We've been busy

 Not much blogging has happened so I am hoping this weekend I will get a few blogs written and catch up. January is OVER?! It started out as a slow month and we thought it was going to be more laid back without much activity. WRONG! The first week went by fairly slowly.

Then the second week was busy but we had a snow day. That day was great. We did stay home and have a lazy relaxing day. The kids took over my den and built a tent. I rearranged all the furniture so that they could have tunnels in their tent and they had a ball. They spent the entire morning playing in it and then that afternoon crashed out, and watched cartoons for the entire afternoon.

Lazy-Day watching TV on top of their tent

The third week got crazy. My headaches had gotten really bad throughout the month and so started another round of Drs appointments, Chiropractor appointments, anything to try and get some relief. ( I am going to do a post just on these headaches at some point to explain it.) That week we also were planning Caleb's birthday party for that Saturday. (More on that in another post).

I have been continuing on in my quest to lower my grocery bill. Happy to report some progress in that area. One thing that has been helping is that I have started going to two grocery stores ( I know that sounds awful, but it hasn't been bad). I've started going to Save-A-Lot and buying their off brands. We are testing out to see if we like them. For example they have off brand frito lays chips...after a test run, we say: WINNER! They are called Cornies :) lol. They are literally half of the price of Fritos at Wal-Mart.

When I bought them, I also bought a bag of Fritos so that we had a back up bag just in case they were awful. At Save-A-Lot the brand name were $3.49 and the off brand was $1.29. There was only .75 ounces difference so they are very comparable in size. At Wal-Mart you can get Frito lays cheaper than this, but I forgot to get the Wal-Mart price to compare, but typically they are about $2.48. 

Now, I can not get everything I need at Save-A-Lot but last week by going to Save-A-Lot and doing price matching at Wal-Mart we were able to get our weekly groceries for $61.00, and I was really proud of that!

I almost had an incredibly expensive shopping trip last week though, when my cellphone was stolen out of my buggy!! I had gotten one of those buggies that has the little car for the kids to ride in attached to the front and I had a sanitizing wipe, wiping it down when ( I am pretty sure this is when it happened) a lady decided to walk by and steal my phone out of my buggy without me knowing it. When I started shopping and reached for my phone to turn the calculator on, it was gone. In my rush I just figured I must have left it in the van, but no, it wasn't there. So, i thought I guess I left it at home. Juggling the kids and all I just dismissed it and figured I had left it. Anyway, long story short, my wonderful tech loving husband had downloaded an app called "Find my Iphone" on our phones. We were able to track the phone using a gps map. So, we wen to the police. They couldn't believe we knew the exact house it was at. So, Ricky rode with the chief of police and followed by a county cop to the house. The lady never admitted to stealing it and didn't admit to having it until they mapped it out right down to her car. Then she made up some story about finding it and just "forgot" about it. We didn't press charges because we were just thrilled to get it back and didn't want to mess with it. Yay for getting my phone back and teaching someone a good lesson all at once!

Laney has been having quiet a bit of homework this semester and she is picking up so fast at reading. It is crazy! I love seeing her papers come home in her folder of her work. She is smart as a whip and learns really fast. And is so care-free about everything. She so wants to please everyone at school and when people get in trouble it upsets her.

My sweet happy girl

 This paper came home from school and I thought her swans were so cute. I had just taught her the night before about how to make swans out of a number 2. She was really proud of them :)

Ricky and I went to a couple's weekend Bible study at church the third weekend of the month and had fun. Several of our couple friends attended it too, so it was a good time of fellowship, eating,  learning and lots of laughing at the humorous parts of wedded bliss. It was nice to focus on the two of us and our relationship and spend time with our friends.

This month Ricky also turned in his resignation at the school. That's right! We can finally officially talk about his new job!! In March he will begin working maintenance at a new plant opening up across the river. We are so very thankful for this job and are very much looking forward to this new venture! It has been such a journey to get here, but looking back we can see how God's hand was guiding us through the path that has led us here. He is so good and faithful.
We will miss the school and his students and friendships he has made there. I am so thankful for the friends I have made through his job there and the relationships that we have built from it. So that, too has added to our busy month with him filling out paperwork, going to health screenings, etc...

The last week, saw us yet again at the Drs. I had a neurologist appt and it seems that progress was made there and Laney had an ENT appt and yay, she got one tube out! Hopefully the next one can come out in 6 months. She fights the Ear doctor like a wild woman. She has had such a bad experience with her ears. There is nothing that can be said or done to calm her down when we go. So, Daddy went with us to help keep her calm (i.e...Hold her down). It only took Ricky, me, 2 nurses and 1 Doctor to hold her down, but we got one tube out. LOL! Bless her heart she literally fights for her life.

 

Caleb is totally opposite. He just gets on the table and lays there. When I go to the chiropractor he won't leave until they adjust him too. He lets them crack his neck and pop his back and loves it. Laney cries just watching it. She wouldn't dare let them do it to her.

Ok, it appears  that we needed to get back to the title of this Blog...Random. HAHA. I think this post fulfilled the randomness of this month.