The News from Next Door

Our neighbors (the ones who used to have 6 cars, but are now down to 4) have been throwing some major parties in their garage lately. It's the college age guys and their buddies and there appears to be a lot of beer involved (the cans and boxes overfloweth on trash day). The late night noise and obvious excessive drinking have been the talk of the cul de sac. I had this conversation with my neighbor across the street last week when I ran into him at the grocery store:

K: Hey! I saw someone from the Sheriff at your neighbor's house this morning. They went up to the front door and talked to the guy for a little while. But they didn't take him away (obviously disappointed).

me: Did you complain about the noise? We haven't.

K: We haven't either. Maybe someone else did. I guess with today's real estate market, they'll never move. (more disappointment).

We have dealt with it for so long we just don't care anymore. It's the ONLY thing we don't like about our house and our neighborhood, so we have decided to pretend it isn't there (except when they wake us up at 2am with loud music and talking- arghhhh!).

Get it Sold (the Stewart version of the HGTV show)

Dave and I have a not-so-secret talent. It's called "We are expert home stagers/declutters/movers". Almost all of our family has used our services within the last few years. And after writing this, I'm sure we'll be getting some calls from friends and long lost relatives.

This weekend we were called to Indianapolis for an emergency POD intervention. We had selfish reasons for going too, as we wanted to see John & Tara and all of the girls and say goodbye to Indy, where we have enjoyed visiting them for the last 10 years. Soon they will be relocated to Atlanta, but for now, it's time to get their house on the market.

I can't even begin to list all we did this weekend, but we did leave with the POD almost completely full and the house completely re-arranged thanks to Dave (staging expert). I'm sure the house will be even more beautiful after new paint and carpet later this week. We are praying someone is already looking for a house just like theirs.

We did go celebrate our 9th wedding anniversary with a dessert date at Red Robin (across the street from their neighborhood) and then we went back the next night to eat with the whole gang (see picture). It was a wild time and we're so glad we went. Daniel already misses his cousins, and they are pretty mad we took our Wii home with us. They'll just have to come visit on their way to Atlanta!

Grocery Trip- or "Why I love Publix"

I've been meaning to show a typical grocery trip after my last shopping blog a few weeks ago. Today was a pretty typical trip, except for the absence of milk which I grabbed from Walgreens (along with a 99 cent paper for extra coupons) last night on the way back into the neighborhood after being out of town. Today I spent $25.54 and saved $39.57.

I will caveat this with a few notes:

• I buy almost all of our meat at Costco or Kroger in bulk so that is a separate expenditure.
• We mostly eat healthy but this trip had a few junk food treats/snacks that I use for bribery/rewards as needed.
• We did stop at Trader Joe's on the way out of Indy yesterday so I had picked up bread and a few other fun things there (no coupons : )
  
• I am planning a $5 trip to Aldi this week for fresh vegetables.

Some highlights:

• Spiderman vitamins for $2 each (normally $6.99) using store and manufacturer coupons together.
• Jello Puddings were 67 cents each after coupon
• Salad dressings were 35 cents each after coupon
• Fruit snacks were 90 cents a box after coupon
• Things I bought and paid full price: just 1 item- Parmesan pesto sliced ham from the deli
• Gatorade was the one penny item
  
• Everything else was on sale (of course!)

Dave is gone so I'm only cooking dinner two nights this week. Tonight's plan is to shop at Costco and get some fruit smoothies and pizza slices there (cheap dinner, no mess at home!)

Why I am thankful for washable markers:

All by Myself

Dave is gone a lot lately. I think he's been in town one full week since March. While it's nice to have a break from cooking a full dinner every night, sometimes it gets pretty lonely around here during the week. This has always been struggle for me, especially during the 4-7 pm hours when we usually getting ready for daddy to come home, eat dinner, talk about our day, play and help with bedtime. So here are my tips for filling the time and getting through the evening with sanity:

Get out of the house right after nap (this is so much easier than last summer because the boys are bigger and more portable). We have most recently gone to the zoo, the pool and various parks. Most venues are less crowded from 3-6pm and we don't need heavy sunscreen. We also will run errands and grocery shop just to get out of here and break up the evening.

