I love FREE!!!

I decided to go to a Lia Sophia party tonight and ended up walking away with 4 new necklaces, 4 pairs of earrings and 1 slide all for FREE!!  I love Lia Sophia jewlery so this was great!!  I am hoping to host a party at my house on the 19th of February with the new catalog and get even more free jewlery.  So exciting!  :-)  I will be sending out facebook e-vites soon so be watching your e-mail!!  LOL!!

Moving. ..

We have decided to put all 3 boys into one room and move the princess downstairs.  We will turn her old bedroom into an office/study room and that way the playroom can be just that.  The boys so far seem pretty excited about this move, especially #3 because lately he hates being in his own room.  I know that this will help the Princess too since she currently has french doors in her room and all the late night tv watching doesn't help her get to sleep.  I am excited about having an office area!! I hate sitting in the basement typing at night because it gets so cold and my poor fingers freeze.  LOL!!

Tiger Updates

Well as of last weekend I am the new Tiger Den Leader for #2's den.  This is going to be interesting and exciting and challenging too I am sure.  I have been working this past week on setting up some meeting plans for the next few weeks and getting all the scouts info. organized and into a binder.  I am really looking forward to helping the boys earn their Tiger badge and belt loops too.

I had my 1st meeting tonight and overall it went well.  We had 8 boys and 8 parents crammed into a small room. . .yikes!!  We are definently moving to the bigger room next week!  There were also 2 new boys attending, one prospect and one transfer. 

Crochet 101 - Hats

I have decided since I finished the scarf I was working on I would try my hand at a hat for the Princess.  I don't know if it is me or the pattern or a combination but it just doesn't look right to me!!  You would think it would kinda get wider and wider as you add more rows but this doesn't seem to be going anywhere.  I don't know. .maybe I will give it up until I can find a different pattern or something.  Then again the practice is good.  I suppose I should have someone here sitting with me while I start it and all.  I have asked my MIL for some help which has been great but by the time I get home I have forgotten what she showed me and am confused even more.  LOL!!

I love bargains!!

I got some more great bargains on a 2nd gorcery trip I took tonight.  I got all of this for less that 10$!! 

Thanks to some of the hints from Carrie @ www.springsbargains.com and cutting a lot of coupons I was able to keep my total grocery bill under 120$ for 2 weeks and even stocked up on cereal and snacks for the kids.

yikes. . .

Just realized I have not posted in 2 days.  Ooopps!!

Yesterday - Derby races went really well.  Monkey #1's car placed 3rd overall and his brothers car unfortunately didn't place.  I don't think I put the wheels on very well or something went wrong with them in the handling.  But overall the boys really enjoyed the experience and each won a couple raffle prizes.  We are going to use the Fargo's Pizza coupon they won to go to dinner tonight. 

I also did my grocery shopping yesterday and did fairly well in my opinion.  After I go get diapers & TP today I will have completed my shopping for the next 2 weeks for about 125$.  And that is with stocking up on kids snacks and cereal too!  Yeah!!  I love couponing and getting great deals!!

Today we are taking it pretty easy.  Hubby is off work so that is nice.  The kids so far are behaving well and that is really nice!!  :-)  Now I get to go make lunch for everyone. 

Scout Derby Races

This is going to be a 2 part post.  One tonight and one tomorrow. 

We had the weigh in for the boys cars tonight.  Both cars came in at 5 oz. exactly.  They both did an amaizing job with their designs and paint jobs, especially since they did it themselves, with only a little help from dad.  I will post pictures tomorrow from the races. 

Would love to write more but I hear my little princess crying upstairs so I had better go rescue her.

What to say

Honestly I don't have much to say today.  I am tired, can't think straight and have a huge headache. . I have been trying to cut out most caffeine from my diet and I am definently paying the price right now.  Wish me luck over the next few days!!  I am sure I will need it.  I am going on about day 3 of this trek. 

Is it Spring yet?

It must be because boy am I in Spring cleaning mode, big time!!  I have cleaned out the boys closests and thinned their clothes quite a bit.  I am still going through the boys toys and finding more and more to get rid of to make room for future toys.  I have more or less finished organizing my craft area.  I am finished clearing out my storage items in the laundry room (still waiting for my man to finish his boxes).  And I am making major headway on getting my JBF items prepped and ready for the sale in April.  I feel great because I have accomplished so much lately!  Now if only I didn't have to store all this JBF stuff till April.

