*Well, I'm back*

HEY!!  I'm still alive and well!  I know, I got off track from the blogging thing, my bad!  I had to stay away for a little bit~ I didn't want to spill the beans about the picture to the right!  This time, we wanted to wait a little while before telling people that Sylas would be a big brother!  I know I have a BIG mouth, and would have said something on here~and that wasn't the way I wanted everyone finding out~ even tho, I don't know who all reads this, and I don't know how many people read this; I know my mom does, so I didn't want her to find out this way!

Anyway, I am now 18 weeks along and FINALLY feeling better!  There has been LOTS that has gone on in the past 18 weeks!!

Our little family made a trip out to the west coast to visit my husbands family.






My husband and I took a little trip out to LA to see some friends get married.

Our Little Man turned 2!!!  We had a little party at a local farm... complete with farm animals, hay ride, and a pumpkin patch!! 

And of course, we had Halloween!!!  Little Man couldn't decide what he wanted to be!

And, now... it is onto Christmas Time!  I have to honestly say, I am already MORE EXCITED about Christmas than I have been in a VERY LONG TIME!!  It is completely different now that I have a child~ much more excited to go shopping!!  We also got a visit from one of Santa's special Elf's this year!  He hasn't shared his name with us yet, but hope to know REAL SOON!!! If you have any ideas, let us know!!  We are taking suggestions until December 1st.... Winner gets a prize!

**Old Skool**

Back in 1988, 1989 &1990, I was living in Gwinnett, Ga~ The only 3 years of my life when I lived outside of North Carolina.  There was the all young boy band which all young girls loved "New Kids On The Block"~ Yes, I was one of those crazy little girls who was totally IN LOVE with NKOTB!!  However, in my defense, I did not have all the crazy paraphernalia!  All I had was a Jordan Knight t-shirt, stickers and many posters!!  Although, I had friends who had the whole 9 yards~ the sheets, the buttons, ALL the t-shirts, and I can't even remember what else!!

All I EVER wanted when I was 9 years old was to be able to go to one of their concerts!!  I made a deal with my parents that if I EVER got straight A's, they'd have to take me!!  My sister was in high school at the time, and she was allowed to go to one of their concerts with a few of her friends!

Anyway, I NEVER made straight A's in my life~ BUT, I did FINALLY make it to an NKOTB concert a few years ago!!  Yes, a few years ago!  The dream I had when i was 9 years old had FINALLY COME TRUE!!  My cousin A'me and I had bought tickets up in the nosebleed section!!

A'mes roommates had front row side stage tickets and some way, they worked their girlie magic on this guy ~ and they invited us down to their seats!

NKOTB Oct '08

This is one of my favorite pictures because Jordan looks like he is looking right at me while I am snapping away!!

My friend Jen & me

Once again, I got to see my most favorite childhood band last week!!  This lady's hubby, got her tickets to NKOTB for her birthday!!  They were pretty close up tickets!!  She knew I was a fan so she invited me to make the trip up to Greensboro with her to see them!!  We had a blast and I am just going to post the pictures for you to see~  There is a video below; and it is of Joey (from NKOTB) coming up into the stands, 3 rows in front and across from us!  I know we are probably in the minority of really liking NKOTB, however, it was still exciting 23 years later!

A couple other friends were there too!!

NKOTB July '11

*We Got Mail*

Saturday was a BIG mail day for us!!  Sylas got 2 packages in the mail!!

One package was from Sy's Nana Piggy and Papa (Brent's parents)!!  They just recently took a trip to Alaska and got all the grand children souvenir's!!  In his package were 2 books, a t-shirt and a pair of socks!!  All Alaska themed!  This is such a treat for him to get surprise's like this from them since

they live in Portland, OR.  We miss them soo much!!  We will get to see them in just a few short weeks, we are all getting SOO EXCITED!!!  Sylas is at a great age right now, that this trip is going to be so much fun!!  However, I'm not sure I am looking forward to the plane trip tho!!  Anyone have any advise on traveling on a plane with a 22 month old???  At home, he is into EVERYTHING; i'm just afraid on a plane it will be worse!!  But, the end result will be great!!! 

Our other package came from our friends who live in Korea!  I blogged about her earlier how she has inspired me to blog (and how she is SUCH a great writer)!!  I talked about how she did a "giveaway week" on her blog just because she got 20,000 hits on her blog!!  She posted one Korean item a day, and to win that item all you had to do was comment on her daily post!  At the end of the week (which is today) she will draw a name from each daily post and that person will win that item from that day they posted!  Only rule: you could only comment once a day! And guess what??  I won on one of the giveaways!!!  It was so much fun!!  This is what we won!!  It is really cool!  It is a piece of white silk with Sylas written on it using bright rainbow colors~ Each letter is formed from something from nature, like a bird, bamboo, a tree, a sunset~ I got to choose what I wanted on the banner, so I just decided to get Sy's name put on it.  It's really pretty, I'm not sure where I'm going to put it just yet, but for now, it's hanging on the wall in our den!  THANK YOU MARY!

