The Colorado Tornado hits too close to home

Please keep my son, JJ and his wife, Lisa in your thoughts and prayers. They live in Windsor, Colorado - which was hit by a tornado early this afternoon, and most of the town was devastated. Thank God, JJ was on a business trip in Wyoming, and Lisa was at work out of Windsor, but we are still waiting to hear how their home and belongings survived. Lisa was trying to make it home, but having difficulty with power lines and trees down everywhere. We're mapping the path of the tornado from what we can gather from live helicopter video on the web, and if their house is still standing, or at least not severely damaged, it will be a miracle. Just hold them near your hearts and thoughts for a bit, please. I'll update when I hear anything. UPDATE: We've heard from JJ and miracles do happen. There was quite a lot of damage in their neighborhood (if you've seen the national news, the childcare facility they keep showing is just two streets from JJ and Lisa's house), but their home is OK. Some roof damage and a broken glass sliding door, obviously no electricity. Lisa is staying with a friend tonight, and JJ will be returning from his trip late tomorrow. Their Home Owner's Association will be taking care of repairs, so it's all good. From the news we've seen and reports we're reading, they are very very lucky and the tornado was very very close. It was way too close for this Mom -- but I'm thankful they are OK, and will keep the rest of the town in my thoughts and prayers.

My frugal trip to Walgreens

Well, I took the dive for the whole Walgreens coupons/rebates thing, and I'm pleased with the results. As I've said before, I don't do "freebies" for things I don't use -- that just seems wasteful to me. I have frequently taken advantage of Walgreens' "free after rebate" products for items we normally buy at full price, but always forget to use my Walgreens' gift card.

Today, armed with coupons from the Walgreens' flyer, manufacturer's coupons and my rebate book, I came home with the following "free" items. Before sale and coupons, total price for the items is $48.91. I used $19.95 in coupons and paid for the rest with my rebate money on the Walgreens gift card. I will add $5.93 back on my gift card for rebates on what I purchased today.

Tomorrow Walgreens has a one-day only $5 off $20 purchase (get the coupon here!). I will be using it to buy $10 ConAgra foods (for which I have several manufacturer's coupons) that offer a $5 rebate, plus I'll purchase a blender (which I decided last week I wanted to buy so we can start making low-cal fruit smoothies this summer) for $12.99 with $3 rebate. That will load another $8.80 (for a total of $14.73) on my gift card for next month's deals.

I will say one of the best things you can do when trying this (which is actually a lot of work and requires some real good organization), is to get the Walgreens rebate book at the first of the month, then hit the Internet for the coupons for items you already purchase. For example, I didn't have a Windex coupon, so I did a google search for "Windex Coupon" and came up with a $1 off coupon to print out. It worked for several items!

If you want more information on how this works, check out MoneySavingMom's detailed explanation.

My Frugal Mailbox

Now that I'm making an effort to take advantage of "freebies" and samples, going to the mail box every day is turning into an adventure. Just look what yesterday's mailbox brought me.

The book, The Pursuit of Happyness, is one I received in exchange for my listing books on PaperBackSwap.com. What a great way to get books to read at my leisure this summer! The Food & Family magazine is packed with great recipes for summer. It's a really great FREE magazine, and includes many coupons for Kraft foods. You can sign up for it here. The Kroger book has some great $1 and $2 coupons. An Icy Hot Patch - just in time to help my back through more weeding! Oh, and the $700+ refund check the government owed us. Last is the little tiny package in the bottom right hand corner. This is what that little package contained:

Aren't they sweet?!? They are "tokens" -- A Wish Token and a Guardian Angel token, from the Inspire Company web site. If you check it out, be sure and check out Amy's blog while you're there. I fell in love with these tokens the second I saw them. One of the Guardian Angel tokens will be for Brayden's "treasure bag". The others will be squirreled away until just the right time -- probably to include as a little surprise with a note or card to a friend. I may have to buy some more -- they would be so sweet to tie onto birthday or Christmas gift tags!

Here's a photo of Joey, the Killer Cat. Doesn't look like much of a killer here, does he? Jeff had the heating pad out for his back, and Joey discovered if he wiggled his way in backwards, he could share the heat!

I am from...

I am from slapping screen doors,

linoleum floors,

and three television channels.

I am from gentle mountains of brilliant red, orange and yellow,

where the swish of dried leaves underfoot is a child's favorite hobby

and a babbling clear brook a constant companion.

I am from granite.

I am from lilacs,

dried hay,

and swiss chard.

I am from brown ash ear drops and pine tree gum.

I am from maple syrup.

I am from overboard Christmases,

pioneer frugalness,

catching fireflies,

and dowsing.

I am from Paul and Danny and Barbara by luck,

from Dick and Alice by chance,

from Gail and Rick by blood.

I am from fighting about small things

but never discussing the big,

divorce that never settled disputes,

abandonment

and best friends forever.

From money that doesn't grow on trees

and do it yourself because no one is going to do it for you.

I am from Baptists who believe in music,

a white spired church as familiar as my heartbeat,

strawberry festivals and ice cream socials,

town parades and 4th of July fireworks.

