He MUST be Sick!

Nick's teacher called today just before 2:00 (so 1 hour left of school). Said he was cold & then she took his temp & it was 100.6. So I talked to him & he wanted to come home. He took a nap for an hour when he got home & then spent the rest of the night on the couch. Didn't even eat any supper.

I was giving Z & Z their baths & then Nick called for me that he wanted more blankets. Here he was in bed. It was about 7:15. Nick going to bed early...yep, he's not feeling well!!

Hopefully he gets a good night's sleep & wakes up feeling better!

Proud Owners!!

Yeah!! We are now the owners of a 2004 Chrylser Town & Country Minivan!! Ya ok, so we bought it last April, but today we finally OWN it! We paid our 3 year loan off in under a year!

And since Dave Ramsey's says to shout it out when you are debt free....here we go

WE ARE DEBT FREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


We now get to move to Baby Step 3!!

TV Guide Deal

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Ahhhh Good Times!

I'm cleaning off our game shelf. It's gotten a bit out of hand. Ok, WAY out of hand!!!

In one of the boxes I found a little cheat sheet with this on it:

7 - ahead
11 - behind
21 - social
41 - girls
31 - guys
51 - Nose
32 - Reverse
42 - Anti

What fun memories that brings up!!! I'm sure some of you will figure it out in no time & others will go "huh?"

Scooba!

My new housecleaner. iRobot's Scooba!! While my kitchen floor was getting cleaned, I was able to sit back & relax!! Now to get a robot to take care of the kids!!

 

Bowling

The kids were off school on Friday (and tomorrow!) so I took them bowling. It's been a while since I bowled! I was surprised at how well Nick did. No bumpers at all & the first game he actually beat Eric!!

 

Bowling

Zachary turn around & WATCH Nick bowl!!

 

Straws

These straws entertained the boys for awhile!

 

Broke 100!

Just to show that I can break 100!!!

 

What?!?

So Eric is the WEEKLY bowler here. What HAPPENED!?!? How did NICK beat him?!? And I beat him too!!

 

Huh?

Mowing the lawn in the snow?? I think you have the wrong toy out Zachary!

 

Snow !!

We got some snow on Thursday. I took Zach & Zander out for a bit. Zachary didn't like it much at all. He didn't want to sit in the sled at all. Took 20 mins to get ready to go out & we were out for about 10 minutes!

 

Yikes!

This happened last week. Zach grabbed a new box of cereal out of the cupboard & was bringing it downstairs. He somehow got the box opened & ripped the bag as well.

 

Ear Infection

To recap. Tuesday Nick's one ear hurt & he suffered through it all day at school. Wed he stayed home from school but by 10:00 I could tell he was better. So I took him to school & he was fine the rest of the day. Thursday (this morning) he went to school fine. But at about 12:30 I got a call from his teacher saying that he said his OTHER ear was hurting today. So I went & picked him up & then we had a doctor appointment set up for 4:00.

Ears were checked & they weren't really bad, but he did give us a prescription for Zithromax. He's got 4 days to recover now (no school Fri & Monday). Also I got a prescription for some nasal spray for him. He has some allergies & also has these coughing spells when he lays down. We got a real taste of it in Iowa. He coughed for an hour straight (until 1:00 am!). So we have this spray he is suppose to use 2x/day. Hopefully this helps!

Closed Credit Cards

So today I went online to look at our credit history. It showed a bunch of credit cards that were still open. No balances, but history was there. So I decided to call a bunch to close the account. I think I ended up closing like 10 or more.

Anyhow, here is how it went.

Don't you still want a card for emergencies?

No

Most people have 2 or 3 cards on hand for emergencies.

We have cash for that.

What about online ordering or hotel/car rentals.

I have a debit card for that.

This is a credit card based economy.

You mean a DEBT based economy?

Are you sure you don't want to keep this card, there is no annual fee.

I've never paid an annual fee.

