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I dont post much, more of a lurker, but I wanted to let you know how much I enjoy your daily updates. I catch up on my DIS-ing while having my morning coffee and its like sitting around with friends. I also love how you sign off with prayers to all, I can tell that those are not just words to you but that you are sending out prayers to everyone who needs them.
Have a great weekend and well be sending our safe travel prayers for V and her friends. Were Moms well always worry about them!
Christine
Thank you Christine! I love that so many share their morning coffee with me.
I do, honestly, think of each and every one of you all while I am upstairs sewing - it is such a wonderful thing to know that there are so many of us out there pulling and praying for each other.
Thank you for the travel prayers for V - I truly appreciate it! As a new mom - when the girls were little - I always thought that I could never love them as much as I did in that moment... The older they get - the more I love them, and it seems it's going to be harder and harder to let go when it's time for them to go off on their own.
Raina and I had a long talk last night and we have decided to g back to POR RR our first resort pick....we both keep thinking about that resort so we told our TA to switch us back........
Hopefully done with the changes but I do think if we get free dinning we will upgrade to deluxe dinning......I know everyone says to much food ...but really I am a foodie and so is Raina and my DH
Yay!!! I love hearing that you are going to POR - it's such a lovely resort!
I wouldn't hesitate to splurge for DxDDP, if I could afford it - I would love to try it out just once... But I am sure I would't be able to walk afterwards. LOL I am sure it will be wonderful for you!
D~ I hope your shopping trip goes well. What a great BFF you have. Makes it so much more fun. I'm heading out with two of my friends today to do some shopping at a wholesale place that opens its doors once a year to the public. Everything is half off and they have pretty neat stuff. Always something different.
Thanks! Yes Lois - we do have so much fun! I hope you were able to find some great things - it sounds like a very interesting shopping experience - and I bet it was PACKED!
Sending up prayers for Victoria for the trip. I hope she has a fabulous time and makes lots of wonderful memories. And I'll pray the weather doesn't get bad for that trip back home. Where are they going?
Thanks so much Lois. I am sure she will have a great time. She is going to a "Language Camp" - it's up in waaaay northern MN - she is doing the French one - since that's her language this year. They left a little before noon yesterday and didn't make it to their destination until after 6pm... She said they stopped for about an hour for "lunch" at 3pm...
Knowing V - she was probably STARVING by that time - I forgot to send her snacks for the trip. <---- Bad mom moment.
I got two more packages yesterday, well one was for Dan. I still have some coming from Kohl's. They are so slow! But most of my shopping is done. Now I just need to get my house clean and ready for the kids to get here for Christmas. Going to Virginia is putting a bit of a wrench in my timeline, but I always say what doesn't get done won't kill me. It took a lot of years of stress to get to that point, believe me!!
Yay! Glad your packages are drifting in... I went through my stash yesterday (tried to organize and contain it a little bit)... But I am pretty sure I am almost done shopping. I have a few small gifts to buy yet... I need to figure out what I am getting for those people. But Josh is done and the girls are DONE - really DONE.
<--- Oooh - take that back... Josh and I still need to go to the hobby store to get one more item from V's list.
Jennifer over did it on Wednesday and pretty much had to sit all day yesterday due to severe swelling. I think she learned her lesson. She goes for her follow up today. Thanks for the prayers!
Oh no... I am so sorry to hear this. I sure hope she is able to stay off of it and let it rest. I am sure it's very difficult for her to do - as I am sure she is anxious to be self reliant and again for herself and her family. Hugs and prayers to her.
Okay, so I hope to see the latest creation either today or tomorrow. I leave on Sunday for Virginia, but should be able to keep up since Jennifer is doing so well. Although I have so many activities planned for the grandkids, including making a gingerbread village together. Such fun! Have a wonderful weekend!!
Oooh - your trip sounds like so much fun! I would love to see pictures of the gingerbread village - that sounds like it would be so cool! Safe travels tomorrow. How long will you be in Virginia?
OF COURSE!!!
always pray for our children!
Bull.. your going to be a wreck.
i can see right through you.. need me i am here for you!
Hahaha... I am doing surprisingly well. I did very well yesterday, as V was texting me for most of her trip up there. I know she won't be texting me over the weekend, since she is not allowed to use any of her devices while she is there.
does this work ON Line?!?!
It did not... It was only an in store coupon... You had to spend $75 on black friday to get one... BFF happened to do two transactions that day.
PICTURES NOW!
Have a wonderful weekend!
always pray for friends and family!
They are up... I hope you have a great wekeend too!
I killed my back doing something this morning so I haven't worked out yet but I am hoping it will be better soon so I can work out.
Good luck shopping. I love reading about your trips.
Prayers to all that need it.
Oh no!!! I hope your back is doing better today.
Shopping went well - I will post about it below.
Thank you for the prayers - it means a lot to me.
I got the Brother 1034D. I figured it's a good starter and the price was right. I have used it yet, still, but have pieces cut for a Christmas outfit for my DD. I'll hopefully use it to finish the seams if I can figure it out!