I am from the three room schoolhouse with the dog in the corner

and the stars in a cardboard box.

I am from New Hampshire and Finland,

England and New England,

saltines and milk, and cranberry bread.

I am from cups of tea and too much wine,

head cheese, scratch biscuits, welsh rarebit on crackers,

baked beans and brown bread, yellow pea soup.

From the paratrooper with shrapnel scars who jumped on D-Day,

the future mother who dropped paper out the window

until she met her husband-to-be,

and the brother and sister who left for their future

without any goodbyes or apologies.

I am from a shoebox in the front hall closet,

assorted frames on the dining room shelf,

military medals and memories long lost,

black and white photos of hands in the air,

dusty class photos long stored yet never forgotten.

Where are you from? Try this for yourself. You can find the original post and form here. It's amazing what memories - good and bad - it brings back.

A new crafty blog to check out

I would love to do crafts with Brayden, but admittedly, I haven't found a lot that a 2 yr old can do other using crayons to color pictures. I've mentioned how much he loves water -- and with all the rain we've had we have a puddle of grand size at the end of our driveway. So what could be more perfect than having Brayden make a BOAT?? So hi ho hi ho, off to blog land I go, and I find one gem of a crafty blog called Make and Takes. Just take a look at this cute little boat!

A sponge, a straw and a bit of felt for the "sail" and we're in business. We're definitely going to be making this on Brayden's next visit on Wednesday (before the puddle disappears!). The web site has a great tutorial, though it's not a craft that needs a lot of instruction.

Of course, once I found the boat, I had to keep looking around her web site - and found LOTS more great tutorials of crafts perfect to do with Brayden, such as these great apple prints! How cute are these?? And what do you need? A paper plate, a napkin, an apple and some paint!

She has detailed step-by-step instructions on everything - whether it's a recipe, a pattern for a kid's no-sew fleece poncho, or crafts. Whether you're a Grandma, a Mommy, an Auntie, or anyone else that deals with kids, you'll want to check out Make and Takes.

Since we're on the subject of kids and crafts, another web site I frequent for craft ideas is Adventures in PreSchool. This crafty lady has wonderful ideas on games to play, teaching alphabets and numbers in a fun way, and more. I visit her blog religiously, but she has no email or blog comments, so I can't tell her how much I enjoy her ideas!

If you have any crafty blogs you visit with activities suitable for the 2-4 yr old crowd, please share! I'd love to have many activities lined up for rainy babysitting days.

Hopefully, Brayden and I will have pictures soon of crafts we've done!

My Productive Weekend

We had a great weekend - did some garage sales Saturday morning and had some great finds!

I paid $5 for this little hand-stencilled table. Not sure where I'm going to put it -- probably in the guest bedroom.

I found these framed sets -- both nice "wall fillers". I especially like the second set as they are 3-dimensional little stores - a bookstore, wine store and restaurant, and you can peek in the windows and see little 3-D vingettes. Very sweet. Each set was .50 cents.



And this was a true find -- vintage (I'm guessing 1940's) kid's ceramic tile set to make designs and pictures. But guess what? They're perfect for designing quilt squares as well! In fact, if you look at the book, you can see some quilt square designs. Love this. Paid $5.00.

I also bought Brayden a raincoat (.25), a booster seat ($3) and a swimsuit (.25). Jeff bought some record albums (.25 each) and some very sweet antique pocket-mirrors with ladies' photos on the front. I picked up a brand new electric weedwacker for Mary ($5) and a set of those rubber alphabet mats that fit together like a puzzle for Brayden's room ($2).

When we came back from the yard sales, I headed over to the new Farmer's Market in town, to see what was being offered. No veggies yet (too early in the season) but I did pick up some stew meat and ham hocks, and a Rosemary plant for my herb garden. I look forward to the time when the fresh veggies come in.

The rest of Saturday was spent doing laundry and hanging clothes out, plus some minor housework. Sunday Jeff and I spent all day outside working on the (*#$(*& weeds. I got the front gardens done and even got them mulched. I spread some PREEN around before I put the mulch down, so hopefully that will delay at least some of the weeds during the summer. I also got some summer bulbs planted.

Today I'm cutting back on housework and heading to the backyard to get (hopefully) two more gardens done today. It's supposed to be a beautiful and DRY week here, so perhaps by the end of the week I'll be able to plant the vegetable garden finally. Brayden and I will go buy flowers for the front of the house on Wednesday, and I'll have him help me dig holes to put the flowers in. While cleaning out a dresser in the garage this weekend, I found two kits for making bird houses from large pop bottles, so I want to do that with him this week as well!

It's going to be a busy week!

A little Brayden movie

Looking at the photos I posted yesterday, you'd think Brayden never smiles! He's actually full of giggles and beautiful smiles -- he's just very serious when he's busy doing anything that requires his full attention. But here's a short little movie of him in a more smiley mood. This is more of what I see during the day. At the time I took the movie, I didn't understand that he was pretending to be ME driving my car! By the way - check out my footstool in front of the chair in the background. That's an old stool they used to use at shoe stores! I found it at an auction many years ago and bought it so someday my grandchildren could sit on it and slide down it! And yes - he does! The music in the background is the Sirius Radio Kids Stuff channel. Brayden loves music, and I love having a radio on instead of TV all day.

