Whew! Still Got It!

We haven't couponed in a while for a variety of reasons including it takes a decent amount of prep work, our printer's been broken, shopping with kids and a plan doesn't go together well, and I've run out of extra "food" room!  But we're down to 6 boxed of cereal (which we actually don't eat that often!) and Gabe was getting nervous ;-)  So, I saw an "ok" deal on cereal at Albies and thought I'd give it a go.  Then I saw in their ad that they were rounding coupons up to $1, and thought "Let's do this!"  (I hate all those little "$.40 off 4" and such coupons, but make it $1?  YES MA'AM!) 

So we went last night after karate- and did fairly well!  Gabe was happy, even though I only added 6 boxes of cereal to the stash.  I found lots of other good deals (though prices have really gone up since my last trip!  $2.19 for a can of cream of chicken soup?  Yikes! But I got it for .75, so I'm breathing again ;-)

I'll try to get back to blogging- life is just amazing lately, but along with the fun stuff comes a lack of down time... and what down time I have I use for Knitting!  Yay!

Dream Come True... Almost.

I was scanning through the yard/garage sale list on Craigslist, and found Gabe's dream yard sale!!!  Look at the bottom right picture. 

Then look at the description and the bottom left :-) 

I loved laughing at his disappointment... hee hee hee. 

He's moping now... HAHAHAHAAA!! 

I have a stomach ache from laughing too hard...heh heheh.  Heh.

This weeks Bountiful Basket and Pix

I finally figured out how to publish- after a week of it not working!  Grrr! 
Anyway, this weeks basket included 2 nectarines, 3 peaches, 2 mangos, fennel, broccoli, cucumber, sweet potatoes, beets, celery, lettuce, and corn!  Suggestions on sweet potatoes, fennel, and beets would be welcome!!!

 This is the stir fry I made when we had the bok choy... It was tasty, but we needed some rice!  (I made so much I didn't think we needed a side, but it really would have enhanced the flavor.)

We are eagerly awaiting Esther's popping... Her poor belly is just rock hard and points out on both sides! 

We enjoyed having Isabel and Alden over last week, and Isaac showed his big boy helper skills at assisting Alden with his lunch!  Funny thing is, he really doesn't look that much bigger than Alden in the top photo!

This Week's Bountiful Basket

This is actually from last week, but blogger wouldn't let me publish! So, trying to share now... we'll see if it works...

This week's basket of yumminess included 1 eggplant, 1 honeydew melon, 2 mangos, 3 nectarines, 3 lbs onions, 1/2 lb mushrooms, 7 bananas, 2 bunches spinach, 1 head leaf lettuce, 2 heads broccoli... and I think that's it! Whew!

My First Bountiful Basket!

(k, just FYI, I am getting frustrated with Blogger! It's spacing out my stuff, and not letting me center things... and signing me out and in and out and in.... GGRRRRR! so sorry about the annoying formatting, but I can't fix it...)

I was so excited today to go pick up my first bountiful basket! The kids were too- it's all a suprise what you will get! So much fun!

In our basket, we received:

2 cucumbers

1 eggplant

3 heads broccoli

1 bunch kale

10 baby bok choy

7 peaches

3 fuji apples

1 pineapple

5 oranges

5 bananas

2 mangos

Here's how this works: It's a produce co-op, where the money is pooled to get better deals. You sign up, and then each week you choose if you'd like to participate or not. Each week is $15, plus $1.50 handling fee (plus a one-time starter fee of $3), and you are supposed to receive approximately $50 worth of produce.

A friend from church shared this with us. I had read about Bountiful Baskets around the blogosphere, but knew that it wasn't available in our area... until now!!! Check out their website (http://bountifulbaskets.org) for more information. I love that I don't have to do it every week; I can pick and choose when we want more produce. Plus this will be a stretcher for me- I've never eaten eggplant OR bok choy! FUN FUN FUN! :-)

I Totally Made Their Day...

Total I swung the cereal deal at Top Foods (read all about it here!) and picked up 11 boxes of Honey Nut Cheerios, Trix and Lucky Charms for $6.15, plus another 4 Cinnamon Burst Cheerios at Safeway for $.98! It would have been even better, but I messed up a transaction :-) Oops!

But boy, when the kids saw all the cereal (Gabe was awesome and let me go shopping without them!)- their faces were the best ever! Both Melia and Kiera had open jaw syndrome, and Isaac started laughing and rolling around on the floor! I only bought 4 total of the Lucky Charms and Trix... mostly cheerios, but everybody had their day made! :-)

Another amazing deal at Top... Old Orchard frozen Juice blends (100%) for $.24 each!

I SO Appreciate My Husband..

