Luck on Black Friday

We went to Algonquin Commons on Black Friday in hopes of winning the $2500 shopping spree - even the $500 or $1000 ones would have been nice. You had to be 13 or older to win and the deadline for entries was 10 a.m. So I forced Carissa to get out of bed (this started at 8:30) and we arrived without a moment to lose! I dropped her off in front of the entry location at 9:56 told her to put and entry in for her and me and went to search for a parking spot. Finally found one at the end of the row and walked with the rest of the kids in the bitter Chicago cold and wind to the location - they were doing the drawing right at 10 so I figured we'd stay to see if we won and if so, we could do some shopping. They were still allowing entries, so I quickly filled one out for Joe and we got in line for the prize wheel for the kids. Michael and Brielle won flying monkies and Nicholas won some snowman shaped playing cards - those will have to disappear. Carissa was the lucky winner. She was the second name they called - so no shopping spree, but she did win dinner for 8 at Cheeseburger in Paradise. So we decided that we will go - all 8 of us while Amanda is home for Christmas. Good thing I dragged her out of bed.

Cake Wrecks

My friend Robyn, has this blog linked on her's - it is hilarious and SAD, very SAD at the same time. It is a collection of professional cake decorating gone very, very wrong.

It Lives!

Electronics can work again if left alone long enough! I was getting ready to throw the phone away - remember the toilet incident - and thought, well I'll just plug it in one last time to see if it will work. And Voila! I got a dial tone! I am happy because now I have a phone on each level so technically I should be able to answer it when it rings. The problem is 2 of the phones are cordless so I carry them around with me and then set them down when I'm done and then when it rings, of course, I am in the basement and the phones are upstairs, buried in cushions (so I can't really hear where the ringing is coming from) or some other place that makes no sense. Oh well, at least I get some exercise when it rings cuz then I have to run for it!

Primary

I have to admit, having never served in Primary before I was quite leary of the calling. I mean 2 hours every week being nice to other people's unruly children? PLEASE. But I tried to go in with an open mind. I have to say - I was sitting in Primary this week and came to the realization that I LOVE IT! Not the unruly children part. But I also figured out WHY I love Primary. In no other calling I have had do I feel the spirit so strongly EVERY WEEK. I have decided it is because of the music. Right now we are learning "I know that my Savior loves me". I can hardly even sing the chorus by the time we get to it. But Primary is great. I do miss knowing what's going on in RS but I am enjoying Primary. I know Nicholas likes having me in there and I think Michael does too.

Flu Shots

I took the kids to get their flu shots today. Our doctor really pushes for it since Michael has asthma. He volunteered to go first and was very brave. Carissa went next. And then it was Nicholas' turn (I think we should have put him last after Brielle). Anyway, he freaked. Started squirming and crying. And of course, the injection site started gushing blood. That upset him even more. He swears he will not get another flu shot ever - until he's 12! Brielle whimpered a little and then, true to form, thanked the nurse.

Electronics and water don't mix

Today, while I was on the phone, I needed to help Brielle with her toileting needs. Well, long story short, the phone slipped from between my shoulder and ear and you guessed it, right into the water. This is the third cordless phone to bite the dust or water so to speak. The last two were not my fault (see my post about the leg weights and you'll know who the culprits were), but I did lose my sunglasses down the auto flush toilet at Walmart this summer. I was helping Brielle, again, and as I leaned over to set her on the toilet, my glasses slipped off my head and the sensor detected movement and whoosh! in like 2 seconds they were gone - those were $25 sunglasses! Now everytime we go into a store's bathroom, Brielle asks me where my glasses are. Moral of the story? Keep anything valuable away from the toilet.

Girl Gourmet Cupcake Maker Giveaway

Mercedes at Common Sense with Money is giving away a Girl Gourmet Cupcake Maker. Click on the link below (or copy and paste it into your browser and follow the directions for a chance (or more) to win it!


http://commonsensewithmoneyreviews.blogspot.com/

Marie-Therese Gown GIVEAWAY !!!!!!!

Marie-Therese Gown GIVEAWAY !!!!!!!

What a gorgeous dress. I probably wouldn't fit Brielle until next year - I can't imagine using it for Halloween and dress up - it is WAY too beautiful for that!

