Dear Costco, I love you

Seriously, I just need to move in Costco. I love it...I recently gave their store brand Kirkland diapers another look. I have just been getting Pampers from Sam's, and I tried the Huggies again, but I just don't like the Huggies. They leak for my kids anyways. So, I had a coupon for the Kirkland brand diapers, and I had heard they had improved them recently, and I think I am in love...They don't feel like "cheap" diapers, and you get a lot more bang for your buck. They rock. I have always used the Kirkland brand wipes as well and swear by them.

I also did something recently I should have done a long time ago... Costco only takes American Express, and I didn't have that card, so whenever I go I either write a check or pay cash. I go quite a lot as everyone already knows. Anyways, I decieded to check into the American Express card that they have applications for there. The card offers no annual fee if you are a Costco member, and you earn money to use at Costco with it. If you buy gas with it at ANY gas station you earn 3% back, and every other purchase you use with it you earn at least 1% back. The earnings check can only be used at Costco, BUT if you earn say $100, and you take the check to Costco and buy a $5 item they give you your change in cash. I only recommend someone getting this card if they buy a lot at Costco, and if your going to pay off the balance in full each month. If you don't it's defeating the the entire point. I just got my card this week, and I am only going to use it for gas, and for my regular Costco outtings. Another cool thing about the card is it has your picture on it, so you can use the card as your membership card as well. You can apply for the card online or in store. It's well worth it for my family at least.

Thanksgiving Recap

So as for the 5k, it was hard and painful but not as bad as I thought it would be. There was a crazy amount of people there, and most importantly I wasn't last haha. I did it in 38 min and not sure how many seconds, as they have not posted the official time yet. I did run some, but of course this out of shape chick walked some of it as well. Actually, my friend Sarah kept yelling at me for walking, when I did haha. She learned I have a mouth like a sailor. There is actually another 5k locally on New Years Day. I am probably going to sign up for that one too, and in the mean time I am going to attempt to run a little when I do the Noland Trail walks on Sunday. We shall see how long that lasts.

Thanksgiving afternoon was spent between my parents house, and the in laws. We stuffed ourselves silly, and the kids had a good time playing with all their cousins and seeing family. That evening my mom and I went to Michael's for their sale. Our Michael's was open for a few hours that day, so we took advantage of some sales. I got a few more ornaments for the kids pink tree, and I also got some Martha Stewart glitter and spray adhesive, as I plan on making some decorations with the goods. I am thinking about glittering some shells. My mom has some that one of her friends made her and they are sooo pretty.

Did anyone else head out for black friday? I got up and went out to Target when they opened. I was going to try to get something for my mom that she wanted me to look for,and to just look around. My trip was a failure though... I got there right before they opened and the line was massive to get in... it was wrapped around the building and I decided I would probably panic from that crowd and so I left haha. I went around a few other places after leaving there. I picked up a few toys for the kids. I will probably hold those back for birthday presents though. Then I went back to Target thinking it would probably be a little less hectic with people having time to get in line and check out by then. The item I was trying to get for my mom they were out of. Go figure.... I looked around though, and they did have some good deals, but there was nothing else I was dying to have, or really needed to get someone for Christmas. Target did have a good deal on a Singer sewing machine. No, I don't know how to sew, but the idea is appealing, and I would like to learn how to do just some simple things one day. I sat there holding the box, and then I figured that I didn't know anything about that machine, and I rather research it a little more.

Later that afternoon I headed to the mall (shudder). The highlight was I scored some great deals at Gymboree... I actually was going to buy from them online the day before, but I am glad I waited and went to the store in person. They had certain items in the store that they were sold out of online that I wanted. I scored Emily a bunch of new things super cheap. I even got her a winter jacket for next year for about $10.00, can't beat that, considering regular price on it was $50. I actually need to stock up on some clothes for Miss Emily. I was able to use lots of hand me downs for Rachel since she and Laura were born in the same month just a year apart. Heck even now Laura and Rachel can pretty much wear the same sizes in most things. But with Emily hand me downs don't really work that much as for example right now I am buying her 3-6 month sizes, and all of my 3-6 month stuff from the older ones are for summer, hence the need for clothes for Emily.

