Super Cool Video

E-Book Sale from Money Saving Mom

Just thought I would let you know that MoneySavingMom is having a HUMONGOUS sale today and the next few days.

This is my source for most of my bargain deals. She has LOTS of great info on her blog and puts deals up daily.

The sale is basically ALL of her e-books for $5.97. Bought individually these would be over $100. The main e-book of interest for most of you would be "Supermarket Savings 101", but there are 15 books all together. Some of them are about home management, parenting and a couple about owning your own business. If you are interested in getting started saving on your grocery bill, I would highly recommend checking this out.

So Pumped!

Ok, so I have been doing this CVS thing for several months now and have seen the power in stockpiling(I should take pictures for you).....it has been AMAZING how much money we have saved. If I ran out of something previous to this, we always went to the store and bought whatever we needed. Of course I thought I was being thrifty by buying what was on sale but I had NO idea. This stockpiling thing is a whole new world! I have not only been able to get a good stock for our family but I have soooo much that I am going to be able to donate!

Just an example:

Intuition razors (this is the ONLY razor I will use....one of those "no compromise" things). They typically run $10 for replacement cartridges and I have about 5 of those boxes in my cabinet that I paid no more than $2 for. WOW! That is just the beginning.

I have like a million boxes of toothpaste and toothbrushes out the wazoo but that isn't the stuff that really makes the difference....they are fairly cheap. It is the cosmetics, face cleansers, shampoo, conditioner, body wash, razors, shave gel, etc. that really add up and make a big difference. And, I don't have to use off brand stuff.....everything I get is name brand for the most part!

ANYWAY, enough about that....on to what I am totally pumped about. I started doing my grocery shopping this week in the same way. We are pretty tight on the funds right now so I was concerned with my grocery bill.....I thought, I know other people get really good deals at their grocery stores, why not me? I knew that this was an option all along but it just seemed way to overwhelming.....I guess doing the CVS'ing has prepared me!

I signed up for a $1 trial of The Grocery Game and it was a lifesaver. The last time I tried the supermarkets, I gave up because I was trying to do it on my own. I made a list of all the stockpile deals and then added the things that we really need at the house. From the list of things we NEED, I went to CouponMom and checked their coupon database to see if I had any coupons to match. Oh ya, and also, if you shop at Kroger you can go to their website and load coupons directly onto your card and it will come off automatically when you purchase those things.

I paid $78.64 & saved $102.91. I know that this is nothing compared to what some can do (I will get there) but I have been paying full price for everything so this was FANTASTIC!

Here is what I got for $78.64:

Charmin 6ct
Spray & Wash
CoffeeMate Creamer
Gillette BodyWash
Kleenex- 3pk
Bounty- single roll
Cool Whip
2 Russet Baking Potatoes
Huge package of chicken drumsticks- fresh
Huge package of chicken breasts- fresh
Sliced deli cheese
5 Lady Speed Stick Deo
5 SoftSoap liquid hand soap
Froot Loops Straws
Tyson Patties- box
Tyson Nuggets- box
2- Tyson Tenders- box
Bacon
4- BallPark Hot Dogs
2- Apple Juice
2- Large sour cream
Lysol Mold & Mildew
5- Irish Spring bar soap 3 pk
Gallon Milk
2- 2 Liters
Bread
Eggs
9- Powerade
Frozen Veggies
2 Apples
Grapes
Cantaloupe
Pineapple
Blueberries
Bananas

AWESOME!!!!!! I can't wait to get good at this!

Oh, and I did this with both of the kiddos!!!!!!! (I had him in the sling and her in the little car on the front of the buggy) I honestly didn't think I would get it all done with her but it must have been a nice break from our dungeon because she was GREAT! YAY God!

A HUGE favor to ask!

If any of you get a Sunday paper and do not use your coupons(or only use a few).....send them my way. It just tears me up inside knowing that coupons are thrown in the trash every weekend. I buy 4 papers almost every weekend.....if I didn't have to do that, even more $ saved! WOOHOO!

Thanks!

