Cha-Cha-Ching $$$

With me staying home I have been trying to do as much saving of money as possible. I sign up for freebies, sweepstakes & do an insane amount of couponing. I also started doing all the ExtraBucks stuff from CVS. I have stocked up on dish soap, laundry soap, body wash & deodorants like crazy. Anything that we don't use will be donated to a local charity.

There are so many good blogs out there that show you how to save money while shopping. I thought I would show you what I got today at Wal-Mart. I truly loathe that store but when I'm on the hunt for FREE stuff I do go there. Most of the coupons I use I print right off the internet.

The break down consists of :

1-Bag Mama Lupe's tortilla chips $1.58 (they were marked $.98 but I missed it on the register)

2-CoffeeMate liquid creamers $3.00

1- Wholly Guacamole $4.28

5- Nescafe Regular coffee -7 packs $4.90

2- Nescafe Classico coffee - 8 packs $1.96

1- Reach floss $.97

2- Lip Smackers $2.94

2 STP gas treatments $3.54

Total Retail Value of $23.17

Coupon Value of $15.46

Grand total before tax $7.71

Total savings of 67%

I find so much fun in doing this & wish that a store around here would double coupons :)

Biggest Loser

Jake & I have been competing in a local Biggest Loser competition. We had 12 weeks, with weekly weigh-ins. It was just the motivation that I needed, I finished in 2nd place, having lost 17 pounds. What makes me feel even better is the fact that I am now at a healthy BMI! I am trying to continue on my weight loss journey & thought that if I did weekly weigh-ins on my blog that might be the accountability that I need.

Jake lost 14 pounds during our competition but had lost 10 pounds before we even started. I am so proud of him & hope now that football is over he can continue on his quest a little easier.

So for today's weight, unfortunately I'm up 2 pounds. I'll just blame it on the german chocolate cake the neighbor's brought over, the peanut butter cup pie Cordell shared with me & the insane amount of Halloween candy that has been tempting me this week. I also have been a little stressed with Jake being out of town for work & have not had the gumption to exercise. Here's hoping next week it better!

The Boys of Fall!

Cordell just ended his second season of football & once again truly loved it. He played defensive end, kick off return & really tore up the field. He had numerous fumble recoveries & quarterback sacks. We are so proud of him & the progress he has made as an athlete. They finished the season 8-0 & as the league Champions. They worked hard for it & have grown so much since last year.

He is also doing wonderfully in school with straight A's. It's a big deal around here since 3rd grade is the first time they actually grade their homework. His lowest grade happens to be in art, where they are just graded on their weekly participation. I have informed him that his socialization better be limited :)

Soccer Star

Carmen played soccer for the first time this fall. After warming up the first week she really enjoyed it & always looked forward to Saturday mornings. On the last practice her coaches decided to no show, thankfully a dad stepped up & led them through drills. So far she enjoys soccer & volleyball, up next will be t-ball this summer.

Summer Vaca

So having 7 kids at home over the summer we weren't able to take our trip to South Dakota like we had planned. Instead we met up with my cousin & all 10 of us went to Adventureland for the day. The big kids weren't impressed but those 12 & younger had a BLAST! Cordell had riding buddies for all of the roller coasters & Carmen was disappointed she measured 1/4" too short. We were able to spend some time at their newly opened water park & slides. A family our size could definitely spend two days there.

SLACKER!!

Ok seriously I forgot all about blogging. I can't believe this year has just flown by. As many of you know, I am now a stay at home mommy. I truly do love the job & all that comes with it! We are on our second set of foster kiddos & for the purpose of the blog will be referred to as J & L. J is a 4 year old girl (10 days separate her & Carmen) & L is a 6 year old boy. They keep me on my toes but really fit in well with our family. Hopefully these next few blogs will update you on all that has consumed our lives!

Update on our busy lives!

