Why I don't do rebates....

I went on and on about that amazing deal on the Just For Men haircolor. You know the one you could literally make $10 for buying at CVS. Well I was getting ready to send in my mail-in rebate and realized the dang proof of purchase got thrown away somehow. BOOOOOOO!!!! Totally sucks. I still technically earned $2 for buying it, but that extra 8 bucks would have been nice. I knew there was a reason I steered clear of those blasted things. Something always seems to happen. What? What's that you say? It wouldn't have happened had I been more organized and put it in safe place, like an envelope marked "rebates"? No, no, no....it's the rebate's fault. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

I did look at my receipt today and noticed that I've saved over $800 at CVS since January. Is that cool or what?

23 Weeks

Hmm. It doesn't look so big in the picture, but I swear I feel enormous!

"Look me Mama! Look me!"

Kids notice everything. The bra may be upside down, and hopefully the girls aren't that droopy, but yeah, kids notice everything. Aren't those jammies cute though? They're fleece and extremely warm (good for certain stubborn girls who refuse to wear blankets, even though her room is frigid at night).

Cleaning is hard

Ok this is why a lot of parents of babies/toddlers don't like to clean. You might be able to tell that my sofa, tables, mirrors, and windows are sparkling clean because I dusted them. If you look in my bathroom you'll see there isn't a smidge of soap scum in sight. All of the dishes in the kitchen have been washed, and the counters wiped clean. There's even BBQ pork in the slow cooker, BUT THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS IN THE MEANTIME! While you're busy cleaning one part of the house, the contents of the rest of the house are emptied out onto the floor. Images of "the man rolling the boulder up the hill, only to have it fall back down again" are coming to mind. Well now I'm too tired to do any more cleaning. I'll have to tackle the rest of this in my daily mad dash before Devin gets home.

Jill's Amazing-ness

Check out this wonderful piece of writing my friend Jill did for her friend's wedding: WOW! I stole this straight from her blog. I just thought it was so beautiful that my friends and family needed to see it as much as her readers.

two good friends were married this weekend and asked me to write/read something for their big day. i was more than excited at the opportunity but more than nervous because they didn’t want to hear it until the actual actual cermony. yikes! (see text below)

all went more than well and it was one of the most memorable celebrations of life and love. congratulations, ryan and kelly. much love to you both.

My love for you is not enough;
It is not perfect, it fails you and it hurts you.
Sometimes it gets angry and does things it shouldn’t.
It curses and cries; it questions and it fights.
My love has limits and conditions.
It sees more imperfections than beauty, it tells more lies than truths.
My love is selfish and self serving; it is impatient and sometimes unkind.
My love for you is not enough to sustain the vow I’m here to make.

So today, I choose not only to love you with my love,
Today, I also choose His.

I choose to love you with a love from Christ that is pure and perfect; a love which gives without conditions and surrenders without expectations.
I choose to love you with His sustaining love when the emotions of today have passed and the harsh reality of our imperfections has returned.
I choose to love you with His sacrificial love by putting your needs ahead of my own, your desires before mine, and your dreams above my dreams.
In selflessness and submission, through the known and uncertain, I choose to love you with the unfailing love of our Father.
I make this choice not once or even twice. But as He continues to pursue me, I choose to pursue you in love each day and each hour and each moment for the rest of our lives.

As Christ laid down His life in love for us, I choose to lay down my life in love for you.
On my own, I will fail; my love for you is not enough.
So today, I choose not only to love you with my love,
Today, I also choose His

Already?

This is what I got from babycenter in my inbox:

"Your 2-year old: Normal? Or Gifted?"

Some parents would immediately dive in to find out, just positive that their tiny tot is genuinely gifted and anxious to craft him/her into the little genius they were born to be. Not me. I am so not going there. I mean, COME ON! Can't we just let kids be kids? Addison probably watches a little too much TV (she knows all the Backyardigans by name, and Devin and I were having a conversation about which character lives in which house; we even rewound it to make sure....seriously) but she's an all around entertaining, imaginative, and happy little toddler. Why mess with that at such a young age?

Besides, what parent DOESN'T think their kid is gifted at this age? Geez you'd think Addison had won a nobel prize the way we carry on about her saying "bless you" when we sneeze. I could just see a parent taking that quiz and finding out his/her kid is "just normal" and being depressed about it for a week.

Anyway, excuse the tangent.... just another one of my many soapboxes. It's a good thing I have this blog. Devin thanks you, my faithful readers! Otherwise he'd have to listen to all this...

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Tonight was the annual Koehler Pumpkin Carving party (Em's parents). It was our 4th one and we always have a great time. I always get excited about it every year, so Koehlers, you have to continue the tradition...forever! It was fun this year because Addison got into the whole pumpkin carving thing. Devin and I started out trying to do Jesus (yeah we're extra holy like that) but he was too hard and the shading got all messed up. So we settled on Barney (on the other side of the pumpkin...ha!). That made Addison extra happy because Barney is right up there with Jesus for her. Actually he may be higher on the list, but that seems pretty normal...for now. I'll be worried in a few years if that still hasn't changed. Anyway, we forgot our camera (as usual) but I'm sure someone else will put them up on facebook, so I'll let you simmer in anticipation for our Barney pumpkin.

Night night!

FOR MY BROTHER

Stay tuned in January for my frequent posts about American Idol, my all-time favorite show (next to LOST). I was a David Cook fan, but I thought that cute lil Mormon David Archuleta was pretty great too. Plus I just love this song! Eric thinks it sounds like CCM (Christian Contemporary Music) and thus mocks me endlessly for liking it. Well I'm down with the Philips, Craig and Dean (and so is Amanda by the way) and who doesn't like cute little adorable Bebo (ahem..Amanda..slight obsession in college)? So even if this song is beyond cheese I don't care. It's great and it makes me happy. Plus I'm used to being mocked for my musical selections. The way I look at it is I could listen to music that makes me happy or I could listen to music to be a pretentious music fan and awe everyone with my excellent taste. Do you know any pretentious Barry Manilow fans? Nope. Just silly old ladies, my mom, Leigh Ayn, and me. So Eric, this one's for you! Enjoy!

It wouldn't let me embed the video, so go here