Shooting For The Stars

Photo Outfits?

2010-12-06T15:57:00.000-08:00

I'm horrible at coordinating things among all three kids so I'm wondering what others think before I move forward. The only thing I haven't figured out is shoes.

Baby Girl:

Toots:

Monkey:

Thoughts and opinions?

Realizations

2010-10-11T20:34:00.001-07:00

I have always believed that everything in our life happens for a reason. We may not always know what that reason is, or even ever find out, but there is one. Sometimes we are lucky enough to figure it out though and for me, the last couple days has been my realization.

Most of you know that Monkey's dad left us when I was pregnant. Well I should clarify, we split up before I knew I was pregnant. I refused to get married just because I was pregnant so he ran off and married someone else. All while abandoning myself and our daughter. After she was born he told everyone she wasn't his and did nothing to support her. It wasn't until she was 5 months old when the courts proved she was indeed his and ordered support that he began contributing. Even then, thats the extent of it. Except for a handful of phone calls last year he has had no involvement with her.

Because of that I was forced to handle things on my own. I had to deal with every change, crisis, responsibility, major decisions, etc by myself. I had no family here that I could lean on, I only had myself. And I had to do it, I had no choice because I had to make sure my daughter was taken care of.

For 4 years it was just her and I and I learned very quickly how to manage. Was it hard? Heck ya it was. I had a few nights I cried. From frustration, anger, hurt, loneliness....the list goes on. I wondered if I had found out I was pregnant sooner would things have been different? Then I wondered why didn't I find out? Why did I have absolutely no idea? And trust me i didn't have a clue, it wasn't just denial there. Most of all I wondered why did things end up the way they did.

Now, years later, I look back and I think I know why. What I learned was that I could survive. I could be on my own and live to tell the story. What I know now is that all those years were preparation for whats to come. To show me that yes I'll be lonely and frustrated but it doesn't last forever, that "this too shall pass". Those years were to give me the tools I needed to survive as a Submariners wife. Mr. X told me once that a chief on his boat tried to warn him that very few wives could handle how much they are gone. His response to this chief was spoken in confidence that he knew I would be just fine and he believes it whole heartedly. The first time he left was a perfect example. I handled purchasing our current home, packed and moved everything, took care of 2 kiddo's, and worked a full time job. All while preggo with Baby Girl and a fractured tailbone. Yup, I can handle anything.

Anyone who thinks being the spouse of a service member is easy is sorely mistaken and add the fact that your other half is stuck on a sub somewhere under the water well...it stinks. You go days or weeks with out contact. Just living by the moto that no news is good news. The constant frustrations of not having real time contact. I can email my hubby tonight but it could be days before he gets it and the same in return. We can't email photos, there's no skype. And the amount of time they are gone?? Well I might as well be a single mom again.

We recently got the schedule for our boat for next year and while I'm not allowed to go into specifics due to security reasons lets just say he will be gone way more than he'll be home. He'll miss every single holiday and birthday except one. Am I bummed about it? Completely. But since I did the single mom thing before I know that we can survive this.

We will be living just one day at a time and taking things as they come. The good with the bad and hoping that the days fly by in the mean time. Will it be easy? Some days will be easier than others and some will seem like we've hit rock bottom. We will take lots of photo's with the kids, do some traveling to visit family and friends, and make awesome care packages for Mr. X to enjoy where ever he ends up. We will make the most of every moment. And then when he comes home we will cry at the pier, hug like we never want to let go, kiss like it's our honeymoon...and then go home. Where we will have to adjust to living as a 2 parent family again and start the cycle all over.

We are drop outs

2010-09-28T03:51:00.000-07:00

When we moved to our current house last year we knew that the school we were zoned for was not one we would send our kids too. Most people wouldn't buy a house under those circumstances but anyone who has seen our house...well it was a deal we just could not pass up. Especially when there were other options to avoid that particular school. We loved her old school which wasn't that far away but because we were out of zone we had to provide transportation back and forth. With my daycare hours it was just impossible.

One option was going to a private school. Very costly just paying for tuition, then you have uniforms and everything else. This honestly would be our last resort just because of finances and also transportation. Depending on the school we may have had to still provide transportation. There are a couple really good schools around here though so we couldn't rule it out entirely.

Another option was the magnet program but it's a lottery system so there is no gurantee of getting in. Monkey ended up getting wait listed at 2 of them and since getting in at that point depends on no shows and drop outs there is also no gurantee of getting in. Great program though and we wouldn't have to worry about transportation because the city buses the kids regardless of where they live.

And finally our last option was homeschooling. Everyone knows this is the route we ended up taking and not for a minute do I regret it because it showed me a few things which I'll explain in a minute. With homeschooling we had so much flexibility, I could work schooling around our schedules and vacations rather than the other way around. We could spend more time on things she needed help with and go right through the things she didn't.

Monkey did very well with the lessons and taking the time to learn things as I knew she would. Heck I even learned a few things along the way. What I didn't account for was how much she would miss actually going to school. Having been in public school for 3 years now she was very aware of what she was missing. Adding to that her walking with my assistant to put her daughter on the boss every day and well...I ended up with a crying 7yr old wanting to go back to school.

So last week I started making calls and went up to the school board to see what our options were. Our request to go back to her original school was denied because it is "full" so that was a no go. So we re-explored the magnet program. At one school she was still #33 on the list. At the other....they had a spot for her!

Well, they HAD a spot for her. Turns out the principle had tried to call us the week before school started to let us know the spot was open. Apparently though the old school never updated it with in the computer systems that our phone number had changed and the principle never actually saw our application for the program which had the new number on it. So obviously we never got the call. Thankfully though since it was right at the beginning of the year, they got busy with all those first few weeks of school stuff - etc, they never filled her spot with someone else. So the spot is still Monkey's. She gets to start next week.

When I told her that she was going to get to go back to regular school the child literally jumped up and down. Anyone ever seen a kid that excited to go back?? Of course I'm fully expecting it to wear off at least a bit after a couple weeks but we'll see. The program at the school she is going to focuses on international languages which Monkey has been trying to learn Spanish lately. Of course that is based on the various learnign toys we have that speak in English and Spanish so it's kinda interesting what she has learned.

So now at this point I get to officially say we are homeschool drop outs. But in a good way! This week I'll get to go school shopping with her to get what she needs. And since we started our schooling back in July she has already covered everything that they are doing up to now in class so she won't be behind. It's going to be wierd not having my oldest around during the day now but it will be ok knowing she is happy too.

My Funny Guy

2010-08-11T18:33:00.000-07:00

I posted before about how Toots has just started talking pretty much over night. Every day he blows me away with the words he says and his ability to communicate. There are a few things he has been doign lately that just crack me up every time.

Mr. X will point to Toots and say "Who are you?" which Toots replies "You!". Then Mr. X will point to himself and say "Who am I?" and Toots replies "Mine!".

I have been getting him to repeat the alphabet letters back to me while we are doing diaper changes and we never make it past "D caus eit goes like this. "Say A....A!!!, Say B....B!!!, Say C....C!, Say D....Daddy!!!!"

What Now?

2010-08-10T04:58:00.001-07:00

I've posted before that we have been dealing with an issue concerning Baby Girl's eye. She has a vascular malformity on her right side which makes her look like she has a permanent black eye. It's essentially a clump of blood vessels where they shouldn't be and if left untreated and grow and damage other areas of her eye.

We went yesterday to our follow up appointment with the specialist since the CT scan was done a couple weeks ago. Originally the plan was they would view to see where it was at and decide if surgery should be done now or wait until a little later. Our appiontment yesterday didn't go like that at all.

The specialist said that most of the malformity is in her eyelid and appears to be slowly growing back into the eye area. It isn't something that would go away like a regular hemangioma would. This type would continue to grow as she grows and begin to damage other areas. At this time since she is still so small (12lbs at 4 months old) he is really wanting to avoid surgery for awhile. So instead he wants to try a minimum of 3 laser treatments followed by a second CT scan to see if the laser treatments appear to be working. If they are then we would continue with laser treatments until it is either gone or it appears to no longer be working, which at that point surgery would be the only option. The treatments would be done every 4 weeks with the first one starting sometime in the next couple weeks.

Sounds great right??? No surgery and a much less invasive option would be the ideal. However in our case because she is so young she doesn't understand that she has to lay completely still during the procedure. So to ensure that she doesn't move it would require her being put to sleep under general anesthesia every time.

Something in my mommy sense is making this plan of action not sit well with me. The idea of having to go through the ordeal of giving her an IV and putting her to sleep every month just doesn't seem right. I know how hard it was for them to put an IV in her last time. It took them 4 tries to get a successful one. I know how sick she got afterwards. We're not 100% sure if it was because of the anesthesia but it seems an odd coincidence that a perfectly healthy baby becomes horribly ill with in hours of having it done.

So now I don't know what to do. She has her 4 month well check on Monday and I plan to discuss everything with her pediatrician whom I love. I really want to know from her opinion the side affects and possible issues with having to do this so often. What other options there may be and so forth. Even Mr. X isn't thrilled with the idea of Baby Girl having to go through this and is wanting to go to a different specialist to get a 2nd opinion.

So for now this is where we stand.

A Full Plate

2010-08-03T18:06:00.000-07:00

I haven't been blogging lately just because it seems like I am always busy doing other things. Right now I think I have so much going on I either need a bigger plate or need to trim the excess. Not sure yet though. My daycare is still going strong. We have a lot of the fune very day and we are constantly comign up with new ideas. Especially with our lunch's and snacks. Tomorrow is Bunny pies. Hopefully the kids will be enjoying the flavor so much they won't notice the few veggies we sneak inside.

In addition to the daycare my sewing has really taken off. I've got orders that require me to do some sewing every single night to keep up. Last night I spent like 5 hours behind my machine and was up until 2am. Not a good thing when the alarm goes off at 5:30am so that I can get ready for the first kids who are dropped off at 6:45am. I'm enjoying it though. The embroidery machine I got has really been a blessing. I've got so many ideas floating around in my head and there just is not enough time in the day for them all. Maybe one day though my sewing will be doing really well and I can just focus on that only. We'll see though. If any of you are interested though click HERE to go to the facebook fan page. You can also search at www.etsy.com for Daffe Designs to find my items.

Those 2 things alone keep me busy and then I still have to take care of the house, the kids, Monkey's homeschooling.....the list goes on and on. Maybe one day I'll get to take a "real" vacation.

It's the little things

2010-07-30T20:42:00.000-07:00

It's amazing how much the little things we do for each other add up. Mr. X and I have this thing we do to show we care or that we're thinking about each other. We leave cards. Sometimes they are fancy, sometimes they are really simple, sometimes they are hand made, sometimes they are store bought. The point though is to bring a smile to the others face.

He started it too. I would get cards through out the year, not just for the normal holidays. And he would leave them in various places too. On the kitchen counter, on the pillow for when I wake up. Then he got me started. Now I leave them for him too. It's starting to become a game almost. the most odd ball place to leave them. Once I knew he was going to be taking the car to do some errands so I snuck out and left it on the dash. He left one under a pillow on the couch where I normally sit. It's just our thing.

Whats yours?

Another Little One

2010-07-20T04:14:00.000-07:00

I've said for a bit now that I thought Baby Girl was going to end up being little like Toots is. Based on her weigh in yesterday it looks like I may be right! Granted maybe she'll have a big growth spurt in the next few months but I doubt it. Guess it's a good thing I didn't invest in a lot of larger sizes for this winter.

She is now 3 1/2 months old and yesterday she weighed 11lbs 11oz. I pulled Toots weight information and at 4 months old he was 13lbs 8oz. Such a difference in all my kids too cause Monkey was over 15lbs at 4 months old. I guess we forgot the Miracle Grow when the seed was planted. LOL

She Bit Me!

2010-07-19T16:57:00.001-07:00

Baby girl is exclusively nursing and just like with Toots we have been lucky in that it has been fairly easy. I think some people believe I'm a freak of nature because I never had the common issues tha tpeople talk about. The only pain I've had, until today, was just when the milk initially comes in. I know, it's not normal but all things considered I deserve a break here.

Anyways, tonight I was feeding Baby Girl while surfing on net. She's got her eyes clothes about to fall asleep so I was off in lala land reading another blog. All of a sudden I get a piercing pain right where her mouth is. I holler "Ow!" and yank back. "No biting" I tell her. I kid you not, she looked at me and giggled. Something tells me she is going to be more of a handful than Toots.

Word Explosion

2010-07-18T09:46:00.001-07:00

I've always heard that kids who are slow to talk will just wake up one day and start talking. I don't know that I ever believed it though because I hadn't seen it personally. Monkey was early to talk and always spoke very clearly. Toots on the other hand is much slower with the talking. Up until about a week ago our conversations consisted of grunting, pointing, and screaming. He could say mama, dada, and sissy but not much else. There were a few other things he would say that we figured out over time but to a stranger who wasn't used to his speaking they would have no clue.

Then one day we were reading books and we always try to get him to repeat after us. And the boy just started saying the words. Not only saying them but saying them so we could understand him. Then a couple days later I hear him start talking in sentences. "Where did it go?" seems to be his favorite since we play catch and he often loses the ball.

It's just amazing to me to hear him talk and to be able to understand him. Now that he's getting words he is babbling more now too. I guess maybe he didn't see the point before?

Shout Out!

2010-07-15T17:21:00.000-07:00

I'm giving a shout out for a friend and her amazing creations!! I can only hope that one day my projects look as awesome as hers.

So if your looking for some interesting things go check out Goldilocks Creations!

The CT is over

2010-07-14T16:06:00.000-07:00

Today we took baby girl in to do a CT scan for her eye. For a normal person it's not a big deal and really for her in the long run it isn't either. It takes 5 minutes to do and isn't painful or anything like that. However it does require you to lay completely still the entire time. Since baby girl is only 3 months and doesn't understand the concept of staying still it was required to give her a sedative through an IV.

Again, normally not a big deal but since she's so little her veins are very little too. It took 3 failed sticks before they finally got it on the 4th try. Poor girl has bruises on both hands and feet. Thankfully Mr. X was able to go after all so he held her most the time. She wasn't allowed to eat after 3am and considering it was 7:30am by the time they tried to do the IV I knew she was hungry and smelling me wouldn't help. So I stayed to the back and fought a losing battle with my own tears as I listened to her cries.

Thankfully they finally got the IV and at that point she pretty much just collapsed from exhaustion. I was able to hold her and I walked her back to the room where they do the scan. I held her until they gave her the sedative which worked really fast. Let me tell you, it's pretty creepy seeing them fall asleep with their eyes open. Once she was asleep we waited about 10 minutes and they took her to a recovery space so she could wake back up.

Thankfully she doesn't seem to be any worse off. After she was awake for about 15-20 minutes she was babbling and talking to us. We even got a couple smiles out of her. The nurse said she has the sweetest little voice which I agree of course. I was able to feed her again and we waited a bit longer just to make sure she wouldn't start vomiting. Then we were sent on our way with instruction on things to watch for. So far so good and although she has been sleeping a bit more than normal she really does seem fine.

Now I've been emailed and asked if I can explain better whats going on and why ultimately she is going to be having surgery. I actually managed to capture a great picture recently that really shows whats going on so I'll share that in a minute.

Baby girl has whats called a vascular malformity. It's basically a clump of blood vessels behind/around her eye that shouldn't be there. Over time it can/will grow and will cause issues with her vision and growth if it's not taken care of. When she was first born it looked like she just had bad bruising around her eyes and it still does. Well sorta like she has a black eye if that makes sense. Here's the photo so you can see.

When you look at the picture its the eye on the left. Don't mind the red marks, those are birth marks. The area in question is the dark purple like right over her upper eye lid. It almost kinda looks liek she has eye shadow on. Thats where all the blood vessels are clumped up. You can even tell where it's kinda puffy on that side compared to the other. When her eyes are open or in certain lights it can be hardly noticeable but it's definetely there.

The surgery itself will involve them cutting right along the crease of her eyelid so that after it heals it won't really be noticeable. They will be removing those clumps to make sure that nothing else about her eye is damaged from the growth. Then for the next few years we will have regular check ups with the specialist to make sure that it's not regrowing back or anything.

