Fun in October

I absolutely LOVE fall.  The leaves, the cooler, less-humid air, pumpkins, hay rides, the time change, warm drinks–I love it all.  I wasn’t sure how many fun, fall things we’d be able to do with Carter this year, but as I sat and looked at my “Oct 09″ folder of photos, we really did alright.  Here are a few of the highlights.

We went to the pumpkin patch on a freezing cold day.  Carter loved, loved picking up and rolling around the pumpkins.

This one he did “All by myself” — his new, favorite phrase.  His pink nose is the only thing that gives away the temperature.

Me and my little guy.

We did a little decorating in the house for Fall.  He really likes this stuffed turkey that sits in the window.  See the little bow around his neck?  That’s no longer there.  I can’t imagine why.

Because of the weather, we had to go back a few days later for our hayride.  Don’t ask me what I was doing in this picture.  Probably running my mouth.

Carter and his buddy, Ryan.  I love this shot and the solemn expression on their faces.

They both got little pumpkins.  Carter carried his around for days.

We got brave and took Carter to his first Gamecock football game.  Any reservations I had about how he’d behave were gone after this.  He loved it!  About half way through the game, I was going to take him for a walk around the stadium and he wouldn’t have it.  ”Go back and see the Gamecocks, Mommy.”  No kidding.  He said that.

As we were entering the stadium with Carter, we give our 2 tickets to the lady at the gate and she informs us that Carter must have a ticket.  I tell her that I’m sure that if the child is small enough to sit on your lap then they don’t need one.  She says no, that policy has changed.  So, we step out of line and are trying to figure out what to do.  A man in line a few spots back from us is outraged, “What?!?  You aren’t going to let that baby in?  Here, take my ticket.  I’ll go grab another one.  Here, I insist.”  Wow.  We were blown away, but we took it for sure.  Apparently he had some extra tickets because he came in and sat just a few rows above us.  We thanked him profusely!

Carter was so excited to get THIS CLOSE to Cocky.

On Halloween, we cut open our pumpkin, scooped out his guts, cut a face and put in a candle.  Carter wasn’t so into the gut-scooping, but he did love the glowing face when we were done.

That night we went to a Halloween party at Natalia’s house with lots of friends and lots of kids.  As you can see, Carter was a dragon.  This photo was taken about 10 seconds before the sky opened up and the rain poured down.

You can see some raindrops suspended in mid-air here as we make our first stop.  We were soaking wet (even with an umbrella) after about 5 houses, so we gave it up and called it a night.

Happy Fall, Halloween, Harvest (etc) Everyone!

Sometimes I’d Swear…

…that my husband reads this.  I don’t mean the cute ones about Carter or the reflective ones about myself.  I mean, the password protected ones–about him.  Because boy the “I love you’s” have really started flowing lately.  Or, it could be that the ol’ heart strings were REALLY pulled last week when he watched Big.gest Los.er last week while I was gone out to coffee with my friends.  If you don’t watch the show, you probably don’t know about Abby.  Abby lost her entire family.  She wasn’t feeling well and they took her to the hospital one day to get checked out.  She stayed at the hospital, they went home.  On the way, they were hit by a car going over 100 mph and all 3 of them were killed–her husband, her 5 year-old daughter and her 9 month-old son.  As she had a breakthrough on the show her last week there, Jeff absolutely lost it (or so he said, I wasn’t here).  Later, at small group, he brought up that he couldn’t imagine losing me and Carter and then having to move on in life.  You just have to know him to know that those comments don’t exactly flow from him as of lately.  For me, I’m glad to know that we mean so much.

And, there was another surprising comment that same night.  He admitted to having problems with porno.graphy in the past and into our married life.  He said that our marriage was good, but that he couldn’t imagine how unbelievably great it might be if he’d never done those things to me.  Holy cow.  Talk about a breakthrough.  There’s your breakthrough.

Sharing a Snack

Yesterday, Carter and I enjoyed a snack together that I really loved when I was a child.  Every time I eat it, it takes me back.  Even though Carter is very positive about it in the video, he really only ate the marshmallows off of the top and left the rest on his napkin.

What childhood favorites do you share with your child?

Something Random

This is how Carter eats a granola bar.  He picks the raisins out and leaves the rest.

So, I say, “Carter, would you like some raisins for snack today?”  He says, “No, I want a bar.”

I guess he likes the thrill of the hunt!

Shopping and Eating

A large part of what I do as a mom and as a wife is manage our meals and do all the shopping for the family.  As a person, I don’t like to spend money needlessly.  So, about 6 months ago I got into couponing.  It used to take a huge chunk of time, but now it does not…at all.  The change:  no more clipping all the coupons.  I put the weekly coupon inserts into an expandable file by week and pull them out and clip only the ones I use each week.  Time:  20 minutes.  I think it’s no secret that I’m a southernsavers.com fan.  I use this site exclusively to get organized and know what to shop for.  Jenny’s new feature is printable shopping lists!  This is a huge time saver.  Here’s my 2 for the week:

I spent $47 at Publix this week and saved $38.  Not a bad week, but not great, either.  In the list above, there’s no way to show how many I bought of each since I write that part in.  I buy 3 newspapers, so if the best match is from the newspaper inserts, I usually buy 3 of them.  If the best is an internet printable, I buy 2 since that’s all they’ll let you print.  But, the idea is to stock up for 6 weeks on the things that are on sale–whether you have the coupon matches or not.  Thankfully, I have most of the ones you see now so I can get the lowest prices.  But, I did not have a Coffee Mate coupon, but I still bought it because if you see it here you know this is the lowest price it will be in the 6-8 week cycle.  And, I didn’t have the Stacy’s coupon, but I got 1 anyway because Jeff loves them and $2 is a slammin price for those.

What will we eat this week?  Well, I don’t usually eat what I buy this week, except for the stuff I typed in at the bottom (with no prices).  I buy groceries one week, then I make my list for the next week according to the things I’ve just stocked up on.  Does that make sense?

Monday:  ground chicken burritos

Tuesday: pasta spinach florentine, salad, bread

Wednesday:  baked cod, mashed sweet potatoes and steamed broccoli

Thursday: (small group night and meal at church) I’m taking broccoli cheese soup (made with the $1 broccoli, $.19 chicken broth, $1 cheddar cheese bought last week)

Friday:  out to eat with family

Saturday: tailgating, not sure what I’m making yet, but it will likely be something I have on hand

Sunday: BIG salads and baked potatoes

Then, there’s CVS.  I don’t do CVS every week because the coupon matches can be a little tough and random.  This week, I had everything and I did exactly this and paid exactly what you see below.  If you want to see where the coupons came from, you can go to southernsavers.com and check out this week’s ad and matchups.  It would have been a WAY long list if I’d included those, too.  The great thing about the CVS list this week is that I have 2 stocking stuffers and all my Halloween candy for pennies.  If you have never “worked” CVS before, you’ll definitely want to check out the getting started guide to understand why you break your items into multiple transactions.

Hope this helps someone!