Merry Christmas to All!

What a year! I can't believe it is the eve of Christmas Eve already. Just wanted to pop in and send anyone who is still checking this blog a very blessed Merry Christmas. I plan to get back to blogging soon. (Yea, I know, I said that back in August but I've been reinspired to start again!)

Please remember while unwrapping all the gifts on Christmas morning that the real reason for the season is the birth of our Lord and Savior.

Be Blessed!!!

Amy

July in a nutshell

WARNING, THIS POST IS INCREDIBLY LONG AND FULL OF PICTURES-Proceed at your own risk... :O)

This summer has flown by and I can't believe that school starts this Friday (albeit, only a 3 hour day??) Anyway, since the posting has been sporadic at best, I thought a jumbo post covering July would catch us up a bit. Here goes............

The first week of July ushered in a new experience for Emily. Our local YMCA hosts a day camp called Camp Osage and Emily LOVED it! We went on vacation so early this year that I was worried Emily would have a long BORING summer at home. But never fear, Y Camp is here!!! She has learned how to fish, play lots of new games, learned several new songs, seen many friends from school and met lots of new friends. Here she is on her first day and a picture with Delaney, her friend from down the street.

Here is a song that she learned entitled, "God Bless My Underwear". Just in case you can't understand here are the words (to the tune of God Bless America):

God bless my underwear

My only pair

Thru the washer

Thru the dryer

On the clothesline

In the air

Oh, God bless my underwear

My only pair......

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Repeat until it drives your parents CRAZY!!!!!!!!!!!! Actually, this time was hysterical. She was just belting it out in the shower one night after camp. Cracked me up!!!

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July also brought the first fruits from my garden, go figure, it was zucchini.And who doesn't need a little more mulch on their garden in the heat of summer? Certainly not I. And our neighbor, Emily's best friend Don, was willing to share his grass clippings with us and Emily helped him out with the rake.Still keeping with the garden theme,I am proud to say that I learned how to can. My dad's friend Mel gave me a rather large bag of green beans that I used as my "guinea pig". Back in June, I had told my step-dad Bob that I wanted him to teach me how to can as my birthday gift. So he came over one day while Emily was at camp (mom came with him to keep an eye on my little ones that I babysit) and I had my first (and only) lesson. Here are some pictures from the experience.

Beans before:
Necessary tools:
Me and my teacher. Final results, MMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

These jars sat on my counter all afternoon and evening and every time I walked by I just smiled and felt so proud that I had provided food for my family. And it was all free! The jars came from Freecycle. I was also blessed with a pressure canner as well as some other items needed. And I was presented with the Ball Blue Book for Canning and Preserving by my teacher. THERE'S NO STOPPIN' ME NOW!!!

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THE CHICKEN BORDER COMES DOWN!!!

From the day that we moved into our home, I've not particularly cared for the border in my laundry room. After all, what to chickens/roosters have to do with laundry??? Anyway, one day I got a wild hair and started pulling it down.

Before:
During:

After:

The aprons are mine and Emily's cooking aprons. Delmar's mom gave me the black and white checked one and I love it! I would like to get some other vintage ones. The pink one has a ladybug on it and Emily loves to wear it when we cook. As you can also see, I still haven't decided what color I'm going to paint the doors.

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Relay for Life

Most of you know that I've been participating in Relay for Life since my sister Lori was diagnosed with Kidney cancer in 2002. My first one was in 2003 and I've been doing it every year since, making this my seventh year WOW! Our team is now sponsored by our church and we had a great night this year. The weather was beautiful but cold. But, I'd much rather it be cold than hot.

This year our camp had a hippy/Woodstock/Age of Aquarius feel to it. Here is a picture of our mascots. (Thanks David, Delmar & Gene for keeping us laughing well into the night!)

What is a night being up until dawn without a little food?Kids lap (Emily is in the orange shirt right in the middle of the pic):Me and my man. Stay away ladies...he's all mine!! :o)One of the chiropractors in town was selling massages (all proceeds went to the Relay). Pat tried it out first and convinced MANY on our team that it was awesome and it was!What???? Mike is asleep and SNORING??? No way!

Each year they make a banner of hand prints of survivors. This banner is from 2003, Lori's hand print is the pink one and it overlaps our dad's (the upside down one). I take a picture of it every year.

