Happy Frugality!

At this moment, I am very proud of myself! I was in Wal-mart either last week or on the weekend, and I saw a mom doing some major price matching when she was buying her groceries. She had a ton of stuff, and it was just over $100. She had her list, coupons, and the flyers that she got her price-match info from. Got me to thinking, I need to give this a try too, so today, I did, and what an odd little high I got when the total rang up. For all these items below, my total was $53.

That's 56 items, for an average of about $1 each. Woohoo!! And it's not all boring stuff, it's things my kids actually like. It's name brand products. It's things we already buy, when we have extra money to fit them in. I think this will change the way I shop. I'm so proud of myself. Weird huh? ;)

Something I Wish; My Dream

Big Picture Classes is holding their Big Idea Festival 2012 this week, and I have been keeping up on the challenges. Today's prompt was to scrapbook something that you dream of, or wish, and then allow it to empower you into making it happen. Right away, I thought of Benjamin's diabetes, and how I wish he never had it, that he didn't have to adjust to it, didn't have to have needles, and insulin as part of his daily routine. Our entire family is raising money right now for our walk with the JDRF in October - the money raised goes to fund research to find a cure. There WILL be a cure in his lifetime, and if there is something I can do to help, I will!

Tooth Fairy Box

I decorated this little wooden box yesterday, for I know Benjamin will lose his very first tooth any day now.

It's been hanging on by just a tiny bit!

This photo was yesterday. I showed it to him, and he loves it.

I was at school today, and as homeroom mom, I was able to be in the classroom to ask Mrs. Setna for directions on her workbasket items, and Benjamin showed me that he lost his tooth! And he really lost it - he has no idea where it is LOL!! This photo is from this afternoon.

My sweet baby - his perfect little smile is forever altered, he now has an adorable little gappy smile :) Good thing the little box is ready because we need it tonight!

The nurses at my son's school are very important people to me. They are available at all times, in case he feels low or high, has an accident, needs his blood sugar checked or to get his insulin. I want to take special care of them, and do things for them so that they know how much they are appreciated, hence this project. I went to Walmart specifically to buy cute character band aids because I needed the empty boxes LOL!! I put together this wreath for them to hang up in the medical room, and they both loved it. Very special ladies, and I'm so grateful for the relationship they are building with Benjamin and with me.

Shih Tzu Hound Dog!

You may all laugh at me, but I am new to this breed, and had the most fantastic, laugh out loud moment today. Our little foster Boris (who we call Oliver) was waiting for me to unlock the door this morning, and I apparently took too long. He sat back on his legs, and from deep in his stomach came this throaty, deep HOWL, like an old hound dog! Shih Tzu dogs can howl??? OMGoodness, this little dog - where on earth did that sound come from? I can only hope he will do it again, it was hilarious!

Snail Mail ~ Happy Mail

I love taking online classes with Big Picture Classes - Stacy Julian will always be one of my favorite scrappy inspirational people. Today is day one of the Big Idea Festival 2012, and her challenge for herself was to send out a card per day, for an entire year! Wow! That's a serious challenge, and one I know that I couldn't keep up on. I am, however, going to try to send out one per week, whether it's to Canada, or here in the US, or even just in Houston, but every Tuesday (I'm setting an alarm in my phone so I don't forget!) I am going to send Happy Mail to someone, with a handwritten note in a homemade card. I love getting mail, especially when it is from someone that I miss, and really, handwritten cards and letters are very rare, with everyone having email, skype and facebook. I take Stacy's challenge, and here goes! This is my first card, sending it to my friend Shawna back home. If anyone deserves a hi, I miss you card, she does :)

