I'm Calling Uncle!!!

Wow what a day. There are days when I feel like I've bitten off more than I can chew. I started the day in bed reading while Cayden watched some TV. I felt like it was going to be a lazy day. But then I got myself off my butt and decided to get some stuff done. I had to babysit today for the first time in a couple weeks so maybe I wasn't prepared....

I decided it would be fun to put up Christmas decorations with the kids. It started out fun, but in the last couple weeks I've learned that I can be a little paranoid...okay fine ALOT paranoid. I would put boxes and such back into the tupperware boxes that the decorations were and and turn around. Not five seconds later they were into the tupperwares pulling out boxes, tissue paper, any and all things that I just put away. AHHHH Yes I know, it's just paper stuff, but it drove me nuts. Well that got accomplished. (kind of)

Then the kids went downstairs and watched tv for a minute. I thought I would make up some quinoa pilaf for myself. (trying to diet) When the kids heard me they came upstairs and wanted some lunch. I was planning on giving them fish sticks. So I put them in the oven but told the kids to go play because it wouldn't be done for a little while. They didn't they sat at the table saying eat! eat! eat! I decided maybe something to drink would be helpful so I gave them a little bottle water. I poured out the first little bit. That worked until I heard laughing and turned around. They had dumped out the water from each bottle and were splashing themselves. (deep breath....deep breath) I decided I was going a bit crazy. As I was going to grab a towel I had a quick talk to myself, "It's only water...it's only water...it's only water." I got on my knees and decided the floor needed a mop anyway so it's not big deal.

The fish sticks came out of the oven and I gave them some fruit to buy the time till they cooled down. Oh yeah I forgot the most important part throughout all this lunch stuff. I got it in my mind to make some sugar cookies. I thought it would be fun for the kids to help me make it. I just don't know how some women do it...or do they? (I don't really think there are that many women out there that make cookies with TWO two year olds no matter what people tell you) The kids took turns dumping in ingrediants until it was done. I put them in the oven after the fish sticks were done.

Moving on, they ate lunch and then ran and played in the family room. I had a great time frosting the cookies and didn't think about the kids in the room with the Christmas tree that we just put together. Soon I heard, "Ou oh mommy ou oh mommy broke..."Thankfully nothing was broke the tree had just fallen over. So I now picked up my pitiful looking tree and said forget it! Kids go down stairs and watch blues clues I have to clean up. I haven't gotten to the clean up yet. I tried to turn the tree so it was facing the right way but I ended up popping the top off of it. I stuck it back on and am ready to call UNCLE!!!

FINALLY

So we finally were able to find the cord to our camera so I can show you what our house before and after pictures look like. If anyone actually still looks here...hmm I might have to send out some emails. Anyway here are some before and afters. Enjoy...we do!!! We have a few more things in our sparse little family room. Julie is coming up and bringing Mom's white couch for us during Thanksgiving. So it should make it all look really really nice.

My Awsome Haul this week

Unfortunately we're having problems loading pictures so I don't have any pictures of my haul but here is what I got for about 20 dollars and around 10 hours:

126 bottles of Joint Juice
6 lbs ground beef
2 steaks
2 pks of bone in chicken
1 lbs of chicken strips
4 4 pack of toilette paper
15 kleenix
2 Entennmanns danishes
Gallon of milk
dozen eggs
2 pkgs of bagels
20 boxes of cereal
1 capri sun
1 soda pop
3 pkgs of paper towels
2 boxes of mac n cheese
2 yogurts
2 lbs pork chops
6 lbs broccoli
1 onion
5 apples
3 tomatoes

The best part is when I turn in my reciepts for rebate I'll make 20 dollars. I also ended up with a coupon for three dollars off my next purchase. So total I made three dollars. It's been a busy week. I could keep going with the deals but I'm exhausted so we'll see if I do some more. I might try to get 20 more boxes of cereal today but I have to mail in the receipts by today so it will be tight. Anyway, lots of free stuff this week.

Also, if you are wondering what I'm going to do with my joint juice. I listed it on Freecycle and there is a lady coming to pick them up for free in a few minutes. This is an awesome way to donated and get free stuff. Just last month. I got Cayden a mega block set and a bag of balls for free. So if you have time you should join a group in your area.

