It's Frugal Friday again and I actually have a tip this week!!
In this never ending gas price saga, I have found a couple of ways to get the best price in my area!
1 - Gas Buddy can help you locate the stations in your area that have the right price for you. Just click on your state and type in your zip code!
2 - I find that my local Sam's Club (about 1 mile from my house) is usually the cheapest but it's not always listed on gasbuddy.
On Monday when I filled up my van, Sam's was $.14 cheaper than the gas station just up the street.
The only downside to Sam's is if you're not a member you can't purchase gas there. But, in reality the membership is $40/year and I bet you save that much on gas in no time (I'm saving between $1.75 and $2.00 at each fill up - roughly every 8 days).
So, if you have a Sam's Club with a gas station near you, it's probably worth looking into their prices and comparing them with where you regularly purchase gas to see if they have a better deal.
Friday, May 30, 2008
Thursday, May 29, 2008
In which chaos ensues...
First - I love my kids dearly and cherish the time I am privileged to be with them every day since I don't work outside the home. This post is in no way meant to convey anger, disrespect or make it seem as though I don't appreciate them. I'm just venting.
I've had one of "THOSE" afternoons/evenings.
The earlier part of the day was normal - went to the gym, came home and the kids played while I showered, then it was lunch and naps...
After naps it all began to slide downhill. We went to the Commissary to order Eli's birthday cake (of which he can't eat because he's still off gluten and dairy - but he's back on eggs and soy with no reaction so I'm dreading what the culprit might be....that's a different post though) for his party on Saturday. I also bought a gluten free chocolate cake mix while we were there. Then we got Jacob's hair cut at the Barber shop on base and Eli started collapsing as we were leaving.
Eli got a lollipop because Jacob got a hair cut - because it's just not fair for Jacob to get one for being a good boy during the haircut and Eli to not get one. I figure one lollipop every 4-5 weeks won't hurt anyone! When his lollipop was down to a little nub I took it away and OH.MY.GOODNESS he totally went bonkers. SCREAMING. And I don't mean just a little crying. If he hadn't been strapped in his carseat he would have been on the ground flailing about and hitting at things (this anger issue is also a whole post in itself) screaming the whole time.
I let him carry on for a bit - because, really, what can he do while he's strapped in the carseat? We got home and to distract him I sent them out in the back yard to play. AAAAHHHH Bliss!
30 minutes outside is the limit w/o sunscreen right now since we've just started spending time in the sun. So I had 30 minutes of peace (watching out the window while checking my email!) and they came in and I put on a movie because that helps them sit still and cool down (we don't have a/c in our house). This was super good timing on my part because just as the movie started I got a phone call from a Dr. that I had been expecting for 2 days. Nothing serious - just some things I wanted to discuss about my pre-natal care. I spent 45 minutes on the phone with this dr. and apparently that was about 10 minutes too long for Eli.... because he started SCREAMING again. Sheesh.
While I was on the phone the sales guy from the builder/sales office (we live in a new house and subdivision and they are still building/selling new houses on our street) comes to my door and wants to show some potential buyers our model (theirs isn't quite finished and they can't quite grasp the concept of what the kitchen will look like when it's completed). This showing thing has been previously arranged on a you-call-me-when-you-need-to-show basis (because we get a $40 restaurant gift card everytime we let them take a peek!!!) and he tried to call but because I was on this important call I didn't answer the other line - and my garage happened to be open so he knew I was home! Needless to say, I let them in for the free restaurant gift card WHILE I WAS STILL ON THE PHONE!! I'm tacky, I know. Thankfully, they stayed less than 5 minutes! Whew.
Oh yeah, and Michael called 3 times while I was on the phone!
