Let them be little

Just heard this song.

Sobbed.

What is it with sappy country songs that get me every time??? I sware! It's late, I am runnin' on 4 hours of sleep, and now I am a big pile of goo on my couch, just blubberin' away.

I am a crappy mom. I am going to fix that.

I love you, little boys of mine.

You are my sweet little pumkin pies!!!

Not only V.P. but apparently a great track star too!

Whenever I am in my lovely Astro Van (don’t hate, you know you want one) with my boys and we happen to drive by good ole’ Bennion Jr. High (which is more often than you’d think considering both Grandma’s live within a half mile of it)

My boys never fail to yell out, “Look, mom. There is your school when you were little.” (“younger” would be more appropriate, I don’t feel like I could ever have been referred to as “little”)

I respond with the usual, “yep, there is mommy’s old school” or something along the lines.

Well not yesterday. I decided to gloat on myself and let these boys know that they are living amongst a legend.  Yes folks, I was once Vice President of  Bennion Junior High, made announcements over the school intercom, was featured on Bennion Bobcat News, and even had the cool SBO sweater. (wow, how I remember the glory days…….. did you throw up in your mouths yet?)

I filled my kids in on this very topic.

Chase was really into this. He was now looking at me with googly eyes like I was going to throw on a cape and fly through the roof of my van.

He asks me: “Mom, how did you get to be the VP of Bennion?”

me: “I ran for it, and won.” (can you see where this is going?)

Chase: “Is that what that circle thing is for?” (referring to the track)

Me: “huh”? The track? yes, you run on the track.”

Chase: “After you ran on the track were you the VP of Bennion?”

me: (i first giggled for a few moments) “Yep, babe. One day you can run on the track too and maybe become the president of your school, only if you win though.”

-Jami

Twins

To anyone with twins, is having twins, will one day have twins or who wants twins.....


.....God Bless You!

-Jami

Money Problems

So I have this problem….

…with spending money,

…and the problem is……

….there is No problem at all. You following my drift???

I’m pretty good at spending money. In fact I am a self proclaimed pro, a sucker for a sale, the more the better. Yadda ..yadda ..yadda..

I love the idea of getting things on clearance. So, yes I may have a shopping problem, but, I NEVER pay full price for anything, never! (okay, “never” is a pretty strong word, let’s go with, “most of the time”)

So being the good friend  that I am and feeling a friendly obligated duty,  I absolutely have no choice but to share with all of my fellow blogging friends my new found information that has changed my life. TRULY.

And to those of my close friends whom I have already told this to (especially you, Char) you can quit reading this if you would like cause you have already guessed what i am about to go off on….and for the record…Char, i will bet a good pair of panties, that you one day will be just as excited as I about this very topic. It will keep you up at nights from all the excitement. Don’t fight it, you know you secretly want to join in the fun with me… You’ll see. I WILL convert you. And then you will owe me a huge Red Mango regular yogurt with strawberries, granola and blueberries…(wow, Red Mango, I love you and you sound so delicious right now)

Whoa, little side tracked……back to my point.

So what is all the hype, the fuss, the big deal, you ask. I’ll cut right to the point

….COUPONS…

They are my new found love!!! I want to kiss them and squeeze them and snuggle up with them while I watch my favorite movie, Sense & Sensibility.

I know what you are thinking…..Oh believe me I do. I know what is going through your little brain right now. That’s it?, that is her big exciting news….coupons? Lame! Coupons are for those crazy ladies who have nothing better to do than clip coupons all day every day, who dumpster dive in the big Newspaper bins behind schools, who sweep through vacant hotel rooms just to see if the earlier occupant luckily left behind the treasured Tribune or Deseret News so they can swipe the extra coupons, drive around town wasting gas and polluting the air, just to price match and piss of the customers behind her in line!

all this work to save a few pennies!!! CrAzY

How about this….I will just shop at Wal-Mart, by the generic brand and do me, the environment, my car, and the customer behind me a huge favor.

I know. I used to be like you. Thought the exact same thoughts. Coupons=gross! Who would be so lame. Well boy-oh-boy was I wrong. So Wrong!

Big, fat, huge, ginormous…Wrong.

wrong, wrong, wrong!!!!

(enter Tori)

who is Tori, you ask??? She is a goddess amongst woman.( I love her and have thought about actually building a make-shift shrine in my garage, James wasn’t to happy about the shrine, so for now I include her in my nightly prayers)

Tori is great, she came to my house, taught me and a group of my friends how to work the grocery stores over (sorry Smith’s) and pretty much load up our houses with food for pennies.

It is so easy…..you wouldn’t believe it!

Pretty much all you do is order the Sunday paper, use the coupons you get in the Sunday paper and pair them up with the sales stores are having and stock up on food, house items toiletries, make-up and whatever else it is you buy.