Oh, and btw, I am aware of some people who go dumpster diving for coupon inserts! I would rather not do this. Please spare me!

A Great Weekend!

Well, last night the Daugherty's brought us dinner (yes, we are still on the dinner rounds from Spencer's birth....WOW) so we got to spend some time with them and Isabella. It seems like we haven't really been able to hang out with friends in so long so that was nice to be able to enjoy some fellowship with them again!

This morning we went to a birthday party at Leapin' Lizards that Samara was invited to! Her first real birthday party......kind of sad that she is that grown up already! Josh and I both had a blast running through the bounce houses with her. And then, they gave her a cup of red fruit punch and it was all over. Josh was worried about how she would do with a cup and I told him she would be fine. Boy was I wrong! She dumped it all over her lap.

Can I just tell you that spirited children do not enjoy wet clothes or the red streaked stain that is left on their skin from fruit punch running down their leg. (I am learning.....she is spirited, not strong-willed or difficult :) I ended up taking her to the bathroom and stripping her down.....I couldn't very well take her back out there naked so I left her shirt on but there was NO way I was getting those shorts back on. They are currently soaking in Oxy Clean....that fruit punch is crazy, it even stained her skin!

After a long nap (and my AWESOME trips to CVS and Walgreen's) we took her over to the Madis'. They are so sweet and thoughtful and instead of bringing us dinner, they got us a gift card to Chili's and offered to watch the kids while Josh and I went out on a date! It has been soooo long since we have done this.....far too long I might add.....so this was nice! Strange but nice! Isn't it crazy how you feel so different when you leave the kiddos to go out alone.....like you have never done that before! Weird! Anyway, we had a fantastic time (even though my boobs were like milk gushing rocks) and even went to Barnes & Noble for a little relaxation!

We received a call after dinner from Wes telling us that the girls were having a blast and were currently covered in chocolate pudding, about to be thrown into the bathtub......how fun!
How can you worry when you know your kid is having so much fun that she has to be bathed? We were a little concerned that she would be fussy because she has really had attachment issues lately, but it sounds like the girls coaxed her out of that quickly after our departure! They even said Spencer was a good little boy! YAY for good kids!

Nothing New

Not much to report. Life is still pretty dull being tied down to the house. I think we are all getting a bit stir crazy. I have been rather diligent in searching for activites for Sam and I to enjoy so that she isn't begging for my attention by getting into trouble. The unfortunate thing about this age is their extremely short attention spans....the fortunate thing is that they really don't care about what kind of paper, colors or stickers you give them.

Little Man is getting quite plump.....not a big surprise considering how much he consumes.....still eating like each meal is his last!

Went to Mom's again today to let the kids play. She was not nice today......thankfully Balin is pretty easy-going. You should keep in mind while watching that Samara absolutley HATES water in her face.....it is a fight just to get her hair washed!

Akiane: Fantastically Amazing!

While working at Mardel I would occasionally read the magazines we sold while taking lunch. I came across an article in "Christianity Today" about a young artist who claimed her artwork was inspired by God. I was immediately drawn to this because of my love for art and my respect for the talented.

Somehow I recalled seeing a book in our biography section about this girl. I had never paid much attention to it before.....I couldn't possibly have looked through each book that we carried. I found it again and checked it out. I raced through it! It was fascinating. Her life story is obviously a testimony to the ability of God to work the supernatural in this world. Her artwork is absolutely gorgeous.....her skill and the maturity of her content are amazing!

Not long after all of that she appeared on the Oprah show. While searching for something else, I ran across her again today. You may have seen her before but if not, she is worth checking out.

www.artakiane.com

Works For Me: How old are these contacts anyway?

I wear disposable contact lenses. They are supposed to be changed out every 2 weeks. I can't remember what I ate for dinner last night...how in the heck am I supposed to remember when I opened this pair of lenses? I have tried writing it on my calendar but I am typically not near my contacts when looking over my calendar and by the time I make it back to my bathroom, the last thing on my mind is changing out my contacts. Soooo, I had to come up with an alternate solution.

