AMAZING Diaper Deal!!!

I know you all are just dying to hear about a great diaper deal! It's tomorrow (Friday, May 30th) ONLY at Walgreens. The only reason why I'm posting this is because we REALLY need diapers and I've been waiting for a good sale and it's finally here.

Buy:

3 packages of Huggies diapers for $9.49 ea.

-and-

1-24 pk. Excedrin Migraine for $1.99 (just a filler-it's free)

Total : $30.46

Use this $10 off $30 purchase coupon from Walgreens.com.

Use this $2.00 Excedrin Migraine coupon.

Use 3 manufacturers coupons (I'm using 2-$1.50 & 1-$1.00) saving me an extra $4.00. The $1.50 Huggies coupons came in the mail a few weeks ago.

Send in for this mail in rebate for $5.00 the purchase of 3 packs of Huggies on 1 receipt.

If you don't have manufacturers coupons your total would be $13.46 for approx. 102 size 4 diapers which is about $.13 cents a piece. Just on sale, they're $.27 cents a piece.

If you have the manufacturers coupons your total would be $9.46 for approx. 102 size 4 diapers, only $.09 cents a piece! This UNREAL!

I usually buy Luvs at Target because they're the cheapest I can find and they work awesome, but I usually pay $.19 cents a diaper for those. So, this is an AMAZING deal!

Coupon tip: make sure you hand them the Walgreens $10/$30 first and then hand them your other coupons or else your total will be lower that $30 and the computer won't accept it.

Chex Mix are also on sale for $.99 this week and you can use $1.00 printable coupons from coupons.com.

Infatuation Actually

I've watched a few movies on TV lately that I have never seen and now wish that I had never seen. The first was Wimbledon the second being Love Actually. I'm really disgusted right now by what the media would like to call "love". From both of the movies mentioned above "love" basically means meeting someone, and the next day or a few days later, deciding to have sex with them and calling it "falling in love". Or, being friends with somebody and just deciding you can't hold back your feelings any more for each other, who cares if you're married!!! What is it really? Complete and total infatuation. There is no foundation for these relationships, they are built 100% on feelings and looks. Feelings, which I'm afraid to say, can fool us; and looks, which are fleeting.

Don't get me wrong, I know that these movies aren't real. But these are the messages that we and our kids are being pumped full of! No wonder it's tough for teens to stay pure, they watch movies like these and are told that if it feels right it must be love.

Infatuation really is everywhere. (that's the last line of Love Acutally, only I changed the first word)

Disclaimer: There is a slight possibly I missed the main point of Love Actually because of TV editing due to too many sex scenes.

A Fresh Start

I'm not feeling 100%, but I'm feeling about 85%. My body is just feeling really tired. My brain seems to be functioning pretty well, but my body is just very tired. Hopefully, after a good nights' sleep tonight, I'll be feeling 100% tomorrow and can get my life back on track.

The kitchen's a disaster, our room is a mess, the floors need to be mopped, there are piles of laundry all around and our bathroom is very dirty.

Tomorrow is a new day and a fresh start. I've made a small, manageable list of things to accomplish and I'll try my hardest to finish it. But playing with and taking care of Maddox and taking care of my body are of utmost importance right now.

Here's to tomorrow.

Favorite Hat

Here is the newest addition to my baby hat collection and it's my favorite so far. I just wish I had a little head to try it on to see if it's as cute on as lying down. I basically made up the pattern just taking basic ideas from the book that I have. I found the flower pattern online yesterday. I think it turned out pretty stinkin' cute.

Early Morning

For some reason all of us were wide awake at 6:30 this morning. Maddox and I had both been awake, but laying in bed since about 5:45am. TOO EARLY! What weird is that I don't know why we woke up early, we didn't go to bed exceptionally early or anything and on a normal day we all sleep until 8. It was weird. But, we decided to just get up and snuggle on the couch and watch a movie since it is a day off for Kyle. And, since we're all recovering from being sick, it was perfect. Maddox fell asleep in my lap at 10:30 and we both slept on the couch until 12:30. Messed up our normal nap routine, but we both needed it!


Here's a picture of Maddox chilling in his chair having some dry cereal and milk.



And, here's my newest hat: It turned out okay, but was an a lot of work sewing on all of those petals. Next time, I'd leave off the stem, kinda dorky.


I'm thinking about opening up an Esty store selling my hats. I think I'm going to keep knitting all summer and then hopefully open it in the fall when I have a lot of hats made up. I'm making up my own pattern right now, it will probably be done tonight.

Just cuz' You Gotta See This Guy

My little lounger

Maddox showing off that he can get in his recliner all by himself.

