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The saga continues…

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Now that the garden is in we turned our attention to the front yard. We lost two large trees during hurricane IKE and the remnants of the stump grinding has been littering the yard since October. So we decided to see if we could handle a smaller trailer job and pick up 1 yard of top soil to fill in where we were laying new sod.
Sounds like a no-brainer.
Umm, if your name is Paul this is a much harder job than it needs to be. 

The truck and trailer were ONLY stuck for 2 hours this time. The most embarrassing part? The guy who pulled us out the first time had to come back and pull us out a second time after Paul pulled back in the ditch to try and get the trailer out.
Lessons learned: 

SUV without 4X4 is useless.
Do not pull a heavy trailer into a wet ditch.
Paul may not operate heavy machinery under any circumstance…
My yard however, looks FANTASTIC! Yea for new sod!
2 Comments

CVS Trippin' It's been a while old friend!

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Wow, I freaked a bit when I realized I was getting a little low on my stockpile of stuff! So I made sure I ran into CVS tonight to score a few deals before the new week started. I got…

3 Pantene Shampoos
3 Pantene Conditioners
3 Pantene styling products
4 Rimmel sexy curves mascara’s
3 Colgate 360 toothbrushes
3 Venus spa breeze women’s razors
3 Mens Quatro razors
3 Soft Soap body scrubs
All for $9.78 cash out of my pocket, which is basically the price of ONE of the razors. This is after coupons and extra bucks, but the best part is that I walked out of there with $36 in Extra Bucks (basically a gift card at CVS) for next time. So I MADE money on this trip! I love CVS, how they stay in business I will never know!
Don’t worry if you missed last week’s deals, this week looks a little promising. If you need Aveeno products this is your week. Also, the crest toothpaste and Bayer aspirin should be free with coupons.
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CVS Trippin’ It’s been a while old friend!

By 5 Comments By clicking on our links, we might make a SMALL commission - Thanks for the support! See our full DISCLOSURE here.

Wow, I freaked a bit when I realized I was getting a little low on my stockpile of stuff! So I made sure I ran into CVS tonight to score a few deals before the new week started. I got…

3 Pantene Shampoos
3 Pantene Conditioners
3 Pantene styling products
4 Rimmel sexy curves mascara’s
3 Colgate 360 toothbrushes
3 Venus spa breeze women’s razors
3 Mens Quatro razors
3 Soft Soap body scrubs
All for $9.78 cash out of my pocket, which is basically the price of ONE of the razors. This is after coupons and extra bucks, but the best part is that I walked out of there with $36 in Extra Bucks (basically a gift card at CVS) for next time. So I MADE money on this trip! I love CVS, how they stay in business I will never know!
Don’t worry if you missed last week’s deals, this week looks a little promising. If you need Aveeno products this is your week. Also, the crest toothpaste and Bayer aspirin should be free with coupons.
5 Comments

The saga of the garden…

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We have lived in our house for over 10 years and every year I announce that I want a garden. Then I don’t do anything about it and no one does it for me, so I have never had one. This is year is different. I made the announcement and got a slight reaction from my husband, I took the little eye blink as a definite, “Honey, I would love to help you put in a garden!”

~This is a picture of my husband tilling the spot for my garden at 10:20pm.

~This is after I had already cut the buried cable line, about 15 min. earlier. Who knew it was there?

~This is only 6 hours before we have to be at the mushroom farm to pick up REALLY cheap compost. They open at 4am and you have to be there at 4:30am to get any, 95 miles from our house…

Now, the pictures that are missing are the ones you really want to see. But unlike me I DIDN”T BRING MY CAMERA, I am still kicking myself!

My sweet husband calls me at 7:30am on his way back from the mushroom farm. “Honey, I think the trailer is way to heavy, I told them only 2 yards and they dumped the entire bucket full (5yards) into the trailer. It’s not my fault he didn’t speak english.”

“OH, MY GOSH, I’ll have to call you back I just blew a tire!”

