Our Current Reading List

A reader recently asked me to give some specific books that Elliott has read recently and which series I would suggest for 1st and 2nd grade boys.  So I decided just to put up a post every week or two with some of the books that Elliott has read recently and liked.  This week I'm going to start with some series that we've been reading, but I'm hoping to post about some individual books later, too.

 

Right now Elliott is really into the Black Lagoon Adventures chapter books.  He reads one pretty much every day.  And yes, I mean he reads the entire book (they are only 60 something pages each, with lots of pictures) in a fairly short amount of time.  He got a set of 17 for his birthday last month, and already had 2 others.  He's read all of them since his birthday, and read a lot of them at least twice.  He's read the Halloween one so frequently that he can recite much of it word for word.  It's probably his very favorite book right now.  They are early chapter books.  According to Scholastic, they are for 2nd-3rd grades, and have reading levels from 2.4-3.8. 

This reading level system is pretty easy to understand.  The number before the period is the grade level, and the number after the period is the month.  So for instance, the reading level of 2.4 would be the level that a student that meets standards would be able to read in the fourth month of second grade.

They are fun books to read.  The narrator has a very active imagination, and always imagines that things are going to be crazier or scarier than they really are. Elliott laughs and says that things wouldn't REALLY be the way that Hubie imagines that they would be, but still really enjoys the crazy things that Hubie thinks about.  



He's also really into Geronimo Stilton right now.  He asked me if I thought the Easter Bunny would bring him Geronimo Stilton books this year if he's really good.  These books are a little pricier than a lot of chapter books for kids, but they are full color.  There are plenty of pictures, and some of the words are in different colors, fonts, and boldness.  He doesn't read these nearly as fast, but does enjoy a chapter or two at a time.  There are a lot of these books (over 50), so they could keep a child busy for quite some time.  According to Scholastic they appeal to grades 2-4, and are 4th grade reading level.  Even if your child isn't an advanced reader, these would be a fun series to read together.

Geronimo Stilton is a mouse, and the stories are told from his perspective.  Some of the vocabulary used by him is a play on words that we use, just made into mouse-y words.  Like he lives in New Mouse City, Mouse Island.  Things are fabumouse, etc.  The stories are good, and as I said before, the presentation is awesome.  The book includes lots of detailed pictures, including maps and charts.

 

One of Elliott's favorite picture book series is Skippyjon Jones.   Skippyjon is a cat who imagines he is a Chihuahua.  He imagines that he goes on a lot of adventures.  They have some made up words, and some Spanish vocabulary as well, so Elliott has a little trouble with a few words in most of them.  They have reading levels 3.3-4.0 and appeal to kids in kindergarten through 2nd grade.

Weekly Grocery Spending March 15-21

Last week we ended up going to the commissary twice.  My husband went after work on Friday to get the things that I had put on our grocery list app that allows either of us to make changes on our own phone.  Unfortunately, I hadn't finished putting everything on that list, since he went before Elliott and I had decided what he would be taking to school for lunches and snacks this week.  I also hadn't checked the freezer yet, to make sure we had all the meat we needed to make meals for the rest of the month.  So we went back on Saturday to grab the stuff for Elliott's lunch and snacks, the two things they were out of on Friday on our list, and some more meat.





 Friday my husband spent $66.37, and Saturday we spent $62.55.  My sister also went to the grocery store this week for some produce and spent $5.80.


 Our weekly total this week was $134.72.

Our weekly budget is $100 per week for our family of three adults, one child, two dogs, and a cat.

Our total spent on groceries for 2013 so far is $1087.66.  

We are 11.5 weeks into the year, and our budget is $100 per week, so we are currently  $62.34 under our budget for the year.

Wordless Wednesday: First Day of Spring

Although today is the first day of spring it certainly doesn't feel like it.  As a reminder that spring weather IS coming, Elliott and I looked at our early spring pictures from Florida in 2011 this morning.  This is what we experienced in 2011:

Elliott and Abby Cadabby at Busch Gardens

This is our view this year:

The same cozy coupe type truck I posted 2 or 3 weeks ago, with even more snow today.

Kohl's Shopping

The Kohl's in Minot just opened this month.  I've shopped online at Kohls.com a few times a year for the last few years, but I've never done much in store shopping.  It's not usually one of the places on my "Must shop" list when I'm in Missouri, and we just don't really do much shopping for anything other than souvenirs when we are on vacation elsewhere.  There is a Kohl's in Bismarck, but we only go there 1-2 times a year usually, and we only go to Kohl's when we have gone to Bismarck specifically to shop, or when Elliott and I are just along for the ride while Carl has some EMT conference or something.

Anyway, we've been to Kohl's twice now since it opened.  Obviously there's not much of any clearance yet, but we did find some decent deals on stuff that was on sale.  I take the "You saved...." part of the receipt with a grain of salt, because I would never pay full price for stuff at a place like Kohl's.

We had a 20% off total purchase coupon that was only good this past weekend, so we decided to go look at some summer clothing after church Sunday.  We spent a while looking at boys' clothing, but decided we didn't even want to pay the sale price minus 20% on much, since we actually still have a while before we'll need to use summer clothing anyway (it's 9 degrees right now). 

We did find some pajamas that he liked and that were within our price range.  I noticed when I was going through his clothes recently that he didn't have any lightweight pajamas at all in the size I want him in (he can still wear a size smaller, they are just too short).  We found a 2 pack of pajamas with a short sleeve shirt and lightweight pants on sale for $22 (normally $44) and another set that had a short sleeve top, shorts, and lightweight pants for $18 (normally $36). 

We also decided to look for workout clothes for me and found a pair of capris for $18 (normally $30).

 After the 20% coupon and tax, we ended up spending $49.65.  The receipt says we saved $63.60.

Dreaming of Spring

I'm watching the snow fall right now.  I think the weatherman who called for two inches of snow over night and this morning was wrong.  I'm pretty sure we have at least four fresh inches, and it's still coming down pretty good right now.  We've also already hit our high for today, and the temps are dropping.  It's currently 9 degrees.  I'm sure I'm not the only one around here wondering when spring will arrive.

We've had a pretty snowy winter this year, at least for here.  It's been a pretty warm winter, though, so we've had more snow melting this year than we usually do.  Even still, I would say we have at least 3 feet of snow on the ground in my area right now.  The piles of snow on the sides of the road from the plows are taller than even big pick up trucks  right now in my neighborhood.  It makes driving a challenge, since you never know whether there's going to be a car there or not when you are backing out of your drive (and you never know when a car is going to back out of a drive, when you are already out on the road).

I've lived in North Dakota for almost eight years now.  There are definitely positives to living in my area, but weather is certainly not one of them. I think today I'm going to dream about spring...and maybe even getting orders to another base! :)

Weekly Grocery Spending March 8-14

I didn't go to the commissary again this week.  I bought $21.27 worth of produce and bread last weekend at one of the local grocery stores and Walmart.  Then Tuesday my husband went to the commissary and spent $23.23 on tortillas, eggs, cheese and even more fresh produce.


 Our weekly total this week was $44.50.

Our weekly budget is $100 per week for our family of three adults, one child, two dogs, and a cat.

Our total spent on groceries for 2013 so far is $952.94.  

We are 10.5 weeks into the year, and our budget is $100 per week, so we are currently  $97.06 under our budget for the year.

Weekly Grocery Spending March 1-7

I'm a little late in getting this post up again this week.  My son's spring break is this weekend, so I haven't been on my computer much for the last few days.

Anyway, over the last week, I spent $26.83 on groceries at Walmart.  That included some produce, frozen food, and soda  My sister went to the grocery store and spent $38.80 as well.  That included mostly produce again, along with some bread, ice cream, and a little bit of meat.  Now that it is starting to taste a little better, we're eating a lot more fresh produce, instead of relying so much on frozen.

 Our weekly total this week was $65.63.

Our weekly budget is $100 per week for our family of three adults, one child, two dogs, and a cat.

Our total spent on groceries for 2013 so far is $908.44.  

