Mac Daddy of All Deals!

OK, so I normally never figure out how to post these deals.  But for this one, I figured it out!  i haven’t bargain shopped in a while because I just have not had the time to organize all my coupons and figure it all out.  Well, this morning I did it!  And boy did it pay off!  I did 3 seperate transaction, really just to make it a little easier on me.  Ready for the numbers?  You better sit down…I got $175 worth of stuff for $50.00!  That’s a 70% savings!  Here is how I did it:

First order

I bought one lysol nuetra air and used a $5.00 off coupon from the paper.  I bought 2 glade plug in scented oil warmers with a B1G1 free coupon.  I also bought 2 glade scented gel warmers and 1 glade flameless candle, I used a $5.00 coupon for this.  My subtotal was 32.49.  Minus my 2-$5.00 couons and my $4.49 b1G1 free coupon and this brought my total to $18.00.  Then after paying you get 4-$2.00 off your next transaction and 1-$4.00 off your next transaction coupon.  (Now there is a B1G1 coupon for the gel warmers, I just did not have it)

 

Next transaction:

This may be the most confusing one so I will try to make it as easy as possible.  First I am going to start with the deal Kroger has now.  By 15 selected items and instantly get $3.00 off your transaction.  Here are the 15 items I got-4 cans of Chicken Noodle Soup, 2-V-8  V-Fusions, 4-Betty Crocker fruit snacks, 1-Cottonelle toilet paper, 1-chex mix, and 3-General Mills cereals.  I also then added 2 airwick freshmatic air freshners, 2 bags of sunmaid raisins, 1-lysol nutra air kit, 1-box town house crackers, 1-large container coffee mate creamer, 1-tube aquafresh toothpaste, 1-bottle  of Nature’s H20 water.  My subtotal was $71.05.  I used my coupons earned from the above transaction 1-$4.00 off and 4-$2.00 off.  I then used a $.50 coupon for the chex mix, then a $.50 coupon for fruit snacks, then a $1.00 fruit snack coupon, then $1.50 cereal coupon, then a $.40 coupon for the soup, then a $1.00 couon for the V-8, then a $.50 coupon for the toliet paper, then$.50 coupon for the toothpaste, then a $1.00 coupon for the raisins.  Then a $5.00 coupon for the Lysol airfreshner, and then a B1G1 free coupon for the airwick freshners ($10.19) and then a coupon for free coffeemate for $3.35 and a free coupon for water $1.29.  WOW!  That brought my total to $29.61 a 74% total savings on this order.

 

My last order:

We needed milk and I had a $1.00 off coupon, add in 2 more Lysols with a $5.00 coupon for each.  This brought my subtotal from $18.36 down to $7.36, an 80% savings! 

 

So, there you have it.  My morning and my “mac daddy of all deals!”  Now I will have to give a shout out to my sister Rachel for helping me with my deals and between us we had 4 kids!  Glad she brought the goldfish!

Knock, Knock

“Unannounced visits”  Do you make them?  If we are in your neighborhood, my husband would love to just pop in for a quick visit.  I, on the other hand, insist that we must call first.  But why, I love for people to just drop in to visit us.  I just think times are different.  Family time is so cherished now and I would never want to feel like I interrupted someone else’s.  What are you thoughts?  Be careful what you write, we may pop in if you give us the ok!

Boy vs. Girl >>> 20 years

OK, OK, so the picture is a little big, but it will work!  

Can I just start out by saying we serve a big God!  A God who is so “in tune” with us.  He knows exactly how to reach us, especially those of us with small children.  He uses them!  I am eager to hear His voice and recognize it!  Well yesterday I was in Wal-Mart of all places.  Not only was I able to hear Him speak to me through a child, luckily not mine, (you’ll understand why in a minute!) but I was actually able to “get” the lesson!  Now come along with me to Wal-Mart…  I rushed in, picked up what I needed and was heading for the exit when I noticed a little girl about 6.  Her mom was a little bit in front of her, missing the ENTIRE thing!  I notice the girl stops to look at the lastest movie being released, “Barbie and the Diamond Castle.”  Have you seen the posters by the doors?  You know the ones, they are giant size and they cover the security bars.  Well, as the little girl stands in awe of the poster, she begins kissing, yes I said kissing, all of the barbies and the little dogs.  Now not only is she just kissing them, she has her arms spread wide open as if they are embracing her.  She is completly consumed with this poster!  I hit me right then…wow, little girls are SO different than little boys.  And there it was, the lesson in all of this.  Take the same differences and add 20 years.  Ding Ding…there still there!  Why is it that I can so easily see the differences between two children of different sexes, but yet when it comes to adults, I have such a problem.  What I think is so cute in a child is expected to just diminish away??  God has taught me something today.  And I am so thankful that I heard his whisper!  So, let me challenge you to embrace the differences between the male and the female.  After all, God has created us each for a purpose.  

