A Day in Pictures

Thursday, the last day of July 2008...five more months until 2009...can you believe how quickly this year is flying by?

What did you today? I thought I would share my day with you (in pictures because you know how I love taking pictures!)

For the last couple of weeks, I have been packing every morning for an hour or two so I am not trying to get all of our stuff packed at once when we get ready to move. Last week Dakota and I took down his beds in his room so I could use his room as a place to store all the boxes I pack. This is his room - notice the FLORIDA GATORS-colored walls. He & his daddy are Gator fanatics...I root for Seminoles myself! He doesn't ever sleep in there anyway - preferring to sleep on the couch or whoever else's bedroom he can crash.
Greg called me around 9:30 and asked if I wanted to meet for lunch. This was a surprise! We never get to meet for lunch because we are still down to one vehicle since mine went kapoot awhile back. My mother-in-law has let us use her vehicle all week though so I could go house-hunting and take care of the things involved with that. Anyway, when Greg called to invite me to lunch I was very pleased and we agreed to meet at 11:30 for sushi.
I got a Bento Box for lunch which had so much food I didn't even touch my sushi and ended up bringing the whole two rolls home with me!! I can't believe one person could eat all that food! Greg's sushi is the green stuff jammed in my box - he had an AJ roll - and sampled some of my chicken tempura, egg drop soup, shrimp, and egg rolls I had.

I was on the same side of town as Lifeway so after I finished lunch, I ran by there to pick up my Third Day CD I had pre-ordered about a month ago. I had that $5.00 gift card I got for pre-ordering the CD that was burning a hole in my wallet because they had some great stuff on a clearance table but my sushi was in the car and I still had to stop by Walgreen's so I passed on the clearance table.Next stop was Walgreen's...but you knew that didn't ya? I pretty much got everything I told you about here in this post but I added a few things extra and spent a total of $20.21 for everything you see here...I am very pleased!
This little Children's Activity Book is one of the extras I picked up. I was in the pharmacy area and happened to see it and thought it would make a neat little gift for one of my grandkids. It was only .99 - but when I opened it up...
there are a whole bunch of great coupons inside! Ummm, yeah I'll be taking this sheet of coupons out before passing the book on to one of the kids.
Here's some of the coupons (I'm only going to list a few):
-1.00 on Band-Aid Bandages
-1.00 on Johnson & Johnson Baby Products
-1.00 on Motrin Pain Relief
-1.00 on Tylenol
-1.00 on Huggies Jumbo packLast stop before I got back home was the mailbox (we use a post office box.) Let's see...was it a good mail day??

Why yes it was!

I received my American Greetings card sample from Wal-mart (it's beautiful by the way!!) Along with that came a coupon for a FREE greeting card with the purchase of another card.

I got a sample of Dove Shampoo & Conditioner (grapefruit and lemongrass scent...hmmmm, bet that smells just divine!) Along with that are two great coupons. I just checked and you can still request this sample - click on the link!

This next one was completely unexpected - a gift card/coupon for Office Max for $10.00 off my next purchase of $20.00 or more. WOW - that's great!

Greg's sports magazines - yuck! The only thing I like about those is that I ordered his Sports Illustrated through Ebates for a good price and Ebates is going to be cutting me a BIG FAT CHECK on August 15th for my purchases from the last three months.

His other magazine - ESPN - he gets by using SKYMILES that were going to expire which makes this subscription FREE!

Last but not least...my Voice of the Martyrs newsletter. This month the newsletter is all about "China's Illegal Christians" - due to the fact that the Olympics are about to begin in China. I am sure the media attention will portray the Chinese people as intellectual, polished, non-persecuted people - free to serve whatever God they choose. This is NOT the case! Let's remember to pray for the religious freedom of the Chinese people...that they will be able to one day openly worship and serve Jesus Christ as we are able to in the United States.

Homeschool: The Olympics

I just purchased this unit study & lapbook project on the 2008 Olympics from CurrClick.
It's a 58 page ebook and costs $5.75 - after browsing through it quickly I am really excited to go through this with Dakota as we enjoy watching the Olympics together. Even for families who don't homeschool their children this would be a neat little inexpensive booklet to pick up!

