6pm.com sale

Most of you know how in love I am with 6pm.com. Well, today they have Cole Haan shoes on sale. When I say sale, I really mean SALE. I saw some shoes that were regularly 325.00, marked down to $92.00. Still a little steep for me, but they did have some really good prices. If you are not familiar with 6pm, they have a "shoe of the day" that's on sale, and they also have flat rate shipping (which is awesome!) I've heard through the grapevine that Ugg's, and Yellow box will be on sale in the next few weeks. If you like either of these brands of shoes, you may want to check out www. 6pm.com to see what you can find!

How we met

1. Where/how did you meet: We met at the Tap Room on Beale Street. The story is long, so I will shorten it by saying I went out with a friend of mine, and we went to meet another friend and give him a baby present (had just had a daughter). When we walked into his place of employment, Donnie was carding at the door, and gave me a hard time because I didn't want to be carded. Later I found out he didn't work there, and was helping out while the other guy was in the restroom. He ended up sitting down by my friend and I, and at first he hit on my friend...when that didn't work he moved on to me, and the rest is history! I guess 2nd place really isn't the first loser! :) He asked me out for the next night, and we've been inseparable ever since

2. How long have you known each other: Since March 20, 2004!

3. How long after you met did you start dating: The next night? I don't know how to explain it, but we loved spending time together, so whenever Donnie was home in between trips for work we would go out and spend as much time together as possible.

4. How long did you date before you were engaged: six months

5. How long was your engagement: Six and a half months (really almost seven)

6. How long have you been married: 4 years, 6 months, and 8 days (not that I keep track!)

7. What is your anniversary: May 14, 2005

8. How many people came to your wedding reception: Well, one day when I was bored I counted all the signatures in my sign in book for the wedding, and there were 189 people that signed in!

9. What kind of cake did you serve: The wedding cake as fabulous (as all Carla Beard cakes are) it was vanilla cake and white icing. The grooms cake was chocolate cake with chocolate icing and little chocolate guitars from Dinstuhls..yum!

10. Where was your wedding: At my home church, Ridgeway Baptist.

11. What did you serve for your meal: We didn't have a meal, which threw the northern people off, but we did have heavy appetizers. Chicken fingers, grilled chicken, veggies, fruit, etc. (Don't want to talk to much about the catering because it was awful...)

12. How many people were there in your bridal party: 7 bridesmaids, 6 groomsmen, 2 ushers, 2 flower girls, 1 ring bearer, and 3 jr. bridesmaid....so what?? I wanted a big wedding!

13. Are you still friends with them all: Yes, though we don’t keep in touch as well as we should.

14. Did you or your spouse cry during the ceremony: Surprisingly-no.

15. Most special moment of your wedding day: Obviously saying "I do" was pretty memorable, but also the fact that I was able to involve my family in the wedding. My Uncle Bobby was the minister that married us, and to have someone that knows you that well be the one to lead you in to one of the biggest moments of your life is pretty special!

16. Any funny moments: I got married in the year of the "runaway bride." Need I say more?

17. Any big disasters: Not really. The church AC wasn't on when we got there so it was pretty warm, but nothing big!

18. Where did you go on your honeymoon: Chicago, IL. What a wonderful trip! We stayed at the Palmer House Hotel in downtown Chicago, in a suite, for free, for a whole week. Donnie brought me breakfast in bed every day, and then we would get ready and go tour the city. What an awesome time! Donnie also knew how much of a "country girl" he had married when we got to our suite, and he flung open the door and I kept yelling "Get Out...look how big this is....Get Out!" He just kept laughing and laughing.

19. How long were you gone: 7 days-then we came home and my parents moved me into Donnie's apartment. They left me there with all these presents, and a "strange boy." I cried and cried....ha. Donnie probably was wondering what he had done by marrying me.

20. If you were to do your wedding over, what would you change: I don't think I would change a thing!

21. What side of the bed do you sleep on: If you are looking at our bed, I sleep on the left. I hate being by the door!

22. What size is your bed: Queen

23. Greatest strength as a couple: Without a doubt, it has to be the fact that Donnie is my best friend. He's the first person I want to tell anything too, and the last person I want to talk to at night! We've also always had the motto "don't go to bed angry" so we always work out our differences before turning in for the night!

