Family Pictures

I'm sure we will use one of these for our Christmas card, so don't be surprised when you see it again! My friend Mona did a great job this afternoon getting Emily to settle down so she could take some great pictures. We were at the Irmo town park.

Road Trip!

This may be our only chance in a long time to take a car trip, and with gas prices at $1.65/gallon we couldn't pass it up! So off to Arkansas we go for Thanksgiving! My grandparents moved there from CA about two years ago, and they just completed a major renovation of their house, so they are set for us to come visit!

We plan on leaving right after school is out on Tuesday, and driving through Atlanta for dinner, and crashing at a hotel for the night in Birmingham. Then we are off to drive another eight hours or so on Wednesday until we got to their house in Arkansas. We will stay Wed, Thurs, and Fri night and head home on Saturday morning.

Emily is a great traveler. We will load up the car with her leapster, DVD player, crayons, and I wrapped up some cheap dollar tree toys and let her open one every couple of hours when she gets restless. We did this for our Disneyworld trip last summer, and she was a champ!

I hope everybody has a great Thanksgiving, and if you are traveling, that you travel safe!

Things I sometimes replace with sleep!

I was thinking today of all the ways I used to spend my time in the evening before I was in bed by 8 pm. Here is my list:

* Grey's Anatomy Thursday- Ladies from my neighborhood get together to watch and drink some tasty adult beverages. Needless to say, I no longer am able to participate... 9pm is well past my new pregnancy bed time!

* Talking to Becky on the phone. She and I are both busy sleeping, so less catching up has been a result.

* Keeping my house clean. 'Nuf said.

* Bible Study- Even though I am still trying to rise from bed at 5:30 most mornings to actually do my study, I am not able to come to Tuesday night Bible Study.

* Reading... there are two books I have started, and I am not any closer to finishing them now than a month ago.

Some days I even am in bed before Emily, which means that I don't help bathe or put her to bed with a story. Thank goodness I have Scott who is awesome! Hopefully the tiredness will end soon!

Exhausted

I can't believe how tired I am! Monday I was in bed by seven, and slept through the night with no problem. Last night I think I was in bed by nine, and that wasn't soon enough!

Tonight we had Marie Calendar's chicken pot pies for dinner. I have not bought those since being in college, but tonight I was so glad to have them in the freezer! I popped them into the oven, then headed upstairs for a nice nap while they baked for an hour! I can't tell you how happy I was to have dinner be so easy tonight! But then after dinner, I was back in bed feeling nauseous until almost nine. The constant nausea and fatigue is really frustrating, and I can't wait for it to be over! (I hope it will be over!)

Of course my sleeping constantly has Scott on his toes. He has to pick up my slack with the chores, and taking care of Emily. And Emily! She is continually sweet! This evening when they woke me for dinner, she had colored a picture that she thought would make me feel better.

A new obsession

Having twins will obviously make an impact on our budget. I am already looking for ways to be frugal, and wanted to share my new find with you. It really has become a new obsession!

The site is called The Grocery Game and it lists all of the specials for multiple grocery stores. The founder has researched the sale cycles for the different markets, and has come up with a brilliant list for each grocery store. The idea is that you buy things when they are at the "rock-bottom prices" and stock up so you don't buy them during the times when they are not on a sale cycle.

After the new market sale circular comes out, the site posts a new list of everything on sale for that store. It is color coded- black is "okay price" blue is the "rock-bottom" price, and green is free! It lists the item with the sale price, and then tells you exactly what coupon to use. (Coupons from the Sunday paper)

Every Sunday after church I log on and bring up three different lists for my three grocery stores. I click on the items I want, print the list, and then find the appropriate coupon and clip them to the list.

Today I went to my three stores and spent a total of $90. I saved over $30 dollars in coupons, and over $75 in market specials. The amount of groceries I got for the money was astounding. And after my third week of doing this our pantry, fridge, and freezer are very full, so I am saving time by not needing to run to the grocery store because we aren't out of things! I am so proud of my savings that I put the receipts on the fridge! :)

If anybody wants to try it, email me and I will give you the information. It does cost $10 for eight weeks, but offers a trial period for $1. But obviously I think it is worth it if you are willing spend about 2 hrs. a week actually using it. Becky and Jay tried it today. I hope that others will find it useful as well! :)

Two favorite views

After Sarah and Justin took pictures of their workspaces, I thought maybe I would do the same. But I don't really have a desk in my classroom. (takes too much space!) So that won't work.

