Obsessed

Who spends their Saturdays clipping coupons and matching up grocery deals. Who can't wait to get the new Sunday coupons after church on Sunday? And who has a whole coupon bag that is more organized and used than her purse! Does this sound like an obsessed person? Well I am one such obsessed person.

And when I get a good deal, I can hardly make it to the car before I calculate how much I saved and the proceed to call fellow coupon buddies or people that don't really care but are kind enough to listen (Thanks mom!)

I guess I would consider it a hobby. It's something that I spend my time doing. While most hobbies cost money, this one actually saves me tons of money!

But obsessions come with risk. Sometimes I'm temped to buy something just because it's a great deal, but is it really worth the 67 cents if it's something we don't really need? This is really making me stretch my imagination and cooking skills to use what we have. If it's free there's no question that it's in my cart. I've got a bag full of stuff that I got for free (or made profit on!) that we are going to donate.

But I am so grateful that these deals and opportunities are available. It allows for Carson and me to eat more than just Ramen and PB&J.

The deal that I got yesterday was one of the best. When I set it all out to take a picture it was really sad what little I could get for over $50! But check out what I actually paid:

Total cost before savings: $50.46
Savings from sales: $7.86
Savings from coupons: $13.58
Getting Back in Rebates: $24.25
Total paid after rebates: $4.74 (savings of 91%!)

Happy Belated Fourth

We were so busy preparing for our cookout tonight that I didn't have time to blog. But that's okay because now I have lots of pictures to share with you from our party. We had some great friends come and also got to know some of our neighbors a little more. A very fun evening that still isn't over (Carson's best friend Andrew is still here. . . once they start the Wii it's hard to get them to stop :)

Amber and Jackson came tonight and Jackson got to enjoy his first fireworks. He didn't like the loud ones but there were some that whistled that he would just laugh and laugh at. It was adorable. Here he is kind of not sure what to think about the sparklers.


After it got dark we pulled out the big fireworks and made lots of noise. These next few are ones that Carson took with our camera and extended the time the shutter was open so we could write with our sparklers.






Then we decided it would be fun to all light them at the same time and run... it made for some pretty good pictures and is probably the most fun I have ever had shooting off fireworks.




The show ended with some pretty awesome fireworks.




Well I guess it's time to call it a night since we're going to early service tomorrow and then working in the nursery. I think I'm going to institute Sunday naps tomorrow! Good night!

We're back

We're back from Colorado. I'm working on a post with pictures and all but it will take a while because I have to sort through the 2000+ pictures that Carson took! We had a great vacation and it was a nice break. I managed to read 3+ books which there is never time to do while at home and Carson got to do a lot of fishing. When we got home we were greeted by some ants who had decided to house sit while we were gone. They even brought in their own dirt to make themselves feel at home. I think we have gotten rid of most of them and I have just finished cleaning the carpet where their dirt turned to mud when we sprayed them. *Sigh*

So today is unpacking/laundry day. I know, third day back and I still haven't done that! Yesterday I spent the majority of the day shopping for our 4th of July cookout. We don't use our grill as much as we would like but there have been some awesome sales on meat so we're excited about finally getting a lot of use out of it.

Well I better get off the computer and get back to work so I can go visit Jackson this afternoon. I bet he's grown so much. As if two weeks wasn't long enough, Monday is a University holiday so Carson and I are both off. I think we're going to take the day and go visit his grandma.

Stay tuned for some amazing pictures!

And exciting short week

Not only did I have a short work week, but it was filled with fun things to do! Wednesday after work we went White Water Rafting with our home group. We are fortunate to have two certified rafting guides in our group. So we headed off to the Chattooga River. I love having so much daylight in the evenings. We were able to raft for about 2.5 miles and then sit out on our raft and do our bible study. Sadly that was our last meeting before we take a summer break for the next month, but it was a great way to end it. It really threw me off though. . . I mean who goes rafting in the middle of a work week. It was AWESOME!

Thursday Jackson and I took our first outing, beside walks around the neighborhood. We went for walk with our friend Emily and her daughter Lydda Grace who live on Clemson campus (Emily's husband was my boss when I was an RA). While we were on campus, we had lunch with Jackson's mom and then went and visited Carson as well. It was really fun but Jackson and I were both exhaused.
Today has been a little more relaxed. Just normal work days for me and Carson. And now I have two weeks off! Woo hoo for what I'm counting as my summer vacation. We leave on Tuesday for a week long trip out to Colorado so you can bet that I'll have a lot of pictures to post when I get back.

Also, here is a link to an article about Carson's competiton in Orlando last month. Althought they didn't win the competition this is a very flattering article about how creative their booth was. Unfortunatly Carson is not pictured or quoted (I promise he was there) but I got an exclusive quote just for my blog. "The booth that we designed was very eye catching and attracted a lot of attention." He's half asleep on the couch right now and not really playing along so that's about the best I can do. Take what you can get :-)

It's a family!

Two nights ago we discovered Ollie has a family! We were walking along the road looking for Ollie and we accidentally scared two more otters that were hiding in the bushes right where we were. One of them looks much smaller so he is now named baby Oscar, and the other one... we assume the mom... is called Olivia. We were able to get better pictures this time (proof that we didn't just take a picture of a log last time). We figured out that they come out right before dark most nights.


Carson and I both had long weekends this weekend so we were able to enjoy some extra time off together. We spent some time in Seneca where I discovered a new scrapbooking shop, which then motivated me to get all my scrapbooking stuff out. Carson and I also started volunteering in the nursery this Sunday and we were in the "cuddler" room with babies 6 weeks to 11 months. It was so much fun. Now Carson is asking me how to change diapers. . . I guess this will be a good learning experience for him :-)There was a tiny little 4 week premie baby that I got to hold for a little while. She was so precious and weighed like nothing!

We're off on a white water adventure with our small group tomorrow. Hopefully we'll have some pictures to share then too!

Nothing New

Not much to write about lately. Carson and I are getting ready to head out and hit some sales and spend the afternoon "in town". When I told my mom that last night she got a big kick out of it, since town is a whole 5 minutes away! It's just the mindset up here and it's addicting but it saves on gas!

Speaking of getting a kick out of something, check out this YouTube video I found today. I have no idea who this girl is but it will melt your heart and make you laugh all at the same time!

Our New Friend

Our apartment complex doesn't allow animals. Which is sad because Carson and I would really like to have a dog (or two!), but kind of good because it would just be an extra expense right now. So even though we don't have a dog to walk, we have taken to enjoying a walk together in the evenings (because it's the only time you can stand to be outside in this weather) and today we stumbled on a little friend playing in the creek. It was a little otter. I've never seen an otter outside of a Zoo and it was the last thing I expected to see on our walk. We named him Ollie and we plan to visit most nights. He's very low maintenance and feeds himself. This is the closest thing we have to a pet.

Here's the only picture we were able to get. Maybe we'll get a better one another day now that we know to look for him.