September 11, 2001

I can't believe it's already been 7 years. I remember just being in shock when I heard about it. I was in 11th grade Calculus class and our teacher was cool enough to let us turn on the TV to watch and hear what was happening. Fly your flags today and show that we are proud to be Americans!

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Fun Things

Lately I've been having lots of fun saving money!! I just stumbled upon some blogs that talked about coupons and ad's and I've gotten really into it. Also there are other things that I'll tell you about too. I haven't posted anything before now only because it would just be a repeat of what some other people are blogging about. But I figure maybe some of you who read my blog might also have a coupon addiction or maybe this will inspire you to get on the wagon! :)

Coupons/Ads:

One thing I've found out with coupons though is only to buy stuff I use regularly or would replace a regular item. Otherwise my cupboard gets full of a bunch of stuff I don't need and might not use. It's also wise to stockpile things you use frequently when they go on sale! I like to get my Sunday paper at the grocery store on Sat. evenings (they do it here in GA, but I'm not sure if it's other places as well). I look through the ads and get my coupons and then plan my week's worth of meals and make my grocery list. I usually save between 25-50% when I take the time to do this. I love Publix grocery store because they often have buy on get one free deals on things I use a lot: cereal, chips, salad etc. Plus there is always lots of coupons for cereal so I stock up and usually don't spend more than $1-2 per box. Kroger often has deals of 10 for $10 or buy $20 worth of certain items and get $5 back etc.

There are also several online coupon sources now that have printable coupons.

-coupons.com

-coupons.smartsource.com

-couponbug.com

-everydaysaver.com

-P & G esaver

-shortcuts.com

And there are probably more than these too.

*The best deal I got so far was at Walgreens. During their back to school sales they had Bic pens on sale for 2/$1. Several online coupons sites had printable coupons for $1 off of 2. You could only print it once, so I got to as many computers as I could and was able to get 9 printed. So I got 18 packs of pens and only paid the tax of 60 something cents! A few of the packs were 8ct. but most were 8+2 bonus. It was awesome!!

*All You magazine (Sold at Walmart) is full of coupons and is also a great magazine! It's under $2 and you will totally make that back with the coupons it has inside!

Target:

I think it's no secret that Target is one of my favorite stores! They are always marking down things and if you know when to look you can get some great deals! Twice a year (Beg. of Aug. and right after Christmas) they have a toy clearance. Some are 30%, 50%, or even 75% off!! I've stocked up on some great stuff and paid 1/4 the regualr price! There are some websites that keeps tabs on current sales etc:

-dealbeacon.com

-www.schumanfamily.com/fatwallet/targetasin.php (this one allows you to check inventory at your local target)

-www.schumanfamily.com/fatwallet/targetUPC.html (this lists current markdowns)

-attentiontargetshoppers.blogspot.com (blog dedicated to Target)

Even the dollar section gets cleared out several times a year. I once got a bunch of scrapbook paper from the dollar aisle for 25 cents for 10 sheets.

*Best tip is to check the endcaps and walk along the back walls, that is where they keep clearance and sale stuff.

Craigslist:

While there is a huge variability of stuff on this website, there are often great deals for everything! I always check here before paying more somewhere else! I've bought some Winni-The-Pooh tapes for Emery, Emery's crib, and sold some things too.

LiveSearch:

I just recently found this and I'm really excited about it! It's a search engine that pays you back! Once you sign up for an account it's as easy as google. It lists how much in % you'll get back if you buy something. For example, I just bought a subscription to All You Magazine (as talked about above). The list price for a year subscription was $19.99. Since I went to the sight through livesearch, all purchases would be given 62% back (the % varies for each website). It does take 60 days before you get it back (sort of like a rebate program) but that's fine with me and I'll be getting my mag for the year for only $7.60! Now I always check there before buying ANYTHING online just to check see if I can get some cash back!

*One thing to watch though is the % you get back. It is NOT constant! For example I got emery's Halloween costume for 50% back, but I just checked again and now you only get 20% back!! I guess it could always go up though too!

