Life Keeps Going.

Colton Trey's Birth Story

2011-11-28T21:46:00.005-06:00

For all of you girls who enjoy reading (long winded) birth stories, this blog post is for you. If you want the (somewhat) shortened version, skip to the first picture and read from there. These first few paragraphs are just background info on why I went with an induction. And really . . . this is for ME so I can remember the day.

Four years ago, I was induced with Renae and had a horrible experience. My body just wasn't ready. Sammy's labor started spontaneously, and it was amazing. Not to mention his birth was much (much) shorter. Because of these 2 drastically different labors, with this pregnancy, I was avoiding an induction like the plaque. I was wiling to wait for labor to start on it's own, despite the fact that I was ready to be done being pregnant.

However . . . at my 41 week appointment, I had some questions for my OB. I have absolutely loved her, and I'm so glad a friend referred her to me! My OB is pretty conservative, medically speaking. She won't even induce first time Mom's unless there is a severe medical condition. So it was encouraging to hear her thoughts on inductions. She was happy to wait it out with me if I wanted to wait for labor to start on it's own. But, I asked her if the success rate of inductions is better in 2nd and 3rd labors. I wanted to avoid a c-section if at all possible. Her response was very encouraging as she said without a doubt, women who are already dilated and have already had babies have a very high success rate both statistically, and in her own experience. Since we were a week away from Thanksgiving, and I didn't want to have a newborn the week of Thanksgiving with family visiting, and I wanted to be sure my Mom could be here for the birth, I told my OB that if I was actually dilated, I would consider being induced the next day since she was on call then.

Lo and behold, I was dilated to 2 cm! With Renae and Sammy, I never dilated until labor began so this was pretty encouraging. With that in mind, and the fact that this was my 3rd baby and my chance of having a normal vaginal birth was high, I decided to go with an induction the next day.

Timing wise, it couldn't have been better. I was able to call my Mom and she came down to KC that night. Plus, Jesse was going to use a week of his vacation and this way, he could work Wednesday morning, before the induction, and then be off until after Thanksgiving-a full week and a half home with me-yay! I went home from my appointment, discussed everything with Jesse and we made the final decision to be induced the next day, Wednesday November 16. Then, I headed to one more Zumba class in hopes it would get labor started. :)

Now I did have to do some grieving. I was really looking forward to that moment when you realize your body is in labor. I love surprises and I like not knowing when things like this will happen. So to be honest, I was kind of sad on Wednesday morning as I got ready, and as we drove to the hospital. I knew it was a good decision for us, but I had to give up the excitement of going into labor spontaneously. I was thankful that early Wednesday morning I was having some real contractions and although they didn't become regular, they were still doing something to get my body ready.

41 weeks exactly. Right before we left for the hospital.

Jesse came home from work early on Nov. 16 and we arrived at the hospital at 9:00 am. Our nurse checked us into our room, explained how they would start the induction and off we went! I was still feeling kind of sad about how everything was just happening like some medical procedure instead of labor starting spontaneously, but I kept reminding myself of all of the pros of being induced that day. By 9:30 I was hooked up to an IV and the pitocin was started at a very low level. Jesse and I just hung out and chatted for a bit until we decided to try and sleep. I'd been awake since 2:30am except for a short 30 min rest around 6am. Jesse had worked that morning at UPS so he had been up since 3am. We needed to rest! Eventually I started feeling contractions and started timing them. By 11:00am, I decided to ask for the epidural. The contractions weren't totally unbearable, but I was dreading getting the epidural put in so I decided to get it over with.

Holding my baby for the 2nd time after he was all cleaned up.

This is where our story got a little funny. Jesse can get a bit squeamish when it comes to needles. He wanted to be supportive of me while I got the epidural because he knew I was kind of nervous (despite the fact that I LOVE epidurals and this was my third one!) He stood in front of me next to the nurse while I sat on the bed and waited for the anesthesiologist to get things ready. After a bit, Jesse had changed positions and was leaning on the bed a bit as he held my hand. The nurse was telling me what to do and helping me sit correctly and Jesse kind of slinked away into the chair behind the nurse. I noticed he was sitting in the chair like he was about ready to fall over, and then I saw him rip open his button up shirt and start faning himself. As I'm waiting for a NEEDLE to go into my BACK, I ask Jesse is he's ok, and the nurse turns to look at him. Jesse says, "I feel like I could faint." So the nurse has to tell him to lie down, but the couch is back by the anesthesiologist so he can't lie down there. Instead, I watch as the nurse helps Jesse onto the cold hospital floor, and call another nurse in to help. It's at this point that Jesse said he felt totally emasculated, and honestly, I was laughing because it was pretty funny. But not for long because then I started feeling faint. So my nurse is helping me to last through the epidural being inserted without fainting, and another nurse is giving my husband, who is still on the floor, some apple juice! After I was back in bed and the epidural had kicked in, we laughed for a good while about the near fainting experience.

Jesse holding his third child and 2nd boy. Love it.

My OB came in and broke my water at 12:00pm because I had dilated some more. After that, Jesse and I just tried to relax and take naps. Jesse seemed to get quite a bit more sleep than I did, but I think I dozed off and on. It seemed to take awhile for my cervix to dilate to 5cm and that made me nervous because it was also still high. However, once I hit 5cm, it progressed FAST. By 3:00pm, I was at 8cm and we decided to call my Mom so she could come be there for the birth. Our friends Maggie and Jimmy were going to watch the kids for a few hours so my Mom could come. This was also when I was feeling really good about our decision to induce. I was glad I was able to get an epidural before contractions were horrible, and I loved that everything was progressing well, my Mom could get there in plenty of time, and my OB was there to deliver my baby. (Side note . . . my Mom had never seen a live birth before! My twin brothers were born via c-section, my other brother was adopted, and I was born via c-section too.)

Mom holding her 6th grandchild after seeing her first live birth.

Mom arrived around 3:30pm and for about an hour, Jesse, my Mom and I just relaxed and talked. I loved that my body was progressing well, and I wasn't feeling a thing! By 4:30 they started bringing in the stuff for delivery. By now I was really excited and couldn't wait to hold my baby boy. It was all so calm in the room too and all of the people I wanted to be there for the birth were there. Jesse was by my head encouraging me, my Mom pressed on one of my feet while I was pushing, my OB was, obviously, where she was supposed to be to catch the baby, and my awesome labor nurse pushed on my other foot while I pushed. When it was time to push, in between contractions, we all were chatting about the birth, the baby, and it was sooo calm and relaxing. I loved it. During one of the contractions, my OB said she saw the head and the hair looked light. On the 4th contraction, after about 10-15 minutes of pushing, I pushed Colton out on the 4th push! MY OB just held him and let the cord pulsate for a bit before she cut it, then he was wrapped up slightly and put on my chest. It was so good to see his face and hear his cries.

Bruised from a quick exit, but healthy.

I gave the nurse our baby so he could get cleaned up and my OB took care of the rest of the junk I had to deliver. Eww. I was quick to ask if I tore and I only had a small tear, requiring just one stitch. Yay! I was stitched up for an HOUR with Renae after a 4th degree tear so this labor proved again to be far better than my first. Have I mentioned how much I loved my OB? I have never had my own doctor or midwife deliver my babies. I've always had whoever was on call. After experiencing this birth where the person at the end of the bed was someone I knew and trusted, I can say it really made the birth experience even more awesome.

Sammy just wanted me when he first came into the room.

After I gave Colton to the nurse, he was taken to be weighed, cleaned off etc. Mom was able to watch the nurses take care of him and get some good pictures. The nurses and my OB made guesses on Colton's birth weight and the OB was closest as she estimated 9 lbs. He was 8lbs 13oz! I couldn't believe I had delivered that big of a baby! The endorphins were running high in me and I didn't want to let go of Jesse's hand. I think I kissed him about 5 times because I was so in love with him and our baby. Cheesy I know . . . but it's what happened. :)

So in love . . .

Our hospital has this great program where you can request to not be bothered for the first hour after birth so you can have time to bond with the baby. After the initial things were taken care of, the medical personnel left, my Mom left to get the kids, and it was just Jesse, Colton and I. He nursed right away and Jesse and I discussed what we were going to name this little boy as we still were undecided. We tried out a couple of them on him, (Trey David, Nehemiah Trey,) and then Jesse said "Sammy and Colton, what are you doing?" It worked and we decided Colton was what he would be named. Colton actually comes from a video game Jesse played once. I know, I know . . . lame. But we've always liked that name, and the character in the video game was a manly western kind of guy so we that's how we decided to use the name Colton. Trey is Jesse's brother, who is the Third, and has gone by Trey most of his life. Now, our family are the only ones who call him that as he goes by Jonathan now. But he will always be Trey to us, and Trey is a great Godly guy who we hope Colton will like. We hope Colton Trey will serve others, and love God like his Uncle Trey does.

Look at that chubby face . . .

After our hour alone, I was able to eat-hallelujah! My Mom came back with the kids and some Arby's for Jesse and I. I ate most of the hospital meal AND an Arby's meal. I was hungry!

Renae was instantly in love with her littlest brother.

Of course a day later we discovered Colton had broken his arm during delivery. He came out fairly quickly and my bones don't exactly provide spacious accommodations so that combined with Colton's large size caused the break. Because of the swelling, the break wasn't noticed until the next day when Jesse saw his left arm was laying limp and not re-flexing like his right arm. Poor little guy . . .

Isn't that the most pathetic and cute little baby arm ever?

This is how his arm has been the past few weeks, and it will remain like this for about one more week.

My sweet little boy.

I loved this birth experience. It was so special, calm and relaxing. I know birth isn't "supposed" to be calm and relaxing, but that's how I like my births. :) I was fast, only 7.5 hours, and recovery has been pretty easy. We are done having babies and I'm so glad my last was an experience I enjoyed and will remember.

Our THREE kids. Wow.

My Easter Workbook

2011-04-13T12:58:00.006-05:00

I haven't posted on here since January! I have to admit I don't have any real aspirations to keep up with the blog. Maybe once baby #3 arrives . . .

However, I wanted to share this Easter Workbook I made for Renae with any Mom's of pre-schoolers out there and figured linking a pdf to a blog post was the easiest way to go.

We've been working on writing letters and identifying sounds so you'll notice letters are the emphasis of this workbook. It's definitely geared towards 3-4 year olds but a 2 year old would probably enjoy coloring-what kid doesn't? I've also been using a childrens Bible that has stories to correspond with each lesson. It's likely your childrens Bible will have the same stories. If not, I included reference so you can read it in your adult Bible, then tell the story yourself.

Let me know if you end up using it. I hope it can be fun for you and your child as you prepare for Easter! We'll be doing Resurrection Eggs this year too. Renae (and Mommy!) can't wait.

Click here to view "My Easter Workbook" as a pdf.

Details:
1) Four Lessons:

Jesus rides into Jerusalem
The Last Supper
Jesus dies on the Cross
Jesus is a alive!

2) 16 pages
3) For coloring purposes, you'll want to make sure you print in black and white as a few images are in color.
4)Appropriate for children familiar with the alphabet.

What we've Been Up to Since Christmas

2011-01-26T12:01:00.002-06:00

We had a great time in Iowa with Jesse's family and my family over Christmas. The nurf gun war was perhaps my favorite. I ate waaaayyyyyy to much. One of our gifts we received was a gym membership so the kids and I have been at the YMCA every day. We love it.

I'll be adding some pics on Facebook of my recent trip to Madrid, Spain and Basel, Switzerland for my job. I work for The Upstream Collective and we had a retreat for Skybridge Community members in Basel. It was great and made me so grateful to be doing a part time job that allows me to use my gifts, and still spend most of my day with my family. It's the perfect combo.

Let me be honest . . . I don't see myself updating on this blog very often. I feel like I've said that with each post I've done recently. So if you want to see pics of the kids, I hope to post more to Facebook. Otherwise . . . you'll just have to come visit us in KC!

Celebrating Christmas in KC

2010-12-23T21:47:00.005-06:00

Union Station had FREE admission to a Holiday Train and a visit with Santa.

About ready to board the holiday train.

One of the train cars had a huge model train and town set up for Christmas. So cute.

Renae loved the train.

Goober.

We ended the evening at Noodles and Company. Yummmy.

Maybe someday we'll take one in NYC when Jesse takes me on my dream trip.

Cheeser.

Flirt.

Merry Christmas.

Handmade Holiday Hoopla

2010-12-19T22:36:00.005-06:00

This is what my fingers have been up to this weekend. At the bottom of the post you can see what even littler fingers have been up to. She's a great helper!

More felt food for Renae's kitchen collection.

Every kitchen needs a full gallon of milk!

Chex mix with felt ornament for Renae's Sunday school teacher.
(Ornament and top are based off of Redeemer Kids-kids program @ church)

Sammy finally gets a stocking this year.

The S is for Sammy in case you were wondering . . .

Renae needs an apron for all that cooking she'll be doing!

Velcro straps so she can "tie" it herself.

Pocket and top trim is from one of my old shirts. Cut. Glue. So pretty.

There are some girl cousins who are getting some recycled crayons from Renae!

Divide the colors . . .

Insert in oven . .

Melted beauty.

Didn't I tell you those little fingers are cute?

I actually have another post for this week to show you! Can you tell the semester is over and I actually have some more time for blogging picture updates? It helps that I have interesting stuff to blog about . . .

Semester's Over!!

2010-12-16T22:39:00.005-06:00

Hey oh! Jesse is finally done with the first semester of seminary. Thank freakin' goodness. We have learned some good lessons. I'm sure there are many more to come. Hopefully next semester will see us with calmer schedules and routines. Jesse's only working 1 job, I'm only working 1 job and teaching only Spanish class of just a few kids. Sigh of relief. It feels good to know we are coming out of this particular valley and looking ahead to a change of scenery. Moving on . . .

Aunt Kari gave Renae a little trim a few weeks ago when they were in town!

She stood so still. And no ears were chopped off.

Have you met our chubby baby?

He's living large still . . .

And Uncle Trey is still Renae's BFF. Go figure.

I'm sure lots of you saw these on Facebook, but here are my Christmas presents for the kids! Renae is getting a play kitchen for her gift and I wanted her to have some food to go with it. We found a really cheap kitchen at Hy-Vee of all places. I had to put every single piece together after snapping it off of a plastic grid. It's nothing fancy, but who cares. We'll probably sell it at a garage sale in a few years anyways.

Breakfast food out of felt was so easy to make. Seriously.

Sammy's tool box.

You can see the tool is the famed "S" brand. Very upscale.

I had visions of doing more tools, but I'm running out of days to get these done.

What I loved about making Sammy's gift was I could work on it while Sammy played at my feet. It's still not wrapped and in plain sight. Sammy has even played with them a few times! You gotta love how cheap, easy, and simple gifts are for 1 year olds.

Anyone else doing some fun crafty Christmas presents? I'd love to hear about them!

New Blog Title, New Blog Expectations

2010-12-06T17:01:00.002-06:00

OK. I'm a wee bit blogged out, and I'm sure you've noticed . . . I really don't post much anymore.

Life has been harder than usual since moving to seminary land. Reverse culture shock comes in many different forms, and apparently can creep in almost a year after arrival back in the States!

Time for blogging doesn't really exist. Inspiration does . . I mean, my kids ARE still super cute! But again . . . the time factor.

So feel free to keep reading about our lives here, but you will need to seriously lower your expectations of how frequent I'll be updating. I can't promise more pics will be up on Facebook either . . .

So here is the quickest Masson family update I can think of:

Jesse-UPS. 3AM. Office Depot. Almost done working at Office Depot. Yes! Promoted to a supervisor at UPS. Woot woot! (after only 3 months of working there!) Full time school. Stressed. Finals this week and next. Stressed. Good looking and sexy.

Julie-The Mom Life. Teaching Spanish. Cutting out classes for next semester. Working about 10 hours a week. Needs some friends. Still couponing. Felt. Christmas presents. Needs some friends. Needs a gym. The Mom Life.

Renae-Sings. All the time. Extrovert. Loves Spanish class. Top in her class. Almost night potty trained! Such a fun 3 year old.

Sammy-All boy. Loud. Getting into everything. Bad sleeper. Took out morning nap. Now a great sleeper. Dang it. Loud. Getting into everything. Loud. So funny. Signs please. Loud. Almost walking by himself.

Need Christmas Cards?

2010-11-18T12:31:00.003-06:00

Have you heard about this great new card company yet? You will love it if . . .

You're a hippy. Their cards are all eco-friendly!
You're passionate about loving orphans. 10% of all proceeds go to World Orphans.
You love to travel. Many of the beautiful original photographs come from exotic places around the world.
You're sick of cheesy Christian cards that only speak Christian-ese.

Sound like you? Then you need to check out the Red Letter Paper Company in time to get those Christmas cards purchased!

They are also doing a giveaway contest. Become a fan on Facebook, do a Tweet about them, or share a link on your blog. Then leave a comment letting them know you did it and your name is entered to win. Click here for more details.

And here is my list of people most likely to love this company and pass it on to their friends . . .

Mandi, Jenny, and Jess I know you all too well! :)

Gettin' My Craft On

2010-11-17T08:16:00.004-06:00

Sometimes I have the urge to be crafty. These urges usually come after I spend time mentally mocking other women who talk about how much fun it is to create things with their hands. Really, it's just a coping mechanism for denying my inner craftiness. After all, you all know I never want to be "one of those" types of women. One of these days I'll grow up and realize being "one of those" is exactly who I really am.

Last weekend when my parents were in town, Renae and I headed to Barnes and Noble with my Mom so we could all enjoy the atmosphere of a bookstore. I have to admit I felt like Meg Ryan in "You've Got Mail" when she entered the mega-bookstore only to realize it does have a nice feel to it. There is just something about the smell of 1000's of mass produced books combined with the aroma of coffee and the sound of soft music piping through the speakers. Renae and Nana enjoyed browsing through the kid's section while I found myself in the craft section for the first time ever.

