I “ran” by the Coach outlet “on the way” to see if I could use the Coach coupon that expired Monday. Unfortunately I didn’t find anything that I HAD to have Saved me a few dollars!

The kids got to milk a cow. Kinda.
Take a few serious pictures. Kinda.
The most important part was the ice cream at the end of the tour…
I tried Southern Blackberry cobbler. Out of this world good! My little ones had, Snickerdoodle and Blueberry Cheesecake, which means I get to try some of theirs as well! Both AWESOME! I don’t know why I always just buy my standards… Homemade Vanilla, Cookie Dough and Moo-llennium Crunch. You can’t go wrong with Blue Bell!

If you are lucky enough to get Blue Bell in your state click HERE for a coupon. It is up in the right hand corner.

With no fireplace we leave the stockings on the living room couch. Other’s with no mantle where do you leave your stockings?

I start Christmas shopping on December 26th. Thats when I get all my wrapping paper, ribbon and tape for the next year. If there are Children reading this STOP now…. O.K. now that they are gone! I buy matching paper for all the presents from us. Then I get really fancy bows and paper from Santa. I never use bows, so the kids are convinced these presents didn’t come from me, they know I am too cheap

Wow, I am totally bummed. I am calling discrimination on this one. The fine print says, “must be a U.S. resident, 18-30 years of age and 5′8 inches in bare feet”. I mean, not only do I not qualify in the age range but I am only 5′2 inches tall. In heels.

Here’s to hoping !

Seriously? The weather is messing with my head. We have had a lot of rain lately but much cooler weather. Yea! Today, I leave at 8am for baseball, and a few softball games and it is so darn humid and hot, we are back up into the 90’s today. What the heck?

Alright, I am done, enough complaining. Someone email me in January when you are -10 and we are at 55. I will be glad to be here then!

This was her “project” a animal sanctuary for the rehabilitation of common household flies. Complete with skateboard facilities, and wading pool. The fly might look dead, but I promise the little guy was still buzzing around, on his back, weirdly flapping and all that…. he looked like he loved his little resort vacation?
This is her explaining the value of rehabilitating flies that she has caught and why she doesn’t possibly have the time to clean the playroom when the insects of the world are in such desperate need.

How do you argue with that?

My husband just got home from work… he stole my son’s half used bottle of Pert this morning and drove 20 miles out of his way into downtown to first a Nordstroms, only to find out they weren’t doing the free shampoo. Then to have to re park and pay for parking, again, at Saks to trade in the Pert for the bottle of Fekkai!

Wow! And I was just considering getting rid of him Just kidding, that was really thoughtful! He knows my addiction to hair products and my obsession with trying every single brand out there! I get so much free shampoo that even though I get a great deal on professional stuff I have a hard time paying for it even at reduced prices lately.

This was a nice surprise!

We hadn’t let enough water out of the pool, the back of the house almost flooded due to the pool overflowing.
The week before we knew it was coming and set out to get the house ready. We brought in all the plants and kids toys we could. Nailed down everything possible and taped all the windows.
While many people were panicking and spending all their available cash on supplies, we were comforted knowing that we didn’t need to join the rush and that we were well prepared. We ran into Walmart on Thursday evening and were stunned to see the shelves. It was a very errie feeling when your huge supercenter is cleared out COMPLETELY!
Because of couponing and my food storage there was nothing that we needed, save for some fresh fruit and vegetables.

On Friday, everything was closed, the kids were out of school and we just had to sit around and wait. Paul, myself and the DuBois, took the shotgun and hand guns down to the creek to do some shooting and relieve some anxiety! We heard reports on T.V. of all the chaos surrounding the stores closing early and people not having any food or water. I can’t understand not being prepared? Why would you live so day to day that you can’t take care of your family in an emergency with the basics of food, when you have the ability with coupons to do it almost free?