We are 9.5 weeks into the year, and our budget is $100 per week, so we are currently  $41.56 under our budget for the year.

Wordless Wednesday: Stuck In the Snow

My son had his little truck (like the cozy coupe cars) out to take Trixie for rides in the snow.  He forgot to put it away, so I think it is now stuck for a while!

Our First Snow Day

It's hard to believe, but today was my son's first ever snow day.  We live in North Dakota, so we get lots of snow, but our school just doesn't cancel very often.  Several area schools cancelled today, and several have also already called for a late reporting for tomorrow.  Our school hasn't announced a late reporting for tomorrow, but I wouldn't be surprised if they do later.  Our school district covers A LOT of miles, and that includes a lot of rural county roads that aren't plowed or anything.

My son was certainly excited about having a snow day.  When we talked about the possibility yesterday, we decided we would spend time playing out in the snow, as well as inside watching movies and playing games.  I woke up with my eyelid swollen so much that I didn't feel like doing any of that stuff, though.  My husband ended up having a snow day from work as well, so he played video games with Elliott for a while and I took some medicine and went to bed.  Elliott did end up playing outside for just a few minutes, but spent most of the time inside watching TV or playing games.

Our school calendar includes 2 built in snow days, so Elliott was excited to know that he got today off and won't have to make it up in May. lol  This is also the week for their spring break (which is just Thursday and Friday off), so at the most they will have a 2 day school week this week.

Grocery Spending February 22-28

Over the last week we've spent $135.72 on groceries.  Last Friday my husband and I went to the commissary together.  We did pretty good about sticking to our grocery list.  The only reason we spent as much as we did is because we ended up buying more meat than we had on our grocery list, because of good meat sales.  Our total was $133.01 that day.  My husband went back for just a couple of produce items earlier this week, but after using a couple of coupons he only ended up spending $2.71.

 Our weekly total this week was $135.72.

Our weekly budget is $100 per week for our family of three adults, one child, two dogs, and a cat.

Our total spent on groceries for 2013 so far is $842.81.  

We are 7.5 weeks into the year, and our budget is $100 per week, so we are currently  $7.19 under our budget for the year.

KMart Clearance Toys are Half Price This Week!

My sister told me on Saturday that KMart clearance toys would be an additional 50% off this week.  We had planned on going and picking some stuff up on Sunday after church, but I wasn't feel yesterday morning, so we ended up staying home from church.  Then today my husband took my van to work so he could get new tires put on it.  While I CAN drive his truck, I prefer to not have to (it's a standard, and it doesn't get around all that well in snow), so I decided to wait on the Kmart sale.  My wonderful sister decided to skip coming home for lunch today, and instead head on down to Minot, where she shopped for me before she had to start her shift.  Since she is still at work right now, I don't have any pictures yet, but I'll try to remember to snap some tonight or tomorrow and edit this post to include some.

Some of the toys she found for our Christmas/birthday stash include:

Power Rangers Mega bloks set for $18, originally $40.

Smurfette Mega Bloks set $5.50, originally $12.

3 different colors of Mega Bloks Power Rangers Samurai Hero Packs for $1.50 each, originally $6.

Assorted Play Doh sets $7.50, originally $18-20 each.

She also bought some Lego Ninjago carrying cases, but I don't remember how much she said they were.  Elliott has been asking for one for a long time, so he will certainly be glad when one shows up in his "store" this week.

Growing Up Too Fast!

Saturday we went to a birthday party for one of my son's friends.  There must have been a huge snowstorm in May 2005, because five of the 19 kids in Elliott's class have February birthdays. ;)  There's one on March 1st as well.

I'm kinda glad that birthday party season is just about over now.  I love that my son has a lot of friends and enjoys going to parties with his friends.  I don't mind buying them presents or anything either.  But I'm ready for a Saturday when we do whatever we want.  And go nowhere at all!

The party on Saturday was at a local hotel with a small indoor waterpark.  Elliott isn't much of a swimmer, but that didn't stop him from enjoying himself.  I stayed for the party since he isn't a great swimmer.  There were actually only 3 other boys and one girl from Elliott's class, besides the birthday boy, but he had a lot of other friends and family there as well.  Elliott mostly played with one of his best friends, who also can't swim well (both can doggy paddle, but that's about it).  He played a little with the other boys from school as well, and one's little brother, but they wanted to do the slides a lot, and Elliott certainly wanted no part of that. :)

Seeing Elliott have so much fun with his friends, and being totally fine on his own is bittersweet.  I love it that he's growing into an independent, sweet, polite boy and that he listens well to other kids' parents and does what he is supposed to.  I miss the little boy that doesn't want Mommy to go away, though.  This weekend on Friday he even told me that he would rather hang out with someone from school, instead of going to see a movie with me (he still ended up going to the movie with my husband and me, but it was apparently a hard choice to make).  I have a feeling it won't be long before he only wants to hang out with Mom and Dad when no one else is available, or when he can invite a friend to come along with us.

Grocery Spending February 15-21

 This is a really easy week to write about our grocery spending.  We didn't go to the grocery store at all.  We went for fresh produce last Thursday, and it lasted until Tuesday or Wednesday.  We just did without fresh stuff over the last two days (we have lots of frozen, dried, and canned fruit and veggies), and went grocery shopping today.  But of course today counts toward next week's shopping, since I do my week from Friday through Thursday.



Our weekly total this week was $0.

Our weekly budget is $100 per week for our family of three adults, one child, two dogs, and a cat.

Our total spent on groceries for 2013 so far is $707.09.  

We are 7.5 weeks into the year, and our budget is $100 per week, so we are currently  $42.81 under our budget for the year.

Our Valentine's Day

I hope everyone that celebrates had a great Valentine's Day this year!  My husband was off Thursday and Friday last week, so we actually got to go out on Valentine's Day.  We thought about seeing a movie, but decided to go out to eat and do a little shopping instead.  We don't usually spend all that much on Valentine's Day presents for each other, and this year we didn't even buy any until we were out that day.  I ended up buying my husband the movie "Here Comes the Boom" and he bought me the miniseries from History Channel "The Men Who Built America."  We've already seen all of the Men Who Built America episodes, but we are both history nerds and will probably watch it several more times.  We watched "Here Comes the Boom" on Valentine's Day with Elliott and Darla when we got home.  It was one of those movies that Elliott and Carl both really wanted to see when we saw the previews, but it never came to our theater (we only have one movie theater within 30 miles of our house).

We bought Elliott a new TV for his Valentine's Day present.  I know that probably sounds extravagant, but we were actually planning on buying him one anyway.  We just decided to go ahead and do it on Thursday while we were in the electronics department at Walmart anyway.  He's had a TV in his room since he was little, although he only uses it during breaks from school, and occasionally on the weekend.  However, after remodeling his room recently, we didn't really have anywhere to put his old TV.  So we decided we would get him a flat panel that could be hung on his wall.  We bought him a 22 inch, and it looks perfect in his little room.  Now my husband is itching to go ahead and buy a 3D TV for the living room, though, so we can have the one from the living room in our bedroom.  Even though it was his idea to buy Elliott the flat panel he's now jealous that Elliott has a nicer TV than we do. Haha.

After we did our shopping, we grabbed pizza from Papa John's (we had a code for a free large pizza from the coin toss at the Super Bowl), and headed home to watch a movie.  We got to snuggle with Elliott and listen to extra stories after the movie was over, and Elliott told us all about his party at school.  It was a great day for all of us!

How was your Valentine's Day?

An Extended Weekend

So I took off 2 more days than I had planned.  I forgot that Elliott had Monday off from school because of Presidents Day.  Luckily he remembered. :) 

Then yesterday he wasn't feeling well, so he stayed home from school.  He was running just a little bit warm yesterday morning (still not what his school classifies as a fever, but a little warmer than normal) and complaining of a tummy ache.  I really went back and forth over whether to send him to school or not.  I'm glad I kept him home, although he probably would have been ok at school.  He ended up staying in my bed until almost noon, though, so he definitely wasn't faking it.  Usually he's up playing before that, even when he really is running a fever.  He's back at school today, though, and apparently doing fine.  He didn't go to my sister's classroom to bug her at any point this morning, which is usually what he does when he isn't feeling well.