I take a dry erase marker and write the date I put them in on the bottom of the case. To my delight, I realized that this actually solved two of my problems. I must have some 10 cases around the bathroom. For whatever reason these cases are rather intriguing to Sam and tend to disappear off the counter. Now, I know which case has my current lenses in them no matter where I find them!

God provides

God is so good to us! This will seem silly to some of you, but it is just a reminder that he cares about even the small stuff.

I needed a hair dryer. The one I had was likely 8 years old(at least) and falling apart. A hair dryer is the LEAST of my worries with gas prices the way they are and a new kiddo in tow!

Yesterday at CVS there was a nice hair dryer on clearance for $5!!!! For those of you who don't know, I never leave there spending over $5 out of pocket and yesterday was no exception, even with the hair dryer! I spent $1.99 out of pocket and got a ton of stuff(the hair dryer and a ton of baby products) and got $9 ECB to spend at a later date!

All this to say that God has used CVS to be an amazing blessing during this difficult financial time. He even cares about the little stuff! (Now to find a straightening iron on clearance!!!!)

5 cent deals and other EASY bargains

So, this is for those of you who want a great deal but don't want to put any effort into it. If you haven't seen the Walgreen's ad this week, you need to check it out. They have some fantastic deals on school/office supplies. I went and bought my limit yesterday, even though I probably won't use most of the stuff.....these are GREAT donations!

Also, if you don't know yet, Walmart has some great school/office supply bargains. The ones I am aware of are 5 cent spirals and 22 cent crayolas! These are great deals. You could buy 100 of the notebooks and only be out $5. GREAT donations.

ALSO, I have lots of fellow readers so this one is for YOU. Borders has a great deal this week! In order to get you to try their online site to store service, you can get a book or item $5 and under shipped to your local Borders book store for free. Add an item $5 and under to your cart and use code BR41925. (You should be able to do a search for book that are $10 an under. Then click a few pages down to find $5 books.) If there is a more expensive book that you have been wanting, you can also get another item for 40% off. Click that you want to continue shopping and add another book or item to your cart. Use code BC4777 for 40% off. It will apply to the second book you put in your cart. Set shipping to your local store to get it for free! If you don’t have a store nearby you an spend $25 and get free shipping to your home.

Update: It looks like their site might be overloaded. Try buying your 40% off book first if you are going to get two books. That worked for me!

This is from bargainshopperlady.

Enjoy!

Creepy?

Is this totally creepy or what? I actually found this on a seemingly level-headed, Christian Mom's blog. She said that Second Life is her "virtual mission field." I don't know, it seems REALLY creepy to me. You could really get lost in this. I can just see hours in front on the computer wasted on such nonsense.

What do ya'll think?

Smiles

I can't believe I forgot to mention that Spencer smiled for the first time yesterday......a real smile....like he knew what he was doing. This was not a sleep smile. I am sad to say that it wasn't at me.....and in addition, I have yet to get one. It was at his Daddy. Ya know.....one would think that the person who gets up in the middle of the night to care for him and feeds him and changes the majority of his diapers would deserve the first smile BUT.....NOOOOO! No matter, the smile was a sweet blessing and warmed my heart! It is so fun being a Mom.

The Sweetest Things

Just had to share. I can never catch her in a mood to let me film her. I was able to get her saying some of our favorite words and some other things she has been doing & saying lately!

P.S. I would share a video of Spencer but unless you want to see sleeping, eating or pooping, you won't be interested! I will have plenty to share soon enough!

So much to say!

Isn't he sweet!

While I would LOVE to be one of those bloggers that people stumble upon and bookmark, I am not. I honestly don't know how there is enough unique information for all the blogs that are out there already. So here I am, writing about what I know....my life!

There are so many things I could write about that I get overwhelmed trying to decide what you want to know. While it makes me feel special that people care enough about what's going on in my life to come here and catch up, I am doing this partly for my own record. That said, I will likely share whatever I think I might want to remember later.....well, within reason because I am certain I will forget most everything.