So for those of you who don't know, we have officially finished our PRIDE classes. We haven't quite finished everything to get our foster care license yet, but hopefully we will have that soon. We have had a houseful since Feb 3rd though, when we had 4 kids move in with us. These are children whom we already know & love & has made the transition a little easier. Let me tell ya though I wasn't quite prepared to be raising teenagers yet :) We have been super busy with appointments & such but I think we are all adjusting. It has helped tremendously to have such an understanding husband & friends & family support!

Happy 4th Birthday, Carmen!!!

I can not believe my baby girl is 4 already. Just thought I'd take a moment & share her birth story on here.

On Wed. the 8th I had a doc appt. in the morning, I was 3cm dialated & 50% effaced. She stripped my membranes & told me that she might see me later that night, but if not we scheduled an induction for Sat. morning. I went to work after my appt., but was soo sore & had problems walking. I got home from work at 6pm, ate supper & we went into town to pick up some things. At about 7:15 I started having contractions that were bothersome, but weren't too bad. I started timing them & they were 4-6 mins apart and lasting 45sec to 1 min. We finished our errands, dropped Cordell off at Jake's sisters and headed to the hospital. We arrived at the hospital at 9:30pm and I was 6-7 cm & 100% effaced. At about 10:15 I asked for some pain meds., I didn't want an epidural but something in my iv would have been great. They called my doc and she said I couldn't have anything. I never imagined having an absolutely drug free delivery (i'm a baby when it comes to pain) My doctor came in at about 10:30 to break my water and told me she would be down the hall and would come back soon. I told her she didn't have time that I was ready to push. She didn't really believe me, but said she'd check me again, sure enough I was 10cm and more than ready. She wasn't ready yet so they wouldn't let me push, it seemed like forever for her to get ready but I'm sure it was like 3 or 4 mins. but that whole time I had to hold the urge to push. After 3 pushes Carmen was born at 10:45p.m. My first labor was 6hrs. 15mins. and my second was 3.5 hours. Carmen weighed 8lbs. 1oz. & was 20 1/4in long.

I remember being absolutely elated that our baby was indeed a girl! We didn't decide on her name for 24 hours, Cordell wanted to name her Elephant from the moment he learned I was pregnant. Three days before she was born we had Mariah Rose or Carmen Jade, Cordell really wanted Mariah, but Jake & I knew from the moment we laid eyes on her that she was a Carmen. Poor little Bubba was heartbroken :( I am so blessed to have the wonderful family that I do!

Too busy to blog :(

Febuary was one heck of a busy month for our family! We started Groundhog Day by making a trip to the doctor, Cordell had labored breathing. The doctor was concerned with his oxygen level & because he has never had problems with breathing. They gave him a breathing treatment & sent us to the hospital. He enjoyed laying in bed watching tv & playing video games all day. Every 4 hours they came to check him & give him breathing treatments. They released him from the hospital after 26 hours with a diagnosis of a virus or bronchitis. He was out of school for 4 days & was eager to get back.



I then had to get sick & had a cold for 2 weeks beore I finally drug mysel to the doctor with a diagnosis of bronchitis & a sinus infection. I got antibiotics & after a few days I was finally feeling better.

The Countdown has begun

I really dread this time of year, not only are the holidays over & all of the fun with family, but it's also cold, snowy & January. I started to cringe at 12:01am on Friday, January 1st. January brings a lot of sorrow into my life & I have been counting down the days to the anniversary of Carter's death. It started this past Tuesday when I realized there were 13 days left, then 12...11....10 is where I'm at today. I don't remember conciously doing that last year, but I think it's my way of preparing for it. Yes I am sad everyday of the year & I do somewhat dread his birthday & other holidays, but nothing is worse than remembering the day your baby died.

I miss him terribly & know that I will once again be reunited with my youngest son, when my time on Earth is done. Until then my mission is to advocate for babies, in hopes that any parent I meet will not have to endure the guilt, shame & grief that I have felt since his death.

Happy Veteran's Day!

Thank you to all who have served our country & those that continue to do so. Thank you to their families who sacrifice so much! Today I am remembering my grandpa who served in the Navy during WWII & Michael Scholl KIA Nov 14, 2006. My friend Michael, as well as many others, paid the ultimate price for our freedom. Praying for his family this week, especially his 3 year old daughter who never got to meet her daddy, but one day will. America, Home of the FREE, because of the BRAVE!

