Mommin' It Up!

December 10, 2007December 10, 2007

“Mother of the Year” award slips right through the cracks…

The other night, we took Kate to the high school girls’ basketball game. I thought it would be good for her to see female athletes in action (Jenny stop rolling your eyes!) and all.

When we arrived, Kate and I followed Andy about 3/4 of the way up the bleachers and took a seat. I didn’t think twice about where we were sitting… problem number one. For some reason, Kate was really worried about falling down… as opposed to the last time when we were in that gym, when we couldn’t get her to sit down. I kept telling her not to worry, that there was no way she was going to fall through the bleachers. (My internal dialogue “Famous last words, dummy. But really, who’s ever heard of someone falling through the bleachers?” I don’t think I want to google that and find out.)

So time went on and Kate got a little more comfortable.

A little too comfortable.

But not nearly as comfortable as her cracker-jack parents, who were watching a too much basketball and too little three-year-old.

It took a very calm, very matter-of-fact voice to get my attention.

“Bye, Mommy. Bye, Daddy. I’m falling.”

She was behind us, sitting on the part where feet are supposed to go, with her little legs dangling precariously through the crack, holding onto the row in front of her for dear life.

The next 15 seconds are a blur to me, but Andy and I both grabbed her and pulled her up. She didn’t understand why we were suddenly squeezing the breath out of her.

Andy turned to me and said, “Do not look down. I just did and it made me sick to my stomach.”

I kept thinking about Kate saying “Bye, Mommy. Bye, Daddy. I’m falling” and I was laughing hysterically. It was definitely one of those laugh-to-keep-from-crying moments.

The rest of the night, I kept thinking about what could have happened. I was so thankful to see my little girl sound asleep in her bed.

I also spent the rest of the night mad at myself and Andy… what kind of parents take their child so far up into the bleachers? DUH. Lesson learned, I suppose… but still. Ugh.

December 7, 2007

Dirty Phonics on the Bathroom Wall

Joshua is almost four and his intelligence astounds me every day (’cause you know, Bobby and I are a couple of dummies). He’s known all his letters since before he was two, partially because we have a magnetic bathroom wall. Yesssss, the tiles on our bathroom wall are made of metal. I’m not sure what era this is from exactly but it’s both functional and aesthetically pleasing. Yay! Anyhoo, a couple of years ago we got a slew of magnetic alphabet letters for the bathroom wall to ~~entertain~~ educate him while I was in the shower. Recently, thanks to his super-genius and the PBS Kids show Word World, Joshua has begun spelling actual words with said letters, without even asking me how they are spelled! Yesterday when I got out of the shower, he said, “Look Mom, I’m going to spell the word bug.” He then proceeded to find the b,u, and g and put them in the correct order. I was amazed and of course rewarded him with MUCH praise. Then, he asked me how to spell the word “corn.” I helped him sound it out, he spelled it with the letters, and I cheered again. Yay genius boy!

Fast forward to that evening at bedtime. Bobby and Joshua are in the bathroom preparing to brush Joshua’s teeth, and I am in the bedroom putting my PJs on. All of a sudden I hear Bobby calling me so I run to the bathroom. There I see that Joshua has made a new word. I won’t write it here because I don’t want my blog traffic to get perved up, but let’s just say he took the c off of corn and replaced it with a p. “Mommy look!” he cried. “I made p*rn!”

Bobby was already cracking up, and I just collapsed on the floor laughing. Joshua was veeeeery pleased that he had made us laugh and started giggling too. “I made p*rn!” he exclaimed again proudly. (OF COURSE, he has no idea what that means, or that it’s even a real word. He just knows phonics!) I was laughing so hard I was crying. “What are we gonna do?” I asked Bobby, who was no better off than I was. “I don’t know!” he said. He was cracking up so badly I thought he was going to have an asthma attack. Joshua noticed that we were slightly distracted from his spelling efforts, so he took the p away from the orn and said, “Mommy, now I’m gonna build the word p*rn and you’re gonna laugh.” So off I went again, rolling on the floor laughing so hard my stomach hurt. I thought I might be able to distract him with other words. “You can make other words that rhyme with corn, honey. Like worn or born.”

