A time for work...

This has been a busy weekend. Husband and youngest son laid a new section of patio. We have been using 16 inch square patio blocks and decided to make a new section of 24 blocks. They completed that last night and today they installed a fence beyond the patio to keep our dog out of the garden. I will try to take pictures tomorrow and post them. I should have taken before pictures, because then you would really see how much this improved this area.

I just finished spray painting my old metal glider. Paprika. It is a bit more orange than I wanted, I was hoping for a more reddish-paprika. Maybe it will dry the color I want. it still looks better than it did before though.

Tomorrow night my amazing girlfriends are coming over here for our monthly GNO. I am preparing a baked potato bar and all the fixins. I must get up early though and give the house a good cleaning.

Sorry for the lack of posting. Will try to do better.

Crazy Love

Go buy this book. Francis Chan is the author. It will rock your world and make you come face to face with God. I am not very far into it yet, but so far all I can say is, "Whoa!" Buy it.

$6.22 out of pocket

I hit up Walgreens again. Husband will say I robed them. When people call he tells them I am out robbing Walgreens. He is so funny.

All pictured for $6.22, plus I came home with $8.00 in new Register Rewards with the ice cream deals. Would have cost $66.70 without any coupons or Register Rewards. I am thinking about going back for more ice cream treats. My family will love me. Gee, I will love me. Notice, I did get some of the Skinny Cow variety. I do not eat this much candy, but I had to buy it to keep my coupon to item ratio in check. There are always little ones at ball games that "need" it. Actually, youngest son will say that he needs it.

Summertime and the Shoppin' is Easy

First week off of school and what do I do? Hit Walgreens and CVS at 7:00 am. Good deals to be had and I couldn't wait. Actually I wanted to go before I started working in the garden and got all sweaty.

CVS: I was so glad to get the Windex. I was out of that on the stockpile. The shave cream was on clearance for .29 cents each, and I received a $2.00 coupon on the Dove chocolate at "the magic coupon machine", making the whole bag just .50 cents. Just yesterday the cash register receipt kicked out a $5.00 off of $15.00 coupon, so that helped a lot. I had coupons for almost everything else, and I used $7.00 in Extra Care Bucks. I spent a mere .78 cents out of pocket on everything and earned another $5.00 in ECBs. Nice.

Walgreens: I used coupons for everything pictured except for the candy, which I bought as fillers. I also used a few Register Rewards. Everything pictured cost me a total of $7.08 out of pocket and earned another $7.00 in Register Rewards. Not bad.

In all I spent $7.86 and came home with $12.00 in a combination of CVs and Walgreens "cash"

Winner Winner Pasta Dinner!

I have a winner! I numbered my entries according to the entry where the email address showed up (because some left them out). So even if you commented, the entry that counted was the one that had your email address.

The random number generator (random.org) picked number 2 which, would be be Reta, who had her email address included.

I have emailed the winner.

You never know folks when another contest will pop up!

Cupcakes!

I have decided that I love making cupcakes.

I have really gotten into making them since the first of the year, and in the last 6 weeks I have made them for 7 occasions. I buy cake mixes when the are .88 cents or less then I buy several, and put them into the freezer. I also have been shopping at WalMart after each holiday since Christmas and I am buying various sprinkles and cupcake liners after they are marked down. I keep all of my supplies in a covered plastic tub, and I am gaining a nice collection of items to work with. Most of my cake recipes come from The CakemixDoctor

cookbooks that I have collected as well. I love her recipes. You start with a basic cake mix and then jazz it up. I always make homemade frosting and I do not use a recipe for that. I do not know how to do professional decorating, but I purchased a large pastry bag, a large tip and coupler, and after a lesson from my sister I do okay.

These are for an event after church tomorrow, and some will be for our small group which meets tomorrow night.

Note about the Give-Away

I need email addresses from all who enter.

Give-Away # 3 / CLOSED NOW

I am lovin' give-a-ways.

I have something really cool to share.

Betty Crocker, through MyBlogSpark has provided me with a great package which includes: a box of Betty Crocker's Suddenly Salad, a Pyrex dish, a serving bowl, and an insulated tote. These products are really nice and I was super excited to get them. I will use the tote to carry all of my cool dishes to our next picnic.

I have tried Suddenly Salad in the past and I have really liked it. The Greek salad would not be my first choice, but I know my son will enjoy it. I like the convenience and the taste of the ones I have tried. I also like how you can toss in anything you like and create a pasta salad just the way you want it. I have tossed in broccoli, carrots, red onion, and cauliflower pieces. Bacon pieces sound good to me also. These come together really fast, and makes fixing a yummy side dish really easy.