And there is where I found my inspiration!

I flipped through the book, "Fa la la la Felt" for quite awhile mentally making a list of all of the things I could make using the felt I'd purchased the day before. This book has so many fun ideas! Although a purchase of the book was not in my budget, I went home and found tons more ideas on craft blogs, Etsy and other sources. Here is a list of the things I hope to eventually make using felt:

Christmas ornaments-Can double as "bows" or name tags for gifts and the receiver gets a new ornament too!
Gift tags-Someone in our family already has a personalized felt gift tag with his initial on it.
Hair clips-I have 4 nieces and a daughter. Can't wait to attempt these for cute Christmas gifts!
Play Food Sets-Click here to see what some people are selling on Etsy! This stuff is amazing!
Napkin Rings-See below. I plan on taking this with me for Thanksgiving with Jesse's family. They turned out all right!

So that is what I'm enjoying while I have a little bit of down time each day. Anyone else up to some fun holiday (or non-holiday for that matter) crafting? I'd love to hear your ideas! Jenny . . . how I wish we could spend an entire weekend watching girl movies and making fun crafts together!

Click here to see some pictures of the book and click below to buy the book.

The Masson's First Halloween

2010-11-04T21:24:00.007-05:00

It all began with a pumpkin . . .

It's been 3 years since we've been able to have some Halloween fun.

And 3 years ago Renae was only 2 months old so . . .

. . . we didn't really get to experience the joy of watching our child trick or treat.

But this year we got to watch this cute little flamenco girl eat Halloween up!

Literally! (What a cute little Spanish girl she is.)

And have you met our new puppy?

He likes to crawl away from us as much as possible.

Looking for a doggie treat.

Instead Mom made him pose for a picture!

Renae and her friend "Rowie." Inseparable on Halloween night.

The puppies had it nice . . .

"Do you see my loot Daddy?"

A cowboy always needs a flamenco dancer by his side.

Waiting her turn for some of the goods . . .

A cowboy, flamenco dancer, "pirate," and adorable puppy.

In love.

A New Blog Fave

2010-10-27T08:32:00.002-05:00

I have to let you know about this blog. I know the author from my days in college. She is just plain funny. And her posts are short. So you can read it quick, get a chuckle, and move on with your day in a better mood for having read it. It's a win-win-win, which is what Michael Scott always prefers, and I do too.

We just had a weekend with NO KIDS. It ended up being kind of a life defining moment for me. I'll write more about that later.

Happy 1st Birthday Sammy!

2010-10-14T07:56:00.005-05:00

My big 1 year old.

I can't believe I gave birth to Sammy a year ago . . . in Spain of all places! If you would have told me at the age of 21 that I would be willing to have a baby in a foreign country, while speaking a foreign language, I would you have said, "Estas loco!" But I have to say that having Sammy in Spain is one of my most proud and happiest memories in my life. The whole experience was one big adventure for me (and you know me-I'll do almost anything for an adventure!). The frustrations of dealing with totally different systems and expectations for birthing Moms, the joy of having an ultrasound at EVERY APPOINTMENT, meeting my good friend Bea in the process and having her help me understand everything I needed to bring to the hospital, even something simple as taking the bus to my appointments was fun for me. Call me crazy. But I loved it.

I think there are some things in life that you say, "If that ever happened to me, I would die." But then you find yourself on the other side of that situation saying, "I did it! I actually made it! I'm so proud of myself!" Perhaps this is how Moms who go through birth without drugs feel. See-I can relate! :) I remember holding Sammy while I was in our hospital recovery room thinking, "I did it. I had a baby without any complications, while speaking Spanish, and I was able to understand almost everything that was said. I can't believe I did it!"

So to get all spiritual applicationish on you . . . be encouraged that the thing you are about to face that you never thought you could . . . you can do it! But not by yourself. Today I was reflecting over this day a year ago and I was reminded how many people were praying I'd have a normal delivery, with no surprises or complications. Jesse and I had been praying about it for awhile. And so many people (especially my Mom!) were praying that Sammy would be born while my Mom was still there-and he was! I know that none of this was by chance. I could not have done any of it had God not set it all in motion. God is so good, and so faithful.

And just to reminisce . . . I had to repost this video. It's for my own sake-you don't have to watch it! :)

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Joining the Ranks of Swagbucks!

2010-10-13T17:04:00.002-05:00

I recently joined this fun way to earn a few extra "cookies" in life. Swagbucks has been on my radar for about 9 months now as I watch friends and family Facebook status' change to say, "Mildred has earned 5 swag bucks!" Well now it's my turn. Here is how it works:

You sign up by clicking this link. Then you download the toolbar (optional but I recommend it) and start using Swagbucks like a search engine. That's pretty much it! As you search throughout the day, you'll be rewarded with a random amount of swag bucks. It does you no good to do extra searches in hopes of earning more. In fact, don't do that. You could be marked as spam if you do too many back to back searches of similar things. Just think of Swagbucks as your new Google. Enter in stuff you would normally enter into Goodle and you are set to go. I plan on using the swag bucks to buy Amazon gift cards. Because we have free shipping with Amazon prime, (are you a student? you could get it too!) I could get some good stuff for free! I have friends who say they earn about 50-100 swag bucks a week. If a Amazon gift card costs 450 swag bucks, that's not too bad of a deal, eh?

So click on this link and get started. No really. Please do this link so that I can get credit for referring you! :)

Sammy's 1st Birthday Party-(I am amazing . . .)

2010-10-09T14:56:00.010-05:00

( . . . because the party guests haven't even left and I've got this blog post done!)

Moving on. Sammy's 1st Birthday Hamburger party was a success!

The younger guests.

The young guests.

The sweet chubby birthday boy.

New toy? No thank you. This card will do.

Renae loves the presents too . .

Fast food fun

Would you like to super size that?

You know how much of a fast food junkie Grandma is . . .

"Sammy, this is the ONLY time all year you'll get this. Trust me. Make the most of it."

A quick serious moment of pondering.

"Hmmmm hamburger."

What is with my children and loving their sweets??

Oh that's right. Key word: MY children.

Thankfully Sammy only received one noisy gift.

"Hey! Turn off your cell phone! I'm starting my performance!"

So glad Great Grandma and Grandpa could come!

"How is it that you are almost 1, little boy?"

At least we made Grandpa smile for the picture . . .

One happy little boy.

Possibly more pictures to come as I gather them off of others cameras. For now, I stand by the fact that I'm amazing for getting this post up on the same day of the party. Gotta go. I have an Iowa State football game to go too!!!

Moving on to the Next Birthday

2010-10-07T22:05:00.002-05:00

This weekend we are headed back to Iowa to celebrate Sammy's birthday and attend an Iowa State game-first one in 3 years!! I don't really like the idea of celebrating Sammy's 1st birthday almost a week early, but I also don't like the idea of celebrating it without anyone. Not that we don't have friends here, but we have only been here a few months. And 1st birthdays are really only enjoyed by family and close friends. Only those people can really get into all of the "Ahh, cute! Look at what he just did!" moments. You know?

My Mom and I are going to be decorating tomorrow night. Are you wondering what the theme is? I'm going to attempt this fun theme, with help from my Mom. Are you wondering why I chose a hamburger theme for a 1 year old? Well it goes like this . . .

First, I really like doing theme birthday parties . . . if you haven't noticed. Second, I usually pic a theme based on something the child really likes. With Renae it's always been pretty easy. But with Sammy . . . well let's just say that I tried really hard to come up with a toy, or an activity that he really likes and literally the only thing I could think of was that he loves. to. eat. And although he was born in Spain, he eats like an American so what better way to celebrate than with a hamburger party! We are even going to eat hamburgers for lunch before we eat them again in sugar form.

Changing subjects . . . we have no idea what to get him for his birthday. Aaaaan we kind of don't care. My ideas are to wrap up one of the toys that belongs to us that we've left at Nana and Grandpy's house, buy some boring clothes, or buy a Halloween costume (used). Either way, he's going to play with the box, wrapping paper and anything but the thing we get him. So it's a win win for all!

I hope to post pictures sooner rather than later, but I can't promise anything. Enjoy your weekend!

Renae's 3rd Birthday Bash . . . a month after the fact!

2010-10-01T10:15:00.012-05:00

It's a Pocoyo party!!!

Ice Cream toppings and a Pocoyo video playing in the background.

Pocoyo himself . . . in cake form.

Renae enjoys a bowl of ice cream in the backyard (Pocoyo water cup in tow)

Love this.

And this.

Enjoying the coloring table

And coloring with cousins.

We put Michael in charge of the piñata . . .

. . . and he eventually followed through.

Some of the partay guests

Little Brother enjoying time with the Grandpas

Aaaaaand I love this too.

Sigh.

Renae wasn't so sure why Pocoyo was hanging from a tree.

"Really? We're going to beat Pocoyo?"

Ready to go . . .

Swing Renae! Swing!

Taylor takes a turn.

Watching the demolition

Caedmon the champion busts him wide open!

Collecting the goods!

Opening presents . . . Renae had to try on her new crocs.

Pocoyo books from Bea, Jose and Jaime!!!

Notice the backpack? It went on and never came off . . .

Still has the backpack on . . .

Renae was so kind to share her stroller with Daddy . . .

Renae passed out cupcakes to everyone.

Nana gave Sammy a sneak peak of his 1st birthday.

This is pretty much how Renae spent the rest of her party.

Payton helped her know what to put in the stroller. A bear of course!

Sammy and Reagan . . . just chillin'.

"Here Sammy, have one of my chewed up crackers."

Renae is networking with the guests.

These 2 girls sure do like hangin' with each other.

Helping Renae with presents . . .

Helping Renae push the stroller . . .

Staying close incase Renae ever lets go of the stroller . . .

Chasing her down!

Whew! That took awhile to do! Now I remember why I hardly blog anymore.

1. I have no camera.

2. When I do have pictures to post, they are usually from Penni's camera which makes really pretty, high quality photos . . . but they take FOREVER to load.

3. Posts like this take 1.5 hours to upload all the pictures. No lie.

4. I think there was another reason but I can't remember.

We are celebrating Sammy's 1st birthday next week. I can't believe he's almost 1!!!! I'll try and get his pictures posted sooner than I did Renae's party. No promises though!

****All pictures except for 2 were taken by my wonderful mother-in-law. Thanks Penni!

Blogging Might Not be on my To-Do List

2010-09-02T21:52:00.006-05:00

I really think blogging has simply lost it's appeal to me. It's either that, or I'm just really busy. Maybe a little of both? At least it's a good busy. God has provided Jesse and I with 4 different part time jobs. One of mine isn't really a job, but I kind of feel like it because of how much time it's been taking lately. Are you curious yet? Are you wondering if I'm going to tell you what it is? Well considering I'm usually such a discreet person . . .

My Spanish school is actually really taking off! Little Amigos has it's first set of classes in 2 weeks and my K-2 class is FULL! I even had to turn away 4 different kids. And they were kids from off campus which means they don't get the really really really (really-we're all broke here.) cheap price I'm giving seminary families. So I'm trying to work it out to add another K-2 class in the morning for the on campus homeschooled kids. I'm not sure if I have the time to do a 3rd class though . . . we'll just have to see.

Because of this "job" and my other super part time job working for an awesome organization that helps Christ followers connected with other Christ followers who live and work in Europe, I've just been busy! And I'm also having to be super scheduled with my day so that I can maximize my time with my kids. I'm learning that I have to designate certain times of the day to each job otherwise I could spend all day replying to emails, and spend none of it with my kids. Or cleaning my house. Or couponing (yes I still do that-it's so much easier now!). Or being a stellar seminary wife. I'd prefer not to fail at the wife and Mom thing so managing my time is a must. I can't say I finish every day perfectly. Some days, I break of my rule and get online before my run and devotions. Bad idea. It always ends up sucking me into something that I have scheduled to work on later. Or sometimes I'm just selfish and lazy and I get sucked into the internet just because!

So if you think of it, pray for me. Pray that I'll be good at managing my time, and that I'll stick to my "rules." When I stick to them, I get to enjoy my kids, and I get to enjoy the times when I DON'T have something scheduled, better. I really think that once classes get going, it will be better because I'll have my curriculum in place by then, and I won't be email 20 different parents.

I have some fun pictures to post of Renae's birthday party. I can't take credit for any of them as my awesome mother-in-law worked her magic and caught some precious moments. Gag. I just said precious moments. So hopefully I'll get those pictures up soon. After that, I can't promise many blog posts. If you are wondering why, re-read this post, you blog skimmer!

Why I Read That One Blog and the Big Lesson from Spain

2010-08-30T13:19:00.003-05:00

When I was in high school, there was a girl who was well known by most people, and good at almost anything. She also called herself a Christian. I heard her talk about God sometimes, and even saw her praying occasionally. But then I saw her swear, or be mean to people sometimes. In my self-righteous 16-year-old mindset, I was really confused. I figured she probably wasn't a real Christian because she sure wasn't acting even near perfect . . . which we all know is how all Christians need to act-always!

At the time, the way I lived as a Christian was mostly wrapped up in a lot of fear and anxiety. I constantly felt like I was spinning my wheels, trying to measure up to God's standard for how a true Christ follower should live. After all, there is totally one specific list of Do's and Don'ts and as long as I stick to it, I'll make God happy and earn His praise. When you say it that way it sounds pretty jacked up, right?

Fast forward to my time living in Spain. God finally got my attention and showed me that I was basically a self-righteous Pharisee who looked down on the rest of those "heathens" in the world because I thought I was so good, a blessing to God. I didn't have much genuine love for those who didn't live for Christ, (though I tried because it was on the list of Do's), and struggled with true passion for God (also something on the list.) When I realized my self-righteousness, pride and just plain awfulness, I finally understood what Christ had done for me on the cross. He'd sacrificed His life, knowing that I would one day be born as a jerk. The reality of God's grace resonated with me for the first time in my life. I couldn't believe that God would love me that much . . . knowing how wretched I really was in my heart of hearts. It gave me new freedom in Christ. I became comfortable with who God had made me to be. I was able to stop trying so hard to be that Christian that I thought everyone else was at home, behind closed doors. I started listening to God's voice as He spoke into my life and what He wanted me to do with it, for His glory. And you know what? It became a lot easier to do the things that I knew were pleasing to God. I found joy in obedience.

The reason I tell you all of this is because some people wonder why I like The Very Worst Missionary blog so much. Lots of people are really offended by her blog. They don't like the occasional swearing or the sarcasm, and some just don't like the bluntness she uses to describe the reality of a missionary living in Costa Rica. I love the blog because I see her as a Christian under my new set of eyes. Instead of thinking Christians are all supposed to look, act, and think the same way, I now see that God has created people to be truly unique because He has unique purposes for them. And now that I understand Grace, I see Christians as people who were/are messed up, but live new lives, centered around letting God mold them into His will for their lives. God uses imperfect people!

Sure, maybe The Very Worst Missionary shouldn't swear*, but maybe I shouldn't eat that 4th brownie either. And maybe I should remember that I'm probably reading something that was started as a personal online journal, and although 100's of people read it, she can say what she wants in her journal. I mean, who censors what they say in their diary?

I'm not saying sin is relative, I'm just saying that I can look past things that some might consider as wrong, and see the good. And in this blog's case, there is so much good. God is using a normal woman who blogs about her life. Her real life. Things like how she makes mistakes . . . how she struggles with letting an African woman hold her hand despite the fact that she hates being touched . . . or how crappy it is to not be able to flush your toilet paper. The blogosphere is full of people writing an edited, perfected version of their lives. But few are writing about what's really going on, how they really feel, and how God is working it all out in them. I love this blog, and I'll keep reading it. There are too many nuggets of Truth and insight to miss out on. Blog on The Very Worst Missionary. May God continue to use your humility, willingness to be real and yes, even your skarkiness.

*You can read this post, written by someone else, about how I feel on the subject of swearing and the words we use. Let the can of worms open . . . .

What's in the Bag?

2010-08-24T13:31:00.004-05:00

What is in this recyclable bag?

No seriously. What's in that bag?

Oh just a lot of money's worth in books . . .

Because today is Jesse's first day of school!

That's right. At long last we've begun the path towards Jesse's desired career. He decided to follow in the footsteps of his brother and begin graduate school late in life. However Jesse won't be studying in a foreign language (no Greek or Hebrew-whew!), nor will it take 5-6 years. (Well, we hope not.) Aaaand, he won't be able to heal sickness. So basically, the similarites between the 2 brothers ended at beginning graduate school late in life.

He really is happy about finally getting started.

We've had a lot of people ask us questions about what kind of degree Jesse is getting, where he's studying etc, so I thought I'd take the time and fill you in!

What degree will he have?
Jesse is working on a Masters of Arts in Counseling degree. This means that by the time he graduates, he'll be trained to take a test to receive state certification as a counselor.

So he's not studying at seminary to be a pastor?
No. Oh no. Not at all.

Then what can he do with a degree from a seminary?
Jesse's desire is to work in a secular counseling situation. So if he passes the test at the end of his schooling, he'll be licensed to work in that kind of a setting. If he wanted to work at a church of another Christian setting, he probably doesn't need the state certification, but since that's not his main goal, he'll be working on passing that test. I have full confidence that he'll be able to do it.

Where is he studying?
You are on a need to know basis, and you don't need to know. Seriously, you'll have to email us if you really want to know. Otherwise, we'll have to keep that a secret because sometimes we just have some stories we'd like to share and it wouldn't be good if you knew where these things happened. But be looking for a post from Jesse someday about a required Basic Evangelism class he has to take! That will be a good one.

