I went shopping this morning.  Well, back up to Sunday night…I spent some time Sunday night preparing a list of good deals at CVS and Walgreens from moneysavingmom.com.  I spent Monday night clipping and sorting my coupons so I could be ready to go.  And then I spent this morning saving some money – a lot of money.  Here’s what I came home with between the 2 stores (you can click on the picture for a larger view):

I totaled up the savings on my receipts, and between my coupons and in-store sales, I saved $104.76.  Over the weekend I transferred a prescription to CVS and received $20 in store credit, and also did the same at Walgreens and received $25 in store credit.  So, my grand total saved was $149.76!  Total spent out of pocket:  $4.52.  I’m still a little shocked.  It did take a lot of prep work, but it was well worth it and now I have a few things stocked up that I won’t have to shop for any time soon.  Actually, I don’t think Clay and Ethan will need body wash until 2011!

We spent Memorial Day on on our annual camping trip with our church.  I look forward to this weekend every year, and this trip did not disappoint.  We went to Lake Whitney and it was awesome (well, despite the 100 degree weather, burning hot showers, spiders crawling up your arms, and fish carcasses along the swim beach).  I think there were about 50 of us there this year, and we even stayed one extra night which was great.  It’s so much more enjoyable to us to stay 3 nights – makes the prep work more worthwhile.  A few families brought their boats and we spent most of the days on or in the water.  The kids were exhausted at the end of the day and slept great so that’s a successful trip.  Since we’re not completely crazy (not yet, anyway), we won’t be camping any more this summer, but we’re looking forward to a couple of great trips in the fall. 

 
home away from home

Olivia, Clay, Ethan & Rachel (the top of her head anyway) tubing

some of the ladies

playing Uno before dinner

an awesome church service Sunday morning

the view from the pavilion

the three youngest girls soaking up some sun

SFB at the swim beach

Clay and the kids swimming at sunset

We’re living life with a pre-k graduate over here.  Preschool programs are always a little hectic since I have my own class to escort, get ready, etc.  The interesting thing is that this year all 3 pre-k teachers had a child graduating – needless to say we were a bit emotional.  I actually held it together until the very last song.  The kids sang a song about how they’ll be friends forever even though they may not see each other again and things like that.  I think the writers and producers of songs like that are in kahootz with the kleenex companies.  Not fair.  Rachel’s class also sang a couple of songs on stage so she left feeling pretty good about herself.  Ethan said the best part of the night was when Mimi, Nana & Poppa all gave him money.  At least he’s honest.

This has been an interesting week to say the least. 

Sunday morning started with me taking Rachel to the on-call pedi to tell me what I already knew – another ear infection.  She also said we need to be seriously talking about tubes so we’ll see what the future holds there. 
  (Marc & Heather had us over Friday night for dinner and our post-dinner activity was riding 4-wheelers.  How many places – besides Texas – can you ride 4-wheelers, shirtless, in a super nice neighborhood on a random Friday night?!?)

Sunday evening we had our senior recognition and I got sad thinking about saying goodbye to two of the best and most beautiful young ladies (and babysitters!) in the entire world. 

Monday morning started off with me getting the kids and I packed up to go and visit Amy and her fam in East Texas.  Apparently I was gunning for the worst mother of the year award because I fixed Ethan’s cereal with the wrong milk.  He took one bite, started drooling and screaming, proceeded to throw up and curl up in a ball for the next hour with stomach cramps.  I am so thankful that he knew after only one bite because I don’t even want to think about how horrible it could have been.  There aren’t many things worse than hearing your five-year old say, “Mom – how about I just get my own milk from now on in case you’re distracted again.”  I still get teary-eyed just thinking about it.  On a brighter note, this is a pic of E eating his first brownie.  I found a mix that is milk free and just substituted the egg with unsweetened applesauce.  There were very sticky but very good.

