Things to be Thankful for...Day Nine

Day Nine: I am Thankful for my son's imagination

Cody has always had a pretty big imagination, as most three year olds do. He's been a pirate, batman, a builder, a shark rescuer...you name it, he's probably played it.

But his friend "Jack" is what cracks me up the most. You see, "Jack" is imvisible, as Cody would say. He is little like him, lives with his little brother and two dogs...no parents (hmm??)

He is Cody's best friend. Every weekend he asks if he can go to "Jack's" house. Sometimes we have wondered if Cody really thinks "Jack" is real but he is very aware that he is imvisible (not imaginary, Cody will correct you).

We have never let Cody go to "Jack's" house because "Jack" lives in the Purina Dog Food Factory.

Sometimes "Jack" comes over to our house but he always leaves when the kid's come home from school.

Whenever we pull into our neighborhood and Cody see's The Purina Dog Food Factory "Jack's" house, he let's us know his imvisible friend lives there!

One of these days, Cody will forget all about "Jack" but until then, I'm thankful he has such a love for his little imvisible friend.

*poor kid has to either play with his imaginary friend or Scuba Steve, who now only has a torso*

Things to be Thankful for...Day Eight

Day Eight: I am Thankful for coupons in the Sunday paper!

I realize I'm a huge dork, but I look forward to getting the Sunday paper every week. Most of the time, I get the early edition paper that comes out on Saturday. That is just how cool I am!

I have studied the coupon world for a couple of weeks. I used to think it was more trouble than it was worth cutting out all those little coupons every week. Now that I have learned the little tricks and trades of the coupon world, I save a lot of money. Plus, our pantry is always full.

There are some things I buy that I probably would have never bought without a coupon, but I just use it in place of something else I didn't have a coupon for. It has worked well and we have never let anything go to waste. There are 7 people who live in this house, 5 extra kiddos everyday, and my brother and his girlfriend here on Sundays...trust me, nothing gets wasted!

Today I studied the ad for our local grocery store that doubles coupons and decided what I was going to buy. The key is to only use coupons on the items that are on sale. Half of the time, you can get an item for practically nothing.


Like the box of ice cream bars I got for $.29



Or the dressings I made money on



Or even the peppers that only cost me a nickel.



Don't forget the Chex Mix Bars, they were only $.50.


Some days are better than others. Today was a better day.

All of these Groceries rang up to $85.29


After coupons, I only paid $42.96! Not too shabby if I do say so myself!

*not pictured, because I had already put them away before I decided to be a nerd and take a picture of my groceries; 2 boxes of Rice Krispie Treats, 2 jars of fruit, 1 circle loaf of Hawaiian Bread, and 2 packages of buy one, get one free stuffed chicken breasts from the meat department!*

Things to be Thankful for...Day Seven

Day Seven: I am Thankful for everything McKinly does for our family

A few days ago, I wrote about how much I appreciate everything McKinly does around here. She is such a great girl and I couldn't leave her out of my "what I am thankful for" list.

McKinly is my step daughter but I have known her since she was three months old. I couldn't ask for a better big sister for my boys. She loves them and protects them through everything they do. She is there for them whenever they need her. To tell the truth, Cade chooses her over T.J. and me most of the time. After his nap, she is the first person he asks for. When we pick her up from school, the whole way home he repeats her name...over and over and over again. She gets annoyed with it after a while but I think deep down, she really loves it.

I am very proud of everything she does. She is doing really well in school, has even been bumped up to sixth grade math. She helps tutor kids in the younger grades during her recess time and she also has started helping out in the library during any other free time she has at school.

I might not have a biological daughter, but I think that's God's way of showing me I already have the best daughter I could ask for.

I CAN count!

Just for anyone who noticed, I realize it went from Day Four to Day Six. That is not a mistake on my part. I have each day scheduled to be posted at midnight. However, for some reason unbeknown to me, Day Five never posted. I'm not sure why that is, but as soon as I can figure it out, I will let you know. I will go ahead and continue posting in order but will let you know when Day Five is available.

I can count, I promise!

Things to be Thankful for...Day Six

Day Six: I am thankful Cole sleeps so well!

