24 days!

We will be leaving this beautiful southern state and heading to the best (aka West) coast! North Carolina is really gorgeous this time of year. There are leaves EVERYWHERE... on the trees, floating through the air, on the ground... EVERYWHERE. They are such vibrant colors, it's just gorgeous. However, I really can't wait to get my little family back home to be with everyone for Christmas.

Thanksgiving has come and gone. We spent the day with our "Army issued" family. The Levy's and their 2 kids and the Lee's and their precious girl Hallah. We all contributed to the cooking and everything turned out super yummy. I tried a few new recipes and they are definitely keepers. But now, it's officially Christmastime. I'm working on a few Christmas'y crafts, plus one thing for Jax. I can't spill the beans about one of the crafts because they will be Christmas presents for some of our family. But I did make a wreath for our front door that turned out pretty cute. I also made a taggie blanket for Jax. It's a small, soft blanket with little ribbon "tags" around the outside. It's supposed to be stimulating for him because the ribbons are different textures and different colors. I hope it becomes one of his favorite lovies!

Here's some pictures of these fun projects...

The wreath

Jax's taggie blanket

Jax's First Christmas

On normal years, I love Christmastime. Things are different this time of year. Good different. The air is crisp, the leaves are bright shades of orange, red and yellow, everything smells like spice and there's an atmosphere of joy and love. This year is not a normal year. This year all those wonderful things are extra special because this year is Jax's first Christmas. I am fully aware that Thanksgiving is still a week away and Christmas is still 5 weeks away. But I just can't help myself. I am so stinkin' excited! I have been begging Ryan to let me decorate already. We finally compromised and decided to decorate this coming weekend. We normally wait until the weekend after Turkey Day. But this year, we will be in California for Christmas, which means that we have less time to enjoy our decorations at home, which means that we need to decorate early to make up for it. I know that is total girl-logic, but I don't care. I wanna take it all in and enjoy every second of it. I've already snuck a few Christmas items in and put them up in the house, including Jax's brand new stocking with his name on it! However, to make the waiting even harder, Ryan pulled down all the boxes today. I'm glad that they are ready and waiting, but they are sitting there tempting me. If Ryan wasn't on leave, I would probably have opened everything and decorated already. But instead, I sit and wait. Hurry up, Saturday!!!

A little bit of life

I've been in a bit of a blogging rut. Not much to talk about... so here's just some recent happenings.

Jax is 5 months and 1 week old today. He still doesn't roll much. He can only do it if I help him move his arms out of the way. But, he LOVES sitting up on his own. A few days ago, he sat up for about 30 minutes without any help and without falling over. He likes to sit and look around. Sometimes he will play with a toy while he's sitting. He also thinks Mojo is just the funniest thing. She will walk by him and he will start laughing. It's hysterical to see him laughing at her. We've gotten some great video of it!

Ryan has had a lot of extra duty work this week. As a sergeant, he has to supervise the guys who have gotten in trouble and have to work extra hours each day. Ryan has had to stay late 2 days in the past week and he also had to be there all day Sunday. BUT, he has tomorrow off for Veteran's Day and then starting Saturday, he has 2 weeks off for Thanksgiving. It's not normal for them to get so much time off for Thanksgiving, but he's taking some extra days. So I'm very really looking forward to that because I feel like I haven't seen him much recently!

I have big plans this week for couponing. There are some new Glade printable coupons on the website rightathome.com. Target has a deal on Glade scented oil candles... when you buy (wyb) 5 products, you get $5 back. SC Johnson (the company who makes Glade) also has a $5 rebate wyb 3 participating products. So basically I'm going to buy 2 scented oil tins and 3 refill packs, plus use coupons, plus get the giftcard and rebate money. It ends up that I make $3.50! So I'm excited about that. Plus I have a few plans for Walgreens, and CVS. Plus I have a 30% coupon for Old Navy. So this should be a good week! I'll let you know how it goes.

Hope all ya'll are having great weeks as well!

Stop me

if I ever become this obsessed with couponing...

it's a freakin' BRIEFCASE!!

Prayer for Joe Houston

Please visit THIS BLOG to read about a very urgent prayer request!

Harris Teeter Triples

This week, Harris Teeter is tripling all coupons that are $0.99 or less. Ryan and I took a trip there this afternoon. I had a list of things I wanted to get that would either be free or less than $1. Unfortunately, a lot of the stuff was sold out (we didn't get there until about 5pm)... so we ended up only getting some of the things we had intended to get. Overall though, it was a good trip!

$30.74 worth of stuff for only $13.35... that's almost 60% savings!

Couponing

I've decided to start couponing. I used to think that those ladies who walked around the store with those huge coupon binders were a bit ridiculous. I now think that they are GENIUS. I'm not sure what triggered my desire to start using coupons. Most likely it was the fact that having more money is a good thing. And all I have to do get more money is cut up some paper. I mean, HELLO, how easy is that?! But I don't just want to randomly use a few coupons to take a few dollars off. I really want to learn how to buy things on sale, plus use coupons, plus get rewards back. I've been pouring over websites and blogs to learn how to "coupon". In order to save the most money, I will have to go to a few different stores instead of just one. But if I can save money by doing this, then I say it's totally worth it. CVS has a reward system that allows you to get ExtraCareBucks back on certain sale items. Then you can turn around and use these ECB towards your next purchase. So basically, it's like free money!

I did my first couponing trip to CVS and Target today. Here are the results...

CVS

- 1 Pantene Pro-V Shampoo

-1 Pantene Pro-V Conditioner

-1 Plackers floss picks

-1 Metamucil capsules

*Total value = $28.06

*Total spent = $13.48--- I saved $14.58! Or 50%!

I did 3 separate transactions so that I could get the ECB back, then turn around and use it on the next transaction. I also used a coupon for each item. And I still have $2 ECB to spend on my next trip.

Target

- 1 UP dishwasher detergent

-4 boxes Kellogg's brand cereals

*Total value = $14.90

*Total spent = $7.36--- I saved $7.54! Or 50%

I bought the Target brand detergent, plus I used a coupon. The Kellogg's cereal is buy 3, get one free this week. I also used one Target coupon and one manufacturers coupon for each box. So instead of paying $3-4 dollars/box, I paid $1.43/box!

I plan on doing more research and stocking up on more coupons in the future. This is so exciting and it's just the beginning!!