The next 9 hours went something like this… call and borrow another trailer and industrial jack, drive up to find husband on the side of highway 70 miles north of here, spend 7 hours on a SUNDAY trying to find a new wheel for a 68 chevy, and laughing until our sides hurt at the stupidity of it all.

Thankfully we were accompanied by our good friends the DuBois’ who pawned their kids off and joined us on this adventure.

We had to transfer half the compost, which I forgot to mention smells worse than manure, to the other trailer and we dumped about 2 yards on the side of the highway to lighten it. All of this on the side of a MAJOR highway. So if you are interested in some compost, north of Huntsville, TX on the side of the road there is about 2 yards of good mushroom compost for the taking. But I will warn you, it is HEAVY.

~This is us at 6:30pm that night finally getting home. This is Shawn D. riding the trailer into the backyard!
~This is our slave labor unloading one of the trailers. They enjoyed the smell as much as we did!
~ This is right after the DuBois’ Grandma drove off our driveway and into the ditch in front of our house. That was another little 45min. adventure trying to get the car out… It was quite the day.
~ This is the picture I am going to put on craigslist advertising my brother in laws babysitting service…

So the garden is coming along. I will post a picture of the completed space another day, it is raining today, so you can see how beautiful it turned out! Thanks to all the family and friends who helped us, I would have left Paul in the middle of nowhere smelling like rotting mushrooms on a Sunday…

5 Comments

Giveaway Wednesday!! PB2 Peanut Butter!

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I admit I have a serious peanut butter addiction, but it’s so dang high in fat that I have been trying to cut it out.

On an email list I am on they have been talking about this product called PB2. It is powdered peanut butter. Don’t ask me how they do it-I don’t know! So I bought some and LOVE it. It is very low in fat, 1.5 grams in 2T compared to 7-8 grams of fat in 2T in regular peanut butter.
I put it in my smoothies in the morning with a banana, protein powder and soy milk. The best part is that it also comes in CHOCOLATE!
I have no affiliation with the company and they definitely didn’t send me any to give away! But I did buy a bunch for me and for my food storage so I thought I could give either a regular or a chocolate to one lucky winner. Picked (of course) by my beautiful, smart children on Monday!
So you know the ropes… comment and leave your name and email, and for an additional entry follow my blog and I’ll put you in twice!
33 Comments

Do stuffed animals stink up the bathroom?

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Storie calls me into the bathroom yesterday morning.

“What’s that smell?” she asks. 
“Um, I don’t know?” Not wanting to call attention to the project she is working on. 
“It’s dog poop.” Storie says, clearly irritated I couldn’t figure that out for myself. 
“Max is making this place smell really bad, go put him in the playroom.” She demands.
“Honey, I am not sure it is Max, how do you know?”
“Every time I bring him in the bathroom he smells like stunk, take him out!!

So I did and it didn’t seem to help the smell situation!
4 Comments

And the winner is…. Name Bubbles!

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I apologize if my Children are a little incoherent, it was early and they were making their best effort to get ready for school!
And the lucky winner of the pack of Name Bubbles is…..
 Heather B.!!
(Heather, I don’t have anyway to contact you! Please email me so I can get you your labels! Guys if your blogs are private please make sure you leave an email address. If I can’t get in touch with Heater in a few days we will draw another name.)
Don’t fret if you didn’t win, Michelle at Name Bubbles offered to do ANOTHER giveaway so check back next week!! 
P.S. We left our shoes at the playground on Saturday during a softball game, a woman came walking through all the bleachers asking for “the ivanovsky girls” she had found my daughter’s crocs and figured she might have a chance at finding us! Thanks Michelle, you just saved me $30!!!!
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And the winner is…. Name Bubbles!

By 3 Comments By clicking on our links, we might make a SMALL commission - Thanks for the support! See our full DISCLOSURE here.

