1st time with Grocery Smarts

For anyone who knows me, I'm not a big coupon shopper, and sadly, Jedd just lets me buy anything I want, sale or not.  So after talking to my mom yesterday and after many different e-mails from my amazing sister (who does this on a regular basis) I decided to take a try at shopping with coupons and "Grocery Smarts". 

Albertson's had an amazing sale going on this week where you buy $30 of select items and you get $15 back to use on your next transaction.  So I decided after much stress and sleeping on it that I would give this whole thing a try.  So I made out my lists last night (I had a lot of time because Jedd is currently in Florida on a business trip), and after going over and looking at the computer for what seemed like forever.  I decided to trash everything I did and not go to the store.  When I slept on it and woke up this morning, I thought that I had to go grocery shopping anyway, my fridge was running out of certain items.  So I thought why not, I'll just try it.  

So there I was standing at Albertson's probably looking like a complete idiot trying to figure out my coupons, trying to put things in order so I could get my $15 back and then trying to figure out what to buy with what transaction.  ANYWAY, after all that, I came to my conclusion that it really wasn't bad.  It did take a lot of time, and I am still trying to figure out all these coupon things, but it was actually quite thrilling to pay for my groceries on one transaction, turn around and by more things for FREE...well at least $15 worth!!  So here is what I got:

*loaf of bread

*gallon of milk

*a huge block of cheese

*laundry detergent (which will last me about 2 months!)

*tortilla shells

*5 cans of tuna

*3 soups

*2 toaster strudels

*5 fruit snack boxes

Everything turned out to cost me $30.  Now I still don't think I got the best deal possible ( my sister only spends $60 and saves hundreds), because I didn't have enough coupons and I don't get the Sunday paper so it I didn't do the best, but I still think I came out pretty well.  (At least I hope so, I am starting to freak out that I didn't get a good deal on my purchases, but I hope you'll all at least lie and tell me I got good deals!)   

So anyway, I really think I'm going to try and give this "Grocery Smarts" thing a try.  I'm not sure I'm smart enough to do it all and save like my sisters and mom do, but I'm going to give it a shot.  If I save $1 then that's a dollar to put somewhere else right?  

Christmas at the Cherry's

Christmas at our house was extremely fun and Santa sure came and stopped by our house. This Christmas was Jedd's and my first one together.  Actually last year we didn't even know each other existed at Christmas time, so it is so fun to actually spend the holiday together.  We were able to spend December 23rd with my family and December 24th with Jedd's.  We woke up at our house on Christmas morning (quite early I might add... thanks to the routine of waking up early).  We then went down to the Downs' house for breakfast and to the Cherry's house for dinner.  It was so much fun!   

Here are a few pictures of us with our presents.  Jedd got softball cleats, black dress shoes (slip ons!!), a Chicago Bears hat, a Chicago Bears money clip and some fun stocking stuffers.  (Look at that adorable smile..yes he has his dimple showing!!)

I got a new camera (YEAH!!!!), jewelry, clothes for work (YEAH!!!), a Tai Pan gift card and some fun stocking stuffers.   

Our parents were extremely great to us.  Jedd's family gave us money, and my family gave us a microwave (which was MUCH needed) and a card table with chairs.

Thanks to everyone, both of our families to make this a great holiday.  We hope you and your families had a great one as well!  And since I am a little late with this post, Happy New Year!

Sweet Caroline...Ba Ba Ba!

"Neil Diamond....the greatest song writer of this or ANY generation" is pretty much how we feel about this guy in our house. I used to not think this, but Jedd has since converted me since we have been married. Even though that is a movie line from ....(I can't remember which movie!), we still think it is hilarious and Jedd says it every chance he gets.

SO, for Christmas, I bought Jedd tickets to the Neil Diamond concert on Friday night. And let me just say, IT WAS AWESOME! I thought it would just be really fun to go to, and it would provide laughs for the two of us for the night. Well, after all was said and done, that was a COMPLETE UNDERSTATEMENT! I'm telling you, there was the biggest variety of fans there and it was so fun to see all the people. They ranged in age from being grandparents to young kids and EVERYTHING in between. Every one was up and dancing and it provided great "people watching" as Jedd and I put it.