Heavenly Couture-

First I just have to say I love to shop, but it makes it even better when you get great stuff for a decent price! I went to Gap the other day and found a dress I liked. I bought it but then regretted it later since (after the outrages GA sales tax) it came to almost $60. Yeah for returns, and I took it back. I was still wanting something new though and read about Heavenly Couture on a blog. Everything (except a few pairs of jeans) is $17.95 or under!! And if you spend $75 you get free shipping. I'm all about the free!! So for 75 bucks later I had 2 jackets, a pair of jeans, 3 t-shirts and 2 tank tops! Way better than that 1 Gap dress for sure!! I really don't think I could have gotten that much stuff (especially the jackets) anywhere for that price! And I'm going to save it for my birthday in October :) You should really check it out! Even if you don't want to spend $75, you just get one cute pair of jeans for under $20 bucks! What a steal!

Ross Dress for Less-

Now, some stuff here is NOT a good deal, so you just have to know what the "regular" price somewhere else is to compare it to. Some things I've gotten there for a good deal include: clothes, paper goods (stationary etc), decorateive boxes, aprons, kitchenware, childrens clothes/toys, and holiday decorations. My latest example is I found a Step 2 Mainstreet Village Set for $13. The cheapest I found it online was $25-30. Pretty sweet.

Free Samples:

Quite a few blogs I read list free samples available. Walmart is constantly doing one or two, plus a handful of other vendors. I'm thinking of posting about them here. Would anyone be interested?

RedBox Code:

You know those DVD rental boxes at Walmart and McDonalds etc? Well on Mondays and Wednesdays, they put out codes to get a rental for free! I haven't used one yet because there isn't a movie I want to see but next time one comes out I'll be sure to get my free rental. Would anyone be interested in me listing them on my blog?

Giveaways/Reviews of products:

Wow, there are at any given time hundreds of givaways going on in the blog world! You just have to know where to look! I'm thinking of adding a new side bar list with my fav. blogs that let me know about giveaways. And quartly at bloggygiveaways.com they have a "carnival". Bascially anyone can put their blog on the list and do a giveaway. The point is to drive traffic to their blog or website to get sales and readers. I participated in my 1st one in August and there is another in October! By the end of the last one over 1000 people had joined. I didn't enter them all (some of the prizes didn't interest me) but I did a lot!! And I won 3! I won a Sweet Pea 3 MP3 player for Emery, a gift certificate to 2 different online shops. With my first gift card I got 2 capes and a rattle. With the second I got a bib and birp cloth set. Yeah for free stuff. It's a lot of work to enter them, but I like to do it and every once in a while I win one!

I like that some blogs do product reviews with the giveaways. They try out the products and tell you about it. It saves you the trouble of buying it and regretting it if you read a review first!

Magazines:

There are often places that offer free subscriptions to magazines. Some better than others but free or nearly free is always good in my book. Again, I could list them here if anyone is interested.

Swaps:

I've only done 1 and am still in the middle of it, but it's really fun. You sign up and then are asigned a buddy. This one is a favorite things swap. So I pick 3 of my favorite things and mail them to my buddy, who will also do the same thing. I've sent mine off and should recieve my buddy's soon! There are all different kinds of swaps like recipes, or books etc.

Trying to make it through the day!!!

With Emery's 2nd birthday getting closer, it is very obvious we are at that "terrible two's" stage! Lately he is just completely over-the-top aggressive, disobedient, and screamy. Honestly some days I just wonder how I'm going to make it through! I know it's just a part of toddler-hood but it is really hard to keep my patience with him. The weather has been hot, hot, rainy, rainy, hot. We usually end up outside anyways, but I usually just can't stand it for too long. One day I took Emery to Monkey Joe's. They have the inflatable boucing/sliding toys. Emery loves to jump and run and I was hoping he could go crazy and give me a little time to just sit and relax. But I forgot to mention Emery is also in the stage of needing me by his side almost every waking moment. He draged me with him the whole time and by the time we left I was more exhausted than when we got there. Total Bust!

Oh, and then about 35% of the time he wanted to play on this broken-usually-requiring-a-quarter-to-ride toy. Ug.
One of Emery's obsessions is water. But especially the kitchen sink. He loves to spray the water, scrub in the sink and play. Sounds innocent enough right? Well except he pulls the dirty dishes and silverware out of the other side and puts them in his mouth- Ewe! And sprays the water all over the kitchen. And sticks his foot in the disposal-more ewe, and possibly dangerous! Not to mention that if he all the sudden decided he was done, he'll try to jump off the counter- not safe!
Oh yeah. And then there is our current sleeping situation. Ever since we came home from our load of vacations in June/July he's been out of the crib. We bought him a twin mattress at Ikea and put it in the corner on the floot. But we couldn't get him to stay in there to fall asleep without one of us laying next to him. Sigh... He used to be so good at going to sleep, when he was in his crib. Starting all over sucks!