Finally get off the phone, and get Eli calmed down and think about getting dinner started.... thank goodness for menu plans and thawed meat! I always let the kids help me in the kitchen (when it's not something that has potential to splatter hot grease on them, etc.) and Eli was standing at his normal post (a chair pulled up to the counter) and he was goofing off so I told him if he wasn't still and careful I would 'lock' (just a gate) him in the other room..... He kept it up and eventually fell out of the chair onto the kitchen floor and I just about blew a gasket. Banished him to the other room and the SCREAMING commenced again. He screamed while I was browning the meat, heating the taco shells, cutting the veggies and seasoning the meat and was still screaming when Michael walked in the door from work.
Welcome home honey! I hate when he comes home to a screaming/fussy child, but sometimes there's just nothing I can do to calm him down - regardless of the distractions or other tactics I use. I told Michael that it had been about 2 hours of utter chaos and I felt very frazzled and like my head wasn't on straight and I couldn't think. I hate feeling like that, glad it doesn't happen very often.
The screaming fits continued thru dinner. We even went and walked around the mall for a little while afterward to just keep us from going insane until bedtime. Side note - don't think for a second we didn't try every other trick in the book first to get him into a better mood..... The mall didn't really work either, so we came home and pretty quickly got him into bed. I think he was just really tired because he never made a sound after Michael put him in bed and he usually kicks the wall, sings, talks to himself, etc. just his way of winding down.
Tomorrow is a new day. "22 -The unfailing love of the Lord never ends! By His mercies we have been kept from complete destruction. 23 - Great is His Faithfulness; His mercies afresh each day." Lamentations 3:22-23
I've had one of "THOSE" afternoons/evenings.
The earlier part of the day was normal - went to the gym, came home and the kids played while I showered, then it was lunch and naps...
After naps it all began to slide downhill. We went to the Commissary to order Eli's birthday cake (of which he can't eat because he's still off gluten and dairy - but he's back on eggs and soy with no reaction so I'm dreading what the culprit might be....that's a different post though) for his party on Saturday. I also bought a gluten free chocolate cake mix while we were there. Then we got Jacob's hair cut at the Barber shop on base and Eli started collapsing as we were leaving.
Eli got a lollipop because Jacob got a hair cut - because it's just not fair for Jacob to get one for being a good boy during the haircut and Eli to not get one. I figure one lollipop every 4-5 weeks won't hurt anyone! When his lollipop was down to a little nub I took it away and OH.MY.GOODNESS he totally went bonkers. SCREAMING. And I don't mean just a little crying. If he hadn't been strapped in his carseat he would have been on the ground flailing about and hitting at things (this anger issue is also a whole post in itself) screaming the whole time.
I let him carry on for a bit - because, really, what can he do while he's strapped in the carseat? We got home and to distract him I sent them out in the back yard to play. AAAAHHHH Bliss!
30 minutes outside is the limit w/o sunscreen right now since we've just started spending time in the sun. So I had 30 minutes of peace (watching out the window while checking my email!) and they came in and I put on a movie because that helps them sit still and cool down (we don't have a/c in our house). This was super good timing on my part because just as the movie started I got a phone call from a Dr. that I had been expecting for 2 days. Nothing serious - just some things I wanted to discuss about my pre-natal care. I spent 45 minutes on the phone with this dr. and apparently that was about 10 minutes too long for Eli.... because he started SCREAMING again. Sheesh.
While I was on the phone the sales guy from the builder/sales office (we live in a new house and subdivision and they are still building/selling new houses on our street) comes to my door and wants to show some potential buyers our model (theirs isn't quite finished and they can't quite grasp the concept of what the kitchen will look like when it's completed). This showing thing has been previously arranged on a you-call-me-when-you-need-to-show basis (because we get a $40 restaurant gift card everytime we let them take a peek!!!) and he tried to call but because I was on this important call I didn't answer the other line - and my garage happened to be open so he knew I was home! Needless to say, I let them in for the free restaurant gift card WHILE I WAS STILL ON THE PHONE!! I'm tacky, I know. Thankfully, they stayed less than 5 minutes! Whew.
Oh yeah, and Michael called 3 times while I was on the phone!