That is the same serger I have... YOu can find tons of tutorials on
Youtube... You will be perfectly fine - I just know it!
Well Lady had a good night last night. We are keeping her in the basement today, but I will re-evaluate when I get home this evening. I'm afraid with Charlie out of town that if she does take a turn for the worse, I'll have to deal with it on my own - I'm such a chicken.
I pray that Lady is doing OK last night and today. Our pets are our children - so it's just so awful to see them suffering and hurting.
The news from my brother was not good. Turns out my sil did not have a stroke, but instead the symptoms are caused by a brain tumor - a very agressive, malignant tumor. She will be flying to Honolulu on Tuesday for further evaluation and to determine if it can be removed with surgery. Jim says her outlook has been positive (remember this is Kat's grandmother - and it runs in the family!) If anyone can beat this it will be Gwen. My main concern right now is that they are so far from us. Gwen does have family close by - her mother and brother & sil, but still..... Continued prayers, good thoughts, or whatever, would be deeply appreciated.
This is such awful news, it makes me sad to hear it. Is this the same person you posted pictures of when you did your TR on Hawaii? Please know that all of you are in our thoughts and prayers.
D~ sorry to post this on your blog, but so many caring people read this, I thought that more prayers are better. I have to say that I have come to care very deeply for the people on here. I have never been involved with a more caring group of "strangers"
No worries - I don't mind at all Tess.
I love the bag and love how you added the date to the cloud.
Thanks! I could't have done it with out my new (awesome, amazing, fun...) embroidery machine!
I love the new bag!
I've been Mia for a while... Busy beading.
I print out the PDF for the design so I can see the steps and put it in a binder.
Thanks Erin! It's great to see you. Did you see that I responded to V's message a few days back?
I did see your beaded necklaces - they are very cute!
I might need to start printing off the design... It's so hard to tell on the screen which part is coming next and what color to do.
A package that was supposed to be here today actually got delayed so it should now be here tomorrow. I know all about running out of space. I ran out of space when we came home from Oregon. Being in a 2 bedroom condo doesn't leave you many hiding spaces. So it's all in boxes in our closet and luckily the kids don't go in our room very much so it's been easy to keep them out.
Yah - even though we have a lot of rooms in our house... Hiding things is never easy. Maybe Alli and I can start some wrapping today - eventhough we still don't have a tree, I need to get started on it.
Oh no for finding something out. At least your DH surprises you. Mine just tells me to get what I want. So most of the time I don't have much under the tree because I was so busy shopping for everyone else I never take the time to pick something out for me. I remember the years of begging to know but thankfully my parent's kept it a secret from me so now I miss the surprises.
I love that Josh surprises me - he has done some pretty surprising gifts over the years - and he goes out of his way to disguise my gifts as much as possible.
Hope V has a great trip!! Don't have any advice since mine are still too young to go on trips like that.
Thank you... It's never easy having them away from us - no matter how little (or big) they are.
Hope you had a successful shopping trip!! Still need to get one last thing for James and DH, stocking stuffers and gifts for our parent's but other than that I am done!! Now to get to wrapping!! Got to do it when the kids are asleep and I'm not to tired.
I did - thanks! We don't do stocking stuffers for anyone but us... And I went through my entire stash yesterday - I am pretty sure I am good there. Josh may have a few things to add. I just a few small gifts to buy for - then I am done.
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First of all - V made it to her destination just fine... I am so relieved! It was a 6 hour bus trip for them (including an hour lunch stop)...
Thank you so much for all of your prayers for her - I truly covet all of them!
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So... Shopping yesterday was... Interesting? LOL
BFF and I started off at the mall... I had to run in and run out super fast - I had to grab a couple of stocking stuffers for the girls. We were there promptly when the mall opened at 9am, and we were out and on our way to Target by 9:20. Impressive...
OK - before I go into our Target trip, I need to preface it with the fact that we were on a serious time crunch. BFF had to be back to Olivia's school by 11:30am... We were 30 minutes away... So, we had to be in the check out line by no later than 10:15-10:20. Normally - my Target shopping trips take me, on average, 3 hours... So, I was needing to speed up my game a little bit.
So, bff took part of my list and went around the store to grab my items.
I took the other part of my list and grabbed the rest of my items.
We met at the front lanes at 10:08am - now that is impressive!
My total for this shopping trip was $748!
This is my biggest trip so far... I had a TON of big ticket items... Some of them trip related... but I will get to that in a minute. After all of my coupons + the 20% coupon + my Team Member discount + BFF's Pharmacy rewards discount + my check card discount + Cartwheel... My grand total... Wait for it... $208!!! GASP!!!! A total savings of $540!
A savings percentage of 61% Not my best shopping trip ever - but it's in the top 5 - for sure.
I know, I know... I said that I was going to try to be good, and not blow the budget... But there were a few things that were impulse purchases... How can I have an "impulse purchase" when I was only in the store shopping for 45 minutes? Well - when you have 2 people, and a cell phone between you - anything can happen... BFF knew I was going to purchase something in the near future - so she stopped to look, and called me from the other side of the store.