So I don't even want to mention that this coming week is my last full week home from maternity leave... ugg it went by soooo very fast. I head back to work a week from Wednesday. Veronica better prepare herself to watch me cry for the first hour that I am there. One good thing is you can bet your butt I will still be off that friday since I have to take and pick up Laura from school, that day. That's how I roll.

So this weekend we are going to get our tree and decorate it. Or that's my plan at least anyways... I have everything else out and decorated for the most part. Dave of course gets to put some lights outside this year hehehe... bet he's going to love that project. I plan on doing a gingerbread house with the kids as well. I bought a kit today at Costco that has everything you need for it, even pre-made icing. Looks like fun. I just envision the kids (and husband) trying to eat the candy while we make it, and then having one sad brown house with no candy decorations.

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Flash Back Friday...

So I survived the 5k yesteday and had a great Thanksgiving. Anyways, in celebration of me not dying during the race this fridays flash back is from field hockey day, when I probably could have done a 100k race. This pic was taken my senior year. I am the one sporting the mighty fine looking white sweat band on my head, cause I was fierce like that. This is actually and old page of a scrapbook I did eons ago. I first started playing field hockey in 7th grade at a private school I attended. I fell in love with it. After 8th grade I switched school, and they didn't offer field hockey. Stupid Catholic School....but when I went to Menchville I started playing again my junior year, and picked right back up. I played offense , usually a right wing, and later played in college, don't get excited, it was a Division three school, and they got rid of our team after my 2nd year of playing. But it was still a ton of fun, and I miss it.

Why it's going to snow tomorow...

Wow.. so ummm you will never guess what I got myself into yesterday... two major things.... I signed up to do a 5k on Thanksgiving. Yeah this chick doesn't run... I also sorta kinda despise it. My brother in law does them, and my nephew was talking about the race yesterday and it sounded cool, and he said some people just walk it. It's for a good 'cause- Toys for Tots. I talked my friend into doing it with me as well, so I wont be alone. I just hope I don't come in dead last. If it looks like its going to be that way I am just going to turn around and walk home lol. 5k is equal to 3.1 miles, and I have been walking 5 miles on Sundays lately, so it wont be that bad. Of course I am going to attempt to do some running though, you know, at the begining and the end so I don't look like a total slacker. YIKES! But actually its got me thinking about trying to do the couch to 5k program after this is all said and done. I will give it a shot. Not promising anything...But it's a program where you start off training in little baby steps and work your way up to running a 5k. We shall see... like I said no promises...

My other big ordeal I got myself into took place when I answered the phone yesterday. It was a church lady asking me to make 6 dozen cookies for the church for a bake sale. I actually agreed mainly out of guilt as I have not been such a good little church goer, pretty much my whole life...The church is Dave's family's church. It's a Methodist church, we got married there and our kids (excluding Emily) have been baptised there, and that's been about all of our church going for the last 5 years. I know that's terrible, hence why I agreed to do the cookie making. Heck I might even go to a service Sunday.

Case of the Mondays...

Were all struggling this morning...is it me or could Rachel pass for Joe Dirt's sister?

Be honest with me...

Does this work, or are you laughing at my door? I wanted it to actually go over the wreath but the stocking is super huge so that didn't fly.... As you can see I am working on getting the house ready for Christmas. I tried to hold out until Thanksgiving but I just couldn't stand it any longer...

Etsy Love

I love looking at the items on Etsy.com It's a webite where you can buy and sell all things handmade. It's worth a look. I needed a stocking for Emily this year, and I had not seen anything that caught my eye in the stores so I checked out Etsy in my search. I found the above stocking and including shipping it was under$18... hard to beat that! I am going to get my mom to embroider her name on the cuff of it, as all of our others has our names on it.

