This is going to be a long school year.

Littlebit misses Lovey when he is at school. It is only his second day, but as soon as we pulled into the parking lot, she started crying. She cried when we got back in the car and wanted me to hold her the entire time he was gone. She is done with a morning nap, so I can't get anything done. She didn't do this when he was at camp this summer, so hopefully this is a short-lived phase, or it is going to be a long school year.

And he's off...

Today was Lovey's first day of preschool. This year he goes 3 days a week and he is so excited to be a "big kid." I have been asked everyday since school ended in June when he would go back and today was the day. Backpacks were packed, art projects were made for his teachers and new clothes were hanging in the closet. There are a lot of kids in his class this year, but not his friend from last year. I'm sure he will find someone new to play with. Littlebit had a hard time adjusting to him being gone and wandered around calling for him. Since it was his special day, he picked out corn dogs for dinner (yuck) and I made a brownie pencil cake for dessert (yum).

Great deals to start my day

I've been putting off my grocery shopping for a few days now, so I finally went this morning. I went to Target, Albertsons, and Safeway.

Safeway: I spent $10 and saved $8. They had eggs BOGO and Jello was $0.17.

Albertsons: I spent $37 and saved $43. They have the 10 for $15 after $5 off at the checkstand on Cheerios and other products. In my 10 items, I had 3 boxes of Cheerios. I used 3 $1 off coupons from the 6 week challenge and $1.50 off coupon from Albertsons. This made the cereal free. (These were the big boxes!) Buying 10 items also gave me a coupon for 20 box tops that I will donate to Lovey's school tomorrow. I also got a bag of tostitos chips for free with coupon. Taco salad will be on the menu this week, as well as tomatillos salsa from our CSA and tomatoes from the garden.

Target: Luvs family pack diapers were $15 dollars. I bought 2 and received a $5 gift card. I had $8 in coupons, but didn't notice until I was leaving that it rang up as $7.

Shopping is done for now. Food will be enjoyed by all and littlebit was in need of diapers.

Who ordered the rain?

Okay maybe my complaining about the heat in the previous post has come back to bite me. We had a lovely day planned with a trip to the zoo. Lovey was so excited because Daddy was taking the day off and we were going to the zoo. He has been counting down the days and then it rains. We prepared him saying that we may have to go another day, but once we got there, the sun was out and it was beautiful. Both kids were great. We were able to see them feeding the fish and the walruses. The rain held off for three hours and the sun was even out. When it started to rain, we knew it was time to go. What a great day!

I hate hot weather!

Today is the second day of 90 degree weather and I am hot. The upstairs of our house is at an uncomfortable 88 degrees and we have 5 fans just pushing the hot air around. It is still in the 80s outside, so there is no cool air to bring in. Yes, I know that it is hotter in other places, but I have lived in the Pacific Northwest my entire life and I live here for a reason - the mild climate. I hate to be hot. I hate being sweaty and having my clothes cling to me. I dislike having hot, sweaty little children cuddle up with me when I'm hot, breathing their hot little breath on me.

I hate to cook when it is hot, so we went out to eat tonight, but it was hot in the restaurant. We drove around after eating, since the price of gas was worth staying in the air-conditioned car longer.

I know it can be hotter, it reached 100 the other year. Three years ago we went to New Mexico in June and July. We landed in El Paso, TX and when the doors of the airport opened sending in suffocating heat and sucking out all of the air-conditioned goodness, I could help but say, "Who in their right mind would live here?" Now my husband's grandparents and aunt, who live in Texas and New Mexico, where standing there. Oops. I was also in a foul mood because I hate flying, it was a turbulent flight and I had been up since 2 am., but that is beside the point. We spent the entire 10 days, running from one air-conditioned space to the next and by the end I could stand a little bit of the heat. Still, I will never live there.

My brother and his family spent the last year living outside of Death Valley. Now they have moved back to St. Louis. I won't be visiting in the summer.

Summer is my favorite time of year, but leave me with the temperatures in the 70s and I am happy. I hate being hot!

Latest shopping deals

Staples: Elmer's glue: Free limit 2 Notebook Filler paper $0.09 Rite Aid: Befine skin care $-2.84 (I did have to fight for the coupon to work and the lady behind me was not happy, but I can't help that they only had one lane open. When she said she couldn't accept the coupon, I said I didn't want it, but she called up a manager to help run my gift card through (I took advantage of the prescription transfer coupon), the manager said to accept the coupon because it didn't specify the size. Target: Crayola 24 count crayons: $0.22 Crayola watercolors $0.47 after $1.50 coupon I received in the mail. Lovey was very happy with all of the new art supplies.

Blessings of summer

One of my favorite things about summer is berries. I'll take any type of berry: strawberry, raspberry, huckleberry, blueberry, blackberry, marionberry, etc. I try to stockpile berries in my freezer so I don't just dream about them all year, I eat them too. Littlebit and Lovey devour blueberries, we were out so fast last year, that I am determined to have more this year. Lovey is a great blueberry picker. He has picked blueberries (or been with me) since he was 4 months old. This year I took him to an organinc blueberry farm in town to pick berries. It was a little early and the berries were small. We picked for over an hour and only were able to get less than 2 quarts. I'll either resign to buying a flat or trying my luck later. Mmm... I am already dreaming about frozen blueberries. Yum!