Something To Be

The World Is In Trouble.

2008-10-18T17:24:00.003-04:00

The World of Warcraft, anyway. We got the game installed on my laptop, I tested it out with my character on Jake's account, and it runs great. Soooo....I now have my very own account. Jake did the refer a friend thing they've got going on so that he could get an exclusive mount, and we've spent the past two night (his nights off) leveling some new characters. We get triple experience when we are grouped together, so we're already at level 20.

Anywho. Not that anyone cares about that!

Simlish

2008-10-15T14:31:00.003-04:00

So...I installed The Sims 2 on my laptop. I'm surprised at how well it runs, being, well, a laptop and all. However...I'm NOT pleased about the fact that some of my downloads don't seem to like my laptop. They must have issues with Vista, because they work just fine on the desktop, which still has XP. *sigh* I love my downloads, but I guess if I'm going to Sim it up on the laptop, I'll have to do without. Sucks, because I have a really cool hack that gets your Sims through college MUCH faster...I hate how long college takes normally. Even some of my objects aren't working correctly. It's weird, I can't figure out why some things are working and some aren't. Oh well, such is life I suppose.

But now I'm going to go play WoW. A new patch came out yesterday and I want to play around with some of the new stuff.

Triples and stuff

2008-10-10T21:32:00.003-04:00

So, as my fellow Charlotteans probably know, Lowes Foods held triples this week for the first time in a year. I was going to skip it, because there's not a Lowes within my usual five mile radius, but I caved. I had some great coupons that would expire before the next expected Harris Teeter triples, and I just couldn't waste those extra savings!

I made two trips. Altogether, I got:

*5 boxes of Hamburger Helper
*1 box of Brillo pads
*8 packets of Betty Crocker cookie mix
*2 Sargento Salad Finishers - these are delish if you haven't tried them yet!
*7 packages of Dole fruit cups
*2 packages of turkey
*4 ready to drink Nesquiks
*1 box of Kleenex
*2 Hershey's Special Dark chocolate bars
*2 boxes of Betty Crocker Ultimate brownie mix
*2 boxes of Fiber One bars

I spent $27.07 and saved $52.62. I probably could have done better, but I totally just winged it since, as I said, I hadn't planned on doing triples at all. I AM skipping Bloom triples, because there's REALLY not one close enough to me to make it worth it, and HT triples are right around the corner, so I need to prepare for that!

I've also been a coupon trading machine this past week. I sent out envelopes to a few CM's (Charlotte Mommies, if you don't know) and worked out four different trades on Hot Coupon World. Really, my week has just been consumed with coupons. I've been working hard to get all of my coupons entered into the new database over at HCW, but it's taking twice as long as it should because Noah was a naughty little two year old and messed up my nice neat stacks.

Aaaaannnd....I was busy writing up a guest post for Dana over at Frugal In Virginia. I'm super excited to have had the opportunity - thanks again, Dana! Everyone else, be sure to go check out my post on Sunday.

I also spent part of today gathering the rest of the materials I need to make my bag! I got my fabric in on Wednesday, but didn't really have time to venture out to the fabric store on Thursday. The only problem I ran into is the pattern calls for using ribbon on the front flap of the bag (it's a messenger style bag), and I couldn't find any ribbon that really coordinated with my fabric. Guess I'm going to have to go on an Internet hunt for some ribbon - sure, I could just skip the ribbon, but I don't want to! I had been hoping to possibly start sewing tonight, but Jake so kindly informed me this afternoon that he was scheduled for an off duty gig tonight. Maddy's still mainly sleeping through the night, but I'd rather not be interrupted on the off chance that she wakes up (which is a possibility, as my poor baby girl is constipated and hardly slept at all last night because she was so miserable)...thus, I'd prefer to have Jake around to perform Daddy Duty. Oh well, my bag can wait until his next nights off. That'll give me time to find some dang ribbon!

Well, I'm pretty much out of things to say for tonight. Buuuuttt...I'd like to do something here that I do every now and then over on Open Diary, and that is to ask you all to request some pictures from me! Give me a reason to use my camera. ;) You can request anything you'd like, but keep it clean! If you can't think of a picture request, feel free to ask me some questions instead. I love to do Q&A's!

Ridiculously Giddy

2008-10-07T08:11:00.002-04:00

It's ridiculous how excited I am over something so small.

I ordered some fabric on Saturday to make a bag for myself. When I was pregnant with Maddy, I finally found a pattern for a diaper bag I liked. Only problem was, I couldn't find any fabric that caught my eye. Well, I finally found some and now I'm like a kid at Christmas time, waiting for it to arrive. I haven't sewn anything in months...my poor neglected sewing machine. Anyway, I'm waiting for that fabric to arrive, and then I'm going to make a trip to Hancock fabrics to get some coordinating fabric for the liner and all that.

And Maddy is still sleeping at night! Granted, she wants to wake up at 5 AM or so to eat, which is fine, buuuut...she'll go back to sleep for like, half an hour and then she's wide awake. Boo to that, because I am NOT a morning person and that means I'm very ready for a nap by noon. unfortunately, the kids seem to have other ideas. Noah's been resisting his nap lately, and it's not always easy getting Maddy down, either. Maddy will eventually go to sleep, and so will Noah, but I'm tired of it being such a battle with Noah lately. I know he's not ready to drop naps altogether; once he goes to sleep he still sleeps for a good two hours or more.

Anyway, the princess is demanding my attention, so I've got to cut this short.

Grateful

2008-10-05T23:42:00.003-04:00

Maddy made a big turn around Friday night. Out of nowhere, she decided 8pm would be bedtime. She didn't wake up until 4:45 Saturday morning.

Last night, she was once again out by eight. She didn't wake up this morning until six.

Tonight, it was 7:30. She did wake up a little bit around 9:30 when she wriggled her arms out of her swaddle blanket, but other than that, not a peep. Wonder what time she'll wake up tomorrow morning?

Of course, now that I've written about this, I've probably jinxed myself. But hey, at least I got a couple of nights of good sleep.

Sleep? Really?

2008-10-04T05:04:00.004-04:00

Well, I had every intention of writing another post last night, buuuut....I slept instead! That's right, for once, my kids were not conspiring against me. Both kids were asleep by eight. And I was tired, so I went to bed, too.

Didn't hear a peep out of Noah. Didn't hear a peep out of Maddy until 4:45. That's almost nine hours! I woke up a few times on my own, probably because I'm so used to being awakened by one or the other, but other than that, I got wonderful, glorious, uninterrupted sleep.

Today just might be a very good day indeed.

Busy, busy

2008-10-03T11:12:00.002-04:00

Yay me, I've actually been productive this morning! Normally, I save most of my cleaning tasks until after Noah goes to bed - it's just easier to do things without him tagging behind me. But this morning I've already:

Swept the dining room
Pledged both desks
Ran a dishwasher load and put those away
Am running another dishwasher load (and no, I don't let my kitchen get that terrible, but that first load I did was actually the second washing for those dishes - our dishwasher is the suck sometimes)
Washed and dried a load of towels
Cleaned and vacuumed Noah's room
Cleaned kitchen counters
Put a bunch of stuff out in the recycling bin
Shredded a stack of papers about 2 inches thick - let's just say I emptied my shredder twice

Oh, and of course all of the normal mommy stuff, like feeding and changing diapers and the like. In fact, I'm typing this one handed because I'm feeding Maddy at the moment.

After Jake gets up, I've got to make a quick run to the grocery store. He's doing an off duty gig tonight, so I'll get more accomplished and will maybe even get to play WoW for a bit. Don't be surprised if I decide to write another post here later, either!

Maximizing Savings

2008-09-30T23:54:00.008-04:00

RnCnB asked: How do you save so much? please help!!

First, let me say that I am no expert or guru. I get better every week, but I still have a lot to learn.

But, here are some of the best ways to save money:

Sign up for the loyalty card programs for your local stores. Grocery stores, drugstores...any stores that you regularly shop at, and even those you don't! I have a loyalty card for every grocery store in my area, even for ones that I've never shopped at because they don't have locations that are all that convenient to me. However, I still keep an eye out for spectacular deals at these stores, just in case. Most stores with loyalty programs will only honor their sales prices for card holders; other loyalty programs entitle you to a certain percentage of savings with every purchase, special coupons, etc.

Learn about other programs that those stores run, or programs that stores without cards run. For example, Rite Aid and Walgreens do not have loyalty cards, but Rite Aid has their Single Check Rebate (SCR) program, and Walgreens has a Register Rewards (RR) program. CVS has their ExtraCare card, and with that comes the ExtraCare Bucks (ECBs) program.

