Evacuation!!!

Since it looks like Hurricane Gustav is headed our direction we are headed out of town! We waited until a mandatory evac last time and it took us 6 hours for us to go somewhere that generally takes us 2 hours or less to get to. So we are leaving early this time for the great state of Texas! It will take us about 6-6 1/2 hours to get to our destination. We have everything packed and we are leaving bright and early in the morning. I have books, dvd's, printable activities and snacks and drinks...I hope the kids do ok on the trip. We are thinking we will get up somewhere between 3-5 am and driving while the kids sleep a while. Hopefully the weather doesn't get too bad around here and our house will be exactly as we left it!

Problem with Comments?

I am having problems with my comments! I can sign into blogger with my password but I can't leave comments on any ones blog. It tells me incorrect password. So I have to leave a comment anonymously. Does anyone know how to fix this or anyone who can help me?

This weekend...

Kyle has started his new job and has been home all week waiting for all the paper work to get processed. SO he has been home since Friday and it has been so nice! Since the boys are back in school we have a lot of free time to spend together. Saturday we went bowling with the boys. I wish I could post pictures but I can't get my computer to load the software for my camera! BTW, I am on a desktop computer now...I think my hard drive got fried on my laptop. Anyways we had fun and the kids enjoyed themselves...I think I came in 5th place!

School is going well so far. I can't stay on here too long...I gotta study for my Microbiology quiz tomorrow! My professors all seem pretty easygoing...but it has only been a week, so I will see! The boys are enjoying school too. I was helping Tyler study for his spelling test and he has words even I have trouble spelling: receipt, Pennsylvania, discipline...I have spell check these and make sure I have spelled them right! But they all seem to be adjusting well.

Hope to get my darn camera connection working to post some cute pics from the weekend...

Walgreens

For the 2 of you who actually read my blog...I will not be able to post as much since I am back at school. There are so many other bloggers just up and quitting b/c they have so much going on but I love sharing my deals that I get and having a place to share with others about my crazy family. Just thought you should know. Have a nice day!


I did some shopping at Walgreens today. Here's what I got:

3 Puff tissue boxes- $1.79 each (Sale $0.89)
3 Dawn dishwashing liquids- $1.99 each (Sale $0.99)
1 Edge shaving gel- $2.49 each (Sale $1.99)
2 packs of Trident gum- $1.49 each (Sale $0.99)
3 jars of Peter Pan peanut butter- $3.49 (Sale 3 for $5.00)
Total $27.28
Coupons:
-3 $0.25 off Puffs (newspaper)
-3 $0.50 off Dawn (newspaper)
-1 $1.00 off Edge (don't remember where this is from)
-2 $0.75 off Trident(All You womens magazine)
-3 $1 off Peter Pan (All you womens magazine)

Total (before tax) $7.36
Wag coupon savings $12.67
MFG coupon savings $7.25
Total Savings $19.92
I will add a pic once I find the cord to my camera!

A good first day...

Kyle has been bugging me to do a "real" post...not one of those "tips" posts.

SO this is for you honey!

This week leading up to school has been pretty stress free. Thursday we had a "Meet and Greet" at the boys' school. All of their teachers seemed really nice and the kids were excited and ready to start! Afterwards we went to Cracker Barrel where Jackson challenged Aidan to a game of checkers after dinner:

I had promised to take the boys to the zoo over this summer but we just never got the chance. So we planned to take them this past Saturday. But it was pouring rain all day so we decided to go see Space Chimps instead. It was cute...I still like Wall-E better! I snuck in my $0.30 snack bags of Cheeto's for the kids but we ended up getting drinks and popcorn anyway...it was fun and the kids didn't mind missing out on the zoo.

Sunday we went to church and then came home and got everything ready for Monday morning. We ironed and laid out clothes and socks, made lunches and got the kitchen ready for breakfast. Kyle cooked made to order pancakes for the boys. Yummy!

The boys were so happy and impressed they told their friends at school! I am hoping this can be a 1st day of school tradition. Their 1st day went fine they said...they all liked their classes and teachers so far.

