It's Finally Here

My kids have literally been counting down the days. No, there is not some cool video game coming out. It's not even a trip to Chicago. They've been counting down the days until school would start and IT IS FINALLY HERE!

I didn't think they were going to make it. We had a bunch of neighbor kids that started almost two weeks ago. Everyone else we knew started last week. I thought my kids were going to poke their eyes out if they had to sit at home for another day, (Being the good mom that I am, I let them turn the TV room into one large blanket fort--we've had it like that for the last week or so!) Needless to say, we were all very ready for school to start (Yes, I know--what is wrong with these kids actually wanting to go to school!)

Kobe got up at 5am. He came in our room and asked if it was too early to take a shower (duh) Tehani got up much to early as well and spent the next two hours perfecting her hair and outfit for the day. School doesn't event start until 8:15--but the kiddos were ready to leave while it was still dark out :)

Now, any kid of mine should know that you are not going to leave for the first day of school without the obligatory photos out on the front porch. You'd think they'd learn that the sooner they can both a picture where they both have their eyes open (notice how Kobe is tying his shoes above with his eyes closed) and with normal looks on their faces, we could leave sooner...I beleive this was the picture I took after I said "Open your eyes!" I should have told Tehani that those insturctions were for Kobe only. The kids were sure that we were going to be late for school (which would've been ironic since they had our whole house up at the crack of dawn)

Anyway, after snapping this lil' picture the kids were officially ready for their first day back at Meridian school. Happy School Year kids! (Don't forget to learn something)

What religion are you?

I remember when I was growing up and would ask my mom what a word meant when I didn't know the meaning. Her standard answer was "Why don't you look that up in the dictionary?" I can honestly say that I didn't ever bother (which means she is the cause of my mediocre vocabulary skills:)

Anyway, now that the kids are back they've been double-teaming me with all of sorts of words--articulate, mortality, Pol Pot (Ok, I didn't know who that was but thats what Google is for anyway, right?) And these were just the "What does this mean" words from one day!

Just when I thought the "Word Quiz-o-Rama" couldn't get any worse, Kid #1 through me for a lil' loop at breakfast the other day:
"Mom, what's a virgin?

I gave the appropriate eleven year old answer (its a person that's never had sex before just in case you are wondering) and had to chuckle with the reply I received..."Oh. I've always thought it was a religion."

I can hardly wait to see what "unknown" words they come up with next!

A penny saved is a penny earned

So I'm still just a rookie at the whole couponing thing but I wanted to post a pic from my trip to the grocery store this week. I purchased 20 items (pictured above--minus the package of cookies that we already ate :) for a grand total of... (drum roll please)$15.37

At $0.76 a piece I didn't think I did too bad. I called to tell my mom about her score and she told me that if I keep it up, I might be as good as Cynthia one day (A girl can dream, cant she?)

Pennies saved? Two thousand, nine hundred and seventy five :)

Meet my nephew

Another benefit of my trip to Chicago is that I got to officially meet my newest nephew. Here's a pic of me and the lil' guy (Ronan is his name.)

It's hard for me to believe that my kids were ever this small. He pretty much sleeps all day (well, when he isn't eating) so Cynthia and I even managed a quick trip out to the mall for a trip to the Motherhood store (in case anyone is wondering it turns out that the maternity store is the only place you can find nursing shirts)

Other than that, I spent most of my day scanning pictures for my dad. He's going through and putting all of his pictures into albums (which is no small feat, I might add, when you have 73 years worth of photos :) I'm definitely going to be an expert picture scanner by the time I get back to Utah.

I am the Master...

...because I have a Masters (which is a good thing because you basically need one just to figure out how to put on the funky graduate hood thingy that is hiding underneath my flower leis :)

Anyway, after two long years of studying, homework, and more homework, I am finally done with my MBA. I walked in the commencement exercises today. There were a lot of people from my class that decided to skip this part of graduation but I thought it would be good for the kids to see this (when they go off to college in a few years I'm claiming all the credit for the time I made them sit through a boring graduation ceremony :)

And while I was a little bummed that my parents were not able to attend (I know, I know what kind of grown adult still wants her mommy and daddy to come to all of her stuff) but I know they were here in spirit (that and my station broadcasts the whole thing so they were able to watch it (Have I ever told you guys how much I LOVE my TV station?)

I figured my big news deserved a small post (in the midst of my blogging drought) I'm going to have to get back in the swing of posting (you know you've been a blog slacker when your sister--yes, the one with a three week old newborn and crazy three year old toddler--manages to post more than you do)