Ooohh I've been tagged!

1. Go to your pictures folder & select the 6th folder.
2. Select the 6th picture in the folder.
3. Tag 6 people.
Have fun!

This was taken sometime this week. I do a download about once a week and I won't zip this set of pictures up until the quarter is over :)

More things from Lands End

I've always liked their stuff but I thought it cost too much. I went back and surfed through their clearance stuff. Lookie what I found! :) (and bought..still in Feb's budget woohoo) I paid 9.99 for the skirt, 4.99 for the striped tights and 5.99 for the others. Free shipping!

Land Ends Coats on Sale - $15.99 Free Shipping

I thought this was a great deal and ordered one for Natalie. This is her Dec 2011 or 2012 coat. Ya, I buy that far in advance so I'm never scrambling and have to pay full price for a coat. Too bad they didn't have one in my size! :)

Enter the Promotion Code GROOVY and the PIN 00004672 in the space provided.

Natalie has pneumonia :(

She was coughing and had a fever last night. She stayed home with Dad today and her fever went away. But after she woke up from her nap she had a thump thump sound to her breathing plus she had been throwing up all day. So off to urgent care we went. They swabbed, they poked, they sucked blood. I have two days to get her straightened out before she has to go to the hospital. Just like when she was 11 months old. I wonder if this is going to be a yearly thing? Do I need to add respiratory illness to my yearly budget?

She is having breathing treatments every three hours. Her other inhaled med is just twice day. She also has liquid steroids and antibiotics. She does NOT take medicine. You have to force it which stinks because she already can't breathe, she chokes on it. I won't lie, it irritates me too, I've tasted them and they taste like a melted life saver. OOHhhh the drama!

I got to break in my Citi Health Savings card tonight. Not to be confused with a health spending account, the savings account is mine and it rolls. I don't have the use it or loose it situation. For 4 meds with the new insurance, it was $70 something. I didn't think that was bad. Plus I got a $25 CVS giftcard to use for her next batch of meds (which I will transfer to Walgreens if needed and get another 25$ card ha!). I will be interested to see what the bill will be. Atena will trim down the costs by a lot then I pay the balance with the 1K Citi gave me. This sounds like a cruddy plan..wait you are right! But none of them were very good this year. Oh well.

So think of us at 3am while I try to give a sleeping 2 yr old a breathing treatment. Bye for now!

Catch Up Picture Post

Let's see, it has been a busy week. I taught Junior Achievement this week for 4 days. Last time it was with 5th graders and they were great. This time it was with Kindergartners. Let's just say if I were their teacher every day I'd drink... a lot :)

I finished the toy cubby in the condo. It is a tight squeeze but she brings what she wants to play with out to the living room area a few feet away. I'd love to do shelving all the way up to the bar but that is just too much $$. I'd hate to spend big bucks then not need it in the next house.

You can't see the books stacked in their crates behind her head.

We did bubbles several times...


(if I soap up her hair, turn her sideways and squint, I have my little baby back!)

The reason we take so many baths!

Going to Nana's today, she loves to poke my camera.

Going to school.
Her "smiling" for me :)


I really like this pair.
"new" jeans, $5 for all 4 pairs. Nana got them for her.

That is it for now. I've not been taking a lot of pictures (well for me) and I need to get back into the habit!

Hmmmm

Ok what did I spend on the kitchen with all the food, like $200?

This stinkin $6 cardboard house got a squeal when she saw it. The kitchen? Nothing at all!

Lesson learned I guess?!?! lol
In and out, in and out...

All smiles!

(Curly hair is a result from Nana's Beauty Parlor they play every weekend, it stays in big fat curls until I wash it out.)

Happy V-day :)

Random pictures before school.

