We have A/C ! !

I am snug in my sweater as I sit in the basement. Dear N, got out of bed and told me he was cold! I told him to snuggle down in the covers. "I did, it doesn't help." Big Sis went and grabbed another blanket quick. Mind you, I keep it between 78 and 80 during the summer. Guess I will be raising it some at nighttime. We slept oh so good last night and snuggled deep in our covers. Wonder what it will do to our electric bill now that it is working so much better now? ? Good friends are such blessings. Thank you Zach, Thank you Michelle, for introducing us to Don. ((hugs)) all around. They saved us a bundle. I was prepared to write one big check. Turned out to be only $75 and lots of freon replaced. Blessings from God and his people!

Military Commissary Shoppers!

Awesome Schik Quatro deals to be had. While at the Commissary this morning I discovered many were marked $4 and $5. I had $4 Manufacture Coupns with me. FREE RAZORS and some for $1.
Kraft Cheese 2% is on sale 2/$4. After the Kraft $1/1 coupon, bags of shredded cheese for $1.
Country Time Lemonade is on sale for $1.50. Use your manufacture coupons $1.50/2. Like buy one get one free! ! 75 cents each.
Our commissary still had a lot of case lot deals. My favorite was the Dove bar soap. 14 bars for $9.49. I am lucky to find it on sale for a $1/bar and have a coupon. This bargain was 68 cents a bar. Only soap my crew uses!

The Grocery Challenge!!

So dear sweet Dara over at Dara's Deals has asked me join her in her challenge.
Why she couldn't wait a month I don't know... Here are my reasons why this is going to be soo hard.

*Cause my a/c went out and who wants to cook (Please don't remind me the temps dipped and it has been fabulously cool~ These are my excuses...oops I mean reasons..)

*Dear husband had a birthday and well he should get to eat what he wants

*We are going on a trip

*And drumroll here.....I have already spent money!

So we haggled on this deal. At first I was to spend no more than $200. Well, that might be a stretch for my hungry brood. Though I am stocked. We have agreed anything less than the $600-700 we spend is Fabulous. So I will shoot for $200 but be happy with any success. We comprised and also included a food budget of $100 for our trip. A short little sanity breath of fresh air kind of trip. Blink and you won't know we were gone.

So here's for accountability. Dear husband is humoring me, he hasn't said he is on board yet he hasn't said he isn't.

Since it was delightfully cool today. I baked 2 pumpkin pies, 1 birthday cake, 1 batch of happy tummy cupcakes, half a batch of cookies (there's more to cook tomorrow). I skipped the cranberry bread. Maybe tomorrow. Cupcakes are in freezer for when D needs some cake. He ate 2 1/2 without asking. He got another 1 plus the other 1/2 when we cut the birthday cake. So there's for eating out of the cupboards!

It is only by God's grace...

Many have watched my family this last year and have commented on how we have pressed on. Last night as Dara gave my blog a much needed face lift. She put me on the spot and asked for a Bible verse.....Huh, you want me to choose just one. Then I visit Four Sisters Farm's blog this morning. My ever so dear friend posted this scripture....
This verse is the answer to all those who have bore witness to the last year.

And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power perfected in weakness." Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may dwell in me. 2 Corinthians 12:9

2 school years ago, I took a Beth Moore class. Her studies are just amazing by the way. But early on in the classes, she did a little personal side note. She talked of God's grace being sufficient. She spoke of a friend who's precious child left this Earth way too early. She told of how at the funeral she was falling apart and the mother told her to get herself together or she was in trouble. The mom was able to keep it together because God's grace was sufficient for her weakness at that time. I remember that now and again, it explains so beautifully my life.

Poor D~

So there are a lot of new posts tonight. I finally sat down with my camera and loaded pictures onto my memory card. Viola! ! Now I can record some of those improptu memories from the last few 5 or 6 months. Blogging has become some what of a scrap book for me. Hopefully, I will learn this summer how to preserve these memories from the blackholes of cyberspace.
Poor sweet D, didn't feel well. He curled up on my lap while I was checking out the Sunday ads. He fell asleep. Being the mom that I am, I kept looking at ads until I was needed elsewhere and had to find a new place for D to snuggle. Still not too big for his momma. Won't be long before he doesn't want to snuggle like this anymore. For now, I jump on any chance for snuggles.

Tigers and sickness!

Couple of weeks ago the two boys and I were feeling a little puny. We didn't go to church cause we didn't want to share any puny~ness that we might have. We did however head on over to the zoo to see the tigers. Dear D, missed going the day before, as did I, cause we were at the doctor office for an ear infection. He did not feel good at all. But 24 hours of antibiotics and he was ready to take on the tigers!

Still my Baby!

I have a most wonderful oldest daughter. She has a great sense of humor. We had an appointment with the doctor. While there the power went out...of course lights and all. Sweet dr. that she is, she took us into another exam room where there was a window and lots of natural light. Knowing my family and the humor we bestow on her almost monthly she asked dear daughter if she would please hop on up on the baby table. Easier for the doctor to do her thing. Dear sweet daughter did. She found the humor in it all. Rolled her eyes at her mother for taking pictures. She even smiled for the last picture. She's still me baby and I have the picture to prove it!

Happy Birthday Big O Daddy O !

