Fabulous News Times Two

Things have been little rough around here for the past month or so. Emotionally and physically I have just felt so burned out. Ironically, many people have asked me if I was planning on doing the ragnar relay this year. The answer for that is no. I am "scheduled" for a solo race on January 28, 2011. So far the training has included losing about 3 pounds, being nauseous and weak, eating junk food when I can think of food, trying to survive 36 hour work week, crying, praying, more crying and praying, and lots of sweet encouragement from Troy and family.

We are thrilled for this new baby. Troy admits that he doesn't think about it much and I probably wouldn't think of it as much if I didn't have a constant reminder of nausea and utter exhaustion accompanying me. Fortunately, Dr. Farias prescribed some anti-nausea medication for me, so hopefully that will help. She really is the most fabulous doctor in the world. It will be little hectic to have two kids only 20 months apart, but I think they will be great friends. Now there is the question of "do you want another boy or a girl?". For financial reasons and Saku, I think boy would be so fun; however, I do wish to have one girl and if this baby would be a girl, then I would have my one girl:)

Our little addition at 9 weeks and 4 days.

Due to the fact that I have been feeling like I am dying a slow death(OK, little dramatic, but not far from the truth), I talked with my manager and I get to start working part-time. This feels just as amazing of a blessing as the new baby. I would drive to work and feel like I had no energy to do anything, let alone take care of five patients and ensure that they would be safe and sound under my care. I would cry as I would drive to work; not because I don't like my job, but I just didn't know how I would make it through the night and do it three nights in a row.

So I will be working two nights a week or 24 hours. It feels like such a heavy load has been lifted off my shoulders.

I wanted to share the news with everyone since we are very excited and also to explain why we have been keeping a low profile when it comes to social things. I didn't have enough energy to do a birthday party for Saku and most days, I am lucky to have enough energy to shower and take care of Saku. Fortunately, this should only last few more weeks and then second trimester should give us some relief.

My Precious Boy

Dear Saku,

What a year it has been. You turned one year old last Thursday. You are officially not a baby anymore, but a sweet, spirited and wild little boy. We love you even more than we did when we first got to hold you and thought that you were the most precious thing in the world.

You cry a lot less than you used to:) You smile and make a lot of noise. You still aren't saying any words, but you make "dadadada" and "mamamama" sounds; however, they still aren't directed to me or isi. You sign milk, bye bye and thank you. Last night, you were playing with your cars and made the "car sound" as you pushed the car on the carpet. I thought that was the most adorable thing in the world. You also know to point to the picture of Jesus when we ask "where Jesus is?" Last night, when you got into trouble and isi was telling you "no", you kept pointing to the picture of Jesus as if to tell isi to be nice to you:)

You like to be a helper nowadays. We have tried washing dishes together and putting things in the trash. Of course, you thought it would be fun to put your toys in the trash too. You get excited when we ask you to do things and praise you afterwards. It is your official job to close to garage door when we get home. Even if I happen to do it, you still clap for me for a job well done.

On your birthday, we opened presents from Aunt Anna and Aunt Aino. You loved the noise and lights that Aunt Anna's toy made and the hammer was pretty sweet as well.

The water gun is still a little out of your league, but you were cracking up as äiti and isi would spray each other.

Sorry we didn't do a party for you this year. It doesn't mean that you don't have friends or that we don't love you. Life has been just too crazy and we wanted to spend time as a family. Next year, I promise to give you one heck of a party.

You enjoyed the candle.

Then isi helped you to blow it out.

You thought that the cake was pretty good, but that's nothing new since your parents have been feeding you sweets for months now:)

You even wanted to share some of your cake with isi. You love sharing your food with us and feeding us. I hope you will always be this willing to share things with others. I think this will change in the next year though;)

This is your smiley, happy face. You are so busy doing things and getting to places that it is difficult to get you to stop for a second and smile at the camera. We love your smile.