Just a Note

So, my husband, aka. Kyle, is totally awesome. He's doted on me hand and foot and has helped out so much with Maddox. It has made this cold not seem quite so bad. Any way, I just needed to say how totally cool he is.

This cold is brutal. Complete and total nasal congestion, full body aches with side of a cough. I never get coughs, but this went straight for my lungs, dumb cold. I have no voice, I just whisper. Kyle likes it when I whisper at the dog assuming that she'll listen to me :-)

Maddox has seemed to be fine today, just a little bit of a runny nose. Kyle's coming down with it now, though. I had a feeling that would be the case, this thing seems to be quite nasty.

We're hoping to go see Prince Caspian tomorrow, but that will depend upon how Kyle is feeling.

Sick

I am very sick and have been for 3 days. Blah. Unfortunately, Maddox is sick, too. The poor guy just cried and cried and cried last night. Kyle is taking such good care of us, though and hope to be on the mend by the end of the day.

Please Excuse Me...

I know I've been missing in action as of late, but please excuse me because I've been enjoying the GORGEOUS weather with my family! Friday it was almost 100 degrees! Pretty unheard of in these parts this early in the year. So, we played in the hose and Kyle mowed the lawn. Yesterday, we went to Fred Meyer and picked up a blue plastic pool and we hung out in the backyard for a good part of the day yesterday. Basically, we just played all weekend and it was fun, but now my house is a mess! Here are a couple of pictures of our fun weekend:

Here are my three newest hats. I made the blue and green one for Maddox, but he won't keep it on, so I may need to give it to someone else. The two pink ones I made for my friend Iva who is having a little girl in couple of weeks. The pink stripe one took way more time that I was expecting it to and I finished it 5 minutes before I walked out the door to go to her shower. But, it turned out super cute and I was pleased. It's not perfect, but for how complicated it was, I'm not going to complain.

Newest Craft Project

Shelley started embroidering back in March and it intrigued me, so she hooked me up for my birthday with all of these wonderful supplies:Yesterday, I went to Barnes and Nobel and bought this amazing book with a gift card that I've had since Christmas. It has pages and pages and pages of some of the most wonderful simple iron-on patterns in it.

Last night, I started embroidering simple patterns on some new, plain white cloth diapers that work great for burp cloths. This is how they turned out:


I am making a set of 3 girly ones (pictured above) for a friend that is having a little girl in a few weeks and the other set with the car, a truck and a rocket, will be for a friend who is having a boy. They're so much fun and don't take more than about 20-30 min. a piece. The greatest part is that the middle part of the diapers is so thick that you don't even have to go through all the way to back, so no icky unsightly criss-crossed back.

Sophisticated

Okay, I'm in a very "braggy" mood.

As you can see in the this picture, I have this green comforter on my bed and out of the pillow shams that came with it, I made some curtains. I never loved the comforter, but having bought it online, I just decided to make myself like it.



Here's where the totally awesome part comes in. My totally hot/rad husband bought me an awesome bed for my birthday and a couple of days ago I bought an awesome aqua colored quilt at Target because we really needed something lighter on our bed now that the weather is getting warmer. And, I had some fabric that I bought with Shelley awhile ago and it was like $1 a yard and I loved it but never figured out what to make out of it other than a nursing cover. And, it matches the new quilt perfectly, so I made a little window valance! I'm totally in love with my bedrooms new look. Take a look and see for yourself.



New bed + new quilt + plus new curtain (it took me about 45 min. to make) = one totally rad new bedroom that Kyle and I both ADORE!!!

Up-closey of the curtain:

2 Things I Wish Were Illegal:

Mini-blinds that don't clean themselves.

Baby shirts made of wrinkling material.

'Nuf Said.

This Time of Year...

I love this time of year...the weather is consistently between 60-80 degrees and I want to be anywhere but inside my messy, dirty house. But, alas, I must be inside some of the day because I need to get things done like cooking, laundry, and somewhat cleaning. My mom is coming on Monday morning, so I really only have 1 day to get my house cleaned since Sundays are incredibly busy days for us. That day, being today...

Maddox woke me up at 7:15 this morning and I would love to still be asleep. But, motherly duties are far more important than my own, so Maddox and I sat in our "cuddle chair", snacked on some dry cereal and watched "Baby TV". It's included in our satellite TV package, so I thought I'd give it a try. He loved it, a little too much, he didn't unglue his eyes from the TV for 30 minutes. I don't think I'll do that again, I'd rather he be running around learning something!

Well, off to fix some oatmeal for the little guy and clean, clean, clean.

On another note, I'm almost finished with my 3rd hat, but I'm waiting for some new sizes of knitting needles to come in the mail. I ordered them off of ebay yesterday. It's a great deal if you're in the market for knitting needles! I got 2 sets of 12 different size knitting needles (Half circular and half double-pointed) for about $1.20 a set including shipping. You can't get most knitting needles for less than $5 a set and now I have all the sizes I need to do any hat in the book! Woohoo!