Comparison shop! Your favorite store may not always have the best deal available for a particular product. For example, the Gillette Fusion razors I mentioned in my CVS deals for the week. CVS has these razors on sale for $9.99, and you'll earn $5 in ECBs. There was a $4 coupon in Sunday's paper, so you'd pay $5.99 for the razor (unless you already have some ECBs to roll into the deal). But wait! Rite Aid also has the Fusion razors on sale this week - but for $9. It's also a rebate item this week, with a rebate value of $5. Why spend an extra $0.99 on the razor at CVS when you can get it completely free after rebate (FAR) at Rite Aid? Or here's an example from my grocery shopping this week: I needed to purchase some of the Dole fruit bowls for Noah. They're $2.69 each at Harris Teeter, and $2.57 each at Food Lion. Now, if I had had a coupon whose value would be doubled at Harris Teeter, the deal would have been better there, but the coupon I had was for $1 off of three - so my better deal was at Food Lion.

If you have the time and/or inclination, make a spreadsheet to keep track of the prices of items you routinely buy. Note the prices at different stores, and keep an eye on the prices during sales. Eventually, you'll notice a pattern and will know when and where you'll be able to get the best price possible for those items. Alternatively, you can join The Grocery Game and let them do the hard work for you - their system is color coded to let you know when something is on sale for the best price possible.

Combine coupons with sales as often as possible. This works even better if you have lots of storage space in your house, so that you can stock up on items when the sale and coupons are really great. I, unfortunately, do NOT have a lot of storage space, so I take advantage of what I can, when I can.

Don't be afraid to try a different brand or even a new product. A few weeks ago, Food Lion had the Bird's Eye Voila! meals on sale for $1.99. I had a couple of $1.00 coupons, so I got two of them for $0.99 each. We liked one of the meals and didn't like the other very much, but they were so cheap that I didn't mind the fact that we ended up not liking one of them. At least now I know something not to buy in the future.

For that matter, sometimes you'll end up buying things you don't necessarily need or want. As I mentioned in a previous post, I have eighteen tubes of unopened toothpaste in my house right now. Why? Because I either got them completely free or the store actually paid me to take them. I have the option to either not buy another tube of toothpaste for a couple of years, or to donate some of them. There are plenty of other deals like this; you may even find deals for items that you yourself may not want, but hey, Uncle Joe really likes product XYZ, so let's set it aside for Christmas! There are also tons of items that various shelters or other organizations in your area could use - if you're getting the item for free or are getting paid for it, why not do some good in your community and donate it?

Know where to find coupons! The Sunday paper is always a good place to start - and don't be afraid to buy multiple copies of the paper if the coupons that week are good ones for you. Write to companies whose products you enjoy; sometimes a simple email or letter complimenting their products is enough to score you some coupons, sometimes you'll need to ask outright if they can add you to any coupon mailing lists they may have. Join a site like Hot Coupon World (you can find me on there as stacym) and trade with other members. You can often find good coupons on eBay, and there are coupon clipping sites out there as well - I like The Coupon Clippers. Keep an eye out in the stores for blinkies (you know, the little machines that blink and spit out coupons LOL), tearpads, booklets, etc. Don't ignore the ads in your magazines - sometimes there are coupons there! All You magazine has some great coupons usually. Check the packaging on the products you buy - sometimes there will be coupons on the packaging itself, or contained within the packaging (for example, the Sargento Salad Finishers currently have $0.55/2 coupons inside the bags).

Have a method for organizing your coupons. I use the binder method, but that may not work for everyone. Find out what does work for you - you want to be able to find what you have quickly.

There's a lot more to the art of saving money, but it's late and the baby is actually asleep right now, so I'm going to go catch a few zzz's myself. Keep an eye out for more money saving tips in the future, and don't hesitate to let me know if there's something in particular you'd like to see me cover or if you have questions on anything. Happy shopping!

CVS deals of the week

2008-09-29T10:33:00.003-04:00

So, I decided to try my hand at posting some of the CVS deals for the week. Please let me know if you enjoy this and would like for me to continue!

Dawn dish soap is on sale for $0.99. If you still have some of the $1.00 coupons for Dawn Plus Hand Renewal from the 9/9 P&G insert, get to CVS today or tomorrow (coupon expires 9/30) - the Hand Renewal soap is included in this deal, so you'll get it for free! Otherwise, use one of the $0.50 coupons that came with yesterday's inserts to get the soap for $0.49.

Febreze Air Effects are on sale 2/$5. Use the $1 coupon from yesterday's inserts to get them for $1.50 each.

Febreze Noticeables starter kits are $6.99. Use the $5 coupon from yesterday's inserts to get it for $1.99.

Febreze fabric refresher is on sale for $3.99 each. Use the buy one get one free coupon from yesterday's inserts to get two for that price.

Gillette Fusion razors are $9.99. Use the $4 coupon to pay $5.99, and you'll get $5 in ECBs, which makes the price $0.99 after ECBs. However, if you have a Rite Aid nearby, the deal for these is better there this week, as they're only $9.00 there with a $5.00 rebate, making them free.

Coke products are 4 for $13 and will get you $3 in ECBs.

Pampers jumbo packs of diapers are $9.99. Use the $1.50 coupons that were in yesterday's inserts to get them for $8.49.

CoverGirl Clean foundation is on sale for $5.49. Use a $1 coupon from yesterday's inserts. They're also generating ECBs - I actually got $5.79 in ECBs, but they may have already corrected this error. Either way, it's still a moneymaker. Use one of the buy one get one free coupons with this to make the deal even better - but note that the ECB deal is a limit of one, so pick out some powder or blush. Make sure you hand over the BOGO coupon first!

There are some other decent deals in there, but these are the better ones. Some of the other stuff in the ad, like the Colgate deals, aren't the best deals available - wait for a week where you can get the toothpaste for free.

Well, it's lunchtime, so I've got to end this anyway. Again, please let me know if you enjoyed me doing this, if you'd like to see it again, and/or if there are any other stores you'd like to see me cover!

Cuteness comes in small packages.

2008-09-29T05:00:00.003-04:00

My son is just a ball of cuteness. Always has been, really, but, well, I'm his mama so of course I'm going to think that.

See, he hasn't learned to say night-night yet. So when it's bedtime, and I carry him over to Daddy so he can give Daddy kisses and say night-night, he waves. Well, he's recently learned to say buh-BYE (and yes, the "bye" is always a bit high pitched, thus the caps).

Saturday night as we were doing this routine, he started waving at Daddy like always, but he also threw in some buh-BYEs. So what did Jake do? Keyed up his mike (he was on WoW, big surprise there) so everyone in his guild that was on Vent could hear the cuteness that is our son. Must have been a refreshing change from constantly hearing my nephew screaming and shrieking (since my brother in law is in the same guild as Jake).

Noah also seems to think that anytime we go near the front door that it's time to go buh-BYE. He will run to grab his shoes and then will either run to us and hand us the shoes, or will sit down and hold a shoe out, waiting patiently for us to go put them on. The cuteness ends for a bit when he realizes that we are in fact NOT going buh-BYE. Noah likes to go out, and does not take kindly to being told that he can't go somewhere. I'm really about to be in a heap of trouble over this one, because he is learning to put his own shoes on. He has been putting our shoes on for ages, especially my flip flops - and my smart boy even knows to fit the strap between his big toe and second toe, and can put them on the correct feet, even. He never could quite manage his own shoes, though. Until...my mom got him a new pair of shoes for his birthday. And they've got some elastic near the top. Aaaaannndd....he's figuring out how to put those on. Thanks, Mom.

And then there's my other bundle of cuteness, who let me get three and a half glorious hours of sleep tonight. Then she watched Desperate Housewives with me, because I was too tired to bother watching it when it actually came on and just let the DVR get it. And now I'm trying to get her to go back to sleep, so that maybe I can catch another couple of hours of sleep. She's not liking that idea, but I think I can win her over. I am the mommy, after all.

Out.

2008-09-26T03:01:00.002-04:00

Our power was out for six hours today. *Bangs head on desk* It wouldn't have been so bad, except....it was actually at night. We have a couple of lanterns, but they don't provide enough light to really DO anything by. So, once Noah went to bed, Jake and I took naps on the couch while Maddy napped as well.

I really hate Duke's automated power outage system, though. When I first called right when the power went out (around 5:30), it said power would be restored by nine. Sucky, but manageable.

Then it told me 10:30. Then 11:30. When I called shortly after 11:30, it told me they didn't know when our power would be restored.

But miraculously, the lights and appliances flickered back to life minutes later.

Really, why don't they tell the truth on that system? "We're sorry, but we really have no clue as to when your power will come back on, because we're a bunch of incompetent buffoons. If we tell you a time, you can expect it to be at least two hours later, if not more. Sucks to be you!" (Note: This is not the first time our power has gone out and they've not been able to provide a reliable time frame for when we'd be restored. Hence my immense frustration.)

