wow - christmas has come and gone...........

I can't believe it's over!!

We celebrated the beginning of Christmas Eve at my older sister's house - Deniese. She was having a few friends over for a small Christmas party and Jake and I had to crash it early because "Santa" had to put together a few of Jake's toys.........kind of hard to put together a HUGE drum set with Jake in the very next room!! LOL....so, I took him over to Deniese's house for a while.........he had a great time playing with his friend Curtis - they were playing Star Wars with Jake's new swords that he had previously opened (I was a sucker and let him open two gifts prior to Christmas eve - one was a Sponge bob pillow and the other was his star wars swords!).......

We left Deniese's house around 7:00 and hurried home for Christmas with the in-laws. Jake was so excited because we open all our gifts from each other on Christmas eve so that the only gifts on Christmas morning are the ones from "Santa"!! My in-laws have a long standing tradition of serving homemade summer sausage and German Noodle soup (since they are full fledged German!). The noodle soup is AMAZING - but since the noodles are homemade - it tends to take forever. I will have to learn how to make it though - so I can pass on the tradition as well. This was the first year that Jake would eat it - and he liked it - so I guess I'd better start learning! The homemade summer sausage is very good too .....that - I have learned how to make and it's not bad for you like the regular summer sausage - this is made with the leanest meat you can find!

After dinner - we started opening gifts - Jake was so pumped - he could hardly stand himself.......he got books, (which when he opened these - he said "I don't want books!!) LOL. He got a children's bible, clothes, drum sticks, DS Lite (gameboy with several games)PJ's, and several other little toys. Jake had also purchased - by himself at the santa shop at school - gifts for all of us - so, as we opened each one - his face was lit up like the Christmas tree itself! Because Daddy likes sports - he got sports cards.....too funny! Mommy got a necklace - Nana (grandma) got a bracelet and Pop (grandpa) got some kind of tool.....he was so excited - these are the precious gifts that I will hold onto forever. Mark had taken him shopping for me - so, in that gift (that Jake picked out) were a bunch of socks (for the gym) and a hand held mirror......sweet. I took him for Mark and Mark didn't get as lucky as Jake picked out this god awful Built Ford Tough baseball cap!!!!! Oh well - Mark can mow in it!!! LOL

Once everything settled down - Nana read the Christmas story to Jake and we finally got him in the bed around 10:30......and then, Santa came to see us!!! It was quite the sight - 4 adults trying to bring in a HUGE drum set and be quiet all at the same time!!!!! Mission accomplished though......

Christmas morning.........we (the parents) wake up at 6:00 because we want to be stationed in the living room to see his face when he wakes up and walks in there.......7:00 rolls around and I'm like - OK - I can't take it anymore - i'm waking him up!!!!!! And, I did!!!! LOL.....

Here is the thing about Jake - he is EXACTLY like his dad when it comes to showing excitement......that would be - NONE........so, he walks into the living room and when he sees his drums - instead of jumping up and down - like I'm hoping he will - he just stands there in awe and grabs his chest........and then the cutest thing comes out of his mouth......he says "I think my heart is going to stop!"!!!!! LOL...we cracked up!!!!! Then, he got excited - he also got from santa a new - real - Junior Electric guitar with the amplifier and a cord - so he thinks he is it on a stick!!!!

Needless to say - he hasn't left his band room in DAYS - and mommy has severe ear aches!!! LOL.....not really - if he didn't know what he was doing - it might be different - but since he plays the drum's exceptionally well for a 6 year old - it's not bad at all. I've actually learned how to tune him out - so I can basically ignore him!

Christmas dinner was great - my sisters, Carla and Deniese, (with her husband Glenn and his dad) came over as well as my in-laws and we ate until we were stuffed above and beyond!!!

The day after Christmas - we headed to Conroe for the Patrick Christmas - where we ate again!!! That was lots of fun as well - it's always fun to see everyone in one setting. Grammy and Popsie was gracious to host us this year and it's always a treat to be in their home.......

Now, my house is back to normal - Christmas stuff is in the attic and one more year has passed.......we are ready for a new year - with new blessings and new challenges - God has been really good to us and for that, we are so thankful.

New things are on the horizon for us and we are grabbing on to them and running full force. Looking forward to what the new year has in store for us.

Hope that all of you have a Blessed and Prosperous 2010.....May God bless each of you above and beyond what you could even imagine!

Love from our family
Karen

Happy Birthday Dad!!!

Every day the whole year through,
I feel grateful you are my father.
Some fathers don't have time for their kids,
But for you I'm never a bother.

You always make the effort to listen and share;
You're always there when you're needed.
It warms me to know how much you care,
And with that knowledge my worries are defeated

Dad, you are truly admired and adored,
And as your daughter, I hope that you know,
These sentiments fill me each day of the year,
And my love for you continues to grow.

I love this poem!!!! It shares everything that I feel towards you Dad. I love you and I hope that your day is filled with Joy. Have a great birthday!! I know you will have a fun filled day tomorrow with Shirley and her kids - you have been a wonderful step-dad and popsie to all her kids......never treating them differently or like they weren't yours - that says alot about your character! They know that you haven't tried to take their fathers place - you just offered yourself to them for who you are........

