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

I just ordered this canning kit from Amazon this morning. Last year I wanted to try canning some things from the garden but our garden didn't fare so well last year. I am hoping for better results this year and to put this canning kit to the test. I want to go strawberry picking within the week and hopefully make some strawberry jelly. With prices getting so high canning may be a big part of our future! So tell me do you do any canning? Have any good recipes or tips to share?

Serenity was diagnosed with Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia on May 24, 2008. Lifting Up Serenity is dedicated to her recovery and supporting her family throughout their journey through childhood cancer. Serenity is only 22 months old.
Check out Serenity's Blog. If you feel inclined I have a link on the right side to help the family with medical costs.

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Someone send me some Calgon! Whew, today was a stressing day. My little guy is a bit under the weather and was super clingy and whining today. Add to the fact he was so upset he made himself throw up, which of course went all over me. I think I need another vacation!! Maybe one myself this time. Where should I go? LOL! At this point I will settle for the bathtub and some Calgon! So send me all you have!!!!

Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving when major retailers around the country discount products to help kick off the Christmas shopping season. I love Black Friday shopping. There are tons of great deals to be found that day. Most sales start at 5am and there are long lines to get in the store. Black Friday ads are usually kept secret until you receive the circulars in your Thanksgiving Day newspaper. However at Black-Friday.net, we give you the advantage by showing you all of the Black Friday 2008 ads before anyone else. They also offer direct links to each product so you can purchase the items online on Black Friday without having to stand in line at the store! Personally after the last 2 years of going to the stores on Black Friday I am thinking about doing things different this year. I really want to shop online. The people where I live are so physical and pushy to get these items. 2 years ago I got my oldest a desktop. I almost got beat up in the process. This past year was a lot better the people were a bit nicer. I ended up with lots of great deals including 2 of those video recliner chairs for the boys. What's great about Black-Friday.net is that you can sign up for email alerts so when they find out the ads you get an email. Sign up now so you can be prepared this year! Black-Friday.net has all the great stores too. I usually hit Target and Walmart for their deals. ToysRUs in my area is a forget it to enter the store. You literally spend HOURS in line to get anything. Even trying to walk through to shop is a pain. I will definitely be shopping their store from online this year. And don't forget cyber monday. The big online only shopping event the following Monday. More great deals and savings!

It's been a few days ok a week since I last posted. We took a family trip over the holiday weekend to Atlantic City. We visited the aquarium they have there and also went to Storybook Land and ate at Rainforest Cafe. The kids had a wonderful time. At the aqaurium they had touch tanks and the kids got to hold different creatures and there was a shark/string tank they got to feed the sharks and sting rays. Here are some pics
Noah holding a starfish

Stingray the kids fed. This bugger was crazy, he came up the side on time and just soaked us all with water.

Shark in feeding tank

Holding a sea urchin

Moon jellies

After we came home Noah had his first dental visit, he has some issues with his teeth and we needed to have them looked at. The dentist his insurance sent us to wants to do surgery next month. That isn't happening....I set up an appointment for a second opinion with the guy hubby is doing work for right now. He didn't seem to think Noah needed surgery but wasn't ready to work on Noah himself so sent us to yet another dentist who cannot see Noah until October. So now today I have to call this man back and see what he thinks we should do. It has been a crazy week with all the dental visits and stuff. Noah sure does love the dental chair though. Climbed up and sat there like a champ. Guess after having 3 open heart surgeries and a barium enema all before turning 2 makes the dentist office a piece of cake.
Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend!

Here is a recipe I thought I would share. Sounds very simple and cheap. Although I think I will use sausage in the place of meatballs and will have to double it for my family.

1 can (18.5oz) ready to eat french onion soup
1 can (14.5 oz) sliced potatoes drained
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes with basil, garlic and oregano
1 pkg (10 oz) frozen mixed veggies
12 frozen cocktail size meatballs halved
in large pot combine soup, potatoes, 1 1/2 cups water, tomatoes with liquid, veggies, meat and 1/8tsp pepper. cover; over high heat bring to boil. cook until meat is heated though and flavors have blended. 15 minutes. if desired sprinkle with chopped parsley.
servings 4

Last week Madi turned 5. Here is the cake she had on her birthday.


Saturday I went to a yard sale and picked up a toddler race car bed for Noah. The boy is in love! He thinks this bed is the coolest thing ever.
Sunday I got a great deal on Madi's birthday present....a bike. ToysRUs had the bike I wanted on sale for 40.xx and I had a 5.00 off coupon to use. So for about 35.xx I got her a 60.00 bike!
Here is a pic it's not the best though

here is a picture of this cool fort thing my sister got her. you can build all kinds of things out of it.

here is her mermaid cake not one of my better cakes at all. i didn't have any black to do the outlining....ugh!

oh and my adorable nephew who is about 8 weeks old.

