Answers!

This is a long post! Sorry!

Elizabeths questions and answers.
1. What has been the absolute funniest moment in your marriage... so far?
I have to say it would be barfing on Eric’s leg at least from my point of view that is the funniest. I can’t think of anything funnier at the moment, but if I do I will let you know.
2. What is the best thing about being a mom? The worst thing?
The joy and love that swells up and engulfs you every time you look at your children especially when they are sleeping. The worst, Knowing that anything you might say or do in a moment of weakness can alter their lives, their personalities, or their views on life, and make them stray from the path.
3. What's your biggest regret? Would you go back and change things if you could?
My biggest regret is praying that I would become pregnant no matter what Heavenly Fathers plan for me and my family was. I believe he answered my prayer and yet it was not time for us to have another child so I had a miscarriage. Whether that is what happened or not I won’t know until the next life, but that is what it feels like. And yes I would go back and change it. There are so many questions about if I received that child to live with us for eternity or not based on many deep doctrinal issues. But to think that I could have lived without that pain and insecurity in my life if I had just trusted a little harder will always affect me and stay with me. I almost went with my second regret on that question just to make it easier. But I said I would be honest and answer anything.
4. What's your guilty pleasure?
Not burping Elizabeth in the middle of the night feedings because I am so tired I just roll over and feed her (she sleeps on the bed with us). I don’t want to wake her up so I just let her sleep through the burping part. Sometimes I fall asleep before she is done! Now if you had asked me 6 weeks ago it would have been way different! LOL funny how kids can drastically rearrange your life to revolve around them!
5. What do you think are the most important qualities in a friend?
listening, and doing a lot of the talking if you are shy like me! At least trying to understand the other point of view, and not judging others.
6. Where would you like to be in 10 years?
10 years wow, well you do pick the hard ones! I have had long talks with Eric about this because until recently I had no other goals in my life then to have myself and my kids make it to the celestial kingdom. I was just letting the world pass me by claiming I was ENDURING to the end. That is not what it means! So I have tried to set goals for myself. Here they are. I want to learn to fly a plane AND a helicopter. I want to sing in the mormon tabernacle choir with my sister Mel when we are older (you have to be at least 65 to join). And to be able to keep the house clean on a regular basis! Also very recently I have been kind of struck with how hard the market is and how close we are to another great depression. I want to learn to do many things I take for granted on my own. For Example: I want to can and preserve food grown from my own garden. I would have been able to do that if our garden had worked out this year LOL! (another thing to work on in this heat). I want to bake our own bread… all of it. I found a good recipe where you make a bulk batch of bread dough and then you can refrigerate it up to 2 weeks and basically make a loaf of bread in 5 minutes every day. It really works I have tried it!! And it is GOOD bread too! I want to learn to make cheese. I found some recipes I just haven’t tried them yet. I want to have some chickens to collect their eggs. If eric wants to kill them and clean them he can, I myself will not! And I really do want to have a cow for fresh milk!
7. What has been your greatest struggle? Your greatest victory?
My greatest struggle would be coming out of my shy shell and learning to talk to other people. Many of you have no Idea how unable I was to do that until after I got married and had to learn how! My greatest victory is having another child after the miscarriage, and the especially long wait between my first two children. One of the couples from my pre-marriage ward was asking about my kids and I told them their ages and they said well that is perfect timing isn’t it? What???? I said to myself? How can this be perfect timing? I was not planning this at all! I STRUGGLED to get pregnant after Caleb two different times! All the while fighting the urge to be jealous of my friends and family who got pregnant by accident, without trying, or trying and doing it in one month! My idea of perfect timing is 2 years apart not 4 1/2. But I got through it, and who knows what my future holds?
8. Your house is on fire and your family is out safe, but you have time to grab one thing. What would you grab?
I would grab 2 actually. My laptop first and my picture case second (they are close together), so I could save all of my pictures.
9. What do you think is your best quality? Your worst quality?
I really have no idea what my best quality is. Eric says he thinks my best quality is when I really have a Testimony of something I do it and stick with it no matter what. I don’t know about that one. My worst quality is probably expecting my kids to act and listen and learn and remember like adults, when they can’t. That leads to all sorts of problems!
10. If you could eat only one food item the rest of your life and it was guaranteed to be nutritious, what would you choose?
Macaroni and cheese!!! Anyone surprised by that one!! Probably not! At Buffets my first plate is ALWAYS macaroni and cheese and mashed potatoes and gravy! ALWAYS! I might throw in some rice and gravy if they have it.
11. What is your biggest pet peeve?
When people go around and check on the things I do, watch me, or go through the things I throw away to make sure I did it right, they couldn’t do it better, or didn’t throw anything away that they THINK has value.
12. What can always make you laugh? Bringing up old memories and jokes. The ones that don’t go away, and are your Legacy from then on!
13. What's the longest you have ever gone without shaving your legs? (This is mean, so let me answer for myself first: a month! LOL)
Wow you make a month sound so bad. LOL Well, with all of the circumstances I have had to go through: working on the bathroom in Ohio, moving to a nonworking hot water house in Texas, taking out the floors so the bathtubs don’t work even though the hot water is fixed, and then of course being pregnant, and then hating shaving with a passion, and not having a husband who rides me to do it I think I am going on 10 months or so. Lots of excuses huh! I honestly cannot remember the last time I have shaved my legs! And I really don’t care. I am so bad! Actually I am starting to care. Being in Texas in a BIG ward with lots of sisters has made me a little more self conscious. I am almost at the point where I will shave. I just have not because of the no tub thing. And a shower stall is not the easiest place to shave Even though I am no longer pregnant!
14. What is your idea of a perfect day?
One in which there is no fighting, Caleb gets a smiley face in school, I show my husband I love him in some way, We have some sort of fun as a family, and I do LOTS of stuff in the house be it cooking or cleaning! I love to feel productive.

