a temporary solution

after blogging earlier today- I had a brain storm... a beautiful wonderful brainstorm- they're so rare these days....



Our Friend has a spiderman costume... and luckily, he was generous enough to make a borrowing trade with us- a spiderman costume for a batman toy- I even threw in the batbike... I wanted to make sure that W felt like he got the good end of the deal.

thanks W- you're a great friend!

PLEASE- SOMEONE!! HELP!!

Matthew is certain that he needs a spiderman muscle costume- it's all he's been talking about for 3 days now! He threw himself on the floor in a puddle of tears at Sara and Stuart's because Stuart didn't have one in his closet... all day today he's been asking me to make one for him- buy one for him- get one off of the computer and make it come out of the printer... make his clothes into a Spiderman costume.... I know sometimes kids have to want things and deal with not getting it- but for days?? And why does it have to be so hard on me anyway.... I've already been though this as a kid... I have to do it again???

trying to figure it out...

to coupon, or not to coupon, that seems to be the question...

on one hand, as I'm researching how to save more money, I hear stories of people who shop from a list, and only buy what they need. Fair enough. Not impulse buying would obviously save you LOTS of money if you are someone who occasionally goes to the grocery store for milk, decides she doesn't want to go back to the store again tomorrow, or later in the week and then fills the cart with items- not having a plan on how to use them... before I started cooking dream dinner style, I shopped this way a lot- especially right before Matthew was born.... I'd see a mom with her crying kid and things would start flying into my cart- I was going to be stocked well- no running around the grocery store with a crying newborn for me....

Now, scouring the Internet for places or ways to find extra coupons (... did you know that there are websites out there that let you load coupons to your Kroger plus card??). I've found a few people who talk of getting stuff very cheaply, or free even. (here, here and here) I'm trying to see exactly how this works- what the catch is... so far, all I've found is that you have to meal plan around the deals, and stock up on what's for sale- so you don't have to buy an item again until it's on sale again... which also seems like it would take just as long to figure out as scouring all over for coupons and sales...

this would maybe be a fun task to try to figure out with a friend, but alone it's quite daunting and time consuming!!

STAYIN' ALIVE...

We're all stayin' alive this week...

and it's been a busy week...

The story of what happened to my Grandparents on Monday as told by my mom:

Mom felt sick after eating lunch - thought it was the food, went and lay down on the bed.
Dad checked on her a little later- couldn't get her out of bed.
Sat down in his office chair to call someone but seemed to pass out.
Grandma and Grandpa say now they could both hear the phone ringing (it was Margaret, their neighbor) but couldn't get to it.
Mom said she was yelling for dad to come back to the bedroom - thinking he went back out to work in the garage.
She prayed that someone would come to the house. She could not get up.
After Margaret called several times, couldn't get anyone to answer, I would say God used her as a vessel and she came to check on them.
Margaret called Cindy and Kenny who came up right away. Cindy helped mom walk outside sitting her in a chair outside with a blanket. Margaret sat with grandma outside. Kenny called 911. Then they both pushed dad out in his 'wheeled' office chair - thank God that's what he sat down in as he was not responsive at all...Mom was barely responsive.
Fire dept, ambulances came, checked the house, took them to the hospital.
After receiving the oxygen in the ambulance, there was a world of difference in Grandpa - by the time they were in the ER, both were sitting and responding. They are expected to have a room together at the hospital tonight.
They had not seen each other since they left their home in ambulances...they each were asking about the other as they were in different ER rooms.
They are tired.

Thank GOD for his miracles.

Our Christmas

cross stitch stockings, originally uploaded by SIMPLY.MADE.

I had great plans... I was going to show you my stockings on Christmas eve, and then our tree again on Christmas morning... but then little Mr. Matthew fell ill, and well, we spent our Christmas much differently than planned.

It was still quite a sweet Christmas day- In between being sick, Matthew was quite snugly and just as cute as ever. We watched Wall-e and hung around the house, a bucket always close by.

I'm glad to say that Matthew is 110% better now, though he has become quite used to all of the snuggling and being carried around- Yep, I've got some snugglers on my hands. Too bad I can't spend every bit of every day snuggled up on the couch with my babies... the bathrooms won't clean themselves, Dinner won't appear at 5:30...

Maybe just a few more hours of snuggling though before we worry about that...

hey- and notice those stockings?? I made those! Not all this year of course... I made Erik's the year we were married, and got most of mine finished then too, made Matthew's the next year and completed Sophia's just barely in time. Well, to be completely honest, hers still isn't finished, her Santa Still needs his beard glued on... but who's going to call me out on it? I had from January to December to finish Matthew's and only from her wild arrival in July to complete hers...