CRAZY busy

We have had so much to do and so little time this week.
Our plans got changed today so we are home and boy does it feel good to be here.
The mess I could do without but, we will get to that tomorrow!

Josh and I did get some time together yesterday too, so that was GREAT=)
I love my hubby.
(He is guaranteed a great present this year, not some corny silk ties, for this daddy!)

I am hoping this week won't be so crazy, but I have a feeling it may be.

I may not be around much, but Tuesday the gas gets turned on out our new house and Wednesday is the inspection...keep your fingers crossed and prayers coming=)

A perk

One of the many perks of the house we are buying is that is already has an
emergency response system alarm already installed.
All we would have to do it get the service for it.
Which we WILL be doing.

Even though the new neighborhood is nicer than our current one, you can never be too safe.
And the fact that it is already there makes it that much easier and cheaper.
I was excited when someone recently told me we'd get a nice savings on our homeowners insurance=) I think it is usually a 20% savings.

We talked many times about getting one installed at the house we rent now, but never actually did it. Last Summer there was an attempted break in right next door when the lady was home, that was pretty scary, but we hoped it wouldn't happen again.
As soon as that happened our neighbor got an alarm system installed and told us how inexpensive it was and how his wife feels so much more secure.

When we heard about the break in we got renters insurance.
Which was something that would protect our possession, but not us if the burglar was armed.
Mine and my children's safety is worth another monthly payment.

Most security company's monitor 24 hours so you know someone will be there even when you aren't. Check your company and see if they offer monitoring for the elderly when they are living at home, and even video surveillance.

Safety is something that needs to be taken more seriously!


And with all those gadgets your husband will be thrilled!!!

FREE RedBox coupon code

Here is Monday's FREE rental code for RedBox:

Good until midnight tonight. If you return your movie by 9PM tomorrow night, you don;t get charged!!

2MNC92

Make sure you hit Rent with Coupon Code on the opening screen to use this code!

Whatever...none of them work anyway

So, I am so sick of hearing and seeing ads everywhere I look about
best diet pill, and the best prices.

EVERYWHERE.

When we know they really don't work, and if they do they probably aren't very good for you and it won't be a long term thing.

The key to weight loss is what you put in your mouth, how much and if you exercise.
That is the bottom line, pills and shots and powders don't work.
I'm sick of hearing about it.

Awesome way to GIVE

Hey everyone.
I just found out about this:



I am so excited because we have decided to GIVE abundantly this Christmas.
Josh really dislikes what the Christmas season has becomes and this prevents him from enjoying the holiday. I asked him ever so nicely to PLEASE be happy this Christmas and not be a grinch, for the sake of the kids.

I suggested we just really focus on what we want the kids to know about Christmas, giving, love, family, focus on Christ etc. So we agreed!

This is an awesome way to give without feeling like what you do have to give isn't enough to help or without having to choose who to give to.


Check out the link to see all the great bloggers behind this great idea=)

Help with bed wetting???

I know every where I read says you really can't teach you child how to stay dry at night.
But I thought maybe some of you would have some advice??

Ethan is 4 and is still in disposable diapers at night, he is once in awhile dry, he is mostly wet and sometime he pee's through his diaper.

We made a deal with him that if he stayed dry 3 nights in a row we'd go to Chuck E Cheese.
We tell him it is ok to wake us up if he has to go at night. We even tried to wake him up and take him last night, but he wouldn't go.

Now if you know me or my family we have the smallest bladders in the world. Seriously I wake up at least 1 time a night to go. Traveling is a nightmare for me. Me my brothers and dad make fun of ourselves all the time.

So any advice?? Did you do something to make it happen or did it just happen??
It just happened for Merci!

Love my blog

I just wanted to say how much I love blogging.
It makes me so happy to have so much stuff documented.
Now maybe you don't care to read all about my life, but all in all it is for ME!

I was looking through my blog and came across so many memories that I had forgotten.
It made my night to remember all the great times we have had=)

I think I am going to highlight some in the coming weeks!
Have a great weekend everyone!

Some reasons

I am so excited about our perspective new home for many reasons.
One big one is that we will have room to set up the exercise equipment we have in one area and won't have to keep taking it out and putting it away, which means we MIGHT use it more;)
(It also means I won't have any excuse to try the hundreds of diet supplements that are out there!)
Another reason is that a friend lives close and will go workout at the rec with me!!!

I am so ready to get my body back. I am ready to be healthy.
Josh and I plan on homemade soups and stews being our main food this winter (cheap, easy, and healthy!)

Need light?

