I have been horrible with updating this blog, haven't I? Life gets pretty busy, and then when I think about all the stuff to blog, it is too much and I don't want to have to do it.

We bought a house. I love it. It is wonderful to have space. A place to put the baby, dogs, and other stuff. We were able to find a house in the ward that we love. That was the best part. Things are unpacked, but no decorating has been done yet.

I am in the last month of my pregnancy! Both good and bad. It is great that it won't be too much longer before we meet Baby Thurell. It is bad that it has to be so painful. I have constant rib and back pain and now it is to the point that even laying down doesn't really help. All through the pregnancy I have slept really well, but even now that is gone. I do have to say that I have really had an easy pregnancy. So I try not to complain too much about my current aches and pains.

At our last ultrasound, the baby was measuring about three weeks early. Baby weighed 5lbs 8oz at 34 weeks, which the ultrasound dr. said was "several weeks" early. He said we would be discussing having an early baby with our OB at the next visit. That visit is this coming Tuesday and I am anxious to hear what she has to say about it all.

I am thrilled that this is the last week before Winter Break. I need that two weeks off. I am very tired :)

Random Thoughts in My Head (bear with me)

Just bear with me. I have all these random thoughts in my head. Thought I would spit them out here.

* I am seriously addicted to Pinterest. Now if only I could get motivated to make all the different things I am finding.

* I am getting very impatient for my little baby to get here. I still have 3 months to go!

* I honestly don't have a preference if our little "bean" (as Kyle calls him/her) is a boy or a girl. I will be thrilled with either.

* Buying a home is stressful. Will be sooooo glad once we close. Only 2 more weeks.

* I love cooking from scratch. It will be even more enjoyable in a larger kitchen where we have more that 3 feet of counter space!

* I don't think I will ever buy corn tortillas again. They are so simple to make -- and WAY cheaper!

* Homemade flour tortillas are the BOMB!

* I am more excited for Thanksgiving this year than any previous year. Maybe it is because we will be in a new home, or maybe because I am craving every pie known to man! :)

Big Purchases

In our house we have what is called, "Big

Purchases". These are things that we need to save up for that we really want or need.

It is always a fun day when we can get our big purchase and then to decide what our next big purchase will be.

A month ago our big purchases was an electric meat slicer. We were tired of having to spend so much for sliced meat and after doing the math decided it would save us money to slice our own meat. Turns out you pay double to get your deli meat pre-sliced. We now pay the same amount for double the amount of meat. We did the same with cheese. You pay double to get it sliced or shredded. We now buy it in a big block at Smart and Final and slice it ourselves.

So, we decided our next purchase was going to be a stand mixer. I have always wanted a Kitchen Aid mixer but one day we were walking through Sears and saw a Kenmore mixer. It looks almost identical to the Kitchen Aid but is 100 dollars cheaper. AND WE CAN USE ALL THE KITCHEN AID ATTACHMENTS ON THE KENMORE!!!!!

I got very excited today when Tim called and said we had enough to get the Kenmore. So tonight when he gets home --- it is off to Sears for our big purchase.

What will our next big purchase be....

Why I am starting to love Pinterest

I am LOVING all the nursery ideas. Can you tell I am loving the tree theme?

our deals this week

Tim and I went to a couple of stores yesterday and got some great deals.

We got:

4 bottles of Bullseye Bbq sauce for free

4 packs of Tic Tac's for free

4 packages of Jimmy Dean sausage links for .28 cents each

5 jumbo packs of Huggies diapers for 6 dollars each

We would have spent $71.82

We actually paid $36.80

So, we saved $35.02 which is a 71% savings

Pregnancy

I was checking again this morning to see if my mom posted anything on her blog when I realized that I should probably post something on mine.

The biggest thing going on this summer is my pregnancy. Can I just say how blessed I am that this first trimester is over summer break.

I am so tired all the time. Some days are better than others, but I don't know how women go through this first trimester and work at the same time.

I am also blessed with the fact that I don't have morning sickness. I get a little queasy at night, but it is very minimal.

Tim and I will not find out the sex of the baby. We want it to be a surprise. We do have names picked out either way, those are also staying a secret until the delivery.

I am very excited with the names. The first names are ones that Tim and I picked out and the middle names are family names.

On a little change of subject, I have the baby shower invitations for Erna's baby shower complete. They will get sent out today. The baby shower is on July 9th at 11:00 so save the date!

How Not to Start Your Summer

Tim and I don't have a t.v. Not a regular tv that is. We have a projector. I love it! It makes for a huge screen.

Lately the bulb in the projector was been going out. Little white dots have started to cover our picture. We have procrastinated getting a new one because frankly, the are a little expensive.

Well, on the students last day of school, I came home, turned on the cable and projector and then took the dogs out. When I came it, the screen was black. Well, there went the projector. So I just blog stalked and surfed the internet until Tim got home. He got online and ordered a new bulb.

We got a great deal on it and didn't even have to pay shipping. It got here yesterday.

So my first full day off I had to try to figure out what shows I could watch online. It makes for a very long day when you cant become a zombie in front of the tv.

Tim got home and put in the bulb, hooked the projector back up to the cable, and turn it on.

We waited as the projector warmed up and as the screen began to appear, so did those annoying little white dots!

hummmmm, google it.

Turns out not only did the bulb got out, but the little mirrors went bad too, sooooo.....

Back goes the bulb into the shipping box to get returned, back to no tv to start off my summer, and off to the store we go to buy a tv.

