A deal and an update

Ok, I know I am really late in posting this but Lane Bryant has BOGO on everything, with free shipping and you can use your $25/50/75 coupons too.

Soooooo I got 6 pairs of jeans, 4 bras, 2 camis, 1 cocktail dress and a set of PJs for $171, including tax. This sale ends today, so hurry if you need something.

I am starting a diet right after the cruise so I bought the jeans in three sizes. My cocktail dress is 2 sizes smaller, I am using it as my incentive :) I have a lot of weight to lose this year!

The baby has just been amazing me with her verbal skills this weekend. She asked for fruit chewies several times and asked for several other things like milk, apple juice, toast etc in a very clear voice. It was just a little "Mommy? Apple juice please mommy" and a "thank you" when she gets it :) While I was packing Dad's clothes, she started counting and went all the way to 8! I was like umm huh?? do that again in front of Dad and she did! I can't take any credit, it has to be preschool.

Poor Wookie, he has been sticking to us like glue. He knows we are going somewhere without him (again).



I am 90% packed for the trip. I really thought 2-50 pound cases would be enough. But once I started putting in 11 days of diapers and wipes, sippies, blankets, clothes shoes..sheez. We have a ton of bath stuff too since we'll be gone for so long. Like 5 sunscreens, I figure I have to cover 33 days (11 X 3 people) with 5 of them, that really seems like too little because it is the spray on kind. Between all of us, we have 100 pounds of checked luggage and another 60 in our carry ons easy. 160+ pounds for 11 days. Seems like I could do better but every time I think to take something out, I remember a past event that justifies it being packed. So we'll lug our super heavy luggage to the airport and I'll remember that almost a whole checked case will be used up over the 11 days it won't be so bad coming back :)

I booked our post cruise hotel last night. I had a hard time commiting to a place because it didn't seem like the ones on the beach were very nice. So I chose one that was across the street with a walkway (you can see which "secret" hotel you will win with your bid by going to packages and matching up amenities). For $113, we are staying at our first Crowne Plaza :)


Ok that is it for now, going to bed early so I can go into work early to make up for leaving early on Friday. Woohoooo we leave Friday!

Happy Turkey Day

We got two of our angel kids bikes :)

Goofin around at Walmart with a kitty hat.

We had a good Thanksgiving, scooter missed her nap and crashed on me so we only spent about 30 minutes with my step family. She ate a roll and 4 green beans at lunch too. Maybe someday she'll get the "eat lots and lots on Thanksgiving" thing.

Stomping leaves in the yard.

Being goofy (my new camera is a pain, the pictures don't auto rotate.)

Playing with Grammie


Food!

I went to Gymboree this morning too :)
For next Christmas :)
It is a little big but she'll probably wear it this year too.
For next Halloween :)
These are 3T, she'll fit in them eventually. All 4 pieces were $36ish :)

Bye for now!

Hee Hee

= 48/32 Dec 3rd @ home

= 76/64 Dec 3rd @ Ft Lauderdale

= 83/75 Dec 3rd St Thomas USVI

Hee heee heeeeeeee heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

(I'm almost packed, wish I was going tomorrow!)

Gobble Gobble

Turkey was 39 cents a pound last week so we got our bird early. But the problem is, we don't have the freezer space for a turkey so it got cooked last night (we go to two family meals on that day and I'm not responsible for turkey at either so this is the only way we get leftovers).

Dad was rather proud of his bird, he used the Alton Brown method of cooking it at 500 degrees for 30 minutes then reducing it to 350. He also used oil for browning instead of butter. And notice the probe thermometer with remote timer and display that I got him after he saw it on Good Eats (we are big fans)

When you take it out of the oven, ideally you'd have two huge stainless bowls, one to put the bird in, one to cover the bird with. Once you hit 161 internal temp, the residual heat from the bird will finish cooking it while drawing in the juice (our temps hit the mid to high 170's once it was out of the oven, weird huh?). We didn't have two big bowls so he had to foil it.

Once the two probes equalized and the numbers went down a couple of degrees (showing it was cooling) he de-foiled it.


Tada!

