Happy Mother's Day

Grandma Loveridge, Me, Mom, Grandma Johnson, July 1982

This is a picture of 3 of the most
important women in my life.

I don't know how to properly put into words
the love and respect I have
for these wonderful women.
They have taught me so much.
I don't think I can ever thank them enough.


Branch, Me, Little Miss, Becky, Mont
April 2008

Becky, thank you so much for your
wonderful son. You're such
a great example to me about
what a mother is.

All I can say is:
THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!
I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

Happy Mother's Day

Grandma Loveridge, Me, Mom, Grandma Johnson
July 1982

This is a picture of 3 of the most important women in my life.

I don't know how to properly put into words the love and respect I have
for these wonderful women. They have taught me so much.
I don't think I can ever thank them enough.

All I can say is:
THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!
I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

A Child's Prayer

I have had an amazing experience this morning. One that has already taught me a lot and made my heart swell.

I had prepared breakfast this morning. By preparing I mean I poured the cereal into our bowls. As I was walking to Little Misses high chair and said "Do you want to say the prayer?" Lately, she has been having a hard time with the prayer and chooses to lay her head down in exasperation. But before I could even sit down she started the most beautiful prayer I have ever heard.

"Heavenly Father,
Thank you day.
Bless Mommy.
Bless Daddy.
Bless our bodies.
Say these things.
Name of Jesus.
Amen!"

I looked up with tears in my eyes at the beauty and sincerity of her 2 year old prayer.

Sometimes I wonder what kind of mother I am. Am I teaching her everything she needs to know? Are Branch and I teaching her about her Heavenly Father who loves her.

So today I feel pretty good. She is doing great.

Things I want for my daughter....

Little Miss,

I can't believe that 2 years ago you came into our lives! What a blessing and a surprise. You have made my life so full of happiness (and worry) and love and the best things in life.

I have been thinking a lot lately about what I want for you in your life:

I want you to play one sport well.
Or not and that is ok.


...to do the full push-up.

...to know how to do your hair.



...to always have a sense of humor.


...to play an instrument or sing.

... to run through the sprinklers.

...to use every sticker.


...to color every page.

..read the good books.

...have amazing friends.


...to always question.


...to love math and science.

...to stay strong in your faith..

...to always kiss your father and I good night

...to not get in too much trouble.

...to be a good big sister someday.

...to serve a mission...or not...

...to not be afraid of roller coasters.

...to find someone like your daddy.

...to do something you love.

There are a million things your father and I want for you but mostly we want you to know we LOVE YOU with all our hearts. We want you to be happy, because you have made us so happy!

Happy 2nd birthday, our beautiful girl.

Love,
Mom and Dad

(Ok, so I tried to find a picture that matches every saying, but I couldn't...so some match but some don't...oh well)

Sickness sucks.

Little Miss was really sick this last Saturday night. We are talking throwing up 12 time in one night. Poor girl. But I have to say there were some cute moments when she would throw up into the bowl and start shaking her head and saying "Nope...noooooo.....nope" or how she called them "Big Burps" because she would burp first. It really was scary because she didn't eat anything for almost 3 days and getting her to stay hydrated was like pulling teeth. I am glad that she loves ice chips so she at least would eat. I was so worried she would get dehydrated and would need to go to the hospital.

Well, not that she is all better...guess what....

Branch woke up last night and proceeded to clear out his stomach. He even called in sick this morning. He hates to call in sick.

And me...well, lets say yesterday Little Miss watched a LOT of TV while I sat mowning on the couch, or playing in her room while i mowned on her chair. Today I actually feel better but I have used the bathroom today more then I did last week! I just feel glad that while I don't feel good I feel well enough to take care of my sicko hubby and beautiful full-of-life-even-though-she-didn't-fall-asleep-until-late-and-woke-up-early-and-probably-won't-take-a-nap daughter

And Little Miss is of course feeling great and is going to be running circles around us today.