Finally!!

The living room is finally painted! That makes me soo happy & i'm pretty pleased with the way it turned out. I still need to find a big wall clock & and add a window treatment.

I need your help, I'd like to put vinyl lettering on one of the walls between the dark brown stripes. I want a family or religious quote but I haven't been able to come up with the PERFECT one. Any ideas???

Next rooms on the agenda: Carmen's pink n brown cowgirl room & Carter's Angel Hallway. I'm also open to suggestions for either of those!

Testing mobile blogger!

Guest Speaker!!

We got a call Wednesday night, that Cordell was expected to be at Abbott for a guest speaker Thursday. Well when they got there they learned it was none other than Mr. Bo Pelini. He gave a great speech to the boys about always doing your best in everything. He said, "C's aren't good enough & if I can't trust my players off the field, then I can't trust them on the field. Cordell was pretty fired up when he came home & was begging for me to buy him Husker tickets. Yeah right kid, I just went to my very first game last year at the age of 27. You think I'm gonna buy you tickets when you are 7???

This is a partial group pic of the football players, coaches & Bo Pelini. Cordell is in the red shirt right in front of Pelini & Jake was standing just to his left, but got cut out of the pic!

Then the text message came this morning, offering a FREE ticket to either myself or my son, for tomorrow nights game. I asked him if he wanted to go & his jaw dropped & his eyes got wide. I sure hope he can concentrate at school today!

New Furniture!!

We went to Omaha last weekend for Cordell's last football game & then ran over to Nebraska Furniture Mart to pick out furniture. I had done my research online & they had some that I liked, I just wanted to try it out & make sure it was comfy. It took me a minute to locate it, I sat down & Jake says "That is ugly." I was bummed, but knew if I wanted it, I would get it. We sit there for a minute & he says "it's actually pretty comfy." Well long story short, they had it in stock & we bought it. The saleswoman was pushing their no interest financing on us, but Jake kept saying, I'm paying cash. I asked to get a discount for cash, so they knocked $20 off, better than nothing.

So I have been painting & preparing all week for it to be delivered tomorrow. It's the first furniture we have EVER purchased, everything else has always been hand-me-downs. Now to only keep the kids & dog off of it to keep it nice, HA!

Have you ever....

Had a really stressful week? You don't sleep well & then wake up with a headache? With a sick little girl, I've had 2 nights like that this week, poor thing coughs so hard & wakes everyone up. Then with the move & not finding out until yesterday that we were still on for close today. I've been a crabby little bee until this morning, one man changed all of that.

I stopped at the gas station on my way into work to grab a soda, as I was walking out to my car I passed a gentleman & what from my wondering ears did I hear?? "Good Morning" I couldn't believe it, he wasn't some creepy old guy hitting on me, he was a 30-something polite guy that made my day. Sometimes it's the little things we do, going out of our way to be polite to strangers!

Last Sat I stopped at a gas station & I had a teenage boy walk back to the door just to hold it open for me. You know the kind, by appearnces you may judge them as a troublemaker, but his momma must have taught him some manners. And to think my hands weren't even full.

My biggest pet peeve is rude people. You know the kind, like at Wal-Mart, pushing & shoving, standing in your way like they own the aisle. The ones that bump into you & keep walking. Well I just want to challenge you to go out of your way today & be extra courteous to a complete stranger. Afterall, it might just make their day brighter!

Stressed!!!

We are supposed to be moving into our new house this weekend & I don't even feel like I have half of our house packed. I go into a room, start looking around & get lost . It doesn't help that Jake has football practice most nights & let me tell ya it's kind of difficult to do much with Carmen around. So here I sit on blogger after only packing 2 boxes tonight. I guess it will get done even if we throw stuff in boxes at the last minute (that usually happens anyway) Ha!