On a totally unrelated note...I got these adorable little aprons at the Dollar Tree the other day...

for when the little ones get another cooking lesson from Daddy...

You know you are a mom when...

I found this on another blog called The Glamorous Life Association. I thought it was funny so I thought I would share it!

You know you are a mom when:

You buy your clothes at Target, and the kids school clothes at Nordstrom because you are more concerned about their social fashion status than your own.

For dinner you cook the last 5 chicken breasts in the freezer for your family of 6. But you are not worried because someone won’t like dinner and you will just eat their left overs.

You know more than one way to sneak vegetables into your kids (or husbands) meals. They discover it every time…but you simply refuse to give up.

You have actually prayed to God for your kids to go to naptime early/peacefully/immediately.

You can pick a stray sock up off the floor with your feet to avoid having to bend over while holding baby (or while pregnant when it is a physical impossibility)

An uninterrupted shower or bathroom visit is as good as a day in the spa for you.

You have considered just doing the homework for your kid (which would take 3 minutes) instead of going thru the hours of struggle to help them do it themselves.

You count down the days until summer begins and you can’t wait for beach days with your kids.

You count down the days until school starts and you can’t wait to get rid of the mountains of sand acquired in your car.

You own more bottles of sunscreen than expensive beauty products.

You are a light sleeper-after years of waking to your childs cries in the middle of the night.

You are skilled at using your children as human shields in front of the parts of your body you are not happy with, during family photos.

Your car has at least one fast food wrapper on the floor, one toy too small and just out of reach under the car seat, and has numerous mystery stains. And this is after you asked the kids to clean it out.

You know the Nickelodeon/Disney/Cartoon Network line-up far better than CNN or HBO.

Its funny cuz it true! Well, most of it...I don't even know what Nordstroms is!

Sincerely 'Fro me to you...

So this is me and my grandparents.

See how happy my grandma is?

Its probably because she thinks I am SO funny and not ANNOYING at all!

See my New Kids on the Block shirt? I LOVED that shirt!

I am not exactly sure why I have the masculine "do", that may have been after a botched perm my mom tried to give me. And I was made fun of at school for a year and all the cute boys called me a boy and it was all very traumatic!!!

For more lovely photos, check out We are THAT Family!

Getting ready for school!

Only one week until school starts! As a whole, I think our summer went fairly well. Only 1 ER visit...I think that is pretty impressive. Oh yeah...I forgot about the broken bone...but that did not happen in my care so it doesn't count!

I think we have everything ready...they have uniforms, lunchboxes, backpacks. I think they need socks though...and maybe a trim...and new icepacks...and belts...maybe we aren't as ready as I thought.

I still need books...I am trying to get them off the internet since they are much cheaper than renting or buying used from the schools bookstore.

I am not looking foward to packing their lunches everyday! When I do my grocery shopping this Wednesday I will have to find some yummy lunches for them. Not an easy task!

I am going to try and start a fun first day of school tradition. Since I have ZERO imagination, I will be googling for some ideas...and I will post them here to help other creativity challenged moms like me!

Sincerely 'Fro me to you...

I dug around for some more old pics of myself

and while they are adorable, they aren't that fro-tastic.

So...*with her permission...

I decided I would post a few pics of my moms hair over the years since I have them conveniently stored on my computer after making a dvd for my grandparents 50th anniversary.

1.The Marcia Brady Look

3.The Farrah Fawcett Look

3.The 'Fro

This makes me think about that line from Steel Magnolias (my favorite movie that I have memorized all the lines from!) where Shelby says about her mothers hair "You just tease it and make it look like a brown football helmet".
4. The 80's perm

Yes, this is a one piece belted....I don't even know what to call this..... jumpsuit?

*I say she gave me permission to post

these b/c she said "Go ahead...you'll be sorry!"

Love you mom!

For more Sincerely 'Fro Me To You click here!

Ringling Brothers Circus is in town!

