Friday, July 23, 2010

Humor for My Church Friends :)

Here's some Friday morning humor for a few of my friends from church.  You know who you are!!

Clearly, this guy is in the mood for dinner at McDonald's.
 

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Our Marine


Our nephew returned home from boot camp late Friday night. Three months later and forty pounds lighter! He is officially a Marine now. He is living proof that a rough start in life does not have to determine a person's future. We are so proud of him!

Friday, July 9, 2010

Frugal Friday: CVS and Walgreens Shopping

Pictured below is my first venture into my goal of building a stockpile at no cost or very low cost! For $6.09 I ended up with: 2 packs of 45-count Dixie paper plates, 2 jugs of Sun laundry soap, 1 small jug of Xtra laundry soap, 2 bottles of Suavatel fabric softener, a small bottle of Dawn dish soap, a pair of Aloe-infused (SOFT!!!!) purple socks (to put back for my daughter-in-law for Christmas or her birthday), a three-pack of Blistex smoothie lip balms, and three boxes of Puffs w/lotion.



I was able to accomplish this by shopping at Walgreens with my Walgreens Register Rewards card, shopping at CVS with my CVS Extra Care card, and using coupons.

Breakdown:
With my Walgreen's reward card...

  • Sun Laundry Detergent was $3.49 each. I bought two, which (if I remember right) was the maximum. I had two coupons: One for $0.75 and one for $0.50. Total: $5.73.
  • Suavitel Fabric Softener was $2.99 buy-one-get-one-free. Total: $2.99.
  • Dawn Dish Soap was $0.99. I had a coupon for $0.25. Total: $0.74.
  • Puffs w/lotion was $0.99 each. I bought three, which was the maximum. I had some great coupons that I had received in the mail (along with a free sample) from Viewpoints. I had one coupon for $1.00 and two coupons for $0.50. Total: $0.97.
Total owed: $10.43.
I paid $6.00 of this with my Register Rewards, which left a balance of $4.43. Add the tax to that, and my out-of-pocket cost was $5.48.

(Prior to this trip, I was able to purchase the paper plates, the lip balm, and the socks completely free by using a coupon for the plates and paying for the remainder with my Register Rewards. I don't have the receipt any longer, so I can't type out the breakdown on that shopping trip.)

At CVS, the Xtra Laundry Detergent was on sale for $1.50. I had a coupon for $1.00 off, and so my total was $0.50, plus tax, for an out-of-pocket cost of $0.61.

Total paid out-of-pocket: $6.09.

For an explanation of how the CVS and Walgreens cards/deals work, check out these links:

CVS 101

Walgreens 101
(Note: In my local area, this link is a little out of date, due to the fact that it says "
Unlike CVS, the Register Rewards (RR) are not tied to a store card." My local area is one of the few that has started using Rewards cards... which I assume will eventually be used in all areas.)


That's all for now. If you need me, I'll be mourning the loss of age 38. :)

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Eleven Years Ago Today...

Today I'm remembering my beloved mother-in-law. Eleven years ago today, after several days of all of her family being with her at the hospital around the clock, my father-in-law made the decision to take her off of life support. If my memory serves me correctly, all eight of her children were there with her as she died (as well as some of their spouses and several of her grandchildren). It was beyond difficult to let her go, but I remember the overwhelming feeling of gratitude that we had been able to keep her two years longer than we had expected.

Two years earlier, an infection swept through her body and she came very close to death. They ended up amputating both of her legs in order to save her life. The loss of her legs was very difficult for her, and yet she remained the sweet, fun person that she had always been... while being confined to a bed for her last two years of life.
I feel very blessed to have been given two extra years to spend with her! If she had died two years prior, all of her children would not have been able to be there at her side. She also would have missed ever meeting her two youngest grandchildren.

The day she died was the day before my 28th birthday. That night, my then-10-year-old son had a baseball game. I remember him writing her name on the palm of his baseball glove and how badly he wanted to hit a home run in honor of her that night. The next day, I remember feeling almost honored to spend my birthday at the funeral home making her arrangements.

I can honestly say that I had the best mother-in-law that I could have ever asked for! I hope one day that my daughter-in-law and I will have even half of the relationship that I had with my mother-in-law.

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Sin

Sin...

Call it what it is.

Hate it.

Stop it.


Source: Jessie by Lori Wick