Not Me Monday

Over at www.mycharmingkids.net McMamma will be having people link up to what they did but making it sound like they didn't actually do it because it's so bad or just really embarrassing.

I had a great one to write about my granddaughter but as I was uploading the pictures to go with it, SOMETHING happened and I'll write about that for now, I'm just devastated!

I did not upload pictures of my granddaughter for this post and ummm, no way did I just wipe out nearly all my entire blogs pictures, nope not me, I just need some new glasses and they'll be there just like they've always been, I seen one a ways down and another one further but I really am sick about this, does anybody have any clue what I might have done? Please for the love of God, (and for the love I have of my blog) help me find my pictures. Comments of help or encouragement are greatly appreciated.

My Cleaning Tips

Over at http//www.kellyskornerblog.com you can get a million cleaning tips, these are all I can think of right now, I'll add more as they come to me.

1. Use a shower head with a handle it, it only takes 20 seconds or so to rinse off the shower walls and door/curtain after every shower. You don't get slime built up and the ledges get rinsed off daily.

2. Clean up as you go, the messes are so much easier to clean when fresh, like when your cooking.

3. Speaking about cooking...use non-stick pots and pans, but if you must use the other kind and you have a big stuck on mess, just let it soak a while, don't stress over the mess, come back to it after it "soaks off"

4. When your making potatoes, rinse the beaters in cold water a.s.a.p. (it runs right off, same with the pan).

5. Invest in some baby wipes, you can use these for simple counter or bathroom cleaning every other day until you get busy with the heavy duty cleaning.

6. Get the tunes going, and blare them as loud as you can.

7. Take advantage of the sunshine, who doesn't feel like they can do anything on a bright, bright sun shinny day!!!??? Oh, and try to get the cleaning done before it's too hot and you don't want to do anything.

What are some of your cleaning tips?

Shopping Trips

I had 10 50¢ coupons for these waters and Target had 'em for $1.00 each so I ended up paying $5.00 for 10. Better yet, because I purchased 10, Target was giving a $5.00 gift card. Call it what you want, but I call it... FREE!
I stopped off at Walgreens on my way to my "destination" I was there to snag some more free stuff, OK, so I had to pay tax but I still consider it free. They had these on sale for bogo and on sale price to begin with originally $3.19; SALE price: $1.99. I'm pretty clever, (if I do say so myself) I used 2 $1.00 coupons...but the scanner beeped, oh dear...The coupons exceed the price of the item, "sir can you just take 99¢ off that $1.00 coupon so It'll work?" So he did, and of course I told him to have a great day!!!


Off to my biggest bargain:
I didn't get a picture of it, but I got our new car FILLED for FREE, I'm talking like I was about to have to PUSH it, the mileage/gas indicator said I only had 23 more miles of gas left, (we planned it that way). When we purchased the car they said to fill out the survey and they would give us a full tank of gas when we wanted it. We sure took advantage of that!! We probably saved $40 bucks or very close to that maybe more:-) I didn't go to the gas station so I don't know the actual cost. (The lot tech took it.) While he did that I looked at Ford Escapes. Just let me say that after I drove about 15 miles the needle was still above the FULL mark. So we did get a FULL tank, I'm absolutely sure of that.
On my way home (finally) I stopped at another Walgreens, they had bacon 2/$6.00 and I had a $1.50 off 1 and because my printer messed up I was unable to print it again but I made good use of the other one in the Sunday coupons for JUST 75¢ off one. That's better than none (I say). So I paid $1.37 for EACH bacon, and it's Oscar Mayer, you can't beat that. When I paid, a $1.00 catalina printed out. I also noticed these Gortons Grilled Fillets which Sam and I like, they were on clearance to 75¢ EACH so I used the only coupon I had, it was for 40¢ off ANY Gortons, so I paid 35¢ for one of the 3 boxes! Then I noticed this Bertolli lasagna meal, BINGO, it was clearanced down to $2.19, I rummaged thru my coupons and found a $1.00 off one so I paid $1.19 for that bag.

