A Success

I tried and I succeeded!   I got all of this for $11.05 and my overall grocery bill at Kroger before coupons was $201.05 and I only spent $109.58, so that is a saving of $91.47!  I could not believe it!

I have been wanting to become a coupon queen for sometime, but was using every excuse not too...you know the ones…it’s too hard, I don’t have the time, that can’t be possible to get things that cheap.  Then a couple of weeks ago, BlogHer contacted me about an opportunity to save money at the Kroger’s & P&G promotions.  I was super excited.  BlogHer along with Kroger sent me a$25 gift card and I did a little bit of research, loaded my Kroger card with a few online coupons and did some clipping from the local newspaper coupons and TaDa,  here are the fruits of my labor.

Let me break down the above picture from left to right…

• Tampons-after coupon(s) I spent $.19
• Febreeze Candle-after coupon(s) I spent $-2.01 (oh Yeah, that’s a negative!!)
• Bounty Paper Towels-after coupon(s) I spent $-.01 (yeah, again that’s a negative!)
• Febreeze Spray-after coupon(s) I spent $.99
• Charmin 12 Double Roll pack-after coupon(s) I spent $1.75
• Pantene Shampoo & Conditioner-after coup0n(s) I spent $3.69 ($1.85 each)
• Pantene Mousse-after coupon(s)  I spent $4.3o ($2.15 each)
• Old Spice Body Wash-after coupon(s) I spent nothing!  Yep, it was free!!
• Old Spice Deodorant-after coupons(s) I spent $2.15

The most exciting thing was I could of got more, I just did not realize how it worked!  Another super awesome thing is my family use all of these products and was in need of everything I purchased. 

There is something to this!  Aside from a  little homework, research and some cutting of coupons, this was a very do-able thing and without using coupons I would of spent $43.70 on those items….I saved $32.65!!!  I am super excited!  Thanks BlogHer and Kroger, I look forward to my new found hobby of saving money at the grocery store!

I Have Been Busy…

Well of course I have been busy…how do you like my new blog design?  I have been working on it for what seem like F-O-R-E-V-E-R!  Actually, I have been playing around with it for two days and I still do not have it the way I want, but  I have plenty of time to get it just right over the next couple of day!

Look what else I have been busy with…

I want to be one of those awesome coupon gurus that get tons of stuff for practically nothing!  I am going to start off slowly with a few things that I will pick up from Kroger tomorrow!  Keep your fingers crossed that I do well!  Details to follow!!

Just one more thing…thanks so much for the encouraging comments left on my last post!  As always, bloggers are an awesome group of encouragers!

Pondering Things

I have been quiet for awhile, pondering over a few things.

Christmas was great at our house and it was good to break free from the hustle of life for a few days. I have been off work since the 23rd and will not have to go back until the 3rd. A good break to sit back and reflect.

So what is all the refection about? Good question. I have been thinking of the things that keep running through my mind, mostly my blog. What is it about? When I started my blog it was mostly for keeping track of our family. I have never been a great scrapbook keeper or even a photo album keeper for that matter. As you know, life changes fast and I was not good keeping a record of anything. I thought a blog would be a great place to do that…and it has been.

Blogging is something I enjoy, I enjoy it more than what you would think considering that I have not been posting much. For a while I posted everything, our life, our kids, things that were going on in our life, the good and the bad. Then I heard of some criticism about what I was posting and I became gun shy. I stopped and was very selective on what I posted. I became so selective that I quit blogging for a while and when I did, I was reading and rereading what I was writing so much that I would get frustrated and quit the post.

Which leads me to where I am right now. I am so busy not blogging for the fear of being critiqued that I have been barely blogging at all and I am not happy with that!

Here is an example that what I am talking about. Not to long ago I talked about my son that is in college. Tough love, is it enough or too much, was the blog title. I anguished over it. After I posted it I got great feed back from other parents that were going through similar situations. It was great…not that they were going through what we were going through, but knowing that we were not the only people dealing with this.

As a society, I feel we are living out our lives perfect. Only showing the world our perfect side, the perfect things our children do, the great promotions that our spouses receive, the Christmas card showing the most perfect family full of smiles, the great successes that we accomplish, not the pitfalls that we face. What if we lived in a glass house? What if we lived our life transparently? Would it be different?

I am not saying that life is not great and we should not talk about the good things that happen, but what if we were honest and shared the not so perfect as well. I guess I am there. I want to blog with transparency. We are so super blessed and I look forward to sharing the good, but there are also things that happen that is not so super good and it would be nice to get support from those that might be going through the same sort of thing.