But then it started getting to the point that even with me in there, he'd try to get up, roll around, scream, etc and basically not try very hard to go to sleep. Plus, he's been getting up in the night (probably because he wakes up and can't get back to sleep with us not there). Last week I decided I couldn't handle it anymore and decided I needed to start getting him used to falling asleep alone. I knew it would be horrible, but I was hoping it would be better in the long run, for both of us.

Night one: he came out of his room 100 times in about 30 minutes (all while screaming and crying) before finally falling asleep. It seemed a lot longer than 30 minutes but I was pretty impressed it worked so fast. Especially considering the few nights before with me in there with him it took over an hour for him to fall asleep! The next day I was not looking forward to doing it for naps too, but lucked out and he fell asleep in the car on the way home from the store. He must have been really pooped because he even stayed asleep as I moved him from the car to his bed. I was bummed when he woke up after only an hour (that's how long he usually sleeps, but I was hoping that his extra late night would make him sleep longer). He was cranky though and clearly still tired. I tured on Winnie-the-Pooh and put him on the couch. I checked back on him 10 minutes later and he'd fallen asleep! Joy! And then the miracle/blessing that I've never had before....he slept for 2 hours on the couch! I was in heaven! So I took some pictures...

He started upright like this

After a yawn (and almost waking up I thought) he fell back asleep before putting his hands back down.

This was right before he woke up, slouched all the way down.

The next night it took more like 40 mintutes but he only came out 50 times in that time. The next few nights averaged about 10-15 minutes. And after about 5-7 minutes he'd stop the crying and just try and sneak out. He hasn't been waking up in the night, which is fabulous! But naps are still hit and miss. Some days he'll fall asleep in the car or while watching Pooh, but then sometimes he does wake up when I move him from the car. And then yesterday he just was so tired, but would not nap at all. Well he did finally about 2 hours after his usual nap time, but I really thought it wasn't going to happen! Last night was a set back though with it taking 40 minutes again. Sigh. I'm just hoping it will get better. Well actually it will probably get worse before better since we are moving on Tuesday Sept. 16th! And the movers will have our stuff moved in at the lastest on Friday! What?! I'm like what are we supposed to do for 2-3 days? But that's another post I suppose.

Here is Em and me out in the rain. It honestly doesn't matter to this kid if it is 95 degrees outside or a tropical storm; he has to be outside!

ps- Sorry for the venting but I think I feel a litte better now :)

Words

Emery has never been one too interested in talking [well, anything that made sense anyways]. He's gradually adding words to his vocabulary though. Some of our newest are HOT (sounds more like "ottt" and HI or "iii" and then BYE or "iii"- sounds the same as hi. This is a big accomplishment because for the longest time he'd wave hi and bye but refused to say it.
His favorite thing to say is "more!" which can be helpful sometimes, but even after I sometimes have to say no he keeps saying: more more more...
He also says ELMO or "ma mow" He loves Winnie the Pooh now too, but still calls it Elmo, which can be confusing/frusterating when I don't know which he really wants to watch! Ah oh well.
He says the usual "ma ma" and "da da" but prefers ma ma and sometimes calls Joel ma ma too. Weird. I'm supprised he hasn't picked up NO yet but I'm sure when he figures it out, I'll wish he hadn't!
Even though Emery doesn't say a whole lot, he really understands a lot. I can ask him to go get things for me, put things away, or ask him if he wants to eat something and he'll shake his head yes or no. Plus there is a lot of nonverbal communication with grunts and pointing etc. I'm sure since I usually know what he means without him using words, it doesn't make him want to try to talk much more. I suppose he'll come around eventually though. What about your kids (especially boys), when did they start saying a lot?

A place to live.. THe SCoop

Monday was a bit of a roller coaster for us. It started out with Emery waking up at 7:15 and crawling into bed with us. He brought a book and started to read it to us. It was so cute, and nice to be able to lay in bed to wake up instead of him demanding one of us get up! But alas it couldn't last. We had to hurry and get ready to go on a little road trip to Greenville, SC to look for apartments and rental houses. Joel and I has stayed up until 1am writing down a list of places to visit. We planned to leave at 8 and were pretty close to that time except... 1. We hadn't eaten breakfast 2. We needed gas and 3. The car tires needed air.

