I swear! Wherever Mike & I move we make that city set a record. Our little city just got another 5" of snow overnight and this morning. We have now set a new record for the most snow received in any given month. The previous record was set in March of 1975 - the city received 31.1" then. With this mornings snowfall we now have 33.3" of snow here. We have about 33 hours left in this month - do you think we'll get hit with more snow??
The game is to leave in bold the things that you HAVE done. 1. Started your own blog 2. Slept under the stars 3. Played in a band 4. Visited Hawaii 5. Watched a meteor shower 6. Given more than you can afford to charity 7. Been to Disneyland 8. Climbed a mountain 9. Held a praying mantis 10. Sang a solo 11. Bungee jumped 12. Visited Europe 13. Watched a lightning storm at sea 14. Taught yourself an art from scratch 15. Adopted a child 16. Had food poisoning 17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty 18. Grown your own vegetables 19. Driven a Race Car 20. Slept on an overnight train 21. Had a pillow fight 22. Hitch hiked 23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill 24. Built a snow fort 25. Been to a Rodeo 26. Gone skinny dipping 27. Run a Marathon 28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice 29. Seen a total eclipse 30. Watched a sunrise or sunset 31. Hit a home run 32. Been on a cruise 33. Seen Niagara Falls in person 34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors 35. Seen an Amish community 36. Taught yourself a new language 37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied 38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person (does the replica in Niles, IL count?) 39. Gone rock climbing 40. Seen Michelangelo’s David 41. Sung karaoke 42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt 43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant 44. Visited Africa 45. Walked on a beach by moonlight 46. Been transported in an ambulance 47. Had your portrait painted 48. Gone deep sea fishing 49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person 50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris 51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling 52. Kissed in the rain 53. Played in the mud 54. Gone to a drive-in theater 55. Been in a movie 56. Visited the Great Wall of China 57. Started a business 58. Taken a martial arts class 59. Visited Russia 60. Served at a soup kitchen 61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies 62. Gone whale watching 63. Got flowers for no reason 64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma 65. Gone sky diving 66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp 67. Bounced a check 68. Flown in a helicopter 69. Saved a favorite childhood toy 70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial 71. Eaten Caviar 72. Pieced a quilt 73. Stood in Times Square 74. Toured the Everglades 75. Been fired from a job 76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London 77. Broken a bone 78. Been on a speeding motorcycle 79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person 80. Published a book 81. Visited the Vatican 82. Bought a brand new car 83. Walked in Jerusalem 84. Had your picture in the newspaper 85. Read the entire Bible 86. Visited the White House 87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating 88. Had chickenpox 89. Saved someone’s life 90. Sat on a jury 91. Met someone famous 92. Joined a book club 93. Lost a loved one 94. Had a baby 95. Seen the Alamo in person 96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake 97. Been involved in a law suit 98. Owned a cell phone 99. Been stung by a bee 100. Lived with your in-laws
Check out the new videos on the sidebars. I love the giggle sounds that Noah makes! Also, if you get a chance, check out my new blog. The link is right above!!
Tonight while Logan, Noah and I were at home we got jingled! Have you been jingled? It's actually quite fun and makes you feel very special. We plan on jingling a couple of our neighbor's tomorrow. If you haven't been jingled you might want to consider starting it in your neighborhood. It will help get you in the Christmas spirit!!
Hello there! Don't you just love our pirate ship? We are ALL about pirates around here! Need proof? Just read this. Are you back? Might as well come in and have a look around. See the wreath? I made that myself - pretty impressive huh? I guess I should probably mention that I worked at Michael's at the time and had the floral designer coach me through it. Bygones :)
This is one of my Nativity sets - I do have a more traditional one but I do love my snowmen!!
Don't you just love that poinsettia? I bought that one at Sam's Club - it was a steal at $16.88!! And that cute snowman is from Lowe's - he is simply adorable!
Here are the most adorable people in the world. Logan (on the left) is 3 and Noah is 3 months old. They keep me very busy! Noah is having tubes put in his ears on Wednesday morning - we are praying that the surgery will help with his hearing.
The last pictures show some of the snowmen that are scattered throughout the house. I am trying to resist buying some for the next couple years. Maybe I'll try to get some more Santa's. We'll see ;)
Don't you love the "extra" decoration in the above photo - do you see it?
Thank you so much for stopping by! I'll leave you with one of my favorite and super simple recipes.
Cream Cheese Cookies
1 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese, softened
1 box cake mix (any flavor, our favorite is strawberry)
1 egg yolk
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 tsp. almond or vanilla extract
Mix all ingredients together. Chill dough for at least 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 375*. Roll dough into 1" balls - place on cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until edges are slightly browned. Let cool and try not to eat them all in one night!
