Amazon Mom

Man, I'm going on a posting binge here huh? Whatever shall we do?? I received a card in the mail inviting me to join Amazon Mom. I have shopped on Amazon from time to time, but not a whole lot. They even added a $10 off anything coupon (a sure way to lure me in).

I visited the first time to get Noe a toy because I felt like she needed something to do besides be in a Bumbo or lay on her tummy or back. Enter Jumperoo...
They were on sale for $71.54 and they are normally $90. Make it $61.54 with my coupon and then an offer I couldn't turn down...sign up for the Amazon cc and get an additional $40 off. Okay, so it was $21.54...deal! I would be hard pressed to find it at a garage sale or resale shop for that price REALLY! It had free shipping and came in less than two days. I ordered around 10 pm on a Sunday night and it was at my doorstep on Tuesday!! How's that for quick??

I returned to Amazon to purchase a birthday gift after a last minute invite for a party on a Saturday. Since I had free shipping, I clicked on Wed. night and the gifts were delivered on Friday afternoon...great!

Since those two purchases, I have returned to purchase other baby items mainly. It is stuff you (I) don't often or haven't seen in stores. I'm a lover of free shipping and two day shipping is great!!

I posted about it on FB today and learned from a friend that they have great diaper deals as well. I found that to be true also!! So...from this mom...I LOVE Amazon Mom. It isn't just baby stuff, it encompasses other items as well. Great deals!

Snowed in from Blizzard 2011

So, I had hopes of chillin and using up some of our free Dish Pay Per Views during this blizzard thing.

It started yesterday. We got out of work at noon. Oddly, when I drove to work in the morning, there was basically no traffic anywhere which is strange since I work downtown. Whenever I pull onto the main street, I usually have to wait as there are scores of cars heading in both directions to work or school. Nothing...pulled right out. However, as I left work at noon, there was traffic everywhere. I pulled into the Hardees that is across the street to grab lunch before heading in for what I knew would be a long time. There was a LONG line and it kept coming behind me. I figured it out...everyone downtown was being let out of work too for THE STORM! I picked up the girls at great-grandma's and headed home.

With the hours that Josh worked on Tuesday during a blizzard, one would think he was emergency or law enforcement personnel...nope. They apparently go for records to see who can stay open the longest I guess. I'm glad he got his hours, but as the evening dragged on and the wind picked up I couldn't help but wonder if they would even be able to see to get home. Fortunately, I had suggested to Josh that he get a ride with the person who owned the big black Ram truck 4x4 that I saw in the parking lot while visiting him on Monday. He checked and the co-worker had the same hours and said he would pick him up. You see, we have cars...not SUV's, not trucks. They are mid-sized cars and they do okay, but once the snow reaches 8 or more inches, they simply do not GO...ANYWHERE. Well, Josh arrived home safely. I was worried about the co-worker that brought him home (at 10:30 pm)as he had much further to go and it is more in the country. He texted Josh when he got home 1 hour later SAFELY...praise God!

My Ugg-slippered feet were busy the minute they hit the floor this morning. It turned out to be the same time I get up every day. A day snowed in for us means catch-up. We don't get "snow days" from school because we are the unconventional homeschool. We make sure to be diligent in January & February so that we can get out in March. Today was no different. I supervised Aliyah & Kiki while they did their work. Josh made us a wonderful snow day breakfast. Laundry was washing throughout the day.
The UPS man delivered 2 packages sometime yesterday afternoon during the blizzard (I was impressed). That meant Josh had some items to assemble. I purchased a bookcase for the girls. Aliyah is an avid reader and Keirah (4) is learning to read and will be an avid reader as well. Right now she is an avid looker and read-to-me girl. They have amassed quite a collection of books that were taking over their bedroom. I ordered this with the idea of it being in the basement. Once Josh put it together, I was way more impressed as it was much better and prettier than I hoped or imagined. So, it got a different spot...upstairs. We moved the books from their closets and dressers upstairs to their new spot. I organized them. They filled that bookcase almost completely with their books.
After the great book organization, it was re-arrange/clean things in their room. We had a Silly Putty nightmare as well. There was SP in a bed on the sheets and all over pj's...not fun...keep your children away from this horrid object!!! I also did the organize clothes in closet task. Since our 8 y/o is tiny, she can wear things for quite some time. In her side of the closet, the clothes go back all the way to size 5!! I took all size 5 and simply transferred it to the other side for Kiki. The size 6 went in a pile as did the size 3 for Keirah. I also took out a few things that I wish to retire. It freed up closet space and the rest went to the basement for putting away and then some for our annual garage sale. I did the same in Noelliah's closet and dresser.
Josh proceeded to put together a nightstand for N's room. We put it in her room and rearranged a few more things. In between all of that we ate a really late 3 pm lunch and cleaned up afterward.
Tonight, it was vacuuming, putting away laundry, making beds, getting trash out, me doing some work emails etc...
Josh turned to me and said, "I saw all of these people posting on their Facebook statuses about watching movies and stuff"..."we don't ever have time"....he's right. At 9:45 I asked him if he wanted to get one of our PPV's from Dish and he said we probably would fall asleep. He was right. Instead, we watched a few short shows that we had dvr'd.
I'm thankful for a snow day to get all of this done, but boy am I tired! I didn't take one picture today and I haven't even looked at or uploaded pics from our lovely weekend with Noelliah's dedication. Oh yeah, I didn't even post about it yet. Oh my...well, maybe when I get more caught up.

Weekend

I'm always so glad to see the weekend! Thank God we haven't been sick, just really low in the sleep department for Josh and I. She is worth every second of it, but we are tired. Somehow in the sleep department she has decided to be a nightowl. Nightowl is not good when daddy has to get up at 5:30 to get ready for work and we are awoken every few hours. Nightowl doesn't work very well when mommy has been busy, busy, busy and is tired already and gets awoken every few hours.