I got super deep there for a bit, but I think I might be changing my blog up some. I blog for me and I need to get back there. Who cares if those that may read my blog disagree with what I say. I am being me and I am looking forward to blogging again!

It’s Not The Weather That’s Frightful….

…It’s the last minute shoppers rushing around to buy for Christmas, namely ME!

The Avenues in Murfreesboro, where I was trying to get all my shopping done at (and the rest of the da-gum continental United States of America), was a mad house.  I did manage to find a parking spot 6.8 miles away from the entrance of Old Navy.  By that point I was distraught.  When I arrived at the doors, I stopped in front of two exit doors.  I stood there looking around for the entrance…and I looked and looked, walked down the store front and still could not find it.  Then, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a lady that walked into Old Navy….the doors were right by the two exit doors!!!!!  UGH.  As I was getting ready to walk in this other lady (who had to be watching me) laughed at me and proceeded to pull open the exit door and walk in!  I guess I am as dumb as a bag of rocks…even though it said exit, all I had to do was pull it open and walk in….see…

I blame it on not going shopping on Black Friday.  Each year I get a huge rush of being at the stores at 3am and usually I am done shopping, or very nearly close to it, by the day end.  I also blame it on my sis-in-law Jenny for not coming to Tennessee at Thanksgiving, because if she would have visited me, we would have shopped until we dropped.  I was just to sad to go without her and her constant whining….. {{{GRIN}}}

At any rate,  by the looks of it, I am sure to lose my mind before I get my shopping done this year!

Redneck Christmas Party

Last night was the annual Redneck Christmas Party at my friends Beth’s house!  I have been looking forward to this since last year and when she called a couple of weeks ago to put me in charge of games again, I was super excited!  This party is a good old fashion have fun, laugh and just be yourself!

I drug my ‘cuz Annette along to enjoy the redneck festivities, but for some reason I just could not get her to chow down on some yum-o souse!  HA!  She was having no part of that!  Unfortunately I did not get a picture of the spread of food but oh my, there a plenty of it, right down to the smoked bologna! 

We played two games, one was Dirty Santa and the other was Pass The Trash.   Both yielded some pretty interesting gifts…

Depends and suppositories…

 

Do it yourself chocolate covered crickets with toothpicks and dipping chocolate…yes those are live crickets!  That gift was my idea…pretty funny, huh?  HA!

A golden throne, fit for a king!

Formal underwear…

Heated corncob toilet paper, shucked to be extra smooth…

Iron Man drawers….yes, this group has something for fancy boxers!

I think I walked away with one of the best gifts of the evening…a box full of goodies containing chicken poop chap stick, monkey butt powder, goat soap and beeswax lotion!  I was super excited!!

Already looking forward to next year!

Oh My, Look What Has Arrived…

  

The college student has arrived home with his mountain size loads of laundry…

Woo hoo, let the fun begin!! 

A Busy 16th…Birthday & Surgery

Today was my hubby’s birthday.  I am almost a year older than him and and I always enjoy the short month that we are the same age.  Of course, I tease endlessly about him getting older!  I might be older, but he acts older with all his aches and aliments!  HA!

We both had to work today, but enjoyed a family lunch at Jim and Nick’s.  Tonight, Jeremy is enjoying his birthday gift of a Frontierville gift card!  In all my years I never thought he would be addicted in love with a computer game, but he is, and we terrorize him a lot about it!

Today we took our little Pomeranian, Maggie to the vet to have her teeth clean and to have her spayed.  She is 10 years old, but we never had it done because there was never a need to.  The vet said that there was a risk of pyometra.  He didn’t think she had it but it was a risk that she could develop it, so we went ahead and had her fixed too.  When I called to make sure I could pick her this afternoon, I thought it was strange that the nurse had to call me back before giving me the answer.   When I got there the vet told me that we were very lucky that we did not lose her and if she had not had the surgery she would have died within six months because she already had pyometra.  YIKES.  The poor little baby also had five teeth pulled…

She will be on pain meds for three days and a round of antibiotics.  I worry that all three pounds of this little ball of fur is going to have  a rough night.  She does not want to lay in her bed or on her mat, but only in the corner of our kitchen.

Poor baby!  That pretty much sums up our day of birthday fun and surgery woes!  Until next time….

You Know It’s Cold When…

…the cat runs into the house and plops her big fanny on the heater  vent! 

