All for my love

Mike's birthday was yesterday. He's 27 now. We've been together since we were 18! I can't believe how time flies. I also can't believe how much I still adore him. Well actually I can. I knew Mike was going to be very special to me the moment he came into my life.

I wanted to show him how much I love him by giving him a very special birthday. We don't have much money right now so I knew everything had to be "thoughtful". Ash took $10 out of his piggy bank and picked out several packages of baseball cards. That's "their" thing right now. They collect baseball cards together. Ash looks forward to it so much. Bella and I picked out a nice new shirt for him since he's been saying that he doesn't have very many nice clothes anymore. We woke up super early Sunday morning and got to work decorating the house. The kids helped me put up a Happy Birthday Banner and we blew up countless balloons. We also made him a special birthday breakfast. Then we went in to wake him up, presents in hand, singing Happy Birthday. He loved it all.

Well earlier in the week I had asked him if it was alright if I didn't make him a birthday cake this year since he probably wouldn't eat it anyway and I just felt really busy with everything going on. He said that was fine and reminded me that I had already made hima birthday cake (see ugliest cake award back a few posts) Now I had been planning for weeks to make him a replica of his favorite car, a 55 chevy bel air, out of cake. I just knew I wanted it to be a big surprise. Since he works really long hours, I figured I'd be safe with making it without him knowing. I finshed it on Friday and brought it over to our Pastor's house so they could keep it in the fridge until Sunday night.

So all day Sunday he thought I didn't make him a cake. Hehehehe. I'm so mean. A friend of our's said to me "That must make him sad that his wife, who makes cakes for everyone else, didn't make him a birthday cake" How evil am I that that made me laugh?

On Sunday nights, Mike leads a Financial class. So my Pastors had the idea to bring the cake there and hide it in th kitchen. After the class I was to get on the microphone and tell Mike how much I love him and say Happy Birthday and they would bring the cake out.

Mike flipped out!!!! It was seriously the BEST reaction ever. He knew exactly what the cake was and was so proud of me for making it. Of course later he felt dumb for missing the signs that something was going on. He said he had an awesome birthday. I'm so glad.

PS The cake was carved from 2 sheet cakes by hand and covered in fondant. Then it was painted and details added. It was a lemon cake with light lemon buttercream. There was 1 slice left at the end of the night.

My Miss Mae

Aww!! My little baby girl!! I just found this picture on my sister in law's myspace page. It's from Thanksgiving last year. I can't believe how little she was. Look at those cheeks. They just scream "Pinch Me!"



Yesterday Bella and I watched the movie "A Little Princess" She was so enthralled with it. She sat on my lap the entire movie. The movie (for those who've never seen it) is about a girl named Sarah who is her Daddy's little princess. Well he goes off to fight in a war and she is left in a girl's boarding school. The headmistress treats Sarah kindly because her father is very rich, but deep down resents Sarah. After some time, the father is presumed dead and his assets are frozen by the British government. The headmistress makes Sarah become a servant girl in the school so she can pay for her room and board. Sarah is treated horribly but all the while she still insists she is a Princess because all girls are no matter how they may look or where they may sleep.

In the house next door a man wounded from battle is recovering. He has lost his memory. Yeah yeah you guessed it. It's Sarah's father. When she needs him most, she discovers him. At first he doesn't remember her but after her screams for her Papa, his memory is jogged and he rescues his little princess.

It was at this point in the movie that Bella jumped up and started clapping and shouting "Yay Daddy!! Yay Daddy!" It was the greatest thing I've seen in a while.

Here are some more recent pictures of my little princess

Notice the cupcake on her shirt? That's my girl!!

Ashisms

I don't know how many of you know this but my son Ash is just about the most entertaining and hilarious 40, er I mean, 6 year old ever. The things that come out of his mouth just crack me up.

For instance, when I went got pregnant with Bella Mike and I came to Ash and told him that Mommy had a baby in her tummy.

His reply.... "Ewwww! You ate a baby!!??!!"

When I went into labor with Bella, Mike's Dad came to pick up Ash so he could stay with them while I was in the hospital. As they're driving away (keep in mind, he was 3 at the time) he had the window rolled down and he's waving to us and says

"Bye! Still be my parents!!! I'll see you when you're done having distractions Mom!" Totally cheerful and everything.

This morning he's packing his lunch into his lunchbag and notices that I gave him a string cheese.

"You're gonna disappear cheese! Prepare yourself soldier!!"

Mike and I just looked at eachother and busted up laughing. Man I love this kid!

Cake, Cake, Cake

This week's one and only cake. How sad. I do like how it turned out though. I'm not a huge fan of sheet cakes. They just really seem boring to me. I'd so much rather stack some cakes on top of each other for more of a "wow" factor. I especially don't like combining birthdays on a cake. This one was for a little boy and a little girl. She just said she wanted one side purple and one side blue. Well I wanted the whole cake to flow together and not be so broken up. This is what I decided to do. It's a chocolate cake with buttercream icing and fondant details. Super quick cake.

