Saturday, March 27, 2010

Spring Projects!

I love the Spring season! Usually Texas has such nice weather, before the heat of summer kicks in. One of the things I love about Spring is being outside and planting flowers!

Well today Joey and I went to the hardware stores to look at a project we are starting on! It is rather a big one, but our animals will love it! We bought all the wood for it, some drylock, screws and all that fun stuff. Then tonight we went and bought a filter for it.

What is it you may ask?! We (really Joey with my awesome father-in-law's help, Mike) are building an indoor turtle pond!!

It will be made out of wood and plywood, sealed so it won't leak. I'm not too sure about the specific lengths and such right now though. We will line it twice with a liner. It will hold 110 gallons. There will be sand in the bottom and then ramping out of the water will be the turtle's basking place :)


Why are we doing this? Well simply because even though our turtle babies have a 40 gallon tank, it is getting too small for them! They are fighting over space. Tardy has attacked Nibbler and made him bleed pretty badly,that was not fun, and they are still taunting each other! This will allow the crazy boys to have a bunch of room!

Here is a picture of the men at work :)
I am really excited about this pond!

The cats will be fascinated too. There will be a ledge where they can watch the turtles from. Burney will LOVE this since he loves watching the turtles, he is so fascinated by them! :)

Oh! The fishies that are living with the turtles are down from 5 to 2! Not sure what happened, but the turtles ate 2 fish. I woke up 2 different mornings to a turtle having a dead fish hanging out of his mouth! Joey thinks the fish died and so the turtles ate them. I think that's the case since Nibbler has never killed a fish and he was chowing down on one!

Here is the other project that I did today!
I have had those planters for a year and after I bought them I was unsure on how to put plants in them, since there are big openings on the sides.

Well today I got some moss and lined the planter, then put dirt and planted some pretty flowers in them! I thought this would spruce up our front porch!

The flowers are really pretty!

That and weeding the flowerbeds is what I was doing today while Joey and Mike were working!

We had a very productive day!

Joey and I also bought a little hummingbird feeder that attaches to the window! We are going to put that on the window facing the backyard so the kitties can watch the birds! :)

I will post a picture of the turtle pond when it gets more shapely and when it is done! I'm thinking it will be done sometimes in April, maybe mid-April :)

Enjoy this beautiful Spring weather!

This week's Freebies :)

This week was a pretty good freebie week! I didn't go to the store that much, I just went to Kroger to get some milk and my FREE pizza that I won playing the March Madness game (on Kroger's website). :)

Here is my free stuff from my Kroger Trip!

Pizza -FREE normally like almost $4 dollars!!
 4 Snickers- were 2/$1 I had 2- $1 off 2 coupon!
 2 Dial-$1, had 2 - .35 coupon that triples 

That trip I only had to pay for the milk plus .02 tax :D


Then mail freebies were great this week! 

Sample of Burt's Bees Natural Toothpaste
Sample of Olay Bodywash


South Beach Granola Bar + coupon


This is what I got for signing up for the "Bran 7-day challenge"
- Sample of All Bran Complete ceral
- Sample of All Bran "Bran Buds"
- 2 coupons
- Marigold seeds! I thought it was random...but a nice surprise!



Lastly, I got this today!

- Free Vitamin Water coupon
- Coupons that I won from SheSaved! I won again! :D

I discovered that I really like the Snicker Almond!! So those B1G1 coupons are a nice treat! I am hoping to go to Kroger again with the .50 of 2 Twix coupon and get them for free...I believe they have Twix 2/$1

What a blessing to be able to get free stuff! If you are interested in getting samples and free goodies in the mail, check out:


Those websites have the good deals with coupon matchups and also the freebie mail stuff :)

Friday, March 26, 2010

Love this!

I wanted to share with you something that I read on one of my favorite blogs- GirlTalk :)

From GirlTalk:

"Recently, I came across this magazine article that CJ first showed me a couple of years ago. It’s a refreshing reminder of the grace of God that comes to us each and every day  (yes, even today!) I’d encourage you to read it  and then put it in a safe place--you’re going to want to read it again. I’ll leave you with a snippet:
'So here it is, another day. I did nothing to deserve it. I just woke up this morning, and there it was. I may have expected it to be there, but I had no right to. Just like Christmas morning, I got up to find a present waiting for me, a brand new day.

