These are all taken by photographers at Disney- we purchased the photo pass CD which was awesome!
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Wordless Wednesday- Group Disney Pic
These are all taken by photographers at Disney- we purchased the photo pass CD which was awesome!
Extreme Couponing
The new catch word seems to be "extreme". Everything is extreme these days from sales to prices to couponing. As I am trying to get my head around an idea this title/show keeps popping up.
First to be honest, I do watch the show and enjoy it most nights even to the point where I DVR it so I can skip the commerical or fall asleep. But while watching, I look at their shopping trips as not their "usual" trip but it fact their most successful trip every! If you listen most of the couponers on the show will say at least once "this is my biggest/best trip". In reality they spent months trying to put this trip together and on most occasions as I am learn get extra help from the stores or the producers. Now that I have established my thoughts on the show, how does it relate to me? or this idea I am talking about?
Second question/step- Yes, I have been called an extreme couponer. Yes, I plan specific trip to a store with a list in place and plan to purchase what is on sale. And YES, I have a stockpile. I started seriously couponing about a year ago as a way to save money so I could stay at home longer. Now, I am playing a game and couponing is my hobby. In the process, I have learned alot and we are actually enjoying a higher standard of living becuase of couponing.
Third- I want to share this idea with others and also use it to bring glory and honor to God's kingdom. So how can this work? I have blogged in the past about the deals I have gotten. I plan to continue to do this but I want to move it up to the next level. Over the past several weeks, I have been able to make several donation of soap,deodrant and toothpaste to different ministries at our church. With each donation, it seems that we still want to do more. Matt and I have been talking about how we can use couponing to make a difference. Now this is in hopes of getting the ball rolling!
The Goal: To accumulate a stockpile of items to be given away at our new church building to anyone who will take them.
I am hoping that I will be able to start collecting unused coupons from people in the church, develop list of free or items that can be purchased for less than $10, share this information with anyone and everyone I can get involved. I have already talked with a couple of people at church and we have made an announcement about bring in the unwanted coupons. I also have gotten at least 2 other people who are willing to go shopping. So the ball is rolling. Now comes my part, I am planning to develop a list on a monthly basis of things to donation that can be purchased at Walmart for $10 or less. Next on a weekly basis I am going to develop list that can be used locally to pick up free items to stockpile for this drive.
With all this being said, I guess it is official I am an extreme couponer and proud of it!
First to be honest, I do watch the show and enjoy it most nights even to the point where I DVR it so I can skip the commerical or fall asleep. But while watching, I look at their shopping trips as not their "usual" trip but it fact their most successful trip every! If you listen most of the couponers on the show will say at least once "this is my biggest/best trip". In reality they spent months trying to put this trip together and on most occasions as I am learn get extra help from the stores or the producers. Now that I have established my thoughts on the show, how does it relate to me? or this idea I am talking about?
Second question/step- Yes, I have been called an extreme couponer. Yes, I plan specific trip to a store with a list in place and plan to purchase what is on sale. And YES, I have a stockpile. I started seriously couponing about a year ago as a way to save money so I could stay at home longer. Now, I am playing a game and couponing is my hobby. In the process, I have learned alot and we are actually enjoying a higher standard of living becuase of couponing.
Third- I want to share this idea with others and also use it to bring glory and honor to God's kingdom. So how can this work? I have blogged in the past about the deals I have gotten. I plan to continue to do this but I want to move it up to the next level. Over the past several weeks, I have been able to make several donation of soap,deodrant and toothpaste to different ministries at our church. With each donation, it seems that we still want to do more. Matt and I have been talking about how we can use couponing to make a difference. Now this is in hopes of getting the ball rolling!
The Goal: To accumulate a stockpile of items to be given away at our new church building to anyone who will take them.
I am hoping that I will be able to start collecting unused coupons from people in the church, develop list of free or items that can be purchased for less than $10, share this information with anyone and everyone I can get involved. I have already talked with a couple of people at church and we have made an announcement about bring in the unwanted coupons. I also have gotten at least 2 other people who are willing to go shopping. So the ball is rolling. Now comes my part, I am planning to develop a list on a monthly basis of things to donation that can be purchased at Walmart for $10 or less. Next on a weekly basis I am going to develop list that can be used locally to pick up free items to stockpile for this drive.
With all this being said, I guess it is official I am an extreme couponer and proud of it!
