Okay so this week Bi-lo is tripling all coupons up to .99 cents… Harris Teeter is doing the same starting today, and ending on Saturday. I always cut coupons! My mommies group is always posting specials and what coupons to use to end up getting stuff free… so I follow that pretty closely. So yesterday I stopped by Bi-lo and today I went to Harris Teeter during my lunch break. Let me share my total’s with you! Bi-lo before coupons, $17.50… after coupons $2.55! Harris Teeter before coupons, $65.35… after coupons $6.43! Isn’t that awesome?! This is seriously like a game for me. So much fun…I love it!!!
May 15, 2008
May 13, 2008
My Mother’s Day
I hope everyone had a great Mother’s Day. Sunday morning my Mom and Mike came over and I made breakfast burritos for everyone. They stayed for a while and played with Ella. I bought my mom a roaster for Mother’s Day. Last year at Thanksgiving she was complaining that she wished the turkey didn’t take up so much room in the oven so I thought that the roaster would be a good solution for holiday meals. Then I got to lay around and relax for a while. After that my in-laws came over for dinner. We had a fish fry and the food was really good. We got my mother in law a satin hands gift set from Mary Kay, two wind chimes and then a plate that Ella and I made at the pottery place. I couldn’t talk about it a while back because I didn’t want to ruin the surprise. Here’s a pic of it…. 
and also I took pictures of the other things that we made, here is the birthday cake plate that I made for Ella
and then we also made a small chicken tile for my kitchen… since I am going to re-do it with some chicken decor. 
Jeff and Ella got me a new purse (raspberry fizz) and the new Mariah Carey CD for Mother’s Day, oh and I got tons of stuff that Ella made at school. It was so cute. Gift certificates for hugs and kisses and a card she made and a nice poem that had her handprints on it. She also gave me a tealight candle and a candle holder that her teacher must have bought. I thought that was really nice that her daycare teacher went out and spent her own money for the mom’s. Here are some pics of me and Ella.
she said we had to make silly faces…
and this one is the serious faces! 
Oh yeah I can’t forget this one. She has hula hair! 
May 9, 2008
For all of you Mom’s out there
In honor of Mother’s day I thought I would post some great quotes. I hope everyone has a fantastic day on Sunday!
A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie. ~Tenneva Jordan
I remember my mother’s prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life. ~Abraham Lincoln
When you are a mother, you are never really alone in your thoughts. A mother always has to think twice, once for herself and once for her child. ~Sophia Loren
Grown don’t mean nothing to a mother. A child is a child. They get bigger, older, but grown? What’s that suppose to mean? In my heart it don’t mean a thing. ~Toni Morrison, Beloved, 1987
It’s not easy being a mother. If it were easy, fathers would do it. ~From the television show The Golden Girls
No one in the world can take the place of your mother. Right or wrong, from her viewpoint you are always right. She may scold you for little things, but never for the big ones. ~Harry Truman
The best conversations with mothers always take place in silence, when only the heart speaks. ~Carrie Latet
You couldn’t fool your mother on the foolingest day of your life if you had an electrified fooling machine.
- Homer Simpson
All I am I owe to my mother.
- George Washington
The best medicine in the world is a mother’s kiss.
- Anonymous
Of all the rights of women, the greatest is to be a mother.” – Lin Yutang
“Being a full-time mother is one of the highest salaried jobs… since the payment is pure love.” – Mildred B. Vermont
May 6, 2008
Oh yeah I forgot
For all of you in NC, don’t forget to go vote today! Go Hillary!
*Also, some of our water restrictions have been lifted and I can now wash my car every other Saturday if I want to! Yay!!!
All kinds of things
Well let’s see, I left off at Bunco. No, I didn’t win any money. Oh well, hopefully next time. But I love going to all these different houses because you can get great decorating ideas. When I see these other women’s houses it makes me think mine looks so plain! I really need to hang up more pictures around our house. Saturday morning, my friend Jessica and I got up really early and went to the Britax car seat sale. Britax is a high end supplier of car seats and strollers. So we got there and got a spot in line at 6am. There were probably about 25 people in front of us. Word made it to our spot in line that the people in the very front were there at 1:30am! Are you kidding me? The car seat that I wanted to get retails for $280, I ended up getting it for $190… I know that sounds like a lot of money but this is a car seat that Ella can be in until she is 8 years old, or 80 lbs. which ever comes first. It is a 5 point harness and I feel comfortable knowing that she is better protected in that seat compared to a flimsy booster. It is a huge car seat. So that brings me to another issue. Jeff just turned in his Company Van and decided that he wants to work in the shop from now on, so that means he will now be driving his truck to work. His office moved to Concord and he drives right by Ella’s daycare on the way to work, so it makes perfect sense for him to take her and pick her up. So I really want the new car seat in his truck since she will be riding in it the majority of the time… but we put the car seat in there and it doesn’t fit perfect. Her feet kind of dangle on the middle console. She cannot just let her feet hang like normal. She says she is comfortable… but I am not sure. I guess I am just going to give it a little bit of time and if I feel it is not working out then I am going to sale it, which should be easy since I got it at such a great price. It just sucks because I really want her to be in the safest seat.
