Wednesday, March 31, 2010

A Lesson Learned


This morning, Robert woke up at four and didn't want to go back to sleep. That wasn't much fun at all. He continued being cranky all through the morning, which was also not fun, especially since in the morning there is no one really around to help, and I don't even have his crib to put him in, or his favorite swing. The tunnel did not cut the mustard today, no sir. Maybe I've been eating too much weird food. I will miss everyone when it is time to go, but at least when I'm soloing with Baby, I'll be in a place with all my tools at my fingertips.

In the afternoon we went up to Chicago to visit my great aunt, which was a very fun trip. It was especially nice since Robert passed out the second I put him in his carseat and slept the entire two hour trip. She has three adorable dogs, who were all very curious about Robert. Robert was curious as well, but the dogs lost out in the race for his interest against the ceiling fan. He seemed to interpret it as a really fast mobile. My aunt is a quilter and makes the most amazing and beautiful things. I am very envious, but I know I don't have it in me to attend to that much detail. Counting stitches in my knitting is about as good as it gets for me.

When we were up there, I realized I'd made a substantial tactical error and not replenished the diaper supply in the diaper bag. This was revealed to me when Robert filled his diaper in a particularly pungent way and I couldn't do anything about it. Luckily, it didn't seem to bother him that much, so I had a little time to go do something about it. I was absolutely kicking myself, since I had a couple hundred diapers back at my folks' house, to say nothing of the thousand or so back home. But those were entirely out of reach, so I went to the nearby Walgreens and used my last $3.00 off Huggies coupon to buy a pack for 6.49. Not a price I like to pay for diapers, not at all, but it was still a lucky break that I had the coupon in my purse. Next time, I will be more careful, and hopefully I will not waste money like that again. But Robert got clean and was happy, so it turned out okay in the end.

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Still on the Road


I haven't posted for two days in a row now, tsk, tsk. I can claim only busyness as my excuse! Even now I am typing one-handed as I feed the baby, who is wrapped in a towel due to his comprehensive self-wetting. Bathtime after this! At least he's pleased with himself. It's cool to sit up in bed, have the baby see you, and immediately grin and squeak because he's happy to see you. Even if it's because you'll clean his puddle of pee.



Today we'll be visiting many more people, which will be fun. It definitely means Baby and Mommy both need a bath, though. To make up for my absence, I will post extra Robert pics today. I've got plenty!

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Party Time!

What a busy day today! We had an open house this morning for everyone to meet Robert. My two cousins came and brought their babies as well, so it was an adorable baby party. This was the first time I got to meet Robert's second cousins, and it was so much fun. Family and friends came over, food was had, and a million pictures were taken. Robert was a little bit overwhelmed, but he did well. Everybody commented on how alert he is, and how adorable, of course. Our friends and family are very astute. Here is Robert with his little cousin Luke and his big cousin Lilly.



This evening we're going over to my aunt's house for an early Easter dinner, and to meet the other new cousins. It'll be a five baby day, and very fun. Right now, Robert is getting a little rest in the swing, waiting for it to be time to go see the rest of the family. We picked up a Mylar balloon yesterday for the open house, and he loves it. We've set it by the swing so his foot hits it and moves it, and that is very interesting to him. His other favorite activity currently is sucking on Aunt Allie's arm. That makes him very happy.

Friday, March 26, 2010

Busy Day With Family

Another very busy day at the homestead! Robert met more people today than he does in a typical week at home, certainly more people who want to hold him. He was pretty good though, happy in the morning and much less frantic than he was last night. I'm a little worried that he will have a full-scale freakout tomorrow, with the open house for all the people who want to see us in the afternoon, then the "Easter" dinner with extended family in the evening. We'll just keep an eye on him and take him off for a little peace and quiet if he needs it. Luckily, there will be other babies at both parties, so that should take some of the pressure off. Spread the baby love around, doncha' know. ;-)

I haven't been doing much bargainy while I've been here, obviously, but Mom and I did get some okay deals while shopping today, and I've been working on our family bank accounts. I need to keep an eye on them, everything from the main bank account to our student loans. My student loans are currently in forbearance, but that will not be the case come September. Luckily, I hope to have one credit card paid off by then, so the money I've been putting in that direction can be sent towards the loan. This student loan is, in all likelihood, something I will carry with me through most of my adult life, so I may as well get used to coping with it. Ah well. Anyway, here is a picture of Robert in the swing we borrowed from my aunt.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

In Illinois


We are in Illinois! Robert was pretty good on the trip, fussy sometimes, but not too bad for an eight hour journey. I am exhausted and hopeful that I will get some sleep. Robert tends to be sweet in the morning, so with luck, I may be able to wake up with him, feed him, then pawn him off on an unsuspecting relative for a few hours. Wouldn't that be lovely?

