13 for 13

Following suit of many of the wonderful blogs I read, I'm listing 13 things I love about my hubby for 13 wonderful years of marriage. February 17th was our anniversary. Thirteen years ago we were two scared to death teenagers saying "I do" in Iola, TX. Today we're 3 kids, 3 homes, hundreds of disagreements, millions of hugs and kisses later and still going strong.

Why do I love him? Let me count the ways.....

1. He's patient with me.

2. He'll drive hundreds of miles a day to come home to us every night.

3. He works hard and never complains.

4. No matter how crazy an idea I have, he'll tell me it's the greatest.

5. He does the laundry better and quicker than I can.

6. I love his laugh.

7. He makes the best bar-b-que hands down.

8. He's a sweet, caring, devoted daddy.

9. He's selfless and giving.

10. He treats his girls like the princesses they are.

11. He's teaching his son how to be the man God intends him to be.

12. He models #11.

13. He loves me more than any man in my life ever has.

Learning to swing

This first part is easy...

Now swing your feet....

Hold on tight!

You're swinging!

Sweet success!

A little obsession

Some of you who know me well know what my obsession is. I LOVE to coupon shop. A friend introduced me to it a few months back, but I've taken it to a whole other level . It's a rush for me. Finding coupons, finding deals, especially the "steals" when I get things for free. Just how obssesed am I? You tell me:

Here is a picture of my coupon binder. I'm not talking a little 1/4 inch binder. I'm talking a big mega 3" one. Complete with photo and card size holders to hold all my coupons and labeled tabs. The tabs are in the order that my favorite grocery store,Krogers, is arranged. For example, the bread & fresh produce is what I walk to first, so those tabs are first, then on to canned veggies, cereal, juice, etc. The side pockets I use to put any sale papers in which I've circled items.

And then I always carry with me what every avid coupon shopper must have: a calculator, coupon clipper, pen, notebook, and smaller coupon book.

That's a lot to carry, right? Yes, but it all fits perfectly in this:

I figured that if I was going to carry all this stuff around it was going to look cute.

So much work.......do I really even save that much money? Absolutely. I started around July of last year and just in 6 months I saved over $2700 and have an overflowing pantry with enough food to last months, and the same for laundry detergent, cleaning supplies, and toiletries. And I don't know about you, but there's a LOT more things I'd rather do with that money.

I have more canned food, cereal, peanut butter, jelly, frozen foods, box dinners, cake mixes, toothpaste, shampoo, body wash, water & sports drinks to last a year. If a crisis hit today we'd be set. In that event I have a feeling I'll make some good money auctioning off some supplies. We even had to buy a big freezer to hold it all - and I even used a coupon for that!

My kids love it. They've even joined me in my coupon endeavors. Mainly because the enjoy getting the brand name cereal now. My son picked some coupons out of the trash, wiped them off, and brought them to me. Too bad they were the expired ones I just threw away. My daughter will snatch coupons that print on the self checkouts at Kroger - not from the one we're at....from all of them. At my house these little pieces of paper are treated like cold hard cash.

So now every time I'm at Kroger and see someone checking out paying full price for their groceries I can't help but feel pity.......as I pick up the coupons they left behind. :)