Happy Birhtday Will!!!!

Today My little baby boy turns 5 and Mommy is a basket case!

I think I have already hit every emotion possible.  I have been happy and laughing, sad and crying, been nervous about how much he will need me (or not need me) this year, I have even complained and wined. 

Now I am waiting for snack time at school.  I get to bring cup cakes to him and all his class mates!  This is one of the school activities I have been looking forward to!

Here are the cup cakes I made.  I'm not the caftyest person, or the most inventive, but this is a picture of the cup cakes I made for his class.  He is over the moon with them, so I guess that means I did a good job. LOL!

Next week I will have pictures and details from his party Saturday!  Wish me luck!!!!

Two Giveaways Ending Tomorrow! Almost No Entries!!!!

Hurry and enter the two giveaways I have ending tomorrow!!! 

Enter to win an envelope filled with coupons including coupons for FREE ITEMS!  Only a few have entered!!!

and

Enter to win the new Mat Kearney CD!  Only One person entered!!!!

Winner of The #25 Kroger Gift Card is......

mandala said... 22

GFC Follower (Mandala)#1
mandalarctic at gmail dot com

August 3, 2011 3:44 AM

I have sent the winning email out and you now have 48 hours to get back to me!

Don't forget to enter my other two giveaways!!!

You can enter the Mat Kearney giveaway Here!

Enter the Coupons Giveaway Here!

Cheep O' Razor and another GIVEAWAY!!!! (CLOSED)

Have you ever been in the shower and realized at the very wrong moment that you didn't grab a towel?  I think we've all been there before. 


Well I had a new moment when I realized I didn't have what I needed, when I needed it.  You see I am one of those people that always make sure I order new contacts as soon as I see I only have one pair left.  I am the one that makes sure more toilet paper in next to the toilet when I see the role is almost gone.  I even make sure their is always a bar of soap ready to grab in the shower, but this time I messed up. 


I am one of those coupon shoppers who always has a ton of razors.  I am also one of those people who use a razor for who knows how long.  (Way past the normally throw it out and get a new one period.)  The last time I bought razors was about 2 years ago.  I bought a load of them too.  I got a really good deal at Target on the name brand kind with three or four blades.


So, I through my razor away after I figured it had seen it's better days and the only days left in font of it where some bad razor burn days.  A few days after throwing away this razor, I go to my stock pile of bathroom items, and low and behold I don't have any more razors.  The only pack left in my basket is a cheep O' pack of razors I happen to come apron years ago. 


Running through my mind is all the razor burns I've suffered through in the past with these cheep razors.  I look at the bathroom trash can and consider pulling out my old used up razor........No, I won't do it......That's gross.....but we didn't really throw anything in that trash can but empty toilet paper roles, an empty eye wash bottle,  an old tooth brush, and a few other scraps.  It wouldn't be so bad to just dig it out....NO, I won't do it.  I will use the cheep o' razor.


Well, that was the last time I will do that!  As soon as I could, I pulled out all my coupons for razors!  ALL OF THEM!  I was going to find a good deal on razors some where.  On shopping day I went on a hunt and found just what I was looking for.  I now have good razors again! Yeaaaaa Me!!!


Some things you just can't do without.  My coupons and sales are the best! I can get what I need that I would have to do without other wise.  So, this lead up to a giveaway!  How would you like an envelope full of coupons to come in your mail?  I love coupons in my mail.    I am going to give one of my lucky readers a surprise in their mail box.  I have coupons that can't be found in the Sunday paper.  Coupons that I am willing to share with you!


How can you win this magical gift of coupons you ask?  Well all you have to do is leave me a comment telling me you want them. 

 

For an extra entry:

1. You can tell me what coupon you would love to have.  If its diaper coupons, or toilet paper coupons, or coupons for your family's favorite food, just let me know and if you win you may find that added in with all the coupons. 


2.  Be a follower of my blog!


3.  You can also get an extra entry every day for following me on twitter and tweeting


#RT #WIN an envelope of coupons sent strait to your mail box! Enter @savingmomsanity  http://tinyurl.com/3tyx2qw Ends 8/31


Ends 8/31 at 11:59 pm.  The winner will have 48 hours to contact me after the winning email has been sent out or another winner will be chosen.  Good Luck!

**Mat Kearney Giveaway!** (CLOSED)

Mat

Kearney

Young

Love

There is a song on this CD that I saw a video of on tv a few weeks ago, and I have been wanting to here what else this artiest had!  So,

I was more than happy when I was asked to do a review and giveaway of Mat Kearney's new CD "Young Love". 

This is his third album and was released on August 2nd.  The album landed at #4 on the Billboard Top 200 and #1 on the Top Digital Albums Chart during it's first week! 

