It's my BLOG and I'll cry if I want to

Do you know a police officer, a security person, military person or just a friend who likes the gear these people use??
LA Police Gear was founded by LA area police officers. They offer a variety of items. They sell their items to anyone and not just police officers. You may even find something you like on their site. I know I personally enjoyed checking out their Under Armour deals as my boys play football and love Under Armour. In addition to Under Armour they have tactical boots, flashlights, holsters and more. Be sure to check out the closeouts page! Lots of great items (and deals) there. And a lot of items offer free gifts and free shipping. Make sure to check out them out. You won't be disappointed!!

So I went out to the Mall (cringes at the word) today to get a new cordless phone. I went to Radio Shack for this phone. I went to Radio Shack because they were the only ones in my area who had this particular phone and I had a $5.00 off coupon. Well when I got home and opened up my box the phone inside was clearly used! There were scratches all over the phone, the thing was all put together....needless to say for the money I paid it WILL be going back Monday and I want a NEW phone. Not someone elses used and beat up item.
While at the mall (shudder) I decided to use a free photo coupon I had for the Picture People. I liked my Picture People better before they became digital. I think the photo quality has gone downhill since the store went digital. Anyway, I had Noah's photo done for his 2 yr birthday. This photographer wasn't the best by any means. She shot pictures that I can not for the life of me understand why she took them. I am all for natural action shots but the ones she was taking.... WHATEVER! Also she used only one background, never asked if we wanted any props...what is the deal? Was today bad customer service day or what? Then she tried to be all nice when it came time to purchase...um sorry just give me my free stuff and let me out of here. Each time I go there things seem to get worse. I did run into someone I went to high school with though. It was good to see someone from those days.
Not much else to report. Have a great weekend!

So last night my 10 year old had this bottle of liquid sour candy. After he emptied the bottle he apparently thought it would be funny to put liquid soap in it and share his "candy" with his siblings. He got my 4 yr old and 15 yr old with this. Needless to say he wasn't too happy when dad made him taste it himself. Luckily no one got sick but they at least know what soap tastes like now. What on earth was this child thinking.....



Daniel Powter - Bad Day lyrics

And today's mishap....
DH was making some food and we had to run my car to the garage for a repair. We left the little guy home along with my nephew with my oldest 2 children. We were gone a whole 5 minutes....a minute from the house my daughter calls frantic about something on the stove burning and a burner being left on. Apparently when DH turned off the stove he somehow turned on the back burner and this is what I came home to along with a house full of nasty smelling smoke.

We spent yesterday getting ready for Easter. The little ones helped make peanut butter eggs.


Well Noah looked on in what must have been awe of what they were doing



The result



I took the time while they were dipping eggs to finish my nephews Easter basket



We made these eggs last year. You can find directions to make your own Easter String Eggs here

The only thing left to do is the always fun and exciting (messy) coloring of the hard boiled eggs. I will get some pics of that up here later.

My SIL and brother had their first baby yesterday. He is so precious!!! Mom and baby are doing well. I am so happy to be an aunt again. I was really hoping for a niece but another nephew works just as well.
Isn't he just sweet.....

Today was the family party for Noah's birthday...he had a blast.
The day started off badly for me. I got up at 9am...Noah is usually up by 7 but didn't go to bed last night until 11pm because daddy bought him a hot wheel track and they were setting it up and then playing with it. So anyway, I was upset because I got up later than I wanted. I got started baking the cake and while that was cooking I got to scrubbing the kitchen floor. In this house there is no mopping. Our floor is old and to get it to look nice I have to use a Mr Clean magic eraser on my hands and knees. By the time I finished that (we have a large kitchen/dining area) it was time to decorate the cake. Somehow in my sleep deprived life I misread the insructions. It said about using a 12x18 sheet cake and I made a 13x9 cake. UGH! So I had to improvise on the Nemo. Here is the results...
(I am no cake decorated by any means but I try)



And one of him blowing out his candles.



The cake tasted great though and everyone had a good time. That's all that really counts.

Thought this was cute. And since I live an hour away from Philly very accurate!

It is a nice day outside today and the kids are out on bikes. Noah is out test driving his new birthday present....


He still needs to work on the steering but he is having a blast.

Speaking of birthday presents I have to share what my sister got me for my birthday. She sees how hectic this house can be all day with my kids and then her son too. So she got me this

This cute little fairy says on her wand "POOF! The kids are asleep"
I can really use this sometimes!

