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Tuesday, December 30

Another Record

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??

Monday, December 22

Meme

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

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Thursday, December 18

New Videos

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!!

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Tuesday, December 16

Have You Been Jingled?

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!!

Monday, December 15

Welcome to Our Home

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:

BooMamaChristmasTour

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!

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Sunday, December 14

Shopping with a 3 Year Old

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!

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Friday, December 12

Mike & Logan's New Toy/Decoration

Our new lawn decoration - can you tell
we like all things pirate?


Logan playing air hockey with his Uncle Chris.



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Wednesday, December 10

Kmart Update

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!

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Monday, December 8

Sugery Update

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.

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Mr. Smiley



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Friday, December 5

Surgery

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.

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Brainwashing at its Best!

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!!

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Wednesday, December 3

Kmart

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!!

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Monday, December 1

Black Friday

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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