There are several other varieties of Suddenly Salad that sound great. You can check them all out at SuddenlySalad.com

The great news is that I am also able to give a package just like the one pictured to one of my readers! To enter you must do the following:

Post a comment to this post with the following information:

• What ingredient would you toss into a box of Suddenly Salad ? Specifically, tell me which variety you would pick and how you would change it up.
• Your email address or link to your blog so that I can contact you.

I will pick a winner using the random.org number generator from all eligible submissions on Sunday, June 6th.

The opinions of this product are my own, but I need to disclose that the package of Suddenly Salad, the prize pack, and the give-away were all provided to my by Betty Crocker, through MyBlogSpark.

Mail Call

Today was a very good day at the mailbox!

The breakdown:

• Kraft First Taste free product coupons. I LOVE Kraft! There are coupons for 6 free items! (Kool-Aid Fizz Drink Drops, Homestyle Deluxe Macaroni and Cheese, Digiorno Deep Dish Pizza, 100 Calorie Packs Cheese Bites, Oscar Mayer Deli Fresh Shaved Meat, and Ritz Crackerfuls) If you are not a member then you should go to here and sign up. I have gotten lots of free product coupons from Kraft this way.
• A full size eye shadow quad from Loreal. I signed up a while back for Loreal product testing and I did a survey on mascara. This was my gift for doing the survey.
• A sample of Secret Clinical Deodorant from WalMart (great source for samples)
• Samples of Dove shampoo and conditioner, also from WalMart
• 2 free samples of Purex 3-in-1 laundry sheets. ( I LOVE these)
• Home Made Simple coupon book (great coupons)

Pretty good haul for one day! Cheap is good, but free is better!

Brave or Stupid ? You Decide.

Most of the people who know me well, know that I love my Diet Pepsi. IF you know me really well, you would know that what really excites me, is FOUNTAIN Diet Pepsi. Last night I was suffering through my addiction, wanting one in the worst way. I called husband and told him that God wanted him to get me a fountain Diet Pepsi. Now, we both knew that was not true, but at least husband took me seriously. A few minutes later, husband and youngest come in the door. Youngest is carrying a one half gallon fountain Diet Pepsi. Seriously. Now, it is nearly 8:30 p.m. (late for that much caffeine) , and even I would have a hard time polishing that off, but I do my best and manage to suck down quite a bit before I have to make a run to Walgreens.

I often make runs to Walgreens, but this was really a necessity. I needed to pick up a prescription and some photos. So, at about 8:45 I drive over to my neighborhood Walgreens. I am walking through the store, on my way to the pharmacy when it happened. I round the corner and there in plain sight, right before my eyes, is an ADULT male stuffing 5-hour energy shots down his pants. DOWN HIS PANTS!! His eyes meet mine, and I froze for a moment, then turned to walk away, then something bizarre came over me. I turn around, and go back to him, look him square in the eye, and say " Do you think you should be doing that? "

Geez, did that sound stupid or what? That was either caffeine induced bravery, a "teacher moment" or sheer stupidity. He mumbles something like, "Do what? I didn't do nothin" Then what do I do? I fire back, " Yes you did , you just put something down your pants". The next moment must have been when someone else inhabited my body, because then I saw an employee and put my hand in the air , pointed over the top of my head to the adult male, and shouted, "Shoplifter!"

This is so unlike me. The employee then proceeds to run the guy out of the building, telling him that he knows he is not supposed to be in there. (perhaps this was not the first event)

Now I am feeling quite proud of myself until it hits me that I came alone. What if "adult male" is lurking at the side of the building when I go out? What if he is waiting on me? I then come to my senses, call my husband and ask that he drive over, come inside, and walk me to the car.

I still cannot believe that I did that. This was not a 3rd grader or a student, it was an adult male. If the adult male thinks nothing of shoplifting, he probably would not think much of harming me in the parking lot. I guess I watched too much of Barney Fife when I was younger, he and I seemed to act before thinking.

Laptop

I have been wanting a laptop, but we have just not had extra money for that. I started Swagbucks and decided I would save the "bucks" I earned and possibly get a netbook instead. I had a total of $50.00 that I had used to purchase "digital" Amazon gift cards, and I was just letting them stack up. Well, good things come to those who wait. Youngest son has a friend at school that did not want her laptop any longer. It needed parts and she did not wish to invest in it. Ah Ha! Youngest paid $50.00 and bought his momma a broken laptop. Don't laugh, guess what the needed parts cost? Yep, roughly $50.00. Actually, $63.00 with part of that being shipping. Remember those "Swagbucks" I mentioned? I cashed in $50.00 that I have earned by mostly searching the web, and I used all of my Amazon gift cards for the parts. My out of pocket spending for the parts came to $13.00. Youngest son added some extra RAM that he had on hand, and I have a sweet Toshiba laptop! I am posting from it now.