Enter Mr. Weekend...I'm hoping you bring us a break from busy and allow us some extra sleep between the birthday party, family visiting, and baby dedication! Oh yeah, and also time to catch up on household chores as well...and please don't bring any sickness to us! 'Tis the stage of life we are in right now...

I love Parties!

I've had fun this afternoon wearing my Williams Sonoma apron and dipping items in chocolate! I'm having a Chocolate 'N Gold party tonight and I'm excited. I think I get more excited about the prospect of seeing friends and family than anything else.
Noelliah's dedication is Sunday and I'm excited for that as well. It was fun to order a cake that matches the colors of her room. Life is short...celebrate!
For birthday's, I love searching for just the right gift for the person and hopefully nailing it.

A Tip

It looks like I only make it to post on this blog about once a week or maybe every other week. Why?? Life is busy! We work, homeschool, take care of a newborn, do household work, and have people to see and places to go! WOW...that must be why I am walking around tired a lot!

Anyways, the only reason to post today is to give you a little tip. I've been doing this for awhile now...

When shopping online, you come to the checkout page where there is typically a box to type in a discount or promo or coupon code. If I don't have one, I open a new window and type those words into a g00gle search using the name of the company I'm shopping...for e.g. discount code for Ver@ Br@dley. I did this the other day and a few came up. I'm happy to say it saved me $13.00 on shipping because the one I found was for FREE shipping! Hoooray for that!! The worst that could happen is you won't find one that works, but for as many times as I've found coupon codes from a google search, it is well worth the saving$$.

Back to a LAZY Saturday of laundry, organizing, school, and more....

Full January Weekend

We started the weekend off with many things on our list. After a week full of appointments, Friday after work started by picking up little Sulley from his declawing at the vet. Following that we ran a few errands...bank, store, and then home.

My grandparents celebrated their 60th anniversary on Friday so we had a lovely and fun family dinner. It was great to celebrate especially given that they had several rought months health-wise in 2010. After we were stuffed until we could hold no more, we came home briefly only to leave shortly after. We had more to do before night's end. With 3 kiddos, I don't get the opportunity to get my hair cut very often. So, since Josh was off, he dropped Aliyah and I off to get our hair cut and he and the other 2 ran another errand while we got our hair cut. It was great that we got our hair cuts...we definitely needed it.

We went to bed quite late as we were cleaning, doing laundry and such once we got home. On Saturday, we didn't sleep in really since we needed to go to a few stores in a neighboring city. We got that taken care of and lunch, then went to yet another city for a 90th birthday open house. We stopped by briefly and then headed home. Josh's family was heading up from St. Louis for a visit. We had a nice afternoon/evening with them and it was nice to have time together that wasn't a holiday (well actually it was their anniversary).

After that, we ran yet some more errands and then came back home for a few more to-do's around the house.

This morning we woke up totally tired, but got ready for church. After a lovely morning at church, we headed home to eat leftovers. They were yummy leftovers I must say!! After lunch, was NNNNAAAAAPPPPP!! It was so needed and I could use another couple just to catch up. We finished laundry, cleaning, and other general stuff before having pizza for dinner. Now, it is chill time! The girls are playing, I just downloaded some pics, and Josh is watching Holmes Inspection on TV (praise God it isn't football). I have no idea or clue why people want to watch teams that aren't local NOR the team they root for (aka the Ravens and Steelers) or whomever else played today besides the Bears. Furthermore, I don't get those shows at halftime and after the game where they go on and on and on and on and on and on about what else...football!! YIKES! As you can probably guess, I'm NOT a football girl. I've followed my share of sports over the years such as basketball, however I didn't watch teams other than the one I rooted for.

Anyways, I need to finish taxes and work on Shutterfly, but I am saving that for later this week. Need some relax time.

January '11

She is 4 months old already! Her dedication is scheduled for the end of this month. We are excited! She is a sweetie pie and definitely a keeper. Tomorrow is her 4 month dr. appt with shots =(. I love the cuddles and noises. She reaches for toys and rolls from back to front and front to back. We also get lots of smiles...thanks to Noelliah Hayden!

It has been a busy week thus far with appointments. I scheduled a dentist appointment. It has been 18 months since we last went. Sounds terrible I know, but last year when we had one scheduled, we were sick. Being pregnant, I didn't bother rescheduling. I finally decided to do it...I figured upon several cavities since pregnancy does a number on my teeth. The girls were sweet and prayed that I would have ZERO cavities. The three of us went. Aliyah informed us as she left the waiting room that she could go by herself. My hygeinist had the same dr group as I do so she had plenty to talk about while cleaning my teeth. The x-rays were a little rough as those things are always so big for my mouth. Josh and Aliyah apparently have larger mouths as they had no problem.
I was happy to have clean teeth. They came in mid-way to tell me that Aliyah is 16 years old. We had a good laugh. Apparently, she had many grown up things to say. They loved it. After the cleaning, I thought...now for the bad news...how many cavities. I thought maybe I would get lucky and only have 1 or 2. The dr. checked my mouth and said my teeth looked great. I was still waiting for the # of cavities report, but there weren't ANY! I was shocked! YAY! Everyone's teeth were good!

Sulley is currently at the vet for his declawing. We are happy to be getting this done. Keirah was sad and missing her kitty afterwards.

It's chilly outside, but I am loving my new Ugg slippers. They go on first thing in the morning and come back on when I get home from work. They are warm and comforting!

Time to get the taxes wrapped up! I'm hoping to in the next few days. Of course, after I do ours, I will do some for family members and others who need help.

I'm tired and needing a nap. Noelliah gets up every few hours which takes a bite out of sleep. I'm hoping for more sleep soon =).