Meet Oliver

How time does fly! The kids are both in school, and we have gotten through the first week, Labour Day weekend, and we are well into September! It is so hot outside that we have been trying to hibernate just a little bit. Cannot wait for the cool fall evenings / mornings that we get in November LOL!! This I have to share: we have an addition to our family. Meet Oliver, he is from the Lone Star Shih Tzu / Lhasa Apso Rescue, he is one year old, chocolate brown, and is just an absolute doll. Very well trained, super adorable and affectionate, and those big golden eyes, just melts your heart. He is a foster dog - which means if someone wants to adopt him and give him a forever home, we give him up and then foster another furperson that needs a home. I don't know if we will be able to give Oliver up though; in the Rescue world, we are likely to become a "foster failure." :)

Happy day today! House is clean, even the boys' rooms, after this morning's efforts. Went to see Ice Age Continental Drift with Jane & the girls. Funny how two adult women can laugh like that at a kids' show. We had fun. Home for lunch, then yaay! off to the airport to bring home someone who's been gone way too long! Woohoo!

Dogs are a great source of laughter!

A little funny from our day: We are watching tv, paused the DVR when the phone rang. Valentino all of a sudden jumps up and starts backing up, very deep growl that turns into attack mode. Cannot see what's got him so riled, then we see: the TV has a still image of Gordon Ramsey at the beginning of Hell's Kitchen. He ran under the recliner and snarled at the tv.

Family traditions are really important to me, and I enjoy sharing them with my husband and my kids. One tradition that I inadvertently started is when my husband is away traveling for work... I move furniture around. Not just a little, but an entire room (sometimes two!) Well, he's home in a couple days, and I was slacking off, so today was the day. Started innocently with some dusting and laundry... then I pulled out the vacuum and it was ON! Downstairs living room totally rearranged. Now, except for having to tuck the coaxial cable along the baseboards, it's all done. The kids and I watched some tv before / after dinner there, and we really liked it. For now. Until honey travels again, and I get the urge to move things once more :)

It's been a rainy couple days, off and on showers. We had to get out of the house though, so we took the dog for a walk. Or should I say, the kids took turns running the dog :) He loved it, poor little guy needs to get out more often. That's one thing about summer, it sure has us hibernating!

One thing about the rain - the grass is nice and green, and the retention pond actually has some water in it (and I imagine some snakes too, yuck!) Nicholas loved to run and kick all the mushrooms that were growing in the grass. There were a lot, and some really big ones too, that took a good kick to knock out. Boys :)

Autumn was a bad girl this morning, so she got to spend the day outside as punishment. She hung out in the back yard, then jumped the fence and sat in the front greens, then we let her in the back yard, then she again was at the front when I felt sorry for her and let her in. I hope she's learned her lesson. Bad kitty!

Last thing - had to post this absolutely BEAUTIFUL card that was on Lily of the Valley today. This is using the new summer bears stamp collection (which I have!) How gorgeous is this?!?! I absolutely MUST play with these stamps, they are so stinking cute!

Just had to quickly pop this on - - look at this delicious little goody from Webster's Pages, reveal just done! Think (know!) that I will need some of these for sure! They would go great in my girl stuff smash book!

We have had a lot of dogs in the neighborhood lately, reported as missing, or found, especially since the fireworks on July 4th. Poor little guys were likely scared and tried to find somewhere to hide. That led to a posting for our county, which somehow led me to the Shih Tzu Lhasa Apso Rescue foundation in Texas. Oh. My. I don't need to say anymore, except that the application is in, I've contacted people to be my references and sent them the questionnaire, and the vet is sending over our current records for review. This will say the rest for us: our first choice:Hopper Cartwright

our second choice:Hans Burke

How beautiful are these little babies? I think Valentino would be in heaven to have a playmate! Maybe I shouldn't have shown the kids yet, as they are very excited. Seems when my hubby is away on an extended trip, this kind of thing tends to happen... :)

We were invited to Christy's Hawaiian 'Get Leied' birthday party this past weekend (she is the wife of my husband's colleague.) We enjoy hanging out with them, they throw such fun parties, it's a house full of Canadians from the office, and we hear familiar words and "accents" that make us feel at home. They just moved into a new neighborhood, and they have a huge field beside their house. (As we were leaving, there was a huge COW not 10 feet from their front door! And 29 or so of his closest friends just wandering around near him! Behind a fence, but still, that was bizarre as we don't live in the country!)

