I got Walgreens figured out, baby!

Okay, So my latest obsession has been clipping coupons. That sounded a little too much like something my Great-Aunt Irene would say (R.I.P. Auntie), but it's true. I've been at this so-called hobby for about a month and a half now and the payoff has been well worth the daunting task of scissoring through the Sunday newspaper. Since starting this little money-saving venture, I've found many "super saving sistah's" come out of their dark corners and expose their own nasty little secrets in the world of couponing. For example, let me hear a shout out if you go to Kum-N-Go three times every Sunday and fill your car up with only $10 worth of gas each time, in order to grab 3 copies of the "free Des Moines Register with gas". Maawahahaha!

While this make no sense to some of you who haven't yet dived in to this sub-culture, let me spark your interest with a picture of my latest shopping spree to Walgreen's. In the picture above you'll see the following items and their sale prices:
Olay Body Wash: $2.99
Olay Body Lotion $6.29
BioInfusion Conditioner $9.99
2 Glade Fragrance Collection candles $5.00 total
2 Toberlone Candy Bars $3.00 total
Schick Women's razor $4.00
Dulcolax $7.00
2 Russle Stover Santa ..58 total
2 Oral B Sesame Street kids toothbrushes $5.00
2 Crest kids High school Musical toothpastes $5.00
Complete Multipurpose Contact Solution $7.99
2 Oral B Satin Floss $5.00
Gilet Fusion Men's Razor $8.99

The total for these items was $70.83 (**tax not included)

But what did I pay, you ask?

$6.44!!!
Yep, that's it.

Oh, the beauty of coupons!
Anyway, I don't post this to brag (well...maybe just a little), my true intention to inspire all you readers to start finding ways to save your hard-earned money! And, if you're local and would like a beginners lesson on using coupons and Register Rewards at Walgreens, please contact me, I'd love to take you with and show you how it's done!

That's it for now!
Jessica

An end to summer...bummer.

Summer has officially ended. And I could make a pretty good case that Fall is long gone as well. Winter began in my mind the day the high didn't get above 40 degrees in late September. We've been chilled around our house because we don't have a furnace! Yet another thing that needs replacement since we moved to our new house. We love our house so much, though, that we're willing to put up with a little teeth-chattering until our new one gets put in next week.

These days we're enjoying going to Paul's final season of cross-country meets. Blair is in love with her uncle Paul so you can imagine how exciting it is to see him run by her at an unspeakable speed. London is enjoying her first season of cross-country too as she's learned how to clap her hands when we cheer!

Life group has started again so we're excited to be back amongst our best friends for one night a week of uninterrupted fellowship and discussion! I use the word "uninterrupted" liberally, however, because usually I hear the echo of London's wails from the other side of the church and need to rescue the babysitters. It's all worth it, though, to bounce ideas about the Word off our friends and learn about God's grace in each of our lives. It's my dose of encouragement each week!

My little London is much different than Blair was at her age. London likes to cuddle in our arms, while Blair has always been Miss Independent (cue Ne-Yo). London devours her food, while Blair still eats like a bird. Blair is a girly-girl to the extreme enjoying anything dress-up, Barbie related or make believe, while London is showing early affection for playing "catch" with anything round.

My girls are healthy and happy though and I'm excited to watch them grow in relationship with each other. I've been surprised so often to see how they "play" together already. Most often, though, London makes Blair get the unstoppable giggles as she makes funny faces at her, blows spitty bubbles, splashes her in the bath and steals Blair's paci any chance she can. It joys my heart to see them love each other so naturally.

Blair is obsessed with anything purple these days. She has a purple mermaid Barbie creatively named "Purp", she only colors with purple markers, she has refused drinking any juice that's not purple and points out any character in her storybooks wearing purple, stating "that's me, mommy." She's very verbally advanced and often tells me how to drive, how to hold my pen, how to eat my food, how to change her own diaper. (Hmmm...I think it's time we got her potty trained.) Her latest funny involved her tire swing. I couldn't figure out why every time I pushed her in her swing she would close her eyes and pretend to be asleep. I figured it was because the swinging motion was so relaxing she couldn't help it. But I realized the real reason a week ago when Blair told me she wanted to go in her "tired swing". Ahhhh.... so cute.

Well I better wrap up this post, but should have more to come in the near future with London's first birthday in a few weeks, my 27th birthday and trick-or-treating pictures.