Can we send you some coupons ?

I don't even know where this card is for, what store? (listed as DSNB)

Macy's!

Oh, well we don't even have one around here, I must of ordered something online or was in the big city once, I have no idea! I'll pass on the coupons.


It was pretty funny. Discover Card did NOT want me to close at all. Asked what rate I was getting from other companies. I said that we have no balance so it didn't matter. He really kept going on & on! Herberger's was the quickest. Account number, ok, Account closed, thank you, goodbye.

MOTHER OF THE YEAR AWARD

goes to me today!!! Oh yes, I so deserve it.

I got a call today around 11 from Nick's teacher. She said that he was complaining of his ear hurting & so she wanted to see if their was any history in the family or if we maybe had drops or something & to be on the alert. Ok, I asked if she wanted me to come pick him up. She said no, not yet. He has his head down but we'll wait & see.

OK.

So shortly after that call, my mom called. Talked to her for awhile & then Zander got the other phone & was playing around with that as well.

So we get done & hang the phone up & go on with our day.

3:45 Nick & Lexi come home from school & as soon as Nick gets in the door, he falls to the floor & starts crying that his ear hurt. I said Nick, why didn't you call me then. He said, they tried, like 20 times but the phone was always busy! Oh great, so I go check the phone & sure enough no dial tone. So either it didn't get hung back up right or sometime during the day, one of the boys picked it up & did who knows what.

So then I asked him, well why didn't they try my cell phone. They did, five times he said. Huh? I never heard it, so I go to the counter to check & no cell phone. Look around & try to think where it could be. I found it. In the van where I last left it. There were 4 messages from his teacher asking for me to call back or to come get Nick. Poor thing. He was miserable all day in school & the teacher had tried calling me all day!! I feel horrible.

He took a nap after he got home from school & did manage to get up to eat some supper. He's been resting on the couch now so we'll see how he is in the morning. He says it still does hurt, so more than likely we'll have to go to the doctor tomorrow.

So, ya pass that MOTHER OF THE YEAR award right on over here. I sure deserve it, don't I?!?!?

New Ulm Wrestling Meet!

Today was Nick's first Wrestling Meet!! It was our first time at a meet too so we had NO idea what to do or what to expect!! The weigh ins were from 10-11 & then they started with the preschool kids just before noon. I think I got there about 12:30 & not even sure what time it was when the 2nd graders started. We did wait awhile. It was nuts. There were 100's of kids there!!

Nick got to wrestle 3 matches. They take 4 kids to the mat at a time & switch off. He lost the first two matches but did get a pin on the 3rd kid. He did wrestle other 2nd graders & they were near his weight so there were pretty even sized matches going on. You could tell the other kids have a couple of years of wrestling under their belts! Nick did pretty good for his first time out there & not knowing all the moves or what exactly you are suppose to do!

He took 3rd place!

 

1st Pin!

Nick got a pin against this kid. He was the heaviest of the 4 in Nick's group. Nick was the lightest!! Nick was 92, the other 2 were 94 & this one here was 100 pounds.

 

Iowa Sports Show

Here are a few pictures from the weekend.
Harmon Killebrew






Andre Dawson


While the boys were exercising, I thought I'd take it easy & have a beer!


Here is me in my comfy robe. First time at a hotel that had robes for you to wear! It was so nice & soft!!

Iowa - Friday Update

We made it Des Moines just after noon on Friday. It was a little shorter drive than we had planned so that was nice. And the drive really went fast too, not use to driving on the Interstate so much where you can go 77 mph! We drove right up to the civic center without any problems & was able to drive in so Phil could unload all his cards & stuff.

I left Phil & Nick to go check into the hotel. About a mile before we got to the civic center, our gas light came on & it did say we had 30 miles to go before we were empty. So my first stop was to find a gas station. I got back in the van & now it said 0 miles to empty! Talk about freaking out!! I asked the guy as I was leaving where the nearest gas station was. Go left here, then right, then over that bridge, then left, then another right & if there isn't one there, then there will be one a little ways down. Ya, ok, try to remember all THAT! Downtown Des Moines, all these one way streets, empty gas tank.

