Take that, JCPenny's......

A few times a year JCPenney sends out a $10 off a $10 purchase. It is really a pretty decent coupon. However, it is a minimum of a $10 (without taxes) purchase - so it can be ever so slightly tricky. You must spend a minimum of $.70 (In Indiana)to cover the taxes.

Now, if you NEED something prior to the coupon coming, I don't mind "applying" that towards a bigger purchase. If I can't think of something we need, my goal is to find something that I can use, and spend as little money as possible. 2 times ago when the coupon came, I used it to get a birthday gift for someone - and spend about $5.

At Christmas the coupon came and I got a Christmas ornament. I spent about $1.10 and thought I had done pretty well. That was until YESTERDAY.

The coupon came and I couldn't think of anything I needed, so I went in the store and set out my goal to spend as little money as possible.

Without all the details - suffice it to say I beat my own record in to the ground.

I got the following:

A maternity shirt on clearance - original price - $40. Clearance price - $4.97
A maternity sweater on clearance - original price - $36.00. Clearance price - $2.97
2 pairs of newborn pants for Miles - original price - $17/pair. Clearance - 2.99

When all was said and done - I left the store with these items for a total of.....drum roll please.......like $.80 or $.90.

Victory to the bargain hunters! I am eager for my next Penny's coupon.

A bad night at the Stewarts -

It all began innocently enough. I was running errands and had the desire for a decaf caramel frappacino from my beloved Starbucks. I treat myself to them occassionally, and they have never posed a problem. It was about 4:00 in the afternoon. I enjoyed my delicious beverage/snack oh so much and felt fine - well, felt fine for all of about an hour. I came back home for a little while and realized I needed to pop over to Target. I went in to Target and was grabbing a folder/organizer - when all of the sudden I thought I was going to hurl all over the floor at Target. Hello?!? What the heck is that all about? I haven't been "hit" with that wave of sickness in quite a while. I made it back home without puking - and hoped a Zofran would help.

When I arrived home, I came in the house and took one look and Hans and knew he wasn't feeling well. Occassionally he gets what Nate and I refer to as "the fidgets." Generally "the fidgets" stem from one of three issues - the infamous 3 Bs - Back, Belly, or Butt. Sometimes he pulls his back out. Sometimes he has a belly ache. He has had a past history of anal sack issues, which explains the "butt" B. After we watch him for a little bit we can usually determine which one of these it is by his actions. Turns out this time Nate and I are putting our bet on the belly.

Well, by around 10:00 the situation was this: Hans was a mess - not sitting still, being "whiney" (and yes, the dog can absolutely be "whiney" - he whimpers and cries and is just generally extra needy.) And then there was me......I had turned into a three year old - "I don't feel well," "My belly hurts, "I don't want to throw up." Suffice it to say - the poor hubby love knew he was in for a fun night.

We laid down - but Hans had to be in his "cage" on the floor of our bedroom. He was making pathetic noises and keep disrupting us. I woke up at 1:00 and knew my cries of "I don't want to throw up" weren't going to hold any water. Even though it was 9 hours after the frappacino - the frapaccino made its way back up - and none to nicely (as if there is a nice way to puke.....) Meanwhile I am calling Nate in. "I need water. Can you get me some medicine? Can you tuck me back in? I don't feel well....." Blah, Blah, Blah.

Nate tried to lay back down. I felt a little bit bettter after the "hurl" incident. However, Hans was back to whining an extra amount, so poor hunnie took Hans in to the guest bedroom and Nate slept in there with him.

Boy - in between myself and Hans, we are giving Nate some GREAT practice for what it is going to be like to have kids!

Thanks goodness today was my "day off" - so although I had some plans, I was able to cancel those for the day. I still don't feel great, but I am eating some bland foods and having a drink. So far, so good - I don't think they will be coming back up.

No more caramel frappacinos for me - I can't think that I will want one of those any time soon...............

The CRAZIEST lady, ever....

Let's face a few facts. I am a perfectionist. I am a control freak. With these two traits, and somehow woven in to both of them and yet completely independently at the same time - I am the queen of the worry warts.

As you may imagine - this has translated through to the pregnancy. I understand most women worry a little bit, sometimes, over some things. But take the fact that I had a miscarriage last summer, combine it with being pregnant again, and sprinkle in all of my other "non-pregnant" issues and you have the recipe for DISASTER on an epic scale.

With all of these things, you may wonder - how in the heck is this lady not in an insane asylum? Well, it is one simple answer - MY AMAZING HUSBAND.

I got a good one - that has been evident for nearly 8 years. In many ways, we are complete opposites, and yet we share many of the same goals and traits. I feel this makes us quite a team.