We figure we will just get a regular tv for now and buy a new projector when we are in a bigger home.

On the bright side.... Tim comes home early today so he can go with me to my first baby appointment!

Coupon Update

Today marks week 3 of couponing. Starting today, we are now getting 4 Sunday papers.

Couponsense.com helps you keep track of your saving. So, how have we done in the past three weeks?

With out savings, we would have spent $182.45

After coupons and VIP cards we spent $88.50

That means we saved $93.95. A 51% savings.

And things are only going to get better as I figure things out more and now that we have more coupons.

Coupons

Tim and I have decided to start couponing. Tim's sister does it and there is the TV show on TLC called Extreme Couponing. After seeing how much money we could be saving, we made the decision to learn how to do it.

STEP 1 - order the newspaper. I didn't want to get overwhelmed with a ton of newspapers when I was just starting to figure out how it all works, so we ordered the Sunday paper and it came with the free Wednesday paper. Not too far from now we will order more Sunday papers.

STEP 2 - Couponsense.com -- After looking at all the different sites that help with couponing, couponsense made the most sense (no pun intended!) The way they have thing organized makes it so easy to see what the best deals out there are. It does have a monthly membership fee, but with first starting out, it is worth it. I need all the help I can get.

STEP 3 - Computer/Internet -- Tim and I didn't have a computer at our house, so no internet. Anytime we want to use the internet we have to go over to Kate's to use it. They are awesome to let us over all the time to use it. I could use my work one, but by the time I am done with work stuff, I don't want to spend anymore time at work. Last night we started looking for cheap laptops and we went over to Kate's to use her computer. I checked my bank account to see how much we could spend and found out I got my federal tax return, so we had enough to get the laptop we wanted. So here I sit in my home, on my laptop, now able to organize my shopping trips at my own leisure.

So, periodically I will post what I have saved on my shopping trips. Hopefully soon it will be a nice little chunk of money!

I Could Write a Book

I could write a book, as I am sure most teachers can. I seriously hear the most, funny, gross, tmi (too much information) stuff. I always think that I should write these things down but then one kids hits another or a kid pukes all over his desk and I get busy dealing with other funny, gross, tmi stuff and never get around to writing it all down.

Here are a few of the ones I remember. (Names changed to protect the innocent/guilty)

FUNNY – Last week we learned about synonyms (words that mean almost the same thing). For the rest of the week my students struggled with “cinnamons” “Mrs. Thurell, what would a cinnamon be for this word?” Mrs. Thurell, what is a cinnamon?” MAN! Anybody have a cinnamon roll handy, I sure seem to be craving them now!

GROSS – Johnny, when we get into class you need to go blow your nose. (I will let you use your imagination as to how I knew he needed a tissue)

I don’t know how many times I have a student come wiggle their tooth for me. You may not find that gross, but I have a weird phobia for loose teeth. When Tim and I have kids, he will have to be the one to deal with those wiggly little suckers. The worst is when the tooth is dangling by one little piece of pink gum tissue! YUCK!!!!

TMI – “Dear Mrs. Thurell, my most precious and wonderful student Johnny has been constipated since Sunday. The doctor gave him medicine but it didn’t work. He is now on a new stool softener, please let him go to the bathroom whenever he needs to so that he won’t have an accident.” Best part – it was Stanford 10 testing that day! Great.

How about this one; this is from my storyteller. She can stand and talk my ear off all day if I let her, too bad she can’t transfer all that detail to her writing. Anyway, “Mrs. Thurell, I went to the doctor yesterday and I have a urinary Tract Infection. I have to take a little green and blue pill three times a day.” (pause for effect [she does that]) “And….” I say. “Well,” she responds, “when do I take them?” WHAT! Did she seriously just ask me to tell her when to take her meds?!? “I don’t know, I didn’t go to the doctor with you, you have to ask you mom”

Ahhhhh, the life of second graders.

Musical Instrument Museum

Tim and I had the opportunity to go to the Musical Instrument Museum on Saturday. All teachers and a guest got to attend for free in the month of March. We didn't have any plans this past Saturday so we went.

What an amazing place. It is huge and beautiful. We got there at about 10am and left at 1:30. It was such a huge place we didn't get to see everything.

I was surprised how popular the place is. When we left, security was directing traffic and people were parking on the street. The parking lot is huge, but still not everyone could fit.

When you purchase your tickets they give you a headset. When you get upstairs, the headset automatically connects to the port at the exhibit you are closest to. So, as you look at the different instruments from around the world, you also get to hear the music.

They also do demonstrations. A group was their playing music and doing the Capoeira. It is a slave dance that originated from Africa. When the slaves came over from Africa they wanted to practice their fighting so they put it to music so that their owners wouldn't get suspicious.

If you ever get the chance to go, do it. It was great. I wouldn't recommend taking little kids. They do have the Experience Room, where kids can play with instruments, but other than than room, they would not enjoy it. I would wait until your kids were 10 or older.

Utah

Tim and I are leaving for Utah in the morning. We are going with the rest of Tim's family, minus Jodi, Hayden, and Addyson.

Tim's Grandma Cottle passed away on Monday. The viewing is on Friday night and the graveside service is on Saturday.

Erna is the bestest sister ever and is watching Titus and Tillie for us. Tim is having separation anxiety. I told him Erna and Chris will take very good care of our dogs.

I don't think I am prepared for the bitter cold I will be experiencing in Utah. It is definitely not something that I have had to deal with before. We will see how I hold up.