Very progressive!

Jeremy and I took a mini getaway this weekend and stayed the night at the Nylo hotel.
This is one of those new modern hotels where the rooms are lofts. It's actually pretty nice, but not as nice as the Aloft. I knew the whole time Jeremy would point out all the weird stuff and say that it's very progressive!
It started with the Sangria waiting out in the lobby. It looked really good, too bad it was alcohol. There was this "chair" out in the hall that Jeremy tried. It was a square cement block with padding on the inside. I tried out one of those egg chairs that hang from the ceiling. You know the ones I'm talking about?
Our room was polished concrete from floor to ceiling. The bathroom door was a sliding one. The bed had these wooden wheel looking things holding it up and the two-piece headboard was held together with a latch. Two good things...a flat screen TV on a swivel arm and the rain forest shower head! It was all very progressive!
I again picked a restaurant that was too expensive. The food wasn't really worth it, but the dessert was! If you ever try Coast, get their lemon phyllo tart. Yumm!
I enjoy staying at these modern hotels. They are not cookie cutter and it's fun looking at all the weird furniture. I regret not sitting in the padded seating with the low table at breakfast. The kind where you would sit on the floor like in a Japanese place. We thought we would look funny sitting in the wall, so we chose the hay filled table instead! Very progressive!!

Being Frugal

I saw some really good ideas for cutting down on your grocery bill on a blog I follow. It's called Momadvice.com and the post is 35 ways to cut down your grocery bill. I'm not as good as some of you bloggers out there and don't know how to set up a link in this post. I'm also too lazy and tired to try and figure it out :)
So I never knew you could rinse your ground beef and get a lower fat content. You can buy the cheapest ground beef, cook it, rinse it a certain way (site tells you how), and it's like you bought the more expensive lean beef! I'm actually excited to learn this and will be trying it!
I also liked the idea of having a price book. I've gotten good at knowing what the prices are at Walmart of the things we buy the most. Then when I check the circulars from other stores, I can tell if matching the price is worth it or not. I haven't done a scientific analysis or anything ,but I'm thinking this saves us money :)
I've also decided to try the make your own mixes route (like syrup, salad dressings, and spice mixes) and make your cleaning supplies. I was surprised how simple her cleaning supplies are. Do they really clean well?
Also, I was checking out a friend's favorite blogs and read a story that is amazing! This lady says she goes shopping twice a year!! And she spends $150 each time!! They grow all their own veggies and fruit, have all these livestock for meat, milk, and eggs. If you'd like to read the story the link is www.handprintsonthewall.org/2008/05/09/the-true-queen-of-frugal.
I thought Wow! I'd kind of like to try that, but then I thought would I really want to live like that? I told Jeremy about it and he doesn't think it's true (about the $150 for each shopping trip)!
How do you save on your grocery bill?

Birthdays

We had two birthdays in our family, Jeremy and Ayden! (last month, May)
For Ayden's party we invited family over to eat cake and ice cream. Here's her cake...






She LOVES Oswald and Weinie!!!





















This is everyone in our small living room! I was hoping we could have gone to the playground, but it had rained that day :( I was surprised we had enough chairs for everyone!














Ayden was really great about being excited to open every present! She said Wow! and Yeah! for everything. I was unsure if she would be ready for the bike we got her, but she loved it. We have gotten alot of use out of it. Her favorite thing to do is ride down our driveway. It's down hill so she goes really fast!!
Jeremy's birthday took a few days to do mainly because of his schedule. We did our date thing one night, cake and ice cream another night, and then presents on another night! Here's another great photo of him...














I feel bad that he was holding his own cake to blow out the candles, but I wanted pictures too!
I have to tell about the funny thing that Jeremy did the other day! We were at a pack meeting and he couldn't hear the prayer very good. When the boy said he was thankful for Jesus Christ Jeremy thought it was the end of the prayer and said Amen. It was so funny!!! I couldn't help but laugh! This picture is great! These are some of the "posters" Jeremy's students made to hang up around his room. They all say how Coach Scott is the best and he rocks your socks off and stuff like that! He tries to act embarrassed about it, but I know he enjoys it!














Also I could use some ideas for the summer!!! Especially from those who live around here. I am feeling guilty of letting Asher play video games and watch tv all day. I scoured the internet for cheap/free things to do and haven't come up with much. Any ideas? Maybe I'm worried for nothing. The kids would probably be happy with going to our neighborhood pool everyday, but I feel like I need to plan a variety of activities for the days. Does anyone else feel that way?
Other than that it's the same old stuff :) Hope everyone is doing well!!

Stuff

For the past two weeks, I have been back at the school thing! Sort of! I am taking an online medical transcription program. I was nervous at first because it's been a while since I went to school, but it's been fun.
Sarah came over this past week and we did a glamour shots session :) Here are a few of my favorites....


























































Asher has been experimenting with his hair style...we call it the Edward Cullen look. For those of you who don't know that's a reference to the Twilight movie.














Here is Asher with the chicken nuggets he won for his gingerbread house last year. It fed our family for 4 days/two meals a day!














We had a wonderful Easter! We got to spend time with both sides of the family. And we were lucky enough or not to go to 4 egg hunts! I don't think that candy is ever going to get eaten. We are all tired of eating candy :) Never thought that would happen with 2 kids :)
Saturday, we went to visit Jeremy's family. The egg hunt was fun! Ayden really got the hang of it and we had to get a bigger basket. Then we hung out. We have played Rock Band everytime we visit, and I'm proud to say you know a medium level drum player :)
Sunday, we went to my family and had a great ham dinner. My mom makes the best ham, and if you don't believe me, ask Asher. He is the pickiest eater, but he looks forward to her ham! Ayden and Sofia started finding eggs even before we started the hunt. I guess they were a little too easy to find.
We also had our own egg hunt at home. I got 42 eggs because Jeremy thought we should have alot. I guess, Jeremy and I hid the eggs for Asher really well because we had to give him hints on where to find most of them. Ayden even found one of his! We may have an expert Easter hunter here :) I really like hiding eggs!!!

For my sis, Amy

Amy has been bugging :) me to put up a new post, so here it is finally!
Things have been going well for us. Jeremy is enjoying school, but ready for the summer. He has been asked to come back next year!! They would have been crazy not to. By the way, the snow video was from last year :) Jeremy told his students he would let them see it and the only way we could figure out how to do it was to post it on the blog.
I got my hair cut about 6 weeks ago. I went to the salon and asked what would look good with my hair. Here's the result




























The first is almost right after I got it cut and the second a few days ago.
Our Buick broke down about a month ago and decided it wasn't worth fixing, so we got a new car. New to us anyway! We have entered the minivan world! It's actually really nice to have one and Jeremy has been joking about turning in his truck for another one :)
We also got the place to give us money for our old car so we could buy Rock Band. We have had alot of fun playing!! I've even practiced on my own.
Our photo album has been updated too, and there's some really cute videos!!

For Coach Scott's class

Ode to Dollar Tree

I have to just say how much I love having a Dollar Tree close by! Everything in the store is a dollar! And it's not like those other dollar stores where the stuff looks cheap and you would never buy anything from there. This stuff is actually nice and I always feel like I get a great deal.
The other day, I went there looking for little snacks for Ayden. I didn't think I would find much. There was so much stuff! Name brand stuff! The treasures just kept coming!
I was really excited when Jeremy saw all the stuff I got! (Silly, I know!) And I was always proud to say, "Yep, that was only a dollar!"
So I just wanted to say THANKS! Dollar tree, for your great, cheap things!