It is AWESOME!!!

The best part, a web site lists all of the sales, tells you what is a good deal and all you have to do is highlight what you want on the list, print it, clip only those coupons and shop. No brain work. It is all done for you. Easy. See, you can’t go wrong! Really people, you should do this, you will thank me later. Promise.

I just made my first trip using this system last week at Smith’s and listen to what I came home with and the money I spent/saved.

are you ready???…………….Here goes:

(4) boxes of Quaker granola bars

(8) cans of Hormel chili

(4) Tide laundry detergent

(2) boxes of Capri Suns

(8) blocks of Kraft cheese

(2) gallons Orange juice

(2) gallons 1% milk

(2) gallons Chocolate Milk

(1) bag Sunkist Pistachio’s

(3) Liters of Soda

(2) Revlon Eyeliners

(2) Revlon mascara’s

(4) boxes of Ritz Crackers

(2 ) boxes of Wheat Thins

(2) boxes of Triscuits

(2) boxes of Chicken in a Biscuit

(8) Pepperidge Farm fish crackers

I spent $89 and saved $108

That is a total of 58 items = $1.21 per item

I was so pleased with my success that I hit up Albertsons and Harmon's too, just for the thrills. I now have food seeping out of my fridge and pantry. My laundry room is a make-shift second pantry, and James’ weekend project is to build us  some more shelves!

Told ya so! Cool huh?…What?…..

you wanna know how I did this?

Well here you go. Give Tori a little visit on her blog and she will be glad to set you up, there’s no catch.

Promise.

Just do it.

…and then……

….you can thank me later.

-Jami

Putting Christ, back into CHRIST-mas.

T'was the night before Christmas
and all through the town
Not a sign of Baby Jesus
was anywhere to be found.

The people were all busy
with Christmas time chores
Like decorating, and baking,
and shopping in stores.

No one sang "Away in a manger,
no crib for a bed".
Instead, they sang of Santa
dressed-up in bright red.

Mama watched Martha Stewart,
Papa read the paper in his lap.
As hour upon hour
the presents they'd wrap

When what from the T.V.
did they suddenly hear?
'Cept an ad.. which told
of a big sale at Sears.

So away to the mall
they all flew like a flash...
Buying things on credit...
and others with cash!

And, as they made their way home
From their trip to the mall,
Did they think about Jesus?
Oh, no... not at all.

Their lives were so busy
with their Christmas time things
No time to remember
Christ Jesus, the King.

There were presents to wrap
and cookies to bake.
How could they stop and remember
who died for their sake?

To pray to the Savior...
they had no time to stop.
Because they needed more time
to "Shop til they dropped!"

On Wal-mart! On K-mart!
On Target! On Penney's!
On Hallmark! On Zales!
A quick lunch at Denny's

From the big stores downtown
to the stores at the mall
They would dash away, dash away,
and visit them all!

And up on the roof,
there arose such a clatter
As grandpa hung icicle lights
up on his brand new step ladder.

He hung lights that would flash.
He hung lights that would twirl.
Yet, he never once prayed to Jesus...
Light of the World.

Christ's eyes... how they twinkle!
Christ's Spirit... how merry!
Christ's love... how enormous!
All our burdens... He'll carry!

So instead of being over burdened
for no ryme or reason
Let's put Christ back in Christmas
and remember Him this special season.

I find it way easy to forget the real reason for this Christmas season. I get so caught up in finding the perfect gifts for my kids, working extra hard for money to buy these gifts, decorating my house in all the cute santa decorations and lights, wreaths and stalkings.

I asked my boys the other day, why we celebrate Christmas. Here were some of their answers; (mind you they are 4) snow falls down, to wrap presents, make Frosty the Snowman.

sad.

i have failed as their mother.


Let's just say, that is all about to change. And here some ideas to do it.

1. Visit Temple Square, see the lights and watch the nativity.

2. Christ taught to love and serve others, so we will be doing this activity for Family Home Evening.

3. We are going to make Jesus a Birthday Cake.

4. Loved this idea to incorporate scriptures into the Christmas Season.

5. If you read this post a while back about a fun Thanksgiving Idea by my pal Char, then you might like this idea that was thought up by, yours truly.

In keeping with the whole tree idea, I thought it would be fun to cut out a big Christmas tree to mount to the wall. Instead of leaves, we would tape ornaments which would be ideas on gifts you could give friends and families. For example. One could say, "clean my room to help mom".

I also want to cut out "gift boxes", these would be labeled with gift ideas you have given to Jesus (since it is afterall His Birthday) for example, shovel someone's walk, then put up a gift under your tree that says "service".

