Busy, Busy Week….

It always seems that every year around this time…it is SUPER busy for our little family of 6.  And this year is NO different.

May is just a busy month.

There Are birthdays:

• Shawna (my sister)
• Grandma Coats (my sister and my grandma’s birthday are on the SAME day–How cool is that!!!)
• My mother in Law Betty
• My step-Dad Joe
• My best friend Deanna’s birthday
• And My Birthday

Then we have 3 June Birthdays:

• David’s birthday falls on June 1st!  He will be 5 this year!
• Brock (Eric’s Nephew.  Brock and David Share the SAME birthday which is REALLY COOL!  No we didn’t plan it that way…..it just happened.)
• Jason-My brother in law

And of course there is:

• Mother’s Day
• Aimee’s Graduation
• And Aimee’s 6th grade 3 day orientation at the end of May
• And David’s dental appointment

This week we are going shopping-AGAIN for Aimee a Graduation Dress…UUGGGHHH!  Some of the boys in the 5th grade classes are wearing TUXES!!!!!  This is only a 5th grade graduation and where they hold it—it get’s HOT!!!!  So Aimee decided she wanted to ‘dress’ up just a little more.  I don’t blame her one little bit.

She likes to shop at Target and Kohls.  Which is good because I have a $5.00 gift card to Target and a $10.00 gift card to Kohls.

First we will hit Target….and if they still have this….Then we will not go to kohls…

And This…

Then all we have to do is find her some white or black Strappy sandals or ballerina flats.  She also wants me to make her a coordinating headband.  So we will have to make a run to the fabric store.

Keep your fingers crossed that we are able to find that dress and shrug.  Aimee has her heart set on them.  If not, it is to Kohls we go.

Speaking of there ‘graduation’, they are no longer allowed to call it a graduation.  They are to call it a “Promotion Celebration”…which I think is STUPID, I mean silly!  Aimee’s teacher even thinks it’s silly.

Yesterday, I ventured out to Walgreens.  Now, I don’t normally shop there but felt I had to as I was looking at all the good deals a lot of people get at walgreens.

Anywho, Everyone who knows me just a little bit knows I love my house smelling awesome.  I love candles.  I collect them….and I love all sorts of fragrances.

I also love spray scents and such, as Glad, Febreze and Air Wicks.  Yes, I am a tade OCD when it comes to my house smelling good.

I just couldn’t pass up these deals…and I still have a few coupons left so I can go and pick up a few more later this week.  Crossing fingers that they still have some left.

I went to two different Walgreens.  I purchased  The two candles at one and the I scents kit at another one.

I bought Two Lumin Air Candles for $4.99 each (they were on sale…regularly, I believe they are $9.99.  I had 2-$3.00 off coupons making them $3.98 for both of them.  In total I paid $4.93! For both of them.  My total savings that trip were $17.50.  I also bought two more items with coupons!

My second trip I purchased the Air Wick I-Scents…

It was on sale for $4.99 cents.  I had a coupons for $4.00.  Making it $0.99! with Taxes I only paid $1.46!!!!

I have one more coupon left for each item.  I am hoping to get these in the next couple of days.  i would love to be able to pick up 3 more of the candles to keep in the bathrooms…I just don’t know if I will be able to.

I hope you all have had a wonderful start to the week.

Take Care!

Bargain Bin Friday #4

Just a few samples for you today….
• Gillette Fusion Razor! *Giving Away 500 a day*
• Better Than Ears-Dog Treat
• L’ Oreal Paris Ever Pure Sample

Here are some Money Saving Tips that I worked for us….

1. Turn your Thermostat down!  Our Electric bills were getting out of control last summer.  We decided to turn our thermostat up…and in the winter to turn it down.  We keep our Thermostat set at 65º during the winter.  During the Summer it is at 79º.  It may seem like a we would either be freezing in the winter and hot in the summer but we are not.  I live in a 3,000 square foot house.  Our electric bill last month was $190!  My neighbors, who lives in a 3007 square foot house was $500!!!  Both our heat and Air conditioner are turned off and the Air conditioner will NOT be turned on until June 1st.  We will open windows and use fans.  Hoping to save more money.
2. Wrap your celery or Lettuce in aluminum foil, it last for a long time. Just a note: Do not wash first.
3. Hand wash your dishes.  Using a dishwasher costs money.
4. Hang clothes to dry.  I hang dry about 40% of our clothing
5. Unplug appliances when not in use…this goes for lamps, dvd players, coffee pots…etc.  Even when they are plugged in and not in use it is using electricity.
6. If you use dryer sheets.  Cut them in half.  It works just as well as using a full dryer sheet.  Yet, you are getting double for your money.

I went too Kmart on Wednesday to see if they had some cereal left that was on sale (which I also had coupons for).  However, they were all sold out.

