9.30.2009

Friday Harbor



Richard just finished another quarter and has this week off from school and I, excitedly, was scheduled 3 days off in a row! In my opinion, this weekend bliss would be best spent doing something away from our apartment. After church on Sunday, we drove up to Richard's Aunt Lisa's home which is just an hour north. I brought a lasagna and they provided everything else. We enjoyed dinner with Lisa, Keith, Devin, Eric, and Grandma Hart. We stayed the night at their house--and were so happy they allowed us to come over on such short visit. It was wonderful not feeling rushed to leave before we got too tired. Richard stayed up and played games. I, on the other hand, fell asleep early with Michael on the bed. I was too afraid he would roll around and fall off the bed. Next time I have a child, I will definitely purchase a pack-n-play for circumstances such as these.

The next morning, we enjoyed yummy waffles and then headed up to Anacortes to take a ferry ride to Friday Harbor. There wasn't too much to do there, but visit the little shops which we did. We bought a few items and then ate some lunch. It was a cute little place. I'll upload more pictures and video later.
On the ferry ride home the wind was much more chilly, and blowing hard. However, Michael liked being out on the deck. When he would run out-the wind would push him back in. He loved it! The guy on the video says to me, "He's still at it, huh?" Yes, Michael was running back and forth for almost the entire ferry ride.

9.27.2009

What is important?

"They do not love, that do not show their love"

I know there are a few people who I've been meaning to send a note to, but keep pushing it to the back of my mind. This is a good reminder.

9.24.2009

Speak!!

Some of Michael's first words:
Ball
Dog
Where is it?
"Dat" which I interpret as "that" but he says it for a lot of things...
Sock.
Michael went through a few days of always wanting to wear his bibs.

9.22.2009

Keep the Change

I feel like I have so many great deals to highlight from late, but I'll spare you with only three. First, on my birthday, Richard and I were walking around the mall and I found this cute capris but they were $25 and I just couldn't get myself to buy them. Well, yesterday, I was back in the mall and I went into the store. What was great, everything I had looked at last month, was now on clearance. Those same capris were now $9! I'll take it.Second, my grocery trip at Safeway today. Take a good look at my purchase. How much do you think you would've paid?
Two of Deli Creation Sandwiches @ $3.99, but were B1G1Free = $3.99
The other Sandwich @ $3.29 (not B1G1-which was too bad).
•Use coupon for Buy 2, Get 1 free.
•Final price=$3.29 for all 3 Sandwiches

4 Nature Valley Nut Clusters @ $1.50 each when you buy 4 =$6
•Use 4 $1/1 coupons.
•Final Price = $2
•(I did this deal the other day too-but, I had electronic coupons attached to my club card which you can do here and/or here--so I got an additional $1.40 off leaving me to pay only .60 for 4).

2 Chex Mix Bars and 2 Trail Mix bars @ $1.50 each = $6
•Use 2 .5o/1 coupons for the Trail Mix Bars.
•Use 1 electronic coupon for .60/1 Chex Mix Bars
•Final Price = $4.40

1.11 lb of Grapes @ .98/lb = $1.09
Total Price: $10.78
Savings of 74%
Third, my shopping trip today @ Target!
3 Ready Rice Packets @ $1.97 each = $5.91
• Use Target SC $1/2
• Use MC $1/3
• Final Price = $3.91
2 travel size Tide @ .97 each = $1.94
• Use 2 $1/1 any size Tide coupon
• Final price = Free + .06 overage.
According to Target's coupon policy the checker will adjust the coupon value, so it doesn't exceed the price of the item, however neither the checker nor the other girl she asked knew how to properly do it, so they didn't worry about it.
2 Kotex Liner Pads @ .90 each (clearance!)
• Use 2 $1/1 coupons
• Final Price = Free + .20 overage
2 Schick Quattro Razor Refill 4 pk @ $10.19 each = $20.38
• Use 2 Target SC $4/1
• Use 2 MC $4/1
• Final Price = $4.38 for both!!!
Total Price: $9.56

Other great deals to highlight were getting high value Kleenex coupons allowing me to wait for a sale, and getting 4 boxes free!
Getting 25 free pictures from Snapfish.com
Free samples of feminine products in the mail.
Free samples of cereals in the mail.
Free subscriptions to Oprah Magazine, Parents, Working Mother, Woman's Day, Martha Stewart Magazine, and Opera Magazine (that last one was a total mistake. When I clicked on it at first, I thought it was "Oprah")
• I find out about most of these "free" offers from sites like this one and this one.
Oh, and I won EA Sports Active for the Wii on a blog giveaway this last week! This isn't necessarily 'thrifty', but still WAY exciting!

Did you catch any great deals lately? Have some frugal tips? Or, just want to leave a comment to tell me you love me? Let me know! And let me know if you like these types of posts every once in a while.



9.20.2009

Written by Michael


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I think that says, "I just went poo-poo in the potty for the first time today!" Then he pointed at it and proclaimed, "DAT!"

9.12.2009

Remembering 9/11


One day late--but still just as prevalent.

9.10.2009

Ode to Date Nights

Wicked was amazing!
I loved it a ton more than I expected--and I expected a lot.
Oh, that was awesome.
If you get the chance-don't pass it up!

