Monday, April 27, 2009

Hiking Pics

It's been a jammed pack weekend. Saturday, we ran our long run in the morning and then spent the rest of the day getting our garden planted.

On Sunday, we went hiking on a tiny section of the AT. With the extra 40 pounds of kiddos, packs and water, the easy parts felt moderate and the moderate parts felt pretty darn difficult. Still, we forged ahead and had a great time with this beautiful weather.

It was perfect weather on the mountain, much cooler then in the valley below. We are guessing the upper 70's.


Above: Pic of Ladybug and Nick. Below: Pic of GreenEyes



Below: A pick of GreenEyes and I.


Definitely a great weekend. Nick took some comp time today so we could have a day of rest as well!

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Friday, April 24, 2009

Target Brag

I know all of you don't care anymore, but I'm just soooo excited! I ventured out on my own today and I raked in the deals.

Store #1- Target

4 Things of Kashi Waffles .50 ea
4 Things of V-8 Fusion .99 ea.
3 Fruit Snacks (made .33 on these)
4 Glade Candles (they make a little over $2... that's right. I MADE money on them.)
= 3.74 OOP for everything

Store #2-Harris Teeter

.70 ea.- Jose Ole Taquitos (These are regularly 6.84. I got them on sale and then used 3- .75 blinkies I found at Food Lion that were doubled! Nick's a fan.)
.49 Electrasol Tablets
FREE Hormel Compleats (never tried them, it's processed junk to me, but a good donation!)

Store #3- Kroger
I used over 60 dollars of coupons!

10 things of TP for .10 ea (they were FREE but I paid to get them with a clipping service)
20 things of wipes for .10 ea (they were FREE but I paid to get them with a clipping service)
.65 Smart Taste Pasta (using a Blinkie from Food Lion, regulary 2.29 ea!)
.40 GG Veggies (not the best deal, but I needed veggies)

I'm getting good at this!!

I'm not much of a "girly" girl

As as kid, I preferred my brother's toys to my sisters. While I wasn't into Ninja Turtles or anything, I was into Lego's, football, bikes, and dirt. About the only girly thing I enjoyed was light bright and crafts. I only did the My Little Pony thing because my best friend in 5th grade was into them, so I tried to be girly... but I never eally enjoyed barbies or ponies. Just because it's not my thing, I have not deprived Ladybug of her feminine side. She has a couple dolls and I do plan to have Nick make her a doll house in the near future.

So the other day I got this awesome garage from Freecycle for GreenEyes and a bunch of little people and trucks for cheapy cheap on Ebay. In her mother's footsteps, Ladybug won't quit playing with her brother's toys. I suppose these toys were meant to be shared.



I hope you guys are all outside enjoying this AMAZING weather!! :)

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Cutsie Post

This will be a quick post. I'm sorry I've been slacking lately. Things have been busy at our household for the last several days. Below is a cutsie photo I meant to publish on Easter.


GreenEyes in his bunny Outfit (grace a Marie France!)

This weekend, temps are supposed to be in the mid 80's (a little too hot if you ask me). We've got big plans. We plan to Hike a portion of the AT (Appalachian Trail) with the babies strapped to our backs. The other half of the weekend we will get our hands dirty and try to finish planting all the rest of our plants since the danger of frost is pretty much gone. We have a lot to plant. Then, at some point we will do a 10 miler. Good times. I love these kind of weekends!! :)

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Friday, April 17, 2009

Almost There...

I survived another week as the sole responsible figure in my household. Nick gets home from his business trip late tonight. he was supposed to come home late Saturday, but thank goodness he he was able to arrange something earlier. I haven't seen him since Monday and I can't wait. I have no idea how single mothers and military moms do this!! It's only been a week and I'm absolutely exhausted.

