Kroger + Coupons = One happy mama!

One of my new favorite things to do when I visit mom and dad's is to go to the Kroger right down the street and check out what's on sale/clearance/what I have coupons that can be doubled. San Antonio is HEB Land, which we love, since our family benefits in many ways from HEB and from having a huge city shop almost exclusively at HEB! However, I do enjoy hunting for and finding deals at other places, like Kroger. Two weeks ago, I picked up three Honey Nut Cherrios for $2 total, along with some other great deals. Yesterday, I went with my coupons in hand to get free toilet paper and pick up a couple of other things mom and dad needed. Well, Josiah and I were walking through the store and I'm doing the "scan for the orange clearance sticker" all through the store. My eyes landed on a lady's basket with wipes that had a clearance sticker on them. Hmmmm, I thought. My sis and her kiddos are coming to mom and dad's next week. She'll need wipes. So I went to check it out. I was thrilled to find in the clearance section that they were Seventh Generation baby wipes. I had seen just that morning on Money Saving Mom that there was a coupon for $2 off and Seventh Gen baby product. Well, these wipes were marked down to $2.19 for the box and $1.89 for the refills. Well, we made haste to the check out to get the couple of things mom and dad needed and then dashed to their house and printed out some coupons (3 total). Later that evening, mom and I went back to Kroger to get the wipes. While we were there, we decided to go and pick up some cinnamon rolls for breakfast since they were $10 for 10. Believe it or not, there was a little red blinkie coupon dispenser spitting out $.75 off of 3 for any refrigerated Pillsbury bread. So we got three coupons, three rolls and got them for $.25 each!! So, thanks to coupons we got all of this....


For about $1!! If I were to pay retail (like I would ever do that!) this stuff would cost $18.10. What fun it is to save money!!!

Man, there's lots going on....updates from our crew

Well, my pictures didn't add in the order that I wanted, but for the last two days I haven't been able to add any pictures at all, so I'll take what I can get.

Here's the latest...

We got home from Dallas on Sunday and as I was putting something in the pantry, I had the hideous "honor" of spotting a mouse running across the bottom shelf in our pantry. I CALMLY (yeah, right!) said (screamed) "I found the mouse!" and quickly shut the pantry door. The good thing was that we'd eaten lots of food out of the pantry before we left for the trip, so there wasn't alot on the bottom shelf! If you don't remember, several months ago Jeremy saw a mouse running in the drawer in our laundry room, but we've seen neither hide nor hair of it since. Well, I guess when the dog's away, the mouse will play! (I was really hoping this was "mouse" singular, not "mice" plural. ) Michael, my man the hero, quickly blockaded the pantry and started unloading things from the floor.

I took these photos while sitting with my feet up VERY HIGH on the island. I want to be a responsible blogger, you know! Get the pictures!!! But my rodent tolerance is very low, therefore, my distance from the floor must remain high! Michael's plan was to get the mouse in the "open" and then club it with the stick that is in his hand. Disgusting plan in my mind! Jeffrey's bleeding heart thought that was horrible. He ran out to the garage to get the gerbil cage to catch it and release it in the wild. Michael encouraged him to get the gerbil ball because the holes in the cage were too large and this little guy would fit right through. So, as the scene plays out, Michael sees Mousey and starts banging around with the stick, but Mousey is too fast. I quickly head out to the living room, 'cuz I don't want to have to HEAR breaking bones or squeals from a mouse. I'm randomly screaming because...well, I don't want to have to HEAR breaking bones or squeals from a mouse! Michael at one point squeals and pretends that the mouse is out and then laughs. Jeffrey's crying "Dad, dad, please let me in. I can catch it and put it in the ball. Please dad, please", but Michael's on a mission. Failure is not an option! He's gonna club that Mousey, like it or not! But add to this equation, a flimsy cookie sheet baracade and a 7 year old! Somehow, in all this chaos, the cookie sheet gets bumped and allows just enough space for Mousey to scramble out. Michael is now yelling, "Oh, man he's out!" I think he's kidding, but I interrupt my periodic screams to find out that he's not. From my new perch, on the arms of the chairs in the living room, I see everyone scrambling out of the way and groaning as Mousey crawled inside a teensy tiny hole right under our oven. How gross is that!! I'm sooooo glad I didn't see that little rodent body morph into that hole!