Good News

Well, we heard from the bank yesterday. We were sure they were not going to do much of anything with the house. They are doing all our requests! That means that they are replacing the furnace, the are taking care of some electrical issues, mudd jacking the carport on the side of the house so it doesn't lean in towards the house, fixing the drainage problems on two of the corners of the house, taking care of the mold in the basement (that was caused by some leaks that they already took care of) and fixing the chipped paint. We are really excited about it. Now we can get started looking for carpet and stuff. I've already picked out my paint colors. I think we're going to do a really light gray with white ceilings and baseboards. The office is going to be a really light aqua color with one wall a collage of maps wall papered to the wall. Cayden's room will be a light blue decorated with Disney Car's theme. Scott's and my room will be a light tealish. I think the basement will be all gray and white I think. Anyway I'm excited. I get to start looking at curtain patterns and stuff. Hopefully everything works out. I think we're in it for good this time though. No turning back now. I think the best thing about the house is the location. It's a mile from where I work out. Maybe two from Scott's work. It's also a really nice neighborhood, with lots of big trees and green. It's also in a really good school district. When Cayden grows up he'll go to school where Scott teaches. We're really excited and nervous at the same time. We officially close on the 25th of Sept. It depends on how long the bank takes to fix everything, but we're hoping that we can move up the date a week or so. That will give us enough time to come clean the hosue, take out the carpet, fix walls and baseboards, and paint. Lots to do now. Wish us luck!!

Free Groceries?

Being frugal is Fabulous is giving away two 30 dollar gift cards to Kroger stores. There is nothing better than free groceries!! You can check it out here

http://www.beingfrugalisfabulous.com/2009/08/kroger-gift-card-giveaway.html/comment-page-1#comment-4309

Summer Fun

One way we have stayed cool this summer is by going and playing at the fountains down the street. Cayden loves them. At first he was a little hesitant, But I guess Scott said he had to shove him in the first time and then he had a really good time after that.

Blue Blue Blue

Well we had our inspection today. OUCH not too fun. We found out a few things about the house that kind of made us think blue thoughts. We knew from the get go that it was going to be a bit of a fix-up. So we expected some things. I guess we should have expected more. The roof needs replacing, the furnace is done. So we would need a completely new furnace, the previous furnace is so old it's not worth fixing. The hot water heater is just about gone as well. We knew about the mold issue, but it's still not pretty. And there were some electrical issues. Along with a few structural concerns... on top of the fact that the house needs new carpet paint, molding, some new doors. So we came to the conclusion that it's probably not going to work out for us. We countered the bank and asked them to fix all the things that fha requires them to fix if we get an FHA loan. I'm sure that they will probably say no go. But then we'd have an out.

GRRRRR it's just frustrating. We are having such a hard time finding our house. We don't really know where to go from here. We feel like maybe a house isn't in our cards. But we're afraid that if the market goes back up one is never going to be in our cards because then we'd never be able to afford a house. It's just plain not fun at all.

Well, that's your update. I ruined my diet today drowning in my sorrows. I have to go turn off the timer because I already took out the cake....

busy busy bees

that's what we have been this summer! Between Scott teaching jump start (kind of like summer school) Going to Comic Con for a week, and taking 12 masters credits it has been one busy summer. Cayden and I have just been staying alive throughout the hotness. Yes, I know, we haven't even hit 100. But it gets pretty sweaty in our apartment. We have been complaining about our ceiling fan because it goes and goes but we never feel any wind from it. Finally we talked to Scott's parents. I guess we had it adjusted so the wind went up instead of down. There is a little switch. WHO KNEW!!!

We also have been looking for a house. It's been one disappointment after another. It seems like the market up here in Denver is in full swing. I guess our Realtor has six closings this month. We would find a house that we loved and it would already have so many offers on it that they either weren't taking any more, or the previous offers were so high that we couldn't compete. We must have been turned down on houses more than ten times. We finally found one that we liked and it didn't seem like too much work. We put an offer in and...it got accepted! We're excited. So we are technically under contract. We have the inspection on Tuesday (previously mentioned) if there isn't anything majorly wrong with it then I think it's ours. I'll let you know after the inspection how things went. I've picked out a color scheme that I like with the house. I'll take pictures and let you all know what we decide after we know for sure if we have the house yet.

This week should be a bit crazy for our family. I work almost 30 hours and Scott goes back to work on Thursday. So with everything we have lots of babysitting for Cayden. It seems like this last week of summer might just kick our tooshes. Then it's back to the 'old grind.

The missionaries just stopped by so we fed them some ice cream and talked a bit...where was I. Hmm Anyway it's going to be busy this week. I'll let you know more when we get there.

Here is a picture of Cayden enjoying the present Scott brought back for him from comic con.

Bye Bye Paci!!!!

