New Tickers

I guess I'm Ticker Happy Today :)

I removed this one because it expired (yay!). But it's still cool to count up, so, for posterity...



And then the new ones...







Lots of big news! We're meeting S&B (the genetic parents) on July 2. I don't think we'll have an answer on the match that day but I think both couples will have a strong impression on whether or not this will go or not and I think that will give us enough to know what the next step is (either way).

We're going to Hawaii in August! We were able to sell our frequent flyer tickets from another airline and buy Hawaii tickets...for a difference of 24 cents! We did end up paying hefty fees to change the flights because of DH's job (note: do not EVER book on Hawaiian airlines unless you're 200% positive that you won't change ANYTHING about your ticktes--I guess I got spoiled working with Southwest) so the fees were frustrating but we're still paying less than we would to buy tickets to anywhere farther from here than Norther California. My college roommate is stationed there and has invited us to stay with her and is even insisting on taxi-ing us around. So when else do you get the chance to go to Hawaii with free (or almost in our case) airline tickets and free lodging and free transportation? And since the government is paying the rest (we "stimulated" our vacation savings account with our check as reward for completing our adoption savings), I'd say this will be the least expensive vacation we'll ever take! And in Hawaii no less! So we're trying to map out the activities we'll do. We're excited to see it through the eyes of a local. Though we want to do SOME of the touristy things, we'd much prefer exploring all the natural (and free!) beauty Hawaii has to offer and she knows all the hot spots.

We're looking forward to it as a 5 year anniversary celebration, and as a sort of "Baby Moon" because hopefully there aren't many child-free trips left in our future!

There's not much else new around here. I'm sure it interests you greatly to know that I saved 49.5% in coupons and sales on my grocery bill yesterday? DH and I have sort of a competition with ourselves to see how high we can get the savings by being discriminating and predatory in our shopping. Our record for a "regular" grocery trip (ie not just buying 1 item on special) is 52%. So I came close. It took me about 5 hours to do the work of reading the ads, planning my trip, cutting coupons, organizing my list, shopping, unloading and putting things away, so DH figured I made about $30 an hour if you factor in the amount of money we would have had to make to clear the same dollar amount after taxes...not bad! :)

Today I'll be a baking fool! I have all sorts of summer berries on hand and I'll be making breads for the church visitor's outreach and our small group on Sunday. We're taking it easy this weekend. We had company last weekend which was really fun but we were out and and about a lot so we didn't get a lot of time to decompress and debrief after the homestudy.

I'm sure you're riveted on the mundane details of our life, but I must sign off now and get to work! Hope you all have a great day!

PS: Happy Birthday to Hannah, the first Snowflake!