sorry to the 5 people that read this for the lack of post

we've all been feeling crummy on top of extra being busy

i'm also trying to revamp my blog

i promise a real post before the week is out

maybe even before the day is out!

ps

please remember continue to keep dave, jen and baby N in your prayers!

this was meant to be done earlier

weekly meals:

Sunday:

Ended up making pizza pockets, tom was to lazy to make his own food ;)

Monday:

MOES!

Tuesday:

Spinach and pasta bake with fresh mozzarella

Wednesday:

Greek Chicken, couscous, and fried potatoes

Thursday:

Pot Roast, potatoes, carrots, and onions in the crock pot

Friday:

Pizza and Movie night, maybe "Planet 51"?

Saturday:

Grocery day, so probably left overs

That all sounds good right?

every one is felling MUCH better. Wednesday, (after the snow tuesday night) Jonas and I both had a doctors appointment. I love that our doctor has no problem doing 1 appointment for 2 people, it really makes things easier.

Jonas and I both have ear infections and sinus infections, and Jonas (of course) had bronchitis again. He had been acting fine till wednesday, when his fever spiked to 104.6. I don't think he has ever had a fever that high. Tom stayed up with him all night, and took his temp every half hour and marked it on a piece of paper to make sure it kept going down with just tylenol. Thankfully, it did. Thursday Jonas pretty much just slept all day. He has to take a ton of medicine though

all that 2-4 times day. Thank God for insurance. We do have to pay a CoPays since we don't get our prescriptions filled on base. I'm pretty mad that my CoPay for my nose spray was 22 dollars (everything else was 3) and it can take 'up to' 2 weeks to work. She gave it to me to unstuff my ears, the congestion was (well is still) backed that far up. I still can't hear out of my right ear very well. Tom, the doc he saw never did tell him what he had, but they gave him some meds, and he thankfully is now mostly better as well Hayley, thank you Lord is still healthy!

Speaking of Hayley, she is having some teeth problems. More like a tooth problem really. One tooth is bad, and last night I noticed it was broken. I'm not sure what is going on. She brushes her teeth, drinks nursery water, we don't give her juice at bedtime and she rarely eats sugary stuff. What really baffles me, is it's just the one tooth. I've started using my toothpaste on her, very little of course. I don't think the training toothpaste really does anything. I've also stopped giving her juice. I don't want her other little teeth to get messed up.

We are tying to get a referral for her to get seen by a dentist. Our dental insurance doesn't cover her till she is 4 but they will make exceptions if needed. We just have to tell them what is going on and I guess they will send her to the dentist that we choose. I'm going to have to make some phone calls to see if the ones that take our insurance will even see kids under 2.

Her broken tooth doesn't seem to be bothering her at all though. She is eating normally. I'm just afraid that the problem will spread to the root or something. I know it just a baby tooth, but i don't know how it will affect her adult teeth.

Prayers for her little teefies please!

also

Prayers for Tom.

He test in 11 days! I thought he had one more month! It would be so great if he could make it first try!

everybody's doing it!

weekly meal planning!

Sunday: (yes i start on sunday. not monday)

It was supposed to be chicken and fried rice, but that seemed like too much work in my state so i made enchiladas instead

Monday:

welcome to moes!

Tuesday:

brinner, french toast, eggs, and bacon

Wednesday:

chicken and fried rice

Thursday:

twice baked potatoes with cheese and broccoli

Friday:

we did pizza and movie a week early, so maybe panera bread, i'm not seeing many leftovers being around.

the check out lady at harris teeter was very interested in the notebook carry with me every week.

it isn't a special notebook, just a spiral bound jonas brothers notebook.

it's jonas brothers because, jonas is convinced that they are his personal brothers and insist on buying things with their image on them. (thankfully so far its a lunch box, 2 notebooks, some pens and pencils he found at big lots and his yearly christmas ornament)

anyway, back to my notebook.

i love grocery shopping

i love coupon clipping

and i love list making.

so take a guess at what this notebook is for.

every friday night, i sit on the couch with this notebook, all my coupons and my mac with my coupons sites, the harris teeter sale ad, and various recipe site open.