What's weird is how their grids work out here. See, we have our street, a big empty field, street, and then houses again. Those houses across the field? Had power long before we did. Heck, the houses next to us on the loop around to the other street (maybe 100 feet or so away from our house) had power. It's like the grid cuts diagonally through our little neighborhood. Messed. Up.

What really ticks me off is that we missed Smallville. Grrrrrrr.

In other news, my gas tank is on E. People are going crazy out here over gas. Lines are insane. I told Jake he needs to call one of his co workers to see what things look like right now - I'm guessing that if any stations around us actually have gas, the lines wouldn't be horrendous at this time of the morning. The man's gotta have gas to get to work and back again and all that.

Not much else of excitement going on around here. Thanks to those of you who left me comments on my last entry - I feel all loved again!

Is this thing on?

2008-09-24T01:22:00.003-04:00

Seriously, does anyone even actually read what I write here, or are you just doing driveby page loads? I see that people visit via my traffic log, but no one ever comments, and sad as it is, that makes me feel like a loser. I have enough self esteem issues, people! So, am I wasting my time writing this blog, or do I have people that really do read, but are afraid to comment? Don't be shy; my comments are open to everyone - no Blogger account required or any of that. So at least say hello every now and then, please!

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Chippendale

2008-09-23T01:00:00.002-04:00

Yes, it's true. I have my very own Chippendale in training.

Well, probably not. At least, I hope not. I have higher hopes for my son than that! He has, however, somewhat learned the art of stripping. He's not so good with getting his shirt off, but he's got the pants, and now the diaper, mastered.

Jake was so frustrated with it this afternoon that wrapped duct tape all the way around Noah's diaper so that he couldn't take it off.

Looks like it may be time to start introducing potty training.

In other news, my brother in law's wife gave birth to their second son....well, technically yesterday. The only details I know are that she had a second c-section, though she wasn't actually scheduled for that until next week (so I'm guessing that she went into labor, but I don't know that for certain. I didn't personally talk to my BIL or his wife, just got the news from Jake), and that his name is Alexander.

Hmm. What else. Oh yes, triples. I did alright, I suppose. There wasn't much in the overage/free department that was overly exciting to me, plus I had to combine my trips with my regular grocery shopping. I spent $37 and some change, and saved $107 and some change. Hopefully, the next triples weekend will be better for me. Maybe I'll even have a small pantry of sorts so that I can take better advantage of the deals that do interest me, too.

I need to schedule my *ahem* yearly checkup, too. I had to run out to the store this evening and my GYN's office so kindly gave me an automated courtesy call while I was out, apparantly. Fun, fun. I'll need to talk to them about possibly getting a prescription for Reglan. Breastfeeding Maddy has been a struggle for me - she's actually mostly on formula right now and it breaks my heart. I've tried all of the usual methods for boosting my supply and they don't seem to be working for me, so I don't know what else to do.

It would help if I could get her back to sleeping at night instead of all day - she's a good sleeper, but her timing for it isn't so great! We're working on it, but it's a slow process. I'm starting to see some improvements there, though, which I'm thankful for. I simply can't keep staying up all night and then only being able to catch a few hours of sleep during naptime. I'm turing into a zombie, really. I have trouble remembering things, I don't want to do anything because I'm so dang tired and worn out....I just really need some sleep. The past couple of days, I've been so worn out that I haven't even woken up when the kids do from their naps - Jake's had to get up with them and I've slept until 5 or 6 in the evening. It's been wonderful getting that much uninterrupted sleep, but I feel like a terrible mommy because that means I have less time to spend with Noah.

I don't even know why I bothered writing all of this, though....not like anyone really reads.

Wubbzy giveaway

2008-09-22T12:00:00.003-04:00

Hey guys, I know that a lot of you that pop in (and never comment *pout*) have small children, so I thought I'd give you a heads up on this. Mommies With Cents is doing a giveaway of the new Wow! Wow! Wubbzy DVD. I know I'd love to win it, because Noah loves this show! To enter, just leave a comment on their blog - make sure you give them some way to contact you in case you win. Good luck!

You know you have an addiction when...

2008-09-21T22:23:00.002-04:00

...You have 18 tubes of toothpaste in your house. Well, actually, we have 21, but eighteen of them are unopened. It would be 23 total, but I sent my mom home with a couple of tubes when she was here for Noah's birthday party last weekend. But there have been so dang many good toothpaste deals lately. I didn't pay a penny for any of those tubes. In fact, I got paid to take most of them. Ah, the art of couponing.

I think a lot of people will be getting some toothpaste for Christmas this year.

Arnold's Pizza Shop

2008-09-19T19:55:00.004-04:00

I don't know what made me think of this thing today...but it cracks me up. I found it years ago, and for a long time, if Jake's brother called when one of us was on the computer, we'd quick pull up the page with this and hold the phone up to the speakers before we'd actually say anything. Yeah, we're dorks.

Warning: contains language that some may find offensive.

So?

2008-09-19T11:03:00.002-04:00

Like the new background? Did it myself with some kits found at The Cutest Blog On The Block.

Harris Teeter (one of our local grocery stores, for those who don't know) is running one of their triple coupon weekends right now. I have been crunching numbers for over a week, trying to figure out the best deals for myself. I made my first trip last night; I got $23 worth of products for $1.52. The plan is to make another small trip later this afternoon (as well as a quick CVS run), and then I'll make a few more Saturday and Sunday. I'm still crunching numbers to figure out what my best deals are - it's tricky because I'm trying to combine this with my regular weekly shopping. I think I'll be making out pretty decently...we'll see come Sunday night!

Maybe I'll do a giveaway of some of the free toothpaste I'll be acquiring. Any takers? :P

Two.

2008-09-16T05:35:00.002-04:00

*sniff*

My baby boy is officially two. Two years ago today, at this very minute, he was being born. It's hard to reconcile the rambunctious toddler with the itty bitty baby he was. That saying isn't just a cliche; they really do grow up way too fast.

We had a small birthday party for him on Saturday - just us, my mom, and her boyfriend. Today, we're going to take him to the park and out for some ice cream. I may also try to work on his room a bit - we're redoing it in a Cars theme. I've already got a poster up, but I need to put up the mini mural, take down the Finding Nemo wall stickers, and put up the Cars wall stickers. I also still need to hang up the police car shelf my mom got him for Christmas, as well as the letters I painted that spell out his name. I need a little help with those last two though, to make sure I get it all level. We're also thinking about trying him out with a pillow again. We tried a few months ago, but he didn't seem to like it much. I'm going to get a small travel pillow and see if he's more comfortable with that.

After that, we need to finish Maddy's room. I still need to paint the letters for her name so we can hang them. Then there's the mirror Mom got her, and the little coat rack Mom just bought her on Saturday.

I hurt my foot pretty badly on Saturday. I was walking from the dining room into the kitchen and slid on one of Noah's toys. I was worried that I might have broken or fractured something, but it's doing a lot better so I think I maybe just sprained it a bit.

Anyway. I think Maddy is finally going to sleep, so it's time for me to go back to bed.

Recent Deals

2008-09-07T22:31:00.011-04:00

Yeah, it's time for me to share some of the awesome deals I've gotten recently. Complete with pictures, this time!

I paid $1.05 for all six of those plug ins. They're normally $4.79 each, which totals $28.74 before tax. Walgreens recently had these on sale as buy one, get one free. They were all out when I went, so I got a raincheck. Finally had a chance to use it, in conjunction with the buy one get one free coupons I had. They were rather rude about it, but they finally entered it in correctly and all I paid was tax.

These were on sale at Harris Teeter for 2/$3. I had two $0.75 coupons, and since my Harris Teeter doubles coupons every day (for values up to $0.99, anyway), I got these....for free.

Got these from CVS. Normal price for all three is $17.97; they were on sale for $3.99 each. I also had three $2 coupons to use, so after tax, I paid $6.84. However, I also got back $9 in Extra Care Bucks, so they essentially paid me $2.16 to take the polish.

These are also from CVS. Normally $2.39 there, but they were on sale for $0.99 each. I had four $1 off coupons, so I got those for free.

Also CVS scores. Normally, the products pictured would have cost me $108.86 before tax. But after sales and coupons, I paid $18.44, and earned $15.99 in ECBs, effectively only paying $2.45.

The Colgate toothpaste is from CVS. Normally $3.49 each; after sales and coupons, I paid $2.98 for both. I also earned $4 in ECBs, so they basically paid me $1.02 to take the toothpaste.

The Crest and pens are from Rite Aid. The Crest is normally $3.29; it was on sale for $2.49 and I had a $0.75 coupon, so I paid $1.74 for it. However, it was on rebate when I bought it, and the rebate amount is for...$1.74. So more free toothpaste for me! The pens are normally $3.39 each, but were on an amazing sale - three for $0.99. I had a $1 coupon, so they were free.

