triple coupons

I have really gotten into clipping coupons and The Grocery Game which helps you determine when to use your coupons with sales to maximize your savings. I have been "playing the grocery game since about April and recently had my best experience. For $1 you can try it yourself for 4 weeks. If you like it...you pay $10 for 8 weeks. I save way more than $10 a week so it is definitely worth it. It also has made grocery shopping a lot more fun. Check it out, and if you give it a try...I would love for my name to into the referral section and I could get some free weeks. All I do is get a paper (sometimes 2 if there are a lot of great coupons) every week and go to the grocery game Sunday-Tuesday to get my grocery list. Anyways, I use it for Harris Teeter who had triple coupons the other week. After my visit to 2 HT I took a picture of all I got to show Caleb my good buys. So, with major help of the grocery game and my coupon clipping I got all the items above for $39 (and some change). It was about $125 worth of groceries. I actually got pretty excited with this good deal. Most items that I bought I would buy or they were free, cost pennies, or they paid me to buy them.

On a similar note, I never shop at Kmart but starting October 15 the Kmart in G-boro is doubling all coupons $2 and under (for the weekend). So, I think I might make a trip that weekend with some $1-2 coupons that never get doubled to try to get some good deals.

I need your help

I couple of weeks ago Caleb and I were talking about how our house was not as "homey" was we would like it to be. I know "hominess" (another word I think I am making up) comes over time. But we have been here for almost 2 1/2 years. So this is were I need your help. Got any suggestions on making our house more "homey". I know many of you have been to our house...so picture it and please any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Just remember I have a VERY small budget to spend and Aaron is 18 months which means, he gets into a lot that is at his level...aka on tables (endtables and such).

Along with making our home more homey I am getting this desire to decorate more seasonally. Over the past couple of years I have been getting into decorating for Christmas more and more. I am slowly growing my Christmas decorations thanks to after Christmas sales. Well, now I want to do a little decorating for the fall. I know many people have already had fall decorations out, but to me it is just now getting cool enough to really believe it is fall. So I would also love some help with some ideas of decorating for fall. I know some of you are very into this, so I am especially hoping for your help. Others are very creative, so I am hoping for your help too. Sorry to those of you who I picked on for your seasonal decorating in the past...you know who you are...I just didn't have the eyes to appreciate it yet.

A few things that I do and do not like to help you brain storm:
I am wanting to decorate for fall, not Halloween
No strings of pumpkin lights (sorry Megan)
Some fake flowers are ok...used sparingly
I just gots some decorative gords (sp?) from the farmers market that I like, but don't know how to use.
I like to keep things simple...I'm not near as creative as I would like.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I will try to get some pictures up of areas I especially would like help with and things I have that can be used.

THANKS IN ADVANCE FOR YOUR COMMENTS

Now to get to the piles of laundry that have been waiting to be folded since Friday and Saturday.

Worst mom of the day award goes to...

ME!!! Luckily I can laugh about this now, not cry like I wanted to yesterday (but wouldn't let myself). So for the story. Aaron loves to play, hold our car keys and I give them to them all the time. He holds the remote entry part and says "beep beep". Yesterday when we got home from the store he asked for the keys as I turned the car off. So, I hand them to him (he is still in his car seat) as I get out to come get him. Not two seconds after I shut my door to come get him, I hear the doors lock. WHAT??? Yes, Aaron somehow figures out how to push the buttons when he is in the car, by himself with my keys (and phone) inside. So, i have a moment of panic then try to get him to push the unlock button. Who was I kidding, he's only 18 months. I then look around and non of our neighbors that we know (which is just a couple) are home. I go a few doors down and ring the doorbell to introduce myself (as a horrible mom) to a neighbor so I can borrow the phone. I then proceed to call Caleb, who does not answer his phone...which I knew he wouldn't b/c he didn't know the number. So, by call #3 he answers. We have a rule that if one of us calls 2 times in a row, its an emergency, or very important. I guess 3x and a strange number equals emergency as well. I proceed to tell him what happened and he luckily was about to walk out of the door. But of course he wasn't in the office which is 5 minutes away he was in Winston which was 15-20 minutes away. I decided that since the car was in the garage and not too hot, Aaron should be fine until Caleb got home. When I get back to our house, Aaron is of course crying, and holding his arms out to be carried. I wanted to open the door so bad. I tried to distract him with games and talking but he kept saying "door" "open" and letting me know he wants to be held. He was pretty calm on the most part but got a little upset. I'm sure it was just that he was stuck in his seat and that I couldn't get him out. The 15-20 minutes we had to wait for Caleb seemed like an eternity. Once Caleb got home I got Aaron out, who was sweaty but ok. It was scary for me, but as soon as Aaron got out he was playing in the yard. If it was a hotter day or the car was in the sun I definitely would have called 911 or broken a window to get him out. I guess the circumstances of when and where this happened are a blessing. Now I don't feel like a horrible irresponsible mom, I just know I will not let Aaron have the keys in the car anymore.

