Weirdest week EVER!

This week has been one of those weeks you just want to forget. First of all, it had been raining for like 7 days straight so when Sunday came around, we wanted to get outside.

I was outside behind the house trying to get some pics of these birds all gathered around each other. I thought it was strange since they were all different types of birds. Don't they usually stick together... with their own type?? I'm no bird expert... I would have to ask my 10 yr old. But I can't do that... No way am I letting her think she is smarter than me!

So as I am taking pics, of course it start thundering. So the saying goes... "Don't like the weather in FL? Wait 5 minds it will change." It is so true. I got a picture of one of the Great Blue Herons but then just as I was taking another picture, this HUGE crash of thunder and lightning came down and scared the beejeesus out of us. I'm talking HUGE!! We all start running for cover. Granted it wasn't the smartest move... standing under the tallest 2 trees in the backyard while it was thundering. But ya know?? We are parents and we sometimes forget.


Here is the picture before the lightening.... I didn't crop or anything... so yes the junky empty condo is in the picture.


Here is right when the lightening hit. I did not adjust this picture AT ALL. I can't believe the contrast. It was pretty scary. But I am a chicken.


Anyway, as I was running, I forgot that I was down the embankment a little and when I turned around to run inside, I started stumbling and fell right to my knees. Yes embarrassing. All I could think of is that the neighbors must think we are soooo weird. Screaming and running in the middle of the day. What a site that must have been.

I hurt my knee in the fall. Nothing bad, just twisted it a little, but then it started stinging. I thought I must have landed on a pine cone or a wasp or something and got stung. So I pull up my pants leg and feel on the back of my leg and there is a bump. A weird feeling bump. I look at it. Oh my... it's a blue bump. Weird. Never seen that before.

I immediately go take a shower. Why you ask??? Well silly, I need to be clean in case I need to go to the ER. Even though I am hurt... I have to be clean. I call my dad... he tells me I will not die. (Thank GOD) He tells me that even though he is not a Dr. I will be just fine. Aren't dad's the bestest! My Aunt called him after I hung up with him and she told him it was probably a broken blood vessel... that it happened when I twisted my leg. It should go away in a few days.

Well... I am on day 6 and it looks as bad as ever.



What I am about to show you is gross... and weird.

The gross part is my big fat leg... the weird part is the bruise left from my eloquent fall.

This was taken on day 2 or 3. I can't remember. I thought... wow.. it's getting better. HA!



This shot was taken today. Weird huh. I did crop this pic. I have a huge tattoo on this leg and some people may not like tattoos. If you happen to like them... sorry.. I'll leave it in next time... if you don't like them.. well.. it's your lucky day... you get to only see an ugly fat leg and a gross bruise!


OK now onto some seriousness.

Yesterday was the scariest day of my entire life. Chris was off work and Harris Teeter is having triple coupons(yay) so we were planning a trip to the store. I was here at the computer and he was at the vanity. Which is kinda like in a hotel where the sink is in the room, but the toilet and tub are in a separate room. The point is we were BOTH in the room at the same time. I reach up to get my list off the printer and to check on the babies... I turn around for 2 seconds to put the paper on my desk and I hear a loud crash.

Then crying.

Then panic sets in.

The chest of drawers has just fallen on both of my babies. I can not tell you the fear that I had at that very moment. I could only see Lilly. She had somehow managed to get to the side of the chest when it fell. Luckily it didn't fall right on top of her, it hit the laundry basket and was on just half of her. I could not however see Sophie. Chris rushed over and picked up the chest and there was Sophie. I totally broke down. Sophie managed to get wedged in between the chest and some boxes we have not unpacked yet. She got 1 tiny little scratch on her lip. That was it! Thank God she was OK.

We are so lucky that something very bad did not happen. I truly believe that the unpacked boxes and laundry basket saved their lives. If they had not been where they were, I know they would have been crushed. We are planning on anchoring that sucker to the wall. I will NOT let that happen in my house EVER again.

Cool mom... oh wait...

This is so me. And here I always thought I would be the "cool" mom. Wrong!

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Going on strike!!!

Apparently the phrase "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all" does not apply to my family. Lately it seems like every time I cook, someone has something to say about it.

Take for instance tonight. A yummy surf and turf dinner that consisted of bacon wrapped fillets with caramelized onions, fried shrimp, sour cream and chive eggs noodles and mixed veggies. Sounds good right?? It was. At least to me.

First of all, everyone thought the steaks were too rare. Well I like my steak rare. No one told me how they wanted theirs cooked, so I cooked them the way I like them. Then someone says that spaghetti sauce would be better on the noodles instead of the cream sauce.

Oh really?? I don't remember asking if you thought something would be better a different way.

I did storm off and tell the family that I am NOT cooking for them anymore. I ate my dinner on my bed. In MY room. With the door locked. Boy was it nice! So quiet.

Maybe I am being overly sensitive...

but I can tell you this....

My husband is in the kitchen right now. Washing the dishes.

That gets me thinking....Maybe I should let them hurt my feelings more often... I hate doing the dishes more than I do cooking. :)

Caitlin's 10th Birthday Party

We had a BLAST at Caitlin's birthday party. Here are a few pics of the big day.