My day is chaotic to say the least. I have nine kids in and out of here throughout the day and at night, I have 3-5 kids plus my husband who I have to feed, bathe (well I just have to bathe the kids, my husband can bathe himself), and put to bed. On top of that, I have to find time to get to the gym so I can try and lose the weight my three precious boys helped me gain.

When everyone finally goes to sleep, it's my time to have a few minutes to myself. I finally get to bed around 11 pm so I can wake Cole up to feed him one last time.

I am able to do everything I need to do during the day because Cole sleeps through the night. I don't know if I could function as well as I do if I was getting interrupted sleep.

Cole is already on the same schedule as the other kids. He wakes up in the morning around 7, I feed him a bottle and he goes back to sleep till 9 a.m. He stays up and plays for a few hours and then around 11:30 a.m. I feed him and put him down for a nap. He sleeps a good 3 hours and half the time, I have to wake him to go pick the kids up from school. Around 5 p.m. he starts getting sleepy again so he takes about an hour to two hour nap. We wake him between 6 and 7 p.m. to feed him another bottle and then he's down for the night around 9:30 p.m. This is how it has been since he was four weeks old and I love it!

I am very thankful to have such a laid back baby. He is very happy the majority of the time and I couldn't have asked for anything more :)

Things to be Thankful for...Day Four

Day Four: I am thankful for my relationship with McKinly and Ty's mom

As weird as it might sound, McKinly and Ty's mom, Cathy is a great friend to me. Over the years, we have grown closer and closer. We have a lot in common, other than the fact we have both been married to T.J.

Besides T.J. and the kids, she was the only other person I knew when I moved here. It was a little strange at first, I will admit. I'm sure to her too. She and I have worked really hard to make sure everything we do is in the best interest for McKinly and Ty. They were the only thing that mattered and we made sure we were always aware of that, we still do.

However, if she would like to admit it or not, she has become my friend. I'm sure there are things she doesn't agree with involving how I raise her kids but she always supports me. Whenever I have a problem with the kids, she's the first person I go to so she is aware of the situation and she does the same.

The day I was going to have Cody, she took the whole day off of work and sat at the hospital with us while we waited to have him. She left to go get the kids so as soon as their brother was born, they'd be the first to see him. She rushed the kids up to the hospital as soon as Cade was born as well.

Since Cole was born on the first day of school, she took pictures of the kids, got them developed, and brought them up to the hospital because she knew it was killing me not being able to be there like I have every year prior. She was still at the hospital when Cole was actually born (not in the room because that would have been a little weird) and besides for me and T.J., she was the first to hold him.

Some people find it strange we are all friends, but I am very thankful that's the way it turned out. I appreciate everything she has done for us, because she truely has done a lot. She loves my boys and I know she would do anything for them if I asked and that makes me extremely happy. My boys even call Cathy's mom "Mimi" just like the other kids. I'm working on a name for my boys to call her because "grandma Cathy" isn't cutting it (Cody is a little confused because he has a Grandma Kathie so he thinks that's what he is supposed to call her too). She doesn't find it nearly as funny as I do!!

Today she even took Cody to get his hair cut because she was already taking Ty to get his cut...for our family pictures.

I don't know if we tell her enough how much we appreciate her, but we do.

So yes, I am very thankful for T.J.'s ex-wife and the relationship we have all been able to have with each other!

Things to be Thankful for...Day Three

Day Three: I'm thankful TJ didn't get "fixed" as soon as we had planned

TJ was supposed to get "fixed" last May as soon as school got out. We didn't really have any extra money at the time to pay our deductible for it, so we decided to wait a little longer.

If TJ would have had the surgery when we originally had planned, then this little guy never would have been born.


Because of our lack of extra money, we were blessed with another perfect little man...my little man (who will end up costing more than that little deductible would have cost us, but that's beside the point).

I am very thankful we were blessed with one more baby, but I am also VERY thankful we can't have anymore.

*I'm also thankful Kyle and Cortney gave us the little blanket in the background with his name on it. Works for a great backdrop in a picture too! I'm NOT thankful they moved away from us :( *