Being Thankful

I woke up this morning thinking about what a wonderful weekend we had. I am so thankful for many things.


1. I am thankful for a great time with my brother-in-law. We had an awesome conversation about the Lord sitting at our dinner table last night.

2. I am thankful that our family has a relationship with God, and that includes my brother-in-law. Thank you, Lord.

3. I am thankful for the children in my life, which includes my own and all the others that I know. It inspires me to see how happy and simple their lives are and how it can be for us. Live a little and let go, blow air into your cup with a straw and hear it bubble, you know it's fun!!! Plus IT'S SUMMER!!!!!

4. I am thankful for my husband. God give him to me and he is a gift from the Lord. It was great to spend time with him this weekend and just watch him interact with our children. I especially enjoyed watching him at VBS in front of everyone being silly. He was FUNNY!

5. I am thankful for my parents. They are one of the reasons I am serving the Lord.

6. I am thankful for my new church family, especially my Sunday School class. Those women are very special to me and we are nurturing our relationship each week. When they hurt, I hurt with them.

7. I am thankful for the rain, we sure need it.

8. I am thankful that we stuck it out in home schooling. It was a rocky start, but we still knew it was the Lord's will. It's such an awesome feeling to know that we are in God's will. It's great to see our children learn to read, count, diagram a sentence, and know that with God's help we taught them most of what they know ( a little scary to know that too..haha).

9. I am thankful for another beautiful day, summer, a soft bed to sleep in, food to eat, friends, and that all my physical needs are met.

10. I am thankful for the internet. It could be a bad thing, but for me it gives me a job (when I want to work), it allows me to see the deals so I can save money, it allows me to keep in touch with those I love, it provides a wealth of information at my fingertips about home schooling, the Bible, etc.

11. I am thankful for my pastor and his wife. I love them both dearly. Faye is really a sweet lady and I am so glad that I know her.

12. I am thankful that my children have friends. For the longest time I worried about that.


This is only a short list because I am thankful for many, many, many more things, but these things were really on my mind today and I wanted to share. God is so good.

Deals for You

Old Navy
solid flip flops for $1.00 on June 28, 2008 limit 5
Wal-Mart
Blue Bunny Popsicles $.50 with printable coupon http://www.bluebunny.com/coupons.aspx
LiveActive cereal free with coupon http://www.kraftfoods.com/liveactivefoods/whatsNew/index.aspx
Honey Bunches of Oats cereal free with coupon http://www.kraftfoods.com/honeybunchesofoats
Johnson's Buddy Soap free with coupon http://bricks.coupons.com/Run.asp?tqnm=sdtledk37508219

You should be able to print each of these coupons twice.

Food Lion
cantaloupes B1G1 $1.50 a piece
white grapes $.99 pound
food lion steak sauce $1.00
Sweet baby ray's bbq sauce B1G1 $1.1o per bottle
20 oz Bisquick $1.00
Nabisco Nilla Wafers B1G1 $2.00 per box
Kellogg's Frosted Flakes $1.53
General Mills Chex Strawberry cereal $.99
Post trail mix cereal $1.50
Post Honeycomb chocolate cereal $1.50
Food Lion shredded cheese 8 oz $1.40
Totino's party pizza 12oz $1.00

Bi-Lo
Whiska's Purrfectly Cat Food Pouch buy 2 packs and use coupon from 6/22 paper and pay $.14

Trial Size Items
Many times coupons do not specify what size the item needs to be and you can use the coupon to get a trial size. There are many coupons out there that qualify for this and the coupons have been in the Sunday paper. Here are a few examples, old spice body wash, Gillette 2 in 1 body wash, gold bond lotion, baby lotion, clean and clear face cleanser, wipes, and John Freida mousse.
If you received coupons in yesterday's paper, here are some deals that you might consider.

