Hello and Goodbye and Good Buy

The Quongs have embarked on another adventure and fulfilled one young boy's dreams. We bought a motorcycle.
Insert--Please, spare us all the gory stories of people you knew who were in accidents as nothing would deter us and because we've had the motorcycle for a few weeks now anyway. ;)
Our motorcycle is a 2001 Honda Shadow, 750 ccs, with Cobra pipes.

Insert--I had to refer to Tyler for the details. I'm still as car, and now motorcycle, clueless as always.

My favorite thing about the motorcycle is that it has a seat for me and we have matching helmets.
Tyler's favorite thing about the motorcycle is that it's just what he always wanted and that he can set off car alarms with his bike because it's that loud.My least favorite thing about the motorcycle is that I don't know how to drive it and that it is a heavy bike. So heavy, in fact, that even if I learn to ride a motorcycle I might not be able to ride ours.
Tyler's least favorite thing about the motorcycle is that the saddlebags don't lock.
Insert--That means he loves everything about it. I was scraping from the bottom of the barrel on that one.
That is our good news in a minute. Our sad news is that we sold our Jeep. Tyler bought that Jeep when he came home from his mission and has been driving it ever since. It has brought us good times and aggravation when it has broken down and cost hundreds to fix. It has taken us on many trips and Tyler has driven it cross country three times. Many snowy days I felt secure driving to work knowing I had 4-wheel drive. It has forged through snow, rain, sleet, ice and sunshine providing the functions a car should provide, except when it broke down once a few blocks from our apartment before we were married so Tyler and I had to share my car. It was the preferred car on laundry day because it was easy to load everything in the back. I cannot number the amount of snowboarding trips it has taken Tyler on. But its time had come to an end and the Jeep was sold. "Farewell Jeep," we cry, "Onto a new life." We sold it to some BYU guy and he paid in cash. I've never held that many hundred dollar bills in my life. Unfortunately, that money was only in our possession for a few hours though because we bought the motorcycle later that day. But I guess it is fortunate as money like that can burn a hole right through your pocket!
Insert--Yes, we are concerned about the cold weather and impending snow that will invariably come as the days go by, but we still have our Mazda and can share or Tyler will just take his bicycle or walk to school. If you see him walking, just be kind and give him a ride. And hello? how cool are the Quongs now? We have a motorcycle! See how tough we are?

I'm a Coupon Mom! err... Coupon Wife!

So I'm learning the art of being a coupon user. Today was my first day, and my teacher Jaclyn was an amazing instructor. For instance, with coupons I paid $.50 for a carton of Dreyer's ice cream. Also, I bought $17 worth of deli meat and cheese, used coupons for $4 off and am sending in a rebate for $15 back. Yes, that does mean that Target just paid me to shop. Also, I spent about $42 at Walgreens and after my mail-in-rebate will get about $55 back. Not even lying. Just using coupons, I watched my grocery bill go down from $73 to $52. It was AMAZING. And we have four bags of M&Ms in our candy dish now, lol. Some of the stuff I bought today will just go in storage until we need it (i.e. the two bottles of Garnier shampoo and two hair gels) and I didn't really need new nail polish, but when it's free, yes I do. Some of it is delayed gratification because I have to wait 4-6 weeks for the checks from the mail-in-rebates, but STILL.
I'm still learning and understanding the best way to get the best deals, but just as a heads up, and to share my new knowledge, Jaclyn says that Target is the cheapest for groceries (except for milk), and Albertson's is the most pricey overall. And you can find tons of coupons online for Target. A few of the food items I bought today weren't things I'd normally buy, or not a brand I'd normally pick, but if it's something we can use and it's a good deal and I have a coupon, why not?
A couple more things to share:
Beer coupons. Yes, I wrote beer. Budweiser, Heineken, Coor's, etc. offer coupons for specific things (like the deli meat rebate) and certain states are exempt from having to buy beer (like Utah). You can just buy the item and send in the rebate and get money back. Jaclyn gave me some beer coupons to start out, but she said you can usually find them on beer displays at the end of aisles. So keep an eye out because free is free!
www.pinchingyourpennies.com. It's a website where you can search for where to find specific coupons in the Sunday newspaper. Oh, you will need the ads (Red Plum and Smart Source) from the paper for this to be helpful to you.
www.retailmenot.com. This is a website I found and think is awesome. Pretty much anywhere online where you can enter a promo code is on this website. For example, we bought pizza from Papa John's and got an extra large speciality pizza and large 1-topping pizza at the same price ($20) as the "special" the store advertised which was two large 1-topping pizzas. So more pizza for the same price. If you're a big online shopper, check it out.
www.afullcup.com. This has the coupons for Target. Click on Target Coupon Generator.
$5 off $20 at Walgreens. If you spend over $20 at Walgreens, you can get $5 off. So feel free to break up purchases into $20 increments (like I did today!). You'll just have to swipe your card a couple times.
When I learn more and can truly claim the title of "Coupon Wife", I'd be happy to teach my skills and help you save moola as well. Just give me some practice and time to get it going, and then I will share my vast wealth of knowledge and maybe even my vast wealth after saving so much! Or at least some of those M&Ms.... ;)

Me too!

