Focus!

I've really enjoyed watching Alli play on her mat the last two days. She has really started to focus on the hanging toys. She focuses on trying to grab them. It was so cute last night she was trying to grab the butterfly and missed it twice before she finally caught it. Tonight she was holding onto two of the toys at the same time. I've uploaded a video of her holding the toys and then a still shot of her focusing on the one with the rattle in it.

Couple Pictures

Here are a few recent photos. I really need to keep my real camera with me so all of my pictures aren't cell phone generated!

Bath TIME!!

Bumbo love!


FYI...Chief is supposed to announce ladder driver positions this week!!! If Ben doesn't get ladder driver, they've also opened up driver positions with applications due the 20th (even though we were told NO driver promotions till next year).

Here is a funny for the day. I called the Tennessean 1-800 # today to get mom subscribed to the free Yes paper for coupons. I told the guy that I didn't want a subscription to the Tennessean but for the Yes paper...He says, Uhm Uhm yes I can help you with that. So he asks for the number, which I give to him. Then he asks for the address...so I tell him mom's address. Then he says, "And what state is this in?"

I'm sorry....did I call the wrong number? Isn't this the Tennessean the local newspaper for TENNESSEE???

So I very politely tell him Tennessee even though I'm giving mom the look that the guy I'm speaking with is an idiot!! So he says to me, "ok so you want to start a subscription?" for which I tell, "Yes, but NOT for the Tennessean. I want the free subscription to the Yes paper." He then says, "ok...ok uhmmm how did you hear about us?" I told him "from my daughter" since I was acting as mom. And then he asks me, "did your daughter tell you anything about this paper?"

At this point I realize this guy has NO clue what it is I'm talking about. So I asked him if I had called the wrong number. He said no you called the right number because you want to get a subscription but I don't see the Yes paper listed as an option. So I told him not to worry about it and that I would call my daughter to find out how she subscribed to it...so mom and I looked up ANOTHER number to the Tennessean and finally got her set up to receive the paper....I just thought the funniest thing was the guy asking me what state we lived in. Yeah like I would live in Kentucky but I want the Tennessean....nope don't think so.

Will they ever announce it???

So we are still waiting for the announcement of ladder driver promotions. A couple of the lieutenants have been teasing Ben about being ladder driver. He really felt like they wouldn't tease him like that unless they knew he got it. We still are not sure but ben was told today by a source I won't mention that Chief has made the decision of 5 of the 6 drivers. The reason they are taking so long to decide on the last position is because it is down to Ben and another driver. The debate is whether or not they should give it to Ben because they KNOW it will cause a lot of anger in the department. I don't think there will be a LOT of anger...but definitely the guys he gets it over would be upset. The big reason they are thinking of giving it to Ben is because of his dedication to training and studying. They know he works hard. His efforts are finally being seen! So we hope to know soon. Either way, it will be what the Lord wants for our family. That is what we are praying for. I can't help but hope for it though. The extra money should help Ben relax how many 48 hr shifts he's pulling. This only getting to see him every 3rd day is getting OLD! I miss him and I know he wants to be home. When he is home that 24 hrs goes so fast.

On another note....here are pictures from Alli's Halloween night. We did not take her trick or treating...she needed to go to bed. But we had her outside with us while we handed out candy.


Also, Alli's new thing is she is starting to stay awake more. She no more of this napping after being awake for only an hour. She is still going to bed between 8 and 9 and sleeping till 8am. But this week has been QUITE an adjustment to her knew schedule...which is to NOT have a schedule. She appears to be dropping one of her nap times and staying awake more like 1.5 hrs before getting sleepy. She has been only napping lately for 30 min but I think this was because I didn't understand what was going on and tried getting her to stay to her OLD schedule. Mom in training....constantly learning. This coupled with a little bit of a constipation problem Sunday and Monday makes for an unhappy 4 month old. :) We're getting there though.

So I've continued the coupon thing this week. I'm super excited about the savings. I saved $97 at Kroger (54% saved) and $67 at Publix (66% savings). Some of the items with coupons were pretty close to free. This is definitely meeting my goal of saving 50% on grocery items. So I'm proud of that. I'm also proud of mom. I guess she's been inspired to try to save some too and did a little coupon shopping at Kroger herself on senior discount day. She did really well!! Way to go mom!

Oh so...another update since last post...we thought the hospital had written off our portion of Ben's surgery bill. Not even a week later I get a bill. I went online to check it and make sure the balance was still $0. No...it wasn't...the bill was back to a balance! So I called and they told me that insurance sent an update explanation of benefits which showed patient portion still owed, so they in turn updated our bill. I'm not mad about having to pay...because we knew we owed it. I'm mad at being TOLD we had a zero balance and then they take it back and expect us to pay it. We had the money to pay it and then after being told we didn't have a balance I put it towards Pepper's surgery bills. So once we got the bill....we didn't have the money we'd had before...so incredibly frustrating. Anyway, Ben graciously put some of his birthday money towards the stupid bill and I'm happy to say that all our dumb medical bills are paid off! Hallelujah! Now to pay off Pepper's surgery.