This is what it says on the first page:

This unit study is designed to teach kids the history of the Olympics, as well
as interesting Olympic facts using crafts, creative writing, games, puzzles,
graphing, and geography. Many of the exercises found within this study can
be manipulated into booklets for the ultimate development of a
comprehensive lapbook on the Olympics.

Though this study is geared towards the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic
games, kids can use the tools contained in this unit study to graph for
themselves the games, individual events, and each country’s medal placement
for any future Olympic games.
This unit study is also designed specifically for the summer games, but many
of the history and facts learned can be applied to the winter games as well.
This unit study can also be adapted for varying ages so that a family with
siblings can enjoy learning about the Olympic games together.

Amazing Strength!

These two men are amazing! Okay, they need to be wearing a little bit more clothing - but beyond that I was amazed at their strength!!

Thought for the Day

If you have a special need today, focus your full attention on the goodness and greatness of your Father rather than on the size of your need. Your need is so small compared to His ability to meet it.

Walgreen's Deals 7/31

I have such a stockpile of things right now that there isn't too much I'm purchasing these days unless it's just a really awesome deal. These are the deals I see for this week that I'm going to take advantage of Thursday.

Spend $20.00 on these items and get $7.00 in Register Rewards (to use like cash on another purchase):

Infusium 23 Shampoo 2/$12
Olay Ribbons Body Wash 3/$10
Ultra Tuf Trash Bags 2/$10.00 (Buy One Get One Free)
Purchase these trash bags and send in for August EasySaver Rebate - get $5.00 back on the purchase of 2
3M Command Hooks or Strip Hooks 2/$2.99
Price before coupons: $34.99
Use coupons:
-$1.00/1 coupon any 3M Command product (print your own from the link)
-$2.00/1 Olay Body Wash from 7/6/08 P&G insert (have 3 of these)
-$3.00/1 Infusium 23 Shampoo from 7/6/08 P&G insert (have 2 of these)
-$5.00 off $20.00 purchase - Thursday 7/31/08 only!
Price after coupons: $15.99 Receive $7.00 RR & I'll get $5.00 back in rebate at the end of the month.

Use the $7.00 RR to pay for these:
Pringles Chips 10/$10.00 and get $5.00 RR back
-$.30/3 cans coupon (have 3 of these coupons to use) from 6/29/08 Valassis Insert
Pay $2.10 cash and get $5.00 RR back

Use the $5.00 RR to pay for this:
Milk $3.69
Trident Sugarless Gum 2/$1.19
Some cheap school supplies as filler items to get up to $5.00
Pay 0.00 out of pocket!

That's a bunch of stuff for $l8.00!!!

We found a House!

I read this today---

President Bush on Wednesday signed a massive housing bill intended to provide mortgage relief for 400,000 struggling homeowners and stabilize financial markets.

and it is a little scary considering we found a house to buy today!!! I've been going out with our realtor every day looking at houses and making notes on which ones I like and which ones I don't and then discussing them with Greg every evening. Greg has been searching the MLS site, HUD site, and Craigslist daily and picking out more for me to look at every day. It's an exhausting, stressful task - trying to pick out a house!

I've been praying for that perfect one - the one that when I walk in the doors I wouldn't want to leave because I had found our home. After looking at 2 houses today we went to the 3rd one and that was it...the perfect one. It's only about 3 miles from Greg's office so I called Greg and told him to come look at it - he loved it too. The realtor and I wrote up the contract and I am waiting for Greg to come home from work so he can sign it and we can fax it back to the realtor.

Wallet Pop - Fantastic Freebies

You can go to this link to receive a free can of dog food. I just wanted to throw that in at the top of this post even though I am actually writing about another website I discovered today.
Free Can of Mighty Dog

This blog, Wallet Pop, is a new personal finance blog. They have a feature called "Fantastic Freebies" in which every day they will offer up a new freebie for the day.

