Picture Day

It is AMAZING to me how much it costs to get school pictures done... Times 3 for me... WOW! I am gonna go broke 

So I took these the morning before Sydney and Kelsee left for school.

A Ray of sunshine

So after dropping Haylee off at school before 7am, I pulled up my street to this sight in the sky

 and I thought to myself... Heavenly Father loves us.  How beautiful.  A great way to start my day.  It was my "little ray of sunshine"

Just like her mommy...

she is her mommy's daughter.... This is what she does when mommy is cutting, sorting and preparing her coupons for shopping trips. This made me laugh.  Not even 2 years old and she can say coupon clearly.

Coupons Coupons EVERYWHERE!

It was double coupon day today... weird to have it on a Federal Holiday.. which was stinky because not all the 7day stores were open, which limited my choice of stores :( Oh well.  I have been working on sorting and cutting my coupons ALL weekend long!  My girls are wondering when the get to eat at the Kitchen table (which we did tonite for dinner By the Way :)  I had COUPONS EVERYWHERE!  I was on Coupon OVERLOAD.  I was up until 1am this morning sorting and getting ready for today.  Not remembering that today was a holiday, this because my girls had to go to school.  Well I then had to get up at 6am to get my girls ready and off to school.  Then Delaney and I were off to shop!  Needless to say the PX was not opened until 10am. But I stopped at the 7day store and got lots of good stuff there.  I just wish they would STOP changing the rules to all of this.  Every cashier and ever store is different.  Its a LITTLE ridiculous.  And now there is the rumor again that they are thinking of doing away with Double Coupon day..... NO ANYTHING BUT THAT!  Come on people.  It is WAY TO HELPFUL for all us POOR military families to get rid of it!

Anyways, on to my totals... (pictures will follow tomorrow)

My totals from today : 1st trip- $169.95 paid $29.05 

2nd trip- $229.48 paid $29.59 

3rd trip- $117.84 paid $19.21 

4th trip- $87.01 paid $27.85 (this was mostly toys! there was some great coupons available online and in the paper in the last few weeks)

5th trip- $95.53 paid $5.72 (but I paid with a giftcard so no oop) 

6th trip (was Haylee's) $11.96 paid $0.38 

and my last trip- $50.40 paid $2.75 (used gift card again NO oop...) 

For Grand Total of $762.17 and paid $106.08 just 14% of my total

$8.47 were paid with the giftcard that I got Last month from the BIG boo boo that the store overcharged me for.  

So there it is... my totals.  NOT as good as it has been the last few months, but they are still amazing! 

I can see CLEARLY now

This past week I took 2 of my girls to the Eye Dr.  Sydney has worn glasses for reading for over 2 years now.  Well SURPRISE SURPRISE!  Her eyes have gotten worse and she now has to wear them ALL THE TIME!

And now here she is in her new digs 

 I think she looks adorable.  She picked him out herself.  They are NOT what I would've picked but She LOVES them and they are what she wanted, so I gave in!

 

Do you REALLY have NOTHING better to do?

Talk about getting the CRAPOLA scared out of you…..

Last nite I was sitting in the recliner, close to falling asleep (which is sad since it was only 9:45pm) watching tv.  I closed my eyes and the next thing I know the DOORBELL Rings?  Are you kidding me people?  Who in the world would do that?  Now I do have people come by at strange times, occasionally.  I sell stuff on 29palmsyardsales.com. BUT I ask them to ALWAYS text me before they come by.  So my heart jumps out of my chest and I ran to the door.  HOPING to have whoever it was NOT ring it again and wake up my girls, who were all asleep!  I opened it up and there were 2 guys standing there.  1 was an MP in cammies and the other was a civilian cop, mp, whatever those jokers are called!  The civilian says to me…. "Ah M’am, We were driving by and noticed that your vehicle was unsecured. I mean it is not locked and we were not sure whether you were waiting to go somewhere or whether you were not aware of this. We just wanted to let you know. ya know it is a HUGE pain to have to report a theft to your insurance. But then we also have to write a report so it is a pain all around"

…. Now I have been REALLY good at making sure my vehicles are locked every nite before I go to bed.  There has been a number of problems around our neighborhood with theft, and even break in’s.  I mean seriously, what valuable crap would I leave in my car?  Hey if you need diapers, snacks or coupons then by all means. But I have NOTHING of value in there!

After I was able to take a few deep breathes and tell them both "THANKS for scaring the CRAP out of me."  I asked them to repeat what the 1 had said.  Then I looked at them and said REALLY? No one has EVER stopped to notify me before of an “unsecured” vehicle. I thanked them and then locked the door.  Thinking maybe that was all. 