Florida Sunshine, Tennessee Snow

A quick trip to Florida with our newly family of four….it was just weird to make a trip without the oldest.  With first college exams looming, taking off for a quick vacay was not in the cards.  DJ was missed.  So with a tear in our eyes not really (we were to excited) we packed up our suit cases and drug along the dogs for a grand adventure to see family and friends! 

We left Wednesday evening to maximize our time there, so hubby graciously drove the entire way while the rest of us snoozed!  That is the way to travel, because every time I woke up, we were that much closer to the destination!

So here are the highlights of our trip, in bullet form…with pictures…yay for you!  :o)

• A cast for the nephew

• Seeing family…it’s good to be loved on, unconditionally!
• Lunch with the best folks on earth….
• Crazy family time at the sisters house…with iPods, an iPhone and computers…(we are such a tech savy bunch)
  

• Baseball games with the nephews…

• Saturday night Christmas musical at our home church

• Birthday present for the hubby…a new GPS (there is whole story about that coming up really soon!)

• A good bye slumber party with some of the nephews
• A short Georgia trip to see the Aunt and Uncle …sadly no picture was taken.
• A rough ride home with terrible winter weather and lots of prayers, a few tears and a snow day to end our trip…

A very much needed trip…..a very much needed snow day and a big smile on our faces to sum up all the fun!  Oh, and a picture of Higgins to make this blog post complete!  HA!

Self Induced Coma

I am back, albeit not willing, but back from a self induced coma.  I had grand visions last Tuesday when I bid farewell to my gold fish Flounder, locked my office door, and headed out for 5 glorious days of checking off many things on my to-do list.  Some of those things included:

• Cook the best Thanksgiving feast ever, right down to the delicate desserts
• Decorate the house for Christmas, THE entire house….
• Make fudge and fruitcake cookies
• Have all the dogs bathe and groomed
• Make a budget
• Organize school stuff
• Catch up on blogging and make a Christmas blog design
• Begin Christmas shopping

That was my list…I really don’t think that any bullet point was totally finished.  Sad, kind of, but not really.  This is how my 5 days played out…

Wednesday, went grocery shopping, came home took a nap.  Wednesday evening looked at recipes and then decided that we didn’t need to eat early so watched TV and went to bed.

Thursday I managed to make a sizeable feast, but not all the delicate desserts, but we were to full to noticed.  Then I took a nap, watched TV and went to bed.

Friday I didn’t do the usual Black Friday 3am bargain hunting, I slept in instead.   Most of the day I goofed off, watched TV, took a nap and was then sound asleep and the bed by 8pm. 

(Are you seeing a pattern take form here?)

Saturday, I slept till 9am, got up cooked breakfast and was back in the bed by 10:30 for a mid morning nap….that lasted until my husband woke me up…that afternoon.  Then I goofed off and watched TV.  We did make an attempt to go to town late that evening, but it didn’t work out, so I went to bed early!

Sunday, woke up really refreshed, got dressed and ready for church, came home ate lunch and took a NAP! 

Yea, I know, I am pathetic!  I got nothing done I wanted to get done…but it was glorious! 

Yesterday was hard trying to get back into the swing of things, so when I finally arrived home after 7-ish, I had my son cook me a grilled cheese sandwich because I was too worn out to turn the stove on and fell asleep watching TV. 

Today, I am focused getting a life and checking back into reality!  I am fully rested, so there is no excuse!  I hope your Thanksgiving weekend was as glorious one as well!  Now I am off to catch up in blog world!

Thankful For Our Son Joey

Our third born son, Joseph, blessed us with his presence on February 23, 1998.  He decided that after a full month of his mom being on bed rest, that he would indeed come a month earlier than his due date.  We were very scared during his delivery not knowing if he would need the help of NICU, but when the time came and the team arrived, he was born and screamed, showing them that he was indeed ready for this world.  By the looks of him now, you could never tell he started as a tiny porcelain doll that wore preemie clothes for the first three months of his life.

Joey is full of life, and loves all things electronic.  Cell phones, TVs, Ipods, computers, you name it!  He could program at VCR at three years old and still never ceases to amaze us at his ability to figure electronic things out.  He loves Facebook, the computer and any kind of game, board or computer.

Cars, trucks, RV’s and anything that is motorized is another one of Joey’s loves.  He can tell you the make and model of any vehicle just by looking at it.  He is always searching the internet for the next vehicle that we “need” to buy!!  He also loves the junk yard and looking at wrecked cars…it excites him and he will talk about it days on end!