We are looking forward to spending time with you and Shirley on Saturday.......we love you bunches!!!

Karen

Polar Express anyone?

Jake's last day of school on Friday was soooo cute! They planned a party following the Polar Express movie (for those of you who haven't seen the movie - it's about a little boy who doesn't believe in Christmas or Santa anymore and he jumps on a magical train that takes him to the north pole).......they had the hallways decorated like a train - with train tracks down the middle of the floor and polar express signs everywhere - and snow flakes falling from the ceiling. In the classroom - they had the chairs lined up like they were on a train!! Too cute. They also got to wear their PJ's to school that day because in the movie - the little boy is asleep when he is captured away on the magical train - so he is in his pj's the whole movie. Jake had a blast!!!

They got to decorate a cookie with icing and M&M's and then of course, eat it!! (jake's favorite part)


They also played games - like running across the classroom with a bag of presents that they had to empty, restuff the bag with the presents and run back to their classmate and switch off! The other game was "snow blower" and it was where you took an empty toilet paper roll (which they decorated with stickers) and then they had to lay on the floor and blow a cotton ball (snow) across the finish line...........so cute!!!!! Of course, with the noise and excitement - Jake was way over stimulated and just stood on the side lines and cheered - he would have NO part of the games - but I've learned not to push him - just to let him be - but he still had fun!!!

Hope everyone has a blessed Christmas week.

Karen

coupon queen

For the guys that read my blog - this one is about coupons - so you may not be interested!! LOL

ok - so my friend Beckie from church has been talking to me for months about the coupon game that she does and how successful she is at saving money with it. Example: When Kroger has these huge sales - like mix and match 10 items for $10 and then along with all the sales items - if you have coupons within a certain amount - then you can triple, double your coupons - you can purchase a TON of groceries for less money. Beckie has gone to the store before and bought like $400 dollars worth of groceries for $100 or less...................I'm like - say what??

We went to a picnic a couple of months ago and she started talking about this with me and my husband was talking to some other people - however, when he heard the words "saving money" he almost got whip lash from turning his head to try to hear the conversation!!! I thought - uh oh - I'm doomed!!! Needless to say - when Beckie was finished describing what it was all about - Mark was all over that like crazy!!! I was thinking - I don't think so - I mean - who the heck wants to sit down and pour over coupons for hours trying to save .50c? However, I didn't understand that there were websites that did all the work for you - from telling you which paper the coupon came out of to what is free, where to purchase, etc............so, ok - if someone else will do the leg work - I'm all about it! LOL

Beckie came to my house one evening and gave me the low down - like the websites to visit that show you what the sales are, which coupon book the coupons are in, etc......and so, I've started the process. Now, this is not an easy process and I haven't accomplished it like Beckie has - but, I am learning.............I had no idea at the beginning that Kroger always doubles and triples coupons all the time - nor did I know they did 10 for $10.....you see - I never really paid attention to sales or coupons - I just bought what I needed and left...........I did plan my meals out for the month - that saved some money because I wasn't running to the store once a week - but when I would get bored with that - then I would start going once a week and spending twice the amount needed..............so, here I am - about to become "coupon queen".

I don't work - no reason I can't take the time to sit down and pay attention to what is on sale - right? I've got a stack of coupons - they look nice.............now I have to figure out what to do with them!! Beckie brought over her little "filing system" and showed me how she does it and what she does with each set of coupons out of the newspaper - she basically has a hanging folder with the date of the newspaper on top - the coupons are just dropped down in there and when she logs on to the websites (listed below) and searches out the coupons - the website will tell her which paper the coupon was in and she goes right to it..............confused yet? I was SPEECHLESS......I'm thinking - people actually do this????? wow!

So, she talked me into taking the coupons that I had - checking out the website and going to Krogers (it just so happened that they were having a huge sale that weekend) to purchase the items that I would need. Now, 10 items for $10 seems like a lot - I mean - who the heck needs 10 cool whips and 10 bags of pretzels and 10 2 liter diet cokes............well, obviously - I did!!!!! I use cool whip like it's going out of style - so I bought 10 and froze them. We drink diet coke like mad - so I bought them - I bake spicy pretzels during the holidays like crazy - so I bought the pretzels!!!!! I was pumped at this point. I used my coupons for the other items - and I purchased like 80 items and only spent like $40................WOO HOO - I was hooked!!!!! So, last night - I pulled out the Kroger sales paper (ok - I have never looked at a sales paper in my LIFE) and wrote down what I needed for the next two weeks - for Christmas and New Years and I went to the grocery store..........I bought all my groceries for Christmas dinner and the makings for 9 other meals and only spent $150..............that may seem high to some - but you have to realize - I normally spend about $300!!! I cut my moola in half!!! I'm starting to get excited about this.......now it's going to become a challenge for me..........some of my friends want to do it too - so after the first of the year - I'm going to get Beckie to help us and I will blog about it too.........