So I start to follow his directions, see the bridge he was talking about, but I was 2 lanes over & no way to get over there w/ all the traffic. So I ended up turning the other way & thankfully see a gas station a block away! Phew, I made it.

Next stop the hotel. I had directions from the civic center to the hotel, but the gas station stop messed me up a little. I still managed to find the place. Notice there is NO parking lot. Loading/unloading zone in front & that was it. So I go to check in & find out I can either have valet parking for $15 or the city garage across the street for $9/day. Well I start hauling our stuff in & a DOORMAN comes to help me. I've never stayed at a hotel with a doorman!

I get checked in & then go back to move the van to the parking garage. Came back to get unpacked, rest for awhile before I head out to check some thrifts out. I went to 2 thrifts & then found a pizza place & got a pizza. I had luck at one of the thrifts with finding a 3 pc ST JOHN outfit!! I'm hoping it does well that it pays a good chunk of the weekend!! It's really nice & I can't wait to get it listed!!

I got back to the hotel & as I was going up to my room, a couple of guys got off on the 2nd floor & I notice it says SKYWALK. So after I got done eating, it was about 7 & the show was over at 8. So I had an hour before I had to go pick Phil & Nick up. Well I went to the front desk to ask about the SKYWALK & they said it does go to the civic center. So I thought I'd try it out. It was a ways to walk, but all indoors so no biggie. I found the place & sat at the show for the last 45 mins. I think Nick liked the Skywalk. Today he asked if he could walk back in the sky...that sky thing, whatever it's called! LOL

After they ate, we hit the pool/hot tub/exercise room/sauna. Then we came back to the room & relaxed. Got up this morning to the alarm clock. It went off at 6:20. Definately gonna complain about that & tell them to make sure their cleaning people check that it is turned off from the previous guests!! That sucked.

Got up about 8:30 & Phil & Nick left for the card show about 9:30. It runs today from 10-6 & then after he gets all packed up, we'll head home. Yesterday the big names he saw were Sparky Anderson & Dieon Sanders. Today is Harmon Killebrew, Andre Dawson & I can't remember who else.

He really hasn't sold a whole lot, but is having a great time. He had heard that he might get an offer from another dealer there to buy out all his stuff. So we'll see. He'd only get 20% of what it's worth, so not sure if he will do it or not. He has been into collecting cards for the last 10 years so I'm curious to see what he decides & if he does get an offer. It would mean he wouldn't have to pack all the crap back up!! He said, ya that right there is worth $100!!

Off to shower & then I have until 6:00 to shop!!

Oh, I have checked in at home & sounds like all is going well. Ashley is doing great & it helps that we have such good kids!!! LOL Sounds like Zach is entertaining himself & Lexi is a big help. Very big relief for me cause I was so worried about leaving them! My first time leaving Zach overnight with someone other than his dad!

PLASTECTOMY??

Well some of you know about the Xmas gift my folks gave us. Well not just us, but my brothers & sister got one as well. We got the book titled THE TOTAL MONEY MAKEOVER by Dave Ramsey. No idea what was behind the gift, if my folks thought we were having problems or if they just wanted us to get on board & better our financial picture.

Well dad had said that Phil would probably be the only one to read the book. Well I proved him wrong, I read it too!! Phil read it in like 2 or 3 days. I finished it up last week. Phil said it was the BEST Xmas present he's ever gotten. I only wish I could of had this information 15 years ago!! If we would of started out our marriage with following the baby steps, we wouldn't have a mortgage right now!! Yes, you CAN pay cash for a house!! Who would of thought that!?

