I'm having a new addiction problem

COUPONS!!!

My friends Kat, Karen and Dawn have got me started on some big time bargain shopping. I went shopping with Karen and Kat last week and I stood in awe as the total purchase went down and down and down as the coupons were scanned.

I've always tried to clip coupons and never understood how people would save so much money at it. I would look in the Post Tribune and there were a few coupons I could use but never anything much. Well, I was just looking in the wrong places! I didn't realize that there are several websites where you can print coupons at home and they'll still take them. I had signed up for one site before but all I got was spam e-mail. Well, I'm excited now because I have some great sites I use and I'm taking my first trip with all my new coupons tonight. We'll have to see how I do :)

If you're interested here are a few of the sights I use (thanks to my girls!)

moneysavingmom

coupons.com

afullcup

smartsource.com or smartsource with CVS tips

Plus, the Chicago Tribune is THE BEST for coupons. (in our area)

KINDERGARTEN!!!

My kindergarten beauty

Emma was so excited and nervous all at the same time. She's been acting up really bad for the past two weeks and I think a lot of it had to do with being so nervous and not knowing what to do with all of that nervous energy. BUT...... now here she is, my big girl!!

She had to pick out a special outfit and everything.

The first day was such a blessing. As most of you know her schedule is all day Monday & Wednesday and half day Fridays. Well this week for the first day (Monday) we just had chapel. I was so overwhelmed by so many things that day but chapel was a wonderful way to start a very emotional day. I love that the whole school got together to talk a bout the theme verse for the year and pray that God would watch over them and protect them and amongst learning their basic knowledge, grow closer to God through learning and memorizing scripture. I know that God does not put Christian school on everyone's heart and I'm totally fine with that but I 'm more certain everyday that He put it on ours and I'm thankful. Now as for the money....... I'm just not gonna think about it :)

I was telling my friend how I was totally over analyzing the whole first day thing and how this starts a very long journey in Emma's life. I'm thinking about it this way, never will we go back to all day everyday all year together. We wish for that at crazy times when I'm getting screamed at with "I DON'T LIKE YOU TODAY!!!!!!" but of course I love her and I'm missing her while she's gone. I am comforted by her amazing teacher and the fact that God is invited into every day at school with her publicly. I think she's a kid that's gonna need that. BTW - Jackson is missing her too. He's trying to cram in a whole day's worth of pestering into 5 hours and he's exhausted :)

Well, Wednesday was her first full day of school and she was WAY excited for this day. She had the menu for her first day bringing her lunch to school all planned out for weeks. Get this - Hot dog, Salad, Apple & Water. She cracks me up. Very random but all things she loves. I was pretty proud of myself with the crying part. ON the way to school every year we've picked a spot to pray for her day and her teacher and I almost lost it while driving and she goes "Are you crying??" in that "not again" voice and I pulled it back together and then I walked her into school, helped her with her book bag, kissed her goodbye and then cried once I got back to the car. I guess that's goo right :)

Here's Emma her second day; VERY proud of that new lunch box :)If anyone wants to cry, get Karen Kingsbury's book Let Me Hold You Longer. All about how we celebrate all of the kids "firsts" and how we don't think about the "lasts." I thought about that as we drove to school. Our last first day of Kindergarten with Emma, NOPE, not gonna cry again..... well right now anyway :)

Mommy & Emma Day

Last Friday Emma and I took a day just for the two of us and went to Indiana Beach. I wanted her to know how unbelievably special she is to me before she got in school this week and our lives change forever.

I didn't take very many pictures because I just wanted to have fun :) She was such a dare devil. I was completely amazed. We have found out that she LOVES roller coasters. She rode the biggest one six times! She also rode a lot of things that I didn't want to ride and it just so happen that there would be another young girl in line that would offer to ride with her. I was so thankful!

One of the nicest things was that she earned her ticket by participating in the summer reading program at our library (thanks Kat!) so it wasn't a very big expense either. My dad stays down on Lake Shaffer in the summer time so he just met us there on his boat and took "Gunther" fishing while we enjoyed our day together. It worked out perfect!

