Lollipops

Lyrics to 2 different songs come to my mind, as I look at these pictures..."Lolly, lick a lolly, lick a lolly, lollipop" (I believe that one came from "Electric Company". Do you remember that PBS show?) and... "Lollipop, lollipop, ooo lolly lollipop, lollipop, POP!"

Rylee actually has another lollipop from her birthday, a year ago.
Wonder how long this one will last?

Taylee says hers tastes like "watermelon marshmallow".

In true, "Treyson form", Treyson had broken his and had most of his lollipop eaten before bed time.

One of the first things Abree did, was smell her lollipop. (I don't know why she likes to smell her food, but she does this often.) Abree reported that it smelled like strawberries, but tasted like sugar.

I got these for the kids, while I was on my trip. It's not much, but I like to bring a little something home to them, when I've been away. It's proof that although I was kid-less during the week, I still thought of them. :o)

Post Falls Get away

I've just returned from visiting my good friend Krissi, in Post Falls, ID. We had a lot of fun.

First on our agenda was a spa day, at the "Highlands Day Spa". Six women gathered (Amy, Laurie, Dena, Erika, Krissi, & myself) to treat ourselves to some relaxation and time away from every-day life.
We enjoyed a hand and foot paraffin dip, a foot soak and massage, a mud hair treatment and...
an awesome upper back massage from Zach! He did a great job. I REALLY needed a good massage! As we took turns at each station, we ate yummy snacks and visited with one another. We had a nice relaxing time, enjoying the company of women and getting to know one another better.

Next, we went to dinner. A few more women joined us for the night; Tami and Terri. I can't remember the restaurant's name, but it was like P.F. Changs. We enjoyed a family-style meal, including lettuce wraps...of course!

Then, we headed towards the mountains. We stayed in a condo time-share. We stayed up late talking and eating yummy treats. The highlight was the chocolate fountain in which we dipped, rice crispy treats, strawberries, mint Oreos, etc.

In the morning, 3 girls had to get back for kid's ballgames, but the remaining 5 of us took our time getting showered, dressed and cleaning up before leaving.

Me, Dena, Erika (Dena's sis-in-law from California), Krissi & Terri.

Here's the view from our condo balcony.

Right on Lake Coeur'd Alene.

After checking out, we went to lunch and did a little shopping. Such a nice get-away, with such a nice group.

Saturday evening, I went to a Spokane Indian's hockey game with Krissi and her family. Steve's work (Krissi's husband) takes all of their employees/family/friends to the game, once a year. They rent out a "box" and have catered food and drinks. It was an exciting game. They played the #1 team, in their league, (Spokane is #2 in the league) in which they have a lot of team rivalry. There were 2 really big fights (gloves, pads, helmets, etc. thrown off) and 1 small fight.

Spokane's mascot visited our box twice. Some kids loved him others did NOT.

For the remainder of the week, I hung out with Krissi, her family and her friends. We scrapbooked, volunteered in her girl's school, went to her R.S. birthday dinner and did a little shopping.

Here's Krissi's youngest, Daniel. I took a picture of him with all these stuffed animals surrounding him. The whole couch was full! It reminded me of that scene in E.T. :o) --His favorites are "Cookie" (bear) and "Puppy" (build-a-bear dog).
Did I mention we scrapbooked??? My goal was to scrapbook a whole year while I was there. Well, I didn't get a whole year done, but I did get a lot accomplished. I started in June 2006 and ended in April 2007 (I had to skip Dec 2006, because I accidentally left my pictures at home.)

Krissi's friend Lisa, let us come over several times and scrapbook in her awesome basement. Krissi has brought over most of her stuff to Lisa's because she has such an awesome space. All I had to bring was my book pages, photos and cutting instruments, everything else was provided. (Lisa has a Cricut. You know that cool die-cut machine. That was fun to play with.)

Thanks Krissi and Lisa!

***Lisa and Jodie, you lucked out. I accidentally erased the picture of you scrapbooking. So sorry. I bet you're so bummed. I was fun hanging out with you girls! Thanks again.***

Overall, I had a really nice week. I am grateful for good friends and a great husband and family.

Oops, I did it again.

