Victorious!

Just got home from Safeway. Damage done!

Total out of pocket: $9.94

10 boxes of cereal

15 boxes of fruit snacks

4 bottles of salad dressing

1 bagged salad

1 ice cream

Couponing Maddness

Loving couponing this month. As a matter of fact it has been keeping me up at night. Pathetic, I know. If I get woke up in the night, I will lay there thinking about the deals at different stores and not able to go back to sleep. It is a sickness, really. Well, I got up just before 3 this morning and changed a bed a kid peed in. Love doing that! Not! I layed in bed for the next hour and then got up to plan out my assault. I created the $10 challenge for myself, to see how much I could get for this amount of money. Here is the scenario I came up with:
11 boxes of cereal
15 boxes of fruit snacks
5 salad dressings
__________
$8.50 out of pocket

That is killer! I love doing this. I am really excited to have Karrie the coupon queen coming to do a class for all my friends and I. I love saving money. Last month the total saved was $114.30. Not crazy amazing, but amazing none the less. I would tell you that I have been saving the money for fun things, but that is not the case. Our water heater went out last month and we had a couple medical bills that pretty much devoured that and a lot more. Oh well, God is so good to provide for my family. And I dont just mean scrape by provide, He really does it with some flair!

Ok, well I am gonna go, Safeway just opened. I hope you all have a grand day
Jaimie

February stuffs

It has been a fun month. The beginning of the month we had the company banquet for C's work and he got the opportunity to MC it. The man runs his humor past me and looks for my input (b/c I am hilarious) so we had a lot of fun for a couple days thinking about what others might think is humerous. That man truly has a gift for public speaking. He doesnt just get thru it he truly thrives in those situations.

We took the girls to a school dance. We were very anti-elementary school dance. Our problem is introducing this type of emotional situation to kids who are so young. Middle school is even a stretch in my mind. Anyways, they had a great time and only ended up with one casuality, Lou took a hula hoop to the eye.

Valentines day was a fun evening. We met with our care group, ate dinner, and played a fun game called spouseology. Lots of laughs and good memories.....of course inappropriateness too. It wouldnt be small group without that. I added a pic of some of our friends with a Mark Gungor shout out. All you peeps who have done his series know what I am talking about. I also put a pic of C and I. This is the best we could do for a model pose. We are hilarious.

Our hot water heater broke this weekend. That was a bummer b/c we replaced one at our old house and it was close to $800. So, I was not looking forward to this. Luckily we have a neighbor who just replaced his hot water heater (our homes were built at the same time, so I guess everything is going to die at the same time) so he helped C and had it done in an hour. Praise God, b/c C had just worked a bunch of overtime and so he provided for us to buy the water heater. End cost was only about $400. Awesome!

Ok, off to the hour of power now will update more later!~~~J-dizzle

Here We Go!

Here are the update in the Littrell world. We adopted a dog. I know what you are thinking....what are they thinking? Well, Chris and I knew the girls would eventually wear us down in this area. Part of the problem for us was deciding whether or not we are going to stay in our home and refi in a few months or start looking for a bigger and better house. Love the bigger and better idea, but the reality of it is that we dont need that. We dont use 400 square feet in the front room very often and that would mean more for me to not keep clean. So we decided to be content with this house that God provided. So, after deciding on this home, we just had to be content with the yard sometimes having poop in it. The dog will probably go in it too. LOL! ( I am hilarious) Anyways, a friend of mine (who is also known as the dog whisperer) had a stray come to her house. She was already trained and no one was claiming her. Her name is Mud Pie and she is amazing. This weekend we will be attempting to let her sleep in the kitchen outside ofher carrier. She is about 7 mos old and we think a shepherd/lab mix. We love her.

Secondly, Chris and I have been seriously couponing for about 4 months. We did not start to see savings for a month or two, but since then it has been amazing. Before couponing we consistently busted the grocery budget. Now we are consistently under (unless we splurge and buy a new printer, oh well different budget I suppose) the monthly budget and truly have enough of some foods for months. It is like a game for us now. Looking for the best deals, pillaging the best coupons, and photgraphing our loot. My friends are getting the couponing bug too. I need to have the fistfulofcoupons.com lady come and give us all a class. That would be wonderful! I am sure some of you are wondering, why so much ceral and granola bars? Stock piling is part of the couponing idea. You stock up on the stuff you want when it is on sale. I got all the stuff in the photo above for $14, killer deal.

Crossview Church has done some reorganization of the pastoral staff. Chris is now over the family ministries section and we are really excited about this. This is where we have felt God calling us for years but it has never been a reality, well here it is. Very excited about this. Check out the website at crossviewcommunity.com to see all that is going on. We just added an Administrative pastor to our church. We have had the opportunity to work alongside this man with the youth and think that he is an amazing fit.

The first photo is of my family at the OG. My brother had never eaten there, so that was an experience. For those of you who dont know my bro, he is somewhat loud and not afraid to say whatever he wants. He asked me to walk him to the bathroom (as he had never been there and he said he didnt know where it was). So I walked him there and when he got to the door he looked back at me and said, " You commin'? It aint gonna shake itself!" For the love!!! It was a really crowded day and tons of people were looking at me. Horrified I replied to concerned onlookers, "He is just my brother. " In hindsight this statement is even creepier than his, oh well. So we were on a hiatius for a few months, but I think we are back on track now. Good times, good times.