Why did he choose to study counseling at a seminary?
Jesse got a scholarship which really helps bring the cost of his degree down. Plus, we also liked the idea of having a Biblical understanding for not only theology, but for counseling.

Does he really want to sit and listen to people talk about their problems all day?
Yes. And I'll answer this one from my perspective. We've learned that Jesse's main skill set is people. He doesn't have training to be a graphic designer, or a musician or an engineer. But he's highly gifted to work with people, and for people.

I've watched him countless times while he listens with genuine interest to people as they share what they are going through, and then listened to him give a wise answer. Usually when you think of counselors, you think of people who love to talk about feelings, emotions etc. Jesse is not that. Rather, he's one of the biggest thinkers I know. He does NOTHING on emotion. Which is one of the main reasons why I love him. He doesn't think with his heart so when he listens to others express their hearts and emotions, he can kind of sift through what they think is true, and point them in the right way to genuine Truth. I know because I've seen him do this with me-the complete opposite, a mega feeler.

So that my friends, is what Jesse is working on for the next 3 years. We've got a long road ahead of us but you know what? we feel a huge sense of contentment here. Not because we think God called us to this, but because we know God has opened up these doors, and he's providing beyond belief. And I'm not even talking just financially. God is so good, and so faithful.

P.S Today I went for my run and noticed a lot of extra cars on campus. Then I realized it was the day scheduled for chapel. All staff and undergraduate students are required to come. (Not the masters students though-thank goodness!)

I turned off my iPod and ran into the building to take a peek at what a twice-a-week chapel service looks like. A kind woman invited me to come on in. I said, "Oh thanks, but I'm going on a run." Then I walked back out of the building past the many students coming in, turned my iPod back on, and enjoyed a little Fee, Dispatch and Maroon 5. It was one of those moments where I had to laugh at the irony of living on a seminary campus, skipping chapel to run and listen to some goooood music. Thus begins our new life . . .

Today is Brought to You by the Letter F

2010-08-23T11:16:00.004-05:00

Words:
Fox
Fireman
Fish

Bible Story:
Jesus feeds the 5000 with 2 fish and 5 loaves of bread
Click here for a cheesey YouTube video version of the story.

Spanish:
Falda (skirt)
Fiesta (party)

Person to pray for: Fede

I also wanted to share that I have 2 main points I'm trying to teach Renae in each Bible lesson we learn, as well as through daily life. Don't think I'm that great . . . I haven't talked about our 2 main points in forever! But today's Bible story reminded me of these 2 great lessons. So here are the 2 questions I ask Renae, and the answers that we talk about as often as I can remember:

What does Jesus want us to know? That God is good.

What does Jesus want us to do? Help others.

What are some things you do with your kids to teach them some basic spiritual truths? I'd love some new ideas! Also, what kids Bibles do you use?

Enjoying a fall-like day . . .

2010-08-20T17:35:00.000-05:00

Taking pic's of the squirm worm.

Shucking super yummy Iowa Sweet Corn.

This Iowa girl turned Madrileña has found her true roots.

Poppin' bubbles.

Makin' bubbles

Makin' a fool of herself while poppin' bubbles . . .

Julie explaining to Jesse how it was just an accident . . .
(Don't worry . . . Jesse wasn't really mad. :) )

Link Up

The family that bounces together, stays together.

Sometimes Jesse is dumbfounded by his 2 girls.

Hangin' on for dear life. It was just that kind of a weekend.

Enjoying a Saturday . . .

2010-08-18T18:38:00.001-05:00

Who better to draw with than Grandpa the art teacher?

Renae loves to draw.

And ride her bike! (With arm floaties of course)

Daddy's turn to steer . . .

What a cheeser.

Mommy's turn to steer.

Sammy's turn for a diaper change.

Sammy sat looking the window for about 20 minutes. He loved watching Grandpa mow. Such a boy.

A Weekend Away!

2010-08-16T11:54:00.003-05:00

Jesse's life starts getting totally crazy this week as he starts his second job, and orientation for classes is this week as well. Since he wasn't scheduled to work last Thursday-Sunday, we decided it was a perfect last opportunity to get away. We headed to the Grandparents house for a time of relaxation, food and of course, the hot weather. If you read my Mother-in-law's blog and my blog, please visit her blog first because I did a few posts for her this week and you need to see these pictures there first. It's her first update since February! You'll notice a common theme in these pictures . . . no Penni! I downloaded pictures from her camera onto her computer and I realized there were none of the photographer. Oops. Maybe when I can get in the habit of taking our camcorder with us, I'll actually start taking pictures of my own!

Sammy enjoys the splash pad.

Renae loves it too . . . anything with water she loves!

Can you see Sammy's signature look?

Renae and Grandpa run through a fountain.

Turns out Sammy wasn't as fond of the water as we thought.

Daddy to the rescue . . .

"Here Grandpa. You collect the water like this."

More pictures to come . . .

Emails from a Nigerian

2010-08-13T17:22:00.002-05:00

I finally launched the Spanish program that I'm offering this fall. The website has been up for a few weeks but I didn't start advertising until this week. Thankfully, I've already had 2 inquiries and 1 sign-up! I've also received about 10 requests like this:

-----------

Greetings!!!
Please let me know if you can tutor my 10 years old Daughter and tell me what Subject are you good in it?
,
Hope to hear from you soon.

Mr Jeff.

------------

Hello,

Greetings to you! ..I want to know if you if you have available slots/times to accommodate my Daughter for lesson 3 time a week.It will be useful if you could get back to me with your area of Expertize/Specialization.

Hoping to read from you soon so as to proceed with the arrangement.

Regards

Nia
(This one actually almost fooled me! The Daughter with a capital D got me though.)
--------------

Hi, How are you doing today?I want a private lessons for my son(Paul) at your location. Paul is 14 year old boy and is ready to learn. Please I want to know your policy with regard to the fees, cancellations, and make-up lessons.Also,get back to me with the total fees for six month lessons(one-hour lesson in a week) starting from August 30.
In addition,I want to know the lessons location and your phone number.Looking forward to hearing from you.
My best regards,

---------------

Can we say BabelFish anyone??

I've read multiple articles and forum posts to learn that it's very common for Nigerians to try and scam people on Craiglist's services/lessons section. They offer to pay over the amount you need with a fake check, and then want you to send the extra amount back to them. Or something like that.

It's kind of funny on so many levels. But then I just kind of felt bad for these guys. I mean, what does your life have to be like that you are willing to spend your days in an internet cafe searching Craigslist for scams to pull? Really? That's pretty sad. I tried to write one guy back and ask about his life. I also told him I knew he was pulling a scam. He didn't write back.

For one, I wrote back and said that my prices were $3000 an hour. That wasn't very nice of me.

Anyways, here is the link to my Little Amigos website. If you are in my area, there are spaces ope for you! Well . . . for your kid. YOU, are too old to be in my class. Sorry about the age discrimination.

Also, I got a can of PB today for $0.50 cents.

Tattoos

2010-08-11T22:08:00.002-05:00

Baby nap problems to tattoos? Welcome to Jesse's world as he tries to follow along with my brain . . . Thanks for the tips everyone. I'm still working out the kinks to figure out why Sammy has started waking up from naps ridiculously early, but I think we're turning a corner.

Moving on . . . I read this blog on a regular basis and really enjoy a lot of what is posted. The most recent post about tattoos was a really great take on why some people get tattoos. For the record, I do not have a tattoo, nor do I ever plan on getting one. Mostly because I've vain and I don't want to be that old lady with saggy tattoo arms someday! But I loved this post and I think you should read it too. I'm wondering if any of you out there who have tattoos can relate to his post. Let me know!

Help a Mom Out

2010-08-10T07:55:00.003-05:00

My child can't take a nap longer than 1.5 hours because he wakes up and plays in his crib!

Here's the story: About a month ago, Sammy started standing up in his crib which lead to him taking forever to get to sleep, and then waking up early (overtired) from his afternoon nap and playing some more in his crib. If he doesn't get a good afternoon nap, he doesn't sleep as well at night (wakes up too early), and then he doesn't nap well the next day either . . . it's a vicious cycle.

Well about a week ago Sammy caught the cold/cough Renae had shared with us and was unable to sleep laying down. We let him sleep in his car seat all last week and he took great naps all week. Why? Because he couldn't move! That kid was buckled in to his temporary bed and I loved it. Now that his cold is gone, we decided to put him in his crib for naptime. Lo and behold . . . about 1.5 hours into naptime, Sammy woke up and started playing in his crib. He didn't cry so I left him in there the rest of naptime and by the time I went in to get him I saw he'd reached his chubby little arms through the crib slats, through the changing table slats, and into the diaper basket. He then carefully pulled his still chubby little arm (now holding a diaper) back through both slats and threw the diaper into the crib. I found him sitting amongst about 15 diapers. 15 trips back and forth to the diaper basket. No wonder he didn't fall back asleep!

Needless to say, I'm going to be moving the diaper basket out of reach. But I still need some Mommy advice! Did anyone else experience this? If so, what did you do when your child woke up early from nap time only to spend the rest of the time playing in the oh-so-fun crib play ground?

Today is Brought to You by the Letter E

2010-08-09T11:04:00.003-05:00

Words:
Elephant
Earth

Bible Story:
God created the Earth

Spanish:
Escuela (school)
Empujar (push)
Estrella (star)

People to Pray for:
Ethan

Thursday is Spanish Day!

2010-08-05T11:34:00.005-05:00

Today was our first day of Spanish "preschool." Which means I spent about 20-30 minutes reading, talking and playing games in Spanish. With Renae of course (without her it kind of defeats the purpose, huh?) I decided we'll be doing a unit on the human body which I chose because Renae has a Sesame St. video (all in Spanish) about the body that I let her watch almost once a day, and we recently checked out a book from the library all about feet. (Also, all in Spanish.) Plus . . . when I taught 1st-6th grade Spanish, we had an entire unit about the body so I didn't have to think real hard about how to prepare my curriculum. I do need to modify it for an almost 3 year old though . . . .

Anyways, it was pretty fun and Renae really enjoyed it. We read our book, and I asked her questions along the way to see if she was understanding. Then I taught her the song "Cabeza, hombros, rodillas y pies." (Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes) After the story and song time, we played "Memoria" (memory) using different pictures of body parts. As we each took turns flipping cards over, I had her say the word in Spanish.

Here are some language teaching tips if you are interested in doing some Spanish (or another language) lessons at home:

During the entire lesson, I only spoke to her in Spanish. There is no need for me to translate from English to Spanish for her during these activities. It will do her no good to have a brain trained to "translate." Imagine if our brains did that in English when we were learning as a baby? "Ok that's the ubly kos babble da which means . . . think Sammy, think! What does that translate to in English? I got it! Red ball!" If you want to teach your child a second language, but don't have the fluidity to speak it, work as hard as you can to NOT constantly translate from English to the target language. I promise you that if you simply teach your child a word and match it to the correct picture, they will learn it WITHOUT referencing English. It's how we all learned our first native tongue.
Don't be afraid of switching your kid's favorite video to Spanish (or French-a common 3rd option). I don't let Renae watch much TV, but I do let her watch the Sesame St. video, or her favorite TV show from Spain, Pocoyo, almost every day. Note that neither of these videos were made with the intent to teach children Spanish. They are simply videos made for children, using the Spanish language. Remember that learning another language at this age is the easiest! So kids do not need to have lessons in grammar, watch videos geared towards teaching you how to speak in Spanish, etc. They just need to be immersed in the language. Read to them, check out recordings of Spanish books, watch Spanish movies, teach them vocabulary . . . they can do it.
Do you know a fellow Mom who is a native Spanish speaker and speaks it to her children? Start a play group! If she is new to the US, you can help her learn English, she can help you learn Spanish, and your kids can play together while learning their own mix of Spanglish.
See if your local library offers a Spanish story time. The last town we lived in offered one once a month (and Russian too!) and our new library . . . well I'm working on it! Actually, Ive been talking with one of the librarians there so that I can do a Spanish story time once a month.

You don't need to be fluent in a language to teach your child some basic lessons. Sure, they aren't going to become native speakers by just having a half hour lesson each week of vocabulary, books and games, but it will help! And until your child gets the opportunity to be immersed in the language, your little lessons will increase their brain power which is always a good thing.

The funniest thing Renae has been doing lately in regards to Spanish is when I ask her a question in Spanish, she'll usually respond in English . . . correctly! So I'm learning that she understands much of what is said to her in Spanish, but lacks the vocabulary to say what she'd like to say. This also means that I need to start speaking to her more in Spanish . . . . I'll try and be inspired by my friend Bea from Spain who speaks to her son Jaime almost entirely in English while her husband speaks to him in Spanish. That's the way to do it folks!

***If you want me to post some of the materials I'm using on my blog for your own Spanish lessons, leave me a comment and I'll try and load those onto Google documents.***

Today is Brought to you by the Letter D

2010-08-02T10:37:00.004-05:00

Words:
Door
Dinosaur
Desk
Drawer

Bible Story:
David and Goliath

Spanish:
Dedo (finger)

Pray for:
Uncle Dan
David Wilson
Dani from Spain

*****************
Yes, I know, we didn't get very far in our alphabet lessons. Which is why I'm finally starting back up. After 2 months here, we also finally have a solid routine which means I picked Monday's to be my day when I teach Renae a new letter. I spent about 15-20 minutes while Sammy was taking his morning nap to tell Renae the Bible story, talk about the letter D, and pray for our friends and family whose names being with the letter D.

Also, if you are wanting to do your own alphabet book, I found these images for each letter of the alphabet and made it into my own printable book. I'd be more than happy to email you the document if you want. Don't have too high of expectations. Each page has one letter on it and I printed it off to make a "book." Actually . . . it won't be a book until we've gone through the entire alphabet (23 more weeks to go!). For now, I have Renae's "D" page hung at the end of one of our kitchen cabinets so she can look at it all week. Next Monday, I'll trade it out with the letter E. Just remind me to keep the old letters in a safe spot so that I can make the book when we're done!

Look below for letter's A-C, and check back here each Monday (more or less . . . ) for more images and our alphabet. I'm also going to do a a 15-20 lesson in Spanish for Renae every Thursday. If you are interested, I'll post what I'm doing for that and I'll make any documents I do available.

*********************

Lessons in Couponing-Part II

2010-07-30T20:42:00.001-05:00

Yesterday I shared 3 observations I've made on my coupon journey. They are:

1. Finding a system that works for you is essential.
2. Planning a Menu saves you a ton!
3. There are some items that have coupons available almost every week.

Now to continue . . .

4. Keep any coupon you MAY use.
I usually buy all of Sammy's diapers at Target. They are far cheaper than any of the name brand diapers and work just fine. Therefore, when I saw a coupon for $1.50 off Pampers diapers, I didn't think to save them. Then . . . I noticed that at places like CVS you can actually get name brand diapers for even cheaper than Target brand when you use coupons and in-store promotions. So I now keep coupons for products that I usually buy off brand versions of.

5. Keep a running price list of your most common items.
I think I've mentioned before that I do this on my iPod touch. The first few times I went to grocery stores in my neighborhood, I kept track of how much different items cost. This really helps when I'm at Hy-Vee, trying to decide if a deal is as good as it sounds. Like I've said, I don't buy something at Hy-Vee with a coupon if I know that I can still get it cheaper at Aldi.

6. When you see a good deal-stock up!
As long as a deal won't make me go over budget, I go for it. Occasionally, I've stocked up on good deals even though it's made me go a little over budget. To compensate, I set a lower budget the following week.

7. Don't be afraid to mess up.
My first trip to CVS, I messed up. My first time trying to match up coupons with in-store promotions, I messed up. I grabbed the wrong size of boxes, or didn't have the write kind, etc. But it gets easier and it takes less and less time after each trip to the grocery store. Don't be deterred by a few mistakes.

I am so glad that 2 cousins got me hooked on couponing. I've been able to make our grocery budget only $50 a week (and oftentimes less!). I've been able to get necessities like diapers, soap, cleaning supplies etc, at ridiculously low prices. It IS worth it. Sure, it took a few mistakes, and at first, it took up more of my time, but now that I've stuck with it a few months, I feel like I'm on a roll and it can only get better from here.

Because I know so many friends and family that read this are starting to catch the coupon craze, I thought I'd offer to try and answer any questions you may have. So, if you still confused about something I've posted about, or have a specific question, leave a comment and I'll try and do a post answering your question. I'm no expert but I think I've got a good handle on it now!

Lessons in Couponing-Part 1

2010-07-29T21:13:00.003-05:00

After almost 2 months of couponing, I decided to write down some of my observations, (in no particular order or flow). Here they are for you reading pleasure:

1. Finding a system that works for you is essential.
For me, this means that on Sunday afternoons or evenings, I take out the Red Plum and Smart Source inserts from my Sunday paper which is delivered to my door for the price of $1.25 each week. (This subscription gets me Thursday-Sunday papers.) I don't clip each coupon. I only clip coupons I think I may use. If I'm not sure, I usually clip it just to be safe.

Then, I divide the coupons into the categories labeled in my expandable folder, order them by expiration date, then place them in the correct slot in my coupon holder. Now that it's a routine, it takes about 30 minutes (or less) each week to do all of this. Not bad.

Red Plum

Smart Source

2. Planning a Menu saves you a ton!
Just the other day, I went to do my weekly meal plan and realized I didn't even need to go to the store on my regularly scheduled grocery day. After looking through my fridge, freezer and cabinets, I found enough in there to last a few days. I only need a few days worth because Hy-Vee is having a really great 10 hour sale this Saturday (Aug. 31) I wanted to wait to do the bulk of my weekly shopping until that day. However, I realized that I STILL didn't really need to do a normal grocery day because I had enough meal ideas to last me until my next grocery day next week! Sure, I'm going to need to grab a few things like milk, eggs, cereal and a few other things, but I don't need to buy anything extra for my supper meals this week.

