Happy Easter

First failed attempt to get a decent Easter picture this year was at Becki's house.  I asked Bree to give me a nice smile and I got a semi-cheesy one.  After many more attempts with the smile getting more and more fake with each passing second, I gave up.  Didn't have Jacob in the picture anyways.



Second failed attempt at a decent Easter picture was at Jim's parents house.  Hoping to get a picture in before the chaos (and mud) started flying I plopped them down in Papa's chair and said "Smile" and instead she tried biting him.  Not sure why.  Didn't matter.  Picture was blurry.

Third failed picture.  Jacob discovered the computer mouse on the arm of the chair and Bree was trying to hold him still.  Didn't work.

Fourth failed attempt.  Jacob is within arms length of the getting the mouse but someone walked in the door catching his attention causing him to lean even further away to see whats going on.  Thats okay, the sugar from breakfast kicked in and Bree can no longer sit still.

Fifth failed attempt.  I don't even know what to say.

Sixth attempt.  Not sitting beside each other but no evil eyes, cheesey smiles or panties are showing so I'll take it.

Happy Easter!



A make-up artist we are not

No she doesn't have two black eyes.  My daughter decided to do her makeup herself.  Its so true: if your kids are quiet, they are usually up to no good.

So Long, Farewell

Goodbye worn-down, weathered shed,

Goodbye unsightly woodpile,

Goodbye pine tree that caused me many scratches while trying to mow around you,

H-E-L-L-O new shed mini barn!

Thanks Aunt Becki!

Growing Up

Whatcha talkin about?  I don't need a haircut.

I rock this mullet.

And I can see out my eyes...as long as Momma pushes the hair aside.  But I don't need a haircut!

And if I cut it, sissy won't be able to brush it or put clips in it or try to put hair ties in it or bubble style my hair anymore.  On second thought...

Yes, yes.  This is much better.

Plain and Simple

There are so many different ways I could have written about these next two pictures but quite frankly it comes down to this.

The Bree you see:

The Bree I see:

Enough said.

Once upon a time...

...in a room not far from my own, there lived a very cute, very special, very loved three year old.  Now this three year old was also very spoiled.  She owned more clothes than her mother and father combined.  She had a book collection that compared to the local library, more blankets than the Eskimos and more Barbies than Wal-Mart.  

One day, to her parents great delight, this very cute, very special, very loved three year old was playing contently in her room by herself.  When she voluntarily requested to take a nap on the floor of her room, her parents thought nothing of it.

"Why of course you can take a nap and anywhere you'd like," they responded cheerfully.

Little did they know that this very cute, very special, very loved three year old had emptied nearly every dresser drawer, unloaded every bookshelf,  undressed every barbie, and pulled every blanket off her bed and had nestled herself down right smack dab in the middle of the mess.

Because, once upon a time, there used to be a floor in this room.

The End.

A Boy and his train

This video was orginally supposed to be part of the video week I was posting last month but youtube was giving me fits and taking 3 hours to upload one thirty second video so I just had to give up.  I bring it to you now...

For Christmas Jacob was given a VTech Alphabet Train.  It sings.  It lights up.  It spits out blocks.  The caboose comes off.  Overall, I have to admit, its a pretty cool toy.  Here is a video of Jacob playing with it like a pro after having it only a week.  He knew what to do with the blocks even if he couldn't make his hands cooperate.  I was so proud of him.




So now that the novelty of the toy has worn off and he's (almost) mastered putting the blocks into the spaces on the front, its time to find new uses for the train.  And that he has.  And I think he's mocking me.

Gabrielle Elizabeth,

What are you doing?!?!

"I'm a doctor."

Wow.  No more renaissance programs on the History channel for you.

Birthday Boy

What kind of birthday dinner do you throw a one year old who owns more Detroit Tigers clothing than his father??

A Detroit Tigers Dinner, of course!

Happy Birthday Jacob!

Do-do-do-do-dora

There's no doubt about it. 

Bree Loves Dora

Here she is at Christmas sporting her new Dora backpack:

However, as much as she loves Dora, I'm not entirely certain why she felt compelled to color her this way.  Because, quite frankly, its a little creepy seeing this red eyed, green monster staring at me as I watch TV, cook or sit in my chair reading.

But who am I to stop creativity?

March New Years Resolution Review

In March, I gave more,

• turned in 44 box tops to my local schools.  How many did you turn in?  Its the simplest way to help your schools.  Add in a little smart shopping and the use of coupons and the box top products end up cheaper than the store brands.  My kids got to eat yogurt to their hearts content, we dined on cinnamon rolls every Sunday morning, I experimented with new recipes for crescent rolls and used the best of the best toilet paper for our bums, all while giving back to the schools.  Everyone wins.

recycled more,

• recycled 7, yes S-E-V-E-N, plastic shopping bags FULL of other plastic shopping bags.   I guess you could also say I went green this month as well.  Although truthfully, I always do recycle them.  I was just extra cautious about not throwing any of them away just to forever lay in our landfills.

and donated more,

• donated three times as much as usual to Scouting for Food due to my couponing.  Heck, most of the stuff I donated was free or less than 50 cents!

