I saw the "other woman" today

Todd was with her during the day today. And he wasn't afraid to show her off - flaunting her in front of his wife and child. The shame of it.

The neighbors thought it was sweet, though. LOL

If he'd banked it up, I would have been able to read the tail number. Man, I love that telephoto lens. When you open the full-sized image you can actually see the TN tail flash and see "ANG" on the boom.

I am a coupon diva

I would bet money right now that if you know me, you're laughing. I have never been a coupon clipper or a sale watcher. I have always bought what I wanted when I wanted it. Since we're trying to tighten up on our budget and the economy is a bit scary these days, I've decided to see how far I can stretch a dollar.

And boy........can I stretch it. Thanks to the Grocery Game (www.thegrocerygame.com) I am feeding my family a bigger variety of items for so much less money it is amazing. I have been doing this for almost 3 months and I've saved over $2,000 on my grocery bill. Now my cabinets (and closets, and drawers, and garage, and new chest freezer, and under the bed) are all bursting open with food, household supplies, medications, personal care items and drinks.

I actually went to Target yesterday and bought a shelving unit to store items out in the garage. It's already full of sodas, beers, paper towels, gatorades and dish detergents and soap.

Last night was a great example of how to save money. I went to CVS and with my coupons and their Extra Care Bucks program (ECB'S) I got 5 bottles of body wash, 3 bottles of pain reliever, 4 bottles of conditioner, 4 bottles of shampoo, a men's deoderant, a 2 cases of bottled water for about $6.00 out of my pocket. The body washes, shampoo and pain reliever are all being donated to the food pantry at our church. I love that I can stay within my budget, but still be able to have so much abundance in my life that I can pay it forward to someone who needs it.

Just to give you an idea on the amount of items I'm talking about - here is my stockpile - this is after only 12 weeks of shopping.

Personal care items

Household cleaners

Pet snacks, hand soaps, foil, coffee, ziplock bags and a glucose monitor

Snacks - chips, snack mixes, pretzels

Dish soap and dishwasher detergent

Drinks, cat litter and paper products

The "food closet" in the guest room. There is so much food in there it isn't even funny. I'm going going to even try and list it all. LOL

It's that time of year again

Time to start the garden. I always get excited at the prospects of what we can grow ourselves every year. Tonight we picked up seeds and a few plants plus everything we needed for the soil.

I went out and worked for a bit while Will played on the swingset. I worked in 2 bags of manure, 2 bags of top soil and 1 bag of organic soil conditioner. I'm watering it in tomorrow morning and then raking it out level tomorrow afternoon. I plan on planting on Tuesday or Wednesday. Here's what you can expect to find growing in my garden this summer.

Kentucky wonder pole beans - because really, is it a garden without them?
Sugar snap peas
Spinach
Red bell peppers
Jalapenos
Roma tomatoes
Zucchini
Yellow summer squash
Pickling cucumbers

We're also planting 2 blackberry and 2 raspberry bushes.

Hooray for canning, pickling and making jams in the fall!!

Construction of a wooden playset - Day 7

The finale!

Todd was working 2nd shift on Wednesday the 16th, so he spent the morning/afternoon finishing the swing set portion of our project. Will was thrilled beyond words to have the project completed.

Here's Todd moving sod again to get this section level.




Adding the floor for the tunnel.


Will helping daddy set the screws for the floor. Don't worry, I had a death grip on his butt when he was doing this. You just can't see me. LOL


Todd inside the tunnel securing it in place.


I see you, daddy!



Helping daddy install the crow's nest railings.



Almost finished


Victory over the completed project.




The finished playset in all it's glory.


Enjoying the finished product. Lucas came over to play the next day and was teaching Will how to swing on his belly. LOL Jay and Lisa next door have since given us their infant/toddler swing so that we can push Will w/o worrying about him falling out.







It's now Sunday night and we ended up having nearly every child in the neighborhood on the swingset between Wednesday and Saturday. We ended up with a great impromptu party in the backyard on Friday night. We ordered pizza, drank beers and wine and had about 15 kids playing in the yard. It was a great time.

Construction of a wooden playset - Day 6

Monday night was a short night of working on the play set. It was cold and crappy out, so Todd did would he could on assembling the swing set portion in the garage. And never without his little handy helper.


Bringing the steps on the rock climbing wall to Daddy to screw them in.

Once again helping Daddy set the screws in place.

My obsession with trying to become a photographer

I love my Canon Rebel XTi. I'd marry it if I could, I love it that much. Now, if only I were any good at photography. LOL I'm trying to learn, slowly, but surely. Eventually I'll take the photography class for SLR cameras that the University of Tennessee offers, but our schedules just haven't worked out yet.

In the meantime, I'll just continue to be obsessed with trying to capture the perfect picture. Especially of flowers. I love photographing flowers.