New Stuff

So today is the first day of a transition for us. I have started babysitting a little boy who is blind. We'll call him "D". He's 2 1/2. He's very very sweet natured and loving. I'm pretty sure he might have some sort of learning disability as well. His Mom mentioned he had been in speech therapy (he doesn't say a whole lot). I think he might fit somewhere in the autism spectrum... but hey, I'm not a doctor. This little boy is very brave and quite amazing. I tried to put myself in his shoes this morning and gave him lots of love. I couldn't imagine being so little, being in a brand new place, surrounded by strangers, having Mommy leave, and not being able to see anything around me. I started singing to him a few minutes after his Mom left.... Gabe chimed in too.... Twinkle, Twinkle.... Jesus Loves Me.... Old McDonald.... and he stopped immediately and even started smiling a little. =)

After nap time we went outside and I let the boys run amuck in the sprinklers. He LOVED the water and it was nice to see the boys having fun together. I'm really proud of my little Gabriel for being a good friend and being gentle with D. After they finished their PB&J's we might try to do a little craft.

I will be watching D 5 days a week for about a month, and then cut down to 3 days a week after that.... which will be nice. I'm gonna learn how to let my house be not so clean for the sake of playing and supervising too.....ha. Our house is PERDY small and it doesn't take long for it to get clutter. Clutter drives me crazy... I think I might have a touch of OCD. BUT I've promised myself... no cleaning up toys till 4pm and then again after D leaves each day. Otherwise I'll waste waaay too much time and miss out on having fun with the tykes.

Keep me in your happy thoughts and your prayers as we transition to this! So far so good!!

Ya Plant Corn, Ya Get Corn.

We didn't eat at the dinner table tonight. We grilled out tilapia and pineapples with rice and veggies. It was awesome. The veggies were a medley that I steamed in their bag in the microwave for 5 minutes. Love those things.

So Justin and I are watching Jeopardy and Gabriel is in his high chair and we're chatting and all of a sudden Gabriel says, "Mommy. I got a veggie in my nose!"

Oh great.

I walked over to him and plugged the left side of his nose and said, "Blow. As hard as you can." And what do you know.... out flies a pea across the room.

Disgusting.

The funny thing is. I distinctly remember getting a peanut stuck in my nose when I was about Gabe's age... maybe a little older.

Thus, the title of this blog.

CVS Deals 4/20

OK. So I've decided to join the bandwagon of Money Saving Moms who are working the CVS deals. Before I decided to do this I read everything I could from the sidebar of Money Saving Mom's website. There is an article entitled CVS 101 and What You Need To Know About CVS Deals that were REALLY helpful. =) She advises to start small... so that's what I'm doing! Here we go!!


Trip 1:
ECB = Extra Care Bucks (bucks you can come back and use on anything at CVS)

I bought....
1 Speek Stick for $3.99
1 Alavert allergy medicine for $6.99 (I needed this!)
Bought some CVS Pullups for my Mom that she wanted to keep at her house when Gabe visit's $11.99 for 40 pk.

Coupons:
$1 / 1 speed stick
$4 / 1 Alavert from their website
$4 / $20 CVS Welcome coupon from website

Total After coupons $14.81
ECB received for next time: $7.99
Total Out of Pocket (OOP): Nothing, because my Mom gave me a $20 for the diapers. haha

Trip 2:
Justin LOVES the Boost energy drinks for breakfast, but they are $$ so we rarely buy them. As a diabetic, I have to say.... they ARE decent for us to drink on the go too. A good blend of fat, protein, and carbs. (33 carbs, 15g protein, 6g fat and only.5g saturated fat) It keeps ya going.

OK...
3 Boost 6 packs for a total of $ 21

Used $8 in ECB from first transaction
Used $4 / $20 from cvs website

Total OOP: $9
TOTAL ECB's earned: $10

If you are totally confused.... please go to Money Saving Mom's website and read the stuff I mentioned at the beginning of my post. This game is going to eventually save us lots and lots of money on household items. =)

Going Green

OK... I know it LOOKS gross... but it's actually REALLY GOOD. This is my attempt at eating breakfast. I HATE eating in the morning, and I know I need to, to help boost my metabolism and keep my blood sugars more stable and avoid my pre-lunch crashes that have been occurring. This was attempt one and it actually worked! This is what I used.