So we swung by McDonalds and got some food. Then drove up to the Shell on Howell Mill to get gas and air for the tires. Joel decided we should check the oil too and found it to be a quart low. So after putting some more oil in and getting on our way it was almost 9am. The drive is about 2 hours and Emery hates the car, but we brought books, toys, snacks, and the portable DVD player with his favorite, Elmo's Kid's Favorite Songs DVD.

About an hour into the trip we decided we should call the first place on our list to let them know we wanted to look at an apartment in about an hour. Except, we realized that we'd left the list of apartments at HOME! UG!! I gotta tell you I was a bit mad. But what are you gonna do? It turned out Joel still had the # of the first place in his phone from when he'd called the other day. So we made the apointment but I was still at a loss of where else we were going to go since we didn't have any other addresses or phone numbers. After that long drive we finally pulled up to the apartment. I was excited because it was a 3 bedroom 2 bath with extra storage, a playground, pool and garages for rent... for about $750. My legs were stiff and I'm sure Emery was ready to play on that playground! (He is such an outside kid, rain or shine, 60 degrees or 95-doesn't matter, he wants to play outside!) Anyways, back to the story. I hadn't even gotten out of the car but as Joel got out and was getting Emery, this guys walks by and is like "come back later, ok". I was like what? Turns out a few minutes before they had been ROBBED! They wanted us to come back in a few hours to have the tour and I was thinking... 1. We are planning on driving back to atlanta in 2 hours and 2. Do I really want to live somewhere that just got robbed? I think not.

So by now I was really mad that we'd driven all that way without our list and now the 1 place we did have was out of the picture. Joel suggested we stop at an Ingles we'd passed and pick up and apartment finder guide. So we got it, and found another place to go look at (that we'd remembered the name of from the night before). This place was ok. It had a pool and playgound but the kitchen in the 2bed 2bath was about a third the size of the one we have now. Fortunately the girl who showed us the place was really nice and suggested a couple other places to check out. One in particular was called Jasmine Cove.

So, off to the next place, and getting hungry for lunch. (in our original plan we'd be to greenville by 10 and leave by noon to be able to get Emery to nap on the way home and be home by 2). By now I think it was already past noon. So we pull up to the place (in Simpsonville, just south of Greenville) and it's a gated community (probably less likely to be robbed, so there's a plus). It looks brand new and I'm starting to get excited about it. The offices are really nice and the pool is sparkling new. There is a new playground and the biggest sandbox I've ever seen (just kidding it was a vollyball net and pit- but I'm still thinking we could use it :) They have 2 or 3 bedrooms and we looked at both. Some of their 3 bedroom apartments have never been lived in! So long story short, we LOVE it and just hope in a month or 2 when we are actually moving it will work out. If you were interested there are some pictures of the apartment HERE.

It isnt' as cheap as the first place we went to but I suppose we couldn't get something this nice (or safe) for that price anyways!

We were so excited and relieved that we'd found a place to live and that the trip wasn't a waste! So, we headed back to Greenville for lunch. I had also wanted to take Emery to the fountains to play in that I'd noticed when we'd visited earlier this year. It was so hot and we ended up going straight for the water and putting off lunch for later. Here are some pictures and video clips. I had brought his swim suit but on the way he'd poured half a bottle of water in his lap and I figured we'd just let him get more wet in those clothes and save his dry suit for the ride home. But we finally just took all his clothes off and that diaper got pretty saggy! ha ha!

I'm thinking he could have stayed for hours! We will be coming back for sure! On the ride home Emery slept for and hour and 45 minutes! We didn't get home until 5 (3 hours past our original plan but at least Emery slept). Yeah, it turned out to be a good day!

Going for a drive...and Hitler

So, while cleaning our incredibly jam packed apartment the other day, Joel put Emery's little car on top of my sewing machine case. Apparently Emery really wanted to play with it (and not the other 2 little cars... I know, we need to get rid of some toys) and proceeded to climb up to it. I was on the computer and all I hear is "honk honk,...uh oh". This is how I found him, I think the uh oh meant, "could you give me a hand mom?" For a while now Emery has enjoyed dipping his chicken or fries etc in ketchup or ranch that Joel and I are eating. He wasn't brave enough to actually eat it, and would try to then feed the dipped food to one of us. Something magical happened the other day and he actually tried the ketchup. And he loves it! It's a bit messy though...here Emery is sporting his ketchup mutache that sort of looks like Hiter! We have a lot of laughs around here!