I was reading today about a really good deal on boneless, skinless chicken at $1.59/lb. You have to purchase a 40 lb box, and you have to pick it up at one of the drop places. Unfortunately, the closest drop points are in Ellensburg and Moses Lake. I seriously considering it, but thought I should absolutely ask Gabe first.


I explained it to him, and he responded with "Well, what you'll save on the meat you'll spend on gas getting there..." I totally hadn't calculated that in! And when I did, I would have spent more on gas traveling than I had saved!


If any of you who are close to a drop point, this would be a GREAT deal. You can read more about it here, and a review of it here.

BTW, if you want it soon, today is the last day, and while the review says $1.48/lb, it's now $1.59/lb. :-)

Home Days

We're home today. We planned on going to Bellevue for a meeting, but all three kids got sick yesterday. Not bad, probably the RSV thing that's going around, but just an unpleasant cough and some fevers. So, Gabe headed out this morning, and we're missing out on our fun family day :-( I hate it when this happens. Right when we planned something fun.

The good part is that I was home to see a Seattle groupon on FB for the Children's Museum, so we can now plan another fun day... hopefully, nobody will get sick!

Now, to get started on something productive while the kids are still in good spirits!

We got a Wii

Over the holidays the kids went out for some fun time at the Beaty's house. It evenutally turned into Wii "Just Dance" fun, and we quickly discovered just how well Melia can shake it. :-) Unfortunately, I don't have pictures, only videos (which I'll post at some point in the distant future when I have time) (unless said Beaty's forward me some pics... ;-). After nursing some sore abs from laughing so hard, we decided that it might be ok to get a Wii. We've played with them before at friends' and families' homes, but this was the first time I've considered actually owning one. After a little over a week of watching Craigslist, Gabe found a great deal.

These pics are from when he FIRST brought it home...

Literally. He walks in, puts it on the ground, and Isaac picks up the sticks and starts banging away...

...which was quickly followed by "how do I turn this thing on???"

Not even kidding.

And if anyone wants to buy the rock band stuff, I still maintain that we're going to be selling it... Except it appears that I'm the only person that doesn't like it much! Even the one person we could NEVER drag to a concert was over at our house, drumming and picking away... Annie!!!

We've since purchased the "Just Dance Kids" for the kiddos, which involves a "bit" less shaking that the adult version, but only a bit... :-)

Hog Hollow, Pics Part One

We went on Saturday to get our Christmas tree at Hog Hollow Farm, and boy, did we have a great time! Enjoy the pictures!

For Isaac, it was ALL about the snow. Who cares about that cute little tree? I have snow on my gloves! And Mommy is letting me eat it!!!

He also was beyond cute in his little get-up...

Kiera lost it because she couldn't cut down the tree!

Isaac thought this was a great game :-)

Weeeee!!!!!

It's just my size!

The Smithite girls...

Isaac's First G U N

Gabe found these at a Big R near where he was hunting this fall. He bought two boxes, which equals four guns! They've literally turned Isaac into a dog. He brings you a gun, loads it for you, then waits (im)patiently for you to shoot it, and runs to fetch the arrows? bullets? shooters? He then brings them back and loads it again... and again... and again. You have to hide the guns if you don't want to be stuck playing fetch all day! :-)

This, in my opinion, was a GREAT buy!

Look what I made!

I made skirts for Kiera and I out of jeans that had worn out spots on them. Nifty huh? :-)

It amuses me (kind of) that every time I get out my sewing machine, I need my resident mechanical mind, aka Gabe, to help me relearn how to use it....

Yay, It's so close!

Our annual SP Conference getaway weekend is almost here! I just wish it wasn't at the end of hunting season! I booked our hotel today, via priceline... The conference is at the Coeur'd'Alene resort, (and it would be soo nice!) but when I can get a nice enough hotel with free breakfast for two nights cheaper than one night at the resort with no breakfast... I guess I just can't turn off that frugal streak!

I'm so excited- for both the "getaway" and the conference!

Hotel Stuff

Last weekend, Gabe and I were able to get away for a couple nights by ourselves (Thanks Mom and Rennea!) I pricelined it again, and this time ended up with two nights at the Bellevue Hilton for $74/night. I thought that was pretty good, and we were excited to go! We arrived and felt like we were at a mini-Vegas, with a coffee shop, gift shop, and restaurant inside.

On the way home we discussed the differences between paying more for "nicer" rooms (they really were lovely- soft beds, soft pillows, soft towels... lots of room) versus less for more average rooms (although most of the time now they have mini-fridges and/or microwaves, where the Hilton didn't) and free hot breakfast. It seems that the more average hotel chains have to compete more for our business, so they really end up being the better deal, depending on how much you value soft towels and pillows...