Yes, today is a gift. And it has my name on the tag. This present from God has been custom-made for me. God has filled it with blessings, some obvious and some in disguise. Its difficulties and challenges are tailored to fit my size. It may not be exactly what I asked for, but it is exactly what I need'

-Russell Board
World Magazine, November 18, 2006"


I LOVE this part of the article!! What a great mindset to have.  It really puts things into perspective. I do not deserve to have another day, it is not entitled to me...each day is a blessing itself! 

I think if you have that mindset, little things remain little. When you are grateful to have another day, suddenly the bad hair days do not seem as awful! Hey, at least you have hair! Many bald men would love to have a bad hair day...at least they'd have hair! :)

The best thing when you are having a bad day is to think of the blessings that God has given you! Even things we think are small, like feeling the warmth of the sunshine or seeing a beautiful butterfly is a blessing from our Creator!

Think about your blessings and give thanks!

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Garage Sale Time

Today and tomorrow is the Needville City Wide Garage Sale. Mom and I decided to go, just to go. We met up with Mary (my mother-in-law) and went a lookin'! We went to the new subdivision over by the elementary school and some on Luise Street. And then....the rain came!! The clouds started rolling in and we got to the car just in time!


It didn't seem like this time there was too much good stuff out. It was drizzling in the morning, but stopped a little later. So there was not many people out, which was nice...but then the garage sales were not that plentiful either. It would have been great if I wanted clothes or baby stuff. Perhaps we just didn't go to the right spot. We stayed pretty much by the elementary school and since the rain was coming we didn't venture out any more than that.

I did get some goodies though :) My mom bought a few things and Mary bought a cute decorative ceramic bunny. Here's the things I got:
This candle(never used!) is from Bath and Body Works (normally $19.50!) 
I paid $2


I thought this was adorable!! :) It can be hung up or set on a shelf
 I paid $2

This is also from Bath and Body Works! It is an oil warmer. You put oil in the top and lift the top and place a tealight candle under. It warms the oil and makes you house smell good! 
They had it marked $2. I paid $1

Then I got all these children's books! :D There were more, but I didn't want to spend too much on books. 
The lady selling them was really nice!
She wanted $5 for all these
I paid $3!


Total I spent:  $8! :)

Overall it was a good time. 



I have also gotten some goodies in the mail this week :)

- Coupon Booklet of Target Coupons
- Light & Easy Cookbook
- Coupon booklet from Eat Better America
- Cute Gooseberry Farm recipe book ( I have been waiting for this one!)
- Dried Plums...but the mailman squished them...so they will be thrown away
- Coupon for Free Seventh Generation dish soap!

That's all for now! Have a great day!

How much did I pay?

This week was quite exciting for Target deals! I am more and more happy that I purchased an extra paper 2 Sundays ago! I have already gotten 2 Free Frank's Hot Sauce, 2 Free Johnson and Johnson Buddies soaps and 2 Free Reach floss because I had 2 different sets of inserts from that Sunday! :D

If you have been reading my posts and are wondering "what in the world is she going to do with 8 Johnson and Johnson Budddies soaps?!" Well...I'm glad you are wondering. I plan to give half or most away. I plan to put those in the boxes that are put together at Christmas time for the children. Operation Christmas Child or the one that we do at our church :) I have gotten at least 4 free floss, I plan on sending that with them too :) God has blessed me with extra, so that I may in turn bless others with it!


Alright on to my Target deal:

2- AirWick Freshmatic
1- 3 pack Ivory soap
1- 3 pack of Orbit gum


Airwick Freshmatic = FREE!!
Ivory soap = FREE!!
Orbit gum= .99

Out of pocket I paid: 
.95!!

I saved:
$30.56!
Yay!! The Air Wick Automatic Fragence were normally $13! Crazy! Target had them on rollback for $6. I had  2 coupons for $5 off then 2 - $1 off Target coupons! So I got these for Free! :D The ivory soap was on sale for .99 and I had a $1 coupon. The gum was also on sale $1.99 I had a coupon for $1 off. I took 2 reusable bags so I got .10 off too! :)

What a great trip! 

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Spring is Here!!

Well...at least where we are at!

It is beautiful here! The sun is shining, the little lizards around our house are back and the grass is again growing!

It looks like this will be fun Spring!