Friday was very still, it was hard to imagine what was coming. I can understand how so many people were killed in the 1909 hurricane, you really have no idea what is about to happen. That afternoon the wind started to pick up a little and by bed time we were getting a little rain and large wind gusts. At midnight we lost our power. Paul and I laid down to try and get some sleep, but at 1:30am our first tree fell on the house. We ran to see what had happened and could tell that we might loose more, so we grabbed the kids and put them all in the center of the house. I can’t describe how loud the wind was! It was amazing!

When morning came we were stunned at the damage. I guess we thought it would just pass over and we would have a few downed power lines.

We got to work quickly, cutting down trees and helping neighbors. It was a really neat experience for myself and my family. It was difficult. We were without power for almost a month. Paul had to go to Dallas for work and I was alone with the kids, two were having major asthma problems, it was HOT outside and honestly I was scared at night. Without power your world is completely different, we talked a lot more, we played a lot more and it was really nice. Psychologically it was difficult because we were some of the last to get power back. So when everyone else has it at church and school they move on, not realizing you are still struggling to prepare every meal.

Try getting your kids ready for school for two weeks without power. That is exciting.
But I am very grateful for a few things. I am grateful for all food, water, and batteries that I have stockpiled all for almost free with coupons. This is one of many shelving systems I have for storage. It may not be pretty, but I never want to have to worry about how I am going to feed my kids. I can’t imagine a more sick feeling than not having anything to feed them or wondering who is going to help us, I hope that never happens.

We were also able to donate almost a thousand dollars personally, of toiletries to our neighbors and to my kids elementary school. Many people in my subdivision were flooded out of their homes. The kids and I went to “The Ivanovsky mini-mart” in my garage and pulled together almost 40 gift bags for families who had nothing but the clothes on their backs. We also were able to make dinner and bake items with the solar oven that I had and give warm food out to friends.

I am so thankful we were kept safe physically during the hurricane last year, and that the damage to property was fixable. I am also thankful for a supportive family who helps me use coupons and tolerates my stockpiles around the house! Hopefully we never have to go through any significant power loss again, but I know that if we have to, we will be prepared.

Ummm, no she isn’t either…..

So I am working in my office today and my husband comes in and says,

Trying not to imagine that image I have to agree that three IS the PERFECT age!

Next, I used the same backpacker symbol that was on our t-shirts ( I will post a pic later…) for the reunion on the name tags. I printed one off for everyone and laminated them. Punched a hole and attached them with a small zip tie to the small pocket zipper on the backpack.
I made a schedule of events for everyone so that there is no confusion, or problems in relaying verbal information to 30 people. Basically just things that are actually scheduled and what families are in charge of specific meals for that day. I laminated this an attached it with the name tags. Now no one has an excuse for missing an activity
This is the loot that everyone got. This was an adult bag. I gave the kids more candy, less razors! Just kidding, they had more toys and little towels, flashlights, and goggles. Are you recognizing any CVS and Target deals??? Just a few huh! I would have to say that almost everything I loaded these bags with were free. It took some time but because I get about 6- 10 papers a week and shopped the sales picking up as many free things at a time that I could I saved hundreds of dollars. I am missing some things from this picture also. We had decks of cards, tooth brushes, Burts Bee’s lip gloss and some other goodies. The guys had cool razors, mens shampoo and body wash. It was nice to be able to provide a nice favor for not much more than my time.

We used to have to wait days to see our selves in a picture. Or when my kids were little … er they are still waiting on film to be developed
Aren’t they fun? Two are mine and one is a good friend’s. I’ll have to show them this post tomorrow, it’s even more fun to see yourself on the computer screen. I hope they never change, they need to stay just as sweet as they are right now!

How cute is this? Bite sized little food for their little fingers!
I need one just full of mini sized chocolate…
So when she offered a swap I knew my kids would want in. Michelle, the owner of Muffin Tin Monday’s, matched us up with another swapee and we mailed them a swap package this past week. My swap partner was Debi, a mother of 7 children whose husband is serving in Iraq. WOW.

Thank you so much Debi!