Happy Annniversary!

May 31, 2003

May 2011

Happy 8th Anniversary, Jason!

I love you!!

The Great Grocery Challenge - Week 31

 

 Walgreens: OOP $9.67, saved $34.73!

Target: OOP $14.31, saved $54.78!
Not a bad trip to Target except that we needed Lawn & Leaf bags with no coupon or sale. :-( And, I actually had a lady that said I was "tying to be like those extreme couponers." lol! I did let her know that I don't shop quite like that. ;-)

CVS: OOP $1.89, saved $22.87!

I had a big surprise at CVS today. I signed up for their Beauty Club when it started, not really sure why since I don't buy any make up from there. Apparently, lotions and body washes must count (I'm not sure what else.) because I received a $5 ECB from it today! They said I reached $50 in purchases...who knew? It's so much fun to get little surprises like this. 

Meijer: OOP $30.46, saved $55.34!

I must mention how awesome Meijer is! The blog I follow for their matchups (spectacularsavings.blogspot.com) had the same problem I did last week and suggested that we email the company. So, I did. And, I got 3 (not 1 or 2, but THREE) emails back from them. How amazing is that? I was very nice and explained that I love shopping at their store and let them know of the problem I encountered. You know what they did? ... They offered me a $5 gift card! I thought that was amazing. 


Weekly Total: OOP $56.33, saved $167.72!
( 75% savings)

 I was a little over my budget this week, but still not too bad...Jason wanted some beverages. :-)

Graduation Celebration!

My dad is the oldest of seven kids which means I have about 20 cousins on that side of the family alone. This year, my youngest cousin, Taylor, graduated from high school and we were able to celebrate with him. The weather turned out really nice - it didn't rain and it wasn't too hot.

 Taylor with his parents (Duane & Donna)

 Drake and Uncle Chad

 Drake played outside for over 4 hours! This little boy was worn out!

 Drake with my Aunt Doris

Drake was stealing food from my cousin, Casey, and my aunt, but, of course, he didn't want to eat the plate I made for him. :-)

Congratulations, Taylor!!

Class of 2011

Jason's niece, Kali, graduated from high school tonight! Her class was only about 80 people, but they have accomplished so much - over $1 million in scholarships, highest average test score in their school's history, and they became a Blue Ribbon school (1 of 3 in Illinois). The ceremony was perfect...just under one hour. It started right about Drake's bedtime (7pm), but he did pretty good. He really enjoyed the band and eating his chocolate goldfish. :-) 

 Jason's sister & Kali's mom, Karen, Kali, Caden, & Cody

Kali and her boyfriend, Shawn

 

 

 

Congratulations, Kali!! We are so proud of you!

Wordless Wednesday: Sidewalk Chalk!

I guess it's actually more about the bucket that the chalk came in, but I had fun. :-) How cute is it that he sticks his tongue out when he's concentrating. ADORABLE! Love this kid.

The Great Grocery Challenge - Week 30

 

CVS - OOP $5.37, saved $57.13!

There is a bag of Reese's pieces missing. ;-) I needed a snack at work. lol!
I bought a $25 gift card a while back and got a free $5 gift card which also helped my savings.

Meijer - OOP $35.67, saved $39.18!

Not as good as it should have been, but still pretty decent considering. For some reason, I got a lot of free product coupons in the mail over the past week or so, but when I used them none of them took off the full price! I also had 2- $1 coupons that didn't come off. There were a few items I didn't have coupons for - milk ($3/gallon), applesauce, canned fruit, eggs, and I had to buy dog food.

Walgreens - OOP $3.40, saved $27.36!

Weekly Total: OOP $44.44, saved $123.67! (savings of 74%)

Wordless Wednesday: Spaghetti!

I've seen a lot of people do "Wordless Wednesday"  posts so I thought I would give it a try (of course, this one isn't completely "wordless").  This is from our spaghetti dinner on Sunday. Drake loved it, but I think he enjoyed stacking his cups more!

The Great Grocery Challenge - Week 29

 

 I haven't gotten back into my shopping since being on vacation earlier this month. Our area missed out on a bunch of the coupons that most areas got on the 1st so that isn't helping either. Nonetheless, I did make it to Walgreen's last week. Thankfully, I have a nice stockpile so we've been able to still eat at home.

 Walgreens: OOP $3.78, saved $42.86!

92% savings!!

15 Month Dr. Appointment

Drake's 15 month doctor appointment was yesterday. We saw the Nurse Practitioner again this time...love her! She asks a lot of questions about what Drake is doing and seems very interested in him. Drake is right on track for his age. The one thing she did tell us is that our biggest concern is going to be "safety" with him. He's into EVERYTHING - opening/closing doors and drawers, climbing on things and just running around. She said he'll be the kid where you turn around and he's gone. She is SO right, even after just seeing him for 15 minutes. Drake is ALL boy!

Unfortunately, my camera battery was dead so I didn't get any pictures, but here are his stats:

Weight - 22lbs (15th percentile) --- gained almost 2 lbs

Length - 30.5 inches (30th percentile) - grew 1 inch

They had him stand on a scale to get his weight. (sniff, sniff) I can't believe how big my baby is getting!

We're back...

I'm guessing you didn't even know we were gone, but we're home! Jason and I took a much needed vacation - a cruise to Grand Turk (Turks & Caicos) and the Bahamas. We've cruised a number of times and this time was no different - a great experience. A HUGE THANK YOU goes out to my mom, dad and my sister for watching Drake while we were gone.  We had an awesome time on the trip, but we were so glad to get home to our little guy!

Formal Night

Grand Turk, Turks & Caicos: We took a tour of the island and then spent the afternoon at Governor's beach! It's a small island - 2 miles x 5 miles with about 5000 people living there. There was still a lot of destruction from a hurricane that came through in 2008, but the beach was beautiful - fine, white sand and crystal clear water.

Half Moon Cay (pronounced Key): This is Carnival's private island in the Bahamas. They actually re-negotiate a contract with the Bahamas every 10 years for ownership of the island. It is another small island (1 mile x 7 miles) with only about 45 people living there - all employees of Carnival. We took a bike tour around the island and then spent another afternoon at the beach.

Nassau, Bahamas: We spent our last day at Atlantis Resort. I would highly recommend this as a place to visit for families. They have a huge waterpark (where we spent our day), beach, aquarium, casino, shopping, etc.

This water slide was a 60' vertical drop. 

I didn't attempt it, but Jason loved it!

Our home away from home...Carnival Destiny!

This couple - Jenny & Cory - were our tablemates at dinner. We are really curious about how Carnival matches up people for dinner because as we were talking, we discovered quite a few similarities:

• From the Midwest (Ohio and Illinois)
• Have little boys (6 months and 15 months)
• Celebrate our anniversary in May (their 5th anniversary was Friday and our 8th is on the 31st)
• Started dating in November

I'm sure some of this is mere coincidence, but it was just interesting. Hopefully we'll keep in touch and be able to meet up sometime.

I'm already looking forward to planning our next vacation...with Drake this time, but I highly recommend taking a couples vacation, too.