We did end up going to Amy’s and had a great time just relaxing, laughing, and trying to find the cows that apparently like Interstate-20 more than they liked their own green pasture.  That really happened.  We came back home on Tuesday and a 2.5 hour trip turned into a 4 hour trip because of horrible construction traffic.  I want to give an award to whoever invented portable DVD players and Fun Dip.  Seriously. 

Wednesday morning seemed promising.  I got up a little early and got everyone ready so I could go to Ladies Bible class at church.  Rachel was sitting in the laundry room putting on her shoes and eating a Ritz (or Rich as she says) cracker – the girl can multitask with the best of them – when she hit her head and started crying.  When she realized how bad it hurt she took a big breath to let out her hurt cry and the cracker went right into her throat.  Praise God that I was right there because she couldn’t breathe – at all.  She was trying so hard and just couldn’t do it.  And God took it from there.  I grabbed her and turned her around and started doing the heimlich.  After three tries the cracker finally came out and we just sat on the floor for a very long time holding each other.  I really felt completely confident in what I was doing, however, my mind (or maybe my heart) had already gone to a very bad place that involved CPR and an ambulance.  After I came back to reality that sweet baby said, “Mommy – why do you keep thanking God so many times?”  And it’s really strange because it’s like she doesn’t even remember it.  Clay asked her about it and she just said she choked on a cracker and then I gave her some water.  Needless to say God has been working overtime at our house this week.  And just to keep things in perspective:  We obviously left late for Bible study, and on our way came up on a horrible car accident.  Who knows if that would have been us, but I think we sometimes get so caught up in how bad things are that we forget to thank God for protecting us from how bad things could be.  So, today is Thursday and the kids are and I are gearing up for a fun and hopefully very uneventful weekend. 

And my PSA for the week – if you haven’t been through CPR training (it includes the heimlich manuever) or if it’s been a while – DO IT.

Yesterday I took the kids to the nursing home to visit one of the elderly ladies from our church.  We spent some time prepping yesterday morning – some people there may want to hug you, God commands us to do this even though you may not really want to, please be polite, etc.  I got out the church directory and showed them this sweet lady’s picture, told them that she’s almost 90 years old, explained what it meant to be a widow, and then we headed out to the store to get her some flowers.  The kids decided on some really pretty coral colored tulips that hadn’t bloomed yet and I told them that was a great idea because Ms. Ozelle would enjoy watching them bloom.  We got in the car and I was putting the flowers in a little vase when Ethan busted out with this doozy:

“Mom, I hope Ms. Ozelle doesn’t die before these flowers bloom.” 
Me:  (after composing myself)  “E – why do think she’s going to die?”
E:  “Mom – she IS 90 years old…c’mon.”

I had a fabulous mother’s day…really a fabulous weekend.  Clay had a couple of tricks up his sleeve like taking the kids to Michael’s Saturday morning to make mother’s day cards, taking me to lunch on Saturday, I got little potted plants from the kids, and the best part of all was that he spent the entire day yesterday painting, working, moving furniture, cleaning light fixtures, etc. in our bedroom!  After just a few years in this house we finally have a real-person bedroom.  No more scuffs on the wall, no more nail holes in the wall, no more two-tone light switches, no more unhappy Lisa every time I walked in there.  Thank you, babe, for a great gift – I love it!

Thankfully this….

…turned into this…



(Mom – this means I’ll be hitting you up for curtains soon!)

Speaking of Mom, a couple of weekends ago we got the fam together to celebrate my Mom’s birthday at Central Market.  The weather was perfect and we all had a great time.  I love this picture of the kids gathered around Nana watching her open presents

Unfortunately, Rachel was a little too busy for the picture

We did get a good one of Nana and her grands

And then Bryan and I got photobombed by Addi while trying to get one with Mom

Happy Mother’s Day to my Mom and to my mother-in-law!  Clay and I are both very thankful for you and your love. 

