First Smiles Caught on Camera!!!

I got some smiles!!!

Our Alternative to Pumpkin Carving

So usually I am the one who ends up doing all the work since my kids are still a bit young so this year we did something new. This year I pulled out the Mr. Potato Head (or hot potato as my kids call it) and we used those to decorate our pumpkins. We had so much fun and I think they turned out so cute!!!



Brianna did take a pen to hers but they still look really great.

RAK

RAK, Random Act of Kindness. A totally unsolicited, unexpected act of kindness usually involving gifting an item to someone. I first heard the term on my crafting forums while participating in swaps, however I saw one today in real life that I thought was worth noting.

I was in CVS doing my deals before the sales changed, there were three young girls, cheerleaders from what I could tell, who were getting feathered boas. Anyways, they start checking out and then ask for a gift card. I think the cashier must have been new because he called the manager up for help. While the manager helps them the other cashier opens a second line and begins checking me out (haha you know what I mean!). When the three girls leave the manager comes over to our register to help with one of those Similac checks and she is in tears. The cashier asks her what is wrong. Turns out that the girls bought a $20 gc and gave it to the manager. Totally random strangers just doing something nice for another totally random stranger. It was really refreshing, especially coming from teenagers.

Target Deals for October 21st

Fusion Power Razors $7.94-$4mfq=$3.94
Airwick Minis-$4.95-$4.00=$.95
Airwick Large-$5.95-$4.00=$1.95
Curel Double Pack-$4.88-$1mfq=$3.88
Various Camp Rock 75%
Tissue Paper-$.38 for 20 sheets
Various Party Supplies 75% I picked up some plates and cups for $.38 per pack
Party Favor Kits marked down from $19.99 to $4.98
Dora Side Walk Chalk thing $3.74
Foam Craft Stickers $1.24
Raovac Batteries are in the $1 spot.
Elmers Glue-$.22
Rose Art Colored Pencils-$.62
Rose Art Markers-$.72

And I FINALLY found the Candy Land Castle for $4.97!!! This game is $22 at Walmart!

Pumpkin Patch

My homeschool class was supposed to meet to go to a pumpkin patch in Grapevine. Well no one showed but that did not keep us from having a good time! We invited my parents and went anyways. The girls had a blast going through the maze and looking at all the pumpkins!






On a side note I have started playing around with making corker hair bows. Here are a few of my attempts

Calling it a wrap!

I didn't want to call it quitting because after thinking about it I feel like I have done pretty darn good. However, I have come to the end of my desire to have my life dictated by my pump. I haven't actually made the final decision on if I will quit or just try to maintain a supply pumping every 6 hours. I think that if I can still do it 4 times a day and maintain then most likely I will continue for a while longer. We made it two months and when you consider I was pumping 8 times a day plus I had to actually feed him, my days and my nights pretty much were filled with this single activity. I really feel like Luke got the best of what I could give him during the critical period and I have a bit of BM frozen so we will have some for about a month after I actually completely stop.

Do I sound like I am trying to justify myself?

My night last night

I had an interesting and scary night last night. I will start with my funny story first.

When I go to CVS and Walgreens I usually take one of the girls to lighten the load on Karl. Last night I took Brianna. Prior to us leaving she had been playing on her scooter in the kitchen and taken a tumble and hurt her tushy. She was still crying about it when we left but by the time we got to Walgreens had all but forgotten. As we were browsing the cleaning aisle she began to complain again so I told her that when we got back home I would look and see if she bruised it. Well apparently she missed the "when we get back home" part because my 4 year old then proceeded to pull down the back of her pants and expose her backside so that I could check for a bruise right there in the store! As cute as her little tush is I decided it best to ask her to quickly pull her pants back up. She had no idea why I was bothered by it and just continued to ask if I had found a bruise.

Now on to the scary. When I was checking out at CVS the lady behind the counter asked if Bri could have a candy. I said yes and she handed her a hard candy. Brianna has had hard candies on several occassions, and since she had been so good in the stores I didnt really think twice about it. Until she started choking on it. I mean really choking. I gave her a second to see if she was going to disloge it on her own but ended up grabbing her and doing the heimlich maneuver on her. Luckily two good pumps did the job and out the candy came, and I am chalking up my EMT training to remaining calm during the whole thing but after it was over I just dropped to my knees and hugged my baby girl. She of course was frightened and was crying. I grew at least 50 grey hairs from that incident.

Woohoo

I figured out how to decorate my blog!

Walgreens 10-4

Went last night after having a bit more time to sort out the deals and get my stuff together. I did make one mistake last week in that I bought the Auto Shower Cleaner and of course it was $4 cheaper this week. Thats what I get for being impatient. So here we go(PS I am not going to tell you how I rolled it since that would take forever to sort out on my reciepts. Just know I did alot of seperate transactions to be able to use the RR on other transactions):

4 Listerine for Kids @ $4.29ea-$.50MFQ-$4.50/2RR=$6.16/4
8 Herseys Special Dark Bars @$.70clearanced-4 BOGO=$2.80/8
2 Glade Flameless @$5.99-$5.00MFQ-$3.00RR=-$2.01 MONEY MAKER
*4 4.0oz Glade Candles @$1.99-$1.50/2=$4.96/4-$4MIR=$.96/4
1 Loreal Facial Cleanser @$6.99-$1mfq-$6.99MIR MONEY MAKER
4 Oral B Indicator Toothbrushes @$1.99-$1.00IVC-$.75mfq=$.96/4
2 Gillette Shampoo/Bodywash @$5.00-$2.00mfq-$5/2MIR=-$2.00 MONEY MAKER
4 Bags Halloween Candy(MARS) $2.50-$1.00/2mfq-$4MIR=$4/4
3 Visine Drops @$3.99-$2.00IVC-$2.00mfq=-$.04 MONEY MAKER
4 Glade Scented Oil Candles @$3.99-$2.00mfq-$4.00MIR=$3.96/4


There apparently is a $1/1 mfq but I didn't have it. This is a MONEY MAKER if you do have the $1.

