Saturday, November 27, 2010

It worked!

Grandma's Stories are on my IPOD! !
Takes 1 hour to put each cassette onto my computer.... 2 down, ? ? to go !
But they will be saved.
Can't wait to suprise the kids.
First Sleep!

So excited about Grandma's Stories!

There's been a lot of discussion over the last year or two among the children. Who gets the latest tape of Grandma's Stories first? The competition is great. During the fall and winter months, Grandma Stories are a bedtime ritual. They gotta have them on before the lights are out.
(sidenote: Grandma's Stories are recordings of Grandma Mac and sometimes Grandpa Mac reading books to the children.)
My two youngest guys share a room and they can never agree to what they will listen to at night. Grandma's Stories or Bible verses for Cubbies/Sparkies. Over the last 2-3 weeks I have been researching on how to transfer these recordings onto my computer and, then, eventually onto the ipods/mp3 players. If that could be done, then maybe MP3/Ipods would eliminate some of the competition/rivalry over who gets Grandma's Stories first. I declared Thanksgiving weekend as the time to attempt this project. My first attempt bombed! Not the right kind of cords. However, while waiting in line to pay at the Black Friday Sales, early in the morning, BODO discovered the cord I needed. He may have been sleepy to start with, but he did wake up in the hustle and bustle of deal finding. He did GOOD! The cord is just what we needed. And now I have Grandma's stories on my computer. They have even synced to my Itunes... Next to see if I can load onto my IPod!

Friday, November 26, 2010

Getting the Most Bang for our Dollar!

Big O Daddy O and I hit the Black Friday sales again today.
Yep, I am still up at midnight.
I never went to bed last night. I finally climbed under the covers just before 6 this morning, just in time to hear Flutter Nutter crying out for me. So glad, I hadn't closed my eyes yet. Got everything taken care of and back into the covers just after 6. Woke around 11 to deal with sibling issues and to discover Fun Mom still asleep. (WHAT? ? ?) Kicked her out of bed, rolled over to snooze till noon. Hence, I can't sleep.
This year we dreaded heading out to shop. The lines seemed longer. It was cold. Sleep was calling us. But...the deals were good and MOST IMPORTANTLY, the kiddos were all snug in their beds asleep. We brought Fun Mom up to our room to sleep, so she'd hear the crew if they were to awaken. We were able to slip back into the house around 5:30 am. (We left at 4.) I threw blankets over the packages by my side of the bed. Those little sneaks can't rustle bags right under this sleeping momma's head. :) The best part, we are pretty much done. The sales didn't match up to our shopping list for one of the kiddos. Seems there is at least one each year. We did manage to even pick up a few birthday presents.
Back to my title, before BODO took his pre-shopping nap this morning, we hit Walgreens at midnight. I had my list, my coupons and ad ! BODO was my shopping partner. He did his own transactions. Bargain shopper in training, he was. He did great job, at least until he started to try and add things to his cart. He was thinking get it all done. We ended up with lots of Jingle Cash when were done. Then I told him he could add things to the cart not on the list ! Lots of stocking stuffers and then some. Best part is we still have lots of Jingle Cash. Can't wait for next week to use them for more Jingle Cash. :) Since, I was in bargain mode, my brain switched over to the Dillons ad. We knew what we were going to be buying. We knew how much it would cost.... And we have a trip planned and we know where we will eat when on the road. So we headed on into Dillons to make the most of the Gift Card deal + Fuel Rewards. typically gift cards are worth twice the fuel points at the pump. Right now, they are worth 4X the dollar value of the gift cards in fuel rewards. We knew how much and where, so we spent our Christmas money on gift cards, got the fuel rewards and then in turn hit the stores! We'll do the same when we head on down the road.
I must say BODO wasn't super thrilled with the detours and being out instead of sleeping. But once he did the math, all was good.