I needed a cute little gift bag or something to give Christy her gift, and I'd been procrastinating about what to do, as I wanted a matching card too. I remembered a single page of punch-out mini bags I got from my friend Lisa just this past week, so I pulled that out and it was perfect! It came with a little matching tag, so no card was needed. Dressed it up with a bit of ribbon and some fabric roses, and ta-dah! All done :)

When I heard that we would be going to the party, I found a site on Amazon of a lady that makes and sells wooden earrings (Christy cannot wear anything with a metal post.) LOVED these earrings, 100% wood, and dark, like I've seen her wear before. And the best part, the maker of them lives in Texas, so I received them in just days. Christy really liked them, and said she will enjoy wearing them.

While we were inside, talking and laughing, and nibbling on the tons of food, and of course drinking just a tiny bit (champagne & pineapple juice punch, with strawberries and pineapple chunks added!), the kids were all playing upstairs. And there were a lot of kids, mostly boys. Nicholas & Benjamin were having a great time with Ryder & Dani and all the others. While we were laughing and talking, the kids somehow just managed to sneak into the back yard and get going on the slip and slide. Nicholas did ask me if he could play on it, which I had to say no to, as we didn't bring any change in clothes. Not five minutes later, a parent came in and said, "You know your boys are sliding and are all wet. Didn't you say no?" Yes, yes I did. But really, how could they resist? All the other kids were playing and having fun, and honestly, water isn't going to hurt anyone. The only problem was that once they were done playing, we had to leave right away, as they were truly soaked.

So, we stayed for a good time, not a long time :) We came, got leied, ate, drank, laughed and had fun. Wish Ed had been able to be home so he could come with us too. I know he had been looking forward to it, and some former coworkers that have moved on to another company were there, he would have enjoyed catching up with them. Oh, well, next time.

I love reading before bed. Often, especially if I'm getting close to the end of a good book, I'll keep reading until either I finish it, or my eyes are rolling, I'm reading the same paragraph over and over and not comprehending, or my hands let go as I nod off and the book smacks me. You know that's a good story huh? LOL!!! One thing I have to say that makes me sad is when you have a great story that you are reading, and you can't wait to get to the end, but at the same time, you don't want it to be over. When I find a book like that, it's a must buy, in paperback or hardcover, and it must become part of my library. I love my kindle fire, and I enjoy reading on it, but if it's a keeper, it becomes a tangible part of our home.

This is my latest that I've finished. I stayed up late Friday night to finish it. It didn't end how I wanted, but it was bittersweet, and I love all my Nicholas Sparks books. If heaven forbid, my house were to burn down, we would grab our kids, pets, external drive of photos, our important documents, some scrapbooks, and my favorite novels.

I had to post these, not only because I love them and want to share them, I have to remember that this is on my MUST have list when Archiver's stocks them. This is the new Serenity line by Bo Bunny. Love all things BB, but this one is the first in a while that screams out my name. SO beautiful - I'm thinking I may finally scrapbook my wedding photos! (I've held out, thinking I don't have the skill to do them justice; it's only been 13 years LOL!)

It's been a while since I posted, busy (crazy busy) with our new swim team, but the season is over now, with the exception of a couple of board meetings and our end of year party - yaay! The kids love anything to do with the water, and we've been enjoying our neighborhood pool and our friends' pools often.

We've celebrated Canada Day and July 4th the American way - fireworks and barbecuing. The kids love playing outside with Daddy while he is cooking. It's certainly getting hot out - we have hit 100F more than once already, so we are very near our summer 'hibernation' that we do each year. Other than the pool, we'll likely stow away inside until September LOL!!

