All over

It is so sad that Christmas is all over. I just love the family time and celebrations, the food, the gifts, the beauty, everything about it. This year was extra special since one of my brothers proposed to his girlfriend!!! The next year will be filled with wedding planning, shopping for dresses and looking for the perfect tuxedo for all the guys and all kinds of fun stuff...and hopefully since I am the grooms family I will still get to help with all the fun!!
But now I am left with a pretty messy house and LOTS of toys to find places for

Congrats Nate and Mary we are all looking forward to April 2011!!

Free Disney on Ice tickets for Clevelanders

**CONGRATS BETH M. You are the WINNER**

Just in time for Christmas!

With just a little over a week until Christmas, I thought you might like a chance to win a great stocking stuffer:

I want to give you a chance to win a 4 pack of tickets to see Disney on Ice in Cleveland on Saturday, January 9th at Gund Arena
(oops, I mean Quicken loans arena!)

Don't worry, if you are not the winner, I still have a deal for you!

A 4 pack of tickets for only $44 to any weekday show or $4 of any ticket purchased for a weekend showing.
Just use the coupon code: MOM at www.Qarena.com
Disney On Ice's Lets Celebrate will be here in Cleveland
Friday January 8 @7PM
Saturday January 9 @11AM, 3PM, 7PM
Sunday January 10 @1PM, 5PM
Tuesday January 12 @7PM
Wednesday January 13 @7PM
Thursday January 14 @7PM
Friday January 15 @7PM
Saturday January 16 @11 AM, 3PM, 7PM
Sunday January 17 @1PM, 5PM
Monday January 18 @1PM, 5PM

Disney on Ice's LETS CELEBRATE:
It’s one colossal party on ice, with all your favorite Disney friends! Enjoy a winter wonderland with Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse, a Halloween haunt with the Disney Villains, a Very Merry Unbirthday Party, a Royal Ball with the Disney Princesses and more in a magical medley of holidays, celebrations and festivals from around the globe. Come join the party when this spectacular ice show visits your hometown!


PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT to enter!!
Must include name so I know who to contact
Giveaway ends at noon on Wedneday Dec 23


**I was given a 4 pack of tickets to see Disney on Ice's Lets celebrate in return for spreading the word about the show and coupon code MOM
Thanks MOM CENTRAL

So many options....

I love that nowadays we have so many options on backing up our information.
We currently have external hard drives that we use but I have recently heard (am I slow?? or is this a new thing) about online backup sites.

I would NEVER want to loose any of my pictures, videos, or document. So this is worth checking out just for a double dose of safety!

Does anyone use any online back up sites currently??
I'm going to have LOTS of videos to back up after the holidays!

Giant Eagle sale/coupon match ups 12/17-12/23

Remember to enter to win a 4 pack of tickets to see Disney on Ice on the post above this!!

Here are some of my favorite deals at Giant Eagle this week...there are more deals...for a more in depth review you can go to Cherry Picker's site...she is my favorite Giant Eagle lady!!
***Remember Giant Eagle doubles coupons that is how I get my final price***

Progresso soup Classic only $10/10 or $1
You may have some .50/2 any flavor Progresso= $1/2 or .50 ea
or $1/3 here or here=$2/3 or .67 ea

Progresso Broth (carton) 2/$4
You may have .50/1=$1
or print .50/1

Kraft Singles 4/$10 or $2.50
You may have .50/1 or $1/2=$1.50 or $2 ea

Daisy Sour Cream 2/$3
You may have .50/1= .50ea

Reddi Whip 2/$4
You may have .50/1=$1

Cool Whip 10/$10 or $1

New York Texas Toast/Breadsticked 2/$5 or $2.50
You may have .40/1= $1.70

Betty Crocker cake is .89

Vlasic pickles 4/$10 or $2.20
.50/1 here=$1.50
Dole canned pineapple 10/$10 or $1
you may have .35/2=$1.30/2 or .65 ea

Nestle Morsels 2/$4 or $2
you may have a $1.oo printable from previous weeks=$1

If only...

If only I would have know at the age of 16 that being 30 (or close to it) isn't that old at all. I will be 29 in March and I don't feel old, well me knees do but that is a different story...I am not anticipating having to us wrinkle cream for a good long while yet!! I guess 16year olds don;t know as much as they think they do, huh?

Talking about old...the other day I was painting and listening to a radio station that is playing all Christmas music and "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas" came on...the OLD version;) I was really annoyed at how dang slow the song was. But then the other day I heard it again and was thinking of way back when, that is how life was...slow. No rush, rush. Life back then was laid back.
The pressures of today were no where to be found. What it must have been like?

I think I'd like to go there for a bit.
Want to come with me?