Needless to say, mousetraps went straight onto the list for the store. And now Mousey is... how should I put it delicately? No longer with us. Actually, after Mousey was quickly introduced to Mr. Trapmeister at 1:00 AM the next morning (yep, I heard the trap snap!), Jeffrey (remember the bleeding heart!) took the mouse out and wiggled its lifeless body around so Trixie would pounce on it and eat it. She did and he thought that was cool. All in the circle of life,right! :-)

Well, yesterday, I saw a Baby Mousey. This time I really DIDN'T freak. I saw it limping around in the laundry room. Josiah and I tried to get Jackson in the room fast enough so he could get it, but he was there just in enough time to see Baby M slip under the 'fridge. But, the relentless hunter that he is, he didn't leave that laundry room for hours. He was just waiting. Now Mr. Trapmeister and two of his brothers are armed and ready for battle. All I can say is, at least they aren't dying and hacking under my couch while I lie there immobile! (This really happened to me about 15 years ago! But that's another story for another day!)

In other animal news, the deer, Buckie-you know every living thing around here gets a name!-was remarkably still alive when we got home from Dallas. It still had not moved from the spot where we left it, so that wasn't a good sign. We took it water and some goat food a couple of times. When we got near it, it would start to shake and try and get away, but it couldn't. So sad. I found out that there is a wildlife resuce service somewhere near here, so I called them. The lady said that if the deer couldn't move it's back leg(s), it wouldn't make it and to just call the Sherriff. The day that I called, we'd seen three buzzards on the telephone pole by our house. I figured that meant Buckie was pretty near death and they were just waiting around. Michael and I decided that if Buckie was still alive the next morning, I'd call the Sherriff. I guess the Sherriff would come out and shoot it and that way we wouldn't get in trouble for hunting w/o a license. Who knows? But, thankfully, Jeffrey came back later that afternoon and reported that Buckie had died. Now the question was what to do with it. Like a truly great homeschool dad, Michael suggested that we go out and watch it every day and document the changes on the carcass. Take pictures, make drawings, whatever. After all, we live in the sticks, who's gonna care??? So that's what we decided to do.

The coyotes has a different idea. When the boys went out yesterday morning, they only found part of Buckie. They came in telling how cool it was to see Buckie's insides! Yep, they took pictures. They're boys you know! I'll do you all a favor by NOT posting the pictures, but if you want to see them, just let me know! :-) It's still a study in the cycle of life, I guess!

Ok, now on to basketball. There's no death involved in this report! I did figure out how to get my camera to take pics that aren't too dark (I turned off the flash), but beware, they're very blurry! This is NOT your eyes. Do not attempt to adjust your glasses! Just be thankful I posted the "good" ones! :-)

Here's Jonathan shooting a free throw.

Here's Jeremy playing some awesome defense.

In all, J&J's team went 3-2 at the tournament. One game they lost by only one point. In that one Jonathan threw up a "circus shot"-that's what the boys call it- at the buzzer that went in. It would have given the Patriots the victory, but the ref said Jonathan was stepping out of bounds. He wasn't, but the ref called it the way he saw it. In the game pictured above, the Patriots won by 1 point. We had a really good time at the tournament. The National tournament is in just a couple of weeks in Springfield, MO.

And finally, in more J&J news, there's orthodonture in our future. The very near future. The very near, very expensive future. We had an appt. at the orthodontist on Monday and within about an hour, we were on our way to Bracesland. They got some spacers put in their teeth that feel like rubber bands stuck between their teeth, they say. Two weeks from today the bands go on. And two years from now, we'll be thousands of dollars poorer, but the boys will have straight teeth with no gaps. I can certainly think of funner ways to spend the money, like a cruise around the world. But... I'm a mom, so braces it is! I wonder if Obama is planning any orthodonture bailouts any time soon??? I need to get on that list! Really, though, J&J are pretty excited about it. And I remember what it was like when I was 14, wishing for braces. I got stuck with glasses. At least in two years when they realize having braces is "not all that", viola...no more braces! Glasses hang on for your whole life. Or until Lasik!