These are from another Rite Aid trip. The Shout is normally $3.49 each, the Pledge $4.49, and the Pert Plus $4.19 - a total of $15.66. After deducting sales and coupons, and adding taxes, I paid $5.20. However, all of those were on rebate, and I'll be getting a $5 rebate check for those. So I essentially only paid $0.20 for all of that.

And last but not least in my little show and tell...the jar of belly butter in the front there was absolutely free. I had purchased some Baby's Bliss Gripe Water for Maddy; inside the box was a form to get any Baby's Bliss or Mommy's Bliss product for free. I filled it out and chose the belly butter...got that in the mail a few days ago.

The Sunsilk and Johnson's Buddies bars were purchased at Harris Teeter. The Sunsilk would normally cost $3.99; it was marked down to $1.36. I had a coupon for $1.50, so they paid me $0.14 to take it. The soap bars are normally $0.99 each; they were on sale for $0.64 each. I had two $1 coupons, so they paid me $0.72 to take those.

To break it all down: I spent $35.39 for everything you see up there. If you deduct the ECBs and rebates I earned, I only paid $1.40 for all of that. Well, ok, plus whatever I paid in taxes that I didn't already figure in - I only listed totals after taxes when those were the only items purchased in that trip. And the retail value of everything you see is $232.57. Pretty good if I do say so myself.

That's all for tonight. More will be coming soon, though, as Harris Teeter has a triple coupon weekend coming up.

I'm baaaack!

2008-09-02T21:19:00.003-04:00

Yay, I can blog again! Finally got my new adapter for my laptop today. I could have blogged in the interim, but for some reason I just don't like blogging when I'm on the desktop computer.

Noah went to visit Grandma this weekend. It was a nice weekend, since I actually got to get some sleep. Of course, it was back to business as usual this morning - Maddy didn't go to sleep until 5:30, but I was up for another hour with Noah because he's getting in his last few teeth and they're bugging him.

I was also able to finally get a haircut this weekend, and I finished organizing my coupon binder...so if Maddy keeps me up again tonight, I'll be working on my coupon database.

I don't have much else to write about tonight, but I did want to clue in anyone who actually reads this to a couple of great deals at CVS this week. First, Dawn dish soap is on sale this week for $0.99. This includes the new Dawn Plus Hand Renewal. There was a coupon for $1 off the Dawn Plus Hand Renewal in this past Sunday's newspaper, making the soap free.

Secondly, the Covergirl Wetslicks Amazemints are free after ECB's (Extra Care Bucks, if you don't know). There were coupons in this past Sunday's paper for $1 off any Covergirl product, so you could also use one of those and it'd be a moneymaker.

Covergirl Outlast lipcolor is also included in CVS's BOGO sale this week. Coupons were in the paper for BOGO Covergirl lip products, which means you'd get both free if your store allows that. Some stores may also allow you to use the $1 off coupon previously mentioned, which would also make this one a moneymaker.

And finally, certain varieties of Colgate toothpaste are on sale for $2.99 with $2 back in ECB's. There are coupons out there for $1.50 and $1.00 off (not from this past weekend's paper, though), which can make this deal a slight money maker for you as well.

Epic Fail.

2008-08-25T23:08:00.002-04:00

Dell: Never buy a laptop from them. Remember the problems I had back in June/July? Guess what? My second adapter went out today. Just *poof*, nothing. Unacceptable.

Duke Energy: Their power lines suck. We've had some light rain this evening and my power has gone out briefly three times in the past three hours. I've got a lantern sitting next to me in case it decides to go out again.

Tyson: They discontinued their chicken cordon bleu. Big, fat, boo. Jake and I loved that stuff. A bit on the expensive side, but worth it. I don't have the motivation to try and make it myself. I'm not particularly keen on the idea of having to sit there and pound chicken out all nice and thin and all that. I am all about easy meals that don't take much prep time.

But in good news, I got tons of awesome coupons today. Man, I am SUCH a dork. But I'm a dork that's laughing all the way to the bank!

Scores of the week

2008-08-24T16:37:00.003-04:00

This week has been a very good week for me, money saving wise.

I traded with another member on HCW. I was only trading for a rebate form, but the member I traded with included some other goodies for me. A very pleasant surprise!

Since I'm new to actually posting and trading on HCW, I'm in the "traders in training" group. Our training leaders decided to hold a drawing for a few RAOK (random act of kindness) mailings. And I won one of them! I don't win many things, so I was very excited about that. (Yes, saving money makes me excited.)

I'm also in the midst of another trade over there.

And then there's yesterday. Noah was my shopping buddy while I went out and about, and what a great shopping buddy he was - he was very enthusiastic about being out with Mommy, and I kept getting compliments on how cute he is.

A breakdown of our purchases:

Old Navy - 1 pair of jeans - I paid $2.87 OOP (out of pocket) as I had the $10 gift card I received for redeeming some of my Pampers Points. Total savings: $27.50

CVS - Two 12 packs of Pepsi and two 12 packs of Mt. Dew - $12.87 OOP. Total savings: $7.16, plus I earned $3 in ECBs.

Harris Teeter - 3 boxes of Hamburger Helper, 2 boxes of Old El Paso taco shells, 1 quart of HT Naturals Organic ice cream - $3.96 OOP. Total savings: $11.79

Food Lion - 1 can of formula (which I unfortunately didn't have any sort of coupon for - I'm still waiting on those to come from signing up for all of the clubs), 2 cases of 24 bottles of water, 2 Clorox Greenworks cleaning products, 2 Voila skillet meals, 2 Smart Options pizzas - $28.01 OOP. Total savings: $9.64, but I also scored a free reusable tote bag, a $3 coupon for Good Start formula, and $6.50 in other coupons.

Total spent OOP: $47.71 Total saved: $56.09, plus the $3 in ECBs and new coupons.

I may not be as good as some of the other domestic goddesses here in Charlotte, but when I'm saving more than I'm spending, that's still a reason to celebrate in my book!

Hey Domestic Goddesses...

2008-08-23T21:15:00.003-04:00

Yes, another shoutout!

I added another listing of links over there to the right specifically for domestic goddesses. One of the links is to the Google spreadsheet I've made listing all of the coupons I have available to trade. It's only a partial list right now, as I don't get much time to work on it, but it should be filled out a little more next weekend, because Noah is going to visit Grandma. :) Hopefully I'll also be able to add a tab listing the coupons I'm looking for, to make trades a little easier. I'll also eventually be making the first tab a bit of an informational sheet. So make sure you check back often, because once I get it all updated, the plan is to keep updating it every week as new coupons come out. If you're ever interested in trading, feel free to leave me a comment here - or if you're a member of OD, CM, or any other site I post on, you can leave me a note or send me a PM through those respective systems.

And if you know of a great site I should add, let me know! I love spreading the wealth!

Hey ODers....

2008-08-23T11:26:00.003-04:00

I know some of you are lurking around here. :) You guys can leave me comments here, too, ya know. Jus' saying. CMers, you guys don't have to be shy, either. Leave me a note to let me know you were here!

Now that I've got that out of the way...yesterday was rough. I got NO sleep Thursday night. Zip. Zero. Zilch. The sad part is that Maddy went to sleep around two. I laid in bed for hours and just could not fall asleep. And then, just as I was finally starting to drift off....Maddy woke up and Jake came home. Think Jake did the nice thing and stayed up for a little bit? Nope. He did get up with Noah after naptime and "let" me continue sleeping, but it was still a craptastic morning.

And last night. I didn't get to go to bed as early as I wanted to because Maddy was being a bit fussy and Jake was doing a raid on WoW - he has a very small amount of patience for helping Maddy when he's raiding. Common sense would say that he should know not to get involved in raids so late at night then, but he's a man and he does what he wants.

So, I get her settled down somewhat and head off to bed. I was awakened at 4:30 by Maddy crying. Seems she wasn't sleeping for Jake. Want to guess why? She was HUNGRY. For some reason, Jake didn't think of this concept, because he'd already fed her the 5oz bottle I left for him before I went to bed. Well, dear, she eats more than that now, however, we don't have any bigger bottles yet, so you have to make her two. Sure enough, I fed her and she was OUT.

In Jake's own words, his attempts at letting me get some decent sleep are epic fails. It's only a regular fail if he has to come wake me up, but it's an epic fail when I'm woken up by Maddy crying. Yeah, I'd have to agree, since he's been doing this long enough that he SHOULD know, for the most part anyway, what she wants. Eh, at least he tries.