An Emotional Day

Today will be Emma's first day of Kindergarten. She is very excited and to be truthful I thinks she really needs it. She's been very emotional and a bit naughty lately and I think she's just been bored mixed with a little bit of anxiety. She the type of girl that just wants people to like her. That is good and bad. Good because she is usually very nice to other children but bad because she seems like she'll be or do whatever her friends want her to so they will like her. I've been praying like crazy about her school experience and that God will bring her a good group of kids and and that He'll protect her and give her boldness for Him as she goes through these years. It kind of terrifies me to think that we starting this journey of many years of school. I'm gonna miss her and I have thought over the past couple of years how little time I had before she would start school and I would have to share my time with her. Jack and I prayed over her together last night about all of these things and I hoping that "where two or more are gathered......" I probably won't get to post any first day pictures today but keep looking and I'll try to get to them sometime this week.

Today will also be the funeral for my cousin Adam. A little over a week ago he was driving and swerved to miss some deer and wrecked his car. He held on for a few days but his cranial injuries were just too severe. I gotta tell ya, I'm having a real hard time with this one. Adam's step-dad passed away just last fall so that means this family has these two tremendous tragedies within about nine months of each other. What is God doing? I've been asking myself this question and I can not come up with an answer. I guess sometimes there just isn't one for us to know. I prayed and sort of yelled (yep and I didn't get struck by lightning) at God and told Him that I thought He should've gone with my plan of miraculously healing Him and then everyone would've seen how awesome and powerful He is and would've given Him all the glory for this whole thing. As I cried and yelled I heard, "I know the plans I have." And I thought, "well I know that Jeremiah 29 says that but here in this situation, I don't think you know what you're doing (p.s. still no lightning). And I heard "I know the plan I have, for you, for Adam, for Lisa, for Jordan, for Derek, for Lois, and my grace is sufficient." I can't say that I've completely let my argument go but I have felt the prayers and am having a calming in my spirit which is good after so much anger. I know He'll help me come around but in this situation I think if I didn't know what I know in the bible so God could speak those soft whispers of His spirit to me, I would be completely lost. Pray for me and my family today as we let go of this young man we all dearly loved who used to let me borrow his bed when I would baby-sit them in the summer, how dearly loved his family, who would trade anything to take away the sorrow right now. Pray for us.

And as for me today, I'm thinking about buying some stock in Kleenex. It's gonna be a long day.

Parade

Last Saturday was the Annual Touch of Dutch Festival (I refuse to use the name Town & Country days that they changed it to just to be "politically correct"). Our church decided to have a float in the parade to get our name out in the community and show our support of the town. We have this big blue bus so we decide to decorate it and pull a trailer behind it for the little kids.

When they announced at church that they were doing this and that anyone could be in the parade showing support of our church, Emma's ears perked up and she was immediately hooked on the idea. As she heard more and more about the parade and the different floats that were going to be in it, she got excited about seeing all of the them. I sat her down (not really too excited about being in the parade myself) and told her that if she just watched the parade she could see all of those cool things and get candy so maybe we should just do that instead of walking in it. She looked at me with the most serious look and said "oh but mom, I've never in my whole life been IN a parade before. I want to be IN it." That's my little drama queen. If I could just convey the "never in my WHOLE life" just the way she said it; it was hilarious. So needless to say, we walked in the parade.

I was actually really glad that we did participate. As we were getting ready to start, the guy organizing things gathered everyone together and we had some prayer time. He prayed and thanked God for this opportunity to be like Jesus praising and spreading His word in the streets of our town. I never thought of it that way. We had loud praise music blaring explaining how we are now free, broken from the chains of this world and from sin's power over us. I've proclaimed those things the streets of other countries before but I was very grateful for the opportunity right here in my own town and for my kids to be a part of it with me. WOW, that Emma, she knew what she was doing.










Jackson was ready to get that candy flying!























Can't you just hear his little mind, "maybe just one for myself real quick before Mom sees."
















Emma got tired toward the end and decided to ride but she had that princess wave down pat!



















Jackson saw that Daddy was taking a turn driving the bus so of course he had to check it out.

















I loved that young and old participated in this and we all had fun together. Even the bus ride back to he starting line was quite an adventure!









Take opportunities to share. If you don't, you never know when or if your next one will be.

PS - we got first place on our float!

My Little Handful

So you see this face. It's the face of disaster and love and ornery and sweetness and messy and clever and a thousand little "i love you's."

