One Year Ago Today...

My darling husband and I saw the most wonderful thing...  Two lines on a pregnancy test!  I can't believe that its been ONE YEAR already!  I looked back at all of the ultrasound pictures, especially our first one, in complete and utter amazement.  Our little boy was the size of a GRAPE at our first ultrasound at 9 weeks!  And now he's the sweetest, most adorable little guy with the biggest smiles and the most freaking cutest giggle.  We have been so blessed to have such a wonderful baby and its just...it leaves me speechless how so much can change in just a year!

Here's my journal entry from that fateful day:

I got my first positive today!

Well I was at my parents and got to calculating... And it seems that I miscalculated my cycle days. (I hate months that have more than 30 days! LOL) So I realized that I should have gotten my period yesterday. I was still feeling symtoms today, along with some new ones: Sore breasts, slight cramping, fullness in abdomen, nausea, increased urination, increased bowel movements, increased hunger, along with a few others.

So my husband and I got home from the parents and I was like, "What the heck? I still have one pregnancy test after this one." So I ran upstairs while dinner was cooking and took the test. And TADA! Positive! (It was one of those Dollar Tree tests even!) So I stared at the test for a little and decided to call my husband upstairs after donning my "Baby" shirt. I was hiding the printing on the shirt when I said, "I have something I want you to see." I moved my hand and his face when blank then with intense excitement and questioning. He said, "Are you serious?" and I told him to look at the test. Sure enough, he saw two lines too! We got all excited and breathless and hugged, a lot, before we dated the test and took pictures.

So after dinner I ran out and got a digital test and we're testing together tomorrow morning. I can't wait to see if we're two-for-two!!!

Couponing Chronicles Part 2

Well, as you know most people are dealing with a financial crisis these days and it just plain SUCKS.  There are PLENTY of hard-working people out there that don't deserve this stress-filled environment that we're in right now.  Since we're one of those families having a rough time, I've taken to hard-core couponing and scoping out sales.  I have to admit, on more than one occasion I've stretched $5 farther than you could ever think possible!  And yesterday was just another example.

So, yesterday I had $10 cash in my pocket and $5 in the bank and I had 4 coupons that were itching to be used (two expired yesterday).  I headed to Bon-Ton first since I had a $10 off a purchase of $10 or more from their Community Day coupon book and I certainly wasn't going to let $10 go to waste!  I wanted to get something for my little guy since he's rapidly moving on to 3-6 month clothes.  I found him an adorable footie pj outfit that says "Thank Heaven for Little Boys".  It was originally $20, on sale for $10.99 and with my $10 coupon it came out to be $.99.  So as my sweet husband says when he finds something for a good deal that he likes, "Sold".

Then I headed off to work and I needed the perfect blue yarn for a new hat design that someone requested, a blueberry.  I had a 50% off coupon from a competitor's store and used that on my yarn.  $2.99 skein of yarn for $1.49?  Sold.

After work I headed to Babies R Us because our sweet little guy is chewing on his hands non-stop and I wanted to get him one of those Raz Teether pacifiers.  Plus I had a $5 formula check so I wanted to stock up on some formula while I was there.  The Raz Teether was $4.99 but I had a 20% off coupon so it came out to be $3.99. The ready to feed formula was $5.99 but with the check it was $.99.  But then I had a $5 gift card from a previous purchase promotion so I used that.  My bill was $5.22.  What I had to pay?  $.22.  Sold.

Adding up all of these purchases before sale prices and coupons would have been $34.  What I paid for a baby outfit, skein of yarn, formula, and a teething pacifier: $2.70.  Yeah you read that correctly, $2.70.

All in all, I do have to say I impressed myself.

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Back to Work...

As much as I said while I was pregnant that I want to go back to work, I'm really regretting it now.  I mostly said that when my husband was working his other job at second shift (3:30 p.m. - 12 a.m.) and I could work from 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. so we wouldn't have to worry about a babysitter and things would go back to where they were before I had our little guy.  Well then we got the terrible news over the summer that they were closing my husband's work and everyone was getting laid off January 2011 (this was right after he got passed up for a promotion).  Thank God that he got a better job that pays over a $1 more an hour with better medical benefits (but he's getting laid off from that job too, but that's another story) but now he works 11:30 a.m. - 8 p.m. and due to me working at a retail craft store, that cuts right into retail hours.  So now I can only work on weekends, the only days that my husband is off of work.  I know he really wants me to be a stay at home mom (SAHM) and I really want to as well, but due to our finances at the current moment, its just not in the cards.

