsal during the winter months to stay in shape. This cute picture of the boys was just after their second win of the day last Saturday. Look at those smiles!

Jackson, Josh, Chase, Tyler, Ryan, Noah, Mike, Skyler, Ryan, Spencer

Goodness! Did I cover everything? That was like a Fireman Chad post except that there's no pictures of Disneyland! Hopefully I won't let a month go without posting next time.

P.S. Our fence is fixed. Took longer than I had hoped, but it's done.