Awesome Female Role Models- Buffy Summers

When Emmy approached me with an opportunity to guest post on an awesome female role model, I knew exactly who it would be.

Buffy Summers aka Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

 I was in middle school when the very first episode aired… I was so use to watching Boy Meets World and Sabrina the Teenage Witch. Happy camper type shows which I still hold dear to my heart. But then Buffy showed up, this extremely badass girl who was beautiful, funny, cool,  and fought vampires and evil demons, and was constantly saving the world! When I finished that first episode, I was hooked for life. I never missed a show. I laughed along with the Scooby gang, cried when Buffy had to send Angel to hell, wrote an angry letter to Joss Whedon when I though Buffy had been killed off for good, sang along in the Musical episode... I was emotionally invested.

August To Be Read Pile

Another month... another to-be-read pile! Well... in a few days I'll be a new month. July 30 is close enough, right?

I didn't do too shabby in July with my reading goals.

Books I (finally) completed this month:

- Bleeding Violet by Dia Reeves
- Blood Bound by Patrica Briggs
- Seriously... I'm Kidding by Ellen DeGeneres (really short audio book, got it done in one road trip!)
- The Help by Kathryn Stockett
- Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare

If you remember my July goals, I had intended to only read four books and I ended up reading five. So not bad! (Although Blood Bound technically I started in June...)

Special Words

Emily is off to Texas with a whole bunch of teenagers to go to a National Youth Convention event. 19 of them and her, I think I heard. On a bus, for a few days...fun, fun!

As a member of the church where Emily works and ministers, and as a writer, I was asked to write notes to some of these 20 people as they attended this event and travelled back and forth by bus. One of the fathers had the idea that a surprise note for each person attending this event every day would be a good encouragement to them. (I hope he is right. )

I Need to Dust my Stash

It was just an ordinary weekend afternoon. I was bored and two of my friends invited me over to hang out for awhile. We sat in the "man cave" as the hubby of the house fondly calls it, and once he went to go grab food, his wife and I switched Netflix from his shows to something we thought we would enjoy. It was then that I was introduced to Extreme Couponing.

I know... I'm late to the party. Sue me.

I had heard of the show and knew the premise, but I hadn't watched it before. By the time the hubby got back from getting food, he was watching the show with us and saying how we needed to get on that coupon train. He then suggested I write a blog post about it.

Oh. My. Goodness.

If I didn't think people were crazy before, I sure do now.

Now, I'm not going to lie. The idea of getting thousands of dollars worth of merchandise and only paying about $10 or less is pretty appealing. Many of them started because they ran into financial hardship and wanted to help make ends meet. Which totally make sense! I could save so much money on groceries and use it to buy more books...

Or pay off student loans and my car.

Priorities, yo.

However, something didn't sit with me right with these ladies (and the occasional man).

First, there's "the stash." Apparently, the key to couponing is buying in bulk. Which means these families have piles and piles of items. Toothpaste, soap, cereal, canned goods, etc. There was one lady who even dusted her stash, had to rotate the items so she knew when they expired, and claimed it was like a member of her family.

Yes, I see hundreds of shampoo bottles as my family too.

Granted - there were some people who gave a lot of their goods to charities, let their kids come home from college and "shop" through the stash, and if they ever find themselves back in the cold war in the middle of a bomb attack their family will be set for life.

 I noticed some people while they are getting their "haul" (look at me using the lingo and everything!)... they tend to get a bit... tense.

Needing to watch the check out screen to be sure every detail goes they way they planned, having envelopes filled with coupons, taking over several lanes at a time, shopping for 7 hours straight, bossing people around, friends and family members getting nervous because they're afraid they'll mess something up, calling their husband "coupon holder..."

Yup... that really happened. "Come here coupon holder!"

Oh, and apparently recruiting your children to dig through the garbage to help you get coupons is a thing too.

Family bonding at its best!

There were a few people on the show that I genuinely was scared of. If they had to pay a whole dollar for something - watch out!

Also, did you realize how much time and math is involved in extreme couponing? They have these huge spreadsheets to organize everything, and they scour websites and newspaper ads like it's their full time job. They have to do so many calculations to be sure that they stay on their budget. 

