Santa

Today we saw the all important bringer of gifts, Santa. We went to the mall hoping there would not be a huge line and thankfully we were third in line. Abby was so excited to see him and was anxious to tell him what she wanted for Christmas. This morning she told me she was going to ask him for presents.....then it was a big bike. Whew! Thank goodness we got the bike ordered.

I'm anxious to see her riding it and ringing the little bell! Seriously, I got a really, really good deal on the bike.

And, speaking of ride-on toys, here's another appreciated Christmas gift for my oldest:



Yep, they are lookin' good and the bug is almost finished!

You need to see this if you're an online shopper!!!

If you know me, you know how cheap/frugal I am. I like to get a good deal on what I'm buying. I found this site, ebates.
http://www.ebates.com/rf.do?referrerid=zqbfC0eIHH2ADDR%2FialDmA%3D%3D


This site gives you CASH BACK for shopping through them. For example, I went to this site where you then shop from tons of retailers like Old Navy, Wal Mart, etc. and you get a % back of your purchase. Pair this with a good coupon promotion and you have some GREAT DEALS!!!!

So click on the link and sign up. They give you $5 to start just for signing up. What's it going to hurt you to check it out. We all love a little cash back!

All for less than $11

Yep, you read that right....all for less than $11. I went to CVS and Walgreens and got this stuff....mostly for stocking stuffers.

Here's how:
Walgreens:
2 Turtles @ .99 ea = $1.98 - (2) $1.50 Q = $1.02 profit
1 Lindt chocolate bar @ $1.50 -.75Q =.75 final cost

= walgreens doesn't give money back so they adjusted it and I pd .25 for tax


CVS:
Robe $14.99 - $2 Q = 12.99
Candle $2.99 - $2Q = .99
Colgate $2.99 - $1.50Q = 1.49 get a $2 ECB back
Mascara Buy 1 Get 1 = 4.79 -(2) $1Q = 2.79
Nailclippers $2.99 - $1 manuf coupon - $1 Cvs Q = .99
2 lint rollers @ .99 ea = $1.98 - (2) $1 Q = .02 profit
Eyeliner (marked at 75% off) $1.75 - $1Q = .75

=$20
-$3 Q for CVS purchase
-$3.79 ECB
-$4.00 ECB

=======$9.21 +tax

Its kinda confusing at first, but once you get the idea.......everything can be cheap!

Christmas Gifting

Yes, 'tis the season for gifting. Who doesn't love to receive a gift, right? I think many of us have forgotten what Christmas is about. For me Christmas is celebrating family. I can remember tons of Christmases spent with my family, not just my parents, but the huge family gatherings. I do remember opening gifts and seeing what Santa brought, but honestly, I couldn't tell you about half of the things I got! I just remember time with the family...the food, getting picked on by older cousins, picking on the younger cousins, etc. Anyways, what I want Abby to remember is the family time.....not the gifts. Its hard as a parent to get just a few things, of course I want to give her the world. I know she will not remember or even keep most of these things that are gifted to her.
I do have some things that were given to me as a kid, but you know, they were handmade gifts like dolls! I love that I have these things to share with Abby.
I know I've said this many times before to family, but if you're going to give a gift to Abby especially, set a budget and only spend half. The other half can be given to her to put in savings. Really, I'd rather her have a big savings account than a huge pile of toys.

Dear Santa,

If you happen to read this Santa, there are only a couple of things that I have been thinking about.....
A pair of Lucky jeans. ( Or a cheaper pair of Converse jeans from Target)
This cute sweater dress from Bluefly.

These baskets have a perfect spot in my craft room. I've been watching this in the clearance section of Smith and Hawken. I'd also like to have a few rolls of ATG tape since I'm nearly out.

There really isn't anything that I'm dying to have this year. I'm more focused on what to get the munchkin for Christmas. She really wants a bike, so Santa will deliver one Christmas morning.

So Wrong and yet so Right!!!

