Saturday, December 05, 2009

Sprite


Jack's favorite Christmas song is the "Sprite" song. You know

Dashing through the snow, making spirits Sprite...
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Monday, November 30, 2009

Jack (do I need to say anything else?)

Last night at tithing settlement, Jack told the bishop that 2 and 2 makes an elephant. We all had a chuckle and finished our visit. Then, as we were driving away, I asked Jack why 2 and 2 makes an elephant. His response was, "because an elephant has four legs."

While talking to Tanner a month ago, Jack insisted that he knows all about girls. "I know all about girls. They like pink and kitties." He should know. He's surrounded by girls at home.

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Dead Peeps

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I found these on my bedroom floor. I assume Mia was the assassin. She really wanted some peeps earlier.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

September 14, 2009

Painting the barn

We all pitched in to help paint Grandma Barker's Barn. This is Dave up in the cherry-picker with Ryan.
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November 1, 2009

Jack hurt his lip while horsing around. He demanded a band-aid. The blissful silence lasted for about 1 1/2 hours.
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Halloween 2009

Jenny had some friends over for a Halloween party since she is too old to go trick-or-treating.
Jack & Mia had fun at the NDPA Halloween Carnival this year.

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June 7 - 14: Yellowstone





















August 6, 2009






Great news from Jenny and Lydia. Jenny's pony (mare) won 3rd place and Lydia's pony (gelding) won 4th place. In the showmanship category, Lydia got 5th place and Jenny got 1st place. Last year there were only 3 entrants in the 11 - 13 year olds. This year there were 8, so 1st place was a big deal.

June 5, 2009

Lydia was one of two 5th graders to receive the "Great American" award. She had to memorize the Preamble to the Constitution, the Gettysburg address, the US presidents, the Star-Spangled Banner, the states and their capitols, and the Pledge of Allegiance. So next time you see her, make sure to congratulate her.

May 14, 2009

Dave was involved in his third no-fault accident of the year. What is the deal with other people trying to kill his car?!?

March 6, 2009: NDPA Science Fair


Jenny and I want to thank everyone who took the time to help Jenny by answering the questions for her Science Fair project. Last night Jenny took first place in the 7th grade. Here's her write up of the project. All of you blonds out there will be happy to know that even though blond high school kids who took the test have a 95% chance of scoring lower on the test, you recover from it as you age.





Lydia got an honorable mention for her project. She proved that we as a society give preferential treatment to those of us who are born during certain months of the year.









February 14 - 28




Jack, Mia, and I went to Tucson for a visit with Grandma and Grandpa Flynn







February 14: The Dam Bathroom:

On the way to Tucson, we stopped to walk over the Hoover Dam. Of course Jack had to visit the bathroom.


Tucson Zoo







February 20

Mia ran off tonight while mom and I were making dinner. My parents live in the south-west out-of-city-limits part of Tucson. Lots of hills, cactus, coyotes, javalinas, and other wild animals and dangerous things. Jack and Mia were playing on the back patio with my mom's little yorkie, Duchess (small dog that yaps a lot). Jack came in to use the bathroom, and when I came back, Mia and Duchess were gone. After running all over and enlisting several neighbors to help look, we finally admitted defeat and called the police. Mia had followed Duchess down to a horse stable that we had gone to earlier this week, and was found by a neighbor who then called the police. The entire ordeal only took about 20 minutes, but I was panicked by visions of horrible things happening to my sweet (albeit rather energetic) little girl. Needless to say, Jack will be passing the "leash" down to Mia.




February 22

Yesterday morning my dad had meetings at the house, so mom and I took Jack and Mia back to the Desert Museum to finish our visit that had been cut short by the need for nap time. We saw hummingbirds, snakes, prairie dogs, and all sorts of desert animals, but Jack's favorite was the lizard that was on the trail in front of us. We stopped and watched him for a minute before he ran off into the bushes. My favorite part was when we stopped to look at the mountain lion. There were a bunch of Korean young adults who crowded around Jack and Mia as if they were the attraction. They didn't speak any English, but they learned their names and had to touch Mia's hair. They gave Jack and Mia "high five" as we left.










Last night we went to eat at Sweet Tomatoes, dad joined us for the first time this week. He said this is the busiest week of his entire life (work and Bishop stuff). He left after dinner to go to a youth dance, while the rest of us went to an old west gun show. There was a "native american" who sang and did a hoop dance, then there was a skit with gun fire and explosions. Jack and Mia loved it (except for the explosion - we were on the front row). After the show Jack got his picture taken with the "bad guy."



Today, mom and I left Jack and Mia with Dad after all his meetings were over, so we could practice the song we're singing in sacrament meeting. When we got back, he was walking with the kids and the dog out to the mailbox. The walk to the mailbox is about 3/4 mile on barely paved road, and my dad was not going to take any chances on losing someone. He had tied everyone together with a rope. After I parked to car, I grabbed the camera and ran out to get some pictures.











Thursday, January 29, 2009

Grocery Smarts Newbie

I'm in my 4th week of following the advice of this website. I've spent a lot of money, but I've saved even more. Last year I spent on average $650/month on groceries. That was just buying what I needed. No stocking up, clipping coupons, or just buying the deals. This month I spent $500, but I purchased $1460 worth of groceries. WOW! That's a savings of 66%. Of that savings, $300 was clipping coupons. That certainly makes up for the subscription to 6 newspapers.

So here's the scoop on today's best deals.

It's a little confusing but the bottom line is this:
BBQ sauce is 25 cents a bottle
Kraft salad dressing is FREE!
Chicken is $1.77/lb


Kraft has specials going for "Super Bowl" parties

Kraft BBQ sauce (18 oz) is $1.25
Kraft Salad dressings (16 oz) are $2

But if you purchase 3 of them you get $3 off your purchase of chicken (boneless skinless chicken breasts are $1.77/lb)

So I bought:

7.37 lbs of chicken for $1.77 each for a total of $13.05

I also bought 5 BBQ sauces and 4 salad dressings (9 items) for a total of $12.25 (I used a coupon for $1 off 2 salad dressings) with a $9 discount on the chicken.

plus Kraft salad dressing is offering $2 off your next purchase for every 4 bottles.


My total for the chicken and the Kraft products is $16.30 with $2 off my next order.


Orville Redenbacher popcorn is 25 cents a box (4 packages of popcorn)

If you buy one for $2.99 you get 3 for free.

But I used the $1 off 2 boxes coupons (I got 4 boxes so I used 2 coupons) then the boxes come to a total of 99 cents for all four boxes


Nabisco crackers are 99 cents a box (6.5 - 10 oz) + a free can of Easy Cheese (not my favorite, but Dave loves it)

Nabisco crackers are $1.99. But I used $2 off 2 boxes (I bought 12 boxes so I used 6 coupons). Plus, if you buy 3 boxes of Nabisco crackers, you get for free: Easy Cheese, velveeta, or Kraft cheese slices. So my total for 12 boxes of Triscuits (9oz) and 4 cans of Easy Cheese was $11.88.