Mini Vacate: Part 2

In downtown Indy there is a canal

that runs right next to many of the museums, restaurants, hotels etc...

One end of the canal happened to be right outside our hotel.

It's really quite beautiful.

I've always wanted to walk the whole thing.

So Aurora and I set out one morning to walk the canal.

But silly me I thought this was just some little decorative thing they call a "canal"

and would take us 30mins to stroll around.

But the canal is so much more.

There are lots of pretty little sitting spots

and waterfalls,

and fountains,

and bridges,

and even gondolas,

and pieces of art & other interesting things to look at

all during your 3 mile stroll around the canal.

It was peaceful and pretty. I just wasn't prepared for how long it was (I was wearing flip-flops, no sunblock and next to no water for Lil A while it was quickly becoming a hot sunny day etc...) 

Aurora ended up taking her nap on the go.

Later after lunch and another nap. We went to the Indianapolis Children's Museum

which is one of the best in the nation. 

As a child, I went to the Children's Museum every year on school field trips.

Then as a teen, I volunteered at my local children's museum but once a month we went to Indy and volunteered and help out during their Family Nights.

Early in our marriage, I made Jared go with me to the haunted house they sponsor.

I've been waiting for the day when I would take my own daughter/son to the museum

and the day had finally arrived.

Playing in the sand with friends.

Playing at the water table.

Playing on the indoor cushion playground that's just her size.

Then there are the staples of every museum visit:

The carousel 

Mesmerized by the carousel while waiting in line.

  

Getting your picture taken in the Indy 500 car.

I believe my mom has a pic of me in this very car.

And the World's Largest Water Clock:

The reason we couldn't get the whole clock in the pic.

We also saw the dinosaur exhibit that was really cool. Also a touching exhibit titled

The Power of Children: Making A Difference which was an interactive (of course) exhibit about Anne Frank, Ruby Bridges and Ryan White.

I wished we lived a little closer so we could go more often. I had so much fun

and Aurora probably did too. :)

Sidenote:

It is such a small world because while we were there we ran into our friend Joanna, who had just moved to Indy recently.

We got to see her boys and her new little baby girl. So fun!

We finished off our vacation by visiting with some other dear friends over dinner.

Thanks Ryan & Mimi!

It was a great little getaway. Jared should have conferences like this more often.

Mini Vacate

Jared had a week long conference to attend in Indianapolis a couple of weeks ago.

Lil A and I decided to meet him there for a few days and make a little vacation out of it.

Unfortunately what should of been a 2 maybe 2 1/2 hour trip for Aurora and I turned into almost a 4 1/2 hour trip with a little car trouble, bad weather, and an unusually cranky baby.

Here she is finally asleep after a lot of hard work on the Momma's part.

We stayed at a nice hotel (courtsey of Jared's work) in downtown Indy-- a stone's throw away from White River State Park and the Canal. (And only a hop and a skip from the zoo).  

Here is Aurora taking in the view from the 8th floor.

In the mornings, Lil A and I would swim, watch movies and walk in the park (more pics of that later).

Here she is watching one of her all time favorites: Winnie the Pooh.

Sidenote: Have I told you what Aurora's first couple of words were? The first one was "Uh-oh" and the second one was "movie" (prounounced mooo-vie ending on a higher note with the "vie"). Yes, movie came right before Momma and Dada.  It makes me laugh but at the same time I wince and then I feel called upon to tell people that she doesn't really watch movies or tv all that much... maybe 30mins every 2-3 days. Not like all day every day or anything. :)

Jared was able to take his lunch breaks with us. We went to a Cuban sandwhich shop one of the days.

We have been missing the one in Lexington. This one is nicer looking but we still prefer the food at the one in Lex.

Aurora took this pic of me while waiting for our food.

Yes, it's another crazy face pic but still a good shot for her first photo ever.

The first night we had dinner with some dear friends we hadn't seen in awhile.

Thanks Alcorns & McFarlands! Sorry we didn't get any pics.

The next night we went to the zoo.

We saw fish which Aurora loved.

It was Jazz Night At The Zoo. So they keep all the animals out a little longer. We got to see all the animals really well because it wasn't very crowded although it was pretty hot. Also the animals seemed to sense that it was past the usual time for them to be out. They were all real active and hanging out near the gates waiting for their keepers. 

Aurora's favorites appeared to be the giraffes, elephants and rhinos. 

The Indy Zoo has a Splash Park. It pretty much looks like an open playground area where water

is shooting out or pouring down from everywhere.

We brought a change of clothes for Aurora but not for me... Oh well it felt good.

We enjoyed the jazz, the food, the animals, the Splash Park...so two thumbs up for the zoo.

To Be Continued...

