Going to see Santa

I would first like to mention that for the last seven years we have seen the same Santa at the same mall, which was really neat because I have photos of my oldest and my youngest with the same Santa! He was the nicest man, and always made my kids feel comfortable. The photos are awesome - even when the twins were 10 months old they were both babbling his ear off, which made a great picture.

My boys are 2.5 now, and are so scared of Santa! We waited in line for a normal amount of time (we do go early!) and they were all excited, the huge Christmas tree was great, and once they saw Santa they were all about leaving. He was a new Santa, and was not terribly smiley or friendly. When big kid tried to put thing one on the big seat next to him he screamed so loud he set off all of the babies waiting in line! I was so embarrassed, but hey he's a big scary dude in a funny red suit with a huge white beard! Not something you see every day...

I had tried to "prepare" the boys to see Santa, we talked about it and watched Rudolph to introduce them to the idea. They did wave goodbye to him between screams!

Suprise Suprise!

I have anxiety attacks as pms - it's hormonal, and easily controlled by the pill. I decided when I realized they stopped while on the pill that I was going to actively start trying to be a healthier person. Since I had twins I have been horribly out of shape, everything makes me out of breath. It feels awful the three days I do have anxiety attacks, it feels exactly like what a heart attack is described as. I want to be a healthy person, I am only 31!

About two months ago I started this yoga ball video workout. I'm allergic to actual exercise, this is more along the lines of stretching that happens to work your weakest muscles a bit, on a huge yoga ball. The twins love doing it with me, that should tell you how easy it is. They get it sort of, they mostly laugh and sit on their play balls. It's pretty hilarious.

Much to my surprise my clothes started to get bigger! Yesterday I finally broke down and bought myself a new sweater, jeans, and a few undergarments and was shocked at having to go down one to two sizes (I did, of course, get a huge discount at Kohl's and hit the maidenform outlet, I never pay full price for anything). I have only lost five pounds, but I'm apparently moving my weight around on me. I don't post about weight and such, but this one just surprised the heck out of me!

Having to stick to a gluten free diet is nasty enough without trying to actually go ON a diet to lose weight, that would just make life unbearable for me. I realize I probably am on a "calorie controlled diet" to begin with, because I can't eat most of what I really want to! Ha, god forbid anyone ever told me there was a pill I could take to eat gluten without harm, I would probably gain four hundred pounds the first month of eating real food again!! NICK TAHOE'S GARBAGE PLATE HERE I COME! Only in my dreams ;)

Generosity

So after hearing about the two shoeboxes that big kid and I are packing for OCC, my husband got into the giving mood as well and asked me to post his immaculate nintendo ds on freecycle. His iPhone has really replaced it for him, so he doesn't use it at all now. He wanted to find a family who had a child who would love a ds but couldn't afford a new one. We got over two hundred responses on our local freecycle list within four hours of me posting it. It was hard to hear so many stories of hardship, but we finally decided to give it to a 9 yr old girl whose family has been going through hard times financially. He loaded his r4 card with games, barbie, bratz, mario and such, and we are giving it to her mom this morning. He still had the original box it came in, the actual game system looks absolutely brand new, he even had the packaging that went in the box and the bag of manuals! It is such a nice feeling to help someone else's family for the holidays, to be able to! I am so proud of hubby for doing this, he really made a little girl's christmas this year. We are well enough off to be able to take care of our three children's christmas presents this year, thankfully! We really can't afford to donate money to anything, but I think hubby's "gift" is that much better!

Cupcakes!

These are the cupcakes that turned out so well for our party, using a box mix and frosting I got for free with coupons! I just used a small star tip with a decorating bag and voila - messy hairy cupcakes! I used m&m's for the eyes, and those crunchy white dot sprinkles that my husband hates. He flicked them off ;)

Halloween!!

All I can say is my mother should become a professional photographer just to take photos like this! She did this on purpose and knew exactly how to play the lighting into the photo, thanks to taking a million photos at a recent air show. GO MOM!!!