So, I think I've made up for being awol for the last little while... One big post to catch up on things. Hopefully I can get a little more scrappy time in, but I've got one last set of pics from my last time out scrapping with Nicole and Zulema -

I love this card design, it's quick and easy to make, and it's the perfect way to make a gift card 'stand out'. Thanks to the splitcoaststampers.com site for always having such great inspiration. My son has a birthday party to go to today, so of course I waited until yesterday to buy a gift card and make a card. Love how this turned out - the kid is 8... I'm thinking he'll like it :)

Photo Book

I've never been one to do digital photography much, but I owed it to Benjamin to get a baby book done for him. It's no where near enough detail, so I will still be able to scrapbook my favorite moments, and I have done many of them already, but to have this for us to look through together, he will love it! You never know... I may have to do Nicholas' first year this way too!

It's been a busy day for us today. We were expecting thunderstorms all day, but the didn't arrive until this evening. It's still booming and flashing outside. I have a feeling two little boys will be camping out in the puppy tent in our bedroom tonight.

Wet morning grass always brings out the slugs; Nicholas loves looking at them, and he protects them, he won't let the other kids step on them, and he loves to watch them and talk to them, because 'they are a part of nature.' Sweet!

We got Nicholas off to school, then we drove Daddy to work. Had a very spontaneous / weird coincidence - I was just asking Benjamin if we should go visit Misty and Miss Jane today, and my phone rang - Miss Jane herself, asking us if we could hang out today. Weird, huh?! That's what I love about her - we are so on the same wavelength! So, we drove Daddy off to work, and went to the used book store to meet Jane. Found some books, quick stop at Starbucks, then to her house. Her puppy dog is soooo huge! (Have to get my other camera to upload pics of her, omg! She's adorable!) We visited and talked a mile a minute, then went to Kublai Khan, my favorite Mongolian restaurant for lunch - my belated birthday lunch! Thanks girl! It's always awesome there! As it wasn't time to go into Houston to get Ed yet, we sacrificed and went to Archiver's where we did just a little bit of shopping. Founds some fantastic summer sun and fun stuff, will make a great mini album! Went into Houston, and picked up Ed, made it home just in time to get little man from the school bus. Couple minutes at home, some quick Swim Team business stuff, then off to practice we went. The kids are doing such an amazing job. I'm sure Nicholas will be swimming independently next week, he's doing so well, and Benjamin isn't far behind him, he will too! Quick stop at the drug store, then McDonald's for cheater supper. Had planned on watching some tv shows but we got sidetracked by the weather warnings and tornado warnings. Made some coffee and went outside, watching the dark skies and the clouds. Realized then that I have until Monday to finish my photo book online, so I had to get to it. Luckily almost all the pics were in, so I'm just going back and adding the journaling, and some pretty embellishments, then my Sunday night, I'll be ready to order. It's of Benjamin's first year, and it's so adorable! Think I'll have to do one for Nicholas bug too! Anyway, it got way later than I'd expected, and I'll be the boys are still up watching tv with Daddy... think it's time to go do some tuck ins!

I saw this on an Earth Day facebook link, and thought it was sooo cute! (I think it was by Two Paper Divas.) There is a good story behind why I chose the boxes that I did: Nicholas, my little devil, he loves anything chocolate. He gets that from his Grandma, she has told me that a few times (and apologizes for it LOL!) I was looking in the pantry one evening and was wondering why a cookie box was out of it's 'place'; it should be with the other Girl Scout cookies. I went to put it back, and it was completely empty. Hmmm. Husband is out of town. (He's the usual culprit.) I spoke to him the next morning, just to check, and he chuckled, saying it must have been Nicholas. Sure enough, when I was up in his room grabbing laundry the next morning, there was the silver wrapper on the floor in his closet. What a little sneak! That is why my young son is getting a notebook with "girl" all over it. Cheeky!

My Benjamin, he loves to watch Scooby Doo, we usually watch that during our snuggle time during the day. Hence, he loves Scooby Snacks. He loves lots of snacks LOL, but this is one of the not so bad ones that we allow for him. He loves his little book, and has already started drawing in it.

I used just the food boxes, attached them to a sheet of medium weight chipboard, sliced some printer paper, then used my bind it all to put it all together, super quick, easy and cute!