Aug. coupons

This month I saved $186.18 in coupons. I have to say though that I also spent quite a bit with back to school stuff. But I tried to use coupons everywhere I could. Even at Famous Footwear. :) I stocked up on food for Jaron and Nathan too. I forgot how expensive it is to get everyone ready but glad I did save some with the coupons.

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Patio

 I'm not sure why it is but I grow the best plants in the cracks of the patio.  There are probably about 10 butterfly bushes and a half dozen petunia plants that are growing in the cracks.  I'm not sure where the seeds came from but they love it there.  I've pulled out quite a few of them and even tried to transplant the petunias but they end up dying in their new area. Go figure......

Kingston and Darci

 Jessica sent me two pictures of Kingston and Darci.  Man I sure miss them!!  There's a huge chance they may be coming out for Christmas.  I can't wait and my fingers are crossed!!!

Getting these pictures made my day!

The Day

 Yesterday was my birthday.  It was a fun day!  We did go to a funeral also for a friend that passed away last week.  It was nice funeral.....but also very hard.  He's Steve's age.  He use to be our bishop and YM pres.  A very great man and will be missed so much.
 But before the funeral one of my neighbors, Rose, came by with a fruit basket for me. She's 90 yrs old and full of spunk.  I heard her yelling my name outside so I ran down the stairs and there she was with the basket.  It's hard for her to go up and down the stairs.  She is a dear friend!

 I got this adorable necklace from Timothy and Jessica.  On one of the circles has the name of each one of our kids, the other one has L & S and then 5 peas in the pod for my cute kids.  I love it!!!

 Emily wrote me a note with a picture of the two of us.  She's the one with the freckles.  :)

 Steve and I went to Macaroni Grill for dinner.  It was so good!  Then I got sang to in Italian and a free dark chocolate desert.  We walked out of there so stuffed!!

 Steve bought me a wireless speaker for me ipad.  The speaker can go anywhere.....and it's red.  It's great to have to listen to music anywhere in the house.  They had a hard time getting it out of the package.  :)

Christopher and Lesa gave me this sign to hang up.  I love it!!!  I hung it up as soon as I got it.  :)  It was a fun birthday.  Tonight we're doing a birthday dinner and having Baskin Robbins ice cream cake. Can't wait!!!

Steve rocks!!!

Steve earned the Outstanding Teaching Award at BYU.  He is a great teacher and all of us are so proud of him.  He works hard and loves the students.  You can really tell!  Way to go Sweetie!!!!

And so it begins again....

School started today for Jaron. He's back up at the U of U. Emily had sophomore day and Nathan moved into his apartment in Provo. He'll be going to UVU starting next monday. Constant changes going on.

The is how they really are. :)

Back to School

Last Thursday Jaron moved all his things up to Salt Lake. He found a house to live in with 3 other guys about a 1/2 mile from the U. I haven't seen it yet but he calls it the haunted house. I think cuz it's a older house. He's here this weekend and then monday he'll be off. Nathan is starting to move out monday also. He's moving to an apartment in Provo. He'll be going to UVU and working full time in Lindon. It's a good thing he has a car. I'm really gonna miss these guys a lot. They are so fun to have around and such good kids!!! Emily starts school on monday too. She is so excited to go to high school. She really misses her friends a lot and is ready to start being busy again. Dance starts monday for her too. She moved up 2 levels this year in ballet and in company. She way so, so happy to move up. So here starts another school year.....ready or not. :)

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Keeping up....trying

This week I did my weekly salsa making. Got 10 quarts and 4 pints done. It's like 2 steps forward and 1 step back as to how fast it is being consumed. But I will win this battle! :)
Nathan's car battery died.  We didn't know what it was at first so I called the expert....Timothy.  He thought it was the battery but could be the alternator.  We took it into the shop and T was right.....the battery.  An easy fix and less expensive.
I've also been trying to nurse my ankle back to health.  This morning thinking it was healed enough went on the elliptical machine and re-injured it again.  Erg.  Back to the bikes.

