Excuse me: I need a moment...

Okay, today I had a moment...
You know.  One of those moments where some sort of reality just sinks in.  It could be a moment when you realize how big your kid is.  It could be a moment when you just think about how much you love your spouse.  It could be a moment when you just feel all warm and fuzzy from God's love.  Yeah, you know what I'm talking about.  Today, I had one of those moments, but it wasn't quite like that.


My moment happened while tagging and tagging and tagging of all of Joseph's old clothes.  I was tagging items for this week's Just Between Friends sale in Fort Worth.  So I know what you're thinking.  Why was this a 'moment'?  Well, it was the moment that I realized that Joseph is almost 5 years old and his 3-6 month clothes look SO SMALL!  It's a moment I realize that he's still the only child.  It's the moment I realize that my poor dietary choices is probably the reason all the previous is true.  I also tagged some maternity clothes.  Talk about a moment during a moment.  All of the clothes I tagged were just XL!!!  How could I have let myself go that bad!?


I had a moment!!!  Lord help me change!!!

Kroger Coupon Warning....answers?

Okay, so another successful shopping trip.  It was long and made for an even longer day after an ordeal at work.  So before I get to my warning and questions, here's this week's (or two week's) shopping summary....
Total before savings: $130.86
- Kroger Plus Savings - 24.63
- Coupon Savings - $24.45
Total Discount - $49.08 or 37.5%
Total Cost - $81.78


Now here's the warning I have...
According to Kroger's website - Ecoupons (the coupons you add to your Kroger card electronically) are NOT, I repeat NOT, doubled or tripled!!!  I only found this out after looking at my receipt and going online to look at the FAQs


My example: I had a coupon on my card for $.30 off of 2 cans of biscuits.  I had in my hand a clipped $.40 off of 3 cans of biscuits.  I chose to use my $.30 off of 2 cans because when it's tripled, it would have been $.90 off.  Well, they are NOT doubled or tripled.  Now granted, I only lost $.60, but yes, it matters.


Another issue...I think...Here's where I need help.  If I decide I don't want to use the coupon on the card and instead want to use my paper coupon..what do I do?  I bought some things with coupons that I already had ecoupons on my card.  The cashier didn't tell me that I had already used my ecoupon and can't use the paper one, she just kept scanning.  I thought I was watching carefully and it sounded like everything 'beeped' when she scanned.  So, she kept some of my coupons even though I didn't use them!!  OR even though the Kroger website says you can't use both ecoupons and paper coupons, can you??


I feel like this post is VERY jumbled.  I'm still not quite feeling up to par and my nose is raw from sneezing and blowing it.  I hope this makes sense and some of you readers can help clear this up for me!! :-D
Jodi Pafford

Verizon iPhone vs. Droid: A lay-woman's review

Okay, so I went out and got the new Verizon iPhone yesterday.  I've always wanted an iPhone and here is my thoughts...


Dear Verizon Droid,
I'm sorry we had to break-up.  I miss you dearly, I really do.  I miss the ease of your spelling auto-correct.  I miss the fact that I can 'kill' apps easily.  Oh Droid, how I loved your free apps.  I will always remember the way that you have a dedicated camera button.  It will be hard to replace all your menu buttons at the bottom of the phone.  Even though your are bigger than my iPhone, I appreciate your bulkiness so I didn't feel like I'd drop you.  I know you may be mad that I have so many wonderful things to say about you but I'm still not coming back.  It just wasn't meant to be.  You were too slow.  You sometimes didn't recognize me when I pushed your 'unstandby' button.  I was tired of not being able to get some very important apps to me.  I know you are hurt by my abrupt break-up, but you must have known it was coming.  After all, I have really always loved Apple and always will!!
Take care Droid, you are still a good phone!  Keep your head up and press on! 
Jodi Pafford


Okay, Okay, that was cheesy, but I kept thinking to myself about what all I missed about my droid.  However, I've always wanted an iPhone and now I have one.  I'm not going back to droid and I think it's just a learning curve to get use to.  In time, I will get used to it and find apps to help with things that bug me about my iPhone.

Less is MORE!!

So I've found my passion, my calling in life, my new love!
Okay, just kidding!!  But seriously, I don't know what's wrong with me...


I      L-O-V-E      C-O-U-P-O-N-I-N-G!!