*Field Trip*

I took an afternoon off from work this week so Sylas and I had some time to take a little field trip!!  We got to go down and see Daddy's office!  Sy has been before, but now that he is getting older, it is MUCH more FUN to go places that are "new" to him!!

Daddy had a little bit of work to do, so Sylas decided to help out!  I didn't take as many pictures as I should have, but Sylas had was having fun!!

The look Sylas gets when he sees Brent and the way he interacts with with Brent melts my heart every time!!

Sylas had so much fun seeing Daddy at work!!  He is such a Daddy's Boy!!

*Little Man*

 This is a picture of Sylas eating his first bite's of corn!!  I think he has had corn off the cob before, but not too sure about that~ But this was his FIRST time eating corn ON the cob!!  I helped him with the first few bites, then he decided he wanted to do it himself!!

This picture was taken on July 4th out on the lake on the way to watch the fire works!  Sylas slept the whole boat ride out~ and did wake up for the fireworks, but didn't seem amused by them.  I think if he wasn't so tired, he would have totally enjoyed them!

*BabySitters*

I had a couple of great baby sitters growing up!!  Patrick and Laurie were awesome!!  They were our babysitters up until I was about in 2nd or 3rd grade, after that we moved out of state.   

Sylas, has two different babysitters right too!  These two ladies are awesome and I hope he enjoys them as much and remembers them like I remember Patrick and Laurie.  Sy's babysitters are Morgan and Robin.  Two wonderful ladies who are at two completely different points in their lives!

picture posted without permission

Robin has been keeping Sylas about 2 days a week since he was about 4 months old ~ She is married with 4 children of her own, 3 girls and a boy.  Her oldest daughter will be a freshman in high school in August and her youngest, who's name is Silas~ will be starting Kindergarten in August.

picture posted without permission

And there's Morgan ~ she has been keeping him 1 day a week during the summer's~ she just graduated from Appalachian State University with a degree in Psychology and Child Development.  I have worked with her for the past 6 years or so; and now I am her boss, but I love her to death and she's just awesome!!

Both these ladies keep him in the middle of the day while I am at work, and he usually naps at their house and bring him back to my place of employment where I get 4 hours of free child care a day!

However, here are a couple of pictures I have received of my child while they were on their watch!  I'm not sure which picture I am more upset by.... my child voluntarily putting himself into a dog crate (so, she say's, i would have taken pictures too) or my child being returned to me in a C@rolina T-Shirt???  When revenge is made, I will share.......

In the meantime, I am taking suggestions for revenge ideas....????

*Cousins*

This was the winner this year!

 There are 9 grandchildren on my side of the family!  Ranging from ages 16 months to 14 years!!  With 8 of them under the age of 8!  Every year for Father's Day we take a picture of all the grand kids and put it on a coffee mug for my dad~ we then take that same picture and blow it up poster size for my mom for her birthday.  I've only been a part of this tradition for 2 years now, but almost every year for the last 8 years, there has been another grand child added to the mix!  Trying to get a picture of 9 children looking at the camera is a HARD thing to do!

This weekend Sylas and I went swimming with his cousins on my side of the family!  There are 9 of them total!!  Here are is Sylas with 3 of his cousins~ Coby age 7, Smith age 4 and MollieAnn age 16 months!

While we were at the pool.... the Chi@k-Fil-A Cow showed up!!  They brought some of their New Spi@cy Chicken Sandwiches to give away.  Sylas didn't want to have anything to do with the Cow~ he would just 'moo' at him when he was about 10 feet away~ once we got closer to him than that, Sylas would scream and turn away!!  Needless to say, getting this picture of us with the cow as difficult!  I am holding his head in the direction of the camera!

*Why Blogging*

My husband has asked me several questions about this blog! He doesn't understand why 1) I would want to write about whats going on in our my life and 2) who care's about my grocery shopping adventures & my our garden.  I told him I like to read other peoples blogs about what's going on in their lives~ I see blogging a little bit more personal than Face Book~ There are two ladies who have inspired me to blog.  Both of them blog about their lives and family's and their fun crazy adventures!  Their blogs are also fun!!

take this one for example~ This is my friend Mary's blog~ she is married with 2 children and they are stationed in Korea right now and will be transferring to Germany come October (i think)~ I've been reading her blog since they moved to Korea about 8 months ago.  She just did an awesome "Giveaway Week".  She posted one Korean item a day, and to win that item all you had to do was comment on her daily post!  At the end of the week (which is today) she will draw a name from each daily post and that person will win that item from that day they posted!  Only rule: you could only comment once a day!  So fun and inspiring!!    

Here is another one I've been reading as well.  I've been reading this one for a long time... This is my friend Amy's blog.  I love reading about her adventures from traveling to China to adopt a child to her juggling the hectic day of having 6 children and how sane and selfless she is!! 

Needless to say, my husband is right!  I don't even understand why I want to write about my life and I don't know who would even care to read about my grocery shopping adventures & our garden!  But, what I can hope for, is that, maybe one day our life will be as interesting and adventurous as my friends Mary and Amy! 

**These are not the only blogs I read; but two of the blogs I check out daily and get frustrated that they don't blog more often!  I just enjoy reading their blogs!!