I've been pseudo shopping for a long time.
Dreaming of remodeling my house anyway I want it. With my hubby's consent, of course.

I have found some great maxim lighting
fixtures.
For reasonable prices!!

Can you tell I am excited to move into a new house????
I'll stop now.
And just so you know, we aren't running into the house and fixing everything at once, believe me it will be a work in progress. I am so thankful for a husband that can do everything!

Please vote

Hey everyone

I am part of a great mom blogging community at MOM SPARK.

Amy has entered a how to make playdough video in a contest and it in 2nd place...let's make her 1st!!

Pretty PLEASE take a few moment to go over and vote.
You will need to register, but they don't spam you=)
You can vote EVERDAY until the end date so go on over and vote and get a great new thing to do with your kids on these COLD snowy days!!

Wordless Wednesday ::My Niece::

Meet Quilla the Hedgehog.

Booster Seat Safety

When a child reaches 40 lbs and age 4 they can be put into a booster seat.

My son is 4 and not 40lbs so in my car he is still in a 5 pt harness, but we do use the booster if daddy needs to take E in his truck.

I am not here to argue the safety, or what age/weight a child should or should not be in a booster that is up to your state law and your family's discretion.

But I do have a great product to introduce for you if you have your child in a booster seat.

SeatSnug

This Seat Snug product stabilizes a child's booster seat by attaching to the seat belt itself making the fit on your child's lap snug and unable to get more slack.
It is a amazing to see the difference in movement (see video on the website).

I know that this makes me feel much better about the whole booster seat switch.
I wan to know that my precious cargo is as safe as can be=)

Who wants to come??

So I decided the other night that I want to go to las vegas during the Christmas season.
I have never been to Vegas, but would like to go for the experience, just check it out.
See the sights, the shows, see a REAL casino up close.

How beautiful it must be around this time of the year??
The city of lights.
The city that is always a show, what must the Christmas season be like???

Oh how I love the beautiful holiday season.
The sparkle, the hmm in the air, the smiles, the cheer, the giving.

I don't like the hustle and bustle, the drivers or the commitments, but the other stuff cancels it out.

So who is coming to Vegas with me this December??? or maybe next...haha.

My kinda thing

With all the couponing/deal finding I do, I love to give
gift baskets for gifts!!

I get household and health & beauty items for cheap or free most of the time, and who doesn't use those items??

I will be doing lots of this for the holidays.
With **possibly** buying a new house, and just with the budget issues we all face, why not give a gift that will be used and that saved me money!!

And if you want to learn my couponing tricks, just ask, Id be happy to share, I am actually teaching a class at church with a friend this month on this topic!!

Very familiar with

My husband is very familiar with roofs.
That is because he works on them every day.
I am not quite sure how I deal with it but I do.
And yes he has fallen off and has even gotten electrocuted off the roof before.
If you don;t believe in miracles, call me I will tell you the stories.
There have been angles watching over my husband, that is for sure.

I hate that he is so high up, I kinda pretend in my head that he isn't, and then when he is on a job I drive by I FREAK.
LOL

My hubby works on slate roofs, tile roofs, metal roofs, but not shingle roofs.
He fixes, replaces, makes better, but he isn't a roof cleaner. he even does custom copper roofs and gutters, that's where the money is! Copper!

We like those copper thieves, you keep hearing about;)

A thinking question...

With all this talk about Christmas cards (various blogs), I was eager to go in the attic and find the card I bought at a deep discount last year...cute ones I assure you!

I was going to address them and get them out, but then, I thought about it....scary I know=)

Is it more meaningful to get the card right after Thanksgiving, sometime mid December, or maybe the week right before Christmas?

This is my thought on each one, and to be clear, I have never thought about this before..so I am not judging your day after Thanksgiving Christmas card, don't worry;)

Right after Thanksgiving- You know that the person was really excited to start the Christmas season, or just wanted to get this daunting task out of the way before all the other obligatory holiday stuff came full swing.

1st or 2nd week in December- This is kinda when a lot of people send cards, so it's a normal time.

Week before Christmas or week of- I was thinking that maybe Christmas card giving was meant to send wishes to those you don't get to see at this wonderful time of the year. Friends and loved ones far away.

Do I have you thinking now??

PLEASE VOTE, in the comments tell me what you think about all my thinking.
I know there are more than 5 or 6 of you reading this, so I want to see some votes!

She is so grounded

So my wonderful little daughter, just got herself in big trouble at school.

I just got a call from the principal.

Merci decided it would be fun to open up an Oreo cookie spit in it and give it to another student.
Just because she felt like fooling around.
WTH????