I usually don’t go into our Kmart because it is filthy, nasty looking.  However, I did this time for the sale.  After finding out it was sold out.  I took a quick glance at the kids clothes.  And notice they were having a $1.99 sale.  I went through the boys sizes first (because they need clothes worse than Aimee does).  I found NOTHING for them.

I then went to the girl section…JACKPOT!  Aimee asked for some new sweatshirts for next year.   I found one left.  And in her favorite color of Pink for $1.99.  Then I spotted a slew of HSM (High School Musical) shirts.   I found one kinda ‘vintage’/ ‘retro’ looking shirt that I knew she would love for $1.99.  They had more there but I had to get out of there…the store is just really dirty in my opinion.

She loves them both.  Yes, the sweatshirt is a big size….but she likes to be able to move in sweatshirts and likes them bigger.  My daughter also has long arms and the sweatshirt has longer sleeves then most do.

And here she is wearing her New HSM shirt.  She loves it.  She couldn’t wait to wear it.

And I think it is time to get her a new bike…she seems to be outgrowing this one….

I hope you all have a great day!

Take Care!

Great-Nanny’s Gifts…..

Are bought….
With the exception of Daniel.
Great nanny bought:
Aimee a Mancala game….she had this game last year, but the wood broke apart and she lost some beads…she loves this game. She was introduce to it last year when she was in the 3rd grade by her teacher.
Zachary will receive a pair of Spiderman Lounge pants and Transformer underwear.
David will receive Go Diego Go Flannel Pajama’s and some new underwear.
Daniel we will be picking him up some lounge pants/pj’s as well from Great Nanny. Just need to pick them out.

Now, my sisters gift card hasn’t got here yet. She lives in Oklahoma and with all the ice they have there it still might be a couple of days before we get it…and I want to get the children something useful with it. Aimee will probably get a night gown or pajamas of some sort. But that is all I know…
After that we are DONE, DONE, DONE with Shopping!
My kids are going to be so spoiled this Christmas…..Not by us….but by the grandparents, great-grandparents and Aunts and Uncles.
Eric’s classes for the fall sememster are coming to an end. So he is picking up more hours at Hobby Lobby. Which is great. And he doesn’t seem to mind at all….He might even collect a good chunck of over time. Which is so good.
He is needing a break from college studies. He ‘might’ be on pare to graduate a semester early. Which would be awesome.
I hope you all had a Tiggerific Tuesday.

Shopping deals & more cleaning….

Hi Guys! As my daughter would say “Whatcha doin’?”
My day consisted of cleaning, laundry and more cleaning.
And by some small miracle it is staying clean.
I also took my 24 pound turkey out of the freezer for thawing. I am so excited for Thanksgiving.
This evening after Eric got off of work we went to the PX (a shopping center for all those non-military people) for some shopping. We just didn’t go to go Christmas shopping. We went to find some jeans for my 6 year old who thinks jeans just grow on trees and that no matter how new his jeans are that he can get horrible holes in the seat of his pants! We have purchased him 2 new pair of jeans the past 2 weeks and both pair have a couple of holes in them. Guess, I need to be on the look out for jean patches. And to make matters worse. They were all out of his size of Jeans. And this is the biggest PX in the United States. And they were still out of them.
So we bought him a pair of sweats. And we also picked up Daniel another pair of jeans, a pullover sweat shirt with hoodie, and we also got him a pair of sweats.
But while there I had to do a little Christmas Shopping. We are getting our two younger boys The Leapster Game system. So I have been looking for some games for the both of them. Well, Zachary LOVES batman. Online the Leapster Batman game has been going from 19.99 to 24.99 and if you buy on eBay sometimes even higher than that. I guess they had them on clearance at the PX or maybe on sale but it looks more like a clearance type price. At $6.00!!!!!
I even picked up the Cat a couple of cat toys for his stocking. *insert rolling eyes* My daughter seems to think that Santa is going to leave our cat Baloo something.
While we were there Zachary wondered away from us. We couldn’t find him for about 15 minute’s. We were in the process of doing a lock down of the PX when Zachary walked up behind me. I don’t know what the kid was thinking. I told him to go and stand by his dad, which wasn’t 3 feet away from me and the last thing we know, he is no where in sight…..
I can’t wait for Tuesday to get here so I can start on my baking and such.
We did get back late and had a very late dinner. But we had a good time, with the exception of losing Zachary.
I hope you all had a Super Saturday!
TTFN!

Shopping, Shopping, Shopping….

