Afraid To Be Frugal

You find them in Dollar Stores, at Goodwill on 50% off Saturdays, at the bakery outlet buying day-old bread, or on Craigslist searching the free category. These are people who get buyers remorse after buying a skirt for less than $4 on clearance at Ross. They are the penny-pinchers of the world! I would like to publicly announce that I am one of these. Even if I had money, I think I would still head for the clearance rack first. Sometimes this is good and sometimes this is bad. It is good that I can stretch our money for the things that my family needs. It is bad that when I receive a gift from someone, I often think about returning it if it is not something I absolutely need (even if I love it and really do want it). So why am I this way? Well, I think most of you know my dad right? he he he. That might have something to do with it. (I love you, Dad).
Anyway, I wanted to tell you a story of triumph that happened to me today. This morning I headed to Goodwill at 10 minutes till 7 to get there when it opened. Today was a 50% off everything sale (come on... it's already a thrift store for crying out loud!) I was going to look for good quality kids clothes and some bathroom storage solutions for our new home being built in Queen Creek. So, there I was, searching the clothing racks meticulously. I had already chosen some good things and had them in my basket when a lady approached me. She said something to the affect of ,"Hey, I noticed you had kids clothes in your cart." She then proceeded to tell me about a store called "Other Mother." It is a second-hand exchange place that specializes in stuff for kids and moms. Then she let me in on a little-known fact. Every Saturday from 8-11:00, they put a bunch of stuff out and it would all cost $0.25 a piece! And, whats more, it was right across the street! Anyway, after I had finished up at Goodwill, I decided I may as well check it out. I went there and was looking for a bin. I heard some voices out back and the back door was propped open, so I poked my head out. There I saw about 4 huge tables piled with clothes. At first it was kind of hard to start looking. There were so many ladies digging through the piles there was hardly room left at the tables edge. Clothes were flying past my face in all directions. I decided that I better just jump in. So that is what I did! They had a bunch of good stuff. I ended up with a couple of shirts and little tennis dresses for Jade, some shirts for Braden this winter, and even a dang cute shirt for me! I spent a little under 2 bucks and got 7 things! Talk about a blessing!
So, if you are one of us, don't hang your head in shame. Go to that clearance rack. Clip those coupons. Take full advantage of those 10 for 10 sales. Sew your own stuff. Shop around. Barter if necessary. And yes, dig. Dig in those piles of clothes and come out with something great. Don't ever be afraid to be frugal.

Lunch Anyone?

When was the last time you had peanut butter plastered all over your face? It looks fun, doesn't it? Braden saw me taking pictures and thought it looked like a blast. So naturally, he decided he would try it too (with his sour cream). Then he asked me to take a picture. Hmm... what am I reinforcing here? Oh well... lunch anyone?