Last week, I didn't see any great deals at Hy-Vee so I bought all of my weekly groceries from Aldi. I only spent $33 dollars for all of the meals for 1 week. I was way under my $50 weekly budget. Planning a menu saves you a ton!

3. There are some items that have coupons available almost every week.
I can almost always depend on having coupons for cereal, yogurt, razors, soaps, cleaning supplies, baby supplies and batteries. There are a few others but these are the ones that come to mind. Now that I'm used to what comes in the inserts each week, I can know when I see a really great coupon and when I have enough Yoplait yogurt coupons.

Some people get frustrated with coupons because they think that the above mentioned items are the only things available to buy with coupons. But the longer you coupon, the greater variety of coupons you acquire. I've been doing it long enough that I can finally read, "Use KC Masterpiece $0.50 off coupon from the 6/03 Red Plum insert and combine it with the in-store coupon of $0.50 off." It takes time to get the most bang for your buck, but it's worth it.

Stay tuned for Lessons in Couponing-Part II.

Another Great CVS Deal

2010-07-28T21:48:00.003-05:00

Yesterday I got a box of Pampers diapers (64 count) for $3.49. Well, it's basically like that. Here is how it worked:

CVS has Pampers for sale (not on sale) at $21.99
I had a coupon for $1.50 off.
I also had $3 in Extra Care Bucks from my last CVS purchase.
I also had $4 in Extra Care Bucks because every few months, CVS gives you 2% of the TOTAL amount spent back to you. So even though I've only actually spent about $30, my Extra Care account shows that I spent $84.11. If you do the math, (which I'm horrible at) you'll see that 2% of $84.11 is NOT $4. So I'm not sure why I got 4% back but I'll take it!
With ECB's and a coupon, that brought my total to $13.49 (cheaper than Target brand!)
When you buy 1 box of Pampers diapers, you receive $10 in Extra Care Bucks.
Bringing the grand total to $3.49. Wow.

Now granted, I actually had to pay $13.49 of actual cash yesterday. But what I'll do is spend those $10 ECB on something where I only pay the overage to reach $10. So I'll wait for something that is "Buy $10 of Cover Girl products and get $3 ECB's." See this post for an example of this.

What it comes down to is I get a box of diapers and $10 of other merchandise for only $13.49. I'm loving getting things for dirt cheap. Now that I've been couponing and CVSing for almost 2 months, I feel like I've learned a few things and understand everything a lot better. Be looking for a post in the next few days about it. I'm still hooked!

Picture Stealing

2010-07-26T22:10:00.007-05:00

Apparently I'm in the apology business lately. My camera bit the dust, kicked the bucket, went 6 feet under, you get the jist. So I can't take pictures unless I use our camcorder which currently has a full memory card and I guess I'm just being lazy about downloading pictures and videos form there. So first I'm going to apologize about being lazy in downloading stuff from the camcorder.

However . . . I came up with a brilliant plan to steal my sister-in-law's photos from Facebook. Last weekend, almost my entire family came down and we had a fun weekend swimming at the hotel pool, eating and enjoying being together. I got to play host for a few meals too which I always enjoy. And no, I didn't have to break the bank to pay for the food- I stayed UNDER BUDGET for the week, including our normal food plus the extra food for our weekend. I love not spending tons of money on groceries! Oh . . . and now I have to apologize for stealing pictures.

Now onto pictures and a little update about each of my kiddos.

This boy loves food so much he'll gladly suck on not 1, but 2 lemon slices. Crazy kid.

Sammy's newest thing is keeping me from getting anything done. He's totally mobile now and loves to climb on, climb in and grab whatever he can.

Sammy's twin (I mean uncle)

The boy is also into waking up way too early from his afternoon nap to stand up his crib. Thankfully today he finally fell back asleep . . . after I caged him into his pack n' play where he had nothing to hold on to.

Poor pitiful boy . . .

When Renae was this age, she was shaking her head no, waving and "talking" more. At this age Sammy is clapping, grunting, screaming and saying the one syllable he knows: Da da.

Although it may not be obvious, we DO feed him . . .

Heyo!

You'd think they were a bunch of 13 year olds . . .

Renae and her cousins

Little Miss Renae is one funny little girl. She's really into "reading" (usually her own language) out loud and repeating everything we say back to us as if we're hearing for the first time from her mouth.

Check out my hat.

She's pretty excited about her birthday "In August. I get gummy worms at my August." Can't believe she'll be 3 so soon . . . We are enjoying our times in the morning when Sammy is taking his nap. After my run she likes to count for me while I lift weights or do crunches. After counting to ten she sounds as worn out as a marathon finisher.

OK, one more picture of each. And there are no pictures of me. And it's not because I've gotten embarasingly fat that I don't want you to see how I've let myself go. Remember, I run in the mornings. :)

That's All I Needed

2010-07-25T20:45:00.003-05:00

I said I needed a little break. And I did. And I still need a break from writing things that may be funny, but actually come from a deep feeling of brokenness for the post-modern, unchurched, dechurched, lost of this world. A lot of the things that you'll see me write about on this blog in regards to our lives here at seminary are tongue in cheek, but are also the only way I know how to convey some of the inconsistencies I see with "religion."

Speaking of religion, I heard a great quote today. Religion says, "we're here to make sure you do something you don't want to do." (Read your Bible, go to church, share your faith, etc.) A grace filled relationship with God causes us to want to do what we are supposed to do. (Read your Bible, go to church, share your faith, etc.) It's a beautiful thing to be in a relationship with that kind of God. One who loves us enough to give us the Holy Spirit to convict, encourage, correct and in my case, make me cry when I'm all verklempt thinking about how awesome relationship with God is. Yes, that happens. If I think too hard about how good God is, and how much he's radically changed me, my husband and our marriage over the past 3 years, well the tears start a-flowin. This happens often during my runs in the morning. I'll be running along and the hands come out to flap away the moisture. (That doesn't work very well, fyi.)

I may have just said that last part so that you're impressed with the fact that I exercise daily. What I should say, is that it's on my schedule each day (Mon-Fri) and there are lots of days that I miss. I think the real thing I need to change on my blog is that I need to write more about my own inconsistencies if I'm going to write about all the inconsistencies I see when I walk out my front seminary housing door. So here is my first inconsistency: I threw in that tidbit about running in the morning so you'd know I'm "one of those" Moms who makes time to run. So I'm also "one of those" proud, self-righteous types too. Dang it.

I really appreciated all the kind comments people left me (and the few emails too.) I can't stay away from anything too long so I'll be back. I just don't know what I'll want to write about.

Wow. This was one of the most random, personal blog posts I think I've ever written. I've always said I didn't want to be "one of those" (I love that phrase) bloggers who just go on and on about their thoughts. So I apologize for this post and any that follow it's example.It probably stems from spending the past half hour reading this blog. It's my new favorite and I've added it to my blog roll so that you can know when she updates. Thanks Kari for the vine (whatever that phrase means. I'm just using it to sound more blogsmart. See? I am proud! Wow . . . what a weird post this has become.)

One more thing. When I say I heard a quote the other day, what I usually mean is, "I heard a really cool thing come out of someone's mouth and I can't remember exactly what they said but here is my paraphrase." So don't quote me on anything in this blog . . .

Lessons from Writing

2010-07-21T11:06:00.003-05:00

Before Renae was born, I read the book "Babywise." I thought so many aspects of it were great. Then I had Renae and quickly threw some of it out the window. Although there are some good tips in there, what I caught loud and clear from the book is that many times when your child is crying, they are just being manipulative and bad. Well, I can't agree with that 100% of the time, especially after having 2 children! As I've talked with other Moms about that book, many people heard the same message that I heard, despite the fact that there are lots of other (and some not so great) good tips in the book. So what's the lesson?

It doesn't matter what you say in a book . . . or a blog post. Whatever stands out the strongest is what others will hear. I received some feedback about my last few posts and I'm learning that I'm not very good at conveying some funny daily happenings without sounding very negative and judgemental. I apologize. That was not my intent and I thought each time that I brought it full circle by talking about how I need to see them as God sees them and learn from them. But lesson learned.

I think I'm going to take a break from blogging for a bit. I'm not sure how long. Until I learn how to kindly and humourusly convey my life here, it really is a stretch to blog about things that are fun for me to write about. Perhaps when I get a camera that works better I'll start blogging about the kids, but honestly, the personal blog thing has lost some of it's charm on me.

Again, I apologize for being overly negative and judgemental. We have met some GREAT people here and we are enjoying having friends so close by to hang out with! God is teaching us some great things and life is good.

Turf Wars

2010-07-19T20:40:00.002-05:00

Fingers snap in perfect rhythm.

Two sides face off wearing rolled up sleeves and slicked down hair.

West Side Story's got nothin' on the turf wars going on at this seminary campus.

I know lots of people put pastors on pedestals. Usually, the head shepherd would be voted "Most Likely to say Amen Instead of a Cuss Word When Being Cut Off on the Interstate." Well before these "perfect" men become pastors, they often times have to go to seminary first; at least if you are still part of a traditional church. Some of you attend a more "modern" church, oftentimes dubbed an "emergent" church and you may have a "lay pastor" (turned metrosexual). You lucky A29ers usually get someone who function just like a real person, but studies theology classes as he goes.

Well I live in the world of the traditional pastor. Everyday I'm surrounded by families who will one day be your head pastor, youth pastor, music leader, or resident theologian. They'll be in charge of teaching you the Bible, modeling Christ's love to you (even when you call in every week to nag about the volume of last Sunday's praise worship) and general head pastor stuff. I have a secret to tell you: they aren't perfect! Which brings me to my Turf Wars story . . .

Some friends of ours shared a story about one particular neighbor. This certain person was very possessive about his parking spot. So much so that in one instance, this (future pastor or theologian) left a scathing note on a visiting friends car that pretty much said, "This space is MINE! Now give it back or I'll tell on you to the Dean of Students!" And don't think this only happened once. Sometimes the Parking Spot Nazi came to our friends' door and asked them to move their car . . .to one of the many, many open spaces in the lot.

Last week, we noticed that someone from another building was parking in "our" area. Not our parking spots, but our area. We thought it was weird considering he lived right across the street and there were open spots much closer to his apartment. But oh well. We thought, maybe he's a classic Southern Baptist and needs a little exercise.

Then a fellow neighbor talked with us about how much it bothered him and how he really wished that person would stick to his side of the parking lot. (Can you see the gangs getting ready to gather for a good ole fashioned fist fight?) Like I said, it wasn't bothering us so we didn't really encourage this person to do anything about it. Well lo and behold . . . the next morning, the said car had a "friendly" (not sure what it said) note tucked under the windshield wiper. By early afternoon, the car was moved and has since stopped parking in "our" area.

Mission accomplished. One future church leader avoided conflict by taking the heathens way out and writing a nasty note. Awww . . . I'm going to love living in this weird world the next few years. Best get out the "Lord give my grace, humility and eyes to love these people like you do" prayers.

Eat Mor Chikin!

2010-07-17T11:08:00.003-05:00

I'm finally posting pictures from our Chic-fil-a day. My camera kicked the bucket so I've had to use our camcorder to catch any moments lately. The quality is not the greatest but hey, our cow costumes weren't the greatest either.

This cow already knows how to pose for pictures.

Renae desperately trying to get the attention of "That Purple Cow!"

Someday she'll go into marketing.

Me and my Calves.

And Sammy's latest trick.

Naps and nighttime have been a little disrupted lately as he's learning to crawl and sit up and stand up on his own. He still sleeps pretty good but occasionally we have to go in and lay him back down since he doesn't know how to lie back down from whatever position he got himself in. Silly boy.

All of This . . . for only $0.61

2010-07-16T07:15:00.002-05:00

That is not a misprint. I got 2 Suave kids shampoo/conditioner in 1, 1 Suave shampoo, and 3 Suave body washes for only $0.61. Oh . . . and I got 3 Snickers too. I ate one on the way home.

In case anyone misunderstood my last post, I'll still be posting about my coupon adventures and lessons I'm learning, but I'm going to do it on this blog, and only as I have time. If you want to blog for income, you have to keep to the specified niche of the blog, blog often, and do a lot of networking on like minded blogs. That is what I didn't have time for. I still have time to release some verbal steam via this blog as I share with you what fun deals I'm getting. Thus . . . the point of this post.

So how did I get all of that for $0.61? Awhile ago I posted about CVSing. Today I was finally able to start rolling those ECB's. On a previous purchase, I earned $10 ECB's. This week at CVS, they had a deal for Suave products: 3/$5 on Suave shampoo, body wash or lotion. If you spent $10 on Suave products, you get $3 ECB. I also had 3 coupons for Suave products. So after coupons, the total amount of money owed was about $8.50. I had those $10 ECBs to spend so I used it to pay for the Suave products. BUT . . . when you spend ECBs, you also have to spend the full amount. So I needed to find $1.50 worth of things to buy to reach $10. I grabbed 3 Snickers at Buy 2 get 1 free, and the total due was $0.61! For all of those things that's a really good deal! AND . . . and . . . I still got $3 ECBs back which I will use on another purchase that will earn me more ECBs.

So do you get it? Can you see how CVS can be a goldmine for free or next to nothing stuff? If I would been more on top of it, I could have milked my $10ECB for even more on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. CVS had a deal on those days where you could buy a package of ball point pens, or a small pair of scissor for $0.99. In turn, you got $1 ECB back. ($1 for the pens, $1 for the scissors.) Had I done that, I could have recieved $5ECBS back and spent only a few cents!

I'm so glad to finally have a better hang of things. And you can't beat getting things for practically nothing!

It's Time to be Honest

2010-07-15T13:36:00.002-05:00

I bit off more than I could chew. There. I said it. I can feel the pressure lifting . . .

Shall I share a little background? In typical Julie fashion, it's slightly long winded.

You might know that we are in a slightly odd stage in our married life. Usually you go to school before children, and often, before you are married. However, Jesse only recently (past 3 years) learned where his passion lies, and how he is gifted. So we are doing things backwards and doing the school thing married, and with 2 children. Overall, life is still fairly normal. But the biggest adjustment we've had to make has been our finances.

Some of you can relate I'm sure. Imagine trying to budget for a family of 4 when the Mom stays at home with the kids, and the husband works part time, and attends school full time. Yeah, it can create some problems. I'm not telling you this because I want sympathy, not at all! I'm just telling you what our daily reality is.

Thankfully, 5 years ago our church paid for us to go through Financial Peace University with Dave Ramsey. That course is one of the building blocks in our marriage. We will be forever grateful to Cornerstone Church for sending us through the class. We learned how to budget, live within our means, create a small nest egg and get rid of debt. We've been debt free for more than 3 years!

Now back to the family of 4 with a part time income . . . . going to school costs money. Living daily life costs money. Like I've said before, I jumped on the coupon wagon out of necessity. And I'm still on it because I'm saving more and more money each week. As I began to learn how to coupon, I saw a blogging niche I thought I could fill. Helping people match up coupons with good recipes. So many crazy couponers out there live off of $35 dollars a week, but they eat rice and beans and frozen casseroles. I couldn't do that! 5:30 is seriously one of my favorite times of my day. I look forward to the time I can start preparing supper almost every day. No lie. What can I say, I enjoy cooking.

So I thought I would give my hand at blogging for income. I wasn't expecting much, just a little extra cash flow would help. I started The Coupon Cook. And quickly realized that I bit off more than I can chew. I fully believe that I have the creative juices to run something like it. What I lack, is TIME. Jesse and I have been talking a lot lately about how we are going to make life work, where we can make cuts, how we can do it without taking out loans, etc. All the while, we are keeping in mind that our 2 young children are that: YOUNG! If these 2 kids are the only 2 we have, these next few years while Jesse is in school is it! I only have a few years to really pour into them and train them before they go off to school and start learning more about the world. (Yes I realize the training doesn't stop after age 5, but those first 5 years are HUGE for so many areas of development.)

So as I considered all of the ways I can contribute to my family income, I quickly saw that I'm not going to have time to do all of them, AND be the Mom and wife I need to be. Currently, I work super super part time for The Upstream Collective and the Skybridge Community. It's something I really enjoy being a part of. I also am hoping to teach group Spanish classes for children from our home this school year. Right now that involves getting out into the community, and networking with organizations that could put me in contact with interested parents and kids.

I plan on continuing to post on this blog about my couponing journey. I know a lot of people who are getting into it too so I hope I can be a source of help and possibly humor as I mess up quite a bit! But I am going to stop posting on The Coupon Cook. All 15 fans on Facebook will be disappointed I'm sure. :)

God has been pressing into me these past few weeks as I've tried to figure out ways to generate income from home. The biggest lesson I'm learning is that I really am in a prime place in my life to learn to trust God for my basic necessities. Where in the modern day American Christian church do we get to trust God for the basics? Hardly ever! We often times don't really act like we need God for much besides emotional pick me ups and spiritual hugs. God is there for that, but He's there for so much more-if only we'd let Him. So I'm going to be a good steward of the financial resources he has given us, and trust Him with the rest.

Ahh, my load feels so much lighter already.

For my Man . . .

2010-07-14T08:55:00.002-05:00

I used to think Jesse was a walking failure in way too many areas. He had character flaws up the wazoo, and what in the world was I thinking when I first started liking him? Was I seeing a Jesse double because that sure isn't who he is now! And for goodness sakes-can't he be as spiritually mature as I so totally am?

Thank goodness for the gift of the Holy Spirit. (And a good long look at my own flaws.) His continual prompting encouraged me to pray for almost 3 years that I would be able to see Jesse as God sees him. When it finally happened, it was like ten 100 watt light bulbs went off in my head. THIS is the guy I married? THIS guy loves me? I get to say that Jesse is MY husband for the rest of my life? Dang I'm one lucky girl!

