Weekly Recap

OK, so I think I got it right to name this blog "how I keep in touch" because unfortunately, it's very like me to be absent for a week or so at a time due to my very busy life and then sort of "catch up" with a seemingly recap of what happened.

So here goes my attempt to recap this past week:

Work - BUSY beyond words! The atmosphere there is so much better since the termination Friday, but now there's an empty seat, so naturally we're all even busier than usual. I'm also going through a pretty large restructuring of my Admin group, so that' a lot to deal with. I seem to have meeting after meeting and one this past week started at 7 am, so that was a 5:00 morning for me - so NOT fun!!

Our baby sitter's mom passed away last week, so Hannah didn't go Thursday and Friday since they had to get down to 6 kids. My mom came over Thursday and then Tony drover her out to their house Friday morning to spend the day and night. By the time Friday got here, I was running on fumes and somehow did manage to make it through the workday.

We went to Mike's house, one of the owner's of Tony's company, on Friday night to play poker. It was nice to get a night out to play cards and hang out. We got home pretty late so by that time I was near exhaustion!

I got up around 9 Saturday morning and made a curtain for my Grandma's place. She gave me 2 pillow cases that match her bedding to make her a curtain out of. I've had it for a couple months now, but since I seldom have time to sew, I just hadn't done anything with it. I threw it together quickly Saturday morning and then ran out the door to drive over to her Retirement Community's Family picnic. Mom brought Hannah and I met them there. I hung the curtain, which actually looked pretty good and then it dawned on me that I forgot my camera!

We went to the picnic and Hannah saw a clown, which she wasn't so sure of at first, but then warmed up a bit. She sat in the driver's seat of the fire engine (again, so aggravated I forgot my camera) and she had cotton candy for the first time! She wasn't sold on that, but ate a little.

We left there around 1:30 and headed back home. She fell asleep in the car, but luckily went in to her bed and napped for another 2 hours (so did I). We got up and got showered and went to our city's Home Day's Fair.

It was Hannah's first experience at a fair - her first carnival rides! Last year, she cried the entire time because of the noise and we weren't quite sure how she'd react to the rides, so we were leery to buy the $15 wristband....instead we bought the $1 tickets 2 at a time, which I think ended up being the right thing to do. Her first ride was on the go around in circles in a car ride. The Carney seriously let the ride go for almost 10 minutes!!! Hannah had a great time, but the kids were getting bored! Here she is:

Next we tried the mini-roller coaster. She sat in a seat next to a girl a little older than she was and all seemed fine at first. The first lap around, she sort of freaked a little as she was coming down the "hill" and was being tossed about a little - she tried grabbing onto the sides of the car to hold herself down - unsuccessfully. As they went around again, she seemed to be a mixed between scared to death and having fun - just what a roller coaster is supposed to do I guess. On lap 3, the guy stopped the ride to removed the TERRIFIED kid (that wasn't Hannah), but he also asked some of the not-so-sure kids (including Hannah) if they wanted off. She opted to get off. I think she'd have been OK, but he asked and she said she was done, so maybe next year??

This was the before the ride started picture:

Here is the video...it's hard to keep track of where she is, but she's sort of in the middle in the white shirt - trying to hold on for dear life!

Next was the safe ride on the carousel - we did this twice, once with daddy and once with mommy.

And finally after mommy was reminded that even the easiest ride that goes in circles isn't my thing, daddy took her for a ride in the dizzy dragons - she liked it fairly well. Daddy, not as much since it was sweltering hot in there!!

It was a fun experience with Hannah who got me all teary when I realized we don't have a baby anymore!!!

Sunday was cleaning, shopping and trying to prepare for my garage sale day. Oh, yeah, and going to bed at 9:30!!! I realized I had run myself completely down these past couple weeks!!!

I am happy to report that after 4 long awaited years, my wedding flowers that I planted the summer of our wedding have finally bloomed!!! Our florist had a great idea to use perennial plants as wedding flowers so that we could replant them and watch them bloom each year. The only problem was that I think I got reject hydrangea's that went dormant for 3 summers, but alas they finally have a bloom this year - yes I said A bloom - ONE on each plant! Maybe by the time we reach our silver anniversary they will be full of blooms!!!

Hannah had her first popcicle last week down the street at our neighbor's house, so I bought some this week. (by the way, I didn't do as well shopping this week either - spent $95 and only saved about $7. No one is probably interested in the entire low-down on that, but I did buy a lot of meat which made the price of my bill higher, and there just weren't that many deals to be found this week). So anyway, Hannah isn't so sure about biting the cold popcicle. She instead lets it melt all over the place as she takes little licks or small sucks at a time! She is funny though because after this taste, she said, "mommy, it's spicy!!" (she says spicy when she means sour!!)