Ice Festival

We decided to do something out of the ordinary with the kids today.  Old Colorado City was having their 2nd Annual Ice Festival so we decided to give it a try.  Needless to say we, or at least my hubby and I were quite dissapointed.  Now the kids on the other hand thought it was pretty cool.  I believe that in total there were only 3 larger sculptures, a slide/castle, throne and a bowling lane.  And there were probably another 5 smaller sculptures.   We did get to see the sculptor put some finishing touches or retouches onto the castle and that was definently interesting.  But the stores in OCC were all closed, most didn't open until noon or later, so there really wasn't much else to do down there.  All in all I suppose it was a success since the kids enjoyed themselves, but I definently can't say that we will be returning next year.

I just loved Monkey #2's facial expression in this one.. and Monkey #3's pose too!

After we finished at the festival we decided to take my oldest to see a sculpture that a family friend had a hand in creating and installing in OCC.  Her name was Dorothy Atlee and she was a neighbor and good friend of my Inlaws.  He had a special bond with Ms. Dorothy and misses her very much. 

A long walk, clay & more

Well for me at least it was long. . and surprisingly enought I survived!!  Monkey #3, the Princess and I walked to the kids school today to pick up one of the boys.  Then we decided to walk to Palmer Park from the school to let the kids play for a while before driving to pick up the other boy and a neigbor from chess club at the school.  It was about a 2 mile walk in all and up and down hills the entire way.  I wasn't feeling it till tonight. . and boy am I going to be sore by morning!! 

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My little Princess decided to play peekaboo with a dishtowel on the fridge earlier and it was pretty funny so I caught it on my phone to share but can't figure out how to do it.  Which is a shame because it was really cute!!  She would go and stand behind the towel which was hanging on the fridge handle and just wait for someone to "find" her.  I will have to try to catch her doing it again!!

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Yesterday we decided to make some homemade clay.  The boys played with it for over an hour and each ended up making some variation of a volcano.  Not exactly sure what we are going to do with them. . LOL!!  Maybe they will end up at some extened families houses.  :-)

Crochet 101 - UPDATE

Just wanted to update on my progress on my 1st scarf.  It has been going really well!! So far I finished the first skein and had to go buy the 2nd. 

Now I haven't yet finished this scarf because.  . . .I have been working on this one for the Princess.

Once I finish the grey one and get a little help from someone, I would like to make her a matching hat.  I think I might add some fringe to the ends too to make it a little more fun. 

Busy, Busy, Busy

What a crazy busy day!!  We started the day with free breakfast at Chick-a-fla, as my youngest Monkey calls it.  After playing for almost an hour with one of our friends there we decided to head back home so the princess could get her nap in.  For most of the afternoon I continued my "spring cleaning" of the laundry room and all of our storage/keepsake items.  I am so proud of myself for combining about 6 boxes of stuff into 3 plastic storage totes.  The laundry/storage room is going to look so much better once John is done with his boxes!!  I also made a huge dent in organizing and thinning out our crafty items.  I still have a little left to go thru but boy is Goodwill going to love me!!  LOL! 

We also had scouts tonight.  Monkey #1 had his Bear den meeting and from what I hear they worked on tying knots and other rope work.  Monkey #2's Tiger meeting went really well, I was the leader for the night and I was really pleased with how well all the scouts behaved and listened.  What a difference a little structure makes!  We are still trying to figure out our footing as a den as most of the parents are new to scouting.  We definently have a great group of Tigers!! 

Sorry for not posting last night!  We have been having computer issues due mainly to a lack of memory and I had to finally give up after rebooting 3 or 4 times.  Thankfully today I got the new memory that I had ordered and even installed it myself.  Now we are running a little smoother.

Weightloss Challenge

Yesterday my mom, brother, sister-in-law and I all decided to compete in our own little weightloss challege.  We all weighed in at mom's and decided to give ourselves till April 1st to see who can loose the most.  The buy in is 5$ from each person and whomever looses the most gets the $..  This could get interesting!!  I am hoping that this will be a great motivator for us all!!

My main challenge is excercising.  I continually put it off througout the day and then am too tired at the end.  I have set a goal of excercising for a minimum of 20 minutes a day for now and hope to gradually working up from there.  I am also trying to get with a neighbor to walk a few times a week.  And of course I am going to watch what I eat.  I have a bad habit of snacking on junk food late at night and not drinking my water, so I am hoping to change that.

Menu Plan Monday *UPDATE*

I have decided that I am going to start being more diligent about planning our weekly menus by participating in Menu Plan Mondays and also  in the Eat From The Pantry Challenge in order to use up most everything we have in the freezers/pantries and limit the amount of money we spend at the grocery stores for the next month.