Today my husband turns 29 years old. I've only known him since he was 21, but I can honestly say I've seen him grow up, grow stronger, and become such a good source of wise counsel-not just for me, but for others as well.

We've been blessed over the past 3 years to have gone through a very personal, in depth application to live overseas, mentoring prior to that, and a wonderful weekend of learning our gifts and weaknesses. Not to mention almost 2 years in a foreign country where we had to depend on each other for quite a lot. All of those things helped us learn how God had gifted each of us so that we can contribute more to His eternal kingdom and give Him glory in our every day lives. These things were just add-ons to God answering my prayer for wanting to see Jesse as God sees him. He didn't have to show me more facts about why Jesse is a man after God, but He did. He didn't have to show me how Jesse and I are a really good match because of how we balance each other, but He did.

I'm so grateful and proud to call Jesse my husband. He's not perfect. He still has a long way to go (as in, until he reaches eternity) before he's the man he wants to be. But I'm so confident in him because Jesse has a deep rooted desire to be the man God has called him to be. He's on his way and I can only pray that I'm a woman that helps him get there. I love you babe!

Free Chicken!

2010-07-07T21:31:00.001-05:00

Check out the newest post on how to get free chicken! Be forewarned . . . this isn't for the light of heart!

Coupon Blog

2010-07-07T11:00:00.002-05:00

Well, part of my blogging absence last week was due to the fact that I've been working on a blog that I can devote totally to my love of saving money and cooking. I just posted 3 meals you can make using deals on sale at Hy-Vee. Eventually, I'd like to get better at posting recipe ideas for other stores, but hey, I need to start somewhere! Check it out especially if you are in need of 3 meal ideas for this week, and looking to spend less than 20$! Click here or click on the button in the sidebar.

Father's Day!

2010-07-06T17:14:00.006-05:00

Yep. I'm 2 weeks late on posting pics from Father's Day. I just had too much stuff to write about couponing and then I was too busy working on other stuff. And then . . . and then . . . well, actually for future posts, I really do have a good "and then." My camera is now broken! It's seen a few hard drops and I think it finally died it's last breath. So unless I get out our camcorder and take some pictures, the blog might be lacking in images for awhile. Enjoy these pictures while you can!

A happy Daddy with 1 goofy girl, and 1 blubulous boy.

The zoo offered free tickets for Dad's on Father's Day, plus a brat so we took advantage of the deal. We only had to pay for my ticket because Renae is not yet 3. Gotta love special deals!

Last picture you'll see of me in this post since it's all about The Daddy.

Sammy has a hard life . . .

Daddy and Daughter Expo 2010

Learning to Coupon

2010-06-27T21:54:00.003-05:00

I'm reaching that overwhelmed stage of my couponing journey. Each week I learn a little bit more, and each Sunday, I cut more and more coupons. Thus, I lay in bed at night with eyes wide open wondering how in the world I'm actually going to make all of these deals work, and if I'll actually be able to use them in REAL LIFE. Remember, I still feel like a teenager asking out his first date when I go to use these coupons. It doesn't help when the cashier gives you a "look" and then after the final sale price is listed says, "Well everything had a coupon didn't it." I'm sure she was just making an observation. But to that teenager, when the girl says, "Well you must like the color blue," he immediately starts over analyzing what she meant by that. Does blue make me look too preppy? Does it remind her of the ex-boyfriend? Is it her favorite color too and she's already starting to make plans for our future wedding??

Learning how to save money takes time, patience and humility. I have the first . . . God's working on me on the other 2. I'm still really enjoying this new fangled idea (to me at least) of couponing. I mean, what's not to love about saving money? But there are a few tricks of the trade I haven't yet mastered. I currently have piles of cut coupons on my coffee table and I'm pretty sure I have some cereal ones mixed with cleaning product coupons because I can't remember which coupons go in which category. I've renamed the tabs in my coupon organizer 3 times. They used to look really cute with a cool color scheme, but now I've had to flip almost all of them over to white so I could write a new category. So much for a snazzy looking organizer that only I see.

Basically, I need to remember to take a deep breath, and realize that I can't be THAT Mom who only spends $35 a week on all groceries . . . yet.

Well, I better get back to organizing my coupons for the week. I have to say though, last week I ended up spending more than $50, so this week, I'm not going to the store to buy any groceries, except for a few basics, like milk and butter. I'm going to attempt to use ONLY what I have on hand. It should be doable because last week I had leftovers of certain ingredients. I still have ham and chicken. I'll try and let you know what I end up making.

I also wanted to say that if anyone reading this is wanting to get started couponing, but you don't know how, start now! I'm learning too so we can learn together. I plan on blogging quite a bit about this whole process. If you are really interested, here are some basic first steps:

1. Go to Wal-Mart and buy a $1 coupon organizer. It makes you feel more organized, and more official. Like you just joined a crazy Mom club . . . which you have.
2. Buy a Sunday paper (or ask someone who doesn't use the inserts if you can have them).
3. Look through the coupons and cut ANY coupon you think you MIGHT want in the future. This has been my mistake the past few weeks. I keep seeing deals that say "Use the 3/11/10 coupon for Suddenly Salad" so clip it now, even if you don't need it this week.
4. Look through your cupboards and make mental (or real if you're uber organized) notes of what is there.
5. Make a menu of at least 3 meals you could make with ingredients you JUST have on hand.
6. Then check out your coupons and gather 2-3 more meals based on things you can buy on sale.
7. When you arrive at the store, grab the weekly special paper and see what stuff is on sale. Try and use coupons only on things that are already on sale.

This is the BASICS and how I've been starting out. I'm getting better and saving more each week. If you need help coming up with a menu, leave a comment with your list of food items/or coupons and I'll help you out! Seriously! You can email them to me if you need it. OK. Let's keep learning about this together.

We Return to Your Regularly Scheduled Programming

2010-06-26T11:37:00.002-05:00

Well . . . I hoped to return to regular Masson life pictures . . .but I didn't get the pictures uploaded in time. So you'll have to wait until after the weekend to see pictures from our fun trip to the Zoo on Father's Day. For now, I'm taking the kids and heading to a cousins baby shower where I'll get to see my Mom, Aunts and Cousins! And we're staying in a hotel with a pool to boot. Renae can't wait. See ya later . . .

Seriously . . .

2010-06-25T13:38:00.002-05:00

You need to go to Hy-Vee. I just bought 2 dozen eggs for $1!! $.50 each?? You'll never find that at Aldi!

Other deals:
-$1 Hy-Vee box cereal (stock up on knock off rice krispies, cheerios and cornflakes to use in rice krispie treats, baby snacks, and casserole toppers)
-10% off a bag full of dairy items
-2/$5 Tennessee Pride sausage (and if you have the coupon from this past Sunday for $1 off, it's even cheaper!) Use 1 lb of sausage in lasagna, and the other you can save for a breafast for dinner meal, pizza, or an actual breakfast!

I'll be looking at recipes with eggs in them over the next few weeks because I now have 3 dozen eggs in my fridge! I'm thinking quiches, breakfast casseroles will be on the menu. Anyone have some great recipes using eggs that are not specific to breakfast? I'd love to hear them!

P.S. I pretty much live right across from a Hy-Vee so it's pretty convenient for me to stop in there when I'm checking on a coupon deal. In case you were wondering . . . .

Healthy Coupons!

2010-06-25T09:51:00.000-05:00

Yes, coupons for healthy/organic foods are skinnier than that coupon you have for $1 off a package of Little Debbie cake rolls. So if you are a Hippy, check out this site for some healthy coupons! She has great links to deals for 7th Generation Diapers, organic baby blankets, chemical-free hair detangler, etc.

Thanks to Lorrie at Natural on a Budget for the great site!

Coupon Ethics

2010-06-25T09:23:00.003-05:00

As I'm a pretty recent couponer (yes, it's a word), I'm trying to learn what the appropriate coupon ethics are. Here's an example from yesterday:

I had a coupon for $1 off 2 packs of Rayovac alkaline batteries. On various sites, I'd read that there were some Rayovac batteries on sale for $1 at Target. People using 2 coupons were getting them for free! Well I went to check it out (and buy 2 loafs of bread for .50 each at the grocery store next door!) and by the time I was in line, I realized the packs I had in my hand were not alkaline as the coupon insisted. Also, how were people getting them for free since the coupon said it could not be combined with any other coupons, and the limie was 1 per customer. I only had one coupon so I felt OK about that, and I also figured that if the batteries I had didn't align with the coupon's requirments, it wouldn't work.When I gave the coupon to the very friendly cashier, she had no problem scanning the coupon. It took the dollar off just like that!

So here is my question that I'm researching (and we all know that "research" done online is totally legit . . .): do coupons have bar codes on them that let the computer know how to apply the price reduction, in accordance with the coupons requirements? Or is it solely dependent on the cashier reading the coupon correctly?

I want to make sure I'm doing this all legally so I'd love to hear anyone's thoughts on the subject as well as any legitimate sites that provide coupon guidlines. Here is a great article I found and I'm now headed over to one of my favorite sites, The Coupon Mom.

Hy-Vee Deals Today and Tomorrow!

2010-06-24T15:15:00.004-05:00

For any of you living near a Hy-Vee, now would be a good time to head on over! They are having some big sales. I made my first stock pile purchase today. Hy-Vee brand 8 oz. shredded cheese usually costs about $2.06, but today they are on sale for $1 each! (Limit of 5) Shredded cheese is something I use often, whether it's my homemade pizza I make almost every other week, or in my favorite enchilada recipe. And recently, I've been buying block cheese and shredding it myself because I use less cheese, and it's cheaper. However, when I see $1 shredded cheese, I BUY IT.

Also, tomorrow the dairy section is having a good deal as well: fill one paper grocery bag with dairy items and save 10%. This is a prime opportunity to combine coupons with a great store deal. As for me, I already used some of my best dairy coupons earlier this week so I'm not going to go spend more money just to save 10%. But if you happen to have a lot of dairy coupons, you need to take advantage of this deal!

Click here to learn more.

The Bottom Line

2010-06-24T09:59:00.001-05:00

When it comes to finances, everyone has their own Bottom Line. I've decided there are 3 main Bottom Lines: Environment/Organic, Time, and Money. Let me explain how I categorize the stereotypical grocery shoppers.

The Hippies: These are the people who place the environment above all else. It doesn't matter if that bottle of cleaning spray costs $8.99. It's chemical free and won't harm the environment. The Hippies are usually found at food co-ops, organic grocery stores and in their own garden. To them, it's worth it to spend the money on something that is organic and chemical free.

The Yuppies: When I'm behind a 20's something wearing $100 shoes, talking on her cell while she absently unloads her groceries onto the belt, I know I'm behind a Yuppy. Or a DINK. (Duel Income No Kids). This woman doesn't care what she spends at the grocery store because she makes enough to pay for it. Sometimes these people come in the form of a Grandma who works full time and would rather spend her time with family. For these people time is their bottom line. They work full time so it's not worth it to them to spend the time clipping coupons. I fully expect and hope that one day I'll be like this. Sure, I will still look for deals, but there will come a time when my Bottom Line will not be money, it will be time.

The Penny Pinchers: That's me. My Bottom Line is money. I stay at home with 2 kids while my husband works part time and attends graduate school. Money is my bottom line because it has to be. We don't have the luxury of spending whatever we want on groceries. We have a budget and we stick to it. So to me, it's worth it to take the time to clip coupons.

Of all of these three types of people, not one is the correct way to live. You just need to decide what your Bottom Line is. Couponing can be frustrating for some if their Bottom Line is Time, but they think they "should" be clipping coupons. If you are a Coupons For Life! kind of woman, DON'T make those who despise couponing feel like they are less than the ideal woman. And you Hippies? We're glad you love saving the environment, just don't scoff as those of us who don't have the money to save it with you.

I hope you are enjoying reading about my coupon and money saving journey. But if your bottom line isn't money, like it is mine, I understand that you might not find the coupon tips that beneficial. Hopefully, you can still find the recipes and menu planning helpful. Let me know if there's something you'd like to see on my blog to help you with YOUR Bottom Line.

"CVSing"

2010-06-24T05:00:00.002-05:00

My very first trip to a CVS Pharmacy . . .

I headed out the door with my Wal-Mart coupon organizer and CVS Sunday ad in hand. As I walked in I scanned the store looking for an employee who could help me sign up for the Extra Bucks CVS reward card. Standing in line I remember thinking. "This is a memorable moment. Someday it will be a fond memory of the day I started making money off of CVS." And then I took a tissue and dabbed at my tears while I composed myself.

OK, most of that didn't really happen. But I was excited to finally give this CVS goldmine a try! It was fast and easy to sign-up for the card and the cashier even gave me my very own card right away. It came with 2 key chain versions as well.

Next, I headed for my target: a 64 count box of Huggies diapers on sale for $19.99. With the CVS card, the price went down to $9.99. And did I mention I had coupon for $3 off? Oh yeah. That brought my total down to $6.99. Seriously? $6.99 for a BOX of diapers? That's almost half the price of the Target brand I usually buy!

When I arrived at the cash register I kind of felt like a teenage guy asking out his first date. Do I hand them the coupon first? Are they going to roll their eyes at yet another Mom using coupons to get free stuff? Turns out you first hand them your CVS card, so they can ring up your sale purchase. If you have any coupons to use, hand them over next. On my receipt, there was a bar code at the bottom and a note that said I earned 10 extra care bucks(ECB's). Woo hoo!

I was feeling very ambitious now. So I thought about toiletry things I needed but haven't yet bought because I didn't have coupons. I went back down the aisles and grabbed a few items totaling $7.

When I arrived at the cash register for the 2nd time, I was excited to use the ECB's to purchase these things and then get more ECB's back! Turns out I was wrong . . . I COULD have used my ECB's to purchase those things, but the amount needed to equal at least $10. Darn it . . . So I talked to the cashier and asked questions to make sure I understood the whole system correctly.

When I arrived home, I read the CVSing guide on http://www.southernsavers.com/ which explained what I'd missed: The first time you buy an ECB item, you pay real money. You can then use those ECB to buy other ECB items. AND, you'll get the new ECB bonus. So they just keep rolling over! You can use ECB to pay for normal items, which I'm sure I'll use once I get a better hang of this. But you get the real things for free when you use ECB to purchase other ECB items.

Whew. I'm so glad I got my first CVS trip done. I may have felt like a fish out of water but now that I understanding it more, I can't wait to keep rolling those ECB!

Anyone else a CVSer? What deals are you finding?

UPDATE: Thanks Kaci for the tip about Money Saving Mom. I check her blog frequently but I didn't know that she listed the specials for ECB's each week at CVS! Click here if you want to read more about it!

My Recipe Coupon Match Up Shopping Update

2010-06-23T05:00:00.000-05:00

So yesterday I made my first real attempt at shopping for groceries for a week, using a menu that was based off of coupons, sales and store promotions. My goals was $50. I want to get that down even further eventually, but hey-I'm just starting out with this coupon thing!

I first went to Hy-Vee where I realized I'd made my first mistake: Weekly specials are changed every Wednesday so last weeks specials were still up, while I had this week's coupons from the Sunday paper. Oops. But it worked out fine because Hy-Vee was offering some things at sale prices that I also had coupons for. If you remember my list from yesterday, I ended up buying cottage cheese, yogurt, sugar and hot dogs from Hy-Vee.(plus a few other items)

I bought 2 4-packs of brand name yogurt for less than a dollar each because I had TWO coupons, for each. (One printable, one from the paper.) I think I spent less than .50 on each!
The cottage cheese was name brand, but it was on sale, and then I had a coupon for .50 off so it made it cheaper than I could have bought it for at Aldi. That's a deal!
All in all my total was $10.10 because I saved over $6 in coupons! This ratio encouraged me because the first time I attempted coupons with no real list and no real plan, I saved $10 and spent a total of $80!

At Aldi . . . I also messed up there. I had left my blog post up on my iPod so I could read my list at the store. When I arrived, for some reason, it only showed a white page. (And it had nothing to do with the fact that I wasn't connected to the Internet in case you are wondering if I'm that stupid.) So I had to re-create my list from memory . . . which means I forgot some stuff after the fact. I did however discovered a few things at Aldi:

Chicken is cheaper there than Sams! $5.49/3lbs vs $11.89/6lbs at Sams
Produce isn't really cheaper there (nor is it that great). A head of lettuce is $1.19 and I can get romaine or a head of lettuce at Hy-Vee for .99. Grapes at Aldi are REALLY good, but they are more expensive.
You can't pick just a few potatoes or a few onions at Aldi. So although it might be slightly cheaper or the same amount to buy a 3 lb bag of onions at Aldi, I wouldn't do it because I know I won't use all of those before they go bad and I only need 1 or 2 anyways. I'll keep getting my produce at Hy-Vee so I can pick exactly how many of each thing I want. At Aldi, you usually have to buy a big bag of something.
Canned items are hands down way cheaper at Aldi. Trust me.
I got a dozen of large eggs for .77 at Aldi!! That's a deal!
My hot dog purchase at Hy-Vee was a great deal . . . until I saw that I could have bought the same amount for less at Aldi. This is a prime example of how even after using a store discount combined with a coupon, sometimes Aldi is just cheaper!

After I was done at Aldi (where I only spent about $22.00 for almost everything else on my list!) I stopped back at Hy-Vee to grab some ham because I wasn't sure if it was cheaper at Aldi or not. There I realized I'd forgotten some things from my Aldi list and my time was running short so I had to grab the cheapest thing I could (Hy-Vee brand) for each item. Guess what happens when you go to the store with no plan and no coupons? You spend almost $18.00 for about 4 items!

Although I made a few mistakes and spent way too much at Hy-Vee that 2nd time, I'm glad I was able to see the drastic difference between shopping with a plan and coupons, and NOT. Plus, I was able to add more items to my list of each store. Like I mentioned before, I take my trusty iPod with me and I have a running list of prices for the things I regularly buy. This will help as I do future planning because I can figure out ahead of time if the coupon deal will be cheaper or not.