We had a good weekend, though, and I think it was good for us that we were pretty well unplugged most of the weekend.   Elliott had his last basketball game of the season, we made major progress on getting our house back in shape now that we are done remodeling, we took Elliott and a friend bowling, and we even found time for Elliott to have a friend over for several hours on Sunday.  Overall, it was a great weekend (minus the sick stuff yesterday!)

Weekly Grocery Spending February 8-14

Last Friday my husband and I went grocery shopping together.  That seems to always mean that we will end up spending too much.  Last week was not an exception.

We ended up spending $210.11.  I knew it would be quite a bit, because we were completely out of fresh produce and needed to buy some meat.  My husband was also out of the easy junk that he likes to keep at work for days when he wants more than just the salad and fruit that he takes to work nearly everyday.  We also stocked up on fruit cups for his lunch, as well as Elliott's. We also ended up with a spiral ham (it was on clearance because we bought it two days before the freeze or use by date), and corned beef, which added quite a bit to our total as well.

Then yesterday we ended up spending $11.13 on produce at Walmart.  That puts us well over budget for the week, but as I've said before, we don't actually go grocery shopping every week, so I have confidence that we can make up for this overspending.

Our weekly total this week was $221.24.

That is significantly more than our weekly budget of $100 per week for our family of three adults, one child, two dogs, and a cat.  I'm still hoping to make some decent progress on our vacation goal in February, though!

Our total spent on groceries for 2013 so far is $707.09.  

We are 6.5 weeks into the year, and our budget is $100 per week, so we are currently  $57.09 over our budget for the year.

Valentine's Day Plans?

My husband is off tomorrow, so we are going to go out together while Elliott is at school.  I'm pretty sure this will be our first alone Valentine's Day date ever.  Or at least the first one celebrated on Valentine's Day.  When we were dating I came up to see him over President's Day weekend, so I'm sure we went out then to celebrate Valentine's Day.

Tomorrow we are going to go out to lunch, and either do some shopping or see a movie, but I'm not sure which yet.  Darla will be around tomorrow to take care of Elliott after he gets home from school, until we get home.  We'll probably bring home pizza, and then have extra reading and snuggling time with Elliott before bed. 

I probably won't be around much on my blog for the next few days.  I'm rarely around on the weekend, and with my husband being off on Thursday and Friday, I probably won't be around for those two days either.  I'll try to pop on long enough to post my weekly weigh in on Friday or Saturday, though!

What are your Valentine's Day plans?

Weight Loss Check In February 8, 2013

This was my weigh in on Friday.  We had an incredibly busy weekend again this weekend, and I didn't find the time to post this.  My husband is off on Fridays this month, which makes things even crazier.  This last Friday, I barely even found time to weigh in!  We left to go shopping as soon as my sister and Elliott took off for school.  We arrived home with just enough time for my husband to jump out of the van into his truck (the van was too full of big stuff for Elliott to sit in his seat) and go pick him up at the bus stop.

Anyway, my weight loss goal is to lose at least 40 lbs by the time we leave for vacation at the end of June.  My big goal is to lose about 25% of my weight from a month ago, though.  That puts me just about exactly where my doctor wants me to be.

My goal is to lose at least .5% of weight each week, but I certainly didn't do that well over the last two weeks!  I only lost .4% over the last two weeks combined!  I'm making more time this week for working out, though, and not having birthday cupcakes around will certainly help. :) 

So far my total weight loss in the last 4 weeks has been 1.87%.

Weekly Grocery Spending February 1-7

We finally came in under budget on groceries again this week.  I didn't go to the commissary at all this past week.  I'm pretty sure I never went on base at all.

I did spend $7.69 on candy at Target and granola bars at Walmart, but that's the only groceries I bought this week.

My sister spent $12.77 at one grocery store on chips, cheese, drinks, and bread.  She also spent another $4.48 on donuts and a package of hot dog buns at another store.  I think that is all she spent for the week.

Our weekly total this week was $24.94.

That is less than our weekly budget of $100 per week for our family of three adults, one child, two dogs, and a cat.  I'm hoping to make some decent progress on our vacation goal in February!

Our total spent on groceries for 2013 so far is $485.85.  

We are 5.5 weeks into the year, and our budget is $100 per week, so we are currently  $64.15 under budget.

Parent Teacher Conferences

Sorry if this post sounds like I'm bragging.  I probably am. ;)  Some members of my family and close friends look at my blog to keep caught up on what is going on at my house, though, so I thought a blog post would be the easiest way to tell them about Elliott's parent/ teacher conferences.

This week is parent/teacher conference week at my son's school.  Our conference was yesterday.  I'm not sure how conferences are done at other schools, but at our school, we go in and talk to the teachers about any issues our children may be having.  Our teachers also give us recent tests and projects our kids have done, and explain how our child's progress compares to others in the school, and others on a state wide level.  For first graders, the only standardized state wide tests are in math and reading.  But Elliott's teacher gave us handwriting samples, a phonics test, and told us how he's doing in Science and Social Studies as well.

Elliott is doing really well academically.  His math scores have improved tremendously over the last few months.  At the end of kindergarten he was right on level with the other kids at our school (who score several points higher as a whole than the "norm group").  At the beginning of first grade, his math skills were a little higher than the others in his school and about 75th-80th percentile compared to others that use the RIT scale for testing..  His middle of the year testing they did in January, he scored 95th to 98th percentile!  His score was approximately that of a 50th percentile student in the middle of 3rd grade.

He didn't have as much growth on reading, but his teacher said that's to be expected considering how well he was already doing.  He still scored in the 99th percentile on everything, but his line just didn't go up quite as much this time, which is of course totally fine.  His RIT score on reading is about that of an average 5th grader.  His DIBELS score showed that he could possibly be having trouble with reading comprehension, when compared to reading level, but his main reading teacher gave him a couple of unofficial tests and thinks that his comprehension is great.  She thinks that he probably just didn't realize that the test monitor wanted MORE details on the retell part of the DIBELS test.  His RIT test scores showed high reading comprehension as well.

His teachers said he's doing really well in everything, and neither of them see any problems at all academically.  He still does best if he reads the directions himself, but is getting better about getting everything right when he has to listen to directions for the entire project.

The only behavior issue either of Elliott's teachers had with him this time was his recent hang up on the word "hate."  He's been doing that at home, too, and we have no idea why.  Sometimes when things don't go his way he tells us that he hates it, or he hates his life.  His teachers aren't too concerned about it, because they say he calms down really fast, and doesn't pout or anything.  But we are working on expressing frustration with different words.  His teacher said he always apologizes after an outburst.  She said she's also been giving him a little more time to transition, and it seems to be helping.  He always finishes his work before the other kids, so he moves onto something else (lately he's been writing songs and stories, in addition to drawing pictures), and he just has a hard time stopping his fun projects to get back onto the same subject as the other kids.  Any other parents deal with this?  What worked for you?

Socially he is doing well.  There are minor fights with his friends of course, but he gets along with everyone and has lots of friends.  He occasionally has what one teacher describes as "baby of the family syndrome" and gets mad when things don't go his way, but those episodes are very infrequent.  One of his teachers said that he does so well with things normally, that if she didn't know any better she would think he was one of several children, instead of an only child.

I am very proud of my son.  He is doing so well in school.  When he was born, he had his umbilical cord wrapped around his neck and in knots.  We were warned that he would probably have some delays, but they wouldn't do testing unless stuff showed up.  He's been on the slow end of a few things physically, but never truly delayed.   Academically, I think it takes him a little longer to get stuff sometimes, but after he thinks about it a little while, he's usually able to master things quickly.

I'm actually really proud of all of his friends, too.  His class is an outstanding group of kids!  They are all sweet, well behaved, AND smart! His district's first grade average RIT scores for middle of year are a little bit better than the norm group averages for middle of second grade for both reading and math!  The kids in his class work hard and it shows.  Of course it also helps that both of his teachers work with the kids individually to help each child improve.

