Happy Birthday Toby!

How can he be 5 already?!?!

Happy Easter

Our visit with the Easter Bunny...

The kids visited the Easter Bunny today. We always thought the Easter Bunny was a boy, but in fact she is a girl.

Not enough time...

After almost 5 months at home, I'm going back to work. I start a new job on Monday. It's bittersweet, of course. I knew that we couldn't afford to have me stay home and I'm excited to start a new job, but I also love staying home with my kids. It's going to be hard to leave them every day. 5 months has gone by so fast. It's the longest I've ever been unemployed since I started working at 16. Even both of my maternity leaves were only 12 weeks. Since I left AmWINS...

...I will have been home a total of 145 days.
...we celebrated Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's, Valentine's and Easter.
...Natalie turned 2 and Toby turned 5 (and Tim turned 32, but he's not really counting).
...we went to the ER once.
...we went to the Children's Museum twice.
...we made one snowman.
...we decorated two Christmas trees.
...I went one night with only an hour of sleep (gotta love those Black Friday shopping deals).
...I taught Toby how to write his name.
...I taught Natalie how to count to 10 (and sometimes 11).
...we watched 644,751 episodes of Little Bear, Max & Ruby & Spongebob.
...I took 3 overnight trips away from home.
...I did a bazillion loads of laundry and endless sinks full of dishes.

I wish I had another 5 months! I don't think I did enough with the 5 I've had already.

A lovely morning sunrise...

This was the view from our living room this morning.

Absolutely gorgeous!

Is there anything in life more fun than bubbles!?

And the deals just keep on comin'...

I ventured out with my ECB's today that I earned from purchases last week and I'm totally in love with CVS! As long as I continue to purchase items that earn me more ECB's, I should be able to get everything for nearly free. Here's what happened today:

CVS - Trip #1
2 Fructis, 2 Glade Oil Candle, Playskool Wipes
...used $5 off $15 CVS Coupon
- $9.98 ECB, - $2.48 ECB
I paid = $0.54
CVS Savings = $30.05
Received $11.00 in ECB

CVS - Trip #2
2 Dove Chocolates, 2 Irish Spring Bars, Irish Spring Wash, 2 Glade Candles
...used $5 off $15 CVS Coupon
- $6.00 ECB, - $5.45 ECB
I paid = $0.00!!
CVS Savings = $25.13
Received $9.00 in ECB

CVS - Trip #3
2 Glade Oil Candles, Playskool Wipes
...used $4 off $20 CVS Coupon
- $5.00 ECB, - $4.48 ECB
I paid = $0.42
CVS Savings = $21.47
Received $7.00 in ECB

I used $24.08 in mfr coupons and used $33.39 in ECB's. I only spent $0.96 and earned $27.00 more ECB's!!

Drug Store Deals

Ok, I know I normally don't post things like this here, but Sharon does and I was getting so jealous of her deals... Anyone who knows me, knows that I love coupons and deals and I'll spend forever trying to figure how max out on the grocery savings every week. We took a drug store trip today to take advantage of some fabulous sales this week. Here's what I got:


@ Rite Aid
2 Excedrin
I paid = $0.24
Rite Aid Savings = $9.98

@ Walgreens (Trip #1)
Fusion Razor, Listerine, Colgate, 6 Gillette Deoderant
I paid = $30.02
Walgreens Savings = $14.81
Received $12.00 in Register Rewards
March Rebates = $6.78

@ Walgreens (Trip #2)
3 Old Spice Body Wash, 3 Olay Body Wash, Fusion Razor
I paid = $18.79
Walgreens Savings = $23.44
Received $17.00 in Register Rewards

@ CVS (Trip #1)
2 Febreze, 2 Oral-B Toothbrushes
...used $4 off $20 CVS Coupon & $5 off $15 CVS Coupon
I paid = $7.85
CVS Savings = $19.01
Received $14.98 in ECB

@ CVS (Trip #2)
Fusion Razor, 2 Colgate Toothpastes, 2 Blistex, 2 Russel Stover Chocolates
...used $5 off $15 CVS Coupon
I paid = $11.80
CVS Savings = $15.99
Received $15.98 in ECB

So, my total for the day was...
$151.93 = What all of the items retail for (who would every pay that!?).
$ 83.23 = What I saved today ($26.74 in sales, $56.49 in coupons).
$ 68.70 = What I paid for everything.
$ 29.00 = The amount I have in Walgreens Register Rewards.
$ 6.78 = The amount I will claim this month in Walgreen's March Rebates.
$ 30.96 = The amount I have in CVS Extra Cash Bucks.
In the end, after the RR & ECB & Rebates, I paid $1.96!!

Collecting pledges for FUNDANGO...

I will be participating a fundraiser for Gilda's Club called FUNDANGO on March 8 at the Ford Fieldhouse. It's an annual event and it's their biggest fundraiser of the year. It's a 5K walk to raise money for Gilda's Club through pledged donations from family members, friends and co-workers. I know this a last-minute attempt to collect pledges, seeing as the walk is this Saturday, but anything I collect is better than nothing. If you're interested in making a pledge/donation, please let me know and I'll add you to my pledge form. You can mail a check payable to me (email me for the address) or send via credit card to my paypal account (my username is traceyandtim@comcast.net). Each donation is tax deductible. If you need a receipt, I can send you a copy of my pledge form showing your pledge/donation and Gilda's Club will send you a tax letter through the mail.

If you are not familiar with Gilda's Club, please visit their website. I was able to take a tour of the facility a few years back with the Insurance Women group and it's really a terrific place and what they do there is wonderful.

Thank you for your support!!

Say hello to Frosty...