i make a list of meals on the front of the paper on the back i again write out each meal, but i then write the items i need for each meal. i then make a 'general list' of things we regularly buy plus maybe a splurge, (like if ice cream is or pop is b1g1)

if i have a coupon for an item i mark it, if the coupon can be doubled i mark that too. and if the item is going to be free, well it gets a star!

i don't stick to brands on many things. bread frequently changes do to sales, my only stipulation is that the first ingredient is not 'bleached flour' which oddly is in many 'wheat' breads. salsa also changes with the sales. we only buy raw sugar, but again the brand changes. and our coffee..well we are coffee junkies so we are really picky about what we get, coffee is one thing i will splurge on (within reason of course!) some coffees are just better than others. we love caribou coffee, but right now we have dunkin donuts. why, caribou coffee was 11 dollars a pound, and dunkin donuts (with my coupon) was 5.

for the past 5 years, i have had an average savings of 60 dollars at each trip to the grocery store.

i tote my coupons everywhere

i even took them to disney with us. they cut our denny's bill in half, and the coupon mark found for the sizzler made our breakfast buffet less than 3 bucks a person.

i frequently spend less than 2 dollars, on 20 or more dollars of grocery's.

it always stuns the cashier and the person behind me in line or next to me at self check out.

now i didn't explain all this to the check out lady, i just told her it was the weekly meal list with the grocery and coupons to match. she just nodded and said "smart" when she was done ringing up my coupons and saw that my bill cut in half, she was more impressed.

i dont think i could do this with out my notebook. (i used to do it on the computer and print it off, oddly it was a little more difficult)

it keeps me organized and its the only thing i am good at organizing.

i am very good at saving my family money (especially through grocery shopping), i am proud of that.

i'm a stay at home mom, who stinks at cleaning! i'm good with the laundry, but everything else i'm pretty terrible at.

money is the one thing i am good with (yes mom and dad, it's my money now so i'm great with it!) so i manage it the best i can to make up for my lack in ability at that other thing... :(

tom is the opposite, he is great at the cleaning, but not so great with the money. he is not irresponsible by any means, but he always has to ask 'hey, do we have money for...' or 'oh no! did we pay...?!'

its just not his thing.

but it is my thing.

i'm glad i can contribute in some way! haha

family update

sick

this word describes 3 of the 4 people in our house hold.

hayley God bless her, is the only one that's not sick. she doesn't even have a runny nose. and i pray every night it stays that way

jonas is getting over his monthly bought of bronchitis. im thinking of asking our doctor to prescribe him an inhaler or a nebulizer to take home since this is a monthly thing and not just an occasional illness.

tom came home thursday with a fever. he was nauseous achey and all that great stuff. he spent most of friday in bed. we swapped off taking naps because...

last wednesday i started feeling crummy. i chalked it up to sinus drainage. thursday i was felling worse, but again i thought it was just my sinuses. plus being an adult, and a mommy, taking a break and resting, really isn't too much of an option, so i thought i was just not getting the needed rest to feel better.

friday i took jo to school while tom slept (tom sleeping till 8 is sleeping in 2 1/2 hours!). being the great wife that i am, i stopped by starbucks to get him some chai. when the time came i picked jonas up, took him to lunch and to petsmart and walmart, giving tom two more hours to sleep. when i came home i made him get up so i could crash haha.

saturday was more running around unfortunately. you see, saturdays are our running day. we start off with breakfast at starbucks, (i am proud to say, jonas noticed they had fruit salad and ask if he and hayley could share one! so they each had that and part of a donut). after starbucks we do other various errands and end with grocery shopping. it was a fairly busy day.

sunday morning started off busy and by around noon i was really feeling awful. my ear wouldn't pop. i told tom i hadn't been in such pain since hayley was born!

yes it was that bad.

today is monday, and i'm still felling bad. my loving husband stayed home today to help with the kids so i can get the rest i need. (right now he is playing. madden, his skins are having a terrible 4th season) my ear is still stuffy but thankfully doesn't hurt. tom woke me up this morning with suddafed, aleve and orange juice.

hayley is not taking her morning nap

maybe is has something to do with the fact that she bogarted my iced vanilla latte tom brought me home (i'm so lucky! yesterday it was chocolate covered banana chips and today it was starbucks!)