What do you buy?

When I go to the store I usually have a list. Milk, eggs, cereal, apples, bread. These are common items that I buy. When I don't have a list an item or two that I normally wouldn't buy sneaks in. Sometimes it's ice cream. Once I brought home NutriGrain Bars. When I send Ben to the store it's usually because I forgot something. I'll call him on his way home from work and ask him to pick up an avacado. He usually ends up with about five items. These aren't junk food because my wife doesn't usually get them items. (Although those do creep in.) These are totally random, I strolled down the aisle and decided to throw it in items. He has come home with bananas, chile peppers, a jar of spaghetti sauce, some raisins, and of course....baked beans. He always picks up baked beans. They are his quintessential 'if we have an emergency we are going to want baked beans' item. He figures we will live off them if the hurricanes ever veer west. We have about 40 cans. This time he came home with these two items. The baked beans I am used to....the other....well, let's just say he couldn't pass up the name.

An Insomniac's Guide to the World

Yes, I am about to blog about a blogger. My brother Dustin started his own blog called 'An Insomniacs Guide to the World' and I think it is pretty funny if a little bit of dark humor sometimes. Anyone that knows me knows that Dustin is kind of my lifeline so I go to his blog quite frequently to get a little chuckle and continue on my day. Anyhow, the whole point is that he recently put his blog on a site called humor blogs (or something like that) and you can go on and vote. You give him a smiley face if you think it's funny and a sad face if not (or if not then just leave it be cause if you give him the sad face his ratings will go down and ruin my whole day). So....if you are a little bored today go to his website and read a bit (remembering that I don't think he ever learned what a period or run on sentence was and I would really love to be his editor) and if you like it and have the time scroll to the bottom to find the link to the humor site. Sign yourself in. It does not make you go back to your e-mail or anything and goes pretty quick but it does ask you a question. Mine was to name one of the Marx brothers. I put Harpo. Then make someone's day and give a smiley.
http://sydeninsomniac.blogspot.com/2008/08/act-i-boredom.html
Or you can just follow my link of persons. He is under 'funniest kid alive'. Thanks!

Abby

Abby in the play stroller. I can't believe she is almost 8 months old. This year is flying by. Updates for my family out there. Eliora graduated kindergarden last year. We have school pictures that I never sent out but hopefully will get around to it before she changes too much :) We stared up with homeschooling again this year with the same group which means lots of field trips and activity days. Eliora is now officially considered first grade and Audrey (because her birthday is in Aug.) is kindergarden. I am still doing my coupons and getting the hang of actually saving money instead of buying 3 pounds of candy because it was basically free and thinking I would actually save it for Halloween. Yeah....that doesn't really work in this house. I am trying to do another triathalon in May which I know is really far away but I figure if I put it in print then I might actually do it when the time comes around. I tend to make goals at the beginning of school years instead of the New Year's and this time it is to start writing more, take a cooking class, and get healthier. I do have to say that I accomplished all of last year's goals which were to have a baby and move (I figured with those two events I wouldn't have time for anything else and I would feel good about accomlishing them;) Have a great school year everyone!

Cheering for the Iowan

Shawn Johnson gets the gold on the balance beam!! We are also pretty excited about Phelps getting his eight golds as well just being proud of the whole swim and gymnastics team...hmmm, also volleyball. We have some awesome athletes this year!

We missed what?!

The first few races were pretty exciting....then it gets a little anti-climatic. Yep, he's ahead a whole body length again. So we start flipping through the channels and figure we will come back in time. We want to see it but we aren't willing to sit through all the commercials to make sure we catch it. You guessed it. We caught the end....the very end. Were he looks up; uncertain. Right there we know we have missed a huge moment in Olympic history. Good thing my sister-in-law recorded it.

Anna look alike

Does anyone else think she looks like Anna or are we just nuts? We were watching the other night at Tiffany's house and saying that if you mixed Tiffany and Anna this is what she would look like.
Okay, so it is not her exact twin but last night (Tuesday) we were watching her and it is at certain poses; especially profile shots. Something about the smile and the way she stands and her body shape.
Even watching her with her teammates and seeing how she interacted with them. Ben kept saying, 'seriously, if Anna had gone into gymnastics that would be her'. She is even from Iowa.

Was anyone else yelling?

Michael Phelps has been my favorite to watch for the Olympics this year. Did anyone else catch the relay. Lesak's finish was amazing and the reaction of Phelps was priceless. Seriously, if you didn't see the race then you need to look it up.

CVSing

 I am finally getting the coupon thing down. First CVS stop I bought an allergy medicine, 9 roll Charmin, 2 liter coke, 25 digital prints, 2 bags Werthers, 1 Hershey mini's, 2 bag Riesens, 1 bag dark chocolate M&M's, and 1 bag cotton balls. Grand Total $5.02. Recieved $5 in ExtraCare bucks.
Used a lot of coupons (we have a new CVS so I had some good ones) including 2 of the 2/10 ones and a 1.99 ECB that I had gotten last time. Total savings was $41.50
Next I bought 2 Covergirl Lip Gloss, 2 Dove bars (large), 1 Cadbury bag, 1 Premium M&M's. Grand Total $2.42. Recieved $10.00 toward my next purchase. I think I am getting the hang of this. Covergirl Buy 1 get 1 Free and had a coupon, coupon for Dove bars, coupon for M&M's. Total savings was $19.98
I also stopped at Walmart to get a gift and used my WellPatch coupons ($1.00 off) for the 99 cents travel ones. Free. I love coupons.

Coupons, Bargains, and Diamonds

Lately I have meddling in the world of coupons. (It is actually sort of fun). This means that I am becoming an expert on ecb's and RR's and all that jargon which of course makes me feel soooo cool. For anyone interested my favorite site is http://www.moneysavingmom.com/. Once you start there they have billions of links where you get sucked into reading tons of scenarios and ignore your kids and husband for long periods of time. I have been trying to prioritize though so that I end up with only spending a bit of time each night after the kids have gone to bed and Ben is busy (this isn't worth it if I end up spending all my time on the internet and clipping coupons and not with my kids) Anyhow....the reason I am telling you is that every now and again I have come across a contest and on this one you have to post a link to this very cool woman's site where she is giving away a diamond ring...yep, you did hear that right. Cool huh. So here is the link.
http://www.notjustamama.com/2008/07/contest-2-the-diamond-ring/

More pics

Kyoshi warrior and avatar Eliora

Avatar - we are a little obsessed

It is amazing what photoshop and a brother who is bored at work can do. Thanks Dustin!

Avatar

A little firebending
Some air bending
Add some water bending
Throw in a little earth bending
And end with a Kyoshi warrior