Too tired for updating much, and I didn't take a single blessed photo today, but here's one my sister took of Robert.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Packing for the Trip

Most of today has been devoted to getting ready for tomorrow. We're so excited! Robert didn't make things any easier, the only time he was sweet today was early in the morning, and when I carried him in the sling down to the thrift store for our weekly trip. The rest of the day he was pretty fussy, when he wasn't being fed or held, and often when he was. He also got the last laugh on me, when I finally set him down, still screaming, to eat a couple of pieces of the Little Cesar's Pizza we got so as not to dirty any dishes. It was only about seven o'clock, and I was going to let him fuss while I ate, then give him a bath and try and put him to bed. I've given him a bath every night this week because it's been the only thing that would calm him down, but tonight he actually needed one, for the trip. Little stinker fell asleep five minutes after I set him down and is still asleep now at 10:30. I ain't waking him up to bathe him!

Packing for a baby is a much bigger operation than packing for myself. I hardly know where to start. I packed a bunch of his little outfits, and bibs, and baby bath towels, and baby washcloths. I'm going to give him a bath whenever he wakes up tomorrow, then pack his bath stuff. Mom and Dad are laying in diapers and wipes, so I just need to pack enough for the trip, but that still might be quite a few. He needs his blankie and his gripe water and his Vitamin D drops. I need my pumping equipment, and both the cameras, and the chargers and uploading cords for them, and for the phone as well. The stroller is packed, and the Moby Wrap. I'm trying to figure out how to pack the tunnel without completely disassembling it, and how to hang toys on the carseat.

The house is a mess, but that's the least of my worries at this point. The dishes are done, and we will empty all the trash and the Diaper Genie, so the house won't smell bad to come back to, just be extremely cluttered. M is off buying greenstuffs for the birds while we are gone, so they won't throw all their seed out of the cups and have nothing to eat. I went through the house and clipped the boxtops off all the Hamburger Helper and Huggies in the house, because Mom collects them for our school. Those are in the diaper bag, because I'm sure I would forget them. I am debating bringing my box of coupons along, just so I don't go into withdrawal. There are not many stores where we're going, but there's a Walmart and a Walgreens, anyway.

Oh, and I had a lucky find today at the thrift store. I can't drink coffee right now, but I normally like it very much, and I have long been wistful for a coffee grinder. Today at the thrift store I found a brand new one, still in the original packing, for only two dollars. Woo-hoo! Gives me something to look forward to in another four months or so. =)

(Illustration: How not to pack for baby.)

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

A Story of Toys


This morning Robert woke up bright and early as soon as the sun was uppish at 6am, lucky us. M and I took turns as we often do, one of us sitting up with him with the other one catches an extra hour of sleep. That's the nice part of M's spring break, the historical archive doesn't open till noon, so he's been around some mornings. We went out to New Hope, the pregnancy center where we took classes and I went to clinic when I was pregnant, to say hello to our counselor and to drop off my maternity clothes. I don't need them anymore, and plus sized maternity clothes are expensive and hard to find. In the past year, we have had to rely so much on the kindness of friends and strangers and on government programs, it feels good to be able to give something back. Even if it's just giving things from my coupon stash to people who need them, or donating extra baby clothes or my maternity stuff to a mom who wasn't as lucky as I in having family and friends to help. Robert is always a big hit when we go there, they knew him when he was just a well-concealed bulge in Mom's tummy. =)

After the visit there, we dropped M off at the archive and headed home for a bit. Chatted with the next door neighbor, Robert ate and had a little nap, and I planned my coupon excursion. When he woke, we took off! We headed to Toys 'R Us first, looking for Toy Story 1 and 2, which were rereleased today and which I had excellent coupons for, but they were out. I was bummed, but as it turned out, it worked to our benefit in the end. I'm about ready to give up on Toys 'R Us, in all the times I've visited there, they never had what I was looking for. Bummer.

