Any couponing experts out there?

I know, how cliche of me to start clipping coupons now, but drastic times call for drastic measures. I've never had the patience for it before, and I would always clip them for things I don't need. I'm doing better on that now, but I have a question for you all:

How do you organize your coupons? By food category? By expiration date? By where they are located in the store? (You laugh - when I used to make shopping lists for Jarad when I was pregnant with the twins I had to write the items in order from the produce section all the way over to the snack aisle so he could find stuff. It's a sad day when you can sit in your kitchen in visualize the store to a T.)

I've been clipping for a couple of months now, and of course watching the Wednesday ads to maximize that angle too. I even had a banner day on Wednesday where I saved more than I spent (my total was $46 and I saved $48 - who DOES that??).

Anyway, any advice is appreciated!

Magic 8 Ball

I have three kindergarten boys at my house right now. For the last 30 minutes (at LEAST) they have been huddled around Emma's Hannah Montana Magic 8 Ball asking it questions. I am cracking up! For about 10 of those minutes they were asking if there is indeed a king cobra living underneath our play deck in the back yard. They asked it if they were ever going to get married.

As I'm typing this, Fisher just came in to ask if they could go to Rex's house to find more questions to ask it. Apparently they've gotten all the answers they need around here.

Thank you oh wise Magic 8 Ball. (not necessarily for the answers, but for entertaining these boys for so long!)

My little songbird

What mom could ask for anything sweeter than this? My three year old daughter, and the rest of them, for that matter, are apparently Carpenters fans! The song Close to You, in particular. It was featured at the end of a movie they had been watching, and it stuck! Now Case and Tess make me sing it to them every night as they are falling asleep. Thankfully, I already knew all the words :). Emma told me one morning I should sing it on American Idol (although I'm not sure if she thinks I would be one of those contestants who gets laughed off the stage...).

One afternoon Tess was having an especially hard time. She shut herself in her room (with some drama, might I add), and a few minutes later we heard something coming from behind the door. My sisters in law were over for lunch, and we thought she was crying. When I realized she was in there singing "laaaaaaaaa, close to you" I busted up. How sweet is that?

This clip is of her singing to me as I'm folding clothes on my bed. I grabbed my cell phone and caught it, so it's not the best video. Or audio for that matter!

Today I was driving back from the grocery store and my songbird busts out some Queen. "Weeeeee are the champions! Weeeee are the champions!"

She might not know her colors, but gosh darn it, she knows her 70s music!!

Breaking and Entering

I was working in the kitchen yesterday (doing some Superbowl Slaw prep) and needed to grab something from the outside freezer. I came around the corner and saw my front door wide open, which usually means one of the twins has escaped. But I just saw Case in the playroom a few minutes ago, and Tess was asleep on my bed. I hear kids' voices out front so I head out to gather whoever has escaped without my noticing. I cross the driveway toward the kids' voices just in time to see the door from my neighbor's open garage into their house swing shut, and all the kids' voices are muffled. Not sure if Case was even among that little crew, I went back inside to make sure he wasn't in the playroom (had the door been open for a while? did the wind blow it open?). As I walk back into the house my phone rings. My neighbor. Mom to Jakie, with whom Case loves to play. They had just returned home, walked in the door and found Case standing in the hallway of their empty house.

The kid had left our house, gone next door, seen their garage door open and figured it was an open invite for him to just waltz in and make himself at home. Thankfully it all happened the way it did... if they hadn't come home precisely when they did I would have been frantically searching the neighborhood. And he couldn't have been in there for more than a minute or two, since I literally had just seen him in the playroom minutes before he escaped.

This is not Case's first runaway attempt either. Our front door handle sticks, and he was previously unable to wrench it open. But Jarad fixed it last weekend, so Sunday he was free and clear. The last time, though, he realized he was locked in, so he tried to escape through the garage. He can't reach the button to push the garage door opener, so he came back into the house, found a broom, unscrewed the handle, carried it out to the garage, used the stick to push the button and took off running. Broom stick in hand. The best part about this was that I was outside talking to another neighbor. I had shut Case back in the house for a second while I finished my conversation. Next thing I know he's tearing out of the house with a broomstick in his hand. How resourceful of him!!

Thank Heaven for our awesome neighbors who returned him to us. Or should I be offended that he was returned so quickly? Just kiddin' Anne. Thank you!!