Basically there are 7 Baby Steps (BS) to the program. We are almost done with BS 2 & ready to move to #3! In order to complete that step faster, we decided to put our lake home up for sale. This is obviously a hard decision for us, but we are gonna try to sell it. Who knows, it may be hard to sell so we may end up keeping it! But this weekend as we go to Iowa, we thought it would be a good idea to leave some fliers along the way as a lot of the people at the resort are from Iowa. So we figure, why not try some free advertising!

The other thing we did was cut up our credit cards. Which can also be referred to as a PLASTECTOMY!! I did this yesterday with mine. I have so many in my wallet & I only use the one Visa, but I'm always applying for cards to get that *extra* discount they offer when you sign up for their cards. I had Herberger's, Old Navy, Kohl's, Discover, Bed, Bath, & Beyond & who knows what else. So I just cut them up, not a big deal since I never use them anyhow! It was funny though, the kids came home from school & saw them on the counter & then put them back together for me and said they finished the puzzle!

Well today Nick comes home from school & said that he told his teacher that I cut up my credit cards. She asked him "how come?" He told her "cause we are having a financial makeover" So now I bet she thinks I have a credit card problem!!!

The other big thing I did was get myself a DEBIT card. I never had one cause I thought they weren't safe & I worried about it getting lost or stolen & someone wiping out my account. Well after discovering they are as safe as a credit card, I'm now the proud owner of a debit card! So it's that & CASH that I'll be using.

So now I'm on a budget. I've already used up 1/2 of it with my trips to Walgreens so this could be a difficult rest of the month for me!!!! Hopefully, they won't have any more good deals this month!!! The hard thing for me is buying stuff cause it's such a good deal or very cheap. I've always been this way, whether we need it or not. Like the 8 bags of Kissables, Phil said we don't need them. But then he's not complaining at all about the 15 bars of Dove Candy bars. (He said they are the best chocolate he's ever had!)

Financially, we've always thought we've both done pretty good. Especially after we cut our income by more than 50% when I quit working full time. We cut back where we needed to & made the income work for us. But after reading this book, we realize that there is so much more that we CAN do. Not only to have an enjoyable retirement but to live in Financial Peace and most importantly to GIVE back.

So I'm hoping that we can stick with this program & who knows, maybe it will give me the willpower I need to get back on the right mindset with eating & exercising & get rid of those nagging 20 pounds I have left to lose!!

Getting Ready....

For the Weekend! Phil, Nick, & I are going to Des Moines. We are leaving Fri morning & won't be back until late Sat night.

My first time leaving Zachary!!! I've left him for a night with Phil, but this is the first time with someone else.

I've been writing things down & hoping I'm not forgetting anything! I wrote some phone numbers down to in case she needs help. Six different people too many!?!?!

Tammi will come over Fri morning to watch Z & Z until Ashley gets here in the afternoon. Then Ashley will have the 3 of them!!

Yes I'm nervous about leaving them!!! And it's not with grandma!!!! I don't feel ok leaving until they are about 2!! As long as she doesn't lock herself out of the house with the kids inside (something I did when Nick was a baby!!!) all will be well!!

Deals Deals & More Deals!

Here's my list from today Eric, since you weren't there to follow me around ;-)
(I'll only post the *hot* deals since you don't care about my diapers & sippy cups I bought!) (ES= EasySaver MFG= Mfg coupon WG=Walgreens in ad coupon, MIR=Walgreens Monthly Mail In Rebate)

1. Stayfree Pads (building that supply up!! See my comment a couple of posts back for the numbers in the closet!!) On sale 2/$10, MIR= $10, MFG $1.00 = MAKE $1.00

2. Vive Shampoo (got the bonus packs too!) 2/9.98 - ES 3.00 Mfg 1.00 Mfg B1G1F 4.99= 1.00 for 4 bottles!!!

3. Soft & Dri Deodorant (also found BONUS packs!) WG 2/$3.00 - 1.00 mfg - 1.00 mfg = 1.00 for 4 things of deodorant!

4. All Liquid on sale 1.00 less .50 mfg = .50 (small bottle, 5 loads. Zander got a kick out of the small bottle!!! He carried it downstairs for me & said "not heavy" The usual ones I get are heavy for him!!