Our next stop was Target, and I did very, very well there. Robert was in a good mood, sleeping for awhile, then looking around, which is the best way to shop with him. I love to talk to him as we walk around the store, explaining what we're doing and how I'm using the coupons. He's an excellent audience. Target did have the Toy Story Blu-Ray/DVD Special Edition combo pack in stock, and they were running an even better sale than Toys 'R Us! Between the ten dollar discount I got from buying both together and the individual ten dollar coupons I had for each movie, I got the pair of them for 14 dollars. Not only that, but each one came with a coupon for a movie ticket to see Toy Story 3, and 135 Disney Rewards points. So for my 14 dollars, I got two DVDs, two Blu-Rays, two movie tickets, and redeemed the points to donate four plush toys to Gifts in Kind. I was quite pleased! Robert is going to love these so much when he gets older.

That wasn't the only deal we got at Target. I got the two DVD Combo Packs, two jumbo packs of Huggies (a moment of weakness, I swear!), ten bottles of Sobe Lifewater, a bottle of Vitaminwater, and a child-sized beach towel. That was 101 dollars worth of stuff, but with my two five dollar gift cards from last time, I got the whole thing for 22.87. I used the last of the gift card we got in the mail for it, and got another five dollar gift card back! That fifty dollar gift card got us 160 dollars of wonderful things. After that, we ran to the deli and picked up turkey and cheese so we can make sandwiches for the trip on Thursday and we won't need to buy fast food. I made fried rice for supper with the liquid from the pulled pork last week, which was kind of like pork-flavored Jello Jigglers till I warmed it in the microwave, but gives plain brown rice an excellent flavor. I love fried rice, you take whatever leftover meat you have, add rice, egg, half a bag of veggies, and a packet of seasoning, and it's wonderful.

Monday, March 22, 2010

Laughing With Baby


Today was another quiet day at home for Robert and I, putting together a couple of potential coupon deals for before we leave, but otherwise not doing too much. Robert didn't want to spend too much time on his own today, so I didn't have time for much more housework than dumping trash and washing dishes. Gonna have do so quite a bit more before we're ready to go! He slept like an angel last night, though, sleeping from eight-thirty to four, and then again till after eight! That was very nice, we all have been getting some good sleep. I just hope that the trip doesn't throw him off too badly.

Robert alternated today between extremely smiley and extremely fussy. I think he's learning to laugh, or at least does something that sounds quite a bit like laughing when he's smiling already. We spent time singing songs today, and getting Robert's nose, and tickling Robert's tummy. I think he's realized that if I lay him down in his crib to try and settle him down for a nap, he can give me his big smile and I will laugh and pick him up again. Little operator. ;-)

He got fussy again in the evening, and eventually I took him in the bathtub again. He really likes the bath. He's slippery, and I've dunked him a time or two, but he doesn't even cry, just sputters and blinks and sneezes a couple of times. The bath really calms him down, and right afterwards he fell asleep while nursing and I put him to bed with no trouble.

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Oops!


This morning Robert woke up at five and wanted fed, after sleeping since 8:30 last night. He was very hungry! Usually he wakes up at least once earlier than that, so he must've been pretty full to start with. After that, he went to sleep again until nearly eight, so we were all in a good mood to start the morning. We went to church, where Robert's good mood was ruined when the bottle failed and I poured milk all over him during the Gospel reading. Boy had excellent lungs. A friend from church made lasagna for us, which was immensely nice of her, and since we didn't have room for it in the freezer, we had it for lunch and supper today. It was very good! M had a ton of work to do, grading finals, so it was really nice to have a break from preparing meals.

While M was busy, I took Robert and we hit up the new weekly drugstore sales while the getting was good. This week was an awesome week for diaper coupons. Today I went out and got eight jumbo packs of diapers, two of Pampers and six of Huggies. I like Pampers better, but they hardly ever go on sale, and even on sale they are a bit more expensive. Right now I'm only buying Size 2 diapers, since although Robert is still in Size 1, he is just on the cusp and I still have two jumbo packs of 1s waiting to be used. I have amassed quite a stockpile, and am almost ready to admit I might not need anymore diapers for awhile. But it's so important to buy them on sale. Name brand diapers are between 9-11 dollars for a jumbo pack of around 40 diapers when they aren't on sale. That's almost a quarter per diaper, and we go through a lot of diapers! The diapers I got today averaged 11 cents per diaper, which is a lot more manageable. I also got my mom a Mother's Day gift she's going to loooove, but I'm not going to say what it is because she reads this. ;-)