Last night we went to the Ringling Bros. Circus at the Civic Center. We had a blast but the little ones weren't that impressed! They have only been to one other circus, the one the Shriners put on...I can't think of what it is called. This one was basically the same. I had a massive headache but mostly enjoyed the show. The tickets to get in aren't that expensive but once you get in you have to shell out the big bucks for all the doodads! We actually did pretty good last night. They had little cannons that shoot out a man for $6 and the kids have been playing with them all morning. They also had these light spinning things, which a lot of the kids there had. They were $20! You can get these at Walmart for around $4.

I told Kyle that next time we go to this type of event we will be prepared and pick up snacks and toys beforehand and hand them out as if we bought them there! Its hard because we have 4 of them to buy for. Another thing that helped was that we went and had dinner right before the circus so the kids didn't really beg for drinks and snacks like usual.

Tips for clothing your children on the cheap!

1. Goodwill

-Contact your local store to find out if they have a sale day. Our Goodwill has specially marked items that are $0.50 on Sundays and Mondays.

2. Consignment shops

-Check your phone book for local consignment shops. You can bring clothing your family no longer wears and get either store credit or cash back to buy more clothing! (Most stores will give you more if you bring your clothes in washed, ironed and on a hanger)

3. Garage Sales

-You have to get up at the crack of dawn for these but it is worth it! You can find gently used brand name clothing very inexpensively. Generally clothing is about $0.25 and up depending on the brand and whether it is in good shape. I try not to pay more than $1 for clothes at a garage sale.

4. Hand me downs

-I have 4 boys and they are very rough on clothes! But the things that haven't been ripped, torn or stained get passed down or put in storage for a younger brother. The stuff that the little one can't fit into anymore generally goes to Goodwill. Accept all hand me downs from others. You may find something in there that will work for you and if not, just pass it on to Goodwill!

5. Shop out of season

- When stores need to get rid of their merchandise in order to make room for more you can get great discounts. So shop for summer clothes in the fall when they are making room for winter. Shop for the winter clothes in the spring when the stores are getting ready for summer!

6. Check for sales every time you shop

- I went to Walmart a couple of weeks ago for groceries and checked the boys clothing aisles when I was done. I got about 13 shirts for $1 a piece for all of the boys! Everytime I go to Target I check their 75% off rack. When I go to the mall I check JCP and Childrens Place.

7. Take care of what you have now

- Take care of stains as soon as possible with your favorite stain fighter or even dishwashing liquid. Put a patch in the knees of their pants for extra reinforcement.

If you have any tips I should add please let me know by leaving me a comment!

Tackle it Tuesday

In honor of Tackle it Tuesday I cleaned my MESSY bedroom. It was the messiest it has ever been!

These are our dressers before:

After!

These are the boys dressers before:

After!

Our bed before:

After!


This is our closet before:

After!

For more Tackle it Tuesdays click here!

I got all this for $1.97!!!

I went to 3 different stores tonite: Albertsons, Walgreens and CVS.

Albertsons:

-20 Powerades: $0.50 each

I used 10 $1 off Powerade coupons

Total: $0.50 (in tax)

Walgreens:

-2 packs of 100 count index cards: $0.19 each

-2 packs of 6 Papermate Hi-liters: $0.09 each

Total: $0.70 cents

CVS:

-3 bottles of Dawn Ultra: $0.80 each

-2 Colgate toothpastes: $2.99 each (with $2 back in ECB's each)

-Liquid advil for children: $5.79 (with $5.79 back in ECB's)

-bag of peppermints: $0.99

I used 3 $0.50 off Dawn coupons

1 $1 off Colgate coupon

1 $1.50 off Colgate coupon

and 10.99 in ECBS

Total: $0.77 and I got 9.79 back in ECB's!

Total savings: $58.72

Free Johnsons Buddies soap!

I got all this soap for free at Walmart!

10 Johnsons Little Buddies Soaps-$0 .94 cents each

I used 4 $2 off when you buy 2 Johnsons Buddies products coupons

and 2 $1 off any Johnsons Buddies Product coupons

Here is a link for the coupons!

