Shutterfly Cards

This year I'm sending Christmas cards from Shutterfly!! I spent ages looking around on their site and finally opted to send this one:



I love the light wintery blue color! I know most of my family will not see snow this year because they live on the beach so maybe sending them a bit of snowy winter wonderful will lighten their season... and if not the cute pics of the kids will!!

I haven't decided if I'm going to do a big family photo or one photo each of the kids... I'm thinking the big one will be a family photo (if I can get someone to take a few pics of us) and then the little ones up top I'll do one of Alina and Juju and the other of Raziel. Alina and Juju pose well together so they're easy. I usually have to crop out photos of Raz to get something that works. We took photos FOREVER at sears before we got something that worked.



Brent wants to use this photo of the kids. I like it but Alina's face is a bit blurry and hard to see... I might try to re-duplicate the photo and take it again... and maybe include a cute pic of me and Brent.... but then I have a 3rd photo slot... so maybe not.... hmmm idk.

Anyway, while I'm on the subject of Christmas cards, if you want to do a Christmas card, Shutterfly has a really good deal on cards! Sending a card is a nice way to say Merry Christmas without having to spend alot of money! Most of the cards are 90c to $1.10 so if you have like 25 or 30 printed you've only spent $25ish! Then, you know, you pay for envelopes and stamps but that's not so bad.

So check it out here

And they also do that cool change your photo to a canvas thing which I absolutely think is an adorable way to display nice photos -- maybe a wedding portrait or a lovely family photo... They've got those here

And then I stumbled across the cutest thank you notes they make here

I thought this would be really cute to send as a baby shower thank you once baby comes! Get a newborn photo of baby and send thank yous? tooo cute! I wish I'd known about those when I had Judah!!!

Anyways - I hope you all get some Shutterfly photo cards this year because I want to get some photos of you guys!

Christmas

Today is December 2nd!
23 more days till Christmas!!

WOOOO HOOOOOO!!!

And I am VERY proud to say --
I'm almost totally done with my Christmas shopping!!

Alina - DONE
Raziel - DONE
Judah - we want to get one or two little things for him, but most of it is done.
Brent - I need to get 3 more things for him :-) but the majority is done

Brent's family -- Completed; Steve. Scot. Kourtney.
Need to finish: Kenneth, Donna, Momma, Jessie and Becca (wow... more than I thought)

My family -- Completed: Mom, David, Sarah.
Need to finish: Alisha, Timothy, Dad.

OK so maybe its not nearly as finished as I thought it was... but the extended family is different. I have ideas for everyone except Aunt Donna who I drew for New Years -- that's hard because apparently she likes Nascar and cuponing but she's one of those people that already has her cupon binder with hundreds of cupons so idk what to do for her! I don't want to be lame and uncreative and Nascar stuff is EXPENSIVE!!!!

and I totally can't wait for my 50 free Shutterfly cards becuase I'm sending those to the grandparents and friends. I would normally print photos and send them but that gets expensive too so free shutterfly cards = free prints. WOOHOO!!

Are you ready for Christmas yet??

Yeah I'm back...

Well at least kind of... I want to be back but I am not making any promises.

Here's a kids update:

Alina will be turning 4 in about 3 weeks. She's potty trained (still the occasional accident) and loves wearing panties. She is a total mommy to her brother and thinks she is a grown up. Some days she gets really childish, but many times I can carry on a rather mature conversation with her. Good Morning Mommy, Good Morning Alina. How are you Mommy? I'm good, did you sleep okay honey? It was kind of cold. Mommy, do you think we can get some heat in my room?

LOL

Raziel continues to NOT talk. He can talk... he says things like "because I said so" and other things he hears Alina say. He calls Alina "Nah" and Judah is "ju" and every adult "daddy". He also says "woah, woah!" if he wants you to stop something (like we do before he's about to leap off of something) and "help" if he wants to be picked up. He's hysterical!

Judah is getting big! He's fat, he's crawling, and he has 4 teeth, all on bottom. He's my snuggle bug and loves his mommy. He's the worst Momma's boy EVER.


We set up our tree, we have presents under it (the kids were adopted by a family at Church) and we had a lovely thanksgiving with Brent's dad and my dad. I am in a consistant state of worn out and that's why I haven't blogged faithfully.