I'm enjoying a new short haircut and feel good about where God has brought me this year. I'm feeling more at peace in my body than I've ever felt and even starting to get an itch to think about baby #3. ;) Don't get too excited though, we're committed to making it through a single summer where we're not pregnant or moving.

God's grace until I write again!

The Thrill of Road Kill

Wowsers! It's been awhile since I last blogged and a heck of a lot has happened since then! We've officially moved in to our new house after a long 3 months of a knock-down, drag out plight (literally) to get this home in good working order! We literally gutted it. New floors, New ceiling, Entirely new kitchen, Every room painted, New mainfloor bathroom, New roof, 3 new toilets, 2 new sinks, New electrical, New sliding glass door, etc... It's been really hard work, but we're totally blessed and enjoying the fruits of our labor (and all the labor of our hardworking friends)!! I will, hopefully, remember to post some pictures soon (as soon as I unpack my camera)! Our Roosevelt house is sale pending with a closing date sometime before September...we'll keep our hands folded in expectation that God will allow our buyer to come through.

In other news, I've titled this post the thrill of road kill for a most important reason. Lately, our little fiesty Blair has been challenging us in multiple ways, namely not obeying our directions. So, Tim took her for a drive the other day and showed her a racoon that got hit by a car laying in the road 1/4 mile from our house. It was a fresh one because it's tail was still rythmically flopping up and down the first time they looked at it. In that instant, however, Blair's world once again became bigger than she and for the next 4 days that's all we've talked about--the raccoon that didn't listen to it's mommy and crossed the street without looking and is now squashed, guts spuewing out all over Eisenhower Ave. Blair has made us walk past this disgusting thing every day since. Last night, she asked if she could pet it. I'm not quite sure what the long term affects of this little lesson will be, but let's hope it doesn't involve counseling.

Finally, our London is crawling! Hooray and Yikes at the same time! She's got 2 bumnps on her forehead and I'm anticipating many more. She's outta control--trying to climb on everything and away from me, outta sight within seconds of setting her down. Life just entered a new demension for me but none too soon as we've got a fully carpeted room with lots of safe space to roam in this new house.

Not much else going on. Blessed and Thankful my family is in good health and spirits. Looking forward to our August 20th anniversary trip and a mini-vacation to Chicago with my mom in September!

More later!

Housal Abuse and other stuff

Life has been crazy around here for us these days. We're one month into a double mortgage, as we purchased a foreclosed home the first of May. We got a heck of a deal but the home had been vacant for two years. Which everyone knows leads to a whole lot of "issues". The house had been built in 1978 and not updated a single time...so yeah, we walk in and are staring down orange vinyl flooring, wallpaper with wheat pictures on it and yucky wooden cabinetry with black hardware that looks seriously phallic. We have our work cut out for us but have already done an exhaustive amount of updating in the last month, including tearing out the kitchen and putting in new cabinetry and countertop, new laminate flooring throughout and had all our ceilings re-textured and painted. (it had popcorn texture ceilings) We fell in love with the house for the layout and space. It's 4 bedroom upstairs and a really open, spacious floor-plan on the main level. Twice the space for less money.

On the other hand, we've finally made the decision to list our current home with a realtor. We've had it fsbo for 2 months now. I've been close to a nervous breakdown a few times as getting the house spotless for now 30 showings with two mess-makers. And then there's the kids! :) There has been times where I've gotten the place clean, ran out and strapped the girls in their car seats and then run back into the house 3 minutes before the showing to pick up and put away all the stuff Blair got out on our way to the car!

I should quit complaining though. We're excited and think the new house will be a real "pad" by the end of the summer.

Blair is the ever-independent, vivacious, ball of energy she's always been. It's evident she's a perfectionist with a wild imagination. Two months ago, when we were getting our house ready for our first showing, I overconfidently packed up 90% of her toys and moved them to the new house thinking we'd have ours sold in a few weeks. So far, I've refused to go back and unpack them, but really considered it a few weeks ago when I saw her playing "house" with a screwdriver and a ballpoint pen, making them talk to each other.
Speaking of pens, she's entering the stage where I've always got to keep one handy as she says the funniest things. A few days ago at Lowes a man passed us with scraggly brown hair down to his shoulders with a mustash and beard and wearing a baggy white t-shirt. She excitedly pointed to man and said, "Mommy! That's Jesus!"