The Day the Music Died

Today something kind of funny happened. Let me give a little background of a Sun Valley Ward sacrament meeting to start out. When we first moved here, we noticed something a little different about the way our wards sacrament meetings ran. Most things were the same, we would start with a welcome and then an opening hymn, a prayer and some announcements. We would then sing a sacrament hymn and then the difference... When the congregation sang the last sacred note of the hymn, the organ would not stop. The organist would play an extra instrumental verse after the words ran out. This was true whether the men were done preparing the sacrament or not. It took us awhile to get used to. All our lives, we had been prepared to fold our arms after we were done singing in reverence for the impending sacramental prayer. But eventually we adapted and learned to enjoy that extra time to focus our minds. That was however until today...
Our little family was on a bench with Kevin, of course, and a fabulous couple, Jess and Jed. We are all pretty good friends and share a bench nearly every week, so nothing was out of the ordinary, but none of us were prepared for this! After we sang the last note of the sixth verse of the hymn, we all closed our hymnals as reverently as possible and Spencer and I did a little last minute prep to try to help the kids be reverent. Then, we sat to listen to the solitary strains of the organ playing, "Father in Heaven, We do Believe." Suddenly, out of nowhere came a voice. It was Brother Sharp. He was beginning the sacramental prayer on the bread! But, the organ was still playing! What was going on? Where they trying something new? Where they going for the poetry reading feel? Mood music? I was confused, and apparently so was our organist. It took him about two stanza, but then the music just abruptly stopped and Brother Sharp finished the prayer. OK, that was weird. So, all of us had a smile on our face as we tried to hold back the laughter at being surprised by something out of the ordinary. Some snickers were heard, and that was the end of us being a good example. I am embarrassed to say that all of the adults on our bench were about to die by trying to be as reverent as we could while breaking down into uncontrollable laughter. The kids were just fine. In fact, Braden still had his arms folded. Tears were pouring out of my eyes, Jed and Kevin were ducking their heads below bench level and covering their mouths, Spencer just chuckled and was able to remain calm, and Jess was just smiling from ear to ear. I got in control a short while later and focused on the sacrament. Then, to my dismay, I turned my head to see Kevin still trying to compose himself, his head ducked down, and his whole body shaking up and down with laughter. Jed, who was right next to him was not doing much better. That got me giggling again. Finally, I just decided to stop laughing. I put all of my attention on the speaker and re-thought each word that came out of her mouth. That finally put the giggling under control, and I was able to learn a lot about self-reliance and preparation.
There were many speculations made about why this happened. Perhaps Brother Sharp had never liked the organ and had finally snapped. Maybe he was just in a hurry. He tells us he simply wasn't paying attention. Whatever the motive, we on bench two on the left side won't soon forget the day the music died.

I'm With The Pilot

The day began... get out of bed to the sound of Braden opening Jade's door and Jade letting out a surprised cry from being woken up. When I entered the room, Jade was jumping around in her crib, a huge grin on her face, and Braden was standing there with a gigantic smile saying, "Jadenynns awake!" And off we went... breakfast, bath, teeth, clothes, a kids movie, my shower... but today was special. Today was Spencer's long awaited Instrument Check Ride. It was his job to prepare his flight plan, go over approaches at a bunch of different airports, and get mentally ready. It was my job to keep the kids from harassing him. The best way to do that is to go out, so that is what I did. I filled the day with activities that would keep us out of the house and would keep my mind off the check ride (I guess I get empathy nervousness). At 3:30, Spencer left for school. At 4:30, I went to Children's Orchard with the kids to sell some baby items we weren't using anymore. At 6:00, we got home and made/ate dinner. At 7:30 the kids were in bed and then I waited... and waited. The suspense was killing me. Spencer hadn't called, so did that mean he wasn't back or that he had bad news? Then at about 8:45ish, Kevin's phone started speaking Russian... a text! He showed it to me right away. It read simply, "I passed!" I was ELATED, wahooing all over the place! About 20 minutes later, Spencer came home. I heard the garage door and bolted to throw my arms around him. I was so happy that all of his hard work and effort had paid off and so so proud of him. Oh yes, I'm with the pilot!