I suprised Dear Hubby last week with his birthday present. A long time bowler, he has graciously given up his many costly athletic interests for the sake of his family's financial welfare. He misses bowling leagues and golfing whenever he would like. I appreciate these sacrifices he makes for us. Needless to say, when I heard about the Kids Bowl Free program/campaign. I got interested. When I found out he could bowl all summer for 23.95, I got really excited. So today, for his birthday we went bowling. He wasn't too thrilled with his score. But he did have fun. Being the awesome dad he is, he also thoroughly enjoyed watching his children and seeing that some of them just have a natural bowling ability. He got to coach them a little and see smiles that came with success. Come this weekend, or whenever we finally have a/c up and running better than it is, he will get his cake. Favorite of all times Lemon with Lemon Icing.

Looking back to January!

We had a lot of beautiful winter days this past winter. Kids had cabin fever and I took them to the park cause I thought their fever might make me delirious. D amazed me with his no fear and grown up climbing abilities. One of my first ah~ha he's not a baby anymore moments!

I went running ! ? ! ?

Because it was May last week, and because it is June now, Breathing is considered highly over~rated by me. Meaning my allergies have attacked my life and my family's coordinator of all things. However, last Wednesday morning it was raining. I do get a light reprieve when it rains. I took 2 kiddos and my neice garage sale-ing and "ran" into dear friend Dara. She was on the way to the gym and felt she must follow me garage sale-ing. Well we got to having such a good time, she missed her work out. She hurried on her way and called me a bit later and told me she was running and I out to drive by if I could. Well I did.

And because breathing is highly over~rated I joined her on her run!

It was amazing how well I did, I coughed and choked a bit. But I managed to not need my inhaler! I hope she will let me join her again!

Thanks to Dara !!

For the new and improved look on my blog. She owns all copyrights, so she says. She is willing to sell her knowledge and copyrights for the right price. She also, unfortunately, knows my password and will edit anytime she feels I have comprised her "coolness" by putting something dorky on my blog! Thanks Dara! ! !!

New Free Sample at Wal-mart

http://instoresnow.walmart.com/In-Stores-Now-Free-Samples-And-Trials.aspx

just follow the above link and request the samples. Gotta love those girly ones. Just hate those products are so expensive and end up in the trash. Plus they come pre-packaged so they are perfect for tossing in your purse.

I am thankful for....

Basements!
They are a wonderful hideaway when the A/C is dying. I had this feeling at the end of summer last year, it was gonna happen this year. I kept hoping I was wrong.... The puddle downstairs and low flow of air out of the vent is soooo telling. The "upstairs" kids are excited to join their "downstairs" siblings for the night. I am soo hoping the A/C holds out till the repair people can work their magic. My kids have never experienced trying to sleep in the heat at night, but I remember nights like those and well that can be one trip down memory lane I would like to avoid.

What's that ? ?

Gotta love driving around with 3 year olds.
We were on our way home from horseback riding lessons, trying to listen to our history story cd and D just had lots of questions. What's that? pointing out the window. "The country",
What's that? the country is where you can run all around. Why? don't you like running all around? Oh.
Cd is talking of ancient Africa. Is that Africa? No, that's a field. What's that? A farmer's field. Can I run around in it? No, we don't want to mess up his crops? "Craps?" "I can't run around the craps?" No, please no.... Dear eldest and I are just losing it and finally the rest hear what D is saying. Now we are all running around in craps. N asks what crops/craps are. CROPS are plants farmers grow..... OH,
Eldest sweetheart says, you gotta blog D's understanding of country life.
So watch out for those fields of craps that farmer's are growing, especially if they are in the Africa of Kansas.

Counting my blessings!

Small group tonight we were talking about how much our group has been a blessing to all of us. Recongizing how God's hand went before us and established our group, our very small group this past year.
So I continue in that thought process...
In spite of what has been one of the most difficult years of my life...
1. My husband and I have grown closer through trials that would tear marriages apart.
2. Witnessed our oldest child choose to continue a difficult path even when all her friends chose another.
3. Blessed by our oldest son when he turned down an opportunity in hockey because he wanted to go to church instead.
4. Blessed by our youngest daughter as she became absorbed in God's Word this year. It has been a hard year for her, we watched her turn to God's Word repeatedly. Memorizing an amazing amount of scripture and earning special awards at church for doing so.
5. Blessed by God's tenderness in how He called our Mom/Mother-in-law home this year.
6. Blessed by God when He answered even the most trivial cries of our hearts when we asked to just see a small measure of good coming out of our trials.
7. Blessed by the number of people who called and asked if they could stand with us during the many challenges we faced.
8. Blessed by a pastor who follows God's leading and calls exactly when we needed that checking on.
9. Blessed by the honesty we have been able to experience with our children and the many talks we have had involving our faith and trust in God even when our emotions are raw.
10. Blessed by the humor of our 5 year old. While much has occurred and he has been oblivious, he has a tender spirit and much humor which has helped lighten our hearts many times.
11. Blessed by our youngest child, even though we tend to call him pain in the butt, he has been a delight and a motivation to keep going. He has been oblivious to much and hasn't felt the need to reduce his need for our supervision. So for that reason we have had to keep pressing on and in the process found much to laugh and smile about.
12. Blessed by husband's work and their understanding when time off was needed.
13. Blessed knowing that even when our feelings aren't perfect, God's grace and love abundantly covers it all.
14. Blessed with friends who know when you need distraction and someone to keep you under control while garage sale-ing, because a shopping binge at Old Navy is just not adviseable.
15. Blessed with another school year completed. Only God knows how that was managed, because the rest of us are in awe that we are done.

We have much to be thankful for.