Excitement In Our Neighborhood

It all started when Austin and his friend, Travin, came rushing in the house after scouts. They were out of breath and very excited to tell me something. I was on the phone and had to get off, because they were telling me that there was a fire by their scout leaders house and that we needed to call 911. They actually rode through the smoke coming home and thought that it was a barn on fire. I called 911 (I have never had to call 911, it was kinda nerve racking) and they said that they had a couple of calls all ready and were getting ready to dispatch the fire dept. With that done Travin decided to head home and passed his dad, who is a volunteer firefighter and was on his way to the station. I finished getting my two little ones out of the bath and then had to drive down and see (Logan was very persistent). We got there before the fire dept., seeing how we live 15 minutes from town and they had to wait for the guys to get there before dispatching. We were very lucky that it didn't spread too much, with the crazy, nasty wind that we have today. Anyways, we get there and watch, just then the fire trucks got there and got to work. It was kinda cool to see those brave men work to put out the fire! We found out that one of the families there were burning weeds on Monday and that fire got out of hand and the fire dept. were called out and put it out. It ends up that there were some embers still under all the ash and with the wind that we had today, it started up again. So with that all said and the pictures taken, we had quite an exciting evening here in our neighborhood!

Pancakes

So I made pancakes from scratch this morning! I hate to admit it, but I have never made homemade pancakes, I use Kruestez or something like that. But on Sat. I had gone over to my mom's and ground up some of my whole wheat, so I had a can full of wheat flour. And I had been wanting to try something with it and I found this yummy recipe that calls for wheat flour, I had to try it. This moring was the day, I got up early (7:00, is early for me) and got cooking. Yesterday I made the mix and so all I had to do this morning was scoop out what I needed and add the wet ingredients. My kids didn't even know the difference, yes they looked a little different (darker), but didn't taste a whole lot different and my kids still devoured them. We had the peanut butter out, syrup and yummy jelly from the wet pack cannery and had at it. If you want the recipe you can find it here@ http://cookerscorner.blogspot.com/.

They were really yummy and a great way to use some of my food storage.

Deal of the Week

Here I am at the computer at 6:45, wishing I could go back to bed but unfortunatly I am up and will be going after I am done here. Why I am up this early, well I should be every morning to get my kids going, but I am lazy and they get themselves up. But no this morning Logan decided to wet the bed (again, I just changed his sheets yesterday) and wanted me to sleep with him, then I couldn't go back to sleep and before I knew it I had to get for my 2 yr. old that I watch (who was 25 minutes late).

Anways on the topic for the post here. Since I am an avid bargain hunter, a coupon clipper, a sale ad shopper, I thought that it would be fun to let you all know of the deals that are going on in the grocery, or other stores around. So I would like to be able to post something every week of the good deals that I find, if there is not many one week, I won't post anything.

Deal #1: SMITHS
Smiths this week has their General Mills Cereal, Nature Valley Granola bars and Betty Crocker Fruit Snacks on sale for 8 for $16, when you buy 8 you will automatically get $8 off, so that make them 8 for $8. A secret though, you don't have to buy the 8 to get the $8 off, you could buy 4 and get them for $4 or buy 6 and get them for $6 anyways you get the idea. But why not buy all 8 and stock up! Now when you buy 3 or more boxes of cereal the register will print off a coupon for $1.20-$2.00 off on the same cereal that you just bought on your next purchase. What a steal!
Let me tell you what I spent last night: I got 3 boxes of cereal, 3 boxes of granola bars and 2 boxes of fruit snacks, I spent $5.20 (I had some coupons). Then I got a printed coupon for $1.50 0ff 4 more boxes of cereal, had Austin run and get me 4 boxes and got them for $2.50. It then printed another coupon for $2 off 5 boxes. I gave that couopn to my mom to use and she then got another coupon. It could go on and on.

Deal #2: SMITHS
Also here at Smiths they have Mountain Dairy Ice Cream on sale for 10-$10. Again you don't have to buy 10 to get them for $1. Now when there are item like this in sale, they go quick. I was not able to get any last night because they were out. So I got a raincheck and will go back and get some ice cream when they have it in. Stock up and save!