The CT scan done today is supposed to show exactly how bad it is. We can only see whats visible right by the eyelid, we have no idea how deep it may actually go. If it's deep or causing other issues then they will do surgery soon to try and prevent damaging anything else. If it's not that deep or interfering with anything else then we will wait as long as possible to do the surgery. We were told that after the scan today no news is good news if we don't hear from the doctors office prior to our August 9th appointment. if it's worse than he thought or considered urgent then we'll called in for an earlier appointment so we can get things going.

So there you have it. Maybe with the photo it will be easier to understand since now there is a visual. I know in the beginning it was confusing for us so I get why some people arent understanding what the issue is. Just keep fingers crossed that we will be able to put off the surgery a bit because the older she is the more surface area they have to work with as well as the better she will be able to handle the surgery.

Need to fire the toothfairy

2010-07-12T04:10:00.000-07:00

Yup, the woman is slacking on her job. I mean...all she does is go around collecting teeth and leaving money for the kids who lost, or in Monkey's case, yanked out their teeth. This is the 2nd time now that she has completely bypassed our house at night and I've had to deal with a crying child in the morning. Next time she's expected to come around I'm just gonna have to stay up and kick her hiney!

**Yes I completely forgot to exchange the tooth for money last night. I've got Monkey thinking the toothfairy is just an extremely overworked and exhausted person who needs and assistant so she won't miss houses in the future.

Rockin Robeeze

2010-07-11T15:09:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I hit up my favorite thrift store and scored a pair of Robeeze that look brand new for $3. Pretty typical of this store which is why I love it! They are 12-18 month and fit Toots perfectly. Apparently he loves them because now he wont' take them off. We tried last night before bed and he screamed. This mornign and he screamed. Tonight again and he screamed. Here he is today rockin them...

And yes we do dress him but he likes to undress now. Unless it's diaper snaps or zipped in the back he gets it off. This was right after he woke up from nap time. I just realized looking at it that the way his hands are posed it almost looks like he is strumming a guitar too.

My New Obsession

2010-07-11T12:54:00.000-07:00

I recently had the opportunity to invest in an embroidery machine and man am I so glad I did!! Now I really want to get a serger just to complete my process but that will have to wait a bit. I need to sell off some more projects to pay off the embroidery machine investment first. Anyways, I've been finding all sorts of things to personalize. My very first one I can't post just yet cause I don't want them to see it before it arrives in the mail. A bit of a surprise if you will. So these are a couple other things I've done today.

First, this morning I did Baby Girl's lovie.

Then I made this bag for a friend of ours. It's a memory bag for keepsakes from the little girl they lost.

Then on to burp clothes. These are flannel on each side with a prefold diaper in the middle for obsorbancy. Turned out quite cute I must say!

Hmmm....so what else can I do??? LOL Right now I'm limited to just a few things. There are some designs built in but I'm still thinking on how to use them. I do have some others that I bought, like Ballerina's, firetrucks, stick people, etc that I'll be able to use. I'm just waiting on a memory card that I need in order to get them from my computer to the machine. Hopefully this week!

And so it goes...

2010-07-08T04:28:00.001-07:00

Mr. X has always told me that he can't gurantee being able to get off work even for some important things. In almost 3 years we have been extremely lucky in that he has always been able to get off when needed. It really hasn't been a lot of requests though, maybe 3 or 4 different ones. I think I was spoiled.

Last night he informed me that they denied his request for leave next week when Baby Girl goes in for her CT Scan. With them getting ready for work ups and it's a duty day for him it's really bad timing. Granted it's not the surgery itself but it does require them doing an IV and giving her medicine to make her sleep. Not to mention he more than likely won't be here for the surgery either. At least it's looking more and more like it will be that way. I know he was upset that they denied it as well but there's nothing he can do.

This really sucks having to take her by myself.

Unbelievable

2010-07-05T14:23:00.000-07:00

I was in Target Saturday picking up our weekly case of wipes and looking for July 4th outfits for the kids. Of course I can never just pass by the clearance rack so I checked it out. Came across this really cute shirt marked down to $3.

I thought it would be perfect for Toots since he is turning two in less than 2 months. I didn't pay much attention to the sizing but just looking at it I knew it would fit him so I put it in the cart and kept going. It wasn't until I got home and was putting things away that I caught the tag. It's a size 12 months. Yes, my soon to be 2yr old is wearing a shirt made for a 1yr old. Anybody want to bet his pediatrician tries to send us to some sort of therapy after our next well check?

Happy 4th of July!

2010-07-04T05:45:00.001-07:00

I want to wish everyone a very happy 4th of July. Please stay safe and happy BBQ'ing and fireworks!!

Today is a special day for Mr. X and I in another way as well. Exactly one year ago today was the first time we said "I love you". Ya ya ya I know some of you are doing the math, we were together way before that. Yes it took just 19 months for us to say it the first time. I would have said it earlier but I wanted him to do it first.

That weekend we were camping with friends and as we laid in bed in the tent listening to the fireworks go off around the camp ground the conversation went like this:

Mr X: Do you love me?
Me: Yes
Mr X: Well I love you to.

**Sigh** And that my friends was the beginning of Baby Girl who was born almost exactly 9 months later.

Peter Pan Syndrome

2010-06-30T04:09:00.000-07:00

I wonder if after you have a certain number of kids you start to suffer from the Peter Pan syndrome. Meaning that they never grow up in your eyes. I can remember when Monkey was a baby how I could see her growing and getting bigger. I watched her change from an infant to a toddler to a young girl. I never felt like we were stuck in one moment of time.

Now with Toots and Baby Girl I look at them and still see them as little ones. Course the fact that Toots is almost 2yrs old and is still pretty tiny for his age probably doesn't help. At his 18 month check he was 22lbs. I can still get him into some of his 6-9 month onsies. Anything bigger than 12 months in shorts and they fall right off of him or look like high water pants. Thats even in cloth diapers where it's expected to wear a size up to accomodate the diaper.

Baby Girl will be 3 months old in less than a week and I still see her as an infant. Yes I can see where she has grown a bit and she is developing in other ways. She smiles all the time and coo's/talks to us. We even got her to start giggling which is the best sound ever. But when I look at her I still see a baby face.

What made me think of it is I recently saw another baby who is less than 2 weeks older than Baby Girl and it seemed like she actually looked like an older baby. So I started actually paying attention to other babies/toddlers and they all do. They just have a more "grown up" look to them then when I think of my own.

So I'm wondering if I suffer from a sort of Peter Pan syndrome where in my eyes my kiddo's will never grow up. Course we know they will but I still, how long will they be babies in my eyes? Forever??

Happy Daddy's Day!!

2010-06-20T18:43:00.000-07:00

I know it's now almost 10pm but I figured better late than never right??? So HAPPY DADDY'S DAY!! This goes out to my dad, my hubby, and all the other daddy's out there.

Unfortunately my hubby wasn't able to spend the day with us so that we could pamper him. The boat managed to steal him away yet again. Such is the life I'm told. We did get to talk to him briefly this evening which was better than nothing I suppose. Oh well, at least we got to take him out to dinner last night to celebrate.

My latest Project

2010-06-20T17:54:00.001-07:00

I'm always looking for new things to try and make and tonights was rather interesting. It took me forever cause I was trying to plan it as I went. Overall though I like how it turned out!

I've been making and selling wetbags for a little while now. We cloth diaper and they come in handy for when we are out and about. Rather than using a plastic bag I can use this reusable one that is waterproof and keeps the smell in. Plus I can make them so it's super cheap to have several of mine own.

Tonight a friend suggested making one in a backpack style. We frequent the beach and water country and having one we can just carry on our back seems like a great idea. So I took on the challenge and came up with this.

This is it opened up and showing the straps.

A close up and the straps shortened. See how the bottom folds up and makes it shorter in eneral. Great for if you only have a couple things to carry.

And finally me wearing it. I stuffed 3 regular size towels inside and there is still plenty of room for swim suits or changes of clothes.

I have a couple change I'd like to make. Like having the zipper more on the front of hte bag instead of at the very top. Just have to work out placement. Other than that It's a nifty bag to have! And isn't the print just too cute!

If it was only a week...

2010-06-20T10:33:00.000-07:00

Brandi over at Excess Baggage posed the question "Only one week to live...where would you go?" on her blog.

Where would I go? My first thought is to say home but well, we all know I don't really care for home. There isn't much to see really in the good ole 'Fort. Well there is the children's zoo but thats not exactly a high priority when you only have one week left.

Hmm...Maybe Europe?? I've always wanted to go to Italy. Then again it just seems like way to much work even to get there because you know I'd be dragging Mr. X and the kiddo's along with me.

No, I think I'd rather stay right near the water. We would get a cottage with a bedroom whose window overlooks the ocean so that every morning I could wake up with my hubby to watch the sunrise. I'd spend my days laying beside Mr. X while watching the kids play and laugh in the sand and water. We would eat anything and everything our heart desired. The idea being to totally live in the moment and savoring each and every single one. For once there would be no cellphone or laptop. My hubby and my kids would have my undivided attention.

Just like Brandi I'd want to be right there with my family, enjoying them, savoring them, loving them.

Trying Not To

2010-06-17T11:52:00.000-07:00

Ever since we saw the specialist on Monday I find myself constantly inspecting Baby Girl's eyes looking for any change. I told myself after the appointment that I wouldn't focus on that because I don't want to imagine something that isn't there. It's like when you take a pregnancy test, if you stare at it long enough your gonna see a line. Even if it is an imaginary one. In my case....I really don't want to see it.

Cloth Diapering Savings

2010-06-16T10:37:00.000-07:00

I've been asked if cloth diapering really does save money and is it really worth it. I think a lot of people, like myself at one time, can't get past the initial start up cost while doing cloth diapering. I mean spending a couple hundred $$ at once on diapers when a box of Huggies is $20 at Walmart can be hard to get past. What they also may not know is that there are cheaper ways to start up rather than going all gung ho with the big name brand diapers.

So here is how I figure the breakdown of savings for us. Currently I have 2 kiddo's in cloth diapers exclusively. There's not a single disposable in my house that doesn't belong to one of the daycare kiddo's. Starting up I have spent just under $250 which gives me enough diapers for both kids and allows me to do the washings every other day. I prefer the pocket diapers with the occasional personally made cover with a prefold. My pockets consist of Bum Genius, Nubunz, and a handful of Kawaii Baby. The nubunz were bought brand new but the others were bought 2nd hand or off ebay at a discounted price. Surprisingly cloth diapers have a really good resell value.

Now, with 2 in diapers I'm estimating we would have spent approximately $80 a month on disposables. In addition based on our most recent water bill with the extra washes there was an increase of $5 per month. Nothing else in our life changed in the last month so I'm pretty sure thats from the extra laundry loads. Based on those numbers in just over 3 months we would have broke even. That means going into month 4 we would be having a savings of $75 a month. In a years time (I'm pretty sure Toots won't be potty training anytime soon) that is a savings of $900. Now this isn't taking into account swim diapers or the fact that we probably won't need diaper rash cream since rashes aren't common in cloth. Plus they are well made diapers so they last a long time so I'll be able to use them for baby #4 if we are blessed with one so the savings just continues.

Is it worth it?? For me it is. Cloth diapering really isn't that difficult. Yes it means I have a couple extra loads of laundry to do each week and but really how hard is that? You wash them, hang them to dry and your done. Even Mr. X has not found it too difficult to deal with of course I do all the stuffing for him and take care of the poopy dipes but still, its no different than a disposable to him he just doesn't throw them away. And quite honestly, one benefit is I have actually kept on top of the regular laundry instead of letting it pile up and doing it all in one day. Thats one thing Mr. X definetely won't complain about now.

Her Beautiful Eyes

2010-06-14T14:13:00.000-07:00

First for the easy stuff. Baby girl had her 2 month well check today and she is getting to be a big girl! She is now 11lbs 5oz and 23 1/4 inches long.

Now for the harder stuff. I have been putting off telling people about baby girl's eyes because I wanted to know what was going to happen first. I figured it would be easier that way plus I would have some answers of my own instead of having to say "I don't know".

Going back a bit when she was born she had a lot of dark spots on her eyes and forhead. We had figured that it was bruising because she was rather large and born pretty fast. At her 2 week follow up though the spots over her eyes had not faded away as a bruise would have and showed no sign of doing so. The pediatrician referred us to a specialist just to be safe. She had her first appointment with him a month ago and he confirmed there was definetely something going on. What though was the question. He said that he thought it was a hemangioma which is a growth. You will see these on other parts of the body mostly. Since it's around her eyes it would have to be treated or she would likely have vision damage. The decision was made to wait a month and watch how it grows to see which would be the best way to treat it, either laser or steroids.

Today we had our 2nd appointment with the specialist and it didn't go at all like I had thought. At this appointment he said that in fact it does not look like a hemangioma, that it is actually a vascular malformity. I think I spelled that right. Anyways, what it boils down to is she will have to have surgery. He wants to try and put it off until she is closer to 5 or 6 months since she will have to be put under and should handle the procedure better than if we were to do it now. Plus she will have more skin and area to work with so it will be easier for the surgeon to do what he has to do. He also said that if it is not obstructing or causing visible problems then he may want to wait a little longer than that and take it month by month.

So again we wait. We'll get a call in the next week for when she will need to go in for a CT scan. This will tell them just how deep it is and an idea of size and what they are dealing with. She'll then be scheduled for sometime in August when she is 4 months to see the specialist again so he can check the growth progression again and then make the decision from there.

In the mean time while at home we just have to keep an eye on it. If her eyelid starts drooping, looking like it's puffier, or if her eye itself doesn't move as it should we'll have to take her in right away and the whole process will get moved up. The other side of it is once they do the surgery it won't be the end of it. She'll have to have check ups for awhile afterwards to make sure that they got it all and that it doesn't start to grow again.

Whats really sad is it's very likely that Mr. X won't be here when she gets the procedure done. So goes the military life I suppose. I'm thankful though that I have several very good friends who I know will be there for us if he isn't able to. I know he'll be worried about his little girl though and hopefully there won't be a huge delay in communication for us. We shall see though.

Running out of Room

2010-06-08T19:50:00.000-07:00

I don't think I have any more room for titles at the end of my name. There's bound to be more though that I haven't thought of. Now I get to add "nurse". In the 2 1/2 years Mr. X and I have been together he has never been sick. Well he's had a minor cold I think once but it passed very quickly and wasn't a bother at all. Now....I've got one very sick man on my hands.

He came home really early from work and immediately changed into his favorite pajama pants and retreated to his man cave. When I went to check on him and say hello he tells me he's running 102 fever and isn't feeling well. Just swell right? So I quarantined him to the room to avoid spreading any more germs and lysoled where he had been when he came home. I wasn't too concerned about prior to that since he had duty last night and hadn't been here for mroe than 24 hours at that point anyways.

Now he's been home about 12 hours, taking tylenol every 4 hours for the fever and it still hasn't broken. We're doing cool wash clothes for his head cause he has a headache too, and lots of water and fluids. Well as much as I can force into him anyways. He has no appetite at all but thankfully he hasn't been to demanding.

Needless to say it's going to be a long night though as I'm up/down to check on him, make sure he gets his next dose of meds and changing that wash cloth. Hmmm....wonder if the favor would be returned if it were me that was sick??? He is a man after all.....

Just a Snoozin

2010-06-06T16:21:00.000-07:00

You know you have awesome friends when they will remain friends with you even after you fall asleep on them. Not literally "on" them....actually more like when your having a conversation with them.

A few nights ago I invited a good friend over for some girl time. We'll call her "K". Mr. X had duty which means he is gone all night and the kiddo's go to bed early so it's just me all by my lonesome. After so many days of nothing but kid talk I was more than ready for some adult conversation.

So K comes over after the kids are in bed and we're chatting away. She brought some yummy chocolate caramel candies and we're catching up on various craft things we have been working on. K does some amazing work with items you would never even think of! Before I know it it's like 11:30pm and the sleepiness hits me like a brick. Course I had been up since 5am and running circles with the kids so I was bound to be tired. I didn't think this tired though!

The next thing I know I blinked....or what I thought was a blink. It was a blink that was just a split second too long and my eyelids were glued shut. I could still hear K talking but I was definetely on the fast track to dream land. Until I jerk myself back to the real world totally embarrassed. K is still chatting on and of course I've gotta decide to I pretend like I didn't just doze off on her or not. LOL She paused and sat up like she was getting ready to leave and I just blurted it out..."I totally just dozed off on ya with out meaning to".