THE HUNGRY LITTLE BOOGER

I tell you....this kiddo eats like a savage beast. At this age, they should be eating approx. 3oz every 3 hours. NOT HIM! Every 3 hours I breastfeed him and then, because he acts like he is still STARVING, I feed him a bottle. He will typically take a 4oz bottle! Wow! Will he be a monster like his cousin? I am beginning to wonder.

IT'S BOKE

Ms. Meredith brought Samie a coloring book and colors and she has been in heaven ever since. We have to color like 5 times a day. Yesterday we were coloring when she picked up a white crayon and began to scribble. She looked at it all confused and then looked up and said, "Mommy, boke." (That's toddler talk for "broke") It was soooo cute.....she didn't understand why she couldn't see her scribbles, she wanted me to fix it....precious!

This is my budding artist before she got her new crayons.....the crayons in the pic are made for toddlers (TaDoodles Crayon Buddies) but all she wanted to do was take the crayon out of the plastic thing and throw the plastic thing on the floor (it does kind of look like a top!)....in the deal or dud category I would definitely say, they're a DUD!

SICK

We had an inkling that Sam had not been feeling well. She has had a runny nose for the past few days but that really isn't anything too alarming considering she has bad allergies. She has also been super fussy and clingy even when she has gotten good sleep (which we were still attributing to Spencer). She hasn't had a temperature so we really just assumed it was allergies. UNTIL......I started feeling yucky also! This REALLY stinks by the way, because we had a date night planned for tonight! Guess it will just have to wait.

In addition we noticed that she has been falling a BUNCH! I am pretty sure the falling was due to equilibrium issues. Here is the result of one of the falls.....

BOYS

Ok, so that is a generalization but still. I took Sam over to Mom's to play with her cousins again. Around lunch time, in comes Papa.....holding a box of Popsicles. Never mind that Mom was working to lay them down for a nap at the time. He drags Sam out onto the back porch to enjoy his sweet treat. As you can see from the picture, she has on one shoe (on the wrong foot, mind you) and no clothes (which I suppose worked out for Nini's benefit considering Papa would not have thought to remove the clothes before letting her indulge in the dripping sticky mess) After she had finished, he brings her in (at arms length) to be cleaned up.

That's not the end of the BOY drama though. Papa had put her to sleep (sweet of him considering he interrupted that process in the first place) and when I went to retrieve her after her nap I saw that she was still only wearing the single shoe. Now, I could be wrong here, but a woman would not have put her to bed naked with only one shoe....or any shoes for that matter. Why is it that we think important that which is so trivial?......she certainly didn't care.


IRONIC

Isn't it ironic that the things we are not supposed to do with our children are precisely the things they want to do? He doesn't even know that I don't want him doing this and yet he is already fighting me. What rebellion I must be in for!!!!!!! Here is the little stinker asleep.....on his tummy......his favorite way to slumber!


And here is my little punk with a serious attitude......Josh has this same expression and I call it, "The Look". It seems that they think it has some special powers! He he.....you don't scare me!

Funny stuff!

SO I had to share.....my daughter is so stinkin' funny! It cracks me up that she has names for everyone (including herself). I think I have told you that she named herself Sammie and she is SET on Sammie. She calls my nephew Balin, Bay. The newest one, which is no doubt the most funny is her name for my brother Matt....Hat. Yep, and she is dead set on this one also. We have all tried to get her to say Matt and have done the whole....Mmmm-att thing and this is what she does.....Mmmmm Hat! It is hilarious! I guess it is even funnier because Matt is a goofball and is just a big kid and this just fits him!

I also wanted to share a very special picture with you....this may very well be THE first time Sam has voluntarily looked at the camera and smiled. In the 22 months that I have been taking pictures of her, not once has she smiled at the camera (at least not on purpose). For whatever reason she was really a ham this day. She was making me laugh because she was all posing and smiling and everything! It was one extreme to the other. (so I asked her if she wanted to fix her hair for the pictures and she got all excited and said, "yes." We went and fixed her hair and then I started trying to take more and she got all mad and wouldn't take anymore, go figure!)