Monday, July 30, 2007

Deals of the day!

I got some GOODS today. If you know me well, you know I am a coupon junkie, along with a scrapbook junkie, a news and politics junkie, etc. If I get into something, I get into it all the way! Two sites I love for deals are:
hotcouponworld.com
pinchingyourpennies.com
I have learned a ton from these sites. Did you know that you can combine a store coupon (like target or walgreens) with a manufacturers coupon for some awesome deals?! Do you ever pay attention to the coupons that are given to you with your receipt at a lot of grocery stores like Albertsons, etc? There are some great deals sometimes. This week at Walgreens there are two companies Proctor and Gamble and Novartis that are offering coupons of $12 off your next purchase and $16 off your next purchase if you buy $25 or $20 worth of their items. Basically, totally legally, you can use manufacturer coupons along with your purchase of these items, putting your total way down (I paid .12 for $25 worth of things today) and then you get MORE register rewards that give you money off your next purchase, buy more of their items, and repeat! You can go a long way on their money. I am sure I haven't explained it clearly but check out the Walgreens forum at hotcouponworld.com for more info! It takes some planning, but it's fun!

I also bought 6 pkgs of 24 count crayons at Office Max today for .06. They have three items on for a penny right now, crayons, rulers, and protractors. They were out of the first two so they gave me 6 of the crayons. (limit is usually 3) I usually try to fly under the radar so I won't get a reputation as a crazy coupon lady! I do everything legally but some cashiers are ornery. Some are great. Anyway, those are my deals of the day!

More fun in the sun!




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Summertime, summertime, sum sum summertime

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Sunday, July 29, 2007

Fun weekend!

Wow! I feel like we are trying to pack our last few weeks of summer as full as we possibly can! I keep thinking of fun things we should do and places we should go but then there's that money and time thing that keeps coming up. This week and weekend was good though. Amy came down for a few days of F-U-N! It was so great.

For those of you who don't know me well, I am such a small town girl at heart. I am close to my friends that I have known forever, and love more than anything to hang out with my sisters. Surprisingly, in every town I have lived (Monterey, CA Augusta, GA, Puyallup, WA) there was someone else from little old Star Valley, Wyoming. Once in Mark's first day of class at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, CA everyone was introducing themselves. A guy named Jay Haderlie introduced himself. He told the class he was from Star Valley, WY and Mark said, "My wife is from there." Jay replied, "Oh, you must be Mark."
Mark, being from a big city, almost fell out of his chair in shock! How did this guy know who he was? He hadn't even introduced himself. :) Turns out my aunt Ronda visit taught Jay's mom and had mentioned that her niece and her husband were moving to Monterey to go to DLI. It was funny! He's used to the fact that I am a small town girl at heart and loves me anyway and tolerates my many family functions. I also love him in spite of his stupid inbreeder jokes! I would love to live closer to my family but it would be hard to give up the 24 hour stores and restaurants. My grandma can't believe I can go to Walmart any old time. She lives 20 miles from the closest little town.

To make a short story long, it was great to have Amy down here. I am completely myself around my sisters and while that's scary, we have a great time. We did some school shopping, took the kids swimming, ate yummy food, and lived at the snow zone shaved ice shack! Her Kadon is such a kick. He talks as well as Zachy and he is just a year! (Zachy has been funny the last few days, waving to any and all that look at him) Amy's kids have always talked early. It's not like they have any examples of chattiness in their parents. ;)

Fri night Mark watched "The Last Mimzy" with the kids.They really enjoyed it. I tried but Zachy was a bear. They enjoyed that and last night he took them to a Chukars baseball game. It was Qwest night and they had a blast trying to catch a fly ball and eating giant corn dogs! I'm glad they got to hang out. I know this post is getting long and snooze-worthy but I still have things to say. :)

I am so excited about our yard. We got a sprinkler system in the back a few weeks ago and things are greening up! When we moved in two years ago, we were told the back yard had been planted. It's a big sucker for a city yard. I dutifully watered it the first year and it turned into a HUGE weed patch. We thought they had lied about planting. Fast forward to this summer. I killed all the weeds a month ago and now grass is showing up in several places. Our sprinkler guy seems to think they planted, but not very well. That leads me to my question. Does anyone have any advice on planting themselves? What kind of seed is good? We talked about hydroseeding but my sis Amy says we should save the money and seed it ourselves. Any advice from the blogosphere? We worked in the yard for several hours yesterday until we about keeled over from heat stroke!

I have been super wordy. Today has been a great day. We enjoyed church this morning, Zachy took a LONG nap this afternoon. (he had several days to make up for!) It was a nice, but HOT day! I am ready to fall into bed. Goodnight!!!

PS-There is an awesome deal going on at Walgreen's this week- LOTS of freebies! I'll post more tomorrow!

Saturday, July 28, 2007

Can you spot 5 kittens?


I was up in the middle of the night with Zachy the other night (big surprise for you that know him) and when I put him to bed and checked on the other kids, I found the funniest sight in Kate's bed. Up until now, the kittens have slept on the floor or in a cat bed with their mama but they got brave this night and all joined Kate. The kittens are getting so big, we have found homes for all but one and Brynn is begging us to keep it. (I know it's hard to believe) We will be giving them away in a few weeks. They are adorable and already litter box trained. Thank you Sara, for the pointers!

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Weekend in Wyoming


I had a great time in Wyoming this weekend. I got to see lots of people I hadn't seen forever and I even got treated to some fine entertainment at the Auburn Old Rock Church play. My cousin Taya was up from Virginia and I had a great time catching up with her. We haven't chatted for 4 or 5 years! Yikes. Her kids were so cute and I could have taken her little guy Nate home with me, he is so cute and such a little flirt. His three older sisters wouldn't let me get far! I got to chat with my cousin Lynelle, see my cousin Becky's new baby and just have a fun afternoon.


Sat. night we ALL (my sisters, their spouses, and all of our kids) went to the play at the Old Rock Church. In Star Valley they have a musical in the summer at the historic Rock church building in Auburn, WY. (pop. 500) I am very proud to say that Auburn is MY hometown and I still love it and its people dearly. The musical is in its 15th year. I was in it the 2nd year. Oh, to be 17, nah I'd just take my 17 year old body and keep my 30 yr old life! :)


My dad has been in the play a few years and this year they asked him to be in it last minute when another guy dropped out. He plays the part of a funny, senile old Grandpa perfectly! If he forgets his lines, no one knows cause that's his character. It was great family fun. If you are in SV, go see it!It's called American Hearts by Teri Hoop. The Historical Society puts it on every year and people donate their time and talents to make it a go. My mom was nice enough to watch the babies and when we got home they were both snoozing, and she looked ready to nod off! She is an expert! She's going to hate this picture but I love it. What a fun weekend!

Crazy Kate and her cohorts


Kate and her buddies Jordy and Madi live for excitement! :)

Peace out people!