Stick with me-I hope to keep saving more money!

Recipe and Coupon Matching 6/22-6/29

2010-06-21T16:33:00.010-05:00

Here's my first week of making meals based on what I have in my cupboards and fridge, plus items on sale combined with coupons. Remember, I'll be shopping at Hy-Vee and Aldi for these items. You can follow along and make these meals using the same coupons, or just make the recipes without! Let's see how little I can spend!

Menu:
Tuesday-Broccoli Ham Ring served with lettuce salad
Wednesday-Lasagna served with lettuce salad and garlic crescent rolls
Thursday-Broccoli and Chicken in Noodles, side of Fruit
Friday-Grilled hamburgers and hot dogs with baked beans and chips
Saturday-I'm out of town with the kids so Jesse will enjoy the lasagna leftovers!
Sunday-Still out of town for lunch, but I'll probably do homemade pizza for supper.
Monday-Scalloped potatoes and Ham with frozen veggies

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GROCERY LISTS

Hy-Vee(Only using Sunday paper coupons or printable coupons. If the bottom line price is still more expensive then Aldi's, I will NOT buy the item at Hy-Vee. I'll wait until I head to Aldi)

2 cans refridgerated crescent rolls-$1 off 3 Pillsbury (use 3rd as side dish on lasagna day)
Cottage cheese-.50 off 24 oz. Roberts dairy(will use in broccoli ham ring and lasagna)
Cooked ham-$1 off 2 packages of cubed turkey or ham (Farmland), or $1 off Farmland select ham
1 lb sausage- $1 off Odom's Tennesse Pride sausage plus ground beef (You'll use that ground beef on Friday!)
Hot dogs-$1 off Oscar Meyer package
Yogurt-I have a bunch of printable coupons. This is just for our general snack food.
Sugar-$2 off when you buy 10 Kool-aid packets. I've been wanting lemonaid and now I'll have it!
Pepperoni slices

Aldi:

2 Broccoli crowns(use in Tuesday's and Thursday's meal)
Onions (Broccoli Ham ring, and I'm out and usually have these on hand)
Lasagna noodles
Tomato paste(Lasagna)
Parmesan cheese(Lasagna and Alfredo Sauce)
Eggs(Lasagna and general use)
Lettuce(I love serving salads with my meals if you can't tell!)
Cream cheese(Alfredo sauce)
Hot Dog buns
Cheese(mozzarella for lasagna as I used my last on Broccoli Ham Ring-I'll shred it myself!)
Potatoes(Monday's meal and general use-I'm out!)
Butter(General use)
Grapes(General use)
Chips and snack items we're out of

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RECIPES

Broccoli Ham Ring

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium size bowl, mix the following:

1 cup cooked meat (ham, turkey or chicken)

1 cup chopped broccoli

1/4 cup chopped onion

1/3 cup cottage cheese

8 oz shredded cheese (I'm using mozzarella this time)

1 tsp of dry mustard or just squirt in some regular mustard like I usually do

Squirt of lemon juice or squeeze some out of a lemon

1 tsp parsley

Open 2 cans of refridgerated crescent rolls. Roll out triangles in a circle so the widest end faces the middle of the baking stone. They will overlap each other. Using scoop or 2 spoons, carefully place the ham/broccoli mix evenly around ring. Fold over pointy ends of the triangles and tuck under the wide ends. Sprinkle a bit of dill weed on top and put in the oven for about 25-30 minutes. Serves 2-4 adults.

Recipe from my mother-in-law via Pampered Chef.

Lasagna with salad and garlic bread

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Brown meat, drain. Add onion, garlic and cook a few minutes more. Stir in tomatoes and paste, water, salt and oregano. Cover and simmer 15 minutes. Stir occasionaly. In other dish, combine cottage cheese, Parmesan cheese, eggs, parsley. Grease 9x13 pan. Put noodles on bottom layer. Spread 1/2 of cottage cheese mixture, 1/2 of mozzarella, and 1/2 of meat sauce. Repeat. Cover with foil. Bake at 375 for 30 minutes, then uncovered for another 30 minutes.

Recipe from my mother-in-law, tweeked by me.

Broccoli and Chicken in Noodles

Boil water for noodles and follow package directions.

Cut chicken breasts in bite size pieces then place in skillet with oil. Sprinkle your favorite herbs (I'll be using thyme, rosemary and basil) on chicken as they cook.

Steam broccoli.

Make alfredo sauce last: 1 stick butter, 1 8 oz. cream cheese, 1/4 c. milk, 2/3 Parmesan cheese. Melt butter and cream cheese. Wisk until smooth. Add Parmesan cheese and milk and whisk til smooth. Serve immediately. Thickens quickly!

You can either leave the broccoli as a side dish, or mix it in with the chicken and noodles.

Alfredo recipe from Jenny Kuphal.

Grilled hamburgers and hot dogs with baked beans

I think you know what to do with burgers and hot dogs! Make your favorite baked beans recipe.

Scalloped Potatoes and Ham

5 potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
1 small onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 cup shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
1 1/2 cups cubed fully cooked ham
1 quart heavy cream (I always use milk)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
Place the potatoes, onion, garlic, Cheddar cheese, and ham in a 9x13 inch baking dish. Gently stir until well combined. Pour the cream over the potato mixture.
Bake in the preheated oven until the potatoes are tender, about 1 hour.

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I'll let you know if I can do all of this for under 50$! If anyone tries this same menu, let me know how much you spent. I'll shoot for another coupon/recipe match up next week too and try and cut my grocery bill even slimmer!

Let the Couponing Begin

2010-06-21T09:54:00.004-05:00

Have you ever known someone who spends hardly any money for groceries yet makes out of the store with more groceries in her cart than you? I hope to be that person in your life.

OK, not really but I do hope to be that person who spends very little on groceries. Right now Jesse is job hunting, and once his school starts in the Fall he'll be going to school full time, while working part time. This couponing thing has now become a necessity. But I'm not going to lie . . . it's kind of fun!

About a month ago we drove to Virginia to buy a mini-van from my Aunt and Uncle. I think the real reason we went was that I needed someone to tell me about the addicting game of saving money through coupons. My cousin Emily gave me a basic lesson and directed me to some great websites. I left Virginia with a new mentality of shopping.
Lessons from Emily: Combine manufacture's coupons with store coupons and then use them to buy things already on sale. Also, CVS Pharmacy can be a gold mine!

Then we ventured west past Knoxvull (that's how they say it . . .) and stopped in good 'ole Nashville to see Jesse's Aunt and family. While we were there, Jesse's cousin gave me a coupon lesson too! So between 2 cousins, I came back to Iowa ready to start saving!
Lessons from Keely: Create your menu for the week based on what's on sale. Don't create your menu and then find out what menu items you can get on sale, and what items you have to pay full price for.

Now that we are on our own and buying all of our own groceries, I've started clipping coupons and shopping around. I've been to Sams, Hy-Vee, and Aldi (all stores fairly close to our apartment) to compare prices of all the items that I usually have on hand, or use in recipes frequently. I took my iPod touch with me (It's like my 3rd child-I can't leave home without it!) and made a running list of how much things cost at each place. Here is what I discovered:

Sam's-Has the cheapest milk, and the cheapest frozen chicken breasts. Occasionally I'll buy ground beef in bulk there but it's not something I use often in recipes so it's not on my list. Overall, I wouldn't say that buying in bulk at Sam's really saves you that much. (See Hy-Vee info to understand why)

Hy-Vee-Their in-store promotions combined with manufacturers coupon and/or store coupons can get you some really cheap stuff. Here were some of my deals last week:

I bought 4 boxes of cereal at 2 for 5$, then used a 1$ off coupon for each pair, THEN I got a gallon of FREE milk because Hy-Vee had a special. Four boxes of name brand cereal and a gallon of milk for 6$. Pretty good!
I had a manufacturer's coupon for .50 off a box of pasta. Then Hy-Vee had a sale going on that took another .75 off. So I ended up spending .53 for a box of pasta! Since I'd already done comparison shopping, I knew that it was cheaper than I could get at Aldi.

Aldi-I know I know . . . it does kind of feel like you are shopping at a second hand food store, but trust me-the food tastes fine and it's a great steal of a deal. If I know that I can get something cheaper at Aldi, then I DON'T buy it at Hy-Vee, even if it's a great coupon deal on a name brand item. I will say that I'm probably not going to buy my meat or (some) produce there if I can avoid it. The produce is hit and miss. Their grapes we've bought there are the BEST, but some of the stuff . . . well I know why it was so cheap. In general, here are the things I buy at Aldi on a regular basis IF I can't get it cheaper elsewhere using coupons:

Eggs (.88/dozen!)
Dairy products
Cereal
Chips/snack food
Canned food items
Ice cream
Deli meat (sometimes)

This is what I've learned so far about couponing. I'm pretty much a rookie. Tomorrow I'll post my menu for the week to show you (and so I can remember!) how I'm planning my week of meals based on the deals this week. I'll be shopping at Hy-Vee and Aldi tomorrow so if you want to follow along with my menus, (and you live near a Hy-Vee and Aldi) find your Sunday paper and clip those coupons, then read tomorrow and I'll give you a week's worth of meals you can buy for cheap!

Coming soon . . .

CVS deals. This week I'll attempt to buy a large box of diapers for only $6.99! I'll let you know how it goes!
A list of great websites that have helped me understand how to save money using coupons, while not losing the big picture, and not spending all of my time doing it.

Exploring Our New Land . . . .

2010-06-18T05:00:00.000-05:00

Coming from Madrid, we were used to having quite the variety of places to go, and things to do. We have already discovered that Kansas City is also full of the same! Last week, after we felt like the boxes were done throwing up on the apartment, we headed Westish and ended up at Zona Rosa. I love the outdoor/downtown mall look this shopping area has going on: Enter Gap on N.W 86th Terrace then head down N. Stoddard Ave. to the Town Square. On Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings in the summer you can enjoy free live music there! All you need is a lawn chair and a kid to watch while he/she plays in the fountain. You get an added bonus if your child is wearing a soaked diaper that drops to mid-thigh.

Checking out the Frog Fountain.

While we didn't bring a lawnchair or half naked kid, we did enjoy walking around this very cute "downtown" while doing some window shopping. I think I found my new favorite store.

Sammy representing in ISU wear.

Double fisting it . . .

Oh look . . . there's more.

Renae runs around one of the 200 fountains in KC.

While Sammy enjoyed cereal, we shared some Coldstream Ice Cream.

Ahh the joys of summer . . . .

We'll keep you posted as we find new and fun things to do here in our new city!

The Grandparents Came For . . . .

2010-06-16T05:00:00.000-05:00

. . . . . a work weekend! Big surprise . . . I took hardly any pictures of Penni and Kevin's time here. Penni took my share of photos. We were doubly blessed our 1st 2 weekends here in Kansas City. My parents moved us down and helped us unpack. (There is nothing like having your Mother around to organize your kitchen!) Then the 2nd weekend, Jesse's Mom and Kevin came down to help us with our big list of projects:

Paint the ugly 50's dresser a classic black and install new hardware.
Paint my white window frame black (hangs on the wall-love it. )
Paint Sammy's changing table white.
Build a cornhole game for us!!!
Strip the paint on our new (to us) washer and repaint it with Rustoleum.
Paint Renae's step stool black.
Rearrange the bedroom furniture (My muscles are useless-we needed Kevin's.)
Plant our garden! (It rained too much though and we weren't able to do it.)

I think there were more things on the list but you get the jist-we got a lot done! Almost all of the ideas were mine. The only one project I actually "helped" on was the changing table and Renae's stool. Both of which had to be finished and fixed by Kevin. (Who knew you could get a finger cramp from spray painting?) Thanks Penni and Kevin for help with all the projects!! Hopefully you can see more pictures of our weekend if Penni ever updates her blog . . .

We took a visit to the Crayola Store in Downtown KC.

The Crown Center was hosting a Clifford Exhibit-Renae loved it!

Driving the boat . . .

Grandma had a great idea for a make-shift swimming pool.

KC has a lot to see and do so feel free to come down for a visit! Our living room floor is waiting for you! :)

A New Era Has Begun

2010-06-14T20:48:00.003-05:00

1 moving van, 1 swagger wagon, 1 "SUV" and a compact car

We're 27 and 28 years old and we finally moved out of our parents house! OK, cut us some slack . . . we returned from almost 2 years living in Spain and had no place to live for 4 months before moving down to Kansas City. My parents were very gracious to let us camp out at their place. We wore out our welcome though and finally made the big move.

One of Sammy's last naps in Nana and Grandpy's house.

I mentioned before that Jesse will be getting his Master's of Counseling beginning this fall. This begins at least a 3 year seminary living experience for us. Now that we've been here a week, I can say that some of the sterotypes are true. Jesse attended a video game night that (of course) ended with a few guys praying the sterotypical Christian jargon kind of prayers. There hearts are in the right place I'm sure . . . (and obviously my judgmental heart is not! )

Renae and her confident self on the way to her new park. ( No Jaime at this one :( )

Thankfully, not all of the people fit the sterotypes and we've already met some pretty cool neighbors. Jesse has even made one guy jealous due to "our" recent Cornhole game project. Hmmm . . . since some people think Cornhole is a bad term should I start calling it The Bean Bag Toss game? Or since we live at the seminary, Bible Toss??

Checking out our garden plot

One of the cool things about living on seminary is they have a garden! We lucked out (ahem-were blessed) to get a plot that no one was using. It's not in the greatest spot in the garden but hey, we're just giving it a shot anyways. My thumb is a dark shade of pink so I'll be calling my Mother-in-law for lots of advice with our garden.

All of the garden plots

I'm hoping planting a garden will save us some money because I've now jumped on the Penny Pinching wagon and every little bit helps. I've also jumped on the Half-off Coupon-Cutting wagon which is actually pretty fun so far. Last week I saved 15 dollars in coupons-and I didn't even go in with that great of a plan!

Sammy McFatterson

In all seriousness, we are really excited to be here. Jesse is looking forward to starting his career path, and I'm looking forward to what adventures will be coming our way. We know it won't be easy by any means, but we saw how many cool (though at times hard) things God taught us while in Spain and we are trusting the same will happen in this next phase!

Keep Reading!

Today is Brought to you by the Letter B

2010-04-15T16:24:00.002-05:00

B is for Baby, Bumble Bee and Bible
B is for Biblioteca (library in Spanish)
B is for tower of Babel (when the people of earth became too proud and God mixed their language)
B is for Aunt Britt and Tia Bea (we prayed for you both today!)

By the way, bringing up children sometimes drives me bonkers! But there are funny moments to help me make it through a day:

Last night Renae was naked (she likes to "do naked" before putting on her pajamas) and coming up the stairs with her hands behind her back . . .

Me: Renae, what's in your hands?
Renae: Butt.

It was true. Her butt was in her hands . . .

Let the Learning Begin . . .

2010-04-14T11:49:00.004-05:00

Yes. It's been a month since I updated. This is what happens when you no longer live overseas, far away from all friends and family. I also don't take nearly as many pictures. This is partly due to the fact that I no longer live in a foreign country where cool picture opportunities abound, and partly due to the fact that we live with my parents. If you've ever been around a Grandma or Nana you know that they are pretty good at taking pictures! Therefore, I haven't used my own camera in oh . . . a month. I need to get a hold of those precious pictures of the kids that are filling up my Mom's camera.

So in recent news . . . I'm starting a daily alphabet theme with Renae. I partly stole the idea from Sheryl. I doubt I'll do it every day but Renae is at the age where she is able to understand a lot of fun things so I thought I'd take advantage of this stage. I'll try and post our alphabet fun on here as I do each day.

Today is brought to you by the letter A

A is for Apple.
A is for Abraham who obeyed God. (We watched a cute cartoon on youtube and then talked about it.)
A is for Amor, the Spanish word for love.
A is for Aicha who we prayed for today.

Thing 1 and Thing 2

2010-03-14T17:12:00.001-05:00

Thing 1 at almost 5 months.

Thing 2 lovin' on her brother.

This is one of my new favorites.

Of course hugs must be done with a cracker in the mouth. Happy Birthday Nana!

After a morning at the baby gym, we needed a good fatty treat.

Can you guess who that other baby in the picture is?

Did You Know . . .

2010-03-12T15:26:00.005-06:00

That this guy . . .

. . . wrote the music for this 2010 Academy Award winner for Best Foreign Film?

Well now you know. My friend Bea invited me to a concert where her husbands good friend Federico Jusid was playing. I spent a wonderful evening listening to his music being performed. Take it from me-this guy is talented. For real. If you put Fede's name and El Secreto de Sus Ojos (The Secret of Her Eyes) into YouTube you can listen to a few musical excerpts from the movie. The musical score is beautiful.

Of course Fede was at the Oscar ceremony and Bea told me that he ended up staying a bit longer in LA as many people in the business were wanting to talk to him. How cool for him! I'm kind of being a nerd about this because when I was younger my dream profession was to be a composer for movie scores. Now I'm all grown up and still doing something that I love, but I sure did enjoy meeting someone who has my childhood dreamjob.

So be watching for this name as I'm sure this is the start of a great career in the movie business for Federico Jusid!

Oh . . . and did you know these two lovely ladies both cried at the end of the concert because the music was that powerful? Yeah, it's true.

**To see a trailer of the movie click here. (Warning, there are brief graphic scenes and nudity, and the English subtitles are not well done. Bea should have done them.)

