Why Not?

I am not a coupon lunatic... but today I felt like one. This all began 6 weeks ago when I decided to pay $12/month for the Detroit Free Press to be delivered to my door 3 times per week. Coupons come Sundays, so that's the paper I really care about. (Other than coupons I take advantage of the puzzle page for my own enjoyment.)

Before I took that plunge, I had some encouragement from a few friends/family members of mine, namely Valerie, Jen Squire and my Aunt Tammy. They do "the coupon thing" so I thought that I might as well order the paper and try to save some money.

So yesterday I clipped ALL the coupons from the many coupon booklets that I had lying around. I learned that you are supposed to clip ALL the coupons out of the booklets, not just what you normally use. I hadn't been doing that for the last 6 weeks... oops. So I got caught up and organized them all in an empty 4x6 photo album.

So this morning I was all geared up and ready to go to Kroger, where all coupons $1 and under are DOUBLED. Yup. That is sweet, if you didn't know. Call your local grocers to see if any do the same. So the stuff in the picture above is worth close to $125. I paid $25. It seems too good to be true, really, but it does happen!

Two amazing deals that I found today were for the men's Speed Stick and the Loreal Vive products. They were Buy One Get One free (BOGO). Each item was upwards of $4 each, so with Kroger's sale they were 2 for $4 (or $2 each). Not bad! BUT for these brands I had coupons for $1 off 2 items, which were doubled b/c Kroger is awesome, so I paid $2 for 2 of them (or $1) each! That is 75% off!

Another one of my favorite items is Suave shampoo, which for a small bottle is only $1.07. I had quite a few $1/2 (that means $1 off 2 items), which is doubled to $2/2, so I pay $0.14 for the 2 bottles. Nice. (Last week these were on sale even more for $0.88 a bottle, which means that they would have been free with overage.)

Those Buddies soaps that you see on the right are $0.99 each. I had a $3/3 Johnson's products, so I got 3 of these babies for free, and the register always prints me out another coupon for $2.50/3. So I keep getting 3 buddies soaps for $0.50, over and over and over again!

Another thing... I had 3 coupons for Scott brand TP, but they were for the expensive kind only, Scott Naturals. So I looked at the first 5 or 6 digits under the bar code on both the coupon and the regular 4 packs of Scott and they matched. The coupon worked like a charm. As long as the first set of numbers match, the coupon will work!

So this really isn't hard! I was discouraged at first, trust me. It can take a few weeks of Sunday papers to come to get your coupon stock up. Let me give you all a few basic pointers that I have learned:

- Only use coupons on things that are on sale. Be patient and wait for things to match up.
- Clip all the coupons out of the coupon booklets and...
- Organize them well! You can use a binder, photo album, or accordion coupon folder.
- Try not to pay more than $1 for things that you are using coupons for. This won't always happen, but often it will.
- Always get the highest percentage off. If you need baby shampoo and you have a coupon, buy the smallest/cheapest bottle to get the deepest discount, instead of buying the bigger bottle you usually would buy.
- You can buy coupons on eBay. Yes, its true.
- You can combine store coupons with manufacturer coupons.
- If the first numbers match under the bar codes on the item and the coupon, the coupon will work, even if it describes or pictures a different line of a product. (They like to write/picture the more expensive item to get you to spend more.)

There are tons of coupon blogs that people use. I find it overwhelming. Maybe this is silly of me, but I just go to Kroger (b/c they double their coupons) and walk down every isle and look for yellow tags representing sale items. Then I look to see if I have a coupon. I usually remember my coupon inventory, which makes this matching up a lot easier.

My hope is that you will be inspired to save some cash and use coupons too! Don't pay retail for anything ever again! Especially toiletry items!

Almost Ready

Kira has had quite an interest in the potty lately. Well, she has more of an interest in doing everything that her bigger people around her do, hence, the potty. This picture is classic and describes her potty experience thus far to a tee. She likes it, tries it, but doesn't take it very seriously.

Adalin was 2 yrs. and 4 months old when she was officially potty trained. I am hoping that Kira will be done at the same age, in July.

Marta's Visit

We got to see Adam's sister, Marta for a day this past weekend! It was so great to get to visit with her, even if it was only for a day. We ate Cafe Rio, grilled out (amazing Middle Eastern marinated Kabobs that were to die for, see my cooking blog soon for the post), went to church together, sat in the sun for Sunday lunch, watched funny YouTube videos and relaxed.

Horrible picture of Adalin...

A Trip Back to Kirksville

Adam had to go to Kirksville last week for a test and I told him that we were coming too. We had a great trip back to the 'ville. We stayed with some great friends, the Jensons, and got to see so many others: the Wards, Nugents, Mr. Flammer, Miss Heino, Schuermanns, Petersons, Haas, TCC folk, Meg Sorhus, Ruth and Anngel (very briefly), Lofleys, Powells...

I had a chance to do some reflecting while driving around my old little town. I really didn't realize how much I grew while I lived there. I acquired a new puppy (Yukon), had a baby, bought my first house, sold my first house, met and kept so many great friends, learned how to be a good neighbor and better friend, learned the value of serving others, how to be independent, what being a single mom would feel like, how to support a medical student, how to grieve for a worn-out medical student, how to tend strawberries, planted my first vegetable garden, found my first slug, had a bat, bunny and mouse in my house (all on different occasions), painted my first house, had my first robbery (our camera was jsut stolen out of our car), learned the art of quilting, decoupage and bow-making, organized a community 5/10K...