Non-displaced linear fracture = Broken bone!

Apparently Tyler broke his (right pinky) finger at camp last week! No one (from the camp) ever said anything to me. I am slightly irritated about it. He was playing kickball with one of the other boys and the ball hit his finger. He told me when it happened his counselors sent him to the nurse and she gave him some "orange stuff" which I am assuming was ibuprofen. It was still pretty swollen after a week and a half so I brought him to the dr. yesterday and she said it was fractured. Its not a real big deal but I wish the nurse that checked it out would have called me or said something to me when I picked them up. We just figured he had sprained it and even if that would have been all it was they still should have let me know. He has to wear a splint on it for 2 weeks and then go back and see how it looks.

You can see where it was broken on the left side of the first big knuckle of the finger (you can see the outside of his hand where it is swollen). It is supposed to be a little more rounded.

Garage Sale Finds

-dry erase board - $1

-3 costumes: Mr. Incredible, Power Ranger, and Ninja Turtle - $3

-toaster oven - $3

-jello beans mold - $0.50

-decorative vintage plates - $12

-Sketchers tennis shoes - $0.50

-Dance Dance Revolution - $10

- some football game that plugs into the tv - $5

-4 cowboy hats - $1

- zippered binder - $0.50

Coupon Binder Show & Tell

This is my coupon binder!

(A friend of mine drew the pic that is in front for me in 9th grade.

Don't know why I still have it!)

Anyways, here is my zipper pocket that holds my CVS bucks, scissors, envelopes, pens, rain checks and some coupons for free fries and stuff like that that the boys got from the library for reading 10 books each this summer:

I have the coupons organized the way they were in my coupon file that I had before this, so most sections are not labeled. I use baseball card holders that I got from Office Depot for about $2.50 for 10. Each sheet holds 9 coupons.

I keep the weekly ads in the back part of my binder so I can refer to them if I need to .

Thats it!

Click here to see more coupon binders!

Frugal Friday

This is my first Frugal Friday at Biblical Womanhood!

I make cute totes from inexpensive placemats!

I have made several of these, most recently for Teacher appreciation week. Between the 4 of my boys there were 7 teachers that needed appreciating!

You will need a sewing machine but you don't have to be an experienced sewer; this could be a great beginners project since you don't need a pattern.

Materials:
-2 matching placemats (or just one for a small tote, I'll explain that later)
-about 3-4 feet of ribbon that coordinates with the placemats
-thread that matches your placemat

Put the placemats wrong sides together, making the edges even.

Starting at the top, sew down the short side, the bottom and then up the other short side.

Turn the purse right side out.

Decide how long and where you want your handles and mark them equally on both sides with pins.

Attach your ribbon using the pins to the purse and make sure everything matches up evenly.

Sew the ribbon on from the outside by making a square (or a square with an x if you want).

Then you are done! That was easy wasn't it?

To make the small tote you just fold up the placemat wrong sides together and sew up the sides; you attach the handles the same way.

I have found cheap placemats at Big Lots, Kmart, Dollar Tree, and (not so cheap) Target.

I try not to pay more than $1.50 per placemat.

Here are some pics:

I got these on clearance at Kmart:


This is an example of one of the smaller bags:


This is one I made from placemats I found at the Dollar Tree:

These were from Target:

My Husband Rocks!

My husband rocks because 90% of the time

my husband will come home on his lunch break and make me lunch!

I make stuff like pb & j sandwiches, chicken nuggets and corn dogs for the boys to eat for lunch and I don't eat any of that so Kyle will come home and make us something yummy!

He also cooks about 75% of the dinners around here.

I HATE to cook and I am not good at it either.

He LOVES to cook and is really good at it.

So it works for us!

This is what he made for us on Wednesday night:

(I don't know why I put the fork upside down... I guess I was just rushing so I could hurry and get the picture done and eat!)

You can find more rockin' husbands at The Great Adventure!