`

MyLitter - One Deal At A Time

Extreme Couponing, Houston Frugal Living Blog

Home About Contact/PR Coupon Database


How to Tell the Difference Between a Family Trip and a Vacation

By 11 Comments By clicking on our links, we might make a SMALL commission - Thanks for the support! See our full DISCLOSURE here.

This is a repost from several years ago, but is very informational. Here’s how you tell the difference between a Family Trip and a Vacation.
This past week was spring break for us.
Surprise, surprise we thought we would go camping. Always sounds like a good idea doesn’t it?
With almost 30 hours in the car my husband and I had a chance to have a lot of “discussions”.
We decided there was a difference between a  “family trip” and a “vacation”.
By all means, this was a family trip!
Let me point out some differences….
Family Trip: Suburban pulling a trailer of camping gear and bikes.
Vacation: Car taking you to the airport.
Cue the banjo music!
Family Trip: Posing in front of a giant fake shark.
Vacation: Chartered fishing trip to actually catch something (other than the TICK that caught me!!!)
Family Trip: Lugging beach gear down .7 miles to the beach.
Vacation: Walking out french doors onto the beach!
Ummm…. I have no idea what this child was doing…
Family Trip: Eating lunch your Mother made on the beach AND LIKING IT!
Vacation: Cabana’s on the beach to fix you whatever you want.
Family Trip: Throwing sand at your sister!
Vacation: Throwing sand at your sister, it never gets old does it?!
Family Trip: Sleeping in a lawn chair.
Vacation: Sleeping in some beautiful hammock somewhere.
Family Trip: Dozing on the beach, waking up to a fish head your son left in your face on his smelly hat.
Vacation: Dozing on the beach, waking up to a Pina Colada!
Traveling with kids tip #3,458
Buy a bunch a Starburst candy, give one to the 2 year old UNOPENED, this will keep him busy for hours!
Family Trip: If it rains, take the kids to the Navel Museum, it’s free!
Vacation: Spend a bunch of money to entertain the kids at the mall.
Family Trip: Stop in New Orleans on the way home, prolonging the trip by 5 hours and ensuring that you get home at 2am! (But had really good food!)
Vacation: Flight gets in on time, you are in bed at a reasonable hour.
Family Trip: Get entertained by a guy, trying to look like a statue, all painted in gold.
Vacation: Hang out with people all decked out in gold!
You know what?
We both decided we would take a family trip any day of the week!
Did I mention that I had a tick??

Family vacation, well kind of…

By 15 Comments By clicking on our links, we might make a SMALL commission - Thanks for the support! See our full DISCLOSURE here.

But forget about all of that… this is the real story.
My husband ditched me the night before we were to leave at 7am. Not that this had been planned for a year or anything, but he had some things at work that he couldn’t miss. So we loaded up the truck and trailer, I said a few nasty things to him and the kids and I were off! It’s not like we were staying at the Ritz or anything, for crying out loud we were camping, I love camping, but not by myself with 6 kids and a sick baby. Or towing a trailer with nightmare trailer mishaps still fresh on my mind.
Have I mentioned that we are in a severe drought? The entire state is almost 30 inches behind in annual rainfall, we are not allowed to water our lawns AT ALL. The hill country is really suffering, entire lakes have dried up. Knowing this you are probably not surprised at all when I tell you that I caught in a torrential downpour on a two lane, windy switchback road without the trailer covered, and everything getting either ruined or soaked. So I had to jump out, dig for the tent tarp, untie all the rope, cover everything and retie it all complete soaked with my kids all crying in the truck and screaming my name. It was AWESOME, I hope I can do it again soon…
Oh yea, and I drove out of San Antonio on the WRONG highway for 90 min. before I realized my mistake. That was really AWESOME as well. My 5 hour trip was a good 8 hours at this point. If my children teach your kids any new 4 letter words, I apologize, it is my husbands fault.
Oh and did I mention the baby is sick? Just ask the entire campground, they all know he isn’t feeling well and didn’t want to get any sleep either.

But anyway, deep breath…. onto more fun things, like dead animals and rabid squirrels. This is the beautiful view of the gorgeous valley where we camped at my favorite camp ground, and most popular Texas state park called Garner. This place is really magical, and have I mentioned beautiful?

But that isn’t what the kids came for, no, they came for the wild life.