Yes, I absolutely love these nachos. Especially if it's with Rico cheese. I don't know what it is about this processed cheese from a can, but I love it. I know for me, one who likes to buy organic and natural foods for my family, its hypocritical to eat these, but I can't help it.
Today, Abby got to experience the joy of the nacho for the first time. She LOVED it.
I guess its okay to indulge once in a while. I don't eat it every week/month. I'd have to say it was a good day!

Time flies!

Am I a bad blogger or what? Things have been nonstop busy around here. We've been busy trying to get a business going, saving money, visiting family, taking care of animals......and more. I'm getting a lot better at saving money these days. I'm pretty proud of the recent purchase for less than $7 and it was for the shipping:

You can't even get a pair of shoes that cheap from Payless!!! I amaze myself sometimes with my bargains!!!!
So Thanksgiving is around the corner and I'm not ready. I'm just now thinking about taking down the little bit of Halloween decorations that I put up. Manny will be here in a few weeks and hopefully he'll turn off SpongeBob long enough to help get things ready.

update

It's been forever since I've posted! Believe it or not, a stay at home mom gets pretty busy. Especially when you have had a puppy with a broken leg, a toddler potty training and trying to startup a small business.
Since the last post, we've taken the dog to have leg surgery and she's recovered very quickly. She's had to stay in her cage the entire time and that's been very difficult to deal with. Now she's at a point where we can let her out, but she's so crazy I'm afraid she's going to bust her leg again.
Abby is still potty training. Some days are good and others... not so good. She figured out the child proof doors. I had to buy a new door knob for her room, one that can be locked. I know its kinda mean, but the kid was getting out and going downstairs! One morning she got to the end of the stairs and yelled, "Mama!, Good Morning!" like at 7 a.m. I am not a morning person and this was not so cute at the time.
Abby is talking a lot more now. Sometimes I understand what she's saying and sometimes I'm as clueless as everyone else.
The weather here is finally getting more tolerable. I'm sure we'll start experiencing fall sometime in December!
I'm ready for some time to catch up on sleep. One day, I'd like to sleep again until 9 without interruptions. I don't want to get up at 6 to let the dog out or to feed the dog at 7. When is this dog gonna realize I'm not a morning person? I stay up way too late, I know. However, this is my opportunity to unwind a bit and catch up on tv shows or be crafty or finally clean up the kitchen.

Priceless

registered Labrador puppy $300
first set of vaccinations $100
trip to emergency vet for broken leg $483


A lifetime of affection and friendship: Priceless

So we've now had the Winni girl for a month or so and she's quite the expensive little pup. Today, we had our first emergency vet trip with her. She is a daredevil and not so coordinated and somehow she broke her leg playing in the backyard. We figure she was jumping off the chair and got her leg stuck and it broke. She's now in a splint and one of the cool collars aka satellite dish. She hasn't stopped whimpering since we got home from the doctor's office. We've got to keep her calm and basically immobile for 6 weeks to keep her from having surgery on the leg. I feel so bad for her, but can't do much for her. I'm not expecting to sleep too well tonight as I'm taking post on the couch near the whimpering dog. Occasionally she'll roll over or try to stand up and the crying begins. Wish me luck sleeping tonight.

CVS Friday

Today Lizzie and I went to CVS for the weekly trip. I really needed to get the hair gel for N8 b/c this is the only kind he likes. He has a lot of hair that can get really unmanageable :-) I don't know what the deal is, but anyway this is his brand of choice so I had to get some. I just wanted to show that I really do get stuff for free! This is my receipt for proof! The little bottle of gillette was a freebie in the mail today so I threw it in the pic too.
Mom, now do you believe me?

Hi! I'm corrie and I'm a paper addict

So, I admit that I have some issues when it comes to buying paper. I love to shop for new paper and I'm always looking at different stuff online. Each time a new line comes out......I want it very badly and it takes a lot of restraint not to press the "add to cart button." Ok, so maybe I do press the "add to cart button" but I don't checkout and pay! Here's what I'm wanting lately:


I'll have to save some pennies to order these. For now, I will look at it daily...."eye candy" ha ha ha!

