Oh, the Rapture!!

So, as you all know, yesterday was the Rapture. Oh , no, not THAT Rapture. Nobody got taken up to heaven, no earth-wide earthquake, etc. What I'm talking about is the rapture I felt when we went to the 99-cent store and discovered they had tons of boxes of the high-fiber Pop Tarts I used to eat all the time (but which were discontinued a few months ago).



As you can see, I stocked up on them, since who knows how long they'll last, and then they'll be gone forever!!! Now, I WISH they'd been the chocolate ones--those ones were the BEST. But the strawberry ones are ok, too, and eating a 2-pack of them provides me 10g of fiber (OK, and 10g of fat, but who's counting?)



The best part--I used to spend $3 a box for them--but at the 99-cent store, they were...wait for it... 99-cents a box!

That falls right in line with Amanda's new obsession with Extreme Couponing (OK, she's not as extreme as a lot of people, but she does get 3 copies of the Sunday paper for 3 sets of the coupons, and uses them for things already on sale at stores, and in conjunction with in-store coupons and deals). Some examples of her good buys:



Total cost for the items above: $19



Total cost for the items above: $17

She also got 2 deodorants and 3 scotch tapes for a TOTAL of 77 cents. She's gotten free cereals, deodorants, maxi pads, etc. And all of these cereals were between $0.00 and $1.50 each:



Yeah, we're building up our food storage like crazy--and eventually--she promises--this will save us money on groceries (I won't ask how much gas she uses going to 5 different stores every week).

Oh, and at the dollar store, I also picked up some of these rare beauties from my past:



Here's an updated picture of our Disneyland countdown/job chart:



Overall, we're doing pretty well. The things we need to work better on the most are eating healthy (we just really love treats, what can I say?), Amanda and I have had trouble finding time for individual scripture reading, and it's been tough finding a day/time to get to the temple. Otherwise, we've been doing really well--especially on buying food storage (as you know from the pictures above) and the kids' 5-minute clean-up every night.

This past week we went to see Maddy's science project displayed at the 6th Grade Science Fair:





She did an experiment to find out which laundry detergents do the best job of removing stains. Her conclusions: Tide and All tied; Gain did almost as well; Sun didn't do well at all. Strangely, hardly anyone else picked that same topic. Mostly they were experiments about moldy bread or fruit, paper towel absorbency, how to clean pennies, and determining which popcorn provides the most popped kernels.

The worst part of going to the kids' elementary school is passing the large mural in the hallway. Here are the kids standing in front of it:



All the kids on the mural are facing away from us, which I find disturbing. I'm sure if they turned around, the kids would look like this:



Don't blink. If you blink, you're dead.

Elliott has already started his terrible 2's, and he's not even a year and a half yet. So whiney and bratty, and as soon as anyone steps away from the computer, he climbs up and starts messing with it. We have to push the keyboard and mouse as far away from the desk edge as possible, and have to lay the chair on the ground or push it into the corner. He makes us all feel like this:

Easter, Mother's Day, and Wheels!

As always, click on any images to EMBIGGEN (or, if you prefer, ENLARGE).

Let's start with a brief anecdote from last week:

We were talking about how when Jesus returns, he will come in power and glory and will destroy the wicked. Abe asked if Jesus would kill robbers. When we said yes, Abe responded with, "Then I can help-- if mom makes me a rhino suit with a wooden horn on my head that I can attack them with!" Robbers, consider yourself warned.

Let's start with Easter. Of course we decorated eggs:



We tried to keep Easter simple, and even tried to cut down on the amount of candy we bought--but we still got too much. Elliott, in particular, ate too much chocolate:



and too many Robin Eggs:



The 3 older kids each got new church clothes for Easter:



And Abe's been having fun with some of the leftover plastic eggs:



Elliott got decorated for Easter as well (we even dyed his eyes red!!):



Instead of a Pinewood Derby, Joel's Cub Scout troop did a Raingutter Regatta, where they made wooden boats that they raced along raingutters (by blowing into the sails of the boats). Here he is, all decked out for his turn as boat captain:



Maddy had some of her artwork shown at a district art exhibit. Here she is with her certificate, medal, and the picture, which is of an invisible dragon (it's somewhat surreal, but if you look closely, you can see the dragon's head/teeth in the top-right and the end of the tail in the bottom right):



As mentioned last time, Elliott likes climbing on everything and getting into stuff he's not supposed to. Here he is trying to get to the stove:



He's only gotten a knife a couple times.

My insurance had the annual Open Enrollment, and we were able to get Dental and Vision insurance (but still can't afford Health insurance, which means we can look at and chew junk food, we just can't digest it).

It also means that when the time comes, Elliott can get glasses; we already know he'll look awesome:



We've also got our newest Disneyland Incentive Chart up:



We fill in boxes every night on the chart for different things, such as healthy eating, exercise, having Family Night, reading scriptures, etc. There's even a spot for a nightly 5-minute clean-up (where the kids each spend 5 minutes cleaning up in their bedrooms or front room--it really makes Saturday chores a breeze). Even though we already do pretty well on some things (like having family prayer, going to church every week, etc.) this gives us a daily reminder to do the things we should be doing and helps establish good habits. Obviously, when the chart is full, we're going to Disneyland.

Amanda used her Yankee Ingenuity and made a sandbox for the kids to play with:



Today was Mother's Day. Amanda got to have a fairly relaxing day (though she was in charge of grilling burgers--but I did just about everything else). We got Amanda a wooden windchime for the backyard, a special pan to grill vegetables on the BBQ, a Hobby Lobby gift card, and a couple other little things.

Oh, she also got a van:



That's right, we bought a 2nd car--one we ALL fit in without Maddy and Joel squeezing into one seat together! It's a 2006 Ford Freestar, meaning we now own a Ford AND a Chevy (But we'd rather push a Ford AND Chevy than drive a KIA--AMIRITE?!?!) We're so excited to have it (and the kids love that it came with a DVD player!) Now we can even take trips down to Tucson!!!

Well, that's about it for now--school is winding down; Amanda and the kids are planning to head up to Utah for a couple weeks in the middle of June; I'm getting excited for Summer Movie Season (the boys and I saw "Thor" over the weekend and really enjoyed it!)