 

WHO YA WITH? VU!!!

OK, so it was a GREAT night!  We were so pumped about the game last night.  As I was trying to find us black t-shirts for the game last night (they announced last minute it was going to be a black out) their was a weird frenzy in the air.  Well…weird for vanderbilt.  There were actually lots of people in the mall sporting the VU gear!  The atmosphere was fun!  I know a lot of other teams experience this every week, but for a vandy fan, this is not the norm.  We just kinda, don’t have expectations.  This way were are never disappointed.  Even last night, we don’t claim victory until the clock is a 0:00!  I don’t care if we are 3 touchdowns up!  You just don’t do that as a Vandy fan.  But last night, as we were televised on ESPN, it was a diffrent kinda Vandy, a good kind of Vandy!  The fans cheered like they had never cheered.  As I left the stadium and got in my car, my head was pounding!  This is so not normal!  Normally you can shout to someone across the field and they can hear you!  We had a great time last night and are really pumped for our team.  Not to mention that the “other” local team ummm… HAS A LOSING RECORD!!!!!!!  And they ARE expected to win, their fans not only expect it, they demand it!  I am just going to sit back and enjoy this win for a little while.  And our “better that UT” record!  GO DORES!!!  Oh, and by the way did you see us on ESPN?  We were there, in the crowd shots!  Do any of you fans from, “that other team” ever see yourself on national TV in your stadium??? 

 

 

I’m sorry, do I know you?

There is nothing more embarrassing than someone walking over to speak to you and you have NO idea who they are!  Recently, I was having dinner with my family at a local restaurant and a women came over and called my by name and began asking me how my summer was going.  I had NO IDEA who she was.  I couldn’t even place her with a group I could have know her from!  Under normal conditions, I would have politely explained how with 3 kids, my mind sometimes goes a little crazy and just asked her what her name was and how I knew her.  But the problem was, she was with her parents and her whole family.  I didn’t want to embarrass her by me not knowing who she was.  So, I just played dumb and acted like I knew her!  How would you have handled the situation?  What do you do when you seriously can’t remember someone?

Inhale, Exhale, repeat several times

For my birthday, yes in April, my husband built me a lawn pond.  It’s complete with a waterfall and bridge.  While it has taken forever to get to the point we are now, I do have to admit it is shaping up nicely!  All of our rock has come from the farm.  We have had a lot of fun gathering rocks and turtles and anything else the boys could determine as “clues.”  We still have to finish a little rock and then do landscaping.  We did decide that the pond should be “balanced” now and we would add some fish.  The kids were really excited about this step, that is until we go to the store!  I had heard that Petco carried some fish.  We just wanted some cheap goldfish to experiment with.  We weren’t about to fork over $20 for a koi fish just yet!  So, here we are a Petco.  As we walk into the doors, we are all GASPING!!!  Baker is about to hypervenilate, “Mom, what is that?  I can’t breathe, I think I’m going to be sick!”  The smell was overwhelming to say the least!  I was quick to use this as a teaching moment about why we don’t have pets.  Inside or outside.  Everyone was in total agreement, no pets for the Schell household!  We spot the fish and everyone is starting to breathe again.  Inhale, Exhale, Inhale, Exhale.  We pick out 20 goldfish, which cost like 14 cents each!  As we are making our way back around the store, Baker spots the amphibian section.  Did you know you could buy a tarantula for $17!  Scary thought huh?  This part of the store defiantly perked the spirits of the boys!  They totally forgot about the smell and were infatuated with the animals!  There were lizards, geckos, spiders, snakes, and frogs.  I was amazed at how little some of these things cost.  Overall, the trip ended up being ok.  We added the fish to the pond and as of this morning 14 are still with us.  I was told that was a pretty good number, we’ll monitor them and see if and when we can ever add the koi fish!  (I’ll post some pics tommorow)

