My new hobby in life is finding good deals. It started a few months ago, but now I'm really hooked. Here are some cool deals I've found recently.

Coupon Mom
This is by far, the most amazing "deal" I've found. The Coupon Mom is this website that helps you save tons of money at the grocery store. It helps you combine coupons with sales in order to save big! Some items even end up being free. The best part, is that they do all the hard work for you, and the website is completely free.

If you would like to learn more about the Coupon Mom system, this is a great, free e-book that explains all the basics. A word of warning...following this program can become quite addictive! Who knew couponing could be so fun?

Walgreens
Walgreens has this great rebate program that I just found out about. Every month they have a list of products marked "rebate." You simply buy the items and then mail in your receipt. You get a check in the mail from them a month or so later. The best part is that a few items every month are actually free after the rebate. So far I've gotten Crest toothpaste, Colgate toothpaste, a family size Fructis shampoo, and hair mousse all for free!

Hollywood Video
I often print coupons online. There are quite a few websites that offer them, although most of them offer the same coupons.

As I was searching for good coupons this week, I came across a coupon for a Hollywood Video rental for only $0.99. Andy and I already have a few movies at home that we've been meaning to watch, so I thought I would rent a chick flick and watch it during the day. I ended up renting The Holiday. It was one of their movies that is "guaranteed in-stock" so they give you a dollar credit on your account if you return it the next day. I watched it yesterday and will return it today so, with tax, I will have paid $0.06 to rent it. Not bad! If you are interested you can find a coupon for it here. I was actually able to print three copies.

A few weeks ago I got something in the mail from Netflix offering a free 2 week trial. I am wary of "free trials" where you sign up for something, and then it's next to impossible to get out of. I called up Netflix, and they assured me it was easy to cancel, and we would pay nothing.

Sure enough, it worked out really well. If Andy and I rented movies on a regular basis, we would definitely get Netflix. I highly recommend it to everyone, and if you go to their website, I think you can sign up for a free trial as well.

I wanted to get as many movies as possible so Andy and I really powered through them. I got some movies that we both wanted to see, and some that just I was interested in so I could watch them during the day. I ended up seeing tenmovies! I'm no Siskel and Ebert, but here are my thoughts...

The Devil Wears Prada-I rented this because it looked kind of interesting and Meryl Streep was nominated for an Academy Award for her role. She was good, but the movie wasn't that great.

Click-This movie with Adam Sandler was supposed to be pretty good. Andy and I thought it was okay. Andy said he would give it two and a half stars.

Superman Returns-I tend to like superhero movies, and I wasn't disappointed by this one. I don't want to give anything away for anyone who hasn't seen it yet, but the only parts we didn't like had to do with Superman's relationship with Lois Lane, and the fact that Lois Lane is living with her boyfriend.

Little Miss Sunshine-This movie intrigued me because I knew it was a quirky comedy about a family on a road trip from Albuquerque to California. Then it got nominated for an Academy Award. It's rated R, and I don't really watch a lot of rated R movies, but I decided to rent it. Before I watched it my parents told me that they rented it and did not like it, so I was not expecting much. I have to say, sorry Mom and Dad, I thought it was a funny movie. Yes, there were definitely inappropriate parts that added nothing to the movie, but I thought the characters were fun, and the family dynamics made me laugh.

Cars-Sad to say we weren't big fans. We thought it was a little boring.

Lady in the Water-Andy and I really like M. Night Shyamalan's movies (Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs, etc.) and wanted to see this movie. M. Night's movies are all scary and suspenseful, but this movie was supposed to be different. It did not do well so I didn't have my hopes up. We both ended up liking it. I think people didn't like it because they were expecting a movie like his others. It's definitely kind of a weird movie, but I really liked the story.

Nanny McPhee-I didn't hear much about this movie, so I didn't know what to expect. I didn't even know what it was about. One big plus was that I knew Colin Firth (from the REAL Pride and Prejudice) was in it. I thought this movie was great. Very Mary Poppins-like.

Glory Road-For some reason I have always liked sports movies. I especially like when sports movies are based on true stories, so when I saw the previews for this one I got all excited to watch it. It was fun, but not great.

Akeelah the Bee-I had heard a lot of good things about this movie, otherwise I would never have rented a movie about a spelling bee. I ended up liking it a lot. My favorite part was when this one boy is trying to stall for time at the state bee (I won't go into the details, but he's stalling in order to help his friend). He asks for the pronunciation several times, and asks to have the word in a sentence. Then he asks for the word to be used in a different sentence. Then he asks for the word to be used in a song. It's probably funnier when you actually watch it; I was cracking up!

Invincible-Andy was especially looking forward to watching this movie. It's based on the real life story of a Philadelphia bartender that ended up making the Eagles team. We both liked this movie a lot. It was very family friendly too!

I'm going to do the free trial for Blockbuster's online service next! If you have any suggestions, let me know.