Some of the websites - if you are interested in checking them out to just see what is out there are as follows (also, if you play the coupon game and have any suggestions or new websites - please leave a comment or email me at karkaypat@yahoo.com and I will add your thoughts/suggestions/comments to the blog!).

cell fire www.cellfire.com
Short cuts www.shortcuts.com
P&G savers www.pgeverydaysolutions.com
Vocalpoint www.vocalpoint.com
Hot coupon world www.hotcouponworld.com
Coupon Mom www.couponmom.com
Coupon Tom www.coupontom.com

Hot coupon world and coupon Mom are my favorite!!

It will seem VERY overwhelming at the beginning - in fact - it is still overwhelming to me because I'm not good at it yet - but I am determined!!! I'm thinking the more I save on groceries, the more I can spend elsewhere - like on ME...ok maybe on Jake and Mark too!!! LOL...I know, I know - I'm trying to save money - not keep spending it!! LOL

Every penny saved is a good thing - especially these days. So, saddle up and join the rest of us FREAKS that stand in the grocery line and hold up traffic because we have an envelope full of coupons that we are DETERMINED to use!

Love to all
karen

Wow - it's Christmas time in Texas..........

OMG - where has the time gone??? I can't believe that it's been since October since I have posted anything about anything! Not that my life has been boring by any stretch of the imagination - it's just finding the time to sit down and write it out.......I wish I was more like Tracie (my step-sister) she is a great blogger...........I think I'm going to have to do like she does and post at midnight!!! LOL

Jake is moving right along in school.....he has mastered reading!!!!! The first time he came home and actually read his book to me - I cried!!!! Am I a baby or what! I just couldn't believe that he was reading.....he has come such a long way!!! When I think about the doctors telling us that he would be mentally retarded and blind - and he is perfect in so many ways - I can't help but cry when he accomplishes something is so hard for him......yet so easy for others. Such a proud moment for all of us!

He is also in Karate!!! He loves it......not sure if I have posted about that previous - but he is taking Karate and it is helping his motor skills so much! It's almost like physical therapy - helping with his balance and self control........he is too cute running around in his karate uniform. He goes two times a week - and he is loving it.

We have also signed him up for Basketball. We are trying to encourage him in all the things that he wants to try out for.......even knowing that he is not going to do good 0r be good at it....it's so hard for me to sit back and watch him try to accomplish something. I know it's good for him to try everything but as a mom - I don't want him to feel like he can't do something because of his limits. Mark gets so upset with me because i want to talk to all the coaches and let them know that he was born micro preemie - can't do everything like everyone else - Mark wants me to wait and let Jake at least try things before helping him............drives me crazy!!!! I don't want people making fun of him or wondering why he can't do things like everyone else.........I know I'm hindering him - and I'm working on it.............but, it's a mommy's heart out there.

The good thing about Jake is that he doesn't realize that he has a disability or a developmental issue - he thinks he is just as good or better than the other kids....which is to his advantage in some things and he would just as soon knock one of the kids in the face if they talk about him as he would to look at them (I know - I'm sorry that he takes after me!!!!). It was so cute at basketball tryouts because he didn't even really know how to dribble - but one of the guys that were accessing the kids would walk over to him and help him along - I was over on the sidelines just a praying!!! LOL When it was time to divvy the kids up into the teams - Mark and I were discussing who we wanted to be his coach............I couldn't take it anymore - so I went straight over to the coach that we wanted and asked him if he could take jake on his team....he ask me why - I told him that I liked the way that he was helping Jake during practice and that Jake was preemie and I wanted someone who would have the patience with Jake!!! I could feel Mark's eyes burning a hole in my back.....ROFL!!!! BUT, get this.............the man looked at me and said, "I would be honored to have him - my son over there (he pointed out this really tall dude) was born 8 weeks early and look at him now! I could have kissed him!!!!!! I looked at Mark and just smiled........mommas know best -right? LOL

Jake is also now the official drummer for the children's church at New Covenant! He thinks he is the coolest thing since bread. He even goes to band practice on Tuesday nights..........how many 6 year old's do that? He rocks the house! It's a definite god given talent - he is like a prodigy child.....all he has to do is hear a song and he can pick up the beat - amazing and freaky all at the same time!

I've been keeping myself busy. I volunteer at the school quite a bit....learning all the teachers and making myself known..............................Suzy - I know you find that hard to believe! LOL It's been lots of fun working up there and "brown nosing" as my husband puts it! I've made some really good friends by working up there - so it's been worth it.

Christmas is just around the corner - can not believe it!!! I'm ready though - it's the first time in a long time that I'm completely ready and still have a week left! Jake is so excited..............I love watching Christmas through a child's eyes - it's so magical.

I hope that everyone has a blessed week and if I have left anything off - I'll update again soon.

BTW - please keep Carla in your prayers - she is still not feeling a 100% and we really need for the doctors to find out what is wrong with her...........

Be blessed!
Karen