Update

By popular demand

here are pics of my not-so-new-anymore haircut that I mentioned in a previous post.

I decided that I was never going to get a good candid shot of it.

So I had Jared take some...

(Don't mind the date on the pics. Aurora turned the date function on while playing with the camera. I just haven't gotten around to turning it off yet or at least setting it to the current date. She also setup the bluetooth function on my cell phone for me...she's quite technologically savvy).

For comparison sake:

The day before the haircut

(If you can't tell I really love my plaid shirt with white sweater...I'm wearing it both times :)

Then I took a couple myself so I could make all the silly, crazy faces I wanted without comment from the peanut gallery (aka my husband :)

It's getting quite long...I'll probably chop it off for Locks of Love again at some point.

Now that you have seen way more photos than you ever wanted of my hair...

Here is another update:

For those concerned about my library woes--please be at ease.

For I gave in and crossed over the river & the state line (only 5mins further than the library I was currently patronizing) and paid $25 to be a member of a library there.

I will just simply say: It's wonderful.

The librarian was apologetic about having to charge me the $25 but I stopped him midsentence

 "No, No this is utterly worth it. I am willing to support a library like this.

Also, no worries I will get my $25 worth out of it."

I believe I already have.

Coupon Crazy

(Warning: Reading this very long post may start you down the path of either craziness or boredom).

Have you or someone you love been exposed to the coupon craze?

Yes, I've been exposed

and now have a full-blown case of coupon crazy.

Of course, coupon clipping has been around since the first newspaper but it's never been done like this before. The grocery shopper, the homemaker, the thriftster now strives to be

a couponista. 

Jenny in Lex was the first to expose the condition to me.

But it wasn't the right time in my life.

I found it overwhelming, stressful, time-consuming and I just plain ole disliked doing it.

But I kept trying.

Clipping a coupon here and there.

Matching it with a sale sometimes there, sometimes here.

Then I moved and I met another couponista named Janell. 

 I was at a different point in my life. I had already been through the initial exposure.

Janell had some other tricks and tips to add to Jenny's.

The rest is history, as they say.

This was into my 2nd week of coupon crazy:

12 boxes of cereal, 4 boxes of fruit snacks, 2 packages of diapers and wipes, large package of toliet paper, deodrant, kitty litter, 2 boxes of granola bars, 2 containers of ice cream plus more all for $75.

It would usually be at least double that.

My 3rd week in I had another Kroger grocery total of $48 before coupons and ended up paying $13 after coupons.

Another thing I have discovered is that I hardly ever go to Wal-Mart anymore because it doesn't have the most inexpensive prices now that I coupon.

That alone is worth it's weight in gold.  

(The last time I went to Wal-Mart I was in line 45 minutes. Most of the time was spent with the cashier, the cashier manager and the store manager trying to ascertain that an item was truly on sale. This was after I handed them my Wal-Mart flyer with the sale listed).

Interested in being a couponista?

My suggestions:

First, you need to get at least one subscription (many couponistas have several subscriptions) to the Sunday paper to begin couponing. I find one newspaper is enough for my family's needs with all the coupons I can print off the internet.

Get "the lists" that tell you exactly what to get from each store using which coupons for the best deals

 from http://www.thegrocerygame.com/ 

There is a 4 week free trial so you can figure out if it's helpful for you.

I like the way one gal there organizes her coupons into a binder without clipping. 

(You can read about it on the website).  

I find it less overwhelming and time consuming.

These are my two favorite blogs about couponing:

I read these blogs to find the smokin' deals that aren't always on "the list" because these couponistas scour the internet for the best coupons and deals and then tell you exactly how and where to go for the deal.

(I only read two because there are tons and tons of blogs about couponing and it can be overwhelming and time consuming).

http://happyhomemakercindy.com/

• She focuses on stores that are found more in the midwest area.
• 
  
  She also does bulk cooking which I haven't tried yet.

http://thekrazycouponlady.com/

• I like her articles for "Beginners"
• This blog focuses on different stores such as Target and other stores found more out west.

Some issues I have had to conquer on my way to being a couponista: 

1) It's still cheaper to buy generic than with coupons.

I use to think this but I've discovered if you coupon like the above couponistas it's not true. 

In the past I would indiscriminately use coupons- meaning I did not wait for the items to go on sale first and/or I did not "stack" (using multiple coupons) a store's coupon with a manufacturer coupon. 

When I started doing these things it was less expensive to shop with coupons than to buy generic.

2) I don't want to spend money on newspaper subscriptions, buying coupons or subscribing to coupon websites. I rather spend that money on groceries.

 What spend money to save money?! I was a little bit leery because that usually smells of scam. But I went ahead and budgeted these expenses into our grocery budget and found I was still saving money.  I was able to get our newspaper for $0.99 a paper. My husband enjoys reading the newspaper anyways.