A day of photos

She was so good getting ready for pictures this morning. She let me curl her hair with a curling iron and didn't complain when I teased and sprayed her pigtails :)

I took her to Olan Mills in her PJs so I could change her there and her little outfit wouldn't be wrinkled. My Dad bought a certificate for $12, one 16 X something, 1 8X10, 3 5x7 and 9 wallets. I paid an additional $6 for "handling". I think the girl was disapointed when I didn't buy the $77 package because most of the poses were CUTE. Instead, I choose my favorite where she is loving on bobo and I bought another certificate. I kept thinking for the same $ I could come back 4 separate times in different outfits and I'd end up with twice the pictures.

So here she is right before we left. She was in a fantastic mood!



I'll post her photo when I get them on the 20th, which is our next appointment :)

We went to TJ Maxx to look around and Carla called. They were at the toy store 5 doors down. It is a great little store, high end stuff that you can't normally find at places like Walmart. Natalie really had a good time with the train table, I am going to try to find one for her at a good price.

So after the toy store we went to Chilis and we had a burger. The baby ate her weight in salsa.

After lunch we headed to the Christmas parade. It was COLD. Cold means different things for different people. Live in FL? Time to bring out the winter coats when it hits 50. In TN, cold is about 20. And I think it was that today plus there was a light breeze making it that much worse. I didn't plan out the day well enough we didn't have enough cold weather gear. Good thing her Christmas outfit has a hat or she would of turned 4 shades of blue.

She got really tickled when I put her on my shoulders. They were tossing out treats and I got hit upside the head by a honey bun. An inch over and I would of had a black eye and what an embarrasing way to get it.

Laughing on my shoulders (see the dreary sky?)




Waiting for Santa with my peeps. Dummy me borrowed the truck and I didn't have my stroller. (Did I mention that my only goal of the day was to take in my child for pictures without being wrinkled or snotty with hair curled? Really by 11am I could of called it a day, a very good day!)

Mama in her stylin hat that Santa threw her. It was donated by CSX and says "Keep on Living" because "Hey dumb@ss when the bars come down on the road, the lights blink and sometimes beep at you, stop your car so you don't hit by a train" wouldn't fit.

Waving at Santa!
Santa!

A fun day, we are pooped!

Friday Update

Work: had a call today assuring us that we weren't anywhere near bankruptcy no matter what we read online. We were also assured that there wasn't someone lurking behind the scenes to take us over. First, someone has to have the cash and all the other banks just don't have that much to spare. Two, it has to be approved by the feds. So anyway, regardless if what he said was true, it made me feel a little better. I've been a wee bit stressed about it all.

Stocks: blah boo! hiss! just kidding. Slowly coming up. Like my LID is 04/01/07 and I'm waiting for my referral (boy don't I wish i was logged in again!).

Christmas: I put the kitchen together in 3 hours. Sucker weighs a ton, I think I could tap dance on it and not hurt it. It is CUTE CUTE CUTE! I have it in the living room with a comforter over it. She touched it once and I told her to stop it and she just walked away. She has no desire to lift the edge and peek. I bet this is the last year I can get away with that :)



Fun stuff:

• Made 5 pairs of hairbows :) Red and white curlies, orange and white curlies, red polka dot curly and white loops, turquoise loops with buttons and big fat shiney black ones.
• Tomorrow is picture day! Carla gave me the cutest Christmas dress, it has a hat and slippers with it :) I am also taking her Elmo outfit with me. The lady at Olan Mills said I could change her clothes halfway through. I get one small package free (8 X 10, a couple 5 XX 7 and some wallets) and I am not sure how much extra sheets are. Hopefully n ot too much, I'd like to get a small picture package in each outfit.
  
• New PJs are always fun!

• IT SNOWED!
• 
• Braids!

• Walking in mommy's shoes is always fun. If I don't have something on my feet she'll throw these shoes at my bare feet (ouch) and yell, mommy! ewe shoes!

• Made $10 doing the posts below while I was waiting for scooter to take a nap so I could go to work (daycare was closed).

That is it for now, see ya!