The Happiest Place on Earth! Yuma, Arizona

Yesterday was a treat. I traveled with my very fun sisters-in-law Kara and Diana to Yuma, Arizona. If you have ever driven through Yuma, you are probably asking yourself ,"why?" A couple months ago, my cousin, Erin stayed with us and left her camcorder here. She is from San Diego, so we thought we'd meet in the middle and return the camcorder and spend a day finding something to do in Yuma. Let me tell you, I had no doubts that we were going to have a good time. Erin is the life of any party and such a sweet person and she was bringing along her sister, Annie, and a friend, Beverly who are also the life a the party (does that work?). So I left the kids with "Grandma" (THANK YOU!) and headed out. Half way to Yuma, the air-conditioning in the car stopped working. But we sang along to Fall Out Boy, Boys Like Girls, Justin Timberlake, Nelly Furtado and other fun music and had a great time despite the extreme heat. Once we got to Yuma, we hopped in Erin's car and drove around to find fun.
First we needed to get some grub. We went to a hole-in-the-wall Mexican Restaurant called "La Flor". Erin hit the ladies room and to her surprise found that the stall had no door just a large gaping hole! So Annie acted as a curtain/guard and all went well. Then, we all sat down and noticed that everyone was staring at us. I'll admit we were being a bit loud and laughing a lot about the bathroom, but there was another reason too. Do you know that song from Sesame Street? "One of these things is not like the other, one of these things just doesn't belong." Well, we were the ONLY white people in the whole place. We were discussing the menu trying to figure out what we wanted and apparently we came across as completely clueless foreigners because up jumped a man from one of the tables and started explaining the menu. We were all trying to suppress our laughter. So after he gave us a little guided tour of the menu, Erin said, "Thanks, whats your name?" And he replied, "I don't do that." To which Erin asked, "Don't do what? Your name?" He said, "My name is Bob." Ummm OK.
We went to a museum and had a total blast looking at pictures and artifacts from the "River Yumans". There Diana found a life size Ken doll and fell in love instantly. Then we strolled the gardens of the museum and looked at the exotic birds they had. We all wanted to set them free, but resisted the urge.
The ladies at the museum suggested an ice-cream place on Main Street, so we headed that way. After circling the round-about at least 5 times and driving around for another 15 minutes or so, we found Main Street (which was probably only 1/4 mile away from where we had just been). It was a cute little place... a couple water fountains, another round-about, and little shops everywhere. We had some delicious ice-cream and then genius struck! The banana split containers looked just like boats and there were water fountains right outside! Time for a boat race! So Annie and Bev made a boat and Erin and Kara and I made a boat. We took them both outside and jumped in the fountain. The idea was that we were to race to see which boat would fall off the edge first. Lets just say in theory it was a great idea. Since the boats wouldn't fall of the side, we just played with them for awhile. Annie found a rubber ducky in the fountain and it became the captain of the boat.
By now it was time to go. We said our good-byes and headed home. Thanks to Kara, we survived the heat on the way back. She had a little spray bottle in her purse and spritzed us off frequently. The CD player over heated on the way home, but it was OK and we decided that we were going to go on road trips more often. We all had great fun hanging out at the Happiest Place on Earth!

Slobbery Kisses and Tiny Hugs

Tonight we had Family Home Evening. Braden gave the opening prayer. He started on his own with "Heavenly Father, we thank thee for our food in the name of..." and then I helped him add a few other things. After that, Kevin picked a song for us to sing, "I'm so glad when Daddy comes home." We were all clapping our hands and shouting for joy and climbing up on an imaginary knee. We ended with, of course, a GREAT BIG KISS, flinging our hands outward from our lips. Spencer sat on the floor while the rest of us sat on the couch and he began to teach about gratitude. Braden decided to go sit next to him and help him teach the lesson. "Braden, do you know what gratitude means?" "Yes". "Can you tell me?" Out came a very confident but very inaccurate definition that I wish I could remember. We then explained to him that gratitude is showing our thanks for something. We talked about ways that we show gratitude to our Heavenly Father. We can pray and say, "Thanks" (according to Braden) and we can also show gratitude by obeying His commandments. Spencer explained that when we break the commandments, Heavenly Father is sad. "Like when we break glass?" Braden asked. Then we explained that Heavenly Father is sad when we disobey the commandments. We ended the evening with a family favorite... "Don't Eat Pete" with fruity Cheerios. We sat on the floor a little while gearing up for putting the kids to bed and Jade began a hug festival (something she likes to initiate at every opportunity)... traveling back and forth between me and Spencer putting her tiny arms around whatever part of our body she could reach and saying, "ahhh luig ooo" (I translate it as "I love you"). We then headed upstairs and brushed teeth and did pajamas and my evening with the kids ended with a slobbery kiss on the lips from Braden. Everything I do all day to keep up with these kids is exhausting and sometimes very hard, but I think the two things that can always straighten out my perspective is slobbery kisses and tiny hugs.

BlogetyBlog

Tonight, after much deliberation, I decided to create a blog... a place where I can express myself and stay more connected with the people I love. Then I had to name it. Hmmm. Lets just say, I hope you don't judge the book by the title! I have always loved to write and I guess if I'm an expert about anything, it is probably my life. But then again, I may find through writing this blog that I still have a lot to discover and re-discover about myself. I'm excited to share with those who care enough to read and hopefully we can all get something out of these impressions of my life.