Like rabid squirrels. We were sitting down by the river when a squirrels fell out of the tree right next to us, it landed right there with a HUGE thud! We watched it for a minute laughing, it seemed kinda stunned. It tried to run away… and couldn’t. Then it got really sad, the poor thing was trying to hop while dragging its head on the ground. It was having some kind of seizures and acting bizarre. I thought it might have hurt itself when it fell out of the tree, but my brainiac brother gave us the run down on rabies and was sure that was the problem. At this point all the kids came over to see what we were looking at. The poor thing tried to climb a tree again, but only got part way and curled up into a ball. This is where we should have walked away with the kids. But no, we let then stay and watch.

If we were not in a State park I would have killed it myself to put it out of its misery, but if I am going to get arrested and fined $500 it is not going to be for killing a sick squirrel!
Quit reading at this point if you are an animal lover, I am just warning you. Now that the dying squirrel has a proper audience of small children, it dramatically starts coughing up blood and slowly falls down the tree and dies. Right at the feet of all my little girls! So we are all now fairly traumatized. Please don’t mention squirrels to my kids unless you want to rock them to sleep at night and tell them about animal heaven for the 1,085 th time in the last 72 hours.
We didn’t do much better later in the day. Next they found a dead bat, and a very large dying insect. I was expecting at any moment the bat to jump up and eat the insect right in front of us. That would have been priceless.
So when we came across this cute little baby bird I feared the worst. It was just learning to fly and its leg was stuck in the nest. It was wearing itself out flapping like crazy. My brother climbed up to where the nest was and tried to free it, only he dropped it on the ground first. Don’t worry, it lived, we came back the next day to make sure our luck was changing.

Garner is a beautiful fun place. Most everything there was built in 1941 by the CCC. Every night in the summer they have a dance at the main lodge. All the campers in the camp ground get dressed up and show up to dance. EVERYONE dances! It is so fun! My 4 oldest kids were asked to danced by other kids in the park, it is a blast! This is the dance area under an old beautiful tree.

My Brother-in-law dancing with my daughter.

Now, during the day you spend all day on the river. It is called the Frio. Meaning freezing. It is spring feed so it is always cold and crystal clear! This is how Storie looked for 4 straight days, well, when she wasn’t making me walk her to the bathroom every hour 3 blocks from our campsite.
I just threw this picture in because I took it, and I think it turned out REALLY cute. It is my niece Sadie.
Ummm and this one because someone needs to spend less time on the computer and more time teaching their children how to eat a banana. Obviously takes after his fathers side of the family 🙂
Well, and this one because it was priceless. I caught her looking at her reflection in the bumper, she was fascinated by the dirt on her face. In a really cute way, not the I am a bad Mom because my kids were filthy, kind of way!

Now to the end. If you read this far, pat yourself on the back. My trip did get better, my husband showed up for the last day and a half and helped me pack back up to go home. I knew he wasn’t going to miss jumping off rope swings.

When I got home the house was spotless, except for the shoes and stuffed animals the dog had murdered while we were gone. The dog has a separation anxiety problem…
So again, I am sorry I didn’t just say I was going to be gone. Thank you for all the help with guest posts and for putting up with me reposting old posts!
Its always good to be home, even if it takes a month to put it all away! If you are interested in trading laundry services with wild animal sitting services you met the right girl. You can do my camping laundry and I can kill your wild animals in front of your children. Any takers??

Photobucket

Kids job and chore charts.

By 18 Comments By clicking on our links, we might make a SMALL commission - Thanks for the support! See our full DISCLOSURE here.


Again, I apologize for the quality of the photos. I am working my hardest on getting a decent camera!
Getting the kids to do their jobs is a constant struggle. A fight that I know I am just starting. I also know that I am not alone and that I always learn better ways to do things from other people who have struggled with this also. So send some help my way!
We are really good with a “method” for a few weeks and then we fall off the wagon when the “fun” new idea is getting old and they realize that I have tricked them into doing their jobs again. 
The problem is that I hate to have to trick them, or bribe, or beg, or scream, or demand etc.  I wish they would just want to have a clean house. Yea right. 
The method that has worked the best, although it is on and off again, is this one I will describe below. 
We have a family meeting, usually on a Monday night, and we let the kids make a list of things that they think they should be responsible for on a daily basis. We talk about how it is important mentally, spiritually, and physically to have a clean house and to work together. Paul usually talks about what it takes to be a family, how we have to work together, and the importance of doing our part. All the kids make this list even the 3 year old. We have another list of weekly and monthly items as well, but I don’t keep that one posted in view all day as they seemed to get overwhelmed. 
We then talk about what they can earn if they consistently do their jobs. These are not material things. They are things like a date with Paul and I to a movie by themselves. Or choosing an entire meal that I make for them including dessert. They have chosen to have a friend spend the day with us. We usually write their wish list on the back of the chore chart. When they have 2 weeks of all their chores done every day they get to pick one of their awards.  They typically earn an award about once a month. 