Confessions of a Seminary Wife-I

2010-02-26T14:39:00.003-06:00

I mentioned before that Jesse has been taking a seminary class from our local church ever since we returned from Spain. This will go towards his degree in counseling and getting his feet wet now will help the big transition to fulltime school. Currently, he's a fulltime employee at my uncle's business and a very parttime seminary student. Let's not forget he's also a fulltime husband and Dad. That's right. I'm married to Superman.

So as Jesse is getting used to his new life as a student, I'm also starting to prepare for my new role as a seminary student's wife. We've decided that at the end of each day, we want to have a healthy marriage and family. If that goal is met each day than we've done our job. However the reality of how that works is going to take some hard work and organization. I'll have to do some things that are typically "Jesse's duties." I would rather do those things so that I can spend some down time with Jesse.

The biggest thing that is going to change for me is my schedule. I'm a person that really prefers functioning without schedules. As a teacher, I absolutely LOVED when I had a schedule disruption which is not typical. But while living in Spain I learned that I function much better when I create a schedule to follow for my day. I get more things done, and I’m more intentional with my time too.

Since we are finally settled down in one place, this was my first full week to test out a consistent daily routine for me and the kids. The kids are now taking naps at the same time in the afternoon so I have about 2 hours each day when I can work uninterrupted on various tasks, like creative income opportunities! Yep, being in seminary is also not the easiest thing to do, financially speaking. Later, I’ll have to write about some of our plans and ideas for making that work too.

Overall, this has been a really great week. I’ve been able to spend good time with my kids, while also getting things done on my lists. Here are some tricks that really helped:

• Skype-Yes you read that right. In the mornings while Sammy is sleeping I put Jesse’s computer in Sammy’s room and then call my iPod touch so I can listen to hear if he wakes up early. I can work out with Renae in the room and Sammy is just a Skype call away. Currently, both Renae and Sammy are sleeping and the computer is in Renae’s room. I’ve seen her pick her nose, and practice summersaults on the bed. The things people do to get settled into sleep . . .

• Lists-Each night, I make a list of things that need to get done. I divide the list into afternoon and morning chunks. This may sound weird but I even included things that aren’t really ‘To Do’ list items but I liked being able to mentally see what I needed to get done.

• Getting Out-I love being out of the house in the community. This was nice for me to know that I had certain mornings planned away from the house. I think Tuesdays will be our library day as there is a story time Renae can go to. And besides, all of the international Moms congregate together at the library so I’m going to try and weasel my way into that group. I guess I forget that I’m not the foreigner anymore!

• Being flexible-I sometimes feel like an expert on this (usually in an annoying sort of way when working with others). There were a few afternoons when Sammy woke up from his nap way early and it meant I couldn’t get all of the stuff done I’d needed to do during nap time. Oh well. I made up for it when Jesse was studying and didn’t want me hanging around him anyways. There was also another time this week when I purposefully decided to throw my schedule out the window because God brought something my way and I knew it was time to just sit and listen.

When we move into our own place and Jesse starts seminary fulltime we will have to be even more organized. But for now, I’m enjoying having a husband that only takes 1 class at a time.

I've Become THAT Blogger

2010-02-23T16:01:00.000-06:00

Yep. It's finally happened. I'm THAT person. I only update every few weeks, and when I do it's a random post about random things. I promise that once we are in The Bubble (aka living on campus at a seminary) I will update much more frequently. For now . . .

This past month saw us between Jesse's Mom's place and my parents place. I can't believe we've been back from Spain for a little over a month! How fast the time has flown. For anyone that reads this blog that prayed for our transition I want to say thank you. We have all transitioned really well. Renae is absolutely LOVING all of the people and places to see here. I think one of her strengths is adaptability as well.

Jesse got a job working for my uncle which is a huge blessing! I knew our chances of Jesse getting a fulltime job for just 3 months were slim to none. We are now living with my parents and getting back into the groove of attending our phenomonal church and small group. It feels good to be back. Alright. That's all I have for now (and possibly the next few weeks if I continue to be THAT blogger.)

Ok . . . I updated to the new (new to me) blogger and I can't figure out how to get text below my pictures. And since the kids are waking up from their perfectly sequenced naps I don't have time to Google it. So . . . just know that Renae and Taylor are best buds, Uncle Dan came or a visit, Sammy and Beck finally met each other (and showed their school spirit), and I crossed a border and went to a Hawkeye game to watch one of my old small group girls play. Peace out!

So What's Next?

2010-02-04T14:39:00.007-06:00

We are officially back from Spain. Duh. It's been about 2.5 weeks since we landed in Des Moines after 2 attempted flights from Chicago. As we talk to people we haven't seen in 2 plus years we find ourselves answering this question often: So what's next for you two?

Kansas City-our future home.

The short answer is seminary. Not for me of course. I mean really, could you imagine me spending hour upon hour arguing theological issues with 30 year-old know-it-alls who carry pictures of their 5 children in their wallet? I don't think so.

Kansas City Bar-b-que . . . so good.

I'm looking forward to sampling more.

Jesse however is braving the treacherous waters of "cemetery" (southern Baptist joke-lingo for seminary). We're quick to point out that he's not going to get his masters of divinity or other pastoral or intelectual type degrees. No way. My always teasing and pestering husband is headed off to get his degree in Counseling. And because he gets asked this often, YES he does want to listen to people talk about their problems. As his very emotional and sometimes overdramatic wife, I have to say he's very good at helping the pyschos of the world see the truth in a situation and lovingly direct that person to calm down, chill out, and breath.

Spurgeon and the library. Jesse's new best friends.

The cheaper housing we hope to live in.

So what will life as a seminary family look like? I was able to gain a little bit of an understanding after our campus visit last weekend. We were able to talk to a current student and his wife. I asked them "Financially, how does it work?" Their response? "It doesn't." Great. But their reality was on paper, it never looks like it will work out but each month, God provides. Everyone makes some compromises, wether it means taking out loans, or having the wife work, or accepting help from various sources.

The brand spankin' new pricier housing. Maybe someday . . .

Our reality is that I'm still going to stay at home with The Girl and The Boy while Jesse attends school full time, works part time, plays jungle gym to the kids and gives me weekly therapy sessions. Seriously. I think he'll be able to fill up most of his practicum hours from home with me. Possibly Renae too as she kind of takes after me . . .

We enjoyed our time away without kids. Probably too much.

I won't be totally useless around the home though. I plan on becoming One of Those. You know which kind of Mom I'm talking about. The kind that makes her own baby wipes; cuts coupons from 50 different ads then argues with the store manager when he tells her she can't get 100$ of groceries for 10 bucks; sells items she could throw away on ebay just to earn a few dollars; buys items on sale just because they are ridiculously cheap; teaches Spanish lessons from home to help the family income.

OK, at least I know I can for sure do that last one well and stick with it. I also plan on learning how to better schedule my day so that I can spend some good quality time with my two awesome kids each day, and be totally willing to drop anything the minute Jesse says he has a spare moment to have fun with me by watching a movie or playing a game. Neither Jesse or I are huge planner or schedulers but we are entering a whole new world.

So we're diving in. And I'm going to be writing all about it on my new blog coming in May. If you're interested in hearing what our life is like living in a total Christian bubble with (most likely) a few weirdos, keep reading. When May rolls around I'm sure our life will get very interesting . . .

First Post from Iowa

2010-01-29T09:40:00.006-06:00

We've officially been back in the state a little over one week. I haven't taken any pictures. Instead, I've been enjoying being around family, relaxing to some HGTV and Travel channel fun, and I've seriously enjoyed all the free baby sitting! The will power isn't working so well as there are too many options for yummy things to eat, but I'm going to try and nip my "hunger" in the bud.

Our trip back was fairily smooth until we were about 15 minutes from landing in Des Moines. The pilot came on and said that due to a mechanical problem we had to turn around to Chicago. Thankfully the airline put us up in hotel directly across from the airport. We ended up having an airline worker call someone to help us carry our 7 carry ons and 2 children to the hotel room. Renae had fallen asleep on the return trip to Chicago and was old cold. Jesse even changed her into her PJ's without so much as a peep.

We arrived in Des Moines about 12 hours later than planned but everything was OK. All 9 of our pieces of luggage made it (and I'm pretty sure the little plane we flew from Chicago to Des Moines carried only our luggage . . . .) Nana and Grandpy arrived to say hello to their newest grandson and give hugs to Renae. We opened presents at their place after a big Iowa breakfast of sausage and eggs. Yummy.

Here's what we've been up to since returning to Iowa

1 trip to Arby's (for Julie of course . . . but Jesse got some too.)
2 trips to Target.
2 trips to Wal-Mart.
1 trip to Best Buy (for Jesse of course)
A weekend visit to the other Grandparents house.
Multiple short trips outside of the house WITHOUT kids!
1 trip to the urologist to talk about Sammy's snip snip.
1 trip to the pediatrician to find out he has an ear infection (caused by the flight.)
2 Survey of the New Testament classes (definetly not Julie)
Lots of hours reading and writing a paper for homework (still only by
Jesse!)
Lots of hours trying to find where we packed all of our clothes . . .
Enjoying being around our family. It can't be beat.

On a date our last night in Madrid.

So good . . . thanks again Bea and Jose!!

Had to say good-bye to Sol . . .

. . . And one of my favorite views of Madrid.

Renae says good-bye to her buddy David at the airport.

We miss you Wilsons!

Renae enjoying a little preflight reading . . .

This is where we put Renae while we figured out if we'd been re-booked.

Two kids fast asleep, and us with all of our stuff. I can't believe all of it made it home . . .

Last Post From Spain . . .

2010-01-19T10:04:00.006-06:00

But first a few pictures from Jesse's trip to London.

Jesse and Fede enjoying the sights.

What do you do in a city you've never been to? You see movies-2 of them!

Now onto a good-bye party we had . . .

Follow me on this one . . .
Renae was born on the same day as Mara.
Sammy was born on the same day as Dwight.
Mara and Dwight are married.
Dwight is from Iowa.
Weird . . .

My good friend Amber. Going to miss you friend.

Amber's kids and my kids. Renae and the boys were best buddies. Trust me.

Our best souvenir from Spain.

I don't know even know how to sum up our time here in Spain. All I can say is I'm so glad we allowed God to dictate our steps. It was a big scary decision to move away from family and friends, especially when we had a baby girl. And there were times when it was really hard to be so far away. But overall, it was one big amazing ride. The things we learned here were not things we could have learned back in the States. God knew what He was thinking when He told us we needed to get out of our comfort zone and into an uncomfortable one. All I can say is I highly recommend the stress and heartache of moving overseas. There is nothing like it.

So . . .

19 hours will pass before we leave Madrid.

9 bags are already checked into the airport.

7 carry-on bags are also packed and sitting in our hotel room.

4 Massons will board the plane with the 7 bags, a carseat, and a stroller.

2 Masson's will be seriously lacking in sleep during the 9.5 hour plane ride.

0 tears will be shed by Jesse. Heartless . . .

Too many tears will be shed to count by Julie.

Nos echaremos de menos Madrid . . .

Transition

2010-01-14T12:05:00.006-06:00

Renae has not been herself this week. I think I know why . . .

"When your family moves, your preschooler may feel as if his comfortable, predictable world has turned upside down, as if someone had jerked the rug out from under him, and he has been thrown off balance. Nothing is familiar anymore; nothing is comfortable; a bewildering time for a preschooler.

Claudia Jewett Jarratt states in Helping Children Cope with Separation and Loss, "When a child moves..., everything changes: the way the light comes through the window as the child goes to sleep or wakes up, the smells and sounds of the house, the colors and furniture the child sees, the food the child eats, parental expectations, routine, and tempo of daily living. It is much like being in an unfamiliar country. Nothing is the same. Remember that for children, the loss of their familiar home can seem like the loss of a family member, because they tend to identify themselves with specific spaces, repeated events, and familiar people. Moving can cause disorientation."
A preschooler's response to a family move is usually similar to grieving. To a child, a move is a loss, and the human response to loss is grief. Preschoolers don't have the emotional vocabulary to put into words how they feel. Even a highly verbal preschooler may not know the specific feeling words to use. Behaviors may take the place of words. Here are some transition symptoms you may see:

Attempts to control parents and other adults. Check.
Grieving for previous house, friends, etc.
Defiance, tantrums, crying. Check.
Clinginess.
Sleep disturbances. Check.
Easily distracted, hyperactive OR unusually lethargic, shy and quiet.
Prefers the familiar and comfortable. Doesn't want to try new foods. Resists potty training. May regress. Check.
Nervous habits such as thumb sucking, twisting hair, chewing on clothes, stuttering.
Arguing and not getting along with siblings and friends.

Preschoolers grieve off and on. They don't get it all over with once and for all. Grieving is too intense for them, so they have to intersperse it with playing and other aspects of life. A preschooler can grieve and play at the same time. She may be very sad for an hour about a friend left behind, then not even mention the friend for a week, and then go through a day or two of sadness about the same friend. "

Just what I needed to hear as I began to fear my daughter had all of a sudden forgotten all of our rules and expectations for her. Whew. This is normal. And as Jesse so kindly reminded me, this is just a season of life.

So, I decided I needed a list for myself too as my behavior this week hasn't been normal either!

Transition symptoms you may see in a 27 year old:

May cry a lot.
May cry while on a walk in her neighborhood for the last time.
Tantrums.
Nervous habits such as checking airline requirments for luggage over and over.
May cry when dealing with a 2 year old's crying fit.
May cry when she overeacts to her 2 year olds mess.
Sleep disturbances.
May cry a lot.
Grieving for previous friends, city and food.
Meals may become premade, frozen and made in less than 10 minutes.
Grieving for chocolate. (This one is unrelated to transition but I'm still grieving it.)
Arguing with spouse.
May cry a lot.
Sleep disturbances.

So if you think of it, be praying for our family these next few weeks. I'm older so I can handle the transition better than Renae can. For her, we'll be letting her watch and listen to the Spanish vidoes and audio CD's that she enjoys here. It will be interesting to see how she handles only English from everyone she meets. I think I'm grieving her lack of Spanish friends more than she will!

All Alone . . .

2010-01-12T10:15:00.004-06:00

Renae's only little girl friend here . . .

For the first time since we've had Sammy I'm pulling single mom duty. Jesse is visiting our friend Fede in London. Our first night alone resulted in one potty accident (on OUR bed), and Sammy having a very restless 2 hours early (really early) this morning. Renae rarely has accidents. Sammy has been sleeping through the night for a few weeks now. I guess we all miss him. So I'm praying for extra patience this week, and I'm trying to remember that Renae is still not old enough to consistently tell us each time she has to go potty so I need to take her often.

Did I mention we are also in the middle of moving back to the US?? Our place is a disaster right now. The past two weeks we've been packing, organizing and doing a LOT of throwing/giving things away. A lot of the major stuff is done and now it's mostly just getting things back to our company storage, packing up the trunks and suitcases and cleaning. Thankfully, we'll be in a hotel our last 2 nights so we can clean without having to also clean up after our daily lives.

So if the blog posts are lacking this week you know why: I'm a single mother with 2 small children, and I'm attempting to move this family of 4 back to the states with (hopefully) only 8 pieces of luggage. This should be an interesting week.

Three Kings Day

2010-01-09T02:57:00.008-06:00

The night of January 5th is the day when those infamous 3 Kings come to town with gifts. Since Jesse and I didn't buy our kids anything, we thought we should go to where the Kings were and see if they had any for them.

Our parade viewing spot at the Plaza de Colon. (Can you see Columbus pointing west?)

Sammy just slept the whole time . .

Jesse bought popcorn for us to munch on while we waited for the parade to start.

Renae is ready!!

And this is how the parade started . . a dancer suspended by balloons! It was really cool!

Next came some dragons. Naturally . .

Brilliant! People brought umbrellas to catch candy thrown from the floats.

One of the floats . . .

We were right by a TV tower so the lights on the tower sometimes made it hard for me to get good pictures of the floats. Bear with me.

Finally Renae got some candy!

And Pocoyo showed up! Renae enjoyed seeing him.

I attempted at family shot . . oops.

Incase you are wondering . . . the theme was cultures of the world.

Entranced by the parade . . .

Even the Americans were represented! It was a riverboat with a dixie band.

People on stilts . . .

Cool face balloon . . .

Renae led the way home despite the fact that we were nowhere near our house.

Walking down the middle of Alcala . . . not something we can usually do!

The next day, January 6th is the day when kids open their presents from the kings. Lucky for us . . . the 3 Kings left some gifts for Renae and Sammy at my friend Tep's place.

Rafa cuts the roscon. Somewhere in there is a toy king and whoever gets it will have a year luck!

Unlucky for us . . . this cake didn't have one. Oops!

Sammy the nerd relaxin'.

Renae wasn't feeling so hot that day.

A Flamenco dress! We have her Halloween costume ready for this year.

Thanks Tep!

And Sammy got a full body bib. He needs it.

Santa Has Been Fired . . .

2010-01-05T08:15:00.003-06:00

Kids tell Melchior, Caspar and Balthazar what they would like as gifts.

January 6 is called Three Kings Day here in Spain. It marks the end of the Christmas season and represents the Three Kings or Wise Men who came to visit Jesus when he was born. Every year on January 5th, there is a large procession, or parade in every city, neighborhood, and town in Spain. The three kings deliver the gifts and on the morning of January 6th, children wake up to find gifts next to a pair of clean shoes they left out the night before. However if the shoes aren't clean . . . they get a lump of coal!

Just like our traditions with Christmas, no one actually gets lumps of coal (although you can buy candy coal as a joke!) and they also receive gifts that are much larger than their shoes. I've been told that some parents will put little candies in the kids shoes and set the bigger presents next to them.

This year, the Masson family is finally going to a Three Kings parade! Because I like to experience large crowds and big events we're off to the biggest one in the city tonight. I think Renae will really enjoy it. Of course we'll take pictures and I'll post them here later.

