Question for the Email Subscribers

Hi!  I have a question for those that subscribe via e-mail to my blog posts.  Can you see the photos in your e-mail?  I get a copy of this and I can't see the photos when I look at my email on my phone.  Can you see the photos on your e-mailed version of my blog?

Hint - there is a question mark graphic in this very post!

Please let me know via comment or e-mail!

Thanks :)

Laws of a Toddler

1. If I like it, it's mine.

2. If it's in my hand, it's mine.

3. If I can take it from you, it's mine.

4. If I had it a little while ago, it's mine.

5. If it looks like mine, it's mine.

6. If I think it's mine, it's mine.

7. If I'm doing or building something, all the pieces are mine.

8. If it's mine, it must never appear to be yours in any way.


Cody's new favorite word is MINE - you can see how this applies to our life right now!  :-)


(Thanks to Simon @ Facebook, who also has a 2 year old, for these words of wisdom!)

Garage Sale Finds 5/12 & Other Items of Note

I hope you're not getting tired of all my garage sale bragging!  I know that I am so lucky to be able to go garage saling so often and frequently during the week.  I know most normal people have jobs to go to and kidlets to watch!

I went into work late this past Wednesday, and hit a few sales in the morning before I had to get back home and get to work.  I only went to 3 sales, including 2 in our own neighborhood  (I always do well around here!) - I think I did pretty well :)

Here's the goodies:

• Bag of play food for Cody's kitchen $1.00
• 3 books of trucks, cars & emergency vehicles 75¢ for all
• 2 containers of rubber stamps (resell at ebay or at our garage sale) $1.50
• bunch of stickers (shhhh don't tell Kaelyn :)) 50¢ for all
• belt for me (!) 25¢
• shirt for Cody 50¢
• And drumroll please......

YAY!  A Radio Flyer Trike!  I'm so thrilled over this find.  I've been wanting to get a trike for Cody, although I'm entirely sure he can reach the peddles or will know quite how to do it.  But for $5, I couldn't pass it up.  This trike retails on Amazon.com for $55!  And it's funny because I got it at one of our neighbor's houses - I can actually see their house from our front porch :)  

Look!  He can haul his stuff around in the attached compartment :)

This will be a perfect pair with Cody's classic Radio Flyer red wagon (which I also got at a garage sale, last summer, in near-perfect shape, also for $5!).

Kind of funny, I ended up running the mom of Cody's best-buddy, Anthony, at the garage sales in our neighborhood!  It was funny because we had saw each other at daycare drop-off that morning, but apparently were both having some much-needed mom time, sans little boys, that day :)  I felt silly because we were probably looking for similar things for our boys, but we kept the competition friendly.  In fact, I had picked up the trike and told the seller that I wanted it but I wanted to look around more.  Well, Anthony's mom was looking at it and I felt soooo silly when I said I was going to buy it.  Oops :)  

I went into work late again today ~ I think I could get used to these half-days!  But I was crazy busy at work when I got there so maybe I should have worked all day.  Definitely made the afternoon go by fast.  I was a good girl and stayed home all morning and got some things done.  We are planning to have a garage sale during the Albertville Friendly City Days so I have been cleaning closets and going through things to locate items to sell.  My pile is growing rapidly!  I was able to go through the coat closet, my office closet, bathroom closets and finished the linen closet.  I also went through my jewelry boxes and picked out a bunch of stuff to get rid of.  It feels SO good to de-clutter!  I think all I have left to go through is the master bedroom closet, Gordon's office and the bins downstairs.  Then pricing will commence!

Since I was home this morning, we also had the final City inspection of the basement today.  IT PASSED!  Wahoo :)

We decided to go ahead and do the bathroom, and our neighbor came over tonight to give us a quote on the framing, drywall, etc. We paid him for materials and he plans to start next week.  Then, our friend Chad, who just happens to be a plumber, will be coming up in a few weeks to do the plumbing and install the shower and toilet.  We have been waffling back and forth as to whether to finish the bathroom and we finally decided last night to just go ahead and do it.  I didn't want it always kind of hanging over our head that we will need to do it someday.  If we do use the bedroom in the basement as a guest room, it will be nice to have a bathroom down there.  We definitely are tired of the dust & construction, and I'm personally getting tired of writing out checks :) but hopefully we can get the bathroom done in a timely fashion.

Ahhhh...it's after 10:00pm once again, and I actually have to work a full day tomorrow.  Shocker!  I hope I can do it :)

Rainbow Foods Shopping

I ventured into the world of Rainbow Foods double-couponing a few weeks ago.  Every Wednesday and Saturday, you can double up to 5 coupons, up to $1 each, when spend $25 or more (before coupons).  Occasionally, they have double-double days where you can double up to 10 coupons.  OH, the joys!  Hee-hee.  

Anyway, I was able to make a quick trip to Rainbow after work yesterday.  I couldn't get the whole receipt in the scan but I thought I'd share the end result.  I doubled 9 coupons - silly me for not doing the whole 10, huh?  ;)

Bottom line, I got over $48.43 of groceries for $12.57!

