Thanksgiving Week

Well I finished the table and last night I got the idea of making felt cupcakes. Well I had the idea in my head, but last night I tried to figure out how to make them.
This is the first one I made. I think it might actually be cuter than the rest I made today. But it is a bit bigger than the ones I made today.Here are the ones I made today. You can take the cupcake out of the liners. These are pretty small. Have you seen those Brownie Bites? They are that size if you know what I'm talking about.

I love creating! I feel alive and really happy when I'm doing things like this.

I suppose I ought to think up something to make the boys.

I'm looking forward to Black Friday. I know many people hate the crowds and well even though I'm not a crowd loving person myself, the adrenaline rush really gets me going. Aussie wants a bike for Christmas and the one he wants is going to be 1/2 price at Walmart. Oh I hope I get it!!!! I'll be there early waiting in line.

I do wish we could be with family this Thanksgiving. I get a little down not celebrating with anyone. The kids are going to help me cook a Thanksgiving lunch. They want to dress the chicken up like a turkey! They are going to make feathers. This will be interesting. I'll certainly take pictures!

AG table knock-off

Well Ashley has asked for this American Girl doll table which costs $85 and comes with some really cute play food cupcakes and apron.
So I have been working diligently every night for 3 or 4 nights (lost track of time) from 10PM to 1AM to try and make it for her. It is far far from being perfect and I still need to paint it. But here it is. It would have been so much easier if I had the right tools. But all I had was a little hacksaw and a jagged knife. Oh and I still need to find some little silver knobs to hang the pot holders I plan to make.

I'm sure you can probably tell, but this was the first time I've ever done anything like this.
I also plan to make her and her doll a little apron.

Harvest Sunday 2010

Poor Poor Sarah!

With this lovely hairdo she is sporting, she looks like the bride of Frankenstein. The hair is actually standing straight up it is not resting on the couch in the background.

I couldn't help but think of Toy Story as I was attempting to fix her hair.

. .
She did great. She didn't cry. She closed her eyes and tried very hard to have that same expression on her face. But as I was tugging and pulling her hair I think I could see that she was hurting. Her smile just wasn't as happy. .
Tonight we took the kids to Lipscomb to see the play, Ragtime. I was enjoying it, but the kids were squirming around in their seats. So at intermission, I took the kids to McDonald's so Greg could watch the rest of the play. After Greg got back in the car and explained the rest to us, I was kind of glad I didn't see the rest. It sounds as though the rest of the play was depressing.

Today was mostly wasted laying on the couch. I had a terrible headache. I don't know if it was a migraine, but I did have sensitivity to light and I felt like I was going to throw up. Anyway, here is it 1:30 and I'm not tired.
.
.

I'm looking forward to church tomorrow. It is Harvest Sunday. One of my favorite days of church. It is where each family brings some groceries specially packed with Thanksgiving items to go to families in need. Each bag is packed with:
.
.

Bread serving mix
1 large can green beans
2 cans corn any style
1 can or jar of fruit juice, drink mix or tea mix
1 box potato mix
2 packages macaroni & cheese
1 box Jell-O and 1 large can fruit
1 box of brownie or cake mix
Icing
1 can cranberry sauce
1 box of stuffing mix
1 can of chicken broth.
.
.

Then they take up a collection for meat products that are added to the bags. The goal is for them to provide 650 bags of groceries.
.
.

This year since I have been doing really well with shopping the sales and using coupons, I decided that each person in our family would take a bag. For a bag of groceries that would typically cost around $25, I paid $6.96 for 3 bags and $7.68 for 2 bags.
Plus I am donating 69 boxes of pasta which I got for free and
5 bags of rice that I got for pennies (I don't remember how much.) and 5 tubes of toothpaste I got for free and a few miscellaneous items.

Turning 40

Well it's hard to believe I turned 40 on Thursday. Last Tuesday I was getting together with a few friends, so I decided to take a cake with me. It was a little embarrassing when the check out clerk asked me if I was going to someone's fortieth birthday and I had to admit I was buying it for myself.

It was still nice celebrating with friends even if I did do it for myself.


Chelle

Sent from my HTC on the Now Network from Sprint!