This is a very nice computer, plenty of space in the hard drive, and one of the parts we bought is a new battery. I upgraded to a higher cell battery and have tons of battery life. It also has a memory card reader, which just happens to accept my strange memory card, and all is great in the computing world!

This will aid me in my future coupon class, and should make it very easy to show my presentation.

Youngest has a knack for finding deals on electronics, I feel I have raised him well in the art of bargain hunting. You better get your requests in soon though, because my sister has already made hers and they are lining up.

Thank you baby boy for thinking of your momma!

Oldest....I want a pony!

What a week

This has been an interesting week to say the least. I was home from school all weekdue to the remainder of my pneumonia, but still woke up yesterday with a heaviness in my chest. The thing is that with my heart history, the doctors will not mess with chest heaviness. Long story shortened, I spent yesterday in the walk in clinic, followed by a trip to the local ER, followed by a trip to my hospital of choice, followed by an all night stay. Heart issues were soon ruled out, but they won't risk dismissing them without the battery of tests. Pressure was attributed to the pneumonia, which according to x-rays, is still lingering just a bit.

The worst part about my entire day was my time at the local ER. Now, it was not due to treatment, but yet due to something else entirely unrelated to me. While I was in my bed with the curtains drawn, a patient was brought in that had in fact, "coded" on her way by ambulance. The area next to me filled with nurses, doctors, and technicians, all doing everything humanly possible to save her. Even though I could not see anything, I heard every word, every order, and every attempt at CPR. I just laid helpless, while this woman's life slipped away. I could tell that this staff was trying desperately to save her. Their words were all spoken in deep respect, and I could hear a nurse pleading in the sweetest voice possible for this woman to make it. I do not think I can explain exactly how I felt at that time to anyone. I did not know this woman, I did not hear a name, but I felt so much sadness to know that a life was ending as I laid there. I sobbed for quite a while, and soon, my curtain slipped open and the son of a good friend (a paramedic) who was there to transport me to the other hospital came in and stood silently by me. Just having someone present with me right then helped.

I have been at the bedside when death occurred. I was with both of my parents, and my grandma, I have felt that feeling of personal loss. I just did not know that I would be so overwhelmed at the loss of a stranger. I prayed hard for a few moments, and quite honestly, it took me a while to recover. I am still praying. I still don't even know who this woman was, or anything about her or her family. I will watch the newspaper closely for a few days, hoping to match a name to the details of when and where.

I just know that all life is precious. I prayed, hoping that she was a believer, and that she inhaled one last breath on this earth and exhaled in the presence of Jesus. I prayed for her family, and for the sadness they will feel. Please help me and pray for them as well.

Updates

The Good:

• Still good.  The boys are still home, and they have been a huge blessing to me today.  I could not have dealt with a broken freezer and transporting all of our coolers filled with food with the way was feeling. 
  

The Bad:

• Freezer was repaired.  This was a big debate, but we decided to see what the repair man had to say.  He was the one who fixed it in December and he cut us a break. No service fee, and he replaced 2 parts, but only charged us for the cheapest of the two.  Our bill was only $48.00.  It is working very well tonight, and I will let it run till tomorrow afternoon to fill it.    I will just have to check this daily from now on , just to be safe.  
•  A funny thing happened today  when the boys were transporting all of our frozen food to the folks' house.  One of them called to report in and I told them I couldn't talk because the freezer guys were here, and I was tied up in the basement...I guess I should be careful about what I say. 
• Laundry has been drastically been reduced, and I am seeing an end to all of the piles.  This has  been an entire family affair, and I am glad to get it done. 
• I am still coughing my head off.  I just took a dose of my codeine cough syrup, so we will see how that goes. Since  I am on steroids and codeine, I sure hope I do not need a drug test. 

The Ugly:

• We are working on that, husband and boys are doing some chores for me, and before the night is out we should have a decent house again. 

I always need to remember that stressful moments have a way of working out.  I will admit that this morning I felt very overwhelmed.  I am doing much better with that right now. 