I am currently working on my inventory lists and once I have them complete, maybe later tonight, I will post them and my menu plan for the week.  Wish me luck!!  ;-)

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*UPDATE*

Here is my Meal Plan for the next week:

Breakfasts

Bagels w/cream cheese

Cereal

Oatmeal w/brown sugar

Lunches

Tuna Sandwiches

PB and J

Ravioli

Corndogs

Pumpkin Soup

Snacks

Veggies w/dill dip

Popcorn

Goldfish

Ritz crackers

Dinners

Tacos

Chinese Chicken w/ StirFry & Rice

Dijon Chicken w/ Biscuits

Pork Chops w/ Sourkraut

S.O.S w/ Spinach

Spaghetti w/ Sauage

I have to say that while shopping today for the few things I did need, it was hard not to get items not on the list that were on sale!!  But I did my best and pretty much stuck to it. . only slipped up 2 times.  ;-)

Monke #2, Art & Subway

So we told the boys around the begining of December that if they read 10 chapter books by the end of the month that they would get to do something special. Well guess who actually finished. . . Monkey #2!! I am so proud of him because lately he has not wanted to read chapter books at all.

For his special day we decided to attend the Bemis Art School Family Adventure Day. It was a blast!! They hade 6 stations set up for the kids. The first 2 were watercolor & tempra paints, then there was a paper craft. Downstairs they had clay sculptures, Kaleidescopes, and a recycled sculpture craft. Everything was themed after the current NASA exhibit at the FAC, which we also got to tour.

I think that his favorite was the clay sculptures. He made a volcano and an alien sitting on a throne. And of course he got clay and paint all over his hands and arms. It's a good thing they had smocks for the kids to wear.

His volcano is in the center with the green stripes and the alien on the throne is to the upper left of it covered in green.  :-)

Monkey #2 is now looking forward to spending more time learning about clay and making more sculptures.  Hmmm. . . I am thinking we will have Christmas gifts next year covered with all his creations. . LOL!!

On the left is his blow/dot painting.

To the right is his robot sculpture from recycled materials.

And on the bottom is his space shutle watercolor with a UFO, the sun, saturn and jupiter.

The 2nd part of his special day was getting to eat lunch at Subway.  We don't know why but he has really been on a Subway kick lately so it was definently pretty exciting for him to get to go.

We had a great day together and it was wonderful mom and son bonding time too!

Crochet 101

So this is my first attempt to crochet since I was 10 or 12.  For some reason lately I have really had the urge to re-learn the craft so I went to the library and checked out a couple of how to books.  After figuring out what to make, a scarf for the Hubby, I stopped by the craft store and picked up my supplies. 

Here is where I started this morning:

I had actually gotten a little further along but after looking it over I decided that i needed to start over and make it a little looser.  It is still probably not as 'loose' as it could be but it works for me. 

And this is how far I have gotten since then:

The boys were even  interested in trying.  Monkey #1 made a nice long strand on chain stiches.  And tomorrow I am going to show Monkey #2 how to do the same.  After they have practiced that for a while if they are still nterested I will show them how to progress further.

I will continue to post pictures of my progress.  I must say that I am quite proud of myself for what I have accomplished so far and for doing it on my own!!

I got Skype!

Thanks to my lovely sister we now have a webcam and a Skype account.  In fact our whole family does.  Kristi and Dan got everyone a webcam so that we can chat with them a little easier once they move to Hawaii.  Monkey #3 I tested it out with Kristi once I got it set up and he was thrilled to see his aunt on the computer.  We are going to try to call my Grandparents tonight once the kids get home from school.  That will be quite a surprise for the boys to be able to 'see' Mammy and Papa!

Boy did we get a lot done today!!

Monkey #3, the Princess and I started off by taking a trip to the library.  We sure picked the wrong time/location to go. . it was day care day. . Yikes!!  Monkey #3 was able to "fight" his way through the crowds ;-)  though and find some movies to check out for himself and for his sister too.  I think we ended up getting 3 Elmo books and 3 Elmo movies for her and a Speed Racer for him.  She sure does love her Elmo/Sesame Street!! 

We also "celebrated" the first day back to school (for the big boys) by having lunch with Oma and Daddy at Wendy's.  Monkey #3 was thrilled to get to be the only "big boy" today!  Although he was a little dissapointed because the line was too long to go back and get his frosty, which he had been looking forward to all morning.  Oh well we will just have to go back another day for a frosty break.  LOL!!