Friday night Andy, Joey, and I went over to my parents' house for dinner and a movie. My brother, Benjamin, had been home for spring break for two weeks. He was leaving the next day so this was our last chance to see him.

My brother, Timmy, wanted us all to watch this movie called Clipping Adam. It was all filmed in Carlsbad and Oceanside, but it only got released in Germany. It was neat watching it, and seeing all the Carlsbad shots. You can even see my parents' house in one scene.

One of the best things about the film was that fact that Kevin Sorbo (aka Hercules and Kull the Conqueror) plays a priest. We thought that was hilarious.

A few parts of the movie were filmed at the elementary school my siblings and I went to. As we were watching one scene in the cafeteria, the camera cut to these kids laughing at the main character. My brother Timmy was right there, front and center. My parents and Timmy knew about it, but Andy, Benjamin, and I were so surprised. The rest of the movie we kept telling Timmy that for the rest of his life he can tell people he was in a movie with Kevin Sorbo.

On Wednesday Joey and I visited with my friends Jenn and Ronya and their kids because Ronya was in town for the week.

Jenn had this baby toy called an Exersaucer. I had seen these before, but always thought they were too big and expensive to buy for Joey. Well, I put Joey in it, and he LOVED it! His two favorite things in life are standing and putting things in his mouth. The Exersaucer combines these two hobbies beautifully.

When I got home I decided to check on Craig's List to see if I could find any for sale. Lo and behold there were quite a few listed, and a couple at really good prices. One was about 30 minutes away for $10, and another one was in Carlsbad for $20. They were pretty comparable, but I did like the one in Carlsbad slightly more. I emailed the girl in Carlsbad and asked if she would take $15 for it. She agreed as long as I was able to pick it up soon because she really wanted to get it out of her garage. I made arrangements to pick it up that afternoon.

When I got to the girl's condo area, I saw a garage door open with the Exersaucer in it so I knew I was in the right place. I got out of my car and I see the girl who is selling it. I went to high school with her, and happened to see her just a couple of months ago at a La Leche League meeting. How random!

So how great is Craig's List? About a day after I decide to look for an Exersaucer, I get one for a great deal. I now have a list of other things I'm going to start looking for for our new house. Why buy anything new again?

Oh yeah...Joey loves his new toy!

Andy and I have been house hunting for the past few weeks. We weren't in a rush to buy anything, but we wanted to start looking to see what was out there. Andy described the process as jumping into a pool of freezing cold water. We knew we wanted to buy, but it was quite a shock to the senses to start looking for a house in California.

Well, it happened faster than expected, but we found a house! We put an offer on it a couple of weeks ago, they countered, and we couldn't come to an agreement on the price. It was close, but neither party was willing to budge. I was bummed because I really liked that house, but we started looking again.

This weekend our realtor called us and told us that the realtor for the sellers was willing to pay the difference in price out of her commission because otherwise the people were going to rent the house, and she would lose the listing. They sent us the counter offer, and we signed it last night. Now we just have to pray that we make it through escrow.

Through the whole process I've really felt the Lord's hand guiding us so it's been very reassuring. Everything has worked out really well so far. He is so good, and we certainly don't deserve His countless blessings!

I'll try to post pictures as soon as I can, but I'll probably wait until we actually close just to make sure!

When we were in Phoenix, Andy's mom brought out Andy's old Cabbage Patch Kid. It was really funny because Joey was quite interested in it. He kept reaching for it and trying to suck on it. Here he is entranced...

Last weekend Andy, Joey and I took a road trip to Phoenix to visit Andy's family and friends. His brother, Timmy, was flying out to visit with his girlfriend, Sarah. Andy's friend Mark was also flying out with his friend Julie. Dave Logan and fiancee Brooke live in Phoenix so of course we always get to see them too. It was a great little reunion!

We left Thursday at 6:30 p.m. Joey slept the entire way. It was fantastic! We made good time and arrived at Andy's parents' house at 1:00 a.m. Phoenix time.

We spent the weekend hanging out, playing games, swimming in the pool, and eating! Saturday we all went to this neat wine/art festival. They had wine tasting, and tons of artists had booths set up to showcase and sell their stuff.

Joey, of course, was the star of the weekend. He was a lot of fun. The only problem was that he didn't sleep as well as usual.

We left Sunday around 4:30 pm. I was very nervous about this trip because it wasn't during Joey's normal sleeping time. In fact, he had just taken a nap before we left. He stayed awake for about the first two hours and was quite cheerful. Then he got a little fussy, so I pumped and fed him a bottle. That worked really well. We stopped for dinner and he was able to stretch out a little. When we got back in the car he cried for about 20 minutes and then slept the rest of the way home. Not bad at all!

This is not a great picture but here's Joey with Timmy, Dave, and Brooke.

Joey and Mark. Joey spit up all over Mark, and Mark was a very good sport about it!

Uncle Timmy and Joey. These two are very cute together.