Schedules collide

Now that our 3 children are getting older, we have had a few collisions with schedules.  Yes, this early!  The boys had their last summer t-ball game to play and Mackenzie was scheduled to be in the Fair pageant on the same night, at the same time!  Although Brandon was really wanting to see his baby girl, he knew he would be going to the ball field.  After all, he just hasn’t figured out the hair thing yet!  So we went our separate ways.  My Mom and Dad, Aunt Rachel and Carter, and Aunt Sam all showed up at the fair grounds to cheer on little Mackenzie.  She did great when the judges came by.  She even waved to them, just as her Dad had coached her!  Now if you are not familiar with how this pageant thing works, let me enlighten you.  There are about 50 chairs placed out on the field in the blazing hot sun.  No, we don’t get under the tent.  That is reserved for the picture taking, we woulddn’t want any shadows!  So, our 50 something 2 years olds are to sit in out laps as the judges visit each little girl.  It is only suppose to last 20 minutes or so.  It always last more like 40 minutes or so.  Luckily for me, this was not our first trip.  I came prepared this year.  We had snacks, juice, and even some books to read while waiting out turn.  We even loaned some out to the competition.  Mackenzie looked absoultly beautiful!  She took 4th place and won a ribbon and…get this… a $2.00 check!  Yes, that says $2.00!  The entry fee was $5.00!  None the less, she had fun waving and blowing kisses!  

Sorry about all the sideway pictures, anyone know how to fix that???

Now, on to the second part of that night, the t-ball game.  Brandon took them and was instantly greeted with a photographer.  It was picture day.  Thank goodness they wear baseball caps!  Baker hit his first home run and played great!  Cooper was awarded the “game ball.”  Like I said earlier, this was the last game and everyone got a ball.  Poor Coop is just so small!  We ended our night celebrating the children’s accomplishments at Chick-fil-A.  It was a great night!

All I Really Need to Know I Learned in…

That’s right, kindergarden!  Well, on Monday Baker had his first day of school.  Well, sort of.  They do this thing called “phase in.”  The kids go 2 times a week for the first 2 weeks for just a couple hours.  And then they go full time on the 3rd week.  This was Baker’s first phase in day.  He was really excited!  His best bud, Christian is in his class and on the same phase in schedule.  They had a great day getting to know their new teacher, Ms. Ginger.  At the end of his 2 hours, Ms. Ginger brought the kids out to the “drive through line” and he got in the car.  His first comment was, “Mom, did you just sit here the whole time?”  Little does he know!  Of course not!  Granite, I only had 2 hours to get anything done, but I did manage to make the most of it.  Tomorow is his second phase in day, so we will see how things go.  Sorry about the 

 

 

Christian and Baker

Hello, hello, anyone out there?

Well I am back in the game!  I have finally started blogging again.  I have even done a little research.  I have contacted wordpress support and finally figured out why wordpress kept shutting down my internet every time I tried to post on my MacBook.  After a few adjustments, I am posting on my MacBook!!!  I am so excited!  All my pictures are saved on this computer so I could never post pictures.  So, I am back in the game.  And as much as I would love to commit to blogging 3 times a week, I better not be too ambitious.  So, I will just leave you with this: more post to come, soon!

The good, the bad, and Wii Fit

OK, so I know it has been a while, but summer is here and it’s much more fun to be outside in the pool than in here on the computer.  So, after months of calling and popping in and out of game stores and the big chain stores, I finally found a Wii Fit!  Have you heard about it?  I was so excited to get it out and “get fit!”  So, last night Brandon and I set it up, literally took about 2 minutes!  Super easy, as we are both a little technical challenged!  So, the first thing you do is enter all your stats, age, height, gender, etc. It then weighs you and calculates your BMI or Body Mass Index.  After this it has you perform a series of balance test to determine, along with your BMI, your new “wii fit age.”  Here’s the bad- I totally beat Brandon on the BMI and the balance test.  He was aged at 30, which is dead on and I was aged 32!!!  Can you believe that???  I told him change my gender to male and I would totally kick butt!  Now, on to the good- It has 4 different areas, yoga, strength, aerobic, and balance games.  We started in on a very competitive heat, as he was already thinking he could out play me!  Or should I say out fit me?  We ended up splitting most, but I think in the end I did edge him a little!  One of the aerobics is the hula hoop, now you don’t actually use a hula hoop, you just sway your hips.  Now picture this, Brandon, Mr. Contractor, up on the Wii Board with NO and I mean absolutely NO, rythem swaying those hips of his!  It was so funny, I was crying!  I have got to video it and get it on here!  I truly think we would win some kinda award!  We had a blast with our new wii fit and burned extra calories with all the laughing!  If you are thinking about purchasing one, go for it!!!  We set our fitness goals and I’ll keep you posted on our progress!  May the best one win!