Quick tutorial

Okay so here is my coupon binder. It's a zip up one with a strap. There is also an accordion file folder on the front. I use that to keep track of rebates and receipts. That front little pocket is my "lazy pocket" I put stray coupons in there until I get around to filing them away.

Here the binder is open. I put that weeks grocery and drug store ads there just so I have them handy. Also you can see that some of my compartments are empty. There's a great reason for that. The reason is, I took a summer long hiatus from couponing. It was just too dang hot to drag the kids from store to store. I shopped occasionally but really we lived off of the stockpile we already had. This way, we saved money by not buying more groceries and used up what might have gone bad had I kept shopping the way I do. It's a win win situation. The sad part of that is, when I restarted couponing last month, I basically had to start from scratch with my coupons.



This is a basic page in my binder. I use the baseball card holders to organize them but you could also use photo album pages. Whatever makes you more comfortable. With baseball card holders, I obviously have to fold a few of the coupons to make them fit. Not a big deal to me but if it is to you, them I suggest you use the photo holders instead.



I cut an index card in half and it is the perfect size to mark what each compartment is for. This page seems to be mostly cereals. Now if I just put a generic cereal compartment, there wouldn't be enough room for all of the coupons. So I have them divided into General Mills cereal, Kelloggs cereal, Quaker cereal (includes oatmeal), Post Cereal, and Maltomeal cereal. Got it?



Not everything needs specific brands. For instance I have a single compartment for water, gum, chocolate, and baking mixes. After time, you will see what will work best for you.



I also arrange my pages by what makes sense to me. The first page has drinks. The second page has baking items and spices. The third page has things like pasta, rice, pasta sauce, and boxed meals. Some people will organize by the aisles in the grocery store. Just whatever makes sense in your mind.




So our grocery stores here run their ads from Wednesday- Tuesday. I am lucky enough to receive my ads on the Monday before the sales start. This gives me time to look through the ad and match up my coupons. I have a rule that I don't even think about buying something until it is 50% off BEFORE the coupon. When it hits the 50% off, then I see if it's worth it to me yet. A lot of stores have what they call phantom sales. They are tempting but if you wait it out, the sale will usually hit a rock bottom price.



Again, after doing this for a while you will learn what a rock bottom price for certain things are. For instance, I know that Quaker instant oatmeal, usually hits a rock bottom price of about $1.88 around here. Last Sunday's paper had a coupon for $0.70/1. I went online and ordered a bunch of that coupon realizing that it would get me the oatmeal for around $0.88 a box. Well how happy was I when on Monday I got my ads and there was the oatmeal for only $1.77 a box. Well shoot!!! You know I gots me some oatmeal!

Okay back to the picture. This is part of the Safeway ad. Right now until the 25th, they are running a promo where when you buy 20 items of certain products, they take $20 off instantly at the register. Things I've been buying: Betty Crocker muffin mix- store price $2.00. I have a .50/1 coupon which doubles to $1 off. Price before promo deduction = $1. Now when I buy 20 of them (and yes sometimes they do look at me like I'm crazy for buying 20 muffin mixes) $20 comes off making my muffin mixes free. See how that works. So basically when I buy 20 items, the register takes $1 off of each item.

To make this work to my best advantage, I look for items that when matched with my coupons will be as close to free as possible. I've been buying hefty plates, muffin mixes, cake mixes, microwave popcorn, progresso soup, brownie mixes, taco shells, chex mix and capri suns.

Okay my last tip for now since this has not turned out to be very "quick".

Buy in multiples. Either buy 3 or more Sunday papers or (I actually do both) order extra coupons from www.thecouponclippers.com or ebay (just type in what coupon you are looking for in the search field and you'll be surprised how many pop up) Many times, different areas get a different value coupon than yours might. An example would be, here we got $1.35/2 Quaker oatmeal. Other areas got .70/1. If I had used the one from here. My cost for the oatmeal would have been $1.10 a box instead of the .77 a box I paid. It may be a small difference but I bought 20 boxes. That difference saved me $6.60.

Any questions class?

Gotcha beat Jenna!!

I have to laugh at this receipt because it is totally ridiculous. Not the amount I saved or the amount I spent but the sheer idea that the amount of things I bought would normally cost $140!! It's just nutty! I don't understand why anyone would pay full price for things.

In actuality I saved $140.80 this trip. Those $4 checks were actually store issued savings "checks".

I do love this time of year for sales though. I love stocking up on yummy soup and oatmeal and other warming comfort foods. It just keeps my hopes up that this dang heat will end soon. Even if it only lasts a few months.