• donated two large bags of gently used stuffed animals to the hospital.

But most proudly this month I completed an unofficial challenge bestowed upon me by my mother in law.

Around Christmastime, my mother in law became involved in a local charity called the Beach House.  Its a non-profit charity that helps place homeless men- women- families back into homes, jobs, society.  You can read more about it here.  As she read about my frustration this Christmas at the ever growing epidemic of the season meaning "bring me, give me, leave me, I want, I want, I want" instead of "I'm blessed, I'm fortunate, I've already got more than I deserve", she presented me with a gift- a gift of opportunity. 

She handed me a prepaid visa card with the instructions of purchasing items on the Beach House's donation list through couponing and deal searching.  It was an opportunity to help people by providing every day things that they need without having to front the money, which at the time was tight.  Diapers, baby food, formula, Christmas expenses and more makes giving as much as I would like quite impossible.  However, what did I know about couponing and finding the best deals?  Money for me wouldn't be so tight if I had a clue about such things.  So I guess I have her to thank for my new obsession hobby....  Anyways, the rest, they say, is history. 

On my mother in laws behalf,  I was able to purchase all this for the Beach House:

I'd take the time to list all the products but I've got two hours to get this blog posted to meet my Aprils New Years Resolution so I'll just hit a few of the things you may not be able to see.  Two boxes of diapers, six jumbo packages of feminine products, four airwick freshmatics with six refills, deodorants, cleaning products of all sorts, shower gels, disinfectant wipes and more. 

Guess how much I paid??  I'll give you a starting base.  If I would have paid full price, it would have come to a whopping $350.67.

Come on.....take a guess.....  How much did I end up spending?

Okay, okay, enough suspense.  I paid $184.91.   That's a savings of $165.76!  Plus I got four free Suave Professional hair styling products and a free $10 Meijer gift card.  And the best part of all this.  I did it all in 2, yes T-W-O, shopping trips.  One trip to Meijer.  One trip to Rite Aid.  Many people benefit.

So once again, to all of you who think couponing isn't worth the time, go back up and reread the numbers.  Aren't these all products you use?  Are you really paying full price for them??  I'll help you see the error of your ways and teach you the valuable resource that is using coupons.  I'll even be generous and split the savings with you.  75-25, okay?

Be back shortly

All right loyal blog followers, I've had a lot on my plate lately.  Birthdays, baby showers, parties, work, a great desire to purge things from my house thus leading to the prepping and organizing of a garage sale, taxes, cleaning garage, shed shopping, amazing deal finding, couponing, struggling with a 3 year old to learn her letters and, more importantly, teaching her how to share toys and forver answering the question why?  Why?? WHY??? 

As an apology for neglecting my blog thus far this year, my April new years resolution will be to blog more and if at all possible, to blog every day.  After all, you deserve it. 

My New Toy

You'd never know, from my lack of blogging that is, that I got a new camera for Christmas. 

Introducing my Nikon Coolpix L110

I LOVE it!

I love being able to take pictures where I can focus in on what matters, making it stand out.

However I need to learn more about distancing when using the flash.  Man, these could have been good pictures too.

I love, that compared to my other camera, how quickly it snaps the pictures, capturing a split second moment like this...

I need to learn a little more about focusing,

and working with objects that refuse to sit still.

But over all what I love the most, is the claity of the pictures.  Never before with my other camera would I have been able to catch a string of drool like this:

Lovely isn't it?

Boy, oh boy, we're all boy!

And we're officially a toddler.  Yep, thats right. 

He's walking!

Everyday

Everyday its a-gettin' closer

Goin' faster than a rollercoaster

Love like yours will surely come my way

Can you believe he'll turn '1' this month?!?

February Resolutions Review

Summer 2010/Winter 2011

Isn't it amazing what a few months can do?

In February I focused a lot on the 'saving more money' resolution.  The library's budget is on the chopping block this July and there's nothing like the threat of losing more hours, or your job, to make you open your eyes and get yourself on the right financial track.  How much further ahead could we all be, in any aspect of life, if we'd only stay on track no matter how good things are going in life?

I did a lot of the standard unplugging things that are only occasionally being used.  For example, I brew one pot of coffee in the morning so why does it have to stay plugged in the rest of the 23 hours, 54 minutes of the day?  I also turned the thermostat down from its comfy 72 degrees to 70.  I then even braved turning it down to 68 degrees one day too!  But the hubby got chilly and cranked it back up three degrees.  I wasn't complaining! 