Of course she saw it and thankfully she doesn't totally hate me for it either. At least I hope!! So K.....I'm sorry for falling asleep while you were talking!! I swear it's not because your boring or anything like that. I was just having a battle with my eyelids and unfortunately for just a moment they whooped my butt!

Sneaking Up

2010-06-06T13:17:00.000-07:00

It seems like Mr. X just got back from the last deployment and here we are talking about the next one. I know he warned me way back in the beginning that they are always gone a lot but I don't think you really understand what that means until you actually deal with it. I got spoiled by the fact that in the first 2 years we were together he was only gone just over 2 months. And that was at the very end of those 2 years. Now it's looking like he won't even be here for our 1st wedding anniversary. Something I know every single military wife has the possibility of but it doesn't make it any easier to deal with.

So now we are moving into preperation mode. Yes, it's still a few months out but waiting till the last minute means we're sure to forget something important. Like last time when I didn't have access to his bank accounts and it caused a huge problem with buying our current house. Thankfully it all worked itself out in the end but I'd like to try and avoid those stressful situations if I can. Being seperated is hard enough with out adding stuff like that.

The first part of that to-do list is things around the house that need done before he leaves, like looking into replacing our ancient heating/ac unit to getting ceiling fans installed in the remaining rooms. Getting power of attorney (the right one this time), and making sure any bills he normally takes care of I know how to access and handle. Some are big some are small but all things that need to be taken care of.

The second part of it is things I'd like to do while he's gone to help pass the time. The things I know I can manage on my own. Like sanding down the kitchen cabinets and replacing them. Painting the rooms in the house like we've been saying we'll do for almost a year now. All those little home improvement projects that we won't do this summer cause instead we are going to the water park or having a BBQ. I just hope he likes what I've done when he gets back!!

On top of that we have to try and squeeze as much family time as possible into an already crazy schedule. He's already going to be gone a good bit as they do work ups and "suffering" through duty days. I guess one positive to the time right before deployment is it's like trial runs for me to make sure I really can survive on my own with 3 kids, a huge house, a home business, and everything else I have going on. Thats just assuming that I haven't managed to get knocked up again by then.

Needless to say I should have lots and lots to blog about in coming months and beyond. I just hope that I don't get so busy that I forget like last time!

Half Way

2010-06-04T04:35:00.000-07:00

Today marks 6 months since Mr. X and I got married! I remember that day and thinking that even the 6 month mark seemed so far away. And yet here we are! Since I had fallen off the blogging wagon back then here's a copy/paste job of how it came to be since the whole thing was very short and sweet and to the point.

Friday, December 4, 2009 at 3:51pm
Yesterday Mr. X and I were out looking at furniture for his new "man room". We stopped at Olive Garden for lunch and as we were leaving he asked me if I wanted to have my anniversary present early. We had an hour to kill and our dating anniversary is tomorrow. Of course I said sure cause I suck at waiting for anything. Well he drives to the jewelry store and tells me we're looking for my engagement ring! Course my 1st thought was FINALLY!! LOL We looked around and didn't find anything that we could really say was it and we needed to get to my doctors appointment. So we left and said we would discuss some more and then come back after.

On the way to my appointment he tells me "I've been thinking..." and goes on to say that he thought it would be really neat to get married on our dating anniversary but since the courthouse wasn't open on Saturdays how did I feel about Friday. I pretty much was stunned. My 1st response was "but thats tomorrow!" LOL And so the plan was hatched.

After my appointment we went to a different store where he said he had found a set he really liked previously but wasn't sure if I would. Of course it's the one I love and we ended up buying it. We bought his as well while we were there so we were all set. I posted about the engagement ring about 4pm last night and of course everyone was so excited about it. I think the common response was "It's about time!".

So this morning we got up, got Monkey dropped at school and took Toots to our previous sitters house. Went down to the courthosue and by 10:30am we were married! To which of course I posted "Yesterday he gave me my engagement ring...today he gave me his last name". So it's all official. Still seems a bit unreal but honestly, I'm happy with the way we did it. It's exactly as I always said I would get married actually.

He has no family at all and I really have nobody I would want to invite that could make it. So a big wedding really wasn't in the cards for us. We're talking about maybe doing a destination get away after his next deployment and taking a couple of our very good friends with us to celebrate that way. Course that will be awhile but still something to look forward too.

Thats the story though.....very short....but sweet!

Adding Another Title

2010-06-03T09:18:00.000-07:00

Now you can call me teacher! We started talking last fall about the possibility of homeschooling monkey as of the 2010-2011 school year. We bought an amazing house at the end of October however it came with a not so amazing school zone. I found out recently that they are going to close that school after the current year ends however instead of rezoning and distributing the kids they are moving the entire student body to another local school. Then rezoning and distrubting those current kids. So, new school same problem which is really low test scores and a horrible crime rate. The crime rate baffles me though since the school sits right next to a police department but who knows.

We tried, and failed, to get her into the magnet program which would have sent her to a better school. The thing with those is after kindergarten its apparently impossible to get in because all existing kids and their siblings have priority. So that put us back to the homeschooling option.

I've been searching and searching trying to find something that would be a good fit for us. I mean, not only would I have Monkey, Toots, and Baby Girl home all day with me...I'd also have my daycare to run which will consist of 7-8 other kids! Yes, I have an assistant starting with me so that would help but I would still have to make time for Monkey's schooling too.

Then I found www.time4learning.com and it looks very promising. Actually I'm almost certain this is the program we will go with. The provide a complete curriculum based on grade level which we have to submit to the schools here. It's online activities, learning, testing for her based on her grade level. It can be customized to her needs as well which is nice since she is advanced in several areas. It provides online progress reports and completion reports which are needed to show the school system that she is in fact learning. I can even pull information from it to do home activities that tie into what she is learning and depending on what it is can incorporate it with the daycare kiddo's too for a fun activity. I'm actually considering signing up for it with 2 kids so I can get the preschool curriculum as well specifically for the daycare. We'll see on that part though.

So, I guess now I can add the teacher title to ever growing list. It should be a fun and interesting adventure. I've talked to Monkey about her staying home to do schooling and in some ways she seems excited but in others sad too. Mostly for the social aspect but with our local mom's group and all the people we now know we should have no problem keeping her busy and socialized.

Eight

2010-06-02T17:07:00.000-07:00

Baby girl is now 8 weeks old!! Has it really been that long already? I swear with every baby we have the time just goes by faster. Course that could be because I have more to do as the day goes by.

Here she is, our pretty baby girl...

And one to show her personality....her goofy face...

Introducing Baby Girl

2010-05-30T16:43:00.000-07:00

On April 7th we started the induction officially around 6:45am by the time they got all the check in stuff done. The nurse got me put on the GBS meds and started the pitocin at the lowest setting. I was at 3cm at that point, 90% effaced. By 9am the contractions had regulated to about 3-4mins apart and were fine for me to handle although I decided to stand up and just rock through them rather than sit or lay in the bed. About 10am I asked the nurse to checked me and we were at 5cm. Standing up through the contractions was amazing and I can was even laughing/talking through them. I remember telling our friend that it seemed like I should be hurting way more since I was on pitocin and no epidural. At about 11:45 the doctor decided to break my water which made me nervous because I've heard the pain is much worse at that point. Thankfully I was able to get back up out of bed and then it didn't take long for things to progress. By 12:15 I could no longer talk through the contractions and could feel her coming down. I felt it all in my hips and I told our friend every contraction made me have the bathroom feeling and it was getting worse with each one. I kept having the urge to squat down as well which really helped with the contractions. Doc came in checked me and said I was at 8cm. 15 mins later I had just barely a lip left and felt like I had to push. Needless to say it was a rush to set things up.

I don't know how many times I pushed but she came fast. She was born at 12:58pm weighing in at 9lbs 1oz and 21inches long. A little chunker for sure. I had no tearing and didn't need any pain meds at all. I was up pretty quick afterwards including getting a shower with in an hour or so after she was born. Even better since there was no epi the IV got taken out right away which was awesome.

I gotta say going natural was definetely an experience. Immediately afterwards I was like "never again!" LOL. I think I even said that to the doc right after she was born. Now, it doesn't seem so bad. Gotta love that memory loss. Our friend that came was a huge help. My biggest thing was really wanting to know where she was at. I wanted to know if you could see her head or if she was crowning and all that and the doc would just tell me to push. So my friend would just whisper to me I can see "xx" or "yy" and it helped me to know how far we were and had to go. I didn't want to watch with th emirror but her words gave me enough of the visual I needed.

Oh and I never in a million years thought she was going to be so big. The way I was carrying I really thought she would be smaller than Toots. Talk about a surprise but a pleasant one too. Her cheeks are just so plump and kissable!

I stink at this

2010-04-17T13:48:00.001-07:00

I'm really not a good blogger. Or least I'm not as good as I used to be. Looking back at the history I was posting almost every day for awhile...sometimes more than once a day! Now....it's been like 4 months since my last one. And even that one was laminating over the fact that it had been 2 months since the one before that. What can I say....life gets away from you at times.

Blessings

2010-04-17T13:40:00.001-07:00

Do you ever stop and take a momen to count your blessings?? Or do you just take for granted all the things you have whether it be your home, your job, even your kids?? Recently I've been lead to really be thankful for all that we have. Not necessarily the material things either. Yes, I love our home and all of our beautiful things in it. I'm thankful that Mr. X has a job that pays well even if it does take him away from us a lot.

What I'm really thankful for though is that we have been blessed with three beautiful, healthy children. In light of recent events involving a couple friends of ours it has made me realize just how lucky we are. Or maybe lucky is the wrong word because really...what does luck have to do with it??

Whats it been?

2009-12-14T16:20:00.000-08:00

2 months since I posted here! Gotta be the longest I've gone with out blogging anything right? And it's not like I haven't had something to blog about. There have been lots of changes in our little world. Some good....well all good really. Lets see.....

Mr. X and I survived our first deployment. He left mid Sept and got back the day before Thanksgiving. it wasn't a full 6 month deployment but the longest by far that we had been apart since the day we met. It was wierd not having him around and having to do everything myself but we survived and the day he came home was bittersweet. He looked pretty good in that uniform too...LOL

At the end of October we moved into a new house. The day before closing I also managed to fall at work and injure my tailbone. Needless to say it made packing/moving interesting but I have an amazing set of friends who helped the whole way. We would have never made it with out them! We love the new house too and the amount of space we now have. This is by far the biggest house I've ever lived in so it's taken some adjustment but not one I'll complain about.

In November, jsut before Mr. X returned home I quit my job. The job I've had for the last 7 1/2 years i walked out on. Not exactly in the most professional way but I did what I had to. Things were already stressful before the tailbone injury. After the fall it got 10x's worse. Between that, the kids, the house, and an impending homecoming I was stressed beyond my max and something had to go. While I'm sure several people would love my kids or house I don't think Mr. X would have appreciated me letting them go. It's been an adjustment not working anymore but honestly, the BEST decision I have ever made.

At the beginning of December, the 1st actually, we had our big ultrasound for baby bean. Hard to believe we're 24 weeks as of today!! Anyways, we found out that our little tie breaker is a GIRL! Yes we have a name for her but we are keeping it to ourselves for now. No worries, only a few more weeks till everyone will know. LOL

The big knews though is that just a few days later Mr. X and I tied the knot. Yes, we got married! I'll do a seperate post with all the details fo that since this one is rather long as it is but it is definitely a story all our own. I always told everyone that it would be a "Guess what we did today" moment and it was exactly that.

Life as a married woman has been interesting and it's only been just over a week. I love my rings and try not to stare at them TOO often. Mr. X likes to spoil me though so they are beautiful. Anyways, more on that later.

Guess thats it for now.

Rules of Marriage from a kids point of view

2009-10-05T12:54:00.000-07:00

Rules of Marriage, as described by kids....

1. HOW DO YOU DECIDE WHO TO MARRY?
-You got to find somebody who likes the same stuff. Like, if you like sports, she should like it that you like sports, and she should keep the chips and dip coming.. - - Alan, age 10
-No person really decides before they grow up who they're going to marry. God decides it all way before, and you get to find out later who you're stuck with. -- Kristen, age 10

2. WHAT IS THE RIGHT AGE TO GET MARRIED?
Twenty-three is the best age because you know the person FOREVER by then. -- Camille, age 10

3. HOW CAN A STRANGER TELL IF 2 PEOPLE ARE MARRIED?
You might have to guess, based on whether they seem to be yelling at the same kids. -- Derrick, age 8

4. WHAT DO YOU THINK YOUR MOM AND DAD HAVE IN COMMON?
Both don't want any more kids. -- Lori, age 8

5. WHAT DO MOST PEOPLE DO ON A DATE?
-Dates are for having fun, and people should use them to get to know each other. Even boys have something to say if you listen long enough. -- Lynnette, age 8 (isn't she a treasure)
-On the first date, they just tell each other lies and that usually gets them interested enough to go for a second date. -- Martin, age 10

6. WHEN IS IT OKAY TO KISS SOMEONE?
-When they're rich. -- Pam, age 7
-The law says you have to be eighteen, so I wouldn't want to mess with that. - - Curt, age 7
-The rule goes like this: If you kiss someone, then you should marry them and have kids with them. It's the right thing to do.. - - Howard, age 8

7.. IS IT BETTER TO BE SINGLE OR MARRIED?
It's better for girls to be single but not for boys. Boys need someone to clean up after them. -- Anita, age 9 (bless you child )

8. HOW WOULD THE WORLD BE DIFFERENT IF PEOPLE DIDN'T GET MARRIED?
There sure would be a lot of kids to explain, wouldn't there? -- Kelvin, age 8

And the #1 Favorite is .......

9. HOW WOULD YOU MAKE A MARRIAGE WORK?
Tell your wife that she looks pretty, even if she looks like a dump truck . -- Ricky , age 10

Getting back on the wagon

2009-09-28T05:55:00.000-07:00

The blogging wagon that is. I took my R&R time and now it's time to get back to it. Things have been pretty hectic the last few weeks but have finally started settling in a bit for us. Mr. X has officially left for deployment. While it's not a full 6 months it's still just long enough for us to REALLY miss him. I've been getting a lot of people askign for specifics on where he is or when he'll be home. Please don't take offence if I say I can't tell you. It's for the guys safety and there are rules about what information we give out and stuff. I'm not going to be one to break those rules! Just know that when he is finally home EVERYONE will know cause I'll be shouting it from teh rooftop.

We are starting to get into a routine though. The kids are adjusting and Toots doesn't fight me so much on the things Mr. X used to always do. I swear those first couple days he fought me on everything. Wanted nothing to do with me when it came to the bedtime routine which was his daddy time. There was one night we were all so pathetic, Toots was crying which made me cry. then Monkey started crying because I was crying. It was a river of tears in our house. Thankfully there have been no more nights like that!

Yesterday i finally got my motivation back a bit and cleaned up the house. My room is still suffering cause there are clothes everywhere. Seriously, it looks like a department store threw up in there, just minus the crappy hangers. To solve that I've decided tonight I will start packing. All of Mr. X's clothes will go in boxes and then any of my non-maternity stuff. Things we obviously will not need anytime before the move. I figure once i get that done my room will be decent again, I'll have accomplished soem packing, and we'll have tons of room in the closet and dresser again!! Ahhh...it's the little things.

So we have about a month before we move. So so so so so so excited to have all that space and get settled in. i'll be busting my bottom to get things unpacked once we move. I'm hosting Novembers bookclub so I'll have like 2 weeks to get done what I can. Honestly, we don't have THAT much stuff and if I get my way we'll have less when we move cause I fully intend to get rid of things we aren't using. Seriously, I have boxes and bins in the shed that have been packed up since April of 2008. Stuff needs to go. We are so thankful that we were able to rent the house out quickly and the people who are getting it I know will take good care of the house so we won't have to worry. It's bittersweet leaving our current house. As Mr. X said as he kissed me for the last time out front before he left, it's our first house together. The house we brought our son home too. It will always be special for us and the memories we have there.

Everythign else is going ok. Baby bean is growing well and has an official due date of April 5, 2010. I have the big ultrasound scheduled for October 24th and if he/she cooperates we'll know what our tie breaker is going to be. It's sad that Mr. X won't be here for it but I have lots of friends offering to join us for the big event. Good thing the lady who does them doesn't limit the number of people who can come!!

Well I guess thats it for now. I"ll be around for more later as things progress with the bean, the house, and everythign else we have going on!!