24. Greatest challenge as a couple: Infertility! It has been a long and winding road, and God has had to wrap His loving arms around us many times in the dark of night when the road seemed endless, cold, and with no direction.

25. Who literally pays the bills: We both do.

26. What is your song: I have no idea. We both sing praise songs all the time, and I know for a long time we thought the theme song to Shrek 2 was our song, but sadly I can't remember that anymore.

28. Describe your wedding dress: Totally me! Plain white with lots of embroidery around the top and on the train. I did not want flashy!

29. What kind of flowers did you have at your wedding: Spring flowers

30. Are your wedding bands engraved? No, but I keep telling Donnie I want to get his engraved, but he never takes it off!

Free Tea and how I'm going to coupon for Tiger tickets!

Hurry on over here to snag a FREE sample pack of Lipton Green Tea! Just click on the "Get Sample" link in the upper right hand corner. You'll even get to choose the flavor you'd like to try. (Thanks hip2save.com!)

Allow 4-6 weeks for delivery!

In other news....I haven't posted on here in a while, and realize I need to do a better job of keeping up with the "freebies" and writing about our life. I have another post I want to do about our trip to Knoxville where we had the worst, yet most hilarious seats possible at Neyland Stadium, both of us were sick, and we got 1/2 our Christmas shopping done. As you can see...it was a very random trip. However, that will have to come later today, as right now I've made a decision what I want to "coupon" towards.

Many of you have been to my workshop and have heard me talk about the lady who is couponing to Disney. Here her link in case you want to see what she's doing; http://couponingtodisney.blogspot.com/. It's a great concept, and one I thought I might want to follow. So I've sat here thinking what do I want to coupon towards?

One thought was a cruise, and while that's not completely gone out of my head, I've come up with what I really want.....drum roll please....................Tiger Basketball Season Tickets!

Yes, you read that right, I'm couponing towards 2010-2011 Season tickets for U of M basketball. You may, or may not have heard that we have the #1 recruiting class in college basketball for next year, and with the price of tickets (and a donation) I have to figure out a way to save to be able to do this. What better way than to take my "left over" money from groceries and apply it to this? I always tell Donnie that he "lucked up" with a wife that loves sports just as much, if not more than he does! I'm the one who buys the season tickets for football in our house, and now with my savings from coupons I fully anticipate being able to buy the basketball season tickets too! When I get a chance, I'm going to have Donnie put a ticker on the side of the blog that shows how close we are to getting the tickets. When we get enough money, there will be *much rejoicing* in the Blair household (at least on my part). So, here's to getting it started.....GO TIGERS GO!!!!

Hot Deal from Glade!

Go to Rightathome.com and get some fabulous coupons to use with the Glade promotion at Target. Once I selected which coupons I wanted and hit print, it let me hit the "back arrow" button 5 times to get a total of 5 of each of these coupons!!! Pair it with the promotion at Target to get the gift card, and the SC Johnson rebate, and this is one money making deal!

Here's a direct link to Right at Home: http://www.rightathome.com/special-offers/ and one to the SC Johnson rebate deal: http://www.rightathome.com/special-offers/

If you register at Rightathome.com, they will email you all kinds of coupons! As always, if you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask!

Free DenTek Triple Clean Floss Picks!

Hello all my coupon friends! I told you that you never know when good samples are out there to be had. This one is good when teaching your kids to floss (I worked in a Pediatric Dental Office for 7 years), but it's also not bad for those of us who forget to floss every now and then!

Go here to snag a FREE sample DenTek Triple Clean Floss Picks! Allow up to 4 weeks for delivery.

Free Folgers Sample

Hurry on over here to snag a FREE sample of Folgers Gourmet Selections Lively Colombian coffee, courtesy of All You magazine!


Don't you just love all the free samples that are coming out lately? Going to the mailbox over the next few weeks sure will be fun!

Free Sample of Garnier Nutritioniste Skin Renew

It's back and sold out quickly last time, so hurry!

Go here to snag a FREE sample of Garnier Nutritioniste Skin Renew! Allow up to 4 weeks for delivery.

Today I also recieved my free sample of Rachel Ray's brand of dog food, and Saturday I received a sports bottle from Juicy Juice. If you stay on top of the give aways, you can get some really cool stuff!