 During the 4 week trial to "the list" I found that my favorite list was for Kroger and I plan to only pay money  for the one store.

3) You just get a lot of things you don't need or use.

 I make a list of things we use regularly and items we are getting low on. I scan through the lists and the blogs for those items. Sometimes I'm not able to find items that I want/need that week. So I make the decision to either be patient and wait for the good deal or pay more money this time if I really need it. Most of the items were average size not huge bulky things that can be hard to store or to use up once opened. A few have been travel size or the smaller sizes of the product though.

Hard Truths & Costly Mistakes:

I still spend more time than I wish on couponing although now I kind of enjoy it. It's sort of a hobby for me or a game to find the best deal. I still hope that I get better and quicker at it. My time is valuable and I might have to start charging for my time and adding it to the budget. I'm interested to see if I would still save money. I bet a lot you are more organized and efficient and could be a couponista in less time.

At least for me it's not perfect and something still inevitably goes wrong every week. Maybe you can learn from my mistakes:

 At Walgreens, I forgot to purchase items in a separate transactions so I could turn around and use the $10 Register Rewards I had earned to buy the nonRegister Reward items. The Register Rewards are like cash that can only be used at Walgreens and they expire. If I don't use them right away I forget about them or don't use them in time. I've lost $12 that way so far. Again many of you are probably more organized and this wouldn't happen to you. 

Another time, I did do a separate transaction so I could turn around and use the Register Rewards but I did not purchase items in the correct order. If your total isn't more than the Register Rewards you want to use, it won't work. I think I'm making it sound complicated, it's not really all that bad, you just need to think it through and (once again) be a little more organized than I am.  

I've also gone to Kroger without my Kroger card. I've gone to Meijer without bringing my $-off-your-next-purchase catalina. At Target I have a hard time sticking to my list and often buy things that aren't way on sale or without coupons. I have also spent time researching and couponing to never make it to the store before the sales end.  

Every now and then I buy something I don't need because it's waaay on sale. I bought Bayer AM for $0.50 but then realized I would never use it. (It's mainly for hangovers and since you have to drink to get a hangover--it's a not a problem. And it uses caffiene which I avoid as much as possible in my food and medicine because it makes me anxious).

Maybe you can help me decide on this one: 

To get the deal I had to buy 4 packages of Oreo's, 2 gallons of milk and 3 packages socks containing 6 pairs each. I got it all for around $16. (I'm having flashblacks to math story problems). Did we really need the Oreo's? No, we did not.  Milk we go through almost 2 gallons in a week, so we are good there.  And the socks aren't needed at this moment but eventually they will be right?

What do you think: Deal or No Deal?

Sometimes I think about giving up the whole couponista dream but I think I'm too far in that I can't ever go back.

So I keep hoping I will get better at this whole coupon thing.

Summer Catch-Up

I love summer!

Despite that it has been in the 90's for months now

(living right next to a large river makes the humidity horrendous! Even worse than farther south in Lexington)

we still have done some fun summer activities.

Summer Activity #1

Aurora loves water.

She loves baths, washing her hands in the sink, the fountains in front of the library

and of course swimming!

At my brother's house...

we are so lucky they have the inclination to keep up a pool and let us use it whenever we want!!!

At the Edward's family reunion with cousin Suzy.

Summer Activity #2

Aurora loves the park, especially the swing. 

After a little more time and exposure to it, she now loves to slide too. 

Over and over and over again.

 

Although cousin Colin may love the slide more than she does.

Summer Activity #3

Aurora loves animals.

She "ruffs" and makes the sign for doggie whenever we see one even if it's in a book.

She also "meows" and chases our cats...of course what cat wouldn't love that.

(They actually tolerate it rather well).

And when we went to the petting zoo with Alyssa & Co.

She liked the goat...

...and the goat seemed to like her back.

It followed Aurora around for awhile afterwards.

Summer Activity #4

Aurora has done some hiking this summer too.

With a portion of our new friends, the Snow family.

This is pretty much the one and only pic of me

 to prove that I too did all these summer activities.

Not even a good pic of my new cute haircut.

(I got bangs! I haven't had bangs since I was 8.)

At the top of the fire tower.

Aurora looks unhappy because she wanted to get down and crawl/walk around

but there wasn't enough space for her to do so safely.

Summer Activity #5

Another activity that I have been having so much fun with:

Art projects!

She actually does pretty well and doesn't eat the paint or the crayons...

much.

Deal Bragging:

I got this picnic table and a slide (you know the one- it's orange & blue)

for $5 on Craig's List.

The best summer activity has been being with family and friends!

Thanks for good times and memories everyone even if I didn't get pictures of it.