I'm going on some bargain hunts today. Old Navy is having a sale on jeans, and I just happen to have a $10 gift card, so hopefully I can score some jeans and only have to pay $2 plus tax out of my own wallet. Food Lion is having a special 48 hour sale, so I need to go grab a few things from there. And of course I need to go CVSing! Which means I need to go start matching up my ads with coupons.....

The joys of motherhood.

2008-08-21T10:01:00.003-04:00

Right now, Maddy is snoozing next to me in her bouncy seat, and Noah is stomping around in Daddy's shoes to "Jack's Big Music Show". Horrors! I let my toddler watch TV! Mommy confession time: the TV is pretty much always on around here. I can't stand the house being quiet, and as vocal as Noah is, he actually does have quiet moments and I'd go insane without the background noise the TV provides. At least I keep it on a kid friendly channel during Noah's awake hours. He adores Noggin. He will drop everything if he hears or sees Moose A. Moose. Loves to watch "Jack's Big Music Show", "Blue's Clues", and "Go, Diego, Go". He's actually learned things from watching these shows, and that's not a bad thing in my book.

Maddy kept me up until 4:30 this morning. I was so hopeful that I'd get to go to bed earlier, but every time I felt confident that she was actually asleep and might stay that way for awhile....her eyes would pop open and she'd grin at me. It's hard to feel put out when she's constantly beaming at me like I'm the best thing she's ever seen. That doesn't mean that I don't feel tired, though! Sadly, today is a day on which naptime occurs later than normal - Jake's got court today (for those that don't know, he's a cop and is required by his department to actually show up when the folks he arrests get their day in court. It's usually a monumental waste of his time, save for the fact that he gets a minimum of three extra hours worth of pay for it, even if he's not actually there for three hours.), so naptime has to wait until after he leaves. It works out well though, because Noah likes to watch Daddy get ready.

Noah's birthday is in 3 1/2 weeks....I can't believe my baby is going to be TWO! We're having his party the weekend before. I would love to invite some of my friends and their kiddos, but I think that this year I'm going to keep it to family. I just don't have the energy to really go all out. Now I just need to get in gear and get his presents ordered. We're changing his room decor to a Cars theme (Jake thinks Finding Nemo is too babyish, and Noah loves his Cars toys....and cars in general), so our gifts to him will be things for his room. My mom has already purchased a ton of toys for him, so there's really no need for us to get him more....and he's young enough to not know the difference anyhow. Might as well take advantage of that while I can!

Anyway, the whole point of this entry was to say that I am in awe of my children. Every day they delight me in some way, amongst the sleeplessness and tantrums...and every day I'm thankful to be the mom of two great kids. There may be days where I wish they could be someone else's responsibility (so, you know, I could actually get some sleep, maybe get some stuff done around the house, etc.), but I simply can't imagine not having these little people in my life. They're such a huge part of me, in more ways other than the fact that I gave birth to them and half of their genetic makeup comes from me.

Le Sigh.

2008-08-20T02:53:00.002-04:00

My couch is ruined. Pretty much.

Noah's marked on the cushions with a pen he got ahold of and I can't get the ink out. One of the cats peed on the couch today. I washed the cushion covers and they shrunk....some more. This is the second time I've had to wash them. So of course, the cushions don't fit in there right and it just looks...odd.

I guess new furniture is something else to add to the list of things I need to save for. What I'd really love is some nice white or cream colored furniture - I have dreams of painting the living room a nice dark red whenever we get around to buying a house. But alas, that's not such a good idea with little people around....so I may just have to get dark red furniture instead. I *think* it'd go alright with the current color our living room is painted. I guess it doesn't really matter right now, though, since I likely won't be able to get new furniture until sometime next year. I hate being broke.

I also really wish Maddy would go back to sleep. She was doing so darn good today...and then the gas attacked and here we are, wide awake. I'd really like to be able to go to bed before 3AM every now and then. Obviously not in the cards for tonight.

Ahhh...peace and quiet.

2008-08-19T01:07:00.002-04:00

We had quite the interesting weekend around here. On Friday, we had six members of Jake's family show up. Now, we knew that three (his dad (hereafter known as Daddy), Daddy's girlfriend Carol, and Jake's nine year old sister Carley) of them were coming. We didn't find out until Friday afternoon that Jake's brother, JR, and his wife, Louisa, and their four year old son, Dale, were also on their way.

And they all wanted to stay at our house. Mind you, we only have one guest bed. And we hadn't anticipated Daddy, Carol, and Carley wanting to stay at our house because Daddy's allergic to cats (and if you didn't know, we have two of 'em.).

But, stay they all did. And we all managed not to kill each other.

Oh, there were some rough moments...like the fact that we didn't get to go out to eat Friday night until nine because Daddy and his crew didn't show up until after seven. That's not only past Noah's dinnertime, it's well past bedtime as well. But the little guy held up pretty well. He did crash hard once we got home, though!

Saturday morning, we all woke up around ten and lazed around for a bit. I had to run to the grocery store to get stuff for the night's grill fest. Of course, I didn't have coupons for the items everyone wanted, so I ended up spending as much on that one meal as I typically spend on an entire week's worth of groceries. I also hit up a couple of other stores in search of Hyland's colic tablets for Maddy - no success there, but I did get some small gifts for Carley and Dale since we missed their birthdays last month.

After I got back from the store, we went to the park. The kids had an absolute blast. Even Daddy was following along after Noah and playing with him.

Saturday night was hilarious. Jake got Carley hooked on World of Warcraft. Carol even had me write down some information so they could get Carley set up with her own account back home.

*sigh* There was more I wanted to write, but Miss Maddy is fussing for me. A mother's work never ends...

Chunky Monkey

2008-08-12T11:00:00.002-04:00

No, I'm not talking about Ben & Jerry's ice cream. I'm talking about my very own baby girl.

She finally had her 2 month checkup yesterday....only a month late, but it was the earliest they could get her in for an afternoon appointment - it works out better for me to take the kids in the afternoons because then Jake can stay home with the other one and I don't have to worry about someone *cough*Noah*cough* running off.

Anyway. Miss Maddy weighed in at 15lbs10oz. She is now 23 inches long and basically, just a nice healthy baby. The back of her head is starting to get a little flat though, so I need to be more diligent about sitting her up and giving her more tummy time. I really don't feel like dealing with a doc band!

I didn't particularly care for the doctor we saw yesterday, though. I have to give her credit for not batting an eyelash when I said I wanted to skip the rotavirus vax, but....she's very much about schedules. She went on and on about Maddy being old enough for me to start trying to get her down for the night at 8 or 9, or maybe even 10 or 11 if I preferred. Um. Yes, it'd be nice if Maddy went to sleep a little earlier (especially on the nights where she wants to stay up until 6:30 in the morning!), but for the most part it works out just fine because she doesn't wake up until after Noah's already up, so I get uninterrupted sleep...not sure I want to mess with that by trying to force an earlier bedtime. I never forced any schedule on Noah and he's just fine...he eventually set his own and we've tweaked it here and there, but it works for us.

But what really got me was the way she started talking when she was showing me Maddy's progress on the growth chart. Maddy's in the 97th percentile for weight (though who knows how accurate that really is, since I'm pretty sure they're using the formula charts and we all know that breastfed babies are usually fatter) and the doctor was like "well, that's....fine, but you really shouldn't be feeding her any more than every two to three hours" blah blah blah.

First of all, yes Maddy's weight IS fine. She's following along exactly the same way Noah did and he's hardly overweight. I may be having issues with producing enough milk right now, but the quality of my milk is just fine. Secondly, I am a firm believer of feeding babies on demand. I'm not going to force my kids to eat, and I'm not going to starve them, either. They know a lot better than I do as to when they're hungry! That's why I didn't push the issue when Maddy would go four hours in between feedings right from the very beginning.

Oh, and then she was saying something about talking about starting solids at Maddy's next appointment. Um, no. I'm not feeding my four month old solids. I only half heartedly started them at six months with Noah...we didn't start getting serious about it until 7 or 8 months. I may be more diligent about it with Maddy, depending on how my milk supply is doing at that point, but I won't be starting before six months.

Eh, whatever. I've been here, done this. I know what works for me and my kids. And I'll just make sure to see our regular pediatrician next time. He's a lot more in tune with the way I parent my kids.

Ugh.

2008-08-11T04:12:00.001-04:00

It's 4AM.

My daughter is still awake.

I'm not even going to get three hours of sleep.

It is NOT going to be a good day.

I love free money.

2008-08-10T17:19:00.002-04:00

But really, who doesn't?

I just redeemed some of my Pampers Points for a $10 gift card good at Old Navy, Gap, and Banana Republic. I have enough points on one of my sites to get a $25 gift card to a place of my choosing...but I'm thinking of saving up until I have enough points for a $50 card. I just recently got a check for $27 and some change from one of my sites, and have $8 on the way from another. And, I'm a mere 98 points away on another site from a $50 check.