Today's freebie is a charitable one in which everybody should participate!
If you go fill out this form from HBO, then HBO and its partners will donate one of these personal item to the troops:
AT&T calling cards, Band-Aid bandages, BenGay moist heat patches, Blender Magazine, Degree deodorant, Duracell batteries, HBO Video, Jack Link's beef jerky, Johnson & Johnson first aid kits, Lever 2000, Vaseline, Lipton powdered tea mix, Maxim magazine, Neosporin antibiotic ointment, Penguin's Tom Clancy novels, Purell hand sanitizers, Random House books, Sports Illustrated, Subpop "Flight of the Concords" soundtrack and Vaseline lip therapy and lotions

They'll do one donation per email address so if you have more than one email address, use them all! The form takes 2 seconds to fill out! Fill it out and pass the word.

Freebies & Rebates

I've received quite a few freebies in the mail in the last week! I wanted to share these with you and tell you about some additional ones you can request. It's great to open your mailbox and find product samples and FREE magazine subscriptions instead of bills and political flyers!

Seed Magazine Subscription and DVD & Pedometer - told you about that here
Subscription to Woman's Day magazine - told you about that here
John Freida Hair sample - told you about that here
Pond's Clean Sweep Towelette - told you about that here
Snapfish - 50 prints for free - paid for shipping only
Alaway eye drops sample & $5.00 coupon- received 2 boxes of these - saw these on Coupons.com(no longer available now though)
Emergen-C Vitamin C samples - told you about here
Earthbound Farm bag & coupons - no longer available, but go here to register for a cookbook and get $1.00 off coupon
Book "10 Things You Should Know About God and Life" by Greg Laurie - I think you can go here and still request this

Now here are some FREEBIES for you to request today!
Motor Trend Magazine (expires August 31)
Homeschooling Booklet
Antiques Magazine
Baby Magazines
Focus On The Family Magazine
Marriage Today Magazine
Seed Magazine
Sun Maid Cookbook

Food
Oatmeal Crisp Cereal
Fiber One
Capt D's
Ensure
Stride Gum
Splenda Sweetener Flavors for Coffee
Taco Bell Frutista coupon
$2.00 Kashi coupon (sign up for account)
Healthy Choice coupons
Seattle's Best Coffee

Health & Beauty
Benefiber
Body Eclipse Aromatherapy Shampoo
Dove Pro-Age
Health Samples (from Remedy Life magazine)
Moon Sparkle Perfume
Neutrogena Oil Free Acne Stress Control
Tena Serenity
VCF Contraceptive Film
Gillette Shampoos & Conditioners
Biore Daily Recharging
Pond's Clean Sweep
Kotex
Head & Shoulders shampoo
Degree deodorant (takes 100 secs to load)
Tampax
Osmoflex pain relieving cream
Stetson Fresh for Men
Stayfree Ultra Thin

Household
Spring Cleaning Samples
Caulk Singles
Tide Total Care

Babies and Children
Enfamil Samples
Good Start Checks and coupons
Planet Heroes DVD
Playtex Drop-In Original Nurser System
LUVS coupon

Remember when I told you about this promotion for Outback - Request a $10.00 gift certificate by mailing in a SASE? I actually requested 4 because I was thinking that when my daughter, Tina and her husband Bryant came in town we could all go to Outback as a family and get $40.00 off our meal. Well that never happened - just didn't have time to go before the coupon expired. But when I received them in the mail there was a code for me to enter into a sweepstakes online...I WON A $100.00 GIFT CARD!!! It came in the mail this week!

I also got my 2 Walgreen's rebate cards for May and June's AARP EasySaver Rebates in the mail. These were both for $10.00 a piece and had to be mailed separate from my rebates that are just electronically added to my gift card each month. Kind of stinks because it takes so darn long to come in the mail - but it was a nice little treat getting $20.00 in on the same day!

My rebates have started rolling in this month and so far I have received:
$1.88 for Wish Bone Bountifuls
$6.99 for Febreze Noticeables
$7.97 for Live Active
$4.69 for Tums Quik Pak

Toon-ful Tuesday

CVS $5.00 Challenge 7/28

Here's my weekly $5.00 challenge I like to participate in. If you want to see more scenarios be sure to check out Alyssa's blog at Keeping the Kingdom First. She is the host of the weekly "CVS $5.00 Challenge"

*RULES*

1. Come up with your best scenario/scenarios for the upcoming week at CVS using the current weekly ad, monthly deals, and coupons available. Your budget for Out of Pocket (OOP) expenses on the first transaction is only $5.00 (either cash OOP or ECBs on hand).