Aunt Aino also gave you a sweet shirt from H&M and a soccer jersey (England one). Thanks Aino for making our boy stylish. You like climbing up on things. Isi taught you how to stand on top of the hamper and lift up your arms in the air as if you were waving for a victory.

You LOVE airplanes and birds. We tried to get your attention as you were playing in the backyard and you kept ignoring us until I said "Saku where's the airplane?" And then you promptly turned towards us and pointed to the sky. We think that you are pretty clever and smart boy, but obviously we are biased:)

Grandma and Grandpa Grossarth came to visit us on Friday. They gave you two new outfits and a big boy book. Grandma, we have read that book about 100 times so far:)

You wanted to kick off one of your sandals.

Then proceeded to climb up on the chair.

And crawl across the table...

To check out how the view is on the other side of the table. I told you that you just don't stop moving:)

You are very interested in animals. It might be due to some quality time spent with baby einstein movies with animals, but either way, you are learning your animals:)

You don't walk anymore; you run to places. Or when you think you are really smooth, you walk backwards.

Few weeks ago, we got you a big boy car seat and I think you like the change.

I hope when you and I look back at these pictures one day, you will know how treasured you are. How everyday is filled with so much love and excitement and some exhaustion as well. You love when we do family hugs and are eager to give us kisses. You enjoy your friends and are learning what it means to play with others.

Isi and I truly feel incredibly blessed to be your parents. I know you have learned so much this past year, but you have also taught us a great amount.

Life changes things all the time, but one thing will never change, isi and I will always love you.

Love, Äiti

Coupon Websites

I figured I would post few of the websites that I use to find good deals and that show me how to match coupons. I blindly follow their instructions:)

Few of you brought up how most coupons are for processed and junk food. This is true; HOWEVER, I use tons of coupons for yogurt, cheese, cereal, pasta, pasta sauce, canned fruit, breads, hygiene products and diapers to name a few. I do wish that I could get fresh produce with coupons, so I just spend more money on produce that I save at other places due to the use of coupons. And I am not going to lie, I do love it when I can get free brownie boxes and cookie mixes.;)

The trick to saving money with coupons is matching a sale with a coupon. Otherwise, it is cheaper to buy the generic brand even with coupons. Sometimes I wish I didn't know about a good deal, because then I feel like I need to go and get the free cereal/pasta/fill the blank when I am too tired to do anymore shopping:)

http://thekrazycouponlady.com/

http://fabulesslyfrugal.com

Arizona deals

http://desertdealsdiva.blogspot.com/

http://arizonasavings.blogspot.com/

Thanks for everyone's comments and sharing your views on budgets and coupons. It definitely makes a difference on how much money you need to spend depending on where you live. I think Arizona is pretty average on food prices.

I am heading over to Safeway tomorrow for some free stuff such as granola bars, cereals and bottled water. Let's hope Saku cooperates with me. He has become a 100% boy with a desire to destroy and damage everything he sees:)

Got Powerade?

So I have been doing coupons for months now. Sometimes I get so many good deals and sometimes I wonder if it's even worth the hassle. Trying to entertain Saku while shopping and making sure all my coupons are in order can quite the work out as you can imagine.

On Monday there was a sweet deal for Powerade so Troy decided to go and take care of it. He came home with 90 bottles of powerade and paid $7.24, which equal 8 cents a bottle. He was rather proud of himself!! So we'll be well hydrated this summer. He got the zero calorie ones since I don't believe in drinking my calories:)

How many other people do coupons? Also I am interested to know what is your monthly budget for groceries and household stuff? I budget 200 bucks for all food, diapers, household and hygiene products. Last two months, I went over a little since we had people staying with us and I wanted to pamper them a little:) I would really like to know, so if you feel it's too personal, you can always leave a comment anonymously.