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Disney Tidbits
I finally have time to write some more about our trip to Disney! I *think* I have Matt convinced to make the trip again in 2 years :) I personally think I want to go around Thanksgiving to that I can enjoy all the Christmas decorations. But time will tell.
Sunday after unloading all the crap from the van and running out to Publix while the little ones took a short but needed nap, we head to Disney for the first time. It was nice because everyone knew where we were going but still really didn't have a clue. Sunday we arrived around 4pm and stayed till around 10:30. This was the day that Zach and myself got to ride the most. Basically everything in Fanstyland we rode with a kid on a lap. My favorite was Peter Pan but Zach really liked "It's a small world." We ended up eating at a Pizza place, not good not bad just kind ok." The plan was to stay for the parade and it was pretty cool. We ended up getting back to the house around 11.
Monday or melt-down day as I am going to refer to it as was the most whiney and stressful of the whole trip. The reasons for this were pretty simple, we stuffed too much into one day and after the late night prior it was awful. I am glad we did it all because of the birthday we celebrated but in the future my lesson is learned. No early morning after late nights. So we arrived back on property at 8am. Kendall, Lily and Haley all had appointments at the Bippity, Boppity Boutique. We do have some great pictures from this and they all enjoyed themselves. Kendall had the most fun because her fairy godmother read her several stories. Honestly, I don't know if we will do this again, I will not schedule it without the girls asking specifically to do it. After finishing with the Boutique the girls meet the real Fairy Godmother from Cinderella. Lily really really really likes Rapunzel from Tangled and this was the last day of a special meet and greet where the kids got to dance with Rapunzel and Flynn Rider and color and have some really neat interaction. It was also very very long of a wait, 2 hours to be exact. Zach and I waited in line while everyone else went to Tommorowland. They rode the tea cups and enjoyed a show where Kendall got to be on TV with the Monster from Monsters Inc. The only problem was that because they did not realize it would take so long in the show they were within minutes of missing Rapunzel. Lily still says this is her favorite part of the trip so I don't regret waiting at all!
After finishing with Rapunzel it was off to Royal Table for lunch. This is definitely a thing to skip. The food was good but the interaction with the princess was really brief. So no matter what we wont be doing this again. Although I would not do it again it does have some of the sweetest memories. Zach was sooo tired by this point and off schedule that he had a all out melt down. I finally got him calmed down and started eating only to have Kendall climb up on my lap and cry. Both the kids were exhausted, but as Kendall was crying on my lap Snow White walked up behind me and she looks up smiles and says "Hi Snow White" Seriously like she talked to her on a regular basis. Kendall then got her picture made with all the princess and got in a much better mood. After lunch we watched a show outside. Lily keeps telling us it was the Blue show and then headed back to the house for a quiet evening. Unfortunately, we have no pictures from the Royal Table because Amanda accidental deleted all of hers and my camera didn't get used because of the melt downs.
Tuesday morning we slept in and headed to Disney about 9 am. On the way Kendall looks out the window and says "LOOK LOOK water is coming up." The neighborhood sprinklers were on. We take the kid to Disney World and she is more excited about the sprinklers than Snow White. Can anyone top that?
Tuesday was the day we spent at Epcot. The annual flower show was in full swing and we got to see some really pretty flowers. They had alot of the characters and all the princess in some of the shrubs. We met Tinker Bell this day as well. We decided to tour the countries for dinner and ending up eating ok Chinese. Our friends ate in Mexico and said it was horrible. Matt ended up eating in Germany and ranks that as one of his best meals. We only enjoyed about half the countries and walked quickly around the remaining ones just to get back to the van. I really enjoyed this day. So my plan is to post pictures from it on Wordless Wednesday. More stories to come as I have time to post!
Sunday after unloading all the crap from the van and running out to Publix while the little ones took a short but needed nap, we head to Disney for the first time. It was nice because everyone knew where we were going but still really didn't have a clue. Sunday we arrived around 4pm and stayed till around 10:30. This was the day that Zach and myself got to ride the most. Basically everything in Fanstyland we rode with a kid on a lap. My favorite was Peter Pan but Zach really liked "It's a small world." We ended up eating at a Pizza place, not good not bad just kind ok." The plan was to stay for the parade and it was pretty cool. We ended up getting back to the house around 11.