Finally get off the phone, and get Eli calmed down and think about getting dinner started.... thank goodness for menu plans and thawed meat! I always let the kids help me in the kitchen (when it's not something that has potential to splatter hot grease on them, etc.) and Eli was standing at his normal post (a chair pulled up to the counter) and he was goofing off so I told him if he wasn't still and careful I would 'lock' (just a gate) him in the other room..... He kept it up and eventually fell out of the chair onto the kitchen floor and I just about blew a gasket. Banished him to the other room and the SCREAMING commenced again. He screamed while I was browning the meat, heating the taco shells, cutting the veggies and seasoning the meat and was still screaming when Michael walked in the door from work.
Welcome home honey! I hate when he comes home to a screaming/fussy child, but sometimes there's just nothing I can do to calm him down - regardless of the distractions or other tactics I use. I told Michael that it had been about 2 hours of utter chaos and I felt very frazzled and like my head wasn't on straight and I couldn't think. I hate feeling like that, glad it doesn't happen very often.
The screaming fits continued thru dinner. We even went and walked around the mall for a little while afterward to just keep us from going insane until bedtime. Side note - don't think for a second we didn't try every other trick in the book first to get him into a better mood..... The mall didn't really work either, so we came home and pretty quickly got him into bed. I think he was just really tired because he never made a sound after Michael put him in bed and he usually kicks the wall, sings, talks to himself, etc. just his way of winding down.
Tomorrow is a new day. "22 -The unfailing love of the Lord never ends! By His mercies we have been kept from complete destruction. 23 - Great is His Faithfulness; His mercies afresh each day." Lamentations 3:22-23
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
My new garden, and how it came to be!
Let me just start off by saying that I have an AMAZING husband!! He's wonderful!!
This is Michael picking out the remaining stragglers. I actually did most of that part since he did all the shoveling, etc. (the heavy lifting). These first two photos were from Sunday and it was seemingly very hot. Probably only about 80, but we were in the direct sun for several hours, so it seemed much hotter than it really was.
Then began the filling. This took much more fill than I anticipated and because we have no way to get a load of dirt (no truck) and it would also be very hard to get a wheelbarrow back there if we did have loose dirt (the other side of our house, where the gate is, looks just like the before of this garden project - TONS of rocks and that makes rolling a wheelbarrow very difficult) we bought the dirt by the bag - which is more expensive, but was really the only option we had. We bought a total of 40 bags of top soil and garden compost - coming to a grand total of just under 1300 POUNDS of dirt that Michael carried by the bag (2 at a time) from the driveway, all the way around the house to the back...... Yay for strong men!!! We also then backfilled around the edging with some of the rocks we moved out of the way, thus giving the edging stability on both sides.
And today while the kids were napping, I got out there and got everything in the ground. Here's what we have:
* Marigolds at both ends of every row (for bug repellant...)
* The row closest to the house is 3 varieties of tomatoes
* The next row is 2 jalapeno's and 2 strawberries
* The 3rd row is 1 green bell pepper, 1 cilantro and 2 empty spaces
*The last row (closest to the fence) is lettuce seed sown directly into the ground and a few seedling transplants from a pot I had already planted with lettuce.
This is how our space started out. Don't let the photo fool you, it's pretty large, 7.5' x 10'. And yes those are rocks, gazillions of them. They actually ended up being deeper than I originally thought. They were probably about 4" deep. And moving them included shoveling, scooping (the kids helped a little as you can see) and then pulling the undermat back with rocks still on top, to get them all out of the space. We estimate to have moved around 3,000 POUNDS of rocks.
This is Michael picking out the remaining stragglers. I actually did most of that part since he did all the shoveling, etc. (the heavy lifting). These first two photos were from Sunday and it was seemingly very hot. Probably only about 80, but we were in the direct sun for several hours, so it seemed much hotter than it really was.