However there are only so many of those kind of changes you can make, and truthfully, you don't see dramatic savings either.  (except for our electric bill after taking down all our Christmas lights.  A $50 savings in one month alone!!  In case you weren't aware, we're kinda Christmas freaks with lights covering almost every inch of wall space available)  But the one expense that we all have, that we have complete control over how much we pay, that we can see mega savings by spending a mere 15 minutes of planning is our grocery bills.  That's right, I've rediscovered couponing.

Throughout our marriage I've gone through phases of using coupons.  But back in the day when we were both working full time, didn't have kids and our house payment was only $357 a month, we were "made of money" so why did we need to use coupons?  How much can you really save?  I mean really?  Fast forward a few years to a larger house, part time hours and two kids later, the desire and need for couponing takes on a whole new meaning.  And I'm very proud to say that in my first month back at it I scored some serious deals.  Its such a thrill, a rush, a motivation to see your savings add up and up and soon you find yourself snickering at the lady in front of you just paid full price for her item when you just bought it last week for a fraction of the cost.  Then out of nowhere you notice you start getting mad at yourself for thinking you just bought something on a good deal and used a coupon only to discover it went on a better sale at another store and if you would have just waited and used the coupon now it would have been an even better score and...  Couponing, although fun, can really bring out the aggressive competitiveness you never knew you had.

This month I did all my shopping at Walmart.  Yup, thats right, I scored all these deals right here in my own hometown.  Saved money on gas already.  All I did was snag the grocery ads from the Toledo paper and price matched them at Walmart.  It was that easy.  This month I purchased:

4 - Excedrin Migraines

3 - Colgate Toothpastes

2 - 120 count Gain fabric softener sheets

Excedrin Migraine is a brand that's preferred in this household.  And it just so happened that when I was at the doctors office last month, I noticed a stack of $2.00 off Excedrin Migraine coupons.  Knowing that at some point this next year (experation dates was 12/31/11), I helped myself to four of them.  It just so happened that a few weeks later Rite Aid had Excedrin Migraine on sale for $1.99 a box!!  $1.99 minus my $2.00 coupon equals free.  Yes, F-R-E-E migraine pills.  Had I paid full price for them, I would have had to fork over $14.08 ($3.52 each) for four boxes.  Just by price matching alone I would have saved over $1.50 per box.  Thats a six dollar savings for just flipping through a few ads while on my lunch break.  Then subtract my awesomely scored coupons and they were free.  Free, free, free!!!

When it comes to toothpaste I'm normally a Crest girl.  No real reason for it.  Its what my dad always bought so its what I used.  But on that same lunch break I happened to notice that Kroger had Colgate on sale for 98 cents a tube.  I didn't put much thought into it until I found a 75 cent and two 50 cent off Colgate coupons from the same sunday paper.  If I would have paid full price, I would have spent, $5.19 ($1.73 each) for the three tubes but by price matching them down to 98 cents each, it came to a total of $2.94.  Subtract my three coupons and I only paid $1.19.  That's only 40 cents per tube of toothpaste.  And for that price, I'll bend on what brand I use.  Wouldn't you?  And you know what?  My teeth haven't noticed that I switched toothpastes!!

Ah, fabric softener.  A necessity for doing laundry, but as far as I can tell, they all work the same.  So for me, fabric softener is more about smell and price than brand.  I'll buy any brand as long as it smells good and doesn't cost too much.  Well imagine my elated couponing happiness when I noticed that Rite Aid (they really have some awesome sales) had 120 count Gain fabric softener on sale for $3.99 the same week that there was a $3.00 off one Gain product coupon in the paper!!  You better believe I drove my little butt over to my mom's house and stole her coupon too!   I price matched 2 boxes of Gain down from $4.28 to the $3.99 and used my coupons.  Meaning I paid $1.98 for 240 sheets of fabric softener.  Awesome!

Had I paid full price for the 4 Excedrin, 2 Gains, and 3 Colgates, I would have paid a whopping $27.98.  And considering what was bought (medicines, fabric softeners, toothpastes), that doesn't seem like such an outrageous price.  But by taking 10 minutes on my break to flip through a few ads I was able to price match items I needed or would need down to $18.88, a near ten dollar savings alone!  Then by taking a few extra minutes to flip through and clip a few coupons, I only paid $3.17!!!

So to anyone who does not believe couponing is worth it, look at the numbers.  I saved $24.81 for roughly 15 minutes worth of work.  I think only doctors make that kind of money!  And if you still don't think its worth it, then I have a proposition for you.  Give me a list of products you use.  I'll search the ads, clips the coupons and go to the store for you.  And as payment, I keep the savings.  Your wallet would never know the difference anyways, right?