Primary Program

Today was our Primary Program. It went really well. We treated the kids to cake afterward during Sharing Time (because they did a good job and also because it was the Primary President's birthday and she wanted to have cake). Michael and I sang "A Child's Prayer" - yes, you read that right. I sang in church - by myself (and with Michael) in front of the whole congregation - everyone thought Michael was so brave - actually he did admit to being a little nervous. He sounded great. He has a very strong voice and is always right on key. I am hoping this was a once in a lifetime event (for me). He didn't think it was so bad and said he would do it again - which is why I agreed to do it. I wanted him to have the experience because he is such a good singer and so that he wouldn't be afraid to do it again. - The things parents do for their kids - if they only knew.

Great Song

I happened to be in the room putting some clothes away when Brielle woke up yesterday morning. She sat up and said "That's a great song, momma." I asked her what song she thought was great and she said, "You know, Sunbeam" and then went on to list all her favorite nursery songs, Tiny Tim, I Love to See the Temple, If the Savior Stood Beside Me, I think she said a few more. I was just thrilled that her dreams are celestial.

Road Trip

The kids had Columbus Day off of school and so we decided to take a little day trip. They had had the Friday before off also (so a 4 day weekend) but Carissa's band schedule and practice for the Primary Presentation prevented us from doing any more than that. Anyway, we headed up north to the land of cheese (and fireworks). The drive was about 2 hours and we took country roads rather than the highway. We stopped at a park and played for awhile, then we stopped at a roadside pumpkin patch and picked out some pumpkins and then got attacked by bees. That almost sabotaged the whole trip. It did cause us quite a delay as we had to keep getting out of the car because we had discovered yet another bee trying to tag along. We went up to Cave of the Mounds. Our bee adventure made us arrive after the last tour had started so we opted to pan for gemstones and rocks. The kids had a great time and we topped it all off with dinner and desert at McD's. (Where else can you feed 6 for under $20)? We took the faster route home but all-in-all it was a good day.

[Beef] Jerky

This is one of those things I'm not real happy about but I have to record it for posterity - and maybe blackmail. I have to preface the story with saying that Joe and the kids enjoy snacking on beef jerky.
I took Brielle to a program called Tot Tunes this morning. When it was time to leave, she wanted to stay and play but it was time to go. She wasn't real happy with me. Being the younger sister of two older brothers - who aren't always as kind as they should be to each other, she repeated something she thought she had heard, "Mommy, you are a jerky."



Not to worry, we talked about saying nice things, etc.

The weather

I hate Chicago weather. Sunday it was 80. Today it is 49. Tonight I have to freeze and watch the Carissa march. At least we will leave after half-time so I only have to freeze for about 90 minutes - I hope. It will probably be 80 again next week. At some point it was a beautiful 72 and Joe said he wished it was like that all the time, so I put my plug in "SAN DIEGO". I know the cost of living is outrageous but at least the weather is beautiful.

Michael isn't here

Brielle is a mini-Michael. She looks like him, she has his temperment, she freaks out over the same things. The other day she spilled about a tablespoon of water on her shirt and lost it. She was sooooo upset. "Take it off! Take it off!" This bordered on hysteria. I looked at her and said, "Okay, Michael". She calmly gave me a puzzled look and said "Michael isn't here."

At least it calmed her down :-)

The season end of marching band

This is our last week of marching band - there is a game Friday and a competition over the weekend. I am looking forward, a little reluctantly to the end. I have enjoyed helping out at the games and the competitions I've been able to go to. They have really done well this year. Mr. K works well with the kids and does a fantastic job of organizing them (there are 140 students in band). Carissa has really enjoyed it. She had to choose between band and choir going into high school. I think she is happy with her choice.

From the band director, Mr. Konwerski:
"Thank you to all for your help and support with the Marengo Show. The kids did wonderfully, they had a third place finish in both the parade and field competition, as well as being fourth overall in the entire show. Upon further review of the scores, I also learned that our drum majors tied for best drum majors with the band that received the award – Oak Creek. For some reason the tabulators at Marengo missed that."

My name is Chantalle and I'm an addict . . .