I kept browsing and then found the hat, which would be perfect for Emily as well since I can't stick bows in her hair yet. Then I found this pillow case dress for freaking $8.99. I got it for Em as well to give her for Christmas. I can't wait until it all comes, and I might have to keep looking on the site for some more Christmas presents....

Shopping Adventures...

I love me some TJmaxx...of course it's one of those places where you don't go looking for something you need in particular. It's rather a place you go in and then discover things that you you didn't know you had to have until you were there. You have to hunt and dig. For years now I have heard about Homegoods which is owned by TJmaxx, but had never been. Think a whole store of just home section stuff that you can find at your local TJmaxx. The closest one in my area is in Virginia Beach, which isn't too far away,and today I finally got to go with my friend Jamie. Apparently, the one in Virginia Beach is both a Homegoods and TJmaxx clothing store. Immediatly, I spotted a display of Seven for all man kind jeans. You know I have been trying to score these for freaking ever....Someone in Florida had posted they had some at their Costco, mine never got them. I even thought I had found a pair at my local TJmaxx but sadly they were just Seven7 jeans which are totally differnt from Seven for all man kind apparently. I bought them before I figured that out, and though I like them, I was sad they weren't the holy grail of jeans...blonde moment number 4,510...

Anyways, they had a huge selection of Seven jeans, True Religion, etc etc... because they also are a Runway store so that means they carry the higher end brands. I tried them on and I fell in love... they are a tad long but I do wear boots a lot with jeans so its all good. I tried not to look at the rest of the clothing since the jeans were expensive enough, and I did say no more "me" shopping until after Christmas, but from what I saw they had some might fine stuff...

I thought their kid homegoods section had some really cute things. I scored my dad a cute baseball shelf for Christmas, and I got one of my sisters a wine bottle stopper for Christmas since she's a big wine drinker.

I really liked the store a lot, and I will be going back without a doubt. It put my local TJ's to shame...

I mailed my swap package to my partner today that Clemson Girl put together. This was my first swap, and I was excited but man did I ever stress about it. Go figure since I can find stress in any situation...I just had this fear the whole time whatever I bought for the swap that my partner was going to open her package and hate everything, and make sure I am banned from all future swaps. Then write a nasty post on her blog about what a loser I am. Oh well I hope she likes everything!

Flashback Friday...

Christmas is just on my brain, so this flash back friday is a picture of Christmas 1983, I was three years old. Admit it, Laura looks a tad like me in this picture. Yes Yes I know she's Dave's little twin but when I was her age we looked pretty much the same. Just amuse me.

Thursday antics...

Snaps for me because I went to the gym this morning and got a workout in. Dave went too and got on the treadmill for about 30 seconds and then said he was going to go play raquetball. I didn't go as I was determined to get some cardio in... when I went looking for him when I was done I found his happy butt sitting at a table reading a magazine...he swears he played a game with some old dude, but I have my doubts... slacker...

We didn't torture our kids this time with the daycare at the gym, they stayed with my parents and went to the mall. However, my mom tried to be a hero and attempted taking them to see Santa at the mall ...Let's put it this way... my kids are going to have nightmares about the fat man in red for the rest of their lives...

The good news is I didn't have to take TJmaxx shoppers hostage as they had the third book to the series I was looking for. The bad news is they didn't have the 4th. However my childhood BFF who lives far far away now, is going to mail me her copy! So I live to fight another day.

Ann Taylor Loft is having a excellent sale, an additional 40% off all sale items (the sale ends today), and I found a code for an additional 20% off with free shipping... doesn't get any better then that folks....