5. Reach toothbrush $2. less $2 mfg = FREE

6. Reach dental floss $2. less $1. mfg = $1.00

7. Smuckers squeezable jelly 2/$3.00 WG coupon less .35 mfg x 2 = 1.15/each Awesome deal on this even w/o the mfg coupons!

8. Soup 2/1.19, bought 4 used mfg .40 = 2.00 for 4 cans of chicken noodle soup.

9. Excedrin $3. less MIR of $3. less $1.00 mfg = MAKE $1.00

10. Fruity Pebbles/SBeach Snack bars/Nab cookies/Graham crackers on sale 5/$10 less MIR of $5 less mfg of 1.55 = 3.74 for 5 boxes of goodies.

11. Kleenex. Buy $20 worth of Kimberly Clark, get $10 back. I ended up with 15 boxes of Kleenex. Planning on sending some w/ the kids to school for their classrooms! It was on sale for .89/box w/ WG coupon. For the rebate you use the reg price, which was 1.29 & 1.89. That was over $21. Then the .89 coupon took off 7.80, then I had 4 mfg coupons which took off another 1.60 & then I will get the $10 back. SO net is 1.75 for 15 boxes. And that was probably the deal of the day ;-)

BRRRRRR

It's a little cold in the house tonight, but this is the last night of it!!

Friday afternoon, about 4:30 pm, Phil takes the kids out sledding. Walks by the LP tank & checks the gas. Comes in & tells me we are E, call the gas company for a fill!!

Well I call & if we want same day delivery, it's an EXTRA $100. I said we'll wait until Monday. So they will be here first thing tomorrow.

We have been turning the heat way down at night to get us through. And adding extra blankets too!!

We did a prebuy of gas in the summer so we assumed (NEVER ASSUME, right?!?!) they would tap off our tank here & there when they were in the area. Guess we were wrong!

We are lucky the weather has been decent during the day. Yesterday we had the sun shining in nice & bright to warm the place up!!

Like we REALLY need this!!

Today was the last day for this deal, so sorry I'm posting it late!

Candy bars! We don't need them, but when they are almost free...well, gotta pick them up!

Walgreens. All MARS candy bars were 3/$1.00 w/ coupon. DOVE is a Mars product & EasySaver catalog says buy $10 worth of DOVE products, get $5 back.

So, you buy 16 candy bars which at regular prices = $10.00. Gave 3/$1.00 coupon, brings it down to $5.34. Do the rebate & you end up paying $.34 for SIXTEEN candy bars!!

Also picked up some more tampons. I have to go count what I have now. I think it's probably a 3 year supply.

I ran into Tammi & Eric at Walgreen's today & Eric had to follow me around to see what I was buying. Gave Tammi a tampon coupon & told her about that deal & they also had to buy the 16 candy bars!! So that ruined my plan of him getting a couple of candy bars w/ his bday card today!!

It's getting late, but there is a preview of tomorrow's ad up on the net already so I'm making out my list already :-)

Fischer Family

This was taken when we were all together for Xmas in Lewiston. Savannah is missing as she was in the other room. After we noticed she was gone, we had to do it all over again! Shannon used her film camera so we don't have that one back yet. As you can see, Zander was NOT in a good mood for the picture. And Nick had to goof off as well.

The Toilet, It Runneth Over

Toilet problems, TWO days in a row!

Last night, Eric comes out of the bathroom & said the toilet won't go down. Ok, Eric, HOW LARGE OF A CRAP did you take?!!? He claims he didn't. Whatever.

