Yes, it was two and a half weeks ago. Your point?

Mother’s Day was nice - Kiddo and Munchkin saved up some cash and took off on their own to buy me a present. (Sometimes, it’s nice to have a kid that can drive themselves; other times, not so much.) Anyway, they each got me a lovely gift from Bath & Body Works. Munchkin included a nice letter thanking me for all I do for him, with an acknowledgement that cooking is harder than he thought! (I’ve recently made Kiddo and Munchkin completely in charge of two meals a week, with Kiddo cooking twice one week, Munchkin twice the next - I’m not even in the kitchen. It’s heavenly. Oh, and they’re learning how to cook much better than when they were just standing in the kitchen, watching me, and stirring a pot occasionally.) DH picked up a neat book from Deseret Book I’d been eyeing. Sweet Girl made me a cute booklet at school (I’ll blog that one next) and Little Man, well, he was just his usual cute self. At church the bishopric arranged substitutes for all the women’s callings, so all the ladies got to go to Sunday School and Relief Society, and in the last 20 minutes of church, the Young Women came in and served us slices of ice cream cake. Yummy!

Of course, the Primary President and I sat next to each other and stressed about what was happening upstairs in the Primary room. LOL

After church, we all headed over to my mom’s house for dinner. Since money is still tight, I wasn’t able to get her anything nice, so I ended up just making her a cake. I felt bad, although Mom insisted it was fine - and as a mom, I know it was; really, you appreciate any gesture - but still… Mom has done so much for us, I wanted to give her more than just a cake. But she liked it, so I guess that’s the best I can do for this year.

Wanna see the cake?

A little more close-up

I’ll blog. Soon. I have a crapload of stories and photos and stuff. It’s just a REALLY FLIPPIN BUSY time of year.

Isn’t patience a virtue and all that?

Little Man, for the record, insists that you are his cousin and his cousin only. Your sister and his sister are cousins, but he is not your sister’s cousin, neither is his sister your cousin. He has claimed sole ownership of you.

 

Chuckle if you will, but sometimes being a tightwad ain’t all that bad.

I loves me some good deals.

 

Albertson’s is having a great sale right now. I ran over there tonight and stocked up, mostly on cereal and granola bars. I never buy name brand cereal, let alone in boxes, because it is so expensive (with 4 kids, half of them teenagers, plus their friends around - we go through cereal quickly) and an open box lasts maybe a day or two. I picked up around 15 boxes tonight - this might last a month.

Total savings - $62.45
Number of items purchased - 22
Average price per item - less than $.75
SCORE!

1. You guys are cracking me up with the cake comments. A) it wasn’t that cute IRL (photoshop is my friend and made the flaws that were bugging me go away) B) it was just a cake! LOL C) any of you that want birthday cakes - remind me when it’s your birthday, and you also should move to my town. Much easier that way.

 

2. Last night DH and I were talking about coupons or something (I’ve truly forgotten) while we ate dinner. I need to remember we have two sponges near us at all times, as after DH left the table, Sweet Girl looked at me and asked, "Mom? Are you and Dad tightwads?"

I about shot manicotti out my nose.

"What? Where on earth did you hear that?"

"From my Junie B. Jones book."

"Ah. Well, do you think we’re tightwads?"

:giggle: "No."

"Do you think it’s a bad thing to be a tightwad?"

"Not really, I guess."

"Hmmmm. Do you know what a tightwad is?"

"Someone that’s cheap! Like Mr. Krabs."

I laughed. "No, Sweet Girl," I said. "Dad and I are careful with our money, but I don’t think we’re like Mr. Krabs."

That’s when Little Man joined the conversation.

"Yeah, not like Mr. Krabs!" he giggled. "You don’t wear a belt."

Um, thanks?

 

3. We had a really odd experience today when we stopped at Sam’s for more milk (yippee! down to $2.15 a gallon, Jen! wanna move here? ) and other sundry items. There we were, sniffing different deodorants, when suddenly there was a weird guy at my side, talking to Little Man. "Excuse me, young man! Do you know why she’s so much cuter than you are?" We all turned to stare at this older gentleman, as he continued, "It’s because she smiles! Ah, what a beautiful smile!" Then he just.kept.talking - about how he likes to tease kids, but nobody should hurt kids, about smiles in general, about how smiling uses less muscles than frowning, about how girls are cuter when they smile… about how tickling always makes people smile. He motioned to Little Man, and said, "I bet you have some tickle spots, don’t you?" while Little Man scowled at him. Thankfully, he didn’t actually go as far as trying to touch my kids. Little Man’s scowl knocked him off track, I think, because he stopped and said, "Ahh, look at that cross eye scowl! Is he cross eyed?" I smiled, edging the cart a bit further away, and said, "Ah, no, he’s just making a face at you because he doesn’t like strangers talking to him!" He didn’t get the hint and started talking about how his grandkids like to try to tickle him but he’s not ticklish, and they get so frustrated! All the while, I’m edging the cart a little further down the aisle, smiling and nodding. When I got a chance, I said, "OK, well have a nice day! Say bye, kids!" and moved it. I didn’t get the vibe that he was dangerous, per se, just a little off his rocker. We were near the pharmacy and I think he was bored, standing there waiting for his meds, and decided to come talk to us. Still kind of freaked me out, though.

 

(PS - Willsie - I promise I’ll take care of your request soon - I keep forgetting to upload the pic I want.)