Dear Mom,

Dear Mom,

Today for your 32nd birthday, we will celebrate with style!  We won't tell you No! when you ask us to go take a nap or clean up our toys.  We will happily and with a cheerful heart, pick up our toys when we're finished playing without hitting each other.  When we wrestle, we will not kick or bite or make someone cry.  When we go for a walk we won't stand up in the stroller or complain about my leg or foot or stomach hurting.  We won't yell or constantly talk while we are in the car. We'll give you a few minutes to think about your wonderful kids instead of constantly whining or crying or yelling.  We won't pee or poop in our diaper today so you won't have to change diapers on your birthday. 

We are so grateful that you bore all 3 of us and are forever indebted to you. 

We love you,

James, Ryan and Alex.

Grand Plans!

This was my attempt at growing some herbs from seeds.  They were doing alright except for the spearment, which didn't want to sprout.  But then we left suddenly for a week long trip and the poor little sprouts were not loved at all.  So, I'll be buying some already grown plants this year.....

Out of Sorts

Things have been pretty crazy lately, here in the South.  Alex and I are preparing to move back to our old house and you wouldn't know it by looking at my house.  That's to say that packing is not something we do well.  But anyways, we received a call a few weeks ago that Alex's Grandmother passed away so we were figuring out the best way to get up to Nantucket. Fly up? Leave the kids? Drive???  It's quite a long drive.  It's technically 18 hours, but with traffic it ends up being 2 days on the road.  Because we didn't want to spend $2500 on plane tickets, we opted for the drive.  This is a drive we've done many times and you think we'd be better at it.  Our plan...drive as far as we can and then stop overnight. 

Well, all of us besides Alex were sick when we made the trek. All with various sorts of a sinus gunk that had everybody hacking away in the back of the car.  Needless to say, good attitudes were not that apparent.  However, what can you expect of a 4 year old, 2 and 11 month old.  While Alex got to enjoy the task of driving, I was the car entertainer.  Quite hard to do when you're coughing yourself and have half a voice. 

But we made it up in time for the ferry and were at the house by dinner.  We had great weather and although the circumstances made it tough to enjoy Nantucket, we were grateful for the relatives we saw and the time away from home.

This is a picture of Alex's cousin, Jodie, with James and Olivia. 

The Twilight Holdgate Saga

As you readers know, Alex and I have read through the The Twilight Saga Collection series and have become official aficionados (sp?) on that.  We didn't start off  that way, but we've gradually grown towards it.  We were never huge Harry Potter fans or any other series for that matter.  Here's how it started: I needed a book to read! So my mother in law gave me a mindless read, Twilight.  I really enjoyed it and then I rented the movie for me and Alex to watch.  And although were weren't terribly impressed with the movie, Alex was willing to see the 2nd movie, New Moon. Since then, my dear husband has read and reread the entire series and we have intelligent conversations about it.  Team Edward vs. Team Jacob.  Character development, were the right actors picked for the roles in the movie? You know, stuff like that. 

Our impressions:
*I'm not 100% committed to the actors who portray Bella, Edward and Jacob
*The Volturi were cast well
*If the producers continue to have Bella's character grow as it does in the books, the actor could be great.
*We feel like the relationship between Bella and Edward in the movie was not developed as well as the book. A lot was left out.

Yes, I do see the humor in this series. 

*Vampires who only kill animals are good vampires - their souls may not be damned to hell
*Humans can find really pale people with orange eyes very attractive, even though they're freezing cold
*It is better to be a vampire than to die as a human

In light of that, Alex and I really enjoyed reading all four books.  We did go see New Moon in the theaters and thought it was better than the first movie. We are really excited to see the 3rd and 4th movie because the books were so good. 

New Moon came out on DVD last week and yes, I bought i for my dear husband. That might be the first DVD I've purchased since we got married.....

BP Gas Card

I tried something new this week. Even I am continuing to break down mental barriers that I've been holding onto. Sometimes it's hard to pay for something right now when you won't use it till the future. For example, gas cards. Why pay $50 for a gas card at the grocery store when you won't use it till the next time you get gas. And then, you have to go to a particular gas station. Well, publix had a deal this week that when you bought $25 worth of groceries, you could also buy a $50 gas card to BP for $40. That's 20% off a tank of gas for me!! It makes sense but was hard to do because it was money spent now for something later.

But when I handed my husband the card and said (with a slight smile) : "Here's a $50 gas card that I paid $40 for..." I felt so great!!

He looked at me skeptically but then again, he knows how these things go these days....

Proctor and Gamble

But not to worry. I am about to head to Rite Aid for their Proctor and Gamble promotion. When you spend $30 before coupons you get a $10 Rite Aid gift card. So, I'm planning on my out of pocket expenses of $15 and then get my card. I'll let you readers know how that goes.

Were you wondering?

Where I've been that is? Are you wondering how I did this week on groceries? Well, my goal was to NOT hit the grocery store unless it was essentials like eggs, milk, etc. And it worked! My father showed up this week so I did have to buy some vegetables, but my weekly shopping trip will be postponed to this week sometime. I've been eating food from the freezer and I have a long way to go to put a dent all that stuff.

Nothing saves you more money, than not spending any :)