That is nasty, disgusting and I didn't even giver her Oreo's.

Where do they come up with this stuff?

She was already warned by 8 this morning if her behavior didn't change she would be in her room for the night.

So guess where she will be tonight?

That is after we look at our house again.....possible bidding this week=)

EiGhT

8 years since our wedding day.8 years of loving him more. 8 years of marriage & MORE to come!

SCARED

Today Ethan and I stopped at some stores at a newer shopping center.
A very nice shopping plaza in the middle of icky neighborhoods and decent neighborhoods.
I love it because any plaza with a Target, Old Navy, Super Walmart, 2 Starbucks, TJ Maxx, Applebees, Staples, Home Depot....and more is a GREAT place!!

Anyway...my husband has expressed concern for me going there by myself, but I didn't feel like there was any danger. So I've gone a few times.
Today being one of them.

I was in a ridiculously long line at the Dollar Store.
I needed some kitty toys and this particular one has some good ones.

All of a sudden this lady comes running in screaming another ladies name, who happened to be behind me in line, and also screamed call 911.

She came over to the lady and was saying how these guys were fighting, there was a lady and a tiny baby and the guy was going back to his car, and she knows he was gonna get a gun. She also said there was a guy on the ground all bloody.

What The Heck.

I was so scared, I was about to get on the ground and cry .
I couldn't really see out the window, but no one else seemed too worried.

10 minutes later I was done at the store and scared to go outside.
When I did, there was nothing going on and noone around...

What the Heck, Again.

Why was that lady so freaked out??
And why did she have to freak everyone else out.

Needless to say, I probably won't go down there by myself again, just to be safe;)

Pay It Forward Friday

I decide to take part in Iowa Moms Pay it Forward Friday!

I went to one of my FAVORITE bloggers blog
Wendy- She has 2 cute kids and is just a wonderful person whom I hope to visit someday in NH!

from there I went to Magnolia Sun- She is a Partylite consultant and also works in a doctors office.
She told a funny story about him getting locked in his bathroom and having to call her on his cell phone to let him out...LOL

From there I went to Alfred's Mom- A mom, whose husband is in the military and waiting to move to be with her hubby! A great writer!

There you have it. If you have some down time this weekend go on over and visit!!

Eye news

Most of you know that my little E has to wear glasses. He is 4 and has had glasses since he was 1.
They just fit him and I love the way he looks in them, but am eager for the day his eyes will be all better and he won't need them.


E is being treated for amblyopia, which is lazy eye.
He doesn't have crooked eyes, but if the problem isn't fixed his eye will loose sight, and his eye will become crooked.
So we would love to have his eye all better!

Some good news and some bad (not really bad) news from our appointment today.
E's vision has gotten better!!
But as he focuses on objects the doctor did notice quite a bit of crookedness.
So E will now move onto bifocals.
I feel like bifocals are for old people or something, but also understand with today's advances I am sure they won't look as bad as I imagine them.

So now we search for some cheap (no ins) & good looking bifocal glasses for my baby boy.

Was it this hard for you?

Was it hard to find your first house??

I feel like it should be easier.
Josh does have to run his business out of the garage and he does have a huge truck that has to fit in the driveway, so that does add to the difficulty of finding a house that works.

We found one, we like, it's kinda smaller than we wanted on the inside, yard is BIG for a city house.
New siding, new garage, new driveway and sidewalk, new windows, carpet in good shape (not my pick of color, but not hideous), 4 bedrooms, not 3.....closer to M's school so we won't have to worry about switching!!! But.....is it the one??

This is a harder decision than I ever thought it would be.

Want to see a picture??


Cute, huh??

Ill keep you updated.
We are going to look at 5 more houses, and if they aren't better, we are bidding!

I am excited, just overwhelmed.

My only wish...maybe not

I just want to loose these last few pounds (10-12).
This Halloween candy is NOT helping. we have so much stinking candy, at least 10 of each major candy bar (in mini size), plus tons of other fruity candies.

I have wanted to try allie, but not so sure about it.

Have you tried it??
Anyone you know?

Let me know!

It is possible to have a skinny little body again before next Summer, I know it is.
I can do it...Right??

Not so often

I don't get awards very often but I got this one twice!!
From Wendy and Melissa




Pass this 4 people from the country you live and one to someone who lives is another country.

Thanks ladies, you put a smile on my face the other day=)
We all need smiles.

I am passing this on to

Flip Flop Mom
Sugar and Ice
The Mommy Kelly
Victoria

And my out of the country buddy:
Andrea

Hope this brings a smile to your face too!!!