As of right now between the two of us we have about $25 in our bank account and that has to last us TWO WEEKS until our next paychecks.  Thank the good Lord above that we paid all of our bills and still managed to get groceries (Which will probably have to last us a month).  I am so sick and tired of living paycheck to paycheck.  We budget things out the wazzoo and most of the time manage to pay all of our bills (not always on time mind you) but we still end up with nothing in the end.  I'm completely thankful that we are managing to keep a roof over our heads (our house was 30 days away from foreclosure in September) and food in our bellies, but its been hard.  Especially seeing all of our successful friends and family go on big vacations and go shopping...  I know most have worked REALLY hard to get where they're at and they deserve it.  But my poor sweet husband has been working his butt off for YEARS, tried to put him self through school but couldn't afford it so now he's stuck in these low-level jobs (call center work, which he is REALLY good at) with no hope of ever going back to college.  He really deserves a BIG break in life.  And me with an Associates in Interior Design and unable to do anything with it.

Now before you say anything about "Why did you have a kid since you're in dire straights?".  Believe me, we had everything worked out just fine when we got pregnant.  But aside from us getting pregnant and having a healthy little boy, 2010 was the year from hell.  My husband got laid off twice, he got passed up for a promotion, we almost lost our house, his car died so we had only one car for a few months, my beloved grandmother and uncle both passed away unexpectedly...and this all happened while I was pregnant or soon after.  Its just been really tough to keep trudging through each day.  But God blessed us with a little one and to see him smile and grow is just the strength we need to go on and we will fight to give him a wonderful life no matter what.

So anyway...back to work in retail.  I don't mind it too much since I LOVE the people I work with, but I LOVE being home with my boys a lot more.

Couponing Chronicles Part 1

So I always thought the whole coupon idea was SUCH a hassle and not really worth my time to sit there and sift through things and then clip them out.  I mean, I sit in the grocery store anyway and search out the best price for that week on whatever item (I'm not brand loyal, I go for the cheapest!) so I didn't really see the point when the store brands are the cheapest and just as good if not better than the brand names.

But this past weekend I was watching this show, "Extreme Couponing" on TLC and it REALLY had me intrigued.  I mean these people take couponing a bit too far (aka stockpiles of groceries taking up their house and spending 70+ hours searching for coupons per week!) but when I saw their grocery bills and what deals they were getting, I was hooked!  One woman spent $600 and only paid about $40 for it after in-store specials, her store card, and coupons!!!

So yesterday while my husband kept our little guy occupied, I scoured the internet looking for coupons and went through the few that I had from just random places.  I got to tell you, its really a pain in the butt doing it internet only!  But I did find some great sites that were a little helpful:

Coupons.com - Show you local coupons which you can use in stores in your area.  All you have to do is check the box next to the ones you want and then print them out at the end!

UPromise.com - Here you can upload coupons DIRECTLY to your store savings card so you don't have to clip them and scan them in-store.  Plus they are partnered with online shops so when you make a purchase through that shop, a percentage of your purchase goes directly into a college savings account!  Plus you can ask family and friends to join and help you out!

DealSeekingMom.com - This website is great to let you know what coupons are available out there at any given time.  The only coupons you can use are the online ones that other users link you to.

Today I wanted to put my couponing skills to the test.  I had about $10 worth of coupon savings and was hoping for another $10 because my local Giant said that they double coupons.  We got there and did our shopping and then at check out I scanned our coupons and they weren't doubling (And the only one that did double was the only one that said, DO NOT DOUBLE)!!!  Oh I was so mad!  Turns out that the store has a policy that they only double coupons up to $1.  How ridiculous is that??? NOWHERE on any of the sign-age or anywhere in the store does it say that.  If I wasn't with my little guy and hubby didn't have to get to work in a hour I would have put up more of a fight.  But I am writing to Giant and complaining!  Anyway, rant over.

But here are the results from the first coupon shopping trip:


Saved almost $20 from our coupons, in-store specials, and our bonus card!  So I got $80 worth of groceries for $60.  Not bad!  Plus gas points to boot!  But I'm going to do more research to see who actually doubles ALL coupons and we might be shopping there from now on!

More Couponing Chronicles to come!

Starting Out

So today I finally decided to start a blog.

And well...that's as far as I got as of 4 p.m.  Between keeping an (almost) 4 month old little boy occupied, a sick husband resting, managing my Etsy shop, and fitting in feeding myself...  I'd say it was quite an accomplishment.  Oddly enough in that one sentence you pretty much know the basics of me.

I'm happily married to my husband of 2 years (we've been together since June 2005), I have an adorable little boy named Tai who was born in November, I'm an avid crafter and I make items to sell in my Etsy shop (its a great website full of handmade items from people all around the world), and well...I like to eat.

So anyway...I wanted to start this blog to help get my name out into the great big world out there and hopefully share some of my ideas about random things with you folks out there and maybe somebody will be enlightened.

Stay tuned!