Monday, we went to Home Depot and decided how we would 'wall it off'. We decided on 2x12's for economic reasons and we didn't need rock edges or anything because we're the only ones going to see it, so basically we just needed funcionality. The far edge is actually screwed into the posts for our fence, the side and the close edge are held in place by large garden stakes. Monday and Tuesday also brought us much cooler temperatures and mostly overcast skies, making for a much more pleasant working experience!
Then began the filling. This took much more fill than I anticipated and because we have no way to get a load of dirt (no truck) and it would also be very hard to get a wheelbarrow back there if we did have loose dirt (the other side of our house, where the gate is, looks just like the before of this garden project - TONS of rocks and that makes rolling a wheelbarrow very difficult) we bought the dirt by the bag - which is more expensive, but was really the only option we had. We bought a total of 40 bags of top soil and garden compost - coming to a grand total of just under 1300 POUNDS of dirt that Michael carried by the bag (2 at a time) from the driveway, all the way around the house to the back...... Yay for strong men!!! We also then backfilled around the edging with some of the rocks we moved out of the way, thus giving the edging stability on both sides.
And today while the kids were napping, I got out there and got everything in the ground. Here's what we have:
* Marigolds at both ends of every row (for bug repellant...)
* The row closest to the house is 3 varieties of tomatoes
* The next row is 2 jalapeno's and 2 strawberries
* The 3rd row is 1 green bell pepper, 1 cilantro and 2 empty spaces
*The last row (closest to the fence) is lettuce seed sown directly into the ground and a few seedling transplants from a pot I had already planted with lettuce.
It's a basket carnival!
I've been inspired to show you some of my organization tactics and of my never ending love of baskets and plastic totes.... Laura at I'm an Organizing Junkie is hosting this wonderful basket carnival, so hop on over there to check out many other wonderful uses for baskets and totes.
This is the play room. I have all of the toys contained to these totes/buckets. The four pullouts all have specific items in them and the boys know what goes in each one (including Eli!). So, when it's time to put the toys away each evening, everything goes in its proper place!
The bottom container here houses all of my gift wrapping supplies (bags, paper, tissue paper, etc.) It's on rollers and is suppose to fit under a bed, but I haven't found a bed it will actually fit under... The two green baskets have all of the kids' art/craft supplies in them. All the items in this photo are kept in the closet above the crawl space (easily accessible) - I just pulled them out for the photo.
These are all of my stamping and card making supplies.
My sewing supplies. The bottom tote has all of my fabric, batting, poly-fill, etc. The two smaller ones have all of my spools of ribbon (and a few baggies of misc. ribbon scraps), neatly organized by color, I might add!!
Lastly, we have all of my jewelry making and business supplies. Along with completed jewelry in the 'real' basket on the end.
Can you tell I love these little plain colored baskets with the holes in them?
Oh, and this post does not include the eleventy billion clear plastic, 58 quart totes of kid clothes and baby items that are in my crawl space. I'm not about to try to pry the lid off the crawl space to go down there in my current condition (preggers), so you'll just have to imagine it!!
This is the play room. I have all of the toys contained to these totes/buckets. The four pullouts all have specific items in them and the boys know what goes in each one (including Eli!). So, when it's time to put the toys away each evening, everything goes in its proper place!
The bottom container here houses all of my gift wrapping supplies (bags, paper, tissue paper, etc.) It's on rollers and is suppose to fit under a bed, but I haven't found a bed it will actually fit under... The two green baskets have all of the kids' art/craft supplies in them. All the items in this photo are kept in the closet above the crawl space (easily accessible) - I just pulled them out for the photo.
These are all of my stamping and card making supplies.
My sewing supplies. The bottom tote has all of my fabric, batting, poly-fill, etc. The two smaller ones have all of my spools of ribbon (and a few baggies of misc. ribbon scraps), neatly organized by color, I might add!!
Lastly, we have all of my jewelry making and business supplies. Along with completed jewelry in the 'real' basket on the end.
Can you tell I love these little plain colored baskets with the holes in them?