Last night Emily said she wanted to buy a letterman's jacket for school.  I told her I had my old high school one.  She wanted to try it on.  She really liked it and wondered if she could borrow it.  Of course!!  It kinda made me laugh.  :)

Deer Creek

Last night Mark and Kirsten invited us to go to Deer Creek outdoor concert.  The Utah Symphony and Pink Martini were performing.  I have never been to one of these but it was so much fun.  People make a party of this.....bringing food, drinks, blankets and chairs.  When the sun sets it gets pretty cold up there.  I was so impressed with the 94 year old man who played the clarinet.  This was the last concert up there for the season but we are definitely going again next summer.
Thank you Mark and Kirsten!!

Strawberry Jam

I made 3 batches of strawberry freezer jam.  I'm amazed at how little fruit there is in it compared to sugar.  But I get kinda tired of the amount of corn syrup that is in so much food.  From watching documentaries, corn syrup is pretty bad for you.  Not like sugar is good but not as bad as the corn syrup.  The recipe called for corn syrup but I didn't add it.  So I guess I'll try little by little trying to make food a little more healthy for us......and to continue to read read labels.
BTW...the jam tastes great!!

More salsa

This week I did 4 more batches of salsa.  It ends up being 19 quarts.  I now have 24 quarts.  I wish I could say I was done but I know that this will only last a few months.   Next week, I will make more.  I also did something to my ankle while running.  But I kept running for a few more days.  Yesterday it was so swollen that I could hardly get my shoe on.  Last night I iced it and it's still really sore but the swelling is down.  I guess I'll keep an eye on it but it still really hurts.  And Emily has company try outs today.  Wishing her lots of luck and she is a beautiful dancer......and a very hard worker!!

Coupons for July

I didn't do too good. I only saved $42.30. It's so hard when you're gone so much during a month. Plus it being summer doesn't help. Once school starts I will really crack down and get more organized with the coupons.

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Car and Trek

 What a week this has been.  Emily left for trek today but getting to this point was so hard!!  I hadn't done much to get her ready for this before our trip to Maine.....my fault.  So monday I got started.  Em and I did a lot of running around looking for things she needed.  Durring that time I was also taking Nathan to different car dealerships looking for a car.  Tuesday I finally found an apron and bonnet for Emily to wear to trek and Nathan found a car he liked.  We were at the dealership and about 2.5 hours into it I get a text from Emily that her stomach hurt.  I told her to lay down and take a tum.  A little bit later as Nathan was leaving with his new car I get another text from Jaron saying Emily is throwing up. I tell him we're heading home.  We get almost home and the car Nathan bought breaks down.  So I park my car on the edge of the street and help push Nathan's car off the road.  I call Jaron and tell him what happened and call the dealership.  They tow the car and we get home to a very sick Emily.  Yesterday she's still sick but slowly getting better.  The new car needs a new clutch and they are going to put a new one in and Nathan is trying to decide if he wants the car or not.  Last night we get all of Emily's trek stuff to the church.  She still looks a little green but she really wants to go.  So this morning she left.....still not eating hardly anything at all but hopefully she is now.  Nathan gets a call saying the car is done and wants Steve to test drive it to make sure it's good.  All is good and Nathan buys it.  He's happy and I'm hoping Emily is too.

Nathan got a 2006 Toyota Corolla.  :)

Wet lands and last of the pics

 I still have so many more pictures but this is the last post of our Maine trip.  Our last day there we went for a 3 mile hike and came upon these wetland in Acadia National Park.  Steve fell in love with the area.  We really need another week here to be able to see everything.

I

Bar Island

 At Bar Harbor there is a little island off shore.  When the tide is low you can walk to it.  But when the tide is high the island is surrounded with water.  One evening when the tide was low we walked to it.

 We made our little monument.  There were tons of these rock monuments on the island side.

This is the path you walk on to get to the island.  Pretty cool.