Motherhood: No Wimps Need Apply

Being a mother is wonderful but my kids are sometimes embarassing to say the least. Today was one of those mornings. It started earlier this morning. I had a 20% off coupon for USA Baby and we need a conversion kit they have there to turn Savanna's bed into a twin bed since she will probably be outgrowing her toddler bed soon. Anyway the coupon was only valid today until noon and they told me I could use the coupon over the phone as long as it was not too busy and someone was able to anwer the phone. So I had recently gotten out of the shower and threw my robe on and hurried to call as soon as the store opened because I really did not want to drive over there-it is kind of far away and TC works on Saturdays right now so I would have had to drag the kids with me. I was able to get through and as I was ordering the item Savanna came up to me and said right near the phone loud enough that I am sure the salesman could hear, "Mommy, you're naked." Great! I was not completely naked by the way but of course he does not know that. And let's be honest I'm sure we all have talked on the phone in little or no clothing but you NEVER want the other person on the other end to know that! It was so embarassing but then I just had to laugh about it because it was also pretty funny. My next embarassing example though is more gross than funny unfortuantely. I decided that I needed to go to Wal Mart this morning because we were out of a few things even though I usually go on Mondays. I had gotten everything I needed and was checking out. I was holding Clark because he was tired of sitting in the cart. As I was loading my groceries I felt some wetness on my hip. I looked down to see poop dripping down my leg all the way onto the floor!!! The lady checking me out was nice and said, "Well at least it happened at the end of your shopping trip." I guess that's true-let's look on the bright side,right? I dodged out of there right after I paid. As I was leaving I heard her paging someone (not sure if this was over the intercom of the whole store or jus right one person-hopefully the latter) "We have a wet leak on Aisle 13" (apparently there are code words for this:wet leak?). Needless to say my shopping trip took twice as long as I changed his diaper in the car (He had completely FILLED it!) and his clothes. Of course I did not bring a change of clothese for myself so I drove home poopy. There were some shining moments this morning though. Savanna was complimented by a cute couple for being so patriotic as she sang "God Bless America" at the top of her lungs in the shopping cart and as I passed the junior mints today something told me I deserved a treat. Now I am enjoying them as I type this and my children are sound asleep. Sigh.

Couponing Tips

So I have decided that I am a terrible couponer (is that a word?) but I actually want to come up with some system that I enjoy and is fairly simple and quick. I have tried to coupon to a certain extent and end up feeling discouraged and quitting which then makes me more discouraged because I'm the type of person that hates quitting when I feel it is something worthwhile. Anyway, I decided a couple months ago that I wanted to get back into it and one night went to an enrichment where this girl from our ward presented her couponing tips. I must admit that I left feeling quite overwhelmed. She came in with this GIGANTIC three ring binder that looked like it contained all of her paperwork and certificates from kindergarten through to high school graduation. She related that this was months of coupons from newspapers, magazines, etc. I then couldn't help myself and asked her how much time she spent per week on her coupon hobby and she said 3-4 hours. 3-4 hours! I'm sorry but I'm just not that into it. I love this girl in our ward-don't get me wrong, she is awesome. She saves her family several hundred dollars a month but I just know that I do not love couponing enough to spend that much time on it. We all have our things that we love to do but that is not one of them for me. Anyway, moral of the story is: I want some ideas and advice from you couponers out there for the best system that has worked for you. I am looking for something simple and not very time consuming. I apologize as well for those of you that have already shared your ideas with me in person or on the phone but I would appreciate them in writing because then I can remember them better. And my husband is so into coupons so I know I am just looking hotter to him right now if he is reading this-I have to admit that is my main motivation for this post! (hehee-just kidding).

Food poisoning and more fun!

So somehow I managed to get food poisoning at enrichment on Tuesday. They served Hawaiian haystacks and there were several batches and one of my friends who ate from the same batch as me got sick as well. I've only asked around to one other person who did not get sick because I have been feeling crummy and don't want it to get back to the person who made it and make them feel bad. But it has not been fun-I won't gross you out with any of the details. Anyway, I got sick on Wednesday and my friend got sick on Thursday. None of our kids or our husbands have gotten sick which seems to confirm to me more that I think it was food poisoning and not the stomach flu. Anyway, then on Friday I managed to chip my headlight and back up into our neighbor's back fence while pulling out of my garage (our garages are all in the back of our house so it is not as hard to do as you think!) The fence looks in pretty good condition. I still have to go over there though and tell them about it-just have not gotten a chance yet. My goodness! How was everyone else's week?

Clark is 5 months (this is a little late)

SO Clark is now 5 months as of September 6th so I'm a little late on this post but I wanted to still make sure I did an update. We are loving our cute little man!! Clark is a smiley, happy, baby and we are so happy to have him in our family. Clark still loves to eat and is now eating three solid meals a day (crazy I know but he is about 20 pounds). He loves to jump in his jumper and grabs everything within his reach. He laughs a lot now especially at Savanna. He thinks she is so funny! He also now can roll both ways! I have not fed him in the middle of the night for I think the past 9 days but he still has woken up every night once or twice but we have been able to give him the pacifier and he has fallen asleep pretty quickly. Hopefully he will stop doing that soon though we are grateful for the progress. We know Savanna spoiled us with her wonderful sleeping habits. Anyway, like I said we love our little guy and it is so fun to watch him grow!