Oh, and this post does not include the eleventy billion clear plastic, 58 quart totes of kid clothes and baby items that are in my crawl space. I'm not about to try to pry the lid off the crawl space to go down there in my current condition (preggers), so you'll just have to imagine it!!
Monday, May 26, 2008
What a wonderful weekend
We had a wonderful weekend, I hope all of you enjoyed yourselves as well.
Since today (Monday) was a holiday - Memorial Day, Michael also got a 'down day' on Friday - his squadron got that day off as well. So we actually had a 4 day weekend. Normally, we would have taken that opportunity to drive over to Oklahoma (appx. 700 miles) to see Michael's mom so the kids could have some grandma-time, but with gas prices the way they are it would have cost us $300 on gas alone. That doesn't include food or anything else we might do while we're visiting, so an Oklahoma trip was absolutely out of the question.....
Here's what we did instead:
* Friday morning we took my van in for brakes, then did a little piddling around. We came home and ate lunch and then the boys and I took naps (Michael was doing some school work during this time). I had the good fortune of being able to nap for TRHEE hours!! What a wonderful husband I have!
*Saturday morning we piddled around the house for a little while and then decided to head to the zoo for a little while - zoo memberships are great!!! We got to see the wonderful new exhibit that opened this weekend called "Rocky Mountain wildlife", it's all about the local wildlife, including mountain lions, moose, porcupines and many other native Coloradoans! We came home and the boys and Michael had naps and I went out on a trek to replace the security blanket we lost while at the zoo..... Eli was none too happy to realize it was gone - so Walmart came to the rescue (which is great because it had to be a very specific 'feel' - he has a thing for satin and chenille.....)!!!
* Sunday morning I put a chicken in the crockpot so we could do whatever in the afternoon and I wouldn't have to worry about coming home and getting dinner ready. Then we headed to church. After church was lunch and naps for the boys. During this time I finally refined my idea for a garden space in our yard. I've been watching the yard to see which area gets the most sunlight hours and finally scoped it all out. So after naps we headed to Home Depot to get some remaining plants, etc. and then came home to start the work - the process of this garden will be a separate post because you HAVE to see the before and afters - again, I have an amazing and very strong husband!!
* Monday morning I had the pleasure (thanks again to that wonderful husband of mine) of sleeping in until 9:30! It is very rare that I sleep past 6:15 since Eli has decided he'd rather be an early riser these days, so it was such a treat. And Michael had even planned to cut the grass first thing, but decided to let me sleep in instead. I got up and took over child duty so he could go out and do the grass and then we picked up where we left off on the gardening. And it was a very full day of gardening, but a very productive day. All I have left is to get the plants in the ground tomorrow!!!
Tell me about your holiday weekend. Any fun trips? Or are you as impacted by the gas prices as we are?
Today was also Eli's 2nd birthday - although we aren't celebrating until Saturday because of it falling on a holiday. That will also be a separate post.
Since today (Monday) was a holiday - Memorial Day, Michael also got a 'down day' on Friday - his squadron got that day off as well. So we actually had a 4 day weekend. Normally, we would have taken that opportunity to drive over to Oklahoma (appx. 700 miles) to see Michael's mom so the kids could have some grandma-time, but with gas prices the way they are it would have cost us $300 on gas alone. That doesn't include food or anything else we might do while we're visiting, so an Oklahoma trip was absolutely out of the question.....
Here's what we did instead:
* Friday morning we took my van in for brakes, then did a little piddling around. We came home and ate lunch and then the boys and I took naps (Michael was doing some school work during this time). I had the good fortune of being able to nap for TRHEE hours!! What a wonderful husband I have!
*Saturday morning we piddled around the house for a little while and then decided to head to the zoo for a little while - zoo memberships are great!!! We got to see the wonderful new exhibit that opened this weekend called "Rocky Mountain wildlife", it's all about the local wildlife, including mountain lions, moose, porcupines and many other native Coloradoans! We came home and the boys and Michael had naps and I went out on a trek to replace the security blanket we lost while at the zoo..... Eli was none too happy to realize it was gone - so Walmart came to the rescue (which is great because it had to be a very specific 'feel' - he has a thing for satin and chenille.....)!!!