I apologize if my Children are a little incoherent, it was early and they were making their best effort to get ready for school!
And the lucky winner of the pack of Name Bubbles is…..
 Heather B.!!
(Heather, I don’t have anyway to contact you! Please email me so I can get you your labels! Guys if your blogs are private please make sure you leave an email address. If I can’t get in touch with Heater in a few days we will draw another name.)
Don’t fret if you didn’t win, Michelle at Name Bubbles offered to do ANOTHER giveaway so check back next week!! 
P.S. We left our shoes at the playground on Saturday during a softball game, a woman came walking through all the bleachers asking for “the ivanovsky girls” she had found my daughter’s crocs and figured she might have a chance at finding us! Thanks Michelle, you just saved me $30!!!!
3 Comments

Easter Photo Essay!

By 4 Comments By clicking on our links, we might make a SMALL commission - Thanks for the support! See our full DISCLOSURE here.

Ah, the dyeing of the Easter eggs and the smell of vinegar…
I can’t believe we dyed 50 eggs and they are all gone between the deviled eggs for dinner and the egg salad for lunch. 
Someone remind me that I can make egg salad anytime of the year, for some reason I forget about it for 11 mo. of the year, and it is really good. The homemade kind that is! Not the kind you find in a pre made sandwich in a vending machine! Eeewwww!

 Happy with what she got in her basket. (nice look Emma!)
Not happy with what he got!

I wish I had a video of the dramatic throwing himself on the ground and the kicking of the legs. 
I thought this was funny with Shadow checking out the big bumble bee. 
He might think he is too cool for Easter egg hunts but the sponge bob pants tells me he is not…
Easter Dinner.

This is the kids table at dinner. We had 13 children and got 12 of them at this table.  The adults were in the living room at two more tables. I need a bigger house! 
Suzanne saved the day, again, and let us borrow tables and chairs. 
I might post the recipes for what we had for dinner because I was pretty happy with the way it all turned out and was able to make most of it ahead of time. I hate cooking all day and like to do as much the day before as I can.
“Um, did she get something better than me?”
I have the greatest Sister in law on the planet, in fact I usually forget that we are actually related and think of her just as a best friend.  Then someone reminds me that my Brother is somehow involved in the whole thing! 

She organized an Easter egg hunt for the throngs of children that were at our house and tied in the Easter story with it, by mixing in the clues in the eggs. It turned out soooo nice! Below are the kids looking for their eggs with the clues. When Tonia got to the story the kids were so quiet and sat and listened to the other kids read out loud and talk about what they found in the eggs.
Foreshadowing?? I hope not!
What a great weekend we had and what a blessing that we were able to share it with our Family and really good friends. I want to thank everyone for being so patient with all the kids and the really full house. No one complained about anything all weekend and it was really nice. There is something special about this time of year, the weather is beautiful and everything is growing. 
I love that we live in this wonderful country where we can choose to worship as we please and that we have the opportunity to celebrate the life and resurrection of Jesus Christ without persecution. May we not take this freedom for granted and may we keep this spirit with us all through out the year. Happy Easter!
4 Comments

Easy Easter Craft-Bunny

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I can’t remember where I first saw these but it was years ago. At least 15 because I have been making them that long. I love them because they are cheap and the kids can make them. You non-crafty types (me included) YOU can make these in under 23 seconds, thats the record!

Take a cheap hand towel, I like white. The cheaper and thinner the better. They have them in packs at Wal-Mart for like 10 for $6
Fold one corner up like you are making a bandana.
Keep folding…
When it is all rolled up, fold it in half.
Next, now this is the hardest part, take the open ends (the ears) and fold it back almost half way. This is making the bunny face and ears. 
Take a rubber band and secure the little face of the bunny. I had to use a hair tie because I used a heavier wash cloth, the thinner clothes can be done with a rubber band. Twist it around a few times so it is tight. Now pull the ears up a bit, and your done!
Tie a ribbon around the rubber band so you can’t see it.
If I had all the supplies I usually give him some googly eyes, a little pompom nose and a little pompom tail. But I didn’t want to pull out the glue gun. I think he is cute as it!

I stick a plastic egg in the little hole behind his ears, it is a perfect spot to hold something. I am using these as name sign for Easter dinner. I am putting everyones names on the eggs and putting a bunny by every plate. 
They are cute and less than $1 each to make. Can you beat the 23 second record?? 
What traditions do you have for Easter?
3 Comments

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