And lastly, I share this gross but true story about Hannah's discovery tonight. We were playing outside and she said she had to go potty (by the way, she's doing great, I'd say fully trained) and so we went. After she was done, she took a look and said, "mommy, there's corn in that poopy" So now yo uall know what we had for dinner last night!!! Gross, I know, but it's a fact (I threw that in there for you, Susan!!!)

Menu Planning Monday

I haven't done a menu planning Monday post in several weeks, but since Maggie wondered "how I do it", I thought I'd share my secret.

First, the biggest key is to plan your menu. Must happen!!

Next is to make a real grocery list and stick to it when you go shopping.

I try to plan the menu around at least one dinner that we have stuff at home already for - or at least most of the stuff needed. So stocking up when there's a good deal is key. We still eat out at least one night a week, but we've been using coupons or we share a meal - especially at Mexican.

I also do the majority of my grocery shopping at Marc's. Definitely for my produce - and I do buy fresh fruit and vegetables every week. My local farmer's market is open now I've noticed, so I think next week I'll hit that first. I go to multiple stores to get what's the best deal, and fortunately for me, all of the places I go to are in one giant circle, so I really don't go out of my way for any one store. (I go to CVS, Walgreens, BJ's, Marc's, Giant Eagle and Walmart). Sounds like a lot of running around, but really, I only drive a total of about 10 miles round trip. (my BJ's, Marc's and Giant Eagle are in the same plaza and I drive right past CVS on my way there and past Walgreens & Walmart on my way home)

I clip as many coupons as I can, but I only clip for things I really use. Once in a while I may try a new brand of something, but I generally don't sway a lot from my normal preferences.

Then the thing I've been doing lately that I haven't done before is scour the Sunday ads to see who has what on sale. So I guess the big key to these last two items is that you have to get the Sunday paper.

So this week's menu is this:
Sunday - We ate out at Gran Fiesta and shared fajitas and with drinks, our bill was only $23!

Monday - Chicken Helper (I bought 10 for 10 "Helpers" last week at GE and used 3 coupons totalling $3 off and it generated a $3 off next shopping trip coupon) I had frozen chicken breasts already at home.

Tuesday - Pierogies - bought a box of Mrs. T's this week, but had a coupon.

Wednesday - Fish Fillets - Have a bag of them in the freezer that I got from BJ's a month or so ago.

Thursday - Kilbosa - I bought it this week

Friday - Pizza, we'll either have a frozen one that I have already or use a coupon to order one - depends on our mood!!

Saturday - we'll go to our city's Homecoming Fair - junk food and Hannah's first try at carnival rides!!!

I have gotten a lot of great tips from http://www.moneysavingmom.com/ (I have the link on the side of my blog called savings tips too). The whole CVS thing is thanks to her!

This week's shopping, I got milk & giant box of triscuits at BJ's - milk is only $2.75/gallon (up from $2.50 that it had been). I had a coupon for $1.50 off the triscuits. Spent only $11.
Next was Marc's. I got most of my groceries, although this week was a light trip, used several coupons and spent $26
Next was Giant Eagle. I got strawberries, blueberries, sour cream and spagetti. Used my $3 off coupon from last week and spent only $7
Next stopped at Walgreens. Bought 3 renuzit air fresheners, had instore coupon to make them $0.79/ea and had a mfg coupon as well to combine. I picked up 2 bottles of bubbles for Hannah - not on the list, but only spent $3.50 at Walgreens!!
Last I went to Walmart and got q-tips, jar of prego, Jergens lotion ($1 coupon) and Hannah some underwear and only spent $11.
Total $59 spent for the entire week!
When you add up the coupon savings and the sale savings shown on the receipts, I saved over $15!! So I really got about $75 worth of stuff.
I'm hitting Rite Aid for Buy1 Get1 cereal later this week - that's the only store that isn't in my circle. My nearest store is only about 4 miles away, but it's in the opposite direction, but I do pass it each week day on the way home from picking up Hannah. I may also run into CVS. Savingsmom.com had a coupon for $3 off 2 Sally Hansen nail polish that are on sale for 0.99 this week, so I actually "make a dollar" to buy that - really, you don't get a dollar back, but it can act like another dollar off something else I may really need!! I also have some extra bucks that I can spend.
So you see, it's easy - you need to do a lot of planning and then LOOK for the sales and deals and before you know it, you feed your family, have all the other stuff you need and can spend just a small amount of money. Gone are the days where I buy everything I need from the general supermarket (Giant Eagle). The time I spend out shopping is sort of "my thing to do" each week, but really, I'm generally only gone for about 2 hours during Hannah's nap time on Sunday's.
So maybe this post was a complete bore to you, but maybe you got a few tips! Regardless, saving money is honestly FUN for me these days and the challenge to buy as much as I can for as little as I can is quite entertaining!!! Yeah, I know - I need to get a life, but I love the one I have!!!!