Bye Bye pacis!!! I was really scared to take these away from Cayden, because I didn't know what to expect. We tried for a month or more to just let him take them when he was sleeping. But then he would get sick and we'd feel bad for him and give them to him during the day. So we decided that we needed to get rid of them before Scott went back to work. So one night I was fed up with it and I cut them off. Surprisingly he went to sleep fine. But he woke up at three the next morning. Bless Scott's heart he got up with him and stayed up all day. We had some problems putting him to bed, but once he got the routine down he's doing fine. One thing I like about him not having his paci is that he talks a lot more now. Which still isn't a whole ton, but it's more than when he had the paci in his mouth. Next is potty training. I think I'm going to wait until we get into the new house...well old new house. But I'll tell you more about it later on this week. Just keep your fingers crossed for me that the inspection goes okay on Tuesday and nothing big shows it's ugly head.

Crazy Cayden

Well I just emptied my camera and found some fun pictures. Cayden has been getting into our bed with his books...or mine and pretending to read. It's been really cute. Other than that the rest are just self explanatory.

CATCH UP

Wow it's been a crazy month here at the Allen household. I haven't posted anything because it's just been really really busy and crazy. So I thought I would update you on some of the highlights of the last month or two.

No Doubt Concert
Scott and I went and had a blast. It was my first concert and I wasn't too excited to go. I didn't really know what to expect. We sat on a slope on the grass so by the time it was over my feet kind of hurt from standing on an incline. But other than that we had a really fun time. It was neat to be around so much energy. It was just amazing to be be amongst is all. A bit overwhelming.

Girls Camp
Girls camp was also a lot of fun. However I'm glad it's over. It was a lot of work and not much sleep. We had a really good set of girls who went to bed on time and woke up relatively easy. I was kind of afraid because the ladies before us were there for a long time. So I thought the girls wouldn't be too happy with us because we did stuff differently. But it all worked out fine. The girls had a ball and so did I. It was a high adventure camp so I got to do a zip line and a cat walk. There were other things, but I just didn't do all of it. It was neat watching the girls overcome fears and see how proud they were of themselves. It was a good experience. Just a lot of work.

Scott stuff
Scott's been teaching a program called jump start. It's kind of a cool program. The new freshmen that didn't pass their proficiency exams go to the program to help them with their writing and math. Scott does the writing and another teacher does the math. Tomorrow is his last day I think he's excited. It will be nice to have six weeks off before school starts. The last full week of July Scott is headed to San Diego for a Comic Convention. He's spent the last year selling off lots of his hobbies to pay his way. It's been kind of fun watching him scrounge the house for things for him to sell. But he's made a surprisingly little fortune for him to take.

Cayden Stuff
Cayden is doing good. We took him to the doctor yesterday because he keeps getting fevers. But today he was fine. He seems to catch colds and then get better and catch them again, so I don't know if it's one big bad cold or two colds. He did it in March too. But he's doing fine other than that. I'm a bit concerned with his speaking. He still isn't talking much. But just give him time right. He is still our crazy active boy who is insainly independant. He wants to do everything his own way and doesn't want any help with it.

Amy Stuff
I really haven't been up to much. Just girls camp and being a mom. I got a gym membership for ten bucks a month and they watch Cayden for free. So I've been doing that in the mornings. Not lately because Cayden's been sick and I've been at camp. But before that I was doing it at least three times a week. I enjoy it. Deal wise, I haven't found that many deals lately. It seems like things have dried up for a bit. But I still loyally check my blogs for any good deals I see. There is one at Safeway, Vons. They have some tortillas on sale up here .99c. In the meat department there is a blinky machine that spits out coupons for .75c off the same brand of tortillas. Up here my stores double to a dollar. So it added up to being only .03c a package with tax. Not to shabby of a deal. It was enough to get me excited. I wish I had more room in my freezer. But I was only able to get three packages. Maybe I'll get more next week. I haven't been doing much scrapbooking but I have a book for Julie that I need to get started on so I do have something to work on.

All in all things have been going well. We have an offer on a house that we won't hear back from for a while. We're a bit excited about it. It's kind of a dump, but we plan on fixing it up and making it look real nice. There is that first time homeowners tax credit that we will use to put new carpet and paint. Then we'll just have to save to fix up all the rest. But if we get it for what we're asking then the payments would be four dollars less than our rent. That includes everything, PMI, insurance...everything. But the bank that owns it went bankrupt and the other bank is kind of behind. So we don't expect to hear back from them until August. So we're just being patient.

Well enough of my rambelings. Sorry no pictures this time. Maybe I'll see what's on our camera and put up a few in the next couple of days.

