Curly Sue

This is Curly Sue Natalee.

I love that her hair is growing in thick and curly. After her bath she is just full of curls!

Silly Girls

They love each other.

And they have a funny way of showing it.

My Weekly Deals 4/12-4/17

It's Monday! You know what that means?

I have been shopping like crazy this past week. And it's not just because I'm prepping for a birthday party. I have been loving the deals this past week.

For the first time I went over my weekly budget. I started this year making a budget and giving myself $50 cash a week for groceries, toiletries, diapers, formula etc. I have always had extra each week until this past weekend. Oops. I guess birthday party stuff for over 30 people is part of the reason, but the other part is that there were great stock up prices on a few things so I built my stockpile up.

I'll start with Fry's. The notable deals at Fry's this past week were....free Dole salad kits, free Snicker's eggs (think Easter!), Farmer John Bacon for .50 ea., 2 boxes of Trojan for $1.39 ea. (just trying to prevent baby #3 for now), free Bird's Eye veggies, free Green Giant veggies, free Suave deodorant, free Seventh Generation paper towels, free Lysol Nuetra Air, .25 Lysol wipes, a dozen eggs for .49, can veggies for .25 ea., and grapes for .74 lb. Oh, and 2 old, mean people behind me in line. Grrrr

Safeway had a few awesome deals as well this week. I got more fruit snacks (I tried to get the healthy, all fruit roll ups for Natalee this time) free, free Mentos gum, Marie Callendar meals for $1 ea. and Fruity/Cocoa Pebble treats for .49 ea.

CVS had a smokin' deal on paper towels. For some reason, my store had their brand, 12 roll packages for $1.49. They also had Scott brand paper towels for $2.49 after coupon. While I was there I picked up my .59 Shamrock milk and my free Antibacterial hand sanitizer which is very handy since Josh has strep.

Between Food City and Bashas I stocked up on sugar at $1.44 & $1.50 a bag. Very rarely do I see sugar on sale so I wanted to take advantage of that! While at Bashas I got ground chuck that was on sale for $1.99 lb. and free Shamrock chocolate milk singles for my Haylee girl.

On to Staples, I got a ream of paper for $4.99 + tax and then I turned around and submitted my Easy Rebate for $5.99. Yay for free paper.

Those were the most notable deals this week. I obviously bought a lot more than I listed but it'd take all day to list everything :) Most of the above deals are running through tomorrow. You can check the matchups on Sheryl's site to see where I found the coupons to score these great deals. I advise you to visit her site once a day so you don't miss out on awesome deals!

Bad Fry's Experience

Today I had my first bad experience at Fry's. I've been couponing for 8 months now so it was bound to happen. Funny thing is, it was the rude people behind me, not a rude cashier.

4 coupons (.50/1 Green Giant) wouldn't scan so my cashier had to call the manager up. This older couple behind me start mumbling something and then she looks at me and says, "I use coupons, but not like that!" and is all ticked off because there is a problem. I asked my cashier if she wants me to go to customer service and get it figured out and she tells me no. The rude lady says, "ya, we think you should." When the manager comes up the older lady starts going off about coupons and how ridiculous this is. The manager stuck up for me and said, "there is nothing wrong with using coupons!" So rude lady goes off, "well then maybe you should fix your system so that is excepts the coupons. You know, she offered to go up to customer service and the cashier said no. How much will this save her? We'll just pay for it. We want out of this line!" I didn't know what to say. Both the cashier and the manager kept apologizing to me and reassured me I had done nothing wrong which further irritated rude old lady, "oh, so you tell her sorry..." Geez lady, I'm just trying to save my family some money. I'm sure I spent less than you on my entire cart full of groceries than you did on your 10 items.

It's times like this where I thought of plenty of things I should have said but I was speechless when it happened. Usually the people behind me are shocked at the savings and want to know how I know all the tricks. Obviously these people woke up on the wrong side of the bed!

Friday Ramblings

I like Friday Ramblings. I can just ramble about anything and everything. This will have to be a regular post just like my My Weekly Deals I post Monday. Ok, I guess I'm already rambling....

