Day #3: Today I am thankful for...

Well it is the time of the year again that I like to torture my family by making them pose for a few pictures. My hopes are that I will get at least one that I can slap on a Christmas card and show off to all our family and friends. I am actually a little late in this process this year (by my standards that is), but we were lucky enough to have Mimi and Papa visiting from Texas this weekend so they could snap a few pics of all of us.

One thing you will learn as you have kids and more kids is that picture sessions such as this become increasingly more difficult. Especially when you have a busy 3 1/2 year old and an almost 2 year old who is determined to do everything his way. So needless to say these picture sessions can be quite taxing for everyone involved. Despite that, and thanks to the high quality cameras that Nikon has designed, we were able to capture a few special moments and smiles. Just enough in fact that I was able to create and order our Christmas cards this afternoon. Phew!

So, I would have to say after today's adventure that today I am thankful for...

PATIENCE!

Some days I have more of it than others. Luckily this morning it was very plentiful and the end result was some spectacular shots of my boys and I.

Day #2: Today I am thankful for....

The boys and I hit the Halloween clearance at Target today. Everything was 50% off with the exception of the candy which was 30% off. Any who, we found several cute things which included a sparkly picture frame, a pair of socks for mommy, and some cute divider plates for the boys. But my favorite find of all was the stuff I found for our dog Dexter. As it was we almost didn't even go down the costume aisle, but they deal hunter in me couldn't resist. My husband probably wishes I didn't cause once I spotted all the dog costumes I was a goner. I dug and dug for probably 30 minutes before I settled on a Super Dog costume and a "rufferee" T-shirt. I was so excited over my finds that I had to call my mom and see if she wanted any costumes for her dogs. As soon as we got home we tried them on and all we could do was laugh. It was the absolute cutest thing I had ever seen. Worth the whole $4 I paid for it for sure.

All this got me thinking about how much joy our pets bring to us every day. Just like children they can drive you crazy at times, but, just like children, they also bring a smile to your face on a daily basis. My life definitely wouldn't be the same without them. And while that $4 I spent on that Super Dog costume might seem like a waste to some people, the moments we spent this afternoon with Dexter and his costume are priceless. Therefore, today I am thankful for....

MY PETS!

Today I am thankful for...

Over the past couple of years I have noticed the new trend on social networking sites every November to post a new thing every day that you are thankful for. Well I might be a little late, but I am finally jumping on the thankful bandwagon. It's not that I haven't been thankful for things in the past. I have just been too busy to post them every single day. Well I am still busy, but this year I am going to try and make a conscious effort to post a new thing every day. Why? Becaue I feel like I have a lot to be thankful for and I feel like typing it out in black and white will help me realize even more all the things that I have that I am thankful for. Some of them might be silly while others serious, but in the end as long as we are grateful and appreciative then it doesn't matter if it is big or small.

So, for November 1st, 2012 my thing that I am thankful for is...

COUPONS!

And if you seriously don't know why then you should refer to my previous post Take that Walmart! ;-)

Take that Walmart!

I know you have heard them on the radio and seen them on TV. Those pesky Walmart commercials advertising their everyday low prices and their oh so special price match policy. Personally I want to throw my TV out the window every time I hear it come on because there are more lies in those Walmart commercials than in all the political ads combined! Now I am not saying I never shop there. Unfortunately there are a few things they carry that I can't get anywhere else. But when I hear them say "bring in your receipt from your last trip to Harris Teeter and we'll show you how much you could have saved" all I can do is laugh.

Now if you are looking something that is full price (aka not on sale) and there is no coupon for it then yes they might be a few pennies cheaper than most other stores (that's where all those .78 and .88 endings come in). However, until they start doubling or tripling coupons they will never be able to truthfully call themselves the cheapest. The proof is in my grocery trip today. I saved $125 and only spent $34. That includes about $10 worth of clearance Halloween stuff that I snagged as well. So for $24 I got 6 bags of french fries, 6 Smart Ones entrees, 10 canned veggies, 6 bags of cat foot, 18 cans of wet cat food, 2 bags of chocolate chips, 1 bottle of bubble bath and 2 bottles of V8 Splash. My only disappointment is that my freezers are now full and I want to go back for more!