Yeah, I'm a nerd and I do a bunch of those survey and points sites. Don't you want to be nerdy with me and get free money, too? If you do, leave me your email address and I'll send you some referrals.

Free stuff is good, too. I went grocery shopping on Friday. Saved over $50 using my coupons and sales. Went to CVS yesterday; got $55 worth of stuff for $10. See, I told you couponing was addicting! Just in two days, that's almost $100 I saved and can thus spend elsewhere.

Unfortunately, my husband apparantly doesn't share my love of free money. Back in April/May, he did a few off duty jobs...so, ok, it's not free money in this instance, but it's extra money. He never got a check from one of the nights he worked. Think he's talked to anyone about that yet, despite my asking him, oh, once a week or so? Nope. And now it's been so long he might not even get that money. Three hours of work and $120, down the drain.

Oh, and the VA drama still drags on. Some of you know about this, some of you don't. See, being a vet and all, Jake has GI Bill benefits. But some people don't know that you don't just have to use those benefits for traditional schooling. If your employer has a participating training program, you can receive some of your benefits while you're in training. Well, it just so happens that Jake's employer does participate.

But it hasn't been easy getting that money. It took us a year to even start getting the money, because they kept losing his paperwork. Well, they send forms out so you can fill out your hours and such so they can compensate you correctly. Jake has one more form to send in. He has to take the forms up to HR to get them signed off on, and he usually just drops them off and gets them back through interoffice mail in a couple of days. Well, when he dropped off that last form, the person that signs off on them went on vacation and then somehow the paperwork got lost. Think he's taken another copy up there yet? Nope. And in this case, we're talking about over $2,000. Tax free, no strings attached, $2,000. Do you know what I could do with that money? Pay off a credit card. Heck, pay off the car. Heck, that's almost a year's worth of groceries. Or, if I wanted to be less responsible, that's another desktop computer so that we could both play WoW at the same time. It would pay five YEARS worth of game time for two WoW accounts.

Hmm. Maybe I need to put it in those terms to him...that's certainly something he could understand.

My kids are awesome.

2008-08-08T11:18:00.011-04:00

Well, they are. Just look at 'em!

I've got a Beethoven in training:

Or maybe he'll be a punk rocker:

Or maybe he'll just be my little boy for awhile.

And my baby girl is just full of smiles and goofy expressions:

Yup, awesome kids. Even when they're driving me batty.

Oh, and as a side note...anyone got a good site where I can get a new layout for this thing? I'm lacking the motivation to do the HTML myself, but the standard layouts are so blah.

Domesticating it up.

2008-08-06T23:34:00.014-04:00

So, I promised a domestic goddess type entry, and so you shall have one.

Today's topic is my coupon binder. Yes, I have an entire binder for coupons. It's an addicting habit, ya know.

So. Let's start with the front of my binder. That front pocket there is used for miscellaneous coupons (the ones you see there are for McDonald's and a local diner); I also often toss my wallet, cell phone, and keys in there so that I don't have to carry my purse as well. There's another pocket there in the front where I keep envelopes to mail out coupons I'm trading.

Open up the binder and this is what you see. To the left is a built in accordion file with three pockets; I keep copies of rebate forms and the receipts I used for them in one pocket, ads in another, and receipts in the third. In the pencil case, I keep pens, extra address labels and stamps, scissors, and the calculator you see. You can't see it very well, but there's also a sheet protector there that I cut in half - I put coupons in there that I plan to use during that trip. You'll notice that I have dividers; I have different sections for different types of coupons. I won't go into my categories, because they're simply what makes sense to me and may not work for everyone.

I keep the coupons in baseball card sheets. If I have multiple coupons for the same product, that are worth the same value, I place them in the same sleeve. If they have different expiration dates, I place the ones that will expire first on top, so I'm sure to use it first.

For coupons that are too big to fit in the sleeves, I keep regular sheet protectors at the back of each section. I also keep another sheet protector in each section for the coupons I want to trade - it makes it easier to locate them this way, rather than keeping them all in one big stack.

And last, but certainly not least, I keep loose leaf paper in the back. I write my lists here, and jot down random notes. Easier than carrying around a separate notepad. Also in the back of my binder, but not pictured, are baseball card sleeves containing my store loyalty cards; I also keep copies of store coupon policies back here.

So, there you have it. If you have any questions, feel free to ask! And if anyone would like to trade coupons with me, come find me on Hot Coupon World - I'm stacym.

Or....not.

2008-08-05T01:48:00.003-04:00

So, that stuff about giving Jake credit when it's due?

Let's explore that a little more in depth, shall we?

Now, let me add a disclaimer before I begin. I love my husband dearly. Otherwise, I wouldn't still be married to him, and I wouldn't have produced offspring with him, right? Right. But. Like a typical man, he annoys me to no end sometimes and like a typical female, I've got to vent about it somewhere. That somewhere just happens to be here.

Let's start with a couple of weeks ago, when I was doing some major cleaning trying to eradicate the fleas that keep jumping in the house. For clarification, major cleaning means moving furniture, doing upwards of 10 loads of laundry, tons of vacuuming, and spraying flea killer stuff.

What was Jake doing while I was busy with all of this? Well, he did take Noah out for an hour at some point so that I could spray in peace, but otherwise, he was...playing World of Warcraft (hereafter known as WoW).

Or how about a few days ago, when I finally moved the fridge. And the washing machine. Why was I moving appliances, you ask? Well, because Noah had managed to get some of his alphabet magnets underneath them, beyond the reach of anything I had flat enough and long enough to go under said appliances. I'd asked Jake multiple times over the past few months to do this for me, but he whined that it'd be too hard/they're too heavy. Ha. The fridge was incredibly easy to move. The washing machine, not so much, but I managed. I also found our checkbook that had disappeared a few weeks ago.

Or how about last night, when I was cleaning the living room and once again breaking my back spraying flea killer (because, you know, you have to be thisclose to the carpet and even as short as I am, it still requires some bending). Oh, and cleaning the kitchen. And staying up until 3 AM because he was getting agitated by Maddy(but his low amount of patience for our children is another story). Yeah, he was playing WoW that whole time.

Or even yesterday afternoon. He had wanted to go to the park, but he didn't get up until way late. So he was just going to take Noah out front to play. But what happened? His brother called, while he was getting Noah ready to go out. And suddenly, talking to his brother and hopping on WoW became more important than playing with his son.

I was about to blow a gasket this afternoon. He once again didn't get up until very late and it was irritating me because HE was the one that suggested going to the park on one of his days off. We did end up going, but it would have been more fun had we had the whole afternoon to be out as a family, not just an hour before we had to get home so I could make dinner.

(And for clarification purposes, since I'm writing this at nearly 3AM on Wednesday - yesterday actually means Monday and today means Tuesday. I have had some sleep tonight, but had to comfort Noah when he woke up a few hours ago, and then I fed Maddy, and then Noah woke up again....it's one of those nights. So to me, it still seems like Tuesday. Capiche?)

*sigh*. I know Jake works hard, and needs his downtime. But as the saying goes, I'm a stay at home mom, not maid. It'd be nice to get a little help around here from time to time....from the other adult in the house, anyway. Noah likes to help me unload the dishwasher, and we're teaching him to pick up his own toys, but there's plenty of other things he can't help me with.

And it'd be nice if Jake could spend more time with the kids without getting aggrivated by them. Yes, I get aggrivated too at times, but not nearly as quickly as he does. Oh, but that's right, they're interrupting his precious WoW time. Heaven forbid they have needs that they can't meet themselves since, you know, they're CHILDREN...a toddler and an infant at that.

Ok, venting over. We now return to your regularly scheduled blog posting.

Credit when due.

2008-08-03T11:17:00.002-04:00

You know, Jake annoys me to no end sometimes, but I do have to give him credit for trying every now and then.

See, about a year ago, he started staying up when he got home from work. At first it was just because he felt like it, then it morphed into allowing me to get some more sleep since I quickly fell victim to pregnancy insomnia. So he'd get Noah up and fed and all of that.

Once Maddy was born, he even started taking her most mornings so I could get some sleep without having to worry about her, either.

But a few weeks ago, he decided he was tired of doing that. So I've had to start getting up at 6:45AM most mornings because Noah likes to wake up when he hears Daddy come home. Some mornings I can convince him to go back to sleep, but that's kind of rare. Sucks for me, because I am SO not a morning person. And since Maddy normally doesn't go to sleep for the night until 1AM or later, it doubly sucks for me. Though it normally doesn't end up too badly, because more often than not both kids will nap at the same time and then I can nap, too.

