The Humor Of One...

Just thought I would give you a glimpse of our oldest child's humor. I couldn't stop chuckling when I found this. I guess it was intended for Jarom.

Roxanna Clayton

My younger sister just had her 5th child, yesterday the 22nd of September. She was 8lbs 9oz and 19 inches long. Congrats to you Tana and Matt!Katie holding her new baby sister

Fruits Of My Labor

My first outing in coupon land. I worked really hard and feel like I deserve to join all of those that had their trophy picture displayed. I only spent $29.38 and saved $63.69! I hope to keep this up every week...no I won't post a picture every week, but now and then I just might have to brag again...

Atlanta Zoo

I honestly can say I've never been to the Atlanta Zoo! I've lived here almost a decade and now after last Friday I CAN say I have been. It was a lot of fun...first off only had one kid and secondly went with a good friend and her cute kiddos. Since I only have the Phoenix Zoo to compare...this one was by far the most friendly to adults and kids. Shade everywhere and less walking between exhibits!

Haddie and Gideon Griffiths

"Oooo Elephant!"

Here is my little buddy taking in all of the sights. He won't say much until it's all over. This is one boy who takes his adventures seriously! I love how this picture turned out!

Parakeets

I don't know who these people were, but I loved how dressed up this little girl was for all the animals. She had a seed stick, and the birds would come right up and land on your hands...wish I could send them this picture!

King of the Apes...what a goof!

Every time he tried for the tail, the goat would shake it...scaring him...but he always tried again.

You can see the wheels turning...I love this look on kids!


Ahh, the merry-go-round...so much fun!

Last but not least...the (short) train ride!


What a great day...Thank You!

Coo-pon-ing Or Q-pon-ing ...

...However you say it...I'm trying to dive right in! I'd like to think throughout my life and especially through marriage, I'm a penny-pincher...better said 'frugal'. I've gone to consignments for clothing along with hand-me-downs from family (Thank you Lorel!!) yard sale for furniture, and anything else you can think of...we have done it... Come to think of it we barely own anything new.

With Trent's job becoming scary-gone (almost) I'm trying to take this to the next level. For a long time we thought Walmart was the cheapest ever, but now a friend of mine (Thank You Symony) has given me the crash course to Publix and the beauty of coupons. Now it's going to take 6 weeks to truly catch up on coupons and start to seeing results on a regular basis. But this really isn't an option for us to toy with. Soon ' Double Coupons' or 'Penny Item' will be on the brain. Hopefully I will start to see receipts saying "total was $170 but now it's $54!" Yep, I have a long road to learn this art, but I'm giving it a try...wish me luck!

Dress For Rian

Rian is in need of Sunday dresses. And even though it's slightly more expensive to make a dress then to buy one...(if it was Simplicity it would have been $1 patterns.) I was itching to make one. This is what she chose for her dress pattern and fabric. I will need to get some pictures of her wearing it soon. This took me about 2 days to make...a bit longer because the pattern called for it to be fully lined on the inside...so it was kind of like making two dresses. It was nice to sew again. (Stacey...that toole came in handy!)

Hail to the Victors !!!!

Once again, you have a guest Blogger. I was able to fulfill a dream of mine this past weekend and travel with my Brother up to Ann Arbor, Michigan to watch my favorite team in all the land open their football season.

My family and I lived in Michigan when I was very young, and for some reason, I fell in love with the Wolverines. I've been an avid Michigan fan since I was about 8 years old...watching every game on TV, collecting tons of Michigan memorabilia over the years, spending a lot of the money I made in High School on Michigan clothing, etc. I even remember back in 1991 when Florida State was ranked #1 in the nation and came into Ann Arbor to take on our Wolverines. I was soooo jacked for that game, I made a homemade Michigan flag and when we scored an early Touchdown I literally went and ran around the outside of our house waving the flag and screaming (we lived in Indiana at the time). Michigan ended up losing pretty badly that day.

As a kid I had a couple of chances on family trips, etc. to visit Ann Arbor and even to go inside "The Big House" onetime, but it wasn't during football season. Just so happened the day we were there they were tearing out and replacing old bleachers. I was able to get a piece of an old bleacher and hung it on my wall for many years. To this day I follow the Maize and Blue fanatically, which has been especially painful these past couple of years when then haven't been very good.

Well, finally with a little help from our wives, Troy and I decided it was time to make this trip to our own personal "mecca." We decided to get tickets for the first game of the year against a good team, UCONN. Not only was it the first game of the year but Michigan Stadium (The Big House) has been receiving a 3 year facelift/renovation project. This year was the first year of the "new" renovations and rededication of Michigan Stadium.

The circumstances for us getting to do this were wonderful: 1. Cheap tickets 2. Ridiculously cheap airfare ($47 each way) 3. We stayed with Troy's in-laws in Indy, the Kohls. 4. The Kohl's let us use their vehicle to drive to AA, huge blessing. All of the planets aligned for this trip and....it felt like something special was going to happen on the field as well!!

This was pretty much Christmas for me, or at least how I felt about Christmas as a 5 year old having a hard time sleeping the night before and bursting out of my room at 5am to see what Santa brought. We arrived in Ann Arbor at 10am for a 3:30 kickoff and spent the many hours preceding the game walking around AA, checking out the many different tailgates, walking to downtown AA for lunch, and then getting to watch "The Victors Walk" where the fans line the concourse entering the lockerroom where the players walk from the buses into the stadium. It was awesome!!!!



Pre-Game Tailgaiting



The Pearly Gates??



The Victors Walk - Pregame



The Student Section View from our Seats

The game was amazing and truly couldn't have gone any better. We drove home that night thoroughly enriched from our experience. As I told my dad on the phone earlier that day "Dad, I now have a better understanding of what the Celestial Kingdom will really be like....minus all the alcohol :-).



Final Scoreboard Shot



The End of the Game - Happy Trent


Now, the only question to be answered....When Do I Go Back!!!

Fox Theater

Disclaimer: These pictures were taken from a phone, so our obscure faces and angles and fuzziness can only be patched up so much with basic photoshop...

We had the best time driving up to Atlanta to the Fox Theater to see The Sound Of Music! I guess any date night is a good one...maybe not as eventful as the movie with Steve Carell, but it was a lot of fun. We first went to dinner at a place right next door to the Theater called Publik, and had some good eats. Then enjoyed the classic show and music.

Wish the picture turned out better!

Intermission was fun to look around the theater...had to make that important phone call in that fun phone booth...and that chair...who wouldn't have fun in such a chair?

The theater had some enchanting features...an Indian theme...the upper balcony was pretty spectacular too!