An invitation to you

Wanna go crazy with me? Cuz that's where I'm headed these next few weeks. I am sure you are experiencing some craziness in your household too, but here is how my week is going:

All week I have front porch duty from 7:40-8:00, definitely a thankless job!
Monday: I gathered, stuffed, and signed 196 student folders...all day! I had to make a doctor's appointment with a new doctor and fax paperwork back....oops, I haven't done that yet. I rushed home so my husband could go to work early and did my wifely and motherly duties at home.

Tuesday: The incident I posted about yesterday. Met my family at Central Office to have my son's speech evaluated...again. He did great! He has 90% accuracy which seems pretty high to me. Had lunch with the family. On the way back to work, my husband called me to tell me to stop so he could come get the parking pass out of my van since we were trading vehicles that night... I had a sitter going to the house after work so I could help give a baby shower at work. If Stephen was going to have the new van...he'd have the car seats too and I needed to take Lauren to dance. The OLD van, which is the one I'd have, had Stephen's heavy video equipment in the back. We finally decided to leave his equipment in my classroom since he is filming at school Friday anyway. Problem solved. Went to the shower...home...dance class...passed out. Until Caleb woke us up at around 1:00 with a dirty pull-up. Then when we drifted off to sleep, Caleb woke us up again with a bloody foot from the scab he peeled off.

Today: I had to give a long test to 3 students. One was absent...dentist appointment. Now I have to schedule a make-up. Grr. Rush to register kids for VBS. Lauren's class full. Late for a 10:15 meeting because I was on the phone with church. Ran to the meeting, no one there. Meeting postponed til 1:30. Meanwhile....email the sitter for Friday with directions to the house...mail birthday cards...try to figure out who'll watch the dog when we're out of town...coupon blog....make a much needed hair appointment...find someone to take my front porch duty on Friday because I can't leave the house until the sitter gets there on Friday at 7:30!

Tomorrow: What I know so far is tomorrow looks good. Maybe I can get some cleaning and packing done since I am going to be at a different school next year.

Friday: Prepare for sitter. Rush to school for a meeting at 8:00. Be home by 10:30 to relieve sitter while Stephen films the talent show at my school. Feed the kids and take them back to school with me so they can watch the talent show.

Saturday: hair appointment, yea!

I keep reminding myself, one day at a time!

You don't do this, do you?

This is my last week of front porch duty at the school where I teach. Front porch duty is such a pain and it's upsetting when parents CHOOSE to ignore you or not follow the rules we have in place for the safety of their children. This morning I witnessed something I haven't seen in the 6 years I've been at this campus. A parent pulled up in the street in front of the school (not the circular drive) and didn't even park along the curb. She left her car running...in the street...and left her 2 year old child in the back while she took her 2nd grader in. I was the one holding the STOP sign in the circle and I thought surely she was just crossing her 2nd grader and then she'd walk right back out to the car. I was wrong. She walked into the school. Then I thought maybe she is just walking him to the doors. Wrong again. She was gone for several minutes and I definitely lost focus of my job to direct the cars and cross the people safely across the crosswalk. A parent that I know rather well came to the crosswalk and I mentioned the child left in the car. She took her phone out of her pocket, called the police, and handed me the phone. At least 5 minutes had gone by. I told the dispatch officer what I knew and gave the phone back to the owner and asked her to go get the license plate of the car.

All this time, the parent was still in the school. Can you imagine? We have had a car accident right in the very spot where the car was sitting. The parent finally went back to the car and I could tell by her body language that she was telling the parent on the phone with the police and the other traffic director that she had done nothing wrong. When my duty was over, I walked over to them to support the other traffic person, the parent on the phone had left. We waited forever for the police to arrive. The child had unbuckled himself. I told the mother that I have a 4 year old, 3 year old, and 1 year old and I know how hard it is to unbuckle them and haul them all into a building but child safety comes first and it was very dangerous to leave her child in the car for even a minute. I don't even leave my kids in the van in the driveway. If I've left something inside and can't go without it, I turn the van off and take them all inside with me.