The past two nights/mornings have really sucked, though. Friday night, Maddy didn't go to sleep until 3:30AM. But I was up until 4:30 dealing with Noah since he woke up. And last night/this morning, Maddy didn't go to sleep until just before 5AM.

Sorry, but I simply cannot function looking after two children under the age of two on less than three hours of sleep. So Jake has been kind enough to stay up the past two mornings with Noah so I could catch a little more sleep. I hated having to ask him to do it, because I know he's tired after working all night, but I need sleep too, ya know?

Hopefully tonight will be better and I won't have to ask him to stay up tomorrow. He wants to be able to get up early so we can take the kids to the park. That'll be nice, because we don't do nearly enough as a family and Noah LOVES to be outside and I simply can't take him out as often as he'd like since we don't have the luxury of having a fenced in yard or anything, and I don't feel confident enough to be able to keep both kids safe out by myself - Noah is FAST!

Must be nice.

2008-07-31T10:38:00.004-04:00

I envy anyone who is able to get more than five hours of uninterrupted sleep. That's something I haven't seen much of in the past couple of years.

It all started when Jake started the Academy. Because of course he woke me up as he was getting ready in the mornings. Coupled with pregnancy insomnia, that wasn't a pretty thing.

Then we had Noah. And well, we all know how babies are. But even once he started sleeping for longer stretches, we'd be woken up by Jake either getting ready for work or by him coming home once he started working nights.

And then I got pregnant again. Hello, pregnancy insomnia. Oh, and hello pelvic pain that prevented me from getting comfortable enough to stay asleep for more than a couple of hours at a time.

Now I've got the newborn thing to deal with again. But it's not bad at all with Maddy; sure, she doesn't go to sleep for the night until at least 1AM, but I'm used to being up that late by now so it doesn't really bother me.

What bothers me is the fact that Noah doesn't sleep through the night. Never really fully has. He used to wake up a bit, whine for a minute, and go back to sleep. But for a few months now, we've had to actually go in to comfort him. The past two nights have been really bad. I'm not sure what the deal was Tuesday night since Jake was on daddy duty, but last night Noah woke up at 1:30 and wouldn't go back to sleep, so I had no choice really but to let him stay up for a bit. He wouldn't go back down until 2:30 and even that was a bit of a struggle.

Combine all of that with the fact that it takes me at least half an hour to fall asleep, that means that I only got four hours of sleep last night before Jake came home. Noah of course woke up, but after a bit of fussing, I did get him to go back to sleep for another hour. Doesn't mean that I got another full hour of sleep, but every little bit helps, I guess.

Stupid Hackers.

2008-07-25T17:08:00.004-04:00

Argh. Our World of Warcraft account was hacked. They only robbed my character of gold (200 gold....not exactly chump change at my level), but Jake's characters...oh man. He had over 700 gold with his main character, but they also emptied out his bags and bank and he had a lot of rare items in there.

So, if you play, go change your password.

Update: Jake finally talked to a GM (game master) and they're investigating. We figured out that it happened somewhere between 3 and 4 this morning - Jake was checking the inventory of one of his characters and saw something in there he didn't remember having. He checked the logs for his guild bank and the item was withdrawn from there at that time and neither of us were playing then - he was at work and I was busy with Maddy, not that I'd be on that particular character anyway. And one of Jake's guild members from his main character remembered seeing him logged in then and tried talking to him, but of course the hacker didn't respond.

I'm feeling a little optimistic about it. If nothing else, they can do a preliminary restore and get Jake his items back, and Jake said he'd do dailies for a couple of days and give me the money so that I'd have all of my gold back.

Sleep is for the weak.

2008-07-25T11:30:00.002-04:00

Bah, who needs sleep?

Apparantly not me...at least, that's what my children think. Noah kept waking up crying last night. Maddy wouldn't go to sleep until nearly three this morning. Then Noah was awake yet again half an hour later. It took me at least another half hour to fall asleep. Noah woke up again at 6:45 when Jake got home from work, but thankfully went back to sleep until shortly after eight.

Umm...four hours or so of sleep simply isn't good enough for my system. And I wonder why my milk supply is low.

I am SO taking a nap when Jake wakes up.

Nine Days

2008-07-24T20:36:00.002-04:00

I'm such a dork. A couple of weeks ago, I was introduced to a new form of book crack - the Twilight Saga. I haven't experienced true book crack like this since - and this will really reveal my dorkiness - Harry Potter.

I bought Twilight on a Friday (the 11th, to be exact). I finished it early Monday and went out Monday night and bought New Moon and Eclipse. I was finished with both of those by Friday (the 18th). I just couldn't put them down!

And now I have to wait nine more days for the release of Breaking Dawn. I just put in my pre-order with Borders. I heart Borders. Because, see....Amazon apparantly isn't guaranteeing release date delivery like they did with the Harry Potter books. So I wasn't going to pre-order from them. And then Barnes & Noble is charging full cover price in store, though they have a much cheaper price online....but again, it doesn't look like they've got release date delivery available. But Borders....ah, their in store price matches the online price of 40% off. Score!

So, if you like to read at all...run, don't walk, to your nearest bookstore and read this series.

Dell Sucks.

2008-07-15T15:01:00.002-04:00

That's right, I said it. Someone had to say it.

I am once again temporarily without a laptop. The laptop itself is fine; it's the AC adapter this time. It just suddenly decided to stop working. Not only that, but when it was working, it was shorting out or something and causing my laptop to randomly shut down.

I had a huge issue with adapters with my old Dell laptop as well. I lost count of how many adapters I went through. The adapter for my new laptop looked like it was designed better, but apparantly not.

So, now I sit and wait for a new adapter to arrive. And if this adapter dies on me before a reasonable amount of time has passed, I will order another. And then I will sell the damn laptop and buy a different one. And never buy a Dell again.

Not ready after all...

2008-07-11T10:44:00.002-04:00

Well, Noah is home safe and sound from Grandma's. It sounds like he had a ton of fun up there, which makes me happy, of course. I, however, did not get the rest I so very much needed. Maddy was quite the handful, so I didn't even get much of the housework done that I wanted to accomplish, let alone catch up on any sleep.

We took the side rail off of Noah's crib before he came home so we could try out a big boy bed. My mom had purchased a toddler bed for him to sleep in while he visited, and she said that he did really well with it, that he didn't try to climb out once. However, that's not the case here at home. Last night alone he got out of bed three times and stood at his door crying for me. Of course, the big difference here is that the toddler bed Mom bought has those little rails on both sides, and with taking the side rail off of his crib, one side is completely open to him. His crib didn't come with a nifty little rail to attach while using it as a toddler bed, and all of the rails I've seen are either too big (they're supposed to be used for a twin sized bed or larger) or are pretty pricey. So, I think we'll be putting the side rail back on the crib so we can all get some sleep!

There's not much else going on around here; nothing worth mentioning, anyhow. I do have a couple of domestic goddess oriented entries planned for the near future, but I need to do some more organizing of my materials and take some pictures beforehand. But keep an eye out!

Thumbs Up

2008-07-01T00:41:00.002-04:00

Kudos to Geek Squad - I'm coming to you live from my laptop! Turns out that not only did they have to replace my hard drive, they also had to replace some of my memory. So, I've spent tonight reinstalling Windows and updates and drivers. Still have some more stuff to install, but I really ought to be getting to bed....if Maddy will ever settle down, that is. She's grunting away with gas pains, so I guess I won't get to write much here after all...must go help relieve her pain!

Holy Cow!

2008-06-27T23:10:00.002-04:00

I checked the status of my laptop's repair on the Geek Squad website again tonight....what can I say, I'm obsessive about it! But I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw that it's already being shipped back to my local Best Buy....MUCH faster than I was anticipating! Guess I was right about the repairs not needing much time.

I'm a little sad tonight. Jake and I agreed tonight to let Noah go spend next weekend with my mom. It'll be his first trip away from us. It wouldn't be such a big deal if Mom lived here in town, but she lives three hours away. I'm going to meet her halfway on Thursday afternoon. While it'll be nice to have some downtime, I will definitely miss my baby boy. But he and Maddy have been running me ragged the past couple of weeks and I need a break. Take last night, for example. Maddy ended up not fully going to sleep until 2:30. At 3:30, she had gas and I hadn't even fallen asleep myself yet. Then she was back up at 4:30 and didn't go back to sleep until after Jake got home from work this morning. Bless that man, he stayed up until 10 this morning just so I could get some sleep.

Anyway, off to research car seats. Mom's thinking about getting an inexpensive one to keep in her truck on the off chance that we let Noah go visit her somewhat regularly, so I need to see what I can find that I feel is safe without breaking her bank.