We decided next time we'll go for the 3 star line and expect more for less, especially since we always bring our own pillows anyway! The sad part was that we slept in so late both days we weren't able to go out for breakfast- Gabe felt cheated on our weekend away because he didn't get a hot breakfast, so we had French Toast for dinner last night :-)

Oh, and by the way- Inception was a GREAT movie! Different plot, good acting, unpredictable... we really enjoyed it!

Mystery/Secret Shopping

I realized I forgot to share with you my experiences about secret shopping. So here goes :-)

First one: Pretended to be interested in buying a new car for a whopping 30 minutes w/ no chilren. Good: No children, had a little break. Bad: got paid $14 bucks for too much effort. Won't do it again.

Second: Applebees Shop- had dinner w/ Gabe and the kids. Good: It helped to keep track of details with Gabe there, especially with the kids distracting me. Had yummy dinner out, which was mostly paid for. ($25 reimbursement) Bad: Not much-we'll definitely try to hook up a date night sometime again. Hard to schedule on the website.

Third: Oil Change at Cascade Autocenter. Good: Free + cash oil change. They also fixed a door problem I was having. Bad: I took my kids along, and it went significantly longer than expected. And we watched the food network which made us all hungry!!! :-)

Overall opinion: This is pretty cool. I have to be picky about what I can/can't do with kids, but having dinner and oil changes paid for is helpful when we're on a budget. The really cool thing is that they "say" you can't do more than one of one kind in a certain time period, but I'm scheduled to take Gabe's truck in tomorrow... so they are pretty flexible about the details. I appreciate that :-) I wouldn't consider this as an "income" because it's not consistent at all. But I would call it a way to get random stuff/services free in exchange for a little work. And it does take about 3-4 weeks to get the check, so it's not quick by any means.

There's also not a whole lot available in Wenatchee, but for my friends and family across the mountains, there's a ton. Plus Moses Lake and Yakima... which yea, I consider a bit odd compared to the limited amount here. But hey, I'll take what I can get and let the rest of you have some too :-) I'm only working for one company right now- Bestmark. If you want a referral, let me know!

Good Deal on Aveen Baby at Costco

If any of you love Aveeno Baby products, right now at our East Wenatchee Costco the bath set (2 large bottle of wash, 1 tube lotion) is on clearance for $7.97. :-)

In case you're wondering...

I do have a birthday post for Isaac. But I was wanting to put pictures in it... and I can never find the right card, or the right card reader. In all the ways that I appreciate technology, it also drives me nuts. A love/hate relationship.

In the meantime, we had a great time yard sale-ing today. (I know, but does yard saling really look like it's spelled right?) We picked up a lawnmower, for us or someone else, Gabe found a tree stand for hunting, the girls got some free stuff from a nice lady who wanted it gone :-) and I picked up a couple books (crime and punishment & a redwall book) plus a complete Hooked on Phonics set, including the CDs. A few clothing items, a Japanese maple... But no carseat for Isaac, or sectional sofa for us... A good day. Although I ended up dehydrated so I've been chugging the ice tea to get my migraine to go away!

Surprising...

I signed up with one of those "mystery shoppers" sites, but then wasn't willing to pay the extra bucks yet to be a "gold" member or whatever you have to do to actually apply to do the jobs. But this morning I received an email from someone who got my name from the original one and actually has shops in this area. I replied with my interest... we'll see where it goes from here.

Anybody up for a free lunch? ;-)

Opinion on Current (the catalog company)

I recently placed an order through Current. All of the items I received were fine, but one little coupon organizer was waayyy too small. (Gabe says I'm just not the average couponer...)

Anyway, I called to get a refund authorization like I'm supposed to before I send it back... The gal on the phone was friendly enough, but spoke awfully fast :-) The impressive thing was that she told me to give the one that I'd ordered "to my favorite charity," while they would send out the one I wanted to exchange it for. (a bit bigger... more my size)

I thought this was pretty neat- that instead of sending it back, they just wanted me to donate it and they'd send out the new one. And coincidentally, I just happen to know of a nice Spring Clean Giveaway coming to a Valley Community Church near you on May 8th!

(By the way, if you have items you like to donate, our church's Spring Clean Giveaway is a great place to do it. All items are free- it's our blessing to our community. Please only donate things which are in good working order and would be a Christ-honoring gift. Drop-offs can occur anytime between May 2nd, after church, until Friday.)

Costco Composters: East Wenatchee

If you are interested in one of the round, rotating compost bins that Costco had earlier this spring, they *may* be arriving Saturday. I'm checking into it more tonight, but there are only 6 on order, and they FLEW out the door when they were in several weeks ago. Many many people have been asking, so if you want one, let me know and I will make sure to pass the word when they come in.

PS, yes, I do want one, so there's really only going to be 5! ;-)