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

Blog Design by Bling on the Blog

A couple funny "Blair's" and our upcoming London trip

Short and sweet. Blair has said two funny things that have not only made me laugh but also made me realize how tuned in she is to all that goes on and is said around her.

We're in the McDonald's drive-thru the other night getting ice cream cones and from the backseat, out of nowhere, pipes Blair, "This is the best food in town!" Tim and I turn around with our jaws hung open having never said that before and unsure where she got it! (T.V.)

Then, on Easter we had dinner at a friend's house. On their back porch they had new deck furniture with a lounge. Blair ventured outside and sprawled herself out on the lounge and put her hands behind her head. She called me out to see her. When I went to meet her she said nonchalantly with a big smile on her face, "This is the life."

Believe me I'm bias, but when these things come out of a little 2 year olds mouth, I do stand amazed.

This Wednesday is our London's doctor appointment in Iowa City. We'll be meeting with a doc in the Hematology/Oncology department. It should just be a routine physical and maybe some lab work. I have had a real peace about this appointment, not scared or even anxious. I really think the doctor is going to look at her hemangenomia and say it just needs some time to heal. No steriods, no shots, no experimental therapy.

Thanks for all of you that have been praying or thinking of us in regards to the appointment!

Semi-Recent Pictures of my girls!

It's been a little while since I've last written and a lot has happened!

First news first, we bought a new house! Closing May 8th. We're really excited! The house was a foreclosure that hadn't been updated since it was built in 1968 so it needs to be practically gutted, but I'm ready to strap on my tool belt. I may be begging for help from all of my closest friends these next few months as we take on project after project! Be warned!

In other news, we have an appointment with a pediatric oncologist in Iowa City for little London on April 15th. That sounds a lot worse than it really is. London was born with a 2-inch hemangioma on the back of her neck. A hemangioma is a cluster of enlarged or abnormal blood vessels present at birth. They usually aren't serious and have no symptoms and cause no need for intervention. My pediatrician said that London's looked like it was trying to grow and heal at the same time and might be causing her some discomfort. We're just going to Iowa City to get a specialized opinion. There is a possibility that she'll need a steroid shot to make it shrink, but I'm praying that it'll go away on its own!

So, funny Blair story of the day: The other day Blair kept trying to get me to understand what she was saying...she chanted, "mommy...shake shake, shake. Shake your boo-nen!" I had no idea what she was saying, much less had any idea what a "boo-nen" was until she started wiggling her little hips back and forth really fast. I realized she was singing the” Shake, Shake, Shake...Shake your booty song" by KC and the Sunshine Band. Unfortunately, I think this new development is another result of her Shrek obsession (it's a song on the soundtrack). I'm not sure if her repertoire of Single Ladies and Shake your booty interspersed with Jesus Loves Me and This Little Light of Mine is exactly what Jesus meant when he said "Let your speech be graceful, seasoned with salt..." :) At least she keeps us laughing!

Hey! Check out the newest, latest and greatest photos of Blair and London! Go here to see the photo slide show!

http://animoto.com/play/CtJcgCFh7t1onGfdCzDVFw?from=share

Blair's 2 year Birthday! And more!

Hi everyone.
It's been awhile since I found a little extra time to playfully narrate life in the Hibbing homestead. We've had a whirlwind of a February! So far February has teased us with some beautiful 50 and 60 degree days and I've taken advantage of them with a few runs outside and even some playtime outside with Blair. It'd been a solid couple of months since we'd seen the grass here in Ames, but I'm thankful to say there is hardly a pile of white left lying around. Ahhhh....Spring truly must be around the corner. Praise God for His faithfulness to bring around each season in it's due time.