Saturday evening I did a girls night with my friends Jessica and Shannon. We went to a pottery place. It’s the one that I took Ella to a few weeks back for a birthday party. I love it there. I could seriously go there all the time. There are so many different things to make and decorate. I ending up making Ella a birthday plate. Once I get it back, I will post a pic of it. You have to leave it there for about a week so they can glaze and fire it, etc. But anyway, it’s a small plate and in the middle I made a three tier cake and listed her weight, length and Date of Birth and then at the top it says “Happy Birthday” and at the bottom “Ella”. This is a plate that I want her to eat her birthday cake on every year. I thought it was something neat that she could keep the rest of her life. Once we finished with pottery, we went out to dinner. After that, Jessica and I went to TJ Maxx. I found a few things for my kitchen.
I have decided to re-do my kitchen. I have always wanted a “country” kitchen. It may sound weird, but hopefully you will understand my vision! I want bold red accessories and the theme will be kind of farmhouse-ish. Chickens, fruit, some modern looking things but mostly vintage. Right now the walls are mint green but I am going to repaint them a nice tan/light beige. So once I get started, I will post before and after pictures. I did find a few things for the kitchen this past weekend but I don’t think I am going to actually start on painting and stuff until we get back from the beach. Oh yeah, speaking of wanting new pictures for the house… my boss was in town yesterday and he brought in a ton of his work (he is a part time photographer) and he told me and my other 3 co-workers that we could each pick one piece. It took me forever to pick something because they were all so nice. I decided on a picture that he called “The bridge to no where”. It’s really nice, and already matted. I just need to go to Hobby Lobby or somewhere like that and buy a 16×20 frame for it. It’s this bridge (his words) that is out in this marsh looking swampy pond and it’s the only thing around. He said there was some storm that came through and wiped out everything except this bridge and then also at the end up the bridge there is no way to get off, it’s kinda twisted up. Hard to explain… so I took it home last night and I showed Jeff and he said you know that’s an old fishing dock right? Yeah that did make a little bit more sense. Anyway we both like it and I can’t wait to hang it up. Now I just have to decide on a spot for it.
April 30, 2008
Sooo funny – wait a minute do I look like this?
One of my friends just e-mailed me various pictures of Barbies from all different areas of Charlotte. So I had to post the Concord Barbie… It is too funny!
‘ Concord Barbie‘
This pale model comes dressed in her own Wrangler jeans two sizes too small, a NASCAR t-shirt and tweety bird tattoo on her shoulder. She has a six-pack of Bud light and a Hank Williams Jr. CD set. She can spit over 5 feet and kick mullet-haired Ken’s butt when she is drunk. Purchase her pickup truck separately and get a confederate flag bumper sticker absolutely free.
April 29, 2008
Holy Crappy!
Ha! How do you like that title? Jeff went fishing with our friend Lenny this past weekend and they caught so many crappie fish. They threw some back but brought home 24! So they split them and now we have 12 fish to eat! I love fish fry’s! I am so glad they were on a catching streak because the last several times, they have caught nada. I wish I would have taken a picture to show you guys. Oooh he got so sun burnt too. I always fuss at him about wearing sunscreen and taking a hat with him. I need to buy him one to stick in his tackle box so he has no excuse.
Last week Cabarrus County was giving away free mulch in honor of Earth day, so Jeff went and got a huge load of it. It stinks let me tell ya. I thought the smell was going away but nope not so much. Saturday evening the windows were down and I was ready to take a bite of my juicy steak. Steak and cow pasture smell do not mix. Gag me with a spoon. The weather is nice right now for the most part. Not hot enough for the AC yet… still getting cool at night. I am dreading the humidity this summer. Ella’s hair is starting to frizz. Mine was like that when I was younger but not so much anymore. I don’t want to get her hair cut but the back of her neck gets really hot so I may have to. Saturday we went to Extreme play with Stephanie and Camden. Ella had a great time. She was very cautious at first but then she got used to it. At least the young kids section. She went on one of the smaller bounce houses (in the big kids section) and I talked her in to going down one of the slides… well she went flying down and landed on her bottom on the foam pads that are on the floor and she said “I am going to bust my head open”, so after that she just walked on them and bounced a little (on the bigger ones) but she loved the kid section. She was hopping up and down like a kangaroo. Very cute! Again I wish I would have taken my camera.
