Happy Life

Here are a few random snapshots from the last week. Be warned. I have yet to figure out how to write a short/succinct blog post. Working on that.

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 First up: The doctor's office. Heh heh. We had to run some errands and one of them took us to David's office. Daniel liked looking around and trying to get into things. I liked reading the titles of the books in Dr. Dunn, PhD's office. My favorites: "What's Wrong With My Mouse?", "Ending Aging", "Essential Cardiology", "GENES VI", "Statistical Analysis of Medical Data Using SAS" and "Gene and Cell Therapy". They sound like riveting reads to me (and I'm actually only being partly sarcastic).

It was bound to happen sooner or later.

Silly face.

Impromptu nap on the couch.

Next up: Dan the man. This little guy has been missing his brothers this week. And getting into a little bit of trouble as a result (such as when he broke the cookie jar). There were tears but thankfully no injuries. "I was just trying to get a cookie mom!"

He has also been taking better naps this week. No brothers to keep bothering him. No excitement to miss out on. I have been loving it.

The other big news this week is that I think we have made a potty training breakthrough. We are on day four with zero accidents. Daniel has been by far the toughest boy to train but he has it all figured out now and is doing fantastic. I credit his success to three major causes: 1) No TV for him to zone in on so he's more aware, 2) Keeping a jar of "magic beans" (Jelly Bellies) in the medicine cabinet for after he washes his hands post-potty and 3) The arrival of a free potty training DVD in the mail.

Which brings me to my next thing: free samples.

I realize this isn't super exciting for everyone but I have to say that once free stuff started arriving in my mailbox I was hooked. A few months ago I started following a couple of deal blogs. These are only some of the samples we've received as we've used many others not pictured (a full sized SoyJoy bar, sample sized boxes of cereal, pull-ups, cereal bars, a Shout Color Catcher, Shout wipes and lots of other things; plus coupons for other free products like eggs, yogurt, fruit juice, etc.) My favorite freebies in this batch were the aforementioned Potty Training Success DVD, the full sized bottle of shampoo and the full sized coffee creamer. I don't drink coffee but it is good in Postum and hot chocolate. We have more samples on the way and lots of coupons for free products too. Hooray for free stuff. 

 

 

And finally, the next best thing to free is cheap. Read: IKEA. Today we went to Atlanta to attend the temple there. On the way home we decided to stop at Ikea for lunch and to look around a bit. We each got a plate of delicious Swedish meatballs with lingonberries, real mashed potatoes and cream sauce for $2.99 a piece! w00t! That's cheaper than a fast food burger and so much more filling (and dare I say healthier? Probably not a whole lot but we can pretend). Then we had a fun time making our way through the maze. Dave and I are patting ourselves on the backs because we beat the odds: According to the WSJ "60% of the things people buy there were not on their original shopping list." We left with nothing but our full stomachs from our meatballs and a golf pencil that David pilfered.

Oh, and this piece of wisdom:

I think this will be my new mantra. I have complained about living in this tiny townhouse too many times.So today, I am feeling very grateful and very happy.