So in case you needed any more reasons not to shop at Walmart then I think this should do it for ya!

No tricks. Just treats!

Rice Krispie treats at that! They have to be the easiest treat ever to make and with just a bit of food coloring you can make them festive. Being that today is Halloween we went for the candy corn variety. In case you are wanting to copy my brilliant idea (that I stole from the Everyday Food magazine) here is how it goes:

Melt 3 tbsp of butter in a sauce pan. Add 4 cups of mini marshmallows. Stirs in 3 cups of Rice Krispie cereal and press into a 5x9 loaf pan. Repeat this process, but add orange food coloring to the melted marshmallows. Then repeat a third time with yellow. Let cool for a couple hours before removing from the loaf pan and slicing and shaping. After that the trick (pun intended) is to try and stop eating them!

Pleasantly Surprised

When it comes to department store shopping there is usually only one place I will go - Belk. One could argue that I am biased because I worked for Belk for 5 years, but the truth is I have been shopping there since I was very little with my mom. However, today I am not writing about Belk. Today I am actually writing about my experience I had in JCPenney.

Most of you probably remember the commercial last winter of the women screaming over sale signs and expiration dates. If you didn't turn off your TV then you eventually learned that JCPenney was the one behind the screaming at that they were doing a big overhaul on the way they were operating their stores. The gist of it is that they were no longer going to have "sales." All the merchandise was going to marked to an everyday low value price. I, myself, am driven by sales and coupons and only go to stores based on that, so when I first heard this I thought to myself "boy are they doomed for failure!" Well earlier this month the CEO sent out coupons to all their email subscribers for $10 off a $10 purchase. This happens to be my favorite kind of coupon cause it means free stuff! So the boys and I ventured to a mall with a JCPenny this morning. The first thing I noticed was how clean and neat the store looked. Everything was in it's place. Everything was organized and east to find. And there was not a sale sign in site. I actually didn't know what to do with myself. I started glancing at the price tags and was pleasantly surprised by the prices I saw. Even further, despite the fact that the store was fairly quiet, there were quite a few sales people working and they were so genuinely friendly and constantly making sure we were finding everything we needed while shopping. In the end we managed to walk out of there with 2 pairs of winter pjs for Greyson and only spent $4. That's the kind of deal I like. Oh, and if that wasn't good enough, as we were checking out the cashier asked me if I wanted to round up my total to the nearest whole dollar. The change goes straight to a charity. This month was the Breast Cancer Foundation of course, but they feature a new charity every month. I think that is pretty awesome if you ask me.

Now I can't speak for how they are doing as a company since I have no idea what their sales have been since the change, but I can say that from a consumer stand point I was highly impressed in the changes I saw. They won't dethrone Belk as my number store I don't think, but after today I will definitely be considering them more often when I go shopping.

A Penny for Your Thoughts

Actually I might even pay a little more if someone had a solution to my problem. It is now October. We are two months out from Rylan's birthday and I have no clue what theme I am going to do for his party. Some of you might be rolling your eyes thinking 2 months is plenty of time, but when you are making Halloween costumes, buying Christmas presents, and still finishing a kitchen remodel then 2 months is not nearly the time I need to plan his party.

Greyson's 2nd birthday was a piece of cake (pun intended). He love Sesame Street so that is what I did. Rylan on the other hand doesn't have one thing that he is crazy about like that so I am at a total loss at to what I should do. Therefore I am employing those of you who read my blog to help me. Do any of you have any suggestions for me? It can be something you have already done or just something you have read about. Just as long as it is something easy to pull of with a lot of homemade decorations (aka costs very little to put together). Thanks in advance :-)

The bat mobile!