I could never handle that many numbers. 

Beyond the craziness, it just felt wrong to me. While I was a bit jealous for all of the money they were saving on groceries, I couldn't help but feel like it was cheating the system. It was almost like stealing. 

(Also, those poor cashiers. If I were one of them and I saw a lady approaching my cash register, I'd run as fast as I could!) 

I'm all for getting the good deals, using the system, and being frugal. There's a lot I could learn from it. But how far is too far? 

Do you think these extreme couponing families are right on, or do you think they're crossing a line?

My friend told his wife and I that we should get on this. 

Only if you're my coupon holder!

:-P 

Also, join in on this awesome blog-hop hosted by Chelsea (Lost in Travels) who I have been sponsoring the last two months!

Throwback Thursday - My Mom's Memories

It's Throwback Thursday Everyone!!!!! Today's theme: Memory From One or Both of Your Parents From Childhood. I asked my mom to write for today's post, and I'm really glad she said yes! She decided to share memories from her childhood home, which I love. While I was growing up, this was the place we would go to visit several times a year. I have a lot of memories from this house too, so it's wonderful to hear my mom share some of her own memories. Give her a warm welcome!

This is a newspaper picture taken of my childhood home in northeast Indiana. So many memories came from the activities in this house, and our small hometown of Garrett. My childhood was so different than the childhood of my girls, Natalie (Emmy's note: that's my sister!) and Emily. Maybe that is why Emily said its ok to talk about those memories and "the good ole days". She said she enjoyed hearing the stories and I hope you will too. It's just hard to pick one memory!

Awesome Female Role Models - Elle Woods

Every Wednesday (and sometimes another bonus day!) I feature a female character from a book, TV show, musical/play, or movie that I think is an awesome role model.

The women who have been featured so far are:

Meg from Hercules
Maria from West Side Story
Anne Shirley from Anne of Green Gables
Katherine Plumber from Newsies (stage production)
Rachel Berry from Glee

Today, I want to talk to you all about Elle Woods from Legally Blonde. (The movie specifically, but that's only because I haven't seen the stage musical all the way through. I've heard it's awesome though!)

I was a freshman in high school when this movie came out in 2001, and I absolutely fell in love with it! While I'm by no means a sorority girl or fashionista and I have no intentions of going to law school, I felt like I could relate to Elle. I have had my fair share of blonde moments though. Especially when I was in high school. Now I can "fake" my blondness a bit more. ;-) My friends and I would joke that I really was Elle Woods.

Martha, Martha, Martha...

Sunday morning, our pastor preached on a pretty common Bible story. The story of Mary and Martha. Let me share it with you in case you need a refresher. (Taken from The Voice translation. Italics mean they are words not actually in the Bible, but added for further explanation.)

Jesus continued from there toward Jerusalem  and came to another village. Martha, a resident of that village, welcomed Jesus into her home. Her sister, Mary, went and sat at Jesus' feet, listening to Him teach. Meanwhile, Martha was anxious about all the hospitality arrangements.

Martha: (Interrupting Jesus): Lord, why don't You care that my sister is leaving me to do all the work by myself? Tell her to get over here and help me.

Jesus: Oh Martha, Martha, you are so anxious and concerned about a million details, but really, only one thing matters. Mary has chosen that one thing, and I won't take it away from her.

Luke 10: 38-42

This is What Dreams Are Made Of

Praise God for internet friends who hear your cries for help when you need blogging ideas on a Monday morning.

Only a few minutes ago I put on Twitter and Facebook that I needed blog topic ideas for today, and my friend Sarah promptly gave me one.

She is working on a new project, and she needs to ask someone what their dream is. So I guess I'm the one she's asking!

What is your dream?

When I was a kid, and you asked me this question, I probably would have told you that I wanted to be a writer. I was always making up stories and consuming any book I could get my hands on. I can't even begin to tell you how many journals I owned. It was well known in my school that I wanted to be an author. My "short" stories for class assignments were never very short, and I even wrote a little novel in 4th grade that my teacher let me put into the fine arts fair because she knew how hard I had been working on it. Being like Ann M. Martin (Babysitters Club) or one of the authors for the American Girl books would have been a dream come true.