Bath Baby

Oh I just love a baby wrapped up in a towel fresh from the bath. So cute and smells so good.

Oh The Stairs!

He is climbing the stairs. It freaks me out b/c I am always scared that he will fall down them. He thinks he is such a big boy when he does it. It's Cute!

First Day of Primary

I can not beleive that our little boy is no longer in nursery ( the class for age 18-mo to 3 yrs at church). He was sad to leave the toys, snacks and crafts behind. After a couple of weeks though he is enjoying primary. This is a picture of him on his first day.

The Bear's Favorite Toys

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My little boy has two favorite toys. Socks and do you know what that little white thing is in his left hand? Well this is where it came from?





Yup, the toilet cap. Yuck! He loves that thing and I can not seem to keep him away from it. I am going to have to remember to shut that bathroom door more often.
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Christmas Cards

I make the effort to send out Christmas card each year. Why? Well I like to keep in touch with friends and family, but mostly b/c I love to get cards in the mail. I get email all the time but real hold in your hand, hang on your wall mail is a rareity these days. I save each picture and at the end of the Christmas season arrange them on this magnet board in my kitchen. Then I can enjoy my cards all year long. When people come over they always check it out and often they point to a family or two and say hey I know them. Thanks to all of you that sent us a card. We love it!

Parenting With Love and Logic

A few months ago my cousins NaTasha and Kwinnae told me about a great parenting book. I checked out the book and the audio book from the library and my husband and I both read/listened to the book.
I really enjoyed the book. It focuses on teaching children responsibility, and giving them choices.
It has been pretty tricky to train ourselves to talk to our children differently. We are working on giving choices and positive modeling.
Do you have any favorite parenting books? Have you read Love and Logic?

Now Where Do I Put it?

This fall I found myself listening to a lot of AM talk radio. I was concerned about our country and the election and wanted to be more educated. Unfortunately it mostly just made me worry, stress, fret and feel like I could not do anything about our countries economic situation.
On a weekly basis I talk to people who are losing their jobs. I have seen things slow down at my work and had my hours cut back. The company my husband works for has cut back every ones hours to 32 and has laid off more than 35 guys. I have watched businesses shut their door left and right. Not to mention the banks and car manufactures.
I feel like I have to do more to conserve. I think it is a widespread feeling. We don't have cable, we don't have cell phones, no gym membership, no fancy car payments. We already live with out the bills I could cut out in economic hard times. So the solution for me has been couponing. It takes time but it really can save a lot of money.
So the whole reason for this post, I have been stocking up when something is a good price. I just feel that if is a non-perishable item I should buy it while I have the money for it and not have to pay much more later. Later I might not have the money and it will likely cost much more. I have always kind of had this philosophy but I have been putting more into practice lately. I have always tried to get the best price on food and take advantage of sales, but now I just do it a lot more. Instead of watching one store I watch five or six.
Getting closer to the point of this post. With my stocking up over the years and the food storage we got from Mark's parents I was feeling a need to get it more organized. It was stacked in the garage with camping stuff and baby clothes and motorcycle gear. Not well organized and running out of room.
I talked to my husband about my dream for a better system a place where the food would not get to hot or too cold and I could actually see what was there. So after some discussion, a trip to Lowe's and $19 on 2x4 and nails I got some shelves in the spare bedroom closet. Yea I am so excited. The shelf wood he picked up from a demolition job. They have just been sitting in that crowded garage.




Thanks honey you are the man! We had this little discussion on friday and by saturday afternoon I had shelves. I love that he is a DIY kind of guy!

I don't want to turn this into a couponing blog b/c I already write on one of those (check it out fabulessly frugal)but just to drive home my point I am going to share my shopping trip on friday.....

Here are the STATS:

62 ITEMS

Retail Value: $240.21

Preferred Savings: -$79.22
Manufactured Coupons
Catalinas: -$75.00
Clipped/Printed: -$46.10
Total Savings: 200.32

Total OOP- $39.89

That is 0.62 an item and 80% Savings

I also earned $15 in catalina's for my next trip and $27 in gas rewards!
So if you subtract that from the total it is like I made $2.11

Beware of CRAZY Shoppers!

So I have been working out the Albertson's diaper deal this week. I finally had it figured out and went to Albertson's last night. Of course they were all out of the the diapers that were on the deal. I got a bigger pack and went up front to see if it would work with the deal. After talking to the ladies in the front for 25 minutes it did not seem like it would. So they recommended I call in the morning and see if the right package size was back in stock.
This morning I called and they told me that they had just finished stocking the shelves. So I loaded up my children and went to the store. I headed straight for the diaper aisle. As I made my way down the aisle I could see a lady with her cart jam packed full of Pamper's Diapers in the Jumbo Size. The deal diapers! I looked up to see about 6 packs left in the size 3 which is what I needed.
I jokingly asked her if she was going to take all of the diapers.
CRAZY LADY: ya all of the diapers left on the shelf I am saving for my friend.
ME: Really I said, but your friend is not here.
CRAZY LADY: Well she just called me and she is coming.
ME: Well I am sure it wouldn't be a big deal if I just took three.You can have any of those other box packages.
ME: Well those are not part of the deal you know that.
CRAZY LADY: All I know is that my friend told me to come and get these diapers.