I have to give the boy credit - he deserves the "medal of honor" not only for the pregnancy, but for our entire relationship. If we could somehow synthesize his DNA - I am more than convinced that it would act as a calming factor - at least, this is what it does to me. I get worked up, and he calms me down. I panic - he speaks reason and reason becomes all too clear to me. I am down and he cheers me up.

I have had more than a couple of instances recently where I have gotten "worried" over things that I KNEW on some level I didn't need to be worried about. The logical part of my brain knew this, and yet - here I was - all worried over nothing. Of course, I spill the beans to Nate. And do you know what? Not only does he not call me crazy (which, let's face it, would be the truth), instead he listens to me - and then not only reassures me, but always goes the extra mile just to reassure me some more.

He is such a great person. I know these qualities are going to make him a great doctor. I am positive of the fact that he is going to be an awesome dad and I made the right choice on who to take this adventure with. I have known these things for a long time, but it is so refreshing and amazing to have them proven to me time and time again.

Miles is already the luckiest kid on the face of the earth to have him for a dad. I am not saying I am chopped liver. I am going to be a good mom - but let's not sugar coat the fact that Nate is the better parent - and I wouldn't have it any other way.

BTW - I don't want him to get a big head, so don't tell him I said so, ok? :)

The Bacon Debacle - the LONGER version

Happy Sunday afternoon, dear lovelies. Ok, here's the deal, it has been a "dramatic" or "exciting" few days. Really, this story begins on Thursday. I was at work on Thursday and someone (whom is not on my "happy" list) was making bacon. Ok, now let's face the fact that I have always LIKED bacon. However, in the pregnancy I would say bacon, waffles, pancakes, and breakfast items in general have been the items I have "craved." I have gone from LIKING bacon to LOVING bacon. I would divorce my husband and marry bacon. I dream of bacon. I drool over bacon. I nearly cried at work over bacon and my "work flow" was drastically affected for at least an good solid hour. I would have gotten in the car and gone and bought bacon for $100 if I hadn't been so lazy and didn't know off the top of my head where I could get 3 pounds of bacon at 1pm on a Thursday.

Ok, so fast forward to Friday and I was at the grocery store and purchased bacon. Now, please realize that I have "issues" with making bacon (and breakfast items, for that matter). I do not like to fry bacon in an open pan because it splatters and burns me, and it makes the whole house STINK of bacon. Again, let's reiterate my love and adoration for bacon, but still, I hate the way it seeps it's smell in to everything I own and you can't make the smell of bacon leave. So a while back someone told me I could make bacon in the oven. AH-HA - yes, that sounds like it would stink less and not burn me with it's splatters. I have done this once before, and I would say it went fine. Unfortunately, we did not have a repeat of "fine," but instead got to call the fire engines........

So the bacon I bought was a pound of Smithfield bacon that was on sale. As far as I know, it is a decent brand, but I think it is "fatty" - because even though I baked it on a pan with a small brim, the grease ran off like a waterfall and got in the bottom of the oven, and then - there was the OVEN FIRE.

Then came the realization that we didn't have a fire extinguisher (oopsy, seems like we should have one of those on hand, right - and please note that we DO NOW), however, on Friday night the only thing we knew to do was call 911. So let's re-cap that there is an open flame in our (electric) oven, but it was contained. We told the 911 operator this, however, they saw it fit to send THREE full-size fire trucks and an ambulance. Then, I hid in the bedroom. I was embarrassed and stressed. So Nate got to handle the firemen. They came in the house and when they saw the situation, Nate said he would explain their reaction as "relieved." The firemen cancelled the other two firetrucks and the ambulance, and then they just carried the stove outside. Really by the time the firemen got here, I guess the flame portion of the fire had gone out. We were to let the stove cool, and then bring it back in and clean it out.

No real damage, perhaps just to our ego. Curse the bacon, and yet, I still love the bacon. However, next time I will BUY the bacon. The house still stunk of bacon for days, and we very nearly burned down our house. So maybe I have bacon issues, but you can't blame a girl, bacon is DELICIOUS.

A Whirlwind Weekend......

Mom and Mike made their landing in town on Friday afternoon. We had made the fam keep quiet about the pregnancy to Mike, because we thought it would be fun to tell him in person. We contacted Nate's cousin and her husband who have an awesome screen printing business and had a shirt made for him. (Note, if you are in Northern Indiana, or anywhere for that matter and need anything at all in line of shirts....contact A&E screen printing - we may be related to them, but even if we weren't they are simply the best, and I am NOT just saying this....)

Anyway, we gave Mike the shirt and a framed pic of the ultrasound of the baby - he immediately knew what it was, and boy, was he excited. The kid has wanted to be an uncle for quite some time, so he was one happy camper. We did some odds and ends and got lobsters for dinner. Well, Mike actually ate like 5 BK hamburgers, but Mom, Nate, and myself enjoyed AMAZING lobster. My appetite has dropped off drastically in the past few weeks, and let me tell ya, lobster tasted SO good. My sweet hubby-bug even shared some of his, so I was STUFFED with lobster by the time all was said and done. We enjoyed DQ on Friday night and Nate and Mike watched Sherlock Holmes.