In my 34 years I've only celebrated Valentines day once, when I was 16. My boyfriend bought me a big clear balloon with a stuffed animal inside. He was broke, it cost like $15 and I was really touched. I can't remember celebrating it with my ex and I've always managed to be boyfriend-less in Feb lol

So now, Feb 14th will be known as big girl bed day! My cutie patootie is now in a queen sized bed. My old bed in fact. I was going to buy her a new big double bed then thought that was silly. I don't know what her room will be like in the new house, no reason to commit to a certain type of bed in the condo you know?

Bobo likes it too!

Room for everyone! Little naked baby strikes again!I think she likes it!

We spent Friday moving furniture from the house. I am being so good, letting go of stuff to sell. I keep trying to think of the new house and I'd like to start fresh with some things. But now in our 400 SF share of the condo we have:
2 queen beds
and eliptical
2 night stands
1 changing table
1 crib (full of things to sell in March at the consignment sale - yippee!)
2 long and low dressers minus the mirrors
3 large tall cabinets
1 secretary cabinet

Yikes - I have a path from the bedroom door to the bathroom and a path between our beds so I can reach the changing table. Its a wee bit cramped. I still have the tall baby cabinet and tv cabinet to bring over. Those might end up in the kitchen!

But its not all bad, I am setting up a great little play area in the area of the great room that is meant for a home office. I've weeded out several toys she hasn't shown any interest in and I've purchased a plastic toy bin. I also had a duh moment. I have three apple crates that I put things in, open side up. My Dad said, hello, turn them so the opening is in the front, stack them, link them and won't you have the basket unit you are looking for? Umm ya..duh :D

Natalie got a crapload of umm crap from her daycare party that I just weeded through (why is holiday stuff so junky?) . I am sure she'll enjoy the candy (spread out over many weeks, she's MEAN on candy) but I really liked my treat that was in the bag :) Little angel wallets, cute huh?


And look at the playhouse I bought her for just $6! At our pharmacy, there is a flea market type area. They have odds and ends and it is cheap! It has a $20 tag on it, they must of picked it up on clearance. She uses crayons to color it, fun huh?


And this is what I bought myself for v-day, 12 pairs of baby socks. OOOHH how I hate baby socks. They never match and I can never find them! So today, all the other socks went into the goodwill pile and she now has 12 pairs of socks, all the same woohoooo! And check out the price, another pharmacy bargain, $5 for all 12.

Today I got 6 of the Walgreens razor catalina deals. I tired to figure it out, I spent almost $7 on 10 $4 off coupons. I then spent $11 on 6 razors, 2 bags of noodles, two GREAT lipglosses (they were $5 marked to 50 cents because they were being discontinued!), a caramel candy, a can of chips and a coke. I still have a $6 catalina to use for something else and 5 more coupons. I'm having a hrd time deciding whether that was a good deal or not? lol

Whew, enough rambling for now, buh bye!

An Important Message!

Folks,

I am a nutrition coordinator for Love Without Boundaries. One of the
SWIs assigned to me is Dingxi. The current report was depressing -
the babies are not doing well, in fact two babies died! And the
pictures! Oh, these babies need help!

I currently sponsor a child's education but am now also going to
support the Dingxi Nutrition program. There are not a lot of
adoptions from this orphanage so there's not a Yahoo orphanage group
to appeal to so here I am appealing to you....

Was your child adopted from Dingxi? Would you like to help the
orhans left in China? Can you spare $10 or $20 a month sponsorship?
How about $5 a month? We're trying to find $100 a month sponsorship
for this SWI. If 20 of us donate $5 a month, we're there!

If we don't raise this sponsorship LWB will have to remove this
SWI from its nutrition program after the July shipment since there
is currently too few donations coming for this program - please
don't let that happen!

If you cannot at this time pledge a monthly amount, could you do
a one time donation? Or do you know someone who might be interested
in a sponsorship? Do you know any groups looking for a charity to
donate their fundraising to? Any help is most appreciated!!!

To donate, you can donate securely on-line at the LWB site.

Choose Nutrition for the Category and in the note please say
that the donation is for the Dingxi Nutrition program.