Unfortunately, I realized when I got home that I was over my alloted budget for the month, after stocking up on all those diapers! I have a spreadsheet that I keep, where I enter all the receipts from my shopping for the month. When the budget is gone, the shopping has to stop. Generally I try to stretch it out more, but since we're going to Illinois in the middle of this coming week, and the sales have been so exceptionally good, I didn't do that quite so much. The way I do it is that I start with a base of 150 dollars for all groceries and shopping for the month. Not gas or bills or rent, which tend not to vary much, but the things we buy at stores. When I have a gift card and use it, I take the amount I used and add it to the budget, or when I get a little income from somewhere. This month we were extremely blessed and had seventy-five dollars in gift card money added to the budget, and I also got a rebate from some diapers I bought before Christmas that added another fifteen dollars. With that 240 dollars, I bought 711 dollars worth of stuff this month, for a savings rate of 66.25 percent. Neat!

Like I said, though, the budget has to be balanced. Luckily for me, I remembered one last thing I hadn't added to the budget. I do a few things online to make money, I use Swagbucks (their little gizmo is on the bottom of my page here), I do MyPoints, and I take surveys with a few different companies. I reached a cashout threshold on one of them this month, and they sent me a check for thirty-five dollars. That may not sound like much, but at a savings rate of 66%, that's like a hundred dollars! I added that sum into my budget for the month, and I'm back in the black. Still, I have to be careful, because if I go over again, I'm going to be stuck digging through sofa cushions or something to make up the difference.

(P.S. If you are interested in any of the things I do online to make money, let me know and I will set you up with referral links. Those help me out, and sometimes people who get referred get a bonus to start as well. None of them are very hard, especially the Swagbucks, which is mainly a search bar, and though they won't pay the bills, it's nice to get a little money or a gift card from time to time.)

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Sleepy Saturday


It was a nice quiet day around here, Robert and I hung out around the apartment and did stuff while M went to the archive again. I did four loads of regular laundry and two Dryel loads, so now we have all the clothes we'll need to pack for our trip. Robert was mostly not interested in being left behind while I went to the laundry room, so I popped the Boppy on a dryer and set him in that so he could watch me while I was working. I meant to take a picture, but then I forgot. I was really pleased about the Dryel, it was a new kit that I couponed when Mom came to visit me, and it worked very well. Some of those things had been in the dry cleaning bag since before I knew I was pregnant! Robert was very good today, and I took and posted a new video of him to show off. You can see it here!

Still using up the pulled pork from earlier in the week! We made a big push on it today, having sandwiches for lunch, then making Mexican rice with most of the rest of it this evening. Mexican rice is a dish I sort of cobbled together, it's whatever rice you have (brown Minute Rice tonight), cooked in the rice cooker with taco seasoning, whatever meat you have (pork tonight), cooked in a skillet with the rest of the taco seasoning, then salsa, sour cream, and whatever yellow cheese you have (Mexican four-cheese blend tonight, I got it for 50 cents!), all mixed up in the skillet and cooked till hot. It's exceedingly cheap and very popular. I like it better with ground turkey, though. Since I got great deals this week on ground turkey and taco seasoning, it will be showing up on the menu quite a bit in the next month, I imagine.

Friday, March 19, 2010

TGIF!



What a crankypants morning we had! Robert thrilled me to pieces by sleeping till almost seven thirty after waking at 3 to eat, but after he woke up, oooh, it was a fractious day. The ladies at the thrift store thought it might be his tummy bothering him, since he kicked his legs a lot when he cried. It's not the craziest theory I've ever heard. Anyway, we went outside and went inside and went outside again, we walked around, we sat down, we nursed FOREVER, and nothing seemed to quite do the trick. Eventually I laid him in his crib and turned on ESPN radio for him, and he took a nap for awhile. By the time M got home, for whatever reason, the tide had turned and Robert was ready to be sweet for the rest of the day. Must be Daddy's lucky day. =)

With M home and the baby calm, I took the opportunity to make one more run to the stores for the week. I don't usually shop this often, by the way, but sometimes the stars align and a lot of stores run a bunch of good sales at once. Between that and some gift cards stretching my monthly budget, it has been a very good week! Today I hit up Meijer again to snag their 11 for $10 one more time, Kroger to double-dip on their Buy 8, get $4 off deal, and then Walgreens for free snacks. I won't go into exhaustive detail like yesterday, but suffice it to say that I got 107 dollars worth of stuff for 28 dollars, and since seven of that was gift card, 21 dollars of our actual money. And I will point out that half of that amount (and I had a trunkful of groceries, mind you) was a ten dollar bottle of gripe water that someone recommended to help ease the tummy pain in a gassy baby.