Saturday morning we all got up and around and then waited on one of mom's friends to come over. I had never met her, but her name is Jenny and she grew up with both mom and dad. She is a bucket full of awesome. She currently lives in Franklin and mom and her reconnected via facebook. She joined us for lunch at the Tokyo Grill and we had LOTS of fun and food. Then mom and Jenny came back to our place and caught up while Mike, Nate, and I did a few shopping errands. In the afternoon we all went (even Jenny!) to see "How To Train Your Dragon" at the Imax 3D....ummmmm.....AWESOME! First of all, we had never been to a 3D movie, so that was super fun, but the movie is also SO cute - I can't remember seeing a movie that I liked so much. It is safe to say that we will be buying and enjoying that one the second it is out. Nate and I have always liked "kids" movies like Nemo, Cars, and Shrek - but this one is definitely one of the BEST. It really would be good for the whole family, a cute, clean, funny story like and everyone would enjoy it, from the kiddos to the grandparents! Way to go movie industry on this cute little gem.

We carried in supper and kicked back. Then - and this is a much longer story than I am going in to on here - I took Mike to get his third (and hopefully FINAL) tattoo. I am not a huge tattoo fan and had SWORN I would not play "host" to this, but I did - and he was happy, so all was well in the land of Indy.

Sunday we got up (all four of us) and went to church. Mom and Mike got to meet some of our church friends and the Easter service was good. After church mom and Mike got ready to go home and we got Easter dinner in the oven (we had picked up a Honeybaked Ham meal - and let me tell you - this is THE WAY to go for Easter dinner.) Ken, Marty, and Micah came over for lunch and it was so great to share the food and company. Marty brought two delicious salads - including her broccoli salad which is like my FAV. We enjoyed the meal and Micah played with his Easter toys and watched Nemo - he was so cute. I made a birthday cake for dessert for Mike and Nate (their b-days are this week) and we sang "Happy Birthday." Micah devoured a piece of cake, which was entertainment if there ever has been! It was chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and he was a MESS! Poor Ken lost his whole piece of cake to Micah,but it was fun and cute. Micah wished the guys "Happy Birthday" which was pretty priceless to say the least!

Well, I would say those were the weekend "highlights" - I am putting a few pics - hope you enjoy!

Finally! Proof I am actually a princess.....

For around 20 years, I have been trying to make a case that I am actually a Princess. It all began with a lot of Disney movies (the heroine was always a princess),I began my "training" by dressing up a lot as a princess. I would watch Priness Diana with the eye of a young girl who was following in her footsteps. I used to ask for crowns and flowers.

Ok, well, maybe not all in the previous paragraph is completely true, but my little Bapa sure did a good job of ensuring that I grew up like a princess. Hopefully all (both) of you are familiar with the story of "The Princess and the Pea." The story is of a princess who sleeps on a whole bunch of mattresses, and in between two of the many mattresses they have placed a single pea. It is a way to find the "true" princess from the many women in the running, since, of course, a real princess would sense the single pea.

Last night, hunnie love and I went out on a "real" date. It was fun! It seems like it has been a little while since we have done this. I didn't get too fancy, or anything, but I did want to look nice for our "real" date.....so I put on cute shoes, a cute top, and - here is the kicker - earrings.

A few notes about earrings - I have had my ears pierced since I was four (my mom actually let me get them pierced because I was dressing up as a princess for Halloween and I insisted that a princess had to wear dangley earrings - coincidence, I think not!) I honestly can't really remember my "holes" ever closing. Until yesterday - ummmmm....what the heck is that all about?!?! It hasn't been THAT long since I have worn earrings, I don't know, maybe a few weeks. All I know is that I put an earring in my left ear with no trouble, however, the right ear had actually closed in the back. Know what stinks? Re-piercing your own ear.....ouch! So I shoved the earring through there - I don't think it bled, but it did hurt.

So last night when we got home I decided that I should sleep in the earrings. They are just the nicest pair of studs I have - but I DON'T sleep in earrings. I am a side sleeper and earrings mess up my sleeping ju-ju. All I know is that I had a terrible night last night. I fell asleep around 10:30 - only to wake up at 12:30 - WIDE AWAKE. I was hot, my back hurt, you name it - I was feelin' in. No matter what you say, I am blaming the whole mess on wearing earrings to bed. End of story. And that, dear ones, is the proof that I am indeed a princess. While a mere non-princess wouldn't have a trouble in the world sleeping in earrings, a real princess like me had the worst night's sleep ever, all from two teesey-tiny earrings.