it's a celebration.

last night we celebrated sidney lee's 18th birthday.

it was beautiful and fabulous.

i am so thankful for her and it was wonderful to spend a night with family and friends celebrating.

here are the pictures from the night:

always a big story to tell...it runs in the family.

such great facial expressions - more to come...get excited.

sl's friends that came over to help celebrate.

always so much fun.

singing happy birthday.

some of the aunts. 
listening to one of those big tales i mentioned earlier.

further evidence of my family's big tales.  i think my uncle [in the red] was talking about the last fish he caught.  except when he told me the story, his arms were nowhere near as wide.

madre and the birthday girl.

sl checking out the shirt that all her friends signed for her birthday.

of course mom needed to document the evening on video.  she's getting a message from all the guests to the birthday girl. 

speaking of home videos, i love to watch home videos - they're my favorite.

we played with the new cellphone - part of sl's present.

and we pulled out the baby book and looked at sidney's pictures.

which turned into looking at old yearbooks when my dad and uncles were in high school.

which led to....you guessed it, more big tales.

about their dating years.  and apparently some heated discussion between my aunt and worker man.

opening gifts, more of those beautiful expressions.

we had such a good time!



and just for good measure, happy birthday sidney lee!

[i only texted/told her happy birthday 1.8 million times yesterday]

happy 18th birthday sidney lee!

hope it's wonderful.

love you!

old - take two.

so do you remember the story i told you a few weeks ago?


well this weekend my sister and i were shopping and we went to get her makeup done.  the lady that was doing it got confused because she thought we were twins. this got us talking about how so many people think we look alike but we don't see it at all.


so she starts telling me about some of her friends getting pictures of us confused and she says:

"just the other day at school me, taylor and marcie were looking at this really, really old yearbo....i mean, this ummm....not really old yearbook.  i mean, ummm...when you were a sophomore...."


wow.


thank you sister.

believer.

i went to target one day last week and look what all i got!

all of this for only $15 and some change.
fifteen dollars!


and i would have regularly paid $55 and some change.


i saved $39.49!


i am a believer in the coupon binder.  

for real!

welcome.

so i was in need of a little something to hang on our side door but i wanted something different than a wreath.

so, i went to hobby lobby and found a wooden-framed chalkboard.

used some left over paint, some ribbon and a husband with a drill and came up with this.

it was a pretty quick and easy project that added just the thing i needed :)

sport two.

worker man and i were at my parent's home on sunday afternoon. 

my brother was home this past week for spring break and when he was walking out the door on the way back to school, my dad spotted a groundhog in the backyard.

so my brother dropped his last bag he was loading in his car.

left the door standing wide open.

and ran to grab his equipment.

look at that serious face!

all three of the guys.



he went out on the deck to get a better position.




and....he missed.



but it sure was fun to witness all the action!



aren't you jealous of all the sports that take place at my family's house?!?

happy.

my wonderful mother-in-law brought these to me on saturday.

just because.


they make me so happy everytime i walk through the kitchen.


don't you just love spring?
and good mother-in-laws?  
and fresh flowers?

morning.

i woke up on friday morning and made my coffee.

worker man and i sat down at the kitchen table to do our devotions like usual.

then, i walked into the bathroom to take a shower and happened to look in the mirror...

and this is what i saw...

isn't he a lucky guy?

i just didn't want you to feel left out in seeing something so...ummm.  yeah.

so i figured you'd be excited about starting out your monday morning with this image.




you're welcome america.

triplets.

apparently there was a memo about a uniform everyone should wear to work today.


black pants, cardigan, flats and tank [color of your choice].

there were a few others that got the memo as well.  but we didn't realize it till we had already taken the picture :)


[and no, i'm not preggo.  i apparently need to stop slacking off on the ab workouts.  don't judge.]

easter shirts.

since we don't have any kids, my nieces are the guinnea pigs for any kid project i want to try.


i figured they could use cute easter shirts this year so i made these:

i can't wait to see pictures of them wearing their shirts!