Not much is going on around here....still cleaning pee and washing lots of rags and undies.

This is why I don't shop for kid's clothes............

How cute is this outfit? I could definitely see Abby wearing this. But here is my favorite.....


I love this little dress. If it were in my size, I'd buy it! GapKids has some cute stuff right now, its just a lot over my budget and too cute to look at.

My life in a urinal

Yes, I feel as though I live in a giant urinal. No one really tells you when you have a toddler how many times you will be cleaning pee off of the floor. No one tells you your toddler will try to dump out their own training potty everyday. No one warns you of all the little drops of pee that will fall on the bathroom floor. THEN, add a puppy to the mix and double the original amount of pee from your toddler. The puppy has peed on rugs, in her cage, basically she's peed in most of the rooms downstairs. I feel like I'm living in a urinal. I am always cleaning up pee and I always smell pee. I am super sensitive to smells and I sure don't want people coming over and smell pee. I am sure my pee cleaning days will come to an end soon, but I'm hoping for sooner than later.

Not much else is going on here, except my great luck with the air conditioner. Since we've moved in we have repair guys out once a year for some reason or another. This week it was the zone board. The old one was going out, but the house still cooled down. Once the new one went in, the upstairs stopped cooling down and it became a balmy 84 degrees plus upstairs. So the repair guy came out for a second time in one day. Today........the board, which was brand new, went out! So......another one has to be ordered and a tech will have to come back for a third day this week.

No interesting pictures to post today. Things have been a bit crazy around here.

8-8-08

Look at this priceless piece of artwork! My budding artist painted this yesterday. She got to use the "special paints." Basically they weren't the usual watercolors. She had a blast and could possibly paint every surface of the house if I let her. Here she is in action:



She's also been reading her favorite book. During breakfast a couple of days ago, she read this book to me:
She makes lots of facial expressions while saying, "Mama, mama, ooooh, stinky face." Its pretty darned cute if you ask me. Thanks to Betsy for this great book, she LOVES it!

Since we've had the new puppy, I am definitely up a LOT earlier than normal, cleaning up LOTS of pee, and cleaning up her messes. She seems to think the water bowl is a swimming pool. Nathan and I have come to the conclusion that we have this ability to pick out the "special" animals. Go figure! Here is a pic of Winni after she got in trouble:




Having Winni is like having a little bro/sis for Abby b/c they are always aggravating eachother. I think now she's learned to appreciate Corgan a lot more.

Muddin'

So today started out being productive at 7am. This new puppy has my sleeping schedule all messed up! So I went to the store while Abby was still sleeping and Lizzie was home. I got home and Abby got up and ate bkfst and then I mopped the floor while the pups were out. While I was mopping, my baby yellow lab was muddin' and soon became my baby chocolate lab! It was kinda funny....until Abby opened the back door and let her in! I was so mad. So I hauled her little puppy butt outside and gave her a bath.
Nothing too exciting going on around these parts. Just trying to stay cool in this 100 degree weather. I've been trying to scrapbook some pics when I can. This is one I finished today:


This should make Manny pretty happy as he's been buggin me about putting pics of him on the blog. So here you go u-uh boogie.
\
Blogger is not cooperating with me on my picture placement, sorry.

That's all for now.

Welcome Home

Here is the newest member of the family:
She is 8 weeks old and has green eyes!
We've had the hardest time picking out a name for her. We've decided to go with Winnie, ( not from Winnie the Pooh). She's pretty spunky and really bugs Corgan. Apparently Corgan doesn't like to play before 6pm!
I'm sure I'll have more pics of her to post later.


This was the cutest picture I've seen of Abby in a while. She's getting to the point where she puts on a show for the camera!

My Grill

Check out this new beauty!!!!! N8 brought it home and surprised me with it today. I'd been eyeing it for a long time.

This past weekend we spent some time with some friends at their ranch and had a great time relaxing swimming and playing pool and pingpong. Abby had a great time too......eating treats that Mom would never give her......starting with this............