$4.00 coupon for Bic Soleil razor use at Wal-Mart and can buy it for $1.94
$1.00 coupon for All use at CVS and buy the 32oz (buy 1 get 1 free) ending cost $1.90
$3.00 coupon for OFF Mosquito powerpad lamp use at Wal-Greens and buy it for $3.99 (we bought 2 of these about a month ago and they came in handy on vacation)
$1.00 coupon for OFF Mosquito powerpad lamp refills 3 pack use at Wal-Greens and buy it for $3.99
Lysol toilet bowl cleaner use coupon from 6/22 paper and pay $1.00 Wal-Greens
Lysol all purpose spray use coupon from 6/22 paper and pay $1.50 Wal-Greens

ALL YOU magazine
For those of you who shop at Wal-Mart they have a magazine called, All You. You can only buy it at Wal-Mart or get it in the mail. The cost is $2.49 and I think they give you 10% off at the checkout. This magazine is packed with great ideas. The current issue has tips for 30 minute meals, what to eat and avoid to lose weight, how to get chores done in less time, but most of all it has lots of coupons. A couple of months back it had a coupon in it to get a free Adidas deodorant. These coupons are manufacturer's coupons, so you can use them anywhere. If you are interested in buying the magazine, they have them at the checkout and the area where they sell books and other magazines. If you take a look at it, you can see a list of coupons on page 148. Here are a couple of examples of what coupons are in it: $.75 on any single pack or multi-pack bag of Triden Xtra Care gum, $1.00 on any Kotex product (use this at Wal-Mart and get panty liners free), $1.50 on certain Colgate toothpastes.

HERSHEY PARK

Our pictures came in the mail today of our trip and I sat for awhile enjoying looking over them. I enjoyed all of our trip and seeing history, "face to face", but I think the best part of the whole trip was HERSHEY PARK! I had a blast! When we scheduled Hershey into our trip, I was really only doing it for the kids. I figured they would need some really good fun along with learning about how other people lived and reviewing American history. I believe I had the most fun of all. We ate breakfast on the way from the Golden Arches and arrived at the park right when they were opening. We already had our tickets so it was a breeze getting in. When you first walk in they have several people measuring the kids. Each stand has heights and at the height there is a certain candy bar, so during the whole day you only have to look to see if your candy bar is at the ride and you know if you can ride or not. Plus, when you get your height checked, you get that piece of candy. Now how cool is that? Everyone was really excited so Michael was the only one who ate his Hershey bar. Melanie threw her Reece cup away and Madison threw her Hershey bar away. CRAZY KIDS!! It was so hot we could not have kept them though. Melanie and I stayed together and rode the things she could. We had a wonderful time because she could ride most things, however she just needed an adult with her. She saw this great big rollar coaster and stated she wanted to ride it. Well, I couldn't deny her the right to scream her head off could I??!! I really didn't think she would be scared and I was excited to get on the coaster with my baby, BUT she DID NOT like it one bit! She cried the whole time and I had to hold her the best I could. I felt so sorry for her. I think what did it was the one big plunge at the very beginning because after that it wasn't too bad. We got off and she did not get on anymore coasters until almost 10:00 that night and it was a small one, but it was GREAT!! We wanted to ride again on that one, but they were closing. Well, during the course of the day we met back up with the rest of our family. Phil and the other 2 had a blast the hours they were on the loose. They hit all but 2 coasters I think and rode them more than 1 time. The park was not really busy at all. The only bad part of the day was when Madison had to upchuck her lemonade. I think she had gotten too hot and had been on too many rides. We went to the van, ate lunch, and cooled off. Before we went back to get in the water area of Hershey, we toured Chocolate World. That was really neat and we also got to eat some free chocolate. If you haven't tried Hershey Bliss yet, you are missing out, it is smooth and very yummy.

The Board Walk was added last year and they have tons of stuff to so that you can get wet. We got to enjoy it for about 30 minutes before the weather decided not to cooperate. It never really rained, but it threatened to, so they closed down alot of the rides. We took the opportunity to see a show and eat supper. SUPPER???!!! Now, you know it really hurt me to eat supper in the amusement park because if you have ever been to one you know how much things can cost. Well, we paid almost $37.00 for 2 hamburger combo meals and 3 chicken strip kid's meals. OUCH! We even was given 2 coupons for a free drink, so it would have been over $40.00! Do you realize how much I could have gotten at Bilo on a good coupon week or CVS? I could have shopped at CVS for a whole year with that!!! I really wasn't upset or mad about that. I had a great time eating that hamburger and we took pics to show it! We stayed at the park until closing and we took pics of that too...