A few weeks ago, we celebrated Blair's 2 year birthday. You'd think Blair would be like most 2 year old girls and want a Elmo or Princess-themed birthday party, but when I asked Blair what she wanted, she told me "A Shrek Cake". So Shrek-themed it was. I have to admit, throwing parties is one of my favorite things to do, especially decorating for them. So, even though I had Shrek to work with, I prettied up the party by color-coordinating my napkins, plates and table cloth in light pink and moss-green polka dots and stripes. Shrek made an appearance on the cake only. :) Blair had 3 of her closest friends over, including a little boy named Jacob who was Blair's one and only friend at her party last year. Blair began by opening presents surrounded by a relatively large number of family members and parents. I suppose it coulda been a little overwhelming for a tiny 2 year old to be the center of attention amidst a lot of excitement and noise, but Blair handled it like a champ (Have I mentioned how much she likes being the center of attention?!) After presents, she and her three friends donned oversized tshirts and took to fingerpainting on large pieces of foamboard. I heard a few parents say I was a brave woman for attempting the fingerpainting fiasco, but what's a party without a mess, right?! That lasted all of 15 minutes but was quite fun watching the little ones splatter and squish the paint over every inch of their board. At one point, Blair lost her balance and rolled, however gracefully, onto her entire work of wet art. That was about the time we decided to wash up and have the kids name their paintings. Blair named her's "Kmart". Not exactly sure where she got that one as Kmart isn't a place we shop, but in some strange way the disarray of sloppy red and green reminded me of the after-Christmas clearance shelves at that dreaded store. Anyway, we moved onto cake and ice cream and watched two homemade movies Tim and Grace created encompassing a few great moments from Blair's second year of life. I was glad to see Blair's hip-jiving "Single Ladies" dance made an appearance. She would have made Beyonce so proud! Thankfully the day was completed without a single shed tear. This ultra-amazed me considering we were going napless. While I wish I had a bunch of pictures to post, I was too busy manning the celebration to snap any. I know my mom took a few, but she's still using the ancient click-and-develop camera, so those wont be posted. That said, if you happen to read this post and took any pictures while at the party, please send them to me! I'd love to include a few!

Two days after the party, Blair was hit hard with the flu. A bad bug's going around Ames, taking kids out for 3 and 4 days at a time. She, being ever-so-obedient, shared her flu with mommy and then mommy shared with daddy. A week and half later, we all have our appetite's back and a ready to move onto the next virus to come our way!

Amidst that week, however, little London had her first ever photo shoot with our extremely talented neighbor Dan McClanahan (www.danmcclanahan.com). What was supposed to be 1 hour turned into 2 1/2 of making googly-eyes and gurgling sounds at London. She was a good sport and donned a smile for us pretty willingly! Blair even got to put on her Christmas dress and have her photo taken as well! You can view Dan's photos by going to this link (http://danmcclanahan.zenfolio.com/p807926374) and typing in the password: bridges

We were so excited to see the results and are especially thankful to have such a talented photographer live next door! Woot-woot Dan! One of the pictures of London even made it on the wall of Cafe Diem (a local coffee shop in Ames, showcasing Dan's work)! Go check it out! (London's available for autographs, but please schedule appointments with her agent-mom)

Well that's it for now. Happy February everyone!

Youtube video

My wonderful sister-in-law Gracie posted a video she made when London was born on YouTube. If you would like to view it, go here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbUZGyDPn2Y

Hopefully there will be more to come!
Thanks Grace!

"Hola Mommy"

Blair amazes me everyday. I guess I still consider her my little baby and not the curious, precocious and showy toddler she's proving to be! Her favorite movie, Shrek, is getting a run for it's money these days as her newest movie obsession is Madeline (not the cartoon version). So the other day, she runs into the kitchen while I'm preparing dinner and says, "Hola Mommy...hey mommy, Hola!" Apparently the Spanish ambassador on Madeline says this in one short second on the movie and Blair picked it up and wanted to impress me! Watch Out Dora! There's a new senorita in town!

In another sense, Blair is becoming quite the little helper. It's becoming a regular occurrence for me to say, "Blair, where is mommy's cell phone...do you know?" She says, "Right Dhere..." and most always runs right to it. Today she found it under her bed. It musta fell down while I was changing her diaper! How she sees these things, I'll never know. I almost asked Tim for one of those beepers for lost car keys this Christmas, but with how handy Blair is becoming, it looks like I might not need one after all.