If you have any questions, please let me know!

Thank you!!!!!

MaryHelen
Lucky Mama to Rose, age 3yrs, Fuling Chongqing SWI

My House Update

I can't remember if I've mentioned on this blog or the spending blog that I have a renter for the house. She came by today to see it and likes it. It is larger than her current place and it's a house, not an apartment. I have mixed feelings about the whole thing, one I am super happy I'm not selling my house. Two, I'm jealous that someone gets to live in my house when I don't get too!

But I know she'll take care of it and I can continue to work on it. I have a lot of things to paint and I want to finish out the basement. She lived in her last place for 7 years so maybe she'll stay in mine that long.

Who knows if I'll ever live in it again but it's still mine...all mine! lol

Interesting tidbit on the stimulus plan:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090204/ap_on_go_co/congress_stimulus

The proposal would allow a tax credit of 10 percent of the value of new or existing residences, up to a $15,000 limit. Current law provides for a $7,500 tax break for the purchase of new homes only.

My new house budget is 150K (less than what was offered by the bank, they are nuts). The last one I really liked would of been in the 135K range. From what I've read you have to buy the house within a year of the bill being signed and you can use the credit.

So now I'm torn! I don't like the idea of all the money being borrowed. But now I'll probably be benefiting from it.

But anyway, I'm moving and the house is a big mess. I'm moving my kitchen loot over and putting Dad's in the yardsale...and I quote "Kitchen crap is a girl thing, will I still have dishes? Then I don't really care what shape or color they are." Funny thing is, my dishes are the same color as mine (white) but mine are plain, his has a Christmas design on it. And until I lived here, he didn't know the raised design on the plates were bells and holly! I have lovely new dish towels to go with my theme too. It's fun being a girl :)

Rambling on and on and on...

So I am looking through my Disney pictures (I have the fever - real bad!) and I find a picture.

How much WAS gas, Sept 2006? Worse than what it is now, I am super happy to have my gas start with the number one:

If you guessed 2.33 then you win! Does anyone else take pictures like this? lol I took it because it was a lot cheaper than it was at home, this was probably in SC or GA on 1-95.

I am bummed, I didn't get a free dining pin (coupon) code today from Disney like a lot of people did. Don't they know the economy stinks? Don't they know I'm ready to commit to 11 nights and 10 days with the mouse? Don't they know I am too cheap to go unless they feed us for free? Come on Disney, help me out here!

I dusted off the old Disney Chase card too. I get 1% back in Disney dollars which is better than what I get with the Citi card now. Of course I use the Citi card, well because they are my peeps but for a bit I'm going to throw some transaction fees to Chase and earn Disney Dollars. Plus, it is fun using a yellow and blue card with a castle on it. I've never claimed to be grown up!

Speaking of grown up, I'm super bummed I don't have a baby anymore. It's like she's aged a year overnight. Her speech is clearing, she is loosing that baby lisp. She is starting to get a southern accent (buh bye-a!). Even her hair is big girl hair. Now that her bangs are nice and long, I tuck them behind her ears and call it her big girl hair. It is her goal in life to tell no less than 10,000 people at Walmart that she has big girl hair when its fixed this way.

Crashed on the sofa, having big girl hair is tiring.

Oh and our snow is going away. Tomorrow I am at the house getting it ready for Allison and Saturday I'll be in the yard cleaning up the leaves I should of cleaned up like 6 months ago. On Sunday I think I'll paint the porch rails because...drum roll please...it will be 60. Our weather is so weird. This is from Wednesday:

Taken with my camera phone. It just makes me cold to see it. Unfortunately it was a layer of ice with about 2 inches of snow on top of it. My car is nasty nasty from salt, I can't wait to wash it on Sunday (in 60 degree weather...I might have to break out the flip flops).

Ok, that is enough posting about nothing - bye!

Ready?