Single Serve Coffee Blends (Free taste test)

If you love coffee, and want to try new blends, Go here to try all 5 NESCAFÉ Taster's Choice gourmet coffee single-serve varieties. To receive your complimentary sample pack, just enter your email address or login.

Another Great Target Deal on Halloween Candy/ Childrens Place Sale

Just wanted to send out a quick update this morning, that if you haven't picked up your candy to pass out to trick or treaters, or to take to Fall Festivals at your church, there are some great deals to be had at Target.

If you still have your 10/11, or 10/18 Red Plum, there are $1.00 off coupons for fun size M&M's. Pair that with a coupon from here: http://www.organicgrocerydeals.com/forums/view.php?pg=coupon_generator

and you should get some really cheap candy.

There are also coupons that's you can print off on http://www.coupons.com/ that are as much as $2.00 off a bag of Nestle candy, or Wonka (think nerds, laffy taffy, etc.) This should make for a cheap deal as well!

A lot of Target stores have already started reducing prices on their candy, so if you are a procrastinator (like me) when it comes to buying this stuff, you could get some sweet deals!

I will update this post when I get back from Target this afternoon to let you know exactly how much I spent, and what the savings actually are in our area.

Oh, and http://www.childrensplace.com/ is having a 50% off sale right now. Some stuff is as low as $2.00 so you might want to go over and check it out. They also have some select Halloween costumes, fall "cutesy" type clothing on sale as well. I'm sure it will get even cheaper after Saturday, but check it out for dress up clothes, or outfits for next year! (Remember, sometimes you can call the store and get free shipping codes as well!!

Current Target gift card deals, as well as some really good deals!

Numerous readers are having issues with being able to stack a Target coupon and manufacturer coupon together on one item. Well, the good news is that Target's coupon policy clearly states that you can use both coupons together on one item. Their policy also states that if the value of the coupon is higher then the value of the item, then they can adjust the coupon down. Plus, their coupon policy in now available to view online here! Yay! Print it off and keep it with you every time you shop at Target. You also may want to read more about the coupon issues people have been encountering and what can be done about it here.

New Deals Keebler cookies (including Chips Deluxe) $2--buy 2, get 1 FREE

Use the $1/2 Keebler Chips Deluxe Target coupon

Plus, use the $1.50/2 coupon from here(you may also find $2/2 peelie coupons on the packages)

Final cost $1.50 for all 3 packages--that equals out to $0.50 each!

**Plus, look for specially marked packages to earn a $10 Toy Cash voucher or a FREE DVD! (Thanks, Melissa'sBargainBlog & Caprice!)

Buy 2 packages of soap, paper or diaper items=$5 Target gift card

Lever 2000, Caress, or Dove Soap (8 pks) $7.29

Scott 20 pk or Cottonelle 16 pk $12.99

Viva paper towels (10 ct)

$13.99Huggies Pure & Natural Diapers Super mega pack $16.99

Pull-Ups mega pack $14.99

Deal Scenarios:

#1 Buy 2 Mega Packs of Huggies Pull-Ups $14.99 each=$29.98

Use two $2/1 Pull-Ups coupons from here

Plus, use 2 $1/1 Target coupons from the 10/25SS (regional coupon)

Pay $23.98Get back a $5 Target gift card

Final cost just $9.49 (after you figure in your $5.00 card) per Mega Pack!

#2 Buy 2 packages of Huggies Pure & Natural Super Mega Pack Diapers $16.99 each=$33.98

Use 2 $3/1 coupons from here or from the 10/25SS Pay $27.98

Get back a $5 Target gift card

Final cost $11.49 per Super Mega Pack!

#3 Buy 2 packages of Dove Bar Soap (8pks) $7.29 each=$14.58

Use 2 $1.25/1 coupons from the 10/4RP

Pay $12.08

Get back a $5 Target gift card

Final cost $3.54 each!

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Purchase 3 Pledge products below=$5 Target gift card

Pledge Fabric Sweeper $4.29 (Personally don't think this is worth the money!)