Buh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh, Batman! Okay so that's not the bat mobile I am referring to, but it's such a catchy tune. The bat mobile I am talking about is the one that Greyson and I made today as our first official Halloween craft.

Better Homes and Gardens had the coolest article in their October issue. It showed a porch on a house similar to ours decorated completely out of homemade decorations. I was slightly intrigued to say the least, and also humored cause I had just seen similar versions of several of the items for sale in the Pottery Barn catalog. So today we went to Walmart with a long list of supplies and our fingers crossed that they would have what we needed. We managed to find all but a couple items, so with the track record that Walmart has I considered that a success. The bats just happened to be the project we chose to try first. While it was a tad more difficult than the article lets on, I was pretty pleased with the result. Our super spooky porch is well on its way. If you are curious how to make one for yourself, you can go to the Better Homes and Gardens website and check it out.

Backseat driver!

We all give our spouses and parents a hard time about being a critic while you are driving, but I have got one better. A three year old! Yup Greyson has become the world's worst backseat driver. He is not old enough to be criticizing how I am driving, but he definitely has comments on what I should or shouldn't be doing. Some of my favorites are "mommy, catch up to that truck so we can win the race!" - "Woah mommy you are going really fast like Queen!" - "mommy, red light!" - and my personal favorite "mommy, there's a Po Po." While it never hurts to have an extra set of eyes on the road, it is a tad distracting to have someone yelling RED LIGHT from the backseat. I am sure even the most confident drivers would have to double check themselves when anyone barks such a command. At least thats what I tell myself...

Let the costumes begin!

When I was asking for costume suggestions on Facebook a couple months ago, people were responding with "why are you thinking about Halloween in July?" Well because I am not your typical mom. First off, I put a lot of thought into what my boys are going to dress up as. Second, I don't just walk into a store and buy a costume. They are either way over priced and/or made very cheaply. I prefer to put it together myself   (hence beginning my research in the summer months).

Some of you might remember last year's costume extravaganza that involved me making a Lightning McQueen and Tow Mater costumes out of cardboard boxes. Very time consuming, but I think I spent a whopping $5 on both costumes. Luckily I don't think this year's costumes will be quite as time consuming. In fact I already have a pretty good head start on Greyson's. After much consideration I decided a pirate is what he shall be. And after about 5 minutes on Google I realized there are a million and one ways to dress like a pirate. Since I am designing for a 3 year I figured simple was the best route to go. So this morning we went up the road to Goodwill to see what treasures we could find and boy did I luck out on the first try! I found a pair of black pants, a white dress shirt and a red scarf that cost me a whopping $7! I will have to make a few snips here or there to make them more "piratey," but I am definitely pleased with my findings. The hardest decision really has been trying to figure out what to put on his feet. For some reason all the pirate costumes online have the kid modeling barefoot. Cute as it may look it's obviously not realistic. Now you can spend a small fortune on child size pirate boots, but being the mom I am that just wasn't going to cut it. Lucky for me I came across pirate rain boots. They are decorated to look like a pirate boot, but being that they are rain boots that means Greyson will get to wear them for more than just Halloween. Mission accomplished.

Now since Greyson is a pirate of course that means Rylan has to be something that coordinates. At first I really couldn't decide. A parrot seemed like the obvious choice although I had no creative ideas on how to pull it off. Then I fell upon this site. One look and it was decided - Rylan will be Peter Pan! Now I could imagine my husband's reaction when sharing my idea, but we are not talking about green tights here. Actually instead of making the pants like suggested, I purchased a pair of green leggings a few sizes to big. Now I just need to arrange a solo trip to the fabric store and I will be on my way. Again the shoes are a little bit of a dilemma. I am thinking of trying to find a brown boot that he could wear this winter, but that might change once I get working on the rest of the costume.

So for those of you that were questioning me before, I think you see why this is such a lengthy process. And all that was just the prepping and planning!