Lastly my target deal....target last week had gatorade marked to 84 cents a bottle. They had a bunch of strawberry kiwi rain....Noah's favorite thing to drink. This is a picture of some of the bottles I got.

Things to do in New York City
A few years back, my daughter and I took a trip to NY city. We did the usual tours of things. One thing we did was go over to the statue of liberty. We took the ferry over to see the statue. That statue is HUGE! I tried to go up but didn't even get up 50 steps and had to go back down....I have a great fear of heights. I had the others in our group take my daughter up. I waited down below for what seemed forever until the made their way back down out of the statue. After some gift shop shopping, we left. Our ferry ride was everything but uneventful. As our ferry was getting ready to dock a gush of water rammed us into the wall. The people on the top deck (including my daughter who was about 10) were almost thrown off. It was a bit scarey for us down below too cuz we were all thrown around and falling. It sure was a wild time!
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Today is Madisyn's 5th birthday. My where did the time go? I still remember the day she was born like it was yesterday. She has been playing outside and enjoying the nice weather today. I am making her a cake with a flower on it. I am sure she will love it my little flower child she is.
Noah decided this morning while I was making the cake he wanted to help. Here is his version of helping
Noah sampling the red velvet batter to make sure Madi will like it.



I will put pics up of the cake and birthday girl later tonight.
For now here is a sample of Raychel's graduation announcements....tell me what do you think of it?

It is party time again! Welcome to my blog. Sit back, put your feet up and enjoy yourself. I am Stacy and I am the Mom of 5 wonderful little ones. My oldest will graduate high school next month and is going to nursing school in August. She plans on becoming a nurse anesthetist. I also have another daughter who turns 5 tomorrow May 13th. I have 3 boys 15, 10 and 2. My 2 yr old was born with a Congenital Heart Disease called Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome. He basically was born with the left side of his heart missing. I work the night shift 4 nights a week at our local hospital. I work in the Laboratory where we process blood and other specimens. It is an interesting job.
I have tried to become a very frugal shopper. I must say I am doing pretty good on this new journey. I am saving a lot more money then before by reading blogs and hearing what others are doing.
I like to write about our daily goings on and also through in some deals and freebies.
Hope you take a bit and read more of my blog and learn more about us. Enjoy the blog party. Be sure to check out the contests at MommyFest too!

Hit some yard sales this morning. I ended up with a Little Tykes toy box for $3.00 and I got a few Janet Evanovich books I wanted to read. (the "full" series and a few others of hers) Then I headed off to some outlets nearby. Got some great deals at Children's Place and some good deals at Osh Kosh. I also hit the Crocs outlet and got some crocs for us. I have never been to this outlet center (it is half hour away) and I cannot wait to go back there. That's all for my day. I worked last night and still haven't slept and work again tonight and tomorrow night. Is it Monday morning yet? LOL! Hope you all have wonderful Mother's Day!!!

In less than a month my oldest will br graduating high school. I still can't believe it. Today I sent off pictures to have her announcements. I am using the same company that did my son's 1st Birthday invitations. Check the site out Photo Creations
These are the photos I used.


I can't wait to see my proof!

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Right now Renuzit is having a $20,000 Home Makeover with Tanya Memme contest. There are 10 semi-finalists which you can vote for once a day up until June 7th. Check out the semi-finalist gallery on Renuzit's site.
My favorite is this one

This little girl is just too cute for words! I love the video the family made and this family to me looks very deserving of the prize. I hope you stop by and check it out and check out the other semi-finalists too while you are they and be sure to vote for your favorite! Remember you can vote once every day up until June 7th.

Just a reminder if you haven't voted for my photo over at 5 Minutes for Mom then head on over and vote. If you already voted for my photo thank you and pass it along to your friends. Thanks! Voting is open until May 9th 9:00PM EST

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Here is a link to a news article about a family who lost their home while their 3 month old baby is in the hospital waiting for a heart transplant.
http://cbs11tv.com/local/Hafford.family.heart.2.714917.html
Anyone who wishes to help this family can send monetary donations to Cyrus Hafford sent to PO Box 51811 Denton TX 76206.
My heart feels for this family. I have not had to go through the wait of a heart transplant but just going through surgery takes a toll on you greatly. To lose your home must just be....well I cannot imagine. Hopefully there are some good people out there who will be able to help this family out.

SocialSpark is a great new place to meet people and earn money in your spare time. You pick what you want to blog about and get paid for it! what a simple and fun way to make some extra money!
I enjoy blogging and sure don't mine making money. And the first day I signed up I already made a new friend!
SocialSpark has a variety of topics to blog about and many different payouts for each. You can even sign up to have a sponsored advertisement on your page and get paid for it. Also other bloggers ask you to link them on your blog and they will do the same. What a cool and easy way to get your blog out there for more people to see!!