Operation Christmas Child

So I don't ever post advertising some awesome product and such, but I wanted to post about what we are doing this week. The kids and I decided to make two shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child this year. We first went through all of the free items we have picked up at various stores using coupons over the year, big kid was very surprised at how much we have accumulated! We gave each box some toothpaste, toothbrush, floss, soap, washcloths, and have various toys such as sidewalk chalk, crayons, magnadoodles, puzzles, sticker sets. Keep in mind this is just the stuff I have found free with coupons. We are going to the dollar store to get a few items, and we need to find two shoe boxes! I have already started shopping for christmas so I have used all of ours already!!! I think this is an awesome easy way to give to a child in need, and it's a great lesson for my kids to learn - that christmas is about giving AND receiving!

Rite Aid Rocks!!

Got 2 pks Pull Ups, 1 Garnier Nutritioniste ultra lift night cream, 1 24roll pk Charmin TP, and 10 king sized snickers/twix/3 musketeers for $15 today! I used a ton of coupons, and I am at the wellness card level to get 10% off everything I buy in the store. Awesome!!! My total was $75 before coupons and my card savings came off... wow. This is what will help us get ahead!!!!

Almost Halloween!!! EEEEE!

Tonight I am learning how to roast a pork loin. Pork loin roast is very different from pork tenderloin, which I cook on a regular basis. We rubbed it with seasoned olive oil, and baked it on a high temp, then low temp, then high temp again. We'll see how it comes out, I am excited! *it was amazing*

Our halloween party is next weekend, I am so excited! This is my favorite holiday, and I always love having parties. I enjoy being the hostess, but most of all I enjoy spending time with our friends! Ok, and I love the halloween decorations, costumes, and freaky foods ;)

The twins are doing well potty training, and thing one spelled his name phonetically for the first time ever!! He spelled it while thing two spelled the word "boy" but spelled it "boi". I was so excited I was jumping up and down, this is so early to be spelling words, even if they are only doing it phonetically!! My husband looked at me like I was nuts, I meanwhile had called my mother to tell her so she could yell and jump up and down with me! Such smart kiddos!

Homeschooling is still going really well for us, we are working on skills as well as academics. Test taking is a joke at public school, the only thing my kid learned was how to ace a multiple choice test without knowing the actual material. Studying was nonexistant, so I am working on studying skills as well as giving him tests that have little to no multiple choice questions. He has to actually know the materials!! It's going well, he seems to be retaining a ton of what I am teaching him. I review months past on a regular basis, to make sure we aren't losing good information.

Next month we'll crunch to pull Christmas together. The twins are easy, they have everything... so we'll most likely put the word out that they need new coloring books and maybe a few prs of jeans. Big kid has a list a mile long, I ask for that so he won't know exactly what he's getting. My mom and hubby are easy, they want a lot! I can only think of four things I want, but once you reach adulthood it's harder to make a long list of wants that aren't super expensive!! We are definitely low on money, this year has been very expensive - but I'm working as much as I can, and we'll make it happen as we always do. It is Christmas after all!

Happy and Sad Day

Last night the twins started peeing in the pot! YAY! We are so happy!! I have been waiting for this day for months, and am so proud of the twins for taking this step.

Today I found out that a very dear friend and relative has pulmonary hypertension and will need surgery right away to insert catheters to relieve the high blood pressure between her lungs and heart. I am now at that age where so many of my parents' generation are starting to experience health problems. I hate this part of growing up, learning to cope with the fact that bad things happen to good people. It's bad enough to lose grandparents, I was very close to mine, but to even consider losing a parent just feels wrong! You grow up knowing your parents are your world, that they will always be there, and it's just horrible to think that someday they won't be. I have many parental figures, I can't imagine losing even one. I have already been dealing with a number of health scares with my "other mother", now it's one of my very best friends. The hardest part for me is that I can't just drop what I'm doing and go to them - I have too many responsibilities here to be with them. Sucks getting old! My only comfort is that my kiddos will hopefully be old by the time they have to deal with me aging, I started at a young age. Small comfort today.

Professional Photos

A friend of ours is practicing to become a professional family photographer. Her camera is awesome, she has a great understanding of how to use it, and her photos are awesome! She chose a great outdoor park for us to try first, and we had a good time hanging out and letting the kids play. The pictures she took are really nice, she agreed she needs to work on getting into the kids more, learning what style of composition she likes, and we need to get there earlier to play with lighting. Overall I was very impressed, and can't wait for us to do it again!