London, on the other hand, has a nasty cold and hasn't slept more than 20 minutes in a row for the last 4 days...its getting tiresome, but probably more for her. I can't wait until this winter season is over (Windchill in Ames was -35 yesterday!) and we're able to get outside and burn off some stink! I am in desperate need of some motivation to get back in shape so I asked a girlfriend of mine if she would be interested in running the Orlando Marathon with me next Jan. (2010). She's considering it and will let me know soon, but I'm pretty sure I'll sign myself up for some race even if she declines. The great thing about training for a long race, like a 1/2 marathon or full, is that no matter how hard you try not to diet or get back in shape, it's somewhat inevitable. That's what I need, the miles to do the work for me! I'm awful at passing on dessert or keeping a food diary, so exercise is the only way I'm able to recover from the extra baby poundage. I'll keep you posted on how that goes.

I'm posting an adorable old video of Blair. I think she might be 18 months or so in it, but I could never find the venue to show it off, so this blog is perfect. She's shaking her tail-feather to Elmo on YouTube.

Also are a few new pictures of the girls!

A few new pictures of London

London is now almost 9 weeks old and I think it's safe to say she's a low-key baby. While I think the first 6 weeks were comparably harder than the first 6 weeks with Blair, I'm not sure I can chalk it up to differences in babies...more like a difference in the number of babies. Having two kids under the age of 2 has tested my patience, sanity, cheerfulness, energy...even thankfulness, but it's getting better every day! London is quite content to sit in her bouncy chair while Blair and I interact, sometimes for even 30 or 40 minutes at a time. She's sleeping well at night. Most nights will include a good 5 hour chunk without waking and she's even made it from 10pm to 7am without eating once before!

Blair likes being a big sister and gets a huge kick out of London smiling at her. She asks to hold her about once every other day and soon I think she'll be ready to give her a bottle, with mommy standing nearby.

Here are a few new pictures of London.

While at Faithwalkers, a christian conference I attended over Christmas break, a video clip of Penn Jillette was shown. Penn is a devout atheist/magician, famous for both. The clip has been rolling around in my head ever since. As a sometimes scared, sometimes lazy, and sometimes respectful christian, I've adopted a low-key stance of lifestyle evangelism instead of more active proselytizing. I guess the theory would be that people will respect what they see one live instead of what one says.
But Penn has a different stance on it. Is it possible that what I intended as respect for another's personal space can be correctly construed as hatred for them by inaction?

Watch this short clip.
http://www.breitbart.tv/?p=245243

I'm one of those people who seem to be plagued by nightmares for no apparant reason. When I was pregnant, they were weekly. Sometimes even waking up sweating or screaming. So I decided that I probably should start having a quiet time in the Word before I go to bed to still my mind. I tried that last night and I'm proud report I was nightmare-less!

However, I did have a dream that I was raising a squirrel-child. It was born a squirrel and then as it got older it turned into a child with rodent-like features (i.e. small, pointy nose, big nut-shaped eyes and hairy).

I know where I got the squirrel thing--Tim called me yesterday and told me about one of the clients he was insuring had a squirrel stuck in their wall and wondered if they had coverage for it. LoL!

Anyway, I'll happily adopt a squirrel-child in my dreams over waking up in a panic anyday.

Okay, so periodically I run across a hilarious video. Often they include the SNL actress, Kristin Wiig. Here's the one I'm currently stuck on, sent to me by my sister-in-law, Neva. If you've ever been forced to snore through the Lawrence Welk show at your grandmother's, you'll find this video eerily entertaining.

Go here:
http://www.hulu.com/watch/37752/saturday-night-live-the-lawrence-welk-show

In case anyone wanted to see some pictures from London's birth, I've posted them below!

London in her candy cane pants. 5 weeks.

Most recent picture of Blair. 22 months old.

And so the story begins...Unfortunately not at the beginning, but 3 years and 2 kids into wedded bliss with my hero and husband, Tim! Life around our house is never dull! Tim is an insurance agent and I'm a stay-at-home momma. We both "clean up" after accidents, if you will. Blair, our oldest, will officially turn 2 in one month and has more spunk and energy than Tim and I combined. London, our 8 week old, is pretty content to sit and watch the world go by. We're anticipating she and Blair will be best friends in a year or two! Feel free to stop in and catch up as I post pictures and thoughts as time goes by.