9.09.2009

We had a blast!

The primary reason for the Heisses visit was to celebrate the marriage of cousin Tyler and Heidi in the Seattle Temple. After the wedding, we hung around the temple and took quite a few pictures. But, because my previous post was smothered with pictures, I'll spare you on this one.




After the temple we had a fun luncheon in Renton with Ivar's clam chowder and sourdough rolls. Yum. It's amazing how worn out we became with the festivities though. We went home and everybody took naps! Of course, Reid and Richard woke up to watch the BYU football game.Unfortunately, they only saw the first half because we had to go to the reception. They whined more than Michael the entire way. "We could've been watching the game..." Instead, they had to sit in a house and eat nachos and cake. Not a bad substitute, I don't think.
Anyway, the Heisses spoiled us while here. We had a blast going to the museum, visiting the waterfront, going out to eat at Gorditos and Chinooks (Brock's recommendation. This place was yummy!) And we also played a full game of Mexican train, #12 to 0! And of course, Michael had a good time and enjoyed having new faces around who gave him attention whenever he requested it. Pillow fight!

9.08.2009

Heisses Visit Seattle!

This is Karen.

And this is Reid.

Together, they came up to Seattle to play!

Here are a few highlights of their visit! First, I opened two pictures that Cousin Jacob painted for Michael's bedroom. Jacob has really flourished as an artist in his high school years. Aren't these fabulous?! One is the nursery rhyme "Rub a dub dub" and the other is "Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater." They will be hung on the wall soon.

Thursday evening, the Flight Museum had free entrance so we decided to head over there! It was totally worth every penny + some... :) But first, how would you react if you had to sit next to this guy on the bus?

Alright-so the museum. Planes Everywhere!
Michael.
Karen and Michael next to the carplane. Totally the coolest invention, I think. If I read it correctly, it only took about 20 minutes to put the wings on the car. And yes, it would actually fly.
On a plane


This was my favorite area. Being in the "control room." We could actually hear live conversation going on in a nearby control tower. And a screen showed how many airplanes were in the sky and their destinations as well.

Us.
I've always wanted to go to space.

To be continued....

9.07.2009

Joy and Tragedy

All my thoughts from Wednesday just keep coming back to me. I wasn't going to expound on these thoughts anymore than I have, but I just can't get this out of my mind of just how fragile life is.

My mom sent up a journal that she kept when she was a young mother for me to read. It has been such a joy to read! And it's been very enlightening as well. My mom is very optimistic. She wrote something in one of her first entries that said exactly what I've been trying to apply. "...we need to live and enjoy each day, and not live in the past or just wishing for the future." Sometimes I just wish that Richard was out of school now. Sometimes I wish we were on our way with another child. Sometimes I wish that Michael could do more. But, mostly I know wholeheartedly that we are very blessed. I am grateful for where we are, what we are doing, right now.

On Thursday, September 3 Ryan Alder, his wife, and baby were in a tragic car accident where Ryan was pronounced dead on the scene. My Facebook page was overrun with status updates from high school friends "praying for his family" or that they "are deeply sad", etc... It was very shocking, surprising, and difficult to believe that a friend could have his life ended in just an instant and I couldn't get thoughts of him, and his family our of my head all weekend.

It's never the best feeling to have a tragedy wake you up to these thoughts. I know many of my friends were affected, and wrote about their thoughts as well. Tell those you love that you love them. And just be joyful. And to those of you who know Ryan, and were affected by this loss, remember these feelings of gratitude for your life, selflessness, and love that you felt. I should preach to myself. It's easy to forget once you get wrapped up in everyday again. But, that's once again, why I'm just trying to take each day as it comes and love it.

So tell me: what have you loved about today?

9.03.2009

This just happened


I just walked in to Michael's room and this is how I found him sleeping.

9.02.2009

Wednesday

I've been really trying hard lately to take life slowly. You know when you are living on a Monday, and you say to yourself, "I can't wait until Wednesday!" and basically you just pass through Monday and Tuesday with not much productivity or memories because all you can think about is Wednesday. And, when Wednesday rolls around, it's fun, exciting, eventful, whatever, but I just try to ask myself why Monday and Tuesday couldn't have been just as fun.

So, whenever I have thoughts at work like, "I wish time would just go faster! I wanna get out of here!" I remind myself why I am working, and just to be grateful. I can't control time.

Whenever I'm lounging around just waiting for 3 o'clock to roll around because I have some event to go to, I wonder what I am doing before 3 that can possibly be just as meaningful, or am I just wasting the time away beforehand?

Whenever I say, "I wish it was Michael's bed time right now!" I remind myself that it's okay to slow down and focus on the now.

Although I have been less than perfect at journal writing since I got married, I still have found it immensely useful when I write more than once a week. The memories, feelings associated with the events are all stored to be kept and read for a long time. They are also fun to read with 20/20 hindsight. When I slow down in life, I also seem to have much more to write about because my days don't seem as "boring" (which even if you think they are, write anyway).

Anyway, it's all just thoughts in the making, but I've felt a little more satisfaction and less anxiety day to day just by slowing down.