Hooray....maybe

2008-06-27T01:45:00.002-04:00

According to the Geek Squad website, repair is in progress on my laptop. Now, cross your fingers that it doesn't take them a month to repair it! I know it takes all of two minutes to put in a new hard drive, and I can't imagine that anything else could possibly take too long, having worked in electronics when I was in the Air Force. I guess the waiting really comes into play if they have to order parts from somewhere and the parts take their sweet time in getting there.

*sigh* It's been a long week. Maddy had a massive blowout the other night at 1:30 in the morning which required a bath...somehow, all of the poo went up and out the front of her diaper! Noah's had an eventful week as well. He banged his eye on something and had a sore eyelid for a few days; he was pulling drawers out of Jake's dresser a couple of days ago and the whole dang thing came down - luckily, Noah wasn't hurt in that. The drawers prevented the actual dresser from falling on him, so he was more scared than anything. Gee, and Jake wonders why I wanted to strap the dressers to the wall....MEN! *shakes head*

I also took Noah for another haircut the other day. I was just going to take him to the salon in the Super Wal Mart since I had some other things I wanted to check out there, but can you believe this - they weren't doing haircuts! There was only one woman working and she isn't licensed to cut hair....now, who screwed up the scheduling there? In a salon that small, why would you even hire someone that isn't a licensed cosmetologist? Eh, whatever. I just took Noah to Great Clips instead, and I'm very pleased with how his hair cut turned out. It's not as choppy looking as his first haircut was.

Anyway, dryer just cycled off, so I need to get the clothes out of there, get baby girl changed and possibly fed a little more, and finally hit the hay. It's been a loooong day - I've been up since 6:30, and I got less than 5 hours of sleep last night. I'm surprised I didn't crash hours ago!

Should have known...

2008-06-22T15:17:00.002-04:00

Oy vey.

I bought a new laptop back in March. If you saw what happened to my old laptop, you'd understand why. Maybe I'll get around to posting pictures some day.

Anyway, I've now been without that new laptop for nearly a week. It decided it no longer liked me on Monday, so I took it in to the Geek Squad since I have warranty service with them through Dell.

Seriously, folks, Jake and I tried everything we could to get the sucker to work. But alas, we couldn't even reformat. Which pretty much means that the hard drive is screwed. Should have known that would happen. My previous laptop is also a Dell, and I had to replace the hard drive on that one shortly after I purchased it as well.

So, the Geek Squad called last night after finishing their diagnostics and they found "a couple of things wrong"....I'm not sure what all else they might have found, as Jake talked to them and didn't ask them to elaborate. So now my laptop is being sent to their repair center, and it could be up to five weeks before I'll see it again.

Yuck. Jake and I sharing one computer is not a pretty sight. I get bored when he's over here on the desktop playing Warcrack. Because it'd be too much to ask for him to NOT do a raid and, I dunno, actually spend some time with his family. But that's another gripe for another time.

She's arrived!

2008-06-09T21:35:00.002-04:00

So I'm a bit behind in posting this here, but our baby girl was born on May 5 at 9:01AM. She weighed in at 6lbs7oz and was 19.5 inches. She didn't officially have a name until she was already a day old, but we finally settled on Madilynn.

She's already a month old and I can't believe it! She's gained 3 pounds and has grown an inch. She came out looking nearly identical to what Noah looked like when he was born, and she's following in his footsteps in other ways - he also gained 3 pounds in his first month, and the pediatricians have been impressed with the head control both of them have exhibited since day one.

I don't have any recent pictures to post because I kept forgetting to charge my camera battery, but here's a few from Maddy's first few days.

Just over a week.

2008-04-26T14:39:00.002-04:00

Just a small update today to let anyone that actually reads this know that I am making progress towards going into labor. However, if I don't actually go into labor before the 5th, I'll be going in for a repeat c-section. I struggled a lot with making the decision to even schedule one at all, but in the end I figure if I don't go into labor on my own by then, a VBAC just wasn't meant for me. And I'm so tired of being in pain every morning that the sooner baby girl arrives, the better. The 5th is only 3 days before my due date, so she should be plenty healthy enough to come out by then at the very least. Wish us luck either way!

Moving right along...

2008-03-24T01:39:00.003-04:00

Whoops...guess I'm still not doing so great on keeping this thing updated. *blush*

We're all just chugging along here. I got a new sewing machine for my birthday, though I didn't actually get it until the 17th. I finally had a chance to sit down and play with it this weekend - I wanted to wait until I had a desk just for sewing at so I didn't have all of my stuff spread out on the dining room table. So far, I love it!

We got baby girl's room painted this week and it's beautiful! My mom came down to visit and brought her carpet cleaning system, so she cleaned the carpet in the baby's room and our living room. We went out and bought the baby's crib this weekend as well, and hopefully I'll be able to get the hubby to help me put it together this week so I can decide how I want to actually arrange the room.

I also got a new laptop this weekend. Sadly, my old laptop has met an untimely end. Oh, it's still functional, but using it is no longer practical. The plastic was cracking near the lid hinges, and finally cracked off enough so that the lid had to either be held or propped up on something. I'd been planning on getting a new laptop in a few months anyway, though, so it's all good.

There's really not a whole heck of a lot else going on in our little household. The baby is due in a little over six weeks, so we're mostly just preparing for that. It seems like there's still so much I want to accomplish before that time, but it's mostly just the whole nesting thing kicking in and most of what I want to do isn't that big of a deal and can just as easily be done after the baby is born.

Growing Up.

2008-03-05T21:43:00.003-05:00

*Sniff*

My little boy is growing up so fast!

Jake and I took him to get his very first haircut today. So bittersweet...he definitely needed it, but it's amazing to think that he's already old enough for haircuts! He looks so much older already. We were so proud of him, though. We were definitely anticipating some fussing and general uncooperativeness, but he barely paid attention to what was going on! The stylist gave him a hair clip to play with and that was all he needed...he simply paid no mind to her turning his head this way and that or to her messing with his hair in general. I was amazed - he rarely ever sits still long enough for me to brush his hair.

Afterwards, we went to Wal Mart and got Noah a couple of new toys for being such a trooper. We also picked out a color to paint the baby's room. It's a really pretty shade of purple.

Not much else to say right now, really. Just wanted to say how proud I am of my boy!

A fresh start.

2008-03-02T02:23:00.004-05:00

I started this blog a long time ago....but I never really kept up with it. It was intended as a companion to my website, but that didn't end up working out the way I wanted.

After four years, I made the decision a few weeks ago to shut down my website. Kind of a painful decision, because I really liked having it, but I just no longer have the time to keep up with it the way I wanted....the way I did when I first started it back in 2004.

So, I'm making a fresh attempt at this blog thing. I'm not really sure what direction it will take, or if it will take any sort of specific direction at all. But I still feel a need to have some little corner of the web that I can claim as all mine, so, here I am.

So, I deleted the few entries I did have on here in an effort to keep things streamlined.

And with that, I suppose I should introduce myself a bit. As you can see to the right, I'm Stacy. I'm 24, but that'll change in a week. Yup, 25 is quickly approaching! I live in Charlotte, NC, with my little family, which consists of my husband, Jake; our son, Noah; and our two cats, Riley and Kasey.

Jake and I have been married for five years now, and what a crazy five years they've been! We were both in the military (Air Force for me, Army for him) when we met and got married. We both separated from our respective branches in 2005 and moved here to Charlotte so that Jake could pursue his dream of being a police officer. He graduated from the police academy in July 2006 and has been loving the job ever since.

In January 2006, we learned we were expecting our first child. Noah was born on September 16, 2006, and he has been such a joy to us. He's such a curious little boy, and VERY active! He constantly brings a smile to our faces and we just love him to pieces.

Just after Noah's first birthday, we learned that, oops, baby #2 was on the way! It looks like we're having a little girl this time around, and I'm thrilled. I've always wanted to have a boy and a girl, so I think it's pretty cool that I'm actually getting what I wanted! Baby girl is due in a little less than ten weeks, and we still don't have a name picked out for her....but we're making some progress in that department. I'm nervous at the prospect of having two children under the age of two, but I'm sure I'll manage.

Let's see here, what else? I'm a stay at home mom currently. In a couple of years, I'm hoping to continue my college education so that by the time the kiddos are both in school, I can at least be close to have some sort of degree. I love being a stay at home mom, but I think once the kids are in school, I'll want something more to do with my day while they're gone!

I'm a fairly simple person. I enjoy spending time on the internet, watching my favorite TV shows, reading, playing World of Warcraft and The Sims 2, and sewing. Sadly, I haven't been able to sew lately because my current machine is a piece of crap, but I'm holding out hope that Jake will follow through on his promise to get me a new machine for my birthday. Oh, and of course I love just doing whatever with Jake and Noah.

Well, I suppose that's all for now. If there's anything in particular you'd like to see me blog about, don't be bashful, leave a comment! I love feedback!