The best part of the entire night was when the music of "Sweet Caroline" started. I'm not kidding, I have NEVER seen a group of people go absolutely insane in a matter of split seconds. Everybody sang along and it was "so good, so good, so good!" (quote from the song) Not only was it insane in the Delta Center for those minutes, Neil actually had to sing the last 2 verses of the song again because everybody was cheering and going crazy. Jedd and I of COURSE joined in, but mostly laughed the whole entire song. I've never had so much fun singing along at a concert in my life!

Neil left stage (to only come back of course), to sing "We're Coming to America", the second highlight of the entire night. Again, every one up and singing and even dancing. I perfected my "today" pose and Jedd has perfected his complete Neil Diamond impression. I have to admit, it is right on q. It is so funny!

Jedd is such a good guy and follows every rule so we were not allowed to take pictures with my camera in the stadium (even though I had my camera with me! BOO! he he) We still took pictures of what we could. Sorry for the same pose, it's pretty dumb to have the same picture, but oh well. Who cares! The one on the top was on the FrontRunner on the way down, and the one on the bottom is of us after the concert in front of the Delta Center waiting for the Trax Train. I'm not going to lie, it was FREEZING!

I had more fun than I ever thought I would and have since been converted to Neil Diamond. What a fun night!! Thanks honey for letting me spend a night with you laughing every single minute and having so much fun! Merry Christmas babe!

P.S. Also, thanks for taking me to the yummy Texas Roadhouse!

Baby Natilee Is Here!

First off, no we did not have a baby! Jedd's niece arrived Friday December 12th at 4:14 am. She was 6 lbs 1 oz. I decided to take a few pictures when Jedd and I went to go see her. Sorry if they are a little blurry, my camera is not working too well. Here is Natilee. She has got such dark hair, it is adorable! This is me, Hailee (the very proud big sister) and Natilee. Hailee would not let ANYONE just hold baby Natilee by themselves, she always had to be right there. She is so protective already, it is adorable. This is Jedd and I together with Natilee. Aimee (the mom and my sister-in-law) kept trying to give us a "sales pitch" about having a baby of our own. It made us laugh pretty hard, but after tending the 2 older girls that night for a couple hours, we thought that maybe we could wait a little while! We love you baby Natilee and are so excited for the Cherry family!

Date Night...

Jedd and I decided that before the Christmas season was over, we wanted to go to Temple Square to see the lights. So we made a date night of it all. We first went down to California Pizza Kitchen (one of our favorites!! and the place where Jedd and I had our first date!! AWE!!) While there, we were laughing pretty hard at a couple who were on a first date and it was not going well. Poor guy, you could just see that it wasn't going well for either of them. Jedd and I quickly laughed and thought how we were SO GLAD that wasn't us...however, we both remembered not too long ago how that awkward date was for us. Oh how glad I am those days are over. Anyway, that was a side story. The pizza was amazing. I love getting the tomato and basil pizza and Jedd loves the Santa Fe Chicken. (which is pretty good too!) After our adventures to the Gateway (yes fighting the busyness of the Jazz game attenders) we headed over to Temple Square. And yes as stupid as I am, I completely forgot my camera. However, it was as fun as could be! Jedd happened to tell me that this was his first time ever really walking around temple square with the lights (AND I FORGOT MY CAMERA! Obviously I'm still upset about it.) But is was extremely fun, and cold! It was so fun to be able to experience that with him for the first time. Jedd and I both misjudged how cold it would be, so we were freezing our tootsies off but it was still a blast! I LOVE this time of year, and how grateful I am that we live so close to Temple Square that we can go down and enjoy the atmosphere of the temple and Christmas.

It's Beginning To Look....

.....a lot like Christmas....at our house at least. This weekend between everything else, I managed to put up my Christmas Decorations. Jedd was quite glad (from hearing horror stories about putting up trees from friends) that my tree was not only pre-lit but only had 3 pieces to put together. Thank goodness for both of us! Yes, I have colors for my decorations; they are a soft lime green and a bright red . So everything I buy, I try and revolve around those 2 colors. I decided to just take a few pictures of the decorations around my house. Here is our living room.