I've been recently inspired to delve 'back' into the world of couponing that somewhat haunted me during my childhood.  I enjoyed it as a child, when our family would jump store to store with coupons.  I would stand in line by myself with $10 worth of groceries and sodas at age 12 because we were over the limit for the cheap price.  I remember periodically purging the coupon basket of all expired coupons.  I remember coupons with 'no expiration date' being around sometimes FOREVER! Okay - {insert big nostalgic sigh here}.  As an adult, I just haven't seem to get the hang of it....until now...


So, for a while we were getting a Sunday paper only for the coupons and ads but I guess I didn't really have direction in my couponing and I might only get 3 or 4 coupons with each week of things I thought I MIGHT buy.  Hardly worth the price we paid for the paper.  So we stopped.  Well, in the last 4 weeks I've been clipping coupons again.  This time I have www.moneysavingmom.com to help me out.  MoneySavingMom is a blog created by someone to spread the word on good deals.  Each week good deals are posted for various grocery stores using an item on sale and a coupon to create said good deal.


So today after leaving the house at 7:00am and picking Joseph up from school at nearly 6:00pm, I picked Joseph up a Happy Meal and we truck over to Kroger.  I should be tired.  I should be exhausted.  However, there's something sneaky and unassuming about using coupons and sales to get things nearly free.  It's those such things that gave me a little adrenaline rush to complete shopping even though I hadn't been home in almost 12 hours.  So at the checkout, I'm anxiously waiting to see what kind of damage I was able to do...
The original total was $136.05
 - $15 for Mix and Match 10 items get $5 off (x3)
 - $15.27 on things on sale using Kroger Plus Card
 - $22.64 for coupons (of which $3.95 was due to double or triple coupons)
I walked out of the store only paying $83.14!!  That's a total savings of 38.8%!!!
I got home at 7:45 joyfully putting away the groceries and enjoying the fact that even though I didn't take off my shoes for almost 13 hours, I was still happy with today!!

Snow Days February 1-4, 2011

Run Scooter, Run!

Hurry Bella, it's cold!!

I was about to make a snow angel!

Joseph 'snow-angeling'!

Joseph's perfect snow angel!

Fresh snow...YUMMY!

Ice Day 1 - who knew it would end with 4 inches of snow!

The roof day one!

Geeze Mommy, I want to go outside!!

Out front, day one!

Reminders of God's Protection

I've had a somewhat personal experience in the last week or so.  I've not posted on facebook because I didn't want the world to know, so I thought I'd post here for those that are reading my blog.


Here it goes...
About 2 weeks ago I found a lump in one of my breasts.  I immediately scheduled an appointment with my doctor to get it checked out.  With some family history I knew this was nothing to guess about on my own. My appointment was scheduled for Tuesday morning, but was canceled due to the weather.  Luckily, I had one of the first appointments, so I got first dibs on rescheduling.  I got it scheduled for Thursday morning.


Luckily even though the weather was still icy and cold, I made it to my appointment and the office was open.  We switched doctor's at the New Year so this was my first visit to this doctor.  She proved to be wonderful.  She spent a good 20+ minutes with  me discussing lots of health issues.  She thought that my lump was probably a cyst which, as she said was 'not scary'.  She sent me to schedule an ultrasound of the area to confirm her thoughts.  I called Tuesday afternoon to schedule and to my surprise there was an appointment available at 8:00 Friday morning!!


So this morning, despite the 4+ inches of snow, I called the office and it was open.  I made the slow trek to the office to have the ultrasound.  As the nurse was doing the ultrasound, I could see the spot on the screen as it looked very different from the rest.  Thankfully, as soon as she was done she told me the radiologist would be in to discuss what was seen.  PRAISE THE LORD...it is indeed a cyst.  Nothing to be concerned about.  Because of the family history and the cyst, I will have my first mammogram at age 35 instead of 40, but I'll take it!!


Praise the Lord for his protection!!

My life: consumed with remodel

I know, I know, I'm way behind on updating my blog!!  My life has been consumed with finishing our master bath remodel.  The contractor is almost done and we are making finishing touches.  


This week's ice has made finishing the bathroom easier but also slower because the contractor was supposed to install the shower door Tuesday, but didn't make it because of the roads yesterday and today.  I'm hoping they come tomorrow.  


Joseph is doing good with being inside.  He has bouts of dancing around the house singing made up songs.  Today's was "Pants on the ground" mixed with "B-I-N-G-O".  It was really funny.


I'm enjoying having Kurt home.  The last time we had this many days off unexpectedly Kurt didn't get them off (that was 2 years ago during the FLU scare).  


Well, that's all for now.  I know it's a short update, but it's an update.  I'm going to post all the pictures of the bathroom remodel soon.