What a great end to Relay week, the stargazer lillies that I planted in my garden in memory of Lori bloomed! I honestly didn't think they were going to this year but one day, there they were! These were Lori's favorite flower and were in all the bouquets that Mike would send her.

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Our final adventure in July was tent camping at Weldon Springs. We were invited by our neighbor Jenny to join her and some of her family and friends. What a weekend! Friday night was great but Saturday it rained almost all day. We didn't care, we stood around under umbrellas around the fire and at one point gave up on the umbrellas and sat at a picnic table in the rain playing Scrabble. Fortunately, the Scrabble game was mostly wood and plastic!!!

Here is princess Jenny in her castle. Not too bad considering she started Friday with a ridiculously small tent with a queen sized mattress in it. She was movin' on up!!!

Lilly trying to learn to ride a 2 wheeler:

Rise and shine Emily and Kyla:

Here I am helping Sal make breakfast. This covered screen room would have been a great idea BEFORE it rained. Here are a group of campers putting it up and you can't tell but it is pouring!! HA!UHHH...Delmar....Emily....everyone else is up!!

I pray that you all had a blessed summer. While it has gone incredibly fast, Emily and I are both excited that school is starting in a few days. She has already met her teacher and we've heard that she is great!

Eleven years ago today...

I said "I do" to the love of my life. HAPPY ANNIVERSARY MY LOVE!!!!

We are going to Red Lobster for dinner and do some Walmart shopping in Decatur. Our friend Jenny is watching Emily for us. Thanks Jenny!!! Then we will come home and watch So You Think You Can Dance. A simple evening with the one I love doing things we love~~~well, except for the Walmart shopping!

UPDATE: Here is a picture of the flowers Delmar brought home for me. There were so many, I had to separate them into two jars. More to spread around the house!!!

Happy Birthday Emily Rose!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, today our baby is 7 years old. It amazes me how time flies. Every year on her birthday, I recall the day she was born and the horrible time she had just trying to breath. I remember laying in a hospital bed after a C-section being told that my baby, just hours old, would need to be flown from from Effingham to Springfield because they didn't have the equipment or doctors needed to keep her alive and the aweful feeling knowing I couldn't go with her. I can picture in my mind, the first time I got to hold her 2 days later, on MY birthday and thanking God for the most wonderful birthday present ever and for having the best husband in the world after hearing that he didn't let ANYONE hold her, not even himself, knowing that I should be the first. Then, after a week, the IVs came out and we got to take our baby girl home.

And now, look at her, she can read her own birthday cards:This morning, we tried to convince Emily that she should wait to open her presents at her party but she told us, "But we always have a party in the morning!" So, she opened her presents from us this morning and was very happy with her new Littlest Petshop Clubhouse and Dora Leapster game.

After unwrapping the gifts, Emily and her cousin Baylee, who is with us for the weekend, decided it was time to wrap up daddy!

I will post more pictures of the party later.

Have a blessed day,

My new baby

Ok, so it's not really a baby but I still love it! Our old van was slowly starting to nickle and dime us AND it had 125,000 miles on it. And since we are driving to Miami in 4 weeks we decided that it my be time to trade 'er in. And, here she is:(This picture makes it look silver but it is actually a light blue, kinda aqua color.)

I've loved my last 2 Dodge Grand Caravans and did not want to stray from them but Delmar brought me home this tonight. It is a Chrysler Town and Country. Same layout of the Dodge just a "step up". Yes, now we have StowNGo seating, all the doors are electric and Emily loves the built in DVD player. These things will all come in handy during our many days in the van on our way to and from Miami.

Have a blessed day,

CVS & Walgreens Deals 4/12-4/18

OK, so I had no intention of going to do my coupon deals this week. There really wasn't much going on. UNTIL, I read the iheartcvs.com blog entry about the Purex coupons. This week at CVS, Purex was B1G1 free. The entry had a link to a B1G1 free coupon making BOTH bottles free except for the tax-which was $2.62 for all 10 bottles!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then, Wags had Colgate toothbrushes for $3.29 with a $3.50 RR and I had a $1 coupon for each one also making them a moneymaker. I used the RRs to turn around and buy some boxes of the individual drink mixes that you put in bottles of water for Emily's lunches. She loves them but I just can't share my Crystal Light White Grape flavor! I know-bad mom!

