Ragnar Relay 2010

As my sister is always quick to point out, I haven't blogged on here for quite awhile! I've actually been busy blogging on another site with a friend of mine, doing coupons and recipes, http://www.tightwadinutah.com/. If anyone actually reads this blog, check it out, it's awesome!

So, over the weekend, I joined the really CRAZY club. I ran the Wasatch Back/Ragnar Relay, 188 miles from Logan to Park City. And, it was AWESOME!!! The hardest part for me was the lack of sleep (surprise, surprise), but it was so much fun. I ran a total of 18.1 miles in 3 different legs. Definitely something I want to do again - crazy, I know!

The other great part was at the end. I got to meet Sione from The Biggest Loser!! And, can I just say, he is AWESOME!! He was so friendly and neat to talk to. The are trying to get a little Ragnar/Loser relation going on, which I think is a great idea. All those people that go on that show and lose the weight are so inspiring to me. And, I know when it's over, the journey's not over, either. Having had to lose baby weight, I understand, to a small degree, what they go through. It is not easy, but it is so definitely worth it. So, the fact that they want to find other activities to get the past contestants to do is wonderful. If you have a goal to work for, you will work for it. I would love to see a future Ragnar team of Loser contestants. Those guys are truly inspiring!!

The Elusive Couch

This past summer/fall we have been doing a lot of upgrades to our house. We are the people who do things a little at a time, as we have the money for it. Probably by the time we get it how we really want it, we'll move!! Anyway, we re-tiled the kitchen, the upstairs bathroom, and put in new carpet downstairs and on the stairway. The carpet was something we've been dying to do for a long time. Buddy always said that when we did that, we'd get a new couch downstairs, too.

So, in the middle of October, we got rid of our old couch and started looking for a new one. After several stores, we found exactly what we were looking for. They were out of stock at the moment though, would we mind waiting 2 weeks before we got it?? Sure, we figured 2 weeks wasn't too bad. Well, 2 weeks came and went and we heard nothing. I called the furniture store and was told that it wasn't in yet (obviously) and they would call when it was. I waited another week, still no call, so I called back again. This time I was told it would be in by the end of the week. By Friday, I called AGAIN (can you tell I was getting impatient by this time?) and was told I would have to speak to my salesperson (obviously, there was a problem). Not having been particularly impressed with my salesperson, I asked to speak to the manager instead. He assured me he would look into the situation since it was the first he'd heard of it (yeah, right), and would call me back in 15 minutes. 3 hours later (seriously, can no one call me back here???), I called him back. Apparently the manufacturer had underestimated the amount of couches they would have to produce and they were behind. It would be another 2 1/2 weeks, at least. By this time, I was more than frustrated with this store, and ready to cancel my order, but faced with a dilemma - cancel and have to search for something that wasn't exactly what we wanted (we had already searched several stores), or wait it out (we had waited this long, what was 2 more weeks?).

Last week was the week the couch was supposed to come in - no phone call came. So, on Monday morning, since I was in the area anyway, I decided to swing by the store. When we got there, Colton asked what we were doing there. I told him we were going to yell at the couch people. His eyes got big and he said "Really?" It was quite funny. I went in the store ready to cancel my order, and lo and behold, the couch had come in on Friday. (Funny how no one bothered to call me since then - I think they have black-flagged my account :) ). Needless to say, we got the delivery set up for this morning, and I demanded my delivery fee refunded, which they did, probably to get rid of me as quickly as possible - lol!! Anyway, the couch came this morning, and looks great! It is so nice to finally have something to sit on downstairs again! What an ordeal! And, by the way, if you are wondering where I bought the couch, it was Furniture Warehouse. Not a store I would recommend ever again.

First day of school!!!

Another school year has begun! I can't believe how quickly the summer flew by! Today was a new beginning for us as we started not only new grades, but a new school as well. We had signed up to get into Canyon Rim Academy in January, but due to the popularity of the school and luck of the draw in the lottery to get in, we didn't find out until 2 weeks ago that we were in. At first it was just Brendan that was in, too, because they didn't have a spot for Christian, but that spot opened up on Wednesday of last week. We were so excited!!!

Brendan started 4th grade and has Mrs. Pectol/Mrs. McQeen for teachers. They team teach, one in the morning, one in the afternoon. According to him, his new school is AWESOME!!!

Christian started 2nd grade and has Ms. Kirsten for a teacher. I haven't met her yet, but hope to tomorrow. He says he likes Canyon Rim better than Millcreek, but he still HATES SCHOOL!!! Ah, well, what do you do? I'm hoping this year will be a better experience for him and he will learn to not be so shy and make some new friends. Until then, we'll just have to keep taking it one day at a time.

As for me, I was both excited and nervous about today, too, learning the ropes of a new school. It looks like there is going to be a lot to learn still, but today went off pretty smoothly, and I'm excited to begin this new adventure in a charter school!

Fun in the sun!

We decided our last big summer swim was going to be at Lava Hot Springs. I don't remember the last time I've been there, but it's been a LONG time. Everything has changed. They've added a bunch of new slides, that were a lot of fun. The kids had a good time, and mom, Christian and Brendan went down the 2 smaller tube slides. Then, Brendan decided to be brave and go down the BIG slides. He waited in line for almost half and hour and as we were waiting for him to come out so we could take a picture, we heard someone yelling. It sounded like Brendan, and sure enough, here he came! I got his picture, and when he was finished, I asked him what he had been yelling. He replied "I'm too young to die!!!" We all got a good laugh out of that! He loved it so much, he went back and stood in line for another half hour to do it again! It was a fun day at the pool!

Loving the Couponing!!!

So, I am totally loving the couponing game lately. It has been so much fun and I love to see the final price I end up paying for stuff. It's had a bit of a learning curve, but I think I'm finally getting the hang of it. Here is a picture of my shopping trip today. I bought: 4 boxes Frosted Flakes, 2 boxes Raisin Bran, 1 Kellogg's Poptarts, 2 Jolly Time popcorn, 2lb Tillamook chunk cheese, 2 Ben and Jerry's ice cream, 2 Banana Boat sunscreen. 14 items for a total price of. . .drumroll, please. . . $8.65!!!!!!!! That was a savings of $66.08!!!! Awesome!

Add that to my trip yesterday (I had to split it up into 2 trips, because they didn't have some of the items I needed yesterday), in which I bought: 1 pkg angel hair pasta, Twix candy bar, Zone nutrition bar, pkg pork chops, .92 lbs tomatoes, and 3 apples, for a grand total of - again, drumroll please. . . $0.28!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Aaaahhhh!!! I have never done that before! Do you know how fun it is to pay change for your groceries???? So FREAKIN' cool!!!!!!!!

And that's two. . .

So, today was Colton's day - he learned to ride the two-wheel bike this afternoon. He was so excited, of course. I knew he could do it - he has always been my fastest child at things. It's hard to believe that he was Logan's age (2) and riding a scooter! Logan isn't even close to that right now. Anyway, he's had a flat tire on his bike for awhile and I finally took it in and got it fixed a couple of days ago. Now, I wish I would have done it sooner! I'm so proud of him! Christian says we need to go out for ice cream again to celebrate this latest accomplishment. I couldn't agree more!!

Don't drive sleepy!

Thought I would let Logan go without a nap today so he'd go to bed early tonight. Plus, he was just having so much fun playing outside. Next thing I know, I go out to check on him and he had brought his blanket and bear outside and was in his car, asleep! I just thought that was so funny, I had to take a picture of it and share. Guess he needed that nap after all!