On a similar note . . . (Spoiler alert-this might ruin your enjoyment of the nativity scene or Matthew 2).We once heard a man speak who had interviewd hundreds of modern day persecuted Christans around the world. One man from an African country told how in his culture, they call the Three Kings/Wisemen the Three Witches, or the Three Sorcerers.

In any kingdom, the most dangerous position to be in is 2nd in line for the throne. Kings are always worried about coups or being killed so the person next in line can take the throne. Therefore, when the Three Kings showed up at Herod's palace announcing that they had come to seek the new king, Herod obviously became nervous. Although he kept quiet to his 3 visitors and told them to go and find this new baby king.

Thankfully . . . God intervened and told the Three Kings to go home a different route so that Herod would not know where Jesus was. Subsequently, thousands of innocent boys, ages 2 years old and younger were killed.

This is why one African man said his culture calls these three "wise"men the Three Witches because they were "dumb enough" (the presenter's words) to announce to the current King that a new King had been born, causing the deaths of so many little boys.

How's that for our nice little Christmas story? ;)

How I Spent My Christmas Vacation

2010-01-02T03:26:00.007-06:00

Deer Teechur,
This wuz my furst Krismus vakachun and I rilly likd it.

I lurnd how to lay on my bely and lik the flor.

Then I wint to Caceres and my anty Paula held me lots. I lik her.

My sistur playd with the gurls. Boreen.

My mommy stil fed me. Whew.

Mommy put us in Krismus close.

I luvd been with my famly.

My mommy had a burthday and it was fun.

My sistur got to eet fun ice kreem. I did not lik that.

I lik my daddy.

I spent nu yeers eve with my "abwaylos."

I tok a nap there. I mised teo feday.

(Mommy's interjecting here . . .

Cile and Kari, this picture is for you. Can you guess where the chair is from?)

On Nu yeers day daddy wuz rily hapy. Becuz . . .

He got to watch futbal. I dont no hoo florida stat is, but they cheerd for them.

Thank yu for reeding my letter. Pleese give me a A.

Sincirly, Sammy

A Video for the Grandparents

2009-12-29T13:42:00.003-06:00

Pictures of Christmas will be coming soon, but I thought I'd post a little video of Renae opening her presents for the Grandparents. They like to see this kind of stuff. The 2nd thing she opens is a DVD set of her favorite Spanish TV program "Pocoyo." She absolutely loves anything Pocoyo and quickly identified the main characters on the tin. You'll hear her say Pocoyo, Pato (spanish for duck) and Elly (the name of the elephant.) This will be like a little bit of "home" for her when we return to the states and hopefully will make her transition a little easier.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-25T02:37:00.002-06:00

In Preperation for Christmas . . .

2009-12-20T09:16:00.004-06:00

. . . we did some baking!!!

Sugar cookies . . .

I have many memories of making these with my Mom growing up

Decorating all those sugar cookies using paint brushes this year.

After awhile Renae just decided to play with the salad spinner.

We also taught some friends how to make a Jesse Tree.

Sammy didn't help bake but he enjoyed wearing his cute outfit from Aunt Tarica.

Of course we had to be silly . . .

That's how we roll in the Masson household.

A rare moment. Jesse reading a book, and Renae snuggling. Ahh . . .

Renae Reads in Spanish

2009-12-15T10:58:00.006-06:00

Renae is reading a book about counting cheerios. She's saying: "Here there are 2, "Here there are 3, etc etc." Each page has a different number of cheerios on it. And then she just wanders away from the book and starts counting to 10. My personal favorite is her 4, "quackta"

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

And speaking of languages . . . .

Most countries have a place where their language is spoken "without accent," or where it's spoken clearly. Here in Spain, it's in a place called Valladolid. My university used to send Spanish students there so they could learn clear and correct Spanish. Here in Madrid, I think the Spanish is also pretty clear and easy to understand (especially compared to the south of Spain!!) so I'm glad Renae is learning her Spanish here.

So where is English spoken without accent in the United States? A long time ago, I had heard that Nebraska and Iowa were accentless. I believed it because as I listened to national news anchors they all sounded like people from my state. Then I noticed that people in the movies and in television also spoke like me (unless playing a character that specifically needed to have an accent from another part of the US).

Now you can imagine what some of the southerners I've met along the way have had to say about this tidbit I'd heard awhile ago. :) I'm the one with the accent according to them. Well a few days ago I was using good old Wikipedia ("If it's on Wikipedia, you know it's true."-Michael Scott) to see how English in the US changed from the British accent, to what's now called the American accent. It was really interesting to read about and I found that there is something called "General American" English. It's the accent people in the national media are taught to speak in. It's accentless. It's clearly spoken.

And guess where this General American is spoken?

That's right! So some crazy tidbit I'd heard forever ago turned out to be pretty true. Therefore:

Kari, be glad you are married to an Iowan because sometimes you may need to be reminded how to speak correct English since you grew up speaking French and Georgian English.
Valerie and Kristi, I told you us Iowans are good for something.
Bea, you get to practice English with someone who speaks clearly. (And you speak clear Spanish for me too!)
My family who grew up in Wisconsin . . . we TOLD you, you had an accent. :)
All of you ex-Iowans who emigrated to Minnesota-beware . . . that Northern Midwest accent will be in your bones before you know it, don't you know.
To all of my Southern friends . . . when we went back to Iowa after being around a bunch of you in Virginia, my family said I was speaking with a southern accent. So I guess the General American accent can be changed into the "true" accent. Bless your heart . . .

Let the verbal jabs begin . . . P.S this General American has nothing to do with written English, just spoken. So, ignore all of the poor gramar in this post . . . did I even spell gramar write?

Giving Birth in Spain: Applying for US Citzenship

2009-12-12T03:41:00.005-06:00

Two important items in the process

This may come as a surprise to some, but because Sammy was born on Spanish soil, that doesn't automatically mean he is a Spanish citizen. And it also may interest you to know that just because he was born abroad to parents with US citizenship, the US government doesn't just miraculously give him his birth certificate and passport. And yes, he does need a passport. Many people are shocked that a baby would need a passport but anytime a US citizen leaves the country, they need a valid passport. Therefore to get back IN to our country we'll need passports for all 4 members of our family. I'd really hate to leave Sammy at the airport . . .

So here is what we had to do in Spain to get all the necessary documents for Sammy to become a bona fide American.

1st, we had to head to the Registro Civil. Here is where we registered Sammy as being born in Madrid. We needed to bring with us a document filled out at the hospital containing all of Sammy's info (birth date, weight, etc), his parents info, (names, our parents names, marriage date) and information from the hospital (doctor info etc). We also filled out some other forms there. By the time we left, we had a simple version of a Spanish birth certificate, and his Libro de Familia. The Libro de Familia is something all Spanish families have here. It contains information on each member of the family and it's needed for the next step in the process.

Where one can speak with an American . . . ahhh

2nd, we secured an appointment at the US embassy. For our appointment there, we had to bring our passports, the Libro de Familia, a translation of the Spanish birth certificate, our marriage certificate, proof that we've lived in the US recently (old tax forms), Sammy's passport application, social security number application, and form for obtaining a US birth certificate.

5 weeks old . . .

We also had to bring passport size photos of Sammy. All I have to say is taking a picture of a 5 week old with eyes open in one of those photo booth thingies is no easy thing . . . This was the best one we could get. Luckily, the guy we had was really friendly, easy to work with and had children, therefore he said the picture we submitted was just fine. Whew!

Sammy's first passport . . . it's good until he turns 5!

A few weeks later we received Sammy's passport in the mail. Along with that came his birth certificate which looks completely different than Renae's and even ours! His is actually called a Consular Report of Birth Abroad. Both the certificate and the passport state that Sammy was indeed born in Spain. I love that his American passport will always say Spain in the Place of Birth slot!

Sammy the luchador . . .

So no, Sammy is not a Spanish citizen, but is now officially an American citizen! And most importantly, he can come back with us when we return to the states . . .

Making the Ultimate Sacrifice

2009-12-09T03:00:00.000-06:00

I. Love. Chocolate. So much so that one day, after Jesse and I had been married about a year, he asked me if I could make a dessert that was not chocolate based. I remember standing in the kitchen staring at him and asking, "What do you mean?"

When I think about satisfying my sweet tooth, chocolate of any sort comes to mind. Not pies, not fruit, not even the very accesible candy from the candy stores on every corner here.

My cupboard of American goodies is filled with brownie mixes, chocolate cake mixes, chocolate almond bark, chocolate chips . . . you get the idea. I. Love. Chocolate.

So imagine what went through my mind when I read that chocolate should sometimes be avoided in nursing moms. Psh, I thought. I ate tons of chocolate when nursing Renae, and when I was pregnant with Sammy. Shouldn't have any problems . . .

Then after a few weeks of a very fussy baby, I started to look at my diet. For a few days I'd been eating a brownie before I took a nap and I could never get to sleep. I wondered if the chocolate could affect Sammy too. So that night, I enjoyed an oreo/chocolate syrup ice cream treat for the last time. The next day I avoided (with great difficulty) any kind of chocolate. Twenty four hours after I had my last bite of chocolate, Sammy was a new man. He was happy and content. Gosh darn it.

The secret of the fussy baby had been discovered. I continuted to avoid chocolate that week and each day I saw what a happy baby he was. Usually a happy baby=happy mother. Not so that week as I went through the grieving process of saying good-bye to my beloved chocolate. Just so you know how drastic of a life change this was for me, let me recap what I had been eating during and prior to the very fussy weeks . . .

Brownies (at least 2 a day for 3 days), chocolate chip cookies for an entire weekend when a friend was here, Snickers bars from the candy store across the street (at least a few each week), pieces from a large dark chocolate bar, chocolate milk about every other day, chocolate cereal . . . I would go on if I could remember it all.

Sigh . . . so as you can see, I am making the ultimate sacrifice for my child. Breastfeeding sure saves us a lot of money so I really can't justify my selfish desire to eat a pounds worth of chocolate each week. I guess at least it will be good for my waist line. So think of me when you enjoy that next piece of chocolate, and don't ever take it for granted!

P.S. I also have to avoid peppers, onions, caffeine, and spicy food. Looks like I'm in need of some new recipes!

Sammy Talks

2009-12-08T06:56:00.001-06:00

Our (not so little) man has started smiling and cooing. I can't seem to get a good picture of his adorable smiles, but trust me, they're there!

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It's Beginning to Look Like a 2-Year-Old Helped Decorate . . .

2009-12-06T08:00:00.001-06:00

I'm pretty sure Renae wasn't as tall as the pole last year . . .

The night we put up our Christmas tree began the list of "lasts" for me. This will be our last Christmas in Madrid. Sure, it's also only our 2nd, but as much as we love this city, it definitely feels like we've had many Christmases here.

Sammy wasn't much help . . . and eventually he fell asleep.

Every year at Christmas time I like to think about where we were the previous year and where we will be the next year. It's weird to think that just one year ago, Renae was still bee bopping around our place and had no interest in the tree decorating process. Sammy didn't even exist. Next year, Renae will be so much more aware of Christmas, and Sammy will be bee bopping around, probably terrorizing the Christmas tree. We'll also be living in Kansas City while Jesse attends seminary. What a difference a year can make!

Renae "fluffing" the branches

But for now . . . we are here in Madrid and we're trying to soak up every last bit of our time here. Spending time with our friends is high on the priority list. Enjoying Madrid at Christmas time is up there too. I love Madrid at Christmas time. The major streets are decorated with lights, the Christmas market in the Plaza Mayor, Cortylandia, and of course Three Kings day is another fun holiday celebration.

"Here you go Daddy!"

Eventually we'll have to face all of the lists of lasts. Last time to shop at the market where I get amazing meat and produce and chat with the nicest vendors. Last time to use the wonderful public transportation. Last time to attend our Spanish church. Last time to eat at Maceira's. The other last's I can't even talk about or I'll cry. (Bea, you know what I mean . . . )

Renae's way of fluffing left all the branches folded in half.

So, although we don't like being away from family, we are actually looking forward to a pretty simple and small last Spanish Christmas this year. We get to enjoy our little family of four, and presents will be a snap because we don't wany any more stuff to take back with us in January. Therefore, presents are limited to very very small packages!

Chili and the Polar Express. Not a bad combination.

And just incase you though I was getting too serious on this blog . . . we added to our Christmas tree tradition this year by watching a Christmas movie while enjoying the traditional chili and Christmas lights. I was so excited to see Renae enjoy the movie. Well . . . let's just say she must not be old enough to enjoy "The Polar Express" as she was more concerned with everything in the movie being "too loud" and ended up climbing on Jesse and I, giggling and tooting it up. Oh well. Next year may be different.

We're ready for Christmas!

Cortylandia and a Visit to Bethlehem

2009-12-04T08:55:00.006-06:00

Cortylandia!

Today Bea and I took our kiddos to a famous Madrid spot at Christmas time. El Corte Inglés
is a large department store chain (think Dillards times 10) and each year they make a mural with characters that sing and talk. People who grew up in Madrid have memories from their childhood of coming to see Cortylandia each year at Christmas time. If Renae can remember it, she'll remember that she LOVED the music and the story! (And probably understood more than I did!)

Two friends enjoying the show

Renae could hardly take her eyes off of the show!

Jaime on the other hand . . . he got bored with it real quick.

As you can see, Sammy felt the same way.

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The Three Wise Men crossing a bridge . . .

After a quick stop at a Starbucks, we walked from Sol to the Plaza de Colon to see the city of Bethlehem! In Spain, each family puts out a Belén (Bethlehem). It's a Nativity scene, but way more detailed. Bea said her Mom's Belén even has a river!! This particular Belén is HUGE. You know those people who have train models in their basement along with a very detailed town? Imagine that.

Just without the train.

And without the modern towns.

And add in Jesus, Mary and Joseph.

Oh, and the local weaver.

Bea y su hijo precioso . . .

And me with a very tired Renae (she walked the whole way!)

"Ruth, we have a new customer, and I thnk she's a Philistine."

"Come. I show you my rugs."

Bea gives out snacks if you ask really nicely.

Dos amiquitos

Awwww . . . .

Our Last Visitors . . .

2009-12-01T08:16:00.007-06:00

We head home in less than 2 months so unless someone is coming for a surprise visit . . .

. . . Julie . . .

. . . and Scott were our last visitors!

We had a great time showing them the sights and the people of our 2nd home. I'm not sure anyone slept all that great considering our apartment is really small and Sammy still wakes up at night . . . but thankfully they have 2 cute little girls so they know what it's like. :)

Jesse was the official baby man as he carried Sammy in the Baby Bjorn all over the place.

Renae shows Scott and Julie the Plaza Mayor.

And Jesse shows Julie how to enjoy churros!

I stand corrected. Renae shows Julie how to eat churros.

Back at home Renae is her usual goofy self.

Thanksgiving day was a hit!

Julie and I were busy in the kitchen and I was so glad she was there to help. My first hand at hosting Thanksgiving dinner was last year when my Mom was here to help. My second time, I had my sister in law. How lucky can I get?

Jesse stole the "man" apron so Julie had to settle for Renae's . . .

The guests . . .

My American friend Tep, and my Spanish friend Bea is holding Sammy the sudo-Spaniard.

As you can see Jose LOVED the food! I was so happy he did.

Bea . . . best Spanish friend and faithful blog reader.

Renae . . . I love this little girl.

Friday we headed to Segovia, our favorite little Spanish town. Before we left, I jokingly said, "Good thing the weather isn't like last year when we took Mom and Dad. It was cold and wet last year!" I spoke too soon . . . it turned out to be a cold and rainy day. Oh well.

The Masson family waiting while Scott and Julie climbed the tallest tower, in the darkest castle . . .

My big brother and his sweet wife.

Oh my . . .

The 2 Julies!

And we can't forget about this little guy . . .

Sammy was a real trooper. I think he nursed in a coffee shop, on a park bench, in a van on the side of the road, at the Gallego tapas place, and even in the Plaza Mayor. Whew!

Renae's Ramblings-Part 16

2009-11-22T16:07:00.004-06:00

Hey everybody! It's been awhile. My Mommy has been SUPER busy with my bratty-I mean sweet little brother. I guess because I set such a good example of what a baby is like, Sammy has some big shoes to fill. Apparently I didn't cry quite as much as Sammy. But on Tuesday, Sammy didn't seem nearly as fussy. Infact, he was a pretty fun little dude. Mommy says he was so calm because she stopped eating any kind of chocolate. I don't get it. All I know is Mommy was sad about this news . . .

So, Mommy's been busy trying to figure out what made Sammy fussy, and then she was taking care of all of us because we all got some bad colds. I didn't mind it so much. The snot that dripped down my nose into my mouth didn't taste too bad. Mommy says I shouldn't write that because it's gross, but it's my turn to blog! She says to make sure to tell you that she hasn't forsaken the blog, but she's been busy trying to be a Mama to Sammy and me and figure out her rhythm with Sammy. He's a BIG eater. I watched Mommy change him last night and whew, some of his clothes sure do make his butt look big. (I hate to say it but someone needs to tell him how it is!) Well, I need to go to bed because we have a big day tomorrow! Uncle Scott and Aunt Julie are coming to see me!!! I can't wait to see them and show off my park, my room, my friends, oh, and my brother. I really do like my little brother. I like him so much that I decided he could write on the blog too. But he only gets to do the captions. Bye bye!

Sister squishing me.

Can you feel the love?

That's our Spanish Abuelito with Renae. She really likes him.

Ha ha sissy. He likes me better.

I'm the coolest sibling. So there. Pfffffff.

Renae Reads a Classic

2009-11-14T13:46:00.002-06:00

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The Many Faces of Sammy

2009-11-12T02:32:00.004-06:00

4 Weeks Old Already . . .

The Real Reason You Come to this Blog . . .

2009-11-09T17:00:00.000-06:00