This is not going to be our best weekend, M is going to be super busy with everything he still needs to do, so it'll be sort of like a weekday around here, but that's okay. Robert and I have a lot to do, too! This time next week, we'll be up in Illinois and seeing everyone! I'm so excited, I can hardly wait!

Oh, and during Robert's nap today, I rearranged my closet storage to make it easier to keep track of my couponed non-food loot. Here is a picture of all I have!

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Shopping, Shopping, Shopping!


As you may have guessed from the title of my post, today was a day for shopping. M spent all day at the historical archive, so Robert and I painted the town red. We started out at the Optimist Club meeting, where a candidate for judge executive was giving a speech. They were broadcasting it on public access television, so I had to try and keep Robert quiet through the whole thing. Thank God I brought a bottle. He got mentioned in the speech as the future of Kenton County though, which was kinda funny. I decided not to mention that we're bailing on this county as soon as possible unless I can get a job. After that, we went to Knitwits and socialized for awhile, but Robert was kinda fussy and it annoyed one of the owners, so we bailed and went shopping.

Robert likes shopping, so long as the cart is moving. We went to Target and played "How much can we make this gift card worth?" We got a lovely gift card in the mail yesterday as a present, and it was very timely because I had many coupons for Target. We went out and bought 54 dollars worth of stuff, spent 24 dollars on the gift card, and got back 10 dollars in new gift cards! It was awesome! We got cereal, and some baby soap, and diapers, body wash and some razors, and a pair of bunny ears that you will see in a picture soon.

Since Robert was still in a good mood and the weather was lovely, we went to Walmart too, with another handful of coupons. This was mostly a freebie trip. We got four free taco seasonings, three free packs of Kotex, another free baby soap, a free box of something called "Tuna Snacks," that despite its name is not for Victoria, and six cans of tomato paste for a quarter apiece. Ended up spending 1.73 there. Noted that Walmart has an unusually low changing table in the washroom, but any port in a storm!

After we picked M up and came home, I thought shopping was done for the day. But while I was feeding Robert, I read on one of my blogs about a supermegafantastic deal on diapers at K-Mart, so I had to run out there as soon as he was done. I got four jumbo packs of Huggies (and two bottles of nail polish, to make the deal work) for 13 dollars, plus I got six dollars in K-Marts rewards. So basically seven dollars for all that, or roughly four cents per diaper. So pleased! The reward for my thrifty virtue was that by the time I got home, Robert was asleep in bed, and we've got quiet peace in the house. Ahhh. =)

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Shopping and Many Errands


We had a very busy day today. Robert woke up early, around 6:30, but poor M was a trooper and got up with him to let me sleep. Love! I got up a little later and we gave the baby a bath. He was so dirty. M had a paper to turn in at the university, so we all drove up there just before ten, and Robert and I got gas while M printed off his paper and turned it in. Then we all went out to Cincinnati Children's Hospital with four freezer bags full of bags of expressed milk. I think it was about a gallon and a half. I froze about six ounces every day from the time Robert was five days old until just recently when he became fully acclimated to nursing. Our freezer was chock-full of the stuff, so I got in touch with the Ohio Mother's Milk Bank to talk about donating some. Donated milk is very important in helping preemies and sick babies whose mothers can't produce milk for them, because it's so much healthier than formula. I gave the milk to the lactation consultant, then got a little blood taken for tests, just so they can make sure I'm healthy and disease free.

We left Cincinnati, went to FedEx to drop off the package of tests, and then stopped by Taco Bell for a very cheap lunch on the run. Naughty, I know, but we were starving. =) Had a very interesting experience with Cinnamon Twists that someone had forgotten to put cinnamon and sugar on. Weird! We stopped at home just long enough to feed the baby, then took M to his other school to teach, and Robert and I went to the car dealership. We said hello to the guy whose trash can I threw up in last summer (only morning sickness I ever had!). He was amused to see me again, and the baby. Our airbag got fixed (it had been recalled), and then we went to Motherhood Express.