2. Using up to (3) scenarios (we don't want to overwhelm the newbies with too many transactions), offer up your best scenarios to "grow" that $5.00 into more ECBs to use in following weeks.

3. If you want to divide your $5.00 allowance over the three scenarios to make them work, that's fine!

4. Be sure to list coupons by inserts and/or with links to printables to make it easier for everyone to follow along.

Transaction #1

2 Sure Deodorants ($2.89 each) = $5.78

2 Trident Xtra Care Gum ($1.49 each) = $2.98

3 Mentos candy (2/$1.00) = $1.50

Used coupons:

- 1.00 off Sure Deodorant from SmartSource insert 6/29

- 2.89 Sure (BOGOF) from SmartSource insert 6/29

- 1.49 Trident Gum (BOGOF) from SmartSource insert 7/20

-.55 Mentos (have 2 of these) from SmartSource insert 5/18

Paid $2.98 with Extracare bucks from last week

Paid .80 cash

Earned $4.00 ECB ($3.00 from Sure deodorant; $1.00 from Trident)

Transaction #2

Band-Aid Ultra Strips $2.99

CVS Cleansing Towelette $3.49

Used Coupons:

-$1.00 on Band-Aid Ultra Strips from Valassis insert 6/22/08

-$2.00/1 on CVS Skincare from CVS Beauty handbook

Paid with $3.00 ECB from last week

Paid $.48 cash

Earned $3.00 more ECB to bring my total for today to $7.00 to spend next week

Travis Cottrell Concert

I had a "Girls Weekend Getaway" this weekend! LOVE those! A few friends and I drove to Destin, FL early Friday morning and spent the day shopping, eating, shopping and eating some more before eventually heading over to see Travis Cottrell in concert. He is fabulous! He is Beth Moore's worship leader and has traveled with her for years. When we all went and saw her in Jacksonville back in March we really liked his singing so one of the women looked him up on the web and found out he was coming to Destin this past weekend...and a "Girls' Weekend" came together.

If you have been reading my blog for any length of time you know that I like to take pictures of EVERYTHING! It's not often I go somewhere without my camera. This past weekend was no exception. But, my friends didn't want their pictures on the internet...so here's my compromise -

**names have been changed

SallySue** is the "oldest" of the bunch - our fearless leader (at least she tries to take charge - when WE let her! haha)

Baby sister SusieSally** loves to pull pranks - fortunately she was too tired (from having to sleep on an air mattress on a hard floor) so she didn't do any pranks this trip. She organized the whole trip though and to that I am very thankful because I had a great time!








Our poor driver - BeckyJo**- she had to do more U-turns than I've had to do in a lifetime!!! Driving in a van with 6 women with NO agenda?? BIG MISTAKE! She was such a trooper though.

LindaLou** - kept us rolling the whole time with her stand-up comedy. She is a school bus driver. I never knew this could be such a hilarious occupation.

My sweet, beautiful friend Tess (her real name) - she doesn't care if I show her picture. She is always quick to serve and make sure others are happy. Her wit is quick but her spirit is gentle and sweet.

They were complaining that I was constantly BEHIND the camera so Tess took my picture...yes, I was lounging! Very comfortable evening - not hot at all, great weather for an outdoor concert.

We had set up our chairs early and went back to the hotel for a little while so we had a front row seat. I loved the music they sang - it's all music we sing in church so we could sing right along with the band.








Travis has a FANTASTIC voice! He is truly blessed by God. Below is a video I got off of youtube with clips of some of their songs at a concert they did this year. Hope you enjoy!

The Little Zoo That Could

We don't live very far from this Zoo (Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo) that was featured on The Animal Planet in a series called "The Little Zoo that Could." This series shows the rebuilding that took place after Hurricanes Ivan, Dennis and Katrina struck our area a few years ago.

When Tina, my daughter was in town last week we decided to go visit this zoo and take my grandbaby and Dakota (my 11-yr-old) to the zoo. We had never visited this one before. We had a very pleasant afternoon.