I also have another blog that my church links to weekly, so when I do get time, I'm usually blogging there.

Love you all :-)

Black Friday Finds!

I actually did the Black Friday thing this year! I called around and got a babysitter for Alina and Raziel and took Judah with me in my baby backpack (its made for hiking but works beautifully for just toting the guy around when I need free hands) I got to walmart at 10:30pm Thursday and immediately went to Lawn & Garden to get in line for one of these

for $29!!! Which I thought was a fantasic price for a little bike! I got the pink one but couldn't get Walmart.com to leave it pink for downloading the picture to show you. They were handing out the tickets for the big items like bikes, trampolines, and barbie jeeps already so it was a great choice to go over there first (thanks Brent!).
I got my little ticket and headed over to Action Alley where there was 1 pallet of $1.33 towels and I knew those would be gone quick! So, I posted up over there with Judah and made friends with the other homemakers that were claiming their spots for the 12:00 rush.

One nice little lady who was closer to the pallet than I cared to get offered to toss some towels over to me once it was go time. I said I'd like about 5 of them and that I didn't care what color. Around 12 (it was actually closer to 11:54 but that's when the pallets started getting torn open) this tiny little old lady litterally threw (like chucked them) 5 dark blue towels over her head and the heads of the surrounding women to me. I caught them and threw them in the buggy then took off down a back isle to get to my next item. Brent told me later when we were exchanging stories that some crazy women with the towels were actually throwing them to other crazy women and I laughed so hard I cried!!
Next on the list: Candles

This palet was litterally not even opened yet. I tore the side open and pulled out 2 of the vanilla sugar cookie scented sets and continued on my way.
Next I grabbed up 1 of the 10-opening picture frame collages and 2 of the 10 frame sets that were on sale (couldn't find photos of these...)
Then I grabbed a lovely waffle maker at Brent's request

And off to the toys!!

First thing I looked for were Zhu Zhu pets... no where to be found. I asked a lady and she said they were tossing those over their heads like we did with the towels (LOL). I sighed, reminding myself those were also on sale at Big Lots for only $1 each more. I went on crossing off the list...

Radio Controlled Car for Raziel


Barbie Mermaid for Alina


HotWheels for Raziel


Disney Cinderella Doll Set that was apparently only a Black Friday item because I've googled it several times and keep coming up with other crap...

You get this baby doll and you also get a playpen, a swing, a stroller, a crib, and a bunch of other stuff...

Then I went to find the $2 and $5 DVD's -- all kinds of stuff there.... and I went back over to a back isle and sat on the floor, changed Judah's diaper and fed him a bottle and played with him for about 10 minutes while the lines died down. I went back over to the kids clothes and found a disney princess pajama set for Alina and a Toy Story pajama set for Raziel. Then, I was meandering down the isle, looking for "dump sites" and stumbled across A ZHUZHU PET!!!!


these highly coveted electronic hamsters were a hot toy this year and I wanted 2 of them but hadn't gotten any! I found one dumped in a random isle, and then another in the customer service area at the front of the store.

The secret to finding hot items on Black Friday at Walmart? Grab what you can, know your items and locations of them, and then wait it out til the crowds have died down, and go scour the cartloads of non-wanted items. People just grab armloads of stuff and then get to the front of the store to pay for it and have to sort through because they have too much. This is where I found my 2nd Zhu Zhu pet!

Total Savings (not counting the DVD's becuase that would take way too long) : $190.80

Breakdown:
Bike -- Normally $55, paid $29
Towels -- Normally $2.49, paid $1.33 each (5)
Candles -- Normally $15, paid $5 each (2)
Waffle Maker -- Normally $30, paid $9
Remote Car -- Normally $10, paid $5
Barbie -- Normally $10, paid $5
HotWheels -- Normally $10, paid $5
Disney Set -- Normally approx $65, paid $29
ZhuZhu Pets -- Normally $8, paid $4 each (2)
Picture Frames -- Normally $25, paid $7 each (3)

Shutterfly Christmas Cards

Did you know??

You can get 50 FREE Christmas cards from Shutterfly!! I am so super excited about this!! I saw it on Hj's blog and couldn't wait to get my confirmation email with my cupon code once I did my little survey thing.