Since I have been going thru all the kids toys and clothes (and everything else) recently, I decided that this afternoon would be a good time to start entering everything into the Just Between Friends (JBF) consignment sale tagging website.  It is a good thing that I am starting now because this is going to take a while.  And thankfully John is patient with me regarding my JBF stuff because it sure does take up a lot of space to store everything for the sales.  They typically have a sale in the spring and one in the fall.  I figure at least for now I can get everything prepped & entered and then as we get closer start tagging everything instead of waiting till the last minute like I have in the past. 

We also got the tree out of the house this afternoon.  What a MESS!!!!  It took me a good 1/2 hour at least to vaccum up all the needles.  I wish we had a fake tree!!  And while I was finishing up my vaccuming the Hubby was kind enough to get dinner started and clean the kitchen. . .he is so good!!  :-) 

After we got the kids to bed I decided to pull out my old crochet needles (from when I was a kid) and the book that I had picked up at the library today and practice.  I probably should have picked up some yarn today too.  I was trying to use some craft yarn and I don't think it was working as well as another type would have.  But, if I do say so myself, I wasn't too bad. . . as long as it was a basic stitch that is.  I am looking into taking a knitting or crochet class this spring, possibly with Kristi, Renee and/or mom.  I have been reading the Debbie Macomber Blosson Street books so now I am interested in learning how.  Plus I know how much fun Mom, Kristi and I had when we took our pottery class a couple years ago and thought this would be too.  And I would love to be able to create cute little hats, sweaters etc for the kids.

Well that is it for now.  I won't be online for the next day, probably 2 as we are going to have the computers cleaned up so that they will hopefully run better.  I will be sure to update as soon as I can though.

What a great day!

This was one of the first days in many that the Hubby has been off ALL day!  We started out with a waffle brunch at my parents house.  Mmmmm. . .fresh homemade waffles with all the toppings you could ask for.  It was delicious.  We were able to enjoy visiting with my family until early afternoon when we needed to head over to see the In-laws for a while.  After that it was back home for dinner and movie night with the kids. 

The boys are ready to go back to school tomorrow. . I hope.  I know that I am ready for them to go back.  I love my boys to death but I also really enjoy the time that I get to spend with just Monkey #3 and the Princess too.  We have so much fun together going to the library, the parks, and having lunch with Grammy and  Grandpa.  I think that we might get a zoo pass once the weather gets a little nicer so that I can start taking them there too, they would love that!

Oh, I finally got all my Christmas stuff taken down and put away.  We decided to thin out a few things that we never use too.  All that is left is for John to take the tree out of the living room so I can finally vaccum up all the needles. . . that is the 1 thing I hate about having a real tree and why I would LOVE to get a fake one.  Well that and remembering to water it.  LOL!!  I must say it will be nice to finally have my living room back to normal.  Next I gotta work on the playroom and get the "extra" furniture out of there.

My New Years Resolutions

I may add more to this but so far here is what I would like to accomplish in 2010.  I would love to hear what your goals are!

1. Keep my blog updated daily. . even if I don't have much to say.

2. Lose 20 lbs. by exercising for at least 30 minutes 3 days a week and walk around the neighborhood at least 2 days a week.

3. Change our families eating habits to be healthier.  And limit fast food dining.

4. Attend church more often.

5. Be more diligent about saving $ and paying off debts in a timely manner.

Lazy Day

I wish I had something super exciting and terribly important to blog about today but no such luck.  We had a fairly typical lazy day which started with getting up late and watching 5 episodes of Star Wars the Clone Wars.  The boys love that cartoon, including John!  I did end up going to run some errands and suprised the boys with the Battle Force 5 cars they didn't get for Christmas.  Other than that it was kinda boring around here today.

Happy New Year!!

Ok. . here we go I am taking my 5 minutes to sit here and blog away. LOL! New Years Eve we had a great 'party' with all of our family around us. We had quite the feast!! My mom, SIL & I each made several finger food dishes that were amazing!! The kids of course did not make it to midnight but John & I sure did. And then of course fell asleep soon afterwards. I am not used to staying up like that any more.

My sister and her husband finally made it into town from Ft. Leonardwood, MO yesterday too. My Brother-in-Law will be with us until February when he has to check in at his new post in HI and then go on to CA for training. Kris will be able to stay about 6-8 weeks longer. The kids are so excited to get to spend some time with their Aunt!!

Today I think we will go skating. The boys have been looking forward to it all break and while they have been once with friends, I would like to take them myself. We are hoping that their cousins can go with us too. Other than that we don't have any plans for the day. Hubby is working, of course, and I don't really feel like fighting crowds anywhere. Besides I have put off house cleaning for far too long with everything else going on and it has got to get done!!

Ta Ta for now!I gotta get off or I will get nothing else done today.