Trunk or Treat

Tonight was the ward's trunk or treat party. Alli went as a fluffy pumpkin. She had a terrible nap prior to the party so she wasn't happy when the hat was attached at the bottom. So here she is with the hat but without the velcro.



She's getting so big and is really good about holding her head up now.

Our day to save

One of my biggest concerns when I quit my job was, "How in the world are we going to be able to save enough money to make ends meet without putting too much stress on Ben to work a million hours?" Well the Lord definitely answers prayers. Through a little nudging from Julie and a lot of research online, I've really been able to help us save money on our groceries. This was an awesome day at the stores. I don't think I'd be able to do it without all the hard work from the lady who manages the site southersavers.com. Check it out if you want help in saving money. I get the Yes paper every Saturday that the Tennessean distributes free if you ask for it and it has weekly coupons. Then I also signed up for the deal the Tennessean is doing to do the Sunday paper for $1 a week. That is better than buying it for $1.75 at the newsstand. So with coupons and the store's weekly deals...here is how we did.

Kroger had the best deals this week for us.

Total cost before savings: $134.92
Total Savings: $82.41
My final cost: $52.51 61.1% savings
We were able to get frozen veg.x6, potatoes x3, frozen meals x2, eggs, milk, ice cream, chili x9 (at $0.13 each WOW!), fruit chillers x2, cake frosting x2, brownie mixes x3, cheez it, juice x2, cocoa x3, toothebrush x2, tuna x2, etc....total 46 items.... Good day

Publix has their weekly B1G1 sales..It was ok at Publix.

Total cost before savings: $55.16
Total savings: $23.16
Total final cost: $32 a 42% savings

But what brought this savings down is the fact that we got a couple higher dollar items like the dish washer tabs and laundry detergent.

So total savings for the day between both stores $105.57 a 55.5%

The best savings of the day though had nothing to do with groceries. Ben called to make a payment on the hospital bill from his surgery. They told us we owe NOTHING! Once the hospital received the insurance payment, the hospital wrote off the final $656 that we had to pay!!! Awesome awesome awesome! We're so excited.

One final note...Julie told me I should go sign up for the Publix baby club...you can do it online. All mothers to be should do it. Publix sends you a book for taking care of your infant from newborn to 5yrs old. They will send you coupons for baby items for the first 2 yrs of their life. Then you can sign them up in Publix preschool pals after that. They are cool programs and free stuff...check it out! We also recently got our first free book from the Dolly Parton Imagination Library...Free books every month until 5 yrs old...again Awesome!

Still don't know

We still haven't heard anything about the driver position yet. They were supposed to fill the positions before a training class for the new tower truck that was coming in this week. Well that training was postponed because the truck wasn't ready yet. Today capt. and his sidekick lieutenant went around to all the stations passing out packets to all current ladder drivers for the training on this truck. They were teasing Ben and asked him, "So are you going to be a ladder driver or what?" Ben says, "I don't know...you tell me. You guys know." Of course they denied knowing anything but we're pretty sure they do. Ben asked them if they were taking the packets over the station 1 where there are 2 guys who applied that Ben feels are shoe ins. They asked why they would take them over there and Ben says, "Because those guys got the positions." Capt. and Lt. laughed and said, "Ben do you know something we don't? They haven't been promoted yet." Then Josh, the lieutenant, starts asking Ben a lot of questions about his previous driving experience like what he drove and where. Ben really feels like they know but all the information they would give up is that they will probably tell everyone this coming week. They want the promotions finalized before the new guys start on the 2nd. We're really praying he gets this promotion even though its a long shot because they have decided not to do any further promotions for quite a while due to budget strains. So here's praying.

Ok...so we have taken up a new trade...not by choice but by need....Dog Grooming! Mitzi really needs to be groomed every couple weeks and it was costing us $45. That's more than I really want to spend every 2 months. So for what it would cost us to get her groomed about 2 times, Ben bought a set of dog clippers and we tried it out. She really doesn't look half bad. She was not amused with us trying to clip her but she gave in after a while and let us do our thing. Here's the best I could get as far as pictures go...she's very frisky and won't hold still for a picture.

We gave her the traditional cocker cut. She's been all one length through the summer to keep her cooler. But now she will be sporting the short on top and long on sides look! She's so cute.

Ok, so Ben's birthday is coming up. He doesn't ever check this blog so I'm safe posting this here. His cousin gave me this idea and I wanted to see if you guys think its a cute idea or if its just a silly nicknak.

Her idea was to put a picture of Alli on one and maybe a picture of me and Ben on another. What do you guys think?