Soon the baking sales will start and stores will smell like cinnamon and apples and other spices. That really gets me excited. I have often (and this just shows how nerdy I am) gone out at night, after the kids are asleep and Mike is home, just to wander around grocery stores looking and smelling. It's good times.

I think I need a life.

Hmmm

For the last 3 or 4 days, I've been feeling pretty heavy hearted for some reason. I'm not exactly sure why or where it's coming from. I know the obvious reason could be the whole September 11th thing and yes, it was too hard for me to watch the tributes today, but I don't think that's it. I'm not depressed either. The feelings I am feeling are not towards myself. I'm just feeling a really heavy burden for others right now.

Tonight I went to a Women's Ministry meeting. We are reading a book called Captivating: Unveiling the Mystery of a Woman's Soul. It's amazing. It's about how the heart of a woman matters more than anything else in creation. The desires you had as a little girl (being a princess who is rescued by a knight in shining armor) and the longings you still feel as a woman - they are telling you of the life God created you to live. He wants to come and be the Hero of your story, to rescue your heart and release you to live as a fully alive and feminine woman.

Well we got to discussion time and some women offered stories of where their "wounds" in life came from. It was absolutely devastating to hear them speak. We are women! The crown of creation! We deserve to be treated as such.

I came home and snuggled close to my children. I just needed to be close to them. To smell their sweet breath as they slept. They both smiled the exact same smile as they were hugged. It was a smile that spoke of security. I'm so glad for that.

And the award for ugliest cake goes to......

ME!!!!!! No seriously, it is hideous. It's not a big deal though. This past weekend we had our friends Thomas and Stephanie over. Thomas is Mike's best friend from like forever and Stephanie is his wife. Thomas had a birthday a couple of weeks ago and Mike's birthday is on the 23rd of this month so i decided to do a joint birthday cake for them.

Now at first it was a WHOLE lot uglier than this. The details were this terrible, really girly, blue color. Mike came home from work and saw it. The first thing he said was "Those guitars are fenders. Neither of us play fenders." Yeah thanks babe. Like I even know what that means. A guitar is a guitar. Then he wanted to know why the guitars were sparkly blue and why I used that really ugly blue color on the cake. Well good friggin grief!

Please don't take him seriously. He is my biggest fam and supporter, but he will also tell me the truth and won't let me get away with something he knows isn't my best.

So I tore off the decorations and redid them in a charcoal gray. It's still ugly. Oh well. You win some, you lose some.

We had a fun night though. We played Dance Dance Revolution which my kids just adore playing. They both play exactly the same way as their personalities. It's pretty funny. Ash is very deliberate with every move and Bella just bounces around once the music starts. That's just so "them".

PS I still can't move pictures wherever I want to so I'm not going to post the pic of the kids playing DDR.

New haircut and CT results

Okay I do not take a good picture. I'll leave that for my very photogenic sisters but at least you can get the jist of my new hair cut from this picture. For some reason my nose looks fat to me. So does my whole face for that matter. However I did just get back from the dr where I learned that I've lost 9 pounds since July. WooHoo!!! Only 20 more to go!! Go Hannah it's your birthday!

So anyways, I got my results from the CT scan. Seems the lump is not cancerous. I do however have quite a few cysts on my thyroid. My dr was actually pretty surprised that I felt anything on my jaw at all since all of the cysts are right underneath my jaw on the fleshy part. She thinks the actual lump that I feel may be an infection from previous dental work. Makes sense since it's right by a tooth that had work done. I dunno. But what I think is amazing is that because of that lump, I found out about the cysts.

In 6 weeks I have to go to the hospital to have a more in depth ultrasound to check on the cysts. They want to make sure they're not growing or becoming any more evil. And also I get to do lots more bloodwork!! WooHoo cuz we all know how much I LOVE having needles stuck in me!

September 2nd

I got a hair cut! I got a hair cut!! Hehehehe

My hair was really long. About 5 inches past my shoulders (hey that's long for me alright!!) It is now just to my chin in the front and stacked in the back. Very cute. Although that one lady today made me cry because she didn't like it and was not afraid to tell me so in a not so nice way.


I love it. Mike loves it and that's all that matters!! So there!

Christmas time is coming

Okay okay I know. I'm a little bit of a spazz when it comes to Christmas. I just love it so much and get really excited about it.

I had an idea for this year and I'd like everyone's take on it. I would really like to do something that would bring all of the grandkids together even if they really are far apart from eachother. I would like to host a Gingerbread House decorating party. I was thinking that the kids who live close could all come to my house for the party. Then I would mail a kit and decorating goodies to each of the other grandbabies so that every VanSciver grandchild could make their own gingerbread house.

Of course the very little ones could have Mommy or Daddy's help but I'd love to see how creative the older ones could get. We could all take pictures of our kids and their houses and post them somewhere for all to see.

I personally would love for this to become a yearly tradition.

So, whatcha think?