What better day for my blog party post but today..... the host of our wonderful party is 5 Minutes for Mom
If you are new to my blog Welcome! A bit about me, I am the mom of 5 wonderful (most of the time) children. My oldest will graduate high school this year and will be going to nursing school in August. I also have a 15 yr old son in high school a 10 year old son, my 4 year old daughter who will start kindergarten in Sept (AMEN!) and my baby who just turned 2 last Friday. I work outside the home 4 nights a week at our hospital's laboratory. I have been there 6 years and it is a very interesting job.
I blog a little bit about everything....my family and my gripes about them, the good times too I tend to throw in a few freebies here and there and usually my good shopping deals too!
Anyway now for the party
We have some yummy chocolate cake with peanut butter icing here (my personal fave that was made for my birthday) so sit down and enjoy a piece and check out my blog. While you are at it make sure to stop by our hosts site 5 Minutes for Mom and join in the party! Make sure you check out the prize page, there are lots of great prizes being offered!!
Hope you have had a great week so far and hope to get to know some new people!

I stopped in at CVS last night to get some diapers for the little man. Along with diapers I got the following

2 bags of dove chocolate eggs (they were 2 for6.00 and you got back 2.00ECBs I used a buy one get one free coupon I printed
2 backsplayskool baby wipes (used 2 1.00 off coupons I printed)
2 johnson bath buddies (had the buy 2 get 2.00 off coupon)
2 tubs of kandoo wipes (had a buy one get one free coupon)
(i accidentally got charged for 3 though)

I got 12 bags (yes count them 12) of reeses peanut butter cups minis that were on sale buy 1 get one free (I used 3 of the buy 3 get 1.50 off coupons for these)

in addition to my coupons i used the following
9.00 ecbs and a 3.00 ecb i got as a birthday card from cvs (today is my birthday)and 3 of the 5 off 15 coupons
now the guy did all of these in 2 transactions because he said i could only use 2 of the 5 off 15 in one transaction. it also looks on my receipt that the buy one get one free for dove chocolate rang us twice (thats 3.00 though towards the overcharge of 3.49)
so all in all i paid nothing on the first order and on the second one i paid $16.94
my total saved that trip was $66.44 between the 2 orders and i earned back 5.00 ecbs
not bad for $83.xx worth of stuff! This was my best CVS run yet!!
and for those wondering about all the chocolate i got....the dove is for me and me alone and the reeses are for Easter baskets and some will go in the freezer to keep.

Remember my son's surgery last month? Well the statements are rolling in from the insurance company. This is just the first of many to come (if you click on the image it will open it up to a larger scale.





This is just the charges for the room and supplies. This doesn't include doctors, xrays the surgery or anything. And yes that is $42,580.31 that my insurance paid. I can't wait to see all the other bills. There are about 20 or so more that need to be processed from the surgery.
All I can say is thank goodness for health insurance!!!

CVS was out of the Hershey Kisses. Oh well I did manage to get
8 Russel Stover Eggs used 2 buy 2 get 2 free coupons
8 Cadbury Eggs used 2 buy 2 get 2 free coupons
Venus Embrace used 4.00 off coupon
3 pack of Orbit gum used 1.00 off coupon
2 buy one get one free packs of ice breakers cubes gum and then used 2 coupons to get a 10 piece free (all in all I got 60 pieces of gum)
Degree travel size deodorant used 1.00 off coupon
I then used the $5.00 off 15 and a $2.00 off 10 coupons
Also used my $2.00 ECB's
My total out of pocket was $6.67
I also earned $6.00 ECB's on this trip for the razor.
I still wish I could have gotten some Hershey Kisses. Maybe later I will check the other CVS up the road. It's a long shot but I need to stop next to it at the grocery store so may as well look.

CVS has some new printable coupons over at A Full Cup. There is a $5 off $15 that expires 3/31/08 and also a $2 off $10 that expires today. I plan to use these coupons to stop at CVS and hopefully get some of the Hershey Kisses bags that are on sale this week. I also have the $1.50 off 3 coupon that was in the Sunday paper. While at A Full Cup be sure to check out the Target coupons too! There is still time to print off a few Market Pantry cheese coupons and get free string cheese! But hurry today is the last day for those coupons.

Here are some of my fave shots from tonight.