Here

I am just amazed that the Christmas season is here. Like 2 weeks away here, and I don't have my tree up or any Christmas decorations...yikes. But anyway...the Christmas parties are starting ( we had out small little company party this past week already), which means the overeating and feeling not so good. I gotta figure out how to stop that...or is that the fun of it?? (I could just try some fat burners or something)

Anyways...there has been so much going on over here, mostly trying to get the living room painted before the Christmas decorations go up. Whose dumb idea was that anyway (oh, wait it was mine...lol). Right now I am waiting on Josh to sand the fireplace down, and I'll probably be waiting a long time, so I will probably just paint it and forget about sanding it.

I am so excited for the kids for Christmas. I remember the magical feeling. We really try to stay away from the hype of I want this and I want that, and focus more on giving, but in all honesty, it is SUPER exciting getting gifts! I still have some shopping to do but not too much. Gotta finish this week though, so I don't have to lug kids around with me the following week.

And dare I say I am bit excited to have the kids home for awhile?? Did I just say (type) that...yep, I did!

What I have been learing latley

So much has been going on at my house lately. A week worth of nonstop work getting the basement ready for Thanksgiving, which we hosted for the first time. It went well and the basement looks great. I have also been going through the study Breaking Free by Beth Moore. It has been good to be in the word and study something that is very beneficial.

Anyway...I had a very emotional day a few days ago. My little E is an emotional guy, and I don't deal well with that....because I guess I am a pretty emotional mommy:) I really wanted to take a picture of the kids outside on our porch for our Christmas cards because this is our first Christmas at this house, OUR house. It took me like an hour to convince E that this was a good idea-I finally retreated to bribing with candy. I then asked him to go get my camera from the table in the basement, which he did and proceeded to take a bunch of pictures and then headed back downstairs to take a picture of his beloved cats. I told him NOT to a few times yet he insisted on disobeying. On his way back up he tripped on the steps and dropped my camera, causing the lens to get jammed and not work anymore and also bashed his sheen up pretty good. Did I mention this is the camera that replaced the one that died 2 days after the extended warranty ended??? And that I have had this camera for, OH...just shy of 2 months...granted it is a cheap point and shoot (well $120 cheap, but better than a $500 one). I thought about returning it to the store since it has been less than 90 days...and I really wanted to. My gut told me NO, and after Josh assured me this was the wrong things to do I regressed. I tried to call Casio hoping they'd be understanding, but apparently cameras should never be dropped, because they aren't meant to be. Out of luck. But I did have a peace that I needed to suck it up and be done with it.

Through all this I was super calm with Ethan (I really surprised myself), I was able to hold him and love him through his pain, and explain to him that our disobedience doesn't just effect us but others around us and although I was VERY SAD not to have a camera anymore, I still loved him and valued him way more than my camera. He saw me cry, he saw that I was really sad, but also saw my love of him was much more than the love of THINGS.
It was a proud day in my parenting!

Later that day when I saw the cats scratched up our brand new (floor model) couch -the base and arms are leather the rest is not...needless to say I was not so calm with them;)
Baby steps, right?

Wouldn't it be lovely

...to remodel your house they way you want right away?? Like I mean everything the perfect color, the perfect material (like granite tile and not linoleum that looks like granite tile), EVERYTHING the way you want it (an not just painting the bathroom but still having ugly pink tiles in the shower and floor) Waiting and do a little here or there is kinda annoying. And seriously I am happy with all we have been able to do in our home so far, but I am one who would like to just get it all done and be done...ya know?? Oh well, now I have stuff to do for a few years=)

Which reminds me....the post with pictures of the finished basement is up next...I bet you are dying to see it...well I am dying to show it, so how about that!

Since I thought I had time

I am on jury duty today (I started this on Thursday-but while you are reading this on Friday I will be on the jury)
so I am (was) sitting here with nothing to do...so I guess I have no excuse not to finally post the "almost" finished basement (but there is a crappy internet access so I was not able to)...we have some molding to finish since we ran out...and some doors to build on the entertainment unit.

I am extremely satisfied with the end result!! We both worked so hard (plus the guys we employ). We are enjoying the room so much, cats included (they think we made it just for them or something).

Without further ado here are some before pictures:

This is back in April when Josh started framing for the walls.

The beautiful entertainment unit my wonderful hubby built for us!


Bookshelf...he built this too!


This is when the walls looked hot pink and I was freaking out...



Looking better only 4 coats later.

Need to find a bigger piece of carpet, but for $40 this will do for now...and decorations will be better this was thrown up 30 minutes before people were coming for Thanksgiving...there will be doors on all the bottom shelves of this unit.

The bookshelves make the room feel so comfy!
The walls look really bright here, not so much in person.

Another view!!


So What do you think?
Wanna come over and watch a movie??