Wordless Wednesday: Meet Minnie Meowse

I've posted pictures of my 2 dogs recently, so now it's my cat's turn!  This is Minnie Meowse.  She's the only one of our pets that we've had since only a few weeks old (6 to be exact) and also the only one we named ourselves.  We got her in 2011, shortly after returning home from Disney World, so Elliott chose to name her after the famous mouse.

Another Successful Birthday Party

We had Elliott's birthday party on Saturday.  As I've mentioned several times, we were in no way ready to have it at home, so we had it a local pizza place.  We invited 23 kids, and thought probably 50-75% would show up.  We had it right after a basketball game, or we would have estimated lower, but we thought since the kids were already in town, the parents would be more likely to take them. We ended up with 10 kids (11 counting Elliott, and 12 counting one of the boys' preschool sister who decided to participate in some of the party activities with us). 

We would have had more, but the weather was awful!  We were even under a blizzard warning, with no travel advised part of the time.  So the kids who weren't already in Minot weren't able to come for the most part.  Elliott's best friend's mom called me during the basketball game to tell me that she and the kids (he has a 5 year old and a 4 year old sister who were also invited to the party) wouldn't be able to attend because of the weather.  And another mom told me at the party that her niece wouldn't be able to make it either, because of the weather.

The kids that were able to come had a great time, though.  They colored masks while we were waiting for everyone to arrive, and then we ordered the pizza and turned them loose in the arcade while we waited for the pizza.  After we ate pizza, we opened presents and then played for a few more minutes before coming back to the party room for cake and ice cream.  After that it was time to hand out goody bags and parents were starting to arrive.  So I think we timed it pretty well.  We put on the invitation that the party started at 130, but since the game got out at about 1245, most of the kids were there by 1 or a few minutes after.  I told parents we would be done around 3 or 315.  So parents started showing up at about 5 til 3, and all the kids were picked up by 320.

My husband complained a little bit about the cost of the party, but after we discussed it more, he decided the price wasn't too bad.  It was pretty much all inclusive.  The party package included pizza, a drink, ice cream, and 10 tokens per child.  It also included clean up (when my husband asked about a trash can, they told him to just pile the trash together and they would take care of it when Elliott was done unwrapping), and we didn't have to do much of anything for the set up either.

I have a feeling we will have more parties there in the future.

Menu Plan February 3-9

When I make a menu plan, it only includes dinner each week night, and then lunch and dinner on the weekends.  We try to eat most of those meals together as a family, but of course it doesn't always work out that way.

I do assign each thing to a certain day when I write things down, but I frequently end up moving things around to another day, depending on what we have going on, or what I'm actually in the mood to cook.

Yesterday we had super bowl snack foods, and left over pizza.  I didn't really cook any meals all day.

Tonight we are having barbeque pork sandwiches with green beans,  fresh fruit, and leftover birthday cake.

Tomorrow we are probably going to end up going out for dinner, since Elliott has basketball practice and we have parent teacher conferences as well.

Wednesday I'm making the cheesy chicken strips that were on the menu plan for Saturday (we ended up eating leftovers instead), with salad and macaroni and cheese.

Thursday we'll have red beans and rice that I cook in the crockpot all day.

Friday we will probably have hamburger helper, corn, and salad.

Saturday for lunch, we're going to do a picnic in the car (carrots, olives, cucumber slices, sandwiches, and fruit cups) after Elliott's basketball game.

Saturday night my sister will cook, but I don't think she has decided what yet.

Target Clearance Shopping

I posted yesterday that we went to Target on Friday.  Elliott had birthday money to spend, so he was looking for good deals.  We decided not to buy any Lego sets on Friday, since we hadn't had Elliott's birthday party yet, and we thought he would probably get some at his party (I was right, he ended up with 5 or 6 sets at his birthday party, in addition to the one that my husband and I gave him at his party). 

Elliott ended up buying a TobyMac CD for $11.99 (not pictured, it's still in the van, where we listened to it all weekend), and the BonkaZonks Spiderman storage container on 70% off clearance for $5.98.  He also bought a Lego Minifigure for $2.99.  Also pictured is the candy I bought him ($4.39), and the pencils and notepads ($3 each) I bought for his goody bags at his party, since I thought I had misplaced some of the treats I had already bought.

We then headed over to the boys clothing to check out the clearance stuff.  My husband really liked this coat when he looked at a few weeks ago, but we didn't buy it at 30% off.  Yesterday it was marked down to 70% off, and they had one large left (Elliott is just in a medium right now, but the sleeves will probably be too short by next September) so we bought it for $17.98.  We bought another pair of snow pants for Elliott at 70% off as well ($5.98), since he is so rough on them.  He's also always losing hats and gloves, so we bought several at 70% off.  He picked out 2 hats at $2.98 each, 1 for $1.78, and one for $.60, along with the 2 pack of gloves for $.60.

Elliott also started looking around at other things and ended up finding the above items for 70% off.  We had decided before that he didn't need more clothing, but he convinced Daddy that he NEEDED these clothes. lol  The sweatshirt was $2.08, the pants and the pajamas were each $4.48.

We spent $80.56 including tax.  We saved at least $116.

Elliott Had a Great Birthday!

Elliott turned 7 on Friday, so we were busy pretty much all day.  I didn't get around to the posts I had planned, and I didn't even weigh in, so I'm skipping that this week.  Next week I'll just write about what I lost for the past two weeks.

For Elliott's cake at school he wanted a basketball cake, and basketball cupcakes.  My sister took care of the baking, like she always do for birthdays.  We took them to the school for afternoon snack, and the kids were excited of course.   I talked to all the kids then to see if we could get a better idea on how many kids would show up at Elliott's party on Saturday. 

Then after driving around with my husband and sister for a little while, while Elliott finished his day at school, we took him shopping and out to eat.

I know that I just posted comments on 2 or 3 different blogs about how Elliott didn't need any more clothes, but we ended up buying a few at Target anyway.  We went into the boys' clothes section to look at coats and snowpants that were on clearance, but then my husband and son started looking elsewhere as well.  I'll post pictures later or tomorrow.  But we did find some great deals.

We also did some clearance shopping at Walmart, and found some great deals there as well.  We ended up spending more money than we had planned, but we marked off several things on our list of things that we were looking for great deals on.

Elliott had a lot of fun, and is really excited to be 7 now, since all his best friends were already 7!

Weekly Grocery Spending January 25-31

I went to the grocery store once this week, and spent $63.48.  I posted a few deals and pictures here. I thought that would be it for my totals this week, however my sister went to the grocery store as well.  She went last week for $.99 Hamburger Helper, produce, and veggie dip.  She decided to stock up quite a bit on Hamburger Helper, since we need to make a food pantry donation run soon anyway, and we like to give a variety of items.  By the time she bought the stuff we are donating, plus the stuff for home, the total was $48.24.  So we are over budget again this week!

Our weekly total this week was $111.72.

That is more than our weekly budget of $100 per week for our family of three adults, one child, two dogs, and a cat.  I better get this under control if I'm going to make decent progress on our vacation goal in February!

Our total spent on groceries for 2013 so far is $460.91.  

We are 4.5 weeks into the year, and our budget is $100 per week, so we are currently 10.91 over budget.

Wii Fit Totals January 26-29

I haven't posted about my Wii Fit totals lately, because I just haven't been using it much.  Saturday we were out shopping almost all day, and I just didn't feel like it when we got home.  Sunday I practiced basketball with Elliott for about an hour and a half, so I didn't work on my Wii Fit then either.  Monday I used it for a total of 11 minutes. lol  Yesterday I never even considered turning it on. 

