Can it be??? FREE GAS! Try and see.

The nice people Chevron are giving gift cards away for $5 - $2500 just for participating in a quick survey (3 questions...and they are EASY!). I just did mine. Hopefully it's not too good to be true.

Here's the link.

Good Luck!

Hey, you ever been "snicked"?

I'm taking care of my good frirend/neighbor's daughter "P" a couple of days this week. She's 3 1/2. Having a boy myself, this opportunity is very different than what I am used to. She is much more "girly" and quite frankly, I don't really know how to handle it. But it has been fun so far!

I've learned a few things along the way.

* If I could pop out another kid somewhere between the age of 3 1/2 and 4, my son would be much less of a challenge simply because he would have someone other than me to play with.

* Girls can pee on the floor too. It's much more confusing, but it can happen.

* Boys are gentler when they play with girls and much less competitive.

* Two kids are MUCH LOUDER than one!

* And possibly my favorite..."Snicked" is going to be my word of choice for the next week at least. And I will use it whenever I can. Here's how it came to be.

We have a dog Chelbi, she's a great dog. Our neighbor girl "P" is DEATHLY afraid of dogs!

Sidenote: She was strangled by a leash with a dog attached to it, and it was attached to a pole while her "wonderful" father paid such close attention to her (she was the sophisticated age of 2 1/2). She has a right to be afraid.

My dog would never hurt her, but she is still afraid. After two days of being in my house while the dog remained in another room with the door closed "P" decided that she "wanted to pet Chelbi" I, knowing her history with dogs applaud her bravery and encourage and help her to do this. I hold my dog by the collar....I should mention that Chelbi is a Rottweiler and pushing 100 pounds. "P" is barely 35. So, anyway...I hold Chelbi and reassure "P" that Chelbi won't get her, won't bite her, etc. "P" puts out her hand and I hold it in mine and we approach Chelbi together. It probably takes 5 times of "P" pulling away and me assuring her that it's going to be OK. She finally lets Chelbi sniff her hand. Being a dog, the lick comes next. I tell "P" Chelbi likes you, see she sniffed you and licked your hand. That's like a doggie kiss. "P", very excitedly announces to everyone who will listen that she has been "snicked" by Chelbi. I love it, and will freely use it!

I should also note, that by the end of today, "P" was in the same room with Chelbi without me holding her hand and kept peeking in to say hi...all by herself! I'm very proud of her.

Has your dog "snicked" you today? Mine has. ;) Isn't she cute???

Super Savings Saturday

I'm pretty excited, I finally get to participate in a Super Savings Saturday at Money Saving Mom!



I had a two really great deals this week, but only have one picture. :( Next week I will be better about photos. My hubby thinks it's super funny that I've taken to photographing groceries.



Deal one at Walgreens.

Purchase was:

4 boxes Preparation H wipes (thank goodness I know someone who can use these as I have now 9 boxes!) They were free with $4 overage after (4) $2/1 IVC and (4) printable Prep H $3/1 coupons.

2 boxes Cheerios, 1 box Honey nut Cheerios, Free plus $.01 overage with (3) $1/1 coupon and using overage from Prep H.

4 jars Ragu Spaghetti Sauce, used (2) $1/2 coupons and earned $4 RR for purchasing 6 items all together with the Skippy too.

2 jars Skippy, used $1/2 coupon.

1 package Egg Noodles, free with purchase of two Ragu sauces. :)

2 bars Yardley soap, $.69 each after WAG 7 day coupon.

I also used a RR reward for $3 off my purchase.

Total OOP was $3.70!! Plus I earned the $4 RR from the Skippy/Ragu deal AND I noticed when I got home that the cashier gave me back my $3 RR that I tried to use on the purchase, but she did ring it in as a coupon...So, WAGS paid me $3.30 to shop!

Deal TWO at Walgreens.

3 more boxes of Prep H wipes, Free plus $3 oveage after (3) $2/1 IVC and (3) $3/1 coupons

1 more box of Cheerios, Free after $1/1 and overage from Prep H.

3 more Yardley soaps $.69 each, but actually only paid $.03 because of leftover overage from Prep H.

Total OOP was $1.29 because we have to pay sales tax before coupons in our great state!

In two deals, I saved $57.93! And I only spent $4.99! WHOO HOO! Not too bad for a newbie!