The song "Hey Mama" was the one that I saw a video for.  This song describes the first meeting between him and his new wife.  The video was made in New Orleans, Louisiana.

The cd is filled with lots of music that has a great beat and you can dance too.  You may even find yourself singing along.  "Hey Mama" is still my favorite, but there are quite a few other songs on this cd that has caught my attention.

You can find this album on iTunes, check out Mat Kearney's Website, or look him up on facebook.

***Giveaway***

You can win your own Mat Kearney cd "Young Love".

***Mandatory***

Tell me where the video for "Hey Mama" was filmed.  You must include your email for me to be able to contact you if you win.

***Extra Entries***

1.  Be a Follower of my blog. (3 extra entries)

2.  Follow me on twitter and tweet the following.  You can tweet once a day!

#RT #WIN a Mat Kearney cd "Young Love" from @savingmomsanity. Ends 8/31 http://tinyurl.com/3wmxr27

3.  Tell me if you like the video for "Hey Mama"

That's it! The giveaway will end on August 31 at 11:59 pm.  The winner will have 48 hours to get back to me after the winning email has been sent out or another winner will be chosen.  This opertunity was offered to me from the One2One Network. Good Luck!

Welcome To A New World

As you grow life changes.  You grow up with your family, then before you know it your on your own.  You discover a new world that you didn't know exsited before.  You have a job to pay bills you never had before.  You can make decisions all on your own.  You can eat cake for dinner if you want to. 

Wow, that was a big deal.  Then your world changes again when you get married and start a family.  All of a sudden you have someone who depends on you.  Those bills you had before multiply and you have to make real ruls for your family.  There goes the eating cake for dinner thing!

Right when you are comfortable with your world it changes again.  Your little baby boy, your only child, is going to school.  This is when you realize that not only is your world changing, so is his.  He isn't in his safe home with his Mommy and Daddy.  He can't eat when he wants and take his time doing it.  He has a new person to listen to and new rules to follow.  His world has just changed!  What a big change too!

This means your life has to change to.  Your baby boy isn't a baby.  He is growing up.  He will learn new things and want to be more independent.  He will learn bad behaviors as well as good ones.  He will learn that not everyone has the same kind of family life he has.  He will learn that the world is bigger than he thought.

Will started his first day of school Monday.  Kindergarten is a new world to him, but he is doing good so far.  Lots of changes have been taking place in our lives.  Going to school has been one of them, but to top it off, he lost his very first tooth the day before he started his very first day of school. 

What can a Momma do?  My baby is growing up and as hard as that is for me, I have to accept it.

Thankful Thursday

Here is another Thursday and another day to be thankful. 


Today I am going to share how thankful I am that God gives and He takes away.  We have been blessed with all that He has given us, but do we really thank Him for all the things he takes away?


So often we are thankful for new jobs, new babies, new friends, and new journeys.  How often do are we thankful for the loss of a job, the loss of a friend, or the loss of any kind?  Today I am thankful for a loss.  As most of you know I have been asking for your prayers concerning my son's Medicaid.  I got the call Friday that he is was turned down because our income is $7.50 too much a month.  We are eligible for the LaCHIP affordable plan that is $50 a month and doesn't cover much of anything.


How can I be thankful for this?  Well, I am thankful that I have so many friends that prayed with me.  I am thankful that my son is healthy and we don't have to depend on Medicaid for his survival.  I am thankful that God has another plan for us.  Because no matter what happens, we are in God's hands.  He will know what to do and lead us in the right direction.  He has not left us to take care of ourselves.  I know He is in control.  With God's plan in place, I walk with a smile on my face.  We will make it through.  It took a while for me to remember God's love after this hard news, but I did!  Losing Will's Medicaid was a hard thing for me, but also a great reminder that The Lord has His own plans that may be different than mine. 


At this time we have decided not to get the $50 plan.  We will see where our path that God has for us leads.  In the future we may have the extra money for the $50 plan or be able to get Will's Medicaid back.  Only God knows.  We where blessed to have Medicaid for Will's first 5 years of his life! 


What has God taken away from you that you can be thankful for? 


Thank you to Laurie who is the host of Thankful Thursday this month.  You can find her at Women Taking A Stand.

A Busy Bee In Camouflage

Last week was a very emotional roller coaster for me.  This week wasn't so bad, but has still been busy.  I am trying to get Will ready for school and still spend the last few days with him as a preschooler.  By Monday he will officially be a school age child. 

Wow! I'm going to miss having him right next to me 24 hours a day 7 days a week.  The thing that kills me the most is the Independence the Kindergarten teachers are dead set on teaching him.  He will soon learn to find his class room on his own in the mornings, and stand next to the room waiting for the teacher and not make a ton of noise with the other kids.  He will learn to find his way to the lunch room and back.  He will have to learn to get his plate, find his seat, eat in a timely manner, put up his trash, and find his way back to class all on his own. (The teachers and bigger kids will help at first.) 