But this morning I thought of a place where I could take a picture and surely call it my "space." The back table on our patio. This is where I do my bible study in the summer, but with highs close to 80 the past couple days, I was able to enjoy it this morning too. The trees are gorgeous! We got lots of rain this year, which made the colors much more vivid than I remembered from last fall. This is my view from the table.
And of course I snapped this picture of Emily this morning. While sitting at the desk in the office she walked in and asked me to take her picture. So I guess you could say this is the view I get while blogging. Thanks to Miss Emily the Great. At your service to help with all your needs! (and she even can unload the flatware from the dishwasher!!)

** and yes, that is her fearsome dog Dakota at her toes... always ready to back her in danger! (or eat a fallen crumb!)

Bed time cuteness

Tonight after the normal bed time routine, Emily decided that she would read to me, rather than me read to her. She picked this book. She read the title, and then pointed to the author and said, "by... Mom, who is this guy again?" So I told her the author's name, and then she was off reading me the book! Of course she had much of it memorized, but the part about the "bees in the peas" she didn't remember, so she looked at the picture for a moment, and finally got that line too! I was seriously amazed at her. Just that she remembered the predictable text to get words like "rousted" and "figs" really surprised me.

Of course I had to get Daddy so she could read the book again for him, which she proudly did!

Then after we tucked her in bed we went in the other room for a few minutes before she got up and wandered in with us. "I really want my rooster" she said with a smirk. I had no clue what she was talking about, but Scott did. Apparently when they cleaned her room last week they removed "baby" toys. The stuffed rooster was one of them, and it was very apparent that Emily was using a prime stalling technique so that one of us would be compelled enough to get into the attic where it is stored and fish it out form the rest of the stuffed baby toys. No. Such. Luck. Scott laughed hard and told her to get back in her room. Stalling has become a regular pattern around here. Sometimes it is rather comical what she will try.

Halloween Costume Pic for Justin

Emily wasn't sure what she wanted to be this year for Halloween. She started off saying she wanted to be a sushi roll, but she later changed her mind and wanted to be Peter Pan, and later a cupcake, and then later still a banana.

Finally my mom called and said she found a cute unicorn costume. We went with it, and Emily loved it! Her back two feet were the unicorn's back legs, and the front legs hung down in front of her. On halloween night we went to the neighborhood party where she won most unique!

These pics were taken from Boo at the Zoo. My camera broke, so thanks to Lori for snapping these and passing them on! Emily is with Sara (Tinker Bell). By the way, Emily did have face paint on, and we quickly removed it after she couldn't keep her hands out of it. But the red you see on her face wouldn't come off!
Hope your Halloween was fun!

Time to VOTE!

I stood in line for about two hours before voting today. I was glad to see so many people taking advantage of their civic responsibility. I read that only 51% of all Americans voted in the 2000 election. Hopefully we will see much larger numbers come out to vote this year.

Scott stayed at home with Emily while I voted, and he left a few minutes ago to vote himself. I hope the lines aren't as long now for him. I am very thankful that we are both off today. I can't imagine what the lines will be like after five.

How long did you have to wait today?

Coming May 2009

Imagine our surprise at our ultrasound a few weeks ago when we saw more than one baby! Suddenly it all made sense that I was going to bed by 8 pm every night, and coming home for naps right after work. The nausea has been yucky at times, but for the most part these two babies have only made me tired.

Scott and I are thrilled at the idea of adding two more at once, and we just told Emily a few nights ago. She said she would like "a boy one and a girl one." Nice. They are fraternal twins (two separate eggs) so they could be two different sexes, or the same. Only time will tell.

Even though I have always said I would love to have twins, we never thought that we would actually be blessed with two additions at one time! God is good!