Holy Moly Guacamole!

Okay, I am the first to admit I am not the best cook in the world. My mother's Betty Crocker genes definitely skipped me. I am improving a little and now that I am on my budget I try to cook a lot more at home and make more homemade stuff. Tonight it was quesadillas for dinner. I had about eight leftover chicken breasts that my mom had sent down to us. She still is used to cooking for a family of seven and a few neighbors :) I always make homemade guacamole to go with the quesadillas and let me tell you my kiddos LOVE IT! They literally can't stop eating it from the second I mix it up until they are done with dinner. Every time either me or Charlie make it they insist on sitting on the counter right next to the bowl so they can have the first sample. You would think kids would be swayed away from something that is so green and goopy...not my kids, they dig right in!

The New Coupon Queen...Who Me?

For approximately the last six months I have been on a slow transgression from a "buy what I want" kind of girl to a "buy only what I need" kind of girl. With a new baby on the way and some debt to pay off I am bound and determined to live on a budget and quit making excessive purchases. I never really realized just how bad I was until now. I would go to Wal-Mart every other week, sometimes every week and plop down $350 on groceries just to go home and pitch out about $150 worth from my fridge to make room for my new purchases. I was bad! Well I can say I have definitely transformed myself. By all means I am still a work in progress but I really feel like I am getting there!

I have pretty much stopped going to the mall all together. I used to be there every Saturday and a couple of days during the week at lunch. Whether I needed anything or not, and I never failed to walk out with a shopping bag in my hand. I would tell myself, it was such a great deal, I just had to get it. The problem was, I in no way needed it! So my solution to this was to just stop going all the time. It has been hard! My girlfriends at work think I have deserted them, but I have to stand strong. I don't yet have the willpower to just window shop...someday maybe, but for now I just need to stay clear.

I have even stopped making my weekly purchases at Gymboree for the kids. I no longer shop there unless there is a sale and I have a coupon on top of it! This is still a work in progress but again, I do feel like I am improving.

We are working on the eating out all the time and have made some improvements. We still eat out occasionally but have definitely scaled down. I am not the best cook in the world I admit, but have found some golden Crock pot recipes that have worked out well. When we do eat out I try to find a coupon for where we are eating so I don't feel as guilty. I purchased an entertainment book and they actually have some great deals for some great restaurants around town. We ate at Balboa Pizza at the District on Friday night and saved $10.25 with my coupon!

Charlie is still trying to get on board, he's getting better but still enjoys the impulse buy here and there. I was able to convince him to go shopping with me the other night and I am hoping he realizes how committed I am to this. It is time to save, pay off and adjust our lifestyle. It is not fun but I am sticking to it!

One fun aspect of this has been cutting coupons and seeing how much I can save. It is like a huge challenge to me and I love seeing the savings at the register. I bought myself a cheapy photo album, labeled it for the different sections of the grocery stores to help keep myself organized.

It is not easy! I try to make a comprehensive list so I am not in the store for hours matching coupons with items. It does take more time with coupons but I really feel like I am getting it down. There is a little embarrassment that comes along with it as well. I am now that lady at the checkout that is holding up the rest of the line because the clerk has to scan in all of her coupons! One time at Wal-mart I actually had to wait for a manager to approve my purchase because I had gone over the limit on the amount of coupons I could use. I never knew Wal-Mart had a limit!

Another one of my favorite coupon challenges is the double coupon days at K-Mart. Our K-mart has a grocery store in it as well so I am really able to rack up the savings there. Charlie had to go with me last night because they have decreased the number of coupons per customer from 75 to 25 so he had to check out a basket as well. All in all we saved $50 alone in coupons last night. I paid 50 cents for a big thing of toothpaste and $1.00 for the Flinstones Vitamins! My record so far was a $365 bill that got reduced to $140 after coupons

Kadee's School Project

Kadee brought home a fun school project this week. There were three paper plates attached together with brads and she was to make a snowman out of it. Immediately my mind started racing with ideas, we could use this and we could do this...and then I took a breath and realized I needed to gain control of myself. This was Kadence's project, not Kristi's. Although I do think it would be so much fun to be back in Kindergarten again, my noodle necklaces would probably look so much better then the ones I made in Kindergarten. I could already see the bling I would add to them with rhinestones and colors.

I get a little OCD when I work on projects so I knew I would only have to help her with ideas and she would have to do the rest. So we hit Michael's on Tuesday night to pick up some supplies. She decided she wanted to cover her snowman with cotton balls because that would look like snow. I agreed...and then suggested that maybe she pick out some glitter to make it sparkle which she immediately agreed to, she looooves glitter! Her snowman was going to be a girl so she wanted a bow for her hair. And then we picked out supplies for her eyes, nose, mouth, arms, a scarf and some buttons.

On Wednesday night we got home and dug right into making her snowman (snow-woman). I think we both had a blast. I found myself wanting to do everything for her because it was so much fun, and then I would catch myself and make her do all of the work. She did a great job!

Cole even wanted part of the action so I passed him some glue and scrap fabric so he could make his very own.