And then this topped it all off...........chicharron........fried pig skin........WTH!!
Anyways, it was fun and we don't eat like that all the time, so it really was a treat.
Today the little one (during naptime) decided to climb up on her bed to reach the Desitin that was on the shelf. I guess she thought it was lotion so she rubbed it all over her body. Let me just say that her room wreaked of Desitin! If you've ever used the stuff before, it is quite thick and does not rub in. It was all over her body and she had this white tint to her....she was antiqued! So we cleaned her up the best we could, but she still smells of Desitin! She's good for a few laughs...that's for sure

I am the warrior!!!!!

Okay, well I'm not sure I'm a great warrior, but check out the size of this wasp/hornet that I killed. Imagine this flying at you! You should've seen me trying to kill this thing. It was pretty comical. I hit it with the fly swatter and knocked it to the ground. It fell in the door mat and I kept stomping on it over and over again while screaming. Even Abby was screaming. I had to "save" it to show people I wasn't exaggerating.

My garden has been growing and has become quite full. Here are some pics I took of it today. Check out the tomato plant. Its huge! There are quite a few tomatoes that have started to grow on it. In a week or so, we'll have a ton of tomatoes to eat.

4th of July

This is one of the few pics that was taken while we were shooting off fireworks. The camera wasn't cooperating too much. N8, in his true fashion, bought tons of fireworks! This holiday is really like Christmas morning for him!
Abby really didn't like the fireworks this year so she watched from the truck.
After watching all of the fireworks, we went back to the house to play RockBand......this time, we had teams and our team kicked serious ass!!!! You better practice Lizzie!!! Can you believe n8 put this lovely outfit on in the spirit of rockin?

And Abby wore her best headgear as well. This is the only 2 year old who recognizes the music to Missippi Queen.....

Old pics

Officially 30!

So I am now officially 30. No longer a twenty something but now thirty something. Wasn't there a show on tv a LONG time ago called thirtysomething? So yesterday was my birthday and I didn't do much of anything really. We did go to dinner at Geisha which is a sushi/hibachi restaurant. It was just us and Lizzie met us too. N8 wasn't feeling too great and Abby was acting weird so dinner ended around 8ish. By the time we got home and I got Abby out of her carseat she was burning up with fever. So this explains why she wouldn't eat and was so cranky. The birthday celebration quickly came to end at this point. So we gave her some meds, but she didn't really sleep much through the night.....nor did I. She woke up at 5 this morning and maybe napped a total of 3 hours today. As I sit here typing this at nearly 11 tonight, I can still hear her up in her room. What's the deal kiddo? Aren't you tired?

Turning 30 certainly did bring in some fantastic loot!!!! Mom & Dad got me tons of scrapbooking stuff, the French sink from this past weekend and a bracelet with a little charm of Abby. I also got some $$$$$ which I used to buy the necklace that I'm wearing in the pic below and this bathing suit.
Here's a pic from dinner.......

Its hard to see the necklace here but its so gorgeous!! Its a smoky brown quartz. I love it.







N8 got these gorgeous goodies for me:

Thank you N8! I love them.


We also went to an estate sale this weekend where we all found some cool stuff. I think this was my coolest, cheapest find as I saw the exact same thing in Gatesville for $12 and got it for 50 cents on Sunday!
Alrighty, I think this has been a long enough post and I'm gonna try and get some sleep before Abby wakes up.

I'm now a real gardener

This is an actual picture from my garden! I've somehow managed to keep the plants alive and check out what has grown. Honestly, I didn't think I could grow the tomatoes.....thought for sure they'd die before the tomato ever ripened.
So tonight, Abby and I picked the tomato and ate it! Now the thing was only about the size of a golf ball, but its still a tomato. This is proof that I'm now officially a gardener :-)

23 days

Since my birthday is just around the corner, mom and dad gave me my bday money early so that I could order these goodies as part of my scrapbook addiction:

They should be arriving at my front door right around Juneteenth! I also got a few more goodies, but didn't copy the pics for them. THANK YOU MOM AND DAD!!!!!!!!
Who knew paper would make me so darned happy?