CVS Black Friday Deals

Black Friday Deals
$10 ECB WYB 3-in-1 grill $19.99 ~ Limit 1
$10 ECB WYB Black & Decker 12 cup digital coffee maker $19.99 ~ Limit 1
$5 ECB WYB Clairol Hydrience haircolor $8.49 ~ Limit 1
$20 ECB WYB Colby or TDE 5.6” or 7” Digital Photo Frame $79.99 ~ Limit 1
$5 ECB WYB Craig 2G MP3 player w/1.5” video screen $24.99 ~ Limit 1
$10 ECB WYB Electric griddle $19.99 ~ Limit 1
$5 ECB WYB Essence of Beauty perfectly polished shopper tote $14.99 ~ Limit 1
$10 ECB WYB GPS Navigation For Dummies $89.99 ~ Limit 1
$10 ECB WYB Home Exclusives rotary waffle maker $19.99 ~ Limit 1
$10 ECB WYB Hometics Shiatsu messaging cushion w/heat $99.99 ~ Limit 1
$3 ECB WYB Luxury spa set 4 piece $9.99 ~ Limit 1
$10 ECB WYB Oster 10 cup rice cooker $19.99 ~ Limit 1
$10 ECB WYB Rival 5qt crock pot $19.99 ~ Limit 1
$3 ECB WYB Sarah Payton memory foam pillow $9.99 ~ Limit 1
$6 ECB WYB Schick Quattro razor or trimmer $7.99 ~ Limit 1
$3 ECB WYB Scunci flexible scarfband or headband $9.99 ~ Limit 1
$3 ECB WYB Playtex Gentle Glide tampons $3.99 ~ Limit 1
$10 ECB WYB Retro style hot air popcorn maker $19.99 ~ Limit 1
$3.99 ECB WYB 5 Hr. energy drink 2 pk $3.99 ~ Limit 1
$7.99 ECB WYB CoverGirl Smoothers liquid makeup $7.99 ~ Limit 1
$5.99 ECB WYB CoverGirl Smoothers pressed powder $5.99 ~ Limit 1
$5.99 ECB WYB Garnier Nutritioniste cleansing towelette 25ct $5.99 ~ Limit 1
$1 ECB WYB Hershey King size bars $1 ~ Limit 1
$5.69 ECB WYB Johnsons Soft Lotion $5.69 ~ Limit 1
$8.99 ECB WYB Maybelline Mineral Powder or Liquid Foundation $8.99 ~ Limit 1
$3.79 ECB WYB Sally Hansen maximum growth plus nourishing nail color $3.79 ~ Limit 1
$2.99 ECB WYB Aussie shampoo, conditioner, or styler $2.99 ~ Limit 2
$5.99 ECB WYB Bic Soliel single razor w/2 cartidges & shower holder $5.99 ~ Limit 2
$2.99 ECB WYB Colgate total toothpaste $2.99 ~ Limit 2
$6.99 ECB WYB L’Oreal Colour Juice sheer lipgloss $6.99 ~ Limit 2
$20 ECB WYB Kodak EasyShare c713 camera $89.99 ~ Limit 2
$6.99 ECB WYB Magnovox Universal Remote or Philips headphones $6.99 ~ Limit 2
$1.49 ECB WYB Gatorade G2 20oz $1.49 ~ Limit 3
$3 ECB WYB Keychain digital photo viewer or clock viewer $17.99 ~ Limit 4

Craig portable compact disc player $8.88
CVS batteries 40 pk. AA, etc. $9.99
CVS blood pressure monitor $29.99
Electronic ATM bank $14.99
Gift bags sets w/tags $9.99
Norelco electric razor $28.99
ScanDisc 2GB memory card $9.99
Soft & Dri Pulse or Right Guard Sport = $.99
Thunder Tumbler radio control car = $9.99
Whitman Sampler = $3.99

Angel Tree Goodies, Come Look!

We compose, assemble and sell a cookbook at work every year. This year the sales are a little slow but if they all sell, we'll have $1600 for our angel tree kids :)

We have two sibling groups, a 3 & 5 year old and a 7, 8, 13 and 16 yr old. For a little over $180, look at everything we got today (well 180 minus like the 20 something I paid back for Natalie's things lol)

Our 3 year old


(the blue one)
a red coat

Our 5 year old girl


a turquoise coat

Our 7 year old boy
a blue coat

Our 8 year old girl

Our 13 yr old boy



We still have several things to buy, our 16 yr old didn't get anything from Macys. I was amazed at the slutty junior clothes they carried, many of the dresses barely covered their butts. The jeans were painted on and the models were wearing hooker heels. No thank you! (hhmm..I am becoming more prude-ish every day lol)

I got this for Natalie - just $4! for next summer

and she got a turquoise coat for next year :)



It is LOTS of fun shopping for people with other people's money! :) I am especially pleased with the coats. Last night they had all sizes, this morning only 3 of the 6 kids sizes. They were a whole $14.99 and I had a 20% code that pretty much gave us free shipping tax and $3.

If you know any stellar shoe deals let me know!