Eat dinner out. Most of the time this is something simple like Taco Bell or Wendy's and sometimes we take it to the park for a picnic. This means I don't have a mess to clean up at home either.

Do something special. We've done a dinner picnic on a blanket in the living room, an ice cream outing, played in a new water sprinkler and a movie night. Just because Daddy is not home doesn't mean we can't have a fun time without him.

Have a buddy. I have several friends who husbands also travel and sometimes we go to dinner together when our husbands are gone, or at least touch base and give each other support during the week. It's nice to have someone who can understand the isolation of being a temporary single parent.

I'm so glad Dave is not deployed for months at a time, in a foreign country or gone M-F every week. All of the travel does make me appreciate him more the evenings he is home with us. And most of all, we are thankful he is working hard for us at a job he enjoys.

Stinky Boys

Recently I made a horrible discovery. My clean laundry for the boys (particularly Daniel) had a weird odor. It was perfectly clean, but it stunk! I consulted the internet and several friends for advice and made a few adjustments. I had been washing his colors in cold water (to be more energy efficient) but it was not getting out the odors. So I switched all of his clothes to warm water and added some fabric softener to get a fresh scent going. I'm pleased to report things are much better for now, at least until he hits puberty and really starts sweating.

In a somewhat related note, Daniel just informed me when he passes gas it means "he is running out of energy". He's in the bathtub farting away right now while I'm typing this.

And in a completely unrelated note, a happy birthday shout out to cousin Lily Kate- she is wonderful "one" today. We wish we could have had some cake : )

Craigslist Pyranas

I had unsuccessfully asked Dave to move our old 36" tv (aka the black monster) out of the front hall for the last two weeks and I decided the root issue is we just don't want to deal with the hassle of moving it. So this morning I asked permission (I ALWAYS ask permission when it comes to electronics) to list it on craigslist for free.

I thought there might be one or two takers since we practically had to pay someone to take our 27" tv at our yard sale a few weeks ago. I listed it, went and took a shower and 25 minutes later, there were 13 emails about it. The funniest thing was the pleading in the emails: "my current tv is only 19 inches", or "please please hold it for ME", or "I can't afford a new tv right now"- this one was sent from a wireless blackberry device (ironic). One guy emailed me 3 times in a 5 minute time span (hello, psycho?). I'm happy to say the tv is being picked up in the next 15 minutes (or else there are 10+ other people waiting in the wings for it). And I have learned something new- there are craiglist "free" pyranas out there, just waiting by their computers to score a free deal on anything!

On a somewhat related note, I have listed 23 Stampin' Up sets (see my previous post about "Modified Hobbies") on ebay to auction starting tomorrow afternoon (studies show Sundays are the best days for ebay auctions). We'll see if I can raise enough money to replace my breadmaker!!

Deals part 2

My next stop was Publix to use up a few coupons before the current sale ends on Tuesday. I had already made a separate trip for regular groceries and coupons, so this is what I call a "coupon clean up" trip because I just got around to clipping these today- I got 2 cake mixes, 4 boxes popcorn, cheese slices (penny item) and nail polish (completely free)

I spent $3.22 and saved $17.54. One of my friends who shops in Publix in Montgomery, AL paid $2.71 and saved $67 yesterday- great shopping!! These are pretty typical trips- I get free and almost free stuff weekly and the coupon savings usually offset things I have to pay full price for- milk, produce, etc. Hope you enjoyed a peek into my shopping life!

Deals- Part one

So you can get an idea of what my typical shopping trip looks like, I thought you might enjoy a visual of two trips I made yesterday. The first stop was CVS, which I also like to call my new summer hobby.

I bought: 3 packages Pampers, 2 Dawn Soaps, 1 bag Chex Mix, and 1 package CVS Bandaids. I used a $3 off $15 CVS coupon, $5.25 in manufacturer coupons and my total was $20.71 before tax. I paid with $20 extra care bucks* and paid the tax with a CVS gift card. So my cash out of pocket was $0 and I got $8 in extra care bucks back. My real cost was about $15 in extra care bucks, but since I had about $50 extra care bucks I needed to spend some anyway and I got a lot for them.

* the $20 extra care bucks were from another deal where I paid $2 out of pocket and got $20 back.