Since we have moved in, there has been a nest in one of our gutters (in the front in the overhang over our front door). Well we just haven't gotten around to getting it out. This morning we were leaving for church and I noticed a dove walking towards it and then I saw a dove in the nest. So we have a mommy dove!! :D She chose to have her babies at our house! How awesome!  I haven't had that happen so near/on our house since I was little. When we had a bird make a nest in a flower pot on our front porch.

I walked up to get a piece of paper off of our front door (spam) and the mommy dove just looked down at me :) I told her I would leave her alone and she is welcome to have her babies there. I also noticed 2 little lizards were on our house watching me too!
Here she is:
Such a sweet bird! She is such a beautiful reminder of how God takes care of all his creation.

I love Spring! :) I plan on getting some pretty flowers to put on each side of our front door.

I think the kitties are enjoying the sunshine too! They are love to sunbathe! It's about good enough weather for them to be able to have their outside adventures! Burney is now big enough to go out too! We will have to keep watch of 3 kitties! It was pretty hard last year just watching Daisy and keeping Yao from eating the grass! lol

Even though I am thankful for different seasons, Spring is my favorite!

My Spring Break is this week! Yay! I have some projects for school to do and I have a few special projects I want to do around the house. Other than that I want to have fun and relax! :)

I talked to my great grandma Friday. She is doing good! She told me that she's not up to much and wondered how everyone else was doing. I told her about me going to school and Joey keeping busy with work, us helping with Rosie's benefit and my dad and my stepmom's anniversary. (Already 7 years this past week!) My great grandma was having a good day. She recognized instantly who I was when I said "Hi Granny, this is Rachel". Sometimes she gets me confused with someone else. Her sense of humor is still going strong, which is something I have always loved about her! My great granny will be 95 this April!! I told her back when she turned 90, that once you get so old, you just start counting your age back down. Which meant she would've been 89, so she liked that idea! lol

Alright I think I'm going to go take a nap...since we lost that hour of sleep! Have a great day!

Free goodies!

I was really blessed this past week with a bunch of free things! Yay!


Free from the stores:
Target:
- 2  Buddies Soaps
- 1 Skittle

Kroger:
- 2 Franks Hot Sauce
- 2 Reach Floss
(these are all free with coupons)

Tuesday I went to visit my grandma and I came back home with a cute dress and a nice dressy shirt! You wouldn't think cute clothes from your grandma, but mine has some stylish pieces! :) The dress(Vera Wang brand) she let me have it until she "needs to wear something black and red" and then the shirt she was getting rid of! Yay! 

I got a bunch of goodies in the mail this week too! 



- 6 different samples from Playtex
- Sample of Axe bodywash for Joey :)
- Aveeno shampoo and conditioner sample + coupon
- Crest White Strips sample + coupon


Then this came!! 

As I have previously talked about on one of my posts, I won a giveaway over at She Saved. I received my prize in the mail today! 13 coupons! 
- 4- B1G1 Free Milkyway Caramel, M&Ms Coconut, or 3 Musketeers Truffle Crisp
( I plan on using my B2G1 Free coupon with one of these to try to score 2 free! Buy 3 and get 2 Free with both coupons)
- 4 - B1G1 Free Snickers
- 5- .50 when you buy Combos and a drink

I was so happy to win something!! She has a fun giveaway where she posts a post with an egg on it, she then tells her Facebook fans that it is there on her website and we have to be find it within the time limit and post a comment.  I won the first one, with others,  which was looking for the bunny! Now she is doing, if you see the egg, leave a comment and then at random she will choose one to send goodies to!

Have a great Sunday!

My Cheap Kroger Trip + Using my new Food Processor!

This past Tuesday I decided to go to Kroger, pick up some bread and a few other things to use my $3.00 off of my purchase. Here is what I got:


I was soo excited that I was going to get this for so cheap, but when I tried to make the purchase and use the $3 off coupon w/o the carrots, I was .10 under...so I had to get something else, since even though the manager tried, the register would not let them give me .10 back. So I decided to get the carrots, even though the price had gone up from last week. 

Regardless I should not be complaining, because I paid $1.89!! :D

-The hot sauces and floss were FREE!! :D
-The French Bread (which will be used for French bread pizza) was .99! Manager Special
- Loaf of bred was on sale too, which is nice, since we like this kind and it is not cheap otherwise
- Carrots 1.99! They were $1 the week before.
- Trident gum .25 (I forgot to put it in the picture!)