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

The Good:

• Both of our boys are home this weekend.  I do not think that has happened since Christmas. It is good to have them both home, to talk with and to see them interact as brothers. They are very close. 
• They presented me with a beautiful and delicate sterling silver chainmaille bracelet.  I know that word chainmaille makes you think of anything but delicate, but I assure you this is very pretty.  A friend of youngest' in the art department makes them, and the boys bought one for me for Mother's Day.  I will post pictures of it later on, but it needs re-sized.  The only petite part about me other than my height, is the size of my wrists.  
• Youngest also purchased a used laptop from the same girl and gave that to me as well.  It only needed a new battery and a power cord.  I was able to purchase both of those with my Swagbucks' Amazon gift cards.  I only had to pay $13.00 out of pocket.  I tell ya, those Swagbucks add up.  I have earned over $50.00 in gift cards since Christmas! 

The Bad:

• My freezer went out!  Arrrgh.  This is the second time since December that this has happened.  Luckily my boys were home, and luckily my in-laws have plenty of room in theirs, and luckily we got everything transferred before we lost anything. (I am a stockpiler you know)  I have spent the morning on the phone and have about decided to just purchase a new one.  This is the third time over all that we have had a problem, and this freezer is less than 9 years old!  I have located one in town and I feel that we just might go make our purchase tonight.  Good thing we have not spent our Christmas money from the folks!    Just the process of dealing with this has left me depleted of any possible energy  for the day. 
• I feel awful.  This tail end of whatever is kicking my behind and I woke up seriously dragging.  I had another one of those coughing spells and  felt I pulled every muscle across my upper chest.   On Thursday I returned to the walk-in clinic and an x-ray showed my lungs were clear, but they felt I still had inflammation, and put me on a dose of steroids.   As you see from the above bullet, I did not really need the freezer to go out on this day. 
• There are more loads of laundry than I care to count.  A very busy week last week, and this week, plus my sickened state, have all stacked up our laundry.  The  boys brought home about 5 loads between them.  They are good helpers, and it will get done, but it is a bit overwhelming at the moment. 

The Ugly:

• My house.  Okay, I know, some things we just have to let go.  Along with the boys this weekend came a lot of stuff.  Youngest will be coming home for the summer next week, and he got a head start on bringing home his most valued possessions.  There are just so many storage spaces to immediately put things, and one those are taken, the rest has to sit here and there for a while.  I just hate it that "here and there" are in my main living spaces.  This too shall pass, but for now the house is cluttered, messy, and truth be told , not as clean as I would like. (remember, busy weeks and puny  me)

Well, that about sums it up.  I think I need a personal maid-nurse-organizer-repair person to come to my beck and call.  Anyone out there fit the bill? 

Sleepless

Note to self:

One should never see 3:25 am during the work week.  Ugggh.  It has been a long night.  For some reason I woke up at 12:49 am.  I have been rather "snotty" tonight, maybe that woke me up.  I guess it is a carry over from the little bout with pneumonia.  But anyway, I woke up and have not been able to go back to sleep.  I have been to the computer twice, taken the dog out at 2:15, gone back to bed , (twice) and as of yet, am still wide awake.  Husband is really not even snoring, which usually is the culprit. 

Soon, I will reach the point of no return. You know,  that moment where I might as well stay up.  I just hate to think of going through tomorrow with only 2 1/2 hours of sleep. 

Good Day / Good Supper / Good Company

This was a very good day.  

Today, oldest was home for the day, so we went shopping.  We hit the thrift stores,  both Target, and Meijer among other stores, and had a nice lunch out.  I had some great coupons and did very well at both Meijer and Target.  At Meijer they had whole chickens for .85 cents a pound, so I bought 2. I should have bought more.  As soon as we walked in the door from shopping, I put supper together. 

(Now, I know that traditionally this is a "beer in the rear" chicken, but we do not have beer in our household.   Well, let me re-phrase that.  We actually do have a beer in our house.  We found it in our side yard about 2 years ago.  It is a full bottle.  It is in storage way back under our sink, because I know for a fact that it works wonders in keeping slugs away from your outdoor plants.  Just pour a bit in a bowl,  place it in your flower bed and wait for the slugs to party!  They come slithering in from all over the place, slide into the awaiting bath and then drown in their beer.  A true "slug-fest"!) 

So, back to my chicken.  

I used 7-up.  It is in the can nestled up the middle of the chicken.  Any liquid will do, it just bubbles away inside the bird and keeps it all moist inside and out. I did have a potato sticking out of the poor bird's neck, but that was removed before the photo.  Prior to roasting, I just oiled this baby up a bit, and sprinkled with my usual homemade rub.  Next time, I will omit the brown sugar from this rub and add garlic salt instead.  A few parts were a bit sweet.  After about 1/2 hour of roasting we prepared some potatoes, onions, and carrots and threw them in the pan.  I would have thrown in some parsley if I had thought about it.  One more hour later and we sat down to a pretty tasty dinner after a day of shopping. 