Oh my gosh, I was at Costco this morning and there was this crazy lady there looking a mess with mismatched clothing, and all these freaking kids in a cart acting like rabid animals... oh wait, that was me... Actually, it wasn't that bad. Yepp, I ventured out by myself with the kids to get a supply of milk from our favorite place. Hell must have froze over as I hardly ever leave the house with all of them by myself, it's just too hard. The kids behaved wonderfully though, and I only screamed one time (Laura was trying to climb out of the cart while I was buckling in Rachel in the car when we were leaving) I even got the kids lunch on our way out- (the $1.50 hotdog and drink combo is the bomb there). And because there wasn't room in the cart for much else, I stuck to my plan to get milk and milk only. I seriously have to buy 6 gallons of milk a week. How unreal is that? Hence the twice weekly Costco trips...

Freecycle peeps in Newport News have let me down as no one will help a sister out with the book I must have from the Twilight series... so since I did attempt the free route, and the library has a waiting list a mile long for it, I will be going back to TJmaxx to grab it, and I am going to get the 4th one too if they still have them. If the books are gone you might just see me on the news taking TJmaxx shoppers hostage!

Tantrums

Today Dave and I went to the local Y to work out when he woke up this evening. I was excited about finally going to the gym, and getting some cardio in. We decieded to take our oldest two and have them go the daycare for some socialization, and Emily stayed with my parents. Apparently Laura and Rachel would rather have stayed with my parents as well, as 15 min into our workout we got paged over the loud speak to report to the childcare area. Both kids were cying and wanted to leave ASAP. Sigh... I thought they would be ok since they would have each other, and Laura is all about going to preschool now. Guess I thought wrong. I am debating about forcing them to go back to see if they can get over it, or just opting out of taking them all together.

We saw Santa Sunday at Bass Pro and that visit went just as well the Y adventure went...Bass Pro has a kid area with Santa, and they do free pics. It's actually super cute, and we were going to use it as a warm up before we went to Richmond to see the "Real" Santa. Emily was the only one that would get in his lap, so ummm I don't think we will waste our time going to Richmond to watch my kids get hysterical...

Addiction...

I jumped on the Twilight bandwagon, and it's bad... Dave bought me the book at Sam's Club a while back, and I finally got around to reading it, and...it....was....awesome.... A co-worker of mine had told me about the books so I had to check them out. I am so glad I did...

I have not wanted to buy anymore books as I am confident that Santa is going to come through with the Kindle, but I can't help it, I can't wait around and download them on the Kindle, I have to read them all now...Problem is I made a little promise with myself not to buy anything for me until I had Christmas shopping done. I have made a big dent in my Christmas shopping but it's not done... sigh...

I did cheat a little on my promise as I bought the 2nd book at TJMaxx... hey it was like 6 bucks...great deal... they had the other two I had not read yet as well, and Dave told me I might as well get them, but I didn't. I bought that book Saturday night, and I finished it this morning... and I am ansty for the 3rd one and 4th one now...I even posted a request on Freecycle looking for the next one so I can try to be good and not buy it. How pathetic am I lol?

I think I might have hooked another friend as I loaned her the first book, and we have plans to see the movie based on the first one when it comes out in a week.

Well here's to a freecycler taking pity on me and giving me the 3rd one... if it doesn't happen though you know I am going to go buy it anyways =)

Football Game Fun

The kids had a great time at the football game. Playing on the stairs in the stands was more fun then any playground apparently...

Get your free book

If you watched Oprah Wednesday then you know she has an offer going on right now through Snap Fish for a free custom cover 8x11 digital photobook. You have to pay shipping and tax but it's a great deal...my total was $7 and some change... I just did one that I am going to give my grandparents of the kids for Christmas and it didn't take long at all... click HERE

Hurry the offer ends soon....

Big Lots

Don't laugh at me for being slow but I just went into a Big Lots for my first time, and I was in awe. Of course I thought I was going to get mugged the whole time I was in the parking lot, and the cashier gave me the stink eye and refused to talk to me, but I was in love with the store. I couldn't believe the deals and what they had in there... I had seen a ad in the paper for a pink Christmas tree. I decieded I wanted to do a girly tree for the kids in their playroom, and had been looking around for one that was cheap. So I scored the 6 foot pink tree, and then I kept looking... I got two small christmas trees in planters for the front porch for super cheap. I also picked up a few scrapbooking items. The scrapbook aisle was pretty good... they have a lot of cute albums and embellishments. I wish I had gone there to get my albums rather then Michael's.

