Thankful...

I've just got home from shopping this morning and the baby LUCKILY took a nap so I have put a lot of thought into why I haven't been blogging as much as I would like. Well, all I can come up with is that our 15-month old is climbing on every piece of furniture in site and is into everything and that I have been hit by a new disease. As a lot of you know, since we are all fairly close, I LOVE TO SHOP! Not only do I believe that this is my CALLING and that it has been instilled in me since I was a little girl, but I have found a new love, BARGAIN SHOPPING!! I've always loved to find a bargain, TJ Maxx and Target have become some of my favorite places to shop in the last few years (especially when looking for baby clothes) however I have found a new favorite place, RITE AID!

I don't know what happened but about 8 weeks ago I ran upon a few coupon websites and it has changed my outlook on saving money. My husband and family now say that I am obsessed and I need to tone it down a little bit with the coupons, however I am saving tons of money. YES, it does take quite a bit of time and research but you will never believe what you can save with coupons, double coupons, and rebates. I never thought this would consume so much of my time but when I began saving tons of money on items I was paying full price for, it now has my FULL ATTENTION.

For example, this is what I got at Rite Aid today. This is $98.34 worth of regular priced product. It was all on sale for $62.93. However I got all of this for $27.74 including tax. All of it is products I will use. I'm not buying anything that I don't need. Thats right, I saved a total of $70.60 in one 20 minute trip to Rite Aid. I am beginning to think, its definately worth my time.

Several people have mentioned to me that they HATE to shop and that since I love it so much and have become pretty good at finding a bargain, I should go into business as a personal shopper. If I knew where to begin, knew that we had a real market for the idea in BG, KY, if I could figure out how to charge for the service, then I'd be the first to start it up. Until then, I'll just keep clipping coupons, even if everyone thinks I'm nuts.

Now that I have bored you all to death, I will update on our happenings from the holidays. We were all blessed way too much with physical and monetary gifts for Christmas (even though we are still very thankful for them) however we did get to spend some wonderful quality time with both sides of our families. I wish I could say that as of today that all of my Christmas decorations are put away and the Valentine's decor was out, but unforturnately I can't. I do hope to get that done this week. I have somehow seen to have lost my little pocket-size camera since Christmas therefore I don't have any Christmas pictures to post. I'm hoping it turns up soon as that was the second one I've bought in the last 3 years. EEK! In what little spare time I have had, I have gotten to babysit my sweet little neice, Annleigh Mae several times which I and Brooks are loving. Look at this sweet face, I could eat them jaws.....

Hope you all are doing well. We are so thankful for all the blessings that 2009 brought and we are so thankful for what God is going to do in 2010. I hope each of you are having a great week. Bring on the snow for all my teacher and stay-at-home mom friends so you can spend a few extra days with your babies, friends and most importantly FAMILY!

Much Love--

Emily