To Be Continued:

2009-09-14T17:05:00.000-07:00

So for those that follow my blog I apologize for the lack of writing lately. Most of you know we jsut have a lot going on lately and honestly, by the end of the evening the last thing on my mind is blogging. So Needless to say I'm going to take a breather and say........To Be Continued.

I promise it won't be that long though. Mr. X leaves for deployment very soon and then I'm sure I'll have lots to write about as I go through with buying the new hous eand renting this one. Yes, we're crazy but we LOVE the new house!! What can I say...it's 3x's the size of what we have now. I can't wait for all that space!!

Anyways, I'll save that for another time. Until then......

Already?

2009-09-03T05:24:00.001-07:00

I can't believe little man turns 1 today! It seems like the last year has just flown by. He's such a fire cracker too. The boy has NO FEAR. Especially in water. He'll flop down face first and come up laughing. I guess thats what happens when you spend nearly every day in the pool for the last 6 months or so.

He's still such a tiny thing though. Monkey was a total ham at this age but Toots, he's my shrimp. The other day he weighed in at 18lbs and 29". The ladies response was "well he's light but he's tall for his weight". I could have told you that with out putting him on a scale. The boy is STILL wearing 6-9 month clothes. 12 month stuff just swims on him. The positive side of that is we get lots of use out of his clothes.

Don't let his size fool you though when it comes to food. The boy can eat! He loves hot dogs, mac n cheese, chicken nuggets, yogurt, broccoli, carrots, and teddy grahams. He would probably be happy if that was all we ever gave him. When he does eat he really puts it away too. I don't know where it's going but he packs it in.

Toots over all is just a happy go lucky kid. He fusses when he's really tired or hungry but thats it. He loves being in the middle of what ever we're doing. Just like his sissy he's a nosey boy. He's also got an opinion on a lot of stuff and likes to yell it at us. I blame that on Mr. X. It's always the man's fault!

Thats it I guess. I'm sure i could think of plenty more but you get the basics.

A Hero's Homecoming

2009-08-10T15:27:00.001-07:00

**This was posted on a message board I'm on and I wanted to share it with everyone else I know. Just be sure to have tissues handy!!

This was filmed just outside of Atlanta, GA almost a month ago. It is interesting to see that little has changed in rural America, especially the respect that the people have for the loss of one of their own.

Killed in action the week before, the body of Sergeant First Class John C. Beale was returned to Falcon Field in Peachtree City, Georgia, just south of Atlanta, on June 11, 2009. The Henry County Police Department escorted the procession to the funeral home in McDonough, Georgia. A simple notice in local papers indicated the road route to be taken and the approximate time. Nowadays one can be led to believe that America no longer respects honor and no longer honors sacrifice outside the military. Be it known that there are many places in this land where people still recognize the courage and impact of total self-sacrifice. Georgia remains one of those graceful places. The link below is a short travelogue of that day's remarkable and painful journey. But only watch this if you wish to have some of your faith in people restored. Please share widely. Well worth watching.

Click on the link below and hit play.

A Hero's Homecoming

Yes & No

2009-08-10T07:21:00.001-07:00

Yes: We're pregnant again

No: We're not crazy

Changes and a few steps!

2009-08-02T20:17:00.000-07:00

Looks like there will be some changes in our house! This past Tuesday I realized it had been awhile since the auntie had shown up. So on lunch I ran up to walmart and bought the EPT. Needless to say i was still completely shocked when I saw that I I come up on the thing. I showed my coworker and my hands were shaking so bad I thought I might pass out!

So now our family of 4 is becoming a family of 5. Unless there is more than 1 which I'm not sure how I feel about that. I think it freaks me out just a tad to think that it might be. I'm really trying not to think about it until we can go to the doctor.

My first appointment is the 27th. Perfect timing cause Mr. X will still be here and will get to go. Yay!! I'm hoping that they will do the ultrasound just to date it as well as a visual heart beat and to confirm how many I'm acting as host for.

We have a lot of things we need to figure out. If we will get a bigger house, do we just have someone share a room here, what kind of van to get (cause 3 carseats are not going to fit in my car) and also how to handle my job. I'm not so sure that after daycare costs it will be worth it for me to be working. I may jsut be getting a paycheck only to pay it all into daycare expenses. To me, that means finding a way to stay home and keeping tha tmoney in our pocket. We'll see though. I've still got 8 months to go!

Course this is going to be another LONG pregnancy I'm sure. I always say I want to know early but then by half way through I'm kicking myself and wishing it was over with already.

Oh and in other big news today Toots is seriously trying to walk. He's been standing himself then taking 1 or 2 steps with out holding on before falling over. At this rate he's going to figure it out soon. Oh let the fun begin!

Time Out

2009-07-21T07:16:00.001-07:00

I haven't been doing much lately with the blog, sales, goofing off, etc. I just needed to take a time out of sorts and just let it go. I've had so much going on lately that it's just been overwhelming. I was beginning ot feel like my days consisted of work and then running around non-stop doing everything for other people.

The couponing/sales especially wore me out. Since we didn't need anything new I just sat back and only took advantage of the really awesome deals. Like scoring oscar meyer hotdogs for $1 a pack. I've got 2 kids....we go through a lot of hotdogs during the summer. And when they are normally $3+....well it was a great deal for me.

My sewing got put on the back burner too. I'll be bringing it out again soon cause I have some ideas brewing in my head. I'd love to make the outfits for the kiddo's birthday party but we'll see.

We've been having lots of fun though. The last few weekends we've done BBQ's at our house. Since Mr. X finally got the pool in working condition we've been taking advantage of that. LOVE IT! The kids love it too. Monkey can't touch the bottom with out going under but she has learned how to swim pretty well. The pool is 15ft by 30ft and 4.5ft deep. This past sunday she learned how to swim, mostly underwater, and can make it across the 15ft part all by herself. No floaties required. Of course we're right there close by just in case but still....it's a proud moment! Toots loves the water too. He's figured out how to lean over his floatie so he can splash and he loves when Mr. X makes him bounce around. I've gotten some cute video of that laugh of his.

We're getting down into the last month soon before Mr. X leaves and i'm trying hard not to dwell on it too much. I can only hope that 3 months passes as quickly as this time before it has been passing. I'm grateful though, he won't be missing any major holidays with the kids. Even though he's leaving before Toots actual birthday we're planning a big birthdya party ahead of time so that he can be here for that at least.

Thats it for now I guess. HOpefully I'll be back in the swing of things again soon.

Holy Crap

2009-07-10T18:40:00.001-07:00

About now is the time when I start to totally freak out. I mean we have less than 2 months before he leaves. And I ask myself.....WHAT THE HELL WAS I THINKING?? Ok ok...yes this is what was best for our family financially but it doesn't mean it makes it any easier knowing that he'll be leaving us for months at a time. Knowing all the things he will miss. The fact he'll be down under the water for who knows how long.........ugh. I just wanna cry THINKING about it!

Under it all though I know we'll survive. I know we'll endure through it and come out stronger in the end. And I'm proud of his job and what he does. In the mean time I'm banning myself from YouTube. There are way to many videos on there. Dedication videos to sailors and soldiers on deployment. Video's of their kids saying how much they miss their mothers and fathers. Ok, I'll stop now.

I'm not promising there wont' be more sad blogs though. Hmmm...you may just be lucky to really feel those heart felt feelings!!!

The Great Debate

2009-07-08T14:00:00.000-07:00

First off....this has to do with breastfeeding so some of my family members who read my blog.....if you don't want to hear some little details about my tata's...well you might want to skip over this one. Just a forwarning

Anyways, I'm part of a few groups that have support forums for breastfeeding moms. I even have one on facebook which I think I may end up dropping off because quite honestly...it's starting to irk me. Why you ask?? Because even though it's supposed to be to support women who decide to breastfeed...it turns into a bashing session again those to decide to formula feed. Not to mention the information that gets thrown around....well I just don't agree with it 100%.

My background: Monkey was formula fed from day one due to a medical issue. Toots has been exclusively breastfed (with the exception of solid foods since 8 months) since day one.

First everyone says that breastfeeding is so much healthier for the baby and in turn they will be healthier. Fewer colds, allergies, etc. Ummm....Ya right. In almost 6 years I can still count on one hand how many times Monkey has been to the doctor not counting her regular well checkups. In 10 months I'm moving to the second hand for counting purposes with Toots. That boy has had more issues than she ever had from a staph infection to strep throat to just having a nasty cold. Even now he's got a hefty cough we can't quite get rid of. On top of that I have a good friend (and I hope she doesn't mind me using the example!) whose son has had all kinds of allergies. He was breastfed I think till after he was a year old. Thankfully he has grown out of a lot of them but breastfeeding DOES NOT gurantee fewer doctor visits or allergy issues. To say so I think is very misleading.

Second...they say breastfed kids are smarter than formula fed kids. I have to wonder who in the world comes up with that information. Do they really poll people 20 years later to see whose smarter? Do they take into account social environments, education levels, experiences?? How can you really say that breastfeeding makes you smarter? Oh ya....my formula fed baby....she finished kindergarten reading on a 2nd grade level. She can do the math of a 1st grader. I wouldn't say she's exactly dumb would you?? My goodness if this concept were true I'd have a genius on my hands!!!

Third..they say you can't bond with your baby if they are on a bottle. While yes, I will conceed that breastfeeding is a experience unlike any other I would never say you can't bond with a bottle fed baby. You can still hold them, look into their eyes, stroke their face, etc. My bottle fed baby is just as much up my hiney as my boob baby is, if not more some times so I'd say we are definitely bonded.

Now to clarify...I support breastfeeding whole heartedly. As I said it is an experience like no other and I think all mothers should at least attempt it. Not to mention the cost of formula! However I don't think you are a failure nor do I think your child will be any worse off if you choose to use formula.

In addition it doesn't matter if you breastfeed for 1 day, 1 week, or 1 year +. As long as you are happy with your decision and your experience then what does it matter? I fully intend to wean my boy closer to his 1st birthday which I'm happy to report is like 6 weeks away! I'm not an extended breastfeeding momma and I've got a love/hate relationship with my pump. That doesn't mean my child will suffer because I didn't breastfeed him till he was 2 or 3 or what ever.

So for those of you who are expecting and thinking about what you may do(or my more experienced moms who know what I'm talking about)...don't worry about what all these people say and the harsh words they use. Just do what you are comfortable with and know....your child will love you whether you give him/her your boob or a bottle. Ultimately all that matters is that you both are happy, healthy, and well fed.

Free Listerine

2009-06-30T14:53:00.000-07:00

Mouthwash was on my grocery list this week as we're down to the last bottle and even that is only about half full. Thankfully Walgreens has a great deal on them! It's a monthly megasaver deal and honestly I need to double check the end date on it. I'll try to edit later with a date if anyone else is interested in trying it.

Right now the mega saver is the 500mL bottles of the cool rinse Listerine. It's the blue bottle and it's 3 for $9. Coupons.com has coupons that are $2 off 1 bottle and are good for this particular one. You can print up to 2 per computer so use more than one computer to get multiple sets! Using 3 $2 coupons will bring the balance down to $3.

Now if you have any prior register rewards, I had $3 ones from the aquafresh deal last week, you can use those to pay. You'll just need to use a small filler like the ramen noodle for $.29, so that you have 1 coupone per item. Then you only pay for the ramen noodles. I even check out the clearance rack for cheapo items. Last time I scored a bunch of pony tail holders for Monkey for $.20 each!

Even if you don't have a prior register rewards you can still get them technically for free. With this deal it spits out a $3 register reward good on your next purchase, not including another listerine deal. Meaning you can't roll that reward into another 3/$9 and get a 2nd $3 reward. Either way it's a good deal cause you'll either just roll the $3 reward into a new one or break even.

Rollin' On

2009-06-25T17:07:00.000-07:00

Most of my very close friends know that for the last few months I've been really stressing over Mr. X and him wanting to get out of the military. He was dead set on getting out. Ever since Toots came along he's wanted to be able to stay home and see hime and all his milestones. Thats a good thing, yes I know. However his paycheck is what pays the mortgage, his carpayment, cell, and insurance. We could not even come close to surviving off my salary alone.

I had thought his re-enlistment date was next month if he decided to stay in however it turns out it was today!! Two weeks ago he tells me that he's getting out and that the command is doing an awards ceremony for him. His honorable discharge/tour of duty and all that. He asks me to take the time off and join him.

I immediately start freaking out try to think of what we can do to save up to try and last as long as we can until he can find a civilian job. THEN.....I started asking questions and thinking. Yes...thinking.

Do they really give ceremony's to guys getting out??? He mentioned once needing new dog tags. Hmmm...why would he need those getting out. Oh and the braces. (yes he has them, we deal with it). I asked him about when they would come off and he said in the next month or two. They had to be off before he went on the boat. Wait....what boat?? So I talked to some other military wives and they all said it didn't sound like he was getting out. So I started to hope.

Today comes and I was seriously a basket of nerves. Before they started I thought I might throw up. The guy...can't remember if it was his chief or someone else....starts reading off about an award he got. Then I hear the word "re-enlist". I swear I thought my heart was going ot beat out of my chest and I might hyperventilate.

So the guy looks at me and says that he's under the impression that Mr. X told me I was there to watch him just get an award. And that they were going to just do this discharge. However he didn't want me to fall over with a heart attack so he would just skip that and swear him in. So I got to stand up and hold the bible while he was sworn in. I had to bite my cheek from crying.

He got his certificates for re-enlisting, his coin, his pin, etc. Then they gave ME a certificate. For my support and faith in his decision to re-enlist...yada yada yada. Sweet though you know?? After that we just had a BBQ, everyone ate, joked around and had a good time.

Some of you might wonder why in the world would I WANT him to re-enlist. If you haven't noticed our economy SUCKS. Like horribly. Our house was just purchased last year and we have 2 kids in the house. Yes, it's going to be crappy dealing with deployements. Yes he will miss things with the kids. But in the long run, in the big picture I see it as the lesser of 2 evils.

I'm not worried about being on my own for months at a time. It will stink not having him to turn to at night or even just to annoy me for crazy reasons. But I know I can survive. If nothing else, taking care of Monkey by myself for almost 4 years has taught me that. I can get through anything. So we will have lots of emails and care packages. I'll take lots of photo's and video's for him to watch when he gets home if he wants. We'll find a way to fill that void while he's gone.

It won't be long before we deal with it too. The boat he's going too he'll be deployed on almost immediately when he reports at the end of August. He should only be gone about 3 months that time. Given there are no extensions he'll be home for the holidays which is a positive. We may just have to have the kids birthay party in late August instead of the middle of September so that he can be here. See....there's always a way to make it work.

I gotta say there is something to be said about a man who will sacrafice his wants over his families needs. If only more men would do that. Maybe there wouldn't be so many broken families.

So...for now I will breath easier. ****Sight****

Starting at Walgreens

2009-06-21T08:26:00.001-07:00

I've been wanting to take advantage of deals at walgreens for awhile now but have been really kinda afraid too because of all the horror stories I hear. Walgrees does whats called Register rewards where you will get a money off your next transaction when certain items are purchased. This week there were some good ones on toothpaste and deoderant so I decided to jump on the wagon.

First is the Aquafresh Advance toothpaste. There is a $1 off printable coupon. The toothpaste is on sale for $3 and you get a $3 register reward.

Second is Speedstick Deoderant. On sale for $2.99 and you get a $2 register reward.

You can roll these rewards into another transaction. So I started out with the speedstick. Since I had no rewards to begin with I paid the $2.99 out of pocket. I then did another transaction for the tooth paste. Now with walgreens a register reward is considered a coupon and you can only use 1 coupon per item. So for the toothpaste I had to use a filler which I got one of those individual packs of ramen noodles for $.29. After the $1 off coupon and the $2 RR my out of pocket expense was $.45 and I got the $3 rewards back.

I just rolled that into another deoderant. Another thing is if your item is less than the reward you have to use a filler. Even by a penny. So I just grabbed another ramen, the cheapest thing I could find. So my out of pocket was $.44 and got $2 back.

Went back to the tooth paste and just kept going.

Now since you have to do each of these transactions seperately (ex: you cant use a toothpaste reward to buy new toothpaste)I only did 4 transactions at 2 stores. There are tons of walgreens just with in a few blocks of me so going to several really isn't that big of a deal. I'll just carry some change so I'm not charging less than a dollar to my card over and over.

I sitll have a $3 RR I need to use by july 5th. Not sure if I"ll continue the deoderant/toothpaste roll or not. I may use it to get Lysol stuff.