Closing is scheduled for noon on Friday, but we are still awaiting a confirmation on that. Because of the $8,000 tax credit, everyone is backed up & we haven't been approved yet by rural development. Everyone is hopeful we can get it done, worse case scenario we won't be closing until next week. :(

Carmen has been running a low grade fever since Friday. She has a cough, but has been generally ok. I hope she kicks it soon as I have already taken lots of time off work lately. Not that I don't have the vaca time to use, my boss isn't the most understanding (he stresses when he has to cover my job) & I have loads to do at work.

Cordell played awesome in his game last week! He was in for every single play, offense, defense, kick off & kick off return! We were very proud of his tackles he had & the 6-0 win. He does a great job firing up his team. He did suffer his first visible injury after he smacked his chin into another boys shoulder pads during a tackle.

I guess those boxes aren't packing themselves.........

Happy 2nd Birthday Carter J!

Let's see 2 years ago today I enjoyed a wonderful lunch with the hubby at Taco Inn, had my favorite Deluxe Nachos on flour chips with a huge helping of jalapenos! It was a Thurs so I went back & finished my shift at work, but what I didn't know was that it actually turned out to be my Friday! That evening I went home & did the whole evening routine, dinner, check, baths, check, kids in bed, check, computer time, check. Jake was just getting into bed at 9:30 when I told him I thought we better go to the hosp, my contractions were timeable & I didn't want to deliver en route.

We dropped the kids off & headed in to St. E's, which was super busy in L&D that night & we had to wait an hour before checking in. They checked us in about 11:15 and I was 5cm. They called my doc about 3am when I was 8cm, she came in and broke my water & I was ready to push but still only 8cm. After making it through a couple more contractions Carter Jefferson was born at 4:01am Oct. 19, 2007 in 5 mins of pushing with 3 pushes. He was born 11 days before his due date weighing 7lbs. 12oz & was 19 3/4in long. Once again I was able to have a totally drug free birthing experience, but only because I have short labors. I feel sorry for these poor women in labor for 12 or even 24 hours.

The first thing I said was "He actually has hair!" The other kids barely had any & it was so light, Carter's was so dark & was even curly when wet! He was quite his own little character, completely opposite of my other two. He liked his binky, he was not the chubs that the others were, he was just starting to roll over & laugh out loud. I sure do miss my monkey man! I am greatful that we were able to spend 3 wonderful months with him & see him smile!

I ordered the image above from Carly at To write their names in the sand she is a wonderful blessing to many bereaved parents! Go check out her blog!

Where do I even start????

This past 6 weeks sure have been busy! Football is in full swing for Jake & Cordell. Carmen has started volleyball as well! Thank goodness it's only one night a week, but watching a 3 year old try to keep up with the BIG girls is ridiculously cute!


The last weekend in July the kids & I found ourselves tubing down the Niobrara. This has turned into an annual event with my family & we thoroughly enjoy it! The weather was perfect, not too hot & not too cold!


The second weekend in August found us hanging out at the Lancaster County Fair! The cattle show ran for 7 hours on Sat on what was possibly was the hottest day of the year! Cordell did show & tell with a poster he made on recycling & Ricky once again showed his rabbit Midnight. Cordell received two blue ribbons, one for his poster & the other for his adorable pig cupcakes that he made.
On August 11th, I was online daydreaming & looking for houses for sale, when I spotted the PERFECT house in Malcolm. Jake tried to meet with the banker on Thursday morning but he was out of the office. We went & looked at the house on Sat am & were sold on it. The following Tues we met with the banker & were approved, called our realtor & set up a time to look at it again. We were ready to make an offer, until our realtor called back & informed us that the house went under contract earlier that day. BUMMER!! 6 days on the market & it was sold.


So we have spent many hours searching for something else that will fit our needs. There is a house that is being listed tomorrow & we are going to look at it. Hopefully it meets our needs!


Cordell started 2nd grade on August 13th, he is enjoying being back in school & playing with his friends. Corby has moved back to Lincoln & started school in Bennet on August 17th. He says he likes it there & has been attending everyday! It's disappointing that he had to switch schools again & that he is further away from us now.