Pledge Polish $3.49

Pledge 25 ct Multi-Surface Wipes $3.49

Deal Scenario:

Buy 3 Pledge Polish and/or wipes $3.49 each=$10.47

Use 3 $1/1 coupons from here

Pay $7.47

Get back a $5 Target gift card

Plus, submit for the $5 SC Johnson Rebate

Final cost 3 for FREE + a $2.53 moneymaker (after you figure in your $5.00 gift card and rebate!)

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Select Family Games $9 + FREE Pizza coupon inside specially marked boxes ($10 value)

Sorry

Battleship

Connect 4

Guess Who?

Twister

Operation

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Nestle Treat Size candy Bags $2.49

Use the $1/1 coupon from here

Final cost $1.49!

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Ice Age or Ice Age: The Meltdown $10

Use the $2/1 coupon from here

Final cost $8 a piece

Tinkerbell and the Lost Treasure Blu-Ray/DVD Combo $24.99

Use the $10/1 coupon from here

Final cost $14.99!

**There is also a $5 rebate when you purchase Kernel Season's products or a $5 rebate when you purchase the LeapFrog Tinkerbell book or game

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Buy 5 Glade holiday candle products (candles, warmers + more) $2.50 each and get back a $5 Target gift card.

You can also buy up to 10 Glade items in the same transaction and get up to two $5 Target gift cards!

This promotion is running through 12/26!

Deal Scenarios:Buy 5 Glade Scented Oil Candle Christmas Tins $2.50 each=$12.50

Buy 5, Glade 3 pack Scented oil candle refills $2.50 each=$12.50

Use 5 $1.50/1 coupons found INSIDE THE TINS! (Or there has been $1.00 off Glade candle coupons in Smart Source the past few weeks, and they work with NO BEEPS at Target. (It is a "family coupon.")

Plus, use 5 buy the oil candle tins, get one refill pack FREE coupons from here

Pay $5

Get back a $10 Target gift card

Final cost FREE + a $5 moneymaker!

AND then you can submit for the $5 SC Johnson rebate for every 3 Glade products purchased! Doing the rebate will turn this into a really great moneymaker!

**This post was done with input found on http://www.hip2save.blogspot.com/, and me!

Awesome Glade Candle Deal

New Buy 1 Get 1 FREE Glade Soy Candle Coupon!

Right @ Home just released a great new coupon: buy one Glade Fragrance Collection 2 oz soy based candle, get one FREE! This coupon should pair up nicely with a sale!


You could buy four 2 oz soy candles and use 2 BOGO coupons from above and one $3/2 coupon from here (for the candles you aren't getting free)! Final cost will basically be four candles for the price of one! These would be great additions to gift baskets!Let us know if you come across any great deals!

Don't forget if you get at least 3 of these, they would also be eligible for the SC Johnson Rebate Deal! Sweet, sweet, sweet!

She would've been 86 today!

Nana would have been 86 years old today. Wow...what a life. More amazing is the fact that in November, she and Pops would've been married for 67 years! I can't help but have a little sadness over the fact that Nana went on to be with Jesus in July of 2008. She had an amazing life though, and through all her trials and hardships I learned some amazing lessons.

Always go to the one who will let you get your way!

Nana's mom died when she was only 18 months old, so she was raised by her dad and grandparents. From the stories I was told, one set of grandparents lived "up the hill" and one set lived "down the hill." Whenever she would get in trouble by her dad, she would go to whichever set of grandparents would be the most likely to let her have her way, and there she would stay until her father forgot whatever she was in trouble about.

Find your one true love, and hold on tight!

Nana and Pops got married when they were 19...19! After they got married they moved to the "big city" aka Memphis, and Nana moved into a boarding house while my Pops went off to war. It's during this time that Nana began to work at Sears, from where she eventually retired, and is where she learned to do the next lesson.....

Always hide a little money just for yourself!

Nana always had cash on hand...always. For the longest time I thought it was money that Pops gave to her, but after she passed away we found out she had several "secret" accounts she had opened at various banks, and put money away just in case she needed to buy something for herself. Now, don't get me wrong-Pops NEVER said NO to this woman. Whatever she wanted, she got, but I guess she thought "just in case" so she opened these accounts. The funny thing was they all had my grandfathers name on them too...so really, did she think he would never find out?

Peanut Butter and cracker is the medicine for all ailments!

