More questions to answer

More questions from my friend Jenn who lives in Florida:

What do your weekly menus look like for the family? Tell me in detail how you coupon through the week. Use binder? Websites (which ones) etc.
I'm going to combine these two questions because they go hand in hand for me. It starts out Sunday morning. I get four newspapers delivered to my door step. (my four paper subscription was cheaper then buying two papers at Walmart every week). I clip my coupons and check out the sales. I also follow KrazyCouponLady.com and FabulesslyFrugal.com these ladies are awesome and basically tell you where all the best deals are and how to use your coupons. On their sites they have links to Coupons.com, Redplum, and Smart Source for printable coupons that I check out throughout the week as well. Now I'm not an extreme couponer by any means I don't have an amazing stockpile either. (my household/hygiene items take up two shelves in our linen closet and our pantry is stocked with items I know we will use/need such as extra cereal, spaghetti sauce, hamburger helper etc that I got at a super low price) I tend to use my doublers at Walmart and not Albertsons just for the convenience of it. With the two little ladies I just can't seem to get myself to run store to store or spend hours on my coupons. So yeah most of my shopping is done at Fred Meyer and Walmart. When there is an amazing deal somewhere else though I will make the extra effort. (Like my SIL giving me her extra Tide coupons last week and sending me to Albertsons for cheap detergent) ;) Anyway, I keep my coupons in a binder in baseball card holders separated by sections I made that I felt made my shopping/finding them easier. I don't usually take the binder with me shopping though. While I'm doing my clipping Sunday and scanning the adds I pull out what I think I will need or for sure need and I have a small according file thing in my purse that is organized by store. I tend to get my meat in bulk amounts when they are super low priced and freeze a lot of it. Based on what I have in the pantry, meat in the freezer, and what's on sale I start to build my weekly meal plan. I usually ask Charlie if he has any special requests for a dinner too. =) I also keep a running list of meals we like in my recipe binder (the one you made me he he he) and will use that as well. With Pinterest in my life I like to throw in a new recipe here and there now. Throughout the week I try to make ingredients carry over to other dinners too. Like last week I needed mozzarella for Caprese Salad so I made pizza rolls (Pinterest recipe) Friday with the other half of the mozzarella served with a side salad with leftover salad mixings from big salad from last Wednesday. Also, I don't like to repeat meats. So we won't have beef more then one night, chicken one night, pork another etc. If we do repeat a meat I try to make the two meals very different, like lasagna with ground beef and steak stir fry. I know we should have meals that don't include meat, but I'm not very good at that. The best I did last week was big salad, which is basically a zillion different veggies to create an enormous salad. I ended up chopping up some sandwich turkey meat and tossing it into the salad for a little something more. he he he. Natalia usually eats what we eat. Occasionally she doesn't like something we are eating like when I make salmon so I'll give her the side/veggie we are eating but warm up some chicken nuggets for her. She's actually a really great eater and loves veggies and fruits. I can almost always get her to try a bite of something new. If she doesn't like it no biggie at least she tried. =)


When you move do you want to stay in the same place?
Ideally I would like to stay in Meridian. I'm obsessed with looking at houses online and lately the houses that Charlie and I both like (based on pictures alone) are in Eagle. I wouldn't mind Eagle though since that's where I grew up and loved it. It's still pretty close to his work so I know Charlie doesn't care either. It's just a matter of being so far away from our families and friends who all live in Meridian/Boise. So we shall see. The one house that I fell in love with and we actually went out to see was in Eagle and is still for sale. My searches are of the parts of Boise that are in the Meridian School District, Meridian and Eagle. We'll have to pay really close attention to the schools this time since the next house is it for us we won't be moving again. We didn't pay much attention when we bought this house and if we were to stay here long enough for the girls to go to elementary school they'd be going to this one right off of Eagle Rd so we'd have to deal with crazy traffic to get them to and from school BLAH!

When and where do you think your first family vacation (not to see family) will be?
DISNEY!!!! =) I'm DYING to take Natalia on a Disney Vacation and I know she would recognize everything now, but she wouldn't remember it and I want her to remember it. So Charlie reminds me constantly that we want them to be old enough to remember but young enough to enjoy the magic that is Disney. See he's practical where I'm impulsive... he he he. In the mean time we'll just keep taking vacations to Texas to see family. Charlie wants to go to Salt Lake for a Magic Tournament in March. Depending on how I'm feeling I'm tempted to go with him and take the girls just so we can go to the Hogle Zoo while he's playing Magic during the day.

Ever going to get Switch a playmate?
Ha yeah right. So here's the thing, and most people with kids will tell you this too. Before we had kids Switch was our baby. But now that we have babies he's just a dog to us. I know that sounds mean but it's the truth. His barks, jumping, everything tend to get on my nerves so much easier then they did before. I get so pissed off when he starts growling or whining upstairs and he wakes Lydia up. Some days he drives me up the wall with his begging and it seems like he's always in the way in the kitchen. Charlie is a lot more patient with him then I am and I think it's because he's not home during the day to deal with him growling at the squirrels in the backyard or constantly wanting in and out of the house to chase those darn squirrels. Don't get me wrong he's still part of our family and I'll be sad when he's gone, but we barely have room for all of us now let alone another dog.

Alrighty, anyone else out there got some questions for me??? =)