Quotes from this Morning

"Can Mommy help you with that?"

"No, I by SELF!"

"Are you ready to go bye bye?"
"No, I busy."

"Daddy isn't here."
"Oh, Daddy garden."
"No, Daddy went to ride his bike."

"Samantha, whatchya doing?"
"I poopy."

"Would you like some strawberries?
"Um, yes, I think so."

Did You Know

That coloring on a sliced apple with a dry-erase marker will cause it to stop working? Permanently???? No? Well, now you do. So when you give your child a dry erase marker, make sure all apples are out of reach.

My Two Cents

Although I've cut down our grocery bill from $120/week to $80/week (would be $60/week if it weren't for the darn packets) I've been waaaay busy and have gotten behind on my couponing. My goal is to get the bill down to $60 a week once the school year starts. That being said, a fantastic scenario fell into my lap today and I had to take advantage of it, busy or not!

So, here's how it rolled out:
Back in May I bought 40 Duracell batteries for roughly $18 from Staples. It was AFTER the purchase that I realized I would be getting a $20 store credit, not a mail in rebate. I was annoyed, as we never shop at Staples, but whatever. We needed the batteries and I figured we'd buy toner there when we needed it.

This past weekend I had seen some awesome items for sale at Staples but was annoyed that I hadn't received my rebate yet, as this would be the time to use them.

Fast forward to today, Staples sent me a $20 rewards coupon in the mail. Now, I have to really give kudos to Staples here. Apparently they'd already e-mailed me the coupons, but I hadn't redeemed them yet, so they sent me paper copies telling my they were about to expire!

After doing some quick math, I made a list of everything I could get without having to pay out of pocket (ie under $20), loaded up Samantha and headed to the store.

Now, can you pick out the error in that last sentence? No? It's the part where I loaded up Samantha. She could have stayed home with daddy, but I decided to get her out of the house. I need to remember that this is my hobby and doing such silly things as bringing my daughter along makes it stressful. Like giving me many false alarms so I'll race her to the bathroom, only to have her sit on the toilet with her hollering "No!....No!....No!"

She's not peeing, protesting, or even answering a question. She's just fascinated about her echo in the stalls.

Anyway, where was I?

So I loaded the following in the cart:

and the total was $20.02

That's right! My .02 really is worth something!

All along I was thinking this was only going to give me more store credit- but when I got home I realized that I'm actually going to get a rebate check for $13.98!

Summary: 40 batteries, 2 reams of paper, 2 paper hole punches, 4 highlighters, 2 dry-erase marker boards, 200 note cards, 5 RSVP pens for $4.04 out of pocket.

Lesson Learned: do not take child to Staples

What I Say vs What She Hears

"Samantha, don't take mommy's pen. That's rude." All pens are called "rude" now.

"Here, let me put a pin in your panties." Now she thinks panties are fair game to use her pen on.

Three Years of the 4th

'09

'10

'11
(Look how healthy Jeremy looks now!)

"Psh- Stay at Home Mom's Don't Work!"

No, we don't! We sit at home all day blogging, eating bonbons and watching our children play. If you contain them to one room, nothing ever gets dirty.

Like today this morning. It was chalk full of bubbles!

My wonderfully trained child ran to the bathroom to blow some bubbles. They were very hard bubbles- "Hm, lots more water for her today...hard bubbles are no fun," I thought to myself.

I beamed with pride- she's so smart, blowing bubbles in the bathroom at such an early age. I don't even have to prompt her anymore!

As she toddles off to play I think to myself, "I'm so glad I don't have to wash the bubble containers anymore." Being a stay at home mom, it can be very inconvenient to have to wash those bubble containers. Now I can relax all day.

As I check the calendar to see if we can attend an afternoon of relaxing and playing with friends my child starts squealing in frustration. I turn around to see a pile of runny bubbles on the floor. And my child's foot. And she's trying to get them off by stomping around, leaving lots of bubble prints on the carpet. Shoot. Those hard bubbles were just holding back the runny ones.

"Oh no! Bubbles in the bathroom, Samantha!" I swoop her up and whisk her to the bathroom- a mere 5 steps from where we are.

In those split seconds Sam manages to spread the bubbles more by flinging the patch of bubbles off her foot and then reaches down to try to wipe off the bubbles with her hand.

Then her immediate instinct to wipe her hands off kicks in and she wipes her hands on her belly. I get her into the bathtub and she begins grabbing random parts of the tub in an effort to help me balance her.

The water is running, but the bubbles seem to be spreading faster than I can contain them. Sam finally calms down, allowing me to take over. I'm able to wipe the source of the bubbles, which is a feat in itself as my daughter's bubble maker is like a vice grip when you try to clean it.

With lots of bubbles floating in the bathtub I finally get her out of the tub. In the 6 inch trip from the tub to the sink she manages to touch more bubbles and, again, instantly wipes them on her belly. "Samantha!!" I sigh.

We then stand in front of the sink and wash her hands and belly with soap. With the bubbles still soaking in my carpet I ignore my child's demands of "Sahtha do it!" and quarantine her to her room while I pop the rest of the bubbles.

As I begin my trek to the fragrant bubble piles my child-that-never-wants-to-get-dressed squeals that she's cold and wants clothes. I quickly throw a dress on her and tell (again) her to stay in her room.

I manage to pop the rest of the bubbles, scrubbing the carpet thinking, "In my year at the restaurant and three years teaching, I've never once had to pop someone elses' bubbles."

So, for those of you who are jealous of us SAHMs or are looking forward to becoming one, just keep in mind that you have to really like bubbles. And bonbons.