Whenever you were hungry, weather it be at the beauty shop, out shopping, or even at church, Nana always had peanut butter and cracker in her purse. I can remember a time in church when I told my Mom I wasn't feeling well, and she sent me over to Nana during the next hymn to get some peanut butter and cracker to calm my stomach. Of course Nana insisted on me sitting with her for the rest of the service, and of course the candy helped out so much too, that by the time we got out of church-I was going home with her and Pops for the afternoon!

If you have a sinking spell, you can get out of all kinds of housework!

Nana had sinking spells often. It could be because the Tigers were losing at basketball. It could be because one of my sisters was doing back handsprings across the backyard...heck, it could be because I didn't have a boyfriend, but whenever she had a sinking spell, she could not do anything else. Seriously...Pops waited on her hand and foot while she sat in her chair rubbing her forehead. Sometimes these were actually her not feeling well, however a lot of times, she was just tired of doing housework.

Always be a princess with a "hard times" drawer!

Nana lacked for nothing. She had all kinds of jewelry, clothes and purses, and went shopping every Friday, but she also had a "hard times" drawer. This drawer, at the bottom of her dresser had a set of men's and women's pj's, as well as pantyhose, fingernail polish, cash, and a couple of pieces of costume jewelry. You never actually went into the hard time drawer, but you knew it was there...you know, for hard times.

Love your kids and grand kids, but most importantly love your Jesus!

I never questioned if Nana loved me, never. My sister Amy used to think Nana was trying to fatten us up to put us in the oven like on Hansel and Gretel, but we seriously knew that Nana loved us. She tried to make it to sporting events, choir concerts, plays, big achievements, whatever....she was an active grandparent. We also knew she loved my Mom and Aunt. If they ever needed anything, Nana was always there with a helping hand. She would babysit us, keep us so our Mom's could just do laundry, pop in to say hello, then take someone to spend the night, whatever she was there. But more than the way she loved us, she loved her Jesus. Her favorite hymn was What a Friend We Have in Jesus. I can only imagine how much she is loving on her friend now. Praising and worshipping and waiting until the time she can welcome her family home!

I miss her, I really do, so on this what would've been her 86th birthday, I can only say thank you Nana. Thank you for the impression you made on my life. Thank you for showing me that marriage isn't easy, but it's all worth it in the end. Thank you for loving me, your oldest grandchild, with all the love you had to give, but never short changing your other grand kids either. Thank you for teaching me about coupons, and how if you save some money, you can go far in this life. Thank you, most importantly for showing me what a Christian wife, mother, and grandmother looks like! Thank you for living your life without compromise, willing to share Jesus with others, if only by the way you lived your life. Thank you!

5 years....where has it gone?

Five years ago this week, Donnie and I were in Michigan enjoying time at a pumpkin patch, catching a ride on a bale of hay, and picking apples. It was a cold I have never experienced in October, but I had the warmth of a brand spanking new diamond on my left hand to keep me warm! That's right, five years ago Saturday, Donnie asked me to be his wife! As I sit here and think, my heart and mind begin to fill with all the emotions, feelings, and love that I have with, and for this man. We've been through so much together over these past five years. Things that some couples who have been together 10, 15, 20 haven't even had to go through yet, but God knew what He was doing when He brought us together.

Babe-there is no one on earth that I would rather travel this road of life with. On that day 5 years ago, I would have never dreamed that within 18 months we would loose your dad to cancer, or that we would decide after 5 months of marriage to start trying to have a baby and 4 1/2 years later we would still be waiting, or that the pull of wanting to be with your wife would make you change your job and do something that you really didn't care for, for a while until something better opened up. I always thought your Grandma would know who I was, or better yet remember that she ever came to our wedding, and our house to visit a few years ago. I never would've thought that we would spend a bigger part of the spring of '08 in the nursing home and hospital praying Nana would get better, but knowing deep down she was about to go meet Jesus. Gosh, I thought we had already been through a lot before we got to that point five years ago. You know, things like losing Brent, my brother in law, only six short weeks after you and I began dating. You deciding to buy a new car just because you wanted to be able to get back and forth between my apartment and yours without having to ride in "Slyvia." Finally telling you about my love/hate relationship with food and weight....and you understanding it all! We've been through a lot, but I can honestly say in the past five years, the thing you did that impressed me most was ask Jesus to be your Lord and Saviour! I will never, ever forget the night you were taking me home and said "I've said that prayer, and I've asked Jesus in my heart. Not for you, but for me....I need to change." And change you have!