Whew, what a week!

I loved the holiday weekend last week - it was actually relaxing even though we were on the go a lot. As I stated in my last (week old) post, we went to our friend's house on the 4th which was a good time.

The next day, we went out to my mom's for the evening. Randy had relatives in from out of town and then we stayed to watch Hudson's fireworks. They were right up Hannah's alley since you could see them, but not have to hear them! Here are a couple pics from that day.

Isn't she cool?

This would have been a good picture if Hannah's eyes were open. I'm trying harder to make a point to take more pictures with Hannah. I realized after I did Tony's father's day album that pictures with me in them are scarce.

Here's Hannah walking down to see the ducks. She truly believes they are HER ducks!!

The Sunday of the 4th weekend, I think we relaxed a bit. It seem so long ago now that I can't really remember what we did!! We had some leftover cake from Saturday that Hannah insisted we sing Happy Birthday to her because cake must equal her birthday!! The girl loves cake!

Monday night Hannah and I played out in the yard while Tony had a softball game. I tried getting her to take some good pictures with my new daisies in bloom. She wasn't totally cooperative, but here's a couple of what I got.

I had to go to Columbus Tuesday and Wednesday for a meeting for work. It was a long but fast-moving two days. Thursday was the beginning of one of my toughest days as a manager. I had made the decision to terminate one of my employees. Friday was worse because that was the day I actually did it. Let me tell you how long that day was knowing I was doing it at 4:00! It pretty much sucked all around, but I know it was the right thing to do. I'm sorry it came to this, but I did try for a long time to make things work out, but unfortunately, the employee didn't do her part. Ok, enough about that.....

so I got home from work Friday and we had dinner. I was out on the deck watching Hannah play and Tony offered me a glass of wine. It did taste good. We never drink at home, but it ended up being such a great night and we sat on the deck until around 11:30 and our neighbors came over for a little while. It was great to sit out and enjoy the summer night!

I was pretty much exhausted from my week yesterday, so after cleaning the house, I napped when Hannah napped which was much needed. I had a function to go to last night for an organization I'm joining called NAWIC (National Association of Women in Construction). I have to say, I'm excited about this opportunity. It should be really good for me both personally and professionally.

Today was hanging out as a family all morning. Then I did my grocery shopping (only spent $59 this week and saved over $15 additional dollars - I love my bargain shopping!!) Then we went to Kohls - the sale wasn't as good as it sounded. And then to dinner at Gran Fiesta (Tony's favorite). We went for a walk and played outside and now here I am. Hannah's in bed and I'm going right behind her! Good night!!

Happy 4th!

So glad for the holiday weekend this week! I've had an exhausting week at work and was really in need of a 3-day weekend!

Yesterday, we just hung around the house all morning. I did laundry and cleaned a little and then took a nap!!! Yay! I love when I can actually do that!

After our nap, we got ready to go to our friend's Tony & Tracy's for their annual 4th of July party. We had a good time! There's a million kids around now and Hannah's at the age that she can run with them and play.

Here are the group pictures of most of us:

The girls

The guys

Most of the kids - its hard to round them all up at once!

And us

We ate and played bocce ball, whiffle ball, washers and whatever else was there to do. It was such a perfect weather day -we really had fun!

Here's Maci & Hannah in the cozy coupe!

This is what happens when one little girl starts to get tired - she finds a place anywhere she can to maybe catch some z's

Hannah actually enjoyed doing sparklers - for a while. She liked it for about 4 of them and then all of a sudden didn't want to do any more. I was surprised she liked them at all.

Then the fireworks started. Hannah was terrified! She literally BEGGED us to go home! She said, "I want to go home - PLEASE let's go home". She finally settled for sitting in the car to watch them and then after a while, I think she actually enjoyed watching them (in the car).

I have to also mention, she had another perfect potty day. She was in just her panties all day and no accidents! I thought she migh because she was busy playing all day, but she still let us know when she had to go!!!

We didn't get home until after 11:30 and she was still awake!!! The little party girl made it until almost midnight!!!