I am pimping out my blog for $2.50. Yes, a mere $2.50. Dr. Collier (and no, not you Johnathan...err Jason)...you'd better appreciate this. And if you check up on these ads Dr. Collier, you should at least leave a comment on how cute my kid is or something.

Ok so here is the deal. Dr. Collier does lap band procedures. When you are overweight then your stomach gets all stretched out. He can stick a tiny belt on your stomach and cinch off part of it. When you have a little stomach, it gets filled faster and for fewer calories. Brilliant eh?

And he services the Woodlands and Houston. HEY! I used to live there! I wonder if that woman who bought the house actually cut down the trees like she was suppose to? Anyway I digress.

Fat? Live in Houston? You can check him out here: conroe lapband (and I can say fat because I am fat..it is only disrespectful if you are a teeny little thing calling yourself fat. That makes us fatties very angry!)

Freebies, Snow Story and a House Update

First the freebies!

Walgreens has great freebies this month. A free Fructis shampoo, Revlon foundation, Revlon lip gloss, contact cleaner, cold tabs (zinc things) and a neck heat wrap. Your store might have a $1 off pealie on the shampoo which you can use. Then you'll get an extra $1 back when you request the rebate :) I've been doing Walgreens rebates for years now, I've cycled the same $40 a good 30 times. I do one for me, my Dad and my Mom then we swap the stuff around. I am totally stealing Dad's makeup! lol

I got a survey email for CVS and I got a $10 ECB added to my account, cool huh? :) Then I did two pinecone surveys and got $3 each time! They also mailed me 3 different flavors of a particular product (I told them I wouldn't say what it was) which the baby liked (I hated it yuck). I love free things!

We have snow, like real snow! We haven't had real snow (over an inch) in years. We have AT LEAST 1.5 inches - everything is shut down. So here is my snow story. A big huge car fishtailed and was perpendicular on the road and about 10 cars were backed up. I called 911 from the deck to let them know (and apologized about it, I mean is that really an emergency? They said it was ok lol) and wouldn't you know, he seesawed his way out of it and the road cleared. The cop went down the road and I felt like a big old dummy. BUT three minutes later, another huge sedan fishtailed in the exact same spot and backed up traffic through 2 red lights on to our main highway. So when the cop made it back to the condo about 5 minutes later he had a big mess and called for backup. I of course grab my hat and a camera!
(small town - traffic never backs up - this is the second car before the cops came)

I have been pre-approved for a loan for the house. But if I increase the HELOC line on my current house for a downpayment, I have to apply for a business loan because I am renting it. If I don't, then my PMI will be $150 a MONTH! Are you kidding me? So we ran the numbers. I think I can pay off the HELOC in 10 months, by the end of the year, so I can just max out that HELOC again(which is much smaller than I could of gotten) to use as a downpayment and not have to go through the business group (which involves expensive appraisals). I would also not have PMI. So I guess I am going to wait. I really like that house but there will be others. I told my Realtor that if that one drops big time in price to let me know but I don't want to pay the PMI or the money for all the appraisals. So I'll try to be patient!

Birthday Pictures :)

My Dad gave me cash for the Knoxville trip to buy things for the baby for her birthday. This is the last batch from Old Navy. This was $30 something. None of the tops were over $2.50.

The coat was just $12
The most expensive item were the jeans on the left, they might of been $4. The flower jeans were $3ish, the capris were just $2 something. She is now ready for this summer, next winter except for 2 pairs of pants, a few items for next summer and most of the next next winter :)


Her birthday cake. We embarrassed her when we sang Happy Birthday and she cried!

With her bubble machine




Rockin her piano
With my brother
She stayed up until 11, she was sooo wound up. But I think she enjoyed her birthday :)

CNY 2009

We had a good time, Natalie was such a good baby all weekend long, that helped too! Birthday pictures will be loaded tomorrow :)


Working on ninja moves...
Natalie and Tia


Natalie and Katie




All three kiddos.