Michelles questions and answers.
1. What is your most embarrassing moment? When I ate too many cheese sticks and got horrible baaad smelling gas on our honeymoon of all times! That is soo embarrassing but Eric and I still laugh about it!
2. What was it about Eric that made you fall in love with him? His love for, knowledge of, and commitment to the gospel. It shown in every fiber of his personality which was attractive as well. If he could be that committed to the gospel then he can be even more committed to a family.
3. Describe yourself using five words. Quiet, experimental, strong, striving, spiritual
4. If you could live anywhere, where would it be? The weather and green land of Ohio with the Wonderful people of Texas, away from Hurricanes, tornadoes, with a ward, and a temple, and a lake, and nice choices of places to shop. How about lots of land, yet lots of people, and things to do! Does this sound fictional yet? I still haven’t found such a place! But I hope I do!
5. Do you get dressed and then do your hair or do your hair first and then get dressed? I get dressed and then do my hair. At least I do my hair every day now, because I have to take my son to pre-k and back!
6. What was you favorite church calling? Least favorite? Favorite would be relief society chorister. Least would be Youth Sunday school teacher (which I am now). I just can’t relate to them very well. I don’t know why. And I try to be cool and not be to strict, and make a point in my lesson, but I wonder if it really works.
7. What is your greatest desire for you children as they grow up? To not get hooked on drugs. I have a fear about my kids or even myself getting hooked on drugs that borders on paranoia. I don’t even watch TV shows that have a regular theme of abusing drugs. Like House. It just makes me SICK!
8. How many kids do you guys want to have? Well I always say as many as I can have, what I really thought was I would have 6 like Mom. Truthfully something I realized very recently is I was banking on having lots of kids like I had to, to earn a spot in Heaven or something, and With so much time between Caleb and Lizzie I was almost panicking that they would all be like that and I would not be able to have that many kids. I was just being silly. I am perfectly fine now having a small family. Aunt Susan is kind of my mentor with only 4 kids. Seeing her family on her blog really brought it home to me, it is OKAY to not have 6 kids! It is OKAY to only have 2 kids not that we are going to stop trying or anything. It would probably be better for me anyway, I get really frustrated and angry and lose my patience a LOT with my 2 kids as it is!
9. What is the craziest thing you've ever done? Apparently it was go back to church only 4 days after Lizzie was born. Everybody told me I was making them look bad, and I was very brave for coming back so soon! Did I miss the 6 week memo or something? LOL
10. If you could pick, what game show would you like to play on? Wheel of Fortune! I like to watch that show when I can. Nobody else in my family does though! :(

Okay you guys asked for it, probably not as in depth as I went, but It was nice to air out some stuff! You can ask some more if you like, this is fun! Did I shock anybody? LOL

Long time No Post!