P.S This is not a call for more comments because I don't want to be lame, but it seems like I have just become so boring since no comments seem to be coming my way no matter what I blog about...maybe people are busy with summer...maybe I need to think of something exciting to blog or announce...maybe people use google reader(like I do) and don't take the time to go to the actual blog...It does really sound like I am fishing for comments..I promise I'm not, but I would want to know about your budgets so maybe comment just this once:)

HIghlights of New York

It is safe to say that we loved our weekend in New York. Troy keeps asking me when "we" will blog about the rest of the trip, so here is "our" post:) We saw a lot over the few days. The only thing we felt like we didn't get to see was the Met. It happened to be closed on Mondays when we had been planning on going on.

We walked a lot and took the subway everywhere. No cab rides for us:) We ate at a first pizzeria in the United States. The food was delicious and the service terrible. We somehow ended in Harlem, which was little strange since we stood out like a sore thumb as tourists there. Saku did a fabulous job being a tourist, only the late night dinner one night seemed too much for him.

My favorite thing was Central Park and the Brooklyn Area and my least favorite was Times Square.

The pictures are in no chronological order and I might have forgotten some of the "important pictures", but I think these pictures give a good summary of our weekend.

The Manhattan Temple. We attended a sacrament meeting above the temple.

We enjoyed some delicious burgers from Shake Shack. If you EVER go to New York, you have to go and try one of them!!

Anna and I checking out the Ground Zero.

We witnessed a roller skating party in Central Park. This guy was anxious show off his abs and seriously didn't have any moves except the one shown above.

One of the "must haves" tips from locals was a small bakery on the Upper West Side called Levain Bakery. Their cookies were FOUR bucks a piece, but they were huge and delicious.

Anna and Troy resting their feet in Central Park. We didn't have a blanket with us so we used a white sheet from the hotel. Yes, we are classy people.

We checked out the Statue of Liberty as we took a ferry to the Staten Island.

Saku and I posing with my favorite animal at the American Museum of Natural History. Saku liked checking out the different animals and enjoyed nice nap, which was a relief for all of us.

"Sweet!! I got away from mom and I can run in the streets of New York!!!"

Anna, Saku and I on top of the Rockfeller Center with the Empire State building in the background.

Working Hard and Playing Hard

Saku and I visited the Reid Park Zoo for the first time last Thursday. My friend Jamie was kind to let us be her guests. I hadn't taken Saku there before because I wasn't sure if he would be old enough to be interested in the animals yet. He still favors a pigeon over everything else, but the otters and the polar bear seemed to be a hit. I didn't get any good pictures of him with the animals in the back ground, but we did get some fun ones with this toy.

After the zoo, we quickly went home and took a nap before we headed over to Alia's house for a pool opening swim date. The water was so warm, which made it much better for all the babies. The moms and the kids enjoyed splashing in the sun.

I was scheduled to work that night, so we had to leave the party little early and get some sleep. I only slept for an hour and I am still paying for it now. I don't like to sleep very much during the day because I don't want to miss too much of Saku's day.

A frequent question nowadays is "how is work going?" I have been on my own for two weeks and it has gone well. Last two nights were very hectic and I wondered why I do this. I had a confused patient who had to be restrained to the bed so he wouldn't take his IV or urinary catheter out. Well somehow he was able to get out of the restraints and he pulled out both of them. When I get to the room, there is blood everywhere....so not fun for me or the patient. The following night, I didn't have to care for this patient, but we didn't have enough staff so we were all running around all night to make sure everything got done. I was really earning my pay check.

I like being a nurse, but I do not love being a medical/surgical adult care nurse, but I am getting great experience and I am blessed to have a job when many other people don't have one. I guess I better just be ready work my butt of for a while:)

Simple Happiness

Today my heart is happy

because

I was able to provide service to a dear friend who has helped me out so much,

I got to hang out with a new friend who made me feel that instant friendship spark,

I get to go and celebrate my dear friend's twins and spend some time with her,

and

most importantly, I got to sing songs and watch Baby Einstein, give kisses, share fake laughs, witness few temper tantrums and much more with a sweet boy of mine.

Today is such a testimony to me that life is all about people. It is not about the riches of this world, but the relationships that enrich our lives.

I hope your Wednesday was a good one and I hope tomorrow will be even better!