The Princess in her chariot for the day...


Tina and Bailee are watching the "BIG KITTY"



It was sooooo hot...this looked nice! I was jealous!! LOL


Tina is trying to convince Bailee it's okay to feed the goats. "See, Uncle Dakota is doing it..."


She starts feeding the animals and realizes she enjoys it!




It took her all of about 5 mins to get to sleep once she was in the car...she was so hot. See how red her cheeks are!


After her nap...later that night...her momma threw the cast net and caught her some FISHIES! She had a blast playing with the fish in the bucket.

CVS Preview 7/27-8/1

Here's a preview of the sales and matching printable coupons for 7/27-8/1. You can pick up a sales flyer in your local CVS store beginning Sunday, 7/27 to see all the sales.
(courtesy of Slickdeals)

ECB DEALS

Purchase Aleve 100 ct for $8.99 (original or arthritis) and receive $4.00 ECB - LIMIT 1
-1.00 off 20 ct or larger size Aleve

Purchase $20.00 of Johnson & Johnson's Products and receive $10.00 ECB

Johnson's Baby Powder Printable

Tylenol, $1 off Any, Printable

Carefree Feminine Products, .50 off, Printable

Stayfree Dry Max, $2 off, Printable

Stayfree, $1 off Any, Printable

Listerine, $1 off Printable

Neosporin, $1 off, Printable

Zyrtec, $2 off, Printable bricks

Other Sale Items (Non-ECB)
Kellogg's Cereal 2/$5.00
Kelloggs Healthy Beginnings Cereals $1 off 2 Printable

Maybelline Colossal Volume $5.99
Maybelline, Great Lash Mascara, $1 off, Printable

Boost or Boost Smoothies 6pk $6.99 Limit 4
Boost, Glucose Control Multi Pack, $3 off, Printable

Tums $3.69
Tums, Quik Pak, $2.25 off, Printable

Nature Made Vitamins BOGO
Nature Made, Vitamin E, $2 off, Printable
Nature Made, Various, Printable

Free Magazines - Adperk

Adperks - I just heard about this (thanks to Money Saving Mom) where you can get free magazine subscriptions by earning credits. To earn the credits you watch a few short videos by sponsors. I did this for one of the magazines yesterday and I had to watch 11 videos and they ranged from 30 sec to 2 min each! So now I have a 1 years subscription to this magazine and it didn't cost me anything but maybe 20 mins of my time.

Go to Adperks to see what magazines they are offering right now - they change their selections so check back later if you don't see something you like at the moment.

GREAT NEWS!!

WE GOT APPROVED!

After 7 years of paying off debt and rebuilding our credit...we FINALLY got the approval to purchase our first home!!

Now the search begins for a house...

I give up for today...blog STILL under construction!

Okay, I have been working on my blog for literally 4 hours this afternoon and BLOGSPOT/BLOGGER (whatever!) wants to keep giving me an error message that it won't allow me to make changes right now. I am sick and tired of working on this and extremely frustrated so I give up until tomorrow. I am sorry for the way it looks...it will have to wait for repairs.

Have a great evening everyone!

Free Samples

This one is from Walmart.
Go here to get a Free Sample of Nivea for Men Extreme Comfort Shaving Gel.

---

I love Walmart samples! They always come in the mail so quick!


Some more from Walmart...
Kotex Pads, Pantyliners and Tampons sampler pack

Playtex Sport Tampons - still available if you haven't requested this one yet

Multi-Grain Cheerios

Benefiber Sticks for your drink

Tide Total Care laundry detergent



Pond's Clean Sweep Towelettes - from Costco (don't need membership number)


Glad ForceFlex Trash Bags - from Sam's Club (don't need membership number)


Degree Men's Absolute Protection Deodorant (this one takes 100 seconds to load...there's a countdown timer...then you click on the deodorant and you can request your free sample)


Estroven PM sample and coupon


Fiber One Cereal and Fiber One Oats & Chocolate Bar AND a coupon booklet with $3.00 in savings.

Toon-ful Tuesday

In John 16:33, Jesus says: In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. Trouble may be mowing down everything around us, but in Jesus, we can stand and not be cut down.

