frugalness: Harris Teeter Super Double Coupons

.... yeah - that's right. Thanks Julie for the tipoff. I've been a little out of it these days!! But WOW that's an awesome deal at HT!!

Go HERE for the details, and be sure to find out if your store is participating!!

Wordless Wednesday - peaceful palm trees

The original was taken just before sunset... almost added a pink hue to the trees.

Seeds of Happiness - Freebies

Seeds of Happiness makes and mails handmade cards free of charge to any deployed US Service member for their birthday or any day that you want to let them know you're thinking of them.

Go HERE to check it out!!

*I want to thank Millie for emailing me about this today!! I'm happy to put this on my blog!

Wordless Wednesday - Holy McSpeedo!!

In honor of Grey's Anatomy's McNicknames..

I present "McSpeedo" Note: I do not know who McSpeedo is, but he was in one of our family beach trip photos.... cropped him out and he instantly became "McSpeedo"

*I also posted a Wordful Wednesday HERE - on a serious note...

Random Tuesday Thoughts - Vacation Brain

Visit The UnMom for lots of random thoughts.... I have poo for brains this week already, we just got home from vacation....

• It IS possible to.... need to buy a new laptop cord ($109.95) because yours suddenly quits working, have your airbag light on your almost paid for car (4 payments) come on for the first time EVER, and to spill almost 1/2 a cup of apple juice on your blackberry!!! ALL in the same day!!!! But, it was no biggie - replaced the cord, ignored the light (for the last 15 years I've work in some part of the auto industry, so not worried about it, no emergency), and took the blackberry straight up to my blow dryer.... and it seems to work fine!! This was ALL right before we were leaving for the beach on Thursday. Irony.
  
• We had wonderful weather at the beach this week and couldn't have asked for a better vacation!!

• I need to buy a can of air, but I'm putting it off because I just think it's dumb. Buying air. Overall, I do need it to clean my laptop keyboard on both of the laptops... but still, doesn't it just seem weird to buy what should come naturally?? Kindof like having to pay for bottled water, I'm still getting over that one. At the mall recently, I asked for a bottled water, and I was given two choices, a 12oz Fiji for 4.95 or a 20oz g-brand for 1.95....seriously, why even give me the option? 1.95 please.


• Today I took the boys to Friendy's, and the waitress was so surprised that my 3yo did NOT want his free icecream after his meal.... ???? So I had the scoop of icecream (strawberry, yum) and he ate the little candy pieces (M&M's) that went on top. He doesn't like any icecream except for Edy's Dibs. I did NOT enjoy the icecream and ONLY ate it out of obligation... because moms do that sort of stuff..... *joking*


• My cat is loud.


• I just got home from vacation, and I'm already trying to plan our next getaway!! I'm loving that we planned mini-vacations for this summer and a trip to TX this fall!!


• I have nothing witty or even remotely interesting today.... I'm living on vacation brain, and a sugar high.


• ....oh, I do have something to add, the 3yo managed to get boo-boo's on both hands this week, and here's the funny picture we took (bad quality, random shot)..... for anyone unaware that he's showing us his boo boo's, it looks like we're terrible parents, eh?

mmmm Vacation!

I haven't had any handy dandy ideas or deals to post in the past week or so... I am doing a review for Jumpstart, a pc educational tool for kids 3-10 years old, and plan to post about that in the next week or so. They're also allowing me to host a giveaway when I post my review, a random comment on the post will be chosen and that person will receive a 3 month free membership to the program!!

Right now, we're away on a long weekend getaway at the beach with the kids....

you can check out what we're up to HERE.

Wordless Wednesday - ostrich

taken with Nikon D40 + zoom lens - straight out of the camera, added frame only.

random tuesday thoughts - dont pee in your pants

Head over to The UnMom for more quality randomness for your day....

• We are headed out this morning to watch the big guy graduate from 5th grade. I cant believe it.... man he's growing up fast!


• Thursday - we're off to the beach... and that couldn't be soon enough. I need to be at the beach. It soothes my soul, I heart the ocean.


• Our 10yo wondered about being a Nascar driver as a career, in lieu of going to 4-8+ years of college, and when I told him that sometime they pee (and other stuff) in their suits because of extremely long races w/o bathroom breaks, he sortof gave up the dream.

• Along those same lines, I recently added a word to my vocabulary. Speeze. Sneeze + Pee. Definition is only understood by those moms who've held their bladder so long that when they sneeze the get a subtle reminder that they should realy go pee.......