6. The Nativity. Of course every year we re-inact this out. My kids seem to enjoy it, and it has been fun to see them play the different parts. (especially when James is the donkey) hee hee

Well that's it folks, hope your christmas is filled with Christ.

-Jami

X-mas shopping!

I am very proud and happy to announce that I am 98.7% done Christmas shopping!

"Thank You very much!"

And boy-oh-boy, did I rock the world of shopping this year! I shopped sales and clearance stores only and saved more money than I spent.

I also had a major "first" this Christmas shopping season......you ready for this???.......I bought something on-line. I have to admit I don't enjoy this! There is something hard about giving out my credit card info, being charged and then not immediately recieving my purchase. I hate waiting 7 to 10 business days to recieve my goods in the mail, but, I couldn't pass up my great deal. I also like dealing directly with people, like a sales clerk. That way if something goes screwy, I have someone I can directly blame. Like Sally the cashier who charged me the original price instead of the sale price. On-line screw ups frighten me, afterall, you can't blame a computer!

So a big thank you to all of my favorite stores for saving me loads of mula!!! TJ MAXX, Ross, Red Balloon's 20% off sale, and especially and surprisingly Big Lots!

Here are a few examples of the money I saved:

Didj Gaming system. Normal Price $ 89.99 Big Lots Price $ 29.99 savings $60.00

Didj Custom Learning Game Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends. Normal Price $ 29.99 Leapster Leapster on- line Clearance Price $9.99 Savings $ 20.00

Didj Custom learning Games Double Pack. Star Wars : The Clone Wars & Indiana Jones. Normal Price $29.99 each. Leapster on-line sale price $15.00 for both. savings $ 45.00

Struxx Size It Up Construction System. Normal Price $64.99 TJ MAXX Sale Price $29.99 savings $ 35.00

Could have spent this much $ 245.00

But Only spent this much $ 85.00

Savings $160.00

Wow, that puts a smile on my face.Santa would be so proud. Now......what to get the husband???? Any suggestions? What are you guys getting your husbands this year? Do share.

-Jami

Life is good

For some odd reason I am feeling very emotional. I cried all morning reading about things, thinking about things, listening to things.... Not bad tears, or sad tears (the kind that give you runny boogers) but happy, thankful tears. (for lack of better words to describe)

I took a trip this last month with some friends, and it was very fun and much anticipated (you can check out the album of photos on FB) I needed it. You know as well as I do that being a parent is the best and craziest rollercoaster ride of all. Sometimes up and sometimes down, but after all is said and done and the ride is over for the day, you are always so glad you went on that ride. It leaves you feeling excited, nervous, happy, aware, and don't forget the butterflies floating in the tummy!

I look forward to laying my boys down to sleep for a moments peace to myself, as much as I look forward to feeling their soft little lips squished against my cheek in the morning to wake me up. Kids are the best....and for many reasons.

I know they are growing and the days where I get to hold them in my arms and pinch their bare bottoms as they get out of the tub are numbered. It makes me sad to think how fast time had flown.

i remember the twins coming home with me from the hospital and feeling extremely overwhelmed....I would think to myself, "hang in there for one month, it will get better. They will be bigger, sleeping better through the night etc...just hang on." a month would come and with it, life would get easier, but also harder. So then again I would think. "oh when they are 6 months it will be easier. They will sit up, and surely be sleeping through the night, not so fragile." etc....

The other night, me and James played outside with the kids. We built sandcastles, played tickle monster, and tag. I was so happy. I sat on my back stairs and watched my little family. I love them. Life is good. Not perfect in the world's eyes, but perfect in mine.

My boys are at a good age in life, or maybe I've just learned to relax and roll with the punches, either way, I love where they are at. Chase is a sponge for knowledge and is reminding me of myself as a child every day. He is very inquisitive just as I was. Always asking me impossible questions that I don't know how to answer, such as. "What's the biggest thing in the entire world?", "Will dinosaurs come back to life when Jesus comes again?" things like this that catch me off-guard but always make me smile. he is so tender-hearted, just like his daddy.

The twins are still my babies. They just barely have their baby chub still that I fear will be gone in the next few months. I love chubby cheeks (both on their face and bottoms), pudgy little fingers, sweet little dimples. They are just about to pass through that line of "toddler" to "big kid" and it makes me sad. They still say funny words in their cute little munchkin voices and I will miss that dearly.

For the first time in a long time, I am not wanting to fast forward to the easier times, I want to

PAUSE.

Pause life the way it is,

make my kids stop growing.

Keep them my babies.

And let those butterflies in my tummy linger as long as they will allow.

-Jami

Darling Thanksgiving idea from my super crafty pal, Char!

Check out this link to learn more : http://crapivemade.blogspot.com/2009/11/thankful-tree.html