wfmw - coupon binder.

do any of you coupon??

have any of you ever gotten frustrated and just given up?


because you end up spending more time clipping coupons than you do using them?

because you buy stuff you don't need because you have a coupon for it?

because you hate that stupid, accordian thingy that you always forget in your car?

or even when you don't forget it, you hate it because you have to take out all the coupons to sort through them looking for the one you need, while you're pushing a cart, and your pocketbook is falling off your shoulder while it's hanging wide open, and your husband is trying to hurry you along so you can get home in time to watch the duke pre-game, only to find the coupon and figure out that it's expired? [not like i know anything about this one...ahem.]

well, i'm with you.  promise.  i have the same problems.  i have started couponing fourteen-bazillon times.  only to get frustrated and stop.

so, today i'm going to offer you a tip that has made all of this so much more managable.

behold, the power of the coupon b.i.n.d.e.r. 

my friend julie sent me the link to a fabulous website [hip2save] and collin has opened my ocd eyes.


yes, it's a binder.
[and a cute one - which makes it even better!]

no more accordian action.  no more baggies full of coupons. 


it's organized by the aisles at the grocery store.  which makes the trip so much easier! [i used plastic dividers - so they won't tear].

and i mean aisles, not categories.

for example, in the [dairy] section of my binder there are orange juice coupons and pillsbury coupons and cookie dough coupons because that's where you find these items.  over near the eggs and cheese.  it's much easier because i don't have to dig through my broad category of "dinner/sides". instead i have more narrow categories so there is not as much to sort through.


and then, within the dividers....there are baseball card holders.

with all of my coupons folded nicely in each pocket so the item, savings and expiration date can be seen. 

it's wonderful. 
i'm serious.


don't close the browser!  i know you're thinking, this crazy gal has lost her mind.  but seriously, it works.  let me tell you why:

1. everything is more visible:  i can flip through the coupons and see each one without taking them out.
2. fits in the cart: the binder fits perfectly in the cart. there's no more craziness of trying to hold everything and look through the coupons and push the cart. 
3. i'm organized once i get to the register:  as i find the coupon i need, i pull it out and stick it in an envelope in the front so i'll remember to use it when i get to the register. 
4. it didn't cost a lot:  i was worried that setting this thing up would take more time and money than i would save by using coupons. but it didn't! i already had the binder and then i bought two packs of plastic dividers at walmart for $2.88 per pack. and i bought the baseball card holders at target [one pack for $4.99].
5. there's a routine: now that i've started, the upkeep is minimal. i have a system that works well and it's overwhelming. on sunday afternoons, while worker man and i are watching a movie, i flip through my book and pull out any expired coupons.  then, i clip my new coupons and insert those.  it's a mindless task, so i just do that while we watch a movie.  then, on wednesday nights, i look through the grocery store sale papers with coupon binder in hand.  when i come across anything that i have a coupon for that is on sale, i circle the ad and i pull the coupon out and put it in the 'harris teeter envelope' or the 'lowes food envelope'.    i also circle any good deals of things i want to get that week.  so, when i got into harris teeter, i have my binder, my sale paper, my grocery list i made from the sale paper and my envelope of coupons to use at harris teeter. [i still carry my binder in case there's something i find that i need/want and look to see if i have a coupon for it].

in my first trip to target, after completing my binder, my items rang up to ~$47.00.  After she rang up all of my coupons, I walked out paying ~$25.00.

definitely worth it in my mind!


you should go watch collin's video about her coupon binder to get even more great ideas!  you won't be sorry!!

i'm joining works for me wednesdays with kristen [WeAreTHATFamily].

birthday.

okay, so i'm a terrible daughter-in-law.

friday was my mother-in-law's birthday and i didn't even write her a dad-burn post. 

how's that for sorry?

i guess in my old, motherly age i'm starting to be forgetful. 

not about her birthday.

just about her birthday post.

but, i did make sure to make her something she was wanting.

wanna see??

whatcha think?

happy birthday fmil!