Monday or melt-down day as I am going to refer to it as was the most whiney and stressful of the whole trip. The reasons for this were pretty simple, we stuffed too much into one day and after the late night prior it was awful. I am glad we did it all because of the birthday we celebrated but in the future my lesson is learned. No early morning after late nights. So we arrived back on property at 8am. Kendall, Lily and Haley all had appointments at the Bippity, Boppity Boutique. We do have some great pictures from this and they all enjoyed themselves. Kendall had the most fun because her fairy godmother read her several stories. Honestly, I don't know if we will do this again, I will not schedule it without the girls asking specifically to do it. After finishing with the Boutique the girls meet the real Fairy Godmother from Cinderella. Lily really really really likes Rapunzel from Tangled and this was the last day of a special meet and greet where the kids got to dance with Rapunzel and Flynn Rider and color and have some really neat interaction. It was also very very long of a wait, 2 hours to be exact. Zach and I waited in line while everyone else went to Tommorowland. They rode the tea cups and enjoyed a show where Kendall got to be on TV with the Monster from Monsters Inc. The only problem was that because they did not realize it would take so long in the show they were within minutes of missing Rapunzel. Lily still says this is her favorite part of the trip so I don't regret waiting at all!
After finishing with Rapunzel it was off to Royal Table for lunch. This is definitely a thing to skip. The food was good but the interaction with the princess was really brief. So no matter what we wont be doing this again. Although I would not do it again it does have some of the sweetest memories. Zach was sooo tired by this point and off schedule that he had a all out melt down. I finally got him calmed down and started eating only to have Kendall climb up on my lap and cry. Both the kids were exhausted, but as Kendall was crying on my lap Snow White walked up behind me and she looks up smiles and says "Hi Snow White" Seriously like she talked to her on a regular basis. Kendall then got her picture made with all the princess and got in a much better mood. After lunch we watched a show outside. Lily keeps telling us it was the Blue show and then headed back to the house for a quiet evening. Unfortunately, we have no pictures from the Royal Table because Amanda accidental deleted all of hers and my camera didn't get used because of the melt downs.
Tuesday morning we slept in and headed to Disney about 9 am. On the way Kendall looks out the window and says "LOOK LOOK water is coming up." The neighborhood sprinklers were on. We take the kid to Disney World and she is more excited about the sprinklers than Snow White. Can anyone top that?
Tuesday was the day we spent at Epcot. The annual flower show was in full swing and we got to see some really pretty flowers. They had alot of the characters and all the princess in some of the shrubs. We met Tinker Bell this day as well. We decided to tour the countries for dinner and ending up eating ok Chinese. Our friends ate in Mexico and said it was horrible. Matt ended up eating in Germany and ranks that as one of his best meals. We only enjoyed about half the countries and walked quickly around the remaining ones just to get back to the van. I really enjoyed this day. So my plan is to post pictures from it on Wordless Wednesday. More stories to come as I have time to post!
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Time Doesn't Stop
I have been really torn today, I knew I would have time to write a post tonight and realized that trying to get two written would probably be near impossible. So I needed to decide rather to talk about the past week and keep a record of what is going on or work on the post I want to make of alot of the stuff I want to remember from Disney. Then came the light bulb moment. My plan is to put together a Disney scrapbook, so I can make sure everything goes in there. So now I can just focus on keeping up to date here and if I get the chance then do a Disney post.
I have been working quite a bit this week, 32 hours to be exact. The only time I had off was Thursday afternoon but it was nice to be home to pick up Haley and get the kids up from nap. I did have to work really late of Friday. Next week should be easier with two half day planned off at the moment. I also have been slowly adding to our stockpile. I made a third trip to Harris Teeter on Sunday as well as a trip to CVS. Food Lion was a stop on Monday as well as Lowes. I also made a late night trip to use coupons on Friday night to Walmart. My sights are now set on a trip to Food Lion tonight for another great deal. We did not order Angel Food in April due to our vacation and I realized tonight that we are going to be running close on meat over the next two weeks but we are hopefully that we can at least make it 7 days til we can go to Costco.
After much talk and debate, we made the decision on Monday to attempt square foot gardening again the same size as last year. In addition we have joined a food co-op that will be providing a box of veggies starting the end of May til September. I hope to be able to use all these veggies in some form and start to freeze some. The other change we made this year was to purchase our plants instead of growing from seeds. I had attempted to start some seeds but only 2 lived through vacation. We made a quick trip to Lowes, Monday night and purchased cucumbers, watermelon, squash, snap peas, green peppers, banana peppers, pineapple sage, basil, cilantro as well as a couple of other herbs. The $72 cost for these will be a part of the grocery budget this month as well as the $200 for the food co-op. This is a major investment of approximately half of our grocery budget for the month but in the long run we hope it lowers our cost over the year. It is amazing at how well the plants are growing. I need to get a picture just to show how cool it looks already.