So, there you go. Lots of news from our corner of the world.

Tourney update

Just a quick update from Dallas...
J&J lost their first game on Thursday morning, and pretty decisively. It was quite an experience, and a lesson in losing with grace. Man, those lessons are bummers to learn! We came back to the hotel to regroup (which to the boys means "Eat...sit in the hot tub....eat....play the Wii-yep, our hotel has one in the lobby!-eat and then eat) We had a second game that evening and won. Whew! I wasn't sure if I had enough left in me to try and talk the boys down off the ledge again!! This morning, there was another game. We won again! The team is looking better and better. This group of boys have never played together before yesterday. They've practiced along with the 8 boys that makes up the other FEAST team, but never this particular group of boys. But, things are looking up. They play a tough team this afternoon. (We watched them play this morning). J&J are a little nervous-the other guys were tall and fast! Hopefully, it goes well. Even if they don't win, I just pray the boys keep it all in perspective! What they don't realize is that it's really a blessing to lose right off the bat. Then you just get knocked down to play against teams that you can "hang" with and you don't end up having to play against a team that is capable of an on court slaughter, which we have seen a few of!

And, man, let me tell you, I've NEVER seen so many homeschoolers in one place before. The complex where we're playing has 6 courts all playing games all at the same time. It's loud and crowded and FULL of homeschoolers! Kinda crazy! And there's a whole 'nother complex full of more homeschoolers where more games are played. There's teams from Dallas, Houston, Abilene, College Station, all over Texas. Like 95 teams total. It's hard to believe!

I'll keep you posted with the next games. All my pictures turned out so dark that you couldn't even figure out what's what. Anyone have suggestions as to how to help the pics not be so dark? Yes, I'm using the flash! I think it's something with this new/used camera. I'm doing things just the same (lame) way that I did before, but with the other camera the pictures didn't come out so dark. Keep in mind that this is a medium expense camera that we're talking about-not great. I'll take all comments, though! :-)

Another rescue...

Remember a few months ago when the boys rescued a deer? Well, this morning we got a chance to do it again. Michael was home late this morning, and ran by the tractor supply company to get some chicken feed. On his way home, he noticed this sweet little buck stuck in the fence. He called me at home and the boys and I quickly ran to where he was with some tools to try and get the deer loose.

This was a young fawn and his foot was not only twisted in the wire, but the wire was embedded in its leg. And we don't know how long it had been there. Judging by all the dirt that was thrown around near the deer, he had been there a while.

Michael finally got him loose, but sadly he was not able to run off. And later in the day, it was still near the spot where he was. We're not sure if he'll make it, and we're not sure what to do. We're headed off to the Texas Homeschool Basketball state tournament, so we won't be here to help. Hopefully, something will happen and he'll be ok. Thankfully it actually rained a little last night, so the leaves around him were dripping with water so he could get some hydration. We really hope things go well for his little baby!

We love the museum!!

One of our favorite things to do at mom and dad's is the Children's Museum of Brazos Valley. I love it because it's small enough where you can see your child from wherever you stand. But it has lots of different things to do. One of the favorite things to do is the grocery store, sponsored by HEB, of course.

And this time there was a new cash register (Good news, Lauren!). The last couple of times we've gone the register hasn't worked, so this was a real bonus. One great thing when we went on Saturday was that there were only 5 other children there while we were there. Awesome!!

Upstairs is a giant chess board that Jeffrey and Josiah like to play.

It was fun way to spend Saturday afternoon!

My men make the call...

We are in Bryan/College Station today so Michael and my dad can help officiate at a track meet at A&M. It's a cool opportunity they have to do it AND-Michael reminded me-there's free food! So this morning, they're off to the track meet. Thankfully the track meet is indoors because a cool front came through here and it's 50 degrees, cloudy and windy. Not a fun morning for an outdoor meet.