I type up their jobs in a column format with the days of the week on top and the chores down the side. Each child’s is different according to their age and ability. Smaller kids jobs can be helping me with the baby. My oldest son has mowing the lawn on his. They all have straighten their rooms and make their beds daily.

I let them pick a piece of scrapbook paper for the background, anything they want. I affix the printed chore chart to the scrapbook paper and I laminate them with the heavy lamination. When they have done a job they take a dry erase marker and color in the box or make an X through it.

I use flat magnets on the back so I can hang them on the refrigerator. This way they can see them all day and they are at eye level. 

I want my kids to learn to work. They need to learn that it never really ends, it is a part of life. They also are part of a large family and I can’t possibly do everything for them and don’t think that any Mom should. I think it is important for them to be as involved as possible in the process of making the chore chart and deciding their jobs. If they are they take ownership of the idea and it seems to work better.
How do you do chores at your house. What methods work for you?

Photobucket

This is what happens when men babysit…

By 17 Comments By clicking on our links, we might make a SMALL commission - Thanks for the support! See our full DISCLOSURE here.


As a hair stylist I have seen hundreds of hysterical Mother’s with children who have decided to cut their own hair. I have also had to fix probably a hundred little heads of hair to trying to salvage what was left of a do it yourself haircut.
I remember my sisters cutting each others hair and my Mom having to fix it. The worst was my good friend Paige (don’t hate me for this…) her daughter had the most gorgeous long thick hair. She cut it so short and to the scalp she looked like an albino. I had no idea what I was going to do with it, the daughter was fine, Paige was a mess!
Earlier this week my little 3 year old decided she didn’t like the hair in her face and she gave herself bangs. I was furious, I gave her the “no one but me cuts your hair” talk. She has bangs now. I hate bangs…
Tonight I was teaching a coupon class and left the kids and their cousin with Paul. I got home and we put them to bed. My parents came to pick up my niece and as soon as she walked out of the room I noticed this…

Her hair had been cut! I freaked, and she proudly told us how my 3 year old had cut her hair! Seriously, why my kid. I feel horrible, her Mom is out of town, I had to call and profusely apologize and beg for forgiveness! My sister handled it much better than I would have, she just told me to fix it.
So we had an impromptu haircutting party.
Then we blew it dry and made her cute!
I actually almost like it better now. She needed the ends cut anyway, right?

** Update… the baby woke up and Storie had gotten him also!!!!
Any haircutting horror stories out there?


Photobucket

I am easily amused.

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

Trying to come up with a quality about yourself that you like is very difficult. But I think I have found one about me that I might brag about…

I am very easily amused. 

It doesn’t take much to make my day. Case in point, I went to make something today and dumped out the butter to find that some fun person at Land O Lakes has shrunk my sticks of butter! Isn’t that the cutest thing you have ever seen?? I couldn’t stand to open them, I wanted to leave them on the counter and show the kids when they got home from school. Ignore the batman band aide, it was all we had and I about cut my finger off last night. Don’t eat the salad, you might get more than you bargained for…
Now, two hours later, I am still smiling about my midget sticks of butter. But I am starting to wonder, are they really that cute or is my life really that boring?

Meet Hannah "The Pig…"

By 6 Comments By clicking on our links, we might make a SMALL commission - Thanks for the support! See our full DISCLOSURE here.