Haylee has no longer been complaining of bellyaches. This is wonderful! For so long all we'd here was "my belly hurts." Now she knows how to fix the "problem" when it occurs. In fact, I hear her playing Yahtzee in the bathroom quite often!

Haylee also no longer takes a nap. I mean, she will if we put her down, but she does fine all day without one and it's easier to let her stay up than to fight with her to take a nap by herself. She will gladly take one with me if I lay down but that's not very often.

Little Miss Natalee was introduced to milk on Monday and I'd say she is doing just fine. I introduced it a little early so that when she turns 1 it will be a smoother transition from bottle with formula to cup with milk. I think the hardest part will be no more bottle before bed, but I'm not sure if it will be harder for her or for me. I love rocking her and giving her a bottle.

Natalee has had this awesome schedule down for a few weeks now. She goes to bed at 8pm and doesn't wake up till 8am. I love sleeping in!

I'm fairly certain I will loose it next weekend at some point as we celebrate Natalee's 1st birthday. I mean seriously...1 year old already? Where did this entire past year go?

It's kinda crazy to think in the entire past year I only left the house with the girls by myself (while Josh was at work) like 5 times. Lately (well the last 2 days) I have gotten so brave and actually took them with me to get my freap on. That is like major. Grocery stores, lists, coupons, issues at checkouts and kids? It was always easier to leave them home with Josh but I finally put my big girl panties on and everything has great! Both girls did very good the last 2 days. I still don't think I could take them on a major Fry's run, especially not a Mega one. That will take another year to prepare for.

I am no longer taking thyroid medicine. I went to the doctor last month for some blood work and he thinks the thyroid issues were pregnancy related (or that my levels were a little high because of other pregnancy hormones) so when the results came back fine he said I could stop my medicine. I feel fine, not tired or anything. I love not having to take a daily pill!

Josh's been sick since Sunday. He went to the doctor Wednesday night and found out he had strep and was told a prescription was sent in. Well today is Friday and I finally got his prescription because even though I kept calling the doctors office and they said they re-faxed it over, Fry's still did not have anything. So needless to say, Josh has been quarantined from the rest of us and I have had a taste of life as a single mom this past week and I can't say that I like it one bit. I hope Josh feels better soon, both for his sake and my sanity!

Josh did start his new job Monday and he's in the office trying to help convert Pulte stuff over to Brewer right now. Hopefully he can get out to the field soon and he should be close to home. Everything is going smooth now (except him being sick) and he should have a new truck soon. He has one now but it has a hideous rack on it :)

Now it's time to go to bed. I got a big day ahead of me tomorrow. I'm rocking Fry's first thing in the morning!

Twins

You might have noticed in my last post that I started dressing the girls like twins.

My Mom and I rocked Kohl's a couple weeks ago and I was able to find the girls a few matching outfits. 

They look so adorable and I absolutely love having 2 girls just 3 years apart.

Natalee might not be as happy about it, but she might wanna get use to it :)

I love my little girls!

Vegas Baby

1 week ago yesterday we returned from Las Vegas. It was a nice little vacation. We spent time with family, did some sight seeing, and enjoyed the beautiful weather. Oh and did I mention how fast we got there since the new bridge opened over the dam? Last time we went it seriously took us like 11 hours to get there. Natalee was just a couple months old and hated the car drive plus the dam traffic was horrible. This time was smooth sailing and it took us just a tad over 6 hours. Natalee got to use her new big girl front facing seat and she really liked it. She fussed a little this time since she doesn't take good naps in the car but otherwise was great. 

Haylee has always been awesome with long drives. She watches movies, reads books, plays with whatever she brings and usually is pretty quite.

We also stayed on the strip this time which was nice and convenient, just wish our room was bigger. The girls slept awesome and were pretty well behaved the whole time which is why it was a "nice little vacation".


We got in late Friday so we unpacked and went to bed.


Saturday we went to Circus Circus. That is usually our 1st stop in Vegas. Haylee loves to play games and win stuffed animals.

Natalee joined in the fun this time too.