Sharing the savings...

One Night - Four Stores - $36.00 later....

Office Depot

20 Pocket Folders w/ prongs .20

10 ct Color Pencils .49

Paid: .69

**Dropped off one of my used HP print cartridges for a $3.00 coupon towards my next purchase since this purchase wasn't $3.00 worth.

CVS
4 Herbal Essences Shampoo $10.00

1 Gain laundry detergent $4.99

2 Airwick Freshmatic Kit $9.98

1 Speedstick deodorant $3.99

2 Advil Migraine pills $7.98

2 Airwick Warmer Refill $5.00

1 CVS Cleansing Towelettes $3.49

2 Airwick Plug-in Warmers $2.79

1 Airheads candy .79 (had Dakota with me! LOL)

After coupons & ExtraBucks

Cash paid: $3.72

Extrabucks earned: $7.98

Wal-Mart

Breakfast Bowl $2.18 (Again...had Dakota with me - HIS choice!)

2 Hot Pockets $4.32

2 Post-It Flag Highlighters $4.94

4 Kotex pads $4.00

2 HP Copy & Printer paper $7.94

Total: $23.38

After coupons: $10.38

Target

2 Lays Stax chips $2.00

6 Pringles chips $5.08

4 boxes Cascadian granola bars $10.00

4 Mac & Cheese $2.54

1 Skippy Peanut Butter $2.09

1 Smucker's Sugar Free Jelly $1.34

4 Tava 4pk drink $10.00

1 Goldfish crackers $1.50

After coupons: $23.20

My Apologies!

I have had major internet server issues the past 4 days...extremely frustrating to say the least. Everything looks like it may be back up and running now. I hope to get my posts going again today. Sorry for my absence...

Blog under construction

Moments that make a Ya-Ya happy

I am known as Ya-Ya to my grandchildren. I am much to young to be called grandma, grandmother, grammie or something like that. Little did I know when I chose Ya-Ya as my name that my grandbabies would have such an easy time learning it...my name is one of the first ones they are able to say after mommy & daddy. Love that! :-)
My daughter, Tina and her husband & daughter Bailee have been in town for 2 weeks. They will be flying back to CA this coming Sunday. They have joined us for church the last two Sundays and I have tried to spend time with them while they have been here. Bailee is about 20 mos old and a BIG momma's girl. She is never left with anyone else (sometimes she stays home with her daddy but not often because Tina just can't stand to hear her cry so she ends up taking Bailee with her everywhere.)
I watched Bailee last week all day while Tina & Bryant traveled to Albany, GA to search for a home since they are going to be moving there in August. We had a great time that day - no problems at all. I was pleasantly surprised at how well the day went. This past Sunday after church we all went to Wendy's to eat lunch. When we were finished with lunch I picked Bailee up and walked outside towards her parents' car. Tina walked over there and reached for Bailee and Bailee waved bye to her mom. We laughed and said "yeah right, she doesn't realize what she is doing!" Tina took her out of my arms. Bailee started crying and reached back for me. I took her back and said "okay, you are going with me then" and I began to walk to our car. She still waved bye-bye to her mom!! This was such a shock. I put her in the car and told Dakota to watch her while I went back to get her car seat.

Tina said "Are you really taking her with you?" I said "yes, I am...you two go enjoy your day together and you can have her back tonight!" LOL When I got back to the car she was still sitting there waiting for me and as soon as I put her car seat in the car she jumped in it. We had a great afternoon together.

Later that evening, Greg (Pops) and I took her to Walmart and then we went out to eat dinner. Tina and Bryant came to Sonny's Restaurant (where we were eating) to pick her up from us. When Bailee saw Tina she got the biggest, sweetest smile on her face and jumped in her mom's arms and hugged her so tight. I was thrilled that she wanted to spend the day with me and then it just warmed my heart to see the love between my child and her child...she is an awesome mommy!

Are you using your $3/$15 CVS coupon this week?