Another Hat

I finished my second baby hat today. I don't love it as much as the first one, but it's hard to tell what it will look like on a round head. The ears were tricky, but kinda fun at the same time. I'm addicted, I want to make another one now!!

Awesome Shopping Trip!

Okay, I just can't help but share my awesome shopping trip today. It totally pumped me up! I try to keep our grocery bill to about $160 a month including diapers, which comes about to about $40 a week. It was always doable, but now that I've started couponing and watching the sales, our pantry is super stocked and I get fun goodies like a 12 pack of Coke for free! Here's a picture of my loot today. My total ended up being $24.00 and $3 of that was Mother's Day cards that isn't included in my grocery budget. So, I have money left over to get a bag of frozen fruit at Costco for green smoothies and milk for Maddox later on in the week!


Included above:

6 boxes of cereal
TONS of bananas
Lettuce
Broccoli
Mayo
12 pk of Coke
2 8 packs of bottled water
6 Power bars
4 lbs of strawberries
Loaf of bread
Dishwashing detergent
Dishwashing rinse (it was free)
Organic crackers
Can of garbonzo beans
1/2 gallon of silk soy milk

My First Itty Bitty Hat

I bought this book with the $25 gift card I won last year from the bloggy giveaway last fall:


Today, I finished this:



I just wish I had a little head to try it on! I'm not sure on sizing and all that since I'm a brand new knitter and gauging can be sort of tricky. I've knit 1 scarf and I failed miserably at my attempt to make a baby blanket. I think I'll stick with baby hats from now on :-) I'm working on one now that has little ears on top. We'll see how that one turns out!

Green Smoothie Recipe

Since I got a few comments on this, I thought I'd post my made up recipe here. Basically, you can do whatever you want to make a fabulous green smoothie. Omit what you don't like and add what you do! YUMMO!

Amount : 40 oz. Enough for Kyle and I to have 16oz ea. and 8 oz. for the little guy

1 Blender full of dark leafy greens (pre-blended:-) - I use spinach and collard greens (they are way cheaper than spinach and have just as many yummy benefits)
3/4-1c. liquids (however much you need to get the greens blended, really just depends upon your blender...mine isn't the greatest, so I need lots of liquid)
1 c. frozen fruit - I bought a big bag of mixed fruit at Costco, it has peaches, blueberries, strawberries and cantaloupe and it's super yummy and fairly cheap ($1.50lb.ish)
2 bananas (the "secret" ingredient to get the greens taste out of your smoothie - I forgot to add them one day and could totally tell.)

Blend up the greens with the liquid until it's a green smooth liquid. Add the fruit, blend it up, and then blend in the banana and enjoy your muy delicioso green smoothie.

Pictures of the Cutie Patootie

Drinking milk, eating biscotti, and wearing his birthday shirt from Antie Shelley in his new recliner. (I know it's not the best picture)


Just being his cutie patootie self.


Helping Mommy with the laundry (yes, he does it because he wants to).


And, last but not least, the famous green smoothie.

Exercise is Poopy

I don't like exercising. In fact, I despise it. I've never found that it's a necessity in my life. If I eat moderately, I have always found I can maintain my weight fairly well. I walked pretty much every day when I worked full-time, during my lunch break, but that was more just to get out of the office because 10 hour days can make you feel a little locked inside.

I carry most of my weight in my hips and butt and have never had a problem with my tummy area. At least that was until I had a child. When I was nursing I ended up about 5-7 lbs. lighter than my normal weight (basically, I had not hips or butt), but within a week of stopping nursing I was back to my norm. There's something about having a child that just makes a tummy learn to pooch. I'm not happy with it AT ALL. I really can't complain that much, though, because I have hardly exercised since Maddox was born, let alone do consistent sit-ups.

Exercising is boring.

Any way, I'm trying really hard to do at least 50 sit-ups every day to see if I can get rid of some of the pooch. If I don't get it under control now, I'm afraid it will be there forever. I suppose it's not the end of the world, but there is nothing worse than a saggy belly hanging over my jeans when I sit!!!

Smoothie = Very Cold Monkey

So, I've been making the 3 of us Green Smoothies in the morning. Basically, it's a fruit smoothie with dark leafy greens in it to get all the yummy benefits of them without having to have a spinach salad every day. Plus, I've never had collard greens before, but I've heard they're good for you. It just tastes fruity, but looks green. Kyle and I each drink about 16oz. and I give Maddox about 6oz. Any way, today, Maddox is sitting on the kitchen floor drinking his smoothie and I look down and his lips are blue and his jaw is literally quaking. Poor guy!