"OH and by the way the marine MP said to me, we ran your plates, to make sure we were coming to the right residence and your tags came back expired.  DUH!  I knew that!  The sticker on it expired June 2010. But that is a LONG story and I have TRIED to take care of it, but it is gonna cost me almost $600 to take care of the registration.  SOOOO That was the REAL reason for them stopping. Not to tell me that my vehicle was unsecure. But to write me a ticket for my expired tags.  Then the civilian tells me, Well we will be nice and NOT write you a ticket tonite.  BUT It needs to be taken care of."

Oh that is my plan, I told them.  BUT THANK YOU CA DMV for being CLOSED today so I can’t.  The MP then said "what is your primary mode of transportation?  If we see you driving the expedition with expired tags we WILL pull you over and ticket you.  This is just your warning."  

 Then the MP looks over at my husband’s Harley sitting parked on the porch.  The tags on that APRIL 2010.  NOW don’t get any ideas.  I have already reregistered that thing ON TIME and MONTHS ago. BUT I am not messing with the stickers and the registration stuff.  So instead it is sitting on the fridge waiting for my Marine to come back home and take care of it HIMSELF!  Then they both laughed and said "OH ok. Just checking.  We figured you wouldn’t be driving around on that.  It looks like it’s been sitting for a LONG time."   YUP!  7 months to be exact!

So they told me to make sure my vehicles are locked everynite and to get my registration squared away.  Thanks! For that I told them. And they left.

SO if you ever wonder what MP’s and those rent a cops do at nite, when they are bored?  I will tell you…. They scare the Crap out of wives who are home alone, while there Marines are deployed and they have to take care of EVERYTHING on their own! And it gets overwhelming and sometimes too much to deal with.

 All I have to say is LEAVE ME THE JUNK ALONE! If I could pay the thing, I would’ve a LONG time ago!

What have I been up to????

 It feels like life is FLYING by, literally.  I swear it was just the beginning of school and now here we are in the 7^th week of school already.  It’s already Oct. 5^th!  Before we know it, it will be CHRISTMAS!  YIKES.

This past week was all a blur to me, really it was.  I FINALLY got off my tail end and started to CLEAN.  And when I say CLEAN, I MEAN really CLEAN my house.  Not that my house was gross and dirty, but just full of clutter and the HUGE yard sale pile in the middle of my dining room/ office space needed to GO!  It helped that my parents and brother were coming to visit this past weekend.  I definitely didn't want them checking out my mess. PLUS I had found out that the ADVON party from my Marine's unit, was coming home (which they got back last nite... yes he SHOULD'VE been on ADVON but that is a whole nother story in itself) which only means my Marine SHOULD be coming home by the end of the month!  

Anyways, So I started cleaning and going through stuff in the garage on Thursday.  And I cleaned ALL DAY Thursday, then ALL DAY Friday, and ALL MORNING on Saturday, before my parents got here. BTW- that was fun cleaning while the power was out on saturday.  We had a huge storm and the power went on and off probably 8-10 times saturday morning. 

BUT I feel SO accomplished now!  I cleaned my little heart out.  I FILLED my expedition with trash to take to the trash dumpster, seeing as I had already FILLED our 1 trash can to overflowing and it was only Thursday (trash day is Wed).  PLUS I took 2 bags to the Thrift store. As well as sorted through and put more “stuff” in the yard sale pile.  Maybe it is all the HOARDING BURIED ALIVE & HOARDING shows I’ve been watching lately that gave me the kick start.  Believe me, my house was NO WHERE near as bad as those.  But I didn’t want it to get even close to those. And now it is FAR from it!  I even got my girls in on the act.  They helped by cleaning their rooms and clearing out unwanted stuff.

I REALLY wish I would’ve taken before and after pictures.  Then you could’ve seen EVERYTHING for yourself! But I will say this.  My friend came over the other day to bring me dinner and she says, I can see your counter!  I don’t think I ever have before. (Yes my counter was being used as my food storage space. But now it is CLEANED OFF and I couldn’t be happier. 

I even sat and relaxed Sunday afternoon after my parents and brother left... and ALL DAY Monday too!  AND to top it off I wasn’t stressed and overwhelmed with the mess around me. AHHHHH!  It is SO nice.  Now it’s to keep it this way.  With 4 little girls, that might be a HUGE undertaking! 

So THAT is what I have been up to lately.

By the Way WELCOME to my new Followers!  I am so glad you are here :)