My husband and I have been doing a lot of cleaning lately.  Elliott's room is the last one that we are working on.  We pulled everything  except his bed out, and my husband even ripped his closet out.  He just finished taping everything off, and we are going to start painting in just a few minutes.  Packing all that stuff up, and then down into the basement has been enough of a workout for me.  I am going to try to work out on my Wii Fit tonight, though, so maybe I'll have something to report tonight or tomorrow. :)

Wordless Wednesday: Baby Elliott

It's hard to believe that Elliott will be seven this week.  So I thought I would share a picture that I took when he was a newborn.  Here he is with his Daddy, while we were still in the hospital.  The year is wrong on the picture.  It was actually 2006, and he was 1 day old.

Coupon Shopping January 25, 2013

I almost forgot to post about our coupon shopping trip on Friday.  It was certainly not one of my best trips ever, but it wasn't too bad, especially considering it was kind of rushed.  They were out of several things we wanted, that would have pushed our percentage saved higher.  But after not doing much couponing at all for several months, any savings is good as far as I'm concerned.  The money we saved by using coupons will be going into our vacation fund as well. :)

Menu Plan January 27-February 2

My family used to always make a loose menu plan every week.  It made it easy to figure out what to cook, and then I was able to plan ahead and include dishes that need to sit in a marinade, cook in the slow cooker, etc.  We're trying to get back into menu planning.  I generally only plan dinners during the week, and then lunch and dinner on weekends.  Breakfasts are usually quick and easy items (eggs, toast, pop tarts, or cereal, plus milk or juice and some kind of fruit), so I don't include them on the menu plan.  Lunches are usually something quick and easy for whoever is at home, so I don't really plan them either.  Everyone that is home eats dinner together, though, so I try to plan it a little better.

This week, Sunday we had leftovers for lunch.
For dinner we had pizza.

Hobby Lobby Finds

As I said in my last post, Saturday we were in Minot with a few hours to kill.  We went to some thrift stores, out to lunch, and to Hobby Lobby.  My sister was in the market for wall decor, now that our remodel is FINALLY almost completely done, and everyone should have their own space back within the next few weeks.  She didn't end up buying any wall art, but that didn't stop Elliott and I from finding stuff we wanted. lol

Thrift Store Finds

Saturday my husband had all day conferences as part of his continuing education requirements for his EMT job.  He had a long dinner break at 5, so he wanted us to eat with him, since he was just in Minot, and hadn't seen Elliott much at all during the week.  Elliott had a game Saturday at eleven so we had to figure out what to do for the 5 hours in between, so we didn't have to drive all the way home for just a short amount of time.

So we decided to go thrift store shopping.  We don't shop at thrift stores very regularly, mainly because of time constraints.  We are usually only in Minot once or twice a week, and one of those days is Sunday for church.  Most thrift stores around here are closed on Sundays.

Planning Elliott's Birthday Party

It's hard to believe that my baby will be seven on Friday.  We have a big birthday party planned for him on Saturday.  We somehow forgot to send out the invitations until Friday, but we've still already received confirmation that 5 kids are coming, and I'm sure we will continue to receive more confirmations throughout the next few days.  And if it's anything like last year, there will be some kids who show up, that we didn't know were coming until they arrive.

This year we invited everyone in Elliott's class, plus the three kids from his basketball team that aren't in his class.  We're having the party at a pizza place in the same city that we play basketball in.  The party will be shortly after his basketball game ends, so I would say a lot of his basketball friends will show up.

Wii Fit Totals January 25, 2013

Today I had a decent workout.  I could have continued on for a while if I had time.  My husband and I had some quality together time this morning, and lost track of time, so I only had time for a 30 minute work out, plus a shower before I had to go get Elliott from school.

I ended up burning 224 calories in the 31 minutes I worked out on my Wii Fit today. 

I don't think I will be doing any more tonight, but that could change.  Elliott and I are planning on practicing basketball a little bit in the basement tonight after the show he's watching is over a few minutes.

My total for this week was  107 minutes and 660 calories.

Weight Loss Check In January 25, 2013

My weight loss goal is to lose at least 40 lbs by the time we leave for vacation at the end of June.  My ultimate goal  though, is about 25% of my current weight.  That would put me within just a few pounds of the weight that my doctor and I agree is great for my specific body type.

So for my blog posts, I'm going to use percentages off my starting weight, plus percentages off my weight from just the week before.

My doctor said I could safely lose about 1-1.5 percent each week, so my goal is at least a half percentage each week, but hopefully closer to a full one. :)

 This week I lost .85% of my weight from last week. 

That brings my total weight loss over the last 2 weeks to 1.48% of my starting weight.

Wii Fit Totals January 24, 2013

Motivation was extremely hard to come by today, for just about everything.  I just felt really tired, and a little off all day, even though I went back to bed after Elliott went to school and slept quite a while.  I don't think it was TOO much, but it should have definitely been enough!

I got on my Wii this afternoon, but gave it up after 15 minutes.  I ended up pushing myself to do some more after Elliott and Darla were in bed, but gave up after 16 minutes.  30 minutes is enough, right? :)

I ended up working out for 31 minutes and burning 170 calories.

So for today and yesterday my total time was 76 minutes and my calorie burn was 436.

Weekly Grocery Spending January 18-24

Before last Friday my family had only spent $66.99 on groceries for the year.  That definitely changed over the last week.

Friday I went to the commissary to get some things we needed, and some things on sale, and ended up spending $180.38. I detailed some of my best deals, and showed pictures here.

My sister also went to the grocery store in Minot on Friday, and spent $18.70 on canned veggies and fruit.  I'll admit that I'm not normally a big fan of canned fruit, but it's growing on me a little bit.  My sister loves it, and eats it almost every day.  It's easier and quicker than making something with frozen fruit, and doesn't hurt my teeth the way frozen fruit does by itself, so I've been eating it more.

Wii Fit Totals January 23, 2013

When I got on my Wii Fit a little while ago and it told me I hadn't been on for 3 days, I decided I needed to do something about that.  I'm lacking motivation in a major way right now.  I'm not sure if it's because I have so much other stuff going on, or what, but either way, I felt so much better when I actually took the time to work out.  So I decided that maybe my best way to STAY motivated is to do a daily post about how long I worked on on the Wii Fit and how many calories it says I burned during my work out.  If I know that people are reading it, I'm more likely to make myself do it even if I don't want to. 

Today I used my Wii Fit for 45 minutes. I did a combination of exercises from the Aerobics section and the Training Plus section.  According to the counter on there, I burned 267 calories during that time. 

I think my goal is going to be at least 1000 calories a week, according to the Wii Fit, and at least 3.5 hours.  I'll revisit that when it gets warm enough (and the ice melts enough) to walk more outside.  Since my official weigh in day is Friday, I think my Wii week will run from Saturday-Friday.    So this week my goal will only be 500 calories and 90 minutes.

Wordless Wednesday: Meet Snoopie

Last week I posted Trixie at bedtime, so this week it's Snoopie's turn to be the star!  Elliott bought these glasses at Dollar Tree, and Darla thought Snoopie would look cute in them.

Encouraging a Love of Reading

My son loves to read.  He has a library at home larger than that of his classroom, and he is always asking to add to it.  For Christmas Santa brought him the first 43 books books in the Magic Tree House series (we had already read 5 or 6, but he was super excited to have them all), along with 3 Skippyjon Jones books, and a few others as well.  We also did 25 days of books at our house for Christmas, where every night, Elliott got to open a new book that I had wrapped up, and then he read that one to us, as well as a Christmas book or two.  It was a big hit, and we all really enjoyed it.  He ended up with even more books on Christmas from us as, and a set of 3 from an aunt, for a total of about 90 all together for Christmas.

Because he loves to read so much, finding books he will like is relatively easy.  However, finding books that are age appropriate, as well as challenging can be a little more difficult.  He's only in first grade (he will be 7 next week) but already reads on an upper fifth grade level.  He loves everything from easy picture books, to chapter books.

Commissary Shopping

Friday I finally made it to the commissary.  The last time I had been to the grocery store for a big stock up was before Christmas, so it was definitely time.

I ended up spending $180.38.  I know better than to go shopping without eating, but I honestly didn't even realize I was hungry until I was shopping. lol  It was a nonstop day anyway, so that probably played into it, too.