That was too much fun, I wanted more, I stopped at another Walgreens to hunt for clearance items, I had to hurry I had frozen food in the trunk, I was able to snag the last Bertolli from them and use my $1.00 cat. from the previous store. YEAH ME!!!

Go visit http://www.hip2save.com/ and you'll get a million bargain/savings deal in a year, check often through out the day. And one more thing, when you see a post with an awesome deal, print the coupon RIGHT away, sometimes they reach their print pretty fast.

Mail Delivery

Getting the mail yesterday was way cool....I love nothing more than FREE, well OK, I love my family more, but you know it was pretty exciting to open the mail and get 2 FREE bottles of Vitamin water and the best thing was I/we won a $25.00 Discover Card for just using "The Card That Pays You Back". I was more than thrilled because I didn't even know they were doing a giveaway. But considering I use this card for nearly EVERY purchase over 5 bucks, I ought to win something, YEAH ME!

Yard Work

above: won't be long till the Daffodils pop open:-)

The other day I was doing some clean up detail.Above is before

Much better now.

I got the old plants pulled out and I need to get my flower pot cleaned out next. Maybe my grand kids will build me another flower pot for Mothers Day if I pull out the old.

I was working on cutting down the mums but my hand got tired, I have a bad case of tendinitis, TY very much Toys R Us.

Waiting for new growth, and new plants and mulch.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Pistachio Pudding Cake

I made a cake yesterday, it's one that my mom made every now and then.

The finished cake.

I think it looks like one of those candle cakes.

ready for the middle layer of frosting/pudding mix

cutting in half

Cooling on the rack, I was so thrilled it just popped out of the pan with no trouble.

Fresh out of the oven.

The cake mix ready for the oven.

Wordless Wednesday

This is my 2 year old granddaughter, while taking out the pieces she said she is making a "circle" and she has a great start too, notice it?

A Heart

If you look close enough at anything you can see love. I just found ham in the shape of a heart, cool.

Whodunit?

Do you see all that white stuff, grrrr, this annoys me, I wash the laundry and what on earth do I find, some paper in a zillion pieces. What do I do when this happens? I take it outside and shake each item and then I turn it inside out or inside right what ever the case may be and shake some more. And I like to find out who did this but this time I didn't find anything big enough to pin point whodunit.

My Trip To Matthew 25 Ministries

This is from my previous postAbove is the sign, it speaks for itself.
These are just some of the nations flags, I couldn't get them all in my picture.

Here I am sorting out donated clothes, I'm checking for stains, and rips/tears, if they have any they go into another bin, maybe for rags, I'm not really sure.

A cute crib, a perfect way to recycle pallets.

A sea of shoes. Sometimes they're not tagged as a set, people sort for the missing one and then they tag them together and put them in their own separate clear bag with the shoe size written on the bag.

I hope you enjoyed my trip I was so happy to go and make good use of my time. Get a hold of me if you'd like to go with me sometime.

One of My Charieties

Kelly over at http://www.kellyskornerblog.com/ is asking us to list our charity(s) so let me talk about Matthew25 Ministries. They're my latest charity, they collect, sort and distribute donations around the country and WORLD when disaster strikes, Haiti, Hurricane Katrina, and so many other places. This is copied from their website http://www.m25ministries.org/ :

The mission of Matthew 25:Ministries is to fulfill Matthew 25:34-40 of the New Testament by providing nutritional food to the hungry, clean water to the thirsty, clothing to the naked, affordable shelter to the homeless, medical care to the ill, and humanitarian supplies to prisoners.
The people we help are not receiving a handout, but a helping hand. It is only when a person’s most basic needs are met, that one can become self reliant. Because of this belief, Matthew 25: Ministries has always placed an emphasis on education, job creation and providing aid to children.