This is where the first 2 years of our medical school journey took place. Overall, I think pleasant thoughts when I think of living in Kirksville, as long as I don't delve too much into my memory bank... It was hard. I have talked about how challenging medical school is before. I have said that other programs are also hard for many people, but I can't believe that anything is more difficult for a student than medical school. Some come close or may even equal the demand. We made it through though. The bookwork and exams were brutal. We survived. I really don't know how! As with many things in life, we often forget how hard things really were, how much pain we endured. I think back and often don't think it wasn't that bad. But then I dig deeper and remember the emotions of loneliness and grief that I felt so often then and I wish to never remember them again! All I can say is that I am glad its over!

As for our trip:

We were only about 1 hour away from Kirksville when we stopped to stretch our legs. The girls wanted to sit in the trunk and thought that it was so funny.

We had a chance to visit Meg, Indi's breeder. She showed us her miniature Jersey calf that was only a week old! She also worked with Indi a little bit, preparing him for the conformation ring. I got some great tips and pointers.

Here she is! This is our old house!

Our great friend, Elina, who we were so lucky to see a few times when we were in town. She lives in PA and was in town as well for her testing. I love this picture.

Kira at the beach throwing rocks. She has an obsession with rocks.

The Point Shelter. We had many a BBQ here when we lived in Kirksville.

Great Sleeping Position

Hike #2

A Day at the Beach

A friend and I went to this awesome county park in Linden. We decided to hit up the beach side of the park instead of the equally fun jungle gym across the street. There were huge sand piles on the beach that hadn't been leveled yet that the kids were attracted to like magnets. Adalin was too busy for the camera, but here is Kira having fun in the sun in the sand at the beach. :)

The First Hike of the Year

We love the state parks here in Michigan! There are awesome trails and the best part about them are that they are far enough away from roads that we can let all our dogs run free. We love the fresh air, the kids have a blast, and our zoo sleeps the rest of the day away. Perfect.

Adalin was SO funny during this hike. She insisted on being the line leader. She was a champ and walked the entire way. I guess Kira was equally hilarious b/c she was picking up every rock and rotten acorn that she could find along the way.

Hunting at the Church

We had a little Easter egg hunt at our church... it was a little too soggy outside for the moms' sakes. I know I didn't want to deal with mud and sopping wet socks. The girls had fun.

Dying Easter Eggs

Uh, yeah, a little late on this post! Better late than never!

We had a lot of fun dying eggs as a family a few days before Easter. I think it is just so fun when a child is grown up enough to really participate in an activity like this for the first time. Like Kira. Last year: no clue... obviously, since she was only a baby. This time around she insisted on doing it all herself. She did pretty well, despite a few cracked eggs. Of course, Adalin had the entire Easter egg plan mapped out in her brain. She was in charge, like always.

Easter 2009

We spent Easter this year at our house with my family. It was wonderful. We had pork tenderloin, baked potatoes and a few other sides with turtle cheesecake for dessert. We had nice weather, so we had an Easter egg hunt in our backyard! Before dinner the girls found their Easter baskets that the Easter Bunny (aka. My Mom) hid for them. It was a great day! Happy (late) Easter to everyone!

Naughty Boy!

My Baby is Two!

Kira's birthday was March 28th! I can't believe she is 2 already! What is crazy is that when Adalin turned 2 I was 7 months pregnant with Kira! No news yet on that subject. :(

Kira is a very smart and sweet little girl. She speaks in very complete sentences, very clearly and loves to copy her big sister. She has a little spice to her and doesn't like to be pushed around. She makes me laugh daily with her cute little voice and the things she says. She is very animated when she talks too. When she asks a question, she puts this eyebrow-raised, squinty look on her face. It is cute.

She loves baby dolls, coloring, play dough, swinging outside and animals. She is obsessed with jewelry and almost always has a bracelet or necklace on. She is still growing her hair out... and can now easily manage a ponytail on top of her head (even after Adalin chopped most of her hair off and few months ago.) She loves our dogs and is very authoritative with them, just like her parents. She tells them to sit and "NO!" when they are chewing something they should be. She will even open their mouths with her fingers to get things out. It is funny. She has no fear when it comes to that! She is scared to go in elevators!

She can finally jump and get both feet off the ground. She loves to paint. She loves to hang up clothes for me too. We often call her our "milk-a-holic" b/c she can down a cup of milk in 2 minutes and will do that over and over again throughout the day if I let her. She loves it, obviously. She loves suckers, pizza, strawberries, blueberries, broccoli, chicken and apples. Oh, and she loves chocolate milk too. When she wants some, she says to me (I am laughing right now thinking about it), "Mommy, can I have some chocolate hair boy?" Refer to this post for the history of that one! Kira heard the phrase and put it to good use. Whenever we go by a Big Boy restaurant, even now, the girls say, "Look! It's chocolate hair boy!" Silly girls.

Happy Birthday Baby Kira!

A