I only ended up using $6 in coupons.  I thought I had my coupons with me, but then when I was looking for them later, discovered that I had left them at home.  So there were a few things I had planned on buying but didn't, but it didn't change my shopping list much.  I haven't had much luck finding coupons for things we use and need lately.

Weight Loss Check In January 18, 2013

My weight loss goal is to lose at least 40 lbs by the time we leave for vacation at the end of June.  My ultimate goal is a fair amount more than that, though, and is about 25% of my current weight.  That would put me within just a few pounds of the weight that my doctor and I agree is great for my specific body type.

So for my blog posts, I'm going to use percentages off my starting weight, plus percentages off my weight from just the week before.

My doctor said I could safely lose about 1-1.5 percent each week, so my goal is at least a half percentage each week, but hopefully closer to a full one. :)

Last Friday was my first weigh in, and since then I have lost .64%.  It's not as much as I was hoping for, especially since my doctor said I might lose even more weight the first 2-3 weeks, but it's a start. :)  And as always, a move in the right direction is always a good move.

I'm currently down .64% of my start weight, with a goal of 25% total this year.

Weight Loss Goals

It seems like every year, I make a weight loss goal, and then end up only losing a few pounds and giving up, because I can't make any more progress.  I've been to the doctor in the past about it.  I have a couple of different health issues that make losing weight harder, and it seems like I'll try something, and it will work for a while, and then it will stop working.

Well, my doctor and I have decided that 2013 is going to be the year that I lose the weight. :) I've had a lot of weight issues, and without getting into all of them, I'll just say that I need to lose a lot of weight.  My husband and I have been trying to get pregnant for several years, and while I am currently at a weight that my doctor finds acceptable for pregnancy, I would still like to lose more, before considering any outside help with a pregnancy.  We've pretty much come to the realization that getting pregnant completely on our own isn't going to happen.  But I would like to lose another 40 lbs or so before even considering any medical intervention.  I just turned 30 in August, and my son will be 7 in less than 3 weeks.  If we are going to have another child of our own, we need to get pregnant THIS year.  Elliott is already spoiled rotten, and I worry about how he will really feel when he goes from being an only child to a big brother.  So I would love to do this as soon as possible.

Weekly Grocery Spending

I still haven't made it to the commissary yet this month.  I had planned on going Tuesday, but then Elliott had basketball practice.  He also had basketball practice after school yesterday,too, so I didn't get there then either.  Today he has to finish a school project (because we haven't had enough time to work on it this week because of basketball) that is due tomorrow.  So it looks like tomorrow will be the day I finally make it to the commissary.  I would have gone without him, except that I promised him that he could look around for new lunch boxes ideas this time.  We are definitely in need of a trip to the commissary, though.  We are out of one or two of the items that I need for most of the meals that I've wanted to make lately.

Saturday after his basketball game, we did do some shopping, though.  We went to Walmart to get oil for my husband's truck, and also bought 4 avocados for $.78 each ($3.12).  Then we headed to Marketplace to buy a few things that were on sale, and get some produce.  We ended up spending $46.47.  That included 12 cans of kidney beans on sale for $.49 each ($5.88 total) and 12 boxes of macaroni and cheese for $.28 each ($3.36).  We don't actually eat all that much of either of those items, since I prefer to use dried beans, if I plan early enough in advance.  And I prefer my own homemade mac and cheese, too.  However, these are both things that I keep on hand for quick meals, plus they make great donations to food pantries. :)

Wordless Wednesday: Bedtime for Trixie

I don't talk about them a lot in my blog, but I have three little furry princesses that I love dearly.  This one is definitely my Mommy's girl.  I came back into my bedroom from the bathroom last week to find Trixie fast asleep.

Yes, that's my bed.  And yes, that's even my pillow.  She's spoiled rotten.

2013 Financial Goals

I've already admitted that I didn't track my spending well at all in 2012.  I have no idea how much money I ended up spending on groceries, clothes, or anything else for that matter.  I did track pretty well on Christmas, birthday and other special occasions, but I just have a fairly close grand total, not individual.  This year, I only plan on tracking groceries closely.  I figure I need to start slow so I will stick with it better. :)

What I do know about my spending last year is that it included several big, expensive expenditures.  For instance, we bought my husband a 1998 Toyota Tacoma in the fall.  We also spent about $4000 on a basement remodel (ripped out walls, put up new ones, replaced some old wiring, replaced the ceiling, etc), that we finally finished in November.  Then there was the new sleep number bed we bought in October, and paid almost $2500 for, by the time it was all said and done.  Add in a trip to Missouri, and a road trip to Washington (including stops in Spokane, Seattle, and right on the coast), and it was an expensive year.

Elliott's Clearance Finds at Old Navy

Saturday after Elliott's basketball game we needed to run to Target for just a few things, so we decided to go to Old Navy, too, while we were already at the mall.  Elliott got several giftcards for Christmas this year, and Old Navy was one of them.

Of course anytime we walk into Old Navy, the first place we head is to the boys' clearance section.  The only item I was specifically looking for was another pair of pants for Elliott to wear over his gym shorts on practice days at school, and to and from basketball games.  We lucked out and did find a pair of fleece pants that will work nicely for that purpose, on clearance for $3.47.  Elliott found several other things he wanted as well, but ended up narrowing it down to just 2 long sleeve shirts ($6.49 and $4.49), and an Angry Birds hat ($4.47). 

Elliott's clearance clothing was $14.45 before tax

Another Vacation?

We go on vacation every year, and have for a while now.  In my opinion it's important for our family.  I know not everyone agrees with me, but I think I personally need the time away from home to recharge, and spend more time enjoying my family.  Even when our vacations are just to my parents' house in Missouri, it helps us recharge and relax.   Plus of course, it's awesome to see family.  We live 1100 miles from "home" for both my husband and me, so we don't get to see our families nearly as often as we would like.  Elliott and I do manage to go home every year, and Carl is with us most of the time, but sometimes he's just not able to take the necessary time off from work.

This year, we were planning on just going home again.  We were  planning a trip to Kansas City for a few days.  Our parents live in the Springfield area, so Kansas City isn't that far away, but we had planned on spending 2 or 3 nights there anyway, so we could do more stuff.

However, my husband recently found out that he will almost certainly not be allowed to take any leave next summer (2014) if we are still here.  He will most likely either be sent to another base for a while, or will be left here, where they will be obviously short manned because so many will be elsewhere.  We were planning another Florida trip for next summer.  My son is really into Super Heroes and Lego blocks, so we were planning on doing Universal Orlando and LegoLand, while he still loves those things.  However, we have been talking over the idea of doing the Florida trip this year instead.  We normally have a pretty extravagant Christmas, and my whole family is on board with the idea of clearing out our Christmas savings account in late June for a July vacation to Florida.  We were also planning on buying a 3D TV within the next few weeks, and have decided instead, to put that money toward a Florida trip as well.  So if we can come up with another $500 by the end of March (about halfway between now and the trip), without cutting into debt repayment, or any of our other savings goals, it looks like the Florida trip might happen this summer!

Weekly Grocery spending January 10, 2013

I obviously missed the first Thursday of the month when it comes to tracking my grocery spending.  That's ok, though.  We didn't buy any groceries during the first three days of the month.  My husband made his first grocery run of the year this week, and bought produce, bread, juice, water, and a few things for his lunches at work.  He spent $17.40.  He didn't use any coupons, and our receipts don't calculate what we saved by buying sales items, so I'm going with a $17.40 total for $17.40 in stuff, so a 0% savings.

Our goal is under $100 each week for a family of 3 adults, one child, 2 dogs (one is a senior and on a more expensive food, along with special vitamins), and a cat.

2013 grocery spending: $17.40

Tracking Goals

I know I hadn't been around much lately, but I didn't realize it had been quite so long.  Wow.  I took some time off for Christmas to spend with my family.  My husband's shifts at work have been crazy, so family time has been hard to come by.  It was nice to get plenty of it over Christmas break.  We played board games, read books, watched a couple of movies, and just spent a lot of family time together.  It was nice. 