Stats:
Started with $20.46 extracare bucks
5 transactions
spent $4.47 out of pocket ($3.03 product & $1.44 tax)
spent $37.47 in extracare bucks

have $18.97 in extracare bucks left for my next trip

Wish Upon A Hero

This is a great new website I just heard about today. It's called Wish Upon A hero. The man who designed this site came up with the idea shortly after the September 11th attacks on New York City. The premise behind this social helping website is that everyday people can post wishes and everyday people can grant wishes. Wishes range from needs to wants and can be searched by category, time, location and even by keywords. It's free, easy to register and has over 13,000 members registered!

Give Me Your Eyes

I was listening to the radio this morning and I heard this song. I had heard it before but this morning I REALLY heard it. You know what I mean don't ya? When you REALLY hear a song for the first time and the lyrics sink in...
So, anyway, wanted to share it with you. The lyrics are below the video.


Looked down from a broken sky
Traced out by the city lights
My world from a mile high
Best seat in the house tonight
Touched down on the cold black tile
Hold on for the sudden stop
Breath in the familiar shock
Of confusion and chaos
Are those people going somewhere?
Why have I never cared?

Chorus:
Give me your eyes for just one second
Give me your eyes so I can see
Everything that I keep missing
Give me your love for humanity
Give me your arms for the broken hearted
The ones that are far beyond my reach
Give me your heart for the once forgotten
Give me your eyes so I can see

Step out on a busy street
See a girl and our eyes meet
Does her best to smile at me
To hide whats underneath
Theres a man just to her right
Black suit and a bright red tie
To ashamed to tell his wife
He's out of work
He's buying time
Are those people going somewhere?
Why have I never cared?

Chorus

Ive Been there a million times
A couple of million eyes
Just moving past me by
I swear I never thought that I was wrong
Well I want a second glance
So give me a second chance
To see the way you see the people all alone

Chorus

Supercook - GREAT website!!

I have just discovered my newest favorite website for helping me prepare meals! (Thanks to Denise!)

At Supercook you can enter in the ingredients you have on hand (and it will ask you if you have this or that too....to help jog your memory) and then the more ingredients you enter in to your virtual kitchen the more recipes SuperCook will tell you that you can make right now with the ingredients you have.

I had a whole chicken I wanted to cook for dinner tonight and wanted to do something a little different. By the time I finished entering in just 29 ingredients from my kitchen (mostly staples like spices, milk, flour, oils, etc) I had 646 recipes to choose from. The neat thing is these recipes are pulled from other recipe sites. My chicken recipe I ended up going with actually came from Allrecipes - another favorite.

Toon-ful Tuesday

Our own efforts to "do our own thing", rather than what God has commanded us to do, will keep us from receiving the good things that God has for us.

CVS $5.00 Challenge 7/14

Check out Alyssa's blog at Keeping the Kingdom First for other people involved in this fun challenge!

*RULES*

1. Come up with your best scenario/scenarios for the upcoming week at CVS using the current weekly ad, monthly deals, and coupons available. Your budget for Out of Pocket (OOP) expenses on the first transaction is only $5.00 (either cash OOP or ECBs on hand).

2. Using up to (3) scenarios (we don't want to overwhelm the newbies with too many transactions), offer up your best scenarios to "grow" that $5.00 into more ECBs to use in following weeks.

3. If you want to divide your $5.00 allowance over the three scenarios to make them work, that's fine!

4. Be sure to list coupons by inserts and/or with links to printables to make it easier for everyone to follow along.

My Scenarios:

First purchase -

(3) CVS Facial Cleansing Towelettes $3.49 each

(1) Bayer aspirin $4.99

Total = 15.46


Used these coupons:

-$3.00/$15.00 coupon

-$2.00 Bayer Aspirin with Heart Advantage (exp 8-31-08) Valassis insert 6/29/08

(3)-$2.00 CVS Skincare coupon

New Total = $4.46

ECB's earned = $5.00 ($3.00 for towelettes & $2.00 for Bayer)

2nd Purchase-

(2) Well Patch heat wraps $5.99 x 2 = 11.98

(1) Neutrogena Mascara $5.99

Total = $17.97

-$3.00/$15.00 coupon

(2)-$1.00 Well Patch coupon from 7/13 Smartsource insert

(2)-$1.00 off printable coupon any Neutrogena product

-5.00 ECB from transaction #1

New Total = $5.97

ECB's earned = $10.00 ($6.00 for Well Patch & $4.00 for mascara)