1 small banana
1 cup skim milk
1 T. peanut butter
1 t. cocoa powder
1 T flaxseeds
lots of spinach *I didn't measure, but maybe 2-3 cups?*
lots of ice

Blend the snot out of it.

This gave me sooo much energy and filled me up till lunch. =)

Can anyone tell me how to get pictures to post without getting cut off like that?? It's not resizing them.

Flushable Wipes 14 cents.

I thought this one was post worthy. Gabriel is a newly potty trained 3 year old and flushable wipes come in handy for us. I found a $3 off / 2 coupon on coupons.com and Walmart has Huggies flushable wipes (get them on the bath/body isle...not the baby isle for $1.64 a pack. This makes them .14 cents each after the coupon. Whoo hoo!

There is also a $1 Scott toilet paper and my Walmart had a 4 pack (double roll) on sale for $1.68 which made it 68 cents after coupon.

UPDATE!!!!

I soooo killed the roach yesterday. He came out of hiding about 30 minutes after I wrote the post and this time he was on my wide open tile floor. No hope for him that time. Gabe told Dad, "Mom made a bug go to heaven!" when he came home from work. =) Gotta love 3 year olds.

I HATE ROACHES

If there's one thing I hate... absolutely abhor. It's roaches. This morning my son was watching his morning PBS cartoons and he screams, "Mommy! A big bug! A BIG one!!!" I look on my living room curtains and there...sho nuff...is a huge ugly disgusting roach. So I did what any calm, sensible, stay at home wife would do. I screamed...."Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!"

I ran to our bedroom... got my husbands biggest looking shoe and ran back. Then I took a deep breath and prayed a prayer to Jesus that I would not slam the shoe so hard on the bug that it would break the window. And POW! Then... nothing. I looked on the bottom of the shoe. Nothing. I looked on the curtain, half expecting to see bug guts everywhere...nothing. I looked on the floor...nothing. What the heck???

Now, and forever, until I find this sucker... I am going to 1. not be able to sit on my couch and relax (the curtains and windows are right behind it) and 2. be obsessed that it's going to be crawling on me at any given moment. (sigh)

Sometimes I hate Florida.

ING ROCKS!

So I've been a total slacker blogger lately. Actually, it's because I've actually been GOING PLACES with the kids and been busy at home doing projects and our financial restoration! I am totally hooked on SEVERAL frugal and finance blogs that are already helping me make money and stretch my dollars further. So I've decided to share my learnings.......

ING DIRECT.


OK, first off I am NOT a paid blogger (I don't make money for writing this stuff) so I'm free to share my real opinions.

We are working on building an emergency fund with 3 months worth of expenses in it. This is such a vital thing to do so that if the car breaks, Justin looses his job unexpectedly, an unexpected illness occurs, etc. we have CASH to use instead of having to use a credit card.
Sooo....
Justin and I opened an ORANGE SAVINGS ACCOUNT with ING DIRECT. They offer a TOTALLY FREE Savings account, no fees and you get 3% interest. This is a MUCH higher interest rate than we had going at our bank where we have our Checking account. We ALSO got $25 because we were referred by a friend. SO.... if you would like to research it for yourself and decide to open one... I can give you a referral code and we can both get some free money. You leave a comment with your email and I'll forward you a referral link.

Some blogs to get you started that I really recommend are:

Get Rich Slowly
Money Saving Mom
Thrifty Florida Mama


On the diabetes front... I have been slacking. I must admit. I am inserting a new CGMS sensor today in efforts to take this week and get back on track and in tighter control. I still haven't heard word from my insurance company on approval or denial of these supplies yet, but I'm still hoping for good news soon!

We have our JDRF walk coming next weekend. Pics will follow I'm sure! =)