Motherhood Express is a cool store, it's all stuff for breastfeeding, plus they have a lactation consultant on staff, and they let women come in and just feed their babies there if they're out running around. I did a weighed feeding with Robert, to see if he might be fussy because he's not getting enough to eat. In 25 minutes he scarfed down four and a half ounces of milk, according to their clever scale, so that's definitely not it! We went back to school to pick up M, and stopped in to say hello to his colleagues as well. Our last big errand of the day was at Meijer. We went to the one in Cold Springs after I had a nasty experience last week with the one in Florence. Some cashiers are just ecch! Anyway, we got 24 boxes of Hamburger and Tuna and Chicken Helper for sixty cents apiece, four packages each of free Bagel Bites and Chex Mix, six rolls of ground turkey at a dollar apiece, some frozen veggies, and splurged on Thin Mint ice cream that was on sale for 2.50 a quart. Soooo delicious. =) We ended up with 75 dollars worth of stuff for 26 dollars.

After all this traveling, Robert basically cried all evening, which wasn't very fun. We took him outside and sat with him on the grass, which distracted him for a little while, and passed him back and forth between us to try and soothe. Eventually I took him back in the bathtub, which calmed him down. We put him into bed at eight-thirty and he went out like a light. Whew! And thank God for the pulled pork, because neither of us wanted to cook anything after the long day.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Day of Many Things


Today was tax day! I had some Staples Rewards money to spend from last quarter, and I wanted to know if I had to spend it on a desktop version of TurboTax. As it turned out, it was far cheaper to use TurboTax online and just pay for one state filing. I called the Ohio tax bureau and learned I did not have to file in Ohio, which made me very happy. We will be getting an extremely helpful refund in a couple of weeks now, half of which I am directing into our savings account for summer. Summers are hard here, because M's stipend is much smaller. But I scored a 100% on the Census employment test last week, so even if I don't find other work, that could be a good addition to our money supply as well. Unless an emergency comes up, I will probably put the rest towards our credit cards. Having student loan debt is bad enough, I am trying to pay down the credit cards and not have to worry about them anymore.

Today was also pulled pork day. I bought a big pack of pork shoulder rib last week at 99 cents a pound, and today I browned them with some butter in a skillet, tossed them in a crockpot, sauteed some onions and garlic, poured water over them, poured the whole mess over the ribs, then added a tablespoon of liquid smoke and let it all cook. After six hours, it is one of the most awesome sandwich fillings imaginable, just add barbecue sauce. The pork fat I strain off is good for cooking, and the leftover liquid makes great rice for pork fried rice when the sandwiches are gone. It is a very stretchy sort of meal.

Today was also fussy baby day! I don't know quite what's gotten into Robert, but he's been getting quite fussy in the afternoons lately. He'll be good all morning, interested in looking at everything, playing in his tunnel, etc. Then in the afternoon, he's mad, mad, mad! We went on a walk around the expanded block and he slept for awhile during that, at least. The weather has been great today. Tomorrow we will be very busy and there'll be no time for a walk, but I enjoyed it while we had it.

Monday, March 15, 2010

The Daily Robert, March 15


A fussy baby day today! Robert was happy in the morning, he played in his tunnel and we went on a walk to the deli to get some lunchmeat. I don't mind paying just a little bit more for lunchmeat and cheese there because they slice it nice and thin, especially the cheese. I can afford a half pound of turkey and swiss if it gives me lunch most of the week! Plus, the walking is great and gets us out of the house. He got more and more fussy as the day went on, and seemed hungry all day. Maybe it's a growth spurt. I'm going to pump an extra bottle while he's sleeping, just to be on the safe side.

Oh, and to celebrate my first official Daily Robert on this blog, two pictures! You can click on the picture to see a bigger version.


A Change in Direction


It's been nearly a year since I last posted, and many, many things have changed since then! The most dramatic change, of course, has been the addition of our son Robert to our lives. He was a total surprise, albeit a welcome one, and has totally refocused my life. I still do a lot of couponing and saving, but right now a great deal of my attention is entirely centered on the tiny person sleeping on my lap right now.

Now that the insanity of Robert's first two months are behind us, I want to get back to blogging again. Not only to share my shopping adventures this time, though, but also to chronicle his life so I can look back day by day and remember how he was. So this blog will be a little of both. I also have a much better camera now than I did last year, so stay tuned for plenty of pictures as well!