I'm out-of-town visiting my friend Krissi, but this didn't stop me from visiting Kmart, one more time, before the double coupon week ended. I wanted to check to see if they had more items stocked than ours...and they did. Here's what I got here:

-6 Kotex pantyliner (Candice, are you squirming?)=$Free
-Vaseline lotion=$.29
-Gillette Shampoo=$.50
-Johnson & Johnson gauze pads=$Free
-Johnson & Johnson first aid tape=$Free
-3 Band-aids (20ct)=$Free
-More Ky Warming=$2.49 (Candice, I know what you're thinking. Your secret is safe with me.)

Total=$3.85+tax

Me Too

Me too, me too...I wanna play!

I've heard and seen so many people saving so much money by couponing that I really want to figure this couponing thing out. With Kmart having another double coupon week, I thought I'd see what kind of deals I could get. (Most of the items I went there for, were out of stock!) So I'm happy to have found what I did. Here's what I got:

-8 Post Cereals =less than $1 each *This was an unusual purchase for me, because I rarely buy boxed cereal. I almost always buy the Malt-o-Meal bagged cereal, mostly because I think it's cheaper. Is it really??? Has anyone done the research on price per ounce?
-Crest Toothpaste =FREE
-Bic Razors (10pk)= FREE
-6 Oral B Toothbrushes =FREE
-4 Bayer Chewable Asprin=FREE
-KY Warming=$2.49
-Johnson & Johnson First Aid pads=FREE
-Windex =FREE
-Arm & Hammer Laundry Detergent (50oz)=$1
-Quaker Mini Delights =FREE
-2 Ocean Spray juice =.50 each

My grand total spent was.... $10.43!

If you add all of it up, it comes to more than $10.43, but there was an extra discount automatically taken off for every 4 boxes of cereal AND I also printed off an internet coupon for Kmart (when you spend $50 you get $5 off). So my total before coupons was around $54 and then they took all the coupons off. What a beautiful thing. :o)

The Best Gift EVER!

This is one of the gifts I received from Jason, for Christmas. At first glance it looks like a regular free calendar, sponsered by the Wienhoff Drug Testing Services... and it is.

At second glance, you may notice the circled date and notation.

Several years ago, Jason and I attended a couples conference. In one of the mini classes we went to, we learned about the book, "The 5 Love Languages" by Gary Chapman. (I recommend it, if you haven't read it.) After reading it, we were able to understand one another's "love language" better. He likes to receive love through "physical touch" and by "words of affirmation". I, on the other hand, like to receive love through "quality time" and "service".

Whenever Jason asks me what I want for a gift, I usually come up with some sort of "honey-do" I'd like to have done. He usually says, "I'm going to eventually get to that any way. So what do you REALLY want?" What he's now starting to understand is that IS what I really want!

As the circled date got closer, I started to make a list of what I'd like done. It was hard to prioritize or eliminate, so the list got long. I warned him it was long and he warned me that he might not get ALL of it done that day...but then also reassured me that he would still get it all done eventually. Here are a few of the things that got done, off my list...

Clean shower doors.

Hang iron decoration above door.Fix laundry room light. Yea, it's so nice to be able to see what I'm doing in there!

Hang bamboo shade in garage window.

Help arrange and hang family pictures.
I've had the "FAMILY" wall hanging for about 10 months now and have been dying to get it hung up. The spacing and hanging accuracy was intimidating me. I like the way it turned out.

There were several other things he accomplished too. Another part of the gift, was having him home ALL day. That is rare. I appreciate his thoughtfullness and willingness to tackle my big "honey do" list.

Thanks Jason! That was the best gift EVER!!!

X is for X-Ray

This week in pre-school we learned about the letter X. The best thing I could come up with for the letter X, was x-ray. I know xylophone starts with X, but it sounds like Z.
I didn't want to confuse the poor kiddos.

The first day, we made pretend x-rays of our hands (black paper and Q-tips). Today we saw some REAL x-rays of teeth (thanks to Dr. Blaisdell) and then made pretend x-rays of our insides (thanks to Mommy Blaisdell). For our x-ray we had a heart and then ribs that flapped over the heart. The girls were confused about the life-like shape of the heart. They said, "That doesn't look like a heart. That looks weird!" They turned out pretty cute.

We also played tic-tac-toe.
It was kind of a hard concept for 4 yr olds, but I had to do it because of the X's.