You are my one true love, and I pray and thank God everyday that he decided to make us wait until we were older to find our special someone! I love you babe, and wanted to know that five years ago you not only put that beautiful diamond on my finger, but you also stole my heart!

Would I have the courage?

Wow, it's been a long time since I've posted something on the blog. I guess I've been spending too much time clipping coupons and saving money!

Seriously, I've had a "wake-up" call of sorts the past two days that came courtesy of my husband, and one of our friends Ben. Ben and his wife Shelbi have become dear friends of ours over the past few months since they started attending our connect group, and, as I told them last night, "infiltrating our circle." Ben, like Donnie only became a Christian in later part of his life, and both are constantly striving to learn more about God, with an insatiable hunger for the word. I remember when I had that hunger. Yes, you read that right, I said HAD. I don't know what's happened over the past few months, but spending time alone with God has become more of an obligation than a opportunity. Every morning I wake up and think about doing a quiet time, but the pull of Facebook, balancing the checkbook, finishing up laundry, basically anything that can occupy the two hours before Donnie gets up, has started taking precedence. Well, since Friday the Lord has been dealing with my heart about spending time with him. I have been dismissing the fact that I sometimes fall asleep during prayer to the fact that I'm just really, really tired instead of realizing that what I'm saying is only bouncing to the ceiling and back because it lacks conviction. I've almost become numb the fact that I don't feel like my prayers are being answered, instead of taking ownership in the fact that I lack the faith for the prayers to be answered. I don't know what has gotten into me, well, yes I do....it's called lack of faith, worldly desires....satan.

So what has changed my heart the past few days? Well, like I said before it's my husband and Ben. Sometimes I think God puts a new Christian in our life to show us what "childlike faith" really looks like. Last night Ben went up on stage at church and answered questions about how his life had changed over the past year since accepting Jesus as his savior. He made is just sound so simple, changing your life that is, and I began to think at what point did I pull away? At what point did I start acting the part, but not living the faith? Then, after church we went to dinner with Ben and Shelbi. Like I said before, we love these guys and have the best time when we get to hang out with them, and last night of course was no exception. Ben and Donnie had both been to a men's retreat this weekend and were full of all kinds of facts, statistics, and biblical truths. While at dinner they rehashed the weekend, and talked about all that they had learned. God started to prick my heart and say "do you remember when you were that excited about me?" "Do you remember when you, like Ben, would pray and wait anticipating the answer...even looking around during a prayer to see if I was answering right then?" "Do you remember?" Then, my husband did something he's never done before that sat me on my butt thinking I've got to come out of whatever this dark place is that I've been residing. Donnie told our waitress we were about to pray over our food, and asked if there was anything we could pray about for her. She was so taken aback, but then she asked us to pray that she get her scholarship to school back. She lost it last semester by 1/100th of a point, and she was so disappointed. Donnie then prayed for our food, and for Fallon, who I will never forget, that she get her GPA up, and scholarship back. For the rest of the meal I sat unusually silent, caught in my thoughts of how I was going to make a change. I started wondering to myself how many times do I go out to eat with my church friends and saying a blessing over our food is perfectly acceptable, normal and right, but when I go out with my other friends, it's the last thing on my mind? When did praying about our family situation, and asking God to bless us with a child become routine, and not passionate? I know I'm very passionate about it, but I almost always just mention it to God as an after thought...almost like, well-I know you are probably not going to answer this anytime soon, but I still need to say something....seriously, when did I become this person?

With more passion and desire than I've ever felt I'm setting out today to become a better Christian, a better witness, wife, sister, daughter, friend...child of God! I know that God has so much in store for my life if I just dig down and restore my relationship with Him. The only way I know to do this is to spend time in His word, to pray and really mean it, and to seek His face in all I do. Not just give lip service to the One who created me, but to give true and perfect praise to the One whose breath I breathe.

Thanks babe for the witness you've been to me! You will never know how much your simple act of service to the Lord at Macaroni Grill touched my heart! I love you for who you are, what you are to me, and what you want to be in Christ Jesus....

