New.

Once again, I'm the new kid on the block. Things are a'changing. I couldn't fall asleep last night, and when I did- I had nightmares about what today would be like.

Why was I so nervous? Today was my 1st day as a full time employee!!! 6 years of school + ALOT of hard work, all leading up to this 1st full time job as an SLP.
Today was a district-wide new hire meeting, and it was nothing like I expected it to be. Let's just say, I'm ready to be at my school and working with the kiddos! But, as with any job- you have to learn the ropes 1st.

I also found out today that I will be traveling- I will have 6 teenagers to work with at the I-High. I'm a little nervous, considering I can't be more than 8-1o years older than these kiddos, but I think it will be a good experience. I'll still be at the elementary school the majority of the week, only missing about an hour 2 mornings a week to speech path it up over at the I-High.

Here's some new things I'm looking forward to:

• completing home improvement projects with Brandon
• hanging out w/ my new friend Elizabeth
• getting to know the other teachers better- & hopefully making new friends there!
• fresh pencils
• elementary school smell- especially on the 1st day!
• meeting, then treating 55 kiddos in 1 week!
• Leia being potty trained (she hasn't gone in her crate in over 2 days!)
• wearing my new fall shoes :)
• a steady paycheck!!!!
• OSU season football tickets

Price comp's @ Wal-Mart

After running into Walgreens and not finding enough stock to qualify for the Kellogg's rebate, I decided to just price-comp the deal @ Wal-Mart.

If you don't know about this deal- it's great! Wal-Mart will match any competing stores price. I usually have the other store's ad with me, just in case the cashier asks for proof of the sale price. Most cashiers don't even blink or give you any trouble with this, but I've run into a few that do. I've found cashiers that I like & are coupon friendly, and I always try to check out with them. The Wal-Mart not too far from my house has great cashiers, so I never have much trouble.

Here's how I did today:
4 boxes of Kellogg's cereal- price comp to $1.25
4 boxes Nutrigrain bars- " "
2 Keebler cookies- price comp to $1.00
Glade air and odor elimator- price comp to $1.47= FREE after coupon!
bananas
tomatoes
9 Kool-aids- .20 each
Kraft salad dressing- FREE (coupon from All You- must buy 3 Kraft, etc products- Koolaid counts!)
Crystal Light- FREE (ditto)
Kraft sliced cheese- Free (ditto)
3 pencil pkgs- price comp to 0.09
Glade scented oil warmer- .87 after $4/1 coupon from Sunday's paper
Glade " " refills- $3.97 after $1/1 coupon
house plant and container for my room at school, glue sticks, butter, other groceries, etc.

Total OOP: $43.97
And I'll receive $10 back in rebate (meaning I paid $1 for all that Kelloggs!)
Total before coupons and price comp's: $81.42

I saved $37.45!! Now, I don't really like shopping at Wal-Mart, but you just can't beat the convience and ease of getting all these deals in one store.

Tuckered out!

Leia loves her new toy :)

Possible deals this week

Just some random deals I've noticed that I'd like to pick up this week.

Target:
For back to school, they have Klennex 4 packs for $2.99.
-$0.50/1 coupon from this Sunday's paper
= $0.62 a box!
Also, Target will clearance these after school starts- so you might save some coupons for that!

Walgreens:
*Free Glade Fabric and Aire Odor Eliminator spray when you use the Easy Saver coupon and this printable:http://www.cleanhomejournal.com/offers/200807-glade/?sid=coupon&cid=pfe200807c&RID=8663256
*Possibly the $5 RR when you buy 4 Kellogg's products.......last year MA and I used the Kellogg's rebate deal with the Albertson's sale instead. To receive the $10 rebate from Kellogg's, all 10 items must be on the same ticket, which is really difficult to do at Walgreens due to there lack of stock. But, we'll see.....remember, the manf. MIR deal doesn't start til Tuesday.
I'll definately post about this deal if I actually try it this week. I might wait and see if some other grocery stores run a better deal.
(ps- it's rumored over at HCW that you can get two $5 RR if you mix/match the cereal and other Kellogg's products!)
*Lifesavers are B1g1 free- and I still have some B1G1 free manf. coupons!!!

Food Pyramid:
Grapes- .88/lb.........I'm going to get this price-comped at Wal-mart

Flower girls and random tidbits

This afternoon, Brandon and I were Jocelyn's 'helpers' at her aunt's wedding. I am just amazed at how well early intervention and great parenting work! (and, God's grace!) 2 years ago, Joceyln was just learning how to draw a circle with hand-over-hand prompting, and had great difficulty with social situations. Today, she was walked down the aisle as a flower girl, sat through the entire wedding ceremony and lasted for 1/2 of the reception!


To answer some puppy questions- most Pomerianians don't really shed. Brandon had Sebastian for years, and he never shed. We'll have to take Leia to the goomer though for some trims!

Also- a puppy potty training question- Leia will go outside, but is hesitant to pee outside. We've even put a puppy pad out there, but she won't go on it. Any tips?

Leia is here!

After 2 years of waiting- Brandon and I finally have a dog!

After my cousins wedding, we headed over to Andy's house to pick up Leia. We get there, and Andy introduces us to the dog we picked out in the pictures. She was the alpha dog of the group, and after about 5 minutes, we realized (sadly) she didn't have the temperment that we were looking for in a puppy. She was a great dog- just too high strung and whinny for us. So, we played with the other pups, and brought the smallest gal home with us!

Leia did a GREAT job on the way home! As soon as we got out of the car, she started carefully checking out the house....

And quickly found her favorite spot- on the bottom shelf of our coffee table!

flowers

Even though it's 100 degrees out- my flowers still look pretty good :)

We are getting geared up to pick up Leia tomorrow- we can't wait to meet her!