. . . to coupons! I have been sharing some of my deals with Juli and Robyn - I even sent the Walgreens deal last week to Teresa. I know Juli took advantage of it because she called me to say she was walking out of Walgreens and had just saved $48 and that was without the $10 Shower Cleaner coupon (they were out but she got a raincheck) and before the rebates. I took Joe with me last night to Meijer to stock up on Jell-O (free with 22 cents overage), canned vegies (33 cents so I used up the 22 cents overage on those which made them 11 cents), and Frosted Mini Wheats (on sale for $2.50, had a $1 off coupon for each one and got a $3 coupon back when you buy 3). I spent about $22 out of pocket (oop) for over $80 in groceries and walked away with 1-$10 coupon off my next shopping trip (because an advertised Catalina for $2 didn't print) and a $3 coupon off my next shopping trip. So this is what I got:

24 boxes Jell-O ($.64 regular price)
6 boxes Frosted Mini-Wheats ($3.69 regular price)
24 cans vegies ($.75 regular price)
2 - Taco Bell dinner kits ($2.79 regular price)
2 - Glade Oil Warmers ($4.69 regular price)
1 - SoBe Water ($1.29 regular price)
-------
1 - loaf of bread
1 - bag of chips
1 - container of hummus
1 - breadsticks for dipping in the hummus
bananas

Everything above the line had a coupon. The items below were on sale and/or things we needed (well not the chips, hummus and breadsticks but Joe wanted them). I was trying to stick to the "deals" so he could see why I get so excited about it. I had to do several transactions because of limits - I like the self-checker now - it was almost like Vegas - put your coins in, watch the coupons print out. The Glade oil warmers were a money maker - when you bought one a $4 coupon off your next order printed out - I had a B1G1 coupon so I spent $4.69 and got $8 back which I turned around to use on my next transaction. I even took him to Walgreens with me to get the Robitussin/Dimetapp money maker deal this week (buy 3 for $3.99 - - use a $2 coupon for each so spend $6 and get a $10 coupon back) I've done this twice by rotating it with another register reward deal so I have spent very little oop (under $12) for

2 - Dimetapp
4 - Robitussin
6 - boxes of monthly supplies
4 - boxes of Kashi (they are on sale 2/$5 and there is a $2 off coupon on their website when you register (I registered twice - once for me and once for Joe) - I love Kashi and I love it even more when it's only 50 cents a box!)

I have been possessed! But our ward has a goal for the year that everyone will have their 72-hour kits (ours are almost complete) and a 3-month supply of food (I know we're okay on the cereal end (30+ boxes right now all under $1/box) and Nicholas could live on cereal) and we have enough cough and cold medicine for the season. I will probably do the Dimetapp/Robitussin deal one more time to get some free t.p. (why not? I could either spend $10 oop for the t.p. or I can spend $3 +tax (I have a $3 RR right now) and get Dimetapp and Robitussin and t.p. I am really indebted to the lady who taught the couponing class. I thought I was a pretty savvy shopper but now I feel really ripped off if I don't have a coupon to make it REALLY cheap.

Super Couponing

I went to a class sponsored by our library about Super Couping. It was taught by a lady named Jill Cataldo. She shared all kinds of "secrets" to spending less at the grocery store and with gas prices and food prices rising, as you can imagine, the class was packed. There were close to 100 people there. It was the best attendance at an adult oriented class the library had ever had. I've included a link to her website where she shares her strategies. She says she spends about $65 a week on food and household items for her family of 5 with 2 in diapers. I figure it's worth trying.

Ice cream social

We decided to go to Cold Stone tonight for their make-a-wish ice cream social. Between me and the kids, we tried both creations but decided that Jack's was better (marshmallow ice cream, oreos, chocolate chips and fudge) than Emily's (nutter butter ice cream, kit kats, white chocolate chips and yellow cake). The kids wanted to keep going back for more, but it was one per customer - especially since we hadn't eaten dinner yet. We ate our ice cream al fresco which was really nice, except for the hoards of bees wanting to participate. Then we went to the park and played to get rid of all those extra calories. We will definitely make this an annual tradition.

Nicholas' Broken Ear

Nicholas woke up last night at 1:24 a.m. crying (screaming, actually) because his ear hurt. After a round of Tylenol and the ability to sleep in Mom & Dad's bed, he went right back to sleep. I didn't though. Brielle woke up around 4:00 crying as well and with Carissa leaving for seminary at 5:30 there was almost no point in going back to sleep - I did try and got about 30 minutes I think. This morning, after being well rested, Nicholas said his ear was broken and so he couldn't go to school today because he wouldn't be able to listen to the teacher. We made an appointment with Dr. Knapik for both him and Brielle (she's been stuffy, goopy, and gross and pulling on her ear as well). She is fine - just a cold. He has an ear infection. So he's stoked up with Augmentin and Tylenol feeling just great and I am operating on about 3 hours of sleep. I'm thinking I have about another hour before I crash and burn . . . I did love his explanation of why he couldn't go to school.