Thanks Ben for being willing to share so much of yourself with us, and the rest of the church. Your burning hunger for God and His word have made an impression on me that I won't soon forget. We love you and Shelbi so much, and are forever grateful for your friendship!

Well, it's Saturday morning at 8:45 and we are up and about getting ready to go to a fun filled day of adoption training. Wait, did I say fun filled? Sorry...what I meant was, we are about to go sit through an agonizing 6 hours of training that, so far has proved not to be very beneficial to us. We've already sat through 5.75 hours of the 10 hours of required training. I know that this class will put us over the "required" amount, however we are "required" to do this all day training before we can adopt. We missed the last one because we were in Puerto Rico (picture to the right). Sadly, well, not so sadly, I wish we there again today! The first time we missed I didn't feel bad about it, in fact I didn't even think about it while lying out by that beautiful pool, sleeping in late, and going over to the private island to spend the day....nope, did not think about the training one bit! However, today we have to go. Most of you would probably think, oh take all the training you can to get you ready for your new little one, and sure, if this was about baby care, I would be all for it! This training however is about how to do our profile (already done and turned in two months ago), the legal aspects of adoption (already went to that training last month), how it feels to be an adoptive parent (I think that would kind of be common sense, and not necessarily something you could train people about, but whatever, and lastly what "the loss" feels like to the birth parent. Again, not something that should be considered training, but still that part may be interesting to know.

This is the part that gets me about the "loss" portion of the training. Most everyone sitting in that room as a "waiting parent" parent has experienced loss in some form or another. Sure, most of us have never had to give up a child we carried for months, bonded with, and will always have an attachment too, but another form of loss. I personally believe, if any of the other couples in the class have felt loss like we have, it's very real, and something even the social workers look around and try to explain away. You see, today marks 4 years of Donnie and I trying to have a baby. Why do I remember that? Well, I knew we had prayed about it, and I was going to stop birth control in September. Ironically, the day to "renew" my prescription was September 11th, and that night instead of running to Walgreens to pick up the prescription, we decided to quit taking the pill. 36 times in the last 4 years I've experienced loss on a very personal level. Each time I didn't start I would take a "test" and it would be negative. If you don't know anything about PCOS, you are very irregular, so this has led to the 36 test I've taken in the past 4 years. Sure, you become numb to it, and realize it's not going to be positive, but still, in the back of your head there is that little voice that says "maybe this one time." I would pray that none of you would ever have to go through this because it's a pain, and sense of loss, that you never forget. Sure, I'm SUPER excited about our adoption, and how God has led us to this point, but their are days that I think about those times of "loss" and wonder what God wanted to teach me through all of it......just my thoughts on a Saturday morning....have a great day!

Where to start?

SO, who's idea was this blog anyway? Well, it was my husbands. You see, I guess I have him fooled because he thinks I am the most entertaining, creative, and vivid story telling person he knows. He kept urging me to do this saying "everyone will want to read what you have to say," so here I am. I have so many different thoughts running through my head about what I want my first post to be about. Do I go into all the trials I've been through while waiting to have a family? What about all the mounds of paperwork we had to fill out while going through the adoption process? Oh, oh, I know....let's start with something fun....COUPONS!

I am addicted to coupons. Who would've thought? Seriously, only three months ago I thought I was doing good if I saved $20.00 or $30.00 at Kroger using my plus card. Now, I'm not satisfied until I spend less than $20.00 on $200.00 worth of products. I avidly search blog after blog finding the best deal. I want to know that when I paid for it, it was at it's rock bottom price. I've impressed some along the way. I've made some mad along the way. But at the end of the day it's saving the hubby and I lots of money, so I wouldn't have it any other way! I've been going back and forth in my head about offering a coupon "workshop" and then giving direct links to the blogs I use, but then will people know my secret and do better than me? Will they show me up in their ability to save? Do I secretly love that I have this power that other people want? Um...well, yeah....I've always loved to have the power. The power of being the oldest, the power of knowing how to run my office, the power of being the one who knows exactly what we spend on stuff (sorry, babe.) I love the power!! BUT, and that's a big but, I love to share too. So with that, I'm going to put aside my love of power to find out what I need to do to reserve a room at Ridgeway Baptist to teach a savings class....I mean seriously, who can't benefit from some money saved?