Trying to cool down!!!

So it's been pretty hot up here in Colorado the last couple of days. Now before all you southerners start judging me..we don't have any AC. The last two days it has been 80+ inside the house. It's been hot all day long and it doesn't cool down in the house until about ten. Last night I didn't put pajama bottoms on Cayden because it was just too hot. But he got these new Lightning McQueen crocks at the store yesterday for his birthday (Thanks Great Grandma and Grandpa Allen). He did not want to go down to sleep with out them. So I let him put them on. Well once it got dark I went in a opened his window. This is what I found:

Julie Visiting

Well, last weekend Julie, my sister, came up from New Mexico and visited us. She brought along her two youngest, Connor and Becky. We had a lot of fun. We just hung out on Friday. We went to the park, and to Mcdonalds. We had a crazy day on Saturday. We woke up and packed a lunch then went to the zoo. We had a lot of fun. They wanted to see everything which was okay because I haven't ever seen everything. I think my favorite animal was one of the monkeys. It was high up in it's cage just swinging away. Going from one side to the other. It was fun to watch how gracefully they swing. It looks so effortless! Anyway, we had lunch there and were just slightly attached by the geese. But we had a good time. That afternoon/evening Scott watched all the kids for us while Julie and I went out and had some fun. We initially were going to go to the mall but we had had so much fun in Joann's the previous day with all the kids, or just Cayden, causing havoc we decided to go there alone. Then we went to the beauty college and got pedicures. Then we went out to dinner. It was a lot of fun. We could have been out all night long. But children were calling so we went home and relaxed and played Rock band the rest of the evening. Sadly they had to leave the next morning. But it was a lot of fun having them over. Here are a few pics.

Happy Birthday Cayden....yesterday

Yesterday was Cayden's Birthday. We celebrated on Saturday with the fam. Grandma and Grandpa took us out to an amusement park for toddlers. We thought that he would love all the little rides. Especially the little train. But the one toy that caught his eye was...you guessed it the SLIDE! We could have gone to a park!! But he went up and down and up and down that slide like crazy. He also enjoyed the set of stairs and surprisingly the bounce house. I didn't think he'd like it at all but wow he loved jumping and falling and flipping all over the place. It got some engery out. He really enjoyed himself.

Cayden has a sock fetish. For a long time we had one sock that was a CARS sock. We lost the other one. But he wore that sock everyday for about six days straight. We would put him in clean socks and he would rip one off and hand us the CARS sock. I even tried hiding the sock from him. But he would always find it. So for his birthday Grandma gave him seven pairs of cars and sesame street socks. Now he wears them when he goes to bed...actually all the time. He doesn't ever want to be without his socks. He also got lots of Cars cars a spirally thingy that races cars. He got a vacume some thomas the train stuff, and he got a really cool sand box thingy that you can play with standing up. All in all he really enjoyed the day.

Alittle bit about Cayden. Boy is he active. He's always on the move. Lately we've been able to stop him to give us loves but then he's off again. If he could do anything it would be play outside. He'd stay outside forever if you let him. He loves hotwheels and since we took his paci away he sucks on those. He's a very independant little boy. He no longer wants ANY help going up and down the stairs. If I attemp to be will have non of it. He's talking some. He more just makes up hand movements with sound but it's coming along. All in all he's a pretty happy boy

my deal run today

I'm really excited about the deal I did today. I made three transactions and each one was about a dollar or a little over. This is what I got:

8 boxes of Orville Redenbacker popcorn
7 boxes of Poptarts
2 boxes of Capri Sun
6 boxes of dishwasher tabs thingys electrosol stuff
24 rolls of toilette paper
10 McCormicks spices
8 boxes of Mac N Cheese
7 hand pumps of hand wash

I think that's it. While Scott was bringing it up he asked how much I spent and I said around three dollars and he freaked out and said, "30 dollars!!!" The thing that is so funny about that is if I had paid without coupons or anything it would have been at least eighty dollars!!! So him thinking 30 was a lot was kind of funny. I did, however, go and buy seven newspapers this morning at the dollar store so I guess you could say I spend around ten dollars when it comes to coupons and product. But it's always fun to see how low you can get your bill. Maybe I'll show you a picture of all the stuff I have after this deal at Safeway is over in two weeks.

picture round-up

So I haven't posted in a long time!! So I thought I would post a few pics. of what we have been up to. Right before spring break we had a huge snow storm so Scott got the two days before spring break off as well. On the Friday before we thought we would take Cayden sledding. I think he had more fun riding the sled over to the hill and eating his cookie than actually sledding.