"I'll go where you want me to go" too!! I got released on Sunday from my calling as Enrichment Leader. It was a bittersweet moment for me. In our ward, callings are for a year and I had hit my year mark. In some ways I have been waiting for this forever, but then when my time was up, I was sad to give it up. I did a lot of work as Enrichment Leader--goodness, we had an activity every week--and it was tiring, frustrating, trying, stressful and disappointing, but incredibly rewarding. I feel very blessed to have had this opportunity.
Now out with the old, in with the new! My new calling is the Relief Society Chorister. I get to choose the hymns we sing in Relief Society and lead the music. I guess that conducting class I took for my music minor will come in handy after all. ;) I'm excited for something new, and I really love music and singing so this will be wonderful for me.

"I'll be what you want me to be"

Tyler got a new calling. He was called to be the first counselor in the Bishopric. Although a bit nervous, he's excited for this new calling and I know he'll be AMAZING at it. It's just another testament to me how much Heavenly Father knows us and cares about us. He really wants the best for us and gives us those opportunities to grow. I feel very blessed. I also feel very lucky to have such a good husband. I know our ward will be blessed by and through him!

This is the after-church photo, which is why he isn't wearing a tie.

To share in the blessing, Tyler's parents Ron and Lupe found "miracle tickets" (miracles because they were so cheap!) and got to be here for Tyler's setting apart. We loved having them visit us and spending time together. It was a little tight in our teeny apartment (especially with the air mattress crammed in the living room ;) but it was so wonderful to have them. We had some very delicious meals including, as tradition, at La Frontera.

This is us with Ron & Lupe and Ron's parents Jim & Lucy

O Canada

So a little late in coming, but I wanted to post some of my pics from my trip to Canada. Ahem, my business trip to Canada. If you think I'm a little more grown-up now than you did before, I understand.

I have to explain a little about my job so the purpose of the biz trip makes sense. ProPay (that's my work) allows small merchants to process credit cards, and our biggest client is Mary Kay. The reason for the Canada trip was for a Mary Kay Conference in Toronto. We set up a booth to advertise our service and for those MK ladies to tell us how much they love us (or hate us....luckily there were only a few of those). And because I speak French, I was asked to go. Now you know the purpose, and I can tell you what actually happened!

If I was a MK lady.....hehehe
My co-workers and I got there Saturday afternoon and had some time because the conference didn't start until the next morning so we headed to Niagara Falls for a little sight seeing. This was my second time at the falls, but it was still just as jaw-dropping as the first time. I can't believe how big they are! It is beautiful and amazing--definitely one of those must-do-in-your-lifetime kind of things. I was a maid of the mist going right into the center of the falls and getting a little bit drenched. Really truly incredible.

Sunday we worked the convention. Monday we got out early so we went into downtown Toronto and ate atop the CN Tower. It's the tallest completed structure in the world (apparently they're in the process of building another which will be taller, hence "completed"). It was a super expensive restaraunt that spun around slowly so that you got to see the view from every position. So cool!

I'm laying on the glass floor--see how far way the ground is?

To top the evening off, we went to a Blue Jays game and they won! Hooray for a real baseball game. I can't even believe those guys can hit those balls thrown so fast! And then they catch them like it's no sweat! But I guess that's how it goes when you're "professional" haha.Tuesday was work work work and then we flew home. I was so happy to see my honey again! It was super expensive to call internationally so I had to be tough and stick to emailing and a couple pricey texts. Home really was home sweet home.

Shout out to Jill!

Hooray for Jill Petersen and her amazing talent! Didn't you notice the new header? I was very very very excited about it! Thanks so much Jill!!

There's a baby in our bathtub!

Saturday we babysat for our friends Katie and Richard Keele. Baby Delila came to our house for a couple of hours, and it was quite the entertaining experience.

So she had breakfast and then was covered in breakfast so I decided to give her a bath. I filled up the tub, even put in bubbles, and as soon as I set Delila in, she peed! I had to empty the bathtub, and fill it all up again! Is this a lesson in being a mom?

Nonetheless, she was quite adorable splashing around and we had fun watching her. And now I know that babies will pee in the tub!