Almost 40 and saving saving saving lots of money

So what would you do if a store would pay you $.20 per box of pasta that you bought? Well that is just what happened today. Kroger has these Ronzoni pasta boxes on sale for $.79. And ON THE BOX was a peelie coupon for $.50. Kroger doubles coupons. So I got 48 boxes of pasta for free plus $10.08 to purchase other groceries. So what am I going to do with 48 boxes of pasta? Well I am going to donate them of course to our church pantry. I told the kids to think how happy these poor people will be to get food, that made shopping for them much easier. The kids helped peel off the coupons and they were happy to know that they were going to bless other families. Aussie did ask if we could keep one box. I told him I already had 3 at home for us.
So this is what I got
48 boxes of Ronzoni Pasta (charity)
10 boxes of hot chocolate
6 cans of green beans (charity)
2 cans of corn (charity)
2 Smokies (sausages)
3 gallons of white milk
2 packages of cornbread (charity)
2 packs of Land of Lakes butter (my favorite)
1 Pillsbury frosting (charity)

All for $22.32

I'm terribly exhausted tonight, probably because someone woke me up too early this morning. So when someone slightly younger than you says, "I can't believe you're about to be 40!", is that a compliment or an insult? I don't know but I took it as an annoyance at 7:30AM. I just grunted and tried to go back to sleep.

Oh wow! I'm tired and my eye is beginning to twitch, so I better go to bed.
Good night!

Saving Money with coupons and sales

So I have been doing a lot of shopping and a lot of saving! I would put my deals here, but I don't think my regular readers would be all that interested in the how I did it.

Anyway, yesterday I had a fabulous run to Kroger. I spent $96.51 for 120 items, saving $192.40. My favorite deal was the Ronzoni pasta. It was on sale for $1.00 and 3 boxes had $.50 coupons on them. When you double that (Kroger doubles coupons up to $.50) that makes them FREE!!!

Then today I went to Rite Aid. I have learned three things about Rite Aid today. One even though it is not stated anywhere there is usually a limit to how many UP rewards you can get on any given item. An UP reward is money back in the form of a coupon to come back to their store to use. Secondly, if you have a really nice sales associate she can and will make it happen where you would get the money back even if you buy over the limit. And thirdly, it is not a good idea to take children. They are a distraction and they caused me to purchase $10.59 more than I would have if they were not with me. Actually, I probably wouldn't have bought the cereal either, which is another $5.23. And I probably would have realized that one of my $1 coupons didn't get scanned.

Anyway if I would have bought the items at full price at Rite Aid everything would have cost $149.02. (But I wouldn't typically pay full price at Rite Aid because everything is overpriced for convenience shopping.) But by shopping the sales and using coupons I spent $38.88 and have $10.98 in UP rewards to use on my next shopping trip. (Which might be tomorrow since I have just a few more things to buy, that I didn't have coupons with me today.)

Do you have any tips on how to save money? I like to use Ebates and of course LOVE my Swagbucks!

A lot of running around!

Ouch! The cat kept jumping up on Greg's computer and when I knocked her off she scratched my neck.



Anyway, I haven't been blogging because my computer died again! I had to send it back to the company to get it fixed AGAIN! This is the second time in a year. I should be getting it back on Monday! Oh please oh please let it really be fixed this time.



I've posted some pictures on Facebook of our many adventures this month.



We went to the pumpkin patch with co/op and Girl Scouts on Monday. Tuesday there were terrible storms here. I am SO glad it was not Wednesday or Thursday, as I had lots planned those days. Wednesday, the kids and I travelled to Alabama to pick up 66 (dead) chickens. It wasn't very adventurous. The process was interesting to see. When we pulled in the driveway, chickens just leisurely crossed the road. I didn't think it looked gross or anything, but Aussie prefered not to look at the chickens hanging to be packaged. They just looked like the whole chickens you would get in the grocery store.



Thursday was a wonderfully busy day! We travelled to Chattanooga. We first went to an I-MAX movie on surfing. Then we went to see a replica of the Nina and the Pinta. We ate at the Mellow Mushroom. We did those three things with our co-op. Then everyone split and most went home. My kids played a bit in the fountains outside the Aquarium. Then we got on the bus and went up the street to see the Chattanooga Choo Choo. Then we left and made it in time to see the sunset at Sewanee. I let the kids play on the playground a bit and then we started home. Out of all those very fun things that we did, Aussie said his favorite part was riding the bus.