London has made a 180 degree turn from where she started 7 months ago. I remember noting that it took a solid 4 months until we could put her in her carseat and drive somewhere without her screaming the entire time. I really thought I had the touchiest baby on the planet as I struggled through our first 16 weeks. But you'd never know it now. She is so easy-going and happy, smiling and laughing all day, rarely crying and soothing herself to sleep at nap and bed time. She watches Blair like a hawk and is always most comfortable in my arms. She is already over 20 lbs and wearing clothes that Blair wore just last summer! She's definately more affectionate than Blair, loves being kissed and held. Her hemanginomia is big, obtrusive and hard to cover up with skimpy summer dresses so we often find ourselves on the recieving ends of stares from people in public or being questioned about whats on the back of her neck. It's humbling, but could definately be worse...some kids get these things on their face!

Everything else going well. It's just starting to get hot in Iowa, so I'm looking forward to days in the sunshine, sitting on the edge of our city wading pool watching the girls splash around.

What's new?!

Where to start?!

London: We made it to the glorious 6-month mark! Praise the Lord! London is become a wonderfully content, smiley and easily entertained baby girl! 3 weeks into my life with two kids, the 6 month mark seemed like decades away and now it feels like the time just flew.

London is just about rolling over, but not quite. And teething a lot but we don't see any toothers yet. So we're just at that point where new milestones are just around the corner. She loves her baby cereal and is weighing in at 18 lbs! Only two more to go until her new carseat!

Her appointment in Iowa City went great. We're taking no action and will just monotor the hemangenomia and wait for it to some day disappear. They say 90% of the cases are completely gone by the time the child is 10 years old. And if not, many people choose to get them removed. While it looks obtrusive and downright ugly, we feel blessed that the lump didn't develop on her face.

Blair: This girl has us laughing non-stop. I remember saying that I couldn't wait until she started saying those halarious one-liners that only come from the mouths of kids. Well, I think it's safe to say we're there. Here are her latest:

I was in the bathroom and holding on to a box of tampons. I pulled one out but tried to hide it from Blair knowing that she would be very curious as to what it was. Sure enough, she noticed. I watched her try to examine what was behind my closed fist. After a long contemplation and some confusion, she questioned, "Cheese stick?" :)

That same day, while outside, Blair noticed a man doing construction work on a house. He was wearing a toolbelt with a hammer hanging off the back. She said matter-of-factly, "That man has a tail." :)

These are going in the baby book, people.

Other than her halariousness, she's growing like a weed and very clearly the boss of our house. Well, at least she thinks she is. She loves her baby sister and often helps me "babysit" London while I run in the other room to get a diaper. Her favorite foods are Gummies, Apple Sauce and Olives (which she calls "oreos") and she can often be found singing, playing Barbies (already?!?) or having "parties" with her teddy bears in her room!

Tim and Jessica: A number of times in the last few months I've heard Tim say "We're busier than we've ever been". While we hate using that term, it does seem to ring true lately. We close on our new house this coming Friday (May 8th) but we'll hopefully take a few weeks to make some much-needed improvements before we move in. So far we've replaced the roof and shaved off all the pop-corn ceiling throughout the entire home! What a job! Next on the list is replacing the kitchen cabinets, countertop, flooring and aplliances. We're also replacing the carpet throughout the home. And of couse, painting. Once we have those big projects completed we'll be ready to move in and do the rest over the months. The bathrooms will all have to be remodeled as their isn't one white toilet, sink or bathtub in the entire house. Very 1970's! We're excited and aiming for October when we'll sink into our couch, look around and some major finished projects and get to take the rest of the projects as slow as we want.

Tim's been busy at both jobs, getting lots of business but ready to take on an intern to help with the load. He just finished up his church-league basketball league and we're starting up sand volleyball in a few weeks. Until then, he's busy at work updating an American Idol pool he created and watching the NBA playoffs.

I'm picking up on the running regimine. Getting serious about losing these last of the baby pounds! Man, it really is different the second time around! Not quite as easy this time...or it could be the chocolate. Either way, getting back into running has been good for me. I'm enjoying the design elements I get to incorporate into the new house and looking forward to garage sale season beginning!

We just got some new family pictures taken by the best photographer ever, Dan McClanahan and his lovely assistant, Alex. If you would like to view them, go here:


http://www.mcclanahanstudio.com/Hibbing_Family/

More later!

What's new?1