I have been doing coupons and ad shopping, really consitstently now for a year or so and I have been able to save tons of money, stock up and build up my pantry and food storage. So if you get the chance go and stock up and these items and have fun saving money.

A NEW "DO"

So in my last post I thanked Michelle for cutting my hair and a few of you wanted to see it. Well I am not a very good photog when it comes to taking my own picture and the camera seemed to add 5 pounds to my face so I am definitely not going to post any, so you will have to see me in person, but I will describe it. I have been in need of a trim for a while now and with summer coming I wanted something different. So I had my sister-in-law cut it for me. I had her cut it in a short A-line, no layers just straight across. The front hits my collar bone and the back is a little shorter. It looks way cute and when I do it, looks even better. So now all I need to do it dye it.

Maybe, I don't know.

Tree Triming

On Sat. we went over the mountain to help James' mom and dad trim their two big trees out front of their house. James, his brother Paul and his dad spent most of the day doing this. The kids, grandma and I help take limbs away and pile them in the garden, but decided to quit when the boys were cutting big huge branches off and we couldn't pull them away to the pile. I think that mom and dad only wanted the trees trimmed a little, but Paul started hacking away and James kept asking "how much do you want off" and then he started to hack away. Oh well, mom said that it was okay and that the tree will be better next year because of it. They were going to burn the limbs, but it ended up being a "no burn" day, so they ended up getting a shredder from a friend in town and shredded all the limbs and hauled them away to the dump. It was fun day and we were able to help out James' mom and dad.

*Hey Michelle, Thanks again for cuttin my hair. I LOVE IT! It is way cute for summer and pretty easy to do, thanks again.

Happy Birthday DAD!

Here is a Birthday shout out to my Dad. Thank's for being such a great dad now and as we were growing up. You taught us kids how to work hard, how to play hard, to respect each other and gave us a great foundation to start our life.

We wish you were closer so that we could celebrate with you, but want to know that we love you and hope that you have a GREAT DAY!

Space Derby

Last night was our monthly pack meeting and we held our "Space Derby". Boy what an experience that was. First of all, we got a late start, the track wasn't ready, they didn't have all the tools needed to wind the propeller and then to top it all off, one of the holders for the space ship broke, so they only had one track to race down, so in fact they really couldn't race each other, they had to see who went the farthest and then time the top three to see who won. I don't know if it was all fair that way, but that is how they did it. Now we really have a great Scout leader and husband, but they were really not in their element last night and we ended up not having a hugely (is that a word?) great time, unlike other years for the pinewood derby and raingutter regata.

Austin actually took third place out of everyone. He did so GREAT! He was the one winding, placing and getting it ready for the track. The boy or should I say dad, that won, didn't really do anything. The boy was at the other end of the gym playing with kids, while dad did the whole event for his son. It makes me very frustrated that Austin and the other little boy that took 2nd did all the work and last night and here is this dad that won for his son. It don't think that it was fair and that he shouldn't have won. The leaders should have stated from the begining that the boys were the ones to be preparing their ship and doing most of the work. Oh well, Austin had a fun time and was really excited to take 3rd place.

BED HEAD

This is what Piage looked like this morning when she woke up. Usually she has crazy hair, but today it was totally crazy hair. I had to take a picture and remember her "CRAZY BED HAIR!"

*I still haven't brushed it out and it is 11:30 am. What terrible mom I am!

A DAY AT THE PARK

What a gorgeous day it was on Sat. so nice that we had decided to go the park and play and have lunch. We started the day off by going over to my mom's and having pancakes for breakfast. Sure she called me and woke me up @ 7:30 am (the one and only day that I have to sleep in), but it was fun to have breakfast with her and the kids. We hung ou there for awhile, until it was getting time for lunch, so headed over the James' work and had lunch with him. The kids were constintely asking me if it was "time to go the park", I had to keep saying "not yet, we still have a few more things to do". So by lunch time the were sooo ready to hurry and eat, to head to the park.