This past Sunday we took the kids to the Houston Rodeo to see the Jonas Brothers and Demi Lavado in concert. I’ll post about that later in the week.
The reason why I’ll talk about that later is that the real hit and excitement came from Hannah the pig.
At one of the exhibits in the children’s area of the rodeo, is a place where they house all the animals that are about to give birth.
This is where I met Hannah, we looked into each others eyes and immediately bonded.
Poor Hannah, she was due on Saturday, so technically on Sunday, “she was overdue” and pigs “don’t go late.”
Been there done that.
I went 14 days over with one of my children. My husband had to keep me from killing the nice people who kept asking, “haven’t you had that baby yet?”
But, good for Hannah she was in early labor, she was miserable.
She was tossing and turning, biting at the bars, she was leaking milk.
I wanted to sit next to her and help her breath,
“in through the nose, out through the mouth.”
“you can do it Hannah, only a little longer…”
You think I am joking, but I am telling you as a hormonal pregnant woman I was getting a little emotional watching the pig.
Having had a few of my babies in a hospital, I prefer a birthing center, I was also about to prison break Ol’ Hannah out the “birthing pen” and get her a little more comfortable in a nice bed with some pillows and ice chips.
But the A&M students supervising the birth assured me that this was the best place for the babies so Hannah didn’t roll over on them and squish them.
My husband, realizing I was getting a little too attached and emotional about a pig, and tired from watching her do “nothing” for half the day (try that when I am in labor buddy!) drug myself and the kids away to go to the concert.
Fast forward to the end of a scream fest of little girls for the Jonas Brothers…
My middle daughter wanted to leave and go see if the pig had babies.
Yipee, so did all the other kids! So as the last song played, and little girls cried, we bolted for the exit to march the mile back to the other venue to see the Hannah late on a school night!
When we got there, Hannah had just had her 2nd baby!
One by one, Hannah had her babies. I think I cried a few times.
After an hour and 6 babies, we had to leave. The little kids were already asleep and the bigger kids had finally had enough of live pig birth.
Really, does that ever get old?
I said “goodbye” to Hannah and wished her luck.
Then as I walked away, I realized, that Hannah was only pregnant for 116 days.
I have been pregnant for 1,830 days so far,
Hannah was in labor for 4 hours,
I have been in labor for 64 hours.
Hannah had 6 babies in 1 hour,
It has taken me 12 years to have 6 babies.
Then I quit feeling bad for Hannah, started feeling bad for myself, and wondered if she tasted like bacon?
Just kidding, she was an awesome mama! It was really fun to watch and my kids LOVED it. Much better than screaming, crying girls, at a concert that was too loud.
Us city folks, don’t get to see animals having babies every day you know!

Photobucket

Skiers hike 26 miles in the wrong direction, I thought I had a bad day!

By 2 Comments By clicking on our links, we might make a SMALL commission - Thanks for the support! See our full DISCLOSURE here.

Well, I was sitting here feeling exhausted and tired from my “busy” day, when I saw this headline and thought I had better read the story!

“Washington Skiers Hike 26 Miles in the Wrong Way All Night”

O.K. so I am a little bit of a baby. Wow, after reading the article, my day could have been much worse, we even had beautiful weather, those guys were walking all night in the snow! Thank goodness the story turned out happy though, even with a few blisters! Kinda like life isn’t it?

Typical Staurday:

~ Up at 7am
~ Out the door by 8:00am for Opening day at the kids ballparks.
~ 8:30 Parade, kids are required to be in… ( the girls on the softabll field, son and husband on the baseball fields, thank goodness they are actually within walking distance of each other.)
~ I am minus 2 kids, they stayed at the Grandparents with visiting cousins, I had an extra niece with me.
~ 9:30am Son has team pictures.
~ 10:30am Son has to be at warm up field to start warming up for game.
~ 10:30am one Daughter has team pictures.
~ 10:40am other Daughter has team pictures.
~ Little son falls and busts open his nose, I have to find ice and gauze.
~ 11:00am Daughter has to be at practice.
~ 11:00am other Daughter has to be at her warm up practice.
~ 11:00am Son starts his game.
~ Niece has to pee and thinks I am starving her to death….
~ 11:15am I meet my Dad who is staying with my daughters while I take my Son to Solo and Ensamble at the local high school.
~ 11:20 My little son and I hike back to my truck.
~ 11:30am my husband sends my Son out to the parking lot so I can pick him up in his baseball uniform, he changes in the car to a suit on the way to the highschool.
** This is where my new phone ( the Palm Pre) saves my butt! I have no idea where the high school is… I hand the phone to my son who between changing his clothes in the back seat, uses the internet on my phone and google maps and finds the school. Disaster averted!
~ 12:00 Drop Son off for Solo and Ensamble tryout, he forgot to grab the cash from his Dad to pay for the accompaniment, so I had to go find a ATM.
~ 12:00pm  Daughter has a game.
~ 12:00pm other Daughter has a game, they are playing on field across from each other.
~ 12:20pm pick up Son from local high school, piano player was an hour late so he tried out with accompaniment, so much for finding the ATM.
~12:30pm get Son back to baseball fields to warm up for next game.
~ 1:00pm Son has game.
~ 2:00pm Wander around parking lot for 20 min trying to meet up with my Dad to get Daughters back!
~ 3:00pm Walk in the door at home.

Seriously why do we do this to ourselves?
Photobucket

Fine Print: I was given the Palm Pre by Verizon to try out, opinions are all mine.

My Discount Dog.

By 6 Comments By clicking on our links, we might make a SMALL commission - Thanks for the support! See our full DISCLOSURE here.

This is my dog, my discount dog.