Our apartment is not small, but there is not a whole lot of places to decorate. So I decided to put a few things on our entertainment center. It turned out pretty cute, I think at least!

The rest of the pictures are just around the house, places I found to put things on.

I would love to see pictures of everyone else's houses. It is so fun to see how everyone else decorates!

4 Months Already??!!??

December 1st, yes, that is 4 months since we got married! Holy cow! Time sure flies! I can't believe that it has been that long already. I was just talking to Jedd the other day thinking how fast these past few months have gone, and how fun they have been. Things are so different than they used to be, but I wouldn't change them for ANYTHING! Happy 4-Month Anniversary, honey!

Well, to let you all know of what a great guy Jedd is...here is my Thanksgiving weekend story (since I am reading about everyone else's.) Because I am school teacher, I got off Wednesday, Thursday and Friday for my break. And you would think that it would be the best thing ever, and it usually is, unless you are sick. Wednesday I woke up with a horrible head cold and thought ok, I'll quickly get over this. By about 3 in the afternoon I was running a fever and just wanted to be in bed cuddled up with a blanket. So that's where I ended up for the rest of the day. Thanksgiving was not better. I spent all morning in bed, hoping that my fever would break, so that I could head down to my mom's for Thanksgiving dinner. Well it didn't and I ended up taking a nap at my mom's while everyone else was having fun, and the fever didn't break until about 3 that afternoon. Yes this means that I didn't really have a Thanksgiving dinner. I ate about a spoonful of potatoes, maybe a half a piece of turkey, a tiny roll, and a couple deviled eggs (which seemed to be the only thing even yummy to me). After that, Jedd and I went to his Aunt's house to catch up on the other side of the family to only find that I should really have gone home instead. We left not to much long after we got there and I went right to my pajamas.

As most of you know me, the day after Thanksgiving is spent shopping the ENTIRE day. My mom and I are usually gone from about 4-2 shopping. Yes that is 4am to 2 pm. Well this year, this was all different. I spent all day Friday laying in bed watching chick flick Christmas movies on the tv while my cute husband took care of me ALL day. I drank liquids and tried to keep chicken noodle soup down which was the only thing I wanted to eat all weekend. Depressing huh? Most people would LOVE to have that kind of day after Thanksgiving, but for me, it was PURE TORTURE!

The rest of the weekend was spent pretty much in pajamas in bed or laying on the couch. And now that it is Monday, I'm wondering when my fun Thanksgiving vacation is going to start.

SO...you might ask....how does this tie into how great my husband is? Well, as much as he probably didn't want to stay at home and take care of his sick wife, Jedd did. He was so great and got me anything I wanted. Cooked me soup on the stove, got me medication when I needed it, got me drinks when I was thirsty, got me a wash cloth soaked in cold water to help my fever, and took care of me the whole entire time. What a great guy! Happy 4-Month Anniversary sweetie! And to all of you who went Black Friday shopping.....I hope you had fun for both of us!

Happy Thanksgiving

Well since it is the Thanksgiving Holiday this week, it has me thinking of everything I am grateful for. And since I don't have any pictures to go along with it, I thought I would just point out a few things I am definitely grateful for this year.

1. I am mostly grateful this year for Jedd, my AWESOME husband. We met in January and my life has been nothing but amazing since. He is such a blessing in my life and I don't really know how I got to be so lucky to have him as my own.

2. My family, my own (the Downs') and the new family I gained in August (the Cherry's). Both families are so great and Jedd and I feel very blessed to have them in our lives. I am definitely grateful for my 2 sisters who I don't know where I would be without. They truly are my best friends and I run to them whenever I have a problem or need advice. And of course I can't forget my mom who has been there for me every time I needed her. She was definitely a great help this year as I was planning my wedding and it was so great to have her there helping. I wouldn't want to do it any other way.