Roger

Danielle has a menagerie of animals. She always has had a soft spot for them. Her latest addition is a miniature dachsund (as if dachsunds weren't small enough) named Roger. She has two cats, Max and Ruby. Yes, there is a theme going on. Roger is the cool kid in Ruby and Louise's class. If she gets another female animal, her name will be Louise. We babysat Roger for a day while Danielle went to Ribfest in Naperville. He has one blue eye and one brown eye.

Ever wondered what is in those leg weights?

For those of you who are curious, we discovered they are filled with hundreds, no thousands, actually probably millions of teeny tiny metal balls. Metal balls that really hurt your feet when you step on them. They rank right up there with legos and Barbie shoes. How did we discover this? Sunday (the day of rest, and apparently that means experimentation when you are a young boy and your parents are trying to rest), we heard this noise that sounded like frying (as in oil) gone wrong - there wasn't any associated smell but we knew we had to investigate. The boys (we don't know exactly which one - I can't wait for those family talks when the children have moved out of the house because then I will be able to get true confessions out of them) discovered that one of my leg weights had a small tear in it and being boys, they just had to make it bigger and then create a waterfall effect with the contents over the side of the 2nd floor railing down to the wood floor below. Hence the deafening noise that sounded like frying. They were required to clean the mess to the best of their ability, but it is now Wednesday, and after sweeping and vacuuming each day, I am still finding teeny, tiny little metal balls all over. I think I will be finding them for months. Keep in mind, these are the boys that dumped 5 pounds of sugar on the living room carpet to recreate Thomas being stuck in the snow. At least it was granulated and not powdered.

Homecoming Week

Homecoming week was a flurry of activity. First there was band practice, and then the parade, the actual homecoming game and then the dance,. All of which took place on separate days. The only optional activity for Carissa was the dance, which of course in her mind, was not optional She went with a group of friends. I made the mistake of offering to make her a dress on top of being a parent helper at the parade and game. It was 3 rather sleepless days, but the end result turned out well. She had a good time. I guess that's all that matters. The dress experience did make me appreciate mom a whole lot more. It's also a good idea to not let more than 10 years go in between making a dress - I did a lot of seam ripping.

First Day of School

Carissa is on her way to the bus on her first day of high school - telling me to go back inside and not take any more pictures.

This is actually Michael's 2nd day of school (3rd grade) and Nicholas' first day of kindergarten.

Marching Band

Carissa is the one with her hand hiding her face. Of course, as soon as I had taken the picture, the battery on the camera died. So I couldn't take any more and of course, I forgot to bring the camera to the competition last Saturday. Although one of the other parents said they would email photos to the director so he could distribute to parents. She plays the mellophone for marching band and the french horn for concert band. This is at the Homecoming parade. Last Saturday, they competed in the Phantom Regiment Competition and placed 2nd in their class and 3rd overall. A great showing for their first competition with a new director - he has directed before but this is his first year at Huntley. Probably about 1/3 of the band are freshmen. They are playing Distorted, Reve Rouge, and Urban from Cirque du Soleil.

Young Athletes

Nicholas' pre-school was one a few that participated in a new program for Special Olympics called "Young Athletes". It is to raise the awareness of future Special Olympic athletes and their peers. All the children who participated at their school were invited to attend the Special Olympics Summer Games in Springfield. Carissa was participating as a volunteer as part of Youth Conference and Joe thought it would be a great opportunity to do fireworks. So we made it a family event. Nicholas participated in the games and helped carry the banner into the stadium and Joe did fireworks for the opening ceremony. We never did see Carissa - but she saw us when we entered the stadium. You can see more pictures by clicking here . Then advance to screen 2 of 7 and click on 2008 Young Athletes. Nicholas (and sometimes Michael and Brielle) is in photos 9, 13, 24 and 48.

Catching up

I will be catching up on what we've done this year so many posts will be of older events. Try not to get too confused . . . I hope I won't either

Brielle's 2nd Birthday

Brielle turns 2!
Happy Birthday

Brielle turned 2 and is the epitomy of the little princess/tomboy. With two older brothers, she can't help the tomboy part, but she loves her princesses. Her favorite is Cinderella which amazingly, at only 2, she pronounces very well. Well maybe not so amazingly, after all, she is my child.