If you would like to share your home or view the homes of others on the tour just follow this link:
Ok - I can't let you go without showing you the latest video of Logan. This was taken Sunday morning. As some of you might know we have been hit with a massive snowstorm (our high temp today was -9* without windchill....NEGATIVE 9*!!). It was so bad that they didn't even open the bookstore that I work at. I don't think that has ever happened. Listen to how he says blizzard - too funny!
Don't forget to sign the guestbook on your way out!
Oh my word! Have you ever tried to shop with a 3 year old?? It is interesting to say the least! This past Sunday I thought it would be a good idea to take Logan shopping so that he could pick out a present to give Noah for Christmas. Nice concept, but I'm not sure if I'll ever do that again. Trying to keep him focused in the toy department was THE biggest challenge EVER. I kept having to remind him that we were looking for something for Noah and not for him. Every 5 seconds I had to remind him about that. If you would have been in Target that day you would have heard this over and over, "Logan, Noah is too little for that". "Logan, we're not buying a toy for you today - we have to find something for Noah."
To be fair though, Logan was very well behaved. He never threw a fit when he didn't get a toy. All I had to do was tell him he wasn't getting a toy today and he was OK with that. Logan ended up picking him out a cute little toy. This is the one he got for him - I think Noah is really going to enjoy it!
My grand total for the items that I purchased at Kmart last week cost me a grand total of $40.77!! I could not believe how much I saved (and that doesn't factor in that almost everything I bought was already on sale). I saved a total of $42.29. That makes me a very happy shopper!
I mentioned last week that Noah will be going in for surgery. Here is a bit of history about it - I don't think I even went into his hearing problems before. When he was born they did the hearing test on him. He failed on both sides. They retested him before we left the hospital and he failed again. We were told to bring him back in two weeks and he would be retested. I brought him back to the hospital and they tested him yet again. This time his right ear passed but the left one failed again. We were told to make sure and mention it to his pediatrician at his two month check-up. So we did. She referred us to an audiologist and I made an appointment with him. I took Noah to see him the other week. He first ran the same test that they did at the hospital nursery - Noah failed in both ears again. He then did a more extensive test - Noah passed on the right and failed on the left with that one. After that he put us in a soundproof room and talked to Noah through speakers to see if he would respond. He responded a little when the doctor spoke to him through the speaker on the right but he didn't when he talked through the speaker on the left. He explained though that that kind of test with an infant is difficult to produce exact results since they can't exactly tell us which side they can hear better out of.
The audiologist referred us to see an ear, nose and throat (ENT) doctor - he wanted to rule out fluid in the ears. That is who we went to see this past Friday. The ENT basically took one look in his ears and said he needed tubes. There is a lot of fluid built up down in the middle ear part. He used a little tool to clean out some of the build up in each ear. They are hoping with the tubes in it will help with the drainage and that hopefully that is the only reason he has failed the hearing tests. If not, Noah will be getting at least one hearing aid.
I'm not worried about the fact that he might have some hearing loss - I'm most worried about the surgery. He's so little to have to go through something like that! It shouldn't last too long (between 10 and 30 minutes), but he will have to be put under. We'll go in early on the morning of December 17th and since it's an outpatient surgery we'll be home by that afternoon at the latest as long as everything goes smoothly.
I'll blog more about this later but just a quick note - Noah will be having tubes put in his ears on Dec. 17th. Not sure of the time yet (probably between 7:30 & 8 am). And no, it's not because of ear infections - it's (hopefully) because of fluid build up in the middle ear canal.
We have recently discovered that Logan is completely gullible. I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact that he is only three *sarcastic grin*. A couple of weeks ago Logan ate a grilled cheese sandwich while at daycare - he had never eaten one before. Then, a little more recently while at daycare, he ate some chicken noodle soup with tomatoes. LiAnne's secret? She told him that all he had to do was taste it and then he could get down from the table. Apparently after he tasted it he realized that he liked it and proceeded to eat all of it!
So, the other night I made meatloaf and I was determined that Logan would try it. I just knew if I could get him to eat a bite he would realize that it wasn't too bad. When we called him to the table I put some broccoli on his plate (which I knew he would eat) and then Mike put a slice of meatloaf on his plate. Logan looked at it questioningly and asked what it was. I told him if he ate it he would be like a pirate. Mike then began to call it "pirate loaf". We each took a bite of ours and said "Arghh!!" afterwards. Guess what?? It completely worked!! Logan took a bite and seemed to enjoy it. He ate 2 slices of meatloaf that night. I'm sure this won't work all the time but I think if we continue to try it with foods that we are almost positive he will like, it's worth a shot!