*The Garden*

Last year, we Brent decided he really wanted to have a garden.  So, we he planted several different things, and tried to plant them by the books~ you know, planting the seeds inside for X amount of time, then move them outside X amount of hours a day and bringing them back in, and then finally planting them in the ground.  Brent built a raised garden bed, 2 feet high and 12 feet long.  Last year he planted corn, spinach, tomatos, jalapenos, cucumbers, cilantro and maybe a few other things but I don't remember.  Our problem with planting last year, we think, was that we planted too late.

Tomatos

Jalapenos

Corn

 This year, we planted again!!  We planted some of the same things as we planted last year.  Tomatos, jalapenos, corn, cucumbers, onions and cilantro!  Brent has been calling this years garden our "Salsa Garden".  I make some darn good homemade salsa; and now I can just use all the stuff from my garden!!  The only thing right now we don't have growing in our garden is cilantro.  We had some, but we planted it too early, so, it's all gone now~ oh well, we live and we learn!

Picked Monday, June 27

Picked Wednesday, June 29

We are getting tomato's out the wazoo!!  These are from the past couple days!!

I finally made salsa tonight using some things from our garden!!  I was VERY surprised to find out how many tomato's it took to get to 30oz!!!  Or maybe, our tomato's are a little bit on the small side.  If I remember correctly I had to cut up about 7 or 8 tomato's!!  Here is the final result!  It doesn't look too great in the picture,  however, I promise, once it is all settled and sits in the fridge over night,

it's going to be great!!!

*Another trip to the Store*

Well, I went back to the grocery store today.  I had to get a few more items I neglected to get before, which are "needs" around here!  Banana's, butter, and cilantro to make my homemade salsa!  And of course, I took a stack of coupons with me!  Here is my damage!

  

Total Items: 18
Total Cost before any savings:      $80.81
After Coupons and store savings:
 $39.60 Approx $2.20 cents an item

And I only used 8 coupons!!!  I don't think that's too shabby!!!  







Don't think all my posts will be about this couponing thing, because they won't!  I promise! 

*A Hobby??*

I work part-time at a local gym ~ an all inclusive type of place ~ they have a child care center where you can drop your children off while you go lift weights, take a Zumba class, go swimming or go play basketball in the gym. They used to do massages there too, but somewhere along the way, they phased that out! My job is supposed to be "part-time", but it always seems to take longer than the 25 hours I think I am supposed to work~ so I think I usually end up working umm, close to 40 hours a week. Most women, with children, would love to be a stay at home mom. I do!! However, just right now, at this time, I can't do that.

So, one thing I am doing to help my dream of being a SAHM come true is cutting coupons! Yes, I said it, cutting coupons!  I guess you can say it has slowly become kind of like a hobby for me.  Can couponing be a hobby??  I'm not going to become CRAZY with it, I won't run ALL OVER town to get the BEST DEALS on what ever~ I just want to cut costs where I can.

A couple of grocery stores close to my house double coupons less than .99 daily.  One particular grocery store will periodically will have a week were they do "Super Doubles" which means they will double coupons less than $1.98  (so that $1.50 coupon, automatically becomes $3.00)!!!  After some researching and reading up on how to coupon effectively, I've learned a little bit about the game!  I still however, have A LOT to learn!!

Here is a picture of my first coupon experience last year~ May 19th, 2010.

Total Items: 38
Total Cost before any savings:       $86.57
After Coupons and store savings:
$41.01 Approx $1.08 an item









Here are 3 pictures from my last coupon experience~ June 23 & June 25, 2011

Total Items: 16
Total Cost before any savings:      $44.06
After Coupons and store savings:
 $13.89 Approx 87 cents an item

  

Total Items: 13
Total Cost before any savings:  $39.91
After Coupons and store savings: 
   $18.53 Approx $1.43 an item

  

Total Items: 11
Total Cost before any savings: $41.73
After Coupons and store savings:
  $12.45 Approx $1.13 an item








Now, after this experience, I learned SOO MUCH!!!  I met a couple other crazy coupon people in the store, and I asked a few questions, and got some GREAT coupon tips!!  I also, should have waited an extra day before I went to the store, because a friend brought me all her left over coupons she wasn't going to use!!  I could have saved A LOT more if I had doubled up on my coupons!!  But oh well, you live and you learn!!  

During these trips, I did buy some things I normally wouldn't buy, and I did buy a few things I didn't have coupons for, but were things I did need.  However, I am proud to say, if I didn't use any coupons, I would have spent right over $125 for all the 40 items I bought!!  Instead, I spent right under $45 total!!!  I am a happy woman (even thought I know I could have saved a little bit more!)!


The more money I start saving now will lead me to my dream job: A Stay At Home Mom!

*Getting Started....*

Well, I started a blog a couple years ago when I got pregnant with our first child, and needless to say I was NOT a good blogger (check it out at your own risk; I'm warning you~it's no good)!!  I wrote maybe 4 times in about a 12 month period!  So, here I am, once again~ with another blog~ which I hope to keep up with!  I am in no way saying I am a good blogger now.  My plan is to just share what is happening in our my crazy busy life~ and maybe even share some secrets stories with you about our family!