• I made a summer activity chart so that we can have SOMETHING to look forward too, even if it's a neighborhood adventure. Most all of our outings, excursions will be free and we've joined two book programs for the kids and the oldest can't wait to get things going! There are ALOT of resources locally, and once I started looking for stuff to do - we came up with tons!! I work from home, so our goal is to have one 'together' activity per day 3-4 days a week, then one just 'chill' day each week. We're fortunate to have 2 really fun pools in our neighborhood that we have access too because we're members of a scandel HOA. One even has a splash pad!


• Why does Wendy's keep messing around with the Frosty?? First Vanilla, and now Coffee Toffee Twisted Frosty and the Cino-Frosty. You don't mess with the Frosty, it's a classic item..... I haven't had one in forever, and even the Jr. Frosty is 4 weight watchers points, but still - don't mess with a good thing!!


• My 3yo is talking in his sleep. He's saying "just one more time". Usually he says that to get his way before going to bed, about reading a book, or playing a song, etc., so it's funny to me that he's saying it in his sleep...

That's all I have for RTT. I also posted some randomness about our lives recently on my other blog HERE.

frugalness: TGIFridays BOGO coupon

Go HERE to get your BOGO coupon for June from TGIFridays!

Wordless Wednesday - Rivals

Quite and interesting moment... with the Time Warner Cable guy AND the Direct TV guy.... Read all about it HERE.

frugalness: it's back, another HUGE discount on Flip Ultra

I've blogged about this 2 x's now, and this deal has returned... this time saving a whopping 100.00 on this Flip Video Ultra Series Camcorder, 30-Minutes (White). BRAND NEW for $49.99!! That's a super huge savings!! The vender selling this product at this reduced price shows only 14 available at the time of my post...this sale won't last long!!

• Simple to use, pocket-sized camcorder with one-touch recording and digital zoom


• Holds 30 minutes of full VGA-quality video on 1GB of built-in memory; no tapes or additional memory cards required


• Convenient USB arm plugs directly into your computer for easy viewing and sharing


• Built-in software lets you easily e-mail videos, upload to YouTube and AOL, and capture still photos from video


• Watch videos instantly on TV with included cable

Random Tuesday Thoughts - 5 min or less version

I haven't been much in blogland in the past week or so and I'm trying to get back into the swing of things. Hop over to The UnMom for lots of random thoughts from random people about random things....

• First and foremost, let me say that the Burger King commercials are getting more and more funny in a creepy kind of way. The King has a certain potential stalker characteristic.... or is it just me??


• Last week was full of random insanity, like at one point I had a confrontation with a cable guy... he let himself in my house w/o asking.... wow. Yes, I'll blog about that separately sometime later today at my OTHER blog, so check back for those silly details if you're interested, and look out for my wordless Wednesday on that one....


• There's 9 more days and then I'm headed to the beach, we're going on a whim. I really need to get away for a few days!! The whole family is super excited!


• I'm a little frustrated about the lawn guy, we hired a lawn guy 4 years ago really because my husband had major heart surgery and during recovery we just got lazy and didn't do it ourselves... our yard is the side of the average sidewalk (sarcasm) really it's small maybe 1/4 acre and the cost of paying someone to mow it each 2 weeks is not extreme. The drought has almost guaranteed me frugality on that one.... anyway - so the OLD lawn guy broke his leg and we found a NEW lawn guy who's priced just the same (dirt cheap really) and now he's AWOL!! Called him several times, so I think I'm about to order one of THESE since it's eco friendly and we have a super small yard anyway. We can barely get dirt to grow around here so our grass isn't all fluffy and pretty like I'd like it to be.


• To further my minimal yard work, we're also getting a play set for the back yard, and going to drop lots of mulch or shavings around it with a border - that'll also cover up those baldspots in the yard and I will be a little less ashamed of our rocky, red clay and weedy back yard. :-(


• Well people, I'm off to write a letter to that cable company, one that I can read over the phone when I call so that I'm as tactful as possible.... AND I have to call that lawn guy AGAIN. I'm betting I'll have a nastygram in my mailbox today from the HOA! Thanks for stopping by to read my short random Tuesday bit!

mommy's timeout

I took a mommy timeout for a few days... will be back in blogland this week!!

Needed to clear my head.....

Quite literally - been trying to shake off this bug I caught with the family, and today it kicked my butt officially. I have had a sinus issue going on since February and just been soooo stubborn and trying to use natural remedies all I can. Since February my right ear has not been at it's full potential, and as of yesterday I hear nothing out of it from the sinus pressure (hoping that's all it is)...

Yes, that's right I said it, I'm not super human afterall..... mommy's get sick too.... shhhhh.... don't tell anyone. I'm headed out to the doctor to grab a prescription for a new superwoman cape!