We had another "professional" last year take outdoor family photos of the kids and I, and while she took good photos, she played with them too much. They were too bright, our skin looked super white, and she never sent me the log in info to see our gallery on her site. I fussed after five or six months of not hearing from her, emails going unanswered, and she acted like it was my fault that she didn't send me an email. Whatever. I have no clue what her photos looked like, but the four she sent me in the apology email were just about head shots, and if I were to blow them up to hang on the wall anything bigger than 8x10 would make my children look like huge monsters! Not the type of photography I expected from a "pro". We have gone to the picture people before, but didn't like having to spend a fortune for prints. Photography is so overrated!

Photographic memory?

We cleaned out big kid's closet today, and found a pile of puzzles he had put up for the twins. They are 25 piece puzzles, marked 3yr and up. The twins were of course excited and wanted to take them downstairs and do them! Thing one started the cars and truck puzzle, and first try fit most of the pieces in. Thing two had no clue what he was doing, but slowly figured out the shapes and started fitting puzzle pieces together, with my help. Thing one came over and tried to help thing two with his puzzle, but had no luck. I think thing one has a photographic memory and could picture his puzzle while he was building it! Thing one uses letters in the bathtub to make words like cat, dog, and, the, too, but he can't read them. Thing two sits behind him sounding them out slowly! Their speech therapist is convinced thing one remembered the words from the books we read together, that he has a photographic memory. I have to say after today I agree! The twins no longer need speech therapy, they test out of the program. Yay! I am so thankful for the help, they are spouting out sentences left and right now. I love communicating with them! Don't get me wrong, I still want to be anyone but "Ma" when it's said six thousand times in a minute, I just love hearing "my car is under table" instead of crying and pointing! I love hearing "food pease mommy" instead of screaming at the pantry door! SUCCESS!

Big kid is still doing wonderfully at school, we took a five day weekend to take a break and are back on schedule now. He went to the History Museum this weekend with nahnah, and had a great time. Amazingly he remembered a lot about President Lincoln! He is having fun learning about the precolumbian civilizations in South America, watching some movies about them to help visualize what was going on back then. He can't get over the sacrificing of people to please the gods, that one eludes him still. I'm working on it, but maybe that's a good thing?

We ordered a copy of Journey to the Stars, a "free for educators" show about the solar system. We ordered it in June, and have received an email stating apologies and we'll have it in November. Thanks. In the meantime we received a complimentary copy of America: The History of Us, done by the History Channel. Wow is that an amazing series! We watched the first two segments, stopping at the revolutionary war, and even though we just spent two months learning about that I still sat there amazed at how much I learned! The series is captivating, and so well put together even big kid wants to watch the next episode on westward expansion. Now you know it must be amazing if an 11yr old boy is enthused! I wish everyone in America could watch this series, it makes you feel so patriotic. It evokes all sorts of feelings of pride, of amazement, and gives a true understanding of what was going on back then. I am a bit nervous to watch the segments on the world wars, I may watch them first before showing kiddo. He gets emotional about certain things that are scars on humanity's face, like genocide and that whole WW2 Hitler story may be too much for him now. In a few years maybe!

One of those days...

I really want to make something snacky for myself. Our budget is at a low point and I don't feel like spending nine dollars on a bag of pretzels I will eat but not really enjoy. I don't want fattening snacks all the time, I can make myself peanut butter cookies, brownies, chocolate chip cookies, in a second. I miss snack foods!!! I know, buy rice cakes and peanut butter. I'm sorry, but I didn't even like rice cakes when I could eat all the flavored ones. Fruit - well, I buy that and the kids like it so I don't eat it to save it for them. Cheese and deli meat are gone by day two of being in the house. Ummm, let's see - the one box of cereal I buy for myself (which is always four dollars for a small box while gluteney counterparts are forty nine cents with coupons and sales) I treat like gold, so I don't snack on it dry. I eat one bowl a day and savor my breakfast alone before the kiddos get up. Yes, corn chex are my special treat. Sad, eh?

What's left? I tried making gluten free cheese it type crackers, and after two recipes I found online I realized only cheese its can really taste like cheese its. I want wheat thins, triscuits, ritz crackers, pretzels, something healthy for the love of god!! I know - I can go to any health freak store and spend a million dollars on gluten free food that looks mouth watering and will "suffice" when I open it... but a) we are on a $500 a month food budget right now and b) I don't want to eat food that just barely passes as food! I want the salty buttery goodness of a ritz cracker, the crunch and dry salty wonder of a triscuit. People with celiac disease should be born knowing what they can't eat so they don't taste it, then they won't yearn for real food.