Lots of time has passed but not a whole lot has actually happened. I have just been going on with life. A little bit of packing at Jeanne and George, taking Caleb to school, trying to not let the house over run me. I did go and have a meeting with a Real Estate broker. They are a really good fit for me but I have to wait to join till I can come up with $650 dollars to join the Board.

Lizzie is fine, but she is still fussy all the time! she won't let me put her down she is sooo used to being passed around and around. And she still acts like she is starving every hour and a half! I cannot feed her that often! I refuse! I need my own time. And time for me to catch up and produce more milk! what gets me is when she is sleeping in someones arms she goes three hours easy, or in the bed with me at night she skips a feeding and goes three hours sometimes. Am I being stubborn or cruel? Am I not getting the right cues from her or interpreting them wrong?

On another note she has officially started smiling at me! She is soo cute!

Okay one last note. I want you guys to ask me any and all questions you might have for or about me. I am not shy, and I will answer them all! My friend, Michelle, did this on her blog an I loved it so I want to do it too. Ask Away!

Bummed out!

I am soo bummed right now! I went to CVS to get my weekly deals yesterday and some last minute things I really needed. And I tried to use two coupons on a BOGO free sale they had. They said I could ONLY USE ONE COUPON! because it was BOGO already! What a stupid thing to do! They apparently changed the policy a couple weeks ago. Do they realize how much business they are going to lose because of this?? Just from me if not all the other thousands of coupon queens who will no longer buy these items because they can't get them really cheap??? And on top of that they changed the sale dates from Sunday to saturday to Friday to thursday! So now I have to watch the sunday and FRIDAY papers to get their sale flier or make an EXTRA run to the store for their flier. I mean come on. You CAN make it easier on the shoppers not harder!

Caleb almost had a full week of smileys! But NOOOO he had to go and take one of the cars from school and sneak it home. And then when I returned it with a note she went and changed one of his smiley faces to an okay face. So now he is back to the same old pattern. It is IMPOSSIBLE for him to go more then three days straight with all smiley faces. I thought we had that one beat but no. We have to work on it some more.

Eric got turned down for the job he had the phone interview with. We also have researched the substitute teacher route. Being a teacher would be a good thing for his political aspirations as well.

I have some more pictures waiting to be downloaded. I might get to them soon. MY SON IS NOT LISTENING TO ME RIGHT NOW! He is making me irritated. He got to do one of the Home Depot craft things. He made a pirate ship! It was so fun. He got a pair of goggles and an apron too! He looked so cute! But my phone is not downloading photos so I will have to wait till Eric can get it done!

Mom and Dad are still in Hawaii. The interview went well and they asked him to stay for some more meetings. So they are staying and looking at housing on the cheaper side of the Island.

Lizzie is still good. She is starting to get rolls! And she still skip a feeding in the night. I am still tired though! I take quite a few naps!

I have some good deals planned at Target. I don't think I can go back to CVS, well, maybe for their toothpaste sale. That one isn't BOGO free.

I like couponing!

Well since I last posted nothing much has happened. I do have more deals I want to put up!
But first family news. Ummm... Caleb got a happy face Today. He got two sad faces in a row the last two days last week! We had a hard time talking about those ones. One was for saying a BAD WORD!!! SO he was not allowed to watch mythbusters for three days because of that. You would have thought we had beat our son within an inch of his life from the reaction to that news!
We finished our last book and have now started The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles. It is good. I do have some more coming on the way too from Paperback swap! It is a great site!
Eric had a phone interview today. He thought it went well.
He also went to help the red cross this morning. He had a journalist come and take pictures of him too! He will be in the paper!
Dad and Mom are going to Hawaii today for a face to face interview tomorrow. So we have been over at their house a lot of last week. We play a lot of catan!

Okay on to the good stuff! I am soo happy! Every time I think of the deals I got I get very happy!
I will only tell you what I got the items for. If you wonder how just ask and I will post the scenarios.
I went to Target because they had a diaper deal and then Walmart because I had some coupons that were expiring that I really wanted to use.

At Target they had diapers on sale buy 2 and get a $5 gift card. So I bought two and used the $5 card for the rest of the stuff I got there...