The woman was upset because...get this... she was supposed to be following her 2nd grader's busses on a field trip to Waco. She was upset because they were going to leave without her. I'm not sure that she understood that we were more worried about her child than she was.

I don't know about you but if I see someone putting their child in harm's way, like not buckling them up, I call the police every time. The children can't speak for themselves.

I was late to work this morning

Yesterday our neighbors came to play with my kids. They are 7 and 9 years old and do really well with all 3 of my kids but I'm not ready to leave Abby with such young children so I sat outside and watched them play. They were having such a great time that I let them stay up way past their bedtime. I was also secretly hoping that it would wear Caleb out so much that he'd actually sleep past his normal 6:15 am.

Well, he DID sleep until 6:40. Then he brought his pillow into my bed and sweetly told me it was not for me to lay on. Then Stephen brought Abby into bed with us and she crawled across Caleb to get to me and just stopped right across him. Now, these kids can be really sweet and loving to each other A LOT, but my heart just melted. Caleb loved thiat his baby sister was snuggling with him. He patted her on the back and smiled. When she sat up on his stomach, he put his hands on her cheeks and gave her the most loving kiss. I just wanted to savor the moment so I stayed in bed and didn't get up until the sibling love was ready to move on. I am so ready for another baby!

I have an addiction!

Hello! My name is Stephanie and I'm a money saving addict!
Yes, I've been neglecting my family blog in order to keep up with my new money savings blog. I have really gotten into the whole coupon 'thang' too. Last night I sat in bed with my newly printed coupons from coupons.com and Target and as I cut them out, I paired them so that I could be armed when I go into Target and Kroger this afternoon. I have been amazed at the tricks I've learned from the other savings blogs and I am ready to go try them out for myself. For example, Ritz crackers are $2.50. I have a $1 Target coupon AND a $1 coupon I printed myself. So...I am going to pay .50 for a box of Ritz. Cool, huh? Triscuit costs $2.04. I have a Target coupon $1 off of 2. Then I printed 2 $1 coupons (because I am buying 2 boxes) so I should be paying$1.08 for 3 boxes. AND Hershey Bliss Candy is .99 but I have a coupon for $1.00. Who doesn't like free chocolate?

I promise the newness will wear off soon and I'll be back to posting pictures of all the fun we're having now that we can swim.

Lauren's Dance Recital

Saturday night was Lauren's first dance recital. It was really cute to see all the little girls try to complete a routine they have been working on since September.

She really seems to be following along.

But this is what she did at least 10 times. I'll count when I get the video. She kept blowing kisses to her teachers.

Lauren and her best friend Katie. Don't they look like they've been doing this for years?

What a cute little pose. I want to know if the other girls are right and Lauren is wrong or if Lauren is right and the others are wrong.

Time to celebrate with her pal.

Lauren's first roses!

I did it

I asked some friends and family if they thought I should keep the "savings" posts here or start a separate blog and I had a pretty good response that I should start a separate blog.

So I did.

It's Aggieland Mommy Saves Money.

I've already removed the savings links section here and put it on my new blog. Thanks for your input!

More Freebies

Go here to get your free samples. You might get an error message the first time you try because there seems to be high traffic on this site. Just keep trying! Go to the right hand side and click on "English."

I really want you to tell me....

Lately I've been devoting a LOT of time to finding coupons, great deals, and freebies. I have added the links I've found to the column on the right but I am getting no feedback from my readers. Maybe that's because I have no readers, I don't know.

I've been considering taking all my savings info and starting a "frugal" blog so that this blog can remain as it started out to be...updates about my family.

So I want to hear from you. Why do you visit my blog? What will keep you coming back?

Please check out my friend's blog: Aggieland Bargain Mom.