In order to compensate, I lower my expectations. How, might you ask? Under the conditions, I admit I slack a little. It's OK if Ladybug watches an extra program on TV. It's OK if the kids eat PB&J's and frozen veggie meals all day (i.e. anything that only involves a microwave heat up, if that.) It's OK, if it's been awhile since they've bathed and Ladybug's hair hasn't been combed, LOL. Yes, this is how I cope with being the sole responsible figure in the house. If I didn't let something slide, I'd get overwhelmed really quickly. There is little to no "me" time during days like these and if getting a little extra time carved out to work out or give myself a break means that I have to cut corners, well, that's what must be done.

Today was unbelievably gorgeous, so i went for a quick run in the morning (with my running buddy) and we had a nice little play date after. I have to say, I had the best day! This day had the potential of becoming very long. It is, after all, the last day after a string of long days alone. But, alas, it was quite fun.

On a side note, we've joined the twitter nation. With all the media coverage, I figured what the heck. Of course, within two seconds of setting up an account I have followers who are obviously nothing more then walking ad campaigns. Yuck. I'm not impressed so far. I guess we'll see.

-M

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Free Detergent at CVS

Yesterday, I figured out how to get laundry detergent for FREE at CVS. HCW is the most awesome place. They always have the deals before anyone else is talking about them.


Now, the word is out and it's all over the deal blogs. You better print this baby out QUICK if you want to get in on the deal. Even if your CVS is out of stock, get a raincheck and go back at your leisure. Sweet Deal.

To do it:
Go to coupons.com
(Use zip code 44514)
A B1G1 Free Q Purex Coupon Should Pop Up

There is a Sale @ CVS
Buy 1 at $6.99 get 1 free Purex
So FREE Laundry Detergent!
(OK, so as states, you will have to pay tax)

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Easter 2009

We did get dressed up but of course the battery died on the camera, so we don't have any good shots of that. My apologies. There will be no cutie Easter photos today. Bummer, I know.

This year we had a very low key Easter. We couldn't find Ladybug's Easter basket (a basket I've had since being a kid) so we had nothing to leave out for the Easter bunny to fill. I did find a basket we currently use to wash the bottle parts in the dishwasher. It actually worked out really well. I'm sure the Easter Bunny had a good time filling it with goodies.


The Easter Bunny brought Ladybug some sidewalk chalk, a cool pair of sun glasses, a chocolate bunny, and Cadbury eggs for dad and Redvines for mom. The Easter Bunny says GreenEyes' Rody toy was delayed and will be coming sometime next week.

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Friday, April 10, 2009

Potty Training Time

WARNING TMI!!!

I guess I'm a gluten for punishment. Lately Ladybug's been telling us she needs to go to the bathroom before she goes to the bathroom in her diaper. Clearly, it's time. So yesterday, I spent the whole day potty training Ladybug by myself.

Hubby loves this idea because:
a.) I'm doing it, and
b.) he won't be around next week so he really doesn't have to deal with.
(That said, Nick agreed to potty train Nolan when it's his turn.)

I would wait for another week to potty train Ladybug, but it is always something with our schedules. It's never a good time. This weekend is the first weekend we really don't have anything going in a long time. We aren't doing anything big for Easter because Nick will be out of town the following week on business. There is no point in a large celebratory meal if there will be no one to eat the meal all week long, etc. So I get to potty train all week by myself 24-7 for 5 days straight following the weekend.

So yesterday, I pumped Ladybug full of juice (I NEVER let her have juice unless she is sick because the stuff is empty calories) and stripped her down. I then sat with her at the potty for an hour. We sat there, waiting, hoping, waiting some more. Her tummy was distended. I urged her to drink more juice and she did. She got so upset she needed to go to the bathroom that she started to cry. She didn't want to go on the potty. She SCREAMED for a diaper.


Alas, she finally couldn't hold it anymore and while she cried she went pee pee. YAY! We followed the normal protocol following a bathroom trip and she was then promptly bribed with marshmallows and we did the potty dance. She went pee pee on the potty all by herself all day long after that except once. She did have the one accident. But, that's great by me and she's made great progress.

Today we be focusing on catching the harder to catch #2. Won't that be fun. I sure know how to spend a Friday!