Here is the rundown:

10 32-load bottles of Purex
7 boxes of drink mixes
5 Colgate toothbrushes
1 Physicians Formula moisturizer

I paid $10.63 out of pocket BUT ended up with $7.00 in Wags RR and will submit a $10 rebate in for the moisturizer. Some of the purchase was made with my Wags gift card from rebates from last month. So I will end up MAKING $6.37 after my rebate goes back on my Wags gift card at the end of the month AND I have enough laundry soap to last the rest of the year.

Have a blessed day,

Shopping Deals Mar 31-Apr 5

Not much happened at CVS last week. We are pretty much stocked up on shampoo, toothpaste, etc. for awhile. So this week the concentration was on all the great Pepsi deals. Combined with my rebate coupons that I received from the Super Bowl rebate promotion back in Feb. I'm set with soda for the time :) This shopping was done at Walgreens and Target.

Here's what I got for just about $31:

6-12 packs Diet Pepsi

1-12 pack Wild Cherry Diet Pepsi

1-12 pack Diet Dr. Pepper

1-12 pack Diet Sierra Mist

4 boxes of Target brand fruit snacks

2 boxes Fiber One Poptarts

2 Johnson's Bath Buddies soap

1 pack of socks for Delmar (I just don't understand how a man can be so hard on SOCKS!!!!)

2 boxes Quaker Chewy granola bars

1 Fusion Gamer Power razor

1 Gillette shave cream

Have a blessed day,

CVS & Walgreens Deals 3/22-3/28

Kind of a pitiful week in the land of CVS & Wags deals. But I did get these items for a total of $1.53 (after rebate).

WAGS:

Hunts Tomato Sauce-11 @ .99 = $10.89

Use Wags flyer coupon-11 @ .39 = $4.29 + .11(tax) = $4.40

Submitted a $5.00 rebate off of a $10 Conagra purchase = $5.50 back (10% added for putting on a Wags gift card)

Total purchase = $1.10 PROFIT!!!!!!

CVS:

B1G1 Campbell's soups (not a great selection) - 8 for $6.56

Used 4 $1/2 Campbell soup coupons - $4.00 off

Total OOP with tax - $2.63

Again, sad week... But it was nice to actually get some food for my pantry instead of shampoo and toothpaste! :-)

Have a blessed day,

CVS & Wags Deals 3/15-3/21

I only spent $2.48 OOP today at CVS but I didn't leave with any ECBs :( Oh well, heck of a deal for less than ONE of the Colgate toothbrushes I got!!! Here's the rundown...

Deal #1
Dry Idea deodorant (2)
Colgate Max White toothbrush

Less:
$2.00 Dry Idea coupon (2 of them)
$4.99 ECB from prior purchase (discounted to $4.97)

OOP: 27 cents
ECBs earned: $4.00 for Dry Idea & $2.99 for toothbrush

Deal #2
Hello Kitty Bandaids (2)
Kotex pantyliners

Less:
75 cent Kotex coupon
$1.50 CRT (CVS coupon from coupon machine) off Kotex pantiliners
$2.00 Bandaids coupons ($1/1 X 2)
$4.00 ECB from #1
$2.99 ECB from #1 (discounted to $2.92)

OOP: 3 cents
ECBs earned: $3.00 for Bandaids & $2.00 for Kotex

Deal #3
Diet Cherry Pepsi 12 packs (3)
Gumdrops (2)
Suave Body Wash

Less:
$1.00 of 2 Gold Emblem candys (CVS brand)
$3.00 off any Suave product
$3.00-Buy 2 get 1 free Pepsi product
$2.00 ECB from #2
$3.00 ECB from #2

OOP: $2.18
ECBs earned- ZERO

Total of $2.48 for $44.88 of stuff. YEAH ME!!!!

I am still considering doing the Hersey's ECB offer and I still have another Pepsi coupon for the buy 2 get one free I may do.




I wasn't going to go to Walgreens this week but then found out about a coupon that is in a magazine in the pharmacy area that goes well with a RR deal. Here it is, all this for $9.95 OOP. Not too bad considering the Pullup (Wags brand) alone are almost $9.00 by themselves!!!

Have a blessed day,