Jetty Island

Yesterday, my son and I went to a little man-made island in Everett, WA called Jetty Island. We went with my good friend/next door neighbor and her kids. Her son and my son have dubbed each other as best friends. It's really cute.

We had a great time! If you have the chance to visit, I would definitely recommend it. We went on not so nice of a day weather wise, but the kids still had a blast. They built sand castles, played in the water, hunted for shells and chased seagulls. My son decided that all seagulls are named Tom...even the girls. We even wrote the name "Tom Seagull" in the sand because he wanted them to have their name written just like him.

I will now bore you with some photos. It really was a fun time.

This was the ferry that we took over from the "mainland" to the island. There is normally a bigger boat (pictured in the background).

However, because the weather was iffy they used this one instead.

This is the island right after we docked. We walked to the other side so we didn't have to play in all that gooky stuff.

This is "Tom Seagull", one of the many.

Here are the boys working together digging a hole which later became the base of their joint effort sand castle. My son (in blue) promply squashed it upon completion.

And lastly, one of my sweet boy walking on the beach. So precious.

Hehehe, I found something fun!

I found this little game courtesy of Mommie Mayhem. I thought it looked like fun. Don't be shy, play along.

Here's how it works.

*I will post a wish.

For example, I wish I was rich.

*The next poster grants my wish as a comment. "Ok, now you're rich"

BUT when you grant the wish, you have to ruin it!!

For example, you are rich but you are also Martha Stewart!

*Then you post your wish, and don't forget to check back and see how it was granted.

Isn't this fun??

I'll go first.

I wish I could go on vacation...by myself!

And...GO!

A Rose is a Rose...

I've recently (within the past 2 months) personally known three people in the Seattle Metropolitan area who have named their baby girls "Something" Rose. Each one has a different first name, but all of them have the middle name Rose. We welcome Karla, Natalie and Julia Rose.

This got me thinking, what makes a name mainstream? What throws it out there when it has previously been hidden/forgotten? We all remember the Jennifer's and Jason's from the late 70's early 80's and more recently the Emma's and the Aidan, Jaden, Kaden, Braden and even Taden's (my cousin did this to their child).

But, what makes it such a desireable name? Just when you as a parent to be decide on the perfect name for your little one, you discover that 99% of the babies born of the same sex have the same name! (Ok, I might have just exaggerated a bit.) This was my big fear as my son has an older name and so far, I've not heard that many other kids with the same name. Whew! He won't be one of 5 other kids with the same name in his class.

Just my strange wonderings of the day.

But it was only a hangnail!

So, I had a hangnail. I picked it off just like most of the population does. No big deal right?

WRONG!

Apparently, picking a hangnail opens you up for infection. And not just any infection at that. Infection that can spread into your blood stream and cause the little red line that the nurses were referring to as a streak that travels from the point of the infection (my right thumb) all the way up my arm almost to my elbow bend. I know...all from a friggin hangnail! It even gets better.

The doctor came in and informed me that I had come in "just in time" because if the infection would have gone into my joints, I could have lost my hand! Supposedly this is a common occurrence. I had no idea! She also said that if my white blood cells were too high (they tested me and I was fine thankfully!) that I would have to see a hand surgeon the same day and "have the infection extracted! (read: a big fat hairy needle would have been stuck into my already sore thumb and all the goop would be sucked out!) YUCK and NO THANK YOU!

Because my cell count was good, all I got was a shot of antibiotic and then they gave me 10 days of pills. I'm on day 3 of my antibiotics, the red line is gone from my arm and the infection in my thumb is almost gone too.

Who knew...a hangnail?

What a powerful little annoyance.

Boys are very peculiar creatures.

My son is 4 years old and almost completely riding his 2 wheel bike on his own. He can ride the bike fine once he gets started but he has trouble with the initial take off and the landing. This is an accomplishment that my husband can take 100% credit for. I am way to over protective when it comes to activities that can lead to broken bones and skinned up knees.

That being said; on Monday I had a meeting to attend in the evening. Dear husband and son decided that while I was gone they were going to go ride bikes at the school across the street. They were almost ready to head home when my son decided to mess around with the handle bars, shaking them side to side quickly while still riding. You can see where this is going right? Yup, he fell....hard. I guess he cried a bit, but nothing like he would have if I had been there. He has road rash on his elbow and a bruise on his cheek bone.

When they got home, DH took a picture of the wound so I could see when I got home.