The pictures below are some I took when a friend and I took 2 large van loads over there collected by our wonderful church families:

Above you see a makeshift hut (home) with a cardboard woman, (looks real) this is a one room home with dirt floors and the kitchen too. You can see a couple hamocks hanging.

another... "backyard" they collect water it's dripping off the leaves of the plant into the barrel. You see the various items they use for "sidding"

Nothing goes to waste, this chair would be tossed in the dumpster at most anybodys home here in the U.S.A. they found a way to use it by putting a block under the leg, almost as good as new.

Cintas donated a LOT of clothing to M25, here they are folding it and passing it on.

I am heading over there today to help out a while. I'll be back with details of my visit. What is the charity your passionate about?

P.S. the next post is about my trip to volunteer. (the one dated Monday March 15)

That's a Heluva Good Coupon!!

Look what I got in the mail!! I signed up for a coupon that I thought was going to get me a free dip, but instead it's for ANY Heluva Good product valued up to $4.99. I don't think I'll waste this on 99¢ dip, nope, it's going to have to be a block of cheese with this one.

My Collections...Dreamsicles and Pandas

Click on the images to enlarge them. Me in the back of my glass curio cabinet w/a few of my panda statues. This is a San Francisco Music Box Company statue Sam got me for some occasion some years ago.
This is my little "MOM" corner of dreamsicles Jennifer got me. This is Jennifers' hand print she gave me some years ago.

Lot's more Dreamsicles and some pandas.

Plenty of Dreamsicles, all my music boxes and globes are from the San Francisco Music Box Company. I got them for birthdays, Christmas's and anniversary's and just because's. (is that even a word?)

Did You Know...

The crocodile cannot move his tongue. The whole tongue is rooted to the base of his mouth.

My Shopping Trips Lately...

This was such a fun, quick trip into Walgreen's, what makes it so fun is because Sam was with me and he got to see how I do this bargain shopping...(of course he hears about it all the time from me) This is how it played out....I had a coupon for buy one get 1 free Purex. This was great because they were running a bogo sale to begin with, so that made the other bottle absolutely FREE, so I got $12.00 in laundry detergent for FREE. Giving to my sister will be greatly appreciated by her. I also had a coupon for a FREE pkg. of Oreos when I bought a gallon of milk and an additional pkg. of Oreos(milk and cookies yum). Since the coupon didn't state what size pkg to buy I bought the small box of Oreos for 99¢ and got the BIG bag FREE. I did all the talking to the nice cashier and told him exactly how I wanted to play this coupon game out and Sam stood there quiet as a mouse taking it all in. I loved it. I had $2.00 in Walgreen's money (RR=register reward) The milk was on sale for $1.99. So I handed over just $1.35 in cash. Yeah ME!!!

Click on the pictures,you know you want to:-)This receipt is nearly as long as my granddaughter is tall!!! To get the best deal for my bucks I made 4 transactions so I could get all my Catalina's, (a paper worth X amt. off my next order, which I used to get the higher priced items: dog food, meat, toilet paper, dog treats and a jar of spice and several bags of french fries)
I couldn't even get it all in a single shot.

Not even from standing up on a chair w/ a wide lense. haha

ok, I really could have but it's too tough to see what all I have.

So I'll just "spell" it out for you.

15 boxes of B.C. potatoes FREE

12 B.C. Helpers 25¢ each

2 Macaroni Grills $1.99 ea.

2 pouches of U.Bens rice $1.16 ea.

4 cans Chunky soup 65¢ ea.

1 Barilla sauce $1.00

2 boxes of Swiss Miss 50¢ ea.

2 Welch's gr. juice $2.00 ea.

1 G-2 Gatorade FREE

3 Warm Delights 17¢ ea.

1 Louis Kemp crab delights 99¢

3 fruit cups 67¢ ea.

1 bag crappy iceberg lettuce FREE

1 bag baby organic carrots FREE

1 pkg. sliced mushrooms $1.50

3 Lunchable subs 25¢ ea.

1 Smithfiield bacon $1.58

4 Ore ida potatoes $4.00

7 Gr. Giant boxed veggies $8.?? BECAUSE I DIDN'T REALIZE ASPARAGUS WAS NOT INCL. AND THAT COST ME OVER $3.?? FOR JUST ONE BOX, SHAME ON ME. (I really splurged on that, it was really good tho, but won't do it again) ANYWAY...

