vroom vroom!

I have gone and done it. I joined the mini-van mom, soccer mom world.

I am a stay at home mom that babysits 3/4 of the week and carpool two to three days a week. I have the year old I sit, our daughter and three nieces in the vehicle each time I pick them up so we decided it was worth the investment to look into purchasing a mini-van. Well, hubby gets a huge discount through his work for chrysler/dodge for one percent under factory invoice. Yes! We did look at used (which the discount does not apply to) , but by the time we added up financing without a discount, we were still paying a high value to a used car. So we bought a 2013 Dodge Grand Caravan. It was a fabulous deal size and money wise! :)

Our little 5 year old is a soccer player now too. She loves playing goalie. The Fall soccer season is almost over, but we are looking into a winter indoor league. We will see. She did play forward one game and scored the teams first goal too. It is so fun watching her play and we are by the side cheering the team on. We are playing in the Lindbergh school district and there are some big girls in there. Our team is small in stature and seem to get the pants beat off of them on each game, but it is  still fun.

Julia was Jessie the Cowgirl from ToyStory this Halloween. Fun. She rocked the costume. 

Cheers.

Couponing crazy again

It has been a long time since I posted about couponing, but I am back at it. I use to post on another blog, but I'll keep it here since I use this one the most (which has been less and less each year).

This past week I went into Target with my list for shopping for Julia's Birthday party and a few other household sundries. It has been at least 6-8 weeks since I had really shopped .. out of TP, napkins, paper towels..etc. So I go in, do my coupon shopping and found a few good stackable coupon deals and proceeded to check out. This guy behind me pulled his cart up and immediately let out a sigh. Oh boy, here we go. I started to unload my FULL cart (dog food, cat liter, some food, etc...) and he then rolls his eyes with a huge sigh as soon as I pulled out my coupons (nice and neatly in order and facing forward for the sweet cashier, who loved that I was couponing. Admit it, you don't find those cashiers very often!!!)   I gave him a look and proceeded to check out with my reusable bags too. chaching!

I came home and thought about his rediculous actions and posted this on Fa ce book! 

To the guy behind me in line at Target; Roll your eyes all you want at me, but my couponing just saved me over 35 bucks!!!! At least I am not an extreme couponer or else you a@@ would be waiting in line still. Hahaha


hahahahahahaha! I bet he has never couponed in life and does not know how much you can really save with little effort of clipping a few good coupons. :)

By the way, We had a lovely Birthday celebration this past weekend for J and she is so proud she is now a 5 year old. WOW... how the time has flown. I'll post a few pictures soon. 

I hope we can catch up with her birthmother and birthfamily soon. I sure miss them. More on that later. 

Cheers to couponing and saving money towards our Disney vacation soon. 

First Day of Kindergarten is in the Books

In the last few weeks, I have been silently emotionally building tears up for when I knew we would give Julia a walk into her new Kindergarten class for her first day of school. It went uneventful and I am so proud of our not so little girl now! She looked so good in her uniform. I'll try and post pictures later after I transfer them to this laptop. She wanted piggy tails in her hair, a cute pink clip for her bangs that she is growing out and just looks so cute in her uniform. When hubby and I walked her into school, we did not seem very emotional, but more so happy and smiling for her huge accomplishment to make it into Kindergarten at the age of 4.10 months old! She, in my eyes. is super smart and has coping skills beyond what I know I had at her age. I give kudos to her birthmothers great strong educational genes she passed onto Julia!

First day of Kindergarten in the books. She said she had a great day and loves her teacher already. The teacher said Julia was very tired, but someone is buzzing and won' t settle down now. LoL oh and she said she needs a new lunch box! Hello Kitty one! Hehe

 

She was excited to tell me she had a great day, they got some computer time, they colored and she even put her head down for a little rest time at her desk. She got to eat in the new cafeteria. Today she brought her lunch. Tomorrow, not sure what she is having. 

 

All grown up! 

Giving referrals for our Adoption Agency

A Gift of Hope Adoptions asked us if they could use us as a contact for future referrals after we adopted Julia. Of course we said YES! AGOHA's  is a wonderful Adoption Agency in central Missouri. Every once in a while we  will get an email from a perspective couple asking us questions about AGOHA's and how our experience went with them while going through adoption and post placement. We are glad to provide our account of how we felt, dealt with and embraced adoption in our lives through our experience with AGOHA's. I am glad to be able to help another couple decide if they want to build their family and especially if they decide to sign with our agency too! Today I opened that email back from a couple that did decide to go with AGOHA's and I am proud to feel we helped them in a HUGE decision of their lives now and coming in the future. I wish the the best journey and hope they can have a successful match, placement and finalization in their near future.