3. My freedom and this great country we live in. I am so grateful to be able to do pretty much whatever I want, have the job I want, worship how I want and live where I want (especially with all the modern conveniences).

4. My job. Even though some days I swear I think to myself, "Why in the WORLD did I EVER choose to be a teacher....a HIGH SCHOOL teacher?", I am grateful for my 200+ kids. (I call them my kids, I know stupid!) They teach me A TON of patience, and make me realize how important it is to raise your kids to be respectful and just "good" kids. I have learned what NOT to do, and also what to do when I have my own children. Not that I will be perfect, but it is a big eye opener when you deal with teenagers every day of the work week.

5. The Gospel. I truly am grateful to be a member of the church, especially at this great time. I am so grateful for the many different and abundant blessings it brings to my life. With all the turmoil going on in the world these past few weeks, and the many different people angry at our church, I am grateful and proud to be a member.

I hope maybe as you read this, that you start to think of what you are grateful for. This is only 5 small things, my list could go on, but then again everyone would probably get bored with reading it.... that is IF anyone reads this.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! And the countdown is on......3 days until Black Friday!

Utah Jazz Night

Last night Jedd and I went to the Utah Jazz game in Salt Lake. We were supposed to go with Jedd's friend Kyle and his wife Ashley. Well things happened and they were unable to go (we were so bummed out!) but they gave us the tickets anyway. So we decided to see if Jedd's brother Taz and his wife Aimee would go with us. They got a babysitter (grandma of course!) and came with us. We had a really fun night. We went to Crown Burger down by the Delta Center before the game, what a mad house! It was INSANE but very yummy. Here are pictures of us at the game.

Aimee is 8 months pregnant and due in a couple weeks, but she looks so dang cute! I was suprised that she was ablet to sit through the whole game, because she is having a hard time sitting for long periods of time beause of baby Natalie. She was also a great sport to walk quite a distance to where we parked.

And these are just a few pictures of the game. It wouldn't be a Jazz game without my favorite player...Korver...so he's in this first picture. Thanks Kyle and Ashley for the tickets. We were sad you couldn't make it. Thanks Taz and Aimee for coming with us. We had a blast with you!

Happy Weekend!

Ok so I don't have any pictures of this weekend, but I just thought I would tell you about our fun weekend.

Friday our weekend started out with Jedd going to help his really good friend lay down wood flooring. The husbands all went to Kyle's house to lay floor and the wives were able to spend a night out without them. Emilee and I went shopping for a little bit. We went to Tai Pan (our 2 husbands were THRILLED they didn't have to go with us), but I wouldn't take them anyway. Jedd was so happy! He said that he would gladly lay 18 wood floors down before he ever stepped in that store. And then Em and I went to the mall, DownEast, and Target. It was so fun to just hang out and look at things. (Both our husbands are not that interested in just looking...they want to go, buy, and be gone.) Then we met up with Ashley and her two adorable kids at Olive Garden (one of my favorites!) for dinner. It was so much fun and of course very yummy.

Saturday was spent relaxing pretty much the whole day. Jedd and I went and took his mom to Sam's to get pictures printed. I finally have all my picture frames in my house filled with pictures. I LOVE IT! They look so much better than the random people who are there when you buy the frame. Ha ha ha!

Sunday was spent going to church and then down to my mom's house for dinner. Driving up the road to my mom's was filled with a surprise of having ALL my family there for dinner. Jon & Holli came down from Idaho, Michelle came from Roy (Brian is out of town), Jerilyn & Jeremiah came from Lehi and Michael & Afton came from Bountiful. It was such a surprise, and I guess I was the only one that didn't know it was going to be a huge family dinner. Jedd and I walked in the house and it was such a huge shock! It was so much fun! Thanks to all those that came, I just LOVE LOVE LOVE seeing all the kids and getting to play with them. (And of course I like to see all their parents as well!) It was sad to say goodbye, but with the holidays coming it makes for more fun family get-togethers.

And that was it! It was such a great weekend and very hard to go back to teaching come Monday morning when my alarm went off. Oh well, as I am known for saying "Such is life!"