Tide Total care $8.00!
Palmolive Eco friendly stuff 2.49 My coupon had expired and I had not noticed. Aww Man!
Huggies wipes tub 1.99
Huggies Baby shampoo .79
Electrasol tablets One powerball, one gel pack, both with 25% more for ONLY .54 each!!!!!!
Scrubbing bubbles toilet starter kit 1.54!!!
1 free purina dog food can
2 Juicy Juice individual juice packs for it was supposed to be .69 each but they had them mispriced or something so from the receipt it looks like I got them for 1.25 each.
I used the gift card and payed only $12.70 for all of it!

At walmart I got some things at full price because I needed them right away. So I will only post the sale items.
I got a kids flushable wipes pack and refill for only $2.72!
4 ten packs BIC pens for .38 each! 2 will be saved for school for next year along with the glue I found for a great price!
Daisy cottage cheese for 1.94
I found milk at Walmart for $2.50!!!!! WOW! I don't particularly like the taste of walmart brand but for $2.50 I can live with it!
And I got my 2 pack of Sunday newspapers for 1.50! Dallas morning news has been sending out .50 coupons!

By far my favorite deal was the electrasol packs! Normally they are so expensive! and the 25% more was super! It made me feel so good to find a super deal! All of my hard work on couponing is paying off!

Coupon Update!

Okay so I went to 2 stores yesterday, CVS and Walmart. I used a lot of coupons and got some GREAT deals and free stuff!!

CVS Deals

1 Rightguard Deodorant on sale 2.99
Used .75 Coupon
Received $2 ECB
Making this .24!

2 Soft and Dri Deodorant on sale 2.99
Used 1.00 & .75 coupons
Received $4 ECB
Making this deal .23 for both!

1 18 oz. Act Rinse bubblegum flavor on Sale 4.49
Used 1.00 coupon
Received $2 ECB
Making this 1.49!

1 Rightguard professional Deodorant on Sale 6.99
Used 1.00 Coupon
Received $5 ECB
Making this .99!

2 womens schick quattro 3 pack on sale BOGO free 7.99
Used 2 $4 coupons
Making this FREE!!!! Wowza! 6 Nice razors!

1 Aquafresh trial size
Used try one free coupon
Making This FREE!!!

1 Zyrtec childrens 6.99
Used 1 $2 coupon and 1 CVS $2 coupon
Making this 2.99!

I used $8 in former ECB and paid 10.93 OOP! And received $13 ECB for next time! Wow!
To Day I saved $40.78... To date I have spent 40.18 and Saved 104.10! I like that!!!!

WALMART Deals
Now I am not going to put down everything I bought on here. I had to buy some regular items that I did not have coupons for. And these items brought my overall price up.

1 can mighty dog food .57
Used get one Free coupon
Making this FREE! I also found another one I missed and will use it soon!

2 Pert Plus larger bottles 4.34
Used 2 $3 coupons
Making this 1.34 EACH!

1 Johnsons buddies no slip grip soap .97
Used $1.00 coupon
Making this a .03 money maker!

2 elmers glue on sale .05 for next school year! WOW

2 Softsoap hand soap 1.67
Used 2 .35 Coupons. I was under the impression that walmart doubled coupons and they DO NOT! I would not have gotten these if I had known that!

2 Kotex small packs 1.00 Each
Used 2 1.00 coupons
Making these FREE!!

4 Pedigree dog food .83 Each. These WERE marked down to .63 each but I didn't catch it in time.
Used 2 BOGO free coupons!
Making these .41 Each.

2 Glade air freshners .86 each
Used BOGO Free coupon.
Making this .43 Each!

3 Schick Disposable razors 10 pack 1.97 Each
Used 3 $2 coupons
Making these each .03 money makers!!!

Total OOP for these items only $7.77!!!!! Good deal!

I saw this cute pink diaper bag at Walmart! I want it! but I already have a blue one from Caleb so I will just make do with that.
I did Get some money from Grandma Carver to spend on stuff for Lizzie!!! THANK YOU GRANDMA! I have not decided if I want to spend it at Walmart or try for some Sales at JCPenneys yet. I like that store!

So Exciting!

So, exciting news, Caleb has his first school fundraiser ever!!!!! He has been asked to sell the entertainment books! you know the ones that have all the coupons in them. He is especially excited about the prizes he gets if he sells so many. George has agreed to buy one so far. You can also buy one online for your area. Let me know if you are interested and I will send the email with instructions. I do need to have your email address, so leave that in your comment. If you are security conscious I can also delete the comments after I have read them.