After we left there, we went over to Mandalay Bay to go to the Shark Reef. Natalee loved the fish. She gets so excited watching them swim. Both girls liked the sharks and were excited to see one of the big sea turtles.

Neither girl braved the stingray "touching" but I wasn't afraid of the slimmy little fellas.

After that we went to M & M World, MGM Grand to see the lions, the ABC Store and ate dinner at Outback.

That night we walked around the strip a little. We got lost in the new, huge City Center and them missed the water show by a minute at the Bellagio. We decided to call it a night. It's funny when you're back at the hotel and the girls AND Josh are in bed asleep by 9pm. How times have changed!

Sunday we wanted to spend time at the pool/waterpark. The water was so warm and we were the only ones there. However, the wind made things way too cold so we didn't stay out very long.

We put Natalee down for a nap then headed over to Jim & Kris's house. They made dinner for everyone and then had a little Birthday party for their 4 grandkids who have April Birthday's.

They had a cute cake made and Natalee got cute dresses, a ball, money and bath toys to play with.

The girls had fun playing with their cousins (which includes 6 boys) and dancing to Dance Party on the Wii.

We even talked the guys into dancing to "It's Raining Men" and Jim (Josh's Dad) got down! I'm just glad the girls didn't have to dance!

I know the saying is "what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas," but for me it's "what happens in Vegas ends up on my blog"...........sorry guys!

Monday we had breakfast at Denny's and then went to the Bass Pro Shop to see the HUGE aquarium.

Natalee was in heaven. She got so excited! She kept hitting the glass and screaming.

We love this aquarium and always go when we're in Vegas. They have sharks, huge stingrays, lots of fish and even mermaids sometimes. It's free and awesome. When we left there we went to the outlet mall nearby to walk around and of course Haylee rode the carousel.

That night we met some of Josh's family at Chili's for dinner and then we (along with Josh's Dad) went down to the strip. We finally saw the water show at Bellagio and since they did the show every 15 min. we actually saw 5 shows. Haylee said that was one of her favorite things. We walked around a little then returned to our room to start packing some things up.

Tuesday we headed home. Nothing exciting. Smooth drive, little whining, and Jackson was happy to have us home!

Uh oh!

Natalee's new favorite phrase is "uh oh!" And even better, she uses it correctly.

Example- As I was vacuuming yesterday she decided to take the diapers out of the pack and play holder and all of the wipes out of the container. When I saw what she did, she looked at me and said "uh oh!"

My Weekly Deals 4/6-4/11

Another slow week for deals.

I went to CVS to use my raincheck and get my FREE Listerine. They had them on sale for $1 a week or 2 ago and I had $2/2 coupons so I got 4 FREE.

Walgreen's had their Color Wonder's on sale last week for $1.50 so I used the $1/1 coupon we got 4/3 and got 3 of them for .50. I also picked up 2 Purex detergent for .99. They were on sale for $1.99 and I had some $1/1 coupons. I decided to try this for our sheets and towels.

Safeway has Roman Meal bread for $1.50. With the .75/1 IP I got 2 loaves for .50 each! I also got some boneless skinless chicken breast which they had for $1.99 lb. These items are on sale though tomorrow.

At Fry's I got 2 Dole salad kits for .99, a FREE box of Pillsbury Savorings I won from the last instant win game, 4 FREE Yakisoba, 12 FREE Snicker Eggs, 6 FREE Skittles, and 6 Marie Callendar's meals for $1 each.

Walmart had Similac Sensitive marked down to $3.84. I got 6 of them using my $5/1 coupons which made them FREE + gave me overage towards the other things I bought. While I was their I picked up 5 of the 2-pack 3-in-1 Purex Sheets for FREE. They are .97 and I used my $1/1 coupons which also gave me slight overage.