Growing up we never had any “real” pets. Ours were always reptiles, rabbits ( my Dad called them food storage) and small rodents that we smuggled into the house. My parents didn’t want the expense and were allergic, so as kids we had to get creative. We did once have a cat that adopted us, but never a dog.

So naturally, us kids all have grown up to want a dog.

Rewind back to the last hurricane that we had. My husband had to leave town for work shortly after the hurricane hit. I was left with 6 kids and no power for over a week (we were without power for a total of 20 days). Normally, this would have not been a huge ordeal but the news had us freaked out about looting that was going on everywhere. It was still very hot and humid outside and the power cords running to the generator made it so that the windows had to be unlocked. I layed awake all night worried about every sound I heard! I am telling you when the power is off all over town it is very quiet at night! I planned in my head how I would “resuce” all 6 kids if someone came inside the house! I slept with the shotgun by my bed, no joke, I was freaked out!!

I wished I had a dog so badly, atleast I figured he would bark if someone tried to come in. As soon as we had power I searched all day for a dog. Our kids have asthma and allergies so there were only a few breeds that were “hypo-allergenic” and I was really wanting a labradoodle. I quickly found out that they are very expensive. After a few months of searching I found a breader that gives away one dog from all their litters a year, to be considered you had to write an essay about why you wanted a dog and what a dog would mean to your family. I was on a mission! I spent 2 weeks writing and rewriting my essay. I am thrilled to say, mine was chosen and that is how I got my dog!

The kids and I were sooooo excited! My husband, less than thrilled.

When the breader had decided on the right dog for us, the kids and I drove 5 hours one way to pick him up. I did have to pay the $350 for all his shots etc. But, it was much better than the $2500 that the others in his litter sold for!!

So that is why my family teases me that I have a “discount dog”.

P.S. I am saving the post on why my husband hates my dog so much for another day!

Photobucket

Isn't it ironic? Doncha' think?!

By 18 Comments By clicking on our links, we might make a SMALL commission - Thanks for the support! See our full DISCLOSURE here.

“Tucker’s the oldest. He was hoping for a brother when Emma was born but he was happy with Emma, then along came Eliora, Paige, Audrey, Avery, Sierra, Storie and Sadie. He was getting desperate. Next was Abbie and finally Rush! Another male to bond with! But all those years have taken their toll. This picture says it all.”
We decided when we were pregnant with our very first child that we never wanted to find out what we were having.
With all the advances in science and the amazing things they are able to do these days we wanted to be kept in the dark about what the sex of our child was. 
So through the first 5 children we never found out. 
It was what got me through 100 hours of labor without drugs. 
I just wanted to know what that dang baby was so bad I kept going!
But, with our 6th I was at the regular 30 week appointment where they do the last ultrasound and I was watching the screen….. when out of nowhere…..
“Oh! My goodness!” I yell.
“Thats a BOY!”
“I thought you didn’t want to know” says the lab tech.
“Well I didn’t but, oh, my. You don’t have to say anything I can clearly see that it is a BOY!” I say again.
“Yes, honey it is.”
Then we knew. It was fun to know, after 4 girls I could prepare a little more. 
Withe this one, I decided I was too old to not find out!
So we did, and we are having a …..
GIRL!
This is the ironic part, on the day we found out, my Mother not knowing what we were having and that we were going to find out, posted the above photo and this post!

Photobucket

Remember this guy? Ask Paul, is back!

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

Remember this guy?!
Hideous I know…
Back, in the dark ages (last summer) my husband would cry himself to sleep at night because he was sooo left out of the blogging world. I felt like it was my duty to give him a voice and we did a segment called “Ask Paul”. You can read the first one HERE. 
It started off a little slow, but soon took off to where he was getting about 20 emails a week. Quite honestly, I was really surprised. One week he even got 41 emails. Then he quit. I think it freaked him out. 
Well, he’s back! Ready to take all your coupon, what’s wrong with my husband, I hate my dog also, and I can’t wait for football season to be back, questions!
You can email him at pbivan@yahoo.com
* Look for Ask Paul on either Friday or Saturday nights, because basically when you have 6 kids and your wife is pregnant with your 7th you don’t have a life! This IS your weekend entertainment!

P.S. My Mother has never had so much fun photoshopping in her life! I can still here her giggling! 

Photobucket

Amazon Deals

Click Here for More Amazon Posts

Drug Store Deals

Click Here for More Drug Store Deals

Kroger Deals

Click Here for More Kroger Deals

Latest Freebies

Click Here for More Freebies

Local Deals

Click Here for More Local Deals

Latest Recipes

Click Here for More Recipes