Madness!

After seeing several of my friends save some serious money with coupon-ing I decided to look into how it works and how they are cutting their grocery bill by so much.

I am a pretty smart guy. I took a test and everything. I got through Advanced Stats with an A, I write reports about how smart other people are. I have a masters degree. I run a clinic. I'm really not particularly dumb.

But guys...wtf?

The sheer volume there is to learn about this subject is enough to exhaust any mind. There are numerous kinds of coupons, and some things that are 'like' coupons but are not, newspapers are involved, but so is the internet, there is a language to learn, and every store has it's rules (and, usually, a card).

So I started reading on the how to do it. Then I got myself what I believe is the first Sunday paper I ever spent money on. I got a little $1 accordion file/notebook. I have to take it in stages because my brain can only process so much before I get tired of looking at it.

Thankfully there are numerous people who spend more time and energy figuring things out (and are evidently much smarter than me). Otherwise there is no way I would be able to do any of it. They even teach classes...which I may do if this turns out to be something worthwhile.

Anyone out there 'into' the whole coupon thing? Advice? Warnings? Testimonials?

Egads

I haven't posted in 2 weeks. What the hell?

Oh, right. Not much going on.Well, not with baby anyway. All sorts of stuff going on otherwise. The pract. students are graduating (or not) and working their little tails off getting stuff finished and turned in. I learned the joy (and horror) of the TRX class down at Premier. So, you know, stuff going on.

And even on the baby front, stuff is happening. Inside anyway. I made a video of all our daily shots up to May 7th. Here ya go...not much to see. 

Mo has been EATING. Omagah.

The other day (after eating your normal 4 meals and near-constant snacks) we took a late night trip to Mart of Wals. I causally mentioned that the Boss's kids got her a edible bouquet of chocolate dipped strawberries and how she shared with the people at the clinic. Mainly because it was huge and filled with all the strawberry production of California*

So as we were heading to the car she takes my arm ever so gently and asks "Is there any left at the clinic?" I say yes. She asks with eyes that beg "Can we go there now?" I laugh, and then this happens.

Do not look directly at the mouth, you'll go blind

She powered through 8, then paused and put down #9 in about a minute. It was something to see.

*unfounded, but lacking any evidence to the contrary, I am forced to assume is true.

Solo Twinkie

Sometimes, there is only one Twinkie. 

And that is just awesome. 

Happy Twinkieday. 

1st photo

People (mostly my mom) told me that ultasounds were awesome.
Doing IVF involves LOTS of ultrasounds. Like seriously, a dozen by this point I think. Most are just counting Mo's follicles and her uterine lining. Not that interesting but you know, kinda cool.

But this was different.

Now, I looked up what an ultrasound picture would look like (twins or singlet). When it popped up and looked like the singlet I was kinda shocked. I even said "Wow, only one?" The Doc said "Let's see" and moved stuff around a bunch, but yeah, unless the other one is a ninja (or very small and likely unhealthy), it's just one.

I was disappointed for about 8/10ths of a second. Then the nurse pointed out where you could see (not hear) the heartbeat.

brain did this.

I think I shook someones hand, they made a DVD of the still image. I took a photo of the screen. We got a physical copy. The Doctor and nurse were very happy and and said it looked big and healthy. Lots of smiling.

Mo was a little more disappointed to learn that another round of IVF is likely in our future. That sucks of course, but we will deal with it in time. We have at least a few years before that's an issue. If we do another round it should be before she turns 35, so we have plenty of time. She was pretty much over the disappointment by the time we went to bed.

We went out and registered at Target. We will likely go register at Wal Mart and Babies R Us too at some point.

For me, it finally feels real.