Sometimes he astonishes me. Tonight was another time. We took the kids out to visit my mom's friends Pam & Randy and the kids got the speech that they always get before visiting someone. It goes something like this "it is rude to ask people for snacks when you go to their house so if they ask you if you want one it is OK but don't ask them first." Well, we're visiting for a little while and Jackson walks up to Pam and says "I think you want to ask me something" and Pam says "I do, what would that be?" and Jackson says "I think you want to ask me if I want a snack." I about fell over laughing and so did everyone else. How can you punish him? He didn't ask for a snack right?!?! He's getting way too clever for me!

He's going through this "phase" where he just loves to get under Emma's skin. No matter what she says, he disagrees. It is completely ridiculous and I think I might just pull my hair out!! But along with that he is also going through a really cute "i love you" phase. He'll come up to one of us completely out of the blue and say it in the sweetest little voice you've ever heard. After his antics tonight I'm wondering if he's just clever enough to know that we might really sell him to the zoo as his book says if he doesn't counteract it with that sweetness. I guess I'll never know but I'll take those sweet little "i love you's" as long as I can get them :)

A Week at the Lake

This summer has been so full I can hardly keep up!! I know I disappeared for a week but that was because we decided that we were going to stay down in Buffalo with my mom and dad at their lake for the week. It is the same distance for Jack to drive to work from there as it is to drive from home so why not enjoy some boating in the evenings for a week!!

We left Sunday afternoon to go down there and the weather was beautiful. By the time we got there we were definitely ready to go out on the boat. Jack got to do some wake boarding and the kids and I tubed. For those of you that don't know, my parents have been going to Lake Shaffer sine I was very little. I was thinking about it while I was there and I think it has been almost 20 years!! That sounds SO weird to me, I don't even think I'm 20 years old yet!!. Well, a girl and dream :)

Monday morning Jack went to work and he called us and let us know a nice little storm was brewing over by him in Rensselaer and we decided to stay in until we figured out what was gonna happen. Sure enough, we got a storm and it knocked out the electricity. Good thing I packed books and games to play!! Emma and I got to practice some of her reading (which she is incredible at!!) and then we played some Cariboo (if you have little ones, this game is a must! fun and learning at the same time!). Anyway, after a little while Emma conned Grandpa into playing my little pony with her. Now that was a sight to see!! Check it out below! I only wish you could hear the funny conversation they were having. Priceless!!







Once the electricity came back on it was time to crawl in Pap's bed and watch a movie.









Tuesday I got to go fishing with my dad while my mom watched the kids!! WOOHOO! Quiet time!! Anyway, my dad didn't fish much when I was little so it was nice to be able to go with him now. We didn't catch that many but I did something I've never done; I held a fish!!! I decided that if Emma can do it then so can I. I still won't bait my own hook, I just can't get past the goo that comes out or sticking the hook through the minnow's eye but at least I touched a fish! I also caught the biggest one out the few we did catch.

When Dad and I got back I decided to let let the kids try their hand at fishing down by the bayou and they both caught one in a matter of just a few minutes. We were so excited! Don't let Emma's picture fool you. I was holding the fish while taking her picture at the same time. The fish looks HUGE but it's only because it was closer to the camera. And Jackson..... well he didn't even really want to come near it but as you can see from the other picture, he did LOVE casting his Spider Man fishing pole.

Jack and I decided that night to take the kids out on an evening cruise. This was the first time we put our boat in. We don't usually bring our boat to my dad's because he has one but we figured we would this time because we wanted to get a little more use out of it before someone decides to buy it. We've enjoyed it so much but it just isn't practical for us right now. We got our reminder just how fun it is but we also got our reminder of why we're selling it when we saw the gas pump go up and up and up as we filled up both the truck and boat before we left. Oh well, the evening ride made for some nice pictures anyway.











On Wednesday Jack came home early and we took the kids to Indiana Beach. And yes, there's more than corn in Indiana!! The kids love it there and again it's a spot that I've visited every year since I was little so it's special to me as well. As I watch the kids doing different things I get glimpses of back when I was little. I remember asking my parents every weekend if we could go there and my kids do the exact same thing every time we go to dad's lake. It's so funny. Emma rode the Hoosier Hurricane roller coaster three times. She couldn't get enough. Jackson's favorite was the log ride which he called the water roller coaster. It was a great day and we of course went on CVS day so we got in buy one get one free. Gotta love a bargain!!

We spent Thursday just hanging out and swimming at the beach. We played a little of our new Mario Kart game on the wii that we got for $5 and then called it a night. It was a very fun week and I'm sure we'll be doing it again sometime. These are the times memories are made!