2 Heluva Good Dips FREE

1 12 Big Rolls Charmin $4.79

6 pkgs. Pillsbury cookies $1.00 ea.

4 tubes Pillsbury biscuits $1.00 overage!!

6 yoplait 26¢ ea.

1 bag Chef Michaels dog food $2.99

4 B.C. fruit snacks of various kind 50¢ ea.

4 Ortega seasoning packets 12¢ overage!!

2 B.C. Supreme brownie mix around $1.17 ea.

4 Chex Mix FREE

4 toaster struddles 50¢ ea.

1 box of Tyson chicken patties $1.50

1 bag Gortons Fish fillets $2.49

1 5# box of cuties oranges $3.97

1 Kraft parm. cheese $1.99

1 shoe lace pkg. $1.59

2 different kinds of dog treats aprox. $2.49 TOTAL (one was free)

2 hershey candy bars 37¢ each, (bogo)

1 lager bag dog food $7.99

1 pkg. ground Angus beef $5.97

1 tube pillsbury sweet rolls 9¢

1 loaf bread 89¢

1 pear $1.08 OUCH!!! but it was sooooo yummy

1 pkg. Barilla pasta shells $1.98

1 small Calif. pizza $1.69

1 bag pretzels $1.34

2 bags of Joy of Cooking meals CLEARANCED out 1.99 ea.

1 jar sage $3.75

Transaction #1 Before coupons $33.98 PAID: $13.79 saved 40.59%

Transaction #2 " " $29.85 " $10.21 " 65.80%

Transaction # 3 " " $176.28 " $70.01 " 60.28%

Transaction #4 " " $49.01 " $ 6.60 " 86.53%

Combined.............. " " $289.12 " $107.01 " 63%

Target had these twin packs on clearance for $5.08 EACH. With Sam eating one just about every month, I had to tackle this deal while the getting was good. These sell for $10.35 a twin pack at Kroger!!!!
A savings of $5.49 per package and a GRAND TOTAL savings of $23.96.

CVS made a BIG woops 2 weeks ago and put ALL their Huggies wipes on sale for 2/$5.00. It was just supposed to be the little tubs but I was able to get in on the deal with a rain check. Jennifer gave me a couple coupons and so one of the 4 pkgs. ended up being free because I had a $2.00 off any Huggies coupon that printed out for me at CVS, I paired it w/ a mfr. coupon and made it free.
With all my coupons it ended up going down to $6.00 then I used part of a $25.00 gift card I had for transferring a RX. I actually gave them NO money that day! Yeah ME. These wipes come in handy for messy sticky little faces and hands, cleaning up around the counters and the bathrooms between disinfectant cleaning. I will also donate 2 packs to Blake's teacher because she uses wipes in her classroom. Donating makes me feel good.

Not Me Monday

Over at www.mycharmingkids.net everyone is talking about what they don't think they did, but in reality we really did it, we just don't like to spread our faults around too much.
***This picture does not go with the day I am going to talk about here but it's the only one I have of her in her carseat.***

Last week one day I meet my daughter at her work so could have some "Jayde time" while she worked. Jayde and I went shopping and then she saw McDonald's Valentine cards in my car and wanted to go there. Naturally I gave in. It was only 10:00 A.M. and I thought she'd have a fun time in their play area and work her way up through the tubes and slide down. She had so much fun and she and another boy her age were the only ones (yippie). So we finally got done with our running around and it was near time for her mom to get out of work...this is where the NOT ME part kicks in...
We were not 2 blocks from her work and I would never have thought just for a second not to return her to her mom but instead take her straight to my house and play some more indoors while Jennifer finished up her last 10 minutes and drove the 7 min out of her way to my house to get Jayde, this way my sweet granddaughter would be riding home in a warmed up car instead of getting into Mommy's cold car in the parking lot. Always thinking about what is best for my grandkids...but not the most convient.

What didn't you do?