Elliott's been back in school for over a week now, though.  I just started a medicine that I've been on in the past, but it seems to be kicking my butt worse this time.  Maybe I just don't remember the early days from last time. :)  Anyway, it seems like I want to sleep every chance I get, so I haven't done much of anything online lately.  I'm starting to adjust to it a little better now, so I'm hoping to be online more.  I have several goals this year that I'm excited about, and I plan on blogging about them.  One of them kind of goes against the goal to get out of debt, but I think it will help motivate us for several other things, so I think we will stick with it.

One of my goals this year is to track all of my grocery purchases.  I'm amazed that some people are able to track everything they purchase through  out the year, but I don't think I'm ready for that.  In fact, I'm already not sure how much money I spent on Christmas clearance stuff at a few different places in the last two weeks.   I'm planning on writing a weekly post every Thursday that details how much I spent on groceries each week, so I can better keep track of it.  There will be weeks that just include a running total, since we don't go grocery shopping every week, but I think by posting the same day every week I'm more likely to remember to do it.  My goal this year is less than $100 a week.  That includes 3 adults (my sister, my husband and myself), and my soon to be seven year old.  It also includes two dogs and a cat.  There are just a couple of dietary restrictions as well.  We live in an area with a fairly high cost of living.  It's not like NYC or California or anything, but prices are pretty high because of the oil boom.  We do most of our shopping at the commissary, but it's small, and doesn't carry everything we need, so we obviously have to go elsewhere sometimes.  Also, nowhere doubles coupons, and we don't have any big chains with excellent sales (we have a Walmart, and two regional chains of grocery stores).

Such a Tragedy

I have debated back and forth on whether or not to write this blog post for the past few days. I don't want to make this even the littlest bit about me, but I don't know how to accurately get my feelings across without including personal things.

In 1999, when two high school boys went into their school and killed and injured so many of their classmates, I was 16 and a sophomore.  Those kids that died were my age, and it was devastating.  I spent a lot of time learning about those kids and prayed a lot for their families, and the healing of the ones that made it through.  Over time, my thoughts have gone out less and less often to those families and kids, who are now grown ups, many with their own children.  I still view it as one of the saddest days in my life, even though as far as I know, I  have never met a single person who was in the school that day.

Friday, the unthinkable happened, and it was children the age of my child.  As I prayed for all the families, friends, and classmates going through this tragedy, I once again couldn't help but try to figure out why something like this would happen.  But there are no answers.  There are families torn apart.  Children who were taken too soon, and others that will have to live with the memories of seeing and hearing friends, classmates, and teachers killed.  The people in this community need all the thoughts and prayers we can send them.  And we need to remember, sadly, how short life can be.

As I learned that it was first graders that died, my mind's eyes automatically pictured sweet little innocent children that looked so much like the beautiful little six and seven year olds that I've come to love over the last year and a half.  As a very involved first grade parent in a small school (there are only 19 kids in our entire first grade this year),  I know every single child in first grade. I love every one of them.  I can't begin to imagine what it would feel like to lose even one of those precious children in such a terrible way.  My heart hurts more than words can express for all those who are grieving over loved ones, especially when they are grieving over so many lost loved ones at once.

Learning that teachers died trying to protect innocent children is heart breaking, but not surprising.  Teachers shouldn't ever have to die for our children, but it's no surprise to me that they are willing to do so.  I have no doubt that both of my son's teachers would be willing to die for "their kids."  It's so sad that it takes such a tragedy, but I hope that you remember not only to send up thoughts and prayers for those that are hurting because of this tragedy, but to hug your children a little tighter, and maybe offer a hug to your kids' teachers as well, and thank them for loving your children.

Buying Gift Cards For Christmas

My family tries to finish Christmas shopping early, and under budget, so we can take advantage of all the gift card deals available right now.  We also take my husband's checks from his second job (which usually go into savings) and use them to buy gift cards, and then add the money into our savings account, as we use the giftcards that we buy for ourselves.  We do something similar through out the year, by getting giftcards for places we shop a lot from our Smartypig savings account, and just using money out of our regular budget.  But close to Christmas the deals are even better and you can earn more free stuff just by buying giftcards to places you would shop anyway!  We do give a few of them away, and Elliott always receives one to shop and one to a restaurant of his choice for Christmas and his birthday, but most of them are just used for everyday purchases we would have made anyway.

Right now, mypoints has a special bonus offer, where you can buy 4 $25 giftcards, and receive a free $10 gift card.  The choices include CVS, KMart, Kohls, Panera, and Darden (Red Lobster and Olive Garden).

They also have several other choices for gift cards where you get bonus points, although the bonuses aren't as good.  They include many more choices, though.

Also, this is the perfect time of the year to buy restaurant gift cards.  When you order a Denny's $25 gift card, you receive a free $5 one as well.  Denny's does charge $1.95 shipping, but you are still saving $3.05.

At Ruby Tuesday when you buy a $50 gift card, you receive a free $15 bonus coupon that can be used between January 2 and February 28.

At Applebee's when you order $50 in digital gift cards, you get a free $10 digital gift card.  This only applies to digital cards, but even if you have someone on your list who doesn't use a computer much, you can print it out for them, and still take advantage of this deal!

At Taco Bell (this might vary by location, but it never hurts to ask!) when you buy a $20 gift card you get a free item off of the menu.

I'm sure there are plenty more of these deals, but these are the ones available in my area.

Black Friday Deals at JoAnn

My family and I went to Joann just a few minutes after they opened on Friday.  Elliott had been asleep in the car for a while by then, but woke up to go in and pick out new fabric.  They had Snuggle flannel fabric on sale for $1.74 a yard, and fleece for $2.99 a yard.  The fleece was part of a three day sale so we had a 25% coupon that worked on it, to make it just $2.25 a yard.  So we picked out several different patterns and got a few yards.  The line was long to get to the fabric counter, but it was moving fairly fast considering there were some people with upwards of 20 different kinds of fabric in their cart!

Walmart Black Friday Shopping

We started our black Friday shopping Thursday evening at Walmart.  My sister took Elliott to one side of the store, in the shopping cart, while my husband and I started on the other side, without a shopping cart.   My sister and Elliott were responsible for getting some of the bigger items on our list, like the Ninja blender and some bedding for Elliott, while my husband and I started in the movies.

The movie section is always so hectic on black Friday that I don't like taking Elliott over there until things have calmed down a little bit.  This year was no exception.  My husband and I each grabbed a few different DVD's and Blu Rays, and then went elsewhere to sort.  It turns out we both grabbed a copy of one movie, and my husband grabbed one that we already had. There were also a few that we decided weren't a good fit for us, so after my sister sorted through them a little while later, she went back over there and picked out a few more and found two of the ones we had been looking for, so it worked out great!  My family buys a bunch of movies.  We try to wait until they are on sale for the most part, so black Friday is one of our favorite days to shop for movies. 

How Was Your Thanksgiving?

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.  This was my little sister's first big holiday away from home, but I think she and my mom both made it through ok. :)  My sister actually had to work 10 hours on Thursday and 8 more on Friday, so we ended up waiting until Saturday to do our Thanksgiving dinner at home.  It was a nice family day, without anything extra going on.  We have a lot to be thankful for, and it took Elliott quite a while to say the things he was thankful for, before he finally gave up, and said he was thankful for EVERYTHING! :)

We did quite a bit of shopping on Thursday night and Friday morning, and Elliott was a trooper.  He did sleep quite a bit in the car (my husband and sister went in by themselves to Best Buy and KMart, and my husband and I did Menards by ourselves), but he was pretty happy for the most part and didn't spend much time asking for stuff that wasn't on the list.  I'm actually going to post about a few of our deals today in separate posts.  But first I'm going to look some more at some Cyber Monday deals and see if I can finish up my shopping today!

The Basement Remodel is Done!

