Oh Christmas Tree..

My sister is starting a new tradition to go and cut down a tree every year. In Folsom, we were too far from the tree farms to do that (plus, my mom has a fake tree), but here in Washington, there are tree farms everywhere.

So last Saturday, we got all bundled up for a cold, foggy morning here in Seattle. We met my sister at the tree farm out in the sticks, and got ready to saw down the tree. My sister brought some lovely hot apple caramel cider in mugs, which helped warm us up a little.

Carter and Graham look at a nice Noble Fir 

A random family picture

Carter thinks I'm being silly!

So, we had a very nice morning, and helped my sister put up her tree. It was a fun tradition that we hope to continue. It would be nice to get our own.. especially if Graham weren't allergic to trees!

And I'm back..

Graham is done with school for the quarter.. which means I am no longer an engineering widow!

My birthday was a few days ago. The big 2-9. Graham automatically turns a year older on my birthday too, so he is now 27 per his report.

I just wanted to blog about one of my newest hobbies..

Couponing.

I know, it's getting kind of old with all of those "Extreme Couponers" shows on TLC. But, I've been able to save a substantial amount of money with this hobby, so it's exciting.

It's also a little embarrassing at times.. Example:

One evening after work, I stopped at Albertson's. It was a DOUBLE coupon week, and there were lots of free/almost free deals there. So, I had my 3 transactions with several coupons per transaction. I try to pick the self-serve lines so lots of people don't have to wait behind me. Eventually, some teenagers got in line behind me, so I was just thinking to myself, "ok, hurry up!". During my last transaction, one of the teenage boys snidely remarks to his friends, "coupon mom".

This ordinarily wouldn't embarrass me, because, hey, I paid like $5 total for $50 worth of stuff.. so he was just jealous. BUT, I happened to be wearing my one and only pair of mom pants that day. My mom bought me the wrong fit of pants at Ann Taylor (the regular, high-waisted cut that I would never buy), but I liked them enough to wear them to work with long shirts to hide the high-waisted look. However, the pants totally give me mom butt. (Word of disclaimer.. this is not my butt!)

Remember in one of the episodes of The Office this year, when Pam said,

"I used to be young and cute and sort of funny and, I could do those cute little cartoons and everyone who came through here was like, 'who's that receptionist? I like her.' Now I'm just a fat mom!

That's totally what I felt like!


But anyways, embarrassment aside, I totally rocked the grocery stores last month:

This, my friends, is my loot:

--6 bags of Steamfresh vegetables

--10 cans of Campbell's soups

--4 boxes of Thai Kitchen noodle bowls

--3 packets of Idahoan potatoes

--4 cans of evaporated milk

--1 package of Farmland bacon

--1 pint of cream

--2 package of reduced-fat cream cheese

--2 packages of Challenge butter

--2 sweet potatoes

The market value is over $80

I paid $18. I'm so proud. That's over 75% savings!

You may think to yourself, as I have, well geez Sherri, that's mostly processed food. And yes, it is. However, frozen vegetables are a great standby for quick dinners, noodle bowls are good for Graham's lunches, the instant potatoes are good for homemade bread, and the soups and milk are good for food storage or if money gets really tight.