Right now Lysol spray is on sale 2/$7 and giving back a $2RR. There are $1 off 1 coupons out there. So if I use the $2 in coupons, the $3 register reward and get back $2 I would essentially get them for free. On top of that the stores here have the cans packages with the free 35ct wipes. Can't beat that!

Deals by Accident

2009-06-17T05:50:00.000-07:00

Not all the grocery deals I get are planned for. When I go to the store I try to keep my eye out on somethign that is a great value and we'll really use. The big one is meat. We are some what picky about certain things like chicken. No dark meat for us. It's always the boneless skinless chicken breast. Are we spoiled?? Probably. But at the average $4.99lb regular retail it can be pretty expensive. So I only buy it when I get an awesome deal and then I stock up. Like the time I bought 20lbs of it for $20. All I can say is thank goodness for my deep freezer.

This morning was another accidental deal. I stopped by Food Lion on my way to work to pick up something for lunch so I wouldn't be tempted to swing by the drive thru. As I was passing by the meat department I noticed they had tons of it marked down! Now the meat is perfectly fine. It's just that they have to be used or frozen by the sell by date so when that date arrives or is very close the item gets marked out. I guess the stores figure it's better to get something for it than nothing at all when they throw it out. So here is what I picked up:

Boneless Ribeye Steak Reg $5.99 Paid $1.57
Sirloin Tip Reg $8.93 Paid $1.56
Chuck Steak Reg $7.21 Paid $1.63
Roast Reg $7.78 Paid $1.36
Roast Reg $6.89 Paid $1.54
Ground Chuck Reg $2.57 Paid 1.76
Ground Turkey Reg $4.99 Paid $.75 (got 4 of them)

Original total before tax would be $44.36. Total after mark downs $12.42. Thats a 73% savings!! On top of that I also had a $3.50 off your next order that I needed to use. So I really only spent $8.92. That means I paid for the sirloin and get the rest for FREE!

Target Deal

2009-06-16T18:04:00.000-07:00

Went over to Target cause I heard they had some gift card deals and I had a few coupons to use up. Picked up the following:

4 cans Glad spray-had 2 B1G1 coupons
1 bottle Renuzit- $1 off
2 Jumbo packs Huggies- 2/$3 off coupons
1 32count Scott toilet paper -$1off

Total before coupons $32.09
Coupons $10 total off
Had $10 giftcard I got from Visa rewards

Total out of pocket $12.09 + tax
Also received $5 gift card from huggies/scott tissue deal (buy 3 get $5) so really my expense was $7.09. Not bad don't ya think!!

Another Shirt

2009-06-07T07:14:00.000-07:00

Following the idea of the bandana shirt I did yesterday I did this one today. It's not made of bandana material. I never made it out to get more of that. So I just used a square piece of fabric I already had on hand. Mr. X even contributed to the design of it. Honestly, I think it turned out adorable and while he's not a fan of the print I think it's perfect for a little girl in the summer. Again, Monkey was more than happy to model for you!

Front

Back

I did a double stitching around the edges just to give it something extra. The ribbon across the middle is sewn on to make sure it stays in place. The one around the neck is not to allow for adjustment and tightening the neck part if needed. so what do you think??

Bandana Shirt / Dress

2009-06-06T08:56:00.000-07:00

I had seen this online weeks ago and then when I was at Wally world saw this red/white/blue theme bandana and thought....hmmm perfect for July 4th!! And since we're going camping that weekend I want to have something cute but something I didn't pay a small fortune for either. So I did this. Now, I have another idea which I'll probably post in the next few days but for now....the bandana shirt.

It's made from 2 bandanda's and 2 strips of ribbon. It took me maybe 10 minutes to put together and I think turned out really cute. On my almost 6 year old it fits like a shirt. I can see where it would work as a dress though for younger girls maybe with some cute bloomers under it.

Monkey was happy to model it for you too!

Front

Rear

You can find specific directions for making this HERE. Total cost to make it about $1.50 as I got the bandana's 2/$1 and only used a small portion of the ribbon. Not bad! I'm gonna pick up more bandana's today. I have an idea for a halter style shirt and then I want to figure out something for Toots as well in the holiday theme. So stay tuned!

On the down slope to 12

2009-06-03T00:32:00.000-07:00

9 months! The 3rd marked the day and yes I'm running late on posting this. Things have been a little hectic lately. But we are on the downhill slope to his 1st birthday. The next times he goes to the doc (barring any major sickness) for a well check will be after his 1st birthday. ***Sigh***

Toots had a couple new experiences in the last month. First was mothers day weekend, we went to the beach for a photo op with Robyn. His first trip and man was he facinated with the sand. We could hardly get him to look at the camera because he was so focused on the stuff. It didn't matter either how many times he got the stuff to his mouth and realized it wasn't all that tasty. He just kept on doing it. Since he's mobile too putting down a blanket didn't help. He just crawled off and kept going.

Memorial day weekend we went camping so Toots got his first sleeping outdoors experience as well. It was tricky. The first night was rough. He didn't really want to sleep. New place, lots of noice, and just unfamiliar to him. For my baby who actually prefers to sleep in his crib it was a rough night. The 2nd night though it got better. Course we wore him out at the water park, yet another new experience, which helped a bit too. He loved it though. All the attention and being out doors. Not to mention all the food that came his way.

His well check on Friday went well. He's up to a whopping 16.1lbs. Definetely the lighter of my two kiddo's at this age but considering how mobile he is it doesn't surprise me. Even at the office he was cruising along the wall behind the table they lay him on to check him. The doc said he seems to be developing just fine. He even uttered those words I dreaded ot hear. That toots would probably be starting to walk with in the month! Geesh. Can a mom get a break here? We are so not ready for that!

He's just such a happy go lucky kid and is finally starting to sleep through the night. Even Mr. X hadn't realized it till the other day he asked me if Toots had been waking up at night. Nope. Blissful sleep! So for now he's going down about 6:30-7pm and sleeping till about 6am. Most times he'll eat then go right back to sleep for a couple hours. Ahhhh....it was a long time coming thats for sure.

Thats it for now though.

Cereal Anyone??

2009-05-27T15:14:00.000-07:00

Nabbed an awesome deal at Farm Fresh today. $1 coupons doubled!!! I had a ton of the $1 off 1 Kellogs cereals from a few weeks back that were printables. Kellogs is on sale this week for $2.50 a box. In addition buy 8 boxes and get an additional $5 off your total order. Mine is a little off because 2 of my coupons apparently didn't double but in the over all scheme of things I won't complain.

Thats 22 boxes of cereal!!! My total out of pocket today was $7.85. Thats for all the cereal plus I had to get a roll of Jimmy Dean Sausage and I got 2 boxes of those Kraft Bagel-fuls. Thats an average of $.31 per item. And to give you a real idea of savings the cereal on average is $3.99. Add in the bagelfuls and sausage and my original total at full price would be $97.25. I paid $7.85!!!! Thats a total savings of 92%!!

Organizing Coupons

2009-05-27T02:34:00.000-07:00

Well it's was about time for me to get all my coupons organized. I mean I have so many that just keeping them in an envelope or stacks wasn't working. Plus trying to go through each one was a pain too. So I got a binder with inserts for cards and organized into that. Already going through it this morning for todays deals was so much easier!
It will be easier to take them with me as well when I need to make my trips for all this free stuff!

Harris Teeter Triple Coupons 05/27-06/02

2009-05-27T02:11:00.000-07:00

Gonna be a good week with triples!

Eggo Waffles – $1.67 .75 off 1 coupon = free
12 ct Rhodes Dinner Rolls = $2.19 .75 off 1 Rhodes Traditional Rolls free
8 oz French's Classic Yellow Mustard - $1.50 .50 off 1 = free
Caprisun Drinks 10pk 1.99 .75 off 1 = FREE
All Mitchum Deodorant BOGO 1.5-3.4 oz (1.84-1.99 for one) .75 off 1 = FREE
New York Texas Toast - Cheese $2.89-$3.19 0.75 off 1 = $.64-.94
McCormick grill mates packet seasoning -bottle $1.09 $.50 off w = FREE
Marcuhan Yakisoba - $.64 .35 off 1 = free
Daisy Sour Cream, 8 oz - $1.45 .50 off 1 = free
Lipton Tea Bags – 16 ct - $1.19 .50 off 1 = free
Gatorade G2 or Tiger, 32 oz - .97 .50 off 1 = free
Edge Advanced shave gel price: $2 75 off 1 = free
Kikkoman Soy Sauce 2/$3 or $1.50 each .55/1 = FREE
Tabasco Sauce 24oz 1.00 .75 off 1 or .50 off 1 = FREE
Lawry's 30 Minute Marinade $1.59 BOGO $0.50 off 1=$.09
French’s Spicy Brown Mustard 12oz $1.89 0.75/1=FREE
McCormick Spices: $1.69 -$2.19 .75 off 1 = Free
Hefty Easy Grip Party Cups 20ct $1.99 0.75 off 1 Final Price Free
Wacky Mac reg. price $.74 BOGO .50 off 1 = Free
French's Original French Fried Onions (2.80oz) $2.49 75 off 1 =.24
Lipton Tea Bags price: 1.19 each 75 off 2 = .13 for both
Clabber Girl Baking Powder $1.99 0.60 off 1 =$0.19 12oz
Keebler Fudge Shoppe Cookies BOGO (1.84 for one) .55 off 1 = .19
Mt Olive - 1.89 - 2.50 .55 off 1 = .24 to .85
Renuzit Super Odor Neutralizer Fine Mist Spray $2.99 0.75 off 1 Final Price $0.74
McCormick Salad Supreme and Lemon Pepper Seasoning - $2.50 .75 off 1= .25
Nabisco Classic Cookies $2.99 0.75 off 1 Final Price $0.74
Degree antiperspirant $2.50 .75 off 1 Final Price $0.25
Lysol Cling 2-in-1 Clip-On $2.50 0.75 off 1 Final Price $0.25
Dial Liquid Foaming Pumps - $2.50 .55 off 1 = .85
Betty Crocker Frosting - 1.99 .55 off 1 = $0.34
Promised Land Milk - 1 qt - $2.19 .75 off 1 = Free
Jack Daniel's Barbecue Sauce $2.00 0.55 off 1 Final Price $0.35
French's Worcestershire Sauce (15oz) price: 1.89 50 off 1 =39¢
French's Honey Mustard - $2.69 .75 off 1 = .44
Chips Ahoy! Cookies - Snak-Saks Mini Chocolate Chip $2.39 0.55 off 1 Final Price $0.74
Flipz Chocolate Covered Pretzels $2.09 0.50 off 1 =$0.59 each
Kraft Bagel-fuls $2.99 .75 off 1 = .74
Hormel Compleats microwavable meal reg. price $2.40 .75 off 1 =0.34
New York Pizzeria Dip N Sticks Original $2.89 0.75 off 1 Final Price $0.64
KC Masterpiece 18 oz BBQ sauce reg price $2.29 .55 off =0.64
64 ct Huggies Wipes - $2.89 .75 off 1 = .74
Ziploc Steam Cooking Bags - Medium 3.39 0.75 off 1 Final Price $1.14
Renuzit Pearl Scents or Odor Neutralizer price: Pearl-3.19 Neutrilzer-2.99 75 off 1 =.74-.94
I Can't Believe It's Not Butter! Margarine Sticks - $2.99 $0.75 off 1 = $0.74 per box
Kernel Season's Butter Popcorn Seasoning $2.79 - $0.75 off 1= $0.74
Deli Creations Sandwiches or Flatbreads $2.99 0.75 off 1= $0.74
Blue Bunny Ice Cream Cones $2.99 0.75 off 1 Final Price $0.74
Snyder's Multigrain 11.5 oz bag - $2.50 .75 off 1 = .25
Yo Crunch 100 calorie Yogurt Multi Pak $3.00 0.75 off 1 Final Price: $0.75
Edwards frozen pie singles reg. price $3.19 .75 off 1 =.94
Band-Aids - 2/$5 (includes kids) .50 off 1 = $1
Heluva Good Cheese - $2.50 .50 off 1 = $1
Nature's Pride - $2.19 & $2.69 – .55 off 1 = $1.04 to $1.54
Texas Pete Chili Sauce $.67 50 off 1 = Free
Mrs. Dash 2.59 .50 off 1 = $1.09
Chi-Chi Salsa Snackers 2.79 .55 off 1 = 1.14
Splenda No Calorie Sweetener - Cafe Sticks 40ct $2.79 0.75 off 1 Final Price $.24
Ball Plastic Freezer Jar 5ct $3.49 0.75 off 1 Final Price $1.24 32 oz
Kraft Mayo or Miracle Whip 2/$7 .75 off 1 = $1.25
Oscar Mayer Deli Fresh Meats $3.50 0.75 off 1 Final Price $1.25
Sargento Sliced cheese - $2.59 .50 off 1 = $1.09
Egglands Eggs - $2.49 .35 off 1 = $1.44
PUREX OR Wisk Detergent BOGO 2.74-3.79 .50 1 =1.24-2.29
Ziploc bags - $2.69 .40 off 1 =$1.49
Johnsonville Breakfast Sausage - $3 $0.55 off 1 = $1.50
Crisco Puritan Oil $3.79 75off 1 = $1.54
White House applesauce 6ct. 4oz. cups -$1.77 each $.60 off 2 = 2 for $1.72, ($.87 each)
Purevia Natural Sweetner 40 count - $3.99 .75 off 1 =$1.74
Red Baron French Bread Pizzas reg. price $4.19 .75 off 1 =1.94
Blue Diamond Almonds - 2/$6 .50 off 2 = $4.50 or $2.25 a can
Yoplait Yogurt-Twix cups $2.80 $.75 off 2. = 1.67 each
Hot Pockets Ultimate Ham & Cheese $1.50 .50 off 1 = free
Digiorno Flatbread Melts 3.59 .75 off 1 = 1.34
Mccain Froze Fries-Any Variety 3.49 .75 off 1 = 1.24
Pepperidge Farm Buns $2.79 .55 off 1 = 1.14
Fleischmanns Yeast Strip 1.99 .40 off 1 = .79
Bertolli Pasta Sauce - 2.89 .60 off 1 = 1.09
Ragu Select Varieties - 2.15 .60 off 1 = .35
Knorr Pasta Sides Select Varieties 1.14 each .60 off 2 = .48 for 2 .75 off 2 = .03 for 2
Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce 2.99 .55 off 1 = 1.34
Hellmans Real Mayonnaise 2.99 .60 off 1 = 1.19
Minute Rice Ready to Serve 2.19 .50 off 1 = .69
Kix Cereal 2.99 .75 off 1 = .74
Betty crocker Warm Delights 1.85 .55 off 1 = .20

Earning a few $$$

2009-05-21T11:23:00.000-07:00

In addition ot savings as much sa I can on our grocery bills I'm always keeping an ear out for ways to earn a few bucks. There are 2 I've come across that I'm quite pleased with so far.

The first is You Data. You know those pesky ads that you see already? Well this site you get paid to look at ads!! Week one and there is just over $10 in my account. and they deposit directly to paypal. No I can't live off it and quit my regular job but sometimes all you need is just the couple extra $$$ to get by. Go HERE to check it out!

The second is Swagbucks. This one doesn't pay cash but rewards you in points for using their search engine. In 3 weeks time I'm up to 101 swagbucks and almost near getting a $25 Applebees gift card. I do a lot of searching through the day at work so I just set my homepage to the swagbucks page. It uses google and ask.com so they are reliable searches but give me the bucks at the same time. Go HERE to check it out!

My Stock Piles

2009-05-20T19:28:00.000-07:00

Ok...no where near some of the stock piles I've seen but this should give you an idea of where we are so far. I haven't pictured frozen stuff only cause you can't really see it since it's a 5cuft chest freezer but trust me...it's packed full. Our regular freezer is packed full. So here is the main pantry in the kitchen. What you can't see is the 13 boxes of cereal on the top shelf.

Ok and these are overflow into the laundryroom.

Everything I got was probably a $1 or less each, most times free. like all that BBQ sauce, dressing, mustard, ketchup, the kraft dinners and kraft cups. Didn't pay a penn for them. There are 7 bottles of the Wisk HE detergent at $2 a bottle which is more than 50% savings on just that alone. I'm on a roll and loving it!! I'm just running out of room to store!