Can you tell I'm having one of those weeks where I'm really food frustrated?

A month later

And we are still doing wonderfully on the home schooling front! We have already breezed through Real Science 4 Kid's Chemistry, it was pretty below my 6th grader. Maybe it's because I LOVE chemistry, but this seemed better for a fourth grader!!! Big kid is eating up Saxon 76 math, loves it, and we have so far covered Canadian and US history (well, up to the war of 1812). We are heading south in our history/geography studies, to start on the Inca, Aztec, and Maya civilizations. I just ordered a set of Science Explorer texts, we are going to use the Life Science book this year. I wanted a more complete science text, and this seems to be a good fit! I am looking into Easy Grammar for language arts, I was trying to find a used copy of Analytical Grammar to check out, but now that I have seen one I think Easy Grammar is more his speed for this year. Maybe next year we'll try AG!

I just found a great site, A Well Trained Mind, and am perusing the forums. I am still so new to home schooling I have no clue what all the abbreviations are! People list their children as dd and ds, what does that mean??? I can't even begin to guess at all the abbreviations for the curriculum they use, they might as well be nicknaming all the fish in the sea...

I was very frustrated today, had to drive to two stores (across town) to get one box of gluten free bread mix!! ARGH! I have been craving bread for a week now, I want french toast!!! Haven't had that in decades it seems, and the stupid Kroger near us stopped stocking the mix. They actually told me to buy Bob's Red Mill mix. Do they not understand how awful that tastes?! I want REAL white bread when I buy a mix to make white bread... not bread that tastes like hummus!!! Good lord, I hate having to eat gluten free some days.

Home Schooling

We have finished week two, and wow am I impressed. Big kid was not only a great student, but I was a)shocked at how much he didn't know after being in the public school system for six years and b)amazed at how fast he picked things up from me! At 11 and having been on the honor roll at school the previous year, he didn't understand how to multiply three digits by three digits, or anything larger. He had no clue where Asia was, or what was in it. We made chinese fried chicken for dinner one night and he made the comment "I really love Chinese food, I wonder what Asian food tastes like". My mouth fell open. His vocabulary prevents him from reading books that are written on a sixth grade level, because he doesn't understand what he is reading. He also reads at a sixth grade level according to the school, yet when he reads aloud to me or even his brothers he is motonous and barely recognizes punctuation of any kind. No wonder this kid hates to read - books are just lots of words strung together for him, not STORIES!

To remedy the reading and vocabulary we have been traveling to the library twice a week. Big kid has been checking out small books that are aimed at boys 8+, and seem a bit below his grade level. He finishes them within an hour, but loves the stories! They are about a child spy named Jack Stalwart, and he travels the world protecting this or that while searching for his brother. I will continue to let him check out the rest of the series, because it is sparking an interest in stories!! I will work in some more complex books, this month I am reading aloud The Darkest Ages series, am on book two. Those books are very Tolkeinish, having people with mythical powers and magical swords and such. He is completely into the story, but he could never read it himself. The names alone would kill him! I hope to someday soon get him to the point where he can read the books he is interested in, not just pick it up and think "I'm not smart enough to read that".

Math is going swimmingly, we are using Saxon Math 67 and he is whizzing right through the book. I love that it is so full of review, he really needs that! Science is really fun so far, we have studied the human body for two weeks and have just moved onto space. Science is my forte, hopefully I can continue to find exciting ways to teach it to kiddo!! Geography is fun for me, sort of boring for him. I moved around so much I never really got geography classes, I had one great teacher named Mr. Festa in Pennsylvania who taught us about indians, but that is all I got! I breezed through three years of world history in one year to get regents credit in NYS so I could graduate, but it didn't really stick with me at all. I hope all of this will help kiddo become a more well rounded adult!

I honestly gave the public school more credit - I am a product of the public school system up north, and I got a good education! However, we are down south now and a lot has changed. It's pretty sad when you think about it!

Savings again!