Here's the part I don't understand. My son is proud of the fact that he: 1) got hurt and has a really big scab and 2)only cried when it first happened.

And now he thinks it's "really cool" because it "looks like caramel sauce".

I don't know that I will ever understand.

Yet another GREAT deal!

Total out of pocket (oop)...$14.96!

What does one get for $14.96?

4 boxes Kellogg's brand cereal
6 boxes Eggo waffles
2 boxes fruit snacks (Diego and John Deere)
a gallon of milk
a pound of margarine
2 pounds of ground turkey
a whole roasting chicken
a frozen pizza
a chocolate brownie Clif bar
a bag of Pirate's Booty
a box of Eskimo Pie ice cream bars

How does one purchase all of the above for so little? Coupons paired with sales...that's how!

Our local Top Foods grocery store is having a sale today (through next week Tuesday) on Kellogg branded items, they are priced at 5 for $10. But, if you purchase $20 worth of items (so 10 items) you get a store coupon for $20 off of your next purchase of $20 or more. Basically you get your Kellogg items free!

So, I went in armed with my list and coupons ($1/2 boxes of cereal, $1/2 boxes of Eggo's, $1/2 boxes of fruit snacks) I had 2 of the cereal coupons, 3 of the eggo coupons and one of the fruit snack coupons.

I separated my cart into two transactions.

The first was 4 boxes of cereal, 4 boxes of Eggos and 2 boxes of fruit snacks so I spent exactly $20 before coupons. Add in my coupon savings of $5 and that takes it down to $15, but the Eggos we ringing at $1.99 each that brought me down $.04 more to a grand total oop $14.96.
Out came my $20 off my next purchase coupon. Which I used to pay for my second transaction. :)

The second transaction was for the remaining 2 boxes of Eggos (which I had a coupon for), milk, margarine, ground turkey, chicken, pizza, clif bar, pirates booty, and ice cream bars. The total on this was $20.89. I handed over my $1/2 eggo coupon and my $20 off my next purchase and actually had an overage of $.11 but because the store can't pay you to take groceries, I politely asked the clerk to adjust the price on my $1 off coupon to $.89 to make my total $0.00! I was even complimented by the clerk who said that my use of this coupon was “the most effective she has ever seen!” I felt pretty proud of myself. This is only my second deal afterall.

This is going to be super fun for me as I love a challenge!

WOW! I'm loving coupons today.

All this for only.....wait for it.....$17.43!

I've been reading Money Saving Mom for nearly 5 weeks now and have been awe inspired by her and all of her readers with all of the really great deals that they've found. So, this weekend I decided that I was going to invest a bit of time and energy into seeing how great of a deal I could come up with at our local Walgreens

I purchased a Sunday paper and clipped some coupons and matched some deals and here you have the results. All of what you see pictured for only $17.43! I also received a coupon for $5 off my next purchse. :)

Here's what I bought: 4 boxes of cereal, 3 boxes of Pop Tarts, 2 boxes of Rice Krispy Treats, 3 bottles of Dawn Dish Soap, 2 dozen eggs, 1 box of corn dogs (for lunch today), and a Ring Pop for my son who was fabulous while we shopped. Not too bad if I do say so myself.

Give me an "A" and kudos to my friends.

A is for addiction!

I'm still relatively new to blogging. I've been here for almost 2 months. In said two months, I have become addicted!

* I find myself checking my blog at least three or four times each and every day. I love to see what my new "friends" have to say.

* I find it fascinating that I get to have a glimpse of what other mom's, wives, and friends go through on a day to day basis.

* I love the fact that I can lurk and no one gets to know that I was even there if I don't want them to know.

* I love leaving comments on fellow blogger's posts and seeing their comments when they visit me.

* I love that I get to keep an online journal that I can refer back to years from now and see what was going through my mind and there is no paper "crap" laying around!

But most of all, I love each morning when I sit down with my cup of coffee and read my favorite blogs: MamaNeena, Money Saving Mom, Take life with a grain of chocolate and The Simple Dollar. MamaNeena cracks me up! Money Saving Mom saves me money. Take life...is a great friend and I like to see what she's up to. And Trent at The Simple Dollar just offers great advice for people looking to reduce their debt and save. I start my day off every day with these great friends and I hope you check them out and enjoy them too. Thanks guys for helping me off on the right foot. I don't start a day without you.