Eric and I went on a SUPER fast shopping trip today!
What did we get?????
Christmas decorations and a BEAUTIFUL tree!
Our Hobby Lobby had a coupon for this week of 40% off ONE item.
Well, we used that coupon to get a 7.5 foot pre-lite Christmas Tree! It was regularly 299.99!
We got 40% off that and an additional 15% because Eric works there. The tree ended up costing us about 140.00 (I believe) This tree actually looks like a Christmas tree that you would find out in the woods….I would never spend $300 dollars for a Christmas Tree. And I normally wouldn’t even spend $140 on a Christmas Tree. But I feel like we got a good tree that will last us a while. We even got one of those beautiful flowing bows to put at the top. We did get that at Home Depot. And We picked up a couple of boxes of Christmas Cards (also at Hobby Lobby).
We picked up some Gel Clings for Christmas for the Window. Which I like the look of the Gel Clings better than the regular clings that you can get. We got several of those. I got a couple of rolls of gift wrap.
We have now do have 1/2 of our Christmas shopping done….And hopefully by Dec. 15th we will be done.
I did get a few of the kids gifts in the mail that I have ordered. With Aimee all we are lacking is her Santa Gift.
The next kid, David we are well on our way with being done with his. Daniel we have one gift.
And Zachary we have NONE! Like I said we have about half left.
Eric will be bringing home our tree tomorrow or sometime next week. I do want to get a nice plastic box thing for the tree to go in.
Now, I need new decorations for my new tree. We do have a smaller tree that we are going to set up too somewhere in the house. Just don’t know where yet…
I have a question for you all….

With Thanksgiving coming up. What is your FAVORITE Thanksgiving Dessert(did I get the right spelling of Dessert????)

I hope you all had a terrific day.
TTFN!

Online shopping….

Since Christmas is in the Mist.
Where do you shop online???
I think I need to find some different places to shop at.

For toys~
I either hit eBay or Toy’s R Us. And sometimes Amazon.

For clothing

I like to shop at Kohls, Old Navy, and sometimes Target.

For other items such as kitchen, decor, and household items I shop at…

Kohls, Target, Linens and Things and ebay.

I do go into Walmart. But that is usually just for groceries and not much else.

Where do you shop online? I need some new places to shop (online that is)

Today, while Aimee and I were talking. I asked her what she wanted for Christmas. Since she hasn’t mentioned much. She started rattling off things that she wanted and only ONE item was a toy. The rest she asked for was a Pink (imagine that) MP3 player , from Santa (Yes, I think she still believes in Santa) she wants a desk, A pink CD/Radio for her room. Some Cd’s and Art stuff and clothes. She mentioned a few other things but that is all I can think of right now. And the toy that she wants is a Barbie that is a bride.

I think my little girl is growing up on me.

Which Reminds me. For the last 4 years, we have put a DVD in each child’s stocking. I have NO idea what DVDs are coming out. I do know that the Transformer movie will more than likely be coming out so I will probably pick that up for Daniel. However, What other movies are there???

Aimee likes anything Hannah Montana and High School Musical.
Zachary is like his brother he will be 7 this Christmas….don’t know what movie to get for his stocking.
David-Loves Scooby Doo, Diego, and Spiderman. Sometimes he will watch the backyardigans.

So any ideas on movies???

Anyway….

A small David update~ Tonight I noticed some bumps appearing on his upper thigh. I immediately put the antibiotic ointment on it that we have. Just praying if it was the start of a boil that this will catch it early and if it isn’t, well better to be safe than sorry….hopefully the bumps will be gone by morning.

I hope you all had a wonderful Saturday. It was such a nice, pleasant day here.
Have a wonderful night.
TTFN

All About Pink…

Last night Aimee and I went to Hobby Lobby.
It was PACKED I tell ya!
It seemed like EVERY isle we went down there was something pink.
Now, I am not complaining in the least bit. Pink is one of my favorite colors.
But can’t there be too much pink???
We were walking down a Christmas Isle That has those pretty Decorative Christmasy cones.
And Aimee spots it…..
She spots a glitterly pink tree that she has to have for her room to decorate for Christmas. It stands about 16 inches tall. And it is adorable and I love it. I was not sure about it but we got it home and it is the cutest thing.
They come in Large, Medium and Small. I would love to get a Large one and two medium ones to sit on my breakfast nook table but my husband will not let me….he says my boys wouldn’t like that.
Aimee got the large size. And it was 50% off on top of that.
Here is Aimee’s Sweet Pink Christmas Glitter Tree….