The cake I made. Clearly I can not write pretty. Note to self.... learn to write pretty.




Caitlin with one of her BFFs, Aly.




Opening presents.




Holding onto the sides for dear life. It was VERY dark in there.... and my camera HATES dark places.




Lots of this going on with all the kids.




See.....




Caitlin and Tori... her mommy makes very pretty bows!




Here's Lilly going down the slide the 1,453,345,345th time. She loved that thing.




Gramps, Lilly and the back of Sophie's head.




Daddy and Sophie.



See her outfit... and Lilly's too??? They are those super cute outfit from Gymbo I wanted. I broke down and bought them and they were perfect for the party.

Everyone had a good time and Gramps took Caitlin shopping afterward for her present. She wanted skates of all things. Bless her heart. She is very determined to learn to skate.

While Chris, the babies and I were on our way home, I realized that the skate place didn't give us all the things that were included in the price of the party. See, Caitlin won a free basic party, but we decided to upgrade. So for $40 more, we got one extra attraction and a pizza, also 12 tokens, a glow stick and return passes for each child. They forgot the last 3 things. We turned around and headed back. I figured the least they could do was refund the difference for those items. So like 15 bucks or so.

I talked to no less than 3 people... I was persistent I tell ya! I just wanted a refund that was all..... until... the manager made me an offer I couldn't refuse! He told me for $20 he would order Caitlin a pair of skates! $60 skates for $20!!! Woo hooo!!!! They also gave me about 15 return passes so she can practice all she wants!

She is gonna be so excited. She has asked everyday for a pair of skates. I can't wait to see the look on her face when she sees those skates. I'll be sure and post pics!

Can't wait til next Mother's Day....

Saturday evening, the night before Mother's Day, the power started to flicker. Then the air went off and never came back on. Turns out, we weren't the only ones that it happened to either. The 4 condo units on this end of the building were all without air. It was HOT outside that night too! I called the office and someone else in the building called the power company.

They both showed up sometime around 10:30ish PM. Turns out not to be the power company's fault. The office calls an electrician. He shows up around 12:30 AM and starts digging holes. I think he left around 2 AM. He did turn the power back on but it was running only at about 25% so we still had no air. Only fans.

So here come's Mother's Day. Still no air, or hot water, or anything else that requires any sort of power. The power got completely cut at around 8:30 AM and stayed off until 9 PM that night. We grilled hamburgers and hot dogs for lunch which was so good. Since we really weren't prepared to cook for days on the grill, we had to go fill the tanks with more propane in order to cook dinner that night.

Luckily, I had a chicken in the fridge so we had beer can chicken for dinner. Along with some quick cooking Uncle Ben's rice and black eyed peas that we also cooked on the grill, dinner was magnificent!

I was so thankful that we were able to at least run the fans all night. There is no was we would have made it without them. The power ended up being out for nearly 3 days. Out of those 3 days, 2 of them were at least 95 degree days.

Next Mother's Days can't come soon enough. Hopefully the power won't be out.

Week Ending 05/16/09

This week just plain stunk! I was NOT prepared like I should have been and it sure showed. We had company for part of the week and ran back and forth to the store. It was a mess. Next time I will be better prepared.

Total for the week

Shelf Price $165.00
Price Paid $147.00
Amount Saved $18.00

That is a savings of 11%

Good riddance to you week!

Week Ending 05/09/09

Back on track here!! It has been so gosh darn busy around here that I have hardly had time to do anything.

Let me break this down for you.

Winn Dixie total... VERY good for Winn Dixie....

Spent 36.00
Saved 60.00
Total Shelf Price 96.00

Savings : 62%

Here are the totals for Harris Teeter. This is AMAZING!

Spent 69.00
Saved 224.00
Total Shelf Price 293.00

Savings : 76%

Those are the 2 biggies for the week. Here are the complete totals.

Total for the week

Shelf Price $536.00
Price Paid $201.00
Amount Saved $335.00

That is a savings of 62%

I need to catch up!

I am so far behind on posting it isn't even funny!

I was busy the week before last trying to get the house unpacked and in order for the company we had last week. Then last week while company was here, I organized my pantry while Dad made shelves in my laundry area and Carolyn... well... did everything else. She organized my kitchen. Completely. Dishes, china, cabinets.... EVERYTHING. It was so nice. Now I am lazy and need to do the dishes.

It has rained for 3 days. The pond out back is getting filled back up, but man, the mosquitoes are out in full force now.

I am working on the post from Mother's Day. Boy was it a doozie of a day!!

Week Ending 04/25/09

Here are last week's totals. Not too much going on since we were moving. We spent WAY too much on eating out. BUT.... we only got things that were on special, i.e. 49 cent hamburgers at McDonalds.

Total for the week

Shelf Price $135.00
Price Paid $107.00
Amount Saved $28.00

That is a savings of 21%

I can promise you this... this week's (5/9) totals are frickin' AWESOME! Wait 'til you see how much we saved with triple coupons!!