Facebook

So Sunday afternoon I received a message on my cell phone from my friend Tanya in ABQ. It wasn't very good reception but I could hear the excitement in her voice. She mentioned something about blogging and then Facebook and I couldn't really hear the rest. Curious to see what she was talking about I called her back and she let me in on a new found interest...Facebook. She told me I had to sign up, you wouldn't believe how many people we know are on there. So that night I got online and signed up, or should I say, signed my life away...Her exact words to me were, it is so addicting, it is like crack! (Rest assured, my friend has never experimented with crack, she hardly drinks for that matter). But she was right, sure enough I got one friend request after another and pictures of people I have not seen for 10-15 years were popping up on my screen, most of them with families. It was amazing reconnecting with so many people after all of these years! What a wonderful tool. Now my only question is with blogging and Facebook, who is going to take care of my hubby and kiddos???? J/K. I will just have to set limits!

Christmas Morning 2008

Christmas morning was very exciting this year for Kadee and Cole. Kadee had left a very interesting list for Santa this year so I thing she was extremely anxious to see if he came through, which he did. She got her diamonds and gold - well at least pretend jewelery that looked like diamonds and gold. Cole didn't know what to think, he hopped from his motorcycle to his scooter to his Big Wheel and kept rotating for about five minutes.








I know the true meaning of Christmas is giving but there is nothing like the light of a child's eyes when they first see what this great man, Santa Clause has left for them. I live for Christmas and for that very moment.

Christmas Eve 2008

After running some last minute errands and spending a little time with our friends we got all dressed up and headed to the Children's mass at St. Thomas. Every year we are in Albuquerque we attend mass on Christmas Eve at Charlie's old church, the one he was baptized in, the one we were married in, the only one I have probably been to in the last five years. The kids all looked adorable and although Kadee fell asleep in mass we enjoyed the mass.

After church we headed back to Charlie's parents where they put out quite a spread of brisket, salads and snacks while we all ate, drank and were merry. The kids got to open their presents after dinner. It was hilarious to watch Cole this year because he knew exactly what he was doing and could not rip the paper off fast enough.

We also were lucky to catch up with some of Charlie's friends from high school who came for a little while after dinner.

After all of the festivities were over, the kids picked out cookies to leave for Santa, Kadee left Santa a letter explaining that the carrot was for Rudolph because he would need the extra energy to make it to all the houses he had to go to in one night and we tucked them away for the night in bed with visions of sugarplums dancing in their heads...just kidding neither me nor my kiddos even know what sugarplums are...

A Day at Tanya's

It is so hard living so far away from people you are so close to. I think it is fair to say that me and Tanya both want our kids to know one another. They are all pretty close in age, and Chance and Baby Gallegos, Tanya is due a little over a month after I am, will be similar in age also.

So on Christmas Eve we got to spend a couple of hours on Christmas Eve over at Tanya's house. I was trying to set a blog up for Tanya, which I totally screwed up but have since fixed (that's a hint Tanya that you have to start posting!) and the kids got to play together, have popsicles and open presents from one another. I think they had a great time together, I only wish we could do it more often!

Girl's Day Out!

I hope everyone in their lives is lucky enough to have the kind of friends I have been blessed with! We may go a couple of months without talking, but the second we get on the phone with one another or get to spend time with one another, it is like we have been together every day of our lives! Myself, Tanya, Kelly and Erin really became close in College at NMSU. I knew Kelly from Elementary School, Tanya from High School and we all met Erin in College. We formed a pretty close bond and have been close ever since!

We try to get together at least once a year and have been pretty lucky so far. This year we all were in Albuquerque for Christmas so we took a day out of our busy schedules to spend with one another. We all met at Kelly's house. Charlie and Cole dropped me and Kadee off so that they could spend a little time with the girls as well. Kelly and Erin had not yet met Cole so it was great that they got to spend a little time getting to know him. We also got to meet Kelly's new puppy, Sage.

We did the traditional picture in front of the Christmas tree.

Christmas Picture from 2004, Kristi, Tanya, Rachel, Erin, Kelly

From there, the girls, myself, Kadee, Tanya, her daughter Micaela, Kelly and Erin headed off to a day of pampering, pedicures and manicures. We all got a chance to catch up with one another's lives and realized just how busy one another lives have gotten! We got a kick out of watching Kadee and Micaela go through all of the colors of nail polish trying to pick just the right color. I had to talk Kadee out of alternating red-blue-red-blue, which she was going to do for the NY Giants so they make it to the Superbowl. What has my husband done to my daughter!?! I did promise her however that if they did make it I would take her to get them painted in the Giants colors.

After the pampering was done, Kadee and Micaela went home and the rest of us girls went to dinner at Ginga's and got to really catch up and talk without the PG rating since the little girls were gone. We had a wonderful dinner. Afterwards, we went to see "Four Christmas's".

It was a great day! I miss these girls more than they could ever know. I am probably the worst amongst all of us for keeping in touch, but I hope they know that not a day goes by that I am not thinking of one of them. Friends truly are a blessing!

Fun With Our Cousins - Christmas 2008

On our recent trip to Albuquerque over the holidays, the kids got to spend a lot of quality time with their cousins who live there. The kids always look forward to seeing there cousins and with the exception of a squabble here and there, they really enjoy each other's company. We miss them a ton but always look forward to seeing them.Kadee & Ari
Angelo & Cole

Ari, Angelo, Kadee & Cole

Ari, Angelo, Kadee & Cole

Angelo & Kadee