My Bilo Trip

If you know me well enough, you know I have to get a deal this week. I was away from my coupons over a week! YIKES!! I was pleasantly surprised that I did not think about shopping while we were on vacation, however every time we saw a CVS the kids would go crazy in the hopes I would NOT stop. I contained myself until Sunday. I just HAD to go in for the fun of it just to take a picture and say I went to a CVS in Virginia. I know I need help, but it's fun. Hey, but I know of people who do take their coupons with them on vacation, so I haven't gotten that bad yet! Well, here's what I got at Bi-Lo Tuesday night before there sale from last week ended.

total before savings $108.76
my savings $73.98
my total $.34.78

THE LOOT

20 bags of steamfresh veggies
6 packs Land o Frost lunch meat
6 packs Tennessee Pride sausage
3 boxes pizza rolls
6 botttles Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce
1 box icecream

The icecream hurt a little because I didn't have a coupon for that. It was a treat for the kiddies...haha. I know it's alot of microwaveable veggies and I know it's alot of lunch meat, but it's summer and the pool is open so who WANTS to cook??? I will throw some meat to bake in the oven, throw the veggies in the microwave, and then put on some rice in the rice cooker. We will eat a quick supper and then hit the pool in the evening. The lunch meat is for lunches at the pool during the day. I DO NOT do this everyday for those of you wondering!

We're Back!!!!

Wow...what a week! We had an awsome time and I have plenty to share. Last Saturday we left for PA at 8:00am. We wanted to leave no later than 8:00am, so we did great getting started. That was the very first time we left for a trip on time. With several stops on the road, we made it to Hershey Farm and Inn around 8:00pm with excitement in the air. We got into our room, ate some supper, and went to bed. Oh, we had a wonderful surprise. We were given a breakfast voucher so we got to eat breakfast at the restaurant as part of our stay. Hershey Inn offers buffet style meals, so we ate all we wanted of breakfast items including baked oatmeal (which we have never tried and it was pretty good), homeade biscuits and gravy, to cereal, if anyone wanted it (and believe it or not Melanie wanted it). I had planned on us just eating cereal in the room before we left for our campground, however we definitely used our voucher. Hershey Inn also has a gift store and the kids had a time looking around for items to purchase. Everyone ended up buying a little something, but I could tell it was going to be a long week as far as decisions go! Here are a couple of pics from the store. The first is the kids looking around trying to figure out what to buy and the second is a pic of Phil and the kids trying to fit in with their new surroundings!

We went to our campground (White Oaks) and we got a lovely shaded spot near the bathrooms (a necessity). After we set up, we went cruising around the town. We found out quick that not many attractions or unique stores are open on Sundays in Lancaster Co., however we did find a couple of stores to look through and we also enjoyed looking at the beautiful countryside. I can not believe how beautiful it is up there. Also, everywhere you look there are dairy farms, (of course our farm trip will have to wait for another day). Sunday evening we ate at the Apple Tree Inn. It was delicious. We used a restaurant.com gift certificate and everyone ate for about $16.00 including tip. Here is a list of what we had: half fried chicken, prime rib, fried potato cakes, broccoli with cheese sauce, salad, chicken strips, hamburger, pizza, fries, onion rings, cheese sticks, and rolls. We had to make sure our order totaled $35.00 and our gift cert. was for $25.00 We were stuffed so we went back to our camp site and relaxed. What a wonderful day. Here is a pic of an Amish family buggy and what the land looks like in Lancaster Co.

Could this be a new way of life for many people if the gas prices keep rising?LOL

I wouldn't mind living out somewhere with a few acres of land!!! Just make sure I have running water and power though!

Pennsylvania Bound!

We leave tomorrow on vacation for the big state of Pennsylvania. I don't know how many times we have said that state's name in the past few weeks, but I know it has been alot. We are so excited to see the Amish country. Last year, the magazine, Family Fun, published an article about this area of the United States and when I read it I knew that was were I wanted to visit this year. The thing that attracted me was the train ride! I am so glad that Phillip was willing to go along with my little adventure. We have many things planned, along with a day trip to Philly, and on the way back we plan on going to Washington DC. Our van is really going to be loaded down! We will spend a few nights in a motel, but we are also camping, so we are having to pack alot. I have been organizing, writing lists, shopping, and packing for at least a month now. I know one thing, we have learned to write a good list of supplies and save it on the computer. Never again will we leave the pillows at home! Well, let's hope not anyway! Another thing that we have concentrated on is what and where to eat. If we don't plan, then we end up spending way too much money on the food alone. One way we are saving money is by bringing food I have bought on sale(and with coupons) and also using the website http://www.restaurant.com/ . I will definitely post how our trip went and hopefully have some pictures to post.