Farm Fresh Deals-$1 Doubles

2009-05-20T06:24:00.000-07:00

Today is double up to and including $1 at Farm Fresh. Going through my coupons these are deals I've found:

Kraft BBQ Sauce-Sale $.78. Use either $.35 coupon to get for $.08 each
Kraft Dinners $2.00 Use $1.00 off to get for free
Kraft Cups $1 Use $1/2 to get 2 for free
Wisk Detergent $4.99. use $1 off to get for $2.99
Kraft Mayonnaise $2.50 use $1 off to get for $.50
Cool Whip $1 use $1/2 to get 2 for free
A1 sauce $2.99 use either $1 or $2 off to get for free
Jello Boxes $2.67/3 use $1/3 to get 3 for $.67
Crystal Light $2.50 use $1 off to get for $.50 Also coupon out for free skin essencials with purchase of crystal light drink mix
Wheat Thins $3 use $1 off to get for $1
Triscuit $3 use $1 off to get for $1
Honeymaid $3 use $1 off to get for $1
Miracle Whip $2.50 use $1 off to get for $.50
Philadelphia cream cheese spread $3.98/2 use $1/2 get 2 for $1.98
Philadelphia cream cheese block $3.98/2 use $1/2 get 2 for $1.98
Kraft cheese block or shredded $3.33/2 use $1/2 get 2 for $1.33
Parkerhouse frozen rolls $2.99 use $1 off get for $.99
Hunts Ketchup $1 use $.20 off get for $.60
Activia 4 pack $2 use $1 off get for free
Danactive 4 pack $2 use $1 off get for free
Oscar Mayer hot dogs $5/2 use $1 off get 2 for $3
Solo plates/cups $3 use $1 off get for $1
Kraft dressing $2 use $1 of get for free

Check the following sites for printable coupons:
www.kraftfoods.com
www.coupons.com
www.smartsource.com
www.redplum.com
www.coolsavings.com

Some great deals

2009-05-18T15:22:00.000-07:00

Harris Teeter has some great buy 2 get 3 free deals this week. Well it ends tomorrow so if you want to get them yourself check it out. Here's what I got:

1st Transaction
Kraft BBQ Sauce: Buy 2/Get 3. Reg $1.79 so $8.95-$5.37 = $3.61. Used 3 $1/1 coupons bringing total for all 5 to $0.61. Also received $2.50 off next order coupon

Kraft Shredded Cheese: Buy 2/Get 3. Reg $3.39 so $16.45-$9.87 = $6.58. Used 2 $1/1 and 1 $1/2 bringing total for all 5 to $3.58

Kraft Easy Mac Cups $1 each. Bought 4 and used 2 $1/2 coupons bringing total to $2 for all 4.

Kraft Velveeta Shells $1.79 each. Bought 2 and used 2 $1 /1 coupons bringing total to $1.58 for both.

Total before sales/coupons: $32.98. Total after:$9.18 Saved: $23.80

2nd Transaction
Pepsi 12 pack cans: Buy 2/Get3 Reg $5.99 so $29.95-$17.97 = $11.98. Used $2.50 coupon from prior order. and paid $9.78 after taxes. Total saved $20.17

All together in both transactions got $62.93 for $18.96 for a grand savings of $43.97

I think I have now been officially banned from buying BBQ sauce. Last count there were 12 bottles on my shelf. Although I think since we're going into summer with lots of grilling in our future it will certainly get used.

I should do photo's of the shelving in my laundry room which has turned into food storage b/c our pantry can't hold anymore. I've threatened to kick one of the kids out of their bedroom!! LOL

Happy Mothers Day

2009-05-10T06:16:00.000-07:00

To all my fellow sweethearts, Peninsula Mommies, and long time friends.....

Continuing On...

2009-05-09T09:27:00.003-07:00

I know I slacked off but the saga still continues.

Thursday night Mr. X made homemade mac n cheese with sausage and asparagus.

Friday he shows up at my work with lunch and a huge bouquet of flowers.

Seriously I am NOT complaining but after so long of it just being here and there spotty type thing to suddenly every day this week.....ya you would be wondering too.

This morning he tells me we need to have a vacation, just the 2 of us, and go on a cruise for like 2 weeks. Now wouldn't THAT be nice!

And it continues

2009-05-06T17:46:00.000-07:00

Dinner tonight: Homemade french bread pizza with a salad on the side. For dessert: 100 calorie ice cream bar. See, he was keeping my diet in mind.

In the mean time I'm still wondering whats going on!

It's Aliens I Tell Ya!

2009-05-05T17:55:00.000-07:00

So the last few days there have been strange happenings going on in our house. Now I realize some of you lucky lucky woman might view this as completely normal but not for me. Normal for me is I do EVERYTHING. Cleaning, cooking, kids....yup it's me. Do I complain?? Sometimes. Does it suck...sorta. Especially after some hard days at work and then coming home to sewing projects or something extra.

So whats been going on? Mr. X was abducted by aliens who brought back a new and improved model. One that cooks me breakfast in bed not 1 but 2 mornings in a row. He then proceeds to do laundry and pick up the living room. He even asks is there anything I would like him to do while I'm gone for my monthly bookclub meeting. THEN he proceeds to make dinner not 1 but 2 nights in a row. And don't be fooled, I'm not talking ordering Chinese or making Mac n Cheese. Last night was meatloaf, rice, and broccoli. Tonight was chicken parmesan, noodles, and asparagus. Oh and did I mention the fresh flowers bought for the dining room table?

I'm kinda wondering though how long the new model will function before something short circuits. In the mean time....I'm quite enjoying it!!

Before I forget...

2009-05-05T14:00:00.001-07:00

Day late and a dollar short

2009-05-04T16:06:00.000-07:00

So Toots turned 8 months old yesterday. Wow is time flying! And now more than ever he is simply amazing me with what he can do, especially compared to Monkey. I'm beginning to think that either she was just too big to do much or she was just lazy. Hmmmm??

Eating issues? Don't exist! The boy will eat anything, nearly anything, that you give him. He's partial to sweet potatos, carrots, and any type of fruit. We've actually started giving some noodles, crackers, french fries, etc. Oh and he LOVES pickles. He got one the other night when we went out to dinner and he destroyed it. I think you could hear the slurping sounds the restaraunt. People had to stop just to say how cute he was as he devoured the thing.

Size wise he is still a little guy. I weighed him on the Wii fit not long ago and he was 14lbs 5oz. He can wear some 6-9 months clothes but onsies and shorts are still 3-6 months. I'm scrambling to find some summer type clothes for him as most of what I have is 9-12 months and way to big still. I had no idea he would be such a shrimp!

As for physically he is completely mobile now. Apparently being light has it's advantages. In the last few weeks he has not only figured out how to crawl, he can sit himself up from a laying down position, pull himself up to a standing position, and has now started cruising on the furniture. That last one happened tonight. Mr. X and I were sitting on the couch when we see his head pop up on the other side of the table as the then makes his way down trying to grab for anything in his reach. NOTHING is safe in our house anymore. I guess it's time to bust out the babygates and put away the knick knacks. Oh the joys!

Talking? Hmmm...he says mama still, mostly when he's upset and wants something. Mr. X is trying to convince him he should say dada instead. He loves to babble in the car though or blow rasberry's.

I honestly wouldn't be suprised if Toots starts trying to walk between 9-10 months if he keeps up at the rate he is now. I'm just not ready for it! I already can't believe we're only a few months out from his 1st birthday. I swear it took a lot longer to get to this point with Monkey. Or maybe it just seemed like it.

On the Move

2009-05-02T14:24:00.000-07:00

Think the video says it all!

Yet more savings!!

2009-04-30T05:23:00.000-07:00

Ok, had another great trip to Harris Teeter yesterday. Crazy enough I didn't even get everything!! I still have a few items I'd like to score the deals on but since I could only use up to 20 coupons for triples I had to pick and choose. So here's what I did get. Any coupons under $.99 were tripled!

Original Total $99.46, Total Spent $25.50, Savings $73.96

Reynolds Recycled Aluminum Foil-Have a rebate making this free!
Regular $3.29, Sale $2.99, $.55 coupon Cost=$1.34

Multi-Grain Cheerios
Regular $3.79, Sale $2.50, $.75 coupon Cost=$.25

Palmolive Dish Soap
Regular $3.79, Sale $1.89, $.25 coupon Cost=$1.14

Ortega Taco Shell & Taco Seasoning (price is for both combined)
Regular $3.45, Sale $2.30, $.75 coupon Cost=$.05

Wishbone Ranch Dressing
Regular $2.99, Sale $0, $.75 coupon Cost=$.74

Pillsbury Brownie Mix (bought 2, price based on 1)
Regular $1.89, Sale $0, $.35 Coupon Cost =$.84 each

Grill Mates Marinade Rub
Regular $1.19, Sale $1.00, Coupon $.50 Cost=$0.00

Electrasol Finish Tabs
Regular $5.99, Sale $3.50, Coupon $2.50 Cost =$1

Electrasol Finish tabs
Regular $5.99, Sale $3.50, Coupon $1.00 Cost =$2.50

Wacky Mac Veggie Noodles (bought 2, price based on 1)
Regular $1.49, Sale $1.29, Coupon $.50, Cost=$0.00

No Yolks Noodles (bought 2, price based on 1)
Regular $1.99, Sale $0, Coupon $.75, Cost= $0.00

Grande Tortilla Chips
Regular $3.49, Sale $2.00, Coupon $.75, Cost =$0.00

Colgate Regular Toothpaste
Regular 3.39, Sale $1.50, Coupon $.75, Cost =$0.00

Bagel-Fuls Original
Regular $2.99, Sale $0, Coupon $.75, Cost =$.49

Hot Pocket Panini
Regular $3.00, Sale $0, Coupon $.75, Cost =$.75

Land O lakes Margerine (bought 2, price based on 1)
Regular $2.39, Sale $0, Coupon $.55, Cost = $.75

Sargento Pepper Jack Cheese Slices
Regular $3.69, Sale $2.59, Coupon $.50, Cost $1.09

Hillshire Farm Beef Links (Bought 2, price based on 2)
Regular $6.98, Sale $5.98, Coupon $.65 + $2 off purchase, Cost=$2.03

Hillshire Farm Sausage
Regular $2.99, Sale $2.79, Coupon $.55, Cost=$1.34

Deli Creations Sandwich (bought 2, price based on 1)
Regular $2.99, Sale $0, Coupon $.75, Cost=$.44

Thats it! Now my total won't add up exactly as I had stated because I didn't bother listing things like my bread or drink that I paid full price for.

Handmade Shorts!

2009-04-25T05:59:00.000-07:00

So toots needs some shorts and since we're trying to save money it's not really condusive to go out and buy brand new clothes. Especially since I got my spiffy sewing machine and can just make them for $1! How you ask?? Using a dishtowel and some scraps of fabric. The ones pictured below took me about 45minutes to make this morning before work.

I'd say there was an extra 15 in there from stopping and doing photo's so maybe 30mins on average. Not bad really if you think about it. I picked up the dishtowel at the dollar store where there are actually lots of cute ones. I'd say try to stay away from those thin bubbly looking ones. You want something that will hold up as well as look good.

Here's the directions so you can make some too!

Start of with just a standard dishtowel Fold the dishtowel in half and then cut so you have 2 equal pieces.

Place both sides on top of each other and then fold in half again. With the finished edge towards you cut as shown below.

Seperate the pieces and lay one flat as shown. Finished edging should be closest to you

Here you will attach pockets if you want them. I used scrap fabric and cut in squares. to create finished edge fold over edges and sew around fabric before attaching to towel

Pin pocket to towel making sure to center. Put it closer to the bottom of the towel to create a cargo type pocket.

Repeat for other side for pockets on both.

Lay both pieces of towel together, lining up edges and so that it appears to be inside out. Pin cut out edges together and then sew making sure NOT to go down straight part. Just around curve part that was cut. Repeat for other side as well

Pin and sew the inside seam

Keeping shorts inside out fold over top to create waiste band. Allow enough room for width of elastic. Also be sure to leave an opening to feed the elastic through. Sew ends of elastic together and then turn shorts right side out.

This is the finished short before the elastic was put in.

And thats it!! I've got several more things I'm going to add up later. A girls skirt made from a dishtowel and then a kids apron made from a placemat. All for $1 or less!

Oh and as for sizing these would typically fit 6-12 months depending on the size of your kiddo. My 14lb shrimp requires me to hemp up the leg parts a bit or they hang down to his ankles.

Changing Careers

2009-04-16T18:15:00.000-07:00

Yup it's official. I am back in school as of this fall...2009. And I'm not going for the Business management that I was in before. Way back in the day before I had Monkey I was pre-med but backed out because it was too time consuming as a single parent. I've been doing insurance for going on 10 years now and although I'm good at my job and for the most part enjoy it, I don't LOVE it. So I've decided to go back towards the medical field but of course being a doctor is out. Just not feasible. So I'm going to work towards getting into the nursing program. And I'm closer than I thought! I have 5 classes to finish before I can apply. Needless to say it should be interesting to see how things go!

Did you see this???

2009-04-16T10:34:00.001-07:00

Check out the newest phenomenon!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY

A lesson to all.....NEVER judge a book by it's cover!

Whut YOU doin'

2009-04-15T08:19:00.000-07:00

I've been slacking on updating about us here lately and have just been posting about my awesome deals. I have more to score today so I'll post again later about that.

As for us we're hanging in there. I've come back to work full time which stinks really. I miss having more time with the kids, more time to take care of the house, more time to cook. Just having more time in general really! It's how it has to be though so I'll survive. It's wierd though cause when Monkey was a baby I would never have thought twice about working. I did it and I WANTED to do it. Now, I wish I could just stay with them all day. **Sigh** Oh well.

Mr. X is doing good too. Struggling with some big decisions lately. He's up for re-enlistment this year and is tottering on the fence on what to do. I actually want him to stay in. With the economy the way it is and the job market pretty much sucky I just don't think it would be a good idea. There is no telling how hard it will be for him to find a job not to mention the benefits we get. He doesn't want to stay in though. He works on a sub and staying in means being deployed again. That also means months at a time of no contact and all the things he will miss with the kids. Yes, I hate that he woudl miss that too but I'll take the lesser of two evils in this case. He's gotta decide pretty soon though so we'll see what happens.

Monkey is her normal self. Constantly gabbing about something or crying at the drop of a hat. She has turned into quite the little drama queen and is ultra sensitive. I'm so proud of her though. She can pretty much read anything and has a phenomenal memory. She got picked to do morning announcements next week so she's super excited about that but admitted she's nervous too. The poor kid is in kindergarten and going to read announcements out to everyone. I'd be nervous too! Her dad is still around although contact has tapered off a bit. She got an email on Friday from him that had pic's of him with her sisters. The youngest girl must definitely resemble her mom but the other one is similar to monkey. You could tell they are related at least.

Toots is growing like a week. Just last week he started army crawling and then on Monday pushed up on all 4's. Won't be long before i'm chasing him around the house too. He's finally started eating like crazy. The boy can put away some food! And he will try anything you give him. He must get that from Mr. X. He's pretty much figured out how to hold his sippy cup on his own now too. He's still not sleepign through the night though which is a battle we're working on. We're not doign the full cry it out method but we're not running in there at the first peep either. It's gotten down to just once at nice and thats getting later and later. Last night he slept from 6pm to 4am before wakign to eat than goign back to sleep till 6:30. I can't believe he's 7 months old now though...time is flying!

Guess thats it for now.

Yet more savings.....

2009-04-12T18:05:00.000-07:00

Yes I know I've really only been posting about the things I save on but I jsut got so gosh darn it excited!!! I just can't help myself. I gotta say, I'm falling in love with Harris Teeter. Seriously, I get my best deals by far there. The store is always clean and the staff is awesome. Liek tonight I went and part of my order was huggies wipes. I had 2 coupons and seriously thought i grabbed 2 boxes. When one coupon wouldn't ring the cashier questioned it. I insisted that it was ok cause I had got both tubs of wipes. He called a manager who came over, didn't even ask what it was. Just swiped her card and accepted teh coupon. I got home and realized that I only got ONE BOX! Major oops there on my part but goodness...that was an extra $1 off my order. So yes, I heart them!

On to the good part. Here's what I got today and the breakdown.