This was a big wake up call for me.  My little boy is growing up.  I know I'm not ready for a big boy yet :(  What happened to my baby? (sigh)

I am preparing myself by staying busy.  I have been personalizing everything he needs for school in my own sort of crafty way.  He had a chair back that I paid someone to embroider for me.  I had his name put on it.  I didn't want to totally bedazzle it.  He is a boy and all.  (Plus Hubby really would not be for the bedazzled chair back for his son!) 

I did get to put his name on his back pack myself though.  He chose a camouflage back pack.  (It's twice his size! LOL!!!)  I tried to paint his name on it.  I went to Michael's and got orange paint and stencils.  I even got an iron-on applique he picked out.

I got busy putting on his name.  I started by taking an old shirt to try it out on first. I didn't want to totally ruin his back pack if it didn't work.

It's a good thing I tried it on an old shirt, because it surly didn't work.  I was totally bummed.  I was set on having his name on his back pack though.  So I decided to try something different.  I took the two old shirts and cut them up.  Sewed them together and cut the letters of his name out from the same shirts.  I sewed that on there too. It worked!

Here is his new school back pack.  Name and all!!!

What do you think?  Good or does it look like a big mess?  I have mixed feelings about it.  It's not what I wanted, but it's still unique.

Saturday's Giveaways

Here are some giveaways I entered this week.  I know it's not much, but with my crazy week, most of the giveaways got away from me this week.  These are the great ones I just couldn't pass up though!!!




Momma In Flip Flops 2 is giving away a Princeton Tec BOT headlamp-Ends 8/16


Momma In Flip Flops 2 is giving away a $15 Gift Card to Piggy Paints-Ends 8/8


Surviving a Teacher's Salary is giving away a USA States and Capitals Bingo Class Room Set-Ends 8/19


Surviving a Teacher's Salary is giving away Simple Sentence Reading Rods to (2) winners-Ends 8/19


Surviving a Teacher's Salary is giving away a Tassimo T20 Brewbot-Ends 8/19


Surviving a Teacher's Salary is giving away a Phineas and Ferb Prize Pack-Ends 8/19

New Sweeps!

Enter to Win !!!!

Enter to win 1 of 57 great eco-friendly prizes like an All new Hybrid or Electric Sedan from Heinz Ketchup!
Play once a day from 6/29/11 to 9/30/11

Win Shell Fuel for a Year! Starts July 26 and ends September 30. Enter once a day!

Win $10,000 or one of many other prizes from Sun Drop. Starts July 11 and ends September 5. Enter daily!




Win a Total Technology Makeover or a Samsung Galaxy Tablet now until September 30.

Thankful Thursdays

It's Thursday again my friends.  I'm not sure what happened to the first part of the week.  I know it was there, but it was full of emotions.  I have herd before that you go through every emotion each day.  I have always believed that. 

This week has been hard on me.  I've had shock over how much everything has gone up in a year (we went to the eye doctor), I've felt despair, sadness, and self pity over something I wanted soooo bad that was just not meant to be, and I've felt happy, excited, nervous and scared over my little boy going to meet his Kindergarten teacher for the first time.  All those feelings happened in three days.  I am ready to get into my old happy go lucky emotions. 

So, now you are wondering what I could possibly be thankful for after all that.  Well, I am thankful for each and every emotion I had.  It is amazing how God has made us.  We are so intricately designed and the emotions that we are given is just the tip it all. 

Without our emotions we would be so different.  We wouldn't be the great people we are today.  Imagine your life without just one of the emotions you feel.  I don't think I would want to loose any of my emotions.  Sometimes I just wish I could keep them to myself a little more;)

I can only imagine that God's feelings for us.  He loves us a million and more times than we can ever imagine loving someone.  When we think our sadness is going to kill us we must remember how much sadder God is sometimes.   WOW!

I also wanted to thank all of you who have been praying with me about my son's Medicaid.  I still have not gotten a letter or a phone call telling me if he will get renewed.  Please continue to keep us in your prayers. This is heavy on my heart right now.

 

Thankful Thursday is hosted this month by Laurie at Women Taking A Stand! Hop on over and join us!

$25 Kroger Gift Card Giveaway! (CLOSED)

Who doesn't love a free gift card to Kroger?  I sure do!!!! And MyBlogSpak.com has given me one for myself and one to give to a lucky reader of mine!!!

Right now, form July 31 to August 17 you can save on tons of brands across more than 100 categories from General Mills, PepsiCo, Unilever, Heinz, Mars, Wrigley and Kimberly Clark.  This is their Big Cart Buster Savings Event!!!!