I am playing Bunco on Thursday with my mommies group. I hope I win some money this time. The very first time I went I walked away with $19, so I was thinking… hmmm not bad for a first timer. But it is all about luck and since then I have not had any! I’ll post back and let you know if my luck has changed. Until next time…
April 23, 2008
April 21, 2008
Our weekend…
So, how was yall’s weekend? We had a nice weekend, busy busy as usual. Friday afternoon I pick Ella up from daycare and tell her that we are going to go out to dinner tonight… I asked her where she would like to go, and she replies “to the Owl Store”! Okay so let me explain what the “Owl Store” is… a while back I was going to play Bunco and Jeff decided that he wanted to go out to dinner with some friends and take Ella along. Where did they choose to go? Hooters! With my 3 year old daughter. Ella was just in awe of all of the Owl’s every where and the crayons and the balloon that they give her that says “I heart Hooters”, so that’s her favorite restaurant now. How can I decline going there when my daughter wants to go? Jeff says it’s 2 against 1. Oh and for the record, I don’t even think the food is that good.
Saturday morning we did the usual dance class. The recital is getting closer and closer. Come to find out it is on Father’s day. I didn’t even realize that. So that should be a nice little treat for Jeff. I hope that Gerry (Father in law) is able to come down from New Mexico to watch it. He’s not sure though, because he is already coming for a week at Ella’s birthday and then again when the drag strip opens. Shortly after dance we went to a birthday party. They had a petting zoo there so the kids really enjoyed that. They also had a trampoline. Ella was pretty nervous about getting on it. She and her friend were taking turns jumping, it was really cute and now she says she wants one. The birthday boy ran up to her and gave her a huge hug when we first got there. It was adorable. I love to see little pint size kids hugging each other.
So shortly after that we went out to my Mom’s house. She was having a cookout for her husband’s sister who was turning 49. There were a lot of people there and a ton of kids running around. Luckily there was a little boy close to Ella’s age so she had a good time running around with him. She had to do her usual as soon as we got there, go give the horses some treats. My mom had a ton of food out when we got there. A huge sushi platter, some jalapeno poppers, stuffed mushrooms, chips, meatballs, and I brought a fruit platter and some fruit dip. I ate so much that I wasn’t even able to eat that much dinner by the time it was done. All the kids decided they were going to get in the pool, even some that didn’t have swimsuits just got in with their clothes on. It was obvious that the water was cold and it was pretty funny to watch them as they tried to stay in but just kept shivering. We ended up leaving pretty late, I thought Ella would fall asleep on the way home for sure but she just kept talking the whole way home. I was a little glad for that because I figured I would get to sleep in a little longer on Sunday and yay I did!
Sunday – went to Target, the grocery store, Kohl’s and did a ton of laundry. What fun huh? I made some awesome chicken fajitas and some tasty peanut butter cookies. Next weekend we don’t have anything planned so far… and let me tell you I am looking forward to it!
April 17, 2008
Precious
So almost every night after I tuck Ella into bed, I hear her start singing to herself. It is really cute, but last night she was singing extra loud so I stopped what I was doing to pay attention to what she was singing. So I go stand in the stairwell and then go upstairs moving closer to her bedroom and this is what she was singing: Let the gates open wide, Jesus is in sight. I’m gonna sing, I’m gonna shout, Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord. Every time she said the last verse she got louder and louder. So after she stopped I went into her room and she was holding a cross. The night before we went to Hobby Lobby with my in-laws and you know how they have those foam toy like things? Well anyway she wanted a foam cross… so she was holding it and this is how our conversation went:
Ella: Mom, did Jesus die on the cross?
Me: Yes, baby he did.
Ella: But why? Did he get stabbed and whipped?
Me: Well he died for everyone’s sins and yes he did get hurt.
Ella: Did the soldiers hurt him? What about Goliath?
Me: I’m not sure, we will need to read some more of your bible stories.
Ella: Well where is he now?
Me: He is in heaven.
Ella: Will you go to Heaven?
Me: Yes, one day.
Ella: Well I don’t want you to go to heaven because I love you and if you go up in the clouds you might fall down (and at this point she reaches up and is hugging me around my neck)
Is that not the most precious thing you have ever heard? She is such a sweet little girl. I felt like crying. I really need to start taking her to church. She learns quite a bit at daycare and I am thankful for that but I know she is confused about stuff she hears and at the same time I don’t want to scare her so I am not sure what to say to some of her questions. I am def. going to take her to Vacation bible school this summer. I know she will enjoy that. Well I just had to share that.