So back to the kids tree...I am going to set it up tonight. I let Rachel pick out a few ornaments in Target today for it, (Laura had pre-school) and every year we will just keep adding on to it. I saw a really cute tree topper in target for it but I was too cheap to buy it today. Hopefully it will go on sale soon...

Flash Back Friday!

This picture was taken on graduation day 2002 from college. He majored in Criminal Justice, and I majoring in Social Work. I started grad school two weeks later for my masters, and we got engaged a few days before my program began.

Dave and I went to the same highschool but never knew each other. Crazy enough we both ended up at Ferrum College which is about 4 1/2 hours away. My freshman year my mom had heard of him from a friend of hers and said I should track him down and get rides home with him so we could carpool. I had no clue who he was, and didn't meet him until my sophmore year in Biology Class, and I was smitten- let me tell ya...But I had a boyfriend and ignored it. But fate has a way of bringing people together...

Anyways, Ferrum is playing Christopher Newport University this weekend at CNU which is about a mile away from our house. Ferrum is having an alumni tent there set up for local Ferrum people, so we are going to go if isn't raining with the kids and see who might show up.

Inspiration for weight loss...and memory lane

So umm yeah...I should have appreciated the skinnyness while I had it..if it wasn't raining outside I would probably be doing sprints after seeing this... By the way I scanned a million gazillion pics and I think I am going to start doing Flash Back Fridays...



This pic is circa 1999 freshman year of college. My friends and I had gone camping at Philpott Lake at HorseShoe Point Park. This was my first time camping, and I did do so well as I was too scared to sleep in a tent and opted to sleep in the back of my Exployer in a sleeping bag. It seemed safer to me 'cause I was afraid the bears would get me. All in all it was fun though as there was a ton of us on the trip, and I mean hey, I looked great in this Walmart Bikini at least. Since I no longer need the camera fund I had going since my mom and dad bought it for me, I think I will keep saving for major plastic surgury instead =)

Scrapbooking...

so I started on an album of the kids for my mother in law for Christmas... This years album is going to be simple so I can actually get it done in time. I had a conversation with my sister about giving albums to other people. She's scrapbooks as well, and she like a lot of people in our group just don't do them for other people. The reason being it's hard to part with the album once its done unless you know understands how much freaking effort goes into it. I totally understand where she is coming from...The supplies to scrapbook aren't cheap. In theory you would think it would be since its basically paper, but there's some mighty nice paper and do-dads out there. It takes a lot of freaking time and thought to put them together as well. Anyways, I totally see her point, and I have only done them for my mom and Dave's mom. The one's I have done for his mom I have no idea what she does with them though, as once given they seem to vanish. Which is why I am not feeling too bad about not making them all fancy and what not this year.

Actually though, even though I have not had much time or made much effort to be all creative, it's still kinda cute. Here is a looksy of what I have going on right now. Click on the pictures though to see the two page spread. I have not done a title page yet. For some reason I tend to do those last...

The Book (8x8 bought from Michael's) Usually I get Creative Memory albums but I went cheap this year, and personally I liked using something different)



























I plan on doing Halloween pics and Thanksgiving pics in the book and maybe a Santa pic.

Meat Muffins....

I am making this tonight for dinner. Breaking out my new Pampered Chef muffin stone pan and everything. Surely each muffin is like 1 weight watcher point right?? Maybe if I chug diet coke with it will counteract the fat content...

Help, how do I link to someone post? I am slow..

Why my girls need to marry rich....

I am in week 8 of maternity leave, I have 12, and just so it's known I totally am not looking forward to going back. I miss co-workers but there's lots of changes,and I mean lots of changes... plus the fact I will have 12 weeks of catching up on, and home girl doesn't handle stress or change well at all. So thats just it, we have to win the lottery asap, oh wait we don't play the lottery...