Other news Lizzie is feeling a little better. and is still cute. I do have to say I am MUCH better this time about dressing the baby. Lizzie has such cute outfits it is hard to NOT dress her in different outfits. SHe actually skipped one of her feedings last night. She slept straight from 1AM till 7 this morning! I was flabbergasted! Grateful but flabbergasted! And a little full this morning!

Eric is good and still looking for a job. So am I. I need to find a broker to work for. I am hoping to find a member who is a broker as well. That would be nice.

The pool is just about cleaned out! Eric even turned on the pump system and it still works!Slowly but surely we are getting closer and closer to having a working pool!

One last bit of good news. I now weigh 252 lbs!!! I am soo excited and thrilled! I was 275 before lizzie, 281 right before she was born, and then 260 after she was born. Now I am 252! I am doing really good! With caleb I ate the same before and after, but with Lizzie I don't eat the same now. I am just down to eating for one. As Lizzie takes a little longer between her meals I am hoping to add a gym workout to my day.

Sick

Poor Lizzie!!! Lizzie has a runny stuffy nose, and a cough! She started yesterday and she got worse last night and today. She does not feel too hot so I am not that worried. I think we are just going to ride it out. We are not going to church tomorrow so I had to cancel my lesson again for sunday. Maybe next week I will be able to teach the youth their sunday school lesson.

Other news, Dad is being interviewed by Hawaiian Airlines for a job. And guess where? In HAWAII!!! If he gets that job he will be paid to relocate to HAWAII! HOW cool is that! And you can be sure that all of her family will still come to see her! Maybe more then they do now!

More of the same!

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday was More of the same. Taking care of Lizzie, taking Caleb to school. Although I did have some sort of episode Thursday night. I had uncontrollable chills and had to use to blankets I was soo cold one night. I woke up later and then I had to get up and get some water. I think I dehydrated myself is all. But I did get Caleb to school for friday and thenI went to mom's to stay near people. Eric had gone down to corsicana to help move some more stuff Thursday through Saturday. I worked on the blessing dress Friday and then I was not feeling so well so I stayed at Mom's that night. I worked on the dress all day Saturday too. I got most of it done except for some hand sowing. I did most of it Saturday night LATE, and then some during sunday school! But I did get it done on time for the blessing! It is soo cute! But I have not taken a picture of it yet. I was a little frazzled sunday trying to get to church on time.

Sunday was good though. Lizzie was more alert and awake this time. She has started to be passed around a little. And the blessing was so special! Most of my family was able to be there and participate! Mike, Dad, Ariel, Eric, George, and then the bishop, and Brother Williams (who is one of our good friends in the ward) were all in the circle. If John were there it would have been PERFECT!

The blessing was so special and spiritual. She was told a lot of things. One of the things I remember is she was blessed to be known for always having and sharing her charity! I hope she gets it from me which means I will have learned to have charity myself!

After church we all went to Becky's for a get together. She made lasagna, I brought a salad, and mom brought dessert and garlic bread. It was soo good. And then Becky's in-laws came with more good food! We played manners and then Catan. It was fun!

Today didn't feel like a holiday, it just felt like saturday. I didn't do a whole lot! I couldn't have done a whole lot if I wanted, Lizzie has had some sort of gas or something. She has been whiny, and acts hungry but then doesn't latch on or eat very much, she won't sleep and has to be held. And she acts hungry less then every hour. I feel so bad not feeding her until at least an hour, but I try to stall and make it every two. Everybody thinks she is hungry and I just don't think she is. I see how she eats when I do feed her and I am just not convinced. I think she wants to be nurtured and soothed is all. But she won't take a pacifier. I only have those clear silicone ones. I don't like those. Maybe it is too stiff for her to really like it. I need to go get some of the other ones and then some gas stuff. And her umbilical stump fell off today. I looked it up online to make sure it is okay to fall off this soon and still bleed a little. It is. It has been sooo long since Caleb I do not remember much of what happened to him and what is or is not okay.

Caleb is doing good. He still likes school. But he does not like when Lizzie cries. We were reading our nightly book and Eric brought in lizzie because she was hungry and crying. Caleb was like Daddy take lizzie out. Take her out till we are done reading our book! And his hand was waving her away. It was cute but eye opening. We still have to work with him so he accepts the crying better.