Shaunice & Savannah went home to live with their mom on August 14th. We were all saddened by this, but thankful that we got to spend 13 wonderful months with these two special girls! We met up with them & their mom for a play date on August 28th! Their mom would like to keep in contact with us & would like the girls to continue relationships with all of us!

August 16th we traveled to Utica to celebrate Jake's grandpa's 80th birthday! Ray & Donna are very special people & we are very blessed to have such loving, compassionate people in our lives! We love you Crappa & Grandma Donna! The weather was perfect for a picnic in the park. I just can't believe how unseasonably cool August.
We were also able to spend time with my great grandmother when she was in town for the day! We don't get to see her often & it's pretty special that my children are able to know their great great grandparents!

During the first 3 weeks in August we travelled around town & had church at various places. Our first stop was the State Capital. We had a sun filled morning worshipping God on the north steps! Afterwards we were able to tour the capital! August 9th we attended church at Morrill Hall, it was raining hard that day & I am so glad that we were inside! We were blessed by the presence of my friend Cassie & her 3 beautiful kids! We once again were able to enjoy a tour of the facility! On the third Sunday of being a church on the move we met at The Lincoln Children's Zoo! While there Pastor Mike blessed the kid's backpacks before the start of the year! After singing praises & feeling God's presence we walked around & visited with the animals.


I am so grateful for our church & church family! Our pastor is so wonderful & creative, he keeps everyone entertained & interested. I have learned & grown so much as a Christian since the inception of St. Mark's NW.

This past weekend we had the opportunity to attend Crossfest at Crossbridge Christian Church. This is my best friend's church & it is a community wide event. Ron Brown was a guest speaker, their worship team performed most of the night, free food & games! This is an annual event & I hope the word gets out & more people attend next year! Kala talked me into coming to church with them the following morning. They had a presentation of Cardboard Testimonies, let me just say this was very moving. If you are curious about what I'm talking about google cardboard testimonies & watch a video about it. I had no idea who the people sharing these were but it was AWESOME to see how God works in people's lives! I'm going to suggest we do these at NW & it got me thinking, what would be on MY Cardboard?? I know if I thought long enough I could come up with lots but the one that speaks clearly to me is...




Front: Filled with guilt & shame after Carter's death

Back: God has forgiven me & given me the strength to forgive myself

Forgiveness is a powerful thing!
Blessed Be The Name Of The Lord!

Fun week without daddy!

Eventhough we missed Jake this week, we had a fun time without him! We had plans almost everynight so I think that helped to make it go faster. Monday night the kids & I went out to eat at DQ Grill & Chill. Our life insurance company sponsor a monthly get together & pay for part of our meals! $12 for all of us to eat supper & have Blizzards, you just can't beat that! Cordell highly reccomends the flavor of the month Tag-a-longs! Anything with Girl Scout cookies in it has to be awesome! Tuesday mom cooked dinner for us, Wednesday the kids helped wash & walk the cows. They are busy getting them ready for fair.

Thursday my mom babysat & I got a much needed break out with my girls Lisa, Cassie & Tori! We spent 4 hours at Granite City drinkin' fruity drinks & having girl talk. You 3 will never know how much therapy that was for me, Thank You! I am truly thankful for your friendships & believe that God sent you into my life for a reason!

Friday we saw another awesome production out at Pinewood Bowl! This year was Footloose & for the life of me I couldn't get that song out of my head all night. We took a picnic out there and ate before it started.

Saturday we were up early to go to Sidewalk Sunday School, Cassie & her kids were able to join us for the morning! After nap & a game of Apples to Apples, I finally got Jake's birthday cake finished!

Sunday after church we met up with my grandpa to go to the Children's Museum. This was Carmen's first experience there & she had a meltdown as we were leaving. She did not want to leave, she threw herself on the floor & was screaming! I really should learn that a 3 year old still needs a nap!

So daddy will be coming home tomorrow night & I'm sure we will all be up late with extra hugs & birthday cake! Thanks Jake for working so hard for our family! You truly are my soulmate & I am so blessed to have you in my life!