I work outside the home at our local hospital but am always on the lookout for any ways to make some money from the comfort of home. A few months ago I was browsing the web and came across an opportunity to make some extra money from home through blogging. I mentioned it to my good friend Carol, who works from home and is always looking for some extra cash (then again aren't we all)about Pay Per Post. She looked into it once again and went for it. Over the last few months she has shared with me the fun and earnings she was getting. So I decided to try and do it myself. I can always use some extra money with 5 kids in the house. I checked out payperpost and signed up. At first I hadn't blogged enough so I got to blogging and got approved. I love checking out new things and sites and can't wait to see what opportunities get sent my way through payperpost! I also enjoy giving my opinion on things and try to be honest all the time. I think this will prove to be very fun and hopefully give me a few extra bucks here and there. If you love to blog you should check out payperpost you too could make some money and who knows how many new people you could meet or new things you could find!

My baby is officially 2 today!
This was him 2 years ago in the NICU


And now



Noah has asked for a football cake for tonight. So as he wishes I am in the process of making him that cake. Check back later for pictures of him and his cake!

Today I went and used some coupons I had for free bags of pet food. I got a 4lb one for the cat and 5lb for the dog. Retail value of each bag was 10.00 and I got a free cat food sample too.
I stopped at CVS the other day, they were out of Hershey kisses but I hope to go back tonight for some. I did get however the following
a wisp and used a 5.00 off coupon
4 things of kandoo wipes used a 1.00 off coupon and 2 buy one get one free coupons
4 cadbury eggs used a buy 2 get 2 free coupon
4 russel stover eggs used a buy 2 get 2 free coupon
dawn dish liquid used a 1.00 off (on sale for 97 cents)
2 degree travel size used 2 1.00 off coupons
used 2 of the 5 off 15 coupons and paid 5.48
total saved was 28.56
I thought I did pretty good. And I earned 2.00 in ECB's. (that could be 2 bags of Hershey kisses!)
Not much else going on around here. Been trying to Spring Clean a bit and get rid of some stuff. There just seems to be so much "stuff" in this house.
Tomorrow my little man turns 2. I cannot believe he will be 2 already. Then again sometimes I sit and say to myself "only 2" He has been through so much in his short life that when I reflect on all of that he seems so much older to me. I am just greatful for the medical care he has received and that we are blessed to have him in our lives. I will make him a cake for tomorrow but his party will probably be next weekend. I will post pics of his birthday and cake tomorrow!

Our local paper did an article today on gardening and how container gardening is something more and more people are doing. Each year we have a vegetable garden. We do the tomatoes and peppers each year and mix in some other things depending on the mood. Last year I did sunflowers, radishes, carrots and lettuce. We also had cantalopes and watermelon. I think I will try the watermelon again. I probably won't do the radish or carrots as I didn't have luck with the carrots and no one but me like radishes. I saw a mini lettuce which sounds interesting and I think I will look for some to plant. What about you do you garden and what do you grow? In addition to our veggie garden we have many flower beds at the house.

My mailman was good to me today. My son got his social security check and I got these goodies


A gooide bag from Colgate company, a gift card from my points and free chex mix


these are the items that are in the colgate bag along with some coupons. I think this was an offer where you sent in upc's from certain products totaling a certain amount and they send you this bag. If this is wrong someone correct me.
I took this picture with my cell phone of my nephew today. Thought it turned out rather cool.

I decided before I go back to work tonight I needed to get a haircut. I wanted something different. So after looking online I decided I wanted a cut similar to Victoria Beckham (aka Posh Spice) I wasn't brave enough to go as short as her in the back (maybe next time) but here are pics before and after. (for you Carol!)I hate having my picture taken...
Before

after (they look redder but I didn't have any color done)

Well yesterday my 4 year old decided she was a hairdresser. The customer, better make that victim, was my soon to be 2 year old. His reaction to his new style....



Guess we won't be doing this style for his birthday, lol.

My nephew stayed a little late and he had dinner with us. He just turned 10 months old. Isn't he cute? He did really well at the table. Then he got bored and the dog ate very well.




I also decided not too long ago I needed another hobby...yeah like I have time for the ones I already have...anyway, I wanted to do scrapbooking. (doesn't sound frugal to me though) Here is the beginnings of my first ever page. I did add a few butterfly stickers to it after the picture was taken. Oh yeah ignore the purple it was just a lid I laid the page on. If anyone has any tips or sites to share they are greatly welcome!




Hmm, there you have my day yesterday. Now don't I lead the adventurous life? LOL!