SocialSpark has three types of Opportunities:

Sponsored Post:
In the Sponsored Post Opportunity, a Blogger will create a unique sponsored post on his/her blog based on the guidance the Advertiser provides. The Advertiser can choose to have each Blogger include an image, video or press release along with the Blogger's own text. The Advertiser pays per unique blog post that is created on each unique blog.

Blog Sponsorship:
Blog sponsorships are a means by which the Advertisers to utilize SocialSpark's unique technology to create a 'welcome mat' and persistent sponsorship banner on blogs. Sponsorships can consist of text, images or video. The advertiser pays per day that a select blog runs the Blog Sponsorship.
Spark:
Sparks are free Opportunities that serve as ideas for blog posts. Sparks are utilized primarily by Bloggers, but may also be used by Advertisers. They offer no tracking or segmentation options.
My favorite is the blog sponsorships.

SocialSpark lets you create a profile and request friends.
You cn see mine here.
Stop by and check SocialSpark out today.
Disclosure

Another wonderful warm and sunny day here. This morning I took the 3 little ones out to plant some flowers in planters. After that Noah's Occupational Therapist came and dismissed him from services! Yay Noah! That means Noah is all caught up and is no longer showing any delays in any skills. It was a bittersweet thing as we ejnjoyed our sessions with our OT. We will miss having him come every other week. He promised to keep up on Noah and stop by when he has time. Noah will love that. Back when Noah had his last surgery his therapist even was coming to visit Noah in the hospital, but Noah had been discharged and hour ealier. That was a really nice thing for him to do. But alas all fun things come to an end and I am very proud of my little man and his accomplishments!

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Just a reminder if you haven't voted for my photo over at 5 Minutes for Mom then head on over and vote. If you already voted for my photo thank you and pass it along to your friends. Thanks! Voting is open until May 9th 9:00PM EST

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Please stop by CrackerJack Siteand check out a fundraiser for Parker over at Praying for Parker Parker is a little boy with Down Syndrome. You can read more about Parker's health issues here and be sure to check out other fundraisers too for Parker.

Thank you to all the nurses out there!

I guess you could say we are having our Cinco de Mayo a little early. I am making tacos for dinner and for dessert I am making this yummy looking Strawberry Margarita cake. I figure I will make these today since I work tonight and will most likely be a zombie come dinner tomorrow. There is also another yummy recipe for a Mexican Chocolate Cake I would love to try too. Maybe next week. Check out all the great recipes for yummy Mexican dishes here . Ok that's it I have to go get my dinner started I just made myself hungry! LOL!

No I am not cleaning house....well I have been trying to get rid of more stuff that has found it's way into our home but no the show Clean House on Style Network. For some reason the show came to our little town in PA. I am not qutie sure what brought them here because I thought they only did shows in the LA area...Anyway I love watching Niecy Nash on that show. She is always so bubbly and happy....well that isn't the Niecy I got a glimpse of today. She basically just hid from all the people and didn't even smile. It was kind of a let down. I did however chat for a few moments with Trish. She was very nice and was the highlight of the yard sale. I think Matt was there selling items but I can't be 100% sure. I don't know who else it could have been though. There were a lot of people, police and all there. And a lot of JUNK!! Seriously I have never seen so much junk on one of these shows. I hate to see what the "trash" looked like that they couldn't sell. I am hoping to catch the episode when it is on TV. I am very curious to see what the before and after look like.
All in all it was a worthless trip there. Didn't even have 2 seconds to catch a photo of Niecy....and that bummed me out. It really lessened my impression of her. (Sorry Niecy but it's true)
I did catch a few other yard sales today
I came home spending $19.00 and got a little tykes basketball net, a little tykes cube slide(which I already have but got for my nephew at his house) a Disney dress for Madi a Nemo bathmat for Noah in the tub so he doesn't slip, a pair of biboverall jeans for Noah and 4 tshirts (from skate shop and Pac Sun) for my boys and a zip hoodie for the boys too. I think I did good because the older boys cltohing new would have been easily $20.00 each. I only wish there was time for more yard sales. There is always next weekend to look forward to. I already have a few lined up that are next weekend!
What about you any good yard sales in your area? Share your deals with us all!!

Remember the photo contest I told you all about at 5 Minutes For Mom? Well I am a finalist in the contest!! I am just so shocked! There were so many great photos and stories I just can't believe I was picked! Please stop and by 5 Minutes For Mom if you would and vote for my picture. Here is the picture again...

and you can read my story on this post Motherhood
Thank you Janice and Jennifer for choosing my photo to be a finalist!