This was supposed to be posted yesterday.  I'm not sure if it was my phone, or I just forgot to post it or what, but pretend the date says yesterday. ;)

I haven't been around much lately, but it is for a good reason.  I am typing this in our newly finished bedroom! I should have taken before pictures but I didn't think about it then.  I guess technically it isn't quite finished yet, since we still need to add the trim, but we are moved in and sleeping down here now.  Now I just have to finish cleaning our old bedroom so we can paint in there.  Then we will be doing some minor remodeling in Elliott's room and we will be finished, at least for a little while.

Elliott had a four day weekend for Veterans day and the opening of deer season. Then he ended up getting sick Monday night so he stayed home yesterday and today.  We made today a movie day and he seems to be feeling much better now.

Tomorrow I should be able to finish cleaning our old bedroom while my son is in school.   Then hopefully we can get it painted this weekend and have a week off for Thanksgiving.  This is the first time since my husband and I got married seven and a half years ago that we have had other family around for Thanksgiving.  I think it is going to be hard for my sister though.

I think she is looking forward to black Friday shopping with us though.  That is my husbands and my son's favorite shopping day.  We will do a combination of in store and online shopping again this year.  Hopefully we will finish our Christmas shopping then.

Veterans Day Restaurant Discounts 2012

As you all know, my husband is active duty Air Force.  Some years we take advantage of one of the discounts and some years we don't.  My husband and son both have a long weekend this year for Veteran's Day so I think we will be doing at least one of these!

Here are some of the best discounts for Veterans this year:

OLIVE GARDEN

Veterans eat free with proof of service.  There will be a special menu with a list of several entrees to choose from.  This one takes place on Monday, November 12.  Some Olive Garden restaurants will also give out $10 giftcards to veterans for future visits.  Call your local restaurant and see if they are offering it!

APPLEBEE'S

Military Veterans and Active Duty Service Members will be able to eat free at any Applebee's in the US on Veteran's Day, which is Sunday, November 11.  There will be six entrees available from a special menu.  You must have proof of service.  Acceptable forms include a military ID, retired ID, Current LES, Veterans Organization Card, a photograph in uniform, or wearing a uniform in person.

GOLDEN CORRAL

Any person who has ever served in the United States Military can receive a free meal from 4 to 9 pm on Monday, November 12 in any Golden Corral nationwide. 

CHILI'S

Show proof of military service and receive your choice from a menu of six meals on Sunday November 11.  This one is at participating locations only, so call ahead!

Other restaurants that have discounts at select locations include:
 T.G.I. Friday's
Hooters
Texas Roadhouse
Subway
Krispy Kreme Doughnut
Denny's

From what I've seen these discounts will vary by location, with some offering free meals, and others offering a certain percentage off.  Call ahead and see what your local establishment is offering.

What a Difference a Year Makes

We had parent teacher conferences with Elliott's teachers yesterday.  It's amazing how different it went than last year in kindergarten.  It seems that in kindergarten, Elliott was prone to cry, not listen, and talk too loud.  In first grade, one of his teachers said he was one of her best behaved!  She said he does tend to rush through things sometimes in an effort to get done as soon as his friends, but he's quick to listen and calm down if things get crazy.  His other teacher had nothing but good things to say as well.  They both said he is very bright, and good at everything he does.  He loves to draw and read, and goes through a lot more books than most of the kids do.  He ends up with more free time in class because one of his teachers lets him get started on some stuff while others are finishing up something else, so he's able to focus more closely on it.  He loves Science.

His scores are pretty much off the charts on reading.  His reading level is about that of an average 5th grader toward the end of the year (just an estimate since the test they give first graders only goes through 4th grade levels, and he surpassed those), and his reading comprehension is soundly in the 4th grade level.  Not bad for a six year old!

Math is still a little bit of a struggle for him, although he's still able to score in the 60th-80th percentile overall on math tests, and got an A for the first quarter.  It just takes him a little longer to get it done, and it frustrates him.  It seems that his best friend in his math and reading class, is fast at math, and it irritates Elliott that he gets done so much before him.  Then again, that same friend gets irritated by how much faster Elliott is at reading tasks.

Elliott liked school last year, but he LOVES it this year.  We are very happy over all with our school experience. 

Politics

I am passionate about politics.  It's not something that many of my online only friends know about me.  I keep it pretty secret for a few different reasons.  The main one being that I don't want my husband to get in trouble. I've read several warnings this year (not directed at me) to be tasteful if we must discuss politics, but to try to keep a lid on it over all.  If we don't, it can hurt our spouses' careers.

I don't consider myself to really belong to either party, although I am technically registered with one.  Ironically I'm registered with the one that I have the least in common with, because it's also the one that I agree with most often on the things that I am most passionate about.  Next month I will be voting a nearly straight ticket, although there are 2 that I plan to vote for that don't belong to "my party," and I plan on voting opposite my party's platform on at least one specific policy that will be on my ballot.  I'm still researching another.

This year is a big election year for the United States, with the election of a president.  It's important to make an informed choice on who you want to run our country.  But please don't overlook the other issues and people you will be voting for next month.  In my state there is a lot of coverage over the US Senate race right now, and a lot of negative ads from both Heidi Heitkamp and Rick Berg.  My husband and I have done the research and are making an informed choice on who to vote for.  We've done the same thing for local elections, and the choices for governor as well as all of the issues on the ballot.

Please remember that it sometimes takes more than a quick internet search to find valid, true information, especially on lower levels of government.  And in some ways these politicians turn out to be the most important ones for YOU.

Car Shopping Again

I mentioned before that my sister got a new car on Tuesday.  The Cavalier that she had been driving for the last seven years finally died.  About two weeks ago she went out to start it after work, and it wouldn't crank at all.  My husband went down and looked at it and picked her up and told her the motor had most likely seized, so she needed to have it towed somewhere to get it looked at.  She got that done, and he was indeed right.  The motor had seized and with labor and everything, the cost was going to be close to $5000 to fix it.  This was a 2003 Cavalier that had already been totaled once (it's had a salvaged title since 2006 I believe), so she decided to just junk it, and we began our car buying journey.

The first few days she drove my husband's truck back and forth to work, and he took our car, while I took the van.  That couldn't be a long term solution, though, so we went down and looked at cars at nearly every dealership in town that first Saturday, since it happened to be Darla's Saturday off and Carl was off as well.  She really wanted a stick shift, but we had trouble finding one in her price range.  Finally we found a 2008 Hyundai Accent manual transmission with under 40,000 miles on it and it was in her price range!  She test drove it Saturday, came home and did some research, and we went back to get it last Tuesday.  She was really excited.

Fast forward to Saturday, and after driving it for less than 300 miles, the check engine light started flashing.  She was leaving work, and was getting ready to head home.  Carl, Elliott, and I were at the movie theater watching Frankenweenie.  As soon as our movie was over, we met her, and Carl discovered some pretty significant problems on her car, especially considering how few miles it had on it.  She had some time left on her bumper to bumper warranty, plus an extended car care warranty, but it was still very frustrating.  And she had to take my husband's truck to work again on Sunday.

Sunday night we car shopped online, and found a Toyota Carolla Matrix that was right in her price range.  It's older and has significantly more mileage but it's a Toyota, so will probably last longer (she has decided that my husband's 1998 Tacoma is the most reliable of our fleet, and it has almost 240000 miles on it).  We did the research and discovered it was most likely a good car, and to make it even better, it was at the dealership where she liked the sales guy the best.  We had to wait and see if the first dealership would go ahead and take the car back as part of it's 5 day guarantee, though, since it was technically up by the time she could get ahold of someone, even though the problems started during the first 5 days.  It was surprisingly easy to give it back, though.  So she is now the proud owner of a 2003 Matrix, with a brand new transmission and tires.  It's even a stick!

I'm really hoping that this turns out to be a great car.  I like it better than I liked the Accent, and Elliott does as well (he's going to be riding back and forth to school with her a lot starting next week when she starts teaching at his school).  We took a chance on it, by not taking my husband with us when we looked at it and test drove it yesterday (she bought it then as well), but based on what I've heard and experienced with that dealership and sales guy, I'm confident they wouldn't sell it to us with known problems.  My husband did check it out last night, and said we did good. :)