remembering my cousin dee

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=41536746

remembering my cousin Dee

2012 Consignment sales resale events

Spring 2012

March 7-10
Just Between Friendshttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
St Charles' 11th Semi-Annual Spring Sale is March 7-10, 2012
3115 McClay Road, St Peters 63376.
http://w50.myfranconnect.com/jbfwebsite/?site=869123655&


March 23rd & 24th
Just Between Friends
Next Kirkwood Spring Event is March 23rd & 24th!
Concordia Lutheran Gym, 505 S Kirkwood Road
http://w50.myfranconnect.com/jbfwebsite/?site=1358833737&


May 19th - 20th 
Just Between Friends
Next Sales Event: May 19th-20th
Maryville University Athletic Center: 650 Maryville Center Drive, Chesterfield
http://w50.myfranconnect.com/jbfwebsite/?site=636344934&

check these out, baby bottle holders

moms ebay sales sidneyray0 (you may need to be logged in to see her list, but just search for baby bottle holder john lennon or baseball or blue bubble.

My mom sells these on Ebay and has really started picking up business again. Homemade! I know, not everyone feels these are a great item, but let me tell you from experience, they work so well. http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

I started making these with my mom when we first started our paperwork for the agency to pursue adoption. It really did help fund parts of our adoption costs such as finger prints, background checks, co pays for physicals and tb tests, etc....

I love that my mom took these over and is still selling them. Great for moms of multiples too since they don't have 10 hands. Never leave a baby unattended with these, they are a mother's helper instead.

My mom, grandma of 7, now uses these sales for the 7 grandkids to help pay for special things like sports equipment, uniforms, school tuition (one of my nieces is in college and grandma helped her with book fees). :)

No Flash Card activities

great site to look over for activities for the little one. Little one? She isn't so little anymore.


http://www.notimeforflashcards.com/2012/02/sea-animal-craftsand-activities-for-kids.html

January 2012, where has the time gone?

This year is flying already. I can't believe I am planning things into March and April already for parties (julia's friends), theater shows, Spring events. It is just happening all so fast.

This past week, Julia has really been into crafts with scissors. She wants to cut up paper and make "flying" animals out of them. She has gone through a whole roll of sco tch tape already. I love that her imagination and creativity is there, School really does wonders for her and shows me that her teachers are doing a great job.

This winter has been a crazy weather adventure. Some days we have reached into the 70's while right now we are buuuurrrrrr cold and awaiting a freezing rain sleet night. Not much snow yet this season. I hope we get some more so we can take Julia sledding. I bought her a new sled and while we were looking at them in the store, she spotted a princess shovel. Yes, I bought it. LOL Now she can help me shovel if it ever snows again.

Julia is in tap/ballet/gym one night a week and loves it and then on thursday nights she takes swimming lessons. She is a fish in water for sure. She is leaps and bounds above the other kids in her swim lessons. I hope she can graduate to Eel soon. She is a Pike Plus now. Starting to swim on her own without a belt and also putting her face under water while swimming is her goal for this class to graduate out of. I will miss her current swim teacher if she does graduate to the Eel's, but I know it is for the best. Being four and loving swimming is a dream of mine. I was a water but when I was a kid so this pleases me she loves it so much too. After her class, daddio and I helped her swim back and forth with the boogie board and she did a great job. SO proud of her.

Thinking of taking her to the movies tomorrow. Might go see Chipwrecked or 3d Beauty and the Beast.

Wordless Wednesday picture posts.

Because I failed at the 365 pictures deal on here, I will get back to WORDLESS WEDNESDAY.

Welcome 2012

Happy New Year everyone. I hope this is a year I can get back to blogging and finding a full time job. LOL

Today we went to the Galleria to shop at Build a Bear for Julia. She got a 40 buck bear buck card for her Birthday and WOW... we never used it. I promised her the other day we would use it and she had a great time today picking out a new bear and one complete outfit to put her in. I'll try and post a picture later of the bear. I know she has enough stuffed animals, but she does always get rid of at least 3 stuffed animals to the one she brings in. That was a promised we made with her over the summer when daddy would do the claw machine at all the stores / restaurants we would go into. She agreed to give up 3 stuffed animals to a charity/child/goodwill in order to bring a new bear in the house. LOL We have kept to that promise for the most part. Tomorrow we will pick out 3 and bag them up for donation.

I have been out of the adoption support group circle for a while and am feeling I am ready to get back to it. No, we are not adopting again, but I am glad to be of support to those that might need it. I just hope I can find time to make it to a meeting soon.

Here are a few pictures from the past few months. Happy New Year. May 2012 be a year of Joy and Happiness for all of us.