Tuesday was church, Wednesday cheerleading, Thursday night tutoring. We decided to spend most of the day Saturday outside. The weather was awesome 70 and sunny. We got the yard mowed and in presentable fashion. Added mulch to the playground and one of our flower beds, trimmed the bushes in the others and weeded. I am very pleased with the results. Hopefully in the next several weeks we get the rest of our back yard taken care of.
Today (Sunday) is Mother's Day. EVERYONE attended church today and then we all went to my brother's for lunch it was nice. I am so happy to be a mother and have decided that God's plan for my life is awesome!
I have been working quite a bit this week, 32 hours to be exact. The only time I had off was Thursday afternoon but it was nice to be home to pick up Haley and get the kids up from nap. I did have to work really late of Friday. Next week should be easier with two half day planned off at the moment. I also have been slowly adding to our stockpile. I made a third trip to Harris Teeter on Sunday as well as a trip to CVS. Food Lion was a stop on Monday as well as Lowes. I also made a late night trip to use coupons on Friday night to Walmart. My sights are now set on a trip to Food Lion tonight for another great deal. We did not order Angel Food in April due to our vacation and I realized tonight that we are going to be running close on meat over the next two weeks but we are hopefully that we can at least make it 7 days til we can go to Costco.
After much talk and debate, we made the decision on Monday to attempt square foot gardening again the same size as last year. In addition we have joined a food co-op that will be providing a box of veggies starting the end of May til September. I hope to be able to use all these veggies in some form and start to freeze some. The other change we made this year was to purchase our plants instead of growing from seeds. I had attempted to start some seeds but only 2 lived through vacation. We made a quick trip to Lowes, Monday night and purchased cucumbers, watermelon, squash, snap peas, green peppers, banana peppers, pineapple sage, basil, cilantro as well as a couple of other herbs. The $72 cost for these will be a part of the grocery budget this month as well as the $200 for the food co-op. This is a major investment of approximately half of our grocery budget for the month but in the long run we hope it lowers our cost over the year. It is amazing at how well the plants are growing. I need to get a picture just to show how cool it looks already.
Tuesday was church, Wednesday cheerleading, Thursday night tutoring. We decided to spend most of the day Saturday outside. The weather was awesome 70 and sunny. We got the yard mowed and in presentable fashion. Added mulch to the playground and one of our flower beds, trimmed the bushes in the others and weeded. I am very pleased with the results. Hopefully in the next several weeks we get the rest of our back yard taken care of.
Today (Sunday) is Mother's Day. EVERYONE attended church today and then we all went to my brother's for lunch it was nice. I am so happy to be a mother and have decided that God's plan for my life is awesome!
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
April In Review
April where did it go? DISNEY WORLD!
Hopefully more pictures and blog about that soon!
Blogging: 6 is the official number. Honestly, I had anticipated that I would be able to post at least a couple of blogs from vacation but instead we stay out and enjoyed the parks. I am hoping to hit my goal of 15 this month much of which will be pictures from Disney!
Devotions: I am trying but I still have not met consistently 3x a week with a higher goal of 5 times a week. This was better than blogging but I still have not found the established time to do this
Couponing/Grocery Budgeting: My grocery budget actually came in at $500 for the month but that did not include Disney food. I have been able to stock up with some items this past week with 3 trips to Harris Teeter for "Super Doubles" and a trip to Food Lion for stocking.
Financially: Disney enough said!
Weight- Haven't checked because of vacation,back to the real world in May!
Hopefully more pictures and blog about that soon!
Blogging: 6 is the official number. Honestly, I had anticipated that I would be able to post at least a couple of blogs from vacation but instead we stay out and enjoyed the parks. I am hoping to hit my goal of 15 this month much of which will be pictures from Disney!
Devotions: I am trying but I still have not met consistently 3x a week with a higher goal of 5 times a week. This was better than blogging but I still have not found the established time to do this
Couponing/Grocery Budgeting: My grocery budget actually came in at $500 for the month but that did not include Disney food. I have been able to stock up with some items this past week with 3 trips to Harris Teeter for "Super Doubles" and a trip to Food Lion for stocking.
Financially: Disney enough said!
Weight- Haven't checked because of vacation,back to the real world in May!
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