* Sunday morning I put a chicken in the crockpot so we could do whatever in the afternoon and I wouldn't have to worry about coming home and getting dinner ready. Then we headed to church. After church was lunch and naps for the boys. During this time I finally refined my idea for a garden space in our yard. I've been watching the yard to see which area gets the most sunlight hours and finally scoped it all out. So after naps we headed to Home Depot to get some remaining plants, etc. and then came home to start the work - the process of this garden will be a separate post because you HAVE to see the before and afters - again, I have an amazing and very strong husband!!
* Monday morning I had the pleasure (thanks again to that wonderful husband of mine) of sleeping in until 9:30! It is very rare that I sleep past 6:15 since Eli has decided he'd rather be an early riser these days, so it was such a treat. And Michael had even planned to cut the grass first thing, but decided to let me sleep in instead. I got up and took over child duty so he could go out and do the grass and then we picked up where we left off on the gardening. And it was a very full day of gardening, but a very productive day. All I have left is to get the plants in the ground tomorrow!!!
Tell me about your holiday weekend. Any fun trips? Or are you as impacted by the gas prices as we are?
Today was also Eli's 2nd birthday - although we aren't celebrating until Saturday because of it falling on a holiday. That will also be a separate post.
Friday, May 23, 2008
Cloth diapering - part 3
The final installment in my series of our cloth diapering with a toddler journey. You can read part 1 and part 2 to catch up, if you like.As I said in my last post, I am enjoying this new phase of life. If only Eli would decide that he thinks feeling wet is yucky, then we might be on the road to potty training, but alas, he just really doesn't care at this point. He's going to be one of those kids that really, truly won't potty train until he's ready. I don't even bother right now. Seriously, he'll be 2 on Monday and has ZERO interest, so I'm not forcing the issue. I was hoping he'd be potty trained before the baby arrives in September (he'll be 27 mo. then) because Jacob was completely trained before Eli was born (Jacob was 28 mo. when Eli was born).... oh well.
I recently found some used Mother-ease one size diapers on Craigslist for super cheap, so I went and got them. Let me tell you, I cannot express how much I love them. I mostly use them (with my Bummis covers) for outings or when he's going to be in the nursery at church or in child care at the gym. Because he weighs 33 1/2 lbs (as of last week's checkup), he is on the largest setting but he can afford to grow a tad and they'll still fit!
He still wears prefolds with covers sometimes at home, but the Mother-ease diapers are wonderful! I use a homemade insert in all the diapers. The photo above is the Mother-ease diaper with my insert and it's sitting on top of the velcro Bummis cover.
The WAHM pocket diapers I bought online are also a breeze. She includes a 3 layer micro terry insert with each of her diapers and was gracious enough to send me one extra insert at no extra charge! I love them too! I only have 2 of them though so they are reserved for nighttime use. We've only had one nighttime leak with them so far. But since I only have two of them, I use a disposable on the off night if I haven't washed diapers in 3 days.
Walmart finds
I went to Walmart for a few items we needed tonight and I ALWAYS have my coupon organizer with me so since I was alone, I thought I'd check out every single health and beauty coupon I had that is expiring next week.
Here's what I got:
* 2 Huggies Clean Team wipes -$1.64 each with a $3/2 Q (total $.28)
* Lady Speed Stick - $1.77 with a $1 Q (total $.77)
* Crest toothpaste - $1.66 with a $.50 Q (total $1.16)
* Gillette Series travel size shave gel - $.97 with a $.55 Q (total $.42)
* Degree for Women travel size deoderant - $.97 with a $1.00 Q (total +$.03)
* Gold Bond travel size lotion - $.97 with a $1.00 Q (total +$.03)
Out of pocket spent $2.57
Walmart also had Strawberries on sale for $1.98 per container and red seedless grapes for $1.98/lb. So I also got those items.
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