Rite Aid - Aug 28

My Purchases from Today:
3 Bottles of Crest Mouth Rinse, 1 Bottle of Dish Washing Soap, 1 Package of Maxi-Pads, 2 Eye Shadows & 2 Mascaras.

A little over a year ago, I took a couponing class down in the desert and it totally transformed the way I shop!!  I am so addicted to saving money now and it is awesome!!  You have to put some time into it in order to make it work, but the money saved is well worth the time spent.  The items pictured should have cost me $53.14, however, I didn't spend anything close to that.  :)

 Every week I buy a Sunday paper to get coupons and I check out my local store ads to see what is on sale.  Since we moved to Mammoth, they only have a VONS and a Rite Aid, but I used to look at quite a few more sales.

These items were all on sale this week and without using a single coupon my total would have been: $38.71, a savings of $14.43.  I then saved another $15.24 with coupons I picked up in the Sunday paper, bringing my total down to $23.47.  On top of all of these savings, most of these items purchased qualified me for Rite Aid Rebates (+UP Rewards), which I get right away and work just like cash.  I earned $14 in +UP Rewards, bringing my actual total down to $9.47 (which happens to be just under the price of 1 Mascara).  I saved $43.67!!  :)

I split my purchases into a couple of transactions, allowing me to use some of the +UP'S I earned today.  When I added those with some +UP Rewards I had from last week, I actually spent $12.82 and I have $6 in +UP'S I can use another time.

As an added bonus, since I spent $15 worth of Cover Girl Makeup, I get a FREE GLAM SCARF: http://www.glamcamp.com/special-offer/  Happy Couponing!!!

First Day of School

Emma started her 2nd year of preschool today! Can't believe she's already that old! She was so excited to start school this year because she loved it so much last year. It was a little hard on her having to change schools, but she's young enough and adjusting fine. Sometimes I feel guilty about moving her from Idyllwild. But I have to remember that she is not just my child, she is God's, and I know that He will take care of her in ways that I cannot!! She was a little nervous this morning and was crying when I left ( which of course made my mom guilt kick in), but all-in-all she seemed to have a good day and is ready to go back tomorrow. Yeah!! She acted like a teenager when I picked her up and didn't want to talk about her day, but eventually I dragged a few details out of her. :) Hopefully tomorrow will be a little bit smoother.

First day of school picture:

So much bigger than last year when her backpack was tipping her over:

A Place to Live

God has taken us on quite the journey over the past 4/5 years and especially in the last 6 months or so.  Sometime in January of this year, Dave and I were having a lazy Sunday morning and just kind of felt like staying home from church.  Emma, on the other hand, really wanted to go and how can you deny your child the opportunity to go to church?  So what did we decide to do?  We dropped her off at church and then walked into town to have breakfast.  :)  We felt a little guilty, of course, but that morning was the beginning of a long journey from Idyllwild, CA to Mammoth Lakes, CA: A journey that would bring us closer to God as we were continually putting one foot in front of the other, not knowing where we were headed, but trusting that God would in time make our path clear.  Hopefully sometime, I can go deeper into that journey, but for today, I am seeking prayer as we in the midst of what I believe, is one of the last roadblocks in this particular journey.

About a month ago, we moved up here to Mammoth.  Before we moved, Dave put in his 2 weeks notice at his old job, and we gave our landlords our 30 day notice.  We knew we were going to be living here, before we actually had a place to live secured.  It definitely caused us some stress.  I think about 2 weeks before we moved, Dave finally found a studio apartment that we could rent month-to-month while we looked for something more permanent.  Mammoth is a difficult place to find a house to live in and we were even more limited since we had cats and only wanted something month-to-month.  It was a relief at the time, and we are now in the midst of trying to find something more permanent.

The house we want.

A few weeks ago, we were lucky enough to find a house that we ADORE and we very quickly put an offer in on it.  However, it is a short sale and there is another buyer that is interested and we are feeling like our chance of getting it is pretty slim.  We are doing our best to trust God that He has brought us this far on our journey and that He will lead us to the perfect place.  However, there is really no other housing option available at the moment that we like (to rent or to buy) and the thought of the 3 of us being cooped up in this studio all winter long gives me a bit of a panic attack.  :)  I know God will take care of us, but He has made it clear that He is not going to let me in the loop and that I have to continue trusting Him to take care of us and trust that He knows our plans and what our future holds.  I am just praying that he reveals His plans to us sooner, rather than later, and that in the meantime I will be at peace with releasing control of my life to Him.

"Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans." - Proverbs 16:3

About Us

Our family in Yellowstone earlier this year.

As I sit down and begin to write this post, I am not really sure where to begin.  For those of you who have been following us for the past 4 years at davejennandemma.blogspot.com, welcome to our revamped blog.  And for those of you who are new followers, we are so happy to have you!!  I began this blog 4 years ago when my daughter, Emma, was born.  I started it so that we could keep all of our friends and family up to date with all of Emma's new adventures in life.  Over the past couple of years, I have done a terrible job of keeping up with it and have recently decided that it was time for a new look and a new name.  :)  So, about us: my name is Jenn and I am currently 29 years old.  I am married to my wonderful husband, David, and am the proud mom to my 4 year old daughter, Emma.  About a month ago, we moved to Mammoth Lakes, CA and we have really been loving it up here.  I love life and am very excited to begin sharing our lives with you again and to reveal some of the incredible things that God has been doing in our lives.

2011–A New Year!

Happy New Year to all of our friends and family!! Dave, Emma and I have been in Seattle for the past 2 weeks, but we are now back in Idyllwild. I don’t have any pictures to post in this entry, but I have made it my New Years Resolution to do a better job of updating our blog. Dave’s parents blessed us with a new computer for Christmas and I have just finished downloading some programs that should help me keep everything more organized and make it easier to keep you all updated.

Since it has been so long since we’ve updated anything, it is my goal this week, to make one entry that will include the past 5 months, starting with Emma’s birthday back in August. It will be a summary of what’s been going on with us and not in great detail, but in order to try to stay on top of what’s going on in our lives, I can’t start of my resolution with a backlog.

Today we are doing a bit of recovering from our vacation, packing up Christmas and playing with all of our new Christmas presents. Well, Emma is at least. She got to use her new crayon maker today!! We are sad that this holiday season is finally at an end for us, but we are looking forward to what God has in store for us in 2011.

Blessings to all of you!!

4th of July

This year for the 4th we got to be in Seattle with my family. We try to get up there once during the summer and this year we opted to go up before Emma turned 2 so we wouldn't have to pay for another plane ticket. :) Like so many of Seattle's 4th of July's, it was a fairly gloomy day so we ended up just spending most of the day inside at home. But Emma still looked cute in her 4th outfit!

When we finally did go over to the fireworks, we didn't have a long wait until they began, but Emma took off to explore the crowds.

Then she had to rest for a bit.

And finally the fireworks began - it was so exciting and Emma was mesmerized.

By the time we got home she was worn out and asleep so it was off to bed, but she had a good time celebrating her 2nd 4th of July!

Father's Day

Well, once again it's been forever since I've updated the blog. No excuses other than, we have had a crazy, wonderful, ridiculously busy summer!! For almost 3 months it seemed that Dave and I never spent 7 consecutive nights in our own bed. Haha!! Well, summer has come to an end for us and although the fall and winter promise to be eventful as well, I finally have a bit of a lull in my time and decided it's time to get this thing updated!! :) So, here we go all the way back to June:

For Father's Day I wanted to do something special for Dave since he is such an awesome Daddy!! Both Emma and I love him so much and thought he deserved something special. So we packed up and headed for San Diego. We went swimming in the hotel pool, took Emma to her first baseball game and had a fun visit to the zoo. It was a fun time for the 3 of us to hang out and we even got to see a few friends and family along the way.

Emma really loved watching baseball - NOT!! But she did really love the food. :) She suckered Dave into giving her some ice cream and she stole my fries. She had a great time running around and eating food once we moved out of the sunny bleachers and onto the shady hillside.

At the zoo, Emma got to see a baby gorilla, bears playing in the water, some lovey-dovey elephants and she got to hug some goats. However, one of her favorite things was playing in the water right outside of the elephant exhibit. :)

We had a great weekend celebrating Dave and are so grateful for his presence in our lives. He's an awesome guy!! We love you sweetie!! :)