It looks so much cuter in person!
They have some beautiful fall/seasonal things out this year. I love there plastic holiday drinking cups that are 4/$1.00. I picked up a set of those that have turkeys on them and it says “Gobble, Gobble!” So cute and great for kids. I don’t like my kids drinking out of glasses (at least not yet) and these are darling and the kids just love them.
Tomorrow, I am going to try and sleep in a bit….and my older two kids are getting to stay up tonight past there bed times. With the hopes that they will sleep in as well.
I did get a lot of Cake recipes posted yesterday at my Recipe blog…..still working on all the rest of them…gettin’ behind.
Aimee tried something new today and liked it. She tried Chicken Salad on a cracker and loved it.
So we picked up a container of it at Sams. And some Club Crackers at Walmart. She wants to eat that for a snack, instead of brownies or chips.
She has homework over her fall break. She has to write a paper about the Forest. She has to read a book and then she has to start on a science project that is Due on Oct. 18th.
Zachary is going to a pumpkin patch and Apple Tree farm at the End of October and he is going to love that. He will get to pick out a pumpkin and bring home about 4 apples.
Eric has a two day ‘Fall Break’ from College Classes next week, Both Monday and Tuesday and he has taken off work for those two days as well. I think he needs to decompress a bit.
Eric is taking Daniel and Aimee to church Tonight. It is Awana Night. Zachary is a little sick so he is going to Eat dinner early and go to be around 7.
While my crew are at church, I am going to try to get some cleaning downstairs done, and try to see if I can’t relax a bit myself.
So, with that I leave you with this….
What do you do to relax?
Have a wonderful day!

WOW! What a busy week….

My kids start school in 6 days….I have been SO busy this week with getting all of there school supplies bought and getting them stored in there appropriate backpacks. I still need to pick up a backpack for my 6 year old. I still need to get all of them some sneakers…and of course Aimee will have to have another “girly” pair of shoes. We also need to purchase there lunch boxes.
Thankfully, Starting today through Sunday it is tax free. On all clothing, shoes, computers, Art Supplies, basically back to school, and college items.

And to top it all of “This is the BEST part!!!” Aimee is getting baptized this Sunday. I just want to SHOUT it from the highest Mountain! The best part is that she “gets” it. She loves her Lord. She is a prayer Warrior. She loves to pray. She has God in her heart Fully! You can just see it on her face. She loves going to church and being in Church functions. She had a wonderful time at VBS this year. As did Daniel and Zachary.

So Wednesday, we went to purchase her a new dress and shoes…I will be sure to take pictures before we leave. The Baptism will also be video taped. I believe above all other days that this should be the BEST day in her life.

We found a dress online late on Tuesday from Sears that was just REALLY cute and it was on sale for 29.00. So that is the first place she wanted to go….I tell ya, I am NEVER going to go shopping for her clothes at Sears again…they have absolutely NOTHING. No dress, all they had was hoochy momma type of clothing….Come On….She isn’t even going to be wearing that style (if you even want to call it a style) of clothing when she is 18! <—That is a whole other post!

So After we went there we went to Payless, and we found a couple of pairs of shoes that were indeed cute. However, They were more everyday and school type shoes (which I still need to buy) We left there and passed by one of our favorite stores…Hallmark. And what does she spot. Webkinz! So she just had to look at those and tell me which ones she wanted. Do NOT purchase these webkinz on Ebay…sellers are robbing people BLIND with these things. Our Hallmark was OVERFLOWING with the Webkinz and Lil’kinz. They are 13.99 for the big ones and 9.99 for the lil’kinz.

So then we went to Goody’s. I really don’t care to shop in Goody’s because there Cashiers are rather rude here. But I went in for a look see. And what do you know, we Aimee found a dress that she liked and I found one that I liked for her. She said that she liked the one I found as well and wanted to try both of them on. She tried on the one I picked out first….It had a full twirl skirt, it was black with white and Turquoise ovals. She looks so pretty in it. She has blue-grey color eyes and it made her eyes just pop. Then she tried on her dress, it is black with white polka dot the back is longer than the front. It was BREATHE taking on her. She looked SO grown up. I told her it was her choice on which one she wanted. And she chose the black one with white polka dots and I am so glad that she did. She did want the other one and I told her we might come back if they have a 75% off sale. We check out with a lady that is as rude as can be and is EATING! Yes, EATING! And had a VERY strong perfume smell, very overpowering. The dress was 50% off we which it ended up being $25.00. Which I was happy with.

We leave there and head over to Old Navy. To pick up Aimee a couple of solid color T-Shirts.
She pick a black and Orange one. And they were on sale for only $2.49! And of course I pass this cute little Cardigan sweater. There was only one left in her size. I snatched it up.

We went to Target for her shoes. And we bought the LAST pair in her size. We bought pretty little black patent shoes that buckle at the ankle and have a slight heel.

Needless to say, she is SO excited about Sunday. I am going to make a special dinner for that evening as well.

Tonight, I plan to go back to payless, Wal-mart and Target to see what I can find for shoes. Hopefully, the crowds will be down some.

Today is a day of cleaning and getting caught back up on…..You guessed it. Laundry!

Have a wonderful day!