A little compassion

Tonight after a full day of watching coverage of the Royal Wedding - what a fairy tale!! My daughter Bailey who is 9 and my son Quinton who is 11 found ourselves watching Dateline's coverage of the Tornado that whipped through Alabama. We were shocked at the devastation.

I asked my daughter if she would be willing to help me put together a box of goods to send. Bailey is my child who is always making cards and gifts for people- my super thoughtful child. She promptly went and got a box to begin filling. I read them a list of thing that would be good to send. Both kids headed to their rooms and came out with a few items that were in good shape: hats, belts, boxer shorts, t-shirts and a wind breaker jacket.

We then went upstairs to my drawer of travel items. Last year we stayed in many a hotel and I always take the comp toiletries! We went through my new storage area with lots of free or almost free items!

This is what we managed to grab:

 I was surprised we were able to fit all that stuff in those three boxes! The kids also decided to send a portion of their money in their savings, I told them that I would match whatever they decided to send. Both kids said it felt pretty good to be able to help. I hope that this is just the beginning of the help we can give!

This is where we are sending our goods:
http://www.couponingtodisney.com/2011/04/29/how-to-help-tornado-victims-in-alabama-via-an-online-donation-drive-update/

Shopping trip

I don't fancy myself an "extreme" couponer, but I am pretty pleased with my shopping trip tonight and thought I would share it with everyone.

The following is what I got for free:

Most of the stuff I got at Target. I love how you can stack coupons there. There were a few other deals I took advantage of that I did not take pictures of. I took advantage of the Huggies deal and got three packages of Huggies for 8.99 each, received a $5.00 gift card which I used on my second transaction. I used three $2.00 coupons and paid a total of $15.97 or 5.32 per package. I have two sister-in-laws and a couple of friends that have babies on the way as well as my grand baby, and diapers make great gifts! I bought all packages in size 1 since they have the highest count of diapers in the package (50 versus 36) Someone told me that babies stay in the size one the longest too.

Another deal I took advantage of was the Claritin. Both of my kids take Claritin everyday as do I. I buy my allergy meds at Costco. The Kirkland brand is only $12.99 and there is 300 tablets to a bottle. Normal price for the instant dissolve tablets are $9.24 with coupon I spent $5.31. I had three coupons so I bought three boxes, totalling $15.93. Not bad, I just wish that was more than one months worth! The other kid takes the chewables and they come 20 to a box - but they have to chew two! The chewables are usually15.99, they were on ad for 14.39, I received $6.00 off so I paid $8.39.

I signed up for the Target Red debit card tonight. every time I use it I will save 5%. All you need is a blank check and your ID. Tonight I saved $5.80! in addition to my $0.20 for taking my own bags.

Below is my after Easter stock up also bought at Target:

Retail value of all the Easter stuff is: $77.80.  I paid a total of $21.33!! This includes 4 pairs of women's socks - perfect for my daughters Easter basket next year. 4 sets of plates, a tablecloth, Pixos, 7 egg decorating kits - including a Disney kit and a Star Wars kit, a stuffed dog, candy, two baskets hard back book for my unborn grandson! and other little things.

I look to many blogs for my information on all the great coupon deals and one that I just found and really enjoy is: http://www.couponingtodisney.com/

She is located in Alabama and her town along with several others have been devastated with the tornados. This weekend I am going to put together a box of donation items to send East.

Here is just one way you can help: http://www.couponingtodisney.com/2011/04/28/how-to-help-tornado-victims-in-alabama-via-an-online-donation-drive/

TGIF!
Jasmine

Master Bedroom

Our master bedroom is upstairs and runs almost the full length of the house. Here is our stairwell. I would like to pull off all the nasty carpet and stain the treads a dark wood color - you know like all the hot bloggers are doing (or have done!)

Please disregard the mis-matched frames and photos. Another project - another blog post!

I think the people who lived here before put on the sheet rock mud with a paint roller and then didn't knock down the points. I have seriously cut my knuckles and cut my head on these little points SOOOO I took a putty knife to the wall before I painted it!

After: not perfect but much better!

Warm Caramel by Glidden

If you look at the right of the picture you can see that I have started the dark brown color on the bottom half of the wall. I can not decide if I want to bring the Caramel color up and over the ceiling or just to the ceiling. What would you do? I will hopefully have more photos soon. I have been trying to decrapify my room!



My "new" fruit room

We have this dark hole under our kitchen. It has narrow little stairs,you have to go outside to access the door, the walls are made of stone. the shelves are put together with scraps. IT IS FULL OF SPIDERS! Needless to say we have lived in our house for over 4 years and I have never used the room!

I started couponing and I have started to amass quite a collection of free items and "stock"  I started with a shelf that I bought at Target. It has five shelves on it. It filled up very quickly with baby items, cleaners, toiletries, etc...

Sunday night my Husband, wonderful man that he is, helped me clean the dungeon fruit room. and I filled it it with goods!! and I have room to spare - although not much!

My husband then took that black shelf and cut it down so we could fit it in the fruit room. I now have a place for all my paint! It won't get to hot in the summer in the garage, or freeze  in the winter. It will be all organized! Now I just have to pack it all down there! :)

Here are some pictures of my fruit room that I like now. Thank you husband! Best Easter gift ever!

a change of heart

I was pretty sure I was going to give up on blogging. I was positive this just wasn't for me. Life is too busy. Life is too complicated. But I really need an outlet, especially these days. So here I go, prepare yourself.

We moved my step-son here with his pregnant girlfriend March 1st.  We didn't realize that she had a bench warrant for her arrest. She acted like she wanted to take care of it.  19 days of living here and then she went to her moms for Spring Break and was supposed to turn herself in, get bailed out and then we would help her with her fine. She never came back, nor has she taken care of her issues. My step-son moved back to Utah on the 9th of this month. They are living with his mom who is okay with them not taking care of these issues, which is why they moved here in the first place! It was an emotional month. I know that with them living there I don't have much chance of being any part of this babies life.

It is nice however to have my house back to ourselves. My kids seem to have gone through their emotional roller coaster - the one they always go through when their brother moves here - life is turned upside down - brother moves away - etc...

Two weeks ago our business partner came home and decided he didn't like the way I was running the business and fired me. seeing as how we both own the same amount of the company - I am pretty sure he can't fire me. However I am pretty much ready for a break and so now I am home with conflicting emotions. I miss my job. It is our bread and butter and not taking a paycheck is painful. Being home is weird.

I am not sure if it the weather or all the changes but I am a bit of a wreck. Finding motivation is like looking for a four leaf clover in a field of green. Don't get me wrong I have gotten a few projects done and I am pleased with the progress I am making but some days it is really hard to get on with life.

Today was one of those days. It was windy,cold, rainy and hailed too. I had all day. I could have gotten a lot done. I did not.

Tomorrow is another day and I vow to make it a good one. I have been trying to eat good. I have been exercising 3 times a week, dropped my caloric intake to 1300 calories...stopped drinking alcohol and soda. Haven't lost an ounce! I thought I would lose a pound or two just from switching from soda to water. Nope. Nada. NOT ONE OUNCE!! ahhhhh!

Tomorrow I will post some photos of a project my husband helped me with last night.I couldn't have done it without him.

If you have read this far, you need to get a life~! j/k! But seriously thanks for reading my drama! I will try and make it up to you with some better posts in the future!

I feel better.