What a day to be at the park, it was wind free, sunny, not too hot, not too cold, not too many people there all in all a great day to go. The kids played and played, got sunburned (even mom got a little sun), found friends from the neighborhood that were there playing, had treats and lots of fun! It was so nice to get out of the house and be outside, I loved it as much as the kids did. We left at 8:30 that morning and did not get home until 5 that night. It was a great day!

LOVE IT!

So I have just found a new and fun blog to get FUN backgrounds. Don't you just love mine!? The blog is: matiekay.blogspot.com. I have the link with the other fun blogs on my sidebar. She makes the designs herself and offers them to the public for free. I know that some of you like to change your background and have your favorite sites to do so, but this one was soooo easy, I didn't lose any of my side bar info like other sites I have used. I just wanted to let you all know so you can go and check it out if you want too. Bye!

Photo Collage: Tanner

This here photo collage is for Tanner, our loving, strong willed, tender, strong willed, oops I meant to say kind 2nd grader. Hope you all enjoy seeing his smiling little face!

*Upper left corner: that is very typical Tanner, if he doesn't want to do something (this was to take pictures at my sisters wedding) he will do whatever he can to get out of doing it. Don't you love all the toothless grins! :) I sure do!

SCHOOL PICTURES

These are the cute and addorable school pictures that the kids had taken a couple of weeks ago. They turned out so good, I had to show them off! I even took Paige and Logan to the school and had their pictures taken. My sister, Jenn, took them all and she did a wonderful job. She even was able to get the pictures for me for a great deal, FREE! Thanks a bunch Jenn!

New Bolgs

I just have to start by saying Thank you to Libby, who had these fun and great blogs on her blog. I hope that she doesn't mind that I have them here, but I really wanted to let you all know about them and make them easliy accessable from my blog. Take a look at her "Be Kind" site, it has great ideas and really makes you think about being nice. Thanks again Libby for all of your great ideas!

Cute Pictures!

I was looking through my pictures the other day and found these two pictures of James and Logan sitting on the couch together. Basically the same pics, just a couple of years apart. I thought that they were cute.

Don't you just love James' expression in the second one. PRICELESS!

Happy, Happy Birthday James!

To My Dear Sweet Husband,

Happy Birthday! I love you so much. I hope that you have a wonderful day! The kids were really excited to make you your birthday cards and wrap your present, I hope you caught that this morning at breakfast. You are such a Great Dad and try to always include the kids in all that you do. You are such a hard worker, always willing to serve and help others, you are loving, compassionate, have a sense of humor, a hottie (to me at least), you have a strong testimony, you are dedicated to anything that is yours, you are trust worthy, creative, very smart and you love me. What more could a woman ask for! Thank you for being you and loving me.
Again Happy Birthday Love!

Love Always,
Melissa

Here is a picture montage for you. Hope you like it!

To Dye or Not to Dye,

that is the question. Here I am getting older, by the year and my hair is definitely getting ahead of my age. For those of you who don't know, I found my first gray hair at the young age of 16! Boy was I sad, scared, mad and a few other emotions. I quickly plucked it and continued to pluck until I started getting more than I could do. I realize now that I should not have been so paranoid about that one little hair and just lived with it. Because now that I am older, the gray have started taking over my head. YIKES! It is starting to look like I have white highlights, although it is really gray peeking through. For years I have covered those pesky little hairs with hair dye, although I have never been really good about keeping it up and touching up every 6-8 weeks. I just get lazy! It has been two months since I last dyed my hair and I am contemplating on whether or not to dye it again. Every time I look in the mirror, I think "yes I really need to dye my hair now", but again I am lazy and haven't gotten around to doing it. I am not too concerned about my age and getting older, so why should my hair be any different? I go back and forth wanting to dye it and not worrying about it. James says that he likes my hair just the way it is, the gray and all. What a sweet husband! My sisters, who are all hair dying enthusiasts, think that he is crazy and that I should dye my hair with them. Arrgh, why does getting older have to include getting gray?!