I went to reach for the diapers and she flipped. Trying to grab them before I could.
I managed to get two packages off the shelf and the ranting began.

CRAZY LADY: I can't believe you are doing this. I have been here for 1 1/2 hours waiting for these diapers.
ME: I am sorry but you can't just save diapers on the shelf.
CRAZY LADY: Well they reserved all of these diapers for me.
(If they did that they would have been in the back, she was such a liar)
ME: Well I am sure you will be fine you have whole cart full (the lower section and the whole basket). I really just need one more to do the deal. (I was hoping she would see how stupid she was being and give me one package) I guess I was hoping she would come to her senses.
CRAZY LADY: Well I need all these diapers.
ME: Well I need diapers too, (pointing to me infant in the cart.)
CRAZY LADY: I came here last night to get them and they were out.
ME: So did I.

Finally I realized she was not going to relent and I was not about to take any diapers from her cart so I decided I would grab a bag of size 4 off the shelf and move on.

ME: You know if you don't know the deal you are going to have to pay a lot more for those diapers, I will tell you if you just give me a pack of 3's. (I kind of wanted to see if she was lying about her knowledge. You have to buy the diapers in sets of three in different transactions or you will not get you $20 back.)
CRAZY LADY: Oh I know that you have to but them in sets of 3.

I started to make my way down the aisle I had sick feeling in my stomach. I do not like confrontation and it just was icky to me fighting with a grown woman in a grocery store. I turned around and said,

ME: I am sorry I upset you. I really didn't think it would be a big deal.
CRAZY LADY: Well I was just trying to be a good friend and get some diapers for my friend. She has seven kids.
ME: I think there will be plenty of diapers for her.
CRAZY LADY: Well I just needed the size 3. (She had multiple sizes in the cart)
I started to walk away and then decided with such a good deal maybe I should get some size 4. I turn around and she is putting the size 4 in her cart. I watch her for a minute thinking she might be about done b/c her cart will not fit anymore diapers. She starts to walk away and a couple of Albertson's managers come up to her and tell her that the deal does not work at all Albertson's that it is only some stores. That it was not advertised in there add and she begins her rant and I head off.
I debated, are they right about it not working here? I know that it worked yesterday b/c the employee's told me that people did it yesterday in that store. I decided I would try it and if it did not work just return the diapers. Three packages would not be a big deal. I went through the line and presto just like I read.....

Buy three pampers cruisers Jumbo pack size

Diapers 10 (with preferred card)
Diapers 10
Diapers 10

Used 3/$1 coupons and the Albertsons doubler.
Saved $6

Total 25.62

Got $20 back in coupons (vouchers to use at my next albertsons trip on groceries.)

Total cost

$5.62 for 3 packages a diaper.

That is $1.87 per pack or .05 a diaper

So you can see why the lady was so crazy to get diapers but really? Was it worth all of that rude attitude? Was I out of line? What would you have done?

Volleyball!

If you know me you know that I love, love, love volleyball. I have always thought it was fun and would play sometimes in the summer with my friends, but it wasn't until Jan 2004 that I really started playing on a regular basis. When I started playing I was pretty inexperineced. I was learning to set and really could not spike. I was used to the just get the ball over the net mentalily. Not the bump, set, kill!

Over the past 5 years my skills have progressed and so has my playing time. I have played 6 seasons of city league and in a couple of tournaments. I have a co-ed pick up night, a women's pick up night, and in the summer there is sand volleyball night.

It gives me a little exercise and I can play year round. It is fairly inexpensive and only takes four people to play although a few more is preferred.

The past two years I have gotten my husband into it and that has been really fun to do together. He says I can not keep up on the b-ball court so this is a better fit.(He is right I can't). This past fall we even played on a city league team together and the past two summer's we have done tournaments together.

This summer we LOVED watching the US teams play indoor and outdoor volleyball. We watched every game we could. Some times I tell Mark that if we didn't have kids and I had like way better skills I would love to play professionally. Wouldn't it be cool to be like Phil Dalhausser, move to CA with little volleyball experience, start playing on the beach everyday and 4 years later win the world championships.

Well I really wouldn't trade my life, but I do think it would be fun to have mad skills and play lots of volleyball.

The other cool thing about volleyball is all the cool people especially women I have met over the past few years playing. Thanks ladies for all the fun times.

My New Hobbie

Couponing and deal hunting is my new hobby. It is kind of like a fun little game to see how much money I can save. I find ways to pay little or no money for things and occasionally I get paid for buying stuff.

Almost two years ago my Aunt Glenda and Unlce Tracy told me all about the coupon world. Couponing is Tracy's hobby. I was really excited to try it but got discouraged when I saw that the best deals were at CVS which we don't have and I had a lot of trouble figuring out the whole combining coupons and keeping track of sales. It seemed too time consuming. When I looked at the coupons in the paper I didn't think I would use them. Plus who takes printed coupons and which printed coupons are legal?

Since I have been lured into the whole blogging world I have learned a lot and found lots of sites that find all the deals and coupons for you. Awesome! I have even started posting on a money saving blog. Fabulessly Frugal

Now here are a couple of bragging photos........

I got all this stuff for $10.



All of this stuff was FREE!



Are you a deal hunter? What are your favorite sites?