We have house guests coming next week, so I went shopping for seven instead of five. I got so much meat I could barely fit it in my freezer!! Between Kroger and Publix I got everything we need except for milk (darn, forgot the milk!!). We spent:
Publix - spent $159.80 and saved $81.36
Kroger - spent $88.21 and saved $40.43
I use southern savers to make my grocery lists, and add what else is on our list to the sale items on my lists from both stores. I feel this is a great price to pay for enough meat to feed seven people for two weeks, as well as cereals, snacks, 20lbs of rice, etc. We had so much at Publix things were falling out of our cart! Excellent shopping this week.

Kroger Haul!

I spent $47 and saved $103 on all of this - I was floored. This is what couponing is all about, and I still got a five packs of meat and three gallons of milk! WOOHOO! I'm either getting better at this or I just happened to need everything on sale with corresponding coupons!!!

Daylilies

I have had daylilies blooming for well over a month now out front, and I just had to post a picture! These were all free from our local freecycle list, and wow are they wonderful!

Free Jo-sef Cookies

I posted awhile ago that I won a contest and got a box full of Jo-sef Cookies free. Not only was I ecstatic that I won something, but now that I have eaten half of the boxes of cookies I have to say they are excellent! I particularly like the chocolate square cookies - they taste just like those "famous wafers" in the yellow box! My dad used to eat those as a special treat with me, and it brought back so many memories!!

The cinnamon oreo like cookies and the squares were amazing dipped in milk, and the chocolate oreo types I ate half of and am saving the other half for a decadent homemade vanilla bean ice cream, so I can make cookies and cream ice cream! YUMM!!! I haven't tasted the vanilla oreo like cookies or square cookies yet. I'm saving them for one of those low budget weeks where I don't spend extra money on anything gluten free ;)

I have mixed reviews of the animal cookies. The vanilla ones tasted nothing like animal cookies, but were good as a cookie on their own. They just aren't an animal cookie like you think of, those good smelling kiddo cookies in the circus box. Nothing similar, except for shape. The chocolate animal cookies were or course good, because they are chocolate!

So in the end I was really surprised at how tasty and good these cookies really are! Too bad they aren't sold anywhere around here, I'll have to order more and pay shipping if I want some... which is why I don't buy much gluten free goodies. I can get a package of cookies for $.34 for my family, yet I have to pay $8+ in shipping for a box half the size of what the store carries and twice the price BEFORE COUPONS for the actual box of cookies! Ugh. I guess my attitude is if I am going to spend $13 on fifteen cookies I can make them at home for a much cheaper price.

Father's Day

Hubby is having a good day so far, our oldest bought him a new game, Blur, and they have been busily killing each other racing all morning. The twins each got him a cookbook, one Alton Brown and one full of iron skillet recipes. I love everything hubby cooks in his skillets, most is even better than what I cook! I don't use his skillets... man stuff.

I have decided to stop buying diapers until I run out! I have a TON of diapers stocked up, from getting them either for free or almost for free. I am focusing on getting the last bit of painting done in the house, the kitchen cabinets are next. I love how dressed up a little paint can make a room!

I also traded plants with my freecycle friend yesterday. Today the new plants are wilted and so sorry looking, hopefully in a few weeks they will have settled in and look better. Transplanting when it's 90 out is not the best idea, but she was getting rid of canna and bee balm and I wanted some! They were free, so if they don't work out I didn't lose any money!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful father's day weekend!!!

Kohl's

Wow - just wow! Last week I ran into Kohl's with my mom so she could get a new super nice electric toothbrush on sale, and saw some towels I have been admiring on clearance for $2.99. So I bought towels for our kid's/guest bathroom. At the register we each got $10 in Kohl's cash to use the next week, only good for children's and young adult's clothing. I went back the next day to get washcloths, and got another $10 cash! I went back and got hand towels, and in two more transactions I got two more $10 cash! So I had $50 in kohl's cash!

You can only use one per transaction, so I worked it out so I had five transactions, all for around $10 each. I spent $6.41 and bought six shirts for my 11 yr old, 2 for my toddlers, 1 pr shorts and a pr of swim trunks for the 11 yr old. I was floored at how little we spent, and we had bought ten pieces of clothing!!! Can't beat that, I'll so pay attention for the next time they have a sale like that!