“Or p*rn!” he exclaimed.

(More uncontrollable laughter from his mature, ~~twelve~~ thirty-year-old parents.)

“Forget it,” said Bobby, “I’m just gonna hide all the p’s. ”

“Stupid Word World. Teaching my kid phonics!” I grumbled.

Somehow we all got calmed down, Joshua’s teeth got brushed, and we all went to bed. Bobby and I giggled about Joshua’s new word a while longer, and Bobby took all the p’s off the wall and hid them! Joshua hasn’t mentioned it today at all, but I’m preeeety sure he’s going to remember just in time to tell the babysitter or anyone and everyone at church this weekend that he “made p*rn”. And then, we will really have some ‘splaining to do!

So, stay tuned for that.

December 6, 2007

Confessions of a CVS Junkie

A couple of days ago I gave Money Saving Mom a “Your Blog is Out of the World Award”. Here’s why: thanks to her blog, I’ve learned how to get CVS to PAY me to shop there! Not in actual dollars, but in CVS “Extra Care Bucks”, which you can use like cash at CVS stores. I am going to give you the short version of how I do this, click here to go to Money Saving Mom for the long version.

First, you have to apply for one of CVS’ free Extra Care cards. Just go in the store and getcha one. This card allows you to get the sale prices at CVS and also to get “Extra Care Bucks” (ECBs) back on the purchases of certain items they have on weekly and monthly specials. There are usually at least one or two monthly items that are “free” after ECBs. For instance, this month there is a new mouthwash by Sensodyne called “Oasis” that is on sale for $5.99, and you get $5.99 ECBs back when you purchase it. So it’s like getting the item for free, but if you happen to have a manufacturer’s coupon for the item, you can actually “make money” on the deal. I had a manufacturer’s coupon for $1.50 off the Oasis mouthwash, so when I bought it I “made” that dollar fifty. CVS also often has store coupons for say, $2 off a $10 purchase or $4 off a $20 purchase that you can stack with manufacturer’s coupons to “sweeten the deal”. Here’s an example of a transaction I did Sunday at CVS.

I bought one of those Oasis mouthwashes, a Gillette Fusion Razor, and a Febreze candle. The total before tax & coupons was $22.97. I used a CVS $4 off of $20 coupon, a $4 Gillette manufacturer’s coupon, a $1 Febreze manufacturer’s coupon, and that $1.50 Oasis coupon. That brought the total down to $12.47. I used $11.99 worth of ECBs I had from a previous purchase, and paid $2.04 out of pocket, including tax. Great deal, huh? Especially since I got $16.99 back in ECBs as well! ($6 for the razor, $5.99 for the mouthwash, and $5 for the Febreze candle. Although I should mention you had to purchase $10 worth of Febreze to get this benefit – I had purchased the other Febreze products on a previous transaction).

So, now I am an official, full-on, CVS nerd! I live for the weekly and monthly CVS ads so I can get out my calculator and my coupons and start figuring out my deals! I’m like an addict, always ready for my next high. I’ve even got my husband into it. He got his own Extra Care card so we can do some deals more than once if they have a limit. Here is a picture of ALL the stuff I got at CVS on Sunday. I did it in three transactions, using both my and Bobby’s Extra Care card.

I spent about $60 in Extra Care Bucks and got about $34 BACK in ECBs. The total dollar amount in real money I spent out of my pocket was…drumroll please…$6.94!!! WOOHOO!!

That’s right my peeps, I got five 100 oz. Tides, two jumbo packs of Pampers, two swiffer wet refills, two swiffer dry refills, some Kashi crackers, Febreze fabric refresher, air freshener, and candle, the Fusion razor, a four-pack of Charmin, and four Oasis mouthwashes for $6.94. HOLLA!

So now, get started with your CVS deals! Head over to Money Saving Mom to read her CVS 101, and check with her every week for the CVS deals and coupons! Other places that are helpful with coupons are the CVS forums on SlickDeals and Deal of Day.

And, because I love you dear readers, here is the $2/$10 some coupon link to get you started!
CVS $2/$10

Happy Shopping! I look forward to hearing your bargain tales!