White New Years

I got up this morning and worked out at 5:15am. I did this so that I would not have to get the kids moving too quickly this morning. I have really been trying these last couple of months to enjoy the season of life that I am in. Everybody tells me that it will fly by or be gone in the blink of an eye. The more I thought about this, the more God convicted me to "stop and smell the roses." I have been incredibly blessed with three healthy girls. Up until a couple months ago I took that for granted. God said very clearly to me that they were only mine for a little while and that He had entrusted them to me. So, I am proud to report that I am enjoying them. Making a point to do special things with them, making time for games, barbies, letting them help me cook, earning money, being "in charge", and just being kids. Each day is a decision to be a little more patient, kind, and willing to clean up a larger mess than if I would have just completed the task. Mothers, enjoy you babies! We only have them for a little while. My mom always made mothering feel effortless and fun. I can only hope and pray that my little ones will see His love through me and feel as special as my mom made me feel.

Bad Blogger

I have not been on top of this like I had hoped to be. Here is a list of some things that I love (in no particular order):

Jesus

Christopher

Greek Salads from Tagaris or Bonefish

Date Night

Small Group

Being a stay at home mother

my house

my friends

MOPS

Peanut Butter Bliss

Pepper Jack Cheese

Europe

Tropical Places

Hula

My work out classes

Kelly (my fav instructor)

having family nearby

financial blessings

Crossview

Pink accesories

My firefighter shirt

the phrase Save the TaTa's

movies

the fact that New Moon permiers in a couple weeks and me and some besties will be there

Moosetracks ice cream (havent had that in years, it is horrible for me)

staying home all day

holo holo

my mother

Dad

Bubba

Family Time

Time without kiddos

youth group

crisp fall air

high school football games

grocery shopping

couponing

cafe world

peanut butter

french fries

bejeweled blitz

back rubs

firefighters

peppermint mocha coffee creamer

Here are some things that I dont like:

Waking up before 7am

sick kids

belly fat

not eating a massive amount of carbs

leg hair on me

criminals

stupid criminals

stupid people

stupid drivers

Well, the like list is clearly longer so it cant be a bad day.

18 pounds! Woot woot

This is us on a date in March, check out my face! I will say that even tho there is boob loss, still worth it!

Our anniversary dinner at Tagaris, perfect music, food, setting for remembering our 11 years together. We postponed our anniversary dinner b/c we were camping with the youth on the actual date. We got to hear the amazing band, Run from cover too!

I think the straw that broke the camels back was when people would ask if I was pregnant. The first time this happened, it was 3 days after I had given birth to Leilani. I still had the big empty stomach out front so I undersood this comment and explained that I had just had a baby.

The next time, I was pushing the newborn in the stroller and my neighbor stopped and asked when I was due......did she not see that I was pushing a newborn? If I was knocked up that fast after having a baby ( I looked 6 mos along) then I deserved it, but I was not prego! The nerve!

The next encounter, I will unfortunately always remember, was in Kauai. Chris and I had just done an all morning hike, kayak and zipline adventure. We were in Hanale checking out the cool touristy places and headed into one shop. Chris walked in after me and I was following some ass in before me. He turned around and stepped to the side and said, " Oh, make way for the lady with a baby." So naturally I looked behind me expecting to see a very pregnant woman, but it was just Chris. So that left just me. He had said that ugly thing to me. A thing that I would have welcomed had I been pregnant, but that was not the case. His wife was sssshhhhing him from inside the store and saying "get over here." I walked out of the store and could not hold back the tears. They came out from under my sunglasses. Chris asked if we should go back to our town and I said yes. In the car he tried to be comforting and telling me how beautiful I am. I told him that I appreciated the kind words, but I just needed him to let me cry, and he did. We went to a beach on the way home and got thrashed around by some powerful waves. God comforted me then. He gave me that beautiful beach, sun, husband, powerful waters and made them wash over me. Men, women, idiots listen to this...... if there is any question in your mind if someone if pregnant or not, do NOT say ANYTHING. For the love of everything sacred and holy keep your pie hole shut! As a matter of fact, unless the woman is wearing a shirt advertising the fact that she is pregnant, or she mentions it in conversation, say NOTHING. Act like the bulge under her shirt is not there, becuase the truth of the matter is that you are ugly. She can lose weight but you will never get any prettier. Bite it! Ok, done with the rant. Last emotional vomit session for now.

I thought I was a slender woman, not thin, but definitly not fat. Enough of those coments tho and a girl starts to wonder. I would have skinny days, not many during the month, but some. Well, with the help of weight watchers and Kelly (my fav instructor from the gym) I have far more skinny days than fat. Also, I am so glad I did not go buy a new wardrobe when everything was tight. I can finally fit into the things that havent been worn in years. Who knew that my clothes were not shrinking? I thought that was the case. Honestly I thought that as they got older they must have been shrinking. Truth be told, as I got older I was growing, SUCK!

Anyway, my goal was 16 pounds and I made that a few weeks ago. I gotta give some props to my husband (who willing funded weight watchers food and online membership so that I would be losing "the right way"), to my auntie who is my ww partner and cheered me on, and to my daughter Dani. She would loving ask, "how many points is that going to cost you." It admittedly pissed me off a few times, but she was truly trying to help me. She has been saving and taking money donations for a few months. Well, after her birthday she bought me a work out shirt that I said I wanted when I reached my goal. What an amazing heart that girl has, I love her so. And the shirt looks beautiful!