Crest Prohealth mouthwash. Reg $6.29, Sale $3.99, Coupon $.75x2. Paid $2.49
Crest Toothpaste Reg $4.29, Sale $2.50, Coupon $.75x2, paid $1.00
Softsoap handsoap Reg $1.49, Coupon $.35x2, Paid $.79
Softsoap handsoap Reg $3.19 Sale $2.00, Coupon $.50x2, Paid $1.00
Franks Red Hot sauce Reg $1.29, Sale $.50, Coupon $.50x2 Paid $.00 ($.50 overage)
Huggies Wipes Reg $3.29, Sale $2.50, Coupon $.50x2, Paid $1.50
Soleil Razer Reg $7.39, Sale $2.94, Coupon $2.00, Paid $.94
Country Crock Reg $2.49, Sale $1.24, Coupon $.45x2, Paid $.34
Knorr Sauce(2) Reg $1.79, Sale $1.25, Coupon $.50x2, Paid $.75 each(2)
Breyers Icecream Reg $5.39, Sale $2.69, Coupon $.75x2, Paid $1.19
Uncle Bens Rice(2) Reg $2.29, Sale $1.67, Coupon $.75x2, Paid $.92 each(2)
Virginia Deli Ham Reg $6.49lb, Sale Buy 1 get 2 free, Paid $2.10lb (3lbs)

Original Total was $65.92, Paid $19.95, Total Savings $45.97

My Bag

2009-04-09T05:33:00.001-07:00

Krogers is doing a design a bag contest. I created one so go HERE to check it out and vote!

Marley and Me

2009-04-04T16:28:00.000-07:00

Anyone else seen the movie yet? Ugh! I got it from Walmart yesterday and Mr. X and I decided to do a movie last night after the kids were in bed. It was a great movie, don't get me wrong. I actually really liked it. But man I haven't cried like that over a movie in a LONG time. Even Mr. X boohooed. Seriously. We were cuddling up and I could hear and feel the shudders going through him quickly followed by that tell tale sniffle. Ya we both just lost it at the end.

Over all a great movie though. Just a strong suggestion to have some tissues near by if you haven't seen it yet.

Another Deal: Harris Teeter

2009-03-29T08:03:00.000-07:00

This week, well till the 31st, Harris Teeter is tripling coupons up to and including $.99. There is a limit of 20 coupons per household per day but if the deals are good enough making more than one trip isn't that big of a deal. I went today and actually didn't get 3 of the things I really wanted which would be basically free. So tomorrow or Tuesday I'll run by again just to see if I can snag them. Hey, free is free right??

So here is the low down on what I got today.

1 can scrubbing bubbles bathroom cleaner1 box 75ft Reynolds foil2 boxes Electrosol Finish dishwasher tabs1 box Duncan hines cake mix1 bag 22 count chips1 bag Nestle mini chocolate chips1 bag steamfresh mixed veggies1 bottle french's mustard1 bottle french's honey mustard2 tubes colgate toothpaste1 colgate kids toothbrush1 bottle barilla pasta sauce1 box strawberry frosted miniwheats5 boxes jolly time microwave popcorn1 can french's french fried onions1 package jello pudding, 6ct1 package applesauce, 6ct1 bag mahatma rice Original order total $88.86Total after savings $30.50Total savings $58.36!!!

The ones I missed are:

softsoap handsoap. $1.14 bottle, $.35 coupon x 3 final cost $.09

honecomb cereal 2/$4 2 coupons $.55 x 3 final cost $.35 per box

So for $1 I'll get soap and 2 boxes of cereal. Gotta love the deals!

More Savings

2009-03-25T16:41:00.000-07:00

Yet again I was on the hunt for great deals and found some awesome ones at our Super Kmart. This week they are doubling coupons up to and including $2. Most of mine in tha tvalue are for shampoo, bodywash, razors, etc. All things that are non-parishable and I love to stock up on. So I headed over and walked out with all this.

3 Suave body washes 3 Suave kids shampoo/conditioner 2 Dove body washes 1 contact solution 1 lysol disinfectent spray 1 venus refillable razor 1 daisy 4 pack razors 1 twin pack glade warmer 1 glade twin pack warmer refill 2 packs glade scented oil refills 4 greeting cards Total spent. $27.14.

ust one of those dove body washes is regular 8.99!!! At regular price that would be more than half of what I actually spent after discounts. Can't beat those savings! I've got another big one I'm going to try and score on this week. Harris Teeter is tripling coupons up to and including $.99. I've been scouting the forums and looks like I could score a decent number of things for free. I'll post after that to let ya know how it goes!

I love getting things for cheap or free but we definitely need to reevaluate our storage system. I have shelves in our laundry room packed full of stuff. Our deep freezer and regular freezer are packed to the max and our pantry is a tight fit too. Even Toots closet is packed after our major deal on diapers! I think before long we'll just have stuff spilling out of every corner. I so wish we had a room like my friend Heidi does with those awesome shelf units for canned goods. Maybe I could convince Mr. X to give up his game room??? LOL

Diaper Deals!

2009-03-18T16:01:00.000-07:00

Scored a major diaper deal that will keep us in stock for hopefully awhile. I'm going to guess about 3 months but we'll see. Just depends on how quickly Toots decides to pee or poop out of them. I've still never figured out how he has manipulate gravity and cause his poo to go up his back to his shoulders when he is a sitting position. I can see laying down but sitting??? Just another mystery I guess. Anyways here's my deal today....

Count that....18 packages of diapers. My total expense..........$47.43. Yes you read that right. Walgreens has a sale on diapers right now...2 for $9. On top of that they have a coupone for $2 a package. When you scan the coupon it automatically takes the $2 off every package in the order. I went to 3 stores buying 6 packages at each one and at each one the coupon took off $12. Woohoo! These packages normally run $8.99 each so the sale itself was a good deal. Originally these would be $161.2 before taxes. So my savings is $114.39. Can you believe that??

By the way the sale is through March 21st. The $2 coupon can be found at the pharmacy. You just ask them for their information on the prescription savings card. In the information there are various coupons and the $2 coupon is in that.

Happy Half Birthday!

2009-03-03T16:24:00.000-08:00

Well we're finally there....Toots is 6 months old. Can you believe it?? And he's so much more mobile that Monkey ever was so he's already keeping me on my toes. The boy likes to roll and move around. I'm going to have my hands full when he finally learns how to crawl and/or walk. All I can say is thank goodness for baby gates. At least I can keep him somewhat contained. Well, until he learns how to climb OVER them. LOL

As for stats I don't have the official ones as he doesn't go for his well baby check up until Monday but according to the scale this morning he is 14.8lbs. Tiny little bugger but so long. The height is definitely coming from my side of the family. He's creeping into 6-9 month clothes but still has a few 3-6 month that he can wear. Size 2 diapers still since 3's start at 18lbs I think. Guess it's a good thing I stocked up on them!

He loves to laugh and giggle and is thrilled when his daddy tosses him around. He loves to blow bubbles and stick his tongue out and blow. He sits up pretty well although he'll topple over when he gets really excited. He's trying so hard to crawl and gets so mad when he can't get what he wants right that that minute.

He wants nothing to do with regular food and acts like we're giving him lemons when we try. Anything but milk comes right back up as he'll try to gag himself on it in his efforts to get it out of his mouth. He still doesn't sleep through the night but we finally got it down to only getting up once at night. Thank goodness because I was starting to walk like a zombie!

He loves his sissy and his daddy and smiles as soon as they come in the room. He's super ticklish especially on his back. He's teething and tries to chew on everything...our house is a giant chew toy to him. He has to be up and see whats going on at every minute, I call him my nosey boy.

The last 6 months have gone by so fast and before we know it we'll be actually encouraging him to eat cake and allow us to sing the birthday song to him. ***Sigh*** My baby boy!!

The Year I Was Born

2009-02-23T16:26:00.000-08:00

1. What was the population of the world?
4.378 Billion

2. Who were the President and Vice President?
James Earl Carter & Walter F. Mondale

3. What was the US Population? (Different from the world population)
225,055,487

4. Name one US Event that showed up in the "U.S. Events" section.
Ohio agrees to pay $675,000 to families of dead and injured in Kent State University shootings (Jan. 4).

5. Median Household Income?
$16,461

6. Unemployment Rate?
5.8%

7. Cost of a US Postal Stamp.
$0.15

8. Who Played in the Superbowl? Who won?
Pittsburgh d. Dallas (35-31)

9. NCAA Football Champs?
Alabama (12-0-0)

10. One Entertainment Event you found interesting.
The Sugar Hill Gang releases the first commercial rap hit, "Rapper's Delight," bringing rap off the New York streets and into the popular music scene.

11. Name a famous person who died.
Nelson Rockefeller

12. I was born in the year
1979

Proving I'm Right?

2009-02-21T15:31:00.000-08:00

I can totally understand having to back up your thoughts or opinions in some situations. Like if you were a scientist or an inventor or something. But when it comes to regular day to day stuff which is mostly based on experiences and preferences.....why would you have to prove yourself??

Mr. X and I had a "discussion" this evening over his requirement for me to prove I'm right when ever I tell him something. It could be something so basic like Toots should start off with things like sweet potato's first instead of fruits so that he will eat the veggies and not be stuck only on fruits. Yes, I realize that it's not the end of the world if he likes his fruits but I want to get him liking the veggies first. Anyways, why should I have to go online and pull up research proving that this can happen?? Thats just one example too.

So tonight, I don't even remember how we got started on the subject actually, but we were talking about it. And I told him how it makes me feel like he doesn't trust my knowledge or that maybe he thinks I'm not as smart as he is. That sometimes you just have to trust experience and day to day trial and error. Course he tells me it's the Navy training in him...he needs to be proven wrong to accept what someone else says.

Seriously? Is anyone else like this? I have never in my life had to defend every single statement that I make. Do you have any idea how irritating and frustrating it is to have someone tell you your wrong on everything or to prove that what you say is right? It SUCKS.

And get this...we couldn't even make it away from the table before he did it again. I had made a comment about I was going to start unplugging things to test out a theory I have. See up till December our electric bill has been about $50-$60 a month. Just a tad more when the A/C was on but not much. When January's bill came it was $120. February's was $160. The sad part is our heat runs off gas so I can't even blame it on that.

The only thing that changed was we got the new HDTV, Wii, and Xbox 360 in December. Of course then there are the battery charges that go with them. All things that are constantly sucking up electricity even when they are off. Maybe not much but enough. So I wanted to test a theory and see if by unplugging them it would make a difference in our usage. A theory and a test is what I'm thinking.

And he tells me that I need to prove I'm right that it will work because it can be detrimental to electronics to unplug them all the time. Ya, maybe if you were doing it 50 times a day and creating constant power surges to the unit. Not to mention we have all our electronics plugged into a surge protector and so even if it did a small surge chances are it wouldn't even hit the electronics themselves.

For us though we're only talking maybe twice a day. Once in the morning when I leave for work and then again at night before we go to bed. Right now it's been unplugged since like 9am! Men...the thing is I could have done this and he probably would have never known. I should have just kept my mouth shut.

Well That Was Fast

2009-02-20T17:46:00.001-08:00

So I'm still trying to catch up from all the things that have happened the last few weeks. I seriously have so many blogs started that I haven't finished yet. This one though I wanted to get out.

most of you know that a few weeks ago Monkey's dad called me out of the blue talking about how he wanted to get to know her and be involved and all that. Apparently his grandfather passed away and it made him think about life and the choices he made as well as the mistakes.

I've always said that I would never prevent him from knowing her so we put things in motion for it all to begin. A few days after that call she got her 1st card. And the child was head over heals. We had to immediately go to Wally-world and get a card to send back to him. And since Valentines was just around the corner she insisted on one of those heart filled ones. She also drew a picture that was the two of them with big hearts floating above their heads and wrote him a letter.

It seemed at first that he really was serious about all this. He called the Tuesday after he sent his 1st card to make sure she had gotten it. It had jsut come the day before. I let him know Valentines day that she got his 2nd one and then Sunday night he called and they talked for the first time ever.

I couldn't listen to the conversation...it was just too rough for me hearing her talking to her "daddy". I realize she's only 5 so for her the fact that he hasnt' been around before this was completely washed away. For me though it just kidna irked me to be honest.

Before we hung up that night he told me that he would be calling again Friday night (tonight) to talk to her. Well he never did. I realize that it's only 1 time and maybe something really did happen and he just couldn't get the call in. Maybe I'll never know.

I can't help but worry that he's going to disappear. Even just this slight contact is going to make it hurt horribly for her if he doesn't follow through. She's always had so many questions and has cried several times b/c he had never called or seen her. Now that she's had some contact it will most likely be 100x's worse.

So I can't believe I'm saying this but keep your fingers crossed that it was just a fluke. I may not like him at all but i don't want my baby girl getting hurt!

Awwwww

2009-02-18T18:47:00.001-08:00

Mr. X insists I listen to the following song with him. I guess he was tryign to tell me something.

*********Sigh***********

Who Needs Sleep?

2009-02-16T16:44:00.000-08:00

Apparently Toots things we don't. Since he has completely mastered rolling over he now wakes himself up almost every hour. He'll roll over then get mad cause apparently half asleep he doesn't know how to roll back over. So he screams till we do it for him and shove a paci in his mouth. Ugh.....I NEED sleep. Let me clarify....I need UNINTERRUPTED sleep!

What Are They Thinking?

2009-02-16T15:40:00.000-08:00

I really hate going grocery shopping these days. And not because it takes so much time or is such a hassle dragging 2 kids with me. What I hate is that the service has gone so far down hill that it's just a total pain. When I first moved out here I got a job at a local grocery store. They were on a CONSTANTLY about our service levels. Talking to the next cashier over or the bagger while ringing up a customer....didn't happen. Totally ignoring the customer while ringing them up? Wouldn't think of it! Even otu of those things there is one that just irks me to the core ever single time.

It's the way they bag groceries. Either they put 3 things in a bag so you end up with a million of them. Or, they mix products. Like tonight when I stopped for a few things. My meat was in the same bag as my fabric softner. Seriously??? I thought bagging was like basic knowledge skills. You bag like items. Frozen with frozen, meats together, cans together, etc. Apparently thats just too difficult for them these days.

Oh ya, and god forbid they actually bag all the groceries and put them in the cart. Never would we start ringing up another customer before the one we just had was completely done. No, tonight I still had at least 6 bags on the counter as was tryign to load up the cart. Course I was rebagging items and correctin gmistakes. Did the guy help me out? Nope, he starts ringing up the next lady.

Geesh....maybe they shoudl start giving out discounts for customers who have to take care of their own bagging and loading. What happened to good service?

After V-Day

2009-02-15T09:57:00.000-08:00

Well I hope all of you had a great day yesterday. Ours was for the most part uneventful. I'd love to say it ended on a perfect note but our 1st night out with out kids in over a year wasn't exactly perfect.

I was woken up bright and early to a dozen roses and a card from Mr. X. Monkey received a dozen for her self as well and was oh so proud of them. She decided to name the stuffed animal she got Valentine.

Mr. X had to work yesteday so I spent most of the day cleaning, doing laundry, and taking care of the kiddo's. We met up with a couple friends for lunch to get out for a bit. I'm always up for good food and conversation.

Then finally last night we were heading out for our date night. The first for just the 2 of us in over a year so we were well over due. Course Mr. X decided to make it more interesting. We weren't on the road more than 5 minutes when the car started heading right towards the ditch. The road wasn't that wide anyways so we didn't have far to go. I immediately grabbed for the oh crap handle that doesn't exist and yelled at Mr. X to stay on the road. He thought it was hysterical that I freaked out but considering it was my side of the car heading for it I think I had a pretty good reason.

We saw Confessions of a Shopaholic which was awesome. Totally loved the movie and even he got into it. Laughing most of the way through, it had a pretty good story line and the actors were good. No mishaps at the theater, just 90 minutes of quiet while we munched on buttery saltery popcorn and balanced it out with diet coke.

Afterwards we headed to the steak house for dinner. The wait time was really short but it was almost 9:30pm and it's not really on a main road so I don't think a lot of people know about it. We've been there several times before and I've loved their food so even though it wasn't fancy I figured it would still be good.

WRONG!

The hostess seated us with our bread rolls and non of their famous cinamon butter. She also didn't leave any silverware. About 10minutes later the butter was delivered to our table and away she flew before we could even utter the words "silverware please!". Finally our waiter shows up and takes our drink and appetizer order. I also made my 1st request for silverware. Time ticks by and our appetizer comes out, the baby blossom which is very similar to the bloomin onion only smaller.