Yesterday was "The Perfect Storm" of coupons... Having that additional 20% off + Pharmacy rewards... Well...
One of the items I purchased was a waterproof camera...
For the waterparks... See - this really is trip related! It was on sale for $120 - all the above discounts, made the camera $78... BFF told me that she would chip in $40 several months ago for a waterproof camera as my birthday gift this year... So, that made this particular camera $38 for my OOP cost. Not too bad.
I also had excellent deals on coffee... Josh drinks a lot of coffee - so I try to stock up when I can - it is expensive, after all... His coffee was on Price Cut for $6.99 (normally $8.99)... I had a manufacturer coupon for -$3 off of 2... $14 - $3 = $11. Then I had 2 Target coupons for -$1 each... So, $9.00 for two... Then all of my normal discounts brought those two cans down to $5.85. And THEN - on top of all of that, Cartwheel was an additional -20%... So, in the very end my 2 cans of coffee ended up being $4.68 or $2.34 each!
The sad part is that Cartwheel limits the items you can get the Cartwheel discount with to 4... So, I was only able to get 4 cans of coffee for this price. But still a nice discount, and it's something we go through quickly.
I had decent deals on bigger items I needed to stock up on... Toilet paper... Paper towels...
My favorite yogert (Chobani) was on sale... 10/$10... Normally $1.29 each. After all of the discounts, I paid $.65 each... So, about half off. Not too bad - we eat a TON of Greek Yogert for the protein.
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That was just Target...
I had to do a bit of Christmas shopping at a few other stores - no deals there, but I did get wish list items, so that is good.
Then, it was on to Kohls... I had a -25% coupon + I had $15 in Kohls cash... Not much - but free $$ is free $$...
As some of you may know, my dad lives very much in poverty. So, Josh and I do as much as we can to help him and care for him. We always keep him well stocked on paper products/laundry products/personal care products/food/clothes - we also help to pay for a portion of his monthly essential bills... We do whatever we can. We don't donate a lot to charity - but we do take care of my dad - and honestly - I would rather our extra $$ go towards family, than others. So, people can think of me however they choose, but this is what we do. I don't talk about it much, and I prefer not to, as I don't want kudos for doing what is right.
When we were up there for Thanksgiving, I noticed that a lot of his towels were getting very worn and - well - quite frankly, it was time for new house linens for him a LONG time ago - I am just sorry I didn't didn't notice it sooner.
So, when I was at Kohls yesterday - I was on a mission to find some of these items... I happened upon some bath towels/hand towels/washcloths for 80% off... So, I grabbed several sets for him... Not the best colors in the world - BUT... I wanted to get as many as I could for him, so I was very happy to find them.
Then, I was on a mission to find him some new dishcloths and dish towels... I was prepared to buy a sale bundle pack of each... and I had them in my cart, but as I was searching for the bath towels, I found 80% off fall/Thanksgiving type dish towels and dishcloths... WAHOO!
In the end, I was able to get my dad TRIPLE what I had in my budget for him for these items! I was SOOO happy!
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In trip related news... BFF purchased a TON of Disney GCs yesterday! She had her 5% pharmacy rewards to combine with her Target Check card discount... If I were to guess - she is about 75% paid off on her portion of the trip.
Which makes me feel a little nervous...
After Christmas - I will really dig in deep to start making a bigger dent in our remaining balance... I've been purchasing GCs here and there, so I do have a bit set aside - but I still have a LONG ways to go. I forsee another Crazy Days auction in my future...
And, of course - the water proof camera purchase yesterday... We hope to have a lot of waterpark time this trip - so that camera should prove to be a lot of funt to have, as it is waterproof for up to 33 feet... So... The Typhoon Lagoon wave pool... Oh yah...
OK - I better get on with my day... So sorry for the LONG update... Josh starts class again today from home... So, my desk top computer time will be limited to my morning updates - if I can get them done on time.
I hope that each and every one of you has a wonderful day!!! Sending out prayers to all of you who need them, and all of you who don't.
D~
I did discover one of my gifts on accident... DH left the order confirmation page up on the computer... 
I am really picky that I don't know what my gifts are ahead of time... Which comes from being a child and BEGGING my parents to tell me what my gifts were... eventually they told me... and all of my Christmasses were ruined because the day would come and I wouldn't have any surprises left... I learned my lesson and I NEVER EVER peek or try to find my gifts. So, I am kind of sad that I know about this one. Oh well - normally DH does an excellent job of keeping me in suspense.
Being in a 2 bedroom condo doesn't leave you many hiding spaces. So it's all in boxes in our closet and luckily the kids don't go in our room very much so it's been easy to keep them out. Oh no for finding something out. At least your DH surprises you. Mine just tells me to get what I want. So most of the time I don't have much under the tree because I was so busy shopping for everyone else I never take the time to pick something out for me. I remember the years of begging to know but thankfully my parent's kept it a secret from me so now I miss the surprises.