Some of the participating products are, Honey Nut Cheerios, Yoplait , Pillsbury Pepsi, Doritos, Gatorade, Smart Ones, Ore-Ida, Cottonelle, Viva, Breyer´s Ice Cream, Axe , Snickers, Pedigree and Orbit.

I don't know about you, but with Will starting Kindergarten this year, I will be in need of a few boxes of cereal and after school snacks.  The Cart Buster Savings Event is the perfect time for me to go and stock up.  I will be using the sales and my coupons to get the most out of my $25 Kroger Gift Card.

To help you get some of the best deals, you can follow the Cartbuster "Deal of the Day" beginning August 3rd and running through August 16th. Download exclusive offers, on more of your favorite brands, directly to your shopper card, by visiting www.cartbuster.com, beginning Wednesday, August 3rd.

Look for big savings storewide at all of the Kroger Family of Stores, which includes Kroger, Ralphs, King Scoopers, City Market, Dillons, Smith´s, Fry´s, QFC, Baker´s, Owen´s, Jay C Food Stores, Hilander, Gerbes, Food4Less, Fred Meyer, Pay Less Supermarkets and Scott´s food & Pharmacy.

Unfortunately, the Fred Meyer and Food4Less stores will not be offering the downloadable exclusive offers.

Now for the Giveaway!

You must do the Mandatory Entry or all other entries will be voided!  Please put your email address in each comment or I will have no way of letting you know if you win!

Mandatory Entry***Closed***

Tell me one of the items you would plan to buy for an after school snack for your kids or yourself!

Extra Entries

1. Be a follower of my blog! (3 extra entries)

2.  Follow me on twitter and tweet about this giveaway (Can be done once a day). Leave the URL of your tweet in the comments!

     RT #WIN a $25 Kroger Gift Card @savingmomsanity from #MyBlogSpark Ends 8/20 http://tinyurl.com/3uetl4g



3.  Tell me the best deal you have ever got at Kroger!

4.  Blog about this giveaway, or add it to a giveaway linky and tell me the URL in a comment! (3 extra entries per URL!)

That's it! Easy right?  Ok the giveaway will end on August 20th at 11:59 pm.  The winner will be chosen by random.org and have 48 hours to get back with me after the winning email has been sent or another winner will be chosen.  Good Luck!

A Much Better Experience!

As you can tell, I have been having a busy week last week.  This week is no exception.  With last minute preparations for Will's first every year of school and everything else going on in my life, I have not had much time to blog. 

Last week Will had a dentist appointment.  He has been to many dentists in the last two years about some cavities on the outside of his teeth.  Some dentists say they can't do anything and send us to another.  Other dentist say they would have to put him to sleep and don't do that in their office and send u to another.  The cycle continued for a while.  The last time he visited one of the refered dentist he had a bad experience.  They where far from child friendly, and even told him if he cried they would make Mommy leave him by himself in the room!  Yea, that's what every 4 year old wants to hear.  So of course he cried louder and harder.  They couldn't even get close to him.  I ran out of there so fast I had Will in his car seat and pulling out the driveway and the door to the office hadn't even close all the way yet.

This time I took him to a new place.  I had seen the advertisements and a good friend of mine takes her girls there.  I decided to give it a try.  The place is called Kool Smiles.  They are very kid friendly and are the only dentist who took x-rays and said they could help with his teeth.  They said that all he needed was caps on them.  CAPS!!!! Why couldn't the other dentist do that????? And they didn't even have to put him to sleep!!!! A huge plus!!!


So we talked it over and decided to put the caps with the white on the front, since they would be on teeth in the front of his mouth.  We got Will to try the gas and he did good.  They still had to put the blanket on him, but he started out laughing and then cried and finally ended the appointment laughing again.  Poor baby went through a lot, but came out a champ.  He told them thank you for fixing his teeth and all.  They couldn't believe how happy he was.


I cried during his appointment more than he did.  He yelled "I want to go home!" a lot, but didn't cry as much as I thought he would.  He didn't eat for a day and a half after the appointment though.  He was tired and hurt a little.  The Tylenol helped though.  He was also so scared they would fall out if he ate and he would have to go back to have them put back in.  Finlay hunger got the best of him and now he is eating like the growing boy he is!  Wow, can that kid eat!


He goes back for a check up and some fillings in his back teeth next month.  Poor baby has no chance with mommy and daddy both having bad teeth:(


I am still asking for prayers that his Medicaid get renewed.  Hubby makes $7.50 too much a month and they can turn us down or let us pass for another year.  Ultimately it is up to his Medicaid worker that has his case at this point.  Prayers are greatly appreciated!!! Thank You!!!!!!!