The kids are off to the library with Daddy. And I have a few moments by myself. I wish I had the energy to run around and get some things done today. But I'm tired. I went to bed at 3:30AM. Why in the world did I do that? Well I did something really dumb last night. Somehow I loaded some unwanted program onto Greg's work computer. So without waking him up I had to try and figure out how to get it off. After I finally "thought" I got it off, I just fooled around on the computer for another hour and a half to make sure nothing popped up. When I was convinced I had it off, I wrote Greg a letter and told him what I did. He told me HE deleted it this morning. So I guess I didn't get it off in the first place. Then I woke up too early freezing. That's when I took off my CPAP mask and well I don't get any sleep when my mask is off.

Sorry I'm rambling. I'll sign off for now and hopefully will be back to blogging next week. If your friends with me check out my pictures on Facebook!

American Girl Doll

I'm really sleepy tonight, but I can't go to bed without sharing my exciting news.

Today, at church I was carrying Sarah (Ashley's doll). My friend Megan asked me if it was an American Girl doll. I told her it was a knock-off and that Ashley has started being conscience of that fact and really wanted a real one. What came out of her mouth next surprised me. She said, "I'm not going to have any girls and I have a Samantha doll and a bunch of her clothes just sitting in my garage and you can have it." I asked her how much she wanted for it. And she said, "How about I just give it to you."

Samantha happens to be THE doll Ashley wanted.

Samantha is no longer being made.Megan was just as excited to gift it to us as I was receiving it. She mentioned it was like the kid in Toy Story that passed on his favorite toys to the little girl down the street. I asked her if she wanted to give it to Ashley, but she just said she would be happy seeing pictures of Ashley opening it on Christmas morning.

This doll is in EXCELLENT condition. I asked her if she ever played with it. She even had the box the doll came in.

Here are some pictures of the clothes:

All the clothes came in a little blue suitcase. And had this little doll tea set in it.She also gave me this American Girl Brass bed.There were some of the original tags with the doll. Instructions on how to care for her hair with the hairbrush. I am in awe of her generosity!!!

Am I blessed or what?

So don't mention this to Ashley. She will be getting it for Christmas.

A beautiful Park

It is beautiful here. The leaves are beginning to change colors. It's beginning to get crisp. Today I took the kids to a nearby park that we have never been to before. But I can tell you we will certainly be back. It has a gorgeous 2 mile path around a lake. We went 1/2 mile around and then decided to turn around. I didn't have the right shoes on for a 2 mile walk and Aussie scraped his knee. So we decided to turn around and then play on the playground a bit. The deer were out and we were able to get up pretty close.
They are such beautiful creatures.

The kids enjoyed walking on the rocks.

They played on the playground for a little bit and then Ashley had to go to the bathroom. I needed to pick up a picture, so we left with promise that if we had time we would come back. By the way Wolf Camera/ Ritz Camera had a deal today for a "free" 11x14 picture today only. There is shipping charge or a in-store service charge so not quite free but it was only $3.

When we came back there was a couple on the playground. I don't know if you can tell what the kids are doing below, but they are speaking into this think which is below the playground and the other is up on deck where the couple was standing. Then I hear them talking to the couple. Mind you the couple cannot see them, they can only hear them. But I start hearing them talking to the couple. Things like "I hope you are having a good time up there." I peeked up there and the couple starts giggling. Then the kids started singing. 2 people in a tree k.i.s.s.i.n.g... I told them they needed to leave them alone, but I think the couple was getting a kick out of it.

I definitely need to take Gramma/Grampa and Nana/ Papa to this park the next time you come to visit.

School pictures and such

Last Wednesday we took pictures in class. I'm not sure if I didn't have time to edit more of them or if I only chose these two to share. Too many days in between for me to remember.
Today the kids had their school pictures taken. They are almost always good. So this time I decided not to get their picture taken together there. Why in the world would I not if they are almost always good? Because even with a nice discount that he gives our co-op it is still quite expensive and I didn't want that temptation. So I only got individual shots to go into the yearbook. But I did take a few pictures at home.

Silly Mason!

I just like this picture below:

She may look pretty here, but she sure didn't want to cooperate today.

I LOVE this picture of Aussie! (below)

Finally a genuine smile from goofball Mason.

Tonight we didn't have photography class. That church was having a movie night so all of the classes were cancelled. I'm still wondering when it will sink in what settings to use when.

This weekend I expect to get a lot of good pictures.