Lots of fun things going on right now.  Rachel and I (unbeknownst to her) are soaking up as much fun as we can with Ethan before we wake up one morning and he’s off to kindergarten.  Speaking of Ethan…the other night I was cleaning up the kitchen after dinner and he said, “Mommy, do you need some help?  It would be my pleasure to help you!”  Not only did it melt my heart, but I also had a glimpse into his future as a Chick-fil-A employee.  This is the same kid who told Clay he was having some in-the-chest-ion (aka indegestion) the other night.  Kindergarten roundup is tomorrow night so excuse for me for feeling a bit nostalgic or proud or whatever these feelings are.  I honestly don’t know how to feel right now because I’m so ready for him to have school experiences and meet new friends and to be challenged in a different way.  And at the same time I just want to lock our doors and throw away every clock and calendar we have and keep things just the way they are right now.  I’m sure the next few months will be a whirlwind…better put a hat on and hold on tight!

Dressed for cowboy day at school

Hanging by the hotel pool in the Holy Land, I mean, College Station

Taking a rest on the quad at A&M

At the Dad’s breakfast at school

R on Clay’s iphone and E on his leapster

Didn’t quite make it out of our pajamas before lunch this day

Last week Cara and I branched out of our comfort zones and took the kids to the Dallas Zoo.  I’ll be honest and admit that I had pretty low expectations.  I’m not even sure why except that we’d never been and I had never felt this strong desire to visit a zoo that is literally right off of a major interstate.  Well, I was pleasantly surprised.  While it’s definitely not as aesthetically pleasing or as fancy as the Ft. Worth Zoo, it seemed much bigger and just had a different feel to it.  We saw a few animals we had never seen before, got to ride the monorail for the African “safari,” and one of the cutest things were their little birthday signs for the animals who had recently had babies.  One of the oddest things for Cara and I was witnessing the unnatural obsession Ethan and Josie had with all of statues scattered around the zoo.  Seriously, they were on the hunt for animals statues and wouldn’t let anything get in their way.  You never know with those two.  Afterward we stopped by Clay’s office for a quick visit and Rachel told him her favorite part was the train (monorail) and Ethan said his favorite part was the tunnel.  We should have just bought a DART light rail pass and called it a day, but then I guess we would have missed all of those awesome statues! 

Just a sampling of our statue-mania

And I don’t want to forget that this little guy was with us!

The kids and I have been loving the weather lately and have been trying to take full advantage of it.  I think we visited 5 different parks in 8 days and have now mapped out the quickest route to the restroom (or disgusting blue stall) at all of those parks.  Do any other 3 year olds out there hold it until the absolute last possible moment?  I keep reminding Rachel that she’s not a camel but she’s not getting it. 

Park with Lauryn & Allie 



Hard to believe all of these kids are old enough to just take off on their bikes

Park with church friends

After school play

Ethan wanted to invite Luke & Zachary over after school (a little tricky with a car that only holds 3 car seats), so we sent Rachel home with Luke’s sister and had a great afternoon full of boy adventures

Park with Brant & Lincoln


I love that five-year olds aren’t too old to skip through the parking lot holding hands

Botanic Garden with Luke & Olivia




E was very excited that a butterfly landed on him during the butterfly exhibit – Rachel, on the other hand, declared all the butterflies “big meanies” because they didn’t land on her

Post-outside

All that springtime pollen fun was bound to catch up with Ethan’s eyes!

Clay, the kids and I were very fortunate to be at the airport tonight welcoming home Clay’s brother, Nathan, from a 7 month deployment with the Navy.  The last time we saw him was Memorial Day weekend 2009, so we were just a bit excited and anxious!  I made a poster to take to preschool today and all of the kids signed their name to it (the little kids just put their thumbprint on it – so sweet), and then we made another one welcoming Uncle Nathan back home.  He only gets to stay two weeks, but we feel very honored that we were able to hug his neck and thank him in person for his service.  It was so awesome watching complete strangers come up to him in the airport and shake his hand and thank him for what he’s doing.  And the elderly man who was retired military and shaking Nathan’s hand got me all teary-eyed.  Nathan – we are VERY proud of you and feel very blessed to call you our hero. 

coming down the escalator

A very happy family

Nathan with my MIL in San Diego yesterday