Oh, and you might be asking about a spare key. We don't have one. But I will be going this week to the dealership to get one made.

Aaron and grandmother

Aaron loves to read (he got that from Caleb, not me) so we read a lot most days. While at Grandmother's he even got her to read some books. He didn't have to try real hard...she (and all the other grandparents) do whatever he wants.

"Mo Mo"

Aaron is trying to talk more and more. He has a pretty good vocabulary at this point but I am the only one that understands about half of what he says. One word that is very clear is "mo mo". This is for any type of lawn mower, motorcycle, tractors, riding things, or just anything that makes a loud sound. He lets you know if you he hears or sees any of the above at any time. Last weekend we made a last minute trip to go visit my grandmother in GA whose health is declining after being diagnosed with Lymphoma a month or two ago. It was good family time and great to get to see her. Caleb, Aaron, and I met my parents and Brian and Jen there. It was a quick trip for all of us, except my mom who has stayed to help my grandmother. We loved every minute of it and hated we had to come home. While we were there, Aaron got to ride on a few "mo mos". He didn't like it when they were on, especially the tractor. He warmed up to the 6 wheeler, but did not like riding on the farm to see the cows.

Driving the 6 wheeler

He was having fun even though it doesn't look like it with this face. Typically the smile disappears as soon as a pull out the camera and he does a serious face or shoots me a mean look.

He got a little scared when papa turned on the tractor. (Click on the picture to get the full effect of the cute crying face)

hair cut

A few busted lips

In the past 2 weeks Aaron has busted his lip 3 times. I'm not sure why this is happening so much now. He has been walking for a while and is trying to run (possible cause). He is a rather calm boy, would much rather ask for help than try something that seems hard. So, he's not fearless by any means which I am very thankful for and feel as if that keeps falls to a minimum. But some how they still happen A LOT. I guess he is my child. My brother and I are rather clumsy, so I guess that could be another possible cause.

I really felt like a bad parent last week when we were in Hobby Lobby and the 2nd busted lip happened. Right after Aaron was walking around the store saying "NO, NO" as I was trying to get him to come with me (more on that later) he trips. I try to tell him he is ok...it looked like he caught himself. So, I'm standing there saying "your ok" as he starting to stand up (I try to tell him this to toughen him up) then he looks up at me and blood is rushing from his lip. So, as he is going hysterical I am trying to control the bleeding and get out of the store ASAP without causing too big of a scene. Hopefully no one in the store called CPS (Child protective services) on me for telling my kid he is ok as he has blood rushing from his lip right after he is tell me "NO NO" and I'm telling him not to talk to me that way. Oh the joys of motherhood!!!

We are seeing more independence in Aaron as he knows what he wants and is learning how to communicate that. But I have to admit, when he tells us "NO NO" at this point...it is really cute. You just have to hear him say it. Maybe I will be able to get a video uploaded to show you our growing boy.

By the way, the third busted lip did not happen on my watch...it was at church on Sunday. They said he tripped over a mat and busted his lip.