The most exciting thing was the deal I found all by myself at Walmart. I called Sheryl tonight as soon as I left and she posted it right away! They have the Toy Story 3 Operation for $5. Well coupons.com just released a $3/1 coupon yesterday. Even better, there are big tearpads in the game section that state "Get a FREE TOMBSTONE PIZZA when you buy ANY Hasbro game". So $2 for the game AND a FREE Pizza!!!! Sweet! While I was there I found the Connect 4 travel games for $5.24 and there is a $3/1 coupon for that too making it $2.24. Stocking up for Christmas and Birthday's on the FREAP! Oh, and getting 6 FREE Pizzas! :)

And that's about it. I have a few things to go after at Target and other than that I'm just hoping Fry's has a good ad this week. These slow weeks with no deals makes me grumpy :)

Ramblings

This is a post in which I ramble.

Josh turned over his belongings to Pulte today. They in turn handed him a fat severance check. I truly mean it when I say they treated Josh so wonderful these past 5 years and right up till the last minute. We will miss their awesome pay and benefits!

Josh will start his new job at Brewer on Monday. I'm excited. Josh is grateful. We are blessed.

Josh has started his own business. Elite Digital Services. He is a retailer for Qwest, Dish Network and soon to be Direct TV. If you have Cox (or Qwest) like we did you probably want to look into satellite. Cox keeps raising their prices and I had had enough. We switched last month and we are saving $38 a month which includes loosing our bundle discount. It is so much cheaper! They have 5 packages under $50 and there aren't a bunch of fees (like Cox). Our package is the top 120 channels for $29.99 and we pay $30.67 a month, so .68 for fees. Whoop-dee-doo. I love saving $. If you're interested call Josh (480) 707-1182. He can at least go over what you pay now and show you what your savings would be .If you know Josh you know he's not a pushy salesman, he just wants to help others save money too.

We sold our golf cart last week. Josh is sad that we got rid of his toy. His toy we never used.

I had surgery today on my eye. The prep was torture. I'm now a pirate. I can't see and I'm gonna have a black eye. Nice.

I continue to love couponing and getting things super cheap or free. I will never be on TLC's Extreme Couponing because I will never be that extreme obsessive. I mean, we do go through 20 bottles of mustard a week, but I would never buy 77 at one time and clear the shelf! Neither would I dress up in high heels and keep applying makeup for a grocery trip. But I will continue to gather my coupons, make a list, be extremely  organized and come home and take a picture of my awesome trip, because I'm funny like that. I love having a coupon high.

I didn't do a "My Weekly Deals" this week because I didn't go shopping. I went to Vegas instead. Hopefully I'll make it out this weekend since I'm having withdrawals.

I am starting the 30 Day Shred workout in hopes of solving some ithasbeenalmostayearsinceIhadababy issues. Apparently the extra 5 lbs. won't fall off on their own neither will my body return to it's *new* normal way this time around. I don't love the post baby things my body goes through but I sure do love my sweet baby N so it's all worth it.

Speaking of babies. If we decide to have another (I go back and forth often) we will probably start trying in about 10 months or so. We love the 3 year age gap. It took me a few months to get pregnant with Natalee and of course it happened with the help of Femara so maybe will just jump to the point this time instead of beating around the bush. We'll see. 2 is a hand full right now. I can't imagine 3.

Haylee is a pro at Super Mario. She likes to play it on the Nintendo DS and actually beats quite a few levels. I limit her playing time to when sister is napping because then it occupies her while I get things done too. It's a win win sorta deal.

Haylee is starting school in August. That is very hard for me to believe. I hope she enjoys going and has some well behaved kids in her "class" that rub off on her. Not that she's not a good kid, she just has an attitude.

Natalee has 8 teeth. Got 2 while we were in Vegas yet she was still a happy baby. I think she takes teething better than Haylee did.

Natalee now says "uh oh!"

Both girls did very good in the car for 6+ hours to and from Vegas. They both slept very well in the resort too. I wish I could say the same, but fitting 3 people on a queen size bed is not ideal. Next time we'll stick with our original resort unless this one offers a smokin' deal on 1 bedrooms with a real bed.

We took the girls to Disney On Ice: Princess Classic's last night. Haylee loved all the Princess's and Josh spent most of the time in the lobby with Natalee. She doesn't quite hold still long enough yet.

1 more lady bug died today.

Time to close my eyes. This one eye crap is annoying.