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Thursday, April 9, 2009

G-Ma's Visit and Deals of the Week

G-Ma's Visit

Last weekend G-Ma got to spend some quality time with us. We are so incredibly thankful for her assistance last weekend. Below is a pic of G-Ma drawing with Ladybug.


Thanks to G-Ma not only did we have plenty of down time, we were also able to get a lot accomplished in the garden, run our race, etc. We are indebted.


Here we are enjoying turkey burgers on the back porch. It was an awesome weekend weather wise. We couldn't have asked for a better weekend.

Deals of the Week

My pantry is now loaded FULL of Kellogg's Cereal. I foolishly paid 1.18 last week for four boxes of cereal thinking it was an awesome deal. Wouldn't you know, Food Lion would roll out a WAY more awesome deal this week. Try .60 a piece! Yesterday I picked up a ton of Special K Chocolaty Delight, Pecan, Almonds and Yogurt, etc. Nick will pick up even more on his way home. We will likely purchase several months worth this week. (On average the expiry's are a year from the date of purchase.)

Also, I picked up a FREE ham yesterday. Now I know there are lots of free ham offers out there but you have to be store loyal to get those and you usually pay for it in crazy store prices. It's not worth it. Well, thankfully, I've been saving my receipts. I learned on Sunday that Unilever was offering a free ham if you buy a certain amount of their products. I was able to get a free ham for stuff we already bought the week before! Well, I did have to "buy" two things. I bought two things of Lipton tea with "FREE" coupons the company sent me when I had an issue with the tea bags dumping the tea out due to a faulty stapling job. So I did "buy" them, but I didn't spend any money. It took me about a minute to count and circle everything and stamp and address an envelope. Sweet deal! I got a nice spiral sliced 12 lb. ham for nothing. Awesome.

Too bad we won't be able to have a big Easter meal this year. Nick won't be around so we'll save it for another large family occasion down the road. With all these deals I'm running out of room in my freezer.

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Charlottesville 10-miler

Nick ran his 10 miler race in 1:19:58. That's a 7:59 minute pace!!! Way to go Nick!!! Update: His Team ranked 4th place and his time contributed to the team!!! Nick is a masochist when it comes to running, so I'm not surprised. No one loves that pain more than Nick. His time is really saying something because this baby was full of hills (albeit, not as crazy as the ones we train on. Those are just about as bad as they get) and there was a fair amount of wind. You can check out the topography of the course HERE.

I was supposed to let Nick enjoy all his glory. He really didn't want me to run the race. I mean, he was doing this with his work buddies and he was competing in a team. Even when a friend had offered to watch the kids for me, he didn't want me to run it because it would mean more work getting the kids ready in the morning. So I was pretty much prepped to sit this one out. Then, Nick's mom called and she thought she'd come down and she told Nick I should do the run and she'd watch the kids. So I did.

I guess a better wife would have declined the offer and watched my hubby on the sidelines and cheered him to victory. He's done that for me before. I promise I will do that sometime soon. I just really enjoy longer distance races. I'm not fast and the longer, slower races suit me best. I tried to remind him that he should be so lucky to have a strong woman behind him. For example, if he fell, I'd be there in a matter of minutes! He didn't find that funny, but he agreed. I will cheer him on at his next 5K.

I ran the race by myself and I completed in 1:44. That's a 10:29 minute mile pace. That's an improvement for me. I started off so strong, and up to mile 7 it was looking like I might actually be able to complete the thing in less than 10 minute miles. But, alas, I wasn't able to keep it up. I'm a little disappointed by that, because I was feeling really good up until then.

I stayed in that really painful area for about a mile. Then, from heaven above, at mile 8.5 I got a lovely.... RUNNER's HIGH!!! It's been years!!! I had it for a good mile up a huge hill. Sweeeeeet. I still couldn't make up the time I lost, but I guess I'm happy with it. I'm already half-way to goal for the end of summer. Maybe I need to make a new and better goal of 9:30?

Oh, and we just signed up for the Army 10 miler. We'll be running that with 29,998 other runners. :) That'll be in October. Last I looked they had 27,000 + runners registered and they were booking up fast.

-M

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