Some highlights ~

• Keebler Sandies Cookies - $3 less $1 doubled coupon = $1 each
• Ken's Salad Dressing - $1.69 less $1 doubled coupon = (31¢) money-maker!
• Frigo Mozzarella String Cheese - $3.00 less $1 doubled coupon = $1 each
• Oscar Meyer Deli Creations Sandwiches - $2.00 less $1 doubled coupon = free!
• Nivea Body Wash - $4.55 less $4 coupon = 55¢
• Uncle Ben's Rice - $2.15 less try me free product coupon = free!
• Totino's Party Pizza - 10@$1.25 each less $1/5 coupon doubled less $3 off your next order promotion when you bought 8 pizzas = 45¢ each!  [I know some people think these pizzas taste like cardboard, but we rather like them :)]

It Was a Good Weekend! (Plus a basement update)

I guess I'm on a posting roll tonight!  Hope you don't mind all the posts.  It's been a great weekend.  We got a lot accomplished, did some fun stuff, and also had time to relax.  Friday night, we had dinner at home and then went to Lowe's to look at bathroom stuff.  We have decided to go ahead and finish the bathroom in the basement.  We wish we would have just did it all at once, but circumstances changed and as they say, hindsight is 20/20.  

My agreed-upon tasks were completed on Friday, so I was able to go out garage saling on Saturday morning with my best-garage-sale bud, Careen.  It was a ccccccoldddddd morning.  I woke up to a just barely, but definitely snow-covered, frosty neighborhood.  Yes, in May.  Yuck.  We wore winter jackets and gloves.  Yes, we are die-hards!  :)  Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of my finds, but I can probably rattle them off for you because I'm sure you're just *dying* to know, right?!

• White wastebasket - $1.50
• 8 bottles of Gap - Close perfume, new in the boxes - $2.00 each  (For resale; hoping I didn't make a big mistake on this one!)
• A few bottles of shower gel (Bath & Body Works and Victoria's Secret) - 25¢ and 50¢ each
• Shoelaces & a few pillowcases - free!
• Handy Manny cloth doll & toolbox with a few tools - 50¢ (I was soooooo excited about this find; Cody LOVES Manny!!)
• A few shirts for Cody including one with a motorcycle (one of his new words) and another with guitar/mic stands - 25¢ to $1.00 each
• A few books for Cody - 25¢ each
• White serving bowl - $1.00
• Plastic tablecloth for craft projects - 25¢

I think that's it.  I have high hopes for the perfume, but time will tell!

Got home around noon on Saturday and we had lunch and put Cody down for a nap.  Thankfully Cody napped for 3 hours (I know, I know...we are SO lucky), because Gordon and I had a ton of work to do in the basement!  Earlier in the day, a load of garbage was taken to the dump, so in the afternoon, Gordon and I picked up the rest of the garbage, washed down the majority of the walls, Shop-Vac'ed the floors and mopped all the floors.  Then we took all the stuff our of the "storage" room (aka the future bathroom) and sorted through it.  Surprisingly we have a decent pile of stuff for the garage sale (we're planning to have one in June) or at least items we're willing to go through and pick out stuff to sell.  We're not getting rid of any baby stuff.....just in case :)  We were super thrilled about how much we got done.  Thank goodness for long naps!  Amazing how productive you can be with home tasks without a 2 year old pulling at your pant-leg and asking telling you to "come on!!"

We were able to get the basement in such good shape that Cody will actually be able to be down there now without us having to carry him.  Yeah!

Here are a couple of recent photos from the basement.  Wish I would have thought to take photos before moving the stuff out of storage, but oh well.  You get the idea!  The painting is (95%) done, the ceiling is done, the lighting is done, the trim is done and our custom cabinet is done!!!  Wahooooo!!!  Next will be carpet!  We visited a local store the other day and were impressed by the service and locally owned feel, so I think we'll probably end up going with them.

So, anyway....back to Sunday....Cody eventually woke up :) and we got cleaned up and headed out for an early Mother's Day meal.  It was nice to beat the crowds and get a night off from cooking.  

Today (Sunday), Gordon made breakfast for all of us and then we did some shopping and more projects around the house.  One of the things that we did is bought a new organization system for Cody's toys.  I was hesistant, but eventually came around to this idea that Gordon had.  And, I'm so proud because he noticed it was on sale at Target this week for about $16 off.  Yahoo!  But if I see this at a garage sale next weekend for $5, I'm gonna be mad :)  Before we just had Cody's toys downstairs in two clear bins.  They worked okay but it was hard to see everything unless you dumped the entire thing out.  I was able to pack away lots of toys that Cody doesn't play with much anymore and just keep out the favorites and newest items.  I am really trying to control myself at garage sales this year on the toy-front....I really am :)

After getting all the toys organized, Cody and I were fooling around with the camera and we got this picture.  I think it's pretty funny.  Happy Mother's Day to all the moms, moms-to-be, and in-waiting moms :)

Such a Boy!

We are so lucky to have such a sweet little boy!  And that he is, all boy, evidenced by this short video. I just love the sound effects, don't you??! (Please excuse Cody's cough and my voice at the end.)

Flowers

Just wanted to share a few photos of my miniature flowerbed in our front yard.  It's not much, but it's a start & it makes me happy!  I absolutely love the cone-shaped flowers (I can't remember what they are called) ~ they are just so cute!  I want to plant more :)  I wasn't sure if my tulips would bloom so I was ecstatic that they did!  Yay for Spring!!!