When Joey was in the second grade he was found to have a learning disability.  He has dyslexia and a learning disability that is across the board that affects his learning at every level.  We were told that he would never read over a 2nd grade level, if he even reached that.  Through his struggles he has worked hard and now reads at a 7th grade level with a 5th grade comprehension!   Although he struggles in math and may not ever learn above his current level, we are thrilled at his determination at learning!  

A fun fact about Joey…even though he has a learning disability, he has this unremarkable and strange memory for tag numbers of vehicles and expiration dates for said tags.  He knows most peoples tag numbers and when their tag will expire!  That has came in handy on more than one occasion!   Cool huh?

Overall he is a great kid!  He does tend to have a tiny attitude and loves to instigate the daily fights with his brothers or anyone that he can riled up!  As of late he hates to take a shower, struggles to remember to brush his teeth and has a lazy streak as long as a country mile!!  It's all part of being a boy I guess!!

In a nutshell that is our JoeJoe in a short post….that could never do him justice!  We have been truly blessed with our sons and the uniqueness that each one has!  Today I am thankful for  our  youngest son and for his the love of God, love of life and his love for his family!

What Would You Do? Tough Love, Is It Too Much Or Not Enough?

Parenthood has many stages from infants who cry to teenage drama.  All of which can leave parents scratching their head wondering if they are doing the right thing.  Well as parents with a college student, we are still scratching our heads, trying to do the best thing for our child, is tough love the right answer??  It’s hard and I hope that we are doing the right thing…help me with this one, please!

Our oldest is nearing the end of his first semester of college.  He did not get scholarships, so after his student loan (which was not enough), we paid for the remainder of his semester, along with a dorm room, books and a meal pass which allows him 3 meals a day Monday through Friday and two meals a day on Saturday and Sunday and then $100 on his student ID to cover any other college expenses.  We brought him the staples of dorm life, bedding, towels,  laundry soap and all those fun items to set his room up to get him a great start to this new chapter of his life and before we could blink, we was driving off to college.  We were left feeling a little anxious to say the least, praying that he would arrive safely to his new life five hours away.

We tried not to hover, keep our distance, and let him call when he needed us, not when I needed him.   It’s hard having a child in your life that you talk to every day for 18 years, to not speak to them for days on end…but on the advice of a two time college student mom, she said let him have his freedom.  So we did.

Here is where we are having our issues.  Upon arriving at college with some money in his account that  we put there for “emergences” his first emergency was a much needed  Xbox.  We quickly pulled our money out and decided if that was an urgent emergency, he would have to call for the next emergency that arose.

He has yet to find a job.  He says his class schedule interferes with getting a job and his hours are not ideal for employers to hire him.  I strongly disagreed, considering all his classes are during the day, except for one night class.  I called two pizza places to see if they would hire him, and they were hiring…go figure, but to date he still has not been hired. 

He had developed over his many years of experience a bad habit, which is costly and something that his father and I are highly not happy about…smoking. 

His grades???  One B, one C and two D’s which are not good enough for us, considering the only responsibility he has as a college student is to well, study and do homework.  There is no job, remember??

Here is where the tough love thing has came in.  We, as parents, feel that the baby boy has made his bed and needs to be the adult that he has so claimed that he wants to be.  We are not going to support a habit.  If he has money to buy cigarettes, then he should have money to wash his clothes…priorities, I say!  There is no need to send money for food, because we have paid, in advance for him to eat three meals a day.  He lives on campus so if there is no job, why does he need to drive anywhere?  We pay for his insurance for his car, which is very high and also for his cell phone. 

I think he feels that we are not doing enough for him and seems to be highly upset with his current financial status and that we are not sending him money.  Just two weeks ago, he put on his Facebook status that he needed money and was getting ready to sell his stuff.  We didn’t send money, so hopefully he still has his Xbox, because it would be ashamed if he had to sell it to buy cigarettes….just sayin’. 

What would you do??

Tables Every Where! Warning, Lots of Pictures!

What am I doing with these???  Music sheets that are cut and folded in various shapes and sizes??

Making flowers for my banquet table for our churches annual Banquet of the Tables!  Check out my table…..

I usually do something big and outrageous, but this year I had this thought of doing a table out of nothing but paper, but then it evolved into paper roses made out of music sheets. 

There were many beautiful and outrageous tables this year, check these out…

Take a closer look, this table, it had goldfish swimming around in the plates!!

 

This was just a few of the many tables. 

It was a sold out event with Tammy Trent as  the speaker…can’t wait to see how the night turns out!!