NO SILVERWARE. Enter 2nd request. He also takes our order for dinner which we asked to have Mr. X bowl of Chili and my salad brought out ahead of the meal.

We started munching on the blossom to which we discovered it was still 1/2 uncooked batter. Yuck! Awhile later another waiter brings Mr. X his chili.....no salad. Like 10minutes later my salad finally arrives. And it was just a simple house salad, nothing complicated. At this point we told the waiter about the blossom being only 1/2 cooked. He promptly took it promising to remove it from our bill. As he starts to walk away I call him back.....Um still no silverware?? Was he expecting me to eat my salad with my fingers???

Finally a little while later he delivers our silverware. I unroll mine to find that the napkin is dirty. Double yuck. At this point Mr. X was over it so he takes mine and gives me his so I can eat my salad.

Awhile later our main dish comes out. Now, I am kinda particular about how my meat is cooked although i will let some slide because I know it can't be perfect every time. I draw the line though when I order it well done and it comes out bright pink and oozing. Triple Yuck. At this point we called a manager over and complained. And while we were talking we discovered that lovely sweet potato that Mr. X ordered had no brown sugar on it. Just some melted marshmallows on a plain sweet potato. Anyone ever had a plain sweet potato?? Ewwww

Needless to say we were over the meal before our check even arrived. Add insult to injury the waiter never even acknowledged how so much was wrong, I don't even think he knew my steak got sent back. Not one single part of our entire meal was even right. Thankfully we made light of it althogh i seriously doubt we'll be going back again. Granted, it was Valentines night but they were far from busy so there really should be no excuse.

On a good note I got my Valentines gift at dinner. A white gold heart shaped diamond necklace. Awwww....so pretty!! Toots loves grabbing at it though so I have a feeling we're going to want to invest in a heavier chain eventually.

So that was our night. Hope yours was a blast!

Happy Valentines

2009-02-14T13:17:00.000-08:00

And we're Private

2009-02-13T17:56:00.000-08:00

I've moved the blog to private. If youc an those of you who asked to be allowed to view can you comment here so I know you got in ok!! Course I figure if you didn't then I'll be getting a note wondering why.

Lots of blogs coming soon as I have plenty to catch up on!

Making some Changes

2009-02-03T03:59:00.000-08:00

In light of some recent events I'm going to go private with this particular blog. The recipe one will still remain public for those who read it. Anyways, if you want to still be able to access this one please let me know with your email address. either email me or leave me a comment. No comments on this particular post will be published so I'm the only one who will see your information. I'll give through Sunday this week before I make the switch but I probably won't post anything else until then.

thanks!

What the??

2009-02-02T15:41:00.000-08:00

From this morning...

Me: Monkey, go put your lunch box by the front door.
Monkey: You can walk, you've got 2 legs, you do it.
Me: Ever say that again and you WON'T have 2 legs to walk on

Hmph....Seriously, who stole my sweet little agreeable girl and replaced her with the brat model??

ETA: Since I apprently have someone reading my blog who believes I think it's ok to hurt my children I should probably add that NO, I do not plan on disabling her so she can no longer walk. It's a phrase, nothing more. Figured I aught to say that so I don't have CPS busting down my door.

Hey Anonymous

2009-02-02T15:21:00.001-08:00

Ya you! The one who felt such a strong desire to leave a nasty comment on my last blog but didn't even have the nerve to sign it. No worries. That why we have to LOVE the joys of internet technology. I'm about 99.9% sure I know who you are. See there's a few things I love about my blog. 1st it tracks my visitors and tells me where they are at and what the date time is of their visit. 2nd your comment came with a time stamp. 3rd I don't get very many visitors. So next time you feel the need to insert your 2 cents in such a negative way how about actually taking credit for your comment instead of "hiding".

So onto the good stuff. I think I'm going to break it down into 2 parts.

The beginning of your comments says "that is absolutely child abuse. literally babies bodies cannot handle that kind of strain on their joints and this child will have problems". To begin with I respect your opinion that you feel it's child abuse although as I stated in my previous blog I disagree with it. We can all have our own opinions though right?? As for can the baby take it? Hmmm I don't know. I know I don't have a medical degree and I'm fairly certain you don't either so it's not a judgement call either one of us can make. I also stated that it seems likely that the guy has some sort of training with this stuff and with that I imagine they know how to keep things safe. I guess the good part of me would like to think that a parent would not do something like that unless they were knowledgable in what they were doing.

Now the 2nd part of your comment. "and to think it's "OK" to have your child break his or her skull, then you have no hope and i feel sorry for your children."

Taking a deep breath here..........

WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?? You insinuate not only that I may intentionally hurt my children but that I could care less if they are. Maybe you should have actually read the blog completely before jumping to conclusions but then....thats how you are isn't it? No where in what I wrote did I say it was "ok" to break a childs skull. Actually, it clearly states that we tripped and fell. Something that could happen to ANYONE....the reason I used it as an example. And that thankfully it was prior to when hers fused so it was a non-issue. Oh ya, just to clarify....those were actually her pediatricians words.

So maybe next time before you feel the need to become the almighty and pass judgement on someone else about how they feel for their kids take a step back and don't bother. I don't need nor want your sympathy and my children certainly don't either.

Holy Acrobatic Baby

2009-02-01T06:21:00.000-08:00

This got posted on our local playgroup to which several people immediately screamed child abuse and how could he! Hmmm....what do you think?

Personally I think it's pretty cool. The guy has got to have some sort of acrobatic or similar training to be able to do all that. And the child has obviously done it a multitude of times and enjoys it as he was smiling and laughing at the time. For those worried about injury to the child yes, I'm sure something could happen if he dropped him but that can happen regardless. I dropped Monkey when she was 5 months old (we really tripped and fell) and she had a crack in her skull from it. Thankfully it was before the thing fused so all is good. Anyways, I just thought it was interesting and I haven't blogged in awhile.

The Turtle

2009-01-18T15:13:00.001-08:00

Having a boy after having a girl is such a different experience. We all know about the increased likely hood of getting peed on. And it also hitting us in the face or something. I hear it has to do with the cold air but Toots has apparently decided it's more than that. Or he just likes to keep me guessing. Anyways, I got so much advice after we found out he was a boy. You know like, make sure his little peepee is facing down in the diaper. Laws of gravity there I suppose. All the tips about getting him circumcized and how to take care of it. The one thing that nobody ever told me....is it's true about the turtle. Know what I'm talking about??

Here's what happened. I was giving Toots his bath before bedtime and for now he has this yellow foam thing that just lays on the bottom of the tub. I had sat him up so I could wash down the back of his head and all that and when I looked down saw....well the turtle had disappeared into his shell!! Mr. X was in the bathroom with me and I pointed it out to him. His response..."Well it's cold in here". Seriously???

Now I've heard guys talk about that. You know....it's so cold it shriveled up inside. But did anyone ever think that it REALLY happened? I sure didn't. I thought it was just a phrase, not something that actually happened.

Apparently it does though and my son was playing peek a boo with his turtle. I wonder what other surprises he has in store for me.

Pound for Pound Challenge

2009-01-14T15:49:00.000-08:00

It's that time of year again, we're all (well most of us) making resolutions for various things. A lot of them involve in some way either losing weight or getting in shape or eating better. For me, I didn't make a resolution about it but I do have a goal to try to lose the rest of this baby weight. I did it in 2007 before I got pregnant with Toots, losing an awesome 40lbs! I know I can do it again. I came across the Pound for Pound challenge on another blog and thought what a GREAT IDEA!! I can lose weight and at the same time money will be donated to help feed the hungry. For every pound lost they will donate $.10 to Feeding America which is equal to a pound of food! Go HERE for more details and to make your on pledge for the challenge.

4 Months Old

2009-01-11T05:44:00.000-08:00

Well Toots is 4 months old now. Well as of almost 2 weeks ago that is. We had his well check up last Tuesday and haven't had a chance to update on here. His stats are 13.8lbs and 25in. Tall and skinny the doc put it but right on track.

He's gotten more interactive in the last couple months, responding to our crazy antics in an effort to get him to laugh. He loves being sung too and just laughs hysterically most the time. He's perfecting rolling over, if he ever gets that arm out of the way, and he's figured out the jumperoo. We also did make the move to start introducing rice cereal.

The first taste

Numming on the spoon

Wait...where you going with that!

So far so good. He's taken to the spoon really well. He only gets about a TBSP at a time which isn't much but I'm not looking to make it a main food source or anything. It will probably be awhile before we start introducing anything else although I've already got my blender and freezer ready to go. I plan to do my own baby foods just like I did with Monkey. It's so much cheaper and it's really not that difficult. You just need to have the space to store it in the freezer really.

I gotta post this one too because his personally and temperment are really starting to show. In this one....that doggie is going DOWN!

Toy Review Part 2

2009-01-04T03:56:00.000-08:00

Our next favorite toy...The LeapFrog Tag Reader System.

This particular toy is one of my favorites. Monkey enjoys it but it does play 2nd fiddle to the Leapster. We've all seen the reader systems out there. The touch books and such. This one though I think is superior to those. For one, it's much more portable. You can play with the book by itself or use the "pen". The reader pen also has volume control and the ability to hook up head phones to it. In the age of too loud electronics, that is every parents dream.

The system comes with one book and then there is a pretty large selection of books to add to it. Whats the best part you wonder? With this system it comes with a USB cable that connects the pen to my computer. It will then download and tell me about how Monkey is learning. It keeps track of which questions she answered correctly, how long she spent on a particular book, which games she played the most, etc. You create whats called a learning path that you can customize for your child. It includes information like their age and current grade level and then will use that to determine what level the child is reading/playing on.

Yet another good investment I think as in just since Christmas I've seen Monkey's reading skills improve. The books have lots of options for play. Either reading the story to them or helping pronounce each word individually plus the various games. I do suggest rechargeable batteries again if the child will play with it a lot. It uses 2 AAA which monkey when through the first set in one day.

Toy Review Part 1

2009-01-03T03:45:00.000-08:00

So I figured I would do something a little different for the time being. Until I can find something new to blog about. Monkey got several neat toys for Christmas so I thought maybe I would do a review of them to pass on the information. So here goes.

First up....her all time favorite toy so far. The LeapFrog Leapster.

I had originally thought about getting her the Nintendo DS however after talking to Mr. X we figured this would be the better bet. For one it's much more durable than the DS. When the leapster 1st came in I took it out and played with it for a bit to see how it worked. In that I dropped it. Didn't even cause a blip on the screen. This thing is solidly built and will withstand those oops moments so common to 5 year olds. Also, this teaches them how to use the system with all new games. When Monkey first got it out I did have to show her for all of maybe 5 minutes how to do something. She has since learned it all on her own.

As for how she likes it? As i said it appears to be her favorite toy of all. She will play with it for hours if we let her. It's great for when I need to run errands and she is stuck in the car. I wish we would have had it for our recent trip back home that was 12 hours one way. Imagine the number of "are we there yets" you can avoid.

Some tips...invest in rechargeable batteries and/or the AC adapter. We have the rechargeables and we put them on the charger about every other day. I still ant to get the AC adapter so that while at home she can just plug it in and not run off batteries. If you try to run off regular batteries and your kid plays it a lot you WILL eat through them really fast. It takes 4 AA and i got the batteries for $11 at walmart and then the charger.

Hmm..What else. The system comes with 2 built in games which Monkey played the most with at first. One is a coloring game. The other is kinda like old school Frogger but it involves them identifying letters and numbers. I bought some additional games and so far the Disney Princess is the game of choice. It helps with identifying letters both upper and lower case as well as words. I think there is some math in it too. She played with it for hours yesterday and all I kept hearign from her was "Awesome" or "Yea!" or "Mommy look at this treasure".

Over all I think it was a good investment. It's great for people who want something that their kids will enjoy for a long while but will also teach them various learnign things as well.

Coming soon.....the LeapFrog Tag Reader!

2008

2008-12-31T20:15:00.000-08:00

Everyone is doing it so I figure what the heck....I've got another 40 minutes till the ball drops, ringing in 2009 so why not post a blog about 2008. Hopefully I won't bore you to tears!! This last year definitely was an interesting one for sure. I remember exactly where I was this time last year. I just had found out I was expecting baby #2 and had no idea what the heck was going to happen. Mr. X and I really didn't know each other that well so I was terrified he would take off like Monkey's dad did. The thought of being a single mom of 2 is a bit scary although I'm sure I would have figured it out if it had come to that. But that's not the issue so enough of that.

I would say that everyone's goal for each year should be to end it on a better note than it began. Right? They always say go out with a bang. Wait, I think thats what they say...I think I may be too tired from staying up this late! Anyways, this past year definitely had a rocky start. Mr. X and I stuck it out and it was definitely rough going. I had to get past my issues of not having control over every single aspect of my life and he had to get used to the idea of a ready made family with another on the way. It turned out ok though.

January and February are a blur as I had horrid morning sickness. March was spent making up missed sleep and packing up my condo. By April Mr. X and I were living together. We found out in May that baby #2 would be a boy and spent the remaining months "debating" over his name. In June Monkey finished pre-k. In July we moved into the new house. August I transfered to a new office location closer to home. Finally in September Toots arrived. September and October I got to stay home on "maternity leave". Yes, I quoted that b/c I was never really and truely off. I was still dealing with work stuff from home. Returned to work end of October and by November had rearranged my work schedule to now work from home. Then of course the holidays through November and December. I lost someone very near and dear to me in December and got to make an unexpected trip home which also meant my family got ot meet Toots afterall.

2008 in all it's glory has been a very long yet very busy year. Honestly....I don't know that I ever thought we would be where we are now. I have to say that I'm happy though. I'm glad that life has taken me down this path and brought me to where we are now. Sometimes I like to even think Mr. X is happy too. LOL Really, he is though. At least thats what he says when it's just him and I snuggled up at the end of the night.

Content. Thats another word I would use. I don't even regret or miss my old lifestyle. I'm perfectly happy to stay at home with the kids and Mr. X just relaxing or something. I love cooking again and trying new recipes. I get to spend way more time with the kiddo's than I ever did when Monkey was a baby.

Over all I'd say that my year is ending better than it began. And if the trend continues...then that means 2009 will be even better!

Happy New Year to Everyone!

Coming Soon....

2008-12-29T04:14:00.000-08:00

So Monkey got to meet with the rep at a modeling and talent agency last week before Christmas. I've wondered how people got their kids into it but never really pursued it either. Monkey has big beautiful brown eyes that just stand out and she loves posing for the camera. So it makes sense that it would probably be something she is good at. Well the agent thinks so too. So in March she goes through a 9 week course that teaches her all the specifics. Once thats done she'll get professional photo's done which will be submitted to companies to see if they want to work with her. Companies like Macy's, Dillards, Target. It could be anything from a catalogue to bridal show runway stuff, even commercials. They are a pretty big company, they represent Chad Michael Murray from One Tree Hill. I think it will be pretty cool but we'll have to monitor it really closely. If at any time she stops enjoying it we'll pull her out. Any money she gets from jobs will go straight into savings for her college fund. So be on the look out!! I'm sure if she lands a job I'll be posting it so everyone will know though! LOL

And It's Over

2008-12-26T03:59:00.000-08:00

Wow...an entire year building up to 1 day and it's over. Now we start again!! LOL Christmas yesterday was OK. I think I had put too much expectation into it though which won't be repeated in the future. To start off Mr. X was waking me up at 5am saying "Is it time yet?". Uh no. Even Toots let me sleep in till 6am again. Monkey slept till 7:30! By that time I was considering getting her up. She never sleeps that late and I was shocked she had. The first thing she did when she got up though was come out ot see if Santa had arrived. Then came to our room and said "mommy Santa came!". Mr. X wanted to make her wait through a shower but that would have been another 45minutes (he likes long showers) and I didn't want to torture her so we headed to the living room to start. Here's some photo's!

Christmas eve in front of the tree

Monkeys letter to Santa. I cant read it either

Opening her stocking

Chomping on his new toy

The Tag reader

Her favorite toy of all

Chomping on another toy

Playing with Tag

Opening his big gift

Realizing I double wrapped it

And its the Xbox 360!

And then Mr. X got commissioned to make breakfast. His amazing bisquits and gravy. I managed to snap a pic of him cooking in his new Xbox fleece pants he got.

As for me...well I got a picture frame and a copy of a DVD.