Hope this helps!

Was this wrong?

I need some insight.

Recently my sweet Brianna has been anything but. She has been defiant, rude, and just flat out mean. She gets in trouble almost daily for hitting, pinching or otherwise hurting her sister, and although she has never hit Luke she has swung very near him with the intentions of getting a rise out of me. She demands things and throws her body around when she doesnt get it. Now I know you are all thinking "not sweet Brianna" but this is how she is at home right now and I am so confused. I believe we are balancing the change in dynamics quite well so my only guesses are 1. she is picking it up at school or 2. Its an age/phase thing. So here is where I need thoughts: Saturday we had a birthday party for a little girl that Brianna refers to as her "best friend". These two really get along and so the party was very important to Brianna however, while we were running some errands that day she once again went into her mood. Now maybe the fact that we were in public magnified my response but if you had seen her you would understand my frustration. After making several threats, giving her a spanking and "grounding" her from the TV I decided to tell her she could not go to the party. I almost regretted it the moment I said it, but I had to follow through. How else was I going to get through to her that the attitude had to stop?! So she missed the party. She was very upset at me and I feel like it did get through, but now I feel incredibly guilty.

I called her mom and let her know why we wouldnt be there, but when I spoke to her on the phone today she sounded kind of sad that we didnt make it and as I told her what was going on she really didnt seem to sound like she agreed with my choice. I know that she may not have wanted to input since it was my child but it did make me feel so guilty about having had to make that choice. Did I do the right thing? What other option did I have?

My money savers

These are some odd ball things I do to save money:


Use reusable bags at Kroger and you will get a $.05 credit for each one. You have to be sure to point it out as most of the checkers dont think about it.

For Christmas this year I am going to purchase the reusable bags and pack them full of goodies for my grandparents and aunts and uncles. Most of the items they get will be free or almost free!

We have a disney rewards card by Chase. Each month Karl pays our Mortgage payment with it and then immediately pays it off. We get $1 for every $100 put on the card. Not much but when we head back to Disney World in 2010 it will go a long way, and why not since we have to pay the mortgage anyways? The only thing is that you MUST be diligent in paying off the card right away so as not to accrue any interest. Chase has several other rewards programs if Disney is not what you are looking for.

Walgreens Trip

I didnt have alot of energy to really search as I seem to be coming down with something but here is what I found:

Scrubbing Bubbles Automatic Shower Cleaner-$23-$5mfc-$10es= $8

Scrubbibg Bubbles scrubber Free with MIR from paper

Rimmel Foundation Free with ES

I used last months rebate to pay for these so with a few other things I picked up I spent $3.67 oop and will be getting $24 back. The loss is accounted for in the $8 I had to pay for the shower cleaner(the other $3 is my 10% bonus for reloading a gc) but I had been wanting to try that for a while so went for it. I will make it up before the month is out I am sure :) There are a few other good deals and even some freebies that I didnt get I am waiting for my train to come around so I can snag some q's for them.

Bum Genius 3.0 Review

I am a month and a half into cloth diapering (we didnt use them while he was in the NICU) so I thought I would do a review now and then again later.

We have been using the newest version of AIO's by Bum Genius. This particular diaper incorporates everything I was looking for in a cloth diaper. It has a built on cover, is a pocket diaper, and the neatest feature of all, it has these handy dandy snaps in the front that make the diaper resizable for babies 8-35lbs. An apparent dream come true for the cloth diapering momma.

Pros- Besides the above it carries the typical pros for a CD. It reduces cost, diaper rash and is darn cute on babies booty. They are easy to wash, and come with the pocket liner as well as one to lay across the top of the inside of the diaper adding double protection for the big wetter or nightime use. They have a great resale value if they are in decent condition.

Cons- 8lbs is the bare minimum these diapers can handle and you would even do better to wait a little longer if your baby has skinny legs. As with all diapers any and I mean any peaking out of the liner will cause leakage. The color selection is limited to blue, green, white, yellow, and pink. No cute patterns and the colors are all pastel.

Cost wise they are on the $$ end with the diapers costing about $18 a piece. However, when I factored in the cost of having to buy a seperate cover I thought the price was quite comparable to other diapering systems. Add that to the fact that ideally they will last me until baby is potty ready and it is a really great deal. The initial investment for 24 diapers is $432. The cost of disposables greatly exceeds this over time.

Over all at the moment I am enjoying this diaper. I will be suplimenting my stash with some cute patterend diapers for holidays and just for fun but as for now the Bum Genius 3.0 are a staple in my diaper stash.