Josiah's art...sing this one to "You're A Grand Ole' Flag" (know that one???)

**In case you haven't figured it out, I think in songs lots of times. Something will happen and I'll start singing a song about it (or saying a cheer) changing the lyrics to fit the current situation. The boys are used to it now! :-) So anyway, without further adeiu (adeiu, to you and you and you...see what I mean! -That's from "The Sound of Music" in case you didn't know.) here's Josiah's art project from yesterday. He's been studying the American Revolution and the making of the American flag. The flag was supposed to be made from graham crackers, but we didn't have any, but we did have a big chocolate bar, so the chocolate got the nod. Ok, start singing....


You're a grand ole flag,
You're a high flyin' flag,
You're Josiah's art project today.
You're created of
The stuff I love
From chocolate and icing you're made!

Icing sticks like glue

Colored red, white and blue

But the stripes and the stars might sag...

Should all the diets be forgot

Keep your eye on the Grand Ole Flag!

Great job, Josiah! Thanks for sharing your treat with your brothers!

More peanut butter science and today's spring cleaning project

Remember Josiah's peanut butter grasshopper project? That was fun-and yummy. Well, the other day, Jeffrey got to try his own school project with peanut butter. He's been studying the desert in science and was doing an experiment about how water flows in the desert. He used peanut butter and oatmeal (leftover Simple harvest oatmeal that no one really likes b/c it has pecans in it.) to pack down and imitate the dry, hard desert ground.
Then, he poured water over it and watched how much of the water ran off and how little was absorbed. Truthfully, he could have walked outside to our totally dry, packed ground and done the same experiment. But that wouldn't have been nearly so much fun!!

Then, when it was done, I sprinkled a little brown sugar on top and cooked it in an attempt to make peanut butter granola bars. They weren't bad. The goats really liked them!:-)

And today, I completed another project in my "Spring cleaning for Normal People"

I conquered the vitamin drawer/cabinet. Really the vitamins and supplements take up lots of space and clutter in the drawer and on the cabinet.

I originally set these out so I wouldn't forget to take them. Out of sight, out of mind. Well, know what? I'm so used to seeing them that I forget to take them. So now I have a chart of which ones to take before eating and I'm going to try and make a habit of taking those right before I start to eat a meal and then my "with meals" vitamins I'll take right after I clean up. I also have as a goal to have actually taken all the vitamins in my drawer and pantry before May. These don't do my body any good while sitting on the shelf!!

Here's the drawer-ful of more supplements. This drawer also houses coffee filters and coffee (and various other coffee JUNK...i.e. the plastic cow shaped creamer AND an empty coffee can) because it's easy access to the coffee pot.


So now my drawer looks like this...

And here's my cabinet!!!

I'm finding myself having to fight the urge to fill up the empty space. But all it takes is a few passes by the kitchen noticing how clean it looks when it's empty to change my mind.

How about those tulips! Aren't they beautiful??!! I got them FREE at Central Market this week (with a coupon). I so LOVE LOVE LOVE having fresh flowers around. Just something about it makes me happy. And it makes me want to keep things clean around it. They just don't look quite as beautiful with dishes and food and mail and junk piled up around them! So, maybe the investment of fresh flowers = a cleaner house, hint hint Michael! :-)

You know you're in Texas when...

Your goats eat (and love) tortillas...

( Isn't that the goofiest thing...with the tortilla hanging out of his mouth! But they specifically requested "No fajitas!")

And you know you're in Texas when...

that rustling sound you hear in the trees by your house is...Nope, it's not the kitties...it's

Michael took this great pic last night. At least it's NOT an opposum-and it's not in the garage!

There's a floor in this closet!!