Is summer really over?

The end of summer is usually marked for us by labor day when the pools close in our community. I can't believe it is already September and fall is around the corner. Though I do love fall! October, November and December are my favorite time of year. Anyway, we had a fun summer and in August TC had about a three week break in between his teaching at SLCC so it was nice to have hime around more. We were able to do some fun things. We totally took advantage of the $2 Tuesdays at Thanksgiving Point and went to the gardens, dinosaur museum and Farm Country. We also took a trip to the zoo-Savanna loved that! Anyway, I hope all of you had a great summer! Here are some pictures of our recent fun family activities.

Jump On It

Dinosaur Museum Zoo Another haircut for Savanna Boondocks Just playing around the house

The Meltdown of All Meltdowns

So Friday I became that mom none of us ever wants to be. The one with the screaming, hysterical child that you are not able to control. Many times in the past I have been somewhere in public witnessing a poor mother trying to stop her toddler from throwing a gigantic fit. I have watched on with sympathy and a bit of relief thinking, "I'm glad that's not my kid. Savanna does not act that way." Ha-Wow did I receive payback for my condescending attitude. Yesterday afternoon I was in the waiting room of the doctor's for an appointment I made for Savanna. We ended up waiting in the main room for about 45 minutes. Usually I can entertain Savanna for quite awhile in public with books or toys. Not today. About 10 minutes after getting there she proceeded to start wandering around the waiting room, sitting on the couch, and "reading" magazines. This did not become a problem until she started running around, hitting the lamp shades and trying to climb behind the end tables and the couch. I gave her several warnings saying she needed to calm down to no avail. Finally I sat her down in a chair and told her she needed to stay there. She did not listen. She continued to run away from me. So I sat her in the chair and sat in front of her so she could not get out. That's when the fun began-she began crying, screaming very loudly. I told her she needed to calm down and listen. She did calm down for a couple minutes so I told her I would not sit in front of her anymore if she could read her books quietly or play with the toys. I let her out and she proceeded to run away from me again. So I grabbed her arm and tried to pick her up. She fell onto the floor throwing a temper tantrum. I tried several more times and she continued to flail herself around on the floor. I was mortified! In any other situation I would have been OUTTA THERE but I was thinking to myself-"If I leave I'll lose my place and have to wait longer or I'll have to come back another day." I managed to kind of drag her to the check in desk. In desperation I asked, "How much longer will it be? We have been waiting here for 45 minutes and she is hysterical." They checked and said I was the next one to be called back but the doctor was running really far behind and it would probably be 30 or 40 minutes MINIMUM once we were in a room before we were actually seen. I told them there was no way I could wait that long and we would have to reschedule for tomorrow. As I was gathering our stuff to leave (she is still crying hystericall this whole time) a nurse comes out and calls her name. I told her we were leaving because she was so upset and we could not wait 30 or 40 more minutes. She tried to persuade Savanna to come with her with no success. I asked her if there was any way the doctor could see us next. She checked and said yes. We brought her back (at this point she was cooperating but still crying). She did cry for a bit longer but calmed down while we were waiting for the doctor to come in. Needless to say she did not get a lollipop for being good at the doctor.

ER Visit

So we had a bit of a scary night on Sunday. Our day was totally fine, went to church, had my brother over for dinner. An hour before Clark went to bed he sounded like maybe he was getting a little cold but I did not think much of it. At one in the morning he woke up crying and he did not sound right. He was hoarse and was struggling to breathe. I called our doctor's office and the lady on call listened to him and said he did not sound right to her either and to go ahead and take him into the emergency room. So we headed out to the emergency room. TC's sister, April, drove over to stay while Savanna was sleeping. So when we got there they determined what I suspected was the problem. He had croup. They gave him a breathing treatment and a steroid to open up his throat. By the next morning he was doing much better. He no longer sounds like he has croup but he has a lot of boogers and a little cough. Savanna of course caught the cold and got another ear infection (and yes we scheduled tubes for her on September 27th). Our poor little kids! It's been a bit of a bummer week because we have canceled our play dates, etc to avoid getting other kids sick. I am a bit nervous about the fall coming up and keeping them as healthy as possible. Does anyone have any ideas for preventive stuff (besides flu shots and everything)? Savanna usually only gets mild colds but she gets a lot of them! Anything to decrease the frequency woud be nice. Of course this time Clark brought it in and we do not know who he got it from. He was not around anyone who was sick except there was a little girl hacking away in Sunday School on Sunday but I would not think he could have caught something that quick. Anyway, hopefully they will get better soon and stay healthy for awhile.