The bad thing, is that we ate way too late for us.  Husband and I are too old to eat dinner at 8:30!  We will see how the night goes.

As far as today went though,  I love spending time with my boys.  

Lately though, it has been one boy or the other.  The days are getting less frequent when we are all together.  I was reminded of this when  I saw a mom in Target today.  She had two little boys in tow.  They were walking along while she was pushing the cart.  A microphone toy on a low end-cap caught  their attention, and soon both boys had stopped in their tracks to perform for the rest of the Target Shoppers.  I for one loved it, but I saw that familiar look in the mom's eye.  You know the look, the "hurry up" look.   I wanted to freeze time for her, just to make sure she appreciated this spontaneous moment of childhood.  I just turned to her, smiled, and said, "Enjoy them mom, they don't stay little very long."   At that moment about 26 years of memories flooded my mind, and I felt a sweet peace to know that I still enjoy my boys. 

Today was a "keeper" 

Recovering

I have spent the last few days pretty much house bound, recovering from a bout with pneumonia.  It hit me all at once, I just felt like I had a cold coming on and then on Saturday morning I felt awful.  Since a  trip to the walk in clinic on Saturday morning, I have not done much else.  I hope to go back to school tomorrow, because it is technically the "walking" type and I am feeling better.  Going to bed early.  Now I know why I felt so tired last week. 

I was just thinking...

Lately I have been in my deep thinking mood.  Not really wanting this blog to be all about bargains and shopping, but rather more about who I really am. Now, I admit that bargain hunting is in my blood, but is that all I really want to be known for ?  I hope not.

So for those of you who stop by here occasionally, you just might see more of the posts that I used to compose. 

Fair warning.

Tonight, especially, I have been thinking about a card that I found today in my mailbox. I get similar ones quite often.  These are all from the same sender, The "Thursday Morning Morning Bible Study".  This is a group of ladies from my church that meet regularly for a Bible study and for prayer.  They pray for me of all people.  I have posted a copy of this card because it has touched me so.  Now the reason I am posting it has nothing to do with the part about my witness, however it is the first line that has me humbled.  

"We are always praying for you" 

Aren't those words powerful? 

Think of this:  This May it will be 2 years since my heart attack.  In September it will be 2 years since I was surgically cured of cancer.  Two years, no problems to speak of, and no set backs. Easy sailing. 

Yet, this group of women still pray for me, and they still send me cards. One might say that they could stop now, that there is no need to devote this time and effort for me any longer.

Ah, but might I say that maybe, just maybe that this group of persistent prayer warriors is part of the reason that I am cancer free and that my heart has not skipped a single beat?  

Sometimes we are not able to see the methods that God uses to work things out in our lives.  Sometimes, however,  the signs are there and we miss them.  I thank God that He reminded me to be thankful for this group of ladies tonight.  

I guess we all need to thank those people in our lives that keep us encouraged and keep us going.  Or perhaps the lesson to be learned here, is that we need to be the people who keep others going.  Something to think about. 

Life sure  is sweet in the Body of Christ. 

Sometimes I get tired of shopping...

or maybe it is that I am just tired in general.  I really am tired tonight.  You know, that every now and then, bone-tired.  That is me.  It is now 7:20 pm and I am already thinking of how nice my bed will feel.  

There is no real reason for me to be this tired.  Just a bit of a restless night last night and a busy day today.  I left school and for once I did not run any quick errands or bargain runs.  Tuesdays have become my heavy bargain run days and I usually make about 4-5 stops before I make it home.  I did very well last night but I just did not have time to post about it.  I would post about it now, but, you guessed it, I am too tired.

One word of note though, I am currently wrapping up a Beth Moore Bible Study on the Fruits of the Spirit with some very good friends.  I was invited into this group, they have done several, but this is my first.  This has been amazing.  If you have the opportunity to do one of her studies don't hesitate.  Be prepared to dig deeper than you might ever have, but also be prepared for God to speak to you more than ever as well.  

I will post more soon, but for now I hear the couch calling my name.

A Whole Lotta Nothing

Not so much new around here. I have been busy however with many things:

• Husband and I have been doing a lot of cleaning and de-cluttering
• I have made a daily trek to Kmart to take advantage of double coupons
• I had two out of town medical appointments this week- one just a follow up regarding my thyroid replacement medicine (need a slight adjustment)
• I have a new hobby - making jewelry (just basic stuff so far)
• We are heading to visit youngest son tomorrow

Not much, but that is life.