Weeds, weeding, weeded

Lordy, weeds are going to be the death of me this year. Here in southwestern Ohio we are having such a lovely Spring with an above-average rainfall, cool temperatures and plenty of blue sky. Perfect weather for hanging out laundry and -- growing weeds!

Jeff and I made progress in getting the vegetable garden ready to plant. It's still very wet, but that just makes it easier to pull weeds. I've gotten my front perennial garden done and Jeff did the flower beds along the front of the house. I still have one more flower garden to do in front, plus the perennial garden in back, plus the gardens along the tiers of the retaining wall. And the vegetable garden is about 50% done now, with a lot left to do. Jeff got my raspberry plants cleaned out, trimmed back and mulched, and I've got the grape vines done.

The neighborhood teenager that was supposed to be helping me just hasn't worked out. Every time he shows up to help, his mother calls him and wants him to do something -- "I have to go with her and get gas," for example. He works 30 minutes and leaves for an hour. Comes back and works 30 more minutes and acts like he's put in a 10 hour day. I have to admit, I'm surprised and disappointed.

So if this weeding is going to get done, it's going to have to be Jeff and I that do it. I'm hoping the weather will stay dry enough this week to get out for at least two hours each day and get the garden weeded and tilled.

Here's a photo of some absolutely stunning golden yellow iris I have in my perennial garden. But what do you see around them? Iris leaves? No! Weeds!!! That's how high the weeds have grown this year already and it's only mid-May! These iris' are between 3 and 3.5 feet tall -- and, as you can see, so are the weeds. And this is in a garden that's mulched every year! I've just never seen anything like it.

Brayden photos

OK, for all you Brayden fans (yes, my family reads this blog!) here are some new pictures of Brayden. I tried to take our "typical day" in pictures yesterday. The only thing I didn't really record was our trip to Walmart and his nap. Other than that, here is my day with Brayden Lee!

Brayden arrives around 7:15 AM. We pack Umpa's lunch and then they have breakfast together and 15 or 20 minutes of play time.

And Brayden has to say good morning to Joey, the killer cat. At this time Joey let's Brayden know if it's going to be a good day (he'll stand to be patted) or a bad day (he'll turn around and bite Brayden). Sigh...
When he arrived, I had everything prepared to have Brayden help me make chicken soup in the crockpot. I get everything chopped and set out for him. The chicken is already in the pot.



Next, it's his time to "wash dishes" (use the kitchen sink sprayer and clean the dishes off). Once we get them in the dishwasher, he puts in the soap (tablet) and starts the dishwasher for me. Often we sweep the kitchen floor afterwards, but didn't do that today.

We like to go some place each day he's here. It's not normally shopping, but today it was a trip to WalMart. I found three sweatshirts for him for $1 each, and these sneakers for $1! He also got a great "race car" umbrella (another $1). Cost for five items - $5. Cost for the smile on Brayden's face when he got to try out his new umbrella? Priceless!

While we waited for the rain to stop and the temps to go up a little, Brayden played with his blocks in the family room while I cleaned the kitchen. At his last doctor's visit, the doctor asked if he could stack up THREE blocks! LOL! I said heck, that kid's not only stacking up 10 blocks, but they're tall skinny ones!

After our trip to WalMart, it was time to play outside. It had rained that morning, so there were little puddles in the chairs and on top of the tables. Brayden LOVES puddles, so he gets one of his cars and brings it out to make the car go through the puddles.

See those steps behind Brayden? Unfortunately, about 20 minutes later he fell off those steps and banged his head on the cement. UGH! Poor little guy. He decided it was then time to come in and get some lunch -- spaghettio's, cheese stick and juice today.

Next comes nap time (YAY!). I'm as ready for a rest as he is. Today, he actually slept THREE AND A HALF HOURS!!! Because of the bang to his head, I actually went up and check on him three or four times because he normally sleeps two hours at nap time. Guess he was just tired!

Jeff (Umpa) came home at 4:00 and went up and woke Brayden up. After a quick snack (crackers and juice) they headed outside. Brayden loves to ride the lawnmower with Umpa, so they decided to mow today. Brayden is wearing his "mowing hat". He BEGS to go on the lawnmower, but never, ever smiles once he's on it!

Next, Jeff decided to combine two of things Brayden loves - puddles and riding the lawnmower. They drove the mower to the front of the house and went through the puddle fast enough to make big splashes. Shortly after this, Brayden was riding his tricycle through the puddle and when I looked up, he had his legs up in the air like Umpa did!

Finally, at 5:30 Mary arrived to pick up Brayden. He's always so happy to see Mama! Behind them, you can see the 20 tomato and pepper plants Brayden and I transplanted last week.

Events of the day: Brayden climbed up into the high chair by himself today! But even bigger than that, he put his shoes on all by himself! He was so proud of himself that he insisted on taking them off and putting them on about 20 times throughout the day.

That's my day with Mr. Brayden Lee. :)