I'm in the Activities commitee and we threw an Easter party for the kids in the primary the day before Easter. This was Cayden's first Easter that he was actually able to do stuff in. He had a blast. We limited the kids ten eggs so we would let Cayden find eggs then go and hide them, then he would find them and we would hide them. He had a lot of fun.

I started watching a little girl for a few hours during the day. The two of them like climbing up into the rocking chair together. I thought it was pretty cute.

Everything has been going pretty well for us up here. Cayden has been sleeping a lot better once we got him on Prilosec for his acid reflux. Yesterday I got called to be the Camp Director of our ward. I'm ubber excited, although it seems that a lot has been put off so I have lots to do before Camp. It's only in about a month and a half. I feel a little young to be the director. I'm not used to being in charge. I do better when I'm under someone else and just offer suggestions. So it will be a learning experience for me

Our Own eCONEmic

Well, as many of you know Ben and Jerry's has a thing going today that if you bring in a can of food they will give you a scoop of icecream for a buck. So Cayden and I took off at about quarter to ten and went a ways to the nearest store. Well they don't open until eleven. DUH!!!! So the whole way over I was telling Cayden that we were getting icecream and I was excited about it too. So we decided to have our own eCONEmic relief day our own way....with a dilly bar!!! We throughly enjoyed ourselves.

nothing beats it!!!

Cayden and I have been sick all weekend long...again! This time I thought we needed a little treat. So I took us out to McDonalds and we brought the food home and shared lunch. As I was sitting there looking at our son, I just got an overwhelming feeling of love. Nothing beats sharing McDonalds with the one you love. Our kitchen is a mess, and there are tons of things to do. But it's nice to just take a breather and remember what life is all about....no not McDonalds!!!...Love!!

catch up

Wow what a couple weeks it has been in the Allen household. Cayden has been sick almost a month now with stuff coming out both ends. Yuck. Yesterday we went and got him some prilosec to see if maybe he has acid reflux. We think this because he's not sleeping at nights and when he does wake up he's really really upset. He's also been throwing up and spitting up more than normal. So last night was the first night of the prilosec and it was a complete difference. However, just trying to get him to take the medicine was bad enough. He threw up twice just tasting the stuff. I tasted and it was absolutely disgusting. I tried putting it in juices and stuff and nothing masked that nasty concoction. Anyway he slept good...except now he's got a cough and a slight fever. UGH I think the fever might be because he's teething. I don't know anymore. Anyway I thought I would post a few pictures of cayden to wet your appetite.

Let's see... I'll explain a few. I'm going to do the last first. The last one was the start of the diarrhea. He exploded at a friend's house. She has a girl and the only clothes she has were girl clothes. He absolutely refused the purple top with hearts on it. I tried to put it on and he would have none of it. So I just zipped up his manly Nike jacket and went on our way. He's in the car getting ready to get changed again. Obviously he knows somethings up, and he's not happy about it! Then the other two were just Scott playing with Cayden.

Week of Groceries

So I thought it would be fun to post what I got this week for my fifty dollars worth of grocery money for the week. Lets see:

20 boxes of cereal
2 jars of tarter sauce
2 candy bars
bag of Easter candy
toothpicks
7lbs of steak
3lbs of apples
3 lbs of bananas
3 bottles of pedialite
a case of pedialite pops
4 boxes of Granola bars
14 cans of cream of chicken soup
Big jar of applesauce
2 bagels
6 single serve Michael Angelo's frozen dinners
a bag of fish sticks
a bag of fish filets
2 bags of french fries
milk
bread
pizza sauce....

I think that's it. Not too bad for fifty dollars. This next week is going to be much slower. I don't see many deals that great coming up. I think I'm off to eat some cereal!!

Another Day at the Zoo

I thought this picture was funny!! The ducks totally just came up to Cayden and tried to eat his snacks. Any of you who know Cayden...or us know that we don't like anyone taking our snacks. He was happy until he saw the duck was closing in on HIS food!!

If you look closely you can see Cayden sitting on the park bench. I just love this picture. It kind of gives me a Winney the Pooh feel.
Of course he had to play with the giant HIPPO! He liked knocking on it.
Cayden and I infront of the camels. My little boy is growing up too fast!

We had a great day. We are really enjoying the membership to the zoo. We feel like we can go anytime we want but don't have to stay all day long. The winter this year seems to be really mild. But who knows I've only been here for this winter so I don't have others to compare it too. All I know is that we have had some great days for going to the zoo.