Want 50 free Christmas cards? Go here

Also, check out their other great stuff because it rocks!!!

Wasp of Death

So I could talk about all sorts of issues and things going on in our lives right now... about Brent as a Stay at home daddy, about the kids growing up.... nope, I want to complain about this terrible encounter I had with a Wasp!!

Let me tell you -- if there is a man-of-war version of a wasp, I met it. I was baby-proofing the playroom and installing our window unit A/C in the room so that the kids have a comfortable area to hang out in. I got it all babyproof, clean, I moved our Japanese table in there, added our little TV and DVD/VCR along with some extra toys and short little chairs. I created a palet area in the corner for Brent to crash when the kids play happily.... and then I go outside on the back porch to tug at the A/C unit that just wasn't sitting in the window properly.

Out on the porch (thank God I made the kids stay inside!) there was a wasp that was big and black - about 2 inches long! My mom looked it up online and found this thing called the "Great Black Wasp"



This sucker runs 1 1/2 in to 2 inches long and is supposedly "non aggressive" but it stung me 3 times -- once on the leg, once on my hand as I swatted at it, and once right on my butt. It hurt so badly I ran inside screaming and crying. I know, terible, I can deliver 3 babies with no epidural but if a wasp stings me I cry like a little child!! Brent picked on me a little bit - I woulda picked on me too if I didn't know how bad it hurt!! I've never had such a bad sting in my life.

That was on the 26th. Today (a full week later) I am still being a baby about it so I'm posting pictures. I had an allergic reaction to the stings. My leg and hand (I can't see my butt lol) have swollen up and have developed a rash.




Wonderful, isn't it? One teeny little bug has caused all that nonsense. And no, I'm not scratching it. And yes, I'm applying liberal amounts of benadryl cream to help with the itching. I haven't broken down and taken anything like internally yet but I might get there.

OK that's what I wanted to talk about. silly, I know, Oh well

Life Lately

Life as I know it has changed.

These past few weeks and the ones upcoming is my life upside down being re-defined. I've had to realize this week as we've gone through the process that my picture-perfect is nothing like what God's idea is... and I'm learning to be okay with that.

1) I work 10-7 in Hixson. I'm the store manager now, and responsible for ALOT more than I was in Cleveland. I make a whole extra 35c an hour to do it. It seems like I'll be making alot more commission too... I haven't decided why I'm there yet because I really dislike one of my two co-workers... so I'm just trusting God's plan for me...

2) Brent has chosen to take the kids out of daycare and stay awake with them during the day. Basically, on the days we both work, he will sleep for a few hours in the morning while I'm still home, be awake til naptime, sleep during naptime, and then snag a few hours in the evening before he goes and works a full 9 hour shift during the night. This will save us $560 a month and make it possible to pay our bills. I'm still working through trusting my husband to raise my children, and I'm having to get over the broken heart I feel because I want to be the one at home with them but that's just not how God wants it for now. We've tried a million different scenarios and this is the right one and I cry at night thinking about how I wish is was me but its not. Brent will do great with the kids - don't get me wrong. They need their daddy. I just want it to be me. I am having to let go a significant amount of control and allow him to provide for us... its really hard.

3) I have very little time to blog, facebook, email... talk on the phone.... so if you want to talk to me, text me. I would love it right now cuz I'm sure needing some encouragement...

4) My BFF Tamara is loaning us her van indefinitely because we are down to the Suzuki and well it doesn't work right now either. I like the van and think I'll want one eventually.

5) I took Judah for his 3 mo well check today and he got a few shots. I was very proud of how educated of a decision I made in which vacs I wanted and which ones I didn't. The doctor gave me his advice (get em all) and talked about my concerns (side effects) and told me it was my job to decide what was best for my family. I was impressed because he didn't seem to judge me when I declined 2 of the 4 shots. I set up well checks for Raz and Alina (which I haven't had any since Jan 2009 because of a bad encounter with Alina's old dr...)

6) My house is a wreck... but my pantry is full. We got foodstamps for April, May and June at $750 a pop so I've stocked up on things that don't expire quickly and I've filled my M-I-L's deep freeze and I've cuponed my heart out and I've used it wisely. I loose it at the end of this month because of income.

Pray for me through this transition... I need it bad...