Heaven Help Us!!

JAJ Response

Julie.

This is my response to your question (sorry it took forever!)

Julie asked: Can you share your money saving secrets? Once you said you were going to do multiple posts about couponing. I got the paper and clipped ads for 6 months and I felt like I didn't save anything, and if I used coupons I would end up with a pantry full of boxed snacks and nothing more, so I quit. Since I consider you to be better than most people at stretching a dollar, I would like to hear your best secrets to frugal living. What are your favorite freebies? Where do you find the best deals?

I had a good friend in Texas try to teach me but I wasn't getting it. I felt like you. I was getting cheap snacks and nothing else. One day I googled couponing and a couple other words and I found this website on Michael and Mickenzies blog. It is called thekrazycouponlady.com. GO THERE. Look around.

If you REALLY want to save money read their "10 days to become a krazy coupon lady" they says everything I know about couponing. For example the 2nd day they talk about newspaper subscriptions and internet coupons. Did you know you can print coupons from your computer? You learn couponiing lingo and saving strategies.

So first, read that. YOU WILL LEARN A LOT!!

Second....Bookmark this page. One of the great things about this website is that it gives scenarios of what to buy and what coupons to use to maximize your savings.

Have you looked around it yet? Do that then come back and finish reading my post....

Alright. Good. Isn't it an amazing easy to use site?

Now what you need to do is to google "couponing" and other catch phrases and find a couple of websites that help you and that fit your needs. (Then share them with me!!)



Some more of my tips...

***When you eat out you need to use coupons. There are always coupons for restaurants that you may frequent. Look for them in your newspaper and your coupon books...Also, we also try restaurants that we wouldn't try otherwise because we might didn't know about them and are given a good deal. Try restaurant.com. You can regularly buy gift certificates for 70% to 80% off. That is you can buy a $25 dollars gc for $2!

***I know you HATE thriftstores but they are a GREAT way to save money. On Saturday Branch and I bought Little Miss her birthday gift (I will post pictures of it later). The toy we got her retails for $150 dollars. We bought ours for $4o. Brand new with a only a little problem we have to fix but SO WORTH IT! She has a lot of nice brand name clothing I spent $1-$4 one. I already have a large collection of 3T clothing for her- at least 10 pants and 20 or more shirt I have probably only spent $15. Most of them brand new! The saving in shoes alone has saved us a months rent at least!

Me, I have recently bought two new (to me) pair of pants at D.I. and I spent $8. This included a abercrombie and fitch pants that retailed around $80! Branch is really hard on his pants and shirts at work so we get $4 pants and $3 shirts for him pretty regularly.

We also buy other products at thrift stores too. Look around and you can find some amazing things that you can save money on.

Give it a try. (Just wash it when you get home)

***Garage sales. You can barter for the things. How cool is that!!

***Find a couponing friend. Someone that can help you that you can talk to and may even be able to take turns when you go shopping

***Look around before buying anything over $50. I am still learning about looking around but sometimes that save TONS!

All right that is all I can think of right now. Let me know what you think.
How about you other bloggers. What are your saving tips?

What a crazy couple of months.

Car was in accident but now fixed and it's beautiful.
Computer crashed and now fixed and it's still slow.
Other computer needs a new fan, working on that.
Branch was in Reno for 6 days, didn't have fun, but learned a lot.
Little Miss enjoys nursery now!!
Dad has a really big kidney stone, been in pain for last 10 days. Tomorrow he is having surgery to break up the stone, but still has to pass those. Poor guy.
The Olympics started. I really only enjoyed the winter Olympics when they were here in SLC, and I got to see TWO Olympic events! Maybe I will enjoy it more when figure skating comes on. Who doesn't love figure skating.
I promise you Julie I will write my post in response to you! I WILL!!
Branch and Little Miss are sick right now. Poor guys! L, J, and E are also sick! Not fun!!

Alright well anyway...