3rd Purchase-

(1) Speed Stick $3.99

(1) Gillette Shampoo $4.99

(1) CVS 6x8 photo book $7.99

Total: $16.97

-$3.00/$15.00 coupon

-$1.50 Speed Stick CVS coupon from scanner

-$1.00 Gillette Shampoo coupon from 7/13 Red Plum insert

-10.00 ecbs from 2nd purchase

New Total: $1.47 out of pocket

ECB's earned: $10.99 for next week's challenge

Office Depot - 1 cent School Supplies

Did you see the circular in Sunday's paper from Office Depot? They have some school supplies available for ONE CENT. These are available until Saturday, July 19th, but supplies are limited so you better hurry in to get yours quick.
Here's the list:

• 12 pk Red Eraser caps - limit 5 per customer
• 6" semi-circular protractor - limit 5 per customer
• 2 pocket paper folder with or without prongs - limit 20 per customer
• acrylic ruler - limit 5 per customer
  

CVS - Weekly Deals & Coupons 7/13 - 7/19

I'm listing this week's deals that have printable coupons to match. For all other deals be sure to pick up a weekly flyer at your local CVS store.


$4.00 ECB when you buy Neutrogena healthy volume mascara ($5.99) LIMIT 2
-$1 on any Neutrogena cosmetic item (must register first) http://www.neutrogena.com/cosmeti...coupon.asp

$2.00 ECB when you buy Speed Stick 24/7 for men LIMIT 5
-$1 off Printable

$2.00 ECB when you buy Bayer Aspirin with Heart Advantage ($4.99) LIMIT 1
-$2.50/1 printable coupon



Other Sales / Non-ECB Deals
Ensure (6 pk): $6.99
-$3/1 printable coupon
Here's a Try Me Free mail-in certificate for a rebate on the $6.99 original price. Moneymaker!

Sally Hansen Hard As Nails or Extreme Nail Color: $.99 **MONEY-MAKER!!**
-$3/2 printable coupon

Colgate Total: Buy One Get One Free
-$1.50 Colgate Total printable coupon

Advil (40 ct): $3.99
$1.00 Advil product printable coupon
$2.00 Advil PM printable coupon

Air Wick Scented Oil Refill: 2/$5
- $1.00 printable coupon

Air Wick Starter Kit: $4.99
-$4.00 printable coupon

Centrum (260 ct): $7.99
-$1.00 Centrum printable coupon
-$1.00 Centrum Performance printable coupon

All Nature's bounty vitamins or supplements -- Buy One Get One Free
Nature's Bounty Vitamins, $2 off, Register, Printable

New CVS coupon

Here's a new coupon from The Valley Breeze, a Rhode Island newspaper
You can access it here.
$3.00 off a $15.00 purchase
Expires 7/20
thanks BeCentsAble

Menu Planning - DEAD

I forgot to post about this the last two weeks but I've decided to forgo the whole Menu Planning thing. That worked great for me a few years ago when I had a whole family at home to feed. But now that it's just the three of us and my husband never knows when he is coming home for dinner or when he is going to have to entertain out-of-town clients, menu planning wasn't working for me.

When Greg calls and tells me he isn't going to be home for dinner, Dakota and I can get by with a sandwich or cereal and yogurt. Not the healthiest...but it's what we do.

One thing I am trying to get better at is using my leftovers for more than one purpose - something I have never done before. For instance, I like to buy whole roasting chickens (because they are inexpensive...normally $3.25-$4.00 price range) and Greg loves roasted chicken. In the past I would also boil the whole chicken and use all the meat in a casserole or something else...but that makes a big casserole for just us and we get tired of eating it before it's all gone.

Recently I roasted one of those chickens and then pulled some of the meat off before serving it and put that meat aside (into the refrigerator.) Two days later I shredded the meat, added some shredded cheese and spices and made chicken quesadillas from that same chicken. This is something new I have never before and I am trying to train myself to think ahead and re-do leftovers instead of just sticking it in the refrigerator.

What about you? Any helpful suggestions?