*And yes, I love the fact that I am able to outsmart a 3 year old!!
So I mentioned in my previous post some of the great deals I got at Kmart on Black Friday. I got some even better deals on Sunday while I was there. Kmart is doubling all manufactured coupons this week that have a value of up to $2! This is great since in my town none of our stores EVER double coupons. I looked at their ad and didn't really see too much in there but I knew I had a ton of coupons that were expiring today so I had to go there. I dug through my coupons and grabbed all of the ones that were valued at $1 or more. I took over 30 coupons with me and I was determined to use all or most of them. Here is what I purchased:
Anyone want to guess what I paid for all of this? Here is a breakdown of what I bought if you're interested (listed price will be after some items).
-3 rolls Reynold's aluminum foil ($2.99 each)
-8 bottles shampoo and conditioner
-4 bottles Gillette body wash ($3.99 each)
-2 Glade scented oil candles ($5.99 each)
-2 containers of Pampers wipes
-1 container of Pampers clean 'n go wipes
-2 bottle of NyQuil ($5.99 each)
-6 rolls of tape
-3 packages of DeMet's Turtles
If you add up just the items that I listed the prices by the total comes to $48.89 before tax. That should give you a rough estimate of what I should have paid. But now I want you to guess what I actually paid. I'll post my OOP expense sometime next week. Good luck!!
It has been a very productive shopping week for me so far!! I am so impressed with all the deals that I managed to snag on Black Friday! My Mom & Aunt were going to pick me up at around 6:45 AM and then we would head to CVS. Instead, Noah decided to change my plans a little bit. He woke up at 5 AM ready to eat. I nursed him for about 30 min. and figured I might as well stay up and head out a little early. I made it to Best Buy by 6:05 and managed to snag one of the deals that was on my list. As I was in the drive-thru at Starbucks my phone rang. It was Shelia (my Aunt) wondering if I was ready to go. I told them I was already out and would meet them in about 10 minutes at my house :) I think they were a little impressed that I was already out since last year my alarm didn't go off and I woke up from them knocking on my door!!
We made it to CVS a couple of minutes before they opened. My Mom & Aunt wanted to see me in "action" since I tend to brag a little about my mad money saving skills lately. I had worked out my three scenarios earlier in the week (you can see two of them here). I was able to get everything that I wanted! To break it down - I paid less than $11 OOP and have over $35 in ECB's to use in the future. CVS definitely paid me to shop there on Black Friday!
After CVS we ran up to Kmart - they had their booster car seats BOGO Free (save $18.99), which was a fantastic deal! I did manage to find them and I also picked up a digital key chain for myself for only $9.99. The booster seats will be used for at least the next 5-6 years since once Logan outgrows them they will work for Noah.
When we were done at Kmart we went to Menards but the lines were horrendous so we left almost immediately. We then went to Sears. My Mom wanted to look at a refrigerator and I was hoping to upgrade my KitchenAid Mixer. They had the mixer that I wanted. I got the 4.5 quart one at an amazing price ($159.99!!) and got Mike some jeans for only $9.99 each.
That ended the most hectic part of our shopping morning. After stopping at a couple more stores we went and picked up Logan (he had spent the night at my Mom & Dad's - so he was hanging out with Grampy that morning) and then went to the mall to watch Santa's arrival. He loved watching the band play and seeing Santa in his sleigh. Sitting on his lap was another matter but that story is for a different day :)
After Santa's arrival I shopped a little bit more until about 2:30 that afternoon. I then went back to my Mom & Dad's where Logan & Noah were at (Mike had taken Noah to work with him for the morning). Noah was asleep and Logan was more than ready for a nap. I laid on the couch and fell asleep almost immediately. I needed a nap since I did have to work from 5:30-10:30 that night at the bookstore!
I think by far this has been the best Black Friday that I have done! I stuck to the list that I made (well mostly - I did buy myself two pair of shoes. But I blame Auntie for that! I never would have gone into that store if it wasn't for her!!)
So how did you fare? Did you go out and make some great purchases too??
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I swear! Wherever Mike & I move we make that city set a record. Our little city just got another 5" of snow overnight and this morning. We have now set a new record for the most snow received in any given month. The previous record was set in March of 1975 - the city received 31.1" then. With this mornings snowfall we now have 33.3" of snow here. We have about 33 hours left in this month - do you think we'll get hit with more snow??
Are you back? Might as well come in and have a look around. See the wreath? I made that myself - pretty impressive huh? I guess I should probably mention that I worked at Michael's at the time and had the floral designer coach me through it. Bygones :)
Anyone want to guess what I paid for all of this? Here is a breakdown of what I bought if you're interested (listed price will be after some items).