Was a pretty good trip :)


I got home that day and I shredded the carrots we already had, since they were about to go bad. I also chopped an onion in the food processor my grandma gave me for Christmas. The one she gave me is like the really nice CuisineArt one that shreds, then you flip the disk and it slices, etc. However the one I have is probably  from the 80's and I think is a Black and Decker. But I LOVE it!!! I didn't have to pay $200 for the CuisineArt one and my grandma wanted to get rid of it. What a blessing!! I love it when that happens, you want something and someone you know wants to get rid of that same item! :)

Back to my story. I chopped an onion, which went into my freezer for later. Just a tip...when you just chopped a big piece of onion in the processor, you stop it and want to see how fine it chopped...don't look down the food chute. I put my face over it (when it was stopped of course) and it burned my eyes!! I have never cried from an onion till then! lol Just thought I would throw that tip in there! :)

Go outside and enjoy the sunshine!

Sunday, March 7, 2010

I love this song!

This is such an amazing song that has touched my heart! When I hear this song I think of all the things that God has blessed me with. I did/do not deserve what I get, but God loves us and gives us more than we sometimes really need!

I will never deserve the best gift of all that he has ever given me, my salvation. For my sin, I deserve death...eternal death, but a beautiful Lamb, Jesus, was slain so that I may be live eternally with my God!

What an amazing God we serve!



Here are the lyrics to the song:
He is jealous for me, Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.
When all of a sudden, I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,
And I realize just how beautiful You are,
And how great Your affections are for me.

And oh, how He loves us oh
Oh how He loves us,
How He loves us all

He is jealous for me, Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.
When all of a sudden, I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,
And I realize just how beautiful You are,
And how great Your affections are for me.

And oh, how He loves us oh,
Oh how He loves us,
How He loves us all

He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.

And we are His portion and He is our prize,
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes,
If His grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking.
And heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss,
And my heart turns violently inside of my chest,
I don’t have time to maintain these regrets,
When I think about, the way…

That He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.
Yeah, He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.

Yeah, He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.

Saturday, March 6, 2010

More Mail Fun!

This week was a great week for mail! I didn't get much, but what I got was really nice!

Here is what I got:

- Busy Mom Bible-  normally: $25! Got it for FREE!
- Sample of Cream of Wheat..not what I thought...I thought it would be like Malt-O-Meal...it's not
- Coupon for Cream of Wheat
- Window Cling...I'm not a big environmentalist person, I just thought it would be nice to remind me to get my reusable bags when I go to Target so I can get my discount. 

Not pictured: 
- ASPCA window cling- that tells how many pets are inside in case of an emergency situation.
- 2 samples of Purex 3-in-1 sheets + coupon!
-Coupon for FREE Digiorno 200 calorie pizza


Pretty good week for freebies! I am excited about my mail now! :D I also won a giveaway over at She Saved, I won 12 coupons for some great B1G1 coupons! I am so excited! She was having a look for the bunny in one of her posts, then be one of the first 10 to comment. I was number 9! YAY!


This week was a pretty good week for grocery shopping! I went to Target and Kroger. I didn't take any pictures of my Target purchase bc I only had a few coupons and most of the stuff was not on sale...we just needed it so I got it. 

- One good deal I did get was buying a Schick men's razor and then I have a mail-in-rebate to get it FREE! 

Then at Kroger I wanted to get the meat in the freezer so I forgot to take a picture! Bad I know! lol

But I did get some great deals!

- I bought 4 boxes of Fruit Loops and that earned me 2 FREE gallons of milk and a $3 off my next trip! 
- I got 2 jars of Pace for .50 each
- I got 2 pouches of tuna (they are about 2.35 normally) for .50 each! 
- B1G1 Free dozen eggs. 
-Free 200 calorie Digiorno Pizza! (had a coupon for a free one!)

I saved almost 50% at Kroger! I paid $4x.xx and I saved $3x.xx I can't remember the exact amount. And that was buying a Value Pack of Chicken Breast and Chicken Tenders, 2-1lb. tube of ground beef, and 2 pretty good size resealable bags of Gorton's fish fillets and fish sticks. I got a lot of meat for great prices! The chicken tenders I split, I will get 3 meals out of it for $4.12 and then I will get 2 meals out of the chicken breasts for $5.xx. Which is great! 

That is all for now! Have a lovely day! :)