Gave him the plunger & said get to work. Well he had no luck. I had no luck. Got some Drano & no luck. Used more Drano & FINALLY it broke loose. Then Eric comes up with the idea that MAYBE it was the stuff he & Nick flushed down. New Year's Eve they did some of Nick's lab experiment kit that he got for Xmas. I don't think that stuff should of been flushed down the toilet. It was some snow or something they made. They also left the cup sit out & Zach dumped it all out. I made the mistake of trying to vacuum it up. Not smart. Bigger mess for us to clean up. Who got him THAT gift?!?!

Then today. Zander is in the upstairs bathroom & comes up & says something about the toilet paper. Well usually he summons me to wipe for him, but today he did it himself. Well I went in there & didn't look like he overdid the toilet paper, but I went ahead & flushed again & whoosh! Water comes pouring out all over, flooded the whole bathroom floor to the door. That was fun to clean up!

Let's see what tomorrow brings. I'm hoping it's calm as the kids head back to school & it's just Z & Z & me!

More Bloody Tampons!

Ok, probably the wrong way to title this post, right?! heheh

I'm telling you this tampon cycle is never ending!

Tampax Pearl on sale for 6.99 for 40 pack. $2 Easy Saver Coupon (Walgreens) and I also had a $2 coupon from the machine from previous visits. That brings it down to $2.99. Pretty good, but not enough for me! I cut a coupon from this weeks inserts that if you but a 40 pack of Pearl, you can get a free smaller pack (the 4.29 ones). So I used that as well so got 2 packs for $3.00!! So we'll say $2 for the big pack & $1 for the smaller one!

In case you think it never happens to you, well it does happen to me too. I got overcharged again. So now I have to go back. I bought the Pantene that was on sale for 2.99 & they had a .50 coupon so 2.49 & then I had $1.50 mfg coupon so it should of been $1.00. Well it rang up as 3.99 & then didn't take the .50 coupon off! So that was $1.50 difference.

I had to go back a couple of weeks ago too when they had the girls tights on sale. I picked up three pairs for Lexi. They were on sale for .99/each & they had a coupon. The lady said the coupons weren't working for some reason so was manually fixing it or doing whatever she had to do to get it to ring up as .99/each. Well I didn't check my receipt until I got home & saw that it did ring the 3 pairs up as .99, but the first pair she tried never got deleted. So I got charged 1.69 for nothing! I took the receipt back in & explanied what happened & wasn't sure if they would be able to correct it since I had nothing to return, but they could see what happened & gave me my money back. Now I have to do another return...and then rebuy. Augh.

Vitamins Deal

Need some vitamins? Walgreens has Natures Made vitamins on sale this week. B1G1F. I picked up some Vitamin C pills. One bottle was 4.49 & the other was free. Coupon from this weeks paper was $2.00/off if you bought two. So that brought it down to $2.49 for both bottles or 1.25/each. Then they also had a form that if you bought 2 bottles, you could mail in your receipt for a $5 coupon towards your next purchase. So next time I will get a free bottle of vitamins! Good deal!

Colgate Deal!

Here's a good deal on Colgate/Palmolive products.

Get a $10.00 Rebate when you buy two (2) Colgate Total Toothpastes (any variety) and any three (3) other Colgate-Palmolive products*, we'll give you a $10.00 refund!

FIRST, go to this site & print out the form.

Then, purchase what it says. Here is how to make money on the deal.

You can get a coupon for a $1.00 off Colgate Total Toothpaste from colgate.com.

Walgreens, Shopko, & I think Target has the Colgate Total on sale this week 2/$5.00 and if you print out the $1. coupons, it brings it down to 2/$3.00.

This week Walgreens also has SoftSoap on sale for $0.99 each after in-ad coupon. You need to buy 3 of these. I also had mfg coupons for .25 each that were in this last Sunday's paper. So that was $2.25 for the Softsoap.

$5.00 (2 Colgate Total) + $2.97 (3 SoftSoap) - $2.75 (Coupons) - $10.00 Rebate = ($4.78)
MAKE MONEY