I've been on a sorta mission after reading about Spring Cleaning for Normal People. The premise of this is taking time (and making time) in short bits and manageble pieces to go through and simplify your house, springtime or not. The first phase was to go through each room and throw away trash and give away stuff that you see right away that doesn't meet the criteria to keep: "Is it useful?" "Is is beautiful to me/or my family?" I couldn't believe how much trash was around. Just pieces of stuff here and there left on a counter or on a floor, near the trash, but not quite in it.
Anyway, two days ago, I moved on. This is what the closet in Jeffrey and Josiah's room looked like. REALLY! I didn't mess it up first! It's kinda like on "Clean Sweep" on TLC when you think "That room didn't really look like that did it? Surely they've dumped stuff out of drawers to make it look worse than it really way was." Well, I guess rooms CAN get that messy. Just look what two seeminly calm and sweet boys can be do in this tiny space and in just a matter of days! I guess they were trying to prove the whole "things tend to move from order to chaos" law. Which one is that??? (If you know, post a comment and we'll all be impressed!)

Well, two hours, three HUGE black trashbags of stuff to Goodwill, and a huge black trashbag crammed full of trash later...

Yippee, the floor!! And I moved some toys around so now the window seat houses linens for people when they come to visit. I couldn't believe the stuff I found in that window seat/toy graveyard. Some of my resistance bands, my hairclip (YEAH-my favorite that's been missing for a long time), tweezers, 4 (!) paddles/spankspoons (conveniently "misplaced" I'm sure), almost an entire load of laundry of dirty shirts, pants, socks and underwear. It was crazy! And while I had the trashbag out, I headed to my nightstand and chunked a bunch of stuff AND FOUND MY ADDRESS BOOK!!!!!!! This has been lost since we moved and I gave it up as gone forever! I was thrilled! And now I'm pumped. My ruthless attitude toward the accumulation and storage of STUFF isn't diminished, it's fueled! Watch out! By the end of it all, we may be all have only 4 outfits each to wear, a much smaller book collection, an even smaller toy collection, almost no DVDs, no VHSes, very little in the realm of decor, a lot less to move come May.... and a mom with a big smile on her face!!! (And maybe a bald dog! :-) )

And the birthday just keeps on coming...

Remember when you were so young it was FUN to keep celebrating a birthday over and over and over and over....It's almost like the Bill Murray "Groundhog Day", remember that one? And it IS Groundhog day, but Feb 2 will never again be known for the rodent again. It's about these two...

Isn't that SUCH a CUTE picture. Guess what! I DID take this one. Shocker! It's cute!

Following the tournament win on Saturday, Michael offered to take the boys to Pappsitos to celebrate the win and more importantly their birthday. Granna was with us so that made it even more special. J&J had to think about it for a little bit...NOT.

So away we went. It was so yummy! Michael told our waitress that we were there celebrating J&J's birthday, so the waiters came over and sang "Happy Birthday, Que Paso" (The Pappasitos b'day song)

And the boys got to wear the hats...

Is Jonathan trying to do a Mexican dance????

Jeremy's comment was "Whatever I have to do....I'll go through the humiliation if it means free dessert!" Hmmmm, wonder where he got that from?

We left totally stuffed with fajitas with the boys so tired from the games that they could barely stay awake at the table and in the car home. I couldn't help but remember many, many trips we'd made to Pappasitos with little boys in tow who spilled chicken fajitas and rice ALL OVER the floor and COULDN'T stay awake on the trip home. Man, time flies!

We interrupt this celebration...

for a basketball tournament. We had to put some of the celebrating on hold to play in the Independent School Athletic League (which means the small private schools of San Antonio) tournament. The Patriots have had a wonderful season this year, losing only 1 game. Chances were high that they would be able to play SACS (the team that beat them) in the finals of the tournament. After winning on Thursday night in the first round of the tournament, the Patriots had a game at 11 on Sat. morning against St. George and won by two points when a guy from their team hit a 3-pointer with 7 seconds left. Talk about an adrenaline charged game!! So then they were off to the championship game. And they did get to play against SACS. It was a great game and the Patriots won by 9 points. Here are some pics from the game. Guess what?? I DIDN'T take them. That's why they're good! :-)

Jonathan (#52) swats down a ball. Jeremy (#15) is ready to help.

Jonathan brings down a rebound.

Jeremy dribbles past #12, the player who caused no end of torment to the Patriots the last time we played SACS. This time, we were ready and shut him down.

The team in a huddle.

The Patriots pose for a picture with their trophy. It was a great day!!